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wuucchoo · 5 months ago

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Jujutsu kaisen: the good and the bad

Hello!!! I'm out here making essays about jujutsu kaisen once again! And this is most likely the last one I'll make on it :3

((This is a (almost) 4k word rant, read at your own risk >:3))

So, the manga ended - and as far as I can tell, people’s opinions on it are pretty much divided. I personally found it extremely unsatisfying for many reasons, but I'll start with the ‘good’ things first.

THE GOOD

Jjk is a story that's a battle of ideals as much as it is a battle of techniques and fists. And, based on my understanding, the ending that gege chose to go for is the one where no one was actually proven right or wrong. Everyone's ideals and way of life remained the same from the beginning of the story to the end.

Yuji, who's ideal is to save people as much as he can, was able to do that to the very end. Yes, there were hiccups - like the moment where Megumi had to remind him what his ideal was when he almost gave up after the Shibuya incident, but he got back on track right after he heard what Megumi had to say. And so he remained the person he was from the start by helping Megumi and also trying to help sukuna too. His character is pretty straightforward so it's very easy to understand it.

Sukuna, whose way of life and ideal is to live for himself in whatever way he wanted to, did just that to the very end. He refused yuji's offer because he'd rather die than live on someone else's terms. And in the afterlife he only considered trying a different path if there's a next life where his options would possibly be different than what he had in the life he knew. A possibility of a different life, a different path - yet still on his own terms, like he always did. He didn't regret the way of life he chose, he lived the only way he knew how based on the options presented to him in that life. And if there is a next life, he wouldn't mind trying out another path depending on what his supposed next life would have in store for him - as long as he does it on his own terms, and not living through what someone else's version of happiness was. He remained steadfast with his belief and ideal until the very end.

And megumi! I have a lot to say about him so brace yourself to anyone who might read this :3

At first, I thought (after that ending) that his character was all about him wanting to live and letting other people into his life once again and all that shit idk. But now, after cashew (from twitter!) explained their interpretation of the ending I see it in a different way (but slightly the same still).

Megumi’s character from the beginning to end has always been about loving selflessly in a selfish world. As a young child, he had viewed himself as nothing but a commodity, a bargaining chip his father left behind - and his value was in the technique he was born with because that's how every adult in his life has treated him. Gojo went to find him because of his technique, the school accepted and helped him out financially because of his technique, the Zenin wanted him because of his technique - just, every adult who could have made a difference in his life failed him because whether they did it on purpose or not, all of them made it seem like Megumi’s value is only ever in his CT.

Yes, Toji was happy when he found out that Megumi kept the Fushiguro surname because of the implication that he was never sold into the Zenin - but that hardly made an impact on Megumi’s perception of his worth because he never knew who Toji even was. To the very end, Megumi’s father was ‘the dude who sold him to the Zenin as a bargaining chip’ for him ((which i hate btw, but we’re talking about ‘the good’ right now so that rant can wait :3c)). And so, as a kid who was made into thinking that he’s just a commodity - he poured all the love in his heart to the one person who loved him just because its him, which was his sister. And in so doing, he became a person who puts someone else’s happiness above his own at all times.

Gojo tried to get that out of Megumi by telling him to ‘be greedy/selfish’, and he did try to do that during ‘origin of obedience’ where he acquired a domain - not because he wants to save someone else, but because he wants to defeat the finger bearer in front of him. And that was just the one time, moving forward - everything he did has been for someone else again. He almost slipped into the deep end when he almost killed Remi just because he can that one time, but Tsumiki (or the idea of her) stopped him. This made me think that if Tsumiki doesnt exist Megumi would have been so powerful ((and yet evil too at the same time, something to think about i guess))

In a world that rewards selfishness he chooses to be selfless and keep other people's happiness above his own - because to him seeing the people he cares about happy is what peak happiness looks like. So when sukuna tried to manipulate and shame him for everything that happened while he was possessed - he didn't entertain it, instead he decided to do the thing that got him into this mess all over again - to live for other people once again. Living for the sake of Tsumiki’s happiness, trying to save her in every way possible as much as he could, was not a stupid mistake - that's why he will go and do it again. Despite all the pain and suffering it caused him, he will try to live and love again (I'm talking love in its broad definition btw) - because loving Tsumiki wasnt a mistake he should learn from, but a memory he will cherish.

From the very beginning, Megumi’s ideal was to save people unequally because he's not a hero, and he never tried to be - the best way he can think of living his life is to pick and choose who to save because he can't realistically save everyone. And so, this - as well as the first thing I mentioned - was his truth and he stuck to it to the end. And he did have a moment when he gave up on that, after sukuna succesfully wore down his soul through all this careful planning and risks he took from the moment he got interested in megumi. Possessing him in ch 212 (at his most vulnerable and confused moment), performing a bath ritual to drag his soul even further than it already was, killing Tsumiki so Megumi loses any semblance of hold he might have had even after doing the bath ritual, and then using his likeness to fight sorcerers. Yet despite being the one with the most reason to curse sukuna in death, he decided, not just to live his truth, but tsumiki’s as well - by choosing to think about the people he cares about instead of cursing those who wronged him.

In the end, everyone lived and died by their own truth and ideals, and no one was proven right or wrong. ((gojo, yuta and many other characters too had their ideals challenged but never proven right or wrong - but i dont wanna talk about too many characters or this would go on for days))

Looking at it this way, the ending was 'good' in its own right (and as a concept) - but the road that led up to it, and the execution for most of the scenes left a lot to be desired.

THE BAD

While I do see what gege seems to be trying to say with his story, that doesn't mean I agree with it nor do I believe that such an ending was 'earned' when the build up that led to it was lacking in so many ways.

I agree that the world isn't black and white, and no one has the answer on what the right way to live life truly was - but the villains in his story went beyond being ‘bad’, they were clear and pure evil. And yet we see zero comeuppance - both kenjaku and sukuna didn't get the karma they deserve. Because, as it seems, with all the Buddhism values and themes gege borrowed - in the world of jjk karma isn't real, or at least not for the villains. ((And nope, what naoya and the zenin went through wasn't karma - what they experienced was vengeance, imo, more than it was karma.)) That's why Megumi felt like such an incomplete character, because to complete him the way he deserves would be to answer that karma is real.

Despite all the evil things both sukuna and kenjaku did - we instead see them both rewarded (REPEATEDLY) for being evil.

First, kenjaku.

Most people would probably agree that kenjaku is the main villain in the story, despite how the second half of the culling game turned into mostly about sukuna - it was kenjaku's master plan that started all of this. And kenjaku was evil. Pure and unapologetic evil. The things he did to choso's mother alone, warrants him an end worse than death. He lived his long life doing nothing but make other people suffer, all for the sake of curiosity and wanting to be entertained.

And yet the ending we all saw him get was a happy one - dying with a smile on his face because finally after years of living he was finally entertained - and it all happened because he decided to play with people's lives and start a death game.

He was rewarded for being evil.

Playing with the lives of other people was not presented to be as bad as it should be when the villain who committed these crimes didn't even get their comeuppance and was instead rewarded. Just to put into perspective, kenjaku REPEATEDLY forced someone to be impregnated so he can use the cursed children for his experiment. And that is just a tiny drop in the pool of heinous stuff he did. He is beyond evil.

While his way of life and ideal was not proven correct; it wasnt proven as wrong either. Because he didnt get even an ounce of the suffering he induced onto others, instead he was rewarded with a satisfying death. Putting into perspective everything kenjaku did, its pretty insane that he got to have a death where he could have a smile on his face and be satisfied. Gege went out of his way to create an op character (with an op technique that barely got an explanation) out of nowhere with takaba just so kenjaku can have fun. This is what i mean by evil gets rewarded in gege’s story. ((i mean just look at what happened with mei mei vs what happened with nanami. Gege rewards bad people, a lot of the time. And i guess in nanami’s case it can be argued that its coz to gege, death itself is a reward, but i digress.))

And then there’s sukuna.

Where do I even begin…

Maybe at the beginning, to make things easier.

Remember what Sukuna said the first time he reincarnated? He was looking for the 'women and children' celebrating how 'it would be a massacre' - this statement from him suggests that he, not only fights people who challenges him ((like what was implied with his dialogue with Kashimo)) but he was also actively seeking out people leagues weaker than him just for fun or as sports. Which was why the minuscule lore drop we got about him by the end felt really jarring to read - especially when it came from Mahito's mouth. A character who (as far as we knew in the story) barely even knows himself, let alone Sukuna. And yet, for the sake of making things just speed up and over with, we are just supposed to believe that he knows enough about Sukuna to say that his reason for being the way he was was because of 'revenge to the world' 😭. Where did Mahito learn that? When did he learn that? We don't know, so we just gotta accept and sit through Gege's 'tell not show' way of telling a story.

Sukuna is evil, and just like Kenjaku he was not apologetic about it nor does he regret it. Every path in his life he chose was that of the evil route - there was no grey area, there was no question on whether his way of life was good or not. It was evil, plain and simple.

And yet the story Gege wrote kept rewarding him for being evil.

And it seems as if all the innocent people he killed (for no reason!) doesnt matter.

Despite how bullshit it was - he was able to steal an innocent kid's body using a binding vow that should have had him killed (or worse) and yet it did nothing to him. He was rewarded for being greedy. He then had the time of his life fighting gojo, I don't count the jumping that happened later on as him having the time of his life coz it seems to be just a major annoyance to him. And then later on died with the option to walk a different path in the next life. In itself, it sounds great - but looking at the destruction he caused... Where's the karma?

There's none, because gege doesnt seem to think he deserves it.

I really really disagree with this message ngl. Coz the characters in gege's manga holds more sympathy to the perpetrators than the victims themselves - and I just can't agree with it ((coz wdym gojo tried his best 'to reach sukuna'? That shit came out of nowhere.. Like,, why was he more concerned if sukuna had a good time? This wouldnt feel so jarring and out of place if Gege took the time to flesh out the characters more. if he gave us a moment of Gojo sympathizing with sukuna before the fight, before the culling game, before Shibuya. Meaningful character interactions between Gojo and Sukuna, a convincing one, that would make it make sense that Gojo's goal when he was fighting Sukuna was to, apparently, 'reach him' and 'make him understand'. The ending we got doesnt feel 'earned' because this whole time gege never gave us anything about Sukuna's character aside from 'he's very strong and he kills people' until the last two pages of the manga.))

For gege to go with this theme and messaging, he ended up disregard Megumi's character completely and reducing him into this character who had zero feelings on the matter that directly affected him. Yes, he was apologetic and all that - but... That's it? And while i do understand (i think) what it was Gege was trying to go for with Megumi's character, the execution of it just felt so half baked and lackluster - making Megumi's character feel incomplete despite the amazing build up Gege made for his character.

((A similar thing was done to yuji's character for the sake of the 'messaging' gege aimed for, but i will get to that later.))

Sukuna's statement of 'there are consequences to being greedy' never came to bite him in the ass, despite how much it should've considering all he has done- because everything he does gets rewarded. It's like, being that evil is good coz he keeps on getting what he wanted. And like a dumbass I kept on waiting for karma to get him and it never did. Coz karma isn't real in gege's world. ((and no, him being defeated is not karma because the only thing it did is lead him towards the path of redemption - like, the victims dont matter and what matters more is the psyche of the perpetrator. I dont know if i described it properly, but eh.))

Sukuna bets his life with a binding vow? He gets rewarded with the body he wanted with zero consequences - doesn't matter that gege had to go through a MASSIVE plot hole just to get there. Because in no universe was the thing he did to Megumi (and to hana) not considered ‘harm’, but it all got shoved under the carpet because gege doesnt know what to do with that. Gege needed that binding vow to not punish Sukuna, so despite the established rules he wrote in his own story that warrants that binding vow penalty to trigger - it just didnt... because??? If it was coz 'yuji didnt include himself in the people that cant be harmed', as Sukuna guessed, then i guess yuji didnt include Megumi and Hana in it too? But doesnt that neglect the point of yuji's character as being 'kind'? 212 was a massive plothole and i think thats really where the writing began to get... bizarre.

Sukuna kills yorozu/tsumiki just to drag Megumi further into the abyss? He gets rewarded with a weapon that (surprise, surprise) saved him from higuruma's CT. A CT that before that moment, he doesn't even know about. Good thing killing tsumiki's body rewarded him with a weapon, amirite?

Sukuna never fails to show his hatred for Yuji and would always try and make him suffer whenever he gets the chance? He gets rewarded by Yuji suddenly giving him an option to live again even though the entire story Yuji had always said he would kill sukuna. And i understand its coz yuji was able to know sukuna has a soul ((coz gege gave him the power of the mc punch)) and was able to conclude that he’s still human despite the HEINOUS crimes he committed, and megumi having been possessed by sukuna the longest was able to see that sukuna was desperate to live too - so i do see where gege was going with it. It just feels like the build up towards that conclusion wasn't earned, because even though it can be understood it just wasnt SHOWN to us. All thats being done is TELL and never SHOW.

Everything sukuna does gets rewarded and it just doesn't sit right with me. Its like saying the war criminals are just lashing out coz the world wronged them, that they deserve sympathy too. Okay, and what about the people they wronged, tho? Sukuna deserves sympathy for the world that wronged him, sure, but it doesnt absolve him of the crimes he committed - he deserves karma just as much as he deserves sympathy. And yet we see him walking away from everything he did with a smile on his face, zero regrets, zero repercussions and the possibility of living a better life in his next. ???

the ending

((Im sorry in advanced if youre a yuji fan coz im gonna say something you might not like 😢))

Imagine your sister got killed by someone and then your classmate comes in and says they forgive your sister’s murderer and wants to give them a chance at a better life? That this classmate of yours would be willing to turn his back on everyone else just so this criminal who killed your sister (and so many others in cold blood) can live? That even if no one else is willing to, he would give solace to this murderer - just so this murderer gets his second chance? What would that feel, you think? Thats a pretty weird scenario you might say, but thats exactly what Gege made yuji say and do by the end there.

Gege tried to portray 'kindness' with that speech yuji did, but ((imo!)) he ended up making yuji's character sound insensitive and cruel not just towards sukuna but mostly towards his victims and to all the people that died trying to stop him.

In itself, maybe in Gege's head - it sounds like a "good" thing to say - but when you look at the chapters that happened before that, its not something yuji nor sukuna earned because yuji was not sukuna's only victim and he wasnt the only one who defeated sukuna for him to decide and say all that. Knowing the things we know about the story that led up to that moment, gege just made yuji sound selfish and cruel - by having zero regards to everyone else's sacrifice and suffering. Which is a very weird thing for gege to do because before that moment, yuji was talking about the people who died - and then disregards that in the next chapter just so gege can write those lines.

Yuji's character is far, FAR, from selfish and cruel, and yet that speech gege made him say to the dying sukuna unfortunately made him sound like that.

This would all land better IF we saw yuji SEE sukuna go through the life he had during the heian era - like maybe what he went through was enough of a reason for someone like yuji ((who was supposed to be kind)) to suddenly offer all that, knowing damn well the amount of people who would possibly be hurt by that decision.

Im really not digging gege's exploration of good and evil - coz he almost always rewards evil and make good people suffer (with zero payoff, mind you). This 'trying to understand the villain coz he's human too' route just fell flat because we were never given the chance to understand sukuna except in the last 2 pages where he was given vague lore drops - and a statement from mahito who, before that moment, doesnt even know anything about sukuna except that he's strong. How and why the world 'wronged' him, we'll just never know, coz instead of showing us, gege kept on just 'telling' instead. But i guess for the sake of just ending the story we all just gotta accept that mahito, of all things, somehow knew of sukuna's reasons. lmao?

And the reason why i keep referring to the lines as 'Gege made this character say this and that' is because by the end, and even in some chapters before that, the characters lost their identity and are instead talking through a script gege made them say. Yes, a story is essentially that - but a good story is where characters feel alive and are speaking through their own soul which the last 5 chapters of jjk lacked tremendously. The characters felt like they were locked in a fixed role gege chose for them, and then they were given scripts to say, and then they were all rushed to say those lines because of tight deadline, and they have to say those lines just so the story would end. I know i dont make sense... but it probably would make sense to anyone who have read a good story where characters actually feel alive and not just there as the author's mouthpiece.

I know this is gege's first series, and its bound to have some flaws - drawing and writing a story weekly requires immense skill and discipline, i respect his craft a lot. Its why the disappointment i felt was great, because the story in the first half had such a good thing going and so i placed such a high expectation on it. Still, for his first series, its not bad... I probably wont be looking forward to his next series though, i find im not the biggest fan of this writing style that leaves a lot of things unresolved and just lets the readers write their own headcanons to fill the void.

((if anyone read up here, uhhhh hey there! thank you for reading my (almost) 4k word rant lmao, i actually have more to say but ee.. there's too many. This is my last rant on jjk (probably) feel free to fight me on this, one thing i wont back down on is the plot hole in 212 - that was a stinky plot hole and we just went past that like, damn..))

bye for now!

#jjk rant #i didnt edit this #ty for reading if anyone did

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spacejade · 1 month ago

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Dawner/Twilight and Hero party focused chapter directory

[Updated: 12 Feb 2025]

Have you ever wanted to revisit a certain moment but couldn't remember the chapter? Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle aka Maoujou de Oyasumi aka Maoyasu has so many chapters and the titles aren't always helpful so I compiled a list of the most relevant Twilight/Dawner (AkaTaso) chapters on my reread! I've also noted down the chapters focused on the other members of the hero party, since they are so few. Hope this is helpful!

Disclaimer: This post is for those who have already read through the entire series and just to be able to jump to certain moments to reread. I encourage new readers to read the whole thing without skipping. There's just so much to love about this manga!!

Dawner/Twilight focused chapters

Ch53: Suya's nightmare of Dawner from their childhood. Now that I think about it, it mentions the time that Dawner went missing (and met Twilight), so it's related(?). It's also the first Dawner-focused chapter in the whole manga

Ch 70: Twilight and Suya have a practice pajama party and the first hint of Twilight's love story. It's not really related but I'm including it since it's directly related to ch257.

Ch232: Twilight turns small after using up his magical energy. @pathfinder7007 reminded me of this small moment where Dawner recognises young Twilight's voice!

Ch257: Twilight's first love story, of his time with Dawner 15 years ago.

Ch316, 318-319: THE Dawner/Twilight reunion, and Twilight's reaction to it.

*ch317 is Harpie+Suya taking care of the sick cursed musician, if you were wondering what was missing

Ch332: Not the focus of the chapter, but Zeus and Twilight talk about Dawner for a bit after saving Goodreste Royal Academy, and you can see some of Twilight's reaction here.

Ch334: Leo gets Chamos to investigate Dawner. Not much on Dawner/Twilight themselves and more on Leo's reaction to it, but we get Dawner's full name here.

Ch339 (Kai runs away from the demon castle)+Ch346 (Suya's bar): These are actually focused on Twilight+Kai but they are also about. This.

Ch384-386: The Hero Party in the demon castle's dungeon mini-arc, up until Dawner meets Twilight (again)

(fun fact, the deserted island was first shown in ch300, the beach chapter)

And that's where we are now! Will I get to update this post next week or will Kuma-sensei make us waiting another 70 chapters?? How exciting 👀

Ch391: Dawner's reaction to finding out that Twilight is Dee

Ch392: Twilight pretends that he has a sisterisghdgdgdhssyvsddkdgks sorry i just read the update asfshdghshjkl. Oh Twilight....

(Bonus: Way back in Ch22, Twilight already had nightmares abt disappointing the Hero. I thought it was interesting how he's always wanted to impress him, even without the connection to "Hee")

Hero Party focused chapters

Other than those already mentioned, here are the chapters focused on the hero party, since they are so few. I didn't include minor 1 frame appearances (especially in the first few chapters) but let me know if anyone wants that too

Ch77: Suya meeting Dawner in her dream. The first time we see Dawner's personality in the current time besides minor appearances

Ch83: I said I wouldn't include minor appearances but look at Dawner being a lil (clueless) shit here. The chapter is focused on Suya's childhood stories but Dawner is there for 2 panels, which i might as well just post here

Ch105: Poseidon tells Dawner that Suya doesn't want to go home. Again a minor appearance but it says sth abt his personality

Ch137: Sunrise's introduction. Queen.

Ch151: Princess Robo Mark III vs. the hero party. Not focused on the personality of the hero party but they sure are there a lot (?)

Ch227: The chapter is actually focused of Zeus+Poseidon but. is this anything

Ch233:Poseidon teaches Suya how to do pull-ups(?official translation?) backflips feat. a tiny flashback to Dawner giving Suya more trauma

Ch238: The lost teddy demon is found by the hero party (hooray! finally another proper Dawner-focused chapter!)

Ch242: The lost teddy demon from Ch238 starts to imitate Dawner and Suya gets suspicious. Really shows what she thinks of him lmao

Ch287: Neo Alrune battles the hero party. I feel like this counts as a Sunrise chapter, yes?

Ch352-353: The hero party at the fake inn. The Waker focused chapters!

Ch383: The suspension of the hero party's quest, right before they go into the demon castle dungeon. Kisho focused with more insight on how the team works together

That's about it for now. Honestly I was shocked at how far apart the chapters were.... How long has Kuma-sensei been cooking... Now with the plot developments I hope we get to see more of the Hero Party though!!

Also please let me know if there's any chapters I've missed or you want included. With nearly 400 chapters there might be stuff that Ive missed... 400... that's crazy.... may maoyasu go on forever....

#sleepy princess in the demon castle #apparently today is also the anniversary of ch316 hence a good time to post?!#maoujou de oyasumi #I'm not sure how to tag it tho. i hope the 5 other en speaking ppl in the fandom find this #demon king twilight #dawner the hero #kisho #waker #sunrise #are those tags too generic...

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unfortunatelyilikebnha · 1 month ago

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The best tdmd moments/things (to me; vaguely but not entirely chronological) (also I haven’t read the manga in ages and I’ve only - recently at least - rewatched bits and pieces so some of this is paraphrased while some of it I went back through to get exact quotes and NO I’m not going to do that for all of them it would take too long) (readmore bc it’s a lot):

- “As the crowd shouted, trying to make Sero feel better, Todoroki took a moment to melt his opponent from the ice prison he’d created. For some reason, in that moment, he looked very sad to me.” Ok so this is not the sports festival moment everyone talks about but it LIVES in my head ABSOLUTELY RENT FREE. It’s like, we know Todoroki’s been watching Midoriya for a while, mostly due to his obvious connection with All Might, but in this moment, while everyone is focusing on Sero, Midoriya is Watching Todoroki Back. He Sees Him.

- MIDORIYA TELLING ENDEAVOR THAT HE IS NOT ALL MIGHT AND SHOUTO IS NOT HIM. Midoriya is freeeeeaked tf out bc endvr is intimidating + he’s worried he’ll discover the secret of OFA but the SECOND endvr starts talking like an asshole, Midoriya SHUTS THAT SHIT DOWN. Again, Midoriya has had like ONE conversation with Todoroki and actively Really Wants To Get Away From Endeavor, but he just gets so mad about the way that Endeavor’s talking that he pauses his retreat to correct him and I think that’s beautiful.

- One of Todoroki’s episodes/chapters being titled “The boy born with everything” and how you could easily contrast Midoriya as “The boy born with nothing” (I could not find a definitive answer on whether canon actually calls him that but like). The juxtaposition of their opposite struggles and the underlying understanding that underneath it all they are really not that different. That they have both suffered, and are both trying to make the most of a power with a difficult legacy. (This brings me to the next point because -)

- “It’s your power, isn’t it?”/“It’s yours! Your quirk, not his!” Yeah. I don’t even have to explain this one I think, everyone knows it’s THE tddk moment. I’ll forever die on the hill that Todoroki should’ve found out about OFA sooner and we should’ve had a direct reversal while Midoriya was still struggling with thinking of OFA as his quirk instead of All Might’s and Todoroki repeats Midoriya’s words right back at him. I mean, Horikoshi LOVES to do that (see: repetition of “body moved without thinking”, “meddling when you aren’t asked to is the essence of being a hero”, “that’s what friends are for, right?” etc) the setup was RIGHT THERE, like taking my shipping goggles or whatever off for a second I think it would’ve been a great addition to the story regardless bc it’s an example of how Midoriya has helped other people AND a reminder that he has not quite conceptualized the advice he gives others for himself! Even without that though, we see how important this moment was to Todoroki literally throughout the rest of his arc, to the point that

- “Midoriya, this is my power. Thank you.” IF WE DIDNT GET TDRK TELLING MDYA THAT OFA WAS HIS QUIRK, AT LEAST WE GOT THIS. MY GOD. I was trying to go mostly chronologically, but since we’re talking about a follow-up to “It’s your power, isn’t it?” I HAD to mention this scene next. It’s a really lovely moment because 1) it’s an acknowledgement of how much Todoroki’s grown (which he did on his own! Midoriya reminded him of why he wanted to become a hero in the first place, and he had a lot of support from friends (& teachers/family) but TODOROKI decided to put in the work to become the kind of hero he wanted to be!) and 2) it’s a reminder to Midoriya that he has made a positive impact and helped the people around him, which I think he’s probably struggling with since this is like. Soon after his dropout arc iirc. (Also: it’s a cool new super move that Todoroki developed himself to try to create a better future for his family!! Which, setting aside how beautiful it is that Todoroki has crafted his fire into something that won’t hurt, is also fun bc Midoriya loves quirks and gets to nerd out over Todoroki’s cool new move lol)

- TODOROKI SHOWING UP TO THE STAIN FIGHT. Todoroki has been friends with Midoriya for like a week and gets a location pin with no other context and IMMEDIATELY deduces that 1) Midoriya’s not the kind of guy to randomly drop his location so 2) he must be in danger, and 3) IMMEDIATELY TELLS ENDEAVOR HE’S GOING TO CHECK OUT THE LOCATION AND TO BRING BACKUP TO THERE AFTER HE’S DONE FIGHTING BC HE THINKS HIS FRIEND’S IN TROUBLE. When he actually shows up the first thing he says is something like “Midoriya you should include more details at a time like this. It took me a while to figure out what you meant and I could’ve been too late” but we literally see in the flashback that he figured this all out in like 2 seconds and IMMEDIATELY came to support Midoriya AND SECURED BACKUP. Every person in Midoriya’s phone received the location pin and expressed various levels of curiosity/concern about it in hindsight but Todoroki figured it out right away and immediately came to help (this isn’t a knock on the rest of 1a btw iirc the rest of them weren’t even in Hosu so there’s not anything they really could’ve done about it besides report it - which iirc Kirishima did -, it’s just that Todoroki WAS in Hosu and DID figure it out so he immediately went to help and it was that simple for him). Todoroki also just like. Instantly accepts that ok, Midoriya and Iida were fighting a serial killer, Guess He’s Also Fighting A Serial Killer Now. ALL THIS FOR HIS FRIEND OF A WEEK. This is one of the core tenets of tddkism to me: they are as ride-or-die as they come. Also notable: Midoriya is not generally in the habit of asking for help. The fact that he did, knowing nothing might come of it, AND TODOROKI SHOWED UP EXACTLY WHEN HE NEEDED HIM??? Can we acknowledge how much that probably meant to Midoriya. Also the start of tdiimd as a trio, which this post isn’t really about, but I can’t completely leave Iida out when talking abt the stain fight that’d be fucked up :(

- “We’ll protect them together”. Yes ik, another Stain fight moment, but I believe this line deserves its own point because, again, Todoroki has been Midoriya’s friend for like a week. Immediately prior to Todoroki saying this, he tells Midoriya that his plan is risky. It’s one thing to recognize Midoriya’s text as a call for help and run to be his backup, it’s another thing to let Midoriya take the strategic lead when he’s already injured and the plan itself could be dangerous. But Todoroki puts his trust in Midoriya and says they’ll protect them together, showing his confidence in Midoriya’s strategic prowess AND battle planning ability.

- “You’re a kind person, Todoroki”. Ok I’ll get this out of the way: I have issues with how the writing of this chapter could be read as implying that being a kind person automatically means you have to forgive the person who hurt you. Ik Midoriya tells Todoroki that it’s ok not to forgive Endvr if he doesn’t want to, but the way he follows it up with the fact that he’s a kind person and the assumption that he wants to forgive Endvr...aren’t my favorite. I think it kind of makes sense for Midoriya to think like this given his own experiences (and also. Midoriya is 15, some of his wording is gonna be a little bit awkward sometimes, so I don’t think that’s the only possible interpretation of what he said), but I wish that if that was the intention, there’d be a moment later on where this view was challenged and Midoriya really internalized that you can be kind and still not forgive someone who’s hurt you. THAT BEING SAID, of all the things that Todoroki is called on a regular basis, and of all the qualities Todoroki associates with himself, I don’t think “kind” is necessarily one of them. “Kindness” was not exactly a virtue that Endeavor seemed to prioritize instilling in him (and though Rei probably would’ve, she WAS absent for much of Shouto’s childhood), and he spent so much time building his walls and striving to defy his dad that it’s not something people tend to immediately pinpoint about him. Todoroki really IS kind though, and Midoriya recognizes that AND makes it a point to tell him. For Todoroki, who has worked on himself quite a lot, and just invited friends to his house probably for the first time ever + gone through a tense family dinner in front of them, I think that probably meant a lot (and his expression in that panel is so cute. Ough).

- “Thank you for being Shouto’s friend”. I think the fact that Fuyumi recognized how meaningful their friendship was and thanked Izuku for it was so significant for both of them, like neither of them, as far as we know, HAD a lot of friends prior to attending UA so the acknowledgement that it is a big deal that they befriended each other is special <3

- Tdrk catching Mdya (and bkg and endvr but this ain’t about them) during the first war arc. He doesn’t know shit about OFA at this point but he followed Midoriya to the front lines anyways.

- Todoroki tucking Midoriya in in 327 and putting a hand on his shoulder in 32…8? 9? Fuck if I know I haven’t read the manga in ages. Anyways. These are both tiny moments but I’m grouping them together bc they really show how Todoroki is there for Midoriya, in the way that he’s always noticing things about him, that he’s RELIABLE, he WANTS to be there for Midoriya like Midoriya was there for Todoroki and that manifests both in following him into terrifying fights and in the small gestures of support. Todoroki NOTICES when something’s wrong, and when he has the necessary context he steps up to help.

Bonus mentions:

- the “are you all might’s secret love child or something?” convo in its entirety. Between the Todoroki Family Trauma Dump, Midoriya sympathizing with Todoroki and realizing that despite how different their lives have been, they’re very similar, the beginning of Midoriya’s desire to help Todoroki, and the beginning of Midoriya really Seeing Todoroki, it sets the groundwork for the start of something beautiful

- AFO: “pay close attention to them, tomura shigaraki. These two could prove to be formidable obstacles to you one day”. / AM: “they may have more in common than they realize. They both have such an intense vibe about them.” The fact that both AFO and AM comment on the tdmd sports festival match leads me to believe that originally their relationship (in the original story I’m talking about the platonic sense but read this any way you will since. This IS a post abt why I ship them) was supposed to be more central to the plot, in this essay I will - (<- ramblings of a crazy person but like!!! Both AM and AFO!! And you’re telling me it didn’t mean anything??? Come on!!)

- Also “you’re helping your opponent. You’re a fool.” Their matching maniacal grins after Midoriya prompts Todoroki to use his fire. Todoroki’s softer smile and little tear. Mdya’s “Amazing…”. Them immediately deciding to go full force regardless if it kills them (IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT THEM IS THAT THEY’RE INSANE <3). “Midoriya…thank you.” (OUGHHHHHHHHH 😭😭😭)

- MDYA YELLING “DONT GIVE UP” DURING THE TDRK/BKG MATCH AND FOR A BRIEF MOMENT TODOROKI STARTS USING HIS FIRE AGAIN. Ik he ultimately doesn’t end up using his fire, but that makes SENSE, you can’t process all that trauma immediately, it takes time!! The fact that for a moment, Midoriya’s voice was enough to allow him to use his fire so soon after his life-altering revelation in the tdmd match is so important to me though :( (and the fact that Midoriya’s willing to 1) root for Todoroki and 2) root for him loud enough that both Todoroki and Bkg can hear,,, ohh tdmd are so special to me)

- their little convo at the training camp. “You have a habit of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong” lol (paraphrased). Underrated tdmd thing is that they’re willing to tell it to each other straight. But also, the genuinely good advice of “words themselves aren’t enough, actions are also needed to get through to someone” (again, paraphrased) (reminder of how Mdya helped Tdrk!! W/ words AND actions!! And now he’s helping Mdya help Kota!)

- “I don’t know, I think heroes cry when they need to probably” - acknowledges Mdya’s crying as a positive trait bc when he’s not crying it means he’s repressing things, also serves as a reminder that heroes are people too (a similar sentiment to Uraraka’s “who will save the heroes when they need saving?”). Serves to remind Mdya that his crying doesn’t make him less of a hero + it’s ok to feel things. Also Tdiimd.

- “You can’t even cry”/“Let us share that burden together” (this is like. Veeeery paraphrased I’m sorry I don’t have access to the chapter and I’m too lazy to rewatch). The whole class said very meaningful things to try to get Midoriya to come back, but even though he wasn’t ultimately the one to fully get through to him (SHOUTOUT TO IIDA ILY IIDA THIS POST ISNT ABOUT HIM EITHER BUT JUST KNOW I CANT WATCH THAT SCENE WITHOUT TEARING UP THEY R SO DEAR TO ME) Todoroki’s is one of my favorites bc sure maybe he doesn’t understand what it’s like to have no quirk and then suddenly have a quirk that’s actually seven quirks and have a pretty much all-powerful supervillain hunting him down but he DOES understand the burden of trying to shoulder the crushing legacy of a top hero, and here he reaches out to Midoriya once more reminding him that his tears are a good thing and offering to share the burden and help Midoriya like Midoriya’s helped him.

- Light novel moments: Mdya teaching Tdrk how to make AM origami and Tdrk sending it to Rei, Tdrk going to return Mdyas pencil and admiring Mdyas AM figure and Mdya trying to give it to him bc he has another one but Tdrk refuses bc he doesn’t want to damage it so he suggests he just come visit it instead (I haven’t read the light novels but I’ve seen these excerpts and I love them dearly) (these are just all really cute it’s nice to see what they’re like outside of doing hero stuff)

- Todoroki’s “Midoriya Sense” (yes this is a fandom joke based on like the stain incident + noticing smth was up during the “heroes cry too” incident + Todoroki asking abt him before the cultural festival etc but it IS genuinely very sweet that Todoroki is always looking out for Midoriya and trying his best to help when he can)

- TODOROKI TELLING MIDORIYA TO REMOVE THE BATTERIES FROM HIS PHONE SO THE GOVERNMENT COULDNT TRACK HIM WHILE HE WAS ON THE RUN BC HE WAS A MURDER SUSPECT. Now I haven’t watched the third movie so I may be wrong about the details but it was VERY funny of Tdrk to be like “did you kill people??? Never mind that actually here’s how to avoid the government” (paraphrased for comedic effect)

-“Midoriya and the others” (cute, something Shouto says…several times lmao) (Izuku has also said “Todoroki and the others” at least once (in the first movie) but I’m not aware of it being a recurring phrase like “Midoriya and the others”)

#this is so varied in quality I’m sorry lmao. but I wrote this at like 4 am and I don’t feel like editing it #(…that much. I edited it a little bit)#tododeku #todomido #tddk #todoroki shouto #midoriya izuku #‘Julia this is basically every time they interacted’ well yes!!#its 2025. I’m barely even into bnha anymore. but I’m still insane about them.#also this post isn’t about iida BUT IT COULD BE. I COULD PUT HIM IN HERE TOO. TDIIMD MY BELOVED.#it killed me a little to not mention him that much bc this post is abt tdmd as a ship bc they r my. sighs. otp.#(I’m almost 23 years old it feels so dumb to use that word and yet)#(edit: oh shit I am 23 I left this in the drafts too long)#but tdiimd both as a ship and the hosu trio friendship is sooooooo important to me tdiimd are sooooooo important to each other #both bc they care abt each other as people and have been through a lot together and in how they’ve affected each other’s growth #(see: Tdrk inspiring iida to ‘be the hero you want to be’ after Mdya inspired him to do the same #& iida being the one to catch Mdya during the vigilante arc w/ help from Tdrk + 1a & repeating the ‘that’s what friends are for’ line)#(and don’t get me started on the iida/mdya/uraraka trio & how canonically important to each other they are.#or the shouchako friendship that exists mostly in my head. bc this post is about tdmd.)#(but it’s also important to me that you know Iida and Uraraka are so important to Midoriya and Todoroki and each other as well okay? okay??#sorry I have chronic ‘have to yap in the tags’ disease.#anyways to me tdmd is about:#1) the ways they parallel and contrast each other #2) their deep understanding of each other in a way that imo no other character really has #(and the ways that they DON’T understand each other despite all their similarities)#3) their ride-or-die nature that manifests in both grand dramatic gestures and tiny moments of support #oh yeah and how well they work together as a hero team is pretty cool too #anyways we’re freeing this from the drafts idc #I just need yall to know that I never moved on and likely never will

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linkspooky · 2 years ago

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"Ultimate Strength... and the Solitude it Brings!!"

So this is a thoughts for chapter 233, and also a meta on the whole Gojo and Sukuna fight in general as we're nearing the end. My biggest question here is what exactly does this fight mean for Gojo's character? Why is he fighting and how does that compare to Sukuna?

Before the fight even begins on the eve of Gojo's unboxing we're given a reminder of the loneliness that is at the core of its character. That his central motivation is to raise strong companions so they'll be able to live out the springtime of their youths. That they won't be left alone the way that he was, and the way that also Geto was before he fell from grace.

It seems like Gojo's takeaway here was "I need to intervene earlier" otherwise another Geto will happen. Which is why he his next action in the manga is to find Megumi and recruit him, with the warning that if he's not strong enough he'll be left behind. Because this is Gojo logic we're working here strength = good.

If he raises strong enough companions he'll finally have equals. If he raises students who are strong enough, they won't fall to the corruption of the Jujutsu World.

He doesn't want children to be left alone the way he was left alone as a child, and the way Geto was. However, he also rather condescendingly thinks that the only people who could possibly be on his level are those who are physically strong. There we see Gojo's good intentions mix with how ingrained he is into the society that he was raised in.

The foundation of Jujutsu Society is might = right.

I'm going to borrow a quote from another manga to explain it. Don't read it because the author is a criminals but Makoto Shishio espouses views that are pretty similiar to all of Jujutsu Society as a whole (and yes even Gojo).

Saitro: Kill evil quickly. Shishio: Kill evil quickly? Am I evil? What is evil? In my eyes weakness is evil, raw power is justice.

We actually see this theme repeated over and over again "the ugliness of the weak" or how wekaness itself is considered a crime.

Ironically these two characters who decry the ugliness of the weak then go on to be mass murderers... so you know. Look in the mirrors, guys. People who are victims are often condescendingly spoken down to, lambasted while they're in pain, told they are wrong.

Then you have characters like Toji who while being horrible people are almost fetishiticallly praised just by the virtue that they are strong. Like yes, Toji abandoned his son, solid him, then gambled away all the money he got from selling him, and then killed a high school girl by shooting him in the back of the head but... he was so strong.

Maki becoming more like Toji is apparently a good thing, because you know... he was just so strong. Toji is a pathetic manchild and a loser but because he fits Jujutsu Society's ideal of raw strength so well he ends up being held up regardless as some kind of gold standard.

Which kind of just goes to show how twisted the ideals of Jujutsu Society are. "Weakness is evil, and raw power is justice."

No one embodies this viewpoint more though than Sukuna. In his brief fight against Yuji he almost quotes another Makoto Shishio quote word for word.

Makoto Shishio: "The weak's reason for being is to be food for the strong. Those who are even too weak to be food have no right to exist and the strongest of the strong are at the top of the food chain. The Meiji government is weaker than I am and has no right to be in control of this country. Power belongs to the strong, it belongs to me alone. Taking over this country is my right by natural law. If you're strong you live and if you're weak you die."

Sukuna even says something similiar early on that it's ridiculous that Gojo isn't in charge of the entire sorcery world because of his position as the strongest.

Sukuna just like Gojo before entering the fight receives another reminder of just how alone he is as an individual in his fight against Yorozu, which is where the quote about the loneliness of the strongest emerges from. Yorozu's fight ends with a flashback of Yorozu in the heian era recognizing how alone Sukuna was while the rest of his crowd was worshipping him and despreately wanting to be by his side.

Whereas, before entering the fight Shoko reflects on how Gojo would never allow her to be by his side even though she's been right next to him for years.

The parallel is pretty clear here, these are two people who stand alone at the top of the food chain. They are the extreme version of "right of the individual" or "right of the strong." To borrow from another manga Tokyo Ghoul this time on how to define right of the strong.

"Every disadvantage in the world is from a lack of competence..." or translated in other version's a lack of individual competence. It's the extreme form of individualism that both Gojo and Sukuna represent, if you're tramepled upon, violated, abused, it's your fault for being weak and letting it happening. If you were simply strong enough you could have prevented it from happening.

Gojo and Sukuna both see the world in that black and white logic, however, Gojo has the added burden of his duty as a sorcerer of protecting non-sorcerers that he took on from Geto. Gojo can't kill without meaning or just use his power to stomp over others because Geto drilled it in his head at his weakest moment post Riko's death and awakening that it's important for sorcerers to have meaning to their actions.

In every other way though Gojo is a believer of right of the strong. IT's what he preaches and practices. Hence why his problem solving method is just to win the big fight all alone. Every conflict in the world and every problem to be solved is just a matter of being strong enough in Gojo's eyes.

Which is why I wonder if that explains Gojo's attitude towards this fight with Sukuna. Megumi's life is on the line, the chips are down on the table, but Gojo just seems to treat this like it's a champion prize fight.

Gojo's attitude is notably different from when he was fighting in the beginning of the Shibuya Incident Arc.

Gojo's angry that Jogo and the cursed family are trying to gang up on him and win using strategy rather because none of them are individually strong enough to beat him on their own. He's vicious and brutal the entire fight because it's almost like they've insulted him by trying to challenge him.

Whereas with Sukuna despite the fact that the emotional stakes are way, way higher. Despite the fact one of Gojo's students is in danger and he may even have to kill said student, Gojo just jokes around the entire time and seems to be enjoying himself. It seems like this would be the fight for Gojo to get lose his mind and get unhinged but no.

Yuji and Gojo are both characters who admit they might have to kill Megumi in order to resolve this situation, but look at the differences in their reactions.

Yuji's horrified, and to be fair in Yuji's defense even if Yuji is forced to kill Megumi in order to "save" him. Yuji was the previous host of Sukuna and he was one hundred percent willing to get killed by Yuta or Gojo if he ever went out of control again.

However, Gojo's response to the fact that Megumi got possessed is... let's say less serious.

"I can totally beat up Megumi."

Now, in Gojo's case in comparison to Yuji. Yuji is just a child of Megumi's age and he was also in Megumi's position of being taken over by Sukuna before this and was willing to risk his life on that. Gojo is in a position of power over Megumi. He was obligated to protect Megumi, and now having failed in that obligation isn't really making any attempt to save him.

Now, do I think Gojo is actually trying to kill Megumi?

I'm hovering towards no at the moment. His line here indicates that he thinks there may be a way to revive Megumi after he kills Sukuna once.

However, I think the author wants us to quesiton whether or not GOjo's priorities are really in the right here. After all the other characters are questioning if he's actually trying to help Megumi. Megumi's already been on the receiving end of the unlimited void because of Gojo using his body as a punching bag.

Rather, I think the takeaway here is that Sukuna is bringing out the worst in Gojo because Sukuna represents Gojo at his worst and most toxic. Gojo totally believes in that individual right of the strong.

He thinks that it's the way the world works, everything comes down to how individually strong you are. If you want to fix something? Well just raise a buch of strong children into strong adults and that'll solve everything.

This fight is everything that appeals to Gojo's black and white world view, because he can fix this whole situation with a heavy weight prize fight match between him and Sukuna. Which is where we get to the line this chapter that I used as the banner image.

Why is Gojo fighting here?

Is it because he wants to save Megumi? Is it because he needs to save all of his students and Tokyo as a whole from Kenjaku?

Or is he just fighting for personal satisfaction to be secure in his position as the strongest?

The situation we're in right now reminds me so much of his lines towards Amanai shortly after he awakaned as the strongest. He should be angry for Megumi's sake but...

At the moment the only thing that seems to matter is his fight against Sukuna and the satisfaction from winning.

I guess that's just what happens when you're a main character in a Shonen Manga.

#jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen #jjk 233 #jjk 233 spoilers #jjjk 233 #gojo satoru #satoru gojo #ryomen sukuna #sukuna ryomen #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen manga

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cruyuu · 7 months ago

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I'm reading japanese comments and it seems they also suspect Sukuna might be alive. Their interpretation is that the dialogue doesnt mean Sukuna rejected the offer. Actually rereading it the part where Sukuna implies Yuji is a liar (tsundere lol) it's like Sukuna saying

"you are lying, if you took me in, you would only despise me and hurt me anyway"

Hi anon!

They're not wrong for thinking so. Sukuna doesn't say yes or no, and hence the answer isn't clear. He does release Megumi (first part of the deal) but we don't see him return to Yuuji's body (second part of the deal). We just see him evaporate after Yuuji says "Let's try again" so it's likely to say that his death is not certain.

Considering just how underwhelming his "death" is... yeah. We don't hear or see anything about him and I feel like that is the biggest red flag there is. Now, I know some would argue that Sukuna should remain a mystery, never to be cracked open because that's his point as a character- that he cannot be understood- but I beg to differ, considering that everyone in this manga had been understood (and their character arcs reached their conclusion) no matter who or what they are.

If we take that into the account then Yuuji should also remain a mystery and his actions towards Sukuna unexplained. They cannot be, however, because how did Yuuji go from "I'd do anything to kill that creep" to "Let's try again". How did Yuuji go from desperately hung up on saving Megumi to, in the end, hung up on trying again with Sukuna? From trapping him in a domain to spend time with him and ask him to come back to then still asking him to come back afterwards, finishing off everything with "Well... we can always try again."

He says "Even if no one can accept you, I can. I alone can live with you."

So... how did we go from this:

to this:

Does Yuuji need reminding who he's fighting? Does he remember he called himself a murderer over this guy? He is inhabiting the body of the person Yuuji cried over so... exactly what is going on here?

All this needs an explanation, one which Yuuji can give and should give. Like... it's a big mess and it isn't being addressed at all. Both of them are just spinning in circles. From indifference to hate to what might be acceptance (coming from Yuuji, but I can't say the same about Sukuna- again, it needs to be directly stated.). I cannot even call Sukuna a hater because he was busy praising Yuuji the last couple of chapters and now... here's right back to "hating" him.

The only one who truly stopped running around in circles was Yuuji. What about Sukuna?

Is it fitting for a character to stay the same or to evolve? Yuuji had evolved completely- from being reluctant to kill, to embracing killing, only to say that his life has a purpose outside of just that. Outside of roles and things which others or "the world" deems necessary. This talk eerily fits with Sukuna's role as a monster in this story, considering his appearance and unrivaled strength. He's been cursed by birth, as was Yuuji (his words), and hence why Yuuji could understand him.

Well, what about Sukuna? Do we get an explanation from him? What about his contradictory behavior which clashes with his statements? His whole relationship with Yuuji which truly cannot be defined? His ties to Yuuji (coming from reincarnation)? His deal with Kenjaku? His continual survival despite the fact that he had gotten his fill even back in the Heian era?

There is something there and it needs to be addressed.

Now, it was Yuuji who said, "Let's end this cycle" yet the one who still considers himself a curse is Sukuna. So what cycle exactly got ended?

Sukuna evaporates after this, commending Yuuji on keeping up this act all this time (and this is the first time he calls him by his name instead of just "brat"). In one translation, he says "Do not look down on me" but in the other, he says, "Don’t underestimate me." I'd roll with this second one because it fits Yuuji's "you are me" speech way more so than the first translation.

This fight directly draws parallels to the fight against Mahito yet in this fight, everything is reversed.

It isn't the cold-hearted Yuuji who's facing down Sukuna, but one who is kind. It isn't Yuuji who's equating himself to a curse (like he did to Mahito), but equating Sukuna to himself– to a human. In the fight against Mahito, Yuuji embraces the idea of killing and living as a cog meant to eradicate curses but here, he shrugs off all of his roles, says that life matters outside of that, and asks Sukuna what he will do.

"I can kill you."

"Release Fushiguro, come back to me and I'll spare your life."

He gives him a choice.

Yuuji doesn't give Mahito any choices, even if he says that they are the same. He'll kill him again and again, no matter what, no matter when. There is not an ounce of sympathy or understanding there.

The difference between these two fights is... quite notable. Sukuna is being babied while Mahito had to run for his life. Sukuna is given a choice while Mahito had none. Sukuna got "Let's try again.", Mahito got "I'll kill you again and again."

Why? When both of them laughed at him. When both caused him trauma. When both took so much from him.

[Side note: No, Sukuna being reduced to a blob won't make me see this as any sort of humiliation. Yuuji appears far more kinder than he did in the fight against Mahito (even a bit concerned) and besides, he comes and scoops him up in his arms, telling him that they can try again. If the point of the fight was to give Sukuna the same treatment then I do not think it was successful because Sukuna got such a loving treatment that it straight up made me laugh. Keep in mind that Megumi (the person Yuuji was crying over and was fighting hard to save) is lying like a couple of steps from Sukuna unconscious, yet Yuuji came and sat down next to this curse that he supposedly despises (his words in 265, not mine) and told such lovely things :) ]

If Sukuna is supposed to die for the cycle to end, Yuuji giving him a choice to be spared would make no sense. Also Yuuji telling them they can try again also makes no sense. If he's dead, isn't that just repeating the cycle?

The way this fight parallels the Mahito fight (Nobara is there, and the way Yuuji first uses Divergent Fist and then Black flash to rip both Mahito and Sukuna out of their forms) remains of interest to me.

Mahito, once knocked out of his form (what he calls his birth), ran to Kenjaku. Kenjaku asks him if he wished to be saved, but in the end, ended up consuming him.

Worthy of mention, also, is that Mahito sought out Sukuna (touched his soul two times) but wanted to kill Yuuji, kinda like how here Yuuji sought out Megumi (touched his soul two times), but wanted to kill Sukuna. Again, it's the whole vessel situation which is being paralleled and contrasted. If we take Yuuji from that fight as Sukuna's parallel here (considering both have a soul inside of them), then, again... it's interesting because in that fight, it was Mahito who lost. Yuuji won.

By drawing parallels to the fight against Mahito, and placing Sukuna in Yuuji's spot (considering he, too, now has a soul alongside his, perfectly paralleling Yuuji), it's still suspicious that Sukuna would just disappear. Sure, you could argue that the point is for him to "die" but that would be boring now, wouldn't it? Besides, we're not here to discuss his certain death but theorize if he may still be alive.

The first possibility is for Sukuna to reincarnate later on. He dies here finally, and gets reborn with no recollection of anything as a human.

The second possibility is for Sukuna to reincarnate but with his memories intact. It's kinda unlikely considering... well... the breaking of the cycle, but then again we still don't even know what the hell that cycle is supposed to represent... nor how curses truly came to be, mind you!

The third possibility is for Sukuna to still be alive via... well, a plan crafted by his intelligence.

I don't consider someone like Sukuna (who took gambles and devised strategies) to just accept dying or, for that matter, be stupid. One of my friends thinks Yuuji taking Sukuna out in 265 (in his DE) is a strategy to get him off his game and "ruffle his feathers" because Yuuji is severely affecting Sukuna, that is true. It could be a tactic to simply make him angry and therefore not allow him to think and have time to counter-attack or devise a strategy.

But... this entire explanation makes absolutely no sense considering Yuuji's last words to Sukuna are practically what he had been stating to him in 265. There truly is no manipulating or pretending... it was pure honesty both there (in the DE) and in the real world.

Here's a list of ??? moments from the recent chapters which do make Sukuna's survival still probable:

Yuuji spends more time convincing Sukuna to live than actually killing him.

"Let's try again" Okay but... now? In a thousand years? When????

Sukuna calling Yuuji by his full name (yes, even tho that might be character development it's still weird he doesn't call him brat when he always refers to him as such. It's especially weird he'd call him by his full name when he had called him "brat" when talking to Megumi at the beginning of 268)

Blobkuna... Why does Sukuna's bodyless form lowkey resemble how the Merger might look like? Why doesn't he appear like those finger bearers of his do and then evaporates? Is it because of Kenjaku's insurance? So many questions...

Related through reincarnation. Nothing about that. Nothing at all.

Yuuji is able to transfer his soul into fingers (just like Sukuna) and he practically embodies him. Killing him is equal to killing Sukuna. Does nobody in this manga care about this fact??????? We saw him see Nobara through Sukuna's finger (the one he ripped off was taken by Rika). By this logic, Sukuna cannot truly die as long as Yuuji is around because Yuuji still remains as an active vessel housing a piece of Sukuna's soul.

All that planning... just to accept death? Sukuna isn't someone who would accept death. That thing is so obvious that even Megumi points out that he fears dying in 268. He survived countless of years within those fingers and if he did, he must've done so for a purpose. Not a bland purpose such as "killing everyone and crushing Yuuji's spirit" but a more meaningful one. Considering just how hung up he is on Yuuji, how he doesn't want to have an equal and that he ate his twin because of that... there must be something more to it. Especially because of Yuuji's own words to him.

And there might be more but I'm busy and can't really hunt for panels nor re-read jjk now. All in all, it just feels... kinda confusing and empty. His death isn't fulfilling as all others have been. While everyone else gets to talk about everything about themselves, Sukuna doesn't get a word out and he just peaces out. It would be funny to me if I didn't care about him as a character but I do, so I still have hopes.

#melanswers #jjk #sukuna #sorry for the wait!

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duhragonball · 1 year ago

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Dragon Ball Super Manga Ch. 94-96

We're still reading the Super Hero adaptation! It's not great!

Things continue pretty much like they did in the movie, although it's a little awkward how Chapter 94 opens with Pan waiting to get picked up from school, just like she was in Chapter 91, because Toyotaro wanted to show Piccolo doing a "normal" kindergarten pickup as a prelude to the story. And that might have seemed like a good idea on paper. You know, contrast a routine encounter with the zany scene we got in the movie. The problem is that it undermines the zany scene when we finally get to it. The whole point is that a "normal" version isn't that interesting to see, which is why they didn't show Gohan cooking breakfast or Dr. Hedo brushing his teeth in the movie.

Anyway, you read chapter 91 and it feels like they skipped to the middle of the movie because Pan's waiting at kindergarten. Then you get to Chapter 94 and you see Pan waiting at kindergarten again and think the story is starting over. Or was it preschool? The manga version has a sign over the property that reads "kindergarten", but Pan's only three so I don't know. Piccolo knocked her into a bunch of rocks earlier in the day, and now he's taking her home with a layover at Red Ribbon HQ, so the point of all of this is that nothing is really ever "normal" with Dragon Ball.

Back to the manga, Toyotaro drags out this scene by having a cop take notice of the Red Ribbon aircraft, but he immediately decides it's okay once he finds out it's for Mr. Satan's granddaughter. This might be the same cop who helped Goku find Bulma's house for the first time in the original Red Ribbon Army Saga, but I'm not interested in looking it up.

So once again, Toyotaro seems determined to cram in new material to this story, but it's always designed to be as dull as possible, answering questions no one asked. Why didn't Piccolo get a ticket for the aircraft being parked on the street? For the zero people who were concerned about this, Toyotaro heroically includes a traffic cop whose sole purpose is to remind us that it doesn't actually matter.

Chapter 94 continues up to the first leg of the Gohan/Gamma 1 fight. There's some changes to the fight choreography, but I'm not gonna do a side-by-side analysis or anything. It pretty much has to be different because of the medium involved. I'm pretty sure Gohan firing a Kamehameha is new, as is Gamma 1 shooting at him to counterattack. But I could be wrong.

While Gohan powers up to his Ultimate/Mystic/Elder Kai Unlock form, Krillin's family is just getting out of the movie theater where they watched Cleangod 2. I mentioned this scene before, but now that we're here, this is Teen Marron's only appearance in Dragon Ball Super, and here's the big pitch for the character: She's a huge fan of Cleangod. Just like Goten! And Trunks. And... Dr. Hedo. I'm not impressed.

Krillin senses Gohan fighting, then he gets a call from Police HQ.

For some reason, Krillin runs off and hides while he takes the call? Are people not supposed to know he's a cop? Everyone keeps staring at him the whole time, so if he's trying to keep this a secret, he's doing a lousy job of it. Also, when 18 asks him who he's talking to, she doesn't seem to believe his answer, so she insists on tagging along with him. Does... 18 not know Krillin's a cop? What is going on here?

The dumbest part of all of this is that Nutz is calling Krillin to tell him about the battle at the Red Ribbon Army base. Remember how she had Krillin follow Magenta and Hedo in Chapter 91? Because they knew Magenta had a secret base but they didn't know where it was? And then Krillin lost them before he could find it?

Okay, so apparently the police had suspected that it was in that crater lake, camouflaged by a hologram. In fact, they've suspected this for so long that they've been monitoring the lake with cameras, and when Gohan went ultimate he disrupted the hologram and revealed the base. Now they want Krillin to reconnoiter the area before they send in a bunch of guys.

This is just really dumb. I mean, if the police suspected the base was inside the lake, why didn't they just send Krillin to check it out in the first place? He could have gone there months ago, and if it was just a lake, the worst thing that would have happened is he'd get wet. But if it was a secret mercenary base, he could have just snuck in and out as easily as Piccolo did in this story. It would have been even easier, since Krillin's less conspicuous than Piccolo, and the Red Ribbon wouldn't have had Hedo's androids for support. Hell, Krillin could have taken out the entire base by himself, and all they had to do was send him to the lake that they were already monitoring.

Also, why is it the West City Police Department's job to bust the Red Ribbon Army? Isn't that a job for the Royal Military? None of this makes any sense. I mean, the purpose is to add more Krillin content to the story, but it's so forced that it becomes nonsensical. The movie makes so much more sense without the police involved at all. Again, it's another question that no one asked. "Why didn't the police find the Red Ribbon Army's hidden base?" Because it's a hidden base, that's why not!

Toyotaro seems almost desperate to give these fictional cops a chance to save face. Well they were trying very hard to locate the base, but they just couldn't find it before Piccolo did. Except his depiction of their efforts just makes them look worse. Sergeant Nutz seems to know everything about the Red Ribbon Army. She knew Magenta was secretly rebuilding it, she knew he was planning to contact Dr. Hedo, and when he would do it. She was even pretty sure where the Red Ribbon base was. Yet despite all this inside information, she still couldn't figure out how to respond to it.

All of this makes it look like a set up to explain Krillin showing up at the end of the movie, except, no, that's not what happens. He shows up at the end because Bulma calls him and tells him what's happening. Toyotaro saw the movie and thought: "No! That's not enough! We need three reasons for Krillin to go to the lake!"

1. He senses Gohan's ki from the battle. 2. Sgt. Nutz calls him and tells him to go check out the base. 3. Bulma calls him and tells him Piccolo is at the base.

Is that enough? Does Krillin have sufficient motivation to go yet? I'm not sure, let's throw in some more reasons.

4. Krillin is visited by the ghost of the pirates from that underwater cave. The ghost tells him that the Red Ribbon stole his treasure and hid it in the lake, so he pleads with Krillin to recover it so the pirates can rest in peace. 5. Marron really wants to check out the crater lake, becuase Cleangod 2 had a scene that was filmed there. 6. Vegeta briefly pops in using his manga-only Instant Transmission. He asks Krillin to check on a three-layer cake he ordered from the bakery, but Krillin mishears him and thinks he said "crater lake". 7. The Supreme Kai of Time deputizes Krillin into the Time Patrol and informs him of a temporal anomaly at the crater lake. 8. Krillin was going there anyway because it's on his way home.

Back to the fight, not much is different, although there's a brief moment where Piccolo coaches Gohan before they resume fighting their respective opponents. This is kind of redundant, because they both already understood they were fighting androids, and they're already in their strongest forms (as far as they know), so Piccolo is just stating the obvious here. At least he isn't telepathically summoning Krillin to get his butt over here. Piccolo actually trusts the plot of this movie.

The Gammas aren't quite as powerful in this version, so 2 has to give a little assist to 1, then they consider double-teaming Piccolo to improve their chances. This doesn't last long, though, since it's not like Gohan was just going to stand there and let Piccolo get beat down.

At Capsule Corp, Bulma starts assembling a squad to help Piccolo, and is surprised to learn that Trunks already knows about Dr. Hedo. She asks him why he never mentioned any of this before, and finally, finally, Toyotaro has come up with a question someone might have actually asked. Why didn't Trunks tell Bulma about all of this? Because he would have gotten in trouble for playing superhero, and also because Bulma wouldn't have taken his story seriously even if he had said anything.

So Bulma admits that she goofed, but now she ungrounds Trunks (and Goten, since he just showed up), and she wants them to join Piccolo in battle.

But she immediately regrets it, because Goten and Trunks can't pinpoint Piccolo's location with their ki senses. And this is Big Goten in a nutshell. The boys are eager to get in on the action, but they lack the skill and focus to be effective. They're basically the opposite of what Gohan was in his childhood. Gohan was constantly caught between adventure and study, and he ended up excelling in both things. But Goten and Trunks really don't get pushed hard in either direction. They don't have much motivation to study, and they're not very good at adventure stuff either. Bulma's giving them a chance to be heroes and they're blowing it.

Anyway, she calls Piccolo, and when he doesn't answer, she calls Krillin, which is the canonical reason they all show up together at the end of the story.

Oh, and here's an awesome shot of Cell Max. I can't stress this enough: The art in this thing is tremendous, but the writing is just dull as can be. Everything's either a rerun or a pointless filler scene.

When Cell Max crawls out to fight all the good guys, Goten and Trunks offer to give Piccolo and Gohan a breather, and they switch to their Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 suits. Pan's into it, but everyone else find it dumb. I guess Marron should have come along and maybe she'd enjoy this...

#dragon ball #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #dragon ball super manga #gohan #piccolo #pan #son pan #gamma 1 #gamma 2 #dr hedo #bulma #goten #trunks #android 18 #marron #sergeant nutz

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innershoesuitcasebiscuit · 10 months ago

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So I'm back again, I'm taking my time right now reading the manga, not because I'm starting to grow tired of it. It's because I'm now in the Marine Ford War Arc.

We know this arc was great and it also triggers our depression 😰.

To cope up with it I'm checking for the screenshots that I have taken and have myself a Zorobin therapy.

So I've actually noticed a somewhat connection between Zoro and Robin. I realized that we can compare the two of them to 'start & end of a bridge'.

For example with this scene in the manga:

The Bell was actually discovered by Robin when she actually read the inscription she found in Shandora. Enel while observing Robin realizes that she could read those words.

Then at that scene above Enel yelled that he was going to take the Bell. While Robin was explaining the location of the Bell Zoro was reminded of what Luffy said to them.

Then they saw a leaf fall down with Nami instructions to cut the stalks. Zoro proceeded with the task but he only cut down one of it.

We will also see here in this scene that Wiper disagrees with ringing the bell as this is their will or their duty. As Usopp continued the attack on the stalk, Robin told Wiper the tale of Montblanc Noland.

Please pay attention to this scene as it is very important.

Robin then told him the reason why Luffy is insisting on ringing the bell at a cost of his life. She also told him the name of diamond-ossan.

Which gave the push so that Wiper can destroy the other stalk. As he might have believed that this is the will of Kalgara.

As I said before Zoro and Robin are like the start & the end of the bridge right? Then that makes Luffy crossing that bridge.

For Luffy ringing the bell would make Cricket-san know that the city of gold is actually at the skies, but it also has a deeper weight than that. As ringing the bell also signifies the reunion of friends 😭.

We know that Cricket-san is Noland's descendant and Wiper is Calgara's descendant.

Calgara also promised that when Noland will come back to Shandora they're going to ring the bell. Noland through his descendants fulfill his promise of returning the only one left is for Calgara to fullfill his.

Wiper at this scene is in a bad shape, using the reject dial took a toll on his body (he's also on the verge of death).

Zoro said he doesn't understand what Wiper's goal.

Zoro added that he's an honorable warrior (the reason he's saying this is because he heard Montblanc Noland's name and the fulfillment of a promise.)

It would have been sad if Kalgara's descendant would have died while Noland's descendant lived. It would be a tragedy.

Robin discovers the bell and the location, which helps Luffy to decide to ring the bell to notify Cricket-san. Zoro partially made possible by cutting half of the stalk.

Robin told Wiper about Montblanc Noland & Cricket. Making Wiper helps them in bringing down the stalk indirectly saving Wiper as well. Zoro upon hearing what Wiper said decided to help him live by making Chopper tend to his wound.

So that's it there are also circumstances like this one but. I think this is very long already so I'll end it here.

As for the freebies:

Here I offer an inquisitive Zoro.

(admit it you like hearing her talk Zoro 🥹)

💜💚🌸⚔️

#one piece #roronoa zoro #nico robin #skypiea #roronoa zoro x nico robin #zoro x robin #zorobin

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lilacxquartz · 4 months ago

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hey,can u plz share ur personal thought on gojo, Kenny,yuki and Megumi?

hahaah, personal thoughts. let’s see, let’s see. i’m so sorry for the upcoming yapping but. 😮‍💨 spoilers up ahead—HOWEVER BE WARNED IT IS A NOVEL OH MY GOD I AM SO SORRY.

at the risk of having my gojo card revoked, i actually started off not really liking him too much because of the initial personality he let on. honestly props to gege for fleshing out his personality over the manga, because he quickly became one of my favourites.

i loved him as the concept of expected perfectionism from circumstances you can’t control. the idea of having to grow up perfect because you were had for a purpose is something i think unfortunately a lot of us can relate to even if we aren’t destined to be the strongest. (at the risk of doxxing myself, one of my parents is from a ‘we expect great things from you or else’ type culture/country that isn’t so common in the west) so seeing a character that actually does crumble in the representation is rare, to say the least.

the fact that he still tries to ensure that his students can have a semblance of a childhood despite their youth being fleeting to perhaps heal his inner child is something i won’t forget about his character and for that, despite his debut, will make him an eternal favourite among many in my heart.

ah kenjakuuuu. now that’s a difficult one because of the complexity of their character as well as the sheer depth due to how old they are. like because of them, the entire jjk plot line was able to take place and yet they’re not talked about as often. i feel like in some ways, gege made the perfect villain. i loved how unsettling they were when they talked and how it was always just like a slip away from being nonsensical. their unsettling smile that is built from centuries of just… existing, the things that they have to likely know. god. i dunno, it’s kind of attractive? even if they are a brain be damned, the cruelty and methodical aspect of their character just draws me in so bad.

i can’t help but want to always know more about them and i feel like i can forever explore their character for that reason because there’s so much potential to go with. i do understand why people hate on their character though because they are so evil lmao but that’s just evidence of them being the perfect villain, y know?

yuki, hmm. admittedly, i don’t really know a lot of her character because she was never a focus with writing for me. i have a very much later on upcoming yandere piece with her that i’ll study, but i think she’s honestly kind of realistic of a character, all things considered. she haunts the narrative by being a memory with the words she said to geto and for reminding choso that it’s okay to choose humanity which i liked about her involvement which is a pretty interesting scope of how the right words at the wrong time can be perceived to be harmful (what with her being blamed for geto’s dark side/decisions).

like, i don’t have a very in depth opinion of her but i like the way she was involved in the story. if there was more to her background, then it might have been different.

and finally megumi, poor megumi. :( i do feeeeeel like the general fanon conspiracy that claims that megumi shares a parallel with geto is at least true, because he does. my opinion of him is that i think to the younger fan base, that he’s relatable in a tragic way which makes him a well written character as well. i like him because he reminds me of being closed off and refusing to acknowledge vulnerability back when i was a teenager and while i thankfully didn’t have a cursed spirit inhabiting me and pushing my soul down, i think a lot watching/reading can relate to the limbo state his character was in. i think he deserved better from the start, which hopefully with how the ending goes, will never be challenged again.

SO SORRY FOR THIS NOVEL OH MY GOD

#asks #LOOK THIS IS A SERIOUS YAP YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED #LIKE A BOOK

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bthump · 5 months ago

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Thank you for responding to my ask. I fear I didn’t explain myself very well… when I say that it’s not addressed in the manga, I didn’t mean plot wise, bc ofc it is an important moment in the chain of events, I meant solely from guts pov. After the murder, he reflects on it, but that’s all. It is never brought up to his mind again after that night. But I feel like guts is exactly and precisely the type of guy to be haunted by the fact he killed a kid, even if he didn’t want it and that it was accidental, so that is why I’m kinda surprised he never looks back on what he did, especially post eclipse, when the fears of becoming a monster just like Griffith are present. Could be trauma, like his brain absolutely refusing to be reminisced about that event, but that is a big big reach on my part

Oh I see, thanks for clarifying! Sorry I kind of read your ask with the wrong emphasis.

Yeah I get what you mean, it is a significant enough event that it could work if Guts reflected on it again afterwards in certain moments. I think it especially could've been poignant if it was brought up again in eg the Lost Children arc, or when he was training Isidro maybe.

But idk, I don't feel like it really needed to be brought up again.

Maybe we see Guts a little differently, because it doesn't really feel out of place to me that he doesn't think about it much later on, at least not enough to get narrative significance. Guts does draw a moral line at killing kids, which is why the Lost Children arc was significant as an exploration of his dark side and the way he'll push past his moral limits for the sake of revenge, becoming more monstrous in the process. Buuut he does kind of move on pretty easily from killing as a rule. The only kill that's really haunted him was Gambino.

And killing Adonis messed him up because it reminded him of Gambino, his childhood trauma, and all the self esteem issues that go along with it (being told he's cursed, bad luck, killing Gambino after Gambino accused him of killing Shizu, etc) rather than because of the act of killing a kid itself, imo. He was primed to project on Adonis after watching Julius train him and being reminded of his own childhood. If he hadn't watched that, I think killing Adonis might not have even impacted him all that much. It'd probably make him feel guilty, because again he does sort of draw a line at killing kids, but not plunge him back into trauma flashbacks and immense self loathing and make him need to seek out Griffith for reassurance.

So I guess I'd say that narratively Adonis' death isn't important by itself, it's Guts' childhood trauma that's important and Adonis was significant mainly because his death was a big reminder of it.

But that said, one of my major pet peeves of the manga is the way Guts' childhood trauma feels like it's been basically dropped as a theme and swapped with Eclipse rage after the Golden Age, so I do agree with you that Guts should've been more haunted by his past in general, and that could include Adonis.

So like, if eg after the Rosine fight the ghosts taunted him about Adonis while comparing him to a monster and Guts thought about Donovan and/or Gambino again, I think that could've worked pretty well.

Idk, maybe I don't appreciate subtlety enough lol, but it'd be nice to have some reminders that Guts' trauma still impacts him in general.

Lastly - just as a fun fact because this isn't really the kind of reflection you're referring to probably, but it's still a decent little nod - there's at least one reminder of Adonis from Guts' pov afterwards, when Guts is poetically reflecting on how his sword is a part of him and remembering a bunch of significant figures in his life:

And yk, I feel like this is actually kind of a good illustration of why Guts might not reflect on Adonis much afterwards, from a more watsonian perspective: because he prioritizes his sword above just about everything else. If Adonis was more important to him, he might have to consider putting down the sword because of its negative impacts. But Guts is pretty solidly focused on how it's a part of him, how he's inseparable from it, how it's the focal point of his life and his only companion, etc. So Adonis has to be handwaved away as a significant event in his sword-focused life but something he's squared with himself so he can keep swinging his sword guilt-free, in full belief that it's his true calling.

As Godo has said, Guts is the kind of guy who focuses on one thing and ignores everything outside of or contradictory to it, and gets fucked over by his single-mindedness. It's admittedly not particularly likely after all this time, but maybe Adonis will come up again when/if he has to really reckon with his obsession with his sword.

So yeah, to sum up because I feel like I'm kind of all over the place with this answer lol: I don't think Adonis necessarily needed to be brought up again because I feel like the true significance of killing him was the reminder of Guts' childhood trauma, but there are definitely ways it would make sense for Adonis to come back to haunt Guts, in combination with his trauma and as a reason Guts should be less obsessed with his sword.

#i am still crossing my fingers that the childhood trauma will make a comeback too and wasn't just a golden age theme #ask #anonymous #a #b #character: guts #scene: assassination #theme: trauma

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twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat · 1 year ago

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read chapter 236 again and was reminded of why it’s one of my faves hehe i gotta ramble a bit (SPOILERS UNDER CUT watch out!!)

just . (grabs u by the shoulders)……. these two panels in particular. the mean the whole world to me. some of my absolute favorites in the whole series and they made me sob irl when i read 236 for the first time…. i’m just :((( i know a LOT of people hate this chapter but u have to admit akutami’s art is stunning here ……

(also for the record one of the VERY few times where i prefer the official translation to tcb scans… they ate w ”you were magnificent, satoru gojo.” ok)

first of all; the stsg moment of All time <333

this moment absolutely destroyed me tbh it might be my favorite panel in the whole manga???? just the fact that we got to see suguru again, that we got to hear them speak and be honest with each other for once…. this feels like something out of a fanfic like genuinely. it’s such a heartfelt moment and i’ve never seen anything like it in shounen manga before!!! just… the fact that gojo wanted him to come back even after everything :(( and that he says it out loud. to suguru himself.

what gets me most is suguru’s tears though…. he really did believe that gojo hated him and i think that’s why it guts him. he can be as cruel as he wants but he’ll never receive anything but love from gojo!!! stupid silly idiot!!! you were always so loved by everyone around you!!!! people followed you no matter where you went because you’ve always been haunted by your own sincerity in a world that rewards insincerity!!!! stupid loser idiot. i love you.

also tbh cult leader geto just looks so fucking cute here i’m gonna be sick LOOK AT HIM GRINNING 🥺🥺🥺 we were ROBBED of deranged teacher geto ok can u imagine the chaos….. him pretending to be Normal but when he has to talk to a non-sorcerer he looks like this 🤨 and immediately pulls out the febreze PDHFJS

but w the stsg moment out of the way :33…

THIS PANELLLL GOODDDD THIS FUCKING PANEL i love sukugo SO much okay. almost as much as stsg. sue me. their dynamic was the highlight of the shinjuku battle for sure and i could talk about this moment for genuine hours because it means so much, it means so much that he calls him satoru gojo instead of the strongest, it means so much that his words make gojo smile, it means so much that this is the most at peace we’ve ever seen sukuna. their bond is very special and no one but them can really understand it….. but i think there’s a kind of Love here. even if it’s twisted.

i think gojo really did succeed in teaching sukuna about love because he’s never going to be entirely alone after this — even if he’s destroyed and comes back millennia later, he’ll remember satoru gojo (if no one else). and that’s so!! so beautiful!!!! this moment is so beautiful!!!! he’s smiling and gojo’s smiling and it’s snowing and i cried so hard i couldn’t speak. it’s so heartwrenchingly gorgeous it makes me feel a little nauseous

anyway i love this chapter and i think abt it constantly ✩ gege gave the stsg / sukugo stans everything they wanted (yes he also sliced gojo in half but if u don’t think he’s coming back u simply have no faith and i’m disappointed in u)

#i get so giddy every time i read it #my little blorbos!!!! they mean so much to me!!!!!#no but i dont think any other manga chapter has made me cry as hard as this one….#i read this chapter w my brother through google fucking meet and i couldnt even read my lines because i was crying so much LMAOO #i was on my period thats probably part of it BUT STILL!!!#jjk spoilers #jjk manga spoilers #ari noises ✩

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verilly · 1 year ago

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Flowers of Insanity / LAS / EFoT ✶

Aqua Hoshino x Reader

This is PART TWO, check out the other parts below!

REQUIEM: Sixth New Genesis

What's to come: [Lovenow], [Aqua Hoshino x Reader], [Akane Kurokawa plot points], [Reader likes both genders], & [mentions of suicide (Akane)]

[Songs of the chapter: "Marshmary" by MIMI, "Nonbreath Oblige" by PinnocchioP, "I hope you can be an adult someday" by TUYU]

[5,937 words]

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

All the time you spent with Eruru Osawa made her remind you more of Hanae, but soon you realized they were nothing alike. They were both kind to you, but that was pretty much it. You soon found out that her family business was one in the entertainment industry, if you squint. Her family owns a somewhat-famous original amusement park here in Japan. You'd really like to go there with her one day.

Aquamarine Hoshino on the other hand was a lot harder to grasp because unlike Eruru, he doesn't speak as much, and he doesn't say what's on his mind either. What you find special about him though are his eyes, it's one just like Ai's... he must be really special. You don't think you've ever gotten close to anyone like him before, so you don't know what to expect from him.

You heard that he's an actor, he appeared in a Drama, an adaptation for a hit manga. Not that you've read it before though, romance never tingled your brain as much as an action pact filled one did. However, you kept seeing horrible reviews about the Drama on social media, so you decided to give it a watch.

Yeah, it sucked ass. Though, the last episode really shot the ratings up. That was the episode Aqua was in, it was kind of hot. The girl was quite a good actor as well, you felt bad for her throughout the entire Drama because you felt like her talent was being wasted away. Come to think of it, you saw that girl talking to Aqua before, so she might also be attending this school, interesting.

No matter what happens though, whenever you see Aqua, or hear anyone mention him, images of Ai flash into your brain. You know it's not probable for him to be anywhat related to her, but it's fun to see that her life still lives on in your head years after she passed away. You did wish for her eyes after all.

This year, you've already made two whole friends, maybe you'd have more if you considered people your friends other than acquaintances more easily, not that that's ever going to happen.

You spend most of my time at school on your phone, which sounds bad and anti-social, and it is. Most of Eruru's time is spent socializing with every person imaginable, and if she's talking to everyone, she's talking to everyone but you. Aqua on the other hand barely shows up to class, you saw him hanging around a girl who looked exactly like him though. A sibling relationship in school, that's cute.

That's okay with you, you don't need friends to survive until March 9th or find Hanae— Well, maybe you do need connections to find her again, but you doubt anyone here would know her, but then...

That's when you met someone special!

Matsuyo Mochizuki. He has the same last name as Hanae, so you should get closer to him to get more information out of him. Then again, the surnames of this world don't mean that they are inherently related but... you could still try. After all, Hanae did live in Tokyo back then, and we're in Tokyo right now. Maybe Matusyo is her... cousin?

He's really quiet, he first entered Yoto High School a few weeks later than the average student, he skips school all the time, and when he does show up, he's never on time. His hair is dark and short, but at some points, it's long... how strange, almost like he cuts his own hair. His eyes were like the opposite of mine, dark and darker. Not a single shine of light was seen in them. Oh, and his teeth. They're quite special too, he had sharp teeth all over, not just his canines.

He's not ugly though, you could most definitely use him to find her. Your stars darkened as you hid your smile with your right hand, your eyes shut as you started planning. You could feel Aqua staring again. Awkward. You opened them soon after, giving the boy next to you a quick glance, you locked eyes. He looked away quickly, do you have that kind of power with these eyes now? Your smile widens as you quietly giggle to yourself.

*"★Hi there, my name is [name] [last-name]. What's yours?" You ask as you smile, giving him a hand. He didn't respond. "Hehe, that's okay. I'll just stay here until you talk to me!" The anxiety that usually grew in my stomach has gotten smaller and smaller throughout your experience in high school. You guess that Eruru is really starting to rub off on you.

"C'mon, Matsuyo Mochizuki, I totally just lied. I already know your name, just talk to me! You look lonely.★" I lean on my hand, "You can't be silent forever!~"

*Aqua's eyes widened, he's staring at you again. 'Have you always acted this way?' His eyes didn't make you feel uncomfortable this time, you kind of felt like a star, Matsuyo on the other hand still hasn't said anything to you.

"...What do you want from me?" Matsuyo sighed, his dark eyes glaring deep into your soul. You close your eyes to get away, but keep a smile on your face. He's going to be a hard one to crack.

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

You really do want to sound cool and everything, but you don't really know what to expect from anyone. That's why you were a shut-in. So, when you were invited to do a reality TV show, you were shocked.

Why would they need a faceless internet celebrity? Then the thoughts connected. Ah yes, your follower count. That would boost their ratings, wouldn't it? However, this show doesn't suit you at all.

Lovenow?

Another romance show? What would you even gain from this other than maybe a slip of the unwanted reveal of your face? You went over it all with the managers you hired for yourself to discuss the pros and cons. They came to the conclusion of 'If you join, it may boost your views by growing connections with the other members and their fans.'

Therefore, you sent the producers a message that reads something along the lines of "I'll join your show if and only if you sign this contract stating that you will never release my true identity to the public and blur my face in all the scenes I'm in."

It took a while for them to read the full contract, but they allowed it, making himself and all the other workers sign as well. You were happy with the product, but took extra precautions by *wearing a mask at all times.

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

Today is the first day of filming for 'Lovenow', you wouldn't have guessed who showed up on set, Aquamarine Hoshino. Of course he didn't know it was you behind this cute [animal] mask of yours, and there's no way he'd know it's you from your voice since you haven't spoken yet... you decided to change your voice and tone to how you usually do when you stream.

Not to mention that you came extra early on set for someone on the makeup team to style your hair in a way you could never do on your own, plus you requested they add colorful highlights to show off the person you are on the inside! You've never felt prettier. You gave yourself so much personality with the way you looked, even your mask had colorful stickers on it.

The school uniform you were wearing was a lot more dull than the ones they had you wear in Yoto High School, but it still looked quite cute on you. Your new coworkers are all really cute as well!

The hit internet celebrity Memcho, 18, the new star Yuki Sumi, 16, the special dancer Nobuyuki Kumano, 17, the guitarist of a band Kengo Morimoto, 17, Aqua Hoshino, 16, and this other really pretty girl... Akane Kurokawa, 17.

Out of everyone in the cast, Akane was the girl who caught your eye. She's beautiful. Her hair falls to her shoulders, you think that if you wanted to get a partner out of this show, you'd choose her. Your plan for this is that you'll play along with the rest of the cast for entertainment, and then sit on the sidelines when people start confessing their 'feelings' for one another.

You watch as the first scene starts playing out, people walk into an empty classroom and start introducing themselves to each other, but most importantly, they're introducing themselves to the cameras set all over the classroom. Aqua goes right before you, from the way you're seeing this, he's acting like a more piped up version of the one you interact with at school.

You took a deep breath as you walked into the classroom, all eyes were on you, including the crews. With a slightly higher tone than you usually speak in, words start to leave your mouth, *"✧Hi everyone, my name is [alias], it's a pleasure to meet you!" you clap your hands together as you smile behind your mask.

"Woah! [alias]? Really?" Memcho bursts out, "I didn't know you were a highschooler!" She grinned as she put a finger to her chin, "We should totally collab together on my channel sometime!"

"Hmm... I've heard of you before," The band member pulled his phone out, "W-Wait..! You have over a-"

"A million!?" Yoto screamed out, "What in the world?! That's so cool!! I can't believe that I'm sitting next to a real celebrity!"

"Woah, calm down! You all are celebrities too!✧" You laugh as you sit down in a chair next to the rest of them, I rest my head on my hand, "Well, I saw that you played someone in 'I'll have it Sweet Today', Aqua!"

"Yeah, I sure did. It was only for one episode though." Aqua stared straight into your masks eyes, you sweat, does he know that you're...??

"Well because of that one episode, you single handedly lifted up that show to success!" Nouyuki grinned, you could tell that he's going to be a popular fan choice.

-End of Flowers_of_Insanity

After a few weeks of filming, you noticed the cast's quirks. Akane spends more of her time with the crew than the actual people on the screen, and she always has a notepad with her. Yoto and Nouyuki are the actual romance in Lovenow, and it really looks like they have something going on together. You and Memcho are more of the comedy relief of the show, it must be something about hanging around on the internet for so long. Last but not least, Kengo and Aqua tend to hang out on their own. You felt bad that you didn't talk to Aqua more often since the two of you were friends in real life, but you suppose it's better to keep a low profile.

It's so nice to meet all these people. To your suprise, they're all genuine and kind, even if some of it's an act. Even though it's only been a month of recording, you feel that you've really grown to connect with these people. Each episode focuses on one person in particular, so when it landed on you for the second time, you dropped the mask for the first time in front of the cast and the cast only, but the camera didn't know that you were wearing another mask underneath.

The reactions from the cast were nothing to laugh at, compliments were thrown at you, words couldn't describe it other than a little phony, but in a good way. Honestly, you didn't feel much for it, but after that episode aired, the fans seemed to have loved it. Though, there were a lot of people on Twitter and a few blogs asking your co-stars to reveal your face to them, but they had nothing to say to those people, you felt really grateful for that.

There were a lot of events that happened during the show to keep things spicy, you think that the producers really want you to end up with someone here because they made you and Kengo play together for a mini concert. It was one of your original songs, but they still had to make a deal and pay you to use it, oh, and Kengo had to learn the music in very a short amount of time. It really made you look up to him, so whatever the producers are trying to do is working, but Akane still owns your heart.

Speaking of, you've been trying to talk to her, but she's been so focused on other things. Almost like she's been having a tough time, "Hey Akane, are you feeling alright?"

"Hm! Oh... [alias], I'm doing okay... I just..." Akane sighed, sitting down at the table next to her, "I need to stand out more, I've been on the sidelines for this entire show and... I think that people are starting to forget who I am." She hid her face in her arms.

"No way!! No one would forget a face as beautiful as yours!" You shout unexpectedly, a little too loud, cameras start rolling, "I- What I mean is... all you have to do is apply yourself some more, let loose!☆" You grab her hands and hold them warmly, "And whatever you do, I swear I'll follow."

"W-wha... [alias]..." Akane's face grew red, "t-thank you."

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

Akane acted differently today while on set, she was putting herself out there more often, but it didn't really scream at her. It was an awful experience to watch, but you didn't want to pop her bubble by pushing yourself too far into her business.

She was trying to make a role for herself by trying to separate Yuki from Kengo and that dancer guy, but of course, Yuki was still fighting back.

"Oh? Looks like Akane's finally playing her cards!" Memcho said, leaning against the rooftops railing, "I saw her talking to you the other day, [alias], d'ya know anything about it?"

"Hm? Oh, well I did hear her talk about needing to stick out to the fans more, but I don't know if this is the best suit for her. I mean, maybe if she started a other side love story it'd be cute but...★" You mumble, you didn't know what you were really talking about. 'Side love story', what a joke! The only other people available were you and Aqua.

"Hmmm? What does that mean, [alias-nickname]?~ Do you like Akane Kurokawa?~" Memcho giggles, as she smirks and punches my arms gently, "What about you, Aqua, do you think that [alias] and Aka-nene would end up looking good together?"

"Ah well, I wouldn't say I'm against it in any way... I suppose the two of you would end up looking cute together." Aqua forced out a chuckle as you stare at the both of them, deadpanned, though they couldn't see it, "But if that did happen, there wouldn't be anyone left for me."

"Hey! I'm still here ya know!" Memcho screeched out, grabbing Aqua's shoulders in a playful manner, you point and laugh for the camera you just noticed.

"★Me and Akane..." you turn around to look at Akane talking to Kengo and sigh, "Well if she likes me then I guess I'll like her back." You turned back around to Memcho and Aqua, you don't think they actually listened to what you said, but you're sure that the camera did. "☆What about you, Aqua? Who do you like?"

"Oh." Memcho stops attacking Aqua to listen for his answer, Aqua looks around before opening his mouth again, "I guess you could say that I like..." Aqua looked at you before smiling again, "Nah, it's a secret."

"WHAAAT!!? No way! You can't just say that! You have to tell us!! Or at least, you should come and tell me! Whisper it into my ear!!" Memcho whined as she began pulling at Aqua's uniform begging him to spill his secret, "Please please please please! [alias] told us!"

"[alias] barely said anything, all you did was mention Akane. They didn't even say anything about liking her back" Aqua sighed, his hand on Memcho's face, trying his best to push her away, "Plus, you haven't told us who you like either."

"Well all of you are too young for me! I'm 18, and all you younglings are just too much like babies compared to me! Especially you two, y'all are 16 still, aren't you?" Memcho asked. You and Aqua agree simultaneously, "See! Ah, and if I were to get into a relationship, it would totally mess up my streams, I think."

"Well I'm with you there, being an internet celebrity does have its downsides." You laugh, "But Aqua, you should totally tell me who you like! Don't worry, ☆I'm great at keeping secrets~"

"No way." Aqua sighed, keeping both me and Memcho away from him simultaneously, I laughed some more. I guess Aqua can be more cute and chill when he's outside of school, though it's probably not genuine at all.

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

Last night, Yuki did your nails. She made yours really pretty, they had two colors, [color] and black with these shiny gems or what not. While Yuki was working on your nails you had a talk with Akane. You gave her your suggestion of trying to make a side plot love story instead of trying to push herself into one that already existed. You tried my best to convince her, even Yuki chimed in at some point, but to no avail. She was dead set on doing it this way.

"Well, it's game on then." Yuki smiled, focusing her attention on Akane's nails this time, "Give it your all, Akane. 'Cuz I won't be holding back at all!"

"Yeah." Akane smiled back, "Let's make this fair."

Fair, what a fun word. The world is never fair, and it shows. You saw it with your very own two eyes, the scene was set, Akane didn't mean to hurt Yuki at all-

So why was this happening to her?

Akane accidentally scraped Yuki's cheek with the nails that Yuki made her the other night. The media started to swarm against her. You saw that too, you even got questions from strangers on the internet yelling at you, asking for more information on it, though as per contract, you weren't allowed to say anything. Not a word, not even in her defense.

Akane didn't show up for the next few days of filming, you couldn't feel anything but dread for the days she didn't talk to the group. Even during school, you couldn't focus on anything else. Aqua looked fine, you really hoped he didn't notice your paranoia.

Then the calendar marked a faithful day other than March 9th, the day when a hurricane warning popped up on everyone's screens. The day Akane sent a message for the first time in days in the Lovenow group chat.

'I'm going to go out to get a few snacks from the convenience store.'

Yuki: 'Right now?? Akane! Don't go!'

Memcho: 'Akane there's a hurricane coming out.'

Kengo: 'Akane pick up your phone'

Nobuyuki: 'Akane are you home?'

Aqua: 'Akane?'

You audibly wince as you grab a thin jacket from your closet and run out of your apartment. Even though Akane wasn't answering any text messages or calls, she still had her location finder on her phone. You followed it as fast and as accurately as you could. Luckily for you, it wasn't too far away from where your apartment was.

It led you to a bridge... a bridge?

Then you saw the figure, you weren't sure if it was Akane, all you knew was that they were standing on the ledge, arms spread. You couldn't think, you ran as fast as you could. It was later than what you would've wanted to though, the figure had already jumped. You grabbed them, their body was still in the air, a little heavier than what you'd normally be able to carry, but the thrill was driving you on.

"No! No! Let go of me, please, just let me die!" The voice screamed, squirming her body around to get away from my grasp. It was Akane. Your eyes widened as the rain continued to pour down on the two of you.

"Akane! Listen to me! It's me, it's me, [alias]!" You yell out, grabbing her tighter, trying your best to pull her back onto the bridge.

"[alias]..? Just listen to me, let go... save yourself. You don't want to be seen with someone like me." Akane sobs out some more, "Let go [alias]!"

"No! Akane, stop fighting me! J-Just let me pull you up!" You start to tear up as well, your grip loosens as you get pulled over the edge. The only thing holding you up was the ledge Akane had just recently just jumped off from and your horrible back strength which was slowly dying out.

Before you could fall, however, someone from behind pulled both you and Akane back. You winced, the force of your body falling onto the concrete floor with Akane on top of you filled your body with a sharp and stinging pain. Though, it probably didn't hurt as much as the pain as the person underneath the two of you felt.

Akane turned around into your chest, sobbing. You comfort her to the best of your ability but start sobbing with her at some point. You didn't bother to look at the person sitting next to you, from the slight tone of his huffs you could tell that it was Aqua. The fact that you weren't wearing your mask formed a bubble of worry in your head, yet you hoped it was too dark so that nobody could make out who you were.

Your vision was blurry from the tears you were shedding. You stroke her head as you whisper to her about how everything'll be alright.

"...Who?" You were right, it was Aqua.

You try to cover your face with your hand as you quickly look away. Pulling the collar of your top over your nose, you then even tried to position Akane to cover yourself, even though you knew it was incredibly uncomfortable for the both of you

"[name], is that you?" Aqua repeats himself, this time, he gets closer.

"What? [name]? N-never heard of whoever that is before, nope! Not at all..." You stutter out, it's of no use anyway, he knew you were there. All you could hope was that no one else would find out.

"[alias], you got here before me?" Aqua asked.

"..." You couldn't say anything, not anything you'd admit to at least. Aqua should have never found out.

Another loud pair of footsteps ran over towards us, before they fully got to the three of you, Aqua covered you and Akane with his rain jacket. Your face grew red.

-End of Looking_All_Sad

It wasn't long before the rest of Lovenow's cast showed up, however, the first person to show up was Akane's mother. Aqua caught her all up on what happened as you sat back and watched as everything unfolded before you. The last people to show up was, who you guessed were, Aqua's mom and mother.

No one came for you though, not that you minded too much—

"Aqua! Isn't that your rain jacket?" A girl with sparkling red eyes asked as she pointed directly at you.

"Ah that's..."

"Is that the person you're going to end up with at the end of Lovenow?!" She giggled as she punched his arm, Aqua let out a disgruntled curse in response. You laugh at their antics.

Soon Akane left the room, walking out with her mother. She looked at you with her puffy eyes as she left the building. Not before Yuki ran her way towards Akane and slapped her directly across the face, you gasp and you clench your hands that lie on your lap. She was crying too, crying as she rested her head against Akane's shoulders sobbing as her yells turned into quiet murmurs.

The room fell silent when Akane officially left the building. Aqua's mom sighed and patted his back as she left with her daughter, telling him to "stay safe", how cute!

Right, Akane. This is a problem. You and the rest of the cast know that she really didn't mean any harm, however, people online don't. How could you fix this? A million thoughts ran around in your head. Aqua suggested that for Akane's safety she could leave Lovenow as a whole. Which is a viable option, but she shouldn't have to quit something she enjoys just because of strangers on the internet.

One by one, the people crowded in the hallway slipped out and went back home. Again, leaving only you and Aqua together. You thought about giving him his raincoat back, you wouldn't really need it anymore if he was the only one left. You were already found out. You bit your bottom lip before you spoke, but no words slipped past your lips.

"So you're [name]?" Aqua asked, turning back to look at your sweating figure, he didn't need to say your name out load again.

"Don't say it so loud! And... yeah. I am, uhm. Sorry you had to find out this way..?" You murmur, the hood was still covering your face, you liked that. It made you feel like you still had a barrier between your persona and the real you, even if you still felt phony

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Aqua slowly got closer to you. Weird.

"Why would I do that? It's totally unprofessional..! And... and...!" Why was he so close?? "You shouldn't even focus on this at all, what you— what we should be focusing on is to help Akane!"

"Right. Akane. The internet is horrible, not to mention that this show is just..." Aqua continued to mutter on and on about the recent news and the media's reactions. You zoned out for the most of it, "Reality TV... Ah, what about this?"

"Huh?"

"We're going to make a video to save her, real reality TV."

The media caught onto Akane's attempt at taking her life and went on a roll with it, word spread around like wildfire. Whether it be people talking about how this was just a sleazy attempt to get attention, people feeling sorry and making apologies, or what their opinions are about the situation. People just didn't shut up. Not to mention, Akane's taking a break from Lovenow until who knows when. There isn't anyone else to really look at other than her, Aqua's there but it's just uncomfortable now that he knows who you really are.

On the bright side, the video's production is going well. All of the cast members opted to help. For example: Memcho tried teaching Aqua more about Social Media and how to get people's attention quickly and Kengo offered background music with his guitar. You also offered music from a band you had connections with, 2You, and your voice as vocals. Aqua didn't mind, in fact, he appreciated it. To what you could tell at least.

The last, and more important, part of the plan is getting unused recordings from Lovenow's staff members. There wasn't anything you could do, it was all Aqua. He had the brains to figure something out, weasel his way to get the information out of the producer.

You kept trying to contact Akane, half of the time she didn't respond, she hasn't been going to school either. You threw your phone across the room and groaned into your bedsheets. All the pent up worry hasn't been doing too good for you, you barely show up to your classes either. Which as a consequence means your *relationship points with your classmates have slowly been decreasing ever so slightly, besides Aqua.

Eruru texts you ever so often about school events, you respond fairly quickly, but that's as far as it gets. You miss being around people again, not to mention you've been on hiatus for all streaming activities until you say otherwise. Matsuyo doesn't even try to reach out to you, which is a major bummer. You wonder how he's doing, you wonder how Hanae is doing. At this point, that's the only thing keeping you going besides Akane's well being.

Matsuyo Mochizuki, there's this slight chance that they could be related. You will stand strong and make sure you see her again in this life, even if you don't have much time left—

Beep!

"Hm...?" You wander to your phone, a new notification, this time it was from Aqua. You sigh as you open your phone. He's the only one who's actively talking to you. The other members in Lovenow didn't know you haven't been showing up to your classes, you're really grateful for that. Though whenever he does text you, it never brings you any joy. It's usually about something negative. Maybe it'll be different this time?

The text read: "Get ready and come to my place, everyone else is already here." You thought it was funny how Aqua talks all professionally even when it's through a text.

Quickly putting a hoodie on with sunglasses and a mask to hide your identity, you rush over to Aqua's place...

His place... where does he live again?

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

You rushed over to find that all the other cast members of Lovenow were huddled in front of a screen with, you can only assume, Aqua in the middle. They didn't notice your entrance so you carefully walked over to see what it was all about. The video. Right, that's what this was all about. Aqua looked as if he was on the verge of death as he compiled pictures and videos of all of Lovenow's time together. The video, so far, was very nice. Like eye candy!

"Hm? Oh! [name] is here!!" Memcho brightly said after turning around, "Your aura reminds me of Aqutan! Dead! What have you been up to?"

"Nothing other than worrying to death about Akane." You sigh, putting your hand to your face, "Why did you call me here, Aqua?"

"Because I'm worried about you too. Everyone else here can tell that you look horrible" Aqua murmured, not looking away from his screen. That pissed you off, how could he say you looked horrible if he hadn't even glanced in your direction?? Before you could verbally react, Yuki had already punched him in the back, causing Aqua to bite his tongue, "And the plan is almost done."

"What Aqua's trying to say is that he wants everyone from Lovenow to be here when the video is all done!" Memcho says, clasping her hands together and smiling. You smile back under your mask, Akane will finally be free!

"Well? When are you gonna be finished, Aqua?" One of the boys asked.

"I'll finish quicker if you guys stop bothering me." Aqua murmured, to giggle to yourself about Aqua's comment.

"Well you heard him! Get out.★" You took your sunglasses off and glared at them, "I know he wants you here when he's all done, but saving Akane faster means no distractions!" You placed your sunglasses in your pocket as you watched all four of them slowly leave the office. You turned your head to look at Aqua's screen. He's so close... just a little more and Akane will get to show her face to the public again.

Half an hour of silence and hard clicks on the mouse, Aqua was still glued onto the screen. A few more dragging from his mouth passed by before he opened his mouth again, "Bring the others in."

You ran over and hugged him tight, "Thank you so much for doing this for her." You let go just as quickly as you latched onto him and skipped out the the room to go and get the others back. As you re-opened the door, Yuki rushed in before you could say anything.

"So?! Are you ready to post it??" She asks impatiently, holding onto her sweater tight.

"It's prime time to post it right now actually, my data shows that tons of people are online right now!" Memcho chimes in, pointing to a poorly drawn graph on her phone.

"Mm, yeah." Aqua mutters, "This has to work..."

"It better!" You say, bouncing on the back of Aqua's chair, waiting for him to finally click the export button.

"C'mon man, don't keep us waiting!" One of the boys said, putting their hand on Yuki's shoulder. With an annoyed sigh, Aqua clicked the export button while you hovered over him. When the final pixel reached the end of the loading bar, Aqua switched tabs and opened a popular blog site.

"Let's go Aqua! When I said it was prime time, I meant it! It only lasts a little white, so post it already!!" Memcho shouted, hurling herself on top of you, which consequently meant she hurled herself on top of Aqua. With one glance towards your masked face, Aqua added the professionally made video with a caption and finally clicked post.

With impatient eyes, everyone stared at the screen before them, waiting for the numbers to roll in. Did it not work? Why isn't anything happening? Aqua worked so hard— before another cruel thought entered your head, Aqua refreshed and the likes and comments started to bombard his inbox.

A few minutes passed as the cast watched in shock as everyone's opinions started to morph something in the favor of Akane. You were ecstatic that it worked, rushing over to grab your phone off the desk to check the post itself and to message Akane about it. The girls started jumping around with joy, the boys joined them after some time for the celebration while Aqua's head hit his desk in exhaustion. You slowly put your phone back down and laid your jacket on Aqua just as he did for you. Crouching down to be at eye level with him, you tell him thank you right before you call it a night and go back home.

You slipped past the *crowd of people with a smile on your face and went down the stairwell, but before you could make it out, you saw the same girl as you did the other day. The one that looked exactly like Aqua, she seemed to be in her pajamas and was quite caught off guard when she saw you.

"Ah!! You! It's you! [alias]!" The blonde, in what seemed like a millisecond, ran towards you, her face barely an inch away from yours. *"Ohmigosh, what's it like in Lovenow?! What do you think of my brother? Are you guys going to become a couple?!! How is Akane!?"

"☆Oh, uhm... Akane is... she's going to be okay. And Aqua is a really nice guy! He's done a lot for Akane and I'm really grateful for that." The girl in front of you asked a few more questions before you got the chance to slip off and excuse yourself to go back home.

-End of Eyes_Full_of_Tears

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#aqua x reader #aqua x you #aqua x y/n #aquamarine hoshino x reader #aquamarine hoshino x y/n #oshi no ko #aquamarine hoshino #aqua hoshino #x reader #oshi no ko x reader #onk x reader #verilly

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