#chiaki is there he doesnt get a tag though

[mirrortouchedsea]

I belong with the salt and the sea and the stones (Save them all for me)

Pairings: Kaoru Hakaze/Kanata Shinkai

Notes: Fantasy AU, Work in Progress, Inconsistent updates

Chapter 1/? Next

Word Count: 6,831

Summary: When they asked him about what he had been doing out there, he told them about a strange blue haired boy. The servant told him there was nobody who could fit that description, as blue hair wasn’t natural and they were miles away from the nearest town. They told him it was probably just a figment of his imagination he came up with to help cope with the loss of his mother. Kaoru felt it deep in his bones that Kanata was real.

Read on AO3

---

Kaoru’s eyes burned in the sea breeze as he sat on a large rock far away from his father’s castle. He was eight years old and his mother had just died. His father has said something that was fuzzy in Kaoru’s mind now, but still stung enough that he ran away. Something about needing to grow up already. 

The noise clouded his mind and made it hard to focus on anything, but the gentle lapping of the waves eventually calmed him down. 

At some point he must have buried his head in his knees, and a gentle tapping on his foot made him look up. 

“Who’re you?” he asked, a little irritated. 

“I am ‘kanata’” the boy responded, curious green eyes staring right through Kaoru’s. 

“I’m Kaoru.” 

“It is nice to ‘meet’ you, kaoru,” the boy said, tilting his head. 

It was strange to Kaoru, that another boy would be out here this time of day, the sun slowly setting over the horizon. There wasn’t a nearby village and none of the servants had ever said anything about having kids. 

“Where are you from?” he decided to ask. 

Kanata’s face turned sad. 

“I cannot ‘tell’ you that right ‘now’.” 

Kaoru’s face scrunched up. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I cannot say.” 

There wasn’t any use in pushing the question further. 

“Why are you ‘here’?” the strange boy asked, laying his head against his arms, which he had folded atop the rock. 

Kaoru opened his mouth before closing it again. Why was he here? He was mad at his father, he was grieving his mother, his siblings were grieving in their own ways and were much too old to care about little Kaoru. 

“My mom loved the ocean,” he said, avoiding a direct answer. 

Kanata hummed and started drawing designs on the rock with his finger. 

“Did something happen?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” 

Kaoru would have left it at that, but clearly Kanata was determined to do something about Kaoru’s bad mood. 

“Do you want to play a ‘game’?” he asked after a few moments of silence. 

“What kind of game?” 

There wasn’t really anything to lose. He needed to get his father’s voice out of his head, and may as well try whatever game Kanata was thinking of. 

Kanata dove under the waves for a moment before emerging with what appeared to be an oyster. The boy with blue hair smashed the oyster on the rock and started drawing something with the sharp edge. 

Kaoru watched as Kanata scratched a few crude lines in the stone. They formed a small grid and Kaoru didn’t recognize it from any of the games he would play by himself in the castle. 

Kanata drew a crude ‘X’ in one of the grid spaces and held the oyster shell out for Kaoru to take. 

Kaoru took it but his confusion must have shown on his face, because Kanata began to describe the rules of the game. 

“We will ‘take turns’ drawing an ‘X’ or ‘O’ in these spaces,” Kanata pointed to the little squares individually. “I am ‘X’ and you are ‘O’. Whoever gets ‘three in a row’ will win.” 

Seemed simple enough. Kaoru drew an ‘O’ in the space opposite Kanata’s ‘X’. 

He passed the oyster shell back to Kanata, and the game was over quickly. Kaoru had tried to block one of Kanata’s attempts at getting three in a row, only to be foiled by Kanata’s clever set up. 

“You win!” he exclaimed, in awe of the strategy he had to put into such a simple game. 

Kanata chuckled. 

“Would you like to play again?” he asked. 

Kaoru nodded and began drawing another grid on the stone before drawing in an ‘X’ in the upper right corner. 

The two boys covered that rock in little grids with Xs and Os well into the night. At some point they had lost track of who had won more games, but it didn’t matter as they tried to outsmart each other the next round. 

Kaoru almost didn’t notice how late it was until someone started calling his name. He looked up and saw that the moon was shining bright overhead with the stars. How long had he stayed out with Kanata?

“Sorry Kanata, that’s one of my dad’s friends calling me,” he turned to say goodbye to his new friend, but found that they had slipped away while he wasn’t looking. The only evidence of their encounter were the grids covering the rock and the broken pieces of oyster shell scattered around him. 

Kaoru opened his mouth to call out to Kanata before he heard his name again. 

“I’m coming!” he yelled as he stood up and stretched. His knees felt a little cramped from sitting on the rock all evening. He shot one last glance out to the ocean, hoping that Kanata might be out there and he could at least say goodbye. 

There was nothing but the calm waves crashing to shore. 

“Oh thank goodness, Kaoru you’re okay!” the servant said as they picked him up. 

Normally Kaoru would protest against being treated like this, but tonight he just curled into their arms. 

When they asked him about what he had been doing out there, he told them about a strange blue haired boy. The servant told him there was nobody who could fit that description, as blue hair wasn’t natural and they were miles away from the nearest town. 

They told him it was probably just a figment of his imagination he came up with to help cope with the loss of his mother. 

Kaoru felt it deep in his bones that Kanata was real. 

--- 

Kaoru went back to the rock again the next night, desperate to see Kanata again. To prove that he hadn’t made up the boy in a fit of grief. 

The remains of the oyster shell had been blown away during the night, but the scattered grids with Xs and Os remained. 

He sat out on the rock again and dipped his feet in the water. Maybe Kanata will come back again today. 

Over an hour had passed when Kaoru began pulling his feet out of the water and he had decided to just go back to the castle. Maybe Kanata was busy today, or maybe his parents had taken him back home, wherever that was, and they couldn’t meet again. 

Maybe their meeting on the rock yesterday was supposed to be just that. 

Kaoru had stood up and was shaking his legs dry when Kanata poked his head out of the water again. 

“Kanata!” he exclaimed, quickly sitting down again. 

“It is good to ‘see’ you again, kaoru,” the boy smiled at him, laying his head on his arms again. “I am ‘sorry’ for ‘leaving’ yesterday, but it is ‘dangerous’ for me to be here that ‘late’.” 

Kaoru still couldn’t understand what Kanata was saying. It’s not like Kanata was a mermaid or something, right? His mom had told him those only existed in stories. 

They were both kids though, so he probably meant it was dangerous to be out that late alone. Just like what his father’s servant had said last night. 

But now Kaoru had proof that Kanata was real. He was right there! 

Kaoru reached a hand out to touch Kanata’s hair, just to make sure. 

Kanata pulled away before he could feel it for more than a moment. 

“What are you ‘doing’, kaoru?” 

Kanata was frowning.

“I-- uh…” Kaoru started. 

What was he doing? 

“I just…wanted to make sure you were real, I guess.” 

“Why would I not be ‘real’?” 

“I dunno, my dad’s…friend said that people don’t have blue hair.” 

Kanata laughed. 

“You can ‘touch’ it then, but please be ‘careful’.” 

Kaoru gently reached out once more and gently grabbed a lock of Kanata’s hair in his thumb and forefinger. 

It was grainy and scratchy, as if it wasn’t quite hair. Kaoru tried to recall one of the books he had read in the library about hair on sea creatures being less like hair and more like…it was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn’t quite recall.  

“Why does it feel like that?” he asked, pulling away. 

Kanata chuckled. 

“I cannot ‘tell’ you yet.” 

Kaoru groaned. 

“When can you tell me?” 

“Maybe when we are both ‘older’,” Kanata responded. 

“That’s so far away though!” Kaoru wrapped his arms around his knees and laid his head against them. 

They sat in silence for a few moments. 

“Thank you, Kanata,” Kaoru finally murmured, letting the breeze carry his words away. 

Kanata hummed and tilted his head as if he hadn’t heard what Kaoru had just said. 

“I said ‘Thank you, Kanata’,” Kaoru said a little louder. “For yesterday, I mean.” 

“You seemed ‘sad’ and I wanted to ‘grant’ your wish and make you ‘happy’. Are you ‘happy’ now, Kaoru?” 

“A little bit…but what do you mean ‘grant my wish’?” 

Kanata’s eyes widened, like that was something he wasn’t supposed to say to Kaoru. 

“I…need to ‘leave’.” 

Kanata tried to move away from the rock but Kaoru grabbed his wrist at the same time. It was wet and slimy. 

“Promise me you won’t leave me, Kanata.” 

Kaoru felt tears pricking at his eyes. He couldn’t have the only person who had ever treated him like a normal kid, like a friend, leave him like this. He wouldn’t let them. 

“Is that what you ‘wish’?” he asked. 

“Yes! Yes it’s what I wish. Please be my friend…” Kaoru felt the tears spill over as he pulled Kanata’s hand closer to his chest. “Please, Kanata…” 

Kanata looked conflicted. His eyes went from scared, to uncertain, to a slew of other emotions that Kaoru didn’t have the words for before he finally settled on one. Determination. 

“I promise that we will be friends, kaoru.” 

“Pinky promise?” Kaoru let go of Kanata’s wrist and held out his hand, pinky outstretched. 

Kanata looked curiously at his hand before holding his own hand up in the same manner. Kaoru linked their pinkies and shook on it. 

“You have to keep your promise now!” 

The two boys laughed at their deal and Kaoru felt like a weight was lifted off his chest. 

--- 

Kaoru returned the next day, and the day after that. He came back to their spot as frequently as he could just to catch even a glimpse of his new friend, his only friend. 

Some days he would sit out there for several hours and Kanata wouldn’t even peek his head above the water before Kaoru gave up. Others, Kanata would meet him there and practically jump out of the water to greet him. 

Those days they would spend hours talking, playing games, just being kids. Both of them would come to cherish every moment of it, not knowing when their parents would take them away from each other. 

It was one day at the end of the summer when Kaoru was told by his father that they would be returning to the city, casually leaving out the part about returning to a castle. Kaoru’s summer spent out by the ocean would be over. 

That day, he walked back down to the beach, finding a familiar blue head of hair laying on their rock already. 

Kaoru’s mood was so bad that he couldn’t even bring himself to call out to Kanata like he normally did, running and giggling and excited to see his friend. 

He pulled himself up on the rock and began running his fingers through Kanata’s hair (something the other boy had grown more used to since their first encounter). 

“Is something ‘wrong’, kaoru?” he asked, picking up on his mood. 

Kaoru hummed dejectedly. 

“Yeah. Father says we’re going back home tomorrow,” he sighed and turned towards Kanata. “I don’t want to leave you though.” 

Kanata dipped his fingers in the water before doodling small designs on Kaoru’s feet and legs. Kaoru jumped slightly at the sudden touch but quickly relaxed and let Kanata trace the various designs. 

“Will you ‘return’ here again?” Kanata asked. 

“Maybe next summer, but that’s so far away. I don’t want to leave.” 

Kanata tilted his head in contemplation. 

“Why don’t we make a ‘promise’ then?” 

Kaoru’s mind flashed to earlier that summer and their promise to be friends. 

“Promise to meet again next summer?” He held out his pinky. 

Kanata took it in his own, familiar with the gesture this time. 

“Promise.” 

And with that, their fate was sealed. 

--- 

Kaoru wandered the palace halls when he returned. What was Kanata doing right now? Was he feeling the same way? Did he still wait for him at their spot, even though Kaoru had told them he was leaving? 

Kaoru found himself in the library, flipping through books about the ocean and the creatures that lived there. Kanata still hadn’t gotten out of the water all summer and Kaoru was beginning to think something was up. 

He may be 8 years old, almost 9 mind you, but he wasn’t stupid. 

He found a few books on mermaids that his mother had insisted on keeping for him. He had always been a mother’s boy growing up, hadn’t he. 

All of the books said that mermaids either weren’t real, or if they were, they avoided human contact at all costs. Was Kanata just a strange child from a nearby village? Nobody had ever mentioned a village that was close to their summer residence. Maybe they kept it a secret. 

There was no way Kanata was a mermaid, Kaoru decided. Kanata just liked to be in the water. But how did he manage to sneak away whenever one of the royal servants called Kaoru back for dinner time? Surely he would have noticed footprints in the sand. 

All of the information made Kaoru’s head swim. Everything seemed to be in conflict with everything else. Maybe he just wasn’t looking close enough. He would have to investigate further when he returned to their summer home the next year. 

He closed the book and looked outside, realizing just how late he had stayed up again. Hopefully his father didn’t have any plans the next day and he could sleep in a little bit. 

Kaoru padded through the halls as quietly as he could, being very careful to avoid slipping and falling. Most of the doors were closed and the only lights came from the wall sconces that had been turned down for the night. Enough to see by for the nightly cleaning but nothing more than that. 

He was almost back to his room when he noticed that the door to his father’s room was open and the lights were on. Kaoru debated if he should peek in or just go to bed. It was getting late and he would get in trouble if they found him out this late. 

He quickly decided to walk closer to the door and try to listen to what was going on, but he didn’t want to spend too much time lingering at the door. 

“...blue haired boy at the beach?” He caught the tail end of a sentence. 

“Yes, and it seems he spent most of his time down at the beach playing with his ‘friend’, though we’ve never seen this blue haired child.” 

“Thank you for the information. You may go now.” 

Kaoru quickly started running towards his door at that. It was only two doors up the hallway, he could make it before the servant walked in the hallway and noticed him. 

He gently opened the door and prayed that it wouldn’t make any noise as he slipped inside and closed it again. 

What had he just heard? His father was talking to one of the servants that had taken care of him over the summer, that much was clear. And it was someone who knew about Kanata, which he had only mentioned maybe once or twice before realizing nobody believed him about the boy’s existence. 

Hopefully it was just nothing. 

Kaoru took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm his heart rate down before bed. 

In. 

. 

. 

. 

Out. 

. 

. 

. 

Kaoru opened his eyes again and got into bed, not even bothering to change out of his day clothes before falling into a deep, dreamless sleep. 

--- 

Kaoru manages to avoid being asked about Kanata and what they did this summer. He overhears conversations between his father and his advisors late at night, discussing if the blue haired boy might be real, and what he could be. 

Kaoru regrets saying anything at all about Kanata, but every night he prays to whatever god is out there that they don’t go looking for him. 

He debates telling Kanata about everything next summer when he’ll be back at their summer home.

Kaoru is only 9 years old and has to consider the consequences of his actions in such a serious manner. It often keeps him up at night, waking him from nightmares where Kanata is kidnapped and forced to give up information about…mermaids? He can’t quite tell since the scene cuts out before he can try and save his friend. 

Kaoru doesn’t get much sleep. He has bags under his eyes and less energy and everyone notices but nobody says anything. His family talk at him rather than to him, not that he minds much since it goes in one ear and out the other. 

Everyone assumes he’s still grieving his mother and leaves it at that. And to some extent, it is. He still yearns for his mother’s touch, her gentle hugs and the stories she would tell him every night and the love he felt whenever he was in her presence. 

He cries himself to sleep those nights, only to be woken up to nightmares of Kanata being captured and thrust into a reality where he has nobody to comfort him anymore. 

--- 

The next summer, Kaoru bolts to their special rock. His eyes scan the ocean for any sign of Kanata: his blue hair, green eyes, odd splashing amidst the waves. 

He even goes to shout Kanata’s name out before realizing that it might not be the best idea. So Kaoru sits on the rock and dips his feet in the water, kicking them gently to create little waves. He would do his best to wait patiently for Kanata and organize his thoughts. 

He got there when the sun was still high in the sky and it was almost sunset when Kanata’s head poked out of the water. Kaoru almost jumped off the rock and into the water to give him a hug when he noticed the tell-tale green eyes and light blue hair. Kanata beat him to the punch and practically tackled him in a hug. 

The two boys laughed for a few minutes, Kanata rolled off Kaoru and sank back into the water before Kaoru could get a good look at the lower half of his body. 

Their giggles died down and Kaoru took a deep, shaky breath. Why did this have to be so hard? It’s not like Kanata was actually in any danger…right? 

“Kanata, can I ask you something?” he said, looking down at his knees. His hands curled into fists on his lap. 

“Of course, kaoru,” Kanata replied, laying his head on the rock like he always did.

“Are you…a mermaid?” he asked, still not looking at Kanata. He could feel his face heat up in embarrassment. “I mean…that’s silly. Obviously you aren’t a mermaid, those are only from fairy tales and it was stupid of me to even ask--” 

“Kaoru,” Kanata interrupted. “I am a ‘mermaid’.” 

Kaoru looked up, eyes widened in confusion. Kanata was…a mermaid? 

Before Kaoru could ask what he meant, Kanata shifted and raised a tail partially above the surface of the water. It was a deep blue-gray color with shark-like fins. 

Kaoru had never seen something so beautiful and he wanted to brush his hand over it, like he had with Kanata’s hair last year. He knew he shouldn't, especially since Kanata had hidden his tail from him for so long. He must have had his reasons, given how in the stories humans always hunted mermaids to show off and take them away from their families. 

Kaoru didn’t know much about Kanata’s life in the ocean, but he couldn’t imagine taking Kanata away from it either. Even if it meant they got to see each other more often. 

Kanata lowered his tail back in the water, creating a gentle splash as he moved back towards the rock. 

Kaoru opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. He was too awestruck to speak. His friend was actually a mermaid? 

Can he touch Kanata’s tail? 

Why was that his first thought? Kaoru slapped his cheeks and got his thoughts in order. 

“That’s so cool, Kanata!” he exclaimed. It wasn’t a lie, Kanata’s tail was very, very cool to the 9-year-old boy with two legs. 

Kanata chuckled. 

“We are not supposed to ‘tell’ humans about our ‘existence’. Please do not ‘tell’ anyone ‘else’ about this.” 

Kanata’s tone was more serious than normal and understandably so. 

“Of course!” Kaoru said, maybe a little too quickly. “I pinky promise!” 

Kaoru held out his pinky, which Kanata accepted with ease. Kaoru laughed and lay back on the rock, and Kanata pulled himself up to join him. 

The two boys talked for hours, watching the clouds move and pointing out the different shapes (Kanata insisted they were all different types of sea creatures even when it was clearly a duck), catching up on the past 9 months of their lives. Kaoru found out Kanata’s birthday was only two months before his, and that Kanata had always wanted to try human food. Kaoru told Kanata about his mom and his fascination with the sea that she fostered in him. 

Eventually, however, it was time for them to part ways once again. Kaoru couldn’t risk the castle servants catching a glimpse of Kanata now, and it was almost time for dinner, which meant they would be coming to get him soon. 

“We will meet again ‘tomorrow’, yes?” Kanata asked, sliding back into the water. 

“Of course! Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Kaoru replied, putting his stockings and shoes back on. They would be full of sand and smell like sea water later, but someone else would deal with that. 

Kanata chuckled. 

“I look forward to seeing you ‘tomorrow’, kaoru.” 

He slipped beneath the waves and swam away. 

Kaoru swears he saw Kanata wave at him before he got too far away. Kaoru waved back. 

--- 

That night, the servants asked him again what he had been doing out so late. Kaoru took a moment before answering, leaving them only with a vague “Playing in the ocean.” 

It wasn’t a lie per se, but it wasn’t the entire truth. 

He ate dinner with his family in relative silence, letting the conversation happen around him and only offering a polite nod when asked a question he wasn’t paying attention to. His mind was still on the blue haired boy he knew now to be a mermaid. 

Kaoru eventually holed up in the library with some of his favorite books to read for the night until he got too tired or his candle burnt out, whichever came first. 

He had grabbed a few books related to mermaids, ones that his mother had read to him when she was still alive. Kaoru could still see part of her in them, the little crinkles where she would hold the page, the tears when she turned a page too fast, excited to continue the story with him. 

Kaoru could feel the tears pricking at his eyes, so he put the book down and grabbed another one, but it was no use. Every book in the library had been something his mother had picked out herself for everyone. 

Kaoru decided that he had read enough for the night and walked back to his room. Just like he had a few months ago, he paused in front of the cracked door to his father’s quarters and listened in. 

“--mermaids. I thought they were just a myth but could he really…” his father’s voice trailed off, but Kaoru could put 2 and 2 together. 

Kaoru did not sleep very well that night. 

--- 

“Hey, Kanata. Can I ask you a question?” Kaoru kicked his feet in the water, gently splashing Kanata’s face. 

Kanata tilted his head. “What do you ‘want’ to ‘know’, kaoru?” 

“I thought mermaids were supposed to keep their identity a secret, so…I was wondering why you told me?” 

The question hung in the air for a long moment. Kaoru couldn’t bring himself to breathe. 

“It is because i ‘trust’ you, kaoru.” 

“Can you really trust me? I haven’t even told you about who I really am.” 

Kanata furrowed his eyebrows. 

“What do you ‘mean’, kaoru?” 

Kaoru took a deep breath and stared at the water. He dipped a finger into the ocean and began drawing little circles with it. 

“I…never told you that I’m a prince. And my dad is the king of this land.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at Kanata. 

“Well I don’t see why that would ‘change’ anything between us?” Kanata responded. “I am also an ‘important person’ back home.” 

“You are?” Kaoru asked, curious now. 

“I do not think I can ‘tell’ you the ‘details’ though.” 

“Is that why you always talk like that?” The question slips out of Kaoru’s mouth before his brain can keep up with it. 

“What do you ‘mean’, kaoru?” 

“I mean it’s like…” he had to pause for a moment. How could he begin to describe how Kanata spoke? 

“It’s like…you emphasize random words more than others? And you pronounce things weird sometimes.” 

“I think ‘you’ are the one who speaks ‘weirdly’, kaoru.” 

Kaoru laughed. 

“Well I guess we both talk weirdly then.” 

Kanata chuckled and moved to sit on the rock with him. 

“I trust you because you are ‘like me’,” he said simply, answering Kaoru’s earlier question. “I don’t think you would ‘tell’ anyone my ‘secret’.” 

That made enough sense, Kaoru supposed. It’s not like Kaoru had anyone he really could tell, since he didn’t like his father and his siblings never took him seriously. He hated being so much younger than them sometimes, but it was times like this where he didn’t mind. 

It meant he had Kanata all to himself. 

He felt Kanata lean his head on his shoulder. The two boys looked out at the sunset together until they eventually fell asleep. 

There was nowhere else Kaoru would rather be. 

---

Much like the last summer, Kaoru spent his days running off to the beach, sitting on that rock where he had met Kanata all those months ago. 

The anniversary of his mother’s death hit him hard, but Kanata proved more than enough of a distraction from the tense atmosphere around his family. It was so thick that week he could have cut it with a knife. 

Kaoru was suffocating the more he spent around his older siblings and his father. Even though Kaoru was only 9 years old, he was expected to start taking on more serious duties in the next few years, and they only wanted to prepare him for that. 

Kaoru just wanted to hold onto his freedom for as long as possible. So he continued to meet with Kanata and play games, swim, and make up stupid stories about the different people in their lives. 

It was the only time Kaoru was ever truly free to be himself anymore. 

He swore he would engrave these memories on his brain so he could think back on them when he inevitably had to return to the city at the end of the summer. 

He also spent his nights having to sneak back from the library, where he was constantly reading up on mermaids when the weather was too bad for him to go visit Kanata. He would sneak past his father’s room and catch glimpses of late night conversations that he didn’t want to stick around for. 

What he did manage to hear made him worry about Kanata, though. Did his father know about mermaids? Would they try to hurt Kanata and his family? Had they tried to do that in the past and were using Kaoru to get them to lower their defenses? 

Was Kaoru hurting Kanata by being his friend? 

These questions burned in Kaoru’s mind as he tried to sleep, but it was useless. By the end of the summer, the bags under his eyes were noticeable enough that even Kanata could no longer ignore them. 

“Have you been ‘sleeping’ well, kaoru?” he would ask, always cupping Kaoru’s face in his hands. 

“I just had a bad dream is all. Don’t worry about it.” 

The response was automatic, devoid of any real feelings. It was a lie of course, and Kanata saw right through it, but never said anything. 

Kanata would just offer Kaoru a place to close his eyes and said he would protect him from the bad dreams, “if that is what you ‘wish’.” 

That’s how Kaoru slept the last month of the summer: long naps on the beach with Kanata stroking his hair and calling him a good boy. It was a strange habit that he had, but Kaoru didn’t mind. 

It reminded him of his mother, and that was all he needed to relax to the touch. 

He never had a nightmare while sleeping on the beach. 

--- 

If Kaoru was being honest, it was harder for him to go home this summer than it had been last year. He and Kanata had gotten closer and Kanata was more open now that Kaoru knew about his secret. 

The two played in the water frequently, Kanata using his tail to splash Kaoru on the rocks to taunt him into jumping into the water. Kaoru would retaliate by jumping in and tackling Kanata in a hug and dragging them both under for a moment until Kanata righted them and brought them to the surface, laughing and smiling. 

Sometimes the two would swim out beyond the rocks, Kaoru clinging to Kanata’s back to stay above the water and Kanata would swim in slow circles and coax fish to the surface for Kaoru to pet. 

Kaoru would spend the rainy days in the library looking for books on the fish that Kanata showed him, learning all that he could to try and impress his friend with his knowledge. Kanata would always smile and say that the fish loved Kaoru too. 

All of that just made it harder for Kaoru to leave. The carriage was waiting outside and his father was calling his name, but Kaoru’s legs wouldn’t move. It was as if his legs had been screwed to the floor until one of the servants gently nudged him forward. 

The tears came to his eyes as he made his way forward, arms hugging his torso to try and find some sense of comfort as he left their summer home behind for another 8 months. 

Kanata will still be there next year, he told himself. Just hang out until then.

--- 

They were 10 years old the next time they met. Kaoru had devoured everything he could at the main castle’s library during his 8 months away and had way too many questions for Kanata. 

Have mermaids always hidden themselves from humans? Why did they start hiding themselves? Have there been other humans who actually knew about mermaids? Is anything in the fairy tales he grew up reading true? 

Kanata, for his part, did his best to answer these questions. 

Mermaids haven’t always kept themselves hidden from humans, but recent events have made them hesitant to expose themselves. There were cases of humans using magic to come down to mermaid kingdoms, but most of their accounts were greatly exaggerated. And yes, there was a way for humans to enchant themselves to go under the water, but it only lasted a few days even when cast by the strongest of magic users. 

Most of the fairy tale stories were just that, stories. 

Kaoru became fascinated by the idea that people could visit the world of the mermaids. 

“Do you think I could do that one day?” he asked, sitting in his usual spot on the rock and gently kicking his feet. 

“You will need to ‘learn’ how to ‘swim’ first, kaoru.” Kanata replied, laying next to him. 

Kanata had become more comfortable pulling himself out of the water around Kaoru since their first meeting. 

“Agh, that’s true. My mom wanted to teach me but my father thought it was ‘un-prince like’ or whatever.” His face crinkled into a pout. 

“Do you think you could teach me how to swim, Kanata?” Kaoru asked, turning to face the other boy. 

“I do not have ‘legs’ so I do not think it would be very ‘effective’.” 

Kaoru laid down and crossed his arms. 

“But there has to be some way I can learn to swim, even if you can’t teach me.” 

Kanata hummed in thought for a moment. 

“I might know ‘someone’ who can help ‘us’ with our ‘problem’.” 

Kaoru shot back upright again. 

“Really!?” he asked, eyes shining in anticipation. 

“Yes, but I will have to ‘ask’ him ‘later’.” 

Kaoru nodded his head and moved to hug Kanata on the rock. 

“Thank you, Kanata!” he said, nuzzling into the boy’s neck. 

Kanata chuckled. 

“Of course, kaoru.” 

--- 

It was another two weeks before Kaoru got to meet Kanata’s other friend, a boy from a small fishing village nearby named Chiaki Morisawa. The boy had deep chestnut brown hair and brilliant red eyes, and entirely too excited to meet the other friend Kanata had apparently been talking about for the past two weeks. 

Chiaki explains that he didn’t have time to come all the way up the bay until today, which was normally a day of relaxation, though his parents knew he liked to hang out with some kids from other villages in the bay. As long as he was back before the second meal the next day they wouldn’t worry about him. 

Kaoru was a little shocked at first to see Chiaki as he was, in clothes that had seen better days but clearly were well taken care of anyway, and a straw hat that was on its last legs after who knows how many days on the water. 

Chiaki was also shocked to find out that the friend Kanata had been talking about was the prince of the kingdom. Evidently Kanata had kept their unspoken promise to keep that a secret. Kaoru had to clap a hand over his mouth to keep him from yelling out how shocked he was at the revelation and had to bribe him not to tell anyone he was giving the youngest prince swimming lessons of all things. 

Not that anyone in Chiaki’s village would believe him anyway, Kaoru thought, but he just wanted to keep these meetings as quiet as possible. What would his father think if he found out he had been meeting with a commoner, after all. 

Kanata helps Chiaki pull his little boat to the shore and Chiaki almost tackles Kaoru in a hug as a greeting. Kaoru didn’t mind this behavior from Kanata, but he had just met Chiaki. Kaoru puts his arms up to brace and keep some distance between them until Chiaki pulls away. 

There’s a sinking feeling in his gut when Chiaki pulls away with a slight frown, but Kaoru shoves that aside as Chiaki begins talking excitedly again about swimming. 

Kaoru wasn’t wearing anything too fancy, opting for some simple cotton clothes that could be easily washed without issue, though they still seemed fancier than Chiaki’s own clothes. 

Kaoru followed Chiaki into the water and listened to his explanation of simple swimming motions. They wouldn’t move beyond where they could touch the sand today, just so they didn’t have to worry about accidentally drowning. 

First things first though, Kaoru had to learn how to float on his back. 

“You’ll want to relax and lean your head back and keep your arms and legs straight,” Chiaki guided his hands under Kaoru’s back, and Kaoru had to try and not to flinch at the touch. Chiaki’s hands were much rougher than Kanata’s or anyones at the castle. But Chiaki was trying to be gentle and Kaoru knew Kanata was nearby. 

He did what was asked and leaned his head back and arched his back. Chiaki’s hands guided his movements. 

“I’m going to let go now, okay?” Chiaki said. 

Kaoru couldn’t respond before he felt Chiaki’s hands leave his skin. It took everything in him not to tilt himself upright again. He closed his eyes and willed himself to stay in the arched position. 

“Good boy!” Chiaki said. He must have picked that up from Kanata. 

“Don’t call me that. Only Kanata can call me that.” Kaoru said, continuing to float. 

“Oh, sorry!” Chiaki seemed overly apologetic over the whole thing. Kaoru didn’t say anything. 

Once Kaoru was able to get himself from standing to floating unassisted, they moved onto basic movements. Chiaki found a stray piece of driftwood that would support Kaoru’s weight, despite how uncomfortable it was to hold, so that he could practice kicking his legs. 

This part was surprisingly hard. Kaoru had to focus on keeping his legs as straight as possible while moving them up and down, while also making sure his hips moved in rhythm with them. 

He still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it by the time Chiaki realized he had to go home for the night. 

“Just keep practicing…” 

“Hakaze.” He doesn’t know why he gave Chiaki his family name. 

“Right! Just keep practicing, Hakaze! I’ll see if I can come back again next week and we can keep working on swimming!” 

“Of course,” he replied, with half a smile. 

Kanata waved goodbye as well before helping Chiaki get his boat on the water and the two left to go back to Chiaki’s village. 

Why was he so…disappointed in meeting the other boy? Maybe that wasn’t the right word, but he had been so excited to meet him just two weeks ago. Was it just the time that had passed? Was it the idea that Kanata, despite being a mermaid, was able to make another friend so easily? Did their personalities just not mesh very well? 

Was Kaoru just being too hard on Chiaki? 

Was he…jealous? 

Kaoru didn’t want to sit with the thought for too long. He needed to get back again and change his clothes. 

He walked back to shore and shook himself dry in the same manner a dog would before changing into his dry clothes. They still clung to him slightly but it was better than the dripping wet clothes he was wearing. 

What was this heaviness he felt in his heart? 

---

Their routine continued for the rest of the summer. Every two weeks, Chiaki would get towed over by Kanata on a small canoe and they would have swimming lessons. Kaoru’s progress was slow but it was paying off. 

By the end of the summer, the three of them were splashing and having fun away from shore. Kaoru had grown more…tolerant of Chiaki. He didn’t flinch when the boy crushed him in a hug, but he still pushed him away once the moment grew too long. 

He felt a pit in his stomach whenever Chiaki and Kanata seemed to be in on something together before dragging Kaoru out with them. He wasn’t an afterthought, clearly, but it felt like he wasn’t in on the joke. 

He missed the days when it was just him and Kanata. They had grown fewer and far-between as Kanata kept telling Kaoru that it was just stuff at home. 

“You do not need to ‘worry’ so much, Kaoru. There is just some…important business my family ‘needs’ me for.” Kanata told him one day, on a rare day where it was just the two of them. 

“I just…wish that I could help you with it. I miss when we just got to hang out every day.” Kaoru felt tears well up in his eyes. Why was he crying over this?

“Fufufu, but we are both growing ‘older’ and being given more ‘responsibilities. You have not been able to visit the beach as often as you would ‘like’ either.” 

Kaoru sighed. He was right. Both children were almost 12 now and Kaoru would have to give up all the free time he had enjoyed until now. But he still hoped that he and Kanata would be able to still be friends. 

“Why is life so haaaaaaard Kanata?” 

“I don’t know, Kaoru. But we will get through it ‘together’, yes?” 

“Of course! I would never dream of abandoning you!” 

“Then let’s make a ‘promise’.” 

Kanata stuck out his pinky, a now familiar gesture between the two boys, and Kaoru gratefully accepted. 

[spinecurlingmice]

tinies from yestersay whats up with me doodlig in the worst art programs known to man ive done this with other things in the past too

[mihai-florescu]

Okay I did post the au in 3 different parts and had a tag for it but I forgot it so I'm just gonna screenshot my notes app instead

Ummm a basic summary is that a random selection of the enstars cast get affected by this weird disease or something and it causes them to try to inflict suffering on themselves and everyone else as much as possible. In my dream the only character that was focused on regarding who had it was niki so I had to think of who else would get it. You can get the disease through your insecurities consuming you to a point it makes you sensitive to the disease.

An interesting part of the dream was that Sora's synesthesia was able to tell who had it because their colour would be horrifying no matter how well they acted (except one guy. uhh). When everyone finds out about the disease everyone tries to help as much as possible. Natsume and Sora try to find a cure (Tsumugi was one of the first affected and that's how they found it). Because of that Tsumugi's just kinda their test dummy to find out about the disease.

Ummm I thought of a good/bad ending. It's very black and white it's just everyone's fine or everyone's affected. I've only thought about the good + bad ending for crazy:b so don't ask about the others. If you wanna add to this you're more than welcome actually.

Also shoutout to my mutual @.mutsuowo for helping me with it. Mainly the stuff with knights I know shockingly little about knights

The sickness reminds me of akumatization in miraculous ladybug, i think it's an interesting premise to push people to their limits in crisis. But for worldbuilding purposes, at what point in the timeline did you envision this AU happening? Im asking because im not sure if nazuna being insecure about his leadership skills really fits in current ES2 where he hasnt been the leader of ra*bits in a year. But if the AU happens in like. Spring-summer of ES1 it could add another point of tension. Thinking about this illness being a direct result of the war, even. Maybe.

Im not entirely sold on wataru having it though. You said eichi would be the only one who kind of knows, and to me in that case he would leave no stone unturned to try to help wataru heal. Which would lead to him having to work directly with natsume for a cure... im quite interested in this part. Especially if tsumugi is patient 0 they're testing remedies on. How far would eichi go experimenting? The arguments with natsume that would ensue? Much to think about here...

I like that chiaki gets it and kanata helps make him human again... reverse meteor impact. Also i imagine madara tries to hide it and doesnt tell anyone, espeeecially not kanata. But i want kanata to find out that madara was affected too and to try to help (but also for him to remember how he cant actually heal anyone, he's not a god, do you think he forgot how his first failed miracle was madara's own sister?). Im not sold on madara's insecurity that makes him sick being just. His loneliness. It seems too shallow for how much is actually wrong with this guy, the loneliness is more of a cure he finds for himself to not let others know he is sick more than the symptom itself.

As for knights hmmm depending on when the AU is set i could see tsukasa also getting it. Leo and tsukasa both, and they end up helping each other as well. The description of sick izumi in your notes is just regular ES1 izumi...funny.

[windypuddle]

plEASE explain the lasertag shuffle unit. pkease plase please please

they play lasertag. this post brought to you by a guy who cries when the lasertag isnt team version. anyway i will now attempt to type out the four paragraphs i had last time that safari absolutely sniped.

lots of headcanon ahead!

lasertag was one of the first shuffle units i came up with. like. its just so fun. the aesthetics are cool the game is cool what more could you want. i think for this they split into two teams so its red team (nagisa and chiaki) vs yellow team (sora, makoto, tori) (i would make it green team but this is NOT a christmas one). which also happens to be seniors vs juniors.

alright. i know theyre all idols and have decent physical abilities. but makoto is a noodle armed gamer boy. to me. he has good reflexes but hes not very good at aiming and his arms get tired. he's probably pretty good at the strategy part though

sora is a gamer but hes also just a little guy that runs around everywhere. he spins at every available opportunity in mvs. he probably does backflips for fun in the middle of conversations. half the time when he shoots someone he's hanging upside down from the equipment by his knees, despite multiple times being told not to climb on the arena structures. hahihuheho echoes eerily through the arena. he wins by a lot. sora would be the gacha 5 star

tori is so funny in this. hes just a little kid. he has never played video games in his life. he thinks lasertag is a game for plebeians. he complains about the team uniform clashing with his hair (it doesnt). it takes him five minutes to figure out how the lasergun works and then his confidence skyrockets. hes alright at it but hes So confident he won. (sora got like 3x as many points. tori came in fourth)

chiaki is good at the physical aspect of the game, obviously. but. well i love him but hes too loud and too much of a good sport. he keeps letting the kids shoot him and laughing way too loud and immediately getting taken out. he comes in last but he has fun the whole time and thats what counts <3

nagisa. no one expects nagisa. hes the event 5 star. hes surprisingly good at laser tag. no one saw this coming. hes analytical and quiet and smart about it, with just the right amount of dramatic flair. he comes in second and tori nearly screams. hes probably never played lasertag before. he makes a comment about the lasertag vest being uncomfortable and thats how this team finds out about nagisa being afab pre-op nonbinary. just for that this is probably the like. 3rd queerest shuffle unit on this list (number one will shock you!! not clickbait)

anyway theres definitely a bit in the story where tori scrapes his knee and chiaki patches him up and gives him a pep talk. and then tori attempts to kick everyones ass at lasertag.

[yuhi-san]

How do you think Digimon Frontier might have gone if the Spirits of Steel, Wood, and Earth had been bequeathed to Ophanimon, the Spirits of Darkness and Water had been bequeathed to Seraphimon, the Spirits of Flame, Light, Ice, Wind, and Thunder had been bequeathed to Cherubimon, and the protagonists had been Katsuharu, Teppei, Chiaki, Teruo, and Koichi (with Kouji joining later)?

i saw you(?) ask others this so i guess you are hoping for some cool reverse au or something.

sorry to say that this or swapped places and such was never my jam. not to mention with how little we know about katsuharu and co, it might easily have gone nearly the same except for different digimon forms.

though it brings the question:

was one of the others unwillingly pushed on the train or did they still go after pushing tommy?

does kouichi make it on the train here or does he still fall.

or is kouji the one that falls and misses the train? who is the clueless twin in this version?

these things would change the course of the story more than just making katsuharu and co the protagonist. because sadly they aren't really established all that much

since i'm on a roll, i can at least give you one 'what if places were switched?' scenario that i think would be cool

i would switch kouichi and takuya. they still get their original spirits and kouichis situation with kouji remains the same. (though honestly you could also give the fire spirit to kouichi and have kouji get the ice spirit as opposite. would fit his cool and sometimes frosty personality haha. so many 'showing us the could shoulder' jokes. it would give innocent young tommy the spirit of light instead)

it switched when they both miss the elevator and take the stairs. except kouichi doesnt fall and makes it down in time. he can't see kouji on a platform but doesn't know which train he took si he takes the closest one on a whim. there he meets zoe, j.p and tommy. they ask him if he also followed the messages. kouichi knew he got messages earlier but didn't check them. he was kinda preoccupied. of course he still says 'yes' because let's face it, would you tell strangers you just met on a train that no, actually i was stalking my twin brother who does not even know i exist. don't think so.

they end up in the digiworld, it's terrifying and wild and before they know it they are under attack. just like takuya, kouichi gets his spirit first. it's amazing and crazy all at once and like an hour ago kouichi thought actually going up to kouji and talking to him was the scariest thing he could do. now he is suddenly involved in all of this and he has completely lost track of kouji. is he even here as well?

the voice in his D-tector tells him he will find what he is looking for if he continues towards the forest terminal. so going on it is. zoe wants to see whatever this through and tommy is now excited. j.p just kinda tags along at first.

speaking of tommy, kouichi doesn't actually know anything about having a brother but he liked the idea way before he knew kouji existed. he is very dedicated to look after tommy the best he can.

this group dynamic makes them butt head and argue far less since kouichi is rather mellow. it does, however, make them way more indecisive.

to make sure the cat is not out of the bag too early, let's say kouji gets his spirit by saving katsuharu and co instead. also congrats, now they think that was amazing & let's find more of these spirits for ourselves!

and maybe kouichis group, or part of them, cross path wit kouji once or twice. but it's always in spirit form so they have no clue what he looks like. also in true kouji fashion, he never bothers to introduce himself and fucks off still as lobomon.

sure, you could say that maybe kouichi thinks 'hey could be kouji' but he never talked to him & lobomons voice is different and there was a whole bunch of ther kids. would be quite the coincident. also the voice says he will find what he is looking for (kouji) at the forest terminal. so.

there is a reason why he is less likely to join the group in this version but let's see what's up with takuya, shall we?

takuya misses the elevator and after like ten seconds of having a mini meltdown about it he realizes he can take the stairs. except takuya trips and falls & ends up as a very confused spirit in the digiworld. he's obviously not quite right and in a haze. but unlike kouichi he lacks any bitterness that cherubimon can use to manipulate him. so he needs something else. instead he applies to takuyas righteousness. makes him believe they are the good ones.

the story goes like this: cherubimon tries to collect all the data to purify from a virus that ophanimon has infested it with. but of course ophanimon tries to stop that so the virus can spread and fester & eventually destroy everything. now she has tricked other kids to believe her.

to eliminate the 'if they just talked about it' solution, we have this: cherubimon makes sure takuya cannot really talk in his twisted digimon form. he managed to save takuya when he came here but not before ophanimon could do a lot of damage. his spirit form is all that keeps him strong enough.

being way less passive than kouichi, takuya gets involved almost right away. so he and kouji start crossing blades a lot and early on. which kinda brings us back to why kouji stays away from the group longer.

you see, he too was asked to go to the forest terminal but the voice also told him he will eventually understand the mystery that surrounds him. when uh… evil!agunimon starts showing up and clearly is targeting him personally, kouji understandably but wrongly assumes this has something to do with it. thanks to ophanimon being so cryptic he has no context to know better.

the truth is, takuya isn't a complete idiot. kouji, who is alone, is easier to take on than a group of four. he also appears to be less loyal/inclined to follow ophanimons orders so takuya might get him to understand better.

this almost rivalry gets kinda personal so kouji is more interested in handling this and less inclined to agree to a team up with the others.

while kouichi and co have their first terrifying encounter with grottmon, kouji gets his b-spirit while fighting with evil!agunimon (also gotsumon gets to go with kouji cause i say so)

while they deal with the horror of the tv forest, kouji ends up with the kindergarten (look, he tries his best, alright)

like takuya, kouichi loses control over his b-spirit (its less animalistic instinct taking over than evil/impure stuff). kouji as lobomon comes to help but gets intercepted and driven away by evil!agunimon.

kouichi and the others go on. they manage to free qeraphimon (since they could do that without kouichi i guess it's enough if at least half the chosen children are there, so). kouichi hasn't told them about kouji. at first it was because he thought this whole thing would be resolved quickly and he didn't really wanna involve the others. it's awkward and he is very insecure about the whole thing as it is. not to mention he has no idea how to explain this without sounding like a weirdo at best or a creepy stalker at worst.

while kouichi and the others have this tucanmon mess at hands, kouji has to figure out how the frick to make a hamburger (again he really tries his best but this is somehow even worse than him trying to handle a bunch of kindergartener)

they are all at the trailmon race (which takes place after the burger episode). but this version requires digimon drivers so they don’t see each others human form here.

(actually in this version kouji might spend most his time as a digimon. he only travels with a digimon and others are way more likely to take him serious as a digimon rather than a human)

it goes on and on and then so much is happening. it gets crazier and more dangerous. the stakes are getting higher and higher and they are expected to be these great saviors and what not. there is never time or a good moment for kouichi to tell them about kouji. the longer it goes on, the harder it becomes to say something. they are looked at as heroes to save the day and kouichi has it not on him to tell anyone he never even bothered with the messages, he just came here and stayed to find his brother.

 the fallout happens on the dark continent. kouichi and co see light and fighting in the distance and hurry to check things out. they find lobomon and evil!agunimon (who they also fought before but less often than kouji). takuya got his b-spirit and things don’t look good for lobomon so they all rush in to help.

during the fight, when kouji and takuya clash, they see each others face. it throws kouji off because not only is there a kid in there (unlike with the other warriors) but he's seen him before! i mean you probably won’t forget the weirdo kid that has been talking/shouting to himself you saw on the train just before you came here.

koujis face is also pretty much the only thing familiar to takuya in this world. he took special note of him in the train after all and tried to follow him in shibuya station. once kouji points out 'i know you! you were on the same train as me!' takuya loses his crap like duskmon did.

(it wasn't the first time he felt off about himself or questioned cherubimons story but whenever he did cherubimon would worsen the fog in his mind & tighten his control like he did with kouichi)

the others are bruised and confused af. unlike the other times, kouji is exhausted enough to transform back in front of the others and they realize he looks a lot like kouichi. like way too much.

clearly they are in shock and except for kouichi they lose their minds very loudly about hey what the heck? kouji probably can tell he opened some kind of can of worms but its not like he cares too much what they are japing about. he had no idea his look alike twin is with them after all. between not having really seen kouichi yet and the new revelation about takuya, kouji has no reason to think the mystery surrounding him is not connected to takuya. so of course without a thought of the others he runs off after evil!agunimon (evil!burninggreymon?)

look, he has a bad habit of doing that as it is but the circumstances in this version have him not at all grown out of it yet.

the others are too flabbergasted to follow right away. with so many questions they look at kouichi, who in turn is frozen in place with, well, a lot of emotions. after a lot of questions and some yelling he begrudgingly tells them everything. (he might have told them before he is an only child or at least that he grew up without siblings. cause again, the stalking your unsuspecting twin thing).

zoe, j.p and tommy are initially mad at kouichi for lying and not saying anything after all they went through together. it does not get resolved right away cause they have to deal with ranamon and mercurymon. its them trying to evade capture instead of trying to get free like after takuya went back to the real world.

i guess instead of takuyas heroic bsod  we get kouichi feeling really guilty and despairing over how he 'lead them on' by having them thinking he was a hero following the call when he is really not (he very much did become the hero that was needed, he just can't see that right then). the darkness bad side nearly overcomes him but he can pull himself together with the help of his friends. they come around pretty quickly. all they needed was a couple hours to wrap their head around all the layers of crazy. they get why kouichi handled things the way he did and assure him he is alright. (he gets to hear the occasional jab about his stalking, mostly from j.p, but it's in good spirit)

eventually they end up and get  inside of sephirotmon alongside evil!agunimon and kouji & gotsumon. not only do they need to fight and regroup but also find kouji and have him sick around for more than 10 minutes to have, like, number of important conversations.

i guess in this version kouji gets to double spirit to fight evil!agunimon and kouichi double evolves to finish sephirotmon. here though evil!agunimon gets away and all the kids get to regroup, including kouji. this version has the not fight sephirotmon in the dark and all but tell kouji to chill the fuck out for a second so they can ask what the deal is with evil!agunimon (not that he really knows anything beyond this is a kid he met on the train when coming to the digiworld). Also kouji should know about kouichi, one way or another, but especially since they really should be working together – period.

It does not go very well. its difficult for kouichi to explain properly & he is worried how kouji will take it. Which is to say not very well. he has a lot of emotions about it, mostly confusion and anger (not really at kouichi but at the fact that this whole situation is a thing in the first place)

It’s obviously quite the shock. There isn’t the additional problem of kouichi being a bad guy but t comes out of left field even more to kouji here. Between what ophanimon said and the takuya situation, he had no reason to think he was anyhow connected to loewemon (sure spirit of darkness, but since that is A Thing someone was going to get it. He does not think zoes wind and grottmons earth are specially connected either). So yeah, it’s a lot.

Since now they are all after evil!agunimon and heading to the rose morning star, kouji and gotusumon very, very reluctantly agree to go with the others (they all find the funny german trailmon together and fix him up). the mood is really tense and its super awkward all around. Kouji is stand-offish as ever and keeps away from them as much as he can & stick with gotsumon.

They didn’t get to know kouji much in this version so they can’t really tell that he is not being a cold prick on purpose but is in reality just very overwhelmed with everything. Learning his mom is alive, he has a brother that is here and crossed paths with before and still the whole evil!agunimon/takuya situation that is even less clear now. That is a lot at once to handle and honestly kouji has never been particularly good in dealing with his own emotions, let alone verbalizing them. Gotsumon is there for kouji but having a lot of similar issues as him and having little to no context for what brothers let alone mothers are, he can’t really help him all that much.

Kouichi isn’t doing much better. He is worrying and second guessing how he handled this, if he even knows how to go forward now, if he even knows how to do this or if kouji would want to talk to him now at all. He is very insecure about all of this.

j.p initially thinks they should leave them to it and just give them time. Who would want strangers that are not involved or affected by this at all tell them how to properly handle it? Certainly not j.p.

tommy is the first to go up to kouichi to cheer him up. he’s sure him and kouji will be fine with some time. Also as someone who has a brother, he is certified to assure kouichi that he is doing a pretty good job at being a brother. Of course j.p comes to cheer him up too, because no matter what he says he is a big old softie.

Zoe then is the one to go up to kouji. They don’t know him very well but they know kouichi. I think he initially wouldn’t have told kouji that he kept this a secret from his friends before or voice how emotionally difficult this all was to him. He’s got a bad habit of being self deprecating and probably would feel that this was just him making excuses. But zoe really wants kouji to know that this isn’t easy for kouichi either and he worries and cares a lot.

Probably takes some pushing from gotsumon for kouji to admit that he doesn’t mean to be harsh to kouichi, he just does not know how to handle all the news he just got. Not to mention the whole mystery surrounding him that he thought related to evil!agunimon who seemed to be after him in particular, might not be that. Now he is back to square one or worse. Like all of this at once seems like too much of a coincident.

It’s still awkward but they have to go on towards the rose morning star where they fight evil!agunimon.

(unlike with kouichi, kouji needs no encouragement to slap some sense into takuya lol)

Once takuya is defeated, he is understandably distraught and confused. Like in the original, once he sees takuya kouichi realizes that he too saw him in the real world where he followed kouji (a stalker caught another stalker, huh – not the time for jokes j.p!)

Nothing makes sense and once kouji confronts takuya about what the hell is going on, things just get wilder. Takuyas mind is still a little jumbled and all but he wastes and launches in a spiel of how they need to understand that ophanimon is evil and tricking them (you know now that he gets to talk). Which of course has the other be like what the frick you talking about?

Now that takuya is no longer under cherubimons control and the fog in his mind has lifted it doesn’t take much for him to realize what is really going on. needless to say takuya is devastated. He also won’t remember much of anything when kouji ask him about being on the train together so there is that.

They have sympathy for takuyas situation and like with kouichi he is easily forgiven. They encourage him to stay with them and come to the rose morning star with them. It’s fine, cant get more awkward than it is already. Takuya also gets his real spirits fighting the fake cherubimon.

 After that uff… I don’t like how especially unbalanced frontiers is so lets say they fight cherubimon while trying to save ophanimpn. And instead of being saved by ophanimon, zoe gets to also double spirit evolve. Actually I would like them to all double evolve to beat cheruubimon. So maybe cuase takuya was in possession of both spirits and evolved so long he got the double evo right away against fake cherubimon.

Then when they have weirdo icedevimon to deal with tommy gets his double evo and j.p gets it in the very last fight against cherubimon. I guess. The order of these three really doesn’t matter that much.

Either way during the icedevimon fiasco kouichi and kouji are the ones to get their d-tectors frozen. They warm up more to each other when kouji is intent on protecting Kouichi despite initially appearing to be cold and uncaring towards him. Also takuya gets to make up his past ‘mistakes’, either by getting double evo here or buying tommy enough time for his, depending on what order the double evos are, as it does not matter that much.

 Anyway they get their butts kicked by the royal knights and still end up on the moon where they get to goof off a bit. Here too it’s takuya who comes too first and is determined to do all he can for the other kids.

So eventually they get back to earth. I think they should do the 6 double evo vs two royal knights & minions for longer. I’d even have tommy double evolve when meeting katsuharu and co if it weren’t for the ‘all spirits at once against cherubimon’, so. The katsuharu and co & tommy situation plays out pretty similarly except the knights have knightmon with them already and all six of the kids are fighting.

 So I’m actually not sure who would do the unity evo eventually. Either we stick with the original light and fire spirit, which would be kouji and takuya. In this case I think takuya would somewhat take over not necessarily as a leader but the front man if you know what I mean. Because kouichi is very kind and caring and he did step up to the challenge they faced but he is not the naturally born hero type that takuya is and now that takuya is no longer controlled he could finally grow into his actual destiny.

On the other hand if the switcheroo stuck like before, now it would be kouji and kouichi doing the unity evo which is also kinda cool with the twins and dark and light theme. Then again, in this version kouji is only just learning to work with others and has not yet really matured emotionally the way he did in the original. He is only getting started with all this. So maybe unifying anything is not really in the card for him yet.

Anyway the episodes with katsuharu and co, the village of beginnings and the one with bokomon and neemons hometown stays pretty much the same plotwise, if now with multiple double evos instead of the two unity ones.

It may differ a little with takuya being more reckless because he feels he needs to make up for his past mistakes & really wanting to be a hero that can save others. Also in this version kouji met katsuharu and co so he would probably be like why the frick are you still here??

I guess him knowing them would also surprise tommy and maybe they would be a little more inclined to be jealous of tommy getting a spirit and they don’t? either way they still get around to it and realize they were pricks to tommy and also that they need to go home because there isn’t much they can do.

Since gotsumon is already with kouji and co, the episode where they return to seraphimons castle starts out a bit different but otherwise stays similar to before. Of course gotsumon still gets to evolve to help kouji fight but yeah losing his home is not easy on him. So I guess we can still have Kouji and gotsumon run distraction while they others get in.

Then again since they are all still able to evolve kouichi might stay with them. Him and Kouji get to work together more and takuya gets to go with the others

 When they are at autumnleafe fair  it’s gotsumon and the other digimon that build the snow catapult to help the others fight. Here It’s takuya that gets to realize he is actually a only a spirit here. That’s really not helping his situation at all. What does this mean? He can’t remember how he got here. What if this is the punishment for falling on the evil side?  

 So once they are in the library and all takuya is weirdly quiet and out of it. They still split up to look for the key the same way. Except they can all tell there is something fishy going on with takuya so they get zoe to go with him and probe him for what’s going on. Because she is by far the most subtle and tactful really. Instead of this interrupted almost love confession(??) takuya nearly tells her what’s up but then decides he has to handle that on his own.

Maybe in the library they find some more stuff about the legendary warriors and figure out there must be a way to, uh, unify the spirits more strongly or whatever. Except how do figure out how to do that exactly or with whom? They don’t really get a chance to figure it out with crusadermon and dynasmon showing up and all.

Takuya is being extra recless. This is their last chance and knowing he is only a spirit there is nothing for him to lose actually. So when it’s looking really bad for them & they are forced back into human form and takuya is about to be killed the d-tectors react. Because I think no matter what version, doing things be sheer determination is just ingrained into takuyas being. So they figure out to give him the right spirits so takuya still gets to be emperorgreymon.

Hmm I guess kouichi is the other one in a similar position to takuya and is given the other spirits by the rest of his friends to unity evolve into whatever as well (which I guess makes this some kind of triangle switch or something). I just think since kouji has been lone wolfing it so much longer & was for a long time more focused on the mystery surrounding him than anything in this version it might be neat twist to see kouichi fight and think: he spent most his time doing what he could to help others regardless of what he personally wanted. If anyone would handle this right, its him.

 Anyway once kouichi and takuya unity evolve they manage to finally win against the royal knights. But things suck and lucemon is powerful enough now to destroy the last key from his prison. So they face lucemon and end up on the moon pretty much the same way as before.

 Kouichi and kouji still get to have a heart to heart talk on the moon about their mom. When patamon, loopmon and salomon tell them about how darkness and light need to be in balance to win they think that makes sense but is also weird. Because why did takuya then get to unity evolve instead of kouji? Not to mention how weird he has been acting super weird recently. Of course they get bokomon to spill the beans once takuya is out of earshot for like a minute. Not that they are given the time to figure out what any of that really means thanks to lucemon

 The fight happens still pretty much the same. Except instead of kouichi, kouji is the one that sacrifices himself by taking a hit. That boy has a real habit of doing so as it is. Also the fact that it has to be kouichi and the darkness might be explained by the fact that lucemon is an angle digimon & more light based (look I’m just making up some lore at that point). Anyway everyone is understandably shocked and kouichi is so very distraught. But takuya is pissed, like for real. They do become Susanoomon and fight lucemon and all into the real world. Everything is kinda jumbled there anyway so what difference does it make if I switch the kouichi/kouji/takuya thing even more.

I guess its ok for spirit! Takuya to be in the real world as since he is first in the inbetween (the destroyed train station) and then in digimon form with the others.

 Anyway of course both him and kouichi are in despair when it seems they lost kouji & failed to save either word. Takuya feels like a failure. He was supposed to be a hero and first he was tricked into helping the bad guys and even now he can’t get it right no matter what. Kouichi isn’t handling it much better. He just lost the brother he only really got to know recently and while he had started to think he was actually doing this hero thing right despite not really having followed the call initially, it still seems not to matter how hard he tries.

Of course in the end they all pull through and defeat lucemon.

 With the digiworld saved and all, they get to say goodbye. Kinda. Since the portal between the worlds is still open and takuya is more than aware now that he is a ghost (and likely death in the real world) he decides to have his soul trade place with koujis… wherever souls go (digimon 02 clearly shows there are more worlds than two, so. Also don’t ask me how that works, if digimon gets to be big on artistic license in their own story so do I). besides, that’s what a real hero does, give his life to save others. Besides it’s fine since his body is okayish in the real world and this does not end like church in the season 13 finale of rvb

 So kouji comes back, pretty confused and out of it but now they lost takuya. Its all very emotional for everyone and before they can really understand what happened, they barely have time to say bye to the spirits and the digimon that were with them before they are thrown back into their world. But agunimon manages to tell them Takuya can still be saved.

Once back kouichi realizes that if takuya too missed the elevator, he might also had the same idea and taken the stairs, so off they go. Of course at the end of the day, they get to save takuya in a similar manner than they did with kouichi thanks to the power of friendship and love. (and totally freak out the hospital staff by doing so lol)

 But all is well in the end.

[yandere-daze]

hi i just found your blog and i read like,, everything in your enstars yandere masterlist 😭 but i was afraid to leave likes and reblogs cause i read that doing that makes the algorithm think you're botting your posts or something like that? if it doesnt im going to go back and like everything because they were so good 😔

anyway this isnt a request and i just wanted to bounce around this idea in your head but like this is an imagine the self aware yandere au because reading it got me thinking how itd work out with my history with enstars 🫡

so like i was a fan of enstars since its like 3rd anniv cause i saw some photos of ryuseitai and i was like "haha these guys look so goofy and cute" which then translated into two years of fervently saving fanart of ryuseitai (but especially chiaki and midori 😭) though i never actually played the game all that properly since it was in japanese and i didnt really know where to find tls yet

then came engstars and i was finally like "omg i can finally understand chiaki" cause i had a phone that could actually run it at that time but when i played the game i instantly just swerved to hiiro ,, like he was the one i picked for the starter pull and he was and still is my favorite and most collected character (i got his vermillion card in like 12 hours 😭)

anyway going on to the actual self aware au thing wouldnt it be kind of funny to see the "original" cast members of enstars just see their beloved reader not even give them a glance, just completely focused on the new units and characters??

like some of them would be so pissed it would be downright terrifying, some would be so heartbroken (sorry chiaki) because they thought you loved them most of all??? and you just know some of the more obsessive ones would not take that disrespect lying down 💀💀

anyway thats all! i know my experience isnt exactly universal so i get it if you cant relate to it at all! i really just wanted to get the idea out there

First of all thank you so much, I'm really happy to hear that you like my yandere enstars writing!! 😊

As for your question, I'd really appreciate leaving likes and especially reblogs on my works as it shows that people actually like what I'm putting out there! Staying silent and lurking is not going to give creators any feedback so it might make them think that their works aren't really appreciated or that no one really cares about them. It's very unmotivating to have zero comments or reblogs with tags on your writing ( made worse if the post actually has a good amount of likes because it just means only around 1% of all people reading your writing though it was good enough to hit a single button to support you :/)

Silent readers and lurkers don't do anything for creators and just take our work for granted which is why I often block people that follow me that haven't reblogged anyone's writing before.

I'd definitely appreciate it if you went back to reblog my works because it shows that people care and it feels good ^^ For me, the main issue I have with spam-liking is if you do that and then reblog or comment on a single post. Because it obviously shows that you liked my writing enough to immediately read everything there is of it but not enough to want to support me :/

Sorry to go onto a rant in this post, it's not really directed at you in particular or anything like that!

As for your question for the self-aware AU, I'm actually not taking any new asks for that AU right now so you won't get a very in-depth reply for this, sorry!

But Chiaki would probably be very sad about that, thinking that he must work harder to regain your approval!

Something kind of similar actually happened to me because I chose Rei as my starter card in jp and now I'm not really much of a ReiP at all and instead chose Shu for my starter card on en ejej

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

One Time Thing || togakure

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3hvgXBk

by ButterflyBoy4

“Just dig around in your shrimp roll! You never know what you can find in the splits of that bread!” Was he an idiot? “... Deep fried shrimp…” “Huh?” He was seriously in love with an utter moron. “There’s fried shrimp, in the slits of the bread.”

  Byakuya was a one-time thing kind of guy. The man he met that night was not, and he would make damn sure that what they had would be more than a one-time thing.

  TWs: very explicit sexual scenes, child abuse(verbal, physical, and a lot of neglect as well), and swearing of course

Words: 2662, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Togami Byakuya, Hagakure Yasuhiro, Sonia Nevermind, Nanami Chiaki, Kuwata Leon, Naegi Makoto, Togami Kijo, Aloysius Pennyworth

Relationships: Hagakure Yasuhiro/Togami Byakuya, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Kirigiri Kyoko/Maizono Sayaka, Nanami Chiaki/Sonia Nevermind, Kuwata Leon/Naegi Makoto

Additional Tags: Smut, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, Friends With Benefits, FWB, oh god how do i tag this, byakuya togami is sad gay and horny, yasuhiro just wants love, byakuya doesnt know it but he needs love, and they both get love, eachother's love, and platonic love from their friends, byakuya togami's dad is a bitch, Edgeplay, One Night Stands, No Despair AU, sonia is a girlboss, Hurt/Comfort, Marriage, they all get a pet dog, Attempt at Humor, i promise this has plot, it just also has a lot of smut, but it's worth it, even though the smut is horrible because i'm asexual, just sit through it until like chapter 10 or something please, okay I think I'm done tagging, oh yeah, Cross-Posted on Wattpad

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3hvgXBk

[chisatowo]

Ok hi I just spent hours talking to one of my cousins and even though it went surprisingly well Im still exhausted so fuck it time to both think abt the bandori dr while also thinking of a new dr bandori at because fuck you I deserve it after all of that /lh

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

that ain't your baby no more.

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2X4JBvF

by briiefcase

hajime hinata contracts the despair disease. soon, he realizes that he is not who he once assumed he was. i add as i see fit - a bunch of drabbles, all set within the same au. don't expect constant updates though im. Forgetful

Words: 410, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Hinata Hajime, Kamukura Izuru, Nanami Chiaki

Relationships: Hinata Hajime/Nanami Chiaki, Kamukura Izuru/Nanami Chiaki

Additional Tags: self indulgence at its finest, Fix-It, Kinda?, idk i just. reworked the despair disease n went from there, ibuki DOESNT get the despair disease n instead, drumroll, its hinata, i tried 2 do a did/osdd deal but i kinda butchered it!!, better than the actual game can i get an AMEN, this is my first actual fanfic go easy on me!!!, written in lowercase btw

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2X4JBvF