#so seeing chihiro showing that she's thankful for what she receives

[ssadumba55]

DR1 Characters Cheering You Up

A/N: I know this isn’t my typical type of post and idk if I’ll ever make another one like this again (just because it’s so weird to me) but I’m feeling super icky tonight and while I wait for the medicine I took to kick in, I thought I’d write some of my comfort characters cheering reader up. Not every Trigger Happy Havoc character is here, but I can make another one when I’m feeling better if you guys like this! Enjoy!

Leon

“Hey! (Y/n)! Just the person I wanted to see-”

It takes him a moment, but he notices your disheveled appearance. He isn’t sure if it’s something you want brought up, but it startles him

Normally you’re so well put together

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Even your voice sounds sad, cracked. It’s not the upbeat one he’s so used to hearing

He was going to tell you about some song he had been working on, but now it seems silly

“Do you want to hang out?” he asks instead

He’s relieved when you say yes

The two of you head back to his dorm room

You notice the sheet music spread out all over, covering every spare inch of the dorm room

“Can you play me something Leon?”

He lights up, grabbing his guitar from the corner while you settle on the bed

He plays you the new piece he wrote, glancing halfway through to see you smiling, it warms his heart

He continues to play music and you nod off

He doesn’t notice until he looks over to see what you think

“You probably needed a good rest,” he muses to himself, setting his guitar aside

“Glad I could help.”

Taka

“PDA IS NOT APPROPRIATE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT!”

You could hear Taka at the end of the hallway, enforcing the rules as always

You shut the door of your locker, feeling that familiar sinking feeling in your stomach

Normally, hearing Taka approaching would fill you with joy, but today it seemed like everything had lost it’s appeal

“Good morning, (Y/n)!” 

At some point, while you’d been thinking he’d snuck up on you which was an incredible feat for the loud, boisterous hall monitor

“Hey, Taka...”

Immediately, he knows something’s wrong. You always respond with as much passion as him in the mornings, it was one of the things he loved about interacting with you

The two of you walk to class in silence, you thinking about how long this day was going to be, him thinking about how he could cheer you up

Lunch time came around and you went to join Taka at the table you two frequented

Mondo and Chihiro were there too, which wasn’t too unusual

You set your food down and enjoyed your lunch as best as you could, ready to just finish the day

Mondo and Chihiro left and you were about to get up too when Taka slid a piece of paper across the table

It was folded and in really nice calligraphy it said “Feel Better Soon”

Inside were a bunch of nice messages not only from Taka but the rest of the class

You teared up

“Thank you, Taka!”

You pulled him into a hug and he didn’t yell about PDA (for once. He figured yelling while you were upset wouldn’t be very nice of him)

Chihiro

You and Chihiro were sat together in the library, working together in comfortable silence when your phone went off

You quickly answered it

As you hung up, you felt your whole mood shift because of the news you’d received

Chihiro immediately noticed the shift in mood

She was immediately worried about you

“Is everything okay?” she cautiously asks

You sniffle and she’s taken aback, she’s never seen you cry before

There’s a moment of awkward hesitation as she wonders what exactly she should be doing

Then she shifts her position and wraps her arms around you, hugging you tightly

“It’s okay, (Y/n)... You’ll be okay.”

Part of you wants to shrink or run away, leave Chihiro alone

But having her hug you, comfort you, felt so nice

After a while, you regain your composure

“Thanks, Chihiro. You always know exactly what to say to make me feel better.”

She watches as you pick up your pencil, wiping your eyes and looking down at your work

“Of course. I’m here for you, sometimes the best thing you can do for a person is just be there for them.”

You met her eyes and smiled

Hiro

“(Y/n)! I had a prediction you might be feeling down today!”

Hiro slid into the seat next to yours in the empty classroom

It was the weekend and you were here, sitting with a pencil and glaring at your notes

“I’m stupid, Hiro!”

He’s immediately taken aback

You’ve been crying, your eyes are red and there are tear stains on your cheeks

But that’s not why he’s shocked

He’s shocked because he’s always considered you to be one of the smartest people he knows

You’re definitely a lot smarter than him, but that’s not really saying much

There was no reason someone like you should ever even entertain spending time with someone like him, and yet here you were

He reaches into his bag, pulling out his crystal ball

He makes a show of studying it intently for a moment

“What are you doing?” you sniffle

“Shhhh...”

He hums thoughtfully

“The ball says you’re not stupid.”

Before you could help yourself you let out a loud, shocked laugh

He grins, looking over at you

“You’re an idiot,” you snort between breaths

“But you’re not and that’s all that matters.”

Toko

Toko has never been good at being cheery

She can’t even keep herself happy, never mind someone else

But she sees you alone one day, sitting in the dining hall and she sits across from you

The others hadn’t noticed your distance lately, but she had

Maybe it was because she related to how you were feeling, even if it was a little

You looked up surprised to see someone had joined you

“Fukawa!” You exclaimed in surprise, face heating up slightly. “You don’t have to sit here with me-”

She keeps telling herself that

It’s not her job to cheer you up

She should just go see what Master Togami was up to

But...

“Y- You looked lonely,” she looked down at her food. “D- Don’t start expecting t-this everyday.”

You stared at her for a long moment

Slowly, a slight smile lights up your face

“Well, since you’re here anyway, maybe you could give me some tips on writing..”

She was surprised to see your smile, it was kind of new and surprising to her that someone actually wanted her around

Maybe she would come back, at least tomorrow anyway

Not everyday

(She ends up coming back every day)

(Togami is very grateful to you)

[cobaltusami]

Tropical Vacation pt. 6

Hey hi hello! This part was very self Indulgent, lots of snuggly fluffy goodness <3

Also a callback to Self Conscious! hooray continuity! :D

I can't believe I'm up to part 6 already, wtf lol

Characters In this part: Switch!Hajime, Switch!Fuyuhiko, Nagito, Makoto, Mahiru, Ibuki, Kazuichi, Sonia, Mondo, Nekomaru, Sakura, Hina, Imposter, Sayaka and more.

Word count: 2,905

Part 1: [Click or tap here!] Part 2: [Click or tap here!] Part 3: [Click or tap here!] Part 4: [Click or tap here!] Part 5: [Click or tap here!] Part 6: You are here.

When the usual morning announcement came across the monitors, It was sort of disappointing because for a moment they had thought they escaped the school but reality was once again upon them.

Makoto pulled himself out of bed upon hearing a knock at his door, he didn’t think twice about going to it and opening It, figuring it was probably Kyoko.

But Instead It was Ibuki Mioda. “GOOD NOM NOM NOMMING!” she greeted cheerfully (and loudly).

Makoto yelped and stumbled backwards In surprise. “U-Uh, Good morning Ibuki.” He smiled sheepishly.

“Ibuki volunteered to come get you and the others to come to breakfast! So throw on some snazzy duds and come on down!” She instructed, bouncing off to the next door and knocking on it.

Makoto smiled a bit and closed his door to get ready for the day. Once done he stepped outside his room and glanced around, He spotted several of his classmates on their way to the stairs.

Kyoko had waited for him. “You’re late.”

“S-Sorry. I had trouble finding my clothes… Monokuma kind of just threw my stuff everywhere.” Makoto apologized as he walked with the purple haired girl.

“You mean you went to sleep with your stuff everywhere?” She asked, surprised.

“Y-Yeah… I was tired.” He replied sheepishly.

“Good morning Makoto!” Hina greeted as she dashed past him down the stairs.

Makoto stumbled and grabbed the handrail.

“Whoa, Hina! Where’s the fire?” Hiro asked with a chuckle. She pointed at the Biker at the top of the steps.

Mondo mumbled under his breath, apparently he’d been chasing her but didn’t want to risk tripping and falling down the stairs so he gave up his pursuit for now.

Once In the dining hall they noticed all the tables had been pushed together into one massive table. They also observed that while not everyone was here yet, Chihiro was already sitting next to Chiaki chatting happily.

Makoto smiled, happy his friend seemed to have made a friend. “So, Where should we sit? Does anyone have specific seats?” he asked Sonia.

“No, Sit wherever you want!” She smiled In response.

Ibuki pulled out a chair for Sayaka, who giggled and did a curtsy as she sat down. Ibuki claimed the seat next to her. Kyoko and Makoto sat next to each other, Taka sat down next to Mondo, Leon sat between Hiro and Makoto.

For some reason, Mondo rose up out of his seat. The reason became apparent to Taka and Hiro when he locked eyes with Sakura.

“Good morning Mondo…” She said carefully, Her fight or flight instincts on standby.

“Sakura… How are ya?” His fight or flight instincts were also on standby.

“Uh, Are you two okay?” Nekomaru asked curiously.

“Yeah, we’re okay… Right Sakura?”

“As long as you don’t repeat your actions from yesterday.” Sakura responded, They stared each other down for a moment in silence.

“Ooooh! It's like a texas standoff!” Ibuki grinned.

Nekomaru pulled out two chairs across from Mondo. “Here, You and Hina can sit here, I’ll sit on this side in case he tries anything.”

Sakura smiled at Nekomaru, glancing back at Mondo, who was sporting a disappointed expression. Evidently he was going to try something, but since Neko was there to stop him he had no choice but to back off for now.

“Thank you, Nekomaru.” she bowed her head as they sat down.

“Mornin’ everyone!” Akane greeted as she walked Into the room, claiming the seat on the other side of Nekomaru.

“You’re In an awfully good mood… What did you do?” Nekomaru asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Akane.

“What? I didn’t do nothin’ Coach Nekomaru.” Akane smiled.

“Mm… I’m not sure I believe you.” He mumbled, but dropped the subject.

“So what do you guys do for fun around here?” Sayaka asked as they waited for the rest of the students to show up.

“Ooh! We have loads of things to do!” Ibuki replied, practically bouncing in her seat. “There’s a Music venue on the third island!”

“A music venue?? Ibuki, Do you feel like showing It to me after breakfast?” Sayaka asked excitedly.

“Would she?! Ibuki would show you now If Teruteru wouldn’t get mad at us for bailing on breakfast!” She grinned.

“What else do you guys do?” Leon asked curiously.

Kazuichi hummed thoughtfully. “Well, There’s Water Balloon wars, Water gun fights, Swimming--”

Hina perked up. “Swimming? Is the water as safe as It looks??”

Sonia nodded with a smile. “Yes, It’s not dangerous In the slightest If you know how to swim.

“YES! we HAVE to go swimming later!” She squealed happily.

Sakura chuckled at her eagerness. “Alright.”

“Does anyone wanna join us??” Hina asked.

“Hell yeah!” Akane grinned.

“Why don’t we take It step further?” Chiaki asked. “Let’s throw a beach party today as a welcome party of sorts.”

Sonia gasped, her eyes lighting up. “That Is an excellent idea, Chiaki!”

Mahiru smiled, she seemed to be resting a bit easier around the students today. “I think that sounds like fun.” she agreed.

Ibuki whipped around to look at Sayaka. “We could have a beach concert at night!”

“Yes! Let’s do It!” Sayaka beamed back.

Mahiru smiled in exasperation, she knew Ibuki’s music style was very… different. So she was curious to see how they’d pull off the clashing music styles.

The red head paused her thoughts after looking around. “Hey… Where’s Toko and Byakuya?”

“Oh, Ibuki tried to get them out of their rooms, but they refused to join us.” Ibuki explained.

“That’s normal for them.” Makoto explained. “Toko doesn’t like to eat in front of others, and Byakuya Is… well… Byakuya.”

Imposter flinched, how could he have gotten Byakuya’s identity so wrong?

He had long since told the class his identity (or lack thereof) and In turn they helped him figure out who he was, He was now his own person. He struggled some days to avoid impersonating someone else, But the class was so supportive and kind to him that he was able to resist.

“I see, I guess It can’t be helped.” Mahiru sighed softly.

“Has anyone seen Hajime or Young Master?” Peko asked curiously.

“No, I didn’t even notice they were missing…” Chiaki responded, looking around the table.

“I’m sure they’re fine! They’re Ultimates after all.” Nagito reassured cheerily.

“Annnd he’s off.” Kazuichi sighed.

“Mornin’ Gundham.” Nekomaru greeted the dark student. “Did you see Hinata or Kuzuryu when you were coming in?”

Gundham paused, trying to recall if he had or not. “No, I do not believe so. I passed by the small darkling but neither Hajime or Fuyuhiko.” He replied.

“Small darkling?” Makoto parroted.

“He means Hiyoko.” Mahiru answered. “You get used to his dialect the more you hang around him.”

“Speak for yourself.” Kazuichi retorted sarcastically, receiving an elbow to the ribs by Sonia in response. He whined and rubbed his ribs. “Uh, Should we go check on them?”

“I’m sure they’re fine, but just in case I’ll go check on them!” Nagito volunteered, standing up.

He’s probably going to regret this but…

Makoto stood up too. “I’ll go with you!” He chirped, The taller student turned to him in surprise. “I-If you’ll let me.”

“Really?? An Ultimate wants to accompany me?? I’d be honored!” Nagito smiled, Makoto couldn’t tell if he was super sarcastic or just strange… He was leaning towards just strange.

Chiaki reached up, tweaking his side. “Don’t act weird and scare him.

Nagito flinched away, giggling lightly. “We should go. Let’s check Hajime’s cottage first.” He said as the two lucky students walked out.

“Should I have gone with them?” Mahiru asked.

“Probably. But Nagito should be on his best behavior.” Chiaki replied nonchalantly. “He remembers what happened the last time he misbehaved.”

-

Inside Fuyuhiko’s cottage the two were greeted by the annoying as usual morning announcement, pulling them out of their sleeping states.

Hajime stretched and went to sit up but Hiko snuggled further into his side, squashing any chance at getting up anytime soon.

Hajime smiled as he laid back down, his arm still looped around the blond’s shoulders holding him close. “Good morning, Fuyu.” He murmured.

Fuyu mumbled incoherently in response.

“Yo, Baby Gangster.” The brunette tried, shaking him.

“Fuck off…” Fuyuhiko slurred, his words thick with sleep.

“We have to get up, Fuyuhi--EEK!” Hajime squeaked in surprise as the Yakuza sighed quietly and began scribbling his fingers all over Hajime’s sides. “NOHOHOHO! FUYU!”

“Lemme sleep…” He mumbled.

Hajime laughed, trying to get away from the snuggly tickly Yakuza he called a boyfriend. “STAHAHAHAHAP TICKLING MEHEHE!”

“If you’re not gonna let me sleep… I’m going to need to hear your laugh.” He murmured, his eyes still closed. Though he sported a small smirk.

Unfortunately for Hajime, his squirming led him to fall off of the bed with a small yelp of surprise. Fuyuhiko finally opened his eyes, blinking away the sleep as he stared down at his tall boyfriend on the floor.

“Why the fuck are you on the floor?” Fuyu asked quietly. “I’m up here. Come cuddle me you jackass.”

Hajime narrowed his eyes. “Oh ha ha. You’re hilarious.” He stood up and got back In bed, scooping the small blond up into his lap. “Fine, You want my attention so bad? I’ll give you attention.”

Fuyuhiko squealed as he felt Hajime’s fingers descend on his belly, poking and wiggling in the tender flesh. “AHAHAHAHAHA! FAHAHAHACK!” He swore, squirming around helplessly.

“Not so relaxing and fun is it?” Hajime smirked, tickling his boyfriends cute tummy without mercy. “Although, I can see how you would think doing the tickling is, I feel pretty amused and relaxed right now.”

Oh, Hajime was so gonna go down for this. “FAHAHAHACK OFF!” He cackled, shoving at his hands to no avail.

Hajime leaned down, planting soft ticklish kisses against his neck. “That’s not very nice.” He hummed against his skin. This coupled with the tickling to his belly reduced him to a blushing snorting mess.

“NAHAHAHA! DOHOHOHOHON’T! *snort* IHIHIHIT TIHIHIHICKLES!” He whined, trying to bring his shoulders up.

“I bet It does~ Your neck Is really sensitive.” He murmured, continuing to plant tickly kisses against his tender neck. “You know… I still haven’t found your worst spot… maybe I should look for it.”

“NONONONO! *snort* DOHOHOHOHON’T KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *snort*”

“Oh Fuyu, There’s only one place I haven’t tried~” He sang teasingly. “Are your feetsies ticklish?” He cooed, making the smaller boy blush brighter.

“DOHOHON’T FAHAHACKING *snort* BABY TAHAHAHALK MEHE *snort* YOU BAHAHAHASTARD!”

Hajime chuckled, reaching over and grabbing one of the kicking appendages. “Someone’s cranky today, Did the sweet baby not get enough sleep?” He cooed.

Fuyu narrowed his eyes at Hajime as he gasped for air, thankful for the small reprieve. “Listen here… you little shit…”

“What am I listening for? Is the big scary Yakuza gonna threaten me? I think we both know you won’t follow through with whatever bodily harm you threaten to cause me.” He smirked smugly.

Fuyuhiko squirmed and wiggled until he freed his arms and he began digging into Hajime’s sides relentlessly. “No, the big scary Yakuza Is going to wreck you!” He shot back.

Hajime yelped and dissolved into loud laughter, he squirmed around until he was closer to Fuyu’s trapped foot and he began tickling it, making the blond shriek and throw his head back in a loud fit of laughter. “TWOHOHOHOHO CAN PLAHAHAHAY AT THAHAHAT GAHAHAHAME!”

“HAHAHAHAJIIIII!” Hiko whined, trying to free his foot. He moved his hands up to tickle under his arms, making the brunette choke on his laughter.

“SHIHIHIHT! HIHIHIHIHIKO! DOHOHOHOHN’T!” He cackled, trying to dislodge the small blond.

“LEHEHEHET GO *snort* OF MYHYHY FOOT!” Hiko ordered, eyes tearing up from laughing so hard.

“THEHEHEHEHEN STAHAHAHAHAP TICKLING MEHEHEHE!” Hajime shot back, his nails gliding under his wiggly toes, drawing some adorable squeals from the Future head of the Kuzuryu clan.

“NAHAHAHAHAA! *snort* FIHIHIHIHINE I’LL STAHAHAP *squeal* IHIHIHIF YOU *snort* STAHAHAP!” He offered, his fingers not tickling as harshly as previous.

“Okahahahay! Truhuhuce?” Hajime lessened his tickling too.

“Truhuhuhuce…” Fuyuhiko pulled his hands back, and Hajime did the same, both of them falling back against the bed panting.

“Hehehe… Damn… I’m so going to remember how ticklish your feet are for later…” He grinned tiredly at the flushed boy next to him.

Hiko narrowed his eyes at the taller boy. “I wouldn’t... Don’t forget… I know your worst spots and how to exploit them…”

Hajime smirked, recalling that time at the beach house when he tickled the Yakuza for the first time. “Is that supposed to deter me?” He quoted him.

“Hey!” Fuyu laughed as he gently pushed his boyfriend.

Hajime laughed too, pulling the blond back into his arms. “That day was so fun… Even after you blasted me with the entire water supply In that bazooka.”

Hiko giggled adorably, snuggling into his chest. “You shouldn’t have pulled me away, I was going to empty it on Hiyoko instead.”

Hajime snorted in amusement. “At least you haven’t made any comments about how you look since then.”

“It’s not because I’m scared of you or anything. Don’t fucking flatter yourself.” Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes. “It’s just that… being around you makes me feel better about myself.”

The brunette smiled and closed his eyes, but after a few moments of thinking over what he just said he opened them again. “Wait, What’s that supposed to mean? Did you just call me ugly?”

“No! You are not ugly in the slightest.” Fuyuhiko frowned as he quickly sat up. “I just mean that… I don’t think about how my body looks when I’m around you… because those thoughts are silenced by…” He blushed bright red, looking away. “B-By how much I… adore you…” He struggled to admit.

Hajime felt his heart melt at the confession, he grabbed onto the smaller student and gently pulled him back down into his cuddly hold. “You’re too cute.”

“Sh-Shut up!” He blushed even brighter.

-

“So, Nagito…” Makoto struggled to make conversation as they descended down the stairs. “What do you like to do in your free time?”

Nagito hummed thoughtfully, pausing as he turned to the short student. “Well, I guess I usually just hang around my friends. My favorite pastime Is watching Chiaki play video games, Or having Water fights with Hajime and the others.” He answered as they continued walking. “I don’t really have any hobbies or anything. What about you?”

Now that he mentions it… What does Makoto do In his free time? Normally he just hangs around his friends as well… not that there’s much else to do In the school. “Ah, I guess about the same.” He replied shyly. “I normally just hang around Kyoko or Hang out In the rec room with the group. There’s not really much to do In the school.”

“That’s just like you Ultimates, You make the most out of anything and find ways to stay positive even In the most hopeless situations!” Nagito praised, though Makoto still wasn’t sure If he was being serious or sarcastic yet.

They arrived at Hajime’s cottage and Nagito rang the doorbell. After a few attempts without any response, Nagito spoke. “I wonder If Hajime Is even home right now…” He thought aloud.

“Where else would he be?” Makoto asked curiously as the taller student turned to him.

“I think I might have an idea… Follow me.” He instructed, walking off towards another cottage with the small student closely in tow.

“Uh, Nagito? This Is…” Makoto trailed off as they stood In front of a door.

“Fuyuhiko’s cottage. I know.” He smiled reassuringly, ringing the doorbell and then opening the door after a moment. “Good morning!” He greeted as he walked In the doorway.

Makoto hesitantly followed.

Imagine his surprise to find Fuyuhiko wrapped up In Hajime’s arms, the two had jolted up in surprise at the sound of the doorbell but remained entangled. “U-Uh… Hi.” Makoto meekly spoke.

Both of their faces flushed as they pulled away from each other. “J-Jesus Nagito! Why bother ringing the doorbell If you were just gonna fucking walk In?!” Fuyuhiko fumed, obviously embarrassed.

“Hey…” Hajime awkwardly greeted back, clearing his throat. “I thought I locked that…”

“Nope!” Nagito replied with a smile without missing a beat. “You two are late for breakfast, You should get ready and come join us!”

Without waiting for a response he turned around and began making his way back towards the hotel.

Makoto lingered for a minute. “S-Sorry! I didn’t realize he was just going to barge In-- I’ll go now.”

“It’s fine. Nagito Is kind of unpredictable…” Hajime chuckled awkwardly.

“You don’t have to act so weird, It’s not like you walked In on anything other than us cuddling.” Fuyuhiko blushed, refusing to look at Makoto.

“R-Right… Uh, See you guys In a few minutes…!” Makoto mustered up a smile and left, closing the door behind him. Nagito had waited for him at the end of the sidewalk leading to the house. “I didn’t know they were dating…” He said quietly as he began walking with Nagito again.

“Mhm. They haven’t been dating very long though, so they get embarrassed when people catch them being flirty. Or cuddling.” He explained as they walked back up the steps.

“Who else Is dating here?” He asked curiously.

“Mm, I’ll tell ya later.” Nagito grinned, patting Makoto’s shoulder as they rejoined the rest of the group.

[animehun7er]

TOP ECCHi ANiME TO WATCH FOR

It’s sexy time now or in anime terms, it’s ‘ecchi’ time now. After doing a list about some of the popular harem anime out there, why not compile another list, this time with popular ecchi anime. The ecchi genre has been a fan favourite for a long time. So much so that there are special fanservice episodes in anime from other genres. Though I am not an avid watcher of ecchi anime sometimes I do tend to dwell in them. If you are looking for some sexy anime the here’s a list compiled just for you. So, let’s see what are some of the top ecchi anime out ever. You can watch some of these best ecchi anime movies on Crunchyroll or YouTube. Most of these anime are erotic and hot

10. No Game No Life (2014)

‘No Game No Life’ is a fantasy, ecchi anime. It has been made bright, colourful, and is filled with fan service. I liked the premise of the movie (though it has been done before). The base theme is that you have to play high-stake games to make critical decisions. Thus, this removes all kind of action, bloodshed, and war. So, if you are into that action anime then I suggest you skip this one. Sora and Shiro are one of the best online gamers. They are siblings who are not currently pursuing any sort of education or doing any jobs. Their online game username is ‘Blank’ which has achieved a sort of legendary status. They don’t go out much and feel that the real world is nothing but a lame game.

One day they receive an e-mail which challenges them to play a match of chess. This starts their adventures in another realm where every rivalry and problem is solved by games. The ruler of this world, Disboard, is Tet, who is the God of Games. This system of settling disputes and discord via high-stake games works pretty well for one particular reason. Both the parties must wager something equal in value to the wager of the opposite party. Now, the gaming genius duo Sora and Shiro has got a reason to play games. They must unite all the races of this world to play against Tet so that they become the new God of Games.

9. Kill la Kill (2013)

‘Kill la Kill’ is an entertaining anime. There are two ways of watching this show. You can watch it as a parody of sorts and enjoy how it satirically criticizes the stereotypical anime paraphernalia. You can also watch it as a common ecchi, action anime with strong female leads and lots of funny scenes. Whichever way you choose you will end up having fun while viewing this show. Though at first, the series might feel a bit confusing and clichéd it matures gradually as the series approaches the end. Ryuuko Matoi is the protagonist of the series. Her father was an inventor. One of his inventions is a scissor-like weapon. It is the missing half of this weapon which serves as the only remaining clue of his murder that Ryuuko has.

With the remaining half of the scissor blade, she ventures out to find the killer of her father and avenge his death. Her investigation takes her to Honnouji Academy. It is a prestigious academy at the top of which is the cold and heartless Satsuki Kiryuuin, the student council president. Four people serve her and are known as the Elite Four. They have been given God Clothes by Satsuki which grants them superhuman powers. Ryuuko tries to fight one of them but looses and retreats to her home. There she finds a rare God Cloth which after coming in contact with her blood latches onto her. This gives her immense superhuman abilities.

Now, armed with power Ryuuko ventures once again to the Honnouji Academy to face Satsuki and her underlings to uncover the culprit behind her father’s murder.

8. Highschool of the Dead (2010)

The only reason I decided to include ‘Highschool of the Dead’ is that I found it quite entertaining. Mind you it is nowhere close to some great ecchi anime like ‘Shokugeki no Soma’ but it is entertaining nonetheless. It is an erotic zombie apocalypse anime with lots of fanservice. There are some steamy hot scenes in this anime. It does not plan to intrigue the viewers with a complex and interesting plot or relatable characters (though at times you can relate with some of them) but rather let them enjoy a sexy little zombie apocalypse anime. So, if you are a fan of the genre then you might enjoy it.

The plot starts with the world suddenly amid a zombie apocalypse. People start turning into the undead. The entire social structure is experiencing a great demise as humans start feeding on each other. Takashi Kimuro is the protagonist of this anime. His friend, unfortunately, turns into a zombie. Takashi takes the harsh decision and kills his friend before he can harm anyone. He promises to protect the girlfriend of his friend. As they navigate through their school campus they meet a bunch of other students and a school nurse. All of them are trying to escape this predicament. They decide to bundle up together and work as a team so that they can survive this apocalypse.

7. Sekirei (2008)

‘Sekirei’ is a popular ecchi genre anime and like lots of other anime in this genre, it too uses the supernatural theme. The series has some funny scenes and some over-the-top action sequences. The female characters, who are the centre of attraction for all ecchi anime fans, in this anime are quite pretty and sexy. They are nicely endowed and have voluptuous figures. Though it is common in these types of anime I felt that ‘Sekirei’ was somewhat misogynistic in its approach. It is one thing to make women wear skimpy and tight clothes (which is quite staple in any ecchi anime) but it is another thing to treat them as objects. This was one of the most obnoxious things about this anime. If you can get over this fact then it will become a fun little anime which you can either binge or watch an episode or two once in a while taking a break from your regular stuff.

Though Minato Sahashi is not an idiot he keeps struggling with academics. He tries hard but ends up failing the college entrance exams a second time. He and people around him lose their hope and think that Minato is a failure. But suddenly his life changes when a beautiful human-like extraterrestrial-being falls into his life (literally). Her name is Musubi. She is a Sekirei, special beings who kiss humans who possess a special gene to unhide their secret powers. Musubi brings out Minato’s hidden powers but now he is paired with her to compete against other similar pairs. What Minato doesn’t know is that there is far more danger regarding this than he thinks.

6. Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san (2018)

Up next is another supernatural ecchi anime. If you fantasize about sexy supernatural or fantastical beings then you will enjoy ‘Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san’. There are 12 episodes in this series and each episode is around 23 minutes long. If you have ventured into the ecchi genre after watching anime like ‘Shokugeki no Soma’ then I will suggest you not to hang around this genre much, since most anime are not remotely like it. They are filled with lots of fanservice and buxom beauties and that’s mostly about it.

Fuyuzora Kogarashi is a medium and has been troubled by spirits since his childhood. He has been possessed many times but as he grew older he became more resistant towards the spirits and can now even exorcize them with just a punch. But he is poor and in need of a cheap boarding house to stay in. He finds it quite cheap to stay at the Yuragi manor. The main reason that this Manor is cheap is that it is haunted. But having dealt with ghosts most of his life Fuyuzora has no problem with it and starts staying in the house. The other tenants of the house are beautiful and sexy females. There he meets the ghost of the girl who is haunting the house. After Fuyuzora vows to help fulfil her lingering wish, the other members of the house reveal their supernatural nature.

5. Sankarea (2012)

The next anime is an odd one. ‘Sankarea’ had one of the most unusual plots. The main character is Chihiro Furuya a boy obsessed with everything ‘zombie’. He is so into them that he even wants a zombie girlfriend. One day Chihiro’s cat Baabu dies. This makes him determined to create a resurrection potion. He finds one of the main ingredients in Rea Sanka’s, a girl who wishes to die, house. After the potion is complete Rea decides to drink it thinking that the potion will kill her. But the potion was successful and when Rea, dies in an accident she is resurrected from the dead thus, becoming a zombie. Though this situation may seem ideal for Chihiro he faces a lot of trouble to deal with Rea.

4. Mayo Chiki! (2011)

Kinjirou Sakamachi had developed gynophobia, a fear of women, thanks to his mother and sister’s wrestling obsession. One advantage did come out of this though, his body has become very resilient allowing him to even brush off bumps from vehicles. But his fear is quite abnormal so much so that even a touch from a female can make his nose bleed. He ends up discovering that Subaru Konoe, who is the butler to his headmaster’s daughter, is a female. In exchange for secrecy, she promises to cure his phobia.

3. Prison School (2015)

Hachimitsu Private Academy is a popular all-girls academy until very recently when it decided to let boys enrol. After the first enrollment process, only 5 boys are selected. This puts them in a very awkward position as they cannot converse with almost any of their classmates since they are all female and ignore them. They try to find recluse in being peeping toms. But they are caught and thrown in the school prison for one month. Will they be able to survive or will they break?

2. High School DxD (2012)

Issei Hyoudou is your everyday pervert who wants to own a harem someday. He enjoys peeping on women. One day he is asked by a girl. Unfortunately, the girl is a fallen angel who wants to kill Issei and is successful in doing so. End of story, right? Wait! Issei is then resurrected by Rias Gremory, a devil, who makes him her servant. Now, Issei must adjust to this new lifestyle and survive in the vicious world of devils and angels.

1. Shokugeki no Souma (2015)

Souma Yukihira has been working as a sous chef under his father in their family restaurant. He is quite creative in his cooking style and entertains the customers with skilful culinary creations. His dream is to one day become the head chef of the restaurant. His dream is however cut short when his father closes down the business and enrols Souma in Tootsuki Culinary Academy. Now, he needs to work hard since only 10% of the students can graduate. Will he be able to survive the academy and its famous food wars?

[hyperfixationtimego]

I'm interested in the killing game au of all three games you mentioned! Tell me more! I c r a v e this kind of content, there's simply not enough of it and it's a crime!

AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE!!!!!

okay okay okay okay okay so

Like I said, it involves every character from the main three games. So obviously it’s a lot of people. Not for long but shhh

None of the anime is canon because I don’t have enough patience to watch it nor do I care

Technically the kids from sdr2 still got to be considered alive after their game, but like I said the anime isn’t canon so basically what happened was the survivors escaped the simulation and began waiting for everybody else to wake up. And then boom now they’re here. Everybody who died just….suddenly wakes up here and it sucks <3

Anyway

The survivors are clearly,,,,,,not enthused to be back in this bullshit. Some are taking it better than others. (Makoto & Toko are both hit with a huge wave of depression and it manifests in different ways for both of them, Hajime is simultaneously PISSED OFF but also relieved to see Chiaki alive and well. They have a very tender reunion when they see each other again for the first time items very sweet there’s lots of hugging and crying and brushing each other on the cheek to make sure the other is real and OUGH I just love them so much. Kyoko is the “this is fine” meme personified, Togami is also pissed but doesn’t let it show, Hiro is predictably scared out of his fucking mind, yadda yadda yadda. Also scared is Kazuichi, but he and Sonia, who is disheartened to have to go through all this again but confident that everybody can make it through, are finally reunited with Gundham so that’s something!!! Akane is abt as carefree as she was during the neo world program, but seeing all her friends again, ESPECIALLY coach Nekomaru, makes her so fucking excited that she just. Punches a wall and screams /pos HDBWMDB FUYUHIKO AND PEKO REUNION REAL!!!!! UGHHRHEJ GOD I LOVE THEM??? Maki is silently stewing in her own rage, Himiko is both bawling her eyes out while simultaneously Feeling Nothing (which, honestly, that’s a vibe), and Shuichi is in emotionally unstable wonderland because OH THANK GOD KAEDE AND KAITO ARE BACK AND REAL AND HE GETS TO HUG THEM AND HOLD THEM but also there IS the looming threat of possible death again so. Yeah. Fun.)

As for everybody who’s died, they’re all experiencing a lot of phantom pain in relation to however they died. (For example, Sayaka frequently feels a sharp pain in her abdomen, and her wrist aches if she moves it too quickly or suddenly. Leon’s entire body consistently hurts all over, and he sometimes feels as though he’s choking or being restrained. Chihiro gets headaches every so often. Etc. etc. etc.)

They’re also adorned with some nifty new scars, too, which a lot of them are pretty pissed about because it serves as a constant reminder of the traumas they suffered but w/e (suicidal thoughts tw - Nagito in particular has some trouble with this one. Literally every single scar is a reminder of the horrible things he did, both in the simulation and out of it - a reminder that he was so close to not having to be alive anymore, a reminder that he is dangerous and that he is tired and everything is fucking bad) (he’s getting impromptu therapy from Hajime “done with this motherfucker’s shit” Hinata so they’re. working on it HSNSBDDN dw dw)

Haha memories are also an important thing, too, actually!!! It’s used as a motive (whoever kills someone will receive the memories of their forgotten school life or, in the case of the ndrv3 kids, their forgotten identities)

BUT obviously that puts Mikan in a weird position - she REMEMBERS having the remembrance disease, and she REMEMBERS what she learned, but the memories are distant and hazy. As if they aren’t really hers. (Monokuma is able to fuck with people’s emotions the same as memories - this was mostly done to actually give Mikan a fighting chance at Not Being Found Out As a Murderer Within the First Three Seconds HDNWMEHDN anyway Mikan recovery rights ❤️) ✨it’s the trauma✨

The building they’re in is HUGE + also includes things like Ultimate labs & an outside area like in ndrv3. The Thh kids are like “still hate it here but thank GOD at least there’s sunlight. no I don’t give a shit if it’s fake or artificial or whatever”

And how was Monokuma able to bring people back from the dead???? Why is the cast of ndrv3 here???? Well to answer the first question, it’s because he’s spicy like that. And to answer the second question idk I think he just likes ‘em. He thinks they’re neat ❤️

Tsumugi and Mukuro are both here and they’re treated like normal participants! They have no special ties to the mastermind of this new and improved killing game, but that does not make their peers any less suspicious of them! (Is junko alive??? Where is she???? Is she masterminding this shit??????? 👀)

And nobody is safe from death. Not even protagonist squad, there i said it. Every single protag goes Through Some Shit and whether or not each individual one ends up surviving is 👀 *wiggles eyebrows*

I. THINK that’s it for the general gist of the circumstances, but I absolutely can and will get more specific about things if u would like me to. There are character dynamics + plot points + motives + unresolved pining + resolved pining that is very quickly immediately destroyed + psychological horror and MORE baby we haven’t even scratched the SURFACE yet

[365days365movies]

March 4, 2021: Spirited Away (2001) (Part Two)

NO INTRO MOVIE NOW

First part of the Recap is right hereMOVIENOWGOPLEASE

Recap (2/2)

That night, after Chihiro and Lin retire after a good night’s work, a frog comes back to the site of the bath, and encounters No Face. The frog tries to kick No Face out, but No Face entices him with gold. When he takes it, though...

OK, well, that’s interesting. Gets worse, too, because he’s soon giving everybody gold, and is fat as SHIT, which I can only assume means that he’s been eating a fuckton of spirits. OK, more information needed there.

Chihiro goes out onto the deck after a nightmare about her pig-parents the previous night, and wonders aloud where Haku is. Just then, he appears in dragon-form, chased by another fuckton of paper dragonflies, and quite injured. While he manages to escape them, he’s bleeding all over the place. When Chihiro tries to help him, he flees to an upper window. She chases after him.

On the way, she runs into an indoor parade for No-Face, who’s fucking HUGE now, and is giving people gold. Chihiro tries to get upstairs, but is stopped. On the way, the thanks No-Face, who now tries to offer her gold. She again refuses, disappointing him. She leaves to go upstairs, and the rest of the spirits clamor for the gold. One spirit insults Chihiro, and No-Face eats him as a result. OK, more info definitely needed.

After going through an outright obstacle course to get there, Chihiro finds herself in Yubaba’s baby’s room, with a paper dragonfly on her back. Yubaba arrives in the meantime, which Chihiro sees. While on the phone, Yubaba notes that the “customer” is, in fact, a No-Face, which is apparently quite the problem. Additionally, Haku is bleeding all over her carpet.

When Yubaba comes in to look after her baby, Chihiro dives into a pile of pillows. Unbeknownst to her, this is also where the baby is. Once Yubaba leaves, Chihiro tries to leave, only to be stopped by Boh (Tara Strong), the baby. Boh is a BIG fuckin’ baby, and wants Chihiro to play with him, or he’ll cry.

Chihiro tries to leave, and does so by showing Boh some blood, containing germs that he’s afraid of. She runs away, and sees Haku bleeding on the carpet outside, about to be dumped down some kind of garbage chute. Just then, the paper dragonfly reveals itself as Zeniba (Suzanne Pleshette), Yubaba’s twin sister.

She’s trying to kill Haku, as he’s stolen something from her: her monogrammed gold seal. She turns Boh into a mouse, and after a brief scuffle with the injured Haku, Zeniba disappears, and the rest fall down the chute. Haku wakes up soon enough to save them all, but they crash into Kamaji’s boiler room.

With MUCH struggling, Chihiro gives Haku half of a gift she received from the River Spirit, and he spits out the seal and a black slug, which Chihiro destroys. She decides to take the seal back to Zeniba herself, and Kamaji gives her a train ticket to get to her. However, there is no way back. Chihiro says she’ll manage.

But there are other problems now. No-Face is going NUTS, and he’s eating other spirits, crying that he wants Chihiro. She decides to take care of that before she leaves, and goes to tell the rampaging No-Face that he’s no longer welcome in the bathhouse. In the process, she gives him the other half of the River Spirit’s gift. He proceeds to chase her in rage, and vomits up piles of sludge and the people that he swallowed.

After a gorgeous chase, Chihiro makes her way out, and Lin gets her on a boat that goes to the tracks. She apologizes for some of her earlier treatment, and tells her to come back. No-Face follows her as Chihiro walks along the submerged tracks, and makes her way to the station.

She gets into the train as it passes, and No-Face goes along with her. Off they go to Zeniba’s lair, at Swamp Bottom! And now, as the two sit down in an iconic shot for the film, this is a great time to talk about the music. It’s stellar. A beautiful score all-around, with an amazing atmosphere. I would listen to this to go to sleep, or to study by. It’s composed by Joe Hisaishi, and it’s gorgeous. I have nothing but positive things to say about it.

Meanwhile, Haku wakes up and finds out exactly what Chihiro is doing, which Kamaji believes is out of love. Upstairs, Yubaba is raging about the damages imposed by No-Face, who Chihiro let in in the first place. Haku enters and tells her off for her chiding, also noting that she still hasn’t noticed something of her’s has been replaced. She realizes that that something is her baby, whom Zeniba replaced with three monk-head spirits who’ve been around the film this whole time. Yubaba is...not happy.

Fuckin’..,just, mmmmmmWAHCHEF’S KISS! Beautiful animation, goddamn. Haku makes her a deal: tear up Chihiro’s contract and return her and her parents to the human world, and he’ll bring back her child (who’s currently with Chihiro). She agrees, but on the condition that Chihiro must pass a final test, or she’s hers forever.

Chihiro has made her way to Zeniba’s, with Boh and No-Face. She seems far, FAR nicer than Yubaba, and is very receptive to Chihiro’s presence. She reveals that her protective spell is gone, removed by Chihiro’s love for Haku. The slug was Yubaba’s, meant to control Haku. Boh (and a pet bird that Zeniba turned into a tiny bird) have had the power to change back this whole time, but choose not to.

Zeniba tells Chihiro to call her Granny, and to be patient. She waits, and Haku shows up in dragon form soon enough to take her back to Yubaba. He flies Chihiro and the other two back to the bathhouse, and in the process, Chihiro remembers something. 

When she was a child, she fell into a river to find a shoe. She was about to drown, but was pushed back to shore by an unseen force. She suddenly realizes that the river was called the Kohaku River, and that is Haku’s true name.

Chills.

Haku is actually the Kohaku River Spirit, and he did rescue Chihiro those years ago. However, the river is filled in for development, meaning that Haku cannot make his way home, hence his predicament. He takes her back to Yubaba, where the final test awaits.

Everybody now appears to be on Chihiro’s side now, though, including Boh. But a deal’s a deal, and Chihiro needs to pass the test: figure out who her mother and father are amongst the pigs. Chihiro looks at them all and realizes that NONE of the pigs in front of her are her parents. She passes the test, much to the delight of all of the spirits.

Chihiro is free! Haku takes her to the boundary of the spirit world on their side of the dry river, where he cannot pass. He tells her not to look back at the realm until she is through the tunnel that brought her and her parents here in the first place. She leaves Haku reluctantly, and finds her parents at the tunnel entrance, who don’t remember that they ate, like, fuckin’ 50 pounds of meat a little while ago.

They go through the tunnel, and Chihiro almost looks back, but stops herself just before. Both Orpheus and Lot’s wife tried that, and look how THEY tuned out. So, good job, Chihiro.

They get to the other side of the tunnel, where they discover that their car is covered in branches and dust, much to the confusion of her parents. They, uh...they’re gonna be fuckin’ SHOCKED when they get home. Can’t wait to see...oh. Movie’s over.

Huh. Man, that’s gonna be a WORLD of confusion for them, godDAMN! But OK, that’s Spirited Away, and it’s...um...well...

98%. Yup, that’s my score. See you in the Review!

[chixibrown]

Upon finishing the Stardew Valley comic

Since the Stardew Valley comic has been released by Fangamer, I am now able to write about what I had been doing in secret for one long year.

■ Gratitude

First of all, to the original creator Eric-san who entrusted the task in my hands, to Kari-san who helped me from early development all the way to printing, to Ryan-san, to Steven-san who did the translations, to Kari-san's mother who assisted in the creation of the envelope, to Erica-san for product photography -- And last but not least, everyone at Fangamer and FangamerJP.

It's thanks to the support of many people that I was able to finish the comic, and I wish to extend my sincerest gratitude towards everyone involved.

■ Chronology

"Chihiro! Big News! Let's create a new merch together!" was a request that I received around autumn of 2018. At first I was wondering if I was going to be asked to design a T-shirt, but turned out to be an invitation to draw a comic book!

At that time, I was posting comics on Twitter at random. Not even in my wildest dreams have I thought that my little comics would be appreciated so, and thus I immediately burst into tears.

I'm very honored and thankful for the opportunity to pen Fangamer's very first comic.

■ Contents

I'll try not to spoil anything about the story in this section.

The content requested by the original creator Eric-san for the comic was: "The story before the farmer comes to the farm" "With focus on the community center and Joja" "And the protagonist should have no set characteristics"

These were really the ONLY information that we received from Eric-san throughout the whole process (whyyy).

I was definitely worried. In reality, for around six months when I did my preliminary research, I played Stardew Valley every day, took countless pictures, and absorbed myself in collecting materials.

I I ended up taking a little over 20 thousand screenshots total (lol).

I wholeheartedly agree with Eric-san's guideline not to give the protagonist any set characteristics. I think one of the keypoints of this game is that "Anyone can be the protagonist".

The story is set from a few years before the prologue of game, so I was rather careful not to show my own personal interpretation. In principle, the actions of the characters were mostly taken from their in-game dialogue where they mention having done something in the past (For example, the reason Sam got in trouble lmao).

It took a lot of effort outlining the story, which involved things such as "Which characters would be in contact with each other?" and "Which characters may not be present at the valley at the time?". This is the reason why the preliminary research took around six months.

By the way, I was the one who proposed to include a "letter" with the comic, both as a bonus and major spoiler, in a way. But uh, many fellow Japanese may not be able to read it, so... I'll secretly tell you the what's actually written on the letter:

It's the handwritten version of THE letter you receive in the English version of the game's prologue. It's in your hands now. So in conclusion, it's probably exactly what you think it was.

I was quite adamant about how the letter needs to be handwritten. And as who wrote it... I shall keep it a secret here.

The reason why the comic had little to no dialogue is because it was the style I had back from the time I was drawing Stardew Valley fan art. Since Stardew Valley is a media not originally from Japan, that style serves to fulfill my two wishes: "I want people all over the world to be able to read my work" and "I want to cherish the feelings of each individual player" -- That sort of idea, really.

To summarize,

"I want people all over the world to be able to read my work"

"I want to preserve the unique interpretations each individual player might have"

"Anyone can become a Stardew Valley protagonist"

I drew the comic with these concepts in mind.

■ About me

I would like to talk about my experiences throughout the development of the comic.

My name is Chihiro Sakaida (a.k.a. Brown Junimo), I was already working for a game company, so I took advantage of that experience to work on game design and illustration.

Of course, while I was working on the Stardew Valley comic, I was a freelancer and had other jobs to worry about as well, so I ended up spending a lot of time working on the comic at night after work. I also studied digital art for a month for the sake of the comic, and I think it helped improved my work efficiency.

Those were truly, very fun days for me. The only thing that did bother me was the fact that even though I was working on my favorite Stardew Valley content day after day, I couldn't really share it with anyone.

I didn't want to take the risk of accidentally running my mouth on Twitter, and I no longer had the time to draw and post online like I used to -- So I had to resort to posting only low-risk tweets, so to speak, and to be honest, it was quite disheartening.

As such, I felt truly supported by the trusted individuals who knew about the comic. Tori-san, Aki-san, Kari-san, and Ryan-san, thank you so, so much.

■ Those who supported me

Tori-san is my partner, and also a person I respect as a novelist and screenwriter. She kindly and carefully reviewed and summarized my messy story.

Aki-san knew about the comic existed, but also knew next to nothing about it. Because of that, I think it was more than a handful to support me. It must've been really hard on Aki-san, who didn't know the contents of the book and thus had no way to accidentally spoiling the surprise, but whom also probably held even more feelings of shame than I did in regards to social media... I'm sorry that you've had to put up with so much. I was very proud to have you be the first reader of the finished book.

Kari-san is the illustrator of the Official Stardew Valley Guide Book, and I respect her a whole lot.

Both her work are her personality are very kind and easy-going. Together with her partner Ryan-san, she's managed to assist and encourage me many, many times.

No matter what I drew, I was sure to be greeted with her "Chihiro, you're so great!" or "Chihiro, you really did your best!" (Even my own mother have never praise me this much!) Overall, she feels just like an older sister I've always longed for, and it makes me very happy.

No matter what merch was in the process of being created, she would say "Let's make a brown one!!", solely because it's my signature color. It makes me very happy, although probably a tiny bit embarrassed as well to have her value my one schtick this much. She's even came to Japan many times, and listened to me talk all day long. After all, I wouldn't have been able to get this job to begin with if it wasn't for Kari-san, so she's a real lifesaver.

I didn't get to talk directly with Eric-san, the original creator and developer of Stardew Valley. Obviously I received some feedback via Fangamer, but I was refraining from being in contact with him as much as possible. I didn't think I could convey my full sincerity towards him before the comic was completed. I strived to be able to earnestly understand the feelings he wanted to convey via his own words -- Whether it was the game dialogues, his words on the developer blog and interviews, etc.

There was, by the way, no revision whatsoever to the comic. Eric-san did, however, carefully check all of my ideas and always provided words of appreciation; which made me happier than anything else. Those words became my motivation to live, in a sense, which in turn allowed me to freely and happily work on the comic.

■ Going Forward

While I've been talking about how proud I am to have finished the comic, I also would like to talk about what's coming next. While I certainly plan to continue working with Fangamer for the foreseeable future, at the same time, I have also decided to work for another game development company, and I plan to devote my time working on game development for at least the next year.

It has been my dream for the past 15 years to work for this particular company, and I'm elated to see it come true.

However, as a result I think I will have less exposure to social media. I don't think it's going to be easy to recreate that warm and wondrous time where I could interact with people regularly, but my memory of that time is something I will treasure for the rest of my life.

I'm really sorry that I have absolutely nothing to give back, but I sincerely hope the comic has brought a smile to everyone who's read or even merely noticed it.

■ Finally

I'm such a fortunate person -- I've come this far due to everyone's support, and for that, I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude. Thank you so much, for everything, always.

It would delight me if all of you could stay with me from this point on.

As I try to polish my skills and improve myself as a whole.

PS: Thanks to my best friend Ryou-chan for translating this!

[chorealis]

The Halloween Festival Photo

Hey hey hey, long text post ahead! You’ve been warned!

“The Blackened” Bonus Content Below

I know I missed Halloween by uhhh two days (SORRY) but I finally recovered and cleaned up the part where Mondo receives the photo from Monokuma so that it now includes ALL of the THH cast instead of just a few! You’ll get to know what their Halloween costume of choice is (and some perhaps very implied Celesgiri because I can’t help myself). I know that @tgapa​ really wanted to see this, so here you go dude!!! Sorry it’s so late :’)

Also, I put some gifs in to separate my writing from word vomit. Hope that helps a little!

Mondo knew that he shouldn’t reasonably trust anything that Monokuma had touched, but pure curiosity was much too strong of a force to resist. He grabbed the paper- which upon closer inspection, was actually a photograph- and examined it. What he found made his eyes widen in pure shock.

Inside the photograph were his 15 classmates, all participating in what appeared to be some sort of school festival together. Probably a halloween festival, based on how they were dressed. Aoi was some sort of mermaid, Hifumi appeared to be some... pink cherub thing(???) that he vaguely recognized from the anime Yamada had liked, and Leon was fittingly a lion. There was even that Mukuro Ikusaba girl up in the top dressed as Princess Daisy chatting with a Princess Peach that kind of looked like Junko, who was unfortunately blocked from sight by Ikusaba’s prop parasol. Yasuhiro was busily annoying Byakuya with a paintbrush- Hiro had clearly dressed up as Bob Ross, going so far as to splash paint all over his costume for an authentic effect. Togami was trying to stay as far away from his messy-looking classmate as possible, likely trying to not get anything on his Beetlejuice costume. The suit fit Byakuya perfectly- he must have had it custom-tailored for the occasion.

Something else caught his eye, too- Chihiro. They were happily waving at whoever was behind the camera, proudly showing off their bright green superhero costume. Next to them was another unfortunate murder victim, Sayaka Maizono. The Ultimate Pop Idol must have a good sense of humor, because she had chosen to dress up as Hatsune Miku, going so far as to dye her hair a shocking teal for the occasion. Makoto had also gone the technicolor route; He was dressed like he had stepped out of an 80’s teen anti-drug poster, complete with neon pants and wacky sunglasses.

In typical Touko fashion, she looked like she didn’t even want to be there. Fukawa had put the bare minimum for her “costume” (if it could even be considered that), simply wearing a zebra onesie with ears and a tail. Hey, at least she wouldn’t be cold, unlike Sakura. The taller girl had chosen to wear a revealing cheerleader costume that showed off many of her well-deserved muscles. Mondo noticed (admittedly with a little bit of a chuckle) that Aoi’s eyes in the photo were FIRMLY glued to Sakura’s abs.

He scanned through the photo as fast as he could, trying to find any evidence of himself in there. There’s no way that everyone had lied to him. They couldn’t have all known each other before this, could they? This had to be a lie!

Just when he was starting to panic that he had been played for a fool the entire time, he found the only thing that could have taken some of his building suspicion away; Kiyotaka Ishimaru. He was in the bottom left corner of the photo giving Celestia a piggyback ride, much to the apparent disdain (and was that jealousy?) of a Ghostbuster-suited Kyouko. Taka and Celeste had apparently gone with some sort of couples themed costume together. They were both wearing similar-looking gothic vampire outfits, complete with matching pointed fangs that they were showing off to the camera with wide smiles. The costumes definitely suited the two of them with their matching porcelain skin, ruby eyes, and jet-black hair. (Now that Mondo really thought about it, this was also the first time that he’d ever seen Taka wearing anything other than his school uniform, too.) So the whole class had celebrated Halloween together? When? And since when were Kiyotaka and Celestia even FRIENDS? He could only ever remember her making snide comments at him. They probably hadn’t even really had a full conversation with each other.

If you stuck around, thanks for reading! If you guys think I should post more little cut scenes and bonus works from The Blackened here, PLEASE let me know! I always feel so bad scrapping work when I worry that someone might enjoy it lmao

(For anyone who’s curious, the person taking the photo is actually Mondo himself! He and Chihiro were wearing matching superhero costumes. Mondo’s was red to contrast with the green.)

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Amazons Season 2

The Amazons are back... but this time they're boring!

It has been around one year or so that I've been running this blog, considering the number of things I've watched I came across a fair share of excellent things and I also have come across a lot of things that I didn't like, some of them were boring, some of them were emotional, there was a lot of frustration, a lot of joy, a lot of anger, and a whole lot of love.

But in this entire year, I have never come across something that I dislike just as much as I dislike Amazons Season 2.

After Season 1 I didn't have high hopes for the second season, I came to it open for whatever they would throw at me but I knew I shouldn't expect more than what season 1 delivered, a show that was mediocre but still fun. But that's not what I got from this season. This was bad, very boring, very difficult to go through, I wanted to give up on this show every time I finished an episode.

And it's not even that the plot is utterly bad, I could see it working. They had a child that was born as an amazon, we had normal people now becoming amazons like if the cells had become a virus, we have a new team hunting down the amazons for another company that has shady plans for the technology, and we have the returning conflicts from season 1 with Jin still trying to hunt down Mamoru who's now trying to lead the Tlaloc survivors into war and also trying to recruit more people to his cause since his group is the responsible for people being infected, and Haruka trying to stop him while at the same time he tries to aid his former companions of the Pest Control team that are back in action hunting amazons while they also try to deal with the events of 5 years ago, with an extra sprinkle of Mizuki who's left his passive personality behind since now she's also an agent. On paper, this all looks awesome, especially when you add in the fact that Chihiro is Jin and Nanaha's son, this sounds like it should be an amazing show. Except that is not.

This show has a terrible sense of pacing, watching this show felt like an eternity. This show just keeps dragging and dragging, it's like the story is never moving, then we have a turning point in episode 8, the only good episode of this season because it's showing Jin's side of the story, and you think the show is going to pick up and go strong for the rest of it, but it's just an illusion because it begins to drag again and it's painful. There were 3 or 4 times (if not more) that were perfect for the show to end, but it just never did and when came time for the show to finally end they don't even bore to give us a decent action scene at least because it wants to make a vague commentary about life to pretend that this show is about something other than just an edgy CGI mess. This shouldn't have been a 12-episodes-series, this should've been a movie so that they could cut off the excess and have a smaller script to try to make something decent.

It would probably still be awful because the new characters added to the cast are all horrible and unilateral and it's not fun to follow any of them around, but maybe with a shorter run time they could rework some stuff around, like that dude who we're supposed to believe is Chihiro and Iyu's friend and really cares for them when he doesn't even bother to visit his friend who lost a leg not even once, or giving up on the idea of making Nanaha becoming an amazon that later becomes this entity that doesn't do a lot, maybe they could just give up on the romance and cut all the scenes where Chihiro does awful men behaviour by believing any sign a girl makes means that they're definitely interested on them, or even not being stupid of adding this plot point that for the toxin or whatever that is in Iyu's armlet needs from 6 to 8 hours to kill her because whenever you wanna add a button to kill an individual you're controlling you really wanna give them a good amount of time to wreck havoc before shutting them down.

Or I don't know, maybe forget about adding new characters since you're not gonna work with them, just stick to doing something cool with the ones of season 1 and actually explaining things for us. Because I came out of this season without really knowing anyone of the new cast, we also never got an explanation about how Chihiro escaped, we also don't know how Mamoru got to make amazon!Nanaha to cooperate with his plan, heck even in the episode I liked, we don't get to know how Jin's body recovered from the wounds he received in Tlaloc. Honestly... this show... *sigh*

I can't even say they at least have good suites designs because Neo Amazon and New Alpha look awful. Just as awful as all the CG blood and CG kills, and the glossy filter they borrowed from the early seasons of Rupaul’s Drag Race.

This season was a mistake, and I'm emotionally dry. I need to go play some Hollow Knight and watch some Precure to regain joy in living as soon as possible because UGH. Anyway, these are my thoughts on Amazons Season 2, if you also watched this tragedy let me know what you think in the comments down below. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, be aware of the water you drink, thank you so much for reading this post full of anger and disappointment, and until the next time.

[insertselfinserthere]

Three Rules ~ Leon Kuwata (1/?)

AN: I’m finally making a whole fanfic! I have no idea how many parts this’ll be. But this is set in the canon universe, maybe sometime later I’ll make a happier fic set in a non!despair AU

I never had any ultimate talent, and I'd never attended Hope's Peak either, but I still felt I could have somehow prevented the inevitable. I'd made friends with lots of students who went there, like a nice girl named Chihiro who attended my creative writing class, and another boy named Gundam who I'd met while volunteering at the animal shelter. I'd met both of their friends, even managing to sneak conversation with people as they left school grounds while waiting outside for one or the other.

Meeting them was both the worst and best things that have ever happened to me. Chihiro was a kind girl I grew attached to very quickly, my introduction to her friends resulting in me meeting my boyfriend, Leon Kuwata. We didn't get along at first, until I'd gotten comfortable in the group and Leon got to know the louder and much more humorous side of me hidden behind my timid first impression. He'd eventually asked to get ice cream after school one day.

Gundam I'd met nearly a year and a half later. We'd also not gotten along at first. I was quick to shut out his longwinded words, smiling and nodding absentmindedly when he started conversations. Seeing how he treated the animals was what opened my mind. His eyes melted like butter, smile soft and friendly. It was then Gundam and I exchanged numbers, and I'd began hanging out with him outside of volunteering with a mixture of our own friends.

I really did hit it off with Junko the couple of times we'd met. I admired her photoshoots majorly, being awestruck when I saw her in person. Junko claimed to like my makeup, and from that, I'd decided we'd bonded.

Knowing Gundam and all his classmates, knowing Junko as well, is what hurts the most. I'm trying to reassure myself, looking down at my phone as it rings and goes to voicemail, that he’s okay. The disaster outside will be tended to and Leon is safe and hiding out somewhere, waiting for me to find him.

I know this isn't true. It doesn't stop me from reassuring myself, though. I can't remember what street I'm on, they all look the same. People are running, things have already been destroyed, and robots are roaming about.

Receiving a call makes a grin come to my face, breathing ragged as I press the phone to my ear. "Leon!" I wheeze, tears running down my cheeks. "I-Oh my Gods, are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm okay," There's rustling in the background, but it's nothing compared to the shrieking and honking of cars on my end. "You remember that park, right? The one where someone stole one of the swings, with that really shitty basketball court."

"Yeah," I breath out, "On my way. Stay with me,"

Leon breaths in and out steadily, and I can't tell who he's trying to calm down more, me or himself. "Is there anyone with you?" He pauses, continuing when I don't respond. "Do you know how your family is?"

"My parents aren't answering their phones," I tell him briefly, turning a corner. I see a familiar restaurant, knowing the next turn to the park is just up ahead. "I tried going home-" I gasp for air, "-Road's blocked."

There's more rustling, and I consider maybe he's pacing. "My parents weren't fucking picking up either," Leon's voice is obviously frustrated, steadily rising in volume. "My cousin, Kanon, picked up, though. She said she needs to go fucking check on her dad, can you believe her? She's fucking crazy,”

I shriek as a robot barrels towards me. I drop to my knees, crawling rapidly away. Rising to my feet as fast as I can, I sprint to where I see the park. I even see Leon, his red hair sticking out against the greenery. He's standing against the foliage of the trees surrounding the park, pacing back and forth as he twirls a baseball bat in his hand idly. This is a change of scenery, rather peaceful, and I deduct the robots must have not managed to reach here as of yet.

"Here!" I scream into my phone, waving one of my hands in the air.

He looks up, dropping his phone from his hand in the process as he matches my pace towards me. I know he isn't running towards me, rather at the machine that follows behind me. Leon raises his bat above his head, leaping at the robot. Straddling it, Leon bashes it until I can see sparks.

The robot is still being smashed to smithereens long after it's stopped moving and it's only laying on the ground. I watch as I catch my breath. Just seeing Leon in person, despite him being covered in grunge with a blooming bruise on his cheek and blood running somewhere in his scalp. Even looking this worn down, chest heaving and eyes wide with rage, I'm able to admire him. My family is gone, I know that already. I have no one left besides Leon, and I'm grateful he's alive and by my side.

When Leon rises, his breathing is rapid and his shirt is sticking to his abdomen. He turns to me in a daze, pulling me into a delicate hug. Leon touches me like I'm glass, but my grip is like iron when I throw my arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder. We stand like this for a long time, both of us crying in absolute relief.

"I thought I lost you," Leon speaks quietly, voice deep as he tries to ensure it won't break. "You screamed-You..."

"I'm okay," I say rapidly, "We're okay. We're doing great."

Leon nods silently, pulling me closer if that were somehow possible. "The school," He croaks out, "There's a gate. We can go there, maybe it'll help. Naegi, you know him, the small one. It was his idea to go back to the school, board it up and hide out until things settle."

"Oh Gods," Comes out my raspy response, shaking my head lightly. "Poor Chihiro, she must be losing their mind right about now." Leon is silent, only stroking my back slowly in reassurance.

"Let's get going," He tells me firmly, pulling us apart and holding my biceps firmly, looking into my eyes with a gaze that matches his rough tone. "The longer we stay out here, the longer we're in danger. Once we get in the school, we can lounge around and do whatever we want, okay?"

My nod is delayed, but it does come. With it, relief floods into Leon's pale eyes. We're both unable to speak as we turn, overlooking the wreckage before us with dread. I follow behind my boyfriend obediently, albeit much slower than he would have liked, but we're still moving forwards whether I want to or not.

It's a shame that I see many recognizable faces as I move along. The woman whose input I asked for when I was buying a dress not too long ago, which was now probably burned and covered under the debris of my house. My shoulder is brushed as a waitress comes barreling past me, sobs wracking her body. I remember she served me pizza three days ago, she let me leave even though I was a whole four dollars short, paying for the shortage herself with a blinding grin.

While Leon and I make short and steady progress, he avoids fights with relative ease. The robots are focused on uncovering the debris, attempting to find survivors which are hanging onto their last frayed threads of life, ready to be snuffed out in an instant. Survivors rush past the robots easily while they're distracted.

Once the academy is in view, it feels like a weight is lifted off my shoulders. We near the closed gate, and when we finally reach it, I half expect it to swing open invitingly. Instead, it stays in place, and I stare at it rather dumbly. "Here, up on my shoulders," Leon tells me, though I only blink back at him. "We're climbing it."

It takes a while for me to process that, but eventually I nod silently. I suddenly feel stupid. People are out there, fires surrounding them, on the brink of death, yet here I am. Intimidated at the idea of climbing a damn fence.

There's a bit of a struggle, and I can practically hear Leon's legs quaking as I stand up, but we press on. I make it to the top, and throw myself to the other side. I land unceremoniously on the ground, though make it to my feet swiftly, face glowing crimson. After checking if I was okay, Leon scales the fence with ease.

Within only a couple seconds, he's by my side, landing on his feet and grinning back at me. After he slings an arm over my shoulder, I hear his heavy breathing and deduct he most certainly rushed in order to show off. My blush deepens.

Inside the school, the familiar faces make my spirits lift abruptly and welcomingly. "Mondo, I haven't seen you in forever!" I boast, running over to the biker. His spirits aren't as high as mine, but he sends me a forced smile, giving a nod in Leon's direction. Greetings to everyone else ensues afterwards, and Chihiro and I decide to stay glued at the hip. Leon is hesitant, but him, Mondo, and Sakura head off to tend to harder labour.

“Maybe we should get you some clothes,” Chihiro suggests. Upon my confused look, she adds on. “We have a lot of supplies. We portioned them out right before Leon left to get you. Everyone else brought a bit of their own things, so I guess you can have a uniform or some gym clothes.”

I smile, relieved and tired. “Thank you so much,” I wish I could express how much I meant those words. That I could transfer my feelings to Chihiro, that they didn’t feel so empty. “What else is there to do?”

We begin walking, Chihiro leading the way. “We’re just making sure everything’s boarded up. We’ve got most of the windows, now we’re doing the doors.” I nod along. Chihiro’s large eyes are void of tears, I wonder if they’ve cried too much to have any left. “Here it is.”

Shelves are stacked neatly with supplies in this room. I spot gym uniforms immediately, as well as several other spare articles of clothing. Besides what we came here for, there’s many other useful things, like snacks, tools, and much more.

Chihiro turns her back as I change into track pants and a white tank top. They hand me a towel and wet it with a nearby water bottle, and they help me wipe soot and dirt off my skin.

Celeste enters as we do this. “You look terrible,” She states bluntly.

Her and I have gotten along rather well, and I do like her, but that doesn’t stop me from snapping. “Thanks, I didn’t notice,” I put as much venom into the short words as possible. “You’re a real help.”

Celeste pauses, holding a small hammer. She puts it down, walking over slowly. Celeste takes a towel of her own, wets it, and begins cleaning my face.

“Have you talked to the principle yet?” She asks, “He made us record videos before we started doing all these... renovations.”

I take in a breath, knowing I’m on the verge of using Celeste as a verbal punching bag. Instead I smile, toothy and forced. “No,” Her raised eyebrows tells me she knows how irritated I am. “I just got here. I really just want to change and get everything done as soon as possible.” Internally I don’t want to do anything, but I know I have to do my part. My feet hurt and the side of my stomach is cramped.

Chihiro reads me well, and I’m reminded of how I wear my feelings so obviously on my sleeve. “Let’s go see the principle,” She tells me, smiling wide. She takes a pair of leggings and a white t-shirt off the shelf handing it to me. “Right after you change. Everything should be done after that.”

Relief floods through me. I take the clothes wordlessly, the two of them turning as I change. Once I’m done, Celeste says her farewells and is off to wherever that hammer of hers is needed.

I can’t say I’ve been in the halls of Hope’s Peak very often. I’ve been to a talent show in support of Leon. I remember telling him I wasn’t going, then seeing the ecstasy flare into his pale eyes as he caught my gaze. I wish such happy memories couldn’t be overrided, but they are, by much more profound feelings of sadness, fear, and despair.

Chihiro and I eventually come up to the door of what must be the principle’s office. I never really thought anything of the video I recorded that day. It was a no brainer for me. Hope’s Peak was safe, with most of the people I cared about close by. I thought we’d escaped tragedy, but it’s very obvious that I was very wrong.

[nocandnc]

yugami trying to peek into the art & craft clubroom to see if chihiro's there-IM JUST-MY HEARTTT just say you miss her and go! i'm loving the j-twitter reaction about this chapter everyone's on chihiro's side & all they want is for yugami to take responsibility and make her happy

It was soooo cuuuuute!!

Something really important to note is the side he’s peeking in from. If he was just passing by he’d be looking in from the left windows, but instead he looks in from the right before turning to leave in the same direction. He wasn’t just passing by and looked in when it was convenient. He went out of his way to walk to the club room window and then rounded back to his original destination. He diverged from his usual path to seek Chihiro out, which is definitely unusual behavior for him!

Seeing the Twitter fans rally in Chihiro’s defense was really so sweet! But! What I really loved about this chapter is that… Yugami didn’t really do anything wrong? At least, he’s done nothing different from what he’s always done. It’s Chihiro who suddenly wanted him to behave differently and got upset when he failed to meet those desires, which is exactly what she criticized her classmates for a few chapters back.

But of course, caring about someone only to feel they don’t view you in the same light is painful, so Chihiro is quite down for a majority of the chapter. Yugami is really very precious to her - he’s helped her more than anyone else throughout their time together, and all her current connections are arguably thanks to him. In her mind, that makes Yugami her ‘friend’.

Thinking back on everything she’s received from him, tangible or not, Chihiro comes to terms with the idea that asking for a reciprocation of friendship is greedy of her when he’s already given so many other things. But just because Yuagmi doesn’t view her a ‘friend’, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t view her as ‘precious’. Yugami wouldn’t help Chihiro out so much if he didn’t think something of her, after all…

At the Yugami household, Yuuko-chan is worrying over Chihiro going to a difficult college, wondering to her brother if she’s be able to get in.

Yugami’s response shows us that he thinks very highly of Chihiro - he’s confident she’ll be able to persevere as he’s seen her do many times now. His compliment to her being someone who keeps trying to push forward is reminiscent of Chihiro’s letter to him in which she talks of him doing the very same thing.

But Yugami’s little sister is surprised, thinking he was looking down on Chihiro this whole time. Yugami is genuinely confused by this. He’s fond of her, and in his mind he was doing everything necessary to express this, which is why he was taken aback by Chihiro’s tearful outburst. It was totally unexpected - why would he forget about her? It’s not until Yuuko flat out tells him the error of his ways that he realizes his feelings weren’t being conveyed after all.

And so, he sends her a New Year’s card to prove that she’s someone he wants to stay connected to. It’s subtle enough to pass off as a formality if anyone asks, because we all know Yugami is actually a bit of a shy guy when it comes to these things - but luckily Chihiro knows him well enough to understand this time around.

AAAAAAH LOOK AT THAT HAPPY FACE~~~ so you see, Yugami’s doing his best in his own way!! I wonder if we’ll get to see what kind of reply she writes?

Anyways, I’m sorry I took so long to reply!!! The next chapter is already almost here ^^;;;

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 39: Call Me Hero

Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia!

Earlier chapters can be found here

Back in school after two days off, Isamu Haimawari was still riding a pretty good high.  While a part of him still refused to believe that he’d won the Sports Festival, hearing the congratulations of so many people, both those in his neighborhood and people who had just seen him on TV, along with all the discussion and replays being shown on the news, had helped to cement it in his mind.  He was going to take pride in what he’d done, while still acknowledging there were several times it could have gone either way.  If Midoriya hadn’t come up with the plan for them to cooperate or if some of his matches had been different people or gone just a little differently, he likely wouldn’t have done as well.  

Still: he actually felt like a winner.

“Newb.”

He looked up to see Kirishima-Bakugo standing in front of his desk, muscular arms crossed in front of her chest.  Her red eyes narrowed as she looked him over, everything about her body language reading as a challenge.  But there was something else there too, some subtle sign of acknowledgement that wasn’t there before, as though for the she was seeing him as worthy of her attention for the first time.  She did seem to respect strength and skill, after all.

“Yes?” Isamu asked.

She stared him down for a moment longer before speaking.  “You did good,” she said.  “Seems I underestimated you.”

He definitely wasn’t expecting that, but he quickly found his voice.  “Ah, thanks,” he said.  “You did good too.  Pretty impressive fight against Izumi.”

“Izzy kicked my ass is what she did,” Kirishima-Bakugo replied.  She moved to take her seat.  “But believe me.  I won’t be underestimating you again.”

Well.  That wasn’t worrisome at all.

At the desk next to his, Mineta turned so she could talk to Kirishima-Bakugo.  “What?  No congratulations for me?”

“I still can’t believe you came in second,” Kaminari told her, rolling her eyes.  

“What, like it’s hard?” Mineta replied.

At her desk, Kirishima-Bakugo fumed.  “I’m acknowledging your victory while refusing to acknowledge you, Horse-Girl.”

Mineta shrugged.  “You know what, I’m going to take that as a win here.  On top of my actual win.  Which I had. And you didn’t.”

Kirishima-Bakugo started rising out of her desk again, rage twisting up her features.  “I swear, I will I will blow those damn horns right off your head…”

“Can I get out of the way first?” Kaminari asked, Extension Cords up in the air.  “Or maybe just tase you both?

Kirishima-Bakuago growled, but sat back down.  A quick glance around showed that Izumi had turned around in the front row and was watching them.  Thank goodness for small favors.  “You’re still an idiot, Horse-Girl.  I’m not gonna underestimate you either.  So keep up or get out of the way.  And don’t think you can rely on provocation all the time.  It won’t save you from me…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Mineta said, rolling her eyes.

“How did Uncle Minoru take how you won?” Kaminari asked.

Mineta shook her head. “He called it ‘great use of psychological tactics’.  My innocence is his eyes is safe.”

“Talk about blindspots…”

“On the other hand,” she went on, “he did threaten Shinji when Mom invited him and his dad out to dinner to celebrate my win after the festival…”

Isamu did remember a large teen in a Shiketsu school uniform embracing Mineta after the Festival, twirling her around.  He hadn’t gotten his name then, but that must have been Shinji.  Who’d have ever thought someone like Mineta would have a friend like that?  And apparently as a boyfriend?

He wasn’t sure if he should feel sorry for the guy or not.  At the very least, it didn’t look like it was restraining her personality any.  She was still Mineta, still hitting on everything that moved (which included him).

Of course, he had his own potential for a girlfriend on the horizon too.  He’d spent a decent amount of time over the break texting with Kana Tetsutetsu, even video chatting with her for a little while.  She’d turned out to be a pretty fun person to talk to and seemed a lot like a less scary version of Kirishima-Bakugo.  Intense and dedicated, but not ready to go off at a moment’s notice.  Plus, they’d turned out to both be fans of the cheesy martial arts flicks from the early days of Quirk-based films, which gave them a lot to talk about.

If all went well, they’d try and watch one together before the internships started next week.

The internships.  He’d tried hard not to think about that over the two days.  As the winner of the Sports Festival, he was likely to get a lot of offers.  How would he know who to choose?  And there was still the possibility of being overlooked. His win would give him a lot of cache, but considering how many kids of important Heroes were in his class and the others, he wondered if people wouldn’t be more likely to scout them instead, trying to network or curry favor…

Around him, everyone in the classroom was talking about their Sports Festival performance, some happier than others, some lamenting how early they’d been knocked out.  The noise was only broken when Aizawa’s sleeping bag clad form suddenly appeared from behind the lectern.

“So.  Let’s talk about the Sports Festival.   Pretty cute, the way you used teamwork to get past the First Stage.  A nice exploitation of a loophole, since it’s not against the rules.  And Heroes should be able to work together with anyone.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the classroom.  Aizawa as a teacher as perpetually waiting for the other shoe to drop.  He didn’t hand out praise easily, so where this was leading, no one seemed to know.

“Which means I’ll just have to make sure All Might and the others ride you harder to make sure your individual skills don’t atrophy.”

There it was.  That was the other shoe.  Heroics Classes already were pushing them right up to their limits and beyond… how much worse could it get?!

Aizawa continued. “With that being said, we can discuss the Internship offers that have come up.”

He tapped a button on the lectern and the results of the Internship offers appeared on the board.  “These numbers are not necessarily reflective of the total number of offers you received. All Might, Midnight, Principal Nezu, and I spent a considerable amount of time reviewing your offers and eliminating any offers that appeared to be made simply to take advantage of who your parents are.”

Toshinori Midoriya: 4007

Isamu Haimawari: 3546

Mika Mineta: 1451

Izumi Torodoki: 400

Kimiko Ojiro: 203

Asuka Tokoyami: 106

Katsumi: Kirishima-Bakugo: 73

Sora Iida: 40

Chihiro Kaminari: 8

Takuma Sero: 7

Tensei Iida: 6

Shota Shinso: 5

Takiyo Aoyama: 4

Daisuke Shoji: 3

Kenta Sato: 2

Akaya Koda: 2

“Hey!” Mineta cried out. “I did better than Midoriya! Why’s he got so many more offers than me?”

“Maybe because Toshi’s not a lunatic nymphomaniac?” Kirishima-Bakugo said.  “Who sexually harassed her opponents on live television?”

“…Besides that!”

Isamu was pretty sure his heart had just stopped.  How had that many people noticed him, thought he was worthy of their attention?  Maybe not as many as Midoriya, but way more than he would have ever expected.  He couldn’t help but feel bad for some of the others though, who hadn’t gotten nearly as much attention.

“Alas,” he heard Aoyama say. “My radiance did not draw the attention it deserved.”

“You shall have other chances,” Koda assured him.  “And if your internship goes well, it will already open doors to further notice.”

“I suppose so, Mademoiselle Koda, but still…”

“Congratulations, Sister!” Tensei Iida said.  “You do the Iida Family line proud by your successes!”

“Do not be so quick to dismiss your own, Little Brother,” Sora Iida replied.  “With two of us, the honor is twice as large!”

“Go Kimiko!” Sero said. “I’m totally tagging your videos with “Sports Festival Finalist” now.  Our hit count’s gonna be through the roof!”

“Sorry you two didn’t do better,” Ojiro said.

Sato waved it off. “Always next year.  And apparently somebody liked what they saw with me…”

“Oh, man, everybody was so awesome,” Shinso squealed. “You all did so great!  Toshi was all bouncing around and Izumi was throwing all that ice and Tokoyami did that super-cool armor trick and Haimawari was all ZOOOOOM and…”

“Breathe, Shota,” Tokoyami said.

“Still, an impressive accounting by all of you,” Izumi said.

“Guess stretching by Cords out wasn’t all for nothing,” Kaminari added.

“I suppose it’s an honor just to be noticed, even by three people,” Shoji said.  Isamu didn’t know him well, but he didn’t sound particularly depressed by it.  Little seemed to faze the six-armed young man.

“Thirty-five hundred people,” Isamu said quietly.  “Still don’t believe it.”

“If you’re all done?” Aizawa snapped, impatient working its way into his voice.  “I’ll be distributing the requests that go with those numbers shortly.  As I expected, there was significant coordination on the part of your parents. Technically, a logical exploitation of a loophole in the rules I issued them against scouting their own children. So not unexpected.  However, in the meantime, we need to discuss your Hero names.  I’m sure most of you have had these planned for a while, but Midnight would try to murder me if I didn’t indulge her little games.”

“Oh, don’t sound so judgmental about it, Eraser,” Vice-Principal Midnight said, standing in the now open classroom door.  “I love listening to what these fresh young minds have come up with…”

***

Koharu struggled to still the shaking of her hand as she pushed open the door to the door to the school’s office.  She’d been abruptly summoned from her Homeroom class to come to come to there and her mind raced with possibilities about what it might entail.  The two days since the Sports Festival had passed quickly, but with plenty of congratulations from family and friends and even total strangers.  Already, the rest of her Class was treating her like the second coming of Shinso.  

Inside, one of the school secretaries, a woman pale green skin and blonde hair, looked up.  “Can I help you?” she asked.

Koharu gathered her wits. “I’m…  I’m Koharu Kocho.  I got a message saying they wanted to see me down here?”

The woman nodded and pointed to a door marked with the name “Nezu” on its nameplate.  The Principal’s office.  “In there,” the secretary said.  “They’re expecting you, so no need to knock.”

Taking another breath to steady herself, Koharu crossed the room and opened the door to the Principal’s office.  Inside, the strange mouse-bear-dog that was Nezu sat behind a massive mahogany desk, with All Might on one side of his chair and Water Spout on the other, all of them pouring over papers strewn out across the desk and a paused video of some kind of an angled computer monitor.

“Ah, Miss Kocho, welcome!” Nezu said, gesturing towards a chair in front of the desk.  “Please, have a seat.  May I offer you some tea?”

The hyper-intelligent animal was spritely, despite the small but thick glasses that rested on his nose and the grey around his muzzle.  Koharu didn’t know how old he was, but he’d been the principal for well over twenty-five years, even before Heroes like Deku and Ground Zero graced the halls. He had to be well past the life expectancy of… whatever it was he was, exactly.

This wasn’t the first time she’d been in the presence of All Might, of course, having received her medal (and a hug!) from him at the Sports Festival.  But here, away from the cameras, he seemed just a little more serious, a little more subdued.  Water Spout was a new one, though.  

“I, ah, yes, thank you,” she said, as she took a seat.

“Very good,” Nezu said, nodding slightly.  “If you wouldn’t mind, Water Spout?”

“Of course, Principal,” the dark-haired Hero said, moving to the corner of the office where Nezu kept a tea service.  “It’ll be just a few minutes.”

“I must congratulate you on your win again, Miss Kocho,” Nezu said.  “You nearly set a new record for the General Studies department.  Of course, there are those who do not count Akamine’s first place victory of a few years ago, since all he did was endure the attacks of others based on his invulnerability.”

Koharu shook her head, slowly, so as not to overly agitate her antennae.  “I wouldn’t.  He used his Quirk and his head and won fair and square.”

Nezu nodded. “Mmm-hmm, my assessment as well. His path may have lead him elsewhere, but in that moment, it was surely his victory.”

“Young Kocho,” All Might began, his deep voice kind and encouraging, “how would you describe your performance at the Sports Festival?”

Koharu closed her eyes for a moment, taking in a breath.   She accepted the tea that Water Spout handed her.  “Sugar?  Honey? Milk?” he asked.

“Honey, please,” she said, then, when that had been added, extended her proboscis into the tea and took a long sip.  It was warm and sweet, perfect to her taste.  If any of the three adults seemed disturbed by her drinking method, it didn’t show on their faces.  She appreciated that.  Wings and antennae were one thing, and while they brought her plenty of attention, they didn’t bring her much bigotry.  But when she started to drink, that’s when the looks of disgust usually came out.

The long drink gave her a moment to formulate her answer.  “I did alright during the Obstacle Course.  Middle of the pack.  My Quirk was pretty good at bringing down the drones and I was able to fly around a lot of them.   Quirkball… I survived.  Barely.  My Scales and my String-Shot were good at taking people down so they could be hit, but it was a lot to keep track of.  I didn’t always do that good a job, didn’t always realize just how big a target I was.”

All Might and Nezu nodded.   “Good,” All Might said.  “Please, go on.”

Koharu drank some more of her tea before she continued.  She’d come this far.  They deserved nothing less than her total honesty.  Besides, she was fairly certain this was some kind of test in and of itself. She’d heard rumors about the Principal and all the wheels within wheels he spun.

“I got lucky in the Tournament.,” she said.  “My first match was Monoma.”  Once I got out of the range of that Binding Cloth of his, there wasn’t much he could do to me.  It was just a matter of time before I got him with my String-Shot or my Scales.”

“Nothing wrong with having a Quirk your opponent can’t match,” Water Spout said.  “That’s why I get called in to fight fire and flame villains, even though I’m a Rescue Hero.  Not much most of them can do against a few dozen gallons of water. But it still takes strategy.”

Not a bad point, now that she thought about it.  

“You should know Monoma speaks rather highly of you,” Nezu added.  “He’s sent no less than a dozen e-mails to myself, the three Hero Class Homeroom teachers, and several of the other teachers insisting that you be added to the Hero Class.”

He looked down at a printout in his hand. “Ah, yes, and “preferably in Class 1-B.’”

“Against Ojiro, though, she was faster on the move than he was.  She got up close instead of trying to go from the distance.  Plus, you know, the whole invisibility thing.  So I had to use my antennae to find her, but once I did, I could take her out with my String-Shot.   I took a lot more of a beating in that one though.  Much more of a physical fight.  Not totally used to using my wings like that.”

“And you still emerged victorious,” All Might said.  “Young Ojiro is an extremely skilled fighter.  You did quite well to overcome here.”

“If you would talk about your last fight, Miss Kocho?” Nexu prompted.

“Against Mineta?” she said. “Yeah, okay.  I wasn’t prepared for it.  Not really.  I watched her other fights and she’s pretty hard to get a read on.  One minute, she’s fighting or brawling, the next she’s trying to get in somebody’s head.  Add in her ability to fire off those balls, she was pretty dangerous.  I figured I had the best chance if I got airborne and just took her out with a Sleep Powder or a Paralysis Powder, but she was just all over me, shooting those balls everywhere.”

She looked down at an empty teacup.  Nezu, All Might, and Water Spout gave her the moment to gather her thoughts.  “They got all over my wings.  Pinned them to the ground.  Maybe I could have kept fighting.  Even if I was pinned, I still had my String-Shot.  But I was afraid to tearing my wings.  I don’t know… I don’t know if I could heal from that.  So I gave up.  Not very heroic, really.”

“You understood your limits,” All Might said, gently, coming around the desk.  He got down on one knee next to her chair and put a hand on her shoulder.  “There is nothing wrong with being afraid.  Even the mightiest of us have felt fear.  But if you’re to join the Hero Course, you’re going to have to learn to surpass that fear and find new limits.”

“I… what?”  Nothing in that last sentence made any sense to her right now.

“We’ve been viewing your Sports Festival footage, as well as your performance during the Entrance Exam,” Nezu said.  “We’ve also spoken to your physical education teacher, and several of your other teachers. What happened to you during the Entrance Exam was a rather tragic accident.  Based upon your initial performance and your performance during the Sports Festival, I was able to extrapolate a probable score for you if you hadn’t been knocked out.”

Nezu pushed his chair back and hopped down, slowly walking around the desk with the aid of his cane. “You should have passed with flying colors.”

“I… what?” Koharu repeated.

Nezu offered her a hand. “Miss Kocho, if you are willing to put in a, frankly, considerable amount of work to get caught up, we are pleased to offer you a place in the Hero Course for the second semester.”

***

Isamu wasn’t surprised that all of his classmates had names ready to go.  And he probably shouldn’t have been surprised that Aizawa had opted to hide himself in his sleeping bag in the corner while Vice Principal Midnight ran the show.  He had a habit, from what Isamu had seen, of doing that to avoid anything he didn’t want to be bothered by.  

He was, however, definitely surprised by the outright hungry look Vice Principal Midnight was giving much of the class.  Wasn’t she in her fifties?  And in a committed relationship with Present Mic (the tabloids were always speculating on whether or not they’d get married or if she was cheating on him behind his back)?  Of course, given the first time he’d met her, he’d nearly run head first into her cleavage and she’d just laughed it off, he really shouldn’t have been surprised.  Currently, she was perched on Aizawa’s desk, her short skirt giving everyone a good view of her legs.

Honestly, half of being in this school was learning not to be surprised by things.

Midoriya had volunteered to go first, which wasn’t surprising.  He was pretty much always leading the way or taking charge.  “Okay,” he said, “so maybe this is a little simple, but I really wanted to honor Grandpa Might, so I’m going with The Gravity Hero: Gravi-Might!”

“You are such a dork, Toshi,” Kirishima-Bakugo groaned.

“A bit direct,” Midnight said, “but appropriate in your case.  I’ll allow it.”

Kirishima-Bakugo took the stage next, wearing one of those grins that usually preceded her punching something.  “So, how about Queen Explosion Murder?”

Midnight pinched the bridge of her nose.  “…No, kid. Just no.”

The explosive girl laughed at that, a harsh, barking sound.  “Aw, don’t be so serious.  I’m just yanking your chain.  Call me… The Explosion Hero: Bombshell!”

“…I’m going to approve that just so you sit down,” Midnight said.  She looked across the room.  “Question, Mineta?  Or do you want to volunteer?”

“Oh, it’s a question. I just want to know how Kirishima-Bakugo thinks she can be a bombshell with boobs that sma…”

A glare from Kirishina-Bakugo quickly silenced that.  Mineta and Kaminari both scooted their desks closer to his when Kirishima-Bakguo took her seat.

Izumi took to the lectern next.  “Shoto gave me a bit of help with this, but I rather like it.  The Ice and Fire Hero: Thermo-Dynamic!”

“Oh yeah!” Shinso cheered. “You used my idea!”

Midnight let out of a laugh. “Well, at least you picked one,” she said.  “But it’s got passion!  I love it!”

It was a good name, Isamu had to admit.  Maybe a little bolder than he expected of Izumi, but she’d shown herself to be pretty bold at the Sports Festival too.

Tokoyami took to the front of the room next.  As she opened her beak to speak, Frog-Shadow appeared.

“The Froggy Hero: Super Frog-Shadow!”

“We are not calling ourselves that!”

“I get a say in this!  That’s my vote!”

“You don’t get any say!”

Frog-Shadow crossed her arms, looking like she was pouting.  “Fine,” she said.  “You’re no fun!” She disappeared back inside Tokoyami with a slight popping sound.

Tokoyami just shook her head, staring at the floor.  “I must apologize for her.  But I have chosen the name Bright Side Hero: Amaterasu!”

“You just made that up!” Sero said.  “No one said we could just make up words!”

The bird-headed girl shook her head.  “Perhaps it is presumptuous.  Amaterasu is the sun goddess, counterpart to my father’s moon god, Tsukuyomi.  But it seemed fitting.”

Frog-Shadow appeared again. “Can I change my vote to that?  I like being a goddess!”

“Make it three votes,” Midnight said.  “You’ve got confidence, Tokoyami.  I love it!”

The Twins went next.  “While we are certain Father would one day like for one of us to carry on the Ingenium name,” Sora Iida said, “now is not the time for that!”

“He still has an illustrious career ahead of him,” Tensei Iida added.  “So therefore, we have come up with names of our own!”

Sora posed, flexing a bicep. She wasn’t as muscular as Kirishima-Bakugo, but she was certainly in good shape.  Midoriya was a lucky guy.  Okay, so maybe he shouldn’t be thinking that about a friend’s girlfriend.  But he was only human.  “Therefore, I shall be The Speedy Flying Hero: Jet-Red!”

“And I,” Tensei said, arms weaving a chopping motion through the air, “am The Flying Speedy Hero: Jet-Blue!”

“Really,” Kirishima-Bakugo groaned again.  “Twin-themed names.  You’re really doing that?”

“It is a show of familial solidarity!” Sora snapped.

“We are united as siblings in science and in heroism!” Tensei added.  

“A bit flat,” Midnight said. She placed a hand to her face, tapping on her cheek with one long finger.  “Still… it will do, I suppose.”

Sero sauntered up to the front next.  “Just call me The Acid Tape Hero: Stick ‘Em Up!”

Midnight sighed.  “Seriously, Sero?”

He gave her a grin.  “I focus tested it with all my ViewTube followers. Eighty-five percent positive approval.”

“No changing your mind?”

“Nope.”

She waved a hand in the direction of the desks.  “Fiiiine.”

Ojiro was up next.  “So, um,” she began, “I’ve been talking with Doc Clock and she’s really suggested I could be a great Medical Hero someday, so… this isn’t the name I thought I’d use, but I came up with it a few weeks back.  I’m going to be the Paramedic Hero: X-Ray!”

Sato and Sero let out a cheer.  “You got this, Kimiko!”

“You go, girl!”

Huh.  Isamu knew Ojiro was a martial artist and a gossip fiend, but this was new.  She’d probably be good at it, now that he thought about it.

“How uplifting!” Midnight squealed.

Then Sato’s turn.   “Ah…  So, I was thinking the Hungry Hero: Chomp!”

“Now that’s a name with bite!” Sero shouted.

“Puns, really, Pinky?” Kirishima-Bakugo groaned.  She gave a quick look to the front.  “Still… not bad, Lips.”

Midnight seemed to approve as well.  “Short, to the point, perfectly encapsulates your Quirk!”

And then Shiso.  As usual, he was practically vibrating with excitement.  “Before I go, I just wanna say thanks to Kirishima-Bakugo!  She’s really the one who came up with this!”

“…I did what now?”

“I’m gonna be… The Octave Hero: Loud Kid!”

“You cannot be serious.”

“Well, you always call me that, and it’s such a good name, so I really hope you don’t mind if I use it…”

“Knock yourself out, Loud Kid.”

At that, Midnight nodded slightly.  Even she seemed inclined to tiptoe around Shinso.  “What youthful vigor!”

Then it was Aoyama’s turn. “Please, please, silence all conversations and give me your attention.”  He posed theatrically, as though whipping around the cape he wore with his Hero costume.  “And now, set your eyes on The Dazzling Hero: Radiance!”  He let loose a small flash of light at the same time, forcing Isamu to look away, blinking furiously.

“You do bring a certain sparkle to things, Aoyama,” Midnight said.  “But next time, lay off the special effects.”

Koda followed him.  “My own choices are not quite so spectacular or outlandish as some of yours, but I hope that they will suffice.   You may call me the Gardening Hero: Nurture.”

“Well said, young lady,” Midnight added.  “Simple… but I think it fits.  And if you ever need any help on “nurturing” the boys…”

Isamu could have sworn he was Koda’s rocky face blush slightly.  “I am quite all right, Miss Midnight, thank you.”

Then it was Shoji.  “Nothing fancy,” he said.  “the Well-Armed Hero: Octo-Punch.”

“Not bad at all,” Midnight said.  “I wouldn’t have expected anything fancier from you, Shoji.”

“Hey!” Mineta piped up. “You said you were going to go with my idea!  The Hentai-Hero: Tentacles!”

Shoji gave her a flat look. “I lied.”

After that, Kaminari took her own turn.  “Been thinking about this one for a while, but figured I’d go with something that combines my Quirk, which is electricity with my Cords, with something about me, music. So from now on, I’m going to be the Plug-In Hero: Shock Jock!”

“How electrifying!”

Mineta followed after that. Before she could even speak, Midnight interjected.  “Now, I love a good double and triple or more entendre as much as anyway.  And I’d love it just as much as you to see some of these boys and girls squeal and squirm.  But I must insist that your Hero name be at least somewhat family friendly.   The Hero Commission is really cracking down on R-Rated Heroes and Heroines these days.”

Mineta looked somewhat deflated by that, but she pushed on.  “Okay, fiiiiine.  I used to think you were cool.”

Midnight looked offended by that.  “Oh, child, I am still “cool.’”

“Anyway,” Mineta went on, “I’m going to be the Cavalry Hero: Purple Rein!”

“That’s… surprisingly subdued for you,” Midnight said.  “Are you feeling all right?”

“Right as Rein,” Mineta said.  “Nothing? Anyone?  …Well, it’s a lot funnier in English.”

Finally, Isamu went to the front.   He tried not to wither under the gaze of his classmates.  Midoriya, Tokoyami, Shinso, and Izumi: encouraging.   Mineta: Looking like she was sizing him up to eat him.  Kirishima-Bakugo: Glaring at him like usual.   Midnight: Also sizing him up in a way that was probably really not appropriate for a women in her fifties.

“So…I’ve been thinking about this one a lot,” he said.  “And I want something that tells the world who I am.  I’ve got a simple Quirk, but I learned a lot about how to use it and make it work for me.  So I’m going to be the Three-Point Hero: Slyde!”

“Spoken like a true champion!”

***

So much paperwork to prepare for the transfer.  Private lessons after school and during her gym periods, lots of coursework to study, it was all happening so fast, Koharu thought her head was spinning.  She’d have to design a costume, get that fitted and made…   And if she did well enough preparing, she’d even get to attend the Summer Training Camp. They were still apparently discussing which Heroics Class she’d get into, but it was a real, tangible thing now.

“One more thing for today, Miss Kocho,” Principal Nezu said.  “Since I know you’ve had aspirations for the Hero Course for some time… Have you considered a Hero name?”

She nodded at that. She had for a long time, ever since she’d decided she was going to try out for the Hero Course.  “I have,” she said.  “the Lepidopteran Hero: Yamamai.”

“A, ah, bit on the nose, isn’t it?” Water Spout asked.

She shrugged.  “People with animal Quirks like mine get looked down on a lot.  And called a lot of names.  I’m not hiding from who I am.  I’m embracing it.”

“Well said, Young Kocho, well said,” All Might said.  “The perfect beginning to your hero academia!”

[knball]

Since it's my birthday tomorrow, I think it's fair to give Mayuzumi some love he deserves! Happy birthday to everybody who was born in March! (っ ॑꒳ ॑c) お誕生日おめでとう、黛さん！🍰🥂

================

The Best Gift

Featuring : Mayuzumi Chihiro x Reader

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"...are you not coming home today Chihiro?"

"I don't think I'll make it."

Stepped into the moving train, Mayuzumi Chihiro talking on his phone.

"___ said she had something to do this evening. We'll be heading there next week."

"I see. I'll look foward to you two then." Mayuzumi could hear his mother quipped happily at the mention of his next visit. "Tell hi for ___chan will you Chihiro? Oh and happy birthday for you honey."

Saying his thanks, Mayuzumi cut the phone call short as another message come in.

It's from his former basketball team mates. Started from Akashi's early message, Hayama, Mibuchi and even Nebuya sent congratulatory message for his birthday.

No doubt Akashi told them to. Mayuzumi scroll down his phone with expresionless face. It's a wonder how that certain Rakuzan's former captain manage to remember him after all these years (since everyone barely even notice his presence at all). Though he should admit that 'normal' never goes together with Akashi Seijuurou.

His lip curved into small smile. Slightly amused, Mayuzumi typed a short replies for them before his eyes landed to certain name on his phone screen.

It's odd.

Mayuzumi Chihiro has never been a fussy person to begin with. But when the clock already ticked to seven in evening and he's not receiving even a single message from you, he began to question everything. Considering how worked up you were last year from surprising him at work to throwing a small party for his birthday, of course he can't help but notice something is wrong this time.

...Maybe she's just busy.

Trying to calm his wandering mind (thanks to that best seller mystery novels he finished reading last night), Mayuzumi sent his fifth 'where r u?' message to your number.

...

No reply.

Sighed, Mayuzumi slips his phone to his pocket.

Seems he just have to go home as fast as he can then.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mayuzumi steps home to find it on it's usual stage. Seems like you decided not to glitter it with grey sparkles this year.

Should he be worried or happy....?

"___? Are you home?"

A loud crash followed with surprised shriek, making him lifted his eyebrow.

So you're indeed at home.

"___," Mayuzumi walked closer to where the voice is when you suddenly leapt out appearing after him.

"C-Chihiro welcome home! I-It's a surprise! Did you got off work early today??"

"It's my usual time arriving home, ___. And honestly..." He scanned you briefly. "What exactly are you doing?"

You're what his image as color disaster. White everywhere, yellow splatter on your apron, brown streaks on your cheeks, red hue on your palms. He didn't want to be rude, but his eyes must show his feeling as your cheek redden in embarrassment.

"Um... Nothing?"

Mayuzumi raised his eyebrow.

Sighed, you rolled your hair unconciously. "FINE. I'm... experimenting. I guess...?"

"What exactly are you making?" Mayuzumi is gonna steps into the kitchen but you stood on his path, blocking him. "___."

You smiled nervously under his warning gaze. "It's nothing worth seeing, so it's better if you- C-Chihiro!"

Using that chance to pass through you, Mayuzumi stood in the middle of your kitchen.

"Geez, I told you not to bug in. Come on..."

Listening to your protest half hearted, he take a look around.

It looks normal. Nothing out of ordinary. So why are you insist on keeping him for not coming inside?

Oh...?

At the corner of kitchen cabinet there's a large pile of plastic bag.

"C-Chihiro don't-!"

Ignoring your protest, he opened up the bag only to stare at pile of... brown chunks in front of him. Some of it are hard and some are even in dark black color. Smell of burnt sugar and butter hit his nose.

This and those...

It doesn't need deduction to reach to one conclusion.

"Did you try to bake a cake, ___?"

Standing nervously under his gaze, you laughed awkwardly. "If it's even worth to call them cake.... Yes...".

This explained his unanswered messages throughout the day. Judging from the amount of that thing, you must spent all your day on the kitchen.

So... You're trying to bake a cake for him.

"Stop looking at them like that." Sighed you took the result of your work today from his hand. "I'll throw it away. Akashi-kun sent us a cake so we can enjoy it instead of this thing. I'm sorry... I know I should not have tried but your mom encourage me to make it for you this year and..."

At this you stopped rambling to take a deep breath. "...I'm sorry Chihiro..."

Eyes down in shame you bit your lip in frustation. Why can't you do anything well at all?

"Fool..."

Your eyes started to water at his desperate sigh. "I-I know right... I-"

"...what did you take me for?" Mayuzumi's large palm landed on top of your head, making you stopped your sullen mumble. "There's nothing worth apologizing. Stop it."

"B-But..."

"If you're in my position will you upset with me, ___?"

"E-Eh?"

"I'm ignorant. Selfish. And rude." As if ignoring the confused look at your face, that boyfriend of yours continued his words. "I can't do housechores. I hate talking and I can't even make my own fiancee believe in herself." Your hold breath as Mayuzumi's face zoomed out stopping only a couple of inch from yours. "...Do you think of me as a failure, ___?"

He...? A failure...?

"No! Of course not Chihiro!" Without hesitation, you shook your head. "You are never be a failure to me. Chihiro, I..."

"That's what I feel too." Cut your words with slight smug smile on his face, Mayuzumi poked your cheek. "Everything you want to say to me right on this second, just turned it back to you. That way, even with that brain of yours, you'll understand right...?"

Because he's not a man with words...

Because he just can't find any word that worth enough to express how precious you're to him...

...He can only make you understand with your own words.

After all, your words are always the one who helped him to be who he is now.

"I understand..."

Mayuzumi silently sighed in relief when you finally let your defense down and tackle him on a hug. He returned your embrace, warping you in his arms without words. "Thank you... and sorry. It's not something nice to deal with an insecure fiancee on your birthday right?" You smiled, leaning on his chest to listen to his steady heartbeat.

"...Anything is better than those silver glitters last year."

"Hey!" You gave him the best glare you can manage. Not that it can be scary to begin with since you had to hold back your laugh with smile.

"...It's the truth though."

His serious expression just makes you laughed more. "Silly, Chihiro. But really..." Stood on your tip toes, you circled your hand on his neck landing a short peck on his cheek. "Happy birthday... I love you..."

"Hn... I know."

Returning the kiss with more affectionate one, Mayuzumi is once again reminded that your smile is the true gift he always expects on his birthday every year for the rest of his life.

[midnight-in-town]

Koi wa ameagari no you ni: quick summary from vol 7 to currently

Okay so, I realized that I might as well share with all the people who enjoy this series my relatively short knowledge of what’s going on starting from vol 7, since it’s not translated yet and I don’t know when it’s going to be. 

Of course, spoilers for the anime currently airing, even if I doubt we’ll go until there, but it’s always better that you catch up with everything first before you take a look below, especially since a lot of things happen.

Warning: I’m not fluent in Japanese, not at all & far from it actually, so all of what I’m about to say is supposed to be taken with a huge grain of salt. I have rather limited knowledge buuuuut taking my time, Koiame proves to generally be easier to read than what I’m accustomed to. 

...Still, take everything with a huge grain of salt, you’re warned, don’t come crying if somehow I most likely got something wrong. :)))

/!\ I really hesitated to post this, because I’m not sure I could convey what I understood very properly and I know people are usually not really forgiving, so please do not ask for more details than what’s written below: if I didn’t describe more of some events, it’s because I wasn’t particularly confident about what I read. 

/!\ /!\ Feel free to correct me if you notice that I misunderstood something and you read it differently. I’ll update what’s under the link and tag you. 

Volume 7 (ch49-56)

vol7  was entirely translated by Roseliascans and vol 8 will apparently follow shortly so go read the translated chapters! 

Volume 8 (ch57-64)

It turns out that, ever since realizing his feelings for her, Kondo is losing sleep and mostly, he starts avoiding Akira as much as he can.

At some point he searches on the internet “how to get rid of insomnia” but Kase shows up right at this moment. He tries to “help” (I mean, it’s Kase) by telling him that maybe he should try herbal tea or sweet sake.

Then he says that the best thing to do first would surely be to get rid of “why” Kondo started being insomniac, so Kase (who, again, is 200% aware of Akira’s feelings for their boss) “jokingly” asks if he’s insomniac because he’s in love. Kondo gets super flustered so I think Kase found out what he wanted to know.

Still Kondo tries what Kase told him and he drinks herbal tea + sweet sake before going to bed, but there is no avoiding dreaming about Akira until his alarm clock wakes him up. 

Then he meets with Chihiro, who’s rambling about stuff and who gets pretty annoyed the few times Kondo seems to stare at his phone instead of listening to him, so Chihiro takes Kondo’s phone and sees that he’s trying to write a message to “Tachibana Akira”.

Initially Kondo tries to pretend that “Akira” is a male coworker’s name but Chihiro is quite convinced that “Akira” is a girl (and well, he’s right). Kondo admits nothing though, but Chihiro is pretty excited for him.

In ch58, the kouhai girls from the end of vol7 tell Haruka that they went to where Akira works, so Haruka decides to go there.

Meanwhile Yui and Akira are having lunch before going back to work: Akira tells Yui about how bothered she was by her kouhai showing up, and I believe Yui understands because her school doesn’t allow students to have part-time job. She also adds something about how she wouldn’t want her friends at school (I suppose) to know about Yoshizawa (so again, I think she agrees with Akira).

Going back to work, Akira and Haruka meet at the restaurant. Haruka tells Akira “please come back to the track & field club” because she feels she’s growing too much apart from Akira. In the end though, she doesn’t eat anything and leaves while Akira is stunned. Kondo sees Haruka leaving and realizes she’s the girl who helped him pick up Yuuto’s shoes.

Not sure I understood ch59 that well, because it seemed to be mostly built with metaphores initially coming from Kondou’s little storage issue with the restaurant’s computer. xD

So anyway, Kondo is still avoiding Akira, but Yuuto shows up and Akira ends up watching over him and giving him advice as he practices running. Kondo insists that she doesn’t have to force herself (since he knows she’s got slight issues on the subject and fears it might be too stressful) but she does it anyway and they both watch over Yuuto running around.

Akira says Yuuto is fast and that since he’s still a growing kid, he can become even faster if he practices properly. Then Kondo basically compares his son to a computer and the main gist of the whole scene (from the way I understood it) is that kids are “like computer” with huge data storage capacity, because they can learn & experience a lot as long as they’re hard workers.

Of course this leads Akira to wonder if adults can’t do this kind of things too (learning/experiencing new things) and what she was apparently implying by this as well as her staring and moving closer to him was enough to fluster Kondo a lot.

Frankly I don’t know if what she wanted to address was if he’d ever have feelings for her (since he hasn’t confessed yet when she did a while ago) or if she was more or less trying to go for a kiss, but either way, nothing happened except Kondo being extremely flustered. 

Anyway, next chapter has Kondo avoiding Akira just like always and wearing a scarf when she’s knitting one for him, so she gets pretty annoyed by all of it and ends up confronting him about his current behavior. He apologizes for not realizing he was avoiding her (lmao) but she’s still pretty jealous about the scarf even if he doesn’t know that. 

Nothing particularly important happens afterwards: Akira and Haruka want to go Christmas shopping but first, they go to pick up Sho-chan (who’s in the year below high school), which gives Akira an opportunity to check on Mizuki’s running performances. Of course the girl feels pressured, but Shota shows up and they leave quickly.

In another chapter, Yuuto gets in an accident because he was running in the street and a student on a bike hit him but it turns out he’s okay, he just sprained his ankle. 

Yui and Akira meet up for more Christmas shopping when Yui tells Akira that she wants to confess and gives the scarf to Yoshizawa before Christmas. She has Akira’s full support of course and they go to buy new hair pins.

When Yui doesn’t look, Akira also buys the hair tonic that Kondo uses because she likes the smell and it reminds her of him, which results the following days in everyone thinking that she’s the manager at first when nope. xD Kubo even tells her not to wear too much perfume in general since they’re working in a restaurant (and I guess different smells mixing isn’t good for the food)

Anyway the rest of the volume is focusing on Yui and Yoshizawa which is super cute. I think their little date starts because Yui wants to thank him for always allowing her to cut his hair and because he introduced her to his grandmother who gave Yui advice for knitting. 

So they meet up and go ice-skating (Yoshizawa is so cute, saying stuff like ‘I’ll teach you’ and he also thinks Yui’s hairdo suits her) and stuff happens before Yui decides to be brave and confess, with the scarf to offer, but...

he apologizes before running away... ;_; Poor Yui... Meanwhile Akira is waiting for Yui’s report about how it went but she hasn’t received any message yet. Turns out Akira is also waiting for someone and this person is...

Volume 9 (ch65-73)

...Haruka. They’re going to Kyoto with Tomoe, Akira’s aunt on her mom’s side, because Haruka is participating in a race. Akira’s aunt is reading “Waves by the window” and Akira asks her to lend it to her since she remembers that it was written by a friend of Kondo. 

They meet Mizuki again, who’s originally from Kyoto (and who’s visiting her old school?)

While in the bath, they discuss why Akira is knitting that scarf but they end up staying too long and get dizzy. xD Akira sends a text to Kondo, wishing him a merry Christmas and explaining that she’s in Kyoto but Kondo cannot open the image that she sent. 

I don’t really remember exactly what Akira and her aunt speak about while Haruka is running, but I think it’s something about how “growing up and things changing are painful” and Akira is wondering if that feeling ever changes over time (could be 100% wrong though). 

Meanwhile Yui finds some resolve again thanks to her sister who reminds her about her dream to become a beautician and how that involves always smiling even when things are painful. So Yui cuts her hair short :))

Going back to work, she also tells Akira that things didn’t work as she expected with Yoshizawa but that she still wants to become a beautician and she seems happy enough with just that. 

In the following chapter, Akira realizes that both Haruka and Yui are moving forward in comparison to her, so she feels pretty bummed out about feeling left behind. Going to the restaurant, Kondo greets her, asking about Kyoto, and Akira, in need of comfort, imagines herself hugging him, but it’s not really happening.

Anyway, she gives Kondo a bookmark that she bought as a souvenir from Kyoto for him and he shares a story about a bird nest there used to be above the restaurant but that Kubo took down.

This leads to him thinking about her injury and he says something about how it’s okay if a bird doesn’t fly away because it’s happy to stay at its usual place. But if the reason it doesn’t fly is because it gave up then it’s bound to eternally look up at the sky. So “girl, plz go back to running” should be the message here. xD

Back home, Kondo looks at the bookmark again and ends up writing during the whole night. The next day, he looks pretty tired as he leaves for a meeting at the main office, which is precisely when Chihiro comes to the restaurant. 

Of course Chihiro asks if the manager is here, since he knows it’s Kondo’s working place. He also checks out Yui’s and Kubo’s names on their uniform and thinks that “maybe ‘Tachibana Akira’ was a guy then”... He also thinks that he or she should be around Kubo’s age. Meanwhile Kubo thinks that she saw him somewhere before.

Chihiro ends up asking Yui about if there is someone working here called “Tachibana Akira-kun” and Yui is confused because yes, there is Akira, but obviously the customer is looking for a boy since he used “kun” so she answers “nope”. Meanwhile Kubo remembers him as being a famous writer who appeared on TV.

Just as Chihiro leaves the restaurant, Akira shows up and, between the ‘Tachibana’ name on her uniform and Yui saying “Akira-chan”, Chihiro realizes that she is the person he was looking for. 

Obviously it’s super funny because he gets all like “wait, no way, it can’t be” and in disbelief, he asks how old she is (she’s 17). xDD

Then Chihiro goes to a party at his office and his editor introduces him to a very talented young writer who’s one of Chihiro’s biggest fans but also 17 years old (I think his name is Machida Sui, but it’s not his real name).

When Kondo comes back at the restaurant, everyone tells him about Chihiro passing by and they realize that the two are friends. Then again, it’s super funny because Kondo says that they went to the same university and Kase is super shocked to realize that the manager went to the university in the first place (since he’s a uni student too). He even grabs Yoshizawa and tell him to think carefully about what he wants to do in life xDD

Kondo also realizes that if Chihiro came to the restaurant that means he must know now who Akira is and well, the perspective kinda frightens him.

Cute chapter follows with Yuuto making a yarn phone and wanting to try his new game with Akira. First he says ‘poop’ and she’s not happy xD but she ends up asking him when his father’s birthday is, since January is coming but Yuuto doesn’t know. Then she asks if he knows whether it’s in the first or second half of the month but Kondo takes the phone instead and answers that his birthday is on January 5th.

He asks her in return when her birthday is and she answers June 21st which leads to him saying that she is born during the rainy season. They play with the yarn phone again a few other times after that day, but apparently Akira feels lonely. 

Back to Chihiro who keeps wondering what’s up with these 17 years old youngsters lately xDD And right after that, he receives an invitation from Machida and they meet up in a restaurant. Turns out Machida’s real first name is “Akira” too (but he’s a guy).

The gist of their discussion is that it draws a comparison between Chihiro who’s 45 and who only ever focused on writing, while Machida is 17, already a talented writer but he wants to do many other things in life besides just writing. 

Chihiro says he envies him, but Machida says that he finds Chihiro’s devotion to writing to be beautiful. Chihiro ends up saying “let’s be friends”. :)) He visits Kondo afterwards and he ends up saying something about how these youngsters have enough power to move a dull heart and Chihiro feels motivated. 

The end of the chapter shows that Akira is reading a document that her doctor gave her about starting full rehabilitation in order to run again and the next one is a flashback to a year ago, when she was still running. Slightly later in the volume, it’s said that her doctor thinks that, if she does everything properly, she’ll be able to run again around next spring (as in a year, not in 3 months but again, I could have misunderstood).

End of the volume is coming and bad news come with it, because Yui-chan is quitting. ;_; It’s not that she wants to, it’s because her school asked her to. Yui apologizes to Akira but strangely enough, it’s Yoshizawa who is more stunned than everybody else.

On Kase’s side, I believe he still has this crush on his “sister” but things take a bad turn for him too, because while chiding her the usual way one evening, she ends up saying that she’s such a useless sister anyway that she will stop coming to his place. And obviously that puts him in a super bad mood at work.

Finally, it’s the end of the year and the staff decides to hold a party both to celebrate it and also Yui’s departure, but Kase is as bitter as ever and when the countdown for the new year starts, he ends up throwing her way something like “are you really quitting because you can’t get a boyfriend?” (or an equivalent), which gets Yoshizawa to yell “oi” but Akira is the one who ends up punching him in the face, lol.

The volume ends on January 1st, it’s snowing instead of raining, Kase got punched, Yui is leaving, Yoshizawa is confused, Kondo is still writing and Akira goes to visit him with the scarf she knitted and a letter.

Chapters 74-78

Akira shows up just at the moment Kondo decides to take a break from writing and a bath. She leaves the scarf and letter in front of his door and goes home when he doesn’t answer. He checks his phone after his bath and that’s how he notices she came by (her text says: “happy new year, will we meet again from now on?”)

so he kinda runs after her with the scarf and when he catches up with her he says he’s glad to see her. Akira wishes him a happy birthday slightly in advance and the scarf is her present for this occasion.

They go back to his house afterwards, but he has to clean up a little before she can get in. 

I’m not sure exactly of how it’s supposed to be worded but Kondo wonders about “meeting again” and IDK if it is that he has a strange feeling about why she said that in her text, or if it’s his own feeling. Sorry, this is confusing, but I wonder if Akira’s text doesn’t have something to do with that letter he has yet to read (maybe she’s quitting too?).

Anyway, at the beginning of ch75, Akira is relieved because she realizes that the reason Kondo was slightly different lately is because he’s writing again whenever he’s not working. 

They chat a little while he makes her coffee (and doesn’t forget her sugar) and he says that the snow outside really makes him feel as if they’re alone in the world. Then, watching her happy expression for the sugar, he thinks to himself that, because it’s such a quiet day with the snow falling outside, he feels as if he’s going to say words that he wouldn’t/can’t say usually. 

ch76 is Kondo imagining what it would be like if he was a high school student as the same time as Akira and he seems to think that he wouldn’t have any contact with Akira in high school (or rather, he’d notice her when she wouldn’t). 

Somehow (from the way I understood it) it’s as if the fact that they’re 28 years apart makes them closer than if they had met while both being 17, at least from Kondo’s point of view. I think that he is possibly confused about what he wants to do about his feelings for her. 

in ch77, it’s Akira who imagines what it would be like if Kondo was 17 and a classmate (something about 17 y/o Kondo wanting to do an interview for the school’s newspaper about Akira’s results in track & field). All in all, it comes down to the fact that Akira eventually doesn’t mind when it’s raining in that fantasy world because, even if she cannot go to the track & field club on raining days, she can still go to the library and meet with him.

ch78 is focusing more on the scarf: Kondo is surprised at her gift but also very impressed that she knitted it by herself. Akira confirms she did it by herself several times and she shows her cute jealous side towards his other scarf, pushing it away and, frankly, it’s adorable.

I think at some point Kondo asks about why she punched Kase during the New Year’s party and Akira says something like “I couldn’t forgive him” (surely because of what he said to Yui). That makes him laugh.

Aaaand the chapter ends with Kondo thinking namely about the scarf and while staring at Akira, he feels as if he can’t breath.

The editor’s line implies that he’s staring and is completely taken by Akira.

I don’t know what’s the usual update schedule (once or twice a month?) but anyway, that’s it for now. Again, please take with a grain of salt.

TBH I really wonder about the content of Akira’s letter, it seems very plot relevant. And I wonder if Kondo might not finally give in, at least about his feelings in one of the following chapters. ...At the same time, I feel like there could be a bittersweet development lurking due to him being still bothered by the huge age gap, soooo we’ll see!

FINAL POINT, kinda unrelated, but please do not ever refer to this series as ‘shoujo’ or ‘josei’. It’s ‘seinen’, meaning that it supposedly targets a more adult public than the other terms (yes, the slice of life genre in seinen does exist). Thank you!

[iwastoldthisisgoodforme]

1.1.19

Woke up pretty late since I was really tired from the previous day and from standing quite a while talking to Juno and Mio. Mio texted me pretty quickly after I woke up though and said we’d meet at Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Watsons Bay at 230. Decided to take it easy until 1 when I started getting ready.

I wanted to grab some Hungry Jack’s before I met up with them but the bus I caught was running behind and there were quite a lot of people out at Circular Quay. I was actually quite surprised how many people were out and about on New Year’s Day since it is basically a ghost town in the US (Mio would later say the same thing and how uni students liked to do marathons in Japan). I got there earlier so I texted Mio that I was waiting at the Watson’s Bay wharf. Her and Juno showed up soon after. Apparently they didn’t get home until 3am since they had to wait quite a while just get a train and the trains didn’t start running until 130. I showed them my tan that I had noticed when showering. Juno asked if I like coffee and we talked about the coffee here in Sydney and in Melbourne. We also talked about ice cream like Golden Gaytimes and Connoisseur.

When we got on the ferry, we talked a lot about languages such as how Mio had already started to forget some keigo and couldn't remember some of it during her internship. We also talked about the Japanese language and how it related to Chinese and Korean.  I told them how they could actually be quite similar with the words.  I also told them how languages had an effect on how people think and told Mio to watch Arrival. We were talking about linguists and I told them how my friend majored in linguistics and could speak five languages.

When we got to Watsons Bay, the area was pretty packed with people on the beach and a nearby restaurant. Mio said her roommates had recommended her some areas to visit so she navigated us. We walked towards some beach area which led to a hiking path. We saw some people taking wedding photos and I told Mio how I had seen people taking wedding pictures twice already in the alley behind Lentils. She found that funny and said she always misses out on the funny stuff like the puppy I showed her. I told her how a customer got scared from it and how the puppy was just randomly sitting in the hallway. She asked if it was someone’s dog and I said yeah but at first I thought it was some random dog just sitting there. Mio also asked about weddings in the US, if we had to give money in addition to a gift but I told her we usually give gifts or money otherwise. She said in Japan it’s expected to give money along with a gift so it becomes quite expensive and has a bit of controversy. We also passed by a nude beach and talked about the different bathing cultures like Japan's onsens.

We eventually made our way to the nude beach that Yingying had mentioned but didn’t see too many nude people. We also saw the popular lighthouse that overlooked the sea. There was two guys in the little building next to the lighthouse that had a dog that Mio and I took a picture of. There were some fortifications that used to house cannons that Mio went into to see if there was anything there but there wasn’t.

We went back to the wharf area to see the Gap Lookout. On the way there, we talked about the US military bases and Okinawa. Mio said she has only been to Okinawa once since her family doesn’t really go out to beaches and more to the mountains. She said she made up for it though by living here in Australia. I told her how getting a job on the US military base is the best way for an electrical engineer to get a job in Japan. She also said she wanted to see some other famous beaches in Sydney like Cronulla beach. When we got to the lookout, Juno commented how this was very similar to Great Ocean Road minus the Twelve Apostles. It actually reminded me of England and leaving Dover to go to France. We then went to the National Park area and stood at a lookout and talked for a while. I told the girls how there were two guys that were building the decks on the Whitsunday Islands and one guy stayed there for almost three months. We talked about how I used to travel quite a bit for work and also about airplane travel. Mio said she didn’t like the food on Qantas and neither did I and Mio said even the flight attendants said not to drink the coffee. I said I read something how the water on an airplane was pretty dirty. Mio said the best flight she went on was on Air France and I told her how Singapore Airlines had great service such as giving metal utensils and serving Haagen Daaz ice cream. Juno said she liked Cathay Pacific. I asked Juno if she had to transfer when flying back home but she said no, she could get a direct flight. We talked about dual citizenship since I brought up how Alec had three passports. Apparently Japanese citizens aren’t supposed to have dual citizenship but people will get multiple passports since it is something that can easily slip between the cracks but if you get caught it can be trouble as there was some scandal with a politician or something. I confirmed with Juno that Chinese had to give up their citizenship and she said it was weird to think that to go back home she would need to apply for a visa. I told her how Jenny had to apply for a visa to go back home after receiving US citizenship a few years ago. Mio asked how I have a lot of international friends which caught me by surprise since I didn’t feel that was the case. She asked if it was cause I worked for an international company but I said it was more from my Europe trip and staying in hostels. I also mentioned how I always became friends with British people and made sure to become friends with Michael on the Contiki tour and also mentioned how Remy was natural at talking to random people. Mio said that whenever she’s stayed at a hostel, everyone seemed pretty closed off and I said that people sometimes tend to not be very outgoing if they can’t speak English very well. Juno interrupted our convo and asked if we wanted to go somewhere else. Mio asked if she wanted to go to Diamond Bay but she didn’t really want to go anywhere herself so Juno said she would just go into the city and explore on her own. Mio said okay and we started heading towards the ferry to go back home. As we crossed into the park though, we lost Juno and she had decided to just go to Diamond Bay by herself. 

Mio told me that she had actually been getting irritated with Juno since she kept changing plans like that and would keep going off on her own and doing her own thing. She said she tried to hold back her feelings but they probably showed and Juno could probably tell she was annoyed with her. I told her how I’m usually someone that just goes with the flow but I get annoyed when people change plans especially when they get me involved since it defeats the purpose of us planning and told her about the time I got annoyed with Remy in Japan. She said she didn’t know how she was going to survive the Bondi to Coogee walk tomorrow with her since it was a pretty long walk and she had just gone fairly recently. She told me she went with a “friend” which was her dad’s host when he lived in Melbourne and Mio had gone with her when she visited Sydney. She told me how that was a little weird too since this lady had just broken up with her boyfriend and although he did a lot of bad things to her she still loved him. Although the beautiful view kept her distracted most of the time, at times she would remember him. I commented that yeah that is a bit hard to deal with someone like that. It was just us two at the wharf waiting for the ferry so we got to know each other more. We talked about sports and how I used to swim and play basketball. Mio used to do ballet but she hated it and said she wasn’t a very athletic person. She said because she’s not really into sports and doesn’t have typical hobbies, she found it hard to bond with people. She said she used to be very bad at English and was very concerned at first with her English but thought about how people probably have to slow down to accommodate her so she should always remember to improve. I told her she had very good English and that I didn’t really have to slow down when I talk to her cause usually I had to speak really slowly and simply when talking to other girls like Mai or Chihiro. 

When we got on the ferry, I asked her what her hobbies were since she said she didn’t have typical hobbies and she said she was really into musicals and in high school she was part of a female only theatre group. She said she would go to karaoke places by herself and spend hours just singing there. She told me in Japan how it was pretty common to do that and some places would even offers solo plans. She also told me how Daiso was one of her favorite shops and she was surprised to see they have so many here, along with Muji. I commented on how it’s expensive here, even compared to the ones in the US and she agreed. We talked about Christmas and KFC and how there were many couples on Christmastime and I told her about the Japanese guy in my hostel who complained about just seeing couples and she told me about “riaju” which was short for “riaru juujitsu” which meant real-life fulfillment so people who were dating someone had riaju. She said sometimes some people would protest riaju out on the street and although they didn’t have many political protests, they would have people protesting things like this.

Around this time, the ferry had landed so we made our way back to the train station. We both acknowledged how we were surprised to see so many people out and about on New Years and that’s when she told me about the marathon runners. She was going to take the train home and go to Ikea to replace the dishware she lost and I was going to Maccas for food. She thanked me for my patience and for coming along as she was really concerned since she knew I was tired. I told her not to worry about it, I was happy she invited me since I wanted to go to Watsons Bay but didn’t know anyone who wanted to tag along. I asked when she was going to Lentils again and she said some time after Juno had left and she remarked how she didn’t know how she would survive the Bondi to Coogee walk. We said goodbye and I headed to Maccas.

Later that night, Mio texted me saying thank you for the company and she got the plates sorted out and that she would see me in a few days. I thanked her for inviting me and said I would love to do karaoke with her before she leaves. She texted me late at night saying probably after a Lentils shift would be best but she would get back to me.

[oumakokichi]

I'm really loving your analysis mate. Since you've been over Maki and Saihara now, I have to ask- what do you think of Yumeno? In particular, what would you say her "role" in the game was, and why she turned out to be a survivor.

Thank you so much! I’ve wanted to talk about Himiko for abit now! As one of the only three survivors in the game, I feel she gets leftout of serious discussion because people find a lot more to discuss aboutSaihara or Maki, and meanwhile don’t know quite what to make of her. I’ve seena lot of people who like her, to be sure! Just…not a lot who seem to know whatto think of her in terms of the rest of the group.

Personally, I really love Himiko. She grew on me gradually,and watching her develop from a character with a lot of obvious issues intalking or opening up to people into someone who really, truly depended on andcared for so many members of the group and was always willing to lend a hand inwhatever way she could was super rewarding. She didn’t have much of a role inthe group initially because she was supposedto sort of gradually warm up to the rest of them and only find her role in thegroup over time.

I feel as if Himiko is very, very coded too. A lot of thisstrays into headcanon territory rather than strictly canon, but considering howhard it is for Himiko to socialize with the rest of the cast, how often shegoes nonverbal, how much her magic is obviously a coping mechanism for her anda lens with which she views the traumatic things happening around her, and howhard it is to get her to talk about things without first delving into aninterest that she’s super hyperfixated on, like witchcraft and sorcery, I feellike it would be fair to say that she can be read as autistic-coded. I say thisas someone who identifies on the autism spectrum myself, so I don’t think I’moverstepping my boundaries.

And I was very, very pleased to see a character like Himikowho was welcomed into the group and loved and cherished by many of the othercharacters. The fact that she wasn’t killed off in some horrible way, and thather obvious difficulties with connecting to the group initially weren’tportrayed as some horrible or demonized thing was a huge relief, and I’m gladthat she’s been pretty universally well-received by the fandom!

There are always going to be a few people questioning why xcharacter survived instead of y character when “x didn’t really do anything”.It’s something we’ve seen in every DR game so far. But I think Himiko had quitea lot to contribute to the group because her involvement in it was somethingthat happened very slowly and across several chapters, and it involved both theother members of the group and her having to make compromises with each other.

Himiko went from a character who was almost completelyuncertain of how to interact with others at all, to someone who showed concernfor and was very attached to nearly every remaining member of the group, andthe turning point was somewhere around Chapter 3, after she was shocked notonly by Tenko’s death but also by the other characters’ willingness to stand upfor her even when she was being put in a suspicious position yet again.

I can’t recall any other character from dr1 or sdr2 who wassuper physically frail and childlike and who also made it all the way to theend as a survivor. Characters like Chihiro were killed off to illustrate thebrutality and merciless nature of Monokuma’s killing game, while Saionji waskilled off as an admittedly rushed development choice where they had originallyintended to kill Kuzuryuu off instead but switched her in last minute in orderto avoid making Peko’s sacrifice meaningless.

As the first character along these lines who’s made it tobeing a survivor, I feel like Himiko illustrates that sometimes in these sortsof games, the ones who make it to the end aren’t necessarily the strongestphysically (like Gonta or Tenko), or the smartest (like Ouma), but instead theones who reach out for help and are helped along the way. We’ve seen plenty ofbrutality and backstabbing in DR installments before, but I felt like Himikobeing left alive at the end was a very refreshing change of pace and a reminderthat people’s sacrifices and little kindnesses towards her did matter.

Despite all the trauma she’s been through, Himiko isultimately a stronger person for it at the end, and with people like Maki andSaihara there who she trusts and has opened up to almost completely, she’llcontinue being able to stand on her own two feet. Thank you so much for askingme about her!

[bcfitzpatrick]

Today we departed our hostel at 8:30am to travel by train to Leiden. We received a tour of Leiden by a teacher at Leiden University. Following our lunch break, we went to Museum Volkenkunde which is a museum of national ethnology.

While wandering the newer Japan room, I saw a picture from a popular anime movie that my family used to watch. Spirited Away is an animated movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who also has written similar films. Spirited Away stars Chihiro, a young girl, who stops she stops in a strange town with her parents. The film shows her parents greedily eating food left out at a restaurant. No one is around and they tell Chihiro that they’ll just leave cash for the food. This “pig-like” behavior actually turns them into pigs and Chihiro begins her journey through this fantasy world to ensure that her parents turn back into human form so that they can be back on their way. It really is a great film and, while it is anime and unrealistic, it holds many realistic themes in it. When I used to watch it with my family in the early 2000’s (after it was released), my dad (who is a world history know it all) would point out that the movie is very obviously inspired by Japan in the 1980s when the Japanese were living in a consumer society. The lessons from this movie doesn’t just apply to the fantasy world; my dad would be quick to point out the backlashes of greed at the beginning of this film. Seeing this in the big museum filled with an overwhelming amount of information made me feel nostalgic and reflective.

One of my favorite parts of today was during the tour when we were introduced to almshouses (hofjes in Dutch). An almshouse is a form of charity because it’s a home that the poor can live in. We were able to see two different almshouses from the outside and we had to be really quiet when walking around because people still live in them. I didn’t know this before but when researching facts about almshouses, I found out that almshouses exist in the United States! I always thought that the only fix to (our extreme) homelessness in the United States was general public housing but almshouses in the U.S. are mainly there the serve the elderly and disabled rather than the homeless population.

During my first semster of my sophomore year, I lived in an apartment building in Berkeley where most of the tenants were mentally and/or physically disabled. Many of my neighbors had been living in the building for years and before it turned into an apartment, it was a hotel where disabled people could live. Berkeley is not a cheap place to live but these tenants were able to keep their original rent price (thanks to rent control in Berkeley!) and also received additional accommodations, such as their room being cleaned once every two weeks. This is what the idea of an almshouse reminded me of!

Leiden was quiet and there weren’t many people around. My favorite part about it was the museum; I especially loved the Buddha Room and learning about the Japanese fan culture. Tomorrow we will visit The Hague so there is much to look forward to.