#i had such a hard time drawing ritsu for No Reason.

[weirdinhumans]

my mp100 art. some are bad quality because i literally just take a photo of my sketchbook and do some editing. anyways enjoy

[cinderella-ish]

Fruits Basket Queer Headcanons

The more I watch and read Fruits Basket, the more I get the sense that no one is straight here. Well... almost no one. So, in honor of pride month, here are my queer headcanons for the cast of Fruits Basket!

(Disclaimer that these are my own personal headcanons, obviously nothing official, etc... I try to draw on evidence from the text, but I'll admit I'm occasionally going purely off vibe. Also, I'm bi and genderfluid, so that's the lens I'm bringing to this. I'd love to hear your headcanons, especially if they differ from mine! Enjoy!)

Genderfluid and/or genderqueer: Ayame and Ritsu

I (probably somewhat controversially) think a lot of the gender non-conformity among Fruits Basket characters is just that: gender non-conformity. Momiji is one example; he dresses in girls' clothing (though not "like a girl") until his growth spurt, but it seems important to him to be seen as a man from at least that point forward.

Ritsu is someone whose gender identity and/or nonconformity really should've been explored more in the manga - as written, it feels like Ritsu's exploration of gender was viewed as something he'd grow out of, rather than a search for understanding himself. He doesn't really seem to mind being identified as either male or female, though he obviously feels a lot of shame about his comfort with wearing women's clothes (though no one around him when we meet him really seems to mind, which is nice-- I also appreciate that Ritsu was shown to have friends who adore him outside of the Sohmas). Anyway, the fact that he seems okay with being referred to as both a man and a woman is the entire basis for this headcanon.

Ritsu also idolizes Ayame, and I think part of this stems from Ayame's own security in his non-traditional gender presentation. We don't really get a lot of Ayame's thoughts on gender, despite his line of work, but he strikes me as the sort of person who would enjoy playing with his own gender presentation and would be more than open to exploring his gender identity (and probably has!). I think Ayame would lean more toward having an expansive view of masculinity rather than dressing more feminine when he feels more feminine, but I also think he would embrace the different ways people might perceive his gender.

Transgender Woman: Akito Sohma

This I think is quite clear in canon. Akito was assigned male at birth, then transitioned to female.

What makes it hard for some people to see Akito as trans is that the reason she was assigned male at birth was not the typical reason people are assigned male at birth in our world (it was her mother's demand, rather than a guess based on the shape of her genitals), but I don't think that makes her any less trans.

Under the Ace and/or Aro Umbrellas

This umbrella is a little tricky for several of these characters, because they've been forbidden from dating, or had very controlling parents, or thought they'd only hurt anyone they loved, so they haven't necessarily had time to figure out whether they've just repressed that part of themselves or they just don't experience attraction at all/without a strong emotional connection first. (Not everyone needs time to figure that out, though!) But anyway, here's who I think would eventually find themselves under at least one of these umbrellas!

Asexual/Aromantic: Kazuma

I love the tidbit that Kazuma tried dating women, but talked so much about Kyo that he never got a second date. I like the interpretation of him as a gay man, but to me, he reads as asexual/aromantic. Dating just doesn't even seem to be on his radar!

Demisexual/Demiromantic: Kyo, Shigure, Machi

A lot of the fandom sees Kyo as demi, and I'm totally here for that interpretation of him. He generally seems annoyed by or frightened of girls who aren't Tohru (frightened either when there's a risk of transforming, or when Kagura is involved). Also, it's CUTE that Kyo takes after his dad (Kazuma) in this way.

At first blush, it seems very unlikely Shigure is under the ace umbrella, but I couldn't stop thinking about his brief relationship with Mayu. He's the one who suggested they date, yet he seemed completely disinterested in her. He did sleep with Ren, but that was only for revenge and because he imagined Akito would look like her if she'd been allowed to grow up as a woman. I genuinely believe all his "high school girls" ickiness was an act, much like most of his personality.

It doesn't seem like Machi can totally tell if/when she likes something (or someone!). This makes me wonder if she's just never had feelings for anyone before Yuki.

Demiromantic: Rin, Hiro

Rin seems open to sexual relations with people other than Haru, but I genuinely can't see her having romantic feelings for anyone other than him. I see Hiro similarly with respect to Kisa. I think, if they ever split, it would take an extremely long time for him to even be open to falling for someone else.

Under the Bi/Pan+ Umbrella

So, I'm not making a distinction between these two (and other orientations that fall under the same umbrella, like poly- or omnisexual) because that seems like a very personal, internal conversation. I know some people make a distinction between the way bi and pan people experience attraction, but some don't, and that feels too prescriptivist for my purposes here. So, these are characters who I think experience attraction to multiple genders!

Tohru obviously falls for Kyo, but she also thinks Akito is cute, she thinks Rin is "shapely" and "beautiful" (her words!), and she goes along with it when Saki talks about them getting married.

Yuki ends up with Machi (and I love them together!) but I think Kyo was his first crush. His arc is also very relatable for a lot of queer folks (myself included!). And he's a disaster. Long live bisexual disaster Yuki Sohma!

Shigure is tricky, because the flirtation between him and Ayame could just be a joke, but I personally think it's a joke that arose out of some fun nights spent together...

Akito obviously likes men, but she also flirts with Tohru when they first meet.

Saki talks about marrying both Tohru and Kazuma. She's probably joking about Kazuma, but she's generally a very literal person, so I don't think she's joking about Tohru. She also marries a foreigner canonically, and that foreigner is probably a man.

Momiji talks about finding an amazing sweetheart-- not an amazing wife or girlfriend!!-- one day. I think he was being very intentional in not specifying his future partner's gender.

Hatori is the one I feel least sure of, but my headcanon is that he gets so annoyed and embarrassed by Shigure and Ayame because he doesn't want anyone to know he was totally part of at least a few of those trysts...

Mutsuki and Hajime are definitely together, right? And it seems like the fandom mostly sees Mutsuki as bi, which... yeah, that tracks.

Hatsuharu's first love was Yuki, and his last love was Rin.

Kakeru has a girlfriend, but for some reason, I have it in my head that he always refers to Kyo as Yuki's "hot cousin"? Did I just imagine that? Anyway... even if I did make that up, I think his backstory is a great analogy for the experience of coming out. He was trying to fit in a box and decided he was done with it. Pure chaotic bi energy.

For Ayame, see Shigure and Hatori above. (Also, “I am a bottom ALL THE WAY!!!”)

Mine is admittedly here just based on vibes.

Mitsuru likes Ritsu even though she's not entirely sure of Ritsu's gender!

Kimi is also here purely based on vibes.

Gay and Lesbian

Hiroshi has always struck me as gay. I can't really explain it. I usually have absolutely awful gaydar, so it's odd that he gives me such clear gay vibes. I wrote him as gay in my longfic, Bloom Within Us, and I'll probably always write him as gay.

President Takei obviously has a crush on Yuki. We don't really see him show interest in anyone else (partially because he's such a minor character). He also seems to still be a bachelor in Another, which could be because he can't legally marry yet...

My headcanon that Kunimitsu is gay kind of popped up as I was writing Bloom Within Us. There's no particular reason, and he doesn't give me strong gay vibes or anything.

Hajime and Mutsuki are definitely a couple! (Right?!) And it seems like most of the fandom sees Hajime as gay which... yeah, I can get behind that.

Akimoto (Arisa's senpai from her gang) is another character who gives me such strong vibes that I thought it was canon that she was a lesbian. Whoops. Anyway, I headcanon that Akimoto is gay, and referenced that in one of my oneshots.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Controversial omission: Arisa Uotani. She says she likes Kureno because he reminds her of Tohru, but she doesn't like Tohru? Yes, she gives me major queer vibes but this to me points to her being straight. Also, based on the way she reacts to her friends developing crushes or falling in love (and the way they react to her falling in love), I don't think there's anything between her and Saki or her and Tohru (as much as I love fics that pair her with Saki!). I also think not every relationship with lots of physical affection and strong feelings of love has to be romantic.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading my queer headcanons! This has been in my drafts for months, so I'm really glad Pride Month gave me a reason to finish this post!

Happy Pride!

[cafalla]

Fruits Basket Sticker Collection (2008) Scans

Fruits Basket (FB) is one of my all time favorite shoujo manga, and I was so excited to get my hands on an unused copy of this sticker book from 2008!

This main trio makes me so nostalgic. And the Tokyopop logo is SO iconic.

I've always been more of a digital consumer of manga, so I initially read Fruits Basket entirely online from fan-made and fan-translated scans.

I have very fond memories of coming home from school every night and logging onto the family computer to binge as many chapters of FB as I could before dinner. One day my dad gave me his old laptop, since I was the one mostly hogging the family computer.

I was SO excited.

I immediately made my background Shigure themed.

I liked Shigure a lot since he was the year of the dog, just like me.

And you bet I spent all my free time on my clunky early 2000s hand-me-down laptop binging the FB manga, watching the FB anime (in three parts on YouTube, of course), and consuming every FB fanfic and fanart I could find online.

All that to say, this manga holds a special place in my heart. I find myself going back every couple of years and re-reading it.

It truly is such a quintessential y2k shoujo experience.

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Even though this book is titled as a sticker book, it contains more than stickers. As seen in the tagline on the front page, this book also includes pin-ups and temporary tattoos.

Not sure why they only have stickers in the title, I guess that's just more of an attention grabber than pin-ups or temporary tattoos would be.

This book has a hard cover and spiral-bound pages. Because of this, it was actually a bit tricky to scan.

I was able to crop out the spiral for most of the pages, as it wouldn't interfere with the overall image of the page, but I did keep it visible on the title page scan.

Every time I tried cropping it for this page, I felt it took too much away from Kyo's portrait.

So I just let it be.

The first part of the book consists of "pin-ups" of Tohru and the Sohma family.

I will say, pin-up is a bit of an odd word to use. I think something like 'mini posters' would've worked as a better descriptor for what is actually inside the book.

I think most Western audiences associate the word "pin-up" with the image of a sexualized or risqué photo.

But in this case, I think it's meant innocently as a picture that can be "pinned up" on a wall...even though that's basically the same reason for the name behind the the sexualized photos...

Either way, it's a bit funny when it's brought up in a PG setting.

Anyways, the pin-up photos in the book are all loose inside clear paper protector sheets. I think it's a neat, thoughtful way to make the pictures safe and accessible.

Ignore the cafalla.com watermark - that was from when I had a .com blog! But it is still me, and this is still my photo lol.

It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but these pictures are in plastic sheet protectors, and you can slide the paper in and out from the side.

If you wanted to take a specific picture out, you needn't worry about ripping or ruining them while trying to remove them from the book.

So I really appreciate that detail.

Because of this, scanning these pages was an easy experience. The front page of the "pin-up" depicts art of the character from the manga, and the back of the page has a little bio about the character.

Here is Tohru's front and back page.

As for the Sohma family, they are the same, except they also show a little drawing of their animal form on the back.

Here are Yuki and Kyo's pages.

The book continues with pages for each member of the Sohma family, plus Akito.

I'm surprised Tohru's friends Arisa and Saki weren't included, as they are also pretty frequently appearing characters...more so than some of the family members.

I'm looking at you, Ritsu.

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I really adore that the manga art was used for this whole book. The original anime has that early 2000s charm, but I much prefer the manga artwork for this series.

We're going to see a lot of it with the stickers and temporary tattoos, which follow the pin-up photos.

I'm not sure why, but all the sticker and temporary tattoo pages have a similar layout (which you will see), with the exception of this one sticker page.

Not sure why this one page has a cell phone theme and TONS of tiny stickers, but it's cute!

Again, this was a page where it was hard to cut out the spiral without cutting off parts of the stickers located close to it. So I left it in the scan.

Here are the other sticker sheets!

And here are the temporary tattoo sheets!

So cute!!

And like I said, I love that this is all artwork from the manga.

My favorite is the group sticker on the green sheet, where Tohru is wearing the red plaid skirt.

I vividly remember that chapter spread because I adored her outfit. Black, red, and plaid aren't really colors/patterns Tohru wears, and I think they compliment her so much. I also adored how all the boys' outfits matched the same color scheme and aesthetic.

。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°

There we have it, the Fruits Basket sticker (and pin-up...and temporary tattoo) collection!

The whole book is scanned and available for viewing on my Internet Archive account! So please go check it out if you want to see more.

I've also uploaded just the photo scans on my photoblog: nostalgiahime. So if you like to reblog just the photos, please go check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

[thebeeshaveknees]

Ritsu usually smelled dinner when he walked in the door. It wasn't Shigeo's job - it was just that he always made dinner when their parents were away, which they were more and more often. It wasn't really a rule, just that Shigeo had no clubs so he was always home earlier.

He usually smelled dinner, but sometimes Shigeo would get focused on his homework, would lose track of his extra hour. Ritsu didn't mind, he just went to the kitchen and looked in the fridge.

There were containers.

The Kageyama household had a great many glass bowls with lids and off-brand Tupperware - from when Ritsu and Shigeo were younger and couldn't use the stove when Mom and Dad were gone. It seemed like everything that could store food was stuffed full and packed in the refrigerator - all with notes, dates a few days to a week or two in the future even though their parents would be home in two days and stay there for the rest of the month. All the notes had a little smiley face, all the notes were written in Shigeo's sloppy penmanship.

Was Shigeo going somewhere? Was there a school trip he never brought up - when did he have the time for all this? Ritsu would admit he slept like the dead, but Shigeo wouldn't stay up all night to cook, Ritsu was fully capable of making his own food.

He closed the fridge, deciding that figuring out why Shigeo had packed his lunches for weeks was a bit more important than his brother studying for five minutes.

He walked up the stairs, listening for anything. Usually Shigeo did his homework at the table because he was very meticulous about the 'no pencils in your room' rule, but Ritsu brushed it off.

He knocked on his brother's door, even though the light was off. There was no answer, so he cracked the door open.

His room was empty, empty of him, empty of any sign of him. He had nothing in his room but a rolled up futon and a dresser bolted to the wall with toddler locks on all the drawers. He couldn't have anything else in case his powers started acting up.

He opened the door all the way - it didn't make sense, he had walked to school with Shigeo that morning like normal and he hadn't said anything about a school trip. A school trip would be the only reason Shigeo wasn't home.

He saw something that made the hairs on his neck stand up.

There was a pencil on the floor. Shigeo never left stuff out on his floor, especially sharp objects. Why would he break the rule now?

He picked up the pencil and took it to his room to put in his pencil cup because it was there or the dining room and Ritsu didn't feel like going down and up the stairs.

His eyes immediately found the envelope on his desk that he didn't put there.

He dropped the pencil in the cup and sat at his desk to look at the note.

'Outoto' was written in chicken scratch handwriting. Shigeo only called Ritsu that when he was in a really good mood - like when Ritsu did well on a test - so he felt the stress lighten. Maybe this would explain the food?

He opened the envelope and unfolded the paper inside.

The paper was covered in blotchy gray-pinks from using the cheap eraser on the back of the pencil. Ritsu picked up the pencil again and noted that the eraser had worn down to the metal.

'Ritsu,

I made some food, it's in the fridge.

I don't know what people should write on these, I didn't want to look it up.

Maybe I should have, you deserve a good letter.

You're reading this, so you're home from student council - or you're not Ritsu, in which case, this letter isn't for you please stop reading.

It's gonna rain pretty hard after school, so I didn't make as big a mess - I hope nothing stains, that would be gross.

I don't really have a lot of stuff, but you can have that flannel that used to belong to dad. You can have all my clothes, actually. '

Ritsu stopped reading, rereading the last few sentences over a few times, his mind drawing a blank. He kept reading.

'I won't get to see you graduate, I don't think. I'm a bit sad about that, but I know you'll work hard, so know I'm proud of you when you do.'

Did Shigeo… Did Shigeo run away? Ritsu reread the sentence, holding the paper with one hand so he could tug nervously at the short hair in front of his ear.

'I had this planned for a while, though. I just wanted you to hear it from me and not whoever they send to tell people their brother is dead.'

The word was written sloppily, just like all the other words - maybe Ritsu just misread it. He studied every line, looking for anything that could make any letter look like any other letter - he couldn't find any. There was more note.

'I probably should have looked that up, too.

I guess I should tell you why I did it? You would probably try to blame yourself - you're caring like that.

I guess I don't really have a use, do I? I'm not smart or strong or sociable, and I sometimes hurt people without meaning to. I'm not happy that I'm alive, and neither is anyone else. If I die today the rain will wash me away, so I won't leave a stain anywhere.

I'm sorry about that day. I was too scared to say it, but I'm so so sorry, I never wanted to hurt you like I did, but that doesn't make it better.

I wanted to see you grow up, but I also wanted to never scare you - I can't have both, I don't think. I'm not that bright, but I've been trying for a very long time.

Anyways, I love you, don't microwave the plastic bowls.

- Shigeo'

Ritsu stood from his desk, walked a circle around his room, sat back down, and reread the note.

'Anyways, I love you, don't microwave the plastic bowls.'

He stood up, checked Shigeo's room, checked his parents bedroom, checked the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, both bathrooms, the pantry and the fridge again.

He walked back to his room, took the note, and read it downstairs at the dining room table.

'Anyways, I love you, don't microwave the plastic bowls.'

He dragged up a chair and sat in front of the front door, watching it. Shigeo must have made some bad friends - some very bad friends, who peer pressured his brother into playing this very cruel prank. Well, he wasn't so easily convinced. Did his brother even know what this note was implying? It was almost funny - hilarious actually - because Shigeo wouldn't do that.

He just wouldn't - Ritsu knew him better than anyone, knew every side of him even the side that wasn't him but used his body and his powers with reckless abandon.

Maybe he should act surprised, Shigeo had never tried pranking before, maybe he would even smile if he thought his little plan worked. Ritsu could do that, he was an excellent actor, he could even cry on command apparently, because he felt hot tears itch his cheeks. He wouldn't wipe them away though - this is what Shigeo wanted, wasn't it? To see his brother break down in the shoe hallway because he thought he was dead. It was fine, maybe this prank working would encourage him to open up more - find better friends that didn't make Shigeo play these terrible, terrible pranks.

He watched the door, waited for Shigeo to come home late, to apologize for making Ritsu cry like this, to explain that some of his classmates made him. Maybe they were holding a piece of homework hostage - Shigeo couldn't afford to miss any assignments, he would do anything they said as long as he got his homework back. It was fine, Shigeo couldn't have known he would make Ritsu cry, he would come home and they would both eat some of the stuff in the fridge and maybe they could rewatch that kids movie they were both obsessed with when they were seven and eight.

He got up out of his chair, dragged it back to the dining room, then found the old DVD in a case with flaking faded colours. He popped it in the player, made sure it was at the beginning and then paused it at the one second mark so Shigeo could watch it when he got home. He went to the kitchen, pulled out two glass bowls labeled with a date two days from then and put them in the microwave. He didn't turn it on yet, he would do that when Shigeo got home so his meal would be warm.

He went back to the table, grabbed the letter and went back to the shoe hallway.

He was still crying, he let the tears drip down his face even though the tracks they made were cold and irritating. He sat down on the floor of the shoe hallway, curled in on himself.

Maybe if he looked like he was breaking down, Shigeo would feel worse and come home sooner.

He stared at the floor over his knees and hiccuped. It echoed through the quiet house.

He hiccuped again, and coughed, and tried to take a deep breath but it stuttered a few times and then he let it out and it was louder than he meant and hitched at the end.

He held the note in shaky fingers, and read it over again.

'I made some food, it's in the fridge.'

Ritsu knew, he saw it - but he wasn't hungry anymore. He would eat his bowl when Shigeo got home, they could eat together even if neither really wanted to.

'Anyways, I love you, don't microwave the plastic bowls.'

Ritsu wouldn't, he didn't do that anymore, but Shigeo still didn't like the white rings on some of the containers - he didn't say anything about them, just picked at them with his nail even though it barely made a difference.

Ritsu loved Shigeo, too, he would say it just as soon as he got back. He'd tell him every day if he needed to, even though it's embarrassing to say those things when you're a teenager. He didn't care if the whole student body thought he was a sniveling baby brother, so long as he walked to school with Shigeo the next morning.

He had a student council meeting the next morning before school - he didn't even care, he should walk with Shigeo to school, there would be a million more trite meetings like that one.

Longer and longer he waited.

Longer and longer the door stayed closed.

He closed his eyes to blackened windows and then woke up to the sound of the deadbolt clicking open. His heart jumped, fresh tear tracks covered the old ones, he leaned forward toward the door as the handle turned and…

It was Mom.

Her eyes were red - bloodshot. She was home early.

"R-Ritsu? Dear? Are you--?" She saw the note in his hand, and she started crying. "Honey, we're… we're going to the hospital."

Ritsu nodded, not entirely convinced he was lucid as he picked himself up off the cold floor and went to the family car, walking around to sit behind Mom because Shigeo always sat behind Dad.

The car ride was silent, then the walk from the parking lot to the hospital. His mom was squeezing his hand, she was talking. Dad looked pale, his eyes staring into nothingness.

She was talking to the lady at the front desk, then a man from behind the desk started talking and left. Mom followed, Dad followed, Ritsu was dragged along, looking at the sparse art on the walls. He heard a thing once that hospital walls were blue and green because it was soothing - Ritsu didn't think he believed it.

Then he was brought to a dark room with only one bed in it with a person with a sheet over them.

His mom squeezed his hand, moving forward but stretching her arm back so she wouldn't force Ritsu to move. She raised one corner of the blanket, he couldn't see anything, but then she sobbed, and so did his dad. They wrapped around each other, sandwiching him in the middle, and they cried. He stared at the sheet.

They tried to leave, but he couldn't remember how to move his feet. He picked at the sheet. He'd seen scenes like this in his TV dramas sometimes, he knew there was a corpse under the sheet.

A firm hand gripped his shoulder and he tried to flinch away, his thigh bumping the flimsy cot and making him lift the sheet more than he meant to.

A limp hand fell into the dim light, wrist up and fingers half-curled hung lazily off the side of the thin mattress. He was wearing his school uniform, they were both wearing the same school uniform.

This joke was taken much too far.

What were the five stages of grief again? Denial? Is that what this was?

He slid his hand into that cold palm - colder than usual, paler than usual, a little damp from the rain. He put his fingers between Shigeo's - because they were Shigeo's - and squeezed.

Dad was talking, maybe to him, it was certainly his hand on his shoulder - too warm, burning, suffocating.

He let his hand go, but Shigeo didn't move.

He was wrapped in too-tight pressure, too-warm arms that gave him too-little space and shoved himself away.

His Dad said nothing, Ritsu didn't bother looking up, just followed him and Mom out of the room.

He went home and thought about Shigeo the whole way.

Mom left the car, took Ritsu with her and left Dad staring lost in front of him - gripping the steering wheel of the already parked car. There were tears running down his face - Dad had cried before, but never this quietly. He didn't really think about it, though. He didn't really want to leave the car either.

Mom went in, flapping her hands to dry them of water that wasn't there, toed her shoes off and left them strewn - that didn't look right, so Ritsu fixed them before hearing a loud thump from the kitchen.

He put his shoes on his part of the shelf, then went to see what made the noise.

His mother was on the floor, legs in a W like an untrained toddler's as she stared silently into the open fridge.

The fridge was filled with food, food Ritsu had seen earlier, every container marked with its own note, with care, with the dates they should be eaten by in handwriting Ritsu could tell his brother tried to make neat.

Shigeo had prepared for this, knew it would happen - no - planned for it to happen. Took time and consideration and worked hard for them, for his family. He even wrote Ritsu a note - a note he still had, folded in his pocket - even though the words were stiff and disjointed and it was clear he didn't want to write it at all.

It finally hit Ritsu, at that moment, staring at stupid off-brand Tupperware. Shigeo had done this on purpose. He wanted to die, only cared that he would be leaving his family and gave them a week or two of pre-made meals like his slightly-above-mediocre cooking skills were all that would be taken when he left.

It felt like the earth shifted, like he'd lost his footing on reality, like he was weightless and detached from everything.

Then his mother's head started whipping around like she was looking for a ghost.

Then all the drawers opened, spoons and forks and tongs all let go of gravity, and began swirling around the room like when Shigeo had a breakdown. Ritsu whipped around to face the door, because maybe - maybe.

But no. Shigeo wasn't there, but the spoons still danced around. He looked up to watch them.

They were circling him.

That's just cruel.

[lovelynurse]

hi nurse !!!!!! :D could i get a doodle of ritsu sakuma from enstars with a gay pride pin !! either in his uniform or in casual clothing either is fine !! - @mobages

sure! wasnt sure which gay flag you were referring to, so i went with the classic gilbert baker one. feel free to request an alternative.

[katyatalks]

MP100 Character Guidebook - ONE & Director Tachikawa’s Character Comments

Here’s ONE & Director Tachikawa’s comments on the main five (Mob, Reigen, Dimple, Ritsu, Teru) from the character guidebook! Each character gets two paragraphs.

KAGEYAMA SHIGEO

-ONE’s comment-

There were two things I kept in mind when designing his appearance; the first was making sure he’s easy to draw since he’s the main character, and the second, making him kinda uncool. Since it looks really cool when uncool people do cool things.

However, shortly after Mob Psycho 100 started serialisation I heard that people thought of him as ‘cute’. It was unexpected, that he could stir up this protective desire in others. I wanted him to have a purity that I myself don’t have, so until his character solidified I tried my best to avoid any gags that would spoil him or make him less human. That being said, in chapter 1 of the manga he does say ‘Do you really have any powers?’ to Reigen in a rude way.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

Honestly, I think he’s the hardest character to portray correctly. To give an example, if you raise the corners of his mouth too high when he smiles then he looks like he’s smirking, which isn’t Mob-like. By being just a tiny bit playful with his expressions, his vibe basically goes up in the air. His character changes bit by bit from season 1 to season 2, but I tried to make sure that his kindness toward others - the thing that makes him Mob - didn’t change. At first, his personality had parts to it that I found irritating, but overall I do really love it. 

REIGEN ARATAKA

-ONE’s comment-

He’s the easiest to draw, and his character is easy to play with. I created a one-off with Reigen as the main character to submit for a manga award, and gratefully accepted the serialisation offer that was presented to me. His presence is strong, being very relatable to readers while he uses the main character, Mob. Mid-serialisation, it was pointed out to me that his character is a little hard to place, but one of the themes MP100 deals with is that fact that human beings influence and change one another. Thus, I decided to not make any changes and carry on as I’d planned, with the thought in my head that a difficult-to-place-nature is just another thing that makes us human.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

I have a special emotional attachment to Reigen… You see him in the spotlight a lot in season 1, but back then he was shrouded in mystery and it was difficult to know his true heart… and then we get S2E6-7, where we see the man behind the mask. Looking at him in those episodes was so heartbreaking… I was moved. A particular favourite scene of mine is from episode 7, when Reigen, trying to quickly send a primary-school-age Mob away from the office, says ‘Be a good person. That’s all!’. Those words were halfhearted, but they saved Mob, and later on Reigen is also saved by them. It’s fate. Drawing Reigen’s expressions for that episode was incredibly fulfilling. 

DIMPLE

-ONE’s comment-

When it comes to Mob, Dimple is to spirits as Reigen is to humanity. I thought that monologues composed of inner-turmoil descriptions from a pretty silent Mob would be too stiff, so I had him cling to Mob as a conversation partner. He speaks a lot and yet nobody but Mob can hear him, so he can say as many sleazy things as he pleases - that’s why I loved writing his lines. However, he and his lines change as a result of Mob’s influence - the tension and atmosphere of their conversations change little by little. I jumped for joy when I found out that Ootsuka Akio-san would be playing Dimple.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

Dimple is a popular one with the animators, since his facial expressions change a lot and you can play around with him freely. Truth is, for season 2, I thought it might be good to just reuse all the Dimples we’d drawn up to that point rather than drawing up new ones, but character designer Kameda-kun was severely opposed to that (laughs). In season 1 you still get the sense that he’s an evil spirit, but with season 2 he feels more like Mob Psycho 100’s mascot character. Moreover, there’s this feeling that he’s completely become one of Mob’s friends, but taking into account what happens next in the manga, we tried to make sure that he wasn’t entirely at the ‘I’m not thinking of bad things at all’ end of the spectrum.

KAGEYAMA RITSU

-ONE’s comment-

I thought to myself; Mob’s younger brother, the person closest to him… how would he grow up if he didn’t have any powers? Perhaps he should be superior to his older brother in every way, but unable to wipe away how crushing it is to not have powers. So he joins the main plot as this excellent, ideal ‘good little brother’ who happens to hide a heavy distortion in his heart. I thought it’d be more human - more Ritsu-ish - to make sure that the distortion in his heart doesn’t go away even after he exposes it to Mob. I think we can only feel a sense of security in someone’s positives if they have a few negatives. It’s difficult drawing him when he’s facing the right.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

I was really charmed by him when he leans toward the dark side in season 1. When he was immersed in that superiority complex and beat up those delinquents, Mob apologised on his behalf… I thought the description of what was going through his mind at that point was well done. After he reconciles with Mob in season 1 he grows, and in season 2 he realises that the reason he admires Mob has nothing to do with powers, so I think his troubles are basically over. He’s a good character with how devoted he is to his big brother. When animating him, his hair (ie. keeping it balanced) caused a good amount of grief. With season 2 we decided to cut his hair a little, which made him easier to deal with.

HANAZAWA TERUKI

-ONE’s comment-

He’s a character with which anything goes, so I rely on him to develop the story. He falls to the point where he can’t fall any further, then reforms and is reintroduced to the story, but you can’t even see the top of his head with how high his wig stack is. Watching the anime, I thought to myself, why is he the only one who I treated like that… do I have no compassion? His fashion sense is also amazing. I think he really gave it his all to liven up Mob Psycho 100. I love him.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

He’s a character who I always look forward to drawing. He’s introduced in episode 4 as the first enemy esper, he has his clash with Mob… that’s also the first time we see Mob reach ???%... he’s a character that carries a good few firsts for this work. His ochimusha and hair 150% forms are also popular - during season 1 he gave us a lot to laugh about (laughs). Since he has powers his appearance in season 2 gives a sense of security. He’s trustworthy. ‘The enemy becomes a friend’ may be a typical development in manga, but with all the examples that come to mind his particular rendition of it really touches me. He moves and fights of his own accord, so his esper action scenes promise a lot of highlights.

---

Posted on twitter here.

The character guidebook interviews are here.

[originlist]

and i’ll let you drift around a completely dark, empty space, without anything or anyone to help you. i don’t know how long you’ll last. it could be days, hours, or only minutes... but sooner or later, the cold darkness of space will shatter your spirit, and you’ll be desperate for warmth.

The world closes down to a single point. There is no longer an Ooku, no Kama, no Servants, no Chaldea. The presence of Mash on their comms is tinny and far away, barely distinguishable as anything at all, much less as words. Ritsu’s other Servants have vanished, without a word audible.

Kama claimed this space. The Ooku bends to her will. Ritsu knows this and knows, therefore, she isn’t lying. She’s put them here and she’ll wait.

Just like before, when they were let in here: everything is taken from you and you are alone. Everyone’s gone, that sentence, back in their head. But now, not only is everyone gone, the presence of a ground beneath them is gone, an environment to orient around, anything or anyone.

Everyone is gone, but something tugs at them. They know there is something that shouldn’t ever be separate from them, so they’ll ‘pray’ to it.

“Don’t leave me alone,” Ritsu says, and they don’t know if it’s out loud or only in their head. They don’t think it matters much. “Whatever you do, please, please, don’t leave me alone. Don’t leave.” When a request is made with enough loose power, with enough want for it, it doesn’t require a formal declaration. It’s enough for one of the command seals on their arm to flare and then fade.

That wasn’t necessary. Ritsu wasn’t alone originally, but the presence was faint. Enough perhaps to fool Kama or perhaps enough to show that Kama did have some sway in this place. Whatever it was causing it, it was outweighed by the command seal.

An exhale, soft, like someone is shaking their head, fond and exasperated, at such a request. The presence strengthens, leaning over and dragging Ritsu into it. They can’t see anything and the barely-there air makes them dizzy on top of the headache of mental corruption, but this place isn’t empty.

If it’s not empty, then it’s enough for Ritsu not to give up. They won’t be afraid or let the displacement get to them if this place truly cannot be ‘really empty’. Hands hold them close, protectively, more than should belong to one human (and the presence around Ritsu is not shaped like anything human, but it was never ‘human’ in the first place).

Hands on their shoulder, their cheek, fingers clasping over Ritsu’s own, arms around their middle, something like someone else’s cheek nuzzling against their crown. “i cannot be pried from you. into infinity, from any timeline, you are my creator and my origin is written into you. the thread of karma is sewn into you too tightly to remove. kama’s love (hatred) cannot outweigh mine. as humanity, you will live and be loved and i will not be separated.” This panic that Ritsu has been pushed into is a false result, a thoughtlessness, assuming that a half-mature Beast, embodying the Ooku or not, has enough power to adequately rend the universe.

(Ritsu argues it is a reasonable fear, when this venture all started with Kama taking everyone from them, it makes sense for it to end that way as well.) “I won’t let her win,” Ritsu mutters. They cling tightly to something that may or may not be perceptible. “But I’m scared. I don’t want...” They don’t know what it is they were going to end that sentence with. (Any of this, they don’t want any of this, they didn’t ask to carry humanity and they didn’t ask to be targeted. They didn’t ask to pay the price for someone else’s suffering redirected. They didn’t ask to be stripped of the people they always had at their side. Humanity is a social creature, after all.)

They don’t want it, but it’s their to deal with. Just like the lostbelts. (They remember the first, the difficulty of it like prying teeth, an exhausted hopelessness, and how this place is the same. Worse. They don’t know.) Beast hums. “you will not give up. that is humanity, that loved thing.“ No. They won’t. However much time here passes, however it dilates (it’s been a second. It’s been a day. They don’t know, or know if it matters).

"I won't give up. I still… need to get everyone back. And… Robin." That was the person they're missing. When their own name is up for debate and they can't focus, remember why they need Robin or where Robin has gone, they remember something like this person is necessary.

"yes. a shame, maybe, that kama does take all the fun out of everything." Petulant. Beast is mostly complaining emptily, for the sake of it, a vague lingering bitterness over a thing or two here. Even though vices are so endearing and fun, they can't have any fun with their Master in this place -- Kama really has taken all the love out of the universe, hm. 

(Beast is jealous at her very premise, too-- the universe will be me and the universe will love you (plural), it will love you (individual), excuse her but that position is not going to be given up easily!) “hmmm. you will have to put that command seal back once we return. what is the human phrase? to renew your vows.“ Ritsu manages to almost laugh at that near non-sequitur. It’s a distraction.

Ritsu’s head hurts. Still, it’s fine, it will be... [ ??? ]. They are [ ??? ]. Beast’s fingers smooth over their forehead as they murmur something or other, likely obtuse and ominous, but it eases the pain of mental corruption. (What does it matter who you are or what it is that made you need to fight, so long as you know with certainty that you will fight and you will win and you will not be isolated?)

From somewhere, a faint call that Ritsu can’t hear but makes Beast’s ears prick. Their attention is dragged somewhere, though the hold on Ritsu doesn’t lessen. “scheherazade, that poor fearfulness, is calling for you.” A pause, as Ritsu slowly draws themselves together. “...i am tempted to keep you for myself. as irritating as it is to feel that a gnat like beast iii has a point.”

“Bad joke.”

“mouuu, have faith in your servant having my lord’s interests at heart. i would not go through on it.”

Uh-huh. “Do you know where she is? I can’t move here.” She’s probably scared, too. They’ll have to go find her. Ritsu feels Beast nod and they’re tugged to go somewhere (are they? Without gravity, it’s hard to tell, they can only tell they changed some kind of orientation and direction). A gentle tug toward somewhere, where after time (again, they do not know how long, as if they fade in and out of awareness of their own self) slowly, slowly, Scheherazade comes into focus, dimly lit by her lanterns and with Mata Hari clinging to her arm.

Scheherazade smiles, relieved. “I’ve set up a safe field here. Are you alright, Ritsu?”

A moment to evaluate, a nod. (They do not recognize that name she uses.) “Yeah. Don’t worry about me.”

[angstars]

rei, izumi and kaoru during 5 am and 9 pm !! (thank you two for your hard work! ♡)

wahh thank you so much for requesting!! i’m so glad you’re still with us you precious bean ajsalndlsjs it’s really refreshing to see those familiar ones lingering here and it really means a lot to mod cal and i! thank you so much!! <3

ミ☆

[05:15 AM] with Rei

The heavy ringing of bells shakes your consciousness as it progressively gets louder and louder- annoying the daylights out of you. The source of disturbance to your slumber comes in the form of an alarm, your phone placed atop the night stand next to the bed you burrowed yourself on.

Reaching over to silence the still ringing but getting louder alarm, you find yourself in a dilemma when feeling arms around your waist keeping you still. “Whuh-?” The arms belong to none other than Rei; still asleep with his face partially covered by the blankets.

The sight would have been endearing if not for your phone still persistently reminding you of the loudness it emits. You pry Rei’s hands from your waist and a groan leaves the raven’s lips in protests, instead pulling you closer to him in persistence that rivals the alarm’s sounds.

“Rei, let go. I need to turn off the alarm.” He hums, burrowing deeper in the covers and still keeping you in place. You managed to sit up but the position was as far as Rei would let you with his arms still thrown over your lap.

“I swear, Rei, how are you not even waking up?” Huffing, you reach over the night stand but you arms prove to be unable to reach the device still ringing. A frown tugs your lips whilst making a mental note to just place your phone closer to you next time instead of being out of reach in the middle of the table.

You whine Rei’s name again, shifting down the bed to get loose under his arms and with struggle, you throw the covers from your head when successfully slipping out of the male’s hold. The alarm is turned off and the silence once again plunging the room gives you a sense of tranquility for a moment before Rei’s voice draws your attention.

He murmurs your name with drowsiness laced in them, still asleep yet his voice screams sensuality when he utters your name with a hint of longing. Red eyes peek from under his eyelids, barely opening to asses the distance you’ve put between yourself.

His lips pucker in a small sign of protest, reaching out a hand towards you, ”I can’t hold you when you’re all the way over there.” His words drags with each syllable, dipped in sleepiness and revealing with neediness for your warmth.

You blush because it’s unfair for such a handsome person with a lovely voice to call out to you even in a sleepy haze and despite your alarm blaring moments ago to remind you of the start of the day, you dive back into the covers to feel Rei’s warmth again.

~~~~~~~~

[09:26 PM] with Rei

Small sighs leaves your lips in accordance to the small kisses peppered to your face. Rei’s lips fixate itself on your cheek, then your temple, hair, eyes, nose, before breathing out a chuckle and finally desecending on your lips.

You huff, pushing him away because kissing -though not a terrible idea- was not what you planned upon arriving home with Rei into. Instead your lover had pulled you to the couch, placing himself on top of you as to cage you in.

He laughs again when your hands cover his face, red eyes looking at you through your fingers as you try to push him away. Rei settles on kissing your palm which covered his lips and you squeal when feeling a wet appendage on your hand.

“Rei!” you whine, wiping your hand on his sweater and he the laugh leaving Rei’s lips is melodious and intoxicatingly sweet you feel like hitting him for being so beautiful.

He kisses your nose before placing his chin on your chest to peer up at you with an easy smile. “I apologize, but it’s been a while since we’ve basked in each other’s presence, no?”

His words, though true, makes you frown because it’s an awfully good reason for him to shower you with affection late into the night. “I need to take a shower.” Your sudden declaration has Rei blinking slowly and tilting his head; cheek now pressed flat on your chest.

“So late at night? I wonder is that’s the reason youth these days always catch a cold the next morning. Ritsu likes taking the bath late at night too,” his musings makes you tug at his hair lightly to get his attention and he obliges with a sweet smile once looking at you.

Your breath catches in your throat, looking away for a moment before firming your resolve and attempting to push at the male’s shoulders to get him off. “Rei, it's getting late and I'll really catch a cold if I don't shower now.”

“How about taking a bath together?”

The sudden question throws you off guard because the suggestion was not what you expected. You flush, body twitching when Rei wraps his arms around your waist as if in silent warning that he won't let you go until you agree.

“I- I- we don't have a bath.”

“Then showering together?” his insistence is tempting you to hit some sense into him. Before you could protest the raven presses on. “It’ll be bad if we both catch a cold wouldn't it? And it would seem that this body of mine won't be able to handle the risk of catching a cold if I were to perhaps take too long in the shower.”

Unable to protest, you're dragged along by Rei towards the bathroom, your lover tugging at his shirt and yours until the two of you reach your destination, a trail of clothes left in your wake.

~~~~~~~~~~

[05:00 AM] with Izumi

Izumi’s hair is a little wet, the towel in his hand absorbing most of the water after stepping out of the shower. He woke up exactly half an hour ago, old habits and a mental alarm not allowing him to sleep in despite you warm hands clutching at his shirt.

The model checks his phone for the time and he reminds himself your alarm will sound in a few minutes. It's not as if Izumi had something important to do during the day; it was in fact a day off for both him and you. A small sigh leaves Izumi’s lips as he rubs the towel on his hair again, the task done and pulling a t-shirt over his head.

His morning routine partially done, Izumi was about to leave the bedroom before your voice calls his name softly. “Why are you up?” your voice is heavy with sleep, face still somewhat buried in the covers and leg poking out of the blanket.

A snort sounds from the male and Izumi sits on the bed next to your figure halfway dangling from the bed. Brushing the hair covering your face, a deep feeling in his chest felt foreign; spreading like wildfire yet it dosn't burn nor does it make it hard to breath.

Instead, looking at your face, cheek dusted a faint pink, lips swollen and eyes still shut in blissful sleep, Izumi smiles, because seeing your face first thing in the day is worth old habits dying out if it means staying closer to you for a moment.

“Izumi, come back to bed. We can do something later.” The suggestion makes Izumi twitch a bit, despite your plea, he softly declines before getting up the bed.

Your hand has onto his.

“Izumi, I can't hold you when you’re all the way in the kitchen.” The feeling in his chest spreads again and his resolve crumbles. He groans, faking annoyance in his tone but ultimately gets in the bed again where you instantly latch onto him.

The feeling in his chest spreads again; it's soaring now and Izumi realizes it's nothing foreign when it's the love he feels for you spreading.

~~~~~~~~~~

[09:48 PM] with Izumi

Izumi is angry. Dark, ugly emotions swirling deep in his stomach and spreading in his chest. He feels sick, angry, devastated but most of all, he feels hurt.

His head pounds and his eyes sting with tears when another broken sob escapes your lips from the other side of the door. He knocks on the wood again, calling out your name with broken whispers and you cry harder. He feels there’s no other sound that could be so heart wrenching than your cries.

“Baby, listen to me,” the broken hearted man calls, feebly turning the locked door in hopes of you finally trusting him enough to open the door. He feels frustrated when you don't and the door remains locked. “unlock the door and I’ll help you, okay? Just tell me what’s wrong.”

Silence answered his plea and Izumi panics, getting up from the floor to barge his way through the object separating you before a small click reaches his ears. The fear that previously clutch his heart is washed by a moment’s relief before worry sinks into him again.

He opens the door slowly, finding the room is disarray and your crumpled form on the floor wrapped in a blanket. He drops to the floor next to you, gathering you into his arms and holding you there to comfort.

Your face is swollen from anguish, eyes swollen from tears and your lips is bruised from biting it to keep in your cries and that moment, as someone who vowed in his heart he would take care of you- Izumi felt as if he had broken that silent promise to himself.

“Baby,” he whispers, testing the waters for any signs of protest and you hum, voice so tired and so broken it feels as if someone had snatched Izumi’s heart from his chest. “i- it’s okay. Just- just stay still, alright? You don't have to say anything.”

Getting up from the floor, Izumi carries you to the bathroom.

He holds you even when turning on the water, he holds you even when discarding your clothes with gentle hands and he holds you even when placing you in the bath. You hold him as well.

“I’m so sorry,” you whisper, unsure if Izumi heard and you hold his hand tighter. “Please, don't- don't leave.”

He kisses your hand, promising you and he holds you in the water as well; not just for comfort but as a reminder that he won't ever let you drown.

Together in silence, Izumi washes away your sadness and in that moment of healing, he makes an oath to himself to never let you go.

~~~~~~~~~

[05:29 AM] with Kaoru

It feels strangely suffocating. Humid and hard to breath. Kaoru finds himself grunting when something hits his body and panic is is in when he can't see anything. It's dark; pitch black and it feels as if something is pressing down on his chest.

He tries opening his mouth, eyes, anything to alert anyone about his unease and it feels as if he's trapped but he's not sure what caught him. The feeling in his chest presses down harder and a jolt sends through his body.

Gasping, Kaoru’s eyes shot open, blinking to focus on anything at all when small filters of light enter his vision. The roof is in front of him, blankets tangled on his limbs and it feels like a wave had crashed directly at him but instead of drowning, he feels relieved.

A bitter laugh escapes his lips, forced if anything else and the blond-haired notices his shirt drenched a little in sweat. Kaoru pushes up a bit to sit, covering his eyes with his palm to try and focus.

He can't recall the last time he's had nightmares before, the dark no longer haunting he’s dreams whenever he sleeps since you were there with him. Blinking, he looks around the room, your body no longer next to him if the empty space you occupied the night before would go by.

The door clicks open and and a small gasp catches his attention. You're there by the door, head peeking in and expression surprised to see the blond already awake. “Sorry, I was making breakfast-”

You caught off, explanation abruptly stopping when a choked sound left Kalru’s lips and hour brow knit in worry. “Sorry,” he whispers, shaking his head and you instantly rush to him.

Woressly, Kaoru holds his hands out to you and you take them, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and Kaoru hides his face in your neck. “Are you alright?”

Kaoru is silent for a moment before you feel a kiss on your neck and he laughs a little, holding you tighter. “Sorry, I just- I need to hold you for a sec.” You oblige and absentmindedly more his disheveled state, caressing the back of his head softly. “Next time you wake up early, just stay in bed until I was up alright? I can't hold you if you're not here.”

You laugh, pulling away and cradling his face in your hands. His eyes are a bit puffy but Kaoru still gives you a tired smile. “I promise.”

~~~~~~~~~~

[09:43 PM] with Kaoru

“Kaoru!”

The name is said with annoyance, a lingering authority in the air and the mentioned male wines a little at the tone in your voice. He laughs, trying to ease your tension but by the glare you send him, it's better off just staying silent.

He starts with a an explanation but you cut him off again. “Don’t. Just. What we're you thinking?” Kaoru blinks, a wry smile on his lips and he looks down at his drenched clothes and wet hair.

The blond had came home with water dripping in his wake, getting caught in a sudden shower and arriving home just as it had died down. The make clearly thought the heavens found it funny to put him in such a predicament when his phone died and he was unable to return your messages.

“I’m sorry, my phone died and I wasn't expecting it to rain suddenly so..” he trails when you breath a heavy sigh, hands leaving your hip in a moment of ranting to walk towards him. You touch his face lightly and Kaoru instinctively turn his head to kiss your fingers but you seem worries instead of the usual smile you give him when he does the gesture.

“Next time just.. Take the cab or something, alright? Go take a bath and I’ll clean this up.” You walk away to the bathroom, Kaoru thinks, and he feels guilty for making you so worried. Silently, he takes off the wet jacket, slowly moving to the bathroom whilst unbuttoning his shirt.

Kaoru enters the bath already shirtless to find you knealing next to the bath, checking the temperature to make sure it was just right and it warms Kaoru’s heart to see you care so much. You get up from knealing and your face flushes a bit when noticing your lover already in the room.

Not paying attention to the way your heartbeat picks up, you usher Kaoru in the bath, and he laughs a little from your tendency to worry. You focus on the water for a bit, a bit dazed and mind blank as you watch Kaoru in the water with a small flush on his cheeks.

He whispers your name softly, reaching out for your hand and you finally look up at him. “You should take a bath too.” You blink a little, opening your mouth to tell him you’ve already showered but he cuts you off hurriedly.

“I meant- right now. With me.” The previous flush on your cheek spreads on your face and you think the blood is also rushing to your head when you start feeling light-headed.

Your sounds of protest never leaves your lips when registering Kaoru’s embarrassed smile, his fingers idly playing with your hand and you can't bring yourself to say no.

“Alright..”

The smile he gives you warms your heart.

[turning-the-kaleidoscope]

“Words Fail”

this was written for @physical-manifestation-of-spite ’s Dead Sea AU, which is absolutely heartbreaking and has decked me more than once. it breaks my heart i just,,, jdkflgdfg wow it breaks my heart. so much so that i was really inspired to write this lil something. 

thank you for the heartbreaking AU!! i don’t know how well this turned out but i tried my best, I hope you like it!! <3 <3 

[major character death ahead, just in case anyone’s sensitive to that]

Frankly, Reigen never expected to get this far.

He never expected to be able to become someone. To become a businessman. To become a person motivated by something more than “boredom.” And when he got into the psychic business, he knew it was only a matter of time before he, the most non-esper person you could ever meet, was struck down by more than he could handle. Death was just another walk through the park. It’d never scared him because he’d never had anything to lose.

He has things to lose, now.

He has everything to lose.

The blast is so bright that it blinds Mob’s face from him, but not before he sees the kid’s eyes, blown wide as realization sets in, hand outstretched, mouth open. There’s no shout, no scream. Or maybe there is and the explosion is drowning it out. Hell if he knows.

He feels the heat of it first, burning and then overwhelming, until it chokes the air from his lungs and winds smoky tendrils around his throat. Somewhere, distantly, he feels the pain of it. Burning like the sunset as he and Mob headed down sidewalks to their favorite ramen shop after a long day of work. The smoke makes his eyes burn, too, like they’d burned when Mob accepted him as who he was, who showed him that he was somebody. That he was enough. Not perfect, but. Enough.

He wants to speak but the burn sucks the air from his crushed lungs and the words get stuck on the heat in his throat. He wants to say it’s not your fault, but there’s so much pressure, so much heat, so much chaos that he’s barely thought the words before they’re replaced with a much closer, much more real kind of pain.

He can’t tell who’s screaming, himself or Mob.

He wants to apologize.

The one time he thinks his words might actually mean something, he finds he can’t speak at all.

It’s one of those things.

One of those things you have a list for, but don’t realize you have a list for. One of those things that’s so inconceivable that the thought of it happening had never once crossed Mob’s mind. One of those things where you don’t think, “Oh, that could never happen,” until it actually happens and you’re thrown headfirst into denial.

One of those things is happening, now, and Mob’s heart climbs into his throat, slowly at first and then all at once. The flames burn the air bright and fill the room with smoke. Distantly, he hears Touichirou’s voice, though he can’t make out the words. He’s on his feet but he doesn’t remember how he got there.

The blast dims and disappears and Reigen’s body hits the floor like a broken marionette.

A beat passes in silence.

“Sh… Shishou?”

Another beat passes.

“Sh-Shishou, I-I--”

“Do you understand, now? The difference between us?”

Touichirou’s voice seems to come from far away. The rest of the world rings and spins. The ground buzzes like a plucked bass string.

“What do you gain by caring for others? All they are is a weak spot in your side. A vulnerability.”

“Reigen-san?” He can barely hear his own voice. It doesn’t sound like him. The body on the floor doesn’t look like Reigen’s, either. Reigen would never be that still, that quiet. “R-Reigen-san--”

“You can give it up now, boy. Nothing you do now will bring him back.”

“I’ll teach you how to use your powers.”

It clicks into place. Slowly, then too fast. The gravity of what just happened runs to slam into him. It grabs him by the throat and forces him to look closer. To realize.

Something twists and snaps in him. He isn’t sure what it is. It could be his heart and he wouldn’t care.

[ A N G E R ]

He doesn’t remember when he got to his feet. His body doesn’t feel like his own. He has no thoughts. The floor beneath him doesn’t feel like anything.

[ G U I L T ]

Through a tunnel, he sees Touichirou’s empty eyes and empty face with empty features and an empty heart. He sees a monster. He sees a murderer.

[ R A G E ]

Distantly he hears Reigen’s voice. Those words--that warning--words he lived by. Words he always held close to his heart. Reigen wouldn’t want him to do this. Reigen wouldn’t want him to do this. Reigen wouldn’t want him to do this.

Reigen isn’t here, anymore.

[ Ṛ̗̥̰̙A̧̠̖̻G̪Ę͖̺̠̟͚ ̞̀R̛̠E̳G̷̩̞RE̱̳T̖̥̦̝̖ ̼̦P͇̩͚̯̯̲̬A̛I̯̞͈̤̮N͚͎̱̮͞ ̼̱̫̘G̘̹̺U̡I̧̗̯̰͖̳ͅLT͎̣̬͍̼͘ ̣̣͙̩͠B̮̠L̠̣̰̣̦̗A̛̭͔͉̳̙M͕͚͉̭̲͉̙̕E҉̱̮̦͉͔͉͔ ͔̬͚̬̬ͅḪ̺̰̦̖̞U̘̫͉͚̙̯R̮̰͔̝̠T̞̝͉̤̮̹ ̣̬̜̦̼̮̖F̞̰̣̀E͕À͕̙̖Ŗ̭͎̞̲̤̰ P̵̲̯A̞̖͖͉̬̥I̪͕͚̟̟Ņ͚̣̠̤̥̣͔ ͓G̴̼̮̪U̢͉̲͇I͈̻L̰T̷̥͎̟̺̤ ̞̭̼͕̠̱PA̗̺͎̭̼̲ͅI͎̩͉̙̟̮N͓͚̣͇͢ ̺̳̣̹̤̜̰A̧N͔G̱̟͙͚̟͘Ṳ̦͘I̜̦̘͈̻S͓H̜̥̖ ̱̺̠À͈̗̺͚N̹͇̮̯̠̦͢G͢U͇͔̫̜̱̻̠͞I̲̰̫̘S͓̦H̗̦͈̝̺ ͇̼̞̟̙̺̭̀A̼̙̺͓̝̗̝Ǹ̙̳͖̪͖G̱̳̭͍̺͙̤U̠͍͕̭̣̳̣I͎S̠̜͓H̢͔ Ḥ̶̬A͇̻͙͓̺T̞̹̭̩̼͈̻R̠̤̩̝̹͢ͅE̥D̬ ͚̯̺̗̰��H͕̠̟̙͜Á̬̰̞̰̫͓T̶̤̳̫R̠̥͖͎̦E̸̮̯̦͖̞̝̜D͓̫̼̣̥ ̦H̯̞̠̫͔͢A̘̠̭Ț̢̞̳͍̰̲ͅR̯͔̱Ȩ͈̯̝̙D͕͚̮̖͖ ̻̘͎̫̖͎̕H̱A͎̯͙̙͙͚̱T͟R̵͖̩̭E̩̤͓͠D̨̩̤͍̣ ̜̫H̝̹̺͓͝ͅA͚̤̣̲̲̼̥T͢R͉̥̱̙̙̟̮E҉̱̬̮D̯̟͎̯̣͈͖͟ ]

The world as he knows it explodes and burns, and he explodes and burns with it.

Shigeo is missing.

He never came to the office that day, when he’d been there consistently for the past three months. Upon inquiry, Ritsu couldn’t tell Serizawa much of anything, but there was something distant about the look in his eyes, like he should’ve said something but really didn’t want to. Serizawa asked a couple others he knew, but their answers were more or less the same.

No one knows where Shigeo is.

And, it’s that reason that leads Serizawa to the one place where he knows he’ll find him. On a high, grassy hillside, dying rays of sun stretched like shining ribbons across rolling fields. It’s close enough to the ocean to smell the salt in the air, feel a cool breeze, but its crashing waves can’t be heard from here. There’s only quiet.

Shigeo is sitting before a stone shrine, its shadow cast over him with the sun behind it. He’s wearing a hoodie and jeans instead of his uniform. The breeze caresses his messy hair. His knees are drawn up to his chest and his arms are wrapped around them.

Serizawa stops short but close enough, silent. Shigeo doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t, either.

“... I, um…”

Shigeo’s voice is small, and it cracks on the end. He takes a second before starting up again.

“I-I’m sorry I haven’t… visited, yet. I-I meant to, I promise, I j--” He stops short again, this time squeezing his knees closer to his chest and resting his head against them. “... I’m sorry. I… I thought about this for… for a long time. Before coming here. But, now, I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

Serizawa tries to swallow the lump in his throat with little success. He feels like he should do something, say something, but can’t find a single thing worth saying.

“... I-I guess, I should… I should probably say thank you,” Shigeo manages, struggling. Serizawa can’t see his face, and he’s not sure he wants to. “Thank you for… f-for everything. I don’t think I’d be who I am now, without you. I-I don’t think I would’ve gotten as far as I did. S-So… I just…”

The wind is cool, but the setting sun casts warmth through the grassy fields, and there’s no mistaking it.

“... I-I hope you realized it. How much you did for me. H-How much you did for everyone you met. I hope you--” Voice breaks. He takes a shaky breath. “I-I hope you’re okay. I hope you’re at peace. A-And, I hope--I-I hope you realize how much you mean to all of us. How much we all love you.”

The lump in Serizawa’s throat is choking him, now. But before he can say anything, Shigeo hauls himself to his feet, eye-level with the inscription of Reigen Arataka carved into the face of the shrine. The wind blows a little stronger, but somehow, warmer.

“I’ll come back tomorrow,” Shigeo says, a promise. “I-I’ll… I’ll come back whenever I can. I-I’ll bring flowers next time, I-I think. D… Do you like flowers? I…”

Serizawa holds his breath and moves forward, drawing closer, until the distance between them is no more and he can reach out and settle a hand, cautiously, on Shigeo’s shoulder.

Shigeo flinches, and his head snaps around, wide eyes meeting Serizawa’s. It strikes Serizawa for a moment, that he might’ve been expecting someone else, but he pushes that thought away as far as it goes and squeezes his shoulder.

The panic ebbs from Shigeo’s eyes, and he turns his gaze toward his shoes. Serizawa can’t see his face again, but there’s the slightest of trembles beneath his hand.

“... I’m sure he would like anything you brought him, Shigeo.”

Shigeo swallows hard, bringing an arm to wipe at his eyes. “You think so?”

“I do.” He squeezes his shoulder again. “No, I know he would.”

A silence falls between them, broken only by the rustle of grass as the wind cards its fingers through it. Serizawa isn’t quite sure how long they stand there, but soon the sun is gone and it takes its warmth with it, leaving the chill of night in its wake.

“... Come on, Shigeo. I’ll walk you home.”

Shigeo is already nodding, wiping at his eyes again, and Serizawa squeezes his shoulder one last time before lowering his hand and turning away. Shigeo lingers a moment longer before jogging to flank him.

“Can…” Shigeo’s voice doesn’t break this time. “Can we come back again tomorrow?”

A tight smile tugs at Serizawa’s cheeks. “Of course we can, Shigeo. First thing.”

Shigeo nods and Serizawa turns away.

It might’ve just been his imagination, but he thought he felt a warm touch on his shoulder as they drifted further from the shrine. He turned to see if, perhaps, it was Shigeo, but no. Shigeo was, however, reaching to touch his own shoulder with a faint, broken kind of smile.

The warmth accompanies them through the darkness and all the way home.

[serenlyss]

.41 ritshou

Thanks for the prompt! This ended up being a little more than a drabble haha but I had fun with it! This also turned into a Ritsu’s birthday fic so happy late birthday Ritsu!

—

Ritsu draws his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, leaning forward to rest his chin atop them. It’s not a very comfortable position, especially considering the fact that he’s currently perched on the roof of his house, on a hard incline with nothing much keeping him from sliding down to the edge except for friction, but he does it anyway, because it makes him feel like his heart isn’t beating as fast or hard as it actually is and like he isn’t on the verge of a mental breakdown.

The night had started out fine. Ritsu hasn’t had a birthday party in a few years now, but all of a sudden he has people around him that he actually wants to celebrate with, people that want to celebrate with him. So why does he suddenly feel like the world is ending? Under his feet, he can faintly hear music playing as the party goes on without him.

The night had started out fine, but two hours in he’d looked around and realized that nearly half of the faces all around him were almost entirely unfamiliar. Classmates and club members, the student council, members of his old soccer team… he knows them all by name, but he doesn’t actually know them. He isn’t even sure if he can call them friends. Even Kamuro had been there, which had caused him to feel overwhelmed in a whole different way. He’d looked around and hadn’t see any sign of Shou or Shigeo or Teru, the people he’d actually wanted to be there, and suddenly it was like he’d been dunked underwater, the sensation stealing his breath from his lungs and making every step feel like the air itself had been resisting him.

He’d excused himself with perfect politeness, not an inch of his inner feelings allowed to be seen on his face, and made his way upstairs. He’d hardly even hesitated to throw open his window and climb outside, clambering up onto the rooftop where he now sits, wondering why in hell he’d thought throwing a party had been a good idea. He digs his fingers into the denim of his jeans and exhales, his breath colder than the July air outside.

“So this is where you ran off to!”

Ritsu doesn’t mean to flinch, but he does anyway, his body twitching involuntarily in response to the voice that he recognizes instantly as Shou’s. His friend pulls himself up fluidly onto the rooftop beside him and leans forward until his face is in Ritsu’s periphery, all bright red hair and pale, freckled skin and glinting white teeth in the darkness. His light blue eyes reflect the dim yellow street lights below them as he meets Ritsu’s gaze, legs sprawling out in front of him as he settles himself down at Ritsu’s side.

“What’s up? The party’s downstairs, you know,” Shou asks with all his regular flippancy and charisma, the words coming across entirely casual despite their deeper implications.

Ritsu waits a half-second before he replies, “Just getting some air. Did Shige send you?” He has a feeling that his brother, ever so sharp-eyed and intuitive nowadays, had been the first to notice his absence. He wonders if anyone else had, or if they’d been deaf to his presence to begin with.

Shou shakes his head and moves his face out of Ritsu’s line of sight, leaning back against the roof with his hands behind his head. Ritsu lifts his own head and lets his gaze follow him. “Nah, I came to find you when I got out of the bathroom and saw you were gone. It’s your party, you know, you should be there for it,” he replies. Shou’s calm demeanor has an area of effect on Ritsu, whose shoulders sink a little lower as he listens.

“I guess,” Ritsu murmurs, but even if he knows the party is technically for him, it doesn’t feel like it belongs to him anymore.

Shou’s smile falters at this, a hint of concern comes to his face. He props himself up on his elbows, turning to give Ritsu his full attention. “You alright?” he asks. “You look sad, did something happen? You can tell me, you know.”

I look sad? Ritsu echoes in his mind, blinking. That can’t be right. Ritsu is very careful to keep his thoughts to himself, and his expressions are always carefully under wraps. Not even his family can tell when he’s feeling sad, most of the time, though he has a feeling Shigeo sees more than he lets on. Ritsu opens his mouth to produce a scripted response: I’m fine, just a little tired. I ate too much cake and have a stomachache. I was taking a phone call before you showed up. Instead, the words that come out of his mouth are, “There were too many people.”

Shou doesn’t respond right away, which is weird enough in its own way. When he glances in Shou’s direction again, he finds wide blue eyes staring back at him, flashes of recognition and sympathy behind clear, unhidden surprise. “Really? You invited them, though, didn’t you?”

“Some of them,” Ritsu mumbles in response. He sighs softly against his knees and finally lets his body unravel, feet sliding down the tiled surface of the roof as his head and torso lean back against the roof beside Shou. He tucks his arms close against his sides and clasps his hands over his stomach, and feels a warm summer breeze blow his bangs out of his face and to the side. “My parents invited some of them, too, but they’re… all people I know.”

“Well then, you know a lot of people,” Shou says simply, wiggling his legs against the uneven roof’s surface in search of a more comfortable position. 

He’s barefoot, Ritsu realizes, having ditched his shoes somewhere along the way. For some reason it makes Ritsu want to smile; Shou never had cared much for manners or rules, and his rebellious spirit feels so, so refreshing when Ritsu is confronted by his own “good child” demeanor. He hums quietly. “I guess so,” he responds with a shrug of his shoulders, sinking just a little deeper into the roof as he breathes steadily and lets his wound-up limbs relax.

Shou, to his credit, looks perfectly at home, sprawled out on the rooftop with no shoes on. He isn’t wearing a jacket, either, but it’s warm enough out that the breeze doesn’t make him shiver. “Well, you may not know them all that well now, but there’s still time,” Shou points out, after a minute or so of silence has passed between them. “I know you have, like, a persona or whatever, but it doesn’t have to be like that forever. You can talk to them like normal people.”

“I guess that makes you a “normal person”?” Ritsu retorts, but it’s humorous rather than hostile. A faint smile blooms on his face as he tilts his head to the side to look at Shou.

Shou laughs, a quiet, private laugh meant only for him, one that’s so different from his usual boisterous guffaws that it nearly gives Ritsu whiplash every time he hears it. “Normal is relative,” he shoots back, and it feels like a weight is lifted.

Of course Shou’s answer to his dilemma would be simple, his solutions usually are. And, to Ritsu’s surprise, his solutions are usually good, too. “I’ll keep it in mind,” he promises.

Shou shoots him a grin, then sits up with a start. “Oh, that reminds me! I was gonna wait until everyone else went home to do this, but I think now is as good a time as any,” he babbles, reaching for his discarded bag and rifling through it for a moment. He fishes out a wrapped package, one with a little white bow stuck to the top of it, and holds it out to Ritsu. “I got you something. Y’know, like a birthday present.”

Ritsu had accepted more than a dozen gifts throughout the night from many of his guests, some of which he was excited to open, and some of which he’d known immediately would have very little sentimental value, but something about this moment, sitting on the roof of his house in the middle of a summer’s night next to the best friend he’s probably ever had, sends Ritsu’s heart racing all over again. He reaches out and accepts the gift, hears the cheap convenience store wrapping paper crinkle under his fingers, and wonders how much thought Shou had put into picking something out just for him. “Thank you,” he murmurs. “Can I open it?”

“Yeah, go for it.”

Ritsu picks at the wrapping paper carefully at first, as though it was necessary to preserve rather than destroy it, and only remembers that wrapping paper is meant to be ripped to pieces when Shou groans and tells him to hurry up already, you’re killing me! And so he smirks and does as he’s told, digging his fingers into the colorful paper and tearing it off in one smooth motion until he can finally tell when the gift in his hands is.

It’s a notebook, one with a hard cover wrapped in a strong, soft material. It feels almost felted under his fingers as he runs them briefly over the cover. When he pulls the cover open, he sees that it’s swiss bound, each page designed to lay perfectly flat no matter what part of the book he turns to. It’s nice, really nice, way nicer than the spiral-bound notebook Ritsu uses for his math homework.

“You’re always ripping out pages of your book to write ideas down on,” Shou says, sitting up so he can lean over Ritsu’s shoulder to look down at the notebook, “but then they end up getting lost or crumpled up at the bottom of your backpack. I thought if you had a book you could use specifically for jotting down your ideas and stuff, you’d be less likely to lose them at the bottom of your backpack or misplace them.” He taps his finger on one college-ruled page, reaching around Ritsu’s shoulder to do so. “What do you think?”

Ritsu is, quite frankly, speechless. Shou doesn’t often show himself to be a very emotionally mature person–neither is Ritsu, in that regard–but the gift undeniably has a lot of thought put into it, something Shou might have heard Ritsu complain about at one point and filed away for future use. “Thank you,” he says again, for lack of better words, “I love it.”

“I’m glad,” Shou says with a grin, pushing himself to his feet. He fiddles with the edge of his t-shirt, moving it back into place after laying down had rumpled it a little, and then he reaches out a hand to Ritsu. “C’mon, we should head back inside before your brother comes looking for us.”

Ah, right. Ritsu had nearly forgotten about the party still happening in the house underneath them. “Yeah, we should,” he agrees, and accepts Shou’s outstretched hand.

[wieldbrave]

*   ​ @youngesper​ asked   ⇢   [ taste ] homemade bento for rengoku-sama pls accept

[ taste ]  for your muse to cook for mine

          kyojuro  awakens  not  long  after  the  sun  has  begun  its  daily  trek  across  an  endless  blue  sky,  and  as  he  eases  himself  into  a  sitting  position,  he  realises  that  eight  days  have  passed  since  his  arrival  at  the  butterfly  estate,  not  that  he  would  ever  admit  to  keeping  count.  restlessness  had  soon  set  in  when  he  learned  from  the  girls  taking  care  of  him  that  he’s  to  be  confined  to  temporary  bed  rest  for  the  unforeseeable  future  while  his  wounds  (  which,  he  is  constantly  being  reminded,  would  have  been  fatal  if  not  for  the  swift  intervention  of  the  kakushi  )  began  to  heal.  were  it  not  for  the  near - constant  stream  of  visitors  floating  in  and  out  of  his  room  throughout  the  day,  kyojuro  is  certain  that  he  would  have  started  clawing  the  sheets  off  his  bed.

          in  the  midst  of  the  sea  of  visitors,  young  kageyama  ritsu  has  somehow  managed  to  stand  out   amongst the  rest,  his  quiet  company  having  a  surprisingly  soothing  effect  on  his  hyperactive  mind  and  ever - growing  monotony.  despite  himself,  kyojuro  can’t  help  but  draw  the  slightest  comparisons  between  the  reserved  demon  slayer  and  his  younger  brother,  senjuro,  which  is  perhaps  the  reason  for  the  fondness  that  unfurls  behind  his  ribs  whenever  the  boy  walks  into  the  room  or  looks  to  him  for  support.

          as  if  summoned  by  mere  thought  alone,  a  knock  at  the  door  drags  kyojuro  from  his  absentminded  musings,  his  remaining  eye  falling  upon  the  familiar  form  of  the  very  boy  in  question  as  he  waits  politely  in  the  doorway  to  be  granted  entrance.  a  delicious  smell  wafts  out  from  a  distinctly  shaped  box  tucked  under  ritsu’s  arm,  but  kyojuro  pays  it  no  mind,  calling  welcomingly  to  his  visitor,   ❝   good  morning,  young  kageyama!  come  on  in!   ❞

          after  a  moment  of  hesitation,  ritsu  trots  over  the  threshold  and  shuts  the  door  behind  him  with  a  soft  click.  as  he  approaches  the  edge  of  the  bed,  ritsu  retrieves  the  box  from  beneath  his  arm  and  holds  it  out  to  kyojuro,  not  quite  meeting  his  gaze.   ❝   i  made  you  some  food,  rengoku - sama.   ❞

          kyojuro  glances  between  the  bento  box  and  ritsu’s  unreadable  expression,  an  uncharacteristic  silence  befalling  him  as  he  reaches  out  to  accept  the  offered bento  and  draws  it  into  his  lap.  he  prizes  the  wooden  lid  off  and  sets  it  aside,  casting  an  unblinking  gaze  over  the  carefully  prepared  portion.  a  handful  of  pickled  vegetables  line  one  side  of  the  bento  with  several  pieces  of  tempura  and  a  fried  egg  laid  gently  over  top,  and  at  the  other  end  .  .  .  a  bed  of  rice  sprinkled  with  sesame  seeds,  topped  with  a  generous  helping  of  caramelised  sweet  potato  pieces.

          tenderness  burns  warmly  and  gently  behind  his  ribs  as  he  beholds  the  thoughtfully  prepared  meal,  deft  fingers  closing  around  the  chopsticks  ritsu  had  also  thought  to  provide.  still  silent,  he  selects  a  piece  of  the  caramelised  sweet  potato,  snagging  it  between  the  chopsticks  and  bringing  it  to  his  lips.  the  rich,  homely  flavours  that  unfurl  on  his  tongue  —  the  natural  sweetness  from  the  potato,  enhanced  by  its  glazed  honey  coating,  with  a  sprinkling  of  soy  sauce  and  lemon  to  seal  the  deal  —  bring  an  unexpected  wave  of  nostalgia  from  somewhere  deep  in  his  chest.

          when  he  was  younger,  not  long  before  senjuro  was  born,  his  mother  used  to  cook  sweet  potatoes  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  way  ritsu  had.  it  was  thanks  to  her  culinary  skill  that  he  became  so  fond  of  the  vegetable.  since  her  death,  his  attempts  to  recreate  some  of  her  dishes  often  fell  short  —  he  could  never  quite  get  the�� delicate  balance  of  flavours  right,  or  the  potatoes  were  often  too  firm  or  too  soft  —  and  as  time  passed,  kyojuro  gave  up  hope  of  ever  recreating  his  favourite  food  to  the  same  level  of  perfection  .  .  .  until  now.

          he  blinks.  the  moment  passes,  taking  the  sweet  ache  of  nostalgia  with  it.  he  can  sense  ritsu’s  anxious  presence,  hovering  uncertainly  beside  the  bed  as  he  awaits  his  verdict  and  kyojuro  mentally  shakes  himself,  shovelling  another  few  pieces  of  sweet  potato  into  his  mouth  with  gusto.

         ❝   tasty!!  tasty!!  tasty!!   ❞   the  exclamations  of  enjoyment  escape  his  lips  between  bites,  loud  enough  to  echo  off  the  thin  walls  of  the  room  around  them.  were  it  not  for  the  stern  warnings  he’d  received  from  shinobu  herself  not  to  eat  too  quickly  while  the  wound  on  his  stomach  was  still  healing,  kyojuro  is  certain  that  he  could  have  polished  off  the  entire  bento  in  one  fell  swoop. 

          as  he  lowers  his  chopsticks,  kyojuro  beams  openly  at  the  boy  standing  beside  his  bed  and  offers  warm  words  of  praise,    ❝   it’s  been  a  while  since  i  enjoyed  such  a  well - prepared  meal!  you  worked  hard  on  it,  i  can  tell!   ❞   his  smile  softens  with  unfathomable  gratitude  as  he  lifts  a  hand  from  his  side  to  ruffle  the  boy’s  unruly  hair.   ❝   thank  you  for  your  efforts,  young  ritsu.  it’s  delicious.   ❞

*   NONVERBAL STARTERS   //   NOT ACCEPTING!

[silvensei]

Supplementary

Ritsu, the smart student with budding supernatural powers that he is, learned the best way to sneak out of the house is to just leave his body behind.

Words: 6k

So I wasn’t planning on writing another one, but @hydrachea went and was a muse again like the day after I posted Complementary, so. Two weeks later, here we are. 

A continuation of a scenario that will be linked in a reblog because links, ‘member? Also on AO3! (also in reblog!)

“Bro!”

The thump of feet landing outside his window and subsequent clambering at said window would’ve startled most people. Ritsu was used to it by now. He even left the window cracked for this very reason.

Catching a handhold, Shou opened the sliding glass door to his bedroom and poked his head in. He found Ritsu at his desk, just closing up a textbook. “Bro, we gotta go!”

Ritsu raised an eyebrow. He clicked his pen and set it back in its cup with its mates.

His friend jumped into the room proper and hopped from foot to foot, eyes wide, impatient, like Ritsu was holding them up. “Go where?” Ritsu asked when he didn’t expound further on his own.

“To the Pokémon midnight release! Ritsu, come on, we’ve been talking about it for days! I thought you were the smart one!”

“Yeah, but I thought it was a given that I can’t go. It’s already after ten.” He glanced at the clock: 10:12 PM.

“But this game, man! I need someone to trade with!”

“I can just get it tomorrow after school. It’s not the end of the world.” Ritsu pushed his chair back and stood up.

He didn’t get the chance to put his notebook back in his bag, stopped by Shou gripping his shoulders, staring him in the eye. “But they’re only giving out keychains of the starters tonight.”

He knew that; even if he didn’t listen to Shou’s obsessions, his classmates have been talking about it all month. “You know I can’t. My parents are extra vigilant these days, what with exams coming up.”

“But don't you wanna go?”

Ritsu looked at him. He did. He did want to go. But his parents had been strict about their curfew, and both he and Shigeo weren’t allowed out late at night. He understood why. He knew the importance of sleep and the dangers of a city at night.

But Pokémon.

He shook his head. “It’s a school night, and I need to sleep. School may not be your thing but I have grades to uphold.”

“But—!” Shou cut himself off with a small whine, biting his bottom lip. He tightened his grip on his sleeves as he frantically tried to think of a solution. Ritsu gave him a moment to try, after which he was going to shake him off, send him on his way, then get ready for bed. He was just about to do that when he heard, “Doesn’t just your body need sleep?”

“Wh... What?”

Shou perked up. He had found a lead. “And it’s just your body that has to be here! You could leave it here to get some shut eye and ride along with me to the game store!”

His breath caught. Back at it again with possession, but this time suggesting that he do the possessing. “I— Shou, I—” he protested, trying to grasp something, “I can’t astral project, and I don’t know if I’d want to do that to you just for a keychain, and sleep has mental and emotional benefits outside of the physical, too, like—”

“Duuude, c’mon, it’ll be fine! It’s not that hard to learn, and I don’t care about my body, and it’s only fair, right?”

Stomach knotting like it always did when this topic came up, Ritsu stepped back and out of Shou’s reach. “It doesn’t have to be fair, it’s possession. Even the name implies partiality.”

He could see a grin starting to creep onto his face. Oh no. “Nah, nah, nah, dude, it’s cool, normal rules don’t apply to us, ‘member?” He drummed his newly-freed fingers against his thigh and added, “And I gotta check out what the big deal with this thing is anyway. I’m like the only one that hasn’t been possessed yet.”

“It’s not a competition!”

“Ritsu, come on. I swear it'll be fine.” Shou stopped, having stated his case and now waiting for an answer. He held his lip between his teeth again. “I want you to come with me.”

The decision's on him. And there was a right answer. He was thirteen, it was Monday, he had a test in two days, and his life wasn't at risk. He should decline. He should curl up in bed and enjoy some sleep, leaving Shou to his delinquency.

Then he remembered how boring that would be.

Ritsu pursed his lips. “The fact still stands that I don’t know how to astral project.”

Shou nodded. “Young Padawan, it is time for a lesson in the psychic arts.” He sat on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest, his aura faintly flickering into view around him.

Ritsu sighed. Here goes nothing. He crossed his legs and sat down with his back against his desk. “So, how do I...go about this?” he asked.

“Fire up your powers; seems easier that way.”

He took a breath. His last chance to just go to bed.

He felt his skin tingle as his aura lit up, a glittering blue mosaic ionizing the air. His hair shifted in the lessened gravity. “Alright.”

Shou’s own aura emboldened into a more defined shape, but it still was a shadow of what it normally was. That’s right, he realized, I’m supposed to be the one going ghost, not him. “So your powers are you turning an idea into a force that you send out into the world, yeah?” He held up his hands as he spoke, absently bouncing a ball of energy between them. “Once you get used to them, you might not know exactly what the idea is anymore because it becomes an instinct instead of a thought, but it’s still there. So to project, instead of using your powers as a conduit for the idea to leave your head, use them so that you can.”

“Just...follow my powers?” He was right: It did sound simple.

“Pretty much.”

He couldn’t help a small, inquisitive frown. “Why haven’t more people done this, then?”

Shou shrugged. “Many can’t. Most don’t try. A lot of espers find one thing they can do then stick to it. Then there’s also that most espers don’t have a high enough power level to be able to remember it if they do actually project. You’re just held together by psychic energy without your body, so you gotta have a lot of it to function on the same level as usual.”

That was concerning. “And you’re sure I’ll be fine if I—?”

“Of course, dude! I wouldn’t’ve even suggested this if I wasn’t sure you could handle it. You’ve got more skill than you realize.”

“Oh.” Ritsu looked away, a bit embarrassed at the unsolicited praise. Why was he doing this. He allowed himself a brief smile before closing his eyes and muttering, “Okay…. Just follow my powers to...wherever they go.”

The thrum of energy wove through his skin. Apparently, there was an idea at the core of it; of what, he hadn't the foggiest, so he tried to make another: He wanted his powers to pick something up. How about his discarded notebook, wherever that wound up? Easy. The energy moved to concentrate in his hands, spilling over into the room, exerting a slight force on everything as it searched out its target. He tried to follow it, to picture its path in his mind’s eye.

After a minute or two—after he was about to give up and declare perpetual corporeality—a faint trail appeared amid the phosphenes behind his eyelids, a blue leading away from him that grew stronger when he noticed it, a hazy mosaic pattern cracking its color. He hesitated, just for a moment. Then he changed the idea. Instead of sending a generic, nameless force, he pictured sending his consciousness, sending himself—

Everything felt light for some reason.

The room melted into view around him, just blurred around the edges, through clouded glass. He wondered why that was. When he tried to ask, the words refused to form. That was weird. He couldn’t really feel his mouth either. He reached up to check if it were still— did he have hands? The only movement he saw was a shape of smoke appear in front of his face. Why would he be smoke?

A waving of green and white along with what was possibly sound bubbling through the fog caught his attention. There was a figure sitting below him: green torso, blue legs, orange head, even more orange haloing him. Shou’s aura seemed really bright, or maybe it was just because it was the clearest thing through all this haze. His mouth was moving at breakneck speeds. What was he gesturing at?

He looked down. He couldn’t see his feet—oh wait, there they were, a meter or so away, tucked under the crossed legs of a figure slumped against a desk. He couldn’t recognize them through the hair shading their face, but he liked how it was styled. Reminded him of his own hair. Or that was his hair. Why was his hair all the way over there with his body, dropped lifeless after he left?

Oh. Right.

Ritsu shook whatever now passed as his head as he recalled his situation. He’s a spirit now, or a mind held together by energy. He had to focus on his powers, then, since he couldn’t rely on Newtonian physics anymore. As soon as he realized that, he felt coalesced, contained, thoughts running more smoothly.

“—na grab one of those pens— you don’t snap out of it, Imma draw dicks all over— Earth to Kageyama! Come in, Kageyama!”

He turned his full attention to Shou, his aura still the only point of clarity in the room. He still couldn’t answer as he did in fact not have a mouth, but he nodded and tried to drift down to eye level. It took some getting used to.

Shou applauded, his grin not as toothy but just as bright. “Told ya!” he cheered. “Not so hard, ain’t it? The hard part is keeping your head straight as a spirit, and all you gotta do is be smart about it.”

Floating just above the ground now, Ritsu glanced back at his body. He worried a bit about whether sitting limply like that was good for his posture, but what he noticed most was the lack of emotional response. He should be feeling some serious vertigo or whiplash or something, but there was nothing there. When he had hormones and neurotransmitters again, he’d feel sickened by his apathy.

“So?” He turned back to Shou as he prompted, “You gonna take the wheel or what?” He stretched his legs out in front of him, drumming on his knees for a second before holding his arms open. “C’mon, it’s like a ghost hug. Doesn’t hurt.”

Ritsu thought through the situation once more. He should be uncomfortable at the notion of body hopping, of rejecting his existence as a singular physical being and foregoing nature to possess another. However. He didn’t have a stomach that could practice gymnastics at the moment.

What he did have were thoughts, including that he was curious what it was like from the other side and that he was certain of the banality of the alternative.

What the hell, he concluded before drifting forward, reaching out to grab hold of...something. Whatever he could find.

He hit a psychic wall briefly before it disappeared, but it was enough to throw off his momentum, tripping him into a tumble from tangerine into blackness. He fell, possibly for only moments, before something seemed to snap. Like running a finger along a switchboard, his senses reconnected, turning on one-by-one in such quick succession that he couldn’t discern the order. One moment he was nothing, then the next he was on the ground with a phantom jolt, fabric rubbing his skin and air in his chest, until finally a projector slide of his room dropped in front of his eyes. He blinked, but the view stayed the same, solid and real, as if the last minutes hadn’t happened.

His arms ached a touch, hanging out into space. His wrist felt weird, too; not painful, but certainly not right. Ritsu pulled his hands into his lap, holding his right wrist and rolling his hand in slow circles. His sleeves were off-white, his hands too pale, his vision unobstructed by bangs—all minutiae that added together into an experience that was slightly, unsettlingly off.

He swallowed and asked, “You alright?”

Fuck, the timbre was all wrong.

A thought appeared in his head that sounded like Shou whispering, Wicked.

“You say that every time.”

And you say that like it’s a bad thing.

Pressing his palms together, Ritsu bent his hands—Shou’s hands—back and forth. “What’s up with your wrists? They feel...not great.”

I dunno, they’re always like that. I thought it was normal, but yours aren’t the same.

He hated that Shou knew what his wrists felt like. That’s such a weird statement. Back in possession of internal organs, they were able to resume their somersaults at his discomfort.

Ritsu pushed himself off the ground, standing to his full height. Shou was a bit shorter than him but without any obvious point of reference, he couldn’t notice the difference. He tugged his cuffs into place over his wrists and ran a hand along an unfamiliar jaw. He didn’t have time to ask himself how jaws could be unfamiliar before he stopped short at the sight of himself—of his body. His breath caught with the sense of vertigo that washed over him, the very sense he knew he was missing earlier. He didn’t even notice he had stepped closer until he crouched in front of it.

Wack, isn’t it? Shou commented. All he had to go off of was the tone of Shou’s mental voice, but he could picture him reclining, arms pillowing his head. Ritsu didn’t answer as he reached out to lift the body’s chin. It was like looking in a mirror, only...not. Not at all. His face looked pale, peaceful, like he was sleeping, but his head felt heavy in his hand. Like dead weight. A chill pricked at the back of his neck. Was he technically dead?

You gonna kiss or what?

“What?!” he yelped, Shou’s voice hitting the next octave as he shied back, throwing his hands out to catch himself before he hit the ground. Then, startled into action by his body falling over, he pushed forward to catch its shoulders, ramming one into his desk drawer. He cringed at how that was going to ache when he got back.

I don’t blame ya, continued the voice in his head. How many opportunities do you get to kiss yourself?

His tightened his grip on his shirt—or his body’s shirt—his original body’s shirt—to steady himself, frazzled from the brief adrenaline rush. “A lot, apparently! You’ve possessed me like, three times! And as far as I remember, you haven’t made out with yourself at all!”

I’m not, like, completely opposed to the idea, but they’re kinda practically dead without us, y’know? That’s just weird then, like kissing a corpse. Not my kink. And also you would be there, too, and it seemed awkward to just do that without asking, but like, how do you phrase that question to begin with. Wasn't worth the effort.

Ritsu scrunched his nose, growing more uncomfortable by the second. He wanted to change the subject. Without another topic in mind, though, he settled for ignoring Shou and wrapping his body in a telekinetic net. Hair swimming in the aura, it floated limp on the energy, rising a few feet off the ground. He directed it to his bed, standing as he watched it drift. He couldn’t shake the vaguely somber atmosphere of it all.

It bounced on his mattress when he let go. Rolling it onto its side so he didn’t have to look at his own face, he pulled the covers into place over it. Looked normal enough.

Dude, it’ll be fine. It’s only in a coma.

Ritsu took a breath. “Maybe, but it’s still uncomfortable to….” He fumbled his words, the knot in his stomach tightening. “To...be on the outside.”

You don’t have to keep staring at yourself, then.

Ritsu tore his eyes from his messy hair peeking over the blankets and nested his hands in Shou’s jacket pockets. “Morbid curiosity.”

That’s true. You’re first out-of-body experience does something to your view of self. He trailed off for a moment. You alright to come along?

“After all that, now you ask me?” He gave his bed one last look before flicking off the lights. “Come on.”

Fuck yeah!

Stepping out onto his balcony, he turned his powers on himself as he slid the door closed. With a thought he was on the ground, walking down the street into town.

Shou made some kind of noise, one Ritsu couldn’t decipher without the corresponding body language. You can fly us, y’know. Or I can.

“Yeah, rather not,” he said, trying to keep his voice low. There was no one around, but in the quiet night, unaccustomed to his voice, he was worried it would carry further than expected. “It was tough enough to get used to our powers when you possessed me; I’d guess it’s different in this configuration, too.”

I dunno, maybe! Gimme that— And like that, his right arm went cool. It wasn’t the spiking numbness that he felt when thrown out of control before. He might’ve thought it merely a breezy evening if he wasn’t wearing a long-sleeved jacket and also if his arm didn’t move on its own. His hand reached up and snapped, sparking into existence a ruby-orange pulse that wove through his fingers and collected into a vibrating ball. He didn’t realize he was pushed back until Shou said, “Feels the same to me, dude.”

Losing control wasn’t nearly as drastic as before. It was like comparing getting misted with a spray bottle to being thrown into the ocean. He drifted in this vague awareness, pulled along for the ride as Shou continued walking. Their gait changed with the pilot, more pep peppered into their step.

Of course it feels the same, it’s your body, but I’m new here, and I don’t want to be flung into the air without being absolutely sure of our abilities.

“Alright, alright. You are the smart one. Next time.” Shou rolled the ball along his knuckles before flicking it into the air.

Ritsu caught it, watching aquamarine swirl into it as he rolled it in his palm. “Always with the ‘next time’s,” he muttered. He hadn’t meant to take over; he just fell to the front. After tossing the ball onto the sidewalk to see it firework on impact and fizzle out, he decided to voice his observations.

Yeah, I noticed that. I had to really focus on taking over to do it. Like not really focus, but more so than in your body. Maybe the possessor is the default designated driver.

“That doesn’t sound safe for the host.”

Well, what do you expect? You’re pure energy right now; of course you’d get a leg up in mental tug o’ war.

“But what about people without any powers? If they get possessed by an evil spirit...?” A chill ran down his spine. That could’ve been him not too long ago. “They wouldn’t have any say in anything.”

A hum buzzed between his ears. That’s what exorcists are for. But don’t worry, dude, we’re good. I can always kick you out if you get too malevolent.

“That’s reassuring.” It was said out of snark but it actually did help assuage his worry, knowing he and Shou had some defense against possession. It was better than most people could rely on.

As they neared downtown, the streets grew more populated. One person they passed gave him a brief look. It was probably because of Shou’s ostentatious hair, but it made Ritsu self-conscious of how he was walking along as an imposter. “So are we just not going to talk this whole time?” he asked under his breath, pausing to let the next person to pass. “Because the whole ‘talking to yourself while wandering at night’ thing isn’t great for appearances.”

It’s the technological age, Ritsu. I’ve got this. He noticed the shift this time, the gentle offsetting of his senses that pushed him to the passenger seat. Shou dug around in his pockets while Ritsu theorized why things felt different than the previous times (Because I’m not completely rooted in the body? I’m a visitor anyway?) until he snagged some headphones. “Problem solved!” he announced as he put them in. After a second, he plugged the jack into his phone to make it fully convincing. “Everyone talks to themself when on the phone.”

That’ll work.

“That’ll work!” Unlocking his phone, Shou grinned as he opened the camera. The front camera was already defaulted, giving Ritsu a sudden look at his face: bright hair, brighter smile, and oh-so-dark eyes. Shou hesitated. “Oh, shit.”

What? Quid pro quo, Shou. I got your eyes, you get mine.

“Yeah, I know, as expected, but….” He brought his camera closer, his face getting an odd glow from the screen’s light. “I didn’t think it would be this dramatic. I look….” Grin faltering, he said, “Even with the ginger thing, I look real boring. I can’t intimidate anyone like this. The piercing gaze is my thing, man, y’know?”

Ritsu would’ve smirked if he could. As a matter of fact, Shou, I do know.

“It’s just...weird.” Their head turned back and forth, watching the screen. Shou paused mid-stride in one position and snapped a picture. Blinking away the flash, he zoomed in on the image. “Hey, you’ve kinda got a bit of red in there, too,” he noted.

Technically, they’re russet and amber.

“Amber, schmamber. It’s red and it’s rad.”

I guess, but it only shows up in bright light. It’s caused by patches of low melanin in the iris so that when light reflects—

“Ritsu, I appreciate you and your trivia knowledge very much, but I’m not gonna remember that. It’s just hella sweet that you’ve got red eyes with your anime-ass hair.”

You’re one to talk. How much gel do you go through a week?

“Touché.” His phone returned to his pocket, but he didn’t continue walking. Ritsu felt a touch of confusion before realizing they were waiting at a crosswalk. The light changed, letting Shou jog across the street and the remaining few blocks.

They saw the crowd before they saw the store itself, a line of people chattering excitedly amongst themselves. Shou jumped into place at the end and bounced from foot to foot. “Bro, I am so pumped!” he gushed. The girl in front of him turned for a moment before noticing his headphones and returning to her DS.

The energy was infectious. Ritsu smiled, content. He didn’t have a mouth with which to actually smile, but the intent was still there. Do you know which starter you’re going to pick? he asked. They had a while to wait. Plenty of time to converse.

“Oh, I always go fire, man.” He settled into a stance, resting his weight on one leg and hooking a hand in his pocket, leaving the other to gesture in the air. “My Cyndaquil back in the day? She was great. I called her Cyndi. Cyndi the Cyndaquil, ‘cause Cyndi’s ‘bout to kill. Loved her.”

But the first gym is usually rock- and/or ground-themed, and fire isn’t effective against either. And since the water and grass gyms often follow soon after, a grass type would be the most logical for low levels.

“Pshhh.” He waved his hand. “Who needs logic when you have love and chutzpah?”

Ritsu laughed—actually laughed; he felt their chest shaking, his own type of smile on their face, Shou’s voice mimicking his thoughts. Dumbass…, he muttered in their head.

Shou cleared his throat, reigning it back under control. “You just have to work that much harder from the beginning. A challenge mode, if you will.”

Sure.

Shou rubbed his nose and leaned against the building they waited by, watching the occasional car come and go. After staying like that for a moment, Ritsu guessed he was listening in on the excited chatter of their companions. Ritsu would be fine with that, some eavesdropping and people-watching was a good pastime, but another idea came to him instead. Mentally, he tried to copy Shou’s pose: hand in jeans pockets, thumb hanging on belt loop, shoulders loose, head against wall, more weight on his left foot than right. Once he thought he had it right, he tried to add in physical feeling: pressure on his palm and thumb, rough brick digging into his back, headphones plugging his ears—until he felt the ground underfoot before he imagined it.

He blinked. It didn’t take much at all to slip to the front. Was it natural for a bodiless entity to want to be corporeal? Or was he just that much more psychically versatile as a collection of energy? Or Shou just let him take over, but based on his silence, Ritsu doubted he had noticed. Whatever the case, it was mere conjecture for now; he put it to the side and instead listened to a nearby pair debate game strats.

Hey, Ritsu, if I were a Pokémon, what type— hey, hold up. He heard a smile pitch up his voice. You sneaky bastard! When did you—?!

“A couple minutes ago.”

The subsequent noises in his brain tugged a smirk to his lips. Oh! The betrayal! The deceit! To be taken advantage of like so! I thought you were my friend, Ritsu, but nay, to have my very flesh robbed from my grasp! The subterfuge! I’m feeling so fuckin’ attacked right now!

“So when you want to try something, it’s novel and exciting, but when I do it, it’s a crime against you personally. I see.” Ritsu rotated his wrist a few times before crossing his arms. “And I think it’s pretty obvious you’d be a fire-type, given both our conversation and your history.”

Jeez, dude, will you just let it go?

“Maybe fire and fighting.”

Well, you'd be a dark type on account of all this shade you're throwing!

“I'll accept that. They're pretty good.”

No argument? Just gonna take it?

“It's accurate.”

He barked a laugh. You fuckin’ smartass, c'mere!

Ritsu felt a pressure in his head. Shou managed to snag his hand and flip him off before he wrangled it back, gripping his sleeve. He felt a prickling along the back of his neck from an aura; he wasn’t sure if it was his or not. “Nah, I’ve got the high ground here, Suzuki,” he said with a smirk, closing his eyes. “It’s gonna take a lot more than that.”

Fuckin’ try me, Kageyama!

He shifted his feet into a more stable stance, but outside of that, it was a game of mental Twister, trying to keep control. The smirk more or less remained throughout it all as Ritsu tried to stand his ground, his aura dancing on his skin as support. Shou managed to wrestle complete control only twice: The first, soon after the challenge was declared, when he fired up his powers to forcibly pull Ritsu back. Once Shou was able to feel the sharp headache that suddenly caused, though, he held back, and Ritsu was able to use his wincing and hiss of pain to tackle him from behind. The second, Ritsu had slipped up; Shou caught a foot and slid it forward, throwing Ritsu off-balance and stumbling out of his senses. Shou stepped in with a subtle victory fist pump before Ritsu was able to do the same thing right back.

The third time, Ritsu let him win. Alright, alright, he laughed, fine, take it.

Shou adjusted their smile to his own. “Well played, dude! Now that’s what I call a mental workout! How much time did that kill?” He lit up his phone screen. 11:28 PM. He tch-ed. “Not enough.”

Ritsu relaxed, finally able to kick back and put his metaphorical feet up. Don’t worry about it. It’ll go by quick enough.

Digging around in his pocket for a moment, Shou retrieved a compact stylus. “What should I draw?” he asked, opening an app.

I dunno.

“Fat lotta help you are.” He thought for a moment before pulling the stylus out to pen length with his teeth. He opened a new canvas in the app and drew a handful of circles and ovals around the page. Ritsu watch, unsure if it was a bit he should laugh at, until Shou zoomed in on one and changed the brush color. The stylus sketched around the shape, occasionally adding crescent curves and spikes protruding from the rough outline, hatching the bottom to give it a spherical shape. In under a minute, he dotted a nose to finish a little hamster holding a strawberry.

Ritsu watched him finish another hamster—this one sleeping on its side—before he said, I didn’t know you sketched.

“Sure you did.” He furrowed his brow and glanced upward, implying shooting a confused look Ritsu’s way, before moving to a third circle.

I mean, I knew you draw, but I imagined it was, like, setting aside an afternoon with a whole collection of pencils. I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t expect a bunch of round hamsters on your phone.

“I’ll have you know, this one’s a hedgehog,” he corrected, adding more quills. “And yeah, man, any drawing is practice. Quick shape studies and gestures are great for doodling on the go.”

Huh.

“Wanna try?”

Huh?

“Here.” Shou panned the canvas back to his first hamster, drew another circle next to it, and held up the stylus. “Just try to draw it again.”

Ritsu hesitantly took the hand and pen, holding it for a second before sitting down at the helm. “I don’t know how to draw.”

Just copy what you see.

He sighed, but he tapped the stylus on the screen anyway. A collection of dots appeared. He undid the inputs and tried to mimic what Shou had done, roughing out the outline to give the impression of fur. It was a bit of an uneven shape. Adding in the lumpy strawberry, round hands, and eyes that were too big, it did end up looking like an animal. Whether it was a hamster or not was up for debate. “How’s that?” he asked reflexively, immediately regretting it.

Not bad, not bad! It’s cute! It’s shaped like a friend!

“Doesn’t look much like a hamster. Like, I know it’s a simplified drawing, but yours is still recognizable.”

Maybe so, but you gotta start everything from somewhere, and it’s easier to modify an existing image than to keep fretting over it in your head. Plus there’s more art in the world now because of it.

“Well, aren’t you inspirational.” It was a nice thought, though. He handed the pen back, ducking once again into the passenger’s seat like stepping through morning mist. Maybe that’s why your wrist feels odd, he pointed out to take the attention off of him. Maybe you’re not drawing right.

Shou panned to the next circle and said, “It’s just drawing. How is there a wrong way to draw?”

I don’t know, like putting too much pressure on the tendons or the joints.

“It’s just drawing, though, not running a marathon. It’s not like I can warm up before drawing.”

Are you sure about that?

He grumbled, drawing another hamster. “I guess not….”

Ritsu metaphorically shook his head. At least they found one beneficial use of possession: mediocre self-diagnosis.

The next half hour passed quickly. Shou filled in most of the circles with various small animals (and one smirking, blue-eyed Ritsu to torment his companion. Ritsu was indeed tormented. He’d never feel right about that warped reflection of himself). He narrated as he went, describing how he was drawing shapes that looked like animals, not the animals themselves, how hatching and cross-hatching worked, and where to look to draw cleaner circles. Ritsu was fairly certain he was bullshitting a lot of it, but it was interesting to listen to nonetheless.

The rousing of the crowd caught their attention. The compartmentalized chattering became a wave of excitement as the doors opened, the closest barreling through immediately. Turning off his phone and retracting his stylus, Shou put both back in his pocket as he hopped into motion. “Bro—!”

Ritsu would've smiled. I know, man, just go.

Suddenly, he paused. He patted his sides. His face fell. “Dude. I think I forgot my wallet.”

What? You just now—?! He groaned, his hopes crumbling. Leave it to Shou to—wait a second. No, you didn't, it's in your left pocket.

Shou's smirk was back before he finished his thought. “Oh, so it is.”

You son of a bitch.

Ritsu's chastisement and warnings not to do that again (do you know how much I've been through tonight god damn it) only fueled the pep in his step. For being in the middle of a line of a hundred or two, they got in the store fairly quickly, soon wading through the crowd to one of the registers. “Two, please!” he chirped. “One of each.”

The cashier gave him a tired smile. “Sorry, one per person tonight.”

Shou paused. “But we're two.”

“Uh…?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Ritsu jumped in, easily slipping by his stupefied friend. “I meant I was buying for two. Surely you know it's exam season, and I wouldn't dare let my little brother stay up so late before an important test, so he asked if I would go for both of us.”

“I know, it's crappy timing, but we didn't have a say on the release date. Nothing I can do.”

He put on his best pout, just taking a guess at how it looked on Shou's face. “Is there any way to at least get two keychains?”

She shook her head. “No can do. We might have extras tomorrow, but I doubt it. Maybe if— uh…. Kid, if you're trying to flip me off, first: don't shoot the messenger, and second: that's the wrong finger….”

“What?” Ritsu raised his brow before he realized his hand was up, index finger pointing an orange aura into the air. Of course, she couldn't see the energy. He felt his hand catch something invisible and keychain-sized in a fist accompanied by a whispered, Gotcha!

Ritsu stuffed the prize in his pocket. “No, sorry,” he lied, “I was going to try and make another point for my case but decided against it. I understand.”

“Don't worry, you'll have all the time in the world for midnight releases after college. Now, which game?”

Shou took over again, picking out and paying for his game. Ritsu sat back, his mental self-image sporting a dumbfounded expression. Why hadn't they realized that before. Of course they can't get two when they're in one body. What a rookie mistake.

As soon as he was outside and around the corner, Shou jumped and punched a fist into the air. He hung there a second longer than normal before touching down lightly to continue his walk. “Not the simplest way, but that was a success, my friend!”

I'll still have to come back tomorrow to buy my own copy, though.

“That's fine, that's what you were planning to do anyway! Only now—” he pulled out the little red and white bag from his pocket, “—now you got a limited edition collector's item, too!”

Well, don't keep us waiting. Which is it?

“I got it, man, I got it.” He dug through his shopping bag for the other, held the two together, then ripped off the tops simultaneously and upturned them into his palm. Ritsu caught a glimpse of orange and green before their eyes closed, squeezed shut from his wide grin, and he sung, “Sweet~! Dibs on fire!”

The energy was contagious. Fine by me, he said. He'd smile if he could; fortunately, Shou had it covered enough for both of them.

He looked them over, tracing a thumb over the paintwork before again resting his hand in his pocket. “So, where to next?”

Next? You're not going to go home and play through the night?

“I mean, I could, I really want to, but I can wait until tomorrow for you to get yours. But I mean, anything to do right now while out and about?”

He pictured a shrug. I don't know. I'm not usually out this late to know what there is to do.

“Oh, my friend, you are getting the full tour, then. ‘Seasoning City by Night,’ I call it. It's peaceful, it's dim, it's neon, and it's completely different from the town you thought you knew under the sun! What d'ya say?”

Ritsu thought a moment. He sure hoped his body was getting a full night's sleep without him.

Lead the way.

[aranciafiamma]

I Can’t Decide

My Holiday Gift to @minusram for the @mp100ficrec gift exchange!

Prompt:  an unexpected character mashup [ship or gen!]: why these two, how did we get here? and why the heck does it work? if it even does, maybe it's nothing but trouble

Ship: TeruRitsu

It was...not love at first sight exactly, but - familiarity. Like: oh this motherfucker. This asshole. It had to be this dickbag. Game over.

Teru and Ritsu are two volatile chemicals swirling around in a fragile glass beaker. They walked into a room and you could already taste the fallout. And yet, they kept walking into the same room, over and over again. The room is Kageyama Shigeo and their invaluable ties to him. It's only predictable that they'd be forced to spend time together. But somehow, each new unfortunate instance came as a surprise.

“You know being a good person entails being good to everyone. Not just one person. Especially if you have a giant, painfully obvious crush on said person. That's not virtue! That's just favoritism!” “You say that as if you're any better than me!” “I'm not! But at least I'm self aware enough to accept this about myself. You! You're still in delu-lu-la-la land. Like a kid playing pretend.” “And what have you done with that acceptance? You do realize it's only the first step, right? I've accepted some uncomfortable truths of myself and I worked to change. You stalled at step one then proceeded to lie down and rot.” “What ‘change’?!”

Round and round they went. It was like the most screwed-up carousel rides where the ponies kept trying to buck them off. Or eat them. Every time they met, there seemed to be an underlying promise of debilitating disfigurement.

Here's the unexpected side effect. A superiority complex isn't usually catching. Unless you're Shigeo and painfully malleable. Ritsu is definitely not Shigeo - a fact that caused most of his troubles. In this specific case, Ritsu is not prone to accepting compliments at face value. He's been desensitized and usually feels more suffocated than supported. But insults! Backhanded flattery! Snide little comments - and Teru only thinks he's being sly but truthfully, he's about as subtle as a trainwreck. Ritsu hears every biting taunt and he hears a challenge. "You're not any better than me"  translates into "I'm not any worse than him". And Ritsu finds himself blinking in the dim light of a cafe, seated across from the grandbaby of narcissism, and feels leveled. It is not the sensation love stories sing about or poets write verses for. It is a simple, quiet, slow fall into comfort. Teru says something scathing and Ritsu doesn't need to hold back. He can just be catty and rude and supremely imperfect. Teru matches him edge for edge, sharp corner for sharp corner. That constant undercurrent of self-loathing doesn't vanish. No it's not so easy as that. But it's muffled under the blindingly obnoxious ray of Teru's vanity - the way shadows are driven under the bed when the windows open. It's novel, this feeling. Ritsu is confused.

"I refuse to be an appetizer for your obese ego." "Oh darling , that's already your default state."

Teru is confused. This sad, sorry slip of a boy insists on catching his attention. He can't speak, stand, sit without Ritsu confronting him on every turn. The focus isn't unusual. Why wouldn't he be focused on him? It's the default state of every interaction Teru ever has. It's simply rare that they demanded he pay them back equally. Kageyama-kun never demanded. He simply is and if you were smart, you paid him all of your attention. His natural state is a test to the discernment of the observer. A test that, Teru admits, he almost failed. But almost is the same as didn't. And the point is Teru won't be making the same mistake anymore. Ritsu is nowhere near the caliber of his brother. And yet he expects Teru's exclusive attention. It's pathetically ignorant or worse egregiously arrogant. What's bewildering - utterly baffling - is that somehow, Teru can't look away. He really should. Then maybe the boy would learn his place in the grand hierarchy and stop contesting him. There is no contest, first of all. Except it really is like watching the Titanic sink in slow motion. Tragedy draws in an audience for a reason. And when Teru looks at Ritsu, he believes to finally understand the allure. It's not pity. It's more of a curiosity. Teru finds himself watching, wondering what this strange, shame-filled boy will do next. He wants to stick around and see how deep this boy will sink. It's not the first time Teru has paid someone else attention. That honor had went to his brother. But it's the first time he's been... shook by his own reaction. Kageyama-kun simply is and nothing Teru does or says could possibly move him. He's the star of a distant galaxy. But Ritsu is more a lonely ant, lost in the grass. Teru could put a leaf on his path or blow him off course. He can invest in his journey. And Teru, unexpectedly, unbelievably, uncomprehendingly finds himself invested.

They meet and they meet, and they continue to meet. Each meet turns into a clash. The thinly veiled contempt gets the veil taken off like the most vicious, Kardashian bride on her wedding day. It is ugly and messy but, here’s the kicker, it’s fun. Somewhere along the way, with Ritsu dragging down and Teru clinging up, the contempt rounds out with repetition. It becomes more of habit than hate. They ease into each other the way waves grind stones smooth.

"You are the absolute worst." "Coming from you, that's a compliment." "How?!" "Well, usually you call yourself the absolute worst. And doesn't 'worst' just mean the 'best at being bad'? Face it. You're proud to be the best in being bad. And now.... Now you finally admitted I'm better than you at something."

“Oh fuck you.”

The moment of truth comes when a rogue ESPer walks into town. Walk is a bit misleading. She divebombs the city. A three blocks of downtown is ruined. People panic. There’s screaming and running. Cars crash into each other. And Teru leaps into action, ever vigilant, ever ready to take his place as protagonist (if Kageyama-kun isn’t around, of course).

(Kageyama-kun was attending Tome-chan’s birthday party. Best not to bother him.)

She was a two-bit, cocky newbie. Obviously, she just awoke her powers. She was most likely acting in shock and awe more than malicious intent. It would be an easy thing to just calm her down, talk her through it. Or so, he thought.

He calls out to her and the girl gives him this face - the kind seen when the monsters are finally revealed in horror movies. Before Teru could react, he gets shoved hard into a building. Her power presses down on every inch of his body. He cannot move. He cannot think.

"Sorry. You can't kill him yet. I still haven't ruined that pretty face of his."

Casually strutting in, like the main event and Teru was just the warm up act, Ritsu enters the scene. He flicks his hand and the girl gets flung or to describe more specifically, Ritsu yeets her into the mountains. Teru knows that move. He taught him that move. (Well ‘taught’ as in he’s used that move repeatedly on Ritsu whenever they ‘spar’.)

Ritsu watches the girl disappear into the distance. His back faces Teru. His silhouette is the cliché action movies strive for - all tall and standing straight. His hair flutters in the wind. Refusing to let him claim the moment, Teru smirks. "Hooo, little brother. You think I'm pretty?"

A pause. Ritsu turns around. He gives him the ugliest, most self-indulgent, smug grin. It's cartoonish how it just radiates satisfaction. Teru feels his smirk drop. "You are going to regret getting saved by me."

Oh fuck.

[avecorviidae]

Fic: pretty little head

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100 Rating: E Relationship(s): Kageyama Ritsu/Suzuki Shou Word Count: 2780

Ao3 Link

Ritsu isn’t entirely sure how he’s ended up in this situation.

Well, no, that’s a lie, he knows exactly how he’s ended up in this situation: through a combination of his own stubborn pride, and the fact that he keeps forgetting Shou has no concept of personal space.

To be fair, he had exhausted just about every other source of help he could think of. His parents had never taken English beyond a basic level, and Mob had just recommended him to Reigen, which, well, no. Besides, based on past experiences, he would’ve just pulled up Google Translate anyways. Hanazawa had offered to tutor Ritsu himself, and he might’ve taken him up on it, but it was pronunciation that he needed help with, and Hanazawa Teruki’s spoken English was nigh indecipherable.

Somehow, Youtube and the rest of the internet had proven fruitless, and more often than not, overly distracting. So, the only one left to ask was Shou, who was fluent in English and almost painfully eager to help.

(In retrospect, he could’ve asked one of his actual teachers for help, but hey, he still had his pride.) His parents were working late, and Mob was still out on work with Reigen, so they’d ended up sitting in the living room, books lying open around them like the aftermath of a library in a typhoon. Somehow, somehow, they’ve moved from sitting next to each other on the couch, to lying on the floor, to Ritsu being half in Shou’s lap, back pressed to his chest and sitting in the crook of his crossed legs. Shou has his chin hooked over his shoulder, and he’s reading the book open on Ritsu’s lap with a voice so casual, Ritsu could’ve fooled himself into thinking they were just sitting across from each other at a table.

“I reached for the handle,” Shou read smoothly, tracing the sentence on the page with a finger. Ritsu reread it a few times, trying to commit the way Shou’s tongue had rolled over the words to memory. “Right… ‘I… rea… ched fo-r…’ uh,” “For the handle,” Shou says, stressing the vowels, and Ritsu can actually feel his shoulder vibrating with Shou’s voice, which is, well. “For the handle,” Ritsu repeats, slowly, but with less hesitation. He can’t see Shou’s face from this angle, but he can hear him beaming when he says, “Yeah! Good job!” Ritsu sighs, shoulders sagging with relief. It had been the tail end of a grueling paragraph that had made him want to brutally murder either Shou or the author of the book. Possibly both. The way they’re slung awkwardly over Shou’s feet, his thighs are starting to feel numb, so he shifts around in Shou’s lap until the pins and needles are starting to fade, and settles back against Shou’s chest again, asking, “So, what now?” with a yawn. “Um,” comes Shou’s strangled response, more of an undignified squeak than anything. He feels oddly stiff. “Maybe… go back to the first chapter and… see if you’re any better with it? Yeah.” His voice is wavering in pitches, like he’s trying desperately hard to keep it sounding normal.

Ritsu almost moves to turn, ask what’s up with him, but then he pauses and feels something that he’s pretty sure wasn’t there before.

Oh.

Oh. His first instinct is to jump up and get as far away as possible, but he makes himself sit still, flipping slowly back to the front of the book as he considers his options. The way he sees things, there are three of them.

One, he could go with his brain’s first response and freak out, probably embarrassing Shou, and more than likely fracturing their tentative friendship.

Two, he could just keep reading, pretend not to notice, and wait for it to go away. There was no real point in drawing attention to something that was a normal response to stimulus, especially from a hormonal teenager.

Or three, he could… he could… well, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t considered it before.

Option three had as much potential as option one to fuck things up, if he miscalculated. After all, they were high-schoolers. It wasn’t as if he didn’t just get hard for no reason, regardless of the presence of someone he was attracted to. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. Though, thinking back to the way Shou acted around him, the giggling, the looks, and, actually, was Shou as touchy with anyone else as he was with Ritsu?

He flips the rest of the way back to chapter one, abruptly grateful for the placement of the book.

If he’s going to try this, it has to be now. He moves experimentally, under the guise of adjusting to be comfortable again. Now that he knows what he’s looking for, he can definitely feel Shou’s dick through his pants, and he rubs against it, just a little, settling so that it’s more or less pressed up against his ass. A low, choked keening sound escapes Shou’s mouth, and it goes straight to Ritsu’s groin in a way that he didn’t anticipate, had never really felt before even on the rare few occasions he’d seen porn online, a surge of pure heat.

“Y’know,” Shou says, “I think we’ve done enough for just now. Let’s take, uh, a break.” Ritsu feigns ignorance, finding something satisfying about being in control of the situation right now. “Oh? But I thought you said my vowels needed more work?” Shou makes a noise that can only be described as a whine. “I need the bathroom.” Shou went to the bathroom less than ten minutes ago. Ritsu doesn’t move when Shou tries to shift out from underneath him. “Suzuki.” Shou is almost certainly strong enough to push Ritsu off of him, even not taking psychic powers into account, but he doesn’t seem to be thinking much at the moment, trying to move himself instead of Ritsu and only managing to make his problem worse in the process. “Suzuki.” Ritsu tries to get his attention again. When that fails, he clamps one hand on his knee, and as an afterthought, he tosses the book out of his lap somewhere across the room. “Shou.” Shou freezes at the sound of his name. Actually turning around without standing up is kind of awkward, but Ritsu manages to move himself so that he’s more or less straddling Shou’s legs, steadying himself with a hand on Shou’s shoulder, and wow, Shou’s face is only a couple of shades pinker than his hair, the darker freckles standing out like constellations on his cheeks. He’s staring up at Ritsu with wide eyes, mouth hanging just slightly open, and his bottom lip looks red and sore, like he’s been biting on it. The last of Ritsu’s hesitation crumbles. He leans forward until his forehead is pressed against Shou’s. “Shou,” he repeats, just to feel and see the breath go out of him at the word, “tell me to stop, and we never have to speak about this again.” “Please,” Shou hisses, and grabs the front of Ritsu’s shirt to pull their lips together. Ritsu’s entire world is heat. He’s kissed girls before, sure, light pecks for fun behind the gym or outside the school gates, but he hadn’t known it could be like this, hungry and desperate and Shou is everywhere, legs hooking around Ritsu’s waist and fingers digging into his hips, with his teeth occasionally grazing Ritsu’s lips in a way that makes him stifle a moan in the back of his throat. It’s probably not supposed to be this sloppy or wet, and Ritsu’s nose is going to hurt if they keep it up like this, but he can’t really bring himself to care. Trying to keep his balance, and the upper hand, Ritsu threads a hand through Shou’s hair and tugs. He’s rewarded for his efforts by Shou whimpering, actually whimpering, and then Shou rocks forward so that Ritsu is suddenly on his back, on the floor, with Shou above him. The rhythm changes, and now Shou is pressing shorter, harder kisses to his lips, barely giving him any room to reciprocate.

From this angle, Ritsu can actually see the outline of Shou’s dick, and, oh, he has an idea. “Suzuki,” he breathes between kisses, “d’you, do you remember, a few years back? The, the culture festival.” Shou laughs into his mouth, pausing to reply, “I remember your dress.” Ritsu rolls his eyes, giving Shou’s hair another tug. “Well, yeah, but I mean what you said. About if- if me being a maid meant that I had to serve you.”

Shou laughs breathlessly, says, “Well, how could I forget, you punched me,” but his pupils are blown and he’s staring at Ritsu like he’s just offered him the entire world, so Ritsu thinks he’s sold. He presses a hand to Shou’s shoulder and pushes him over so that Shou’s on his back, and Ritsu is straddling his hips again. Shou lets out a shaky breath, and Ritsu lets himself kiss him again once, and asks, “Can I… Can I try something?”

Shou’s nod is immediate and enthusiastic, and his eyes somehow get wider than they already were, so Ritsu takes that as his cue to start shuffling down Shou’s body, pausing to press his lips to his neck on the way.

Shou’s legs fall open easily, and Ritsu settles between them, looking back up at Shou. “Okay?” he asks, just to be sure, because frankly, he’s not sure. Shou is propped up on one elbow, staring at him with his other hand not-quite covering his slack-jawed mouth. His face is still burning and his hair is mussed from Ritsu’s hand, his lips are slick and kiss-bruised, and holy shit, Ritsu wants him. Shou seems beyond words, because he just nods again, making a kind of squeaking sound somewhere in his throat. Ritsu hooks his fingers in the waistband of Shou’s sweatpants and pulls, Shou lifting his hips off of the ground to help him. He stares for a moment at Shou’s erection, straining against the material of his boxers, and tries to reorient himself. It’s not that he doesn’t want to do it, because at this point he really, really, does. But, well, he only knows the theory of the thing, and he’s pretty sure that online porn isn’t entirely reliable, as far as the practice goes. Still, he prides himself on being a quick learner.

When he pulls Shou’s dick out of his boxers, keeping a hand loosely around the base, Shou sighs softly, head falling back to the ground. Ritsu feels fingers threading through his hair, not pulling like Ritsu had, just holding.

Experimentally, he licks a stripe from the base to the head, and watches as Shou throws his other arm over his face, the hand in Ritsu’s hair gripping convulsively. It doesn’t taste… bad, per-se? Kind of weird, though. Nothing he can’t handle.

He takes the tip into his mouth, letting it rest on his tongue for a moment. Strange as Shou can be, he doesn’t think anyone would particularly like their dick being scraped, so he does his best to wrap his lips around his teeth. He licks around the head, feeling for the slit and pressing into it with the tip of his tongue cautiously.

Shou lets out a stifled moan, and when Ritsu looks up, he sees that he’s biting the back of his hand. Ritsu is somehow always surprised, when he remembers that he likes the sound of Shou’s voice, the melodic flow of it, but that moan almost knocks the breath out of him. He really wants to hear it again.

He pulls off with a small pop.

“Nobody’s home, Suzuki,” he says, trying not to let how wrecked he’s feeling show in his voice, “you can be as loud as you like.”

Shou’s arm falls back to the floor, and he pants, “You’re gonna kill me.”

Not if you manage to kill me first, Ritsu thinks, going back to work. This time he doesn’t hesitate before taking Shou into his mouth, and he slides down slowly, figuring out the right times to breathe through his nose as he goes. Figures, that Shou wouldn’t be able to shut up during something like this. Now that he’s got permission, he’s all noise, low, keening sounds and shaky breaths, and there are nails digging into Ritsu’s scalp in a way that makes him think that if it weren’t so embarrassing, he could come without being touched at all. Shou’s hips are making stuttering jumps, like he’s trying to thrust up into Ritsu’s mouth but can’t concentrate enough to establish a rhythm, but Ritsu moves a hand to his hip to hold him still to the ground, leaving the other as support on the ground. He’s painfully hard, and he reaches to undo his zipper before the friction makes him come in his pants, but he finds that he can’t keep his balance if he’s not propping himself up. Based on his lack of experience, he’s not sure that he could call Shou small, but they’re teenagers, and he’s not that... surely, there’s no way he’s big enough that Ritsu couldn’t…? Only one way to find out. He takes a deep breath through his nose before bobbing his head, taking more and more of Shou into his mouth. When his nose brushes the curls of copper hair at the base of his dick, the head is not quite brushing the back of Ritsu’s throat, vaguely tickling but not enough to set off his gag reflex. “Fuck, oh my god, Ritsu.” Ritsu isn’t entirely sure that Shou is breathing. From here, Ritsu’s sense of direction is more fuzzy, but he gets the general idea, and somehow, he doesn’t think Shou is going to criticize his technique. It’s surprisingly easy to get into a rhythm, bobbing his head up and down, occasionally going all the way down and sucking. Shou is letting out breathy moans to the rhythm of Ritsu’s movement, and he’s straining against the hand Ritsu is using to hold down his hips. There’s the sound of moving paper, like rapid flipping through pages, and when Ritsu glances around, sure enough most of the books they’d been studying from are either flipping from front to back, or floating a couple of feet in the air, surrounded by the orange-pinkish haze of Shou’s aura. If he breaks anything, Ritsu is making him clean it up.

“Ritsu, I-” The hand fisted in his hair tightens, and he finds himself being tugged off of Shou’s dick, in time for Shou to gasp, “I’m gonna, gonna-” Shou comes in a few hot spurts, managing to paint Ritsu’s cheeks and nose in white stripes. He is, perhaps, less bothered by this than he should be. Any annoyance he might’ve had is overwhelmed by the look on Shou’s face when he sits up and stares at Ritsu, face still bright red and looking absolutely wrecked. “Sorry, I, uh,” he stutters, before blurting, “you look really good like this.” Wow.

The combination of that, and the novelty of seeing Shou’s blustered confidence fall apart so utterly serves to remind Ritsu that his own dick is aching, and he sits back to let Shou compose himself, shoving a hand into his underwear and planning to make quick work of his own problem. “Oh, wait!” Shou says, scooching back over so he’s kneeling by Ritsu. “I wanted to… can I?” He’s already reaching a hand for Ritsu’s dick, so he shrugs and nods. When Shou wraps a loose fist around him and start stroking, the feeling is so overwhelming that he drops his head forward onto Shou’s shoulder, hissing, “Fuck.” He’s a teenager, so it’s a familiar technique, designed to get the job done quickly, but it feels so different with someone else’s hand, the unfamiliar feeling of Shou’s skin, the small callouses on the pads of a couple of his fingers. It’s been pent up long enough now that it only takes a few strokes before Ritsu is spilling over Shou’s hand, moaning quietly into the crook of his neck.

They stay, sitting for a moment, even as the come on his face and in his pants is becoming uncomfortably cold and sticky. “That was…” Shou begins, then trails off. “Wow.” Yeah, ‘wow’ is one way of putting it.

He murmurs into Shou’s shoulder, “Next time, we should do it somewhere that you can see me the entire time.” It has absolutely nothing to do with him wanting to be able to see Shou the entire time.  Nope, not at all.

“Ritsu, oh my god.”

[momorabu]

Ensemble Stars! Event Story - Raising Curtains! Dark Night Halloween / Dark Night Halloween

Since today’s Halloween and the new Halloween event has just started in Ensemble Stars~ I thought I’ll read the Halloween event story from last year’s event, which I actually enjoyed reading as it was the 2nd? event that I participated in as I just joined Ensemble Stars at that time. Below is a recap or say a brief summary of the event story ^^

Anyway as always, the summary of the story can be found below. Translation may not be 100% accurate due to my poor Japanese skills~

Prologue

The story starts off with the twins at 2wink giving out flyers and candies while advertising the Halloween Party Event that was coming soon. It was a very grand event at the school, with a live concert at an S1 level, which meant the school was open to the public for viewing all the idols perform.

2wink’s idea of Treat or Trick! are very interesting, for Treat it’ll be fanservice like giving out signatures and handshakes, whereas Trick will be using an easily erasable pen to draw on (the person?) and hugging while twirling around~ +W+ (Somehow I kind of want the “Trick” version just because I’ll get to hug them XDD)

甘えん坊 / Spoiled Child: Chapter 1

Ritsu was sleeping in the terrace garden when Leo found him (when he lost his memory suddenly and find himself wandering here OwO) Ritsu was feeling really weak as he’s trying to stay awake in the day as it was only during the day that everyone will be around, and he wants to be up and with them too.

However, as Ritsu’s body is still a vampire, it’s very hard to him to change his sleep cycle as it might be due to genetics that it’s hard for him to stay awake in the day.  Leo noticed that Ritsu is not feeling well though Ritsu brushed it off himself.

(It was cute that Ritsu is close with Leo in a way that he can hug him and even use him as a “slave” to get some drinks for him XDD)

甘えん坊 / Spoiled Child: Chapter 2

UNDEAD, on the other hand, was hard at work preparing for the Halloween Party Event. Rei was on the phone with Leo in mid-practice as Leo probably informed him that he found Ritsu not being his usual self. Nevertheless, it was a good time to catch up with an old friend for Rei.

Kaoru actually came and tells Rei not to slack off and went for a phone chat instead XDD (It’s rare that he’s so hyped up!) Kaoru is putting effort in this event just because it was a huge event that will be open up to public, which means that’ll probably alot of girls coming which is what he is looking forward to ^^;

He’s definitely okay in giving fan service whether it’s “Treat!” or “Trick!”, but it’s only limited to girls XDD

This made Koga very angry as he thinks that Kaoru’s reasons are very “unpure” since he’s not exactly doing music because he likes it ^^;

They suddenly realised Adonis was not participating in the conversation and mulling in a corner instead. Koga thought he might not know what Halloween is and thus looked troubled about the Halloween Event. (Since Adonis didn’t seem to know Hanami or Tanabata)

He was all hyped up and ready to start explaining to him when Adonis replied that he did know what Halloween is about as his home country actually has it. That made Koga disappointed as he even actually went and researched about it just so he gets to show off his knowledge. (So sad for him that now he can’t TWT)

Adonis wondered why Koga got angry suddenly but Rei wanted Adonis to figure it out on his own. (I like how Rei described as “there’s no right or wrong answer when it comes human relationship” ^^)

Kaoru decided to lend a helping hand to poor confused Adonis, by hinting (or say that’s the full answer already XD) that perhaps it’ll be better if Adonis asked him on the knowledge on Halloween, as Koga was probably hoping that he’ll ask him about it.

And thus Adonis went to Koga to ask for his knowledge. Koga became very happy that Adonis is asking him for help and since it was requested by Adonis, he shall give the lecture~ (Koga seems to be easily pampered actually XDD)

The seniors looked on as Koga started teaching Adonis while Kaoru commented on how cute they are. Rei is glad that Kaoru is maturing (?) as he knows how Rei usually feels when he looks at the junior, to which Kaoru isn’t happy about and say he doesn’t want to grow old and has an old man’s taste yet =w=“

(This part was really cute when Adonis was worried that he might look too scary when he dressed up for the Halloween Party. And Koga dissed him that if he wants to be cheered by the girls (in the audience) and comment that he’s cute, he should transfer his unit to Ra*bits instead XDD) (That’s so harsh, Koga! >A<)

After practice though, Rei called on Koga to stay and asked for his help to keep an eye on his brother Ritsu, as he’s worried that Rei might not be able to sustain his strength if he kept trying to stay awake during the day and not rest at all.

Koga reluctantly agrees, though he specifically mentioned that he’s not doing it because he wants to help Rei and more of him being worried for his classmate - Ritsu’s welfare as well.

赤ずきん / Red Riding Hood: Chapter 1 - 3

Halloween soon arrived, and Koga went to find “me” in school among the crowd. He’s surprised that “I’m” dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and he’s a wolfman, which somehow fits together perfectly like the story Little Red Riding Hood.

“I” started to play along with him by attempting to shoot him (perhaps with the hand signal and sound effect) Koga dissed “me” that “I’m” stealing the hunter’s role if I’m using the gun to fight the wolf, and suggested we should follow the original instead.

Back on topic after the idle chit-chat, Koga asked for “my” help and that “I” should follow him. “I” reminded him that it sounds like the original story of Little Red Riding Hood with the wolf asking little red riding hood for help too. Koga joked that maybe he should eat me too if I get too close (That… actually sounds abit… sexual? ><”)

Long story short, he explained about the “mission” given to him by Rei and mentioned that he will need “my” help to find Ritsu together and get him to rest as soon as possible. (Since in Koga’s words, if Ritsu died from over-exhaustion Koga said he’ll have a hard time sleeping because he’ll remember Ritsu’s dead face… OwO”) (That escalates quickly to scary stuff OAO”)

悪戯っ子 / Mischievous Kid: Chapter 1 - 3

We finally found Ritsu, who was on his way to delivering more sweets that he had made in the kitchen, as the booths kept running out due to the “Treat or Trick”-ing around the school.

Koga advised him to rest, and that made Ritsu abit pissed as he grumbled that when he was slacking/resting, everyone kept asking him to wake up and move, and now that he wanted to be more active, everyone is asking him to rest instead =w=“ (I like what he had said “I can’t take this down, why can’t everyone let me live my life like how I wanted?”)

In the end, in order to get Ritsu to obey and go to rest, Koga ended up being a sacrifice and have to be held down to eat Ritsu’s tasty but horribly looking candies. He even gets pulled around by Ritsu like he’s on a leash, sing to Ritsu, dance for Ritsu, and get sent to do delivery duties for Ritsu in the end TWT (Poor Koga TWT Even though Ritsu does feel abit guilty for doing it abit overboard later on…)

But after playing around, Ritsu finally decided to rest, and thus slept in a coffin prepared by Rei in the music room~

百鬼夜行 / Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: Chapter 1 - 3 + Epilogue

Evening came, and 2wink came to the band practice room to wake up Rei to prepare for the night concert, when they found out that “I” was there too, working on some last minute catch up on the outfit for Ritsu.

Yuta mentioned about understanding how Ritsu feels, about not being in a good relationship with the elder brother, which made Hinata feel both shocked and hurt since he thought they’re both always in a good relationship to the point of LOVE LOVE XD

2wink were being quite mischievous that when they put candies by the side of Rei’s sleeping coffin with him, they mentioned that they look like offerings (for the dead) for him OWO”

Rei woke up in the end, and “I” ended up feeling really sleepy due to all the rushing of work for the Halloween Party. Rei, being a gentleman suddenly, swept “me” off the floor and carry me to the performance area, with 2wink tagging along behind us.

Kaoru was worried but ultimately was relieved to find that Rei has arrived in time for UNDEAD’s performance (if not they’ll have to sing without him) Rei was initially confused why is Kaoru not dressing up as a monster, but Kaoru said he decided to be a priest, an evil priest in fact that cheats on the innocent girls when they fall into his trap that he’s a good guy…. (Omg, Kaoru sounds like a bad guy here seriously OWO” Don’t play with girls’ feelings Orz)

Kaoru was pissed when he found out that Rei was carrying “me” in hime style, and said he’s being sneaky and that should be his job instead XD

But when Rei’s arms were tired and he requested someone else to take over, Kaoru wanted to but was stopped by Adonis saying that “I” dislike Kaoru to hug “me” and that Adonis himself will take over instead.

Kaoru was shocked to hear that he’ll be disliked since he thought that he was confident that over time that “I’ll” like him and not be so turned off by him ^^; (Maybe Kaoru just… has too much confidence in himself? ^^;)

Anyway, he seems terrified by the thought that “I’ll” dislike him and pleaded with “me” not to feel scared or repulsed by him with a please~~

(Seriously I find it so funny that the confident Kaoru is actually afraid of making me unhappy XD He’s kind of cute for his reactions this way ^^)

Finally “I” managed to locate Ritsu at the performance area, where he was sleeping on Leo’s lap (ahh~ So cute >///<) With Leo’s help, we put on Ritsu’s performance outfit and tried persuading him to go on stage to perform with UNDEAD and 2wink, who was supporting part of the performance as well.

Ritsu initially didn’t want to go, he even tried to get Leo to go up on stage with him. (He whines that Leo should go together with him, he doesn’t want to go alone and it’ll be very lonely~ It sound so cute coming from Ritsu XD)

In the end, Ritsu did agree to go on stage and perform side by side with Rei. Rei finally gets some chance to talk alone with Ritsu on stage (since Ritsu normally avoids him in school), and said that whether or not Ritsu dislikes him or hates him, he has to take care of his own body. And if Ritsu really feels miserable sometimes, he can come to lean on Rei as his big brother.

I think this probably has touched Ritsu in the end, as he apologized to Rei for making him worry about him, and also “thank you, big brother”. The end.

This is still a great story now that I’ve re-read it again, I find myself quite enjoying UNDEAD’s members interactions so I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading any event stories that have them next time +W+ (Adonis and Kaoru are sooo cute <3) It was nice to understand abit more about the brotherly relationships between Rei and Ritsu, I like reading about family ties as much as friendships too, so I’m glad that Ensemble Stars is actually focusing on such relationships once in awhile and not just creating characters as brothers for convenience sake or some random trait just to add onto a character profile.

I’ll definitely be looking forward to this year’s event story as well~! Though it’ll be awhile before I unlock and have the time to read all of them during the event, I’ll probably wait until the event is over before I start reading as per usual~ +W+

PS: No cards because my teams are so weak at that time that I couldn’t make it to the 600K tier TWT TWT

[katyatalks]

Mob Psycho 100 - Kameda Yoshimichi’s Character Design Notes

With each blu-ray/DVD volume of MP100 Character Designer Kameda Yoshimichi gives some notes regarding his process designing each character. Here are all his notes for S1 in the order they are presented, regarding; Kageyama Shigeo, Reigen Arataka, Tsubomi, Dimple, Kurata Tome, Mezato Ichi, Hanazawa Teruki, Gouda Musashi, Kageyama Ritsu, Onigawara Tenga, Koyama, Awakening Lab Five, Terada, Matsuo, Sakurai, Ishiguro, Muraki.

KAGEYAMA SHIGEO

With Mob-kun, the first thing I had a bit of trouble with was - do I keep his design as it is in the manga!!??? Should I make him a little prettier!!!!!??? Should I make him taller!!!!??? Those were the kinds of things I thought about. During a meeting, we didn’t reach any conclusion, so I tried out a few things!!!! ONE-san’s recent designs for Mob Psycho 100 have been amazingly good, so I scooped up the taste of those illustrations and applied them to my anime designs. The atmosphere of the manga is lost if you make these characters too beautiful or make them taller, so I made the right choice!!

REIGEN ARATAKA

I feel I didn’t really struggle with Reigen’s anime design!!!! His suit is plain and there’s not many parts to his design, which was a little upsetting, but in terms of his character there’s no need to decorate him, so I thought that simple is fine. More than anything he pulls plenty of funny faces, so even if his design is simple he stands out as a character, so I think leaving his design as it is in the manga was the correct decision. In the manga, his tie is black, but here, to give a little extra to his design, his tie is pink - that’s a feature of the anime!!!!! Also, Something I particularly fussed over in the anime was the way he stands, with his hips cocked!!!! That’s the anime’s Reigen!!!!!

TSUBOMI

Fans of Mob Psycho 100 probably went, “Who the hell is this”, huh. (Laughs). A discussion was had in which I said I wanted to make her more heroine-like and sparkly - in the manga, she gives off the impression that she turns a lot of heads and puts on airs, but for the anime I thought it’d be good to make her into a more traditionally coded heroine!!!!!! From a directorial perspective I wanted to give her a country-girl-kinda look, so I gave her a hairpin. Regarding the colour of her hair and eyes, there was a lot of trial and error…... well, I think the way she is now is the most heroine-ish, isn’t it!!!!! She’s voiced by Satake-san, too, which is something symbolic!!!!!

DIMPLE

Dimple is a character that I had a good amount of trouble figuring out how to deal with design-wise - I’ll contrast him with Mob-kun, give him a flashy colour, then should I make him luminescent?? Have him slowly sway as he floats?? You could say Dimple’s facial expressions are the greatest in Mob Psycho 100, so I tried to draw as many variations in Dimple’s reference sheet as possible. Drawing expressions for this work was really fun! When I draw, I’m aware that I give distinct facial features!!! Well, not that distinct, but (laughs). Also, Ootsuka-san lending his nice, low voice to a character like Dimple gave the character depth, in a way that makes him quite profound. That’s the power of voice acting… but it made me a little worried, as I thought, I have to make sure the art lives up to his performance!!!!

KURATA TOME

Tome-san is a character that’s truly perfect as she is in the manga, so I tried to not ruin that! She has THE Mob Psycho face!!!! When I was choosing the colours for the school uniform, my decision was made based on how the colours suited her, Mezato and Tsubomi, but the bright blue in the uniform for some reason or another doesn’t suit Tome-san (laughs). The colour is lost a little on Tome-san. I thought Tome-san was quite a gloomy character, but her voice actress, Tanezaki-san, performs her in such a funny way that I ended up loving her! I think, out of all the characters, my view on her changed the most! “Tome Psycho 100” wouldn’t be a farfetched anime idea. 

MEZATO ICHI

I drew Mezato with the intention of making her the heroine!!! When drawing character sheets I draw any particular trait the character may have and then pose them and see what I think - the moment I drew her standing with her camera, I fell in love!! (Laughs). The round head she has due to the silhouette of her short bob - I love that!!!! Her caramel coloured hair also stands out in her design!! She’s fresh!! And her eyes are big and round!! In terms of what makes up her design she’s not too different to Tome-san, but I really felt a girlishness in Mezato!!!! My heart is racing!!! But she never appears!!! Director, please include her more!!!!!!!! Let’s make “Mezato Psycho 100”!!!

HANAZAWA TERUKI

[Written in Osakan dialect that gets more intense as it goes on]

Teru-kun is a character whose appearance changes a lot - I designed 6 variations of his hair and clothes!!!!! That’s way too many!!!!! I don’t know if the number has significance but we see him in his 150% form the most, so I’ve gotten used to seeing him like that!!!! It makes me laugh so much! I wasn’t satisfied - I made his hair extend so far that you can’t even see the top of it usually! In the anime you could say his hair is at 200%!! I can’t decide between the version of him we first see, his bobbed hair version or his short hair version. How can I!!!!! Let’s bring back his 150% hair!!!!!!! Wow, I’ve gone full Osaka dialect here. The colour of his sweater was decided to my taste. Director’s sole judgement was that it’s cute and resembles pyjamas.

GOUDA MUSASHI

As you’d expect, I really fussed over President Gouda of the Body Improvement Club as he’s a popular character!! His characteristics are his caterpillar-like sideburns and eyebrows, his soft mohican hair, and his brawny body. He’s unexpectedly hard to draw (laughs), I suppose I had trouble with him. Above all else The Body Improvement Club’s existence gives a sense of security within Mob Psycho 100 - they’re strong and brave, but it was pretty difficult trying to make sure their facial expressions weren’t too intense!!!!! Kumagawa, Sagawa, Yamamura, Shimura… these are characters who I’d love to delve deeper into!!

KAGEYAMA RITSU

I tried to make Ritsu-kun have more of an adult-like aura than Mob. He barely smiles, so he has an intense look in his eyes. I kept in mind that his eyes are only allowed to become soft when he’s with Mob. His irises are bigger than Mob’s own, so there’s a bit of a difference there. Also, he gets a mid-anime gloom story, so I decided to make his hair a little bit on the longer side. His hair is flexible - I’d make his bangs/fringe longer or shorter depending on his expression. When he’s possessed by Dimple he’s magnificent, using his powers as a weapon. His eyes become even more intense, his hair gets all ruffled up and spiky, and he’s overflowing with confidence. ONE-sensei’s manga have all become like that, too, actually!!!!! Ahahahaha!!!!!!!!

ONIGAWARA TENGA

With Onigawara and his three lackeys, I gave them baggy pants to try and up their rural-delinquent-trashiness factor. Onigawara’s anime features are his baggy pants and the tape he has on his cheek. It gives off the impression that he’s some king of the punks who’s always getting injured… but truth is, it’s probably just there to cover up a pimple (laughs). He’s in a situation where he’s bettering himself after the recorder incident, so perhaps the next time we see him he’ll have given up on those baggy pants and will wear the same clothes as everyone else!!!!!! Switching topics, what’s up with those two wrinkles he has under each eye?? Please enlighten us, ONE-sensei!!!!!!

KOYAMA

You know, since Mob and Reigen use flip phones I thought that was the standard for the Mob Psycho 100 universe, but then we have Koyama with his smartphone. Sakurai uses a flip phone, too. So, only Koyama has a smart phone? What videos does he watch on it? Which apps does he have installed… it’s a mystery… a mystery!!!! Please enlighten us, ONE-sensei!!!! Switching topics, I’m pleased with the unique aura that his special move, Telekinetic Helix, has. Mob, Teru, Ritsu, Claw… everyone has their own particular colours!!

AWAKENING LAB 

Hoshino-kun, Asahi-kun, Kurosaki-san, and the Shiratori brothers all have a sense of individuality, so I suppose it was easy to visualise what colours they might have!! For Hoshino-kun, the process was; Hoshino [star field] -> hoshi [star] -> star -> Nishikino Akira [A Japanese celebrity with a song titled ‘Passionate Star Disco’] -> white!! I thought, his clothes definitely have to be white (laughs). Kurosaki-san’s clothes are sporty but not particularly fashionable, Asahi-kun was designed with a ‘you’re almost there’ feeling, and the silent Shiratori brothers have plain clothes… it was with that that I decided the colours of these five, having them all be out of fashion. Episode 10 had Oda-san as its animation director - he drew a very good and cute Kurosaki-san!

TERADA

What stands out with Terada’s design is his T-shirt that droops below his left shoulder - is it a fashion statement, or is it simply worn out of shape? Who knows!! As something special to the anime, his middle fingers that present his special move, “air whip”, are adorned with jewelled rings! I’ll leave it up to you all to decide whether or not those rings have some hidden secret to them. Out of all the upper echelon members of Claw, Terada has the richest facial expressions -  plus, he’s voiced by Tachiki-san - so even when he’s undergoing water torture, despite the cruelty of the situation, he still comes across as good and charming!!!!!

MATSUO

Matsuo is monotone-ish in the manga, but, “I could give him a magician-ish feel?”. So now he has a dark green shirt with yellow lines. The vase he carries has a bunch of colourful stickers on it, so I tried to make sure Matsuo himself wasn’t too flashy or he and his vase would clash!! Candy-chan and Cookie-chan were also fun to draw!!!! Their colours are also good!!!!

SAKURAI

This simple, undecorated design is rather like him. I tried to make sure it didn’t look like he was wearing mourning clothes. I included red in the handle of his katana. I intended for his hair colour to be a natural, slightly dark brown… but looking at him on TV, it ended up being more of an unexpectedly lighter brown… Not my intention, lol. His slicked back hair was pretty hard to draw!!! The atmosphere of his design changes depending on how much of a forehead he’s given, the silhouette of his slicked back hair, and the application of highlights. Ah, this is unrelated, but me and his voice actor, Hosoya-san, are from the same area! We’re also similar in age, so I kinda feel an affinity toward him!!!!! You didn’t need to know that.

ISHIGURO

First off, I already knew that in the manga there’s an old man beneath that mask, so I gave him a hunched back! Following a request by the Director I made his boots plump, round, and cute!!!! With that, the woman’s voice that comes out of him with the mask on suits him!! You can really feel how cornered Ishiguro is during the season 1 finale, thanks to the power of his voice actor and the lead animator!!!!! It’s just, he has so many scars on his face that I felt sorry for him, so I want to find out more about him!!! I look forward to seeing him in an active role again!!!! ...Will he appear again, I wonder.

MURAKI

Muraki looks more like he’s in cosplay in the anime than he does in the manga (laughs). Following an idea from the director, I gave him a cloak and a mark on his chest that’s connected to the mark on his forehead!!! He’s even wearing boots!!! His design is all put together with purple in a fashion-conscious way!!! Anyway, it seems the director’s favourite colour is purple. Muraki, purple, muraki, murasaki[purple], director, murasaki[purple], muraki, purple. Something I fussed over with his suit beneath the cloak was giving it a gleaming lustre much like latex would have… makes you unsure of whether or not it’s a high quality suit. All in all, it costs 9800 yen!! A bargain price of 9800 yen! Now then, you there, sitting in front of the TV - together with the director, Let’s Muraki!!!!

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Twitter crosspost here.

Season 2 notes here.