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stepswowdsen · 6 months ago

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KuroEne AU: Route Idea where Kuroha baits Konoha using Hibiya

(KuroEne with implied KonoEne)

KuroEne AU rambles. Wrote this a few days ago but forgot to post.

Was just thinking of a KuroEne AU with a Route set-up similar to Manga Route 2 Kuroha/Saeru baits Konoha by using Hibiya, and meets Ene.

Kuroha/Saeru baits Konoha by using Hibiya, and meets Ene. Basically, he baits Konoha on purpose by putting Hibiya (who he's currently possessing) in danger, counting on the fact that he knows Konoha will risk his life for his friends, and then takes the opportunity to jump to possess Konoha's body.

I didn't write KuroEne love/hate sex this time, since these rambles are just SFW, but that'd be fun to write more of, too. Ene should put him in his place!!!

...

I initially wrote these as tags but I'm just gonna copy paste to post them here instead.

My canon-verse KuroEne AU is angsty, but it USUALLY starts more lighthearted and tame then eventually ramps up while approaching the fated date.

But this Route idea really takes the cake omfg

I love writing both fluff and angst… I think when juxtaposed together, they become really interesting. In general, I also think that conflict and tension are the spice of life in ships, so I love writing interesting kinds of conflict and tension and hostility, of the compelling kind.

It isn't KagePro without angst and tragedy after all ^^

But gosh I do think my other ships show how my tastes mellowed out over time cuz my KuroEne AU is so angsty. KuroEne has a delicious set-up and unique context that makes the ship interesting.

While my other fandom ships still have spicy kinds of conflict and tension, they are still very soft and tender and filled with warmth and companionship.

I think KuroEne have moments of tenderness and warmth and companionship, too, but they have the most tense relationship of all my ships due to Kuroha's role and set-up as the big bad evil snake who's the cause of the time loop tragedy.

I put more rambles under the cut, as usual!

Me: (Me while writing for my KuroEne AU)

I love angst!!! And also fluff!!! Yayyyyy!!! 🥰💞

My friends: HOLY SHIT your KuroEne AU is so angst fuel I love it... But you are really so evil for this Sen /lh /j 😭

Context Rambles and Some Thoughts

I decided to add context at the beginning for anyone who'd like to tune into the rambles.

In most Routes, Saeru (Snake of Clearing Eyes) possesses Kenjirou (Ayano's father) and then at the end of a Route (on the fated day of August 15th), the Heat Haze Day, jumps to Konoha's body.

Konoha's body is advantageous for him. Due to the nature of Haruka’s wish to have an “ideal” body to make friends with, Konoha’s body has superhuman strength (ie. Konoha can punch craters into walls, jump across buildings, and heal from fatal wounds).

Because of this, for him (Saeru), it's the ideal body to carry out the "Tragedy" with.

Ty to the KagePro fan-wiki for compiling sm of the lore and resources 🙏 Incredibly useful.

It's also because as Konoha, Haruka’s body is host-less. It doesn't have a human host, so he can jump from the current person he’s possessing to Konoha’s (as long as his current vessel manages to touch Konoha), and overtake the body with ease, overtake Konoha’s consciousness and possess him.

According to Novel Route, due to the wide degree of knowledge he carries, Kuroha/Saeru can even use Konoha’s Awakening Eyes to “rebuild the body molecule by molecule”

In Manga Route 2, even when he’s crushed by a landslide, he can heal and regenerate, no problem. This guy is absurdly OP as Black Konoha.

His extremely cold and calculated way of thinking and usage of "resources" is interesting to me.

But I also think it makes sense that the being who’s basically the embodiment of “Knowledge/Wisdom” can pull these things off.

I would say that it's because it's advantageous to him.

In most Routes, when Saeru possesses Kenjirou, waits until night to possess Kenjirou so that he doesn't draw suspicion.

Kenjirou is an adult male researcher/scientist, so that means that Saeru can gather funds and resources and influence while possessing him. Saeru overtakes the consciousness of the person he possesses, so they don't remember the things he does while possessing them.

It's within the nature of an Eye Ability Snake to works towards fulfilling their current host's wish, so he works towards his host's goals, while also working towards his own goals.

Iirc, it's because of Saeru's influence that the deaths of Haruka, Takane, and Ayano, who all die on the same day, don't get mass reported to the media.

Because 3 high school students dying mysteriously on the same day would be a HUGE thing, but he seems to take advantage of the body he's using to convince others to keep their deaths concealed so that the news is not wide spread.

...

In Manga Route 2, both of Ayano's parents die (instead of just her mother, Ayaka), but Kenjirou doesn't enter the Kagerou Daze in this Route.

So, Saeru has to possess Hibiya (the youngest MekaDan member at 11 years old), and Hibiya's body is much more inconvenient for him, but he still does fine with hiding from the MekaDan cuz no one suspects him until it's too late, and he kills Momo by throwing her off the rooftop in front of numerous MekaDan members.

KuroEne AU: Route where Kuroha baits Konoha on purpose using Hibiya

Would be interesting if there are Routes similar to Manga Route 2 where Kuroha possesses Hibiya's body in a KuroEne AU

Saeru baits Konoha on purpose by throwing Hibiya's body (that he's currently possessing), knowing that Konoha will try to save Hibiya, his friend, due to his nature (good will and selflessness)

If he's feeling especially cruel, then he just throws Hibiya's body into oncoming traffic as he jumps to possess Konoha's body.

Otherwise, he'll just leave Hibiya's body as soon as there's touch/contact between his current host he's possessing, and Konoha's body, and then jump to possess Konoha

Saeru just lets Hibiya get killed when he leaves the body after baiting Konoha, and jumps to possess his body.

I imagine Ene is in the android body in the real world for this one.

Imagine if there's like a scene with KonoEne before where Konoha tells Ene he's going to go after Hibiya and that Ene should stay put and "get away from here as far as possible" and escape to the cyber world, because he doesn't know if the Clearing Snake will endanger any more people.

Ene tears up and stubbornly says, "Idiot!!! I'm not leaving you alone!!! I can't... I can’t lose you again…!" And just thinks to herself how she can't let Konoha slip out of her grasp just like Haruka did 2 years ago.

She's not leaving him alone to deal with the evil snake, someone so dangerous like that, and clings onto him by wrapping her arms around his waist to try and keep him in place, so that he doesn't go.

So Konoha just gently picks her up and finds a safe place for her to be. He gives her a gentle smile and tells her he'll promise to come back with Hibiya safe and sound, and then starts jumping across the rooftops in search of Hibiya.

Ene doesn't stay put and runs after Konoha in the direction he went trying to find him.

Konoha tells Ene that he'll make sure to "save Hibiya and rid him of that evil, no good snake" and runs after Hibiya. Ene tells him to stop and wait cuz she has a bad feeling about this... She can't catch up to his superhuman speed, but runs after him anyways.

When Ene finally sees Konoha in the distance and catches up to him, Ene can only watch as black spirals start to envelop Konoha, and Kuroha emerges from it.

KuroEne AU: Kuroha and Ene's 1st Meeting in this Route (Dialogue Script Ideas)

Ene: What…… Konoha...! What happened to Konoha...!?

Ene: YOUUUUUU...!!! 💢

Kuroha: Hello... This is the first time we meet, yes? How do you do? (^-^)

Ene: Looks like you’ve finally shown yourself… You evil snake!!!

Kuroha: I've been waiting to meet you for a very long time...

Ene: Fine… Let’s talk, Snake of Clearing Eyes.

(Some snippets I wrote above ^^)

KuroEne AU: Rambles

Ene just thinks about Konoha's words to her that he'll be coming back safe with the two of them, and just mutters to herself that he's an "idiot" for not keeping his promise.

Ene realizes that Kuroha/Saeru baited Konoha into coming after him using his selflessness and love for his friends against him.

Ene glares and growls at Kuroha and he just smirks and says that he "likes and feeds off of the hatred in her eyes, strong emotions solely being directed towards him."

Ene is just like "What are you doing!? What kind of monster are you... That boy was innocent... He had nothing to do with this!"

In regards to Hibiya's death, Kuroha just tells her that a little collateral damage in the process feels inevitable, so why stop it? It's much more entertaining this way.

First time they meet in this route? Yes. But not the first time ever, and he knows that. They've been through this "dance" before.

Kuroha also makes that comment because of the time it takes from the beginning of a Route to get to the present day. This mf seems patient af... Yes, he's been waiting to meet her again.

This is honestly one of the most angstiest ways that they [Kuroha and Ene] could meet in a Route, cuz usually, my KuroEne AU first meetings are more lighthearted and tame in that Kuroha finds Ene himself, and decides to play nice at first (in the beginning stages of their relationship, while getting to know each other).

Though, in my KuroEne AU, Kuroha/Saeru possessing Konoha's body THIS early, does mean that he dumps the body of whoever he was possessing, MUCH earlier compared to canon.

Like he leaves the body he was possessing earlier prior to meeting her, but NOT right in front of her (so she's blissfully unaware). Like he shows himself, and introduces himself to her as Black Konoha.

The Eye Ability Snake acts as a surrogate life for those who've died and obtained Eye Abilities, so him leaving the body just straight up kills the person

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kiri-instinct · 1 year ago

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I sometimes wonder if the defense of Israel would have been as fierce as it is now if their enemies had been white people.

I was thinking about recent happenings and remembered a news report I saw. I believe it was from an American channel. The reporter was talking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how it caused thousands of Ukrainians to flee west, fearing for their lives.

It was the usual stuff for the time. How this was a tragedy, and how Russia should be held accountable. That sort of thing. All very true, of course.

But I remember something that stuck with me from that news report. It hit me like a freight train when I heard it. Maybe the news reporter had a slip of the tongue. Maybe he genuinely thought what he said was not fucking horrific.

"These are prosperous, middle class people. These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa."

Not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa. A lot of other, similar things were said at the time. I distinctly remember these:

"This is not a developing, 3rd world nation. This is EUROPE."

"This isn't a place, with all due respect, y'know, like Iran or Afghanistan. This is a relatively CIVILIZED, relatively EUROPEAN, and I have to choose those words carefully, too, city where you wouldn't expect that or hope that it is going to happen."

A lot of words to emphasize one thing: This is happening in a civilized nation, not like the ones in Africa, the '3rd world' or, God forbid, the Middle East. EUROPE is a civilized land, unlike them, the fact this is happening HERE at all is simply unfathomable!

Obviously, a lot of people criticized these wordings for their obvious racism. The idea that Europe and Europe alone was civilized, and that these nations, stuck in conflict thanks to borders we decided for them, are unwashed, barbaric hordes is just...obviously bigoted and, more importantly, wrong.

Then, Israel began its full-scale invasion of Palestine, starting off with declarations that even Russia dared not make. Yes, Russia's accusation that Ukraine was a Nazi state, or that it was somehow 'de-nazifying' it while its soldiers carried reactionary iconography, was obviously bad (and hypocritical). However, compared to Israel's government starting off by announcing clear intentions to level Gaza, that its soldiers were fighting "human animals," and that even the civilians of Gaza were to blame was far worse, and made Russia's blatant hypocrisy, lying and evil seem...tame, almost.

So, that's it. Israel invades Palestine with obvious malevolent intent, the world condemns Israel and we put together whatever we can to defend Palestine.

Except that never happened. Everyone rallied behind Israel. Joe Biden, with the same casual tone as you'd ask for a tenner, asked if he could trade weapons to Israel in complete secrecy. People were arrested en-masse for protesting against Israel bombing civilian holdings, refugee camps and hospitals. The US vetoed a motion against Israel as Israel violated the Geneva Convention over, and over, and over again.

I myself remember my bewilderment. I sent over clothes, hoping to help in any way I can, even relinquishing some clothes which had sentimental value, only to find out that it may be possible that my donations would never make it, as Israel began bombing the Lebanese border, and blockaded the Gaza Strip.

One day, I chose to skip school, not telling my mother, and went to a protest, hoping that my voice would do something, anything, to help. That same day, someone on TV called me and others like me agitators. Said we were stirring up antisemitism within our local communities.

Some time after that, my grandmother pulled me aside, having already guessed that I was on the side of Palestine, and warned me: The place I live in is massively pro-Israel, with many of my neighbors having chanted "Death to Arabs!" despite us having Arabic neighbors, according to her. If someone here were to find out I am pro-Palestine, I could risk social pariah status, and become unable to do anything. Simply because I support the rights of Arabic folk to live in peace.

My mind was clouded for a few days. The effort I could put in to help Palestine within my limits...was antisemitic? I was agitating people? We were evil for even daring to suggest this was a genocide? I could not wrap my head around it, then I remembered the words of those reporters talking about Ukraine.

"Not people escaping North Africa," "civilized, unlike Iran and Afghanistan," and "not a developing 3rd world country, but Europe".

The same message, but delivered in different ways: Those who are not in the West are uncivilized, brutal folk, not to be trusted. Tragedy falling upon them is expected, or, perhaps, welcomed.

Combined with the fact that Israel previously attempted to destroy local fauna in an attempt to appear more European, the realization hit me.

Israel is getting so much support because the West believes them to be "European enough" to get their neo-imperialist excuses. Israel is not the 'only democracy in the Middle East,' not really -- believe me, I have gone and voted in elections before. I have seen political rallies, and I have witnessed the same drama the average US voter witnesses. I live in a democracy, even if I do not live under a government I approve of.

Israel is simply the West's personal guy in the Middle East, hence the claim that it is the only democracy here. Really, it is just the only democracy they all approve of, rather than being the most legitimate one.

When government officials turn a blind eye to Zionists calling for the conquest of not only Palestine, but also Lebanon and Egypt, and when they censure their fellow politicians for saying, maybe, not every single Palestinian should die over a terrorist attack, they are not doing it because they sincerely believe Israel is the victim here, or because "right to defend oneself" is something that applies here -- they do it because Israel is white and Western enough for them to see as a worthwhile ally. To them, Palestine is little more than a shitty bunch of Arabs who can easily be discarded if their personal attack dog in the Levant gets to survive just one day longer and maintain their influence there.

Not even when the US was fighting the Nazis in WW2 did we think that killing German civilians was acceptable. Nor was "All of them" a proper, reasonable and POPULAR response to someone asking "How many must die before we have peace". But...these aren't good, civilized Europeans. These are Palestinians. ARABS! If their ethnic cleansing can result in our civilized Jewish friends in Israel liking us more and becoming more powerful, who cares if the entire Palestinian identity is extinguished?

So, I ask again: If Israel were to go up against a 'civilized' western, European and white nation, like say France, or Britain, or Germany, and genocide their peoples while they could do very little about it...would the response have been the same? Would US come to condemn any of those countries for faking death tolls or lie about seeing the Bundeswehr decapitating Israeli babies? Would people be arrested in France for demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Britain?

Given all that I have said, I do not think so. If any of those nations were to be attacked, Israel would be treated as Russia were -- depicted as barbarians, and told that their war was unjust and cruel. We'd have people on the news saying that this isn't North Africa, or Iran, and that no one'd expect Israel to do something so cruel to a fellow civilized nation.

But that is not happening. Israel's target for genocide, Palestinians, are, by all means, acceptable targets for the Western world. In the name of peace and global unity, they will pile high the bodies of anyone their fellow 'civilized nations' want dead.

But we cannot let them do that. We must scream, from rooftops if need be, that we will not stand for injustice. So, even if you feel hopeless and desolate in the face of great evil, do your best. Even the most minuscule action matters, because when a lot of little things come together, they can topple even the mightiest of giants.

From river to sea, Palestine shall be free. And don't you let them convince you otherwise.

#palestine #free palestine #i do not think it'd be fair for me to tag ukraine here as the primary topic is palestine #sorry if this is overly long and maybe a bit incoherent

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perceremade · 2 years ago

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this is all the most obvious stuff in the world so you might be like well. duh. but you'd be surprised by the amount of people who don't even realize people need to stop either acting like tsumugi was entirely innocent or like tsumugi wasn't hurt at all at any moment why does it have to be one or the other, other tsumugip love victimizing him too much the war wasn't an equal exchange of hurt because his trauma wasnt caused by any of the eccentrics especially natsume the pain tsumugi caused natsume will never be fully comparable to him throwing objects at him even if they're mostly over this and he still gets a little bullied by him but I think the worst he's truly been was in pleiades night when he said cruel things that even tsumugi thought he wouldn't say to him and he felt bad even if he kept punching him and stuff later it's okay because he's natsume and also he deserves it sometimes. but also even as recently as in next door it's been said that speaking of the war hurts both of them and tsumugi even refers to it as a tragedy now and has started to feel some sort of remorse even though its taken him a while and was not caused by the moral reasons that eichi felt bad over it for because he is fucked up and twisted like that and I wouldn't mind if he really did still have no remorse because he doesn't entirely regret the event itself just wouldn't want it to repeat and regrets getting people he loves hurt and letting himself feel like he's nothing and that he has no impact in the world in the process of it because he was also a mentally ill teen boy that got damaged over it just like the rest of them. and now he just wants to focus on truly making the world happy with switch and devoting himself to natsume specifically even if it is rather similar to his devotion to eichi but it's different in a way even if it kind of isn't he is constantly trying to make it up to natsume because he loves him and has felt bad over hurting him the way he did even if he couldn't recognize the damage he caused at first and natsume has been kind to him even though he was literally the leader of exfine like bro loves him and understands that exfine weren't just cruel villains even if he hates what happened and still is not fond of eichi to the point he even said he'd support him for tsumugi. these things can coexist. and he does see himself as being thrown away by eichi and was manipulated like some will say he wasn't but he literally was it's just that he wasn't manipulated in the sense that he was another victim and eichi was the true mastermind. tsumugi is aware of the fact he was bad and called himself even more evil than ibara. even if eichi truly did like him and according to keito he was eichi's biggest friend he wasnt completely blind to the manipulation he was fully aware of what he was doing and in support of eichi despite the pain they'd cause and gahh I love him forever. there's nuance looks at you with my fat eyes

#Like yes he was manipulated but not blindly yes he had no remorse and yes he has started to realize what he did was wrong and feels some #sort of regret #yes hes still a freak but also just wants to bring happiness to the world. Like there's layers to tsumugi aoba like an onion and thats what #makes him fun. the fact he isnt an inhuman villain but not a poor innocent victim either.. that's a theme with enstars at least in basic #I've noticed. a lot of emphasis on some characters thinking they're irredeemable or framing themselves as villains or evil for different #reasons.. to me that was almost as important as their explorations of humanity and reclaiming it #which is another important part of tsumugi I think his complicated relationship with being alive and feeling and finally learning #to recognize that he is not a background character #espost

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bluelockednyx · 1 year ago

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"sae picked up his attitude from somewhere-" lmao, i got to say i burst out laughing at that cause though his attitude is something, what kind of place did he as a child get that from...?

that aside, itoshi parents being emotionally distant seems to support the fact that sae and rin kinda filled up that role for each other? That's maybe why the first thing sae did after coming back from spain was rushing to meet and talk to rin (tho he did a shitty job of communication). I assumed that sae wanted to fully pursue his dream and in order to do that, he had to level with his brother to cut loose of any hesitation or guilt or whatever, and when that didn't go well (blame yourself, sae), he said to himself, 'lukewarm', sae was the one being lukewarm

btw, the current arc is almost at its peak, what is your thoughts or predictions so far? i think kaneshiro wanted isagi to go through a training arc and in the end, he can finally beat rin to fulfill his monologue in the shoe-lacing chapter

have a nice day!

Right?? He was such a rude little shit as a kid. And he couldn't have been more than like, eight, at the time.

Yeah, the Itoshi parents being emotionally distant feels that way to me, and thus far the manga's depictions support it. Neither of them even turned up for the huge Blue Lock vs U20 match, despite how both Rin and Sae were there. It's genuinely a little sad.

Rin and Sae were very emotionally dependent on each other, Rin moreso than Sae because he's younger and Sae took care of him. It's both sweet and heartbreaking that Sae's first move, after returning from Spain, is to go to the youth team's fields and find Rin. Sae actually parallels Reo somewhat in that specific scene, as he was trying so hard to live the scraps of his dream through Rin, which is so strongly opposed to the narrative themes that there was no other way for that particular conversation to go but down, from a writing perspective. (also, compelling angsty sibling drama lmao). At the heart of Sae's character is the tragedy of being so close yet so far to his OG dream, and I'm really excited for when he returns to the main story.

BM sweep, more because I don't see Ubers winning, as so far they are working fairly rigidly in accordance to Snuffy's strategies with a huge lack of thinking for yourself in there. How well can you perform, as an egoist, when you're mostly following someone else's orders? Though I would argue that given how, well, untrained Blue Lock generally is where defense is concerned, it feels more like Ubers is training the defenders to actually get used to defending, while letting Barou run wild.

Though who, exactly, gets that last goal is still up in the air, I would like it to be Isagi, but the payoff is sweeter if he beats both Kaiser and Rin in that final PXG match. I personally think it would be extremely fun if the last goal winds up going to someone no one expected: Hiori. But that's because I love chaos.

And yes. Final training arc for BM before Isagi faces off against Rin in the PXG match. We might get a cut of PXG facing off against Barcha, and Manshine against Ubers while their matches are going on during BM's week off, and I really want to see Nagi vs Barou.

#niki answers asks

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yes-sikorskiy-yuriy · 21 days ago

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Mirror - a window to another world Mirrors amaze with their incomprehensible duality of the world. On the one hand, it is a material object, and on the other - an intangible reflection, a phantom. Many testimonies about mysterious phenomena associated with them have been preserved since ancient times. Cyberneticist, candidate of technical sciences Vitaly Pravdivtsev studied the mysterious properties of mirrors and came to the conclusion: we put a program into the mirror, and it programs us. What happens in the Looking Glass? Here is what Vitaly Leonidovich Pravdivtsev said. So, the mirror can … REMEMBER EVENTS

This incident happened to my friends, a married couple from Moscow, - says Vitaly Leonidovich. - They were interested in antiques and furnished their apartment in an old-fashioned spirit: carved furniture, paintings, jewelry. We had not seen each other for several months, and suddenly the phone rang - they wanted to talk about something important. We met. It was clear at first glance that something was wrong. Both were exhausted, their eyes sunken. They said it was some kind of mysticism. Both were tormented by nightmares at night, strange dreams and, most importantly, very similar. It turned out that both dreamed of themselves burning. They woke up from their own screams. I asked them more details, and it turned out that a couple of months ago they had bought a beautiful family mirror from a lonely old lady in St. Petersburg. They brought it to Moscow and hung it in the bedroom. That was when the nightmares began. I advised them to move it to another room. Coincidence or not, but the nightmares stopped. After a while, another call. Friends reported that they had been to St. Petersburg again and had specifically stopped by to see the old lady to find out the history of the mirror. It turned out that during the siege, her younger brother had knocked over a burning kerosene lamp and was so burned that he could not be saved. And the tragedy happened in the room where this mirror was hanging.

So, the mirror is able to "remember" the events that happen "before its eyes"? - I gasped.

Yes, but not as a specific scene, - explains Vitaly Leonidovich. - It remembers only the state that arose in a person under the influence of what happened. Consciousness itself will decipher and interpret the meaning of this "record", but will bring to life only those images that are close to the personal experience of the person. After all, mirrors, like other objects, bear the imprint of the owner's personality.

But thought is immaterial!

Let's remember a school physics experiment. Iron filings are poured onto a piece of cardboard, and a magnet is brought from below: the filings, as if on command, line up along invisible magnetic lines. And even if the magnet is removed after this, the drawing remains. It turns out that something similar happens with our thoughts and feelings. According to some scientists, under the influence of "psychic radiation" that every person has, the smallest elementary particles of the Universe, like sawdust in a school experiment, line up, creating a unique pattern in space - an imprint of our emotions and thoughts. The same imprint remains on the objects that a person used. LET THE DEAD PERSON IN

Why do they cover or turn mirrors to the wall near the dead?

Some argue that through the "open window" the soul of the deceased can pull someone "there", into another world. Others - that the thirst for life of the deceased can lead to the fact that, using the mirror as a guide, he will pass to us from the "other world" and become restless. Still others say that while the deceased is in the house and the "window" from the other world is "ajar", astral beings can penetrate the house, including other people's restless souls. And this can allegedly cause mental illnesses in family members. And there is another belief: the soul of the deceased, instead of leaving for another world, can enter the mirror and remain in it, as if in a trap. If you buy such a mirror, the consequences can be tragic - up to and including bringing a curse on the whole family.

How to recognize this "evil glass"?

They are very cold to the touch, and church candles go out in front of them. Such mirrors must be broken and thereby free the soul trapped in them.

And if you do not want to throw away the "cursed" mirror, then what to do?

After a visit from a not very pleasant person, wipe all the mirrors in the apartment with a damp cloth. Even better - wash them with holy or spring water. After "water procedures", wave a lit candle in front of the mirror. You can also put the mirror in the bright sun or irradiate it with a quartz lamp. AGEING PEOPLE…

Women like to show off in front of the mirror for a long time. Is this harmful?

Scientists from a New York institute have been studying the effects of mirrors on humans for 15 years using a highly sensitive magnetic wave detector. It turns out that people who spend a lot of time in front of a mirror, and especially if they look into their own eyes for a long time, begin to feel tired and their memory deteriorates. Experimenters have proven that mirrors accumulate human energy, acting as energy "vampires." The process of energy withdrawal begins after about three minutes. Therefore, the victims are mainly those who like to admire their reflection for a long time. But this is not the worst thing.

#graphic magic #sigil magic

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more-than-a-princess · 10 months ago

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The real risk wasn't burning the place down or even harming herself: it was poisoning him, if not the rest of their friends, by her valiant attempts at preparing a meal. She hadn't committed murder in the simulation, but she would've been terribly effective at it if she'd served self-prepared food to anyone, whether she intended to kill them or not. "While a fire would be impressive, I am not sure it would be glorious," Sonia countered with a concerned look. "If we did not have the kitchen in the Hotel Mirai, we'd have to live off whatever rations we have in our cabins until a ship brought in more food supplies that do not require cooking."

And besides, the wine would likely be sacrificed to the flames and she couldn't have that. The alcohol, or what was left of it on Jabberwock Island, was essential for her getting through the day without nightmares, or overwhelming feelings, or feeling much of anything at all. Alcohol dulled her senses and emotions and now, Sonia relied on it: some things hadn't changed with The Tragedy after all. She accepted her glass with a smile: maybe that was the smallest of benefits of what they'd experienced. Coupled with age (or at least, Japan and Europe's legal ages, though aristocratic families hardly put any stock in either), Gundham didn't seem to be bothered by pouring her alcohol. A part of her wondered if the Gundham before the Tragedy, the one who had attended Hope's Peak with her, would have been scandalized to know just how much underage imbibing she'd done back then. A larger part of her felt compelled to stay silent, in fear of anything attributed to her person that might make him despise her.

But all of her hesitated when he did: when prompted about his parents. And when he'd asked her in turn about hers. The corners of Sonia's mouth twitched: this was no royal ball or important party full of politicians she needed to be both effortlessly charming and intimidatingly intelligent in front of. No amount of beauty and brains would erase the fact she'd caused mass genocide. But nevertheless, it felt awkward to be so open, so raw, about her family in front of Gundham: as a teenage girl, living a life as normal as she could muster, she'd spent plenty of time daydreaming of what it would be like if Gundham Tanaka was her boyfriend. And if she took him home to Novoselic Castle to meet her family. And if, just maybe, one day he'd ask her if he could stay.

"Your mother must have been a wonderful person who loved you very much," She began, taking a long sip of wine. Beyond that, she could not presume anything. But he could have said nothing of her and Sonia would have guessed as much: if only due to the fact that most mothers on Earth were likely kinder and gentler than her own. Queen Valentina of Novoselic had once, after all, been Valentina Borghese, the youngest of five children of one of the country's most prominent Dukes and had, according to her uncle Lorenzo, a desire to prove herself since she was in her mother's womb. "And I would not have minded questions: I do not doubt she would have been respectful about it. She did raise you, after all."

But what to say about her parents? Sonia watched Gundham add a variety of spices to a pot from her seat on a nearby counter. Surely he'd asked in earnest, and without knowing what it was really like to be royal. He never put her on a pedestal though, and she kept that in mind as she exhaled, setting her half-empty wine glass beside her.

"I think my father hated parties," She began. It seemed wrong, somehow, to just say he was nice and handsome and he shared the same color eyes as she did and they only lit up properly when he was with his daughter. "He'd greet everyone and pose for the photos of course, but I think a lot of the gossip and conversation topics between aristocrats and overly greedy politicians bored him. And ceremonies, well, he was either invested in them or wished he was elsewhere. I think he was happiest, as King at least, visiting the various cities and towns in Novoselic and just talking to people. Everyday people, about their lives and what brings them joy and what they wished they could do or have to improve upon it. It didn't matter of their manners weren't immaculate or they were unrefined: I think he liked it that way."

"When I was young," She continued, idly rambling as Gundham continued to cook. Food took time to prepare, and it wasn't as if there was anything else to entertain him with. "If he was taking me along for work, he insisted on bringing me to hospitals, to orphanages, to homeless shelters and schools. He thought the most important things for me to learn were to understand that Novoselic was only as strong as its most infirm and struggling citizens, and that the children of Novosonian orphanages and schools would one day be my peers in governance and leadership. Listening to and supporting them was more important than perfect posture, or how to pour a cup of tea, or how to waltz without stepping on my partner's toes."

And those weren't even the fondest of her memories with him: he'd taught her both refined and unrefined hobbies, and the only times she'd ever broken his heart was the day he'd accepted the fact that she had zero musical aptitude, and the day she'd aimed a pistol at his forehead and fired. He hadn't needed to say anything, Sonia thought as she fiddled with the stem of her wine glass. His eyes had revealed the depth of his pain.

"My mother, in turn, was in many ways his perfect complement," Sonia said as the pot of water began to boil. "She adored being the center of attention. She loved tradition, and perfection, and maintaining a standard of royal life that the world expected of us. Appearances mattered, and first ones more than anything to her. My father ran the country and she ran the family. In theory, it should have been harmonious."

She sighed, setting down the glass once more, this time just one swallowful left as she watched him add the dry pasta. "I guess I'm a bit rubbish at talking about my family. I think I am so used to doing it with the intention of being overheard and published. It is odd, to do so without anyone besides you listening. But was there something specific you wished to know?"

"Perhaps I shall do just that." Gundham mused aloud, as he allowed Sonia to turn on the lights. He wasn't quite so familiar with the kitchen, thus he didn't know all of the switches' locations, so he was grateful for the help. There were a lot of places on the island he'd yet to visit, he realized, since he'd been trying to work himself to death in order to stave off those moments of solitude. "That does sound nice, and quite frankly I do not mind re-reading the classics."

The breeder nodded his head, as he grabbed the apron. "Yes the meat goes in the sau-" He also broke off, as he blinked at the sudden sound of her laughter. The moments in which he'd heard her genuinely laugh had been so rare, since they'd woken up from that simulation. He couldn't help the natural chuckle that left his maw in response. The sound of her laughter was so beautiful and infectious. "It seems to the only animal themed one. I am glad you enjoy it."

Gundham grabbed a pot and poured in some water, setting it on the stove to boil. He also pre-heated the oven. "That is all the support I need then. I would not want you to harm yourself, or to burn the facility down in a glorious blaze of hell fire. Fuhahaha!" He was a bit surprised that she'd failed a simple egg and toast combination, but seafood was more understandable. His Mother had given him food poisoning with some undercooked fish as a child, and she'd felt awful afterwards.

'"But of course. It is my pleasure." He popped the cork with a resounding noise, and he poured her a healthy glass of chardonnay, before pouring some for himself. He hesitated for a moment. He'd always been a light weight, and he already felt so hot. Was this really a good idea? Yet, he felt so flustered around her at the moment, that surely it would calm his nerves. He took a large gulp and tried not to make a face, though he let out a small sound that sounded like perhaps a groan. His face flushed a bit more.

Ground beef was placed into a frying pan with a resounding sizzle, and Gundham began to add various spices. He nearly dropped the oregano at the mention of his Mom, his heart doing a painful sort of somersault. "I.." He choked out, before grabbing the wine and chugging the remains of his glass in one fell swoop. The liquid managed to take his edge off a bit. "I would love to tell you about her... but it is difficult." He took a steadying breathe, turning back to the pan, in order to make sure the meat didn't burn.

A few moments later, he began. "I was born to an angel and a demon. My Mother was an angel. She was kind to all, whether towards creatures, mortals, and even.. my Father who did not deserve such. She always tried to see the good in others, but she tended to be naive. She always asked everyone so many questions, really wanting to know who they were, or perhaps she was just nosy. She was clumsy and always unsure of everything she did, including cooking. I know.. she loved me very much. It is good... that she didn't meet you. She would have asked you even more questions, given how I feel about you." He said a bit bitterly, knowing it was a lie. He wished his Mother could have met the woman he loved more than anything. It took him a good few moments to realize what he'd uttered, his brain catching up to the wine. His face turned crimson and he focused far too intently on mixing the spices and tomato sauce in another pan. Feelings was vague enough right? It could be... feelings of friendship.

"I understand if you do not wish to speak of your parents due to what we did.. but would you tell me a bit about them? If you are able to do so." Partly, he wanted to distract her, but he was also curious, as to what kind of people raised such a wonderful daughter.

#phantasmalnightmare #post neo world program verse #(Part 2 of threads where Sonia is asked about her family)#(And hesitates about how honest she can really be)#(at least in this verse being Novosonian royalty doesn't sound as nearly as appealing)#(as it would in non-despair)

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vrishchikawrites · 2 years ago

Note

Aren't JC's thoughts and fears pretty normal and that he has the right to think that the first thing Wei Wuxian should have done upon resurrection is head to Lotus Pier and explain himself? When family members start dying, aren't explanations in order?

JC trusting WWX so much is one of the things that added to the tragedy and keeps him up at night. He lets his brother get away with so much! He's just less stringent about orthodoxy and willing to roll with it if WWX says everything's under control. Wei Wuxian couldn't keep up the pretense forever, but he still managed to last as JC's right hand for THREE FUCKING YEARS without JC catching on just because he trusts WWX that much. WWX isn't being fully honest, but JC trusts that he knows what he's doing and means well and so just rolls his eyes when WWX says shit like "The more you ask me to do something the more I don't want to" and goes day drinking without helping with the rebuilding while JC works late every night.

When WWX breaks out the Wen in what is a political disaster for Jiang Cheng and is doing mad science just because Wen Qing asked when JC asked him fifty million times to teach even just one sword class, JC lashes out and gets his feelings hurt but agrees to the ruse. After WWX broke with the Jiang, it's Jiang Cheng's idea to give him nephew naming rights so he still feels included in their family, and then WWX loses control and kills the father of said nephew which is a little awkward emotionally. But even then as furious as he is he doesn't take the pledge with the others and holds his disciples back, and then WWX hits Yanli with a zombie and JC has to hold her as she dies in his arms. Jiang Cheng continued to trust and love Wei Wuxian and keep him included in their family throughout the entirety of the first life and then his entire family died and he started questioning this decision.

Even the whole consent issue with JC is wild because he should have just told him. He would have understood considering JC himself sacrificed his core.

Um.

That's a whole lot of CQL and fanon you just dropped into my inbox, love.

The novel was pretty explicit when it described what was happening immediately after the war. WWX not putting any less effort. In fact, majority of the new recruits joined Yunmeng Jiang because WWX was standing there behind JC.

WWX DID have it under control. You may want to read up on that ambush scene a little more.

Cause. Dude. Jin Zixuan may have died but no way was it 100% WWX's fault. You don't just lunge at someone surrounded by 300 armed men trying to kill him and ask him to peacefully walk into a trap, all the while siding with the asshole trying to kill WWX.

There's a two year gap between the rescue of the Wens and the ambush. During that time, WWX was just chilling and keeping the Wens alive. Not a single incidence of any loss of control reported.

Fifty million times? I don't recall reading it once in the novel but I went and confirmed it with my friends on Discord too. And nope, didn't happen. It is CQL bs. So is him drinking away and being drunk. Because in novel canon and according to MXTX herself, WWX's drunk self is virtually indistinguishable from his not-drunk self. The only time he is remotely tipsy is during the bathtub incident (if you know, you know.)

Doesn't take the pledge? Holds his disciples back? More CQL bs. He was there in the ceremony watching them burn the people who saved him burn alive. He also knew exactly who were in the BM, including a fucking toddler.

Remember a-Yuan? And his grandmother? Who had her fucking head caved in? And who was thrown into the bloodpool with no proper rites and rituals?

Who lead that siege into the BM?

Jiang fucking Cheng. He LEAD. They wouldn't have been able to pull it off without him.

And JYL? Dude. Do you understand the situation at all? Thousands of people gathered for the sole purpose of killing WWX and the 50 people he protected. They attacked first. WWX retaliated. JYL ran into an active battlefield, no one knowing she was even there. The first hit was an accident. The second was her protecting WWX.

Do you understand? That was foolish choices made out of desperation from the only other person alive who truly loved WWX at that point.

WWX lost control after that. Rightfully so. But even before that, the situation was messed up enough to warrant ANYONE snapping.

Love and trust? You understand JC nearly strangled WWX to death? And then gutted him in a staged fight? WWX literally had to stuff his organs back in? And he declared him the enemy of the cultivation world? And blamed him for rescuing people instead of keeping his head down? His entire family died because the cultivation world is messed up, not because WWX is uncontrollable. The Wens attacked CR unprovoked. They would've done the same to LP. And they did. WWX just became a convenient scapegoat. It is funny how the fandom takes JC's delusional rant about it being WWX's fault so seriously.

JYL died because she ran, unarmed and untrained, into an open battlefield, where WWX facing thousands of cultivators determined to kill him and just 50 old or infirm people, alone? And that she threw herself forward to protect him?

JC's grief about losing his sister and parents is understandable, but let us not ignore the huge part he played in the mess post SSC. Even the villian called him out on his stupidity.

There's a reason why no one but Wangxian is rewarded at the end of the novel. No one but them deserved any measure of peace after their colossal fuckups.

The consent argument is done to death. I won't rehash it. And JC didn't know he was gonna be losing his core. If he had, he wouldn't have fucking moved from his place.

We all know what happened after the GC transfer was revealed to him.

He just blamed WWX and tried to hold him to a debt that shouldn't rightfully exist in the first place.

I've read the novel before it was even translated by seven seas. I still remember what the og canon JC is like. Unfortunately for many stans, JC *is* an antagonist seething in his resentment and jealousy. And he remains that way till the very end.

#wei wuxian #mdzs #reader asks #re: jc #canon jiang cheng

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lilac-melody · 2 years ago

Text

Fantasia LOVE&KISS Novel Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I am not a professional translator, if you see wonky sentences don’t hesitate to call me out on it

Masterlist here

⚔️🏹

The sun shone dimly on the old cathedral, where cobwebs covered the beams of the ceiling. Part of the dome roof had collapsed, the stained glass windows were broken, and a cold wind was blew in.

Dried leaves were strewn on the wooden benches and the floor, suggesting that there were no longer any workers around to clean up. No one seemed to visit the church to clean it. Aizou, who was looking around with a frown on his face as if to say, "how awful" peeked under the altar. Suddenly, he jumped and fell on his ass.

A cat jumped out, bristling its fur up and hissed, then ran away immediately.

“That damn cat...” Aizou muttered, rubbing his chest and standing up.

“There’s no way monsters appear in the daytime.” Yujiro commented.

Demons hated daylight and were only active at night. The big red-eyed demons that appear in this town were only ever seen at night. They were probably lurking somewhere dark during the day.

“You never know, there might be one or a few who lurk around in the day.”

“I’ve never encountered such a demon, though? I’ve never heard of it.” Though, since they didn’t know all of the demons in the world, they couldn’t say that there were no demons of the kind that appear during the day.

“So the deal with this place, I doubt there’s any gems here. We wouldn’t exactly have a hard time finding it if it were.”

“There was a statue in the town square.”

“Ah...the statue of the bearded old man slaying a dragon, right? It said he was the first king and the founder of the country, or something.”

Yujiro nodded. "It is said that once upon, the dragons that rested in the northern mountains often appeared in the city, rampaging about and causing trouble for the people.”

The legend was written in a document that he had found in a library in another city. Although there were some differences in the names of the people who slayed the dragons and the ending of the story, it was a common legend that could be heard in any town or village. The story passed down in this town was not so unusual.

“Okay, so now it’s the red eyed monster. This is a town that suffers a lot of tragedies,” Aizou shrugged.

“According to the legend, the dragon’s body shattered once the king slayed it with his sword, and the most beautiful jewel anyone has ever seen was left in its wake.”

“I know that...I heard that much too.”

Aizou must have also been a new arrival into town.

“So it’s only natural to assume that the jewels have been passed down through the royal family from generation to generation. I don't know if it's in the vaults of the new royal palace or in the bedroom of some princess or somewhere else entirely, though.”

If the legend were true, then the jewel was probably embedded in a royal artifact, like a crown or necklace or something.

It could all be someone's made-up fantasy. In fact, thinking about it realistically, it was more likely to be so. The gems they were trying to obtain were so vague that even their existence is doubtful.

Yujiro honestly thought that he was the only one who was searching for it, believing that it was true.

(I didn’t realize...there was another guy with the same hopes and dreams.)

He didn't know what Aizou planned on doing if he got that jewel. But it had to be something big, something he wanted to achieve or wished for desperately, even it it meant that he had to go to such lengths.

Or he could be an eccentric weirdo who had way too much time on his hands.

“Okay, that may be so, but...shouldn’t we be heading to the royal palace, then? I doubt we’re going to find anything here except that cat...”

“If you want to break into the castle’s front gates, you can do it. Alone.”

Yujiro had already been near the castle gates and watched for a while, but the security was extremely tight. Maybe it was because they were on the lookout for an invasion by demons, but even so, the number of guards was much larger than normal. It would not be easy to get in through the watchful eyes of the guards.

“I’m not saying we need to storm the castle. I’m saying we could dress up as merchants or hide in a box to sneak in...there are more ways to get in than through sheer force, you know.” Aizou said in a huff.

“I know that too, you know.” Yujiro’s lips curled into a grimace. “But most castles have secret passageways that lead to cemeteries or cathedrals. They’re always hidden so people can’t find them easily.”

The cathedral used by the people of the city for worship was built separately near the plaza, and although it would have been natural to demolish a cathedral that was no longer in use, this one was left standing.

There were also dark thorns planted in the cathedral garden, and they didn’t look like they grew naturally. The only reason to have such things was because they didn’t want people entering.

And if that were the case, then Yujiro wanted to find what they were hiding. Though, whether it was a passageway or treasure, or something else entirely, he didn’t know.

(But it could also be a den for the demons...)

“Ah...I see, I get it,” Aizou nodded and immediately walked over to one of the walls, putting his hands on it and searching for the passageway that Yujiro spoke of. He even got down on the ground to tap at it, a serious expression on his face.

Yujiro stood in the aisle and looked around the entire cathedral. His gaze landed on a cloth buried in fallen leaves. As he got closer, he saw that it had turned light brown and was a bit frayed.

Beneath it was the surface of parched wood. Yujiro peeled back the ragged cloth, the leaves gently floating down to the ground.

(An organ...)

Yujiro stared at it in surprise.

Looking closely at it, he could see that the silver pipes extended all the way to the ceiling. He opened the lid of the cover and lightly dusted off the hand keys, pressing down on them with his fingers, and found that they were not broken, still producing a sound.

The ceiling above the organ had not collapsed, so it had not been exposed to much rain.

As he was played, Aizou turned to him.

“Don’t play around and help me look. There has to be that passage or something somewhere, right?”

“Do you think it would help if you punched the wall?”

“Well, where do you think it is?”

Yujiro shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know. You’re really irresponsible, you’re the one who brought me here.”

“I didn’t bring you here. You followed me on you own.”

“Oh, shut up!” Aizou snapped.

The two of them really didn’t get along very well, having been arguing for the past few days now. But even so, they worked together because they shared the same goal and knew it was more rational to work together.

(Otherwise, who would ever work with this guy..!?)

By the look on Aizou’s face, he could tell he was thinking the same thing. Telling himself that it was just a temporary thing, Yujiro looked away with a frown.

“...I don’t see any way out. I wonder if it could be in the garden rather than the cathedral itself?”

“If you think so, you should check it out yourself.” There was no point in arguing face to face.

“Oh really?” Aizou grumbled, before pointing at the organ. “I think there’s a hidden door behind that organ. There might be a trick to it, so let’s look for it.”

Yujiro wrinkled his eyebrows. “Don’t give me orders.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Aizou waved him off.

He started to step down from the altar when his footsteps came to a halt. The front door opened with a loud bang, and he immediately had his hand on the hilt of his rapier.

About twenty guards rushed in. They were wearing the same uniforms as the guards around the castle, with black robes over them.

Seeing that they all had their swords drawn, they must have known that the two of them were inside. The garden of the cathedral was blocked off by thorns, making it difficult to pass through. There had to be another way in, then.

(Which means I was right after all...this isn’t an abandoned building.)

Aizou braced himself by him. “What do we do?” He asked, glancing at Yujiro.

Pretending not to notice, Yujiro smiled at the guards. “Can I help you, guards? Is something wrong?”

“We’ve had recent complaints that a couple of smugglers have been roaming the city and have taken up residence of using the cathedral. We’ve been sent to investigate.”

“Smugglers!? We’re not-!”

Yujiro stepped forward and raised a hand to interrupt him. “I’m sure the townspeople are concerned about that, as well as the demons that appear in this town at night. It’s reassuring to see the guards warning us like this. I hope the smugglers get caught quickly.”

“So you’re saying you’re not the smugglers?” The guy, who must have been the captain of the guards, stepped forward with his hand on the hilt of his swod. His lips twisted into a sarcastic smile under his mustache.

“Perish the thought!” Yujiro spoke in a theatrical tone and waved his hand in an exaggerated manner.

Aizou, who had gone silent so Yujiro could speak, glanced at him in surprise. He was probably trying to figure out Yujiro’s plan.

Yujiro took off his hat and held it to a chest, bowing down.

“We are traveling performers who earn a little money a day by singing and dancing from town to town. We have never committed such a daring misdeed such as smuggling. If you have any doubts, please feel free to investigate. We can prove that we have nothing to hide!“

“What a blatant lie. What is that weapon on his waist, then? Surely a traveling performer doesn’t need a weapon like that.” However, he didn’t draw his sword.

“Traveling is always dangerous. Those of you who protect the security of the city know this well. Walking along the streets at night, you will often encounter wild thieves, wild beasts, and demons. To protect ourselves, we carry a self-defense weapon or two with us when we are traveling. Besides, although we are performers by profession, we are not very good at self-defense. He has never learned swordsmanship, nor does he have a master, so he is a novice at wielding a sword just as he sees fit. Even the sword on his waist is just a decorative object hanging from his waist for show. As for me, I don't even have a sword,” Yujiro held his hands out.

“Who are you ca-” Aizou started to say. Yujiro immediately stomped on his foot to silence him.

Aizou let out a small squeal of pain, and glared at him.

“You got a loose-lipped partner there. So why were you in this crumbling cathedral? Surely you are not gathering people in a place like this to perform your tricks. The only people who would gather here would be the ghosts or demons that wander around at night. It seems to me that they’re hiding something of value that a smuggler has stolen from them. If you really claim to be a traveling performer, let me see you perform your silly little song and dance. Then it will be immediately clear whether your words are true or false. Now, what do you say? Don't tell me you can't do it? I have never seen or heard of a traveling performer who can't do a trick! Or do you want money?"

The captain of the guards flicked out a copper coin, which clattered at Yujiro’s feet.

“Come on. That should be enough for your little performance.” The guards around started laughing and jeering at them.

“Yeah, come on. Let’s hear you sing.”

“Don’t get carried away, there’s a lot you can do to fool these guys,” Aizou said quietly to him.

“The more cowardly you are, the more arrogant you act...” Yujiro simply smiled and picked up the copper coin at his feet.

“What?” The captain of the guards glared at him.

“Ah, just some nonsense, don’t worry about it. More importantly, since you have given us the fee of one copper coin, we would be delighted to perform for you, especially since there’s a perfectly good organ right here.”

With those words, he pulled up a chair that had been lying near the organ and sat down. He put his toes on the pedals and lightly played a few keys by hand, as if he were testing it.

“H-hey, are you going to be alright?” Aizou asked him quietly.

“You should be more worried about yourself on that one.”

“Huh? You’re not going to make me sing, are you?”

“Stop trying to make things difficult. I don't care if your singing is good or bad. If you are not a good singer, just say that your throat is sore today,” Yujiro smiled wryly and began to play the organ.

“You make it sound easy..!” Aizou put a hand to his forehead.

“Surely you know at least one song? A song from your hometown, a lullaby...anything.”

“Then you sing!”

“What’s wrong? We’re waiting, so get on with it!” The captain of the guard snapped as the two whispered to each other.

They glanced back at him, before Aizou turned back to Yujiro.

“...I’ve never sung in front of people before!”

“I haven’t either.”

“I don’t know any song! No hometown ones or lullabies- nothing!”

“I’ll sing along with you, don’t worry.”

“Don’t be reckless. There’s no way we can sing together out of the blue!”

It was true. The two of them had no meetings or rehearsals, but there was no way out of this situation. Yujiro grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer to him.

“I’d rather sing recklessly than be caught and thrown in jail!”

Aizou stiffened and fell silent, obviously seeing that if they’re caught, then bad things would happen. It wouldn’t be easy to escape, and they couldn’t wait becaue they had no idea how long they’d be there- days, months, or even years. Aizou pushed Yujiro’s hand off of him.

“Don’t complain if I mess up!” He hissed to him before shuffling away to face the guards, who were all watching with their arms crossed. “Ah...” He rested his hand on his throat, his voice hoarse.

“Sing louder!” He coughed.

(Though, I can’t deny it’s pretty reckless to ask him to sing out of the blue...)

If he couldn't sing, Yujiro would have to sing for him. Suddenly, he heard a small singing voice. It sounded like he was slowly tracing the melody of the song as he recalled.

But after singing a few verses, he stopped. A blank silence prevailed. It was a song Yujiro didn't know, a song he had never heard before.

Yujiro played the few verses he had just sung on the organ. Aizou, who looked up as if he had been caught by the sound, regained his composure and began to sing again. His voice was a little clearer than before. The sound of Yujiro's organ combined with his clear, deep singing voice echoed through the cathedral.

Aizou looked at him as he sang and Yujiro continued to accompany him. He naturally matched with Yujiro's performance. Their hands and feet moved together to a lively rhythm. He clapped his hands lightly as he sang, and Yujiro sang along with him as he played.

(See, you can do it!)

Yujiro laughed and started to up the tempo of the song, and Aizou easily matched it. Whenever Yujiro didn’t know the lyrics, he’d cover it with a hum and perfectly timed steps.

As he neared the end, he changed the melody to a slow, quiet melody. Aizou put his hand on his chest and continued to sing alone, even after Yujiro's accompaniment had ceased. The guards were listening to the song so intently that no one was making any comments or laughing. They looked at him with a stunned expression.

The faint light around the altar seemed to dance to the accompaniment of the singing. There would be no need for any more accompaniment. Yujiro gently removed his hand from the keyboard.

Everyone present only heard his singing. No one uttered a single word until the distant voice of the singer's voice eventually died away and silence returned.

As if coming to his senses, Aizou's eyes fluttered open. He suddenly looked embarrassed in front of the unresponsive guards, and lowered his hat to hide his face, before bowing deeply.

He looked at Yujiro, silently asking for help. Yujiro got up from his chair and stood next to Aizou, looking around at everyone.

“How was it? I’m sure you now understand that we are just traveling performers. If you still have any doubts, we can dance for you this time.”

“Enough of this charade! Let's get these people out of here!” The captain of the guards ordered. Immediately, the guards all pointed their swords at Yujiro and Aizou.

“Wait a minute! This is a totally different story!”

“Whether you’re a traveling performer or a smuggler, you’re still a suspicious person whose identity we don’t know. We’ve been ordered to investigate all outsiders.”

“Huh?! So we sang for nothing!” Aizou glared at Yujiro, appearing to still be embarrassed.

Yujiro shrugged. “You bought us some time.”

"Buying time for nothing! How are we going to get out? Have you come up with anything?”

Yujiro took his dagger out. “If we wipe them out, we can escape.”

Aizou sputtered a laugh, his back now to Yujiro’s. “Yeah. Piece of cake.” He said sarcastically. The guards began to close in on them.

If it was an order, there was no point in hoping that they will let them off the hook. If that’s so, then they had no choice but to get out of this situation in a more or less rough way. However, even if they could get away with it, they were going to be wanted men. A letter of arrest would be circulated, and they would not be able to go out.

This would also cause trouble for the innkeeper and his daughter, who were letting them stay at the inn.

In order to not cause them issues, this would need to be settled calmly, but it seemed impossible.

“...Well, isn’t this better than dealing with a bunch of demons?”

“It’s more difficult to deal with humans!”

The actual number of guards was only twenty, while they were at an overwhelming disadvantage with only two. The enemy drew their swords first, so there was no need to go easy on them.

But still, he probably felt some reluctance to take on a human opponent.

(You really are soft-hearted...)

“Anyway, what happened to your bow?”

“I left it at the inn.”

“Agh, you’re useless!”

“Even if I had my bow on me, it would be useless.”

“You’re on your own, then! I can’t fight all of these guards and protect you at the same time!”

“It’s none of your damn business anyway. Just worry about yourself!”

Then, both of them managed to catch the swords of the guards who swung down, using their respective rapier and dagger.

Aizou easily dodged his opponent's sword and flicked it away. It looked like he was doing it without any difficulty, but his opponent was a trained guard. His sword was not light.

Yujiro, who was not nearly as strong as he was, had trouble just catching the opponent's sword, which made his hand go numb and he almost dropped the dagger.

Gritting his teeth and pushing back, he kicked the other man's gut with one foot as hard as he could. He slammed the hilt of his dagger into the neck of the guard, who collapsed to his knees, and the unconscious guard rolled over with a thud.

Yujiro exhaled and wiped the sweat from his chin. He was not untrained by any means, but he really was not good at hand-to-hand combat. Even though this was all he did so far, he was already out of breath.

Aizou dodged a blow from a guard who attacked him and stabbed the tip of his sword into his arm. He was obviously avoiding attacking him fatally. Yujiro felt a little bit envious that he could afford to do so. While fighting back, Aizou was not even breathing heavily. He just drew a few deep breaths. Was he used to fighting so much, or has he trained somewhere? Either way, he was clearly a skilled fighter.

“What are you doing?! There’s only two of them!” The captain of the guards shouted in irritation.

A lone guard, wearing the same uniform as the others and a black robe with a deep hood, stood behind the captain. He did not seem to draw the sword at his waist, but only gave a watchful glance. The guards on either side of the captain, with swords drawn and ready, did not move an inch from their positions. Yujiro thought they were escorting the captain, but that did not seem to be the case.

Rather, the two men were being protected by the slim figures standing in the center of the room. He watched from the sidelines without any sign of trying to join the battle between Yujiro and the guards surrounding Aizou.

Yujiro pushed Aizou’s back for him to go forward. Aizou was faster than him, after all. He’d made a decision.

Aizou stumbled and whipped around to face him.

“What the hell?!”

“Go!” Yujiro said quickly.

Aizou glanced at him, and immediately understood what he was saying. He huffed and took off running.

Just as the guard was about to give chase, Yujiro lurched forward and grabbed the sword, kicking the opponent’s back.

The sword of the man who fell to the ground clattered, and Yujiro immediately picked it up. Without any hesitation, he stabbed the guard’s arm who was about to attack him from behind.

Aizou ran down the center of the aisle, his rapier held straight forward. The one in the middle, protected by the two guards, stepped back in fear. The two guards surround him stepped forward.

“So you’re the one giving orders!” A fearless grin crossed Aizou’s face. His sword clashed with the captain’s, and he knocked the other two guard’s swords from out of their hands.

“Please step back!” The captain's voice rang out impatiently, a complete change from the arrogant attitude he had displayed only a few moments earlier.

But the skinny, unarmed guard did not move from his position, but looked up with a determined look. Aizou drew his rapier just in time.

Perhaps it was from the momentum, but Aizou was leaned forward, and a guard managed to hit him from the side. He didn’t have time to dodge the attack. Aizou fell to one knee, and immediately, the captain moved behind him and kicked his other knee as well, causing him to drop his rapier to the ground with a clatter.

“You, put down the sword too!” The captain held his sword against Aizou’s throat. The other guards stopped attacking and fell back. Yujiro slowly raised his hands above his head and dropped the sword.

One of the guards quickly picked it up, and another confiscated his dagger. There was truly nothing he could do about this now.

“Sorry...I screwed up...” Aizou, who was still on his knees, looked at Yujiro and smiled dryly.

⚔️🏹

“Nothing good happens when I’m with you.” Yujiro grumbled, his face grim.

Ever since he had been crammed into the small room enclosed on three sides by stone walls, his eyebrows have remained furrowed as if they were about to stick together. The candlelight that illuminated the passage barely extended into the room. The shadows of the bars and their two shadows were clearly reflected on the floor.

Being a dungeon, so there were no windows. A chilly wind blows in through a vent in the wall.

Aizou lightly pushed the lousy wooden bunk in the corner of the room with his hand to make sure it was still in place. As soon as he sat down to take a breath, there was a crack, and the bed collapsed.

The wood was rotten, and the weight of his body on it must have been too much for it to bear. Aizou fell on his ass with a thud, and his eyes widened in surprise. He then put his hands on his hips and grunted in pain.

Yujiro watched him with a blank expression on his face, before letting out a sigh.

“Nothing good happens when I’m with you...”

“I can say the same thing, you know!” Aizou retorted, getting up.

After patting the wood splinters and dust off his clothes, he frowned and blew on his palms, which he seemed to have grazed.

A stifled silence overcame them as the conversation broke off. Aizou seemed to have given up on sleeping on the bunk and sat down at a distance, leaning against the wall.

“...Why did you falter?” He’d been taken down by the small guard who didn’t even have a weapon.

Maybe they were just dressed as guards. He didn't know who he was, but the captain of the guard was determined to protect him. He must have been a man of a certain status. If Aizou had been able to take him hostage without hesitation, they would not have been able to touch him.

Yujiro looked at Aizou when he didn’t respond, and saw that he was bitterly raising his bangs over his forehead with one hand.

“It...was...”

“Eh..?” Yujiro stared at him.

“It was a girl, okay!”

Yujiro stared at him, dumbfounded as Aizou answered in a hushed tone.

“I didn’t know what to do. She didn’t even have a weapon, so how could I take her as a hostage in such a situation?!” Aizou turned away from him.

“I didn’t think you would hesitate on such a matter.” Whoever she was, she was the one who ordered them to be taken. They weren’t going to go easy on them.

“Say what you want, but I don’t do that kind of thing. I won’t.”

“Aghh! Nothing good happens when I’m with you!” Yujiro covered his face with his hands. This was probably the tenth time he muttered this since arriving in the dungeon.

Aizou stared at him for a moment with an expression of growing guilt. “...I’m sorry. For dragging you into this. But...thanks to all of this...we managed to get into the castle! That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Yujiro looked at him with disbelief as he spoke in a cheerful voice, as if he was trying to regain his composure, and wondered what in the world was so good about it.

“We didn’t get in. We were thrown in.” He said flatly.

“I’m trying to look on the bright side! Unlike you, who’s just been sulking there and mumbling!”

Yujiro raised an eyebrow at him. “And who do you think is to blame for this?”

“It...it’s mine...it’s my fault and I screwed it up...but I already apologized for that earlier! I admitted it, so just let it go!”

“And how exactly are we going to get out of here? You got us into this, so you come up with something.”

“You’re the one who..!”

The two of them were not the only ones who were not happy about the situation. They kept their gazes away from each other and remained silent, leaving a sour mood behind.

Yujiro wondered if the woman who appeared on the spot was the princess that the town's inhabitants had been talking about. The two of them were both strange travelers whose identities were unknown to them.

Yes, they may look suspicious, but he didn't think the princess would go out of her way to catch them.

If this was the princess, she must have been accompanied by a personal guardsman. Both the guards and the captain in the room must have been low-ranking soldiers. It was clear from their appearance and the swords they were carrying. The number of people in the room was very large, so it was a bit of a challenge, but the swordsmanship was good enough.

(But even so, why capture us..?)

Did they not want them to enter that cathedral? Or did they not want them to know about the jewel they were looking for?

If so...then perhaps it wasn’t just a legend...if the jewel was just a figment of the imagination that is spoken of in legends, then it was not likely that the people who were looking for it will be able to find it when they appear.

No one before ever took them seriously. They always said things like, “you believe that childish story?”

The reason why they came all the way to capture the stone is because they don't want anyone snooping around. It must be that the jewel existed in the royal palace, after all.

He hugged his knees to his chest as he thought, just as Aizou made a loud sound.

“Uwaa! These bones are human bones!” Aizou turned pale as he threw a bone across the room.

“Isn’t that a chicken bone?” Yujiro asked blandly. It was a short bone that looked like it had been attached to the meat of a soup bowl.

“Eh..? Ah...oh...” Aizou leaned forward and pinched the bone between his fingers. “What the hell...don’t mess with me like that...” He tossed the bone aside.

Yujiro stared at him, and Aizou quickly averted his gaze in defeat.

“...It was just dark. I couldn’t see very well, okay?”

Yujiro sighed and rubbed his forehead tiredly and let out a heavy sigh. “...Nothing good happens when-”

“I’m tired of hearing that!” Aizou interrupted him in a frustrated tone.

“But...” Yujiro glanced at him. “If we don’t find a way out of here, we might just end up like that.”

Aizou frowned at him. “That’s not reassuring...can’t you think more positively?”

“...At least they served meat with the soup?”

Aizou, whose elbows were on his knees and face in his hands, rolled his eyes and grinned a little.

“Is that positive enough? It’s better than having nothing to eat.”

“That’s true...” Aizou muttered and stretched, before slumping against the wall again.

The two of them had only eaten a slice of bread from the inn that morning.

“I wish I had brought some food with me, though,” Aizou said.

“It’s not like we planned on being thrown in jail.”

“Don’t start that again.”

“Really...”

“Nothing good happens when I’m with you.” They both said it at the same time.

Aizou smirked and chuckled. “Right?”

Yujiro smiled, and started laughing a bit. The situation was awful, and nothing good would come from it.

The candlelight illuminating the passageway flickered loudly in the wind that unexpectedly entered the room. The door to the entrance opened, and someone entered. Footsteps approached. Both Aizou and Yujiro stopped laughing and stared down the passageway.

A guard wearing a deep hood came down the aisle. He was holding a tray with two bowls of soup and a small bun on it with both hands. The guard unlocked the keyed entrance and entered, silently kneeling down and placing the tray on the floor.

“You’re that girl!” Aizou shouted.

The small guard was startled and slowly removed the hood from her head. She was a woman with silver hair, about the same age as the two men.

Her hair was short, just below her shoulders, but one tuft was long and braided. Her pale face was stiff and her red lips were tightly pursed together. There was no doubt that this was the girl who was dressed as a guard at the cathedral.

Yujiro was surprised to see her in the prison, as he had not expected her to show up alone with a meal. Was this another order from the princess? Even so, Yujiro's eyebrows furrowed at the unnatural nature of the situation.

“So what now? What are you going to do now that you have us captured?” Aizou asked her.

“I am very sorry for what I did to you two. I am sorry to have been so rude to you both, but there were circumstances that compelled me to do this. Please forgive me.” She kneels down on both knees and hangs her head with her eyes downcast.

“You say to forgive you...so if that's how you feel, get us out of here as fast as you can. Like I said in the cathedral, we're just travelers. We don't have any stolen money or goods hidden away. You know that, because you've interrogated us extensively!"

When Aizou and Yujiro were taken to the prison, everything they had was seized by the guards. Even their wallets and shoes, which contained a lot of street money, were seized by the guards. This was probably because they thought they might have weapons or tools to escape hidden in their shoes.

“Of course, I will certainly get you out of this prison. But there is one thing I ask of you, and that is for you to grant my selfish wish!" Her hands that were on her knees started trembling. Her eyes started watering as she was desperately held back her tears. “Please- save this country and my sister! I beg you!”

“Who...is your sister?” Aizou asked hesitantly, his brows furrowing.

“My sister is the one who succeeded the throne after the death of our father.”

“So you’re the princess’s sister!”

Yujiro knew of the story that the princess had a sister, because he heard it from the residents of the city, which meant Aizou would have heard it too.

It was rumored that she was locked up in a castle like her sister and almost never showed up in the city, but apparently, unlike the rumor, she seemed to be a very active and fearless princess.

Or, just a daredevil.

“I’m surprised that a princess would disguise herself as a royal guard. And to be personally brought a meal by her? What an honor,” Yujiro said sarcastically, crossing his arms.

“Ah- that’s right!” The princess missed the sarcasm and pushed the tray over to them. “Please enjoy the soup before it gets cold. It's a bean soup that makes the most of the flavors of the ingredients, and a loaf of bread that's very satisfying!”

There were certainly some beans floating around the soup, and the bread looked very dry.

“I also...secretly brought this from the kitchen.” She took out a cloth and unwrapped it, revealing dried meat and cheese, as well as an apple.

Aizou rolled his eyes and laughed. “It’s like a wizard’s robe.”

“I’m sorry. I would have prepared a more proper meal, but it’s hard to hide this from the guard’s eyes...and...as you both know...there’s not much food in the city.”

"...Isn't that what you should appeal to your sister for? When your father was alive and well, he would send his guards to exterminate the demons that appeared on the streets. The people of the town have lamented that since the current princess took over, they no longer do so,” Yujiro said calmly.

The sister looked away in shame for a moment.

“...Yes. It’s just as you said. I advised my sister to send soldiers out to defeat them, but she wouldn’t listen to the warnings of her loyal advisors who have served her since my father's time. On the contrary, my sister is convinced that I am in collusion with the ministers and plotting treason...how could she possibly think that I would have such wild ambitions..? But she has completely lost faith in anyone and everyone..”

“Can’t you have it ordered in your authority?” Yujiro asked, and she shook her head.

“If I do so without her permission, I could be charged with treason.”

“But you came to us with the guards, right? You were ordered by your sister.” Yujiro concluded.

Aizou’s brows furrowed. “So that’s it...” he whispered.

“But why? Why would the princess go through all the trouble to capture us?” Yujiro asked.

“It’s because...you are looking for the secret jewel that is said to be able to grant the only wish of those who have it.” She looked at them with saddened eyes.

Yujiro and Aizou look at each other once and then shut their mouths. Someone in town must have told the guards that there were strangers asking around about the legendary jewel. This must have reached the princess's ears.

(I thought everyone in town knew that story...)

Even if they knew about it, they were supposed to keep quiet about it? He heard very little about it from the residents of the city. The name and its origin were only briefly mentioned in a book he found in a small library in the town. The old man who showed him the book in the stacks said to him, “there was a young man who wanted to see this book too.”

Now that he thought about it, he must have been talking about Aizou, who arrived in town a little before Yujiro did.

“My sister said to catch anyone who finds out about the secret jewel...”

“So there were others like us before...” Aizou mumbled. “And some tried to steal it?”

“Yes...about ten people every year...”

“Ten a year?! That many people believe the legend!”

“In total, I believe there’s been about fifty people.”

“Fifty!” Aizou cried out, before wiping his face with his palm.

“The most important thing to remember is that every year, travelers, heroes, and smugglers come to town in search of that jewel, and are then captured by the guards and forced into jail.“

(So that’s why the townspeople kept saying they don’t know anything...)

If they carelessly divulged too much, they would end up the same way. That’s why when people ask about it, they simply say “I don’t know, I’ve never heard about it.” In their hearts, they must be tired of hearing about it, though.

“So you caught the strangers who came here every years, and threw them in prison on your sister’s orders.”

She didn’t deny it, gripping her robe tightly with her hands.

“My sister was a very caring and kind-hearted person when my father was alive...I grew up with her here, and I know her better than anyone. We woke up together, did our hair, picked out matching dresses, and she used to sit on the bench in the garden and read to me...I miss her...” Her gaze grew more sad. “I remember one time, we snuck out of the castle together and went into the forest to pick berries. Of course, we made a big mess and our father scolded us...but even then, my sister stayed with me, saying that she was responsible. I was the one who suggested we go. She’s changed. Ever since our father died, she’s been a completely different person.”

“...Do you know why?”

She wiped tears from her cheeks with her hand and nodded.

"What I am going to tell you now, please keep it to yourselves and swear that you will never repeat it to anyone. In that case, I will believe you both and tell you everything I know about the source of the tragedy that has been brought upon this nation, without concealment. I promise not to lie- though I can’t tell you to believe me.”

“If you don’t want us to talk about it, then we won’t. But can you really trust a couple of travelers?” Aizou asked.

“And yet you still want us to fulfill your selfish wish?” Yujiro remembered what she had said to them first. She stared at them, eyes full of tears.

“What happens if we say no?” Aizou asked.

“I promised to get you out of jail. I have no intention of breaking that promise. But before I do, I would like you to make a choice. Either you will leave this city without asking me anything, or you will do me the favor of knowing everything I want you to know.”

"And what worthy thing would we receive if we accept?” Yujiro asked.

Otherwise, listening to her and granting her wish would be a waste of time. If he didn’t have to listen to her, it would be better if he could get her to get them out of this prison. He was sure that she does not think that she can get her wish granted just out of pity.

There may be some people in the world who, moved by the tears of a sweet maiden, were willing to risk their own lives in order to demonstrate their bravery, recklessness, and righteousness.

Or a knight of some country, who prided themselves in doing such things...but unfortunately for her, Yujiro was not that type of person. He had something that was worth devoting his life to.

He wasn’t going to give his body or life for someone else’s wishes.

She stared straight at him.

“I’ll give you what you want the most.”

⚔️🏹

“Tonight, I will bring the jailer a bottle of fine wine. When he is completely drunk and asleep, escape from the prison. To the west is the thorn garden. I’ll hide your shoes in a tree by the entrance and tie a red ribbon to mark the spot. There are several stone statues in the garden. One of them is the entrance to a hidden passageway. If you go through it, you can get out of the castle.“

“If they find out you helped us escape, won’t you be punished?”

“When the opportunity comes, I will cause a small commotion in the prison. You have to take advantage of the commotion and escape. You will not have much time, for they will soon be after you. When you get out of the castle, head for that cathedral, where you will keep the things you have entrusted to me. Once you’re through the forest, you will be able to escape the city.”

“Where are we headed?”

“I want you to go north. Among the mountains that surround this country, there is a sacred peak so high and steep that it reaches the heavens. If you know the legends, you’ll see what I’m talking about. It is the dragon that dwells atop that mountain, shrouded in snow, that continues to bring misfortune to this land.”

“There’s no way you’re asking us to slay a dragon, isn’t that a bit unreasonable?”

“What if I told you it’s not possible?”

“Absolutely not!” Both of them said.

After night fell, Yujiro and Aizou opened the barred door with the key they had been entrusted with. Passing through a narrow passageway lit by flickering candles, they find the jailer, and just as she had said, he was passed out with a bottle of sake in his hands.

Yujiro pull the key to the prison entrance from his waist and quickly left, without making a sound.

When he stepped outside of the castle, it was raining lightly.

Torches on the castle walls illuminated the darkness, with the guards standing by them. Following the instructions, he headed west of the castle and found the entrance to a walled garden with a red ribbon tied to a tree near it. Aizou bent down and probed the base of the tree with his hand.

“Do you have..?” Yujiro looked around.

Aizou tossed him his pair of shoes he pulled out, before slipping his own shoes on.

“...I didn’t think you’d do it,” Aizou finally said, standing upright and brushing his hands on his shirt.

“...I’m not doing it to help her,” Yujiro replied, tying his laces. He couldn’t fully believe the story that the princess was actually kind, and it felt like he was walking into a trap.

Even if they made it back, would they really hand them the jewel?

Yujiro pushed the key in to unlock the door. They heard the key come off the lock, so they pushed the door and it opened slightly. They look at each other and stepped into the garden.

The garden was covered with brown, withered thorns and fallen leaves, as if it had not been cared for. As they stepped through the thorns and leaves, they saw a white statue standing quietly.

The same red ribbon as before was tied around the ankle of the lion statue. The lantern by its side must also have been prepared by her.

They pushed the pedestal of the statue together, and the entrance to the staircase appeared from below. Aizou lit the lantern, and the area was dimly illuminated.

He went down the stairs first, and Yujiro followed.

She told him that it was shortly before the death of her father, the king, that dragons began to appear in the country again. She said that it was also around that time that demons began to appear on the streets more frequently than before. Some people had seen the dragon flying into the mountains to the north, and her father had accompanied his guards to the mountains to confirm it.

But what happened there - only the wounded king and a few surviving guards returned. The wounded king was laid up in bed.

“My father never told me anything about that time. I really want to know what happened in the mountains of the northern mountains!”

Yujiro recalled her words as he made his way through the stone-walled passageway, which was only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time. He wondered where it led. The passage was long, and the end of it was still to come.

“Maybe the dragon that was slain by the old king has returned?” Aizou, who had been walking with the lantern raised, suddenly said while turning around, as if the thought suddenly occurred to him. “The legend says that the body of the dragon was shattered and all that remained was that jewel.”

He’d never heard of a dragon coming back to life in any country.

“Or maybe it's the ghost of a dragon. Didn't they come back to life again out of resentment over being slain?"

“Why would they show up now when it’s been like...hundreds of years since they were slain? That’s a little weird, don’t you think?”

“Well, it’s normal to suddenly remember something and get angry, right?” Aizou shrugged, a bit indifferently. “I just wish my rapier was hidden with our shoes.”

(Honestly...)

There was no guarantee that the guards wouldn’t ambush them again when they got out of the long corridor.

“I am not going to ask you to slay the dragon. I want to know- is there really a dragon in that mountain - or not? It will help me to know what happened to my father, who went with the guards. If we can find out, then I have a glimmer of hope that we can figure out how to save our country and my sister. The mountain is so steep that it is snowed in, and it is almost impossible for people to get to it. I don't know what will happen. We ask that you be prepared to risk your life. In return, I promise to give you both the jewel.”

“Are you sure? That’s your country’s treasure, yet you’re willing to give it away so easily?”

“For me, it is just a jewel...there is nothing more important to me than the peace of my sister or the peace of this country. I am sure my sister will understand that one day when she returns to being my sister again."

It was only after a considerably long walk that the passage finally dead-ended. When illuminated by the light of the lantern, a thin iron platform was embedded in the wall. Aizou gave the lantern to Yujiro and climbed up the platform to push on the ceiling with a heave. It opened with a click, and a breeze blew in. It shook the lights.

Yujiro climbed up after him and found that they were at the altar of the cathedral from earlier.

“So you were right after all,” Aizou said, impressed, “and I guess the hidden passageway wasn’t behind the organ.”

“I only said it was a possibility.”

As Yujiro left the cathedral and headed for the backyard, he saw two horses tied to a fence. On their backs were strapped their luggage and weapons. Yujiro's bow, which he had left at the inn, was also here, indicating that she had sent someone to retrieve it.

Aizo untied the white haired horse and lightly climbed onto the saddle with his foot on the foot rest.

Yujiro, still clutching the untied rope, looked anxiously at the black horse, who was snorting wildly at him.

“...What are you doing? You’ll get caught and taken back to jail if you keep standing there, won’t you?”

In the distance, they could hear the faint sound of whistles blowing from the commotion. It was only a matter of time before they realized that they escaped and would be after them.

Aizou tugged at the reins of his horse. “Come on. Hurry up and get on.”

“I can’t, okay?! This is impossible!”

“Wha- wait...you mean you don’t know how to ride a horse?” Aizou stared at him, visibly stunned.

“No. I’ve never done it before. And we weren’t told that we were going to be getting on horses!”

If he had known that, he would have declined the offer. It's not that he hated horses. It's just that he didn’t think he could ride on their backs.

“Don’t get mad at me. How did you ever travel before?”

“I rode in horse driven carriages.”

If Yujiro smiled cutely and asked nicely, most people would gladly take him on a carriage ride. If it was the carriage of an aristocrat or a wealthy merchant, he was often invited directly to the castle or mansion. Even if he couldn’t ride a horse, he never worried too much.

“You’re too goddamn lavish!” Aizou slapped his palm to his face with a groan. “Okay. There’s no time to teach you how to ride right now.”

“No one asked you to teach me.” Yujiro grumbled and looked at the wild horse.

(This horse...doesn’t look like it’ll listen at all!)

It was obvious that he had a temper or was in a bad mood and was ready to shake him off if he dared to get on. He stomped his hooves menacingly. The horse bared its teeth, causing Yujiro to flinch backwards. The spur of the moment made him unintentionally let go of the rope he was holding.

“It can’t be helped...” Aizou dismounted his horse and walked over, picking up the black horse’s rope. “Hold it.”

“I won’t ride it. You...just go on ahead!”

“Okay, okay. Just don’t let go of the reins.” Aizou walked behind Yujiro and picked him up easily, lifting him up onto the saddle.

The horse shook and Yujiro instantly almost fell off, yanking on the rope. The black horse started to shudder and neighed in complaint.

A small shriek escaped Yujiro’s mouth. Aizou patted the horse in a familiar manner, which caused it to stop trampling and hold still, though it still seemed displeased.

Why did the horse listen to him so nicely?

“Alright. See? You’re on, so you can handle it now!”

“I didn’t get on! I can’t handle it!” Yujiro cried out.

At that moment, the black horse suddenly took off running.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!” Yujiro screamed, clutching the horse’s reins. He didn’t think about if the guards were nearby or not.

“Don’t fall off! I’ll catch up to you!” Aizou called.

“Don’t screw with me! I’ll never, ever forgive you for this!” Yujiro shouted back as Aizou turned away from his retreating figure with a smile on his face.

#someya yuujirou #shibasaki aizou #lipxlip #honeyworks #heroine tarumono/heroines run the show #confession executive committee #lisians translations

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 3 years ago

Text

My opinion on bnha 329:

You can check in here my opinion about chapter 328, if you want the context.

I'm glad Horikoshi solved many of the things I pointed out last week. And I'm glad that I'm correctly reading into the manga, at least at some extent.

Let's see what we got this week: (long post)

After a long building up of relating Spinner to common citizens, mutants, people with weaker quirks and in general, the audience or the general public, we finally see this being explicitly acknowledged. He's on the end of his arc now, because the people picked him as their voice.

The last point is really important because Spinner now has great power. This is a direct parallel to the way Uraraka took control of the megaphone and spoke for the heroes. Now, it's Spinner's turn to speak for the villains, but because people wants him to do so.

On another note, we got an amazing graphic parallel of Stain and Spinner. While Stain is in shadows, Spinner is bright. And unlike Stain, Spinner has been chosen by the public. He was not there to be a leader, but people recognize him as one. This is very interesting because it shows how much Spinner has grown and how he is his own character, with his own achievements.

We saw Dabi back in a forest. This is a direct parallel to the way he stopped being Touya and got to be Dabi. It's a graphic reminder that we're getting the end of his arc with the Todorokis. What is his last step? We know he has his own plans and we know he wants to make Endeavor suffer, so could he be on a solo mission to achieve his vengeful desires? In which forest is Dabi? Are we're going to get more flashbacks? Are we going to see him back at Sekoto Peak?

Please note that when they mention Toga, it's exactly the way Curious wanted it. Toga is in front of a black background. She's being inserted on a narrative by force and not by choice, because someone else is putting her there. Alternatively, the white background tells us Toga's arc is still lacking definition and scenario for its end. Her fate is yet to be defined.

There's A LOT to say about AFO. Please look how the League of Villains is broken. AFO is using them as puppets. When referring to Spinner, he talks about him like he's a "bodyguard", not an equal or a friend like Tomura used to do. AFO clearly doesn't care about them and he won't stop to consider what they want, unlike Tomura. He has his own things to do and anything else must be forgotten and put aside.

AFO is still hiding behind Tomura. Please note how Tomura is treated like any other nomu. AFO took the throne of the king (Tomura) and made Tomura into a war dog.

Now, I've written some meta before about how Tomura never had an own identity until he met the League. Kotaro denied Tomura being himself, so much that the hand of Kotaro was still making Tomura faceless long after Kotaro's dead.

After Kotaro, AFO took away Tenko Shimura and imposed a new identity: Shigaraki Tomura. Please note that Shigaraki is AFO username, which means that even back then AFO was planning on using Tomura as an extention of AFO himself. And by naming him Tomura he pressured the kid to never forget his anger and sadness, caused by the tragedy of his family. It was AFO who repressed further the kid, all the hands being a physical reminder of such act. The hands were covering his entire face and because Tomura was unable to touch, he was only able to listen, just like the nomus. That's why Tomura scratches his neck so much. He itches for having an own voice, an own personality, an own identity.

If you pay attention to the panels in bnha 329, you can see how Tomura is wearing both a suit that resembles AFO's clothes and a cloak that resembles the one AFO was using on the world where Deku could see the vestiges. Tomura even has the white hair like AFO now. His pose and clothes are a direct parallel to Deku, but in a way AFO is a parallel to OFA.

Tomura has been stripped away of everything that made him himself. He doesn't have the hands, he doesn't have his clothes, people calls him AFO now, he doesn't even have his friends around. He's alone, a weapon and nothing more. I wrote another meta about how Tomura had no identity analyzing a panel from bnha 328. This is the direct consequence of that.

But this is not a separate case. It is pretty normal, in fact. When a system fails, when an entire country dives on a crisis, it's normal for everyone to question their place in that society and their identities.

Deku had an identity crisis and his friends for UA needed to rescue him and reminded him who he was. Toshinori had a crisis and Stain needed to helped him with it. Uraraka questioned too her identity as a hero and from there her speech above UA was born. Endeavor got a crisis, Shoto got a crisis, Toga needs to decide as much as Spinner does who do they want to be, Dabi is facing his old identity and his new identity conflicts...

This is actually pretty good. The narrative around heroes and villains are being questioned.

Who am I and why am I that person?

Do I need to be that person?

What is my role in society? Why?

What are my goals and why? Are they worth all the consequences?

Do I like the identity of my society? If not, can I change it? Can I change all the things before?

Bnha inner universe is walking towards a redefinition. What is a hero, what is a villain, who are they, why they are heroes or villains, etc. These characters were forced into certain roles or they assumed they needed to play those roles, according to what society told them. And now, they are free to decide. Time and time again, in every journey of any hero, the problems of the identity and the self vs the others is vital, and it shows through the decision making system.

On a final note, I'm a little sad that Horikoshi made a female version of All Might to fight Tomura, instead of giving her a more original character design in general. Women in the bnha universe tend to be seen as replacements of previous existent characters, or they are used quickly to further the plot and get forgotten. They deserve a better treatment, being honest.

The kids will get there rest time, because not all the cards are on the table yet. I love that it's the turn of the villains to play, because the final result of the next battles are going to be partially determined by what the members of the League of Villains decide to do.

Spinner will probably betray AFO, because he's not loyal to AFO's ideals but to his own ideas.

Dabi has his own thing going and he's also going to get rescued by the Todorokis. I really want to see Hawks, Endeavor, Shoto and Dabi all in a same fight, because parallels are going to fly around and I bet we're going to found out more about Dabi's heart.

I think Toga is still going to interact with the UA kids and help them somehow. I hope she gets to talk to Deku and make some good friends.

And for Tomura... He needs someone to reach for him. He has lost himself. His determination is gone, the sparks in his eyes, his fire. He needs a reason to fight, a reason to believe. He needs someone to believe in him, someone to call out his name and make him exists. He needs someone to see him. He's the same lost boy who walked on the streets asking for someone to rescue him. He's the same kid that asked for someone to believe he could be a hero. If Deku gives him that, if All Might helps him too, if the League is there to show them their loyalty, Tomura will be able to snap out of AFO's control and break free.

Nothing like a good villain chapter to make me excited about the future chapters. Let's wait and see.

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years ago

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Polyphonic

Chapter 3 ao3 (alt: tumblr pt 1, pt 2)

Lan Qiren wanted to speak to Wei Wuxian about everything they needed to do, but it would have to wait: the moment they arrived, they were immediately swept up into the political mess that Jin Zixun’s ill-fated ambush had caused.

Jin Guangshan was there in the blink of an eye, despite normally taking his time in seeing anyone, and Lan Qiren didn’t like the way he started making excuses for his nephew’s behavior from the very start. It was to a certain degree understandable, as everyone would first incline towards defending their family, but the haste with which Jin Guangshan sought to sweep it all under the rug was disconcerting, and Lan Qiren thought it was almost suggestive of some level of premeditation. Even more distasteful, however, was how he sought to twist the entire event into being yet another reason Wei Wuxian ought to surrender the Stygian Tiger Seal to the Jin sect: for his own good, of course, in order to avoid being made into a target on account of the disdain of the cultivation world –

“Sect Leader Jin, your words are in poor taste,” Lan Qiren said sharply.

He could hear Jiang Cheng, who ought to be defending Wei Wuxian and was trying his stuttering best to do so, starting to waver; the boy had a pleasant rippling melody by nature, forced into a fierce allegro by his parents’ endless disputes and his later tragedies, and the weak foundation meant that he was too easily buffeted by uncertainty and doubt, as Jin Guangshan undoubtedly knew.

“Let us not speak in abstraction,” he continued. “It was your sect, your nephew, who launched this particular ambush. You ought to be making a formal apology to Wei Wuxian and thinking of reparations to repair the injury to your sect’s reputation, not acting like a thief complaining to the magistrate that his victim failed to hand over his property quickly enough to prevent violence!”

Jin Guangshan’s eyes narrowed in irritation, though he fought to keep the expression off his face as if it could disguise the swell of bitter rotten music that accompanied him wherever he went. “Teacher Lan,” he said, striving for composed and charming but mostly coming off as stiff and wooden. “Come now, I must be misunderstanding you. Surely you are not accusing me of being a thief.”

Historically, as Jin Guangshan well knew, this was when Lan Qiren backed down, mindful of his position as interim sect leader – his sect granted him much of the responsibility but not the full measure of power that typically accorded with the title, and he was conscious, always, that his role was to ensure there was something preserved for his nephews to inherit.

Perhaps Jin Guangshan had forgotten that Lan Qiren was no longer interim sect leader.

“I am describing the facts as I see them,” he said icily, straightening his back and levelling his best teacher’s glare, refined by years of troublesome students. “And they are this: by the agreement of the cultivation world and through his own powers, Wei Wuxian was inviolate and unbothered as long as he remained in the Burial Mounds. Despite this, he willingly chose to emerge in response to an invitation issued by your sect, only to be attacked by your sect – and when he comes to you for justice, rather than grant it to him, you suggest that he hand over his most prized possession to prevent any similar attacks in the future. Unfamiliarity may require me to consult my sect’s texts to be sure, Sect Leader Jin, but only to determine if I should be calling it extortion, blackmail, or outright thievery!”

“Teacher Lan!” one of the smaller sect leaders gasped, even as Jin Guangshan went utterly florid with rage. “You’re not suggesting that Jin-gongzi was involved in the ambush!”

Lan Qiren had been Jin Zixuan’s teacher and knew him well – he had been a shy, introverted boy whose awkwardness came off as aloofness, and would never have done anything like this. Even less so would Lan Qiren suspect such a thing of the man who had been steadied by war and responsibility into an adult with a firm moral foundation.

“No,” he said, and met Jin Guangshan’s eyes directly. “I believe Jin-gongzi’s invitation to have been wholly sincere.”

For a moment, Lan Qiren thought Jin Guangshan was actually going to strike him, his aura lashing out violently like a clash of cymbals, discordant and biting, and he braced himself, but in the last moment etiquette prevailed and Jin Guangshan refrained, although his fists were clenched so tightly that his veins stood out from the backs of his hands.

That was when Wei Wuxian opened his mouth.

Lan Qiren silenced him with the muting spell before he could get out a single syllable.

Jiang Cheng sent him a thankful glance and cleared his throat. “This is a serious matter,” he said. “It requires a full investigation; we won’t be able to solve it all talking now. Both Wei Wuxian and Teacher Lan have traveled a long way – I have no doubt that they need some time to rest and refresh themselves.”

A convenient way to stop anyone from starting a fight, and implicitly excusing Lan Qiren’s rudeness as a mere symptom of exhaustion, resolving the whole thing without losing any more face for anyone. The Jiang sect’s boy was picking up this whole politics business quite well, the poor child.

“I concur,” Jin Guangshan said, recovering a little of his poise. “There are rooms ready for you both.”

Lan Qiren inclined his head as well. “An excellent idea,” he said, and then, because he could now, added, “We can discuss reparations for the ambush later.”

“And what about the curse?” Jin Zixun hissed, clearly done with holding his tongue the way everyone had been so obviously instructing him with their eyes. “Am I to simply suffer while that criminal walks free and unharmed?”

“When I said there would be an investigation, I meant it!” Jiang Cheng snapped. “I doubt your curse is so advanced that it can’t wait another day, and if it is, then you should have brought it up earlier!”

“Why you –“

“Sect Leader Jiang has spoken,” Jin Zixuan interrupted, his voice hard. “Zixun, don’t forget that you must also answer to me as to what you did to my guest in my name without my permission. I think it might benefit you to ‘rest and refresh’ as well. One of the servants can take you to see a doctor.”

Jin Guangshan seemed on the verge of objecting, but Jin Zixuan seemed not to get the hint, already turning his face away.

“In the meantime,” he said, saluting politely, “Sect Leader Jiang, Wei-gongzi, would you come with me? A-Li is waiting to see you both.”

Lan Qiren allowed himself to be whisked off in a different direction to settle down, which in all honesty he did need to do. He hadn’t flown such a distance in years, had been in better health when he’d done so, and he had been tired even before all this excitement; some rest would do wonders for him, even if it did make him feel a bit like he’d become a doddering old man or an invalid. Before he could settle down, though, he heard a sound approaching – a little uneven, sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow – and despite the fact that Jin Guangyao had never been anything but polite to him, he felt his back tense up at the reminder of why he was here in the first place.

“Honored teacher,” Jin Guangyao said, smiling and saluting deeply – more than he should, really, given that Lan Qiren was neither a sect leader nor had ever been his teacher. “Welcome to Jinlin Tower. I regret that your arrival was marred by such unpleasantness, and hope that the remainder of your visit is calmer.”

It’s not Jin Guangyao’s fault that Lan Xichen likes him, Lan Qiren reminded himself. Your suspicions, and your family’s terrible luck at love, are your own burdens to bear. They should not be put onto others.

He nodded to Jin Guangyao.

“It would be good to see a peaceable resolution to today’s events,” he said neutrally. “I appreciate that you have come to check on me personally. It is truly going above and beyond the call of duty.”

“Your nephew is my sworn brother, Teacher Lan. How could I fail to honor you as my elder?” Jin Guangyao said smoothly. “Let me know if there’s anything we can do to make you more comfortable.”

“A bath before dinner would be nice. Has my nephew arrived yet?” Lan Qiren privately hoped that he hadn’t, and was relieved when Jin Guangyao shook his head, confirming it. “Let me know when he does.”

“Of course,” Jin Guangyao said, and saluted again. “I’ll inform the servants; a bath will be made ready for you by afternoon.”

The moment Jin Guangyao left the room, Lan Qiren traced the pattern along the hem of his robes that shook off the dust of the road, returning them to being as clean and pristine as always – not a long-term solution to laundry, but very effective in the short-run, and one that he’d only refrained from doing earlier in order to drive home the point regarding how he had also been victimized by Jin Zixun’s ambush.

It was a profound relief to be clean again.

Once he could no longer hear Jin Guangyao’s familiar chords, he relaxed, which unfortunately these days meant coughing. He rubbed his chest when he was done, sighing, and settled down with his guqin to start playing a little, hoping to ease his nerves. Lan Xichen would be on his way already, he knew, and would probably move even faster once he got word regarding Lan Qiren’s presence. He’d made rather a lot of trouble for his nephew…

The door slammed open, and only years of experience with troublesome children, along with the warning echo of a song free and clear, full of shining righteousness, allowed Lan Qiren to remain unmoved by the cacophonous crash.

“So I have questions,” Wei Wuxian said. “Many, many questions, and I’m going to want answers to…uh, are you all right?”

Lan Qiren ignored Wei Wuxian’s rush, finishing the stanza he was playing and letting his hands still over the guqin. “Sit, and I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.”

Wei Wuxian closed the door behind him and put up a talisman for privacy, like the ones they used to use during the war, before coming to sit across the table from Lan Qiren. He was frowning. “Honored Teacher Lan, your lips are red,” he said cautiously. “Were you coughing up blood just now?”

“An old injury from the war,” Lan Qiren said, unable to resist recalling the memory of Wen Xu’s wild smirk as he’d deliberately smashed his ribs into pieces, grinding his palm against Lan Qiren’s chest to force the broken pieces to pierce his lungs. Nie Mingjue had executed Wen Xu only a few months later, a matter that had greatly eased his nightmares…truly Lan Qiren had to get to the bottom of this mystery as soon as possible; once Lan Xichen’s name was cleared, he could focus on trying to devise a solution to cleanse Nie Mingjue of the spiritual poison. “It can be aggravated by excess choler. Do not concern yourself about it.”

Wei Wuxian looked like he was concerning himself about it. “But you nearly –” Lan Qiren glared until he dropped the volume of his voice significantly. “You nearly got into a fight with dozens of cultivators back at the Qiongqi Path on my behalf! Wouldn’t that have aggravated it even worse than just getting angry?”

“Much worse,” Lan Qiren agreed peaceably. “My talents in battle are not especially notable, although better with the guqin than the sword. Regardless, the effort expended would almost certainly result in a severe backlash later.”

Wei Wuxian gaped at him. “Then why did you do it?”

“Was there an alternative?”

Wei Wuxian’s mouth opened and closed a few more times.

“How are your shijie and shizi?” Lan Qiren asked when it appeared that Wei Wuxian was not going to force any words out of his mouth any time soon. He folded his hands together in an appropriate manner – he, at least, knew his etiquette, and would continue to model it in the hope that Wei Wuxian might one day catch a hint. “Well, I trust?”

“Uh, yeah, they’re great. Jin Ling is perfect, shijie is wonderful, the peacock doesn’t deserve either of them, though he’s gotten better, I guess,” Wei Wuxian said, then shook his head as if to clear it. “And I wouldn’t have been able to see either of them if not for you.”

Personally, Lan Qiren didn’t think one Jin Zixun and any number of his friends would actually be able to stop Wei Wuxian, preplanned ambush or no, so he just hummed noncommittally. “You said you had questions?”

“Yeah, and now I have even more,” Wei Wuxian grumbled, but he seemed to settle down a little. “Let’s start with the fact that you said you needed help on a musical issue, but that it is also somehow an attempted murder. What’s that about?”

Lan Qiren grimaced. “Serve tea,” he instructed Wei Wuxian, and waited until he was midway through the process – and thus not staring straight at Lan Qiren – to start talking. “I have reason to believe that Nie Mingjue has been poisoned with spiritual poison.”

Wei Wuxian nearly spilled the tea, but managed to stop himself in time. “Chifeng-zun? Impossible!” Then he frowned. “I’d heard his temper was getting far worse, of late. Just mentions of it in passing…you think it’s because of that?”

“It may be. The Nie sect is prone to encountering qi deviations; a spiritual poison, especially one that specifically targets choleric feelings such as irritation and rage, would be particularly insidious when aimed against them. Should he die, everyone might be inclined to assume that the cause was hereditary rather than external.”

“A perfect murder. What type of poison?” Wei Wuxian’s eyebrows went up. “Wait – you think – musical poison?”

“My sect is renowned for using musical cultivation as healing techniques,” Lan Qiren pointed out, not sure why it seemed to come as such a shock to Wei Wuxian. “Antidotes grow alongside poisons, and all that can heal can also hurt – anyway, isn’t what you do a type of musical cultivation as well?”

“Good point,” Wei Wuxian said ruefully. “All right, that makes sense. That definitely seems like a real problem…but why do you need my help?”

“My health is poor, and I do not know what such an investigation will require,” Lan Qiren said. “And I cannot ask anyone in my sect to assist me.”

“Why not?”

“Because the primary suspect,” Lan Qiren said heavily, “is Xichen.”

Wei Wuxian stared.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a few long moments of blank gawping. “Please forgive me, honored teacher, but I think I misheard you. Are you saying that you think Zewu-jun is poisoning Chifeng-zun?”

“I hope dearly that he is not, of course,” Lan Qiren said. “In fact, part of the reason for my desire to investigate privately is to assist in clearing him of suspicion –”

“No, no, hold on, don’t move on just yet,” Wei Wuxian said, holding up his hands. “You think Zewu-jun – Lan Xichen! – might be capable of poisoning his sworn brother and, as far as I know, best friend? Your nephew?”

“Yes.”

“You really think he’s capable of something like that?”

“I have done my best to raise him to be the sort of man who would not be,” Lan Qiren said, and thought suddenly of his own brother – their father had treasured him, cared for him, valued him above all else. Would he have ever imagined that he would do what he had done and end up living out his life in seclusion, only to die pointlessly at the hands of the Wen sect? “And yet, who’s to say?”

“Uh, me? All the cultivation world? It’s Zewu-jun! He’s one of the most upright people I’ve ever met! You might as well suspect Lan Zhan – you don’t, do you?”

“No,” Lan Qiren said. He appreciated the righteous crescendo in Wei Wuxian’s voice, particularly when Lan Wangji was mentioned – unfortunate as it might be to find that Lan Wangji’s seemingly hopeless affection might actually be requited, since it remained a terrible idea – but it was a little inconvenient at the moment. “But equally I cannot burden him with the duty to suspect his brother. It would only hurt him.”

Wei Wuxian quieted down at that. “I can see that,” he said, grimacing. “But…why would you suspect Zewu-jun?”

“The evidence is – suggestive.” Lan Qiren shook his head. “To be clear, while I will of course value the truth above all else, I am not looking for evidence of Lan Xichen’s guilt. I am hoping to exculpate him.”

Wei Wuxian leaned forward, now frowning in earnest. “All right,” he said. “I still don’t really believe it, but other people might, and that’s bad enough. Even unfounded rumors can make for real trouble. Tell me what you know about it.”

“My nephew has been helping Nie Mingjue to ease the symptoms of his familial tendency towards qi deviations by playing him one of the strongest and most secret Lan sect healing songs,” Lan Qiren explained. “The spiritual poison I have observed in Nie Mingjue’s body is precisely a variation on that healing song – only instead of the pure version, which is designed to calm and heal disrupted qi, it is intermixed with another song that deliberately encourages spiritual turmoil.”

“All right. I suppose playing for Chifeng-zun gives Zewu-jun opportunity, but that doesn’t mean he’s the only one who could’ve applied the poison song.”

“The Song of Turmoil is a rare import, hidden away in one of sect’s forbidden books. Only very few people have access to that part of our collection.”

Wei Wuxian arched his eyebrows. “And yet you can immediately recognize it?”

“I enjoy studying obscure musical texts as an aid in composition,” Lan Qiren said, mild censure in his voice. “Would you dare claim you do not do the same?”

“…fine, fine, good point.” Wei Wuxian waved his hand. “Okay, fine…still, I’m not convinced. Even if the only source of the song is the Lan sect’s library, there was a lot of chaos these past few years. Someone else could have picked it up, couldn’t they?”

“It’s possible,” Lan Qiren admitted. “Unfortunately, the tune had the same starts and stops that are characteristic of Xichen’s playing.”

As a musical cultivator, even Wei Wuxian had to concede that the unique quirks of playing style were difficult, although not impossible, to replicate, and moreover that one would have to wonder why anyone else would bother doing so, especially in a spiritual poison they presumably hoped would go entirely undetected. He rubbed his forehead, clearly thinking it over. “So, wait, are you saying you heard this musical poison getting played? Were you affected by it? Why didn’t you interrupt in order to stop it or to find out who was responsible?”

Lan Qiren shook his head. “I did not hear the playing, only the effects.”

Wei Wuxian frowned. “I don’t understand. If you didn’t hear it get played, how do you know that the playing had Zewu-jun’s idiosyncratic characteristics?”

“I’m very familiar with how Xichen plays. How would I not notice it? Even if I only heard it intermixed with Nie Mingjue’s own base tone, the sound is distinctive enough to recognize.”

Wei Wuxian was staring at him, looking blank again. A moment later his brow furrowed as if he’d just had a thought that seemed strange to him. He said, “Honored teacher, a question. When I said I wasn’t the one who cast the curse on Jin Zixun, you said that the person who cast it played the guqin, not the flute. I’d been wondering…how did you know that?”

“The curse has the sound of a breaking guqin string, which does not accord with Jin Zixun’s own music,” Lan Qiren explained. “The person who cast it was moderately powerful and very well-trained, although this represents an overreach on their part. I think it is likely that they incurred a backlash due to the casting –”

“You just heard it?” Wei Wuxian interrupted. It was rather rude, but Lan Qiren supposed he’d signed up for that. “You just looked at him and heard the curse that had been placed on him?”

Lan Qiren nodded.

“You can hear what people’s spiritual energy sounds like?” Wei Wuxian was growing pale.

“Not spiritual energy directly,” Lan Qiren said, a little puzzled by what seemed like an outsized reaction. Not only was Wei Wuxian’s face pale, his fists clenched, but his song, normally so free and clear, had become suppressed, tense, tightly strung. “More in the nature of the sound of a person’s spirit itself. Your Ghost General, for instance; he has a very gentle melody, very soft, but the underlying base is harsh, jagged, thick with resentment, less playing than dying – he needs to learn to marry those two parts of his spirit together, or else he’ll have trouble finding peace. That’s why I offered to take him as a student.”

“What about me?” Wei Wuxian asked. He was almost vibrating with the need to know. “What about my music? Has it – changed?”

“It’s gotten a little more sober, which is not uncommon with tragedy,” Lan Qiren said, and felt as though he were on the edge of some terrible revelation. “But no, fundamentally you remain the same person you always were.”

Wei Wuxian exhaled, hard. A trill of relief.

“Something happened that made you think it would change,” Lan Qiren deduced, reaching up to stroke his beard thoughtfully. He watched as Wei Wuxian’s eyes flickered one way, then another. “Wei Wuxian.”

Wei Wuxian looked at him.

“Are you unwilling to return to orthodox cultivation – or unable?”

There was a world of difference between the two: one was arrogance, relentless and unrestrained, looking down at the truths the cultivators of the world and their ancestors had worked so hard to unearth, the other merely a depressing practicality – who wouldn’t choose to cultivate something if the alternative was nothing at all?

And yet…how could it be?

And why would Wei Wuxian be so terrified of letting others discover it?

“That’s none of your business,” Wei Wuxian said, teeth set in a bitter smile that was more of a grimace than anything else. “I agreed to help you, Honored Teacher, but my business is my own.”

“But –”

“Another question,” Wei Wuxian said. “Different subject: I know you don’t lie, and earlier you said…what you said. So tell me, what Lan sect girl has her heart so set on me that you decided to come tell me in person that I wasn’t allowed marry her?”

Lan Qiren blinked. “I only meant to advise you that it was a poor match for you both; it was not meant as an insult to you,” he objected, a little offended. “If you and Wangji insist, I will not stand in your way.”

He shook his head and sighed a little, regretful; he would not pursue the matter Wei Wuxian was hiding any further. He wanted to help, curiosity itching at him, but Wei Wuxian was right – it was none of his business.

“As long as your reliance on demonic cultivation does not impede your assistance in my investigation, I will not bring it up again,” he concluded. “How do you propose we begin?”

“…Lan Zhan?”

Lan Qiren frowned. “I already explained to you why I do not wish to involve Wangji, and that I do not suspect him. Why would we start with him?”

“Not for the investigation,” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, his face bright red. “About the – marriage!”

#mdzs #lan qiren #wei wuxian #jin guangshan #jin zixuan #jin guangyao #my fic #my fics #polyphonic

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 4 years ago

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The Chloe-Saga

Regarding the whole Chloe-situation: I don’t get it. Just what exactly makes Astruc not only hate a character of his creation to this extent but also makes him not stop giving her more and more prominence in the actual show? Like, in S1 she was the quintessential high school bully. Hates the main character, has the same love interest, causes a lot of “problems/villain of the week”. And guess what? That’s perfectly fine as an archetype. She fulfilled her purpose and it was fun whenever she got put down a notch. That some fans latched onto her and her being redeemed? That’s what a fandom does. It takes characters and gives them a new spin – that does not mean they like what a character in canon does, it means they want to explore those characters outside their bubble. With the identity-shenanigans going on, there even was a pre-build reason for why Chloe might question herself. In S2 we then got the full package of explanations for why Chloe’s Chloe. And while some of them were a bit much and Chloe still did a lot of bad things that might even exceed the “justifications”, Chloe became more than an archetype and more like a character with a clearer background and needs and wishes. What did Astruc expect? Even when we don’t buy her background AND think she went far beyond moral boundaries, there still is a lot more to latch onto. And in S3 and in S4 she got more focus and excuses. Fought of an Akuma. Was explicitly targeted by the big bad and more than once hurt by her idol. Got more family drama and focus on how her family affects people. If we are truly meant to hate Chloe and see not one bit of goodness (which Astruc tells us too) just why are we getting all that focus and excuses? As a one-dimensional schoolyard bully it would have been a lot easier to simply hate her. But that role is apparently Lila’s turf now… The way I see her character and development: One of her traits from the very beginning was how much she liked Ladybug and how much it hurt her whenever LB rejected or renounced her in a way she could not wave aside. She even literally dressed up as Ladybug! In S2 when her mother was introduced, what was one of the first things Chloe did? She sat besides her and mimicked every single movement. For me these were the defining moments of Chloe’s potential to be good. A girl who just really craves the attention of powerful female role models that she can model herself after. A girl who is way more insecure than her bratty face lets on. A girl who has not yet really found herself. Audrey’s entire character essentially is a grown-up Chloe. Petty and nasty and kicking down at every opportunity. Seeing how Chloe reacted to her, mimicked her, and just wanted to be recognized by her, I see most of Chloe’s character essentially as her modelling herself after her. Which is not helped by her father essentially being a rubberstamp with authority, Sabrina being an extended arm, and the butler…being a butler. Ladybug was the counter-weight. It was obvious Chloe cared about her and her opinion of her. She was still flawed and at times outright cruel but there was a hint of progress. Be it her later appearances as Queen Bee where she was either willing to listen (Maledictator) or act as part of the team (Heroe’s Day) or the entire “rejected an Akuma”-saga complete with shielding Sabrina without anything to gain from it. For me the most hurtful moment was when Marinette in her endless goodness reconciled mother and daughter. Because ultimately that was part of what made Chloe continue to model herself after Audrey and what made her stop questioning if Audrey truly is a woman to be emulated. Double hurtful because with Ladybug off her pedestal she was back as the sole role model and because this is yet another thing that can be construed as ultimately being Marinette’s fault (which I don’t believe in and absolutely hate!). We had all these things. Neglectful mother she wanted to emulate in the hopes to be recognized. Secondary role model that cast her out for reasons pertaining to her sins of the past and even before often rejected her for reasons Chloe couldn’t know about. A lot of enablers who either can’t or won’t tell her ‘no’ or 'stop that’ [and we know Chloe at least listens when the few people she cares about tell her]. This is not a condemnation story, that is a tragedy! Which is another thing I am weirded out about. How can Chloe be an irredeemable demon who has not a semblance of goodness in her and yet we are expected to feel stabbed in the heart by the S3-finale? Either she had the potential to be good and it was a tragedy it was not meant to be, or she is an obvious devil who nobody should feel for or with. We can’t have both! Should I feel betrayed or should I feel like that was just Chloe upping her Chloeness?

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According to what Astruc said, we were all supposed to feel betrayed by the Season 3 finale.

Chloe’s relationship with her mother is a real missed opportunity, as she was set up as a completely despicable person everyone hates, and of course, she reconciles with her while the writers never acknowledge the abuse. Seriously, Astruc doesn’t think Chloe being emotionally neglected by her mother for years to the point where she can’t even get her name right and developing a slight inferiority complex as a result counts as abuse.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES

Like you said, there have been plenty of plenty of irredeemable villains the audience still felt bad for when they were defeated because of how tragic their stories were.

Tai Lung from the original Kung Fu Panda is a good example. He was trained by Master Shifu, someone he saw as a father, and his skills grew, so did his desire for power. He saw not being granted the title of the Dragon Warrior as if he was denied something that was rightfully his. There’s also the fact that his desire to become the Dragon Warrior stemmed from his desire to make his father proud of him by achieving the greatest honor in Kung Fu.

Tai Lung: All I ever did, I did to make you PROUD! Tell me how proud you are, Shifu! Tell me! TELL ME!

Shifu: (quietly) I have always been proud of you. From the first moment, I've been... proud of you. And it was my pride that blinded me. I loved you too much to see what you were becoming... what I was turning you into. I'm s... I'm sorry.

Tai Lung: (hesitates for a moment before grabbing the injured Shifu) I don’t want your apology. I want my scroll!

Even though he stops for a second, Tai Lung still wants his power, ultimately shooting down the last chance he had at reconciling with his father. Both him and Shifu had problems that led to Tai Lung’s descent into villainy, but while one recognized his part, the other simply couldn’t comprehend he did anything wrong in the first place. THAT is how you do a tragic villain, not what we got with Chloe.

If Astruc wanted Chloe to be an irredeemable monster, he needed to show her meaner moments weren’t something to laugh at (something the show Kevin Can F**k Himself is doing a great job at in regards to the titular character by deconstructing sitcom cliches), and have the audience take her seriously as a threat, not a joke villain like in “Queen Banana”. If Chloe actually was a “deep character” like what Astruc obviously planned from the start, she should have been more than comic relief after betraying Ladybug.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #thomas astruc #thomas astruc salt #chloe bourgeois #queen bee #queen b #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #audrey bourgeois

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aworldofgoldfish · 3 years ago

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Mycroft Holmes as the tragic Hero of The Final Problem

"I am the smart one." It's a phrase being repeated many times in the series. While everyone sees Sherlock's intelligence and deduction skills, Mycroft feels the need to repeat it himself. He's more intelligent than Sherlock -apparently- but he can't be compared to his sister. No one can. However, she's locked, safely apart from humanity and their brother. Mycroft's intention is to protect his brother . At fourteen, he wasn't at all responsible for what has happened, but he took responsibility regardless. And he's proud of it. He really thinks he's doing something right. He's proud for being the smart one, Sherlock has forgotten the nightmarish past, and his sister cannot harm anyone else.

Hubris – excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things.

Hubris (ancient Greek ὕβρις) describes a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance.

His 'hubris' is his absolute belief in his intellegence.

Hamartia – a tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero.

And that's his 'hamartia' as well.

The term hamartia derives from the Greek ἁμαρτία, from ἁμαρτάνειν hamartánein, which means “to miss the mark” or “to err”. To “sin”.

Where does he go wrong? He's too certain of himself. Too certain in the world he has built, so he takes gifts to Eurus... and the plot they created alonside Sherlock to feed information to Moriarty and the fact the both of them didn't manage to consider that Moriarty's final plan to destroy Sherlock would be to kill himself doesn't teach him anything. He brought Moriarty to his sister, and after everything that take place, he doesn't consider that that action might have consequences.

He's absolutely certain his sister cannot communicate with the outside world, even when John says he's met her. Instead of working something safe, he follows Sherlock in a suicide mission, mostly because he doesn't realise how far things have gone. And he gets from sitting in the Director's armchair to being Eurus' Guinea Pig.

Peripeteia – The reversal of fate that the hero experiences.

Aristotle, in his Poetics, defines peripeteia as “a change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity.” According to Aristotle, peripeteia, along with discovery, is the most effective when it comes to drama, particularly in a tragedy.

Mycroft refuses to play his sister's games, knows his place in his brother's life, and someone has to wonder if his speech seen rightly by Sherlock is done to make himself feel better in case Sherlock picks him either way. What would happen if Mycroft didn't try to attract venom from Sherlock by belittling John? Interesting how Sherlock knows him better than that, isn't it?

Catharsis – feelings of pity and fear felt by the audience, for the inevitable downfall of the protagonist.

Catharsis (from Greek κάθαρσις, meaning «purification» or «cleansing» or «clarification») refers to the purification and purgation of emotions—particularly pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration.It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body.

Not in every tragedy, the hero dies, and thankfully in Sherlock no one does. But Mycroft's been brought down, he fell from grace if you prefer, his parents consider his brother -a brother Mycroft gave everything to protect- as the 'mature' one. Of course, we know it's total BS, and that absolutely humanises Mycroft. He becomes one of us just as we see his emotions, his mistakes, his shortcomings.

Mycroft isn't the protagonist of the story. Sherlock is, John is. But Mycroft gets to be the one with the character arc. Despite the initial attempt, we know from almost the start he's Sherlock's brother and that he cares. If he didn't care, Sherlock wouldn't be indifferent. He's never indifferent to the people who want to destroy him...

Mycroft is not a bad person. The last episode proves that. He's shocked by a suicide, he refuses to be part of choosing who's going to get killed, he's ready to be killed by his brother to save John, because it 'is his fault'. Because he realises everything is his fault.

The tragic hero never loses his goodness, Aristotle establishes that pity is an emotion that must be elicited when, through his actions, the character receives undeserved misfortune (regardless of what John thinks), while the emotion of fear must be felt by the audience when they contemplate that such misfortune could possibly befall themselves in similar situations. Such misfortune is visited upon the tragic hero "not through vice or depravity but by some error of judgment."

To be honest, none of us would have a sister like Eurus, but how far would we go to protect those we love? Hasn’t Sherlock also faked his death to protect? But Mycroft as opposed to Sherlock understand he made mistakes, too late indeed, but he understands.

And in a tv show like Sherlock where plot is more important than character, Mycroft becomes the lighthouse of the last episode.

IMHO

#Sherlock #The Final Problem #Mycroft Holmes

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trulyhumblenarcissist · 4 years ago

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Abourt Rei Himura and BNHA Chapter 301

Now that I've read the official release of chapter 301 I can finally try to gather my thoughts. I think this time the particular rendition of dialogues and inflections provided by Caleb Cook is more crisp and clear than usual, especially in throwing "shade" upon Endeavor as a father figure. But let's do things in order...

Title: THE WRONG WAY TO PUT OUT A FIRE - a simple, but stark message that doesn't leave space for ambiguity. There was a fire, an imminent tragedy that could and should have been avoided, but whoever tried to fix it, did it all wrong and now we have to deal with a huge arson.

CARLESS HANDLING OF FIRE, on the other hand, doesn't quite cut it for me, because it seems like everything was caused by a foolish mistake. "I was carless and now I'm in a pinch"- type of situation, while it's perfectly clear that Endeavor and Rei decided purposefully which "strategy" to use with Touya. A BAD one to say it lightly. Rei's contribution and complicity is debatable, of course, and I'll touch on this later.

Let me get this clear though: I'm not trying in any way to critique the hard work of unofficial translators. I can't say anything relevant because I'm not a translator in the first place (I can barely understand English and my native language on a good day) and also because I am so grateful for everything they do in order to give us really good material FREE OF CHARGE basically a second after the release in Japan. I'm just interested about the different shades of subtext we can catch if we read the story through multiple filters. Every translation is unique because it carries the personal spin of the author even if the bias should be inexistent or ideally undetectable...

However, back to the chapter

REI'S CAGE

The first scene opens on a luxurious classic Japanese villa, with Enji, Rei and her parents discussing the motivation behind Enji's proposal. Or at least we initially think that's what's going on... Because in reality Rei's family couldn't care less about the motivation. Everything these people see is a wealthy, famous guy the next number one hero ready to take their daughter in marriage. I guess the Himuras are pretty broke, thight on cash, their old prestige is definitely gone and all they can do to save themselves from shame and poverty is "to sell" their only remaining asset.

During the whole ordeal, Rei is standing still, silent, cold as ice. She knows she doesn't really have a choice. How mortifying and sad is this? An adult, capable woman has no agency whatsoever, she is used again and again and she stoically accepts this treatment from every single dominant figure in her life until she can't be stoic anymore. I really hope Horikoshi's going to give her a much more proactive role in saving her family and it seems the narrative wants us to expect this type of character development.

I'd like to point out 2 panels in particular:

First one

In this scene the Todorokis are back from their trip to the doc, who clearly said they shouldn't try to conceive a child with a perfect quirk mix because it is dangerous (and morally questionable too). Rei understands this fact and tries to dissuade Enji, but he doesn't listen, because he's projecting all his pent-up resentment and frustration onto Touya. He knows how it feels to crush against an unbreakable wall, since he can't surpass All might and his son can't too. He had to learn this truth the hard way, so Touya needs to do the same. Enji is purposefully throwing upon his son years of failures, self consciousness and despair, just because the boy has to get it into his thick skull that he is a dud, just like his father. This is not a hopeless dad making a mistake bona fide, this is a broken man trying to destroy his self reflection by proxy, annihilating everything Touya is, swiping the kid's identity under the rug. He describes his son's dreams and sadness as something birthed from stubbornness. He is auto-convincing himself however (because Endeavor is not stupid). A little bit later he's basically saying: "Touya let's play make believe! We can go on like everything I had engulfed in your psyche never existed, you're a failed attempt so you don't exist. Your needs and wants are silly and useless, nothing worth dealing with now that I can't make you my prodigy. Why don't you go play with the other failures so that I don't have to look at myself while taking actually care of you. I don't want to see you, because it's too painful, because you're a remainder of my own inadequacy."

Note: If you want to read an incredibly well done analysis about Endeavor's motives and psyche, you can get it on @thyandrawrites , she's dwelt on everything extensively and way better than me.

I really want to talk about Rei though. In the panel I showed above, her expression is a bit tricky to analyse. At first she is very vocal about her position. She doesn't want to put Touya through useless suffering, especially since they have a scientific reason not to. They have no guarantee of success with other children, besides, they could possibly have to deal with other health related issues. However, all it takes to convince her in the end is Enji's half assed attempt at the "It's for Touya's sake" shtick. Is it really? Why doesn't she question her husband anymore?

Well... I think before Natsuo, she was probably hoping Touya would let go "naturally", with time and growth, maybe by taking interest in his other siblings. Rei said she wanted to have more children because in her mind they would have supported and loved each other. Maybe she was naive enough to think that a big family full of kids few years apart from each other was all Touya needed to distract himself from his purposes... BUT and here is the point I want to get across: She was deluding herself too, much like Enji. The ugly truth, in my opinion, is that Rei is a person prone to protect herself by going with everything other people want, especially if said people are capable of hurting her. Yes, she was hurt time and time again, but what would have happened if she really tried to stop Enji?

What I am trying to say is that Rei is the kind of person who endures to survive. She holds a "captive" mentality in which, by indulging her captor's desires, she can continue living with less possibile damage. If I stay still and silent, if I don't make a scene, I can go on, I can hold onto the few things I have that actually make me happy.

Let's think about it... Enji was so obsessed with his psychotic, power-hungry quest that he would have probably disown Rei. She would have been thrown away for a more compliant woman with an ice quirk, or something similar, this resulting in her probably losing everything, the respect and love of her family (the Himuras) and also her own children. Because we know Endeavor can definitely hold a grudge and is vendicative.

So, clarifying, Rei doesn't put up a fight because she is scared for herself in a way... She is scared to be hurt in the worst possible way (by losing her little bit of serenity), so her strategy is to endure and to keep up a facade of control and purpose.

Rei, ironically just like Touya and other characters in mha, doesn't really get what unconditional love is. Her family loves her until she can be useful to the Himura name and status, her husband loves her for her quirk. Her children, however, love her for who she is and she wants to stay with them... Only to be forced to leave them later anyway.

The few times Rei actually smiles are when she is with her babies. She is a deeply loving mother in her core, but her declining mental health makes her a very lacking caregiver.

This panel, in my opinion, shows the point of no return for Rei. She can't keep the glacial facade forever...

After Natsuo's turn to be deemed a failure, Endeavor is crazier than ever, because All Might is as popular and loved as ever and he hasn't make any progress into his eugenetic games. The last two images of Rei are very telling. She is exhausted, but she knows what her husband wants from her this time too. She looks like a lifeless doll and honestly I can easily see Shouto's conception as... Non consensual and I will stop here.

Then Shouto is born, the last, perfect specimen... And Rei isn't doing much for Touya, we can see she's apparently blind towards her eldest son's distress already after Natsuo's birth... But why?

Because she is actively avoiding to face the Touya's problems too.

If Touya is still suffering, is still feeling stressed and worthless, then everything Rei has endured, everything she pretended not to feel for the sake of her family has been completely useless. What Rei cannot look at is her own parental failure, is the concrete proof that while protecting herself and her peace she did not protect her children too, because the two interests were never really aligned, even if she really believed so. She never had a functional family to preserve in the first place and everything she accepted to do was all for the sake of a false sense of belonging.

However is too easy to say she should've rebelled against Enji and dumped his sorry ass. Abuse traps you and your abuser too in a cage tricky to escape.

What I imagine will happen next chapter is one of two things:

Enji stops Touya by using brute force, probably also saying something really scarring to reinforce the notion that Shouto is the only child he cares about.

Rei stops Touya by using her quirk. This act could be considered by Touya another confirmation that even his mother actually does something by her own accord only when Shouto's safety is at risk

Necessary conclusions

I don't blame Rei for her actions too much. She is a victim turned abuser by circumstances, but more importantly she's actually taken mesures to prevent herself from hurting her children again. She's trying to heal for her family's sake, really this time. Ten years spent dealing with guilt and having actual therapy seem a good plan to me. And now she's the one ready to snap Enji back to reality.

Enji, on the other hand, is trying too. It's too little too late, but if he stops avoiding reality and hardly works on understanding his family's point of view I don't think he is completely unredeemable. I don't see him surviving his last confrontation with Touya, thought... But I could be totally wrong.

Obviously everything I've said it's my personal analysis on Rei's character, as I interpret her actions and words, so feel free to contradict me and/or to add anything you might see fit.

#bnha301 #bnha meta #mha #my hero academia #todoroki enji #endevor #todoroki rei #rei himura #todoroki family #tw abuse

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everythingsinred · 3 years ago

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Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Natsume (pt. 25)

Hi there.

According to Wikipedia, the term "star-crossed lovers" refers to a couple "whose relationship is thwarted by outside forces". Furthermore, "such pairings are said to be doomed from the start". Often, the tragic end of these pairings can be seen from a mile away, even though the audience may hope and wish desperately for things to be different. In fact, the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is immediately revealed to end tragically, with both of them dead. It's just a matter of watching the heartbreak unfold.

The same is true here. Natsume and Mikan are "doomed" from the start. You hope and wish desperately that fate will be kind to them, that certain things will be different, that they can be happy, but it's not to be and you know it, deep down. All you can really do is watch the specific way it all goes up in flames. Now that we know they're both romantically involved, star-crossed to be separated, we're about to see a tragedy unfold. Let's suffer about it.

Chapter One Hundred and Forty

The school was being invaded, and the only one of Shiki’s conditions that the ESP could not accept was Mikan being out of his reach. In order to save the school, Mikan allowed herself to be put into the ESP’s custody under the condition that she cannot be harmed or manipulated.

But Chapter 140 doesn’t start by checking in on Mikan or even showing the others’ reaction to her absence. Not yet.

Just in case you didn't know how this would end to begin with, Higuchi will let you know now. It will not end well!

The chapter starts with a monologue from Ruka about the lengths Natsume would go to for Mikan, but also pleading for him not to go anywhere. This is unsubtle foreshadowing. We see a glimpse of the future, of Natsume’s presumably dead body, and the misery his death brings. We can see more evidence of what we already knew: Natsume thinks so little of himself that he’s willing to sacrifice anything for others, never considering that his absence will cause utter despair in the people he leaves behind.

At this point, it becomes even more obvious that the story will end with tragedy, and Natsume's probable death will be part of it.

We finally get to the real start of the chapter. It’s winter again. Ruka is musing on life at the academy without Mikan. They all talk about her often, even after months of not seeing her. They don’t even know where at the academy she is, or what she’s been up to.

Just for a glimpse. ;-;

He recalls Yuka’s funeral. The children were instructed to leave the area, but it was the last time they’d see Mikan, so they all stay. Natsume doesn’t even have an umbrella despite the rain. Mikan was then escorted from Yuka’s grave by the ESP. Her classmates want to know where she’s going, concerned that she’s in trouble. When the ESP threatens Shiki for not disciplining them, Mikan smiles and promises to see them again.

Fate does not smile upon them.

Natsume watches, and although they’re all surprised and concerned, he seems more so than anyone else. The last time he saw her there was a lot left unsaid. She had confessed her requited feelings telepathically and he’d had to say goodbye over and over and over. But Mikan hasn’t used up all of the telepathy stone quite yet, so he’s able to promise her that he’ll do everything he can to find her. She smiles, tears in her eyes, and that’s the last image of her he has for a while. He will find her. That’s his new mission, his new reason for living.

Back in the present, Natsume finally appears to join the group. He’s been missing, looking for Mikan. He spends most of his time running around campus trying to find her. The telepathy alice stone is the only tie they have to each other now. It’s all he has to go off of.

He smiles upon joining the group. Mikan isn’t there, but he’s still smiling. It might not be entirely genuine. He’s smiled like this before, to make Ruka feel better before the Z Arc. He has to have hope, too, because he can’t die before he finds Mikan. Submitting to the misery will only mar his chances.

Ruka knows that Natsume’s long absences are due to his search, that he spends hours and hours looking for her, calling for her, waiting for a response.

Yes, Shiki, and as a minor, he CANNOT consent to being a member of a group that has "war potential" because that's against international law and you should be charged with human rights' violations. Also, since he's a child, even being a criminal wouldn't justify this kind of punishment either, on account of him not even being a teenager yet.

Natsume is still a Dangerous Ability type. Shiki urges him to transfer out, but Natsume can’t. He has to stay, because as a DA type he can search in more areas that are off limits to normal students. In general, the DA class is more comfortable now that they’re under the management of the Middle School, not the ESP. Still, it’s described as a group “with war potential” and he wants to feel like he’s doing something to protect the people important to him rather than simply standing by. Natsume’s mindset of always having to protect people, to the extent that when he cannot protect people he feels useless and worthless, is damaging. He thinks he has to do these things, and although the narrative paints the DA class choosing to remain as them choosing to protect people, it’s kind of ridiculous that a school would put such a task on students’ shoulders in the first place. They’re the ones who should be protected, not the other way around. No matter who is in charge of the DA class, sending kids on dangerous missions where they could get hurt is still child abuse and endangerment.

In any case, he’s told it’s useless to try and find her, that the barrier hiding Mikan is too powerful, but he won’t listen. He won’t let anything anybody says get in the way. Just like he said when he first rebelled, no matter how much somebody tries to convince him not to, he’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Two

Tsubasa is also opting to remain in the DA class. It’s easier to be in on the action that way, for one. He also wants to help Natsume because he’s concerned about his alice shape. Natsume and Misaki both tease him for this, and Tsubasa chases after Misaki. Natsume watches them wistfully. Tsubasa doesn’t even seem to realize how lucky he is. He can hug Misaki, tease her, apologize, talk to her, see her. Natsume misses Mikan and he’s jealous that Tsubasa is able to have with Misaki what he’d love to have with his own girl. So, naturally, he sets his hair on fire.

God, Tsubasa, have some sensitivity!

Back at the dorms, Yuu laments that Mikan won’t be allowed to attend the Christmas Ball, and it’s unlikely she’ll be allowed to graduate with them either. Hotaru comes up with the idea of sending Mikan Christmas presents, and everyone is immediately on board. They all try to come up with present ideas, but Natsume’s a step ahead, already making another alice stone for her.

Hotaru notices and immediately tears him apart for it. He knows the stone won’t make it through the examination, and the fact that even making alice stones takes a toll on his body will only make Mikan worry. In addition to all that, Mikan already has his alice stone, so there shouldn’t be any worries on the “love tradition” front.

Hotaru is Mikan’s best friend, someone who knows her pretty well and whose opinion Mikan cares about. This criticism wouldn’t hit as hard if it was some random person, or even just another kid in Class B. Because it’s Hotaru, he has to take it seriously. Hotaru is calling him out and he’s embarrassed and defensive, but she’s a step ahead of him, having thought of a much better present.

Natsume's like, "I'll be her prince!"

She gives him a story book, about Rapunzel. The story is similar to Mikan’s--a girl is trapped in a tower with no way to escape. She found a prince and they were able to escape together and live happily. All Mikan needs is to find her prince and the story would fit perfectly.

Natsume likes this story a lot. He wants to be Mikan’s prince. He has to be her prince. He doesn’t have a choice but to save her, because that’s all he’s living for. And letting Mikan know that a prince is on the way seems an important enough mission that everyone wants to help get Rapunzel through the examination. They will all send story books to make Rapunzel seem less suspicious. Of course that doesn’t stop Hotaru from claiming that the prince in her story is actually more useful than the one in Rapunzel, implying that Natsume is a subpar prince as well.

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Three

It’s time for the Christmas Ball. Mikan isn’t there, so Natsume is morose. Just like last year, he finds refuge in the tree. Last Christmas was pretty nice, all things considered, because he got to kiss Mikan.

It's just not fair. All he wants is a smooch. And to save her and keep her safe but. The kiss too.

At the time, he’d thought it was a one-off, his only chance. He was just going to kiss her real quick because he was convinced Ruka already had, and then when it was done he would run away and never do it again. She wouldn’t want to kiss him over Ruka anyway, right? But apparently Mikan loves him too, something he had never even considered a possibility, so maybe she’d want to kiss him again?

Except that Mikan isn’t around and the only way he can see if she wants to kiss him again would be if he found her.

How come everyone is calling him out so boldly lately? You guys DO realize his days are numbered, right? Not even double digits? So cruel.

Sumire is talking about dancing with him this year, but he’s only thinking about Mikan. Koko calls him out for it, saying there’s someone in the tree thinking about kissing. It was such a strong thought that it took Koko by surprise, even.

There’s a present exchange and Yuu again expresses sadness that Mikan isn’t with them, wondering if she’s spending Christmas all on her own. This spurs Natsume to get the hell out of there. He can’t sit around for too long, after all. He wants to find her and he won’t find her at the ball for sure.

He’s out looking for her, just like he does every day and every night. Shiki might be a hopeless romantic, or feeling guilty for having Mikan watch the ball on TV, so he loosens the barrier on Mikan enough for Natsume to be able to find her.

Shiki is also a NatsuMikan shipper... You a legend for that one, fam.

He hasn’t seen her in months, not even after searching every corner of the school over and over again, but tonight he has finally found her.

Conclusion

Although in many ways, Natsume's story was set up to be tragic from the beginning, these chapters establish for good that something horrible is coming, and we know that to be Natsume's death, in about a week. I'll talk more about the star-crossed lovers aspect in the upcoming parts. It's an aspect of their relationship that I find very interesting.

Thank you for reading this far!

Y'all have caught up to where I'm at, more or less. I won't post tomorrow because there'd only be a chapter of content to post and that's no fun. I'll spend the weekend getting ahead a bit and then on Monday I'll continue. In no time at all, we'll be wrapped up! It's all so exciting!

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