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polar-stars · 3 years ago

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I maintain that the Central-conflict in "Shokugeki no Soma" was one that held a lot of potential. If executed right, Central could have been brilliant.

But alas it was not executed in the best manner, leaving most of the potential that the conflict had untapped.

One of Central's major flaws to me is the lack of focus of the antagonist's side: The six, so called, "Traitor" Elites were the ones that got the entire conflict rolling in the first place by voting Azami Nakiri into power. Now, back when that happened most of the Elite characters were still very much new to us which means they didn't have a lot of characterization going for them when it happened. And that continued to be the case for a little while longer as, with the exception of Rindou & Eishi and of course Eizan (who is a special case because he was introduced a lot earlier), we learned very little about the Elites until the Regiment de Cuisine happened. Given that half of the characters associated with Central remained strangers to the readers for such a long time, made it pretty much impossible to fully understand why this whole Central thing was happening in the first place.

What prompted these guys to give the reign of Totsuki into Azami's hands? We just didn't know.

And we continued to be left in the dark on that even when the RDC began and Nene, Momo & Somei finally received some proper characterization. Only towards the very end of the RDC two (in the anime three) characters out of the 6 responsible got their individual reasoning for their actions laid out. With the others we can only resort to guesses.

This lack of character-exploration just robs the Elite 10 characters off the chance to be truly compelling antagonists, the only true exception to that being Eishi (and in the anime, also Rindou ig) who gets the most focus out of the 6.

Properly exploring the antagonist's motives and beliefs would add so much more nuance and depth to the conflict as a whole, rather than having it be a generic good vs. evil.

So today, I'd like to theorize on exactly that: The motives of the Traitor Elites. And while thinking about it, I came to split it into two interests: supporting the actual ideology that Central is trying to push or power.

I must confess that I did not reread the entirety of Central arc just now for this but rather looked at specific moments. So if there's anything I might have forgotten about: I apologize!

Central's Ideology:

Before truly getting into the heads of the Elites, I think it's important to establish what it is that Central actually wants to accomplish.

I went back on several of Azami's speeches within the manga, as well as one from Eishi, for this but even then it's possible that I missed something.

It's kind off challenging for me to sum up what Azami seeks to accomplish with his Central-administration but I will try my best and split it into several sections:

Gatekeeping: Azami is introduced giving a speech at Erina's booth at Moon Banquet, insulting her guests and accusing them of 'not being worthy of eating fine food'. He more than often voices the belief that true culinary cooking, as a form of art, should only be reserved for those that have the expertise to properly understand and judge it.

Imagine a cinema only being open for movie critics and other filmmakers, people that made the art of film their life and that are trained to judge the quality of a movie based on things like cinematography, camera-work, editing etc. Things that the average movie-goer that just wants to have a good time might not pay close attention to. And that lack of technical knowledge leads the cinema to refuse giving them a ticket because the cinema's operators believe that the average movie-goer is not able to truly grasp and appreciate the full amount of thought that went into a movie.

Lack of Individuality: Azami's first move at the academy is to abolish the Research Societies and Polar Star Dormitory, in otherer words: autonomous organizations where students gather outside of the lessons and learn primarily from each other rather than from any professor. This is to prevent the students from learning anything cooking-related outside of what Central teaches.

While Totsuki's old system specifically forced students to get creative under harsh conditions with challenges like the Breakfast one from Trainings Camp, Azami aims to take that exact pressure off the student's shoulders.

Rather than having the students be forced to come up with their own ideas, Azami's curriculum has them simply replicating Azami-approved dishes developed by chefs that are recognized by Azami (the Elite 10). This means that only a certain group gets to truly express themselves individually through their dishes and is allowed to be creative, while everyone else is expected to mindlessly follow their example.

Azami goes as far to actually planning to take that outside of Totsuki as well. Right before their cook-off, Eishi reveals to Soma that Azami is planning to close down restaurants that aren't up to the Azami-standard, only leaving those he's approving of.

The One, Singular Perfect Way: In Central Arc's first Shokugeki, the one between Eizan and Soma, the judges (that are supportive of Central's ideals) chide for Soma for cooking the chicken differently from what they think is the best way too do it.

Rather than having chefs wander through wastelands in an endless pursue of innovative ideas, to let them get lost in a never-ending search for new solutions outside of the ones already known...Azami wants to establish one clear path that everyone can follow.

Azami wants to give everyone a concrete goal to precisely walk towards, not letting chefs exhaust themselves over the continues search for something new and crumble under that pressure like Joichiro did.

The 'God Tongue' is his key to figure out what works and what doesn't & based on it's evaluations he wants to create the one perfect ...method I guess. Specific rules that dictate how something has two be done if it shall be good. And if those specific rules are ignored? Well then the dish is trash!

Motives of the Elite 10:

Now with that out of the way let's finally get into my placing of the characters on the chart you see above.

Eishi Tsukasa: Out of the Traitor-Elites, Eishi is explored most detailed and the character I'd consider the best written one out of the six. With Eishi we actually get a backstory to how he was approached by Azami and how he convinced Eishi onto his side. Eishi is also the character who talks about Central's plans and ideals the most out of all the other Elites which always gave me the feeling that he is the most convinced by it. Perfectionism is one of Eishi's most dominant character traits and well, Central is all about that. So that's why I placed Eishi on the Ideology's side because manga canon showed us Azami convincing him of it.

Momo Akanegakubo: My best guess for Momo's motivation on voting Azami is that she aimed to become an authority for sweets so to speak. In her fight against Erina, there are a lot of parallels drawn between the two (they both get a "Queen" nickname, their judgement on taste/cuteness has been trusted ever since they were very young...). Momo kind off works as a mirror for Erina to see herself how she used to be before character development ensued. Given that, I could imagine that Momo wanted to play a similar role as Erina was supposed to do in the Central system but limited to sweets rather than all of cooking. Central would give Momo the power to actually dictate what is cute and what is not and everyone would have to follow her example. So she is placed within somewhat in the middle, I can see her agreeing to some of Azami's ideals but I think there's also a clear, selfish interest of power here as opposed to Azami belief he's doing some greater good.

Somei Saito: Somei was a bit hard to place being honest. In the manga, he's the only other character beside Eishi who has his motive explicitly stated (in the anime adaption, Rindou gets one too but we'll get to that). He is kind-off presented to us as the guy who actually has his heart at the right place but got lured into an extreme solution. Originally, I had him farer on the ideology side but after rereading his part...I wasn't so sure about that fully being the case anymore. What really seems to convince Somei is Azami's offer to give him the power to protect. Under Azami's system students aren't relentlessly wedded out anymore because they can't keep up and it also gives everyone the opportunity to get on Elite level. I can imagine that this is the one idea of Azami's that Somei felt supportive for, because with everyone getting on Elite level it removes the pedestal that the old Elite (which tortured Somei's beloved mother) has placed themselves on. To quote the Incredibles: If everyone is super, no one is.

(I don't think either Momo nor Somei would be too agreeing of the Gatekeeping-aspect in Central tho? Somei comes from a humble Sushi place, where I doubt the regular customers being distinguished food experts while Momo loves being revered but only a certain people being allowed to taste her sweets would limit the amount of people reverring her.)

Nene Kinokuni: Nene is the most severe case of wasted potential of not only the Traitor Elites but I'd go as far and say out of all characters in Shokugeki & it once again shows when we talk about how she never had her alliance with Central truly explored in detail. Because from what we do know about her, it does make sense for her aligning with Central....so if she was treated with the same amount of care as Eishi was, this alone could have added a lot more depth to Central I believe. Nene's cooking derives most dominantly from traditions and her studies of those through textbooks. One reason why she considers a natural genius like Isshiki a threat to her, because she struggles a lot more at being innovative and improvising (this being the very point in the one, singular Shokugeki she has in the series) . Considering that, why wouldn't she agree to something like Central where students succeed through proper study of what is presented to them rather than innovation? Considering the Gatekeeping-aspect, given how acclaimed the Kinokuni-Clan and their family restaurant is I can imagine the customer-type Nene is most familiar with would be Elitists. So maybe, that made her disregard what Azami's gatekeeping would mean for normal, non-food-crazy people.

Etsuya Eizan: Some might think of Etsuya's alliance with Central as a given. Before Azami waltzed into the story, all dressed in black and as pale as a ghost, Etsuya was the character in Shokugeki that probably came closest to an actual villain. It would only make sense for evil guy to team up with the evil side, right? Well, to me it isn't that simple. Actually, I'd make the bold claim and say that in my eyes...Etsuya is the character for who it makes the least sense to support Central's ideologies. What is Etsuya's most dominant character trait? The one that actually remains consistent throughout the story and that people first associate with him? He very much likes to make money. And while I am not very knowledgeable about business, I don't think Central would be good for Etsuya's. Etsuya is a consultant. Now when would you hire a consultant? My first guess would be that you do it when business isn't going too well, but maybe there's also the possibility of just seeking to gain an advantage over a business rival? But how is Etsuya going to find clients if Azami's reform aims to release chefs of all struggles and also make the entire culinary landscape equal, essentially putting an end to all competition, a thriving force in business? Who is he going to advice if the future generation of chefs already learned everything there is to know on Totsuki? Not to mention Azami's plan to close down all restaurants he isn't approving off. Putting aside how utterly ridiculous that is (what is he gonna do? Fight McDonalds?) I could imagine that it would rob Etsuya of clients and of customers because Azami essentially targets the restaurant that serve the largest consumer group, the middle class. Azami's philosophy is prioritizing the art of cooking. But Etsuya considers himself a business man before he considers himself a chef. Central is a lot about perfectionism. Etsuya however is never giving his all when cooking. The two dishes he has made in the series to do not show the full potential he has, because he doesn't care. Rindou mentions he could sit a lot higher within the Elite 10, if he wasn't as consumed by his business. So yeah, Etsuya's focus is...elsewhere. The one reason I could see for him supporting Central is to maintain (and get even more power) within Totsuki at least. I mean if anything, Azami does let him get away with the shadiest of schemes he would not be able to pull under Senzaemon. I could imagine both Azami and Etsuya seeing the other one as a form of tool. Azami saw Etsuya's culinary skill but probably also his willingness to get his hands dirty. After all, Azami's first action on Totsuki is to abolish the Research Societies and obviously, with Totsuki being Totsuki the student's first reaction to that is to issue a Shokugeki challenging. Now this sort of challenging, rebellious spirit is not good for Azami's cause so he needed to render the Shokugeki system as useless. And Eizan did that, at first, with his rigged Shokugekis. Out of the Traitor Elites he's the only person who'd resolve to something like that and carry it out without batting an eye. And well, on the flip site Eizan sees that Azami willingly lets him go rampant in his schemes and he can use this newfound power as a new means to get back on Soma via the closing of Polar Star Dormitory. But I could imagine that eventually, after getting out of Totsuki perhaps...Etsuya would have seemed to get somehow rid of Azami because I don't see their interests aligning in the long run.

Rindou Kobayashi: Rindou is a special case and therefore placed outside the chart because she doesn't fit either motive. While the manga does not give her any motive but just alludes to her disliking Azami, the anime does and that motive is: loyalty. She went along because she feared she'd loose Eishi if she didn't. As I said, she is explicitly shown to hold some dislike for Azami so I doubt that she is actually agreeing of his ideals.

Anyways, thank you for reading this ridiculously long post of me taking a cooking manga way too serious (I didn't think I'd spend so much time on this as I did) //hands you a cookie

#Shokugeki no Soma #Eishi Tsukasa #Rindou Kobayashi #Momo Akanegakubo #Somei Saito #Nene Kinokuni #Etsuya Eizan #some thoughts...maybe I will iron that out more properly someday

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ramzawrites · 4 years ago

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can i request an angsty sbi fic where sibling reader lost two lives saving others (maybe tubbo at the festival?) and they see everything falling apart (techno and phil destroying everything, wilbur dead and tommy focused on the disks) and they pretend to be ok while their mental health gets worse and worse until they decide to end it, and people only realise they weren't okay after the death message pops up and their reactions to seeing it? if not thats completely fine, ik its pretty heavy

Broken

Pairings: none

Characters included: Wilbur, Tommy, Philza, Tubbo, Technoblade

Warnings: depression, suicide (falling, non descriptive), angst

Series: a request!

Summary: Y/N just wanted their home back. They just wanted to live a peaceful life but instead all their hopes and dreams got ripped apart by the people they loved the most.

Words count: 3647

Authors Note: Honestly I could have shortened it quite a bit but here we are, it’s way longer than I wanted but I hope you guys enjoy this. I’m sorry if this went kind off of rails to what you might have envisioned. Also I hope that you guys know that you are loved and appreciated. I appreciate you for taking the time to read my stuff :] Here is m favorite video to cheer me up some times, hope it can cheer you up as well!

I’m also curious what your guys thoughts and opinion are on this or my writing in general! Can’t get better without feedback :]

Y/N loved their family.

They were all pretty chaotic but so was Y/N, following their siblings into trouble ignoring any possible consequences.

So when Wilbur proclaimed he would create an independent Nation inside the SMP that was owned by Dream himself, you bet that Y/N was standing right beside him.

When Wilbur would struggle with his tasks or was weighed down by doubts they would swoop right in and do their best to support him. Every time Wilbur would say “I don’t know what I would do without you sometimes.” While Y/N didn’t do it for praise but out of love for him it was still nice knowing that he appreciated them and that he took note of their work.

Tommy wasn’t really for heartfelt words but he too expressed in his own way how much he appreciated them being around. Most of his schemes wouldn’t have even happened without Y/N’s help after all. As a way to say thanks he would let them just take stuff fout his chets or when he heard they needed a specific resource he would wander out and get it for them. Of course saying something on the lines of “I was out there anyhow, so I brought some with me. It was on the way.” Y/N could read between the lines though. They grew up with him after all.

Y/N put so much energy into L’Manberg they couldn’t help but be in love with this little nation. They would do everything to protect their home.

When Y/N lost their first life it was together with their siblings protecting their nephew Fundy.

The Dream Team suddenly retreated after another battle against L’Manberg. While the group was celebrating what they thought was their first victory in ages, Eret appeared. She told the group of a small bunker with more resources.

Still celebrating Wilbur, Y/N, Tommy, Tubbo and Fundy made their way towards the bunker. The bunker that would later go down into history as “The Final Control Room.”

Inside they all looked at the labeled chests only to notice that they were empty. Eret then pressed a button which opened up secret walls with the Dream Team standing behind. She herself got into safety as Dream and his friends merciless attacked the L’Manberg faction.

As soon as Y/N understood what was happening they did their best to form a wall between the attackers and Fundy. Slowly pushing him out of the room while they made sure to block the exit, giving the Fox Hybrid enough time to run away.

When they woke up again it was inside their home. In L’Manberg. Sore from the respawning.

Once they did respawn though it didn’t take long for Fundy to barge into their room and throw himself against them, thanking them. Wilbur was close by, looking worse for wear as well but incredible thankful nonetheless.

After that and a few battles more Tommy challenged Dream to a duel in order to secure independence. He lost so instead he bartered his music discs for freedom.

After Tommy respawned a second time Y/N made sure to spent most of their time hovering around him. Making sure he was doing alright.

But with that L’Manberg was independent and it was Y/N’s time to shine. Sure, they worked hard on strengthening the infrastructure of the nation but now, maybe even because of that, they basically coordinated all the new builds.

Shops, homes and other things were being build with them overseeing it. Meanwhile Wilbur and Tommy took care of the political part only to come to the conclusion that they had to have a proper election.

At first it started innocently enough as well. New political parties were made that begun advertising themselves. Funny enough they would always come to Y/N asking them where they could hang up their posters. It was then that Y/N realized that the people saw them as some sort of authority, even asking them if they wanted to start their own campaign. They politely declined, saying they worked best as a support role.

Then Schlatt entered the stage and everything got thrown upside down.

In the end he managed to become the next president via a coalition and his first declaration as the president, or emperor as he called himself, was to exile Tommy and Wilbur.

As they ran for their life Y/N didn’t hesitate to follow. It hurt them so much to leave L’Manberg, their fruit and labor, behind. This only got worse once they realized that Tubbo was basically left alone back at the city under Schlatt’s rule.

Then Pogtopia got established.

Tommy, Wilbur and Y/N did their best to get a proper foothold again. Gathering resources and planning for ways to get their home back. And to accomplish this they soon called in the oldest sibling of the group, Technoblade.

Techno has been away for the longest time now. He moved out early to travel the world and apparently train himself. Somehow Tommy found a way to get a message to him, so he made his way towards Pogtopia.

He wasn’t big on words or emotions but as soon as he arrived he let Y/N hug him.

“This is a onetime deal, Y/N.”

With Techno they finally felt like they had a chance. Y/N could maybe return home someday. Back when they were children Techno always looked out for them so to have him back Y/N felt infinitely safer.

All the while Wilbur showed more and more signs that his mental health was rapidly declining. Y/N did their best trying to cheer him up but there was only so much they could do. Especially since they themself were struggling.

L’Manberg was their everything and now it was under the iron rule of Schlatt. They had to watch as Schlatt walked through the nation, ripping apart builds that they commissioned or even built themself. Every time he did something like that it felt like another stab wound directly into their heart.

Then the festival happened where Y/N lost their second life protecting Tubbo.

Schlatt wanted to apparently celebrate democracy and his amazing rule. Tommy and Wilbur weren’t allowed to join while Techno and Y/N received an invitation.

Y/N was very wary of that. They learned from Tubbo that Schlatt apparently was pretty interested in bringing them over to Manberg since a lot of the residents trusted them and saw them more as an authority than Schlatt himself, so bringing them over would probably also bring a lot of the residents around to his rule.

On the day of the festival Y/N made sure to stay close to Techno. Holding on to his arm and basically hiding behind him, not feeling up to talk with all the people in Manberg.

The people were happy to see them but Y/N was tired. They haven’t slept properly ever since the exile, too many thoughts that kept them awake.

Then the speeches started.

Honestly Y/N wasn’t really listening, their attention purely on a broken old building. It used to be the place where Y/N and the other residents would meet up and map out their plans for new builds. Discussing and even sometimes arguing on what materials should be used and where to get them. Now it was empty.

Their attention got pulled back towards what was actually happening once Tubbo begun speaking. It was a nice little speech Y/N had to admit.

Just as Tubbo was about to leave, Schlatt moved back in. Holding him in place and pushing him in something that Y/N had to describe as a cage with the help of Quackity.

“Techno, buddy. Come up here for a sec.”

Technoblade tensed up but still moved towards the stage. There Schlatt uttered the words that pulled the rug out from beneath Y/N once again.

“Kill him Techno. He is a traitor.”

“Don’t you dare!” Y/N yelled out, making their way towards the stage as well.

Y/N knew Techno couldn’t deal well with social pressure, especially when there were about ten people or more behind him that could attack him at any point.

Tubbo looked so scared as he pressed himself against the wall. There was no escape for him.

When Techno moved his crossbow up, aiming directly at Tubbo, Y/N let out another scream. Urging him to stop.

Explosions. Colorful explosions filled the place.

“Y/N!” it was Tubbo screaming their name out.

Just as Techno pressed the trigger Y/N managed to jump in front, the rockets hitting them instead of Tubbo.

Their older brother looked absolutely mortified “Y/N? Wha- What? Why? How?” staring at Y/N’s lifeless body that slowly dissolved. They were slowly respawning but seeing his siblings body was enough to send him in some sort of frenzy.

Filled with bloodlust he aimed his crossbow towards Schlatt and Quackity. Killing them with one press of the trigger only to turn around and aim his crossbow towards the people.

As this happened Tommy enderpearled over, screaming at Techno.

He helped Tubbo out of the cage who was still in a state of shock. He only saw Y/N for a second and the next they were laying on the ground in their own blood.

Y/N heard the details later after they respawned. Tommy had apparently been incredibly angry at Techno, even attacking him. Wilbur then offered that the two deal with their argument via a fistfight inside a pit.

Normally Y/N would have yelled at Wilbur for that. Would have told him that this was his dumbest idea yet but they were too shook from what had happened to them.

Technoblade always spelled safety to them but he killed them. Sure, he meant to kill Tubbo but that didn’t really make it any better. They gave him an out, they would have helped fighting off all these people so they could flee.

The next time they saw Techno they flinched every time he got too close to them and yet they still put on a smile “Never, do this again.”

Techno only nodded.

After this downward slope the momentum didn’t seem to stop for them. Wilbur dropped even more and more off. Falling victim to his paranoia. Y/N tried their best convincing him to not blow up Manberg, that they will fight to gain it back. At this point trying to gain back their L’Manberg was the only thing they could hold on to.

Though all that work was for nothing.

The war to take back L’Manberg went way differently than they all had imagined. Y/N fought with a viciousness most didn’t think they had it in them. This was the day for them to finally regain what they had wished for, for the longest time now.

Everything came to a halt once Dream surrendered. He showed them Schlatt who was sitting in the Carmavan. Drunk off his mind he yelled and screamed at people only to die of a heart attack which meant that the Pogtopia faction won.

The people begun cheering, they had their home back! They were free! Y/N was probably the loudest by far. It felt like a huge weight was lifted from their shoulders. All this hardship and they could finally return to working with the others and rebuild L’Manberg. Return it to its former glory.

Tubbo got appointed President and Y/N was happy with it. Tubbo had an eye for building and was a good person, with him they were sure they could do some amazing things.

Apparently Techno thought otherwise. Instead he pulled Soulsand out, holding onto the Wither skulls as a visible threat.

Y/N had somewhat forgiven Techno for what had happened. It was a stressful situation and they acknowledged it but seeing him there, threatening to kill all of them? That they knew they couldn’t forgive quite so easy. Especially since he made some sound points but it was their L’Manberg. The people didn’t like living under Schlatt’s rule, this wasn’t something that could be described simply as a coup. Technically he was right but only technically. There were so many things that came into play that could let you argue over that but Techno would have none of it. Yelling something about Tommy only wanting to be a hero.

When the first explosions rang Y/N thought it came from a Wither but Techno was still in the middle of putting the heads onto the structure.

When more explosions rang and the ground beneath their feet broke away, Y/N understood what had happened.

At some point Wilbur ran off and must have pressed the button. The button that set the TNT beneath the city ablaze, effectively destroying everything.

Y/N was too busy with finding hard ground again and then dealing with the Withers and Techno that they only noticed after the fighting ended, how broken the nation was now.

They had won. Why would Wilbur do this? He knew how much the nation meant to them and again, they had won, so there was no reason for blowing the place up!

And if that wasn’t enough to see how both their older brothers destroyed everything Y/N worked for, they also had to see how Philza, their father, stood next to the corpse of Wilbur. It felt like they lost everything.

They lost their trust in Technoblade.

They lost their hopes and dreams via Wilbur blowing up the freshly liberated L’Manberg.

They lost their trust in their own father who had slain his own son.

Y/N felt absolutely crushed. Family was so important to them and it was their own family that destroyed their hopes and dreams. They did everything for them and this is how they repaid them?

Once everything calmed down and Tubbo begun making plans on how to rebuild the nation, he immediately came to Y/N for help but they hesitated which worried him.

“Is everything okay? Usually you would have jumped on that offer, Y/N.”

Y/N put on a smile that didn’t seem to reach their eyes “Don’t worry Tubbo, of course I’ll help you. I’m just tired from what we have been through. I finally have time to take a breather and I think it all just crashed down on me.”

“Well if you ever need help you can talk to me.” It was an earnest offer that Y/N would never take advantage of.

Y/N mostly ignored Philza. He talked with them a few times and even explained what has happened but Y/N still made a wide berth around him. Seeing him just hammered back down the feeling of distrust and hurt. Their familial relationship took a hard hit from that point on.

With Ghostbur it was a weird situation as well. They enjoyed spending time with him but were also always incredibly sad around him. Ghostbur took notice of this and would always offer them to take some of his blue but Y/N declined every time.

“Don’t worry Ghostbur. Everything is still just fresh in my mind. I’ll be back to my old self in no time. You take care of yourself, you hear?”

“Of course Y/N! You have always looked out for me, thank you.”

L’Manberg slowly took on a proper form again but it wasn’t the L’Manberg Y/N knew. It felt to them like they were standing on top of a grave. A grave for their dreams and it was getting hard, real hard, to walk through it every day seeing places where they know specific buildings should be standing. Buildings they build on their own only to be destroyed by their brothers doing.

Then Tubbo exiled Tommy and Y/N felt conflicted. They felt obligated to stay in L’Manberg since they were the main person people came to for builds but that was their brother. Their only brother they still trusted and felt a need to protect.

Instead of following him into exile they stayed in the city. Visiting Tommy whenever they could, noticing pretty fast that he was struggling hard with his situation and for once they didn’t feel strong enough to properly support him. Y/N tried their best but once they noticed they couldn’t reach him completely they gave up a tiny bit.

It reminded them too much of Wilbur.

So while they visited him and helped them where they could, they spent more and more time alone in their home only coming out for work and other necessary things like food. Soon it was normal to see them with ever present dark circles beneath their eyes.

Before Philza disappeared to join Techno, he would stop by Y/N’s home all the time.

“Have you eaten, yet?”

“Yes, dad. I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.”

“I just haven’t seen you much lately and I got worried.”

“Don’t worry. I’m fine. Hey, if you go out, please, can you tell Ghostbur to stop coming around to throw Blue inside my mailbox? He won’t listen to me but perhaps he will to you.” And they would always carry the same big smile on their face accompanied by empty eyes.

The only time their happiness reached their eyes again was when Tommy returned from his exile. They crashed into their younger sibling holding him close to them and muttering apologies. He pried them off, embarrassed by all of this.

This short bout of happiness was destroyed by Doomsday. Dream, Technoblade and Philza once again made sure to set L’Manberg ablaze.

The second time Y/N’s fruits and labor got completely annihilated by their family but still they had some hopes this time. They still had Tommy on their side they could just finally build a home somewhere else and live in peace but Tommy had other ideas. He had it in his mind to get his discs back and he would do anything for it.

So while Y/N tried to ground themself with new hopes and ideas, holding onto the only constant of what was important to them, that being Tommy, Tommy ignored them. He was too busy with his own things and the worst part was that Y/N couldn’t even fault him for it.

They understood how much these discs meant to him and that this was something that had to come to an end but with this they lost another, and possibly their last, anchor point.

Yet you could still see them running around with a smile, tending to every one and trying to help out the best they could.

Then suddenly they were gone. They just disappeared one day. The few people who took note of that took some time to look around but there was no sign as to where they left. Y/N didn’t take their armor with them nor any weapons or food.

< Y/N succumbed to despair and fell of a high place>

When every ones communicators rung out with this message the SMP fell quiet.

Tommy couldn’t believe what he was reading. This didn’t make any sense. Y/N was fine! They would talk with them and everything looked fine! This must have been a cruel joke from Dream somehow, right? This couldn’t be real. Why would Dream do this? This didn’t seem to make sense.

Exactly there was no sense in Dream doing this.

While Tommy was battling with his thoughts Tubbo came running over to him. Tears streamed down his face.

“What happened? Why did this happen? Where are they?”

Tommy was visibly shaking “I- I have no idea. I don’t know. They looked fine. I’m- I’m not sure. Tubbo-“

Tubbo just slammed into him, giving him a proper hug, trying his best to help Tommy through his rising panic. He lost another sibling and by Ender that hurt.

Meanwhile in the snowy Tundra both Philza and Techno were staring at their communicators as well.

Philza was pale. So pale it almost rivaled the snow around him.

Techno had his brows furrowed. For anyone who didn’t know him well enough he looked at best displeased with this situation but Philza could see the small details that told a different story. Him sucking his breath in as he read the message, hiding his quivering lip in his cloak. He was heartbroken.

Sure the two weren’t on good speaking terms but Y/N was still his younger sibling. He still loved them.

Philza felt similar. He acknowledged that he screwed up and honored their wish to be left alone by him but he never imagined this could lead to their death. His knees buckled and he sank to the ground. Two of his children died, one directly by his hand and the other due to his inaction.

His eyes glossed over, the world became a blur and yet he continued rereading this message over and over. Y/N just lost their last life.

Philza could hear Techno walk closer to him and sat down on the ground as well.

“Y/N is-“ Philza begun but he didn’t know what he wanted to say. State the obvious to his eldest son?

“I have more fault in this than you, dad. Don’t feel guilty.” His voice was uncharacteristically weak. Wavering as he spoke. He wanted to cheer Philza up but it was a weak attempt.

“What have we done.”

Ghostbur was at first confused when he read the message. It was like he couldn’t connect the dots but it slowly dawned on him what this meant.

“Oh my.” His usual happy demeanor was suddenly gone.

He touched his face and as he put his hands back down he saw how they were smeared with blue.

“Y/N is dead?”

His usual ghost behavior seemed to break a bit. It was like through the warped version of Wilbur that was called Ghostbur for a moment the true version of him came through again. And he was hurt. Devastated.

“I think I need to find the others.” He mumbled to himself, making his way towards his family. All the while he held onto the blue wool of Friend like a lifeline. Combing through it nervously. Blue continuing to spill from his eyes.

#mcyt x reader #mcyt reader insert #mcyt fanfiction #mcyt x Y/N #dream smp reader insert #dream smp fanfiction #dream smp x reader #dream smp x Y/N #dsmp fanfiction #dsmp reader insert #dsmp x reader #sbi #sleepy bois inc #ramza writes #Anonymous #anon request

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elysianslove · 4 years ago

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Please wrote more surrogate fics please . could I request one with SakuAtsu or could you just start a series on these. If you'd me comfortable with that. That on IwaOi surrogate fic brought me so much joy. I can't even describe it.

oh my goodness i’d love to!!! it makes me so happy knowing you liked it cause like,,, idk why it’s just special to me :) also im so glad you asked for sakuatsu bc these two ships are basically my favorite jhfgbsj. and yesyes i’d love to have a mini series with like little scenarios of each ship <333

this was insanely long. like insanely.

content warning; artificial insemination, pregnancy, haikyuu manga spoilers, gay people being happy idk

being iwaoi’s surrogate

BEING SAKUATSU’S SURROGATE

↬ it took forever to even get them together, so with a duo as indecisive as them, it’s imaginable how long the decision to raise a child together took. it took a long, long while for that transition from enemies to lovers to be final, and even then, they hadn’t realized how serious their relationship was until they were off getting married and then suddenly wanting a child?

↬ it was something atsumu brought up out of the blue, just casually as they sat side by side on the couch. “wouldn’t it be nice if we raised a child together?” and it stuck with sakusa ever since. he didn’t know why he was obsessively thinking about it as much, but it’s all he could think about. literally. anytime he so much as thought about atsumu with a child, and a child of their own too, his stomach did a thousand and one flips. sakusa was never the biggest fan of children, and he knew that neither was atsumu. but, this would be different, wouldn’t it? Still, he tried to remind himself of the cons; they were pro-athletes, they didn’t have time, they didn’t understand the weight of the responsibility, were they even ready for something like that? somedays it was too tiring to take care of themselves, of each other. were they ready to be responsible for a whole life, someone dependent entirely on them? it seemed too— unrealistic. like something he could only hope to dream about, and just dream about.

↬ until he thought of atsumu with a little kid, a spit image of either one of them, sitting on his lap, giggling and laughing and squealing in glee. and so he decided, there will always be cons, he just has to see if the pros outweighed them. and honestly, they did. they were pro-athletes, sure, but that also meant they were financially stable, and could provide for a child, properly. they were mature now, knew each other very well, and had adapted to living with one another. they had family and friends all around. the kid would for sure grow up loved and cared for, and him and atsumu would add another person to their family. it really seemed like a dream, but this time, an attainable one.

↬ so as he ate dinner with his lover, he blurted out, “let’s raise a child together,” and atsumu honest to god choked on his food. he asked sakusa if he was serious, if he meant it, if this was real, and sakusa’s answer was yes to every single one of his question. yes, he was serious; yes, he meant it; yes, this was real. as real as can be.

↬ they both already knew they wanted a surrogate, and it didn’t matter who was the father. so long as the child was theirs.

↬ finding a surrogate was, well, a pain, to put it into perspective. sakusa was so picky about the “requirements,” if you will, and atsumu was suspicious of every single woman, it was kind of ridiculous really. he just “didn’t trust that they wouldn’t run away with the baby!” in his words. atsumu suggested sakusa’s older sister, which seemed perfect in his head, but sakusa refused, claiming it was 1. extremely weird, and 2. he doubted she’d say yes, with her own life to handle.

↬ and it finally, finally, came to atsumu: he could always just ask, well, you. he had met you during his college years, and since then, he’d been coincidentally crossing paths with you ever since then, and you’d even managed their msby jackals team at some point. it was weirdly ironic how he’s coming back to you, kind of like fate.

↬ so he suggested it to sakusa, and for once, the latter didn’t really have any way to object, except, “what if this inconveniences her?” other than that, you were the perfect candidate. they knew you well, trusted you, knew they could rely on you. and atsumu was sure you wouldn’t run with the baby. with regards to the inconvenience part, well, they could always just deal with that when the time came.

↬ they invited you over for some breakfast two days later, after they’d thought about it properly, endlessly, and figured you were their best option. it was weird seeing them so nervous when you first arrived, like they were breaking up with you or something. atsumu barely ate with how nauseous he felt, and sakusa spent the entire time watching you eat instead, hands fidgeting and legs shaking. it was really weird, but you didn’t bring it up, letting them take their own time to tell you whatever it was they wanted to tell you, because obviously, they clearly had something to say.

↬ after breakfast, you sat in their living room, just watching the tv quietly, until sakusa offered to get you some water. you weren’t really thirsty, but you agreed anyways, unsurprised to see atsumu rise from his own seat a minute later with a, “be right back,” as he headed to the kitchen. you could hear them bickering and whisper-yelling, and if you weren’t starting to grow as nervous as they were, you would’ve had it in you to laugh. they returned looking like they were bearing the most daunting of news, sitting down on the couch perpendicular to you. atsumu’s hands were sweaty and intertwined tightly together, while sakusa tried to remain as composed as possible. it seemed like the dark haired man would speak up, finally, parting his mouth with a deep breath.

↬ but it’s atsumu that blurts out, “please have my baby!— our baby. please have our baby.”

↬ honestly, your first response was to laugh, in disbelief, as you clutch your glass of water. but then you see their faces — god they looked so goddamn scared — and you realized that, they were really serious. they really wanted you to carry their baby for them. holy shit?—

↬ you were mostly speechless after that, stuttering as you ask them to please explain, you’re honored but are they are, have they thought about this? properly? in depth?

↬ to your surprise, they really knew what they were doing. they’d done their research, and thought about a million other options before deciding that you were the best one. they also repeatedly told you that you didn’t have to do this, and that they didn’t want to guilt-trip you into doing it either. they wanted you to say yes only if you yourself wanted to say yes, and if this wouldn’t negatively affect you or halt your life in any way. you were the one that was going to be carrying the baby anyways, weren’t you? at the end of the day, this was all about you.

↬ you asked them for time to think about it, and reminded them that it wasn’t a no. you just wanted to make sure you were making the right decision whichever that ended up being. a few days later, you call them, asking them to meet up one way or another, and atsumu’s even more nervous than he was asking you; not even sakusa’s gentle lips to his temple or large hands soothingly rubbing at his back or his kind words could help him. sakusa himself was insanely anxious. in his head, it seemed like your ‘no,’ would finalize everything. that it would really mean no hope in having a child of their own, their very own.

↬ you invite them over to your home, and the kettle is already boiling when they arrive. you make them tea and make small talk if only to delay the inevitable. but, to each of their surprises, you take a deep breath and say, “i’d be honored to carry your baby for you,” with the brightest, warmest smile. sakusa has to bite his inner cheek to will himself to not cry, because he can’t believe you said yes. you agreed. you’re going to carry their baby. him and atsumu were having a baby.

↬ atsumu doesn’t stop himself from throwing his arms around you, collapsing on top of you in tight hug that you kind of can’t breathe, but you let him, and you laugh when he thanks you for saying yes, that he’ll “be forever in your debt.”

↬ it’s the happiest you’ve seen either of them.

↬ when you’re done with the process of insemination (of course, atsumu does joke that the three of you should go the natural way and have a threesome, to which he earns a smack from his lover and a smack from you, at the same time), the three of you just have to wait, really. it’s the longest period of waiting you’ve ever had to do, but you try to be patient, as patient as you can be. when you wake up one morning and throw up, you look at your period tracking app to see if maybe you were pms’ing. except, you weren’t. you were late. like a good three weeks late.

↬ immediately, you’re booking a doctor’s appointment. you wait to tell sakusa and atsumu after confirming your suspicions, because you don’t want to raise their hopes up for nothing. they’ve already been swimming in a pool of doubts ever since the insemination, calling you everyday to check up on you and ask for any progress. when the doctor confirms your pregnancy — holy shit you were pregnant — the first thing you do is go over to their house. you know it’s not the best idea to show up unannounced, but with how long they’ve been waiting, and how much they’ve been wanting this, the more and more you fed into it, you couldn’t wait any longer to tell them. you arrive, and the moment sakusa opens the door for you, you gasp out, “i’m pregnant.”

↬ sakusa’s quite literally frozen in shock, his mouth pressed in a thin line with eyes wide open, while atsumu walks over and goes, “oh hey,” in greeting before noticing sakusa’s face and just ???? “what’s going on?”

↬ “i’m pregnant.”

↬ “you’re what?”

↬ you show them with tears stinging your eyes the results of the test you’d taken at the doctor’s, and atsumu grips the report so tightly, like it’ll disappear if it slips only slightly from his hands. sakusa’s still in shock, trying to process everything. it takes him a good while before he can function properly again.

↬ the pregnancy itself is a lot smoother than you’d imagined. iwaizumi, as their athletic trainer, although not well versed with pregnancy, knew a lot about health and taking care of yourself in general, so he made sure you were always eating right and healthy. he even accompanied you once when sakusa and atsumu couldn’t, to the doctor, and made sure to ask him specifically what you should and shouldn’t be eating. all of the olympic/national team are more excited than anything. they’re insanely protective over you, and always pamper and care for you you when they can, whether that be back/neck/shoulder massages or giving you their food when they notice you eyeing it or letting you lean entirely on any of them for support as you walk. granted, they do make fun of you, especially the bigger your stomach got, but they mean well, really. suna once made fun of you and, because of the hormones, and because he was genuinely just mean, you started to cry. since then, suna swore off bullying you, at least until you gave birth.

↬ osamu is beyond ecstatic to become an uncle. he’s so excited it makes atsumu incredibly emotional. he goes with his brother on trips to ikea to buy a crib and gifts him an insane amount of baby clothes and always begins a conversation with, “how’s the baby?” every time you’re around, osamu’s hand can be found resting on your stomach, soothingly rubbing, excitedly grinning when he feels a kick. he is just so happy for his brother, he could cry.

↬ you ask them if they want a gender reveal when you find out or to keep it until the delivery of the baby, but they’re both insanely impatient (even though sakusa does try to convince atsumu to wait because it’ll be exciting, he himself isn’t even that convinced of that and they just ask you to tell them). with the help of osamu and his and atsumu’s parents, you organize a gender reveal party. the moment he sees the pink smoke, atsumu cheers so loudly it makes you laugh till your stomach hurt. sakusa’s grinning wider than you’ve ever seen him, grabbing atsumu’s face and kissing him, before pulling you into a tight hug. it’s literally the cutest thing ever, everyone just cheering loudly around you and celebrating with you.

↬ when you go into labor, you’re with neither of them, but with osamu, aran, and kita. they were staying the night at a hotel since they had training away from where they lived, and you were spending the night at osamu’s because the fathers of your baby really didn’t want you to be alone so close to your due date, and who better than osamu? your water didn’t break, but you kept having contractions. you were brushing it off as normal pain at the start, but they started to get worse, and closer together in time. kita, because he’s kita, had been keeping track, and told you how far apart your contractions were. to which you went, “contractions?!”

↬ aran’s calling sakusa and atsumu as kita grabs your bag as osamu grabs his keys and helps you to his car. you really couldn’t have been around a better set of men, because they were perfectly composed the whole time, helping you breathe and stay calm by staying calm themselves, reassuring you that you didn’t need to worry and that you will get to the hospital in time. they did flinch every time you screamed or cried out in pain, but aran held your hand the entire drive there, and kita guided you to steadying yourself as osamu drove as fast as he could.

↬ the issue was with sakusa and atsumu. to say they were freaking out would be an understatement. they were positively losing it. atsumu’s anxiety was louder than sakusa’s, but the latter’s was clear as ever on his pale skin and clammy hands. they were so annoying in the delivery room, literally faring worse off than you, who was pushing a whole baby out of her body. when you finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl, atsumu sobbed and sakusa cried in his hands, so maybe it was alright after all.

↬ they literally couldn’t believe their eyes when the nurse handed you the baby and placed her on your chest. she was so, so tiny, so beautiful, and theirs. honestly, you couldn’t hold back your own tears at the sight of her, and at their reaction to her. you held her in your arms as they thanked you, over and over and over again, for the biggest blessing they could ever receive.

↬ despite the fact that you were simply their surrogate, sakusa and atsumu knew they couldn’t just separate you and your baby, and neither could they just take her home all of a sudden. so for the first few months, you stayed in their guest room, but the baby slept in her own room. it was more difficult than you expected it to be when you were leaving her to go back to your own home, but they promised you repeatedly that they’re not really taking her away. it wasn’t as if you couldn’t visit at any time you wanted to come visit her. but at the end of the day, you knew what you had been signing up for, and that she was their daughter.

↬ she grows up to be a gorgeous woman. she’s interested in volleyball, sure, she’d been raised with volleyball players everywhere around her, but it’s not her immediate passion. atsumu thought he’d be more upset about that than he actually was, because he found out that it didn’t matter at all what she wanted to do. hell, if she wanted to do nothing at all and stay home forever with them, he was 100% on board with that. whatever made her happy and healthy, he was okay with. she grows up to be really close and really comfortable with both of her fathers, and they make sure with every passing day that no matter what, she can always come to them. and she does, about every little thing. and each and every time, they listen and advice and guide her properly. a s parents, they’re a perfect balance of strict and lenient. they set and raise her to never cross those boundaries, but otherwise they give her complete freedom. they respect her privacy, her decisions, everything.

↬ there was a day when she came back home from school, and they had taken a biology class for kids, where a teacher had explained periods to them. obviously, as curious as ever, she’d asked her dads about it, because she didn’t really get it. she wanted to know the how’s and the why’s and the what’s and the when’s. with every passing second atsumu had felt his lifespan shorten. eventually he suggested they call you, who she knew as her ‘aunt’ for the time being, since you were a woman and nobody would really explain it better than you. when she did get her period eventually, and had to sheepishly and shyly ask her dads to go to the store for her because she needed, um, supplies, atsumu lost it. sakusa had to try and calm him down all while laughing as he got ready to go to the store for her, because the drama of miya atsumu never gets old. he just couldn’t believe she was already getting her period. what the hell! what the actual hell!

↬ of course, he proceeded to embarrass her by telling osamu, telling sakusa’s parents, telling his parents. not cool :(

↬ when she was old enough, especially to understand the concept of being a surrogate (oh my god the sex talk was a whole other insufferable thing), they told her about you, and that you were actually her biological mother and not just an ‘auntie.’ she tried to be angry at them for keeping it from her, but she was honestly more excited about finding out than anything. it brought the two of you closer together, and for the next mother’s day, she organized a whole brunch for you, her and her dads, got you a gift, flowers, everything. yeah, you did cry.

↬ you genuinely have never been more satisfied and thankful for a decision like this one, ever, especially because of how much of a blessing the outcome had been.

can u tell this isn’t my first time thinking about this. ever since i posted the iwaoi one i’ve been wanting to do a sakuatsu one, but i didn’t really know whether anyone had enjoyed that or would want more, so thank you for sending in this ask!! love u all mwah <3

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu headcanons #miya atsumu x reader #sakusa x reader #sakusa kiyoomi x reader #atsumu x sakusa #sakuatsu #sakuatsu x reader #atsumu x reader

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estellaelysian · 3 years ago

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Extra from the potentially romantic prompt list please and thank u ❤️ Your work is amazing!

Thank you for this ask anon! I had so much fun writing this 🥰💖

[ EXTRA ] : sender buys an extra coffee/snack/etc. to give to receiver.

From this prompt list - feel free to leave some asks

Black Coffee

On a snow swept January morning, Ethan Ramsey stood by Derry Roasters bright and early in the hopes of getting a coffee on the way to work because his own machine was broken. Unfortunately though, as his luck could have it, the café was closed. He wished for some alternative, because mornings without coffee were especially tedious. But there seemed no other way.

Defeated, he started his trek toward Edenbrook hospital which stood in the distance, her lights twinkling away as she looked down upon the follies of hectic urban life. No matter what changed around her, she stood just as she did a few years ago, unbending to the modern standards, watching millions like him pass by every day. That’s why Edenbrook felt like home. It was unlike the more temporary things he had witnessed, and that is what he liked the most about medicine. It was permanent and evolving. It was always there for him when he needed it.

Fractured light, choked with swirling flurries filled the small alleyway that he usually used to get back to the hospital. When he went back, he’d have to deal with interns, fight against his desires when Alishka stood in front of him, but now, he still had his sanity at his disposal. Perhaps the best way to go about the day would be to ignore her altogether instead of having the much impulsive warm conversations on a snowy day. He could just hand her the charts right off in the morning, or leave them in the diagnostics office and find refuge in his own. The muted longing had to go away and not make an appearance. It would break them altogether someday.

He couldn’t believe he was actually thinking of ways to avoid his favorite intern. She was so clever, so thoughtful, and yet … it was almost poetic. He didn’t want to do this, at all, but a very stoic sentence was tattooed in his brain from the days of his childhood days.

He had been arguing with Alan about not going to school a few days after Louise had left. He didn’t want to go to school and talk to his friends on see himself in their pitiful glances or deal with it altogether. But Alan had said, ‘We all have to do things we don’t want to. That’s what growing up’s all about.’

Maybe it was true, he didn’t know. He did go to school that day, and every day after, but those words stuck. It felt awful to use them in a situation which was so ironic, so odd, with so many unsatisfying endings that it seemed fucked up.

But that was what growing up was all about.

His hands stiffened at his sides, and he curled his fingers in a fist to keep them warm. Edenbrook was merely a few steps away. He would soon be in his office and warmth. Perhaps to concentrate his mind while it was tearing him in so many directions, or perhaps just because he found some comfort in planning his time properly, he thought about all that he had to do today. He made a list and repeated it to himself silently. Little flakes kept landing down on him which he had to brush off again and again. Walking through the dreadfully cold snow seemed oddly comforting to him today.

Muffled footsteps voiced themselves behind him, boots working their way through the snow. He was wary of looking over his shoulders, but he resisted the caution. Who could it be? Probably someone from the hospital staff, or perhaps some stranger entirely, and how did it matter at all? Shaking his head, he kept trudging through the development, only to hear a very familiar voice behind him.

‘Doctor Ramsey!’ she called out.

Her hair were probably peppered with snow now, she thought, as she chased him down the alley. There was no logical reason for her to follow him, and she could bet he would argue there wasn’t, but she couldn’t help herself. She had noticed him standing outside Derry Roasters and then walking away in a dreadful expression, one that was usually reserved for the interns. The other interns. She knew what it was like to start a day without coffee, and she wouldn’t want that to happen, perhaps to anyone, which is why she had ordered and extra coffee at the café just across the street from Derry.

She didn’t care if he thought it was ridiculous coffee. It was still better than nothing.

‘Here,’ she said, handing him he Styrofoam cup. ‘I got you a coffee.’

At first, he just looked at her, bewildered. What is so surprising, she wanted to ask, but held off her question, just staring at him. He looked somewhat tired. Weary. But his blue eyes were still the same, vibrant and full of warmth and intelligence.

She let her gaze drop to her feet.

Caught in the trap of looking and yet not wanting to acknowledge it. Perhaps he didn’t want to see her at all.

Ethan took the coffee from her, thankfully, for she wished desperately to be not embarrassed anymore. As his fingers brushed her, she kept reminding herself that he was her employer, nothing more. Giving it too much importance would lead her astray. No matter how much they were in each other’s orbit, this meant nothing, as he had made abundantly clear. They were just … colleagues. Not even. Just look away, she told him sourly in her own mind. Employer, she repeated to herself. She needed the safety of her single bed. She needed to steer clear of headaches. She had work to do.

‘Thank you,’ he said gruffly, before falling in beside her silently. She had not anticipated that they would walk to the hospital together. Now everything was in slow motion, everything happening under water. She felt nauseous.

It took them ten good minutes to walk to the hospital which would, in normal circumstances take only five minutes.

Elsewhere in the city, other lives and conversations were unfolding.

But they were on their way to the hospital, walking in absolute silence. It wasn’t much was it? It was just coffee.

Their splendor walk in the snow-caked alleyway was complete. It was time she took her leave. Say nothing and just walk away, that is what she did. But his baritone voice made her stop again.

‘Rookie, you didn’t have to do that. But you did. So thank you.’

She didn’t turn around to face him. Just nodded and left, feeling the gaze of those summer blue eyes still on her.

It was as if she was running the snow of the Atlantic, running free and wild while no one watched. Where nothing mattered. Where she and Ethan could still make it. Live a few hours of peace and warmth and die while the universe went on without them.

This was honestly so much fun to write, so Thank u all for reading it ❤️

Tagging: @tenaciouslandvoidgiant @choicesaddict5 @schnitzelbutterfingers @starrystarrytrouble @jooous @dakotasteach @sophxwithers @vishhhi @genevievemd @mercury84choices @ethansramsey @stygianflood @cielo-estrelladoo @maurine07 @quixoticdreamer16 @shanzay44 @gryffindordaughterofathena @monsoonblooms12 @alina-yol-ramsey @forallthatitsworth @fireycookie @the-pale-goddess @dorisz @headoverheelsforramsey

#ethan ramsey #ethan x mc #ethan x alishka #all oph book one vibes #open heart

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bookstantrash · 4 years ago

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A/N: Here we are folks. The chapter y’all have been waiting for. I’m hoping it reaches your expectations because I was dying to write it.

Huge shoutout for the gc — specially @thewayshedreamed for her mind blowing theory, although I tried to make it less angst lol — for all their hype and ideais for this chapter 💜

In which she makes a friend, Part Eleven

Cassian woke up late. He was sure of that because of two factors:

One, the birds were chirping louder than when he usually woke up, the sun high in the sky given the sunlight entering the bedroom through the curtains.

And two, Nesta was fast asleep in his arms, her vanilla and lavender scent all around him.

He took his time watching her, as he did not know when he would have another opportunity.

Nesta looked younger like that, her face relaxed for once, mouth partially open as she slowly breathed. Their legs were intertwined, his free arm somehow having ended up in her hair, holding her close, as if during the night he had gotten afraid she would disappear.

Cassian had nightmares of that. Of waking up and finding her gone, snatched out of her bed once again in the middle of the night by his enemies and killed. He would wake up panting and reaching for a dagger he kept in his bedside table, his blood roaring at him to kill whoever had touched her, to find and protect Nesta.

It usually ended up with him pacing in front of her room for a few minutes, her steady heart beat easing his worries after a while. He would then return to his room and go over some reports from Rhysand and Azriel or look over some camp matters until the sun was rising.

Last night had to be the best night of sleep Cassian had had in the last two years. Maybe in all five hundred years of his life.

He signed, willing his thoughts to not go down that path. To not wonder too deeply about the reason why Nesta Archeron affected him like she did, since the first time he saw her at her father’s house when she was still human.

Willed them to not think how she seemed to fit so perfectly against his body, as if they had been made for each other.

To stop thinking how her bare skin would feel against his, her soft lips kissing his own.

To stop thinking of her running her hands over his body, pulling his hair.

The sounds she would make when he kissed her, properly this time, without death hovering above them.

If she was a screamer or a beggar or a talker and how it did not matter anyway because he would make sure to pleasure her until she was screaming his name, until she was begging him for more, until she was saying how good he felt and how none of those other males back in Velaris had given her a speck of what he was giving her.

How he would take care of her afterwards, how he would kiss her lazily and sweetly, and how he would not let her go for a long long time, satisfied to just stay holding her.

“That is nothing but a distant and impossible dream” he murmured, daring to gently run his fingers in her silky hair “I have to be grateful for what I have and do not desire for more.”

Cassian felt Nesta stirring in his arms, mentally cursing himself for waking her.

“Javy ju” she mumbled, her voice heavy with sleep, slowly blinking at him.

“Javy ju, anahí” he answered a little breathless, being hit straight in his stomach by the fact that she had remembered the Illyrian greeting.

Nesta was about to say something when Cassian felt her whole body froze, blue eyes widening as she looked at how close they were.

And that is when he felt it. His morning wood.

Cauldron that was embarrassing. If Nesta did not think lowly of him before — he knew all those times she had called him a pervert or a bastard had been nothing but empty words — now she surely did.

He quickly withdrew his wings, Nesta squinting at him momentarily due to the sudden brightness.

But before Cassian could get up and put more distance between themselves, hoping to save some face, Nesta placed a hand firmly on his shoulder, keeping him still.

And she smirked.

“Wound a bit tight these days? she said, throwing his words from yesterday back at him.

“You can not blame my body for reacting at you” he tried to sound as if he was teasing her, but his words came out softer and truer than he would like “Have you looked at yourself?”

“You mean my too thin and bony body?” she snorted, dismissing his words “You must be really desperate.”

If Nesta had said that to him months ago, he would have been inclined to agree with her statement — not that that would have stopped him from thinking her beautiful. His feelings towards the strong minded female were not purely physical attraction. It went beyond that.

“You can not be blind to not see how your body has changed since you started training and eating more regularly” he said “I still wish you would eat more, but you can not deny that you have gained muscles and some weight back”

“Are you calling me fat?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

Cassian laughed at that. Nesta had a sense of humour that sometimes reminded him of Azriel.

“You fill your leathers much more now” he answered, the hand in her hair sliding along her arms “You have gained muscles here”

His hand travelled down her front slowly, making sure to avoid her breasts, although all he wanted was to finally know how they would feel beneath his touch.

“And here” he gently squeezed her waist.

“Cassian��”

“And here too” he added, fingers dancing along her leg where her nightgown had exposed some skin.

Nesta took a sharp intake of breath, her pupils dilatating

He was walking on thin ice, he knew that. His words at Nesta were nothing but desire and longing veiled by teasing he knew Nesta believed in.

Cassian had no one but himself to blame for that.

“So I am desirable because of my body?” her voice had a bitter tone, and Cassian quickly corrected her.

“You are desirable because of this, ” he touched her temple, moving then to lay his hand over her heart “and this”

“Lying will not get you anywhere bat” she turned her face and made to get up.

“I’m beyond lies right now, Nesta” he said, pulling her flush against him, gently grabbing her chin and tilting her face up.

Her gray-blue eyes seemed incredibly bright, looking straight at Cassian, as if she could see his very soul.

He did not hide from it. He met her stare head on, not daring even to blink.

“Why do you run from me?” his voice so low it was almost a whisper “Why do you hide yourself?”

“Why do you run from me?” and her voice carried so much hurt, so much feeling and rawness that Cassian knew she had let one of her iron walls fall “Why did you drop my hand that time? Why look for me only when I’m alone?”

Her words pierced his heart. He had not know. Had not known how much she was hurting, what she may have thought his actions appeared to be.

“Why do you bother so much when not even my own family cares for me?” she snapped, and for a split second Cassian thought Nesta was going to cry.

“Your sisters love you, Nesta” he said softly.

“I believe you made it abundantly clear last solstice I was unlovable”

“Your sisters love you. I can’t for the life of me understand why, but they do.”

He flinched, cursing himself for his past actions.

“I have never regretted something as much as the moment those words left my mouth. I was rude and insensible,” he brushed her cheek with his thumb tentatively “ and none of those things I said were true. I hope someday you will forgive me.”

“I said some rude things to you too,” she whispered “Would you be able to forgive me?”

“I never took them to heart” Cassian gave her a watery smile “I knew it was a way for you to push me away and that you did not mean them sweetheart”

A lonely silent tear fell from Nesta. Cassian gathered her closer, and she buried her face in his neck.

“Hush now xe nhia. Aan arevanque”

They stayed like that, with Cassian running his hands through her hair and talking with her in Illyrian. She hadn't cried more than that single tear, but she trembled slightly sometimes.

“Nes...I have been meaning to tell you something”

“What is it?” she asked, looking up at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

“You don’t have to answer me or say anything at all, I just—”

“Cassian, out with it” she said, anxiousness lacing her every word.

“Since I met you I—”

But whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the sound of dishes falling and a curse coming from the kitchen.

“Kaelin,” Nesta said sighing “I better go see what he is doing when he should have been resting”

Cassian agreed with her, and a part of him was glad they had been interrupted. He still had much to make up to Nesta, his feelings would have to wait a little longer.

“What were you going to tell me?”

“It was nothing” he gave her a reassuring smile “Go see Kaelin. I can tell you another time”

Nesta hesitated, but his kind eyes were enough to make her trust his words.

“Thank you” and with a quick kiss on his cheek she was gone.

Cassian was so stunned he had to pinch himself to make sure he had not fallen asleep again, staying in bed for a few minutes more until he could put himself together.

~•~

The clock’s ticking was the only sound in the room, neither Cassian or Kaelin talking.

Nesta had left after breakfast, saying Esmée had lifted her resting order to help the healer collect a rare flower that only blossomed every sixty years.

After reassuring her that he knew which medicine to give Kaelin in case the kid felt pain and that he would make sure he rested, Nesta left them promising to return as soon as possible.

Kaelin was a bit awkward around Cassian at first, probably embarrassed about crying in front of him. It bothered the General to the point that he lent his copy of ‘King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table’ to the young illyrian.

“This book is very precious to me,” he had told Kaelin “as it was the first I managed to finish once I learnt how to read”

Kaelin had taken the old book with the utmost care, and Cassian almost laughed when he saw how slowly the boy was turning the pages, almost afraid of damaging it. And with his attention fully on the book, Cassian could work on Kaelin’s solstice present without fearing it would be seen.

Because Cassian was working on expanding the old storage room near the birch.

He was designing a room for Kaelin to sleep. If the kid was to live with him and Nesta definitely — or at least as long as he wanted to — Cassian could not let him keep on sleeping on the sofa.

He had been working in secret to refashion the space. Had worked until dawn on it two nights ago when he had rescued Kaelin from the bullies. Maybe two weeks more only and it would be ready on time for the Winter Solstice.

Thinking about the birch made Cassian realise how sore he was, both from the training, working on the bedroom and the time spent hunched over the piece of paper drawing the room. A trip to the birch would help relax, which gave him an idea.

“Hey kid,” he called, catching Kaelin’s attention “I don’t know if Nesta told you, but we have a birch here. How about we go? It would help relax you”

It was a tradition for male Illyrians to go birching — be it with family or friends — as a form of bonding.

And Cassian did want to get closer to Kaelin. He saw a lot of himself in the orphaned kid.

The young one, however, did not seem to find the ideia appealing at all.

“I— it would be an honour sir, I mean, Cassian, but I—” Kaelin blushed deeply while trying to politely refuse Cassian’s invitation, stammering and tripping over his words.

“You know what? Why don’t I go first and you get there after I’m done?” Cassian shrugged, seeing Kaelin sigh in relief.

It was a step too far it seemed. Maybe Kaelin was uncomfortable because they were not closer — although the objective was for them to get closer — maybe he is shy or maybe embarrassed because he is not as muscled as the other boys his age. Cauldron knew how much extra practice Cassian himself had done when he was younger, wanting to get as strong and muscled as Enalius, their warrior god.

He would have to work a little harder if he wanted to make Kaelin feel as comfortable with him as he was with Nesta. They were both males, so it should be easier for them to bond despite meeting the kid after Nesta.

“You can bond in other ways” he muttered to himself as he got dressed in his room, drying his hair.

It was then that he realised he had forgotten to leave Kaelin a second towel, in case his got too damp because of the heat in the birch.

Grabbing a towel he goes to the birch and opens it.

“Kaelin, I forgot to give—” he stops himself when he sees that Kaelin is naked, head thrown back against the wall, completely relaxed for once.

Yet all that easiness goes away once he hears Cassian’s voice.

“I’m sorry. Here’s your towel” stammering, he quickly leaves the white towel on the bench and closes the door, internally beating himself for forgetting to knock.

Kaelin had wanted to go alone and Cassian invaded the kid’s personal space and now he would hate him and—

Cassian stops in front of his room, thoughts finally catching up with his brain.

He remembers the ugly bruises along Kaelin’s ribs, their purple and green colour already fading to yellow and has to reboot his memory for a second.

He’s almost sure he saw boobs.

But boys don’t have boobs. He knows that.

And he could not possibly be confused because of the heat or the smoke inside the birch—

But he recalls how Nesta is so protective of Kaelin. How she almost seemed afraid for him to meet Azriel, how Kaelin had cried and said nobody could know he had activated his killing powers because they’d look too much into him.

And suddenly it clicked.

Kaelin was a girl.

~•~

Cassian was very close to having a mental breakdown.

Kaelin was a girl. A girl. As in boobs, periods and weird hormones.

And he had seen him — her, naked.

Cauldron, he was knee deep in shit.

After walking in on Kaelin, Cassian had been unable to leave his room. He was sure she would want some time alone to process what had happened and that he now knew her secret.

Because Kaelin was a girl.

“Gods, where is Nesta when I need her?” he grumbled, running his hands on his hair.

Nesta knew it all along and was helping Kaelin hide it. It was a noble thing to do, but also so reckless. If the wrong person discovered it they could be killed. He would not put it past the Illyrians to do that.

He had to talk with Kaelin. He had left her alone for long enough. If he did not talk with her now he would have to wait for when Nesta arrived, and that was a talk Kaelin did not have to be present.

It was a little past the time for lunch, so he had the perfect excuse to knock in Nesta’s bedroom and ask Kaelin to come out.

Except when he did that nobody answered.

Kaelin was not there.

“Fucking hell, not again” Cassian swore, quickly going out and getting airborne.

Kaelin was still hurt so she would not be able to fly. He had a chance to catch up with her given that she was walking.

And to his luck he found her not far from his cabin.

But she was not alone.

“Are you sure you are a boy? Look how skinny you are”

“I am a late bloomer” she answered an older Illryan, making him and the other one beside him laugh.

“Late bloomer? That is girl talk, ain’t I right Bjerke?”

“Take off your shirt, boy. Show us those muscles” the male, Bjerke, said.

“Thank you, but no. I have to go” Kaelin tried to go past them, but was held back by Bjerke.

“Here Falk, hold this thing while I help our friend”

As Cassian got closer, he realised Kaelin was holding his book, which was teared from her grasp by Bjerke, who started trying to undress her.

Blood roaring in his ears, Cassian dropped in front of them, his siphons flashing.

“Let. Go. Of. Him” he gritted out, and the males froze.

In front of them stood the General Commander of the Illyrian armies.

The Lord of Bloodshed.

And he was not happy.

“We were just talking to him” Falk said, his voice hinting at his fear.

“He said no” Cassian growled, seeing Kaelin’s clothes messed up.

All Cassian could see was Kaelin's scared face and remember when Nesta had hinted about being attacked when she was human.

He still wanted to know who that piece of shit was.

Would take his sweet time making him suffer for what he did.

“I think it’s best that you go” he snapped, and Bjerke let go of Kaelin, taking a step back “If I hear you were bothering someone else again — be it male or female — you will want to have never been born. Are we understood?”

Both males assured Cassian it would not happen again, and were airborne within minutes.

Kaelin straightened her clothes, grabbing the fallen book and dusting off its cover.

She still refused to look at Cassian.

“What am I going to do with you kid?” he sighed “Nesta will kill me once she discovers I let you out of my sight.”

That caught the young girl’s attention. She finally glanced his way, searching Cassian’s face for something, anything that would give away that he was angry with her or that he was going to expose her secret to someone.

She found nothing.

“I… I am sorry I lost lunch” she mumbled.

“Good thing I have not eaten yet” giving her a reassuring smile, he ruffled her short hair “Let’s go home and eat before Nesta arrives and kill us both.”

“Yeah. Let’s go home” Kaelin answered, and it seemed a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

•

Tags: @sayosdreams @thewayshedreamed @sjm-things @perseusannabeth @arinbelle @caotica-e-quieta @vidalinav @swankii-art-teacher @ireallyshouldsleeprn @duskandstarlight @greerlunna @thegoddessaltenia @dayanna-hatter @verypaleninja @awesomelena555 @courtofjurdan @valkyriewarriors @moe8 @illyrianwitchling13 @silvernesta @bri-loves-sunflowers @queenestarcheron @imwritingthesewords @vasudharaghavan @rainbowcheetah512 @darkshadowqueensrule @letstakethedawn @starlightorstarfire @city-of-fae @thalia-2-rose @nestaarcher0n @rowaelinismyotp @julemmaes @dontgetsalmonella @alinaleksanders @lysandra-tiara9 @inardour @hikari274 @fatimafares123 @angelina-figjam

#nessian #nesta x cassian #nesta archeron #cassian #sarah j maas #sjmaas #sjm books #sjm fanfic

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stalksbyakuyatogami · 4 years ago

Note

Oh my god, successfully summoning an ancestor with the V3 boys was amazing! Thank you so much! Could you do the same thing with the V3 Girls (exept Kaede because she is in your Blacklist)?

Summoning An Ancestor With V3 Girls!

aaaaaaaaaaa!! thank you anon!! im glad you liked it :))

warning: might be a long read

Himiko Yumeno

•You thought you'd excite her? The opposite. Sure, she always bragged about her magic, but she's actually all bark no bite. Just when you thought her magic would finally be put into use. She even refused doing it when she heard the ancestor part. There's no way in hell that she'd want to witness a phantom in this school. Especially at the third floor. But by some miracle and bribery, you managed to drag her in.

•She was slightly quivering just by the ambience of the room. It was a bit dark, just lit up by a few candles that barely even did their job. Although, she was curious of all the things that you had laid out. She would take a few glances on it every second, not sure if to feel fear or curiousity.

•When the spirit appeared, all she could do was tearfully and fearfully watch the ascending spirit. She was frozen in place. She might be fearing it, but she also thought that it was awesome. If she was a mage, she could do this all the time.

•She just stood there the whole time you talked to your ancestor. She ahd questions of her own, but she's just trying to bottle them all up, hoping that you'd miraculously ask them. As if channeling her thoughts you.

•After you were done, she was speechless. She was trying to process everything that just happened. She asked you if she can ask some questions too next time. Let her ask please xD.

Kirumi Tojo

•She's intrigued. It's the first time that she's having this request... but it's more like a favor. Same thing right? She'd like to see a spirit too. She might use this information someday, who knows. She agreed.

•She looked at all the things you had on the floor. Very dangerous. So she would guide you on how to use it properly. You might mess something up, but she's there to help.

•She was on alert when you started chanting unfamiliar words, but she remained calm and rational. Her hand will be ready to grab yours in case you had to flee. Your ancestor appeared earlier than you expected. She took just a step back when the spirit emerged. Intimidated by the spirit, she suggested that you two get out. But when the spirit spoke that you two can stay, she calmed down, but of course she's still on guard.

•While you conversed with your ancestor, she was observing it. Trying to identify which century they came from. She was trying to figure out if she would know how to serve them if they were still alive. Disregarding that, she's behaved and formal towards the spirit. She kept quiet the whole time and had her hands on top of the other, listening to the whole conversation.

•When you ended the session, she exhaled a breath of relief and congratulated you for doing a great job handling the spirit. There was something bugging her mind and you couldn't figure out what that was. But she reassured you that it was nothing. She agreed to come again the next time you perform another summoning.

Angie Yonaga

•This actually piqued her interest. She might be an artist, but she also takes interest in occult. So obviously, she's agree with you right away. She's excited, to be honest. But first, you'd hold a prayer to Atua. Pray for it to be successful. You couldn't escape her, so you just joined her, or you waited until she finished.

•She was humming while you two were heading for the room. When she saw your materials, her interest shot up. She even asked you if you needed a pint of blood because she'll get it right away. You tell her that a pint is not needed. In fact, you didn't need anything that was out of this room. Everything necessary is already here.

•She was a bit disappointed when no spirit appeared 8 seconds after you called it. And she presumed that maybe Atua didn't like this time and day fir the summoning. She would take her words back when it finally appeared. Amazement was glossing her eyes. How amazing Atua is.

•She was the one to ask questions first. What can you do? She's hella curious! The phantom was overwhelmed with the questions and eventually stopped answering them. She promised to keep quiet while you asked for advice but only if you'll let her ask more questions when you finish. She hummed while you communicated so it was kinda distracting. She's just excited give her a break xD.

•When you two were finished, she gave you her insight and told you that it was an amazing experience! She would love to do it with you again. She might just summon Atua next time!

Maki Harukawa

•Maki gave you a questioning look. What? A summoning? You seriously believe in that? That's nothing but a wishful thinking. But seeing that you insist so bad, she had no choice but to come with you. She just wants your mouth to shut up, so she agreed.

•The materials you had were pretty unfamiliar to her considering she's an assassin. She thinks this is all just bullshitry, nothing more. She has to put up with it though. She actually helped you do the methods, correcting whenever you get something wrong.

•Maki got tired of waiting after 10 seconds. "I already told you. This is not working." Which she'd immediately take back. The phantom loomed over you two. She creased her eyebrows. She still can't believe. But she had no choice but to suck it up. She nervously swallowed and grabbed something that wasn't there; a weapon.

•She stood there, despising the phantom a bit, but still listened to what it said. She didn't have her personal questions; regarding the killing game that is. She had all the questions on her mind. Who? What? Why? How? HOW?! She was making a weird face that slightly disturbed the spirit.

•When you finished the session, she told you how weird that experience was. But she's relieved that you got some advice from them. Might not go with you the next time. Not because she's terrified of the ghost. She thinks it's hella weird and it sends a shiver up her spine.

Tenko Chabashira

•"S-s-summoning?! Thats kinda... new..." She's a bit creeped out. Just the thought of seeing a ghost is enough to make her cringe. She asks you if you're sure. Just in case you change your mind, she'd still be supporting you.

•You led her up to the third floor of the school. She was a bit fidgety and she always asks you if you'd change your mind right now. She was shocked of all thr items in the room. She was alarmed and posed defensively. She had no idea how all of these work, so she read the instructions on the book and helped you even just a little bit.

•She was actually relieved that your ancestor didn't appear... yet. The relief immediately went away when the translucent spirit came to... life. How ironic. She was actually terrified of the spirit now. She hidea behind your back, promising to defend you if anything happens.

•She was behind you the whole time you talked. She wouldn't dare utter a word. But maybe she'll sneak her catchphrase in when your ancestor is male. She watched the spirit with anxious and confused eyes.

•She was extremely relieved when you were done. It was like getting rid of the thorn on her side. She felt easy again. I doubt that she'd go with you the next time... That was terrifying. Who knew spirits were real?

Miu Iruma

•She's quite disgusted of the thought. You still believe in those things at your age? Pathetic. Believe in technology instead! Now come here and let me test this new invention of mine! Its functions are—! She agreed to join you. But just for research purposes and future references. Decided to make an impromptu camera to tape the summoned spirit. That might just be a breakthrough.

•She was full of complaints during your trip. She held her camera to where all the necessary objects for the ritual was placed. Istg she might be doing a documentary. Bad commentator I would say. She dissed all the objects that you had laid out. What the hell, man? She didn't help you. She just picked these up and observed it through the camera. She filmed your process.

•She was impatiently waiting for the ghost to appear. She was about to turn her camera off when she heard the phantom's booming voice. She cowered in fear, almost dropping her camera. She hid behind your back, whimpering.

•She watched your ancestor fearfully while you asked questions. She would mutter unholy things under her breath and you would be distracted by that. Like, do souls have pps or something of the sort.

•She only filmed half of the thing. Let's just hope that that ghost and the audio show up in the recordings. She wouldn't accompany you ever again. That shit was terrifying.

Tsumugi Shirogane

•She was excited. But of vourse, she evaluated everything before she agreed with you. Summoning was both heart-throbbing and curious for her. So obviously, she wouldn't back out.

•She was quiet during the trip to the third floor. But she certainly had a smile on her face and stars for eyes. She was intrigued with all thr object you had laid out. She even grabbed one and tried to run it across her skin. But for safety purposes, yo told her to stop as it would ruin the ritual. She gladly obliged. She still observed the objects very closely though.

•She was starting to sigh as 8 seconds rolled by and nothing came out of your ritual. Just as she was about to leave, she squeaked at the spirit's frightening voice. She went back to her place and quietly apologized while she had her head down.

•She was just there... with her sparkling eyes boring into the summoned soul. She had all sorts of questions, and her face was turning pink. Probably from excitement. She had to bottle up all those questions too.

•After the session, she was too awestruck to utter a single word. She had sparkles in her eyes and her hands were merged together. She grabbed yours and enthusiastically said, "Let's do it again next time, S/O!"

I'll fix the errors later. Thank you for requesting, anon.

-Mod Toko [Maki Shift]♡

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thepartyresponsible · 4 years ago

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I'd love to hear about the stevetonytimehop story!

oh boy. so the name sounds fun, but this fic is actually quite dark at the beginning. which is probably why i don’t work on it very often.

anyway, here’s some endgame inspired angst. warnings for a lot of referenced character deaths and also for alcoholism and depression and just general despair.

—

Tony’s drunk the first time it happens. Drunk enough that he assumes the whole thing is a hallucination. Some dregs of his conscience teaming up with whatever base will to live remains left in him, dropping him here in the hopes that he’ll learn something from it.

“Shit,” he says, blinking around at all the assembled mourners. “Which one of you is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?”

Pepper’s mouth falls open, and, when she blinks, tears track down her face. Beside her, Rhodey looks stricken.

It’s nice, seeing Rhodey look anything at all.

“Jacob Marley,” Tony says. He tips the bottle Rhodey’s direction and is absolutely thrilled that his subconscious mind had the mercy to bring this particular crutch with him. “Icarus?” he tries, when that gets no response.

And that’s a new metaphor he’s never properly appreciated. He’s always thought of himself as a Sisyphean figure, but Daedalus has his resonance.

“Who the hell are you?”

It’s been years since Tony heard that voice. Years and years, if you don’t count all the nightmares. Years and years and years, except for all the videos, the footage from the suit cameras, the endless loops that play all night while Tony stares, tracking every missed chance to change the outcome.

Tony’s watched Steve die a thousand times. He’s memorized it. Steve’s death has all the familiarity of sunrise.

It’s strange hearing him say something other than Tony’s name. Strange hearing his voice so strong and clear. For half a second, when Tony looks at him, he can see blood bubbling up at the corners of his mouth.

But it’s not there. Because this Steve isn’t dying. This Steve is standing tall and steady, with all his bones and blood on the inside.

Tony’s at his own funeral, but here, somehow, Steve got to live.

“Tiny Tim,” Tony says.

And it fits, because Tiny Tim had his broken leg and everything about Steve was broken. Everything but his face, that jawline, those bright blue eyes. Blood everywhere, and his face going pale, but still so fucking beautiful.

“Dad?”

There’s a kid. She’s looking at him like her heart is breaking with a hope it isn’t big enough to hold.

Everywhere he goes, he breaks every good thing he finds.

“Fuck,” he says. The world sways; his stomach lurches. He drops the bottle in his hand, and, when he throws up, he throws up in a different universe.

—

“I mean, I don’t know what to tell you.” This universe’s Bruce doesn’t need glasses. 20/20 vision, apparently. It’s weird how he still pinches the bridge of his nose when he’s exasperated. “Honestly, Tony, you’re the one I’d normally ask.”

“Okay,” Tony says. He kicks his legs. He’s sitting on a desk Bruce that insists is his, but it doesn’t feel familiar. This universe’s Tony wrote all his notes in code. This universe’s Tony is paranoid and skittish, pilots the Iron Man suit remotely, hasn’t been seen in public since he was rescued from the Ten Rings two and a half years after he was captured.

This universe’s Tony disappeared ten days ago, and every single Iron Man suit self-detonated forty-eight hours later.

Hell of a dead man’s switch, Tony thinks. But if he’d been in those caves for two and a half years, he has no idea what kind of creature would’ve come crawling out.

“And this other me,” Tony says, “does he spend a lot of his time fucking around with universe-hopping?”

Bruce shrugs. “A casual amount,” he says. “Kinda did a tour after the Accords.”

“Right.” After the Accords, Tony stayed drunk for two weeks straight. After the Accords, he locked himself out of his own labs. After the Accords, he walked into the ocean until the water rose over his head, and he tasted salt in his mouth, and he thought about the Ten Rings holding his head under until he blacked out.

In this universe, Steve Rogers died in New York at age five. Bucky Barnes was Captain America. Is Captain America. Has always been Captain America.

And he’s been nothing but helpful. Kind. Concerned about this new Tony, clearly distraught over losing the one that belongs here.

“I shot you,” Tony tells Barnes. The whole team – what amounts to the team in this universe, anyway – is eating dinner, and Tony can’t stomach the way Barnes looks at him, all polite and pained, like Tony’s a cancer patient instead of a cancerous growth, eating into this universe. “In the head,” he clarifies. “I shot you in the head.”

Clint and Natasha tip their heads together. Scott drops his fork.

Barnes chews and swallows. “Did I deserve it?”

The laugh sticks in Tony’s throat and comes out as something ugly. The glass shakes in his hand. He holds so tight that it shatters, and then he’s in a new universe, a fourth universe, and he’s bleeding from the shards of glass embedded in his palm, and Steve Rogers is in bed with him.

—

“What the fuck,” Tony says, to Steve, to the white sheets, to everything. “What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.”

“Tony,” Steve says. His hands are warm. He grabs Tony’s wrist, stares at the cuts. “Okay, come on. Let’s get---”

“Stop,” Tony says. He pulls away, trips, lands hard on the carpet, good hand braced against the carpet. “Get the fuck--”

“Okay,” Steve says. Hands up, eyes wide.

This Steve looks young. Fresh from the ice. Beautiful.

“Tony?” he says. “You’re bleeding.”

So were you, Tony wants to say. So were you, until you stopped.

“Please,” Steve says. “I know you’re not my Tony. But you’re—I just want to look at your hand, okay?”

“Last time I trusted you,” Tony says, “you damn near split the arc reactor with your shield.”

Steve flinches. “I didn’t,” he says. “That wasn’t me.”

And Tony knows it wasn’t. Because that Steve is dead. That Steve died in his arms. His last word was Tony’s name.

“I want this to be over,” Tony says.

Steve reaches down and picks him up like he weighs nothing, and Tony forgot about that. He forgot how strong Steve is, the trick of him.

Steve Rogers makes people feel safe. It’s an illusion. You’re never in more danger than when you’re close to Steve.

He and Tony have that in common.

“I’m sorry,” Tony says.

Says it to this whole, beautiful Steve. When he looks at him, he can see all the places the other Steve split apart, the joint where his arm snapped, the white t-shirt stretched over the chest that was smashed open.

Steve, standing against the entirety of Thanos’ army. And they were too late. Just like Tony had always known they were going to be.

“You’re okay,” Steve tells him, voice soft, tone soothing.

But that doesn’t help, because that’s the problem.

Tony’s fine. Steve’s dead. Rhodey’s dead. Pepper’s dead.

Peter’s dead.

Barnes is dead.

Someday, whichever Tony started this mad game of multiverse duck-duck-goose, is going to crash into a universe he likes, and Tony doesn’t know who he’ll have left when it’s over.

It can’t be less than who he had left when it started.

But maybe what he fears most is having to go back to the empty world he created. Maybe that’s exactly what he deserves. Sisyphus, and his rock.

“Hey,” Steve says, setting him down on the bathroom counter, running his hand under warm water, “it’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”

Tony closes his eyes. “Jesus, Steve,” he says. “We never are.”

#writing #fic

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incorrect-quotes-from-she-ra · 3 years ago

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Morning! I hope you don't mind if i give you yet another She-Ra thought I'm too damn lazy to post on my own. Also, it's long again. I WILL find that character limit some day.

So, we know the way Shadow Weaver raised Adora resulted, among other issues, in her being selfless to the point of self-sacrifice, which came to a climax in the Heart's failsafe business.

And it's been suggested that this was basically intentional on Shadow Weaver's part. Basically, selflessness is a very beneficial quality for others to have. My theory is that <b>her plan for Adora had always been specifically for her to someday use the failsafe and release all magic</b>.

(i will admit i am also curious how formatting works in this app. thank you for your help with these experiments)

So, evidence. Let's start with her name. I know this is a remake and they were stuck with the existing names, but there's a scene where Scorpia complains about it ("yeah i GET it, everyone LOVES you"), which constitutes the writers acknowledging its meaning, which makes me think it's fair game to analyze.

First, I'm obviously assuming Shadow Weaver choose it, as part of her ongoing parenting plan. It's also possible it was her original First One-given name, we don't know. Neither quite works because either she or Light Hope should have had some issues knowing what the name was and they clearly knew automatically. Really the entire series is weird in that everyone communicates with everyone else way too easily, and i will definitely rant about that someday.

For now let it stand that Shadow Weaver is the parent figure, it makes the most sense for her to pick the name, both in-universe and narratively, so i shall assume so by default. I have two things to say about that choice.

First, as we all have noticed, most of the princesses have names ending in -a. All of them, if you count "Glimma". It's never said to be intentional, but it would make sense. And then IF such a tradition exists among Etheria's royalty, it's not unreasonable for Shadow Weaver, a notable and moderately respected member of the land of knowledge, to know about it.

And then if she knew, of course she would take it into consideration when looking for names. Admittedly it's a little weird with the anti-Princess propaganda that the Horde has, but she doesn't really need to explain or justify this. Hordak has a very [i]laissez-faire[/i] attitude, and everyone else she clearly doesn't care about.

And if she knew or suspected that the princesses' powers were related to the Heart of Etheria, which i will argue for later, then giving her a princessy name is also adequately ironic.

The second name bit is that Scorpia clearly knows some Latin, but not enough. True, <em>adorare</em> means to worship and/or to love, but Latin verbs are more complex than that. _Adora_ specifically is 3rd person singular present indicative active. The translation would be "she loves".

Names aside, i want to talk about how they (we) learned about the Heart of Etheria. Castaspella doesn't know what to do, Shadow Weaver suggests they take a road trip to research, which she's reticent about but concedes is probably the best use of her time, and they find success. We don't know how long it took them, but i had the distinct impression that it wasn't very long.

Naturally, I'm suggesting Shadow Weaver knew all along, and led Castaspella on the trip to have an excuse for the inevitable "how do you know?". Also tricked her into thinking it was /her/ discovery, and maybe even that she was succeeding where Shadow Weaver had failed before, if necessary.

That's why she's so excited to share their results with everybody, and Shadow Weaver cuts her off, apparently just to antagonize her for fun, but I'm suggesting it was also because for her this is the culmination of a decades-long plan, and she wants to Get On With It.

It's also interesting that there was a mural depicting the Spell of Obtainment in the hallway leading to the failsafe. It was a reminder of Shadow Weaver's past, and an opportunity for her to show she regrets her results but doesn't repent from her choices, which i quite like actually. But I'm also saying that, meta-textually, it was a signal that she'd been there before, literally.

And then there is the potential in-universe connection, since we don't know what exactly the spell was meant to be obtaining. Power, for sure, and from what happened we're probably meant to assume it's tapping into some sort of demonic entity or dimension.

Fair enough, except that it never comes up again. And it's kind of a big plot point that Etheria is isolated from the rest of the cosmos, which may or may not conflict with it having a contactable "hell". Meanwhile there's the Heart of Etheria Project collecting all that magic, which Mara's allies (and their descendants) would know something about, have access to at least one backdoor to, and may well have tried to tap into its power at some point.

And then what went wrong may well be one of the defense mechanisms of the Project, though I'm admittedly veering into unfounded speculation.

So, a rough timeline. Light Spinner was always motivated to excel and craved power. She was probably always envied the princesses, who command greater magic than most sorcerers with apparently none of the study and practice.

She took to researching everything she could that might lead to power, eventually discovering the chamber with the failsafe, and presumably other information left by Mara's Friends, either in other chambers or in documents she's since removed. She would have learned a lot of things from this.

As i suggested, i believe she knew there's some connection between the princesses at large and the Heart of Etheria. Incidentally, i don't know exactly what that connection is, and in particular whether princesses were created by the Project or an existing phenomenon that the First Ones co-opted. But it doesn't matter, exactly.

What's important is that there's clearly a connection, more specifically a control system for the princesses and their magic, which is presumably related to how Shadow Weaver was able to tap into the Black Garnet's power. With Hordak's help, obviously, since she clearly believed it when he claimed he could cut her off at will, but he's later shown to have basically no understanding of First Ones' tech, so the knowledge must have come from her.

For the record, i would guess she thinks princesses are artificial, empowered both magically and politically to keep the planet in check, and that they would be depowered once the failsafe was fired. I also think that may be true, actually, since it almost happened when Entrapta was messing with the system, and if i recall none of them were shown to use any magic after Adora did fire it, while she clearly used Perfuma's power. But anyways!

Back to what Shadow Weaver learned, she would know some of what the failsafe does, namely disrupt the system that's hoarding most of the planet's magic, thereby spreading magic to all (most notably her), and some of how to use it, and the fact that she couldn't do so and hope to live, and some of the criteria for who can. That part is important.

But first, she also learned the Spell of Obtainment, deemed it more likely but didn't think she could do it herself, despaired of getting help until she thought Hordak's rise to fame would give her #casus belli#, lost her patience when the Mystacor leadership disagreed, etc etc etc. Pretty uncontroversial in this part, i think.

After she'd joined the Horde, when Hordak showed up with baby Adora and wanted to lump her with the rest of the orphans they have, Shadow Weaver pleaded to have her get special treatment. She even said that she's special, and it couldn't have been her leadership skills or good heart, since she didn't have either yet. It's heavily implied she could recognize her as a First One, but it's not clear why she would care, since they were known for leaving behind advanced technology, which a baby also doesn't have. Unless, of course, she knew there are devices only a First One could use, and maybe has plans related to that.

So I'm pretty sure she learned the criteria that the failsafe requires, devised some spell or technique to check people for them that she pretty much used all the time, just in case, and was very surprised when a newborn tested positive. She was also surprised when Hordak made her personally responsible for the raising of the kid, but her reaction is pretty much "ok, that could work, i guess".

Also also, i suspect she can read First One script. Not perfectly like Adora, but better than Bow's parents probably. Mostly because when she puts Adora's hand on the crystal and says "i think you know the password", that seems like a very transparent attempt to pretend she knows it too when she doesn't. But that seems irresponsible at such a crucial moment, she and Castaspella should really have researched it earlier. Or at least her line there should have been "you can read this, right?" or somesuch.

So I'm thinking it's a double bluff, hoping everybody assumes she doesn't know so she doesn't have to reveal how and why she knows, again.

And that's all i have, i think? This is not nearly as well laid out as i would like. But then, nothing ever is, right?

Also it's not even close to morning anymore. Thank you if you even got this far, and have a good evening!

hi!!! this took me a while to answer, i'm so sorry about that <3

i'm very low on energy today so i cannot summon up the brain energy to respond properly to this, as much as i want to, i'm really sorry for that as well

i love this theory!! it actually fits in really well with canon and makes, like, a LOT of sense now that i think about it. i definitely wouldn't have thought of this on my own, so thank you for sharing this with me!! :D

#asks #leo answers stuff #IM CLEARING OUT MY INBOX #CAUSE I FINALLY HAVE THE TIME #long post #spop meta #shadow weaver

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crispyjenkins · 4 years ago

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Hi can I request something where jaster picks up obi wan early in his apprenticeship like on bandomeer or melida/daan and just adopts him and jango and obi grow up as like childhood sweethearts? Love your work, thanks for writing! :)

(**because they get together as teens, i’ve adjusted the age difference to 2 years instead of 9 because just like. no. they’re 17 and 19 in this!

hmm also i feel the need to say the true mandalorians being chill about showing their faces is super intentional in all my works, i have so. many. headcanons about different clans, and why the covert is so careful about their helmets, and i just never seem to find the time to talk about it (๑o̴̶̷̥᷅ㅂo̴̶̷̥᷅๑) sigh someday)

“Stop smiling, you smug bastard,” Obi-Wan grouses as his would-be suitor awkwardly shuffles away under Jango’s feral grin.

Endlessly pleased with himself, Jango leans against their starfighter and watches the Chiss mechanic disappear into the crowded spaceport. “That’s three you owe me, ‘Nobi.”

Obi-Wan glares at him and snatches Jango’s buy’ce from his hands to shove it on his stupid vod’s head. “I can take care of myself, Vhett. I don’t owe you banthashit.”

“It’ll be easier when you finish your armor,” Jango adds unhelpfully, righting his helmet and strapping it on properly as if nothing had happened. “Only drunks and spice-addicts try to hit on with Mandalorians in full beskar’gam.”

“That’s very reassuring, thanks.”

“If you two are done flirting,” Bosoloc cuts in, their Arconan pilot smirking down at them from the primary cockpit, “we were supposed to meet your buir hours ago.”

Obi-Wan says, “That’s Jango’s fault,” just as Jango grumbles,

“‘Nobi’s fault.”

Bosoloc levels them both with a world-weary look that has them scrambling up the rusty ramp stairs to the secondary cockpit. Obi-Wan helps Jango over the edge and kicks away the ramp, before pulling the lever to close the blast canopy over their heads. With only minor grouching, he lets Jango tug him onto the edge of the seat between his legs, because this starfighter is absolutely not made for three pilots.

“Hands to yourself, spacer,” Obi-Wan says as he follows Bosoloc’s lead to get the ‘fighter ready for the short flight to the nearby moon where they’re to rejoin the Haat’ade and, hopefully, avoid a lecture about safety. Again.

Jango chuckles, impossibly close, and slips Obi-Wan’s own helmet onto his head. “You’re the one that got us into this mess,” he reminds him, somehow managing to fasten the strap under Obi-Wan’s chin without looking.

Bosoloc signals for takeoff, and Obi-Wan elbows Jango in the ribs, leaning over to calibrate the astronav system. Practically oozing his amusement, Jango innocently sets his hands on Obi-Wan’s hips, but doesn’t otherwise bother him until they’re out of atmo, properly refueled this time. Which had maybe sort of, yes, been Obi-Wan’s fault that they had not been when they left Concord Dawn.

Not that he would ever admit to it.

The Haat’ade camp on Aslo II is a whirlwind of activity, commandos in various states of beskar’gam running back and forth from tents to their ships, blaster cartridges exchanged faster than words as supercommandos bark orders and direct the foot traffic, and Obi-Wan lives for this.

The energy, the excitement before a battle, the way his people leak every thought into the Force until he can’t feel anything else. The way this is the closest he’ll ever come to being a knight.

Jango takes one look at his expression after dropping from the starfighter, and shakes his head. “Alright, come on, adrenaline junkie,” he snorts, grabbing Obi-Wan by the arm to tug him right into the heart of the whirlwind.

He senses Jaster before he sees him, their Mand’alor all but glittering in the Force compared to the more muted signatures of the other Haat’ade; Jaster will swear up and down that being Mand’alor has nothing to do with the Force, and Obi-Wan can’t really remember much of what he’d learned in the Temple, but he knows Jaster’s full of it. The whole camp orbits around one nondescript tent, as if pulled by a physical gravity to their leader, and what little he does remember tells him the Force is just as much a part of the Mando’ade as it is the Jedi.

“Buir!” Jango calls as he drags Obi-Wan into the tent where Jaster is standing before a dataterminal with one of the supercommandos. He looks away from the graph Obi-Wan wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of, and visibly sags in relief.

“And we thought we’d actually have to hold a funeral this time,” Ezovaq says from Jaster’s side, smiling benignly as Jango unclips his buy’ce and bounds forward to accept the hair-ruffle Jaster gives him.

But Kyr’tsad is closing in, and they don’t really have time to discuss the, arguably obscene, number of disappearances the Mand’alor’s foundlings have managed.

Obi-Wan joins them at the terminal, leaving his own helmet on. Jaster settles for knocking his knuckles on his forehead in greeting, and Ezovaq respectfully looks away; some things are not meant for anyone but clan.

“I’m glad to see you both in one piece,” Jaster sighs, turning back to the holoscreen and adding a datachip to the terminal so a map of Aslo replaces the graph. “When we did not hear from Bosoloc, we worried.”

“We needed to stop on Aslo to refuel,” Obi-Wan says on external comm, still unsure about how to speak with other commandos around. “A tropical storm had communications out until we were out of atmosphere. Sorry, Jas’alor,” he adds sheepishly, because of course Jaster knows who would have fueled the ‘fighter on Concord Dawn. Or not fueled, as it were.

Jango shoehorns himself against Obi-Wan’s side, the familiarity of the action catching Ezovaq’s gaze, but they say nothing as Jaster gives Obi-Wan a tired smile. “It is nothing, ad’ika. It is only a mistake repeated twice.”

“Bosoloc is finding another pilot,” Jango butts in, dropping an arm around Obi-Wan’s shoulders as easy as breathing. “She said Montross flew ‘Nobi’s and my fighter in?”

And Obi-Wan feels a swell of pride at that, that Jango is finally admitting they share custody of the rustbucket Jaster had gifted Obi-Wan for his fifteenth nameday, and at the implication that his and Jango’s repairs and advancements had been deemed worthy enough for an actual battle with Kyr’tsad. He isn’t an ace mechanic by any means, but Obi-Wan is still ridiculously proud of their S3 Y-wing – even if using it in combat puts Obi-Wan in the gunner’s chair and Jango behind the wheel.

To be fair, Jango hasn’t crashed them in over a year.

Jaster’s mouth moves as he responds, but Obi-Wan doesn’t hear it. White-hot fire races up his spine, and it feels as if all the air is sucked from the tent all at once, and Obi-Wan has only a moment to try and identify what the Force is trying to warn him of before a light flashes on the terminal and Myles’ voice cuts through the muggy air.

“Vizsla’s dropped out of hyperspace,” he reports, and Jango tightens his arm. “Contact in ten minutes, Mand’alor.”

Jaster looks to them with a parent’s resignation. “You heard the man,” he says, jerking his chin to the tent flap. “Contact in ten.”

“Mand’alor!” they return in unison, and duck from the tent to rush to the Y-wing.

Mando’a: buy’ce — beskar helmet vod — “brother, comrade, sibling”, pl. vode, technically gender neutral but used most often in fandom as “brother”. used here to denote that they are both jaster’s foundlings. Vhett — original form of the Basic-transliterated surname Fett, lit. “Farmer beskar’gam — Armour made of beskar, “Mandalorian Iron” that was actually probably a steel alloy buir — “parent”, gender neutral Haat’ade —lit. “true children of Mandalore”, True Mandalorians (slang shortened to Haat'ad/e) Kyr’tsad — Death Watch, lit. “Death Society”

#two updates?#in one day?#to be fair i'm not sure of the quality #but it feels good to be writing again #jangobi #prompt #ask box is closed but will be open again soon!#fanfiction #prompt fill #haat mando'ade obi #jaster mereel #jango fett #obi wan kenobi #jango fett/obi-wan kenobi #crispy writes #ask #anon #au #i forget how to tag things

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ichika27 · 3 years ago

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Mairimashita! Iruma-kun s2 ep21

Last episode for this season!

It’s strange we’re only getting 21. It feels like an awkward number to end on since many other anime that goes on for 20+ episodes have at least 24-26. Oh well, s3 has been announced so it’s all good I guess.

It's still the Apocalypse (the last day of it) and Iruma is trying to finish all of his homework which seem to be going well. He had a lot to do due to homework being doubled.

Why was homework doubled? It's the consequence of a past action...

It was due to the bet from back at the Walter Park arc! They remembered about it (I kinda forgot about it, honestly, since so many things happened since then).

Grandpa Sullivan is the one to choose the winners and decided it was all of them making them all both the winners and losers of the bet. With this, both the prize and punishments applied - they were treated to an expensive meal but they also have to deal with a ton of homework. Kalego-sensei is pissed he had to pay for everyone’s food but was very happy to tell them that they will be suffering for the rest of the apocalypse.

Iruma worked hard and got through all the homework though.

This Apocalypse Iruma had: gone on vacation with his friends, went on a sleepover at a friend's house, and went on a date... so naturally, this time around he's spending time with family!

He and Grandpa are gonna go buy school supplies. I kinda missed when me and my family did that back in the day. I always found shopping for school supplies fun.

Due to the season's earlier events, Iruma has gotten pretty popular it seems so Grandpa gives him anti-recognition glasses for a disguise. Ain’t the boy cute? I dunno why but with anime characters, glasses actually either add or subtract from how good or bad their appearance is.

Haha this reminds me, there’s this anime called “Castle Town Dandelion” and the MC is a girl who hates standing out and in one episode, her sister gave her glasses that could allegedly do the same thing Iruma’s glasses here could. It doesn’t work like that and everyone just acted as if it does to make her feel better. Akane needed this version lol.

They're headed to Magical Street to go shopping! A new area has been introduced to both us and Iruma.

This is apparently where shops, parks and also teacher's dorms are located. I’m wondering why the teacher’s dorms are here when back in the episodes where Iruma joined the student council, it seems he and the student council members were staying over at school. Why isn’t the dorm for faculty members at school, too then? Weird.

Iruma's Grandpa is pretty popular, too. People crowded around him as soon as they saw him but doesn't recognize Iruma due to the glasses. Makes me wonder why Grandpa didn't wear ones himself lol.

Grandpa Sullivan isn’t just popular as he’s well-liked, too.

First, clothes shopping! Iruma tried on a coat as they need some for the upcoming winter. Grandpa decides these were good and takes an entire rack. Damn they're rich lol. He tells Iruma to just wear a different one everyday.

They're buying accessories next and Opera suggest that Iruma buy a collar for his familiar which is Kalego-sensei lol. Iruma knew it would not end well if he actually did that and declines. Opera is disappointed by this... they really want to mess with Kalego, huh?

I think it’s funny but I also pity Kalego-sensei. Having to deal with his senpai’s antics long after graduating. The nightmare of many former students.

Next they're buying books! God this makes me miss going to book fairs.

Grandpa tells the staff at the desk what books he wanted and each one he lists off automatically flies down next to him (pretty cool). Grandpa explains that Iruma would need a lot of books to learn more spells. They talked about the spell Fractal (which Iruma used to princess carry Ameri last episode) and Grandpa tells him that with enough practice, Iruma could also use it to be able to fly. Grandpa takes this chance to show-off to Iruma by using it to take down a shoplifter. Everyone in the store is amazed but Iruma's praise is the one Grandpa cares about the most.

They continue shopping for stuff. This was funny cause the way Grandpa said the lollipop's name reminded me of how Doraemon introduces the items from his pocket. Also, does this mean that lollipop has no expiration date?

The day ends with the two having a talk (Opera went and got the carriage). Iruma says he had a lot of fun at school which made his Grandpa happy knowing Iruma has gotten used to living here. Grandpa tells him that the new semester would be even more eventful than this one and showed him a poster of what I assume would be the festivals the other fans have been mentioning.

In the middle of their talk, Iruma suddenly asks Grandpa about how to become a Demon King (likely cause he overheard some people wondering aloud why Sullivan, a powerful demon, didn't want to take the job despite being qualified for it).

Grandpa is surprised and speechless for a moment but then becomes happy and says if Iruma is asking cause he wanted to be Demon King then Grandpa will support him. Iruma explains he’s just curious.

Flashback! It seems Grandpa used to work for the former Demon King, Delkiller.

Too bad his face is covered. I’m curious to know what he looked like when he was younger.

Oooh... we finally see him - the infamous Delkiller that's been talked about for a long time. His face isn't completely properly shown for now, I guess but he’s shown to be pretty huge. He seems lazy but he also takes pride in the Demon World he's created. The flashback ends here though.

His hair color reminds me somewhat of Evil Cycle! Iruma’s hair color...

We get a bit of lore info from Grandpa about Demon Kings.

Grandpa explains about the 13 Crowns - representatives of the Demon World who help govern it - and that to become a Demon King, one must possess the trust of every single one since they'd be the one to rule the Demon World.

He also explains the role and power of the Demon King - their word is law and they are the Demon World itself. Demons will do as they commanded. The Demon World is a reflection of whoever ruled it and right now, the Demon World is a fun place because Delkiller-sama was a fun person.

Grandpa explains that with all these in mind, he doesn't know if he'd even get the role someday if he wanted it or if he ever did, if he'd be worthy of it. It’s such a big thing after all.

If he did become the Demon King though, he says he'd do this: make the Demon World "Iruma"-themed lol. Seriously though, he says he'd support Iruma if he'd become the Demon King and would like to see what kind of world Iruma would create.

These statements are very ironic considering who would end up being future Demon King haha.

While Iruma said he didn’t want to become Demon King, he did end up thinking about it. What if he did become the Demon King?

Hmm... for someone who isn’t interested, he looked like he was thinking deeply about it.

They get back home and later that night, Iruma checked the stuff Granpa bought him.

Iruma finally gets a hold of the Demon King Prophecy! We've heard about the prophecy before but Iruma probably hasn't yet until now. After listing the stuff about the future king, there’s a shot of Iruma’s hand with his ring haha. Upon reading this, Iruma thought more about it: What kind of world would it become if he were to become the Demon King?

You’re not the only one wondering Iruma. I’m sure the rest of the fandom is wondering that, too.

The new semester begins! The entire Abnormal class is told that they now have to attain Dalet (4) rank before their second year begins as it's the minimum they'd need to graduate - failure results in them losing the Royal One classroom!

Not gonna lie, the shopping part of the episode reminded me of the scenes at the beginning of the firsts Harry Potter movies with them shopping at Diagon Alley. It’s fun and I got to see more of the Demon World. I wonder if they’d show us other places in the Demon World in the next season.

Grandpa happily doting on Iruma made me think that maybe it’d have been better for him if he had gotten to adopt Iruma as a child. Iruma is already a teenager and so their time they could spend together wouldn’t be as long or as often since Iruma had friends and busy with school. On the other hand, Iruma gained a lot of experiences in his crappy life before getting here and it did help him become the person he is. I guess the problem here is that he’s human and he probably ages faster than everyone else. :P

Like I mentioned before, it feels weird we only got 21 episodes this time. I was hoping there’d be another arc before the end of the season. There’s already a season 3 announcement and for next year, I think, so its all good. It might feel like a long time but I thought the same back when season 1 ended and now the finale for season 2 had just aired. Time flies fast.

I just wanna point out that in the last scene at the classroom when they were being told about the rank raising they gotta do, Agares is shown with his eyes visible. I’m glad they never put that mask back to cover his face cause he looks good haha. Glad they kept this detail.

Well, thank you for reading this and the other posts, too if you did. I guess we’d have to wait for season 3 now. I’m glad this show is popular enough to gain another season so fast. :)

#Mairimashita! Iruma-kun #welcome to demon school iruma-kun #sana_post

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commonwealthoccurences · 4 years ago

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A Price To Pay

Prompt: Childhood Sweethearts and Happy Times

Word Count: 1,731

Days: 20 and 21

CW: Descriptions of rotting ghouls and general Wasteland nastiness.

There was something inherent in the Wasteland that Sole knew, in the long term, was new; the fact that if you loved someone you’d kill someone for them without question. Hell, if you cared for them at all, and maybe even if you didn’t, you’d kill someone for them. In the years before the War, a true declaration of love was saying that you’d kill someone. Now, it was simply fact, and Sole knew that all too well.

The first time Sole killed someone for John was when they were mere kids. They grew up together, tucked into a backwoods settlement of a few families that managed to stay hidden enough to not get hunted down by Raiders for their resources. Sole and John had been attached at the hip, constantly bickering like no other, but ready to defend each other at a moments notice; there was no one who could insult Sole but John, and vice versa.

They had been playing in the fields when something had begun stumbling through the waving reeds of grass, drifting from side to side in their movements. Sole had noticed it first; they were always the more observant one of the two, which they had never failed to brag about when it came to being competitive. Their grip on Hancock’s shirt was deadly and they made the mistake of attempting to tug him to the side, to get to some sort of shelter, away from whatever was making its way towards them with ill intentions. The movement caught the attention of the creature in the grass and it began moving even faster, now with a target to lock onto.

Sole’s parents had made them carry a knife on them since they were seven; you were never too young to defend yourself in the Wasteland. With shaking hands, too small to fit properly around the handle, they tugged it from their boot and stood in front of John, tiny face brave as a feral ghoul came stumbling into the clearing.

It was dragging one of it’s legs, nose oozing something slimy and indescribable, various wounds exposing their bones past leathery skin and torn muscle. The creature reeked, and considering it was a mobile, rotting corpse, they supposed it only made sense. Still, they recoiled at the smell as it flooded their nose and made their eyes water. Teeth gritted, their knife was raised higher, shaking in their grip.

The ghoul took a moment to recognize where the two children were, eyes glossed over from whatever was dripping from the holes in its face. Before they could take in another stuttering, hesitant breath, the situation was over. The ghoul charged forward, and as they had practiced so many times with their parents, they lunged at it and stabbed. The blade went clean through its skull and out the other side, and it stopped struggling.

A young John stood in shock and awe, though he would refuse to admit that he froze up in the face of his first real enemy in the future, and hid his trembling hands behind his back. This was the Wasteland; fear was a recipe for death, and he didn’t need to be part of Goodneighbor yet to know that. With a harsh swallow, he placed a hand on Sole’s shoulder. He nearly leaped back when they jumped, whirling on him with the knife raised, shaking like a leaf in the wind. “It’s okay.” His voice was higher than usual. “Its dead, I think.”

The second time Sole killed for Hancock was a reflex. At this point they were teenagers and had long joined the patrols that wound through the fields surrounding their tiny settlement. Armed with what weapons there were to spare, Sole and Hancock were always on the same patrol. They had gotten so used to sparring each other, moving around each other, and watching each other’s backs better than their own, it was simply stupid to separate them. As dawn crept onto the horizon in the form of the rising sun, the duo set off, leaving footprints in the fresh morning dew as the distance between them and home grew.

There was no hesitation in Sole’s movements this time, when they heard the pinching of claws tapping in their ears. It was horrifying, really. The clicking of pincers that promised a horrifying death were more than a warning to back down if you weren’t ready to put your life on the line and risk it all. But John had grown into his recklessness and a slight ego, and Sole knew that he wasn’t going to simply let it go. He had a point to prove. To who, they didn’t know.

So as he moved forward, a sly grin on his handsome face, his gun far too loose in his grip for such a situation, Sole knew they had no choice but to have his back. They mimicked his motions and got further to the ground, jaw clenched in frustration. If he had more than a single thought of being so competitive rattling around in his brain, they would get into a lot less complicated situations that looked a lot like this. Too late to be regretful now.

When the clearing gave no sign of the ominous clicking that grew ever louder, Sole and Hancock shared a confused look. There was no hulking shell in a threatening shade of green on the horizon. Then the ground shook and knocked Sole to their back, Hancock falling with a dramatic yelp as he landed with his head against a curb. They swore far louder than they should’ve with death in front of them, staring down with beady eyes, when he failed to move.

They were faster on their feet than with their trigger finger, but they had no choice. They fired without hesitation, long practiced by experience with the Wasteland, proof that they were worthy of surviving. The Mirelurk was dead before it drew it’s breath to release a musty screech. Sole scrambled to Hancock’s side and carried him home, only to watch and laugh as his mother scolded him for his recklessness as he was given mandatory rest with an ice pack strapped to his head.

Sometime after that, Sole lost count of everyone that had lost their life for crossing them and Hancock. The numbers blurred in their nightmares, countless lost gazes, accusatory snarls, and harsh barks of laughter that had them shooting upright in the middle of the night, clutching at their head or heart, praying that someday they might wake up from a refreshed night of rest. Of course, they had always been a dreamer; Hancock was the first person to remind them of that.

And maybe it wasn’t so bad, despite the nightmares and the scars they had to prove that they were willing to lay down their life for Hancock. He had killed for them before, too, without a second thought the moment something threatened them. Even when they weren’t speaking, when the anger stretched into a loud, angry silence, he was the first to have their back as soon as things were going south. They never felt cold when he was near, never felt abandoned.

So maybe, they thought, that was why he had asked them to fulfill his biggest favor of all. In the middle of the night, Hancock had entered their room with a soft knock and a haunted look, eyes far away. That wasn’t so unusual, but Sole had become long used to telling when Hancock was high. He wasn’t. He was simply disturbed, and whether it was due to something he had witnessed or something echoing around in his brain, they weren’t sure.

The ensuing conversation was something they’d never forget for the rest of their life. A teary Hancock, hands pressed over his mouth as if he were horrified at the thought of letting his request escape his mouth. Once he’d gotten it out, had observed their gasp of shock and the way they folded back into the couch with horror and understanding, he simply bowed his head. Repentant for something he couldn’t do himself.

There was a debt to be paid, and it was well known throughout the Commonwealth that Hancock didn’t take kindly to being crossed. The debt came in the form of rivers of blood, betrayed expressions in empty eyes on ghoul corpses that laid in the streets, turned on by their people. Their neighbors, their family. There was a debt to be paid, and Sole was ready to collect on his behalf.

The morning of the collection, there wasn’t a word spoken inside the State house. Hancock had draped himself over the couch since the night before, so high he couldn’t comprehend forming words, face solemn despite the fact that he was on cloud nine. There was no escaping what was to happen. It was his fault, anyway.

Sole strapped their weapons to them slowly, despite the practice they had in it, the fact that it was something they’d done all their life. No breath came easy when they looked themself in the eye in a cracked mirror that hung on the chipping wall. Their face had aged a century in twenty years, lined with stories in the form of scars and wrinkles, dark circles screaming that they couldn’t sleep and it was all for their love for him.

Something kept them from looking back at Hancock when they turned to leave, to complete their mission. It wasn’t regret. No, they could never regret protecting him, whether that was in the form of keeping an iron grip on his reputation or physically. It was simply to hide the pity in their eyes; he saw right through them, there was no mask they could put up, and Hancock simply hated to be pitied.

The trek to Diamond City was dreadfully short, sickeningly so. The climb to the Mayor’s quarters even more so. McDonough looked up from his desk with a harsh glare until he realized who it was, and soon replaced it with a grin so fake it hurt to look at. When he asked what he could do for Sole they simply sighed and emptied all emotion from their gaze. Then, they reached for the silenced gun on their hip, and before he could react, raised it and took the shot. They had come to collect.

#Fallout 4 #Fo4 #Fo4f #Fallout 4 February #John Hancock #Mayor Hancock #Oneshot #Imagine #Fanfiction #Fanfic #FF #Fluff #fallout 4 angst

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berrykook · 4 years ago

Text

over love (y!jk)

part 2 to overtime

in which you are becoming sick from having some trouble adjusting to life with jungkook and you are both frustrated

contents: yandere!jungkook, kidnapping, vomit, stockholm syndrome, jinkook r kinda mean sorry :(

word count: 5.6k

a/n: hey thanks to everyone who followed and/or liked, reblogged, or somehow commented on overtime! i appreciate the kind words

i’m terrible with writing requests, but feel free to leave some yandere requests in my inbox and i might just write some drabbles

to keep things consistent on here i wrote this stoned and i ended up referring to jin in like 3000 different ways ok dr. kim is kim seokjin and sheriff kim is kim taehyung and who knows perhaps i will expand on this little universe who knows i sure don’t

the writing goes a bit back and forth bc i wanted to show reader’s struggle with how she feels towards jk

not much is going on here plot-wise bc it’s not a chaptered fic but either way lmk wat ppl think! ;p

*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ

You weren’t sure how he managed to do it but on some day during the second month, Jungkook had begun testing your patience before you had even completely woken up. You hadn’t even opened your eyes when a blistering tug of frustration began twisting in your chest. Immediately, your eyes shut tighter and you burrowed yourself into the fluffy, sweet-smelling sheets. Although lately, just the slightest hint of Jungkook’s scent made you nauseous.

Seeing you cuddling into his pillow set off an explosion in Jungkook’s chest as he cooed and hugged you closer from on top of the covers.

“Baby, no! It’s time to get up!” He giggled as he ran his hands all along your back, ass, thighs, calves and finally, your feet. “Come on, darling, it’s morning.” A wet kiss on your ankle had you clawing your way out from under the blankets. Jungkook’s alarm clock displayed a later time than it usually did, yet you still managed less than thirty minutes of sleep. It was better than some nights.

Jungkook jumped at the opportunity to sloppily kiss your face. “Good morning, sweetheart!” Another kiss to the top of your cheekbone. “Did my baby get some sleep?” He ran his fingers through your hair, trying his best to mind the tangles.

You looked over to him and sadly gave a slight shake of your head. He cooed sympathetically, kissing all along your hairline. One of his hands dropped down to rest dangerously close to your ass.

“Oh, sweetie. At least after today, I’ll have some more time to help you fix your sleeping schedule! Maybe the new house will help you adjust better.” His kisses stay above your jawline, but slow significantly. He hums, and you have yet to speak a word.

He grabs your hand and intertwines it with his. “Let’s get you some food. Maybe it’ll help you feel sleepy?” He guides you up and leads you to the adjacent bathroom. “I’ll be in the kitchen, princess. You better be eating in less than ten minutes!” You felt your eyes shutting at the sound of his receding voice. Peace was nearest when Jungkook was far.

You must have fallen asleep for a moment because it seemed that seconds later, Jungkook was rapping his knuckles on the bathroom door.

“Honey? Are you okay?” His voice is soft, almost hesitant. It always makes you wonder how he manages to hide away his deep disturbance and perversion. “Sweetheart…”

You have been sitting cross-legged on the bathroom floor since you left the bed. Your toothbrush has remained stagnant on your tongue. You make a pitiful sounding moan and Jungkook gasps as he opens the door.

“Are you sick? Oh no, baby...aw, come here…” he takes a knee and holds you close to his chest. Your head is spinning from the lack of sleep still, so you cuddle into him just slightly. You can feel the stiffness of the shirt you ironed against his torso and jealousy burns in your stomach. The ladies at the office must be running around like chickens with their heads cut off as the police’s search for you still has “zero leads” over two months in. You yearned to just sit at your desk once more and complete some busy work. Anything would be better than rotting in Jungkook’s apartment. “What’s wrong?”

You moan softly and Jungkook’s hands around you jerk a bit. “Head hurts. Didn’t sleep.” You are unsure how Jungkook could possibly understand your mumbling from his chest. “So tired...” you whisper, leaning more of your weight on him. He sighs.

This had become a common morning routine in the Jeon residence. Jungkook was constantly worried sick about you, checking the security cameras from work like a madman as you had yet to sleep at any reasonable hour in the time you had been moved into his place. Jungkook tried cuddling you to sleep, changing his mattress, working from home, cooking new food, and everything under the sun in an attempt to help you sleep and adjust to life with him. So far, nothing had been successful - sleeping pills had just barely helped, but you didn’t like the way they made you feel in the morning and Jungkook wanted to scream at the thought of you not waking up in time to kiss him goodbye for the day.

“Sweetheart, I should really go to work today...you know I have to…” Jungkooks moves you onto his lap, bouncing you for a moment as if you were a babe on his hip. “I’m so sorry...I’m trying to make it all better.” You rise from his chest dizzily, smiling weakly at him. His heart began to race and you giggled, mocking him internally for this delusion that his presence would help your sleeping problem. He giggled back and pinched your nose. “Let’s go to the kitchen, yeah?” He plucked the toothbrush from your mouth and held onto the small of your back as you finished washing up. Wrapping your legs around his waist, he carried you over to the kitchen. You had to push aside the nausea to smile and force down the breakfast Jungkook spent an extra hour in the morning making for you.

The house was silent save for Jungkook’s soft humming and shuffling about. He cooked, cleaned, worked, and had no complaints. Jungkook was fulfilled just by the thought of coming home to you greeting him at the door each night (of course, it was his threat of keeping you chained up like a bitch if you didn’t greet him that motivated you to wait on him so). Typically, you spent all day sitting around, letting the hours melt away until Jungkook came back from work and that hanging feeling in your chest began to throb until he left you alone again. However, your steadfast decline in energy had him frequently coming back home during his lunch hours and bothering you with his presence more often. You were sure that he came back some days just to watch you sleep in the middle of the day. He would be gone when you awakened, but you just knew he had been there, watching.

“I think we should celebrate tonight, don’t you think?” He was back at his favorite position (behind you) slowly rubbing his hands over your tummy. He kissed your cheek wetly and you coughed to hide the shiver running down your spine.

“Celebrate what?” You turned your head slightly to look at him - how he adored recieving just a modicum of your attention!

He wiped the corner of your lips and sucked on his finger (you were sure he had no reason to do so as you were not a messy eater). “Celebrate our last day in this home, silly,” he murmured sweetly, stealing a piece of your french toast for himself. He moaned comically, praising his own mediocre cooking. You spent a significant amount of your remaining energy into smiling warmly at him and turning around to hug him properly. Jungkook gasped lightly as he was under the impression that you were still “too nervous” to be affectionate with him. You let out a slow breath, holding back the contents of your stomach with a whimper. Jungkook kissed the crown of your head, blissfully unaware of how he made you sick.

“Don’t we usually celebrate when we finish moving into the new house?” You cross your fingers behind his back in hopes to extend whatever “celebration” Jungkook had been plotting.

Jungkook never pressured you sexually, but there was a lingering fear within you that he would snap and demand something from you. You knew from the moans he let out whenever you touched that he expected something, at least someday. You, however, had no intentions of that nature whatsoever...even as you begged your mind not to fall victim to his love, you couldn’t fathom the thought of laying together with him. Jungkook laughs.

“Well, we can celebrate both! Why don’t you get some sleep and when I come home, we’ll throw together a nice dinner and I’ll bring home something to drink, huh? Come on, baby, it’s our last night here...this place is special,” he says wistfully, taking in the white walls and clean carpet. “This is our first home together.” He smiles down at you, brushing your hair behind your ears. He ignores the sweat that pools at your temples.

“Ah,” you say in understanding before pushing him off of you and running to the bathroom. There it was - the first anxiety-induced vomiting session of the day. You heard Jungkook stomping after you from your seat on the bathroom tiles. Of all the places in the apartment where Jungkook harassed you, this place felt the most like home - the most familiar.

“Oh no, baby! Ah, it’s okay, it’s okay...you’ll feel better soon.” He worked on tying your hair back and holding you from behind, one hand rubbing your stomach and the other hand between your shoulder blades. You tried your best to ignore him, hoping that this was one step closer to your body giving up and dying so you would finally be away from him.

You didn’t have much to expel so it was too soon that Jungkook was helping you wash your mouth out and get back into bed.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie...I’ll tell Hoseok that my last day can wait. You’re more important,” he giggled, touching his nose to yours. “I’ll text Seokjin-hyung to come over and see what’s going on.” Jungkook laid in bed with you, hovering over you as you placed yourself in the fetal position. Your heart picked up a beat.

“No, Jungkook,” you mumbled angrily. You cursed yourself for letting your irritation be known. Jungkook’s hand stopped brushing through your hair. Did he really have to be touching you all the time?

“What do you mean ‘no?’” His tone dropped a few degrees and you held back a groan as you gripped his hand from your head and held it to your chest in an attempt to placate him. He huffed angrily like a child.

“No, as in you should say goodbye to your coworkers. They love you.” You looked up at him with sad eyes and he laughed gleefully, cooing and fawning over you as he always did.

“Oh, baby! You’re so considerate, aw…there’s no way I’m leaving you when you’re sick like this! Hobi can just tell the ladies at the office that my last day is actually tomorrow and I was spending today sorting out my apartment, or whatever he figures out. Easy! I don’t mind staying here one or two more nights if it means comfortable travels for my healthy sweetheart.”

You buried your face into your pillow, groaning as you realized that the person who made you sick would be hovering over you for several more days as the move out of his apartment would begin soon and he would be out of work. You were empty, but nausea still plagued your body as your fear of Jungkook made its rounds.

Jungkook sighed deeply, lightly massaging the back of your neck. “I know, baby, you must feel so sick…I’m sorry...let me get Jin-hyung in here right away!” He bounded off to get his phone from his work bag at the front door. His booming footsteps echoed in your head.

The drive to fight and escape, admittedly, never burned through you. It had been two months since that night in the parking garage and Jungkook was even moving the two of you into a new house (a hillside house in Busan at that), yet you barely made any attempts at escaping at all. Jungkook loved you deeply and made that clear in every sentence, every gesture, every movement - but there was a part of him who despised you, too. The part of him that came out whenever you expressed annoyance or disdain towards him - even just disagreeing with him could reveal this nasty side to him in which he would yell, cry, or threaten you until you were crying and being comforted in his arms. An inkling of an idea for remaining in Seoul burned in the back of your mind, but it made you writhe with anxiety at the thought of his reaction. His loud footsteps grew in volume again as he tried his best to softly land in bed to avoid further agitating your stomach.

He chose to lie beside you, gently picking you up so you could rest on top of him. The sound of his heartbeat was deafening against your dizzy head.

“Jin-hyung is on his way and Hobi is handling everything at the office,” he mumbled, stroking your back like he always does. He let out soft little hums and pressed gentle kisses to the corner of your mouth. You took a deep calming breath when your heart rate began picking up on its own. Try as you might, Jungkook did at times have an effect on you. You supposed it was some sort of savior complex, partially from that night in the parking garage and partially from how gently he treated you since coming into his home. Before Jungkook, you never viewed yourself as delicate (and for good reason!). However, Jungkook’s tender touches and heartfelt words held some power over you.

“You feeling okay, baby?”

You were on the verge of tears for no apparent reason. Despite Jungkook having made you sick from the moment you woke up, you felt oddly safe in his arms. You felt loved, and the feeling made you even sicker. You buried your face into his chest and hoped he wouldn’t notice your flushed face and teary eyes.

“Aw…” His voice was so soft that you could barely hear it even from his chest. “It’ll be okay, Jin-hyung will help...what else can I do for you, baby? Tell me.” He cradled the back of your head with a large hand. Jungkook’s size was so apparent when you were this close. “Hm?”

His hum in your ear snapped something within you and you let out a sad whimper. Jungkook gasped softly, cooing and patting your back. “Are you gonna be sick again, baby? Aw, it’s okay…” One of his hands made its way to the back of your neck and the floodgates crashed open. You were disgusting. You couldn’t even remember the last time you cried before you met Jungkook and here you were now, crying because...he made you feel good? You suspected that your body was steadily giving up on you and your mind wasn’t very far behind. You’re unsure when you did it, but you had an iron grip on Jungkook’s hand. His thumb rubbed over your hand as he patiently waited for you to gather yourself and speak to him. The small smile on his face made your heart twist and writhe. You supposed Jungkook was just the slightest bit handsome.

You looked like a sick puppy looking up at him from his chest. Jungkook was eager to kiss your pouting lips once you had gathered yourself. He hadn’t filled you in yet, but the sound of your weeping lit a fire under him and aroused him deeply. He chuckled a bit, reaching to wipe a tear from your chin.

“Dunno,” you murmur pitifully after several minutes. You fall so your cheek is flat against his chest and you can no longer look into his eyes. He laughs while softly uttering to himself about how cute you were. It makes you embarrassed and ill at the same time. “I’m sorry. I’m all over the place.”

“I know, I know. The new house is going to be so wonderful for you. #e’re going to be so happy there...did I mention my parents will be nearby? Just a short drive away, baby. They’ll be so excited to be close to their grandchildren...just think about it...we’re so close to that life.” The heartbeat that sent chills up your spine ten minutes ago began to warm your own heart with just a moment’s notice. His whispering calmed you to approach slumber, despite it scaring you into a near insomniac for the past two months. You wondered how you were going to word to Dr. Kim that you were losing your mind.

“Doesn’t that sound nice? Shh, shh, i know you must be feeling so bad right now, but just focus on me...I love you so much, baby. I can’t believe you’re home and safe here with me...I can’t explain how happy you make me. I wonder sometimes if I could ever make you understand. I never want you to ever second-guess yourself or my love for you...I will always be here, baby. I love you so much.”

Jungkook caught any tears from your eyes with lightning speed. You cuddled into him lower towards his ribs and he laughed. “Am I making my baby bashful? Aww, sweetie...I’m just trying to make you feel better...it must be working, right?”

You let out a small noise of disdain. Jungkook fawned over you and continued making you blush until he left with a dozen kisses to get Seokjin at the door.

Jungkook called Dr. Kim in to check up on you at least once a week since you entered the apartment (and still had yet to exit). You liked Dr. Kim to some twisted degree. Of Jungkook’s brothers, he was the one you disliked the least - Hoseok, your old boss, was a dick to you since the day you met him and was also the ultimate reason why Jungkook knew who you were in the first place (Jungkook mentioned one night that he first saw you at a holiday work party and his favorite photograph of you was from that night and framed by the front door). His other brothers, Sheriff Kim and Detective Min, were key players in tossing your missing persons case in the trash. They had comforted you so kindly that night you were attacked by Jungkook’s favorite brother, Namjoon. Jungkook vaguely mentioned something about one or two more, but you tuned out the conversation about his brothers, horrified, when it was revealed to you that even law enforcement could not free you from Jungkook.

You heard Jungkook and Dr. Kim speaking in hushed voices from the hallway outside Jungkook’s bedroom. Your heart ached and stomach twisted at Jungkook’s worried tone.

“Here she is, hyung,” Jungkook whispered when they finally entered your bedroom. You swaddled yourself with the heavy sheets and raised a hand to wave shyly at Dr. Kim. If only he was not a pawn in Jungkook’s game - if only you had met him some other way. He was devastatingly handsome.

Jungkook sits on the bed, close to you and possessively. Dr. Kim smiled warmly.

“How have you been lately? I hear you’ve had some more trouble sleeping?”

You nod gingerly, smiling awkwardly as Jungkook stayed rooted to the bed. He looked at you with concern, blissfully unaware that he should not be in the room.

“I slept for 30 minutes, Dr. Kim.” You are bashful and Jungkook notices immediately.

“She threw up again this morning...I’m so worried, hyung.” Jungkook was practically laying on top of you at this point. His body desperately attempted to show Seokjin that you belonged to him and nobody could love you like he does.

“Ah, I see, I see.” You could tell that Dr. Kim also wanted Jungkook to step out. “Well...my question. How do you feel?” Dr. Kim addresses you by your first name and the sound hangs in the air, foreign to you at this point. Jungkook called you your given name at times, but mostly when you were being defiant and he was threatening you somehow.

Jungkook became more alert because of this and opened his mouth to respond before getting cut off by Seokjin raising his hand to stop him. You twiddle your thumbs.

“I don’t know,” you mumble nervously.

Before Jungkook, you prided yourself on your independence and your swift thinking and problem-solving skills. You had no desire for dating at this quintessential time period of your life and you focused most of your energy on bettering yourself and maintaining a well-rounded life.

Now, it seemed like just Jungkook’s presence regressed your mind years back. You felt deep, deep fear and hatred towards him and his psychotic nature, but you also felt yourself wrapping around his finger. He took care of you well and didn’t ask for much. He managed the apartment, money, food, everything all by himself and all he ever wanted from you was your love. He was terrifying when he was angry and you still hadn’t figured out a way to escape safely and make it more than ten paces from his apartment. You were sure that Sheriff Kim and Detective Min were watching you almost as closely as Jungkook did. You were hopeless and you knew this from the first night you set foot in Jungkook’s home. You weren’t sure how you felt at all. Life no longer felt real.

“That’s okay. Take your time,” Dr. Kim said softly after a moment. You felt yourself tearing up at his kindness and from the pressure to speak. Jungkook reached for your hands, pulling them apart to stop you from picking at your hangnails. You let out a sad sound and Dr. Kim folded his hands, waiting patiently for you to come forward and speak your truth.

“I don’t know...I don’t know. Really,” you whimpered, trying to steady your voice. You sighed in frustration, embarrassed at having cried so much this early in the morning.

Dr. Kim made a noise of understanding and asked Jungkook to step out into the hall with him. You stared at them as they walked out, jealous that you did not have the right to know about your own health. You forced yourself to sit up past the dizziness and listen to their conversation.

“She’s coming along nicely. Keep doing what you’re doing and she should come around completely soon.”

You fell back onto your pillows once you heard Dr. Kim say this to Jungkook.

“Yuri was the same way with me and Namjoon had a similar experience with Ara. Don’t worry, Kookie, she’ll be fine. Putting her in her place more often should do the trick. You know about Hobi’s favorite method, yes?”

“Are you sure? She’s sick! I can tell she’s still repulsed by me sometimes...I don’t want to push her too far. You saw how messy it was with Taehyung…” Jungkook sounded close to tears. Perhaps he was as sensitive with others as he was with you.

“It won��t be like what happened with Taehyung. She’s a tough nut to crack. You need to take it a step further. Think about it...you should never be disrespected in your own home.”

Your heart twinged at the thought of how kind Dr. Kim had been since you first met and how lowly he spoke of you now. The thin wood of the bedroom door was not nearly enough to deafen the sting of his hissing. You could practically hear the cogs turning in Jungkook’s head.

They continued to converse about things you had no context on and at times, Jungkook’s wild emotions would run free and he would passionately describe how saddened he was that you weren’t adjusting well to his home. You tried to tune out his crying. They seemed to discuss some sort of plan to “put you in your place,” but you barely cared anymore. You just wanted your mind to unravel completely already so you could succumb to Jungkook and accept your fate with him. There was no hope for escape. There never was.

“Think about it, Jungkook. I’m serious. I’ll be back next week, okay?”

You heard their voices retreat and Dr. Kim was then gone without having said goodbye to you. Whatever. His beauty could never outweigh how strongly he believed you were somehow below Jungkook. You heard Jungkook’s heavy footsteps stop in front of the bedroom door for a moment as if he were hesitating. He came in slowly.

“Baby? I spoke with Jin-hyung,” he uttered. You turned on your side, pretending to be asleep. “Oh,” he breathed, seeing your eyes closed.

Seokjin had just finished handing his ass to him about being more stern with you and breaking you down faster so he could win you over already. Of himself, Namjoon, and Hoseok, none of them had taken as long as Jungkook to win over the hearts of their partners. He sighed, exiting the room to help you sleep. You both had a lot of work to do.

You woke up several hours later to Jungkook quietly raging in the living room at his TV. Despite being deeply invested in his game, he felt your presence immediately and set his game aside, standing in place and staring you down.

“Honey,” he exhaled anxiously. “Did you sleep well?”

You nodded slightly before awkwardly shuffling off to find food. Jungkook bounded after you quickly. His eyes darted around nervously as he tried to figure out what to say.

“S-so, the move has been delayed just a day...tomorrow, I’ll go into work for my last day and we can start the move the next day.” From the way you apathetically fluttered about the kitchen deciding what to eat, Jungkook felt like he was talking to himself. “Are you feeling better, sweetheart?” He stood much too close to you, so you let out a soft noise of acknowledgement as you pressed a hand against his chest to softly guide him a step back.

His conversation with Seokjin earlier filled him with anxiety and your behavior didn’t help him in the slightest. If anything, he felt his anger begin to rise inside of him. He took a deep breath, attempting to delay his boiling point.

“I said, are you feeling better, sweetheart?” For a moment, you stopped rummaging through Jungkook’s fridge as his icy tone ran down your spine. He huffed when you continued going about making yourself a sandwich as if he wasn’t even there.

“Yeah, I feel better,” you mumbled, straining yourself to open a jar of peanut butter. Jungkook looked on angrily, choosing to let you struggle.

“Well, that’s good.” You uneasily continued making your sandwich while Jungkook followed your every move. A part of you knew that you should pay better attention to him so he’s satisfied, but the resistant part of you which so passionately despised Jungkook was not allowing you to give him more than a crumb of your focus.

Jungkook gulped down his irritation to the best of his abilities, but it continued to rear its head at you. Seokjin’s words echoed in his head - you should never be disrespected in your own home.

“Well...I’m home now. What would you like to do today?” Jungkook brought a hand up to his jaw to help soften it.

You figured he didn’t notice that he had a habit of standing as close as humanly possible to you. Sighing lightly, you pressed a hand against his ribs to push him back once again, but an iron grip intertwining your fingers stopped you.

“Don’t do that,” he said in a low tone. You gave him a confused stare, hoping that he would find it cute and have mercy on you.

“Huh? What do you mean?” You tried to sound as soft and sad as possible, praying that you didn’t set him off. He stared down at you with a steely gaze, completely unaffected. Your breath quickened a pace as you wracked your brain for a solution before he was too far gone.

“You don’t love me yet...do you?” It was not a question. Fuck, you thought.

“You know...none of my brothers had such trouble getting their wives to listen to them after they moved in together.” You begged yourself not to giggle - how absurd it was that Jungkook called this anything but a kidnapping. “Jin-hyung said that it has been too long that you’ve been acting this way.” His glare almost made you forget how sweet and gentle Jungkook could be. You wondered if this side of him would ever come out if you let yourself love him too.

“Acting like what?”

“Like you know what!” He snapped. You flinched and he gasped at the sight of you scared.

Jungkook wouldn’t dare put his own hands on you. Oddly enough, he drew the line at hittting you. For some inexplicable reason, you knew deep down that he wouldn’t do it either. Something about you knew that Jungkook did possess at least a percentage of genuine love for you.

“You disrespect me. You think I’m some sort of ugly monster...you still haven’t figured out yet that I actually saved you. You’re too fucking dense to figure out that nobody has ever loved anyone the way that I love you. Too fucking dense to know that this is real...that this type of love doesn’t happen to everyone. You should be fucking grateful. You sh-”

“But I do love you,” you said mousily. You crossed your fingers with the hand that Jungkook was not holding. Jungkook looked as if he had the wind knocked out of him.

It was not true. In this moment, you knew that your hatred for Jungkook far outweighed the gratitude you had to him for that night in the parking garage. You wanted to make him sweat.

Slowly, he raised your intertwined hands to his chest.

“Baby...you don’t mean that…”

You took a deep breath, both to calm yourself and to up your performance.

“I do, Jungkook. I do mean it.”

Jungkook felt a few steps off from bursting into flames with how hard he was blushing - and, you should have known better than to use those two words to Jungkook so early on. He gasped softly, running your intertwined hands back and forth across his heart.

“Sweetheart…” His face contorted as he struggled with his next move. He was torn between punishing you and teaching you to respect him at all times, and punishing himself for cherry-picking a reason to assert dominance over his sweet girl. He whimpered, lower lip trembling embarrassingly. “Uh, you’re so perfect.”

You took your hand from his and cupped his face instead. Jungkook was nearly hyperventilating at this point, so you figured you should cut the act soon.

“Uh, tell me again! Please, please say it again,” he begged, blubbering. You wanted to roll your eyes (you were unsure if it would be of disgust or of endearment) at his ability to bawl at the drop of a hat. “I’m so sorry, p-princess...I didn’t mean to yell at you. Uh, you’re s-...so perfect, please say it again...”

You giggled. “I love you.”

Jungkook sobbed, hiding his face from you for a moment. One of his hands gripped your shoulder as if he were afraid you would drift away.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry...I can’t believe I doubted you.” You awkwardly patted Jungkook’s shoulder, giggling some more to lift the mood of the room. He began babbling something about his “goddess” and how he “wasn’t worthy,” but you didn’t bother trying to understand.

“No, I should be apologizing...I should show you more often how much I love you, don’t you think?” You stood a little taller and got closer to his face, but quickly retreated when Jungkook nearly lost control of his breathing again. “I’m sorry, Jungkook. I just get so nervous around you sometimes...I’m going to try harder from now on to show you what I feel for you. Okay?” You grabbed his face again, pulling him to make eye contact with you so he could calm down.

His weeping turned into gleeful laughs with a snap. You let out a breath of relief, having successfully defused the bomb that is Jungkook and saving yourself from whatever it was Seokjin planned on having him do. That sour feeling, that lingering fear of Jungkook also came back stronger with a snap. You prayed he wouldn’t try to kiss you on the lips, knowing your acting skills weren’t yet ready to hide such a level of disgust.

“I don’t know what I was worried about. I should have known that you were just having trouble expressing yourself! Baby...you don’t have to hide how you feel about me. I’ve always known that we were soulmates.”

Jungkook has a dreamy look in his eyes that churns your stomach. You smile awkwardly as he leaned in closer and closer, vibrating with the excitement of receiving his first kiss from you. He even playfully tapped his chin with his finger when you had taken a moment too long.

“J-Jungkook!” You pushed his chest lightly, giggling behind your hands. “Don’t do that...I’m shy, honey…” You looked down at your feet and playfully pushed him again, running off to the bedroom to cringe in private.

For the first time since setting foot in Jungkook’s apartment, a spark of hope ignited within you. Jungkook was completely weak at your slightest gesture. You took his breath away and made him stutter and sweat without even lifting a finger. Jungkook was aware of how deeply he could get under your skin, but he had no idea you knew how deeply you were already under his.

Jungkook called out your given name. “I love you!” He yelled from across the apartment.

You smiled before turning into the bedroom, leaving the door open for him to follow behind.

#yandere jungkook #yandere!jungkook #yandere jeongguk #yandere!jeongguk #yandere bts #yandere!bts

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polaristranslations · 4 years ago

Text

Shinobu Mustard Episode 4

028

"Kanbaru. Do you mind becoming a slave for tonight? Also, lend me your house."

"All right!"

Second slave, secured.

"Oikura. Tonight, become my slave, and cook for me."

"Don't think you'll be able to live until tonight."

Third slave, failed to secure.

The reason for that failure was most likely because I'd been a hurry and said "my slave"... Well, it wasn't like I could tell her to become the slave of a golden-haired, golden-eyed girl.

And because of her connections with Gaen-san, I couldn't exactly get Kanbaru fully involved in this either, so renting her house for one night should be good enough.

As the "citadel" of the king of oddities.

I'd heard yesterday that her grandparents were out on a trip, so Kanbaru could stay over at Higasa-chan's house or even Karen's room in the Araragi house and hold a pajama party there, while I was allowed to do whatever I liked in the meantime.

I knew it made me sound like an outlaw, but it was a decision I couldn't avoid—the only building I could think of in this town that could serve as a vampire's stronghold was Kanbaru's mansion.

Just as the death-prepared, death-inevitable, death-certain vampire, Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster, had once taken up residence in the "Castle of Corpses", the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, needed a building of suitable pedigree in which to take up residence.

It was fairly Japanese-style for a castle—or rather it was just a Japanese mansion—but hopefully, this being Suicidemaster's first visit to Japan, she wouldn't be able to differentiate between castles and mansions in Japan... Not that I, a Japanese person, could.

"But no, I didn't say that just because I wanted to show off. If Suicidemaster were to learn that her former thrall who she came to visit had been rendered harmless and sealed in the shadow of a pervert—nay, human—she may close herself off entirely. We won't be able to hear a single shred of information. In the worst case, you might even be killed. Would you be fine with that?"

"No, I wouldn't, but..."

"In that case, become my slave again like you were in last year's spring break, and prepare a castle and a banquet. To make my reign more convincing. If you can secure two or three more fake thralls, then that would be great."

The slave sealed in my shadow stuck out her chest in pride and ordered me as such from the child seat.

Erm...

"So basically, you want to greet your old pal with a master-servant relationship in that sort of fashion?"

"Fashion is important in hospitality. I'm pretty strict on fashion. Like a Parisienne."

"No, rather than a Parisienne, you're more like a putting-on-airs-ienne. Respectfully speaking, Shinobu. Wouldn't a petty trick like this just be found out immediately..."

"Oh, you're already getting into it. 'Respectfully speaking', you say? Ka ka, you're an expert at acting like a slave already! Have you done this before? Wait, of course you have! Ka ka, keep it up for the real thing!"

With a loud laugh as if she'd already gotten accustomed to being the master, Shinobu sunk back into the shadows... It almost looked like she was assimilating with the child seat.

What a mess. She'd appeared as if she was going to listen to my concerns, but then she just said whatever she wanted to—however, as soon as I parked my New Beetle in the parking lot, before I went inside, it was then that I called Kanbaru, who'd been in the middle of her morning run, and Oikura, who'd been indulging in her slumber at her lodgings.

Kanbaru had eagerly agreed (it was scary how eager she was, but I decided to call her back and discuss it properly, as well as other things), while Oikura had refused (if I left her alone, she'd probably call me back, so at that point, I'll more or less apologize from the bottom of my heart... and ask for her home cooking separately).

Well, Shinobu putting on airs was the same as always.

I almost wanted to tell her to be more show-offy towards me, but considering the way she was cooperating for this case, I couldn't bluntly refuse that honesty... I had better properly inform Gaen-san about this, too.

Thinking about it, Kanbaru was the "niece of that Gaen-san", but in reverse, Gaen-san was the "aunt of that Kanbaru". What if Gaen-san casually went, "I'll do it, too! Let me be a slave, too!" after I went to her with our plans?... I didn't want to see Gaen-san like that.

What an odd family they were.

On the other hand, even though my parents were ordinary, upright public servants, why had all their children turned out like that?

Speaking of which, the fact that only the members of the girls' basketball team of Naoetsu High were being attacked could be rephrased as "only Kanbaru's juniors were being attacked", so maybe it was a good idea to think about things with her as the focal point.

Even if the gourmet Suicidemaster were only able to dine on "Princess Beauty", Kanbaru Suruga was the daughter (in other words, the direct descendant) of Gaen Tooe, who's practically talked about as if she were a legend—so for the club members that were under her influence, the possibility of them being targeted is...

Although, in that case, maybe Kanbaru herself would be targeted? Actually, it was fairly possible that that was the case—and if so, then using Kanbaru's house as a meeting place wasn't a bad idea, if only to see Suicidemaster's reaction, but Kanbaru herself should probably be kept far away.

That was what ran through my mind as I wandered around the campus of Manase University to kill time, having arrived earlier than expected (it was a fairly expansive university, and I still hadn't seen all of the campus yet. Supposedly, it would take over four years to check out all of the facilities—what was this, the British Museum?), but once it got close to 7:45 am, I knocked on the door to the lecture hall for my international linguistics class.

Although it was called "linguistics", it was different from classes on foreign languages in that it put languages from all over the world, both famous and unknown, on equal footing and compared them in detail. Ultimately, an unproductive course with no destination in sight—there were many incomprehensible courses like this in college.

But I liked that sort of incomprehensible stuff. Could this be Ougi-chan's influence?

It was a liberal arts course unusual for someone in the mathematics department to take, and it was hard to say that the course was particularly popular even taking into account how early in the morning it was, but for Meniko, whose goal was to work with codes in the future, there was no way she couldn't take this course—well, for her, international linguistics probably wasn't even an "incomprehensible course" (in exchange, Meniko was bad with normal foreign language study).

"Hola. Araragi-chan, you're ea~arly. How diligent of you~u."

"I dunno about being called early when you're here in your seat before me. Hola."

Not to mention, I planned on skipping class after this. Unfortunately (or not), today's lecture hadn't been canceled.

It seemed I'd have to borrow Meniko's notes another day—the number of favors I was asking her was increasing. Someday, I'd better do something for her in return.

I bumped fists with Meniko and sat down next to her, and then asked, "Do you mind if I asked you to decipher another code?", showing her the sequence of numbers that I had displayed on my cell phone.

"Hmm. Hmm, hmm?"

A normal person, after being asked to solve codes like these two days in a row, would find it strange and ask for my intentions before even trying, but this was Hamukai Meniko—she couldn't not solve a code that was put before her.

It was a difficult personality, but I liked that about her... It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but neither I nor my proud network of friends from high school were people that moved without some reason or purpose.

Even Hanekawa and Oshino.

And even the violent onmyouji Kagenui-san that was heading towards this town was actually a person of reason—she moved according to her own, unique logic.

As a result, there had been a time when I'd thought that people were just like that, but after becoming friends with Meniko, I came to learn that there were people who weren't like that—I'd been enlightened.

Meniko also seemed to be rather interested in the fact that I was (in a rough estimate) rather logical about things, so I suppose it was a mutual thing.

In order to maintain this relationship, I didn't dare introduce Meniko to any of my other connections, such as Oikura, even by mistake—of course, I had absolutely no intention of breaking off my connection with Oikura, who I had reconnected with after entering university, but as for her... Rather than our connection being broken off, it could be more like she herself would snap.

"A cell phone, huh. Was the code recorded in a cell phone?"

"Yep. Although I don't know if that holds any meaning..."

"That's tru~ue. These days, cell phones are like a part of our brains now, aren't they? Some people criticize the fact that when you go on a trip, you end up looking at the scenery through the small screen of your smartphone, but looking at something with the camera of your smartphone is basically the same as looking at it with your own eyes. Maybe when people complain about train passengers playing with their cell phones, it's a sign that they've failed to pair their phones with themselves?"

I hadn't exactly mastered the use of a cell phone myself, so it was hard for me to wholeheartedly agree, but, well, it wasn't like I didn't understand what she was saying.

"Anyway, this time it's only numbers, huh. Hm. I did solve it, bu~ut."

"Already? You're really the one that's early to things, aren't you. The truth is, I didn't have the slightest idea."

It wasn't like I didn't feel helpless when delegating the whole thing to Meniko, so I'd thought that I'd challenge it on my own in the period of time before I took it to her, but I'd spent most of that time on Shinobu's matter.

"It doesn't seem like putting it on a phone and not on paper really mattered? But numbers are easy to make into a code, aren't the~ey. Languages can vary from region to region, depending on grammar and culture, but numbers are worldwi~ide. No matter where in the universe you are, one plus one is two, and a prime number is a prime number, ri~ight?"

"That's not actually the case. For example, in Nepalese, the representations for '1' and '9' look similar, so when a Japanese person sees them, the math wouldn't add up at a glance. The logic would look completely wrong. Also, it's only in Japan where people use the '正' kanji to count to five, and for someone like me, the little horizontal bar used to distinguish a '7' from a '1' is enough to make me not think of it as a '7'".

"I see. For someone like me, a '7' with a horizontal bar looks kind of like the kanji for seven [七] upside down, so I end up getting those confu~used. So you're above me when it comes to that, huh, Araragi-cha~an."

There wasn't really an above or a below in this exchange, but aah, I wanted to have a conversation like this.

I suddenly realized.

When Shinobu—when Princess Acerola, as "Princess Beauty"—went about destroying countries... When she was a human, did she feel the same way as this when she met a vampire?

Even though it was a relationship of eat or be eaten.

The interpretation that they were vampire and thrall, or master and slave, was at odds with the lighthearted way in which she spoke of her as an "old pal".

She had said that she'd reflected from that time with Shishirui Seishirou, so I'd interpreted it as the master-slave relationship having been reversed, but what if it wasn't that? What if Suicidemaster really was just a "friend" to Shinobu?

Like, for example, Kanbaru and Higasa-chan.

According to Hachikuji, Suicidemaster had called Shinobu a friend as well.

A friend, huh.

There had been a fiercely determined class representative who had declared, "If I can't die for someone, I wouldn't call that person a friend". But what if Shinobu wanted to meet Suicidemaster with that in mind?

Did I have the qualification to stop her?

Talking about qualifications at this point was what made me, me—regret may always come too late, but logic always took precedence. If I ultimately acted upon my emotions, then I would most likely act too late to a disgusting extent.

I should learn a bit from my new friend.

What I wanted was not qualifications, but qualities.

"Hmm. Araragi-chan, what's the matter? Thinking about something?"

"No, I'm trying hard not to think about something. So, what's the answer to the code?"

"Like yesterday, I managed to solve it, but it's a dead-end that isn't really refreshing. Even though I managed to decode it, it just leaves me stressed aga~ain. But it ended up being letters of the alphabet aga~ain."

"Alphabet—then, 'D/V/S'?"

"No~ope. This time, it's 'F/C'."

"F/C"?

029

"If 'F/C' are also initials, I wonder if there's someone from the girls' basketball team who has those initials," said Gaen-san, the human representative of logic, after hearing my report.

We were once again in Naoetsu General Hospital, in yet another hospital room different from the three we'd been in earlier—the hospital room where Kanguu Misago-chan's mummy had been put up.

"I wonder if the message was left on a cell phone to hint at that. Since they had matching straps with their initials."

"Aah... That's right, they did have those," I said.

In that sense, I would've had more hints to decipher it than Meniko did.

It wasn't really a contest, but I did find it a bit frustrating.

"By the way, Kanguu-chan also had a strap. Since she's Kanguu Misago, it was 'M K'."

"Eh? But wait, Gaen-san. Wouldn't that mean that the vampire that we're looking for is actually among the members of the girls' basketball team?"

If, not the dying message, but the living message was indicating a specific member's initials, and Suicidemaster was being falsely accused of a crime, then that would be it.

"F C".

"Not necessarily. It could be that Kanguu-chan, in a hazy state of mind, was just trying to write the name of a friend she thought of. Or it's an act of deception to make us think that way. In other words, diversionary tactics by Suicidemaster."

A vampire trying to blame a human for their vampirism—it seemed a little narrow-minded, almost pitiful at that, and not at all in line with the image of a vampire. Well, if we can consider the possibility that the crime is being pinned on Suicidemaster, why can't we consider the opposite?

Taking it to extremes, it was even possible now that this was a diversionary tactic to make us think that everything was fabricated, like a deduction in a honkaku mystery.

Us people of logic.

"You're right. It would be too unexpected a truth for there to be a vampire among the club members."

"I don't remember explicitly denying that possibility. You can't say for sure that there aren't more oddities like you, Koyomin, that put on an air of innocence and casually attend school, right?"

"Again with the jokes."

And this was a bad joke, at that.

The phrasing of "air of innocence" felt like biting words.

"It's not entirely a joke, though. Well, this is just a brute force through all the possibilities at the moment. Like a canvassing operation done by throwing more people at the problem. It's true that, as a result of last night's events, the suspicion placed on Suicidemaster has faded. 'F C' seems like it would be fairly rare for initials, so I'm sure we'll be able to narrow it down to just a few girls out of the hundred on the basketball team..."

As she spoke, Gaen-san began flipping through the register of names borrowed from Higasa-chan, beginning her check. I'd promised not to make any copies of it, so it was the original document.

"For reference, do you mind if I ask, Koyomin? About how the code was deciphered. It's possible that the method can also provide a hint for us."

"Understood. However, I don't think it'll be very relevant."

"I'd like to hear it anyway. I may not exactly be a sciences person, but it's not like I hate number puzzles. It's a great way to exercise the mind and relax."

Relax?

Putting aside exercising the mind... She didn't really look like it, but was Gaen-san actually stressed right now? With this incident taking longer than expected, Kagenui-san drawing closer to the town with every moment, and my betrayal that must not be forgotten, well, there were plenty of things that could be cause for concern.

Well, if revealing the trick is somehow relaxing, then I'll gladly do so.

It's atonement for my infidelity.

"However, this code ended up not being a number puzzle. It had nothing to do with prime numbers, either—though it's still in the sciences, it was not mathematics, but the field of natural sciences."

"Natural sciences? If we're talking about fields, in middle school, they'd divide the natural sciences into the 'first field' for physics and chemistry, and the 'second field' for biology and geology."

"In that respect, it would be the first field—Celsius and Fahrenheit."

In other words, temperature notation.

Like numbers, temperature was the same throughout the world, or perhaps even throughout the universe, and high temperatures were high, low temperatures were low, and absolute zero was absolute zero—but temperature wasn't notated in the same way everywhere. The units differed.

And that difference was Celsius and Fahrenheit.

"Ah—that's why it's 'F' and 'C'?"

As expected of a logical person, she caught on fast. After speaking, Gaen-san flipped the register shut—it seemed she'd finished checking it all.

She was even fast at reading.

"But how does '820/280/610/160' become Celsius and Fahrenheit? Although, since Celsius is 'C' and Fahrenheit is 'F', perhaps I should ask how it becomes Fahrenheit and Celsius."

"For both Celsius and Fahrenheit, a '°' is placed in the top right direction to denote 'degrees'. In the same place where you would write an exponent."

"Do an explanation like that for a science major. I got it just from you saying 'in the top right direction'—don't go off in a completely different direction, Koyomin. And?"

"We look at the '0' in the code and interpret it as a '°'—basically, the '0' in '820', the '0' in '280', the '0' in '610', and the '0' in '160', all the zeroes at the end of the numbers, should not be taken as numbers but as symbols. Then, '820/280/610/160' becomes '82°/28°/61°/16°'."

"Aha. Highest and lowest temperatures, huh?"

That was exactly it.

The code that had been left behind was showing yesterday's temperature, represented in both Celsius and Fahrenheit—just like the Rosetta Stone, which could be described as the originator of cryptanalysis.

However, the essential letters of the alphabet were missing—"F" and "C".

"That's why, 'F/C' becomes the deciphered text to the code. Oh, but if they're initials, you can't really call that a text. But I see. It's amazing that someone could come up with something like that."

"Yes. Checking the daily high and low temperatures may be natural for an athletic person, but even then, I don't think they would have been able to come up with that in their hazy state of mind."

"No, my intention was to praise your friend, Koyomin."

It would be a bit troublesome if you show too much interest in her.

If you point your finger at her.

This was entirely my own self-interest, but I'd like to settle this case before I needed to ask for help with a third code...

But after relying on Hachikuji and getting Shinobu's cooperation and borrowing Kanbaru's house, I'd strayed pretty far from what I'd originally intended, so maybe next time I'd just give up and go to Ougi-chan for help with the cryptanalysis... Although, that girl likes to be befuddling, so she definitely wouldn't just give me the answer straight up like Meniko.

She was also a person of logic. A mysterious form of logic.

But anyway, let's return to the main subject.

For the sake of protecting Meniko, and for the sake of resolving this case.

"But anyway, how many people in the girls' basketball club have the initials 'F C'? Although we'd probably need to check whether that girl has a strap or not..."

Since the first mummy, Harimaze Kie-chan, didn't have a strap on her phone, it wasn't a given that everyone had a matching strap. Perhaps, within the club, that small level of resistance against peer pressure was allowed.

"There were as much as zero people."

"Eh? What did you say?"

"Sorry, that was a weird way to put it. Zero. There were none, is what I meant. Girls with 'F C' as their initials, that is."

030

"Have you looked for the reverse order? You know, when representing the name of a Japanese person, there's the pattern of 'first/last name' and 'last/first name'."

"Of course. There were none like that, either."

Could Meniko's solution have been wrong?

No, there was no way.

"I wonder if we should expand the range of possibilities. Should we include the third-years that have already retired as candidates?"

"Umm..."

It wasn't impossible to ask Higasa-chan through Kanbaru for a list of the OG members, but I wasn't sure. If we expanded it that far, it felt like the possibilities would be endless.

It didn't seem too productive to force the solution into the initials 'F C' and look for a person that matched, either... Rare as the initials might be, it wasn't like there was nobody with those initials.

"We did figure out that the victims were members of the girls' basketball team using the straps as the hint, but like with 'D/V/S', maybe there's a famous vampire with those initials?"

"The vampires here are from overseas, after all. It's normal to add a middle name... It's unnatural to have initials with just two letters."

"Is that so..."

I'd ended up bothering Meniko with this (though she'd been happy about it) and I'd ended up skipping class (though I probably would have skipped class anyway), but it didn't end up being that much of a hint... Well, even Oshino had said that fieldwork was a cycle of futility.

It was important not to dwell on it.

"By the way, Gaen-san. You don't seem to be in that good of a mood, so is it possible that you received more unpleasant news while I was out?"

"Hm? Did it seem that way to you? I was trying to act calm about it, but this onee-san that knows everything must be losing face to receive your concern, Koyomin. Even though I want to be an onee-san you can always rely on."

"No, no. Gaen-san, you're always an older woman that I can rely on..."

"I'm not trying to be a dependable older woman. No, but anyway, Koyomin. Your worries were right on the mark. The contents of a high school girl's cell phone weren't something we should have looked at."

And the fact that it hasn't produced any good results so far is nearly breaking my heart, said Gaen-san as she laid eyes upon the mummy on the bed—the owner of the cell phone, Kanguu Misago-chan.

Having been made to wear a patient gown and laid to rest on the bed... I didn't want to say I was getting familiar with the sight, but I was getting used to it.

When humans become nothing but skin and bones, it's hard to distinguish between them—their height became ambiguous when laid down, and since they were in a sports club, their hair was fairly short, so it was hard to distinguish them that way, too.

Kanbaru had also had a short haircut when she'd been active... Don't tell me it wasn't just because they were in a sports club, but because they were following after Kanbaru...?

Everyone doing the same thing... Hm?

"Even so, this onee-san won't be surprised any more. Seriously, after being shown the ugly side of human relations, I won't even be scared of vampires."

"Being shown? Gaen-san, you're the one who went and looked at it yourself."

"And I have nothing to say in response to that. They say you're not supposed to check your partner's phone, and that's completely true. If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

What was in that phone, exactly?

Honestly, if she said it like that, it made me even more curious... However, it probably was better to not ask. For the sake of respecting their privacy, and for the sake of my own health... If Gaen-san ended up like that, I might even end up hospitalized as a result.

And if it wasn't producing any good results, then all the more reason not to.

"Well, I suppose the girls' basketball team is pretty unique. If this sort of thing was commonplace... Well, it's not something I want to think about, as an adult. Their club activities are certainly strange. It felt like they were bullying themselves."

"But aren't all athletic clubs more or less like that? Even more so if you're a powerhouse."

Or rather, a former powerhouse. In the case of Naoetsu High.

Of course, that may have intensified that athletic mindset...

"Mm. I've always had a commander-like nature since I was in high school, but even then, I was still pretty incompatible with those sports-minded people."

"So there was a time when you were a high school girl, Gaen-san."

"It's not like this onee-san was always an onee-san from the moment she was born. Or an older woman."

"That wasn't what I meant... But even so, the hardest person to imagine as a high school girl would probably be Kagenui-san."

She didn't seem like she would be in the liberal arts or the sciences, or in a cultural club or a sports club... What kind of high school girl would she have been?

"That girl was actually a surprisingly diligent student. Although I only knew her as a college student, not a high school student. She's the only one from that trio to graduate without dropping out."

Is that so.

Human beings really couldn't be described one-sidedly, huh.

"Oh nooo. While I carelessly stepped into a colony of high school girls and got my feet stuck in a murky, bottomless swamp, Kagenui will probably arri~ive!"

Even if you lament the word "arri~ive" all cutely like that, that in itself seemed more lamentable.

Please remain a reliable older woman.

"It may be fine for me to think this way, but Gaen-san, aren't you being a little too cautious regarding your junior? She may be a bit uncontrollable, but it's not like she completely ignores the orders you give her, right?"

In the first place, Kagenui-san was coming all the way back from the North Pole because she was called by Gaen-san—plus, if she were truly uncontrollable, she would've ignored any sort of harmless certification and gotten rid of Shinobu and me.

Though she was infinitely violent, that was just a matter of the way she did things, and it should be possible to talk things out—she was a person of logic, too.

"That's right. It's true that, if I explain the circumstances, she might understand the reasoning behind why it's not necessary to exterminate Suicidemaster. It might even be possible to certify her as harmless, with how much of a little girl she's become."

Even while stuck in a bottomless swamp of high school girls, it seemed she'd long since considered the things I'd thought of, with the way she spoke.

"Yes. In fact, as soon as I'd heard that Suicidemaster had broken through Hachikuji-chan's mayoi-ushi barrier, those thoughts had already crossed my mind. It wasn't that Suicidemaster had broken through the barrier with brute force, but simply that she had been weakened to the point that the barrier didn't even react."

"......"

Was that even possible?

It sounded pretty painful and distressing, considering that she was the progenitor who birthed and named the legendary oddity.

"Even in that state, she should still be able to suck the blood of high school girls, so just by being in this town, nothing has changed regarding her being the prime suspect. However, the reason she became a mummy might not be because she was attacked by someone, but because she'd weakened to the point that she entered cryptobiosis by herself."

"In that case, would that mean she was the one to bury herself in the mountain?"

"Yes, it would be safer in the dirt, after all. The cryptobiotic-sleep, hibernation-sleep, dozing-sleep vampire. In that case, perhaps she was attempting to make her way back to Hachikuji-chan who was in charge of immigration control, and collapsed along the way. Well, we're still just brute forcing the possibilities here—the strongest possibility is still that she grew so hungry that she attacked a high school girl, but for now, we can apply the principle of innocent until proven guilty. But the problem is, that won't work on Kagenui."

"...Why is that?"

She sure was stubborn in a weird way.

In a sense, she was pretty laid-back to even put her faith in someone like me, but right now, Gaen-san was being weirdly obstinate in regards to Kagenui-san.

"Well, this is just between us, but they share a bit of a past. The problem at hand, Suicidemaster, and the even bigger problem, Kagenui."

"The problem—and the bigger problem."

"Even if Suicidemaster happened to not be the culprit for this case, and even if it's possible for her to be certified as harmless after not having harmed a human for the past six hundred years—even then, they share a past that makes it impossible to stop Kagenui. Though justice is the only thing that can put that unorthodox onmyouji in check, she's very likely to move out of a personal grudge for this time alone."

G—grudge?

That bundle of justice?

"If I make the wrong move, I may find myself having to excommunicate yet another junior. And I don't want to do that."

031

Kagenui-san's personal grudge probably wasn't something that other people should be prying into, so let's return to the main subject. Although the main subject was a ghost story with intense pressure. But anyway, back to the main subject.

The risk of intruding into her private life had been clearly demonstrated, and Gaen-san, who had hinted at it, didn't dare tell me the details of her past—perhaps she'd let it slip after being embroiled in the high school girls' darkness.

Speaking of being embroiled, it seemed that the reason Gaen-san associated the initials "F C" with the members of the girls' basketball team was not only because of the alphabet strap, but because she'd looked into the darkness of the club displayed on Kanguu Misago-chan's cell phone and had been influenced by it (it seemed she even considered the possibility that, in her dazed state, Kanguu-chan thought she could pin the crime on a team member that she had some friction with). But in the register, there was no one with those initials—and, as long as there was no initial for a middle name included, it likely wasn't the vampire's signature, either.

Before expanding our reach to the OG girls, one more possibility came to my mind.

"What if these aren't initials, but an abbreviation for something in English?"

"Abbreviation? ...In other words, something other than a person's name?"

Normally, Gaen-san would have come up with something in an instant, but at the moment, she'd been caught up in the murky mires of those high school girls... And it could be even more damaging to her as an adult.

I've learned that the private life of others is nothing but poison.

"It probably isn't 'franchise (FC)'—then maybe it's something like 'football club (FC)'?"

It seemed appropriate.

First a basketball club, now a football club.

It also wasn't impossible to interpret it as a franchise of making vampire thralls, forced as it was—but there was no need to twist it that much.

But before we went to Naoetsu High's soccer team, we couldn't forget the other organization in that high school that we should consider.

"'Fan club (FC)'."

"Hm?"

"There was something like that. In the past—well, it wasn't that far in the past—an unofficial fan club for the superstar Kanbaru Suruga."

It was an organization separate from the girls' basketball team, yet was an organization that was strongly influenced by Kanbaru, in a way different from the girls' basketball team.

It was something that came to mind after thinking that all the mummies' hairstyles were the same—let's see, as I recall, that fan club's name was "Kanbaru Soeurs"?

"What's that? Is it something like the Rukawa Kaede Imperial Guard?"

"Exactly. But somehow they ended up getting involved with me and I forced them into disbanding—"

"That's something really scary you're saying as just an introduction, Koyomin. Forced them into disbanding. You really are a delinquent like the rumors say, aren'tcha?"

"I think the remnants of that fan club could be related to this case."

As much as the hypothesis that there was a vampire among the girls' basketball team members was incredible to believe, the possibility that there was a vampire mixed in with Kanbaru Suruga's fan club was just as ridiculous.

But we weren't in a situation where we could afford not to consider ridiculous possibilities just because they were ridiculous.

"That's a fact that this onee-san that knows everything didn't exactly need to know. Ah, yes, but my dear sister had a cheerleading squad like that when she was in high school, too."

"It doesn’t seem like it will have much of a connection, but I suppose I should do something now that I've thought of it. She wasn't a member of the fan club herself, but my little sister is pretty close with that organization, so I'll look into it just a teeny bit."

"Your little sister?"

I looked at Gaen-san's clouded expression.

"My little sister (the bigger one)," I amended.

After hearing that, Gaen-san seemed to relax, smiling.

"You mean Karen-chan. Okay, do as you see fit. But, out of concern—from this old lady's point of view—please don't bring Tsukihi-chan into this. Of course, Koyomin, you were originally the one who said you didn't want to cause trouble for your family, but even discounting the thing with Yozuru, things that go well just don't go well when Tsukihi-chan is involved."

She's talking about you in a pretty amazing way, my little sister (the smaller one).

"And, I apologize for the late report, but Shinobu laid out some conditions for her cooperation in Suicidemaster's interrogation."

I presented an outline of the master-servant reversal to Gaen-san. Even though the plan seemed like it would be laughable regardless of the time, place, or occasion...

"Right, that sounds good."

I received the commander's approval.

Of course, she didn't say anything like "I'll do it, too! Let me be a slave, too!"

"Although, rather than an interrogation, it's practically an undercover operation at this point—but if Suicidemaster mistakenly sees that Shinobu-chan is doing well in this country, then she might end up chattering away without any caution."

Mistakenly. Well, she would certainly be mistaken.

Rather than "doing well", she'd been on the verge of being exterminated, on the verge of being killed, and on the verge of death, and in the end failed to die, turned into a little girl, and then ended up sealed in a teenager's shadow.

At any rate, seeing as I'd gotten the go-ahead to put the plan into action, it was inevitable—I wasn't sure if I could pull off the part of a slave, but I would do what I could.

"In that case, even if it didn't have to do with the fan club, I figure I should have a proper discussion with Kanbaru about this, but is there anything I should be careful about when talking to her? The situation has completely changed from yesterday."

"Something to be careful about... I'd like if you could avoid the storm entirely. I know you might feel a sense of duty, but don't go poking your nose into the murky depths of your juniors."

Her advice was not as a specialist but as a person with more seniority in life, but I wanted Kanbaru, too, to follow these words of Gaen-san, who was called a senior by various people.

Even if I couldn't mention Gaen-san's name.

Even if I doubted that Kanbaru would actually follow them.

"I'll stay at this hospital and do my best with the cell phone analysis while waiting for a report from the search party and preparing for the night."

"I'll meet up with Karen-chan and Kanbaru, and if I have some spare time I'll go drop in on Oikura."

"Putting aside your childhood friend, when it comes to your little sister and Suruga, there's no need to wait up until they come back from school. Koyomin, I think you should go back home at least once for a nap. Though I know all-nighters aren't hard on you thanks to your vampire constitution, you must still be at your limit, right?"

That was true.

Thinking about it, vampires, being nocturnal, did go to sleep in the daytime... Just as Shinobu was doing right now.

The truth was, I'd been working out a plan to drop in on Oikura's place until school let out for the day, but it seemed I'd have to abandon that idea.

Even sleeping was work.

Well, if it was around this time, that mathematics maniac was probably in class, too...

"Ah. I know. I'll split the difference and go to Oikura's place to sleep. I have a spare key, after all."

"Childhood friendships are pretty hard for other people to pry into, huh."

032

I decided to just go to my own home. Of course I needed to catch up on sleep, but I wanted to take a bath, too. Alas, I didn't have any clothes to change into at Oikura's place. I'll do something about that later.

Afterwards, I thought about saying thanks to Ononoki-chan for last night—since I'd left in a hurry, I hadn't been able to talk to her about how she relayed Hachikuji's message to me, or how she called over Gaen-san to the mountain after that.

From Ononoki-chan's point of view, I'd gotten a fortune slip and left all of a sudden, and then decided to go to hell—I probably seemed pretty weird to her... I couldn't bear being thought of as a weird guy by Ononoki-chan.

With both parents working, the first daughter a high schooler, and the second daughter a middle schooler, the Araragi house was generally empty in the daytime—I would be able to speak to Ononoki-chan, who'd infiltrated the house as a stuffed doll, without reservations.

It was one thing to give my thanks, but I figured I may as well tell her that Kagenui-san was approaching this town like a hurricane—for Gaen-san and me, it was an approach that was currently fairly inconvenient, but it could be good news for Ononoki-chan, who idolizes (?) Kagenui-san as an "onee-chan".

Because Ononoki-chan was busy with something else, she wasn't participating in this incident, but it wasn't like she was intentionally left out of the loop, unlike Shinobu until she found out—if the conversation went well, perhaps I'd be able to learn about the past between Suicidemaster and Kagenui-san, which I had failed to ask about, or rather, which I had wanted to hear but didn't want to hear.

Perhaps those ulterior motives led to my ruin, for when I arrived home, it was not just my parents and sisters but also that expressionless, frilly-dressed stuffed doll that was absent.

It seemed that young girl was even busier than public servants and middle school students, though not college students.

Well, I'd like to hear as much as what she had to say, but I didn't think it was a past that I wanted to dig into myself... If anything, maybe what I should be doing is to let the foreshadowing die so that her past doesn't get revealed?

Araragi Koyomi, killing the foreshadowing.

With that, feeling a mix of disappointment and relief, I took a shower and crawled into bed.

It seemed I'd been more tired than I realized (perhaps out of worry, too), so I slept soundly until the afternoon, waking only to the sound of Karen's return—despite her training in martial arts, she was a lot noisier in her movements, so it was easy to hear.

"Yo, Karen-chan. By the way, I wanted to ask about Kanbaru's fan club."

"That's way too direct. I haven't even taken off my shoes yet! At least welcome me back. You gotta have some sort of introduction before starting off the main topic with a 'by the way'. What happened?"

Araragi Karen. 16 years old.

She was super tall. My bigger little sister.

Tsuganoki Private High School first-year. She did not take part in any clubs, and continued to attend a martial arts dojo—something like that.

Also, her hairstyle returned to a ponytail.

"Kanbaru-sensei's fan club? Ah, aah. The one that nii-chan smashed up, huh."

"If I didn't break them up, they would've broken me. Just remembering it now, it's super scary."

The fact that she was still calling her Kanbaru-sensei was pretty considerable, but then again, the way Karen yearned for Kanbaru was... pretty unique.

I couldn't exactly give a thorough explanation of the circumstances, so I simply said, "Have you heard anything about, say, them having resumed activities?" and continued the conversation without explaining my reasons.

"Mmm. No, I don't think they have. When an organization like that comes apart once, it's pretty hard to reorganize."

"Is that so?"

"The crux, Kanbaru-sensei, retired, after all. Fans easily heat up and easily cool down."

I see... I guess it was like that.

Just as Karen said, if Kanbaru had continued to be active, then perhaps the fan club could have been passed down to the next generation, but now that the target of their admiration had retired, it was probably hard to gather new members.

And Kanbaru herself wasn't the kind of person that liked attracting that kind of attention, too—I had to admit I felt a bit elated at the inspiration of reading the deciphered code "F/C" as fan club... But I guess it wasn't that easy.

When comparing the girls' basketball team, of which Kanbaru had been a member, with the fan club, which was unofficial and separate... The quality was certainly different—if it became a fan club full of stoicism that could enforce ironclad laws without the actual person in question, it would be one of the best in Japan.

If only it had been "C/F", then it could at least have been read as "center forward", a basketball position...

Well, whether the culprit was in the girls' basketball team or in the fan club, it didn't change the reality that the vampire might be nonchalantly attending Naoetsu High—if that was even possible.

Of course, even though Gaen-san had been trying to implicate me, there were quite a few students that had gotten entangled with oddities, like Senjougahara Hitagi, Hanekawa Tsubasa, Kanbaru Suruga, or Oshino Ougi.

Well, a high school girl being a vampire did make for a prettier picture than a high school boy being a vampire—oh yeah.

"Karen-chan. You're a high school girl now, right?"

"What's with that, all of a sudden? But, that's right. I've become able to get married."

"That's not because you're a high school girl, it's because you've turned 16 years old. If anything, you've gotten harder to marry. Especially for me."

"Nii-chan, for you I'm the most difficult person in the world to marry. I'm your little sister!"

"How does it feel to be a high school girl? Is everything going well with your new friends?"

Regrettably, I pretended to be an overprotective older brother and started a survey to try and collect some live opinions—could even Karen be mired in the murky depths that had been a downer for the easygoing Gaen-san?

"I dunno what sort of school life you mean by 'going well', but this new world is pretty fun. I almost want to go to school on the weekends, too."

That's pretty insane.

But that's true, it's not like all high school girls have a dark side to them. There are individual differences, and it depends on the environment and the situation.

To put it in a good way, Karen's personality was endlessly bright, and to put it in a bad way, she was endlessly idiotic, but that wasn't just it—when surrounded by a stiff atmosphere, even the brightest idiot would lose some of that excitement. However, Karen was a follower of Kanbaru—

"—Oh yeah. Can I ask one more thing, Karen-chan?"

"What is it now? Today, it's all questions and no groping my boobs, huh."

"Don't talk like groping your boobs is a regular occurrence. I'm not going to touch them. This year."

"It was a problem when you've been touching them for the last year. Touching a girl's boobs like you were kneading clay. And? What's the question you were gonna ask?"

"You know the Fire Sisters, that you and Tsukihi-chan were a part of? You guys disbanded after you graduated, right? What happened after that?"

"Whaddya mean what happened. I told you, didn't I? Now, Tsukihi-chan's working hard on her own as Moon Fire."

I may have heard that before, but regrettably, the information she had on her sister was a bit vague.

Not that I could speak for others, considering I was the same way when it came to that sister.

What I wanted to ask was how the community of Tsuganoki 2nd Middle School changed after Karen, the mainstay and core of the school, left, like with the girls' basketball team—wasn't there anything like a war to be the replacement for Tsukihi's partner, or any sort of factional strife?

"Oh, for that, Tsukihi-chan, as the staff officer, handled it pretty well. For better or worse, Tsukihi-chan thinks she's so special that she doesn't expect anyone else, including me, to be able to imitate her."

I see. I'd been worried about my youngest sister's (excessive) self-consciousness, but that was an insight.

As is often the case with hard-working superstars, Kanbaru's self-esteem was quite low, and she had a tendency to believe that "anyone can do what I can do if they work hard enough"—that was something I could appreciate from a human perspective. However, if someone that was charismatic on a national level said such empty words as "if you work hard, your dreams will come true", then it would lead to a generation of people that actually buy into it.

Even though it wasn't Kanbaru's fault, the current state of the girls' basketball team was probably a climate formed by such a belief in hard work.

If I had to say it, when Kanbaru retired from the club because of her left arm, she should've picked a proper successor instead of leaving everything to Higasa-chan—though it was useless to say that now.

"Tsukihi-chan is basically a 'wasted effort is wasted' kind of girl. She'll say stuff like, 'Instead of hard work, just do what needs to be done!' 'If you put in wasted effort, you'll get even farther away from your dreams!'"

"I can't say that leaves a good impression..."

"She'd always insist, 'Find a way to make yourself a lucky boy or Cinderella girl!'"

"Tsukihi-chan probably shouldn't publish any business books. Speaking of which, it worries me that Tsukihi-chan, a middle school student, is coming home later than you, a high school student. Rub rub. What in the world is Moon Fire up to now that she's gone independent?"

"I dunno either. Rather than being independent, Tsukihi-chan's always been a dependent person with an independent spirit. Nii-chan, what were those rubbing sound effects you tried to mix in for the first time this year, without even trying to get them lost in the confusion? And I've heard rumors that you were helping out a magical girl, but how much of that is true?"

"Hmm."

Especially with Kagenui-san's return, I wanted Tsukihi to stay quiet, but she wasn't exactly the kind of sister that listened to her brother.

If I'd been able to talk with Ononoki-chan, I could've asked for her to do something about that... Rather than worry, it made me a little anxious.

Being a big brother was a lifetime job.

"Then, Karen-chan. I'm going to leave the house now, and I don't think I'll be coming back today, so in the meantime, watch over Tsukihi-chan carefully, all right?"

"You mean, today also, right? College students shouldn't be so flashy with their playing around at night. Your new life is an important time for you, too, nii-chan. I don't want to see you get burned like you did when you became a high schooler."

"Those are useful words. Worthy of engraving onto a chest."

"Don't engrave them on my chest!"

033

My fearless (of even a god) strategy to get Hachikuji to sit in the child seat ended in failure.

In transporting the ancient vampire from the Kitashirahebi Shrine to Kanbaru's house while waiting for her awakening (sunset), I'd proposed the formation of putting Hachikuji in the passenger seat and Suicidemaster in the back seat, but considering the size of the target of transportation, I was defeated by the logic that it would be legally safer to secure Suicidemaster, a six-year-old girl, in the child seat.

Well, considering that, in terms of outward appearance, Hachikuji was fixed in the form of a ten-year-old in fifth grade, it was already kind of impossible to fit her in a child seat—and Hachikuji was fairly grown for a ten-year-old. Over the past year, I'd directly felt her measurements with my own hands, so this was for certain. Of course, if the child seat itself were to break, it would be the end of everything.

It was a child seat I hoped to use for many years to come.

However, I'd been worried that Suicidemaster would suddenly go berserk in the middle of the day after being taken out of the shrine and lowered from the sacred mountain, so I consulted with Gaen-san on the phone and ended up applying further seals before securing her in the child seat.

The seals that Hachikuji applied as instructed by Gaen-san were, in simple terms, a blindfold and shackles on her arms and legs, but the image of a blindfolded, shackled little girl in white clothes fastened to a child seat honestly did not make me feel the slightest bit of safety in the legal sense.

If I were to go through police questioning, it wouldn't just end with my license being revoked.

My life would be revoked. Societally.

"A~ah. It was fairly controversial for Araragi-san, who loved his bicycle, to start riding around in a car, but I have to admit that the mobility of a car is certainly different. You can go all over the place, in every direction!"

Hachikuji herself seemed rather happy-go-lucky from the back seat—incidentally, she was in outing mode, which meant she'd changed from her white clothing to her clothes for an outing through the town, with her rucksack on her back.

She was sitting backwards, looking out the rear window, and flapping her legs—was it like a field trip for her?

"Hachikuji. Did your daytime stroll have any results? If you went around looking but couldn't find it, then that would mean the fifth mummy has yet to be made—maybe?"

"I'm not sure. If my godly eyes were able to reach every corner of this town without any problems, you could say this incident would not have happened in the first place. Although it's not that I regret allowing Suicidemaster-san to pass through without security."

"Well, sure."

From Hachikuji's point of view, she might even be a lifesaver—upon Suicidemaster-chan's arrival in Japan, it wouldn't have been odd if she had trampled Hachikuji underfoot, mountain and all.

Even though she was a god, our Hachiku-jin wasn't all-powerful—even in her weakened state, it could be possible for Suicidemaster to defeat even an athletic high school girl in a single blow.

"Hachiku-jin? Please stop. Don't give me a weird nickname. It seems your respect for gods is lacking, you know?"

Hachikuji did a half-turn and took her seat in the normal position.

"I knew that, with the case of Shishirui Seishirou-san, Shinobu-san had messed up twice, after all. I hoped that this could be an opportunity to wipe away that irreversible trauma—although, it would be a lie to say that I wasn't worried about letting Suicidemaster-san meet Shinobu-san, who was currently practically enslaved by a human."

That's why I'm all for the master-servant reversal, said Hachikuji.

"Although, I think it would be better to be honest about it afterwards. It would be sad to lose a friendship because of vanity. When I was alive, there was a boy in my class that I was close to, but because I'd been too vain—"

"Let's save that story for another time, Hachikuji. When Gaen-san called earlier and taught us about the sealing methods, I tried probing a bit, but it doesn't seem like they've found the fifth mummy yet."

"You seem way too uninterested in my flashback scene, Araragi-san."

"The analysis of the cell phone is still in progress, but it doesn't seem like there's any traces of her having made a call or sent a text or used an app since Kanguu-chan went missing, so it's hard to pin down the time of the crime. In other words, we still don't have proof of Suicidemaster's alibi."

I glanced at the little girl in the passenger seat.

The golden-haired little girl fixed in the child seat, in white clothing, blindfolded, arms and legs shackled.

"Is that so? Well, my credibility is at stake, too. I'll cooperate to the full extent of my power. Is it fine if I pretend to be a slave, too? Uhehehe."

"You sound less like a vampire's slave and more like a slave to money. Mm, I've thought about it, but..."

"So you've thought about it? Turning Hachikuji Mayoi into a slave?"

"But ultimately, a vampire's slave should be at least a little vampiric, or the lie will be found out. If it were Ononoki-chan, I may have just barely asked her to, but she's on bad terms with Shinobu. Plus, she's away at the moment, so it seems I'll have to be the only slave. If anything, Hachikuji, you can act as the local deity and be a guarantor for the relationship between Shinobu and me."

Not a bondsman, but a bondsgod.

It seemed rather apt.

Just as we were about to arrive at Kanbaru's house, the cell phone that I had left in the cup holder between the driver and passenger seats buzzed. This time, a call from Gaen-san—had the fifth mummy, Kiseki-chan's mummy, finally been discovered?

I felt slightly nervous, but I was driving, after all, so there was no way I could be the one to pick it up.

I'll leave it to my secretary.

"Who are you calling your secretary? Yes, hello? This is Hachikuji."

Seems like you've taken a liking to it.

"Araragi is currently driving. Yes. Yes. —Yes, I see. Understood. I'll let him know."

Finishing up the short phone call, Hachikuji returned the cell phone to its original position.

"What was it. Did we make any progress?"

"Rather than progress, it's more like we've fallen backwards."

That was Hachikuji's response.

"Putting aside the 'F C' initials, it seems they've completed their brute-force investigation of the remaining members of the girls' basketball team who were on the register, but everyone has been confirmed to be safe."

Everyone was confirmed to be safe?

"Isn't that a good thing? It's the first good news we've heard in a while. What's so backward about good news that's really worth celebrating?"

"The fact that they're safe means that they're also innocent—the results of the investigation made it clear that there is no vampire among the remaining members of the basketball team."

Back to square one.

034

The girls' basketball team members were cleared of suspicion, the fan club was also cleared of suspicion, and there were no signs of another vampire that could be associated with "F/C".

With this, Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster wasn't just the prime suspect, she was the only suspect—the only reason that could lead me to believe that she was innocent would be Shinobu's testimony that "Suicidemaster, whose diet is unbalanced to the point of refusing food, would never suck the blood of an immature high school girl".

Tonight's interrogation was becoming increasingly important—it wasn't an exaggeration to say that everything depended on my ability to act as a slave.

I never thought that I would get the opportunity to become a slave to a little girl and deceive another little girl, but I guess I never really know where life will go.

There were many things that made me think that my high school years were the peak of my life, but as I lived on, there were many more interesting things occurring.

And with that, a greeting to my sponsor, Kanbaru.

The sealed little girl and the deified girl had been left in the New Beetle parked in the parking lot of Kanbaru's home—of course, I'd made sure the air conditioner was left on. It certainly wouldn't do if I left two children in a car and came back to find that they'd been mummified.

"Hiya, Araragi-senpai. We only just saw each other yesterday, but it feels like it's been so long ago."

"It hasn't been that long!"

"Yes, now here, the key to the house. Use it however you like."

I figured it was impossible for an ordinary person to imitate this sort of openness—if you tried too hard to act simple, you'd crumble under the stress.

However, they say a person is only as unhappy as the number of keys they have... I wonder how many keys I will have in my lifetime.

"Tonight, we decided to hold a pajama party at Higasa's place. If you've made any progress with the matter from yesterday, I can pass it onto her."

It wasn't progress, but falling backwards.

But it was a bit hard to say that.

However, I couldn't turn back now, and I was committed to it—I wasn't going to pretend that I didn't know anything about the girls' basketball team now.

Regardless of the outcome of this case, I should work together with Kanbaru and Higasa to come up with a plan to reform, or perhaps break down, the current situation. Without going against Gaen-san. She'd called it a pajama party, but it seemed it was actually a gathering of the OGs of the girls' basketball team to brainstorm about the current situation of the younger team members...

This had nothing to do with Karen's remarks, but as a former near-dropout of that high school, I couldn't just leave behind the students that seemed like they would drop out. Even if it was odd to speak of me, who nearly dropped out on my own, and the club members, who were about to drop out because of their stranglehold from club activities, in the same breath.

"Oh yeah, Kanbaru. When you ended up reuniting with Hitagi-san, the senior that you yearned for, at Naoetsu High, what kind of airs did you put on?"

"Airs? What do you mean by that?"

Of course.

Even if the person she was talking to was a senior she admired, she wasn't the type to pretend to be something that she wasn't—she was the type of person to charge in just as she was. If anything, it was maybe Hitagi-san that was likely to put on airs at the time.

Or display her stubbornness.

As a result, it would end up taking over a year before Senjougahara Hitagi and Kanbaru Suruga, the Valhalla Combination, would reunite.

"Huh. You're talking as if you're looking for wisdom in regards to Shinobu-chan reuniting with an old acquaintance!"

"I didn't talk like that!"

I didn't even bring up Shinobu's name!

She certainly was Gaen-san's niece, and I couldn't let down my guard—if I let something slip, this capable junior might decide to get involved all on her own.

She might decide to pretend to be a slave all on her own.

As someone who felt badly about the fact that I'd gotten her involved in the case of Shishirui Seishirou because of my own personal circumstances, this was a situation I wanted to avoid.

I needed to make up some reason to change the subject and get rid of her as soon as possible.

"Oh yeah, Kanbaru."

"Araragi-senpai, you sure come up with things frequently, don't you. What is it?"

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask of you—"

035

Though we'd settled on Kanbaru's place for our choice of location, it would be effectively impossible to clean up my junior's disastrously messy room before sunset, and, even if she'd told me to use the house however I liked, it certainly wouldn't do to infringe upon the territory of her grandfather and grandmother, so we ultimately decided upon using the Japanese mansion's garden for the revival of Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster.

Much like at Ryōan-ji, it was a Japanese rock garden.

Well, even if it was a measure of desperation, the mansion gave off much more of a castle-like impression when viewed from outside rather than being inside.

Yesterday, it had felt like I'd greeted nightfall feeling like I'd run out of time without doing everything I had to do, but today, it felt like I'd done everything I could and was greeting the night having run out of material. Now, I wonder what will happen?

"Thanks for waiting. So, shall we begin?"

At the moment the sun had set about halfway, Gaen-san appeared with a one shou bottle—the ones to welcome her were me; Shinobu, who had woken up early and crawled out of my shadow; Hachiku-jin, our witness; and Suicidemaster, who had been laid down—it seemed a little too pitiful to lay a restrained little girl on the bare ground, so I'd put down a rush mat (I'd found the rush mat in Kanbaru's room—why did she have something like that?).

All the actors were in place.

The show must go on.

"I've set up a barrier going all the way around the mansion, so if by some chance a battle breaks out, we'll be fine."

"That 'some chance' is what I'd like to avoid... But, Gaen-san. What's with that bottle?"

"Well, I am a specialist, after all. Wine would be better for vampires, but I figured we could do this the Japanese way, with sacred sake for a demon."

I guess I couldn't rely on crosses and holy water in a Japanese mansion with a shrine's god present... Her behavior was as if she'd come to a late-night drinking party, but in this Japanese mansion it held an air of sophistication.

"You should've come in full dress, then."

"Did you want to see me in shrine maiden's clothes, Koyomin? Unfortunately, I don't respect formalities and ceremonies as much as Meme does. I may be a pacifist, but at the same time, I'm a rationalist."

Indeed, now that I thought about it, that careless-seeming middle-aged Hawaiian shirt guy was surprisingly pretty picky about arrangements and whatnot to the point of irrationality... And looking closely, Gaen-san's bottle was just a bottle of cheap sake from a discount store... It was a bit difficult to call that sacred sake.

I guess it's the Gaen way to push through what's difficult.

"Goodness, I never thought I'd be visiting the Kanbaru house that rejected my dear sister like this—the wheel of fate sure turns."

As she spoke in an amused manner, Gaen-san casually turned over the one shou bottle and poured it over the body of the little girl.

Rather than occult ceremony, if anything, it seemed more like the "magic kettle" thing they did in rugby clubs.

Good, judging from that composed demeanor of hers, it seemed Gaen-san had managed to safely get through the murky swamp of the high school girls.

"Ooh. White clothing getting wet and sticking to a little girl's body... Kind of erotic, don't you think?"

Hachikuji made a vulgar remark, unbecoming of a god—for the record, though I hadn't touched upon it (double meaning) out of kindness, when you were meditating under a waterfall for a joke yesterday, you looked the same way, y'know?

Putting that aside.

"By the way, Shinobu-sama."

"...... Hm? Ah, you mean me, my master?"

She wasn't getting into her role at all.

Her servile disposition was so deeply ingrained in her.

"I mean, my servant. What is it?"

"Even if you catch it right away... Well, it's fine. Listen, Shinobu-sama. My master. Would you allow me the honor of inquiring something of you?"

"If you bring that quality of acting to the real thing, it'll be your fault if we get found out, my mast... my servant."

I think it would be both our faults.

But since we didn't have time, I continued instead of retorting.

"I haven't really thought too deeply about this until now, but... What's it like, living for six hundred years?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, if I may be permitted to speak for myself, I believe I have undergone quite a few changes, just looking back over the past year."

"Speak normally. I can't tell what you're saying at all."

Right.

I didn't even know what I was saying at all.

"In the course of our lives, we change our opinions, change our minds, realize our mistakes, and learn right from wrong, right? I won't make friends, because my strength as a human would decrease—when I used to say that, I really believed it, and I don't think I could have believed back then that I would have normal friends in college."

And that was in just a single year.

If that had been six hundred years—I'd ended up suddenly wondering how I would feel when I looked back on the past.

"I can't tell what you're saying at all, even when you're talking normally—after all, I've been quick to cast away the past that I can't remember."

Was it because she couldn't remember, or because she didn't want to remember? She probably didn't even remember that.

Well, it's fine. I just wanted something to say at the last minute—not even I, speaking normally, could tell what I was saying at all.

Just because they were meeting again after six hundred years, didn't mean they had to make the same decisions they made six hundred years ago—is that what I wanted to say? However—if I ran into Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade on the verge of death in an alleyway again, what if I would offer up my neck again, just like I had done a year ago?

"In the first place, before oddities are immortal, they're unchanging, universal. They don't change so frequently, like humans do."

"Then, let me ask you the same thing I did in that spring break. Shinobu, to you..."

To you, what are humans?

When Oshino Shinobu had not been Oshino Shinobu, when she had been the vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, she had responded immediately.

She'd responded—"food".

But for Shinobu now, that was incorrect.

Even under the premise that she was sealed—but when you took that out, it was still incorrect.

However, what she would respond was another matter entirely—and it was as if Shinobu had been caught off guard, because for a moment, she fell silent. But, as if aiming for that moment...

"O devourer, o imbiber, o lurker! Now that the holy sun has set, tear open the coffin and rise! Boil the flesh in blood, and stir it with the bones!"

Gaen-san started chanting something like a magic spell that had taken the world by storm a few decades ago—it seemed like a joke, but it was for real, right?

"Come together with the night! Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster!"

It seemed like the sort of hackneyed incantation that I would've been convinced if she'd said, "Just kidding," but in that instant, the little girl soaked in cheap sake began to glow gold—or so it seemed.

But it was just my imagination, and my misunderstanding.

In actuality, the girl who had been sleeping as if she were dead had suddenly opened her eyes—the blindfold flew open, revealing two eyes as golden as her hair, and it had felt to me as if they were glowing.

Miss Suicidemaster's facial features, who had previously appeared as expressionless as Ononoki-chan's, became clearer as she awoke—though they had the same golden hair and golden eyes, she gave off a different impression from Shinobu.

The sake that had been sprinkled over her evaporated in an instant—not only the shackles on her arms and legs, but even the sash of her white clothing flew off, just like her blindfold.

Had Gaen-san broken the seal, or had the little girl herself broken it? It wasn't clear from afar—but if anything, my impressions were more towards the latter, and I couldn't help but think, "What part of her is weakened?"

I was just beginning to regret my thoughtless act of treatment, which made me recall my actions last spring break, and was wondering if it would have been better to leave her as a mummy, but then...

Creak!

The little girl's face turned towards me.

Lying on her side, only her head turned to look towards me—no.

Not me. Those golden eyes had fixed their gaze upon the one standing on my shadow, the other little girl in this garden—within moments of waking up, the ancient vampire had sensed her former thrall.

And then.

"Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

She said—sprawled out on the ground, from the lowest position imaginable, her laugh rang out louder than I could have imagined.

And in response to that loud laugh, Shinobu, who had borne vivid witness to her former "master"'s revival—

"Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

She—laughed in return.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

If it weren't for the barrier, their loud exchange laughter would surely have disturbed the neighbors—it was like microphone feedback. How long had it gone for?

Six hundred years. A thousand years.

Did it go on for eternity?

It was quite the uproarious bout of laughter, as if Gaen-san and Hachikuji and I weren't even there in that garden, but it was finally brought to an end.

"Somehow or other, it seems I've died again."

That was the remark from the little girl on her back.

And, hearing that, Shinobu shrugged her shoulders.

"It seems we've both grown old," she said.

The two little girls had reunited for the first time in six hundred years.

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