#something something in part why jou looks up to her

[dreamauri]

Whens the next part of My love all mine coming out?🤭

┇𝗠𝗬 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗘 - part six ┇ ︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶ ┇arranged marriage does not always hold ┇the outcome you expect !! ┇︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦˚₊   ┇ . 🌿 :: pairing — ( max vertsappen  x  wife! reader ) ┇ . 🫧 :: ⁠genre — ( angst / fluff )  ┇ . 🌿 :: ⁠song — ( link ) ┇ . 🫧 :: ⁠word count — ( - ) ╰  🌿 :: ⁠ content warning — ( X )

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“It’s so fluffy.” Max whispers, nuzzling his nose in your hair. You chuckle slightly, shuffling further back into his lap to get comfortable. The dutch, wrapped his arms around your waist to remove the space between your back in his chest. Max leaned his chin on your shoulder watching with you the tiktoks you scroll through.

You find yourself holding in a laugh when the video of drunk Max and Daniel on a plane. Max finds himself gasping, taking your phone and looking at it in disbelief. “How long–” “That's been there forever.” you tease taking your phone from him.

You press on the search bar, type drunk max verstappen to show him all the clips people have seen, including that one time he and Charles were calling each other from on a cruise ship.

“Ah, young love.” You tease him. Max gives you a deep frown and a confused face. “Me and Charles?” “There’s a whole hashtag dedicated to you guys.” You tease, scrolling through a bit more, you come across a video of you and max drunk sway dancing from the after parties from the monaco gp. You knew some girls were doing something. “I liked that dress.” Max nuzzles in your shoulder, pressing a soft kiss to your neck. 

“You got me that dress, remember?” “Yeah, that’s why I like it.” He smiled widely and you felt yourself laugh, melting in his hold. You liked loved moments like these. Just you and your husband, sitting on a balcony under the moonlight.

You wish everyday could be like this, peaceful and calm, just comfortable nights for you and your husband. But you always have to remember that Max Verstappen was a world renowned sportsman. He spends his weekends driving and weekdays training.

And even when nothing was going on, there were still people in the media who wanted to bite you. Looking through the comments was a mistake. You sighed reading how people said they could treat Max so much better or just picked on your mistakes.

“What’s this shit?” Max grumbles, scrolling through the comments. There was a pattern. People were nice to him, praising him, complimenting him. Telling him how he was such a good husband. On the other hand, others were commenting on how you weren't enough for him. How he could do and how much he deserves so much better.

“I don’t think these people understand I’ve been . . . what’s the world? Simping? Crushing on you since high school.” You held a giggle at the statement. He took your phone from you, starting to report every hateful comment. You couldn’t help but chuckle at his determination. “You don't have to do that.” “Shhh, wifey. It’s fun.” “Sorry, hubby.” You gave him a soft kiss before he was standing up.

You went to get a glass of the lemonade you and Max had made earlier when you heard your phone ring. “It’s your mom.” He shouted through the hotel room before answering. “Hallo, mum. Het Max.” [hi, mom. it’s max.] He greeted her over the phone. You couldn’t hear what your mom said in return but Max laid back in his arms with a big pout. “Het is voor jou, liefje.” [is your mom, love] Max held the phone out for you. You chuckled, taking a sip from the lemonade and going to sit back outside with him.

“Hi mum.” You greeted her by putting the call on speaker. “Y/N, ik wil dat je met mij mee luistert. Ik kan zo ver niet met je leven en ik ga het niet langer volhouden dan dit.” [Y/N, i want you hear with me. I can't live with you this far and I'm not going to last longer than this] You found yourself freezing in your place. Tilting your head confused. “vergeet de verstappen. scheid dat kind en kom naar huis. Ik wil niet dat k wil je niet zo ver weg.“ [forget the verstappens. divorce that kid and come home. i dont want you so far from me]

Max snapped his head up, and you choked on your drink. Divorce? Your mom’s tone was harsh and mad. “Eh? scheiding? Dat wil ik niet. Ik boek wel een vlucht erheen, maar alles komt goed. je overdrijft.” [Eh? Divorce? I don't want that. I'll book a flight there, but everything will be fine. you are exaggerating] You ended the call before she could protest. 

A moment of silence evaded the space, a once warm space was now cold. You didn’t dare speak, you knew Max was looking at you to see what you’d do next. You shook your head, holding your legs and looking down at your phone. “I-i don't want to divorce.” You told him finally looking up to meet his eyes. Max relaxed at your reassurance, nodding quickly as he sat up properly facing. “I don't either.” He held your hand kissing your knuckles. “I’ll book you a flight right away.” He said standing up.

“Wait, Max.” You stood after him, stopping. “I don’t wanna go.” You found yourself admitting, a deep sigh leaving your throat. Max was the door of escape from your family. They’d always put pressure on you to be some perfect academic person. Graduating high school with honours and valedictory. You gave up on being normal when university came around. 

It was only when you married Max were you able to pick up a paint brush again. When Jos had approached you and your family about his son wanting your hand in marriage you took it right away. An escape. You didn’t know him, so marrying him was a risk. But if you never took that risk, you would’ve never found yourself living your life like you are now.

“It’s your mom and family.” He told you, turning to you confused, looking down at his phone for flights. “You’re my family.” You replied without even thinking.

The blond snapped his head up, taken aback by your words. “I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to leave you— Correction, I don't want to be without you.” 

★ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"There you are." Your mother hummed happily once you pushed the door open. She opened her arms and you immediately went for her embrace, wrapping your arms around her back with your head on her chest. "Awh, look at you." The woman cooed, stroking your hair and kissing your head.

Max always had an odd feeling about the woman, From the moment she first saw him, till now she always give him this disgusted glare. "And I see you've brought your husband too." The words were bitter in her mouth. "I thought it was clear I wanted just you."

"Well," You looked back at the blond. "I don't know how to drive, and Me and Max we're together. So, yeah." There was a long pause, long eye contact between you and Max. "He doesn't love you." Your mother whispered in your ear, cupping her hand over her lips so max wouldn't hear or see.

"Don't be naïve, sunflower. He's after your looks." She stroked your hair. Max could see your eyebrows furrow weather in disbelief or in betrayal. "Your a trophy. If he really loved you, he'd come a whisk you off your feet. Make you fall in love with him and ask for your hand in marriage himself."

Your heart panged against your chest. She had a good point. If Max really loved you, why did he do the things the way he did. Why did you have to pick yourself up at the airport and let yourself into the apartment, and clean it up yourself? Why did you not have a choice to see if you loved him before marrying him? Why did he pluck you out of the life you already had?

"He's not good for you." Your mom whispered, her manipulative words getting through to you. "He's using you. He likes your body, your face, your image. Come to mummy, i wont hurt you, yeah? I'll keep you safe."

You jumped up on your feet clearing your throat. Max immediately noticed the shaky and hesitant body language you displayed. Fidgeting with your fingers and tapping the top of your toes on the floor.

"We should probably go, visiting hours are going to end soon." He stood up tall, gently wrapping his arm around your shoulder to comfort you. Max was surly surprised to see you flinch, and even more angry to see the deceiving gentle smile your mother gave hi. "Hours start at 12:30 tomorrow. Don't be late." She said.

★ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Max found himself tracing the lines to the glass painting on your window. The hospital wasn't far from your mom's house which had your old tween room before your parents divorced. The faded purple walls with scenery painting on them with stickers and posters.

"They're pretty," He hummed. "We should try these out on our windows back home." He turned to you, pointing at the window. His body felt still once he caught your fear filled eyes. He gulped, moving over to you, sitting on his knees beside you.

"I don't know what your mother is telling you. But I love you. No matter what." Max held your hands in his, pressing a soft kiss to your fingers. "You are the single best thing that has ever happened to me and I'd never change anything about you or us."

You looked in his ocean eyes, too big for his head yet so beautiful for his own good. The second you looked away Max knew your mother was in favour at the moment. He knew that old narcissistic woman had won the moment you had slept with your back facing him. You never looked away from him.

And the sight or your sleeping figure facing away from him made him feel as if his heart was being ripped apart slowly and painfully. He was scared to even touch you. Max would never ever risk making you feel uncomfortable.

This would be your last night under the moon light together.

[rkiveinmarvel]

kies jou. - kaz brekker. des. shadow and bones (tv) s2 spoilers!. kaz brekker didn't let hope cloud his judgment, however just this once, he lets it because it's you. notes. angst. ooc(?) kaz brekker. brief mentions of Kaz's trauma. kaz and Inej do not have a romantic link. to establish a relationship. mentions six of crow's shenanigans.

hello there! i suck at summary but here you go an angsty yet fluffy kaz brekker this is my first time writing for the fellow, so he might be ooc. enjoy!

wanorde - chaos kies jou - choose you wc: 956

Kaz Brekker wanted something, something more than the kruge he could bury with his dead body, more than the gold he could hang on his walls, more than the paintings he could hide in his room, Kaz Brekker wanted something more. He wanted you.

He watched everyone look at you whenever you entered the slat, how their eyes would linger on your face and hands. Some say you’re a dream built to see paradise but to Kaz, you were a fucking chaos. The chaos that might drown him someday and maybe save him one day. He saw you as a weakness, not for the crew, but a weakness kept within himself. 

But saints, if you were the chaos then why do you keep caring, why do you keep looking at him with eyes that calm him down, why do you always there in plain sight, and why do you always pull him up whenever the water in his lungs looks for ways for him to drown. He never saw it coming, he just realized that one day, he didn’t want to lose you. 

Maybe it was the night when you let him see a little bit of you in your safe place or maybe the night where he let you break a little part of his walls or maybe the time you looked at him with care even if he is in his armor. Or maybe the time when you bled to protect him. It made Kaz numb, he loathed this emotion, this feeling, this chaos brooding inside him. To some, it’s hope, a hope to make things better, to make things okay but Kaz learned to hope the hard way, when he was a kid, Hope drowns you and clouds your judgment. 

But hope is a word of luck dipped in the honey of chaos, that was hope for Kaz when you express it. It feels so foreign yet so raw, it scared him yet it also became his salvation and perhaps, a secret language that only he can decipher. All the heist, all the thrill, lead to this, lead you to him, always to him. 

—

The fold was now only a myth, the weight of the gold filled Kaz’s pockets, Inej has gotten her freedom, Jesper and Wylan were okay, Nina and her slab of fur will unite once again, and then you. 

As you tell your prayers to the saints of Ravka, a man with a cane watched you in the corner of the room.

“Did you get the payment, Brekker?”

Kaz looked at you and the wound on your forehead, then he recalled the moment earlier when you protected him from a volcra. He looked away and in the back of his mind, Jordie’s voice resurfaced.

You will always cause harm, Kaz. You are the chaos, you are!

He clenched his jaw and weave a deep sigh. “Everyone will get their cut once we're back in Ketterdamn.”

He looked at you once again, and to his surprise, you were staring at him, your caring stare for him. The voice of Jordie and the waves of the sea were cleared again, and the only thing he heard was your voice. 

“What now, Brekker?”

With that question, he held his cane a little tighter, and his breathing become rigged.

“Settle. Inej isn’t the only one who got their freedom.” 

You nodded your head as you stood up and walked up to him.

“Tell me something…Kaz.” His name fell out of your lips like a hymn he wishes to bottle as if whenever he hears your voice, all he wanted is to let hope to cloud his judgment. “I know you saw something, you…you’ve never been the same since that time, Brekker.”

Of course, you noticed. How the number amount of times he called your name, he stood a little closer to you, he looked over to you, protect you, something happened in Shu Han, you knew it. Kaz knew it.

“Please…Kaz.” 

He looked at you and he knew your voice was much scarier than the poison he inhaled in Shu Han, he never knew that chaos would be so beautiful and so…hopeful. Hope clouds judgment, Kaz knew it.

But this time, he lets it.

“Jordie was there…” He watched your expression be different when you looked at his eyes and they looked bitter as he spoke his brother’s name. Perhaps a misunderstanding or fear but his words suck the air in your lungs. 

“And you, my wanorde.”

Chaos. 

You stared at each other for a moment. As he breaks the silence, with his walls and armor again.

“Why…why didn’t you run away when the volcra was in front of me?”

You sighed and gave him a knowing look.

“Because I promised. I promised myself to take care of you. May I?”

You gestured your hand over his hand and at this exact moment, his walls and armor betrayed him as hope pushed him through his loudest thoughts: to have you.

He grabbed your hand as you softly examine and traced the markings of his gloves, and his whispers slipped from his mouth. “It’s rotten work..” He was mad and disappointed.

But his tone was also sad, relieved, and somehow, it was like a plea. You inhaled deeply, as you held his hands, now with both of your hands. You smiled at him.

“Not to me, Kaz.”

His hand in yours was something that scared him, he fears that it would drown him but just this once, he let it be, for your hands never drowned him, somehow it saved him. Upon touching your hands…

“Not if it’s you.”

…he felt alive.

a/n: i actually based this story off : “Pylades: I’ll take care of you. Orestes: It’s rotten work. Pylades: Not to me. Not if it’s you.” ― Anne Carson, Euripides

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[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, Part 2 of 2

Previously on Digimon Adventure: After recovering her hat from the Digital World in a wild spinoff adventure that lasted at least 45 episodes, Mimi went on vacation to Hawaii and is living her best life. All of her friends miss her terribly to the point that Jou ended up vandalizing her family nameplate out of grief, which goes to show what a vital and important cornerstone of this team she is.

Meanwhile Tokyo's phone system is glitching out 'cause too many people are prank calling each other or something. IDK the B-plot didn't seem that important.

While Taichi is contemplating how unbelievably difficult the task of getting a hold of Mimi has become, Koushiro returns.

Yuuko: Oh, welcome back. Koushiro: Thank you. What's wrong, Taichi-san?

His answer is to once again flop helplessly over the couch.

Cut to the interior of Susumu's office, where Koushiro's once again at work with the computer while Taichi lies helplessly on the floor. I choose to believe Koushiro dragged him in here by his ankles.

Koushiro: Hawaii, huh? Taichi: We're completely screwed! Koushiro: We won't be able to assemble everyone, will we?

Unless we have a way of reaching Mimi in Hawaii, no. For the first time, the team's going to have to make do with whoever they have on-hand, rather than the whole crew coming together for the big fight.

Well, I say 'first time' but two out of four Dark Masters and MetalEtemon were fought that way.

Taichi: By the way, where'd you run off to?

Koushiro holds up an unusual looking black phone.

Koushiro: This is a satellite phone. Taichi: Satellite? Koushiro: With this, we'll be able to directly connect with foreign access points without having to go through NTT's switchboard. Taichi: So then we can call Yamato and the others-- Koushiro: That won't be possible. Local calls still go through the switchboard. Taichi: Oh, what the hell!

Sat phone is going to bring us back from the brink of Complete Annihilation, but isn't going to solve all of our problems.

In the dub:

Yuuko: Hi, Izzy! Welcome back! Izzy: Thank you. So, uh... When's everybody coming over? Tai: NYAAAAGH!!! (flop) (Cut to office) Izzy: Cheer up already! Tai: What happened to the good ol' days when we were a team? Izzy: We are a team, Tai. But we're just kinda spread out right now. Tai: By the way, where did you disappear to? (Izzy shows him the sat phone) Izzy: Well, I went to pick this up. Tai: What is it!? Izzy: A satellite uplink. We can get onto the internet by tapping into the military satellite system! Tai: Izzy, you're a genius! How does it work!? Izzy: Well, do you know what a semiconductor is? Tai: ...a guy who works part-time on a train? Izzy: Never mind.

The dub misses the kind of important detail that we can't call the others on the sat phone. The put the semiconductor quip where that should go.

Which is a pretty good quip. XD A funny joke that also plays off the relative difference in Tai and Izzy's knowledge bases, so there's some neat characterization embedded in it.

The dub adds that we'll be accessing "the military satellite system" specifically.

Well, if we can't use the sat phone to contact the others, there's one other option.

Koushiro: Why don't you call 171 and see if we have any messages? Taichi: Oh, right, I forgot about that!

Taichi calls the number, and he and Koushiro listen in.

Recording: Playing message. Yamato: (beep) Moshi moshi? This is Yamato. What was so urgent? Koushiro: We did it! Taichi: I knew we could count on him!

The boys record a message for Yamato, and we cut to grandma's villa.

Koushiro: (beep) You both have your Digivices, right? Yamato: Koushiro...? (Back to Yagami residence) Takeru: (beep) We have them. Yamato: Hey, what's going on here? (Back to Grandma's) Koushiro: (beep) Please find a computer to use. A new kind of Digimon appeared inside the internet. Taichi: We need you to help us fight! Takeru: ...this is really bad. (Back to Yagami residence) Takeru: (beep) We have our Digivices, but there's no computer here at Grandma's house. Yamato: There may not be any at all. We're in Shimane, after all.

The Shimane prefecture is one of the least populated regions in all of Japan. They are deeply rural right now. This realization causes Taichi to flop right back over onto the ground.

Taichi: (overdramatic) WE'RE COMPLETELY SCREEEEEEEWED!!! Koushiro: (beep) Please, try to find a computer! There has to be a computer somewhere in Shimane!

Matt and Takeru sprint out of the house, descending a long staircase from their grandmother's home.

Yamato: Hurry, Takeru!

Fingers crossed 'cause it's a ten-hour train ride back to Tokyo. We're not gonna be able to ford the Tokyo Bay on Zudomon's back with this one.

In the dub:

Tai: Is it hooked up yet? Izzy: Almost. In the meantime, check the messages to see if anyone called back. Tai: Oh! I forgot! (Tai checks messages) Matt: Hey Tai, it's Matt. So what's the big emergency? Call me back? T.K.: WAUGH!!! Matt: Oh, I gotta go. Grandma fell asleep on T.K. again. Izzy: Good ol' Matt! Tai: I knew that somebody on the team would come through! (Cut to Grandma's) Tai: (beep) Hey Matt, did you and T.K. bring your Digivices with you? Matt: Did you pack them? (Back to Kamiya residence) T.K.: (beep) This is T.K. Of course we have them! What's going on? (Back to Grandma's) Izzy: (beep) An evil Digimon has taken over the internet. Agumon and Tentomon are fighting it now but they need help! Get your Digivices to a computer as fast as you can! T.K.: ...what do we do now? Matt: (beep) Guys, the closest thing our grandmother has to a computer is an egg timer! We're going into town to find one.

The dub snips a round of phone tag, including Taichi comically flopping back over and wailing about how screwed we are. But to avoid losing the vital exposition that computers are hard to come by in Shimane, they play Matt's final message over the footage of the boys racing down the stairs.

Izzy lies to Matt and T.K. here. Agumon and Tentomon are resting, not fighting Infermon right now.

With Yamato and Takeru now on-mission, Koushiro finishes reconnecting.

On the screen, the images of Kabuterimon and Greymon ready to fight appear. Uh, having somehow re-evolved to Adult-stage without Taichi and Koushiro connected to them. But Infermon's icon is missing.

Koushiro: Alright, we're connected! Taichi: The satellite phone worked! Koushiro: Hang on, it isn't there! Did it leave NTT? Taichi: Hey....

A new email comes in from Infermon. It has a new message, all in Katakana like the others. It reads "イナイイナイバ Inai inai ba!" Pretty sure the last letter is the creature making sounds, while いない inai in Hiragana means "Not here".

The message seems to be, "Not here not here BLEH!" Infermon is taunting them. More importantly, the email address it's using is "@@@@@@djm.dot.gov.ny.us".

Koushiro: Found it! This thing... It's in America! Taichi: America?

While that's going on, Yamato and Takeru roam the long stretches of land in Shimane searching for a functioning computer they can connect to the internet with. The first house they stop at is no good, as a man out on the porch explains to them.

Man: Computer? I have one, but it's broken right now.

At the next house, the now out-of-breath brothers are again turned aside by a middle-aged woman at the door.

Woman: A computer? I don't have anything like that.

At the third house, as the brothers now gasp for air, they're met with further failure from an elderly couple.

Old Man: A com... what? Com....

Leaving there, the boys wander the street looking for new options.

Yamato: Like I thought, there's no computers anywhere in Shimane!

Well, the good news is that when Infermon collapses society, Yamato and Takeru will be well-insulated where they are.

In the dub:

Izzy: The uplink's working! We're back online! Tai: Now let's exterminate that bug! Izzy: ...he left the phone company!? Now where is he? Tai: Look! He sent another email!

As with Infermon's previous messages, the dub rewrites the email in English. This one reads "I'm close to him." Presumably referring to Willis.

Tai: "I'm close to him"!? Close to who!? Izzy: He's in America! Tai: He doesn't even have a green card!?

By pure serendipity, this time we are in fact talking about the United States. The dub didn't have to change this one. Infermon is in America.

The following scene featuring the boys' search for a computer was cut.

Yamato and Takeru's search continues until, suddenly, they strike gold.

The boys discover a small storefront called タクシタでんきTakushita Denki, or Takushita Electric. Writing on the shop window generically advertises "あなたの街のでんきやさん Anata no machi no denkiya-san" or "Your town's electric appliance shop!" Probably don't need much of a pitch in Shimane.

It's not exactly Radio Shack but it's in the right ballpark so we should be able to--

Woman: I'm sorry, but I don't have an internet connection for this computer.

At this point Takeru is straight-up crying. The boys are so fucked that it provokes an argument between the man and woman running the shop.

Man: Oh come on, just let them use it. Woman: (pointed) Sho-chan, don't you have deliveries to make? Sho: I feel bad for them! Woman: (getting heated) But it doesn't connect to the internet! Man: (pounds fist on the table) Then hook it up! Woman: SHO-CHAN-- Yamato: Hey, hey, both of you....

Yamato puts a stop to this before it gets ugly, and we cut to the boys on Sho's delivery motorcycle.

Yamato: Where are we going!? Sho: Leave this to me!

Three cheers for the random deliveryman who wouldn't hang these boys out to dry.

As with the rest of the boys' search, the dub cuts the electric shop too. All we get is the boys on Sho's motorcycle, which is quickly recontextualized to explain who he is.

Matt: UNCLE AL!!! I SAID SLOW DOWN!!! Al: STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!

As with "Sora's cousin Duane", the dub's invented a new relative to transport the Chosen Children. I wonder if the kids accepting rides from strangers made the censors uncomfortable?

Meanwhile, in the United States, Infermon rampages unchecked across American systems.

Devouring everything in its path, we see multiple effects of the havoc it's unleashing.

Bus destination signs flickering into gibberish. Cab drivers' navigation systems replaced by static images superimposed by Infermon's face. The same happening to the giant screens in New York City, as well as airplane and flight control instruments at airports.

There's also one really cool metaphorical shot, gradually zooming out on an American flag while Infermon crawls up one of its stripes like an infectious parasite. Gives me the heeby-jeebies.

Finally, we end Infermon's rampage on a shot of NYC at night, as lights flicker in every building and police sirens scream through the night.

Taichi: Bastard! It's having fun! Koushiro: Despite being Perfect-stage, it's still a newborn child. There's no way to know what it's going to do. Taichi: Can't someone do something about this? Koushiro: I'm sure there's adults out there who've figured out that they aren't dealing with an ordinary computer glitch. But they have no way of realizing that it's a Digimon causing all this. Taichi: Then... What can we do!? Koushiro: All we can do is have Agumon and the others fight it. Taichi: But even then....

Taichi is pissed. He whips out この野郎 konoyarou, one of anime's favorite vulgar Fuck Off And Die insults.

The dub plays Infermon's American rampage for fun times. They set it to the song "All My Best Friends are Metalheads" by Less Than Jake.

Izzy: Well, the Digimon's in New York. He's eaten all the data at Kennedy Airport and he's headed for the subway system. Tai: Good! That will definitely slow him down, for sure! Izzy: I'd better email Willis and let him know that Infermon is heading in his direction. I do have one question, though. What do you think that Digimon would have been like if the virus never attacked him? Tai: I have a question too: WHY ARE YOU STILL DRINKING THAT JUNK!?!? Izzy: Look, just because you don't like to eat healthy, doesn't mean that I don't. Tai: Don't say I didn't warn you....

This isn't even a different take; They flat-out replaced this scene with a brand new one. Referencing Infermon's new goal of finding Willis and making jokes (and foreshadowing) about Yuuko's recipes.

Also, Izzy ponders what Infermon would be like if it wasn't infected by the virus, which is a funny question to ask when the dub added that detail in the first place. Speaking from the Japanese side? The same, Izzy. It's the same. Without a virus, Infermon is the same.

Well. Less talkative, so the virus did change some things, but not as much as you might think.

Suddenly, the boys receive a videocall. Man, it's a good thing Infermon left NTT 'cause good luck finding a satellite phone in Shimane.

Taichi: Yamato! Yamato: Sorry to keep you waiting! Takeru: We have our Digivices! Koushiro: I see. That's good. You found a computer? Yamato: Uh, well....

Cutting to their perspective, we see that the brothers are at a computer in a barber shop. The barber does not seem very thrilled about letting them use his computer.

Barber: Are you sure it's okay to let these kids touch it? Sho: (jolts upright) Stop whining and let them use it!

While I doubt it was intentionally tactical, Takeru's waterworks worked. Sho is invested in getting the boys online. They are, however, not exactly in a private space.

Elderly Man: Those are Kinu-san's grandchildren. Elderly Woman: Life in Tokyo sure is different. Taichi: Hey! What's wrong, Yamato! Hey! Yamato: N... No... It's nothing.

Returning to Odaiba, Koushiro chugs his glass of oolong tea from the tray they brought.

Taichi: Whew. You know, I was worried there for a moment. Koushiro: Taichi-san, can I have your oolong tea? Taichi: Haven't you drank too much already?

Koushiro doesn't wait for Taichi's answer. He chugs Taichi's glass too.

In the dub:

Tai: Matt! Matt: We've got the Digivices! T.K.: Now what? Tai: Awesome! We'll tell Gennai to upload Gabumon and Patamon onto the net! Matt: You can do that? Barber: That sounds like fun! Usually I just play Solitaire on that thing, but I-- Al: (jolts upright) Careful, Floyd! You almost cut my ear off! Elderly Man: Kids today are so smart, aren't they? Elderly Woman: I still can't set the time on my VCR. Tai: Hey Matt, who are all those weird people? Matt: (loudly) They're not weird! They're my best friends! (bitterly mutters) Considering this is the only computer in town! (Meanwhile, Izzy chugs his glass) Tai: Gennai's transfer of the Digimon is almost completed. Izzy: Hey, can I have yours? Tai: (despondent) Izzy, you're the bravest kid I've ever known....

The dub adds the detail of Tai "having Gennai move Gabumon and Patamon onto the net", which is a pretty detail to add. The barber is also a lot more friendly about letting random children use his computer.

It's ironic that Random Stranger Sho is a lot more gung-ho and aggressive about helping these kids than Uncle Al. Al got them to a computer too, but he's not throwing hands with everyone in Shimane over it. XD

Inside the internet, Agumon and Tentomon fly through cyberspace, ready for another round.

Tentomon: Aren't the others connected yet? Agumon: If not, we'll just have to fight it again by ourselves. Tentomon: Yeah, but-- Gabumon: Agumon! Tentomon! Both: Hm?

Gabumon and Patamon enter the circuit they're flying through from another tunnel.

Tentomon: Ah! Gabumon and Patamon! Patamon: We're coming too! Gabumon: Sorry we're late! Yamato: We're counting on you, Gabumon! Takeru: Ganbatte, Patamon! Koushiro: I'll guide all of you. Digimon: Okay! Agumon: This time, we'll definitely defeat this thing!

Reminder: Ganbaru is the Japanese cultural value of perseverance through tremendous adversity via hard work and dedication.

Arrows appear along the path, marking the route and guiding the Digimon to a new virtual space. This one is full of floating construction beams everywhere.

Perched atop one of those beams is Infermon, along with a video game compass marker helpfully pointing it out and a sign. A sight that has only gotten funnier in this modern age of gaming.

It's not Koushiro doing that part, though. The sign's origin is clear from the fact that it's simplistically written in strictly Katakana, like Infermon's earlier messages. It reads コッチダヨーン Kotchidayoun, which translates to こっちだよーん Kotchida youn which translates to "Over here".

Yamato: Is it playing with us!? Taichi: Yamato, let's go all out! Yamato: Straight to Ultimate level!

Yes. Yes, it is playing with us. Its age can be measured in hours. This is all a game to it.

In the dub:

Agumon: We're going back in! Tentomon: I assume Izzy and Tai were unsuccessful in finding anyone else. Agumon: Then you and I will just have to beat that thing by ourselves! Gabumon: Sorry we're late! Patamon: I was surfing the net and I wiped out! Agumon & Tentomon: Huh!? Tentomon: Gabumon and Patamon! Patamon: Is T.K. on this ride? Gabumon: He's not tall enough. Yamato: Hey, Gabumon! T.K.: Patamon! Izzy: Say hello later! We have work to do! Tentomon: Keep your legs and wings inside this ride at all times! Izzy: Just a little further, guys. Just remember: He's dangerous so stay focused! (The Digimon spill into the new area of the internet) Infermon: I'm looking for the programmer; Don't interfere! Matt: He's teasing us! Tai: Oh, yeah!? Then let's get him! Matt: It's time to Digivolve!

Patamon "surfing the net and wiping out" is a nice bit of wordplay for his punny quip, though I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean in a literal sense.

Izzy does not offer to guide the Digimon to their destination, the message remains untranslated in Katakana, and Infermon explicitly wants them to stay away from him rather than goading them. So. I sincerely have no idea who put the pointing arrow over Infermon in this version. It just kinda happens.

As Taichi and Yamato agreed, it's time to evolve straight to Ultimate.

While Agumon and Gabumon Warp-Evolve, we jump around the globe once again to people watching their evolution sequences. This fight, too, will be broadcast worldwide.

I'm really fond of how this is presented. Show Me Your Brave Heart begins like usual when the Digimon evolve, but we jump to a different country and different group of people with each note of the song.

The dub uses their typical Warp Digivolve reprise of their opening theme, but they aren't able to time the shots to the notes for obvious reasons. It still flows pretty well.

Also, for Digimon: The Movie synergy, there's a blond boy watching in one of the shots that you could totally assume is Willis. Maybe he is! Or he could be Michael from 02. Who knows.

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon take turns boxing Infermon around, making hit and run swipes at it.

Taichi: Nice! Takeru: Patamon, you evolve too. Patamon: Uh-huh!

A neat detail of Patamon's attempted evolution is that the stock animation footage appears diegetically on a screen directly behind him. We see him with the screen at an angle while the startup "Digivice meter rises and overtakes the Digivice" bit plays.

(This might be why Infermon can interfere with evolution sequences. Others have fucked with evolution before but not this directly. It's never been implied that a Partner Digimon in-universe stands there frozen in place for upwards of 40 seconds when evolving.

But we're not in the Digital World right now. We're inside the internet itself, so maybe the data stream is something that can be seen and interacted with. Or something.)

Whatever the case, Infermon's not letting them get away with this one. It lunges, undergoing its own evolution into Diablomon.

Yamato: It evolved!? Taichi: How is it so fast!?

I'm not sure if Taichi means it's moving fast, it evolved fast without a fancy sequence like the Partners have, or that it evolved quickly in the sense that it's gone from Digitama to Ultimate in the span of like a few hours. Honestly, all of these are valid questions.

In its new form, Diablomon has stretchy rubber-band limbs, which it demonstrates by punching Patamon out of his evolution sequence and pinning him against a girder.

Takeru: Patamon! Tentomon: Patamon--DAUGH!!!

Also, it has two arms, so Tentomon can have one too.

In the dub:

T.K.: Patamon, you'd better Digivolve! Patamon: Right! Patamon, Digivolve To.... Infermon: Infermon, Digivolve to: Diaboromon!

"Diaboro" is an obvious r/l mistranslation of "Diablo", the Spanish word for devil. What's less obvious is whether they did that by accident or on purpose. Might be an error, might be they fudged the name on purpose to remove the Satanic reference. Both are plausible.

Matt: What's going on!? Tai: He Digivolved.... Diaboromon: CABLE CRUSHER!!! (Diaboromon punches Patamon out of his evolution) T.K.: Look out, Patamon! Tentomon: I'll save him! (gets punched)

The stretchy arm punches are called Cable Crusher in the dub.

Gotta love T.K. yelling "Look out!" like a second after Patamon already got hit. XD THANKS. HELPFUL.

Takeru and Koushiro check on their pinned down Partners.

Takeru: PATAMON!!! ARE YOU OKAY!?!? Koushiro: Tentomon! Tentomon: I'm fine... Patamon.... Takeru: (crying) Patamon, I'm coming to you! Patamon! Patamon! Patamon!

Meanwhile, at the barber shop, everyone's dropped what they're doing to stare at these strange boys getting very emotional about whatever they're doing on the internet. Even Sho and the barber have stopped midway through Sho's shave.

Yamato: How dare you... HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO PATAMON!!! Taichi: YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!!

Resuming the fight, MetalGarurumon goes for Diablomon first. MetalGarurumon unloads his freezing missiles, Diablomon gets pummeled by MetalGarurumon's shots. At speed, it's hard to tell if the blasts are hitting it or if it's dodging, but the freeze-frame clearly shows Diablomon getting tossed around.

Recovering, Diablomon returns fire with a fireball from its chest which hits MetalGarurumon dead on.

WarGreymon pushes through the smoke and closes distance. Diablomon tries to deflect WarGreymon's attack at range, using its own stretchy claw to break WarGreymon's right Dramon Killer off. WarGreymon adapts, turning a stab into a punch and breaking Diablomon's goddamn face.

Taichi: Tentomon! Look after Patamon. WarGreymon, stay on the attack!

Koushiro, next to Taichi, begins sweating and seems to be having, let's say, trouble with something....

As WarGreymon closes distance, the process repeats. Diablomon snaps off WarGreymon's other Dramon Killer, and WarGreymon connects an unguarded left hook into Diablomon's face.

In the dub:

T.K.: Ahh! Patamon, are you alright!? Izzy: Tentomon! Tentomon: I'm fine! What about Patamon? T.K.: Patamon! Speak to me! Come on, get up! Say something! I'm coming! I'll come get you! Matt: T.K.... You can't. (to MetalGarurumon) BUT YOU CAN!!! Tai: WIPE HIM OUT!!!

The dub names MetalGarurumon's missiles Ice Wolf Spikes, despite usually calling it (and most of his other moves) Ice Wolf Claw. Diablomon's fireball is Web Wrecker. WarGreymon's punch is just a punch, though to be honest I was expecting it to be Terra Force or, like, Nova Punch or something. XD

Tai: Tentomon, circle around! WarGreymon, attack!

For some reason, the dub has Tai tell Tentomon to "circle around" Diablomon, as if he's supposed to be moving in for a flanking strike. Um. No. His job is to go make sure Patamon didn't die a moment ago.

Unfortunately, while this is happening, Koushiro continues to have his crisis.

Koushiro: T-Taichi-san.... Taichi: Go! Keep it up! Koushiro: (straining) Taichi-san! Taichi: Right there! Get it! Koushiro: TAICHI-SAN!!! Taichi: The hell!?

Startled, Taichi finally turns his attention to Koushiro, who is visibly in a lot of pain.

As Taichi turns his attention to Koushiro, the line "Show me your brave heart" from their triumphant battle theme gets stuck. The soundtrack begins stuttering, playing that same line over and over and over like a broken record. Our first warning that things are now suddenly going awry.

Koushiro: I can't hold it anymore.... Taichi: What!? Koushiro: I have to use the bathroom, please....

Without another word, Koushiro stands up and staggers out of the office.

Taichi: (dismayed) Hey... Why now of all times...? Hey!

Meanwhile, in the fight, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon both power up their attacks to throw at Diablomon.

Yamato: That's it! Finish it off! Taichi: Huh!?

The pair fire off attacks together that... Sort of look like Cocytus Breath and Gaia Force reimagined by a new art direction.

Taichi: Please! This has to hit!

It does not. Diablomon leaps straight up and hurdles their shots at the last second.

Taichi: FUCK!!!

Frustrated, Taichi smacks the computer monitor and causes it to Blue Screen. He freezes in horror when he realizes what he's done.

Yamato: What's happening, Taichi!? WarGreymon stopped moving!

This is karma for the Andromon episode of the Devimon arc, where Taichi kept smacking computers.

Taichi tries shaking the monitor a couple of times to try and get the connection back, but it's hopeless. Thankfully, Koushiro returns from the bathroom here to discover what Taichi's done.

Koushiro: Sorry about that. Taichi: (desperate, teary) It isn't working! Koushiro: Eh!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?

Our polite little Koushiro shoves Taichi away from the computer so that he can get this fixed.

Taichi: I didn't do anything! It's your fault for using the bathroom at a time like this! Koushiro: It's useless.

Koushiro gives up on trying to get the system back on and hard reboots the computer instead.

In the dub:

Izzy: It's... no... use.... Tai: What are you talking about!? We're winning! Izzy: Owaaaaaaugh... goh... This could be it.... Tai: Yeah! Great, huh? Izzy: Not that! Tai: What's going on!? Izzy: There's something... wrong with me.... Tai: What is it!? Izzy: I think it's your mother's recipes.... (Izzy runs off for the bathroom) Tai: See!? I hate to tell you I told you so but... I told you so!

In the original, he just needs to pee. He drank too much oolong tea and now his body needs to drain the excess fluid. He leaves Taichi unsupervised with the computer for less than a minute.

Here, he's got some kind of indigestion or food poisoning going on, which will be similarly quick to handle.

Matt: Tai! Look! Something's wrong! Tai: Huh!? (The Digimon attack) Tai: Oh no! They're slowing down! (Diaboromon dodges) Tai: Huh!? COME ON!!! (Tai smacks the computer and it blue screens) Matt: Tai, where'd you go!? WarGreymon has practically stopped moving! (Tai shakes the computer a couple of times) Tai: Oh no! Oh no! Izzy: (returns) Ah, I feel a lot better. Tai: I didn't touch anything, I swear! Izzy: AH!!! (shove) TAI, WHAT DID YOU DO!?!? Tai: It wasn't my fault! Besides, who told you to go to the bathroom at such an important time!? Izzy: Like I had a choice!

In the original, Taichi and Yamato are gung-ho about landing these shots and finishing off Diablomon. The dub asserts that they're moving slower, which is a later plot point that the dub's incorporating early.

They may have brought this in early to explain why WarGreymon suddenly shuts down when Tai's connection breaks. It's never been a thing before that a Digimon suddenly goes into stasis if their Partner isn't nearby. That's a weird thing for the original to have happen, so the implied whatever-the-fuck could be an attempted story patch.

While the computer's rebooting, Koushiro vents at Taichi.

Koushiro: Why did you freeze the system!? Taichi: I didn't think that would happen! Koushiro: This is why you're bickering with Sora! Taichi: (wounded) I did nothing...!

Jesus. I don't think we've ever seen Koushiro this upset, and he once fought a guy that wanted to eat his parents. Taichi is silent for a moment, nursing the critical hit that remark struck.

Taichi: I just... (mutters) ...got her a present. Koushiro: A present?

We cut to Sora, sitting in her windowsill and watching a jet go by in the sky as Taichi finally opens up about what happened.

Taichi: Her birthday was coming up, so I got her a hairclip. But then she starts saying things like, "(sneering) Oh, you think this hat doesn't suit me!?" So we started fighting....

As Taichi finishes his story, we return to Taichi and Koushiro, with that same jet visible out the window. They're far apart, physically and emotionally, yet under the same sky all the same.

Koushiro: So that's it... Taichi: Yeah, but... I'm supposed to apologize, right?

Taichi's impression of Sora, literally the tone he uses when quoting her, is mean and uncharitable. But that's not unexpected for someone who's in the midst of a quarrel and doesn't understand what he could possibly have done wrong. So far as Taichi figures it, Sora snapped all of a sudden over the hairclip and started yelling at him for no reason.

Okay. We need to take a moment and talk about the hairclip. What did Taichi do wrong? Well. They don't give us a lot of information to go on. We never hear Sora's side of the story. This is all we get.

But from what we know of Sora, we can surmise some things. The explicit point of contention is Sora's hat. Taichi gave her a pretty hairclip and her kneejerk reaction was that he was telling her not to wear her hat.

This is what she's reacting so negatively to; The implicit statement Taichi hadn't realized he was making that Sora's hat is bad. Or, specifically, that it is 似合わない niawanai, unsuitable for her. That she is the kind of person who wears pretty hairclips and not the kind of person who wears hats like this.

Let's take a moment to think about the context Sora exists in. The longstanding personal drama of her life is her conflict with her mother's expectations. Her mother is iemoto, the grandmaster for a school of ikebana, a traditional art of flower arranging. Sora was born to step into the shoes of a very traditional and feminine discipline, which she did not take well to.

Rather than following eagerly in her mother's footsteps, Sora became more invested in sports, a traditionally masculine activity. She presents herself with long pants, short hair, and that big helmet over most of her head, which she's now swapped for a floofy winter cap. She has conversations with Mimi about how assertive and strong she is compared to the more feminine Mimi.

Sora has, for years, felt like her self-expression is under siege by expectations of traditional femininity. And then Taichi comes to her and implicitly says to her, "Hey, you should change your self-expression to be more feminine." Of course she blew up. Of course she did.

Taichi, of course, had no idea the hairclip would be taken that way. He's... just... terrible at understanding other people's feelings. This was stupidity, not malice. But even though Sora and Toshiko have reconciled, that doesn't mean all the sore spots have disappeared. Taichi stepped on an emotional landmine buried in the Demilitarized Zone that Sora and Toshiko's arguments left behind.

Not to be too charitable to Taichi since he was there when she explained all this. He's an idiot who doesn't think things through and isn't good at understanding people. But he didn't mean any harm by it and now has no idea why it created so much tension.

In the dub:

Izzy: Oh, why did you crash the computer!? Now I have to reboot! Tai: Well, it's not like I did it on purpose or anything! Izzy: Yeah, right! Just like it wasn't your fault with Sora! Tai: That wasn't... my fault... Oh, okay, maybe it was my fault. Izzy: What happened? (Cut to Sora) Tai (V.O.): It was stupid. I gave her this really great hairpin for her birthday and then she got all mad and said, "(sneer) Oh, you don't like my hairstyle!?" and I said "Who could tell? You're always wearing a hat!" and then she said "So! Now you don't like my hat, huh!?" It's very confusing. (Cut back to Tai and Izzy) Izzy: That's what you fought about? Tai: I tried to apologize to her but she won't return my phone calls!

Tai and Sora's argument in the dub is a bit longer. A subtle but critical difference here is that Sora in the original is getting mad over whether her hat is suitable to her while Sora in the dub is getting mad over whether Tai personally likes her aesthetic.

Suddenly, the computer finishes reconnecting with an audible chime.

Koushiro: Ah! We're back to normal. Taichi: WarGreymon-- Ah!

The boys reconnect to find the battlefield they left behind has become a debris field. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon lay motionless, lifeless amid the debris.

Yamato: TAICHI!!! KOUSHIRO!!! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS DOING!?!? YOU GODDAMN MORONS!!!

Koushiro's only crime was having to pee, and his Digimon was barely even a participant anyway. He probably doesn't deserve to be called 馬鹿野郎 bakayarou, which is the anime classic 馬鹿 baka or "stupid" but in a really mean and vulgar way. It's for when you wanna call someone baka but spit it like a curse word, no playing.

For Taichi, however, the obscenity is well-warranted.

Taichi: (teary-eyed) WarGreymon! WarGreymon! WARGREYMON!!! WARGREYMOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

While Taichi's screaming for his Partner, we take another cuts around the globe. To all the people silently watching in stunned horror as he all but begs his Partner to be alive.

WarGreymon: T... Taichi....

Finally, Taichi's voice reaches WarGreymon and he opens his eyes again.

The dub catches that an audio cue is supposed to alert the boys, and uses that old 90's dial-up tone.

Izzy: Ah! We're back online! Tai: WarGreymon! (Debris field, half-dead Digimon) Matt: Hey guys, where were you!? You two sure picked a lousy time to take a lunch break! Tai: (teary-eyed) What happened to him!? WarGreymon! (Silence as we jump around the globe, then back to WarGreymon) Tai: WarGreymon.... WarGreymon: ...ugggggh... Tai, I can't move!

The emotions are dialed back quite a bit here. Matt gives them a snarky scolding instead of yelling obscenities in Tai's face while Tai's fear and grief doesn't quite match the bloodcurdling screaming that Taichi's doing.

Good news is that WarGreymon isn't dead. But this is still pretty bad.

Taichi: If I.... If I'd been here, this wouldn't have happened. Koushiro: You lost again? Taichi: WHAT!?!?

Taichi whips around like them's fightin' words to see Koushiro reading emails from the laptop.

Koushiro: And now from Canberra: "You were so close to winning. What were you doing!?" This one's from Berlin--

Out of nowhere, Taichi shoves Koushiro. Then he grabs him by the scruff of his shirt.

Taichi: The hell!? ASSHOLE!!! Koushiro: I was just reading the emails we received! Taichi: Koushiro, you piece of-- Yamato: Cut it out! This isn't the time to fight each other! (beat) Taichi: Keh!

Taichi pushes Koushiro back to the ground and returns his attention to the computer.

Taichi: What's with these emails anyway!?

What gets me about this bit is that it's not a misunderstanding. His この野郎 konoyarou comes before he clarifies, but even after, Taichi still gives him a 手前 temae. That's the second-person pronoun you use when you want to say "you" in a way that expresses contempt.

Taichi isn't confused here; He is legit trying to punch the messenger.

In the dub:

Tai: I let him down! I should have been there! Izzy: Your Digimon's a loser. Tai: What did you say!? Izzy: How could two Mega-level Digimon get beat by one lousy bug!? WarGreymon quit like a coward--OW!!! (Tai shoves Izzy and grabs him) Tai: YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR I'LL-- Izzy: I WAS READING AN EMAIL FROM ANOTHER KID!!! Tai: You didn't have to read it so well! Matt: Hey, you two! This isn't the time to be fighting! (beat) (Tai shoves Izzy down and goes back to the computer) Tai: Stupid emails....

The dub does play this more for misunderstanding. They take out the parts where Koushiro says "This one's from Canberra" and "This one's from Berlin", so it sounds to Tai like Izzy's being mean and cruel out of nowhere.

Tai doesn't apologize after Izzy clarifies, but he also doesn't double down like Taichi does.

Additionally, the kids emailing seem to be a lot better informed than in the original. It's not too big a deal that they can namedrop WarGreymon since Tai/chi says his name multiple times while begging him to be alive. But they also name-drop Mega Digimon and seem to understand what that means.

From here, we go to Diablomon in the depths of the internet.

It's holding a cute pink clock, revealed to be the true source of its weird cackling back in the first Infermon fight.

Clock: Yahahahahahaha! Yahahahahahaha! Yahahahahahaha!

Diablomon waves its hand over the cackling clock and makes it disappear. Cut to an ominous shot of the jet flying in the sky, and then back to the boys.

Diablomon appears on the computer screens in front of Yamato, Takeru, and Taichi. It doesn't send an email this time; It simply composes one in real-time for them to see, typing out letter by letter.

Diablomon types トケイヲモッテイルノハ ダーレダ Tokei wo motteiru noha daareda. Which translates to 時計を持っているのは誰だ Tokei wo motteiru noha daareda. Which translates to "Who has the clock?"

Incidentally, this message is sent from the FactoryMark server so it looks like Diablomon's back in Japan. It did what it needed to do in the U.S.

Takeru: Clock?

This message is then replaced by two entirely different things to freak out about. The first is a red timer counting down from ten minutes. The second is Diablomon's image in the background dividing into two, and then those two dividing into four. Then those four into eight.

Yamato: It's copying itself.... Taichi: These numbers-- Koushiro: What do we do!? Taichi: Huh!?

Koushiro isn't looking at the screen. He's still at his laptop reading emails.

Koushiro: A middle school student from Taiwan hacked into the Pentagon, and they say that a nuclear missile was launched from an American military base thirty minutes ago. Taichi: HUH!?!? Koushiro: It was fired by a computer error. (freaking out) Of course, it was actually that thing that did it! Taichi: Then this number is.... Koushiro: The estimated time until the missile reaches its target.

OH. OKAY.

THAT IS PROBABLY BAD.

In the dub, Diaboromon talks over the ticking of the clock, which is not itself cackling.

Diaboromon: Wahahahahahaha! Go back to the beginning....

His email is rewritten in English once again. This time he types out, letter by letter, "Who can count backwards from ten?"

Tai: Another email!? "Who can count backwards from ten?" Huh!? Is he giving us a math test!? (Cut to T.K. and Yamato) T.K.: What's that? (Timer appears and Diaboromon begins dividing) Matt: Hey, what's with the timer? Tai: He's making copies of himself! (Cut back to Tai and Izzy) Tai: He's multiplying! Izzy: It gets worse! The U.S.A. just launched two nuclear missiles! Tai: Huh!?

Yep, there's two missiles in this version. Also, they were recently fired, as opposed to having been fired half an hour ago.

The dub edits the footage again to remove Koushiro's Taiwanese pal and replace him with Willis.

Izzy: Willis says the government has no explanation for it, but he found out that Diaboromon's in the Pentagon's computers. I hope I didn't lead him there with my satellite uplink! (gasp) One of the missiles is headed for Colorado! THEY'RE GONNA LAND IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES!!! Tai: That explains the timer. But what's in Colorado!? Izzy: I have no idea! In the meantime, Diaboromon keeps multiplying!

Willis, of course. One missile for the original target and a second missile for Willis.

We cut again briefly to the "jet" leaving its trail in the air. Now with an unsettling new context.

Taichi: Y-You're messing with me.... Koushiro: The nuclear missile is called One-Shot Peacekeeper. Range of 20,000 km, which is nearly the entire Earth. Top speed is 15,000 mph. Taichi: ...what's that in kmph? Koushiro: In parentheses, "Mach 23". Taichi: T... Twenty-three...?

The Earth is a little over 40,000 km in circumference so Koushiro's math checks out. Depending on which direction you shoot in, you can cover almost everything on the planet with that kind of range.

Additionally, the speed required to achieve orbital velocity is about 17,500 mph. So this missile can't reach orbit, but it's close.

As Koushiro says that, we cut to Mimi in Hawaii watching the "jet" suddenly streak by overhead. Seems to be heading westward from the continental U.S.

Mimi: Oooooo!

She has no idea what she's looking at. It's probably just a cool plane going super fast in the air.

Koushiro: But we don't know what its target is or where it is in the air right now. Only that it's going to detonate somewhere in the world... in nine minutes.

Meanwhile, in Shimane, the people in the barbershop have no idea. The elderly couple discuss dark clouds moving in over the region.

Elderly Man: It's getting cloudy. Elderly Woman: So quiet, though. I should probably go bring in the laundry right away. Elderly Man: Right away!

The old woman offers Yamato a grocery bag.

Elderly Woman: Would you bring these things to Kinu-san? Tell her they're from Yasuko. Yamato: ... Yasuko: Huh? Are you even listening?

They are not. Yamato and Takeru stare at the computer screen, paralyzed with terror by the reality in front of them.

An interesting note is that it's only one missile. Diablomon isn't going Full Skynet and trying to annihilate humankind. It only has one target it intends to utterly destroy.

In the dub:

Tai: But the military has the power to stop it, right? Izzy: Every country is trying to intercept them, including Japan. But Diaboromon has infiltrated all the computers and is rerouting them to fall harmlessly in the ocean near Hawaii! Mimi: (Hawaii) Ooooo, fireworks! Izzy: I've got the trajectory for the other missile. Let me calculate. ...carry the two, times three... TAI, IT'S AIMED RIGHT FOR THIS NEIGHBORHOOD!!! Tai: (frustrated) Ugh....

SPOILERS, IZZY. FUCK. I mean, I think most people already guessed that, but still.

Following Tai's incredibly understated groan, the Shimane scene is cut.

When Izzy says Diaboromon is "rerouting them to fall harmlessly in the ocean", the wording here is a little confusing. I think he means that Diaboromon's sending every country's counter-missiles to Hawaii? But the way he words it makes it sound like he's sending the two nukes to Hawaii.

It's a bit of a word salad to try and justify why Mimi's seeing a missile streak by in Hawaii. Which... is kind of a fair question, because Hawaii isn't between the continental U.S. and Japan. It's pretty far south, between Mexico and the Philippines. So I have no idea why the missile passed directly over Mimi's head.

(It heard how cool she was and wanted to swing by to see for itself. It has more than enough range for a detour.

Back at Taichi's home, more emails come in.

Koushiro: This email's from Indonesia: "You must defeat the enemy somehow." Over here, from Armenia: "You're the only ones who can defeat that monster." From Qatar: "Please ganbatte." Taichi: We should ganbaru...

Watching the screen, they're now up to 64 Diablomon and still dividing.

Taichi: But we can't defeat all of them! Koushiro: A nuclear missile can't detonate unless the fuse is activated. If this is supposed to be a game, then which one of those things has the clock? Defeat that one and the fuse won't activate. Taichi: But how do we find that one? Koushiro: That is... We'll have to defeat them one by one. Taichi: But that will take too long!

Koushiro slowly turns around to face Taichi, so Taichi can see how serious he is.

Koushiro: But that's the only choice we have. Taichi: (stunned) ....

Taichi is left speechless by how dire their predicament is.

In the dub... the hack and slash job continues. The scene continues, but they don't use the footage for it. Instead, remember that bit they cut out where Taichi cries "WE'RE SCREWED!" and falls over? Yeah, they past that part in for the footage of this section.

Izzy: Tai, look! Emails from all over the world! "Get that evil Digimon! You're our only hope!" Here's another one: "Be home by six o'clock!" ...oh, wait, that's from my mom. Tai: I'M TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD AND YOU'RE READING FANMAIL!!! Izzy: WE JUST LOST OUR CONNECTION!!! Tai: (falls over comically) Greeeeeeeeat. Izzy: Don't worry, I'll get it back! Listen, I think if we defeat the original Diaboromon, the rest will disappear. Tai: (gets back up, excited) WHAT!?!? Izzy: All we have to do is destroy each one until we've found the original.

They then use a shot of the "jet" flying in the sky to reset the positions of the characters and join back up with the original footage at "But that will take too long!"

Tai: Sounds great! How many are there so far? Izzy: Oh no.... (Izzy slowly turns around) Tai: Spit it out, Izzy! How many are there! Izzy: ...there are over 75,000 and counting. Tai: (stunned) ...

In addition to the hack and slash job, we are now wildly off-script.

They keep the basic idea that there is one specific Diablomon we must defeat. But the relationship between that Diablomon, the detonation of the nuke, and the little clock Diablomon showed the camera earlier? Completely wiped off the board.

Along with it goes the characterization that Diablomon is still, even in this form, playing games.

In its place, we get the connection going out for like half a second, which adds nothing to this scene. That's clearly there because they cut out this comical footage of Taichi falling over earlier and wanted to use it somewhere.

And the dub also claims that there are now 75,000 Diaboromon. We're at like 64 or so. The Americans inflated the hell out of these numbers.

While Taichi struggles to process this situation, WarGreymon suddenly reaches out.

WarGreymon: Taichi.... Taichi: .... WarGreymon: Taichi...! Taichi: .... WarGreymon: Taichi! Taichi: (gasp)

That shakes him out of it, and he returns his attention to the screen. The Ultimate Digimon begin to move, ready to go once again despite their injuries and damaged armor.

WarGreymon: Taichi... Pull yourself together, Taichi, and let us handle this. Taichi: WarGreymon.... MetalGarurumon: Do we know where it is? Yamato: MetalGarurumon.... Koushiro: Guys.... (steeling himself) I'm sending the address now! MetalGarurumon: Please.

An exit from their current server appears, and the pair of Ultimates exit into the internet once more.

Taichi: (quietly) You're right. It's the only way. I'm sorry. Koushiro: (quietly) Yeah....

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Yuuko checks on her cake.

Yuuko: Seven minutes left!

Across Tokyo, Jou scrambles to finish his entrance exam.

Announcement: Seven minutes left! Jou: (writes frantically) OH NO!!!

Seven minutes left!

Yuuko's cake provides a curious timeframe. It's been twenty-three minutes since she put it into the microwave, and the nuke was fired thirty-three minutes ago. This means the nuke was launched ten minutes before Yuuko put the cake in the oven. Ten minutes before the fight with Infermon, ending in Infermon using the NTT system to shut Taichi and Koushiro out of the internet.

The timeframe is honestly fascinating, as it implies that the nuke was one of the numerous errors that emerged during Kuramon's hatching. Like when Jou missed his train because the doors wouldn't open. The nuke was fired then, during the opening credit sequence, and has been in the air this entire time.

In the dub:

WarGreymon: Tai.... Izzy: What's that? It didn't sound like my stomach. WarGreymon: Tai! Tai: Ah! (Tai returns his attention to the computer) WarGreymon: Have faith! I'll find... the original! Tai: WarGreymon.... MetalGarurumon: Mrrrgh... I'll help you.... Matt: MetalGarurumon! Izzy: They're so slow.... It's because of all the emails! They're slowing down our Digimon's processing speed! I've gotta write to everybody and tell them to stop emailing us until the Digimon are back to full strength! Tai: Are you crazy, Izzy!? Do you know how long that will take!? There's no time! Now we're-- (Cut to Yuuko) Yuuko: --just about-- (Cut to Joe) Announcer: --FINISHED!!! Joe: (writes frantically) IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!!!

Love what the dub does with those Yuuko and Jou cuts. Beautiful.

So here we get the explanation for all the "WarGreymon is slowing down for some reason!" stuff. The emails coming in are screwing with his and MetalGarurumon's processing speed.

This is actually a plot point from the original. The dub went ahead and introduced it way earlier so they could build up to it. And use it to explain that weird moment when WarGreymon suddenly froze up after Taichi disconnected. Good call. A+

Seven minutes left!

As WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon fly through the internet, more and more emails come in... including a couple of fairly significant cameos.

One is a certain little girl with purple hair that we'll be getting to know better next season.

Another is a boy named Ryo Akiyama. Ryo is the main playable character for a series of Adventure-adjacent video games that take place in the margins around the anime's continuity. We'll be seeing him cross over more and more into the anime proper with not only the next season of Adventure, but also Digimon Tamers.

Despite Tamers being in a separate continuity. It's weird.

Koushiro: There's so much email flowing in.... "Ganbare WarGreymon" from Costa Rica. "Don't lose this, MetalGarurumon," from the Philippines. Takeru: (gripping Yamato's shirt) Onii-chan... Don't give in.... Yamato: I won't give up... not to the very end. Taichi: I will never give up....

As the boys steel their resolve, the clock ticks down.

The dub plays a snippet of Here We Go by Jason Gochin here for a rock interlude. They snip out Koushiro's dialogue about the email, though they still use the footage so we see his lips move silently.

T.K.: Tell me... Will they make it...? Matt: I'm not sure, T.K. But they're gonna try. Tai: Don't give up, guys. No matter what happens, don't give up!

An interesting note is that the dub treats Tai and Matt as passive observers here while the original treats them as active participants. This is because they may not be the ones throwing the punches but it's their power that WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are wielding.

Six and a half minutes left!

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon arrive in an area that has been completely overrun with the growing Diablomon swarm.

Yamato: They're... How many of them are there? Koushiro: 4,000... 8,000... It copied itself again! 16,000! They keep making more!

In the dub, the Diablomon are uttering a chorus of "Don't interfere!" over and over and over again. Presumably referring to his plan to drop a nuke on Willis.

Matt: How many copies of Diaboromon are there now!? Izzy: To be honest, I don't know. I stopped keeping track a while ago. It's gotta be well over a million!

It is not. No reason not to use the original numbers; Dub team's scrawling in some extra zeros for American machismo.

No time to get our bearings. At once, thousands of Diablomon open fire on our boys.

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are forced to try and weave through the barrage of incoming shots. They don't last long. MetalGarurumon is the first to start taking hits.

Yamato: Ah! Taichi: MetalGarurumon!

While Taichi's eyes are on MetalGarurumon, several shots catch up to WarGreymon, pummeling him as well.

Taichi: Ah! Takeru: They're moving really weird! Koushiro: It's because of all these emails flooding in from around the world! Having so many emails come in is slowing down our processing speed! Takeru: If this keeps up, we'll lose! Koushiro: (typing frantically) To everyone around the world: WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon's responsiveness is dropping! I'm begging you to stop sending emails!

Anyone who's seen a thousand-strong office "Please stop Replying All" chain knows that ain't gonna cut it.

In the dub:

(MetalGarurumon is hit) Matt: Ah! Tai: METALGARURUMON!!! (WarGreymon is hit) Tai: Ah! T.K.: WarGreymon has started to slow down again! Izzy: It's the emails! They're coming in faster than ever! They're slowing down the processing speed even more! Tai: They're sitting ducks out there! Izzy: (typing frantically) Please, guys, stop writing! I know your intentions are good but you're really hurting our cause! Your emails are putting our Digimon in danger!

The dub seems to think the emails are only affecting WarGreymon. They may have gotten confused over the -tachi suffix. WarGreymon-tachi is being affected.

The -tachi suffix is how you pluralize a group of people in Japanese. When stuck to a name, it basically means, "and others in their group" using only two syllables. In this case, MetalGarurumon is the -tachi.

Despite Koushiro's best efforts, the damage is done. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon float unmoving in the void once the barrage of enemy fire lets up.

Taichi: WARGREYMON!!!

Letting out slow, hollow breathes, Taichi slowly reaches for the screen. Reaches for his partner. Drawing closer and closer and--

Yuuko: (opens door) Koushiro-kun, will you be eating lunch with us? Koushiro: (doesn't notice; mutters) It's useless. I can't stop these emails. There's only five minutes left... What do we do? Yuuko: (smiling) I'm sorry for disturbing you.

Yuuko quietly closes the door. Then, suddenly, she opens it again.

Yuuko: Huh? Where did Taichi go?

A shot of the room reveals that, indeed, Taichi is gone. Koushiro is alone in Susumu's office.

In the dub:

Tai: (gasp) WarGreymon...!

In the original, the music is silent here. The only sound we hear is the echoing of Taichi's hollow, ragged breaths. The dub adds this incredibly loud, eerie background music that drowns out both Tai's breathing and also the new dialogue they gave him.

Tai: WarGreymon... I've got to help... There must be a way... Somehow.... (Yuuko enters) Yuuko: More juice, Izzy? I just squeezed some onions! Izzy: No thanks! I'm rerouting incoming data from the remote server into local memory. Yuuko: (clearly did not understand that) Oh. Whoops. I'll just leave you two alone. (Yuuko departs, then comes back in) Yuuko: Wait a minute! Where did Tai go?

Koushiro is both freaking out and hyperfocused to the point that he notices neither Yuuko entering the room nor Taichi's mysterious exit from it. It's an established character trait that he sometimes doesn't notice other people when he's hyperfocused.

(It got him thrown off a cliff once. By me.)

But Izzy has the presence of mind to briefly chat with Yuuko.

So, where did Taichi go? Into the computer, of course.

That big square window that the children appear in during all these fights? Taichi passes through his to enter the internet and reach WarGreymon.

He slowly descends until he reaches WarGreymon.

Taichi: WarGreymon! WarGreymon: ...

Some distance away, Yamato does the same. He passes through his light window and enters, floating down to MetalGarurumon.

Yamato: Metal... MetalGarurumon! It's me, Yamato. Can you hear me? Open your eyes! Taichi: Yamato....

Taichi watches Yamato for a moment, then does the same thing.

Taichi: I'm here! I'm here too! I came so we can fight together! WarGreymon: ... Taichi: You... You don't have to fight alone anymore.... WarGreymon: ... Taichi: I'm right here! I'm here with you, WarGreymon!

I love how the screens are angled to create the imagery of the children descending upon the near-dead Digimon like angels from heaven. I see what you did there.

In the dub, Kari's voice-over pops back up to try and explain this.

Kari (V.O.): None of us are sure how, but Tai's bond with WarGreymon was so strong that Tai himself became digital!

"None of us are sure how." Kari, go have some more birthday cake. You weren't even here for this.

This is neither the first nor the last time a Chosen Child's holy light will open a gateway between realities.

Tai: WarGreymon... I'm here.... (Matt descends from the other screen) Matt: MetalGarurumon! Wake up! Don't quit now! Why won't he answer me, Tai? Tai: Keep trying, Matt! (Tai looks down at WarGreymon) Tai: Listen. I don't have a whistle to wake you, but I want you to know you're not alone, okay? WarGreymon: ... Tai: And the mail keeps coming! It won't stop! WarGreymon: ... Tai: Kids from all over the world are writing to you. They need your help. You're the only one who can do it! Feel their hope! Feel their strength!

"I don't have a whistle to wake you" is a reference to Kari's whistle being used to wake Greymon in the first OVA's battle with Parrotmon. Since the OVA formed the first portion of Digimon: The Movie, they reference its events here.

Taichi's speech to WarGreymon is personal and focused on their bond with one another. Tai's speech is about how much the entire world loves WarGreymon, which does segue pretty well into this next bit.

WarGreymon: ...u...urgh....

In the dub:

WarGreymon: ...I feel them!

WarGreymon's body shakes slightly. He doesn't open his eyes; Instead, the holy light glows from within the eyeholes of his helmet.

All around them, a wall of emails appears, forming a barrier between them and the Diablomon swarm. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon don't come to, but instead seem to vibrate and jitter.

Then WarGreymon disintegrates into data, which collects and pours inside his helmet. The same happens to MetalGarurumon.

Through those email boxes, holy light from all of the kids watching gathers, entering the data space in the glowing silhouette of each child. They collect, pooling into energy between the twin helmets of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.

Meanwhile, at the barber shop:

Barber: (suspiciously) Hang on, where did your brother go!?

The barber looks around for Yamato. Poor Yasuko, on the other hand, just watched a preteen boy phase inside of a computer screen and looks like she's about to have a heart attack.

Takeru: He's here.....

The energy forms the shape of an egg made of pixels, which then slowly peels back to reveal a new Digimon inside.

Koushiro: WarGreymon and... Takeru: ...MetalGarurumon... Koushiro: ...combined!

The technical term is Jogress Evolution. Jogress is a mechanic from the V-Pet that hasn't yet appeared in the anime, in which two Digimon fuse together to form a Perfect or Ultimate Digimon. Many of the Digimon we've seen throughout the anime could only be achieved through Jogress in the original V-Pets, such as Piemon or WereGarurumon.

The arrival of Omegamon, or Omnimon in the dub, marks the first time this mechanic has been brought into the show. We'll be seeing more of it in Adventure 02.

(The only reason Takeru and Hikari don't have a Jogress with each other is because EnbyAngemon would be so game-wreckingly badass that no villain could ever match them.

Or, more realistically, because predominately heteronormative writers often struggle with the idea of two characters from opposite sexes doing a Fusion. Their eyes bug out and they bluescreen while muttering, "But how would that even....")

The dub crops the barbershop to cut the barber out, though his reflection remains visible in the mirror, but leave Yasuko's stunned face. This is despite the fact that they cut the setup scene for this gag, with Yasuko saying goodbye to Yamato and Takeru.

Barber: Where'd you brother go!? Hjbyhjbyhjby....

They play the barber as freaked out and melting down. In the original, like Yuuko, he didn't see the disappearance happen (but Yasuko did). He just... doesn't trust these random kids to be unsupervised in his shop, and really doesn't like the fact that one stray child is now unaccounted for.

T.K.: They combined! (Omnimon is revealed) Izzy: Part WarGreymon.... T.K.: Part MetalGarurumon.... Izzy: They Digivolved together to become-- Omnimon: OMNIMON!!!

It's nice of Omnimon to introduce himself since we don't have rundowns to tell us about him. For the record, his signature weapons on his arms made from the helmets of his component Digimon are called the Garuru Cannon and Grey Sword. "Cannon" and "Sword" being the English words themselves, as usual.

With Taichi and Yamato perched on his shoulders, Omegamon is born.

The swarm opens fire immediately. Drawing his Grey Sword, Omegamon deflects all of their shots into a line of Diablomon, annihilating a huge chunk.

Koushiro: Amazing!

Koushiro hasn't seen anything yet. With his Garuru Cannon, unloads shot after shot into the enemy ranks. Each blast wipes out a huge chunk of the Diablomon swarm.

The dub uses this as an opportunity for another musical interlude, playing Let's Kick It Up by Paul Christian Gordon over the carnage. They also have Omnimon call these attacks, naming them Transcendent Sword and Supreme Cannon.

Only one Diablomon remains standing when Omegamon's done.

Koushiro: Right there! That's the last one! That one has the clock!

Awfully inconvenient that the one with the clock just so happens to be the only one who survived Omegamon's bombardment.

Diablomon starts moving quickly around the room, making evasive maneuvers to try and run down the clock. Every time Omegamon turns around and aims at it, it darts away again.

Taichi: It's not here! Koushiro: WE HAVE LESS THAN A MINUTE!!!

Cut to Jou desperately trying to finish his exam.

Jou: ONE MINUTE LEFT!!!

And Yuuko watching her cake cook.

Yuuko: (cheerful) One minute left!

Finally, we cut up to the "jet" in the sky... which turns out to actually just be a jet, as another much faster object enters the airspace, criss-crossing its contrail with the jet's. Closer inspection of the new object reveals it to, in fact, be the One-Shot Peacekeeper missile approaching Odaiba.

This, I should note, is the first we learn of its destination in the original. No one knew where it was in the air or where it was going to land.

In the dub:

Izzy: Tai, there's the original! Get him! We're running out of time! Tai: Omnimon, quick! Attack!

Awfully inconvenient that the original just so happens to be the only one who survived Omnimon's bombardment.

Like, they changed the plot mechanics behind this fight but this is still a glaring contrivance. XD You could have left it at "We have to destroy every last one" if you wanted to patch this.

Tai: Where is he!? (Diaboromon dodges more) Tai: One minute to go! (Cut to Joe) Joe: ONE MINUTE TO GO!!! (Cut to Yuuko) Yuuko: (cheerful) One minute to go!

Tai calls out the time remaining here rather than Izzy, even though he can't see the clock from here.

As the missile's coming in, the dub also adds some dialogue from some military guys.

Soldier: Squad leader to command: We were unable to destroy the target. The missile will impact. Repeat, the missile will impact!

This ties in with the added detail from earlier, that every nation in the world is attempting to intercept the nuke and failing.

Inside the battlefield, the last Diablomon is still moving too fast for Omegamon to get a bead on it.

Takeru: Onii-chan! You have to find it quick! There's no time left! ONII-CHAN!!! HURRY!!!

45 seconds left on the clock. Koushiro works the problem in his head.

Koushiro: Its speed is too high. At this rate, even with tremendous power, we're going to lose due to the difference in reaction time. What can we do?

Thirty seconds left. Cutting over to the barber shop for a moment, we see that Yasuko's husband has popped over to watch the screen too. No explanation is offered.

(I guess he wants to find out what all the commotion is about? Yamato fucked off all of a sudden and Takeru is shrieking at the computer like it's the end of the world. I'd be curious too.)

Takeru: THIRTY SECONDS LEFT!!! Koushiro: (gasp) That's it....

Koushiro looks at all the incoming emails on his laptop.

Koushiro: A transfer! I can forward all of this email to that thing's address!

Koushiro quickly types in the current address that Diablomon is at, presumably the FactoryMark server we last saw it at.

Koushiro: GO!!! (click)

Koushiro dramatically presses the Enter key. Inside the battleground, Diablomon lands on the wall and prepares to make its next move, but then stalls all of a sudden. It struggles, shaking in place, but can't move. A little Windows hourglass appears over it; the loading symbol for computers from that time.

In the dub:

Tai: He keeps moving! Every time we get him in our sights, he jumps somewhere else! He's too fast for us! (45 seconds remain) Izzy: We have the power to destroy him now, but we don't have the time. Willis was right; We have to find some way to slow down Diaboromon.

...Willis said that after the first fight with Infermon. That he foresaw this exact predicament that far in advance is fucking wild.

T.K.: THIRTY SECONDS LEFT!!! Izzy: (gasp) The emails! If I forward him all the emails, it will slow him down just like it did us! Keep sending them, kids! (Izzy prepares to forward) Izzy: YOU!!! GOT!!! MAIL!!! (click)

Using "You got mail" as a battle cry here is pretty fucking sweet. For those too young to remember, an early form of internet was AOL which had a robot voice chime "You got mail" whenever you received an email.

With ten seconds remaining on the clock, Omegamon moves in for the kill.

Koushiro: Ten seconds left!

Koushiro counts down the seconds while Omegamon moves in. A brief cut of the barbershop shows that now everybody's paying attention to what's happening on the computer screen. Even the barber.

At one second, the attack lands. Omegamon drives his Grey Sword through Diablomon's skull.

At the same time, Yuuko's cake is finished! She takes it out of the microwave to find it grotesquely burnt.

Yuuko: Ah!? It's ruined! That's so weird. It should be controlled by the microcomputer....

COMPUTER YOU SAY

One last bug for the road. Diablomon ruined Yuuko's cake.

Outside, time's up. The nuclear missile crashes into the Tokyo Bay. We briefly see Sora in her room. With Diablomon dead, Taichi's email finally makes it through to her.

In the dub:

Tai: TEN SECONDS LEFT!!!

Again, despite not being able to see the clock, Tai is the one who counts down the seconds in the dub rather than Izzy.

(Omnimon stabs Diaboromon in the head) Diaboromon: Connection... Terminated....

The dub not only gives Diaboromon a line upon being stabbed, but rearranges scenes. Two upcoming shots get moved up to here. The first is of Diaboromon's face melting away to reveal the stabbed clock. The second is the timer stalling out and flickering between 00:01 and 00:02.

This serves to assure the audience that we got it, we stopped the detonation, earlier than in the original. The original keeps the tension ratcheted up as the missile lands, with it not yet clear if we killed Diablomon fast enough.

Yuuko: (ruined cake) Ugh, lousy microwave. How come every electronic appliance has to have a bug in it!? (Missile crashes into the bay) Sora: (email arrives) Huh? It's about time!

I mean. By Dub Yuuko's own admission, this was the first time she ever used flour to make a cake. It's just as likely that she's the culprit here as it is the microwave. :P

As the missile lands, Koushiro sprints out onto the balcony, distraught.

Koushiro: We didn't make it in time!

Cut to the internet battlefield. Diablomon's face melts away, revealing the clock pierced by Omegamon's blade. The timer stalls out, flickering between 00:01 and 00:02.

Meanwhile, Sora reads Taichi's message and notices the little heart he accidentally added when Hikari startled him. She's touched.

Sora: Ehehe... (affectionately) Stupid Taichi....

Success! Taichi accidentally fluked his way into forgiveness!

Out by the bay, people gather to look at the undetonated nuclear missile. It tips over due to its weight and falls flat into the water.

Up on the balcony, Koushiro breathes a sigh of relief.

Koushiro: (exhausted) We... We... We.... Taichi: (exhausted, also on balcony now) We made it in time!

Which is where the OVA ends! Abruptly! On Taichi quite reasonably looking like he's about to cry and then pass out. What did you do for your spring break, kids? Oh, I thwarted nuclear motherfucking Armageddon.

There is an epilogue of sorts in the form of ending slides in the credits. We'll address that in another post.

In the dub, this final sequence plays out with The Impression That I Get from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones playing in the background. Sora reads Tai's English email.

Sora: (reading aloud) Dear Sora, I'm sorry I threw up, hat, so what's a few raindrops between friends, love Tai. ...aww... (affectionately) Stupid Tai.... (Missile tips over into the water) Izzy: (exhausted) I'm... about... to barf.... Tai: (exhausted) Wait 'til you try the cake....

The dub closes on one last Yuuko cooking joke. To be fair, the cake legitimately did come out horribly. :P

There will be no epilogue slides for the dub, because it segues into the third part of Digimon: The Movie from here. We'll talk about that when we get to Hurricane Touchdown.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure Drama CD 1 (Character Song + Mini Drama 1)

I almost forgot about drama CDs! Digimon has a whole bunch of them, it turns out. Looks like I get to cling onto the Adventure cast for a little bit longer. This CD is a combination of very short drama bits and character image songs, as the name suggests. It feels a bit on the short side but I guess that's because it's only part one ;)

Download link

SOS! Grade 5 Class A

Translation here

A very silly story about Taichi and Sora fighting a potato digimon (Jagamon) during home ec class. Very esoteric references to 1970s anime are made.

I liked that this was just Taichi and Sora. I know that was probably more of a budgeting thing, but one-on-one moments (even dumb ones like this) are important to me.

There's something icky about Taichi commanding Agumon to digivolve just for his amusement...poor little guy

Favorite part of this was all of the meta jokes about this being an audio drama. For example, when they introduce Jagamon the narrator's like "well...we can't show you what he looks like, but he looks like a potato just trust me bro"

I had to look up who Ikkyuu-san was. At least the one Japanese commenter on the YouTube video understood the reference lol.

Image Song 1 - Turn Courage Into Wings (Yagami Taichi)

Translation here

A somewhat generic, but very Taichi song. (When it comes down to it, Taichi is a pretty generic shounen guy). Of course it focuses on courage because that's Taichi's thing.

At first the "you" mentioned in song was supposed to be a romantic interest and then I realized he could be singing platonically to Agumon or Yamato. I like the Agumon option best, that's really cute.

Takeuchi Sora's Fluttering Yellow Card

This was less of a drama and more of a little radio DJ-like snippet featuring Sora and Piyomon. Sora's VA is apparently a DJ IRL so this was an in-joke.

Mimi asks Sora where her hat came from and she just say "I don't know!" lolwut. I'm not sure if this segment is supposed to be in character or in some sort of weird "behind-the-scenes" world where the characters are aware they're in an anime. Seems like the latter.

Image Song 2 - Tomorrow I'll Be...(Takeuchi Sora)

Translation here

Damn, Sora's song was pretty dark. It did have a tinge of hopefulness, but mostly it sounded like she was singing about depression/existentialism being temporary. Kind of like a "this too shall pass" song. :(

She sings about how she feels like she has no one to fight for and has lost sight of her dreams. This fits in with that one arc where she despaired over "love" being her crest because it didn't suit her. I think we all know that feeling of being lonely in a crowd, even a crowd of friends. This song helped me appreciate Sora's character a little more.

Joe's Singer Debut!? (Parts 1 & 2)

I like how these skits introduce the character image songs, that's a really cute idea. These characters aren't singers in-universe (except for Mimi), so I guess they wanted to give context for why they're singing haha.

Part 1 is Gomamon suggesting songs for Joe to sing and performing little samples. Very cute. (Of course, he can't really sing well lol, but that adds to the charm).

Part 2 is the studio rep explaining that the next drama CD will be about a love triangle between Mimi, Koushiro, and Hikari. That sounds like a terrible idea. No chemistry between either pair if you ask me...Maybe that's the joke though.

Image Song 3 - There's Another Me (Kido Jou)

Translation here

This song was all about Joe facing and overcoming his insecurities and fear of risks. He talks about how you'll never grow if you completely avoid pain of any kind. Honestly, a pretty inspirational song for kids out there. I can definitely relate to Joe's timidity. I'm always avoiding getting out of my comfort zone which has held me back in some ways.

[the-cryptographer]

You don't have to do both or you can just answer the parts of the game you'd like for either, but Vivian Wong as a character and/or Battleshipping as a ship for the ask game if you'd like. Thank you!

Thank you!!

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you: BATTLESHIPPING

when I started shipping it if I did: I can’t exactly recall. But I think it was generally something that came along with getting back into the fandom in 2015/2016ish. Like, I had liked pupship for a long time, and wishship was something that stood out to me in the early parts of the manga, and there’s nothing not to like about rivalship. So why not just... put ‘em all together, lol.

my thoughts: Think it’s generally a lot of fun to contrast the more happy-go-lucky optimism of Yuugi and Jounouchi and their friendship with Kaiba’s cynicism. But like... what if they kissed about it? I think there’s also something to be asked about the kind of space that Jounouchi and Seto and Yuugi would create for themselves? Because you kind of have extreme poverty and extreme wealth with Jou and Seto respectively, and then Yuugi as the everyman with your sort of average media middle class domestic life. And it does make me wonder what kind of space they would want to occupy together and the kind of objects and ideas they’d want to fill it with. Which is perhaps an extremely domestic take on the ship, but it’s where I feel my mind tends to go.

What makes me happy about them: Them coming out the other side of canon with this connection to one another. Jou effusively touchy feely loving on Seto and Yuugi. All the over the top big gestures Kaiba makes, contrasted with all the small ways that Yuugi shows consideration for people. It feels like they all bring something a bit different to the table and it comes together in a way that’s really colourful.

What makes me sad about them: Think there would definitely be a lot of moments where Jounouchi feels Seto & Yuugi are teaming up against him, or Seto feels Jounouchi & Yuugi are teaming up against him, and Yuugi is SICK of getting typecast as the peacekeeper when these conflicts come to a head. I remember one of the ideas I came up with for a get-together fic was Jounouchi like... making out with Yuugi in front of Seto in a way that was obviously meant to be, like, bragging/flaunting/provocative. Which is very dysfunctional and evil and the kind of shit I feel like Jounouchi pulls all the time, lol, even after they’re together and it’s less about romantic jealousy in specific. The boy loves to get a rise out of people. Something that makes me happy & sad is the shared connection to Atem too. Bittersweet that they shared that loss together to different degrees.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don’t think there’s enough fanfic for them for me to really make any generalisations about the good vs the bad here.

things I look for in fanfic: Its existence.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Other ships I like are Jounouchi/Mai, Isis/Seto, aaaaand... let’s go with Malik/Ryou/Yuugi for Yuugi? But these are just a sample. I’m pretty open to and happy with most ygo ships.

My happily ever after for them: Maybe that shared domestic space can have like... a Blue Eyes White Dragon bouncy castle, lmao.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Hmm... not sure. I think they switch it up, but Jounouchi likes sleeping in the middle for maximum cuddles and attention.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Gaming, of course~ I think we’ve gotten art from Takehashi of both Jou&Seto and Seto&Yuugi postcanon games of Duel Monsters. But I admit I like the idea of them playing other types of games as well. Dice and racing games and ttrpgs.

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you: VIVIAN WONG

How I feel about this character: She is... a mess <3  Something truly sociopathic and sinophobic about her appearances in canon, chasing after husband material and competing with literal twelve year olds. But, ignoring the jank- I love her energy! She’s so fun! And, let’s be real, Grandpa deserved to get beat up a little.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Mai <3 I’ve also seen some of her with Otogi. If I remember he delivers the exposition on who she is an her duelling records, and it’s kinda implied he’s a fan of hers. This does strike me as pretty cute.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Probably still Otogi. But I do also kinda enjoy her and Rebecca duelling and being stupid at one another~

My unpopular opinion about this character: This entire post is unpopular opinions.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Less of the aforementioned heterosexist/sinophobic jank. I also wish more of the female duelists in this series got to win and their badassery was less of an informed quality. But obviously the entire structure of the story and cast would have to be rearranged to really accommodate that, so I don’t know where this leaves me.

my OTP: Mai/Vivian~ It makes me happy that we see them together in that scene in the end credits. I feel like Mai being able to travel with and duel together with this woman is really peak happy ending. I think also because I get the impression from other places in the series that Mai has really struggled making friends her own age, and also struggled making female friends, and it’s cool to me that through the power of Duel Monsters and character development, she was finally able to connect with someone she can relate to in those kinds of ways.

my cross over ship: I got nothin’!

a headcanon fact: I’m not sure I have anything in specific, but I’d like to headcanon more about her acting credentials. I wrote her starring in a show called Romance of the Lost Dynasty apparently.

[reno-the-himbo-turk]

"I'll be fine its just a bruise." Tseng had been inspecting Reno's arm when his injection wore off and well he popped him in the face on accident. "I asked the doctors for another injection for him if it was feasible and they've agreed on a higher dosage to hopefully help prevent him from bruising anyone else."

Elena kept a careful expression but was panicked when he asked about the phone and why he had Jou's. "Are they the same make and model of phone? Maybe they got mixed up during the fatty picture sharing moment and no one noticed."

"Scarlet is the charitable type if you've got the right set of private parts." Cissnesi commented dryly. "She tolerates Rufus and Tseng but any other man within the company may as well be dirt on her dress." Scarlet was helping mostly because of Elena but there were a few other women that were on film and it had filled her with white hot rage. Cissnei hadn't found anything inside the phone so she'd carefully put it back together and plugged the phone into the computer letting it scan through the apps until something popped up on screen and she had a sour look on her face.

Elena carefully wriggled into the shirt which managed to stop just above her knees thankful she’s gotten oversized stuff a while ago. “If you’re sure then yeah i’ll nap a bit heads killing me.” Elena offered softly before kissing him back with a faint smile. She gave him a awkward hug before she shifted carefully laying down and curling up under a blanket. “Might be a bit awkward if ya didn’t love me.” Reno teased with a shit eating grin as there was a knock on the door. Untangling himself he went and answered it collecting three large meat lovers pizza’s that he brought in and set on the coffee table. “Well thats the tricky thing. We told Tseng and he’s looking into it because whoever it was well they were sloppy.” Used your credentials, but used them after we had left the building. So he’s pulling tape, We have it on record though that Lena’s doctor went off on that male doctor though said that because he was so careless her condition was really bad. So maybe he leaked it from there but there was other things.“

[toku-explained]

Romeo & Juliet

New Generation Stars: Yuka is somewhat apprehensive over the thought things like Yapool will never be defeated. Ediom opts to show her the time Xio's Tachibana became Ultraman Nexus, allowing her to better understand the bond those touched by the light share, and she feels reassured, joking a little with Ediom about him cheering her up.

Gotchard: Rinne tries to get up to aid Gotchard, only to be reminded it's her fault Seina is dead, but with encouragement from Minato she uses MoonCerberus, and uses TheSun to melt the ice, and with Platinum Gotchard channeling InPhoenix defeats the Malgam and claims BlizzaMoth, and Minato points out that they're going to be more dangerous in their zeal to avenge Greyon. Kyouka treats Lachesis to dinner, though she has no need for it. Kyouka asks about the entity that appeared from the Door to Darkness, Lachesis doesn't know much but suspects it was the Abyssal King. With Seina absent, Rinne fills in as Juliet for practice, only for her to turn up and accuse Rinne of stealing her role, and runs off when Hotaro explains Rinne knows her lines because she was helping him learn his. Ichinose finds her and explains he has a dream and needs Kudoh and Seina sighs because she recalls how he saved her from her troubles in youth, and admits her own jealousy of seeing how close the two of them are. Atropos sees a vision of Greyon ordering her to avenge him, and from where her image of him is stood, a new Malgam base form appears. The Kraken Malgam attacks, Spanner is the first on scene, but it subjects him to an illusion, making him see it as Kyouka, and while he recognises the truth he still isn't able to attack her, and so is defeated, and then spirited away before he can warn Ichinose and Kudoh. Seina witness the two become Gotchard and Majade, then become trapped in the same illusion. After a struggle between their allies looking like the Malgam and the Malgam looking like their friend, before Rinne has an idea, based on Romeo & Juliet's later act, and tells Ichinose to attack her. He does so, and Majade falls dead, Atropos even disappointed. The illusion fades, and Gotchard is shocked and unable to react to the Malgam attacking. Fortunately, he is hit by a YoaCerberus powered slash from thr GotchaXCaliber, as Majade had used NemineMoon to hide TheSun's power. Platinum Gotchard and Majade unite against the Malgam, Seina witnessing, and a little sad at, their combination, and they defeat the Malgam, Ichinose secures MacKraken, and Kudoh and Seina make peace before Minato arrives to erase Seina's memories. At the day of the performance, Rinne is Juliet, Seina having decided to ask her to do it, even if she isn't sure why, and the performance succeeds in recruiting 15 new members to the Drama Club. Spanner is annoyed by Lachesis returning to the Academy, not caring to protect her, but Lachesis has her own protection now, Kyouka providing her own Valvarusher, Lachesis looks forward to working with her doggie.

Boonboomger: Bunboom is melancholy, enough to be distracted from his curry. Jou and Mira ask what's up, Mira offhandedly ask if his trouble is romantic, only for everybody to be stunned when he says it is. It turns out he has become taken with Nimajii Tires mascot Belora, insisting it is more than just being a fan. Mira and Jou decides to deliver him to her event, disguising him on oversized clothing, while Taiya has something to do. Mad Rex is fondly recalling his battle with with BunRed, but still chews out the Hashiliens before his dog identifies a brick wall as a good Kurumajin, having them use it to gather Gyasoline while he challenged the Boomboomgers. Genba completes another job when Taiya and Chassiro meet him, offering again the Boonboom Change Axe, from not the first time he turns them down, only interested in procurement and watching but Taiya wonders how long he can keep up with the action without being part of it. Mira and Jou report the Kurumaju, which is blocking off people from things they want or need. BunBlack and BunPink challenge it, but get trapped, but before Genba can render assistance BunRed and BunBlue arrive, and even when Mad Rex arrives they're able to move around solutions before Genba can help, he decides Taiya has made his point, and steps out after everyone has been knocked down. His delivery this time is himself, the accelerant they need to stay ahead, joining Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger as BunOrange. As the battle resumes, as BunRed manages to damage Mad Rex, who leaves explosively, BunOrange tears apart the Kurumaju. Yarucar does it's thing with the Gyasoline, and with a new set of Boonboom Cars they pursue, Genba in Boonboom Shovel, Mira and Jou in Boonboom Dozer, and Taiya and Chassiro in Boonboom Trailer. After the chase, Boonboomger Robo Builder forms to take down the giant wall and defeat the Kurumaju. With Genba at the base, Mira gives Boonboom a Belora plush she managed to get, and Genba seems enthused by as well.

[datastate]

fuck you . reko is filipino and jou is filipino/japanese. this is my gift to yttd fans

[just-sg]

See, the dub did have the "as a team" part that admittedly would have been nice, but past that...

Hope you don't mind the bit of rambling. This season for all its faults is arguably my favorite arc of any media of all time and I love these babies. Will put under a cut.

(To be clear though before I dive in - This isn't a "this is why Conquestshipping is Superior", I poly ship to hell in general and Conquest and Sacrifice are both extremely dear to me. Just as a disclaimer.)

So in the dub, it's... "We'll take them on together. We need each other. No, you don't want power, I know what you want and it's revenge. Don't you remember when we met? I saved you, I took away the pain (that you're still experiencing but don't think about that) and I can do it again. Deep down I know you feel the same way I do." And all the while Mai is telling him "Get lost. I don't like you. You don't know me. No. Go away." And it cuts out anything that would contradict that.

In the dub, he's a lot pushier and keeps insisting she "needs" him and trying to tell her what she thinks and feels.

-

Sub Valon in general is just a much more nuanced character (though actually getting his proper backstory accounts for a significant chunk of that), but as far as the desert scene in 165...

It's instead, "Let me do it. This guy being around is making you miserable, but beating him yourself won't actually make you feel any better." And he's right. "I've always known you were afraid of defeat, after how you reacted to our first meeting, but as I've gotten to know you, I've realized it's more than that, isn't it? You need victory, but it's never enough. You can't even take satisfaction in your wins because you're always worried about where the next hit will come from." She stammers that he doesn't know what he's talking about, but the flashback they cut from the dub of her thinking back to the cage match and how numb she felt in that victory shows us she knows he's right.

"I can tell because it's like looking in a mirror. I've lived the same way my whole life, without a cause. I was fighting for the sake of fighting, winning for the sake of winning, until I found something I actually want to fight for. And that's you." And where the dub just kind of clumsily had him say out loud we're both lonely and misunderstood, this Valon doesn't say it, but it's much more thoroughly present. It's a recurring thing, he likes her because he finds her relatable, she makes sense and makes him feel seen. The whole thing is based on him being able to read her like a book and resonating deeply with the story in those pages.

(And where in the dub the later conflict with Jou is more "boys fite bc girl", in the sub it's "You've never been able to understand her, but I do, and I accept her as she is even at her worst" versus "I don't always get her, but I've seen the compassionate sides of her you haven't, and I have faith she can get through this with help from her friends and come out at her best.")

And yeah, the "Be mine"/"Be my woman" depending which translation you watch line, but honestly what follows doesn't feel dependent on her answer. And the fact that it's not just "Jonouchi and the Pharaoh" but "I would turn on Dartz for you, if but only if you ask me. I literally do not have a preference about this. We can stay part of the evil cult or we can take it down I'm fine either way." And honestly that's hilarious to me but also, significantly more devoted and very much leaving it up to her as opposed to the pushy "you need me" dub boy.

Perhaps most importantly in terms of "the ship is stronger in the sub" though is Mai at no point in the sub ever tells him no. Dub Mai rejects him explicitly in multiple scenes. Sub Mai tells him to shut up and is an Ice Queen/Broken Bird as she tends to be when she's hurting, but she not only never says no; she implies "Yes if." He says he'd do anything to prove he's serious, even turn on Dartz, and she tells him if he's so eager to fight someone, fight her. And like...?? That's gotta be a test, right? He's clearly stunned when she makes it clear she's serious. We know she'd be pissed as hell if he pulled any punches, but I can't imagine she'd be impressed if it felt like he was fighting for his own ego against her, huh? Whatever her intention, though, it's presented as a condition. An "if you can do this, then maybe." She's considering it.

(And then she watches him beat the American champ and another decent duelist two-on-one in three turns and books it. And where the dub feels like "...well anyway. Later losers." The sub feels more like "... hey so what if we procrastinate on that because I just remembered commitment is terrifying and maybe I should think on this more actually" lmao.)

Bonus shoutout to Mai's earlier duel with Jonouchi and his "This isn't a normal duel! Someone will lose their soul!" and her flat, "So what?" Compared to Rebecca rushing up in this ep with "You're the ones who stole my sweet Yugi's soul!" and Valon's similarly flat, "So what?" I swear this season has so much attention to detail sometimes (and then at the same time.... no one who worked on it having ever seen a map of the US it feels like, but ssshhh...)

But yeah!

Of course personal taste will always be a factor, and if you're someone who likes the dub better, that's fully your right. But either way I hope the breakdown can help provide more understanding of what others like about the sub! And no matter what, always delighted to see more s4 fans and especially Valon fans.

-----

Edit to add: Scrolled/liked a few more posts and noticed the "Valon knows Jonouchi's name from the beginning." It's because he's "the guy Mai is always talking about." And this has killed me for so many years because that happens entirely offscreen but like.

She vents to him. Maybe to all of them but she vents and Valon listens. Which is to say, Mai, who went on a world tour alone and refused to reach out to her only real friends because she so absolutely refused to burden anyone else with her emotional baggage and would rather spiral alone in her emptiness and PTSD nightmares and feelings of futility than ever reach out for help, TALKS to Valon... I feel like bitching and trauma dumping aren't the most advisable ways to develop a bond but in this case.... xD Maybe as a treat.

Scalding Hot Take:

People keep saying that ValonxMai is way better in the sub, but I haven’t really seen that so far? In fact, in Episode 165 it was sub!Valon who was annoying me with the “BE MY WOMAN and I’ll defeat Jounouchi and the Pharaoh and Dartz for you!!!” Whereas in the dub he wanted to work together with Mai as a team.

[mephinomaly]

[TL] The King Below the Moonlight/Chapter 2

Location: Resting Room

Rei: …Hmm~

(I suppose I am a little curious… Jou-chan said that there was nothing wrong with those pictures. Yet, it seems there’s still something not to her liking.)

(Not even Jou-chan herself understood what exactly she was getting involved in.)

(Although she felt that something was missing, she lacked the words to describe exactly what that was, and so most likely just said it was okay.)

(It’s tricky to be 100% satisfied. Idols and staff alike cannot endlessly retake shoots and such. As well as that, there’s the issue with deadlines.)

(She gave the OK as a producer after considering various things. There’s not much for me to say about it.)

(I feel awful for putting her in such a difficult position.)

(The least I could do would be to give her a clear answer for the part she’s struggling with.)

(What was it that she said—that it’s not “me” enough…?)

Hnng…

Natsume: Well isn’t this noVEL, seeing Rei-niisan worked up in this manNER.

Rei: —Hm? Ah, Sakasaki-kun? What a coincidence that we are both on break at the same time.

Natsume: Quite. The previously scheduled work is no moRE. I have some time until my next joB.

Speaking of whiCH. You were lost in thought earlier, right? What seems to be worrying yoU?

Rei: Hm? Ah, yes of course… Well, you see…

I think self-discovery is difficult.

Natsume: Is that so? I don’t know the full situaTION, but I could perhaps help you find what you’re looking foR. I have both the time and the ability to read your forTUNE, Rei-niisan.

Rei: No, it’s quite unnecessary for you to worry, Sakasaki-kun. Please don’t waste your free time on me.

Natsume: There’s no need to hold baCK. You’re overthinking it. Reading your fortune in such a place means there are some limitations as to whaT we can do. It'll be easy to use a pendulum though.

Predictions may or may not come trUE… Fortune telling is not somethING bound by certain ruleS.

It’s similar to how a paper-lantern glows dimLY to reveal the treacherous road aheaD.

Do not stumble on that roaD. Do not take the wrong turn on that road. Though ultimateLY, it is up to yourself as to whether you proceeD or not.

Rei: Kukuku, I see… If that’s so, I have no reason to refuse.

Sakasaki-kun, could you read my fortune?

Natsume: Well of courSE, Rei-niisan ♪

Time: An unspecified amount of time later

Natsume: Hmm… yes, yes. This symbolises a staR… No, the nighT sky? If you look towards the night sky, you may receive a good omeN.

Rei: …The night sky? Once again, what a strange revelation. I was thinking something more along the lines of a lucky charm.

Should I wish upon a star, then? Kukuku…Such a romantic suggestion.

Location: ES Hallway

Time: Later that night

Rei: Dearie me… look at the time. It appears that the building has already turned off all of the lights. I’ve stayed rather late.

It’s been some time since my mind has been so clear. Well, I shouldn’t stand around enjoying myself.

Unlike at Yumenosaki, it’ll be troublesome for me to be seen as someone suspicious due to loitering. There’s nothing else for me to do here, so I should return home.

(...Perhaps not. I’m reminded of how Sakasaki-kun revealed my fortune today. Surely it would be nice to take a look at the night sky.)

(Fumu. That thought alone could lead to a special, chance encounter too. Since I’m here, a little detour shan’t hurt anyone.)

Location: ES Rooftop

Rei: Ah…The winter sky is vast and you can see both the stars and the moon clearly.

(I have lived the same amount of years as regular humans, and imitated their way of life. By sharing this world with them, I have also grown accustomed to my physical form…Yet after all that, I feel most at peace at night, under the light of the moon.)

(It’s been a while since I’ve felt like this…♪)

♪～♪～

Hm?

Ah. Is that Jou-chan? Why on earth are you still up at this time?

I see. You were held up at work? You're here with me now. I appreciate you working until late.

You were just heading home, but spotted me up on the rooftop…? Ah, so that is why you followed me up here.

Quite so. A cute magician bestowed a trendy revelation upon me, so I decided to take a quick look at the night sky.

Hm? Is something the matter? I’m not quite sure why you’re suddenly apologising.

You took a picture without asking…? Oh. So that sound I heard was that of the camera shutter? Well, I don’t particularly mind if it’s Jou-chan taking the photo.

Your body moved on its own accord? Is that how it is? What a strange girl you are.

Eh? I’m like the king of the night? Me?

Standing against the backdrop of night makes me look like a grand portrait? You were so overwhelmed by the sight that your body reacted and snapped a photo?

—Ahaha! That’s excellent! What a terrific pick-up line!

Kukuku… Yes, yes. Living together with people had made me forget without realising I had… but the loneliness of those silent nights, where I was cloaked in night, was certainly a significant part of me.

Just like this. Bathing under the moonlight has enhanced my powers.

I am the king who inhabits the black of night. The veil of darkness is the best cloak for me to don.

Will you take my hand? If you do, I’ll show you a moment of supreme bliss that no other human can replicate—if you’d like, that is ♪

[ashxketchum]

~ MIMATO WEEK (2022) FINALE ~

Well, we’re finally here! It was such a a long week but it still got over so soon 🥺 I truly loved seeing every single contribution, and all the varied & creative take on the prompts! I want to thank everyone who continued to participate despite you know what, and also thank those who supported the week by liking, reblogging and generally boosting the submissions on every platform. 

I am so glad to be a part of a shipping community so positively close-knit and so talented, I can’t wait to see how all of us come back stronger and better next year! 

For the final day, I decided to do something special and update Koisuru. 

This chapter is what most people would call a filler, but in my heart it is the core of what this fic was always supposed to be, the kids having fun living out their teenage years and doing teenage-y things, instead of fighting to save the fate of not one but two worlds. 

I hope you enjoy the chapter, and if you’re still in two minds about reading this fic, then here’s an excerpt for you: 

“Your girlfriend’s ex?” Yamato asked carefully and Jou nodded stiffly in response.

Him and Taichi exchanged looks once again and he noticed the spark of mischief in best friend’s eyes. He immediately glared at Taichi, asking him to stay down through his eyes but Taichi just attempted to grin in reply and if the three of them weren’t awkwardly crouching below the ramen shelves, Yamato would have reached forward and grabbed Taichi by the collar before he did anything stupid.

“Why are we hiding from him?” Yamato asked again, unsure of what to make of Jou’s petrified expression, and also to keep Taichi engaged in conversation before he did something stupid.

“He hates me.” Jou whispered, his voice breaking slightly.

“Why?” Yamato pushed again.

“Because he’s not over her? I don’t know exactly, but he’s really scary, please let’s just wait for him to leave.” Jou begged, strengthening his grip on Taichi’s mouth as he felt him trying to wiggle out of his tight grasp.

However holding Taichi back was a talent that not many succeeded at except Sora, he was able to fully remove himself out of Jou’s grasp and once he succeeded, he grinned widely, “I wanna see his face.”

“Taichi, no.” Yamato hissed, motioning towards Jou’s frightened form.

“Just a peek. I’ll be done in a second.” Taichi responded in a laid back manner, Jou’s silent whimpering having no effect on him as he stood up with utter ease and looked across the store. Yamato was about to drag him down but the minute Taichi’s eyes found the target, he himself immediately ducked down again, shock replacing the goofiness on his face. Yamato was obviously surprised by Taichi backing down so quickly and his own curiosity tingled but he decided to control himself for Jou’s sake.

“What the fuck? He is so bulky! He could strangle the three of us in one go, Jou who the fuck are you dating?” Taichi’s voice was filled with surprise, and this time he whispered in the same low tone that Yamato and Jou had been using,  and his statement almost made the latter cry. 

Almost.

[darkacademicfrom2021]

Moving day

Based on @lucywrites02's writing challenge, with the prompts "1. You're family" and "8. I have a surprise for you". I wish you a very happy birthday, Lucy!

Pairing: Loki x fem!reader (Tony Stark's daughter, not Morgan)

Word count: 3.2 K

Warnings: fluff and pregnancy :) This was very adorable to write.

Taglist: @lucywrites02, @louieboo87,@jesuswasnotawhiteman, @geekwritersworld, @whatafuckingdumbass, @mysticunicorn7, @toe-vind-ek-jou, @t00-pi, @selfship-mishaps, @sallymagnoliaposts, @deadgirl88, @enderslove

Gif: @moonrainbow

It had surprised Thor greatly how quickly and intensely his brother had fallen for you. He was as committed and truthful as he has never been in his long, long life. He looked at you softly, in comparison with everyone else. As soon as you walked in a room, he followed you with his gaze and invited you to his conversation. It wasn’t a surprise that after a few months of this very silent flirting (that very few noticed, because it mainly consisted in batting eyelashes and repressing subtle smiles when the other was around) you’d come out of the shell and admit you started dating. Thor was ecstatic.

Tony, on the other hand, was not amused. Not amused at all; in fact, he hated the idea of you going around with that God. He said, explicitly “if you ever get in trouble because of him, you solve it yourself. Nothing of coming for daddy to help, clear?”. Pepper had told him to cut some slack, and observe at how happy you were together, but he, stubborn to the bone, had to take a few months more before accepting the fact that his little girl was in love with the God of Mischief.

But the months passed by; almost a year, and you grew closer and closer. You hated to sneak into his room every night, and get interrupted all the time by every single soul in the compound, or mocked to death every time you cuddled on the sofa, watched a movie or read a book together. So, it all boiled down to the same conversation:

“I don’t think he’s ready”, you said while pouring some milk on your cereal. Nat rolled her eyes.

“He’s even readier than you”, insisted Wanda. They were exhausted from having the same conversation over and over, but you couldn’t bring yourself to actually do something about it. “He’s lived much longer, if any of you two were to be unready, that’d be you”.

“Do you think I’m not ready?”, you doubted yourself.

“God, Wanda. You’re planting unnecessary seeds here. The girl’s already anxious enough”.

“I just think… I want him to be with me for the rest of my life. I don’t know if he feels the same”.

“He totally does”.

“Yeah. No doubt about that. Just look at how he looks at you. What are you even waiting for?”.

“I don’t know, a signal?”.

“Of what? You’re impossible. Unless God themself comes down the sky and tells you textually just move in with him, you wouldn’t consider it a ‘signal’”, bitched Nat. But she was right. Commitment was not exactly your thing, even though you were as in love as you could be.

You heard an oncoming scream approaching the room. In silence, you three observed cautiously, and moved away from the middle. The screaming increased its loudness, until a body shattered the roof and fell to the floor violently. Loki laid still among the dusted debris until a second screaming started sounding from the sky.

“Oh, fuck”, he said, managing to get up quickly and making himself as a shield for you three. Thor landed on his feet over the same spot Loki had fallen. Dust flew everywhere and the floor cracked a bit more. “Don’t”, he alerted, pointing at his brother menacingly.

“I’m tired of your whinings, brother. Do something or I’ll do it myself”, spat Thor, grabbing Mjölnir and leaving the room. Loki sighed and sat on the couch, cleaning the remains with his magic. Wanda sighed and put it all back together.

“And what was that about?”, asked Nat, eating a candybar, still on the same spot as earlier. It wasn’t an unusual scene.

“I…”, said Loki, but desisted. You sat on the couch by his side and he laid, using your lap as a pillow. You took out a tissue and started carefully cleaning the blood off his cuts. He smiled softly. “We just had a fight”.

“I can see that. What did you fight about?”.

“He wants me to… well, talk to you”, he struggled to say.

“Well, we’re talking now”.

“Yes. No, wait, no. Like, talk talk”, he clarified, and Nat and Wanda nodded, leaving the room. You could still hear their chattery from the door.

Loki sat up and grabbed both of your hands, making direct eye contact. He was nervous, which only made you even more unsettled. He was never nervous. He was always calm, even in life or death situations. He was unfazed in everything and with almost everyone. Almost.

“What do you want to talk talk about?”, you joked, and he chuckled, releasing some tension.

“I want you to move in with me”.

“Oh. Wait. What?”.

“Like, move out. But with me”.

“To your room?”.

“Out of the Compound”.

“To an apartment?”.

“Yes”.

“Here?”.

“In Midgard, yes”.

“But like, in New York?”.

“Wherever you want, actually”.

You stayed silent for a few seconds, and Loki grew nervous again. You couldn’t help but laugh. He looked at you quizzically, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that… a God just fell down the sky and told me to move in with you”, you clarified, which didn’t actually clarify anything.

“You… what?”.

“Yes, I’d love to move in with you, love”.

And in no time you were already packing things up and going together on apartment huntings.

Tony insisted on helping you out himself, which was hilarious, given the repulsion he had for the idea in the first place. So, you’d go to an apartment by yourself, check it out and talk to the owner for a bit; Loki would arrive later, tensing things up (the owners would usually recognize him, but after a little chat they’d find out he’s a fine man), and then, just after you’d be all calm and good, the owners would see in the papers you’re a Stark, and tense up even more. Easier to say, it wasn’t a normal neighborhood chat.

You had finally decided on a small but very cozy apartment near Central Park; far enough from the Stark Tower, but you could get there pretty quickly for every mission.

You found the place advertised on the papers, and when you showed it to Loki, in sickness and all, you insisted on going to visit it that same day.

“My love, my dearest… you need to rest. I’m afraid you might faint again”, he cooed, trying to get you back to bed.

“A little fever won’t do anything to me, really, I’m f…”, you said, but you felt like vomiting, so you stopped your words and sat on the floor. Loki sat by your side and rubbed your back.

“If you feel better tomorrow, we go, yes? Now, come on, I’m gonna call Banner and you wait on your bed”.

“No, but they might take it, we need to go to make sure…”.

“What about I go, call you on one of those animated images, and you can see it from here?”, he proposed, helping you up. He meant a video call.

“That… sounds about right”.

But you had no actual time to have that video call, for when he was in the apartment, Banner was delivering some more important news.

You’ve been to the examination’s room of the compound before. But this time it seemed brighter. The lights shone so strongly, you had to close your eyes a little.

“What would you like to do about it?”, asked Banner. You were sobbing and trembling.

“I… I don’t know, I’m sure Loki will leave me”.

“What? No, don’t base your decision on that guy’s opinion”.

“Well, I don’t want the kid to not have a father, you know?”, you said as he gave you a tissue. “I want to have it, I’ve always wanted a kid. I think I’m… ready? I’m probably not. Not by myself, and I can’t do this alone. He’ll leave me, won’t he? Why would he want to have a kid with a mortal? We’d die as fast as he blinks”.

“Look, I’m no one to talk about it, but this sounds more like your anxiety and less like something he would do. He really loves you, he has for like at least a year, and I don’t see that going away anytime soon”.

“I know. You might be right”.

“You’re allowed to doubt everything. This is a huge thing, y/n. Think this through, talk to people, talk to your friends, or your parents. Don’t let this eat you”.

“Thanks, Bruce. You’re really… you’re being really nice, I appreciate it”, you sobbed. He handed you another tissue as he rubbed your shoulder.

“This is your call, okay? You have time to think. Text me later how you’re feeling, and have bed rest now. And if you feel too bad, take this”, he handed you some pills, “it should be innocuous for the baby”.

One of those days, that same week, you had decided to make it the official moving day. So, you put every box in the van and drove through the city, to your new home. You haven’t told Loki yet what you knew, and you were terrified he’d get even more upset because you didn’t tell him before the moving. But, to be fair, you didn’t think he’d actually leave.

You had told no one about it, despite Banner’s indications. But it wasn’t eating you. You were enjoying it silently. You were glad; you had your doubts, fears… Hell, you were terrified. But you knew, if Loki wasn’t going to be a part of that, you could do it yourself. You hoped he’d wanted to, though.

Loki and you had started taking the boxes inside, all by hand (to be honest, he was a little scared of the neighbours watching him do things with magic and kicking you two out). You laughed through it, and played races to see who’d finish their boxes first. He was wearing one of those midgardians shirts and pants that melted you completely. He wore that for your anniversary dinner the week before that day, and he noticed how much you loved it on him, so he started wearing fancy casual clothes more often than not.

After about two hours, you were done and completely exhausted. You laid in the middle of the wooden floor, surrounded by boxes and a strong smell of floorwax and fresh paint, and looked at each other fondly.

“Welcome home”, you said, and he showed you the biggest smile he’s ever done.

“I think this place is perfect. It’s away, but not exactly far from your family for whenever you’d want to be with them”.

“Yes, it’s perfect”, you said, getting up and helping him up. “You know, I have a surprise for you”.

“Really? What is it?”.

“Tonight at dinner, shall we? In the meantime, what about we get something to drink before unpacking?”.

“Can’t wait for tonight, then. Would you like some tea?”, he said, surrounding your waist with his arms. You played gently with his hair.

“Yes”.

“I love you”, he said, giving you a small peck over your smile.

“And I love…”, you started saying, but the entrance got filled with noisy people, interrupting you. Four of your friends were already filling the place, giving you an idea of how a small party would fit in there. “... you”.

“Oh my God! This place is so well illuminated!”, said Wanda, marveled.

“And what’s that smell? Have you been cooking something weird?”, said Nat, less enthusiastic, but equally curious. Sam and Bucky were still on the door, and Sam seemed to have brought food. Like a cake, or something similar. Wanda and Natasha were quick to invade the place without further notice.

“Oh, you got one of those hidden drawers! What are you hiding in there?”.

“Probably sex toys”, guessed Nat.

“I’d say drugs. But, like, alien drugs. You know, from his town”, apported Bucky, now making his way in and leaving the cake over the counter.

“I thought drawers were supposed to be for clothes”, said Sam, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, but hidden drawers? Sexy clothes”.

“Actually, I’m saving my daggers in there”, finally said Loki, kissing your cheek before pulling away from you, and appearing a cup of tea in each guest with a movement of his wrist.

“Boring”.

“So, guys, what do you think?”, you said as you started opening one of the boxes.

“I think it’s small”, said Tony, as he walked in. Pepper rolled her eyes behind him.

“Don’t listen to him, you guys chose perfectly. This place will look very nice once you paint it and decorate it”.

“It’s already painted”.

“Oh. Well, it… it looks nice”.

“Thanks mom”, you chuckled. “It’s small but we don’t need it to be big”.

“You better be actually saving daggers in here”, Tony peeped inside the hidden drawer. “Now that is not so hidden. I wouldn’t like to open it up someday and find a…”.

“Dad, please”, you rolled your eyes and went to Loki’s side. “Don’t worry, you won’t find anything weird. Just the daggers and knives of my very innocent boyfriend”.

“Well, you’ll have to think further about having knives so close to the floor, you know”, he muttered. Loki furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why?”.

Tony ignored him and walked to you earnestly, with the most serious face expression you’ve ever seen, and everyone observed quietly. He grabbed you by the shoulders, and inhaled a deep breath. All of the sudden, his eyes got watery, and you realized Banner had told him about the pregnancy. Your heart beat so fast you thought you’d faint again, right there. The corners of his lips formed a tiny smile, and he hugged you tightly. Loki was certainly confused now. As far as he knew, Tony didn’t like him, and why would he be so happy about you moving out? It’s not like you were his only child, either.

“I’m so proud of you”, he whispered, and then Loki had the feeling he wasn’t talking about the new apartment, but didn’t ask any further.

That night you managed to cook something special, even though you still hadn’t gotten the gas installed. You cooked together, and laughed at every minor inconvenience the house could give you. The doors of the countertop cabinets were the perfect height for Loki’s 6’4” ass to stump his head every time he tried to open it.

After some time of silent cooking, absorbed on each’s thoughts, Loki asked about your dad’s pride.

“Oh, he’s… well, he just, gets very emotional with these things”. He chuckled at your very obvious lie.

“No, he doesn’t. Certainly not with me”.

“Come on, he likes you now. He likes anyone I love, because you make me happy, and because he has no other choice”.

“Well… I thought he’d be less amused”, he admitted. “Hasn’t he? Other choice, I mean”.

“I don’t think so. He’d have to deal. Family is family”.

“Oh, do I know about that”, he said, cutting a carrot more strongly than before. You laughed.

“I meant it in a good way”.

“Well, your family is one thing, mine is another… I can’t push yours to like me, as much as I would like to. They’re very nice, and I wish I had a family like that, but I don’t”.

“Love, family is built”, you said, this time a little more serious. He repressed a smile, still looking at the vegetables. “You’re part of this, too, you know?”.

“Of this?”.

“You’re family”.

He didn’t repress the smile this time.

“You’re right. You’re my family, too, my love”.

“You…”, you took a deep breath. It was the perfect moment. “Do you ever imagine us in the future?”.

“Why yes, of course”.

“Really?”.

“I want to spend all your life with you. I didn’t want to rush into things because… I don’t know, scaring you out of anything, but I…”, he said, and the alarm on your phone went off, to take the rice from the fridge. You two laughed at how mundane this conversation seemed. “But I love you, and I want you by my side”.

“Okay. Well I do too. That’s good, right? That’s good”.

“Yes, of course it’s good, why so doubtful?”, he laughed, grabbing a tomato and stabbing it.

“Because I’m pregnant”.

“Yeah”, he chuckled, without actually realizing what you just said. And then, he fell. “Hold on, what did you just say?”.

“I’m… I’m having a baby. Yours, of course”, you clarified. You felt like you had to, but it wasn’t actually necessary. Silence filled the kitchen.

“Oh dear” he paused. He left the knife over the counter and looked at you, looking for any trace of a joke. You weren’t joking, and you grew nervous as he let time pass by without saying a word. “How could you not tell me this before moving in?”, he muttered, still in a bit of a shock.

“Oh. Well… I…”.

“I wouldn’t have let you carry those heavy boxes, love, I’m so sorry”, he said, and cupped your cheeks. “Are you really…?”. You sighed in relief. For a moment you thought of the worse.

“Yes, I am”.

His arms embraced you completely, hugging you as tight as he allowed himself to. He muttered how much he loved you, and how happy you had just made him, for the rest of his life.

Later that night, as you laid in bed, he cuddled you from behind with his hands on your tummy and his lips on your bare shoulder. You could feel his soft breathing grazing your skin, and his warmth keeping you safe.

“Loki”, you whispered, checking if he was still awake. You couldn’t sleep.

“Yes, love?”, he whispered back.

“Are you sure you want to be a daddy? With me?”.

He turned you around, and lowered his head to your abdomen. He sank his face and kissed all around your stomach and hips, leaving a trace of kisses up to your neck, and then your lips.

“How could I not?”, he whispered in a low voice. Burying his nose in the crook of your neck, teased “besides, the word daddy comes out so well from your lips”.

You laughed softly, and after some more silence that was fairly filled with loving stares, a thought crossed his head and you saw the light of his eyes turn to dark.

“What is it, love?”, you put a strand of his hair behind an ear.

“I… I’m just realizing something bad”, he said, and you nodded. “I’m a Frost Giant”.

“Why is it bad?”.

“My actual form is bigger than this. And… colder. And if the baby were Jötun too...”.

“You think the baby might hurt me?”.

“They might. I don’t know. Oh no, what if they hurts you?”, he began to panic, and you shushed him, kissing his temples.

“Don’t worry, Lokes. If that’s the case, we’ll figure it out”, you reassured him. “And maybe it’s not. And we’ll have a little and very healthy half-Jötun running around this small apartment. When have we not solved our issues? We’re good at that bit”.

“You’re right. You’re right, my dear”. He sighed, and then chuckled. “Should we have gotten a bigger place?”.

“We’ll be a very close family”, you laughed.

“We already are”, he whispered, cuddling back to you. “We are a very close family”.

[noctisfishing]

Everything You Want

Summary: Jou finally had enough of playing the part of the best friend. In a moment lacking judgment, he was ready to throw his friendship away. But Mimi knew him better - much better - and she did what she could to stop him, even if it revealed their true feelings for each other in the end.

'Ship: Jou Kido x Mimi Tachikawa (angst, fluff, romance)

Notes: A few Discord conversations/Tumblr posts inspired me to write a Jou-centric fic so I did. I also heard the song with the same name as this title and was feeling angsty and cheesy.

Thank you for reading. Hope you're having a lovely weekend. <3

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jou Kido entered his apartment one stormy night, having just returned from cram school. He had forgotten his umbrella again, but wearing his poncho helped keep his school bag and uniform dry. His eyesight took the worst of the pouring rain with it showering against his glasses, though Jou grabbed a fresh towel to wipe them, along with the rest of his face when he removed his poncho and blazer.

He sat on his couch next to his books and his bag, and looked at his phone to take a peek at his messages. He was prepared to stay quiet from ongoing conversations and to turn down any invitation with studying as his excuse. That was always his excuse, because he always felt the need to do it. He wanted to get into the best universities for medicine, after all.

But when he used the excuse for that night, he knew for a fact that he would leave his books closed and his pencils away from his hand. There was more on his mind than common illnesses and the organs affected by them. And, there was one person Jou expected to use his trademark excuse for tonight - the one person he wanted to avoid even if her messages were the ones that kept his phone screen lighting up every few minutes.

Mimi Tachikawa. Her name lit up Jou's phone with one more message count from the last. He knew what she wanted to talk to him about. It was about something that bottled up within him for a long time until he finally told her that he couldn't stand to be around her anymore. Jou fought back the worries in his head that what he did was wrong. That he single-handedly ruined their friendship and the friendships with everyone else would meet the same fate in a domino effect.

But he knew deep down that he had to do what for himself. Because their friendship was already ruined from the moment he realized it. Because Jou Kido was in love with Mimi Tachikawa, and she didn't seem to care.

And after reading her messages about wanting to talk, he replied with what he always did, and planned to drop his phone beside his bag and leave it all there to wait when he returned to gather them the next morning.

Except that, right when he plopped the phone onto the couch cushion a few seconds later, that same name popped up on the screen again, this time as an incoming phone call.

Jou turned from the couch and away from his phone, fully intending to ignore the ringing, regardless of how many times she dialed him. But then, he heard a knock at his door. He wondered who it could have been at this time of the night, especially with the rain pelting against his windows. Was it a person soliciting products and services he didn't need? Why bother answering the door?

But what if it was an elderly neighbor who was having trouble with her leaky faucet? Jou felt pity for that woman who had lived all by herself next door to him, so he guilted himself enough to help her.

And if it was a damsel in distress? Just like one of those romantic tropes where a young, beautiful woman showed up at the lonely leading man's door with nowhere to go. He would let her in, and it would prompt an unlikely, but absolutely predictable, love story.

After taking a deep breath, Jou quieted his 'what-if's' and finally opened the door. Who he found standing there was, in fact, a damsel in distress, yet the damsel was Mimi, and she appeared to be in distress as she held up her phone that was awaiting the answer that he had been trying so hard to avoid giving her.

"What in the world, Mimi?!" Jou cried, taking note of the ringlets of her rained-on hair, her blazer that had taken much of the rain but he could see her blouse crumpled underneath. "What was so important to possess you to go out in the rain to see me?"

"Are you seriously asking me this question right now?" she asked, heatedly. "You left me in the dark all of a sudden and I just want to know why!"

"Jou-kun," came from an older woman's voice from the hallway. The front door of another apartment creaked open. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything is just fine, Miss Rina!" Jou replied, chuckling nervously. Immediately he placed his hand on Mimi's shoulder and hurriedly ushered her into his apartment. In his normally quiet apartment complex, Jou wanted to make sure that his inevitable conversation of raised voices was going to be behind his closed door.

He also grabbed his coat from the hanger and handed it to Mimi to put on.

"Hmph," Mimi said before taking off her blazer to replace it with his coat. She set her bag and umbrella by the door before taking off her boots.

"I'll get you an extra shirt to change into, and a towel just in case," Jou mumbled. "You can use my bathroom."

As much as he wanted to avoid Mimi, he couldn't stop himself from his own decency. Nor could he let go of his feelings so easily. Perhaps standing in his room for a few moments would give Mimi the chance to calm herself. Then again, keeping her waiting for too long wouldn't help him much, either. Jou decided that one minute and eighteen seconds was the perfect amount of time to give her before stepping out of his room with the towel.

Mimi let out a deep sigh as she took the towel and shirt from Jou's hand. "Thanks," she said quietly, then headed to the bathroom without another word.

What was he going to say to her when she came back out again? There was no other way he could see their conversation going except for her becoming angry at him, which, Jou thought, was understandable.

But when the bathroom door opened, he saw her dressed in his clean shirt which was a size larger for her, and his coat still around her shoulders. He noticed that she used the towel to absorb the excess water from her hair, but her eyes darted to him only for a few seconds before looking away as she made her way to his couch.

She sat down next to his book bag. Her eyes were no longer fiery, but Jou still took a cautious step back.

"This isn't like you at all, Jou," she said. "Most of the time when we see each other, you have a few books open. Sometimes they're sprawled on the table, or on the couch. You usually have one in your hands, and sometimes your face is so close to the pages, you might as well give it a kiss…"

Jou stayed quiet, feeling his cheeks warm at her last comment.

Then, Mimi ran her hand on top of his book bag. "Here they all are, closed and stacked inside of this bag. You said you had studying to do, but it's obvious that you weren't planning on doing that tonight. I guess you had something more important to do. Like avoid me."

"Mimi…"

"I don't believe you, by the way," she continued. "If you really couldn't stand to be around me, then you would have slammed the door in my face right after you'd opened it."

"I wouldn't do that."

"I know you wouldn't. Not to anyone, even if it was someone you hated the most. You're one of the nicest, most sweetest guys I know."

Jou felt his heart sink.

"You're one of my dearest friends, Jou. So why are you pushing me away?"

Clenching his fist, Jou knew that he had to take this chance to tell her.

"Because that's all I am to you. A dear friend. The nice, sweet guy that you like to confide in about your relationships, or to vent about how some guy didn't notice your new earrings or that you styled your hair differently on a special day."

"You remember those silly little moments?" Mimi asked in surprise.

"I always remember," he replied with certainty. "I could never forget when it comes to you."

"Jou…" Mimi smiled, appearing touched. But Jou could tell she was still confused. "Jou… you know you can tell me. I've confided in you and you've given me great advice. You've always been there for me, even through my hardest times. And even if I didn't want to hear it, you're always honest with me."

Would she want to hear his honest feelings for her at the moment? To hear what his mind had been screaming at him to tell her?

Here goes nothing, he thought.

"I said that I couldn't stand to be around you, because I was tired, Mimi. I kept hearing the same story, about how you met a nice guy and started hanging out with him. And before I knew it, you started to rant about something that annoyed you, and then outright upset you."

Mimi's eyebrows crinkled as she stared at him. "Okay, so, you don't like my complaints?"

"Well, no - I mean, yeah," Jou stammered, then, he stopped and tried to collect his thoughts before Mimi opened her mouth to react. "Look, for as long as I've known you, I've noticed a pattern. I know that you want to find that special someone, but in that pattern after the guy upsets you, I could tell it hurts you. A lot. So, it hurts me."

Mimi's shoulders slumped a little, and she looked away from him. Jou thought back to the moments when she looked away with tears streaming down her cheeks. Those moments that his heart broke knowing that hers had fresh cracks after being mended over and over.

"You always did tell me that I was being foolish," she said softly. "After the end of a bad relationship, he was the fool for his mistakes. That I'm not perfect myself, but I was still foolish for loving him. You were right." She looked into his eyes, her light brown eyes glassy with oncoming tears. "You must have been tired of repeating yourself."

Jou took a breath and wondered if his feelings would cross her mind. She had yet to make the connection.

Then, she stood up and looked up at him.

"The other day, I told you I was going on a date and I started complaining. That was when you snapped. This guy was the last straw for you, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was," Jou replied. Then, he stepped back and he turned away. He remembered how she smiled as brightly as the sun, and how painful it was to know that that smile wasn't for him.

There came a silence between them, with only the sound of the rain on Jou's ears. With his back facing Mimi, Jou couldn't sense what she was thinking or feeling. The more he wondered, the more he became anxious.

"I didn't end up going on that date with him, you know," she said, breaking the silence. "I didn't want to, especially when I was on the outs with someone who was important to me."

"Like a 'dear friend' would be, right?"

"Why are you saying that like it's an insult?!" Mimi asked suddenly, her voice growing shrill. "Do you care about me? Or do you really want me to leave you alone?" She paused, then let out a whimper. "Or, am I just being foolish again…?"

And now Jou felt like a fool.

"No, Mimi, I'm an idiot." Jou turned around to face her again. "I'm sorry. I care about you. I hate seeing you hurt but now I realize that I am doing just that. I didn't mean to make you cancel your date."

Mimi sniffled. "I didn't think we were a good match, either way."

"Really?" Jou perked up at that.

She shook her head.

"I'll spare you the details. I definitely dodged a bullet."

Jou noticed her sad smile. Already, she had noticeably refrained from complaining about that canceled date, even after she seemed to be agitated by Jou's actions toward her. Perhaps this wasn't the right time to tell her, anyway.

Or maybe, it was the absolute perfect time to tell her.

"Do you remember what I always tell you, Mimi?" he asked. "Whenever you're feeling down in these situations?"

"Mm-hmm. You always told me any good man could see how wonderful I am."

"That's right. You're kind, funny, and sincere. You always see the best in people, and you know how to brighten someone's day when they've had the worst time. Even if you can drive someone insane, when you love someone, you love to the fullest. But none of them saw that. They only broke your heart instead. But, Mimi, I see it. I've always seen it. How wonderful you are."

Jou's voice trembled through last sentence, and he could barely croak the next words, but he knew they were worth uttering in front of her:

"Any man would be lucky to have you. So, why can't I?"

That was when Mimi gaped at him. Jou stared back, waiting for a more telling expression,on whether it was a good sign from her or not, but all he saw was surprise. He forced back his anxiety, his heart beating loudly in his chest, and told himself to wait.

"It all makes sense now," Mimi said in a daze. "You've been acting cold when it comes to other guys because you're…"

"I'm in love with you, Mimi," Jou finished in one helpless breath.

"I wish you would have told me straight."

Jou sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I know I'll tell you a lot of things straight, but I've never been in love before being in love with you."

He blinked, realizing that the words had just spilled out of his mouth so fluidly. He wondered how red his cheeks were at that moment.

"Do you wanna know why I really canceled that date, Jou?" Mimi asked, taking a step closer.

"Why?"

"Sora helped me realize it," she replied with a shrug. "'Why do you care so much about what Jou thinks? Why are you saying that you wish this or that guy was more like Jou?'" She took another step toward him, lifting her head up for her eyes to meet his. "I hated what I felt when you pushed me away. Somehow, the thought of losing you was more painful than some stupid guy breaking my heart."

"And, you don't hate me for it?" Jou asked. "For pushing you away?"

"I'm still mad about it. But that doesn't change the fact that you are everything I want."

"...I am?"

Mimi drew closer still. Was this really happening? Jou was reading her signals that pointed toward one answer, yet he searched her eyes in his effort to make sure that this was real.

"You are." Her lips formed a smile just as their noses were about to touch, and her voice lowered to a whisper. "I'm in love with you, too, Jou Kido."

There was no time for Jou to form words on his parted lips as her lips pressed against them. He watched her eyes close in front of him as she pushed further into the kiss. His mind blanked out from his next thoughts, his surroundings faded away, and all he knew was the two of them standing together.

Mimi pulled away and opened her eyes to look into his. Now she was the one who appeared to be searching, waiting for him to respond or react. And there he was, blinking eyes behind his glasses, at a loss of what to say after his first kiss.

So, he raised his hands to cup either side of her cheeks, his fingers brushing past her locks of hair, and he leaned in for his second.

When he pulled away, he met her eyes again, though he wasn't sure how to read her thoughtful expression.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I was just curious about how you would kiss me back."

"Oh. Well, you probably could tell that I hadn't kissed anyone before…"

"It wasn't bad, Jou."

"So, it was… good?"

"It was… honest."

Jou stared. "Am I supposed to take that in a positive way?"

"Well, I've never been kissed that way before, and I liked it."

"So, it was good?"

"It was honest." Mimi smiled. "But, maybe you could study more about it, since that's what you're really good at."

"Oh, honestly…"

Mimi giggled mischievously, then she moved closer to lean her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around his back to embrace him.

Jou held her in his arms and saw that she had her eyes closed, smiling softly. He began to let it sink in that he had finally confessed his feelings, that he'd had his first kiss, and now he was embracing the girl of his dreams.

Suddenly, he realized that he hadn't given her the full hospitality he would give to any guest in his apartment, despite the fact that she had already been wearing his shirt and coat.

"Um, Mimi?" he said softly.

"Hmm?"

"Did you want anything to drink? Water? Tea? Maybe a blanket? Something to keep you warm?"

"Mm-mm. I told you, Jou. I have everything I want."

Jou realized the odd sensation of his heart fluttering in his chest, and he held her closer as he closed his eyes, taking in the warmth surrounding them.

[shihalyfie]

Yamato, Adventure’s most dramatically emotional cast member

The “edgy cool bishounen rival” has been such a staple of shounen anime for years that the moment you look at Yamato and his position next to Taichi, it’s easy to go “ah, yep, there it is.” But just like how Taichi’s actually very different from the shounen hero stereotype, Yamato, despite what his first impression and character design might suggest, is in fact the complete opposite!

Actually, I’ll start this off with an interesting story from Yamato’s own voice actor, Kazama Yuuto:

Yeah. When my agent asked me which role I wanted to try out, I thought I couldn’t do a pretty boy character like him, so I was really astonished when I was chosen for the role. Afterwards, when I asked Kakudou-san [the director] about it, he said that he’d decided on me the instant I’d come in... I’d heard that Yamato was a cool character, which I thought was a part of him that didn’t agree with me. So there was that factor in the beginning. But I learned that he was actually quite similar to me, and a surprisingly passionate guy.

I don’t generally have a huge tendency to include voice actor comments in analysis about writing, but I do think it says a lot that even his own voice actor walked in expecting the typical “pretty boy rival” character to the extent that he felt he’d have difficulty doing the role at all, only for the actual nature of Yamato’s character to catch him off guard! Because, yeah, that really is the case: Yamato’s first impression really is very deceptive, and his actual personality is, indeed, full of open passion and emotion in nearly every way.

Yamato in Adventure

...No, really, it really does not take long for it to be very clear that Yamato’s immediately not like the stereotype his character archetype would suggest, considering that even as early as Adventure episode 2, he was depicted as very obviously being open about his opinions, even if that made him quick to criticize.

When you talk about “rival” characters, usually, the reason such characters seem cold and standoffish is that there’s a certain degree of pride to them, or, in other words, they want to keep up a facade of being “cool” and rational and thus aren’t quick to show their emotions. But Yamato isn’t like that at all! From the very beginning, he speaks often, is very open and honest about his thoughts, and doesn’t seem to even really care what others think at all.

The Adventure novels do, in fact, make clear that he was more closed-in prior to arriving in the Digital World, and these bursts of emotion were actually unusual behavior for him at the time -- but it’s not because he’s prideful or anything! Firstly, it wasn’t necessarily that he deliberately cut himself off from others -- rather, he was still willing to engage in some degree of friendly interaction:

It wasn’t because he was lonely. In fact, many of his classmates would greet him with a friendly “Yo!” or “Hi~!” when they came across him and, naturally, Yamato would respond back with a smile.

And, in fact, said novel indicates that there’s a lot going on deeper than him merely suppressing his emotions for the sake of it:

The people around Yamato may have thought that he was a cold, aloof person, but that was only because he didn’t show what he thought to other people. When had he become like that? He hadn’t been like that when he was younger. But after his parents decided to divorce and his mom took Takeru by the hand and left home… Don’t go! Please don’t go! Don’t leave me! The truth was, he had wanted to plead with her and cry — but he couldn’t. Part of it had to do with his father standing by his side. Maybe his mother had secretly wished for Yamato to say that to her. But at that moment, Yamato had thought that he would never show weakness in front of his mom, even if he died from it. It was his own decision to follow his dad. Ever since coming to the Digital World, even Yamato was surprised by how much emotion he expressed. All of the emotion that he’d held back while at home, at school, had come bursting out without pause.

It’s also important to understand the reasons why he blows up so easily at Taichi in Adventure episodes 3 and 6 and whatnot -- he does it because he’s constantly looking out for the others and worried about their welfare. Pretty much all of the arguments he has with Taichi for the majority of the series involve him objecting to his perception of Taichi as insensitive, because Taichi has a tendency to tease others or bid for everyone to keep pushing forward into dangerous situations or when they’re tired. So, really, Yamato gets angered and emotional and picks his fights with Taichi because he cares too much, not because he’s deliberately trying to cultivate an image of being detached. Once they were outside the range of his family and their classmates and stranded in another world, Yamato’s bleeding heart instantly won out, and he started advocating for the welfare of everyone else.

This is why Yamato’s the one who gets the Crest of Friendship, because even though he starts off by putting up a defensive wall between himself and the others and seems very difficult to deal with, even when he gets angry and upset, he’s constantly upset on other people’s behalf. Even from the very beginning of the series, he’s actually one of the most caring people in the cast!

Really, the entire first few introductory episodes with Yamato can be pretty succinctly described as Yamato coping really badly with all those years of emotional suppression and letting it out in some pretty severe outbursts, especially when it comes to Takeru, whom he’d never been able to properly take care of as an older brother due to their parents’ divorce. (And while he’s definitely a little better at managing it, Takeru himself is actually also doing a pretty bad job with that whole emotional suppression and lack of catharsis thing.) Standoffish and cold? Nah -- not when Yamato has the single highest count of openly breaking down and crying out of the whole cast in Adventure.

And, for all it’s worth, remember that stereotypical “cold rival” characters in this kind of shounen series would normally be very ashamed at others seeing them so emotional, but Yamato...doesn’t really seem to care about the others seeing him do some really embarrassingly reckless stuff during his episodes of exploding over Takeru’s welfare. Once it’s past him, he doesn’t really dwell on it and moves on. Again: Yamato isn’t the kind of person who actually cares that much about what other people think of him.

Adventure episode 18 is an often-overlooked episode when it comes to Yamato, but it’s significant because it makes it clear that he doesn’t really have a problem being conversational and friendly with others (especially since, remember, any emotional suppression had more to do with the trauma and sensitive feelings surrounding his parents’ divorce and a desire to not show weakness) -- he starts a very lighthearted, friendly chat with Koushirou over why they’re looking for their Crests, and even admits that the reason he wants his own Crest is that he’s self-conscious about the idea of everyone else changing and improving as people while he gets left behind. That’s a really personal thing to admit, and arguably something very sensitive! It’s something you wouldn’t even blame him for potentially being self-conscious about! But he’s perfectly humble in admitting that this is something he wants to improve in, and carries on this entire conversation in a light-hearted, cheerful manner.

This episode takes place during a time where everything seems to be “safe” (they’re within Piccolomon’s barrier and finally have a proper place to sleep), and are on the verge of finding their own Crests in a situation that does not ostensibly involve running for their lives, so this is when you get to see Yamato in a relaxed situation. And, really, he’s very friendly and open, with no restraint about it. He really isn’t the kind of person to be condescending or cold by nature!

It’s even more incorrect to pin Yamato as someone who tries to act more on rationality (again, like the “cold rival” stereotype would suggest) because, in fact, he’s the kind of person who gets completely carried away by his own caring for others to the extent of irrationality. For instance, in Adventure episode 23 when his conflicting loyalties to Takeru versus wanting to help Jou in his situation get all mixed up, and he tries to buy into PicoDevimon's trick to turn Jou against him as a solution to taking sides before Jou clearly indicates this is the case, and Yamato doesn't hesitate to feel really bad about it. Openly so. Condescension? Nah.

No, really, I could just keep taking screenshots from Adventure all day if you want evidence of “Yamato is openly and passionately emotional to explosive degrees because he cares too much about others, and makes no real pretense of hiding it.” If you’re still not convinced, I don’t know what to tell you.

When Yamato infamously succumbs to Jureimon’s bait in Adventure episode 44 and ends up picking a fight with Taichi -- possibly his most self-centered action in the entire series -- it’s interesting to see that Jureimon does use the word “rival”, the same word used in anime trope lingo to describe “the person you’re constantly fighting with and competing with in order to improve yourself”. The reason why this is fascinating is that Adventure is making a point here that this kind of “stereotypical anime rival” relationship would be extremely unhealthy for these characters.

No, really: at least as far as Yamato’s concerned, and what defines the kind of “friendship” these particular kids need, what these kids need is mutual emotional support, not engineered conflict that can be passed off as “they fight but it’s a sign of how much they know each other!” Remembering that Adventure is, in many ways, a series that prioritizes wanting to focus on portraying the intimate nature of human behavior, it’s not surprising that it goes out of its way to make clear that centering your relationship with a friend around needing to “outdo” them is a really bad thing. (Observe how 02′s Daisuke and Ken also don’t fit the “rivals” archetype at all and are merely a straightforward relationship of best friends in little to no conflict, despite occupying the stereotypical position.)

But Jureimon successfully digs into all of Yamato’s insecurities about his perceived lack of self-improvement and his tendency to compare himself to the polar-opposite Taichi in terms of Taichi’s charisma and way of (ostensibly) playing better to Takeru’s dislike of being coddled. And so, the engineered conflict happens, and, of course, it traumatizes everyone around them. When Yamato finally manages to get over himself after some timely intervention from “the one who seeks stability” (Homeostasis) in Adventure episode 45, everyone in the group is miserable from the ordeal.

Adventure episode 51 basically lays down the two major issues Yamato had been facing up until that point, and ties it into a neat bow: the reason Yamato had become so obsessed with self-improvement was because he wanted to prove he was "independent" and "not weak", but in the end, he still sees himself as an inferior person compared to everyone else -- culminating in him eventually seeing Taichi as a better person than him. Gabumon reaches out to Yamato by clarifying Yamato’s right to not compete, but be unique; it’s not about competing or being a “better” or “worse” version of others, it’s finding his important niche in the group or in the world with the things only he’s good at. Yamato says it in explicit words in Two-and-a-Half Year Break:

Dad doesn’t remember. On the day when we had to decide whether Takeru or I would go with him… Neither Dad or Mom could decide, so I did. I thought, this way, Takeru would be able to stay with Mom. I chose for myself. And after that, I always chose for myself. Or that’s what I’d planned to. Even though I was called a Chosen Child, it was me who was going to choose what to do. No way was I going to be used for other people’s convenience. Maybe that’s why I went so far to keep myself from making friends. But in the end, I acknowledged that what I was doing was unreasonable. After all, I’m not living in this world by myself. If I hadn’t met Gabumon, I never would have realized that. The person I am right now, is not alone.

As long as Yamato only ever sees himself as a replaceable piece meant to fill in the same niches as everyone else, he’ll continue to be horribly critical of himself for not being a perfect person and ultimately being “useless” or “not necessary”. But it’s not about being perfect or a better or worse replacement, it’s about embracing himself and what he can do in his own way, and, indeed, at the end of the episode, Yamato’s arrival on the scene makes it clear that the group ultimately needs both of them, not just one.

It’s also interesting in that, whereas most of the kids (especially in the Adventure finale) are very open about their own feelings to their own partners, Yamato and Gabumon are capable of “communicating” in some sense just by Yamato playing the harmonica. But it’s perhaps because Yamato is normally so open and passionate about his own feelings that such a tacit method is something they can do -- they’ve already bared themselves to each other so many times already, that in the end, all they need to do is just enjoy the abstract things together.

Yamato in 02 and after

So by the time we get to 02, any trace of coldness or detachment from Yamato has completely vanished.

I cannot emphasize this enough: completely vanished. Even in the middle of being a heartthrob for the teenagers in school thanks to his good looks and work with his band, he’s open and lacking in condescension whatsoever, and it’s basically like seeing the openly friendly Yamato from Adventure episode 18 for a whole series. Actually, it already says a lot that he’s in a band, considering it feels like shifting his music activities to a full-on band is there to make a deliberate statement that Yamato is now much better at socializing and working in organized groups now -- it’s a far cry from having to work solo or independently, and it’s significant that “the person who wanted to be able to do everything by himself” is now interested in doing something a bit more cooperative. (And to lend further to the idea he’s sentimental and constantly thinks of others, his band, the TEEN-AGE WOLVES, is all but confirmed to be named in indirect tribute to Gabumon.)

He’s open, conversational, makes a lot of silly faces throughout the series, and basically the only thing he has left that remotely resembles the “pretty boy rival” stereotype is that he’s deep in the aesthetic. But even then, you get the impression that he just does that because he genuinely likes it, not because he’s trying to be “cooler than you” or anything. And it’s easy to see why: Yamato, quite simply, got over himself. He stopped restraining himself all the time in his attempts to become a perfect person, and simply let himself loose to express himself how he wanted, and ultimately became a perfectly sociable and friendly person who’s now even popular at school!

Yamato’s punch on Taichi in 02 episode 10 is often taken as evidence that Taichi and Yamato embody the “rivals who constantly get in fights but are somehow still friends” trope, but this tends to avoid the actual context of the rest of the scene -- in fact, Daisuke himself rightfully points out that if Yamato had done this out of any actual anger or condescension, this would have been a really cruel thing to do to Taichi when he’s already going through so much. But Yamato’s not doing this out of resentment or condescension, he’s doing this for Taichi’s own sake to help him get out of his stupor, and the important part here is that he immediately holds out a hand to him afterwards. Or, in other words, this isn’t something they’re doing out of conflict, but out of communication, and it’s now at the point where Taichi understands Yamato’s intent, and Yamato knows that what he wanted to do would be conveyed to Taichi, without words.

That is why Taichi and Yamato are finally so close now: they understand each other’s feelings. They’re not competing with each other. They’re not resenting each other. They’re sympathetic and forgiving of each other, and they communicate, verbally or otherwise.

It’s followed by a scene in 02 episode 11 that’s also often construed as Taichi and Yamato advocating fighting as part of a healthy friendship, but, again, this omits context: they talk about their fighting in past tense! They’re referring as fighting having been part of the things they had to do to understand each other now, when they clearly aren’t in that kind of conflict anymore. The idea they’re espousing is that Daisuke and Takeru need to let out their feelings and have some catharsis if they want to truly understand each other (which is, indeed, how Taichi and Yamato eventually settled their differences) and hopefully get to a position of mutual understanding, instead of the others forcing them to have peace for the sake of peace and not letting their feelings get out on the table. (And, ultimately, Daisuke spends the rest of the episode thinking about Takeru’s position, and none of the 02 kids ever end up in this bad of a brawl for the rest of the series, yet manage to build a friendship in spite of that -- so, yes, the important part was that they had their feelings out in the open and got catharsis, not fighting in itself.)

Yamato also has an interesting role in the 02 drama CDs, including one entirely devoted to him (Letter). Said drama CD has quite a few things to note:

Gabumon says that Yamato being rather silent and not speaking up about what he’s thinking is unusual behavior for him.

As much as Yamato’s managed to do a better job opening up in general, he’s still suffering from extreme self-worth issues, considering himself as worthless if he’s not able to do anything for a girl in the hospital, even though it’s of course completely reasonable he can’t do much. Despite that, he continues to emotionally fixate on her welfare and basically self-flagellate and do a lot of pretty emotionally occupied things in the process.

Speaking of getting emotionally occupied, as much as he ends up snapping a bit at the people on the beach who keep annoying the hell out of him, he eventually feels so bad for the shaved ice seller that he forces himself to eat it just for him. (Even though it’s freezing.)

Yamato’s a really poetic person. Almost sappily so.

On top of that, Armor Evolution to the Unknown gives us an ever-so-slight glimpse of his dating life with Sora -- which, while he hadn’t been super-flagrant about, he also hadn’t been hiding either (he’s clearly willing to engage in a bit of PDA as per 02 episode 43), and, if the admittedly-kind-of-crack drama CD is to believed, he’s actually very emotionally passionate about his relationship to her, and very dedicated! Beyond just the (very sudden) passionate declaration of love to her in the middle of tap dancing, when Sora is found to have been worrying about him being cold lately, he immediately goes out of his way to try and make things right and prove his love...

Yamato’s initial appearance in Kizuna pretty much defines in a nutshell what his and Taichi’s relationship eventually turned out to be: they’re willing to banter because they’re comfortable with each other, but when it all comes down to it, they appreciate and trust each other deeply. Again, the point is that Yamato and Taichi are emotionally there for each other, considering that (even if he ribs Taichi a bit for it) Yamato’s willing to come all the way down to meet Taichi for late-night beer and talk to him through his emotional troubles.

And, yes, Yamato’s still there to be a concerned minder for Taichi and to make sure he doesn’t get too inconsiderate of what he’s doing -- but there’s no conflict over it, just the two of them balancing their necessary roles as part of the group and keeping each other in check. Again, as was made clear back in Adventure, it’s not about one person being more necessary than the other, it’s them both working together to fulfill their own roles.

As one of the central characters in the movie, Yamato’s also having an existential crisis of adulthood, and in his case, it’s that he’s playing everything too much by ear but isn’t really sure what he wants to commit to. He’s still enjoying music as a hobby, but it’s apparent he doesn’t want to commit to it as a career (which is, well, quite the common thing for those who have hobbies in middle school) -- and moreover, the novel indicates that it’s not bringing him happiness the way it used to. (The movie goes out of its way to depict Yamato feeling isolated with both a harmonica and a band, referencing that neither Adventure nor 02′s ways are doing it for him anymore.)

Beyond the motorcycle we see Yamato driving a few times in the movie, the official website profile makes it clear that this is one of his major new interests, and it’s presumably why he’s also attending an engineering school -- he can’t decide on a long-term goal, so he’ll at least experiment with the thing he likes. Yamato’s always been someone who thinks with emotions and feelings, so it fits him.

We also learn that he’s surprisingly studious, and is picking up some things that run contrary to his image (the glasses!), including the fact he seems to like school enough that he wants to do more school while he figures out what he wants to do. This is something that happens in real life for a certain kind of person in a career-based existential crisis -- as many people as there are who play very badly with educational structures, there are also people who rely very heavily on the structure of college or grad school basically handing you tasks to do on a plate, and find the job market to be scarier than staying within that bubble. It’s not too unreasonable to imagine that Yamato, who in certain ways has never really been the kind of person to assertively have an idea of “this is what I want to do!” and generally works by immediate feelings instead of long-term goals, would end up becoming that kind of person. As he says, it’s really just him trying to postpone the inevitable decision and get a grace period.

Since “shutting out one’s own partner (and therefore one’s own inner self)” is key to the cause of partner dissolution, Yamato’s way of it isn’t as direct as Taichi or Sora (who end up actively shutting out their partners in a bid to become an adult), but is most certainly there -- especially when he’s the one who drops a mocking line about the idea of bringing Gabumon to his school. (It’s not about whether it’s actually doable or not; it’s the fact that he laughs and scoffs at how stupid this is.) The fact he treats friends drifting apart as an “inevitable” thing, and eventually is shown very obviously to be keeping Gabumon out of the phone conversations (in stark contrast to the 02 quartet going out of their way to keep them involved on the other end) ultimately boils down to: neglect. Yamato’s coasting by on everything he likes, but it also means he’s just letting everything happen, instead of consciously pursuing things and passionately following things with gusto, the way he used to.

But we do see Yamato’s single-minded and passionate side come out again -- while Taichi shuts down and ruminates on what to do about his impending loss of Agumon, Yamato’s the one who desperately runs around trying to figure something out, recruiting the 02 quartet into it, losing sleep over it, and eventually having a passionate confrontation with Taichi as the climax approaches. (Note that this, again, is not a real conflict in nearly the same way the two of them would be spitting insults at each other all the way back in Adventure; it’s just the two baring their own feelings, and Yamato quickly accepts Taichi’s answer very easily because he, too, feels the same. Again: they’ve become very good at communicating.)

Yamato does eventually let Gabumon back into his periphery instead of neglecting him so much, and their final scene together in the movie involves them resuming their old method of tacit communication that they’d once shared together, with Yamato playing the harmonica. It’s a sign of Yamato finally embracing those things in the past that used to make him happy rather than cultivating an uncomfortable relationship with it just because he’d kicked it out of his career prospects, and ultimately coming to terms with what he likes and what makes him happy.

And speaking of career prospects...

The question of “why did Yamato become an astronaut?” is one that’s infamously weirded out people all over the globe because of how much it clashes with his image, and how much of a kind of “out-there” thing it is that had virtually no precedent whatsoever in Yamato’s prior hobbies. (Although, if you really think about it, space travel isn’t that huge of a hurdle as it sounds for a world like this where Digital Gates exist to bend space-time; you just send a probe with a Digital Gate link up there...) The original meta reason was, simply, that it was a holdover from one of the original ideas for the third Adventure series, in which they would be investigating forces that were obstructing evolution from space. (The original logical progression was that Adventure would have a threat from the Digital World, 02 a threat from the real world, so the theoretical third series would be space...) When you think about which of the original Tokyo Chosen Children would be the most likely to actively pursue this route, it actually is likely to be Yamato, given that Taichi is more of a person who’s an overall leader and coordinator, whereas Yamato, who’s much more up-front aggressive and openly passionate, would be more likely to want to tackle the situation with his own hands.

Kizuna -- or, more specifically, its novel -- offers another (and not mutually exclusive!) explanation:

While studying at graduate school, Yamato came up with a dream he had for his future. He wanted to study cosmology, and become an astronaut. The way there would not be easy. There was a whole mountain of things he’d have to do to get there. But Yamato had a certain ambition in mind. Someday, he was going to go to space with Gabumon. Whenever he thought of that future, Yamato was willing to do anything to get there.

Remembering that Yamato was at an engineering school (presumably originally from the motorcycles connection), it seems that he eventually “ran into” the career option by chance and happenstance, and thought about it and decided he wanted to follow it for the sake of going with Gabumon. It’s a very “romantic” and sappy kind of “out-there” dream, and, actually, that’s the point -- Yamato is a ridiculous romanticist, the kind of person who waxed about barbecue back in Adventure episode 6, and compared his relationship with Takeru to Hikoboshi and Orihime back in 02 episode 17, and spouted a bunch of poetic words at the sea during Letter. And, remember, he’s always been openly shameless and passionate about everything he’s felt and liked, and has never cared what other people would think.

And in the context of Kizuna, where Yamato was slowly losing touch with himself and his passions and eventually lost Gabumon as a result, it’s a very important sign that everything’s on its way back to healing, and that he’ll be able to achieve that future where they meet again.

[wosoimagines]

The Secret Is Out - Jill Roord/Reader

prompt: hi um could you maybe just maybe do a jill roord x reader where the reader plays for arsenal and the uswnt and they win the world cup and no one knows they’re dating and the r or jill accidentally like do something? idk if that makes sense but if you dont want to that’s perfectly fine! hope you are doing well! all love. Okay, look. There are some Dutch translations here. I don’t know if they’re right because I used google translate. If they are wrong and you speak Dutch, please tell me so I can fix them.

warnings: None.

words: 1919

(Y/N) POV

I cheered as soon as the final whistle blew. I had finally done it. I had finally won my first World Cup. After being one of the last players passed over during the 2015 World Cup, it felt amazing to win now in 2019 and to be such a big reason as to why we won.

Although I was happy, there was a part of me that knew that I had ruined a World Cup run for one of the most important people in my life. I immediately looked to search for the Dutch woman who had stole my heart. My smile fell a little at the heartbroken look on her face.

I caught her eye and she smiled at me. I went to move toward her, but before I could, someone had jumped on my back cheering. I wasn’t surprised that it was Sonnett. Lindsey, of course, joined where Sonnett was and Mal and Rose weren’t far behind her. 

Jill shook her head and it did hurt a little that she didn’t want me to join her. But I understood. My team wanted to celebrate and Jill probably just wanted to be with her teammates right now. I glanced to see how Danielle and Viv were as well as Sari. I wasn’t surprised when I watched Jill go join Viv. I knew that the two of them were really close.

Lindsey managed to wrangle Sonnett off my back just before Rose and Mal threw confetti on top of me. I grinned at them as I shook my head to get the few that stuck to my head off of me. I was a little surprised that it was Tierna who had dragged me back to where the team was celebrating on the pitch. I wasn’t too surprised when Christen and Tobin immediately joined me considering that they were my team moms.

We eventually were given our medals and I was a little surprised to find that I had won the bronze boot along with the bronze ball. I had taken a picture of the awards with Megan and Alex since they both won awards as well. I couldn’t help it as my attention was drawn to Jill. I was able to eventually hand my awards off so that they would make it back to the hotel.

Christen and Tobin had stopped me when I moved to go over to Jill. They both congratulated me and I had thanked them. I knew that I would never be the player I was without them taking me under their wing and helping me. I eventually was able to get past them and to the Dutch midfielder that I had been trying to get to.

“Hey,” I softly said.

Jill smiled at me even through her tears. I immediately hugged her. Jill held on tightly to me. The past two months had been hard for both of us to be so close to each other but not able to see each other.

“I’m proud of you,” Jill mumbled into my neck. I pulled back from her and smiled at her. “I’m really proud. I want your jersey.”

“You want to swap?”

The fact that Jill wanted to swap our jerseys even though they would end up at my apartment in London soon enough confused me. Everyone knew that Jill had signed with Arsenal, and while a lot of her stuff was at the apartment, we didn’t have time to unpack it before the two of us had left for the World Cup.

“No, I just want your jersey eventually,” Jill shook her head. I still wasn’t sure what she wanted it for.

“It’s probably going to smell like alcohol after tonight,” I chuckled. I knew that my jersey was probably going to get soaked in alcohol as soon as we entered the locker room.

“(Y/N)!”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Sonnett running toward me with a grin and a white jersey in her hand. Sonnett stopped beside Jill and I before holding the jersey out to me.

“Dude, they got us these cool jerseys,” Sonnett immediately started to say. I knew that if I didn’t get her to leave soon then I wouldn’t get to talk to Jill until after we left the arena. “There’s one for all of us.”

“Cool,” I said as I took the jersey. I glanced at Jill who looked ready to leave.

“Ik bel je later,” Jill muttered causing me to grab on her wrist. (I will call you later.)

“Nee wacht. Geef me een moment om van haar af te komen,” I said causing Sonnett to look surprised at the fact that I knew Dutch. Jill looked surprised that I was willing to get rid of my teammate. (No, wait. Give me just a moment to get rid of her.)

“Can you make sure that there’s some actual beer saved for me to drink and not to just spray around everywhere?” I asked Sonnett.

The defender immediately perked at the mention of beer. Sonnett nodded before rushing off to make sure we had beer to drink. I turned back to Jill before pulling my game jersey off.

“Here, this way I can’t lose it cause you know I lose everything,” I said. Jill chuckled a little at the before taking the jersey from me. 

I saw Jill’s eyes wander down to my waist and she smiled at the new tattoo that I had. I hadn’t shown her yet due to the fact that I had gotten it just after Jill had left to join her own national team and I wanted Jill to see it in person rather than as a picture.

“You actually got it,” Jill whispered.

“Yeah, I did,” I nodded. Jill touched the tattoo and lightly traced it. “Your handwriting and all. I figured it was appropriate since you were the one who started to call me Schatje.” (Little treasure.)

I pulled the jersey Sonnett had given me over my head. I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone from my team was going to come to drag me away. I wasn’t too surprised that Christen and Tobin were headed my way, but I was surprised by the fact that the whole team was headed here. I looked back at Jill.

“I know we said we didn’t want to go public with our relationship until we got into a groove with both of us being at Arsenal, but my teammates got their kisses from their partners and, it’s been a while-”

I couldn’t finish what I was saying because Jill had pulled me closer to her. I immediately kissed the Dutch player back when I felt her lips crash into mine. I ignored the cheers and shouts behind me, but apparently Jill didn’t because she pulled back not long after. Jill glanced behind me before giving me a kiss by my ear.

“Go join your teammates. I have a room for us at a different hotel where we can have our own little party after you guys get done.”

My jaw slacked but I didn’t have time to say anything to Jill because she had already turned and ran to join her own teammates. I felt someone sling their arm around my shoulder.

“Way to get some, (Y/N),” Ash cheered right in my ear. I wasn’t too surprised that Ali slapped the back of Ash’s head causing the goalie to grumble and rub the back of her head. 

“Hey, Roord!” I called out. Jill turned around to look at me. “Ik hou van je, lieverd.” (I love you, sweetheart.)

“Ik hou ook van je.” (I love you too.)

“Oi, (Y/N)! What about me?”

I shook my head at Danielle. She often teased me over the past two years whenever Jill would call me since we were in different countries. But Danielle had been ready to throw hands for me many times during our matches for Arsenal. 

“Je bent zo behoeftig,” I complained. Danielle threw a glare at me and I laughed at her. “Ik hou ook van jou, kleine krijger.” (You’re so needy. I love you as well, little warrior.)

Danielle smirked at that and I saw her turn to brag about it to Jill. I only shook my head at them before turning to my teammates. I swiped the beer from Kelley’s hand before she could drink from it. Before the older defender could do anything, Christen and Tobin had already moved to my sides probably to talk to me about the relationship I had with Jill. I couldn’t help but smile as I told them about the Dutch woman who had stolen my heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I grinned as Jill came out of the bathroom. I was already dressed since I was having to leave today to head to the US for our celebration. Jill was going to take her time, however, since her team wouldn’t be flying out until much later. Jill was dressed in one of my oversized shirts and a pair of shorts.

“What are you smiling about?”

“How lucky I am,” I said as I stood up from the foot of the bed. “I mean, I just won the World Cup and the woman I want to spend the rest of my life is still here even though she’s the one I had to beat to win the World Cup.”

“You want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

“I mean, yeah, why wouldn’t I?” I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Jill, I’ve been dating you for 3 years now. If I didn’t seriously see us together for the rest of my life, then I wouldn’t still be with you. One day, I’m going to marry you.”

“I also can’t believe you would think that I would leave you because you beat me for the World Cup,” Jill shook her head. She pressed a kiss to my lips. “I can’t wait for you to make me yours forever.”

I grinned as I wrapped my arms around her waist. I wished we could stay like this forever. But sadly we couldn’t. I did have a plane to catch soon.

“I’ll see you in London?”

“Of course you will,” Jill nodded. Jill pulled back from me before digging through her bag. “I have something for you. I was going to wait until we got back to London, but I might as well give it to you now.”

I took the little black box from her and smiled. I opened the box and chuckled when I saw the ring. The ring was a simple silver band with a designed etched into it. I slid the ring onto my finger before pulling my own small black box from my bag.

“I kind of got you one too,” I said as Jill took the box from me. “We were shopping for a ring for Tobin to give to Christen and I wanted to do something special for you. I’m not asking you to marry me, but this is a promise that I will marry you one day.”

Jill grinned before she kissed me. I smiled when she pulled back.

“I’ll see you in London, okay?”

The Dutch woman gave me one last kiss before I grabbed my bags and headed out of the room. I gave her a small wave just before I closed the door behind me. I couldn’t wait for the celebrations to be over and to be on a plane back to London.

[hela-avenger]

it’s not you, it’s me- part 3

Author: hela-avenger

Word Count: 1006

Summary: Natasha won’t quit trying to set you up so you decide to play fire with fire. Hence making a deal with an insufferable prince who interestingly enough is willing to fake being in love with you for the rest of the night. Of course when dealing with the God of Lies things are never as they seem. Fake-Dating AU. p&w AU.

A/N: Once again late but once again better late than never. This one’s a little on the short side but quality over quantity!

P.S. I’m tagging the p&w people so if you’ll like to be taken off pls do let me know!

Tags are open! 

it’s not you, it’s me masterlist & poison & wine masterlist

You thought you had a few minutes before Natasha found you again but you were immediately proven wrong. Natasha is already waiting for you when you step back inside from the balcony and she wasn’t alone.

“There you are!” she exclaims a little too eagerly. “Ryan from Accounting has been waiting for you for a dance.”

You force a smile on your face as you look at the man next to her. He’s handsome and probably kind but you had no desire to get to know him. Luckily for you, you weren’t alone either. 

“That’s very sweet, but my dancing card is already full.”

You gently squeeze Loki’s arm hoping he’ll take the hint and he does. In fact, it seems he’s very well ahead of you.

“Yes, I’m afraid I will be occupying the lady’s time for the rest of the night,” Loki states blatantly staring at Natasha to further emphasize his light threat. “We have much to discuss.”

With that said, Loki whisks you away and you can’t refrain from giggling as he stops in the middle of the dance floor. 

“Do you know how to dance?” he asks.

“I do,” you answer. “Do you?”

Loki huffs and places a hand on your waist while the other one is offered to you. You take it and he begins to lead.

“I’m a royal prince,” he tells you. “Of course I know how to dance.” 

“Right, silly of me to forget.” 

Loki hums in agreement and nods behind you.

“He seemed nice.”

He turns you allowing you the chance to catch sight of Ryan lingering by Natasha’s side. It seemed Natasha was playing the long game and waiting you out.

“He probably is. He’s probably kind and funny and smart. She wouldn’t just throw anyone at me.”

“Then why are you refusing the love match?” 

You hesitate to respond considering for a second to lie but Loki had asked one thing of you and you couldn’t go back on your word already.

“I will outlive him,” you answer. “I will outlive them all actually. The people I consider my friends, the ones I have foolishly grown attached to… I will outlive them and that loss is going to hurt.”

“The folly of man,” Loki whispers. “But something you should be accustomed to since spending your half-immortal life here.” 

You swallow then trying to ignore the piercing pain that is brought up at the mere memory.

“I have been protecting my heart ever since I lost my mother. I loved her so much and I think about her every passing day on this Earth and it still hurts as much as the day her hand became limp in mine.”

Loki has stopped dancing and you do too.

“I cannot go through that again,” you tell him. “I refuse to.” 

Loki is staring you down once more. Dark eyes pierced into yours as if he was trying to decipher you but many have tried and failed. Though this night was one surprise after another as he seems to find something. 

“You and I are more alike than I thought…” 

Your interest is piqued but Loki realizes his mistake and is quick to change the subject. He starts to lead you again and you’re forced to follow him.

“The Widow doesn’t seem too pleased with me. Well... more so than usual.”

You let out a sigh knowing better than to ask that burning question he’s implanted in your mind. You follow his lead in the conversation too. The endgame being more of importance than your curiosity. 

“She probably thinks you’re corrupting me.”

Loki grins, “If only she knew you already are.”

“Hey!” you snap at him. 

“Are you offended because I’m wrong or because I’m right?”

You hesitate to respond and look away from his piercing gaze. 

“I hate lying to them,” you confess to him. 

“Then why not tell the truth?”

“Because I don’t know the truth myself,” you answer. “I know my mother fell in love with a traveling Asgardian but I have no idea who it was and why he never came back for us... for me. I wonder if my father even knows I exist or if he does, if he hates me for even existing.”

Loki remains silent avoiding your stare. He seems tense under your hand. 

“If that’s the kind of man he is then perhaps you’re better off.” 

He still won’t look at you and you wonder why . It was in the lack of a response that you found an answer.

“Was that how it was for you?”

“What?” Loki exclaims glaring down at you.

“Thor mentioned you were adopted,” you explain. “And it seemed like you were speaking from experience so I... I just assumed.”

Loki is clearly upset and you wonder how you can manage to do this twice in one slow dance.

“I overstepped, didn’t I?”

“Immensely.”

You both look away from each other. His in annoyance while yours was due to guilt. The silence grows and stretches between you and you start to feel uneasy. 

Surprisingly, Loki breaks the silence in a way you never expected.

“I was traded from one monster to another.”

Nothing follows that statement. Loki leaves his words to linger in the air.

Heavy and hard.

You don’t know how to respond and he doesn’t expect you to. 

Once again, the conversation is in an intense emotional standstill. It was your turn to change the subject but you didn’t know how.

The many questions that were running through your mind would overstep the invisible boundaries Loki kept setting up.

You look up at him hoping to fill the silence with anything but you’re caught off guard when you find him already staring at you. 

“I’m sorry about this...”

You scowl wondering what he could possibly be apologizing for but that expression is wiped off your face when the hand on your waist loops around your back and he pulls you into his chest and his lips... well his lips are suddenly on yours.

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