#tatsumi “whos your partner now!” kanji

[daily-hanamura]

[cantillat-moved]

There was a brief moment of silence, both Yu and the cat watching Yosuke. If his partner truly thinks that everyone has a gimmick, who knows Yosuke’s self-proclaimed shtick ? Or what he does thinks of Narukami ? Sometimes you don’t want the answers to your questions and now it could be one of those questions. ❝ If there was yakuza here, don’t you think they would have had either threatened or recruited Kanji at this point ? ❞ he offered. It was common knowledge that Tatsumi would get in fight with the local bad guys so they wouldn’t bother his mother and let her sleep at night. In a way their delinquent friend was a one-man vigilante force that strikes terror in the hearts of the evil-doers.

❝ It sounds a good idea. If Naoto is part of the yakuza, no-one would ever find your body. If Naoto is “just” a detective…Same. Either way you’d be in big trouble. ❞ he deadpanned, placing Chemical back on solid ground and the cat proceeded to walk towards Yosuke, meowing. ❝ I thought Chie kicked you when she got annoyed.  ❞

“No way, you could definitely be wrong about it. Naoto’s gimmick is being mysterious. She’s definitely hiding something. Even Yukiko could be part of the yakuza. You don’t know if the inn is just a front!” Allegedly, she had threatened to smother Ohtani with her pillow during the camping trip. Chie wouldn’t have any reason to lie about her best friend, so it might be true, but just to play it safe, allegedly.

��Maybe I’m having second doubts about this thing to bug Naoto, I mean…” After talking up a storm about a playful tease, he was getting cold feet? Talk about lame. “When I think about her haunting me for the rest of my life because of this moment, I’m starting to think we should just… I don’t know, bug Chie instead! I know she can forget and maybe forgive, but Naoto? She resents and remembers.”

[thecottageinthedark]

Sorting Persona 4

Here again with another Sorting Hat Chats post! This one’s for Persona 4. Full disclaimer; this is based just on the game, not the anime. Also it’s behind a cut cause it is LONG. And has spoilers.

The system I’m using is explained here by @wisteria-lodge.

The Persona 4 MC, whose name is either Souji Seta or Yu Narukami depending on which supplemental materials you go by, is a really REALLY loud Badger secondary. His power is based on making Social Links with NPCs and shifting to become whatever they need-and also on patiently grinding to level up his attributes. And because he lives so much in this secondary-plus the fact that on a meta level he’s kind of a stand-in for the player-his Primary is hard to see.

But where it gets revealed in the end is the decisive moment when the ending you’re going to get is decided. The Investigation Team have discovered that Namatame’s been putting people into the TV, and thus are assuming he’s the murderer-and it’s become horribly personal, because one of the people he did that to was Nanako, and even though she’s been rescued, she’s deathly ill thanks to the TV World’s poison.

And now you-and the MC-have a choice. The IT are baying for Namatame’s blood, ready to kill. One Badger Primary method would be to appeal to the fact that he’s a person, you can’t just kill people….but nobody’s listening. Another would be to dehumanise him and say, he’s a murderer, he needs to die for the sake of everyone-going along with all the fury of the group. A Lion would lash out too-less because everyone’s doing it and more from their own gut feeling, but that would still lead to dead Namatame. A Snake might kill Namatame because he hurt Nanako...or, in the Golden remake, if they’ve done Adachi’s social link, they might cover for him. Either way, they’d be prioritising an inner circle member.

And all of those get you bad endings. Especially the Snake choice to cover for Adachi.

What gets the good ending, the happy ending where the MC is fulfilled and at peace, is to ignore all the emotion that’s running so high, and order everyone to step back and take time to think about whether the theory of Namatame being the killer makes sense. Pounce on the niggling little detail that doesn’t fit, and realise that the assumption everyone is labouring under isn’t true. And then prioritise the actual truth over personal loyalties or emotional reactions.

Bird Primary.

Because of course. This is a detective story. Your party are called both the Investigation Team and the Seekers of Truth. Even the title song hints at it; find the truth (Bird) by getting together with others (Badger).

Yosuke Hanamura’s a young, immature Snake Primary at game start, with the selfishness typical to that. His Shadow throws that back in his face, and he realises he doesn’t like being an asshole whose secret gut reaction to murders happening is ‘well at least I’m not bored anymore now something is happening in this dead-end town’.

So he does two things pretty much at the same time; he widens his inner circle to let in first Souji and then the rest of the IT, and he adds a model on top to let him care about things outside that circle. I think it’s a Lion model-a young Lion, just like his Snake, that edges into Glory Hound, but keeps hold of the idea that you should do certain things because they’re just right.

(It’s not based on the MC, though the MC is undoubtedly his most important person, who he even calls his partner. But then, as I said, the MC’s Bird is very quiet, so it’d be hard for Yosuke to perceive it well enough to mimic it. I think it’s actually based on Chie, who is after all the inner circle member he has known longest!)

And his secondary? Yosuke’s a support guy. He lifts his friends up. His family run Junes, and he leverages that connection to create a base location for the IT and secure a portal into the TV world that’s big enough to be usable. When Teddie comes to the human world, it’s Yosuke who gives him a place to stay. He’s a Badger secondary, and again, this makes perfect sense. The Lover sorting. No wonder so much of the fandom ships him with the MC.

Chie Satonaka is LOUD and BRASH and if you are a jerk she will KICK YOU IN THE FACE. She is so goddamn Lion Secondary, and utterly unapologetic about it.

Her primary, I think, is Lion again. The reason she has gotten possessive of Yukiko (as her Shadow calls her out on) isn’t that she wants Yukiko to be just hers-it’s that she wants to be Yukiko’s knight. Saving the princess is actually a textbook Lion cause. It lets her feel heroic and brave.

But that’s not good for either of them. Damsel in distress is a shitty role, one that doesn’t allow Yukiko to be strong and capable herself, and Chie pushing Yukiko into that role is really straining their relationship. It’s also something that Chie herself knows is wrong-that’s why her Shadow accuses her of it. (“I am a Shadow, the true self...”)

So instead Chie changes gears, because oh look a new Cause just popped up! Find the killer and bring them to justice! And on top of that, there’s always sexist prats to kick.

Yukiko Amagi models Badger Primary, because it’s expected of her. Running an inn is a really Badger kind of job. She also models Badger Secondary, for the same reasons. She feels this is who she’s meant to be; sweet, gentle, socially adept, community-focused and hard-working. The traditional Japanese ideal of womanhood.

But it chafes. The weight of societal expectations feels crushing. She doesn’t want to do stuff just because she’s meant to, because people think she should. She’s an Internal Primary, and needs to follow the voice of her own heart.

And where that heart leads her...is back to the Amagi Inn, except now she’s decided that she’s doing this for herself. She needed to feel that she could actually choose to not inherit the inn, before she could realise that she wanted to run it. She’s a Snake Primary, and the inn is important to her because it’s hers.

Her secondary...actually I get the feeling she’s like Toph Beifong of Avatar, a Snake who likes to spend most of her time in neutral. She is delightfully quirky and weird, and owns that, but she doesn’t charge like a Lion and she’s comfy with wearing masks when the situation calls for it.

Kanji Tatsumi panics at the idea that he might be gay, and caretakes like a boss, and that might look at first sight like a Double Badger who’s scared that he might be one of the people he’s used to dehumanising. His Shadow screams that it wants to be accepted...but what calms it is when Kanji himself accepts it, and says that this resolution is about being true to himself. Kanji’s a Double Lion who burnt his primary because being given shit for the feminine, queer-coded parts of himself made him lose faith in his internal compass, worrying that it was leading him somewhere that he viewed as bad. Internalised homophobia’s a bitch of a thing.

Accepting his Shadow is the start of Kanji healing his primary-letting go of shame for being an oddball and telling the world to go fuck itself if it thinks it can make him conform. He does model Badger Secondary-as I said, he caretakes like a boss-but that’s more a thing he does as a gift to others. When it comes to solving problems, he charges in swinging, ready to beat up anyone from biker gangs to otherworldly monsters.

Rise Kujikawa is a cheerful, shameless Snake Primary, loving and ambitious. She became an idol to make friends, and enjoys the fame it gets her. And when she needs to take a break for the sake of her mental health, she has no compunctions about doing so.

But she needed that break because the idol life was stressing her out-unsurprisingly, it’s a really intense life. And the particular problem she had was to do with the conflicting expectations the public has of celebrities. Perfection is demanded...but so is authenticity.

Rise realised that she was face-shifting as an integral part of her career, and this knowledge sent her into a tailspin. The fans don’t like the real Rise Kujikawa-they like Risette. But who is the real Rise Kujikawa? She doesn’t know! It’s frightening! What if she’s just made of smoke and mirrors? How does she find out what’s underneath?

And the answer she comes to is that there is no real Rise Kujikawa...which is the same as saying that there is no false one. Rise is Risette is Rise, it’s all just her, adapting to the context as she needs to. She’s a Badger Secondary, and the act of performance is the true self.

And for her, that’s a good answer-it brings her peace. But now we need to talk about Teddie.

Because just hearing Rise say ‘there’s no real me’ sends Teddie into a Shadow crisis right there.

He completely fucking loses it. He’s a denizen of the TV world-he’s been immune to it all this time, never manifesting a Shadow, but this is what breaks him. And that just screams Bird Lion. It’s his Buzz Lightyear moment-or rather his first Buzz Lightyear moment, because there are two. This is the first, and he survives it by retreating into his Secondary. It allows him to bring Shadow Teddie under control...but this isn’t sustainable. He’s realised something terrible and can’t avoid that knowledge indefinitely.

And soon enough he admits it to himself (and to the MC). He is a Shadow, that somehow became self-aware. His Truth was never true. He can’t handle it, he has no idea how to even exist, and he outright tells the MC that he intends to commit suicide.

He recovers, though-and he does so because the MC tells him Nanako survived. That’s the first thing that gives him a glimmer of hope, because his Truth already had some Snakey elements in there about chosen people and ambitions. He comes back from the brink, reshapes his system to centre those Snake principles, and returns to the side of his friends.

Lastly, Naoto Shirogane, our other queer-coded character. (I’m using she pronouns for the sake of canon here-but I’m a firm believer in nonbinary Naoto, for the record.) I think she’s a Bird secondary-the only one of those here, jeez. She’s just so analytical. She’s a rapid-fire Bird too, Detective Prince working on a case, squarely in the middle of her comfort zone. But push her out of it-into a normal teenager social situation, say-and watch her squirm!

She has a Bird Primary performance, too. But performance is the operative word here. She’s trying to look adult and smart and collected, in order to be taken seriously by the police officers she works with. And she is smart, mind you, but that’s not the why of her though it is the how. It’s not Naoto who goes ‘wait, let’s think about this, we need more information’ at the crucial point, but the MC, who really is a Bird Primary. Naoto was the one to suggest doing a little vigilante justice vis-a-vis murdering Namatame.

Her real Primary is Lion. Being a detective is a Cause for her, not a Truth, and she is blazingly certain of her own sense of what’s right-so much so that she doesn’t stop and check it against other people’s. And she inspires people! She doesn’t even mean to, and certainly doesn’t know why, but she is just so cool that people flock to her and admire her. ‘The Detective Prince’ is, when you think about it, a really Lion Bird kind of title!

Her Shadow has two issues with her. First, it harps on the gender angle. Hey, self, there’s that thing about your identity that you’ve been refusing to think about! You need to go poke at it! And then it breaks down into a scared child. Self, your performance is eating you alive. You need to do it, yes, the Cause demands it, but you also need to be able to stop sometimes and let yourself have emotions!

In short:

MC/Souji/Yu: Bird primary, Badger secondary

Yosuke: Snake primary, Badger secondary, models Lion primary

Chie: Lion primary, Lion secondary

Yukiko: Snake primary, Snake secondary, with Badger primary and secondary models that start out pretty unhealthy for her. 

Kanji: Lion primary that starts out burnt and begins to unburn after his Shadow fight, Lion secondary. Models Badger secondary.

Rise: Snake primary, Badger secondary

Teddie: Bird primary, Lion secondary. Falls dramatically and recovers by shaping his system to be more Snakelike.

Naoto: Lion primary, Bird secondary, performs Bird primary

[isolaween]

Party Preparations!

October 4th and 5th are dates of utmost importance for the Ushiromiya family. They were fateful days when all of their collective sins came to a tragic conclusion. They were the days when the Golden Witch Beatrice revived. They were the days when a little girl lost her whole family. They were the days when said little girl managed to see her family once again and become a grown woman.

But none of those things are happening at October 4th and 5th in Spirale City. The past must not be forgotten, but a truth of the future supercedes a truth of the past. If these days come to be associated with a joyful party at the city’s consciousness instead, then the hosts will be satisfied. There is no need of a massacre for them to reach the Golden Land tonight.

Work began at the mansion early in the morning. King Knight (@gildedusurper) was busy decorating the main hall, which actually benefitted from his perchant to add golden details to everything (the hosts are Golden Witches, after all). Lothric and Lorian (@ashes-of-omelas) arrived with their decorated pumpkins to be put at the main hall too, alongside others Beato made the goats carve for the main hall and the outside. ...At least the goats’ pumpkins have heart to them. On the second floor, Jon Kent (@smallblueboyscout) flew non stop to prepare props that’d make a hide-and-seek game the most interesting. Harley Quinn (@harliquinn) delighted herself at adding little pranks here and there at the escape room. Well, I guess that as long as she follows the plan laid out by the activity’s overseer, it should be alright. Riruka Dokugamine (@shouyoku) miiiight be going a bit overboard with the ‘cute’ factor at the parlor. This looks like the sort of place that’d please Lambdadelta a lot. Lastly for the decoration crew, Yomiel (@hosttrick) sure knows how to prepare an environment with just the perfect touch of ‘spooky’ for a room where ghost stories will occur. All of these people were assisted by either one of the Stakes, a Chiester or a goat butler, depending on their availability.

Things were just as agitated at the kitchen. Travis Touchdown (@suplex51) was ready to show off his skills with a couple kitchen knives and a wooden spoon! Burritos, pasta and smaller salty snacks are just some of the things he pulled masterfully. Meanwhile, on another bench, Balbok (@tallorc) was carefully decorating a portion of bru-mill that he couldn’t wait to present to everyone in party. Let’s just hope that the strong smell that and his other meaty dishes emit won’t startle the sensitive nose of one Toriel (@baaternal), who was facing the oven to get another batch of cookies out of it. The previous batches, plus other baked goods she had prepared, were being checked by Jet (@blackvwatch), who was also giving them final decorating touches, besides moving left and right to assist anyone in need. Leading them all was, of course, the Ushiromiya family’s head butler, Ronove.

Food and drinks also gently catered by some sponsored partners, as goats waited at the entrance to bring them in. Hansol Yi (@fcxrcin) was proud to provide her matcha and matcha based treats, specialties of her restaurant, NokNok Cafe. For those with a more Western taste, Reines El-Melloi Archisorte (@princesselmelloi), owner of The London Fog, was ready to cover you, for she brought classic teas like Earl Grey, coffee and some desserts she usually serves at her store. Those of legal age can also be satisfied, for even the so called Emperor of the Universe, Lord Freeza (@coldcessor) was willing to assist with the party, his role being of catering alcoholic drinks - especially the ones from wine variety. And of course, this can’t be a Halloween Party worth its name without the most important component of all: candies! Thankfully, we can count on Nicholas St. North (@odetotoys) to bring those.

And there were more things being brought to the mansion besides that!  GANG☆STAR, the ever growing clothing brand on Spirale City, was gentle enough to provide some extra costumes to any partygoer who either doesn’t bring any or wishes to change their current ones; all negotiated with Shaundi (@adrenalxna), as her boss is currently out of commission. Riruka was here not only to assist with decorations, but also to bring costumes from her own shop, Atelier Softcoeur! Assisting the arrangement of the clothing space was Kanji Tatsumi (@ziodie), who will later assist with fixing those poor costumes that get themselves into accidents. Oh, and speaking of Riruka, she and Rantaro Amami (@seizonka) still have to handle makeup assistance to guests later tonight! Good thing Rantaro can help organizing the space for that right now. Last but no less important, the famous horror writer and owner of Owl’s Books, Sen Tatatsuki (@bubonem), was more than happy to provide some books from her horror collection to serve as reading material for the ghost stories section to happen tonight.

It’s important to assure the wellbeing and health of people in a party, especially one with so many guests. Thankfully, there is a medical team ready to tend to any injuries or malaise folks can experience here! Right now, the designated medical room is being filled with tablets, medicine bottles, gauze and other medical tools by Litchi Faye-Ling (@kuyuzhishi), Angela Thompson (@caducenurse), Moira O’Deorain (@bitterscience) and Jean-Baptiste Augustin (@imotel). .....Hopefully there will be no conflict between them tonight.

The technical aspect of a high production event like this is also very important to be properly checked beforehand. Peridot (@kindergardening), owner of Facet Five, is currently busy checking each spotlight one by one. I hope she doesn’t mind some light harrassing by Gaap, one of the demons under the hosts’ service. Back in the escape room, Maggie (@tragiclittlebonbon) is having lots of fun setting up the devices that must go up during the game sessions. She needs to make sure they are replayable many times. Leo Valdez (@vldeztm) is checking every nook and cranny on the musical stage set up at the main hall, so that no screw is left out of place. The computer that will play accompanying audio for the musical presentations (and overall play sound effects during the party) is being checked by one Dirk Strider (@failedprince). If he were his relative, maybe he’d even be giving his opinion on what songs to play tonight.

At last, night arrives. People begin arriving to the Ushiromiya mansion even before the alloted time. Once one enters the rose garden, they’d be able to see a couple creatures roaming around the area. Some are ‘normal’ animals. Others are fantastical looking creatures belonging to Battler Ushiromiya. Two people tend to the garden and the creatures in it: Rey (@dawnarose) and Doomguy (@painsawd). The duo is not physically similar at all, but both carry the same passion at making sure the creatures are well cared for, besides inviting arriving guests to leave their own pets at the garden during the party’s duration.

A figure waits for those who arrive at the main entrance. The Witch of Finite, Publius Virgilia Maro (@thefinitewitch), receives everyone with a warm smile, making sure to direct everyone to a seat. She gives off an elegant vibe, even though she is wearing 80′s styled clothing that only Beatrice could have convinced her of putting. Passing by her, one would be faced directly with the main hall, which is covered in decorations and tables and chairs and a stage and, of course, a painting of Beatrice herself. Every table on the main hall has a gift basket full of homemade Halloween snacks over it, which guests can take home. Those who leave the party to go home without one can receive a basket from Virgilia as they pass by her again.

Security is tight tonight. Besides the presence of the hosts’ faithful furniture in every room, some citizens of Spirale are working tonight to keep the festivities safe for everyone. Enkidu (@lancerofclay) is standing by the entrance alongside Virgilia, much like they did at the last party. New to the city and to these parties as general, Mike Chiton (@motorcitymutt) is taking his time to admire the main hall’s visual - without forgetting his duty, of course. As the owner of Sanctuary Moon Security, Murderbot (@yoursecunit) is ever vigilant, his focus being at the parlor and dinner room areas. ...I’m not sure how Ludwig the Holy Blade (@holyequine) has managed to squeeze at the corridors leading to the costume and medical rooms, but he seems to be doing his job well, so why complain?

Waiters are already serving people left and right with treats fresh from the kitchen and drinks. Koku (@looking-for-four) seems to be more focused on the main door entrance than the guests he tends to. Perhaps he is expecting someone in particular to arrive, even if in vain. Ooops, looks like one of the waiters left a drink drop - ah, it was Touma Kamijou (@illusiionbreaker). Poor guy doesn’t get a break for his bad luck even here. As for Giselle (@angelicqualia), she seems to be enjoying the chance to socialize with people and learn more about the holiday. Don’t worry, your salary for this service will be way more than enough to compensate for your uniform. Somehow, Rantaro has chosen to work as both a makeup artist and a waiter during the party. I guess only an Ultimate Survivor could pull that off without dying...

...At last, the clocks hits 7PM. The lights go out, as they’re substituted by the arrival of golden butterflies who gently fly around the whole manor. It seems like the party will officially begin at any moment...

[thefloatingstone]

is it a sign of bad character design if a character doesn't have any kind of accesoire on them? like tattos/piercings or any kind of. i kinda feel everytime i creat one without such things, they look boring or have nothing special on them... is it important or just a case of personal taste?

Hmm…

Having no accessories or tattoos isabsolutely not a sign of bad character design :) But at the sametime, you are following a good train of logic, I just think you needto look into it a little more:

You say that when you create acharacter without accessories or tattoos, they feel feel boring orhave nothing special to them. I think this is a very good insight tohave, and although your solution for adding accessories and tattoosisn’t wrong, in this case I think it’s more of a crutch thanaddressing the true issue.

(more under the cut because this endedup being insanely long)

I don’t know what kind of art style youtend to lean towards (more cartoony or more manga type stuff orsomething like that) but I’m going to assume you’re working withgenerally human characters. If you feel like your characters feelboring or like there’s nothing special about them, then that issomething to try and address, yes. However, using something like atattoo or an accessory or piercing does not actually solve theproblem. What you’re looking for is a way to give your character apersonality that comes across in how they look. And so the firstthing you need to ask yourself is; what kind of personality does yourcharacter have? And does having a tattoo or accessory compliment thatpersonality, and if it was removed, would the character’s personalitystill be obvious to the audience?

I’m playing Persona 4 at the moment, soLet’s look at one of my favourite characters in the game; KanjiTatsumi.

So Let’s look at Kanji’s characterdesign, which has both accessories and a tattoo. Kanji’s outfitchanges in the game depending on whether you’re at school or if it’sthe weekend, whether it’s summer or one of the colder seasons, andvarious other situations. Kanji’s accessories change throughout thegame as well. Especially his necklaces. However the change is barelynoticeable and don’t define how he looks. Also, he has a tattoo onhis left shoulder of a skull and cross-bones. However, when he’swearing his jacket you don’t see it. Again, it does not define hischaracter design.

Ok, so what can you tell about KanjiJUST by his design when removing his tattoo and his accessoriescompletely?

Well most obvious is that he looks alittle scary.

His hair is dyed bright blonde (whichwould be even more intimidating in Japan where he’s from for culturalreasons I’m not gonna go into here) and he’s got it slicked back.Combined with his very sharp facial features, it makes him lookpretty rough. He’s got small, sharp eyes and eyebrows that jutinwards harshly. His nose is also pointed, and his jaw is a littlemore square than the other main characters, even the boys, who havemore rounded or pointed jaw-lines. Then there are smaller detailslike his scar. However, like with his accessories, if you removedthat scar he’d still obviously be Kanji. (I also noticed for thefirst time while looking at these that his nose is pierced. SomethingI never noticed before)

All of his facial features, as well ashis neutral expression and even the way he stands all tell us a lotabout him as a character before we even get to things like clothes,tattoos, accessories, piercings or scars. Kanji is obvious a roughperson, probably a troublemaker and seems like the kind of person whogets into fights a lot. Now you add the kind of colours and clotheshe wears. Kanji generally only wears black with details on hisclothes usually being red or orange. He also wears a lot of tank topswith flaming skulls on them, as well as black jeans and heeled boots.This emphasises his personality, and makes you wonder “is he in agang? Is he a biker maybe? Is he into metal perhaps?”. Then you addthings like his multiple piercings and his tattoo (He might have morethan one? I’m not even sure.) But even if those things weren’t there,we already have a picture of what kind of person Kanji is (or thekind of person people in the story thinks he is) based on hisappearance. The things like his tattoo, piercings and scar furtheremphasise that, but they are not what makes his character design whatit is. They merely tell us even more of what we already know. That ifthis kid was in your high-school, you’d probably want to avoid him.

It may also make him look like a bit ofan edgelord. Like he’s trying TOO hard to look scary andintimidating. And you know what? In Kanji’s case, that’s absolutelytrue. Kanji looks like he’s trying SO HARD to be scary, because heactually is. Kanji is afraid of people rejecting him. Especiallysince… well… Kanji is almost certainly Pansexual, if not bi, andwhen you first meet him he’s agonizing whether he might now just beouright gay. He also loves sewing and knitting, and as a little kidpreferred playing with dolls and cooking to what the other boys did.So he grew up with boys making fun of him, and girls telling him he’sweird. As a result, Kanji grows up into a 15 year old who has becomeso afraid of rejection that he tries his hardest to scare people awayfrom getting to know him. So his character design looks like it’strying too hard to be edgy, but with Kanji that’s actually onpurpose! Because KANJI is trying too hard to be edgy!

Now let’s look at some characters withno tattoos or accessories. (I’m sticking to the anime style just as abasis of comparison since I was using Kanji as my first example)

Say hello to my OTHER big love of ananime series Gay Baseball Okiku Furrikabute (Or BigWindup) Or Oofuri for short.

Oofuri is a sports anime, in this caseBaseball. Which means the characters most of the time either weartheir school uniforms, or their baseball uniforms. Which all lookidentical. None of them have accessories or tattoos to distinguishthem from each other, and heck most of them have the exact same haircolour and almost exactly the same hairstyle! (save for a couple)

However, look at the above picture,especially the two main characters of Abe and Mihashi on the left.You can probably tell a LOT about them as characters just by theirdesigns, but especially by their expressions and posture. Abe looksserious. His eyes are heavy lidded, but his eyebrows are sharplyslanted inwards. His hair is also very dark, darker than most of theother boys, as is his eyes. It gives him a more mature, serious look.Mihashi is the complete opposite. His pose and expression immediatelylet us know he’s a very nervous boy. His eyes are very large, butalso light in colour, and his irises are not big and deep like Izumion the far right (The one with the freckles and big ears). Hiseyebrows are also crooked, making him look nervous an unsure. Hismouth also makes it look like he’s permanently chewing his lip orthat he’s tense. But his hair gives him a softness as well. It looksa lot more fluffy that the other boys’ and looks much softer andpoofier. It’s also obviously much lighter in colour. Along with therest of his features, Mihashi seems like a very anxious but probablysweet boy.

Izumi looks like he would be theyounger, more boyish type of character, but his expression and posemakes him seem more serious than his features would imply, whileSuyama on the bottom Right looks much more mature than any of theothers because of his smaller eyes and more defined nose. As well ashis shaved hair and small eyebrows. He’s probably older than theothers and pretty level-headed. However, there’s something curious inhis expression. He’s not trying to stare you down like Izumi abovehim. He just seems curious as to why the audience is there.

However, that is not to say tattoos oraccessories can’t be an important part of a character’s entiredesign, but again, the question comes back to “how do these addedelements compliment my character’s personality” and not “whataccessories can make my character unique?”

Here we have Jack, from Mass Effect 2.

Her tattoos are a VERY obvious part ofher design, and if they weren’t there it’d harm her character designa LOT and change her complete look. She’d still be striking with herinsistence to walk around topless and her shaved head, but hertattoos are what we see first. But why does she have them?

Jack is an INCREDIBLY damaged characterin the game. Much like Kanji, she pushes people away and tries tokeep everyone at a distance. However, unlike Kanji who uses his looksas a shield, Jack embraces her look as she feels it’s a reflection ofherself. She sees herself as a tough bitch no-one should mess with,and she projects that. She’s lived a life of abuse, betrayal andviolence, and so she’s developed defences to literally keep herselfalive. In a world of gangsters, casual murder, rape and peoplethrowing their partners to the wolves, Jack has decided her only wayto survive is to be king dick of shit mountain. And so her tattoosand accessories are a way to broadcast that she’s, essentially,completely fucked up. She’ll stab you without a second thought andshe wants you to know that. They’re also a “fuck you” to normalsociety. Jack believes most people are full of shit, but the peoplewho fit in with society and act all nice are the scariest and mostdangerous of all. She sees them as even lower than the criminals shesurrounds herself with, because they “pretend” to be good peoplewhen really they’re just hypocrites who’d eat each other alive. SoJack also uses her tattoos and accessories to mark herself asrejecting “normal life”.

In mass Effect 3, her design haschanged. She still has her tattoos, but her overall look hassoftened.

She’s growing out her hair (at least toan extent. She’s not gonna go full housewife on you) and she dressesmore modestly. However, she does so while still exposing a lot of hertattoos, and her jacket is leather and studded. But since she’strying to take steps to be a better person, deal with her pasttraumas and connect with other people, her design is less like she’sa psycho murderer, and more like she’s a hardcore punk you couldbelieve yourself seeing in the real world.

Her tattoos and overall design allspawn from her internal thoughts, feelings and personality, and sochange according to it. Her tattoos do set her apart from the otherfemale characters in the game, but they are dictated by how she iswritten, not the other way around.

And THEN…. you have Tidus…

I’m sorry people who like this game andthis character but… Tidus’ character design is a mess.

All that there appears to BE to Tidus’design is accessories. And yet not a single one of them seems toreally tell us anything about him other than “this is a FinalFantasy main Character.” And yes, you can probably apply that tonot only a lot of characters in FFX but in Final Fantasy as a whole(Zidane isn’t much better in his design. And FF9 is my favourite!)But at least with the other characters in FFX they give us SOMEinsight…. kinda. Yuna looks very traditional and demure. Rikkulooks like a bubbly almost Ganguro style girl. Auron looksno-nonsense and almost like a samurai. Lulu looks like a darkbrooding goth girl. But what does Tidus’ design tell us other thanhe’s a main character in a JRPG?

He has pants that… don’t have thesame length to them. Why? Is there any reason? Does it tell usanything about his personality? He’s got that cropped jacket. He’sgot big clunky shoes. He’s got finger-less gloves which is probablythe closest to making sense since he’s an athlete and they look likesport equipment. But honestly, if you undressed him, took off all hisaccessories and took away his blitzball… how would you know thischaracter is Tidus? The designs of FFX are a little too photorealistic to be recognisable on style alone. And Tidus has no designdetails about him that make me think that he is Tidus. (Spoonyfamously pointed out that he basically looks like Meg Ryan) He’s ablonde dude and erm… that’s it?

So Tidus’ design relies COMPLETELY onaccessories to make him stand out and recogniseable.

And THAT is bad character design.Regardless of the fact that his accessories make little to no sensein any way shape or form for what we DO know about his character(He’s an underwater athlete but wears heavy clunky clothes. He broodsaout his father but his clothes are yellow and sunny), his clothesare the only thing that makes him recognisable as himself. And thefact is that Tidus, really, doesn’t have any personality. He’s “JRPGProtag” personality. He’s upbeat for the most part, angsty when theplot calls for it, has a tragic back story tm which doesn’t seem toaffect him in any real way outside of complaining about his fathernow and then, and he’s in love with Yuna. And these, honestly, wouldall be ok. Because he’s the main character in a video game and we’resuppose to project ourselves onto him. The problem is that even MainCharacters in other JRPGs that we’re suppose to project ourselvesonto have SOME kind of logic or unifying factor to their design.

Yuu from Persona 4′s hair is silver and straight cut, his eyes aresilver and he generally wears very monochromatic outfits, usuallyleaning to white and grey. He doesn’t clutter his outfit with manyaccessories, and what he does wear seem mainly to be practical (likea wristwatch). Persona 3’s main character looks COMPLETELY different.His dark blue choppy hair covers his face, he always carries hisheadphones with him (and he prefers those weird clip-on headphones). He’s obviouslymore casual and laid back, but with a slight rock vibe to him.

So back to Tidus… what exactly unifies his design? What does it tell us about his role in the story and personality? (Since unlike Yuu and the Persona MC, Tidus has a personality outside of his player proxy status) If he removed hisaccessories would he still be recognisable? If we kept his designexactly the way it is but gave him Luffy from One Piece’spersonality, would his design have to change? If we gave him a completely different outfit that looked nothing like his canon one in any way at all, would it even matter?

(btw this is not Tidus. This is Vaan from FF Tactics A2)

The only time we could say we’d need tochange his design is if we went in a hard opposite direction. Like ifwe wanted to make him a broody edgelord we’d probably not have asmuch yellow in his design…. even though he IS broody and angsty inthe game??? Does the bright yellow and blonde hair really scream“existential crises with daddy issues” to anyone???

ugh. What a mess.

So, as a VERY long winded answer;characters don’t have to have tattoos or accessories to have gooddesigns. Nor do tattoos and accessories make designs bad. What makesa design bad is if you are using tattoos and accessories as a crutchbecause you cannot find a way to project your character’s personalityin how they look, in which case you may need to look into what yourcharacter’s personality actually IS. And then examine how you cantake that personality and apply it to their physical appearance andlook. Not just in what they wear and how their hair is styled, butalso in their face, body, posture and expressions. What kind ofcolours would suit their personality best? What about theirbackground or situation would dictate how they look or what theywear? What kind of person are they?

And then, FINALLY, you can askyourself; Do I need a tattoo or an accessory or piercing to enhancewhat I have already put into the design?

Because in the end that’s what tattoosand accessories should be: an enhancement of the character that’salready there. Because THAT’S what’s gonna make your characterinteresting and special. Who they are, what their situation is, wherethey’re from, where they’re going and what are their goals. What aretheir quirks, their likes, their dislikes, their hang-ups, theirstrengths, their fears, their hopes.

A character’s design is how an artistintroduces a character to the audience and what kind of person theyare without having to explain it with words. It gives us a startingpoint to get to know them and what kind of story they are here totell.

If you want to expand on your characterdesigns and not rely on things like tattoos and accessories, Isuggest looking up different character designs and look at how theirfaces and bodies are drawn. If you can find them in different outfitsthat’s a big help too! Look up tutorials on things like facialstructure. Look at your favourite animated movies and take note ofhow the different characters’ faces, bodies and especially their bodylanguage are done. Look at the way they stand, the kind ofexpressions they tend to pull, what the structure of their face islike, how they tend to move, how they stand perfectly still. Whatshapes are used in their designs. What the art style looks like. AndI would also suggest not using too much modern anime for referenceexcept those that have a very distinct look to their characters. Alot of modern anime use exactly the same designs for theircharacters, relying on hair colour and clothes to make them standout. (which is again, poor design)

Honestly a very GOOD anime to look atis Osomatsu-San. All 6 man characters are identical. However you canimmediately tell who is who based purely on their expressions andbody language as well as very small minute details. So even when theyall wear the same outfit, it’s extremely easy to tell who is who.

Anyway… I hope that at least KIND OFanswers your question? Maybe? I’m sorry this is so long but in thiscase I feel the best way to learn is simply through analysingcharacters with GOOD designs and really looking into why they work.And compare them with bad designs and see why the bad designs do NOTwork. Because I don’t think your problem is that you “need”tattoos and accessories to make your characters interesting. I thinkyour problem is you have discovered a weakness in your art skills,and you want to improve upon it. But you’re unsure how, and you feelmaybe tattoos and accessories could be an answer. I feel, however,it’s merely a bandaid. Where it may make it seem a little better, butit doesn’t actually fix the underlying issue.

Just keep at it. Study the kind ofdesigns you like, adapt the parts you are drawn to in your own work,and over time, if you keep at it, your designs will naturally improveto where tattoos and accessories will no longer seem as big anecessity as you feel they are now :) you can still use them as muchas you want, but it will be to strengthen your design, not hold itup.

And I’m really gonna stop typing nowbecause this is insanely long.

[individuationfic]

Seeking to Seize Chapter 16

AO3

Yu has absolutely no idea how he got into this situation.

First, they have to sleep in a love hotel for their school trip. Yosuke has been acting weird enough around Yu since the summer festival (not looking him in the eye, not sitting next to him during lunch, not acting like Yosuke) without the two of them being shoved in a room made for sex with a single, rotating bed like some kind of cheap porno or poorly-written fanfiction.

Now, Rise has dragged them to some club for drinks. (“Non-alcoholic!” she insisted at Yu’s startled look. “No booze, I promise!”) It’s like the strip club all over again, Yu thinks. It’s dark with sporadically flashing lights, so it will be hard to read lips and use JSL while he’s here.

While Rise and Kanji try to convince Shirogane to join them, Yu grabs Yosuke by the elbow and pulls him aside. He pulls out his phone and writes a quick message in his memos. Signing and lip reading will be hard here. I need you to help.

Even in the low light, Yu can tell Tosuke looks a little panicked. He licks his lips, swallows visibly, and says, slow, so Yu can clearly see, “Whatever you need, Partner.”

“No booze, my ass,” Yosuke mumbles. He sitting between Yu, who is sober, and Teddie, who is markedly less sober. He raises his voice so Rise can hear to say, “What happened to no alcohol?”

Rise squints at him. “They said they weren’t gonna put booze in the drinks!” she slurs with a pout and, yeah, if Yosuke needed proof he still likes girls, this would be it. Rise sprawls dramatically and ends up in the lap of a visibly uncomfortable Shirogane. “Naoto-kun, tell Yosuke-senpai to stop bullying me!”

Yukiko bursts into ugly laughter out of nowhere and, deciding Rise is playing some sort of game, clambers into Chie’s lap. Chie goes pink.

Then Rise complains about being treated like a kid and brings out the King’s Game.

It gets off to a rough start. Teddie tries to make Yu kiss him, but misses and tackles Kanji instead. Then, a couple turns later, when Yu’s the King, he makes Yosuke give him a piggyback ride around the room. He tries not to let himself get distracted by Yu’s weight, or by Yu’s arms around his neck falling down to his chest, or by Yu’s thighs resting on his hips. My life, he thinks, was so much simpler before Yu.

Despite his new sexual frustrations, Yosuke feels more at ease with Yu than he has in a while. He knows Yu has noticed his distance, and he can only wonder if Yu know why, but this feels easy.

That’s what love feels like, Jiraya says, and Yosuke nearly chokes on the amber-colored drink he is cautiously consuming.

So, yeah, things are going kind of well now.

Until Rise almost spills the beans about everything.

A sleepless night later, Yu watches as his schoolmates wait for the train to come. Rise, Yukiko, and Teddie all look sheepish; they’re probably embarrassed about “getting drunk off the atmosphere” at the club. Yu didn’t think shame was even a word in Teddie’s vocabulary until now.

He’s mostly glad Yosuke isn’t avoiding him anymore. He has an arm slung around Yu’s shoulder in an easy, natural affection, his chest shaking slightly as he laughs at something Chie is saying. It feels like things are back to normal after whatever it was that freaked Yosuke out. Maybe hanging out at the club wasn’t so bad, after all.

Yu finally sees who he was looking for: Shiomi-senpai and Yuki-senpai. They’ve been strangely evasive this whole trip, but they both look a lot happier than he’s ever seen them. Yuki-senpai is smiling, which is something Yu never thought he would see. And, looking closer, Yu can see that Shiomi-senpai isn’t wearing a necklace anymore.

The ring has moved to her left ring finger.

This trip must have been good for them, he thinks.

Shirogane Naoto appears on the Midnight Channel.

Senpai, for the first time since Kanji has known him, looks angry.

He’s still not too good at JSL, but he gathers that Senpai thinks Shirogane got kidnapped on purpose. Amagi-senpai and Hanamura-senpai have to take turns trying to calm him down as they progress through the lab. On one such occasion, when Senpai has to be restrained from trying to wrestle a Shadow to the floor, Kanji sidles up to Rise and says, “Do you think Shirogane wanted to get kidnapped?”

Rise blinks, like he startled her. “Oh, Kanji-kun! Sorry, I was thinking.”

“About what?” Kanji asks.

“Something feels weird about this one,” she says, lips pursed. “You know how we can go back into other places in the TV to train?” When Kanji nods, she continues, “Well, the bathhouse and Void Quest feel different from the castle and the strip club. I always chalked it up to the castle and the strip club coming from girls and the batthouse and Void Quest coming from guys, but the lab…” She pauses, considering her wording. “The lab doesn’t feel like either.”

He feels his brow furrow. “What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to describe. I can just tell if one of these TV worlds was created by a boy or by a girl. They feel different. But this one doesn’t have that distinct feeling. I can’t sense any sort of gender in here.” Then, like she’s trying to change the subject, she asks, “Why is Yu-senpai so angry?”

“I think he feels responsible for Shirogane being kidnapped,” Kanji says. “He really hates it when people are in danger, and I think he thinks we made Shirogane too curious about the case. I’ve seen him saying Shirogane might’ve gotten himself kidnapped on purpose, so he probably feels guilty about it.”

She blinks at him again, then smiles. “You’re a lot more perceptive than you get credit for, Kanji-kun.”

Her praise gets caught in his throat and he thinks his heart beats a little faster. He’s saving from commenting when Satonaka-senpai says, “Hurry up, you two! We’re leaving!” and they have to move on.

Shirogane-kun’s Shadow is fast. Almost distressingly fast. Rise can barely keep it in her sights from her place away from the battlefield. I wish I could fight with them, she thinks, biting her lip.

You are needed here, Himiko says, gentle. They need you to make the right observations.

I just get so nervous watching them. The Shadow gears up for a Mabufudyne, and Rise breathes a sigh of relief when Yukiko-senpai manages to dodge it. They put themselves in so much danger, and I can’t do anything to help.

You would not be here if you were not useful. Your mission is much too important for that, and your leader knows it.

And what if Teddie hadn’t awakened to his Persona? Rise asks, eyes firmly locked on Yu-senpai as he prepares one of his more powerful magic attacks. The team doesn’t need two navigators.

Worrying about “what-if’s” will only bring you misery, my love.

So you admit that you don’t know.

I have never pretended to be omnipotent. Chie-senpai goes down, hard, and Kanji-kun has to drag her away from the direct line of fire to help her back up. Yu-senpai decided it would be a good idea to distribute healing items equally across the whole team for moments just like this. I am an advisor, but I am not all-knowing.

Well, that’s not very helpful. Despite Yukiko-senpai’s vocal protests, Chie-senpai rushes back into the fray. Rise squints. I think Shirogane-kun’s Shadow is almost done.

The Shadow falls. Shirogane-kun’s Persona awakens. Kanji-kun catches him when he collapses, and Rise tries to ignore her twinging heart.

“I don’t really feel like a boy or a girl.”

It’s been a few days since Naoto’s rescue, and they can’t believe they’re doing this. These people have been interfering with a police investigation and lying about what they find. The big one—Tatsumi—has known violent tendencies, and the Amagi girl is from one of the most respected families in Inaba. They have no idea how open these people are to complications in gender!

The idol, Risette, lets out a little cheer. “I knew it!” she says, rounding on Tatsumi. “I told you something was different!”

Tatsumi makes a placating noise at her and the other girl, Satonaka, hisses, “Rise, have some tact!”

Hanamura snorts.  “Like you’re one to talk. You kicked me in the balls for scratching your DVD.”

“That was a collector’s edition! I had to save up for three months to afford it!”

“That doesn’t mean you need to get violent about it!”

“Yeah, it kinda does!”

To Naoto’s surprise, Amagi is the one to say, “Stop it, you two! You’re scaring Shirogane…” She trails off.

Naoto realizes she’s waiting for them to supply a suffix and says, “Shirogane-san.” Then, after a pause: “Or, you could call me Naoto, if you prefer.”

Their silver-haired leader, Narukami, signs something Hanamura translates as, “Welcome to the team, Naoto-san.”

They blink at how easily these relative strangers have accepted them. “So you don’t mind that I’m—” they don’t have the word “—like this?”

Several members of the team exchange bland looks. Tatsumi says, “I’m bi, Rise’s pan, Narukami-senpai is gay, Hanamura-senpai is bi—” Hanamura squawks at this. “Shut it, senpai, it’s obvious. Amagi-senpai and Satonaka-senpai are dating each other—” here, Amagi and Satonaka go red— “and Teddie…”

The last member of the group, a pretty blond boy Naoto has never seen in their life, says, “I like pretty people!”

“We’re not sure what Teddie is,” Tatsumi finishes.

Risette smiles, too broad and too happy to be anything but honest. “You’re in good hands with us, Naoto-san.”

Naoto does not cry, no matter how hard they want to.

[silentsnowdrop]

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

Chapter Six: Bad Bathhouse Blues

Or, In Which Things Get Awkward.

As always, help from whatisthisnonsense

May 2011

Yosuke is really, really beginning to wish he could delete memories of his own accord. There is no reason why he shouldn’t be able to—maybe Souji could help. Because if not, he is going to have to get creative with a wall and a hammer to make this go away.

He did not want to see Kanji Tatsumi mostly naked shaking his thang ever again. If Kirijo would make it go away, he would gladly go back there and do whatever she wanted.

Unfortunately, it isn’t going away, and he has to call Yu. His voice is laden with resignation and no small amount of regret when their leader picks up and he can ask, “Hey, did you see that?”

“I did.”

“So then, you saw—“

“I saw it all. Want a copy?”

“Yeah, no.”

***

Yosuke had forgotten that Yukiko hadn’t gone into the TV World properly yet. He would like to watch her look around for a bit, but they have a slightly bigger problem with their Navibear.

“What? You’re really saying you have no idea where Kanji Tatsumi is?” Yosuke can’t keep the exasperation out of his voice, and subsequently has to duck a glare from Kaguya that he could feel trying to strip his skin off.

Fortunately, Souji, in his everlasting kindness, is a little better at working with Teddie, and crouches beside him. “Easy, Ted. Can you think of anything that might help?”

“I-I don’t know. I can only imagine this is because I have so much on my mind, like where do I come from? Who am I? These questions are tearing me up inside!”

“Weird, since your insides are filled with nothing but air.” This time, both Souji and Kaguya glare at him, and he ducks again. At least he looks sorry when he looks back up.

Kaguya steps up beside Teddie and takes his paw. “Deep breaths, bear cub.”

Souji nods at that. ”We promise we'll help you sort yourself out, but we really need your help, Ted.”

That’s when Yu gets a lightbulb, and one that Yosuke wishes he had thought of earlier. He’s supposed to be the supercomputer around here, isn’t he?

"Hey, we're tracking him by scent, right? What if we get something of his, or that he's had his mitts all over? Might make it easier for you.”

“That could work!” Teddie’s voice goes from upset and confused to ridiculously enthusiastic so fast it’s a wonder he doesn’t break something.

Yu doesn't smile—not that he ever does—but he looks satisfied and nods. "Well then, there's our plan, team."

Souji smiles for Yu, with some sympathy woven in for Teddie. "We'll be back real soon with something, Teddie, promise."

As they all file out, Kaguya hangs back with Teddie. Yukiko waits for them, and when Yosuke asks later what they were doing, she just shrugs.

“They were talking. They both looked a lot better after that.”

“Yeah…” Yosuke crosses his arms, then shakes his head. “Well, if the Boss and the teddy bear are getting along, who am I to complain? Not like I don’t want her to have friends.”

Still, it was…kind of weird. Cute, but weird. Something to keep an eye on, he supposed—after they had dealt with the nightmare fuel that was going to be Kanji’s dungeon.

***

Kanji’s mother is kind of a bust. She’s basically able to confirm that she loved her son for who he was, worried about him, and had alerted the police since not coming home after a day like this was, surprisingly, out of character. Oh, and that he had basically beaten up a bunch of bikers because they had been keeping his mom up at night.

That…was actually a pretty good reason, truth be told, but it gets them no closer to getting to Kanji. Fortunately, there’s a tiny kid outside to come to their rescue—and to ruin Kanji’s tough-guy image even more.

“Are you saying Kanji Tatsumi made a cute little bunny charm for you from scratch?” Yosuke found the biker gang odd but understandable, but this was just…insane. A delinquent that crochets?

He looks at the Narukamis for a little support, only to sigh as Souji cries, “Aww, it’s so cute!” Not that he can argue since it was adorable, but that is no more helpful than Yu’s approving nod or Kaguya’s muttering about the color. And Chie and Yukiko’s admiration is the final nail in the coffin for any hope of commiseration on his exasperation, making him sigh loudly and only barely resist throwing his hands up in the air.

“Because of everything the big guy did for me, Sana forgave me! So I wanted to stop by and tell him thank you.” The kid looks so hopeful that Yosuke hates to tell him that Kanji wasn’t here right now. Fortunately, Yukiko has things covered.

“Hey! Listen, can we ask you for a favor? We need to find Kanji too, and we think this will help us—we’ll give it back as soon as we can!”

“Uh…sure.” The kid blinks, then gave her a semi-serious look. “But I better get it back!”

***

They’re just walking into Junes when they spot the kid in blue that had been talking to Kanji. Yosuke shuts off the weird sensor ping that kept popping up around him (he really needed to have Souji look at that), then follows the triplets over to talk to him.

“So, our paths cross again.” The boy turns to look at them, and Yosuke did his best to look casual.

“Yeah, what a coincidence.” He tucks a hand into his pocket, then tilts his head slightly as the boy spoke.

“Did you hear? It looks as if Kanji is hiding out somewhere.”

“It looks as if he might be.” Yu’s calm voice helps Yosuke keep his relaxed facade up, even as Souji shoves Kaguya toward the nearest display. Why they were pretending to be so fascinated by fish tank supplies, Yosuke would never know, but if it works, it works. That done, Yosuke leans forward slightly, trying for friendly and getting slightly intimidating instead.

“Hey, by the way—what exactly was it that you and Kanji were talking about yesterday?”

Of all the reactions he was expecting, an awkward stutter is not one of them. “Ehm…why do you want to know that?”

“Uh…just curious. That’s all.” No need to make the kid too uncomfortable, after all—he seemed all right, if straight-laced.

“All right. Fair enough. And since your group seems to be in a hurry, I’ll be completely straight with you.” The kid recovers fast, and if Yosuke weren’t such a consummate actor, he’d look nervous. “When we met up, all I did was say hi and ask him what he’d been up to lately.”

“Really. It was just small talk?”

“Yep, pretty much.” The kid looks down thoughtfully. “But thinking back, he was acting strange and not really like himself the whole time.”

Well, that would be because he was having himself a good old-fashioned gay crisis. Yosuke gently bites his tongue to keep himself from spitting that out, then looks back at Yu as he asked, “He was?”

“Yeah, and it kept getting worse, so I decided to call him out on it. I said, ‘Why are you acting so weird?’ and then he got awkward and the color drained from his face.”

“That is weird.” Except it totally wasn’t, and Yosuke can totally understand while also being glad that he didn’t have blood to drain from his face anytime he gets nervous. “He doesn’t seem like the time who cares what people think about him.”

“You can’t judge a book by its cover. Maybe he’s struggling—it’s quite possible that Kanji has some issues that we don’t know about.” The kid seems downright worried about Kanji, so Yosuke does his best to give him a reassuring smile.

“Well, whatever they are, if we can help him, we will.” Even if that meant going into the bathhouse.

***

It’s another few minutes before they can actually get into the TV World, thanks to Souji and Kaguya actually buying a fish tank, what the hell. But Yosuke can stow it in the back room until they get done, so it’s not long before they’re standing in front of the dungeon.

Truth be told, Yosuke could have waited. And waited. Honestly, he could have waited his whole life for this and been happy, but here he is, fiddling with his knives and edging closer to Souji as if he can hide behind his partner. Said partner is leaning into him now, pale and already sweating from the heat, and Yosuke jumps to the side hastily so they don’t actually touch.

“Ugh, why's it so hot here? This is no place fur someone like me!” Teddie’s words distract Yosuke from his careful maneuvering as well as his fiddling with his knives, and it’s a moment of fumbling before he has them under control.

“Uh—yeah, and it’s not great for me either!” Yosuke’s laugh is high-pitched and nervous as he scratches his head. “What if water condenses on my internal electronics? Maybe we should just go—“

"No. We still need to save Kanji." Yu tilts his head, considering. "Might need to do something about overheating, though.”

"Way ahead of you." Kaguya's jacket and tie go flying, followed by her gloves. Yosuke just groans and shucks his own jacket, doing his level best to ignore the way everyone else was following suit.

“Souji, if I die from shorting out, it’s your job to make them feel bad.”

“W-will do.”

Before they can do much more than pile their extra clothes next to the doors, a loudspeaker comes on, playing what can only be described as sexual saxophone music underneath an announcer of some sort. “Well, hello there, pussycat. You have an amazing set of abs! There’s nothing to be afraid of. Just relax.”

Yosuke turns around, fully intending to leave and never come back. “I’m out! See you guys back at Junes—ghyyk!“

The hand that had grabbed his shirt seemed to be attached to Yu, because it is his flat, “No,” that accompanies hauling Yosuke back to the group.

Kaguya is the one to find amusement in all of this. "Hey maybe if one of you boys strip all the way down to your knickers, you'll distract him.”

And everyone else—including Yosuke—are the ones to screech, “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

***

Yosuke can feel his circuitry beginning to fry as they walked the halls of the bathhouse. He’s mostly waterproof, and it’s not like a bad rain would knock him out, but something about the steam here—maybe some interaction with the Fog or something—is making it spark uncomfortably.

“Uh, hives—guys, I think I’m having some tissues—issues.” Yosuke grimaces. “Take—make that definitely.”

“I’ll say. Maybe you should…not talk for a bit?” Yosuke can hear the worry in Chie’s voice, and Yukiko echoes it with a nod. Souji, however, is the most outwardly worried, and it takes a lot of self control for Yosuke to not shove him away. Why had he taken off his shirt, too?

“Do you want me to walk you back and take a look?” Yosuke blinked at Souji, eyes quite firmly on his face, then shook his head.

“Nah, I’m pine—fine, for now. Just…yeah.”

“You sure?” Even Yu is getting in on the worry game—which was kind of unnerving actually—but Yosuke just shakes his head again.

“Just peep—keep an eye on me?” He tries to keep his voice up-beat, but Souji’s gentle, worried squeeze of his shoulders takes some of the steam out of that. “…I’ll be fine, partner. You’ll key—see. Damn it.”

They reach a large, open space fairly soon, and peer around a large red banner to find none other than Shadow Kanji, posing and thrusting and generally making Yosuke want to run far, far away from here.

“My, my, thank you for noticing me! I am Kanji.” Shadow Kanji sounds barely anything like Kanji in actuality, what with the affected lisp and the high-pitched voice, and if it weren’t for his face, Yosuke would think they were dealing with someone else’s Shadow entirely. It seems that Yosuke’s general sentiment of what the hell is shared by everyone else, from Yu’s resignation to the fact that this is happening, to Souji’s oddly accurate impression of a dying cat, to Kaguya covering Teddie’s eyes and the other two girls covering their own.

“I'm blind! What's happening?” Teddie’s squeaky voice makes Yosuke shake his head, but it’s Chie who answers.

“You really, really don’t want to know, Ted. Just let her cover your eyes.”

“Well, well, well. We’re airing live from the tropical paradise Suspicious!” Yosuke is becoming more and more tempted to cover his eyes, or Souji’s eyes, or something, because this is not safe for anyone to see. “All this steam is making my blood start to pump!”

“Yeah, well, it’s making my blood sneeze—freeze.”

"Can I be excused to go die in a corner?” Yosuke wholeheartedly seconds Souji’s notion, and when Yu’s flat voice forbids them, he can’t help an immature expression at Yu’s back. Fortunately for him, all Kaguya does is snort, even as she readjusts her grip to make sure Teddie can’t have his eyes any more sullied.

“All right, sweeties. Since everyone here is all hot and bothered—“ like hell we are, Yosuke can’t help thinking— “let’s go to our next segment!”

Somehow, a title card pops up in front of Shadow Kanji, and Yosuke cannot help the gormless stare he has on his face. Even Yu seems to be getting a bit flustered as he says, “This…could get a little awkward, in more ways than one.”

Chie, for her part, hunches into herself. “Aw, man, when we were trying to save Yukiko, it was just like this too.”

“No it wasn’t!” Yukiko’s freakout is immediate and extremely high pitched. “It wasn’t anything like this!”

“It kinda was.” Yosuke grimaces. “She was on a spud—stud hunt, for heaven’s sake.”

"I think she was on a something else hunt, frankly,” Kaguya intones, glancing at Chie.

Chie squawks. "What's that supposed to mean!"

Yu, apparently over his flustering, grumbles, “Focus, guys.”

“Kinda have to degree—agree with Yu here. And what’s parading—creating these weird-ass images, anyway? The guy who’s throwing them in here?”

Unfortunately, his question would go forever unanswered, because Shadow Kanji chose that moment to speak up again. “I really do love getting my groove on with you, but I must continue my search for the bump and grind!” Yosuke turned away as he threw up a little in his mouth, but not long enough to avoid the sight of Shadow Kanji’s ass as he ran through the door on the other side of the room. “Follow if you dare!”

“I’m not sure I really bear—dare, damn it!”

Yu just closes his eyes solemnly. "Well, guess I'm scarred for life now."

“Same.” Kaguya’s deadpan makes Yosuke groan, and apparently Souji shares his sentiment.

“Can we not be so calm about this?”

“Hey, I’m not calm at all, partner.” Yosuke squeezes Souji’s shoulder, steadfastly ignoring the way the motion drew his eyes to the other teen’s well-muscled arms, then looked up as an alert went off. “Guys, bin—incoming!”

***

Fortunately, while his vocal systems are slightly scrambled, the rest of his systems are working fine, and with Yukiko, they have plenty of fire to fry the enemies coming at them as they hurried through the bathhouse. Yosuke can occasionally hear Yukiko muttering under her breath as they ran, but decides to not comment—he might be fire resistant, but he isn’t fireproof by any stretch of the imagination.

Soon enough they reach a…rather colorful door, welcoming them to the tropical paradise. Yosuke stares up at it, honestly amazed, then glances over at Chie as she speaks. “…This is where he’s hiding out, isn’t he?”

“…Yeah. Gotta be.” Yosuke grimaces, then looks over at Yu. “Do we have to tow—go in there?”

“Yes.” Yu’s flat tone makes both Yosuke and Souji whimper, but they both straighten up and move closer to the other Narukamis, even as Kaguya reaches down to cover Teddie’s eyes again. Ignoring his squeaks of dismay, Yu reaches out and pushes the door open.

The sight of Kanji pinning his Shadow to the ground greets them, and Yosuke just stands in the door, staring.

Yu is the first to speak. “Well, add narcissism to the list.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Yosuke can see Souji elbow Yu, even as Chie says, “I don’t think that’s narcissism…”

“Don’t think what is narcissism?” Teddie is fighting to get out from behind Kaguya’s hands, but the girl is having none of it. “I can’t see!”

“That isn’t a bad thing, actually.” Yukiko sounds equal parts appalled and fascinated, and Yosuke can’t blame her.

“She’s bright—right, Teddie. Just let Kaguya protect your innocence.” Yosuke can’t tear his eyes away from the startled boy now staring at them as he straddles his Shadow, even as he leans closer to Souji. “Think you can wipe my image memory after this?”

Souji’s, “If only,” makes it clear that he wishes he could wipe it from his own memory, and Yosuke can’t blame him.

Kanji chooses this moment to reboot. “Wh-what are you guys doing here?”

“Well…we came…to pave—save you.”

“Well, you sure as hell don’t sound all that motivated!” Unfortunately for Kanji, his Shadow takes the opportunity to shove Kanji away and spring to its feet.

“Whoopsie daisy! I won’t let you interfere!” Yosuke blinks at the Shadow, then scrambles a few steps back as the baths overflow.

Chie, however, steps forward, and her foot slides out from under her. Yukiko tries to help, but only ends up getting pulled down too.

“Oh, it’s slimy. Ugh…this stuff is gross!” The girls try to get up, only to slip and faceplant again, and while part of Yosuke can’t help but find this…fascinating, the rest is eloquently summed up in his next words.

“Slimy? Why the hell is it limey—slimy?”

Kaguya picks Teddie up and carries him as far away from the ooze as she can, which isn’t all that far. Souji pales leans back, and Yosuke shoots a hand out to support him as Yu says, “Maybe we shouldn’t ask questions.”

“You know? Probably a good idea.”

“You bastard…” Kanji’s actual voice makes Yosuke refocus on the pair further in as Shadow Kanji stood over his normal counterpart.

“Honey, why don’t you just drop the charade.”

“Huh…?”

“Isn’t it time for you to tell people how you truly feel?” Shadow Kanji’s eyes seem to glow brighter as he stretches his arms over his head, and the husky drop in his voice makes Yosuke shudder unpleasantly. “I’m everything that you wish you could be.”

“You liar!”

“Shit—don’t listen to him!” Yosuke rocks forward, intending to tackle one of the pair if he has to. Then Souji’s hand closes around his wrist, and he jumps.

Forward.

Into the slime.

And into the girls.

While the four of them are flailing around (and Yosuke is trying very, very hard to look anywhere but at Souji) and Kaguya is snorting while still covering Teddie’s eyes, Yu just stares at them, then looks up at the first year and his Shadow. “...Right. Can we all calm down now? Because this is already embarrassing.”

The Shadow just smirks at him, then turns back to its owner, mock-thoughtful. “I really hate girls. They look at me and say, ‘You like to sew?’ or if I paint a pretty picture they laugh at it and say, ‘Wow, that’s weird for a guy.’”

Yosuke manages to prop himself up on his hands and squints at the pair as Kanji growls at his Shadow. Somehow, that seems to drain the rest of Kanji’s energy, because he slumps forward and grabs his shoulders. “You should be strong. You should be tough! You should be manly! But what’s that even mean? Girls can be so scary.”

Yosuke blinks. “Uh…is this…supposed to be a gay freak out? Because…somehow it doesn’t sound like one. Unless girls being mean can make you gay…”

Souji mumbles, “That’s not how it works,” and Yosuke sighs.

“Kinda thought so.”

“Girls aren’t scary—“

“Guys are much better.” Shadow Kanji speaks over Kanji like he’s not even there. “They never say those awful things! That’s why I like men!”

“That’s not true!”

“But it is. See, you are me, and I am so you.”

“Like hell you are.” Yu yells for Kanji to stop, but the punk ignores him. “There’s no freakin’ way you are a part of me!”

As the Shadow downright giggles, Yosuke finally regains his feet and hauls Souji up. “Great. Just great. Let’s get this over with.”

***

“He punched his Shadow.”

If Yosuke lives to be a hundred years old, he will not forget the image of Kanji Tatsumi punching his own Shadow in the face. Yu mutters something about that being more useful earlier, but Yosuke waves his words off.

“Dude, he punched his Shadow. How is that not awesome?”

That’s when Kaguya slapped him in the face with her too-sticky hair. He makes a face, then grumbles, “Point taken,” before staring off down the road after the direction Kanji had shuffled off. “So…he’s not gay. I guess.”

“Might be. Might be bi. Does it really matter?” Souji’s mumble kind of catches Yosuke off guard, and he blinks over at him.

“…I guess not, but it’s…kinda weird, I guess, with that boy? The one in the blue?”

“S'not weird.” Now Souji sounds a little hurt. Kaguya slaps Yosuke with her sticky hair again, harder, getting an irritated noise out of the robot.

“Not…I mean, it’s weird because that boy…just seems like a weird match. With him.”

Souji has fallen silent, so Yu gently puts his hand on his shoulder, and a much tighter hand on Yosuke’s. "Yosuke? Hush."

“…Uh…okay, but what did I say that time?”

"Yosuke."

“Yu.” There’s a lot of irritation in Yosuke’s voice now. “I can’t exactly learn from my mistakes if I don’t have a clue what they are.”

“And I will tell you later but now is not the time."

“…Fine.” Yosuke looks away, trying to keep the grumble out of his voice. “At least my circuits are working ben—hen—again!” Yosuke throws his hands up in the air. “Screw it! I’m going bone—home, and I had better wake up normal, you hear me, world?!”

***

He does wake up normal, thank God, and manages to get Yu alone to talk about what the hell was going with Souji yesterday.

That’s when he finds out that his best friend is a. gay and b. short on dates. Yosuke blinks at him for a long moment, then sighs.

“Right. Okay. So I won’t bring it up around him again.”

“Good man.”

“…Thanks.” He didn’t exactly feel like it, but if Yu thought he was good, then he’d let him.

Now to stop his perfect-memory brain from bringing up the image of Souji shirtless and covered in that slime, and he’d be fine.

[beyondarrest-a]

Examine, kanji's unanswered / confused sexuality because asdfghjkl;

Well. When he said he wanted the youth to feel they could come to the police with their problems, this wasn’t the sort of feedback Katsuya expected.

Nonetheless, he’s been tasked with aiding a young civilian, and this is thankfully an area he has experience in. There was a time when his brother struggled with the same problem—and Katsuya admittedly didn’t take it as well as he could have.

But Kanji Tatsumi doesn’t need to know about the cold-war arguments that marred the Suou household, and he certainly doesn’t need to hear the story of how the two siblings barely spoke for a week. He’ll certainly have no interest in knowing that Katsuya thought he’d gone wrong, somewhere along the line: that he’d failed in raising his brother properly and somehow sent Tatsuya, dazed and confused, into the arms of Jun Kashihara. Another boy.

Or maybe Tatsumi does. Things are different, now. It wasn’t Katsuya’s fault because there was never an error to begin with, and he can think of his brother these days with the fond knowledge he found love. Someone supports him—and it shouldn’t matter who, because that’s all Katsuya has ever wanted for his brother.

Katsuya clears his throat, pressing a fist to his mouth—and his eyes wander for a moment before he forces them to land on Tatsumi again. He might be flustered, cheeks tinged pink… but that’s simply because discussing amorous matters is embarrassing for him to begin with.

“You don’t have to decide just yet. You don’t have to decide for the rest of your life, if you don’t want to. I can’t promise people will always react kindly to your partners… but all that matters is your partner being kind to you.”

[daily-hanamura]

[individuationfic]

Seeking to Seize Chapter 9

AO3

Yu forgot how much he hates humidity.

The TV world is oppressive enough without the heat radiating throughout the bath house. He’s absolutely dripping with sweat and his glasses keep fogging up, making it nearly impossible to see. In a fit of desperation, he strips out of his uniform jacket and rolls his sleeves up to his elbows.

The rest of his team is in a similar state. Yukiko has tied her hair up with her uniform scarf and divested herself of her tights, which is as far as her propriety will allow her to strip. Chie, on the other hand, is down to a thin camisole and her bike shorts, completely unashamed. Yu has a feeling Chie being half-naked is more of a distraction to Yukiko than the distressing heat could ever be.

Yu, personally, is trying extraordinarily hard to not be distracted by Yosuke’s sweaty collarbone and the way his white shirt has become transparent from the moisture being produced by his skin. He wonders if the bath house itself has something to do with his lustful thoughts. Tatsumi Kanji’s Shadow made his Midnight Channel appearance clearly homoerotic and sexual. Maybe this is one of the gimmicks.

Not that that matters right now. They have a person to save.

They continue forward.

Communicating with Nanako is difficult. She doesn’t know JSL and isn’t a strong reader. Yu has to resort to simple gestures to convey even the most basic concepts. And that really sucks, because Nanako’s a great kid and he wants to get to know her.

Thankfully, her science teacher wants the class to grow vegetables at home, and there just so happens to be a plot of dirt next to the Dojima house.

He’s more than willing to help her garden. After all, he’s not going to let her do it by herself. With a serial killer on the loose, it’s not safe. So he rolls up his sleeves and gets dirt under his fingernails and works up a sweat.

It takes about an hour to set everything up. When they’re done, Yu’s eyes meet Nanako’s and flashes her a thumbs up, and her proud grin is the sunrise.

The fight against Tatsumi Kanji’s Shadow is rough. He’s mostly physical-based, and he figures out Yukiko’s status as their healer pretty quick. By the end, everyone is exhausted, especially Chie, who kept leaping in front of Yukiko to shield her from oncoming attacks. Remind me to lecture her later, he tells Izanagi. She’s going to give me a heart attack if she keeps doing that.

With the exception of the Shadow getting punched, the rest is pretty routine. Kanji’s persona is awakened and he collapses, and the team has to help him back to the Junes electronics section. “You know,” Yosuke says on the way, “that was a lot less dramatic than rescuing Yukiko.”

Kanji, head hanging, mumbles something. Yukiko smiles and says, “we’ll explain everything when you’re feeling better.”

Yu remembers something he heard and signs, ‘Tell him he has to come to school first.’ Yosuke relays the message and Kanji must groan because Chie laughs and slaps him on the back.

Something light rises in Yu’s chest. The’ve done it again. They’ve saved two lives. Maybe he’s a good leader after all.

[Amagi Yukiko]: Was I like Kanji-kun when you saved me?

[Narukami Yu]: It’s hard to say.

[Narukami Yu]: I mean, you obviously didn’t punch your Shadow.

[Narukami Yu]: I can’t really compare what you and Kanji said, so you’re better off asking Yosuke or Chie.

[Amagi Yukiko]: Oh, right! Sorry!

[Narukami Yu]: What brought this on?

[Amagi Yukiko]: Kanji-kun was just so vulnerable today.

[Amagi Yukiko]: If you don’t mind me asking, what was it like for you?

[Narukami Yu]: It wasn’t the same as it was for the rest of you. I didn’t have to accept my Shadow.

[Amagi Yukiko]: Really?

[Narukami Yu]: Izanagi said it was because I had to fight for myself.

[Amagi Yukiko]: That’s kind of sad.

[Amagi Yukiko]: For the record, I would have fought for you.

[Narukami Yu]: Thank you.

[Narukami Yu]: Good night, Yukiko.

[Amagi Yukiko]: Good night, Yu-kun.

Yosuke lies awake in bed far longer than he expected to.

The TV world usually wipes him out, so much so that he falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. Even now he feels exhaustion tugging at his eyes, but he can’t sleep, not with his thoughts running rampant though his head and his heart beating deafeningly loud in his ears.

“It ain’t about dudes or chicks,” Kanji’s voice repeats. “I’m just terrified of not being accepted, dammit!”

Well, that’s a normal fear, isn’t it? Most people are scared of not being accepted. That’s why they lie and fake, why they buy into beauty ads, why the spend a ridiculous amount of money on clothes. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about that particular fear.

So why did Yosuke’s chest tighten when he heard Kanji’s admission? Why can’t he stop thinking about it? His traitorous mind compares this to his jealousy over Yu about his phone and says, There’s something about Yu, he’s not just a friend.

But.

Yosuke is straight, okay? He likes girls. The worn magazines hidden under his bed can attest to that. Hell, Yukiko can attest to that! He’d asked her out the day he met Yu! The only way in which Yu is more than a friend is that they’re partners.

You need to sleep, Jiraya says, startling him. All your worrying is giving me a headache.

You don’t even have a head like this, Yosuke points out.

Jiraya ignores this. I’ll help you sleep.

Suddenly, all of Yosuke anxieties melt away and his heart rate slows. His mouth opens with a might yawn and, before the sound is over, he is asleep.

Kanji awakens some hours later.

The sky outside his window is still dark and the air is still. It’s either late at night or early in the morning, then. He moves to throw his covers off and go to the bathroom, and when they don’t budge, he glances down and sees his mom. Her knees are on the floor and her head is resting on her arms over his blankets. He must have fallen asleep waiting for him to wake up.

Guilt floods his body. He can’t imagine what she’s been going through. If his senpai hadn’t rescued him in time…

Slowly, like one might do if a cat was sleeping nearby, he retracts his legs from under the blanket and swings them to the wide until his feet brush the floor. He carefully tiptoes around the stray bolts of fabric and sewing needles so he can take a leak. Has he even peed since he was kidnapped? He can’t remember. When he’s done, she sneaks back into his room and, out of curiosity, checks his phone where it’s charging on his desk. It was dead when he was rescued, so he hasn’t looked at it. To his surprise, he actually has texts.

New Chat

[Narukami Yu] → [Tatsumi Kanji]

[Narukami Yu]: Hey, I’m one of the people that found you. Your mom gave me your number.

[Narukami Yu]: I just wanted to let you know there’s no rush. Just focus on getting rested up. We’ll be here when you’re ready.

He wonders which one Narukami was, but he’s still exhausted. He can ask when he goes back to school. His phone flips closed with a click and is returned to its position on the desk.

Gently, he shakes his mom awake. She blinks at him, eyes bleary, before she realizes what is going on and tugs him down to her level and into her arms. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” she tells him, voice thick with emotion. “I already lost your dad. I can’t lose you, too.”

He wishes he could be strong. He wishes he could reassure her. He wishes he was an adult. But, in his mom’s arms, he’s a child again, and all he can say is, “Can you sleep with me until morning?”

The last time they’d slept together was right after his dad died. Tomorrow, he’d told himself, I’ll man up and be the man of the house. Tonight, I want my mom to hold me.

His mom climbs into his bed, which is clearly to small for the both of them, wraps her arms as far around his middle as his girth will allow, and squeezes. “Good night, Kanji.”

“Night, Ma,” he replies, and, for the first time in what feels like a long time, he breathes.

[individuationfic]

Seeking to Seize Chapter 8

AO3

The team decides to go visit Tatsumi Textiles.

Yu’s pretty sure the next victim is going to be Tatsumi Kanji. Sure, the face on the Midnight Channel wasn’t clear, but his silhouette and body language was a perfect match. If Yukiko hadn’t suggested going, he would have.

Tatsumi-san is speaking to someone who is decidedly not her son when they arrive. They’re dressed in men’s clothes, but Yu doesn’t think they’re a boy. Their body shape reminds him more of Yukiko or Chie than of himself. If it is a boy, he’s probably very young—he probably hasn’t even gone through puberty. He makes a mental note to ask the others about this person’s voice.

The older woman welcomes them with a warm smile when the strange young person leaves. “Amagi-chan, it’s good to see you! Does your mother need a new kimono?” She looks kind, Yu thinks, with laugh lines around her mouth and wrinkles near her eyes that suggest wide smiles/ Looking at her, Yu starts to wonder how much of Tatsumi Kanji’s roughness is an act; he can’t picture a woman like this raising a violent delinquent.

Unfortunately, they don’t get much out of Tatsumi-san. She hasn’t noticed any strange people hanging around, nor has her son displayed any radical personality change. “He’s always had a hard time making friends,” she says, eyes sad. “He’s a good boy; he’s just a little rough around the edges.”

Yu sees the dismay in his team’s faces and feels a similar emotion rising in his own chest. Yukiko thanks Tatsumi-san for her time and they all bow before exiting the shop.

They don’t expect to run into Tatsumi Kanji and the strange young person speaking to each other.

Later, after they lose Tatsumi Kanji, Yu signs, ‘What were they talking about?’

“Tatsumi and that little guy are going to meet at the school gate at the end of the day tomorrow,” Yosuke says. The way his chest is heaving makes Yu thinks he’s out of breath. Yukiko is having a bit of a rough time, too, doubled over with her hands on her knees and her head hanging between her arms. Only Chie, who actually kind of works out, is unaffected by the chase. Yosuke takes a few more deep, shuddering breaths and continues, “What’s our game plan, partner?”

Partner. Something warm blooms in Yu’s chest. He doesn’t take the time to dwell on it, though, so he forces it down. ‘We need to know what they’re talking about,’ he signs instead. ‘I think two people should follow them, and two people should watch the shop and see if any weird people come around.’

“Then you and I will spy and the girls will watch the shop.”

Yu levels him with a bland look and slowly signs, ‘I would be less than useless at eavesdropping.’ To emphasize, he taps on his ears. ‘Yukiko and I can watch the shop. She’s the one who will cause the least suspicion since she’s a regular customer.’

Something odd flashes in Yosuke’s eyes and his mouth turns downward, but he agrees and fills the girls in on their new plan.

Yu stops back by the shopping district before he heads home. He wants to be prepared if they have to go into the TV tomorrow, so he stocks up on energy drinks, snacks, and, after some consideration, a Goho-M. Someday, he’ll have to ask someone how it works, but for now, the fact that it does is enough for him to trust it.

Exiting the shop, he finds the stray cat again. Now that he’s not as rattled, he’s able to take a good look at it. It’s mostly black except for white on its paws, nose, chest, and tail, and it has the most electric blue eyes he’s ever seen. He squats and gives the cat a quick scratch under the chin, feeling it fumble a purr against his fingers. Strays in Tokyo aren’t nearly this friendly.

The cat abruptly loses interest and trots around him. Yu cranes his neck and sees it get scooped up by a man with long hair and sunglasses. I guess it wasn’t a stray after all. He pushes his momentary sadness at the thought of not petting the cat aside and heads home.

He can’t say he’s too surprised when Yosuke and Chie get run off. They’re not exactly subtle individuals, after all, and they have a tendency to work each other up. Yu silently hopes Yukiko can be a calming influence on Chie, though he’s not getting his hopes up.

Just as they’re about to discuss their next move, Tatsumi Kanji arrives home and drives them away once more. At least I can tell Mom I’m getting some cardio in.

New Chat

[Amagi Yukiko] → [Narukami Yu]

[Amagi Yukiko]: Kanji-kun is missing!

Yu’s head reels and he places himself firmly in front of the TV in his room just in time for the Midnight Channel to start. Sure enough, there’s Tatsumi Kanji, face red and wearing only a bath towel. Where Yukiko’s weird TV show was based in a castle, it seems his is set in a bath house. And, judging by the rainbow colored, Bara-style subtitles, it’s a very specific kind of bath house. Tatsumi Kanji’s aggression suddenly makes sense. How is it, he asks Izanagi, that I’ve bet more LBGT people in Inaba than in Tokyo?

Like attracts like, Izanagi says, sounding amused.

Yu is spared from having to respond when his phone vibrates.

[Hanamura Yosuke]: Did you see that?

[Hanamura Yosuke]: What the hell was that?

[Narukami Yu]: Looks like we have our next lead.

[Hanamura Yosuke]: But do you think he’s really

[Hanamura Yosuke]: Like that?

[Narukami Yu]: There’s nothing wrong with being gay, Yosuke.

[Hanamura Yosuke]: I know!

[Hanamura Yosuke]: I’m not a dick.

[Hanamura Yosuke]: But do you think he is?

[Narukami Yu]: It doesn’t matter if he is or not.

[Narukami Yu]: If this is going to be an issue, you don’t have to come with us.

[Narukami Yu]: It would be hard with one less team member, but it would be doable.

[Hanamura Yosuke]: Of course I’m coming!

[Hanamura Yosuke]: We’re partners, aren’t we?

[Hanamura Yosuke]: It won’t be a problem, I promise.

[Narukami Yu]: Good.

[Narukami Yu]: We’ll all meet up tomorrow to make a plan.

[Narukami Yu]: Good night.

[Hanamura Yosuke]: Night, partner.

Yu sets aside his phone and sighs. Do you think Yosuke is homophobic?

I think he is simply ignorant, Izanagi says. You were the same a few years ago, correct? For what it’s worth, you handled that well. Continue to educate him without tolerating his intolerance and he will learn.

I hope you’re right.

Did I sound like a jerk?

A little, yeah.

Yosuke groans, falling back against his pillows. Like, I know there’s nothing wrong with dudes liking other dudes, but what if he ends up liking me? I’d never feel safe!

He hears Jiraya’s forlorn sigh. Not every gay man you meet if going to be attracted to you. And even if they are, you can’t assume they will be predatory.

I’m just not comfortable with it!

Well, you better get comfortable, or your partner isn’t going to let you fight with the team.

Yosuke presses his face into a pillow and screams.