#and i know manga is a lot of work but we’ve been getting half chapters so often the story is barely moving forward

[lesbianyosano]

FUCK

forming a prayer circle for bsd 108 to be old men yaoi

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super manga Ch.68-70

It’s Granolah time.

Let me start off by saying I’ve only read the first six chapters of this arc, and I can already say that this one is leagues better than the Moro saga that came before it.  I’m sure this story won’t be flawless, but seeing how much better Granolah is makes me realize just how crappy Moro was.  I thought I was being too hard on the manga, but no, the Moro arc was just a hot mess.  

Anyway, I’m digging this Granolah story, so I feel a lot better about liveblogging it.  Let’s dive in.

We open with a moody flashback of Saiyan shock troops attacking Granolah’s home planet decades ago.  Turns out this is a recurring nightmare he has. 

Granolah’s been haunted by the invasion ever since, but there’s nothing he can do about it.  Frieza wiped out the Saiyans a long time ago, and then Frieza got killed after that, so there’s no one left for Granolah to take revenge upon, even if he were powerful enough to take revenge.  When I first heard about this guy, I was skeptical of the concept, since his vendetta would be forty or fifty years old by this time.  But with Granolah, that’s the point.  He’s been holding on to this grudge the whole time, and when he gets his chance to act, he grabs it with both hands. 

Meanwhile, Goku and Vegeta are still training on Beerus’ planet. Goku learned to use Ultra Instinct at will during the Moro crisis, but Whis explains that this is only the beginning.  Goku still can’t sustain UI for very long, while Merus could do it all the time.  And Whis is even better at UI than Merus was, and the Grand Minister is even better still.  So Goku has a long way to go, which is fine by him.

Vegeta, however, has no interest in learning Ultra Instinct, since he concluded some time ago that the ability doesn’t suit his tendency to overthink things.  He wants to surpass Goku in some other way, and Beerus offers him a glimmer of hope, saying that there’s more than one godly technique that he can learn.  The angels uses Ultra Instinct, but the Gods of Destruction follow a different path.  Beerus says he’s not interested in teaching Vegeta, but then he teaches him anyway, because Beerus is tsundere.  “I-it’s not like I want to teach you how to use destruction ki or anything, baka!”

Back to Granolah.  At the end of the Moro arc, we met Granolah as he was stealing Seven Three’s remains from the aliens who built him.  Seven Three was part of a whole series of similar androids, but he was the only one who spent any time in the field, so he’s a lot more powerful from the life experiences he had.  Granolah’s client, Elec, could use Seven Three as the template for an army of unstoppable androids, but that’s not why he wanted the android.  Elec’s what you might call an information broker, and he plans to mine Seven Three’s memory banks to find some useful data.

Granolah asks about his next assignment, but Elec doesn’t have any new work lined up, due to Frieza’s return to the galactic stage.  We’ve only gotten glimpses of what Frieza’s been up to since Whis re-revived him at the end of the Tournament of Power.  But apparently his activities have upset the status quo, and that’s hurting Elec’s business.  That doesn’t matter to Granolah, though, and he immediately demands to know where Freiza is.  Elec has his associates clobber him a little to get him back in line.  He convinces Granolah that he doesn’t need to run off half-cocked, and Granolah backs down and heads home.

After he leaves, the rest of Elec’s group, the Heeters, ask Elec why he would tell Granolah about Frieza at all.  They know how he feels about Frieza, so why stir the pot?  Elec explains that Granolah’s getting too powerful, and if he ever surpassed the Heeters’ strongest member, Gas, then that might lead to trouble.  The Heeters doubt that anyone could surpass Gas, but Elec still doesn’t want to take any chances.

So he wants Granolah good and riled up, so that when the time is right, he can manuever Granolah into a fight he can’t win, and Frieza will finish off Granolah for him. 

Meanwhile, on the way home, Granolah gets ambushed by one of his fellow bounty-hunter guys, who wants to steal the big payday Granolah just scored.  But Granolah has him completely outclassed.  First he uses his eye-piece/computer, Oatmeel, as a decoy, and then Granolah picks off all of this guy’s allies with his sniper technique.  Granolah’s species, the Cerealians, have a specialized right eye that gives them exceptional vision. 

So Granolah’s powerful, sure, but he’s no match for Frieza, right?  Well, Granolah plans to do something about that.  As he schemes, the Oracle Fish on Beerus’ planet has a prophetic vision that the “strongest warrior in the universe will soon rise up.”

Back to Granolah, we find that he’s still living on Planet Cereal, even after the rest of his people were wiped out by the Saiyans.  Since then, the planet has been re-populated by another species, the Sugurians, who lost their own homeworld at some point.  The Heeters brokered a deal to settle them on Cereal, and their domed cities are built right next to the ruins of the Cerealian cities.  I really like this imagery.  Like I said, I was kind of wary of the idea of an alien seeking revenge after so many decades, but this story really uses that passage of time to full effect.

Meanwhile, Beerus talks to Vegeta about the Saiyans, and Vegeta admits that their destructive tendencies led to their downfall.  Frieza accelerated the process, but his own father, King Vegeta III, is the one Vegeta holds responsible. 

I’ve often noted this, but I find Vegeta to be an unreliable narrator for Saiyan history.  In most stories, he’s literally the only one who remembers the Saiyan race, so his perspective is treated as gospel simply because there’s no one else to dispute it.  In this case, I think Vegeta’s putting too much blame on his dad.  I’m sure Vegeta I and Vegeta II bear their own responsibility, and it probably goes back even further than that.   But Vegeta III is the leader he remembers, so it makes sense he would see it that way. 

But he’s still wrong.  Remember the Super Saiyan God legend from the Battle of Gods movie.  The hero of the tale was trying to wipe out the wicked Saiyans, and he failed.  That story was so ancient that Vegeta didn’t even know about it, which just goes to show that the Saiyans’ problems are far older than his dynasty.

And I guess this is what sets off Beerus’ bullshit-meter, since he dismisses Vegeta’s answer as ridiculous.  He accuses Vegeta of putting the sins of his people on his own shoulders, and even if he were responsible, why do those old crimes have anything to do with his life now?  He then reveals that he was the one who gave Frieza the idea to destroy Planet Vegeta all those years ago.  Vegeta flies into a rage, but he can’t beat Beerus any more now than he could when they first fought on Earth.

Beerus’ point is that Vegeta will have to let go of the past if he hopes to master the style of the Gods of Destruction.  This is kind of like what Toppo had to do when he transformed into a Destroyer in the Tournament of Power.  He had been trying to avoid that step for a long time, but when he got desperate enough, he finally crossed the threshold, and Vegeta mocked him for it. 

And now Beerus is mocking Vegeta for failing to understand this.   Toppo got stronger because he put aside the irrelevancies and focused on what mattered.  Beerus says he only focuses on destruction, which keeps him sharp.  His advice to Vegeta is that he’ll have to destroy his own stray thoughts to build himself into something better.

Meanwhile, the Heeters go through Seven Three’s memory records and learn what they wanted to know: the location of Zuno, the galaxy’s greatest information broker.  But they also learn about Moro and the Dragon Balls, since Seven Three was involved with that business before he got captured.  Elec realizes that the Dragon Balls might explain how Frieza came back to life, and Macki recalls that there used to be Namekians on Planet Cereal before they got wiped out.  But Elec knows that there’s one left: Granolah’s housemate, Monaito.

Back on Cereal, Granolah discusses his latest job with Monaito, and informs him of Frieza’s return.  The two of them live in this remote house, far from the Cerealian ruins and the Sugurian cities.  Even though they’re on friendly terms with the Sugurians, they prefer to be removed from their tragic past.  I find it off that their house doesn’t look much like the Cerealian or Namekian architecture.  Maybe the Sugurians built it for them. 

Anyway, Granolah considers using the Dragon Balls to become powerful enough to defeat Frieza, but Monaito warns him that the Dragon Balls aren’t meant for revenge.  Besides, they don’t have a complete set on planet Cereal.  One is in Monaito’s house, but the other was lost a long time ago.  Wait, what?

To explain how Monaito has his own set of Dragon Balls, we cut to a lesson on New Namek, where Moori explains how Namekians have settled on other planets.  Those communities would have their own elders, just as Moori is the elder of New Namek.  And those elders would be empowered to create and maintain Dragon Balls. 

This isn’t exactly news, since this is exactly how we have Dragon Balls on Earth.  The Son of Katas came to Earth as a refugee, then eventually ascended to the role of Kami and created a set of Dragon Balls without remembering where he learned to do it.  Monaito’s basically the same deal, except he had a whole group of Namekians with him on Cereal, and he’s the only one who survived the invasion.  This story just confirms that there could be other Namekian communities in the universe, and any of them could have their own sets of Dragon Balls. 

What I find more troubling is that Monaito’s set of Dragon Balls is just a pair.  I guess there’s no rule that their must be seven, but it’s kind of weird how we’ve always seen them in groups of seven before, and yet this one is just two. 

Anyway, as fate would have it, Granolah turns on the local news and learns that some Sugarian kid just happened to find the lost ball and took it to a lab for study.  And maybe this is why they went with just two balls, in order to simplify this moment, but they could have just as easily put six Dragon Balls on Monaito’s shelf. 

So Granolah immediately makes his move, stealing the second Dragon Ball and sneaking off to make his wish.  I like the design for Cereal’s Shenron, or whatever he’s called.  The dragon is willing to grant Granolah’s wish to become the greatest warrior in the universe, but Granolah’s body isn’t sturdy enough for that kind of power.  However, the Dragon can make it possible, if Granolah is willing to accept a compromise in exchange.  Granolah doesn’t even wait to find out what it is.

Meanwhile, Vegeta has finally achieved some success in using the Hakai technique.  He can only destroy little grains of sand, but he can destroy them, which is a big accomplishment.  And he’s not going to rest on his laurels.

Satisfied that his wish has been granted, Granolah immediately heads back to the Heeter’s HQ and demands to know where he can find Frieza.  The Heeters don’t understand what’s happened to him, but Granolah quickly defeats Oil and Macki in combat, and Elec realizes that Granolah’s not just blowing smoke.  Maybe he really can defeat Frieza, but he can’t just tell him where to find Frieza, because if he loses, Frieza might take revenge on the Heeters.  So Elec asks for some information on how Granolah got this strong, and Granolah explains the Dragon Balls and the condition he had to agree to.  Normally, Cerealians live for two hundred hears, and Granolah’s 50 now, but in order to get his wish, he had to let the Dragon shorten his lifespan.  Granolah now has only three years left to live.

Elec convinces Granolah to wait on Planet Cereal while they track down Frieza’s position.  In reality, Elec hatches a scheme to neutralize Granolah first.  Elec wants Frieza out of the picture, but he’s worried that if Granolah does the job, he might wipe out Frieza’s goon squad, and Elec wants to take them over for his own organization.  Wait, why didn’t the Heeters take over the Frieza Force before, when Frieza was dead? I mean, it’s just as well that they didn’t do this, since Frieza would have returned and killed them, but they didn’t know that at the time. 

So how can Elec stop Granolah from wrecking his plans?  Simple, he’s going to get Goku and Vegeta to do it for him.  Having studied Seven Three’s records, Elec knows that the Saiyans fought Moro, and they should be powerful enough to defeat Granolah, and Granolah won’t turn down a chance to fight Saiyans, since he wants revenge against those guys too.  Elec is confident that Goku and Vegeta would win that fight, but what if he’s wrong?  Well, I guess he’s got nothing to lose by trying...

So yeah, to repeat what I said at the top, this is way, way better than the Moro arc. There’s a lot fewer characters, and their motive are more complex, and their plans aren’t nearly as convoluted.  We’re not sending Goku and Vegeta on a wild goose chase to like five different planets for this one.  No dead-end subplots about Majin Buu or those space crooks who tried to rob that space train. 

I also really like the way this story uses Frieza without featuring him in the plot.  The problem I’ve always had with bringing back Frieza is that he just does all the same stuff he did the first time around.  The only novelty to Frieza these days is less about what he’s up to, but how everyone else reacts to his return.  The Heeters, Granolah, Monaito, and the Sugarians have been trying to build a life for themselves in a post-Frieza universe, but now he’s back, and that upsets everything. 

Also, it’s refreshing to see Goku and Vegeta actually learning something on Beerus’ planet, as opposed to just sparring there as an establishing scene.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out. 

[halt-kun]

Hunter x Hunter - Chapter 200 : Stipulation

OKAYYYY I’M BACK to HxH finally

we’re at half of the currently available chapters and we’re beginning Volume 20

We’ve still quite a way to go !

MY CUTE LIL BOYS

I AM BACK !

Warifuuuuuuu

it’s true we’re going to have to fight

I like Killua’s new style too

WELL 

NICE COVER

I still don’t get why they came back, it’s true there isn’t only one announcement on this board but still I would’ve been more careful about it

She’s still quite terrifying at first

I get why Gon and Killua looks so scared

Actually everyone seems to be if we look at the other panels

SUGAR

I can’t eat coffee without cream and sugar, I don’t like coffee

my italian ancestors must be feeling quite bad, well the french ones too

SAME Gon and Killua

The age gap is a bit weird but fantasizing on someone who’s in a position of power over you is overall not a good idea

At best it works out but at worst, you can loose big

ALL THAT SUGAR

I’m feeling unwell just looking at it

GOOD

don’t tell him

find someone more appropriate

Palm is really into her own world

day dreaming about love

I get it

just find someone better to daydream about

I’ve still got nightmare of the sound it made in the 2011 anime, it was on point

but I wish it was less

You could feel the sugar blobs uuuurugh

Yeah ask Killua what he thinks about being hopelessly in love

Me when I have a crush

but please Palm wipe off your chin 

ENHANCEMENT

nice

quite a strong show of hatsu, she trained well

I would probably be a conjurer (or manipulator) so I guess accidently creating impurities in my drink could be annoying

Unless it’s sugar and my drink mixed well with it

Or ICE

In the french translation Gon said she was a strong enhancer

AND YES, SHE IS

she trained her hatsu well

Good luck guys

The city seems nice too

I’d like to spend a month there

BACK TO THE ANT NEST

Kite is still decapitated

but engulfed in ice

HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO DO THAT

You truly are a cat Neferpitou

It doesn’t work like that

I would be so scared of Pitou making Kite “fixed” in a fucked up sense

SCARY ghost appears

EVERYTIME

Shoot, why can’t you use that later ? It’s so cooool

I’d love to do that too

hide things as tattoo

You could be one of those weapon maniac who hides a bunch of them on their body

THAT’D BE SO COOL

I would always have a book tattoo

ALSO I COULD FINALLY WEAR ALL THOSE POCKETLESS SKIRTS AND PANTS

You know it was the 2000s because everyone is smoking inside

Unless they are outside

but as expected this is a small village without a lot of young ones

Knuckle is a nice reference of the japanese “gangsters” from the 90s

A lot of characters are referencing this era

I don’t like when everyone thinks they are all a reference to the same character from a manga when they are not

A small chapter to get back into it, I probably won’t liveblog more for today

Have a nice day !

[head-empty-just-sigma]

Hi again! sorry to bother you again! I read a few things about the book in bsd ! I don't quite get what its ability is ! I know almost everyting you write can become reality ! but you need to follow the rules to make it reality !

And Dazai and Ranpo happen to be my favorite characters in the story and I am worried about them for what will happen! In chapter 56 Ranpo said that "I will never let anyone hurt them from ADA ! to me it sounds like he can sacrifice everything and himself to keep ADA safe !

hihi! you’re not bothering me but if you think you are then pls continue because i love talking about bsd kekekek

this might be a bit long but here’s my thoughts on what the book is:

so basically the ‘book’ is probably more like an ability weapon or item (like Fukuchi’s sword or One Order). it’s possible it could have been made by ability users or be derived from an ability/multiple abilities, but i don’t think one person made it. as for how it works is relatively simple on the surface: you write a narratively consistent concept, meaning it follows a logical path such as ‘all government employees will believe the ADA are terrorist because xyz’ and the xyz is the video of Nikolai’s hooded men taking the hoods off to reveal the ADA members, which also stays within logic because no one watching the video knows who these hooded figures are, so the book is capable of rewriting reality to show the ADA members there instead. this narrative consistency is also the book’s weakness, however, because we’ve been shown that it needs to be fairly specific about the details in order to work. for example, Tachihara starts out believing the ADA are terrorists because he’s technically a government employee, but infiltrating the Mafia. the page is ripped when Tachi realizes that there’s no way that can be true, which happens because of his close ties to the Mafia and the value of Mori, Gin and Hirotsu’s words because none of them believe the ADA could possibly be terrorists since the page never effected them. the same could be said for Fitzgerald, since he’s also not a government employee. the Hunting Dogs are also beginning to see the reality of the situation the more they interact with the ADA, like how Ranpo convinced half the police force to side with them because they knew him personally, so it’s possible that the page’s reality narrative can be undone by interacting with and experiencing what is actually real.

as for Ranpo, i think he is willing to sacrifice a lot for the ADA since, as he’s said before, they think he’s invincible and is the foundation on which the ADA was formed. however, i don’t think he’s going to die for the ADA. if anything, Fukuzawa would die with everything currently happening in the manga before Ranpo ever even comes close. Dazai is in a bit of a, uh, situation at the moment but i also doubt he would die (yet) since he’s a very important character and his character arc is still ongoing even in the prison. plus ADA Sigma needs to happen and Dazai is the one doing his exam so he has to live yes i’m delusional

sorry this was kind of long but i have a lot of thoughts on the book i just think it’s neat :>

[rhela-xiv]

Actually yeah I am gonna reblog this just so I can tell yall about my dad.

I love my mom so much. We have a lot in common.

But my dad is one of my absolute favorite people and I mean that with all my heart.

Father’s Day was always difficult growing up, because every card is for a dad who’s into cars, or beer, or fishing, or football. My dad is a recovering alcoholic. He got into fishing for a little while, and grilling. He cheered for his dad’s football team and coached my brother’s little league games. He had a motorcycle when I was little.

But my father is, and always has been, a gigantic fucking nerd. And a theater kid. And a writer.

He read comics and played D&D with his friends back when you still got your lunch money stolen for that kind of thing. He was in high school theater with the most luxurious and perfectly styled head of hair you could possibly imagine. He did Rocky Horror Picture Show in LA. He saw the original Star Wars in the theater multiple times, and because he was working at a toy store at the time we still have original, in box, Kenner action figures. I distinctly remember him playing video games when I was little (he had both a Dreamcast and a Genesis). When it was time for bedtime stories, he read to my brother and I. Or rather, he performed for us. All the voices, the sound effects, accents, emotions. Chapter books, every night, without fail.

There was no such thing as too many books, for my dad. Even when my brother and I switched to manga and comics, because those were books, too, with stories just as worthy of being read and discussed. He didn’t shy away from other media, either. Every weekend, for years, we would go to the video stores down the street and rent movies we had never seen before.

My brother went through a samurai phase, and we watched almost every single Kurosawa film. We discovered Cowboy Bebop one weekend, and my dad called half the video stores in town until he found one that had the whole series. We watched cartoons together, from Powepuff Girls and Dexter’s Lab, all the way to Toonami and the Midnight Run. Nothing was “off limits”. We watched The Marx Brothers, and Mel Brooks movies, and South Park, and Team America. He supported my first foray into a fandom space by renting me every single Vin Diesel movie we could find. Multiple times.

My dad introduced me to theatre. We didn’t get many tours where I grew up, so he found film adaptations, or filmed performances. A Chorus Line, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret, Chicago, Sweeney Todd. He took me to see Rent on stage when I was in high school. He has lyrics from Wicked tattooed on his chest. We’ve gone to more live shows together than I can count.

It wasn’t always great. He and my mom separated, and things were bad. And then the divorce finalized and things were really bad. We fought. Constantly. Over everything. I got in trouble. A lot. But my dad was always there. Even when we fought about my (shitty) high school boyfriend and I told him I wanted to stay with my mom for a while. He dropped me off at her house and told me he loved me. I came back a few days later, and he never held it against me.

When I moved out for college, our relationship got better. Distance helped. It’s really hard having two people in the same house struggling with unmedicated depression and anxiety.

When my brother went to college, my dad suddenly had a lot of free time on his hands and he rediscovered his love of video games.

I don’t know what started it. He found Second Life first, but there wasn’t enough space there for him to really create, so he found another virtual space. He built houses. Towns. He built an entire, functioning, virtual film museum. He made friends in virtual spaces, including one very lovely woman who convinced him to give World of Warcraft a try. And he found his people.

These days, we talk every weekend. Sometimes more. We send each other stupid memes (he sends puns and, of course, dad jokes). I played a bit of WoW with him, and he came over to XIV for a while. Ultimately we both returned to our own games, but we can relate to the common MMO experiences. He writes and records a weekly podcast with his now-girlfriend, and he still does all the voices. We info dump about our OCs, and share our stories with each other.

I’m not what you’d call a “daddy’s girl”, but I fucking love my dad. He’s one of the coolest people I know, and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.

Actually I'm curious. The notes will probably be rancid but whatever. Like personally I love my mum but I am my father's son all the way. Like I WILL play favourites and my favourite is my dad. And I'm wondering what the ratio of mother's children to father's children is on this site. I have my suspicions because this is the 'I hate my dad' website, but let's do "science".

[nanaosaki3940]

Dabi, Gojo & Eren: Fuckboys or not?

In this modern age and time of anime and manga, the world of the internet is blessed by the presence of several different attractive 2D anime men. And arguably the most favorite ones among the fans are Dabi aka Touya Todoroki (My Hero Academia), Satoru Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen), and Eren Jeager (Attack On Titan). Everyone just wants a piece of them. But the real question is, who would these men date and how? While we all know that Dabi and Gojo aren’t dating anyone canonically so far because Kohei Horikoshi and Gege Akutami just aren’t about all that jazz, Eren on the other hand did show romantic interest towards Mikasa Ackerman, but that relationship had to meet its tragic ending very soon than expected. Also, there are barely any romantic threads explored through the chapters of MHA and JJK manga so far for both Dabi and Gojo. Perhaps because of it, the show's viewers and the manga readers have been obsessively trying to find any pair of people (or curses) to ship together in various permutation combinations.

This isn’t something new or unique to MHA, JJK, and AOT as I must say - "Writers gonna write, fandoms gonna ship."

I'm well aware that the fandoms of MHA, JJK, and AOT have always portrayed Dabi, Satoru Gojo, and Eren Jeager as fuckboys, but are they really that? That's why I'm on an important quest here to determine once and for all if Dabi, Gojo, and Eren are fuckboy or not. Let’s dive right in. Since this is going to be an in-depth analysis, I did some research on what makes a fuckboy. According to this article, there are some traits that all fuckboys have in common. We’re gonna explore some of them and see if they apply to these mentioned hunky men. 

First, let's point out the traits of a fuckboy - 

He's a smooth operator 

Yet knows how to play it cool 

He promises a lot 

He's always busy as hell 

He has the tendency to lie 

He's always online 

His social media is full of women 

He SAYS he's not a fuckboy 

The relationship is pretty sexual

It's always a little one dimensional  

Now it's impossible to go through each and every given point mentioned above, but I'll try to cover at least half of them. 

He's a smooth operator - 

This describes a charismatic, funny, charming, smooth man. They can talk you up and their way out of any situation because they seem to know all of the right words. 

Dabi may not be a smooth operator, cause we've never seen him being funny or charismatic anytime in the series. Sure he's smart, calm, and collected (even manipulative) which is shown from time to time whenever he's appeared in the scenes, but we've never seen him butter up someone or talk his way out of any situation whatsoever. 

Besides, Dabi isn't someone who would do such a thing anyway, to begin with (because he's too emo and edgy for that). So I'm giving him a hard NO. 

The same goes for Eren as well. Sure younger Eren was hardheaded, strong-willed, passionate, impulsive, reckless, selfless, and charismatic, older Eren on the other hand isn't like that at all. Older Eren has an unnervingly stoic and calm demeanor, never losing his composure and usually wearing a blank expression on his face, no matter how dire or stressful the situation may be. Sure we saw him once using Falco to meet up with Reiner back at Marley, but he didn't use his charisma to trick Falco. Instead, he used his tactic and manipulation to deceive the young boy and convinced him to bring Reiner to him. 

So for this Eren also gets a hard NO.

Gojo on the other hand is very comfortable joking around with literally everyone he interacts with, friend or enemy. Moreover, he is very witty and charismatic in all these interactions. 

All evidence would point to Gojo being a smooth talker, except this doesn’t seem to work on most people in JJK. While Gojo has a fair share of admirers within the story, most people are either annoyed or neutral to his charms. We’re gonna give him a MAYBE on this criteria. 

Can play it cool - 

If I’ve understood this one correctly, then this is a person who won’t show excitement for things. They might not text you back immediately or might act nonchalantly and unbothered. 

First of all, Gojo is anything but nonchalant and unbothered and you all know the reason why - 

For this Gojo gets a hard NO. 

For Dabi, I must say he fits in this category quite well, but that was prior to the Touya-revelation chapter. Because as soon as he revealed his true identity and abusive childhood to the whole world, he wasn't Dabi anymore. He's reverted back to his old self: Touya Todoroki. Dabi may act nonchalantly and unbothered, but Touya doesn't. While little Touya was very energetic and boisterous back in the days, older Touya on the other hand is highly enigmatic and pragmatic. He takes pleasure in taunting heroic figures, students, and Pro Heroes alike, sadistically enjoying the pain he inflicts on others, including those he murders. He loves to engage in psychological warfare in order to unnerve whoever his opposition is and is rather savvy about how heroes operate and will exploit their natural tendency to rescue others. He is not afraid of causing collateral destruction, rarely holding back, even if it puts his allies at risk. Touya is intolerant of most people and can be very derisive most of the time, being quite rude and condescending to essentially everybody he interacts with. He insulted Shigaraki immediately after meeting him and constantly does the same to both his allies and enemies but doesn't always do it with the intention to be rude. Though older Touya is sadistic and sociopathic, he can also be apologetic, remorseful, and sympathetic at times needed. And most importantly, after revealing his true identity, Touya's NOT at all chilled - 

For this Dabi gets a soft NO. 

And if we're talking about older Eren here, then yes, older Eren is really chilled whatever the situation is. For those who have seen season 4 of AOT, I don't think I need to go any further about older Eren here. So for the criteria, Eren gets a hard YES. 

He makes a lot of promises -  

This criterion describes someone who makes a lot of promises but never fulfills them.

Let's talk about Dabi here. The reason why he's so traumatized and is now considered the most 'tragic' character in the series is all because of his father, Endeavor aka Enji Todoroki. Enji threw him into an illusion of becoming a great hero (even greater than All Might) and promised to support him to the end at a very young age. Touya clung to those fickle hopes, dreams, and promises even after his father later rejected him and tossed him to the side. 

Even though his father abused him mentally and emotionally from time to time, Touya still kept on loving his father to the point it became a borderline unhealthy obsession. And not only that, when he finally started to resent his father after waking up from comatose and promised himself to destroy the pride and status that Endeavor took years to build, he kept that promise to that very end. He waited 8 whole years to destroy Endeavor which also indicated that Touya is a very patient man. For someone who was deceived over and over again by his loved one, whose promises were broken by the same loved one, I don't think Dabi/Touya would be someone to make any sort of promises to his s/o. Rather he's someone who believes in the quote "action speaks louder than words". So he's getting a big hard NO on this one. 

Now let's talk about Gojo. episode 3 of JJK, Gojo promised his students a tour of Tokyo but took them to a haunted site full of curses instead. So I can imagine Gojo making a lot of fickle promises and ending up doing what he wants to instead. 

However, by the end of that episode, Gojo did take his students out for a ride and dinner. 

He might get playful and seem conceited at times but Gojo always comes through. There are very few things that Gojo takes seriously, and keeping promises is one of them. Gojo gets a hard NO for this one as well. 

And now let's talk about Eren here. Both younger Eren and older Eren are passionate individuals and are someone who cares about their loved ones to death. I mean the man promised to give a better world to his friends and ended up committing genocide (killing 80% of humanity or four-fifth of the society). This man knows how to keep his promises. So he's also getting a hard NO on this one too. 

He's always busy - 

From time to time, Dabi's shown to be busy in the series, like going around the city and doing his own thing (burning people alive that is) but he's not too busy to lend a helping hand to Shigaraki and the League whenever necessary. 

So, he's getting a soft NO on this one. 

Gojo on the other hand has a habit of often passing on his missions to his students. In episode 2 of JJK, Megumi is left alone to fight with Sukuna and gets badly injured. Gojo arrives at the scene and it is revealed he was sightseeing and buying souvenirs while people’s lives were in mortal danger. 

Surely, Gojo isn’t around a lot of times when he is needed. However, he does hold an important position in the Jujutsu Sorcerers’ world. Additionally, he has a lot of faith in his student. What I am trying to get at here is that while Gojo may not be there all the time, he usually has a good reason for it. Although he does seem the type to ditch his significant other in the middle of a date because he got distracted by an ice-cream truck or a baked potato stand. So, we’re gonna give him a soft YES to this one. 

Have we ever seen Eren being really busy with something and not being able to give quality time to his loved ones? Not really (at least from what I've seen so far). And due to the lack of evidence, I'm gonna give him a NO on this one again. 

You never fully know them - 

Relationships, or in most cases, Situation-ships with fuckboys in real life can be pretty one-dimensional. You never fully get to have deeper connections with them because you never get to know them. 

Dabi, yes at first was mysterious, I mean really mysterious, but he also had a solid reason to be like that - to destroy Endeavor's life and career. But after that whole revelation happened, Dabi didn't hesitate to keep anything secret at all. He revealed and exposed everything that's related to him (including his traumatic past, his abusive father, etc.) to the whole world back in the war at Jaku City and later in the 2nd war when Shoto asked him why he didn't come back home after surviving the forest fire, Dabi again didn't hesitate to tell the backstory of his rescue and survival. 

Dabi may not open up to his s/o at first, but he will at some point in time. Slowly but surely. It's just a matter of time and place until he'll vomit out everything. So he's again getting a soft NO on this one.

Seeing Gojo with this lens makes a certain degree of sense. Even people who spend a majority of their time with him can not seem to figure him out. However, in Gojo’s case, this is less a matter of his shallowness and more a matter of, there is no one in the JJK Universe who can stand beside Satoru Gojo. Even people like Nanami who openly say they don’t respect Gojo, still hold him in high regard and rely on him. In conclusion, while we may never fully understand Gojo, he gets a soft NO in this. 

Do we really need to say anything about this when it comes to Eren? 

This man hid all of his plans, his emotions, his almost everything within himself in order to carry out and execute the genocide without any hindrance. For sure, Eren gets a hard YES on this one, no doubt about it. 

Arrogance and self-obsession - 

I personally have other criteria for fuckboys and that is arrogance and self-obsession. We all know that canonically Dabi and Eren aren't arrogant or self-obsessed and they're not someone to show off how awesome and cool they are. Maybe younger Eren and younger Touya would like to have shown off their powers and abilities to others around them, but their older selves won't. So they're getting a HARD NO on this one for sure.

Gojo on the other hand actually fits perfectly for this. He has a degree of self-assured arrogance and this mostly annoys older or mature people in the JJK series namely, Megumi, Nobara, Maki, Panda, Inumaki, Nanami, Utahime, Yaga, Gakuganji, etc (while others like Geto and Shoko don't give a shit about it). However, naive people like Miwa, Yuji, or even Yuta find him quite interesting and charming. Gojo never misses a chance to show off how cool and awesome he can be. Additionally, he never shies away from praising himself when no one else will. 

Having said that, is it really narcissism if it’s all true? Sure, Gojo smugly says he is the strongest on multiple occasions, but that is objectively 100% the truth in the JJK universe. 

Conclusion -

Now that we’ve gone over almost all the factors that form a fuckboy, we’re ready to arrive at a conclusion. Based on their behaviors around their seniors, peers, juniors, enemies, friends, family, students, or whatnot, we can somewhat conclude that these three men might have the aesthetics of a fuckboy, but they are not. 

Well, at least Dabi and Eren are NOT fuckboys for sure, Gojo on the other hand, it's kinda complicated. And the biggest piece of evidence of Gojo being a potential fuckboy comes from Gege Akutami himself. As Gege said in one of his past interviews, he can not imagine Gojo being faithful to a woman. However, since Gege doesn’t plan on giving Gojo (or any main character) a romantic angle in the story, we’ll never truly know. 

Gojo is a lot of things, fickle, conceited, self-centered, arrogant, and so on. However, all aspects of his personality are completely genuine. He is someone who is capable of deeply caring about people and goes to great lengths to protect them and he brings people souvenirs every time he visits places. 

This charming man-child might be a 6’3” walking red flag but based on all the highly scientific research and my personal feelings, Gojo is also NOT a fuckboy.

Dabi, on the other hand, might be the greatest, the coldest, and the emo-est, edgelord ever lived in Musutafu City, but deep down he still cares to some extent, feels remorseful for his wrongdoings, and even feels sympathetic and apologetic for certain people around him (for example, while he had no problem killing the Pro Hero Snatch, the latter's words appear to have resonated with him, implying that Dabi has sympathy for those that have lost family due to villains, as well as the loved ones of those who he has killed. This does not extend to his own family though, as Dabi has frequently contemplated their deaths for the sake of revenge). 

It's just that his hatred and resentment towards his own father (also his whole family) are stopping him from becoming a soft boi. 

Whichever version of Eren Jeager you choose, at the end of the day, he's just someone who loves and deeply cares about his loved and dear ones. 

Don’t get me wrong, all three of them are still very frustrating men to have a romantic relationship with, but they are still lovable in their own ways and also loved by the fandom themselves. 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 328: Pandora’s Box of Discourse

Previously on BnHA: DEKU TOOK A BATH.

Today on BnHA: 

Also Naomasa grew a beard. Goddamn. 

please let this be a cool chapter that plays nice with my ADHD lol

(ETA: lol I feel guilty because a lot of people hated this chapter, but I’m just happy there was a lot of stuff to make fun of, and also that I have another week to work on my backlog of meta posts since the kids were MIA.)

around one month ago?? ah, okay, so we’re gonna find out what was in that Tartarus security file huh

I love that they just randomly set the place on fire

was it necessary to do this in order to escape? no. was it a good idea to set the island they were occupying on fire while they were in the midst of still occupying it? uh. was it cinematic as fuck? fuck yeah

wow it’s a pervert!!

that’s so great that the villains set loose this fine fellow who I’m sure is definitely not a serial rapist. truly the LoV is so noble and misunderstood. they’re just trying to free society from its chains people

oh my god??!

SHANKED!!! oh my god I cheered for Stain before I realized what I was doing. time to have an identity crisis I guess

so he’s all “hey what’s going on.” which, while a respectable question, is something I personally would have waited to ask until I had put a bit of distance between myself and the fiery murder island. but that’s just my personal preference

Stain you really are tenacious I’ll give you that

“what’s the point of escaping prison if you’re not gonna be smart about it” well shit. anyways yeah you’re dead right, society is in the process of collapsing and the outside world is in total chaos, good call there

oh shit

I mean it’s not like we really expecting anything otherwise, but still. fucking brutal. I feel like these guys’ fates were decided the minute that one guy called AFO “scum” back in chapter 94. AFO is unmatched at getting long-term revenge

??

ahh, was it the security footage??

fdsdfk he’s still alive??

and he’s immediately launching into an inappropriately theatrical monologue even as the darkness closes in on him fdlfksjdlk. you know, was it ever confirmed that the other guy back in chapter 297 was Seiji’s dad? I’m just saying

very impressed that he’s still coherent enough to weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to gamble on giving this info to Stain, who at the very least has his own moral code and isn’t allied with AFO. it was definitely still a risk, but as we now know it was also the right call

what a weird alliance. so Stain tells him that he’ll give it to a just person, and the guy is all,

okay for real though I’m gonna need someone to run a DNA test on this guy. maybe it was some kind of cuckold situation?? the other guy had the family resemblance, but this guy absolutely 100% raised Shishikura Seiji and you are not going to convince me otherwise

anyway, so Stain is all,

PRISON GUARD: “???? ??????? what the hell. what the fuck does that fucking mean. I’m dying here, jesus christ, whatever man fuck you”

(ETA: I kind of feel like this might have been Stain’s last appearance in the manga, given all the fanfare. there’s not really much else he can do for the story at this point, and he seems to have gotten all the character development Horikoshi was planning on giving him. so if this really is it, hasta la vista and good riddance I guess.)

DWLFDKSLDK MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE

(ETA: I feel like this is meant to be evocative of that Sermon on the Mount painting, but in a really fucked up way lol.)

if it were me stumbling upon this scene I would just shake my head and walk right back into the flaming building. not getting involved in that mess. sorry not sorry. I’ll take my chances with the fire, especially given that it’s half-assed neutered BnHA fire lol

blah blah blah and so he decided to pass the info on to All Might -- HOT DAMN, HOLY SHIT

NAOMASA HOLY SHIT. THE APOCALYPSE LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, BOY

“I really like that facial scruff thing Aizawa’s got going on, I think I’m gonna get in on that” yes sir. “also thinking of ditching the tie in favor of the bulletproof vest look. also thinking of getting totally fucking jacked.” good lord. except I’m pretty sure that’s just body armor, but also I don’t care. anyway I should probably stop staring and actually read the fucking speech bubbles here lol

“All Might first handed this information over to Nao, and then went to see Deku, and then came back to Nao” thanks for that tidy little summary Horikoshi. we are capable of piecing events together in sequential order, I just want you to know that. but thank you

“so has Deku finally gotten a bath? also, sucks that Stain saved the day, but what are you gonna do” Nao I missed you so fucking much and didn’t even realize. how am I just now realizing that you are the perfect man

for a second I was gonna ask why Tartarus’s security systems would be cut off from the outside world, and then I remembered that’s a basic security control, and then I actually got impressed by how sensible that is. like, it’s been a while since I could genuinely say that the good guys (excluding class 1-A) did something smart. not that it helped them much in the end, but still

anyway so they’re talking about how AFO was able to coordinate the attack by communicating between his horcrux self on the outside and his ugly peanut-faced self on the inside

huh

okay you have my attention. I am taking notes here lol please continue

ah okay so he says that prior to Jakku, the transfer of information between him and his Vestige self was only one-way. but post-Jakku when Deku was in the hospital, he was able to tell what was happening inside the OFA Radical Lisa Frank Dead People Book Club Realm when he touched him. I feel like we established that before, actually. but he didn’t talk about how it actually felt, though

boy we already know this lol. yes AFO can talk with his horcrux self. and he can also communicate with his little bro in OFA too, let’s talk about that sometime why don’t we. what exactly does that imply, based on the rules we’ve established here

my god I cannot get over Naomasa and his fucking facial hair

no wonder All Might was in such a hurry to leave Deku and get back here

like I have no idea what this radio waves nonsense is but my god, people

that jawline. also so it’s a quirk, I see. except last I checked Deku didn’t have a radio waves quirk, so that doesn’t really explain his connection to AFO. but whatever, hopefully we’re at least getting closer to some kind of reveal here

(ETA: since I sometimes forget that other people’s lives don’t revolve around my theory posts, here are the two relevant links if you by chance want to know my thoughts about this.

Hagakure is still The U.A. Traitor™ regardless of whether Deku is passing information on to AFO through his psychic link, which he almost certainly is.

speaking of said psychic link, Deku is a horcrux.

just posting these now, because whenever trippy OFA stuff happens I tend to get an influx of theory asks. so hopefully this will be a bit of a time saver lol.)

-- wait, what

THAT’S what the recording was??!? holy SHIT. I genuinely was not expecting that. y’all wiretapped his fucking telepathy. fucking quirks, man. wild

AND THEY USED THAT POWER TO DETERMINE WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW, HUZZAH. GOOD SHOW

-- oh shit wait lol, except I forgot we’re not talking about 38 days from the present, we’re talking about 38 days from the date the conversation was recorded. heh. um

yeah that’s the face I would make too if All Fucking Might just casually told me we had eight days left until the end times

oh, pardon me. three fucking days

r.i.p. anyone who thought we were going to have another band arc sob. I sure hope Deku is enjoying that nap

(ETA: I realize people were hoping for a longer rest period here, but given that the man warned us all the way back in chapter 306 that we were entering the final act, you can’t really blame him too much when that turns out to be true. anyway but I do recognize that we’ve reached the point in the story where this kind of discourse is going to become a weekly occurrence, simply because there’s no possible way for Horikoshi’s actual endgame to line up perfectly with the variable headcanons of millions of fans, all of whom have wildly differing and in many cases contradictory expectations which can’t possibly all be fulfilled. anyway, so I’m already bracing myself for that lol. this coming year is going to be a wild ride.)

damn, U.A. out here looking like the motherfucking United Nations

-- is this U.A.?? I actually just realized, U.A. is four interconnected buildings, not two. wait holy shit is this Shiketsu?

wait holy SHIT

based on the overwhelmingly powerful vibes of bureaucratic incompetence, I’m thinking this really is the (future) U.N., or whatever organization it is that deals with international hero stuff

“just let them handle it themselves I’m sure they’ll be fine” yeah okay, thanks guys. appreciate it

wait oh shit did he say that it’s not just Japan?

soooo, what you’re telling me is that AFO is this close to bringing about the end of not just Japan, but the entire world, and you guys don’t think it’s a good idea to help the Japanese heroes stop him? so, genuine follow-up question: are you guys already planning your rich people exodus into space a la Wall-E, and that’s why you don’t give a fuck?? like, what??

omg international heroes

these guys are from World Hoodie Mission, right? is this Horikoshi’s way of reminding me to buy tickets

(ETA: and it worked too lol.)

WHO??? WHAT???

don’t tell me you’re introducing yet another badass new female character for me to fall in love with only to watch as you dismember them and/or blow them up, Horikoshi. I’m getting tired of playing this game my dude. don’t lie and tell me this time will be different. we’re not doing this again goddammit

noooooooooooooooooooo

god fucking dammit lmao. [sighs and rips the previous paragraph into shreds]

on behalf of Americans I apologize for our superheroes always being Like This

I also apologize because I love her already and I’m gonna be shameless about it. so fucking shameless you guys

is her fucking hair red white and blue. it is, isn’t it

this is the volume cliffhanger, 100% lol. it will take every ounce of Horikoshi’s willpower not to put her on the volume cover. he’ll have to settle for the spine or the inner cover this time because Deku VS his class 1-a superpals takes precedence. but it will be a close thing let me tell you

tbh it’s that smile that does it for me. she’s definitely All Might’s protege. get out there and show them how it’s done girl. and maybe call Salaam and BRD and see if you can’t convince them to play hooky from their governments as well. why not. world’s ending in three days you guys. “sorry, I’m busy this weekend” ain’t gonna cut it lol

so while I am not fully caught up with Vigilantes, I have read far enough to know that there’s an American hero named Captain Celebrity whose superpower from what I recall is being a humongous douchebag. and while I haven’t read far enough to know what happens to this guy, I can’t say I’m very disappointed to learn that he’s no longer the number one hero in the U.S. (actually, didn’t they kick him out and that’s why he moved to Japan to begin with?). anyway, so my thanks to Horikoshi for having a marginally higher opinion of Americans than Furuhashi, even though we have definitely not done anything to warrant said opinion lately, and you may have inadvertently opened the door to a pandora’s box of discourse lmao

(ETA: lol I went into the tags and they don’t disappoint. “why is she dressed like a flag” because she’s an homage to Captain America and Major Victory and literally every other character on this list. again, I apologize for fictional American superheroes being Like This. “oh boy another thicc waifu to make the fanboys happy” look, tumblr fandom never seems to have a problem thirsting over Dabi or Tomura or Aizawa or Nao, lol, I’m just saying. “where is Captain Celebrity” idk, probably murdered by the exploding bee cartel, let’s just be grateful for our good fortune and try not to Beetlejuice the man.)

anyway, so let’s see if Horikoshi’s recent character development with regards to making Mineta not terrible anymore will apply to other aspects of his writing as well. I know I was making light of discourse just now, but I do think the complaints about him introducing yet another new character at the 11th hour to be cannon fodder in the final battle are absolutely valid. and again, it wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t keep maiming/killing off his female characters one by one instead of developing them and letting them kick ass long-term. but that said, I will never complain about Horikoshi adding another female character to the series, regardless of how clumsy the attempt may be. go ahead and pander away, just give us more girl power lol

anyway so we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m gonna be optimistic and let myself hope once again, even though I’m probably gonna regret it lol. it is what it is. she is standing on an airplane just chilling for fuck’s sake. I’m only human. anyway fingers crossed

[thetrashywritingwitch]

"Be Still, Just for Me" Bakugo x Fem!Reader, Ch. 40

First Chapter Previous Chapter

Summary: Bakugo Katsuki, a Pro Hero in Japan, is used to the routine: wake up, kick villain ass, rinse and repeat. He’s living his dream, soaking in all he’s ever wanted and worked for.

During the brief moment he lets his guard down, everything changes.

Tossed into a world without quirks with nothing but the clothes on his back, he’s forced to accept the help of someone who knows exactly who he is: a manga character who should definitely not exist.

Chapter length: 14k

Warnings: T+ (brief discussion of trauma, mild suggestive joking)

Reminder that the A03, Wattpad, and Quotev links will be in a reblog so this post shows up in search results! They’re also in my profile header! <3

Co-written and plot mapped by @rose-sparks13

Chapter Title: Exhale and Breathe

Chapter note: Read this brief explanation post about the previous chapter to clear up any confusion about the villain's quirk!

_________________________

Mar stood on the busy Tokyo sidewalk, feet tapping to the music pumping through their earbuds as they waited for their mentor to show up at the gym for their scheduled training. In his own words, Bakugo wanted Mar to “shape up” and continue both physical and quirk training outside of patrols. He was never one to go easy on those who slacked off, and Mar knew what they were getting into when they applied for the sidekick position months ago.

Half an hour later, Bakugo still hadn’t appeared.

“Where is he? He’s never late…” Mar glanced up and down the sidewalk to look for his familiar blonde hair, but puffed out their cheeks at the strangers waiting for the bus or walking with shopping bags.

Even though he wasn’t the best at texting back, he at least read most of what Mar sent, so they tried calling and texting Bakugo to find out where he was; both went unanswered. Maybe there had been a villain attack somewhere? But when danger alerts went out, their phones were pinged with vital information and location data… so if he wasn’t in danger, then why wasn’t he here?

After another fifteen minutes, Mar got the sinking suspicion that something was definitely wrong. While it was true that his temperament had been questionably short since returning home and the tiredness more evident in his eyes even at the start of their patrol days, Bakugo had seemed particularly terse recently. He valued his privacy, sure, but Mar wasn’t exactly the “sit back and wait” type of person; it was probably part of the reason Bakugo took them on in the first place.

“Pick up,” they mumbled while they called the first person they thought of who might know what was going on.

“Hello? Mar? What’s up? Need somethin’?” Kirishima’s helpful voice echoed through the phone speaker attached to their earbuds.

“Kirishima-kun? Hi, um, do you know where Bakugo-senpai is? We were supposed to meet up for extra training, but he never showed up,” Mar explained while rocking back and forth on their heels.

Silence on the other end. “He didn’t show up? Have you tried texting or calling?”

“Mm, yeah. He didn’t answer. And he’s never late to anything, so… I dunno. You didn’t get any villain alerts or anything, did you?”

Mar pictured Kirishima shaking his head on the other end, his red mane of hair swaying over his shoulders. “No, it’s been quiet. Let me guess, you’re worried about him, right?”

Stammering, Mar said, “Uh, I mean! He can take care of himself, pfft obviously, duh… but like-”

“Nah, I get it,” Kirishima interrupted with a sympathetic tone. “I’m worried about him, too. A lot of us are.” A heavy sigh. “Go home, kid. I’ll take care of it and let you know what’s going on.”

“Are you sure?” Bakugo was their mentor, after all, and even if they didn’t quite get along every minute of the day, it wasn’t like they wanted to leave it all up to other people if they could be helpful, too. They chose Hero work for a reason.

“Yeah. We’ve given him space, but I think it’s overdue to headbutt some sense into him. And besides me, I know a few people with extra hard heads.” He let out a weak chuckle on the other end as Mar twisted their lips against their teeth.

They took one last look up and down the sidewalk, but Bakugo was nowhere to be seen, even with the dumb disguises he often wore. “Promise you’ll let me know if you find him?” Maybe Bakugo’s close friends could finally make him spill the beans on whatever happened while he was away. Most people were supposed to get better, not worse, after returning home from a long ordeal, right?

“Promise,” Kirishima answered. “Even a hard-headed guy like Bakugo needs help sometimes… and it’s not weak to ask for it. But I’ll let you know what I find. If you hear from him first, text me. Got it?”

“Mm, sure. Good luck, Kirishima-kun.” With that, Mar hung up the call and leaned heavily against the gym wall before running a hand through their curly hair. Trying to stay focused while training on their own sounded impossible right then, so they kicked off from the wall and started walking back towards the train station to take them to their small apartment just outside the city.

On the other end of town, Kirishima stared with a deep frown at his phone. “Something’s definitely up,” he mumbled before searching through his contacts for someone he knew would help him with what he anticipated to be a difficult intervention.

Ever since Bakugo returned home, Kirishima and their friends had tried their best to tiptoe between the delicate balance of allowing him some patience to figure things out on his own and offering a hand or ear if he wanted it, but he brushed them off every time. Patrols and working consumed most of his time - even more so than usual - and Kirishima knew it would all boil over sooner or later. He'd heard what happened at the bar with Kaminari, and had a feeling that this wouldn't end well.

"Hello? Kirishima-kun?" Midoriya's voice spoke from the other end as Kirishima walked down the street towards his apartment building while still in his Hero uniform. Yes, he was technically on patrol, but this was an emergency; he'd contact someone else to try and cover the route. If his friend needed him, he had to try and help!

"Midoriya, are you busy right now?" He let his voice carry a bit of weight to stress what he was about to say. "There's something we need to do."

As perceptive as always, he seemed to read Kirishima’s mind. “It’s about Kacchan, isn’t it?”

Kirishima opened his mouth to explain, but closed it again with a sigh. “Yeah, it is.” He relayed what Mar had told him about skipping out on training - something he almost never did - and not answering his phone. “I think we’ve been patient enough with him, ya know? I say we just see if he’s in his apartment, barge in, and make him tell us what the hell’s going on!” A few onlookers stared as the Sturdy Hero raised his voice on the phone, pointing and whispering to themselves about who he was possibly talking to, but he paid them no mind.

“I’m definitely worried about him, and- huh?” Midoriya’s voice became muffled and far away through the receiver for a moment. “Oh, Todoroki-kun says ‘hi’ and he wants to come, too.”

Todoroki was one of Bakugo’s close friends as well, but he had unfortunately been away on a mission when Bakugo returned home. Although it had taken most of their first year at U.A. for Bakugo to admit to their friendship, they remained close throughout the years just like Midoriya, Kirishima, Kaminari, and all the others. However, unlike the main group, his and Todoroki’s friendship consisted mostly of enjoying each other’s company with few words. There was a time and place for feeling content in the silence of others, and they seemed to cooperate best while fighting villains or conversing over lunch… or commiserating about their own parents.

Kirishima grinned as he walked knowing that one more person would hopefully make this whole mission easier. “Oh, hey Todoroki! And yes, he can definitely come. He can’t ignore all of us at once, right?”

“You’re right,” Midoriya agreed. “I know that it’s not easy for him to open up, but maybe we can convince him that it’s for the best. He usually knows what to do or say when we need help, so it’s our turn to help him this time.”

Even though it wouldn’t be easy, they all recognized that their friend needed a push in the “please, for the love of kicking villain butt, talk to someone” direction. Kirishima agreed to meet Midoriya and Todoroki in front of his apartment building as soon as possible. The two of them just happened to be out doing some small errands and ran into each other, but were on the other side of town.

After calling the agency to let them know he couldn’t finish his patrol due to a “personal emergency” and checking to make sure someone else could cover that area for the next few hours, Kirishima headed towards his apartment while wondering what he and the others could do to finally pry the truth out of Bakugo.

He just needed to make one more call to make sure he was actually at home. That was probably something he should’ve done first, but they’d figure out what to do if, for whatever reason, he wasn’t in his apartment. Calling Bakugo would possibly tip him off to what Kirishima was planning, so he decided to err on the side of surprise to catch him off guard.

Due to the high security measures, their apartment building didn’t actually have a publicly-available phone number to call and was only given out to residents. “Hello? Takahata, here.” The security guard also gave out no information without first telling him the randomly-assigned code everyone within the building gained after moving in.

“Red Riot, code 62438,” Kirishima said while rounding a corner and waving to a few civilians who tried to catch his attention.

Once his identity was confirmed, the security guard’s voice became much more genial. “Ah, Red Riot. What can I do for you today?”

“Well, I need a favor. I’m not sure if you’re able to tell me, but have you seen Dynamight leave today? Do you know if he’s home?”

Takahata hummed on the other end as if contemplating how to answer while also obliging his guard duties. “Do you need to speak to him about something important? Have you tried calling?”

Kirishima chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, well… let’s just say we’re worried about him and he didn’t show up to a planned meeting. I just need to make sure he’s home before Deku, Shouto and I try to help him out as best we can.”

“Ah… I see.” Takahata sighed on the other end. “Well, considering I see you both just about every day, I can say that I do think he needs a bit of help, even if it’s not my place. Dynamight did leave for a while earlier, but when he came back…” He paused as if deciding on exactly how professional to remain with his word choice. “He didn’t look like himself. Wherever he went, it must’ve put him in a pretty low mood. All that being said, I haven’t seen him leave since returning earlier this afternoon.”

Frowning at this news, Kirishima nodded to himself. So, Bakugo went somewhere and came back even more crestfallen than usual? That wasn’t good… “That’s all I needed to know. Thanks, Takahata.”

“Of course, Red Riot.” With that, the two hung up while Kirishima quickened his steps, disquiet rumbling in the pit of his stomach at what they would find out sooner rather than later.

Todoroki and Midoriya arrived about ten minutes after Kirishima. It was around 5 P.M. and the sun began to set across the Tokyo skyline. He waved towards them as they ran down the sidewalk to meet him. “Hey, guys! Thanks for coming.” While Kirishima was still dressed in his Hero uniform, Midoriya and Todoroki wore casual clothes fit for the fall weather. Todoroki had also let his hair grow out and wore it in a low ponytail over his shoulder.

“No need to thank us, Kirishima-kun,” Midoriya insisted with a determined fire in his eyes. “We’re here for Kacchan and want to help him as best we can.”

Todoroki nodded in agreement. “Yes. He’s being stubborn and we’re his friends. He’d do the same for us.”

Balling up his fists, Kirishima pumped the air with a purposeful hoot. “Yeah! We got this, guys!”

Without further delay, Kirishima led the two of them through the doors into his apartment building. Takahata glanced up from his desk, his brows shooting up in acknowledgement of the three Heroes. “Ah, hello Red Riot. Shouto. Deku.”

Kirishima waved before pointing his thumb over his shoulder at his two friends. “Do they need to sign in or anything? I dunno how long this will take…”

“We don’t want you to get in trouble or anything, Takahata-san,” Midoriya said while grabbing the pen on the desk and signing his name along with the current time and handing over his I.D.; he’d been here plenty of times in the past and already knew the procedure. Todoroki followed suit.

“Thank you. As I told Red Riot earlier, I know it might not be my place, but I’m concerned about Dynamight. If anyone could snap him back to his usual self, it would be you three.”

All of them glanced at each other with concern. “Don’t worry,” Kirishima said, turning back to Takahata with the most confident smile he could muster, “we’re all just as stubborn as he is.”

The security guard gave a small grin and waved them back as Kirishima led them into the elevator. “Right… forgot to mention. When I called to see if Bakugo was even home, Takahata mentioned he went out earlier, and came back all weird and not himself; and I mean less like himself than the past few weeks. Wherever he went must’ve really affected him.”

“Where could he have gone?” Todoroki pondered while Midoriya began mumbling to himself in his customary habit of extravagant hypothesizing. However, he couldn’t come up with an answer before the elevator pinged them up to Bakugo’s floor. “Guess we’ll find out now.”

Kirishima led them down the hallway until all three men stood in front of Bakugo’s closed apartment door. Already impatient, Kirishima banged on the door with his fist and yelled, “Bakugo! It’s Kirishima! Open up! We gotta talk, man!”

Only quiet answered them on the other side.

“No, no, he wouldn’t do that… what about…” Midoriya continued to mumble to himself while Kirishima glared at the door and Todoroki hummed.

“Maybe we could try and-”

“Midoriya,” Kirishima said, interrupting Todoroki. “Help me break down the door.”

That snapped the Hero out of his overthinking stupor. “I think I… Huh? Wh- break it down?! That’ll put Kacchan in an even worse mood!”

Flaring his nostrils, the unnatural redhead bent down to stare Midoriya right in his sparkling green eyes. “Which is worse: temporarily mad or miserable for the foreseeable future?” A pause. “Also, I don’t wanna be the only one blamed for property damage so do me a solid, here.”

It only took a second before Midoriya nodded with determination. “You’re right. Heroes save, and that’s what we’re going to do. Doors can be replaced.”

Todoroki held up a finger behind the both of them to try and interject, but Kirishima and Midoriya were far too engrossed in preparing to destroy Bakugo’s front door. “How about we-”

“One…”

“Two…”

“Guys…”

“THREE!”

Both Kirishima with his diamond-hard fist and Midoriya with his own surrounded by green OFA energy, they both surged forward and splintered the door, locks and all, into a flurry of dust and wood. These apartments were built with security in mind, so they were stronger than most, but not impenetrable, especially for two top Heroes.

Kirishima stumbled forward while Midoriya held onto the now-empty door frame, broken hinges swinging and bent screws clattering to the genkan. “We’ll, ah, clean up this mess later…”

Todoroki poked his head into the dimly-lit apartment with a flat look. “I was going to say that Kirishima could’ve just tried to open the door. Don’t you have a spare key? Was it even locked?”

The other two Heroes’ eyes went wide, Midoriya glancing nervously at Kirishima while the redhead let out an anxious laugh before slowly digging into the pocket of his pants and pulling out his keys. “O-oh… hm. I uh… I forgot… I’ll just-”

“What the everloving FUCK is that fucking no- WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY DOOR?!” Everyone turned their heads to look past the living room and down the hallway as none other than Bakugo emerged, stomping his way into their field of view before stopping to stare at the wreckage in his apartment with tightly-knitted brows and a slack jaw, hands out wide in disbelief.

“Kacchan!” Midoriya stepped over the splinters and went to stand next to Kirishima with his hands up and waving apologetically as Todoroki followed suit. “Sorry about the door!”

Before a yelling match could start, the phone in Bakugo’s hand started buzzing. Without taking his eyes off of the morons who broke his fucking door, he answered it with an angry, “What!?... No, everything’s fine, there’s no emergency. But I guess I need someone to come fix my busted door,” he grit out while glaring at Kirishima and Midoriya. “Yeah, yeah I’ll be here.” With that, he hung up and rubbed at his tired eyes.

Downstairs, Takahata sighed as he set down the phone receiver. “Wasn’t quite expecting that solution…”

With Bakugo out in the open, the three Heroes took a good, hard look at their friend. Normally well put together and polished, Bakugo definitely didn’t seem quite like his usual self. Not that he’d been back to normal since returning home, but there was definitely something more that appeared to weigh him down. His hair was messy as if he’d just woken up even though it was almost 5 o’clock, he wore pajamas despite them knowing he’d gone out earlier, and his eyes appeared drained and red-rimmed as if he’d been crying. Yes, something was definitely wrong.

“The hell are you all doing here, anyway? If there’s some fucking emergency, I’ll deal with it tomorrow,” he said before making to turn back around, but he didn’t get the opportunity before Midoriya moved forward on quick feet to place a hand on Bakugo’s shoulder.

“Kacchan, please just listen. We’re worried about you. We wanted to give you space after coming home, but…”

“But, no offense, we think it’s time you opened up about whatever happened while you were gone. It’s obviously been weighing you down,” Kirishima added to Midoriya’s honest comments. “Even Mar’s worried. You skipped training with ‘em earlier. You can’t be the mentor I know you can be and want to be if you aren’t at your best.”

Finally, Todoroki stepped up to say his own piece. “We’re friends, Bakugo. You’d help us if there was something wrong, so we’re here to help you. And we’re not leaving that easily.” Simple and right to the point.

Bakugo stood still and, to his own surprise, didn’t try shoving Midoriya’s hand from his shoulder. He was so tired… Maybe, after everything he’d learned that day, this was the perfect excuse to finally come clean about where he’d been, what happened over the course of that month-long disappearance, and most importantly of all: you.

There was only so much push he could exert before his energy was well and truly spent, and there was no choice left but to let himself fall against people who he knew would be there to catch him.

Inhaling through his nose, Bakugo closed his eyes and took a deep breath before letting his shoulders sag. “Alright,” he conceded with an uncharacteristically weak voice. “I’ll talk.”

Actually confounded that he didn’t put up a fight, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Midoriya looked at each other which prompted Midoriya to slide his hand from his friend’s shoulder. If he was willing to talk to them this easily, then this intervention was probably well overdue. Without a word, Bakugo walked down the hallway towards his bedroom before the others silently followed.

He’d felt guilty for standing up Mar, but even he - with all his steadfastness - couldn’t shake the waves crashing harshly against his ribs long enough to distract himself with a few hours of extra training. It would’ve been impossible to concentrate when all he wanted to do was sit with this newfound knowledge, this guilt, for just a little while.

But he’d moped and wallowed in his own misery for long enough and, truth be told, finally having the opportunity to speak his experiences into existence to others almost sounded relieving; it would make them real outside of his own memories.

Walking into his room, Bakugo sat down on the end of his bed and faced his three friends that shuffled inside. “Sit down wherever. This will probably take a while.”

Immediately, Midoriya noticed the black duffel bag laying off to the side next to the large window, mostly blocked by blackout curtains, that led out onto a balcony overlooking the city. He tapped Kirishima on the shoulder and tilted his head to point out the bag as Kirishima removed his protective face mask. The bag lay open and seemed mostly empty.

Todoroki sat down against the wall, Kirishima next to the bedroom door, which put Midoriya between the two. They all looked up at Bakugo expectantly like children waiting to be told an engaging story by their teacher. “Stop staring at me like I’m crazy,” he gritted out while running his hands through his messy hair. “God, where do I even start…”

“At the beginning,” Todoroki said bluntly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Day one.”

Letting his hands drop to his knees, Bakugo gave Todoroki a “seriously?” glance and opened his mouth to retort, but then seemed to think better of it and shook his head. “If I do this, you all have to make some promises.” With some agreeing nods, he continued. “One, don’t interrupt to ask a hundred questions. Just let me talk. And two, nothing discussed leaves this room. I trust you idiots, so don’t go and break it.”

Kirishima wanted to argue about the second point, but thought better of it. Screwing up this opportunity when he finally agreed to relay what happened seemed like the wrong move. After a moment, they all nodded again and waited with bated breath for the answers they’d been seeking for weeks.

The first words didn’t come easily, sticking to the roof of his mouth like fresh taffy, but he was too exhausted and wasn’t about to back down now. “I didn’t know what happened. One second, I was walking down the sidewalk checking my phone, and the next, I felt a hand on my shoulder and this immense pressure in my stomach that yanked me backwards through some weird, disorienting portal. It only lasted a few seconds before the twisting stopped and I landed on the floor of a room I didn’t recognize.”

It was bizarre thinking back two months ago and recalling a time when the two of you were complete strangers. He didn’t know you, trust you, or believe that you weren’t just an illusion for the first few days. Things had changed so much in such a short amount of time, and the villain’s cackled confession finally revealed why.

He wanted to ease into letting them know about you, but found himself grappling for the right words. “Next thing I knew, someone was yelling at me in a language I didn’t understand. It wasn’t Japanese. She was scared and angry, but I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t know what she was saying. She threw shit at me until I left the room only to come back out with a baseball bat, as if that’d stop me.” You really were scared that first day that he’d actually hurt you...

“Wait, so,” Kirishima interrupted. “You just dropped into someone’s house?”

“What’d I say about questions?”

“It was just one!”

Running a hand down his face, Bakugo said, “Fuckin’... Yes, basically. But apartment, not house. I didn’t know who she was and she didn’t know me. She had a phone and used an app to help translate between us because I wasn’t about to leave without answers; I figured she had something to do with what happened or that she was a villain herself.”

With no more delays, he continued. “There was some stupid back and forth before she told me we weren’t in Japan, but I didn’t believe her at first. And then… she asked me how I made my hands spark. Apparently, quirks didn’t exist in that world.”

“Oh, wow,” Midoriya murmured while staring up at Bakugo. “So, you were transported to a whole different universe or dimension without quirks? Fascinating… I wonder how-"

"Deku!" Midoriya let out a "meep!" at Bakugo's raised voice. "Can I get through more than three sentences?!"

"Sorry, Kacchan! I'll just save them for later…"

"You gonna interrupt next?" He turned to Todoroki who pointed to himself.

"Oh, is it my turn? I don't have any questions yet."

Glaring at all three of his moronic friends, he huffed. "No damn patience… anyway, I didn't believe or trust her, so I ran outside. I figured I’d been teleported somehow or that it was all some elaborate illusion, but I didn’t know where. I basically ran for a while searching for anything I knew, but I couldn’t read the street signs and all the people were strangers. I realized I didn’t have my damn phone or wallet or anything, so I couldn’t contact anyone. People looked at me weirdly when I tried asking what happened or if they saw anything. They couldn’t understand me.” Remembering the terror of the unknown, of being completely lost with no one to call on for help made him frown as he stared down at the floor. “Not knowing what else to do, I went back to that apartment building. I figured I’d find answers or clues there."

Continuing recalling what happened more than two months ago, he explained interrogating you for information only to find out that you knew even less than he did… and also that you offered him fucking pizza as an edible peace treaty because you didn't want him to blow up your home.

Kirishima hummed as if he agreed with that delicious tactic before Todoroki asked, "What was her name?"

Keeping his face as straight as possible, Bakugo told them your name. His heart fluttered painfully as your smiling face appeared in his imagination… but it didn’t hurt as much as earlier. Would continuing to talk about you make the pain lessen?

None of them recognized the name, and it wasn’t Japanese, but Midoriya watched his friend carefully as he spoke about this mysterious, quirkless stranger.

Your offer to help him sent him down a sentimental spiral as he retold what he remembered about that first day: searching for anyone else who might’ve been transported, taking him grocery shopping, playing video games with him, and offering your home to him for as long as he needed it.

“We didn’t trust each other, but she helped me anyway. I didn’t understand why until later, and it still seems ludicrous looking back on it, but if it hadn’t been for her and what she gave up to help me, I wouldn’t have had anything. Even though sleeping on a couch for weeks wasn’t ideal, it was better than finding a bridge or alleyway to sleep in.”

He paused before daring to glance up at his friends to gauge their reactions to the tip-top of the story that, with just the right push, would inevitably evolve into an avalanche.

Todoroki’s stare was attentive, Deku looked enamored, and Kirishima seemed confused. “So… let me get this straight.” Holding his hands out to Bakugo, he said, “You had shelter, food, and help and stuff the whole time you were gone? I mean, there’s obviously more to it, but…?”

Clenching his jaw, Bakugo knew this was coming. “I know everyone assumed I was probably on the edge of death and fighting for my life somewhere, right?”

Kirishima frowned and Todoroki scratched at his cheek. “But all that stuff was good, right? At least in the beginning, you weren’t totally alone.”

“Yeah! Kacchan, that’s great news!” Midoriya perked up to add his own quick-witted analysis to these surface-level revelations. “Yes, we assumed the worst… but Todoroki-kun’s right. You came back and surprised us with how you were doing, physically at least. If this (y/n) person helped you, then it wasn’t all bad. Unless she wasn’t what she appeared to be…?” His voice trailed off as his smile slowly faded.

“Yeah, what happened next?”

It shouldn’t have surprised him that they weren’t angry or upset, that they’d basically worried and stressed over him for nothing and were glad for the help you gave, but Bakugo had spent so much time and energy slogging through scenarios and feeling lost, that having something go right just felt off.

Still, they were wrong. So very wrong about assuming the worst from you.

His fingers gripped at the comforter underneath him. “I thought I’d wake up back here, really fucking wished for it. But I didn’t. I had no answers and no clues and it drove me crazy for a while. But I knew you idiots would be working to bring me home while I did what I could there.”

At that, Kirishima perked up a bit. “You’re right about that. As soon as we heard what happened from the civilians around that restaurant, we went looking for you and the villain.”

“She didn’t get too far,” Todoroki added. “I guess you being so far away affected her more than she thought it would. But it took a while to get any solid answers.”

He scoffed, but it was all soft edges and fondness for the people who had stuck by him through thick and thin after all these years. “Thought so.” With a sigh, he summoned up the memories that felt much further away than they actually were. “I tried to test whether or not it was an illusion or fake, but the people were too real and it was too big and detailed for one person, even with a strong quirk, to keep up for that long. I didn’t know if the villain was watching me or waiting for me to drop my guard. I didn’t know what was happening here. That was the most agonizing thing: not knowing.”

“Were you able to use your quirk at all?” Bakugo resigned himself to answering these intermittent questions; setting that rule in the beginning felt pointless considering how long he’d kept this all a secret, but at least he'd tried.

“Not really, no. It would’ve caught too much attention. That also drove me out of my mind, but I managed. Last thing I needed was to get chased by cops and weirdos thinking I can do magic or some shit. But… I was anonymous there. Here, everyone knows who I am and what Heroes are. We’re recognizable, but there, I was just a person like everyone else. I could walk down the street and not get bombarded by cameras or people wanting autographs. But I couldn’t do what I was made to do; I couldn’t be a Hero. It was boring as fuck for a while.”

This continued for a little while as Bakugo told a few of the people he was closest to, for the very first time, everything you did for him that first week. You bought him clothes, presented your own theories as to why he was there and how to get back home, and did what you could to keep him entertained.

“I was still suspicious of everything, but none of it ever felt threatening. And even if it did, I could’ve dealt with any surprise attack. Letting my guard down was how I got into that damn mess in the first place.”

Kirishima slouched against the wall. “Man, she took you to an amusement park AND to play video games and stuff? That’s so cool… I can’t remember the last time I had time to do something like that.” His words tugged at the guilt Bakugo felt at the time as he enjoyed, to the best of his ability, his nonconsentual “vacation” away from his normal responsibilities. Even if he loved what he did, a break every once in a while didn’t hurt.

“I think the only time I went to an amusement park was during our last year at U.A.,” Todoroki mused as he remembered a trip most of their class took before graduation to celebrate before they entered sidekick and Pro Hero work.

“Kacchan, this person sounds very generous to do all of that… but there’s more to it, isn’t there?” Perceptive as always, Midoriya stared at the friend he’d known since childhood, the person he arguably knew best. He could tell there was something hidden beneath the mundane grind of living life as a civilian and being taken care of by someone else. Bakugo was never one to accept help easily and always paid back what he owed, but even he seemed to be forced into a position where he had no other choice but to swallow his own thorn-covered pride.

Bakugo stared at the others, lingering on Midoriya knowingly, and sighed. “I hated having nothing. I hated feeling useless and like a burden. I could’ve made it on my own, but it would’ve been stupid to brush off what (y/n) offered. Plus, she was my only lead. I asked her why the hell she was being so nice, why so fucking generous with what she had, and why she didn’t just kick me out day one. And she said that if the roles were reversed, if she were in my shoes, she’d want someone to help her. That it felt like the right thing to do.” He ran a hand through his hair and stared down at the knees of his pajama pants. “It’s not everyday someone from another universe appears out of nowhere with ‘superpowers’.” The last bit was emphasized with air quotes. “She also wanted to know about me and what’s normal for us here and I don’t think most people would blame her for that.”

Midoriya hummed at that. “When I was quirkless, I wondered all the time what it would’ve been like to have a quirk. But I never thought about a world without quirks at all, or the experience of meeting someone who can do what we do when it’s so foreign.”

“Like something out of TV or comics,” Kirishima added. “It would’ve been really freaky. I hope you didn’t give her a hard time. You aren’t exactly known for being patient.”

“Shut it,” Bakugo growled out, but it was a lukewarm attempt at best while the redhead grinned. “That was one of my strategies at first: be nice. I figured if I could get on her good side, she’d let her guard down and slip up… and in a way, she did.”

Tilting his head to the side, Todoroki saw Bakugo glance away towards the wall-length curtains. “What do you mean? Did she have a secret?”

Now… how the hell was he supposed to even begin to summarize that he had started dating the woman he’d been talking about, successfully - for the most part - navigated a brief relationship, almost fucked it up at the very end, only to be forgiven before being pulled back home right as he was about to tell someone he loved them for the first time?

How do I even start? Just thinking about it made his heart palpitate and mouth scratchy with dryness. Could he keep it together long enough to make it to the end?

His tongue rolled around in his mouth as he pondered how to phrase something that would probably shock his friends. “She had a job, so I tried to keep myself busy by working out and writing down any ideas I had on how to get home. But when she wasn’t working, she felt obligated to try and keep me from dying of boredom, and I took her up on it. It wasn’t like she hated roller coasters; I was a convenient excuse to do things she wouldn’t normally do. But…” Trailing off, Bakugo stared up at the ceiling and leaned back on his hands as he thought back to that kitchen confession of yours. Always kept him on his toes… “Something changed that I never expected to happen.”

As if waiting for the metaphorical ball to drop, the others leaned forward from their seated positions to listen in closely. “Well?”

“...I-”

The notification tone of Kirishima’s phone made everyone practically glare at him for the interruption before he sheepishly shrugged. “Sorry, should’ve put it on silent… oh, it’s Mar. Let me tell them that you’re alive.” He typed away on his phone as Bakugo tapped a finger against his comforter and clicked his tongue despite knowing the kid was concerned from what Kirishima said earlier. “OK… don’t look at me like that. They were worried! Now, continue.”

Taking a moment to reorient his thoughts again, Bakugo huffed. It was now or never to finally reveal what tarnished his return home. “What changed… is that I started to like her. As more than just someone helping me out or some circumstantial friendliness. As it turns out, spending every single day with someone really helps you see exactly who they are; there’s nowhere to hide. And she was a shitty liar, anyway,” he muttered with a huff and small, nostalgic upturn of his lips. “I was in denial and tried to ignore it at first, but it’s not like I had anyone to turn to for advice. And (y/n) wasn’t exactly subtle with her own stupid crush. I thought I was losing my mind, because when have I ever given a damn about that kinda stuff? And besides, why even try when I was anxious to get home, even if I didn’t know at the time how long it’d take? Nothing could last, but it just got harder to ignore after a while. And then, she surprised me by just blurting it out one night. That’s one thing I really liked: she didn’t hold back if she wanted something. If I pushed, she pushed right back. So, after that, for the rest of the time I was there, we agreed to say ‘fuck it’ and basically started dating, even if we didn’t put a name to what we were for a while.”

Realizing that he’d been staring at the ceiling the entire time he was talking, Bakugo blinked back to reality and looked down at his friends to judge their reactions to this unlikely revelation. Talking about you felt… good. It made you feel real rather than just a faraway memory that he’d attempted to lock away. He really was an idiot, and only now realized he should’ve told someone about you from the very beginning.

“Dude…”

“Kacchan..”

“... Huh. Not what I was expecting.”

He twisted his mouth and clicked his tongue, but his eyes were regaining that bit of ruby sparkle they hadn’t held in weeks. “No shit.”

“Wh- wait! You said you didn’t know how long, but the note! Did you get the note we sent?!” Kirishima leaned forward with wide eyes and nearly smacked Midoriya in the face with a dramatic wave of his hand.

“I was getting to that if you’d be patient,” he said before Kirishima leaned back with a pout. “Yeah, I got the note after about two weeks, but it was after the whole confession happened. And I guess sticking around was the best option after all, since I wouldn’t have the note otherwise. It appeared where I did on Day one.”

Midoriya hummed. “We were concerned about the note adding that extra time before you came back, but now that we know you weren’t in danger or anything… I guess it turned out alright?”

“You really went for it, huh? That’s so manly.” Balling up his fist, Kirishima screwed his eyes shut in fiery satisfaction of his best friend letting himself be happy despite the circumstance.

“But that leaves…” Holding up his fingers, Todoroki counted down the remaining days from when the note arrived to when Bakugo was yanked back home. “Three weeks left. So, what happened after that?”

Nodding, Midoriya said, “For you to want this, she had to be special, right? You told us (y/n) helped you, was kind and generous, and reciprocated how you felt… wow, Kacchan. I’m really happy you found someone like that!”

Letting out a laugh-turned-sigh, Kirishima said, “Yeah, man. Imagine finding someone you click within another wor- ow!” He was interrupted by a sharp jab of Midoriya’s elbow in his ribs and glanced to the side before looking up into Bakugo’s tired eyes, realizing his lack of tact a few seconds too late with an apologetic look, scratching the back of his neck. “Oh, uh, sorry…”

As if I haven’t been thinking about that for weeks, Bakugo thought to himself with a clenched jaw. Just then, he lifted his head towards his bedroom door when he heard voices. “Probably someone here to fix my broken door,” he said while glaring at his sheepish-looking friends. “Don’t move.” Lifting himself from the edge of his bed, he opened his door and closed it behind him, leaving the three Heroes to themselves for the moment.

Immediately, they began whispering to each other about what they’d been told.

“Things are starting to make so much more sense now! Kacchan’s been so down because-”

“Because he was happy, not miserable. As far as we know, at least,” Todoroki added.

“Yeah, but he’s not exactly someone you can easily fool. And if she really wasn’t quirkless, then he could hold his own and would’ve bailed. Man, all those dates I tried to set him up on flopped, but I guess he didn’t need my help after all.”

Midoriya’s eyes sparkled with unasked questions. “Another universe… I wonder exactly what the differences are! Why don’t they have quirks? Maybe quirks will develop there eventually? Are all the countries and languages the same? What about the food and cultures? Is their Japan the same as here?” He continued muttering to himself like usual during these hypothesizing moods while Kirishima leaned his head against the wall.

“When he was talking about her, he looked less down. Maybe he just needed a push to open up.”

Todoroki agreed with a nod. “I do want to know where he went earlier-”

Just then, the bedroom door opened to reveal Bakugo. He returned to his previous spot on the bed before saying, “If the construction gets too loud before I’m done, I’m volunteering Kirishima’s place.”

Kirishima awkwardly grinned. “Aha, fair, fair. Anyway! Where’d we stop?”

“Huh?” Only then did Midoriya pause his mumbling. “Uh, the note, right?”

Setting the heel of his foot on the edge of his bed frame, Bakugo thought back to the morning when you handed him the one bit of evidence he’d been waiting for. “Right. It gave me a solid date, which I desperately needed. And the fact that you caught the villain and got some info out of her told me that the worst of it was over and that I probably didn’t have some surprise ambush to worry about.” Her crooked, wrinkly grin and eyes full of wicked glee flashed in his mind, but he forced the image down with a difficult swallow. “But three weeks was a long time to wait. And I’d already imposed on (y/n)’s time and effort more than I wanted. When I asked about it, she said I could stay.”

“Did you really think she’d kick you out?” Todoroki asked. “From what you’ve told us so far, she doesn’t seem the type.”

“No, I didn’t, but even I know when to stop being an asshole long enough to ask about overstaying my welcome. For all I knew, she might’ve had plans with her parents or friends or whatever.”

“Kacchan,” Midoriya said with that big-eyed stare of his. “Can you tell us why you liked her? More about her?”

At this, Bakugo felt embarrassment bubble up under his skin in the form of rare goosebumps. It was one thing to get lost in his own memories while retelling events, but listing out the qualities he liked - no, loved - about you one-by-one was too damn much. “What, you want me to spill my damn guts out? Try again.”

“Can you blame us for wanting to know? I mean, you had this like, faraway look in your eyes- hey!” Kirishima put his arms up to block as a pillow was hurled in his direction. “I was just asking!”

“Whatever, dummy! Let me just finish the damn story!” Settling back down on the bed as it creaked under him, Bakugo glared while knowing his stupid ears were probably pink. “Annoying… anyway,” he growled, “after I got the note, things were alright for a while. All I had to do was wait it out. But it wasn’t like her life revolved around me. She had a job and responsibilities. There was a small park nearby where I’d go and exercise as best I could while she was at work. It was weird people watching while no one recognized me. Then, I’d get back and make dinner because it was the least I could do and I hated feeling indebted to someone.”

At that, Kirishima’s eyes went wide with realization. “So that’s why you keep giving me your leftovers… I gotta say, man, that’s really cute.”

“You are a good cook,” Todoroki said as Bakugo narrowed his eyes at both of them while imagining punching them right into his wall. He wasn’t cute, dammit!

“One more word, and I’m kicking all of you out.” After the others settled in and shut their fat mouths, he recalled what happened next. “Hm.. oh, right. She wanted to try and find somewhere I could use my quirk safely and planned some outing in secret because she’s devious like that. The next weekend, she drove us a couple hours away to a secluded cabin in the woods away from other people… don’t give me that look!”

Bakugo knew damn well what Kirishima was about to say and he pointed accusingly at the redhead, making his teeth clatter together; however, it didn’t wipe the smug grin off of his face.

“I don’t get it,” Todoroki said. The guy was far too aroace to understand romantic subtext in any capacity. Midoriya just nodded along patiently, smart enough to say nothing at all.

“Good. Keep it that way. AS I WAS SAYING, we spent the weekend in this cabin and I was able to use my quirk for about two and a half days. Not long, but after almost three weeks it was way better than nothing at all. The weather was good, and-” His face immediately dropped as he stared at a blank spot on the wall. So caught up in remembering those pleasant, nostalgic memories of holding hands under a meteor shower, hearing you laugh as he flew you up into the air, and fighting with you over the single bed that he nearly forgot about the almost-tragedy that ruined it.

“... And?”

Before he could stop himself, Bakugo blurted out in a low and even tone, “And I almost didn’t make it.”

At that moment, there were no thoughts in my head. My body… just moved on it’s own.

Midoriya, Kirishima, and Todoroki all glanced at each other with this sudden melancholic shift. Todoroki asked, “What does that mean?”

Blinking a few times, Bakugo ran his hands down his face and let his forearms rest across his thighs. “On the second day, (y/n) wandered off while I was training. I didn’t notice. She was just gone a minute, but the next thing I knew, I heard a scream. And we have all heard that scream.”

They did. Every Hero knew the intimate terror of hearing someone in trouble, someone you weren’t sure you could reach. It never got any easier. “I ran, and saw that she had somehow caught the attention of a big fucking bear. She tripped and fell, and the bear caught up easily. I blasted through the trees and scared it away before anything happened.”

For the first time in almost an hour, silence hung low and heavy over the room with only the occasional bang or noise from the construction in the hallway. Kirishima knew his buddy would’ve made the save, he always did, but he understood the anxiety that often hung around afterwards. Midoriya considered the dread he’d felt when that villain had Ochaco cornered two years ago and how he moved without thinking. And Todoroki considered how this confirmed you didn’t have a secret quirk; if you did, you would’ve defended yourself in such a dire circumstance.

“That must’ve been… but she was fine, right?” Midoriya watched as Bakugo mechanically closed and opened his fists while staring listlessly down at the floor, the gem-like shimmer in his eyes as he spoke about you dimmed once again.

“Physically, yeah. She was scraped up from falling, but otherwise fine. But she was in shock and kind of shut down when we got back to the cabin. Pretty sure she’d never run for her life before. After a while, she fell asleep. Then came the nightmares.” He knew he was oversharing, revealing too much too soon, but telling someone else - people who knew what it meant to save - felt cathartic; like air being pushed into his lungs for the first time in many stifling days.

“Everyone has nightmares. What happened next?” Feeling the need to push through what he assumed was a harsh memory for Bakugo, Todoroki tried to skip to something slightly more uplifting.

Taking a moment to regain his composure, Bakugo mentally shoved visions of your crying face and shaking hands back into the depths where they belonged. “Things were mostly alright for the rest of the week. But she had trouble sleeping and would fucking apologize for it of all things. As for something way less stressful, I convinced her to look for a new job because hers sucked and she could do better. She studied, interviewed, and landed a the job that week because she doesn’t back down from a challenge. It was all a good distraction from the bear shit, too. So, we went that Friday to celebrate with a first official ‘date’ or whatever.”

Tilting his head like a confused puppy, Kirishima pondered aloud. “Hadn’t you been together for a couple of weeks by that point? And just now going on a date?”

Bakugo twisted his lips and lowered his eyes slowly to the redhead. “Ah, right. I’ll just take her out with all the money I didn’t have- genius, did you forget I was flat broke?! I wasn’t about to insist we do anything when I was living off her dime. Everything we did that cost money was her idea. I only suggested the karaoke bar because it was free aside from drinks.”

“Oh, they had karaoke there? W-”

A loud banging came from down the hallway, making everyone turn their heads towards the noise. “Well, might be our cue to take this elsewhere…” Kirishima pushed himself away from the wall and stood up alongside the others. “You coming?”

Kirishima’s hand shot out as he offered it to Bakugo. A small gesture that said so much. He scoffed, but the corners of his lips quirked up ever so slightly. “No shit.” Not needing the help, but accepting it anyway was something he learned a long time ago as appreciation for his friends as not just “extras” but reliable colleges grew. With a yank, Kirishima helped him up with a smile before turning to follow the others back down the hallway. Bakugo grabbed his phone off the nightstand, turned once more towards the open bag underneath his window, and walked out into his living room.

Which looked like a bit of a wreck, now.

“You really had to forget you had a key,” he mumbled while sliding on his shoes. Turning to the two workers diligently cleaning splinters and fixing the security hinges while he grabbed his keys, he asked, “How long will this take?”

“Shouldn’t take more than another hour or two, Dynamight. New door is on the way,” one of them said with the utmost professionalism. “It’ll look like nothing ever happened.”

“Good.” Leaving them alone in his place didn’t bother him; they knew who they were messing with if he found anything missing or out of place.

As he waited with the others for the elevator in the quiet of the hallway, his stomach let out an embarrassingly loud rumble. Midoriya, Todoroki, and Kirishima turned to him as Bakugo stared straight ahead while grinding his teeth in a pitiful attempt to ignore the fact that he’d eaten jack shit all day.

“Dude, are you hungry? Oh, I know. We can order some takeout! Todoroki, Midoriya, wanna stay for dinner?”

“That’d be nice, Kirishima-kun! I’ll let Ochaco know I won’t be home for dinner.”

“I don’t have plans.”

“GET IN THE ELEVATOR ALREADY!” Shoving them all forward, Bakugo punched the button for Kirishima’s floor and crossed his arms. Sometimes, having friends was a giant pain in the ass.

A few seconds later, the doors opened and they walked down the hallway as Kirishima pulled out his keys. “My place isn’t as pristine as Bakugo’s, but it’ll be fine.” As the lock clicked, he swung the door and led them all inside.

His apartment wasn’t quite as large as Bakugo’s, but it was still plenty impressive. The main difference that immediately greeted everyone who visited were his garish decorations choices. Gaudy curtains, posters and pictures covering most of the available wall space, and furniture that was either bright red or black, even if it matched nothing else in the room. A true disaster of design.

“You have a very bright apartment,” Todoroki commented as he removed his shoes. It had been a while since he’d visited and had incorrectly assumed that Kirishima would’ve mellowed out over time.

Knowing where most things were in the apartment because of his frequent visits, Bakugo dug into one of the cabinets and pulled out a protein bar to tide him over before he started actually feeling ill from lack of food.

“Just sit down wherever,” Kirishima said as he leaned back into his favorite black leather recliner while the others took seats on the longest couch. Todoroki and Midoriya sat on the ends, which left Bakugo to resign himself to the middle. He didn’t appreciate feeling cornered, but felt too drained to actually argue about it as he flopped into the cushion with a mouthful of protein bar.

“I’m not sure how much more you want to tell us, but we can order some food when you get to a stopping point.” Turning to his friend, Midoriya waited patiently for Bakugo to continue where he left off upstairs.

He really did take his sweet time finishing off that protein bar to delay vocalizing the end of his stay in your world; yes, telling them about what had happened - for the most part - was easier the longer he talked, but those final day memories were still painfully bittersweet.

“Fine. To answer your question,” he said, cutting his eyes to Todoroki, “yes, they had karaoke. I was surprised, too. (y/n) didn’t even know the place was there and had never been. She liked to sing, but had never done it in front of people. Lack of confidence, I guess, but I convinced her to go because I knew she’d kill it.”

“That was very thoughtful of you.” While Todoroki’s face remained impassive, Bakugo groaned and sunk down further into the couch cushion. Yeah, revealing some of the more personal things the two of you did embarrassed him exactly as much as he assumed it would.

That got a laugh out of Kirishima. “Did she manage to get you to-”

“Not a fucking chance.”

“Man, really? If she couldn’t do it, then maybe it’s a lost cause. We can keep trying, though.”

Bakugo opened his mouth to retort, but Midoriya got there first. “But she went up and sang, right? You’re a very encouraging person in your own way, Kacchan.”

Crumpling up the empty protein bar wrapper in his hand, Bakugo stared at the edge of the small table nestled between the couches and recliner as he remembered the unforgettable surge of affection that nearly swallowed him whole as he watched you on stage singing a song about savoring small, ordinary moments before they were gone. “Yeah, she did. And it was beautiful.” A heavy pause as the corners of his mouth sank ever so slightly. “When I got back, I tried to search for it, but I don’t think the artist exists in our universe. All I have is that memory.”

Todoroki and Midoriya glanced at each other while their train of thought ran parallel to each other: their friend really did care about this person in a way they’d never seen him care before.

Humming to himself, Kirishima’s eyes went wide. “Wait… is that what you’ve been humming all this time?”

The others, including Bakugo, glanced up confused. “The fuck are you talking about?”

Leaning forward in his chair, Kirishima said, “Dude, ever since you got back, you’ve been like… I hear you hum to yourself, sometimes. And I wasn’t sure if you realized you were doing it? I didn’t recognize the tune, but… is that the song she sang?”

For once, Bakugo actually looked mildly shocked at this. He’d… been fucking humming to himself without noticing? Even when he tried not to think about you, it always came right back around. The lingering tendrils of unreachable love were so cruel at times.

Going off of his bewilderment, Kirishima attempted to remember the tune himself and recreate what he’d heard. “It went like… something like this I think?”

And it’s hard to write about being happy

Because the older I get…

That was it; that was the song. Eyes glancing around erratically as his realization set in, Bakugo growled and made to stand up from the couch and leave, get away, run from the ache like he’d been doing for weeks with the little remaining strength he had, but unfortunately for him, everyone in the room rivaled his obstinacy.

“Wh- hold on-”

“Kacchan-!”

“There’s no way we’re letting you leave.”

Midoriya stood in front of his angry-looking friend while waving his hands in front of his chest, Todoroki stood to his left, and Kirishima guarded the front door. “Get out of my way.”

“Bakugo,” Kirishima pleaded with furrowed brows. “You’ve been holding all this stuff in for weeks! We’re your friends and we’re not judging you.”

Nodding in agreement, Todoroki placed an icy hand on Bakugo’s tense shoulder. “He’s right. You don’t have to keep what happened to yourself.”

“You don’t get it.” His words, barely audible, rumbled in his chest like an avalanche on the edge of cascading down a precariously-steep mountainside. Fists balled tightly and eyes screwed shut, he saw your face full of disappointment at his cowardice.

“Tell them, Katsuki.”

“I know I should. I know! But I couldn’t even tell you!”

“Then don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Hesitantly, Midoriya reached forward with a comforting hand, but stopped when Bakugo abruptly pulled his head up, eyes full of angry, unshed tears.

“It fucking hurts, alright?! Is that what you wanna hear? It’s been eating at me ever since I came back! It’s not like I fucking knew how to handle being in love for the first time, and-”

He stopped. So did everyone else, breaths held to stop the unstable snow and ice from cracking any further. Finally, he managed to tell someone else.

Too bad you didn’t hear him.

“You… loved her?”

Bakugo felt like he was swallowing stones as he stared into Midoriya’s bright green eyes pleading for honesty. “Did I stutter? Yeah, I did… I do.” Even though he hadn’t meant to yell out such a personal confession, he felt… lighter. A weight lifted and the restraints around his neck and limbs loosened just enough to let him breathe properly for the first time in weeks. “And I didn’t get a chance to tell her.”

Midoriya knew about love. He thought of Ochaco at home and how his massive crush on her during his first year at U.A. turned into something more, something lasting, with time and effort. He imagined never having the opportunity to tell her how he felt. If Kacchan said he was in love with this woman, it had to be true; after all, the man hated lying.

“Oh, man… Bakugo, I’m sorry.” He glanced at Kirishima who looked genuinely apologetic. Part of him didn’t even care about being pitied right now, too drained and worn down to care. The couch cushion sunk under him as he sat back down with a heavy sigh, leaned his arms across his knees, and let his head drop in acceptance. Midoriya mentally noted how similar he looked to that young Kacchan after their big fight on U.A. grounds. He’d won the fight, but had accepted a deeper loss with tears and bloodied fists.

More to himself than to the others, Bakugo muttered towards the floor with his hair shielding his face from view. “I almost screwed it up at the end. I freaked out when I realized I loved someone I couldn’t fucking be with. So, I did something stupid and tried to push (y/n) away by acting like an asshole. But it backfired, and I just ruined one of the few days we had left together by making us both miserable until she confronted me about it and called out my bullshit. I apologized, but she didn’t forgive me until the night before I came back here.”

Everyone else in the room remained silent as they listened to their friend recall those last days he spent with this woman. The heartache was obvious and no one quite knew how to respond to such an extraordinary - if not tragic - circumstance.

“I know everyone was curious about the bag I came back with.” He finally sat up and wiped his cheeks with his knuckles before letting his arms hang crossed and limp over his chest. “(y/n) insisted I keep it, even though we didn’t know if it would come back with me. I took all the clothes she bought for me, but there were other things, too. A novel she bought me to read when I was bored. A pair of chopsticks from a Japanese grocery store she took me to. A DVD of an anime we would watch that doesn’t seem to exist here. Some photos of us… as a reminder. Tch, as if I’d forget…”

As curious as he - and probably the others - were to see the photos he mentioned and see you for themselves, Todoroki could see Bakugo’s energy waning and thought it best to keep him talking. If he didn’t finish the story now, it might’ve remained incomplete forever. “What happened on the last day? Before you left?”

Glancing off to the side, his face remained solemn and cold as stone. “I didn’t know what time I’d leave since the note Kirishima sent didn’t specify, but I assumed it would be around the same time I arrived, which was early morning. So we just… waited. And at the last fucking minute, she-” Saying it made it real. He had to tell them, he had to, even if the words burned his throat like a glowing red brand. “She said she loved me, and before I could say it back, I was yanked to Tartarus.”

Shuddering as though a cold wind blew across his skin, Bakugo stood up, but no one moved to stop him this time. He just needed a few minutes to himself to breathe after unloading all the secrets he’d been keeping to himself for weeks. Heading towards the bathroom down the hall, Bakugo called over his shoulder in a tired voice. “Order some food. I don’t care what it is,” he said before disappearing from view with the click of the bathroom lock.

Silently, everyone in the living room glanced at one another before sitting down to contemplate the weight of everything Bakugo laid bare. Kirishima sank down into his recliner while Midoriya and Todoroki flopped down against the couch.

“So, uh… whatever I expected to come out of this conversation today has been turned upside down,” Kirishima commented as he scratched the back of his head and wondered how in the world they’d pull their friend up from something like this? Bakugo, in love of all things? He fought for everything he ever wanted and thought he deserved: recognition, strength, to win and save, and to surpass All Might’s legacy along with the rest of them. However, he couldn’t punch or explode his way back to you. No wonder he’d been so frustrated all this time...

“I don’t know a lot about love, but at least now I understand why he’s avoided talking about it.” It wasn’t like Todoroki grew up in a home with a healthy parental dynamic; in fact, it was the exact opposite. All he’d observed was cruelty at the hands of his father and the effects of those actions on his mother which, unfortunately, trickled down to affect all of the Todoroki children. If Bakugo was able to find love, the abrupt and incomplete goodbye to it all for someone so wholly focussed on doing everything to the best of his ability must’ve truly been eating him all this time.

Midoriya sniffled and wiped at his eyes with the palm of his thumb. He assumed getting him to talk would be difficult, but it was the opposite: Kacchan wanted to talk about you, to tell someone what he went through and what he felt while he was gone… but he just didn’t know how. The sparkle in his eyes returned as he reminisced about you, and Midoriya knew that his friend had experienced true joy. “He’s been dealing with this alone, but he doesn’t have to, anymore. We’re here, and I think things will get better now, but… I’m not sure how to fix this, or if we even can.”

Physical pain would fade and heal with time. Medicine, patience, and professional help could alleviate mental anguish. But emotional turmoil? Getting over heartbreak? There was no magic solution or words to hasten such a deep wound. Still, they had to try.

“There’s something we still need to know, though,” Midoriya said while pulling his eyes - now just as tired as everyone else’s, it seemed - up to the others. “I don’t think he’ll want to tell us, but today might be our only chance.”

“What’s that?” Todoroki turned to look at Midoriya while Kirishima glanced down the hallway to listen out for Bakugo before pulling out his phone to pull up some restaurants that delivered. The bathroom door hadn’t budged.

“I want to know where he went earlier and what he found out that exacerbated things to how we found him.”

Todoroki hummed and brought his hand up to his chin as he thought aloud. “Ah, right. Somewhere he’d go that would make him feel bad...”

“I think I know.” Kirishima and Todoroki stared at Midoriya’s concerned but determined face. They ordered food and continued to discuss ideas and possibilities when, about ten minutes later, the bathroom door finally opened and Bakugo came back down the hallway. He still looked tired, but some time to himself seemed to help a bit.

“Food’s on the way,” Kirishima said as Bakugo limply sat back down in the middle of the couch and leaned his head back against the cushion with an acknowledged hum.

The others gave a nearly imperceptible nod to each other, signaling what they hoped were the final answers they needed to put this whole thing to rest for the remainder of the evening. “Kacchan… I know you’ve already told us a lot. And we appreciate you confiding in us about everything you went through… uh, but-”

“Just spit it out,” he demanded with a deadpan stare up at the ceiling.

Leaning forward, Kirishima got there first. “Did you go to Tartarus earlier?”

This got Bakugo’s attention as his head snapped up with a hard glare and an accusing tone. “Who the hell told you that?”

“So, you did go, then? Why? What did you find out there?” Frowning, Bakugo turned towards Todoroki who looked completely unphased by his animosity. They knew Bakugo well enough to not be intimidated by his obvious irritation.

Despite the catharsis of revealing the secret he'd kept close under lock and key, what he learned at Tartarus and the following spiral that sucked him down, down, down was another story. But running a marathon of emotional exhaustion for weeks on end with only mild breaks in between left him ripe for being pried open at the slightest push. "I told you where I was and what happened, so why the hell does it matter if I went to Tartarus?"

"Well," Midoriya started as he stared with those enthralling emerald eyes of his. "We're your friends and we want to make sure you're OK. I'm assuming you went to talk to the villain Black Hole, right? What could she tell you that you didn't already know?"

“Because I wanted answers!” Running his sweaty palms down his tired face, Bakugo growled low and deep from the depths of his throat. “Even if I’d never dealt with this before, I didn’t think it was fucking normal to feel like garbage for weeks after knowing someone for a damn month.” Yes, he was in love. Yes, he’d avoided healthy coping mechanisms like a stubborn fool. And yes, in his search for justification, he’d found far more than he bargained for. “That damn villain didn’t tell you the whole truth,” he muttered under his breath, sniffing at the air as if smelling the burning waft of smoke from his own kindling stake.

“The whole… Bakugo, what did you find out? And I mean, why would you even believe her, anyway? She was probably lying to-”

“She wasn’t fucking lying, Kirishima,” he spat with frustrated venom in the redhead’s direction. “Even before I said anything, she knew why I was there. Said she was expecting me like some creepy old grandma. She knew what only me and (y/n) knew until you idiots broke down my door.”

Watching Bakugo spiral looked both so incredibly foreign and disturbingly familiar to Midoriya. He was a man who gave his all to everything, just like him; they were alike in that way, foils to each other with their neverending drive to win and save. Midoriya had seen Bakugo scream and cry and bury his head between his knees when faced with his own mortal weakness. The trepidation in those wet crimson eyes - such a vulnerable, gut-twisting emotion rarely seen on Bakugo Katsuki - shook Midoriya to his core.

What truth did he yank from the sterile shadows of Tartarus?

“Tell us,” he pleaded. Cautiously, he raised a scarred hand and placed it on Bakugo’s warm shoulder in what he hoped was conveyed not as pity, but as comfort. We know you had to leave her, but we won’t leave you.

Bakugo didn’t shrink away. It took a moment, but he finally let his shoulders sag as his hands wound and tugged at his messy blonde hair. Midoriya knew well what it felt like to push those who cared away in a futile attempt at doing what he assumed was best, only to accept that acting alone made him weaker than if they put trust in each other to act together. It was Bakugo’s turn to accept the hand offered to him.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. "She has two quirks. Made me try and guess her second quirk like some cruel game. One is the teleportation quirk that you know about, so that part is true. She has no control over where people go, but…"

“But what? What’s her second quirk?” Midoriya glanced up over Bakugo’s shoulders at Todoroki whose eyes widened at the dual quirk revelation. As far as he knew, Todoroki was the only person who was born with two quirks. For this villain to possess two as well was rare, but obviously not unheard of.

“I’m gonna reiterate that what’s said between us stays between us, got it?” Bakugo looked pointedly at everyone to make sure they understood. “Don’t even know if you’ll fucking believe me..”

The chair Kirishima sat on squeaked as he readjusted himself and spoke earnestly. “You’ve told us some pretty wild stuff, but we haven't doubted you so far, right?” The other two nodded and hoped it would urge Bakugo to finish telling him what he’d learned so that he could finally rest with the knowledge that he didn’t have to bear the weight of it alone.

Closing his eyes, Bakugo ran a hand down his face before resting his arms limply across his knees once again. “Her second quirk, as fucked up as it sounds, saved my life. (y/n) saved my life. She claimed that her second quirk also activates on touch, but it’s somehow involuntary and just releases on its own; they just happened to activate at the same time. But…” Midoriya watched Bakugo shake his head as if trying to find the courage to spit out the words before he said “fuck it” and blurted it out in the open. “Her fucking quirk draws people to someone they could fall in love with, someone compatible. I called her bluff, because what kind of fucking quirk does that?!” he said as he spread his hands wide with a sad, disbelieving laugh. “But she mentioned the few others who came back alive and how she’d kept tabs on them. And when I got home after hearing all that shit? I looked up what I could and found articles about those survivors. I couldn’t disprove what that bitch said because I fucking lived it! I went there hoping for some excuse as to why the hell I’d been feeling so miserable, and I guess this is just my goddamn life now!”

Lifting his eyes slowly to the others, Midoriya sat there in stunned silence. So, it wasn’t just serendipity that pulled Bakugo to you? The villain’s other quirk caused it? If that was true, then…?

“Had that second quirk not activated at the same time, then you could’ve-”

“I could have and probably would have died,” he answered coldly with his head hung low. “She rubbed in my face that I could’ve drifted endlessly in space or who knows what else. I already went through that depressing mental spiral within the first few days there and I’m not eager to do it again.”

He wasn’t the only one. They had all worried themselves sick the entire time he was gone, unsure of where he was and what he was dealing with. Of course, they assumed that he was all alone with whatever hardship their coiled hypothesizing ran to, when in reality, he had been safe the entire time. Now that he was home, however, they had to deal with this new hurdle of helping him through this onslaught of emotional turmoil.

“And you know what?! That bitch made me second-guess whether or not what I felt then and feel now was even real! What if the love is just, just a fabricated part of the quirk? That’s what fucked me up the worst today!” His voice rose higher and higher, threatening to crack and split and shatter. “Before (y/n) and I agreed to just roll with it for however long we were together, I asked myself if my emotions were authentic. I wondered if we’d met under different circumstances, if she lived in this universe, if I’d feel the same…” Midoriya’s eyes widened as he watched a streaky tear roll down Bakugo’s cheek. “And before today, I was so sure I’d say ‘yes’.”

Level-headed Todoroki managed to keep asking logical questions while Kirishima sniffled and Midoriya tried to unjumble the cascade of words floating around in his head. “But she didn’t say the feelings were fake, right? And if yours weren’t real, then that would mean (y/n)’s weren’t real either.”

Someone else voicing the idea that the woman he loved was just a cruel shell of a person with fictitious feelings - not to mention her being none the wiser to any of this new knowledge - just seemed to sink Bakugo deeper into his visible anxiety as he slowly closed his eyes and hung his head in a way so uncharacteristic of someone normally so strong and resolute.

But Midoriya wasn’t about to let this go any further, not when they’d come so far.

Grabbing him by the shoulder, Midoriya pushed and tried to force Bakugo to look at him, but his face just contorted in ruddy frustration. “Let go, Deku-”

“Kacchan, listen to me.” His voice remained stern despite threatening to waver with the heavy weight of the topic at hand. “I know what love feels like. I know what it looks like, too. We’re different people who have different ways of showing we care about those around us, but from what I see? How you’ve been talking about her? Even though I’ve never met (y/n), I think what you felt, what you still feel, is real.”

Bakugo’s brows furrowed as he stared with glassy eyes at Midoriya. “But you don’t know-”

“I don’t. But I know this: you could’ve said ‘no’ when she told you how she felt. You could have left to be on your own. You could have done a lot of things, but you didn’t. And the Kacchan I know always goes after what he wants no matter how hard it seems or how much work it’ll take to reach that goal. The Kacchan I know would never let someone else - especially not a villain - define who he is or what he does. So…” A pregnant pause as the room stood still, everyone gripped with bated breath for what was slowly becoming an inspiring monologue. “I think the quirk brought you together and presented you with an opportunity. And you took it; you chose to stay.”

A sniffle echoed from across the room. “That was such a manly speech,” Kirishima mumbled through his tears as he wiped at his eyes. Even Todoroki agreed with a solemn nod. “But, yeah, man. I might not know all that much about love and stuff, but we’re Heroes, and that means we understand all about taking risks. And to me, this doesn’t seem much different. To you and (y/n), the benefits outweighed the risks, right? You know I’m all about no regrets, and even if it hurts, I don’t think you should regret it. You were happy, right? And it seems like she was, too. People can fake a lot of things, but feelings? Nah, man. If it wasn’t real, I think moving on and adjusting to life back at home would’ve been way easier. So… I dunno, I think it’s been hard because it’s authentic.”

Katsuki sat in silence and listened to his friends defy what he’d accepted as truth: that his autonomy had been stripped away without him even realizing it, and only when presented with the idea that what he’d seemingly chosen wasn’t actually a choice at all did he question what he felt so strongly. But they were right; he could have said “no” to you and kept things platonic, a fact you reiterated right after confessing.

If the bloom that sprouted over the course of his stay with you had turned out to be plastic and cloth rather than authentic and lively, grown and nurtured in soil and sun, then that would’ve meant whenever you looked at him, reached for his hand, or begged him to stay after a nightmare was all fabricated, too. And Bakugo Katsuki refused to accept something so beautiful as a mockery.

“God,” he mumbled while shaking his head in disbelief. “Can’t believe I’m friends with you idiots.” It was said with a choked out laugh as he cleared his throat and wiped at his face. “But maybe I’m the bigger idiot. I really let the fucking villain try and taint what I knew to be true.”

“As someone with two quirks, I know how hard it is to learn to control both of them equally.” The others looked up at Todoroki as he spoke while leaning against the arm of the couch. “Even though she no doubt has powerful quirks, for her to have that kind of influence over someone else in addition to everything else seems next to impossible. You’re way too stubborn to let anyone tell you what to do, anyway.”

For that, Bakugo lightly punched him in the arm and the heavy fog hanging in the room finally seemed to lift. At that moment, a knock sounded on the door, prompting Kirishima to hop up from his chair and stretch his hands towards the ceiling. “Perfect timing. I bet that’s the food.”

“Don’t eat my share like last time!” Bakugo called over his shoulder after standing up himself and walking back towards the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, the scene in Kirishima’s living room looked as though they hadn’t just had an emotionally-taxing conversation about love, loss, and how to move forward from those obstacles.

Ravenous after an entire day with hardly anything to eat, Bakugo shoved rice and spicy tofu into his mouth straight from the takeout container while the others ate at a more reasonable pace.

“So,” Kirishima said with a mouthful of beef, “Can you uh, tell us more about (y/n)? Now that the heavy stuff is out of the way…”

The room fell quiet for a moment while everyone on the couch stared at him before Todoroki and Midoriya cautiously glanced at Bakugo sitting in the center seat. Was that a good-

“What do you wanna know?” Todoroki slurped up cold soba noodles while Midoriya picked at his rice. Well, they didn’t quite expect that reaction. “Why are you gawking? I’m not ashamed or embarrassed of saying we were dating; plus, as it turns out, talking about her rather than keeping it all secret is cathartic.”

“What a surprise: talking about how you feel is a good thing.”

“Shut it before I stab you with these chopsticks-”

“A-as you were saying!” Midoriya tried to break up the fake staring contest between Bakugo and Todoroki and eventually they settled back down. “You said she liked singing. What about other things? Like hobbies?”

After finishing off his takeout container and grabbing another one, Bakugo said, “Of course she has hobbies. She has video games which I played to kill time when I was bored. And she likes to read. Sped through like, two novels or something while I was there.”

While they ate, questions were asked and answers were given. With a bit of coaxing, Bakugo’s mood lifted and his smiles came more easily for the first time in weeks as he reminisced on fond memories. The good far outweighed the bad now that he had proper outside perspective on what all happened and how he handled things. No, he wasn’t perfect, but as with everything else, he tried his damndest to do the best he could with what he had.

“Holy shit I needed that,” he mumbled after setting down his third takeout container and leaning back into the couch. “Today’s been too damn long.”

“It probably felt way longer for you, but I’m glad you actually talked to us about this stuff.”

Bakukgo hummed at Kirishima’s words. “Yeah. Being a stubborn ass didn’t do me many favors this time. But now, all I wanna do is make sure my door is fixed and go to sleep.” The idea that he’d actually be able to feel rested without this pressing weight on his back sounded really fucking good.

“Ochaco probably wants me home soon, anyway,” Midoriya said. “Oh! But, before we go: Kacchan, you said you had photos, right?”

“That’s right! Man, this one last thing and then we’ll leave you alone.” Kirishima placed his hands together in mock prayer. “Can you show us what she looks like? Can’t leave us hanging after all of that.”

“You seriously aren’t satisfied after all that?” Nearly thirty seconds passed while his mouth twisted in deliberation before he decided that he wanted to show you off just a little bit. “Fine. But after that, you get nothing else for the rest of the day!”

“It’s almost 9 at-”

For that, Bakugo’s hand popped off in non-threatening sparks near Todoroki’s face. “Watch it, smartmouth!”

“NO MORE ARGUING LETS GO!” Suddenly on his feet, Midoriya marched stiffly past everyone towards Kirishima’s door. The redhead hopped up with an excited yelp before Todoroki and Bakugo followed behind him, their spat already forgotten.

After the elevator doors opened to let them onto Bakugo’s floor, he led the way to check out the fixed damage. “Not bad. Lucky for you, it looks good as new,” he said while sliding his key into the lock and pushing the door open. Kirishima and Midoriya shared a glance and nervous chuckle.

With shoes removed in the genkan, Bakugo eyed the floor for any leftover debris or splinters, but the workers seemed to clean up after themselves pretty well; sweeping and mopping was the last thing on his mind right now, anyway. He led them back down the hallway into his room before pointing for them to stop right inside the doorway like a trainer ordering around some curious and disobedient dogs.

Laid out across the top of his nightstand were several of the items from your bag, including the carefully-folded letter and photos. The purikura pictures were far too soft and personal for him to want others to see, so the single snapshot of the two of you yelling and smiling on the roller coaster would suffice just fine.

“Don’t bend it with your dirty fingers. It’s one of the only two I have,” he ordered while holding the photo out for them to see. Immediately, they pushed their heads together and leaned down to get a clear look at the woman who had captured their friend’s heart.

“Ooh, is that her on your right? She’s pretty!”

“No shit she’s pretty. You think my standards are low?”

“Considering the context, I’m pretty sure they’re actually insanely high…”

“She has a nice smile, Kacchan!”

“I want to ride a roller coaster…”

“Wait, you said one of two. What about the other picture?”

Bakugo stiffened and yanked the photo out from under their noses with a huff. “You don’t get to see those; they’re for me and me only.”

Todoroki scratched at his cheek, Midoriya stared with inquisitive eyes, and Kirishima, of course, grinned with his pointy shark teeth. “Aha, those types of pictures. Didn’t take you for an exhibitionist-”

“K-Kirishima-kun-!”

Face now a glowing pink, Bakugo yelled and promptly shoved them out of his room. “IT’S NOT THAT TYPE OF PICTURE YOU WEIRDO! TIME TO GET THE FUCK OUT!”

Laughing all the way down the hallway and out the front door with his shoes in hand, Kirishima and the others watched Bakugo’s flustered face - an unusual sight to behold - while just barely grabbing their shoes.

“I’m sorry, it was just too easy to resist!”

“Do not bother me for the rest of the night. You got your damn answers, so let me fucking sleep!” With that, Bakugo slammed the door in their faces before opening it back up about five seconds later. “Thanks for kicking my ass into telling the truth. It did actually help. And remember to keep your mouths shut about this.” With one final glare, he closed the door for the last time and clicked closed the locks on the other side.

Todoroki, Kirishima, and Midoriya all slid on their shoes in silence before walking down the apartment hallway. As the elevator door closed with a ding, all three Heroes stood and stared at the shiny chrome walls with even, blank expressions.

“So, we all agree we gotta do something about this, right?”

“Of course, Kirishima-kun. I figured it went without saying.”

Todoroki nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.”

Now the only question that remained was… how in the world were they going to try and get the two of you back together?

____________________

Thanks as always for reading!!! hopefully this provided some much needed comedy relief and respite from all the angst that's been happening. he FINALLY told his friends about y/n and, surprise surprise, he feels better with it all out in the open and can start coping and dealing with his emotions in a healthier way.

but hmm i wonder what the three heroes will come up with in order to help their friend out...? 🤔

Tagged list: @featherboawing @108052921 @bemyhero-academia @hentaidemon69 @makarovs-brat @alexparrsih @desia22 @justalittlecrazybutimok @trashqueenbitch @loverbug1123 @manq-fandoms @theworldsgreatestdisapointment @dabwithperkins @sarcasm-is-my-form-of-attack @i-am-fandoms-and-satan @eternal-apricot @grumpbisexual @ha-tep @apsara-study @nyantodamax145 @bakuhoetoedoroki @stargazerunlimited @fairyf3v3r @the-abyss-of-fandoms @raeyn-muir @lilithbasically

[digital-dhampirs]

vnc episode 12 thoughts

The thrilling conclusion to the Vanitas no Carte anime’s first cour is out, and I have thoughts! I’m still considering doing a full season/ fill cour review, but I have a Lot of episode 12- specific opinions, so this review / breakdown / thing will focus around e12!

A warning before we begin— review will contain spoilers for events that take place in the vnc manga and not in the anime, and will most likely spoil some sections of the anime’s next cour. With that, let’s get started!

Episode 12 of the VnC anime covers chapters 19, 21, 22, and 23 of the manga.

To begin this review in a brutally honest way, this episode was… in my opinion as a manga reader… bad. It did have some ok moments, but generally devoted a lot of its time to a plotline that (while adorable) isn’t actually super important compared to what was left on the wayside. Vanitas and Noé’s fight over blood drinking is fine, I guess, but why’d we get that minute long flashback compilation and not Dante’s conversation with Dominique, or Roland and Olivier’s complete conversation, or Astolfo’s excitement to hunt vampires, or Mikhail?

I really truly wish the show had taken some of the money and time that went into the Vanitas and Noé fight from chapter 23 and put it into the arguably much more important and interesting parts of this episode. Ruthven drinking Noé’s blood, Roland’s threat, and Chloé and Astolfo’s introductions all had some very janky stills and animations. It truly irked me to see that time and effort went into making Noé’s mouth move while he’s mentally monologuing about wanting to drink Vanitas’s blood, while Roland’s fantastic threat from Chapter 22 got… this. click on image for worse quality

The episode also decided to continue E11’s habit of chopping scenes up and mashing them together. In E11 this was a very not great decision, but was ultimately somewhat forgiveable from a tone point of view. In E12, meanwhile, it’s just all out chaos as the anime tries to string five completely separate scenes into something coherent (Noé and Vanitas in the hotel, Ruthven and Jeanne in the street, Domi and Dante on the stairs, Roland and Olivier in the chasseur compound, and a flashback to complete the Ruthven and Noé encounter from E11). Suffice it to say the anime does not succeed in this endeavor.

What really irritates me about this is that the manga already provided a framework for the anime to work these scenes together into. A frantic Vanitas reunites with Noé, Ruthven meets Jeanne in the street, Roland and Olivier speak about the beast, we see a mysterious flashback of Chloé calling for Jeanne as they talk, cut to Jeanne in the present as Dante and Ruthven’s attendants simultaneously tell Ruthven and Vanitas about the beast’s return.

I really wish the anime could’ve just given us the conclusion to the Ruthven scene at the start of the episode, done the OP, and then followed this series of events to a T. But it didn’t, and the result is a bit of a mess.

The anime’s choice to omit half of Roland and Olivier’s conversation means Dante’s announcement about the beast being back has no meaning or weight; Vanitas running to the hotel before we know what actually happened to Noé at the cafe ruins the drama and irony of the scene; Noé’s lack of memory of what happened at the cafe is muddled by the weirdly placed cafe flashback right afterwards; the anime putting Olivier’s “what that man believes in isn’t god” line seconds before the reveal of Roland’s intelligent and scheming nature doesn’t give the line enough room to breathe and stew; and the transition scene with Domi and Dante just doesn’t fit. I can honestly say I would have preferred Dante just teleporting from the streets of Paris to Vani and Noé’s windowsill than have that scene smack dab in the middle of what’s already a confusing mishmash of way too many unconnected events.

Wow. That was a long, critical paragraph. one might even say it was just as chaotic and disorganized as the episode itself. I feel like I’m really living up to my fullest potential as a bitter manga simp. So! Let’s turn things around and talk about some of the good parts of this episode!!

First and foremost I want to compliment this episode’s music..! The soundtrack of VnC is just all round fantastic no matter what— whether it’s playing during a goofy scene or a fight, it’s is bound to be fantastic. I think my favorite pieces are the ones that play at quiet, ominous moments— the music during Vanitas and Dante’s conversation about the beast is excellent, adding something truly incredible to the atmosphere created by the illustrations of the beast and the eerie green light of the scene. The way the music lines up with Olivier’s “what that man believes in…” line during that one flashback is similarly awesome.

This episode also has very nice voice acting..! Despite all of its struggles in the visual and plot department, pretty much everything to do with the VnC anime’s audio is stellar. I’ve become a big fan of Jeanne, Roland, and Olivier’s voices (I can’t wait to see how Olivier’s VA works with all his screaming in the Gévaudan arc); Astolfo’s voice is perfect for him (I am similarly excited to see his clipped, polite tone take a turn for the insane as the Gévaudan arc moves forwards); and as always our protagonists’ voices are great.

My one singular problem with the voice acting this episode is Chloé. I don’t know why, but she sounds like a catgirl from a fantasy anime rather than a multiple- centuries- old vampire. I don’t know what I was expecting from her voice, but this wasn’t it. I really hope Chloé’s voice will grow on me like Roland’s did, but there’s just something about it that feels off to me.

However! That one detriment doesn’t detract from the fact that this episode does have some very beautiful moments, especially during that one last scene with Chloé at the end. Visually, Chloé is absolutely spot on— I only hope the show has the budget to keep giving her pretty, pretty scenes like this. The scene where Vanitas and Dante discuss the beast is also very very nice to look at. The monochromatic red section of Ruthven and Noé’s scene is excellent. And, while I’m still annoyed that this scene got so much love put into it and others did not, Noé’s spotlight-lit monologue is aesthetically pleasing as well.

With that, we’ve covered all of my main thoughts on the final episode of the vnc anime’s first cour! My feelings towards this episode’s plot and pacing are overwhelmingly critical, and the episode’s visuals are a toss up (leaning on the side of bad, @/ that Roland screenshot), b u t the episode’s music and voice acting are both fantastic. And honestly? That’s kinda how I feel about this whole cour of the anime.

Episode 12 might not have been “good”, but I believe it’s a very neat representation of the best and worst of what Vanitas no Carte as an anime has to offer.

Despite all my critiques I am still legally obligated to love this anime, and can’t wait to see the Gévaudan arc in the next cour!

Fun Fact

The weirdly technological background when Noé realizes he’s hungry makes absolutely no sense for an anime set in 1889, but for some reason that just makes this scene funnier to me

[wisehq]

Mission Debrief: Chapter Fifty

...We’ve officially made it to chapter fifty!!!

And it only took us-

*checks notes*

-two whole years...

It’s definitely been a slow burn, that’s for sure. Honestly, that’s kind of my opinion of this arc at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s been one of the best so far; we’ve gotten a lot of character introspection on Yor, the family as a whole is developing, and we’ve finally gotten to see Thorn Princess in action and in all her glory. I think Endo has done a great job (as always) of making us as the reader care about side characters in a way that few mangaka can claim these days. Olka, Zeb, and Gram are charming enough that I care about their well-being, and the Director is such an undisputed badass that I honestly think he’s my favorite agent/assassin yet.

Still, I can see the plot start to weigh down a bit. It’s interesting because when the chapter first came out, both myself and everyone else I talked to were super excited and had nothing but glowing reviews. After a longer-than-usual amount of time to stew on it though (courtesy of the fic-bug biting me at the worst possible time) I’ve cooled off a bit on it since then. I still think very highly of the plot and the chapter as a whole, it’s just I’m feeling the pacing slow down a lot more this time around. I don’t see this as Endo’s fault, per-say. I acknowledge that it’s more to do with his hectic work schedule and the fact that half of the chapters in this arc have been shorter than usual. This combined with the month-long hiatus have caused somewhat of a stagnation in the reader’s perception, especially when you measure the current arc to the gold-standard of the Inusan (doggy) Crisis, which managed to squeeze a blockbuster movie worth of content in just six or seven chapters. Meanwhile, we’re seven chapters into the boat arc and I can foresee another two, maybe even three chapters before it wraps up, making this arc a bit of a marathon to get through in all honesty.

With all that said though, I’d again like to clarify that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the manga. Endo is busy, yes, but is still pumping out great content. The arc is ending soon, and I expect the upcoming chapters to deliver on both action and Forger family goodness. With the explosion of popularity with SxF and Endo’s previous comments about wanting the story to go on for some time, I know there will be plenty of story to keep us engaged for the foreseeable future- both in terms of content and the usual page count we’ve grown accustomed to over the years.

Anyway, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the chapter.

For about a split second there I thought we were getting a Franky chapter in the middle of all this. As you can probably tell by my long introduction this time around, you can probably guess that I was relieved when that wasn’t the case lol. Still, I love me some Bond panel time. Personally I think Franky is suffering from the Yuri problem of “I don’t wanna be anyone’s uncle,” though he’s clearly more qualified for the job than Yor’s brother is. In the future I would totally love a side chapter with uncle Franky, Anya, and Bond getting into shenanigans around town. Write that down, Endo!

Okay, so the whole bit with Loid in the beginning started off funny. Then I realized he was having this deep introspection with himself, and I suddenly appreciated the moment a whole lot more. I am fully aware that the premise behind it is silly (him freaking out over Anya’s recent behavior) but his feeling and thought process here really gets to me. On the one hand he’s doubling down on being a spy and realizing his flaws while at the same trying to overcome them, though on the other hand you definitely get this sense of him having a serious dad moment of struggling to understand his child. Maybe I just have a soft spot when it comes to dads trying their best and it’s clouding my judgement, but he’s voiced his fears about relating to Anya before- multiple times in fact. Me personally, I really appreciated this scene. It humanizes Loid, even when he’s trying his best to be the opposite.

I have nothing constructive to say other than I count the days until an anime comes out, if only so I can hear Anya singing all of her made-up songs. They bless my crops and give me life.

This whole montage of them going about the ship is probably where it felt slow for me. Loid going around trying to understand Anya as the latter tries to ditch him is funny, of course, but it literally ends up being almost half of an already very short chapter. I love father-daughter time, and I would very much like a full chapter of just the Forgers going around doing things (like chapter three, only now with them being much closer and actually enjoying their time together). Given where we are with the arc though, I honestly wouldn’t have minded if Endo skipped another week and combined this chapter with the next one. Obviously I have no idea what he was planned coming up and thus don’t fully comprehend how that would impact pacing and the structure of the plot, but I just got the feeling that we got a lot of filler this week. Not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just- like I said earlier- the pace is already plodding as it is.

Okay so literally as I was putting this together, I got confused for a second because I thought the top and bottom panels were the same thing (insert office meme about finding the difference between two photos here). This actually kind of helps me to conceptualize why I’m not as hot on the chapter as I was when first reading it. I feel like I’ve read this already.

The bottom panel is utterly hilarious- almost entirely because of Anya, and by extension Loid’s reaction to her borderline constipated face. It’s great, it’s meme-worthy, love it.

The top panel is good, but it’s too much like the bottom panel. That in itself isn’t some great sin or anything, honestly I didn’t even catch it till just now, but it does stress the issue of our characters being on a boat in the first place. Endo has done a pretty good job of making sure there are fun places for Loid and Anya to frequent while there and it gives at least somewhat of an impression that it’s not the same scenery all the time...but we don’t really see that. The reader’s focus for most of this arc has been either

a) Devoted to Olka’s party, and they’ve spent most of their time either in hiding or running down halls or

b) Loid and Anya, who are in various places- but it inevitably goes back to them eating, or in a quick montage, or also walking down hallways

There’s only so much you can do on a boat before it starts to feel monotonous, which is doubly true for the characters. In the past five chapters we’ve seen the characters eat four times, and three of those times were Loid and Anya. Honestly it’s kind of funny to me because I have family who frequently went on cruises (before the world went to shit) and they’d joke that after a while the only thing you do after a while is just eat since there’s nothing else to do. Maybe we’re at that point in the boat arc as well.

Okay, I’ve spent a lot of time razzing on the chapter- which is something I really don’t take any pleasure in. So let’s just stop and appreciate Loid’s reaction to Anya’s adorable admission at the top of the post. I am living for this dumbass slowly start to whittle away in the face of his wife and daughter. I love his expression, because it’s not a Twilight one. It’s not really something he can mimic as a spy; that genuine softness that can really only come from being both relieved and happy that you’ve figured out your daughter, if only briefly, and can sympathize with her need to see your other half. Forger family softness. My shameless cocaine.

Andddd we end it all with the promise of fireworks, a rendezvous, and all the assassins coming out in one last ditch effort to kill Olka and Gram. I could talk more in detail about all this, but it’s all rather self-explanatory. We’re coming on the end of the arc. Shit’s getting intense, and I am very excited to see how everything unfolds in the coming chapters. We’ll get to find out whether or not some of our theories from the beginning of the arc will come to fruition or not (the out-of-order emergency exit, for example) and also if everyone we know and love is coming out of this alive (got a lot of questionable fingers pointing to you, Zeb...)

I was critical of this chapter, but I’m a critic and it’s what I do. All in all, I am still very pleased with this story and I look forward to each and every update as they come. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the state of things as well. Do you agree with some of what I’ve said, or do you have your own opinions about the story and characters? Let it be known that I read any/all replies- I just have to make more of an effort to get back to you is all lol

Also, BONUS!~

GOOF PUTTING

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Late nights are for Togashiposting. It's the law, Shogun Momo decreed it. Just like it is law LNTP has to be wordy, especially if it’s Hunter x Hunter. Kurama wasn't exactly an isolated concept in his work, right? Yoshihiro Togashi has since become much more known for the wonderfully "free" Hunter x Hunter, but anyone who was familiar with YYH recognizes the basic hero quartet right? Kurama to Kurapika is an obvious parallel, though the subtle ways the two differ make for some deep contrasts to delve into. Tonight’s about how Kurapika himself fits into the bigger evolution of an archetype Kiku will pick up in One Piece, how that fits into the nebulous rhythm of one author influencing another. But something tells me this will all come together in future ramblings.

For clarity, not quite as big of a HxH fan overall. Like it, glad it’s back, but I have a fair number of parts that miss. Yorknew has none of them, perfect arc up there with Chapter Black. Great moment is this awesome scene in the car. I love it to pieces. And not just for crossdressing Kurapika which we’ll get to in just a sec. I love this scene because Chrollo, the guy all chained up, is a hostage that wants to sacrifice himself. Knowing his followers won’t have the heart to let him die. So what does he do? Something we’ve talked a lot about with Ace, One Piece, & Wano...he tries to bait and provoke Kurapika into snapping and killing him. Luckily we have TheOreo and other mature-woman-we-stan Melody up front. Kurapkia’s story is all about the heavy toll seeking this kind of vengeance, thinking you have to do it alone means. 

Then of course, he makes a pretty girl which gets you a point. We went from Kurama who's only petty berserk button all series was being mistaken for a girl to "tactical crossdresser" Kurapika to Kiku just being trans. This is a pretty interesting space alone because Togashi showed a clear growth for actural trans characters too. From Miyuki in YYH to Alluka in HxH. Remember, you see a lot of more progressively intended depictions in anime & manga through this time period as a reflection of positive legal victories for trans folk in Japan around the same years. That mindset rippled out and we see publishers relenting on old “Comics Code”-type restrictions. 

That’s pretty much it after delinquent Yusuke “confirms” his suspicion, in the process demonstrating the advantage in the fight. Basically he’s saying don’t half-ass it. Not the most PC take today but it works. Blunt, but not really that different than if Oda say...had Kin grill Kiku about carrying herself the way she does only to turn around and feel slighted when the guys treat her like a little sister. Of course, Oda himself has been revealed to be responsible for Rurouni Kenshin including a similar story around the same time. Even back then, there's a fundamental divide in approach though. Miyuki admonished for not "picking a side," Honjo humanized through trying to find a comfortable middle ground to make the most of. Alluka an evolution but only to the point we had a climax of Killua realizing it’s bad to ask her to do the same, Kiku...we don’t fully know yet. My guess is focusing on what comes after resolving that inner conflict. It seems like part of a common thread in One Piece, not being tied to a “coming of age” mindset. That’s going to need to wait for Uta’s day, for now I wanna finish the thought on Kurapika.

Kurama & Kurapika are both so well loved because they’re truly good people and not stupid about it. Mature, wise, but carrying a big burden you know they beat themselves up over. Rare archetype that straddles being relatable and aspirational. Incidentally I’d say that’s part of the big evolution from Himura Kenshin to Okiku as well. Both inclined to pacifism but Kiku is too practical to make it an ethos. Just generally tries to do her best. There’s one scene in the late Raid though that took my mind off of everything and put it squarely in Yorknew City:

It’s not just “Cipher Pol killed Izo.” It’s a discrete group who can pop up anywhere believably and one that has a long history with the Straw Hats. Here a member is sharing a unique double KO with the first of the samurai we meet and the last one we know is part of the group. Who’s little sister has the whole “sweetheart with a demonic alter ego” archetype. Kurapika’s big motivation is a quest of vengeance, eliminating the members of the mysterous Phantom Troupe and recovering the signature glowing red eyes of his tribe. In order to grow strong enough fast enough he took a big risk that would stymie his long-term development and shorten his life. A sentiment painted extremely tragically for main boy Gon later in the series and Momonosuke’s in Wano. Kiku of course has a lot of that on the table too.

Gotta give me this at least, it’s a full-fledged concept. Glib Sweetheart Quartermaster who normally tries to talk her way out of fights first. Maybe even favors a pistol now as a tribute which when paired with an apparently restored left arm makes me think of another famous combat pacifist in manga. If it’s Cipher Pol though...sucks to be them. Because they alone will have to deal with an unknown demonic samurai of Wano’s past. Makes for lovely games with the Marines not knowing who she is, like Kurapika you can build the Dream of Vengeance into an impediment to a true dream. It’s such a good concept sitting on the table.

Real crazy thing though is...Kiku picked up the torch of this shonen archetype and moved it forward a bit. The four years Wano took overlapped with Togashi sporadically releasing a slow trickle of a Kurapika-centric arc. Opens the question, have we seen a reversal? Is some final turn of the Kakin Succession and what it may mean for the Last of the Kurta inspired by Oda’s tale of similar sibling samurai?   

[sarahjtv]

BNHA Chapter 320 Short Spoiler Analysis: The Power of Friendship

The battle between Deku Vs. Class A has begun!  Well, it’s technically a battle, but more so a “Catch-A-Deku” situation.  Everyone is trying to use their cool Super Moves and words of friendship to try to convince Deku to come back home.  They’re all reminding him all of times he helped them, so they’re trying to return the favor.  So far, I think half the class was featured here including Shoto who I thought would be saved til the end.  Maybe he will be featured again since he’s one of Deku’s closest friends.  What’s interesting is that the trio that was shown at the end of last week’s chapter, Bakugo, Ochako, and Iida, didn’t have their heart-to-hearts with Deku this week, so I bet you they’re being saved for the end.  Anyway, my left hand is still on the mend, so I’ll keep this one short this week.  I hope it heals soon.

The 2nd Color page is shown this week!  It’s of Froppy this time around!  I think it’s been a while since we’ve seen Froppy featured in a color page, so this is cool to see.  She looks really good here too.  Horikoshi’s art rarely disappoints.  Next week is going to be the 7th BNHA Anniversary color page and the 7th Popularity Poll announcement, so I’m excited for that.  Apparently we’re going to get a lot of BNHA things next week including things for the WHM movie, Team-Up Missions, and the WHM one-shot manga.

I love how at the beginning, Bakugo breaks the 4th wall here by commenting on how Deku’s “art style” underwent a complete change.  It’s both a good taunt on Bakugo’s part and some acknowledgment from Horikoshi-sensei on the change of Deku’s design in general since this arc began.

So, Bakugo did tell the rest of 1-A about Deku’s other Quirks which is good.  I thought that would be the case after remembering that Bakugo read All Might’s OFA archive book.  Bakugo would still look over the other Holder’s Quirks, so he would have knowledge on the 4th-6ths Holders.  Problem is that none of them know of the 2nd and 3rd’s Quirks, so dealing with Fa-Jin will be troublesome.  None of us know what the 2nd’s Quirk is yet though, but I have a feeling we’ll see it in this battle.

Quite a few new Super Moves debut in this chapter!  

Katsuki Bakugo: Shockwave Landmine: Looks like Bakugo creates a blast on the ground so that the blast blows away anything around it like Deku’s Smokescreen.  It’s a big blast too, so Bakugo’s got a lot of range with this thing.

Kiyoka Jiro: Heartbeat Wall: It’s hard to tell, but I think it’s a move where Jiro uses her sound waves to block or stop whatever comes her way.  It could be really effective to stop anyone who can hear I’m sure.

Fumikage Tokoyami: Ragnorok: “Womb”: It’s a like a capturing move that traps anyone within Dark Shadow.  It kind of looks like one of the moves Tokoyami uses in The Strongest Hero Game.  Unless someone has a light Quirk, I can see this move being very effective in capturing villains.

Really, everyone is doing their best to remind Deku of all the good times they had with them. They’re using the power of feels and friendship to bring their sacrificial idiot home.  I like to believe it’s working given how Deku is finally shown crying tears of sadness as he pushes his friends away.  God, please let this kid have a good cry.  How they’ll be able to catch Deku though I still have no idea.

Deku is able to overpower pretty much everyone this chapter.  Even Tokoyami, who is considered one of the strongest in the class, and Momo who created this insanely complex machine to try to put Deku to sleep (how the hell did she make that anyway???).  At the end he’s captured by Shoto’s Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall (which he’s standing on btw and looks so damn pretty 💙☺️), but I doubt that will last.  Deku’s probably going to break right through the ice next chapter.

Speaking of Shoto, since I’m such a simp for him 😔, he has the least amount of dialogue out of everyone having heart-to-hearts with Deku.  But what he says is significant: he basically asks Deku if he can still truly cry and for Deku to share the responsibility with his friends.  I think this is calling back to when Shoto reassured Deku that heroes are allowed to cry back in the Overhaul arc and when Deku meddled with Shoto’s life to save him.  Which is essentially the philosophy everyone’s running on.  Meddling in Deku’s mission is the only way to save him now.

Side note, but I love that Kaminari is the one to tell Deku to take a freaking bath 😂!  Like, we’ve all been telling Deku that, but it’s good to know that Horikoshi and his characters are thinking the same thing.  Now someone has to tell Deku to eat a good meal and take a long nap.  

Also, small detail, but Sato comes in at one point and reminds Deku that they won’t be able to make candied apples for Eri anymore if Deku doesn’t come back.  Deku tells Sato that Eri will be fine without him 😭.  No, Deku, you dumbass!  Eri needs her big bro in her life!  I can’t imagine how sad she must be if she already knows about Deku’s disappearance 😭❤️

I’m also glad to see pretty much every student get some kind of spotlight especially the ones who are more minor characters than the others.  Koda actually gets a mini-monoluge this chapter.  Also, Froppy’s got a lot of focus at the end along with the color page this chapter.  Which, I’m glad to see.  It’s been a long time since Tsuyu got some spotlight.  Really, all the girls need more spotlight.  I assume everyone else will get their shine the next few chapters.  

It’s small and I’m still trying to find the meaning of it, but there’s one panel after Deku escapes from Tokoyami showing him flying through the air in the background and you can see the All Might statue at the forefront.  I want to say this symbolizes Deku being All Might’s successor or something, but I’m not sure.  This one just stood out to me for some reason.  

But yeah, like I said, the last half of the class will probably be featured next chapter.  I think Bakugo will be the last person to talk to Deku since he’s the most important one here.  Remember: Bakugo knows Deku better than anyone.  He will be the turning point I’m positive.  Iida and Ochako will definitely have an impact on Deku, but Bakugo will truly HIT DIFFERENT!  I won’t be surprised if that last conversation leads up to Deku Vs. Kacchan Part 3.  I wouldn’t be mad if that will happen tbh.  Part 2 was about understanding Bakugo and letting his feelings out.  Part 3 could be Deku’s turn.  And of course you gotta have a trilogy to cap it off.  I’m really excited to see what happens next!

Me seeing all my adopted children come together to save my green broccoli boy 💚🥦:

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Webcomic Chapter 141 Review

Intro

Normally I like to take a couple of days and a few rereads to see how I feel about a chapter before reviewing it, but with ONE’s unpredictable schedule, I’d best do this now.  It’s longish.

The first thing to say is that this chapter really messed me up.

The cavalry has a stone in its shoe

The first thing that fucked me up was realising what the sound effect in the first two panels of the chapter was: the sound of the doctor’s increasingly agonised breathing.  What a horrible thing to have to hear, made worse by the three Machine Gods showing up and reporting that their latest kill would have a 0% chance of survival after 5 minutes.

If you thought then that this chapter would be about a by-the-skin-of-the-teeth save, you’re sadly mistaken.  Genos was awesome.  He spared no power (nor powers for that matter) in fighting the three dragon-level machines simultaneously, aiming to kill them as quickly as he could and get that time.

ONE’s grasp on choreography has improved immensely and he’s used it fantastically here.  He’s always been versatile, but this time, Genos was plasticity itself, wielding heat, freezing, magnetism, anti-gravity, electricity and much more.  In turn, they didn’t commit the mistake of trying to attack one at a time, analysing his moves as they went and attacking in unpredictable formation.

it might not be psychic power, but being able to move and warp anything magnetic is a damn useful substitute

Machine Gods may vary in form, but they do share a basic interest, which is in understanding heroes, and a basic personality, which is a snarky wit that’s quick to mock. Machine God Tech lobs a back-handed compliment to Genos, saying that if he’d mastered these variable abilities, he’d have been able to aim for the top of the hero world.  For their confidence, Tech and Ray end up dead in pretty short order, smashed to pieces, leaving an outraged Machine God Body howling about how it simply couldn’t be that a mere ex-human cyborg could outdo them, these magnificent AIs.  He takes up the components of the other two to strengthen himself further, but  he’s dead soon, smashed to bits by an appropriately named Final Smash.

Genos hurries to the doctor, but there’s no let up.  Seven more high-powered robots appear. Thankfully so does Saitama, still in his underwear. He takes on the five approaching from the front, leaving the last two to Genos.  Saitama casually walking through the assault, not even bothering to shape a punch has to be one of the scene-stealers of the chapter and one of the very few light moments in it.

And then it’s over.  Saitama picks the doctor up to try ferrying him to hospital, but the doctor refuses, preferring to tell Genos where to find a secret, final upgrade, to use it to run away from Them (looks like the doctor knows exactly who killed him) and to beg forgiveness.

what a way for a beautiful relationship to end

Genos doesn’t say anything. Nor does he hurry after Saitama, but after the latter has left, he bows deeply in gratitude and says that there’s nothing to forgive, for the old man did nothing wrong in his eyes.

The action recommences at dawn.  For the avoidance of all hope, we see that Saitama has buried the doctor in the forest with a chunck of the lab wall as a headstone and the shovel still stuck in the earth by the grave.  Genos comes out of the repair pod with a new body and the two of them take their leave.  Genos intends to take out Metal Knight immediately, before whatever the plan for a ‘general offensive’ is executed.  Saitama agrees to accompany him.  But as they walk along, there’s a light over the nearest city.  It seems ‘The Plan’ Machine God Tech talked about has begun.

Indeed, on the ground, there’s carnage as a formation of robots marches through, burning every building they pass and shooting down anything that moves.  Various heroes look on in numb horror as the army advances. 

That’s where this monster of a chapter ends.

never ones to half-ass things

Meta

Unsurprising Surprise

The Organization strikes at last.  Our longest-running villains finally show their hand. They’ve measured, they’ve planned, they’ve done their homework, made that list and checked it twice.  Fitting in with Metal Knight’s warning about a shadowy power waiting its time (in the manga, not the webcomic), they’ve struck right when the heroes are at their weakest.  We don’t know the extent  of it. Is City W the only place being scrubbed off the map, or is this part of a much more widespread trend?

Well, now we really do know that when Genos spoke of not only acting for himself when he introduced himself to Saitama, he was just telling the truth.  He might be looking for vengeance, but his scope was always much bigger than just himself.  It’s a shame things have had to deteriorate to this extent for us to see it.

If not now, when?

So this is it! This is as good as it gets for him then. If he is to survive, Genos will have to take a page from Drive Knight’s example and quickly master everything his new body has to offer.  We’ve (well I’ve) complained before that he’s merely competent at using what the doctor gives him, throwing parts and bodies away without giving himself a chance to truly get the best out of them.  No choice now.  And it looks like there’s a world to save -- no time to luxuriate in practice. Or grief.

Forgive me

A few years ago when I was still new to Reddit, one of my first posts was to ask if Dr Kuseno was a good man. Against his manifest good deeds in supporting Genos as he did, it didn’t sit well with me that he’d performed a Reverse Pinocchio on an ordinary boy, turning him into a living weapon.  Not hard to imagine that it wasn’t received too well by the sub, lol.  In time, as we got to see more of Kuseno, my position on him softened, but what the hell, doctor?  never went completely away.

With Kuseno’s dying words being apology, we see that he knew he’d done wrong by Genos.  He knew that roping him into his quest for justice came as much from his own selfishness and rage as it did from a desire to set the world to rights.  I’ve repeatedly said that the cyborg body Genos has has nothing to do with health. It was all about gaining the power to fight and forgoing a chance to have a life in the process.

And so Kuseno died, in agony, weeping and begging for a forgiveness that he never heard come.  He was buried like a dog in what had been his backyard. By a stranger.

Fuck.

That’s cold.

Now I’m not faulting Genos for not forgiving the old man to his hearing. But there’s a hardness to him that he’ll want watching lest it grow more.

this is why the Machine Gods always fail despite their detailed calculations.  They just do not understand the depth of the human heart, nor its importance.

But I’ll add one more thing.  Dr Kuseno did not just raise a warrior.  In the end, he raised a damn fine hero too.  In the end, I really hope that some great good might yet come out of this.

Saitama and compassion

I’m glad that Saitama is here.  I’m even more glad that he’s not been acting to try stealing the show, instead supporting Genos when the latter needs it. It’s not ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ But it is compassionate. 

What’s next?

Why fighting of course.  Lots of it. I hope that somehow, the fog of war ends up nevertheless clarifying the relationship between the Neo Heroes, The Organization, Metal Knight and possibly Drive Knight.  I’m ready for this arc to build to its crisis and resolve one way or the other.

Bits and pieces

Number 23 on the list?  If Kuseno weren’t keeping such a low profile, I’d be insulted on his behalf.

I surmised last chapter that Kuseno must have an extensive basement as the superstructure of his place looked positively humble.  West basement?  With multiple hangars?  That’s not a basement, that’s an underground castle.  I hope Genos has locked up after himself.  If he succeeds in putting sword to his enemies, he’ll want what’s in there.

Finally, with the way living and dying works in this world, I wonder if the old man might yet have survived if he’d not decided it was too late for him.  I guess we’ll never know. At least I hope not.  I hope he’s beyond the clutches of those who’d raise him to an undeath for their own purposes.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part One)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

the introduction of the celestial dragons really is just so brutally effective. this is the first time we see them, and before they even show up on page they immediately establish themselves as both absolutely powerful and absolutely despicable. everyone is watching them commit atrocities in broad daylight, and nobody dares say a word. 

i mentioned it back in the enies lobby post, i think, with spandam, but oda is very, very good at creating villains who it just feels so good and so deeply satisfying to see them get annihilated, and the celestial dragons are maybe the crowning example of it. 

i really like how none of the strawhats are really intimidated or impressed at all by the celestial dragons, in sharp contrast to how everyone else responds to them. some of that is ignorance, but you can’t tell me zoro would have acted any differently in this scene had he known charloss was a member of the world’s ruling class. all the power the celestial dragons have comes from fear; of course their greatest weakness is someone who just doesn’t care. 

obviously this moment is just excellent, no qualifiers needed, but one thing i really love about it is how all the bad shit that results from this does not detract from the sheer satisfaction of what happens at the auction house at all. like, even though this leads directly to the strawhats getting crushed by the pacifista and kizaru and scattered by kuma, i’ve never once caught myself thinking luffy shouldn’t have done this. 

i’m a huge fan of how rayleigh introduces himself. he knocks out the whole action house with conqueror’s haki, but luffy is completely unaffected, and the two of them just watch each other down the aisle for a moment as everyone else collapses around them. 

i don’t know that i’ll ever get over the fact that oda created and designed the supernovas as he was writing sabaody. they’re all such distinct and memorable characters, and almost all of them have fit neatly into the post-timeskip story one way or another. they really feel like a part of the world that was always meant to be there. 

i think the way roger as a character is handled is very, very cool, because we don’t really meet him as a person- when we first learn of him, on the very first page, he’s a myth, a story, a framing device. which is fitting, because that’s all the characters know him as. the rest of the world doesn’t know what roger was like as a person or why he did what he did, and so neither do our main characters and neither do we. 

and then we learn, slowly, by following in roger’s steps and meeting the characters who did know him, like rayleigh and whitebeard and garp. and through their testimony and memories, over the course of the story, roger goes from being a faceless myth to being a proper character.

i think this panel, where luffy says he just wants to be the freest person on the seas, might be my favorite luffy panel. if nothing else, it’s definitely one of the ones i think about the most in terms of his characterization. luffy’s been defining himself by his dream since the very start of the story- he’s the man who’s going to be king of the pirates! but it’s only here that we learn what that goal actually means to him, and what he actually really wants. he just wants to be free. 

the tone shift of sabaody really is impeccable. because up until a certain point, everything seems pretty par for the course. the strawhats make some new friends, get into trouble for their sakes, get into a hard fight where they all have to work together but eventually scrape out a win. 

but then kizaru shows up, and another pacifista, and kuma himself, and for the first time in the story luffy says this is a fight they can’t win- 

and then zoro disappears, and all of the audience’s expectations for how this is going to play out get thrown completely out the window. 

it’s not that we haven’t seen luffy upset before this- his fight with usopp in water 7 and merry’s funeral are the two obvious examples that come to mind- but we’ve never, to this point, seen him as crushed as he is at the end of sabaody. it really drives the abrupt tone shift of sabaody home, because we’re used to seeing luffy be generally cheerful, and if not that, at stubbornly determined to power through. but here, he’s just wrecked- and the paramount war saga is just getting started. 

every time i see hancock i’m reminded what a lesbian i am.

i’m talking a lot about character introductions this post, but a lot of really good characters get introduced in the first half of this saga, from the supernovas to rayleigh to jinbe. on that note, i really like hancock’s introduction, for reasons similar to what i said about roger earlier. she’s introduced as a cartoonishly evil one-dimensional bitch, and she leans hard into that characterization for the first half or so of amazon lily.

and then luffy narrowly keeps her and her sisters’ worst fear from being realized, and her facade starts to slip, and we get to know her as- still kind of a bitch, but also a deeply traumatized person who has very valid reasons for being the way she is, and someone who is overall a lot more complicated than she appears at first glance. 

one of my favorite things about luffy is his ability to always, always defy expectations. hancock is dead certain he’ll take her offer of a ship and abandon marguerite and the others, but he doesn’t even hesitate before doing the exact opposite. luffy is always turning people’s worlds upside down.

i have a friend who coined the term “conflict of interest arc” to refer to the arcs where a crewmate is forced to choose between the crew and some obligation or baggage from their past- arlong park for nami, whole cake island for sanji, etc. 

marineford is luffy’s conflict of interest arc- he has to make the choice, here, to prioritize saving ace over reuniting with his crew. where it differs from all other such arcs, then, is that nobody else can come to back him up. he’s well and truly on his own. 

i love how thoroughly expectations get turned on their head with jinbe. for the longest time, all we know about him is that he’s a shichibukai and arlong’s former captain, so given what arlong was like and what the shichibukai encountered thus far have been like, it’s a fair guess to assume he’s pretty awful.

and then we meet him, and he’s ace’s friend, sitting bloody and beaten in the deepest dungeons of impel down for refusing to fight in an unjust war.

bon-chan is really one of the greatest examples of one piece’s stubborn refusal to treat any character as disposable, and oda’s endless ability to find new and interesting ways to fit them into the story. in pretty much any other manga, it would be all but guaranteed that we wouldn’t see a character like bon-chan again after the conclusion of the alabasta saga. here, luffy straight up would not have made it to marineford without him. this is true for mr. 3 too- who would’ve thought his ability to duplicate keys out of wax, established and promptly forgotten some three hundred chapters ago, would be the thing that let luffy free ace on the scaffold?

magellan is a good antagonist. i’m not saying i like him- i don’t particularly- but he’s a great antagonist for a couple reasons, and one of them is that his powers are terrifying. magellan is essentially what might be called in video game terminology an advancing wall of doom- the only viable strategy for dealing with him is to run.

i had more i wanted to say here but it literally kept turning into a rant about one piece’s take on morality no matter how many times i tried to keep it short, so i’ll settle for just saying that magellan is an antagonist but not a villain and i think that’s interesting. 

the absolutely ridiculous, eclectic mix of people that luffy winds up gathering to escape impel down is possibly my favorite part of the whole arc. i just think it’s so fun and so characteristic of him that even when separated from his crew, he winds up attracting the weirdest, most powerful bunch of people around to break out of prison with. 

the relationship between luffy and blackbeard is a really interesting one. it’s been plenty clear for some time that blackbeard is almost certainly going to be luffy’s final opponent to become pirate king, and yet they’ve been mostly running on parallel paths through the world, only occasionally coinciding (such as here and in jaya) and generally seeming pretty unconcerned with each other. it’s a really cool way to handle the built to an eventual showdown, and i really like it. 

this is one of my favorite spreads just for sheer smile factor. i love it so much. i think we should get to see jinbe’s whale shark buddies more often, it’s a crime we haven’t seen them since this. 

[rebellionbeach]

The Usami brothers and whole family as a whole are really interesting characters.  Due mostly by the fact of how different Haruhiko and Akihiko are yet similar in many ways as well.  Let’s start with rabbit boy.

Not only is this man extremely sexy but he’s also one of the most popular novelists in Japan believe it or not (not in real life guys)  Akihiko is the presumably biological son of Natsuko and Fuyuhiko and younger brother of Haruhiko Usami.  Growing up, he had always yearned for the attention of his parents, wanting to impress them and make them happy.  Haruhiko had actually been introduced to the Usami household at the age of 12 so Akihiko was 10 at the time and significant development seemed to grow from this change.  As shown from volume 21, everyone had been cheering Akihiko on as the legitimate heir of the Usami family meaning to take over the family business however he had never gotten this support from his parents before.  As a young child he had believed that if he just tried harder and became good at everything, then his parents would finally recognize him.  However, this wasn’t the case unfortunately as shown in the same volume once a young Akihiko came home from school gaining full marks on a test, eager to show his father when he caught him telling Haruhiko that he truly intended to make him the heir of the family business.  This impact was further felt once his mother, who had also witnessed this, declared that she should have never bore Fuyuhiko’s child which in the eyes of a young child must have been completely shattering.  An important seed was planted however and I believe that it was at this moment that Akihiko had started to evolve into the person he is today.  He poured all his emotion, pain, loss, suffering into his notebooks, his stories, proclaiming it to be his entire world.  Overtime we see that Akihiko grows to be very adept at the talent, being one of the top-selling authors from debut which occurred while still in high school and becoming a full-fledged novelist.  Doing this, he completely rejected his family and any connections he might have had to take over the business.  

Looking as Akihiko today it is very clear the type of individual he is, independent and self-serving, he’s his own boss and does only the things he wants to do.  From the first episode of season 2 we see this as there is a key event that takes place between the two Usami brothers in which a confrontation between two escalates into a full-out argument over Akihiko coming back to, as I assume, take over the lead of the Usami company and or serve there.  I will note later on Haruhiko’s tone and content of his language but it’s Akihiko’s response which truly stuck out to me as he stated that he had no inclination of going back to that house and if that Haruhiko truly didn’t like being there then why doesn’t he just leave as well.

This point may seem entirely irrelevant but I actually believe it highlights an essential part of Akihiko’s character that not only serves as his strength but also a blind spot in that of his independence.  Akihiko is the type of person who is able to do the things he’d like to do and encourages the people he cares about, basically Misaki, to do the same such as in episode 2 of season 3 where he is actually the one who encourages Misaki to enter into Marukawa after Misaki dismisses those thoughts as just a fantasy.  This is a thing for his relationship with Misaki as he allows the man a different perspective and in a way allows him, or at least encourages him, to be more selfish.  However this can also be seen as a flaw of his character as it can be interpreted that the only reason he has this lax and independent personality in the first place is because of his more well-off family and the fact that he’d had connections from the start.  In all honestly though, this part of Usagi-san’s personality is one of the main reasons why I actually enjoy his character, along with his thoughtful nature, as I believe that it’s a pretty unique and well-suited trait.

Let’s get into Harry Potter or the eldest brother of the Usami residence, Haruhiko.  Haruhiko isn’t Akihiko’s direct brother as stated before but rather a product of an affair that Fuyuhiko had with his mother.  For the first 12 years of his life, Haruhiko had actually been raised by his single-mother whom he loved very much.  During these times he had been seen to be much more happy despite living in poorer circumstances.  This is a large aspect that is pretty big onto why he is the way he is today.  After his mother tragically passing on, Fuyuhiko took him into to live in the Usami residence.  Now this in itself is absolutely devastating, living with a father-figure that had never truly been there for you with a new mother-in-law that despises your every existence because you’re the proof of the infidelities of her marriage and a new younger brother who seemed lifeless from the rest of this.  Top it all off with the devastation from losing the only person you truly loved and was there for you and damn I’m surprised that Haruhiko didn’t full out lose it.  

Now going back to the scene originally discussed with Akihiko’s backstory, let us switch perspective onto Haruhiko during this situation.  Your new dad just stated that the person he had truly loved in his lifetime was your dead mother and that he intended to make you, a 12 year old child, the heir of their family company that you had just learned about.  Not only this but everyone around you is your enemy as shown through all the people cheering on Akihiko to become the true heir and saying that Haruhiko stole his position.  There is basically no one there to support you, similar to Akihiko, and unlike Akihiko he actually was not used to this new circumstance making the situation even worse. 

I’d like to discuss the scene stated before during episode 1 of season 2.  Here, Haruhiko is visibly angry as Akihiko’s lack of care for his role in the Usami residence.  This is something we’ve never actually gotten to see ever since with Haruhiko barely showing any emotion at all.  However, if you take in the full context of his upbringing and circumstance to that point, you can see a fuller picture of what the man has gone through to become the stoic chosen one we know today.  Akihiko, after being hoisted by Isaka to finally start publishing his works, his entire being, finally achieved success independent from the Usami residence, marking himself finally as an individual allowing him to finally see that he only needs himself.  I think this is what caused Akihiko to cut most connection from his family, despite the occasional visits, and totally puts himself away from the idea of succeeding and become the heir of his family’s company.  This leaves Haruhiko with the burden of shouldering the entire Usami company’s future, something he never truly wanted to today with architecture being his main priority.  What he see’s in Akihiko is this lazy, selfish person who only thinks of himself, abandoning all his familial duties to a brother whom he barely batted an eye to during childhood.  This is what he hates in Akihiko, but also envies.  A very interesting point that season 2 makes with the connection between the Usami brothers is the inherent jealously Haruhiko feels toward Akihiko, with him trying to steal things from him during their upbringing together according to Akihiko.  Even Misaki finally has this revelation during episode 8 I believe when he was distracting him from Kaoruko.  I think his jealously mainly stems from the fact that Akihiko got his independence while Haruhiko is still confined to the Usami gates.  With all of Akihiko’s absent-minded behavior and to quote Haruhiko, “having the eyes of a dead fish”, Akihiko in the end still achieved that sense of independence that Haruhiko could only dream about having.  Add onto the fact that everyone around you hates that you got this position, lobbying for your younger half-brother who barely gives in the effort to succeed you, then baby that’s a recipe for childhood resentment if I’ve ever seen one.  

So what does this all mean, well nothing since this is an over-analysis on a yaoi manga but in a reality I think it comes to show the clear dynamic Haruhiko and Akihiko have on one another.  In recent chapters it is shown that Haruhiko is more and more aspiring in his own pursuits in architecture, even accepting his position as lead of the Usami household and accepting the fact that he’ll never get Misaki, wanting to stay as his ally instead (which is a lot more than I can say for a CERTAIN manga author).

I love Haruhiko AND Akihiko, they both are really great characters and I’d think it would be nice if in the future they could perhaps reconcile their relationship and kind of start to get along.  The Usami household fucked up a lot of kids but they are still going strong and who knows, maybe Haruhiko might get a lover in the future (AKA Todo)

Thank you and now I implore you to go listen to Nelson’s After the Rain album, 10/10 made me cry.

[galladerocksgamer]

Okay so I love the Paranormal Liberation War arc, it does so much fantastic stuff, dang near perfect across the board. But I think it’s pretty widely felt that the pacing got a bit off the rails near the end, we had big reveals and character moments stacking up and half of them barely even felt relevant. And me being the person who just thinks about things in depth and for long periods, I’ve still been dwelling on it for months. And now as the manga has continued, I’m finally seeing how some of the aforementioned War moments could have been better executed in different situations, because honestly this latest arc seems like it would have been tailor-made to address them all. So lemme take a closer look at three different components here: Mirio/Eri, Bakugo, and Hawks.

1. Mirio and Eri

Probably the most random moment from the war’s climax, don’t think anyone was predicting the sudden return of Mirio to battle. I love Mirio, he’s one of my favorite characters, but it was a pretty anticlimactic way to bring him back into the fold. He doesn’t even really bring anything special to the battle, nothing uniquely Mirio. His role is just backing up Best Jeanist against the Nomu, and anyone could have done that. Burnin could’ve arrived sooner, or Manual and Rock Lock could’ve come back after getting the injured heroes to safety. Heck, if you still wanted the Nighteye agency to be involved, then Bubble Girl and Centipeder could’ve been the cavalry to help Jeanist. But instead Mirio returns unexpectedly and none too remarkably.

And on top of that, we’re basically just told “oh by the way Eri has some control of her power now.” Something that the series had been building up toward for awhile just … occurs off-screen with no forewarning. Really feels like a disservice to Eri and her development to not give that intense moment any real spotlight.

It felt extremely weird for me at the time, but I also kinda wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the coming arcs just couldn’t afford to place focus on Eri and Mirio, so their respective developments were tied together to lend an extra surprise to the war’s final bout. But instead this most recent arc has gone the opposite route … through the return of Chisaki.

The man once known as Overhaul, now thoroughly broken and wanting nothing more than to fix his one great regret. With Nagant’s defeat, he winds up back in custody, but having now once again met with Midoriya and made his wish known. So indeed, the opportunity arises for Eri and Mirio to be brought back to the forefront. I don’t doubt that we will indeed have at least a brief glimpse at Eri healing Chisaki’s boss as Midoriya promised, but the potential for that scene could really have been through the roof if it was the impetus for Eri to willingly use her power on a person for the first time.

Imagine Midoriya coming to Eri with that heavy request, of Eri deciding to offer this kindness toward Chisaki of all people, using her power to heal before the man who always told her that she could only destroy. Because really, I don’t think there’d be a question of that, we know the kind of kid Eri is, and she won’t let anyone suffer if there’s any way she could prevent it. Even if Chisaki was the person asking, there might be hesitation and fear, but is there any doubt she’d offer what aid she could in the end? And for Pops to be the first person she helps, to undo the harm carelessly inflicted by Chisaki … well, it’d certainly be poetic.

As for Mirio in this scenario, that could go a couple ways. Route 1: Eri is hesitant to help Chisaki with Pops because she would rather help Mirio get his Quirk back, and we know that her power seems to have a bit of a limit on it via the energy stored in her horn. So what if it did work, but she ran out of juice healing Pops and then made Mirio wait even longer? Well, of course that’s exactly what he’d insist on, he wouldn’t let himself take priority over another person in need of Eri’s help. And he’d take it all in good spirits as always. Or Route 2, if there was concern that Eri’s power could run wild while trying to help Pops, then they could go the complete opposite direction and have Mirio offer to go first, to be the guinea pig for Eri in case of emergency. But of course, he’d have full faith in her all along and coax her through, ensuring her of just how helpful and brave she always is.

So yes, can see how Eri and Mirio’s development could have taken a more satisfying route, and cap us off with some good ole Chisaki angst to boot (though at least we’ve still got a decent serving of that). Now moving on …

2. Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight

So Bakugo’s long and arduous journey of personal growth reached a new peak during the battle with Shigaraki, where his body moved without thinking and he underwent his true heroic awakening to protect Midoriya. Such a sacrifice seems like a perfect cap for his development for the War arc … and then a couple chapters later he forces himself right back into action to back up Best Jeanist, and as promised he reveals his over-the-top hero name to his mentor. In this case I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the reveal, but in light of his preceding big heroic action, it really feels like a hat on a hat.

It’s not like Bakugo’s hero name heralded some major turning point for the battle; Jeanist’s arrival (and subsequently Mirio’s) had already assured that. And like Mirio, there wasn’t any real special reason for Bakugo to rejoin the fight with the Nomu, especially with Iida and Hado on the scene. After getting skewered by Shigaraki, it would have been pretty simple for Bakugo to just spend the rest of the fight bleeding unconscious on the ground, rather than complicating matters by shoving him back into the fray. And ultimately, the moment feels a bit anticlimactic. All the suspense waiting for Bakugo’s hero name, and then it’s revealed at a time where he barely even has the spotlight.

Of course, such a bombastic name as “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight” doesn’t particularly lend itself to a quiet or emotional scene, so it wouldn’t be thematically fitting to move that revelation to Bakugo’s hospital bed or his somber apology to Midoriya. That said, given his decision to announce the name first to Jeanist, there would at least be precedent for him to have a “Dabi says secrets in a black speech bubble” moment in the hospital in which he talks to Jeanist but leaves the readers in the dark, before coming back to the actual audience reveal later on.

And there must certainly be other opportunities to present the name appropriately. Bakugo is a master of making an explosive entrance, after all. And when Class 1-A finally catches up to Midoriya, if Bakugo really wanted to make a big impact on his friend/rival before getting into the sentimental stuff, then it would be a prime chance to reveal his hero name in grandiose fashion, both to Midoriya and the audience.

Or if his hero name had been Kacchan, then that reveal would have fit right in with his apology to Midoriya, but that’s neither here nor there

This could be one scenario, of course, but it hardly feels like that would’ve been the only option. And compared to the crammed-in reveal in the final fight with the League, it’s easy to say that there could have been plenty of smoother roads to take.  But setting that aside, moving onto the final touch:

3. Hawks

The long-awaited Hawks backstory doesn’t really disappoint. Admittedly, there weren’t really a lot of holes necessary to fill in there; we’d had enough bits and pieces provided before this point to pretty much put together the whole picture of his crummy childhood. But even without any really surprising turns, the flashback is welcome and hits some good emotional beats. But really, the glaring issue in this area is the timing.

We’re presented this backstory at an instance where Hawks is hardly the most relevant character. Shigaraki is undergoing a personal crisis as All For One seizes the reigns of his own body, Endeavor’s dark history has been exposed and the Todoroki family is in turmoil, escapees from Tartarus roam the streets, and Midoriya consults internally with the vestiges of One For All ... and the narrative decides to take a chapter to look at Hawks. Practically nothing from his flashback directly relates to present events, serving only to further emphasize his already well-established devotion to Endeavor and his (misguided) understanding of Twice’s feelings. The timing is just kind of baffling, especially with some other more appropriate places being readily apparent.

For instance, only a dozen chapters later, we’re properly introduced to Lady Nagant. As Hawks’s predecessor within the Hero Commission, the two have a lot in common, and the similarities and differences between the two could set up some interesting comparisons if Hawks’s backstory was saved to follow up Nagant’s. Two idealistic young children, handpicked by the Commission and groomed into assassins, yet whose outlooks in the present day are starkly opposed? Nagant's guilt driving her to turn on the Commission, while Hawks holds few regrets despite the blood on his hands, longing for freedom from the Commission’s grasp? That kind of parallel could really have built a more solid foundation for Hawks’s past to be laid upon.

That could be an effective setup, but there’s another approach I’d actually much rather have seen, one that brings Hawks’s backstory not later, but earlier: during the dramatic confrontation between Hawks and Dabi. The instant that Dabi reveals he knows Hawks’s real name, the story opens itself up perfectly to dive into his past. And the timing would be superb, showing Hawks at his worst as he murders Twice, then turning back the clock to look at the innocent child who just wants to save people. A little boy whose feathers tingle with the need to rescue those in need, superimposed against the man whose same feathers are used to deliver the killing blow to a victim of hero society’s ills. You want angst? Now that’s how you do angst. Placing the backstory there would play up the tragedy of both Hawks and Twice simultaneously: a “hero” raised by the Commission to cut threats to their control short at the root, and a “villain” who could have been a kindred spirit but instead suffers for their would-be friendship.

And that’s not even the icing on the cake. The real matter of interest here comes in Hawks’s view of Endeavor. By the time we get to Hawks’s backstory, all of Japan has already learned of Endeavor’s history from Dabi, and the result of the timing feels a smidge tone-deaf, and fails to realize the full potential resonance of the situation. The flashback to young Hawks as a victim of child abuse, who is rescued (unwittingly) when Endeavor arrests his father, is presented to us as the moment when Hawks realized that heroes are real, not merely a fantasy. We see why he developed such an ideal view of heroes, and why he is so specifically loyal to Endeavor ... so just imagine if all that was presented during his showdown with Dabi. Imagine if all that came before the tragic revelation of Toya Todoroki. The true terrible irony, that Hawks was rescued from his abusive father by someone secretly guilty of the same crimes, that Hawks’s whole epiphany of “real heroism” was founded upon one of the most corrupt enforcers of all.

The end result would be the same, I’m sure. After all, this is certainly the same thought process Hawks was going through all along, and his decision to maintain his faith in Endeavor’s personal growth would presumably remain unchanged. But presenting Hawks’s backstory before Dabi’s would have opened up a lot more room for us as the audience to actually see Hawks’s views be challenged. If there’s one real complaint I’ve got about Hawks’s character, it’s that we don’t really tend to see him questioning himself or his actions; whatever happens, he rolls with it and presses on, no matter how his ideals are brought into question. But this simple matter of timing could go a long ways to remedying that, granting the audience the chance to watch Hawks grapple with his personal image of and approach to heroism, and his relationship with Endeavor, rather than allowing most of that to pass unseen in the wake of the war’s end. Even if he would ultimately come to the same conclusion, at least such a narrative structure would provide a much more satisfying presentation of his struggle up to that point.

So, I’m not great at endings, but that brings us to the conclusion of my rambling though process here. To recap, the more I’ve thought about it, the more obvious it is that the backloaded War arc could be remedied, and the following arc only made that more obvious. Why force Mirio’s return so soon when he could be tied in later with Eri mastering her powers and the desperate pleas of Chisaki? Why shove in Bakugo’s hero name when the boy has already made a tremendous impact on the arc, and will be more open to further focus during the conflict with Deku in the next? And why throw in Hawks’s backstory as a standalone chapter at a time when it’s largely irrelevant, when there was such great potential to emotionally contrast him with the backstory of Nagant or Dabi? These are the kinds of things I think about. Little things, really, and honestly the whole reason they stand out to me is just that the rest of the arc around them is so dang fantastic. So … yes. This is the testament to my love for this manga, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, byeeeeee