#the case of ritsu is bad

[blackstarchanx3new]

Me infodumping about garbage BLs to my girlfriend while she stares at me like a crazy person.

[unreversedumbrella]

thinking about manga to anime to fandom characterization and look what i found on pinterest!

well well well if it isnt the most obnoxious example of the problem i was just thinking about!

im going to bite something

ritsu isnt kind, he's 13!

dimple isnt evil he's just directing his desire to be loved in the wrong ways!

reigen is everything but balanced!

the entire fucking story is about mob not being a uwu angel little baby. mob CHOOSES and WANTS to be kind

another point of the story is how noone's inherently evil and this dude's just trying to reconnect with his wife and son now. leave him alone

[1o1percentmilk]

these two guys r kind of the same to me

[kirakiraadventure]

the sakuma sibling relationship makes me want to like end my life so bad because theyre always reduced to "ritsu hates rei and rei is just annoying" but that is not the FREAKING case and the generalization KILLS me. ritsu loves rei. he loves rei so much its unbelievable but thats the reason that rei's abandonment hurts so much to him. he loves him so much but all he sees is that his onii-chan left him behind and all he thinks is that he's not enough and that someone who he loved so much left him behind just like that. but what breaks me is that rei has legitimately told keito in a story that he'd rather ritsu hate him and continue to believe that because he doesn't want ritsu to feel guilt about hating rei for leaving when in reality rei was going FOR ritsu. they love eachother so much but they have such poor communication and so much guilt towards eachother that nothing can be said. rei wants ritsu to love him again so he lovebombs him trying to make up for lost time. yet ritsu rejects this because he just thinks of rei as a traitor who never truly loved him. because if rei loved him, why would he leave him alone? why would he leave for so long with little to no communication? it doesnt matter to ritsu that rei shows so much affection now because he already feels so betrayed. but regardless of everything, he loves his older brother more than anything in the world.

[bug-slappy]

What Serizawa lore and dialogue in the manga that got cut from the anime are you talking about specifically I'm curious /gen

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME A REASON TO GO HAM!!! any adaptation is gonna have its cutbacks due to time restraints, but i feel like so many of serizawas lines/important moments got totally butchered or cut completely just to be replaced with cute moments that never happen in the manga.

!! MP100 SPOILERS HEAD obvi !!

First case: In the manga, when serizawa finally stands up to toichiro, things pan out COMPLETELY differently!

I feel like this is a really important moment for serizawa. whatever false idea of friendship serizawa had left is ripped away from him. its unnerving to see how brutal and ruthless toichiro is, finally showing his true colours to serizawa after manipulating him for 3 years. I feel like its also a really important moment for reigen to bare witness to. serizawa and toichiros relationship serves as an exaggerated parallel to mob and reigens. A powerful and persuasive man using a naïve esper for their powers under the false promise of learning to control their powers, whether it helps them for better or for worse. big difference is that reigen does help mob in the style of important life lessons and guiding him towards being a good person. after the separation arc, reigen realizes how manipulative he's been to mob, he becomes a better person because of it. but i feel like after the TOICHIRO fight specifically is where we see a very clear difference in how reigen treats mob. he becomes a lot more patient and less controlling. it bums me out that this interaction was cut completely from the anime. I think it must have been for time because they also cut ekubos moments.

Serizawa not knowing what getting arrested is:

Calling the Yokai hunter out on his bluff:

they replaced this with the awesome fight scene but still an awesome line i wish they kept it was so bad ass lol:

But the most shocking thing that they cut from the finale was this scene, after mob goes to reigen and serizawa for advice on asking out tsubomi:

not only is it fruity,,... but more importantly its a super important moment!!! seeing reigen open up like this in front of another person is something we havent seen up until this point!! mob and reigen have impacted each other so much, and its a FANTASTIC segway into the final chapter! absolutely crazy to me that they would cut such a deep personal moment especially considering how much BONES loves reigen.. it gets "implied" through a quick silent moment between reigen and serizawa (all they show in the anime is serizawa looking surprised at him)

not only that, but its so interesting how easily reigen opens up around serizawa. he doesn't do that around anyone else (probably because serizawa is the only person near his age playing an active role in his life bro has no friends)

and its incredible how well serizawa can already read reigen after such a short time working at S&S. serizawa tends to be quiet and hang in the background, but in the manga it has a purpose; hes observing the world around him. when he does have something to say it has importance and is carefully thought out.

in the anime so much of that important dialogue is cut and replaced with his moe salaryman moments which sure its cute, but when you know what he was really supposed to be saying its such a major let down. I feel like the writers didnt know about serizawas huge fan following hes had since his premier, so they didn't really care about him. thats my best guess as to why so many good moments got cut

also this:

serizawa mentioned during his fight with mob that hes accidentally sent his mother flying before with his powers,,, exactly like mobs traumatic moment when he sent ritsu flying and injured him when they were kids... as i mentioned earlier, serizawa has always been a very clear parallel to mob (i can talk more about that in another post if someone asks). I was really hoping theyd go deeper into this moment in the anime but it GOT CUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAAUGH!!!!

and this page right after.. MAN:

BROTHER.... to me, i feel like this is the moment that made serizawa certain reigen doesnt have powers. not only does he have a talent for reading people, but he has to know by now. if he thought reigen had powers to protect himself, he wouldn't be saving his ass all the time like he does.

he knows reigen wont be fine on his own. he knows that reigen has something hugely important to tell him, important enough that reigen is willing to die to run out there and tell him

WHICH BY THE WAY THE MOST DISRESPECTFUL BUTCHERING OF A SCENE OF ALL TIME:

from what ive researched it seems like a common occurrence in japanese culture to remove your shoes before attempting suicide. this is such an intense and impactful moment for reigen to be removing his shoes. looking around and seeing the situation hes in, but still throwing himself into harms way so he can protect mob like hes done so many times before, but in this scene hes making the concious decision to go in, knowing the risk involved. INSANE THAT IN THE ANIME they made removing his shoes some sort of way to get better grip to run. obviously, running barefoot in rubble and destruction is not going to give you better foot grip.. I think they did that to make the scene more lighthearted but it just feels like poor taste.

i feel like the style choices combined with the dialogue cuts in S3 seriously take away from the intense impact of the manga. ONE has such a talent for writing characters to be fleshed out human beings as well as interpersonal relationships. season 1 and 2 did such a good job of showing that even when there had to be scene cuts.

if you havent already, I think you should for sure read the manga. its even more life changing to me than the anime already is, and ONE has a beautiful art style and can convey strong emotions better than anything else ive ever seen. I have more good serizawa moments than this that were cut, and a lot of dialoue between mob and ??? was removed too, but i don't want to spoil every funny joke or character building moment.

this is why i think everyone should read the manga and the REIGEN spin off book :) thank you for reading through this!

ps: devastated when this got cut

[octopus-punching-union]

I'm writing this up for the second time since Tumblr ate my post :( so this probably won't be as much detail this time around.

The darker side of Darkwick

There's been a lot of allusions to shady stuff and harsh punishments at Darkwick since the very beginning, and it was so satisfying to see it come together this chapter. Quick recap of what's happened so far—

Haku gives some omimous warnings about harsh punishments when MC is trying to run away. He mentions Articles 77 and 78 (which are more fully explained in the Hotarubi chapter) and that ghouls can be punished for taking any actions outside of their missions.

This is constantly backed up since the very beginning. MC not being allowed to go home even briefly. Permits are required to leave campus and it's not unusual for recreational permits to be denied. Even with a permit, you can't be out at night unless it's for a mission. Stopping to get a snack while on a mission is potentially grounds for punishment. Entire Houses get punished for the misbehavior of a few people, and a House can be blanket banned from leaving campus.

When MC returns after that escape attempt, Kaito is upset as he's just now realized that he could be punished as an accomplice. Up until this point, he's been sympathetic to MC wanting to go home.

Haku also reminds Rui of the dangers of deviating from the mission and it seems that Rui is subject to particular restriction and surveillance. He says that a punishment would be particularly bad if Rui was involved.

Haku makes an odd comment like "since there's a chance we'll go home after graduation." Combined with Ritsu's comment about the Laurel Crown being the best way to get independence from Darkwick... I have a lot of thoughts about this and will write up a separate post later.

Budgets are fucked up, with Haru personally responsible for funding repairs to Jabberwock. (I'm also gonna write a separate post about this later.)

On to the new stuff from Hotarubi chapter—

We learn that Darkwick has a secret prison which was run by Ultio, one of the defunct houses. Lyca is being held there due to prejudice about him being part werewolf. He was imprisoned while being investigated for murder, but despite the discovery that he is innocent, he is still locked up because he could potentially be dangerous.

Articles 77 and 78 are explained. They allow for the imprisonment of ghouls who deviate from their missions and anomalies that are deemed too dangerous to society. Lyca is being held as a dangerous anomaly because he is part werewolf.

Subaru's first mission at Darkwick was to kill Lyca. He apparently decided to investigate instead and attempt to prove Lyca's innocence. He has been petitioning for Lyca's release, to no effect.

(This makes me wonder if Subaru was always in Hotarubi? The facility was being run by Ultio at the time, and why would they bring in someone from another house to kill a prisoner? If the initial mission was investigation using Subaru's unique stigma, it would make sense to bring him in from outside. But Lyca says that he knew Subaru had been sent to kill him from their first meeting. Related, Subaru also says that he and Zenji have been in the same house since first year, but he does not say that they were always in Hotarubi.)

We also get confirmation that there were multiple fatalities during the Clash. Zenji, who was killed by a rogue anomaly and is now back as a ghost, wasn't the only one who went "past the point of no return."

Finally, when MC and Haku go to the Chancellor and Moby to ask for Lyca's release, they are both very against it. The Chancellor starts to say, "What if we have another case of a ghoul—" but is silenced by Moby. Moby also seems like he's kinda threatening Haku in this scene.

[phantomrose96]

(A Breach of Trust)

[I am putting the rest of the ask under a ReadMore because it IS long [and now super-long with my responses added] but I am biting and chewing this ask I am biting everything it has to say I love this ask I have things to say]

But yes responding to this first chunk! First THANK YOU second I loved writing just the inherent comedy of each chapter being like "[Scene 1] Ritsu spitting blood: I have to save my brother. He's dying. [Scene 2] *Happy domestic montage of Mob petting a kitten and maybe drinking some hot chocolate*" It was a great way to keep some emotional balance in each chapter and also. Funny.

I was crawling the wallllls getting to the makeshift reveal. I think it was about 5 years between coming up with it and getting to the reveal. So I just had to bite my tongue and dodge any suspicion in Makeshift's direction leveraged in the ABoT discord (ABoT discord! BTW! If you want)

I ended up making this to channel the energy somewhere

[Rest of ask under the cut!]

i was nervous for a hot second early on (around when reigen first takes mob in) that it was gonna be the kind of story that would get frustrating because "oh if the characters literally just told each other anything it would all be fine" but i didn't end up feeling that way at all? like yeah a lot of the plot relies on characters not knowing things and technically a lot could have been solved if idk all the characters decided to meet up and sit in a circle to politely explain everything to each other but it never feels like that should happen. even besides them all generally having reasons for lying or not explaining things or not talking to each other it's like. all their decisions feel very natural even when they're bad or unreasonable, and also crucially when the characters do learn things or w/e it usually doesn't fix things (ie when reigen learns mob's real identity and tells mob the truth and it kind of fixes some problems but also adds a host of new ones). in general despite it being a story that hinges on all the characters making bad decisions it rarely gets aggravating bc all the choices they make are understandable and make sense for them -- it doesn't feel like anything is happening simply because the plot demands it. everything is constantly getting worse but that's because the characters are making it worse it's not just Happening. and then the characters have to confront and deal with the consequences of all their actions and learn from them and it's very satisfying

YEAH!!! YEAH YOU GET IT!!!!!!

It is VERY important to me that the story in ABoT is character-driven. There should virtually be no "it happened because the plot demanded it." If it happened, it happened because a character's choice caused it. And if a character made a choice, it was due to their own motivations and not because the plot demanded it.

So, YES, there is this scenario where so much of what is happening comes as the result of each character having, at most, a 20% understanding of what's going on. But the withholding of information, CRITICALLY, cannot be because of Idiot Plot reasons.

Reigen "could" just ring up the Kageyama's and send Mob home, cutting short the first like 2/3 of his and Mob's arc. But he doesn't. And not because he's an idiot. He tried. Mob freaked out. And that was a good enough reason to just delay this until tomorrow, surely. But we watch as Reigen gets to experience was feels like genuine accomplishment, genuine joy, genuine meaning, by helping this kid experience life again. From the very start that's what Reigen wanted--to feel like he mattered. At the beginning this is what drives him to take up the Tetsugami case, despite knowing it can get him killed. (Because maybe Reigen can do something, this time. It's not just another doomed marriage or unsolvable missing person. Maybe he can make a difference. Maybe he can matter.)

And it manifests in what looks like heroics, but in the case with Mob, it drives Reigen to stall... more and more. He knows on some fundamental level it's wrong to be keeping Mob this long, but he can justify it in how this IS what Mob wanted.

And the same extends to the other characters... Tetsuo doesn't tell Reigen about Shigeo Kageyama's link to the Mogami case because he can't bear to admit HE was probably Shigeo's captor. Mob keeps secrets about Mogami because Mob knows he "killed" Reigen's "friend." Ritsu withholds information because it's the only power he has, and giving up information allows other people to stop him. Gimcrack and Slipshod keep quiet about Mob's location because their free lunch would end if they told.

And when these characters make bad decisions instead, it is CRITICALLY important to me that those decisions were the organic result of that character's complexes, goals, misunderstandings, and absent information. It's a train wreck and God Dammit I do everything in my power to ensure each character is their own conductor.

and the Themes. okay first of all i am a huge fan of stories that are like "no, heroic sacrifices are Not the answer, please stay alive so you can actually get better and fix your mistakes and be there for the people you care about", so obviously i adored that. i loved reigen confronting ritsu about this and urging him to stay alive, and i'm also obsessed with how reigen immediately Does Not Take His Own Advice. reigen's self-sacrifice plan makes a lot of sense with his character and given the circumstances it's definitely understandable why he and teru would be willing, however reluctantly, to resort to that, but of course it's not that actual solution because that's the whole point. (shout out to mogami being the one to save him. congrats on accidentally doing one (1) good thing.) reigen, ritsu, mob irt to being imprisoned rather than death -- none of them can just sacrifice themselves and expect that to fix everything and everyone to be fine without them, because that's not how this works. (also i can't wait to see ritsu inevitably be pissed at reigen about him trying to do exactly what he talked ritsu out of and reigen having no excuse except "yes i know, i am a hypocrite, please do as i say not as i do.") the story is dark but it's also so full of hope -- you can live, you can heal, you can move forward from all of this, no matter what you've done or what's happened to you.

YES!!! ANOTHER RESOUNDING YES!!!!

I've talked in the ABoT discord about how Reigen's sacrifice didn't work because it couldn't work. Because, if Reigen intentionally killed himself in order to end Mogami too, and Mob was saved and went home, then that means you DO save what you care about by sacrificing yourself. Which would be fine in other stories, but not this one.

ABoT's message has pretty loudly been "you don't save things by sacrificing yourself. you save them by living long enough to fix what you've broken." And even when Reigen is the one SAYING this to Ritsu... he doesn't believe it for himself. And he does not get to get away with not believing it for himself.

In earlier planning stages of the Reigen sacrifice scene, my plan was to have Reigen's knife slip before he could slice his throat (palms sweaty, grip slipped, parallel to what happened in the struggle-for-the-knife in the original chapter 8 Reigen-vs-Tetsugami scene).

But I thought about that and I said "No, actually." If Reigen fails because his palm slips, that suggests this COULD have succeeded, and Reigen just botched it is all.

So instead, the scorching fire around them (the blaze Reigen set) has dehydrated him to the point that his sweating has stopped. He is salty dusty skin and dry lips and his grip on the knife handle is perfect (anti-parallel to the first struggle for the knife scene). His execution is perfect. Reigen sacrifices himself perfectly.

...And then it's Mogami, who is well-practiced at controlling a maimed possessed body, who snatches back control and cauterizes the wound shut. Mogami (the antagonist of this story) cannot be defeated by self-sacrifice.

There is no "if only Reigen did it right" ambiguity. There is an absolute statement about where the themes stand.

(And yes, I'm sure Ritsu will have only positive emotions about what Reigen tried to do once this is made clear to him. :))

one of the other themes i found most interesting was the theme of lies and people trying to act like something they're not, and how that factors in to all the characters' stories. of course mogami is right there (and the parallels between him and reigen in how they both lie to mob for different reasons are super interesting) but i was particularly thinking a lot about reigen, teru, and ritsu and the different sorts of false lives they live -- reigen the con man playing the part of the confident, powerful psychic, constantly lying about his abilities and his accomplishments; teru keeping up the appearance of being totally in control and untouchable, surrounding himself with friends he can't stand and a girlfriend he doesn't care about; ritsu trying to maintain his reputation as the perfect, model student and constructing increasingly elaborate lies to convince his parents that he's doing fine.

i was thinking especially abt the parallels between reigen and teru -- their identities as liars are both emphasized, literally having teru saying "i was lying. i lied to you. i'm a liar" and reigen saying "i lied to you. i've been lying the whole time. i'm a liar" in the same chapter. both of them have grown accustomed to being alone and having a life that's more an expertly crafted facade than anything with substance, but both find in their respective kageyama brothers someone who they genuinely care about -- and they both doom these relationships from the beginning because they can't let go of the facade they're used to keeping up and their desire to feel important/superior. teru continues to be the same smug, uncaring asshole he's designed himself to be even after he starts to see ritsu as a friend, and because of this ritsu remains antagonistic towards and distrusting of him; reigen pretends to be the "21st century's greatest psychic" with mob even when he's starting to care about mob and want him as a permanent fixture in his life, causing things to fall apart when he reveals the truth. they both say the right things to point mob/ritsu in the right direction, but the way they act does the opposite: teru tells ritsu the dangers of what he's doing and reigen tells mob that they should call his family or the police, but at the end of the day, no matter their good intentions, teru likes feeling superior to ritsu and reigen likes having mob depend on him, and so they're not actually going to do anything that would upset that balance. (and, of course, they reassure themselves with the knowledge that it's not their fault, ritsu and mob just won't listen to them! which isn't technically untrue, but nonetheless frames the situation in a way that ignores their own role in it.)

Aaaaaaaaaaaa honestly I don't even think I have anything to add here because your analysis is already so 🤌🤌🤌. They are Liars they are Liars living through a Mask they are Liars who Say one thing and Do another they are Liars who convince themselves this Lie is fine.

all the characters are so good but my favorite has to be ritsu his whole storyline is fantastic. from the start i was enjoying the fic a lot but it was when it started to really get into ritsu's story and his whole deal that i started being like "oh yeah this is the good shit." seeing him go further and further down his self-destructive spiral, constantly digging himself deeper as he hurts himself and the people around him more and more, is so fascinating and painful. and then seeing him get better and start actually wanting to live as he talks to reigen and later teru! and then in the confrontation with mogami when he decides once and for all that he wants to live and remember and try to find a way to fix his mistakes rather than forgetting them or giving in to them! just. he is thirteen years old and he just has all this rage and grief that he's been holding onto and repressing for so long and he finally gets the chance to do something with it, something he can do to find his brother at the low low price of bleeding himself dry, and so he throws himself into that, tearing himself to pieces and not caring who else gets hurt in the process, until he reaches rock bottom, what should be the point of no return -- but it isn't, because teru saves him, because reigen convinces him to try to stay alive, because mob is waiting for him, because he has people who care about him and he's just a desperate, hurting kid and no matter how badly he's fucked up he can still come back from it. just Such a compelling and painful and beautiful character arc

Thank you for stating exactly the reason I loved writing Ritsu's arc so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🥺❤️

When I was about 13, I got really into Naruto and I really liked Sasuke's character. Even seeing him now makes some inner part of me point and go "It's Sasuke!" Brooding, stoic, over-achieving, entrenched in family trauma, is swayed over to the darkside because of the rage and grief he's been sitting on.

And because it's Ninja Fantasy World, Sasuke gets to do this and be really cool the whole time.

Ritsu is... actually just a 13-year-old, with psychic powers which he didn't even want after his brother vanished. He IS smart and he IS a model student and he IS powerful but... he's scared. He's scared, and he's 13. He NEEDS to be smarter than everyone (he's not, and he knows this, and it's scary) and more powerful than everyone (he's not, he knows, he's scared), because he knows that anyone with power over him can control him. And he's at his wit's end being controlled.

So he needs to be COMPLETELY in control and have COMPLETE power. And every instance that proves to him he's actually weak, actually clueless, actually being taken advantage of drives him to panic.

And he finds antagonism on all sides... Teru who loves to pick apart and mock Ritsu for every weakness he has. The spirit horde who eat him within an inch of his life. Isa trying to shut him down. His parents trying to control him.

No one is helping him with his grief... No one is finding his brother... No one is saving him... He does not want to keep living like this. And "no longer living" isn't even an option with how heavily his parents rely on him.

So what does he do. He's so alone. He doesn't have a single soul on his side. Every day is torment. ...And then he has this opportunity that shows up like "if you hurt yourself real bad, kill yourself doing it maybe, you can solve the very thing that ruined your life"

So of course he does it. He grabs onto it like a hot stove or a live wire because he's been wanting to hurt himself, and now he can do it in pursuit of the very thing which will save his brother and fix everything. The risk of dying isn't even a risk. It's an escape. He can do this and he can BECOME more powerful and he can GAIN control and he can USE and MANIPULATE whoever he wants (namely the people who've proven again and again they'll hold him down and force obedience out of him).

Of course he spirals. Of course he hurts people...

And then he finds rock-bottom. Teru chews him out and abandons him. Ritsu flips on Gimcrack and exorcises him out of paranoia (Teru turned on him, Gimcrack probably betrayed him too.) He NEARLY kills Reigen under that same absolute fit of paranoia and fear. ...And then he finds his brother. His brother. Alive.

And grabbing his brother shreds his hand. It does not fix him. It does not save him. It maims him.

And now Ritsu is nothing. Not powerful. Not in control. Not certain. He's someone who just hurts people. He's someone who destroys. He drives everyone away and they're RIGHT to leave him because of how horrible he's been. He can't save his brother, and his brother won't save him. ...So Ritsu wanders back to Reigen. The only person who seems to have a semblance of direction in this whole thing. Broken and beaten, Ritsu joins Reigen because he does not know what else to do.

But there is an up from rock-bottom. As much as Reigen and Ritsu are just The Worst to each other, it's actually that childishness in Reigen that starts to work on Ritsu... This is not a typical adult, using adult-speak and adult-authority to make Ritsu comply. Ritsu can't even fall into his typical masked-up behavior against an adult because Reigen is a fucking nuisance and an irritant and Ritsu, for all his "maturity", riles easily.

This is... really just Some Fucking Guy. A loser, at best. But it's someone Ritsu's brother cared about, and who Ritsu knows gave kindness to Mob where Ritsu couldn't. And it's someone who isn't forcing Ritsu to do anything. Reigen is, in fact, letting Ritsu make these decisions to change on his own. Teru comes back with an apology. Ritsu is staring at the chance to do better, and the chance for some future that doesn't involve killing himself.

And he gets to make that decision against Mogami.

And--here's the thing--Mogami was WITH Ritsu for so much of Ritsu's spiral. He knows what sort of kid Ritsu is. So he "knows" Ritsu will accept what Mogami has to offer...

But when "makeshift" vanished was exactly when Mogami got Mob back, aka exactly when Ritsu went to Reigen. Mogami did not get to see Ritsu's healing. So he got to be blindsided by Ritsu's ultimate decision.

and ritsu's dynamic with teru is just. so good i adored every single scene they had together. first of all they are so fucking funny. they're just these two psychic middle schoolers who both suck so bad and just cannot stop trying to murder each other on the soccer field and i love that for them. ritsu's terrible decision-making reaches new heights every day and teru's just standing there watching him and being right about everything in the most annoying way possible. literally the worsties ever <3

I have, consistently, referred to them as "the two worst middle schoolers ever". Like "you're a horde ghost and you're stuck doing the bidding of the two worst middle schoolers ever."

With huge consistency, the scenes I find funniest end up being Ritsu Teru scenes. Because they are, in fact, The Worst.

but more importantly on a serious note i am obsessed with the complicated mess that is their relationship and the way it and the reader's perception of it change as the story goes on. when they first meet things are seemingly pretty straightforward (mostly. i have thoughts which i will talk abt in a second): teru is the one causing the conflict between them by being shitty, and ritsu's just responding to it relatively reasonably. ritsu's the protagonist, the good guy, whereas teru is a morally gray asshole. them working together is a matter of necessity, with ritsu only going along with it because he needs teru's skill and power on his side and teru presumably having his own secret, self-serving motivations. standard stuff; we all know how this goes.

except then the story keeps going, and it gradually becomes apparent that things are far from this simple. it slowly becomes clear that despite teru's arrogance and callousness, he does have ethical standards and lines he won't cross -- whereas ritsu gets more and more unfettered as time goes on. it also gradually becomes obvious that teru does genuinely care about ritsu and see him as a friend (probably the closest thing to a genuine friend teru has), even if teru himself is pretty shitty at being a friend -- leading to the incredibly striking moment when ritsu himself realizes this, and his main takeaway is just that he has power over teru. by the time they have their second soccer field fight, teru has proven himself the more morally upstanding one, which is pretty wild considering the first thing we ever see him do is beat the shit out of a near-defenseless thirteen-year-old for annoying him. of course, he still isn't supposed to be fully in the right -- one thing i really appreciated about the story in general was that the conflicts between characters are rarely as simple as "this character was Right and this one was Wrong," but rather a matter of all the characters making mistakes at one time or another and then having to deal with the consequences and make amends. ritsu and teru's relationship is a prime example of that with how "ritsu made his own decisions and those decisions were Very Bad" and "teru treated ritsu poorly and never actually did the work to make himself someone ritsu could actually trust or would want to listen to" are facts that coexist and both get addressed. the second fight is a masterpiece of a scene in basically every way, but one of my favorite aspects is how teru is desperately trying to reach out to ritsu but is hit with the truth that it's too late for that, that he should have been doing this the whole time, that all this is partially his fault. and in this scene, he fully accepts that, gives in and decides that ritsu is right: it's too late to make amends, it's too late to save ritsu. but it doesn't end there, because this is not a story in which things are simply unfixable, and so instead teru comes back, decides to make the hard choice and try to fix things instead of turning his back on ritsu for good. during the fight, teru says he wants to help ritsu, to sacrifice for him, and ritsu scoffs at him and rejects the idea -- but then teru actually does it. he puts his money where his mouth is and reaches out to ritsu and offers his own psychic energy to save ritsu's life, along with apologizing to him and offering his help to find mob. like i dunno what else to say that's not just summarizing every scene they have together but god i love their dynamic and its arc. i really hope they manage to become actual friends now because god knows they could both use more (read: any) of those. the text exchange they have at the end of the most recent chapter is delightful i love that they bond by insulting reigen i think that's great for them.

Yes yes yes yesssss. It definitely felt like the most ambitious thing early on in ABoT, where I had early-story Ritsu and early-story Teru, and I wanted, somehow, to pull off "they basically swap moral grounds by their second fight."

It's easy enough to just SAY "Ritsu spirals and does progressively worse things. Teru starts to take objection to these more and more until he's the one who thinks this whole thing has gone too far."

And, harkening back to earlier, this kind of plotline has to be deeply rooted in their characters. There is no "Ritsu becomes evil just because" and there is no "Teru becomes good just because."

So they needed to be consistent in their own characters, but evolving under the pressures of the story. Ritsu I talked a lot about early up, how deeply he fears not having control, how much repressed frustration he has over the ways everyone in his life has failed him. And he's never allowed to speak up, or god forbid lash out, because it is his JOB to be the surviving child. Perfect, mature, composed.

Ritsu takes this WILD leap into something insanely dangerous which he has no understanding of, nor power in. Teru IS his first big painful wake-up call with how summarily Teru curbstomps him. Ritsu goes home desperately wanting to quit.

He pushes through it, afraid and knowing he has so little power and control. Then there's Teru, exacerbating this. Because he loves to point out how weak, clueless, and not in control Ritsu is. He jabs and he teases and he chews Ritsu out and he knocks Ritsu down because Teru cannot pass up the chance to prove he's better.

So... of course Ritsu eats up the first opportunity he's given to improve his power over Teru. Gimcrack offers to train him--Gimcrack who's far more supportive of Ritsu than Teru ever is--so of course Ritsu accepts. Every single tick of power in Ritsu's direction is security. And Ritsu is consistently rewarded. He learns to manipulate, and it rewards him with control. He pushes Teru away and it rewards him with independence. He lets the whole horde possess him and it rewards him with power.

And then there's Mezato in all this, threatening to rip away his control. But he can beat that out easily with possession. And if he possesses people, why should he care? Possession feels nice, to him. That's not even a fraction of a fraction of the pain he's been through. He can do this to other people, because possession is POWER.

And, ahhh, possession was such a great thematic vehicle to spin the Ritsu-Teru face-heel-heel-face turn around.

The first cracks we see in Teru's demeanor are all, subtly or not, around possession. When Ritsu almost blasts the possessed woman (Ritsu, panicked, uncertain how to handle things) Teru tackles him and screams at him. (Killing a possessed woman? Teru oh Teru why might that terrify you?)

So Teru DOES have morals. He does have limits. But of course, his first exercise of this is tackling and SCREAMING at Ritsu for fucking up. Just another tick mark in Ritsu's check list of feeling powerless and antagonized.

And the next time, when Ritsu offhandedly mentions he's had his parents possessed for the night while he and Teru were at the meat warehouse... well it's out of focus, since Ritsu is our POV character and he doesn't notice, but Teru freezes. Teru questions this. Teru, instead of letting Gimcrack phase him through the wall (and he was resistant to letting Gimcrack touch him to phase him in in the first place) Teru instead blasts a hole through the warehouse wall.

But... Teru has a plan. When Isa catches Ritsu in the call center, Teru confiscates Ritsu's spirits and (behind his back) blackmails them into never accepting a command from Ritsu to possess someone. (Teru is also a control-freak, and rather than try to talk to Ritsu directly about not possessing people, he just uses manipulation and threats to make it happen).

So now, Teru can relax, surely :). He invites Ritsu along for the movie. He's mocking and insufferable and cruel to Ritsu but, hey :), that's just Teru proving his place in the hierarchy. He... actually does want Ritsu there. He actually does help Ritsu (cauterizes his wound without asking). (It's still power-plays. Still power-plays all the way down which Ritsu hates.)

And Teru... incorrectly... starts to entertain this idea that Ritsu also thinks what they have is friendship. And after the ice cream thing, is when Ritsu leans into Gimcrack's offer to learn how to start being manipulative like Teru is.

So Teru notices NOTHING is wrong for a long time, because now Ritsu is faking it. He doesn't notice until it is much too late. And, frankly, it was ALWAYS too late for Teru to take the moral high road. And some part of Teru realizes this because what he sees in Ritsu, he realizes, is what it looked like to watch Teru from the outside. Teru was ALLOWED to be manipulative and horrible because Teru, himself, always knew he would stop before crossing a real moral line. (Not that Ritsu knew this.) And now he's staring at Ritsu, a true threat who won't listen to reason and who CANNOT reliably be expected to back down before a line is crossed.

And... to THROW this in Teru's face in the FORM of Ritsu letting every spirit from his own horde possess Ritsu during the fight, giving Ritsu the upper hand.

I always knew, for this second fight, the tables would need to be a lot more evenly matched, with Ritsu coming out ahead more often than not. But I also don't like "some character is morally questionable now, and for some reason that's made them stronger than the master character who pulverized them earlier."

But POSSESSION. The motif that all this conflict is hanging upon, used as a boon on Ritsu's side to smash Teru into the ground, to physically and MENTALLY rattle him to the point that he's lagging on Ritsu's attacks and incapable of subduing Ritsu until Teru puts aside his psychic powers all together...

AND JUST... Teru all the while being forced to realize he IS not blameless in this. That every horrible, callous remark he made to Ritsu was not directing Ritsu to the right path or proving himself cool and powerful. They were all instead only cementing Ritsu's hatred of him.

And Teru does not want to accept this at first. He wants to think he did the right thing, ultimately, and it was RITSU who rejected him. And this is where the scene with Slipshod comes into play. Slipshod, who is shown again and again being good at pressing people's buttons. Slipshod is the one bully bigger than Teru in all this, and behind his dumb demeanor is he really really good at knowing how to get a rise out of people. He does it to Reigen while possessing Mezato. He does it to Ritsu while possessing his mother. And he does it to Teru, for fun, because he loves to rub Teru's face in the mess he created.

Which, on the plus side, was the wake up call Teru needed to recognize how consistently horrible HE had been. How much of Ritsu's spiral (and now, imminent death) happened because Teru gleefully pushed him toward it.

Teru's one and only friend.

After Teru swore off friends and loved ones, because they can be used to hurt him.

So it is a big moment, and a big decision Teru makes, when he chooses Ritsu. chooses apologizing. chooses making himself vulnerable (VERY LITERALLY, with how the power transfusion drains Teru to nothing). Teru chooses to care.

And ultimately, it's not even that Teru went from the bad moralless one, to the moral one. He always had these morals. He had these uncrossable lines since day one. But he hid it behind his horrible antagonistic demeanor and the cracks did not come through until he realized he lost control of Ritsu. Teru's ACTUAL heel-face turn comes in him realizing how awful his demeanor was and making amends for that.

i'm actually not done talking about them though because it's finally time for that tangent about teru and ritsu's first fight on the soccer field now because i just reread it while writing that last section and it's so interesting actually. like okay, like i said before it does set teru up as the problem -- in that scene teru is very much the aggressor; he's being a complete asshole for no goddamn reason, with absolutely no compunctions about beating the crap out of some random kid, and ritsu is the scrappy underdog determined to fight back despite not really having the means to. but then there are the moments hinting at more complexity to teru -- him literally stopping the fight to teach ritsu to use his barrier, giving ritsu the makeup after the fight, and of course his decision to spare ritsu in the end. and then on ritsu's side, he almost actually kills teru -- the only reason he doesn't is that teru manages to break free. (awful awful au idea: ritsu actually does kill teru here. would that be fucked up or what) something that stood out to me when rereading it is that despite teru repeatedly saying he'll kill ritsu, and ritsu's internal monologue being very convinced that he's in mortal danger, teru's reaction to ritsu actually almost killing him -- "you really are trying to kill me. we're done", etc -- seems to imply that his threats were more him just talking a big game, expecting ritsu to give in and surrender eventually, and he didn't actually intend to kill him until ritsu gave him an actual reason to. especially interesting to me is the bit where teru asks ritsu if he really meant to kill him, because ritsu's narration and teru's actual actions are kind of at odds -- ritsu tells teru he meant to do it because he thinks him scaring teru is what's making teru hesitate, and that he needs to make teru think he's dangerous in order to get him to leave ritsu alone, but teru's actual response is the opposite, attacking ritsu more fiercely because "there's no reason for [him] to hold back". in general the scene very cleverly sets up the core difference between them: teru is pretty awful but does have firm moral standards, whereas ritsu is desperate and willing to do just about anything if he thinks it's the only option. also the parallels and contrasts with the second soccer field scene are excellent -- the role reversal with the strangling but also how when ritsu does it both the initial act of starting to strangle teru and the fact that he doesn't end up killing teru are both unintentional on ritsu's part, but when teru does it it's a very intentional choice both to do it and to not go through with it; "we're done" said by teru the first time when he's preparing to kill ritsu and then the second time after he's decided not to. have i mentioned that this fic is good because this fic is good. i'm running out of ways to say that

YES!!!!!! ANOTHER RESOUNDING YESYES YES.

I have slightly pre-emptively answered this question by mentioning it above but Teru demonstrates this hypocritical "rules for thee but not for me" because, internally, Teru knows HE will always stop before the line is crossed.

BUT RITSU DOES NOT KNOW THIS. THERE IS NO REASONABLE EXPECTATION FOR RITSU TO KNOW THIS.

So Ritsu, and we the audience, do NOT know this during the first soccer fight. Teru is going to kill Ritsu is a very reasonable conclusion to draw from the way Teru goes all out on Ritsu. Ritsu is terrified. Out of his depth. He's panicking. This kid is going to kill me and he has every reason to believe it.

We don't know, unless (like you) you look at the smaller details, that Teru is not intending to kill Ritsu. He's talking big. He's trying to force submission in Ritsu. He's not trying to kill.

But Ritsu does go for the kill. Because it is the single break he gets and it's perhaps his only chance to survive (he thinks), and he does, IN FACT go for the kill.

Teru breaks free and he does... even give Ritsu the chance to clarify if that was an intended kill-shot. Teru is giving the chance for Ritsu to essentially say "Sorry, accident, don't escalate to trying to kill me." But Ritsu misreads the room, like you point out, and this is when Teru gets serious.

Strangulation, in the first fight and in the last fight. Exactly as you say. Accidental, by Ritsu, the first time, and accidental in letting Teru live. Intentional, by Teru, the second time, and intentional in letting Ritsu live.

"WE'RE DONE" ECHOED. TWICE. In their first fight and their last. With entirely different meanings.

okay those were my big points but i also had a bunch of smaller thoughts so here's just. a list: - i just think it's really funny that teru saves ritsu by punching him in the chest with psychic power on not one but two occasions. literally their dynamic in a nutshell. (also. the way during the time at the mall ritsu responds by being like "did you cauterize me" really gets to me for some reason. he sounds so offended. like you can't just cauterize someone's wound maybe he liked bleeding all over the place you don't know!) (actually wait that thought is also very funny considering what happens with mogami and reigen later. you really can't just cauterize someone's wounds that's very rude. they worked hard to be that grievously injured) - okay so the burger scene. first of all generally a great scene second of all obviously it's a parallel to the scene with mob and the milk (reigen saying "have mine too" and all that) but also i love the parallels to the scene with isa in the coffee shop (also a great scene btw. have i mentioned this fic is good). they're both scenes in which ritsu has a loud emotional breakdown in a public restaurant (love that that happens twice. ritsu honey can you maybe not) with a major focus on ritsu's insistence on letting himself suffer and refusing any kindness he's shown, but they show ritsu at very different points in his story and have very different outcomes -- isa can't manage to get through to ritsu, but reigen can. ritsu refuses the croissant till the end, but he eats the burger. (sorry to add another side note but i love that that was a very serious sentence i just typed about a very emotional character arc.) also the symbolism in the fact that in the coffee shop scene, ritsu's explosion of psychic powers freezes and then spills his hot chocolate, rendering it undrinkable, but then in the burger scene when he blows up the ceiling the dust explicitly doesn't get on the food, so he can still eat it. good shit - i'm trying to avoid going through every single line or joke i liked one by one but i will say. the "this--" "reigen." "reigen" jokes were both incredibly funny on their own but the fact that they're like 30 chapters apart is what really kills me. the dedication. i saw the second one and was thinking "didn't that joke happen before. when was that. wait was that literally all the way back with tetsuo". countless plot events and several irl years may pass but reigen will never catch a break - the "FUCK OFF" tag reigen made being the one that they exorcise mogami with. perfect - love that ritsu is indirectly responsible for teru's girlfriend breaking up with him (good for mei honestly. sure teru wasn't actually cheating but his ass deserved to get dumped) and i like to imagine that teru never lets this fact go. he's not particularly upset about the breakup but he WILL bring up that ritsu ruined his relationship at every possible opportunity purely to annoy him

I THINK YOU MAY PERHAPS BE THE FIRST PERSON TO RECOGNIZE THE DOUBLE-CAUTERIZATION, and the intentional joke in Ritsu, the first time, declaring "Don’t… perform psychic medical procedures on me without my permission, okay?!" Like sorry bud, this is not the last unauthorized psychic medical cauterization Teru's gonna perform on you.

But not every unauthorized medical cauterization can be a win. Turns out when Mogami does it it's kinda mean >:(. But also necessary, for a not-dead Reigen, so actually thanks Mogami.

ABSOLUTELY THE "HAVE MINE TOO" INTENTIONAL PARALLEL BETWEEN THE MILK SCENE AND THE BURGER SCENE. I'm always glad when someone notices the repeat phrasing that ends both those scenes.

And aaghhhhh I could write a whole other essay about the symbolism that food plays with Ritsu's plotline, but in the smallest nutshell how it tends to represent someone reaching out with care and how often Ritsu rejects it. One public restaurant psychic outburst rendered the offered food unconsumable and the other one intentionally points out the way the food (burger) avoided the destruction :')

THANK YOU YES. "This--" "Reigen." "Reigen." as a repeat joke tickles me so much. Just Some Guy energy. Could've played the most pivotal role all night but he'll still end up somewhere next day where someone needs to figure out who he is. Reigen is here too, btw. His name is Reigen, btw.

Fuck Off tag was delightful... It started as an inside joke for a very early comic that @sandflakedraws drew (and then later redrew), of the (chapter 5 or 6) Reigen Tetsugami confrontation. The ineffective tag Reigen sticks to Tetsugami's cheek has, in katakana, "fuck off" written on it. Hilarious enough joke for me, years later, to incorporate it into the story.

Re: the girlfriend thing. I've joked before "if I had a nickel every time evil spirit possession was mistaken for an affair in ABoT I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice." But yeah, Ritsu, you asshole. You cost your bro his girlfriend.

i could just keep going but at this rate i'm going to be going back through the entire fic and just talking about every single scene so i should probably stop before this gets any longer. basically what i wanna say though is that the fic was very good, thank you for writing it, it has given me brainworms. once again i am so sorry for the length of this ask

THANK YOU!!! I think I just spent like 2 hours writing this response because, as you can see, I REALLY LIKE talking about this stuff haha!!

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

Hello I love you and your tdbk cats sm can we put costumes on them? :3

I NEED to see sho dress up in ribbons and a little tutu, it's for my mental health (?

Will play dress up willingly

Kaito LOVES attention, as long as you are solely focused on him and nobody else he doesn't mind brushing his hair, dressing him up or putting bows in his fur. It might be because he was the runt of his litter and a stray but he loves the affection.

Leo is a mini internet celebrity! Every so often he does a photoshoot with so many different outfits and accessories. He is such a spoiled brat who adores being the center of attention and because of it loves every step of it

Haru and Towa have matching accessories!!! At first Haru refuses, he has to scout the garden!! But Towa manages to convince him after saving Peekaboo from Taiga. On the other hand Towa LOVES all the attention of getting brushed and styled and getting clothed!!

Romeo is a special case, naturally, he doesn't allow everything. He is strict with it being nice collars and ribbons, nothing too in bad taste. At most you could link a bejeweled bat charm in his collar but he does let you brush his .

Dress Haku as a caterpillar because he is a snuggle bug, or rather as a baby kangaroo given how much he likes to nap in your hoodies’ pocket. Regardless he doesn't care too much about it but likes the attention.

Zenji chimes in singing when you dress Haku so you assume he wants to be dressed up too, sadly anything you put doesn't stay long, any ribbons on his tail get undone and clothes slip off. He seems saddened by that so kiss and hug him.

Allows you to dress him up

Following the rule of the least effort, Jin doesn't want to move much from his loafing position next to the AC so if whatever you are doing isn't very intrusive (think crowns or headbands) he won't do much more than look at you nasty but if it's something you have to manhandle him in you might get a hiss or even a scratch.

Even if Thoma isn't excited about it he allows you to put him accessories or vests as long as they don't bother his movements too much

Luca doesn't really understand why you like to see him so much but he stands there like a gentleman.

Alan is so baby coded even if he is so huge! Even if he isn't especially keen on being a dress up doll he accepts it without any complains

I think that if you managed to put things on Romeo and Taiga he might understand and allow you something. Imagine Ritsu with a little tie!!!!

Old man Ed truly doesn't care as long as he can sleep jajaj so feel free to tie a cloak around his shoulders and call him a vampire

Is anyone surprised Jiro doesn't care? As long as it doesn't hurt him or Yuri doesn't pull it out of him he is keeping it

Get away from him

Sho is usually a very agreeable kitty so it's surprising when he hisses at you when you get closer to him with one of Leo's bows in your hands. He ends up being pinned down by Leo and you get to tie a ribbon in his fur. Even if it was against his will he keeps it on.

Ren is this close 🤏 to bitting if you get close with a costume.

If Ren was close, Taiga would maul your hand open if you attempt to manhandle. He isn't feral but he acts like that sometimes, don't test your luck.

Subaru doesn't like to be touched! He is very touch adverse and putting them in costumes requires a fair bit of touching, he already accepted it when he was an actor cat but he retired so don't force him.

Rui runs away when you attempt to hold him like always he runs off

Lyca doesn't have as much of a problem being touched for a long time but he is surrounded by cats he mimics that don't really allow you to (Subaru and Rui) so he doesn't allow you to put anything clearly costume-y just like them.

He is one of the smallest cats so Yuri hates anything that might make you think he isn't as imposing as any of the other cats, that includes most ways of baby talking and making him wear things

[gallus-rising]

opening this with the obligatory "AUs are fun" and "you can do whatever you want forever" i'm talking about the canon relationship and characterization vs a very common fanon. so without further ado i present:

Dimple Was A Friend: A Friendship Manifesto

the fanon in question is "Dimple as Mob's Dad/Uncle figure". in general i'm tired of the fandomized “Found Family” but in this particular case it totally fucks over an entire series spanning character arc and removes the interesting nuance from Dimple and Mob's relationship.

one of Dimple's big hang-ups is that he thinks all of his relationships have to be hierarchical in some way, but broccoli arc’s whole thing is that he actually wants someone to respect and acknowledged him as an equal.

normal humans can't see spirits at best and are terrified of them at worst. most other spirits we see have degraded to mindless monsters. espers more or less treat spirits as animals, specifically as pests or pets. spirits are dehumanized to the point that Matsuo doesn't seen any problem treating Human Man Mogami like a particularly unruly pet. so if Dimple can't be treated like an equal then he can at least try putting himself at the top of the food chain. no one respects him as a person, so he'll make them respect him.

Mob is in a very special place re: attitudes towards spirits off the bat. he's grown up with the supernatural as a normal part of life and sees no significant difference between humans and spirits. at first is doesn't seen like he's treating Dimple with any sort of respect, but in retrospect it's exactly the sort of thing Dimple wants. Mob doesn't treat him like a pest, he treats Dimple like an annoying guy that's following him around. even as their friendship develops Mob doesn't treat Dimple as though he's become useful, he trusts Dimple like he would Reigen or Ritsu or any other friend in a dangerous situation.

but despite his newfound Friendship Emotions Dimple still hasn't broken out of his old mindset. there must be an inherit hierarchy to the world, and while he can't afford to lose his spot, maybe he can trust someone to be by his side.

Dimple himself repeatedly states in the broccoli arc he wants them to become co-cult leaders. he doesn't want Mob to join him as a subordinate or apprentice or anything like that, he want's Mob to join him as an equal. father/son and uncle/nephew relationships are inherently hierarchical! that doesn't necessary make them bad, but it's not want Dimple wants.

if we accept that Dimple is a father/uncle figure to Mob then the broccoli arc concludes with Dimple realizing he doesn’t want authority over people in a malicious way, he wants authority in a nurturing way. not only is that still an unequal relationship, nurturing is definitely not a word that comes to mind when discussing Dimple.

it also means we must accept that Mob sees Dimple as some kind of authority figure which is simply not true. Mob never treats him with that elevated level of respect and even gets confused that Dimple thinks their relationship is weighted in one way or the other. all in all the father/uncle interpretation is straight up out of character for both of them and downplays mp100’s emphasis on friendship.

and then it creates a second problem. since Mob & Dimple have been shoved into the Family Box that means by order of elimination Reigen is Dimple’s closest friend (or more commonly romantic partner) compared to Mob for most of the mange Reigen doesn't really treat Dimple with the same human-to-human attitude. he frequently makes jokes about Dimple being a like pet, which to Reigen is just normal snark, but probably hits Dimple harder than he realizes for reasons stated at the start.

hell during the separation arc Dimple took Mob’s side and was perfectly fine ditching Reigen even tho he didn’t really have to. he was even mean about it!

during this short exchange they're both antagonizing each other but i feel like it's notable Dimple only leaves after Reigen starts shit talking Mob. Reigen is right that Mob won't use his powers in normal day to day life and Dimple knows he's right. Dimple's been following Mob around this whole time watching life a perfectly average life. and then Reigen, no psychic defenses, charismatic guy with an established following, offers Dimple join him! oh boy is that an easy situation to take advantage of!! (and also of an example of how Dimple's started to lose sight of his "villainous schemes", but that's a whole other tangent lol)

Dimple only reaccepts Reigen into his social circle after witnessing him and Mob reconcile. by downplaying Mob and Dimple’s friendship Reigen becomes Dimple’s closest connection by default which is just not true for most of the manga, but, and i'm about to have a grouchy aromantic moment here, most people are fine with it because Shipping. now Reigen and Dimple can be Mob’s dads together :]

the power of Reigen being a fan favorite typically causes people to elevate him, sometimes even in scenarios he's not all that involved in, but please allow me to point out how amatonormativity plays into this particular reading 😒 Dimple Is Mob's Dad/Uncle doesn't always go hand in hand with ekurei of course, but i see it happen often enough to be a trend. even though a family-esque relationship should logically still emphasize their personal bond just as much as a platonic one, in this case it still typically comes with shipping, and by extension Reigen, tacked onto it.

mean aro moment over. if it sounded like i'm dissing ekurei i promise i'm not! i like it just as much as the next guy! it's just that, like all ships in every fandom, sometimes it gets pushed to the detriment of other relationships and even characterization.

but anyways. in closing: guys. they literally call each other friends.

that's it! thank you for reading my rant ❤

if you've made it this far i wanna peel back behind the scenes for a sec (because i've been trying to write this thing for so long orz) and let you know the term "Friendship Manifesto" is a play on ye' olde fandom Ship Manifestos, which i think we need to bring back in new and exciting ways. classic shipping manifestos. friendship manifestos. qpp manifestos? enemies manifestos?? should we bring back the term "drift compatible" or perhaps even the quadrant shipping system???? we're not taking proper advantage of this meta format. we need to have fun and go crazy with it.

[yuri-is-online]

... so what do we know about the Clash? (pt. 2)

moving right along from part 1

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGH EPISODE 5: HOTARUBI. PLEASE INTERACT WITH DUE CAUTION.

The Laurel Crown is first referenced by Ritsu in Episode 4. It is an award given to the best performing house of the year at an event called the Darkwick Gala. Kaito says it is held one week before graduation, Ritsu says there are a lot of rewards given out to graduating winners. He also very specifically says that it is "the shortest path to success and independence from Darkwick for us ghouls." That word independence strikes me as important, though it is not followed up on here or elsewhere unless you count the discussion surrounding Article 78 in Episode 5. Ritsu thinks that Taiga was interested in it once upon a time due to his impressive mission completion record in his first year. We know Zenji wanted to win the crown to obtain recognition as an author, while most of the other ghouls we've met show a degree of disinterest or lack of knowledge of it. Ren mentions at the end of this conversation that he didn't know about the Gala, and Ritsu points out that despite being canceled it was never removed from last years schedule. It is not not this year's though, and he implies that Cornelius is covering something up. Which really does seem to be the case...

The Crown system was discontinued as a direct result of the Clash... we think. It is never explicitly stated "yeah the Clash happened so we aren't doing this anymore" it's instead alluded to as something they can't do because there are too many ghouls to control. We know it had to be this as Haku tells Zenji that it was discontinued after he died, and Zenji died during the Clash. According to Haku, he was killed by a rogue anomaly. He adamantly discourages MC from looking into the Clash gee why would you do that HAKU and this seems to be a similar stance to what Cornelius would take if he knew you were curious. Cornelius and Moby are reluctant to let Lyca free because "what if we have another case of a ghoul-" We can assume he is going to say "killing" or something along those lines based off the concerns listed about Lyca, but that's not confirmed.

Ritsu finds documents about the Clash in the school's archives. he finds them alongside disciplinary documents, he says he either overlooked them or someone had them checked out as he has not read them before. The file is thick and is specifically titled "The Clash: An Overview of Civil Affairs Instigated by Darkwick Students." The term "civil affairs" is interesting. As best I can tell it is a military term that refers to small scale missions undertaken by small teams that focus on civil action? Like diplomacy stuff? Or organizing humanitarian aid? And in more sinister scenarios to assist in psychological warfare to condition a population to not fight against your military but I don't know if that's what the translation team was going for here exactly. I think it's just meant to imply things got really bad and really violent.

Lastly, this is less easy to prove than some of the other things as fact but I still think it is one: there are hints of a split in the student body over who is pro-anomaly and anti-anomaly. Subaru is obviously very pro-anomaly and thinks that capturing them is cruel, Taiga seems to be pro eating anomalies while Romeo is very comfortable with catching them and collecting bounties. A lot of this seems to be tied to how they view the school, the Institute that runs it, and their place in that hierarchy. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that they are trapped at Darkwick and don't want to be. At least not forever.

So to re cap all of the things we know to be fact: the Clash happened sometime last year, half a year ago at the absolute latest. The fight is thought to have been started by the ghouls, we do not know over what. The Laurel Crown system and the Darkwick Gala were both canceled after the fallout of the Clash, in which at least two named people are thought to have died: Zenji Kotodama who would have been a second year Hotarubi student and Dante whose former role is unknown. Zenji still resides in the school as a ghost, though this is unknown to Darkwick staff, and Dante has been brought on as a Professor. Also, all of the Inspectors seem to have quit at the end of the previous year due to the ghouls abusing mesmer matches on them. Three dormitories were disbanded at some point and one new one was created. We do not know if this was connected to the Clash or if it was an inciting incident for it, but at some point Clementia, one of those dormitories, was the scene of some sort of fight. Some of the students of Dionysia dorm went missing, presumably the ghouls. We know nothing about what happened to Ultio aside from the prison they were tasked with running now being run "by Darkwick." All general students from these dorms were re-assigned elsewhere, as were the general students previously assigned to Jabberwock who had general admissions halted. There is a spy amongst these ghouls who Taiga believes is intending to make them look bad; Alan and Tohma are attempting to isolate this spy. We do not know who this spy is spying for, or what Alan and Tohma want out of him exactly, nor do I really expect to find out anytime soon.

So. Now onto the Questions and Theories. As in things we can assume but cannot exactly prove:

Questions and Theories

Jiro and Zenji look extremely similar with a few noticeable differences, namely the piercings Jiro has and the glasses Zenji wears. My first thought was that maybe Jiro was made out of Zenji's corpse, but his birthday is listed as October 13th, which is not the middle of the year by any stretch. They also have different blood types; I think the most practical explanation comes from Zenji himself. When describing why he's so attached to the haunted doll you've found, he says it looks just like his brother did when he was a baby. I have some screenshots of Zenji following Jiro around in a campus event because he wants to help him find something he's looking for, so it does make a bit of sense. And make me even more sad.

The Institute that runs Darkwick seems to be deeply suspicious of ghouls and feel a need to keep them on a short leash. There is a great deal of distrust and resentment between the ghouls and the Institute, and the Clash seems to have been the result of that distrust. The thickness of the records Ritsu finds suggests to me that whatever the Clash was exactly, it took up most of the previous year and that it had something to do with Darkwick's treatment of anomalies.

On that point, I think that Clementia was likely destroyed by a rogue anomaly. The destruction MC sees is described as something going on a rampage, and not as a fight. The fight angle is still possible of course, and if that's the case I wonder if it has something to do with how Ultio was running the prison. I mentioned in the previous post that the goddesses these dorms are named after are meant to sort of balance each other out, so if there was going to be a clash of ideals between anyone on campus it'd probably be these guys.

I feel like Obscuary was set up as a result of the Clash? Or at the very least some time before it specifically so there would be some place for Rui and Ed to go. I think the dorm members will all be crossed with an anomaly in some way, Ed with a vampire, Rui with a reaper, and Lyca with a werewolf. Also, Ed is rumored to have done something. What? No fucking clue, don't even know if it's related to the Clash but still he has done something to get added into the rumor mill.

We don't know what Haku's stigma is as he didn't tell us. He also makes a point of saying that he thinks it's a good thing to get through a mission without using your stigma, if anything he seems to discourage the MC from using or relying on the ring to help the ghouls. You could see this as him trying to encourage her to value herself more, or maybe he thinks that there is a cost for using stigmas we don't know about just yet and they're not the blessings the ghouls think they are. Also he asks Cornelius if he has ever lied to him at the end of the chapter and if you think I didn't find that sus as all hell-

I need to sleep, but remind me to make a post about Haku sometime. Because I don't think he's evil exactly, but I do still think he's the spy.

[remireee]

HI…may. i request mika kagehira x f! reader please!! if possible even….catgirl reader… 😭 😭😭😭if tahts okay 🤗🥺🌹thank you………

Mika had met you downtown while he was doing some usual window shopping. His heterochromatic eyes lit up at the sight of the pointed ears protruding from the top of your head, alongside a tail that solemnly swayed between your legs as you stared off into the display case of a boutique.

By the swell of his soft heart, he took you in, despite the rule of banning women from entering the dorms. It took a lot of convincing, especially from Eichi, but he was determined to have you stay with him; he didn't want you to go back to living on the streets.

He fought tooth and nail, and eventually managed to get permission under the pretense that he would keep intense watch on you, as even a hint of news about this could be detrimental to his career. To which he, of course, agreed to... though, no promises.

His first course of action when he won his case was to celebrate by calling Shu, who was none too pleased with his reckless behavior (he had been pre-informed by Eichi via Anzu). However, Shu's subtle tone of voice revealed that he was not entirely opposed to Mika's act of kindness. He ended the call with a warning to keep things under wraps and asked the sweet boy to promise he'd take care of you.

Being ever so obedient to Shu's wishes, Mika tried his best to keep you a secret (except from Ritsu, who is rooming with him). Despite this, don’t assume you wouldn’t be pampered excessively. You’ll be dressed from head to toe in frilly items, from the puffiest dresses to the daintiest headwear, all of which come with holes to thread your ears and tail through.

Mika refuses to make you wear a collar around your neck. He sees it as a form of repression and doesn’t want you to feel trapped. Instead, he improvises with a ribbon tied to the end of your fluffy tail, for easy spotting as well as acting as a cute accessory for your hand-sewn outfits. It isn't to say he wasn't against to chokers, especially laced ones.

Mika is a naturally clingy person and absolutely cuddles you in his sleep. By morning, he’ll have his limbs entangled around you, slightly refusing to wake up, with a little pout and a whine or two, saying how warm you are and how comfortable he feels.

As time passes, it has become harder to keep you hidden. He wishes to show you off to the world as his inspiration, his doll. Eventually, he spills the news to Arashi, and what started with one person turned into two, then three, and now half of ES knows of your existence and welcomes you. Maybe this wasn’t as bad as Eichi or his team had foreseen.

Even if news of you being sheltered by Mika ever gets out, he might wear it as a badge of honor. He has nothing to be ashamed of; in fact, he’s fairly proud of it. Having you as a part of his life has brought him joys he never even imagined he could feel, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

[rottenzombrainz]

Taiga Prosopagnosia Theory (Tokyo Debunker)

Yeah, I'm posting yet another tkdb theory >:3

Spoilers I guess?!?

In case you're one of the fortunate souls who have never played 999 from the Zero Escape series (or you just don't know what it is), Prosopagnosia is the fancy name for face blindness. And I think Taiga might have it!

I'm not as big of a Taiga fan as I am with the other two characters I've theorized about (Jiro and Towa), so I don't really pay as close attention to his character. So take all of this with a grain of salt!!

sidebar- I was looking through his home screen dialogue for this and wowie... now I understand why so many people love him

Taiga is bad with names and sees basically everyone besides his few connections as faceless goons. Could it be because he physically sees them as faceless goons?!??

That's actually not how Prosopagnosia works though. From what little research I did, it's more so like you can't focus on someone's specific features or recognize them immediately.

I feel like these symptoms line up with Taiga's actions. He has a hard time recognizing MC and Ritsu, usually having to talk to them or stare at them for a bit before realizing who they are. He can recognize Romeo and Haru more easily because he's used to seeing them often or puts more effort into recognizing them because he likes them (in his own special Taiga way). I like to think it's the latter. It'd make better sense with his home screen dialogue too. the more affinity the player has with him, the more he calls MC "Kitty" instead of "Huh? Who the fuck are you?".

I could be completely wrong and he could have a different kind of memory condition or no condition at all. He seems to be generally forgetful. Or maybe he just pretends to forget things because it fits his "idgaf" attitude? Idk, but I have fun theorizing about these silly little anime boys in this silly little game.

[natsuphoria]

hey hey! Can I req Ritsu and Rei w/ the same crush? How do u think they'd react to having the same crush?

THIS IS AN INTERESTING REQ thank u anon!! i was so stumped for a bit but i gave it my best shot, i hope i did okay :O

ritsu & rei crushing on the same person

gender neutral reader, no pronouns mentioned

ohh ritsu is LIVID

this is a boy who is going to be so clingy. he is so incredibly possessive of you. can you really blame him? he doesn’t have too many people he can rely on, you’re special to him. 

his abandonment issues are not helping him at all in this case… hell, just seeing you and rei smile at each other can put him in a bad mood.

he’s a perceptive guy. he knows rei has an eye on you as well, and he hates it. he’s upset that of all people, rei’s vying for your affection. and he’s upset that after all he and his brother have done to try to mend their relationship, there’s another obstacle in the road. 

ritsu’s love languages are probably quality time and physical touch, so he uses that to his advantage – spending long lengths of time lounging on your lap, napping so that you can’t in good conscience leave his side. other times he just simply slings an arm around your shoulder or waist and keeps you close to him – it’s comforting to him, being able to physically feel you beneath his fingertips

he’s not above physically pulling you away when he sees you talking to rei. ritsu does love his brother! but he loves you too. 

he probably requires lots of reassurance… make sure he knows he’s loved please.

rei below the cut!

rei has his charms… he’s not against putting on a charismatic front when faced with people he’d like to connect with. that’s what he does with you! he goes out of his way to see you, to show you that he really does care.

his love languages are likely quality time and gift-giving. he’s the kind of person to gladly sit and listen to you ramble on and on with the most lovestruck look on his face… and the kind of person to gift you trinkets because they reminded him of you. 

uhh let’s not talk about the fact that ritsu doesn’t like seeing you with said gifts…

he holds a lot of affection for his brother… so i think he’s likely to give up on his crush for ritsu.

the guilt of leaving ritsu alone so often weighs on him, so if you can be the one to alleviate the loneliness of the younger sakuma, rei would gladly let you go.

he’d still care immensely for you, though, so most of your interactions remain, just with the clear distinction that you two are no more than good friends.

ritsu would mellow out more once there isn’t a competition for you… but you can still expect him to drag you away from rei when he wants your attention /lh

tags: @tokusaatsus

[sucantslay]

Natsume Sakasaki -Analysis

(from Reminiscences Selection ELEMENT)

and more?

DISCLAIMER + WARNING!!!

I said it before, but I'll have to say it again that this is my PERSONAL ANALYSIS. If anything feels out of place, pls, feel free to have your own thoughts on this. ( Maybe your p.o.v is different from mine )

My English is bad...sorry, but I'll continue to improve it!

I'm not good with analysis so if anything makes you confused, pls do ask. I would love to help you with any problem(that I'm capable of)

Ok~ Let's go!

For those who think the war didn't affect on Natsume much since he looked un-scratch. Then, the answer is a no and yes.

I'm not going to talk about it like, fine by physic and hurt by mental because ( except Eichi ) none character at the end of the war got any physical problem on them. Mostly came from mental then it affects their physical state like Rei or Shu.

Kanata? No, he just lost his beliefs and changed for the better good ( Chiaki saved him in time )

Rei? Got sent away and later on turned into a daunting old man. In his case, he had a bad relationship with Ritsu and his mental problem affected on him made him act and do things like a granny.

Shu, got defeated and had a mental problem after that ( He's getting better later on )

Wataru is...kinda ok actually. Since he was able to figure out Eichi's plan so it didn't do much on him.

Natsume was being protected by the 2yr members of 5 Eccentic so of course, no damage was taken either.

But the thing is, Natsume wasn't able to join the real fight, most of the time, he had to stay back and watch as all his Nii-san fell apart. One by one.

Like, when all your friends got hurt but you can't do anything but stand aside and witness their fall down.

That is why he was so angry. He feels left out.

And he blames it on himself, that he's not as good as them, and that's why he never got a chance to stand up and fight with them.

Now, let's go back in time *click click the turnback button*

He does look a bit uncomfortable when he meets Tsumugi, but most of that is after he knows that Tsumugi knew he's past.

It's like: "Oh...no no, I hate that time and I hate you for being the witness of that old me. Too bad I can't make that memory disappear out of your head so I'm just kinda uncomfortable with you for remembering that stuff."

He starts to get a little un-friendly but then later on, it gets worse, when he learns that Tsumugi is a member of Fine and watches Eichi as his friend.

He goes soft when being with the 5 Eccentric for sure.

But it is still nothing compared to the mad and hatter-like after the war ended. When he ignores Tsumugi and anyone he doesn't care or give a sh^t about. ( He does care about Tsumugi. Sometimes he just acts a little unsettled with anyone he doesn't care/know about. It's not a completely don't care but...ya know what I mean )

( From Chapter 3/ In the rose garden )

So, what made him become like this? It was the war.

It is a yes when it comes to the war's effect on him. It's not as heavy as Shu or Rei or a total change in look and understanding like Kanata but it did have some effect on him.

Hence, it doesn't mean that he's fine. He's better than most but not fine.

How you do think that THAT big of an event can't be able to do something to him. It does!

And to whoever writes his character, I wish your pillow cold on both sides! Because he is such an interesting character to look into.

It's worth pointing out that the feeling of Natsume being an outsider isn't just an experience for him but also for the reader, the viewer who watches the anime and Element 3D version.

Consider the fact that in each episode, an Eccentric was being defeated or was mentioned about their fall.

There was nothing about Natsume but locking himself in a room and keep on writing the script for a happy ending that he was yearning for.

( this is a part of the Black Bird story/ the moment when the script got burned )

Kanata was defeated, then came Shu.

At the time Natsume was writing the script, it was already the end of it all. The situation can no longer be saved.

The Eccentric Party Night? It was all Natsume's dream.

The time when he gets to be with all his beloved Nii-san is in Episode 2. Then later on in Episode 5 when the last Eccentric are being executed.

It was the beginning and the end.

And I don't think if Natsume's plan got accepted by Wataru mean they'll win either. Yes, it is bad for the school as Wataru and Eichi mentioned in Episode 6, but I'm scared for the others who have already been defeated, can they able to gather strength after all the brutal executes their been through.

Simultaneously, the students still hate them. Their anti-fan exists.

They'll have to survive another war even if Eichi's already been taken down.

So in conclusion, if we put the Eccentric Party Night scene out of the picture, then Natsume does seem to be left out.

That why he was so mad, that why he wanted revenge. Even if none of his Nii-san want to, he wants it. Not just for them but also for himself.

He wants a chance to stand up with his own two feet, defeat the bad guy, and show all his beloved brothers that he has finally grown up.

Last but not least! He feels betrayed when Wataru joins Fine. But I think he did understand Wataru's decision. That why he still call Wataru his Nii-san, that why he just a little crappy but not a totally hated form of treatment for Wataru.

You can say he has a soft spot for Wataru, but he didn't beg nor have any rejection over it, he just went: "Why did my beloved Nii-san have to stay in the same unit as that demon...now it is even harder to take him down...what a headache."

He knows Wataru well, and lets Wataru do as he likes. And I think that was a very grown-up of him. After all that begging for the plan to be accepted by Wataru. After all that panic and suffering for his older senior to win it even if there was already no redo.

The Natsume now is calmer than before. Of course, he still has a lot to learn and more room for development, but yes, he may have some improve.

That all~ That alL~ ThaNk yOU for REAding~ XoxO!

Also made one for Tsumugi in the past if you want to read another analysis: https://www.tumblr.com/sucantslay/745663127662837760/aoba-tsumugi-analysis-from-the-animation

[se7ens-oc-heaven]

And now, time for some oc writing!! Specifically, a self-contained piece for my SwSh oc Rex. I think of this as a sort of brief, non-chronological "timeline" piece for him, showing out-of-context snapshots to sort of give a sense of his main drive in the Legendkeepers story. Hopefully you'll all enjoy, this is my first time doing a format like this but I hope it isn't too confusing!

Context: Rex is my oc who follows the Shield storyline, becoming a champion of Galar and exploring the story and events in the Crown Tundra afterwards. His best friend, Ritsu, is a "Faller" who went missing when they were children, and never came back. This follows Rex and how he handles this disappearance as he gets older.

•••

Rex was eleven years old when he first heard the news that his best friend was reported missing. He was worried, of course. He loved his friend dearly. But, in the way you do when you're eleven, he also felt a sureness of how the world worked in a way that didn't always turn out the way it by all rights should have. 

"Yeah, mum and dad have been losing their minds over it. You'd think the world was ending over here, never mind how Ritsu’s parents have been handling things," Rex said rather blithely to Hop, his neighbor and longtime friend. Ritsu's longtime friend. Hop, perched on the stone wall next to Rex, tilted his head at him, confused. 

"They said Ritsu's gone though, right? That sounds awful serious to me," he countered, concern lacing his expression. Hop, by this point, had gathered the nature of the situation well before Rex did. Rex shrugged, swinging his feet aimlessly, heels battering the old stone wall beneath him. 

"I dunno. I mean, it can't be that bad. His parents are always making a fuss if Ritsu misses so much as snack time, and you know he's aces at building super secret bases. He prolly just made a new one and didn't tell them," Rex explained, hopping off the wall with a muted 'oof'. 

"Hey, maybe next time we go visit, we should ask him if we can sleep over in it! I bet it's so cool no one would ever wanna leave, and that's why no one's seen him yet!" He added excitedly. Hop nodded, eyes brightening, the enthusiasm infectious. 

"Yeah, that'd be awesome!" 

•••

Rex was ten years old when his parents were ready to let him take on his first Pokemon. Rex had been eagerly waiting for the day. Bursting with excitement when they told him the good news. But he asked, as politely as he'd ever asked anything, that he wait a year before getting one. 

"Rex, dear, this is all you've ever talked about for so long! I don't mind, but why the change of heart?" His mother inquired, surprised. 

"I was thinking I want to wait until Ritsu can get his, so we can get ours together and they can be bestest buds just like we are!" Rex beamed. His parents exchanged fond, if somewhat anxious glances. 

"I don't have a problem with it," his dad chimed in. 

"But... Ritsu may not even want a pokemon. You know how he gets around them," he added carefully, watching his son for his response. Rex, unphased, shook his head. 

"It'll be fine! He'd feel loads better if he had one looking out for him, I know he would! And so'd his parents! I bet if they quit nagging him so much they'd all learn pokemon can be really cool too!" 

"Rex! That's no way to speak about them!" His mother scolded him with a huff. Rex merely gave a cheeky shrug. 

"It's true though!" 

•••

Rex was fifteen years old when he decided to take on the gym challenge. His parents protested his decision, but he didn't care. He was tired of them getting on his case all the time anymore. Always the same thing, nag nag nag. Ever since Ritsu had disappeared, both his mum and dad had gone insane about keeping track of Rex, holding him accountable at all times. Rex was fed up with it. 

"Ready to go, Miki?" He whispered to his Charmander, sitting on the bedroom sill next to him. Miki wagged her tail, the embers flickering in a mesmerizing fashion in the early dawn light. 

"Char!" She squeaked eagerly. Rex shushed her, brushing a fingertip down her nose gently as a tactile reminder. He grinned down at the charmander in her little red bow. 

"Alright. Let's go then, before we wake mum and dad," he murmured, gesturing with a free arm. Miki took the cue, hopping onto his shoulders, clinging for all she was worth. Rex took a final look down the wall, and - judging it clear - hauled himself down the side, keeping a solid hold on the windowsill now above him. He felt around for good footholds, inching his way down. Normally he'd have no qualms about just dropping right down into the bush below, full force. But he had to be quiet. 

Miki whimpered slightly as Rex slid a little, missing what he thought had been a good ledge. She clung tighter as he fumbled around, adjusting his handholds once he felt his legs were stable. Rex took another look down. Should be good enough, right? 

"Hold on, Miki," he whispered, and with a push he launched himself off the wall, landing on his feet below just in front of the bush. The momentum carried him into a kneel, and he rammed his knees down into the grass with a pained grunt. Oh, he'd be feeling that one later. But that was later, and this was now. And right now, he had to go meet with Hop. 

"Whew.... Alright," Rex muttered to himself, shaking off the lingering pain from his graceless landing. 

"Let's go!" 

It would be several hours before his parents discovered what happened. Rex would be long gone for Wedgehurst by then, and fresh off of what would be his first of many legendary encounters.  

•••

Rex was sixteen years old as he stared down death for the first real time. As he placed himself between Leon and Hop, the latter crying for the former to wake up, pull himself together, Death stared down at the scene before it with a blank apathy. Rex glowered up at the unfeeling hand just waiting to scoop them all up within its chilling grasp. He didn't care what it thought it was, it was out of line! 

The creature - Eternatus, presumably - thundered a hollow, alien cry, and Rex readied his pokeballs. It'd have to kill him and his team before it could get to Hop and Leon. 

•••

Rex was still sixteen years old as he tackled the chairman to the floor of the power plant. He'd never cared much for the man and his glib manner of speaking, but it had never been personal. Before now, that is. 

Now? He wanted nothing more dearly than to make the older man pay for what he did. For endangering his pokemon. For endangering Leon. For endangering Hop, and nearly putting him through another loss. For nearly putting Rex through another loss. 

Well. Rex almost wanted nothing more dearly than to make the older man pay.  

Rex was sixteen years old as the other adults hauled him off of the beaten and battered chairman, voices blending together into a thick stew of concern and shock, worry and admonishment. 

Rex was sixteen years old as he was escorted from the Hammerlocke gym, into a throng of cameras and microphones pushing and shoving greedily towards him, ready to feed. 

Rex was sixteen years old as articles scrutinizing him flew off the press and as news reporters used his name as they would that of a storm in the daily weather report. 

Rex was sixteen years old, a hero of Galar. A public figure.

Rex was sixteen years old when he became the Champion.

Rex was sixteen years old. 

•••

Rex was twelve years old, nearly thirteen, when he attended his best friend's funeral. He didn't understand why. Ritsu was still missing. Not dead. 

According to the adults, it was because there were no leads, no sign of Ritsu anywhere at any point, and so they had to assume the worst. Well, then the adults hadn't looked hard enough! That wasn't Ritsu's fault if they were bollocks at searches. They shouldn't have been giving up on him just for that. 

Rex stood amid a mass of black, holding his baby charmander close to his chest. That shouldn't be out, someone had scolded, put it back in its pokeball. 

No, Rex had said, standing firm. Miki has just as much right to be here as anyone. She wasn't hurting anything.

The adults continued to shoot him looks for the orange bundle in his black-clad arms. He let them. 

Miki had been there for him through all of this. She didn't deserve to be cooped up in some ball just because the others thought she was lesser. 

At least Hop understood. Over half of the times that Rex had looked up to see a disapproving glare sent his way, he also saw Hop giving them a hard stare of his own, inching himself in the middle of the line of sight. Rex would give an appreciative smile and Hop would hit him with a small grin of his own. 

"You don't have to handle this alone", it seemed to say. 

•••

Rex was sixteen years old as he stood next to his best friend Hop, in the midst of a panicked evacuation from the Darkest Day heralding the end of the world.

“Aaaagh, shit. How are we going to find Leon in this mess?” Hop bounced on the balls of his feet anxiously, trying to crane his neck to see past the people flooding out of the building. 

“Stay calm. If there’s one thing I’ve learned researching about Ritsu, it’s-”

“Oh, drop it about Ritsu for one damned second!” Hop swore. Rex faltered, startled. Around them, alarms blared and a cacophony of voices swarmed in all directions around them. 

Rex stared back at Hop, brows furrowed in a question he was too speechless to ask. Hop waved his arm in a sweeping motion towards everything. 

“Now’s not the time! Just look at this! We have to focus on the now, on saving my brother!”

Rex found himself protesting without fully meaning to.

“Well, yeah, obviously. I wasn’t saying otherwise. I was jus-”

“No, I know! But it’s not the same! It’s not! The same!” Hop interrupted, voice raising.

 “My bro’s still alive! Ritsu’s dead! He’s been dead, and I’ve let it go all this time that you keep blithering on about bringing him back or whatever, but now’s not the time!”

Rex fell still. Hop glared him down for a moment before it was clear no one was going to make a move otherwise. 

“Ugh, screw this! I’m going to go find Leon! Or the chairman. Or. Something!” Hop scoffed, whirling on his heel and running off into the amorphous cloud of people.

Rex hesitated. 

He had to go help too. 

His feet felt welded to the floor. 

Rex was sixteen years old as he stood, lost and alone in a crowd of people fleeing the end of the world. 

•••

Rex was sixteen, going on seventeen years old, as the wind blustered around him, stealing his heat from his bones. He paid it little mind, all attention trained on the pokemon before him, its absurdly large head bobbing around in front of him. Chief Peony likewise bobbed in the air, suspended with telekinesis Rex had wagered, expression almost peaceful as words were spoken through him. 

"I am Calyrex. I am the one known as the King of Bountiful Harvests. I have borrowed this man's body in order to thank you in person...so to speak."

The wind was surely stealing Peony's heat away. He hoped the chief could hold out a little longer. 

•••

“Hold out just a little bit longer, Ritsu.”

Rex was eleven years old, nearly twelve, as he muttered this into his palm. He sat sullenly in his room, staring out the window, grounded for the third time that month for trying to take a train - and then ultimately, a plane - to Hoenn all by himself. 

He was tired of waiting for the adults to get off their arses and find his friend! It was obvious he needed to take matters into his own hands! Not that his parents listened to a word he’d say. What would they know? 

Dejectedly, he flipped through the pages of a worn comic book issue with one hand, disinterested in the panels and words he’d read over a dozen times by now. Only one speech bubble happened to catch his eye by chance as the pages scattered past, a shout bubble belonging to a desperate hero.

“Hold out a little bit longer.”

It was a phrase used often enough, especially in his favorite comics. Seriously enough. Ritsu was fine, Rex knew he was. But it felt appropriate, somehow, to apply it to the situation. 

Hold out a little bit longer. 

Rex was eleven years old, nearly twelve, when a knock on the door distracted him from a troubling line of thinking. 

•••

“Hold on there, Rex,” Rex’s mum had laughed gaily, keying the number into the rotom phone. Rex, twelve years old, sat shoulder to shoulder with Hop, bouncing his knee in impatience as the egg before him glowed gently. 

“But dad’s going to miss it!” Rex whined. 

“He’ll still get to meet the baby pokemon that’s come out of it,” Leon reassured over the speaker. Rex had insisted everyone be present, even if it meant Hop called his brother while Rex’s mum tried - and failed - to reach his dad. 

“It’s supposed to be a charmander, right?” Hop asked his brother. 

“Could be.” 

Rex startled from his pout, and his head whipped to the phone in Hop’s lap. 

“You said it was an egg from your charizard, guaranteed!”

“I mean, who can really tell with eggs?” Leon laughed. Rex had just about wound up a retort when a telltale crack sound snapped in front of him. All eyes trained on the source. 

The egg was hatching. 

Everyone watched, spellbound, as the egg broke open in a blaze of light. A little orange lizard sprawled out from the broken shell, stretching with a tiny squeak of effort, before large aquamarine eyes turned up curiously towards Rex. 

“Hullo there,” Rex whispered, leaning closer to the tiny charmander. 

“Want to be my friend?”

•••

Rex was twenty five years old as he stood, uncertainly, in Eterna forest, an aged flute clutched in both hands. Beside him, Miki, his charizard and most faithful companion, leaned down to huff at the instrument. Rex chuckled, and stroked at her muzzle soothingly. 

“Yeah, I hear ya. ‘S now or never, huh?” 

At his other side, Calyrex nodded sagely. 

“It’s time, Rex,” they confirmed. Rex took a deep breath in. And out. Then, holding the time flute up to his lips, he began to play. 

The trio heard a noise akin to if glitter were a sound, and a delighted laugh chimed across the forest. Rex opened his eyes to see Celebi, hovering in front of him expectantly. 

“Calyrex?” Rex prompted, still nervous. Calyrex nodded. 

“Celebi is ready,” they affirmed. Rex nodded, a smile starting to spread across his lips as it sank in. 

He’d done it. 

He’d finally be bringing Ritsu home. 

Rex was twenty-five years old as he looked Celebi in the eye and said,

“Let’s do it, then. Take me back to Hisui.”

[chiffaust]

*slides into your request* may i request a scenario of reader comforting and treat ritsu after he got into a fight with a person who confess to reader? btw i love your writings mwuah pls take care of yourself 🫶

— 𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐔'𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌. s. ritsu

— SYNOPSIS he feels a slightly jealous now knowing that he's not the only one who's romantically interested in you.

CONTENT , mentions of abandonment issues, ritsu fighting (not really), ritsu and reader are in an established relationship, fluff at the end.

Ritsu simply didn't like the person. It was not a big deal, he had disliked lots of people in his lifetime too; for example, Rei.

But he might just dislike this "friend" of yours more than he does with Rei. Firstly, how dare they take your attention from him like that. You've been hanging out with him less and less because of them. Aren't you two supposed to be dating? Or are you dating them?

What's even worst is that he knows that person has a crush on you. The lovestruck expression they have whenever they see you, the undivided attention they have only meant for you whenever you talk.

And how does he knows? Because he has experienced the same, silly. And they aren't making it quite less obvious either. He absolutely has no idea how you haven't realized this yet.

He doesn't like sharing, so he really hopes that they'll back off or else he'll literally go insane. It's especially terrible since there's this voice behind his head that tells him you'll leave him for them, but that can't be the case, right...?

You can't leave him! You're his everything!

He'll become more whiney and clingy once that intrusive thoughts gets the best of him; he might not even allow you to go to the bathroom during your cuddling sessions if he feels like so. He doesn't even tell you why he's acting more clingy than usual, he feels that you might ridicule him for thinking that way so he'll simply whine in response.

He'll become clingier in public too, especially whenever they're around. He won't do anything that makes you uncomfortable, but his hug will tighten whenever they're around. Maybe a kiss or two if he feels that threatened.

And when they finally did confess, Ritsu was near the point of breaking something. Let it be a pen or someone's hand; he was ready to commit violence.

Now everything was going haywire inside his mind. He was too panicked, seeing that perhaps his intrusive thoughts were correct and you're about to leave him for them, so his first flight or fight instinct was to fight.

In fight, I mean scratching and hitting the person while throwing insults at them like a wild cat. You have to forcefully drag him away from them and apologize for he will not do so. In fact, he was 100% proud of it.

Even after all of that incident, he will not fully admit that he was scared that you might leave him. Even if you were to scold him, he'll simply stay silent which is concerning knowing that he's Ritsu Sakuma. Especially with that sad look on his face.

He's such a bastard, really. You hate how he can literally make you feel so bad just by giving you that sad look.

You sighed, finally caving in. You softly at him before you pulled him into a hug. He was quite shocked, he did not expect you to hug him like this all of the sudden since he thought you'd stay mad, but all worries soon melt when he feels your fingers running through his hair—he just melts at the feeling whilst he rests his head on your shoulder, visibly happy.

"There, there. I won't leave you, alright? So you don't have to go and fight people over it, you silly." You said in a comforting tone as you kiss his forehead. "You should really apologize to them."

"Bleh. I hope they trip and fall." Ritsu said, enveloping you in a tighter embrace.

He soon falls into silence as he inhales your scent. Finally, he can put his silly worries to rest and he feels so happy for it.

"You almost never spoil me like this, maybe I should get into fights more from now on..." Ritsu chuckled at his own joke. "Just kidding, I won't do it ever again. As long as you give me the most attention at the end of the day."