#the cool factor of a serious wound stops him from making a scene for sure

[meltingangels]

As it’s been up on AO3 for a while now, I am making my first Cyberpunk fic available to read on tumblr!

Fic Title:

It's Not a Shrine

Fic Summary:

"What the fuck, V?" (I made a post on tumblr about how funny it would be if V was some kind of Samurai/Silverhand superfan. And how Johnny would react if he walked in and saw all these posters and shit on the wall. And I needed some serotonin, so here we are)

So I made this random post on tumblr and someone said they’d like to see it ‘made canon’ so here I am with this. Whether it progresses or stays as a oneshot depends on the reception.

Basically, I thought of what would happen if V was into older/indie rock music, and a big fan of Samurai- Johnny Silverhand’s group. And how he would react (if he didn’t show up in V’s apartment like he does that first time) if he walked in and there was this huge-ass poster of him on the wall.

Just have at it, lads. This starts off kinda serious, to set the scene. Also because I feel starting off serious makes the end part all the funnier.

Also because I don’t know how to do a short oneshot.

V figured that whatever was on that fucking relic had to be a pretty big deal, if Dexter Deshawn and Evelyn were willing to up against Arasaka to get it. Sure, it would have been nice to know exactly what that was, but given how much time and planning had gone into every other aspect of this insane heist, they’d just shoved any thoughts about the relic itself to the back of their mind. 

They just had to focus on somehow pulling this off, which...even with all the planning...was going to be a fucking miracle. Any aspect of the plan could end up getting fucked up, or someone could end up fucking them over, but the fact that a successful heist would propel them into the fucking stratosphere of Night City’s underworld- with a paycheck to match- was just...well.

Too much to resist. Who wouldn’t want to take up that sort of opportunity? They’d be insane not to try. Anyone who was worth anything in the sprawling underground network of the city’s gangs would know who they fucking were. 

It’d come with it’s drawbacks of course, but once people know they’d gone up against fucking Arasaka and stolen a relic from right under Yorinobu’s hands? 

Most wouldn’t even dare to touch them.

Yeah, the idea of ‘making it to the big leagues’ as Jackie had said it, was too much for either him or V to resist. Sure, they’d talked about it a hell of a lot, going over the risks and all. Which outweighed all their past jobs put together. What they’d done so far was small-time stuff. Just general merc business, nothing to be overly proud of. Certainly nothing to attract any big names. Truth be told, V still wasn’t sure how Jackie had managed to get them the gig in the first place. 

But they hadn’t questioned it. Just like they’d stopped questioning the heist when presented with Dexter’s plan and the hefty reward they’d negotiated. Which, again, was more than most of their past jobs put together. Given how much money and time was going into the heist, despite the fact it would take a miracle to pull off without a hitch, it seemed almost foolproof.

But it had gone wrong in every possible way. Despite claiming the plan was pretty much bulletproof, and he had some of the most reliable sources for all his information, Dexter had still somehow missed the fact that the fucking Emperor had come to talk to his son. A huge factor that had turned everything upside down. Not only had they been made unwilling witnesses to the heir of Arasaka murdering his own fucking father, the entire hotel going up on alert had sent literal shockwaves through their oh-so-foolproof plan. 

V and Jackie couldn’t get back out through the elevator and ended up shimmying along the literal edge of the balcony, with a fucking glass roof on one side, and a sheer drop on the other. And because everything had gotten completely screwed, they’d had to take the glass roof option. The rush of adrenaline and fear coming from sliding down the tilted roof, with dozens of bullets raining down way too close to their backs, was nothing compared to having pain ripple through them as every last breath was knocked out of them.

Then there had been the sense of terror, sending chills down V’s spine, when they turned to Jackie and saw the blood seeping through his white-collar shirt. The knowledge that they somehow had even less time than they thought. That was...honestly...V didn’t think anything could have been worse than that. Looking up from the scarlet red, to the sudden paleness of Jackie’s face. A face that looked more in shock than anything else, eyes hinting at the fear he quickly tried to hide behind his usual jokes and bravado. 

V had barely taken her eyes off of him the entire time, terrified that every time they looked over, he’d be dead on the floor. But, somehow, against the odds of that stomach-turning injury- and the countless waves of Arasaka guards armed to the teeth, they’d made it. Made it out, the chip safe and secure in Jackie’s head, to the relative security of the Delamain vehicle. Where V had almost let out a laugh at the fact they’d made it.

Only for Jackie to bleed to death in the back seat, while she was powerless to stop it. The feeling of his blood seeping out over her fingers, bunching her jacket up against the wound, had somehow been fucking nothing compared to how he’d reached out to touch her face and smile. That same crooked, warm smile, eyes shining like this wasn’t the last time they’d be doing so. Or how her heart had finally shattered into a million pieces when that hand fell down, and his body went slack. Honestly, no amount of alcohol or drugs that Night City could offer would ever get that out of her memory. 

V knew it would haunt her nightmares for years, if those ever stopped. Then there was those first moments without Jackie, with her stumbling out of the car covered in her best friend’s blood. With the scarlet fucking covering her up to the elbows, staining her own white shirt the same way it had ruined Jackie’s. 

She could remember stumbling into the motel, and before she had it in her to find her way to Dexter’s saferoom, there had been a thought just as terrifying as the idea of Jackie’s body being back in the car waiting for her. 

The thought of having to take Delamain round to Mama Welles’ place and show her that her son was gone.

And as if that wasn’t enough of a clusterfuck for her mind to deal with, she’d then been left reeling with the bitter sting of betrayal. Panicking in a way that showed the exact opposite of the slick, cool gangster he always portrayed, Dexter had shot her in the fucking head. After his goon had beat her to a fucking pulp. Which, of course, V assumed would be the end. A world class beating and a bullet to the brain did tend to bring an end to someone’s life. Well, the bullet would do that by itself. All the implants in the world couldn’t save you if your mind was completely fucked. 

But somehow she’d fucking made it through that. Left in a pained daze as confusion overrode any sense of fear or anger. Jackie had died. Why hadn’t she? There was a bullet in her head, so why the hell wasn’t she wherever you went when you died. If there was ever any such place, that is.  Why had she somehow survived, not only through said beating + bullet, but through the insane fucking car chase after? 

That had ended in a crash that almost took out the guy who pulled her through all that.

As if all of those events weren’t consecutive, metaphorical and literal hits to the heart, there was then the mind-fucking revelation that followed. That the relic wasn’t just any piece of fancy tech. No. Well, sure, it was a fancy piece of tech. But it was also so much more. As were the memories V had previously believed were some kind of hallucination. This piece of tech, buried in their own fucking head, was a digital construct. Something that was almost like a human soul . Which was mind blowing as it was. 

But then there had been the moment V realised the truth of what Viktor was saying to them. 

They had Night City legend Johnny Silverhand in their head. His construct had been what Dexter and Evelyn had risked everything for. What Jackie had given his life for. 

Yeah, the guy was no doubt a terrorist. But there had been some kind of method to the guy’s madness. And even with that, they couldn’t work out how to feel. Yeah, the idea of being wiped clean was fucking terrifying, but the fact that neither of them would be able to do anything about it? That changed things. V thought the tech was conscious in its decision to take over her body. But it was just that. A piece of tech, going on what it had been programmed to do.

Of course, they were still terrified. They’d beaten death once, only to have it looming at their back again. But there was some sliver of hope. The guy who saved them, Goro Takemura, had ultimately saved V because they were the only other living witness to the Emperor’s murder, but their first meeting had given V that hope. He’d given them some leads to follow, promising more information if V helped out on his end. 

And that had been just enough to keep V going. Whilst they’d yet to see any sort of physical manifestation of Silverhand’s construct, what they were dealing with outside of that was still more than any sane person would want to deal with. They’d found out, in the absence of her return, Delamain had returned Jackie’s body to his family. 

Meaning some strange, shot up car had arrived on Mama Welles’ doorstep, carrying her son’s broken and bloody body.

Facing the woman after that had been almost as terrifying as staring their oncoming death in the face. But she’d shown V compassion they still didn’t believe they’d deserved, including them in every part of Jackie’s memorial celebration, letting them contribute to the ofrenda and speak of just some of the many fond memories V had of her son. Who had been taken from the world far too fucking early, right when they’d really started their climb to the top. 

Then there had been the sucker-punch of emotions that resulted when the woman gifted Jackie’s motorcycle to her. The piece of hardware he’d saved up for months to get, buffing it up and tweaking it every chance he’d got. The one vehicle he never, ever, let V drive. 

God, that...that had been something else. Picking up the keys, turning them in the ignition, and being sent to their knees by the rush of memories that resulted. Memories that turned into an agonising blur, sending spikes of pain into their head, leaving V unable to move from where they’d knelt against the unforgiving ground.

That, of all places, had been the first time Johnny Silverhand had showed up. In the flesh, so to speak- standing before V almost as clear as a real fucking person. It was also the time they learned that a hell of  alot of the stories about the guy were true. If she had his memories, he had hers, so he’d no doubt have known the sequence of events that brought him here. 

But he’d still gone into some kind of rage, taking control of V’s body for a few terrifying moments, scattering some of the clutter that Jackie had clustered in every corner of his garage. Slamming her head against the fucking wall . The guy had been fucking terrifying, all but holding V by the throat, going off on some tangent about how he now had a chance to end the shit he’d started with Arasaka half a decade ago, with that fucking bomb that wiped out damn near all the tower- the blast of orange light shattering every single window in a several mile radius. 

A blast that had been powerful enough to shake the foundations of the buildings around the tower, in a way that signalled the start of something. Or what Johnny wanted to start back then, at least.

V shouldn’t have expected much more from someone who was a known anarchist, but they did. Because in a way they’d been dodging talking about, they knew a hell of a lot more about Silverhand than they were letting on. How he’d not seen certain memories, V wasn’t sure. But they were grateful to that twist of fate. Because yeah, they knew way more than they should. That was an understatement. When they���d been tossed from foster home to foster home after their parents died in an armed robbery, one of the few things V had been able to do to escape it all had been through getting into music. 

One of the handful of friends she had at her last home, before turning 16, had saved up from this little waitressing job they had at some tiny diner- all so they could gift V with a retro music player she’d been coveting. It was second hand, perhaps a few times over, bought from some old rocker- but it was one of the best gifts they’d received.

At first, they’d thought about using the tech skills they’d learned in their research outside of school to wipe the device clean. But something had stuck out. The device showed up the album covers on the screen, but would also play a holographic image of the main performers via a tiny projector in the device itself. And, bored of waiting for other music to download through the home’s crowded, outdated internet, they settled in to scroll through what the old rocker had left on there. One particular album had stood out to them amidst the black and silver of metal and old rock. 

It was a dark cover, upon which was set a distinct logo. A black and red Samurai-type mask, eyes seeming to be set ablaze even as a still image. When they’d selected it, they saw the projection. Admittedly, it was a bit fucked up- blurry and glitchy in places. Not in as high quality as the rest; clearly recorded by a fan in the audience. 

Patched together. But patched together in a way only a devoted fan could. 

That, and the bright-ass logo, convinced V to listen.

And that had been it, pretty much. They’d gone through the entire album in one sitting, and that was all they listened to for three days straight. At first, it was just the general tune and the lead singer’s voice that drew her in. But then she started really listening to the lyrics, and that’s what truly started her down that twisted rabbit hole. She started digging into who Samurai were, and, more specifically, who their lead was. They were a proper, kind of old school rock band, who had a pretty decent and dedicated following. 

But they never went mainstream. Which, given their lyrics and what happened with Silverhand, made sense. When V first read about how Johnny Silverhand started a one-man war against Arasaka, the figurehead of the monopolising corporations that had taken over the world, they were hooked pretty much instantly. They saw and heard way too many stories growing up on the streets, of shops being taken over and homes being demolished for shiny skyscrapers and luxury hotels. 

Of how the streets became laden with neon logos and signs blaring into your vision as far as your orbital implants could see. How they held a terrifying amount of control over the NCPD and major leadership positions. That the city was basically a monopoly board for the ultra rich to play in. To fuck with in whatever way they saw fit.

So yeah, like any sane person (or angsty teen) would do, V found themselves in Samurai’s music. And as the years went by, and they learned more about Silverhand and how he’d somehow managed to bring down Arasaka’s own fucking tower in Night City- at the cost of his own life now less- for the chance at bringing down the megacorporations ruining people’s lives, they found it being a part of themselves. Especially as they got into the mercenary gig at 18 and started working their way up, seeing the deepest and darkest parts of Night City’s underworld. 

Ok, it was kind of an obsession. 

But it wasn’t only an ideal that V could get behind, it was also an escape from the chaos of her life. 

Fucking hell, she even spent a huge chunk of her first well-paying job on tracking down and obtaining one of Silverhand’s original guitars. Sure, him and Samurai weren’t the only band with posters and memorabilia decorating her apartment walls (which she carefully took down and carried with her as she moved from place to place), but they were definitely the majority of it. There was even an original poster, taken and edited by a photographer who got into one of Samurai’s last concerts. 

A photo of Silverhand all but screaming into the mic, one hand on said microphone, and the other on a gun that gleamed as silver as his cybernetic arm. The crowd reaching out to him amidst a haze of blazing lights and dense smoke.

Which, after all that and a string of events that were like something out of an old Hollywood action movie, left V where she was now. After spending 3 days hopping around Night City, taking on job after job, and switching between motels, they’d finally gotten the courage to go back to their apartment. Because yeah, they were definitely still scared shitless about the idea of their brain essentially being wiped clean. But the immediate issue was that, in the few days she’d had with him cropping up everywhere, she’d gotten to know Silverhand a bit. 

The guy still scared her half the time; not that she’d admit that to his fucking smug (and annoyingly good-looking) face, but the other half of the time? He was pretty interesting. Definitely still holding on to a metric tonne of anger towards Arasaka, and more blunt and abrasive than any person she’d ever met, but interesting. Beneath the layers of anger and resentment, as well as more cockiness than one person should ever fucking possess, there was hints at the shit beneath all that. 

Of who Johnny was, beyond the legend attached to his name.

So yeah, that left them stuck outside the door of V’s apartment, Johnny crossing his arms as he leant back against the wall with a huff- the former being more than a little afraid to open the door. They’d lucked out with the memories of hers that he’d seen so far, but that was going to run out sooner or later. Especially with the both of them being on borrowed time. So it was better to get this shit out of the way sooner, rather than later. 

Didn’t make the prospect any more appealing, of course. She knew how Johnny felt about the so-called fanatics and groupies. Good for a one night stand, but nothing else. 'Just following the slightest sense of fame' as he put it. So V could only imagine how he’d react to not only seeing a room half full of Samurai memorabilia, but also the knowledge he was stuck in the body of the owner of said memorabilia. 

One of the ‘wild fans’ he’d said he despised. Sure, V wasn’t exactly ashamed of liking Silverhand’s music (or him, because fuck) but having your teenage hero seeing a room full of his band’s shit was on another level.

And she couldn’t even duck away afterwards. They were literally stuck together for the foreseeable future.

Fuck.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck fuckfuckfuck.

“Any reason you’re stood there with your eyes wide as hell, like your fucking brain already got wiped?” Johnny spoke up, abruptly bringing her back to the present.

“No. No reason.” V shrugged, hoping to appear nonchalant whilst internally screeching.

“Something in there you don’t want me to see?” Johnny showed up in the corner of her vision, leaning against the wall. “Can’t be any worse than the shit out here.”

“You that interested in seeing my apartment?”

“With the alternative being stuck in your head staring at a fucking door, yeah. I am.”

Okay, he was definitely getting more and more pissed off as the seconds ticked by. To be fair, she had been staring at the door trying to gather the courage to open said door...for about...five minutes. Truth be told, she was surprised Silverhand lasted that long. Guy wasn’t exactly one for being patient. 

Which was the understatement of the fucking century. But the idea of him fucking her up for making him wait was somehow, somehow, worse than the idea of who was basically her (he was an anarchist asshole, but damn if the guy didn’t make a good point sometimes) idol growing up, seeing her apartment plastered in his band’s memorabilia. There was already an onset of cringe overtaking V’s system, grimacing as she anticipated the barrage of fucked up questions that would be coming her way- but somehow she finally got in in her to swipe the key across her door. 

At least she hadn’t left it in a fucking mess like she normally did. 

That would be something.

When Johnny casually walked through her to examine the apartment, V stepped in after him, the door sliding shut agonisingly loud behind her. Those first few seconds were some of the longest of her life, and given all the shit that had happened recently, especially what got her to this bizarre fucking moment in the first place- that was saying something. Saying something. Which was, V realised, something that Silverhand wasn’t doing. 

In the few days they’d spent together, he rarely shut up. So this was about as miraculous as her rising from the fucking dead. Of course, the silence had it’s drawbacks- V could practically feel the tension rising...as Johnny scanned the room. As he no doubt saw the countless Samurai poster variations amidst the swathes of rock memorabilia. And, of course, landed on the huge fucking poster of him on the opposite wall. 

Which went literally floor to ceiling, beaming out amidst the cluttered apartment like the fucking neon lights of the city outside.

Something that made the silence all the more-

“Hey, V?” Johnny spoke up abruptly.

“...yeah?” V braced herself.

“What the fuck?”

V opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a nervous laugh. Sure, she was mildly terrified, but the way he just said it so deadpan and blunt as he slowly turned halfway- eyebrows raised so fucking high you could see it above those trademark sunglasses...it was honestly one of the funniest things she’d ever seen and heard. 

It somehow sounded simultaneously unlike him, without any of the usual spite or anger, but so much like what she’d expected all the same. He sounded a mixture of disappointed, and outright freaked the fuck out. Which was...understandable. The guy had been brought back from the dead, stuck in some random ass stranger's body, only to walk into their apartment to see half of the wall was like some fucked up poster shrine to him and his band. 

Yeah. V could understand his reaction. Didn’t make it any less hilarious. (Or make her any less scared of the inevitable fallout, but hey)

“You gone deaf or something? Relic malfunction?” Johnny tried getting her attention. “I said...what the fuck, V?”

“I...uh...can...explain?” V spoke hesitantly, hands raised in mock (no, totally real) surrender.

“Uh huh. Really?” Johnny didn’t look or sound convinced, arms crossing in front of his chest as he turned to fully face her. “Going to make this worse and tell me what I think is going on?”

“What...do you think...is going on?”

“This shit isn’t in bad condition, but I can tell its old as fuck.” Johnny gestured to the wallpaper-like swathe of posters. “And not because its Samurai shit either.”

“So…” V wrung her wrists together nervously.

“You’ve probably had it since you were like, what? A fucked up hormonal teenager?”

“I…”

“Great.”

“Look, this-”

“Is somehow worse than waking up in your body?”

“Hey!”

“How would you feel if you rose from the fucking dead and found a shrine to yourself?”

“It is not a shrine- ”

“Sure looks like it.”

“Don’t flatter yourself-”

“Says the asshole with a huge fucking poster of me on their living room wall.”

“How am I an asshole?”

“Because this shit is weird, V!”

“Liking a band is a bad thing?”

“No. Having a fucking shrine is-”

“IT’S.NOT.A.SHRINE!”

Yeah, V was definitely considering that she was going crazy. Here she was, after almost pulling off the most insane heist Night City in years, the death of her best friend- and rising from the dead...arguing with the digital construct of the guy she’d looked up to for half her fucking life. Over whether her (admittedly kind of oversized) poster of said idol made up the centerpiece of some kind of shrine. If you’d told her this was what her life would amount to, trying to defend her teenage-borne obsession with an indie rock band to their resurrected anarchist/terrorist lead singer, she wouldn’t have believed you. 

Not even after overdosing on every fucking drug Night City had to offer.

God, worse than the insanity was how fucking embarassed she felt. Because even she was starting to realise how weird it would be for Silverhand to wake up in someone’s head, only to walk into their apartment and see said person was pretty much obsessed with him. Because yeah, she had to admit to herself it was an obsession.

 How could you blame her? The guy’s music was pretty fucking awesome, he had somewhat understandable views on corporate overlords... and he was probably one of the most attractive guys to ever walk the streets of Night City.

But he hadn’t seen every poster yet. He’d turned back round, talking about something V couldn’t hear over the rising mix of terror and cringe running through her veins, fixated on that huge-ass poster of him on the wall opposite them. And he’d yet to almost crack his voice with another what the fuck , meaning yeah. He hadn’t seen every poster. 

Namely, the one she’d stuck on the square wall behind her bed. Which was worse than the gigantic one taking up a quarter of one of her living room walls. It was some reporter’s photo from a backstage venture at one of Samurai’s concerts. (Taking up that whole section of wall) Silverhand was sitting on top of an unused amplifier, looking at someone outside of the camera’s point of view. Signature vest top nowhere to be seen, leaving him shirtless. In those stupid tight leather pants and boots combo. With his trademark sunglasses on. Smoking a cigarette, smirking, skin shining-

Possibly the thirstiest fucking image that photographer could have taken.

“V?” Johnny snapped her out of it.

"What?" V bit back.

Shit, she’d gotten distracted by the somewhat spicy photo. (Another thing she’d take to her fucking grave) She had to move while his attention was still on the other poster. Because if she could just cross the few feet over to her bed, unnoticed, she could carefully pull the poster down and stash it under the bed. She could say some shit about how yeah, it was pretty fucking weird, and take down the other one after.

Yeah, if V could just make it across the floor, she’d get through this with at least a shred of her dignity intact.

However, Fate (the bitch) seemed to have even more fucked up plans for her.

Because today, of all days, in this one shitty moment…

Her foot landed on the creakiest fucking patch of flooring in the entire goddamn apartment.

Johnny instantly turned to face her, downed eyebrows raising once more when he took in her almost cartoon-like sneaking stance. Even though she knew she looked fucking ridiculous, V couldn’t quite bring herself to move. She was literally frozen in fear, knowing that any second now...

“The hell are you-” Johnny started, before turning his head.

As he started to follow her line of sight, V relaxed her cartoon pose and started slyly backing away, (Like that would help her. The guy was literally stuck in her head) following his gaze. When his eyes finally crossed over to her bed, V felt herself get struck with the hugest fucking sucker-punch of cringe she’d felt since she was the angsty teenager that had inadvertently gotten her into this mess.

But then Johnny finally fixed his eyes upon the shirtless photo of him, stuck up next to her bed of all places.

“Oh for fuck’s sake-”

[meimi-haneoka]

LOL....Chapter 42.

I mean, I might have become quite boring by now because ALL the chapters I use these shocked gifs, but.....I can’t help it, every time the chapters bring some shocking factor!! XD

Let me just start this reaction post with one happy announcement:

Remember my battles against illegal early spoilers on the internet? How it hurt the fandom (because people who wanted to wait for the official release were forced to avoid social media or block stuff) and the franchise as well?

Well, I’m glad to announce that chapter 42 has been the first chapter ever to not have any early spoilers leaked before the official releases, ever since Clear Card started in July 2016. It took almost 4 years and a revolution by the hands of CLAMP to obtain this result (with the early release of chapters FOR FREE on the official website in 6 languages).

Beware, I’m not celebrating just yet because next month we may get spoilers circulating again, but this chapter was really nice to be discovered all together, legally, without hurting anyone? It was a nice feeling and since it seems we might be approaching the finale, I think it’s important that we enjoy these chapters all together in a proper way.

Well, after this introduction, let’s delve into Chapter 42 of Clear Card!!

Kaito is a walking dead man

I loved the color splash page. It always makes me happy to see Akiho and Sakura together, but this time the theme is a lot more serious. This is getting intense and the color page reflects that. This is also the first black background in a while, I always loved illustrations with black background even in the old manga.

Sooo last chapter we were left with Sakura overthrowing Kaito’s time magic and still conscious and moving. And shocked to see Syaoran and Kaito fighting. Of course Kaito needs to put a patch on this, because he knows Sakura is that powerful, but he doesn’t want her to know any of this, so he starts to “attack” her with time magic, I believe? And prince charming cleverly thinks that he might better call forth the strongest Sakura Cards in the deck, just to be sure to protect Sakura adequately. Even Kaito recognizes that was a wise move. Sakura is more confused than ever, behind the spirit shield formed by Light & Dark.

Syaoran is so fucking fed up with this that he demands to know why Kaito is here in Tomoeda. He candidly admits that he wants Sakura to produce the new Cards. Syaoran is like “No shit, Sakura’s already been producing a shitton of cards” “But she hasn’t produced the one I want”. When Syaoran asks which card that would be, Mr. I-am-an-asshole-and-I-know-it replies “If I told you that, I fear you’d get terribly angry”

Guys, the glare Syaoran gives Kaito after this one is like.......death sentence. The amount of rage accumulated in this short kid is frightening. Syaoran might be cool and composed, but y’all remember his temper at the beginning of the old manga, right? That wasn’t “just because”, it’s still part of his personality XDD he was taming his rough sides of his personality for Sakura, but for Sakura he’s well ready to pull them out at any convenience.

Meanwhile, we aren’t sure if Sakura is listening to the heated conversation or not, but I think she isn’t because she keeps shouting “what’s going on?? What happened??” even after Kaito straight up said he’s after her Cards. Seeing her struggling and reaching from behind Light & Dark, who are restraining her, is kinda.....giving me TRC war flashbacks. Yes. You might have seen the tweet that is making me earn lots of “WHY CINZIA”, but I’m like this, I’m an ugly bitch who needs to suffer in company. I’ll make a separate TRC/CCS comparison post after ages, for this. XD

The highlight of the chapter

Kaito reveals that he knows that Syaoran came back to Japan after his mother had a divination of the future that he absolutely needs to stop. And, at that moment, ladies and gentlemen....

IT’S HER. THE STAR OF THE CHAPTER. THE ONE THE FANDOM DREAMED OF SEEING IN THE MANGA.

LI YELAN-SAMA.

This is a huge thing because a character that was exclusively in the anime canon-verse (even though that line has been more and more flimsy lately) appeared in the manga too. Syaoran’s mother, and the Li family in general, were often mentioned both in the old and new manga series, but CLAMP somehow were always careful to never show any graphical portray of it. Now, finally, after so long, we have Yelan appearing in the manga too, and she’s exactly like her anime counterpart. Regal, elegant, beautiful. I was literally trembling with excitement when I saw her!! It was.....gosh it was huge.

But one has to wonder: how the hell does Kaito knows about all this stuff? How much did he investigate on the Li family? It’s kinda easy to imagine when he could do that: for a period, Akiho and Kaito lived in Hong Kong. Right before coming to Japan.

We get, thanks to Kaito, the confirmation that nor he, nor Syaoran, were born with the gift of seeing the future. Kaito can, if he follows all the steps, see some glimpses till a certain degree, but nothing comparable to someone specialized in divination art, let alone a yumemi. Here it is, the cursed term so dear to CLAMP, indicating the ones who can see the future in dreams. Kaito says that Sakura can indeed see the future playing out in her dreams, but it’s a future far from being set in stone. She’s basically a beginner yumemi, with confusing and fragmented visions, I’d say. But when she will grow up, she will be a fully fledged yumemi. Kaito says that it’s for the strong people to decide how the future will go. And here we find again the thematic so dear to CLAMP, the future and the choices made to let it go in a direction, or another one. Kaito starts to call forth the Tina Rie Triax spell. Syaoran is like “the hell I’m letting you get away like this” and is preparing to counter-attack with Raitei Shorai, when The Queen™ decides she had enough and screams “NOOO!”, calling her staff on the spot and activating her power towards Syaoran, switching places with him! She literally forced him out of the picture and took his place!! 

The Queen takes agency

LOOK AT THAT FACE! LOOK AT IT WELL. It’s the same determination she had in this scene:

I knew we would see the results of that determination. When she saw the boy she loves risking his life with someone who was attacking him, she took agency and went to the front row.

You can’t keep Sakura in the sidelines like that.

Kaito is quite suprised by the move. Maybe because he doesn’t understand love or because he didn’t think she would take agency. Either way, Sakura is pointing her staff at him, the same way Syaoran was pointing his sword at him moments ago. You don’t mess with this child, Kaito.

And he must certainly know, because he mutters “That’s too bad” and rewinds time, basically chickening out of the picture. XD

Sakura is back with Tomoyo, Akiho, Sonomi and her father, but she knows something is wrong, and she walks away from them for a while to give birth to a new card!! TRANSFER is the name, and it’s the power she used to switch places with Syaoran. The fact is, she doesn’t remember nor she understands why the hell this card is here. 

While at home Kaito thinks to himself (smile always present but blatantly a mere mask) that he needs to hurry up or he’ll be in a fucking big mess because Sakura resisted his time-stopping magic and the Clear Card survived the time rewinding, Sakura at her own home is a nervous wreck. She calls Syaoran because she has the feeling she saw Light & Dark, they don’t remember, but Syaoran confirms that he feels something is off and has the feeling someone made them forget something. Sakura closes the call promising that she would inform him of anything that would come to her mind, but as she inadvertently knocks her Clear Cards off, they all fall facing backwards, save for one: BREAK.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how Chapter 42 ends. Leaving us wondering why Sakura is making this dismayed face. She’s either taking it as a bad omen, or she’s remembering what she saw when she captured BREAK, and what caused the birth of the card in the first place. Not only a soulless Akiho talking nonsense in a pretty dress, but also her boyfriend under the robe of the Mysterious Cloaked Figure. Seemingly about to hurt an unconscious Akiho. That is still an open wound in Sakura’s heart, and it’s pretty clear here.

Guys, what can I tell you, this chapter has been a mixture of wonderful surprises, painful TRC recalls, frustrating time rewindings that show us how Sakura and Syaoran are slowly realizing and fighting Kaito’s fuckery with time....I know a good chunk of the fandom doesn’t like this give-and-take-away, it always seems like the final battle is here, but we are tricked everytime. And yet, I do believe that once the story will be over, and after some time we’ll go back to read Clear Card, the time rewindings will show clearly how gradually Sakura was able to overcome and overthrow Kaito’s magic: first it was a finger, then it was an unexplicable sadness, now a new card and the impression to have seen things, and a general uneasiness because something feels off. The kids were even capable of realizing that they were made to forget something. I bet this graduality will feel more interesting and exciting when we’re not forced to wait 1 month between chapters.

Let me know what you think, too!

[the-blue-sandglass]

A SophBot’s Thoughts: Kingdom Hearts III - Why Yen Sid is Human Trash

Ah, we’ve been here before. 

But yes, as of kH3, I’ve grown to dislike this asshat. Here’s why! :D

So, how do we stop Xehanort? DO EXACTLY AS HE SAYS!

Now, this one isn’t as bothersome to me - though I do question it. I could be wrong and it might have been stated somewhere why exactly the heroes had to form the Seven Keyblade Wielders of Light to begin with, but none that I could recall - but if there is, feel free to correct me. I’m just going off what I know and remember.

Why did they have to be formed with that specific number? Why in story did they have to go as that group against that group? It’s doing exactly what Xehanort wants them to, and sure enough, how does everyone react when doing as he was wanting them to means he only needs one key left to forge the X-blade?

Who thought that was a good idea!? There were other ways of dealing with Xehanort, at least at the time. Why not go after one at a time? Why not have some people (LEA) use non-Keyblade weapons so that the ‘fated clash’ doesn’t occur? 

Granted, Xehanort being Xehanort, likely would and could have ended up turning the tides so that there was no other choice but to fight him under those circumstances. But when he hasn’t done that yet, why make it easier for him to complete his plans?

Technically this could have went for all of the main heroes, but I’m looking at Yen Sid specifically for this because he’s meant to be the one guiding them. He should know that doing this has a high risk, if not an 100% chance of helping Xehanort’s plans! 

Thanks for the reminder! Not like he went through it...oh WAIT.

Now, I could discuss quite heavily whether or not Sora should have been failed for his Mark of Mastery, and there’s arguments for both sides. So that’ll be a discussion for another day. But my issue doesn’t lie there, even though holding something so important like a Mark of Mastery with a separate conflict while not making sure there wasn’t outer factors kicking in is sketchy to me, but again, I don’t know how it all works so I can’t say for sure he had a way of knowing.

My issue lies with how Yen Sid speaks to Sora about the events of DDD.

Take this one here, as I'm gonna tear it apart.

“Your Mark of Mastery exam was conducted in the hopes you would acquire the power to wake them. However, the darkness nearly took control of you, and your grasp of your new abilities leaves much to be desired. Furthermore, Xehanort nearly made you his vessel, and in the process stripped you of most of the power you had gained by then. I suspect you have already noticed this, correct?”

Sora already knows all of this. I’d get telling somebody like Kairi this, as she wasn’t there for the exam and wouldn’t have known about it until someone told her about it.

Of course he’s noticed this! It would be impossible for him not to. So why the hell would you reinforce it, it’s like rubbing salt in a wound that’s still open.

And I get telling new players about this - but one...why would a new player start with what’s labelled as at least the third game? Especially since the PS4 (which a majority of players are likely to have) has a game that offers the first game, Chain of Memories, what’s basically a cutscene compilation of 385/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, what’s basically a cutscene compilation of Re:coded, and the same console also has 2.8, which offers Dream Drop Distance, A Fragmentary Passage and a movie of X Back Cover. It’s not that difficult to figure out what happened last time, especially when KH3′s been hyped enough to be the grand finale of the Dark Seekers arc. 

But, that aside, why does Yen Sid have to remind someone who went through the traumatic experience about what he went through and how it’s impacted him as if he’s an outsider who had little involvement with it? Story-wise, how in god’s name is that remotely helpful!?

Speaking of not being too helpful...

Did Yen Sid get amnesia about who Terra was?

Like, I don’t want to offend anyone who’s a fan of Lea. I really don’t. I like the guy too! He’s funny, he’s cool, he’s got some great lines, I’m fond of his friendship with Kairi in the game, his interactions with Isa in this game are also wonderful. Butttt...I feel he was sort of forced into this role that he wasn’t really made for to begin with. Something tells me between DDD and III they swapped some roles about...namely because of this line that I mentioned before.

Those three missing friends being, as I've said, Ven, Aqua and Terra. And yet...most people just kinda ignore the latter exists in this game, and as someone who’s actually quite fond of him, it’s quite sad. He’s namely spoken of by Aqua and Ventus when they come back, and Sora for a brief moment. If Mickey does, I can’t remember when.

But to an extent, I can sort of understand, Lea being around and having a Keyblade as well as the help he’s offered so far, he’s an easier option to have at the time of the game’s events. I just feel Terra would have fitted better thematically - what a better way to conclude his character arc by having him return to the side of the light to help fight against the man who hurt so many and wronged him so much? Alas, we don’t get to see...well, much of any of that. I know that’s more of a general writing problem, but I thought I'd note it here as very few in this game seem to really care about the guy anymore, Yen Sid included, especially since it’s not the first time he does something like that, and the fact that he didn’t really bother to state outright that Xehanort could be up to something suspicious (all he says is that he may be linked to the Unversed, and in that case, you could say Ven is too, say what you mean!) And as for not caring about him in general, see the scene in Birth by Sleep when Aqua is in the Mysterious Tower after Ven’s heart shatters and Terra disappears.

Amateur Hour

Onto something in a similar vein - why send two Keyblade warriors in when they have all the time in the world to train and become powerful, and when they’re clearly not ready and one of them has next to no serious battle experience? Xehanort’s relying on the heroes to fall into the seven lights category, so why not get everyone as powerful as possible? That way even if the X-blade ends up forged, everyone will be equipped to send Xehanort packing and destroy the X-blade again. Hell, at least give the pair of them some battle experience so that when a true threat pops up, Kairi doesn’t freeze up. It’s not her fault - she’s only fought Shadows before, she’s not been in a situation like that before.

Her first proper battle with a Keyblade...is the final battle. Who thought that was a good idea!?

And what happens? As you’ll have seen - Lea’s Keyblade gets broken, and Kairi gets kidnapped...again, and later killed.

That plan turned out great. And now, my biggest issue with this guy...

The Power of Waking

There’s a reason why I left this to last. Namely because it’s probably the worst thing this guy’s done - all through inaction. 

I think this is something you’ve all noticed - throughout the game, Yen Sid is constantly pounding in that Sora has to get the Power of Waking, over and over again. What is one thing he doesn’t do?

MENTION OVERUSE OF THE DAMN THING COULD KILL HIM.

And there’s not even any physical side effects from what I’ve seen, so the only thing Sora had that told him there was danger in the Power of Waking was Young Xehanort telling him about it. That guy he literally has no reason to trust! Yet he tells you more about the dangers than Yen Sid does.

Combined with literally falling into Xehanort’s plans, sending out someone who was still learning into the final battle (as her first battle as well) and pushing for this power to be found without explaining the responsibilities of it, all of this is why I blame him a lot for what happens to Sora at the end. They still could have had this ending without changing too much. There’s an awesome video by SirSkyward on YouTube called Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Written that shows a way you can do it, which actually addresses quite a few of these problems of mine. But that’s alas not what happened in canon. Not only does this lead to Sora getting caught up in another of Xehanort’s traps, AGAIN, not only does him sending in Kairi too early lead to her not being ready and getting killed to ‘motivate’ Sora (I’ll get to that shitshow when I talk about her, don’t you worry-) thus causing the boy to sacrifice himself just to save her life.

Thanks for that, Yen Sid. 

[chemicalmagecraft]

The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 14

A/N: So I've been thinking, and do you guys think I should post my fanfics on Archive of our Own too? I know some people prefer AO3, plus if anyone makes fanart of a certain scene then I could, with permission of course, be able to put it on there (wink wink nudge nudge i have a tumblr). Plus there's that whole thing about how AO3 has lawyers and stuff to protect their fanfic writers. That's pretty cool.

Kyrianae Narii: Yeah people would totally call Izuku one of the fathers of modern magic. I mean, I wouldn't. If anything, he's the grandson of modern magic. (¬‿¬)

xoxoxo

I closed all of the text boxes I'd gotten now that we were back at Yuuei, the police were done taking our statements, and just waiting for our parents to show up on account of the fact that they didn't want to let us go just yet unless it was with a relative. My level jumped from twenty-eight straight to thirty-six after taking out the Nomu. It made sense, it was so above my level that I couldn't even see how much it was above my level. Plus I got another title, Giant Slayer, for having beaten more than one opponent with a level at least fifty over mine, the other one probably being the zero-pointer. It gave me a small offense and defense boost for every level over mine an enemy was, which I knew almost immediately would get less and less useful as time went on, even if it was very good at the moment. I was already level thirty-six, and it was the first semester. Not to mention, depending on how it worked, it was entirely possible that it'd make me weaker against weaker opponents. Of course, I wasn't the only one who leveled up in the USJ. I looked over at Uraraka, who was sitting next to me.

Megalovania

LV 23

Uraraka Ochako

Apparently she'd stopped Kurogiri for so long by using gravity to slam him into the ground and then making him fall in another direction whenever he tried to make a warp gate to get away. It was apparently really effective, at least until he managed to trick Uraraka into throwing him into a portal. She had a really intense look on her face still, and I could feel my weight fluctuating from the gravity mana she was unconsciously releasing.

"I apologize deeply for not being able to help more," Iida said to Uraraka.

She sighed and lightened up. And I mean literally lightened up; the gravity effect stabilized, causing her chair to stop creaking. "No, you did fine. I just couldn't help feeling like... Like maybe if I noticed that portal sooner, I would've been able to do cancel out Thirteen's Black Hole..."

"I-I'm sorry!" Nebula said.

Uraraka smiled and ruffled her starry hair. "No, you're fine."

"B-but I couldn't help at all, you did everything..."

"There'll always be next time," she said. Nebula sniffled. "Let's... change the subject for now. What the heck was that thing you did to the giant monster?"

"Yeah," Kirishima shouted, quieting the general conversations that were going on, "that was super manly!"

"I would also like to know," Tokoyami said.

I felt my face heat up a bit and rubbed the back of my neck. Almost everyone who was still there was staring intently at me as they waited for my explanation. "So, you guys know how my Quirk works like a video game, right?" They nodded. "So one factor of this I almost never use is that I get points for leveling up that I can use to raise my stats, and I used that to raise my WIS, which gave me three new skills. One of those was Duality, which raised my elemental affinity and gave me access to secondary elements, one of which was lightning."

"I told you, Kaminari!" Jirou shouted, pointing at him. Yaoyorozu smiled awkwardly and put her arm on Jirou's shoulder.

"And then I got a much better version of Elemental Aura from raising its level enough called Elemental Embodiment when fighting the Nomu, which was what I used to beat it."

"So that's why it looked like you were teleporting," Hagakure said.

"Yeah, though it wasn't really teleportation," I said. "I just spilled a lot of water on the floor and conducted myself through it in Lightning Embodiment."

"Dang, that's pretty awesome," Kaminari said. "I wish I could do that."

"Well if you practice Lightning Aura enough, you might be able to do it. To use Elemental Aura, you infuse your body with elemental mana. Elemental Embodiment is just that, but... more," I explained. "Sorry I can't give you more for that, but I only used it three times in the middle of battle and the downside of automatically learning things with my Quirk is that it's a little hard to explain how to do them sometimes unless I concentrate really hard on what I'm doing."

"Nah, it's cool, man. I'm sure I can figure it out eventually."

"And by the way," Kacchan said. "You probably shouldn't use a spell that makes you generate electricity all over your body anywhere near anything sensitive to electricity. Not at first anyway." He paused for a moment. "Actually with your Quirk, you should probably know how the fuck that shit goes."

Kaminari gave a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, I learned that lesson already."

"What were the other two?" Sero asked. "You said you got three WIS skills, right?"

"Yeah. There's Tactician, which just lets me think better and automatically gives me information on my skills as I need them, but only when in a battle or crisis. The other one..."

Mantra (Passive) LV1 EXP: 52.19%

Mantra is a sacred utterance, words to live by. This skill represents the ability to change one's meditation into an internal mantra when not in danger, providing some of the benefits of meditation without the downside.

Allows the use of Meditation as a passive when not in times of high exertion and/or stress, but with 1/5th the effect.

Stacks with Meditation.

"Mantra is interesting. I can't use it in battle, but it basically turns another of my skills, Meditation, into a passive at the cost of some of its effect. That pretty much means that my HP and MP regenerate a bit faster and, even more usefully, I can automatically train one stat aside from LUC at a time."

Slowly, we broke back up into our smaller groups and started talking to each other. "Hey Deku," Uraraka said, then pointed to Tsu, who was sitting alone. "Is it just me, or is Tsu-chan shaking a bit.

I winced. "Oh," I said. I'd asked her if she was okay after everything was over, on account of the part where she almost died, but she just said she was fine and I didn't even think to Observe her to check to see if that was the case. Though in hindsight doing that might have been an invasion of privacy. "She... almost got her face disintegrated. I think I might need to talk to her."

Uraraka got up, a serious look on her face. "No, I'll go."

xoxoxo

Tsuyu Asui felt like she couldn't breath, and her heart was pounding. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see that man's hand in front of her face. Her hands kept on shaking, even when she tried to stop.

"Are you okay, Tsu?" a familiar voice asked. "Deku said something about your face almost disintegrating, which sounded like it was really scary," Uraraka said.

Tsu took a deep breath, and tried to steady herself. She didn't want to worry any of her classmates. "I-I'm fine, Uraraka."

Uraraka sat down next to her. "You can call me Ochako, if you want. It's okay if you're scared, Tsu. I was terrified, and I didn't even get attacked." Tsu bit her lip. Her vision started to blur, and a hot tear rolled down her cheek. Ochaka held her arms out, offering a hug. "Do you want to cry on my shoulder." Tsu let out a small kero and leaned into her embrace, pressing her face to Ochako's shoulder. She sobbed and let the tears flow. "There," Ochako said. "Feel better?" Tsu nodded, face still on her shoulder. Ochako rubbed her back lightly. "That's good."

xoxoxo

"I feel shame as a class representative that I didn't notice how Asui was suffering," Iida said as he watched Uraraka comfort Tsu.

"Maybe you could see if anyone else needs a hug?" I offered.

"Ah, thank you, Midoriya. I will do that."

"Just remember," Kacchan said, "if someone's on the verge of a fucking panic attack, make absolutely fucking sure to use your fucking indoor voice."

"I know that," Iida said using his fucking indoor voice. He looked over at us. "Bakugou, Midoriya, are you two alright?"

"Oh my fucking what," Kacchan said flatly. "I'm pretty sure we're both fine!" He shooed Iida off. "Go, ask how everyone else is!"

"We're good, Iida," I said. "Koda looks a little nervous, maybe start with him?" I gave Iida a thumbs-up as he walked over to Koda.

I heard the tapping of a certain needle cane. "Midoriya-kun!" Recovery Girl said as she entered the room. "I'd like you to come to my office. I've patched up Erasor Head and Thirteen enough that I'm willing to let you get some hands-on experience."

"Right," I said. "I'm coming."

"Izuku!" my mom shouted, then grabbed me in her death grip of motherly worry. "Are you okay? I was so worried!"

"Katsuki!" Auntie Mitsuki shouted. "You damn well better be alright!"

"I'm fine, ma!" he shouted back to her.

"So you two must be Midoriya-san and Bakugou-san," Recovery Girl observed. "If you don't mind, Midoriya-san, I'd like to take your son to my office for a bit."

Mom stepped back a bit and inspected me. "Is Izuku hurt?"

"M-mom, I'm fine!" I said.

"Sorry, I think I should've worded that better," Recovery Girl said. "Midoriya-kun is fine, but I'd like to have him help with the actual wounded. He's taking my support hero courses, remember?"

"Oh, right!" Mom said. "How is my dear Izuku doing, by the way?"

"He's doing pretty well, which is why I want to borrow him for a bit. Plus, his healing spell can be safely used on people I've used my Quirk on because he's the one providing all the energy. I still need to learn it..."

"Right," I said. "If you don't mind, Mom, I'm going to go with Recovery Girl. I'll see you when I'm done."

She smiled at me. "Go on, sweetie."

xoxoxo

I looked over my new elemental affinities.

Air: 20

Earth: 20

Fire: 30

Water: 30

Bio: 20 (earth+water)

Ice: 20 (air+water)

Lightning: 20 (air+fire)

Molten: 20 (fire+earth)

Sonic: 20 (air+earth)

Vapor: 20 (fire+water)

I'd tested each combination of elements in Illusion Barrier just in case any of them were immediately explosive. The only one that did anything close to exploding, though, was sonic, which caused a low humming sound when I used it. Bio was... worrying at first, but I found that all it was was a combination of poison and plant, though I felt like maybe there might have also been some flesh manipulation in it that I wasn't quite willing to mess with just yet. It was interesting, though, using the secondary elements. Now that I was out of danger and able to properly concentrate on my magic, I noticed that it wasn't exactly fusing the elements together as I thought it was. If anything, it was more like using power that was less fragmented than the primary elements. It was odd but that was the best analogy I had. "Right," I said. "Is everything ready?"

"You do realize that this probably isn't the best idea, right?" Blaise asked, referring to the six ritual circles equidistant to my bed and in particular the molten lava and cup of boiling water he was keeping warm.

Halitus nodded. "Agreed."

"I'm going to be out of it either way, might as well speedrun it," I responded.

Rayne grinned widely. "I like it! We get all of the new weapon buddies at once!"

"Yeah, weapon buddies!" Dune agreed, happily pulling the cord on my I Am Here All Might action figure (with kung-fu grip).

"Right, let's start this," I said. I placed my hands in front of the circles, had Dune put the Laughing All Might in the empty circle to provide the sonic element, and activated the six rituals at once. "I, Midoriya Izuku, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee."

xoxoxo

I stirred from my sleep to the sound of a familiar explosion. "Suck it!" a slightly less familiar voice said. I opened my eyes to see several children that looked like they were roughly twelve, along with one girl who looked like she was ten, in varying states of corporeality. The boy whose voice I heard looked like he could have easily been Kaminari's younger brother, except for the odd-looking ears, the red spots on his cheeks, and a strange lightning-bolt tail. He had a yellow jacket with two brown stripes on it. My new lightning elemental, Raimon. He was holding one of the controllers of my Switch, and judging from his furious button presses he was the one who was playing the Pikachu that was winning. A lot.

"Cheater," Rayne whined. She'd gained even more dark blue on her clothes and hair, and she now had blue fingerless gloves with white knuckles. It looked like she was playing as Greninja. She wasn't very good with Greninja, though. I couldn't help but notice how Raimon and Rayne resembled the characters they were playing as. "I knew I shoulda picked the sword guy..."

"Which sword guy?" my vapor elemental, Claude, asked. He wore light, red body armor, had three spikes in his red hair, and for some reason reminded me of a lobster. "Aren't like half of them sword guys?"

"Thirteen of seventy-four," Halitus corrected. Halitus had changed a lot, actually. His hair was now sky-blue instead of his robes, and he had two long ponytails. His robes were fully made of the cloudy material with the exception of five blue tassels in the back that might have actually been some weird tail. He now had patches on his cheeks like Raimon, though his were white.

Claude rolled his eyes. "Same difference."

"Not even close, bro," the biggest of the elementals, Iggy, said. He was my new molten elemental. He had a red long-sleeved shirt with three blue circles on the sleeves and two large brown lumps on the back. His hair was also red with a few spikes, so he and Claude almost looked like they could have been brothers if not for his... camel ears? He had a red tail as well. "And I think it's my turn now." He put his intangible hands on Rayne's controller, and I felt a weird shift in the mana that was automatically leaving my mana pool as he and Rayne switched between being partially summoned and fully summoned. "Who else wants a go?"

Mifuyu, my ice elemental, switched with Raimon. "That would be me." Oddly enough for an ice elemental, she had dark red hair, eyes, and two tails. She was dressed in dark blue ninja clothes, like Rayne, but in a different shade. She had a small yellow gem on her forehead. Mifuyu picked Shiek and Iggy picked Dedede.

"So how are you guys able to summon yourselves?" I asked.

"That would be from my help," Pyra said. "It seems we elementals can summon ourselves, partially or fully, so long as our summoner can bear the strain of our summoning without a noticeable decrease in mana. Master Kacchan gained the strength to handle me recently, and it seems your current limit is three. With Sonia out regardless to allow us to be as loud as we want without waking your mother up, that meant that we've mostly been playing doubles matches."

"You're welcome, by the way," my sonic elemental said. She had a purple shirt, a black scarf, and black jeans. On her nose she had rounded triangular purple sunglasses that you could still see her golden eyes through and over her ears were some expensive-looking purple headphones. "Yeah, after the primary elementals filled us in on everything, Pyra showed up and told us how to summon ourselves so we could play some games to wait for you to wake up on your own."

"We did have some fun with a party game earlier," Juniper, my bio elemental, said. She had a blue-green dress with darker green patches on it. Around her neck she had a scarf that appeared to be made of green fronds, with a sort of brooch on the form of a pink bud. Her eyes were red, her hair was green, and she had pointed canine teeth. "I hope you don't mind too terribly. We didn't mess with anything and made sure not to mess with your saved data."

"Actually, if you guys want to make an account on that you totally can," I said. "I'm pretty sure that'll give you guys save files separate from mine."

"Let's do that later, then," Blaise said. His shirt darkened and the sleeves now had small patches of light blue on them. His scarf had changed to have long red ends with a few black dots on them. "For now we're just playing Smash."

"Can I join in next round?" I asked.

"Sure," Sonia said. "We still have an hour or so 'til morning, according to a few of your neighbours' clocks anyway."

"Hey, can I play next too?" Dune asked. Her clothes were now half camo and half solid black.

We played until the sun rose. It was fun.

xoxoxo

A/N: Just in case you didn't notice by now, Midoriya's The Gamer lacks the party level up feature that the original does. Only Midoriya can get more powerful from his Quirk.

And I bet you guys can tell at least one pairing I ship based on this chapter.

Now, for the elementals. First, I'd like to say this one thing. There is exactly ONE Pokémon that has the true power of steam, Volcanion, and I didn't want to bust out the legendaries just yet. So that meant I had to look over all of the Pokémon that can use Scald (the closest to a vapor spell I could find that wasn't Volcanion-exclusive) to figure out which one was the steamiest.

Juniper: Ivysaur

Mifuyu: Sneasel

Raimon: Pikachu, natch

Iggy: Camerupt

Sonia: Noibat

Claude: Corphish (insert morbid joke about steamed lobster here)

They're in their secondary stages (when applicable) because as intermediary elementals they're in the middle, in case you couldn't tell.

[animeride-blog]

Why Franky Is an Underwhelmed Strawhat ?! https://animeride.com/blogs/6785/why-franky-is-an-underwhelmed-strawhat/ #CyborbsInOnePiece, #Franky, #FrankyCyborg, #Luffy, #Nami, #Robin, #StrawHatPirates, #WhyFrankyIsAnUnderwhelmedCyborg, #Zoro

New Post has been published on https://animeride.com/blogs/6785/why-franky-is-an-underwhelmed-strawhat/

Why Franky Is an Underwhelmed Strawhat ?!

Spoilers btw

Iconic is a great word to describe the character design of the Straw Hat Pirates. Grouping each member in cover spreads or fanart just goes to show you how diverse these character’s are, with differences in apparel, physique, and even in genetic makeup (eye’s, hair color, skin color etc.) showcasing the individuality of these people and signifies what type of person they are.

Zoro’s scarred eye and life-threatening wound on his chest are reminders of his past losses, but his strong physique and serious expression reveals that despite these defeats, he is a man determined to move past these losses and not let them end his journey. Chopper’s hat, given to him by Dr. Hiriluk, who inspired him to become a doctor, while once without accessories, now is under a big blue cap, not only making him look more stylish than before and honestly exponentially cuter, but symbolizing Chopper’s determination to be a much more skilled doctor than his father figure, or to be above what Dr. Hiriluk was. I could and will make an entire blog revolving around their appearance, as not only are they stylish, expressive, and dissimilar to one another, but tell us a bit more about them as people. And the character whose design has the most going on of the Straw Hat’s, is Cutty Flam, known by fans and his crew as Franky.

And, on a superficial level, I do love his enhancements and color scheme. It does get across his eccentric side, his obsession with looking as cool as possible for all men to be amazed by, and like Chopper, made his model from before the time skip less bare-bones. However, what this design does bring to light is Franky’s biggest weakness compared to the rest of the cast, and it’s this weakness that make’s him my 2nd least favorite of the entire crew. It’s lack of depth in his character. Look at Franky again, and tell me what other aspects of his design convey more about his character that we are either unsure of or reinforces the importance of a certain trait. Aside from his eccentricity and style, what does his changing hairstyles throughout the different arcs say about his past? What does each modification tell us about Franky? Which leads to, at least for me, even bigger questions that are not only neglected in his appearance, but in his conception. Where does Franky’s eccentric and obnoxious behaviour come from? Aside from sticking around to keep the ship functioning, what issues does Franky deal with, what struggle is he going through?

And I say this after rewatching the 3 episode long backstory of the character in the Water Seven arc. While it still is effective at getting me to tear up, Franky’s difficult past doesn’t seem to affect him today all that much. Despite being thrown off a ship by his original parents, indirectly causing his mentor, Tom, to be executed, and even having to surgically rebuild his body after trying to stop an oncoming train from taking Tom to his execution, Franky, even in the Water Seven arc, still kept that obnoxious persona, still wore that pervy speedo, and still makes the same ridiculous pose as before. What did those event’s do to change Franky as a person?

While I do enjoy Franky in his fight scenes, his running gags, and in his interactions, he feel’s artificial compared to everyone else. He doesn’t seem to have any internal struggles from his past nor does it feel like he resolved them. And it’s even more disappointing because the potential struggle IS there.

For example, why don’t we expand on WHY he has such an outlandish behavior? Why does he have such a fondness for wearing speedos and striking poses? No one in his past ever acted that way, so he didn’t pick it up from anyone. It doesn’t seem like the way one would act from being faced with the horrible trauma that Franky went through. So what caused him to act the way that he does? As an obsessive One Piece fanatic, I honestly have no clue.

Compare that to Brook, a similarly peculiar character to Franky, who also enjoys attention; consistently making bad (amazing) jokes at his expense and even asking women to reveal their underwear outright. However, this make’s sense with the hardship’s that Brook dealt with in his past, being trapped on a ship alone for decades. Being away from any human interaction for such a long time must have taken a toll on Brook, and his eagerness to make as much skull jokes as possible fall’s in line with the idea that this is a man who crave’s that neglected necessity in remaining a sane individual.

While it may be a somber idea, I’d like Oda to reveal that the cyborgs aberrant behavior is Franky’s way to conceal his inner turmoil and regret over his past. Perhaps he act’s the way that he does in order to hide the fact that he is hurting inside. At some point in time, he may even believe that he’s gotten over the horrible event’s and that this bizarre behavior is how he always was, while constantly acting the same way because any moment where’s he’s not making a scene will have his mind trailing back to that past contrition. However, Oda hasn’t indicated that Franky is dealing with hardships, and is acting the way that he does to cope with his loss. At this point, it doesn’t matter WHY Franky act’s this way. What matters is that he IS.

Another direction you could take is focus on the most interesting aspect about his character; his modifications. Despite surgically implanting these modifications by himself, Franky doesn’t seem to be suffering any mental or physical consequences. And for a series that gives emphasis on Luffy’s 2nd gear shortening his lifespan, Franky’s continual upgrades and arsenal seem’s cheap. perhaps’ foreshadow the toll that these alterations are slowly having on his body. Give some limits on the guy, and show that if Franky continues on the same road that he’s on, with adjusting and refining his components, he will either get closer to death or even lose his individuality like Bartholomew Kuma. And who knows, maybe that’s where Oda is taking this character (Franky was the 1st one of the Straw Hat’s to find broken down Kuma at Saboady after the timeskip). But as of now, there hasn’t been much emphasis on this idea, and Franky hasn’t shown any signs of decomposing.

And while the subject of cybernetic enhancement is still up, let me ask you; what is Franky’s weakness? If you remember correctly, his back is the most vulnerable part of his body since he couldn’t modify it due to it being out of reach. Along with that is the fact that he can run out of fuel. However, I find that this rarely become’s a problem for him, with the fuel shortage playing a role in only Enies Lobby, and his imperfections in his cybernetic design, to my knowledge, was a factor incorporated in his fight with Señor Pink in Dressrossa. While I may or may not be missing some other occurrences where these weaknesses show themselves, the fact that I can only remember two occasions where these were prominent factors in an event has me feeling that these flaw’s are severely underutilized.

While there is potential conflicts and character flaws to expand on, none is utilized to make Franky a more realized character. Once Luffy find’s One Piece, will Franky have changed at all? At this rate, I don’t think so. And it’s this nagging issue that I have that has me laugh less wholeheartedly whenever Franky strikes an insane pose yelling super at the top of his lungs.

However, I don’t want to just end this blog on a negative note. And I surely don’t hate Franky. So, to end this, I would like to bring up the some of my favorite aspects about the character. His fight scenes are pretty great spectacles to behold, with my favorite fight of my favorite arc being his battle against Señor Pink. The ridiculousness of Franky’s character complements the dynamic of the rest of the crew, and can lead to some of the most hilarious moments in One Piece. While I don’t find his persona realistic in light of his past, he is consistent, and there was never a moment where I felt like he made an out of character decision. Also his voice actor was perfectly cast for his character.

Franky, whether you agree with my points or not, and (to be a bit more positive), let me know one thing that you love about the cyborg perv!

[undeadimpulsereviews]

One-Punch Man

Lets skip the formalities with this one and get right down to brass tacks; One-Punch Man is a shounen action manga from Mangaka ONE, and artist Murata Yusuke. It originally started as a web-comic from One; though, after gaining popularity among people it got it’s own manga adaptation, but why stop there. The fame grew after it was picked up by the well known shounen magazine, Shounen Jump; it’s specifically published in Tonari no Young Jump. It went on to get an anime adaption under Madhouse and currently is set to air a second season real soon. Now the anime started in 2015 and only ran for a total of twelve episodes for the first season; the manga was first started in 2012. Since then it’s been ongoing, and going strong. In Japan there are a total of thirteen volumes currently out, while here in the state there will be twelve volumes as of September 5th. That’s if you’re reading the manga physically of course; if you aren’t then you have up to chapter seventy eight, which is pretty much the fourteenth volume. As for me I’m technically not caught up; I don’t know what happens past volume eleven; I decided that if I was going to read the manga that I would support the work and buy the volumes. Now I didn’t start this manga when it first came to be, I initially heard of One-Punch Man from a friend; he was reading the manga before the anime was released and would give me play by plays of certain chapters. I always had some sort of interest in the manga, but never really had the urge to read it; then the anime started airing and instead of making me want to read the manga more it just sort of pushed me away. That’s not to say the manga or the anime is bad, far from it in fact; I just didn’t want to be seen as someone who was hopping on the bandwagon. However, I always knew there would come a time when I’d sit down and dedicate my time to this, and the time has come. I’ve entered and am now completely invested; the story, it’s characters, you name it. ONE has done a great job at making something that stands out, but he doesn’t deserve all the praise; Murata Yusuke’s art is amazing and really enhances the entire experience. It’s no wonder this is as popular as it is. Though if you’re struggling to follow the trend, or just don’t know what this story might offer then look no further. Allow me to tell you what One-Punch Man is all about.

One-Punch Man follows the story of Saitama; a normal everyday business man who lives in a world of danger; day after day trouble is on the horizon and so a hero is needed. Though Saitama doesn’t fit the bill, or not at first; after three years of training we find our hero a changed man. He can take down any target with one punch, he can move at intense speeds, and can taking a real beating without falling. Though with these immense powers comes something else; Saitama is both Bald, and somewhat emotionless. It’s unsure if he lost his hair by coincidence or through his powers, but one thing is for sure; due to his strength Saitama at first decided to be a hero, but soon found that the thrill he once searched for wasn’t there. What fun is a fight that is decided with one punch? Is there someone or something out there that can give Saitama the challenge he craves? Well the world is vast and with it comes plenty more heroes; as well as, monsters, villains, and other evil entities. Will Saitama find this spark, or will his powers get the better of him?

One-Punch Man at face value looks and sounds like a comedy manga; and while you wouldn’t be wrong for assuming that, it’s far more than just another comedy. The manga can get serious when it needs to, and when it does it really hits the mark tenfold. As Saitama slowly gets integrated into the hero society, and new stronger enemies present themselves, Saitama is met with many questions. One of the best parts of the manga is the civilization they live in; given the fact that there are so many disasters in the different areas and town, people have some to rely on the organization of heroes. Though human nature is a fickle thing, and not everyone is as understanding as you may hope. Not a lot of people know Saitama, or his exploits as a hero; however, this plays a key role in to one of my favorite moments. At one moment a monster appears from the sea, leading an army of his people; they dispatch countless heroes, but once Saitama appears it, of course, only takes one punch. Prior to Saitama’s arrival, many heroes were trying to help evacuate the civilians from the area, but were met with complications. Instead of standing by the heroes the citizens started to blame them for their current situation. Saying that they weren’t cut out for this and berating them for failing to do “their job”. Once Saitama finishes the enemy the people start to praise Saitama, but still proceed to mock and take stabs at the other heroes. Saitama hears this and instead of taking the fame that he was striving for, he instead takes the mature and heroic route of lying to the people. He acts like he’s speaking out loud so that the people around can hear and he says “Man, I’m so glad the other heroes were around to weaken this guy. If it weren’t for them a low ranking hero like me could never had stood a chance.” He has little to know connection to most of the hero society at this point, but instead of rising above those who fell he decides to take the hit. This isn’t the only time this happens, but instead of trying to explain himself for something that was unavoidable, or take credit where credit is due; he decides to take hit after hit. These moments are one of the many things that make this manga and it’s story great; the comedy is also really funny and well done, but when the manga decides to be serious is when I think it’s at it’s greatest. Instead of overusing the same old cliches you find in both shounen manga, and super hero stories; One-Punch Man decides to create a super hero tale worth reading. Though the story doesn’t deserve all the credit; without the colorful and interesting cast presented by ONE, the manga wouldn’t be what it is.

One-Punch Man has quite the abnormal set of heroes and villains throughout it’s story; be it the ever powerful Saitama, or the cool and collected cyborg Genos, there is no shortage of characters in this manga. Not all the heroes of the hero society play an important role in the manga, and the same can be said for the villains; yet the ones that directly interact with Saitama really help drive the story in the direction it’s been going. Thanks to the heroes that Saitama encounters he’s developed into more of a hero with a cause, rather than one only looking for fun. His immature side is still there, but he’s grown as a character thanks to the cast. The same can be said both ways; the many heroes who interact with Saitama have their views slowly changed as the story progresses, one of my favorite characters is also one of the first to meet with Saitama.

The man above is Bang; his hero name is Silverfang. Bang is one of the top ranking heroes among those in the society and has created his own fighting style to go along with his strength and speed. He’s been there for both Saitama and Genos through many disasters and has seen first hand the power that Saitama wields. He knews that with the right motivations Saitama could rise to be the best of the best, but at the same time knows the struggles of being a hero. In the scene when Saitama is being attacked for not protecting civilian lives in a situation where he managed to minimize the loses, Bang is looking over the city seeing the people blame Saitama. Bang knows full well that if Saitama did not do what he did many more lives, if not every single person, would have been lost. Though the people will not listen to reason. Though Bang does not expect Saitama to challenge the civilians; he doesn’t try to explain himself, or mend the wounds. Instead he yells at them, taking stabs right back at them. This, as well as other factors, sparks an interest in Bang and he is now one of a growing amount of people slowly following Saitama and his exploits. There are some heroes that have yet to truly see their time in the spotlight; not every hero is going to get a big role. However, the current roster of characters has done a great job of developing over the course of the manga. The biggest problem with the cast I have is the main villains; so far only one person out of the many antagonists is still around. Since Saitama is powerful the villains don’t really stay around for that long. The arcs last long enough to leave an impression, but at the same time each one leaves me wanting more. One of the biggest arcs involves an alien invasion, and it’s clear that this won’t be much of a problem for Saitama. I want just what Saitama wants; I want a challenge for him, one that will really push the boundaries for our heroes. Otherwise I really enjoy the world and the characters that inhabit it. Though I still think that the best is yet to come; Murata’s visuals are some of the most detailed and visual pleasing things to see; there is so much animation being conveyed on paper it’s baffling.

Now before we continue lets go back a little bit; One-Punch Man was original a web-comic from ONE. The original comic never had the art you might have grown accustomed to. ONE did the original art for the web-comic, and for me it was hard to get behind. I never read the original web-comic for One-Punch, but I started ONE’s other project Mob Psycho. I couldn’t really muster ONE’S style of illustration; here’s an example of what the original web-comic had to offer.

The picture above is of one of the first villains Saitama meets; his name is Crablante and he serves to demonstrate the morals of Saitama before he came across his powers. Now Crablante is a very odd character; the top half of a humanoid crab, and the lower half of a human. The only article of clothing being the underpants he wears. No ONE’s original design for Crablante doesn’t really convey this to me. All I see is a very round man with crab arms instead of human arms, and odd eye placement. Though all this aside, we’re not here to speak about the web-comic; again I never read the source material for this. However, look at how far ONE’s original concept has come.

The scale and detail from Murata does wonders for this small time antagonist; I can tell his lower half and upper half are different in nature. Plus the overall size of him next to Saitama gives off a lot of impact. In fact the whole manga his this immense sense of impact to it; that is to say everything but Saitama.

There will be many times where you’ll see characters like the person on the left, in full detail, standing next to this bland poorly drawn man. That bald individual is the current Saitama and his simplistic design is fully intentional. If that’s not okay with you don’t worry because Saitama isn’t always like this, but we’ll get to that. Saitama is like this because of his lack of emotions in the beginning; due to his immense power there isn’t really a spark to fighting crime for him. Thanks to this excitement and other such emotions don’t really come to Saitama. He’s more this bland and uncaring character. However, when things truly get serious and the danger seems to be on a scale far bigger than most can handle, it’s like the emotions come flowing back into him.

There’s a lot to talk about with this frame alone so bear with me. Starting off we can see that Saitama is far mor detailed than his previous picture. Disaster has struck and after receiving a call it’s clear that he is the only one who can stop what is fast approaching. His eyes, nose, ears, and overall shape of his head are designed so cleanly that it’s almost like he’s a different person entirely. That and the fact that he no longer has this thick black outline around his body; the shading does the work of outlining specific features of his head, right down to the point where his chin ends and his neck begins. Then while were on the shading, just the overall shading that Murata puts into the manga is amazing to say the least. There are plenty of these frames throughout the manga; there are no words throughout the frame, but they are never needed. Murata’s work is both extremely clean and extremely detailed to the point that it can convey what ever it needs to and more.

This last frame is the closure to a major arc in the manga; no words need to be said, the spread says it all. Saitama has won, but not without some effort on his part. The villains plan and base of operations is crumbling to the ground and the day is won. I think other than the shading, the line work in this frame is my favorite part; the intense lines used to show the falling debris is awesome, that mixed with the lighter shading and lines used to convey the smoke and dust throughout the room leaves a nice impact if their battle. I could go on and on about the visuals of One-Punch Man, but this review needs to end at some point. So if you’re looking for a great story I recommend One Punch. A good cast of characters? Then read one punch. Yet if that’s not enough; if you need that visual kick that keeps on hitting then please read One-Punch Man.

Overall I give One-Punch Man a 9 out of 10; this manga is awesome, it’s story, character, and overall visual style all leave such an amazing impression on me that I just want more. It’s taking every fiber of my being not to read the chapter online, but I’ll stay firm and wait for the next volume to release. The reason it’s not a ten is due to what I said before. I want an arc that lasts; something that truly challenges not only the heroes of the society but Saitama especially. Maybe it’s coming soon, but for me that hasn’t happened yet. That’s the main thing, but I’d also like to see more from other heroes in the society, as well as new villains that stick around a little longer than the average villain.

That will do it for July, tomorrow I’ll be posting the update for what’s to come in August. Until then however, thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon.