#and i say this a lot but i like the idea of kiryu simply being a guy who can dominate the room by presence alone

[dirt-str1der]

I still get scared when i remember kiryu is canonically quite lean and not a fatty at all

[designernishiki]

hot take (aka headcanon) but I kinda think that nishiki and kiryu’s relationship pre-split wasn’t on both sides platonic/familial or fully romantic; I feel like nishiki had a thing for him (not sure if he fully realized it though) and that he had developed feelings for kiryu over the course of a good long time that were deeply confusing on their own, but even more so considering they would’ve been hard to sort out with what could just be attributed to close friendship or a familial-type bond.

and on the other side of this, kiryu was utterly oblivious and never thought to question what they had as being anything other than a close friendship or familial-type relationship or whatever it was being called out loud (we know kiryu, he’s blunt as hell and takes things at face value– not the best at reading between the lines) hence why the split between them, though both were clearly hurt a ton by it, hit nishiki harder and more acutely– because on top of losing the most important person in his life, which is bad enough, it would’ve crushed any tiny shred of hope he may have had to live out his long-time, perhaps even since-childhood fantasy of being by kiryu’s side forever as his one true confidant, in a more intimate way than as a friend.

[gorochanfanclub]

Change of Plans

Majima x Original Female Character

Summary: Alternate Goromi origin story. Majima is trying to train his assistant to be a hostess for his latest Kiryu scheme, but gets more than what he bargained for...

Contains: Goromi, sexually suggestive content, a couple curse words, a very jealous Majima

A/N: Haven’t posted anything here in a hot minute but had this idea and wanted to share. Only reason I didn’t make this an x reader is because the way I wanted it to end, it wouldn’t have worked :/ The only really defining traits of the woman in the story are that she’s a very tall American, has big b00bie, and her name is Hiromi. Also... please don’t take this too seriously >.< it was just something silly I thought of lol. This isn’t usually the type of style I like to write in, but I thought it might be fun to make something not so serious or heavy for a change! I hope you all do enjoy it!!

Running her hands down her body, Hiromi looks at herself in the mirror, turning slowly to view herself from every angle possible. The pink leather shines and gleams in the dim light of the dressing room, flashes of snakeskin detail sparkling in the mirror. She barely felt her ass held into the garment, the highest parts of her thighs getting a cool breeze from the fishnet stockings on them. Her broad shoulders poked out the top, her breasts pushed nearly to her chin. 

The entire ensemble was loud, definitely something she couldn’t possibly imagine herself wearing usually. However, she hadn’t been the one to pick out this outfit in the first place, her boss did. Majima, in another one of his crazy antics, had dragged her to a cabaret club of all places, thrown the clothes in her arms, and shoved her into the back room, demanding she change instantly. 

Groaning, Hiromi wonders if Majima really intended for her to leave the room dressed like this. It showed so much skin. She barely remembers the last time she was out in public showing this much skin, even swimming, Hiromi always opted for more conservative attire. 

A loud knock at the door draws her from her thoughts, her employer’s voice shouting yet muffled by the wooden slab. “Hey, Hiromi-chan,” he barks, “Ya been in there for a while now. How long does it take for you to put a dress on?” 

Looking back at herself in the mirror she grimaces. “Majima-san?” she calls over her shoulder, “Do you really want me to wear this?” She pauses, “What is this even for?”

Even through the door, she can hear her boss groan. “I don’t pay ya to ask questions, Hiromi-chan.” 

“I know you don’t, sir,” she snaps back, “You pay me to drive you around. Not wear…” her eyes find her reflection once more, “less than modest clothing.” 

The doorknob starts to giggle at her remark. “I’m sure ya look great,” Majima mutters, saying something under his breath afterwards Hiromi can’t quite hear. “I’m comin’ in, ya decent?” 

Nodding with a hum, Hiromi watches the door fly open, her boss standing in the doorway, the cabaret club’s owner hot on his heels. Eyeing her up and down, Majima soaks her up. A wicked grin plasters itself on his face. “Hot damn, girly!” he exclaims, “Ya look great! The boys are gonna eat you up.” 

Blinking rapidly, Hiromi stares at him with eyes like saucers. “‘Eat me up?’” she repeats, “Don’t you think this is…” she can’t finish, only looking at the vast amount of skin showing from under her clothes. 

Majima tilts his head, “It’s what? Don’t like what I picked ya?” 

Hiromi shakes her head rapidly, “Uh, no it’s fine, it’s just a little… revealing… is all.” 

Making his way across the room, Majima claps a gloved hand on his assistant’s shoulder. “Of course it is!” he shouts, his booming voice echoing in the room, “When yer in this line of work, ya gotta show off the goods.” With a flirtatious wink that makes Hiromi’s cheeks feel on fire, he adds, “And trust me, girly... you got ‘em.” 

Majima then steps back, looking her up and down once more before stopping at her breasts. The dress was barely holding them in and it made Majima chuckle, “Not to mention, I think Kiryu’s got a thing for big knockers like yers.” 

“What?” Hiromi snaps, “This is a Kiryu thing? You’re dragging me into this now?”

The one eyed man only shrugs, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I? Yer on my payroll and I gotta use the tools I got on hand. Right now sweetheart, that’s you.” 

Slumping her shoulders, Hiromi knows it was best to simply accept her fate and take her orders. There was no arguing with Majima once his heart was set on something. The man was not only stubborn, he was determined. Sighing, she asks, “Alright, what would like me to do, sir?” 

Cackling maniacally, Majima claps, rubbing his leather gloves together in anticipation. “That’s more like it!” he shouts with glee. 

He then steps to Hiromi’s side, wrapping an arm around her bare shoulders, leading her past the club owner and out into the main section of the club. “Now,” he explains, “here’s the plan; yer gonna use,” he gestures to her body, making a particularly large gesture to her chest, “all this, to lure Kiryu-chan in, right?” 

Hiromi nods in acknowledgement as he continues, “Get him all buttered up ‘n’ shit. Then…” he snaps loudly in front of Hiromi’s face, making her jerk backwards for a second, “I’ll swoop in for the kill- start disrespectin’ ya and all. Kiryu’s a real gentleman, there’s no way he’ll pass up the chance to fight fer a girl’s honor.” He ogles her breasts once more, “‘Specially one as busty as you.” 

The woman stutters nervously and incoherently before clearing her throat, “Do you really think I’ll be able to win him over, Majima-san?” Looking down, she rubs the back of her neck, “Kiryu seems to be a rather tough nut to crack. I’m not sure if I’m cut out for this.” 

Walking them to a table in the back Majima chuckles once more. “I know yer, not,” he states blankly, much to his assistant’s surprise. “That’s why I’m gonna train ya…” 

Before she can protest, Hiromi feels herself being shoved onto the plush velvet sofa behind her. With a huff, she flops down, looking up through her hair to see Majima situating himself next to her. 

Sitting up and brushing her hair out of her face, Hiromi meekly asks, “Wh-what kind of training do I need, sir?” Looking down, she notices how far up her risque dress has ridden up. With a faint blush dusting her cheeks, she tugs it as close to her knees as possible, the action completely foiled by the lack of fabric the dress had. 

Leaning back, Majima makes himself comfortable. Crossing one of his leather clad legs over his knee, he sighs, “Gotta make sure you can handle Kiryu-chan.” Noticing the look of absolute fear on her face, he grins, waving a hand in dismissal, “Just relax, girly girl, we’re just gonna do some talkin’.” 

Majima reaches inside the inner breast pocket of his jacket, pulling out his packet of cigarettes and nonchalantly lighting one. As he inhales, a nostalgic smile works its way across his lips, tugging gently at the corners, “Y’know, I used to do this fer a living. Kinda miss it too…” 

He turns slowly to the woman on the seat next to him, “So yer in good hands, Hiromi-chan, nothin’ to worry yer pretty little head about.” 

She nods, taking his words in. Hiromi takes the chance to admire Majima as he prepares for his training session with her. The way the smoke floated around his head, it made him look like an angel, resting above the clouds, looking down on the world that belonged only to him. 

Majima could feel her eyes on him, watching him intently. Suddenly he felt nervous about being here with her, especially with the way he had dressed her, she was practically naked. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all… 

“Nuff about that, tho,” he beams, snapping himself from his dull stupor, pulling Hiromi from hers as well. “Let’s get down to it,” he sighs, raising a inquisitive eyebrow, “Ya ever done anythin’ like this before?” 

Touching a finger to her cheek, Hiromi tilts her head in thought. Majima smirked, finding the action somewhat cute. “Well…” she starts, “I’m not quite sure how ‘this’ all works but… I used to flirt a lot with men at the bars back in my clubbing days,” she turns to her boss with an expectant look, “Does that count, Majima-san?” 

Nodding, he smiles brightly, “That’s exactly the way you gotta act. Talk ‘em up, get ‘em to buy you more drinks,” he points a finger at her, “and usually I wouldn’t say this but since these’re special circumstances… there’s no such thing as ‘too handsy.’ Kiryu-chan’s been in prison fer ten long years, I imagine a perv like him would go wild havin’ a nice little thing like you pawing all over him.” 

Hiromi grins, nodding as she takes in her instructions. She hums, “I think I’m beginning to understand what I need to do.” 

Majima leans back, fluffing up his jacket then smoothing it down as he situates again, “Alright then, we’re just gonna pretend that I’m Kiryu-chan and yer gonna do yer best to win me over.” 

The woman nods shortly leaning back herself. In an instant, she crosses her long legs at the knees, the heel of her left foot tapping the glass table in front of them with a heavy thud. 

The action shocked Majima. His eye looks down to the pink stiletto next to his own thigh, the toes so dangerously close to grazing his leg. Trailing his gaze up her toned legs, he notices the fishnets end right at the thickest part of her rather voluptuous thighs, the elastic squeezing them ever so slightly. 

Following her body further, Majima trains his eye on the way the dress hugged her body in all the right places. From the way it strained against her hips, bunched slightly at her waist, then nearly ripped at her chest, he realized maybe he went a little too far with the outfit. 

Finally, his gaze meets her face. A blush threatens to creep onto his cheeks with the way she is looking at him. It was almost like she had flipped a switch inside her. The usual stoic and no nonsense Hiromi he relied on during a day to day basis was gone. In her place was a tigress, dark eyes staring him down like a wounded prey, ready to be devoured. 

Majima swallows, trying his best to keep his composure. He grins again, hiding his discomfort, “Hello there, my name is Kiryu Kazuma, what’s you’re name?” he asks, doing his best impression of the deep voiced Kiryu. 

The woman tilts her head with a wicked grin, “Hiromi. It means ‘generous beauty.’”

And what a beauty she is, Majima thinks to himself before tilting his own head in confusion, “‘Hiromi?’ That’s a Japanese name, ma’am. Don’t you think you’re a little tall for a Japanese lady?” 

Majima feels something grace his leg and he looks down to see one of Hiromi’s pink shoes rubbing itself gently up and down his thigh. She chuckles, “Astute observation Kiryu-san. In fact, I’m from America. Have you ever been?” 

Shaking his head, Majima shrugs, “Can’t say I have, Hiromi-chan. In fact, I’ve never left Japan.” 

Suddenly, the soft sensation of a foot rubbing his thigh is lost. Majima nearly lets out a displeased groan, choking it back at the last second. When he looks up to meet her face again, he is greeted with her leaning forward, her left hand supporting her and her right resting on the sofa in the spot her foot had previously been. 

“You should make a point to go sometime, Kiryu-san,” Hiromi mutters, her voice barely above a sultry whisper. Her hand begins to trace up Majima’s leg, palming his thigh gently, “I’m sure you’d get lots of young American ladies on your arm, what with you being so big and handsome.” 

This time, Majima isn’t able to hold back the blush on his cheeks. Here he was, sitting in a cabaret club with his long legged, scantily clad, foreign, assistant, and she’s fondling him like they’re lovers. It didn’t help that she was so close he could smell the mint of her gum from earlier still on her breath. 

“Maybe I’d rather stay right here,” Majima counters, “Why go to America when I have a gorgeous American girlie on my arm right now?” 

With a laugh, Hiromi’s fingers dig into the muscle on Majima’s thigh. With them so close to his manhood, Majima couldn’t help himself from jumping in shock. She really took his instruction to heart when he told her to get handsy. Swallowing, Majima wasn’t sure how much longer he could take this. 

“You flatter me too much,” Hiromi laughs. Batting her eyelashes she smiles that predatory smile once more, “But… I can’t think of any other place in this world I’d rather be, either.” 

Flattening her palm once more, she trails her touch up Majima’s leg, onto his toned stomach, feeling every contour of his chiseled torso. Taking her other hand, she hooks a finger underneath Majima’s chin, forcing him to look at her, also bringing him a bit closer. 

“I’ve got everything I could possibly want right in front of me…” she whispers. Instinctively, Majima grabs her hip, desperately needing someplace to put his hands. This earns a light chuckle from Hiromi, “Touching already, are we? At least buy me a drink first.” 

Looming over her shoulder, he waves to the club owner to bring something around. Turning his attention back to the woman in his arms, he nearly stutters, “So, Hiromi-chan, ya got any special guys in yer life? Can’t imagine a sexy little broad like you going to bed alone.” 

The hungry gleam in his eye starts to grow, almost matching her own hungry gaze. She smiles, grazing her fingertips across Majima’s collarbone, “There might be one, and if he plays his cards right tonight…” The grip on his jaw tightens as she pulls his ear to her lips, “I might just go home with him.” 

With fake shock, Majima opens his mouth wide, “That so? Well I hope I do, then. Wouldn’t want to pass up the opportunity to wake up next to ya.” His grip on her hip strengthens, his gloved fingers squeaking against the leather of her dress. 

Continuing her motions on his chest, trailing over the edges of his tattoos, Hiromi asks coyly, “Do you have any ‘special’ women waiting for you at home, sir?” 

Majima only chuckles, “Now, if I did, would I really be at a place like this, lettin’ you fawn all over me?” She only shrugs, “You might, I couldn’t possibly know.” 

Shaking his head, Majima smirks, “Nah, I only got one lady in my life, and that’s you, darlin’.” 

Hiromi chuckles, pulling away from Majima once more. The loss of her hands on his skin leaves him feeling lonely and cold. However, suddenly, he finds Hiromi spreading her legs, arcing one over Majima’s hips to straddle him. 

Hovering her bum just above him, she grabs his shoulders, one of her knuckles outlining his jaw. She mumbles against his cheek, her breath causing the hairs on the back of his neck to raise, “Then I think we should enjoy our evening together, Kiryu-san.” 

Kiryu-san. 

Up until she said that, Majima had completely forgotten he was supposed to be training her for a night with Kiryu. Suddenly, the idea of having to watch her touch Kiryu and whisper into his ear the way she was doing to Majima right now seemed extremely unappealing. 

Something inside him boiled at the thought of that. He wasn’t sure what it was but with the way her lips were grazing his jaw and the way her weight was pressing upon him, he wasn’t sure he could stomach watching her do all the same things to another man… a man that wasn’t him. 

Leaning back, he meets her eyes, still dark, still hungry. Majima’s good eye darts to her lips, plump and covered in a hideous, gaudy pink shade that didn’t suit her at all. He was half tempted right then and there to kiss it all off, just to return her to her natural glory. 

Still playing the game Majima had abandoned a long time ago, she smiles, “What do you say, Kiryu-san? Can’t we have some fun?” 

Hearing her say his name again was just enough to pull Majima from his daze. Tapping her hip, that he previously had been gripping for dear life, he mutters to her, “Alright, get up, this isn’t gonna work.” 

Hiromi instantly stops her motions, furrowing her brow at her boss, “Wait- what?” 

Majima, with a bit of difficulty, and reluctance, pushes his assistant off him, sending her stumbling onto the velvet where she previously sat. “I said this ain’t gonna work, girly.” Standing up he glances over her body once more, taking in all the curves, “Kiryu ain’t gonna fall for all that. The guy may be a pervert but he ain’t stupid.” 

Sitting up as fast as she can Hiromi shakes her head, “What do you mean? Was I doing something wrong? Maybe I could try again. Was it too much?” she sputters, desperate to please her boss. 

Was it too much? Majima scoffs internally. She nearly was grinding against him and she had the audacity to ask if it was too much. Fact of the matter was, she was way too good at this, Kiryu wouldn’t have stood a chance. Five more minutes and Majima himself would have lost control.

Waving his hand to quell her blabbing, Majima shakes his head, still trying to pull himself back to reality. “Nah, it’s useless. We’ll have to think of something else. Yer just not cut out fer this, dollface,” he lies. 

Hanging her head in defeat she sighs, “I’m sorry, Majima-san, I really was trying.” 

Sighing himself, Majima feels a pang of guilt, “Don’t worry about it.” His eye falls to the hem of her dress that had ridden up a little too high. Finding it hard to breathe looking at her, he turns away, “Why don’t ya go get changed? That old thing is ugly as fuck anyway.” 

Hiromi nods, standing up and smoothing her dress down, “Yes, sir,” she states. Before she turns to leave, she looks down at herself one more time. She chuckles once then glances to Majima, “It’s a shame no one will get to see it, though… In fact, it might actually look pretty good on you, Majima-san.” 

At that comment, a lightbulb shines in Majima’s head. He darts his attention back to his assistant, eyeing the pink leather dress. “Say that again, Hiromi-chan,” he commands. 

Her smile falls, face contorting in confusion again. She slowly repeats herself, “‘It might actually look pretty good on you?’”

Of course, Majima thought. If Hiromi couldn’t get Kiryu to fight him, Majima could. What in this world would piss Kiryu off more than embarrassing him in front of an entire cabaret club by having drinks with a yakuza in drag? And if that didn’t work, Majima knew he could think of something on the fly. 

“Hiromi-chan,” Majima starts, “Yer a genius, I could kiss you right now.”

Her eyes go wide as her face goes dark with a blush, “You could... kiss me?”

Realizing what he just said, Majima nervously rubs the back of his neck, “Jeez, it’s just a figure of speech. I just mean... oh nevermind... come here a sec. I wanna see somethin’.”

Doing as she’s told, Hiromi walks up to her boss meekly. Majima moves to stand beside her, comparing his height and build to hers. Seeing how similar they were, he asks, “Say, Hiromi-chan, looks like we’re about the same size.” 

She only nervously nods, “Why, yes, sir. I’m a rather large woman and, with no offense to you, you’re a rather slim man. It isn’t too far fetched to think we’d be a similar size.” 

Grabbing her shoulders, Majima shoves her towards the back of the club, to the dressing room. “Great, now go take that thing off… and hand it to me when yer done.” 

“Hand it to… you?” 

***

After a long hour of doing his hair and makeup, Majima came out of the dressing room looking like a new man or in this case… woman. 

While he may not have had the assets to fill the garment out, Hiromi couldn’t deny that it indeed fit him like a glove. Not to mention, the pink faux snakeskin looked so much better on him. 

Arms crossed as she watches him prance around, fully drowning himself in his new character, Hiromi shakes her head in disbelief, “I had no idea this is what you had in mind as a backup plan but… color me impressed, sir. This might just be your greatest scheme yet.” 

With a feminine chuckle Majima flutters his eyelashes, “Why, thank you Hiromi-chan.” Stopping for a moment, he looks into the mirror, a scowl on his face, “Just need a name to match this pretty face.” 

Perking back up, he whips around, “I got one. Goromi.” Gesturing between them, he nods, “It’s my name and your name put together. What could be more perfect?” 

Hiromi nods, chuckling, “Very clever, sir.” Turning her wrist over, she checks her watch, “Majima-san, it’s getting late, should I phone Kiryu-san and have him swing by?” 

A manic grin spreads across Majima’s lips, the anticipation of violence making him giddy. “Do it. I think it’s time for Goromi to make her debut…” 

[cerastes]

So, how likely do you think a Holo x AK is? I mean, there's a lot of overlap between the fan base + AK have sponsored Holo before a couple times so it should be likely right?

Iunno, Arknights is a Chinese game, and given Hololive’s current reputation in China, it seems unlikely simply because-- Ok, look, I’ll keep this short but I have to explain the social credit system they have at least in passing so what I’m about to say makes sense.

In China, there’s a social credit system. China's social credit system expands the idea of credit checks, which we may be more acquainted to, to all aspects of life, judging citizens' behavior and trustworthiness. Caught jaywalking, don't pay a court bill, play your music too loud on the train — you could lose certain rights, such as booking a flight or train ticket, for starters. It’s overall more complicated than you having a score assigned to you at all times, but for starters, that’s the basic idea. Associating with any entity that Big Brother over in China isn’t too fond of for this or that reason means taking a risk in having your social credit lowered for it. Even Bilibili, the biggest video and streaming website, is at risk of just getting shut down by the government if there was to be Unsuitable Material(tm) that Big Brother doesn’t like, hence their infamous big panic button moments where they panic ban and delete content that might be like that just to play it safe.

And Big Brother isn’t particularly fond of Cover these days due to the Taiwan thing. Which brings us to a little lore class from the past: Cover and China’s relationship. Hololive initially tanked in Japan (Tokino Sora’s debut stream had something like 14 people), their first big move was to advertise to China and make deals with Bilibili, which worked out well, and that’s why they’ve always had Bilibili exclusive streams, particularly the earlier generations, and relations with China were pretty good, Hololive even had a crossover with Azur Lane (also Chinese) and things were fine. Hololive eventually made a breakout for a number of reasons and now they are Very Big (particularly in the West, where everyone assumes any Vtuber is Hololive now), which lead to reduced Bilibili exclusive streams and a more lax schedule of Bilibili streams (particularly the latter gens, in general they don’t really want to do those streams over YouTube streams), which, alongside the multiple controversies Cover has had with China (as this Taiwan thing with Coco and Haato wasn’t the first, there was also a Choco thing before), has lead to China to believe Cover used them as a stepping stool, basically. Which is a galaxy brain, but hey, that’s what Big Brother thinks, ergo, that’s what they act on. So relations are kind of tense these days. Some Chinese developers, such as Mihoyo, had to censor “Kiryu Coco” in Genshin Impact, for example, simply because they have to show Support for Big Brother or risk losing social credit in one of Big Brother’s tantrums (*I’m not getting into that being the reason why they did that or not, I’m simply using it as an example).

With all this context: Hololive X Arknights doesn’t seem likely because that’d be a big risk for Hypergryph (or any China-based developer, really, regardless of how they feel).

[maaji-maji-majima]

some kissing hcs for Majima?(if u can make it nsfw)

So I'm in a weird place with this. I don't want to leave you unanswered but I know you won't like the answer that I give. It has been a long time since I was active on tumblr and I'm not sure when along the timeline headcanon became synonymous with fanfiction. I appreciate fanfiction authors for their creativity, but I am not one myself. I use headcanon in the older definition of "this isn't in the source material, but it is true in my brain". They are either random things my half asleep mind thought of while walking home from work or a character analysis. At the same token your ask had crawled into my brainmeats and won't leave. So again, I apologize that this most definitely is not what you're looking for, but I hope someone out there finds this to be an interesting read.

Without further introduction, here is a character analysis of our favorite pansexual, gender fluid, emotionally stunted goblin in regards to relationships and why the he desperately needs therapy as brought to you by a different pansexual, gender fluid, emotionally stunted goblin who got therapy but probably needs more.

Trigger warnings: Abuse, self harm, mental disorders, poor coping strategies, unhealthy relationships, random tense changes, not fanfiction

Spoilers for the whole franchise, but very specifically for 0, K1, and 5.

Abuse does weird things to people's brains. In Yakuza 0 Majima has barely been out of the hole for a year. He might no longer be suffering the actual physical torture he had been subjected to the year prior, but he is still directly in the hands of his abusers and being watched every moment. He is still in a cage even if it doesn't look like one. He is depressed and likely suicidal, but doesn't follow through with those thoughts because he is determined to make sure Saejima has a home to come back to. He is willing to endure just about anything to allow Saejima a chance to exact that final moment of retribution because Saejima is the one who deserves it and Majima doesn't feel that there is any possibility for forgiveness. In all likelihood he hasn't sought out anyone for a hookup or paid company for an evening due to a combination of not feeling like he deserves anything that feels good and the fact that he's constantly being watched. The year in hole means he no longer really has a concept of privacy, but he's worried that getting close to someone, even for a few moments, could put them in danger if Sagawa or Shimano feels like holding something else over his head. It isn't worth accidentally dragging someone into his own personal hell. He no longer lives for the present, he is only living for that far-off future that he hopes isn't just a pipe dream.

Enter Makoto. At first she is a stand-in for Saejima's sister Yasuko, but it morphs rapidly from there. She is the light and kindness and hope that he hasn't seen in years and she's being dragged into his bullshit. He knows in his heart of hearts that she doesn't deserve what she is being forced into, so his mind snaps into the immediate and does everything he possibly can to save her. This is is the hill he wants to die on. Maybe, just maybe, he can end his miserable existence with a final act of good and he feels that Saejima might just be able to understand. But because he no longer has any relationships in his life that are not strictly professional or the abusers he cannot escape, he has little recollection of what a nuanced relationship or even friendship is any longer. Due to circumstance she is also the only person that he cannot keep at arm's length, no matter how desperately he tries. So he falls for her and falls hard. But in the end, after everything they go through he does the impossible. He lets her go. She has a life and a future, whereas he has neither of those. What would she do? Become his ane-san? Have some temporary happiness before she realizes she has a target on her back for the rest of her life? No. Majima believes she deserves so much more than that even though it hurts him deeply. What is one more hurt on top of everything else? He's gotten extremely good at burying his pain.

Getting to Tokyo flips a switch in Majima's brain. Like many people with mental trauma who don't have access to therapy he falls into excess as a way of self medicating. He fits virtually everything on the hedonism checklist. Drinking? Yeah. Violence? Hell yeah! Promiscuity? Yeah, but I ain't judging. Drugs? Probably, even though it isn't explicitly stated in game. Everything from his shift in personality to his wardrobe has become, intentionally or not, a defense mechanism. He has escaped from all of his abusers except for Shimano and he refuses to allow anyone to gain that kind of power over him again.

It is a double edged sword, however. His depression and PTSD are running unchecked. In all likelihood he hasn't fallen hard on vices as a way to reclaim ownership off his own body. Instead it seems more probable that he is dissociating. After everything he has been through he doesn't care what happens to his body in the long run because it isn't actually his anymore. Risky behavior, which is practically Majima's middle name, is also frequently used as a passive form of self harm because the end result is either temporarily feeling better thanks to endorphins and adrenaline or permanently feeling better after embracing death. He could achieve a similar feeling by taking up jogging and chasing a runners high, but that takes more time and energy than chugging a handle of whiskey or goading some chump into throwing hands. Sadly even now admitting to mental problems by seeking help is fairly stigmatized in Japan and it was only worse in the early 90s. Can't have a problem if no one tells you it's there, right?

Then he meets Mirei. She's intense but not wild like Majima. At that moment in time she is everything he needs. Head strong, domineering, and very, very determined. She knows exactly what buttons to press to wrap him right around her finger. And he lets her take the reigns, lets her run his life because he realizes he was doing a terrible job on his own. Better her than Shimano, right? Doing something wrong results in the cold shoulder instead of a vicious beating, and doing something right leads to more than simply the relief of avoiding a beating. He decides that making her happy is enough to make him happy. Until suddenly it isn't. He never wanted to be a father, but even the idea that he could have been was enough to cause a fundamental shift in his entire outlook on life. He could have had someone to live for, instead of just survive for. But he had no say in the matter and didn't know until the decision had been made for him. When Mirei told him she had an abortion he snapped. He hit her. The one and only time he raised his hands against her. Disgusted with himself, and wounded by her decision, he left. If he was capable of that, he knew couldn't be the person she had been trying to mold him into. He realized he was nothing but a weight around her neck dragging her down. And so that day signals the end of their short marriage. He spends the next several decades drowning in guilt for his actions while still resenting her for her choice.

That leaves us with Kiryu. Poor, oblivious Kiryu. Majima's fixation is multifaceted but in no small part due to the fact that Kiryu is one of the few people strong enough to hurt him, but is the only one that doesn't want to. And Majima just doesn't understand. After everything, he only deserves to hurt, right? Saejima, Yasuko, Makoto, Mirei. Everyone who gets too close to him ends up worse for it, so why won't Kiryu and his sense of honor seek justice on their behalf? So he does everything he possibly can to wind up Kiryu enough to Pay Attention Damnit, Fight Me. But Kiryu's response is always just flustered awkwardness because he doesn't want like fighting, it's just a part of his job, like wearing a suit or answering a phone. To Kiryu fighting isn't a thing done because it's enjoyable, it's done because it has to be. But he's still the only one who doesn't flinch when Majima brandishes a knife inches from his face.

And then Kiryu is arrested and in jail for ten years. And ten years is a long time to build someone up onto a pedestal. Like only wanting to talk about the best of a person after they've died. The same thing happened with Saejima. Build them in his mind to what he wants or needs them to be since they are not there to actively correct it. The decade is pretty miserable, going through the motions and trying to not make waves with the bigwigs while terrifying the minions into obedience. When he hears Kiryu is being released it is like waking up again. He all but waits at the taxi stand at the entrance of Kamurocho on the day of Kiryu's release, all but vibrating with excitement. It's a fight he has been waiting on for a decade, too bad it was little more than a disappointment.

So Majima decides to bring him back up to spec in that very Majima flavored way. Small fights, big fights, surprise fights. Kiryu is still reluctant because he doesn't have a reason beyond Majima's dreamed up training program he doesn't actually want to be a part of. Of course this only leads Majima to do everything possible to get under Kiryu's skin, including sharing his personal vulnerabilities while disguising them as jokes just to cause fights, but Kiryu just kind of rolls with it which leads to confusion and frustration on both sides. After a while Majima starts to get into Kiryu's hobbies, like pocket circuit, ostensibly as another form of picking a fight. And he discovers he actually enjoys a lot of it. And they are both too dense and emotionally stunted to realize they're basically dating at this point. At multiple points Majima takes potentially lethal blows meant for Kiryu and the excuse that he is the only one allowed to kill Kiryu is very, very thin. He just can't quite admit out loud that he doesn't want to see Kiryu truly hurt because that's weakness and he is Not Weak (tm).

Shimano's death and Kiryu's departure from the clan come as a whirlwind that destroys him all over again. He's left directionless. So he leaves the Tojo in an attempt to find his own way in the world, for the first time in over twenty years.

I think I need to call it here for now. I know I've left out Saejima and Daigo, among others, but I've been working on this for days and my progress has been eaten twice and I just don't have the energy to keep going right at this time. Maybe some day in the future I'll find the time and energy to write out the rest for all the other games.

tl;dr What Majima wants and what he needs are two different things. He wants to fightfuck, but he needs to be bear hugged into submission so that he can have that mental breakdown he's been carefully bottling up for over thirty years. He needs a good, ugly cry. And therapy. Lots and lots of therapy.

[kyndaris]

A Hero Lies in You

On April Fool’s Day 2019, a video was released showing the latest game in the Yakuza franchise. Many thought it was a prank. The reason why? The sudden change in combat. Gone was the brawler beat-em-up that was associated with the series. In its stead was a turn-based system reminiscent of role-playing games. Characters waiting for their turns before utilising special skills? In a franchise known for its hard gritty storylines about gangs duking it out in the streets of Japan? ‘Haha Ryu Ga Gotoku. You thought you could fool us, but we see right through you. This isn’t our first rodeo and you’re not Square Enix,’ was many a thought when the footage had been viewed by thousands online.

What gamers did not know was that this was no gag. Fast forward several months to August 2019 and it was confirmed that Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, starring new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban, would actually incorporate turn-based battles. There would even be JOBS! 

As I had just finished playing through Kiryu’s story, as well as Judgment, in 2020 I was eager to see what new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban would bring to the table. From trailers, I could already see how much livelier Ichiban would be in comparison to the more stoic Kiryu. And, in contrast to Yagami, he was definitely more of an idiot. A lovable idiot, to be sure, but an idiot nonetheless.

Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon released in a huge week for video games. While I would have preferred to play it earlier, I had other huge titans to wrestle into submission first. Once I had managed to satiate my Ubisoft open-world needs with Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, I dived head first onto the streets of Yokohama, ready to bust some heads.

The game opens on a play. For a moment, I thought I had somehow purchased the wrong game. But as the lengthy prologue progressed, it was very clear that this was most definitely a Yakuza game. It just needed to set up a little bit of the tale, starting with Arakawa Masumi - father figure and role-model for our erstwhile hero. It isn’t long before players are introduced to Kasuga Ichiban with his trademark ‘punch perm.’ Born in a soapland and raised by those that lived on the fringes of society, Ichiban, rather than being hardened by his experience, is empathetic and not afraid to show emotion. Tasked with collection, he interprets his orders in a way to benefit those that are struggling. His goofball attitude immediately makes him a character one can connect to. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a bit of a nerd, having played Dragon Quest during his childhood and likening many of the people around him to things in the game.

It’s not long before the plot escalates and Ichiban volunteers to give himself up to the police. Sentenced to fifteen years in prison, he inadvertently extends his sentence when his Patriarch is insulted by one of the fellow inmates. After nearly two decades spent in prison for a crime that he did not commit, Ichiban is released with little fanfare and no waiting convoy. Disappointed, he takes it in stride. The first thing on his order of business: to get his signature punch perm and reconnect with his second father-figure and Patriarch of the Arakawa family.

Along the way, he is dogged by a former policeman: Adachi. At first, it isn’t made clear why Adachi seeks Ichiban for help. After all, Ichiban had supposedly killed another yakuza in Kamurocho, Tokyo. Adachi, on the other hand, was a detective in Yokohama. Why would he have any interest in uncovering the truth behind what had put Ichiban behind bars?

After a few shenanigans are had in and around Kamurocho, our protagonist is shot and left for dead - waking up in a homeless shelter in the heart of Isezaki Ijincho. Climbing his way from rock bottom, Ichiban embarks on a journey to uncover the truth, stumbling upon a series of events and unearthing a vast conspiracy in which he was to serve as a pawn.

Many of the earlier chapters felt a little contrived. In particular was the death of Nonomiya. While it served to move the narrative forward, it was most assuredly a means to an end that didn’t highlight any significant character growth. Poor Nonomiya was fridged just to bring Ichiban into conflict with the Liumang branch of the Ijin Three.

It was only in the later chapters that the story picked up steam - with the confrontations with Bleach Japan and the encroachment by the Omi Alliance. Joined by a menagerie of characters like Zhao, Saeko, Han Joon-Gi, Nanba and Eri, there was a lot to keep track on as the plot barrelled forward at a breakneck pace, connecting Ichiban’s past with his current present and all the while setting up a juicy conflict between two men that could have been brothers. And honestly, the ending with Arakawa Masato and Ichiban got to me. I loved how that Ichiban was finally able to reach his old charge by being vulnerable and finally letting out a little of his resentment at the life Masato led, despite the fact that he could not use his legs.

The characters were superbly written and their motivations were a good reflection of the human condition. The themes of family and finding a home were evident, right from the start, even though a lot of it was glossed over by Ichiban’s desire to be a hero in a video game.

(I also really liked Seong-hui and would love to see her be an actual playable character in possible future instalments. On a side note, Arakawa...you cannot simply say: ‘See you tomorrow, Ichi,’ and expect to walk away. You basically wrote your own name into the Death Note with that line!)

As far as aping Japanese role-playing games go, however, Yakuza: Like a Dragon falls woefully short. While the Tendo twist was a good one - it was pulled a little too early. Worse, there was no world-ending threat. Everyone knows that a Japanese role-playing game MUST HAVE A VILLAIN/ EVIL GOD FIGURE THAT INTENDS TO DESTROY THE WORLD. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was too focused on old childhood rivalries to extend it further afield. I mean, yes, Aoki Ryo hoped to pull the strings of the Japanese government as chair of the CLP, but WHERE WAS THE METEOR HURTLING TOWARDS EARTH? 

Honestly, 1/10 for holding true to Japanese role-playing games.

Other than that, the summons with Pound Mates was amusing. As were the side stories. Honestly, there can never be enough side stories to flesh out the wacky world of the Yakuza franchise. So many old favourites made their return. From Pocket Fighter (now dubbed Dragon Fighter) and Gondawara Susumu with his baby fetish.

Also, I didn’t think I’d be so obsessed with it, but I think they cracked property management this time round. Ichiban Confections, later known as Ichiban Holdings, was a blast to manage and accrue juicy money for.

The bartender of Survive also looked very familiar. I mean...what with the huge scar across his face. My suspicions were confirmed when I searched up Kashiwagi up on the Yakuza wiki page and was awarded with the fact that HE MANAGED TO SURVIVE THE ASSAULT HELICOPTER FROM YAKUZA 3!!

Other than that, my few other gripes involved the implementation of the levelling system and the way area of effect skills were handled. In particular, the pathing for how characters moved around the battlefield proved, at least to me, a bit of a frustration. Often, characters would be blocked by a knee-high fence or a corner. Sometimes they would be able to go around, but other times the game (after several seconds of watching them fail to walk through a solid building) warp to the enemy that I had targeted to launch their attack.

And even though the combat is turn-based, most of the enemies tend to walk around the battlefield - either clumping together or distancing themselves from each other. What truly annoyed me was when there were moves that could be used as an area of effect, with the MP cost to go along with it, but were limited by their effectiveness when the enemy combatants were too far away. Yes, it makes sense, but golly gosh, how much of a pixel measurement does it have to be for it to not hit?

Besides that, the levelling was also a bit of a tedious chore. Were it not for the invested vagrants, I feel like I might have put the game down with how much grinding there was - particularly when it came to the various jobs. The biggest hill to climb was from 20-30. Without the exp (experience point) boosting items, it would have been a torturous slog. I know that in the original Japanese release of the game, the cap for jobs was level 30, but if you change it to 99, please, for the sanity of all the gamers out there, tweak the requirements to make it easier. And maybe give normal trash mobs a bit more experience points for the playable characters to munch on. 

Goodness, imagine having to grind on level 55 Ornery Yakuza and receiving a paltry 1000xp for each battle (when, in order to level up a job, you needed almost a million).

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a break from the traditional formula that’s been a staple of the franchise for many years. Much like Ichiban, it’s a bit of fresh air to liven up the experience that might have gone a bit stale after I slogged through the whole Kiryu arc last year. With a few tweaks, and a few more Persona 5 CD soundtracks, I’m eager to see how the story evolves and whatever contrivances Ichiban will somehow force him into.

Although, to be fair, is it still appropriate to call this franchise Yakuza when the game literally saw the dismantling of the two biggest clans? Then again, Civilian: Like a Dragon 2 just doesn’t have the same ring to it. In any case, I hope the next one comes soon and we’ll be able to have Seong-hui in our party. I feel like she’d be wielding a gunblade.

(Did I just use a lyric from Mariah Carey? You bet I did! I had been tossing up the idea between this line and ‘I need a hero.’ Why? Well, I think that would be self-explanatory after knowing Ichiban’s proclivities. And it fits so, so, so well!) 

[hrodvitnon]

Heh, yeah, he probably didn't think Goji being that small would be a problem.

Alright, moving on-I have another little scenario cooked up: it regards Godzilla and his family needing to deal with all of the incarnations (minus Earth) that I mentioned in previous posts suddenly being teleported (along with those they cherish) to the Abraxasverse, and how they need to coexist with one another lest it ends up like this fic:

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12783256/1/Godzilla-Battle-of-the-Ten-Kings (Ignore the outcome that Heisei won)

I also have a pretty good idea how this might affect the routes (don't worry, I won't let you describe how you can't speculate yourself yet-I'll do it myself for this.)

In the Coexistence Route, there's going to be a lot of chaotic confusion regarding around 10 or so versions of Godzilla running around and possibly starting to rampage in response to being taken from their home dimensions; MV!Goji and his family have their hands full trying to stop/talk with the other Gojis to stop rampaging & explain where they are now. Showa might be the most reasonable and will likely help them out, especially with the likes of Kiryu Saga!Goji & GMK!Goji who will resist and try to fight back against those who they see as impostors until Showa & MonsterVerse Godzilla put them in their place and get them to listen. The 2000 twins might accept since they do have equal levels of sapience to Showa!Goji, it's the bigger Godzillas that might pose a problem-with Heisei & Final Wars probably getting into a large & intense fight if they ever met & cause massive collateral damage in the process-not to mention another version of Shin who wouldn't have the same personality or empathy as his Abraxasverse counterpart and will be hostile to anything and everyone around him-including his counterpart because he sees Abraxas!Shin as weak due to his empathy. The Titans & humanity will need to work together to corral and get Heisei, Final Wars, and 2016!Shin to stop and listen to reason (though 2016!Shin possibly will need to be frozen again)-and it might end with all Godzillas agreeing to stop fighting (on certain conditions) , but they need a place to live that is isolated enough to be at peace (GMK will be left out and probably be either killed or vanquished to the Hollow Earth for Kong to finish him off with his axe); with a version of Monster Island to be used as a new home for the Godzillas (with Minilla, Minya, & Godzilla Jr to accompany their respective fathers there). It would end with a wobbly, but peaceful Coexistence.

In the Genocide Route however, things will not go so well....

Because here-the Godzilla incarnations are teleported while MV!Goji is in the process of wiping out humanity-the Titans start to become frustrated & very wary of these other Gojis as they start to pick fights with each other and, whether accidently or not, kill more humans in the process. Of course, MV!Goji will quickly sense the presence of these other Godzillas and immediately try to attack them as a result of his hallucinations blinding his judgement and common sense-resulting in some of the Gojis (Heisei especially) having a bone to pick with him after the fact. It might all culminate in a final showdown after some warmup battles in (very ironically) Tokyo-where all the Gojis show up, destroy the city to get themselves ready-and start to battle one another for the right to be the one true King of the Monsters!(of course, this is actually just to get rid of the competition)

The Titans & MV!Goji's family then watch with bated breath as the 10 Kings duke it out and slowly start to permanently kill each other as the fighting and stakes get higher and higher-with Kiryu Saga!Goji being the first one to die before the others, 2016!Shin does some creepy stuff that might disturb his counterpart, the original 1954 Goji is also in the fight and gets beaten up a lot, and all the smaller Gojis are killed off before the night ends. The larger Godzillas start to unleash their true power as the fighting gets even more intense, a great many beam-lock wars are had-& then the slaughter begins-Shin ends up being the first to die as the other 3 Gojis gang up on him after he potshots them too much, and then, you will likely be surprised-Heisei is then offed. How so? Let me describe:

• Despite their respective powers-Final Wars and MV!Goji (if the hallucinations briefly go away) will recognize Heisei!Goji as having a lot of potential to kill either of them (my interpretation) and team up to take him down-resulting in a complete decapitation to permanently kill him (heh, how's that for irony?).

The former two are the last ones standing-and fight the last fight for their lives. Everyone watches in anxiety and Godzilla's family, despite what he has recently done, pray that he wins this last fight. At first, MV!Goji has the upper hand, having gone feral & finally stopped holding back, and is seemingly very close to killing his counterpart-only for him to reveal he was also holding back and turns the tables on the natural Godzilla, tossing him around-beating him senseless & utterly wrecking him. Everyone watches in understandable horror as Final Wars!Goji then begins to charge up his spines....and they flash crimson red as he then impossibly throws MV!Goji high up into the sky.

Having had enough, Godzilla's family rush to stop what was about to happen....but it's too late.

Final Wars!Goji unleashes his Burning G Spark Heat Ray into his counterpart (here he doesn't need Ozaki's boost to gain the ability), who initially tanks the attack-but it slowly becomes too much for his body to handle....and after a few seconds, he lets out one, final agonized roar before exploding into a fiery ball of light & chuncks of flesh. His family, and the Titans can only watch in silenced shock as their Godzilla bit the dust and was now gone forever......

Meanwhile, Final Wars Goji roars in victory before immediately going to the sea to rest after winning. The only ones happy with MV!Goji's demise is humanity, who sort-of praise Final Wars!Goji as a hero of sorts and slowly start to rebuild what Godzilla destroyed. On the Titan perspective, the other Titans are initially very hesitant to accept Final Wars Godzilla as their new Alpha/King, but after he demonstrates his abilities and power-they submit and look to him as the new ruler of Earth, the only ones who outright rejected his rule were Kong, Tiamat, Barbra, Dagon, Scylla, and Rodan-with the now deceased MV!Goji's family going into hiding in the Hollow Earth to grieve the death of their Godzilla.

Mothra is in complete anguish and despair after the death of her mate, Shin & Junior are in similar states and become depressed, Leo, Manda, & Keeta are mostly unaware of what's happening but do their best to comfort their peers since they can easily detect their sadness, but the one who was affected the most was Monster X, with Viv trying to deny the fact that Godzilla was gone, and San trying anything to comfort her. Kong visits every now and then with Jia to act as emotional support to the grieving family and generously lets them stay in the Hollow Earth as a temporary home until they recover enough to head to the surface.

Mothra heads to an isolated island to be alone after she justifiably rejects FW!Goji as her king, Shin & Junior go with her along with Leo and Manda, Keeta is taken back to his adoptive father, and Monster X starts to develop a bitter grudge against FW!Goji and wants revenge for MV!Goji's death; but even Viv'n'San know that trying to take on the one who killed the other Gojis wouldn't end well for them-so they teeth-clenchingly 'coexist' with FW!Goji until they find a way to get their revenge.....even if they themselves die or it would be for nothing.....

Just to inform you, I can understand if you don't like the Genocide branch-off scenario, so you can simply react to the Coexistence one if you like.

But overall, what do you think of the second long post that I wrote?

Yeaaaaaah, not a fan of the Genocide branch-off... plus I wasn't a fan of the whole Everyone Beats Up MV!Goji thing from previous asks, it's all kinda, well, sus.

...though I'd like to bring up something that Monster X themselves state in Abraxas Chapter 17: They can be good, but can also be a terrible (if necessary) evil, true to their namesake. In this instance, I'd picture them flatly rejecting FW!Goji out of rage and hate because he basically killed what Vivienne saw as a mentor/god, and this cat-faced bastard expects submission from them? Fuck that. He'll get in their face about it like, "I'm your king now. Kneel."

But Monster X just stares at him with the same cold hate they gave to MaNi before mauling and killing him. "KNEEL!" FW!Goji demands. Monster X doesn't even blink. "Even kings kneel before the executioner." FW!Goji scowls at them with fire in his eyes. "You better not be threatening me, you little freak. You saw how I put down that rabid animal you're being such a whiny bitch about."

"Oh no," Monster X says with thinly-veiled contempt, "Certainly not. Just making a historical observation. I'm the Executioner... and no king's reign lasts forever, Usurper." Then they have the balls to turn their back on him and move to the Hollow Earth, knowing that even if FW!Goji wants to throw hands he has no real reason to (unless he wants to be an asshole) and FW!Goji has some measure of reason. Implied Death Threat aside, they never explicitly challenged him and attacking them just for disagreeing with him (when MV!Goji left Kong alone after he refused to submit) will only make him look like a tyrant.

---

For the Coexistence Chaos, I wouldn't consider 2016!Shin to be actively hostile to everything around him; in his home film it's noted that "behaviorally it just moves," he's basically a confused animal that doesn't know what's going on and simply reacts (see also the lyrics to Who Will Know), and he only explicitly reacts with violence once he's met with violence (namely gaining his atomic breath after GBU-57s were dropped on him), so he'll be hostile purely out of self-defense.

Also, regarding the Genocide branch off, let's not forget 2016!Shin's 5th form (the army of small humanoid Shin Godzilla's literal seconds away from branching off from his tail); because 2016!Shin is constantly evolving in a way to combat the threats he faces, it's not out of the question that he'd just spawn the 5th forms so they can scurry off and go into hiding while the other 9 Gojis are ripping each other apart.

[yakuzacasual]

Flirting/dating hcs with Date 👀

PREFACE

Date-san von Yakuza if you read this im free on Friday night and would like to hang out. Please respond to this and then hang out with me on Friday night when I’m free.

Thank you, Non. What an absolute joy to be writing for our lovely detective man that deserves the world. I’m sorry if it feels rough in places, it’s been this kind of day, but I really wanted to do this request bc hnghn Date-san.... Hope you enjoy nevertheless and have a nice day today! ♥

FROM FLIRTING TO DATING WITH DATE

This man seems to not realize you are flirting with him for months and it has become the biggest meme amongst his coworkers who, willingly or not, are in on the whole thing. After all, perception is in their job requirement. And surprisingly enough, Date is no different. What may come off as him being naive, is actually his fully conscious choice to ignore your slightly confusing behaviour. He just doesn’t think that kind of relationship possible and would rather think you are just being quirky this way, than consider it as you showing your romantic interest in him. Sometimes he even wonders if it’s some kind of a bet you are very adamant on winning, that’s how bad it is. He’s still got a lot to work through after the tough parting with his wife. 

At some point he finds being dismissive extremely tiring, especially if it actually gets through to him that you may be serious about the whole thing. So, to make it easier on himself, he starts to bite back. He tries to keep it mild, no commitment so far, just checking the waters a bit. Whatever he says sounds a bit rehearsed, definitely very stiff at first. Date is clearly not on top of his game, his lines rusty and borderlining dad jokes every now and then, but if nothing else the obvious effort he puts into entertaining you is very endearing. With time and practice, he slowly finds himself more comfortable in this flirty bickering that starts flowing seamlessly between the two of you, dad jokes are still a thing though.  It is almost as though neither you nor anyone surrounding you can’t remember these times, when the two of you weren’t joined at the hip. And honestly, others are enjoying this vibe. It’s good to see Date so animated again.

Past this point, there is nothing stopping the two of you from going on a proper date! If you give him enough space, he’ll take his time to figure out how to approach the relationship in the best way. He wants to make absolutely sure that he is not going to squander another shot at having something good with you. Date needs to feel like he knows how to treat you right before taking you out and his whole team, possibly Kiryu and Haruka too, will support his attempts to come up with a strong date plan. 

This man has got a whole schedule written down, carries it around on a piece of paper in his pocket for a whole week before it is finally time to ask you out and it goes surprisingly smoothly. He doesn’t stammer, mix up words or sentences and somehow manages to not make any silly jokes that would make his request come across as insincere. So far so good.

Date is dead set on going by the schedule to the point where he doesn’t even consider that you may have some other ideas of your own that you would like to contribute to the date plan! And it is visible, very very visible. He is as straight as a string from the moment you meet for the first part of the schedule, the funky vibe you keep between you suddenly gone. It feels so stuffy and unlike him, that you simply cannot help but bring it up. Honestly, he is so taken aback when you speak up that he forgets all about the plan in an instant. In that moment you just seem so marvelous that he doesn’t dare to interrupt you.

You both end up laughing this bizarre situation off and the paper schedule promptly ends up in the closest trash bin. Date is back to his normal self, with flirty jokes and witty comebacks, as he gingerly holds your hand going wherever life will take you. After all it doesn’t matter where he is, as long as it’s with you!

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

ANGST KAZUMAJI ANON AND WOOF. FUCK. GOTTA LISTEN TO THOSE SONGS AFTER WORK. EXCITED. Your idea though OW. I haven't seen Y6 yet (I watch playthroughs don't have the console and my computer laughs at me trying to run the games) the streamer thats playing it finally got to Y6 and I am Refusing To Watch It. My heart can't take even starting the VOD.

You’re welcome for the music cc: 

A LOT of people haven’t seen 6 yet, so I did my best to get through that without spoilers ^^; Hope I haven’t ruined anything for you. And I feel that, my laptop and I have constant arguments and I’m not a good gamer anyway ^^; I should try Kiwami 1 someday though... I have it, I'm just Nervous about Being Bad ^^; 

Nice, following one streamer, well done c: I just hopped around to different playthroughs on youtube ^^; My wife and I binged all 7 games in I think 2 months, max. ^^; She crazy tho and a bad influence on me xp She likes to just sit and binge things and I am, understandably, weak for my wife <3 

6 isn’t so bad, I promise. You can do it c: It’s very pretty, you get to stare at Kiryu’s juicy ass the entire game, there’s lots of cute minigames of Kiryu with a baby, uh... *running out of nice things to say about 6* ...did I mention it’s very pretty? Fuck... Listen, I have... Feelings about game 6, but I don’t want to ruin it for anyone ^^; Everyone’s allowed to experience things in their own time and form their own opinions and I don’t want to deprive anyone of that. Please watch it and when you see it, feel free to come tell me about it c: 

And as a reward for all that, another angsty idea: 

The Nishikiyama Opera! 

So I composed the entire thing on a car ride with my wife last week and it’s WILD. Y’all ever see opera? If you’ve never seen an opera you SHOULD, they’re fucking Great. Operas are all about being The Most, comedy or tragedy, they’re all horny as shit and everyone is extra as fuck. If you living for the drama, you HAVE to get your ass to an opera. I’m lucky enough to live somewhere with a relatively robust opera community. And anyway, my point is, The Nishikiyama story? RIPE for an opera adaptation! 

First, you gotta know some of the opera tropes. There are two categories of opera, comedies which are kinda rare and tragedies which is... constantly. And operas are pretty good at telling you almost immediately which one they will be. There’s also a lot of meta about the voice parts themselves: 

Soprano - heroine, ingenue, beautiful. Will win if this is a comedy, will die if this is a tragedy. 

Alto - mothers & witches. Not the heroine. Will probably die regardless of comedy or tragedy. Unless she’s the villain, then she lives in a tragedy. 

Tenor - hero. Given the sexiest parts to sing. Sometimes unbearable. Everything is about Him. 

Baritone/Bass - fathers & villains. Gorgeous voice, never utilized properly. 

Knowing the vocal parts and what they classically represent is key to knowing who will win and who will die in the opera. For example, in Carmen, Carmen is actually an alto, not a soprano, and Don Jose is a tenor. This immediately tells you that shit’s fucked. Tenors are supposed to fall in love with sopranos, never altos. So this story can only end in tragedy because he’s interested in the wrong kind of voice part. There’s even a counterpoint of a soprano who is madly in love with him, and the baritone toreador for Carmen. They’re given their proper voice partners, but Don Jose still pursues Carmen which is a ginormous mistake by operatic tropes. 

So, opera education over, picture this: 

ACT I  Kiryu (soprano) is the loveliest yakuza in all the land! He’s just delightful. The Chorus sings his praises and he demonstrates his impeccable fighting ability. (Forgot to mention, any opera worth its salt has a Chorus and I will die on this hill.) The Audience is assured of his might and grace. 

Kiryu, obviously, does not want for admirers, but has not chosen to court anyone formally. 

Here enters Kiryu’s brother, Nishiki (bass). The Chorus explains that Nishiki is second to his brother in strength, but is formidable in his own right. Nishiki explains to the audience how he longs for Kiryu, how he covets him, his strength, his beauty. How after a lifetime together, affection has turned to love. Nishiki must have him. 

Kiryu hears none of this. Nishiki approaches to make his case when Majima (tenor) sweeps onto the scene. Majima is brazen and glib. The Chorus tells us to beware his charming smile, he is as dangerous as he is flirtatious. Majima has heard of Kiryu’s reputation and calls him into the street to defend his title. Kiryu responds and they do battle. 

In the midst of the battle, Majima finds himself won over by Kiryu’s skill and grace, his kindness and strength. Majima is bursting with love and there and then makes a proposal to Kiryu, offering his whole heart. 

Kiryu is stunned. Majima is not a weak fighter, he is not a braggadocio, despite appearances. He was a real challenge and Kiryu was not expecting the fight to take this turn. He is so surprised he cannot make an answer and politely, but quickly, leaves. 

Nishiki has been watching the entire time and finds his heart gripped by jealousy. He plots to claim Kiryu for himself and hates Majima bitterly, despite the fact that Kiryu has given no answer. Nishiki believes he knows his brother too well not to know that Kiryu returns his affections even if he won’t say. Nishiki leaves, concocting a plan. 

We find Kiryu at his balcony, lamenting his situation. Majima may have been exciting, but Kiryu’s no fool. He has no proof that Majima’s feelings will not waver in time. Majima steals into the garden beneath Kiryu’s balcony and professes his love once more. 

Kiryu is startled and makes to flee, but Majima sings so sweetly, entreats so gently, that Kiryu is compelled to stay. Majima doesn’t even ask again, just sings of his feelings. Kiryu, in his heart, is wooed by this. He may have been ready to answer when Nishiki interrupts. Majima quickly hides in the foliage. 

Nishiki counters with his own confession, his own proposal. Kiryu is shocked and saddened. He begins to sadly tell his brother that he cannot accept. Nishiki flies into a rage, demanding if there is someone else, someone else Kiryu prefers. Kiryu hesitates, but answers honestly that he has always seen Nishiki as a brother, regardless of any other feelings. He cannot accept Nishiki on the grounds of their previous relationship. 

Nishiki was expecting this. He reveals a vial of poison and threatens to drink it unless Kiryu will marry him. Majima gasps. Kiryu pleads with Nishiki not to be rash, but Nishiki only demands his answer, the vial nearly at his lips. 

Kiryu swallows back tears and collapses to his knees. Sorrowfully, he agrees, unable to bear the responsibility of his brother’s death, and the act finishes to the sound of clamoring wedding bells. 

ACT II The lights come up on Kiryu and Nishiki in their home. Nishiki is pacing the floor and making increasingly outlandish suggestions for things to do. Kiryu says yes to all of them, gently and politely. Nishiki’s frustration and annoyance increases with every yes. Eventually he snaps at Kiryu, demanding why he won’t fight him, demanding why he will give no more reaction than a placid yes. Kiryu shrugs helplessly and tries to soothe his brother, but Nishiki won’t be soothed. 

They have been married less than a year and it has been like this the entire time, getting worse by the day. Nishiki can see the pain he’s causing his brother, but can’t stop himself. He loves him too greedily to stop. He departs, hoping to take his mind off things. 

Kiryu is left alone in the house and sings a longer, sadder version of his lament from the balcony. Distantly, we hear strains of Majima’s love song, now broken and echoing. 

The scene changes and we see Kiryu sat down in a busy cafe. At first we assume he’s alone, but people move and we can see he is sitting across from Majima. They do not touch. Their careful, polite space around each other is conspicuous. 

Kiryu is tired, he looks wan, almost sick. Majima sings heartbrokenly, telling Kiryu he needs to take care of himself. He is desperate to take Kiryu away from all this, and asks several times, but Kiryu always sighs and shakes his head no. Majima knows Kiryu will not break his word once given, he is too good and honorable for that. But he cannot help singing for him all the same. He cannot touch, he will not permit himself to touch, but he can sing. 

Kiryu eventually cannot take the heartache anymore and departs sorrowfully. Majima looks after him, just as sad. Nishiki is revealed to have been spying on them the entire time. He confronts Majima, furious and accusatory. He insists that he and Kiryu have been having an affair. Majima simply looks at him and shrugs. Nishiki screams for Majima to admit it, to admit that Kiryu loves him, has always loved him, this whole time. Majima only says that Nishiki knows Kiryu best. He will not confirm or deny anything Nishiki says. Shaken and stymied, Nishiki flees. 

We return to Kiryu’s balcony, where he sits, silent and pale. Nishiki storms in and begins to berate Kiryu with his accusations. He is half-mad now, not seeming to hear Kiryu’s denials. Kiryu professes over and over that only Nishiki is his husband, that he loves only Nishiki. Nishiki cannot accept this as true. Nishiki screams that Kiryu ought to ask him for a divorce. Kiryu cannot claim to want a divorce. He gave his word. Nishiki reveals that he had been watching them in the cafe, that he knows all, the secret contents of Kiryu’s heart. Kiryu manages some resistance at last and asks Nishiki for proof. What proof of his indiscretions? What proof of adultery? What has Kiryu done that has angered his husband-brother so? 

Nishiki has none. Kiryu has not done anything wrong, not in word, not in act. Whatever thoughts he might accuse Kiryu of having are ephemeral and will never be real. Still... Nishiki saw how they looked together and his heart was sore. He knows he has stolen Kiryu from what was rightfully his. Moved to regret, Nishiki withdraws the vial of poison again. 

Kiryu gasps and tries to prevent his brother. 

Nishiki swallows the poison quickly, insisting this will set things right, this will free his brother. He says he did it for love. He falls. 

Kiryu collapses next to him, sobbing. 

The final scene is Nishiki’s funeral. Kiryu kneels next to his brother’s grave, all in black. He sings of his regrets, of his sorrow. Majima stands close by, but still not touching. He does not look at the grave, only at Kiryu. His broken love song is the last thing we hear. 

The End. 

...this opera was a tragedy ^^; 

[theropoda]

thinking about mirei...major spoilers for yakuza 5 and a bit of 4

mirei def has her flaws but when i see that people hate her (like specifically Her, not her writing, bc i agree w ppl who hate her writing) it really just strikes me as "fictional woman is Rude and gets called bitch but male characters worse than her dont get as much hate" syndrome lol

also tw for discussion of age gaps :/

i liked mirei a lot she rlly is gatekeep gaslight girlboss, she's cool. but she's also, scary in a way. i remember reading that someone described her convincing kiryu to let haruka become an idol under her agency as emotional manipulation and they're right...

you watch that scene and it honestly is clear she is using kiryu's fears against him, he doesn't want to do this but he's lead into thinking it's the best decision (it isnt!!!!!!!!!! imo).

and mirei's own motivation for this...haruka says that she thinks mirei wants her to succeed and become an idol with a japan dome debut because mirei wanted that but she didn't get it. im sure she also wants to see haruka shine but i bet those lost dreams of mirei play a rather big part in her motivations tbh

it's not like haruka's being forced to do this...haruka definitely wants this. to become a star and all. but the weight mirei has put on her makes me uncomfortable about it, idk how to explain it. i honestly think she's really hurt kiryu and haruka and i wish she lived long enough to be able to reflect on this. and for kiryu and haruka to realize that they've been hurt in the first place honestly.

mirei is a cool character, i like that she has her flaws, but what. is the purpose!!! of making her do that if you AREN'T going to make her realize what she's done and atone for it in some way. AND I WANT HER TO MEET MAJIMA AGAIN

AND SPEAKING OF THAT-- i honestly...have mixed feelings on her connections with majima. on one hand i like that in majima's past, which is riddled with so much crime and conflict there's This Part--him and mirei-- that is proof he had some...semblance of normalcy for a while. as crazy as his life has been, yeah, he was married like any other guy (but ofc you dig deeper and its not at all happy as it seems, or so it didnt end that way) so i like that they gave that to majima, it makes him feel more human in a way.

on the other hand, is their ages. this is the part i warned you about because uh

if my maths is right, that's an entire decade of age gap, 28 year old majima marrying 18 year old mirei. this is literally something that is deserving of being stoned to death imo LOL i cannot fucking wrap my head around the fact they just DID THIS AND DIDNT THINK ABOUT IT?

"ah but the events of yakuza zero, when majima was 24--" Cool. y0 didnt exist, in game form or THOUGHT form when yakuza 5 was made and up until this point all the lore we had on majima was "he was 21 when he was tortured by shibata and co" and thats IT.

why couldn't've majima been younger? 23, 24, with mirei being older? 21, 22??? i literally cannot wrap my head around either this, or the people who thought this and were like This is fine. it's Not!!!!!! Lol!!

the rest of their relationship bothers me a bit, too. i don't know why but it just does. as much as i do like the way that the factoid of majima being married makes you go "oh, shit, really? there was a time in his life where majima goro had an intimate relationship outside of the yakuza, outside of a life of crime and violence,when he had something...normal?", the way it makes him more human and reveals a softer side to him capable of love... the idea, and the rest of the story doesn't sit right with me at all. just can't explain why, but it simply does.

it....honestly MIGHT be the fact that i once read someone say "it feels like they gave majima a wife just to prove he's straight cause god did he look gay as hell in the past 4 games". MIGHT be. and whether or not this WAS rgg studio's intention. it feels like it but I Hope Not!!!!!!

[retphienix]

This is the second time I've sat through this scene because I fucked up a QTE and felt bad. So let me start with this:

This scene is a nonstop whiplash of STUPID and AWESOME. Rubber bullets AGAIN - STUPID Helicopter throwing the money - AWESOME Daigo apparently tossing out some growth from previous games to just say "I gotta crack some eggs for an omelet!" - STUPID Each of our main characters squaring up appropriately for a QUAD BOSS RUSH - AWESOME The ENTIRE reason Saejima's sister was relevant was because they assumed Kiryu and Saejima would leave if she was alive???? When they both (mostly Kiryu, but Saejima after Hamazaki's death) have infinite reason to remain BEYOND her???? WHAT??? - STUPID

God, the rubber bullets though, man. Arai seriously shot a dude in the forehead and just... walked away? No blood? Just walk? Fucking lord that plot point is stupid.

Also Arai being a cop was such a pointless reveal that DURING the reveal he has to reveal that he's also not a cop anymore since he "killed" Munakata.

Now this text is written after actually beating it and let me say SOME THINGS.

They really left the big bad next to the gun not once but twice, eh?

And I nearly spit laughing thinking they pulled rubber bullets AGAIN with Akiyama but no, that was much cooler.

Also funny how they replaced Kiryu with Akiyama for the "Will he die at the end?!!" scene.

AND HANA-CHAN OH MY GOD I LOST MY SHIT AND I LOVE THEIR DYNAMIC SO MUCH I LOVE THEM.

Oh shit and I forgot I told myself I'd write a 3 page rant about how FUCKING STUPID that final fight was but I think that sums it up. Click play on the video if you actually wanted to know what I mean but yeah, fuck that final fight. As if I needed more reasons to despise Tanimura.

Okay all that behind me let me do my wrap up on Yakuza 4.

Uniquely, I feel like I actually posted so consistently on it that I don't have too much to say. So I'll sum things up pretty succinctly I believe.

Yakuza 4 was Okay At Best. It is, BY FAR, the worst Yakuza I have played thus far. It's arguably fucking trash. BUT. I understand why and it has a lot to like as well.

The why is the fact they wanted to shake things up with 4 protagonists to prevent Kiryu burnout. That demands a different set of skills for writing and is infinitely harder to write, and they failed. This is likely why so many plot points were fucking stupid, because it was a stretch to make them work for 4 POVs.

Now the things to like aren't all that exciting but they are worth saying. The 4 protags are mostly a win. Saejima is a little bland but it's interesting to see a 'fallen yakuza' type so despite not being a 10/10 "I love this guy" character, he's a win. Tanimura is a loss, next question. Kiryu is great in this, he doesn't 'do' much but, I mean, it's Kiryu. He also has the benefit of having the BEST substories in this game simply because the ideas the other 3 focused on were meh and Kiryu's were almost all references to past games so fanservice won out. Akiyama is a BIG win, everything about him is a win. His backstory, his personality, his specific realm of influence especially Hana, his morals being interesting, the interesting dynamic he brings as a BILLIONAIRE who doesn't care about money. He's great.

But I can sum up Yakuza 4 pretty well. It introduces Akiyama and he's great. The rest ranges from FUCKING GARBAGE to terrible plot points to "well this is okay, like C to B- Yakuza" to a few genuinely sensational moments, all of which generally involve Akiyama being Akiyama and Kiryu doing a thing (and I genuinely can't think of any 'top Yakuza 4 moments' that were Kiryu, so best moments are pretty much just Akiyama and Hana.)

It's got an INTENSE range but sadly most of that range is on the bad end of things with only a few outlier great moments. Honestly? And I know no one is asking me of all people, but again- Honestly? If someone came to me interested in trying the Yakuza series, as a whole, I'd tell them to their face that they can skip 4.

Read a wiki entry, maybe watch some Akiyama scenes, watch a recap on Saejima's assassination attempt to understand that he's a badass in future games, that's it. Wouldn't even bother reading about the truth behind the attempt or any major events in 4. Just know who Saejima and Akiyama are and move on, this game was not worth it as an entry in Yakuza.

All that negativity aside, it wasn't the worst thing I've ever played, just the worst Yakuza I've ever played, and I so desperately want to end this with "Overall I'm glad I beat it/ liked it" but I just really can't type those words sincerely. It hurts to think- I didn't, I just didn't.

I really enjoyed like 20 minutes of this game total and it took like 76 hours to beat. THANKFULLY that 75:40 wasn't a nonstop living hell, most of it was alright or okay, but some of it- as in more than 20 minutes of it- was trash, so not a great return.

Yakuza 4. It was fine. Skip it if you can.

Oh and the post credits was fine. Apparently it mislead some to think Kiryu takes over as the chairman but that makes no sense and a quick google seems to disprove that. I only checked because I wanted to make sure he wasn't coming back on as a patriarch, and he's not, he's just overseeing Saejima's inauguration. Apparently a lot of people really took the ending as Kiryu giving up his entire orphanage life to become chairman again and that's quite a stretch from what was shown, I mean he says he's coming back and Haruka and him both act like this is just an afternoon affair- I think people just really want Kiryu to go full yakuza despite the fact that goes against his character so much.

[cryoculus]

How about a soulmate au, maybe the first words one. With ushijima and maybe the words were really weird like "wow I like your balls".

Part Two →

» Word Count: 3,703 words

Note: This was re-written on 07-15-2019 but no major changes were made in the overall plot (⌒ω⌒) This work is also cross-posted on AO3 and it’d mean a lot if you left your feedback on this post or in the link!

*** 

Naturally, Tendou laughed in his face the first time Ushijima showed him.

“Wakatoshi-kun,” he breathed, wiping a tear from his eye, “you better find your soulmate soon so I can tape record the whole thing!”

Ushijima frowned, eyes drifting back to the words marked on the underside of his left index finger. Contrary to popular belief, Shiratorizawa’s ace did have a sense of humor, albeit minimal. He wasn’t so oblivious that he wouldn’t notice if some phrases connoted an underlying meaning to them.

But was, ‘Man. I really like your balls,’ something anyone would say in a regular conversation?

The words written in elegant handwriting on Tendou’s wrist were simple and didn’t leave a lot to ponder on. ‘Hi, I’m the normal guy.’ Couldn’t he have been bestowed with less suggestive first words from his soulmate, as well?

“Maybe you’re going to a brothel in the future,” Tendou offered when he noticed his captain’s obvious distress. “The miracle boy Ushijima Wakatoshi, the unmovable ace, actually seeking pleasurable release. Hmm, but that’s  still a ways away if you ask me.”

The ace knitted his brows together at the middle blocker’s assumption. Ushijima had more tact than that. One would never catch him dead anywhere near a red light district. But he supposed Tendou only meant it as a jest.

“When you get ideas dropping by Kabukicho or somethin’, tell me, okay~”

…Or not. 

***

“Niiyama Girls’ High?” Ushijima echoed.

Coach Washijou merely huffed. “I’ll be away this Sunday when they arrive for the joint practice. Try to learn what you can from their play style. I trust your judgement in seeing what is fit to take note of and apply with our own strategy.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are a girls’ volleyball club’s tactics truly applicable for us, coach?”

“Don’t underestimate them women, Wakatoshi,” the old man chided. “They’re more graceful than you meaty idiots. More elegant with their plays, too. Have I made myself clear?”

Ushijima could only nod reluctantly. 

***

“I heard the girls from Niiyama are called Queens,” Tendou drawled as he tossed a volleyball into Shirabu’s direction. The young setter caught it swiftly, wedging it under his arm.

“Tendou-san, we’re not finished inflating them yet,” Shirabu sighed.

The middle blocker stuck his tongue out. “How many do we even need? There’s tons piled up in the ball cart already.”

“Tendou, refrain from jeopardizing Shirabu’s responsibilities,” Ushijima spoke flatly as he finished the rest of his warm-up, throwing a cautionary gaze in his direction which the redhead pointedly ignored.

“Wakatoshi-kun is so uptight,” Tendou sneered. “Eh? Is it because a bunch of girls are coming over? Is Wakatoshi-kun flustered all of a sudden?”

“I am simply carrying on Coach Washijou’s request of keeping things orderly in his absence.”

“Hmph,” he simpered. “I just wanna have fun with some cuties, Wakatoshi-kun.”

Ushijima dismissed Tendou’s reasoning to crack his fingers. The crunch of the cartilage beneath his skin was a satisfying pop in his ears, and it eases the cricks that have formed in his joints, eliciting a soft sigh of satisfaction from him. 

“Everyone, listen up please,” Coach Saitou emerged from the gym’s entrance, clapping his hands loudly to garner everyone’s attention. “Niiyama’s already here. Compose yourselves and finish up with your respective warm-ups. We’re going to have a practice match.”

Semi wrinkled his nose. “Coach, isn’t there a bit of an imbalance?”

Coach Saitou smiled. “You’ll know in a minute, Semi-kun.”

As most of his teammates discussed trivial matters among themselves, Ushijima leaned against a wall to bask in his own silence. He was not one to question direct orders from Washijou himself, but this particular joint practice left him with some questions that he’d like to be enlightened with.

If he was feeling it, Washijou would go as far as to invite Mujinazaka so Ushijima could go toe to toe against Kiryu. Why he suddenly took interest in the powerhouse all-female volleyball club of Niiyama was beyond his comprehension. Men and women’s volleyball were separated for a good reason, after all. 

His train of thought was derailed when Goshiki let out an unhindered gasp and Hayato chided the young ace for ‘being so obvious’. The captain shifted his field of view, expression poised as usual, while their guests filed inside the gymnasium one by one. 

The girls of Niiyama High’s volleyball club all had one thing in common: short hair. It made sense. Sure, many professional players he’s seen wore their hair in taut ponytails and bangs bound by headbands. But it’s known to be much easier to play when their hair didn’t grow longer than the napes of their necks. When they managed to settle inside, the rest of Shiratorizawa’s players fell silent, scrutinizing the visitors clad in red and white uniforms.

“We’re the Niiyama girls’ volleyball club,” a light-haired player wearing the jersey marked with the number one proclaimed; a bow swiftly followed her introduction. “Thank you for inviting us.”

“Thank you for inviting us!” the rest of them resounded.

Noticing that his teammates were stunned into silence by the mere presence of the other team in their gym, Ushijima cleared his throat, walking over to them.

“Greetings should be returned with the same vigor,” he reminded.

His words seemingly impelled boys to compose themselves the next second, each one lining up properly in front of their guests.

“Let’s have a good game!”

Ushijima could hear Coach Saitou snickering from where he stood, and even he could see why the coach was finding this quite humorous. It seemed Tendou and Reon were the only ones apart from himself that remained unfazed by the arrival of such unlikely guests. 

As the girls began their own respective warm-ups, Ushijima rounded up his own teammates to minimize the chances of someone making a fool out of himself. Though Shiratorizawa has a reputation that suggested that it housed the most sophisticated students, that didn’t seem like the case when taking the volleyball team into consideration. Outside of a game, most of them tend to be swayed by the strangest things, and Ushijima was certain that being in the same space as a group of girls in the same age group was one of those things.

“Coach Washijou really is the devil,” Reon chortled as he walked over to Ushijima’s side. “Did he really want a one-sided match for us that badly?”

Upon hearing the wing spiker’s words, Ushijima’s mouth downturned into a grimace. He could very much remember the warning in Washijou’s voice when he told him not to underestimate these girls. They were a constant participant at nationals after all. But, still, it didn’t make sense why they would even agree to a practice match against Shiratorizawa, knowing the circumstances.

“Can I have everyone’s attention?” a woman, presumably Niiyama’s coach, called out from the side of the court. All the people in the room halted their ministrations at once. “Since the manpower of each team is obviously disproportionate,” she began, “we’ll be handing out draw-lots to determine who goes on white and black teams respectively.”

So that was how they were going to address the issue that’s been plaguing Ushijima for days. He affixed a thoughtful gaze on the plastic cup in the woman’s hands. It seemed fair, but the idea didn’t completely sit well with him.

“But only those in the starting lineup will be participating in the practice match,” Saitou supplied with a hint of remorse. 

“It’s alright, coach,” Semi assured. “It’s quite fun to see something different every once in a while.” 

The players on each team’s starting roster came forward when called to draw their colored sticks. Ushijima eyed Niiyama’s members with calculative curiosity. Each of them wore a calm and collected demeanor that rivalled his own, as if the idea of going up against one of Miyagi’s powerhouse schools didn’t even faze them at the slightest. But his gaze was particularly drawn to one of the girls that wore the number three jersey. There was a confident spark in your eye that Ushijima only saw in opponents who were certain of their victory. 

When it was his turn to draw his lot, Ushijima got a white stick. 

“Aww, I’m gonna have to play against Wakatoshi-kun?” Tendou groaned, holding up a black stick in disdain. “I can totally beat him, but his spikes can induce fractures, coach!”

Ushijima managed to overhear you complain to your captain, who seemed to draw a white lot as well. “Mei-chan, going up against two captains is hardly fair!”

“I’m sure you all can manage,” Saitou insisted. “We made sure the number of boys and girls on the team is equal. Liberos will also be playing full-time to even out the numbers. But do another rotation when they’re in the setting and serving positions. Now then, please go to your respective sides on-court and introduce yourselves!”

*** 

If Ushijima were to describe the practice match with one word, it would be…interesting. 

The first set had extended up to the thirties, and the ace was already sweating profusely despite it still being early in the game. A noticeable crease was embedded in Ushijima’s brow as he caught his breath, wiping away a sheen from his sweat-stricken skin. He’s conditioned himself to have stamina like no other, but the power he’s forced to use just to get past the opposing blockers was draining him far more quickly than he anticipated.

“Shiratorizawa’s got a monster blocker, yeah?” Niiyama’s captain and one of his team’s middle blockers, Haruno Mei inquired. 

He stared at her, considering her words. “Are you perhaps talking about Tendou?”

“Yeah. The red-haired guy,” she affirmed, keeping her gaze straight. “Well, let’s say that we’ve got our own monster blocker, too.” 

He could have interpreted that as Haruno talking about herself, but he knew what his temporary teammate meant by her words. Just on the opposite side of the net, you were discussing something with Tendou with interest sparking your eyes. When you caught the ace staring, a smirk stretched across your lips.

Ushijima narrowed his gaze. Tendou was already a troublesome middle blocker on his own. He was one of the few that could actually stop Ushijima when he’s already set a momentum for himself. But that’s only because Tendou knew of his habits on-court. You, though? You’ve shut him down in one set more times than any of his rivals have in his entire career despite not having prior knowledge about his style.

“(Name) is a little timid when blocking alone,” Haruno supplied further. “But when she’s paired up with another seasoned middle blocker, they’d be a double threat. I’m sure you’ve heard about Niiyama’s Gemini blocker, right?” 

No, he really hadn’t heard of the title, but it suggested exactly what Ushijima had been observing since the match started. Whenever you and Tendou rotated together in the front, the ace felt as if he wasn’t just being stuffed by one Guess Monster, but two. 

When the game resumed at the referee’s signal, Ushijima unknowingly set a goal for himself.

He was going to crush you.

***

“We gave you quite the run for your money, didn’t we, Wakatoshi-kun?” Tendou slung an arm over Ushijima’s shoulder. “You looked plenty mad back there~”

As usual, Ushijima ignored Tendou’s taunts while he picked up a lone volleyball on the floor. After the practice match—with his team as its victors—everyone was provided ample time for free practice. 

“Ah, that one chick on my team was a real demon, too,” the middle blocker continued, despite his captain’s obvious indifference. “You’d love to have her on your team, Wakatoshi-kun. She’s just like a second me!” 

Ushijima spared him an unreadable look, but he found himself frowning at the redhead’s proclamation. It seemed that he wasn’t the only one who noticed how similar your blocking style was to Tendou’s. But Ushijima didn’t particularly feel the need to articulate his concern.

“I do not believe anyone could be as…lively as you are, Tendou,” is what he told him instead.

Tendou barked out an amused laugh. “Of course not! Even Eita-kun told me I’m like a monster on steroids. I meant the way she played. Her guesses were as good as mine. It’s like we’re meant to be~” 

Once the words left his teammate’s lips, an uncomfortable sensation seized the ace in the preceding moment. Brows knitting together, Ushijima placed a palm over his chest, trying to check for any irregularities in his heartbeat, but everything seemed to be fine. 

He recalled the brief conversation he had with Haruno. Niiyama’s captain implied that you had a peculiar talent for drawing out the best of your fellow blockers’ abilities. It made Ushijima wonder if you truly were a second Guess Monster or simply a genius who could conform with your teammates’ play styles at an exorbitant rate. 

In the middle of his careful contemplation, Tendou offered to play catch with him, and Ushijima was about to accept until—

“Man, I really like your balls.”

Hearing those words aloud made every muscle in Ushijima’s body go frigid. His fingers felt cold, and goosebumps erupted on the flesh of his arms. He could see Tendou freezing up from where he stood in his peripheral vision, too. It was no fluke that he heard the words he was destined to hear right now, in the middle of a joint practice. That only meant…

He turned around. You met his olive-eyed stare with playful amusement. 

“I’ve been meaning to convince Mei-chan to change up our volleyballs to Mikasa ones,” you sighed, twirling one of the balls in your hand. “Molten is just out of trend, you know?”

For once, the captain didn’t know how to act accordingly. His mouth felt dry, like his tongue turned into sand, rendering him unable to make a sound. His fists clenched tightly at his sides, blunt nails digging into his skin in an attempt to calm himself. Thankfully, Ushijima had a talent for retaining his composed demeanor under duress, which made you entirely oblivious to the shift in his countenance.

“Thank you,” he imparted, voice schooled into neutrality. “Our second years made sure to inflate them with the recommended air pressure.”

“They’re in good hands, huh?” You grinned. 

“Oh, Wakatoshi-kun is also in good hands, (Name)-chan,” Tendou snickered, earning him a glare from his usually stoic captain. But the middle blocker didn’t even bat an eyelash at his captain’s reaction. 

“By the way, sorry about earlier. It was just a practice match but I poured everything into it. It probably doesn’t matter since you guys won, right?” You scratched the back of your head, cheeks tinged with a warm color that Ushijima, though he loath to admit, almost found endearing. 

“It is only proper to give everything you have in whatever task given. Any effort given at one’s best will never be pointless.” He chose his words carefully, not wanting to let any semblance of discomposure slip from his mouth. 

You nodded, mouth hung in awe. “Such a straightforward guy you are, huh?”

“Not always,” Tendou coughed and at that point, Ushijima was already contemplating on spiking him in the face to make his chatty teammate shut up for once. 

When the idea popped into his head, Ushijima gulped the next second. It wasn’t like him to think violence upon others, regardless of how much they grated on his nerves. With that, he could almost hear the words his father had told him about soulmates just before he had to leave for another country.

“There’ll come a day when you’ll meet the person who’s going to utter these words to you,” his father had said, tracing his fingers over the strange words on his son’s much tinier ones. “When that day comes, your heart will go into overdrive. You’ll act in ways you never have before. It’ll be like a hurricane tore through your whole being—your soul.”

Those words had been theatrical at best, and dreadful at worst. Ushijima was a bright boy for his age when he was imparted with them, and the first reaction that was excited from him was cold skepticism. 

If that’s true then why are you leaving me and mother behind?

He’d wanted to ask Takashi that one question, but he knew that his father would only leave him with some vague answer and a pat on the head. He never was a straightforward man when it came to things that didn’t include volleyball—always opting to talk in riddles and insisting that Ushijima would ‘know when the time is right’. 

Ever since his father left Japan, Ushijima had always despised the concept of soulmates; it didn’t guarantee happiness or satisfaction. The deity responsible for such a thing simply lumped in random people together even if there was no compatibility whatsoever. 

His parents were a clear example of that and the last thing he’d want to do is to engage himself in something that would do more harm than good to him and his emotional well-being. 

But once today’s joint practice came to an end, he simply couldn’t help it. The way his heart fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings when you stopped to wave your hand at him in farewell was accompanied by an unfamiliar sensation that spread across his entire being. It felt…it felt soothing. 

“Wakatoshi.”

The sound of Reon’s voice yanked him back to his senses. Ushijima blinked, realizing that he’d been standing by the gym’s entrance ever since Niiyama’s players departed, quite lost in thought. 

Unlike Tendou, Reon was better at reading people, even Ushijima—placid and stoic Ushijima—himself. When the wing spiker cast him a knowing look with those thoughtful eyes of his, the captain felt like Reon was picking him apart with a single gaze.

“Is there anything you want off your chest?” was his icebreaker.

Ushijima considered his words, contemplating whether or not the thoughts plaguing his mind were worthy of a discussion. It was but a trivial little thing. He’s faced dozens of discrepancies before that were much more troublesome in nature. Eliciting a sound that sounded like a sigh, but not quite, Ushijima went back inside the gym with the intent of assisting with tonight’s clean-up.

“Nothing at all.” 

***

“Wakatoshi-kun, you’re no fun,” Tendou huffed as he shut the door to their shared room, immediately climbing up the ladder to the top bunk. 

Ushijima eyed him from where he stood, shrugging off his jacket to hang on the hook behind the door. His expression morphed into subtle curiosity because this was the first time he’s talked to Ushijima since practice ended. Tendou had been giving him the cold shoulder throughout dinner, and he wasn’t being discreet about it either. 

Deciding to see where this will go, he took a more neutral approach. “You’ve told me such numerous times already, Tendou.”

“You know what I mean.” He merely frowned. 

For the past three years, Tendou had these sporadic mood swings from time to time and Ushijima had gotten used to them. However, no matter how long they’ve been sharing this room together, the ace never seemed to understand the pattern in his temper. But for some reason, Ushijima subconsciously knew that, this time,  Tendou’s irritation wasn’t entirely baseless. 

When the captain said nothing in response, Tendou clicked his tongue, hopping across the bedrail to land gracefully on the carpeted floor. 

The middle blocker grunted, placing his hands on his hips in an accusatory gesture. “Why didn’t you tell her she’s your soulmate? You a pussy or something?”

Looking over the fact that his heart lurched in his ribcage at the reminder, Ushijima managed to say, “(Surname) did not seem to react strongly to me when I spoke to her. The possibility of her not being my ‘soulmate’, as you put it, is still there, Tendou.”

He clicked his tongue again with more vigor. “That’s ‘cause the first words you told her were, ‘thank you’. How many times does a person hear that from strangers? A whole fuckin’ lot, Wakatoshi-kun.” He graced his dialogue with exaggerated movements from his hands that seemed oddly fitting. “Meanwhile, you’re here with the same exact words she hit you up with tattooed on your fuckin’ hand, and you’re turning a blind eye? Is Wakatoshi-kun a dumbass?” 

The snark in Tendou’s seething rage complemented his words in a strange way. They were enough to catch Ushijima off guard, since Tendou was someone that never lost his twisted glee unless an opponent on-court was besting him. But they were not playing volleyball, and no one was besting him at all.

Or was there?

Tendou fisted Ushijima’s shirt and brought his face closer to his. Carmine eyes bore into his own with an emotion he isn’t familiar with. 

“I’ve been dying to meet who mine is, did you know that?” Tendou whispered airily. “I’m always searching for ‘the normal guy’. But who the fuck is just gonna tell that to my face? You met your own match today, but chose to ignore it? It—it fuckin’ pisses me off, Wakatoshi-kun.”

Ushijima exhaled, refusing to let Tendou’s rash words faze him in any way. He acknowledged his teammate’s strong feelings about the whole soulmate matter, but telling you still wasn’t his decision to make. Not when Ushijima still had his thoughts all over the place. 

“Go to sleep, Tendou.” Ushijima pried his grip off his shirt. “Spring Interhigh Playoffs begin tomorrow. You best forget about this and get some rest.”

Tendou’s glare never let up as he scoffed, making his way to the door. “I’m going to hit some serves in the gym. Don’t follow me.” 

“It was not my intention to.” 

His roommate responded by slamming the door behind him with more force than what was necessary. Almost immediately after, Ushijima could hear Semi barking about the noise in the hall, to which Tendou replied with a muffled, “Fuck off, Semisemi.” 

The captain sighed, sitting on his bottom bunk bed to quell the apprehension rooting itself under his skin. To an extent, Tendou had been right about him being ‘a pussy’. But it’s not as if it mattered. There was no need for him to rush things, nor did Ushijima wish to.

He would tell you in his own time.  

***

Part Two →

[bluerosesburnblue]

A Kingdom Hearts III Secret Movie Theory/Kingdom Hearts IV Speculation

Everybody seems to think that the Yozora we see in the KH3 Secret Ending is exactly the same character as depicted in the Verum Rex game in Toy Box, but what if it’s... not?

Spoiler Warning for: Kingdom Hearts III, The World Ends With You (main game), The World Ends With You (A New Day)

I mean, what do we actually see Yozora do in the Secret Movie? He sits there, ominously, and watches Riku. But at no point does he show any of the skills or abilities of the game!Yozora from Toy Box. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have his crossbow weapon, either. Or any weapon, for that matter. So here’s what I propose: the Yozora we see in the Secret Ending isn’t exactly the same as the Yozora we see in Verum Rex. Rather, it’s a coincidence, much like Riku’s resemblance to Yozora. The Yozora we see in the Secret Ending is a real person. The one we see in Verum Rex is just a metaphorical representation of that person

Let’s put a few theories I’ve seen around Tumblr together. alloutassassin made the interesting observation that Yozora’s heterochromia (specifically the one red eye) could be a reference to a central plot element from Final Fantasy vs.XIII that was scrapped in the transition to Final Fantasy XV: “Eyes that can see the Light of Expiring Souls.” It’s a really interesting plot point, especially since we can tell from the Verum Rex trailer that Nomura is using some old ideas from vs.XIII that didn’t make it into XV for the game. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he brought back the eyes that can see death at some point. alloutassassin makes a lot of interesting observations (and I do recommend checking out their post), though since they admit that they don’t know anything about The World Ends With You, there is one big inaccuracy that I’m going to address, simply because of how important it is in TWEWY right now

alloutassassin says that Riku’s in Shibuya, and it just looks different because he arrived at a different time than Sora did. He didn’t. Riku’s actually in Shinjuku, as proven by vixro in this post here. To summarize their observations, Riku very deliberately walks directly in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, a real-world building in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, and Shinjuku is right next to Shibuya. Now why is Riku being in Shinjuku and not Shibuya significant? Because TWEWY’s Shinjuku no longer exists

Nomura explicitly recommended that people play TWEWY Final Remix while they wait for KH3. Final Remix adds a new scenario called “A New Day,” where Neku is occasionally subjected to visions of a lone girl walking through an empty city, and at the very end it’s revealed that Shinjuku has been erased, and that that girl is the only survivor.

Back to the “Eyes that can See the Light of Expiring Souls” thing, there is a character in TWEWY who was able to see dead people playing the game while he was alive: Mr. Composer of Shibuya himself, Yoshiya Kiryu, aka Joshua. For the sake of anyone reading this who hasn’t played TWEWY and doesn’t care about spoiling it, Joshua, Neku’s partner for Week 2 of the game, is the Composer of Shibuya. He’s essentially the person who runs the entire Reaper’s Game, and the highest ranking Reaper in Shibuya. During Week 2, he illegally partners with Neku while assuming a more human appearance due to hiding out in the real-world of Shibuya, so none of the Reapers recognize him. During the week it’s revealed that he could see the dead while he was alive, and it’s that ability that caused him to get interested in and eventually join in on the Reaper’s Game. From there it can be inferred that he entered by choice in the past and worked his way up to the position of Composer prior to the events of TWEWY. The entire point of this, though, is to prove that being able to see the dead while you are alive is a rare, but not unheard of ability to have in the TWEWY universe

One last important detail about TWEWY that many people overlook is this: the rules of Shibuya’s Reaper’s Game are not universal. The Composer makes the rules, and for everywhere that a Reaper’s Game exists, that Composer is free to make their own rules. We only know the rules of Shibuya’s Game. We don’t know anything about how the Game is run in Shinjuku, so it’s possible that some elements of it could be quite a bit closer to Verum Rex than TWEWY

So here’s what I propose: the Yozora we see in the Secret Ending shows no signs of having the abilities of the Yozora from Verum Rex, but could easily still have the ability to see the dead that being a vs.XIII Noctis-expy would imply that he has. This ability canonically has a counterpart in the TWEWY universe, which means that the Yozora from the Secret Ending could potentially exist within the confines of the TWEWY universe. The only other TWEWY character we know who has this ability was driven to play the Reaper’s Game and rise through the ranks to become the highest ranking Reaper because of that ability

Our Secret Ending Yozora could be someone involved in the Shinjuku Reaper’s Game. Given that Shinjuku... exists, I think Riku could have arrived either just before Shinjuku was erased (unlikely, as the TWEWY cast in KH3D are all implied to be their selves from after the TWEWY Reaper’s Game has finished, or at the very least from very late in the game) or after Shinjuku potentially gets restored. So now I’m torn between a few possibilities:

Yozora could be the Composer of Shinjuku, either the old one restored along with Shinjuku or a new one who we’ll see rise to the position over the course of the events A New Day implies will happen

Yozora is a Player in the Shinjuku Reaper’s game. Riku is either incapable of seeing him because Riku is alive while Yozora is not, or Riku totally could see him and is in the Shinjuku Reaper’s Game as well

Yozora is totally alive and is watching the events of Shinjuku’s Game from the real world

Either way, I’m not totally convinced that the world of Verum Rex actually exists within the Kingdom Hearts universe. What we see of Verum Rex in Toy Box could be teasers for Yozora’s role in whatever game the Secret Movie eventually becomes, but meant more as symbolical representations of things that will happen, rather than being literal events. Riku and Yozora’s appearance in Shinjuku during a cinematic that blatantly shows Sora in TWEWY’s Shibuya, all while Nomura encourages people to play TWEWY Final Remix, seems very deliberate and suspicious to me.

[kinogane]

Essence of Combat, Part 3: The Pinnacle

(major Yakuza: Like a Dragon and other Yakuza spoilers below)

(previously)

In the waning moments of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ichiban and crew defeat governor of Tokyo Ryo Aoki and his flunkies after successfully exposing Aoki's true nature and unsuccessfully trying to bring him back from his excessively paranoid megalomania. As the battle proves to be ultimately too strenuous for the party members, Ichiban sets off on his own to end it all and settle things one-on-one. But not with Ryo Aoki, governor of Tokyo, political phenom, ruthless schemer, two-faced hypocrite, the man behind the murders of Ryuhei Hoshino and others, and the source of just about everything that's gone wrong for Ichiban since New Year's Day 2001.

No, he's settling things with Masato Arakawa. The young master. A man who he served without hesitation, a man who he saw and still sees, despite everything, as his own brother.

Besides the obvious emotional weight behind the final battle, there's also a few mechanical quirks. The first is that Ichiban is in a battle by himself for the first time since he teams with Adachi to infiltrate the Omi Alliance meeting in Kamurocho. The second, and what I find significantly more interesting, is that Ichiban is automatically reclassed into the Freelancer job that the vast majority of players will not have used since the aforementioned bat-drawing scene that gives players access to Ichiban's Hero job.

I find this switch to Freelancer interesting, because it reflects another hallmark of the Yakuza action combat. Or, more accurately, a hallmark of Yakuza combat in the context of its plot: the final boss fight.

The Yakuza games have a long history of having one-on-one climactic final boss fights to mark the end of gameplay. As you would expect, these bosses tend to be among the toughest in the whole game, and the choreography of the cutscenes in the fight, along with the usually highly dramatic circumstances surrounding it, generally mean that they rank among the most memorable encounters in the series as a whole.

Going back to the Freelancer switch, it's worth noting that for this fight, the game reasonably assumes that most players haven't leveled the job at all and helpfully gives Ichiban access to the entire skillset of the Freelancer job.

The Freelancer skills, in order, are:

Tenacious Fist: A windup right hook.

Rock Swing: A headlock into a hip toss.

Headbutt Barrage: A collar grab into two headbutts, then a jumping headbutt.

Hyper Swagger: A taunt that raises attack and evasion.

Dropkick: A standing dropkick.

Ruffian's Kick: A jumping side kick.

Atomic Drop: An atomic drop, as seen previously in Yakuza games as Essence of Knee Slam.

Release German Suplex: A release German suplex.

Notice that all are unarmed techniques, befitting of a job that has no weapon type and must be unarmed, and all of them wouldn't really be out of place in a Kiryu Saga protagonist's moveset. (Again, Shinada and Kiryu can already perform an atomic drop as Heat Actions in Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, respectively.)

As a bonus (and a bit of a reach), every previous mainline Yakuza protagonist can learn the ability to build Heat by taunting, often through the White Tiger Spirit upgrade, and at least in 0 (and possibly other games), having Heat can increase your damage and evasiveness. What does Hyper Swagger do, again?

To really drive things home, the top level Freelancer skill is the job's Kiwami Action, Essence of Roadside Weapon. In many situations, it's simply the Essence of Might Heat Action that's been in many previous Yakuza games, but as its description suggests, performing it in other specific contexts has you instead performing attacks that may be, let's say, familiar to series veterans.

So the framing is really clear. For all intents and purposes, the final battle against Masato is the climactic final boss fight of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, further punctuated by Ichiban's Freelancer moveset making him the closest to a standard Yakuza protagonist he can possibly be. In this moment, Like a Dragon most closely and deliberately resembles the Yakuza games of the past.

To which I can't help but ask: if you're going to go this far in embracing Yakuza tradition, why not go all the way and let you control Ichiban in action combat?

Of course, there's a very obvious answer. They can't, because introducing an entirely new control scheme at the final hour in a game explicitly intended as a soft reboot for the franchise would be an ill-advised move. Additionally, while I've no insight into the intricacies of working with the Dragon Engine, I would not be even remotely surprised to find out that implementing action combat in Like a Dragon would be exceedingly difficult; making video games is very, very hard. And even if was feasible or even relatively simple, I would not be surprised if the testing and debugging necessary to make sure it was up to snuff would be considered too prohibitive to be worthwhile. Again, making video games is very, very hard, and making good video games is even harder. (And all of this is without considering RGG Studio's prolific output. They've put out games of this scope, almost every year, for over a decade.)

But putting aside the pragmatic reality of the matter, I do think it's worth interrogating the implications of Ichiban adopting the most mundane job and using the most mundane techniques against Masato but retaining the turn-based structure. Ichiban, by all accounts, is well within his rights to hold nothing back against Aoki, who's callously ruined innumerable lives in the name of his own need to attain absolute power and avoid being among the used at any cost. Ichiban could absolutely brain Aoki with a bat and give him the definitely not fatal concussion to end all definitely not fatal concussions, and it would maybe be a step too far, but not by much. (And as a consequence of transferrable skills and battle items, it is actually somewhat likely that you, as Ichiban, can do things like stab Aoki with a katana, throw dynamite right in his face, or blast him with a rocket launcher.)

But again, Ichiban's not fighting Aoki. He's fighting Masato. No one would blame him for not holding back, as he did back in prison against the three prisoners, but he still does. The Freelancer job switch means his stats are almost certainly objectively lower, across the board. He becomes unarmed, and loses access to many of his most powerful skills. And he still approaches the fight with his turn-based mindset, letting Masato get his hits in, just like every other enemy he's faced up to this point, because it's only fair. Because in spite of everything Masato has put Ichiban and his loved ones through, Masato is still the young master, still a brother to Ichiban. He just does not have it in himself to go all out against Masato. He's not fighting Masato to prove he's stronger; he's fighting Masato to stop him from losing himself further to his worst excesses and fears. To help him start over from rock bottom, just as he has.

Tremendous resonance between gameplay and story, to be sure, but it leaves an intriguing door open. Veterans who've played Yakuza 5 and 6 may remember that those games openly toy with the idea that while Kiryu has not purposefully killed in cold blood, he knows and more or less states that doing so is never fully off the table. So even if it somewhat obviously never comes to fruition, the specter of that possibility is played for drama in those games. Will this be the step too far that drives Kiryu to kill?

I posit that the Masato fight in Like a Dragon poses a similar question. It's not the case this time, but in future Yakuza games, will Ichiban ever be in such a dire situation, and come across an opponent who he deeply hates so much, that he drops the turn-based mindset entirely? And if so, will he be controlled like Yakuza games of old?

I've said as much before, but I don't think this is a given or even necessarily a good idea. Knowing what we do about Ichiban and the kind of person he is, it might very well be the case that this final boss fight is an intensely personal one and therefore special, and future final boss fights will be more along the lines of the more traditional (in a Like a Dragon sense) boss fight against Tendo, which would certainly be more in line with most turn-based RPG final boss fights. Hell, there are already people who treat Tendo as the true final boss fight and both fights afterward as bonus story fights.

Personally? I'm of two minds with this. On one hand, sure, I would have a lot of fun controlling Ichiban in action combat, even if it was just for one boss fight, because I do have considerably more fun with Yakuza action combat, hitting counters and performing Heat Actions, and the character implications of doing so would be a lot to chew on. But on the other, I also find the turn-based combat satisfying in a different way, I know that the action combat I prefer isn't going away any time soon in other games, and I think that it'd be better for the Ichiban games as a whole to make a clean break. The circumstances of the Masato fight are a neat throwback and acknowledgement of Yakuza's past, but I suspect if they do something similar in future games without going all the way, it'll land considerably flatter.

In other words, regardless of what direction they choose to take final boss fights (and to a lesser extent, combat mechanics like Kiwami Actions writ large) in the Like a Dragon sequels, I'm saying they should follow Saejima's evergreen advice.

[kulemii]

God, I hope this doesn't come off as me trying to dust off Aizawa and put him on a bias pedestal. I swear that I've given this thought before and I'm just sharing my perspective.

Anyway, I totally get where you're coming from on that point of the irony in Aizawa's judgement of Daigo, considering his father is doing the same. However, I personally believe that Aizawa is still firmly again nepotism, regardless of the circumstances because of this line.

Like, yes, his father's plan would allow him to benefit from nepotism but it was a plan put in place before he even swore up at the TJC. And by his own admission, he never really cared about the benefits of Kurosawa's plan going well. I think, in his mind, this whole debacle opened up an opportunity to prove himself more than anything. He sees it more of a, this door is open so I'm gonna dash through before it closes, type-situation.

Imo, if he simply wanted to benefit from his father handing him both organizations, I think he might've just waited until the fire was out and then assumed the position.

Instead, I think his logic was, he opted to go to the TJC himself and physically claim the Chairman seat; not because daddy handed it to him but because he himself decided he's worthy of it and he intended to prove it by beating Kiryu. The Man, The Myth, The Legend (sorry couldn't resist).

I believe that if Aizawa simply took the TJC by Kurosawa handing him the keys to the palace, he wouldn't have the confidence and arrogance we see in the finale scene because he wouldn't have felt that he achieved anything.

I hope that part made sense.

In regards to his 'real personality' and how much of his behavior was an act throughout the game, I think your theory is pretty interesting. I've seen others put out a similar idea of him acting from start to finish (even during the coliseum bit).

Personally, I am of the belief that Aizawa was Aizawa from beginning to end. I, a lot of the time, refer to Aizawa's outfit changes as "eras" as a joke but the real thought process behind it is that, each suit represents a different side of Aizawa.

Both sides are him; very similar but slightly different.

Black Suit Silver Tie Aizawa is quiet and follows his aniki's lead but he's still headstrong and stubborn.

White Suit Purple Shirt Aizawa is outspoken and marches to the beat of his own drum but is just as opinionated and impulsive.

I think of it a lot like being on and off the clock at work.

And he quite literally was!

When he met Kiryu in Fukuoka, he was in uniform, working as a bodyguard and tasked with finding his boss. Morinaga was his friend but also a sort of 'supervisor'. (Here, he's standing tall, hands at his side and bowing accordingly.)

Still, we get to see that impulsive, opinionated side of him when he tries to check Kiryu about 'turning his back' on Daigo.

When he meets Kiryu again in the boardroom, he's there of his own volition, in his street clothes (well.. the yakuza equivalent er, you know what I mean lol) as he's pursuing his own motives. (This time, his body language is far more relaxed, improper, he's leaning and moving his hands about.)

As I said before, I believe that had his first appearance being 100% a put on, it might have served him better to remain calm and quiet from the start.

The thing is, since the start, he was explosive and headstrong.

It was no secret that he wasn't fond of Kiryu. He didn't have to say it aloud, you can it written on his face, even before Kiryu fights him and Morinaga. And he was ready to step up to (attempt) to rough him up when he wouldn't cooperate upon their first meeting.

But, of course this is my own personal interpretation.

I'm so sorry about how long this is. Omg.

Kurosawa tends to get this nasty little smirk or leer on his face when he’s particularly proud of how well he’s screwing with someone.

Moments Used:

1. After he tells Kiryu to check the news (for Majima’s death)

2. Before Majima’s brought to the roof to fight Saejima.

3. After telling Majima and Saejima to kill each other.

[seganerds]

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he yakuza with a heart of gold is back once again, this time in an updated remake of his very first adventure.

Yakuza 0 was my first experience with the series, and if you haven’t played the game and/or read my review, I encourage you to do so before proceeding. The reason is that even though it isn’t essential to have played 0 before Kiwami, the latter is still nonetheless built off the former, and in many ways, to understand one is to understand the other.

In truth, this comes more from a mechanical perspective than a narrative one, as both titles purportedly use the same engine. This comes through in a variety of ways, as both games largely tend to look, feel, and sound the same on a fundamental level. I don’t personally see this as a bad thing in any way, but at the same time, the fact that this comes from designing both games to run on the PlayStation 3 (in Japan, at least), some minor things like occasional pop-up do spring up from time to time.

Taking control of Kazuma Kiryu tends to feel much the same as well, though I found early on that using his various fighting styles felt slightly different to me than they did in Zero, though that may have simply been my being used to the more leveled-up versions in that game before having to go through the process again in this one. That process is an interesting one in itself, as you do have one of those sorts of “resets” that takes you from a powered-up Kazuma at the start of the game to a point where you have to work your way back up.

In fact, this works against the game at one point early on. I thought the difficulty was uneven as some mooks went down in no time flat, while bosses were like wailing away at a brick wall (though knowing Kiryu, he’d probably do better against the brick wall). It turns out that this is due to a sloppy implementation – or rather, education – of a feature newly added to this release: The Kiwami Heat action.

Basically, during the course of a boss battle, you build up your Heat Climax meter, and when the boss gets winded, they’ll glow with a colored aura that corresponds with one of your fighting styles as they regenerate health. When you’re in that style, you can perform an extra-special damaging move that halts the process and makes the battle a lot easier.

Unfortunately, without getting into too much detail, they decide to introduce this concept before effectively stripping you of it without really telling you. Getting it back is simply a matter of applying experience points to the appropriate leveling-up chart, but you’re not informed of this in any way, thus leading to some confusion (and YouTube videos explaining what to do) I’ve witnessed around online.

Oh, and on the note of leveling up: Since making fat stacks of cash was more of an 80’s theme in the original, it doesn’t play into “buying” moves and levels as it did in Yakuza 0, and enemies don’t have cash flying when beaten. Instead, leveling up is done in an altogether more traditional fashion. It’s understandable, but slightly disappointing after the thrill of mad money flying everywhere.

Speaking of difficulty, another new feature in Yakuza Kiwami is the “Majima Everywhere.” Early on in the game, you meet up with Yakuza 0’s other playable character, Goro Majima, and he pretty much wipes the floor with you, setting up the idea of him attacking you at random to help restore the Dragon of Dojima to his former glory. I was worried that these battles would prove cumbersome to deal with, but relieved to find out that would not be the case.

Instead, Majima Everywhere is a true highlight of the game – you really can’t be sure where he’ll come from, and he goes to some crazily absurd lengths to draw the attention of “Kiryu-chan.” There came one point where his attacks became relentless and were actively preventing me from progressing in the story, but he soon backed off and allowed me some time to do what I needed to do. That brief period aside, Majima is a delight to encounter, save for the occasions you simply run into him while roaming, as he sadly has only one script for every such encounter. Those are still fun, mind, but feels like they’d have been better had Majima been given more to say.

Sadly, one disappointing thing about Majima is that he doesn’t really feel much like the same character we met and played as in Yakuza 0. Maybe there’s room for a “Yakuza 0.5” to tell the rest of his story?

The Kamurocho area feels much like Yakuza 0 as well, but with some 17 years of change applied to it, allowing the map to feel both familiar yet fresh at the same time. Of course, without Sōtenbori to run around in as well, the play area of the game is only about half the size of its prequel. Even so, some different things have been done to freshen things up, such as the locker keys and game cards which now litter the streets, replacing the phone cards from before.

Incidentally, another carryover from Yakuza 0 is that when you come across someone being victimized, it seems the goons and Kazuma’s dialogue is lifted straight from that game.

In terms of story, Yakuza Kiwami comes from a kind of weird place, as it remakes a game that did not have a predecessor behind it. As such, you don’t really have to have played Yakuza 0 to follow along in Kiwami. It’s beneficial, to be sure, as there are indeed various references dropped throughout, and even an entire side-story which calls back to the prequel, but for the most part, you’re given all the context you need to follow along with what’s happening in the here and now without having played the first one.

Even so, I really do recommend playing Yakuza 0 first. For one reason, it’s just a great game, but for another, it will help to enlighten you to some of the main characters, their relationships, and their hardships in this game. In fact, in some ways, Yakuza Kiwami on its own feels less like Kazuma’s story than it does his friend Akira Nishikiyama, which unfolds throughout the course of the game. But playing Yakuza 0 beforehand helps reinforce the bond the two have, helping make Kiryu’s tie to everything feel that much stronger.

Beyond that, a word of warning worth heeding is that the story can be fairly confusing at first, presenting the player with a number of flashbacks (and I think even some flashbacks within flashbacks) that can be a little much to take in. Fortunately, it’s not long before things straighten out a bit and everything makes more sense as it runs smoothly, so I encourage you to stick with it if you’re trying to get a grasp on things and it feels like a bit much.

Yakuza Kiwami is a bit of an odd one, a game that feels as much like a sequel as it is a remake, which makes sense as it is both. In some ways, one could also say it feels like a sort of second episode or expansion to Yakuza 0, as it’s a shorter game that focuses on half the main characters and settings of that title. As a remake of a game that’s 12 years old and had plenty of time to see numerous refinements and growth, there is only so much one can be expected to do to bring it up to modern standards.

Still, just as I loved Yakuza 0, I love Yakuza Kiwami. It has its quirks and foibles, sure, and I might even like its recent prequel just a little more, but damn if I didn’t enjoy every moment I played (and will continue playing, as there are still plenty of sidequests left to handle). I can’t say the game is without faults, but none of them were ever enough to bring me down in the face of all the goodness it has to offer.

Summary

Yakuza 0 set a new standard for the series as the best place to start, but if the lower-price is more of a draw, then you’ll of course still do well by jumping in with Yakuza Kiwami. And if you’ve already played Yakuza 0, then this soft reboot is a great way to keep the good times rolling.

I’d end by saying “Bring on Yakuza Kiwami 2,” but since Yakuza 6 stands between the two releases, I’ll just have to hope it will be as friendly to series newcomers and veterans alike as this was.

Pros:

+ Shorter, single-character narrative makes for a tighter experience + Majima everywhere is a blast, and helps make up for the lack of him as a playable character this time + All fighting styles from Yakuza Zero are available right at the start + Some punks, a dog, a rock, and Kazuma. You’ll know why when you see it

Cons:

– Really could have introduced players to Kiwami Heat actions better – No vintage SEGA games to play at the arcade this time – The number of multiplayer games feels limited compared to the number of mini-games featured in the main campaign itself – No Mark Hamill as Majima. [Note to self: Ask him to squeal “Kiryu-chan!!” for me on Twitter]

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We re-live the original @yakuzagame ‏in our #YakuzaKiwami #review: The yakuza with a heart of gold is back once again, this time in an updated remake of his very first adventure.