#but no he would probably prefer to pretend he's really modest and discreet

[bluehairperson]

Btw, those “Valerius is reticent to show his affections towards MC even after they get together“ dynamics in Val/Mc fics are great for angst, but you can’t tell me this man wouldn’t BRAG all day to every single person in the city about how the greatest magician of continent, the hero of Vesuvia and of their whole dimension in general, fell in love with him over anyone else. He would be like one of those white soccer moms that constantly elevate their own kids, but with MC, while (not even much) trying to sound really casual about it.

“Oh?? The Court Magician?? The individual that came back from the dead just to save the whole world and who is pretty much the physical embodiment of a deity?? The one who defeated THE DEVIL?? My fiance who adores me very much even tho they could have had tHE COUNTESS?? Yes, of course, I happen to have heard of them.”

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Is Ogata a virgin?

To be honest...

I’m probably not the right person to ask this as I genuinely don’t have the slightest idea about it and I’m not really interested in this.

You see, those were different times from now.

While Japan had different ideas than the west about purity, marriage and so on, from what I know folk girls at the time wouldn’t really be willing to sleep around with boys easily, unless they planned to marry said boy and move to live with him (Meiji era is a time of changes though, so cut me some slack on this as I might be anticipating a bit a mentality that will develop in the future).

To make it simple, Harumi Chiyo (or Igogusa if you prefer) might have slept with Tsukishima prior to him leaving for war because Tsukishima made clear he wanted to marry her once he were back and she might have believed him so, if she were to remain pregnant no harm would be done as they would get married anyway.

On the other side it’s more unlikely Kakizaki Umeko slept with Sugimoto even though she equally loved him, as they apparently weren’t engaged, even though they were childhood sweethearts... while if she had lived in present times she would have been more willing to spend a night with the boy she liked even if they weren’t talking about getting married.

I genuinely doubt Ogata was/is in a serious relationship with a girl, so it’s strongly unlikely he got to sleep with someone for free.

Of course the typical male method in all the centuries and in almost all the countries (if not in all of them) to lose their virginity was to sleep with a prostitute, and it was especially popular among soldiers, even more when they were at war... which is something I don’t really consider praiseworthy.

Girls were often forced into the profession by misery or by being sold (or even kidnapped as they attempted to do with Asirpa), and taking advantage of their conditions has been something men had done for centuries and that really doesn’t make them that special in my eyes, just because in this way they managed to get rid of their virginity.

Maybe it’s just me.

Now... feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but I think this question was spurred by the Q&A section in the fanbook and more specifically by this bit.

Q18: “The scene in which Ogata tries to corrupt Yuusaku by taking him to a brothel and telling him that brothers are supposed to do bad things together was very sexy and impactful. Does it mean that Ogata frequented brothels, and has the appropriate experience?”

Noda: “He just pretended that he knows what he’s doing.” (Translation courtesy of @piduai)

To be honest the asker never mentions brothels but the "red light district” (遊郭 ‘yūkaku’ lit: “play quarters” but it was generally used in the sense of “pleasure quarters”) however he/she is clearly referring to Ogata’s visit to a specific place (and the image that goes with that ask in the fanbook is the one above just to visually help who didn’t remember about it).

(If someone is wondering “experience” is just ‘Keiken’ (経験) which means, well, “experience” in general)

Now... there’s a huge chance no soldier of Ogata’s rank or lower got a chance to have experience in such a place.

The price from prostitutes varies and the troops didn’t get much money.

The prostitutes working in the slums of Sapporo were probably the cheapest choice as they seemed to work directly on the streets and it was their customer who had to provide a place in which to go, if he wanted to do it somewhere more comfortable... and as you can see in the manga some still had to turn down the chance to spend time with them for a lack of money.

We know Otaru is packed with brothels (私娼窟 ‘shishōkutsu’), disguised as Soba shops.

The ones working for the pimp Sugimoto and Shiraishi interacted with are possibly a bit more expensive than them as they supposedly had a place in which to handle their trade, but as Shiraishi points out they’re ugly and their place is likely modest.

We then move to the brothel in which Ushiyama goes the first time.

It’s likely a bit better as his girl seems prettier and the owner will later brag they’ve the best girls and the best soba.

Sugimoto can afford the soba but the girls would likely cost more. Still maybe he could afford them. We’ll see though how they aren’t there to serve him or something.

Still the girl working there is definitely prettier than the previous, so I’ll say she should be more expensive than the ones with the pimp.

And then we move to the high class places.

We don’t get to see the inside but the girls seems even prettier and by the look of it pretty expensive. Ushiyama likely moved there because Hijikata and Nagakura are now economically supporting him.

Shiraishi (and Ishikawa too) will start visiting expensive brothels as well once Hijikata will start founding them.

The structure of this place is more like the one in which Yuusaku and Ogata went... but the girls are back on not being pretty...

To climb up to this very pretty Oiran.

Oiran (花魁) was a specific category of high ranking courtesan in Japanese history. Divided into a number of ranks within this category, oiran were considered – both in social terms and in the entertainment they provided – to be above common prostitutes, known as yūjo (遊女) (lit. 'woman of pleasure'). Though oiran by definition also engaged in prostitution, they were distinguished by their skills in the traditional arts, with the highest ranking oiran having a degree of choice in which customers they took.

Now... maybe the ladies with Ogata and Yuusaku aren’t the most expensive in the market, but they’re clearly in an upperclass place with 3 beautiful ladies, drinking sake.

I bet this is much more than Ogata’s salary allowed him and the patron for such visit is Tsurumi. Ogata though couldn’t take Yuusaku to a lesser, more economical place, as the point is to tempt an upper class boy like he is, so beautiful women and an elegant place are a must.

Long story short, while Ogata might have had sex with a prostitute... in that situation he’s clearly blind flying as it’s highly unlikely he could allow himself to do so much as drink in such a place, even less to have the girls.

To me it looks like a place for officers, with girls who are even taking care to be discreet, the perfect place to tempt an upper class official like Yuusaku, not a place for superior privates or common soldiers to spend their money regularly.

So, back to the question, did Noda refer solely to prostitutes in places like this, or to prostitutes in general?

No idea.

It can entirely be Ogata didn’t feel like having sex with a prostitute, as not only the affordable ones are ugly, but he might live it as a call back to his mother’s situation.

Although Ogata Tome was a geisha and not a common prostitute, Ogata has likely heard her being accused to be as such many times and the thing might have left a mark.

He’s not utterly repulsed by them, as, once Yuusaku is gone, he let one of them to keep hanging with him and touch him...

...even though he clearly was expecting Tsurumi and couldn’t do much else (especially since the whole thing was a fiasco and it’s unlikely Tsurumi would apprecciate Ogata getting fun from it).

So again, no idea.

It’s not surprising Ogata had no experience with that type of brothels and girls.

He might have had experience with much cheaper prostitutes but if he had or not is not really that interesting to me and not having it might even make sense considering his upbringing as the illegittimate son of a woman accused to sell her body.

He might not want to cause the birth of other children who’re in his place, nor he might feel comfortable with the idea of paying someone for sex.

A common joke among me and some of my friends is that Ogata’s only love is his rifle and, at most, he might fall for the girls of “Girls' frontline“ as they’re weapons’ personifications but, of course, this is just a joke.

So sorry, but I really don’t have an idea if he had sex previously or not. He seems to at least know how men are when they have sex...

...but again it could be a reference to how his father acted so... no idea.

Sorry if I wasn’t really helpful and thank you for your ask!

[cutegirlmayra]

It's been to long, hun.

(x)

Missed you too, lovely!!! 

For those who don’t know, Nikki was in the Sonic comics wwwayyy back in the old days! He would be pretty pathetic… but then, when wishing to be strong, he turned into-! DA-DA-AAH! Sonic The Hedgehog! The hero and everything! Amy was dating Nikki, but she secretly also had a crush on Sonic.

So, Nikki IS Sonic! :D It’s a ‘split personality’ that Nikki is unaware of.

But because you want Modern, I thought of a great twist! What if Modern Sonic puts on glasses and wears one of Tails’s old sweatshirts? Amy runs into him and thinks she’s made a mistake! I think this’ll go nicely together :)

I hope this ‘twist’ will be better than what you wanted! :D When I heard the song, it was the first thing I could think of! If not, I’ll happily rewrite it more to your preferences :)

Prompt:

Sonic, after feeling Amy bump into him, at first wanted to act his usual way. He was wearing this type of ‘disguise’ mostly to go unnoticed without getting stopped by spectators wanting an autograph or other crazy fan girls chasing after him on what should have been his leisurely stroll around the place.

Lots of buildings had been taken down and remastered into beautiful new locations for tourist attractions and the like! Sonic had to get in on it! But with all the people… especially people only used to seeing him on the news, he wanted to avoid publicity.

Taking Tails’s old sweatshirt and getting fake glasses, he tried to blend in as a tourist or civilian.

Amy was gonna blow his whole cover!

He shied away and tried to wave his hand down, about to tell her to quiet down before she pulled back, and looked embarrassed.

“Oh! I’m so sorry! You just reminded me of someone else!” she patted his back which launched him a bit forward. Stumbling, he was suddenly reminded as he flailed his arms about that this was similar to his encounter with her when he was a big, hairy beast.

But there was no excuse for this other than the Superman disguise effect…

Glasses.

Sonic looked up, balancing himself from the impact of her hand’s force upon his back and center of gravity.

It was all in the glasses this time.

That, or Amy really needed a pair of her own.

Feeling a bit offended at first that even now she couldn’t tell it was him, he folded his arms and tapped his foot, hearing her spout out her apologies as if rehearsed for moments like this; and especially play the cute card.

“I’m really sorry about that!” She closed her eyes and scratched the back of her head slightly, sticking her tongue out before giving him a closer look, putting a finger to her mouth…

“But you really did look an awful lot like…”

“…Like?”

He leaned forward, smiling. He figured she may just need a second look.

She blinked a few times, before grinning nervously and turning away, putting a hand up in a fist by her face. “Nah, it was just my honest mistake.”

He frowned.

Pulling back, he put his hands on his hips.

“Still! You could pull of Sonic The Hedgehog if you lose those glasses and tacky clothes.” she tugged on his sweater, looking over it as he flinched back.

Sweat dropping, he silently thought of how Amy could kinda tell it was him, but couldn’t put two and two together… so it seemed.

He sighed, and smiled, thinking he could have fun with this, he gestured a hand out and continued the conversation; acting completely innocent to the reality around him.

“It’s okay, miss. And you’re name is..?”

“Amy!” she happily piped up, and he realized she totally fell for it. Even after hearing his ‘softer’ voice, she couldn’t tell it was him. “Amy Rose!”

He decided to act like a shyer boy, hoping to throw her off even more as he leaned forward and put his hands behind his back.

“Not THE Amy Rose?” He innocently leaned back, as if surprised.

“O-oh… you… you haven’t heard of me, have you?” She blushed, and covered her face, swaying back and forth. “I didn’t realize I was so popular!”

“Oh, of course! I know all about you!” Sonic continued to act it up, pleased by her reactions. “They say you’re the cutest girl in Sonic’s team.” he winked.

“Ahhh~ The press can be so darling~!” she chimed, getting more animated before fluttering her eyes to him and placing a hand out in front of him. “And you are?”

“M-me..? Uhh..” his glasses slopped a minute, symbolically showing his disguise slightly loosen a little, before he pushed them back up and smiled back down to her. “I’m … Nikki! Nikki The Hedgehog.”

“Ah! I knew you were a hedgehog!” Amy pointed, and grinned as the two shared a rather precious moment, before Amy continued on, thumping her chest. “Well! I mustn’t falter in finding my precious Sonic! Hope you enjoy the sights, Nikki!” she waved to rush off, but Sonic wasn’t done with her just yet…

“H-hang on!” he called out, holding his arms out as she turned around, curious as to why he had stopped her from leaving.

“Is something wrong?” She looked over her shoulder. “You lost or need directions or something?”

“More like something.” he continued to play the sweet boy and looked shyly modest and humble as he ducked his head down a minute.

“The truth is… I once met Sonic.”

“What!?”

The evening was spent with Sonic (Nikki) walking around and exploring the sights with Amy, keeping up his disguise. He liked how she didn’t fawn so much over him when he was Nikki, and rather enjoyed her ‘normal’ company, which he didn’t see so often.

He didn’t pull any moves or anything, but there were moments where he would look over her shoulder, and smile, thinking her calmer self more desirable than the Amy he always encountered as himself.

They ended up getting ice cream, “My treat!” Sonic winked, thumbs up’ing in his signature way which almost blew his cover as his glasses slipped again when she stared at him suspiciously.

She shrugged it off though, to his relief.

“You sure do act like him, how long did you say he stayed with you on your farm with your grandpa before taking off after saving you from the fire started by Eggman?”

He had dug a pretty deep hole of a backstory… so he realized.

Sweat dropping again at having forgotten his fake story of how he met himself, he sat down by a bench near her as she accompanied him; giggling and grinning the whole way as she happily ate her ice cream.

Her little but frequent licks made him raise an eyebrow but think it rather humorous. She would never eat that way in front of him. To her, it was too messy and unlady-like around her one true love!

He kinda mocked at that. Liking her more when she ate naturally, and without restraint.

“Oh, that’s right. I think he stayed till his feet were cooled down from all the running.” He looked away, faking remembering, before he got a wicked idea pop into his head.

“Hey… I think I just remembered.” He looked forward then.

“W-what?” Amy looked concerned, as he looked away, trying to avoid her curiosity but secretly feeding it.

“I-It’s nothing… he might not want me to tell you about it..” he closed his eyes and folded his arms, “Hmm..”

“T-tell me! Tell me, tell me, tell me! Was it about me?!” Amy tugged back and forth on him, making him laugh internally while pretending to be startled on the outside.

He weakly smiled up at her after she stopped shaking him. “I-It was about you… yes.”

“W-what did he say… Sonic talking about me?! Eeep!” she let him go, totally in shock, before looking forward and then covering her face, blushing and squee’ing as she rocked side to side.

Sonic looked over his shoulder, smirking wickedly, before looking back to her as kind as any manipulator in a golden opportunity to prank his friend could be.

“He said you’re rather pushy.”

Her whole face flinched into white.

A single leaf rolled by in the wind, before she shook him again. “That’s not funny! Tell me the truth!”

“Wha-ah-ah! Okay, okay! But you have to promise not to tell!” he squinted his eyes, before thinking that was enough and he should probably say something kinder to her.

“He… He said…” before he could think of another comeback, he suddenly noticed her eyes slopping down and the genuine concern in them.

He realized his error was more than a few simple nice words could fix, and sweat dropped a moment as he thought more sincerely about what to retort back with.

“He said…”

He saw her eyes sparkle with hope, her mouth slightly open, the anticipation of something kind from her hero’s lips made him realize this had to be something that would last with her…

Or screw her up.

“Ehem.” Actually growing truly shy, Sonic looked away, a faint pink on his cheek as he put his hand over his mouth, lifting a leg stylishly up on his knee, something he would naturally do, but his character, Nikki, wouldn’t.

“He thought you were… Awesome.”

“..He thought I was awesome? Sonic?” Amy rose an eyebrow, before scoffing.

“Definitely!” Sonic turned back to her, growing in confidence a bit with the help of the disguise…

“How!” Amy leaned forward, pouting demandedly as she was fully paying attention to his next little ‘story’.

“Well…” Sonic rolled his eyes to the side, now getting kinda awkward and nervous.

“…He said… There’s nothing like your smile. Like sunshine you could feel.”

“Really?” she pulled back, amazed.

This reaction gave Sonic even more confidence, though he was still leaning back away from her.

He looked away, thinking again.

“He said… you never knew how wonderful that smile could make someone feel.”

“..Like sunshine?” She cutely tilted her head.

All of a sudden, Sonic’s eyes dropped slightly and he leaned up, becoming more straight-backed and speaking even softer.

“And he noticed… when you get bored,… you puff up a corner of your cheek. It’s so discreet. But really sweet.”

“He said that? Honestly?”

“He said you still read those silly stories. Trying to get ideas on how to make your own, a real, reality.”

He suddenly smiled, moving more towards her.

“But he kept it all inside his head. What he saw, he left unsaid. And though he wanted too. He couldn’t talk to you. He couldn’t find a way… but he would always say…”

He leaned more forward.

“If I could tell her.. exactly what she meant to me. If I could tell her… that the way she laughs, it always gets to me. But you’re ideas of love were worlds apart. But he always wanted to tell you… just how… um. I don’t remember.” He suddenly grew nervous about being so ‘honest’ in his lying and nervously put his hand to his chin, looking away and kicking his leg back up, trying to dodge the conversation any further.

“Did he say he anything else?” Amy was completely infatuated with his words… as she placed a gentle, but pleading hand for him to continue on his knee.

The sensation shot him off in a quick comment, not even thinking about it, just impulse.

“Anything else? Well, of course he did! He said so many things I’m just trying to remember the best ones…” he shrugged, again, his smile turning more sheepish but realer by the second…

“He thought… you looked really pretty-ER.. Cool! When you mastered how to swing that hammer of yours!” He kept swishing his arms around, pretending to hold her hammer and swing it around.

She giggled, “He really did?”

“Oh, of course! And he… wondered how you learned to be so graceful on the battlefield!”

“Sonic..” she looked down, holding a closed-hand to her heart, looking deeply touched. “But he thinks our idea of love is two world’s apart?”

He seemed to be lost in how adorable and touched she looked… If only he could…

“But what can you do… when there seems like such a great divide… Between what you want and what would be… or seem… too… much.”

“He just seems so far away…” Amy looked away, slightly arching her back and bringing her knees closer to her sides, her legs wrapped a little over the other in a lady-like manner, as if she was withdrawing herself in insecurities for a moment. “I never knew he felt that way…”

How did he even begin to tell her?

“And what could he do when the distance seemed so wide?” he moved closer.

“How could he say he….” he stopped himself a moment, his eyes widening.

(AU moment. If this was true canon, he would turn away here and I’d end it… but since we’re going off a song that isn’t ‘perfectly’ canon anyway~ >wn>)

“I love you.”

“Huh?” she turned back to him.

“…I love you…” he suddenly seemed to be realizing it himself. A huge open smile coming on his face.

“I love you!”

“W-woah! N-Nikki…” she got up, holding her hands out, “I.. I should go.” She lowered her eyes and scanned the ground, before taking off.

“W-wait-!” he held out his hand before twitching and stopping himself.

He pulled it back, shaking his head and gripping it.

“..Don’t be stupid… Just stop yourself now, Sonic.” he sat back down fully upon the bench, staring at the ground as he slowly…

Covered…

His face…

“But we’re a million worlds apart.. I don’t even know where to start… If I could…

           …………………………………………   Tell her.”

                           He took off the glasses and placed his hand on his eyes.

(Hope you enjoyed it! :D The song is gorgeous, haha!)