#him being alive or not obviously makes a difference for /akechi/ though

[a-sketchy]

i kinda like akechi’s status being unknown. him being dead or purposely staying out of akira’s life are net equal, which is fun

[subnautica-reviews]

Welcome to total drama persona. I’ve pit three teams of persona users (well, two teams of all persona users and one team that has a goddess but they needed an 8th member) against each other through the challenges of total drama island 2007 tosee who comes out on top. Since there’s three teams, i’m putting in AS’ spa hotel as a reward for the winning team, while the losing team has to vote someone off.

For our teams we have:

Not So Happy Campers:

The three teams will first compete in a cliffdive competition. The team with the most divers gets carts that make bringing crates to base camp easier. There they’ll construct hot tubs from the parts in the crates. The team who has the best hot tub in Chris McLean(the host)’s opinion wins.

The cats win the carts, cause even Futaba would probably jump, given that she always goes directly with the thieves through all their dungeon crawling adventures. Given these are the Royal thieves, they’re all making huge leaps in palaces n stuff.

I also think that the bears are more likely to get all their members off the cliff cause Chie would just push everyone. I doubt Fuuka or Yukari’s jumping without any pressure though, meaning the dogs have more chicken hats.

The dogs would get their carts to camp before the bears cause they have more strong members. Also the bears have the least techsperience of anyone here, so their hot tub is easily the worst.

The cats win here not because of tech, cause fuuka is the most techsperienced person competing, but because Yusuke painted their hot tub, which Chris thought looked nice, meaning the cats get luxury tonight.

The bears have to vote someone off. They’re voting their bear.

Marie survives because Teddie likely said something out of pocket (as he usually does). 7-1 vote, most likely.

The Big Sleep:

The first part doesn’t matter. The challenge is simple. Stay awake as long as possible. First team to be fully asleep loses. Last team to still have members/a member awake wins spa hotel.

Aigis is actually first to fall asleep, cause she’s on a 24 hour timer. Nobody else is, though Ken isn’t exactly far behind.

Between the cats and dogs i feel like being able to pull an all nighter in the metaverse is more impressive than any staying awake feats sees has. Sees has fuuka’s ten day stay in tartarus, but that was 10 hours for her. The thieves had at least twelve in Maruki’s palace. Tl;dr Dogs Lose.

The bears win against the cats though, cause goddesses don’t sleep. Tl;dr Marie sweep. IT get luxury.

Alliances formed. For the dogs: Yukari and Mitsuru formed an alliance. Fuuka and Junpei formed an alliance. Ken, akihiko and shinji formed one (we are assuming post femc still alive shinji).

For the bears: Chie and Yukiko (obviously). Kanji and Naoto (begrudgingly on Naoto’s part) and nobody else.

For the cats: Futaba and Yusuke (+Akechi, because Futaba’s scheming). Ann, Haru and Makoto formed one. Ryuji and Sumire just kinda paired up cause there’s nobody else willing to work with either.

Futaba tells Akechi to convince Ken to get the dogs to vote off Aigis. Akechi understands how that’d be advantageous and uses is best detective prince smile while speaking to Ken. Ken’s strong social position allows him to also get Fuuka and Junpei in on the vote.

Meaning that in a (probably) 5-2-1 vote (idk who Aigis, Yukari and Mitsuru voted for tbh) Aigis goes home. If only she had a more durable battery.

Dodgebrawl:

The challenge is slightly different. The teams will be doing 7 v 7 games of dodgeball (One Cat sits out). Team with most wins gets luxury. Team with least wins votes someone off.

Initially Futaba sits out cause she sucks at physical activity. During the Dogs v Cats game however, Ryuji loses his footing because of his knee injury, costing the Cats the match. They make him sit out the next match.

First the dogs face the bears though. Easy win for the dogs. The bears have hard hitters like Chie and Kanji but it’s not enough.

The cats, now with futaba instead of Ryuji cause he’s injured, now face the bears. It’s tense. Chie and Kanji hit like trucks, but so do Makoto and Yusuke. Yosuke almost dodges everything, but a well timed Sexy Technique❤️ sacrifice play from Ann takes Yosuke out of the game. At that point, the Cats’ numbers advantage overwhelms Chie and Kanji.

Rise decides to work on an alliance with Yosuke. She also convinces Naoto and Kanji to help her with a vote against Marie (Rise doesn’t like Marie). Chie and Yukiko vote Rise with Marie (Chie and Marie don’t like Rise).

4-3 vote sends the Bears’ goddess home despite the fact that she carried them last episode, all because Rise was a little annoyed by her.

Not Quite Famous

Talent show. Each team sends three acts. Each act gets judged. Team with the most points by the end wins, team with least points sends someone home.

The Dogs: Akihiko wants to punch something very hard hard and break it. Junpei plans to hold another Junpei’s Believe it or don’t. Finally they decide Shinji should cook.

The Bears: Kanji’s making a plushy. Rise’s singing and… idk Chie’s doing backflips or something.

The Cats: Yusuke’s painting, Ann’s modelling and Sumire’s doing a gymnastics routine.

While the performances are happening, Futaba gets to work on Ryuji. She convinces him that the girl’s alliance is planning to boot him. She suggests that he and Sumire vote for Ann tonight, should the cats lose, as Ann’s their weakest link. Ryuji agrees, mostly to save his own skin.

In an attempt to make herself useful, Yukari decides to sabotage one of the other performances, specifically Yusuke’s paint. As a result, the Cats have a rough start. Junpei’s believe it or don’t also doesn’t hit with the audience that well. Chie’s backflips are ironically the winner of the first round. Futaba saw Yukari sabotage the paint, since she planted the paint there in hopes someone’d try the sabotage.

Akihiko, Kanji and Ann all do pretty well. Ann’s Sexy Technique❤️ gets the cats their first points. The other teams are still ahead though.

Finally, Shinji’s cooking and Rise’s singing knock it out of the park. Sumire unfortunately messes up part of her routine. Rise got 1 point more than Shinji though, making the Bears this episode’s winner. The Cats lose, meaning they finally have to send their first person home.

Futaba talks to the girls alliance and tells them about Akechi talking to Ken and about Yukari sabotaging the Cats, insinuating that Akechi’s falling back on old habits and betraying his team. The girls agree to vote Akechi. Futaba also tells Yusuke and Akechi to vote Ann. Akechi’s getting a tad sus but plays his part for now. Futaba throws her own vote on Ryuji.

4-3-1 vote, Ann goes home. Futaba mentions that she voted Akechi as intended. Akechi, noticing Futaba’s plan, claims to have voted Ryuji. Makoto and Haru are made to be suspicious of one another.

[frickin-sumi-from-persona-5]

i need to get p5r post-canon headcanons (some of these aren't really headcanons they're just me making my own b plots lmao) off my chest. i finished royal last night and i have so much i wanna talk about. its headcanon dump time i guess

(obviously huge spoilers for persona 5 royal)

fyi- these are all super unorganized and some of them don't make a lot of sense without the others. Sorry this is a mess lmao i just wanted to throw my thoughts out there.

also! i named my mc Ren

- akechi didn't die that's not canon. when the wish star thingy turned mona into a helicopter it did so because of ren wishing hard enough for all his friends to be safe. this extends to akechi & maruki and both of them made it out alive

- when he goes into the velvet room after grabbing maruki, ren thinks akechi geniunely did die and starts having a full on breakdown and then akechi just says something to the effect of "you never change" and ren turns around to see akechi leaning against the wall in the velvet room and ren is relieved

- meanwhile akechi is just like "well. i'm alive and i have to accept the consequences of my actions long term now. what the fuck. i hate this guy" but is secretely happy ren cared that much

(fwiw i ship ren/sumi/akechi as a poly trio but they aren't together as of the end of royal, just ren/sumi with akechi kinda third wheeling from time to time)

- after maruki's palace, he still has azathoth as his persona but decides to discontinue any further research.

- on that note, the metaverse wasn't erased. lavenza hand waved that well enough the first time. it takes a little bit for it to get back to normal though. the new path in mementos is still there and mementos just kinda changes gradually over time anyhow

- ren actually did let maruki go through with his plan originally, but lavenza was able to help him go back and make the right choice. because of this ren deeply wants to see a future where him and all his friends are alive and happy

- after the battle with maruki he begs sojiro to let him stay at leblanc and sojiro really does try but ultimately joker has to leave

- Akechi being revived after everything went to normal means he's basically homeless, ren makes sojiro reluctantly agree to let Akechi stay in the attic.

- Akechi has to work at the cafe at first but he can't make coffee for shit so Sojiro just lets him off the hook.

- Ren is heartbroken on his return to his hometown (somewhere close to but not specifically Inaba, maybe Okina?)

- Futaba and Sojiro make a good case for him to come back, and Shujin academy actually backs this up because of his performance last year (also Kawakami)

- after a few months away Ren moves back to youngen. The metaverse has kinda settled and it's back to normal, and the phantom theives resume business as usual

- im. basically just writing fanfic here lmao

- Haru and Makoto move in together to save on costs. Is this gay? time will tell

- Ryuji transfers to a different school due to the move but still hangs out with the gang

- Ann does study abroad after all, and she's sad to go but she wishes the theives luck from wherever she goes (maybe Los Angeles?)

- Haru keeping Okumura foods never happened either. She was able to mostly dissipate the company in an effort to try to distribute the wealth better. Of course, this didn't actually work completely and there are still many powerful ex-okumura foods executives out there, but Haru is happy she did her part.

- Around the time or Ren returning, the phantom theives go through a big transformation of trying to determine their values (as well as who they are).

- Ren makes Akechi stay around with the phantom theives and the entire team kinda hates him except Ren and Sumi, although eventually people start warming up to him.

- Ren convinces the Phantom Theives to let Akechi stay around because he thinks that the phantom theives of all people should believe in letting people change. They agree on the condition that they check if Akechi has a palace. He doesn't and so he stays around. He does come to geniunely regret his actions and tries and makes up for them.

- After spending YEARS not dare letting anyone see any flaws with him, Akechi becomes just kinda burnt out. He's just a pathetic little failboy now and he knows it and hates himself for it. He's not good at asking for help

- Also Akechi 100% has some kind of trauma disorder/personality disorder. I don't know too much about it but from what I know i wanna say i headcanon akechi with npd

- ren is transmasc. there's not much of an in-universe explanation that would make sense here but he's trans. he has tboy swag.

- ren is kinda fucked up but has grown used to the horrors(tm) and doesn't give a fuck anymore.

- there's no good headcanon i can make with ryuji. like he's just a guy and we love him for it

- ann absolutely has a crush on shiho and i ship them. ann thinks she's "just an ally lol" until one day it hits her and she's like. oh. i'm gay.

- yusuke is probably bi or something. you cannot tell me he doesn't like men in some capacity. actually wait maybe he's aro/ace spec. i don't even know with him i just think my man's funky.

- also yusuke is 100% autistic. i think most of the phantom theives are kinda neurodivergent in some way, but Yusuke & Futaba stand out as being the Autistics of the bunch(tm)

- Makoto wanted to be a police commissioner but kinda comes to the realisation that won't do anything so she kinda just has a crisis. Both hee and Haru spent their lives accepting oppressive systems and they're kinda just recoiling at what they'll do now.

- Futaba doesn't make any new friends in school but she's happy things are back to normal. She's in the same class as Sumire.

- Haru has no idea what to study in college and neither does Makoto. She ends up taking Psychology and Makoto ends up taking intro to law even though neither of them are sure what they want for the future.

- Akechi ultimately resigns from going to school but helps Ren & Sumi out with homework when they ask

- Sumire and Futaba get Kawakami's class as their homeroom. Futaba calls Kawakami a "milf" and it annoys Sumi. Futaba knows it annoys her and she does it on purpose.

- Sumire is trans. Kasumi isn't. Sumire looked up to her sister and wanted to be a girl so when she finally got the chance to be someone she looked up to and erase her guilt of course she took it. A big part of the reason why she didn't want to stop being Kasumi was gender dysphoria. Sumire wasn't her name prior to this I can only assume she had a deadname. Maybe she chooses Sumire to honor her sister.

- Hifumi becomes a phantom theif eventually. I've speculated about this too much and now I want it to be real.

- Akechi and Sumi have a showtime attack. I'm not sure exactly what It would entail but I can picture Akechi saying something like "I can be elegant when I want to"

- After Hereward forms, Akechi is no longer a wild card. As Akechi grows and recovers as a person, his metaverse outfit changes, and eventually it looks like something along the lines of his White Suit, but with a different color palette. The top mask part of his helmet/mask is the only part that sticks around, now my boy has his hair out and can breathe (and take off his mask dramatically like the theater kid he is)

- The Royal Trio probably become a proper trio like sometime in the early fall (after ren comes back to yongen). Akechi and Sumi are initially very jealous of the time they spend with Ren but come to realise that the time spent with the three of them is the time that matters most of all.

- The Phantom theives ultimately decide that because of the money and treasure they get from Infiltrating Mementos/Palaces, most of them don't need jobs. They spend their money cautiously so they don't like. Fuck up the economy and/or tip off law enforcement.

- Eventually members who were undecided with their lives ultimately resolve to be one of the phantom theives and just do that full time. Sumi, Yusuke, and Ann are exceptions right now, with Sumi chasing her dreams to be a Professional Gymnast. Somewhere much later down the road I think the phantom theives decide to follow these goals as a team. Sumi and Ann traveling for work could probably make a great cover for the Phantom Theives.

(although i'm not thinking about their characters beyond ren graduating high school. this is more their POV and what they aspire to do for the future)

- I imagine the phantom Theives kinda just become like Tokyo's superheroes in that they have threats come up from time to time and just kinda deal with it as necessary

- People can talk to their personas at any time, but can only summon them in the metaverse. A lot of Personas have things to say throughout the day that they make some commentary on. Most of them are fairly reliable for advice, but don't technically know any more than the person they're apart of.

- Joker is a bit of an exception to this rule, due to having more than one Persona. If he wants to talk to them he kinda has to tap into his mind and see them all. It's not particularly difficult it just requires a little bit of focus, and there's usually not much of a reason to do it.

- Also his personas manifest physically in the velvet room as well.

- At a certain point Mona just kinda comes into the velvet room too and just fucks around while joker is working his ass off to fuse the most overpowered persona

- i don't really know anything about strikers but quite frankly if i ever get around to playing it i'm gonna disregard half of it as not canon and then just take the most important story elements and also sophie and just incorporate it into my perception of persona 5

- Maruki considers teaming up with the Phantom Theives, and ultimately decides against it, although he helps them out every now and again.

- Personal favorite. Maruki was able to manipulate mementos to his will and create a whole new path, and The Phantom theives are curious in seeing if they can do the same thing. After a bit of work, they end up creating a safe room that takes on the appearance of theives den. This has the effect of the cognition believing the Phantom Theives are safe and out of the way, making it easier for them to slip by the radar.

- If Futaba is ever really busy Lavenza subs in for her and does the navigating.

It's kinda funny how canon-divergent all of this is. Because I'm normally someone who religiously sticks to canon and doesn't like it when fanworks stray too far from the established canon. That said, Persona 5's ending felt kinda sad and I want some copium. not me casually rewriting their reality in my mind the day after beating dr maruki

anyhow now i gotta play strikers :3

[atticinthecafe]

its 1 am and I wanted to write before I headed off to bed. this jumps around a lot time wise and I did not proof read it I'm ti r e d

---

The first time Akira did this Morgana nagged at him the whole time.

---

"Joker! You've been wandering around the city for hours," Morgana whined from inside the bag, shifting around.

Akira just hummed in response. His eyes were distant and foggy, constantly trained on the distance. Sometimes they would scan across the crowds, almost like he was looking for someone, but for the most part he just seems dazed, lost in thought. He kept walking, the twists and turns memorized by the back of his hand, simply wandering. Sometimes he'd end up on a train to some other area, but he just wandered all the same.

"When are we going home? I'm bored!" Morgana complained, this time getting a bit louder.

This seemed to break Akira from his thoughts, as he frowned looking at his bag where Morgana sat.

"I can talk you home if you want," He spoke low, just to his cat, in a neutral tone. It was hard to tell what was on his mind.

"Yes! wait- you're going to keep walking?"

"Mhm,"

"I'm not leaving you on your own! I'll just tough it out then! But we better get food sometime soon!"

---

Morgana hadn't really known why he was wandering, but to be fair, neither did he.

He had his hand shoved into a pocket, holding the glove he had gotten from his rival and walked around the city, watching the scenery and the people go past as he drifted. It was different now. He had been doing this for weeks. Just- walking around.

Orginally he had no clue why he did it. Something weighed on him, made him feel heavy. He zoned out during conversations and stared into space. Morgana suggested maybe fresh air and a walk would help refresh his senses, but it just ended in him wandering.

He needed the space, to be away from people. He also needed away from his thoughts, but that wasn't so easy. The city provided a nice distraction. Different things to think about. But that didn't stop the soft lull of sadness from weighing down his head.

He missed Akechi if he was being honest. He didn't notice it. But it was like a low hum in the back of his heart. Invisible stress making him tired when he hadn't done anything. It haunted him and didn't leave him be.

---

Morgana at some point had mentioned how when cats lose a friend or someone they care about they'll wander around, meowing and crying out for the other.Akira wondered if Morgana had been talking about him when he brought it up.

Today he had left Morgana with Futaba. The fog in his head and weight in his chest had gotten worse the past week. He hadn't known why until Ryuji mentioned it was around the same date they had met Akechi.

Incredible how his subconscious refused to let go.

The rain pattered against his umbrella as he walked and puddles gently splashed beneath his feet. It was nice to get rain in June. He certainly didn't mind it. It gave the city a softer, calmer feel. It almost felt like the rain took some of his weight with it when it fell.

---

Akira was fine most days. He seemed normal. Almost like he had moved on, but there were some where he simply disappeared out the front door, and everyone knew. They knew he still missed Akechi, no matter how many times they told him he shouldn't.  They knew he needed space for a bit.

The one time they made him stay it was obvious how he was stressed without realizing it. He fidgeted awkwardly and didn't participate in conversation. He seemed like he wasn't there at all and when spoke to he'd look up confused and obviously off in his own world.

Sometimes they would intentionally tell him to take a walk. He'd get shaky and tense for no reason. Seem more irritable and quiet than usually. Not handle loud noises or being around people well. This is when his friends would step in and tell him maybe he should go for a walk to calm his nerves. Sometimes it would take him getting frustrated over something small and all his stress breaking like a dam for the others to take notice, in which case they'd quiet down and all pause to take care of him. Whether it be one of them going on a walk with him, or the group settling down to bundle up in blankets and form a small pile as they watched movies together.

He wished it would stop. The days where he was stressed without realsing it and dazed. The days where he felt like the slightest thing going wrong would cause him to start sobbing and he didn't know why. The days where he missed Akechi.

He wasn't even certain if he was alive.

---

It had been a few years. Akira was better. He was managing better. But he still suddenly disappeared for walks. Some nights he wouldn't sleep at all and instead wandered.

It had been one of those nights, and now here he was, head resting on the counter of Leblanc well Sojiro huffed at him in the background. Something about going upstairs to sleep and not staying up so late.

He didn't move though, and Sojiro didn't seem to mind. There was something calming about the atmosphere. It was warm and the chattering of the TV in the background provided comfort in it's own way.

He couldn't sleep, as much as he wanted to the stress tugged at his brain keeping him just awake enough to be unable to sleep but not awake enough to bypass his exhaustion. So he just sat there, soaking in the smell of coffee and the peaceful air.

---

A ring sounded from the door, and Akira didn't bother looking up, staying where he was.

That was until he heard a soft, almost amused hum as a chair besides him was dragged out from its spot, someone sitting besides him. His eyes flickered open and up to meet red ones, gazing at him fondly.

The time passed in sections, one moment he has his head on the table, next he knew Akira was a crossed from the man, getting started on his favorite cup of coffee, pressing his glove back into his hand with tears pricking at his eyes. Then he was brewing coffee. A conversation between them was happening but- he didn't hear it. It made his chest warm and light, the lightest it had felt it years.

He placed the coffee infront of the other with a smile. He could feel the pure, unfiltered love and happiness just to be able to hear his voice again rush through his body with every word the man spoke.

He hummed softly as the other pressed their hands together, the warmth filling his body yet lingering just where he touched him.

---

His heart felt raw.

Akira blinked open his eyes to Sojiro leaving. To the once warm comforting room feeling cold and bitterly lonely. The warmth that lingered on his hand feeling almost like a bitter sting.

He lifted his head up to find tears streaming down his face and his sleeves damp from where he had been resting his head.

Of course, it was just a dream.

His fingers found their way into his pocket, and he gripped the glove tight. His chest was nothing but raw pain that you would have figured he would have gotten over by now.

He just wanted to see him again.

---

The next few days were incredible low for Akira. He spent most of them asleep.

Dreams were incredible tantalizing now. The fact that occasionally, he would see Akechi again in them made them feel more worth while than reality sometimes.

It was lonely.

He spent a long time asleep that week. More than he should have, but he couldn't help it. The sting in his chest was hard to bare.

---

Akira laughed.

It was the fullest his chest had felt in a while. No longer that haunting hollow that followed him around from day to day.

He was still moving on, he still occasionally had days where he would wander. But they were less now.

The warmth that filled his chest when his friends smiled, the brightness in their eyes and the lightness to their tone when they said the stupidest jokes made the lonely fade.

He had forgotten how good they make him feel.

There was a bittersweet taste left in his mouth when he thought about Akechi. How he should get to feel the same warmth Akira did. How he deserved so much more than the cards he was handed, but Akira didn't linger on that. He couldn't. He had to move forwards.

Akechi would probably call him stupid for staying stuck on him so long. He would say how he shouldn't waste the life he has thinking about someone who killed him. How if anything he should be glad he finally won. There was no more rivalry to be had. But Akira still had to disagree.

Akira took every step as a challenge to be better. He spent the days trying to improve, telling himself that he couldn't fall behind now. He couldn't disappoint the rival he loved so dearly by stopping just because it was over.

He figured if Akechi ever did return, he'd give him a real challenge. If he met Akechi again he wanted to be someone he could respect, someone he could challenge and find worth challenging. He wanted to keep the rivalry alive in his own little way. It was just a promise in his own mind he had to keep. And he couldn't do that with a hurting chest, so he indulged in the moments surrounded by friends, with laughter in the air.

He would do his best to continue, just to prove that he could. He wouldn't forget Akechi, he didnt think he could, but he wouldn't fall behind because of him.

---

When the day was late and the sky had turned shades of orange Akira was left cleaning up Leblanc, making sure everything was ready for business tomorrow.

It had been a while since he had finally realized that he had moved forwards, but he was still making progress with each day.

He leaned back onto a shelf, letting out a soft satisfied hum as he relaxed for the day.

Then the bell on the door rung.

Then a familiar voice spoke, and Akira had to make sure this wasn't a dream.

"I hope I haven't come in too late for a cup of coffee Kurusu, I was hoping we could catch up,"

[hatdude5236]

Spoilers??

Okay, but why is nobody talking about this imagine? Like, it’s obvious that the statue is Akechi. So, he’s obviously gonna be mentioned or even playable. I see a lot of people saying he’ll be dlc alongside Kasumi/Sumire. However, it’s becoming more and more likely that this game takes place after P5 Royal and not the original P5. This is all shown by the (dubbed by the fandom) “empty” true ending to P5R and the return of showtime attacks (albeit quite different from Royal). So, what does this knew “palace” of sorts do with the story and why does it have a huge statue of Akechi? With the true ending of P5R alullding to Akechi being alive, it would make sense he’d be apart of the game with Yoshizawa. But the question is how? I don’t really think there is any answers though, just to wait for the release.

Edit: Even if that’s not Akechi(which I now release isn’t him), the developers knew what they were doing, putting someone who looks similar to him in the trailer

[atopearth]

Ikemen Sengoku Part 10 - Akechi Mitsuhide Route

I love how motivated the heroine was until Hideyoshi appeared and criticised everything about her appearance that made her feel motivated lmao. Aww it's so cute how Hideyoshi saw her in a new light after she saved Ranmaru. I love how Ranmaru said he'll make sure to remember the heroine to thank her, and Mitsuhide had to say that it'll only be useful if he'll still be alive after seeing Nobunaga (since Ranmaru abandoned Nobunaga and fled the fire at Honno-ji) lmaooo. Mitsuhide is so right though hahahaha. It's been a while since I last played Ikemen Sengoku so I kinda forgot how snarky the dialogue can be. Like lmao at Sasuke introducing Yukimura to the heroine as the guy who doesn't know how to speak to women (since he called her a boar woman LOL), and he introduced Yoshimoto as the guy who can hahahah, it's so true though lmao.

Loll at the heroine thinking being at the base camp will be the best when in fact, that's where Mitsuhide is haha. I love how Mitsuhide told her to act like a mouse and just hide behind him when the enemies attacked them, I mean, it is the only thing she can do, and as long as she focuses on protecting herself, she won't drag them down lol. I've never really thought about what weapon Mitsuhide might use, but I really didn't expect it to be a gun! It actually suits him so well though haha. I do feel sorry for the heroine though, seeing someone die right before your eyes is really scary, not to mention the fact that if Mitsuhide didn't shoot the guy, their lives would have been in danger instead. The fear of imminent death and the fear of seeing death, they're both things not many people can calmly handle, so I'm not surprised the heroine fainted. We should be glad that the battle practically ended there though, because if she fainted whilst the battle was going on, that could be a nightmare lol. When Mitsuhide told her not to thank him because she should never thank someone for taking another person's life, it really hit me because he's right. Obviously there's not much of a choice in war, but I think for Mitsuhide, he finds it important that we should never numb ourselves into thinking that these people don't have lives, that these people are nothing but enemies, because in reality, they're just the same as everyone else, just on a different side. Aww Mitsuhide is gonna be her teacher! Lmaoo at him being impressed that she got nothing right on the tests he gave her hahahaha.

I miss the banter between Ieyasu and Mitsunari, it's hilarious how much of a natural enemy Mitsunari is to Ieyasu hahaha. On the other hand, it's so sweet that everyone came to give the heroine snacks and ended up having a tea party lmaoo. It's kinda saddening to think that Mitsuhide is kinda right in that, the moment you feel good about aiming and being able to properly shoot a living thing, you've died in the sense that you've lost the emotions you lend to other beings. Man, if I was the heroine, I would run away from Mitsuhide's training too, not that it would help since he'll catch you loll, but it's so frightening!! It's nice that he finally properly taught her how to handle the horse (before she died lol). Loll at Mitsuhide the creep just staring at her eat hahaha, it was sweet of him to actually buy her some sweets and tea as a reward for getting through the lessons though! It's hard to hear about Mitsuhide being someone who would torture people and suggest battle plans where he can eradicate Nobunaga's enemies swiftly by sacrificing other "innocents" alongside them, but I'm glad the heroine chose to talk to Masamune about this, because I think he's right, instead of listening to others, she should weigh who Mitsuhide is to her from what she sees of him rather than building her impression on what she hears about him. Mitsuhide may be cruel for his job, but I'm sure his cruelty is what allowed for him and Nobunaga to survive to this day. Whether it will continue to stay that way is something to see later on, but for now, these are their methods and it works. HAHAHA, I love how the heroine went to Mitsuhide's place to cheer him up (because of the rumours that he colluded with Kennyo in trying to kill Nobunaga at Honno-ji), I think it's lovely how most people would avoid him or think that he can handle it because of the person that he is, but the heroine treats him like any other person and goes to comfort him, she's so cute! I found it endearing how he comforted her back (by hugging her!🥰) when he took his teasing too far.

I find it hilarious that Mitsuhide has a pet fox hahahahha, he got himself as a pet. Imagining Mitsuhide poking her cheek is so funny yet adorable hahaha. I guess even Mitsuhide gets flustered and troubled over handling the heroine when she's sad about his "betrayal" and adamant about outing him to others. I guess it's rather fascinating to see his distress through him being not up to par (as usual) when it comes to his blackmailing and threatening stuff lol. Trust Mitsuhide to be the guy to believe her time travel story, but omggg I love that she gets to have Mitsuhide as her lap pillow to sleep on hahaha. It's usually the other way around so it's nice we get this🤣 Lmao at Mitsuhide literally following her around 24/7 to keep an eye on her so she doesn't leak his secret (of communicating with an enemy). LMAO when the heroine was thinking "hi dad, hi mum, this is my new boyfriend" when Mitsuhide forcefully dragged her to the private meeting with Nobunaga and Hideoyshi to discuss their relationship lolll. It's hilarious how flamboyantly Mitsuhide tries to show off their "relationship". His sweet words are honestly full of teasing yet also smothered with interest in her lol. Hahaha, nice to know that their "lie" is just being spun into more and more craziness, I find it cute that they're pretending to be a married couple for a spy mission lol. The heroine got more emotional than I thought towards Mitsuhide, but I guess it's kinda understandable when she's obviously really seriously thinking about how much she likes him compared to how much she "hates" him, and it really doesn't help how playfully loving he is as her "husband". I guess I'm more surprised about her being so mad that she cried when Yoshiaki and those other daimyo etc treated her like a bug rather than a human being. Honestly, I'm just glad she's okay because they really could have done anything to her. It was nice to see Mitsuhide panicking and looking for her though. And yes, Mitsuhide! No one besides you is allowed to make the heroine cry, so make them pay! Loll.

It was really kind of Yoshimoto to approach the heroine and ask whether she's okay after he heard of the fiasco last night from some people. It's kinda saddening to see Yoshimoto so resigned to his fate. He can't go against his last few vassals and people in the Imagawa clan because they've lost everything, so it's natural for them to want to get everything back in whatever way possible even though they all know the clan is pretty much done for, but I guess they'd rather go out with a bang than just rot as a clan defeated by Nobunaga and couldn't stand back up. No sympathy for Yoshiaki though, he's a shit. I find it really adorable that the heroine's honesty and sincerity is really tearing off Mitsuhide's mask, it was so cute when he blushed because she said she really cared about him and that's why she cares about the things that are happening in this era. The play was such a smack in the face for Yoshiaki lol, but I don't care about him so whatever. On the other hand, I loved how Mitsuhide kissed her on the way home to Azuchi! It was so sweet how they could genuinely share their feelings under the pretence of the fake husband and wife relationship, I loved it. Guess it's kinda saddening that everything magical about the trip got shattered the moment they came back, since Mitsuhide is getting arrested for conspiring against Nobunaga. So terrible to see people taking revenge on Mitsuhide now that he's in jail, ripping his nails off is so cruel and disgusting. But it's probably true that they're not as cruel as him lol. It was really cute to see the heroine and Hideyoshi care so much for him though.

It's really sweet to see that the blue bellflower hairpin Mitsuhide gave the heroine before he escaped was that meaningful to his clan! It's basically their family crest after it allowed them to win an impossible battle, so it's kinda a blessing for victory. I think what was most touching was that he already bought this and planned to give it to her before they even went on that spy mission trip. He's been smitten with her for a whilee! I was happy to see the heroine's whole thought process about whether she was betrayed by Mitsuhide, whether he was lying to her etc, but then calmed herself down and remembered that she shouldn't focus on what seems right or wrong, but instead focus on making her own judgement of Mitsuhide's character, and as she said before she left, she believes in him and will continue to, but she will also go along with Nobunaga and them to ascertain his intentions kinda thing. I liked that.

It was expected that Mitsuhide wasn't loyal to Yoshiaki at all and did it to help Nobunaga get rid of Yoshiaki without garnering the dismay of the imperial court etc since Yoshiaki is a shogun. But dang, I loved how Nobunaga told the heroine to go along with Mitsuhide to deal with the escaping Yoshiaki, mainly because he knows how reckless Mitsuhide can be if he's by himself, but if the heroine is there, he'll make sure to stay safe and come back. I'm so glad the heroine got between Yoshimoto and Mitsuhide and didn't allow Yoshimoto to give himself to death just to relieve his vassals of the idea that they can live without finding glory in battling to death. Although I understand Yoshimoto's will, it's hard to not agree with the heroine. Yoshimoto only has one life and he should live it for himself instead of being burdened by all this responsibility that the vassals refuse to let go of. It's about time they all accepted reality and lived on for themselves rather than for the past Imagawa clan. Hideyoshi tying a rope around his and Mitsuhide's hands to make sure Mitsuhide can't escape again is so cute. I can understand though, Mitsuhide is always so reckless, always trying to do everything by himself, always trying to sully himself so that others like Hideyoshi can live in the light, but it must frustrate Hideyoshi so much that it has to be like this. Yay! They're going on another trip together! Well, it's not for fun since they're chasing after Yoshiaki, but that was expected since he escaped, so, still yay~

Okay, initially, it was all right to show how much Mitsuhide cares about the heroine by making it difficult for him to concentrate and make proper decisions when she comes into picture, but honestly, it's getting a bit crazy how much they need to shove this in our faces, like, isn't there any other way to show Mitsuhide cares for the heroine aside from this?! Honestly, I was about to say the dramatic route and the romantic route are about the same, but I think I'm liking the dramatic route more because we get to see Yoshimoto again, and we get to see his vassals apologise for being so disrespectful to him and better understand how kind and understanding of a lord he was to them. Otherwise, I feel like Mitsuhide's jealousy and protectiveness over the heroine is honestly a bit too much lol. But, I did really enjoy how the heroine chose to stay here with Mitsuhide (even if she were to die from poison) instead of going back to her era, I think her persistence in staying beside Mitsuhide no matter what kinda touched me. But, I do have to say, I feel like the heroine is...really childish in this route or something. I'm not sure if it's her or the translation script, but a lot of the things she says and the way she says it just sounds so... juvenile? I don't know, it was okay in the beginning but once they got together, the way she acts just felt more weird from usual and I couldn't really enjoy their "romantic scenes" because it felt like Mitsuhide was with someone quite immature and he kinda dumbs himself down to be with her LOL. Now I sound so mean hahahah. But really, I still don't think they match imo (even though the first half of the route was cute). Mitsuhide is a great guy, but not for this heroine. I also feel like the route tries to shine Mitsuhide in a great light too much, making him more like a kind misunderstood "evil guy", so it really makes the "darker" part of him kinda nonexistent now and it makes me kinda sad because I honestly thought this route would be more heavy and interesting in that aspect I guess. 

Anyway, overall, it might be a silly complaint but Mitsuhide's just so...sweet to her that it actually makes me feel sad LOL. Not only is he too sweet, but he obviously liked the heroine so quickly in the beginning that most of the time he was already nice to her lol. I kinda thought it would be more of a break the ice kinda thing with Mitsuhide considering how cautious he usually is but yeah...lol, he practically opened himself up so much it was obvious he loved her the entire time. I'm not saying it's a bad route though, it was still nice! Just not my type tbh. I think it was all right in the beginning, but after they got together, it became really obvious how different the power balance(?) was between them, with Mitsuhide constantly trying to hide her from everything to protect her, and the heroine being the little lamb that just kinda listens to him because she thinks it's cute how jealous and overprotective he is, but to me, it felt so...boring? I knew that it would be difficult for the heroine to stand on the same level as Mitsuhide but I kinda thought she would support him in a different way (other than love), so it kinda disappointed me that in the end, what the heroine provides to him is really just the romance to melt his heart and the will to come back to his friends without sacrificing himself, since he needs to live for her kinda thing. Otherwise, I did enjoy how a lot of the time the heroine was trying to figure out what kind of person he was to her, and what kind of person he was to the people around him (since she wasn’t able to gauge whether he was “good”), so it was nice to see her treat him as any other normal person and talk to him to understand him, rather than make assumptions about him.

[the-prince-and-the-thief]

//Okay fam here’s what I got. 

It started when Akechi was assigned to kill Futaba’s mom. This was one of his first crimes, if not THE first, to my understanding, and it was probably the one that messed him up the most. He didn’t want to leave someone to live the same life that he’d lived. But his plans were riding on this. Buuuuut... 

Well, Wakaba Isshiki was studying cognitive psience. Maybe she could help him? He doesn’t have much trust in adults, but he just tells her upfront “look, Shido’s my dad, and I hate him, and I want to make him suffer. He wants me to kill you, but I don’t really want to do that. Help me.” He starts to learn about cognitive psience. He’s not exactly an expert at the stuff, but he’s trying his best. He’s thinking he wants to erase Shido’s memory of Wakaba and himself. If he did that, problem solved, at least for now. He’d need bigger plans in the future, but this would give him more time at least. 

Unfortunately, cognitive psience is hard, and he is a teenaged boy, not a professional. While testing the idea on himself (to rid himself of traumatic memories of abuse during foster care), he kind of... erases like. Everything. He had a note with basic info in case he messed up (his address, the password to his phone, where he could meet Wakaba to help him), but that’s all he’s got. He manages to get back to Leblanc, but he’s unable to properly care for himself for the time being. He doesn’t know how money works, how to navigate tokyo, or basically anything other than the bare bones of living (dressing himself, eating, going to the bathroom, bathing, sleeping). Wakaba can’t really afford to support a family of three (two is hard enough) so would Sojiro please maybe help out? please? 

Well I mean how is Sojiro supposed to say no to Wakaba??? He doesn’t, obviously. Lol. Sojiro now has a very dumb, dorky young teenager to care for, until he restores his memory. He’s lost memory of his schooling (though he does pick it up quickly), so he ends up transferring schools to one that’ll take an amnesiac boy for PR purposes. Wonder what school takes in trouble cases for PR....? ;) 

By the time the game would have started, Wakaba is alive, Futaba is happy, Sojiro is starting to tolerate the little loser (at least he’s learning how to make coffee well grumble grumble), and good news, Akechi! Sort of! There’s a criminal coming to stay in the attic! (Wait, why is this good news?) 

It’d be a pretty different AU obviously but it’d be cool to see Goro with the thieves from the beginning, or at least from early on. Heck they might get their oracle earlier too! 

I’d love to plan/rp this with some of you guys if you’re down. I think it’d be a great time. 

[nanodayoloswag]

Detective Akechu

It’s words. Several of them, strung together. Y’know. Like a parody fic that absolutely did not need to exist but weird shit happens when you don’t sleep for days so here we are. Read on if you dare or whatever.

__

 “Hey! Hey, wake up, please? Are you alright? You’ve both been passed out for a very long time now. I’m not sure exactly how much help I can be in this form. I feel as though what I could do would be very counteractive to what actually needs to be done. Though in this world is that particularly dangerous? Then again, in our own world, where people tend to heal absurdly fast, something like that isn’t particularly dangerous at all, right?

“Surely then, in this world, where creatures such as this exist, then it’s the norm to be jolted like this every now and again, right? Otherwise this creature wouldn’t be half as popular as it is, would it? Well, maybe among certain groups. But generally the face of the brand such as this has much less malicious intentions, right? Of course, there is an argument to be made for Madoka’s mascot character, but that character also wasn’t acting out of malice, really. It’s just that people perceive it as malice. 

“Attempting to save the universe from entropy really is a noble endeavor, though I suppose the real cause for argument is how unethical the tradeoff seems. Alien creatures don’t need to adhere to any human code of ethics though, right? It doesn’t really make them wrong not to abide by that, does it? No, of course not.

“But am I taking the aliens’ side too easily you ask? What about the humans who were tricked into the contract? Withholding information isn’t exactly a trick or deception. It isn’t an honest tactic for sure, but why would anyone accept the deal the incubators needed for them to strike if they knew the consequences from the start? Something like that is what you’d call ‘a necessary evil’ right? 

“You can’t answer that of course, still knocked out cold it seems. Perhaps I should find someone. Or, perhaps I really should employ that particular method? It is entirely possible that convenience in situations such as this could be a reason that I was -

“Oh! Are you finally coming to now? Great. I was just thinking that maybe I should sh - GyAHk”

“SHADDAP.” A fist collided hard with the back of the blabbering creature’s fuzzy head, shoving it down into the dirt as Aiura Mikoto groggily picked herself up off the ground. “Ugh, what the shit.” She blinked several times, and glanced around at her surroundings. Whaaa-HuH??? This. Certainly wasn’t where she lived. Or anything close to it, actually. Was this still even around Hidariwakibara? She was out in the woods somewhere. 

And. The hell was that guy doing here? 

Lying face-down in front of her was Toritsuka Reita. 

Why in all fuck was she out in the forest with Toritsuka? 

Just what the hell did that imply? 

Well she’d be damned if she wasn’t about to find out. She grabbed his unconscious form by the shirt and yanked him off the ground.  

“Hey, get your ass up and tell me what’s going on here!”

“I can tell you that!” Something else popped up from the ground. It was a familiar little fuzzy shape. Yellow-ish with tiny bead eyes and round red cheeks. Plus that iconic tail shape. There were several reactions a person could have to seeing something like this. Mikoto, thoroughly startled by it, responded by screeching and kicking it away from her as fast as possible. It slammed into a nearby tree, and fell back against the trunk, dazed. What that thing was didn’t click to Aiura for another few moments.  

H-HuuuHHHH??? Her face perfectly matched that sentiment. She let Toritsuka go and stared at the large rat she’d kicked for a few moments, making sure she was absolutely certain before slowly coming forward and making the call. “Holy shit is that a fucking Pikachu?” She was incredulous. What in the heck. No way. This was like, a toy or something, right? 

The toy sure was moving in a lot less robotic way than she would have expected as it tried to recompose itself. It was quietly mumbling as it did so, words a bit slurred here and there. “That chsertainly is unpleasant. It isn’t as though this medium has ever implied that these scenarios were parchitcularly pleasant but the battles against each other at the least arree shppposed to be exhilerating at least, yes? I guess that’s not fully connected. There’s still got to be physical pain involved, it’s jusht that -” 

It sure did talk a lot too for a toy. Didn’t Aiura know that voice? 

“Hey. You’re like, for reals alive, yea? Ya ain’t a toy?” Might as well just cut to the fastest way to clear this up. 

The fuzzy little thing looked straight up at her face. “Yes, I’m alive, to my knowledge. I can’t say that I know much about how ‘life’ itself works in this world. We can easily assume it works the same as ours, considering what’s presented in the materials for it, however one can also easily make the argument that this is simply an altered state with life itself being tethered to original bodies and worlds and so on and so forth. For example, my form may have shifted to become that you see before you right now, or, my spirit could have traveled here and possessed this being. There are several more possibilities and as I just woke up this way I can’t say that one or the other is for sure the truth of the matter here. But it is very possible that if my spirit is here and my original body is left behind somewhere, that that version of me is ‘dead’ at this moment if it can no longer function without the spirit.”

Woah, it recovered fast all of a sudden. Aiura had no idea what exactly he was on about with spirits here but at least something was clear now. 

“You’re that one guy. Kusuo’s friend.” 

“I assumed that I was being clear enough but yes. I am Akechi Touma! Although at this moment we could also say that -”

“NO, quiet for a moment. I need to understand this.” Okay. Alrighty. Sure. She had just woken up in the middle of the forest. Toritsuka was there. Akechi was there. And for some reason, he was a Pikachu. Right. Yeah. Okay. That was happening right now. 

How the heck was that happening right now? Was this a dream? Was she asleep? No way in hell she’d be dreaming about Toritsuka being there with her. Actually, she needed to get back to waking him up. It’d be easier to understand an explanation from him than Chatterchu over there. She had just bent down to grab the spirit medium up and start shaking him when someone who just could not follow directions called her attention again.

“Ah! Right! Him! He was here with you when I first woke up. I was around the both of you as well so I assume that whatever happened must have involved all of us together. I have no recollection of events prior to ending up here like this either, or what has caused my sudden transformation. However if you need an assist in waking him I did several experiments before attempting to wake either of you. As this is my body now it seemed imperative that I-”

“GET TO THE POINT! Geez, some of us are tryin’ to figure out what the fuck is happening yanno?” 

“Ah, yes, right, the point. Well I’ll be brief then and test my theory on this. After some trial and error with this body I discovered that shockingly easily I am able to –“ He cut himself off for once as a bolt of electricity burst forth from his body and struck Toritsuka. 

The target crackled and sputtered from the shock, his body twitching violently. Akechi’s plan worked well enough to jolt Toritsuka awake though. Once he stopped his attack the medium hopped up, screaming, and also stumbling a bit as his body was still shaking.

“I WAS ONLY LOOKING I DIDNT TOUCH ANYONE!” 

A little smile crept onto Aiura’s face. Toritsuka seemed like he’d be fine, but that was. Well. She hadn’t expected it, at the least. “Hey that’s super handy. We should consider keepin’ you this way.” Down the line Toritsuka could probably use a few more good jolts like that.

It took a good minute for Toritsuka to realize that he was awake and in the middle of a forest instead of off in some foreign nightmare prison being tazed for things he probably should not admit to here. He wasn’t as confused by the situation as Aiura had been once he got his bearings. He simply mumbled out, “Must’ve been sleep walking.” His temple was around a forested area, so he just had to figure the way back. 

Akechi was fascinated by the fact that Toritsuka didn’t seem to particularly be injured once he’d fully woken up. The physics of what he’d just done worked just as he had figured that they would in this world. He would have launched into a whole spiel on that, excited to share his discovery, if Toritsuka hadn’t taken notice of them finally first. 

“Hah? Boob girl? What are you doing here?” 

The first thing Aiura did in response to that was slap him as hard as she possibly could. The force sent him reeling backward. 

Toritsuka grabbed his poor, very red, stinging face. “HEY WHAT THE HECK?!!” 

Aiura was having none of his games. “Obviously you kidnapped me out here in my sleep or something!” She had ignored Akechi’s implication that something must have happened to all of them. This was Toritsuka’s fault. There’s no way anyone would willingly wake up next to that guy. There’s no way she would’ve willingly gone into some situation with that guy that would cause this. Well, unless Kusuo asked, maybe. But if he had, she didn’t remember it, so that didn’t matter at the moment. 

“I DIDN’T DO THAT! I’M NOT THAT KIND OF PERVERT!” 

Her hard stare said she didn’t believe him. She was about to voice that but stopped, startled as something fuzzy had leapt up onto her shoulder to be more at eye-level with Toritsuka. 

“I’m here as well!” Akechi chimed. That sent Toritsuka reeling back for an entirely different reason. 

“Wh-HUUH??!! That’s a Pikachu! Isn’t it?!!” 

“Yes. Indeed, it seems I have become a popular mascot character in this world. However, that is not our issue at current. Well, I suppose it is still my issue, as I’m not quite certain how it may have happened, and I would like to return to my original form, if possible. Although I do have several theories on the matter. Again, though, that is not the topic of discussion right now. At present the issue is how all of us have awoken together in this place. I feel it’s wrong to place unnecessary blame without having all the facts. We can’t confirm or deny that one person dragged the other out here. And the three of us don’t particularly spend as much time together as we do apart, so unless there were other circumstances, one of which I think is a major factor in this, then -”  

“Woah, okay, shut up! You’re just like that one guy!” 

“He is that one guy.”  

“He-WHA?” 

“Right! I already said this while you were asleep, but I do happen to be Akechi Touma!” 

Toritsuka stared at the Pikachu for a long moment. A very, very long moment, before voicing what was on his mind about it. “Saiki-san really is terrifying, huh.” 

“Kusuo?” Aiura questioned, not quite following.

The look Toritsuka shot her said that this should have been obvious. “Well, duh! What else could do this?! You’ve seen what he can do to people just by looking at them!” 

“Well, yeah...” Of course she had to concede to that, but. Why would Kusuo do something like this? He wasn’t the type to just mess with people on a random whim. 

Akechi didn’t look so sure about Toritsuka’s deduction either. “Though I also feel as if Kusuo-kun may have had something to do with this situation, perhaps we can’t place the entirety of the blame on him just yet? Considering where we are, there could be several other factors at work here. This particular group is proof that our world has it’s share of unnatural phenomena, but I feel that in this one such things are far more common.”

People didn’t often -no, they would never- ask Akechi to elaborate, but the way those two were looking at him said that they weren’t quite understanding. “The two of you still haven’t realized, I see. Take a good look around us. Particularly, at the fauna. Do they look like creatures that existed in our own world naturally?” 

Fauna was animals and junk, right? Aiura walked around, glancing here and there with Akechi still riding on her shoulder. That was a little annoying, but it really was easier if they didn’t have to look down at him. She wasn’t really seeing anything though. There were some birds in the distance, but they were too far off for her to tell what they actually were.

It wasn’t too long before Akechi poked her face to get her attention. He pointed to what had his own attention currently. A little farther off from where they were, in between the trees, things were gathering. Big things. They were brown, bug-like, kind of reminiscent of an upright stag beetle with those large spiked horns, and stood about as tall as a person. More and more were gathering to watch them. It was kind of creepy.

“Perhaps,” Akechi whispered. “It would be in our best interest to head to another area. Their demeanor and movements suggest agitation, so perhaps we’ve intruded on their territory. It would better if-”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Didn’t need to tell Miko-chan twice. She also agreed that booking it outta there would be best. They just had to get Toritsuka, and- 

Oh no. 

What the fuck was he doing?!

They turned to find Toritsuka nearly face to face with one of those bugs. How the heck had that happened? Did one just decide that it couldn’t stand his face and decide to go at him first? Well, considering that guy, it’s probably what happened. It didn’t seem like he had a plan here though. He looked scared as shit as he backed away and the thing kept advancing on him. If he kept that up he was just going to get pinned against a tree. Damn it. They had to do something to get him out of that, but what? If Aiura did something to call attention to herself that thing would be on her. Not to mention all of those other ones that were probably also getting ready to make some attack against them. 

Akechi decided this was a matter he should take into his hands. Logically he could do the most here, right? He hopped off of Aiura and ran towards the bug. She called after for him to stop, but this should be fine. These creatures were made for this sort of thing. And despite his earlier experience with impact pain, surely when it came to battling these bodies were much more durable. They had to be, otherwise this sport never would have gotten as far as it did. Or, as far as he assumed it did, anyway. At present he had no reason to believe that such wasn’t the case for this world. 

He shocked the bug as he had Toritsuka before. It didn’t seem to enjoy the experience, but as Akechi also figured, one hit wasn’t enough to put it down. And now it was angry with him. Forgetting Toritsuka, it charged the Pikachu, bending to gouge it’s target with it’s horns. That was, admittedly, kind of terrifying, as Akechi was quite a bit smaller than the bug. So when Akechi unleashed yet another bust of electricity to counter, it actually was not the only thing he unleashed. That was much less embarrassing as a mouse out on the ground where it wasn’t as noticeable and socially unacceptable. Although when it came to various creatures that were territorial, what he’d just done was probably very bad if these particular creatures noticed and got it in their heads that this was some sort of marking behavior.

Through his counter-shock he was still grabbed by the larger monster anyway, and it clamped him with it’s pincer-like horns until the pain became too much and Akechi was forced to cut off his own attack. Perhaps he should have moved before making the decision to attack again, but sometimes fear beats out reasoning and he did not. How was he going to get out of this? The spikes on it’s horns were piercing his body slightly, and the more it clamped the deeper they went. Perhaps the others could lend an assist now that he had it’s attention? But where had they gone? Had they abandoned him here? 

No, he was able to see Toritsuka at least. He had moved from where he was before, but now he was just watching the situation. Akechi thought he seemed unnaturally still. He tried to call out to him, as he most certainly did not look alright, but all the managed was a little squeak as the other clamped him tighter. It was saying something. 

Akechi realized then that he could understand it. 

Right, of course he would be able to understand it. In this world, these creatures understood each other. What a terrible oversight. That wasn’t like him. He probably could have tried resolving this through conversation, yet, he had just done what had seemed natural. Was that folly truly a simple misstep, or was it due to now being more driven by instinct than rationality? 

Either way, perhaps he wouldn’t be in a situation where he was being crushed to death, had he reacted differently. But, ah, what was that thing saying? It was repeating something over and over again.

How strange. Somewhat alarming, Akechi supposed. But what did it really mean? He pondered it as he started to lose consciousness. It was probably the last thing he’d ponder. Surely this creature would manage to completely stab through him soon enough. 

Well, that might be true, if something hadn’t knocked Akechi out of it’s grip first. 

He bounced along the ground, rolling to a stop near the still unmoving Toritsuka. 

“Shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT” 

Aiura, who had bashed the monster across the back of it’s head with the largest fallen tree branch she could find and carry, was now rushing towards the two of them. The bug was straggling after her, with more coming out of the trees to avenge their injured comrade that hadn’t managed to take the group down solo yet. She scooped up Akechi in one arm and with the other grabbed Toritsuka’s arm and attempted to drag him off with her. Bugs were emerging from all sides now and quickly coming up on them. It was time to bolt the heck out of this forest. 

Toritsuka wasn’t budging. This was not the time to be fucking around. Aiura pulled at him harder. “Come on, we have to -” 

Slowly, he turned his head towards her and her mouth snapped shut on those words. She had no idea what to think about that. 

Toritsuka’s eyes were glowing orange. Seemingly satisfied with Aiura’s reaction, he looked away from her and screamed. It was jarring, an eerie sound akin to a cross between a human cry and the warning growl of some large animal. Then he ran forward, opened his mouth, and shot fire from it at the horde of bugs that had come for them. The bugs started, attempting to stop and turn before they got burned with several failing to succeed. Toritsuka screamed again. The group seemed to take the hint. 

 Once it seemed as though their attackers had retreated a good distance, Toritsuka’s eyes faded back to normal and he relaxed, breathing out an exasperated sigh before turning back to Aiura. She was staring at him, agape and completely dumbfounded. He ignored that. 

“This is the forest near my house! Come on! It should be safer there!” He started onward but Aiura was not about to let this go without saying anything. 

“Woah, woah, wait. Just what was that? Did you get some kind of bullshit spirit flame power that you’ve been keeping secret until now?” 

Toritsuka shrugged. “I wish. Something possessed me, right after you went looking around.” He tried to sound nonchalant. Ghosts were his thing and he wanted to seem like he had a handle on this stuff. But it was clear he was a little uneasy about the event himself. Usually he was the one to incite possession. Spirits didn’t just force their way into his body. They were usually even polite enough to ask first. “It told me we should ‘wait for the right moment’ and then that happened.” 

“Ghosts can give you superpowers now?” 

“It wasn’t a normal ghost. It was like. Well, I guess these really are other Pokemon, huh?” 

“Apparently.” They couldn’t deny it based on those encounters. Akechi was right. This was some alternate dimension. But that still left more questions than things answered. 

“It’s good that you’re accepting our surroundings now,” Akechi voiced. “However if it’s not too much trouble, may I request that we find some medical assistance for me? I feel as though I might have some pressing internal injuries.” And then he promptly fainted. 

Oh shit. Aiura hadn’t even paid attention to Akechi’s injuries. Her only goal had been to grab him and go. But now that she got a better look at the mouse she was clutching close in her arm, daaaaaaamn. Those were some concerningly deep bloody gashes. Wasn’t that a little too macabre for a world like this? The look on Toritsuka’s face said he thought about the same. 

“What should we do about this?”  

“Why are you asking me?!”

“You’re a priest, aren’t you?”

“That’s not the same as a doctor!” 

“Well we can’t just walk him into the hospital!” 

“Wait... can’t we?” 

“Huh.” 

“We’re in this kind of a world, right?” Toritsuka was pretty pleased with himself for realizing the obvious a few seconds before Aiura could. “They have hospitals for Pokemon. They should be all over the place!”   

Come to think of it, yeah, that was right. It had been a hot minute since Aiura had played Pokemon, and she was pretty sure all Toritsuka probably bothered to play were eroges and online mmorpgs where he could harass girls, but. That was pretty basic knowledge for anyone that’s ever picked up Pokemon once or at least had some other experience with it. “Guess I gotta bother finding it then, huh?” Divining was more of a pain without her crystal ball, but whatever. She just needed some space. 

Toritsuka thought for a moment. “Well, the temple shouldn’t be too far from here. We can still stop by there first and see if there’s anything that can help some!” 

That was another thing.

“How are you so sure about that? If we’re in another dimension why would your temple exist here?” 

“The ghosts told me!” 

Of course they did. So currently, dead people were their authority on this place. Somehow that didn’t seem to bode well. At least they knew where something was though. “I guess that’s worth a shot. Wait, give me a sec.” It would be better to know for sure before making any unnecessary stops. She shoved Akechi into Toritsuka’s arms. He flinched back, face revealing his disgust at having to hold the bloodied mouse. 

Aiura ignored him as she dropped to the ground and started rapidly tearing out blades of grass and collecting them in her hands. Once she had almost too much to hold she stood up, turned, and blew it all into Toritsuka’s face. “Yeah, it looks like you’ve got some Pokemon medicine there.” 

“Was that really necessary.” The grass-covered Toritsuka grumbled. 

“Soz.” Aiura smiled as she took Akechi back and brushed stray grass from his fur. “No other way. Let’s go.” 

Toritsuka didn’t believe that for one minute, but it’s not like it mattered anymore. 

 Once they arrived at the temple, Toritsuka left Aiura and Akechi in his room while he went to find that medicine. She had told him exactly where to find it, but that didn’t seem right. She had said it was stored in one of the Buddha statues, specifically, the one he often hid his porn mags in. Haha, the other monks totally would have kicked him out if they found that stash. No way they were keeping medicine in there. Besides, there were more practical places to keep it. 

That wasn’t the only odd thing, he supposed. If this place existed in this world, and so did his room, then shouldn’t there be another him walking around somewhere? Another of all of them? It was probably more important to figure out just how they got here and how to get home, but. What was the alternate Reita like? Was he popular? Did he have a girlfriend? Was he possibly off on a date right now? What were his secrets? 

Well, he at least happened upon a familiar secret once he got into that statue. This Reita, too, hid his porn in there. Although among that were several other things. There were some snacks, several small spray bottles with different labels, which Toritsuka assumed had to be the medicine, a few colored discs, what appeared to be a pile of berries to one side, a few electronic devices, and two familiar-looking red and white balls which may or may not contain more Pokemon. 

Woah. To hide this much stuff, the monks really had to be cracking down here, huh. He grabbed several of the medicine bottles, then hesitated a moment before also taking the spheres. It was fine to borrow these, right? It’s not stealing or anything if you’re taking something from yourself. Alternate Reita should understand, right?

If they had to be here a while, most likely they were going to run into more situations where Pokemon attacked them. And Toritsuka would feel a lot better if they had more backup on their side for that. He didn’t want to have to rely on ghosts to help them there again. Sure he could probably count letting Pokemon, who apparently could still will the elements when in a body, possess him as a cool new power. It gave him new bragging rights. He had access to so many elemental abilities now that he felt like even Saiki, the superpower monster, might get jealous! 

But he hated how unsettling that was. The ghost didn’t have any ill intentions that he could discern, it just wanted to help them out of a tight spot and took control of the situation to do it - completely without Reita’s permission. He didn’t like that. He really didn’t like that. He’d almost lost himself before when ghosts started taking over him on their own accord. He was not about to let that happen again. 

Ghosts were usually nice, but that was aggressively nice. Maybe if they noticed that he had other means of handling things, they’d leave him to it. 

When he re-entered his room, Toritsuka found Aiura against the back wall, facing his direction as she did a handstand. Akechi, blood covered Akechi, had been laid on his bed. But that was fine. This was Alternate Reita’s bed. 

“Oi, ya get the meds?” 

He held up the potions he’d found, gaze questioning what she was doing at the same time. 

She stayed in place as she answered. “I’m looking for Kusuo.” 

“Ours or one from here?” 

“Doesn’t matter. Either would probably help us find some answers...but.” Her own expression was knitted with concern. “Something’s wrong.” 

“What do you mean wrong?” He came to sit on the bed beside Akechi.  

After a couple of seconds of silence she gave a frustrated sigh and fell onto her side. “Uuuugh. There’s at least one here, I just can’t tell where he is. It’s like...something’s blocking me. It’s pissing me off.” 

“Maybe Saiki-san doesn’t want to be found?” Toritsuka offered. 

Could he really hide himself from Aiura’s divination powers? Just what kind of power would allow him to do that? That thought pissed her off too. He’d never hidden himself from her before. In fact, until they bumped into each other in the wild, he usually wasn’t aware beforehand that she was even going to use her powers to find him. No, this had to be something else, right? It had to be.

Then again, he was always hiding from people. Of course he’d jump at the chance to stop her from scrying him out if he knew he could. “Uuuggh this is mega annoying. Whatever. Let’s try to fix whatshisface up now before he dies or whatever.” She grabbed one of the potions out of Toritsuka’s arms and tried to figure out where to press on the odd little square-shaped bottle to spray it. 

Toritsuka found the trigger on one that he was looking over first, jolting back with a startled yelp as he accidentally sprayed the contents into his eyes. 

“Oh man, good job,” Aiura laughed. Then, ignoring Toritsuka’s agony, she went ahead and sprayed the medicine on all of Akechi’s wounds. This was how they were supposed to do it, right? Hopefully that was fine. Whatever this stuff was might keep him stable at least until they got him to the hospital - which she had also gone ahead and divined before trying to search out Kusuo. 

“HELP ME NOW!” Toritsuka cried once it seemed like Aiura had stopped spraying. He couldn’t see and damn his eyes burned like hell. 

Aiura just looked at him. “Help you with what?”

“WOMAN YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT!”

She sighed. What a pain in the ass. 

“Fine, fine. We’ll go find some water.” She took his hand and yanked him up from the bed. “Try anything while walking behind me and I’ll make sure those eyes never work again, got it?” She didn’t wait for his answer before pulling him along out the door. He had better understand her clearly, and that was that.

  When they returned to the room after flushing out Toritsuka’s eyes, they found Akechi awake and standing on the bed waiting for them. His wounds seemed to have completely disappeared. “Hello!” He bowed. “Thank you very much for the assistance! Well, for the moment anyway I’m assuming that is how I’ve recovered so quickly! As I woke up in a place with which I’m unfamiliar I must have lost consciousness at some point, and seeing these bottles of what is presumably the medicine leads me to think that the two of you must have applied it to my injuries. It looks to have worked remarkably well. I’m not in the slightest bit of pain anymore. Injuries don’t persist very long in our own world to begin with but this is astounding, isn’t it?” 

The psychics had to admit that they were amazed too. The only way they’d ever seen someone heal so fast was if Saiki used his restoration power on them. Pokemon medicine sure was something, and it saved them a trip to that hospital. 

Toritsuka flopped down onto the bed next to Akechi, sure to avoid those blood stains that persisted. “So what now? How do we fix this if we have no idea how to find Saiki-san?” 

“We search for him.” Akechi proposed. He looked to Aiura, who had taken to standing in the middle of the room for the moment. “It’s my guess that you were unable to locate him with your clairvoyant powers, yes? If that weren’t the case, then finding Kusuo-kun would be no problem to us. Since we are unaware of the circumstances surrounding both his involvement in this and where he might be, he could very well be anywhere in the world. This could turn into a scenario where we end up searching for a needle in a haystack. But that’s only one possibility. It also is not the most optimistic one.

“Rather, what we should do is to start with what we can. This world appears to be a more direct alternate to our own. Places familiar to us exist here. That stands to reason that other people familiar to us should exist here as well, correct? This gives us our first lead in finding Kusuo-kun. We should start with that. And were we to start there, where would the most logical place to visit first be?”

“His house!” Aiura and Toritsuka chorused excitedly. Akechi was right, they weren’t as in the dark as they thought.

“Correct!” They were a bit slow on the uptake of things, Akechi had noticed, but it was good that they were all on the same page at the moment. He had to admit though, that despite their unfortunate situation, he was a bit excited as well for a different reason. Solving mysteries was where his true deductive nature shined. It wasn’t something that people really appreciated much before due to his tendency to talk on and on, but nor were their mysteries as important as this one. Here, he could show off his skills! “Now then!” He jumped up and plucked a hat off the wall that had been hanging above Toritsuka’s bed. A few hung there, but this one served his purposes the best. It looked like one of those hats you often see detectives wear in works of fiction.

Huh. Toritsuka remembered that hat from his own room back home, but was it always that small? It seemed to fit well enough as Akechi put it on.

Hat acquired, the Pikachu hopped off the bed, making sure he was both in between and in front of the other two before striking a cool, thoughtful and confident sort of pose worthy of a great detective. “PK Academy Psykickers, move out!”  

Toritsuka and Aiura nodded, each hopping to attention and striking a pose of their own behind him in true Psykicker mission style, but the look on their faces was much less enthused than usual. Even though they had accepted Akechi as part of the Psykickers before, it still felt like somehow their bit had just been taken over.

[richie-luna]

Sympathy doesn't mean they don't hate him. Don't get mad at the fans if they see hatred, Atlus showed nothing but hatred for the entire game. If someone is unforgivable that's the same as hatred anyway, that's why they killed him off because a person shouldn't live after being irredeemable for life. Too late.

i’m sorry, but did you actually play through the entire game? did you perhaps see the part after the battle against akechi at all? the scene of his death, maybe? i can link you if you want. 

they 100% do not hate him. literally the closest thing to hatred they get at the end is haru saying that she can’t forgive him for what he did to her father, but she sympathizes with him. that’s it. even futaba, who has arguably been harmed the most by akechi’s actions, just basically told him that she actually understands akechi and why he ended up the way he did once the battle was over. for fuck’s sake, dude, ann wanted akechi to come with them to defeat shido. she offered him a second chance right then and there. the thieves all got extremely angry and upset on akechi’s behalf when cognitive akechi came along and showed off exactly what shido really thinks of akechi even after all akechi has done for him. when akechi saved their asses and that partition came up between them, ryuji banged on it and yelled out akechi’s name in obvious distress and concern for him. does that sound like hatred to you? you think they’d react like that or do something like that for someone they actually do obviously hate, like, say, kamoshida? and by the way, even if you could make the argument that someone being unforgivable is the same as hatred, which, ok, fair enough even if i don’t believe that’s the case every time, i’m pretty sure that haru is the only one who described him as being unforgivable. i am only going off of what it says after the battle against akechi, though. but even if any of them say something similar about him before this moment i think that this part of the game proves beyond a doubt that they don’t hate him, and if they ever did at any other point in the game, they certainly don’t by the end. 

anyway, even if you tried to make the argument that the phantom thieves hate akechi (which… they don’t) it still does not excuse the way so many people in this fandom characterize the thieves when it comes to akechi. i mean holy shit, there’s a fic where ryuji straight up suggests that they leave akechi to die, where they question whether or not they should even go back and save him once they found out that he was actually alive; there’s even one where futaba calls him pathetic for attempting suicide. does that sound like something futaba would say or think about anybody? 

and i really like how you ended that ask, there. real nice. i can see that you really missed the entire point of akechi’s character. they didn’t kill him off because he’s unforgivable. they killed him off to highlight the fact that akechi is a walking tragedy. his role in the story is important because he is a great example of what can happen to a person, a kid, when they’ve done nothing but suffer alone for their entire life, and to show that each of the phantom thieves could have easily ended up just like him if they, too, had been alone. the big difference between each of the phantom thieves and akechi is the fact that they were not alone. akechi has never had anybody, and the thieves know that and because of that understand how he became so twisted. the phantom thieves hating someone like akechi is not only out of character- it also makes zero sense in the context of the story and its message for them to truly hate him.