#mostly it just means its not all japanese LOL

[corneille-moisie]

i was tagged by @im-sometimes-sparkles to spell my url with song titles and did not want to reblog the long reblog chain (you can reblog this one or make your own, either's fine by me :) )

candis - sukekiyo

obscure - dir en grey (cw for gore and other gross stuff, just in case)

rink - blam honey

nas ne dagoniat - tatu (not gonna get us works too :D)

energize me - after forever

inner universe - hora

l'horloge - chanton l'amour

last hallucination - schwarz stein

even in death - evanescence

-

maze - velvet eden

ophelia - kaya

if i could turn back time - cher

senzafine - lacuna coil

iidk - vidoll

edema ruh - nightwish

im tagging @moonjaehwa, @ans-main, @technicontrastron, @kurumeki, @jade-curtiss because im curious but you're under no obligation to actually do it lol :3

eta : no need to link everything, im just extra like that ^^

and if you were not tagged and wanna do it, go ahead, do it !! (tag me though, i wanna see 👀 !!)

[osarina]

ᡣ𐭩 CHIVALRY FELL ON ITS SWORD

FEATURING: dazai osamu

SUMMARY: history always repeats itself. dazai is captured, you're facing enemies on all fronts, and it's only a matter of time before you hit your breaking point. you can't let things turn out the same way they did two years ago. you can't—you'll do whatever it takes.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: happy friday my peeps, i hope your week has been good. ive been looking forward to this chapter for sooooo long so i hope you enjoy ;) unfortunately, there will be no wykyk update this week (i mean it this time), i've fallen behind in civzai and really need to focus on it. reblogs and comments greatly appreciated as always!! ENJOY!

GENERAL WARNINGS: fem!reader, port mafia executive!reader, civilian!dazai, dazai's struggles w suicide & sh, reader partakes in mafia business, dazai isn't dazai without a bit of obsessiveness and possessiveness (the possessiveness doesn't come til later but the obsessiveness starts from day 0).

CHAPTER SPECIFIC WARNINGS: hardly edited. depictions of psychological torture (commit by reader), both reader and dazai are wildly unstable, mori is a bit of a cunt LOL, a bit of legal proceedings in the beginning but i didn't want to deep dive into japanese court proceedings so i just based it mostly off us court proceedings, but again, not entirely accurate because i'm not in that field and didn't feel like doing intense research.

ANOTHER THING TO NOTE: our lovely reader IS A MAFIA EXECUTIVE !! as a port mafia executive, she does port mafia things, this will become very apparent in thIS chapter and the rest of the upcoming chapters. it might be a bit jarring to read but it is something to keep in mind. additionally, she is FLAWED. i wanted to add this warning just to give you all a bit of a heads up.

SEE: WASTELAND, BABY! SERIES MASTERLIST

“... Your Honor, I have to object to counsel’s petition for bail, the defendant…”

“... If I may, Your Honor, we don’t even know how this footage was obtained and the prosecution has not acknowledged any of our requests to ensure that this is reliable. For all we know, this footage is edited or illegally obtained. It would be a disgrace to our justice system if we were to keep the defendant detained with no bail…”

“... not only a flight risk, but we’re risking witness and evidence tampering. Respectfully, this isn’t an unarmed robbery the defendant is being accused of, Your Honor, this woman is a threat to public safety, she’s being charged with connection to the most dangerous criminal organization in the Eastern Hemisphere, and not just as any ordinary member, but as an executive. I have to insist-”

“Your Honor, the defendant shouldn’t have even been brought into custody considering all current evidence might not be admissible. And the prosecution cannot sit here making baseless claims of risk when the only supporting evidence is inadmissible. I don’t even understand why I have to sit here and argue this.”

“Counsel seems to think-”

“Enough. Order. I’ll sustain the ob-”

“Your Honor… I don’t mean to interrupt but you may want to see this before…”

“What is it, Hasegawa-san?”

“... I see, very well. The defense’s petition for bail is granted. Bail will be set at one hundred and fifty million yen, bond at thirty million yen. The next hearing will be set for two weeks out, I trust that gives the prosecution enough time to prove the legitimacy of the evidence…”

“Don’t look at any of the cameras.”

“No shit,” you mutter as your attorney, Tachibana, leads you from the courthouse to where a car is waiting to pick you up. 

There are so many flashing lights and microphones in your face that you can hardly see a few steps in front of you. So many people talking that each question melds into the next. You couldn’t entertain the media even if you wanted to with them all talking over each other to shout at you. Your head hurts and the bright lights aren’t helping—you grimace as you turn your head to the side but you’re only met with another face full of cameras and microphones.

“Back up,” a familiar voice booms and at once, the tension in your body dissipates as Iceman shoulders his way through the crowd toward you. The man sneers at a paparazzo who tries to cut him off and all but knocks him out of the way to reach forward and grab your wrist, yanking you toward him.

He ushers Tachibana forward and keeps you tucked under his arm as he guides the two of you to the black car. It’s only when you’re inside and the door is shut behind you, that you can finally relax, but it’s only for a split second before Albatross is bursting into laughter in the front seat before you’ve even sat down yourself.

“You look ugly as hell in a prison uniform,” he wheezes, having the audacity to point at you as he turns around to look at you. “God, I never thought this day would come. Someone take a fucking picture.”

“Fuck off,” you snap at him, which only makes him laugh harder.

“The entire world has pictures at this point,” Doc says dryly, looking over you once and frowning at the bruises on your wrists where the cuffs had been tightened too much. He clicks his tongue as he runs his finger across them as you pass by him before sighing, “They really waited as long as they legally could for your arraignment, didn’t they?” 

 Two whole days. You haven’t eaten because you had to watch the prison guard spit in your food before passing it over to you—evidently, his brother was killed by the Port Mafia and he decided to take that out on you, which was nice. So as if you weren’t dealing with enough bullshit, you haven’t properly slept or eaten in two days.

More than that, you’ve had no confirmation concerning Dazai’s status in two days. 

That alone has left you with no appetite and no desire to sleep anyway. You’ve been restless trying to figure what to do if Klaus wasn’t able to get Dazai away from the Guild. That is, restless, and increasingly more violent and angry. You’ve never been someone prone to choose violence as the answer, but you think the only thing that will satisfy you now is the entire organization eviscerated. Not only have they gotten you thrown in prison, but they have Dazai.

You finally take a seat next to Chuuya. He’s stuffed in the back corner of the limo so that no unsavory eyes could catch sight of him when Iceman ushered you and Tachibana into the car. As soon as you take a seat next to him, he wraps an arm around your shoulder and squeezes your bicep. You almost want to collapse into him—you’re so tired and hungry and just so mentally and physically drained that all you want to do is sleep, but you know you can��t, not until you have Dazai back.

Just as you’re about to look up at Klaus and ask him how things went, Piano Man speaks up, addressing Tachibana. “How are things looking?”

The man grimaces. “Not good. They could hold her liable for all of the crimes attributed to the Port Mafia if the jury finds the footage as proof of her affiliation,” Tachibana says. “The last time they had a Yakuza boss on trial, they had him sentenced to death and he was only being held vicariously liable for one murder and three assaults. They have her down for six and all of the other crimes they’ve been gathering as evidence against the Port Mafia just in case they were given an opportunity like this. If-”

“Why are we talking about a jury trial?” you ask tightly, giving Tachibana a cool look from the corner of your eye. “Get the charges dropped.”

A frustrated expression crosses Tachibana’s face. “But-”

“No buts, do your goddamn job and get this dismissed,” you tell him before turning your attention to Klaus. “What’s the situation with the journalists?” 

Klaus looks mighty proud of himself as he raises his chin. “They’re dead. Do you want to hear how I did it? It was quite ingenious if I do say so myself.”

He looks excited to tell you, eyes gleaming and smiling wide, so even though you should just drill him for information about Ui and Dazai, you decide to entertain him and nod. 

“Tell me,” you say, hoping at least hearing that those irritating pests got what they deserved is enough to ease the seemingly insatiable bloodlust the past few days has caused you before you get back to headquarters and have to deal with Ace.

Klaus is clearly trying to hold back a laugh as he prepares to tell you. From the way Atsushi looks a bit green next to him, you know whatever he’s about to tell you is going to be gross.

“They’re called the Ivory Eagle, right?” he says rhetorically, blue eyes dancing as he stares directly at you, waiting for you to nod again. When you do, he continues, “You see, when I was back in Europe with the Pale Flame, we learned a lot about ancient torture and execution methods. Nabakov had the trafficked ability users fight in rings, y’know, gladiator style—the winner of the fight would pick a method to punish the loser with in front of everyone. The vikings had a ritual execution method called the blood eagle, so I thought it would be funny ‘cause y’know, the name? Ivory Eagle, blood eagle? They can keep their theme even in death!” 

“I should not be hearing this,” Tachibana sighs, covering his ears and closing his eyes.

You snort. “May they soar to greater heights,” you mock their slogan and Klaus lets out a loud bark of laughter, bouncing in his seat in excitement.

“I knew you would get it, I’m so funny.” he laughs, nudging Atsushi hard, but the weretiger only looks like he’s about to start crying, so Klaus looks back at you, teeth glimmering as he smiles widely.

“What happened with Ui?” you ask, glancing down to see Chuuya passing you a bottle of water. You give him a grateful look before redirecting your attention back to your subordinates. “And where’s Akutagawa?” 

“That ugly journalist confirmed they worked with the Guild to get the footage from your boyfriend,” Klaus says, and even though you knew this, it still makes you feel sick. “... I went by his apartment. It was totally trashed, there was blood on the sidewalk. I’ve spent the past two days trying to hunt down the Guild but I can’t find them anywhere. I was planning on going to the Armed Detective Agency later today to get that one detective to tell me where they are. Figured they wouldn’t be opposed to helping considering they’re getting the shit end of the stick with the Guild too, I heard two of them were trapped for days in an interdimensional space before they were able to get them out.”

“Akutagawa and Kyouka-chan are out doing rounds around the city. Kyouka-chan found one of the lower-ranked Guild members wandering around the city, she’s hoping that she’ll lead her back to their base,” Atsushi adds, answering your second question.

You let out a heavy sigh, looking down at your lap. Apartment trashed. Blood. The water you had just sipped threatens to come back up, you feel Chuuya squeeze your bicep again to try to comfort you, but you don’t care for comfort, you only want Dazai. You want him back in your apartment, back in your arms, you want him safe, you want him.

You want him.

“We’ll get him,” Chuuya promises like he can hear your thoughts. You suppose it’s probably written all over your face. “I’ll do whatever it takes, okay? I won’t let the fucking Guild take him from you.”

He’s spent two days with them. God knows what they’ve done to him to try to get information about you—the thought makes your skin crawl, your chest weighs with guilt. You brought him into this life knowing this risk and you still couldn’t protect him. You need to do something, you need to-

“Chuuya,” you say quietly, “can I borrow your phone?” 

Chuuya’s brows furrow but he nods, passing his phone over to you. You ignore the way your fingers tremble as you type in a familiar number and press the phone to your ear, you wait a few anxious seconds for the person on the other line to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Leo,” you breathe out. “Are you still in New York?”

“You’re okay,” Leo Tolstoy sighs, the relief in his voice palpable. “I saw the news. I figured they wouldn’t be able to keep you locked up long. I’m still here, yeah, I have a flight to Tokyo in an hour. I just had to finish up-”

“Cancel it,” you say immediately, fingers digging into the thin pants you’re wearing. “I need to call in a favor.”

“Hit me with it,” he tells you. “You know I’d do anything for you.”

Good, you think, lips curving up as you tell Tolstoy your plan. 

There’s only one way to force Fitzgerald into giving you Dazai back, and you’re willing to go to any lengths to do it.

“You’re awake,” an unfamiliar voice notes just as Dazai starts stirring awake. “Good.”

He’s been in and out of consciousness for two days now—awake for a few hours, asleep for double that. He almost wishes that the blow to the head had killed him, because each time he wakes up, he’s questioned sharply about you and he’s tired of it. The first two days of captivity, when Dazai was awake, he spent most of his time staring at the ceiling, your words ringing through his head and your twisted expression plain as day. He’s recounted every word of his conversation with you before he fled, he’s noted every place where he messed up and could have done something different to avoid this, he’s felt so numb that he would almost prefer pain and he’s felt so much regret that it did physically pain him.

Now, he’s just irritated. 

Irritated and tired and hungry and most of all, he misses you. Misses you so much that you’re the only thing he can think of clearly. Misses you so much that it makes him sick. Misses you so much that he’s started casting up prayers to gods he doesn’t believe him because he just wants the chance to see your face again.

Thus far, he’s been able to evade answering any questions, but he has a feeling it’s only a matter of time before they start taking more extreme measures to get the information out of him, and Dazai has never been one to deal well with pain. He doubts he’ll be able to get away with lying to throw them off trail for long.

“Nope,” he says tiredly, rolling over onto his side to turn his back on the man. “Still sleeping, unfortunately.”

Dazai doesn’t know who this one is. 

He’s gotten used to the other two over the past forty-eight hours—the redhead is called Mark Twain, a high-ranking member of the Guild whose preferred form of torture is casual conversation. It’s predictable and Dazai, naturally, doesn’t fall for it, but it doesn’t stop him from trying. He comes into the cell with food and water that Dazai refuses to touch and talks to Dazai from the moment he wakes up to the moment he passes back out. He asks about you and the Port Mafia without actually asking about you and the Port Mafia, talks about his own woman back home and bitches about his work with the Guild, seeing if Dazai will chime in with his own commentary and grievances.

Dazai doesn’t, of course—there’s not much he can say about the Port Mafia anyway, the things you’d talked about with him are irrelevant at this point, and Dazai certainly is not going to tell Twain anything about you. He knows that the Guild must be looking for information on your ability and Dazai will be damned if he lets anything about it slip. The most he’ll make is snide comments, hoping to piss Twain off enough to leave, but then he has to deal with the other man, James, who is far less pleasant to deal with. Dazai can hardly stand the sight of him and he isn’t sure if it’s because 1) he’s just unappealing to look at, 2) his head injury, or 3) he still has a grudge over the head injury. 

He thinks maybe it might be all of the above. 

Regardless, the voice of the new arrival is neither Twain’s nor James’s, which means he has a new yet equally undesired visitor. Dazai, naturally, is wary of the unknown. He’d overheard Twain and James talking about Francis getting involved and he remembers that you mentioned the leader of the Guild’s name is Francis Fitzgerald. He has a distinct suspicion that this must be him and Dazai’s only thought is that this definitely doesn’t bode well for him.

“Mister Dazai, please, you need not make this difficult on yourself,” Fitzgerald sighs. “We already have all of the information we need anyway. We want to help you.”

What.

Dazai’s cautious now as he sits up to face Fitzgerald, mind racing as he tries to figure out what exactly he means by ‘we have all of the information we need.’ Dazai has been so careful not to let anything slip—even when he was half delirious from his head wound, he bit his tongue. He didn’t utter a single thing until he was certain that his brain was functioning well enough for him to carefully choose each word he spoke. 

There’s no way that they managed to get anything from what he’d said.

The blonde man sitting on the opposite side of the room is dressed in a fancy suit and wears a watch that probably costs more than anything Dazai has ever owned in his life. He looks unusually earnest as he leans forward, elbows on his knees as observes Dazai. Dazai thinks that he’s decently good at reading people, and he can’t find a hint of deception in Fitzgerald’s face, which leaves Dazai feeling distinctly unnerved, unable to predict what’s about to happen to him.

“I find that hard to believe when your subordinate bashed my head in two days ago,” Dazai replies, keeping his voice light but watching Fitzgerald carefully. 

“My friend, Henry, is quite excitable,” Fitzgerald sighs, faux-remorse dripping from his tone. “I apologize for him, I was very clear that you weren’t to be injured.”

That doesn’t really help Dazai at all. He needs to figure out how exactly he’s going to press Fitzgerald and figure out what he learned from Dazai. Luckily, he doesn’t have to say much at all because Fitzgerald takes it upon himself to continue talking.

“There were some pieces of information I kept to myself during our endeavor here in Yokohama,” Fitzgerald says. “There are too many… rats scuttering around the sewers. It’s hard to tell who’s listening at any given time. Everyone has their own agendas, and there’s just some information that’s too valuable to risk falling into anyone’s hands but your own. Even supposed allies’.”

Rats. Allies. Agendas. Dazai’s mind races as he notes it all down to tell you as soon as you get him out of here. He doesn’t respond to Fitzgerald’s words, waiting for him to make the mistake of continuing his little monologue so he can have more information to report back to you. From what he’s able to piece together, there’s more than just Fitzgerald and the Guild at work here, but you haven’t mentioned any other organizations besides them, which makes him antsy because if you don’t know that this is multiple organizations working together against the Port Mafia… 

You could be in danger.

“I was already made aware of her ability,” Fitzgerald says, watching Dazai for a reaction. He’s careful not to give one, but his words make Dazai’s skin crawl. You’d said that your ability was the most well-guarded secret in the Port Mafia. That only the upper echelon was aware of it. 

So how?

The traitor.

Dazai’s throat swells and it’s much harder to keep his distressed emotions off of his face when he remembers the tip-off that Professor Ui had received about a situation happening at the ports on Shinko, remembers that he alluded to someone within the Port Mafia’s inner circle being the informant, remembers that in his meltdown, he never even told you.

Shit.

“Henry, he is also an ability user,” Fitzgerald continues. Dazai is grateful that he seemingly doesn’t notice his increasing panic. “What Maisie Knew, an ability that notifies him when somebody around him is lying. My intention in bringing you here was not to interrogate you, but to find out if you knew the extent of the manipulation happening around you.”

Dazai blinks slowly, letting the words process through his head. An ability that notifies him when somebody around him is lying… but would that even work on Dazai? You tried to use your ability on him with and without touch and it didn’t affect him, so this one shouldn’t either. And if he wasn’t notifying him when Dazai was lying about knowing nothing about your ability… 

“Henry told me that you were telling the truth when they asked you about your knowledge of her ability,” Fitzgerald says, and Dazai almost hates the pity thinly veiled behind the man’s eyes. He doesn’t like anyone thinking that he doesn’t know something about you, but he lets this slide because it might just work in his favor. “Her ability is a form of mental manipulation. She influences the emotions of people around her to trust and adore her. What you felt for that girl was nothing more than what she wanted you to feel—she’s spent months shaping your mind to make you believe you care for her so that in a situation like this, you would choose to protect her even at the cost of your own life.”

The surprise that shifts across Dazai’s face is genuine—not because of the revelation of your ability like Fitzgerald believes—but because Fitzgerald does know your ability, and he knows it in an alarming amount of detail. He wishes he had some way of contacting you now, but he needs to focus now on figuring out how he’s going to play this.

They didn’t kidnap him to interrogate him. They kidnapped him to try to make him willingly turn against you by revealing all of your ‘manipulations’ in an effort to rattle you into making a mistake. A decent plan, honestly, and if Dazai were anyone but Dazai, it might’ve worked… but Dazai is Dazai—he’s never been affected by your ability, or Fitzgerald’s subordinate’s, or any ability for that matter, and he would rather die than turn against you.

But… would it be better to make Fitzgerald think that he has turned against you? It would be safer for him, surely. If the man thought Dazai was swayed to his side, he might even have a chance to escape… but it could also throw you off if Fitzgerald tells you, and Dazai isn’t sure if he wants to risk that considering there’s apparently other allies of the Guild that you don’t know about. You would see through it eventually, but in those few moments that you didn’t…

Any mistake now could be fatal. 

“She’s in federal custody right now,” Fitzgerald says. 

Dazai almost feels dizzy, hands falling from his lap to the bed to dig his nails into the sheets to steady himself. He knew this—he knew it in his heart when Twain mentioned the flash drive and pointed out the sirens but Dazai had still had hope that you managed to evade arrest, that you wouldn’t have been dragged down by his mistakes.

Fitzgerald is still talking and Dazai knows that he should be listening, but instead his mind racing, thoughts so quick and jumbled that he can hardly get them straight. If you’re in federal custody right now, the last thing you needed was to get out and hear news of Dazai turning against you. You’d be worn thin, stressed, alone. You don’t think clearly when you’re under a ton of stress, especially when people you love are at risk. You try to, but when it gets too much, you shut down like you did at the beach house and you can’t shut down with the Guild at your door and god knows what other enemies lurking in the shadow, preparing to strike.

If you’re in federal custody, then the chances that you’ll see through this is even lower because you’ll already not be thinking clearly. There’s a much higher chance that you don’t see through it, that you think the Guild tortured him until his mind broke and he turned against you. And considering your past with Nakahara Chuuya and his lover, it might be the only logical conclusion your brain comes to.

He can’t risk it. It’ll put you in danger—he’s done enough of that lately, but this time, your life really would be on the line.

Instead, he’ll put his on it. 

“No,” Dazai says suddenly, cutting Fitzgerald off mid sentence. The blonde looks at him curiously waiting for him to continue. “No. I don’t believe you—about her, about using her ability on me. I don’t believe any of it. Get out.”

Dazai doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to pretend to be blind with love—maybe he can convince Fitzgerald that he’s still under the effects of your ability, that might buy him a few days, but it won’t last forever. He doubts that the Guild will kill him if they want him to turn against you to batter you down, and they want him to do it willingly, so they’ll probably spend a few more days trying to convince him before they resort to making him turn on you through force. 

You just need to get to him before that happens.

Fitzgerald doesn’t look surprised by Dazai’s words, but he does look disappointed. He braces himself for the man to press the issue, but to Dazai’s relief, Fitzgerald stands to leave. Dazai needs time to think, time to formulate how exactly is the best way to go about this to buy as much time as possible.

“I figured that would be the case, months under an ability like that takes more than a few days of separation to be free of,” Fitzgerald tells him before he leaves. “Think on it, you could be very useful to our cause… and we could be useful to you too. I’ll be back for an answer.”

“Don’t come back anytime soon,” Dazai replies snidely as the door closes, pulling the blanket tighter around him and resting his head against the wall.

As soon as the door is closed, a heavy feeling settles over his chest and Dazai feels so alone that it makes him sick. He’s become so used to your presence in his life that every moment without you feels like his chest is being hollowed out. The room he’s in is cold and uncomfortable compared to the warmth of your apartment. He wants to be curled up in your bed, surrounded by your scent, wants to be watching some lame movie or forcing you to watch him play an even lamer video game. 

He misses you desperately, and his nails bite into the fabric of the blankets as he tries to ground himself, losing himself in the thoughts of you, praying that you come for him soon.

“Ah! Our resident convict has finally decided to grace us with her presence.”

“Oh, Ace, it’s impressive, truly, how everyday you manage to become more stupid than the last. You must not have any brain cells left in that empty skull of yours… You’re not much unlike a protozoa honestly, ” Piano Man sighs whimsically. When Ace’s face twists in confusion, Piano Man gives him a sweet smile. “That’s a single-celled organism. Basic biology, I fear, thank you for proving my point so quickly.”

“She hasn’t been convicted, you dumb fuck,” Chuuya snaps. “And you sound way too pleased over the matter, should probably choose your tone more carefully considering it was you and your subordinate who got her arrested. Sounds a bit like, I don’t know, treason. Did you betray the Port Mafia, Ace?” 

Wow, you think, they came in hotter than you expected.

You don’t even bother to address Ace as you make your way to your place at Mori’s right side, taking a seat in the chair left empty for you. You don’t look at him until you’ve taken your seat, but even then he gives you no cues, violet eyes watching you listlessly as he waits for you to say something.

Once the circular table is fully seated, your gaze finally flits to Ace.

“Go on,” you say. “Answer Chuuya’s question.”

Ace’s face twists at your words. “That’s a ridiculous accusation,” he says, raising his chin. “That-”

“Is it?” you interrupt coolly. “You pride yourself on the use of your collars and their ability to control your subordinates. Either your collars are not quite as effective as you’ve so ardently claimed them to be or you’ve betrayed the Port Mafia. Which is it, Ace? Both will have consequences, naturally, one will just be more… final than the other.”

Unless there’s some otherworldly interference, Ace is going to die today.

He’s the reason you were arrested. His subordinates are notoriously fearful of him and his ability to kill them with just a passing thought once he has the collar around their necks. The chance of one of them acting on their own to try to kill you is slim to none. And you know that he knows you know he did it just from the amusement thinly veiled behind the outraged expression on his face.

He’s too smug.

Something’s not right.

“Unfortunately, it seems as if my efforts to deter disobedience have gone ineffective concerning one of my subordinates.” Ace waves his hand, lavender eyes meeting yours pointedly as he speaks his next words: “No need to fret, I’ve dealt with him accordingly.”

That… was not anticipated. You’re careful not to react to his words, gauging the reactions of the others in the room trying to figure out if this was something they all talked about while you were being held by the government, but Piano Man and Chuuya look just as appalled, even Kouyou hides her pursed lips behind her fan as she gives Mori a careful look.

Mori does not look surprised as the rest of his executives.

What did you do?

Chuuya is the first to speak, voice low, “You’ve what?”

“A betrayal of this magnitude is not something for an executive to handle alone,” Piano Man says, the airy tone of his long gone as he stares at Ace. “Especially the executive in charge of said traitor. You acted out of line—this should’ve been brought in front of us all before any action was taken.”

“Out of line?” Ace’s voice becomes more mocking now, clearly enjoying knowing something that Piano Man doesn’t after the snide comment. “Not at all, I acted on orders of the Boss.”

At once, the conference room goes quiet. You see Chuuya and Piano Man turn to look at Mori for the corner of your eye, but you keep your gaze trained on Ace instead and he keeps his on yours. He looks entirely too pleased with himself, eyes cool and taunting, the corner of his lips turned up just enough to be noticeable.

“It’s true.”

Mori offers no explanation—he doesn’t need to, he’s the Boss, but you know there’s something else going on here. He never liked Ace, spoke poorly of the man’s easily bought loyalties and undue arrogance. Only gave him the executive position for financial purposes after the Dragon’s Head Conflict left Yokohama in shambles. Let him stay because his arrogance makes him easily manipulated but always keeps him at arm’s length, ready to cut off at the first whiff of betrayal.

And now he’s what? Scheming with the man he’s despised for years against you? Is it punishment for everything that has happened with the two Yakuza syndicates and the Guild? Punishment for Dazai? 

You can’t understand it, you can’t.

You look at Mori from the corner of your eye, blood running hot and only barely able to keep the fury off of your face.

What are you planning?

Mori’s lips curve up as if he can hear your thoughts, eyes flickering with amusement as he looks at you.

You’ll find out, little hime.

“What is Tachibana-kun’s opinion on the indictment?” Mori asks instead, leaning back in his seat and folding his hands over the table as he looks at you.

“He’s going to get the charges dropped,” you reply flatly, nails biting into the slacks you’d changed into before coming to the meeting, suddenly feeling far too cornered as you realize you have enemies around every corner—even within your own home. “This will be over within two weeks.”

“Hm.” Mori sounds more entertained than anything as he tilts his head to the side and studies you. “And the Guild? How do you plan to handle them, little hime? More importantly, that boy you’d been silly enough to allow the information that led to your imprisonment… I trust he’ll be properly handled?”

Putting you on blast in front of all of the executives… Kouyou is watching you carefully, Chuuya is stiff, Piano Man tense, and Ace, of course, is mildly amused. You feel like a circus monkey performing for the lot of them and you know it’s exactly what Mori wanted.

You’re sure not to let your irritation slip onto your face as you smile thinly and reply with: “The Guild will be taken care of by the end of the week. I fear that the boy is not the issue in this situation, Ace would be more suited to answer any questions regarding my imprisonment. Isn’t that right?” 

Ace’s smile tightens. “Not at all,” he says coldly. “What are you implying?”

“That it was your subordinate that had dealings with the Guild, of course,” you say with a sweet smile. “What else would I be implying?” 

“Right.”

“I mean, I do trust that you managed to get information out of him before killing him, right? We’ve all been trained to do that,” you add, raising your eyebrows and tilting your head to the side. “You did get the information, didn’t you?”

“I would like to know how you plan to handle the Guild considering you’ve failed spectacularly up to this point,” Mori intervenes, preventing you from questioning Ace about the ‘subordinate’ that ‘betrayed the Port Mafia’. 

You give him a heavy side-eye, wondering what game he’s playing and why he’s protecting Ace of all people—he must have some plan in the works that involves the man, but what? What could he possibly be using Ace for that’s so important that it makes the cost of keeping a rat in his inner circle trivial? You’ve always struggled to understand the way Mori’s mind works, but never more than now.

You decide to be plain with your accusations now. You’re tired of playing coy; although you’re stuck in limbo now as you wait for Tolstoy to come through with the favor you’ve asked of him, you still feel like you could be doing more productive things to try to figure out how you’ll actually approach Fitzgerald to get Dazai back. 

“I don’t feel comfortable divulging that information in this setting,” you say simply, watching as Kouyou’s eyes widen just a bit, Chuuya and Piano Man share a look, and Ace stiffens as he prepares for a scathing comment, but a motion from Mori has them settling down. “Regardless, I think there are more important issues to discuss. Namely, the setbacks we now have to deal with on the political front because of my indictment. I can reach out to the politicians that I’m close enough with that the accusations won’t sway them, but I worry that we might’ve lost a lot of key swing votes in the upcoming bill going through the Diet.”

“We can’t let that bill pass,” Chuuya says tightly. 

Kouyou sighs airly as she fans her face. “I can reach out to my connections,” she offers. “I assume Lippmann will have significant influence as well. Between the two of us, we can hopefully compensate for the losses. Do you think the indictment will prevent you from ever returning to handle political affairs?”

You purse your lips. “I doubt I’ll be back at any government events anytime soon, but I’ll be able to get work done from behind the scenes. It’ll be harder, but not impossible.”

Kouyou hums as she nods, glancing back at Mori. “If this is all, I had a prior commitment with our friends in Tokyo… It would be best for me to not miss it considering the circumstances.”

“I also have business to handle,” you say, gaze cutting back to Mori. “If necessary, I can meet with you later to tell you about how I plan to handle the Guild.”

“It’s not necessary,” Mori says lightly. “You’re dismissed, I promised Elise-chan tea time anyway. I expect results this time, little hime… Successful ones.”

Your lips tighten. “Of course,” you reply tensely. “I hope by the time of our next meeting, the rat infestation will be handled. I’ve seen a few too many since I’ve been back at headquarters today, it’s unsightly.”

Ace bristles and looks to Mori like a child seeking their parents’ support. How ironic, you think bitterly, but you don’t give anyone time to respond to your words as you rise to your feet and leave the room, intent on getting back to your apartment as quickly as possible. You don’t even wait for Chuuya or Piano Man as you get into the elevator and press the button to close the doors as quickly as possible.

Your gaze is pinned on the cityscape as the elevator begins to go down to the first floor. The sun has crossed its point in the peak of the sky—it’s still midday, it’s been sixty-six hours since you were taken into custody, likely just as long as Dazai’s been captured by the Guild

Sixty-six hours.

The Guild is not an organization that usually stoops to torture. Of all of the organizations in the world’s shadows, the Guild is probably the one closest to the light—they take advantage of it by forcing its members into the public spotlight. It’s why they’ve done so well in Yokohama so far; they’ve used their political presence to force countries into giving them diplomatic immunity, essentially making them untouchable. 

You’re sure they have some degree of blood on their hands, everyone in this world does, but torturing a civilian of a foreign country would be a bold move—if it got out, and you would make sure it did, it would ruin their station… But then again, would they even care?

Fitzgerald was so desperate to get his hands on Atsushi for whatever reason—the bounty and now this… There might not be any length he wouldn’t be willing to go to in order to get his hands on the boy. And Dazai… he wouldn’t give up the information, you know it in your heart. You wish that he would if only so he could protect himself, you’d be able to pivot and readjust your plans, but he won’t, especially not after his spiels about being a burden and wanting to help.

What an idiot, you think desperately, ignoring the way your eyes suddenly sting as you make your way out of the main headquarters to head over to your own building. You’re not even fully processing everything that’s happening around you—you ignore the subordinates that greet you, don’t even hear Albatross calling your name, and when you get to your building, you don’t even notice the doorman sitting at the desk in your building. 

It’s not until you get back up to your apartment that you’re finally able to break down.

Physically and mentally drained from two days in custody and now Mori’s schemes, it only takes the sight of Dazai’s sweater tossed on the back of your couch and his backpack lying haphazardly on the ground next to it for you to crumble. You don’t even make it to the couch—your knees give in as soon as your fingers brush the soft material of his sweater. You hit the ground hard, back pressed to the back of the couch as you pull the sweater down to your knees and you cry.

It still smells like him—well, a mixture of you and him since he’s started using your bath soaps—and you miss him so bad that it makes your chest cave in. You muffle the ragged gasp you take in with the sweater and curl in on yourself; you miss him, you miss him so bad that it’s painful, so bad that regret weighs on you like the burden of the sky, so bad that you think you might die. You’ve felt pain like this before when Itou died, but Itou’s death had not been entirely in your control, not like how this was. 

You let this happen. The moment you let him into your life, you damned him.

You’ve been teetering on the edge of collapse for days, only sheer willpower and the thin shred of pride you had left prevented you from falling apart during your time in prison, but now there’s nothing left to keep you together. Any remaining willpower was obliterated the moment you walked into your apartment and saw his sweater and backpack exactly where he left them before fleeing because of your words; any remaining pride was destroyed by Mori and his schemes refusing you at least some semblance of justice for your own imprisonment. 

Now alone, faced with only the consequences of your own decisions as company, you’re forced to acknowledge the bitter truth: you may never see Dazai again.

You may have gotten him killed.

He may already be dead—spent his last moments alone and in pain, wondering if you were ever going to show up.

You try to convince yourself that Fitzgerald won’t kill him before trying to use him as a bargaining chip over you, but the thoughts are only shallow consolations because you can’t push away the image that’s been haunting you since the day you met him. His body cold and rotting after having been abandoned in one of the dumping grounds the underworld uses as a mass grave, forgotten and nameless, left for the rate to devour. You knew this would happen from the beginning, but you still allowed it.

You’ve never prayed before. 

You’ve long believed that if there was a god out there, it was a cruel one who took delight in suffering because what other god would allow people to suffer the way you have? 

What god would allow an eight year old girl to sit amongst corpses for hours only to be saved by a man who would drag her down a path so dark that her blood would rot black and her soul would be so far beyond salvation before she was even old enough to attend secondary school? 

What god would show someone love only to rip it away before his very eyes in the most brutal way possible? 

What god would dangle the ‘what ifs’ right in front of your face just to taunt you knowing that the moment you let yourself indulge them, you would be reminded exactly why they should’ve remained ‘what ifs’?

You’ve never prayed before, but now, you find yourself crying to any that might listen to you because you don’t know what else to do. There’s no guarantee that your plan will work and you can’t give Fitzgerald what he wants, you can’t. So instead, you cry, you beg, you plead, you bargain. You don’t know what divine being might be out there, but for the first time in your life, you hope that there is one, because you’ve never saved a single person in your life. You got Itou killed, you got Chuuya’s lover killed, countless men on the warfront who were banking on your ability fix their minds, at this point, you’re sure that even the loss of your family and village was somehow blood on your hands—everywhere you’ve been, ruin and death have followed you, and this will be no different.

You won’t be able to save him, just like you’ve never been able to save anyone else before. Your only hope lies in the hands of the very beings that have designed this moment and every other misfortune of yours before this. It’s a sick joke, you think, but still, you pray. You cry, and beg, and plead, and bargain. You ask them to bring him back to you, you tell them that he’s good and that he never belonged in this life; you promise that if they bring him back to you, you’ll do what you should’ve done from the very beginning. 

You swear it.

You don’t know how long you stay on your floor with his sweater pressed to your chest—could have been minutes or hours, you don’t even hear the elevator arriving at your floor, don’t notice someone is in the room with you until you feel fingers brush your shoulder. You stiffen and futilely try to dry your eyes, lifting your gaze to figure out who had entered your apartment without calling up first. There’s only a handful of people it might be and-

And for just a split second, you think that it might be Dazai.

It’s not, of course, your eyes meet the familiar ones of Klaus’s, the expression he wears is full of guilt, regretful, and just as your lips part to ask him what he wants, he whispers: “I’m sorry I couldn’t find him. I really did try.”

You’ve only seen Klaus cry twice before. Once, two weeks after you took him in when he realized he was finally free of the fighting rings he’d been forced to compete in since his ability manifested. And a second time after he failed his first mission, tossed back into a memory that had him curling on the ground begging you not to send him back. Now, he doesn’t cry, but his throat spasms and his eyes shine with unshed tears. 

“I know you did, Klaus,” you say, voice too raspy for your liking

“... I left him alive,” Klaus tells you after a few moments. Before you can ask what he’s talking about, he continues, “Ui. I thought you might want to be the one to deal with him.”

At once, any exhaustion that might’ve been plaguing you disappears, the ice that spreads through your veins promises only one thing.

“Bring me to him.”

“It has been two days since little miss princess was released from prison, how’s that make you feel?” 

Dazai stares blankly at Twain, who looks far too pleased as he tilts his chair back and watches him for a reaction. Dazai wishes that he was closer so that he could kick the chair back and watch him go sprawling, but even if he was closer, his body feels rooted to the bed he’s sitting on. Dazai has alway had a quick brain, but now it’s slow as Twain’s words echo through his head on repeat and he starts to understand the implications of them, unable to accept them as truth.

“Guess she doesn’t care about you as much as ya thought she did.” Twain shrugs like it's all some big joke, grin crooked. “Hasn’t even bothered to reach out to ask us about you. Port Mafia’s been active too, guess she just has more important things to deal with than some kid she played around with for a few months. Francis seems more bothered by it than I thought he would. I think he really thought she’d really fight for you—for your sake.”

Dazai doesn’t respond, gaze sliding from Twain to stare at the wall in front of him. It’s been a long four days in Guild custody. He’s hardly had a moment to himself, and he’s been careful to keep up the act of the lovesick fool who refuses to see things as they ‘are,’ but he’s tired and lonely and he misses you. It’s all wearing him out. 

He can keep up the act—if it means protecting you, he could do this forever—he’s put on masks and fronts for people his whole life, this is nothing compared to all of that… it’s just that it’s harder when he’s had a taste of life with someone who he doesn’t need to put up masks for. It’s harder when he wants nothing more than to just be back in your apartment, basking in your presence. It makes him dizzy with longing and it makes him careless. 

And… he thinks Twain’s words are hitting him a lot harder than they should be. 

“I’m not all too surprised though,” Twain continues absently, waving his hands around. “You’re not anything special, and I heard her boy Tolstoy’s back in town. She doesn’t need you to entertain her anymore now that he’s around.”

For a second, Dazai can see the dams cracking. All of the pent up emotions that have been building the past few days batter the splintering walls holding them back, and Dazai can only barely bring himself to try to reinforce them because now’s not the time for this. But every time he manages to fortify one section of the crumbling dam, another starts to collapse. 

It can’t be true. It can’t be—Dazai knows this, in his heart, he knows it—what you had with him… it was special. It was. (Wasn’t it?) The way you looked at him, no one could look at someone that way and not mean it. No one could speak the words you did and not mean them. There must be something else going on, you must be planning something—you’re not going to rush headfirst into a trap, not when it could end with Dazai’s life in danger and especially not with your past with the Serpent’s Tongue, but…

… but Twain’s mention of Tolstoy rattles Dazai badly. You’ve talked about Tolstoy before to him, and it was always with a certain fondness that made Dazai uneasy, and for a second, Dazai thinks it might be possible that you could just be cutting your losses with him and moving on. Because Twain is right, Dazai is nothing special, and it’s not like the two of you ended off on a good note before his capture—you were mad at him, he was cruel to you, he blamed you for all of this even though he forced it onto you. 

Dazai wouldn’t even really be able to blame you for not coming for him after that; for months, he’s been forcing your hand but when he felt backed into a corner, he threw it all in your face. 

Not even to mention that it might not even be as simple as you coming to save Dazai—there were other factors at play too, the Port Mafia being the biggest. You’re an executive, you can’t just throw everything away to come rescue him when he got himself into this situation after you explicitly warned him that this would happen. 

If you had to choose between him and the Mafia… could he really be certain that you would choose him in that scenario? He wants to say yes, he does, but the word feels weighted and bitter on his tongue, like he knows it’s not quite so cut and dry.

Realistically, you might not come for him. Even if Twain is wrong and it’s not a matter of whether you care about him enough to come for him, there are too many variables that could prevent you from coming for him… but Twain might not be wrong. 

“Mark,” Fitzgerald’s familiar voice chides as the man steps into the room Dazai is staying in. He doesn’t even hear the sigh and comment that Twain lets out before leaving because he’s too lost in his own thoughts.

Dazai has never felt so entirely out of control of a situation like this before—he’s always been so careful and meticulous in his interactions with people and his surroundings because he likes being able to predict how people will act around him, it makes it easier for him to figure out how he should act. He’s even had a good hold on himself, learned how to school his emotions and convert ones he doesn’t like into ones that are easier for him to manage. But everything about this has just been so impossible for him to get a handle on, he’s tried in every way that he could, but the realization of the fact that you might not be coming for him is sending him over the edge 

“I wanted to break the news to you myself,” Fitzgerald says and Dazai feels bitter and angry about the sympathy in his voice, wants to spit at him. He doesn’t need anyone’s pity, much less his, but he only finds himself staring listlessly at the man instead. “I waited a few days to see if she would reach out, but she never did… I’m afraid I can’t keep waiting anymore, I need to move on with the next stage of my plan.”

This is it, Dazai thinks distantly—now is when they’ll finally switch from persuasion to force. He thought he would have a bit longer to figure out how he would proceed and now he can’t even get himself thinking straight to try to figure out how to evade this. His thoughts are scattered and distant and so many different and unfamiliar emotions are battering him from every angle; he can hardly pay attention as the man across from him speaks. 

“I want you to cooperate willingly,” the Guild leader continues, but his words are going in one ear out the other. “... don’t have to worry about them targeting you for betrayal. We have enough resources to shield you from the Port Mafia. Additionally-”

“No,” Dazai says quietly—the refusal slips out before he can even process it.

Fitzgerald pauses. “No?” 

“No,” he reiterates, voice more strained, the words tumbling from his lips. “No, I don’t need your protection. I’m not going to cooperate. I won’t betray her—not for anyone, but especially not you. She’ll come. I know it.”

Something changes in Fitzgerald’s expression at Dazai’s words; it becomes twisted for just a second, but then it softens, his lips curl up into a faint smile. One that’s almost fond, but Dazai can’t understand why for the life of him. 

“I see, so even knowing all of this and realizing that she might not be coming for you, you still choose to stand at her side,” he murmurs. He doesn’t try to persuade Dazai like he thought he would. “There are not many who are able to see the worst of someone and still make that choice… I’ve only met one other… You remind me much of her.”

“She chooses me too,” Dazai says. He thinks, for a second, that he’s only saying it to scare Fitzgerald into realizing that you’ll come for him, but as soon as the words leave his lips, he knows that it’s true. That he believes it. He believes you’ll choose him, he believes you’ll come for him no matter what the cost might be. Even after everything that happened the other day, even knowing that you’ve been free for days and haven’t made any moves to rescue him yet, his faith in you hasn’t wavered. “She’ll come for me, and you’ll regret this.”

Fitzgerald exhales as he rises to his feet, gaze lingering on Dazai for just a moment before he tells him, “For your sake, I hope your faith is not misplaced.”

“The human psyche is unbearably fragile. It’s one of the first conclusions I came to during my studies,” you say absently, sitting back in your chair. “I don’t have a combative ability. I can’t control any elemental force and I don’t have a superhuman body. I can’t summon entities to fight on my behalf and I certainly can’t shapeshift. Chuuya spent a lot of time studying physics to fine tune his power, my path laid in psychology. You see, my ability isn’t flashy or showy like many others, but it is an ability nonetheless, and even the weakest abilities can become dangerous in the right hands.”

Ui Koutarou stares up at you from the corner that he’s curled up in, his pupils are blown wide and his skin is pale and sweaty. You don’t know if he’s looking through you or at you, but you suppose it doesn’t matter.

“Usually, conditioning a human mind to have automatic responses to particular stimuli can take months, but I’ve learned to utilize my ability in a way that can speed up that process from months to days,” you explain, watching carefully as you flick the lighter in your hands. “You’ve realized that, of course, I’ve spent the past two days here rewiring your brain to react to things the way I want it to. You can’t control the way your heart starts racing when you see this flame, right? I can see the way your breath is short, your pupils dilated. You don’t have any reason to be scared of it, it’s harmless, but you’re still terrified. Why?” 

He doesn’t answer, of course, you didn’t say the word, but when you rise to your feet and take a step forward, he scrambles back impossibly further, shrinking into the corner. Your lips curve up as you flick the lighter off and take a seat, watching the way he immediately begins to relax again. 

“My ability isn’t mind control, I fear if it was, my life would be much more simple,” you sigh, looking up at the ceiling momentarily before lowering your gaze back down to him. “I can induce emotions and states in the human brain—the weak-minded naturally are much easier than the strong-willed, but I can make both bend to my will, it’s just a matter of how much effort I’m willing to put into it.”

You tilt your head to the side as you observe him and then pull a pen from your pocket, tossing it in his general direction. You can see the way his chest visibly stutters at the sight of it, breath ceasing, and then he darts to the opposite side of the room. In his desperate flee, his foot brushes the pen and you smile lightly as you activate your ability, watching the way he immediately hits the ground, screaming his throat raw as he curls into a ball. After deactivating your ability, you wait a few seconds for him to calm down before continuing. 

“The human psyche is fragile, but the brain is very malleable. As soon as it recognizes that a certain action will always bear a negative consequence, it will adapt and do everything it can to prevent you from taking that action to avoid the negative consequences.” You lean forward, looking down at him. “It’s recognized now to associate fear with a flame and a pen. You can’t control the way that the sight of either of these two objects make you react—it’s reflexive because your brain has already taken the necessary steps to ensure that you don’t get close enough to either to trigger the consequence that comes along with touching it.”

The flame is a necessary step. It’s easier to force the brain to associate fear with something that is inherently dangerous, and you needed to see how long it might take for you to move on to something that’s not inherently dangerous. It took three hours of conditioning to make his brain adapt enough to have reflexive responses to the sight of fire.

Then you moved onto a pen, because you thought it was ironic for a journalist to fear the same thing he uses to complete his job. That took six hours. 

“When you stayed away from the two objects, I rewarded you,” you explain with a thin smile. “It must’ve been so relieving… all of the pleasant emotions you felt after nearly five days of being locked up here. Happiness, hope, gratitude. I’m sure it was confusing too, because you didn’t know why you felt that way but you were so quick to bask in them that it didn’t matter.”

Ui continues to watch you, so you continue speaking. You think you’re talking more to yourself than to him, you don’t even know if he’s capable of processing your words at this point, but you need to keep yourself busy while you wait.

“When you touched the objects, I punished you,” you continue. “Guilt, sadness, but my favorite is fear. It’s the easiest emotion to induce in someone, it’s not one that I have to actively keep applied because the human mind spirals once it has a taste of it. They call it the mind killer.”

The last sentence tastes bitter on your tongue. It reminds you of Dazai.

“I did the same thing with your ability to speak… Speaking is a voluntary action, it’s a bit different than conditioning reflexive responses, but it still worked. Now, you can’t speak until I say the word, right?”

He doesn’t respond. You didn’t say the word.

“Speak.”

“Yes,” he rasps, voice wet and shaky. “You’re right.”

“I even made sure that no one else could trigger it. I brought Klaus in here and had him order you to speak. Every time you listened to his order, I punished you. Every time you listened to mine, I rewarded you. Do you remember that?”

He doesn’t respond. You didn’t say the word.

“Speak.”

“I remember,” he replies. “I remember.”

“Dazai Osamu was captured by the Guild because you worked alongside them to have me arrested. Isn’t that right?”

He doesn’t respond. You didn’t say the word.

Your voice is colder this time as you say: “Speak.”

“I didn’t mean for him to get kidnapped.” He has the nerve to sound like he’s about to cry. “None of my students, I didn’t mean for it-”

“That’s not what I asked. Speak.”

“Yes,” he chokes out. “Yes, he got kidnapped because of me.”

“That’s right,” you agree, “and he might die because of you too. Was it worth it?”

He doesn’t respond. You didn’t say the word.

“Speak.”

“No,” he whispers. “No, it wasn’t worth it.”

“I know,” you say, more to yourself than him. “But I suppose we’ve all done things that had consequences that weren’t worth it.”

You sigh, glancing to the side to see a figure waiting outside the cell. Chuuya’s face is twisted in displeasure, an unreadable look in his eyes as he stares at you.

“If it were up to me, I would let you live,” you admit. “A journalist too scared to ever pick up the pen again… the man trying to bring down the Port Mafia little more than a puppet for one of its executives… an ironic fate, possibly one worse than death.” 

You rise to your feet and walk to the door of the cell, leaving the room. Before you leave, you look over your shoulder and say:

“Luckily, your fate is not up to me.”

You leave the cell and close the door behind you, looking up to meet Chuuya’s familiar eyes, cool and disapproving.

“Don’t you think you might be going too far?” he asks quietly.

“Says the man who leveled an entire ward,” you reply coldly and he winces at the reminder. “I don’t want to hear anything from you about ‘too far’. If anything, I haven’t gone far enough.”

Chuuya sighs, but he doesn’t press the matter. 

“You should get some rest,” he finally says. “You’ve pretty much been up for two days straight, and I know you didn’t sleep while locked up.”

You click your tongue and look away. “I slept yesterday.”

“For an hour and a half,” Chuuya replies dryly. “Torturing the fuckin’ journalist isn’t going to bring Dazai back-”

“No, but it makes me feel better,” you interrupt, gaze sharpening. 

“Does it?”

“It does, in fact,” you say, giving him a thin smile, “more than you could ever believe.”

Chuuya lets out another sigh, this one heavier than the last. “I’m worried about you,” he says, voice tight. “I-”

“I don’t care, Chuuya,” you say, watching as Chuuya’s face twists in frustration. “I don’t need your concern. I need Osamu back and until he is-”

“This isn’t going to bring him back, you-”

“I don’t care!” You don’t even realize you’ve raised your voice, don’t even register your own movements as your hands dart out to shove Chuuya back hard. He only stumbles a few steps, but he gives you a pointed look. Suddenly, you want to cry again and your voice wobbles as you repeat, “I don’t care.”

He’s right. You know he’s right. Torturing Ui Koutarou isn’t going to do anything to help Dazai. The man is useless, gave information to the Guild that he shouldn’t have, but has no idea their whereabouts or even who he spoke to. And it’s not making you feel better like you claim it is, the sick bit of glee you may feel watching the journalist-turned-husk dissipates quickly whenever the thought of Dazai crosses your mind.

The Guild hasn’t even reached out to you.

You don’t know if it’s a good sign or a bad sign—probably a bad one. If they were trying to use him as leverage over you and the Port Mafia, then they would’ve done that by now. They could be waiting for you to reach out, it would give them the advantage in negotiations, but you can’t reach out before you have something to negotiate with. 

But the longer you wait… they’ll use it against Dazai. They’ll tell him you don’t care to come after him. They’ll tell him you’ve been out of prison for two days, yet you haven’t bothered to reach out to the Guild to get him back. They’ll make him feel worthless and Dazai already has such a poor perception of himself that you fear he’ll believe it, but you can’t do anything yet.

Not yet, but soon. 

Soon.

“The Diet postponed the military bill,” Chuuya says, changing the subject. Your gaze snaps back over to him. “Ane-san just got word from one of her friends in the House of Councillors. They pushed it two weeks out.”

You grimace instantly, shaking your head. “They want to see what happens with the indictment. If it gets dropped or goes to trial. If it goes to trial, we’ll lose more swing votes.”

“I asked Piano Man if he could talk to Tachibana, see what’s going on with getting the charges dropped, I know you have a lot on you right now, but I figured you’d want to know this,” Chuuya murmurs apologetically, squeezing your wrist.

Dazai is gone. The Guild is at your doorstep. There are countless indictments that you’re not sure are going to get dropped. The military bill is still looming over you. God, it’s never ending. You’re so tired.

“I’m glad you told me,” you finally tell him, but your voice is strained. “I’ll figure something out about the bill if the worst case scenario happens.”

Chuuya’s lips part like he’s about to speak, but he pauses suddenly, eyes flickering behind you. A dreadful feeling suddenly hangs over you as you turn around to face none other than Mori—the man never comes to the torture rooms himself so you know he must be looking for someone and that someone is very likely you.

Chuuya takes off his hat and lowers his head. You usually would follow suit but you don’t this time, keeping your chin high as you stare at Mori. His lips only curve up in response to your lack of respect, much to your displeasure.

“Chuuya-kun, may I?” Mori hums, doesn’t have to specify what he wants because Chuuya knows, nodding and excusing himself so Mori can speak to you alone.

His eyes slide away from you to the cell that holds Ui Koutarou. You watch as he looks between the pen on the ground and the way the man is as far away from it as possible. He tilts his head to the side in amusement, lifting his fingers to the chest pocket of his lab coat, pulling out the pen he always has stashed in there before tossing it at him. Ui is unable to dodge it fast enough, doesn’t realize what’s happening until too late.

The moment the pen touches his body, you activate your ability, watching him let out another blood curdling scream before focusing your attention back on Mori, who looks oddly pleased by what he’s found.

“Two days of work?” he questions.

“A little over.”

“How impressive,” he murmurs—for the first time, he says it without the mocking lilt that usually accompanies it and your throat swells, eyes flickering away from him to the wall. 

You know that he’s probably only saying it to try to ease your anger at him, but you can’t help the way it makes you feel after years of trying to get him to say those very words to you and mean them.

“Did you know?” you finally ask him, voice too hoarse for your liking.

“Did I know what?” Mori asks, raising his eyebrows to look down at you with sharp eyes that tell you he knows exactly what you’re asking but isn’t going to make this easy for you.

“Did you know that Ace was setting me up? Was it punishment?” Your nails dig deep into your palms as you wait for a response, so much so that you can feel the blood trickling between your fingers. “Did you?” 

“Of course not, I would never risk our political position so recklessly. Especially with the military bill in the Diet,” Mori scoffs, looking away for a moment before glancing back down at you. “Nor would I risk you so recklessly. You should know that by now, little hime.”

You avert your gaze, shaking your head. He’s only saying this to appease you, you know it, you don’t know why you’re still falling for it. 

“I don’t know anything that goes on in your mind,” you bite back, grateful that your voice is steadier than how you feel. “Why isn’t he being punished then? He betrayed the Port Mafia.”

“I still have something I need him to do,” Mori replies easily, lips curving up into a smile that unsettles you. “... Don’t fret, my dear, when the time comes, you can be the one to handle his execution.”

You click your tongue sharply. “It better be soon.”

You can only define the smile on his face as sinister, and you almost regret your words when he replies, “It will be,” because you don’t know what exactly he has planned for him to be smiling like that.

Before you can interrogate him on what the hell he’s even talking about, Klaus comes stumbling down the steps with wide eyes and an excited expression on his face. He pauses when he sees Mori, gaze darting between the two of you.

“I’ll speak to you later, little hime,” Mori says dismissively—you wonder what he came down here for, he wouldn’t have come to speak to you without some sort of agenda and you don’t know what he would have achieved from this conversation beyond unnerving you. “... Keep up the good work.”

Your throat tightens as he turns to leave, gliding past Klaus who awkwardly lowers his head in respect as he walks by. As soon as he’s out of sight, Klaus turns to you, lips spreading in a toothy smile. 

“Tolstoy is here.”

Your eyes widen instantly. “Take me to him.”

You thought he would be a bit longer. Your chest is tight with anticipation as you follow Klaus to another level in the main headquarters. You were expecting to have to wait at least another day or two for him to complete the favor you asked for him and another thirteen hours for him to fly from New York City to Yokohama. You suppose you shouldn’t be surprised, Tolstoy has always exceeded your expectations, but still… you hadn’t dared hope.

The man is leaning outside the door Klaus leads you to, lips curved up in a familiar smile, blue eyes glittering playfully as soon as he catches sight of you.  

“Princess,” he greets, holding his hand out for you to place yours in. You roll your eyes fondly as the blonde lifts your hand to his lips to ghost a kiss against your knuckles. He winks at you. “She’s all yours.”

You thank him quietly before pushing open the door to enter the conference room in front of you. The woman waiting inside is prim and elegant, wearing a long dress with jewels decorating her neck and wrists. Her expression is cool and closed off at first glance, but you can see the glassiness of her eyes and the way her thin fingers tremble in her lap.

You give the woman a soft smile as you approach, kneeling in front of her and taking her hands in yours. You make sure your expression is gentle and genuine as you look up at her, watching as your ability instantly goes to work when her fingers stop trembling and her own expression softens as she looks down at you.

“Hi, Zelda,” you greet, voice sweet and honeyed. “You don’t need to be scared. I’m a friend.”

When Zelda Fitzgerald lets out a soft breath of relief, the tenseness in her shoulders easing, you know that she’s made the fatal mistake of believing you and your smile becomes a bit more authentic. 

Finally, you can make your move. 

“Come, let’s go somewhere more comfortable. We have a lot to talk about.”

[prosciuttoon]

Toshiro/Shuro is overhated

(mirror of my thread on twitter)

ever wanted to talk abt something so bad but u have so many thoughts so u cant even begin to organize a sentence. thats me abt shuro and its why i cant give my thoughts on him. i NEED to get this out of my system bc its takign up so much memory in my brain i need that space for thinking.

so i was really surprised to find so much hate for him even tho he seems pretty normal and rational out of the whole cast. ive deducted that its mostly abt his laios fight and that the ppl who hate him probably had bad experiences w social cues and relationships w neurotypicals bc of that. theres no way to avoid it bc its pretty much Right In Your Face that laios is ND. but thats not the only factor in why their relationship is rocky. its also the culture barrier. u have to understand toshiro was raised as JAPANESE NOBILITY ofc he would be a little conservative

also culture shock. idk if u know this but jp culture is very Mind Your Own Business like a lot of other asian cultures . ofc hes gonna be weirded out by a stranger invading his space. also his names not even Shuro. its just yt ppl not pronouncing his name right and settling for whats easiest.

img src: fan translation by savaralyn2 , i think its from the adventurers bible Complete Edition bc i dont remember it in the old one

ok you get the gist of the culture aspect of it. lets go into the ND/NT clash aspect of it. yes i understand its pretty hurtful to never be told when youre acting inappropriately. i am autistic too lmao. but you have to understand that shiro is one guy and he even does realize that repressing things is one of his fatal flaws. again. asian culture. non confrontational. that sorta thing. but these are genuine frustrations. if i were him id be annoyed too but id speak out about it. set boundaries. bc im blunt. shiros not. he was taught crazy strict manners (hierarchies, respect, politeness, etc).

his problem isnt ableism its a culmination of culture barriers, how he was raised to behave, and terrible lack of communication as thing caused by "all of the above" plus he just generally keeps to himself a lot which means repressing frustrations that will explode leading to a pathetic fistfight while hes starved, exhausted, and dehydrated. also. if he was ableist he would hate laios. he doesnt hate laios. at the end of the day, they are friends. NT and ND ppl can be friends u know. there will be rifts (like their fight) but you just have to communicate misunderstandings. theyre gonna be fine lol

anyways that was my whole spiel abt it. i think i got everything out that i wanted to? my head still feels a little full so i may add more later when i remember something

also i think its a little unfair to rule out the possibility of laios and him just being 2 very different kinds of ND bc its very common for misunderstandings to occur even then. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT BUT WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER! but for the sake of interpreting the Fight as a commentary on NT social rules and ND frustration, ill say toshiros NT. will we ever know? hes so far in the sidelines... youd really have to dig in the extra content to see the intricacies of his character.... please give him a chance

[kcokaine]

Hi IBA! First of all ur art is mind blowing man! Now to beg for ur mercy lol what brush do u use to render? I mean, is a round brush or textured or watercolor or oily? Im driving myself crazy trying to to figure it out, mercy, my lady!! 💆🏽

this is my main 6. I don't use dark pencil much though. its mostly for finishing touches. Seans sketcher is for sketching and lineart Sampled brush 71 is for texture Smooth watercolor is for blending The japanese symbols one is just for messy touch ups when it comes to painting

and G pen is universal of course

[shit-solkat]

Names for every sprite (canon and not) - Homestuck

After this post (link), I started thinking about names for every sprite (prototyped Kernelsprites) that isn't simply their names smashed together. You can totally disagree with me :) I'm fine with it.

Yes, I will also explain my thought process and the names' meanings.

Note: I love using common words as names, but there will be other options as well :)

Note2: I find translations and meanings on google; of course I don't know all the languages of the world. So if I fuck-up some names, pardon :( (I can't fuck-up italian names cuz I'm italian tho lolz).

Note3: Not everyone has 2 names, it's hard :c

Note4: Many characters miss, and I WANT to make a second part!!! So don't worry too much about it (but you can totally contribute if you want :) )

Note5: No ship tagged cuz it's not a ship list lolz, but you can consider it like that if you want :3

Long post

Canon:

* Davepetasprite^2 = Paws, Hunter

>Paws: cuz i said so (scientific answer).

>Hunter: Both cats and crows are hunter-animals.

* Erisolsprite = Selvhad, Jabez

>Selvhad: "Self-hatred" in Danish.

>Jabez: Hebrew name, meaning "born in pain".

* Fefetasprite = Harcsa, Nyna

>Harcsa: Means Catfish in Hungarian.

>Nyna: Means "enclosure of fish" in Babylonian, but it sounds kind of like Nya/Nyan too (onomatopoeia for cats in japanese). Also, niña in spanish translate to little girl (which is cute).

Non-canon, random order:

* Johnrosesprite = Spring, Aurora

>Spring: When there's a lot of sun but breeze as well.

>Aurora: Girl-name (so perfect for Junerosesprite); an Aurora in italian also refers to Northern Lights, which are formed through "solar winds" (at least that's how we call them).

^* Rosejadesprite = Spring (it's perfect here too!!), Wisteria

>Spring: There is SUN, the FLOWERS blossom!!!

>Wisteria: Purple flower that is toxic to cats and dogs (and horses, if you care).

* Aradavesprite = Jikan, Horatia/o

>Jikan: Means Time in Japanese.

>Horatia/o: Latin names that means Timekeeper (or Hour, Time, Season). Horatia is feminine while Horatio is masculine, I imagine them simply switch from day to day.

* Jadekansprite (Jade+Kanaya) = Lotus, Zhade

>Lotus: Frogs often use Lotus leaves (alternative to frog leaves, called "common plantain" lol).

>Zhade: French name that means "precious stone". It's Jade in french, basically.

* Johnluxsprite = Netsky, Cloud

>Netsky: It's a PC virus. I choose it because of its name. Obvious reasons.

>Cloud: Another word for name srr, but John=Wind/Sky, Sollux=PC, Cloud=The thing on the sky & The App(s) (there are many).

* Solkatsprite (/Katluxsprite) = Downup, Moros

>Downup: One of the names of a powerful virus, which locks all accesses to infected advices and that permits to others to control the device from distance. It mostly uses fake anti-virus programs to spread - like "scareware" (it was used as a war weapon too).

>Moros: In Greek means "Doom"/"Impending Doom", but it also looks like moron so of course I had to include it.

* Rosekansprite = Rosemary, Ambrosia

>Rosemary: Yes, their ship name. But it simply fits!!

>Ambrosia: It's the Gods' food; Ambrosia is the *pollen* that Gods drink to stay immortal.

* Calliejadesprite = Titan, Oxalis

>Titan: Could be just me flashing like crazy, but anyways the Titans where the children of Heaven (Calliope, a Cherubin) and Earth (Jade, who saved Earth + plants + green + oh my god).

>Oxalis: It's a flower that looks like a candy cane.

* Davejadesprite = Saros

>Saros: A period of about 18 years between repetitions of solar and lunar eclipses.

* Calliroxysprite = Mojito

>Mojito: It's a "candy alcoholic drink", made with white rum, sugar, *lime juice*, soda water, and mint.

* Aratavsprite = Cornelius/Cornelia

>Cornelius/Cornelia: Means "horn" in Latin :) Cornelius=masculine, Cornelia=feminine.

* Nepquiusprite = Witten, Kamala

>Witten: Masculin Germanic name that means "Pale person" (also "Blonde" but ignore that part).

>Kamala: Hawaiian femminine name that means both "Lotus" and "pale red".

* Vriskansprite = Kyanite

>Kyanite: Blue-Green gemstone that has healing properties (allegedly), useful for low blood pressure, relief from physical pain, as well as a mind-calmer for trauma-recovery.

[benevolentindigo]

"Hello, visitors. It's... Nice to be able to commune here..."

"I hope that all of you are nicer this time around..."

//Pfp by @whilvlc :D

(Read below for more info :3)

Fear Parody account run by @brokerplushsg :D

Hai gang, Blueflame here, but y'all can call me Blue for short. I'm currently 16 so ya, I am a minor (so shoo, weird adult accounts) Uhhhh this is my first time roleplaying on tumblr so don't mind me if I make mistakes 😭 djdhdjdhdkdhdhjdhdhd (But def not my first time rping in general)

Shoutout to @fearfulpurple for inspiration to start this account lol (Go check their parody too :D)

Also if y'all curious no I don't have a schedule for posting, I just do whenever I wanna. And if I am taking particular long to answer a certain question, its probably because im drawing it lol-

If u wish to contact me, Dms are always open so feel free to pop by. :D Also I have discord and I'm most active there so if u want it, just dm me. :3

My favourite post I've made so far:

"To deny my existence, is to accept death."

- Fear

Also ig imma put some mostly obvious boundaries here too because like I wanna keep this as a safe space-

No NSFW (Self explanitory)

No political stuff/troubling real world stuff (Here is not the right place for such things)

Don't be too mean/rude (like a little is fine for the sake of rp but like don't take it too far)

Don't be weird in the bad way (Dont be too freaky with fear or just do stuff that makes people uncomfortable in general)

Roleplay info

◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

Anything associated with Roleplay is in chat font.

Anything associated with Fear is Purple.

Anything associated with a Phobia is Pink.

Anything associated with players/NPCs/people in general is rainbow.

Anything associated with narration is white.

Other characters not specified here may have their own unique colored text.

"Spoken dialogue is in quotations."

*Actions start and ends with asterisks and are in italics*

//OOC have double slashes before the message.

//OORP have double slashes before the message, and is in normal font.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

Headcanons

General info:

Their MBTI personality type is ISFP-T, also known as the Turbulent Adventurer. (Ngl I'm surprised when I got these results when I did the test in character but eh it surprising fits)

Their Toastology is Galic Butter Toast. (I did it for the funnies)

Since they are a manifestation of an abstract concept, it does not associate with any gender nor does it have any preference in pronouns because frankly, they do not care.

They are surprisingly proficient with the guzheng if given one.

They have mixed feelings for Kikuo's songs. A few they find comfort in (Like Song of the Night and Astral Travel), many they find disturbing (Like Dust Dust Curse and Love me, Love me, Love me), and some they have conflicting feelings about. (Like Let's go to Heaven and Welcome to the Star Inn.)

Despite not associating with any gender, they are slightly leaning more towards being feminine presenting, but it can depend on who they are interacting with.

Nobody can agree on what their voice truely sounds like, as everyone hears it a little differently, but generally, they are soft spoken, only loud when scared or pissed off.

Technically, they could speak in any language, but they prefer English and Japanese.

Despite being the embodiment of fear, they have certain things that they are personally more afraid of, like bees, thunder and most of all, death.

When feeling threatened or just angry in general, they would growl, it sounding very similar to the rustling of leaves.

When they scream, it sounds similar to that of a Banshee. Very loud and ear piercing.

When startled, they would raise their arms and open up their claws, somewhat similar to how red pandas react when startled.

Normally they do not really swear, but if you somehow made them VERY pissed off, they would begin swearing like a sailor.

Despite Fear being ageless due to being an abstract concept, it still can be considered the "oldest" of the vices as they were developed as a survival adaptation in the very, very, distant past, about 500 million years ago. This also explains their more, primordial and tree like appearance, representing security and uncertainty at the same time.

Their anon account is @anonymous-hyacinth :D (for the sake of rp pls act like ya don't know who they are until revealed)

Abilities/Biology:

They are similar to dryads, more specifically, a hamadryad.

They are connected to the Fear Forest as it's their domain, and they are one with all the trees. Thus they have the powers and abilities to manipulate and change the forest at will.

They are connected to each tree in the Fear Forest through the root system, kinda like IRL trees.

They are able to feel and sense through the trees due to their connections. Therefore if one tree were to get damaged, or even chopped down, Fear would feel the pain too.

Fear and the trees of the Fear Forest function a little more like purple sulfur bacterias living in deep caves rather than actual plants, having roots that sink deep into the depths of the dreamscape to gather minerals like memories and thoughts to keep growing.

They "eat" food (burgers, colas, apples, etc) with their roots, bringing it into the ground and breaking it up into smaller, more soluble pieces with their roots, or just straight up absorb it if it's already like a drink.

They have the ability to extend and retract their roots, as well as partially extend it above ground. (As shown in their Shockwave attack.)

Fear barely moves from their position, but if they really need too, they would need to retract their roots fully, before dragging their body along the ground with their arms. They can be surprisingly fast if need be, but that doesn't change the fact it's very uncomfortable for them to be dragging around their body like that.

Their "torso" and "leg" are slightly flexible, but not to the point where they could "sit". At that point it's the equivalent of breaking their spine.

It's "Tree form" is their true form, they just shapeshift into their more humanoid one when interacting with others or engaging in combat.

In their "Tree form", they are able to have a better connection with the forest, making it easier to manipulate and change the environment of their domain.

Normally, they sleep in their "Tree form", unless suddenly knocked unconscious like using the Comatose ball.

Fear has a velvety texture around their main body, with their limbs feeling more bark like. The tuffs of "leaves" sticking out from the side of their body feel especially soft.

When put under extreme stress, the "fuzz" on their body would fall off. It does not make them look that visually different, except the tuffs on the side of their body are bare twigs, but now all of their body would have the bark like texture.

Depending on who they are talking too, they can mimic the voice of others that said person knows about. Most of the time, they use this ability to remind or comfort. However when needed, they can use it to threaten.

How Fear exactly summons Phobias is unknown, but it is known that the Phobias are parts of Fear themselves.

Being naturally intuitive and observant of the world, they have a special insight and connection to every other vices. Thats how they know of the true nature of Hatred and how Greed and Solitude had been defeated before them.

Being an abstract concept, they, along with all the other residents in Dreamworld cannot be truly "killed", even when they are, they would some way eventually be rebirthed. Still doesn't change the fact that it's still a very unpleasant experience, especially for Fear, and they themselves really hate being "killed off" for many, various reasons.

If for some reason, Fear dies, the sturdiest tree in the Fear forest, would slowly become the new "Fear", kind of like how the alpha male clownfish chages and takes the place of a dominant female when the female dies off. (It's still the same Fear, just slightly different body)

When needing to revive, if there are no available trees in the Fear forest, like all are burned to the ground or chopped into stumps, new saplings would grow out from the stumps/soil from underground roots and grow into new trees, and depending on the damage, recovery might take weeks, months or maybe even a year.

To truly get rid of fear, not only must all the trees in the fear forest needs to be cut down, but all of their roots must be rid as well, which is definitely very tedious due to the amount of it as well as them branching far and deep into the crevices of the mind, it's etched into our behaviour after all. Even if a single centimeter of root remained, it can and will eventually grow back the entire forest.

Relationships:

They are generally netural towards Greed and Solitude.

They find Greed annoying sometimes.

They can relate with Solitude.

They are genuinely afraid of Hatred, and would avoid it as much as they could.

They hate Hatred as much as they fear it, so despite their fear, if they see others getting hurt by it, they would throw hands at it. (Probably also #1 Hatred hater)

Fear, Greed and Solitude barely see face to face, as there is not really much reason to meet up. And even if they do, they would meet up at Fear's domain due to their mobility issues.

Out of the trio, Fear knows every other member the most, as well as being the member of the trio that knows about Hatred the most.

They genuinely look out for players, despite being afraid of them sometimes.

They treat Phobias as their pets and adores them greatly if they so happen to summon one.

Design guide

Stylisation:

This is how I do the effect for the pics lol, just posting this here for reference for myself or if u want, u can take inspiration or use it with credit :D (Done in Ibis paint btw)

I might change it in the future tho-

[loves1ckgirl]

Denki Kaminari with an online best friend

Denki x American! reader

Online friends + maybe romantic-ish

Note, I have no idea how to write in the grammar of someone learning English so I’m just avoiding contractions and using a bit of chat gtp to make the sentence to be a little more incorrect lol.

He initially met you while playing a FPS at 3am

The game between you and both was mostly silent aside from some English and Japanese cursing, Denki understood some what you said

You however; did not understand him, but assumed he was expressing the same frustration and wasn’t just getting upset at you

After your first game was played, he had sent you a few emojis and a little english

The game you had been playing along side some random from Japan had gone surprisingly well. It was such a bad game for the loser you wondered if it was because they were absolute garbage or all of a sudden you became a gaming god. As you leaned back in your chair and attempted to fix the knot that formed in your back from hunching, you looked back at your computer screen. There you see a friend and message request.

Kaminarieki

“You are good at playing. Can we play more?”

As you read the message, you decide to respond and pray he wasn’t some 30 year old incel. After all, you were bored, and a bit lonely.

After that first interaction, you would go on to play with him often

However, neither of you talked very often especially after you came to the conclusion you didn’t speak the same language

In the end, there were still some short convos

Kaminari liked these, as he thought you were cool

The fact that UA English classes were more rigorous helped him in talking to you (a hero needed to communicate with a large variety of people)

A couple of months in, he was struggling with his classes exponentially, and no amount of help by his friends would help him,

He then thought it was a good idea to message you and explain that he thought it would be nice to talk and learn through a fluent speaker instead

Kaminarieki

“Can we talk a lot I am learning English I think your cool.”

“I’m down. It’s late now though. I have school is tomorrow okay? Also, the your should be you’re”

Kaminari sends a cute little heart emoji,

“Yes. Thank you.”

For awhile, you’d avoid many abbreviations and some complex Slang

Eventually Kaminari had gotten more advanced and you spoke more casually

After exchanging Instagram and other accounts, instead of mostly talking as you guys played, it started during school and random times of day

The time difference didn’t mean much since the both of you had terrible sleep schedules

(Although, he was a bit more regular due to his hero school)

As you talked to him you obviously found more of his personality and it had become more endearing tbh

He’d most definitely google English pick up lines

Eventually as his friends noticed his behavior and how if he’d planned to play with you he’d decline

Also how he’d be texting more than before (mostly on his Sundays and Monday’s as you’d be awake the longest when he was.)

Lowkey hates the time difference tbh.

Anyway, as his friends noticed him typing away on those two days in particular they’d begun to ask questions about who he was texting

“My friend.” He’d say, looking up from the phone for a second before continuing the text. Mina had begun even more curious than previously.

“Whaaa? Friend? Who?” She asks, leaning over the couch and Kaminari’s shoulder. She sees joke flirty messages that he sends and receives.

He ended up telling them about you and explains that’s why his English grade was getting better

Anywayyy he’s overall super cute with you

Basically just being himself

If you ever wanted to learn Japanese he’d 100% do his best to help you enthusiastically

He tries his best to keep you updated since it’s its hard to talk to you regularly

[ayoharuko]

Genshin Impact Gf Headcanons

Hi there and welcome back :3

Hope u enjoy this one with our Inazuman girls!

Including: Raiden Ei, Yae Miko, Kamisato Ayaka, Naganohara Yoimiya, Kujou Sara & Sangonomiya Kokomi

REMINDER: These characters don't belong to me but to hoyoverse. As always this is all fictional work so pls try not to take things too serious :)

(Inazuma Girls)

~God of Eternity~ (Raiden Ei)

~Overprotective Girlfriend~

- With all the things Ei has lost...its obvious that she would be very overprotective of you..I mean..she knows how fragile humans are and how short their lifespans are..so..its better not to let you leave early....right?

- Expect the Raiden Shogun to sometimes follow you around, she's just worried ok!? With the Shogun’s eyes she can always see you...safe! So that’s what makes her mostly happy...is seeing you safe~

- She lets you in her Plane of Euthymia. Mostly makes it a more...pretty and peaceful place instead of scary...since she doesn't want you to be afraid whenever you want to visit her :)

- DON’T and I mean DON’T let her in the kitchen. She CAN’T COOK EVEN IF IT MEANS HER LIFES ON THE LINE. If you don’t wanna die of food poisoning...just cook something for her instead and make her STAY AWAY from the kitchen.

- If you know how to bake. Then she demands sweets from you EVERYDAY. Their just soo gooddd how can she resist them? and no need to worry about cavities she can just replace her teeth right?

- She’ll give you Japanese nicknames because she wants to :3

- Yae Miko would often tease you both(mostly you lol), but despite all that teasing...she is truly very happy that Ei found someone like you<3

- Ei will let you mess and style her hair, like it doesn't matter what she just wants you to touch her hair honestly...your touch is just soo smoothing and gentle that she just wants to lay on your lap while you stroke her hair... *sigh* she could stay like that for an eternity.

- Makoto and her friends would've liked you...she just knows it.

- Overall she is an overprotective yet sweet and very caring girlfriend but not really wife material hehe~

Nicknames: Daarin(darling), hanii(honey) and my world

Voice line about you: ‘’What brings you here traveler? Here for another fight perhaps? Haha..I'm joking, Hm? for me? ah! daarin send you to bring these dango’s to me? How lovely of them..hm. Now, I must ask you to leave traveler. Why? well its because I have...business to do!’’

When she talks to you: ‘’Hanii...i..I'm very sorry~ I know..you had told me that you don't like it when the Shogun follows you around but...what if you get attacked!? My world....I'm just worried about your safety...I can’t lose you after all...’’

~Sly Fox Lady~ (Yae Miko) 

~Flirty/Teasing Girlfriend~

-The most slyest fox lady of all, she has no mercy and will leave you a blushing, stuttering mess just for her entertainment, What a bully >:0

- But don't worry there are sometimes where she isn't constantly bullying you and on those times she just coos over you~, by that I mean treat you like your a baby lol

- She has definitely make a novel about you, no doubt about it. Its painfully obvious who the novel was for LMAO

- You’re the only one (and Ei) that has FULL PERMISSION to pet/rub her ears and tail, as well as her true form!

- In her true form she loves to be on your lap being petted by you, its very relaxing for little foxy yae~

- She also loves her belly being rubbed BUT SHE DOESN'T TELL YOU THAT.

- She actually has no shame in flirting with you in public. Your reactions are everything to her, It just cures her boredom :)

- Just like a fox, she tends to be very possessive at times and a little too...insensitive.

- She scents you by always hugging you, and she marks you by sometimes biting you randomly-

- I feel like she would gift you flowers from time to time...idk why :0

- She doesn't hesitate to defend you from things that may harm you, and she also doesn't hesitate to threaten and humiliate a person if they say something rude or mean to you. Weather its in front of you or behind your back, no one is gonna talk about her mate like that.

- She knows that she's insufferable sometimes buttt she gave her heart to you after all...so a little flirting and teasing in your relationship doesn't hurt anyone...right?

Nicknames: Little one, love, honey, darling, my mate and my rose 

Voice line about you: ‘’Hmm? You wish to know about my dear mate y/n? Hahaha..too bad~ I won't tell you hehehe~’’

When she talks to you: ‘’Honeyyy?, darling? *sighs* your still mad at me? alright alright...I apologize~ I won't do that again my rose, forgive me? please?’’

~Elegant Beauty~ (Kamisato Ayaka)

~Shy Girlfriend~

- SHES SUCH A CUTIE OMG *ahem* *ahem* I mean..she is very shy when it comes to your relationship!

- She blushes easily and stutters abut whenever you do something to fluster her -//-

- She knows she has to keep her elegant lady exterior in front of you but...why do you to be so gosh darn awesome? -////-

- One of the things you guys do whenever y'all spend time together is either spar or. she’ll teach you how to dance! She would guild you the steps and its just so romantic! <3

- Now...her brother Ayato, .he...doesn't mind you but was weary of you at first, but as soon as he saw how happy his sister was with you and how you loved her he...approved of you!

- Thoma also approves of you! He can't help but squeal whenever he sees you and his lady doing something cute together! >-<

- Since the is mostly inexperienced in being in a relationships she mostly relies on you to teach her how to do things, although the first time you guys cuddled together she couldn't look at you without a blush and lovestuck smile on her face~

- She loves gifting you flowers and some jewelry to show appreciation and love for you :)

- She sometimes gets nightmare about her parents and some other insecurities she has so please comfort her! Baby needs it :(

- Whenever her brother would ask when would she want to married and who? Her answer would be, ‘’Worry not brother, for I have found the person I would love to spend the rest of my life with’’

Nicknames: snowflake, my lover and love

Voice line about you: ‘’Traveler! May I ask you something? Ah yes...well..I was planning to surprise my lover y/n with some gifts, but...I don't know what I would love to gift them, so would you accompany me to the market?’’

When she talks to you: ‘’I a-apologize if sometimes I shy away from your affections....i...I'm just not used to it...but..I'll try my best!’’

~Queen of Summer~ (Naganohara Yoimiya)

~Sweetheart Girlfriend~

- The Queen of Summer and fireworks is the sweetest of them all! 

- She knows that life isn't sometimes that fun and great but...she really doesn't like it when your not happy or smiling! So..whenever you feel down...she’s your shoulders lean on and cry :)

- She takes you with her sometimes to test her fireworks, but obviously you have to stay a few meters away, she doesn't want you getting hurt now~

- Since fireworks are her passion and pride she would MELT if she notices you taking an interest in it, she just appreciates and loves you even more!

- Yoimiya would take you with her to entertain the kids of Narukami island because she thinks with you she because even more brighter and she thinks the kids love you more :3

- When the shrine held the test of courage test and you guys attended even when you were scared...she reassured you that she would protect and keep you all safe~

- Very affectionate, even in public, like she understands if you don't like PDA that much but she’ll still sneak in a few kisses and hand holding here and there.

- She sometimes would fungal over you lol, idk I just see that for yoimiya lol

- You’re the star that brightens her sunny day :3

Nicknames: My star, honey bun and cutie

Voice line about you: ‘’Have you heard about y/n traveler? Ah you have!? Yes I know! their the most coolest person I know kyaaaa~!’’

When she talks to you: ‘’honeyyy bunnn how would you love to be the first person..to see my new and improved firework that can make hearts!?’’

~Divine Priestess~ (Sangonomiya Kokomi)

~Caring Girlfriend~

- She cares for you like a delicate piece of coral~

- Since she's busy most of time...she really cherishes the time she gets with you..cause she knows that she could not come home to the comfort of your home for days or even weeks :(

- Kokomi HATES it when you get hurt...she personally heals you whenever you would get hurt..blood is normal for her but blood on you? Not normal...its horrible!

- She sometimes sends little water fishes to watch over you, usually its just there to keep you company, like a seelie almost :)

- She has insecurities and doubts about herself...not only that she also has lots of pressure...so in times where she's at that state please remind her that she's doing enough for everyone :)

- Kokomi knows how to make plans for future things about to come but...her journey with you is unpredictable, just like her love for you~

Nicknames: Dear, my coral and delicate flower

Voice line about you: ‘’Have you seen my s/o y/n? Ah..apologies traveler...last time they when on a tiny adventure without telling me they came back wounded and beaten...how reckless they truly are...’’

When she talks to you: ‘’My dear coral..please try to be careful next time..i...I cannot bear seeing you get hurt...’’

~Tengu Warrior~ (Kujou Sara)

~Protective Girlfriend~

- Sara is protective. But not that protective that its overwhelming! She's only protective when she knows you can't handle the situation~

- A simp. For you and for the Shogun...too shy to tell you obviously-

- When you guys are together she's like your personal bodyguard or something..always behind you..glaring at anyone who looks at you funny..being menacing and overall being scary....

- Sara doesn't like it whenever you go somewhere dangerous and alone...she knows you can protect yourself very well but...she can't help but still worry..

- Whenever your not looking at her she's looking at you. Why do you ask? Cause she thinks that you’re the most beautiful person ever....

- When danger is there she instinctively goes in front of you and holds an arm in front of you yelling to get behind her, she is not gonna let you get hurt.

- She teaches you how to use a bow :)

- Sara is loyal to you, maybe even more then she's loyal to the Shogun, so consider yourself lucky~

Nicknames: Idiot, dumbass, sweetheart and mine

Voice line about you: ‘’Y/n? Their a very admirable solider and good fighter as well as member in the Tenryu Commission. What? I am NOT having favoritism...just because their my lover!’’

When she talks to you: ‘’Idiot! What possessed you to fight fatui agents ALONE? I...was worried you know!’’

IM DONEEEE WITH INAZUMA GIRLS

I hope u guys liked this long post hehehe~

I’m free from exams and other stuff soo I can actually post more now! so stay tuned~

Anyways thanks for reading this far~!

requests and asks are still open :3

Reblogs and Feedback/Comments are always appreciated! :3

[hurpdurpburps]

My Comprehensive Otherside Picnic Pilgrimage Destination List Pt. 1

This is by no means a complete collection but rather something I put together out of curiosity/an investigative itch, so feel free to add your thoughts or personal findings in the replies/reblogs. I'll be returning to Tokyo in January for a couple weeks and might cut out a few days to do an OP pilgrimage of sorts, so this is mostly for my own purposes that I'm happy to share with whoever's interested. I should note here that a good number of these places have closed for good, but I decided to keep them in the list for documentation.

Hunger Warning: There's a lot of food mentioned.

Spoiler Warning: Events up to Vol 8 are mentioned.

Word Count Warning: Some parts contain pretty lengthy commentary, mainly from my personal observations and experiences.

1. Saitama University

To be fair, Sorawo's college has only been referred to as "a university in Saitama" but I think Saitama University is undeniably the most obvious candidate.

Descriptions of the university's distance from the area's major train station (Omiya) and the one closest to it (Minami-Yono) are a dead giveaway, but the anime also did a cheeky wordplay (埼玉大学 > 犀玉大学, but both are read as Saitama University).

Unlike the real Saitama University cafeteria, however, the anime added more colour to its version because the all-white of the IRL place makes it feel like a depressing hospital food court more than anything.

2. Sophia University While not explicitly named as such, it's clear that Toriko attends Sophia University from the description that Sorawo gave in Vol 5. Even the description of the Yotsuya campus facilities on the official website fits to a tee:

The university Toriko attended was right by Yotsuya Station on the Chuo Line.

I’d read up on places to eat on campus during the train ride here. Two cafeterias, and two cafés, I think? Oh, and a convenience store too.

The cafeteria I was heading to was on the fifth floor.

When I was leaving the cafeteria, I spotted some stairs off to the side. It looked like there was outdoor seating. The building was L-shaped, and the five-story section that jutted out from the rest had terrace seating on the roof.

Ngl, I'm feeling a little cheated of my college experience... My alma mater is of a similar ranking (if not even higher) to Sophia but our campus had pretty terrible food options. Four years of 7-11/Family Mart because I was too lazy to exit my faculty building for lunch break, but also partly because the one time I went all the way to my campus cafeteria at the begging of my then-crush and I thought the food was pretty lame (or at least not worth the cross-campus trek). We also don't have a terrace T-T

Also here, I just want to make a personal note on how fitting it feels to me for Toriko to be attending Sophia, and studying English Literature no less. Tokyo has no lack of famous 'elite' or 'fashionable' universities but each has its own unique sort of branding/stereotype and tbh I can't see someone like her fitting in any of the others. Not to mention the fact that she's already silently drowning at Sophia (socially, at least).

The gate that led on to the main street was wide open and no one asked to see student ID at the entrance.

It was Tuesday. Just a perfectly ordinary day of the week. It was almost noon, so there were a lot of people walking around. I blended into the crowd, effortlessly infiltrating the campus.

Japanese schools are so notorious for their lack of security, perhaps due to complacency from the general safety. My university had closed twice during my years as a student due to bomb threat emails (both times conveniently around finals lol). Depending on what's going on in the world or country, there'd also be a wave of annoying crazies yelling into their megaphones around campus campaigning for God-knows-what from time to time.

3. KOGA Seibu Ikebukuro (皇雅西武池袋店)

This is the Chinese congee restaurant our Troubled Trio visited in Vol 3 after the events of the Kotoribako. Unfortunately it seems to have closed for good but you can still see old reviews and photos on their Tablelog page.

We talked it over, and came to the conclusion that rice porridge might be good, so Toriko, Kozakura, and I had come to a Chinese rice porridge place inside the Ikebukuro Seibu department store.

I kinda laughed imagining 2 college kids and an early-30s tiny woman sticking out like a sore thumb among all the other tables:

It was afternoon on a weekday, the place was at maybe 40% of capacity, and everyone there but us were old ladies.

Discovered thanks to this guy on Twitter (also Miyazawa follows him so he might be somebody...?)

Feeling a little sad because I used to live in Toshima-ku. If I'd discovered OP a couple years earlier I could've tried out their food. I'm kinda picky about Chinese food in Japan but this place looks pretty good.

Some language and culture trivia:

We had come on the simple idea that you eat rice porridge when your stomach’s not doing so well, but this place had a food therapy menu managed by the traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy next door, so it felt like it might really work for us.

薬膳 (yakuzen, or yao shan in Mandarin) is the term used in the Japanese version of the novel, referring to medicinal cuisine. The more general idea of food therapy (食疗) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) concept dating back to probably the beginning of Chinese civilisation.

The TLDR of TCM principles is the belief in healing/nourishing of the body through naturally imbuing herbs and hence their medicinal properties in one's regular diet. Probably also where the Chinese belief of "以形补形" (nourishing what you eat) comes from, such as eating some kinda tendon stew if you sprained an ankle to make it heal faster, or whatever.

Figuring I should take the opportunity to try a type of tea I hadn’t drank before, I ordered kantoucha. Toriko went for sanzacha, and Kozakura had maikacha.

せっかくなので飲んだことのないお茶を頼んでみようと思って、私は冠藤茶にした。鳥子は山査茶、小桜は玫瑰茶。

Sorawo and gang probably didn't know what these plants were because Chinese hanzi were used for the menu names instead of their Japanese counterparts. I've omitted the "-cha" suffix below as it simply means "tea" and is pronounced the same way in both Mandarin and Japanese:

Kantou/冠藤 = "Crown Vine" (hanyu pinyin: guan teng).

As a Chinese kid who grew up surrounded by TCM, even I had to scratch my head for this one and boy, researching it was a hell of a rabbit hole. Apparently "Crown Vine" is the polite name for "Chicken Blood Vine" (鸡血藤), which not only sounds nasty but looks nasty (risky click - don't say I didn't warn you).

Here's what Wikipedia says about this peculiar plant's medicinal properties:

有行血补血，调经，舒经活络的功效，其药用来源为豆科植物密花豆的藤茎。本品苦、微甘，温。归肝、肾经。

"It has the effects of promoting blood circulation, replenishing blood, regulating menstruation, and relaxing meridians. This herb is sourced from the vine stem of the legume Spatholobus Suberectus. It is bitter, slightly sweet, and warm in nature. It belongs to the liver and kidney meridians."

Meridians (经络) are a pseudo-scientific concept that still holds a lot of weight in the TCM world, and also popularly butchered in historical/wuxia (武俠) pop media. You can read the Wikipedia page here for more information.

As for my kantoucha, it had a light flavor, and was surprisingly easy to drink.

Yeah buddy... Hope you liked it at least. Sounds a bit too wild for me.

Sanza/山査 = Hawthorn (hanyu pinyin: shan zha).

The Japanese language does not have a kanji for hawthorn, and the plant is instead represented by a katakana reading of the Mandarin pronunciation (サンザ).

Toriko took a sip of her sanzacha, which turned out to be bittersweet.

Not sure why hawthorn tea is bitter. Never had it myself but I ate a lot of candied hawthorn and hawthorn flakes as a kid and it's pretty sour-ish before being processed with sugar.

Maika/玫瑰 = Rose (hanyu pinyin: mei gui).

The Japanese word for rose is most commonly バラ in katakana, or very rarely 薔薇 in kanji.

You might notice that the Japanese and Mandarin readings of these words sound somewhat similar - that is due to the on'yomi. On'yomi is partly the reason why native Chinese speakers (like myself) pick up Japanese more easily than other language speakers (barring Korean).

Due to the long history of cross-cultural exchanges within Asia, many regional languages have, to a certain extent, Sino-roots. Verbally, Korean and Japanese share many similarities with older, southeastern Chinese dialects Cantonese and Hokkien, due to Guangdong and Fujian being bustling ports/trade hubs of the past. Knowledge of Cantonese helped me greatly when I was taking Korean classes taught in Japanese (my 6th and very new language at the time - like I barely knew how to ask for the nearest restroom kinda new).

It's also why we have the hanzi (汉字) - kanji (漢字) - hanja (한자) trifecta - all three mean "Chinese characters", denoting their written linguistic legacy from imperial Han China through the centuries.

Mine was the two-color rice porridge set with crab rice porridge and chicken rice porridge. Mmm, it had a gentle flavor. The salt was used sparingly, so I was grateful that it came with ebi chili and pickled Sichuan vegetables on a separate plate.

Toriko, perhaps wanting something meatier, had gone for the kakuni pork rice porridge set. The big bowl of rice porridge with kakuni pork, bok choy, and goji berry came with a separate bowl of wonton soup. Kozakura had the yamucha set, which came in a bamboo basket, and the boiled gyoza and shumai were letting off steam.

"Yamucha" here is the incorrect katakana-derived romanisation of "飲茶" (lit. "drink tea"). Pronounced as "yum cha" in Cantonese, the term simply means "going for dim sum". You might be wondering - what's the difference between dim sum and yum cha then? Dim sum is a noun referring to food specifically, while yum cha is a verb/event/action.

Eg. You can say "Let's go yum cha" or "Let's eat dim sum" but you don't say "Let's eat yum cha".

Also I love how Toriko manages to piss off Kozakura every time she opens her mouth so effortlessly lmao.

“What is maikacha? I can’t even imagine.” “I don’t know, either, but it said it was supposed to help suppress irritation.” “That certainly does seem like a good fit for you, Kozakura.” “Yeah, I’m feeling irritated at this very moment. I hope it comes soon.”

4. JUNKUDO Ikebukuro (ジュンク堂書店 池袋本店)

The bookstore frequently visited by Sorawo, and also the IRL collaboration partner of the series. Miyazawa recently held an in-person interview and livestream session at the Ikebukuro flagship store with his editor for the launch of Vol 9, where they also shared a lot of unpublished/uncommissioned art by Shirakaba (see this amazing post for screenshots).

It's also the only place I know of that carries signed copies of the novels. As of yesterday (5th July 2024), signed copies are still available at Shelf 41 (the Hayakawa section) on the 3rd floor. How do I know this? Because I begged my friend to pop by Ikebukuro and pick up a couple for me ;___;

Phone and online reservations for the signed copies are not allowed, and it's limited to one book per volume per person. Go get it while it's hot.

I recorded the livestream as Junkudo's archives were only up for like a week. I can share the recording if anyone asks me for it but the livestream is entirely in Japanese so YMMV.

5. Cafe Pause Ikebukuro

The cafe where Sorawo and Toriko had their first falling out over the search for Satsuki (File 4 - Time, Space, and a Middle-Aged Man).

Miyazawa even made an acknowledgement tweet.

I guess the business really liked being featured in this series because the anime replaced a bunch of other locations in the other files with this one place.

The cafe also hosted an 8-part promotional series featuring the two main voice actors called Otherside Special Activity Report (裏世界トクベツ活動報告) where they did some light meta-commentary and even tried holding guns featured in the series.

It's also right behind Junkudo so I guess it's a great pilgrimage combo if you're in the neighbourhood.

"We were in the cafe behind the Junkudo bookstore in Ikebukuro, where we’d gone after meeting up. Toriko was enthusiastically trying to discuss plans for our next expedition when I spoke up."

Here's their website and Instagram if you're interested.

6. Italian Tomato Café Jr. Ikebukuro West Entrance (イタリアン・トマト Café Jr. 池袋西口店)

This is where Sorawo, Toriko and Akari had a little chat before getting ambushed by feline assassins (File 7 - Attack of the Ninja Cats). There's a few Italian Tomato Cafes in the area, but this best matches what the novel says:

When I headed for the underground plaza by the Metropolitan entrance of JR Ikebukuro Station, Akari Seto spotted me first and was waving her arms.

Together with Toriko, who protested, Why not? Isn’t that kinda mean?, we got aboard the elevator that went above ground.

A standard chain cafe/restaurant type of thing, convenient for when you're peckish, if nothing else. NGL tho I am a big fan of Japanese family-restaurant style pasta.

Website here if you wish to know more about the chain.

7. Bali-An Resort Shinjuku (ホテルバリアンリゾート新宿)

Ah yes, the fabled love hotel in the lore of OP (File 16 - Pontianak Hotel). A quick Google search for "Kabukicho Bali love hotel" gives you not one but four results in Kabukicho alone. I guess business is booming.

Unfortunately, none of their exteriors matches the novel's description:

The facade of the building was stone (or aesthetic paneling designed to look like it, maybe) and used spotlights to give it a high-class image. The building was surrounded with greenery, exotic sculptures, and flowers, along with architecture that evoked the southern seas.

The walls shielding the entrance from view were the barely love hotel-y thing about it, but even those walls were gaudy, covered as they were in ivy and colorful flowers.

However, Bali-An Resort Shinjuku (the first one) has a word-for-word match with the interior description for one of its rooms. There's even a dedicated section for girls' party (女子会) packages on their website.

Here's a 360-degree view of the Royal Garden room (ロイヤルガーデンタイプ).

The first thing to catch my eye inside this room that was decorated in earthy tones were two canopied double beds in the back. Hibiscus petals were scattered over the top of their white blankets. Next to the wall there were two black leather massage chairs. In the front of the room was an L-shaped sofa and a wooden table. The table had a silver bucket of ice placed on top of it with a bottle of wine sticking out. Along the wall there was a mini-fridge, and a shelf with a microwave, and on top of that shelf was a large TV surrounded by a bamboo frame. It currently showed nature footage from Bali. There was the sound of the waves rolling in and out, and gamelan music played at a subdued volume.

“Lookie, lookie! There’s a sauna!” Akari shouted, looking through the door to the side of us that she had opened. Beyond it was a washroom with a selection of amenities including face wash, face lotion, and face masks. Across from the sink was a large dry sauna that had room for two.

Toriko walked in, pushing the bathroom door open. The tub was made of black stone, and was an almost round heart-shape, or maybe more of a peach-shape, and it was large enough it seemed to cry out “get in me together.”

None of the lobbies match the novel's description, but here it is anyway:

There were couches scattered around a lobby with dark-colored flooring, and lines of decorative plants as tall as a person. The space was softly illuminated with spotlights and indirect lighting, and a languid Balinese gamelan piece served as background music interspersed with the sounds of water and birdsong. Was this aroma foreign incense, perhaps?

For a gigantic room with two beds, massage chairs, room service, a huge ass bathtub, large couch + TV area, sauna and free amenities, 26,800 yen is honestly a steal, especially when you consider it's right smackdab in the heart of Shinjuku. I'd totally stay at this place bruh.

8. Jimbōchō Book Town (神田神保町古書街)

Jinbocho is the neighbourhood that houses the building with the elevator that leads to the skeletal building entrance on Otherside. The area is served by a couple of stations but Sorawo and Toriko reached via Ochanomizu station.

Book Town is one of the more classic 'old school Tokyo' locations favoured by fans of literature. It's a treasure trove for people who love hunting for secondhand books. It's no wonder why Sorawo is familiar with the area.

I have no idea which specific building that houses the elevator is supposed to be, but my guess is this one - it's the only one I could find that appears to match the description in Vol 1.

"The place Toriko led me to was a building in Jinbouchou. It was a tall, thin building with a bunch of shops in the back of Book Town. Ten floors in total."

If I'm right then it would be really funny as the building is literally called Jinbocho building (神保町ビル) lmao.

Book Town used to be a pretty lively (or as lively as a secondhand book district could be anyways) locale but COVID-19 unfortunately caused many of these legacy businesses to shut down, so now it's a lot quieter. I'm not sure how long this street will last so if you ever visit Tokyo I do strongly recommend visiting it, if only for the vibes.

Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of the rich history of this area.

Book Town also has its own website that carries a great deal of information if you're planning on visiting.

9. Shosen Grande (書泉グランデ)

The flagship store of the Shosen bookstore chain, located near Jinbocho station. Sorawo waited here for Toriko before their second venture into the Otherside together (File 2 - Hasshaku-sama Survival).

It's hella huge with seven floors - and apparently also a popular shopping location for weeb/otaku merch. This is the official floor guide on their website.

10. Maison c

The quaint little wine bar near Junkudo Ikebukuro where Sorawo and Toriko had a rather gloomy dinner after the Ninja Cat saga (File 8 - Little Bird in a Box).

We were at a wine bar near the Junkudo in Ikebukuro. It was the middle of the week, but the dimly lit establishment was filled with customers. In one corner of a place where there were young couples having a lively time, we were having a quiet after-party of our own.

Definitely a cosy little spot, if their Instagram is anything to go by.

11. Meat Bar Modavaca (ニクバル モダ・バッカ)

The steak place near Shakujii-kōen station where Kozakura brought Toriko and Sorawo to shortly after events of the kidnapping (File 12 - The Matter of that Farm).

Unfortunately it seems this place has also closed for good, but the location, menu, prices and other information from their Tablelog page and Instagram perfectly matches the description given in Vol 4:

We entered a bar and grill that was conveniently open all day and started off with rosé wine, even though it was still bright out. I’d never thought of rosé as anything more than “that kinda pinkish sweet stuff,” but the taste of it was crisper than I had expected, and I liked it. Next, we ordered prosciutto, flame-seared meat sushi, and red wine. We had the staff cook us some expensive meat that cost 2,000 yen per hundred grams, and devoured the steaks after watching them sizzle on a hot iron grill.

It was already evening outside. As I watched the people being spewed out of the station one after another, I caught myself unconsciously searching for that woman in the crowd.

12. Kitchen Nankai Jinbocho (キッチン南海 神保町店)

The "Western food" (洋食) place Sorawo and Toriko visited for a quick builder's lunch in Vol 6 (File 20 - T is for Templeborn).

This is actually a pretty famous spot, so much so that it even has its own page as a Chiyoda-ku attraction. Most famous for their black curry.

Settling on a place that served Western-style dishes, we joined the salarymen and construction workers for a hearty meal.

I should note that there's a bit of missing nuance here. The original Japanese text is as such:

あんまり気取らない感じの洋食屋を選んで、スーツ姿のサラリーマンや工事の作業員に交ざって、がっつりボリュームのある定食を食べた。

The bolded part roughly translates to "We chose a rather unpretentious Western restaurant...", with 'unpretentious' in this context referring to a place that doesn't feel very conscious/fussy about attire/appearance. This part is entirely omitted in the English version.

I don't think it's a big deal per se, but it's the inclusion of small details like that which adds flourish to Miyazawa's writing, and it's kind of a pity when they get missed out like that.

There's also a slight mistranslation here:

I ordered tonkatsu curry with a black roux and lots of cheese, while Toriko had roasted flounder with ginger. We scarfed down a whole bunch of chopped cabbage and white rice on top of that and headed back to the elevator with our bellies full.

The corresponding Japanese text is as follows:

私は真っ黒なルーにチーズのたっぷりかかったカツカレー、鳥子はヒラメのカツと生姜焼き。キャベツの千切りと白いご飯をわしわし搔き込んで、お腹パンパンでエレベーターに乗った。

The bolded part states "flounder katsu and shougayaki", which actually means a piece of breaded, deep fried flounder, with pork stir-fried in ginger sauce on the side.

True enough, there is a dish called "fried flounder shougayaki rice" (ひらめフライ生姜焼きライス) according to the real restaurant's Tablelog page. Here's a review of the restaurant featuring multiple photos of the dish.

13. Keio Plaza Hotel Shinjuku

Explicitly stated as the location of the First Anniversary Dinner in Vol 7 (File 22 - Toilet Paper Moon).

The buffet that our fav girls stuffed their faces at is the Glass Court Super Buffet, located on the 2nd floor. Looks pretty spankin' and swanky if you ask me.

“The buffet here’s on the second floor. I told you, you don’t need to get all worked up about this.”

I'm omitting the novel's lengthy descriptions of the food out of mercy to us all.

The second half of the night takes place at the Aurora Sky Lounge on the 45th floor.

Fun fact: I ran into a bit of confusion looking up this place due to a translation error in the English version lol.

“I hear there’s a lounge on the fourth floor here.” “A lounge…?” “It’s got a night view and you can drink there.”

There's a Cocktail & Tea Lounge on the 3rd floor but I'm not sure what kinda night view you can get apart from dirty concrete in a city jam-packed with skyscrapers lol. A quick check against the original proved my hunch about the mistranslation was right.

「ここ、四十五階にラウンジがあるんだって」 「……ラウンジ？」 「夜景が見えて、お酒が飲めるとこ」

14. Charcoal-Grill Yakiniku Gyurakutei (炭火焼肉 牛楽亭)

In the anime-special episode 10, our little gang went for some good ol' grilled beef.

It's a little up in the air about how accurate this one is. There is only one place called 韓国炭火焼肉 牛楽亭 (lit. "Korean Charcoal-Grill Yakiniku Gyurakutei") in Tokyo, located in the Shinjuku section of Iidabashi that has since shut down.

The restaurant name might be an off-brand reference to Anrakutei (安楽亭), which is an affordable yakiniku chain around Tokyo. There's one in Ikebukuro and another in Shinjuku. But cheap places tend to use electric grills instead of charcoal, so... idk bro.

15. Omiya Ichibangai (大宮一番街)

The place where it all started - when Sorawo discovered a gate to the Otherside on a random day in April.

In contrast to the west side of the station, where further development had yielded large buildings, the east side was still a sprawling town of small buildings and multi-tenant buildings, the same as it had ever been. It was on the east side, on the corner where two narrow streets met, that I came to a stop. Pachinko parlors, ramen restaurants, taverns, parking lots… In between the various assorted buildings of the shopping arcade, there were many shops with their shutters lowered. Their signs had been taken down, and nothing was posted out front, so you couldn’t even tell what kind of businesses they had been.

I've been to Omiya station once, but that was before I knew about OP and it was on a blitzy winter day in mid-January. The station is pretty big and the immediate surrounding area is bustling, but everything looks just so slightly dated compared to downtown Tokyo, like a time capsule from early 2000s IT-bubble era Japan, which is wild because it's technically only 20-something km away from Ikebukuro. I was only there to meet a friend and didn't get a glimpse of the rest of the area outside of the passing "car passenger POV", so I didn't really feel the "forgotten suburban Showa town" vibes from the novel when I read it but YMMV.

A quick Google search for "大宮商店街" shows a shopping street called Ichibangai to the immediate east of the station, and street view images match up the screenshot from the anime, so this specific area's your best bet.

I casually approached the building and slipped into the gap between it and the neighboring one. The lock on the side door was broken, so I knew I should be able to get in. I’d been able to do so the last time I was here, at least. Turning my body sideways as I proceeded down the gap, I put my hand on the sliding door. It got caught if you tried to move it normally, but if I put in some force, and lifted it up a little—there, it moved.

The back room of a shop that had gone under. The ceiling and wallpaper were in poor shape and the sink and gas stove against the wall were dark with grime. There were chairs and a table in the center of the room, covered in dust.

I crossed the room and approached the back door.

I pushed the door open with trepidation, and on the side was just the back alleyway, as I’d expected. There was a puddle on the bare concrete surface fed by runoff from the external portion of an air conditioner.

I took a step out into the alley and looked towards the arcade. It was blocked off with an iron bar gate and a padlock. Turning the other direction, the alleyway came to an immediate dead end with the back doors of some other buildings. Oh, I guess it had never been possible to come in through here before.

Omiya might be in Saitama but it's still a pretty urban area, so don't go breaking into empty shops or whatever... Still, taking a walk around the vicinity would be a good experience I think.

16. Yamaguchi Mansion (山口マンション)

Toriko's supposed apartment building near Nippori station - as deduced by this extremely detailed post. There's no need for me to repeat what's already been said so I'm just gonna add my own two cents for this section:

It wasn’t a particularly new building, but it still looked expensive. I hated that my reflexive reaction was—Little Miss Moneybags sure lives in a nice place, doesn’t she?

Definitely looks old - records I could find on Google show that it was built in 1985.

Also definitely expensive - apart from being so close to a Yamanote line station, it's got elevators! Japanese law doesn't require elevators to be installed for buildings shorter than 5 floors, so cheap developers often cap at 4 floors and call it a day. How do I know this? I used to live on the 4th floor apartment of a 4-storey building (also next to a major Yamanote line station), and let's just say every day was leg day.

I should add that it's an actual residential building located at the end of a street so I wouldn't recommend lingering, because that's pretty sus behaviour to anyone living nearby. I suggest maybe just a quick glance and move on to explore the rest of the neighbourhood.

Also if you're wondering why it's called a "mansion" - it's the Japlish term for a condo.

17. Casa N.Y Apartment Ginowan (宜野湾市Casa N.Yアパートメント)

The closest thing I could find to anything remotely New York-related on Okinawa…

Looks like a slightly old run-of-the-mill Japanese Airbnb though. My best guess is Miyazawa saw the name and decided to embellish things a little bit...

The location and exterior somewhat barely match up at least...?

Calling it a pension made it sound like some kind of resort, but this place was smack-dab in the middle of the city. It was a wooden penthouse on top of a three-story building, and right outside our window, across a street lined with palm trees, was a big billboard for a consumer finance company.

We were some distance from the center of Naha, so no matter where we planned to go, we were going to need a car.

Ngl, this is probably the wonkiest entry on the list.

18. ANA InterContinental Ishigaki Resort

Expensive rates? Check. Poolside bar? Check. Taxi distance from downtown restaurants? Check. Credit cards sure are convenient eh.

We stayed in a super expensive room at same-day arrival pricing, swam in the pool, ordered cocktails by the poolside, and went beach-combing for bits of coral. Then we took a taxi into town at night to eat Ishigaki beef and locally caught fish, then send Kozakura pictures of all the tasty food and alcohol.

Now I'm tempted to do this myself... Girl math is best math...

Fun fact: spamming someone with food photos (or on social media in general) is called 飯テロ (lit. "food terrorism"). And this post is starting to feel like it.

19. Chichibu Waraji Katsu Tei (秩父わらじかつ亭)

In Vol 4 (File 14 - The Inviting Hot Springs), Sorawo and Toriko mentioned that they ate a place called Golden Waraji Katsu (黄金わらじカツ) located within Seibu-Chichibu station after escaping Hasshaku-sama for the first time back in Vol 1 (File 2 - Hasshaku-sama Survival).

“Oh! That was here! I remember now. We caught a taxi on a mountain road, came back here… ate some katsudon at the station, and went home, right? It had a gaudy name. What was it again?” “Golden Waraji Katsu.”

While there isn't any shop of that name IRL or within the station proper, there is indeed one waraji katsu shop located within the food court of a hot spring facility called Matsuri No Yu (祭の湯), which in turn is directly connected to Seibu-Chichibu station (wth that's so nice???).

The facility is mentioned in the novel as well:

There was a building with a number of facilities, including a hot spring for people making day trips to the area, as well as a food court, attached to the station building.

Waraji katsu-don is a specialty dish of Chichibu. "Waraji" (草鞋) refers to Japanese sandals made from rice straw, although I'm not sure what is the special relation between this footwear and Chichibu, or what makes this katsu-don so different from the standard variation.

20a. Nipponichi Ikebukuro (にっぽん市 池袋)

The Ikebukuro private room izakaya that Sorawo booked in Vol 8 to celebrate Toriko's birthday. I did a Google search in Japanese for "Ikebukuro izakaya Japanese-style private room" and this seems to fit the bill off the bat. The entire izakaya is split into private rooms that can seat anywhere between 2 - 20.

I lacked the guts to book dinner for us at a hotel, so instead I chose as nice a drinking establishment as I could: a Japanese-style tavern in Ikebukuro with private rooms that was reasonably priced, and had good reviews for both the alcohol and seafood.

The indirect lighting of the private room shone softly on her golden locks and indigo irises.

Today she was wearing a relaxed, sky-blue dress, not something showy like when we went for dinner at the hotel. She was probably matching the vibe of the tavern.

Seems like a bingo. Pretty intimate interior, if you ask me... Maybe that's why Toriko finally mustered the courage to confess formally later that night lol.

We got more drinks, trying out some unfamiliar Japanese sake.

Their menu also has a dedicated fresh fish section, along with a very extensive sake list... which is a double wham in my books.

20b. Oto-Oto Ikebukuro (音音 池袋店)

There's another private room-only izakaya in Ikebukuro that also fits the description in the novel both in terms of food and interior, but I'm placing this as Option No. 2 because I think Sorawo at this point would rather stab herself in the eye than book the Couple's Room (right pic):

Like literally I would call this the sort of place you bring a girl to get laid after, you know???

Anyways, for those of my pals here who do want to get laid, you can check out the place on Tablelog here.

The Rest (???)

So, that's a cool 20.

There are some locations that have too few details to be narrowed down, such as the DS Labs building, the Shinjuku izakaya where Toriko donned Hasshaku-sama's hat (File 3 - Station February), or the yakitori place near Shakujii-kōen station that they settled at to escape the stalking cats (File 7 - Attack of the Ninja Cats).

Meanwhile, others, like the Chichibu hot springs inn they visited in Vol 4 carry too many research details for me to fit properly in the remaining space left in this post.

I'm sure there's also a bunch of locations/clues that I've forgotten that were visited throughout the 9 volumes, so I'll make a sequel if I come across any new clues/locations as I re-read Vol 1 - 9 in my sparse free time.

I might also do a post casually comparing the JP vs EN (and even CH) versions of the novels, since there were certain parts of the localisation that I felt made characters come off a bit too strong compared to the original.

[thetoaddaddy]

thinkin about an au i was building but didn’t want to bore people with a really detailed au that they would have to read in order to understand it just for smut for my fic series that was mostly short one shots so let me drop it here

a longish explanation underneath. Cut it so you don’t gotta scroll through a big post

it be a deity au. In which the sannin and other prominent figures were well deities. Heavy influence was from japanese folklore and some games. You know how the god and goddess lists are pretty huge so it’s not totally out of reason to kinda make ur own sort of tree using the same kind of logic? Sorta like that.

But the basic rules of the universe was that gods were actual beings. And the more prayer, followers, renown, and general admiration the stronger they were. They can do what their intended tasks are. Like rain or good luck. They can roam beyond their shrine(to which they’re bound to almost like that was their real body. So if it falls into ruin so do they)

And my idea with this was basically both oro and tsuna had devout followers. And thus were pretty powerful and free roaming. Oro had more sinister vibes, a god of war and trickery. Tsuna was a goddess of healing, wisdom and prosperity. And thus they also had a lot of prayers to answer. So it was more of a mutual expectation of gods to their followers. If that makes sense. Like a balance of devotion so long as the prayers were answered. Almost like genshin? But not as complicated lmao. (And i thought of this before i played the funny anime game so dont @ me)

But in this instance jir was more of a forgotten god. Bound to his shrine up on a lonely mountain, his memory and consciousness barely in tact. With no one to feed him with basically attention and belief he’s sorta stuck in a limbo. Basically circling the drain. He doesn’t even remember what his role is like oro or tsuna do(not that it’s hard to guess lol). The only thing really keeping him from fully dying are some rather cute kitsune (sunshine boi and his parents) who at this point make sure he doesn’t accidentally fall off a cliff.

idk. I know it could be a little indulgent. Especially if all he gets is one or two people who just sorta stumble upon him. Which means he slowly remembers who he is and if ya nasty fall in love.

I like thinking outside the box when it comes to aus for our muses. And this is a bit of a mashup of various lores from various sources and our own mentally ill mind.

But I’ve always wanted to do something with it. Especially with muses who tap into the japanese folklore. Its one of those worlds where it’s not just the gods its demons too. Onis, ghosts, weird sentient hair combs with a vendetta, goblins, ghouls. All that cool interesting stuff that makes japanese folklore so cool. I see it as the classic setting, more feudal fantasy than anything modern.

[vacantgodling]

tsokhizhe finally has a full government name (because i found a nice word generator for conlanging so i'm gonna just. use it)

so his full government name is:

kori-tsokhizhemasonen

(pronounced: ko rri (rolled r) tso (like tsunami so pronounce the t with ur teeth) key zeh mah so nen)

sorry that pronunciation guide is ass im just tryna make it easy for the masses

the name itself fully translates to "she who smites the sun" and as a treat have a little breakdown of what each part of his name means:

KORI -> "she who" -> this is part of this story's gendered naming structure. as i explained in a previous post, tl;dr you aren't allowed to not have a gender sorry that's an affront to god/the spirits whatever. HOWEVER gender is not determined based on genitalia, it is determined by what part of the year you were born in. if you were born during the growing season (march through august) then you're considered masculine and if you were born during the dying season (september through february) you're considered feminine. and then then each gender has two categories: lower and higher. higher gender essentially refers to someone who has royal blood, which is determined not just by clan status but mostly due to affinity and sensitivity to god/the spirits, aka an affinity for magic. (these people do tend to end up being leaders or nobles of clans though so, its not completely divorced from class). lower is everyone else. the higher feminine pronoun is "kori" because the pronoun she is ko; the ri part is what makes it higher gender as ri translates to "who" because it is implying that you have some measure of control over the world around you, aka magic. basically. so when they say "she who smites the sun" (when referring to tsokhizhe himself), they mean that his birth was responsible, due to his affinity to the gods, for the eclipse that happened on his birthday (this is a bad omen also but i'm not getting into the weeds of that rn lol). also, because it is a higher gender word, it is placed before someone's name, as like an honorific. to gender someone's name (as all names MUST be gendered in this society) if they're a lower gender, you just end the name with the suffix '-ko'. so in tsokhizhe's case, lets say he was lower feminine, then his name would simply be tsokhizheko. (though it'd be more likely he'd be named sonenko if he was lower gender but again that's weeds and i'm already rambling enough).

TSOKHIZHE -> "smite"

MA -> a particle word, which, essentially means "to do". if you have any familiarity with japanese then you absolutely know where i'm going with this concept but basically in making tsokhizhe's name i ended up deciding that the language itself is one that utilizes 'particle words' that have broad meanings to relate different concepts together. so here, have a better worded explanation from this article i just found lmao

so "ma" in (insert language name i have yet to decide on yet) also has a similar system and 'ma' means "to do something" or, in the concept of naming enacting your will upon something. so like even though you understand my meaning when i say "she who smites the sun" to them, its saying like "i alone am the one who caused the sun to darken". if that makes sense

SONEN -> "sun"

SO. YEAH. I DID THE THING. I MADE HIS FULL GOVERNMENT NAME. YIPPEE

[rottenpumpkin13]

Your body dysmorphia post has me Thinking.

Sephiroth and Genesis bodies are ultimately, very much for show.

Sephiroth is built for precision and agility, his blade and skillset meant for quick efficient culling of large groups of enemies or getting to weak spots on monsters. Like a scalpel. His muscles are mostly for his image, rather then from actual training. The mako makes sure he doesn't need as much physical mass for strength.

Genesis is similar. He's naturally slender, and his image is VERY much appearance focused. I mean hes a magic caster above all, so he's built for speed and dodging.

But Angeal? Angeal is all brute fucking force. That man is STRONG and built for it. You see wrestlers and professional strongman with his build, people meant to hit hard and move weight around. He's like an ox. He puts weight on differently then the other two, and he's a foodie! (Also there's probably something with growing up in relative poverty and then not being there anymore.)

And it is honestly inevitable that they're going to be compared. Their the three Firsts, they're seen together a LOT in pr events and such. And its even more inevitable Angeal is going to compare himself as well.

Angeal's phisyque is impressive and I don't doubt Genesis envies him for it sometimes. He's strong and puts on muscle easily, which I imagine is extremely valued in SOLDIER. I agree, the comparisons are inevitable and I could see it affecting all three of them (even Sephiroth, who could favor Gen and Angeal's more "human" looks over his own).

I beg you to forgive my mini rant under the cut. I fell down a rabbit hole, got keyboard-happy, and want to share my thoughts with you lol.

Assuming the east-Asian male beauty standards are the same in the FF7 world, Angeal is essentially friends with two of the most⏤if not the most⏤attractive men on the planet. He would have grown up seeing Sephiroth and Genesis receive praise and admiration for their looks and constantly being compared to them.

I’m not sure what influenced Angeal’s character design exactly, though we can say that Sephiroth and Genesis’ designs are in contrast to the Western ideals, Genesis more so because he was based off of Gackt (specifically Gackt in the 2000s), which means his design adheres to the east-asian male beauty standard. The two are so contrasting because the east-Asian male standards promote more androgynous and softer looks as opposed to the West’s fixation on hyper-masculinity.

I would say Sephiroth is a mix of both. While his design is inspired by Japanese historical figures and features that give him that “bishonen” appeal, his overall design is pretty masculine. He’s tall and muscular. His body, overall fits into the West’s standards while his face is ethereal enough for us to fit it into the east-Asian standards. Aspects that the West would consider effeminate such as the long hair actually used to indicate a warrior’s class. Funnily enough, long hair as a symbol of masculinity used to be a thing across many cultures, not just in Japan.

The thing about Angeal is, he is attractive. He fits the Western male beauty standard down to a T with traits such as being tall, having a muscular build, square jaw, and facial hair. But if indeed the FF7 world’s equivalent of male beauty is the same as Japan’s… Well, maybe getting compared to Sephiroth and Genesis gets to him.

Don’t get it wrong, the comments about his appearance are usually positive, but they’re always about how “strong and ripped and big” he is. Not to mention he constantly gets told how much older he looks than Sephiroth and Genesis despite being the same age as them.

He doesn’t feel attractive, he feels useful. He sees his body as a tool to get his job done. He has the body of a warrior, a Soldier. It’s built for fighting. The problem is, he’s constantly compared to his friends—the same friends who get compared to angels. They stand out, they’re pleasing to look at. He may be at an advantage with his brute force and ideal masculine physique, but—and I cannot stress this enough—men are not immune to body image issues and eating disorders.

I’ll admit that this headcanon partially stemmed from comments I’ve seen about Angeal’s appearance within the fandom. Some people think he’s ugly, which is fine, no one is forced to find anyone attractive. But I imagine the hurtful comments and the constant comparisons to his “more attractive” friends could hurt Angeal if he were to see them in his day to day life. He may be an enhanced super-soldier, but he's still human.

Again, please forgive the word vomit. I just have so many thoughts on this lol

[youkaigakkou-tl]

(I don't know how to read japanese, and my speech is loosely based on anime, so apologies if I'm completely off target...)

I'm fascinated with etymology and like looking/studying the potential meaning behind the characters name, especially when names are a word play on the nose regarding their abilities.

I looked on an "online dictionary for Youkais", and most of the translations contain the word "Monk" in the name.

Regarding what had been said in YoHaji, about humans becoming Youkais after commiting a crime (sin?), does it means the first Youkais were unfaithful monks?

(sorry for the long ask, unable to word stuff concisely==;)

this is actually something that has plagued me for literal years, words for "monk" being in youkai names. im just not good enough at japanese to read analysis by japanese folklorists myself, and this is perhaps too obscure of a topic for there to be translations of. (an obscure linguistic detail of youkai, an already somewhat niche topic)

to preface, the words that often appear in youkai names and mean "monk" or some other position in a buddhist temple, are:

kozou (小僧): lit. "Little monk"; also just used as a word for "child"

nyuudou (入道): lit. "Entering the (buddhist) way"; someone who has shaved their head and entered buddhism.

bouzu (坊主): lit. "Owner of the monastery"; but later became a general word for monks.

douji (童子): lit. "child"; but in the context of buddhism, this is used as the translation for the sanskrit word "kumāra", and refers to children who become disciples at a buddhist temple and do servant work for the most part.

if i may be so bold, i think there's (at least) 2 layers to this

layer 1: it's a superficial resemblance

this seems to be the most common take i've seen.

most of the youkai that have these in the name have some superficial resemblance, whether they're described as having bald heads, or maybe they're seen walking slowly alone at night, perhaps chanting something to themselves. this is somewhat to the effect of calling something "the bald monster", wherein it gives a superficial image of how to know when you've seen this "thing".

and for some cases, mostly with the word "kozou", the word is just used as a general term for "boy" or "person", much like we have words like babygirl and catboy (which unexpectedly does not have an exact japanese equivalent, now that i think about it. closest thing thats used casually is nekomimi) perhaps just as we find the use of words that mean "boy" but also "monk" in youkai names strange, someone from a different background might find it strange that the combination of "baby" and "girl" refers to a disheveled adult man, or that catboy can refer to an adult man with cat traits even though "boy" clearly insinuates "child".

although, it's hard to tell what the original form of such youkai with these words in the name were or were intended to be, and how much of their visual resemblance to monks by artists who came afterwards was inspired by the fact that a word for "monk" was in the name. chicken and egg problem. (much like how youkai media nowadays, and series that involve humanized versions of inanimate objects use past stories and etymology to inspire their look. the artists of old probably didn't expect the works they left behind to be used as a record of what life was like back then, imagine if future historians use FGO and touken ranbu as historical reference LOL)

the idea of these youkai being something that became of a monk for one reason or another seems to be present in english perspectives on youkai, although not corroborated by japanese authors, so perhaps this is again a case of inferring and assigning meaning that wasn't there, or wasn't meant to be there. (source)

but this all begs the question...

layer 2: what does it mean linguistically?

the word for "child" also meaning "monk" is strange and specific, isn't it? or is it the other way around?

im so mad. its like this every time. when i trace every question about japanese linguistics or folklore back to the source it always goes all the way back to 1500 years ago (about 5th century AD) to the arrival of buddhism and the advent of written records in japan!!!! im not a linguist or historian im not good enough to disentangle all this!!!! or keep all my history facts straight!!!

the long and short of it is, buddhism contributed a large part to the advent of writing in japan, with the importance it placed in copying scriptures. buddhism was largely influential throughout early japan written history, and prior to the heian era was incorporated into the governance system. the heian era saw the founding of enryaku-ji on mount hiei, one of the most influential temples of the time and origin of the tendai school of buddhism, which was the leading school at the time, and founders of later schools of buddhism in japan almost all originated from it. this is all to say, enryaku-ji and mount hiei are two very prominent locations that appear in a lot of folklore and youkai stories.

mentioned in the essay "story of the shinoda wife" by folklorist orikuchi shinobu are "doji villages", specifically mentioned in the context of mount hiei, which are servant villages to buddhist temples, where the children go to work in the temple and are called "douji", which in turn becomes what their villages are called. the fact that he goes into detail about what these are, and also explains the use of "douji" to refer to buddhist child disciples rather than just "child" in general, could mean that these are particularly obscure tidbits.

(i actually came across this essay when i was looking up kuzunoha, and the play where abe no seimei was named "doji" as a child. orikuchi posits that monks started a temple in the village called abeno, and so "abeno doji" became a familiar phrase to locals, and so it became part of stories and plays)

if i may be so bold as to make assumptions, i think its possible that monks, who were influential, literate, and the source of not an insignificant amount of literature from the time, referred to figures in stories with honorifics from the organizational structure they're familiar with, and common folk adopted the vocabulary too. (this is perhaps similar to how you're referred to with honorifics like "sir" or "madam" in letters from official organizations even if you're not necessarily on the same level of importance as the person the letter represents.)

of course, this is just assumptions, and if i had any concrete conclusions this wouldnt have and continue to plague me for years.

resources:

hyakumonogatari.com - a huge blog of translations of essays on youkai

kotobank.jp - japanese dictionary thats particularly good for words with more cultural background

japanesewiki.com - an accurately, manually translated resource of the japanese version of japan cultural wikipedia pages

Shinoda Tsuma no Hanashi by Orikuchi Shinobu - an analysis essay on the play "Ashiya Douman Ouchi Kagami" (which is actually about abe no seimei LMAO and prominently features kuzunoha), doesnt have a english translation

The Artist is Absent (The Beginners Guide analysis) by Innuendo Studios - yeah this one isnt relevant at all. its a literary analysis of the videogame The Beginner's Guide (2015). but i just think anyone who wants to do any amount of thinking about stories and folklore should watch this video and also play this game.

[plague-of-insomnia]

I'm sorry if this is a silly question but I'm just curious. Do you know how much time Ciel and Sebastian spend in Weston? I haven't read the manga in a while but while watching the anime I just feel like everything is happening too fast??? Luke the whole are was done in 2 weeks max

Hi, anon, I am not someone who pays super close attention to the chronology of canon (as in, exactly what day/date things happen) partly bc I care more about the overall story and themes and the characters than minutiae like that. Not bc I think people who do are dumb but bc I’m more of an AU creator than canon so knowing the details like that to extreme doesn’t really benefit me much so it doesn’t interest me to spend the time doing it. (Though I know at least one person did come up with a timeline through a certain point in the manga years ago, which you may find if you do a google search.)

But what I can tell you is Ciel comes home from the Campania before Easter and arrives at Weston presumably after that holiday, so likely in March or April. (I could probably find out exactly when Easter happened in 1889 but I honestly could care less lol.) We also know from McMillian that he is joining mid-term. It’s actually a clever way for Yana to have the school “begin” in Spring (which is familiar/nostalgic for Japanese audiences, where school years begin in April, usually) while still reconciling with the Western tradition of beginning in the fall.

We also know the cricket tournament takes place on the 4th of June—probably a day Yana picked since it plays with the theme of four (four houses, four prefects) in the arc but also because the number has an association with death in Japanese.

This means that Ciel is not a student at Weston for very long at all—only 2-3 months at most—since the midnight tea party happens after the cricket completes and presumably marks the end (or close to it) of the school year/term.

Honestly, until the last episode I think the anime has been perfectly paced with the manga. They’ve really made only minor shifts and mostly expanded things, so they’re following Yana’s vision fairly closely.

The one major thing is that this episode shoves most of two chapters into one, when it really could have been done in two. But that would mean 12 episodes. and I suspect the team was worried if they didn’t get the cricket part over fast, they might risk losing/boring their core audience.

One huge change they did was take out the explanation of the game itself and its basic rules, which Bard explains in the manga. This was likely done for time/space reasons but also because they may have figured most viewers don’t care and they can communicate enough for people to understand and follow along even if they don’t understand the rules of the game itself.

This is partly perhaps because the cricket part of the arc was not well received in Japan and was one of the least popular chapters, supposedly. It’s why I was shocked they turned it into a musical a couple years ago.

I was a bit disappointed to lose all that not only bc we lost a nice scene with Bard and the servants (they cut a scene with them where they have lunch, though it’s possible that could make it into next episode, but I won’t hold my breath), but also bc I’m like the ONE person who genuinely enjoyed the cricket part of the arc, and it’s one reason this arc is my second favorite in many ways.

I LOVE seeing Ciel and Seb working together in devious ways to get their mission accomplished, and how far Ciel is willing to go to win. Ofc we can still appreciate it anyway, but the fact that he so carefully works within the limits of the rules— and in fact, I learned in commentary on the arc that some of the rules Ciel takes advantage of were actually changed not long after this period of time, which is a fun detail.

So it could be things feel like they’re moving fast because in a sense they are, but it also could be you’re sensing that urgency from how rushed this last episode was. But I suspect when all is said and done, and you watch the entire thing, it probably won’t feel as off. Book of Murder took place over only 3 days, and Seb and Ciel were not at the circus long at all. I can’t be sure but maybe only a week or two? And ofc the campania adventure was also only a few days. In fact, this may actually be the longest mission in the series to this point. So it seems like most missions don’t take too long.

Hope that answers your question! I’ve been looking through the chapters in this arc before every episode to get a sense for the pacing and they’ve generally fallen exactly where I expect. This episode being one exception since they really did condense a lot.

[h0neybane]

sooo i rewatched spirited away last night... HERE'S THE SECOND DORM!!

Kamikyūkei: Based on the Loneliness of the Faceless Spirit

i lied again LOL last night i said i was gonna make yubaba the figure but nope!!! its no-face! he's too iconic i couldn't leave him out. I WILL SAY THOUGH the dorm leader (which i eventually plan to make an oc for) IS based on yubaba. more on that + etymology + design choices under the cut! (SPOILERS FOR SPIRITED AWAY)

starting with etymology AGAIN!! i kind of just slammed some japanese words together so i hope it doesnt sound too clunky 😭i did the same thing with serencor but it was welsh and latin that time sooo

kamigami: according to the ghibli wiki, "spirits refers to divine, or spiritual, or mysterious beings that play key features in the films spirited away and princess mononoke. they are referred as kamigami (霊々, lit. "ghosts", means "gods") in spirited away." i decided on this word since the kamigami play a huge role in the story of spirited away

kyūkei: rest, break, recess, intermission; i took this word since the kamigami in spirited away are resting at the bathhouse!

so i just. smackd them together. and thats how i got the name!!! moving onto design...

i think no-face's mask smacked in the middle of the logo is. there for pretty obvious reasons 😭

the building is based off the bathhouse itself! albeit, being a very very simplified version

the gold lining the bottom is a reference to no-face summoning all the gold himself, and the lamp (lantern?) is from those shots of the streets (theyre SO pretty!!) i kinda wanted to put smaller ones throughout the design but i thought it would be too detailed

the little sign for the name is actually the same shape as the sign for the bathhouse!

i considered adding some more gems if i did make the dorm based on yubaba, but i didnt think it would fit. i also considered adding soot sprites but they were a bit of a random addition amongst the bathhouse since they mostly reside in the boiler room.

before i get into ideas for the dorm, i have a BUNCH of ideas for ocs!!!

yubaba oc (third year) is the dorm leader, and haku (second year) is the vice dorm leader

no-face/kaonashi is either a second year or a third year, but he's an important part to the story (if i DO write one)

lin oc is a second year and i think she'd help guide the chihiro oc through the dorm!

kamaji oc is a staff memnber! i'd like to think he still runs the boiler room but also does maintenance for other places in the school too

now onto ideas for the dorm itself... (i wrote down so many while i was watching)

the dorm is modeled after the bathhouse. definitely. 100%

i think the dorm is very similar to octavinelle in the sense that the dorm leader is the boss and the students are employees! they run the bathhouse for spirits from the spectral realm

i thijk they take care of pigs like how heartslabyul has flamingos and hedgehogs instead of slaughtering them for meat like in the movie. little piggies :3

like the movie, the bathhouse is only operates in night time, but i think it'd be interesting if the pocket dimension itself had longer nights and shorter days since the students still need to sleep for their classes

some traditions in the dorm include big sleepovers (reference to all the girls sleeping next to each other in the movie) and big feasts (reference to no-face's feast + chihiro's parents)

i also think that the dorm would be very important for halloween since it's so connected to spirits!

i think the dorm uniform is based on what chihiro, lin, and the other workers wear at the bathhouse, while the dormleader is based on yubaba's outfit and has a lot of gems and such

that's all for now! i think im gonna go write the next part of the ZVA world-building... as always, feel free to send me input!

[seraphirism]

Do you know which story explain Lucas's tattoo? I knew he has his tatoo on his hip but the new card got me confused that he also has it on the chest too?

hiya, anon! hope you’re having a wonderful day (^^)! and yes, I do know (after dedicating this Sunday to it lol) since it wasn’t present in the event story so I had to pull out his card story for it :D

spoilers for [砂漠に消えた湖] event story and Lucas’s event card story.

[I do not know if the story behind the tattoo on his left flank (the one he has had since the start of the main story) has ever been explained 😭 but he’s had it for a long time; that’s for sure. I’ll try to look into it though, to see if it’s been explained in an event or card story ✨ as it hasn’t been explained in the main story.]

now, on to the rose tattoo from this event 🌹 which was your main question!

it was actually explained in his card story!

now, (just a brief synopsis), the butlers and Aruji are in the southern desert region. they were sent here on a request and get caught in a dispute between two native tribes over an oasis.

after the dispute gets over with, the children/heirs of the chiefs of the two tribes, Tribe A and B, decide to get married. Scheherazade/シェヘラザード was the daughter of Chief A and Hasan/ハサン was the son of Chief B. both of them were in love with each other and finally got the opportunity to be together openly when the butlers helped wrap up the conflict between their two tribes.

now, during the butlers’ stay in the desert, Lucas gets the rose tattoo on his chest. to be specific, it’s actually not a tattoo but a henna pattern!

[quick lesson for my readers who don’t know about it!

henna is a red-brown dye (variations in its colour exist) that is made from powdered leaves of tropical shrubs. it is temporary and typically lasts for 1-2 weeks. it’s used most commonly in South Asia, Middle East and Africa (mostly by women).

henna is most commonly applied in celebrations, typically weddings; though you don’t have to be the one getting married to apply it. close family of the bride/groom can apply it as well. applying it (as a bride or even groom) is seen to bring prosperity on your marriage.]

so in celebration of their marriage, he also partook in the tradition of applying a henna tattoo. he chose a typical (red) rose as it means “love” which he thought was perfect since there was going to be a wedding soon.

so the tattoo of the rose is temporary (Lucas said it would fade in a week)! also, he makes a henna tattoo on Aruji as well, on their right arm. and guess what pattern he chooses?

a rose, just like the one on his chest \(//∇//)\!! he also tells Aruji to not tell the other butlers and let it be a secret just between them such the other butlers wouldn’t just let “this” go.

there was a lot of Aruji x Lucas content in his card story so for Lucas fans there is peak content! we also get more insight into Lucas’s personality and how he was back then, 2 thousand years ago i believe?

also, he does explain explicitly call Aruji the one he loves! and he says he does not know any happiness greater than his loved one smiling next to him and he wants to protect this happiness forever 💞

so yay to Lucas fans!; you’re eating well (as usual)!

now, something else I wanted to bring up, which might be either a dev mistake or for an elaborate reason I have yet to reach.

a japanese fan on twitter (@/hanesoyo) pointed out that the rose tattoo is not present in the recent event card posts.

yes, the event introduction video (with the cards fully shown) does have it, but the other posts do not. see below:

the first picture you see here is from the event-card introduction video, the second is from the event-story preview in-game. the third picture is the event-gacha in-game. these were all dropped on day 1/2 of the event or even prior to that!

what these all have in common is Lucas having his rose tattoo on his chest. is that the case for the recent event posts? let’s see!

nope! the recent posts do not show him having it. is it because the tattoo has “faded” now considering 6-7 days have passed since the event has been dropped? [that’s me reading too much into it lol] there’s a chance it might be an artist/dev mistake? but it doesn’t feel like it’s a mistake, to me at least. feel free to suggest reasons below but for now I think it’s a mystery ✨

I hope this helped clear things up (*^▽^*)! if any fact I’ve stated is wrong, please correct me. I wish they had revealed the appearances of Hasan and Scheherazade in particular since she was such a girl boss ✨😔