#my twewy origin story

[pinkribbonsyndrome]

Very long oops--

Omg where do I begin with my deep twewy lore—

So surprisingly I actually kinda just one day stumbled upon it, I think I was like 6 or 7, I had an excessive love for reading and was reading stuff way above my grade level since I didn’t really like hanging out with people my age or really any age— later figured out I’ve had very severe social anxiety at a very young age, big yikes— but due to that, most of my time was spent reading books and playing visual novel games on the 3Ds I’d borrow from my cousin who was living with us at the time due to some sort of exchange program, anyways he’d let me play games on there and it was all cool all dandy, mostly just Pokémon, Mario, basic stuff etc etc

on his last day staying with us, he gave me his 3ds and took me to some discount game store and I practically begged him to get twewy bc I spent the whole time I was there admiring the really pretty boy on the cover (I bet you can easily guess who—) and it was on clearance or the seller was really trying to get rid of it or something, so he ended up buying it for me along with some other games that also became big parts of my childhood. I got home and I played the game but stopped after week 1 day 2 because the combat was difficult and I decided to watch a let’s play instead. Fell in love with it to the bone, though I seriously misunderstood certain story aspects and features of the game. But it soon became my life and soul. My sheer passion in life!

Years go by and I’m like 9 and I decided that school is too difficult, I’m gonna be a dropout and play games in my room all day. I still went to school bc uhm I was only 9 — but I definitely did not like it. 90% of my free time in and out of school was spent replaying twewy wich really helped me open up more to the people around me— though it definitely made me become a little emo since I was still not getting the bigger picture of the game and well Neku was my boy, my kindred spirit trapped in a game I could never be apart of! Should probably mention I never finished watching after week 3 day 3-ish for some reason. So find my surprise the big twist happens and I’m shocked to my core. The guy, the reason I bought this game, the one who I had given my heart and soul to as one of my very first ever fictional gender envy’s, BETRAYED ME! I was upset, i was fuming— but in the best way- I had never played something that made me feel so many things all at the same time and soon after it became my favourite thing again but even more full forced.

So ever since then, twewy has always been the game I fall back to whenever I have a rough patch in my life and whenever I feel alone. I’ve lost a lot of friends and found myself seeking its comfort, I made a ton of them through the advice I learned from that game, and god I’ve learned a lot about myself through it aswell- it’s always been a big staple in my life, I genuinely could not imagine my life without it, it feels like it’s always been there for me— and I don’t plan to forget about it or lose interest in it any time soon

twewy fans when and how did you find out about and get into twewy

For me the way I found out abt it was very silly it was through flipnote Hatena LOL. Flipnote animations weren’t the only thing on there and one thing popular artists there liked to do was post Question Games. In which they write down fun questions on each individual page of a flipnote and post it unlocked (meaning anyone can download and edit it) and encourage their followers to add their answers and then upload it for the creator to see.

Around early 2010 ish I found one of those from an artist I liked so I downloaded it and near the end of the flipnote the creator put in a quiz of naming random characters from animanga and games and having the person filling out flipnote write the name of the IP the character was from to test their Knowledge. A lot of them were from popular shows but the final one (which the creator called a Bonus Round) stumped me it was asking me to name what IP the character “Daisukenojo Bito” was from and I had No idea. Later after I posted my answers I went looking at other ppls flipnotes that were uploaded as a response and I found one where the person knew Every character from the quiz section (though in hindsight they probably just looked up every name online) and I saw the answer to what Daisukenojo Bito was from: The World Ends With You.

Just the title alone caught my attention bc I found it really cool. I thought it might’ve been the name of an anime or something so I looked it up and went on the Wikipedia page and got really interested to see it was a DS game. I tried to read through the article but everything (thankfully) went over my head and the only thing that Stuck in my brain was the one screenshot showcasing the dual screen battle system in the Combat section of the article. I was curious so completely on a whim I downloaded the game onto my TTDS card just to have it on there and started playing it a few days later. Then my life was changed forever lmao

anyways pls tell me how you got into twewy I’d love to knowe 🥺🙏

[coffiishake]

In my two decades of living I’ve collected silly little guys that make me happy :) this is definitely not all of them and I’m probably missing some but these are the ones that I remembered :D Omw to collect more funny lil guys

[goldensunset]

top ten dudes with father issues

[oveliagirlhaditright]

For some odd reason, I decided to look up and see if they were selling jewelry online for a lot of the Square Enix characters we all know and love (a lot of the girls, namely, but also some of the boys). And I was looking for fan-made ones, and also products done by Square Enix themselves, and I was honestly surprised by all I found.

First of all, Square Enix has actually made a lot of such merchandise themselves (for a pretty penny, of course, but it's still pretty neat). Like, they even made Ashe's necklace from Final Fantasy XII, which I was not expecting, oddly enough. Partly because a large part of me wasn't even sure it was a necklace I was seeing in her design, until today when I saw two artist renditions of her done by Akihiko Yoshida and Ryoma Itō, as opposed to just staring at her 3D model and trying to figure out if the jewel I was seeing was a necklace or part of her shirt.

Though, oddly, neither fans nor Square Enix have made Garnet's necklace... or, at the very least, I couldn't find one on Amazon nor Ebay today.

There also doesn't seem to be Shiki Misaki's pendant (which sadly doesn't surprise me, since TWEWY and Shiki herself aren't that popular), the Nameless Star from Kingdom Hearts yet, or Kairi from Kingdom Hearts... and that one vexes me so, when we have had Sora and Roxas' necklaces sold for years.

...I guess for the heck of it I'll spell out all I did find today.

Aerith's new necklace from the Remake series, fan done.

Squall's necklace fan done and professionally done by Square Enix.

Rinoa's necklace fan done... Though since at least the Griever part of her necklace is Squall's (as he gives it to her in the story), you could buy the professionally done pendant that was done for Squall and just give it to Rinoa and lie and say it was for her if you wanted. LOL. It's the same thing and you would be covering your bases there.

Also, a certain fan made a necklace inspired by Rinoa:

Tidus' necklace fan done and professionally done.

Yuna's necklace fan done and professionally done.

Ashe's necklace, as I mentioned above, professionally done.

Snow and Serah's engagement necklaces fan done and professionally done.

Lunafreya's necklace professionally done.

Sora's necklace fan done and professionally done.

Roxas' necklace fan done and professionally done.

[dj-of-the-coven]

So, I've been thinking for a long time about why Beat is the most mischaracterized guy in the main cast of twewy, and last night I finally had a breakthrough. It's not only because he's not as popular as the others (though that's a part of it, and the two kinda feed into each other). It's baked into the game. More specifically, it's built into Neku's perspective as the main character.

Twewy has a lot of complex personalities interacting with each other, and for the most part it does very well at walking the players through their thought processes--obviously done the best with Neku, since we can see many of his thoughts word-for-word, but the other characters get similar treatment too. Joshua gets fleshed out in secret reports as well as his interactions on-screen, and Shiki's story doesn't require a ton of meta-textual explanation since envy is a common experience for teenagers. Beat's the only one of the main cast whose character needs a lot of connected dots to make sense, and the game trains you from the beginning not to look too closely at him because at first you're supposed to be empathizing with Neku.

When Neku starts out being rude to Shiki, the player already gets that he's being a dickhead. Everybody knows somebody like Shiki in real life, and if you don't know her, you probably are her: she's sweet, passionate about her hobbies, and extends her compassion to the people around her with basically no prompting. She has relatable self-image issues. You don't need your hand held to understand that Neku is the one in the wrong. On the other hand, what about Beat? We know that Neku has issues to work out by the time he shows up, but the game takes Neku's side on some of his harsher criticisms. He's not the only one who comments on Beat being "stupid" and impulsive. Most of the characters he interacts with have a line or two making fun of him. The player is generally expected to laugh at him alongside the others--he's nowhere near as easy for the average player to relate to.

The teens playing twewy probably know what it's like to feel better than everybody else, like Neku and Joshua, or worse than everybody else, like Shiki, but I'll bet that most of them don't have the same rebellious spirit that Beat does. Statistically, it's just not that likely that everybody playing the game was a delinquent with shitty parents. I was; some people were, but not everybody. It's a feature of Neku's character arc that the game gets you to see Beat the way that he does originally, just to break down the facade by showing you his compassionate side. Beat couldn't help but save Neku even though it would get in the way of his goals. He's just that kind of guy, and doesn't that mean more than anything his intellect could provide? Beat's character arc helps you understand Neku better by design, because it gets you to see how somebody with a judgy leaning could end up being such an asshole with only a little encouragement. The game presents its players with someone easy to make fun of, goads them into making fun of him, and then shows them why that was wrong.

Unfortunately, while this is really good storytelling, it doesn't make for an easily-digestible character to make art and fics about. The player has to look past what the game (and Neku, Konishi, and Uzuki) thinks about Beat in order to find his depth. I could be talking out of my ass, but honestly I think that this, along with more than a decade of fans getting him wrong in fics, comics, and meme posts is the reason why players of the original game don't tend to appreciate him as much as the other main characters, even though Beat collectively has the most screen time in the series besides Neku. It originates with dickhead teenage Neku himself--the players just didn't learn to look past his initial perception.

[hyouta]

Dream Drop Distance might be my favourite KH game overall (so far at least).

(I mainly made this post separate because I had a question about the next set of games/movies - at the end of the post)

I finished my replay this evening and I'm still heart eyes over this game. Besides my personal bias of it coming out around the time I was going through a medical scare, no one can convince me that it's a bad game (or a bad Kingdom Hearts game).

This is only my second playthrough but I've still NEVER had an issue with the drop mechanic. Maybe it's because I only play on standard, but it never got in the way of any boss fights.

I think the other arguments I see is regarding the time travel plot and honestly it doesn't bother me, especially after experiencing the series properly. I don't know how much was actually planned, what was retconned etcetera but it didn't feel that out of place in the series.

Then there was something about how you can exploit the dream eaters affinity links and brother I just do not care to consider exploits when considering if a game is good or not. Honestly how many people are even going to discover exploits naturally? Other Kingdom Hearts games had exploits too but that's never brought them down.

ANYWAY, some notes I made playing (I literally stopped tweeting and just opened up my notes up for these posts):

The 3DS version of the opening is surperior

I'm a short hair Riku truther (also on that note, a cyan blue eye colour truther, even though I hate that so many characters have blue eyes - I saw people colour Terra's eyes brown and Ven's eyes green and I like that a lot)

I had to get used the the command system d-pad again, but honestly it didn't take that long, I only get stressed when I need cure.

I do miss donald and goofy... it was nice when they helped in re:coded hollow bastion (though it kinda sucks that dream eaters as party members is limited to one game)

I swear I got dual audio in the first flowmotion tutorial because I don't think it was supposed to sound like that

Do people see the χ-blade subtitle in real life because I don't know how they make the distinction

I have ZERO memory of flick rush to the point where I don't think I played it (and didn't play it this time either oops, maybe if I'm trophy hunting later)

I actually understand Sora's connection to Tron now so the Tron world makes a tiny bit more sense... the movie story however... still clueless

I remember when I originally played DDD that Rinzler was more difficult for me than Gigabyte Mantis, but this time it was reversed... if only because I forgot to lock-on and kept triggering flowmotion

"Me at every line of dialogue: how can I make this about akusai" lol I mean, I don't think I realised the parallels until more recently (or I just forgot)

I accidentally played out of order and I realised they... don't actually account for this; DDD can have one flaw, as a treat

Tries not getting my hopes up re: seeing TWEWY (or Neo TWEWY) characters in KH4

Symphony of Sorcery is top 3 worlds for me... maybe even number one, I just wish it wasn't so short...

Translating the reality shifts (and dream eater mini games) from handheld to console is a bit awkward but they made it work I guess

"Pain" ah yes, the husbands reunited lol Not sure if I missed it or if it was talked about elsewhere but I hope they had the decency to make Saïx a nobody again when he was still unconscious... I wanna know about all these blank periods!! (or do I)

Finally I understand how Goofy and Donald got there to save the crew

Honestly playing the games in order has added so much clarity, where I had only a basic understanding. Kingdom Hearts definitely rising the ranks of my favourite video game series'.

I can't even hate the plot and how complex it is because I'm a fan of Tsubasa Chronicles lmao

I'll try and finish art or post wips for my next post so this isn't so boring to go through but I appreciate those who took the time to read my nothing rambles (again, none of my twitter mutuals play KH so it was kind of lonely). Maybe if anyone who got to the end wanna suggest a KH character to doodle? No promises but I'll see!!

And finally my question:

I'm going through a suggested play order and it counts χ (Chi) separate, but I was under the impression it was the original Union Cross? I tried googling it but it's not clear enough if it has story unique for its own viewing or not... (also it means I have 10.8 hours of cutscenes to watch before I get to 0.2, woof)

[mageknight14]

Something I always find funny when it comes to TWEWY discussion is how people tend to take Hanekoma’s words at face-value when it comes to the TWEWY mythos and his opinions on the Shinjuku games’ structure and take everything he says as fact when the games show, subtly or not, that he’s a heavily biased source who will outright LIE in the Secret Reports and that he’s not always the right moral viewpoint.

And that’s what I honestly love about his character because like any well-written character, he is often fraught with his own subjectivity.

I think an important thing to note is that in the Secret Reports, there is a small mistranslation that shapes a lot of what Hanekoma has to say regarding the events that takes place within the story; namely, Rindo DOESN’T have a high Imagination. It’s actually rather low or mediocre and his Replay power mainly comes from his pin, with Nagi and Fret being the real powerhouses.

(Shout-outs to my friend ζ for this great document!)

In the original ENG translation, the report went "For better or for worse, he is able to maintain abnormally high levels of Imagination, thereby increasing the accuracy of each Replay."

When in actuality, it’s "The higher [the] levels of Imagination he is able to maintain, [the] increas[ed] accuracy of each Replay." Which basically means that Replay relies on him maintaining the focus of his Imagination, rather than how much Imagination he has in general. It also fits in well what we know about Rindo and how he contrasts his team. Nagi is a huge otaku with a passion for her favorite gacha game, Fret is a fashionista that’s caught up on the latest trends, Shoka has her entire thing with Gatto Nero and Neku and Beat are winners of the last Reaper’s Game, with the former already having high amounts of Imagination even before he got sucked into the game due to a combination of his love for urban culture and the arts and Hanekoma’s graffiti subconsciously raising his Imagination levels even higher. Meanwhile, all Rindo has is the words of a social media guru that he mindlessly parrots and a mobile game that he casually plays. Not exactly grounds for cultivating a high level of Imagination, no? That said, Rindo is still able to function as a potent user of Replay due to his ability to hold a LOT of information in his head at one time, giving him a holistic view of the situation that makes him be able to piece together character relationships and bits of information in a way that he can use to his advantage to turn a bad situation around to his favor. W1D5, W2D2, W3D3, and the final day are especially great examples of this.

This is an important distinction to make because Hanekoma actually dismisses Rindo multiple times due to his low Imagination, in contrast to how supportive he was of Neku in the first game. Hanekoma's prioritization of Imagination is him believing that it is a necessary foundation for people to have in order to face adversity; to interpret their world; to grow, self-analyze, and to properly contribute to society. With that in mind, Rindo not having a good level of Imagination to him is indicative of a kid whose potential to do all these things is not as impressive and therefore would probably fail the Shinjuku Reaper’s Game. And to some extent, he’s right since Rindo does fuck up at times and stagnate when people he believes to be more capable show up to potentially solve his problems for him; taking away his responsibilities from him.

However, Rindo does grow from his mistakes, which ultimately culminates into him rejecting the offer for Haz to solve everything for him in favor of striving for a better future for both him and the people he cares about and the Shinjuku Game’s ruleset does make him come out of his shell as a leader, which was what ultimately saved all of them in the end, not his Imagination levels. It’s important to note that unlike the others, Rindo doesn’t actively participate in Operation Awakening: he’s the guy who gets the pieces to go where they need to go in order to have the operation go by smoothly and navigates them to do their job correctly. Operation Awakening ultimately succeeds due to Rindo’s skill as a leader, which Hanekoma did not view as something to make ado about. Hanekoma's vibe was that imagination, and by proxy, the things it provides a person to do, is something that is predisposed..but Rindo proved that you don't have to be predisposed to imagination to do really amazing things or affect change on a grand scale; you can learn how to do it through your experiences. There’s a reason why World is Yours, which is basically Rindo’s theme, has the phrase "Making mistakes is proof that you’re challenged. The World is Yours."

This is also a pretty big contrast when you consider how the Shibuya Game operated, which was heavily biased towards high Imagination people to excel further while pushing low Imagination people out of the running. I mean think about it: out of a normal week in the original game (Week 1), only Neku and Shiki survived legitimately (Beat only got by due to Hanekoma’s intervention in order to make him a wild card later on). But because they have high Imagination, Hanekoma is fine with such a low survival rate for the others. If someone only cares about supporting the already "gifted", then it makes sense that Hanekoma would only focus on a model that promotes Imagination gain and self-reflection for those he deems worthy, i.e. already have good Imagination.

That’s not even getting into how the nature of psychs and pins already predisposes low Imagination people to be weeded out in the original game. And of course, there’s also this Report from the original to consider.

"So, what happens to those who survive the week? Those whose Imagination is less than outstanding are broken down into Soul, while those with excellent Imagination become Reapers. The most talented of these may travel to the next plane, inhabited by Us Angels."

Remember Sota and Nao? By Hanekoma’s and the Shibuya Game’s logic, those two deserved to be absorbed into Soul by account of them not being able to survive but it’s because how the Game operates, that’s just how it has to be, even though the circumstances were out of their control and they are shown to be genuinely good people. From Hanekoma's view, he sees the act of facilitating Imagination as the means to progress evolution; a way to improve the health of world's laws. And why wouldn't he, right? By focusing on Imagination, you are promoting people to think better, to build self-awareness, to grow and change into better people; to reflect. Hanekoma finds this to be ideal, but maybe doesn't consider the vast ways with which people could achieve high Imagination. Hanekoma essentially viewed the lack of focus on Imagination specifically in the Shinjuku Games as precluding the capacity to grow and change, but failed to account for ways in which the team system could allow for growth and self-reflection in other ways even without an entry fee, and arguably more so because of it. The great thing about Hanekoma as a character is that while he has good intentions, he still falls under the Higher Plane mentality of "the ends justify the means" and this leads to a heavily biased perspective from his end. Just take a look these excerpts from the original game’s secret reports:

"My art is widely accepted in Shibuya."

"This proves that those with Imaginations sufficient to create the future are gathering in the area. Shibuya's future is looking very bright."

"I imbue my art with two command codes. The first is "Enjoy the moment more". This strengthens the Imagination. The proxy received this signal loud and clear, though past trauma precluded him from responding accordingly."

"The second code, "Gather", calls to those with strong Imaginations. Hence the inevitability: why wouldn't the Composer find his worthy proxy standing in front of my graffiti?"

When you break it down, he’s essentially saying "My art is so good that it is propelling Shibuya into a better future. Just ignore how I implant my own codes within it to specifically cultivate Imagination." Sounds just a bit egotistical, doesn’t it?

Shibuya is a hub of youth culture and is where new trends are born. Of course the UG of it would value individuality and creativity -> influencing others through art and passion. Shinjuku is both a business district but also has a very expansive night culture. It’s considered "adult" in comparison so of course the UG would value having to work with many, many different kinds of people -> being able to navigate and work with people to your advantage. This also helps to explain why the concept of entry fees aren’t a thing because the team set-up is the challenge in and of itself. Obviously Shiba’s version of the game is an anomaly so huge teams like that probably wouldn’t exist in a "normal" version of the game.

But being a leader in and of itself puts that individual in the best position to ascend and gain power within the UG, but then the leader is burdened with being in charge of the individuals under them. Meaning they have to learn to balance the two and work with their team. Likewise, just joining a team means you end up at the mercy of just following along with what your leader says, meaning without the ability to actually challenge or discuss things openly, you will also fail as an individual within that team.

Let’s compare Fuya and Kanon’s teams for this example: Fuya is explicitly noted to have a high Imagination but that didn’t stop him or his team from repeatedly coming into second-to-last place and the mental breakdown he’s currently having while Kanon doesn’t have a whole lot yet she has her head on her shoulders and the social skills needed to be an effective leader, hence why she and her team are able to survive relatively comfortably in the middle. Just having high Imagination or high qualities won’t be enough on its own if you’re unable to work together and balance out your respective strengths The Wicked Twisters end up being the best example of this ideal since they’re able to work together and clash thoughtfully as a team and support one another in times of needs, with the final day in particular running entirely on this concept. If just a single piece was out of place, the entire thing would’ve fallen apart.

Ultimately, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them.

Then we must compare how the respective Games are operated. The Shibuya Reaper missions (other than the one assigned by Kitaniji) tended to be pretty simple: go here, defeat Noise, etc. The other stuff such as the need to fix 777’s lighting seemed less about intentionally giving a mission and more incidental. They additionally have harrier Reapers, who more or less fit as the game’s RNG element with their job being to actively hunt down Players like animals. With this and giving the Players simple missions with little structure to go on but letting them have to figure out any resultant complications, the Shibuya Game is a lot more chaotic. By contrast, the Shinjuku Reapers are a lot more involved and administrative, which is fitting considering their business aesthetic. You have them being around to answer questions (unless you’re Shoka but she’s had to do this repeating structure for ages without a shake-up of things so it makes sense that she would be sick of it), preventing unfair interference, providing help, and generally ‘administering’ the missions. You have ordered events like the Scramble Slams, with the commentator actively, well, commentating, more involved missions like decals being set up ahead of time, spot-the-difference missions, a pig treasure hunt, etc…

Of course, there are certainly chaotic elements as well (bribing Reapers for more points, having to act on the whims of the Game Masters, teams forming alliances with one another, etc) but for the most part, it’s a much more controlled structure and it really fits in well when you consider the individuality vs sociality mindset of Shibuya and Shinjuku respectively and shows why Hanekoma, an Angel infatuated with Shibuya, would look down on the Shinjuku games in comparison. In his mind, Shibuya’s more emergent mechanics and interactions allow for more Imagination to be cultivated and to him, Imagination is the sole important thing to focus on. But Rindo’s growth disproves that mentality quite a bit and shows that, like many things, there’s room for compromise between both sides. It may also reflect the devs' changing opinions as culture has changed. In 2007 Nomura and company may have focused more on individual talent under the idea of the spirited sole artist, but by 2018, they realized that leadership and followership, and the ability to work in teams, also really fucking matters. Individuality is still important at the end of the day, hence why Rindo needed to get his shit together and not just become a follower like he was before in order to achieve better things for himself and others, but accepting and learning to balance different viewpoints in order to achieve a desired solution is also extremely important.

At the end of the day, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them and even Hanekoma himself seems to realize this when he praises Rindo’s ultimate decision and the courage he had to have to make that choice and sincerely hopes to meet him someday.

Ultimately, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them. And even Hanekoma himself seems to realize this when he praises Rindo for this courage he had to make his final decision and that he sincerely hopes to meet him someday.

[moltengarnet]

The World Ends With You & The World Ends With You: Final Remix (aka TWEWY)

TWEWY for Nintendo DS is my favorite JRPG. It’s not super long, it has really unique controls and mechanics, the music and art are fantastic, and I loved the story. It got an okay rerelease for the Switch in Final Remix, and later got a sequel called Neo: The World Ends With You.

I haven’t beaten Neo yet but it’s also good, just maybe not as fun to play. I beat the original at least 3 times though.

[chilchucks-timbs]

What do you think of the sequel of twewy then? You talk a lot about the original but I'm interested in your opinion of the second part because I saw a few fans disappointed :o

OKAY. Omg.

So first of all? Soundtrack? SLAPS. We won. We won with the sequel soundtrack. I actually prefer some of the new remixes to the original!

The artwork? Stuck to the original style. Can’t complain at all. The new designs? PEAK. They’re so cool. There’s new shopkeepers- who look AWESOME- who have LORE. We can access NPC LORE. I read about one who is married to one of the players? Catch me eating popcorn at that story.

Shout out to the sprites you get when you’re feeding your party members? They’re so cute. In original TWEWY we just had a voice telling us if they liked it after I’ve fed them. NOW we get to know via their face going 🤢 or 🥺 BEFORE they eat so I can give them something they definelty like! and I think that’s fun and funky fresh.

Gameplay? Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. - the original game had a switch port and honestly? I really think they should’ve done better with the controls. What worked and was beautiful for the ds- felt very clunky on the switch. Especially when playing console? I mean what in the Wii controller buLLSHIT. I need my attacks ACCURATE and on tv that’s very very hard. My friend managed it but? Maybe I just need to get good LSLGFSPALDL. But NEO twewy? beautiful. Perfect. Great for the switch. no complaints on the new battle system.

The story:

edit: THE HUMOUR IS THERE. I FORGOR. I forgot how fucking funny it is. The amount of screenshots I have? Hilarious. Not any like quotable moments like there is in the original game. But there’s so much silly billy shit going on. Bunch of CLOWNS I swear.

Its messaging is not driven home as much as the original twewy is. Like my friend had to explain to me what they were doing because it’s very very subtle. The characters are changing but only just a little. -unlike the first game which, like? At the end of the game? These guys are CLEARLY not the same people who entered the game!! These are Zuko ATLA level transformations!!!: whereas Neo twewy game says? Hey. Your actions are kinda sucky bro. Ever thought about changing up your style? Like it’s THERE. But it’s clearly not the CORE of the game like the first one. And that’s where it falls flat FOR ME. I LOVE and ADORE character development and it’s just not the focus of NEO twewy. But that doesn’t mean I hated the game. I just don’t prefer it over the original.

What NEO twewy DOES focus on is world building which. I think they’ve made some super cool and interesting choices. Even if I, and many Joshua kiryu fans don’t agree with them. 💛 we just straight up ignore the new lore because we don’t like it- the one around Joshua anyway. They bring in some new reapers and some new plot line surrounding shinjuku. That’s fine. That’s fun. But. Joshua? MY MAN? No square enix, you don’t know my blorbo of 10 years better than me :))

So. In conclusion. I was not DISAPPOINTED. I just think they lost the core of what twewy meant to people for the sake of focusing on the new details theyve added. I think rindo and fret and nagi deserved better development.

ALSO IDK HOW I FEEL ABOUT TEAMS? I MISS PARTNERS. LIKE TEAMS IS FINE I GUESS BUT. PARTNER WAS SPECIAL.

Okokok real conclusion is that I was not disappointed. I had fun. I loved a lot about this game. But the original hit home so hard, and the sequel was just a good game.

[sloanerisette]

Sloane Writes It - Writing Commissions

Hi everyone!

I'm currently going through some rough financial struggles because of medical stuff and insurance, so I'm opening up writing commissions! Have you enjoyed my work and want me to write something for you? Do you want some smut and need someone to manifest it for you? Good news! I'm here to do that for YOU!

Here are all the details you need to know!

All prices are in USD

Rate is 1.2 cents per word. This totals out to $12 for 1000 words, $24 for 2000 words, $60 for 5000 words, and so on.

Original fiction and series/fandoms I am unfamiliar with work at a rate of 1.5 cents per word.

For something I am unfamiliar with, I promise I will research characters, relationships, and dynamics to the best of my ability, but as a result, it may take longer to get your story to you.

All commissions may take anywhere from 1 week to 1 month.

Payment will happen after I finish your story. I will reach out with an invoice with the exact word count, and upon receiving payment, I will send you your story as a PDF.

Commissions can be kept private on request, otherwise are permitted to be posted on my AO3 or elsewhere.

When reaching out, please pitch your idea (setting, characters, upper range of words you would want, and general idea). As a note, a particularly dense story idea might need to have a longer word count, be split into multiple parts, or pared down in scale if you want a specific word count.

If I don’t feel comfortable with an idea for any reason, I will turn it down. However, you’re free to send another idea my way! While I am pretty open there are still some things I might not want to write, but that does not mean I’ll turn down all ideas from you!

All of these apply to SFW and N*S*F*W stories

If you want something other than a story (maybe help conceptualizing a character or setting, or writing a oneshot for a tabletop campaign as examples), I will be able/willing to work with you still, but it might require more time or a different pay rate.

Writing Specifics

Here’s just a few noted specifics in terms of genres, fandoms, and other things that I prefer to write or am best at writing (by no means should you let these limit you when commissioning)!

Fandoms: Digimon, Pokemon, Marvel (please ask regarding specific characters, settings, etc.), TWEWY, Persona (3-5), Fire Emblem (7, 8, Awakening, Three Houses, Engage), Danganronpa (1 & 2), G-Witch, Life is Strange 1, Dungeon Meshi, Sound! Euphonium, Armored Core 6

Genres: Romance, Slice of Life, Action, Science Fiction, Fantasy

If inquiring about a N*S*F*W story, please let me know whether you want a focus on plot or not. With plot will lead to a longer word count, but a bigger buildup to the acts, alongside a greater focus on the characters and their relationship/dynamic, while without plot will be much shorter, to the point, and with more of a focus on the act than the characters.

I will write M/F, F/F, and M/M stories. Trans characters are ALWAYS open to be written, as well as making characters trans.

Examples

Emblazoned With Divinity: Fire Emblem: Awakening smutfic focused on Chrom and Olivia. Set before the end of the Gangrel arc, this fic explores the whirlwind romance between the two, including carriage breaking sex and character accurate awkwardness.

Chimera Eggs/Elf With Semen Glaze: Dungeon Meshi smutfic focused on Marcille and Chimera!Falin. An AU from the series itself, trans!Falin takes her girlfriend away from the party, going into heat, and impregnating her with eggs.

At The End Of The Day: Post-series Gundam: The Witch From Mercury fic focused on Suletta, Miorine, and Eri. While at home, Eri relentlessly teases Miorine, leading to frustration from her and laughter from her wife.

You Never Forget Your First Time: AU Life is Strange smutfic focused on Max and Chloe. During an afternoon alone, trans!Max and Chloe decide to share their first time together, and have intense oral sex.

Take Back The True Mask: Persona 5 AU fic with Joker as a trans woman. This fic is part of a series recontextualizing Persona 5 through the lens of Joker being a trans woman, while this fic in particular focuses on the Third Semester arc with Joker being the one pulled into Maruki’s reality.

What You Are To Me: Digimon fic set between Last Evolution Kizuna and The Beginning focused on Kari and Yolei. With her best friend frequently away from Japan while studying abroad, Kari feels herself losing the connection they hold dear, and Yolei shows her there’s nothing to worry about.

A Voice On The Ice: Armored Core 6 fic set during the Ice Worm mission, focused on C-621/Raven and Ayre. During the mission to take down the Ice Worm, Raven speaks her first words in a long time, and Ayre loves the sound of her voice, no matter how rough it is.

[lesbovalentine]

sharing my neotwewy thoughts that felt too mean to post when the game was coming out and people were excited about but tbh i felt its biggest weakness wasnt its struggle to balance out developing the new characters and returning cast which wasnt helped by the fact that the reapers game is no longer played in pairs but in larger teams, or the change from very unique combat to lots of button mashing, but a loss of some sort of individuality. like its echoed by the story itself in what i already said about how you lose some ability to focus on developing characters when you commit to a hugely expanded cast and having more characters around at a time, and the fact that they couldnt quite let it be the new kids story OR commit to the returning characters plotlines both new and continuing.

but like neo looks "better" in the same way gg strive often does where its more polished and everythings kind of sanded down for wider appeal. i dont dislike any of the redesigns except maybe shos but i dont love any of them either. well i liked kariyas actually . BUT overall its just so sad to me how twewy was so focused on individuality and how its a GOOD thing everyones different and theres so many different personalities and fashions and opinions out there and it was so good at getting u invested in characters and the petty problems of minor characters in the rg. and then in neo that emphasis on individuality and on getting to know individual characters is lost immediately. none of the wicked twisters designs communicate all that much to me very effectively. i am so so so invested in the original cast but they just did not hook me well enough with the new kids because theyre immediately overshadowed first by sho then the idea of neku then beat then rhyme and then neku again and also the question of wtf has joshua been doing this whole time to let this happen. and by all the unanswered promises and questions left by a new day

[onlyhereforghosttrick]

A bit of a simple question, but is there any piece of media (movie, game, writing, music, etc) you think is underated/more people should know about (or that you just realy recommend). Feel free to answer with more than one if you want to.

I don't know how to determine if something is underrated so uh- prepare for an onslaught of hyperfixations from the past couple years (mostly video games (and even more so DS games as it turns out)).

Ghost Trick

I don't know how to accurately depict how much this one has influenced me. It gave me my love for foreshadowing in twists. And clever gameplay integrated with the story. And flashbacks. And non-linear stories in general. Just one problem: I can't say anything about This game without spoiling just SO much of it. By calling two characters by their accurate name, you can spoil the final twists of the game, so I have to walk a delicate balance I mostly just didn't bother with when recommending the game. Well, this is your push to play it. (It got a remaster last year, which would be the most accessible way to play it, but if you don't mind a bit if illegality or overpricedness, the original release is always an option.)

Professor Layton

One of the less significant interests of mine, it's like a puzzle game mixed with a point and click adventure where you have to solve a bunch of miniature logic, sliding, counting, or other puzzles to progress, ton of fun, would recommend. It's getting its seventh entry soon [despite the alleged 'no further plans for games here in the west' or whatever], and it looks really cool! Might end up checking it out when it releases... sadly, most of the series is relegated to the mobile ports so that's the only place you're really able to find them, aside from their original ds or 3ds games. [keep in mind, I might just be unaware of some obscure ports.]

Ace Attorney

Ace attorney is probably the one the most people will actually know about, this being a visual novel puzzle series where you work out logical contradictions in a courtroom setting to save clients from false convictions. Currently serves as one of the main inspiration for my current biggest project [which I admittedly don't have enough written to link here]. Arguably the easiest to play the full series of thanks to the recent collections coming out, spinoffs included.

The world ends with you

Twewy is one of the most recent inspirations on this list, following an amnesiac teenager through a week-long game of life and death. I haven't played the sequel in a while [and I can't anymore, thanks PS plus], so I don't exactly have enough info left to judge it, but the original is hectic multitasking at its peak. ...on the DS. I don't have final remix, so I can't testify as to its quality, although with how it kind of looks to me like they butchered the original's quirkiness thanks to the lack of dual screens, my recommendation would be to play the original on DS, then watch the cutscenes of A New Day [a story epilogue exclusive to Final Remix that preludes NEO] in a youtube video. Maybe I'm wrong about the butchering though- keep in mind, this opinion comes from a guy who think the ghost trick title screen in the remake was worsened by the addition of music. [mainly because it's not even original music, just the main theme- but that rant can wait for another day.]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

This one. Ho boy this one. The biggest influence in a while when it comes to executing non-linear storytelling and compelling characters. It took a while for me to find it and a bit longer to see the appeal, and boy was it worth it. Chances are if you find this blog, much less this post, you already know about pmd, but if you somehow don't, then allow me to recommend you play one of them, because trust me when I say they're ALL worth a try. [I haven't played super yet and I don't plan to play rescue team so I can't quite testify to those, but explorers and gates from my experience have all been pretty good with gameplay and excellent with story.]

Pokemon Adventures

Yes, another pokemon recommendation. No, I swear this is different. There's a chance you've at least heard of this without knowing the name. This being the manga where all the weirdly dark stuff happens, right? You know, like 6 of the unovan gym leaders being CRUCIFIED? [No, really.] While this manga is practically infamous for its content, as you might now, but I swear it's worth a read for the actual character it has, which is usually better than the games themselves at storytelling. And honestly, I'm glad ScarVi learned what made a good story, that being having actual characters involved rather than cardboard cutouts. ...Just a shame the game is tripping over its own feet half the time.

Ultrakill

This is a fun one, and I'm surprised not too many people know about it- basically, Ultrakill is a Devil May Cry-inspired First Person Shooter, where you play as a blood-fueled robot blasting his way through hell, where the whole game is designed to be as fast-paced as possible. If that sounds remotely interesting to you, I'd highly recommend you give it a try.

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom hearts, yes, the infamous crossover between disney and final fantasy. Some might argue this doesn't count as underrated, but 1. Did you hear me or not? I said I didn't know how to qualify if something is underrated, so... and 2. I feel like people really only know that Kingdom hearts has a weirdly told story and that very few people actually KNOW that story. So yeah, I'd recommend giving the story a chance if you can- just make sure to pay attention to DDD specifically, because A LOT of people get tripped up there. Oh, and for the mobile games [which yes they are important why do you think this series got the reputation it did], the official source isn't great- watch a fandub instead.

Jhariah

A pretty indie artist I listen to sometimes, great for if your prefered type of music is 'the bpm is a higher number than there are atoms in the known universe'. Some personal favorites of mine are Fire4Fun, Risk! Risk! Risk!, and Re:Concerns.

Rhythm Heaven

Rhythm heaven is one of the more obscure games on this list, but it's a good one- basically just a collection of rhythm minigames without any throughline whatsoever, and it's a ton of fun- but also REALLY HARD. Its last entry was Megamix on the 3DS, but it had entries on the DS, GBA, and Wii. Megamix was more a 'best of' compilation for the series to that point, so if you can only get one of them, get Megamix- even if it is by FAR the hardest to get [legitemately] due to the lack of physical releases in most regions.

Sorry this took so long to get done! Hope the answer is satisfactory.

[lapinparka]

the wewy hot take. share one.

(barnacle boy meme) the wewy...

Okay I'm going to confess a lot of my hot takes are about NEO (and there are many of them). However I think one of my biggest ones is that the ideal sequel to OG TWEWY would've had Joshua as one of the focal characters, because he's the only playable character from the first game whose arc wasn't actually finished. The big questions at the end of the first game were basically "What will he do now? Will he go meet everyone? What happens to him in the aftermath of the Long Game?" and the Secret Ending was pretty much TWEWY's sequel bait before Solo Remix existed (not that poor Tsugumi was treated any better). NEO's new writer deciding those questions weren't that important after all and shoving him off screen for 95% of the game (ostensibly because he was too powerful and would overshadow Rindo, according to that one interview) and then them declaring that all the OG characters' stories are done despite literally nothing changing for Joshua was... certainly A Choice that makes me feel many things. All of them negative. Even KH3D realised his story was the one that needed continuing, which is why (to me, at least) it actually felt satisfying for both him and the Hachiko Gang as a whole.

But now instead we've got Neku who was forced into isolation, away from the people he cares about, after coming to appreciate the world around him and change as a person which was... exactly the same situation Joshua was in at the end of the first game, but again I guess the writer just decided Joshua's version wasn't as interesting or something. And now they're both just stuck there mid character arc, forever. Definitely not bitter.

My original answer was going to be that I feel like people's approach to UG lore has got a lot less creative ever since NEO came out and it makes me sad, but that's more about the fandom than the game.

For a probably less divisive hot take: I think Junk Garage is a good song

[goldensunset]

What's your opinion on Nomura saying he wants KH4 to be kind of like a reboot of the series? I'm personally a bit worried about what that means for the graphics and gameplay, but like, I'm probably always going to be mourning the loss of the old modeling style so I don't think I should be taken seriously on that front. Graphics change aside, it seems like most of the information we've gotten on KH4 boils down to "Yes it's in Tokyo" and "Guys it's not gonna be a crossover with TWEWY, Please Stop Asking". Really not sure what to make of it so far.

i really have no clue what he means by that... honestly i'm fine with the new style although i do see the concerns with kinda making it seem more generically anime prettyboy final fantasy-esque but like. we've only seen two characters so far and that was two and a half years ago and we already know they're planning on changing some things so who knows what the final product will look like. idk.

my one concern- and i say this as someone who personally likes simpler and more realistic designs, as well as like serious hardcore worldbuilding and dark stuff- is that kh will lose its weird, goofy, disney positivity charm. sora's design just needs slightly more color to it, nothing too drastic. the city of quadratum being hyperrealistic in a direct jarring contrast to everything else we've ever seen in the series is SO cool i just hope the final version has some unique charm to it. obviously i hope it's still kinda bleak bc i think that's the point of the story here but y'know? i hope they tell the story they're trying to tell while also making it feel magical in some way

see while i can't say i personally have any interest in the disney aspect of things (i understand that's what the series was supposed to be all along but me personally i'm in it for the original story side of things) i also never want kh to totally leave that dimension. i think they need to get better at implementing it into the story- akin to how it originally was in the first game, or in khdr, bc both of those were amazing. like prove to me that this disney crossover is the best way to tell your story bc i know you can do it. it shouldn't feel like two separate games, one of which can be entirely filtered out with almost no bearing on the plot

the other thing is like the collaboration with disney is a limitation- but it's a limitation that breeds creativity. if we let nomura do whatever he wanted he might run off the rails and make it too gritty. but having to keep the family-friendly positivity at the core honestly makes it way more interesting imo. and i think he knows that- i think he has a heartfelt story about connection and humanity and love and memories etc to tell and he's gonna tell it. i have faith in him (maybe not faith to write every single game's dialogue and scenario lol but like. in terms of general plot direction he knows what he's doing)

truthfully, as long as the series never stops being ultimately an uplifting tale of hope? i don't care what they do with it. i hope they keep adding dark and serious and weird stuff to it and i hope they keep coming back to the joyful refrain over and over again. that's the ideal story to me- one that takes you so, so low, but brings you back up at the end. that's what kh has been like all along and that's like the main draw imo

they've been leaning more into the possibility of sad endings without perfect resolutions lately (i mean i truthfully don't see how the khux crew is gonna reunite on this mortal plane without more ghost shenanigans.) but like. a bittersweet ending of fondly remembering someone lost to you is incredibly heartfelt and you can make peace with that. i like that more than the idea that you'll always get everything you want and things can always go back to how they were. i think that's what nomura was getting at with kh3, how the destiny trio can't get their innocent childhood back but that doesn't mean their bond is gone. it doesn't have to be a classic disney fairytale ending to be an uplifting one and honestly it hits my HEART. bittersweet ending supremacy. kh is about losing things and finding new things and being connected etc etc i'm repeating myself but i'm insane about this series and long story short as long as the love is there i'm not going to complain

if we're talking about kh4 specifically? really no idea what to make of it... the big question is as follows- is sora's predicament going to be resolved in this game or is that for another game. if it's for another game it's going to have to be a numerical kh5 and i kind of don't have confidence in the team to uh. um. finish more than one new numerical game at this point lol. plus just assuming there would be a gap period with other games in the middle there then sora would be away from home for a lonnnnng time. it could happen but it would require his best friends to reach him there too and get stuck and like oh man how is anyone getting home now. is the series ever gonna end

like maybe kh4 being a reboot would quite genuinely mean shifting the entire overall setting of the series to unreality for the time being. we've discussed the nature of the heart and human connection in this whimsical childhood fairytale world, now let's put these philosophical debates in the real adult world now! who knows. it honestly all depends on how much nomura thinks he has left in him. or if he does plan to retire whether he's gonna pass it off to someone else or just end it somewhere randomly. like truly we're getting kinda mixed messages here like simultaneously he's talking about retiring someday while also saying he's introducing a new phase to the series. ok but how long will that phase be bestie

[hisui555]

Art for A Rhyme && Reason to being ωhole (on AO3) for this year's TWEWY Bang (@subasekabang), written by oddvector and Darkblaw, illustrated by TheLightsRefrain and, well, yours truly.

A big thanks to Vec, Dark and Light for inviting me to participate in this year's Bang, it's the first time I've had the honor of taking part in this event, along a wonderful team. Huge thanks for the support and the friendship thorough, you guys are awesome. As for you future reader and watcher, I hope you'll enjoy the story, and the art that goes along with it. Have a nice read ^^ 

While no trigger tags apply to these pictures, the fic might have different tags, be sure to look them up.

The story and its component belong to my friends oddvector and Darkblaw, as well as the two OC Noise featured within (Thumper the Joey Boomer Noise and Thylacinus Cantus). The original work of The World Ends With You franchise belongs to Square Enix.

[claidi]

I'm starting to get the writing bug and I was going through my unfinished fragments on my phone and found a Bleach x TWEWY crossover. The problem is I have no idea where I'd move it forward lol. I think back when I originally wrote on it I was just jotting down a few scenes without a strong concept of where they'd go.

Anyways, I figure I'll put what I have under a read more. At least it'll be out there in the world instead of rotting among my assorted ideas. I might continue it / rework it into something real someday because I do like some of these scenes... I just need to figure out the story they go in lol

Wooden geta clicked across the cafe floor, catching Hanekoma's attention away from his phone. Although he usually didn't mind catering to the rare customer who wandered in, this man had certainly picked an inconvenient time to make an entrance. Joshua's current Game was becoming a pain. A couple of the Players seemed to have friends in interesting places. Hanekoma's investigations into who the various empowered souls which had shown up was still underway but keeping them separated from the game was starting to wear on him.

He looked up at the approaching man and put in his customer facing smile. The first thing he noticed about the man was his white and green striped hat pulled down low on his face. He was not a Shibuya native, he lacked any of the familiar trends that made up the city. An odd stranger.

"Welcome in. What'll it be?" Hanekoma defaulted to normal behind the counter talk as he considered how suspicious he should be of this random man. While his job may be upping his paranoia, his instincts bristled at the shadowed face. 

"Hello! I supposed I'll have that thing." He pointed loosely with the tip of his cane. "Or wait, maybe that one." His voice was annoying chipper as he proceeded to change his mind three more times before proclaiming, "oh I know, why doncha surprise me with something sweet."

The man was trying to be deliberately irritating. That never boded well.

"And a name?" Hanekoma drawled, deciding it was a good excuse to fish for some more information. 

The stranger smirked and pulled out a paper fan, further obscuring his face.

"Kurosaki." A sudden pressure filled the room, a physical feeling rather than a Sound. "I'd say that's the name of the day."

"Not your name?" Hanekoma rubbed at his temples, already knowing the answer. Kurosaki was the name of the headache Joshua had dragged into the game. Coincidences didn't happen in Shibuya.

The man tilted his chin up, exposing his eyes to the light. His gaze was piercing, taking in every little detail. Whatever he knew, Hanekoma could not bring himself to guess.

"Where is his soul?"

"Can you wait for me to finish making your coffee before the interrogation?" He sighed, not looking forward to this absolute train wreck. When the man frowned Hanekoma slipped a little of his power into a frequency most humans could notice. "I'm more helpful with paying customers."

Rather than being wise enough to even fake being intimidated, the man looked interested. He slapped some coins on the counter with a savage grin and then seemed to poke at the remnants left from Hanekoma's show of power. 

…

Ichigo had been attacked more times than he cared to remember. He'd been stabbed and slashed and hit by ceros. So, it was no surprise that when the blond kid started running at him that he'd instinctively dodged. His mind went blank as he reacted, sidestepping into the Shibuya alley. 

The first thing he registered about the kid was the smirk. The look in his eyes sent shivers down Ichigo's spine. There was something wrong with this guy.

The second thing Ichigo noticed was the sound of an explosion. A bang like a sound effect in a movie.

Then, as he fell down to lay on the concrete he realized how stupid he was. The blond guy peered down at him, his gun tilted low and aimed at Ichigo's forehead. The chest wound apparently wasn't good enough for the creep.

"You shot me!"

"Stating the obvious, aren't you?"

Ichigo groaned and pressed a hand to the bullet hole. He missed his spiritual body. He was bleeding out quickly and while he'd been through worse, Orihime was back in Karakura. He knew enough about medicine to know he needed a doctor soon if he wanted to make it out of this still breathing.

Meanwhile, the punk still had a gun trained on him and a finger on the trigger.

Well, Ichigo was nothing if not determined. He kicked out, trying to trip his assailant. If he could just grapple him then Ichigo knew he could get the gun. While this kid seemed around his age he was scrawny and as far as Ichigo knew, had never taken on the whole of Soul Society with a few friends and a cat. The pain of moving was nothing compared to what the Espada had put him through. He wasn't about to let some random human take him out on his vacation.

The kid tripped but instead of eating pavement he almost seemed to appear a couple feet away, completely unruffled. Ichigo grit his teeth and tried to pull himself to his feet. This wasn't a normal human, was it? While he couldn't feel spiritual pressure anymore, the Final Getsuga hadn't taken away his ability to put two and two together. It'd just taken most everything else. Normal humans couldn't seemingly teleport (or use flash step?).

The blood loss made him shake and moving just made him bleed faster. Getting up was going to be a bad idea. But laying down to die was even worse.

"Who are you, you little creep?"

"Hee hee."

Ichigo could feel himself start growing cold. The blood loss was making him feel lightheaded. It was growing increasingly likely he wasn't walking away from this alive. At least death wasn't the end.

“I'm going to haunt you.” He swore as he fell to his knees. 

“Oh, I'm counting on it.”

"Normally the price to play the Reaper's Game is whatever is most important to you. However, you've already thrown that away yourself- the strength to protect was no longer in your soul. You've already been living without it."

Ichigo wondered if he'd still believe that if he strangled the man.

"So what's left? Your sisters?"

Ichigo took a step forward, ready to test his theory. The man shook his head and kept talking.

"I could take your memory of them but honestly that's boring. Players who've forgotten their entry fee can be entertaining every once in a while but you'd be lame. I want you to know the cost you're playing with, man."

"Why would I ever want to play your stupid game?"

"Would you rather give up and choose Erasure?"

"If you and your boss know anything about me, you'd know I'd never accept that without a fight." Ichigo wished he had a weapon but he'd make due with his fists.

"

….

Kisuke may have misplaced a certain Ichigo Kurosaki. When he admitted this to Yoruichi she shook her head.

"That makes him sound like a tool you put down somewhere."

Kisuke considered this. Perhaps his phrasing was too blunt. He tried again.

"Ichigo took a trip to Shibuya. Some unknown party shot him and now his soul is nowhere to be found."

"He's dead?"

That made Kisuke hesitate. He tilted his hand in a so-so motion before Yoruichi could get too worked up. He had considered waiting to tell her after he'd found out more over his investigation but she'd notice when he stopped working on the sword to give Ichigo his powers back. He'd have to possibly revise that now.

"While that would be the logical conclusion, I have evidence otherwise. It seems that despite his body being found, nothing has left Shibuya." He continued after Yoruichi raised an eyebrow. "I have found cases of humans, usually teenagers, dying in Shibuya. They are pronounced dead but none of the paperwork ever leaves until the week is up. The body isn't put to rest, the grieving family doesn't share the news to anyone outside Shibuya, nothing. It's like everyone forgets they're dead when they leave the district's limits."

"While odd, what does that mean for Ichigo?"

"Well," and here is where Kisuke had been obsessing for the last two hours. His monitoring of Ichigo may have been sporadic at this point but he'd never stopped. Plus, with as vulnerable as he was without his powers it was an emergency measure for his safety. After being alerted to Ichigo's body no longer breathing he'd anticipated a call from Ishin within the hour. He'd watched the procedures taken by first responders remotely with a detached interest until key abnormalities sparked his clever mind. "It took some digging but when this happens at least one of these corpses starts walking around again by the end of the week."

"Don't make this sound like a zombie movie. Is something possessing the bodies?" Yoruichi tapped on her cheek, no doubt going through believable possibilities like Kisuke had. Experimental mod souls or a hollow's strange power has been the first of his list that he'd eliminated.

"According to all the data that I can find, the human returns to life. Everyone forgets they were ever dead." 

"That sounds unlikely."

"Oh, I thought so too. It's too miraculous." He shrugged and shook his head. "Or rather, it's too perfect."

He took a step and found himself pacing. Yoruichi narrowed her eyes and waited. While she was in her human form, he could easily imagine her tail twitching back and forth.

"There's something in Shibuya that has enough power to keep the deaths contained to Shibuya. It appears that this is so the lucky individual who somehow returns to the living can go back to their lives without any fuss. Suddenly, they're alive and everyone in Shibuya forgets they were ever dead. Official documents over the deceased seem to be filed away like the body identification was a mistake."

"You think that Ichigo could come back."

"Something like that." Kisuke waved her over to his computer and showed her some Seireitei statistics that had been dubiously gathered. "None of the souls whose deaths are concealed ever go to the Soul Society."

Is something gathering souls? Eating them? Or are the dead not truly killed until the one is sent back? It would be a lot easier to feign death than to truly resurrect the dead. 

Yoruichi placed a grounding hand on his shoulder. Huh, he must have been in his thoughts longer than intended. She met his gaze.

"What are we doing about it?" She asked and Kisuke grinned. This is why they worked so well together.

"Oh, I have a few ideas…"