#had just barely recovered from reading it in the manga years later

[kozv-ken]

seeing aoyama after the traitor reveal is so fucking devastating it's like haha his tumny hurts from his quirk- his tummy hurts because his body isnt built to use that quirk because he was born quirkless

[duhragonball]

JoJolion ch.1

What the--? Part 8? 🪨🍊🍋🍟📱🫧🇯🇵⚕️🏥⚓🪴🤬🦭

So I got into Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in the fall of 2016. I was looking for new anime recommendations, and that one came up, and I eventually got hooked on it. I had a little trouble getting into it at first, so I started posting at least one screencap from each episode to mark my progress. This eventually morphed into a full-on liveblog as I found it harder to keep track of the plot. In 2017, the anime adaptation only went up to Part 4, so I switched over to the manga scanlations. Then I got to Part 8, JoJolion, which was still in-progress.

It was through JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that I hammered out the liveblogging style I use today. So I've never been entirely satisfied with my coverage from 2017. The scanlations of Part 5 were really crappy back then, and so I went back and did it again a year later. I'd occasionally check in with JoJolion to cover the new chapters that had come out, but the story seemed to have no end in sight.

Around that time, @onegamer2envythemall asked me if I'd ever go back and do JoJolion once it was finished and colorized, but that seemed pointless to me at the time. Part 8 felt like it was endless and it was difficult to keep up with the plot when it was being dispensed one chapter per month. I enjoyed the first 66 chapters well enough, because I had the convenience of being able to read them all in a few weeks' time. As it turned out, there were another 44 chapters to go, and when it finally wrapped up in 2021 I wasn't in much of a mood to revisit it.

(This is also why I haven't bothered reading Part 9, JoJoLands. I'm sure it's good, but it's only 14 chapters into the story, and that's barely a prologue by the standards of modern JJBA. It might take Araki a decade to finish Part 9, and I don't think I want to read it until it's done.)

Buuuuuut, I never liked leaving loose ends. I always wanted to finish the liveblog of Part 8, but I also felt like it would be more rewarding to just start over. And that's been an urge in the back of my mind for a while now, and I decided to take care of that now, in May 2024. So if any of you were hoping for this, your wish has been granted.

We'll start off with just chapter 1, since I want to go over some background stuff too while the manga introduces itself. C'mon, let's go.

If you're new to all this, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a long-running manga series by Hirohiko Araki. Unlike most popular shonen titles, JJBA doesn't stick to a single protagonist. The first storyline ended with the death of the main character, Jonathan Joestar. Then things continued fifty years later with his grandson, Joseph Joestar. Part 3 featured an older Joseph teaming up with his own grandson, Jotaro Kujo. And so on.

The JoJo Parts generally work pretty well as standalone stories, although there is a shared continuity among them. Part 4 doesn't require you to have read Parts 1-3, but there are characters and lore from those arcs that show up in Part 4. Still, everything is explained pretty well so that new readers can follow along.

Beginning with Part 7, Araki did a sort of "reboot", jumping back to Jonathan Joestar's era but with a different story. In Part 7, "Johnny Joestar is basically an alternate version of Part 1 Jonathan. Instead of getting a degree in archaeology at Hugh Hudson Academy, he grew up in Kentucky and became a successful jockey.

Part 8 is a direct sequel to Part 7, although there's about 120 years between them, so there's not a lot that ties them together. Here's the quick and dirty version of Part 7: Johnny Joestar participates in the "Steel Ball Run", a transcontinental race from San Diego to New York City. But the race is a cover for the main villain to recover the "Saint Corpse", a supernatural relic capable of altering the fortunes of whoever possesses it. During the race, Johnny acquires two unusual powers. His Stand is a manifestation of his own phsyche, while "Spin" is a powerful technique he learns while racing alongside his mentor and friend, Gyro Zeppeli. Johnny loses the race, but he does manage to keep the Saint Corpse out of the wrong hands, with help from Lucy Steele, the wife of the race's organizer. Also, a very minor character named Norisuke Higashikata managed to get second place, and Part 7 ends with Johnny joining him on a boat ride to Europe.

I think that brings us up to speed, so let's get on with this thing.

Not much happens in Chapter 1, except for the two main characters meeting each other for the first time. We start with Yasuho Hirose, a 19 year old college student, living in Morioh, Japan.

The first time I read JoJolion, I didn't understand this introduction to Yasuho's character, but now it seems really obvious. She debuts in the first panel, trying to make a decision. She's already hiding from a boy named Joshuu Higashikata, whom she kissed once, and now he thinks they're lovers. Yasuho is creeped out by Joshuu, and rightfully so, but she isn't sure if it's worth actively hiding just to avoid him.

And this is what Yasuho's all about. She's very thorough about analyzing her options, but she's also rather indecisive. That's not to say she can't make decisions, but she takes a little too long to make them. In this case, she's already hiding, but she's still trying to figure out if that's the right call.

Then she notices a man half-buried in the ground nearby. As she considers this, she reflects on recent events in Morioh. On March 11, 2011, an earthquake hit Japan. This was a real-world event that Araki worked into the fictional events of JoJolion. The fictional town of Morioh was spared the worst of the Tohoku earthquake, and the tsunami that followed it, but the quake did somehow cause a series of "protuberances" to rise up out of the ground.

I've never completely understood what these are supposed to be. The local schoolchildren in Morioh called this the "Wall Eyes", probably in reference to the round holes in the sides, which sort of look like creepy eyes on a giant face. In practical terms it just makes things difficult for the city, as roads and other infrastructure are cut where the Wall Eyes cross. Essentially, the Wall Eyes formed a ridge between the main city of Morioh and the outlying properties along the Pacific coastline.

Is this a thing that can actually happen in real-world earthquakes? I could buy it, since I know sinkholes are thing, and this just seems like the opposite of that. The bigger issue is that I don't understand why the Wall Eyes matter to this story. It's one of the things that I kind of lost track of on my first reading, and I'm trying to keep tabs on it this time around.

For now, the Wall Eyes are only relevant because Yasuho is near one of them when she discovers this guy half-buried at the base of one of them. So now she's faced with another dilemma: Should she help him or not? She hesitates, worrying that he might have a contagious disease, or that he might assault her. Then she notices the bite-shaped wound between his neck and left shoulder, and she calls for help.

The phone call itself is kind of telling, as Yasuho tried to phone the police but somehow dialed the fire department instead. It doesn't matter to her, but it does foreshadow some developments later on. Also, as Yasuho explains the situation to the fire department, she says her name, which is the first time the guy hears it. She might have been reluctant to identify herself in front of him, but the die is cast. She wanted to call for help, but she can't do it anonymously.

Yasuho might have been satisfied with this course of action, helping the man without physically interacting with him, but then he starts to sink into the shallow water pooled around him. So she has to grab him to keep him from being pulled into some hole beneath the Wall Eye. Even as she commits to it, she wonders if she's doing the right thing, but she still hauls him out of danger.

Then, only after the immediate danger is resolved, does Joshuu happen to come by. For a while there, Yasuho had considered calling him over to help, but he was gone, and now he's here. He sees Yasuho lying beside a nude stranger and goes batshit. He thinks he and Yasuho are a couple, and he's so overcome with jealous rage that he picks up a big rock and threatens to kill the stranger and then himself.

Let's make this clear up front: Joshuu sucks. He's the worst. Not just because he's a creep, or because of his stupid looking haircut and clip-on bowtie. No, he also sucks because he's incapable of rational thought. One minute he's weighing fish sausages to see if the manufacturer has swindled him, and the next minute he's trying to kill everything with a rock. He's like the Incredible Hulk with Bruce Banner's body. No, even the Hulk isn't this much of an idiot. I'm sorry, Hulk. I shouldn't have said that.

In case you might be thinking Joshuu actually has genuine feelings towards Yasuho, let me assure you that he does not. When she tries to explain what's happening here, he just shoves her aside so he can focus on the truly important business of random violence.

But the naked man defeats him with ease. Not so much for his own sake, but because he saw Joshuu shove Yasuho away. A mysterious bubble floats up from his body and when it his Joshuu, he suddenly goes blind, and can't line up a good strike with his rock. Our nude hero then punches Joshuu in the gut, causing him to vomit.

The authorities soon arrive to get the naked man to a hospital, and as Yasuho watches them leave, she wonders about his bubble power, and how he ended up in the ground. But mostly, she wonders about his gentials, which she saw while she was saving him. He has four testicles, and Yasuho doesn't know how that can be, or whether she should report this to anyone....

[gojo-x-reader]

Red String of Fate

Relationship(s): Gojo Satoru x F!Reader

Warnings: slight swearing, slight manga spoilers

Tags: Soulmate AU

AO3 Link: here

Words: ~2.3k

Request:  “Hello I'm actually not sure if I'm supposed to put put my request here? well, if its not supposed to be here, then please ignore it. Anyways, can I ask of you to share your thoughts on Soulmate AU w/ Gojo around 12 to 16 yrs old where he can see signs of who's soulmate is whos meeting his possible fiance who turns out to be his soulmate (I asked that age bc first meeting! he's from a noble clan and its really weird he doesn't have fiance or something) Sorry if its confusing and Thank you!”

Gojo Satoru was twelve years old when his Six Eyes began showing him the red strings of fate. Every person’s string was different. Some of them stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, almost seemingly never reaching the other end. Others were shorter, connected to the person they stood next to (whether they knew of their existence or not). And unfortunately, on some, Satoru could see the end of the string, but it dragged behind someone, unconnected to another human.

Satoru had told his mother about the strings as they appeared. Those are strings that lead one to their soulmate, she had explained to him. Everyone has a soulmate, but not everyone is in love with theirs. There are different kinds of love in this world.

Satoru’s parents were soulmates, but they did not love each other; that much was clear from how his father treated his mother. He never hit her or anything, but he didn’t treat her like an equal; more of a vessel that gave birth to an heir. He only interacted with his wife when necessary, the two not even sleeping in the same room at night.

For that reason, Satoru was scared to meet his own soulmate. He had one, that much was clear by the bright red string tied around his left pinky that stretched on for kilometers. He didn’t want to end up like his parents.

Gojo Satoru was fourteen years old when his father announced that he would be marrying you, a girl from the Kamo clan. You were the youngest daughter in the secondary branch of the family, just a year younger than him. Tomorrow, the two of you would meet for the first time.

You were nervous about tomorrow, for several reasons. Number one, you had heard the rumors about Gojo Satoru--the first member of the Gojo clan to be born with the Six Eyes and  Limitless, the two inherited techniques of his clan, in a hundred years or so. That meant, in a nutshell, he was much stronger than you could ever hope to be, as someone who hadn’t even inherited the Kamo clan technique (which is why you were being shipped off to another clan). Number two, you had heard rumors of his personality, somehow both cold and carefree at the same time, but one hundred percent a horrible personality to be combined with your timid and quiet nature. And number three, you almost resented him because now you were stuck in an arranged marriage and you saw how well that worked out for your parents.

Tomorrow arrived, and the maids dressed you up in the finest of kimonos, hair ornaments, and even makeup. You weren’t particularly into girly interests, more interested in training for when you enter Kyoto High in a few years; the feeling of foundation and lipstick felt foreign on your face.

You arrived at the main hall, escorted by your uncle (the head of the Kamo family), your parents, and a few maids. You normally didn’t wear a kimono often, except for very special occasions, and you have never been in one for this long. Graceful, you were not, and tripped a few times because of the geta chosen for you to wear with the kimono. Each time, the maids were swift to grab ahold of your arms and stabilize you. They even helped you sit down as you awaited your future fiance and his parents.

Gojo Satoru’s parents arrived before he did. They apologized on behalf of their son, citing that he was on he was back from a mission. You were jealous, he wasn’t even in high school yet and was already being assigned missions. While you weren’t powerful in comparison to Gojo Satoru himself, you could still hold your own against your older cousins and had a decent amount of cursed energy.

Gojo Satoru’s parents seemed nice enough, but the chemistry between them resembled that of your own parents; they tolerated each other, but that was it--no love, no spark, nothing. You wondered if his parents were also put into an arranged marriage. You could sympathize, but you also secretly hoped that the two of you wouldn’t end up like your parents.

You poured tea for your future in-laws, hands shaking slightly, a few drops of tea spilling. As you sat the teapot down, in came Gojo Satoru himself, dressed in a simple black kimono, but the sash was not tied tightly. His hair was touseled, and stained with either dirt or blood (you hoped it was dirt). Despite his unkempt look, he was gorgeous, with bright white hair and eyes blue like the sky matching neither of his parents. Despite the color differences, he took mostly after his mother with her soft features.

When he made eye contact with you, he froze, looking down at his left hand, and then back to you. Before you could even greet him, he immediately fled the room, both his parents calling after him, leaving after him.

That was a bit painful; your first time meeting him and he leaves immediately seeing your face. You weren’t sure how your self-esteem would recover after that blow.

About twenty minutes later, Gojo Satoru’s parents came back, empty-handed without their son. He refused to meet you, but they promised he would come around eventually. So, your family said your goodbyes and left the Gojo estate.

Once your family arrived back at the Kamo estate, your uncle slapped you across the face, blaming you for what transpired with the Gojo family. It was your looks, your lack of femininity that obviously scared your fiance away. Not even makeup or the finest materials could fix it.

So what, if you weren’t “feminine”? Being “feminine” doesn’t exorcise curses, now does it?

You grumbled an apology, leaving to your room and locking the door behind you. You started crying, ruining the makeup that took the maids hours to do, but not even bothering to care. It took a while to get out of the kimono, but you changed into sweatpants and a large T-shirt and left the offensive material on the floor. Neither of your parents bothered to check in on you, but the head maid did. She cleaned up your makeup and brought you some of your comfort foods. She was more of a mother to you than your own, and you were always grateful for her in your life.

The next time you would meet Gojo Satoru, there would be hell to pay for embarrassing you like this.

Gojo Satoru was sixteen years old when he next met his fiancee, this time on the battlefield rather than mitigated by their families. Kyoto was short by one for the Kyoto Goodwill Event, so you were allowed to join as the sole first year. You were glad for the opportunity because that meant you could finally pay back Gojo Satoru for the embarrassment you felt two years ago.

You were told you had great potential as a jujutsu sorcerer, already being promoted to Semi-Grade 2 as you entered Kyoto High. Of course, you weren’t even close to your fiance who was promoted immediately to Special Grade upon entering Tokyo High. While the power difference between a Semi-Grade 2 and a Special Grade was immense, you weren’t going to let that stop you. You held a lot of pain in your heart for how Gojo Satoru rejected you from one glance, refusing to ever see you again that day.

This was Gojo Satoru’s first Goodwill Event, as last year he was only a first-year and the spots were full from the second and third years last year. Since last year, Kyoto had won, the event was held at your school. Not a single second or third year at Kyoto believed they even had a chance to win this year, as Tokyo has not one but two Special Grade students this year participating in the event. There was only one Grade 1 sorcerer on the Kyoto side, a third-year, while the others were a Grade 2 or Semi-Grade 2. The goal was to stick together; power in numbers. While the two monsters Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru could take out the entire Kyoto team singlehanded most likely, the others on the Tokyo team were rather weak, at only Grade 3.

So, the Kyoto side would stick together, avoid conflict. The goal was to exorcise curses, not necessarily fight each other.

The six of you stuck together, exorcising curse after curse. It was strange, as several minutes passed and you hadn’t even encountered one of the Grade 3 Tokyo sorcerers. You felt the hairs on the back of your neck stick up, then a voice behind you announcing, “Hello~”

You turned around quickly, barely able to avoid an attack. There he was, Gojo Satoru in the flesh. He was much, much taller than last time you saw him, now towering over you like a tree. On his (admittedly) handsome face was a smug grin, his bright baby blues peeking out behind round black shades. He held his hands in his pockets in a carefree manner. Almost not like he just attacked you and your senpai.

You glanced back briefly. While you were somehow lucky to avoid the attack from your fiance, your senpai behind you was not. The attack left them unconscious, back against a tree and blood running down their head.

While reading headfirst toward your fiance probably was not a good idea, only rage flowed through your head. You may not have inherited your clan’s cursed technique, you inherited a similar technique but more closely to your mother’s Zenin clan’s technique. You could manipulate shadows, not to summon shikigami, but rather to form weapons.

You summoned the shadows to form a sword, raising it to strike Gojo Satoru. But it reached just centimeters away from his body before stopping, almost like an invisible forced kept it in place, unable to move it further. You stared at your hand in surprise.

“Now, now, is that any way to greet your fiance?” Gojo Satoru asked, grin widening.

“Are you really though?” You asked, jumping back cautiously before he could ready another attack. “You didn’t even want to meet me two years ago.”

He placed his hand onto his chin in thought. “Hmm, I suppose that’s true. Tell you what, land a hit on me and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Bastard,” you called to him, switching your shadow weapon to a bow and arrow, pulling back the shadow string, and releasing it toward him.

Gojo Satoru held up two fingers as the arrow stopped in mid-air, much like your sword earlier. “I don’t think that’s my name, sweetie. Bad luck for you today. Seems like we’re just a bad match.”

You were frustrated. How the hell was he doing that?

A siren sounded out through the forest. The match was over; Tokyo won, only because Gojo Satoru had distracted the Kyoto group while Geto Suguru handled the stranglers and the remaining Grade 3 sorcerers were able to exorcise more curses than your side.

Gojo Satoru disappeared before your eyes, but you heard a whisper in your ear from him, “I’m feeling generous. An hour before the individual matches tomorrow, meet me in the garden. I’ll explain everything.”

So, that’s how you found yourself out in the garden at 8 am, shivering from the morning chill. The garden was huge, but somehow you figured your fiance would be able to find you.

“Yo,” he called out, startling you from your thoughts. “I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

“I don’t think highly of you,” you admitted. “You embarrassed me two years ago and my uncle thinks I’m a disgrace to the family now.”

“Yikes, that seems a little harsh. Not like I annulled the engagement or anything. I just was going through some good ole teenage angst then, nothing more.”

“Still going through some ‘teenage angst’?” you questioned.

“Oh, you know, just the normal amount. I died a few months ago and it reset me back to typical teenage angst levels.”

“You what? ”

“But that’s a whole different story. We’re talking about why I left two years ago after seeing you.” He brought a finger up to his lips. “This is top secret. Can’t tell anyone.”

You nodded.

“So, my Six Eyes. I’m sure you’ve heard all about them, being in the Kamo clan and all. It turns out I can also see the red string of fate that brings soulmates together. My parents are soulmates, but they have a shitty relationship.”

“Okay.” You could relate, your parents also have a shitty relationship.

“And they’re the only pair of soulmates I’ve ever known. So,” he grasped his left pinky in yours, “when I saw that red string of mine connect to yours, I panicked. Didn’t want to be forced into a relationship with my own soulmate and end up like my parents. Call me a sappy romantic, but I wanted to meet you and get to know each other on our own, not because we’re in an arranged marriage.”

You couldn’t help but blush. Here was Gojo Satoru, your fiance, one of the strongest jujutsu sorcerers in the world, proclaiming that you were his soulmate. It seemed ridiculous, but you didn’t think he was lying. Suddenly, all the resentment for that time a few years ago left.

You took your pinky out of his, looking away from him in embarrassment, then stated, “There’s nothing that says we can’t do all that while still being engaged. Lets.” You took a deep breath, looking straight at those brilliant blue eyes past his sunglasses, then continued. “Let start over. Get to know each other the right way and see where this takes us.”

He grinned. It was the first time you saw him smile with pure happiness behind it. “I like that idea, soulmate.”

[burnedbyshoto]

just with everything that’s happening in the manga right now, I just wanted to write this as a sorta indulgent thing because my heart hurts for izuku. platonic relationship + recent manga spoilers below, beware:

i’m thinking of ua, recently turned class 2-a, student!reader being assigned to go out and gather lingering citizens in the city. you have your licensing, and even if your hero costume is still partly torn, you have a duty to save those in need.

you just never expected that while on lookout you’d run across an even more beaten, trodden, and torn midoriya izuku. it’s your first time seeing him since he was in the hospital, he had, after all, recovered and left within the same week. and all you knew is that he looked worse.

there were purple eye bags under his eyes, deeper and darker than even aizawa’s, shinsou’s, all might’s, and recently bakugou’s. his typical green delighted and excited gaze looking slightly hollowed, scared, as if you being near him spelled danger and he was a tired, wounded prey. you understood why, however, his written letter that had been placed outside your dorm room spelling out everything about his quirk... his given quirk...

midoriya izuku was quirkless apparently, strange.

“deku?” you whisper, confused as smoke seems to suddenly lift off the ground, covering the area to your ankles with it. “oh my — are you okay?!”

“I-I’m fine!” deku says loudly, almost shrilly as he stumbles backward, hands motioned in a sign that screams: don’t come near! “I was just in the area for my own patrol! I was just taking a small break because i’ve been up since one a.m. and I am a bit tired, but if you’re here then it’s okay! i’ll go away, please continue on this way! had i known that yuuei was sending all you guys out here i definitely wouldn’t’ve come out here! not that i’m avoiding you all! i just think you all are so capable and i wouldn’t want to ever impose on your area and accidentally bring you all danger. in fact, that’s the last thing i want to do! so I think there’s a group of people—”

“you’re not sleeping much, are you?” you whisper, heart aching as you easily read the painful, forced, and oh so tired smile on his face. it’s not his typical smile full of hope, excitement, determination, and a fierce drive. it’s quiet, muted, as if he’s barely holding it all together. “...midoriya-kun, are you okay?”

it wasn’t the most intrusive question, but it was the only thing you could manage out because the grief and guilt that seemed to entrap you both like a too tight blanket was making you tear up.

he wasn’t okay.

his green eyes look at you, blinking hollow and blank.

“we miss you,” you plead pathetically, your eyebrows furrowing. “I miss you. come back already? w-we can deal with it together! there’s nothing that us in class 2-a can’t survive together! and I know that even if that’s true you won’t come back, and I know that you want to leave me right now immediately but I... I need to know! are you okay?!”

and like that, he breaks.

green eyes become glassy with tears and izuku snaps his gaze away from you as unshed tears refuse to fall from his eyes even if they gather at the corner. his nostrils flare as he sniffles quietly and you wonder just where that crybaby boy you used to know went? he never cries anymore, not even now, it seems.

“i’m exhausted,” he laughs bitterly, looking at you in a way that makes him seem to have aged twenty years while also making him look like a child in tattered clothes hoping to play heroes. “i’m the worst successor to all might... he wouldn’t have failed to capture all for one and shigaraki... but I can’t go back... not when they want me, I won’t let people get hurt because of me again.”

“no one got hurt because of you!” you exclaim, tears welling in your eyes because this isn’t your classmate! this isn’t midoriya izuku who laughs and smiles at every joke and every word because he likes making sure everyone is acknowledged. the midoriya izuku who has sat down with practically every member of class 1 now 2-a to discuss a proper workout routine. the midoriya izuku who still gets star eyes whenever all might enters the room. the midoriya izuku who verbally jabs at bakugou katsuki and never fails to get them both into some altercation only for them to be friendly moments later. “that war was us going up against them! we did it, not them!”

“but their end goal is me,” izuku says with a frown, not looking at you.

“it would be anyone holding one for all right now!” you snap. “it couldve been all might still! but it happened to be you and it’s not your fault that people got hurt!”

“then why did kacchan get hurt!?!” izuku wheezes and you startle to see the tears flowing from his eyes despite the angry, desperate, near wild look to his face. “I-If this all isnt my fault, then why did kacchan get hurt?!”

you swallow, unsure what to say to that as his green eyes show desperation, self hatred, and sorrow for his childhood friend who was nowhere near right now.

“because you needed saving,” you swallow, eyes downcasting. “even heroes need saving... and i wasnt there when that happened but,,, knowing you, you were probably doing exactly what you’re doing right now.”

“and that is?” izuku snaps, but there’s no fire to it, just a man who is thoroughly exhausted but with no place to call home.

“trying to win on your own,” you whisper, head shaking as you look down.

it’s silent for a moment, maybe two.

there’s a small sniffle and a quiet sorry and by the time you decide to look up, deku’s gone with nothing but clouds of smoke left behind.

“you better come back!” you find yourself screeching to the setting sky. “i’ll never forgive you if you don’t come back!”

[leonawriter]

Dazai’s background, clues in canon, and my theory.

Y’know, there’s a couple of things that I think are very informative about Dazai’s character, when trying to get a canon read on him (and not an AU or “I prefer it this way” or “but it’s good for the fic” one).

One of these is that I do not believe that Dazai has ever wanted for anything in his life - in a material sense - prior to going underground and then having only an ADA detective’s salary... and no, I’m not one of the ones who believes he has money saved away (from the mafia, at least) that he can use at any time - if he needs to keep his record clean, then that means not using dirty or laundered money. Those two ideas also do not cancel each other out. If he has alternate funds, they’re personal.

The other one might end up being another post, but here goes-

To back up this first point, are several things throughout the series. I know that someone once pointed out that Dazai uses a high-end smartphone. He also is still able to keep two of them - his old mafia phone and his personal one. 

I personally find it interesting how Dazai is *always* seen in a suit of some kind, especially in his younger years; it’s reminiscent of how young men in wealthy families are often characterised as not knowing how to dress down and be casual. Everything is formal. We see him in a suit at fourteen years old, and I think we can safely say that this isn’t just Mori saying that he has to dress that way, because Mori doesn’t seem to have any problem with assorted characters such as Q and Tachihara dressing in ways that are either strange, or much more in line with one being a punk teenager. Instead, Dazai is seen in a suit - and consistently - for four years. And even now, that’s still a suit, just a sloppily put together one.

Another aspect that informs us about Dazai’s origins is the way that he speaks.

At fifteen years old, when he isn’t talking to Chuuya (and that’s an important distinction to make, since Chuuya is one of the few, if not the only, person who makes Dazai act like a child) he tends to have a habit of speaking in measured tones and with a high vocabulary. He’s definitely still a child, but he knows how to talk to adults in a way that will get him listened to - specifically, adults in positions of power. Not just “power of him, as a child” but power. I think it’s important to remember also that the light novel of Fifteen makes note of how Mori and Dazai “colluded” - worked together on - the assassination of the previous Boss. 

So this wasn’t just drilled into him by Mori. Mori just found what was already there and utilised it.

Also relevant from Fifteen is this one line here:

“Dazai is not Mori’s subordinate. He isn’t even in the mafia. And he certainly isn’t an illegitimate child, or an orphan he picked up, or a medical assistant.”

Emphasis mine.

The important thing here is that Dazai isn’t an orphan. In a series where everyone is even in the present still recovering from a massive war, the fact that he’s pointedly not an orphan despite being with Mori like this and no parents ever mentioned, is interesting.

Now, as far as I’m aware, one of the popular things to do is to have him, in AUs, be Mori’s heir, or Mori’s adoptive son in some other respect. The thing is - I don’t think he needs to be. He clearly had a family he was with before Mori. And yet, they aren’t present.

I do have a particular theory about perhaps not who they are in a specific sense, but certainly who they are in a general sense, where even if the details change the idea stays the same.

The idea, which is just my theorising, is this: Dazai was born to someone of influence. Possibly a high-up government official or nouveau-riche, or possibly an old family. Either way, they had money, and they had power. His parents weren’t close with him. He may have had older siblings (he may even have young siblings, by this point, not that he’d recognise them). 

Dazai would have had notable issues regarding suicide well before he is first seen in the manga at fourteen; his family, however, effectively disowned him by leaving him with an underground doctor, assuming that he would not survive (remember: he had bandages over his head, as well as all of those other areas) or not caring if he did. Their family may have collectively decided that it would be easier to forget about him than to carry on with the shame of a child who would attempt suicide at such a young age. 

Dazai would have had the education of a young rich boy, a “bocchan,” and not taught that there was right and wrong as a child. Only that there were people who had, and people who took, about money and power and how to talk to people at stuffy parties, maybe expected to marry one day and have children to carry on the family name, in case his potential older siblings weren’t able to.

I also believe that Dazai at least in part chose to cut ties with his family, and that on the off-chance that, like with Mori Ougai and Elise calling him “Rintarou,” he had a different name as well in the past, he chose to change his name, and would never willingly go back to his prior name.

As for where I’m getting a lot of this?

Real Life Dazai’s own family were new money. His father held a high position in the government, which was respected at the time. It’s heavily implied through his works that he didn’t know how to relate to his family, feeling pressured into liking and wanting things he didn’t feel interested in, and scared of disappointing them. He mainly saw a specific servant woman as his mother figure more than his actual mother, since his actual mother was barely in his life. They had money, and could afford to get him a very good education, and the only reason why he didn’t is due to two different reasons: one of those was how he was involved in communist activities, and the other is, in a more impactful way, his suicide attempt/s. His inheritance was also cut off until he vowed to improve himself - several times, even!

You can read up on this more by looking up his real life self’s wikipedia page, but all one really has to do to get from this to what I wrote out as my personal ideas for BSD Dazai, is to adjust for the fact that he would be living in a more modern time period as opposed to having been born in 1909, and an alternate world history, and the fact that BSD Dazai takes less time to reach such a low point as he is at fourteen.

Bearing in mind that BSD is prone to changing things, it’s also prone to not changing things as much when it’s not necessary, or making stealth references. Which is why I said that although the details may shift and change and not be accurate, the idea that Dazai came from a wealthy family where his mental health problems were simply left unaddressed (and possibly made worse) for long enough for him to get to such a state as he’s in at fourteen years old only for them to ignore his existence after leaving him with Mori and for him to choose never go get back in contact, seems fairly in keeping with things.

It’d also give extra weight to what he says to Atsushi in Portrait of a Father. That he “doesn’t have much advice to give, except for one general thing - when one’s father dies, they tend to cry.” Dazai himself would in this case have complicated feelings about his own family, and much like Atsushi, would have later gone on to find that “positive father figure” in someone else, even if the older male figure themself is barely that much older than him. 

(I’d love to go deeper into this with the way this would affect him in his present situation, but for some reason I started this post when still very tired, so maybe when I have more energy.)

[exo-raskreia]

Renji’s Cowardice

So this is something I've been wanting to talk a bit about, even though I've commented on it to other fellow fans, but decided maybe I should make a post about it. This got longer than expected, so long post ahead:

I'm one of those few people who don't believe Renji had feelings for Rukia, or if at all, they were so subtle, they were barely there - ‘cause they can easily be interpreted as that of friendship or siblings.

We know he certainly cared about her, they were childhood friends, helping each other through hard times, the ONLY survivors from their friend group in the Rukongai, & the only ones out of them who had reiatsu. So, obviously, they had a tight bond.

But...there was nothing more. That scene in the anime (ep. 32) where Renji stares at Rukia in the lake during his childhood memories? Filler - like most of the episode. It wasn't in the manga. Check out chapter 98 (which also has a lot of the scenes I will mention here).

When I first watched that, I thought maybe he liked her (so then why did he hurt her?), but as I got further into the anime, no such scene ever happened again, nothing else that indicated he might like her. Then eventually I read the manga, & bam! - obviously there'd been nothing else, since the scene hadn't been there to begin with.

So if you believe Renji was deeply in love with Rukia... Well, that’s not what I saw in the following scenes.

Let’s start off with a little scene in his childhood, where Rukia showcased her reiatsu abilities. Their friends found it so cool, whereas Renji seemed...bothered by it:

And down here, where he shouts at the guys, one could interpret him being a bit jealous that they’re captivated by Rukia, but it can also be interpreted as him being a bit jealous of Rukia, like, “Meh, she ain’t all that!” 

Even so, they all became so close, like a family

Years later, once in the academy, Rukia was adopted into the Kuchiki Clan. Renji encountered Byakuya for the first time & felt an immense fear. Any confidence he’d had up until that point (such as being in an advanced class) faded. 

When Rukia tried to discuss with him if she should accept it, because DUH, they only had each other at this point & were basically family, but of course Renji let his insecurities get the better of him, & basically told her how lucky she was & to go for it, without showing concern or worry. Thus, beginning the end of their friendship.

Renji’s excuse for letting her go was that he didn’t want to get in the way of her happiness... Was it? Not something else like, I don’t know, feeling insecure, possibly inferior, afraid when he had encountered her adoptive brother for the first time? Ah, that's it...cowardice? It's as if he was even trying to convince himself otherwise:

Yep, sounds like it, Renji. Always hiding your fear, masking it with ego, or in this case, thinking you’re “happy” for her.

He didn’t want to admit what he had been feeling in that moment. He didn’t let her go out of the goodness of his heart...but because he didn’t have the guts to stop her. He didn’t have the guts to go against Byakuya for her sake. Or more like...for his own sake.

You could say he didn’t feel “worthy enough” being her friend, now that Rukia was part of a prestigious clan... Or simply...too scared. He made it his goal to surpass Byakuya, & once he did, then he would feel "worthy" or strong enough to talk to Rukia again.

Just...why? Did he not see that it wasn’t what Rukia wanted? It’s not like she would have looked down on him or anyone else for that matter. He didn’t understand her like a certain someone. Actually, doesn’t it sort of parallel the scene in which that certain someone was telling her to go back home with him, & she told him she’d stay in SS, & he actually saw she was happy about it & let her go because of it? She wanted to stick together like family, but he pushed her away. For the next 40 years, he never attempted to talk to her, make sure she was doing well, wasn't there for her, nothing.

But he hadn’t realized the true reason for his actions...yet.

Cowardly Renji was then going to tell Rukia about his promotion to lieutenant after he was encouraged by his friends (ch. 205.2/Side-B ‘The Rotator’), but then he was sent to arrest her in Karakura Town. Instead of trying to make up or let her know he didn’t want to do this, he certainly acted pretty villainous towards her, & did NOTHING to try to stop her from getting executed, not even trying to vouch for her to her brother (I mean, if someone as freakishly strong as his captain wasn’t going to do a thing, then why should Renji The Coward™, amirite?). Some "tight bond”... 

Is this how a man shows he loves a woman?! Is this the kind of man you want for strong, kind, selfless Rukia?!

When Renji decided to visit Rukia in her cell to tell her about a certain orange-haired guy being in SS, he hadn’t expected her to react the way she did:

(Renji then thought that maybe he shouldn’t have given her hope, because the rescue gang might not make it. So even in her final moments, he still wasn’t going to try anything? Instead, regretted giving her some comfort? Oh, boy...)

After hearing about said orange-haired guy defeating strong opponents on his way to save Rukia, his bruised ego sent him to go pick a fight with him against orders.

He went as far as to blame that one person for Rukia’s demise. Like, what the heck? He wanted to break his resolve, because Renji himself had none.

But obviously...things weren’t going the way he’d planned. Ichigo, the man who would stop at nothing to save Rukia, was underestimated. Heck, Renji even got triggered when Ichigo shouted this & blocked his attack:

U mad, bruh?

Eventually, Alpha™ Ichigo defeated him, & made him realize his faults. Cue Flashback no Jutsu & then we got Renji saying this:

Ooh, boy, this is right after the panel where he was trying to convince himself that he let Rukia go for her happiness (ch. 98).

Let’s start off with the first part: "Now that I think about it... I was probably just scared...”

So this does confirm that Renji had been lying to himself, & that his real reason was that he was afraid to confront a stronger opponent for his friend. Afraid to do something about the situation. He was a coward through & through.

Then he continues with this: “I am really a tramp down to my bones. I hate myself. I bark at the star, but...I don't have the courage to jump and grab it."

Is this another way of him saying Rukia is the star & he's the tramp? So basically, he felt inferior to her? A lowly creature who’s all bark & no bite?

Let’s see... You could say that since childhood, Renji had always felt a bit jealous of Rukia, or simply admired her, cuz she had higher reiatsu, their old friends looked up to her more & she became their leader of sorts. And then when she was adopted into the Kuchiki Clan, she was “farther away". 

He made it his goal to surpass Byakuya...because it would mean he had finally “reached” Rukia? You could almost see this as romantic, feel bad for him cuz he doesn’t feel worthy of her, even though he’s tried so hard (fake ‘aww’). But it’s still not enough. Up until this point, Renji hadn’t done anything to help her. Like I said before, he even tried to obstruct the one person who was trying to save her, & tried to blame him for her eventual demise.

Just how insecure were you, Renji? Of the fact that someone else, who hadn’t known her as long, was risking his life to save the one girl you weren’t brave enough to help? That someone else would reach the star, & not you? That someone else proved himself Top Dog™ & you’re still the tramp?

Well, Rukia is more referred to as the moon, while Ichigo as the sun (White Moon, Black Sun). So to Renji, she's a star, but in regards to Ichigo, she's the moon. An unreachable star to one, & the moon to the other... Interesting...

In some translations, he says "stars" in plural, so if that, does it mean Renji is calling himself a coward in general, who doesn't have the courage to stand up to those stronger than him? And/or to get what he wants? In others, he says "moon", & Rukia has been referred to as the moon, so it still applies.

After this, he BEGGED Ichigo to save Rukia, because he himself couldn't. Once again, he felt unworthy. And this time, he had good reason to, because the man Rukia wanted to see wasn't even him, & he knew this. Like I said, he hadn’t expected her to look so happy when he’d informed her that Ichigo was in town.

Renji had a change of heart. He later helped Ichigo in what he could, having formed the resolve to work harder after recovering from the fight against him. After this, we saw him become friends with Ichigo, having his acknowledgement, his respect, his trust. Never once do we see Renji feeling jealous towards Ichigo regarding Rukia (nor anyone else for that matter). Not like Orihime being jealous of Rukia. Renji supported Ichigo in everything, & both considered each other one of their closest comrades.

Remember the scene in Hueco Mundo (ch. 248) where Ichigo didn't want the group to separate in Las Noches after Rukia suggested it, then Renji got in the way & told him it was an insult to her as a warrior? He knew this wasn't about the group, it was about Rukia (dang, was Ichigo that obvious?). Ichigo didn't say that because he didn't trust in her abilities...it's his general care & worry about her. He has to have Rukia in his sight at all times. She obviously means a lot more to him than he realizes (and more than his other friends). Renji doesn't see Rukia the same way Ichigo does...hence why he wasn't concerned like Ichigo. This already shows the difference in their feelings for Rukia.

(Poor Ichigo must’ve later regretted this when he didn’t feel Rukia’s reiatsu anymore & Ulquiorra had said she’d “died”, then Ichigo turned around to go to her, without giving a second thought to Orihime’s whereabouts and-)

Heck, even in the Fade To Black movie, everyone had forgotten about Rukia, including Renji...except Ichigo. He was the only one who fought tooth & nail to get her back. Renji was one of the last people in the movie to remember her, some "bond". Well, she already established a stronger bond with Ichigo, so Renji lost his status as the man closest to Rukia long ago.

Then in the WDKALY fanfiction novel, in the sketch of Renji at the wedding, he doesn't seem very happy? And in the one with him & Rukia announcing their engagement, their Soul Reaper friends seem so shocked, as if they would have never seen this coming? If it was obvious they “loved” each other, why even their closest friends didn't see it? Seems sketchy, doesn't it?

To add to this, as someone had pointed out before, just look at Renji’s expression here while Rukia is injured:

Seems like the typical battle-hardened look someone would have over their injured comrades.

Meanwhile, look at Ichigo, leaning forward anxiously...& then we get a wonderful closeup of his face

So, all in all, what I'm trying to say is that there was never really a critical moment in which made me go, "Wow, Renji really does love Rukia." His feelings just weren’t really...there? Or not noticeable romantically, not like Ishida’s for Orihime - now THESE I can believe. He felt like a coward in general, that not even his childhood friend's life being in danger, had been enough to get him to act. It took someone else, someone much braver than him, to give him the push that he needed to move forward. And that person is the one he came to respect & support, never showing jealousy. He even thanked Ichigo (ch. 682) for restoring his friendship with Rukia, & said he'll always have his back. Some "rival", huh?

(Thinking about it, since we never got to see more of Renji's insecurities again after the SS arc - I think - & had his friendship restored, does this mean surpassing Byakuya wasn't his goal anymore? Did he ever mention it again?)

Kubo really wasn't playing when it came to who cared more about Rukia out of these two (or more like, the differences in how they cared about her). Too bad this all went out the window.

[biribirichan1]

Learning each other’s worlds

“Ichigo, what does it mean to be Facebook official?”

“What! Who have you been talking to?” Ichigo looked over incredulously at his desk, where Rukia was currently sitting staring blankly at his laptop.

“Nobody important. Just tell me.”

Ichigo scratched his head wondering where he should even begin to explain social media to his girl friend. Rukia was a rising star from a family of Kaiseki chefs and had a strictly traditional upbringing where everyday consisted of honing the art of Japanese cooking. How do you explain the tangled maze of Facebook to a person who barely had time to go on the internet? He decided for a simple explanation.

“You know how people used to give engagement announcements in newspapers. It’s something similar. Nowadays since everything is digital, instead of announcing it in the newspaper, when people get together, they just announce it on Facebook.”

Rukia’s face cleared. “Ah! It’s like what you explained you do. Instead of TV ads, you model clothes and shoes on insta - insta...”

“Yeah on Instagram. That’s my job as an influencer.”

“But we’re not engaged.”

Ichigo spluttered. “Wait wait - engaged? Where is this coming from? You’re not about to propose to me are you?”

“You fool. No, I’m not proposing.”

“Aww.” Ichigo pouted having recovered from his initial shock. “I’d have totally said yes if you did.”

Rukia laughed, and for a moment Ichigo loved to see how her impassive face just lit up with joy. She had such few moments like this, and it made his heart happy to think he could bring out that side to her. Her childhood sure had been tough. Everyone knew it wasn’t easy growing up in the Kuchiki household as a chef.

“I got interviewed by a reporter today, and she asked why you and I hadn’t made our relationship Facebook official.” Rukia finally explained.

“Ah, now I get it.” Ichigo went back to reading the manga he had been absorbed in before this conversation started.

After a few moments of silence, he heard Rukia speak up again. “You’re serious about our relationship aren’t you?” She said it in such a quiet voice, that Ichigo left his spot on the couch, and went up to her immediately. Pulling her in a hug, he said, “Didn’t you hear me say I’d marry you in a heart beat? Hmm? Where is this coming from.”

Rukia held him tighter, but didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“Oi!”

“Fine, fine - I heard the reporter saying afterwards that you must not be so serious since you never post any pictures of us on your social media.”

“Aww. Don’t listen to the reporter, she has no idea. Here.” Ichigo pulled out his phone. “As an influencer, I keep my public and private life separate Rukia. Here’s my personal one.”

“Death&berry? You still use that silly nickname for us.” Rukia giggled.

“Of course, I’ll never forget the first time I saw you, all clad in black. You looked like the grim reaper itself,” Ichigo joked.

Rukia swiped his arm, and took the phone from him. She scrolled down through the pictures. There were so many photos of her, of them being together.

“Remember the time you were experimenting with shishito flavoured icecream? And how spicy it was?” Ichigo asked as Rukia came across a rather red faced picture of him.

“Do I remember? Will you ever let me forget?” Rukia laughed both at Ichigo’s indignant face and the caption beneath the picture. “My face after Rukia fed me the 10th bowl of shishito icecream”.

She kept scrolling. Selfies of them at the park. A picture of her cooking at the restaurant. The shoes he gave to Ichigo for his birthday last year. Ticket stubs to the Chappy movie (with a caption of the things people do for love lol). A picture of the both of them with Isshin and the twins. She smiled and her heart felt overwhelmed by Ichigo’s blantant display of love for her. Growing up in the family she had, she just wasn’t used to that kind of affection. 

“We’ve had a lot of fun, haven’t we?” Ichigo kissed the top of her hair. “Don’t let stupid people make you doubt that okay?”

Rukia nodded. “Can you still help me make an account, so I can always see these pictures?”

Ichigo grinned, “Sure love. Welcome to my world.”

--- A few hours later ---

“Ichigo, now that I’m learning about social media, and your influencer world...”

Ichigo looked at her, noting the dangerous glint in her eyes. “Yes?” he asked cautiously.

“Ni-sama has been insisting you learn how to do a proper tea ceremony, so perhaps this weekend -”

“NO! Anything but that, Rukia!”

---

Written for Ichiruki month AU Week Day 15 Prompt: Social Media. My first time writing an AU, so this was fun!

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

[stillchaoticlogic]

Such a Tease

Pairing: (Aged) Gary/Blue Oak x Reader

Summary: After a tragedy, you make the decision to quit your career as a trainer and focus on breeding Pokemon for the general population. You are one of the best in the region. You aren’t expecting the have to deal with your childhood rival and crush suddenly popping back into your life. After all, Gary Oak broke your heart and now you are determined to break his... or are you?

NOTES:*This is my very first pokemon story written many many years ago. I’ve decided to revamp it and see what happens! I hope you enjoy a little Gary / Blue love! I will kinda be combing the anime and game versions and I may or may not have just bought the manga to read... It will kinda be my take on these characters. Ash may become more like Red, but I haven’t really decided yet... I’m just having fun with this!*

Welcome Home

You sigh in exasperation as you leisurely walk down the familiar trail, one you haven’t seen in fifteen short years. The umbrella over your head shields you from the rain as best it can. Your Espeon, Lady, long ago took refuge on your shoulder. To this day she can’t stand getting her feet wet, which you discovered on the day you got her, because it just so happens that it was raining on the day you left too. Honestly, if you had any say in it you wouldn’t be going back at all, but it is the only place that you can afford to get your breeding center off the ground. 

 The road to Pallet town hasn’t changed much; you just pass by the place where your newly constructed breeding center and home is. You can’t see it for the surrounding trees and if it wasn’t so late you would stop by and check it out, but there will be plenty of time for that tomorrow. You’re very tired since it has been a while since you walked anywhere, usually you would be flying on your Altaria, Ceres, but you wanted to take up as much time as possible clearing your head. So much as happened in such a short time and you needed the mental break. So, you’ve walked most of the way, and honestly, you’re quite sure that it has helped your mental state more than you thought it would. At least in case you meet…him… But he must be married or have a girlfriend and moved to another continent by now…right?

 Right???

 You come to your old town far too soon. Stopping right before you enter it, you take a deep breath as if you are about to jump a hundred feet into the dark murky water, and possibly never come out. Actually, you really aren’t sure if you are going to make it out of this alive. Lady leaps from your shoulder and lands delicately beside you; eyeing the cold wet ground in obvious distaste. You giggle as you realize that this is actually how you named her and where you did so.

 “Well, Lady… Are you ready to go home?”

 “Esp…” she murmurs while looking up into your eyes. She never really knew this place, but she would follow you to the ends of the world and back again. You couldn’t have asked for a better friend.

 You walk into Pallet Town, hoping that nobody recognizes you, but not ten feet in you hear your name being called. You look around for the owner of the oddly familiar voice as a male, about the same age as you come running toward you. He has black hair and large brown eyes, he’s wearing a black t-shirt with a red vest and jeans along with a baseball cap atop his messy hair.

 “(Name!) is that seriously you?” questions the male.

 “Umm… yes?” you more or less question.

 “It’s me! Ash Ketchum! Don’t you remember me?”

 You stare long and hard at the guy before you until an image of a ten-year-old Ash enters your mind.

 “Oh!! Ash! Yeah, I remember you! How have you been?” You question him. Although the two of you were never very good friends, you remember he was always nice to you and a sweet kid in general.

 “I’m great! How about you? Are you taking a break?”

 “Ahh…well… I’m kind of retiring as a Pokémon trainer…”

 “WHAT?! No way!!” he yells in surprise, “You’re really good!! I just saw one of your competitions last week.

 “Hmmm,” you hum with a nod, “That was my last tournament.”

 “Ah! No way! Why?!”

 “I’m starting a breeding center.”

 “Seriously?! Oh! So you’re the one building that center over on route 1. That’s so cool!”

 You merely shrug, “We’ll see how it goes, it’s quite the investment.”

 Lady, annoyed at being left on the cold wet ground, leaps back onto your shoulder. You turn and give her a look, “You know… I really wish you would stop getting my clothes wet.” You mutter to her in slight annoyance.

 “Espi.” She says while turning her nose up at you as if to say, ‘well I never.’ At least you can say that you named her well.

 “Oh! I’m sorry I’m so rude.” You say apologetically, “This is Lady, my Espeon.” Lady turns her intelligent eyes on Ash and nods her head regally as if to say, ‘nice to meet you’ before she goes back to snubbing you with her nose in the air.

 All of a sudden a yellow blur comes running at Ash and lands atop his shoulder. You smile as you watch the Pikachu’s ears twitch as he regards you and your own Pokemon.

 “Pika Pi!” exclaims the energetic mouse.

 “Haha! And this is Pikachu.”

 “Nice to meet you Pikachu,” you giggle.

 “Pi-ka-chu!” he says happily while waving at you making you giggle.

 “Sooo… I was wondering….” Ash mutters casually before exclaiming “DO YOU WANT TO BATTLE?!” 

 “Oh… Umm… Well… sure, but not tonight. I’m really tired as I just walked a long way, how about in a week or so maybe?” you recover from your shock.

 “Awww… so long?” he whines, same old Ash. 

 “Yeah, I’m sorry, but I’m going to be really busy moving and decorating and I have a full staff to hire so I’m going to have to take interviews. Not to mention getting all of my Pokémon transferred in and getting them adjusted and…”

 “Ok ok! I get it you’re really busy! Haha.” Ash interrupts, “If you need any help let me know! Actually, I know a couple of people who want to be breeders, maybe they can help out?”

 “Oh really!? That would be great!”

 “Great I’ll talk to them for you.”

 “Aww, thanks, Ash! You’re such a sweetheart!”

 “Thanks,” he mutters embarrassed while looking away.

 “Well, I better get going! See you later!” You say while continuing on your way to your old house.

 “Bye (Name)!” he waves before he runs back into his own house.

You walk by Professor Oak’s lab barely sending it a glance. Maybe it’s childish to hold a grudge for so long, after all, it was ten years ago, but he really did hurt you. And the fact that you haven’t seen him since is making this even worse. It’s not like you purposefully avoid him, you just literally haven’t seen him in ten years and honestly, you could wait for another ten.

I hope you enjoy this! Please like, reblog and comment to show your love! 

[twiistedgalaxies]

Genesis: Chapter 8: Holly Jolly Christmas

How two brothers can take two opposite paths. How a man can be made into a monster and how the other must pay the ultimate price to save everything he knows and loves.

Or, alternatively:

The origins of All for One and One for All.

Previous Chapter

First Chapter

        Tomura woke to the excited chatter of his peers. He sat up in his bed with a groggy groan, squinting against the morning light. One of the meta-human kids he’d befriended, Emrik, was gesturing emphatically with his gleaming, metallic hands.

        “Buuh?” Tomura said intelligently, not awake enough to process what he was saying. A large hand ruffled his long hair.

        “It’s Christmas, goober,” he heard his brother say, smile in the teen’s voice.

        At this, Tomura felt a jolt of excitement rush through him. He bounded out of bed, only to regret it a few seconds later when his joints screamed in protest. Luckily, Hisashi reached out to steady him before he could fall backwards onto the unforgiving steel-framed bed.

        “We’re all out in the mess hall having breakfast!” Emrik chattered, “If you hurry up, you might be able to get some sausage rolls from the cook before they’re all gone.” The boy grabbed his arm and began dragging him out to eat, despite Tomura’s squawks of protest. Hisashi just looked on at the situation with amusement. Traitor. 

        The mess hall was crowded and loud as everyone gossiped about the gaudy Christmas tree that loomed over them at the end of the room. Tomura found himself cringing at the volume, feeling a headache building behind his eyes. His other friends, Jonah and Finn, waved them over after they got their food. Soon, he was wedged between Emrik and another clique on the bench across from the duo. The two were as thick as thieves, and often he and Emrik felt like they were just an accessory to their dynamic. 

        “So, what do you think you got for Christmas, ‘mura?” Finn asked, features brightening to a light green.

        Tomura shrugged, “I’m not sure, honestly I’ll be amazed if I get anything. It’s not like we have money to spend.” Really, he was shocked he could pull together enough for Hisashi’s present.

        Emrik bumped his shoulder into Tomura’s own, “Yeah, but with all the toy donations we got this year, at the very least you’ll have something, even if it’s dumb.”

        Jonah’s eyes took on a mischievous glint, “One year, Finn got a hot pink doll house.”

        Said preteen turned red and black with indignation, “I thought we agreed not to talk about that!”

        “I made no such promise,” Emrik chirped. Finn slumped in his chair with exasperation, turning a light blue.

        “There, there,” Jonah said while patting his back with a scaly hand. Finn let out a groan. Tomura smiled at his friends’ theatrics, at the very least it would be nice to have the day off of school and chores to hang out with them.

        “What about you guys?” Tomura asked, digging into his eggs and sausage rolls.

        “I’m hoping for some lotion,” Jonah replied, mouth full of food, “my scales are getting dry from the cold, it’s really itchy!”

        Finn cuffed Jonah on the back of the head, causing the reptilian to shoot him a puzzled look, “Joan pleeease don’t talk with your mouth full, it’s gross.”

        Jonah just smirked and chewed with his mouth open in an exaggerated manner. Finn leaned away from him, making disgusted noises. Meanwhile, Emrik and Tomura found themselves laughing at their antics. 

        “I want a muzzle to make Jonah chew with his mouth shut,” Emrik quipped, dodging a stray piece of scrambled egg launched at his head. 

        Suddenly, Tomura felt something cold and wet be poured over his head, drenching his clothes in something thin and sticky. Baffled by the sudden rush of freezing cold, he glanced around for the culprit, only to be met with the shark-like eyes of the orphanage bully, and contender for butthead of the year award, Bruce. He flushed bright red at the kids around him (minus his friends) bursting out into laughter at his expense. Tomura had never considered himself to be the type to actively hate other people, but man, if Bruce wasn’t the sole exception to that rule. The thirteen year old, held back a few years to be in their class, was a pudgy, mean-looking - ugh! Tomura had many, many, not nice words to describe him. It was Bruce and his cronies that were disrupting his now friends’ marble game a little over a week ago. In his left hand, Bruce held a now empty pitcher that seemed to have once held orange juice. 

        Tomura was about ready to deliver a scathing insult (or lunge himself at Bruce, whichever came first), when the matron’s familiar, shrill voice filled the air, “Settle down, settle down children.” Abra waited a moment for them to do so, fiddling with the megaphone in her hands, “As I am sure you are all aware, it is Christmas. You have the day off, yes, but any horseplay or mischief will not be tolerated,” she sent a pointed look towards a bunch of teenagers squeezed together at one of the tables, “Those of you who have chores are still obligated to do them today.” At this, a bunch of people groaned with protest. The matron looked displeased at their response, “That being said, for those of you who have finished eating, feel free to retrieve your presents from under the tree, and do so in an orderly fashion.”

        They did not get their presents in an orderly fashion. A tidal wave of children flooded to the end of the room, finally breaking apart into cliques once presents got distributed. Tomura was thankfully able to pick out Hisashi’s familiar mop of white hair from the crowd. 

        “Hisashi!” he called, and his brother walked towards him, several presents in hand.

        “Merry Christmas,” the teen said, and handed him two presents, one from donations and the other from Hisashi.

        “Thanks,” Tomura replied, eyes darting around as he looked for an exit, he didn’t want to have their gift exchange somewhere so crowded.

        “Why is your hair orange?” Hisashi raised an eyebrow, “And why are you soaking wet?”

        “Don’t worry about it,” Tomura said, shrugging the questions off, “Let’s just head back into the dorms, okay? I need to change out of this.”

        His brother nodded and gestured to him to lead the way. 

        It seemed that some other people had the same idea they did, because there were a few cliques clustered in the common room and the dorms. Once they got to his bed (where his stuff was), Tomura hastily changed out of his ruined clothes into something warm and dry. Finally, the pair ended up sitting on opposite sides of the stiff bed, presents between them.

        “Well?” Hisashi began, “What are you waiting for? Open your gift.”

        Tomura carefully ripped open the bright red wrapping paper, labelled as being from Hisashi. 

        “One of my friends owed me a favor, and he works at a comic book store, so we got you this,” His brother said, a fond look warming his face.

        The wrapping paper was torn to reveal a manga, on the cover the title read ‘Ultraman vs. the Demon King, Volume 1’ Tomura looked up, question unspoken.

        Hisashi shrugged, “It’s some sort of shonen, apparently it’s really popular in Japan right now, I thought you’d like it.”

        Tomura threw his arms around his older brother, touched by the gift. “Thank you,” he breathed.

        Hisashi chuckled, “Yeah it’s no problem, squirt, now open your other one. I want to see what the orphanage randomly gave you.”

        He released his brother from his death grip and tore open the other present. Tomura grimaced upon seeing what it was. His older brother doubled over laughing.

        “It’s not that funny,” Tomura grumbled, feeling his ears heat up.

        “You’re right,” Hisashi shot back, “It’s hysterical.”

        The randomly assigned present was a princess costume meant for toddlers. Tomura found himself looking up at the ceiling, silently railing against whatever deity was up there. “Maybe one of the younger kids will find it useful,” he sighed, placing the accursed gift to the side for now, “It’s your turn, ‘sashi, I worked really hard to get you your present.” He truly had, running errands for the matron to get spare cash wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

        Tomura watched his older brother open his gift with a baited breath. Whether or not he’d like it was hit or miss, it came from an old antique shop, and Tomura had barely enough cash to buy it. Hisashi’s face lit up once he removed the wrapping paper and opened the velvet box within. It was a watch, already calibrated to the current time. “Wow, I..” his brother began, only to cut himself off with a frown, “Where did you get this?”

        “I did some tasks for the matron and she gave me some money, combined with some of my savings from before, I was able to go to an old antique shop. I thought you’d like it,” Tomura replied, feeling a familiar buzz of anxiety in his stomach. Had he made the wrong choice?

        As if sensing his thoughts, his brother placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, “I do like it, thank you.”

        “Of course,” Tomura laughed awkwardly, “Though this is your birthday present too, I know it’s coming up soon and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get you anything.”

        Hisashi grabbed the other present, the one from the orphanage, “It’s fine, I didn’t even expect a Christmas gift this year to be honest, it’s not like such things come by easily these days.” He opened the gift, and Tomura watched his face fall into something between deadpan and profound irritation.

        “What is it?” Tomura asked, leaning over to get a glance. He immediately burst out into laughter, much like his brother had earlier. In Hisashi’s hands was a spiral notebook covered in glitter. On its front was a kitten dangling from a tree branch with a caption that read ‘Hang in there!’. 

        “As tempting as it is to set this on fire,” Hisashi placed the book next to his watch, “Maybe it’ll be useful later.” 

        Once Tomura recovered from his laughing fit, he said, wiping a tear from his eye, “Merry Christmas.”

        Hisashi smiled, something he seemed to be doing a lot of today, “Merry Christmas.”

                                                -@~*^*~@-

        The bus ride up to Beverly Hills was quiet, and given that it was the dead of night, Hisashi wasn’t surprised. The meta-humans were generous in the equipment they gave him. He was clad in black bloc, an earpiece was nestled snugly in his left ear. Inside of his hoodie was a handgun with a silencer attachment, and in his jeans was his ever faithful switchblade alongside a nice set of lockpicks. For once, he wore gloves. A dingy, failing Gamestop was one thing, a high profile target was another. He checked the watch on his wrist, 1pm, Markov and his family should be asleep by now. 

        The bus screeched to a halt before a dimly lit bus-stop. This would be as close as he could get to the Hills, the rest of the journey would need to be on foot. He disembarked and secured his face mask before making his way down the few blocks between himself and the target’s neighborhood. Christmas at the orphanage had been… interesting to say the least. He spent most of it playing a new board game Rafi had gotten for Christmas. Sorry! It was called, but Hisashi felt no remorse when his opponents faced crushing defeat. He hadn’t been in the hallway when Jose, rather stupidly, used the basketball he had gotten. While doing so, Jose had slammed it at top speed into one of the fluorescent lights, shattering it and nearly taking off the entire ceiling panel in the process. In all honesty, Hisashi was a little impressed, the thrashing Matron Abra gave him must have been legendary.

        The gate to the miles-long driveway towards Markov’s mansion was tacky to put it kindly. It was bleach tinted iron and gold-leafed, prominently featuring the pharmaceutical company’s symbol entwined in vines. Hisashi sneered at the sight before devising a way to break in. This would be easier than expected, as Markov had so kindly made the brick wall attached to the gate only shoulder height. Granted, Hisashi was significantly taller than most people, but regardless, all it would take was a few simple footholds to scale the thing. He walked a ways from the front gate (no need to alert any cameras after all) and climbed over it without much fuss. Finger on his earpiece to activate its microphone, he spoke, “I’m in the front yard.”

        “Cool,” he heard Amy reply, she sounded bored, “I disabled their security system. Do you need me to go over the floor plan again like a dumbass or are ya good?”

        Hisashi scowled, even though she couldn’t see it. Of course he didn’t need a refresher, he practically had the map burned into his eyelids with how much he’d stared at the thing. “I’m fine,” he said, short and to the point.

        Amy hummed, “The target and his wife are in the master room, out cold last I checked. Their little imps are also in their rooms. If you don’t make a ton of noise like a one-man circus you should be able to pull this off. If anything comes up on the security cameras I’ll let ya know.”

        “Alright,” Hisashi said, and removed his finger from the earpiece, shutting off the microphone. 

        He crept across their lawn (which was so long it was ridiculous) and paced around the mansion’s perimeter until he saw what must have been the cellar window. It was a small, narrow thing and he found himself mentally cursing both Michael for recommending this route and his past self for not planning for contingencies. He stood there for a moment, trying to think. Above the cellar was the kitchen, he could probably pop open a window and crawl through that way. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a set of sliding glass doors. He had forgotten about the sun room. That would be much better than reliving his many adventures with a narrow window dueling with his lanky stature. Mind made up, he headed towards the sliding door and realized that he lacked anything to pry it open with. Hisashi cursed under his breath, window it is. He nearly jumped out of his skin when vicious growling and barking filled the air.

        “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he repeated under his breath as he backpedaled from the door. Hisashi reached up to his earpiece, “You never said anything about a dog!”

        “Eh, I didn’t know they had a mutt,” the brat said, in a tone that made him very much think she had known, “Besides, it’s kenneled, just give it a minute to calm down and you should be able to get in from somewhere else without a problem.”

        Hisashi retreated to a group of hedges and waited in its shadows, both for the canine to calm down, and to see if it had woken up the mansion’s occupants. Once everything settled back into peaceful silence (apart from the ringing in his ears), Hisashi snuck towards the kitchen window. All it took was some fenangling with his pocket knife - really, you’d think they’d have better security than this that wasn’t reliant on the internet - and he was able to get it open with a satisfying pop. 

        He quietly climbed through the window and gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness. The kitchen was large, almost industrial grade, clearly meant to hold some sort of staff. If he remembered the floor plan correctly, there was a sitting room up ahead, and then a set of stairs leading to the second floor to the left. Despite there being three floors, Markov and his family had their rooms on the second. It was likely they didn’t want to bother themselves with climbing an extra set of stairs. Hisashi set out on the route, sneering at the extravagant decor in the sitting room. If nothing else, Markov deserved to be erased from this Earth for poor taste. No one in their right mind needs a giant taxidermied tiger. He winced as the stairs creaked underfoot and paused, heart in his throat. He didn’t need their hound having another fit. Nothing seemed to happen, so he continued forward.

        Finally, he reached the master bedroom, and opened the door slowly. Markov and his wife were sound asleep in their bed, cocooned in silk sheets and rose petals. Hisashi felt his nose scrunch up in disgust when he realized they were most likely nude. Briefly, he considered searching the room for anything Matt would find interesting, but decided against it. Surely the head of a prestigious pharmaceutical company wouldn’t be so foolish as to hide something incriminating somewhere easy to access. His gaze made its way to their night stand. The man’s smartphone, however, perhaps that could prove to be promising. Hisashi slinked towards the night stand and made sure the phone was off before pocketing it. There was no need for GPS to track him down after all. The handgun was cold and hard when he pulled it out. He flicked off the safety and pressed it to Markov’s temple. This wasn’t the first time he’d had to kill someone for a favor or for cash. But never had it been someone so… prominent. Hisashi would never admit it out loud, but he was nervous, butterflies raised hell in his stomach like they had the first time he’d done something like this. He pulled the trigger. It was now or never.

        “What are you waiting for?!” Amy hissed in his ear.

        He released the trigger, and the bed’s sheets were painted in crimson. A sigh of relief. Even the most untouchable in society bled and shat and died like mortal men. Just to be certain there were no witnesses, he turned the barrel of his gun on the wife and ensured her death was clean and quick. Or at least, as much as it could be. (His mother sitting upright in their bed, face frozen in a fearful expression, brain matter covering the headboard like a Rorschach painting-)

        Hisashi swallowed and spun on his heel to make his escape. There was no room for remorse, or pity, or reminiscence. All he had was the path forward, and the drive to keep his little brother safe, no matter the price.

A/N: Happy Imbolc/Candlemas to those who celebrate it! May your hearth be warm and blessings bountiful. This chapter ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated. Though, granted, I got distracted with another project and that slowed down my writing a lot. In other news, I'm going to be putting out a three part Witcher!Jaskier fanfiction at some point soon (within the week if all goes well), though it won't have a consistent update schedule like Genesis does. As always, feel free to leave a comment, feedback is my heroin.

AO3

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[gothicyblack]

At some point, I was gonna start making content...why not do it while sleep deprived and stressed? This MC is GN, BTW.

The Demon Boys and An MC who refuses to go to a dental appointment

Prologue: It’s a pretty normal day at the HOL when a loud shriek sends him rushing to the source of the sound: The Kitchen.

Where he finds a very suspicious looking MC who is trying to not look like they are in pain while sneakily pushing a barely touched bowl of ice cream away. When asked what happened, MC immediately states “I stubbed my toe.”

Lucifer

Could smell BS a mile away.

All these years alive as both an angel AND a demon and you think he can’t see you have a toothache?

Spends a good two or three hours lecturing you about proper dental hygiene. After all, it’s not good for one of their human exchange students to get sick.

THINK OF DIAVOLO’S REPUTATION😫

Does not listen to your protests (pleas). You are going to the dentist and he will hear no complaints.

He’s doing this because he cares, MC.

Thinks back to all the times you winced while talking or eating.

Oh his former father, you’ve been eating on one side of your mouth for months!

He’s a failure. He should have noticed sooner.

Mammon will pay for this.

Congratulations, MC, you are now on lock down. No sweets and soft foods only from here on. Don’t whine.

Threatens convinces his brothers not to give you any sweets until after your appointment. Even calls Simeon to make sure Luke won’t sneak you any, the bastard.

You cannot hide from him when it’s time. He will have Beel carry you. Give him too much trouble and you’ll also get Beel’s puppy eyes.

Makes sure to take good care of you. Will even hold your hand during your visit, even if he thinks you’re being silly.

Will also take good care of you after too.

But now you’re on a strict dental schedule after...good luck.

Mammon

He’s a demon, human. Hell, he’s the Great Mammon.

You honestly think your measly attempt at tricking him is gonna work?

He INVENTED tricks

But he’s still not sure why you screamed like that.

And stays that way.

Until Lucifer or Satan point out that you’re not eating as much as usual.

And you’re sticking to soft foods?

This some kinda weird human diet?

My poor, dumb son

Lucifer finally calls you out on it. The man gets no rest.

NOW HE FEELS BAD

How could ya not tell the Great Mammon that your teeth hurt? He’s your first man!

You are going to the dentist. He may not be the brightest but he knows how to make a damn appointment.

Good luck trying to hide too. His familiars may like you but Mammon still calls the shots. Those crows are everywhere and they WILL RAT YOU OUT

Because, like their master, they love you

Kinda freaked out too, NGL, but he won’t admit it.

Sure, he’ll hold your hand. But don’t expect him to watch.

From now on, you brush when the great Mammon does! Got it, human?

Leviathan

OMG! This is JUST LIKE THAT ONE ANIME “MY HUMAN FRIEND SCREAMED AND WHEN I RAN TO CHECK ON THEM, THEY PRETENDED TO STUB THEIR TOE WHEN THEY ACTUALLY NEED TO GO TO THE DENTIST”

You honestly just stare in shock. There’s ANIME ABOUT DENTISTS?

Of course there is, you’re in Hell.

Anyway, he’s watched it twice and spoiled alert: you are going to the dentist.

You can try to talk your way out of it but it won’t work. His Henry has to be healthy, after all.

Ruri would go to the dentist. And don’t try to say “I’m not Ruri.” You’re Ruri to Levi.

He’s gonna make sure you go too. In a stunning amount of firmness, too. Did we forget he’s a Navy Admiral? You’re going, sailor.

He loses all that confidence at the office. Why are there so many other DEMONS HERE?

It’s okay, he’ll be right in the room with you, cheering you on...until the dentist tells him to leave. Then he’s outside the door, reading you manga to distract you.

It’s weird but sweet.

Satan

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You thought that would work?

It was an involuntary response, right? You know he’s already aware of the tooth ache.

He was just waiting for either a. You fess up or b. It gets too painful and he’s forced to intervene.

“MC, I love you but you know you have to go.”

Don’t try arguing because he scheduled this appointment a week ago.

He knows all your excuses and hiding spots and has already thought circles around you.

He will be right here, in the office when you come out. No chance of him going in because he also doesn’t like the dentist.

He will make sure to nurse you back and keep a strict eye on your dental hygiene though.

Sometimes a relationship needs a mature one and Satan is your demon in this instance.

Asmodeus

MC, bad dental hygiene is so 1800s.

This guy has teeth so pearly white and perfect it’s like they are the actual Heavenly Gates.

And he is determined to get you there too. Your teeth may be decent now but then again, here we are.

If you try to argue, he will charm you into agreeing with him. You won’t even notice.

He’ll make a day of it to take your unease off. Shopping, nails, hair appointment...and then dentist.

He’s even got a good plan for when you’re recovering and in pain too.

MC, from now on your doing my brush routine...no you know what, let’s just change your whole morning and night routine. You’ll thank me later.

Beelzebub

Oh our sunshine boy. Our sweet, gold hearted baby Beel

We seem to forget that he is a demon too and can spot a human lying from a mile away as well as a burger with extra cheese.

He just gives you a sad look until you fess up and YOU ADMIT TO YOUR CRIMES YOU ABSOLUTE MONSTER

You apologize too

Beel gives you a lecture about taking proper care of your teeth and health as a whole.

Surprised? Don’t be. Beel knows better than anyone the importance of maintaining a good dental hygiene routine and how it can affect your health. After all, how could he eat if his teeth were bad? He’d starve otherwise.

Plus he is an athlete, so he views health and hygiene as important aspects of life.

Makes you call the dentist and schedule an appointment in front of him. He knows you don’t like it but he’s very proud.

Goes with you and talks to you the whole time, holding your hand, and asking what ice cream you want.

The absolute best.

Makes sure you get plenty of fluids and soft foods.

You and Beel are now brushing buddies, MC. Your teeth are as white as his.

Belphegor

Brat stared you down, walked up to you, and poked your cheek on the side where the bad tooth is.

The swearing was unnecessary but not unexpected.

“Stubbed toe, huh?”

Bitch

He’s too lazy to schedule your appointment but he knows you won’t. But you know who will?

Beel.

So now you got two demons making sure you go to the dentist.

No escapes either. Belphie is a master at hiding spaces and he knows where you are, the stalker

So now Beel is carrying you, talking to you about your health while Belphie also chastises you

Fun

He’s there, holding your hand, but he’s sleep

And you also feel kinda sleepy. So you sleep right through it.

Bastard used his powers.

He also left nursing you to Beel for 90% of the time but he did stay with you too...he was just sleep.

Made sure you had nice dreams throughout it.

He and Beel now brush their teeth with you. Can’t have you waking him up again with a toothache.

I honestly hate the dentist too, my friend drags me kicking and screaming...and I’m an adult.

[xenoredux]

The Legend of Silver Fang - Episode 2: The Invasion

If you haven’t read episode 1 yet, you can do so here.

As mentioned before, the major story beats and overarching plot are the same. This is written under the supposition that, in fantasy land, this is a mini series with episodes that run about 2 hours in length each.

Some things to be aware of going in:

This story is violent as shit!!! CONTENT WARNING FOR: Animal and human injuries, firearms, other weapons, animal death, and just a whole lotta spilled blood. Basically if any form of violence upsets you, it’d be a good idea not to read ahead

I was trying to achieve a decent adaptation that combines the strongest elements of the anime and manga. It will not be precisely like either and will occasionally totally deviate from both

This isn’t meant to be “better” then the canon. It’s just the way I’d go about rewriting the Akakabuto arc if I had that level of ungodly power lol

Character designs made to represent several mentioned characters can be found here and here. Others will be left up to the reader’s interpretation. A link to the next episode will also be provided at the end. If a link isn’t available, the next episode just hasn’t been posted yet!

HAVE FUN READING OR ELSE!!!

Everyone has just recovered from Daisuke's nasty fall when Gohei has a fall of his own. The old man's antics (and his drinking too lbr) have finally caught up to him, and he collapses in the snow. Before he slips away, Gohei's mind is filled not with the hurried voices of those around him but with images of Gin.

He imagines Gin fully grown, a silver clone of his father. Imaginary Gin is leaping across a gorge like he did while bird hunting, and once again he falls. Except this time as he falls he morphs into Riki, and a trail of blood follows him during his descent into the void below.

Gohei's eyes snap open, and he's greeted with the electric hum of hospital overhead lights. He's greeted by not just the harsh white walls and flurescent lighting, but by Daisuke and Gin, who Gohei realizes has grown substantially. Daisuke explains that the old timer bit shit and has been in a short coma, but he's under the care of Dr. Hidetoshi now. As if summoned, Hidetoshi enters the room, reassured Gohei that he'll be overseeing his care for the next few months, and allows the three the privacy he'd initially interrupted.

Gohei pouts in the way only elderly men can at the knowledge that he won't be able to haul ass outta here while flipping off the doctors again. He's too weak to get out of bed now. Daisuke promises him that he'll be taking Gin's training into his own hands.

Oldie McGee appreciatively places his hand on Daisuke's shoulder, then on Gin's head. He looks down at the dog, relieved to see he's still got silver brindle fur instead of the red from his dream. Gin licks his hand affectionately.

Daisuke is just about to leave and take Gin home when he notices something out of the corner of his eye. He turns a corner to find Hidetoshi's indoor archery range, cementing just how much disposable income the good doctor has. Hidetoshi fires an arrow right in the middle of the target across the room. The customized red, purple, and blue tail of the arrow bobs rapidly as it strikes the back wall.

Daisuke gapes in amazement. Hidetoshi laughs and tells the kid not to underestimate how powerful a bow can be. Daisuke enthusiastically grabs for the bow, and Hidetoshi allows him to, but soon the child finds he doesn't have enough arm strength to so much as pull the arrow back.

Daisuke is disheartened, but to make up for his abysmal performance, Hidetoshi says he'd like to show him something. He allows Daisuke and Gin into his office, which contains a multitude of taxidermied animals, photos of the man's hunting trips across the Western world, and a couple of dog beds. One of those beds contains John, and he smugly rises to meet everyone. John smirks as Gin stares at the photos of John adorning the walls, all of which showcase the dog sitting or lying beside a dead animal twice his size.

Hidetoshi elaborates on the adventures he's had with John, many of which he used a bow during. His face then falls as he explains something a lot less riveting: Gohei's meatsuit is too fucked for him to return to his old life. He'll never hunt again. He wouldn't be able to handle the physical strain. He will never get to kill Akakabuto.

Daisuke and Gin leave the hospital. Daisuke is struck with an existential crisis about what meaning Gohei's life will have now and how he'll never get to avenge Riki's death. Gin whines supportively, watching as Hidetoshi and John enter their car and leave. As soon as they're out of sight, Gin runs back into the archery range and snags up Hidetoshi's bow. His intention may have been to play fetch, or it may have been to stop the kid from crying, but Daisuke takes this as a sign that Gin and he will simply have to kill Akakabastard themselves.

For the next few months, Daisuke and Gin both work hella hard to improve their physical prowess. Daisuke jumps rope, goes for runs, lifts weights, and probably punches rocks or whatever it is body builders do. Meanwhile, Gin joins him on runs and, in his own time, makes an honest effort to leap across the rooftops of houses as if they were his mortal enemy: cliffs. The two boys do everything to get ripped shy of frequenting body builder forums and subreddits, and that's just because the internet isn't a thing yet.

The two have made amazing strides since they began their regimens. Daisuke has arms freaky large for a kid his age, and Gin, now just over a year old, has the most profound dog pecs anyone who hasn't experienced Ginga has ever seen. It's a good thing, too, because they'll need the strength. Though Akakabuto never truly rests, he's not the only thing frequenting the forests now. Winter will soon be over, which means that hibernation for the other bears will be over too.

One day Diasuke comes to Hidetoshi requesting to use his bow. Amused, Hidetoshi allows it. Daisuke finally manages to pull the arrow back and let 'er rip, hitting the target dead on. Hidetoshi is stunned. He knew Daisuke was tryna get beefed up, but he didn't expect the boy's self discipline to get him this far. He praises the boy for his achievement, and so does Gin. Gin and Daisuke have become inseparable outside of their individual training regimines, cementing their brohood more then ever before.

As Daisuke and Gin are walking home, they're met with a surprise. It's Gohei! The stubborn cuss has once again decided he's tired of waiting around inactive, and he commands Gin to come with him and hunt bears. But the ancient dude can barely chuff out the last few words before he collapses to his knees both real and artificial. He topples over, out cold.

Daisuke rushes to his side and tells Gin to retrieve Hidetoshi. Gin  understands because frankly he was gonna do that anyway, and he takes off like a rocket (or should I say a shooting star?) to find Doc. As Gin books it, Daisuke does the weirdest flex of all by lifting the old man unassisted.

Daisuke manages to carry Gohei halfway to the hospital when Gin arrives back with Hidetoshi. After some running around in a fuss, Doctor x Hunter has Gohei settled back into his own bed. The old man is murmuring something to himself about Akakabuto, but nobody pays it much mind. Hidetoshi thanks Daisuke for his help and allows him to go home - he'll stay beside the wacky ole spitfire tonight to make sure he doesn't get up to his old tricks again.

As Daisuke and Gin leave, Daisuke decides he's had enough. Tomorrow he and Gin are going into the forest and they're not coming back out until Akakabuto is Akakadead, Bro. Gin appreciates the conviction in the young man's voice, but shit dude, you sure?

Tomorrow arrives, as it usually does. Gin and Daisuke depart super early in the morning so the parentals don't notice. They only stop to borrow Hidetoshi's bow, taking care not to attract any attention. They've just entered the woods when their first roadblock presents itself.

The bridge across the river has been busted up. The heavy snow has begun melting into the now overflowing river beneath it, and the raging current finally did the shitty wooden walkway in. Now the two will have to go upstream to cross. Before they do, Gin pauses and snarls at something across the way. Daisuke notices several dark masses moving through the underbrush.

It's a mother bear and her two cubs, and it's instantly clear who their father is. Each twin bearbabe has a streak of dark, shiny red fur running from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. Daisuke is certain the family is taking a field trip to Daddy Bear's territory, so he and Gin follow the bears alongside the stream as they make their way to the pass.

Having risen only a little later then Daisuke, Hidetoshi is having a lark of his own. He, John, and a few of his friends are all packed into his Jeep and heading into the forest. This trip isn't for pleasure, though. It seems as if some of Hidetoshi's friends' livestock has been mauled to death and stolen, and nobody wants to stand by and let that happen.

The men come across the same thing the two kiddos did, the busted up bridge, and groan in frustration. However, just before they can start heading to the other pass, Hidetoshi pulls out a rope and passes it to John.

He begins giving John commands in English, commands which I wish I could understand, and John jumps over the stream and secures the rope around a tree. Hidetoshi also uses this show-offy moment to teach us all a valuable lesson in being overprepared by producing a pulley from out his Jeep. The other men are having a hard time knowing what to do with this information, but at least they don't have to hike up a different trail.

A ways away, Daisuke and Gin have finally located Akakabuto's territory. They know this to be true because they've found a freshly plopped pile of bear poop. Daisuke has never been more afraid of a pile of shit before, his knees quaking and his breath quickening at the sight.

He decides now is the time to take a breather, so he and Gin settle beside a tree to have breakfast. But Daisuke's anxiety has given him a gut ache, so he just passes the dog his food. Gin tries to enjoy the rice when a torrent of noisy crows descends upon the trees. The birds caw incessently, their calls blaring in Daisuke's overwhelmed noggin. Some of them even begin to land and try to steal from a snarling Gin.

Daisuke's overstimulation has reached its peak, and in an effort to get the flying vagrants to fuck off, he takes out the bow and fires a warning shot at one of the birds. Only it's less a warning shot and more a bullseye.

The arrow plows right through the bird's greedy guts, and though it does scatter the other bothersome thieves, it wasn't what Daisuke had in mind. He's never killed before, and he gets a hard hitting rush of guilt, shame, and astonishment in the pit of his gut. He comes to realize he'll have to make peace with this feeling if he's to slay Akakabuto, so he swallows his emotions and tells Gin to hurry up. They've got a bear to kill.

The two trod through the forest before a drop of moisture hits Gin's nose. Then one hits Daisuke right in the eye (he totally wasn't crying you guys). Daisuke looks up. Just their luck - it's started to rain. Perturbed, Daisuke says he and Gin should find some shelter. Gin begins looking for a cave to hide in, and he has the good fortune of finding one. Psych, did I say good fortune? I meant THERE IS A BEAR IN THE CAVE.

Daisuke almost pees his pants at the sight of the thing. It's not nearly as big as Akakabuto, but it IS massive, and it looks pretty peeved. Gin's prey drive kicks into high gear and he starts wailing on the bear, snapping at its face and leaping around its body to land a few good bites. He's actually managing very well for himself despite his lack of hands-on experience.

Daisuke, on the other hand, ain't doing so hot, having collapsed into a hyperventilating mess beside a fallen tree. Who knew life and death situations would be so scary?!

Elsewhere, Hidetoshi's squad have found one of the missing horses. They're surprised to find it alive... kinda, sorta, for a moment. When they get a better peek at it through the foliage, they see it's barely breathing, mostly because its neck is being chomped on by a bear.

This bear is not Akakabuto, but unlike Daisuke's find, it's almost his size. It takes one look at the men before turning tail and galloping away, leaving the corpse of the horse behind. The men ready their guns while Hidetoshi commands John to tail behind the animal, which the dog does without a moment's hesitation.

The battle between Gin and the bear rages on. In between his blows, Gin repeatedly looks over his shoulder at Daisuke, urging him to join the fray. Daisuke is too busy going into panic induced shock to help, so Gin is forced to keep up the brawl alone. He throws himself into the bear repeatedly, snapping and snarling and trying to draw blood, but the animal is too much for him to handle alone.

With a well placed swipe of a gargantuan paw, Gin is sent whimpering to the forest floor. A rivulet of blood follows him in his descent, the sight of which finally snaps Daisuke out of his stupor. Lightening strikes somewhere nearby. The bear's roars are indistinguishable from the thunder above. Gin stumbles weakly to his feet, blood dribbling down his face as it mixes with the falling rain. Four deep, long gashes span the length of Gin's forehead.

Daisuke stops wallowing in his own fear long enough to begin thinking of how to save the dog from the fiend that just performed minor surgery on his scalp. Through tears and sobs, Daisuke tries to remember what Gohei once told him about bear hunting. The center line. He needs to hit the center line.

While Daisuke is having a callback/bruh moment, Gin is still getting his ass handed to him. The bear sweeps all four of his legs and sends him flying once more, the poor poochie yelping miserably. Gin crumples to the ground, the blood from his mauled forehead running into his eyes. The landscape goes red as Gin sees Daisuke finally take some goddamn initiative and aim the bow at the bear's face. Daisuke doesn't manage to hit the illusive center line, but he does take out the animal's right eye.

The bear reels back in pain, even more furious then its default state of being. It swipes at Daisuke instead of Gin for a change, but Gin recovers from his bloody stupor and drags Daisuke out of harm's way. When the two are a safe distance from the bear, Daisuke realizes that he'd dropped the bow, and now it's too close to the pissed off wildlife to retrieve.

Gin doesn't take notice to this because all his brainpower is focused on getting back to ass kicking. The dog returns to baiting the bear just long enough for Daisuke to snatch up the bow and let loose one, then another, then another arrow into the animal's face.

One arrow pierces a nearby tree. Another enters the bear's left nostril, drawing more blood. The last lodges itself dead center in the animal's throat. The bear topples backwards, scratching wildly at the projectiles stuck in its skin, which causes the arrow in its throat to shoot sideward and pierce its jugular vein. As the two youngsters watch, the bear collapses to the ground and bleeds to death.

Daisuke practically passes out beside the fallen tree, and Gin howls victoriously into the rainy night sky. At that moment, the clouds depart and the rain ceases.

Gin licks Daisuke's face to rouse him. Daisuke hugs Gin, crying out happily at their amazing victory. An unfamiliar sound joins in with Daisuke's whoops of jubilation, and the two lads turn to the forgotten cave. Within it they see two sets of shining eyes gazing back at them. Two small shadows rush from the cave's entrance and half run, half waddle to the fallen bear's side. It's the two red-backed cubs they'd seen earlier. Daisuke and Gin have just killed their mother.

Elsewhere in the forest, Hidetoshi and Company have just managed to down the bear that was chomping on the horse. Hidetoshi praises John for his involvement in the hunt before going to reload his rifle. John seems almost dismissive of the compliment. Of course he did a good job, has he ever failed before?

Despite it's magnificent size, the dog's ego isn't large enough to blot out the smell of something else in the area. Something that smells awfully familiar. While the men are distracted, John heads deeper into the woods.

Back at the new monument to matricide, the bear cubs are trying to awaken their mother and scare off Daisuke and Gin with pitifully small snarls. Gin stands and stares slack jawed at the orphaned twins while Daisuke sobs an apology to them. He can't help but connect what he's done to the cubs to what Akakabuto did first to Riki, then to Gin. Maybe this hunting thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The sound of a dog barking fills the air, and the two turn to see who's making all the racket. It's John, snarling and running towards them. It takes them a moment to realize that John isn't actually running at them, but at the cubs huddled by the dead bear.

As Daisuke tries fruitlessly to scare the cubs away, Gin yells demands at John to stop in the name of all that is good and wholesome. John doesn't know the meaning of the words, but he is familiar with snapping animals' necks, which he now does to one of the cubs.

John then flings himself headlong at the remaining little bear only to be intercepted by a flash of silver. Gin knocks John on his ass and away from the fleeing cub. He scolds John for the cruelly and proudly killing infants, but John doesn't seem to care. All he does is snort, gaze silently at the new scars on Gin's head, and then lunge at the Akita. He introduces Gin's cheek to his hind foot and sends him flying. Gin almost swears he hears John utter "Ha, gottem" before he tears the throat out of the remaining cub. The baby had been too slow to outrun him.

This starts a scuffle between the two dogs with, to John's amazement, Gin gaining the upper hand. He flings John ass-side up, asserting his dominance via animu protag posturing, and the two have a staredown. While they toss schoolyard insults at each other in their hackles-raising contest, Daisuke has other things on his mind.

If John is here, Hidetoshi is sure to be nearby. Daisuke begins yanking arrows out of the dead bear, then calls for Gin to join him in escaping the scene of the crime. The two pound pavement (or the forest equivilent of) as John barks for his master's attention.

Hidetoshi's crew come to find John and are taken aback by the sight of a dead bear and its two cubs. At first they believe that John somehow managed to slay them all, but Hidetoshi notices something that changes their minds. He draws attention to the arrow sticking out of the tree trunk nearby. It's impossible to miss the arrow among the desaturated greens and browns of the forest because of its red, purple, and blue tail.

Hidetoshi and friends begin their own trek home. Both the men and the boys share a similar experience while leaving the woods. While leaving, both Gin and John notice a peculiar smell coming from the surrounding mountains. Both are too distracted to pay the faint whiffs much mind, but without their knowing, they are being watched by at least 100 sets of eyes, all gazing down at them from the mountain cliffs. Tens of four-legged shadows disappear from the clifftops just as swiftly and soundlessly as they'd appeared.

Daisuke and Gin make it back to civilization first. Daisuke tells Gin to make believe they've been here in Hidetoshi's shooting range the whole time. Gin doesn't understand how he's supposed to aid the illusion, so he just sits and chews on himself. Shortly after, Hidetoshi and John pull up in their Jeep. John leaves the car and settles down beside it to rest. Hidetoshi enters the hospital to inform Gohei of what has just transpired in the woods.

Daisuke is pretending to practice when Hidetoshi enters the room. Daisuke greets him nonchalantly without meeting his eyes. Hidetoshi greets Daisuke by telling him he forgot something as he produces the abandoned arrow. Daisuke just about shits.

Hidetoshi scolds Daisuke for his recklessness, tells him he's too irresponsible to use weapons, and bans him from using his bow and arrows ever again. Daisuke responds like any mature young man would by throwing a temper tantrum and storming off with his dog to run through the streets and holler about how nobody understands them. We've all been there, kid.

Later that night, Gin stands atop Daisuke's house, gazing off into the abyss of space. His head is throbbing from where the bear got him, and Daisuke's parents had angrily let their son know that each mark would forever be a scar carved into his loyal friend's head.

Gin wasn't afraid of having scars. At anything, he decided that from now on he'd consider them a trophy from his first real victory over The Enemy. Before he climbs down for the night, he watches as a shooting star crosses the speckled black sky.

The next day, spring really starts gettin' sprung. While this would normally be a relief to the village people (not the band, the phenomenon) no snowfall means no more hibernation for the wildlife, which means all of Akakabuto's allies are sure to be around. Daisuke and Gin are especially aware of this, and Daisuke's feeling the pressure to do something about it.

That said, Gin's mind has been wandering elsewhere. A strange smell from the mountains has been wafting through the village. Gin can't quite put his finger on what it is, but it's neither bears nor God lettin' one rip. Something strange is occupying the woods.

Daisuke and Gin go to visit Hidetoshi. Daisuke plans on begging Doc to let him borrow his bow so he can help stop the ever growing Winnie The Pooh Lookalike Competition sweeping the forest. When the two arrive, they find Hidetoshi and his friends loading back up into the Jeep. They plan on going back to the forest and bringing back both the bear they killed and the one Daisuke killed. Hidetoshi greets Daisuke with a disapproving glare, and John matches Gin's annoyed expression.

Before Daisuke has a chance to ask, Hidetoshi reads his mind and tells him no, he can't have the bow, but yes, he can instead fuck off. Daisuke has proven he shouldn't be allowed to have it, and Hidetoshi, being a doctor, doesn't feel comfortable purposefully setting someone up to get hurt.

As the men depart, Daisuke regresses to 5 years old again. He stomps his feet and screams every obscenity he's ever learned. From his hospital room window, Gohei is looking down at the kinder, his face unreadable. All he thinks is that the little shit sure is serious about this bear killing thing.

Meanwhile, The Master Blaster Squad has reentered the forest. John leads the men back to the bear he helped slaughter, but his reaction is unexpected. His hackles raise and he utters vaguelly panicked sounding barks, two things he's usually too full of himself to do.

The men instantly see why - the bear's carcass has been stripped clean of fur and flesh! All that's left of the animal is a few scraps of muscle on its skull and a slimy pile of white bones. John continues snarling and barking as he gazes at something on the nearby cliff's edge. The men look up.

It's dogs. Dogs of all different breeds are lining the cliff as if in military formation. Everyone becomes more then a little anxious, concerned about being surrounded on all sides by feral animals. The dogs gaze down at the men for a moment (one of them totally does that "I'll be watching you" gesture with a forepaw) before departing, swiftly disappearing from sight. A strong feeling of What The Fuck lingers in the air.

Back in town, Daisuke has stopped screeching long enough to come to an obvious conclusion: couldn't he just, like, ask his dad to buy him a bow? He and Gin head home to ask pops if he's willing to drop a few yen on a deadly weapon for his 12 year old when Momma Daisuke makes them aware of the fact that Dad is outski. He's at a town meeting that's been organized to sort out the whole Man-Eating Bear business. Daisuke, overcome with a need to be involved again, invites himself and his dog to participate.

The meeting is more enlightening then most town meetings are. Akakabuto is obviously mentioned, as are the sightings regarding his children, but so are two newer threats.

Another bear named Madara ("mottled" or "spotted", guess what she looks like) who was originally being hunted in neighboring Miyagi has made her way to Akakabuto's territory. She's not known for picnicking on people, but she is aggressive and willing to attack anything in her way. She's powerful, too, refusing to die even after getting several bullets stuck in her gut.

The other bear is named Mosa. He's traveled here from Iwata, and the easiest way to recognize him is by his missing right foreleg. He's infamous for having killed several lumberjacks and woodsmen on his trek over. It's believed that both bears are making the effort to move into Futago Pass, aka Redhead Central, for good.

Daisuke and Gin have been watching the meeting from a window. Daisuke is seething with hatred at all the beary big invaders while Gin is trying to image the heinous power of three giant killing machines tearing through the mountains. All the men in the meeting are too chickenshit to wanna confront the bears, so they just sorta shrug and say "What can ya do?" This pisses Daisuke off enough to get him to yell at the men from outside, calling them out for not wanting to die in bear maulings.

The dude leading the meeting opens the window and begins scolding Daisuke for rudely interrupting when another rude interruption barges in and tells everyone to shut the fuck up. A rude interruption by any other name is Gohei Takeda, and he's hobbled here from the hospital, getting up the moment the words "bear" and "meeting" were used in the same sentence.

Exhausted from the walk there, Gohei pants to everyone in the room that Akakabuto and his ilk will not stop until they ruin everyone's lives forever. Then he tumbles into the meeting room table, swearing. Several men get up to help him as he tells them, and especially Diasuke, that no matter what, Akakabuto MUST die.

Unbeknownst to the human populace, Futago Pass's Fight Club has just opened, and it's first participants are Akakabuto and Madara. The bears have the arm wrestling match of the century to prove if Madara's allowed to walk around wherever she wants.

Akakabuto defeats her, but he allows her to hang around under one condition: she and any bear she either recruits or births must fall in line as Akakabuto's body guards. She figures that's not a bad deal for free room and board, so she agrees to be his right hand bear. With any luck, they'll all be enjoying human hamburger very soon.

Gohei has been taken back to the hospital, much to his dismay. Hidetoshi is trying to comfort him, saying that he'll get revenge enough for both of them. Gohei doesn't seem pleased at the idea of being left out, but he's actually less concerned about the ego bruising and more worried about Daisuke.

That damn kid has got it in his head that he can kill a 10 foot tall bear with a bow he barely knows how to use and a dog who's not fully grown yet. Hidetoshi says that Daisuke's lost his bow privileges, but Gohei doesn't care. He doesn't believe being disallowed the doc's toys will stop the stubborn child.

He's right to think so, because Diasuke and Gin are hauling ass AND their snowmobile into town. Diasuke barges into the weapons shop and strikes up a trade with the man behind the counter: the snowmobile in exchange for the most bitchin' bow and arrow set he's got.

The man can barely stop himself from laughing, taking Daisuke for an overzealous kid who can't tell the difference between a toy and a deadly weapon. Daisuke strikes up another deal almost instantly: for the bitchin' bow, he'll give the dude the snowmobile AND prove he can fire an arrow himself.

The Weapons Seller is about to protest that the traveler cannot handle his strongest weapons when he schanges his mind and takes Daisuke up on the offer. If Daisuke can hit the tree out back from the other side of the yard, he can have the bow. As expected by everyone who's reading this, Daisuke strikes the tree without breaking a sweat, and so he and Gin hop, skip, and jump home with a new, genuine bow and arrow set of their own. It's time to prepare.

Daisuke and Gin head into the forest in the same fashion they log into Disney.com - without their parents' permission. Daisuke is so overjoyed at having his own flying spears that he's firing off into tree trunks like it's no one's business, making believe each one is a monster bear.

Gin's not paying any mind, though. Not because he's seen Daisuke do this before, but because that strong, unfamiliar scent is even stronger here. His hackles raise and he begins growling involuntarily. There's a power to the strength of the scent that he can't ignore.

In an instant, Gin takes off after the weird smell. Daisuke is confused before scrambling to his feet and following. The sound of snarling and... is that barking? fills their ears as Gin follows the scent. Along the way, they find the battered body of a dog who's clearly picked a fight with a bear.

The dog is white with brown spots, and its head has been crushed as if stomped on. Gin gazes sadly at the corpse for a moment before continuing after the smell. The dead dog isn't the only unusual thing out here.

At the end of the scent trail, the two come to a small hollow in the woods. In a little sand embankment is a young Japanese black bear snarling at a large pack of domestic dogs. The dogs are standing over the body of a freshly killed deer, no doubt telling Tubby Teddy to back off 'cause they ain't sharing. The bear doesn't take the hint, so the dogs begin their attack.

A particular dog, a dark fawn great dane with a collar of red beads around his neck, barks commands at the others. Team 1, attack the legs! Team 2, go for the arms! Team 3, see if you can reach the eyes!

Gin and Daisuke watch spellbound as the dogs organize into units to slay the bear, downing it in mere minutes. Daisuke can't understand what the Great Dane is saying, but he gets the idea of how clever the dogs are. Gin watches spellbound, amazed at the pack's organization and power.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Gin slides down into the hollow to meet the canine coterie. The Dane's gaze meets his first, and every other dog turns and snarls at the Akita. Gin utters a weak "Hi" before the entire pack starts growling at him in warning.

Daisuke's understandably scared, but he knows there's not much he can do against a pack of this many animals. Luckily, the dogs' attention is torn away from Gin by a howl in the distance. Everyone turns to look.

Standing atop a nearby hill is the silhouette of another dog, a dark splotch against the setting sun. His howl is powerful and visceral, and it instantly draws the attention and command of the pack.

Gin is especially taken with the sound. He can't pinpoint why, but the voice stirs up something primal and powerful inside him. He wants to follow it. He wants to follow the pack.

----------

End of episode 2, wherein we finally see where this story is going. More mysterious dog antics are yet to come, which is what I know all you dog weebs are actually here for.

Episode 3: The Soldiers

[markoftheasphodel]

Unfulfilled Dream: An Introduction to Finn and House Leonster

This is intended to assist fans of Three Houses, and specifically Blue Lions fans, in understanding what the hell FE old-timers are talking about when the names “Quan,” “Finn,” and “Leif” come up with regard to Dimitri and his retainers (and Dimitri/Dedue in particular). You may have encountered these characters in FE Heroes, but there’s a lot more stuff out there and it’s not all in one place, or even readily available in translation. So here goes.

So, as a starting point, Azure Moon route of Three Houses is heavily influenced by Thracia 776 (aka FE5) and the more familiar you are with FE5, the more evident the parallels/echoes are. But going backward from Azure Moon to its inspiration, or to Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4) which served as an inspiration for Three Houses itself, can be really confusing.

We have the two games, FE4 and FE5, both of them for the SNES, neither of them ever given a worldwide release. Both have modern, very good patches so if you want to play them, it’s a much better user experience than it used to be. We have two artbooks, Treasure for FE4 and Illustrated Works for FE5, both of them only partially translated via websites and translation blogs. We have developer notes and interviews. We have the appearances of these characters as Einherjar in Awakening. We have their modern appearances in Fire Emblem Heroes.  We have the modern run of Cipher cards as well as much older TCG cards. And finally, we have various manga and light novels, many of which have been fan-translated of late but also rather... dubious as “game canon.”

So, to grasp Quan, or Finn, or Leif, it’s a bit like being told “read 100 support conversations plus some DLC that never got translated,” right?

Here are the basics that might be of interest to Three Houses fans!

Quan is the prince of Leonster, a small but wealthy kingdom on the Thracian Peninsula, which juts eastward from the continent of Jugdral. He carries the Major Holy Blood (so, kind of like a Major Crest) of Njörun, one of the Twelve Crusaders who liberated Jugdral from an evil cult several generations before. His holy weapon is Gae Bolg, aka The Lance of Love and Sorrow, reputed to be cursed. Quan generally at war with his neighbor to the south, King Travant of Thracia (a poor nation), who also has Major Holy Blood and is a descendant of Dáinn, Njörun’s brother. Each of them wants to unite the Thracian peninsula and rule over the whole thing; despite an Irish naming scheme, Leonster was inspired by Italy and is supposed to be an elegant, fashionable place with a thriving middle class. Quan attended a fancy military academy in the center of the continent (the direct inspiration for Garreg Mach!) and has two close friends from other nations, Eldigan and Sigurd, also heirs to holy bloodlines. The three of them swear an oath to always have each others’ backs and Quan marries Sigurd’s sister Ethlyn, who has minor holy blood (like a minor crest but with no holy weapon access). They have two children, Altena and Leif.

Finn starts off as Quan’s page. I say “starts off” because FE4 and FE5 follow him over the course of twenty years. He’s the child of a noble house in Leonster, and when he was orphaned he was sent to the castle to be raised/educated. He’s not skilled at making friends but he does become Quan’s page and grows to think of Ethlyn as a big sister of sorts. When Quan and Ethlyn go to war across the continent to assist Sigurd, Finn wants to come along and they take him, even though he’s maybe fifteen and barely old enough to fight. Quan mentors Finn (which is something we see in FE4 itself), building his confidence up, telling Finn he’s the most promising knight of his generation, bequeathing Finn a special lance of his own, and ultimately entrusting Finn with guardianship of Quan’s son and heir, Leif. Finn in turn becomes utterly devoted to Quan and to Quan’s ambition of ruling all of Thracia.

A word about devotion. This is not “devotion” in the sense we’ve seen from Frederick or Jakob in recent FE games, where it’s performative and kind of amusing, with complicated tea rituals and recruiting slogans and whatnot. This is straight-up utter acceptance of someone else’s dreams and ambition as one’s own purpose in life. Hold that thought.

Anyway, Quan and Ethlyn are ambushed and killed by Travant shortly after Leif is born; every knight in their party is massacred in the Yied Desert. The rest of the continent is falling under the sway of the Grannvale Empire (Eldigan’s already dead, Sigurd dies shortly after Quan&Ethlyn), and Leonster is able to hold out for a couple of years before it falls to a one/two attack by Travant’s Thracian army and the Grannvale Empire. Finn, who’s been caring for Leif as his guard, escapes from the burning castle with Leif in his arms (Leif’s grandmother Queen Alfiona dies in the blaze; his grandfather King Kalf died shortly before on the battlefield, betrayed by allies).

The Yied Massacre and the Fall of Leonster are the Jugdrali psychological horror-show that parallel the Tragedy of Duscur’s impact on House Blaiddyd. Finn is devastated by the fact that his duty to Leif kept him from Quan&Ethlyn’s side during the massacre because dying with them would’ve been preferable to surviving them. He hasn’t recovered from that when Leonster falls in an inferno that traumatizes him for, as far as we can tell, the rest of his life. As Leif tells it, Finn then shut down emotionally to the point where he neither cries nor laughs. Of course, Leif himself is scarred by the memory of the burning castle, and that and the loss of his parents fuels his own rage and desire for revenge. Leif is also bothered by the fact that he only has minor holy blood from his parents, which is much less impressive than having two minor Crests because he can’t use any holy weapons. On the other hand, two types of minor holy blood don’t kill you.

(I think at this point many of y’all can see how these events are echoed in Azure Moon. The atrocity, the survivor’s guilt, the fallout on both a child prince with a heavy burden and his retainer who’s struggling with his own issues.)

After this, Finn has nothing aside from his duty to Leif, and as he sees it his duty to Leif is ultimately to see Leif placed on the throne of a unified Thracian peninsula as its sole king. He raises Leif and Leif’s companion Nanna/Jeanne (Jugdral is complicated) under a variety of harsh & tragic circumstances for the next thirteen years. Sometimes he has to forego meals to feed the kids. The people who assist him usually end up dead. At least once he gets betrayed by the citizens of the town they’re hiding in. And so on. These are not circumstances that really allow one to recover from trauma, and by the time Leif himself is fifteen years old and the game plot of Thracia 776 begins, Finn still doesn’t give a damn as to whether he lives or dies as long as he can see Leif made King of Thracia. This is where the portrayal of Finn in Fire Emblem Heroes comes from-- by this point he’s about thirty-four and he really hasn’t had a good day in his life since he was about nineteen.

One of the Cipher cards probably says it the best: His fallen master protected him, saw him through to adulthood, and entrusted him with an unfulfilled dream, and now Finn leads the way to a new era in his motherland! That complete, utter, unswerving dedication to Quan and his unfulfilled dream is what brings Finn to mind when discussing Dedue (cutscene after Gronder in Verdant Wind, anyone?) It’s not funny. It’s tragic. It’s kind of disturbing. Thracia 776 offers a lot of commentary on knights and knighthood-- not as savage as the discussions Felix has with his Blue Lions comrades, but pointed nonetheless-- and with Finn as the Jugdrali exemplar of A Knight, that criticism rebounds, directly or indirectly, on him. Knighthood is kind of effed up and so is Finn. 

Finn does get the opportunity to get his revenge on Travant in FE4, as both he and Leif have boss-battle conversations with Travant making it 100% clear they’re after revenge (Leif even speaks of killing Travant with his bare hands!). Travant’s death helps clear the way for Leif to take the throne of Thracia after the war... and with the dream at last fulfilled, Finn disappears, apparently into the Yied Desert where Quan and Ethlyn died. (He does come back three years later.) He’s got nothing else in his life. He’s seemingly not equipped to take over the usual veteran-knight role as some kind of advisor or general... or, after all that, he just WANTS to disappear for a while.

(You say, this is pretty TL;DR for “the basics”; I say, “I left a lot of stuff out, especially wrt shipping” because Jugdrali shipping is complicated.)

Anyway, so that’s the outline of the plot stuff. Note again, this takes more than twenty years to play out-- more than double the time elapsed between the Tragedy of Duscur and Dimitri’s final victory in Azure Moon. Jugdral is a long, long, hard slog for the characters that survive it.

Now, here’s where we get to the interpretive part. Finn’s devotion to Quan (and thence to Leif) and his trauma and self-abnegation are not up for debate. Hell, FE Heroes provides a pretty fair encapsulation of it. What Heroes also conveys is the sheer depth of his grief for Quan after fifteen, seventeen, twenty years... a grief that leads a number of fans, including me, to see a romantic subtext there. Maybe Quan, as a happily married man with two kids, wasn’t ever thinking of his page-turned-protege like that, but in between some interesting bits of dialogue in FE5 about Finn being “cold to women” and his current portrayal in Heroes, it does create the impression that at the very least Finn’s feelings for Quan went outside the ordinary bounds of the lord/retainer relationship. As Jugdral by its nature doesn’t lead to the sorts of paired endings we see in Three Houses, that’s really something fans have to experience for themselves. 

If that interests you, hopefully this essay has provided some pointers on where to find material. Have fun!

[nadziejastar]

In a lot of your posts, they have a lot of the texts from the novels and manga. If you were to go off of ONLY the games, would Subject X still be hinted? I think yes, but I'm a casual fan.

Well, I developed my opinion on Subject X based ONLY on the games. I played all the games as soon as they came out. So, that would be many years ago at this point. I didn’t read the novels or the manga until after I beat KH3, which was relatively recently. My opinions on the story/characters were quite solidified by then. I actually read them because I thought KH3′s story was so inconsistent with the previous games.The novels/manga simply reinforced the opinions I already had formed after playing the games. I felt validated by them, but they had nothing to do with my opinion on Subject X. 

Now, are you are asking me if I think Subject X—the way it was written in canon—was hinted at in the games? A mysterious time-travelling girl that Lea and Isa were looking for the whole time they were in Organization XIII? LOL. Hell no. Absolutely not. She was never hinted at even once, not even vaguely. And the way Axel and Saïx were written was never consistent with that motivation at all. If you mean Subject X as a concept? Xehanort’s lab rat? Yes, definitely. That was pretty much EXACTLY what I always expected Isa’s backstory to be, based ONLY on the games. I thought Lea and Isa were set up perfectly to be test subjects. When I play the older games, I’m still unable to see them as anything but test subjects. That’s how much support there was for that idea and how little there was for anything else. 

I was VERY confused when KH3 did feature a character who was Xehanort’s lab rat. But instead of being Isa, it was a random girl he never mentioned before (but apparently was obsessed with). Them being apprentices was something so farfetched, it never even once crossed my mind. I didn’t understand how anyone could give that girl the backstory that seemed 1,000 times more suitable for Lea and Isa. How could the person writing the story not see that? How do they expect the fans to not see it, either? How dumb and/or incompetent do you have to be to write the story that way? How did that even get approved by a whole team of people? Those were my thoughts when I played KH3, based ONLY on the previous games.

That is NOT how someone will feel if a story is well-written. Some people act like Nomura made the story up as it went along, with each individual game. But that wasn’t the case for the games building up to KH3. Re:CoM and KH2FM+ were released together. And BBS, Days, and Coded were being developed simultaneously. These were all part of one big master plan. The way Saïx was written in Days was connected to how Isa was written in BBS, etc. Isa was planned to be a good guy MANY years in advance. IMO, him being the real Subject X was hinted at MANY years in advance. If you think anyone else was foreshadowed to be Subject X, let’s look at the games one by one. 

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+

In all the games building up to KH3, the only person from Axel’s past that had any relevance was Isa/Saïx. They could have hinted at Subject X any time they wanted to in ALL these games, but they never did. In KH2FM+, all the new scenes with Saïx involved his relationship with Axel. Saïx seemed to be conflicted about Axel’s elimination. Xemnas made a comment to Saïx about Axel chasing the illusion of friendship. This scene hinted that Axel wasn’t really obsessed with Roxas like people thought. He was really just trying to recover his lost friendship with Isa. I had always suspected that Axel’s “obsession” with Roxas was due to his troubled past, so it didn’t surprise me at all. And Nomura loves twists like that.

They were setting up Isa’s relationship with Lea to have significance, not his relationship with anyone else. It’s absurd for me to think that they were trying to track down a girl they didn’t even know existed. They had real problems to worry about. KH2FM+ also introduced the Chamber of Repose and the Cavern of Remembrance. This all suggested that the experiments on the darkness of the heart would be very important and explored in much more depth. Xigbar seemed to have heavy involvement in these experiments, since he didn’t want to go down into the castle basement. And he’s the one who taunted Saïx about not being able to see Xion and not having a heart.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

Castle Oblivion is all about recovering forgotten memories. The other most important recurring theme in Re:CoM was reuniting with people you miss. Pretty much every Disney world incorporated this theme. This was the perfect opportunity to hint at Subject X, but they didn’t do that. Instead, they chose to keep the focus on Axel’s relationship with Saïx.

Days made a big point of showing that Axel changed a LOT after coming back from Castle Oblivion. Saïx said this to him on Day 193, called “Memories”. He also asked Axel if the past meant nothing to him. Axel said he missed what was gone between him and Saïx. He didn’t mention missing anyone else. There was also a new scene where Axel acted extremely cold to Naminé because she was making two childhood friends fight. Isa was the only childhood friend we ever saw, and he later became an enemy. In every game building up to KH3, Isa was set up to be the most important character to Lea. Subject X? Crickets.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Axel said in his report that he forgot what friendship felt like after becoming a Nobody. That was the whole point of him befriending Roxas and Xion. He was not focused on friendship until he met Roxas. And Saïx was always cold and indifferent towards everyone, even Axel, who was his best friend that he was inseparable from. They’ve been together for 10 years in the organization. I’m expected to believe that Saïx was able to care about some imaginary girl, but not his best friend? To be honest, I thought that the writers had to be drunk if they thought that was believable or realistic. Or that it made Saïx more sympathetic.

Even in Days, I could tell that Axel had a lot of baggage from his past. He always treated his memories of the past like they were sacred. Day 150 is about having something you can’t bear to lose. He said that for Nobodies, it was their past, because that’s all you have to remember the pain of losing something. Perfect time to mention Subject X. After all, her disappearance was Axel’s motivation, right? But the story made it perfectly clear: Axel was heartbroken over the loss of his best friend. Nothing else was ever mentioned. Axel was good friends with Roxas, but I got the sense that he was much, MUCH closer with Isa. 

Personally, I thought Axel was a former test subject ever since the original KH2. It fit him perfectly. He was a sad, lonely, dysfunctional person. When Days hinted that Axel had a tragic past and dark secrets that he didn’t like to talk about, I was not at all surprised. He suffered from something way more traumatic than someone he barely knew disappearing. And it never seemed like he chose to be in the organization. That’s why he was always yearning for his childhood with things like ice cream and summer vacation. My personal belief is that Axel was always written with the backstory of a former test subject in mind. They came up with Saïx‘s backstory later, though I suspected he might have been a test subject too, due to his scar and his berserk state, which made him seem kinda freakish. We always knew that Xigbar and Saïx were unique due to them having gold eyes and pointy ears.

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

When I played BBS, I knew that something horrible must have happened to Isa to turn him into someone like Saïx. The difference between Saïx and Isa was like night and day. None of the other Nobodies were THAT different from their human counterparts. BBS also confirmed my opinion on Axel/Roxas/Xion. Lea was WAY closer to Isa than he was with them. Isa seemed like a shy kid. But he was very comfortable with Lea. And Lea acted much more naturally with Isa compared to Roxas and Xion.

After BBS, it was obvious that Isa was not a villain, and that he was going to be on the good side at the end of KH3. This was the game that was supposed to show you who the organization members were as humans. They showed that Braig was always evil. Lea and Isa were only in one single scene, other than the epilogue. So, why would they choose to show him as an innocent kid who was Lea’s best friend? Obviously, all of this was to show that he was the polar opposite of Braig. How is that consistent with his canon characterization? He sold his soul to Xehanort, did icky jobs for Xemnas at a pace Axel couldn’t keep up with, and tried to murder Axel. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to write Lea’s best friend that way, if he was not possessed? Especially if they wanted him to appear in future titles?

In the epilogue, they showed Lea and Isa eating ice cream together. Sea-salt ice cream was VERY important to Axel’s character. Axel defined friendship as people who eat ice cream together. I knew that Isa was very special to Axel if he was the origin of his addiction to ice cream. They also showed Lea and Isa trying to sneak into the castle. This was BEFORE the experiments took place. So, Subject X had nothing to do with why Lea and Isa were originally trying to sneak in. They wanted to sneak in because it sounded like fun. Not because they thought people were being tortured in there. There’s no evidence the mystery girl even existed back when BBS was written. The apprentices were not recruiting kids to be apprentices, they were kidnapping kids. What reason would Ansem have to let them be apprentices anyways? It makes no sense.

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

In KH3D, Lea was recompleted. Xehanort was gone. He could have used that opportunity to look for information on Subject X. But he didn’t even mention her. He immediately set off to look for Isa. That was his main priority upon being recompleted, not finding Subject X or Roxas, who had gone back to Sora. Lea wasn’t even concerned that Saïx was trying to hunt him down in KH2. He was happy to look for him, even when he was putting himself at risk using the dark corridors. He used the same lines he did for Xion, which had huge narrative significance. It was clear that he was dead set on bringing Isa home. If Subject X was important, Lea didn’t act like it. KH3D sent the message to me that Lea was VERY devoted to Isa. Why even write him this way if he wasn’t supposed to rescue him eventually? Why make it seem like Isa was kidnapped if he was supposed to be looking for Subject X?

Lea and Isa were also the only two who were wearing the black coats when they were recompleted, which gave me the impression that they were test subjects. The apprentices never wore the black cloaks. And of course, the big revelation in KH3D was that Isa was a vessel. Unlike Xigbar, he seemed like he was being controlled, like a puppet. Lea awakened his Keyblade, the Flame Liberator, immediately afterwards. Xemnas also mentioned mind control experiments in this game. Why bring this up if Subject X was only experimented on for her memories. NONE of the games gave me the impression that Lea and Isa were apprentices, that Isa willingly joined the bad side, or that there was some mystery girl that he was looking for. They gave me the impression that Isa was one of the many characters who needed their hurting mended. That was supposed to be the main theme of KH3, after all.

Birth By Sleep Final Mix+

Xemnas may have called Aqua’s armor “friend”, but that was only because he had access to Terra’s memories. He tried to manipulate Aqua by impersonating Terra in KH0.2. And I got the impression that a similar idea was behind the relationship between Axel and Saïx. In the secret ending of BBSFM+, the camera zoomed in on Master Xehanort’s eyes when he said he had many other roads open besides Terra. Then they zoomed in on the amnesiac Terranort’s eyes, showing that they were brown. They zoomed in on Ansem the Wise’s eyes afterwards, showing that the were orange. And finally they zoomed in on his eyes again when he was in the Realm of Darkness. The implication was that Master Xehanort had so many options because of these experiments. His goal was to create vessels, not learn about the age of fairy tales.

Ansem put his research results in Sora to atone for all the lives he ruined. It can be reasonably discerned that Ansem Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas had orange eyes because of Ansem the Wise probing the depths of Xehanort’s heart, to restore his memory. He gained all of Terra’s memories in the process. And in the games building up to KH3, they specifically changed Saïx’s eyes from gold to orange. This implies that the same thing was done to him as well. We know Subject X was also an amnesiac and that Ansem the Wise hid them away when he released the other subjects. It makes sense that Isa was the same as Terra.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2

When Riku told Kairi that she was going to be training with Lea, she was shocked. She later admitted in KH3 that she was afraid of him, because he kidnapped her. But she said that she found it hard not to like him because all he ever wanted was to help his friend. That’s exactly what I expected to happen. My impression after playing KH0.2 was that Axel’s relationship with Roxas and Xion was meant to provide him with character development. This would allow Lea to fulfill his TRUE purpose in the story: becoming a Guardian of Light and rescuing his real best friend from Xehanort. Axel’s friendship with Roxas was supposed to carry over to Ventus because they both had a friend who was a vessel.

Axel’s friendship with Xion was meant to carry over to Kairi specifically because they were going to be training together in KH3. Kairi awakened her Keyblade because she wanted to bring Riku and Sora home. Lea and Kairi were planned as friends because he also wanted to bring his friend home. Axel’s friendship with Roxas and Xion played an important role in Lea’s development. But my impression was that getting Isa back was the ultimate goal of Lea’s character arc, not Roxas or Xion. And especially not Subject X, who is irrelevant to the Xehanort Saga.

Saïx could not see Xion for some reason that was never explained. He has a large Recusant’s Sigil scar on his face which was never explained. Axel said Saïx’s personality changed drastically, while he stayed more or less the same. This was never explained. Saïx had orange eyes like Xemnas, but this was never explained. Subject X does not explain ANY of these things. But Isa being experimented on as the REAL Subject X just happens to explain ALL of them.   

Kingdom Hearts 3

When Lea said he’d always be there to bring his friends back, Xehanort got a really nasty smirk on his face and sent Isa to attack him. It was just to punish him for ruining their plans. Xehanort knew exactly why Lea was there, and how to hurt him. Then during the final battle, it was a repeat of what happened in KH3D. Lea was ruining their plans yet again and Xemnas wanted to punish him. He was so confident that he had Isa under his full control, he thought he could murder Lea right in front of him and he wouldn’t do anything. He turned his back on Isa, literally and figuratively. Isa was positioned to be directly behind Xemnas’s right hand. He was his right-hand man, after all. Everything was all set up perfectly for Isa to finally betray Xemnas. That’s what being a recusant means in the first place.

Lea’s reunion with Roxas and Xion didn’t even feel like an organic or natural development in the story. It felt like shameless pandering. Subject X felt even more unnatural than Roxas and Xion did, which says a lot. Then there was Saïx’s transition into a “good guy”. If they wanted a character like Saïx to be redeemed, they would need to give him an actual redemption arc. Axel was always sympathetic and likable, and even he needed a redemption arc spanning multiple games. Saïx was WAY nastier than Axel. It would take a LONG time to redeem him. But…he was never humanized. The games went out of their way to depict Saïx as inhumanly cold as possible.

It was a deliberate CHOICE not to humanize him in ALL of these games. Yet there he was in the ending, chilling and eating ice cream, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Now, this would make perfect sense if his backstory was a nice kid who was kidnapped, experimented on, then got possessed. He wouldn’t have needed a redemption arc in that case. So it makes perfect sense why one was never planned for him. In every game, the emphasis was NEVER on Saïx being redeemed, but on Lea saving Isa. The power of waking was the main goal of the story. Isa was introduced in the game called “Birth by Sleep,” which IS the power of waking. 

Lea and Isa being test subjects would have made the story far more interesting for 99.9% of players, I guarantee it. But it’s not even just that. Every game since KH2FM+ was written to give the impression that they were test subjects. There’s no way the writers weren’t aware of that. They knew exactly what message they were sending to people. And it makes waaay more sense than them being apprentices. I could not understand why anyone in their right mind would waste all of that foreshadowing and change their backstory to something FAR less interesting and also not very believable. If something doesn’t make sense it’s usually not true. I’m no detective or anything, but the only thing that makes sense is that Isa was planned to be Subject X for well over a decade. Then at the very last minute it was changed to this new girl. 

There’s three reasons I could think for someone to believe that Subject X made sense the way it was written in canon. They are either:

A. Not looking at the story very closely. Probably a casual fan.

B. A blind Kingdom Hearts fanboy/fangirl who will defend anything in the story.

C. Not very intelligent or perceptive. 

[rike-with-love]

A reckless idiot

Summary: Takes place after the final battle (hopefully the real final battle). Kagura has something to say to Sougo, and that is to tell him how stupid he truly is. Take in consideration that I haven't read the latest manga chapters, I prefer anime. So if something written here has already happened (I don't think so) or etc. My apologies. This is my take on the canon(ishishish) road (obviously smushy as fuck, I can't help it and I tend to amp up the drama) before Sorachi himself shows us the real deal. So, mild spoilers for the anime watchers as I've seen couple pictures from the un-animated content.

Pairings: Okikagu

Rating: T for violence, angst(ish), fluff, bad language

Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama or its characters. Sorachi Hideaki does. I only own this story.

Author’s notes: I have a link to my fanfiction masterlist on my profile. Please check it out for more chapters and fics!

A reckless idiot

Gintoki, Shinpachi and Kagura were standing at the all too familiar gates. Once those wooden doors protected the great police force of Edo, the Shinsengumi. After Shinsengumi's departure, the abandoned building was left untouched. Heavy wooden bars held the gate tightly shut and none dared to trespass.

Kagura remembered the seal on the door. She hadn't told a soul, but there were times she visited those gates. She wasn't sure why. Maybe she was looking for something. Someone. Maybe Kagura just accidentally walked past it during her walks. Who the hell knew.

After the first big battle, many of Edo's buildings took a lot of damage and the old Shinsengumi compound was one of them. Shinpachi promised to Kondo that the he would do everything he possibly could to fix the building as fast as possible. The earth's great police-force had made their glorious return after all.

To Shinapchi's and many others surprise, the Shinsengumi disbanded and vanished right after the war. Sure Shinpachi didn't know the true nature of their actions, but it seemed like a strange decision at the time. Kondo was the only one staying behind, managing his own new course of life.

Despite everything the Shinsengumi compound was restored and left untouched, ready for the brave samurais if they would return home. Two years after the war...well, let's just say a shit ton of things happened at the same time. Familiar faces came back, old friends and foes alike.

*insert Sorachi's vision of the final fight (I can't even imagine it, so I'm going to leave it like this)

The fight took a toll on people involving it, but luckily most of our beloved friends made it through. And now, back to the Yorozuya trio standing on the gates of the Shinsengumi compound. Gintoki hissed suddenly, breaking the momentary silence between them. He was bandaged pretty much from head to toe, walking with crutches, limping his right foot and sporting pair fo dead-fish eyes.

”Be careful with your foot Gin-san,” Shinpachi said.

”Yare, yare Shinpachi-kun, it's not that bad. I barely even feel any painnNGAAAH!” Gintoki grunted after Kagura stopped his nonsense with softly kicking his injured leg.

”Kagura-chan! What are you doing?” Shinpachi cried in his straight man habit.

”Oi brat! What was that for? Do you want Gin-chan to drop dead?”

Kagura glanced at the two men glaring at her and sighed a little. ”I just wanted to remind you to be more careful Gin-chan,” she said, surprisingly seriously.

”And how is kicking my leg proving your point?” Gintoki asked and Shinpachi was nodding strongly next to him.

”He's right Kagura-chan, you don't-”

Kagura turned on her feet to face the two samurais fully and her expression was enough to make Shinpachi choke on his words. ”I just HATE when people do something stupid and reckless, yes...just like that stupid...” Kagura paused as her voice lowered into a whisper and she looked down to her feet.

Shinpachi wasn't quite sure what to say to Kagura, but luckily Gintoki seemed to read her like a book. ”Just like that stupid...who?” Gintoki asked with a softer voice.

Kagura looked at her foster-father straight into his maroon orbs. His eyes seemed to ask a different question and she felt her cheeks getting a little warmer. ”W-what do you mean by who? I meant you, yes,” she said and frowned.

”Ah, of course you did,” Gintoki said and blinked his eyes slowly to Kagura as he was trying to communicate by morse-code.

Kagura huffed and tightened her grip on her umbrella.

”Alright then you two, are we ready to pay them a visit?” Gintoki asked and glanced at both of his 'underlings'.

”Let's do it,” Shinpachi cheered.

A smiled sneaked up on Kagura's lips. ”Yeah,” she said equally exited as Shinpachi. Then the three members of Yorozuya stepped closer to the gates. Kagura and Shinpachi each placed a hand against the no-longer bared gate and gave it a firm push.

As the gates opened up a view of men in dark blue uniforms filled the front yard. There was so much happening in the compound as the Edo's police force had settled back home. Among them was none-other than the commander Gorilla. ”This feels a little nostalgic,” Shinpachi said with a smile.

”Yeah, in all honesty it's good to have them back,” Gintoki said quietly and took a step in.

”How about you Kagura-chan? Do you feel nostalgic?” Shinpachi asked.

”I don't know,” she answered. ”Maybe a little-aru.”

”OI! IT'S THE YOROZUYA!” Kondo shouted from a short distance. Every officer on the yard turned to look at the gates. To the yorozuya's slight embarrassment they were welcomed in with loud cheers and applauses. They were considered as great heroes of the final battle after all, loved and admired by everyone.

Kondo strode towards the trio with open arms and without a warning the jolly gorilla hugged the bandaged trio. ”Kondo-san!” Hijikata called from somewhere. A moment later the vice-commander yanked the emotional commander away from the hug. ”Let them breath would you.”

”Get back to work guys!” Hijikata ordered. He didn't want any unnecessary slacking off as there was a lot things to be taken care of. One of them being settling back to the compound and the other being taking care of the injured officers.

”It's okay Hijikata-san,” Shinpachi said to cool of the vice-commander.

”I'm just so happy to see you all and I'm glad that you're back on your feet,” Kondo said, the latter directed at Gintoki.

”I could say the same thing, you weren't exactly in best shape a couple of days ago,” Gintoki said. ”So, what's your next move tax-robbers?”

”Gin-san!” Shinpachi hissed.

”Oh come, I'm just joking.”

In the middle of all the chit-chat, Kagura remained awfully quiet. Usually she was right after Gintoki throwing some sort of insults on someone's way. But not today, she wasn't feeling like her bubbly self.

Hijikata noticed Kagura's strange behaviour. She had her umbrella dipped back, face slowly turning from side to side. Eyes wandering among the Shinsengumi officers. Was she looking for something? That was certainly the case in Hijikata's eyes.

Kagura didn't first notice the vice-commander stepping next to her. She snapped out of her thoughts with a flick of a lighter. Hijikata lighted up a cigarette and waited for Kagura to react. She said nothing, it felt like she was afraid to ask what was on her mind.

Hijikata blew out the fumes of his cigarette and cleared out his throat. ”Oi, follow me.”

”Why would I do that-aru?” she asked.

”Oh please, I can see what you're doing.”

Kagura stared at him with lips pressed tightly together, eyes telling of her suspicion. ”What are you saying?” she asked.

”Just follow me,” Hijikata said and turned his back on her. He made his way towards the main building and checked if Kagura was following. Just like he had expected she was right behind him. They entered the building as discreetly as possible.

Kagura closed her umbrella, but her grip on it was still tight, palms feeling strangely sweaty. She hadn't even done anything that difficult earlier, so why was she feeling like this, so anxious. Then again, of course she knew exactly why she felt like that. Hijikata stopped by the end of a hallway and turned to Kagura.

”He's there.”

”Who?”

”Stop it.”

”Fine...” Kagura agreed. She swallowed and looked down. ”How is he?”

”He's recovering. He might be resting right now, but you can go and see for yourself.”

”O-okay,” Kagura mumbled.

”I'll give you some privacy,” Hijikata said and passed by Kagura, with the intention of returning outside.

”Oi! I don't need any privacy with him!” Kagura shouted after Hijikata who ignored her completely.

With Hijikata out of sight, Kagura turned to the door. She touched it hesitantly, considering on should she enter or not. Then she relaxed her shoulders and slid the door open a bit. She had to see him, she wanted to see his chest rising peacefully, that was all she needed.

Inside the room she saw him, her rival, laying on his bed. Kagura opened the door a little more to see him better. He had his eyes closed, apparently Hijikata had guessed it right, he was sleeping.

Kagura entered the room, closing the door right after her. Softly and quietly, she kneeled down next to his futon. It felt strange to see him like this, peaceful and silent. Last time Kagura saw him laying like this was on the battlefield, but he wasn't exactly peaceful.

The memory of that day made her eyes feel watery. She remembered him couching blood, talking nonsense, breathing roughly, seemingly in pain. Kagura frowned her brows and felt a tear trailing down her cheek. ”Idiot,” she muttered, still conflicted on should she be more angry at him or more worried about him.

Then again, above all else, she felt great relief. He was alive, breathing.

”China...is it you?” Sougo asked quietly eyes narrowly open.

*

*

Kagura landed softly on her feet as another enemy went down in front of her. She heard that ominous chinkling sound coming from both of her sides. Two spears were coming on her way, but as expected from Kagura, she effortlessly dodged both. With one high jump she kicked both of her enemies simultaneously.

Her blood was rushing, adrenaline was pumping through her veins, she felt the heat of the battle in her soul. Kagura wasn't a yato who took pleasure in killing, but she loved the feeling of intense fighting.

After shooting a round of bullets on the incoming enemies, she saw Gintoki, Takasugi and Katsura advancing further. Kagura ran towards them through the rubble and fallen enemies. As agile as she was, there was a crack in the ground right on her way. Her eyes were so focused on Gintoki's back that one of her legs slid into the crack.

”Shit,” she muttered and tried to yank her leg free. But it didn't budge and the rough edges injured her ankle. The more she wiggled, the more it hurt. ”Dammit.”

For Kagura's dismay she heard a pack of enemies closing in. She popped her head up and saw at least ten of those bastards coming her way. Before Kagura could react she saw two men cut down each and every one of those who threatened her.

”Huh?” She recognized them both. ”Kamui! Sadist!”

Kamui turned to look at his little sister with a wide smile. ”Why are you sitting there? This isn't a playground.”

”I'm not sitting idiot! My leg got stuck.”

”Who gets their leg stuck in middle of the battlefield?” Kamui snorted.

”Give her a rest,” Sougo said calmly.

Kagura felt a little warmness on her cheeks. Was the sadistic prince defending her, she though.

”Maybe she just got tired and shoved her leg there on purpose,” Sougo added with an even calmer voice.

Kagura's nostrils were fuming. She gritted her teeth and was about to give Sougo a piece of her mind. Then another wave of enemies snapped her out her anger. ”Oi you two bastards! Eyes on the battlefield, yes.”

Both Sougo and Kamui smirked a little and with weapons ready they charged at the incoming enemies. Kagura huffed to herself and turned her attention on her foot. After a while of suffering, she was still stuck. She wasn't afraid of the pain, but she knew too much strain on her ankle could put her to the sidelines of the very important battle they were having.

Kagura glanced at the pair of sadists cutting down enemies and she could swear that they were fighting each other from time to time. After her sight was clear from enemies, she saw Sougo approaching her. He kneeled down to her level and looked at her leg.

”Let me help you there China,” he said and was about to touch her ankle.

”Hell no! You'll just break it again-aru.”

Sougo chuckled and shook his head. He lifted his eyes to look straight in to hers. Kagura felt something strange inside her as he looked at her. He wasn't as deadpan as he usually was, he was almost concerned or at least she thought he was.

”I won't, I promise,” he said. ”We need you out there China.”

”Hell yes you need me out there,” she huffed at Sougo. He didn't say a word to her and flashed a small smile. Kagura looked away from him and puffed her cheeks. Why was the sadist being so nice all of a sudden, she thought to herself.

Sougo shifted his attention to her stuck ankle. He moved her leg carefully to see better and then he saw her injury. ”You're bleeding China.”

Kagura turned to look at him. ”It's nothing, just a little scratch, yes.”

”Right,” he said like he knew what she was going to say.

”What?” Kagura huffed.

Sougo looked up and their eyes locked. For a short moment Kagura thought that sadistic bastard that always annoyed her to the max, made something flutter inside her. His crimson eyes were so focused on her and he almost looked a little...handsome?

Kagura tried to shake off the weird feeling and she looked away again. ”Stop staring at me weirdo and help me out here, yes,” she mumbled.

Sougo remained wordless and smiled a little. He took off his white cravat and gave it to Kagura. She snatched the piece of clothing from his hands and stared at it. ”Is this for sneezing?”

He sighed like he was amused by her. ”No idiot.”

”Who are you calling an idiot?”

”You, idiot.”

”Want me to kick your ass, yes.”

Then he sighed out of frustration. ”No!” Sougo said firmly, his voice even stun Kagura. She could tell from his voice if he was just engaging with their casual banter or was he serious. This time, he was dead serious. They shared a look again. ”It's for your ankle genius.”

Kagura blinked her eyes a couple of times. ”Oh...” she said quietly. ”Thanks.”

”Still so stubborn...” he said and focused back at her leg.

Kagura didn't really have a counter for his words. She had always been stubborn and even after two years she was on the quest to awaken Sadaharu, she remained stubborn.

”Don't move,” Sougo said and positioned both of his hands on her leg. Kagura gasped a little at the contact. Sougo's eyes darted at her and he lifted his fingers off her. ”Did I hurt you?”

”No, no you didn't,” Kagura said and dodged his gaze. She was so confused of her own behaviour. Why is my heart beating faster, Kagura thought and took in a deep calming breath. Sougo continued to free her from the damned crack. Kagura couldn't help herself, she wanted to look at him. She observed him from the corner of her eye. He was so focused and definitely looked like he was concerned.

”Okay China, I think I can get your leg free,” Sougo said without looking at her. ”It's gonna hurt a little so bear with it.”

”Okay.”

Sougo had both of his hand on her leg again, focus completely on her. Usually Sougo and Kagura were both famous for having their senses on high alert at a battlefield. This time unfortunately, they only focused on each other. Apparently one of the ”fallen” enemies nearby wasn't exactly dead.

Without neither Sougo or Kagura noticing, a man had picked themselves up from the ground and slowly started to approach the duo. Kagura's trail of thought was cut off by that blood-thirsty chinkling of a javelin. She shifted her sight from Sougo towards the infamous sound.

Kagura inhaled loudly as she saw a blood covered man closing in on them, javelin aimed at Sougo. The young captain noticed Kagura's strong reaction and looked at her face. Before he could ask her anything, his ears registered the chinkling.

”Sadist! Behind you!” Kagura shouted.

Sougo's fingers were on his katana in a second. He yielded his blade and turned around just as fast. Unfortunately the enemy was closer than Sougo expected. Kagura shrieked as Sougo's katana flew out of his hand with a powerful swing of the spear landing on his wrist.

Sougo hissed and the attacker didn't waste his element of surprise advantage. He kicked Sougo to his side. He landed against a rock next to Kagura. She saw him grunting, he had hit the rock head first. ”Sadist!” she called, but got no immediate answer.

Kagura turned to look at the man with the spear. He had a dead eyes, it was clear that no-matter who he faced, he would try to kill them. Kagura huffed and hastily tried to yank her leg out. Her efforts were futile.

The spear rose right in front of her eyes, ready to strike at her. Kagura gave up on her leg and prepared to stop the javelin with her hands. She wasn't sure was it possible but she didn't see any other option. Sougo's blurred vision started to clear out and all he saw was Kagura on the ground and the man about to launch his attack.

”No,” Sougo gritted between his teeth and pushed himself up. Kagura focused fiercely on the spear, but suddenly her whole line of sight was blocked by something or rather someone. A pair of hands slammed on Kagura's shoulders and she saw a flash of crimson orbs.

”Wha-” was all that Kagura got out of her mouth before blood spattered across her shirt. Her eyes stood wide and in utter disbelief. She saw Sougo right in front of her on his knees with a spear sticking out of his abdomen. He couched blood on the ground. ”W-what...?”

Just as fast as the man has struck with his spear he pulled it out of Sougo. He grunted from pain and Kagura felt him squeezing her shoulders tighter. ”C-china...”

Kagura was still too stunned to speak properly. She just watched the blood gushing out of his wound. His grip on her shoulders began to loosen and he slumped a little lower. Kagura listened to his raspy breathing and she could hear the blood gargling in his mouth. She tried to understand what had just happened. The sadist had jumped in front of the spear meant for her. She wanted to tell him how stupid he was for doing so, but this wasn't the time or place for that.

Their enemy was still there, apparently ready to strike again. Kagura felt her yato blood boiling, she wasn't going to let that happen. Sougo's hands slipped completely off her and he fell down on his side. Kagura clenched her fist and punched the ground under her, successfully breaking the crack where her leg was.

She knew it wasn't the smartest move, but it was the only way to protect both of them. As the ground cracked around her ankle, her wound deepened, but she didn't care. Kagura didn't waste a second and punched the man with all her yato might, sending him through three buildings in a distance. It was a punch like no-other, powered up by the anger she felt towards the man.

Kagura turned quickly to check on Sougo who had turned on his back. Blood was pooling under him, but he was still conscious. She rushed down to his level and checked his pulse. ”Oi! Sadist!” she called.

Sougo's breaths were short and wheezy, he was clearly in pain. ”Oi! Stay with me, yes.”

Kagura heard running steps coming closer to them. It was Kamui coming to check up on what took so long for Sougo to free her leg. ”Hey! What are you two chilling here when-”

”Shut up!”

Kamui's words were abruptly cut short by a distressed Kagura. ”Go and get help, now!” she ordered. Kamui stood few meters away from Kagura and Sougo, he couldn't quite see how dire the situation really was.

”Help? Did something hap-”

”HURRY UP BAKA-ANIKI!” Kagura roared. Kamui understood his sister wasn't playing around this time and he left to get help.

Kagura noticed that Sougo's skin was getting alarmingly pale, the warm colour of his skin was just the hollow shade of its normal state. She pressed his wound with her hand, trying her best to staunch the flow of blood. Sougo hissed at the pressure and opened his eyes.

Their eyes locked again, but Kagura wasn't sure what to say to him. Luckily he had something to say.

”Are you okay China?”

”Huh? Kagura voiced loudly. ”Me?”

”I...I just...” he said quietly as he struggled to breath.

”Stop talking, you're bleeding too much.”

”It's just...a little...scratch,” Sougo struggled to say with a smile on his face.

Kagura recalled herself using similar words earlier. He was truly an idiot, a reckless idiot, Kagura thought to herself with a heavy heart. She felt her eyes watering up, but she forbid herself from crying. There was no reason to cry, he was going to be fine...or that's what Kagura told herself to keep her mind calm.

”Stop talking nonsense, yes.”

Kagura kept her hand on his wound, but with her other hand she touched his cheek. It felt cold. Too cold. Despite the blood trails coming from his mouth, he had a peaceful look on his face. Then Sougo placed his hand over Kagura's hand on his cheek. He pressed his cheek against her hand and allowed his eyes to slid shut.

”Don't lose...don't...die...” Sougo breathed. ”...Chi-na...”

After calling her pet name rather sweetly, he fell unconscious. Kagura could only stare at him, helpless feeling taking over her brain. ”Sadist, oi! Now it's not the time to take a nap, yes.” She knew he didn't hear her anymore, but she didn't know what else to do.

Of course she blamed herself first, if her leg hadn't got stuck, none of this would have happened. But then again, she didn't ask for him to throw himself in front of the spear.

This wasn't the first time Sougo had done something drastic to save her, but this...this was on a whole other level. But why, that was the main question on Kagura's mind.

Kamui and the field medics arrived soon after Sougo fell unconscious. She watched as he was carried away and that was the moment she finally allowed herself to react. Kamui saw how shaken Kagura was about the whole situation and he knew exactly what he had to do.

”Hey sis, you have to forget about the earth police for now and get over it.”

Kagura turned to look at Kamui with a baffled look on her face. ”Forget? How can I forget him after he just-”

”Kagura!” Kamui called to stop her rambling. She waited in silence, tears burning in her eyes, ready to wet her cheeks.

Kamui sighed softly and place his hand on Kagura's shoulder. ”I mean, you can't undo what just happened, there's only one thing you can do right now.”

Kagura swallowed her tears. ”And what's that?”

”Fight. You can fight.”

Kagura pondered his words for a moment and she knew he was right. ”Fight?”

”Yes.”

”You have a point there Kamui,” she admitted.

”Let's go then,” Kamui said with his standard smile. Kagura hummed as her answer. She realized that fighting was her speciality. She was most useful fighting in the frontlines, not somewhere crying her eyes out.

”Ah, wait a second Kamui,” Kagura said and reached for something in her pocket. She pulled out a white piece of clothing.

”What's that?”

Kagura glanced at the fabric. She tried to ignore the fact that she accidentally smudged Sougo's blood all over the cravat. ”It's for my ankle,” she said and tied the piece of clothing around her wounded ankle, just like she was instructed by a brave idiot.

Kagura's ankle was still bleeding a little bit. As she ran with Kamui towards their enemy her own blood mixed with the stains of Sougo's blood on the cravat. It made it easier to pretend that it was her blood all along.

*

*

Kagura didn't answer his question, she was caught off guard by him waking up.

”China, is it really you?” Sougo asked and tried to open his eyes wider.

”Yeah, it's me,” she said quietly without looking at him.

”I see.”

The room felt sort of awkward. There were things Kagura wanted to get off her chest, but she wasn't sure was he in right shape to listen to her.

”How are you feeling?” Kagura asked quite formally.

Sougo got his eyes finally fully open. He looked at her straight into her eyes, but she didn't answer the glance. ”I'm okay.”

”Good.”

This must have been the only time Sougo saw Kagura so wordless and stoic, it wasn't like her at all.

”Hijikata told me you got your dog back.”

”I did.”

Sougo sighed, he didn't like that she was dodging his eyes. ”China?” he called with his usual tone, but Kagura picked up a hint of annoyance from him.

”What?”

”Why don't you just tell me what's on your mind, mmh?”

”I don't know what you're talking about sadist.”

Sougo closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. She was seriously the embodiment of stubbornness. ”I can see you have something to say China,” he said and opened his eyes. ”So get on with it.”

”You're wrong, yes.”

”Stop behaving like an idiot and talk to me,” Sougo said, voice on the edge of demanding.

”Idiot...me?” Kagura asked and looked at him. Idiot. That was the only word running through Kagura's mind. Him calling her an idiot finally triggered her vocal cords. Here we go, Sougo thought to himself and braced himself for what ever she had to say.

Kagura exhaled deeply and threw everything she was feeling at Sougo. ”I am not the idiot here. You are the idiot! A reckless idiot!”

”Me?” Sougo managed to say in between Kagura's words.

”Yes you! Who is stupid enough to jump into a spear? Huh? Who told you to jump there?”

”But-”

”Why the hell would you do something to careless? Risking your life for no-reason. Why? WHY?”

”BECAUSE!” Sougo raised his voice over Kagura's, successfully shutting her right up. He sure liked to run his mouth, but he didn't yell. Ever. Kagura's eyes were wide as she stared at him. He exhaled to calm down a bit.

”What was I supposed to do, huh? Let him run the spear through you?”

”Yes, it was meant for me,” Kagura said like it was the most obvious answer there could be.

”Oh please.”

”What?”

”Like I would never let that happen.”

”B-but...” Kagura said with voice cracking up. ”You could have died...I don't want you to die!” she said with tears in her eye.

Sougo huffed roughly and pushed himself to sit up, cautiously careful of his injury. She placed her hands on his shoulders. ”No, no! You need to rest, yes,” Kagura said and tried to push him back on the bed.

”I'm fine, now listen to me.”

Their faces were inches apart. His deep crimson eyes were staring right into her soul or that's what it felt like for Kagura.

”On the day I lost the most important person in my life I couldn't do anything to prevent it from happening, so I made a promise to myself.” Kagura listened carefully and focused on every word coming out of his lips.

”No matter the situation, I swore never to let that happen again. Even if it would cost me my own life, I would gladly die protecting that person.”

Kagura's heart skipped a beat. She sobbed a little, slowly understanding what he was saying.

”Am I..the most..?” Kagura asked quietly, half of the words drowning with her tears. She slowly dropped her hands from his shoulders to his chest.

”Yes,” Sougo simply said with gentle eyes. She felt overwhelmed, was this really the same Okita Sougo she had known all these years. Apparently he was. Kagura grasped his yukata with both hands and leaned closer to him with a hitched breath.

*

*

Gintoki entered a hallway in the Shinsengumi quarters. Hijikata was right behind him, guiding him towards Sougo's room. ”So, is Sofa-kun going to be alright?” Gintoki inquired, genuinely worried.

”Thankfully yes. He was really lucky the spear didn't hit any vital organs,” Hijikata explained.

Before they reached Sougo's room, his door was slammed wide open. Kagura rushed out of the room as fast as she could. ”Kagura? Are you okay?” Gintoki asked, but he didn't get any answers from her. Kagura dashed past the two men while covering her face with her arm.

Gintoki looked dumbfounded, he was like John Travolta looking confused as fuck, waving the air with an imaginary coat. Hijikata got instantly worried about Sougo, had something happened to him to make the young yato woman act so strangely.

”China?!” Sougo's voice called from the room. Gintoki and Hijikata enter Sougo's room like two worried dads.

”What the hell happened here?” Gintoki asked.

Sougo was still sitting on his bed, with an amused look on his face.

”Are you hurt?” Hijikata asked.

”No.”

”Kagura just ran past us and she was really shaken,” Gintoki said and immediately suspected that the sadistic captain had something to do with it. ”Did you say something bad to her?”

”No.”

”Well, did you do something to her?” Gintoki asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

”Um...no.”

”Why the hesitation?” Gintoki asked eyes squinted.

”Sougo is still recovering, stop harassing him perm-head,” Hijikata hissed.

”It's okay Hijibaka-san,” Sougo said to his superior. ”I didn't do anything...it was all her.”

”What?” Gintoki asked, he didn't like puzzles or cryptic answers.

”Ah, nothing danna. Maybe I should get some rest,” Sougo said and carefully laid back to his bed.

Hijikata had to drag out the suspicious Gintoki out of the room as he was throwing more and more questions at Sougo, who only gave annoyingly vague answers.

Meanwhile Kagura reached the Shinsengumi's gates. She exited the compound and leaned against the outer walls near the gate. Her back against the wall, she slowly let her whole body slide down all the way to the ground.

Kagura's breathing was fast but not as rapid as her heartbeat. She touched her lips with her fingers like there was something new and exciting to feel. As a cute smile curled on her lips the heavy blush on her cheeks spread even wider.

[silverangel19]

You Will Always Have Me

By the time I started writing this, Wu hadn't died in the anime and I didn't know he would since in the manga it was just a nameless guard, so Wu is still alive in here.

Warnings: YASHA SPOILERS, mentions of blood.

"I'll be gone for a while for some business. I'll keep you updated, all right?" Sing said as he prepared to leave for his flight.

Yut Lung waved him off from his spot on the couch, not bothering to look up from the book he was reading.

Even though Yut Lung acted like he didn't care, he still woke early before the sun came up, just to see Sing off.

The thought warmed Sing's heart.

"You know I trust you, Sing." Yut Lung flipped a page, ink black hair falling and settling gracefully above his collarbone as his eyes finally left the page to meet Sing’s.

"I know. I just like you to know what's going on at my side of it. We may be partners in this, but you’re still my boss, after all.”

Yut Lung tsked. “I’m hardly your boss when you’ve rarely ever listened to me.”

Sing gave a hearty laugh and braced himself on the door to put on his shoes. “I’ve always hated wearing suits…” Sing muttered as he adjusted the tie around his neck.

“You’re representing the Lee family, you need to look your best. There will be others with you there at the airport as well.” Yut Lung said nonchalantly, his attention already going back to the book.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. So, where's my goodbye hug?" Sing grinned cheekily as he stretched out his arms.

Yut Lung shook his head and let out a sigh that sounded both fond and exasperated. "Oh, come here, you big oaf." He stood up on his toes to hug Sing around the shoulders.

"I can never pinpoint the moment when you got this big..." Yut Lung was still a little bitter over the height difference they had. Sing was practically towering over him, and he’d take any chance to tease Yut Lung about it.

Sing laughed as he returned the embrace, nuzzling his cheek on the silky black tresses.

It was so soft, and Sing could’ve spent the entire day just running his hands through the strands, watching them spill through the spaces between his fingers like darkened water. He knew Yut Lung liked to have his hair played, to have hands gently running through them and massaging his scalp. Yut Lung may not admit it, but he was addicted to the feeling, which was to be expected, for his brothers had only treated them with harshness and without care.

“Can I try?” Sing asked one night when he watched Yut Lung went about his nightly routine.

Yut Lung paused from where he sat at the foot of his bed, a comb in his hand.

“...You want to comb my hair?” Yut Lung turned towards Sing and asked, wondering if he misheard him.

“Uh… yeah.” Sing looked embarrassed as he rubbed a hand behind his neck.

Yut Lung hesitated before agreeing. “Sure. Just don’t mess it up.”

Sing got onto the bed, getting himself into a comfortable position behind Yut Lung. “Well, how hard can it be?”

Sing took the comb from Yut Lung’s hands, lightly brushing his fingers against the other’s. Sing could already tell that the comb had cost a fortune. It was unnecessarily pretty- adorned with little gems of amethyst that Sing had no doubt were real, and floral-like patterns wrapping the entirety of the comb.

“Did you really have to buy such a comb? I don’t even wanna know how much this costed.” Sing looked at the comb in mild disgust, as if it just spat at him.

Yut Lung shrugged. “It looked pretty, and I had the money. Plus, it kind of suits me, don’t you think?”

And it does. Sing glanced at the comb and back at Yut Lung’s questioning face. The gems reminded Sing of Yut Lung’s eyes, and the flowers, of the patterns on Yut Lung’s clothes. It looked classy and elegant, just like Yut Lung.

Yut Lung raised a brow at him, and Sing realised he took way too long to respond. “Nope. Not at all. I don’t see why you’d even say that.”

Yut Lung rolled his eyes. “Just get on with it. We don’t have all night.”

Sing shook his head. “Alright, alright! Sheesh, impatient...”

Yut Lung tossed a glare over his shoulder before turning away, waiting for Sing to get started.

Sing didn’t know why, but he got a bit nervous when the comb first touched Yut Lung’s hair. Though after the third brush from the top to the ends, he found the movements to be soothing.

By the time Sing had gotten all the tangles out, Yut Lung was practically purring in his arms. Sing would’ve teased him, but he was too mesmerised by how Yut Lung’s hair felt against his skin. Sing had the urge to just sink his fingers into those smooth dark locks, and so-without thinking-he did just that.

Yut Lung gasped. There was an instant where his mind flashed back to the times his brothers gripped and pulled on his hair, before he remembered that they were no longer here, and those big hands in his hair were warm and gentle, nothing like his brothers’ touch.

‘Shit.’ Sing thought as he saw Yut Lung tensed. He moved to pull away but stopped when Yut Lung relaxed and leant closer to him.

“Sing…” Yut Lung sighed contentedly.

“W-what?” Sing blinked, a little dazed at Yut Lung’s reaction.

Yut Lung frowned and looked away, cheeks warming. “...Don’t stop.”

Sing swallowed and put his hands back onto Yut Lung’s hair, running through them softly.

A few minutes passed when Sing realised Yut Lung had fallen asleep. He huffed and smiled fondly at the peaceful expression Yut Lung had on his face. Sing set the comb back on the dresser before carrying Yut Lung and placing him on the middle of his bed, tucking him in.

Ever since then, Sing helped Yut Lung brush his hair before they went to sleep.

A few moments later, the two stepped back from the hug that probably lasted way too long to be considered normal, letting go of each other reluctantly. After years of working together, they had gotten used to each other’s presence. Not having one of them by the other’s side had always left a sort of empty feeling in their hearts.

“Well, see ya. Try not to be too mean to your servants. You need to learn to be nicer, Young Master!” Sing smirked as he waved him goodbye one last time before leaving and heading towards the limousine parked in front of the gates.

Yut Lung rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help the small smile that formed upon his lips. “Go away, Sing!”

Yut Lung could still hear Sing’s light laughter as he closed the door and headed back to his room.

Now that Sing was gone, he could go back to sleep.

Laying on the enormously empty bed, delicate fists softly gripped the silk sheets as Yut Lung tried to quash down the faint feeling of loneliness in his heart.

The bag of souvenirs Sing had been carrying fell out from his slackened grip. He stared wide-eyed at the servant before him, body going rigid at the words he just heard.

“…What?”

“Master Yut Lung has passed.” The head servant of the Lee mansion informed him, his head bowed down in fear of the upcoming wrath he had the misfortune to face.

The air in the Lee mansion had been tense and unsettling when Sing arrived back from his business trip. It was a little weird that Yut Lung hadn’t been there to pick him up at the airport, or even just gave him a phone call to welcome him back like he would normally do. He had thought that maybe Yut Lung was busy and couldn’t find the time to greet him, or that he have had a little trouble in the Chinese mafia and was taking it out on the poor servants, nothing too big or serious. But he certainly hadn’t expected this .

“…How?” His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.

Sing didn’t know how to feel about this. He didn’t feel anything aside from the biting cold seeping through his veins. The mansion was pin drop silent, nobody dared to make any sudden movements.

Sing clenched his fists.

“How?!” Sing roared out, and everyone within distance flinched back.

“The young master appeared to have been… assassinated. We do not know who was responsible for it.” The servant said meekly, looking anywhere but SIng.

“Where was Wu? Was no one with him?!” Sing found it hard to believe not a single one of the highly trained bodyguards were able to protect him, especially Wu, the most loyal and talented out of them all.

“None of them came out unscathed, but Sir Wu in particular, sustained much graver injuries. He is still recovering in his quarters as we speak…”

Sing still had countless of questions to ask, but instead just gave the servant one last glare before storming off in search of Wu.

Wu had heard the commotion downstairs and prepared himself for what was to come. Right as he sat up from his bed, with a hand gingerly pressing against the wound on his abdomen, the door slammed open.

“What the fuck happened, Wu?!” Sing crossed over the room to his bed and roughly grabbed Wu by the collar of his shirt.

Wu stared up into those dark eyes, eyes so full of rage. But underneath that hot burning anger, was an underlying sense of despair that Sing had yet to process.

Looking into the pain in those eyes and feeling the trembling of those fists, caused the guilt he was carrying to worsen. Ever since the young master’s death, Wu had been so ridden with guilt and kept blaming himself for the ill fate that had befall onto his precious master.

Wu tried to get out of the bed to kneel and apologise, but because of his injury that has yet to fully heal, he nearly toppled over the bed had Sing not caught him just in time.

“Master Sing, I am so sorry... Words cannot express how deeply sorry I am for my incompetence. I was not able to protect the Young Master in your absence. I was not capable enough… and that in turn has cost the life of the Young Master. Please, I will accept any punishment given to me by you, even if it was death. It is what I deserve after-”

“Shut up!” Sing had calmed down enough for his mind to think more rationally and was appalled at Wu’s behaviour. This was probably the first time Sing saw such a torn expression on the ever emotionless man. The cool composure that he was always used to was being undone right before him. He looked at Wu, at his fast-paced breathing, at the hand discreetly clutching against his stomach. Sing immediately felt bad for taking it out on the hurt man.

“Wu… I’m sorry I snapped at you. It- it’s not your fault. You don’t-” Sing’s mind went blank, his words and sentences all jumbled up. He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t comprehend the fact that Yut Lung, who he saw merely weeks ago, was gone.

Sing placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly. “Get well soon. We’re gonna get real busy real quickly.”

The bodyguard bowed his head down in gratitude, which Sing responded with a curt nod. With a sigh, he left the room, leaving the man to go back to his rest.

His actions were unbecoming of the new leader of the Chinese underworld. What Sing needed to do was to find out who was responsible for the execution of Yut Lung’s assassination, not taking it out on anyone and everyone he sees.

‘ The new leader, huh…’ Sing thought bitterly, swallowing down the taste of bile rising in his throat.

“Sing, when I die… You will take over me.” Yut Lung said casually, as if he was just talking about the weather.

“ What? What are you talking about, Yut?” Sing who was scrolling through his phone nearly dropped it after hearing that.

Death was a normal phenomenon when you’re part of the mafia, yet it still stung Sing a little whenever Yut Lung talked about his own death so lightly, as if him being gone wouldn’t mean anything to the people who cared about him.

“You’ll inherit everything that is of mine. What’s mine is yours, Sing.” Yut Lung said this while giving a tiny smile, showing that he was completely comfortable with the idea of it.

Sing shouldn’t be surprised. He was Yut Lung’s right-hand man, after all. It was expected for Yut Lung to produce an heir in order to continue the lineage of the Lee family, especially since he was now the last one living. But he knew Yut Lung didn't want that. He didn’t think he was capable of having a family, no matter how many times Sing said otherwise. So it was only natural for him to pass down his leadership to his most trusted person.

That was the day where the both of them pledged their loyalty to each other. They were already loyal to one another, and they both knew that. But this time, it was done officially in public, along with the announcement that Sing would be entrusted with all of Yut Ling’s wealth and influence, and the future of the entire Chinese underworld. It was the rarest of rare occurrences, considering how much the Chinese society values seniority and bloodlines.

The servants and guards left the room. They knew Sing needed to be left alone for the moment. Sing took slow, deliberated steps towards the casket, as if doing so could somehow prolong that harsh reality into becoming true.

Sing looked at the body in the casket.

Even in death, Yut Lung was still so beautiful. Yut Lung had a serene expression on his face, as if he was just sleeping, as if it wasn’t a casket he was lying in and that he’d wake up from his afternoon nap. It almost seemed like it, if Sing didn’t know better. Under those clothing were an array of gunshot wounds.

One to the leg, one to the stomach, one to the shoulder, and lastly- one to the heart. The final shot that sealed his fate.

Either they were really bad at their jobs, or they had fun watching the Young Master bleed out before delivering the final blow.

Sing gripped the edges of the casket tightly, knuckles turning white. “What have they done to you…”

Sing could feel his heart breaking as he registered what Yut Lung was dressed in.    

Yut Lung was dressed in his finest and favourite clothing- a dark purple, long-sleeved silk cheongsam with white and beige flowers outlined in shiny silver threads and laces running along the slit of the dress, and light coloured pants underneath. His hair was done in an intricate half side braid, leaving the rest of his ebony hair in waves that fanned across where he laid. A delicate golden moon-shaped hairpin decorated with chains of pearls and amethysts was worn near the side of his head.

Sing remembered the time Yut Lung got the clothes and the hairpin. The cheongsam was one that Yut Lung bought to attend a party where they negotiated a business deal with the Yang family. Sing remembered his flustered reaction towards Yut Lung when he first wore it and the smug expression Yut Lung had after seeing Sing in that state- Wu being a witness to Sing’s predicament- much to Sing’s embarrassment. Ever since then, it became his favourite clothing to wear for special occasions. And the hairpin…

The hairpin was a gift from Sing to Yut Lung for his birthday.

Sing had eyed that hairpin for a long time. He had been walking around the streets of Hong Kong when he came across a jewelry shop that sold the piece of accessory. With just one look at it, he knew he had to get it for Yut Lung.

The problem was that it was terribly expensive, he would need some time to save up that much money. Yut Lung’s birthday was in two months, and that hairpin costed more than three months worth of Sing’s pay. But Sing was determined, and somehow managed to persuade the shopkeeper to not sell the ornament to anyone until he came back to retrieve it.

The day came when he surprised Yut Lung with his gift.

“What is it, Sing?” Yut Lung sat on the chair in front of his dresser like Sing told him to. Sing had pulled Yut Lung into his bedroom right after dinner, saying he had something to show him.

“Just close your eyes until I tell you otherwise.” Sing said as he hid the present behind his back, ignoring how Yut Lung was eyeing the action suspiciously.

“All right.” Yut Lung sighed, and within a few moments, he felt hands gently placed on his head as something cool and thin slid into his hair.

Sing was slightly afraid he would mess up since he’s never done this before. He hoped the way he placed it didn’t look too bad.

“Okay… I’m done. You can open your eyes now.”

Sing watched as Yut Lung’s eyes fluttered open and widened, how his lips formed a small ‘O’ as he let out a soft gasp. Sing couldn't help how his heart stuttered at the look of awe and happiness on Yut Lung’s face.

Yut Lung raised a hand to trace the smooth surface of the hair pin, his eyes never leaving the mirror as he admired the way it glittered and sparkled in the moonlight. “Sing… it’s beautiful…”

Sing let out a sigh of relief and grinned. “Well, I’m glad you liked it. Happy birthday, Yut Lung.”

Yut Lung went silent for a moment, his eyes turning watery. When was the last time someone genuinely wished him without making it sound professional or insincere?

In a rare moment of sentimentality, Yut Lung got up from his seat and hugged the taller man.

Yut Lung's arms tightened around Sing as he whispered in his ear. “I love it… Thank you, Sing.

Sing returned the embrace, burying his face into Yut Lung's hair. The scent of lilac enveloped him as he murmured a soft ‘you're welcome'.

For two consecutive days, Sing worked relentlessly in search of Yut Lung’s murderers. In those two days, Sing had gone without sleep. Only taking occasional short breaks to eat and use the restroom. The way he was being was starting to worry some of the servants in the household. They have seen how he kept pushing himself, and had tried to approach him, only to get snapped at afterwards.

Wu was probably the only one that was spared of Sing’s temper. After the day Sing confronted Wu, he understood that Wu felt the same as he did. They were able to relate to the pain of losing someone precious.

For Wu, it was a love stemmed from a servant to his master. A love that had grown in the many years of caring for the youngest Lee. For Sing, it was a love born out of the trust and devotion they had towards each other. His love for Yut Lung was entirely different from Wu, but nonetheless a love so strong that it could break him. It was already breaking him. But Sing refused to lose himself. Not yet.

Wu had advised him to get some sleep, even a short nap would be better than nothing. But Sing couldn’t do that. He could not- would not rest, not until he found the people who killed his most precious person. He couldn’t even if he wanted to. There was no way he’d be able to sleep. Not with the pent up rage in his body, the burning urge for vengeance that could never be quelled until he destroyed every single one of whom had ever harmed Yut Lung.

Two long days since Sing got the news of Yut Lung’s death, and he found his answers.

A Vietnamese Mafia.

He found them.

He finally found them.

Sing got up and loaded his artillery, preparing for his leave. He didn’t bother notifying or bringing any guards along with him. Whether they found out and wanted to follow or not, was up to them. But he would be the one to deal with the ringleaders and executors.

In the dark night of a new moon, a massacre occurred. The area was a bloodbath, filled with the tangy smell of iron and dead bodies scattered about. Pools of deep red formed on tiled floors and splashes of crimson stained the walls. Among the fallen bodies of corpses, stood a lone man.

Sing was covered in blood from head to toe, none of it which was his own. The trickling blood on his face hid the stained droplets that fell from his empty eyes. Sing stayed at the same spot for a long time before staggering towards the entrance. Each step caused a wave of dizziness in his head, it was a wonder he hasn’t keeled over. His sight blurred as he watched a figure advancing towards him.

‘Wu…” Sing thought as his consciousness started to leave him.

It was only then he collapsed into the arms of the guard, darkness seeping into his vision before everything went blank.

After a full day of rest and the ceremony leading to his position as the head of the Chinese mafia, Sing was finally left alone.

He did the one thing he had wanted to do after the killing- Visit Yut Lung.

His legs automatically took him to the path of his destination. Once reaching there, he fell to his knees in front of the gravestone, tenderly touching its surface.

“I’ve avenged you… I’ve destroyed them all.”

Sing wondered if Yut Lung had been happy. He hoped that he was able to make his life better, to make him feel loved and cared for. Sing did his best to ensure Yut Lung would never have to feel that lonely emptiness ever again. Now that he was gone, that little doubt that had always been in the back of his mind came back with full force.

“Hey, what’s with that look?” Sing asked, poking Yut Lung on the forehead.

“Whatever do you mean?” Yut Lung swatted Sing’s hand away and turned back towards the window, returning his gaze to the few stars that glittered in the night sky.

“Well… You’ve got this really cold and sombre look on your face. But maybe that’s just your normal face…” Sing hummed, a teasing smile on his lips, yet his eyes held a seriousness to them.

‘Ever so expressive, this boy.’ Yut Lung silently thought as he stared at the openness of emotions in those dark eyes.

“You’re not feeling lonely, are you?”

Yut Lung scoffed and rolled his eyes. “As if I could with you always barging into my home and making a ruckus.”

Sing accepted the answer, yet he couldn’t help but feel that aura of sadness surrounding Yut Lung, enveloping him with an air Sing could only describe as ‘loneliness’.

“You’ll always have me. You know that, right? You have to know that…” Sing’s heart clenched at the thought of Yut Lung dying while not knowing that there was at least one person who cared deeply for him. Yut Lung will always have him, even when his being was no longer here. He will always be a part of Sing.

Sing rested his forehead on the cool stone of Yut Lung’s grave as he looked at the small picture of him that was on it. He had a smile in it, soft and gentle like the man he was. A side that only Sing had the privilege to have known. His throat closed up painfully as he swallowed the lump formed in his throat. His voice broke slightly when he asked the question he dreaded the answer to.

“Yut Lung… you were happy, right?” The urge to cry was there, but Sing held back, pressing his wrist against his mouth to stifle a sob. He wanted so desperately for Yut Lung to be happy. His heart aching and reaching out to a man who was no longer there.

A soft wind breezed through, gently caressing his face and hair. The familiar scent of lilac and honey waft through the air, and tears welled up at the corners of his eyes.

It smelled just like him.

It was almost as if Yut Lung had never left. That he was still right there by his side, telling him that everything will be fine, that he was happy and that it was okay to cry.

The tears that Sing was holding back rolled down his cheeks, his shoulders quacking as he sobbed silently.

Sing never moved from the spot he was kneeling even as the sun went down, bathing the place in soft hues of orange and yellow.

“月龍，我好想你啊。。。”

月龍，我好想你啊。。。 - Yut Lung, I miss you so much...