#just the fact that we meet izana for the first time with a face that isn’t hers and a name that isn’t hers. the fact that the ghost at

[gaylos-lobos]

Thinking about Kasanes ,,How the dimme light of the dead, can still illuminate the path of the living.’’ again.

[gabiztrnrw]

Watching stars together - Izana Kurokawa x reader

After almost month, I'm finally back with something new. Gosh I hope it didn't came out lame 😭 ENJOY! Also reminder that English is not my first language!

Something about the story: Well, you are just random that suddenly wants to look at the stars.

When Tenjiku was defeated and incorporated into Toman, despite the agreement between the leaders, Izana felt angry and helpless, as if someone had taken away his dreams and destroyed them in front of his eyes. Deep down he couldn't get used to this, this new situation.

But what did you had to do with it? Well, nothing, except that on this particular night you stumbled upon him on the roof of a building, the sky was surprisingly clear for downtown Tokyo, the stars were shining brightly and the pale blue moon made the mood feel a bit nostalgic. The lightly blowing wind carried his hair and his characteristic-sounding earrings. You stared at him in awe- no, actually, you were wondering what idiot was standing on the edge of the roof of a tall building at this time of night, but you quickly sighed because then you were an idiot yourself.

The boy sensed your presence, he didn't hide his dissatisfaction with the fact that someone was interrupting him in his thoughts, wrinkling his nose (which looked really cute) he turned towards you, the moonlight was shining on both of you so you were able to see each other.

"I'm trying to think, and you're disturbing me. If you don't have a wish to die, I would advise you to leave." He said irritated.

You rolled your eyes. "You're threatening me like you're someone important." You replied dismissively.

It hurted, the words stabbed perfectly into his heart, and a lump formed in his throat, clenching his fists, he turned away. "Just go away."

"Well, I won't waste such an opportunity." You pointed to the sparkling sky and after a while you stood next to him. "We don't have to talk to each other, you know? You can just do what you were doing."

Izana looked at you with disgust. Why would some stranger tell him what to do? However, a strange feeling stopped him from arguing with you... relief, relief that he wasn't completely alone here as the atmosphere was giving him disturbing thoughts, and with you by his side he felt strangely calm.

__________________________________________

Now, whenever he remembers it, he smiles a little to himself, because who expected that this damn irritating and sweet girl would become the most important person in his life? Without knowing why, that night he opened his heart to you, showing his frustration and fears.

Years, he couldn't help but laugh when he found out that you had actually zoned out and didn't fully understand everything.

He didn't blame you, though, because something changed in him that night, and he'll remember it forever, your beautiful, warm smile and your words: "Life sucks, huh? But you can always look at the stars with a stranger and complain about everything that bothers you. It's a little better then."

Then, he only rolled his eyes, but the words touched his heart so much that he wanted to have a person like you by his side.

When you finally entered adulthood and the most beautiful day of your lives came, the wedding, the oath of eternal love and perseverance together, he laughed as he recalled your first meeting during his wedding vows. You, on the other hand, were in tears, and it was all because of those stupid stars... and a little because of your sweet face, which the man admitted to you when you were both alone.

[bajibitch]

They meet you after years of texting and you probably catfished them.

Ken, Rindou, Haruki, Seishu, Hakkai, Souya, Emma, and Izana

Ken

If you did catfish him, he just wants to know why you went out of your way to lie when you could've told the truth. If you confessed earlier then we could've tried to make things work, but three years is too much. No matter the reason, he tells you that he doesn't want anything to do with you and blocks your number. If you didn’t catfish him, after a few days of hanging out he wants to talk about getting serious because you’ve known each other for a while and he's ready to take that step.

Rindou

If you did catfish him, He's so frustrated he cries, not bawling but tears run down his face as he stares at your unfamiliar face. I’m never going to hear the end of it. He already got made fun of because people thought he was lying about having a partner, they’ll push him to his limits once they find out you're a fraud. He just wanted to be seen and have someone of his own but this sets him back to the point where he convinces himself that he's okay with being alone for some time. If you didn’t catfish him, he invites people over so he can show off the fact that he’s happy with you and he enjoys hearing their shock turn into congratulations.

Haruki

If you did catfish him, hold on I'm confused. You have to explain that you didn't care for him because if you beat around the bush he’ll treat you the same and try to comfort you. You have to be blunt and straightforward because if you say I'm sorry for tricking you he says, Did you think I would hate how you looked? You don't have to be scared, I'll love you no matter what. When you say you didn't mean for it to go on this long he thinks, It’s okay, I can look past it as long as you're truthful from now on. If you didn’t catfish him, you’ll be enjoying an afternoon of being spoiled because time and time again he said he would take care of you and now he thinks it's the perfect time to prove that he's capable.

Seishu

If you did catfish him, he walks away after catching a glimpse of you sitting in your agreed spot on a bench near a tree and calls you a fucking loser. He's heartbroken because he wanted it to be you and even though the words were yours he hates that you weren't honest. He doesn't like that you had him open up to you while you were still hiding behind a fake account. If you didn’t catfish him, his shoulders will drop and he can't stop letting out little laughs when you meet because it's crazy how he never thought to see you until now. He stares a lot because he’s doubted the relationship before and can't get over the fact that you're with him.

Hakkai

If you did catfish him, he’s not going to know what to do. He keeps running his hand through his hair and doesn't respond with words, only giving hums to show that he's listening. He blames himself for your wrongdoing and decides it’ll be best if he kept the ordeal to himself. He goes on as if nothing happened but it's obvious that he's disappointed. Eventually he confides in Mitsuya saying, I should’ve known it was a lie, we never facetimed before because they hated being on video. If you didn’t catfish him, he can't wait to introduce you to his sister but he worries that things may be different since you’ll have to get used to living with each other. He's nervous for the first few days and tries to make sure you're enjoying your stay but with your reassurance, he relaxes a bit.

Souya

If you did catfish him, he asks are you fucking serious; did you expect me to say it didn't matter and continue like normal? He wants to know why you were so committed to playing with his emotions. His fist is balled the entire time and he keeps his back turned to you since he can't look at you without getting frustrated. If you didn’t catfish him, he asks if you want to catch up over dinner but seeing that the two of you are just as close as you were over text it ends up turning into a day of fun. Even when the sun starts setting he doesn't want it to end and makes it hard for you to leave by suggesting more things to do.

Emma

If you did catfish her, she's brutal. Hopefully, you didn't tell her the things that bothered you because she throws them in your face saying, no wonder no one likes you, you're full of shit. You spend your life lying to people because you have nothing going on. After she's got everything off her chest, she leaves you because she doesn't want to hear anything you have to say, your actions were enough. If you didn’t catfish her, she runs to you showering your face with kisses and takes you out so you can try all the food she's been telling you about. When you're getting ready for bed she hopes you invite her to join you since she wants to be close and she's afraid you’ll turn her away if she asks.

Izana

If you did catfish him, When you say you're the one behind the Marco account he punches you so hard you black out, but he waits for you to wake so he can speak with you. I told you that I couldn't handle anything else going bad and you do this shit. Do you want me to hate you? He can't let you go since you were all he had and you were good at comforting him and making him feel less lonely. After some time he forgives you because your personality lines up with the persona you created. If you didn’t catfish him, he has you stay with him rather than in a hotel, and he’ll bring up something you talked about to test you but denies doing so when you catch on. He tries to impress you by playing his guitar but fumbles since he plays a song he practiced last minute.

[fic-dumpster]

Omg hiii!!

I have a question how would doe React to know that senju is sanzus sister??

Do you think they would be friends or at least be excited to meet each other?

Yessss, I think they would get along. And Takeomi and Sanzu would be scared because Senju is just amazing. 💕🤸🏻‍♂️

The best Akashi sibling

DIHU | Takeomi, Sanzu x Reader

Warnings: angsty(?), smutish(?), jealousy, insecurities.

Couldn't the elevator go any faster? You were mad. No. You were furious with Takeomi and Sanzu. How could they hide the fact they have a younger sister? The three of you stood inside the elevator, going down to greet said sister.

Takeomi and Sanzu didn't want you to meet her at first, or more like they played dumb to the question that you threw their way. It all began when Mikey accidentally asked in front of you how their sister was and that he hadn't heard from her in a while.

“I’m sorry, sweetcheeks,” Sanzu hugged you from behind and left kisses on your shoulder. Attempting to get a reaction out of you since you refused to talk to any of them until you met their sister, “Talk to me, please.”

You didn't even need to pretend not to care because you didn't, for the moment, at least. You took this as a sign that they didn't trust you as much as you thought they did. You knew about Kokonoi and Mikey’s past and Kakucho’s parents and Izana. But apparently, they didn't think you were trustworthy.

“You two don't trust me, that's okay,” your monotonous voice was like a knife in the heart for the Akashi brothers. Sanzu’s hands squeezed your waist at your words that stung his chest.

“No, it's not like that,” Takeomi sighed. Didn't you know by now the effect you have in them? The older man saw the numbers in the elevator’s screen go down, and a shiver ran down his spine in fear for what would come next.

“Sure,” and again, with that tone of voice, Sanzu’s chest burned while Takeomi had his hands fisted, trying to hold himself back. But your next words made both brothers snap, “I guess you’re right, it’s not like that,” you had tears pooling in your eyes, “Will I only be a temporary thing for you?” without realizing it, you let out some of the fears that ate you from the inside, but you had never let out until now, “that’s all I was for you two, hmm?”

Takeomi and Sanzu knew that in a world like theirs, trusting someone could mean more than the word love. Trust means vulnerability, baring yourself to someone, and that could cost a life. And they also knew that you were hurt, and that was something they would never let pass. Takeomi, abruptly pressed the button to stop the elevator.

“Takeomi? What are you doing?” You tried to move and press the button again, but Sanzu’s arms didn't lose their hold on you, “Sanzu, let me go!”

Sanzu’s tsked in disapproval, “No can do, sweetcheeks,” as you struggled with the pinknette, you didn't see Takeomi move until his hands gripped your cheeks hard, making you look at him straight in the eyes.

“It’s not like that,” the older man saw your puffy eyes and felt as if someone had shot him, right in the heart, “I can’t—fuck, baby, I love you so fucking much, it hurts. Don't you understand how I- we need you?” the weight of his words reflected in his eyes and you felt Sanzu tighten his hold. “I can’t go back to a life without you; I don't know how to. And if it means that I have to share you with them just to keep you, that's okay with me.”

“That’s n-” Takeomi’s lip silenced you; it was short, but the intensity left you breathless.

Still panting over your lips, he spoke, “But understand that we cant share more of you. I cant.”

“Sweetcheeks, we were jealous.” from behind, Sanzu buried his face in the crook of your neck, “Senju would want more time with you. I mean, who wouldn't? Look at you,” the pink-haired man rubbed his nose against your skin, “always so pretty, and always so kind,” he growled, just thinking of you showing that side to someone else, even if it was his own sister. “Why are you always so fucking beautiful? I wanna keep you here, with me. You ain't getting rid of me, never,” you felt him nibble at your neck.

As both brothers kept you trapped between them, none of you felt the elevator move nor saw the numbers on the screen beginning to change. Nor the ding that signaled the arrival of the machine to the last floor.

“Oh? Hi, I see you were preparing her to meet me,” the voice of a female made you three jump, but they didn't move an inch away from you.

You didn't know what to do or say. Takeomi had his tongue shoved down your throat when the doors opened, and Sanzu’s hands were everywhere. Fantastic first impression, you thought.

“You know, Senju, I think I forgot my wallet; wait until we go and look for it,” Takeomi pressed you even harder against his chest.

“Bullshit! Let the girl go!” The small woman walked into the elevator and began to pull her brothers away from you. “We’re going shopping and to the movies! I bet you assholes don't let her breath!”

“Don't pull my hair! Goddamnit!” Sanzu screamed as his sister pushed Takeomi with her foot.

-

As you walked away from the two brooding figures standing at the entrance of Bonten’s office building, Senju pulled you towards her car. “Hmm, don't mind them. They’re jealous that maybe you’ll like me more than them,” a laugh escaped the girl.

Her laughter was contagious, and you couldn't help but follow along, “and why would they think that?”

“Because I'm the best, the most decent, and the strongest Akashi siblings,” she sent a wink your way.

-

“Why is Y/N laughing? They just met! Why is Y/N laughing already!?!” Sanzu was itching just to run up there and snatch you away before you stepped foot in Senju’s car.

“Calm down,” Takeomi fastly checked his phone, “you still have those caps and sunglasses from back then?”

“Yeah, why?” The pinknette didn't see where he was going. There were matters more critical than old clothes, like you being taken away by their sister.

“We’re following them; old habits die hard, you know?” Takeomi saw on his phone that someone had purchased movie tickets with his card.

[wakasa-wifey]

Cause time wasn't in our favour.

cw: canon character death, Tenjiku vs Toman arc, 'Nova' being used as nickname, lots and lots of grammatical error bcs I hate grammar, not proofread, angst, it's just pain i swear but i'll compensate with fluff memories before giving back angst.

Kurokawa Izana x f!reader

Writer's note: Please blame it on my sleep deprived brain it got addicted to the song and STILL haven't stop listening to it even after this songfic got posted. I listened to the song, cried a lot, then my brain went poof "What about Izana?" and I cried again but my brain got flooded with scenes I NEED to write down. I am sorry for the mental damage I might cause. Please listen to the song while reading this!

Tagging my Izana simping partner here @noekoi and also my Kiki pie @p-antomime bcs I want them both to know they inspired me to write a lot, for being the cool authors I aspire to be some day, and ofc, for being the firsts to see the fics as it is. I love you guys.

"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴"

Bile rose in your throat once your heard the gun shots, praying to whatever God above for it to not be what you think it is.

But you saw his red clad body dropped onto the ground, confirming your worst fear.

"IZANA!" you shouted, running to your lover.

The commotion behind you faded into background noise when your focus zeroed to the boy in front of you, the boy who stole your heart and devotion.

"Nova. I'm sorry. My body just moved on its own." you just shooked your head, tears streaming down your face as Izana tried to explain. "No. Everything's alright. I- I'll call the ambulance right now! You'll be fine 'zana. You're going to be fine." you supplied, trying to convince yourself more than the other. Hands shaking trying to get a grip on your phone but it slipped out of your hands causing you to curse as you tried to get it back and dial the emergency number.

Quivering hand grasped your own.

"Hey Nova." you hummed to him not trusting your voice. "The moon is beautiful right?" Izana asked, smile on his face- fuck that goddamn smile of his, one that he would never ever showed anyone else.

"Y- yes, I wish I could watch it with you for good." you choked out a response, with sobs leaving your mouth. The hand that was holding yours dropped, along with the beat of its owner's heart, stilling into the silence. And you, barely hearing "I'm coming too Izana.", from Kakucho, sat still as realisation that he's gone, him the love of your life is gone for good trying to crawl itself into your brain. You came to your senses once you felt hands all over your body, urging you to stand up and leave the place as sirens filled the area.

"NO LEAVE ME ALONE! HE'S NOT DEAD! HE'S JUST SLEEPING! LET GO OF ME, MANJIRO!"

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳"

The funeral passed by like fever dream. Toman members came by despite the fact that the funeral was one of their enemy's, murmuring condolences and back pats to you.

"Y/N, I know this might not be the right timing but please know that although we never talk much, you can come to me. Please do not hide yourself away." the owner of the voice, the boy Izana Kurokawa hated the most, snapped you out of your trance.

You didn't reply, only lifting your head up and meet Manjiro Sano's gaze, causing him to flinch at the empty look inside your eyes before casting your gaze back at the black frame in front you, the picture inside it, snow haired boy with wisteria coloured eyes taunting you with the his smile, frozen in time.

"The world is cruel" Izana once told you. You never get what he was implying but now you do.

"The world is cruel, but in this cruel world it I FOUND YOU, my light and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦."

Dating Izana was never an easy task. He was so used to deep dark isolation and in his muddled mind, he could never make sense on to why you stick with him. On top of that, your safety always had been his top concern, the running doubts inside his mind if he's the best for you.

He never understands you, who's a sucker for romance, unrealistic happy endings, would always stick with him, the tyrant king of Yokohama. But he knows that you understands him, as much as he's perturbed by the fact. He knows that you understands how much he's scared to be abandoned again, he knows you will always welcomed him back with open arms, your understanding of his hesitations on relationships were the ones that made him depend on you, because you will never leave him, you promised.

"Why are we watching Disney princess movie again?" Izana sighed exaggeratingly throwing his hands up in the air. "They have the best romance!" you argued back. "Yeah but it's always ended happy ending. It's not like real life would be that way." Izana groaned. "BUT STILL!! It's a royal love story for you my king and even if it's all end in happy ending, it taught us 'bout love and how kingdom works! You should know that by now Izana."

"A kingdom isn't ruled by one, BUT TWO people."

"𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘐'𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘖𝘒 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴"

Fights with him were always the worse. It will end with him disappearing for days, convinced you're just going to abandon him like everyone does at the end.

You proved him wrong every single damn time.

Your patience with him always caught him off guard. You showed him the love he never thought he'll ever experienced, gave him the home he can find shelter in.

In you, he learned what was unconditional love was all about.

"Y/N, can I talk to you for a second?" Kakucho said, gaining your attention. You faced him to show that he had your full attention. "How did you do it?" you blinked, not understanding the question. "What Kakucho trying to said is that, how did you stay with Izana still? If I were you, I would had given up trying to understand him.", Ran, who was beside Kakucho the whole time explained what Kakucho's question was.

The other executives trying to hide the fact that they're listening in but you can see their ears perking up. You chuckled at them before giving them the answer. "I actually find it funny that people always thought 'unconditional love' means unconditional tolerance towards your partner. Izana, as much as he would always disappear after our fights, I know he would come back. I might not immediately search for him, he needed the space, I'm giving him the space and boundaries he needed, as much as he think he didn't need it."

Unknown to you, Izana was right at the door behind you, listening in and signaling his executives to not mention his appearance. "Izana and I talked 'bout unconditional love before. You can love someone to the moon and back but still have boundaries. That's what I taught Izana."

"Boundaries DON'T DIMINISH the amount of love you have in your heart."

"𝘊𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯? 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦?"

The smell of him dominates the apartment you both shared as a home. Everywhere you glance, you see him. His untouched clothes in the wardrobe. Everything reminds you of him. The black sky filled with stars at night taunted you as the memories of both of your nightly sky watching on top of the apartment roof flooded back into your brain.

"Nova." you, who was laying down on Izana's lap, looked up to him, confusion and questions swirling inside in your eyes at the foreign name that came out of his mouth. "I'm gonna call you Nova as your nickname." Izana added. "Oh? Why is that?" you asked him curiously, sitting up and your eyes met as you can see the affection that ran deeply for you shone in his eyes.

He chucked and raised a hand to your face, tucking your loose strands of hair back behind your ear. "Nova means new star that came suddenly, exploding and influence the other. In a way, it reminds me of you. You came in barging into my life, shining like a star."

"Unlike the stars that died out quickly, you remained and SHOW ME THE LIGHT I've never seen before."

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺, 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘐 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦."

The whisper on the streets of the fallen king. The pity glances. The story of a tyrant king. They don't know Izana like you do. They didn't see your late night dancing with him. They never hear his naggings of your unruly sleeping schedule. They would never see how both of you laughing and helping each other cooking in the kitchen.

"Shit!" you cursed as you accidentally sliced your finger by accident. "Nova? Love, what happened?", Izana who was taking a shower immediately rushed into the kitchen once he heard you cursed, bad scenarios running through his head. You, who was running your bloody finger through the water, spun around to look at Izana. "The knife slipped out of my grip." you supplied, still hissing from the sting.

"Awww, poor baby, come give me your finger." Izana teased as he took your finger in his palm to take a look at it before plopping it inside his mouth. "I-Izana!" you stuttered at his action before trying to push him away. Doing so, you just realised how he's only wearing a towel with water still dripping from his hair, fresh out of bath.

"Don't move love, I'm trying to help you right now. I'm taking the emergency box don't move." Izana chuckled before moving away and going to the living room where said emergency box is located. "Oh, did I mention your nose is bleeding too?" blood rushed towards your face as you immediately put your finger underneath your nose, hearing Izana's roaring laughter.

"What kind of King am I to let HIS QUEEN got hurt?"

"𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳. 𝘛𝘩��𝘴 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 '𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘣𝘺𝘦', 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 '𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳'"

Placing the white baby's breaths on his grave, you whispered "Even if it takes ten years, this isn't "goodbye", this is simply "see you later".

©copyright 2022 by Sei. If you steal this work istg i will haunt you down to the end of the earth. You are not allowed to repost this on any platforms.

[sanzusbestie]

Okokok but izana,haitani brothers and hanma where they had a meeting with another gang leader and they found his former gangs pictures and videotape and the videotape/ picture contains the gang leader with their s/o and them being lovey dovey.

Basically their s/o used to date the gang leader they were meeting.Jealousy and fluff.(☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞

♡ Jealous Tokyo Revengers boys ♡

Pairings : Hanma Shuji x gn!reader, Haitani Rindou x gn!reader, Haitani Ran x gn!reader, Kurokawa Izana x gn!reader

Warnings : Suggestive

A/n : I know I said I wouldn't post it before my exams but here I am lol. Thank you for requesting and have a nice day ♡

Shuji isn't really jealous

Like if someone would flirt with you he'd just come by your side to show you guys are together and would be like "yeah they're just a nobody"

He told you about the contract he was about to sign, and then you remembered who was the gang leader

You told him he was your ex, like no big deal it's just an ex right ? A nobody as he likes to call them

He didn't want to sign that contract anymore

You had to talk to him for hours, telling him that it was all in the past and that he probably even didn't remember you, to convince him

At the end he was convinced

Was

But then, only God knows how, but he found those pics and L.O.L

He beat the shit out of him

He didn't do it because he was jealous or whatever

Like he's a grown man, he's not going to beat all you exes

He hit him because he was disrespectful to you

Why tf would he keep these pictures ?

The contract never saw the light of the day.

This mf

He acts so cool and all mighty

But he's jealous af

And it shows, he's always seeking your attention and glaring at anyone that'd dare you look at you for too long

Like you actually could take a pic of his face and put it on a "beware of the dog" sign 💀

He does trust you, but he doesn't trust the others

One could even say he's insecure

So when he found those tapes, he was so pissed

Bonten had a meeting with an other organisation

And, not trusting anyone else than his executives, Mikey asked Rindou to look for something, when the others were at the meeting, Bonten could use against them to take them down if they didn't honor their part of the contract

And that's how he came across them

He didn't answer to your "welcome home" when he came back

He directly asked you to explain yourself while showing you the tapes

Which resulted in you being mad at him bc fair enough

You told him about your ex once, it's not your fault he forgot

Like what were supposed to do, remind him every day ?

You guys didn't talk to each other for three days, you had no reason to blame yourself and he had his damn pride

The fourth day he finally gave in

He cooked diner, decorated your bedroom and bathroom with candles while you were at work

He sincerely apologized, knowing you were right

You asked him to give you a massage bc you deserve it after his bullshit

You ended doing something else *wink wonk*.

You're his and he's yours

As simple as that

He does get jealous from time to time

But it's really nothing bad

Also he respects you and your past so he doesn't ask about your previous lovers, if you need to talk about something he will be there for you but if you don't Ran won't pressure you

But he couldn't help the jealousy slowly creeping up in his heart we Rindou gave him the pics he found

Like Hanma, he beat the other guy

He'd face the consequences later, he didn't care

But the fact that this fucker kept these pics of you, held onto them, upset him to no end

But he wasn't mad at you

He did ask you some questions tho and you and you answered each and all of them because you had nothing to hide

He didn't go any further and made you sit on his lap

"Omg, Ran are you actually jealous rn ?"

"I'm not. He probably have a smal dick anyway."

So childish

"Because you think yours is-"

It did an excellent job of silencing your teasing.

First things first, he killed him

No hesitation

How dares he keep those ?

He didn't want to start a fight with you, he really didn't

But, due to his past, he has a lot of issues

First, he has attachment issues

Add to that the fear of abandonment and being replaced

Which will lead to the almost pathological need to know that you won't leave him

He often wonder why you love him while he feels like he's not enough

So other people are potentially a danger

He always compares himself to the others in his head and he's afraid one day you'll leave him for someone better

And he tries to hide it because he knows his jealousy can turn into poison in your relationship

But you know him, you know him better than anyone

That's why when he came home that night and started to ask you some questions that'd seem innocent, you didn't get mad

You didn't do anything wrong so you didn't justify yourself, doing this would've only increased this feeling of jealousy

Instead, you held him close to you

You had a really long and calm discussion

You reminded him why you were with him, how much you loved him

And don't worry, he doesn't actually forget he just had those nagging self-doubts sometimes

You fell asleep in each other's arms

Izana has to work on himself, he knows it and he's trying to be a better person for you, the person you deserve, everyday.

♡

[babu-haitani]

Here's the second one

Their s/o who's like a lost and weak puppy following them everywhere but also look like a scary big dog who can fight

With Shion, Kisaki and the Haitanis

:>

I didn't know if The Haitani's are seperate but...I just made the two of them in a relationship with reader so I can also feed my Poly Relationship with the Haitani's Brainrot <3

Scary Dog Privileges (Tokyo Revengers)

Genre: Fluff, Headcanons.

Pairings: Shion, Kiskai, Haitani Brothers x FEM! S/O

TW: Babu making suggestive jokes in between :> and also The Haitani Brothers are both in a relationship with the reader, If your uncomfy then DNI.

SHION MADARAME

Shion isn't really that intimidating...(we all know why...)

So when You started dating Shion, everyone thought you were joking.

I mean...You were one of Tenjiku's Top Fighter, even greater than Kakucho. So why would you go for someone who isn't even half your strength?

Why? Because for some reason you're into Dorky Awkward Men...

The first time everyone saw you two together was a big shocker.

You were like a lost puppy following Shion around Tenjiku's Meeting place.

The Haitani Brothers even made a compilation Video of you following your boyfriend around. (.-.)

Before you started dating Shion, he was one of the bullied and trash-talked people in Tenjiku. Even his men would make fun of him.

But ever since you arrived and started dating him, everyone stopped. Except for the op Members of Tenjiku of course, but they're an exception since their your boyfriend's friends <3

Shion also kinda feels insecure about the strength difference between you two but whenever he feels like that you happened to swoop in and give him kisses. Comforting Him.

Shion calls you 'Lil Pup' when he feels clingy and just wants to smother you with kisses <3

TETTA KISAKI

You were Kisaki's Childhood Friend.

Ever since you guys were kids, you would always be there to protect. (kinda like Izana x Kakuxho Relationship)

When you two were kids, he used to be so scared of you. You were tall and scary looking, so yeah...

But when you two reached your teens, he got used to it and just accepted the fact that you just have a resting bitch face that he sometimes wants to slap out of your face cause he thinks you're giving him an attitude.

When you two started dating, nothing changed much...You guys were still like Cat and Dog...

But you were the clingy dog and he was the cat that was trying to run away from your affection because he isn't the type to be smothered with love and affection.

You never really needed to protect Kisaki, so that's out of your worries.

Whenever he calls you 'Puppy' better get your ass in bed cause he wants to affectionate and cuddle the life out of you <3 (I know what you're thinking...this is pure fluff so stay away you horndog!)

HAITANI BROTHERS

The first one to ever met you was Rindou then Ran.

How did you meet them? You were taking your walks on a cold night when a pervy 30-year-old tried to get the moves on you but Rindou managed to swoop in and punch the guy and then Ran followed.

Despite meeting Rindou first, The first Haitani you dated was Ran.

They know about your skills when fighting but despite knowing how to fight, these two wouldn't let you lift a single finger.

They would protect you.

You were clingy but you can't defeat how clingy these two men are, especially Rindou.

Yes, the stern-strict brother is much more clingy than his annoying and cringe older brother...

They didn't really notice that you have a resting bitch face...

I mean they also have a resting bitch face so they thought how you looked like was normal since that's what they mostly look like from time to time.

People are scared of the three of you, especially you...

Not only do you look intimidating than the Haitani Brothers but you were also physically stronger than both of them.

Ran likes to tease you by calling you 'My Bitch' XD

Rindou on the other hand doesn't tease you but when he feels mentally and physically drained, he would call you 'Angel' to signal you to come and snuggle with him <3

Then Ran would ruin it by barging into the room and jumping on both of you... (*Insert Babu face-palming themself*)

[natsukitakama]

Headcanon : Protection feat Izana Kurokawa

Author note : it wasn’t really on my list but hey I’ve dreamt about it so I had to write it. I hope you’ll like it I wish he could have more screen time, it might be a little bit OOC sorry. I can’t wait to see him getting animated. After writing this I feel like writing a part 2 more focused about him being your boyfriends what do you think ?

Warning : Obviously spoiler from the tenjuku arc (chapters 121) / Soft / Mention of bones being broken / Izana being violent / Mention of attraction basically love at first sight

Disclaimer as usual I do not own the pictures credits to their owner and especially to Aoi Sano (Pinterest) for their coloring panel

Masterlist

Izana Kurokawa 黒川 くろかわイザナ

As usual we need some basics information before starting, being in a relationship wouldn’t be a piece of cake you know. He got through a lot when he was younger and his hell never stopped getting bigger and stronger. He first got into reform school (and getting separated from his sister) when he was all alone since her mother couldn’t careless about her children, he found a brother in Shinichiro only to discover later that Shin wasn’t really his brother. He lost his family and again he was all alone and on his own.

The fact that he spent most of his times alone without a real family before Kakucho hardened his heart which means he is really difficult for him to get attached to anyone and even if he will find someone attractive, it would be hard for him to create connection with them in order to start a relationship. He just can’t take the risk of being emotionally involved with someone if they are about to leave him, he can’t love anyone if they didn’t decide to spend the rest of their life with him.

He despises infidelity and all those things

Obviously when you start a relationship you can’t promise to spend the rest of your life with someone, everything could happen.

But if you can’t promise that then he doesn’t want you, that’s the rule.

He can’t stand people getting dishonest to him and we all know all he formed his gang Tenjuku (he doesn’t trust any of his member aside from Kakucho but he knows since he was stronger than them that they won’t try to betray him)

Even if you’ll promise to stay with him to remain his significant other until death would tear you apart from him, it doesn’t mean that your relationship will go smoothly but we’ll talk about it later.

With those informations in your mind you understand that to Izana getting in love, falling in love wasn’t really in his program, let’s be honest he got a lot of works to do. The king is a busy man. He also believe deep down that he doesn’t deserve any kind of affection.

But you just popped up from nowhere.

He was taking the subway with Kakucho to a meeting with Kisaki, he was already bored by it even though they haven’t reach the location. He knew Kisaki was obsessed about Mikey’s fall as much as Izana wanted it, but there was something more he was sure of it. Since Kisaki couldn’t lead a meeting, Izana had to be there but he was bored, all he wanted was to start his damn war and kick Mikey’s ass.

As he was daydreaming, he started to notice a shaking form. He tried to not look at it decided that he was none of his business, but the more he was focusing on the windows in front of him, the more he could feel/see the person shaking. So he had to at least spare them a look.

You were currently pushed against one of the subway’s door, and a man was moving his body as close to you as possible, moving his head so he could hum your perfume. No doubt for Izana the men was touching you and probably whispering some dirty bullshit to you. Judging by your shaking and the way your face was down and the way you were holding your bag against your chest, you were starting to lose the battle between you and that assholes.

At first (again) Izana decided that it was none of his business, after all you didn’t know him, you weren’t a friend someone he cares about, why would he move a finger to protect you ? He doesn’t own you anything after all.

But then as if you could hear his thought, you moved slowly your head and your eyes met him.

Maybe it’s the way your pupil was illuminated because of the tears that were threatening to leave, maybe it was just the color of your eyes, maybe it was the way you looked deeply into his eyes while a man was starting to get his way without your consent. Maybe you were just too beautiful, maybe it the lovely form of your face, maybe it was the way your lips open slowly to take a breath. But Izana felt something.

It didn’t last more than a second but he felt it, his heart started to pump faster, the urge of touching your lips with his own was getting stronger, the greed of having you in his arm being the one to be able to hum was driving him crazy. But the worst was the way that assholes put an arm around you as if you were his.

How dares him ? You belonged to him, he knows it.

He had to protect was his.

Izana’s body moved on his own and before he could get ou of his weird feelings, he was already in front the assholes, his shoulder was bumping against the assholes one.

« Hey who the fuck are you ? »

« Who the fuck am I ? »

« Who the fuck is this ? »

« My name doesn’t matter, which really matters is to you moving cause you’re on my way »

« On your way huh ? »

« So you’re not totally idiot up after all »

« How dare- »

Before the man couldn’t even realized what was happening, his body contort himself as he was made of gum, the man’s face hurled the floor pretty loudly. You were pretty sure that his noise and jaw were broken judging by the impact, he might have a couple of other broken bones and his shoulder might need to be replaced correctly. As the blood was slowly leaving the man’s mouth, you moved your face to look at the boy you saw before.

To be honest you might look at him hoping he would help you but when he stopped looking at you, you thought that you were all alone on your own against him. And now the bastard was on the floor.

And Izana didn’t know what to do with himself, his body really acted on his own, he didn’t really want to act all cocky in front of you but he just couldn’t help him. Even after his urges left his body he could still feel it, he wanted to stroke your cheek, and to feel your breath against his body whispering that you only belong to him.

You didn’t know what to do either, like obviously you needed to thank him because the stranger really helped you while you thought he didn’t give a damn about you. But you couldn’t do anything but stare at him, there were something about him. His eyes looked both strong but extremely soft as he was all shattered, but his body the way he was standing in front of you give you the impression of a Japanese emperor ready for his next battle. He got these royalty vibes, or maybe it was just the way the sun was glowing in his tan skin, he was really handsome. And as the heat was slowly reaching your cheeks you took all you have to at least thank him properly

« Em well-»

« Izana that’s here we need to go »

As Kakucho was on his way to leave the subway since they finally reached their destination, It took everything for Izana to leave you, he knows you were about to talk to him and he was dying to hear the sound of your voice. Would he be raspy ? Would he be high pitched because of your anxious state and the adrenaline ? Would it feel sweet ? Maybe you were one of those lucky people with a sexy voice ?

But he didn’t have the chance to be sure about it because Kakucho put a hand on his shoulder to inform him that they really needed to go. As he was about to leave you, he felt a pair on hand around his wrist and as normally this contact should bother him he couldn’t help but melt a little bit because he knows it was you holding his wrist.

« I’m sorry I really need to go I got a -»

« Thank you very much ! I mean it you really saved my life I don’t know what would happened if you didn’t kick him out. Thank you so much »

« Whats your name »

« Uh ? »

« You hear me »

« My name is y/n Y/l/n »

« No need to thank me y/n this shit was on my way anyway. I need to go. See you soon »

« O-Okay see you ? »

The subway’s door was closing as you had no choice but to let his wrist go, again you looked at him right in front of his eyes. This time your eyes weren’t full of tears because you closed them to give him a warm smile while the subway was now moving separating you both. You didn’t see it, but your smile somehow makes him slightly smile too.

He’ll have you he just knows it

It would be a matter of time

And he didn’t lie, in fact a couple of days later he was you again on the subway. This time not only you were bothered by an assholes but you were genuinely talking with your friends, you didn’t notice him but he looked at you almost during his whole travel. As he was about to leave you finally noticed him, and again you gave him your best smile as you were waving at him telling your friends that he was your hero.

It took you almost two weeks to realize that Izana used to take the same subway as you every Thursday when it was almost lunch time. Since you never got the chance to thank him properly, you decided that today would be your chance since it was the day you would see him on the sub.

As the sub was driving your eyes were looking for the handsome hero, you couldn’t help but feel your throat tighten as you realized that it would be your first real interaction. You were a little bit anxious what if he didn’t like your gift ? What if he already forgot about you ? But today wasn’t the time to be worried sick, it was time for action.

So when you finally saw him with his friends you stoop up and walked quickly in his direction, Izana haven’t noticed you since he was back at you but his friends kakucho did and inform him that you were coming to him.

The thought of you coming for him was driving him crazy, since he « saved you » (he just moved on his own to be honest and act all cocky for no reason) both you never had the chance to talk to each other properly

But now you were here decided to talk to him, his heart was again pumping faster as he was seeing your tearing face again in his mind. For some reason it was the memory he kept from you, he just liked the idea of you needing him.

When he finally turned to see you, you were here in front of him holding a gift … Wait was it a bento ?

Seeing that he was kinda confused at your gift you decided to talk first

« It’s a gift you know to thank you for saving me. I-I’ve noticed that you use to take this sub during lunch time and I never saw you eat you something so I wanted to cook you something I hope you’ll like it »

Watching him looking at you without saying anything makes you wondered if this was a good idea ? After all the fact that you two took the same sub on Thursday and that you two exchanged some looks doesn’t mean he is into you. More over it doesn’t mean he wants you to cook for me, why would you do that ?

As you were about to take everything back and run for your dignity Izana finally smiled. Of course it was a tiny smile, but it felt so warm in your heart. It was as if you two were in your own bubble surrounding by flowers and the sun. Everything felt peaceful.

As he moved his hands to take your bento, you haven't missed the way his finger brushed against your palm, the way his thumb was stroking the skin of your hand to make the instant last longer.

You haven't missed either the electricity running though your vein each time his skin was against yours

You were definitely into you but don’t worry he is into you too

Kakucho who was watching the scene from afar couldn’t believe his eyes, I mean he was aware of the little attraction between you two. But he never expected Izana to actually make a move on you, knowing him as a child, Kakucho was aware that Izana wasn’t the one to give his trust because he knows that in the end he would be betrayed.

So it surprised him to see Izana interacting with you. But Kakucho couldn’t say that there wasn’t something between you two, even he could feel the electricity the warmth that wrapped everything whenever you two met each other. Now that you two were talking touching to each other, it felt even more tangible.

But surprised him more was to see Izana making last your moment as long as possible, it was pretty uncommon for him. But Kakucho guess that he wasn’t used to that feeling, it’s been a long time since someone shows him that they care for him.

As you two looked at each other, Izana seemed to notice that he needed to say something. So he thanked you and proceeds to ask for your number so you two could still keep in touch. After sharing your number, he sat next to you holding the bento as if it was the most precious things of the world and proceeds to talk to you. Surprisingly it was quite easy to talk to him. You noticed that he seemed to memorize every information you gave to him, he was focused on you, on what you were saying. Yeah he was a good listener to the point that when he finally left you for another meeting, you realized that he barely talked about himself. All you know was that his name was Izana he was 18 yo his friends’ name is Kakucho and that’s it. He talked about a meeting but you had no idea about what, but he questioned you a lot. He wanted to know everything about you or at least he gave you the impression

No need to say that you two talked a lot by texts and you decided to have a date even though you two weren’t a thing yet, you just wanted to spend some times with him and he was eager to see you.

By the time you two had that date you learned from him a few things about him, mostly that he was in a gang. At first Izana wanted to keep it a secret, but he was aware that he needed to be honest with you if he wanted you to stay with him. He told you about his goal and what he was doing because he needed you to know what you were about to engage.

In the meantime you noticed a few things about himself, even if he said that he wasn’t clingy, you noticed that he was touch starved and would take benefit of every occasion to hold your hand or at least put a hand on your waist, back or even put his arm around you.

You also noticed that even though he acted like he could wait, he was desperately eager to kiss him judging by the way he was always staring at your lips. And when you finally felt confident enough to kiss him, it became a usual thing for you. Meaning he kisses you on every occasion : when you two met by accident, he will put his arm around your waist and give you a peck on your cheeks then expect you to put your hand on his cheeks to give him his kiss. When you two went on a date, his hand would find his way into your behind your head or on your neck as he moved his face to kiss you. Sometimes when he feels that someone was looking at you the wrong way, he will proceed by taking your chin with his fingers and kiss you while looking straight to the person’s eyes just to tease them (if they are a bother he will kick the shit out of them).

He will even went as far as to push you against a wall, one of his hand on the wall next to your head the other on your waist to put you still as he is kissing the breath of your lung.

But he has his limit, whenever he met someone from his gang he will put distance between you two and act kinda « cold » around you too. You never understood why and he didn’t explain to you. All you know that when the member would leave he will go back to his clinginess as if he wasn’t cold two minutes before

Also even if you two dates for a long time, even if he is comfortable about you he never or barely talked about his past. Its not like he doesn’t trust you (even though a part of him reminds him to be careful with you cause you might leave him one day like everyone) but its just too painful for him. So whenever he feels like he can talk to you about some memory of his past he does it but otherwise he doesn’t feel like talking to you and won’t appreciate if you push him. Give him time

He never fought in front of you, even if someone is getting on his nerve he will ask Kakucho to take you away from the scene. He doesn’t want to scare you or worst getting hurt because of that piece of shit. When he is sure that you are safe with Kakucho he will end them

Izana won’t take you to his meeting too, to be honest he doesn’t want you to be involved into his gang’s activities. He is aware that Kisaki is probably playing with him but he won’t take the risk of you getting use as a threat, but also because he saw you as his light. He won’t forgive himself if you would lose that light coming from you. So he will keep you away from every dirty activity he might be involved. But at the same time whenever he is about to fight a big gang Izana would tell you cause he might disappear from a couple of days and don’t want you to feel alone or anything. It melts his heart each time you tell him you will wait for him

God bless the one who would ever put a finger on you, this man isn’t here to joke. If you are injured because of someone, they are dead Izana isn’t afraid to beat themselves until they’re out.

Walking with Izana is like having his own personal body guard bonus point because he holds your hand and kisses you

It might take some times but he will open-up slowly, he needs times before considering letting his guard down. He spent most of his time alone because people betrayed him, and even if he wants to trust you with all his heart we never know. But he will let you in don’t worry

He has a lot of love to give he just needs times and reassurance to do so

[spicysoftsweet]

transference - izana x reader

cw: jailbird!izana x psychologist!reader, not sfw at the end, unsafe healthcare practices, suicide mention, corruption (emotional)

(4.1k words)

a/n: this is a work of f i c t i o n. please!!! also tenjiku lasted into the bonten arc in this fic so izana is older (20s)

The click of your heels is far too loud as you make your way down an endless hallway. There is a slight echo with each pace that bounces off these terribly plain and white walls and for a moment, you are concerned that you’re drawing far too much attention to yourself. Neither the footsteps of your supervisor nor the security officer who is leading you down to your next client’s room make a sound as they move.

Under your breath, you practice the inmate’s name. Izana Kurokawa. Izana. The picture of his face you’d examined along with his chart is before your mind’s eye, and you remember the indecipherable but alarming look he gave the camera. A psychological evaluation seems long overdue, and the fact that you will be the first to do it brings a slight chill to your spine.

It’s not that you haven’t worked with the extremely manipulative, extremely violent or otherwise before, but something behind Izana’s eyes is unsettling, and shines through even on printed paper. 

He’s different and you’re anxious to know why, if not a little bit afraid.

The three of you finally stop right before a heavy steel door, and the dutiful security guard - Mr. Takeda, you recall - moves ahead to undo a series of locks before drawing the door back. There’s a heavy clang as it settles and just once, your heart beats especially hard. 

“Mrs.,”  - he stops abruptly then corrects himself once you turn your attention to him, an eyebrow slightly raised - “Dr. ___, I just wanted to remind you that there is a panic button attached to your clipboard just in case you need help, although we respect your privacy during this session. There are cameras on standby that can be turned on in case there is a concern.”

You nod. It seems like a lot of fanfare for one single man but he was once the head of Tenjiku, one of the most dangerous gangs in Tokyo at the time of his arrest a couple months ago, and still to this day. This group was known to operate so smoothly, leader present or not, that one may think he is still somehow calling the shots from behind the walls of a maximum security prison. 

This feeling of absolute authority is palpable once you sit down across from him, finally meeting face to face. He beats you to the first word.

“Good morning,” he says before you can speak. His eyes are wide but do not seem to study you as one normally does when sizing up a new adversary. He looks through you as though he’s already won a million times over.

You swallow before nodding. “Good morning, Kurokawa-san.”

His lips curl into a small smile. He’s amused. The wheels in your head turn quickly already; you place your clipboard down and decide that you won’t need to take notes for the session.

Izana also seems to take note of this and leans slightly backwards in his chair, crossing his arms. You notice that he doesn’t put his feet up onto the table before him, demonstrating that he has some form of decorum. He’s not a man who is loudly arrogant, and somehow that makes him even more authoritative.

“What would you like to know about me?” He asks, again beating you to the punch. The fact that he seems to be directing the interview so soon annoys you slightly and mild irritation wins over the small tinge of apprehension that you’d started with.

You also adjust yourself in your chair, crossing your legs and placing your forearms flat on the table as you clasp your hands. While you know not to demonstrate any aggression on your part, a little assertiveness is always warranted.

“Let me introduce myself first. My name is Dr. ___, and I assume you understand why we’re here today, but just to reiterate, I am here to learn as much as I can about you so that we can better serve your needs while you…,” you trail off because his eyebrow is raised in curiosity, then push through, “complete your sentence.”

“Hm.”

He scoffs a little bit and looks away and then back at you. Your expression remains neutral.

“Everything you tell me here is confidential.”

You truly mean that.

Izana points at the corners of the room lazily.

“And these cameras are for?”

“Safety,” you reply quickly. There is no need to mince words. He’s killed people either with his own hands or by proxy.

Your extremely professional expression doesn’t crack, and he takes another moment to truly scrutinize you before he starts laughing, throwing his head back.

“Do you really think these cameras will stop me from hurting you if I really wanted to?” 

He grins as he leans forward now, his head tilting ever so slightly and you can’t pretend he doesn’t intimidate you at all. But thankfully, your voice remains steady as you reply.

“If you choose so, I suppose I couldn’t do anything to stop you,” you admit. 

You can tell Izana doesn’t exactly expect this answer and his smile fades ever so slowly to neutral.

There is a slight pause where your heart pounds but you remain as stiff as a board.

“... Would you like to proceed with the interview?” 

This time, your voice is small at the beginning and you mentally berate yourself. Showing weakness will get you killed.

Izana’s gaze is now turned, and he’s looking at a fixed point at the wall. His mind seems elsewhere. His arms are still crossed.

“Sure, whatever.”

You wonder if you’ve already lost his attention. You clear your throat, then begin.

“We can start with where you were born,” you offer. He gives you a hard look.

“Don’t know.” His lips are pressed in a thin line. You nod sympathetically. 

“Where did you grow up?”

“Don’t remember.”

You pause and look at him meaningfully. Izana is now examining his fingernails, pretending not to pay attention to you. This isn’t going well but you’ve dealt with tough clients before.

“Tell me about your childhood.”

Izana lowers his hand as though he’s satisfied with the way it looks and shifts his attention back to you. The smile is back on his face and he leans in, propping his chin up with one hand and tapping his finger on the table with the other.

“Will you feel sorry for me?” He asks. When you don’t respond, he laughs again, and the sound of him laughing alone resonates in the room.

“I was happy for a couple of years as a kid, I would say. Then I found out none of my family gave a shit about me and made my way on my own.”

You took this statement in stride.

“Would you say your gang was your found family?” You asked, not missing a beat.

“No,” he replied bluntly. Knowing that he had surrounded himself with people for so long and had kept their trust just as well, you were genuinely surprised to hear this. Usually gangs with no sense of familial bond did not last as long as his did.

As though sensing your muted surprise, he elaborated.

“Family is a useless concept to me. I only ask that those I associate with are devoted to me.”

When he says this, he moves slightly forward, just enough that for once, you find yourself planting your feet firmly on the ground. Was it a recoil out of fear? This sudden pressure you feel coming from him as he looks at you, eyes blazen, is unsettling.

Is he demanding your loyalty right now? That’s bold, even for someone like him. Does he not know where you are? 

It’s a challenge, you think, and you won’t lose.

---

“I need more sessions,” you say the moment you step out of the room, the heavy sound of the door resounding behind you.

Your supervisor observes your stance then raises his eyebrows. You don’t seem to be shaking. In fact, you are surprisingly steadfast.

“If he’s not talking, you can make a rudimentary diagnosis,” he begins, his eyes running over you carefully to see if you’ve been rattled at all. That’s not the problem.

“I just need a little bit more time,” you insist. The senior lets out a sigh and rubs his temples.

“You don’t have to give him therapy, it’s just an evaluation.” He replies.

You’re already walking down the hall, your mind made up. The click, click, click of your heels is not as loud as your thoughts.

---

“Kurokawa-san, have you ever thought of harming yourself?” 

Izana gives you a look that is the closest to off-guard as you’ve seen him, but still not seriously taken aback. Rather than answer your question, his eyes slide downwards to your hands. There’s a ring on your left fourth finger that he settles on in particular.

“You didn’t strike me as the married type.”

The hand that was now scribbling notes - yes you’d decided to take notes - stopped, and you looked up at him carefully.

“What do you mean?”

The question genuinely pisses you off, but as usual, you remain professional. 

“You don’t give me the appearance of a married woman,” he says, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world. “I don’t know what kind of man would let you work in a place like this, around people like me. What if I took you all to myself, huh?”

You clench your jaw ever so slightly. You’re not going to tell him that he’s right, and you’re not married, and you simply like to have this band on your finger to deter exactly this sort of conversation, the one about your availability. 

Plus this very explicit pass at you doesn’t even truly seem lascivious, so it’s both annoying and confusing. Not to mention the implication that you’re interested in men.

You smile neutrally.

“Would you answer my question, sir?”

He deflects your deflection.

“Did you pick the ring yourself?” He asks.

“Have you ever felt that life was not worth living?” You reply as though you cannot hear what he’s saying. You have to keep on track.

Izana’s teeth flash, white and straight. Knowing that he won’t get more out of you short of beating answers out of you, he leans forward, resting his cheek on the table as though he’s terribly bored.

“I can always come up with something to live for if need be,” he says. His eyes look up at you and you realize they’re settled on your chest.

You scribble an additional note to dress differently next time you see him.

Today, the interview drags on but not because he refused to talk but because he’s not focused,  which makes it hard for you to decide on a stopping point. Hunger seems to strike the two of you at the same time, your stomach growling loudly in response once he loudly complains that he’s famished.

“If they’d let me out of this damn place, I know a couple of places we could both go,” he murmurs.

You furrow your eyebrow at him and he raises an eyebrow.

“What? I thought you wanted to know everything about me. I’ll talk over sushi,” he says. His voice is almost whining as he says this, eyes closed and head against the table, and for a moment you wonder if you’re finding him… endearing?

For once, you shake your head at him and pause.

“We can break so you can have dinner. I’ll talk to you at our next session.”

---

“Men, women, both or neither?” You ask. Your pen taps at the desk rhythmically as you await his answer.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Izana asks, slyly. Despite the fact that he’s dressed in the same prison jumpsuit every other inmate is, there’s something about his face that looks different. His grin is no longer mocking but somewhat teasing. You watch the swing of his earrings as he tilts his head to the side. You wonder if he’s allowed to have those in here. Then you wonder if someone will tell him no.

“Answer the question, please.”

“Whatever you identify as,” he replies. 

Rolling your eyes at him is incredibly unprofessional, you think, but so is the warmth on your cheeks, and neither the action nor the blush is missed by him. It’s a particularly vulnerable time for you - the truth is you’ve thought of him, maybe once, maybe twice, in the comfort of your own bed as a free woman. 

It’s nothing you can’t file away in the recesses of your mind. You’ve imagined him as a child, devouring a letter from a trusted older brother. You’ve imagined a teen who found out he never had a mom or a dad who truly cared, whose one source of secure attachment seemed to have picked someone else over him before dying. You’ve imagined an adult that is terribly angry, and equally as efficient, that has resorted to taking what he needs as opposed to waiting for those things to be provided to him. 

You’ve thought far too much about him, you think, as you finish up your clinical note.

---

Your supervisor gives you a quizzical look as he reviews the file you’ve handed back to him before taking a seat in his office. 

“This is… a long note,” he replies.

You shrug somewhat noncommittally, and suddenly the dark circles below your eyes seem suspicious. 

“Did you spend all night writing this?” He finally asks. Your eyebrows furrow, confused about the implication of his question, insist on shaking your head initially, then nod. 

“I had to consider a few more things,” you thought, running idle fingers through your scalp before resettling yourself in your chair. “It’s the first time I’ve actually struggled with figuring out a rehabilitation plan,” you admit. 

“Rehabilitation?” He repeats.

“Of course.”

There’s a pause, and he leans back into the mahogany chair, rubbing his chin for a moment, before laughing harder than he ever has in a moment.

“You think we’d bother with a rehabilitation plan for someone like this?”

The man is laughing to tears in front of you, as you remain perfectly still, offering a quiet smile. You expected this. There were multiple times in fact, that as you wrote out your evaluation of Izana’s psyche, meant to be neutral but reread multiple times to reveal that there was a slight bit of sympathy for him in your assessment, you realized that you were wasting your time.

This is exactly the type of person the public prefers to have rot in jail.  

“Did you bother to read my assessment?” You say, your voice sweet. The condescension in his voice gets to you, but he’s always been kind of patronizing hasn’t he? You’re young and pretty and he’s in a position of power over you after all. You couldn’t possibly know what you’re talking about.

“I just needed you to write a couple of lines so we could say he’s insane and give him an appropriate sentence, and here you are writing his autobiography!” He exclaims, and his voice is less jovial, but he isn’t yelling yet. 

But the yelling comes as expected.

This is prison. This is not a teen youth crisis center. These are hardened criminals. All of them deserve to be here. Stop assuming you can help everyone! Just give them a diagnosis that says they are competent and move the fuck on.

It’s all you can think about as you lay your head to sleep.

That and Izana’s smile. 

---

“How much time do you have left?” He had asked in your last session, the fifth in total. 

This particular day you had requested something odd - the ability to evaluate a patient as they mingled in the general public. So the two of you, rather than face each other in a brightly lit room surrounded by white walls and overhead cameras, and a panic button within reach, now stood within the prison courtyard, in a semi-secluded corner, as the sounds of other inmates, some of which were very intrigued by your meeting and stealing glances at the two of you. 

The feel of the natural sun lent you some more comfort for whatever reason, and seeing Izana sigh in relief and stretch out in the warmth actually brought a smile to your lips. 

But his question was unclear.

“Left doing what?” You asked. You took another mental note as he stared back at the onlookers who quickly diverted their gazes, apparently for the rest of the hour you had together.

He sat down as you sat down and offered a piece of a candy bar he’d gotten at the prison commissary on the way down here. You shook your head no and he shrugs, finishing the rest of the chocolate in a few bites.

“Examining me,” he answered. For once, he looks away while speaking to you and it’s not a dismissal. It’s as though he’s worried about you dismissing him. Your brain flips through several notes about his childhood and his attachments. 

Is this transference?

“This will be our last session,” you answer.

He then looks at you directly and he’s unreadable.

“Okay.”

There’s a very short silence that’s broken up by an onslaught of questions. He’s malleable this time, polite and with answers the appropriate length and you’re in a good groove until he interrupts abruptly. 

“Will I ever see you again?”

You freeze for a split second. Another set of pages flip in your head and you think about the boy who has been denied intimacy, friendly, platonic, romantic, his entire life. You shake your head, but it’s not just to reply but to remove the thought from your head.

“Will you still work here, just not with me?” He asks. The directness of his questions is hard to avoid.

“I-I’m actually going to work somewhere else,” you find yourself lying automatically. “I’ve been looking for different sites to work at… possibly at-risk high schools.”

It’s not a lie, but it’s too much information.

There’s another pause and you consider ending the interview here. You’re making all the mistakes. Is the problem him or you?

“Thank you for listening to me,” he says, and you realize the problem is definitely you. You part ways shortly after, and he adds, “I think I want to see you again… but differently.”

---

It’s near midnight.

You’re typing up your resignation letter and with every word you type, you consider slapping the shit out of your boss. There’s a myriad of things that have led you to make this decision - first, the fact that you lied to a patient who also turns out to be a gang leader, two, that you were mocked after submitting your work, three, that you’re not exactly sure if you’re running away before you make a big mistake. You’re furious that you’ve been put in this position because it proves everything that has been said about your type. Soft-hearted, easily manipulated, unrealistic, naive… you name it.

But still, you know a mistake is being made somewhere in the case of you and Kurokawa. It’s better to retreat and re-center before you become a laughingstock.

You finish your letter and let out a deep breath. It will be Monday morning in a couple of minutes and you hope this will be the first thing on that man’s desk. Then, you’ll spend the week looking for another job. This is a plan that makes total sense, you tell yourself. 

You press print, then get up to walk over to the printer, only to hear a knock on your door. 

Maybe you should be startled, but you live near the end of the hall and it’s a non-negligible number of times where people have accidentally knocked on your door, especially if they’re drunk.

Sunday night is an odd time to be drunk, but maybe they’re just confused. This high-rise apartment building is terribly safe, so you have very little concern opening the door.

For someone who works in the prison system, you’re not very prudent. 

“Sorry, this is probably the wrong-” you start, until you look up, and find yourself almost screaming. 

Izana’s face is barely shrouded by a large hoodie and you recognize his eyes despite the face mask. He grins and steps forward to invite himself in before you can stop him, and incredulously, you’re staring at an escaped convict in the middle of your doorway.

While you are at a loss for words, he repeats again - 

“I said I wanted to see you again.”

The door seems to nearly slam itself shut behind him. 

“So you escape from prison?!”

Professionalism has flown out the window. Here you are, in pajamas, bunny slippers, a tank-top and a shawl wrapped over your shoulders to keep warm, in no way resembling a trained clinical psychologist, and here he is, in jeans and a hoodie, now sitting comfortably on your couch as though he lives there.

“You’re loud,” he says, disaffectedly.

“I’m loud?!”

Your hand reaches for your pocket and you pull out your phone, your thumbs trembling as you immediately consider alerting the authorities, only to freeze once you notice the hard look he’s had fixated on you. He’s no longer smiling.

A chill runs through your spine.

He reaches out his hand wordlessly and you toss the phone in his direction. You swallow hard as he throws the phone to the far reach of the couch. He pats the space beside him, bidding you to sit, and you move terribly slowly, your head starting to spin as you try to come to terms with what is happening. You wonder if it’s some combination of too little sleep, too much coffee and bad food that has you hallucinating, or if you’re in a terribly lifelike dream. You pinch yourself trying to wake up and he notices and laughs.

“I’m definitely here, Dr.” 

With that, he turns towards you and pats you on the head. “Who’s the crazy one now?”

---

Izana never actually explains how he escaped or how he found his way to you, at least not in any way more enlightening than I was never there because I had to be, but because I wanted to be.

Not that night, even though he leaves shortly after scaring the very heavens out of you, and not the next night, where he knocks again but actually bothers to ask politely if he can come in. 

What you do know is that somehow the police do not mention his escape. You suspect they haven’t realized he’s gone, and this is only proven months later when you hear them document his escape on the television you keep on as you teach Izana to cook a family recipe.

You raise his eyebrows at him as he stirs a boiling pot with a wooden spoon. He turns, tapping a bit of warm soup onto the back of his hand and licking it off as a cat licks its paw.

“Needs salt,” he replies, before he meets your gaze. “What?”

This is wrong, you think now and nearly constantly, and yet you think differently over time as your relationship deepens further past a tense, almost nonconsensual friendship into a completely consensual partnership.

Izana talks with his hands when he’s excited, you realize, even though his stories are often extravagant, violent and to be honest, preferably not told to you with such joy. He also talks with his hands when he stays the night, letting his fingers roam every inch of your skin from the tips of your toes to the ends of your hair.

You never stop learning about him - you learn that he’s fucked but he’s never made love because he actually does run out of words when he’s inside you, stuttering the moment he sheathes himself inside you, a groan and a curse slipping here and there as he buries himself as far as he can go.

You learn that he crumbles if you pull on his white locks or scratch lines into the muscles of his back. He crumbles if you call him when you’ve had a bad day and ask to hear his voice and especially so if you hold him in your arms when he’s feeling particularly empty. 

This is not the rehabilitation plan you’d intended.

Maybe he’s making you worse, you think.

You didn’t know you liked your ass spanked or your hair yanked nearly clean out of your scalp or to be tied up shibari style while he ate your pussy to overstimulation.

What you especially didn’t know was how easily you could get drunk on power as you followed him into his world, the underworld, where he called the shots and you reaped the benefits. Sometimes you were the voice of reason, other times you turned a blind eye to his insanity. Once in a while you prevented messes, other times you covered them up. 

In wanting to fix him, you’d corrupted yourself. But maybe you cleansed him in part, too. You’re not exactly sure. 

Somewhere in your therapeutic relationship, something went awry. Transference, countertransference, whatever. 

One of the side effects was still love.

[eleteo125]

Even More Model Baji

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Some manga spoilers here

I'm imagining a scenario where a Baji fan came to the pet store trying their luck that maybe he's working on the front that specific day. Then they caught sight of the long hair and they get so excited and started to ramble how much they love Baji and the guy turns around and it's Kazutora 😂😂😂

Chifuyu and Baji definitely had a good laugh at that. Of course being the good best friends they are they told the story to the others and it's become a running joke.

Baji even invites Kazutora to model with him jokingly nah he kinda serious he wants him and Chifuyu be models with him even just for pet related stuff hehe

Every single one of his friends, yes every member in toman will have healthy hair. Doesn't matter if they got a head full of hair or a buzz cut they will have healthy hair.

And the reason for that is because he models for a bunch of hair products that he gets a lot of free stuff from them. He appreciates it but yea it can get too much so he gives the extra ones to his squad.

Hecc they don't even worry about hair care products they know Baji's got their back hahaha. In fact it's gotten to the point where they'd rely on him for hair care products 😂

You know how Mikey always wants his hair different? He always consults Baji for it hahaha. Baji makes sure that Mikey doesn't end up with crusty dead hair cause he changes it so much.

From wanting it long like Baji's, to cutting it short like Shinichiro to wanting it to looks like Izana and many more.

Izana almost wanted to beat Baji for encouraging his brother 😂😂😂

Sometimes Baji gets tired of Mikey and just sends him to his trusted hair dresser...WHICH IS AKKUN LET'S GOOOO!!!!

I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT AKKUN AND BAJI WILL GET ALONG JUST BECAUSE OF THIS COMMON INTEREST.

Takemichi might be Akkun's first client, but Baji is definitely his most frequent client. Takemichi probably used this fact back when they were in toman to convince Baji to let them in the gang.

Akkun wants to start a hair care brand and you know Baji will model for it free of charge.

OMG now I'm just thinking how Baji and Akkun's friendship will be like hahaha.

I feel like whenever they have a get together they would have a little roast session with their bad bleached and dyed hair. Takemichi might be the butt of the joke most of the time.

Ok we know Baji has made a name for himself as a model so fans are definitely a thing. So bodyguards must be a thing too for him. Except most of the time unless it's a public or formal event, his bodyguards are his friends haha. Like they know he can handle himself (I mean come on 1 vs 50 that's insane haha) but these are fans and not rough delinquents out for blood.

So we know Baji and Emma are childhood friends right. Watch her be the most efficient bodyguard of his😂. She knows what these fans want and knows exactly how to shut them down. And also she would be low-key judging their taste because in her mind it'll be like 'Baji, really???😒' in the most loving way hahaha. They behave like siblings you cannot change my mind.

Watch Emma's face contort in disgust when rumors about her and Baji start spreading haha. She would use Yuzuha's help to track down the person who wrote that article and gave them a lesson.

A public picture of her and Draken kissing? Hell yeah. And Baji will be promoting Draken's bike shop😂

So you know how Hakkai used to have long hair in high school? Yea he's also the reason Baji has modelling as a side gig. The company said they needed another model and the first person to come to mind was Baji.

They were about to meet up and talk about it but coincidentally said company scouted him the same day hahaha. Can't resist that long flowy luscious dark locks of his haha.

I like to think that Baji learned to care for his hair because of his mom so he definitely spoils her. Not just in hair products but in everything. Being a model gives you extra spending money and why not spend it to your loved ones. Also in his mind it's his way of saying thanks you for caring for him and as an apology for always making her worry.

Once again Model Baji won't leave my mind. My brain can't stop. I'm not really complaining I love all this fluff haha.

✨Model Baji Brainrot✨

I think the reason why I can't stop thinking of stuff like this is because the last few episodes this season is gonna be...y'know haha

Pssst @manilaruins even more Baji model here haha

[yokohamabeans]

Chapter 1: arrow in my wing

We know how the story ends: in all versions of it, the crane leaves her lover in tears.

(In which: Kakuchō meets you at his worst. Eight years later, you meet him at yours.)

Pairings: Kakuchō x F!OC/Reader (ft. Haitani Ran x F!OC/Reader)

Series Tags / TW & CW / Notes: Dark/Mature Themes, Bonten!Timeline (or rather, pre-Bonten / Rise of Bonten Era), TR Manga Spoilers, Angst & Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Organized Crime, Blood & Violence, Mentions of Domestic Abuse, Japanese Culture, OC will have a name but this will largely be written in 2nd POV, Character Study, Hostessing & Forced Prostitution, etc.

(WC: ~4k)

Series Index | Read on AO3 here! 

2007

Ninagawa-san, who played the piano and told the best stories, seems well. It’s been—what, three years?—three years since he last saw her at the shuttered gates of the orphanage. Her hair has turned another shade lighter but her laugh lines are also deeper, and she is still wearing the shawl that the children had patched together for her sixtieth birthday. Plagued with aches and pains every day, she says of herself while single-handedly loading a sack of rice into her cart; spends most of her time at ikebana class and missing the laughter and off-key singing of the kids. (If only we had more funds, she sighs.) Then, she turns the question around and for the life of him, Kakuchō cannot think of anything worthwhile to say.

He is not afraid of disappointing her with the fact that he spends more time at the police station than school, or that his hands have grazed more flesh than paper. He’d tell her all about it with a proud grin if he could do so as Kurokawa Izana’s right hand man in the greatest gang of Japan. Who cares if adults still shake their heads at their lives if they are living their dreams? Who cares if it ‘wasn’t what they hoped for’? Who fucking cares?  

But—

Izana has died. He and Tenjiku are rubble under a mound of sand and Kakuchō is left with nothing in his life he can talk about. Journey to the West cannot be chronicled without Sanzō Bōshi. Son Gokū cannot tell a story in which he lets Sanzō perish. So, with his eyes cast down, Kakuchō simply tells her that he’s getting by. Ninagawa-san nods and doesn’t ask for more. When they reach the doors of the supermarket, she takes a bentō box—the only cooked item in her cart of groceries—and presses it into his hands with a motherly firmness that cannot be refused. Take care of yourself, Kaku-chan. She bids him farewell there with the promise to continue praying for him and Izana, as she always does for all her kids. (She must not have known about Izana.) I’m happy to see you again. 

The plexiglass doors part and cold air surges at him. Kakuchō is by nature a sentimental boy who greets childhood friends with silly smiles and grows irate when they do not do the same, but now he doesn’t even have the will to think ‘me too’ for the woman who once taught him songs and read him to sleep. Ninagawa-san will always be a face in his mind but their run-in just now is yet another occurrence he no longer feels anything for. Kisaki Tetta didn’t miss his heart with his bullet on the night of the Kantō Incident—he’d fired three shots straight through it. It’d bled itself out on the wharf, spilled and trickled out to sea never to return. Kakuchō remembers waking up the day after with full memory of everything that's happened and the white of the hospital walls had him convinced, for one fleeting moment, that he must be in the afterlife. He remembers this moment clearly because it was such a relief, like the first gasp of air upon breaking through a blanket of water. He remembers this moment clearly because it is the last time he was anything more than dazed and numb. He remembers this moment clearly because it is a fantasy that is rarely far from his mind.

When news of Sano Shinichirō’s death reached his ears, Izana cursed his name fiercely. He never should’ve come to me! Izana would scream over and over again, worse than he once did when Sano still breathed. I would’ve been better off if I never knew him! Beneath the Black Dragon King’s earnest smile hid a cruel trickster who’d take your hand at the gates of hell and promise that you never have to look back again. And when your scars have grown soft and thin from the comforts of heaven, he’d push you right back into the abyss to suffer alone. You get it, don’t you, Kakuchō? You understand, right? Kakuchō never answered because with Izana right in front of him, he didn’t.

But now—

Ah, Izana. You’re the cruel one…

Kakuchō is abruptly met by a moldy JR East emblem and it occurs to him that his walk from the supermarket just went by entirely unnoticed. Kokudō Station welcomes him back with its cavernous entrance, which gouges into a dull, unremarkable street like a black hole. He’s found himself at this place so many times in the past year that custodians in the area greet him with the familiarity of a colleague. They are kind to him because he’s never really been much of a nuisance, is as quiet as a ghost and: how in god’s good name can they be anything but kind to an orphan with a scarred eye? But Kakuchō bristles at how their faces melt with pity when they catch him sitting on the steps of the station alone. People think of compassion as a virtue when really, it is just superiority in disguise. Pity can only come from a higher ground; not equal and never below. The sound of I’m sorry fills Kakuchō’s fists with such an urge to hit something because this life he’s led for Izana isn’t anything to be sorry about. They were great. The sky was within their reach. They were so close, so close and—

None of it really matters now. 

Whatever. He knows the people at Kokudō Station mean no harm with their incessant life advice anyway. He’s just grateful that they let him loiter instead of shooing him away like a feral cat. 

It is three hours too early for dinner, but Kakuchō supposes he should finish the bentō while it is still warm with heat and Ninagawa-san’s kindness. As he steps towards his usual spot at a corner of the station, he peers into the plastic tray: chicken katsu, for him to win—Ninagawa-san still enjoys her puns, clearly. The thought almost tugs at the edges of his lips. 

“That looks good. Care to share?”

The voice presents itself from the shadows of the station like a memory. It is a dry drawl that Kakuchō can recognise upon its first note. Leaning against the ticket booth is Haitani Rindō who, as he always did a year ago, looks as if he’s a minute away from dozing off. Perched on a crate beside is the elder Ran whose light smile, if anything, has become even more unreadable. “It’s been a while, brawler,” he greets, twirling one of his braids.

The last time Kakuchō saw them, they were beating down chumps in black boilersuits together. For old times’ sake, he decides to afford them some courtesy. “When did you get out of jail?”

“Hmm... About a couple of months back?” Ran wonders, glancing at his brother, who shrugs. “We honestly don’t remember.”

Rindō drags his gaze across the greying arches of the ceiling above them. His glasses shift when he creases his nose at a cobweb speckled with dust and insect droppings. “Madarame’s dogs said you’re often seen around this dump.” 

Kakuchō is already frowning, reminded of why he didn’t bother saving their numbers. “Just tell me what the both of you want.” 

He has known, from the moment Izana introduced them, that he’d hardly get along with the Haitani Brothers. Colleagues? Sure, but outside of the gang they shared nothing in common—and this was a sentiment the lofty bastards made sure everyone had. He didn’t like how they exchanged snide glances every time others were around, how they called themselves Tenjiku but refused to wear its colours, how they called Izana Captain to his face but gave orders behind his back. He didn’t like how he was forced to drive his fist through Rindō’s guts so that they’d stop looking down their noses at him.

“Always to the point. Can’t we catch up like old friends?” Ran sighs and gets up with a pat of his clothes, which annoys Kakuchō as much as Rindō’s comment. “Come to think of it, we never did have a proper goodbye the last time, did we? With us being ferried to jail and you to the hospital and all.”

“You did, aniki, when you thought he was dead. I didn’t.” 

Ran continues as though his brother never opened his mouth. “One of the first things we did when we got out was visit Izana’s grave, you know. We were hoping we’d run into you there too.”

Kakuchō narrows his eyes—Ran has always been the difficult brother. Rindō is a rude asshole but Kakuchō doesn’t dislike rude assholes because he can see their hearts on their sleeves: Rindō smiles only when he wants to and speaks his mind without regard. Ran, on the other hand, gives words that are as pretty as they are empty and sly and is never clear about what he stands for. Kakuchō hates dealing with people he must decipher. 

“Like I said, cut to the chase.” He pushes past them and they follow him to a corner of the station’s corridor, where he has a paint-splattered chair set up. “I heard about it: Terano South is recruiting former Tenjiku members. Tell him that my answer is no. Now leave me alone.”

“And why not? With all of us around,” Ran starts and from the cheek in his smile, Kakuchō just knows where the sentence is headed, “won’t you say that Rokuhara Tandai is practically Tenjiku in its second generation?” 

How dare he. Kakuchō’s palms and fingers grow hot and tight with blood, knuckles infested with an itch to relieve. His punches are rarely fuelled with rage but in that very moment, he’d love nothing more than to do unto Ran what the older Haitani did at the Battle of Ashes in Roppongi. These brothers, Mochi, fucking Madarame and even Mucho—with their heads always to the ground in fear, it probably made no difference whether Izana or some other monster sat on the throne. They understood Izana’s ambition but with the precedence of their own, they never bothered to know his reasons; it didn’t matter who’s bringing them to the top as long as they get there. The Tenjiku they each served was not the same one that Kakuchō fought for. 

His intent to hurt Ran must’ve been palpable because Rindō is now poised like a python, ready to strike. Ran however stays infuriatingly relaxed. “Ah, that came out wrong,” he taps his head with a simper, “what I meant to say is that Tenjiku is not dead.”

“What?” Kakuchō snaps. He keeps his fists curled by his sides, sensing that there is more to it: Ran still has his airy smile and careless eyes, but something in his tone tells him to listen. 

“Tenjiku was not just Izana alone, you know. You were part of it as much as he was.” Something, if it wasn’t Haitani Ran, more... sincere. “The Tenjiku that you and Izana wanted—you may not need to achieve it with South, but you can achieve it through South. After all, teams and gangs are nothing but means to an end.”

Kakuchō stills at his words. They come vaguely familiar to him, like seeing a face and thinking of an entirely different person. That all depends on you, Hanagaki Takemichi whispers, appearing in his blonde, marsh-eyed self from the hospital a year ago. Kakuchō has turned this message around so many times in his head to make sense of it only to conclude that he just couldn’t bring himself to. You are Izana’s legacy—this is what Takemichi was trying to pin on him, wasn’t he? What he was trying to pin on him so carelessly? Kakuchō has confronted enough people with his scar and tragic history to know that the words of comfort they offer are never actually for him but themselves; he’d said something which made Takemichi uncomfortable and Takemichi scrambled for something, anything to respond with.

Izana saved your life. 

If Takemichi truly thought for him, he would realise what a cruel curse he’d cast: the perpetual, immutable reminder that Izana died so he could live. That Izana died, so he could live. Izana, who desecrated his parents’ grave because he did not want their son to think about anyone but him. Izana, who robbed all the toys in the orphanage because he was the only one allowed to have things. Izana, who flipped the local beasts belly-up because he must be the only one standing. Izana, who crumbled and gasped for air because he could not bear the idea of love as something to share. Izana, who looked into the mirror and imagined the Jade Emperor, ruler of the heavens. 

Izana, who, despite it all, decided that Kakuchō’s life was more important than his own. 

He refuses to make sense of it. 

(If Son Gokū ate the flesh of Sanzō Bōshi himself, he should not deserve the immortality it bestows. If Son Gokū let Sanzō Bōshi die on their journey to Tenjiku, he should not be worthy to inherit it.)

“My answer is no.” Kakuchō says again.

Ran does not point out the holes in his voice. Instead, he draws a long breath and stretches his neck up at the ceiling with the vigor of someone who’s just spent himself. “Well, I tried to make you see the light in being part of Rokuhara Tandai. It would be easier for you if you’d just join us willingly.”

“I’m not.”

“You really don’t have a choice.”

“I’m.” The warning comes again. “Not.”

Ran shakes his head as though he’s just read something pitiful in the papers. Something pitiful and predestined, like a disaster or an accident. “South is not someone you say no to.” 

“If I didn’t have a choice,” Kakuchō growls, anger sparking in his throat, “what are you two even here for?”

The brothers share another of their glances and Kakuchō turns a second closer to leaving. Rindō shrugs and rakes a hand through his blonde-and-blue shag. Kakuchō has spent enough time with him to know that it either translates to Do as you like or I don’t care or both, because the two do not actually differ much in sentiment. Of course, Ran speaks for the two of them: “we thought you’d appreciate a heads’ up.”

…

“Huh?”

His words come so plainly that they strip Kakuchō of his. 

“We thought we could make it less painful for you,” Ran says, so simply without fare nor sarcasm nor intent, that Kakuchō can only blink to make sure he is still talking to Haitani Ran and not an imposter.

“Why?” he lets slip. He thinks he knows the answer, but dares not admit to it because: it’s the Haitani Brothers, who chose to dye their fleece black, who did not care for anyone bearing a family name that is not theirs. 

“Why, indeed,” Ran muses, tapping on his chin. The smile he has is a little warmer than what Kakuchō’s used to, and it makes him wonder if he’s actually seen it before. “Tenjiku was a fun ride. I guess... we got fond.”

He does not explain further. Neither does Kakuchō need nor want him to. 

With nothing else left to say, the brothers nod in agreement to leave for home. “South will be coming for you soon. My bet’s on tonight,” Rindō pipes, uncrossing his arms and extracting himself from the wall he’s latched on. He brushes his back in annoyance, which has grown white from dirt. “Brace yourself. Izana was a monster, but South’s got years that he doesn’t.”

“And do us a favour,” Ran adds over his shoulder while his brother hops over the station gate. “The next time you see us, pretend that it’s the first in a while, alright?”

And the Haitani Brothers slither away just like that, just as insidiously as they came. Insidiously, because they’ve left Kakuchō with nothing but worms that gnaw on his brain. Worms like the looming, imminent trouble that is Terano South, and worms like dust-covered memories of Tenjiku where there are more smiles than smirks and more beer than blood.

Worms like the realisation that he’s walked away from the Kantō Incident relatively trouble-free because the Haitanis, Mochi and even fucking Madarame kept their mouths shut to the police, or anyone, when it came to him.

True to prophecy, Terano South lands at dusk, heralded by the roar of an engine that echoes through Kokudō Station like a peal of thunder. His entrance is framed by a nimbus of exhaust smoke and the fire-like glow of his motorcycle lights, and he wastes no time spoiling for war by waving Izana’s name around loosely. 

Kakuchō has long heard rumours of the blue-eyed monster who brought with him a body count and an age of terror from Brazil. Those who met him spoke in whispers of his brute strength and cruelty—unparalleled was the word they used. Terano South is a being straight from the Ashura Realm whose life is controlled by a lust for battle and violence and power. He’d littered the ground with bodies of the S-62 at juvie without so much as a scratch and many do not doubt that he’ll do the same with Sano Manjirō and the rising Kawaragi Senju in his crusade for Tokyo. He is a fast-approaching storm who will pummel down on the city until everyone is wet with blood.

“Hardy little cockroach, aren’t you?” South snarls, knuckles hacking at Kakuchō’s jaws and torso like a machete. But Kakuchō cannot agree; just half an hour with this beast and he’s more broken with pain than when he had a bullet in him. He is a demon as they say, striking Kakuchō with such speed that he might actually have six arms, and loving the crunch of flesh and bones so much that he should need three faces to express his joy with.

South rams his battered body into a recycling bin with the force of a van and garbage explodes around them like confetti after a match. With his good eye curtained in blood, Kakuchō can barely make out South’s impending form but instincts tell him that he has a fist raised. They also tell him this fist may very well be the last one he takes in this life.  

…But that’s fine, right?

(Tenjiku is not dead.)

There’s nothing else left to take any more fists for, anyway. 

(Izana saved your life.)

So that’s fine, isn’t it?

(It’s ‘our’ era… okay?)

Isn’t it…?

“Wait, South!” Kakuchō yells, holding a palm up with his last dregs of strength. “It’s my loss.” I’ll join Rokuhara Tandai, he doesn’t find the breath to say. 

(My body moved on its own.)

South’s face twists and glints with teeth. “Why, that’s all I needed to hear.” He shrugs a shoulder, as if wringing out a knot from a warm-up, and steps away so that he’s no longer eclipsing the underpass lights above. Kakuchō’s hazy vision turns bright and his lungs grow with air again. 

“Remember, dog. Kurokawa Izana is long dead,” South’s words toll through the tunnel, forcing him to listen to them over and over and over again through the darkness. 

“I am your new king.”

Kakuchō’s eyes crack open at the break of dawn, stirred awake by, in succession: a biting cold that commands the air in the absence of a rousing sun; the slow, drowsy rumbling of the first trains; and a cresting soreness that burrows through his skin and into his bones. The cold is most unbearable because it’s what he feels first with his layers of nerves. It washes over his bare skin (of which he has a lot) like icy water and lingers on the open, bleeding wounds of his body—but the real torture comes from being too immobile to do anything about it. He can’t decide if it is pain or exhaustion that’s locking his joints and limbs, or if he is just slowly wasting away from the raw chill of Kokudō Station.

So, like Son Gokū under the Five Elements Mountain, Kakuchō can only bide his time until he is set free, either by his own hand or some Bodhisattva's. Six hundred years pass, and the world shifts from a shadowy tundra where laboured breathing is all that he hears, to a hot jungle that flares with sunlight and noise as insects, animals, humans and machines all compete to become the loudest. Kakuchō is kept awake through it all by an incantation that tightens around his head with the decree that he is no longer Kakuchō of Tenjiku, but Kakuchō of Rokuhara Tandai.

Finally, it is not the buzzing of appalled commuters nor the sense to lick his wounds at a cleaner part of town that drives Kakuchō up from the bed of trash he’s laid all night on, but the overwhelmingly primal need to drink something other than his own spit and blood. The crushed aluminum cans that have tacked themselves into the flesh of his back fall in a trail after his agonising walk to the vending machines, which are cruelly situated at the other side of the station’s corridor. Kakuchō is mildly relieved that most of his cuts are too dry to leave any drops of blood on the floor. He’d hate for the custodians in the area to find another thing to trouble themselves or pity Kakuchō for. 

At long last he arrives at a vending machine, a rattling, flickering ancient thing that is not checked on as often as it should be. It asks Kakuchō for his order like a scowling, croaking, chain-smoking old hag at the counter of a snack bar: Cola, Oi Ocha, UCC Coffee, Georgia Coffee, Calpis, Pocari or just plain I Lohas; whatever he wants—as long as he can pay for it. And when Kakuchō digs into his pockets for coins, his hands come out grasping only lint.

There is only one thing he can reply with: “FUCK!” His knuckles bloom with yet another lesion, planted by the machine’s plastic armour when he slammed his fist into it. What a sick, fucking joke, Kakuchō thinks as he staggers away. He gains a few steps before collapsing under his own weight, his bare shoulders scraping against the sharp bricks of a wall, chest heaving and exposed in submission to the universe to shout what he does not have the strength to anymore: You win. You fucking win!

“Hey.”

Kakuchō jerks at the unfamiliar voice, a natural, reactive jerk to a voice coming from someone standing right before him. His eyes, blurry with blood and sweat, struggle for a bit to focus on the pair of shoes pointing directly towards his. When he’s able to determine that they are small, scuffed and meant for school, he gingerly raises his head to take in the other parts of the stranger: long, slender legs with reddish knees, a skirt that’s fraying at its hems, a white, white, white blouse, and a bottle of Pocari that drips tantalisingly with condensation.

“The vending machine gave me an extra,” the stranger explains. Their voice—her voice?—falls lightly, so lightly on his ears. “It must be because you hit it just now.”

Bullshit, Kakuchō wants to challenge; he’s messed around with vending machines enough in his childhood with Izana to know that they are stubbornly secure and tight with their dispenses. However, he is too thirsty to care or say anything, so he snatches the bottle from the stranger’s hand and empties it down his throat in one go.

He can feel the stranger watching him, but he cannot make anything of it. She—he decides from her delicate features and sailor-fuku—is just watching him, eyes and face blank and opaque above his. 

She considers him quietly for a while, then makes her thoughts known.

“You’re hurt,” she says. “My house is not far, I can patch you up there if you’d like me to.”

Glossary of Terms / References Used | Next Chapter

A/N: Forget RanRinZu. Kakuchou was there with the brothers right from the very start, so I wanted to explore their relationship a little more. I actually didn't intend for it to focus so much on Kakuchou, but it just happened because I love this poor boy so much. The OC's POV will come next chapter, and will be told in Second POV - I'll switch between this and third as I tell more of Kakuchou's story too. Also, Buddhism and folklore is a big motif in TokRev so I wanted to weave that in this story. I don't wanna sound too...mansplainy so I didn't include a glossary of the references, but if you guys think I should, please let me know! Other thoughts and comments are also greatly welcome. :) Stay safe y'all, from both COVID and Wakui-sensei's plans for TokRev...!

[ilovevillains]

Singing songs in a late-night drive with the Haitani brothers 🌃

Rindo is saying: Mickey lost.

WARNING: THE MUSIC VIDEOS MIGHT HAVE FLASH LIGHTS EFFECTS.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF SEX, POWER PLAY, VIOLENCE.

Album: Tokyo Revengers Playlist

I can't believe Kisaki's playlist is the most popular one, LMAO 🤣!

PRELUDE:

Hello and welcome back to another Tokyo Revengers' playlist. This is the last of the first part of the playlists I made. Remember that I'm taking a break during the rest of the Christmas celebration, I'll be back on January 14, 2002.

Today is the day for the ones and only Haitani brothers, one of the duos I love 🖤 I swear this two are the type of friends that won't make you stop laughing all the time you spend with them (and you cannot change my mind 🤣). Anyways, I talk more about them in the outro, enjoy the music!

🌃 Separate and Ever Deadly, The Last Puppet Show

When we walked the streets together All the faces seemed to smile back And now the pavements Have nothing to offer And all the faces seem to need a slap

🌃 COPYCAT, billie eilish

Don't be cautious, don't be kind You committed, I'm your crime Push my button anytime You got your finger on the trigger But your trigger finger's mine

🌃 bad guy, billie eilish

I like it when you take control Even if you know that you don't Own me, I'll let you play the role I'll be your animal

🌃 Savage, Bahari

I am the tide, I know you're drowning You're on a ride, be careful who you trust Don't get it twisted 'cause, I could be really into us Or I can leave you just because, because

🌃 Howl, Alexandra Savior

Handsome dictator of my crimes I can't tell if they're yours, I can't tell if they're mine Sweet revelation, bitter wine I'm dreaming but mostly I'm feeling behind

🌃 Water U, Koda

Here in my car I’m a king in a cage And the city is burning

🌃 MAMMAMIA, Måneskin

Oh, mamma-mia-ma, ma-mamma mia-ah You wanna touch my body? I say you're not allowed You wanna handle me, but I'm a bit too much I'll burn all the place down, 'cause I'm too fucking hot

🌃 So Nice to Meet You, Koko

See I can’t help but like the way you’re acting shy (shh) Not saying much and barely looking in my eyes (my eyes) I’m only here because of you I think you know that (yeah) Know that you might be everything I want you to know

🌃 R U Mine?, Artic Monkeys

And the thrill of the chase moves in mysterious ways So in case I'm mistaken, I Just wanna hear you say, "You got me baby" "Are you mine?"

🌃 Heaven, The Neighbourhood

You make me feel like God And I'm watchin' you fall from above

OUTRO

Haitani, Haitani, Haitani brothers, my kings (my heavenly kings). I'm going to be honest: I went speechless for a moment here because I don't know what to say about them (I love them so much).

Of the two brothers, my favorite is Rindou, I think that I would vibe more with him (and maybe I'm wrong). Ran is okay, I love him I would hang around and make fun of a lot of shit with him, but Rindou hits me different 🤣.

What I love about them and the gang they are, in which King Izana leads, is just that they are BRUTAL. I do not like violence (sometimes is unnecessary and useless), but if someone brags about being good at fighting... they better fuc**ng be. That's the case of these two gentleman. They really are strong and brutal and I hate the fact that [IF YOU READ THE MANGA, YOU KNOW]. That's the grudge I will always have with writers and creators introducing OP characters and then you don't know what the hell just happened 🤣.

In conclusion: in this page we believe in the Haitani brothers supremacy!

Remember that I will not be publishing on December. I will resume my publishing on January 14,2022. I hope you have a good Christmas and I wish for you a new year filled with success and happiness ❤

-Villain Lover🖤

[sabraeal]

Traffic Lights Are Burnin’

[Read on AO3]

Written in honor of @nebluus‘s birthday! She asked for some WFB, and of the options I gave she chose the next part of our Six Flags saga...only the beginning scene of that chapter ended up ballooning out into this so...it ended up being less Amusement Park Shenanigans and more Wholesome Boys Will Be Boys Content. I’M SURE MADI WILL BE JUST FINE WITH THAT TOO 😂

“Are you making an omelette?”

English is not, functionally, Mitsuhide’s first language. Not that he thinks of it like that-- first or second, third or fourth; there’s no ranking in his life, no moment in which one language followed another. There was English with Mama and quebecois with Papa; a plan quickly scuttled by Mitsuhide being the fifth Lowen sibling. Refusing to be pigeonholed into a single language no matter how many times Mama repeated consistency is key, his brothers mostly spoke a tossed salad of both and assumed he’d understand the lettuce.

Coupled with the fact that all his cousins lived in Toronto anyway, Mitsuhide had hardly begun talking himself before it became outside quebecois and inside English. Unless they left the province, in which case it was a free-for-all that left his few monolingual aunts and uncles dizzy.

Which is to say, Mitsuhide only becomes aware of the precise inner ranking of his languages in moments like this, where gut immediately kicks out a dry ‘j’essaie.’ The translation is vetoed on the grounds that although in quebecois he’s never met a word he couldn’t steep in sarcasm and smuggle in a sacre, he prefers to keep his English so clean it squeaks.

You’ve got it all backwards, Kihal had told him as he sweltered under the San Juan sun, English is fake, you can be as much of an asshole as you want it in, it doesn’t count.

It’s true, there’s something that’s more real to him in French, that’s more real about him, but, well-- there were far fewer cousins to tattle on his potty mouth this way. And now that he knows Obi...

Well, if Kiki ever made good on her threats to teach him any of his “church swears,” he’d probably never sleep easy again. So instead, he scrolls through his mental rolodex of possible appropriate replies before settling on, “Would you like one?”

Zen glances up from his array of pamphlets, glossy paper glaring beneath the overhead lamp. It matches the way Zen is looking at him. “We don’t have time for that.”

Mitsuhide frowns, giving his eggs one last vigorous whisk before pouring them into the pan. “There’s always time for breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day.”

He glances over just in time to see Zen’s grimace. “Shirayuki really could be your sister.”

There’s really no reason he has to look so horrified by the idea. His brothers may all be broad shouldered, barrel-chested giants, but plenty of his cousins made pocket money in high school through catalogue modeling. And they’re all very nice girls.

He doesn’t mention it. A conversation never ends well if you have to whip out photos of female relatives to prove your point. “Would you like one?” he repeats instead, a safer tactic overall.

Zen’s nose wrinkles beneath some dubiously drawn eyebrows. “Are you putting spinach in there?”

“Kale,” he agrees. “And chicken.”

“In a breakfast omelette?” He clucks his tongue, just the way the Wisteria’s chef would when he attempted to cook at the estate. Quel dommage, he would say, sighing over the cutting board, why would you do that to perfectly good eggs? “Why would you do that?”

Because these muscles don’t come cheap; Mitsuhide chokes down a truly staggering amount of chicken in order to keep them. Roasted, of course-- boiled is technically better for protein, but even he has to draw the line somewhere. The eggs have less, but they are calorie efficient; he’d eat more of them if he could stomach the slimy, snake-like sensation of swallowing them down hard boiled.

But explaining his diet regime usually ended with glazed eyes, so he settles for, “I could always put something different in yours. There’s ham.”

Fancy ham, Obi calls it. It’s just from the deli counter, fresh sliced from whatever quality cut’s on sale, but considering how the first time Obi saw a charcuterie board, he shouted, Oh, Lunchables!--

Well, Mitsuhide can accept that maybe they have different benchmarks for fancy. And somehow just the simple act of calling it that does make it taste better. Or at least more satisfying when it’s shoved between a Hawaiian roll and deli cheese.

There’s a soft shuffle by the kitchen door, and a wild thatch of bristle peeps around the frame. Mitsuhide shakes his head with huff. That’s a new one-- just think the devil’s name and he appears.

Obi lopes into the kitchen, all long limbs and smooth movements, blurring right into the background without any effort at all. He’d gotten Mitsuhide a few times when he’d first moved in, popping up wherever it was sure to be the most inconvenient, grinning like a cat with feathers in its teeth. But once you knew the trick of it, well-- it’s no effort to keep the kid in his sights.

Which is why he has a full, uninterrupted view when Obi slips right up to Zen’s elbow, and asks, “Whatcha doing, chief?”

“Wah!” Pamphlets fly up, a glittering flock of wings swooping beneath the lamp. Zen slaps them down before they can skitter off the table’s edge. “Obi! Make noise for fuck’s sake!”

“Sorry,” he sing-songs, not a sincere note in it. Two long fingers pluck a pamphlet off the wood, twisting it between them. “What’s all this? They starting to put theme parks on exams now?”

“No.” Zen scowls, snatching it out of his hands. “I’m just making today’s itinerary.”

Mitsuhide slides his omelette onto a plate, turning just in time to catch the glance Obi sends him. It somehow says is he fucking with me while also implying I’ll hold him down if we gotta send him to the doctor. “An itinerary?”

He leans a hip against the island, fishing out a fork. What was it Obi always said? Dinner tastes better with a show. Time to find out whether it extends to breakfast too.

Zen fixes Obi with a look that could have had trenches with all its affront. “You can’t go to an amusement park without a plan. How else do you get on all the coasters?”

“It’s only Six Flags New England.” A week ago, the name alone made Obi flee like a cat from a bath, but now every syllable drips with derision, like a sommelier reviewing boxed wine. “They’ve got what? Superman?”

Mitsuhide shoves a corner of his omelette in his mouth. It’s not as good as a sausage, mushroom, and cheese, but, well, it’ll do. “Bizarro.”

“Bizarro.” Obi scoffs. “See? Nothing. Besides, I thought you were the kind of guy to spring for fast passes, boss.”

Zen’s always been sensitive; the sort of kid who tended to pop off when a situation came to a simmer instead of trying to turn down the heat. When Izana had been sitting president, he’s spent half his tenure fielding tense calls, sometimes even climbing into a towncar at a moment’s notice to be taken back east. The school, he’s always say, lifting a shoulder, my brother is proving to be a challenge, and my mother is...unreachable.

He’d thought this Zen kid must be like the ones he knew on the ice, punching first and asking questions later, complaining about being put in the box. All temper and no temperance, Mama used to say when she drove him home, can’t talk when you got plastic between your teeth.

But then he’d met him, undersized and stick-limbed, living in that house with people paid to be invisible. A kid with too much on his shoulders and too many eyes to watch him stumble under it. He’s come a long way from there.

So when Zen squirms in his chair, red already starting to lick up his neck, Mitsuhide doesn’t enjoy it. On the contrary, Zen’s discomfort is his discomfort, a failure of him to keep the watchful eye on him that Izana asked him to.

But it also doesn’t stop him from adding, “Shirayuki believes that waiting in line is part of the amusement park experience.”

Obi looks as though he’s just been told it’s his birthday and Christmas, all rolled into one. “Of course she does.” His mouth sharpens to a wicked grin. “So you’ll be lowering yourself to the peasant’s lines today, huh, Your Highness?”

“Don’t call me that,” he grumbles, swatting him away. “No one’s being lowered anywhere. We won’t be running into any of them so long as we get there early and hit the coasters in the right order.”

Obi coughs. Or at least, makes it sound like he is. “Uh-huh.”

“Where is Shirayuki anyway?” Zen glares at the empty doorway, brows heaving like thunderclouds over the bridge of his nose. “I thought you said you’d get her.”

“I did.” Obi twitches his shoulders; as good as a shrug, from him. “She’s getting ready.”

“It’s been fifteen minutes.” Zen’s glare changes target to him, thunder rolling in the tone of his voice. “Shirayuki doesn’t take this long to get ready.”

When Mitsuhide glances up, chewing around another stab of egg, kale, and chicken, Obi’s eyebrows are already there to meet him. His head tilts, just the barest degree; this is your show, big guy.

Mitsuhide coughs, trying to clear his throat of leaf bits. “Girls,” he starts, the ground sinking beneath him with each word, “like to look nice. Especially when they are on, uh, dates.”

“This isn’t a date,” Zen informs him, more than a little put out. “Obi’s going.”

The sound Obi makes can only be termed as distressed. “I didn’t want to.”

For exactly this reason, is what he doesn’t say. Doesn’t even show it on his face, though it has to be lurking beneath it, considering how he--

Well, considering nothing Mitsuhide knows for sure. But certainly a few things he reasonably suspects.

“Chief.” Obi flips the chair next to him, straddling it. “You know, I really thought it couldn’t be true. I really wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. But to hear you now--” he leans in, one narrow brow raising the same time his voice drops-- “you really do chicken out when it comes to getting chummy with Doc.”

Mitsuhide nearly chokes on his chicken.

Zen’s red all over, like someone pulled him from a boiling pot and put him on a plate. “You don’t know that.”

“Sure I do,” he says, so easy. “Doc told me.”

“She said that?” His skin’s so flushed Mitsuhide’s half afraid he’ll pass out, but instead he just collapses against the ladderback, head buried in his arms. “Shirayuki?” 

“Pretty much.” Obi sighs, hands braced on the table. “I mean, is it so hard to say she looks nice when she dresses up? Or that you like her hair, or--” he stumbles, shaking his head-- “no, not the hair. Too loaded. But you know, one of her floaty little numbers. Her freckles. Something.”

“I have!”

Obi lifts a dubiously narrow eyebrow. “Like when?”

“Ah...” Whatever the answer is, it’s not helping his blood flow problem. Mitsuhide nearly opens his mouth, searching for a good way to make himself a target-- “The Big E.”

Well, there goes that plan.

Obi’s inquisition crumples into confusion. “What? When did you--”

Every word ekes into the air with the utmost resistance. “When she was wearing your hoodie.”

“When she was wearing my--?” Gold eyes round to coins. “Chief.”

For a solid minute, that’s the only reaction-- wide-eyed disbelief, earned from two sides. But Obi coughs, mouth twitching, and it’s a snort, a smirk, and--

And then Obi launches himself away from the table, both hands still gripping the edge as he falls apart utterly. The chair’s back keeps him from putting his head between his knees, but spiritually he’s there, tears tracking down his cheeks as his laughs wheeze out of him

One hand finally slaps the table, like he’s asking for a time out. Zen frowns down at him, red finally fading to a painful pink. “It’s not that funny.”

“It is,” Obi squeaks, and Mitsuhide has to shove his last bite of omelette into his mouth to stifle his own noises. It’s no good-- Zen whips around and gives him the same glare he’s been saving for Obi.

“If you don’t cut it out,” he says loftily, “I’m going to let a freshman stay in your room.”

Well, that brings Obi up. “Fine,” he coughs, voice still ragged from laughing. “But still. My hoodie.”

“The sleeves hung over her hands! It was cute.” Zen huffs, folding his arms over his chest. “Fine, if I’m so bad, why don’t you two show me how it’s done?”

There’s a pause, long and loaded; enough that Mitsuhide glances up from his plate to see just what tomfoolery he should brace himself to break up--

Only to find Zen staring at him.

Intellectually, Mitsuhide is aware that Zen is a Wisteria. He met him through Izana, after all; he’s been over to the manor, he’s even met their prodigal mother on one of her rare stopovers between vacations. But when he thinks of the name, it’s Izana who springs to mind, the gears churning behind his eyes.

It’s not often that Zen reminds him of his brother; Cookie’s always said that Izana takes after their mother with that long and lean model build, while Zen has always been Kain’s child. But now, now--

He sees it, and it sends a shiver right through him.

With a quirk of his lips, Zen says, so like Izana that if he closed his eyes he wouldn’t know any different, “You first, Mitsuhide.”

Obi’s mouth curves into a leer. “Yeah, Big Guy. Show us the skills that got you Ms Kiki.”

This probably isn’t the time to tell them that it wasn’t him who got her; Mitsuhide hadn’t been trying to do anything more than be the friend she needed, to be a person she could confide in, could trust. People like that were thin on the ground for girls like her; heiress tended to make men see dollar signs instead of personality. But Kiki--

Well, she had other ideas. Ones he’d only cottoned onto when she climbed on top of him and shoved him against the couch cushions with her mouth.

“D-Don’t look at me!” he manages, trying to busy himself with anything. But there’s only a plate to be put in the sink, and a pan to be wiped. Not enough to fake a decent amount of responsibility. “I’m not--”

“Aw, c’mon, Big Man. Don’t leave us hanging.” Obi leans back, grin so wide it practically splits his face. “Lemme paint the scene. You’re single, Doc is adorable, and she’s waiting there--” he gestures to Zen, who flutters his eyelashes in precisely the way Shirayuki doesn’t-- “for you to make your move. Go!”

He could point out he’s not single, and that he doesn’t have any plans to change that anytime soon-- but that only ends in one way: a two-pronged mockery with additional ridicule provided by the impending arrival of his better half. He could also point out that of all the people in this room, he’s the only one who hasn’t wanted to date Shirayuki, but-- well, the problems with that one were obvious.

Instead, Mitsuhide takes in a deep breath, learns on the counter, and says, “Why, Shirayuki! You’re looking beautiful this morning. Those shorts really flatter your legs.”

There is a long silence, and then to everlasting embarrassment, they burst out laughing.

“Her shorts?” Zen’s hand is pressed to his chest, like he needs support to keep upright. “That’s all you can think of? Her shorts?”

“Well, Obi said not to do her hair,” he protests. “Complimenting her dress seemed like low hanging fruit. I was trying to be unique.”

Obi doesn’t even bother to remain horizontal, sprawling himself over the long forgotten maps. “So you went for her legs?”

“There’s nothing wrong with legs!”

“Oh, no, of course not,” Zen sputters out in an effort to keep his mouth straight. “Definitely a very neutral place to comment on.”

“Definitely not known for being attached to things like asses.” Obi’s mouth twitches, as much a sign for danger as thunder rolling in the distance. “Or puss--”

“I was not trying to comment on that.” He’d felt bad for Zen earlier, but the sentiment doesn’t seem mutual. “It’s not typical, sure, but Kiki never seems to mind when I compliment--”

“Kiki?” Zen squawks. “Kiki?”

“Well, I think we’re all learning a little too much about Big Guy today,” Obi wheezes. “Mainly that it’s Ms Kiki that chased him, and not the other way around.”

“Yeah.” Zen shakes his head, long and slow and solemn, like a doctor about to give a terminal diagnosis. “No game at all.”

Mitsuhide’s not a competitive man. Sure, he was forward on the ice, the kind of player that got sent to the box before the end of the first half and slid right into the captain spot when it was vacant. Aggression is part of the game, competition laced in every turn of his skate and lift of his stick, but that’s a different situation, a different language--

But it’s that part of him that surges beneath his skin right now, that makes him want to saunter over and put both hands on that rickety, painted wood until it creaks. That makes him want to take a full minute to bend down, showing off every centimeter of his one-ninety plus, and ask real low if either of them has made a girl beg on their cock lately, but--

He puts it in its place. That sort of talk always sounded better en français anyway.

Zen waves his hand, slipping his pamphlets out from under Obi. “Anyway, enough messing around. Are you still making omelettes, Mitsuhide?”

“Ohh, omelettes?” Obi spins to him with wide eyes. “Can I get mine with fancy ham?”

Mitsuhide blinks. “Wait, aren’t you going to do your take?”

“Nah.”

Zen shrugs. “Joke’s over.”

“So I just did that for no reason--?”

“I wouldn’t say no reason,” Zen wheedles. “It was very educational.”

Obi grins. “Mainly about how Big Guy likes legs--”

“Oh,” drawls a voice that makes his body go cold and hot at the same time. When he turns, it’s Kiki leaning against the jamb, a single elegant brow raised, excusing amusement and menace in equal measure. “Am I to take it that the show is over?”

“K-kiki,” he stammers. “How long--?”

“Hm.” She saunters over to the counter, slipping onto a stool with a casual grace that still leaves his mouth dry. “Long enough. I have to admit, I was looking forward to seeing a display of Obi’s fabled moves.”

“Ms Kiki,” Obi simpers, pressing a hand to his chest. “I’d be happy to give you a personal demonstration anytime.”

Both her brows raise. “Did I say I was desperate?”

He’s saved from Obi’s answer by Shirayuki padding into the kitchen, flushed and breathless. “Oh, you were right Kiki! Everyone is already ready. Sorry to make you wait.”

There’s a hesitation in the air, and Mitsuhide can’t figure it out, not until he sees-- she’s wearing shorts.

Shirayuki blinks. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Kiki hums, sending him a gaze so wicked it should be illegal outside the bedroom. “Do you have anything to say to her, Mitsuhide?”

“No!” It comes out a little too harsh, a little too loud. “I mean, I, uh...like your sandals!”

“Sandals,” Obi snickers, a sound that’s only covered by Zen’s hushed, “Shut up.”

“Oh!” She blinks down. “Thank you. I got them at Payless. I, um, don’t think they make them in your size.”

“No,” he manages mildly. “I don’t imagine they would.”

“You do look real cute, Doc,” Obi chimes in, slinking out of his seat to circle around her. “Did you dress up for today?”

Zen makes a noise, somewhere between a choke and a gasp, but even with the pink brushing her cheeks, Shirayuki’s too used to his antics to do much more than sigh.

“Of course I did, Obi.” Her fists perch high on her hips, cocked as she talks to him. “It’s the last time we’re all going to be going out together, isn’t it? What could be more special than that?”

Mitsuhide may not be a competitive man, and especially isn’t a malicious one, but when Obi’s jaw goes slack, the tips of his ears darkening just the slightest bit, well-- he does indulge in the slightest bit of schadenfreude.

“Well,” Zen says, a little sharp. “Let’s get going.”

“Aw!” Obi whips around. “What about fancy ham?”

“I don’t think you need--”

“Oh, I haven’t had breakfast either!” Shirayuki adds, eyes wide. “Do we have time?”

Zen hesitates, and then with a sigh, relents. “We’ll stop at Dunkies.”

[obiyuki-beebs]

I found this in chapter 56 and I thought it was kinda interesting. While Zen is comforting Shirayuki as she's crying, Mitsuhide says,"But this is about Zen and Shirayuki. I don't think this sudden distance is a big problem. It's not like being apart would cause their existence to become smaller in each other's lives." Maybe it's foreshadowing they will separate? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think ObiYuki still has a chance or is it just the author toying with us?

hi anon!!  (￣ω￣)

Short answer:

Yes, Whoaboy get ready I have some THOUGHTS, YESS!! and No.

I have been sitting on this ask for a long time sorry for le wait

The vast majority of this post is below the cut. I hope it is not too much / addresses what you meant. 

Here are some notes before I subject whoever reads this to my madness:

These little moments of “It’s okay to do what you want to do” always strike me, and I think about them when I’m considering Zen v Obi endgame because it opens up the possibility that things can change.

Yes it’s a shojo and shojo protagonists tend to stick with their initial love interest... blah blah blah. I don’t think this preconceived notion of how shojo manga ‘always goes’ is a valid point anymore.

So .... I think the comments we are both thinking of usually refer to Shirayuki’s Path and how she must be able to Stand By Zen’s Side as an Ally, etc. So I’ll kind of be thinking of this from the angle of a Journey. 

Everything discussed is also after The Play We Believe is Foreshadowing (except for the panels pulled from ch 9 and 20) which I think should be considered for the context of the plot. 

If it is actually foreshadowing for an eventual Obi & Shirayuki story arc -- which tbh we might be in the midst of (currently) at ch 117 without realizing it -- then it’s relevant to how we frame the comments made afterwards. At the end of the day, Akizuki-sensei is an author. She is telling us a story. I think it’s reasonable to seek out clues to foreshadowing in fictional stories. So I’m operating under a 90% certainty that the play is foreshadowing.

I have found that the best (fictional) stories are ones that have been planned carefully. I have no way of verifying if AnS has been so precisely crafted to weave in so much foreshadowing that we speculate over, but damn it sure feels like it was. 

The manga was originally just the first chapter, so we can assume that after writing that chapter and deciding to make it into a series, there was some planning done.

ANyway............... strong speculation ahead. I think I was ~60% thorough in my search to find material relevant to Foreshadowing of a Separation.

Please enjoy! 

1) So we’ll start with a panel from ch 9, 

where Zen is considering his relationship with Shirayuki and his growing crush. 

This panel is, as stated above, part of the story that Akizuki expanded on after the original one-shot. In the first chapter, we get a lot of cute fate-chitchat between Zen and Shirayuki, but I think -- after deciding to continue the story -- Akizuki changed the tone to allow for more character development, and to challenge the Fate tropes often seen in romance. 

Thus, the statement above from Zen that they may not always be together.

foreshadowing ?!   ( ˙▿˙ )

___________________________ 

2) In Chapter 28,

we have the crew essentially saying they are all growing stronger for the sake of each other, and lending their strength as needed.

Within the story, Akizuki-sensei has established a theme of moving forward and changing as needed as a way to get stronger.

Mitsuhide says this to Shirayuki, also in Ch 28:

Why .... does Mitsuhide look so serious as he says this to her? Is he reconciling the fact that Shirayuki and Zens paths may diverge at some point, as they do for the Lyrias arc?

He follows up the above statement with:

He goes on to say, 

“I want you to follow your heart so you can stand on your own wherever Zen takes you.” 

So... maybe that context takes away some of the significance for fellow lovers of AnS. But I don’t think we should just ignore the statement.

I think she’s being given permission to change her mind; that it’s okay for her to have feelings for Zen, but it’s also okay if she chooses to end things. Mitsuhide will support her either way.

Even though the the full remark still has to do with Zen, she is being encouraged to stand on her own. She is her own person. She has friends who will still be there even if she chooses something different from what people expect of her.

In this case -- pertaining to AnS as a whole, from the perspective of everyone who ‘knows’ about ZenYuki in-story and also (meta!) the manga readers -- Shirayuki is expected to someday marry Zen. 

After this, in Chapter 29, Izana is a bit derisive to Shirayuki after she gets the title from Tanbarun. I think his comments are intentionally made to make her uncomfortable. He says,

“Hahahaha! What an unusual title! Amazing!”

- cue confusion from Zen and Shirayuki -

“I wasn’t poking fun at it, it’s just a bit strange. Hmm... before, I said a nobody like her at your side would sully your name, Zen, but with this you can be friends without any such worry, right?

“Shirayuki, I’ve never asked what kind of relationship you want to have with Zen. And I don’t know if it’s something that can be said.”

Alrighty. So. Izana says in front of Shirayuki that he had described her as a nobody. This seems like something said meant to disquiet her, and her initial reaction is, “taken aback,” so we can safely say it was at least temporarily disconcerting for her to hear. I imagine it’s hurtful to hear you were once thought of as someone unworthy of notice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think most of what Izana says and does is in relatively good faith. I think the fandom has come to a general conclusion that he’s testing their relationship. 

Obi finds her in the early morning and he notices that she’s upset, commenting that she’s making a strange face. She is still thinking about what Izana said, and Obi asks,

“Is it about the path you want to take?”

“....No. It’s that I haven’t given it any thought.”

Zen already wishes (though I don’t think he’s explicitly stated it the way he does later in ch 33) to marry Shirayuki, and we see her here facing emotional turmoil because that part of her future isn’t something she has thought about yet. Interesting, to say the least.

I’m not really sure about this, but it seems like she either means where Zen is taking her and / or where she can stand on her own.

And then .......

“Obi, will you lend me a hand?”

“Didn’t I tell you before that I’ll take you wherever you want to go?”

This part of the story is still heavy ZenYuki, but I think Obi saying this to her right now is significant. Akizuki has repeatedly weaved Shirayuki’s path into the themes of the story so far, while contrasting that Zen will meet her at her destination, while Obi will be at her side for the journey. 

Zen and Shirayuki meet and talk. They basically address that Shirayuki doesn’t really know what the future holds, but that she still wants to stand by his side, and says that even though he’s a prince she wants to think it’s okay for her to feel that way. 

You almost forget about the significance of Obi and Shirayuki’s relationship when it’s followed up by this ZenYuki scene. I wonder about the aforementioned nature-of-planning involved in the story and the future of the characters at this point.

gnah how did this post get so long already

___________________________

3) Zen has presumably given his blessing for Obi to be happy in love

In chapter 31, while the group is stranded outside Wistal due to rain, Zen and Obi are in the bath talking about the possibility of Kiki and Mitsuhide getting married.

“It’s fine with me as long as they can say that they’re happy. I intend to make sure of that.”

“You’ll make sure of that?”

“The same applies to you too, Obi.”

More foreshadowing? Presently it seems that the MitsuKiki ship has sunk, so contrasting this conversation to current-manga-events is titillating to me. ESPECIALLY because Zen says that he wants to make sure Obi is happy when Zen knows how Obi feels about Shirayuki. So it’s established that they will support one another as friends.

Later, Kiki and Mitsuhide are talking after dinner and discuss how the nature of Zen and Shirauki’s friendship never changes (that’s the impression I got from it). Mitsuhide recalls when he and Zen talked about the same thing:

I think what Kiki and Mitsuhide are referring to is that Zen and Shirayuki have made a conscious effort to become friends despite the barriers they’ve encountered so far, by way of them showing the strength of their mutual respect and desire to aid one another. I get a similar feel from the conversation between Zen and Mitsuhide. 

And then .....

“The two of us will always be friends.”

ahem

Zen saying this -- in context to everything from the past four chapters -- implies that Zen is okay if their relationship is not romantic. If it is true that the mangas plot was deliberately planned out, these chapters will become increasingly interesting to look back on as the plot progresses. 

The direction of the story has changed since then if we are only looking at the big turning point of Mitsuhide rejecting Kiki.

And despite that rejection, the group is still a group despite their physical distance. 

___________________________ 

Brief note to say that in Ch 33 Izana says to Zen,

“Let me be an ally as you and Shirayuki follow your own path.”

While this is a ZenYuki comment, I see it as Akizuki reinforcing that each character is following their own path and they will be supported as they do.

___________________________

3.5) After this point is the first Lyrias arc, 

where obiyuki shippers are starting to salivate over how much is packed in just for their relationship. I mean .... remember when she pushed him to the ground because she thought he would get hit by snow? And he gives her those moony eyes just like it didn’t stop ... my heart

UGH JUST SAYING IT BECAUSE context! Shirayuki’s path is changing slowly, and Obi is still by her side.

___________________________

4) A period of transition

I think this is around the time the Bergatt arc is actually beginning, leading up even to current-manga-events.

In Chapter 53

And thus, they head towards the path that a new wind blows upon.

The times are changing.

While Shirayuki is preparing for her and Ryuu’s move to Lyrias, Zen and co. are at Wilant meeting with Haruto, who describes fools aiming to throw the country into turmoil. This is a seed for the plot that develops, ie, the Bergatt arc that was not actually resolved when Touka gets taken down at Sereg in ch (?) 86. I bring this up because I think it shows the level of planning that Akizuki has put into the story at this point.

In chapter 55, after Shirayuki has finally been able to tell Zen she’ll be away from Wistal for 2 years, and they have this conversation (slightly paraphrased) after he’s processed for a short time:

Zen -

“Sorry. The fact that you would be leaving the castle was something that I’d never considered. So my reaction was a little slow.

“I’ll hear it. I’m sure there was more you wanted to say.”

Shirayuki -

“I’m really glad that I got to meet you and come to the castle! I’m where I am now because I wanted to become Zen’s ally; and i achieved that by coming to the castle and becoming a royal pharmacist.

“I’m sure that, like how it’s always been, there’s something ahead connecting to my path now. That’s why, because there’s a place I have yet to go, I want to be there.”

This is Zen’s face after she says the above:

What is he thinking? Is he worried about their romantic relationship? I interpret it as preemptive disappointment that they may not stay together.

Shortly after we get to the point you made in your ask (sweet anon) re ch 56 with Mitsuhides comment. This adds to the reinforced theme that change is okay and they will all still be friends and allies regardless of where life takes them.

BUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER Mitsuhide says that in reference to Zen and Shirayuki, Obi responds:

Is Akizuki drawing a parallel between MitsuKiki and ZenYuki? No idea. maybe. But somehow I do not find it coincidental.

This seems like a MitsuKiki hint, meant to fuel the ultra-shippable pair that we all loved... but after the rejected proposal, it’s hard not to see the whole situation differently re: zenyuki / obiyuki and mitsukiki / hisakiki.

Then the first true ObiYuki hug, and this:

“It feels as though Obi might suddenly appear in Lyrias!”

girl you already knew. Shirayuki knows that Obi will follow her.

Obi deliberately postpones going to Lyrias, though, in order to consider his feelings for Shirayuki and how to tell Zen.

Then!! in 58-59 we get long-awaited confirmation from Obi that he has feelings for Shirayuki, and after this beautiful moment Obi goes to Lyrias to be at Shirayuki’s side, and after everything that has happened so far that is a clincher for me regarding our beloved Foreshadowing.

While discussing Obi’s crush on Shirayuki, Obi asks Zen

“Aren’t you going to propose?”

“.......................Well, I’m.. making her .. wait.”

“Master ... I don’t recommend postponing it, you know.”

I wonder about this comment. Is this a clue for us that Zen postponing engagement is going to be a negative thing in the future? 

idk maybe ╮(￣ω￣)╭

Either way ........ This transition period, in between Lyrias 1 and 2, shows us that the story is changing.

___________________________ 

I have definitely not covered all of the possible moments of foreshadowing and am actually going to leave off on that topic for the time being. I might do a part 2 as its own post. 

But for now I will switch to previously mentioned point that...

5) Obi and Shirayuki’s paths are walked together

I think the following two panels are a great way to frame their relationship. Chapter 20 in early Tanbarun arc:  

And then, much later in chapter 106 as they stand by the fire and Shirayuki tells Obi he’s handsome in the light:

“... because you come with me.” ( ╥ω╥ )

And then more delightful talk from chapter 104 that I think is ... gasp 

foreshadowing !!!!!

They are having this discussion after they’ve found out about Kiki becoming engaged to Hisame.

“It’s necessary to have the courage to make a decision and take a step down that path, isn’t it?”

Shirayuki is possibly saying this due to the implications of Kiki’s letter. Kiki has made the choice to take a new path from the one she had been on by marrying Hisame. 

So what about Shirayuki’s journey? Has her growth led her to a path she didn’t expect, and now it will take courage to step down it?

In recent chapters Shirayuki is shown to be seeing Obi differently and as a man:

overhearing him calling her beautiful and being surprised that he is embarrassed she heard

witnessing him going to a marriage meeting

that little moment where he is holding her wrist as a Lyrias knight tells him that the knights sister wishes him luck in love

the firelight comment oh my god

realizing she lost the pin Obi gave her and tearing up as she literally stared at him; upset that the gift she cherished is now missing and potentially realizing how very dear to her Obi actually is

fake dating and the 10 seconds of ... just... I still cant even 

Obi is the one who is by Shirayuki’s side. They developed a bond through years friendship that is now being reframed by Akizuki. The nature of their relationship has been slowly changing and I think we approaching a time in the manga where Shirayuki will realize it.

___________________________

To answer your last question ... I do think ObiYuki has a chance and I do not think the author is just toying with us. I’ve talked a lot about my ObiYuki Endgame feels in previous posts/asks. I could probably talk about it forever but this post is absurdly long .... sorry

Thank you so much for the ask! and wow thank you so much if you actually read this whole thing! 

<3 beebs <3

[sincerelytruly]

Reasons for Why I Believe Obiyuki could be the “Romance that Cuts through Fate” referenced in the Manga:

In college, I took two amazing courses--scratch that I took one amazing course and one semi-disappointing sub-par course--Fairytales and Graphic Narratives, respectively. And until right this very minute, I believed them to be an utterly, though fascinating, waste of my time and tuition though they made me smile. Okay, it was college so they didn’t always make me smile because finals are the worst but I digress the point I am trying to make is this: 

I HAVE AN EPIPHANY CONCERNING MY BELOVED SHIP OBIYUKI DUE TO MY TEACHINGS!!   

So, first and foremost the birth of my epiphany came from thinking back to my class on Fairytales when we studied Snow White! (Graphic Narratives didn’t really teach me much other than how to think more critically about...Graphic Narratives, so I guess it really doesn’t deserve any cred for this post TBH, lol.)

But like I said we studied Snow White. 

Not this one:

Or whatever this one was supposed to be (sorry not sorry):

But, the original one. There are two versions (maybe there are more but I forgot them if there are) of the Grimm’s version of Snow White. In the very most original version, everything pretty much happens as we all remember it minus the singing: Snow White makes Queen step-trash jealous by her beauty, Queen step-trash tries to have her killed, due to her amazing beauty Hunstman is a wuss and lets her live because he’s weak to a beautiful damsel, Snow White plays Goldilocks and breaks into a dwarven settlement, the dwarves also wuss out and take pity on her because she is pretty and can cook/clean for them, then step-trash gets angry realizing she is, in fact, alive and goes out to kill her herself. Now, this is where everything diverges from what we know. In the original version step-trash has to try several times to kill her. Once with a bodice/corset torture device that basically suffocates her until the dwarves get home and cut her out of it, twice with an evil hair comb that kills her until the dwarves pull it out of her hair, and then thrice with the age-old apple trick. The poisoned magic apple gets lodged in her throat and she becomes a stone statue for all intents and purposes, so what do the dwarves do? What any logical group of men would do with a beautiful woman who isn’t decaying but still dead in their eyes, lock her in a gorgeous crystal casket so that they can still gaze upon her beauty on the daily! From here on there are two different endings to the Snow White saga. The very, very, first one published states that the Prince comes along says, “ooooooooh pretty, let me take her home with me and put her on display” and sits around gazing at her all the time until someone in the castle gets pissed off and hits Snow White’s corpse which dislodges the apple finally and wakes her up. What an awkward way to wake up yeah? And then the poor girl gets married to the Prince--ta-da! The second version makes it a lot better ending for poor Snow White. Someone trips while hauling the casket to the palace and dislodges the apple and then the Prince sweeps Snow White off her feet and yay happy ending they get married and now the Prince doesn’t seem as creepy just staring at a dead person all day long pissing off his staff. 

(Whooo that was a lot of background info, sorry, and also I know that I could also do a huge comparison post on the tales of Snow White versus our Shirayuki tale, but that is for another day!!!)

Depending on what you want to go with there are so many ways you can analyze the story of Snow White--all of them, old, less old, new, even our beloved Shirayuki’s story--but one of the things that stick out in my mind is how in every single version of Snow White she is always a trophy of some sort. The Prince is always going to get his trophy wife in the end. Even in Shirayuki’s case, if she does end up with Zen (which I’ll die if she does) she will be nothing but a trophy wife. Even though Zen is precious and certainly not a bad guy by any means, he is a  Prince, therefore their relationship will not be the same as normal couples have. She won’t be allowed to be an Herbalist and tend to the sick who may infect her and kill her before she can provide an heir. And poor Zen will still be stuck behind a pile of paperwork and responsibility to his Kingdom that he dearly loves.  

But, hey who knows, maybe Sorata will go against the entire universe she has built in her storytelling and let Shirayuki be wild and free and a Prince’s wife...

I think this is where “A Romance that Cuts through Fate” comes in to play. Hopefully, if you’ve made it this far in my post (bless you if you have) you’re thinking what I’m thinking. Or maybe you’re thinking I’m a lunatic.

ANYWHO, IF EVERY SINGLE SNOW WHITE ENDS UP WITH THE PRINCE THEN REALLY HOW IS ZENYUKI A ROMANCE THAT CUTS THROUGH FATE?

It's not. It absolutely is not a story of a romance that cuts through fate. In fact, there are far too many stories out there where a beautiful, nice, happy, girl gets with a Prince way beyond her social status for this to be something un-fateful. Or unheard of or whatever. Every fairytale and most romantic comedies out in the world follow the same old rhyme. 

Which is why I am proposing that Obiyuki is the endgame for real. 

***WARNING IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP WITH THE MANGA AND DON’T WANT SPOILED THEN YOU PROBS DON’T WANT TO READ ANY FURTHER!!!***

I feel as though since the moment Obi and Shirayuki were separated by the Bergat house situation, Shirayuki has been more aware of what Obi means to her. 

Look at her reaction and even Obi says later on:

That she seemed to be concerned even for him. Now don’t get me wrong I am completely aware that Shirayuki has been plenty concerned for Obi in a platonic sort of way! I’m not a completely foolish fangirl here. 

But then that happens. That is something new with Shirayuki. Never is she shown to react that way about what anyone says. Sure she blushes over her lovey-dovey stuff with Zen all the time, but that is something else. 

And then that is too. She sees Obi’s reaction--possibly the first time she’s seen him this way (or at least I can’t remember another time) and there’s a look on her face that says, was he being serious maybe? YES SHIRAYUKI HE WAS DAMMIT IN HIS PLAYFUL STUPID BOY WAY YES. 

And then this happens--look at that face--I don’t need to say a damn thing on that one. I mean I know she doesn’t love-love him yet (or maybe she does but doesn’t know it) but this is definitely progress, right?

And then the boys get in a tie showing off their masculinity--which I feel really does foreshadow their inevitable head-to-head. I mean ever since the festival with the play of the Knight fighting the Prince for the Princess, I’ve felt that way, but then there is their slight competition for her attention all the time and this arm wrestling and even the fight they had when Obi wanted to be her bodyguard! 

These faces, well, I feel as though she is kind of realizing Obi’s worth. I don’t know how else to put it. She is obviously affected by Obi’s marriage meeting and later on when Obi is saying how he is rejecting people even though he knows he attracts people, her face is so loving! Of course that may just be because her friends are there and she is about to pledge her loyalty to everyone or whatever, but I’d like to think it still has a bit to do with what Obi is saying as his statement that he was with her during the dinner party, therefore not flirting with other girls, is in the same panel as the face she is making. Hopefully, that makes sense. 

This was a big moment because again I feel as though this is foreshadowing, why else would the author do this?

Then I noticed that Shirayuki starts noticing Obi! Above she notices how his eyes have rounded recently, which to my understanding is an idea that a person is happier. (Idk my Dad has a book on Oriental health practices and whatnot and it talks about eye shape in it and basically how its a window to the state of your being/soul/chi, etc. so this is why I believe this I may be completely off base but the context seems to suggest I’m right!) However, on a side note on Obi’s part I think he is going through the motions of accepting that his fate when it comes to Shirayuki when he says, “I’m seeing more clearly.” 

This looks like some flirtation to me on Shirayuki’s part, but also I find it an interesting conversation especially since in the next chapter (below panels) she talks about how she needs to be able to speak about how she wants to live in the future. And also, I feel as though the author loves giving us these panels where they’re reaching for each other but not quite willing or able to touch one another yet, its sweet torture isn’t it?

The panels above show again how she has finally taken notice of Obi and thanked him for all he has done for her. I know it’s not a declaration of love, and she probably plans on talking to Izana about living her future with Zen, but I think this is a step in the right direction because in what world is this conversation with Izana going to go well? I mean, Izana, though I believe he likes Shirayuki, is not going to change the rules for her as it comes to the Royal family. So, I think we may soon see some development in Shirayuki’s relationships with both Zen and Obi. I tend to think that she has really put some thought into how she wants to live her life now, and I also think that she is strong enough of a person now to reject anything other than what she deserves. 

I also find it interesting how Obi keeps his cool when Shirayuki compliments him on his looks and then awkwardly says:

What does interesting mean, Obi?! 

But anyway, that brings us up to date with the manga and my reasons for believing that the “Romance that Cuts through Fate” applies to Obiyuki NOT Zenyuki. I hope I was able to coherently share my thoughts and feelings on this and not completely bore whoever may have been strong enough to make it to the end of my rambles. 

[bubblesthemonsterartist]

Okay, I'm in Izanayuki hell *again* (thanks, Jen :D), sooooo: Izanayuki/Cinderella AU: There's some party in Clarines where Izana should "find" Haki with the glass shoe (for she's his princess), but to get to her he offers the shoe to other girls first (to prove it fits only Haki) but (*gasp!*) accidentally it fits Shirayuki .>

Itis said that Wilant Castle was born before time, before man, from the earthitself. That the very first gods to claim this land as their own cut through snow then mud then ice to midwife it from the mountains that lay beneath. It was, if you were to ask those whose blood draws from the rivers of the North, a holy place. That as long as the onewho sits upon its ancient throne was good and just, the country would benefit;would thrive.

He never gave much credence to the old stories.

Hisfather did, though. And had spat upon it. That, Izana remembers vividly. His mothers nails bit into the flesh of his shoulders and he, as a child, had not understood how her face could be so calm when her body pressed against his spine trembled so violently. 

Scholars, the King had growled, eyeing the crest of Knowledge that hung high upon the wall. They are no better than traitors in training.

At the time, he had been frightened. Been scared. Like all children are in the face of something more powerful than themselves. But he wanted so dearly to please his father, to be deserving of his time.

Izana yanked his arms from his mothers grasp, past her pained gasp, scampering up to his fathers side, and-

That’s my boy. A heavy hand rested upon his head - everything about him was always so heavy - ruffling hair as Izana cleaned the spittle from his chin with his sleeve. Pay witness to this, my Queen. A once and future King of Clarines stand before you.

Even now, the memory stings from the warmth it stirs in his heart. He had been… so happy. So proud. Felt so worthy-

Only for his father to fade once again. To disappear. Off to battle, Lord Haruka always told him. Off to war. And until his 13th summer, whenever a lazy moment would allow recollection, Izana would think upon the memory and dismiss it as no more than a dream. A fantastical nightmare that could be left in the ashes of slumber.

Until it wasn’t.

Cold sweat dampened his collar and steel flashed before his eyes. A blow landed and the wood in his hand rattled like his teeth, like his own spinning brain. 

Elitists. That’s what they are, King Kain said over the sound of his pounding heart, and he pulled back, circled, picked the next weakness to exploit. They think they’re learned, but they are nothing but innocent babes. What could they possibly know of war and peace locked up in their libraries and laboratories?

How Izana wished his father paid the Northern territories no mind. Each time was worse than the last-

It is best, the King grinned, catching the distraction and taking advantage of it. A fist wrapped itself in his loosened hair, his mothers hair, and held tight, to keep them tightly under one’s thumb.

The nape of Izana’s neck still burns and itches, still remembers the texture of a large hand pressed there and squeezing. Until-

You’re pushing yourself too hard, a far softer voice scolded. Small hands chased his away from the hurt, coolness chasing away the heat with one deft motion. You need to sleep.

For once, the softness in his chest relaid itself on his face. And he smiled. I’ll have plenty of time for that after one of these assassins manages to do their job.

Green, the color of a fresh spring day, flashed in his vision. A brow creased with worry. A mouth set with disapproval. I promised Zen I would take care of you. Don’t make me a liar.

Pain strikes straight through his skull in a thunderclap and he shakes the memory clean. 

What would his dearly departed father have to say about this?

“Arewe going to go in, Your Majesty?”

Izanablinks. Stares at the firelight glowingfrom the castle before him, the dark stone cut with gold, and wonders if there is something to be said of those old stories. If the same gods thatbuilt this place would intervene to keep the Wisteria name from tainting it further.

“Ina moment,” he replies.

Zakurais rarely dour. But between his Southern blood, the wind and the snow masquerading as rain, even he has his limits. “In a moment both of ourseats will be frozen to our saddles,” he grumbles. “We’ll have to be cut from them and how then do you propose that we meetyour lady? With a hole in our trousers?”

Despitehimself, despite the sight of his breath misting in a cloud through rain andsleet, Izana can feel his humor improving. He must be the only one of his partyaffected thus, for his mount shifts irritably beneath his thighs.

“Howis your history, Sir Shidnote?”

The weight of Zakua’s stare is heavy on the back of his head. “Fair enough,” he says, uncertain. “I was raised to be a Lord just the same as any other.”

Castinghim an appraisal from the tail of his eye, Izana smirks. “You and I both knowthat peerage does not equate knowledge.”

Zakuracoughs into his fist. “Fair enough.”

“Myfather always said that the North was cursed,” Izana comments airily, bare fingerswrapping around wet leather. “That, as King, I should never set foot in theselands unless I could avoid it.”

“And your brother?”

“The second born is called the spare for a reason.”

Zakura coughs again, this time it sounds suspiciously like a laugh. “Andyet here we are, your brother safe and in the South and us here, no worse for wear.” 

Alltraces of good nature leave his voice. “Now I know you were sleeping through the meetings.”

Therain falls faster, soaking through his cloak, until he can no longer feel the ache in his chest, the buzz in his brain. All he feels, all that there is, is cold andwet.

“Izana.” Zakura’s voice is rough beneath the steady shower. “Why are we here?”

It’sa good question. A fair one. And if anyone else were to press, if anyone else wereto ask, they may never learn the truth. In fact, Izana himself does not understandwhat brought him to this place.

Savehe does.

“Whyindeed?”

~~ ~

When theypass the great iron gates at last, past mounds of gray snow and melting ice, he throws his reins to a soaked-through page boy whoimmediately whisk his grunting animals to drier housing. The heft of the air loses some of its weight - seems lighter, seems calmer. Maybe the weather would break soon.

Izana ascends the stairs to the grand entry, each step heavier than the last, and the great wooden doors that have withstood raid after raid from enemy and ally alike opens so easily before him. It quickens him. And now that he hasfound his motion again, he cannot stop, remembers that he has never once in hislife needed to stop. It is not meant for him to pause beyond his own will.Rather, it is meant for his people to keep up.

Whenhe steps, backs bow for him. When he bends his knees, a chair appear below hisseat. When he but exists, announcements rattles off of stone walls, echoingchambers by chamber until it is but a distant memory.

Zakuratakes to his shoulder, hand resting too casually at the hilt of his blade. A servant of the house approaches to take his cloak, but Izana shakes his head once in negation. Holdingup a single hand, the butler pauses, lips pressed thin, and there is… something endearing about it. Something that Izana can’t help but view with a smirk at the novelty.

Asmuch as his father hated this place, had sought to change it, Izana had always been… oddly pleased atits continued existence. The servants of these lands hadnot his father’s ghost to beat docility in them like they did in Wistal, and the butlers gazedrops fretfully down to his feet. Izana’s follow. The edges of his cloak are dripping onto the fine Watese carpeting. The shift of his boot rubs in the mud that the road had flung on them.

Makiriwill be incensed. Izana leans back into the chair, wincing at the cold as itpresses firm to his back, and closes his eyes.

Good.This is half his fault anyhow.

Itis only a minute, maybe more, but the whispers begin on the edges of the room.The questions he is not meant to hear. Zakura is oddly silent at his side and,weighted down by his own stillness, Izana opens his mouth, opens his eyes toinquire about Lady Haki, only to discover she is already there. Watching him with preternatural stillness from atop the stairwell.

“Mylady,” he says softly, and even at his most genteel, it sounds loud. Harsh.Overwhelming in the face of her slight frame.

Shetakes a step forward, her eyes boring into him, and in the faint blue winter lights of the windows at her back, she looks ill, looks half dead. Like an omen. Like apromise if he is unable to bring this deal to fruition.

“YourMajesty,” her voice floats down the stairwell to answer his greeting. “I see the negotiations are going well.”

~~ ~

“Isee.” Haki finally says, after some difficulty. “That is… indeed a uniquesituation.”

Thefire splits and spits in the hearth, sparks illuminating the room beforefading once again, and Izana wraps numb fingers around delicate porcelain. Theytingle, pinpricks of pain filling every point of contact. He is certain, beneath his sodden clothes, that the rest of him is made ofnothing more than ice.

“Areyou going to let her be taken?”

Evenhis heart.

Hisbrows push at one another, his tongue oddly lost. “She cannot marry Zen. The slight would mean war.” Of that there is no doubt. “But I am not preparedto surrender her to Sama.”

“They would take the advantage and that would mean war as well.”

It hurts how easy she reads his thoughts. Sees his logic. That he does not need to explain what is plain to his eyes.

Hakihums around the lip of her teacup. “And our bachelor in Tanbarun. How does he fair?”

If he were not so weary, Izana would laugh. The things that he could do - has done - for his country may be unspeakable, but even that is a price too steep to pay on his soul. “Raj is as wellas can be expected.”

Thineyebrows raise in question. “But not enough.”

“Itwould be cruel,” he replies, and it is a challenge not to smile when her expression turns fond. “The throne has seen enough of that these last few generations. I would prefer to minimize it in my rein.”

“Andyou call your brother the idealist.”

Forreasons he cannot fathom nor can his mind articulate, his chest aches. Fillswith a sense of loss for something that was never truly his. “I never said Iwasn’t.”

Haki’sgaze grows weary under his. Flits away. “Why are you here, Your Majesty?”

“Time,”he lies, but it’s not. It’s just not the whole truth. “Time and distance. Tolet the negotiation table cool.”

Hestarts – he starts – when her handalights upon his wrist, as graceful and delicate as a butterfly perch. It takeshim back to his youth, when he was a child in his mother’s gardens. Long beforehe felt even the first whisper of the responsibility he was meant to wield. Longbefore he knew what it meant to be as cold as he feels now.

“Youdid not come here to ask my advice on diplomacy,” she says, not unkindly, just-true, and the image is shattered. Whatever solace she provided gives way, andhe is loaded once more, the weight of his country- of his people and their future- against that of a single waif of a common born girl. 

It is a wonder that he does not give way beneath it.

“Ivalue your opinion.” He does not move, does not dare disturb her lest she take flight. “That is all.”

Itfalls silent. Somewhere down the hall, agrandfather counts the hours. Tells him the precise moment that fate sought to break their pact.

“Youhave to marry her.”

Thereis no regret in her voice, no upset. It’s a simple statement that he knows costsher everything, yet she gives it without pause.

“Igave my word,” he says, so simply. To be your husband. To be your future.

“Izana.”His name is like a shock on her lips, striking every nerve until he is nothing but raw and tender bone. “You know what must be done. You cannot let such an advantage fall intotheir hands.”

“Butthe contract,” he licks his lips, grimaces at the sting, and why, why does this kingdom deem it rightto call him King when at this moment he feels so much a boy? “I have given myword.”

Hakismiles, drawing her hand back to her own. Lips pulling in a bitter line, shesighs. “You know as well as I, Kings do not have the luxury of keepingpromises.”