#so heh. it will be fun to have zoey who's still recovering from misogyny beliefs being in a class with tenko who has misandry beliefs

[my-gf-is-kazuichi-soda]

my headcanons about Tenko's "Master"

I get almost all positive vibes about him, though I think he has some weird methods (and can be a bit extreme in distrusting boys), I trust him and think he's a good caretaker.

If you think I'm missing any bits of cultural context to Tenko's backstory, feel free to let me know!

like Tenko, he is neurodivergent and has a strong sense of justice that makes him get very angry at bad people.

he's considered a bit of an oddball himself at the temple, but he's been there for a long time and they respect him there (how else would he get away with some of his less-conventional methods and have everyone else go along with it?)

I don't think the text specified that he was old but in my head he's an old man and this is why Tenko respected him the most even before she got to know him. He is like a grandfather to her.

he recognized right away that Tenko was like him, and that she was being neglected by her parents. he could see that she was angry and that her "tantrums" (meltdowns) were often brought by perceived injustices and a lack of her needs being met, but she often lacked the language/know-how to say what was making her upset. it didn't help that she was genuinely a good child who learned the wrong lessons from her parents ("stop bothering us/ you're too whiny"), so this would make her bottle up until she ended up exploding

she also had (and still has) some self-esteem issues because of her meltdowns, also because of her misunderstanding social situations. :(

Tenko's speech to Himiko about the importance of expressing her emotions and crying when she needed to was also what Master told her. though she was often naturally expressive with her emotions, Master helped her accept her big emotions.

through Neo-Aikido, he has helped her to be able to express and address her needs and her emotions, and gave her anger a direction.

he knew from his own experiences how impossible it was to just "stop being mad," especially when there were injustices in the world, so - for better or worse- he was sort of a vigilante who seeked out bad people and stopped them himself. he did this before meeting Tenko, but now he brought her along to his missions

the "heroes of justice" missions helped Tenko build up her social skills, talking to people, and was building her self-esteem too

Master has his issues with young men, as that is the demographic making up a majority of the bad guys that he fights as a vigilante, which is why he teaches Aikido to help women learn self-defense, and why he warned Tenko about boys.

I think it was good intentions even if it was extreme. he was really worried about her being manipulated by an abusive partner, as he had seen happen many times before. but I think he can learn to trust her judgement in matters of dating, as she's now older and can take care of herself and she is very stubborn in the face of bad guys (what happened with Angie showed me that she would be able to handle/escape a situation with a manipulator. She was able to fake being on Angie's side to keep an eye on Himiko, all the while knowing not to get suckered into the cult-stuff. I'm still admiring her for that.)

I also don't blame Master entirely for Tenko's misandry, as Tenko herself can get carried away with her own anger, and she often talked to girls who were speaking badly of boys due to bad breakups or getting groped on trains. She was also very sheltered, so her opinions of boys were skewed by few and negative experiences.

Tenko eating too much sugar could lead to having angry meltdowns, this was a physical thing with her body processing sugar wrong (I have this too!). this was why Master limited how much sugar she should eat in a day, and why she shouldn't get too excited for Christmas or Valentine's Day (two holidays often involving a lot of sweets). In her early years at the temple, she used to get disappointed if they gave her less candy and sweets on those holidays than she would have been given at her parents' house, which is what he meant by "don't get too excited."

Neo-Aikido in general. I love that Master heard her calling him Master and thought it was cute, so he made it a "rule." I love that they formed their own Aikido together. I love that he recognized Tenko, who struggled with the structure of a normal life, might also have a hard time fitting into the structure of this temple, so he gave her a way to be a part of the rule-making, giving way to her trusting them and letting her be her weird little self.