#loosely based on multiple shrines in Tokyo

[furubaycrossing]

praying for good luck with the turnips this week ✨

[courtingstars]

Notes for Storming the Castle, Chapter 9

Hello again, dear AkaFuri readers! It feels SO nice that it hasn’t been too long since I last updated. I replied to all the Ch. 8 comments on Ao3 (YAY), but I did want to mention that I’m still planning to reply to several people who left me really nice notes here on Tumblr as well. Hopefully that’ll happen later today or this weekend, so thanks for your patience! (Also I apologize for the awkwardness of replying two weeks later... Family holiday stuff last week turned out to be, uh, a lot? //laughs) On to the notes!

Most of my notes this time are brief, since I didn’t have too much in the way of cultural info or setting inspiration that I haven’t mentioned already. But in the interest of sharing, here are some things I remembered…

(Cut for my usual rambling about Akashi’s house and previous fics and mental health and also THE SPOOKY STUFF/why KnB is a supernatural story anyway...)

The “Italian velvet” reference in the pillow fight

This is a really silly note that I’m including just to demonstrate how out-of-control my Google research gets… Here are some throw pillows made from Italian silk velvet, which was the fanciest imported fabric I could come up with for the pillow fight scene. (Because of course I managed to squeeze a pillow fight scene into my super-dramatic sleepover fic, haha. XD) And in case for some reason you want to know a little bit about the super-posh history of this fabric, I’ve got you covered.

(… Seriously, why do I look up things like that?)

The Akashi Family Portrait

The huge portrait of Akashi and his parents is something that I’ve been preparing to include in the story for a while… It was inspired by those gigantic paintings you often see in super-fancy European estates, that idealize powerful members of the aristocracy. (Or royalty, in some cases!) Since the Akashi house is a Western-style mansion, the idea seemed pretty fitting, as over-the-top and surreal as it is? //laughs Over on my Pinterest inspiration board for this fic, I included a bunch of different ideas for the gown that Shiori is wearing in the portrait. I especially like the color of this one and the overall silhouette of this one but this is spectacular as well. (Her gown probably wouldn’t be as low cut as those examples, for multiple cultural reasons, but you still get the general idea?) There’s actually a lot of Shiori-related inspiration in that part of the board, including a couple KnB images!

The Traditional Tatami Room

So this one is interesting… Back in Chapter Five, you might remember that Furihata’s house—like many Japanese homes—has a traditional Japanese-style room with tatami mats on the floor. Since Akashi’s house in the anime is based on an actual Western-style mansion near Tokyo, my initial assumption was that his house wouldn’t have any traditional rooms. BUT, it turns out the actual house does have at least one room with tatami mats, as you can see in the third photo from the bottom here. (You can also see a photo of it in the first link!) So I decided to include it in Furihata’s midnight exploration of the rooms, where he discovers the Akashi family butsudan.

I’ve mentioned butsudan in the notes in Part One, but as a quick reminder, a butsudan is a family shrine that is partly used to honor relatives who are deceased.

References to Fast Train

Since it’s been a looooong time since I posted the first story of this series, I did want to mention that a few of the things that Furihata thinks about during Part Two are referring to events that happened in The Fast Train to Kyoto. Furihata’s first dream about meeting Shiori is one example. Another one, in this chapter, is when Furihata sees Akashi’s father in person for the first time, and remembers that Akashi once told him that he “was instructed to keep people at a distance.” That’s from their phone mail conversation in Chapter Seven of Fast Train.

I try to make sure that any fic in a series can be read by itself, so I usually stop to explain these references in some way, for those who didn’t read the earlier story. But that one was vague enough that I figured it deserved a nod!

Photo References for the Bedroom

I linked some of these before, but since the final scene featured Akashi’s bedroom so much, I thought I would link a few of my photo inspirations for his bed here, here and here. Also, I forgot that he wasn’t wearing the robe in the previous chapter, so here’s a few photos I picked for possible inspiration there. (Those are both a little fancier compared to what I saw in my head, but I’m okay with that? //laughs)

Furihata’s Anxiety

I won’t go into panic attacks and anxiety here, since that information is pretty readily available online… But I did think it was worth mentioning that while Furihata has panicked in front of Akashi in my fics (and in canon!), he says that until now he’s tried to avoid having an attack that severe in front of a friend. Since this series is meant to be about two people who struggle with different mental health disorders, I think it’s noteworthy that Furihata trusts Akashi enough at this point to let his new friend be around him when he’s at his most vulnerable, and to see the full extent of what he struggles with.

(And I’ll also say that this is a theme in the series that’s going to come around again. I won’t say exactly how, because of the spoiler factor, but… I bet a lot of you can figure it out! Seriously, your insight about where the story is going constantly amazes me. <3)

All The Supernatural Stuff

To be honest, I have no idea if I should be apologizing or not, for how supernatural this chapter gets? //laughs Several people have told me that they’re still reading this series because they enjoy the idea of Furihata having supernatural powers, like the ability to see auras. So, uh… I hope you enjoyed this chapter? XD

I have to admit that from the beginning of A Spark of Light, I was planning to include various elements of the supernatural. (I was foreshadowing this in Fast Train too, so, see previous note? //laughs) That’s one of my favorite things about KnB, if I’m 100% honest… I’m obsessed with all kinds of fantasy and speculative fiction, so I love all the little hints in the KnB canon that something kind of supernatural might be going on with the Generation of Miracles. Like how Kuroko has absolutely no “presence” but the GoM have really strong ones, and how they all have that weird clairaudient vision of a door opening in that one episode, and… yeah. XD Even the more subtle stuff, like all the different patterns of matching names (no kidding, almost EVERYONE has names that match in different ways, even Seirin and the Uncrowned Kings!). Plus the way the GoM are the only ones with super colorful hair, and also Akashi’s slitted pupils? (SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WITH THE CAT PUPILS, WHY DOES NOBODY IN CANON EVER ASK ABOUT THAT.)

Come to think of it, I can go ahead and mention this now… The series title, A Spark of Light, is meant at least partly as a reference Furihata’s first name! “Kouki” includes the kanji for “light,” and one translation for its full meaning is “establishes brilliance.” (Light symbolism is super important in KnB in general, for obvious reasons. XD) So the title partly refers to how during the series, Furihata’s intuitive and supernatural powers are “sparking” to life, and this affects pretty much everything that happens. (And it’s one of the reasons why he is able to get so close to Akashi in the first place.)

Side note: This is loosely related to the reoccurring thing with Furihata (or a character that represents him!) holding a small light, like a lantern/candle. I also use a lot of fire symbolism for Akashi, because fire is pretty strongly associated with the color red in Japan. So one is the “spark” while the other is the “flame,” basically? METAPHORS. //I’msocornyohgodhelp

In any case, the supernatural parts are definitely becoming more and more important to the plot! Furihata doesn’t fully accept some of what he sees in this chapter, but I can say that he’s going to have to face some of what it means for him (and for his connection to Akashi) very soon.

(And hopefully I didn’t creep anyone out too badly with the ghost stuff… I know some of you definitely saw it coming! But with any luck, the way in which it was finally introduced had an interesting twist to it… I hope?)

As always, thanks for checking out my ramble-y notes, and thanks so much for reading the fic. <3 See you again soon for the final chapter!