#i do like that one scene in front of tree where she was with kamui

[noa-ciharu]

What do you think of Kotori, and of Kotori/Kamui ?

Because I read an old interview by CLAMP that said she was loathed up until her death, that readers saw her as a boring character who’s only appeal was being cute, a typical shoujo heroine in a manga that’s very much not a typical shoujo.

Also she needs to be rescued at least twice, and eventually goes insane/comatose.

The brutality of her death stopped the hatred as it was so shocking, but the view I most commonly see on her is “she’s cute, she’s nice, she could have been more interesting but her character is threadbare and her relationships underdeveloped”.

I also felt the anime emphasised Kotori and Kamui’s bond a lot more than it did Fuuma’s and Kamui’s, which considering that Subaru (and Seishirou)’s screen time got reduced to the bare minimum and they never even mentioned Tohru/Saya, makes me wonder what the producers were eager to follow in the footsteps of the Tokyo Babylon OVA’s English dub.

I like Kotori and her relationship with Kamui but in more unbiased terms I think she could have been written bit better. Or ar least handled from different angle and fleshed out a bit more

Honestly characters like Kotori or even Sorata, Yuzuriha or Keiichi are breath of fresh air in cataclysm X setting. So even if you do have one or two 'boring vanilla shojo' character(s) it wouldn't take much away from grimness of the story; plus serves as tie to normality and something other characters cannot have. Issue is that all mentioned have some depth to them, whereas Kotori suffers from early X being a pacing mess. Although I do have some issues with how she was written (but it mostly boils down to X having too many characters and not enough page time to develop them all) but I'll come to that.

Characters like Kotori end up disliked for aforementioned reasons but you also need to keep late 90s/early 00s ship wars in mind. Tho that was then, now I doubt anyone would dislike Kotori because she gets in way of other ships or because Kamui had a puppy crush on her or something. As for anime - it was early 00s, anime wasn't labeled as shonen ai. Of course anything queer had to be toned down. Plus anime was strangely going towards shonen-ly vibe than shojo which X manga doubtlessly carries. Capitalism baby, madhouse knew they could earn a lot more by keeping queer stuff out to attract vaster audience

As for Kotori's writing, my beaf with it was how she was handled from vol6 up to her death. That coma thing only perpetuated further how she's a fragile girl in dire need of being rescued. That by itself also shouldn't be the problem (plus take into account that Kotori's reaction to some gruesome stuff in X is more realistic than let's say Fuuma's) but she never got a chance to be fleshed out and have some development because she was killed. She basically died for sake of Kamui's character development, to be direct.

Clamp admitted so themselves they created Hokuto with intention of killing her but she was fleshed out as a character; had her own life separated from male characters around her. That's why I wouldn't say same thing about Hokuto. Kotori's character revolves too much around other two male characters in her life to the point where she herself is indivisible from them. So I can't really blame casual readers for reflecting on manga they've read ages ago and going 'there was nothing much going around her, she was boring' because her brutal demise was really most memorable thing about her.

Should she be hated for being bland? Not really. But would it have been better if Clamp added a bit more flavor in Kotori's personality, agency and wishes separate from Kamui? Sure.

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapters 267 & 268.  Filling in the gaps and learning how Tsurumi was involved in the gold.

After a few chapters that I was expecting to be more rewarding falling flat, things are starting to pick up.  We first learn about Kiro’s involvement and how his relationship with Wilk became strained.  Before they broke Sofia out of prison, Kiro decided to tell Sofia more details before actually reuniting with her.  It is unclear if this story was relayed to Sofia via the milk ink or if Kiro wrote this with regular ink meaning anyone could have read the information.  What this page does tell us, is that Sofia learned this information prior to meeting Asirpa and Ogata likely knows something about what was written.  Noda wouldn’t just throw him in the background for no reason.

I wonder if this information was already shared between Kiro and Ogata? 

The chapter title page has an image of Wilk, Riratte and Asirpa as a family.  Clearly, a visual parallel with Tsurumi, Olga and Fina indicating that the two men have fates that are intertwined.

When Kiro saw Wilk holding Asirpa, he knew that something was different; he loved her and his family and as a result his priorities would change.  Kiro is not happy with this while Huci smiles next to him.

This is an interesting story since Tsurumi is retelling what Kiro wrote to Sofia, clearly in Russian.  Tsurumi is dominant and in charge of things as he makes Sofia when he mentions the man Kimuspu.  The last remaining person who knew where the gold was hidden.  At the same time, somehow Tsurumi learned of this information.

The panel informs us at certain key members of his elite inner circle knew about this, Kikuta in the back, potentially even working for Central at that point in time, Usami close to Tsurumi and Ogata and Tsukishima in the front with Ogata also more distant from Tsurumi.

This confirms what Ogata told us all the way back after the Barato arc with Hijikata.  That he referred to how Tsurumi knew what happened to the seven Ainu men without indicating if he was there or not.  I loved how Ogata just said that Tsurumi was the intelligence officer who examined the crime scene.  Time and time again Ogata speaks but only gives enough information to catch someone’s attention.

The flashback told my Tsurumi who wasn’t there at the time is in part based on what he knows from Kiro as well which is something to keep in mind.  The men convened at Noboribetsu, clearly in a kotan close to where Ariko is from.

The group of men were meeting to discuss it and Wilk is leading the discussion.  Not surprising at all since he is a natural leader.  His back is to us in the middle panel as they talk.

The rest of the men are revealed.  The first man who speaks is clearly Ariko’s father, Siromakur based on those eyebrows. The cast of the soon to be doomed men are revealed with a wide range of beards and eyebrows.  I’d guess it took a lot of effort to find seven Ainu names and this might be why this plot point is so late, as it is known that Noda avoided names currently in use to be culturally respectful.   I will note that Mesira, Irenka and Ratci all have no light or sparkle in their eyes, making them look like they may have had more bad experiences. Sukuta looks like a nice guy.

Maybe it is just me but Oskeporo gives me major Kirawus vibes?  I want to see your eyebrows Kirawus!  Are you related to Oskeporo?  They are both wearing dark clothing, my brain wants to say Oskeporo has a blue attush with white trim.

It looks sort of similar to Kirawus’s - or maybe he’s also from the Kushiro region? In the next chapter we learn that Oskeporo is from Nemuro.  That is pretty close to Kushiro since Kirawus was working in Nemuro at the fisheries when he met Hijikata.

Anyways back to the main events.  The men realize they need to find the old man, Kimuspu quickly so no one beats them to him, since of course people told other people about it. . .

As they head out Kiro finds Wilk and he’s pissed off.  The text bubble tells us he’s beyond upset and he’s got a clenched fist.  Finally, we are getting some clarity on why things broke down between Kiro and Wilk.

Even though Kiro had integrated himself into the local Hokkaido community, his best friend left him out of things.  Of course, Kiro was always dedicated to their original greater cause as he’s Tatar/Karafuto Ainu and perhaps knows that Sofia is in prison in Karafuto?

Wilk tells the other men to go ahead and so that he can talk to Kiro one on one.  Kiro is hurt and angry being excluded from these plans.  It indicates that knowledge of their meeting was more well known than Wilk likely would have preferred.  Ainu told each other about the gold, the old man, and the leaders meeting to discuss it since Kiro found him easily.  Or did Ogata tip him off?  Was this the beginning of the cat alliance?

Wilk tells him that they should change focus to only protecting Hokkaido based on logistics.  This ignores the places where they grew up and therefore the other ethnic groups.

Tsurumi then asks Asirpa if she understands the difference between a regional ethnic nation that shares land borders with Russia and other countries making them difficult to defend.  Which is the exact same reason Tsurumi wants to make Hokkaido an independent state and why Hijikata also likes it.  From a strategic perspective it does make a lot of sense, but it excludes most of the minority groups they were fighting for all these years.

This exchange between Kiro and Wilk explains so much of why Kiro said Wilk changed.  He sees it as a betrayal and abandonment of the Russian far east and Karafuto.  Wilk calmly states they will encourage immigration of different groups.

This is clearly upsetting to Kiro as his skin is covered with the chaotic screentone.  This is always used when a character is upset and reeling from learning something that they don’t want to hear.  I love the fact that a very similar screentone is used in Ogata’s flashback in 165 talking to Yuusaku.  Ogata appears calm but there is emotion behind his ice cold responses.

Interestingly, the screentone with the curved lines is only used with Ogata specifically, and it doesn’t show up again, but both show an inner turmoil.

Kiro argues that because Wilk’s village immigrated to Hokkaido, that is why they failed in part due to going to a place they were unfamiliar with and different ways to survive.

Wilk replies that he understood by the Karafuto Ainu immigration failed and just says ‘we need to avoid repeating those mistakes’.  Really?  Why do you tell us what they are Wilk?  Does he really have an answer for that or is he just saying this hoping Kiro will calm down?

Kiro is quickly able to point out flaws for some of the ethnic groups and Wilk has a cop out of an answer, it will be up to individuals to make that choice.  Kiro may be upset, but I think he is correct by telling Wilk his priorities have changed with the birth of Asirpa.  These men have known each other for most of their lives and acted in an organization where they had to trust each other deeply.

I do like the switch to see Asirpa’s reaction, she loved her father but she definitely saw Kiro as an uncle figure and did no know about their falling out at all to change her opinion of them when all of this started.

Wilk artfully dodges Kiro’s question by saying he’s being realistic.  I don’t think Wilk wants to confirm what Kiro said in stoic Slav fashion.  If anyone has been following my meta for some time, you’d know I’m a huge fan of Kiro, so I like the next page. Knowing Wilk, he calls him out on it - he found a place to call home, he loves his family and his priorities have shifted to protect his current home.  But Kiro is still holding a torch for Sofia, and wants to break her out of prison and help his own people.  The fact Wilk doesn’t even respond tells us Kiro is right.

Asirpa quietly reflects on this.  It clearly explains so much about what happened and in a way Kiro showed her Wilk’s original plan with the intention to help the partisans.  Tsurumi summarizes the legitimacy of these contrasting goals.  His position in the chair reserved for the priest as well as his contemplative expression makes me think that Tsurumi is confessing to his own feelings that are divided within himself. 

The page ends with Tsukishima watching things blankly, a frown and stress lines under the eyes - how is he feeling in this very moment?

The flashback continues as Kiro loses it mentioning that Sofia is still waiting for them.  This must mean that Kiro has continued to keep tabs on her or maintain some knowledge/limited communication with her.  He charges towards Wilk and the two fight, but Wilk manages to get him in a headlock victorious.

Asirpa then is able to tell Sofia that she knew that Kiro had feelings for her, so of course he’d want to go back for her.  Of course she didn’t learn this until Kiro died but it does make a lot of sense. Sofia listens closely, but it is still unclear how well she understands Asirpa speaking Japanese.

The fight ends with Kiro on the ground and he lost his shoes in the fight somehow.  It is unclear if this is a drawing error by Noda since Kiro is frequently shown bare feet, partly to signal his death in Karafuto, but other times he seems to like having free toes. 

Asirpa’s explanation is that Wilk knew the Kiro loved Sofia and he avoided Kiro.  It a way it would be a dick move to have a family that he loved, while Kiro can’t do anything about the woman he loved who was their comrade in arms. 

Sofia looks so sad here, two men she loved and cared about are dead in this entire mess.  The chapter ends with a beat up Wilk tying Kiro to a tree and we see him now barefoot.  Did Wilk take his shoes off to prevent him from chasing after them?  I don’t know or if Noda accidentally gave Kiro shoes a few pages prior.

But now we finally know the event that lead Kiro to tell Inkarmat that Wilk changed.  And we as the readers know he changed.  Kiro is pissed off at Wilk and this was the rift that separated the men and their goals for the gold.

Kiro realized that he and Wilk now had different goals and it was what ended their friendship.  The next chapter starts with a somber and sad looking Kiro writing the letter.  Which now we can see is an ink letter.  He reflects on how that was the last conversation he had with Wilk, which likely wasn’t how he had wanted it to go.

Wilk tells him this is for Asirpa’s benefit and her happiness.  Apparently, he decided to gift Asirpa with this path based on the fact that he felt Sofia was a good leader/role model.  I mean besides the fact that Sofia gave up her chance to live a normal domestic life.  It is clear Wilk was impressed with Sofia and her character but it still shows that Wilk is putting her in a situation she didn’t ask for.  

Yet, Asirpa isn’t upset by this.  She echoes Wilk’s way of thinking which is just like Koito Sr.  So in a way she has more in common with Koito and his role to do things his father expects from him.  Though Koito’s older brother already died in the service so it isn’t like she has a younger sibling.

Tsurumi seems to suggest that Wilk could have just slid into obscurity and live his life in peace and quiet.  Does this mean that Tsurumi wanted to live in peace and quiet with Fina and Olga?

Asirpa boldly tells him that it isn’t possible as the Ainu would disappear.  As the Ainu are intrinsically linked to the kamuy.  The Ainu must respect the kamuy and in return if they forget them they will disappear. 

In reality this was the assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society, losing their links to the kamuy and their cultural identity.

Tsurumi finally responds that the fate of those wanting to protect the kamuy was not good.  He looks like he’s barely able to control himself as he’s got his deranged look on his face.  So scary that Sofia and Asirpa are shocked.

The flashback then continues from Tsurumi’s point of view.  Though we need to realize he may not be telling the truth.  The fact that Tsurumi was able to track down Ariko Sr. implies that the secret wasn’t super secret!  Good job of keeping things under wraps Wilk and other Ainu dudes.  Tsurumi starts off with flattery to get comfortable with Simorakur.

For example he clearly comments about his son being in the army and making sure he is sent the knife to remember his identity.  Interesting the other men with Tsurumi are Usami and Kikuta.  Tsukishima and Ogata are no where to be seen. 

Tsurumi is told he is too late, the other men went in search of the older man and therefore the gold over a month ago.  Of course Ariko’s dad decided to leave the group because of the disagreements that began to occur as some of the men threatened the families of others including Cikapasi’s grandfather.  Not sure why bringing Cikapasi into this part of the narrative makes sense since he was fine in the story as an orphan who found his family in Karafuto. . . .  I wonder if this was supposed to read that the man was Sukuta and he had a younger brother and grandfather.  With Cikapasi being the younger brother . . .

Tsurumi turns on his charm and calls Simorakur, a polite Mr. Ariko (obviously Ariko-san in the original) and ties the loyalty of his family to the Japanese to be important.  That his family is serving the government in a good way.

The tells Tsurumi that the six men all had pretty big egos, and drastically different viewpoints so they were not a good alliance.  But that one man was able to draw them together and resolve conflicts easily and he was a natural leader.  That man of course, was Wilk.  The flashback allows Tsurumi to learn about this natural leader who is also knowledgeable and even used a fact that Tsurumi told him when talking to the men.

The next page shows Wilk as a mystery to Tsurumi at first.  Of course, he’s got the cross scar on his face marked likely to link him with Christian symbols and he’s offering his hand to the viewer, not unlike how Asirpa first offered her hand to Sugimoto.

Tsurumi is impressed and wants to know more about this man.  Of course the big reveal is when he learns who the Karafuto Ainu man is.  His eyes go white in shock and likely out if his desire to kill him.  We also get an even better view of his torn sleeves.  Likely the kidnapping of Koito happened recently and he did a poor job of repairing his white uniform.

So, Koito was kidnapped in Hakodate, recently but Usami wasn’t involved in it.  Did Usami just join him?  As Koito’s flashback only reveals Kikuta, Tsukishima and Ogata.  Not surprisingly, his calm exterior is shaded with the hatched screentone again, just like Kiro in the last chapter.

Tsurumi then tells Asirpa and Sofia that he shot a single poison arrow at Wilk, his eyes completely white.  He tells Simorakur that Wilk was a partisan fighting against the Russians and had come to Hokkaido for the gold for the partisans.

And he quickly departs and watches as he lead Tsurumi, Kikuta and Usami to the gold.  They hear gunfire and are unable to keep up with everyone else.  In the morning they find one of the men stabbed with a makkiri.  So Tsurumi knows that Wilk didn’t kill any of the men.

If we go back to chapter 70 Ogata tells Hijikata what he knows as Hijikata implies he knows that Kiro is likely a partisan.  Now it is hard to tell if the knife in chapter 268 matches one in 70.  But Ogata makes it clear that all of the knives had notches on them.

Does this mean that Wilk actually did damage everything?  Or did Tsurumi make this up to frame Wilk for the deaths so that Wilk appeared guilty?  Or did Wilk actually do this out of cultural obligation?  I want more information since right now Tsukishima and Ogata aren’t involved. 

Did Ogata find Kiro and untie him from the tree?  Did the cat alliance form while he was out of the range of Tsurumi?

The chapter then ends with Tsurumi telling them that Wilk skinned himself, removing his face and putting it on another dead person’s severed head.

Yay!  This now at least lines up with Asirpa’s statement that they found her Aca’s nose and ears to identify he was one of the dead. 

A long time ago I had reasoned that Wilk disfigured himself by cutting off his nose and ears, but this is a much more gruesome way to fake his death.  Did he know someone like Tsurumi was onto him?  My biologist brain really wonders how he was able to do this with out a sterile environment and way to protect the healing skin and face and protect the muscles and argh it just seems far fetched to me from a biological perspective.  I figured the nose and ear part would make more sense since GK has had ear removal and off page nose removal.

But hey this is GK!  People seem to have great healing abilities!  So might as well extend this to Wilk’s entire face.

What these two chapters have show is that Tsurumi has let his own emotions control his place in the hunt for the gold.

I wonder when Kikuta started working for central and if he told Ariko what really happened to his father.  Or did he always keep this secret from him and instead betray him, which is in part why he felt so guilty when Usami beat the crap out of him before sending him off to be a double agent?

Kikuta does have more of a moral compass that Usami and we now know he has some sort of inspirational role he played with Sugimoto before he joined the military.

I am still underwhelmed by these developments.  I was hoping for something bigger but right now Tsurumi looks like a man who was already angry at the Japanese government for the death of his family in Russia, who then doubles down on it when he learns the man leading the Ainu was Wilk so he goes after him.

At least we know why Kiro was so upset with Wilk and why he felt like Ogata had to kill him so that they could take Asirpa to Karafuto and to meet Sofia.

[sundove88]

1-A And The Beast (MHA Beauty And The Beast AU Fanfic) Chapter Six: The Storming of UA Castle

Inspired by the Gravity Falls Beauty And The Beast AU made by @artsycrapfromsai

As Majesty ran through the forest, Nana Shimura guided the kids to a weak Inko, nearly collapsed in the snow. “Kids... You’ve gotta run! It should’ve been me...” she said. “Mom!” Izuku said, clutching his mother in his arms. “Lets get her back to your house.” Momo said, helping Inko onto Majesty.

Back at Izuku’s house, Inko made a full recovery, only to see that her son and his friends had been released from the castle. “It’s alright, mom. We’re home!” Izuku said, removing the ice pack from Inko’s face. “Kids!” Inko cried, as she hugged the kids and let them into her embrace. “You really did come home! I thought you’d never make it out alive!” Inko said, smiling.

Then she realized where the kids had been the whole time. “But the Beast- how’d you get out?” Inko questioned, “We didn’t escape- he freed us!” Uraraka said, smiling. “He’s all different now.” Melissa replied as she took out her book bag.

Just as they were unpacking the bag with Nana Shimura, Eri popped out of the bag! She had been stowing away inside the bag when the kids left the castle. “Hi!” she said in her delicate voice, waving at Inko. “Would you look at that. A stowaway.” Bakugo said as he let Eri run into Inko’s arms. 

“Hi there- I never thought I’d see you here!” Inko said as she held the little doll. “Look who we also brought!” Todoroki said as he took Nana Shimura out of the bag, her shining brown cover glistening in the light. Hello. Are you Mrs. Midoriya? She wrote down.

 “Of course I am! And you’re writing down all that?” Inko said as she examined Nana’s pages. Of course. You see- I was human once. I can’t talk, so this is the only way I can communicate. Nana wrote down.

 “Well, you certainly are a special book.” Inko said. Thank you. You’re making me blush! The pro hero turned book said, with pink appearing on the paper to replicate blush. 

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Kirishima answered it. “How may we help you?” he said. It was Stain, the head of the Home For The Reality Challenged! “I’ve come for your mama, Izuku.” he said. “What?!” Izuku cried. 

“Don’t worry, kiddos- She’ll be fine in our Home For The Reality Challenged!” Stain said. “This paper says I can have her.” Stain continued, flashing a grim smile. “Mrs. Midoriya’s not crazy!” Sero said.

 “Hey, Mrs. Midoriya! Tell us about that Beast you saw!” Shigaraki yelled. “Yeah, grandma!” Dabi teased. “Well, he was pretty darn huge, like, as tall as a tower tall!” Inko said, attempting to tell the whole story.

Toga died laughing. “Folks, you don’t get crazier than that!” She said with a psychotic grin on her face. Overhaul then faced 1-A and grabbed Izuku by the shirt. “Poor Izuku- It’s a shame about your momma!” Overhaul said. “A shame, indeed.” Replied All For One.

Oh no. All For One. Nana wrote down. “You mean that guy next to Chisaki?” Denki asked. Yes! He’s the one who cursed us! Nana wrote down some more. “But we might just clear up this wee misunderstanding- if your momma marries me. Just one small word, kiddo.” Overhaul convinced. 

“Never!” Izuku cried. The others agreed. “Have it your way, then.” Overhaul teased. Thinking quickly, Izuku grabbed Nana Shimura and he and his friends ran to the front porch of his house. 

“My mom’s not crazy, and we can prove it!” Izuku announced. “Nana Shimura, show us The Beast!” 1-A cried together, as a flash of radiant light shone from the book.

The villagers gasped and Stain drove away in his car when he and the villagers saw All Might, Who was making a scene and thrashing around in the West Wing. “Is he dangerous?!” Said a villager.

 “He'd never hurt a fly!” Tsuyu said. “We know he looks vicious, but he’s really kind and gentle!” Hakagure added. “He’s- He’s our friend!” Jiro finished. “If We didn’t know better, We’d think you kids had feelings for this monster!” Overhaul said.

 “He’s no monster, Chisaki- You are!” Izuku replied. Iida spat his water out at what he just heard. “Ooh, ouch.” Aoyama said, making finger guns. “They’re as crazy as the old grandma!” Overhaul cried, as he and All For One snatched Nana out of Izuku’s hands. 

“Give her back!” Koda cried. “No! The beast will take your kiddos! He’s gonna get them in the night!” Overhaul said. “That’s not true!” Sato replied. “We ain’t gonna be safe until that head of his is mounted on my wall! I say we kill the beast!” Chisaki cried, raising a burning torch. 

“We’re not gonna let you do this!” Tokoyami cried as he tried to grab Nana. “It’s either you’re with us or against us!” Overhaul replied. “Bring the old woman! Lock em up! We can’t let them warn this monster!” Overhaul said, and threw Inko and 1-A into the cellar, then locked them up.

 “What are we gonna do?!” Mineta cried as he pounded on the door. “We’ve gotta warn All Might!” Izuku said. Eri, being the clever little doll she was, spotted Inko’s mech and got a bright idea. “That’s it!” she cried.

Back at the castle, Present Mic, Mr. Aizawa, and Midnight had seen the mob from afar. “Holy Mackerel- invaders!” Present Mic cried. “And they have Nana Shimura!” Midnight cried. “And is that All For One?!” Present Mic yelled. “We’ve gotta warn Toshinori!” Mr. Aizawa said as he watched the mob come. 

“Kill the beast!” “Kill The Beast!” “Kill The Beast!” Shouted the angry mob as they headed towards the castle gates with a tree they had cut down to use as a battering ram. “Take whatever loot you can, but that beast is ours!” Overhaul said, with All For One at his side.

At the door, Present Mic and the other enchanted objects were trying to block the door from the invaders. “It’s not working!” Best Jeanist said as he pressed his hairbrush body against the door. In the West Wing, Midnight hopped up to All Might and alerted him with a puff of lavender.

 “Toshinori, the castle is under attack!” Midnight said. “Leave me in peace.” All Might said, “What are we gonna do, Toshinori?!” Midnight cried. “It doesn’t matter now. Just let them come.” The servants were then left to think of a Plan B.

Meanwhile, Eri had just started up the mech and was ready to pilot it. “Here goes nothing!” she cried as she moved the mech to the cellar door. “Back up, everyone!” Inko cried as she saw the mech approach. Eri did three strong axe swings, and just like that, the cellar door was open. 

“That was awesome! You guys should try it as well!” Eri said. “Thank you, Eri. Now we can go warn All Might!” Melissa said, holding the tiny yarn doll close to her heart. And in a moment, Inko, Eri, and 1-A boarded Majesty and set off for UA Castle. They were ready to break the curse!

Meanwhile, back at the castle, the servants were standing still, holding their posture as best they could. “Huh. A megaphone. Where did this come from?” Toga asked herself as she picked up Present Mic. “LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!” Present Mic cried, signaling the start of the combat.

The battle was on! Present Mic the Megaphone played songs at the highest volume, drowning out the cries of the mob and temporarily deafening them. “Too loud- Too loud!!!” Shigaraki cried, trying to plug his ears with a pillow. But said pillow slapped his face, with stuffing flying everywhere.

Mr. Aizawa, being the sleeping bag he was, tripped people over, while Best Jeanist gave them silly hairstyles while they were in a daze. Dabi tripped over Mr. Aizawa, only for Best Jeanist to give the hairstyle of a nobleman. “AAAAAHHH! I LOOK SO STUPID!” Dabi cried, running around the Great Hall.

Midnight, on the other hand, sprayed perfume in the eyes of villagers, her lavender scent overwhelmed them and made them scream. “AAAAAAAAIIIIEEEEEE! MY EYES! THEY BURN!” Toga cried, running around.

Mount Lady did some karate kicks, Buster the footstool led the mob astray, Kamui Woods threw the mob into the houseplants, Gang Orca the pool floatie splashed hot bath water on their heads, Recovery Girl and Gran Torino squirted hot sauce onto their faces, and Nezu as well as the Wild Wild Pussycats, who were stuffed animals, clawed at them.

It seemed that all the objects in UA castle were working hard to protect their home! At last, the villagers fled in terror. The enchanted objects cheered triumphantly. Plan B had worked... For now.

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 63: Final Exam part 5: Final Essay

Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia!   Please note, this chapter may undergo more extensive editing before it gets posted to AO3/FF.net, as there’s a lot of fight scenes that may need clarity editing.

Earlier chapters can be found here

At the last moment, before Kamuy had launched her shockwave, some instinct had prompted Izumi to throw up an ice shield.  Desperately, faster than she ever had before, she’d leached heat from the air, forming a protective wall in front of her, reinforcing it even against the shockwave that had followed.   She regretted immediately that she was unable to extend her protections to Chihiro or to any of her other classmates.

When the ringing in her head cleared and she was able to see again, a moment of fear touched her heart, an icy stab into the heat she had absorbed and that suffused her body. Chihiro, Ojiro, Aoyama, and Asuka were all on the ground, alive, but very clearly knocked out.  As skilled and powerful as her classmates were, against such overwhelming force, they had no defense.  She had hoped that Asuka’s Frog-Shadow might have been able to protect her, armoring her as she had during the Sports Festival, but such, it seemed, was not to be.

And all Izumi had done was protect herself.  Her teachers, as well as Katsumi, would say that insuring her own safety had meant she could continue to act and protect others.  But it did nothing to ease the guilt she felt.

Kamuy, it seemed, was still standing, admiring her handiwork.  She’d lost a bit of mass from expelling her accumulated energy, but still remained a large and imposing foe.  That she seemed to be able to hold onto the energy she absorbed until she needed it was enviable.  The bands of Izumi’s regulator rig were screaming an angry red, a sign she needed expel heat and expel it quickly.  

“Still standing?” Kamuy taunted.  “Pretty impressive.  I wouldn’t think a little twig like you would last this long.”

With some amount of satisfaction, Izumi realized that Kamuy was a very big target indeed.

“But a twig, properly propelled,” she said, bringing her hands up, “can pierce even the mighty oak.”

Izumi reached inside herself and found the heat she had been storing, like a crimson hot core inside her. But instead of changing it into fire, she put to use the training that Uncle Denki had helped her with, expelling the heat directly.  The very air in front of her turned wavy and shimmery, refracting from all the heat she was putting out into it.

“Hey…” growled Kamuy, “what’re you doing…?”  Already the big woman was sweating so hard it was pouring off of her and soaking through her clothes. Her breaths coming in ragged gasps, each one clearly a struggle. She swayed, unsteady on her feet, as though a stiff breeze might soon blow her over.

“Whatever you’re doing… cut it… out…”  Kamuy took a few ineffective swings as thin air, as though that might stop the heat assault.  But as addled as she was, they were clumsy, weak, and ineffective, with no power behind them.  Izumi knew she was threading a careful line.  Too much heat could kill a person easily and she had no desire to be a murderer, especially given that this was only an exam.  But nor did she wish to give Kamuy a chance to recover and possibly hurt her or her friends.

Kamuy began glowing and steaming again, losing mass as she poured her energy into resisting Izumi’s attack.  Step by step, she pushed her way forward, even as the concrete beneath her feet began to soften from the heat she was enduring.  That was unfortunate.  Processing this much heat as once, pushing her Quirk as far as it would go, Izumi could feel the strain upon herself and she did not know how long she could maintain this level of exertion.  Her knees were starting to feel weak and even keeping her arms up to keep pointing at Kamuy was beginning to become a strain.  Her arms traced small circles in the air as she failed to hold them straight.

And still, Kamuy came closer.  The Villain took step after step after step, her face twisted in a grimace as she fought for every inch.   But Izumi would make her fight for that, even if it cost her dearly, even if she collapsed.  Because every second this woman spent fighting her was one that gave her classmates and friends time to overcome the other Villains.

They were counting on her. Everyone was counting on her.  She could not, would not, be the reason that they failed!

And still Kamuy came onward, trailing steam like some ancient and slow moving train.  “You… gotta… be… just… about… out… kid,” she hissed. “Those damn… blinky lights… are a dead… giveaway.”

Damnation, she was right! Izumi was just about out of heat to throw at her, the crimson hot core she’d been drawing on depleted, the bands of her regulator rig showing a green that would have, in any other circumstances, been reassuring.  

Now, it was a little terrifying.

The wave of heat stopped abruptly, as she exhausted her last reserve.  The change in the air was immediate and Kamuy instantly stood a little taller, a little stronger, though it was clear surviving the assault had cost her dearly.  Her own reserves must have been nearly as depleted as Izumi’s were.   Though that still left her a large and muscular foe. She could still overpower Izumi. She was a fit girl, especially for one with her chronic health issues, but there was no comparison.

So she had to end this now.

Kamuy rushed her, fist draw back to strike, and Izumi acted on instinct, her body and Quirk moving before she even had a chance to think.  Thick ice shot up around Kamuy, covering her body and lifting her off the ground in an instant.  On her regulator rig, the bands changed from a safe green to cautionary orange without ever even passing through the alerting yellow.  The temperature around her had dropped by several degrees, enough that, for a moment, Izumi could see her breath on the air.

But when it was done, Kamuy was entombed in a pillar of ice, only her head and fingertips poking out. She hadn’t frozen her solid, so there was probably minimal risk of cell death.  But she had beaten her.  She had won.

And still she remained standing.  Izumi had pushed her Quirk and pushed it hard.  But she had not given in to her weakness, had not fallen.

But she could not celebrate her accomplishments, not now.  Not when the others were still battling.

She would celebrate when they won, but the personal victory would lend her strength to continue the fight.

***

Things, Katsumi thought, had pretty much gone to shit.  The Villain called Jawbreaker had grown to monstrous size and mass, towering over all of them by more than a meter.  More than that in her case; height was not her friend.  Now made of metal, rock, and concrete, he was shrugging off everything they could throw at him.  She still ached from where he had hit her, with a fist that was nearly as big as she was tall.

But she’d be damned if she was going to go down without a fight, even if she was completely out of ammo for her disk-launchers.  She hadn’t backed down in the face of a damned Nomu, she wasn’t about to back down in the face of some Villain Aiazwa had gotten from somewhere to play rent-a-goon. Some part of her was afraid though. Not for herself, but for Izzy. She knew she shouldn’t be, knew that Izzy had more than proven she was capable of taking care of herself, but the thought still remained.  She pushed it down, channeling it into something she could use.  The sooner she clobbered this guy, the sooner she could check on her.

Jawbreaker let out a laugh, his punch connecting solidly with Toshi.  Toshi had amped up his gravity enough that he was starting to sink into the ground, but the blow was still enough to push him back, gouging deep troughs in the street.  A second blow hit even harder, sending Toshi smashing into the side of a building again. Above Jawbreaker, the Iida twins swooped down again and again, ineffectively striking against him.  The Villain—though faster than he looked—was still not fast enough to catch them.  Both broke off the attack.  Sora to check on Toshi, Tensei to get space to think through his next move.

“Okay, you two,” she told Shinso and Haimawari. “I’ll knock him off his feet, you know him down. You’ll know it when you see it. Jetset!  Give me a distraction!”

Haimawari nodded. “Got it.  Bring the boom.”

Shinso nodded rapidly, head bobbing like it was on a spring.  “Got it!” he said.  “Going to have to hit him *really* hard though!  He’s tough!”

A grin spread across Katsumi’s face.  “Ain’t nothing tougher than me.”  She cracked her knuckles.  “And Newb? Only I get to bring the boom.”

“Arms!  Rocky!” she shouted.  “Clear the way!  Big boom coming through!”

At her shout, Shoji and Koda backed off from their assaults on Jawbreaker.  Koda had fast grown a thick redwood tree and Shoji had used his incredible strength to turn it into an improvised club.  It hadn’t done any good.  Jawbreaker had ever taken a big bite out of it, added hard wood to his make-up as well.

Tensei Iida swooped down from the sky, smashing both fists into Jawbreaker’s skull.  There was a metal on metal clang, but Jawbreaker wasn’t hurt in the slightest.  He swung wildly at Iida again, and this time he Iida was just a little too slow.  Jawbreaker’s fingers closed around his legs and he slammed Iida into the ground again and again.  With a grunt, he tossed the boy over his shoulder.  There. She hadn’t meant for that to happen… but that was her opening.

Katsumi slapped a palm on the ground, extending her explosive power through it, triggering a series of increasingly large explosions in a rapid-fire, firecracker line that lead straight to Jawbreaker.  She concentrated, putting as much power as she could into the last one.

KABOOM!

For just a moment, the explosion caught Jawbreaker off-balance, sending him teetering on his feet. “What the hell…?!”  the Villain cried out, arms swinging wildly.

“Now!” Katsumi bellowed.

For all the times they’ve bugged the hell out of her, Shinso and Haimawari are good at following orders. And more importantly, they can hit hard. Shinso sucked in a breath and unleashed another blast of sonic force, her own proximity to it making Katsumi wince from the noise, while Haimawari braced himself and unleashed another blue-white blast.  Both attacks struck Jawbreaker dead on, with enough force to land him smack on his back. It made a sound somewhere between a building collapsing, an avalanche, and a trash can rolling down the stairs.

“Rocky!” Katsumi shouted again.  “Tie him up!”

“I am on it, Bombshell,” Koda said, tossing more seeds.  They began growing instantly, ensnaring Jawbreaker with thick, thorny vines, weaving all around his body and limbs.

Jawbreaker was already struggling against them, even as Koda tried to keep the pace, growing them as vast as they were destroyed.  Dammit. Koda’s vines alone weren’t going to be enough.  Time for what was usually her Plan A:  Overwhelming Force.  “We hit him,” she said.  “Hard. Now.  Everything we’ve got.”

It was already too late. Jawbreaker let out a laugh.  “It takes more than that to keep me down,” he said. He was already getting back on his feet. Vines snapped like twine.   “We’re in the home stretch too.   That means the kid gloves come off!”

He lashed out and despite having seen it several times over, she still couldn’t believe how someone that big could move that fast.   Koda and Shoji, the closest, paid the price for her few seconds of hesitation.  Shoji threw himself in front of Koda, using all six of his arms to block Jawbreaker’s strike, but jawbreaker brought his other arm around and slammed it into Shoji from the side.  He went flying and when he landed, he did not get up.

Koda lasted only a moment longer, trying reaching into her pouches for more seeds.  She fast-grew a circle of trees around Jawbreaker, briefly trapping him, until he simply punched his way through and took her down with another swipe of his massive, multi-element fists.

It had all happened so fast, she hadn’t even had time to move.  But now, she was spurred into action.   “Get that fucker!” she shouted, rushing forward.

Behind her, she could hear the sounds of Shinso and Haimawari firing again, their blasts sailing past her to strike Jawbreaker.  She had to trust that they were going to do their jobs, because the bad guy in front of her was all that she could see.

Fortunately, Koda’s failed attempts at containment had provided her with plenty of ammunition. She quickly grabbed shards of the felled trees and tossed them at Jawbreaker, peppering him with small explosions.  Even putting everything she had into them… it wasn’t enough.  Nothing left to make a big enough boom with.

“Hey, ugly!” she shouted, grabbing a handful of splintery pieces of wood in each hand.  When he turned to look at her she tossed them all at his face, letting them explode like little firecrackers.

Here, he actually screamed, one hand going to cover his face, the other swinging wildly and easy to dodge.  As his hand swung by, she slapped it with her own.  The material of her gloves now let her channel her explosive power through them directly, and the explosion she created charred his transformed flesh.  

“Yeah!” Shinso cried out. “We’ve got him now!”  He hit Jawbreaker with another sonic scream.

“”Blast now, brag later, Shinso!” Haimawari called out.  He was zipping around Jawbreaker’s other side, his feet and one hand on the ground, his other hand in the air and unleashing a barrage of low-powered blasts. They weren’t strong enough to do much—if any—damage, but they served as yet another distraction.

“Katsumi!”  a voice—Toshi’s—cried out.  “Give me an opening!”

She grinned again, slapping both hands on the ground again and setting off a powerful explosion. This close to it, the explosion left even her ears ringing, but it did the job, further throwing Jawbreaker off balance from already having been temporarily blinded.

She heard the roar of Sora Iida’s engines before she saw the two of them, zooming towards Jawbreaker and Sora carrying Toshi by the wrists.  At the last second, she released him and judging by how big of a clang the impact of Toshi’s body made with Jawbreaker’s, he must have gone about as far up on his gravity as he could.  He pushed off the Villain’s body and landed next to her.  The blow managed to stagger the giant for a moment, at least.

“About time you stopped loafing around,” Katsumi said.  

“Give me a break,” Toshi replied.  “I’ve been hit a lot today.”

Jawbreaker reared up and was ready to strike again.  Some guys just took a lot of hitting, it seemed.

***

Before Jawbreaker could strike again, a blast of fire hit him square on, setting fire to parts of his body that were made of wood.   He let out a cry of alarm and smarted smacking at the burns, trying to smother them. Thick ice walls followed, briefly blocking him off.  Toshi risked turning his head to find the source of the blast and was greeted with the sight of Izumi propelling herself along an ice slide to meet them.  

“Glad you could join us, Iz,” Katsumi said.  

“Well, someone clearly has to keep you out of trouble,” Izumi replied.  “As always.”

“Was that a joke?  You pick now to start telling jokes?”

Izumi’s arrival meant good news and bad news.  It meant they were down to one just one Villain to deal with.  But it also meant…

The sound of fists on the ice wall told him they didn’t have much time.

“The others?” he asked.

Izumu shook her head. “All defeated.”

They were it then.  Six of them against a Villain who just kept taking whatever they had and kept coming back for more.  It was only then that Toshi realized there was a question he’d been reluctant to ask.  He shouldn’t have.  One of Dad’s often told stories was how Grandpa Might and he had first met, when Grandpa Might had smashed the Sludge Villain to pieces…  

It was an extreme solution. One he hadn’t wanted to suggest they try.  

“Shota,” he said quickly, as cracks were appearing in the ice wall.  Maybe just a couple more blows.  “Has Jawbreaker ever been smashed or broken by a Hero?”  

Shota’s purple eyes went wide.  “Oh, a bunch of times!  Sometimes, he just eats more and it grows back, and sometimes he gets so smashed up it makes him change back, but all his people parts are still there!”

“Saying we should go all out, Midoriya?” Haimawari asked. Between his goggles and bandanna, his expression was almost unreadable, but Toshi could hear the doubt in his voice. “That’s a lot to throw at a guy who’s just testing us.”

Toshi nodded.  “The real world’s not a test.  You hold back too much there… Villains like him will kill you.”

“Okay then,” Haimawari said. “I… might have something.”

“Make it quick, Newb,” Katsumi said.

Haimawari told them his idea.  Toshi had to admit, it was a pretty good one.  “Then we’ll do it like that then,” he said.  And then there was no more time.

The ice wall shattered, Jawbreaker breaking free.  “That really hurt, kid,” he growled.  Patches of wood on his body showed deep burn marks, but he seemed just as large and stroke as eve.  “My turn!”

“Hit him!” Toshi yelled. “Everything you’ve got! Izumi—containment!  Everyone else… hit him!”

Izumi was first, unleashing a powerful wave of ice that entrapped Jawbreaker from the waist down, trapping his lower body in a block of ice.   It was already cracking against his great strength.  But Izumi was hardly alone in her attacks and it only needed to give them an opening.

Shota hit him with another sonic blast.  It shattered the rest of the ice, but it hit him hard, kept him off balance.  He must have taken in a pretty big breath beforehand, because the beam was strong and sustained.  Haimawari quickly zipped behind him, then powered up for a focused, intense blast.  He couldn’t sustain a single beam like Shota and required a moment to charge up a stronger shot, but he was bringing everything he had.

Sora hammered him with a series of rocket propelled blows, raising a small series of cracks on Jawbreaker’s body, never standing still for a moment.  With what had happened to her brother, she wasn’t letting up at all. Bombarded already by Shota and Haimawari, he stood little chance of catching her.

Katsumi, freed from any need to hold back, went all out, tossing whatever she could at him, hitting him with explosions big and small.   She kept herself light on her feet, never staying in one place for long, but steadily getting closer. Dodging under one of Jawbreaker’s strikes, she reached up and slapped her hand against his arm.

KABOOM!

Jawbreaker let out a scream as his left arm exploded.  The sight and sound of it was more than enough to give everyone pause.  Even knowing he had asked his friends to go all out, Toshi felt guilty for it.  It looked like it had to hurt.  

It was also the opening he needed.   Toshi forced himself not to think about the harm that he had done and took a couple steps back, canceled his gravity, and jumped, launching himself at Jawbreaker like a missile.

But even in pain, Jawbreaker was ready and swung a massive arm.  He hit Toshi full on, just as Toshi had shifted to full gravity.  There was a satisfying sound of cracking, but so powerful was the blow that Toshi went flying anyway, smashing into and through the building across the street.

As he landed, Toshi heard a rumble and struggled to stand, but couldn’t get his feet under him.  The building creaked…

And came down on him.

***

 “Toshi!” Sora Iida screamed, dropping to the ground with far less grace than usual.  She tapped the side of her helmet.  “Toshi, come in!  Speak to me!”

No response over the comms wasn’t good.  It meant Midoriya was unconscious or hurt or…   No. Isamu instantly pushed that thought aside.  The teachers wouldn’t have allowed that to happen.  They were monitoring them, of course.  Watching them.  If Midoriya were really hurt, they’d have stopped the test, gotten Doctor Izumi out. Hell, his grandfather would probably have already been out here, digging through the rubble.

It didn’t mean Midoriya was going to be rejoining the fight any time soon though.   Which was… not good.  Deprived of one of the strongest Quirks in the class, it left them were a lot fewer options for fighting Jawbreaker.

“Word of advice, kid?” Jawbreaker said.  “Don’t take your eye off the Villain!”   He lashed out with his remaining arm and struck Iida hard, seeming not to notice the spider-web of cracks that spread up his arm from the blow.   The red and silver armored girl went flying and did not get up when she landed.

Jawbreaker dug his fingers into the ground, breaking up the street to shovel more pavement into his mouth. As he did, his left arm started growing back, now being made entirely out of pavement.   Isamu wasn’t sure how much time they had left in the exam… but he was certain having a Villain like this still rampaging about wasn’t going to do their scores any good.

“And you shouldn’t take your eyes off me!”  Kirishima-Bakugo, now behind the Villain, shouted.  She once again placed both hands on the ground and channeled a powerful explosion through it.  The ground around him exploded in a series of bangs that were more flash than flare, momentarily stunning him.  

“I think I have done just about all I can,” Izumi announced.  “Katsumi, gentlemen, if you would?”

“What the hell are you talking about, kid?” Jawbreaker snarled.  “Haven’t you seen yet that none of you are beating me?”

“Yeah, well,” Isamu said. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

“We tricked you!” Shinso shouted.  “We tricked you good!”

“What are you…?” Jawbreaker began, and only then did he notice all the spider-web cracks that had appeared all over his body, all the places he had hit and been hit.  At the layer of shining frost that had formed all over his body.

When Shinso had mentioned that Jawbreaker could be shattered and reform without killing him, Isamu’s mind had kicked into overdrive.  Short of Shinso’s disintegrating scream thing or Kirishima-Bakugo pumping out way more explosive power than he’d ever seen her do before, none of them could have possibly done enough damage to him to completely slow him down.  They could blow off limbs, as Kirishima-Bakugo had managed to do, but that was riskier and required more precision targeting.  And as they had seen, he could just consume more to regrow them.

Instead, while the rest of them kept him distracted, Izumi had slowly been leeching heat from the material of his body directly, slowly freezing him up little by little. Midoriya should have been the one to deliver the final blow, but…

As realization dawned on Jawbreaker’s face, they let him have it.  Kirishima-Bakugo unleashed another wave of explosions across the ground, Shinso screamed and unleashed a powerful wave of sonic force, and Isamu put everything he had into his blast, firing his repulsion force outward in one massive shot.

The attacks hit Jawbreaker all at once, exploding the majority of his body into a shower of frozen shards.   His head and shoulders hit the ground with a groan, still very conscious.

“You kids haven’t won yet…” he growled, trying to tilt so he could begin eating the street again.

But then Izumi acted again, shooting a pillar of ice up beneath him that then wrapped around the head, completely encasing it in ice.

There was a long, quiet moment before any of them could even breathe.

“Did we… did we do it?” Shinso asked.

“I, ah, I think we did,” Isamu said, scarcely believing the words out of his own mouth.

“Damn right we did,” Kirhsima-Bakugo said.   “Thanks to Izzy here.”

Izumi bowed her head, then held up a hand.  The bands of her uniform were glowing orange and perspiration covered her face, but she was still standing strong.  He’d been worried that she might have to push herself too far with his plan, but she’d offered herself up for it anyway.  “A group effort.  I am owed no more praise than any other.”

Another quiet moment followed, as the rush of battle began to wear off.  Isamu was already thinking they needed to check on Midoriya and the others who’d been knocked around over the course of the exam.  Which he would do.  Just as soon as his heartrate returned to normal.

“But,” Shinso said, “then why isn’t anyone telling us it’s over.  Shouldn’t there be a bell or alarm or something.”

Damn.  He was right.

“Looking for this, Heroes?” a voice called out.  Across the street, in the shadow of a building, was Shadow-Thief.  And she was holding Recovery Girl.  Or rather… Doctor McGuffin!  “Guess you’re too late!”

She disappeared again, reappearing in the shadows further up.  Isamu had a good eye for distance.  They’d been told they couldn’t allow Doctor McGuffin to get more than 100 meters from the shelter, or they’d lose.  He estimated she’d already made it 50 meters…

“Put me down, you hooligan!” Recovery Girl snapped, smacking her fists against Shadow-Thief’s head and shoulders.  “Kids these days, no respect for their elders!”

“Ow!  Ow!  Stop hitting me, old woman!  You’re supposed to be playing along!” Shadow-Thief vanished again, disappearing and reappearing even further away.

Too far for anyone to blast her, too far for Izumi to trap her with ice, all of which were too risky to begin with.  Too far for anything.

Anything but him.

Isamu threw himself forward and called upon his Quirk.  He thought he’d put everything he had into that last blast again Jawbreaker.  He turned out to be wrong, blasting himself forward with reserves he hadn’t thought he’d had.

It hurt, like a burning sensation in his hands and feet, and he could feel exhaustion threatening to claim him the longer he did it, buildings speeding by as he pushed and pushed and pushed every ounce of repulsive force he had left in his body.

Shadow-Thief was still getting away.   Twenty-five meters until the boundary.   Twenty meters.  Fifteen. Ten.   He was getting closer…  so close….   Five meters…  He just needed one last push!

There were no shadows big enough left, forcing Shadow-Thief to try and run the last five meters. Isamu unleashed every last ounce of energy within him and shot forward like a paperclip from a rubber band.  He smacked into her legs just before she made it the final meter.

Recovery Girl went sailing into the air and he desperately disentangled himself from Shadow Thief, getting under the elderly woman just in time to catch her, sinking to his knees.

Somewhere, an alarm sounded, signaling the end of the three hours of their exam.

It was the last thing Isamu heard before he passed out.

[cyb-by-lang]

Shell Game (25/?)

Obito and Kakashi get in trouble.

Obito really didn’t mind burning a day by stalking a hero. The weather was nice, big screens everywhere were happily showing the Sports Festival wherever Ingenium stopped for a second, and snacks were easy to pick up at any corner store. Kei wasn’t here, but she was keeping up a cover identity. And while Obito wasn’t necessarily happy about it, he’d gotten used to not having Kei around for missions ever since February.

Off to Obito’s left, Kakashi bit down on a sneeze as the two of them hopped across a gap between two rooftops, still following the silver-armored hero on his patrols. The local air was still weird.

If he was being honest, Obito half-expected this method of finding Stain to be as much of a bust as the scent-tracking. The Turbo Hero Ingenium was the leader of Team Idaten agency, and therefore he was one of the better-connected heroes in Hosu. If something did happen, he had a radio where Obito and Kakashi didn’t, so he’d probably be on the scene of any crime as fast as he could. Therefore, Obito and Kakashi were saving themselves a tremendous amount of trouble stalking his various sidekicks by just following the big silver team coordinator around.

It helped that Ingenium’s helmet made it difficult for him to cover his own blind spot. Someone probably ought to let him know.

…Just not until this tactic of last resort was fully explored.

Unfortunately, though they’d tracked down another police investigation, the victim was carted off to the hospital before Kakashi or Obito could Sharingan any answers out of them. The police had already trampled all over the site, making it useless for Kakashi’s tracking technique. And to add salt to their collective wounded pride, Stain had apparently departed the scene via the sewer system. There was a lot Kakashi could do, both with his dogs and on his own, but all three of them had come to the sad conclusion that scent-tracking was just not going to work for this case.

Not that Kakashi would subject his dogs to city air if he could avoid it, but Obito understood. Some situations were a bit too complicated to have an easy solution. And even besides that, summoning techniques didn’t appear to work on this side of Kamui.

Thus, stalking.

Not that Ingenium made it easy. Per Kei’s explanation, this hero had engines built into his arms that helped him run faster or something. Obito didn’t think it compared to shinobi speed, especially since he and Kakashi were some of the fastest people Konoha could throw at the problem, but he definitely took corners way faster than a normal person, and while blowing smoke everywhere. Because roof-hopping required a bit of foresight and Ingenium didn’t seem to believe in slowing down except to make calls, Obito had been leading with his Sharingan ever since this mission started.

“Slow,” Kakashi said, his gloved hand brushing against Obito’s right shoulder. Sensation was a little dull in that side, but it was definitely a tap.

Obito shook the gleam of Ingenium’s armor out of his eye before he dug his heels in properly. Rooftop gravel crunched under his feet as he skidded a bit, then turned to face Kakashi.

Kakashi jerked his masked head back and then down. Without any further words, he marched back over to the gap they’d just leapt over and dropped down with no ceremony. They’d found their Hero Killer, then, and Obito moved to follow.

At that point, the clank of light metal and rushing air met Obito’s ears. Likewise, an armored shadow passed over him and, when Obito looked up, he spotted a silver figure careening overhead.

Ingenium landed in front of him, elbow pipe things jetting smoke. While his body was angled forward, as though expecting violence, his voice came out surprised. “You—you’re a vigilante? Or a villain?”

Obito shrugged. He raised his right hand to scratch the back of his neck, feeling his face heat up under his mask. To salvage the situation, Obito almost mimicked Ingenium’s voice right back at him just to make the awkward feeling fall on someone else for a change, but then steel met steel in the alleyway below.

Obito had already Kamui-warped from the roof to the ground before he even finished his master plan. Ingenium got a glimpse of a person spiraling away into a ribbony mirage, centered on the right eye of the mask, before Obito stepped out into a dingy alleyway.

“Wolf!” he barked, landing farthest from the street.

Kakashi didn’t respond except to nod.

And from the shadow of a dumpster, the Hero Killer rose.

Taller than either Kakashi or Obito, but hunched as though his head was set a bit too far forward. His arms were bare under bandages running up to his biceps, balancing combat gear resembling cobbled ANBU gear. Obito noted the shift of shapes under his clothes and on belts, his Sharingan alerting him to dozens upon dozens of hidden knives, folding blades, and spare sharp objects. Heavy soles on already-modified shoes indicated yet more blades, perhaps spring-loaded. He was built like someone who fought for a living, complete with a damaged katana and ragged scarf to accompany the tails of his mask. His face was even flattened due to a total lack of nose, probably on purpose.

Stain looked like a jackass, was the point. It was a flexible word. Obito had picked up a few things here and there from Kei’s vocabulary.

Between him and Kakashi, the Hero Killer was bracketed in by an ANBU agent and someone who had all the training and the power to sidestep attacks. Judging by the knife embedded in the brickwork, Kakashi had already deflected an attack or two with his kunai.

…If Stain had enough knives, this would be a very short fight.

Obito slid into a combat stance as Kakashi shifted his grip on his kunai. While both of them could have carried katana into this fight, Kakashi didn’t need one and Obito could grow his own. Besides, that would have implied that either of them wanted anything to do with a fair fight with this jerk. If it was going to be a two-on-one beatdown, Obito would count it as a good day.

For a second, it was a standoff. Kakashi on one side, kunai held defensively in his left hand. Obito on Stain’s other side, right hand flexing like he was going to go for—instead of grow—a weapon. Wood Release tendrils started to snake out from under his gauntlets, crawling down his leg and toward the nearest wall.

“More wannabe vigilantes trying to bring me to ‘justice,’ I see,” Stain spat, drawing no more reaction than a cocked head from Obito. Seriously, what was this guy’s deal? “Every time I kill you maggots, more just appear. You’re not even worth dirtying my blade.”

Across from Obito, Kakashi’s Sharingan flashed noticeably, despite how he was backlit by the street. His right hand and arm lit up with white chakra lightning, running along gloved fingers like static.

Lightning Release: Stunning Flash. Obito knew that technique like the back of his hand.

Just like Kakashi knew his Wood Release moves, even if he couldn’t copy them. Wood Release: Butterfly Net.

There were benefits to sending long-standing team members on serious missions together.

“The only thing worse than you are those fake heroes you keep dogging, like their fame will wear off on you,” Stain went on, seemingly oblivious to the slowly rising tide of violence.

Then Ingenium hopped down from the rooftop, and the situation got needlessly complicated.

Now, Ingenium wasn’t a bad guy as far as Obito knew. He rescued cats from trees, too, and he walked kids across the street sometimes. He organized people to do good. He seemed like a dependable hero. But he was also big, wore armor, and there was just not enough room in this alleyway for four combatants without getting in each other’s way.

“Your reign of terror ends here, Hero Killer!” Ingenium squared his stance and raised his fists.

“No…” And Stain’s flat face turned toward Ingenium. “It’s just getting started.”

Obito held out his free hand, snapped his fingers to get Stain’s attention, and made a gesture that left little to the imagination regarding his opinion of the Hero Killer’s self-satisfied ranting.

This did not meet with approval. While Kakashi clearly rolled his eyes based on how his Sharingan light blinked out for a second, Ingenium coughed. Then Stain hissed, “You’ll die first.”

Obito said, in Stain’s voice, “Come at me, bro.” And just to make the moment complete, he added a mocking “come here” motion with his left hand.

Stain lashed out at speeds nearly comparable to a tetchy chūnin, but Obito’s Mangekyō Sharingan slowed the entire world to a crawl. While Obito grinned under his mask, Kamui shifted along with the slash of Stain’s ragged-edged katana as it seemingly sliced him open from shoulder to opposite hip with no resistance.

“No—” Ingenium began as Obito flopped forward onto the ground, only just avoiding cracking his mask on impact.

Or so the two Tokyo-natives seemed to think.

Stain lifted his blade and then stopped dead. Just as he realized the broken steel was still clean, Stain tried a follow-up attack that stabbed downward through Obito’s head.

To exactly as little effect as before.

“Nice try, asshole,” Obito said, still in Stain’s voice. He stepped back, watching the man’s eyes widen. “You’re just too slow.”

Kakashi was too professional to sigh, but it was a close thing. Instead, Obito heard him say, “Ingenium, you’re in the way.”

“As useful as his Quirk is,” Ingenium noted, not taking his attention from Stain, “arrests are Hero work. I can’t let you two handle Stain on your own, no matter what.”

“Your call,” Obito chirped. Given the funny look everyone gave him, he imagined no one quite expected to hear a cute, piping voice coming from behind his eerie white mask. He stalked behind Stain, putting his hand up against the Wood Release web he’d already started. “But you should still back up, say, fifteen meters.”

Ingenium didn’t, probably because Stain went for him next. A knife flew and struck one of the places where his armor didn’t cover his undersuit, slicing through his tricep on its way to the street.

The hero staggered two steps back with a shout of pain—

Kakashi’s arm lit up until it was nearly blinding—

Stain leapt for Ingenium’s throat, katana curved in a lethal upward arc—

Obito slammed his chakra into his right arm just as a knife whipped out of nowhere and hit him square in the right shoulder. It bit into muscle, but couldn’t touch bone even if slammed home with Tsunade’s strength—his Zetsu arm didn’t have any bones to break. And the pain was only about as bad as a sharp slap. Getting Kamui up first was more important, and his Mangekyō ached again to let him know that was a great plan.

—Obito’s Wood Release vines snaked up from the ground and hardened to something akin to steel bars, blocking Stain from reaching Ingenium as though a door had just been slammed in his face—

—Stain’s tongue slipped through the bars and caught a drop of flying blood—

—Ingenium hit the ground with a thud—

—and Kakashi’s lightning arced out directly for the man carrying the most steel, engulfing the alleyway in white light. Bolts passed through Obito like nothing, making his fingertips tingle.

Obito was pretty sure, after the fact, that he saw his own retina from the flash. He would give Kakashi a thorough ribbing for that later. As he blinked the red out of his vision, he took in the scene.

Stain was upright only because Obito’s Wood Release had made a sort of Hashirama tree in the middle of the alley, and it was awful hard to pry anybody out of the wood without a much heavier weapon than Stain’s sword. They’d be chopping him out with an axe, and hopefully with a lot of heroes making sure he wouldn’t stab anybody again.

Speaking of, it’d probably be easier to be sure of that if Obito stole all his goddamn knives for the police to process. Still, Obito glanced around to be sure his two fellow fighters were all right.

Kakashi crouched over Ingenium, peeling back a layer of undersuit to check on the injury. He’d made a heavy bandage out of gauze and some medical tape, and folded it even as he kept his Sharingan trained on the wound. Then, “It’s not deep. Can you keep pressure on it?”

“I would if I could.” Ingenium’s voice was about half an octave higher than usual. “But I can’t—I can’t move. At all.”

“Huh,” said Kakashi, and then pressed the pad to the injury as he levered the hero’s arm up and above his heart. “Quirk?”

“Probably.” Ingenium groaned quietly, wincing noticeably even with his full-face helmet as Kakashi worked. “Are both of you all right?”

Kakashi nodded.

Obito idly pitched two combat knives over his shoulder. They clattered to the concrete. “Yep.”

“Good.” Kakashi helped Ingenium sit up, still clamping his hand over the wound. “My communicator is in my helmet. Any chance you could help me reach it?”

“The two of us are outta here the second your sidekicks show up,” Obito warned, kicking a multitool toward the dumpster. He jabbed a thumb at the still-unconscious Stain. “He’s going to jail on his own.”

Ingenium’s helmet canted to the left. “You think I’d try to get you arrested for vigilantism?”

“…Yes?” Obito replied, finally turning away from the Hero Killer. He’d get out of there when someone helped him, not before. “I mean, it’s in all the pamphlets.”

“If I’d tried taking him on alone, I’d probably have died,” Ingenium explained. He still couldn’t move, apparently, but Kakashi was being patient about the whole thing. “I don’t think the police would agree, but it’s a hero’s job to keep innocent people safe even if it costs us everything. Sometimes, that includes legal protection.”

“Oh.” Obito scratched the back of his head, and then remembered he was wearing a full head covering and it was than less effective. “Uh, that’s actually nice of you to say. Wolf, maybe if we make sure the paralysis wears off first…?”

Kakashi sighed. “Make your call, Ingenium. Stain isn’t any more arrested than he was a minute ago.”

Ingenium managed a pained laugh, now that his adrenaline rush was starting to wear off from lack of use. “All right, all right.”

Ingenium got his full movement back (or nearly) a little before his now-alerted sidekicks started converging for real. He was going to be mobbed by worried heroes and carted off to the hospital soon, apparently. Once they were all sure Stain’s Quirk had worn off and the guy still wouldn’t be going anywhere, Kakashi let Ingenium take over caring for his own injury before disappearing ahead of police sirens.

By that point, Obito had managed to wheedle a masked selfie out of the hapless hero—because of course he had to. Ingenium seemed more baffled than annoyed, probably by how quickly events had progressed, and obliged. With a cheery salute, Obito vanished up the wall like a spider caught in the light, leaving the police and pro heroes to deal with the serial killer. He could send photographic evidence to Kei about their successful mission, so she’d finally stop worrying.

He sent it immediately after he and Kakashi were both out of sight and away from any of the swarming heroes. So: ten blocks away.

It took until a couple minutes later, when he went to change into civilian clothes inside Kamui, that he remembered Stain’s knife was still sticking out of his shoulder.

Kakashi facepalmed hard enough to put Kei to shame.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 181 “Amur Tiger”

So raw for chap 181 are out and, while I can’t really understand the dialogues, I still noticed some interesting points to wonder about.

Let’s start from the last topic I talked about in my previous post for the past chapter.

The tiger.

The translation isn’t out yet but it really seems the idea is that no one carried there the tiger but that it just got there on its own.

Talk about bad luck for Sofia’s group (or good luck for Kiro as he apparently was the one who lighted the only explosive which worked, opening the hole from which the tiger entered in the prison, so, if he had remained there, the tiger would have attached him) but if that’s the case it would make the fact there was a tiger toy left behind and seen by Sugimoto and Co absolutely random.

It’s a pity or maybe a red herring. Hard to say.

I’ll still keep my eyes open for a Nanai man showing up. Just in case.

And yes, Sofia was there with the tiger.

I guess the visual was just a little bit odd but that’s it.

I’m glad so far the tiger hadn’t attached anyone of the characters we love (and that Shiraishi’s head is still untouched...). A side of me wishes the situation will remain as such... the other would be disappointed as we would have gotten rid of the whole tiger thing a bit too soon, making it just an excuse to show how awesome Sofia is.

Oh well, we’ll see if the tiger will do something or will say bye to us.

Svetlana is still nowhere in sight. Sofia isn’t worrying for her, does this mean she knows where she is? Or that she doesn’t care? Or just that she thinks it’s better if Svetlana doesn’t escape? Or has Svetlana succesfully escaped and we just didn’t see it?

Hard to say.

About Sofia... she remains AWESOME.

I mean... she rode the tiger after trying to strangle her with the chain!

But that’s not even her coolest point. When everyone wanted her to escape... she just decided to remain there and fight. Her own men all wanted to protect her and were brave for her, which implies she’s a beloved leader.

She also made sure the tiger was spared because it seems that among the Nanai people if a man kills a tiger, which they view as a god, that man will be unhappy and therefore she didn’t want her man to be unhappy.

Sofia has embraced the beliefs of the minorities but well, in this too she shows she cares for her men.

Remember when Tsurumi compared her to Saigou Takamori?

Well, it seems Tsurumi has an eye for these comparisons because this one fits really well.

There’s to wonder though if we will see the Nanai belief ever taking place (as in someone will shoot a tiger or Kiroranke whose name means ‘tiger’ and will be unhappy) or it’ll be just random info we got.

In Golden Kamuy few things are just random info but sometimes it happens.

Anyway it seems something else explodes. Not sure if it is one of the previous explosives which finally worked or Kiro used some new ones (I NEED THE TRANSLATIONS!) but the men either decided to escape from the new hole or used the one from which the tiger entered.

Anyway they went out and escaped close enough to where Asirpa’s group is.

Sofia and Asirpa finally meet and I love how it’s Asirpa that catches Sofia’s attention. She stops not because she has seen Kiro (she hadn’t) it’s just the sight of Asirpa that caused Sofia to stop.

She seems to think Asirpa is a karafuto Ainu due to her wearing a tetarpe (テタラペ). We’re shown the same picture of young Wilk we saw in chap 148 and now that I pay it close attention to Wilk’s clothes, Wilk’s sleeve has the same embrioded pattern than Asirpa (sorry about this, probably the whole fandom except me knew it already but I’ve really a poor eye on clothes... -_-).

Well, actually the clothes just look the same.

The problem is that a Tetarpe should be done with nettle fibers while Asirpa’s clothes are done with Manchurian elm tree barks.

But well, Sofia apparently never went to Japan so it’s possible she only recognized the pattern and not the material with what it was done.

Maybe Wilk specifically requested for Asirpa to wear that pattern, hence that’s why her clothes look like a mix of Hokkaido Ainu (the material) and Karafuto Ainu (the pattern). Maybe this is meant to come into play in the way Wilk’s mother’s kimono came into play. He gave it to Inkarmat so that he would recognize her, and made sure Asirpa wore that pattern so someone else (Sofia?) could recognize her.

Still I wonder.

Does the fact we were shown a young Wilk means Sofia met Wilk while he was still a kid? Or it was just a random image in order to show us a Karafuto Ainu’s clothes?

Hard to say and without translations I’m not even very sure I’m understanding things correctly.

Still I’ll say Sofia had learnt to talk Japanese correctly as not only she can talk with Asirpa but she does it using kanji (previously she mostly used katakana or hiragana a visual sign commonly used in manga to point out she wasn’t good at speaking Japanese).

Honestly I hope Asirpa and Sofia will manage to talk.

And now Sofia and Kiro’s meeting.

While Shiraishi is having a... ‘Sister Miyazawa’s moment’ (as in ‘Sofia doesn’t look at all how he expected her to be’), Kiro, loyal to his own tastes...

...seems to think Sofia’s looks improved a lot.

Ogata and Shiraishi’s expression are amazing. Especially Shiraishi who seems to doubt of Kiro’s eyesight. LOL, even the official web joked on Ogata and Shiraishi’s miracolous synchronized reaction...

Actually it’ll be interesting if Ogata and Shiraishi were FINALLY to develop some sort of form of vague friendship in the middle of the situation they’re in (two Japanese men in Russian territory who ended up in a group of Russian revolutionaries/partisans and who care for Asirpa their own way).

Sofia’s reaction instead sort of matches Inkarmat’s after Wilk died as, not only she attacked him, but she also uses the same words (though, truth to be told, Sofia first hit then spoke while Inkarmat first spoke then attempted to hit him).

Which means the dialogue should be

...but it might be that the sentence might be translated differently as the sentence is incomplete.

In fact the sentence is:

よくもウイルクを…

Which means:

よくも = Yokumo = “How dare” or “How dare you”

ウイルク = Wilk

を = particle which among other things can indicate "the subject of causative expression“, “the object of desire, like, hate, etc.”, “the direct object of action”

So we can assume it actually is “How dare (you)... to Wilk...” with the verb missing and, until we’ve some more contest, it’s hard to say if the verb is meant to be a ‘do’.

In fact we should wonder if Sofia knows the truth in regard to Wilk... or Kiro told her something else.

If she doesn’t know the truth she might be blaming Kiro for not managing to save Wilk, for example. Or for letting him be arrested and remain in jail for so long. Or... well, whatever Kiro told her he did.

Also, even if Sofia knows the truth, would she be willing to tattle it out in front of Asirpa.

Sofia seemed to be the type who would chose her underlings to her own safety... but Wilk is dead by now... so would she chose to deny to her still living underlings the help the gold can provide them all for a deceased man which Kiro blamed of having changed (and therefore either abandoned or betrayed them)?

I think it’s quite a dilemma.

Shiraishi seems utterly confused at the scene that’s taking place. We know he suspected Kiro of having killed Inkarmat and having lied to them and Ogata of having killed Wilk and Sugimoto but I guess he didn’t think the two of them could have been accomplices in this, otherwise his reaction would probably be different.

Asirpa seems surprised but not overly so.

The most interesting thing for me though, is how, while Asirpa and Shiraishi’s eyes are on Kiro and Sofia, Ogata’s eyes are on Asirpa.

Not on Asirpa and Shiraishi, as they both can react negatively if the truth comes up and Shiraishi is a man so he could pose a bigger threat, no, Ogata’s gaze is just on Asirpa.

We know he was worried she might end up like his brother, killed because she wouldn’t bow to Kiro’s plans.

He knows Kiro is responsible for Wilk’s death as the plan was Kiro’s idea so he might have assumed the truth is at risk of coming out in front of Asirpa and, I bet, he knows she wouldn’t take it well.

Still it’s hard to say what’s up with him, what he plans to do should the truth come out but, since we’re talking about him...

Well, Ogata spoke again, right at the beginning of this chapter and it was to remark how odd it is that no one is trying to escape as, although the explosive malfunctioned, the problem didn’t regard all of it, so there’s a hole in one of the walls from which prisoners could escape.

He’s calm compared to the others and, for once, he’s not behind them but in front of them. I think it’s meaningful from the way he’s holding his rifle we can guess he’s ready to shoot, should an unknown assailant show up (he’s giving his back to the others so he’s clearly not thinking of them as enemies).

Now... I know I’ve found his calm suspicious in the previous chapter... but here he just seems professional. He reminds me of when they were attacked by Vasily and co.

Back then too he was calm and not sweating, differently from everyone else.

So maybe he’s just in combat more and yes, the explosives malfunctioning aren’t due to him... but he might have found them suspicious anyway.

That time it had been Tsurumi who tattled them out to the Russian guards so Ogata was right in being suspicious. Does this mean we should take it as a hint someone else tampered with the explosives, someone not in Kiro’s group?

Hard to say.

On another sidenote I again wonder on what’s exactly the plan between Ogata and Kiro. I mean, I get Kiro dragged him along because he wanted a bodyguard... but it’s also hinted Kiro isn’t so fond of Ogata.

Is Kiro genuinely planning to let Ogata join their group or is he just using him?

Does he plan to shift the blame for Wilk’s death on Ogata only? Or, despite everything, will stay loyal to him?

It’s hard to say. Ogata is not a member of an ethnic minority and his character isn’t exactly lovable. It’s very unlikely Ogata shares Kiro’s same ideals (unless it’ll turn out he’s also of mixed blood). So it might make sense Kiro wouldn’t want to be allied with him for an indefinite time.

Although Ogata remains an awesome marksman, now Kiro can count on Sofia and her men or so he assumes so he might think he doesn’t need Ogata any longer.

I always wondered about this panel in chap 148 that decided to superimpose that explanation to Ogata’s figure as if he were a stand in for Japan’s wrongdoings.

So... no idea. I’ve always liked to think that, despite his ideals, Kiro is a genuinely good person so I hate to think he might have just lead there Ogata with the plan to use him and then get rid of him... but well, truth to be told, he lead Asirpa there with a trick and in a way he’s planning to use her to get the cold so... maybe it’s not so unlikely.

No, really, I don’t know or better I’m not sure I want to know.

We’re missing too much backstory to anticipate what will happen between Ogata and Kiro as future developments are actually also strongly based on past developments we’re totally oblivious of (what Ogata is aiming at? how and when did the two of them decide to join forces? was it prior to meet Sugimoto? or when they meet in Yubari? hard to say).

Sure, present developments will affect how Ogata will act as it’s implied the time spent with Asirpa affected him (Kiro doesn’t seem to have changed much from the beginning) but that’s not just all there is to him.

He started this adventure due to reasons we don’t know. He might be willing to forget about them... or not... or he might not be allowed to. the same goes for his alliance with Kiro. Despite everything it might be based on some sort of deep tie or... it can be purely coincidentaly and easy to break up... or both parties could have set it up with the ultimate purpose to betray each other.

Again, hard to say.

We’ll see but I would really love to see more flashbacks regarding those two.

To make up for it, even though the last chapter completely overlooked them, we shouldn’t forget Sugimoto’s group is close by and Kiro’s group have lost time due to the lack of explosions and the tiger.

I don’t think Sugimoto will manage to have Asirpa back so easily but still their presence might affect future developments.

As for me I want to see Sofia and Koito interact... though this might be just me. I’ve no proofs it will happen but I don’t think Koito will be offed anytime soon. He doesn’t look like the sort of character who’d been created to end up as a ‘red shirt’ or something like that.

He gets to show up on the cover of the next volume after all!

I expect Koito to get his chance at character growth (or even of character regression) and contribute significantly at the plot one way or another.

He’s a character who has potential to become better or worse and I want to see him change. But maybe it’s just me.