#there was also haruichi but I had to make a choice | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bluevelvetea · 6 months ago

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It's time to scream about this fic let's get it going 👀✨

Longer comment under the cut lmao

First of all thank you so much for this fic like I can't even tell you how happy reading this made me 🥹

Second of all I did not expect 'background Kafhoshi' to jump into my face like this and absolutely sell me on this ship haha I'm living for their interactions here

Iharu being so down in the beginning breaks me a little 💔 but luckily Dadka is there to save the day (or make it even more chaotic that is), no one even asked him to join Iharu, he's just like 'the boy looks sad and it's my personal mission to fix it' and I love him for it

Also Kafka immediately knowing why Iharu is acting off like a good dad would 🥹 warms my heart and if that isn't canon Kafka I don't know 😭✨ 'he seemed excited about it... in his own little way' PRECIOUS 💞

At this point I just need to know if the movie is a reference to something I don't know of or if you came up with his gem yourself lmao that's definitely the kind of movie I'd watch too

THE MP.3 PLAYER SCENE I'M DYING

'yeah, but you're like cool and forty' Iharu really knows how to compliment people but again that's so in-character for him 😂

'I gotta talk to Hoshina about taking some hours away from the base first' yeah okay when I tell you I did not expect this scene to end the way it did haha

Can't argue with Kafka's philosophy on theater snacks either btw he's right

The sturdy desk comment in the scene with Hoshina caught me off guard lmao took me a second

'Kafka, no' 'Kafka, yes' bwahhh this is their entire relationship summed up 😭😂

'we both know I get what I want if I work hard enough for it' HOT 🔥✨

'how long does it take to call off a few hours?' Iharu you don't want to know lmao

The cowboy hats part 😂😭 love how you portray both of them interacting it's so wholesome in its own way 🥹

'beer and cocktails are half off' that's the beginning of the end, questionable choices were made here 😂

'there he went again. The dad of Division Three' he really is 😭 'unless someone from base comes down here and carries my plastered ass off the sidewalk' had me laughing so hard I scared my cats 😭

Of course the wholesome Dad and son(-in-law) bonding had to be disturbed by a Kaiju arghhhhh

Awesome teamwork on their side though 🥹 I wish we'd get more interactions of them on the manga but maybe the anime will make up for it?

Also I'm literally reading this fic for the third time as I write this it's just that addictive and I keep finding more and more bits and pieces I missed the first times 😭

'a snow blonde man with frosted violet eyes (...) that's all it took for him' Go gay thoughts keep the boy running! 🏳️‍🌈

'damn shame they aren't edible, huh?' everybody attention the man has been possessed by Laois' spirit 😭😂 I only watched like three episodes of dungeon meshi as of now but that sure is a reference, isn't it? ✨ '

Kafka-appropriate levels of absurdity' the boy is so over it haha

'maybe it was worth almost getting smashed into a pancake' Iharu no 😭 but at the same time: food motivated Iharu yeah!

I love the banter between Aoi and Haruichi about fishing haha these boys are so underrated 🫶

I hope someone filmed the Kafka and Reno karaoke rendition Reno would probably pay to see it

Drunk Iharu is my spirit animal now btw fuck them hours you're so right but also he's getting so emotional 😭 love this boy with my whole heart he deserves a pretty date with Reno

AND KAFKA GIVING HIM A PIGGY BACK RIDE!? you're making me tear up over here 😭

The wallet scene then proceeded to take me out how did you manage to sneak so many other ships in here so skillfully ✨

'Kafka... Shoot me if I ever start acting like that around Reno' nooooo lmao

Oh nooo Reno being all sad about not being able to go on the date once he's back was not what I was expecting there 😭 'come along Reno. We're apparently going to save our respective dumbasses' ahahahddhxjie Hoshina please 😭

Living for drunk Iharu being so happy about seeing Reno again omg he's so soft these two deserve the world 💕 Reno better treasure that used beer mug 🫶

And Hoshina being so enraged he's casually spilling the beans about him and Kafka? 😂 Kikoru might not recover from this

The entirety of the bonus scene though 😭💕🥹 love this part so much I'll cry, they are perfect together and I'm so happy you created that fic for them 💗

You have my eternal gratitude for this ✨ I'd love to read more from you but no pressure at all 🫶 you made me very happy with a ship I already enjoyed a lot and even a new one I hadn't paid that much attention to yet!

Iharu's Day Out {co-staring Dadka} (A Kn8 short story)

Preamble] So I've got this idea for a series of {what was supposed to be short?! Don't know where all this came from} one-shots about Kaiju n.8 that are all about Kafka interacting with one member from the third Division because we only really see him talking to Reno or Hoshina most of the time and not a lot of the rest of the team gets much more screen time. I don't know how often I will be posting these and they will NOT be in chronological order. The time frame they will be taking place in is after everything is over (Number 9 is dead, Tachikawa base is rebuilt, the public knows about Kaiju n. 8, and the original members of Division Three are back together.)

Notes] Alcohol, implied off screen sex act, minor law breaking, pining IharuxReno, background HoshinaxKafka, implied HaruichixAoi, confession, basic tomfoolery, uncensored swearing.

Summary] Iharu's plans with Reno get derailed when Reno has to leave on a mission just before they have to leave. Depressed and dejected, Iharu heads back to the barracks to drown his sorrows in food... only to have that plan as well get derailed by Kafka.

#########################################

This was the third time in thirty minutes that Furuhashi had changed his outfit. Finally landing on white high tops, black camo jeans, a black leather jacket and a white graphic anime tee. He kept going back and forth on the tee, debating on whether or not it made him look like he was too childish. Iharu spent an extra minute mentally kicking himself for not bringing more casual clothes from home when the base got reopened. Then again, asking Reno out to a movie date was pretty spur of the moment at the time. He caught himself mid thought and placed his hands on either side of the closet that was designated to every member of the Division. "Not a date. Movie night-. It's... a movie night. This is to see if this could lead to a potential date. Yeah, just... focus on that right now."

Knocking him out of his thoughts was a very distinct ringtone. Iharu had spent a lot of time messing around in the settings on his phone and was very proud of himself when it came to the songs he picked for each member of the Third Division. Aoi was the theme song from Cops, Kikoru's was the Nightcore version of Pretty Little Psycho. The one that was playing now was Cold as Ice by Foreigner. A little on the nose, considering who it was attached to, but nonetheless fitting for person who he thought was the coolest guy on the force.

Reno☃] Hey. Can we talk?

Reno☃] Somethings come up.

############################################

"Sure. Sounds fun."

Iharu played Reno's response to this movie night plan over a week ago in his head over and over, taking his chilled and plain response and visualizing it as a bat to beat himself and this unfortunate event the two over them have gotten themselves into.

"Last minute dispatch to the mountains. Sorry Iharu." Reno had said, wanting to give him the bad news in person as he sat on a bench in a locker room and laced up his boots over his tech suit.

"Guess that means you'll be back late then, huh." Iharu leaned against a locker, arms folded and looking into the distance through the doorway. He didn't want Reno to see the disappointment. Not that seeing it would change the situation, just didn't want make Reno feel bad over the fact that, not only is he leaving Iharu behind, but he has to take a rain check on their date movie night- it was supposed to be a movie night, Iharu had to remind himself. He didn't feel like it was fair to take his crush/rival out on the town and call it something so loaded without seeing if the feeling would be returned.

"Yeah. Sorry." Reno picked up his bag and started to walk pass Iharu. "Movie will still be there tomorrow. Right?"

Iharu tried to school his expression into something more optimistic to mask his depression. " Yeah, but I'm in Weapons Training all day tomorrow. Maybe another movie?" He crunched the unnoticed prepaid ticket stubs in his fist and shoved it in the pocket of his jeans. "Mind kicking their monster ass a little harder then normal. For me?" He didn't mean to come across as pleading as he said that, but it helped channel the last bit of resentment at the situation out of his head so now he can spend the rest of the allotted time off to sulk in his bunk.

Reno smiled and clasped a hand on Iharu's shoulder. "Sure thing."

Reno walked out of the locker room and headed toward the door that lead to the chopper pad that would whisk him away, as well as Iharu's plan for the three hours that he could squeeze out of Vice-Cap. All Iharu could do was watch as Reno lightly jogged away and feel as if he was doing that to get away from him faster. He knew that Reno liked him as a friend at least, but he felt that Reno could act a little less chill about being forcefully blown off a dinner and a movie. Iharu turned and started walking toward the canteen with the intention to take as much food and drink he could smuggle out to his bunk, make a Blanket Fort of Solitude*tm and attempt to stuff his dashed feeling under a quarter pound of katsudon, cheese puffs and soda popsicles-made in prison style.

Iharu was dragged from his thoughts by a loud, friendly, and familier voice. "OYE! Iharu! Wait a sec!"

Kafka Hibino came barreling down the hallway having turned a corner and apparently looking lost. The man was almost out of breath by the time he managed to catch up to Iharu. "Have you seen Reno around? I -huff- wanted to tell him safe travels before he -huff- left."

"He's heading down to the heli-pad now. Book it and you might catch him." Iharu said apathetically, scratching his neck. Which was really out of character for him, but he couldn't help hoping that was the end of the conversation, seeing that he just wanted to spend his three hours of time off drowning in food.

"Great! Thanks! Hey, you headed to the canteen?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Give me a minute and I'll meet you there. Want to talk to you about something." Kafka took off running in the direction that Iharu pointed in before Iharu could refuse. He sighed deeply and started his way back to a journey to food-comaville; population one.

Iharu made it during a lull in orders and took his time deciding what to pig out on. He walked over to a seat at a table that was as far as he could make it from the others in the large and sparsely populated room. He managed to plow through 4 chicken kievs and a large bowl of rice with a coke before Kafka managed to walk into the lunchroom. He searched for a bit, found Iharu and started to walk to him... before deciding better and grabbed a Hamburg steak meal and then headed over.

"Well, I didn't get to tell him goodbye, but he did get to see me waving from the platform, so there's that. I feel better." Kafka sat down next to Iharu and assembled his steak to his preference.

"I'm glad." Iharu said sarcastically, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Your attitude, actually." Kafka said, then took a big bite of smothered chopped steak. Iharu partially choked mid-sip, Quickly recovering to stare down the senior with barely concealed audacity. Kafka saw and chuckled a bit around the food in his mouth.

"Nothing serious! Saw you were looking a little down in the dumps when I talked to ya. Just wanted to check in, make sure its nothing pressing, though I'll understand if you're not open for conversation at the moment."

"What are you, a counselor?" Iharu said defiantly. Kafka put his hands up in surrender before diving back into his meal.

"Say the word and I'll leave. If its not anything Reno said, I'll leave you to your moping."

Hearing Reno's name and the implication that he might of said something caused Iharu to curl up slightly, not bothering to hide the change in expression that very much told Kafka that Reno definitely said something. The pinkette paused for a minute before responding "What makes you think he did?"

Kafka smiled a warm, knowing smile, put down his fork, and swallowed. "Because I know Reno. He is extremely chill most of the time, but sometimes he can't tell that his coolness... can unintentionally burn others. Especially when you don't tell him outright." He turned to a slumped Iharu before continuing, " He told me that you two were going to watch a movie together tonight, right? He seemed excited about it.... in his own little way."

Iharu pushed his food away from him and dug his face in his crossed arms. 'Of course Reno would tell the division's Father Figure.' In admitting defeat, Iharu sighed and turned his head to face the half kaiju man.

"It wasn't just going to be a movie. There was going to be food too. There's a food stall festival a block from the movie theater that was selling some really good smelling food and it was the last day for it to be around and I had thought maybe we could take a shortcut through that really pretty shrine afterword- the one that lights up all those paper lanterns when sunset hits- and I had planned to pay for all the food and there was going to be gifts a-a-and-" He sat up to dig up the crumpled ticket stubs from his pockets and rudely threw them on the table, "And I had even PREPAID THE TICKETS AND.....haa. I just...... I wanted a nice evening with him. I knew three hours were rushing things but it was all Hoshina could let us take today."

Kafka picked up the stubs and straighten them out with the edge of the table. "And it absolutely would of been had it not been for a sudden arrival of 5.6 mole kaijus, huh." Iharu tucked his head back into his arms.

"Yeah, fucking mole kaiju. The least they could do was let me come with, but noooo! Everyone seems to think that I'm only relevant to Reno if he's wearing his stupid super suit."

'"If it makes you feel better. Reno likes having you around inside and outside the suit. Definitely enjoys the push-n-pull thing you two have going on." Iharu haphazardly wiped his nose on his leave as he looked to Kafka again.

"Doesn't matter anymore though, does it. He's not here and there's no sense going to the theater with two tickets and only showing up by yourself." Kafka scratched his ever present 5'o-clock shadow as he contemplated for a moment.

"Could ask around. I'm pretty sure Aoi hasn't taken any hours off in a while. Or maybe Shinomiya? She might be into cowboys verses bio-mech-monsters." Iharu tilted his head up hearing Kafka describe the movie.

"You've seen Ranger Rika against the Metal Mess of South Bend?"

"Just the trailers for it. Tokusatsu style, right? Watched a bunch of those as a kid. Somehow managed to pirate a few movies onto a mp.3 player when I was younger. Got me through a lot of bunker-hunkering in my middle school years."

Iharu laughed, "An mp.3 player? God you are old. And when was sitting in a kaiju shelter called 'Bunker-hunkering'?" Kafka reached over and playfully shook the younger compatriot by his shoulders.

"MP.3S ARE NOT THAT OLD! MINE STILL WORKS AND I STILL USE IT, YOU ASSHAT!" Hearing this only caused both of them to split themselves into fits of laughter. A moment later Kafka was lightly hugging Iharu and trying (and failing) to slow his heart and breathing while Iharu was wiping away tears and giggling. The shark-toothed teen looked up at the division's adopted father figure contemplatively.

"Ya know.... why don't you come with me." Kafka looked a little taken aback at that offer.

"Really? With me? I mean, I'm not going to turn down a free movie. Just thought that you young folk would rather run around with... well, people of similar age." Iharu started laughing again.

"What, so you finally decided you're old now?"

"Well, there's no hiding the fact that I'm damn near forty." Kafka said as he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but you're cool and forty. Which is like, guaranteed cool. And you're probably the only person here that would enjoy a movie of this explosive caliber." Iharu got up from his seat and picked up the tickets, offering one to Kafka. He smiled massively and pushed the offering had back toward Iharu.

"Hold on to them for now. I gotta talk to Hoshina about taking some hours away from base first. Tell you what, grab a bag of snacks to take in and I'll meet you by the garage."

"Bag of snacks? Ya know the theater sells them there, right?" Furuhashi said walking side by side with Hibino as they wandered back into the hallway.

"Excuse you, but I have been raised on the philosophy that you never buy theater snacks when you can sneak in your own. The theft of it all makes them taste better." Kafka winked as the two of them parted ways. "Should only take a minute or two. Text when you hit the garage!"

############################################

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO?" Kafka said calmly as he adopted a wide defensive stance against is superior.

"I get you can be simple some days, but even you should know what that word means." replied Soshiro Hoshina, the vice captain of the Third Division. The man carefully put down the log book that contained the recorded hours of all enlisted that each individual was allotted to spend.

"What I mean is, do you mean no as in 'You still have chores or training left', or no as in 'I can't afford to have you leave base today'." Kafka breathed slowly through his nose in irritation as he emphasized each scenario.

"No as in 'You have no hours left to spend.' You used them all." Hoshina turned the catalog to face Kafka as the burly man planted his hands on the desk. All he could do was sigh at his unforeseen short comings.

"Honestly, I wanna talk to whoever came up with the policy that cut half of our vacation days and replaced them with this 'Payable Recreational Hours' bullshit. You seriously can't fudge the rules even a little bit?"

"Trust me Kafka, I wasn't the one who opted for that either. And as Vice Captain and currently the highest ranking on base, 'Fudging the rules' as you put it, would be a terrible move and give me a soft reputation. So, no."

Kafka shrunk his appearance and pulled out his big doe eyes to aid in his pleading. "But this is important! Hoshina, please. Its not even about me, this is for Iharu's sake."

Hoshina's interest piqued exasperatedly upon hearing that. "Oh? And pray tell, what could be so pressing that you have to emergency call off three hours for?" Kafka started to sense that this was the first slip into a bad situation and immediately back peddled.

"If it helps, I guess I could get away with an hour and a half?" he shrugged.

"So what was the other two and a half hours going to be spent on?" Hoshina said, leaning back in his office chair and crossing his arms.

Kafka knew he couldn't lie to someone so close to him, especially when that person was adept at seeing through his lies specifically. "Just, uh... food and... travel?"

This isn't helped by the fact the man can't even get away with half truths in the first place. Hoshina leaned his elbows on the desk as he stared down menacingly at the resident Kaiju Man.

"Kafka. The whole truth now, and I'll let you off with janitorial duty for a week." All Kafka could do was unclench his body and accept defeat.

"Ok. Iharu had prepaid some movie tickets to a Ranger Rika film and we both felt it would be a waste not to use them and the plan had involved a food stall festival and Reno was supposed to be there-!" Upon remembering what Iharu's initial plan was, Kafka was struck with an idea. "Hey that could work."

'What" Hoshina said in a clearly vexed manner.

"Why not give me Reno's hours? They both called off right? And since he had to leave, doesn't that technically mean that there's hours left on the table?" Kafka's brilliant smile was quickly diminishing as his superior kept staring a hole through his skull.

"First off, that's rude." Hoshina said holding up a hand to count on, "Second, that's got to be a violation somewhere. And Three, even if it wasn't, I still wouldn't allow it."

"What, you want me to see if Iharu will hand both the tickets over and we both go?" Hoshina just pinched his nose bridge at that and sighed.

"No, Kafka. I'm irritated that you're trying to weasel your way into blowing off duty for street food and movie tickets."

"But they're prepaid movie tickets!" Kafka sighed. He could only hang his head in despair as he could see his impromptu plans slipping away from him. "Is there nothing that could change your mind?"

"No. Not when I'm this irritated." Hoshina said as he went back to crossing his arms.

'Irritated, huh?' Kafka rolled his partner's choice of words in his head, before coming up with a horrible idea and using it to fuel a devilish course of action.

"Well, then. I guess I'll just have to break out the big gun." Kafka whispered as he smirked. He rounded Hoshina's sturdy desk, a fact the two of them had certainly proved time and time again, and now Kafka was going to have to certify that statement one more time, it seems.

"Kafka?" Hoshina questioned as his work buddy visible stopped acting like his associate and donned his more... submissive side. Starting with turning the chair to face him, Kafka got down on his knees in front of his commanding officer and slowly slid a hand under the left pant leg to lightly tease his superior's ankle.

"Guess i'll have to help with that irritation before I leave, won't I?" Hibino said, still wearing a cocky, lopsided grin as he brought the other hand just under Hoshina's knee.

'Kafka, no." Hoshina gritted out, bringing his hands to the arm rests and firmly gripped them.

"Kafka, yes." replied the kneeling man as he kissed his secret lover's knee.

"Kafka, if you think I'm going to give you your requested hour and a half-"

"Three hours."

"You're not going to get any hours if you keep this up."

"Come on. We both know that's not true, Soshiro." Kafka said, looking up from his kiss to the knee and molding his throat into his other voice. The one where he isolates a partial transformation around his vocal cords, adding a low growl to his already bass tone. Taking extra care with using Hoshina's first name, Kafka leaned forward and caressed his cheek against the side of Soshiro's inner thigh, letting in a wicked light in behind his glossy eyes.

"We both know I get what I want if I work hard enough for it."

Kafka began to tease the inside of Soshiro's thighs, littering them with light and slow kisses. Switching back and forth between the two, inching close, but not close enough. Hoshina felt rooted to the seat, pinned down by this tormenting display. All he could do was reach over and place a hand in Kafka's surprisingly soft tufts of hair. He carded it through a little before gripping it. Not enough to hurt, but definitely attention getting. Kafka let out a hot puff of air against his commander's hip, reveling in the feeling of Soshiro's short nails digging into his tough scalp.

"Give me a good performance, and we'll discuss what I'll let you get away with." Hoshina said, mentally kicking himself for not training his pet to be on a shorter leash.

############################################

"Come onnn. Where is he?" Iharu whined, shifting one strap of the back pack off one shoulder to the other as he was on his way to Hoshina's office. "How long does it take to call off a few hours?"

Furuhashi had made it to the door of the office just in time to see Hibino walk out in an entirely different outfit than the work jumpsuit he was in earlier.

"You know, with that much work, I should get a thank you as a courtesy!" Kafka said with the biggest shit eating grin one could have on their face. This statement was quickly followed with him slamming the door closed before he could be hit with whatever Hoshina tried to throw at him. All Kafka could do in response was giggle uncontrollably before stopping in his tracks at Iharu's sudden appearance.

"When did you get here?"

"I sent you a text that I was at the garage and you didn't respond. I waited, like, 9 minutes before I wondered where you were and now I just have more questions. Like, did you change in Hoshina's office? Why was he throwing shit at you? Thank you for what?" Kafka's face got visible red as he tried to find a way to change the subject and instead, opted to grab Iharu's upper arm and drag him harshly back toward the direction the garage was in.

"Ask no questions, and I'll tell no lies. Better news, I just got us a lot more than three hours."

"Can I ask HOW?"

"Maybe later. Got the snacks?" Iharu wrenched his arm out of Kafka's grasp to slip the simple, black, mini back pack off his shoulders to show the contents to his impromptu partner for the night.

"Yeah, got some drinks too. Had to break into Kikoru locker to get a less conspicuous bag to put them in, though."

"Good idea. You know where the theater is?" Kafka said, picking up the pace a little more the closer they got to the getaway vehicles. Iharu had no problem matching his pace, but was getting increasingly worried as to why they were acting like they were in a hurry. The movie didn't start for another forty five minutes.

"Yes, its close by so I don't know whY weRE RUNNING?"

"Cause not only do I want to catch the pre-showing, we really, really should leave before Hoshina saw what I put down in the time log sheet."

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" HIbino got to the heavy security door and opened the entry to the covered garage where most members of the defense force kept their personal vehicles.

"Nothing I'm going to regret later. Here, take this." He said as Iharu walked through the door and tossed him a suspicious set of keys. Iharu caught them and examined them quickly.

"Are these... Hoshina's keys? The one to his supercharged bike? You know I have my own bike, right?"

"Yeah, but when you think about it, his bike's bigger and I can't drive one, so I'm going to have to ride pillion. And trust me, you're going to want that extra bit of room."

As the two of them jogged to the Vice Captain's super bike, all Iharu could think that this wasn't going to be a simple movie night anymore.

###########################################

The two of them had made it into the theater with plenty of time to spare and minimal suspicion. They turned in their stubs and walked inside the air conditioned room that was showing the Ranger Rika film. There, Kafka was met with a surprise.

"Holy shit! You prepaid seats to a show that had in-house recliners?" Kafka walked by in awe and they made their way to one of the seats closer to the front. "Surprised you didn't pick seats closer to the back. Kinda bougie place to bring 'just a friend' don't ya think?" Kafka winked at Iharu as they settled down into their reserved seats.

"I don't ever want to hear the word bougie out of your mouth ever again. And I felt like paying extra for the reclining seats, that ok with you?" Iharu said defensively.

"Fine, fine. Just wondering why you felt the need to score brownie points with Reno, is all. He'd be happy just getting off base with you, being an easy guy like that." Kafka started to root around in Iharu's stolen bag for the drinks he mentioned earlier.

"This isn't point scoring! I just... I wanted to- what I'm trying to say is... give me that." The furious looking teen grabbed the glass coke bottle out of the older man's offering hand. Kafka looked on warmly at Iharu, piecing together some dots in his head. Not enough to make a solid conclusion, but his previous levels of mopiness started to make sense. Hibino brought the sealed bottle to his mouth and cracked the metal pop top off with his teeth.

"You know that they make these twist off now, right? That has to fuck up your teeth something awful." Iharu stated as he began to twist off his own bottle before the movie really started. At least he was trying to, and apparently failing miserably due to the sharp edges on the bottle cap digging into his hands uncomfortably. Kafka took the bottle from his hands and proceeded to open the bottle like he did before and handed it back.

"Again, I am not that old. Don't ruin my one piece of happiness in my life."

"Opening bottles... with your teeth?" Iharu replied, pushing the button that reclined the seat back and brought the foot rest up.

"Old habit from childhood that I've managed to keep because Monster Sweepers has a surprisingly great dental plan. Now hush, previews are starting." Kafka said as the lights began to dim in the room.

############################################

"Holy shit! That movie was amazing!" Iharu said as they left the theater doors and landed on the sidewalk.

"Yeah, that was a great movie. Was a lot more emotional then I was expecting." Kafka mentioned as he squatted low and stretched a leg out to the side.

"You weren't kidding! That plot twist that Missy Whisky was a plant based robo-zoid horse and the scene where she was dying and her body fueled a new oasis got me actually crying! I never cry!" Kafka could only look up at Iharu incredulously, knowing that the younger soldier cried at anything involving animals; sometimes even about Kaijus.

"I think my favorite shot of the whole thing was at the end when Ranger Rika was in a lawn chair with a beer, sitting in that new oasis and we get to see that Missy Whisky was ok, she was just a metal skeleton now." Kafka said as he stood back up and stretched his back.

"Yeah, he deserved that beer, honestly. My favorite scene was when Rika had to jerry rig a new leg and ended up making that burst shot rocket leg. When I heard Golem explain the concept, I thought it sounded so stupid! Whats the point in putting a rocket in your leg if it can only fire off in short burst? Then it trails into the scene in the canyon where he has to fight the Centa-Snake and he was keeping up on foot! Certified Ultimate Badass moment this year!" Iharu started to walk away, following the flow of the crowd so as to not interrupt it too much. Spurring Kafka to hurry up and follow him as well. The two of them walked far enough down the street to where they could walk side by side more comfortably.

As they walked farther away from the theater, it became clear that Iharu was still basking in the warm afterglow of a good memory made. He was still chattering about all the details of the movie, even going into the depths of character analysis and how it showed through in the clothing the characters were wearing. It was very clear he was dying to watch this someone as his mouth seemed to be going a mile a minute with no signs of stopping. Kafka kept up as best he could with the conversation, adding what he could to the conversation. If he was being honest though, he didn't really see as much in the movie as Iharu apparently did. It seemed Iharu noticed as well as he started to slow down his talking speed, becoming more quiet as they went along.

"You good?" Kafka said, noticing the small, slight drop in demeanor.

"Yeah, Im...I'll be fine. I think. I got to see the movie today, which is what I wanted." Iharu stated, visible not looking as fine as he tried to say he was. It was clear to Kafka that it wasn't the possibility that Iharu might of not watched the movie that got him feeling down. I seemed that he still couldn't get Reno not being here off his mind. Kafka felt it was a bit early to press the matter, seeing they got out of a good movie and didn't feel like spoiling the once good mood with questions, so he decided to try and redirect Iharu's train of thought to something more pressing.

"We are walking in the right direction for the festival, right?" Iharu looked up at the older man, redirection of thoughts successful.

"Oh yeah, Food! That was a thing wasn't it? Uhhh...." Iharu said, stopping to process their current location. "Yeah, one more block and a right and we should be there."

"I remember that you said you found it because you... smelled it?" Kafka said quizzically.

"Oh, yeah. There was an attack early last week two streets down and I wanted to stop by when I smelled it. Couldn't though, had to check for yoju then head back to base for a report. Couldn't leave for a week and started feeling desperate. It smells really good-!" Iharu stopped dead in his tracks, looking straight across the street.

"What? Is everything Ok?" Kafka said, looking around before landing his eyes at whatever Iharu was looking at. Across the street, in a store window, sat a rack holding a cluster of very unusual looking hats.

"Cowboy hats. Can you believe it?" Iharu said, looking absolutely puzzled as to why they were there. Taking a longer look, the window belonged to what appeared to be a restaurant dedicated to American cuisine. Specifically western style - steaks and big burgers. it looked like the restaurant had conjoined with a kitschy souvenir store. Kafka thought hard for a minute before turning back to Iharu.

"You wanna?" Kafka asked, jabbing a thumb to the store front. Furuhashi looked back with a clearly confused look. "Come on, we just got out of a Cowboy movie. Isn't it customary to get a least one in honor of a good movie?" Kafka playfully punched Iharu in the shoulder as Iharu just shook his head before he responded.

"I have never heard that ever, and I'm a fan of all the Ranger Rika films."

"All I'm hearing is you've got some hat buying to catch up on." Kafka said, committing an act of jaywalking to drag his new friend over to the store.

"We don't need to buy a cowboy hat!" Iharu protested as they hit the sidewalk.

"Fine. Then I'm getting one without you." Kafka retaliated, hand on the store handle.

"OH, no. If I leave you alone in here, you're going to buy me one in a stupid color. Like blue or green." Iharu said, walking into the store before Kafka.

"But I thought you said you didn't want one?" the Half-Kaiju said, throwing a pointed smirk at Iharu.

"I just said I don't trust you, therefore I have to buy one to make sure you don't buy one for me." the pinkette said defiently, studying the hats on the rack. Kafka just chuckled quietly behind him and soon joined him at the rack too, but not before ordering a side of steak fries to go.

Minutes later, the two of them left the store with hats and fries in hand. Kafka bought a black one with a braided rawhide band threaded with turquoise beads and Iharu's was a simple white stetson.

"Kinda surprised you didn't get the pink one." Kafka said, placing his hat on his head.

"I thought about it, but I mean... pink on pink? It might be a bit much." Iharu said, gesturing to his hair. "That and I thought that white hats just looked cooler anyway."

"This decision totally isn't related to Ranger Rika and his outfit design at all, right?" Kafka said, dripping with sarcasm and Iharu fiddled with the chin strap on the stetson.

"Pfft, Of course not! Why would you say such a thing?" Iharu said through a choked chuckle as his ears got a noticeable shade pinker.

###########################################

Short walk later, they had made it to the start of the street where the festival was held. Both sides of a seemingly endless boulevard was lined with lanterns, ramshackle food stalls, and carnival games. The lights gave the whole street the warmest inviting glow that paired with the slowly setting sun and the scent from the cooking food made the entrance all the more enticing. Adding on the visual ebb and flow of the crowd flittering between the brightly advertised stalls truly made the scene before them come alive. All that was needed to become one with the crowd was as simple as stepping inside and it would feel like a whole different reality. Before the duo could, Kafka decided to take a look at the parked sign at the beginning of the boulevard.

"Hey, did you know about this?" Kafka pointed at the sign.

"No. What's it say?"

"It says that the food festival is in collaboration with the local bars on this street. Beer and cocktails are half off." Iharu whistled approvingly at the news.

"God, a beer sound wonderful right now. Haven't had any since Hoshina trashed my stash in the vent." Kafka said, groaning at the distant textural memory of the cool, aggressive liquid sliding down his throat.

"I don't know man. We still gotta head back to work in a couple of hours. Getting drunk tonight that worth it?" Iharu questioned. Kafka choked on his own spit in a suspicious manner for a minute at hearing how long they had left on the outside.

"Speaking of which..." Furuhashi began to eye the old man intensely now, "How many hours did you get out of Vice-Cap?" Kafka made an attempt to clear his throat before answering.

"Yeah, about that...I, uhhh...didn't have any hours left."

"HIBINO."

"Honestly, the whole payable hours thing sounds stupid anyway so when Hoshina wasn't looking I... wrote in our own hours?" Kafka shrugged at a very red Iharu.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'OUR'? HOW MANY?"

"Three... hundred and thirty six." Kafka said quietly. When Iharu didn't respond back, Kafka felt the need to explain himself.

"I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY! 336 hours equal out to two weeks so I thought it be like an 'I'm quitting' joke. Ya'know, in retaliation of the stupid new hours rule? Vice Captain wasn't giving me any wiggle room here and you said you were coming to a food festival with Reno and two hours for a food festival is not a lot of time, especially if you want to do it right, and now there's possible booze involved which is another two on top of that and I just think that only getting three hours to spend away from base isn't a lot of time and you really looked disappointed at not being able to go- albeit the original plan involved Reno- but I mean we're here now and..."

Kafka could only sigh at his now clearly flawed line of thought as Iharu put his face in his hands. One one hand, Iharu agreed with him. Three hours wasn't a lot of time and he also hated the new hours ruling. But that short amount of time would of been worth it because he would of been with Reno. But now... Reno wasn't here. He was with Kakfa, a close member of the team that was trying his best to look out for him and cheer him up in light of the disastrous change in his plans. Iharu was here now, without Reno, and was still enjoying himself despite himself. The whole reason for coming was because of Reno, but here he was anyway; feeling guilty because he was having fun without Reno, knowing this was to be for him. Iharu wasn't really angry about the hours that Kafka had managed to cheat out of Vice-Cap. He knew he was going to pay for them as soon as Kafka got involved on this little outing. It just didn't feel right, him about to be having fun with someone who wasn't supposed to be here.

Kafka clasped a gentile hand of Iharu's shoulder.

"Hey. If you're not comfortable with this, we can just grab one or two things and head back early. You can tell him about the prepaid tickets and bring him back a snack. I'm sure he'd appreciate it after fighting in the mountains all afternoon." The older man smiled comfortably down at the distressed teen.

There he went again. The Dad of Division Three. He really knew just how others felt sometimes. Just when it didn't conflict with the mans's own feelings, that is. Kafka could tell that he was stressed about staying here too long and having fun without the one he wanted to be here with, so now he's trying to accommodate by telling him they could leave and bring back a gift that Reno couldn't help but like. Iharu wanted to come here with Reno... but he was here with Kafka. The happiest, most understanding, and most uplifting person to be around. Especially when you're upset, just like he is right now. And you know what, Kafka is here. With him. Right now. He got Iharu to the movies and spared him a day of sulking around the barracks getting fat and feeling sorry for himself. And that should be rewarded.

"You know what? Fuck it. I'm game." Furuhashi said, dropping his hands from his face.

"About what?"

"Getting drunk. I was going to stuff my face with cafeteria food earlier, and now I get to stuff my face with fried street food and alcohol. Honestly? Upgrade."

"Wait a minute? Are you sure about this? I mean, its not like those hours actually count or anything." Kafka said, reeling slightly from Iharu's change in demeanor.

"Hey man, you're the one who wrote in two weeks of hours, and I'm going to use them. Unless someone from base comes down here and carries my plastered ass off the sidewalk, I don't plan on leaving. Besides, didn't you say there's a right way to food festival? Maybe I'd like to know the secret too. Ya' know, for next time." Iharu stared into the sunset over the festival, feeling empowered about his newfound dereliction of duty.

He was upset. About the time constraints, about a lack of Reno in his presence, about not being able to tell him how he felt in a way he had been planning for about a week now, and about a dozen other minor things that had gotten under his skin recently.

None of that matters now. He was here. In good company. And with access to cheap booze. And may the Gods themselves strike him down now, because he wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste.

Kafka approved this new feeling welling up inside new drinking buddy and sealed the deal by lifting Iharu's hat off his back where it was hanging and placed it on his head. Making his voice gravely and southern, Kafka quoted a line from the movie.

"So... You finally decided to take charge of your own fortune, aye Rika?" Feeling the new weight on his head, Iharu turned to look up at Kafka and saw the brightest, toothiest, most genuine grin he thought that man could fit on his face. Iharu's eyes started to gather tears in accepted pride, but he blinked them away harshly and looked back at Kafka, matching his Kaiju smile with an aggressively mischievous one of his own.

"First things first. Nearest 7/11 location." Kafka said, turning toward the closest convenience store he could see.

"O-Ok? Why?" Iharu questioned, but followed Kafka's lead anyway.

"They carry this wonderful little drink that prevents hangovers. Fantastic shit, truly. Take it from a guy who use to party with a group of people who went on pub crawls every time someone had a birthday, hangovers do not need to be experienced more than necessary." Iharu's eyes lit up at hearing this.

"oh man! You have to have some crazy stories from your college days."

"College? You seriously think I had the attention span to make it in that kind of setting? This was from working in Monster Sweepers. Let me tell you, Tokuda; guy I used to work with, couldn't let go of a scotch bottle to save his life. Which is funny because having one on him is what saved another guy I worked with..."

#########################################

"And that's how my second boss ended up eating his own ring finger, wedding band and all." Kafka said as Iharu finished up the last of a batch of heavily sauced, fried chili shrimp.

"Damn, I didn't know you guys caught so many strays on the job site. Ya'll really need a security detail while you're working or something."

"Yeah, it can get to be a bit much some days. I actually proposed a deal to Haruichi that asked if his dad's company could come up with some Kaiju-fiber t-shirts or arm sleeves. Just *burp* something cheap they could throw together from scraps to help out my old buddies on the job site. Just a little protection or a way to finish the job faster so we're not working so long."

Kafka finished up a can of beer as Iharu checked a notification on his phone. They were leaning against the base of one of the few stone building that were on the street. The two of them had already hit up several food stalls and three bars in between. Currently they were standing off to the right of an ally that led to the last one they were in, having left to get some fresh air.

"Don't see a reason why they couldn't? It's more money for them, isn't it? Hey! it finally downloaded." Iharu said, propping up his phone on a jutted window ledge.

"What did?"

"I downloaded that song that played during the saloon walkabout scene. I thought we could maybe make a TokTic with it." Kafka tossed his empty into a trash can before turning to Iharu.

"TokTic? Oh! Those short video things. Shinomiya is always sending me those. Her attempt to 'Keep me from falling back to the Stone Age'. Prissy brat. Love her! Just... so damn rude some days."

"Well, now here's your chance to show her that you can be relevant." Iharu chuckled, "Alright, here's what I was thinking."

Iharu began to lead Kafka through some easy dance steps and dictated which pattern this was supposed to happen. They ran through the process a few times so Kafka was sure he could do it, even though Iharu reassured him that it doesn't have to be perfect. Iharu pressed record and they started doing a intensely cowboy inspired, feet shuffling based choreography to 'No Diggity' by Blackstreet with their new hats on full display.

They wrapped it up with them moonwalking off screen. Furuhashi then quickly ran back to grab the phone. They ducked back into the ally to get out of the way of the rippling crowd as the phone's owner began messing with the video's settings and cropped the beginning and end to make it feel cleaner. Hibino whistled as he looked over Iharu's shoulder as his fingers flew over the screen with what seemed to be practiced efficiency.

"You've made a few of these?" Kafka asked.

"Yeah.", Iharu said sheepishly, "I had this account back when I was in Subjugation School. It kinda started as something I messed with in my down time between classes, making edits of shows and movies I was really into at the time, and then it just sorta turned into a daily routine showcase-turned-ask blog. Soon after it started to pick up followers, especially after I got to join Division Three." He began to show one of his latest edits that he made to Kafka.

"Wow! I have to admit, but the editing seems really smooth. I can see a lot of thought went into this." Kafka said as he took a brief overview of the collection that Iharu had made over the years. Furuhashi looked away bashfully as his face turned as pink as his hair.

"It really is just a hobby at this point. Most of my followers seem to just enjoy the daily blog stuff more. But, to be honest, I always told myself that if, for some reason, I didn't make it in the Defense Force I... might have pursued a career as a film director." Kafka slung his arm over Iharu's shoulder and drew him in close.

"Now that, I would have definitely paid... to... see." He stepped back to look at his surroundings, taking in the view of the ebbing crowd and sensing a disturbing lack of panic and chaos. But... why would there be? There was nothing to be afraid.... oh.

Oh Shit. There it was.

Kafka got a familiar sinking feeling deep in his gut. Like a cold wave of heavy mist and dry ice was dropped into his stomach. He started whipping his head around, trying to see if he could place the direction in which the dangerous disturbance could be coming from.

"Iharu! Eyes up! Trouble incoming." The teen flashed a worried look toward Kafka as he hurriedly put his phone away.

"Kaiju attack? Here?"

"Yeah, a honju. Small one though, it feels like. To close for comfort, though. Get the alert out!" Kafka ran to one of the food stalls next to them and grabbed a megaphone out of a hawker's hands

"EVERYONE! IMMINENT KAIJU ATTACK! START HEADING TO THE SHELTERS!"

Some people started to gather up their stuff while others only looked on in disbelief, thinking he was some drunk prankster, until a small earthquake rattled the street and stalls. Everyone began to feel the threat approaching with the sound of distant buildings crashing over the sudden wailing of the alert system through speakers and phones alike. The people started sprinting toward the nearest shelter, with Kafka and Iharu helping the stragglers and the fallen catch up to the rest. Once it seemed like a majority had made it off this particular street and others, too scared shitless to move, had been relegated to closer, save enough zones like basements and reinforced closets, did Kafka start running toward the source of the disaster. Iharu, not far behind, ran after him.

"Sir! Do you think we should be heading toward this? Its not like we could be of much help without gear."

"Kinda figured we'd look at it and go from there? Least I could do is break it down visually and have you relay the information." Kafka started to summon some of his Kaiju bio-works through his system, calling forth faster speed and inhuman claws, and used them to get to higher elevation. As the cryptid soldier began to race across rooftops, Iharu mentally broke down the things that he could help with, starting with field reconnaissance and path prediction.

##########################################

Even without the suit, Iharu was keeping up with with a supped-up Kafka. It helped that he was trying to gain more height than speed to better survey the land and find the cause of danger. Once he found a sign of the monstrous disturbance, Kafka began giving directionals down to Iharu. As the man on the ground, he took it upon himself to keep track how they were moving between the three of them, figured a possible heading, and started to send directions back to Kafka in an attempt to head whatever this was off at a pass. So far, they hadn't hit any major damaged areas yet, so Iharu wasn't too focused on checking for possible trapped survivors.

Thanks to Kafka's sight and Iharu's planning, the two of them had made it to the location of the honju. Bursting through a broken and slanted ally way, Iharu had caught sight of the beast first. It was cephalopod based, resembling a mix between a squid or an octopus, crossed with an armored spider. Its' head was blue and bulbous, with a thin, wide, white ribbon running the diameter of its rounded top. It had four darker blue tentacles, each ending in a triangular nub covered in wicked spiked suckers, and another eight acting as its legs. All of them covered in what looked like black, striped,and jointed keratin plating and all of them ending in squishy tarantula paws. It was big, about a family-of-four house sized, tall as well as wide, and it was pissed.

"You don't think it smelled all the fried seafood and wanted revenge, do you think?" Kafka leaped down from a shattered rooftop and landed close to Iharu. The younger one grabbed the senior's wrist and dragged them both behind some cover before the honju saw them.

"Well, you said you wanted to break it down. Now's your chance." Iharu hissed quietly.

The aquatic beast lumbered forward, bellowing a watery warble as it bashed its tentacles against the building to its left. Kafka braced his back against the large piece of broken wall and shimmied upwards slowly in an attempt to gain a better look without breaking cover. He began to mentally run through a back catalog of information about Honju and Yoju, both from personal experience and from research on his down time, and came up with very little. But what he did come up with could still be very useful.

"Ok, here's the deal. Both Honju and Yoju can have aquatic forms and when they do, they stick unusually close to the original anatomy of their more normal counterparts."

"And how is that helpful?" Iharu whispered harshly as he stayed close to the ground in a crouched position.

"I'm getting there, hold on. From what it looks like, this bastard is sticking pretty close to something from the squid family. Which means it would be a safe bet that its core is somewhere close to the surface of the body, situated around the junction between the trunk and its head, and under a thick backbone made of cartilage."

"Alright, i'll tell everyone to aim for the.... neck I guess?" Iharu began to pull out his phone, but Kafka shooed it down to dismiss the idea.

"Here's the thing. You can actually kill a normal squid really easily by hitting it right at that junction. And I mean like one hard smack kinda deal." Kafka slid down the cover to better demonstrate with his hands to his partner.

"Yes, this has been established." Iharu sounded exasperated, almost desperate too as the beast trudged on by.

"I have a really bad idea." Kafka looked Iharu dead in the eyes with as much seriousness as he could. All Iharu could do was send a look of disbelief right back.

"Whatever it is, no."

"Ok, but if I'm right, the Defense force doesn't even need to show up because we'll be done already."

"HOW, may I ask? We don't even have any weapons." Iharu was becoming flabbergasted now, slowly debating to stop bothering with discrepancy.

"Ah, but you forget, I'm a living weapon. I don't even need a full transformation. Just make sure it doesn't turn around for a second while I grab a lamp post and get to higher ground." Iharu just groaned into his hands while Kafka turned and ran to find a suitable post, preferably one already uprooted.

Minutes later, Kafka had managed to fine a suitable improvised weapon to attack with and was trying his best to lug it over quietly. Iharu was still hiding behind the original piece of cover, watching his battle buddy struggle while keeping an eye on the yoju, making sure it hadn't been alerted to Kafka's presence. Kafka was on the other side of the street, opposite to Iharu's position and had much more cover to work with since that was the side the monster seemed to be taking its aggression out on. However, this came with its own set of problems as Kafka kept knocking the lamp post on what seemed to be every obstacle imaginable. Causing Iharu to flinch and indirectly slowing the beasts progression as it kept picking up on Kafka's poor attempt at stealth. After Kafka had managed to bang the bottom of the post against an unseen rock and cause the honju to turn around and face his general direction, it became clear to him that if he was to scale a building and get closer, some preventative measures were going to have to take place.

After waiting for the monster to turn back around, Kafka started to wave his arms around to get a hold of Iharu's attention.

'Go distract' Kafka tried to pantomime using military hand gestures.

'Me distract?' Iharu responded back, to which Kafka affirmed

'Are you nuts?' Iharu sent back, ducking as a chunk of debris flew over his head.

'Just throw a brick or something.' Kafka sent before picking up the post and tried to quietly lean it on the nearest building. Iharu hung his head at the absurd situation and looked around for a suitable rock.

Speedily crouch walking past several broken walls and roof pieces, he had managed to get back in front of the honju's path. Looking back, Kafka had transformed his hands back into claws and was now trying to climb the side of a building while alternating bringing the pole up with him. He seemed to be doing fine so far, trying his best not to make more noise than he could get away with. Kafka had made it to a metal fire escape landing that was miraculously still attached to a partially demolished building. He leaned over to pull up the light post behind him... and smacked the top of it into the landing above.

Before the monster had time to react to Kafka's blunder, Iharu had thrown the rock as hard as he could, aiming for it to land in front of its face and keeping its attention forward. This would of worked had Iharu had picked a smaller or lighter rock, as it had flown straight into one of the beast's wiggling tentacles. Iharu didn't have time to duck behind cover as it had turned to face the source of bodily harm. The honju roared as it raised its front arms and tentacles in defiance and began to lumber quickly toward the only thing it could really see, a mop of alarmingly pink hair.

"Shit, shIT, SHHHHIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!" Iharu bolted down the street, leaping and bounding over ruble in his path as the squishy, blue beast rapidly shuffled behind him giving chase. Kafka vocally mirrored the pink human rocket's sentiment as he rushed to carry the light pole up to the remains of the roof.

The buildings around Furuhashi turned into a blended blur as he blasted down the street, the journey made easier now that he hit a section that the honju hadn't demolished yet and left no obstacles to jump around. However, that didn't mean that he didn't have an easy time running away. With every footstep the multi-limbed monster made, sent the road trembling, forcing Iharu to find some sea legs fast. While it seemed to be a constant fact that spider based kaiju were slow enough to be outrun by anyone able-bodied, The shaking this one was creating gave Iharu a feeling that one misstep, one slight falter in his adrenaline fueled gait, could spell a messy end for him.

As he came onto a three-way, he juked the literal fish-out-of-water and whipped right, feet sliding out from under him. Iharu had to recover quickly as the squid-spider had regained it's footing as well and picked up its pace. Tentacles slammed and swiped all around him, causing the younger soldier to duck and weave intensely and dug deep inside of himself to find the strength to go faster.

A simple image. A snow blonde man with frosted violet eyes. Once facing a complimentary sunset, turned back to face Iharu in his mind's eye.

That's all it took for him. Not thinking too much about it (surely if he did, he would call himself out on his patheticness) Iharu managed to speed up just in time. He found himself passing under a familiar Torii gate just as the honju began to bring down a weighty tentacle. Before it could though, a squelchy crunch sound echoed down the food stalls lined boulevard him and Kafka were on earlier. Iharu kept going until he noticed the lack of quaking that was accompanying his previous flight for his life. Slowing down cautiously, he turned around to gawk at the scene that had unfolded behind him

Just passing under the Torii gate was the unnatural squid like beast, now limp and an opaque, milky color. Stood on top of the bulbous trunk in a victorious killing pose was Kafka, having hammered the concreted base of the lamppost square over its one-shot kill spot. Kafka let go of the post once it seemed sure that the monstrous cephalopod wasn't going to move anymore and stood up and relaxed. He flashed Iharu a thumbs up in reassurance.

Iharu was far from reassured and was shaking from the head to toe in adrenaline withdrawal. He took a second to catch his breath and immediately regretted it, running over to an uncovered trash can and vomited his stomach contents from the nerves.

#########################################

Several back rubs, gurgled curses, and vehement apologies later, Iharu felt okay enough to walk again. Kafka took a second to extend his kaiju sensory powers to check the immediate area for more threats while Iharu double checked him with research from his phone. Certain they had eliminated the only threat that had decided to make its presence known, the two discussed their next course of action. Seeing that the damage had been localized to a different part of town and how none of it had really reached the festival, they decided to see if they could encourage those that were still around to start the food stalls back up. To be honest, the decision was made from a mutual understanding that if it didn't, the two of them would have no choice but to head back to headquarters. Which felt like admitting defeat too early, seeing as they had wanted to stay out as long as they wished tonight, damn the consequences.

The two split up and went around to the surrounding buildings and encouraged the caged civilians inside that it was safe now. Once told that it was some off duty members of the Defence Force, those inside started to walk out and braced themselves for the possible damage that wasn't there. Some of the bartenders of the local bars that hadn't left in the evacuation started a one time only deal of giving everyone that had stayed a round on the house. Once it seemed that the neighborhood's basements and closets were emptied, Kafka and Iharu met in the center of the street.

"I got everyone on the left." Kafka started.

"And I got everyone on the right. Going to head to the shelter where everyone headed to and see about bypassing the lock on it to get everyone out. You coming?" Iharu said, already turning to leave.

"Nah, I'm gonna stay here and see what I can do about the squid at the gate. Get it out of here before it gets rank." Iharu managed two thumbs up as he briskly jogged away to the rescue.

A large crowd had begun to form around the fishy corpse under the gate. Kafka could make out some of the hushed phrases as he politely muscled his way through.

"Can't believe it had gotten so close."

"There doesn't seem to be any casualties so far?"

"We were lucky that some members of the third division were here tonight."

"Its almost seems like the gods were looking out for the festival, don't ya think?"

"The spirits must have considered the food too good to waste- excuse me, coming through! Make way, if you don't mind." Kafka began to move more easily through the crowd after making his presence known.

Getting to the front, he stood proud and took a long look at the situation before him. His past experience in the Sweepers began to flow easily into his mind as he walked around and over the dead beast. It was soft and squishy, with a tough skin. Not so tough that it probably couldn't be pierced by a good knife, he thought. The keratin plates were only held on with a thin sheet of tendon and looked like it could be filleted or pried off with little difficulty. The legs seemed closer to a crab than a spider at a closer glance, it just had an extra set. Breaking the crab legs would be challenging, however. Sure they could be cracked, but only after heated drastically and directly at the joints. Kafka leaned back and sighed. He knew he wasn't going to be the one cleaning this up, but he'd hate to have the whole squad out here for what could be a three person job.

Well, three if they had five hours. The more people, the less time of course. This one just so happened to be simple to break down, however. Give him ten minutes and he could teach everything that was important to the crowd in front of him. They could probably have this all dismantled before the Sweepers even got out of bed.

"Hey! You're with the Defense force, right? How long do you think it would take to get this out of here?" A portly man in a tan canvas apron shouted up at Kafka. The half kaiju man slid down the deceased squid beast so he could talk to the man in an appropriate manner.

"Well the thing's dead, so that parts' already done. Getting the body out of here is down to the Sweepers. I used to work with them, so I can just call a few of them up and we can get this dismantled and out of here soon. It's all a shame though."

"What make you say that?" A taller man behind the chunky one piped up.

"Well, for one, if the JAKDF finds out I'm here, I'm gonna have to get back on duty sooner than I'd like." This caused a slight chuckle from the neighboring crowd that heard him, causing some to relax slightly.

"And this is me saying from previous experience, the dismantling for this thing would be easy; it's just labor intensive. Wouldn't need fancy tools or anything. Just some willing hands, and I'd hate to bring out a whole ten piece crew for something this small. I don't even think Izumo really messes with squid types anyway. Not unless they exhibit some unnatural power so this would end up getting tossed in a trash heap in the end." The short man from earlier turned to look at the milky squid spider and shook his head in sympathy.

"Damn shame they aren't edible, huh?" A light bulb went off in Kafka's head as he turned to look at the man. Looking down, he saw that, in the pockets of the man's apron, was a handful of toothpicks and a couple sets of sharp metal chopsticks with bells attached to the ends of the wooded handles. Instruments designed to get people attention when someone made takoyaki.

"Actually.... most aquatic type kaiju are."

Half an hour later, Iharu lead the throng of people that had made it to the shelter back to the street and saw the most ridiculous sight. People had swarmed the dead honju, a third of it now seemed to be missing. Some had rigged a makeshift pulley system over the Torri gate and was lifting large chunks of milky, spotted flesh up and away from the rest of the body. Kafka was at the base, directing others on how to properly separate the armored plates from the legs while somebody on the other side was using a cutting torch and passed off the legs to another group that was putting them in a steaming metal barrel. Some had set their respective stalls back up and had hurriedly changed or added on new parts to their signs, all now advertising a kaiju variant of wherever fried food they were selling before.

"KAFKA! Mind telling me what's going on?" Iharu shouted over the sound of intense manual labor. Kafka looked at everyone and asked if they understood. When everyone nodded yes, Kafka broke away and joined Iharu.

"Funny thing, actually. I was talking to this guy in the crowd about the labor and how it would be a waste if we got the Sweepers involved. He said something about 'Shame it ain't edible' and it made me remember that some sea-bearing ones are and the guy I was talking too ran the giant takoyaki stand, the one where they're as big as your head, and the guy behind him was selling calamari rings and-"

"So you thought it would be a good idea to teach everyone here how to dismantle a kaiju? You don't seriously expect people to eat that, right? It's kaiju meat, how are you so sure it doesn't have parasites or something?"

"Oh! Already solved that problem." Kafka said, "Quick vinegar bath. Kills the sturdier ones and the heat kills the rest." Iharu looked past Kafka suspiciously and stared at the group of volunteers working away at the dead and, apparently edible, body.

"And where's the organs and shit going, might I ask?"

"Called an old work buddy that has a truck. He's going to be here in an hour to pick up the double bagged trash bags and throw them over the fence at work. He's getting paid in fried food when he gets here." Kafka mentioned, sounding proud of himself. Iharu just shrugged it off, thinking that it sounded like Kafka-appropriate levels of absurdity and that he shouldn't complain too much about it. After all, this removes any and all reason for the third Division to come down here. No chaos, no bodies, no trouble. Which meant that they didn't have to explain to co-workers why they weren't back yet and be forcefully dragged back against their will, so wins all-around honestly.

The squat man from earlier walked over to where the two were talking, carrying two white and unmarked carryout boxes the size of a soccer ball.

"Here, you killed the damn thing. You get first dibs on the spoils." he handed them over and jogged back to his station, now flooded with a line of people wanting to try kaiju squid takoyaki.

The off duty officers looked at each other briefly before rapidly tearing open the top of the box, revealing the most wondrous sight and smell. Inside was a massive takoyaki ball, fried with a variety of fillings, more than just onions and corn and slathered in eel sauce and kewpie mayo, topped with bonito flakes.

'Maybe it was worth almost getting smashed into a pancake.' Iharu thought before diving into the free meal.

########################################

'Cleared the surrounding area of potential causalities in quadrant Charlie, found none. Path of destruction heads east. Permission to follow?" Aoi Kaguragi, a member of the Third Division, relayed the pertinent information through his ear piece, awaiting further instruction.

"Message received, free to follow Kaguragi. Take care." Okonogi relayed back.

Aoi nodded over to his partner for tonight, Haruichi, and the two of them headed in the direction of the chaotic path of broken rubble. The two of them, as well as a small crew had been sent out to examine the emergence site of the recently exposed kaiju. The team was originally sent out to fight the disturbance, but halfway through suiting up, was almost called off due to the honju signature suddenly disappearing. Vice Captain Hoshina had the last say however, and made the crew go out anyway. Saying at the very least they should check for injured and make a damage report. He didn't say this specifically, but the impression was given that, since they were all the way out there, someone might as well find out why the signature disappeared in the first place. Aoi and Haruichi got done first, so they went to find the answers.

Following the cracked pavement lead them to a three-way intersection that had clearly sustained some bludgeoning damage as indicated by the mid-sized honju-like dent in the buildings in front of them. They turned to the right and continued to follow the rows of spider cracks that had imprinted onto the houses and streets, only to have their concentration broken by a passing truck clearly overladen with bulging, lumpy, stained trash bags.

"Was that a giant squid backbone?" Haruichi questioned.

"I'm surprised you know what one looks like." Aoi stated, not letting small things distract him from following the path of structural chaos that led down the street.

"You do know that I go fishing with my cousins on occasion. 'Cook what you catch' kind of vacations."

"What, on your overpriced yacht?" Aoi smirked as he couldn't resist adding a touch of teasing in his voice. Haruichi could come across as so mild mannered some days, it made it hard to picture him as a son of a business tech tycoon. Everyone on the base that knew him would occasionally tease him about it and it seemed that, as polite and agreeable as Aoi was in person, even he wasn't above the periodic ribbing-of-the-rich.

"It's a moderately sized deck boat, thank you very much. If I kick out the family, it should be big enough for the two of us to have some fun. If you're interested, that is?" Haruichi said, words dusted with seduction as he winked at Aoi. Kaguragi's lips thinned in an attempt to not break his resting bitch face at the salacious suggestion.

"Then again, that implies either of us get enough time off to go anywhere these days." Haruichi huffed. Aoi quietly grumbled in agreement before he straightened his attention to the sight down the street.

As the two crested the small hill, the sounds of the festival became more apparent and the smells of the food crashed down on them like a tidal wave of spices and fried oil. They noticed that the damage they had been following seemed to have stopped here suddenly, directly under the Torri gate still covered in ropes. A couple of people on ladders were carefully taking them down and a pair of women, one young and one old, were on their knees scrubbing away at what looked like a large blue ink stain.

"Hello! Sorry to bother you, but have either of you seen a medium sized honju pass through here? We're with the Defense Force and we would like to make sure that the threat isn't still around."

"The big squid spider lookin' thing?" the younger lady of the two said as she looked up.

"I would assume so, we didn't know what it looked like since it seemed to disappear so quickly. My partner and I followed its tracks here, but they don't appear to be anywhere else." Haruicho adjusted the kevlar strap attached to his gun so it would sit squarely on his back and kneeled down to talk to the women face to face.

"A couple of off duty members of yours already took care of it. It was sitting here, spilling its blood on the sidewalk until the big, polite looking oaf got the bright idea to tell Aki that it was edible. Once that got passed around, some of the other seafood fryers wanted to get in on its dismantling and get their own pound of flesh to fry. If ya want to try it, better hurry. It's selling out fast." The old woman pointed to the stalls behind her just as some of them had walked out to write on their respective signs detailing about how they were almost sold out of fried or battered kaiju meat.

Izumo looked back to his partner and could almost see the drool cascading from Kaguragi's open mouth. Aoi looked down at him, hoping that he wasn't going to have to defy a direct order that didn't allow him to get in line. Haruichi dismissed him wordlessly with a hand wave, not that it mattered as Aoi had already left and now it seemed he was trying to use his Defense Force title to skip ahead in line. Sighing at his partner's antics, Haruichi returned to his conversation.

"You mentioned a 'polite looking oaf', and from that description, I have a feeling I might know who you're talking about. Would you mind telling me where the festival savior headed off to?"

"Last I saw, him and his pink haired friend went to celebrate in one of the bars around here. There's several, mind you, but I don't think they've crossed over to the left side yet. Best guess? Stick to the right and see which one sound the loudest." Haruichi thanked the old women for the advice and walked down the street. He stopped by Aoi and told him the same thing before starting his investigation in earnest. The words of the old women came back to mind, however, once he pieced together who the off duty members could be.

'Kafka's with Iharu? Here? That's odd. I thought Iharu was leaving with Reno? And weren't they just heading to a movie? Shouldn't they have been back by now?' Haruichi thought. As he passed down the street, carefully listening to the volume of any of the bars he passed, all he could do was hope that neither of them were too plastered to answer some questions.

#########################################

Haruichi walked up and down the street to get a good idea as to which of the bars seemed to be the loudest and popped his head into a few of of them to see if he could find his fellow co-workers. Third bar he picked seemed to be a karaoke bar. It was fairly narrow, with the bar on the right and the left wall lined with as many booths as one could fit comfortably. There were a couple of standing tables placed offset to each other in the middle of the room it seemed, but it was hard to tell how many there were through the mass of people crammed in the room. From the top of the short set of stairs he was standing on, he could see to the other side of the bar at least and look at the loud drunken pair singing their lungs out on the shallow stage placed at the end of the sitting area.

And who would of guessed it would be the 'polite looking oaf and his pink haired friend'. Kafka was the one holding the mic and had his arm slung over Iharu's shoulder, almost looking like he was putting his full weight on it with how far the two of them were bending toward the ground. Iharu was holding a large beer mug that was a quarter full and was still threatening to spill out onto the floor. The two were heavily engrossed in their rendition of... God, Haruichi couldn't even tell. Thankfully he wasn't subjected to the aural torture much longer as the song finished. While Iharu thanked the very drunk, very enthusiastic crowd for being such good listeners, Haruichi waved his arms over his head and got Kafka's attention.

"Heyyyyy! I'll be DAmned! It's fucken' Haruichi! Holy SHIT!" Kafka exclaimed. He dragged Iharu clumsily off the stage and waved Izumo over to some bar stools that some patrons happily got off of once Kafka explained himself and that his friend from the Defense Force showed up. Haruichi managed to muscle his way through the crowd and make it to the seats next to the others just as Kafka wrapped him up in a massive drunken bear hug.

"God, man! Where you've been? We've been here keeping this party going since we took down that ugly mutherfucker. Hey, you didn't hear about us from Hoshina did you?" Kafka's breath smelled heavily of cheap whisky but wasn't slurring his words half as much as Haruichi thought he would.

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. What the hell are you doing here? And with Iharu? I thought him and Reno had a date or something?" Kafka made a silencing gesture with his hand as he got closer to Haruichi.

"I wouldn't try and say that too loud. Reno had to blow the date for a mission and I don't think Iharu's been taking it too well. He had prepaid the movie tickets and I mentioned that I like Ranger Rika films, so now we're here."

"Okay, and what about the kaiju that showed up around here? I heard from the locals that you killed it?" Iharu, who had picked a spot on the other side of the two, had leaned in to hear them better and had perked up at the mention of the kaiju fight.

"OOHHH MAN! HaRU! YOU should of SEEN US, MAN! I wasss running for ma LIFE from that THING! I got chasssed ALL the WAY to the- the.... big red thing and Kafka ;OH man, KAFKA! HE came on it from ABOVE and smacked it with a fucken' LIGHT POLE! A light pole, MAN!" Iharu accentuated his retelling with wild hand gestures and made it clear to Haruichi that either he had more than Kafka did or couldn't hold his liqueur very well.

"Don't mind him, he's on his fourth mug right now. Is the rest of the division here with you?" Kafka asked.

"No, It's just me and Aoi here at the festival. The rest of the group is back at the emergence site making sure there's no casualties and taking a damage toll. Aoi's outside at the festival buying out all the fried food he can get his hands on right now." Haruichi replied, politely refusing the bartender's inquiry of whether or not he would be having a drink.

"Oh, that's nice. here's hoping that he manages to grab some of the kaiju meat before it's gone." Kafka downed another shot of whiskey that the bartender had poured out for him.

"Okay, sure. Last question. Aren't you guys supposed to be back by now?" Haruichi tried to look very pointedly at the two of them when he asked.

'What do you mean by that?" Kafka pounded on his chest as he said, fighting the burning sensation firing its way back up his throat. Izumo looked around appearing very puzzled before he looked back at Kafka.

"I don't know what time you guys left, but you can't tell me the two of you have enough hours to be out here for much longer." Hibino choked on his own spit for a second before trying to respond to Haruichi pointed suggestion, however it seemed to be a second too long as Iharu had already heard him and took the chance to... vocally express his opinion on the matter.

"FUCK THEM HOURS!"

'Iharu, maybe not right now-" Kafka tried to interject.

"NAH! I'M TIRED ABOUT HEARING ABOUT HOW MANY HOURS I GOTTA HAVE OR HOW MANY I GOT LEFT!" Iharu had gotten off of his stool and now began directing his speech to the drunk crowd behind him.

"WHEN I SAY I WANT A DAY OFF, I SHOULD GET THE WHOLE DAY OFF! NOT GET BACK A 'SORRY, CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT' OR 'WE NEED YOU TO COME BACK IN' TWO HOURS INTO A BREAK I SCHEDULED OFF THREE FUCKIN' DAYS AGO!" Now the crowd was cheering for Iharu, getting riled up on his behalf and probably relating as well due to how he worded his rant.

"SAY IT WITH ME! FUCK THEM HOURS!" Iharu started the chant with his mug held high in the air.

"Fuck them hours!" the crowd chanted back.

"FUCK THEM HOURS!" Iharu tried again

"FUCK THEM HOURS!!!" All the people in the room joined in this time.

"You think we should do something?" Haruichi asked.

"I think they're already handling it." Kafka pointed to two tall, well built men dressed in black polos walking over to the center of the crowd where Iharu had made himself at home, driving the people around him into a frenzy. The two at the bar watched as their friend was lifted up, crowd surfing style and was carried to the front door of the bar. They rushed off of their seats and joined in at the back of the mock revolution that was following their leader, still chanting 'Fuck them hours."

The two of them watched as their coworker was unceremoniously tossed onto his ass on the street outside of the bar. Watching their appointed leader get treated with such carelessness seemed to shake the throng of people out of their rebellious state of mind and dispersed quietly. Kafka and Haruichi looked down at a stunned Iharu laying spread eagle, not really sure what he should do next. Kafka decided to lay down next to Iharu while Haruichi sat down on the lip of the sidewalk behind their heads.

"So, you just got your first experience getting kicked out from a bar. How do you feel?" Kafka asked, not looking at Iharu but instead looking up at the stars being framed in the corners of his vision by the lanterns lining the street.

"Ssstars look purtty tonight." Iharu replied, pointing up at the sky with the glass mug he was holding onto inside the bar.

Kafka chuckled, "Yeah, they sure do buddy."

"You think they're going to notice the mug you're still holding?" Haruichi asked, face in his hands and his elbows on his knees. It looked like Iharu finally realized what he was holding as he brought it closer to his face. Looking closer at the mug, he could see that the glass had a pattern molded around the base. An interlocking pattern made up of a six pointed star with tiny branches spouting off the ends of each point. Almost like a snowflake.

Iharu violently convulsed into tears at the thought and curled up into a ball, clutching the beer mug close to his chest.

"Geez, what did I say?" Haruichi asked.

"I have a feeling this is about something else." Kafka said, rolling onto his side to comfort his partner.

"I jussst wanted to take him on a date, isss dat so wrong?" Iharu sobbed, fighting to talk around the mucus building in his throat.

"Reno?" Haruichi asked

"Reno." Kafka replied, hugging Iharu close to his chest as best he can.

"I was going to show him how much we have in common and take him to pretty placesss and buy him nice things! I jussst wanted to tell him how much it meant to me to be his fwend and how much I loved hiiimmm..." Kafka just rubbed his back as his body became racked with shakes from his struggle to breathe. "I jussst wanted to tell him that I thinks he's so cooool and that I think he's pretty when he's asleep and I didn't want to sssound creepy when I did! Why couldn't he be here?" Iharu screamed into Kafka's wind breaker, now stained with tears and mucus.

"It'll be okay. You'll have other chances to tell him." Kafka tried to say reassuringly in the awkward position.

"Buts I wanted to tell him today! I don't think I can wait any longer before I say sssomething ssstupid and ruin everything! And I don't even know if he'll like me baaaack!" Iharu only to calm down slightly, but at least the shaking stopped. Kafka looked back at Haruichi expectantly, silently asking him to help out here. Izumo slid himself off the sidewalk and scooched over to the men making a scene in the middle of the street and placed a hand on the younger one of the three.

"There, there. I'm sure you two will be able to talk it out. I have no doubt that Reno harbors anything less than love for you in his heart."

"Okay, that'sss nice and all, but do we know it's love 'as a fwend' or love 'as a partner'? 'Cuz I really want it to be 'as a partner' but I don't want to tell him if he'sss going to find that uncomfortable." Iharu said as tried his best to wipe his face clean with the sleeve of his jacket. Haruichi pondered for a minute before suggesting a plan.

"Maybe... I could ask?", Iharu looked tearfully behind him as best as possible to look Haruichi in the eyes. "I wouldn't say anything incriminating, just... see if he's open to the possibility?"

This seemed to pacify Iharu a little bit as he brought himself to a sitting position.

"Yeah, but that doesssn't solve what I could do for a date, though. This wasss da best I could come up with and I was racking my brain for a week." Iharu slurred, wiping his face. Kafka up-righted himself as well and scratched his side as he positioned himself perpendicular to Iharu.

"Well, either way, you're going to have to wait and save up time again before you're allowed to head back out." Kafka thought for a moment as he paused in his scratching, "Its the middle of June now, right? Late July, early August is a pretty good time for a beach date. Romantic enough and lots of places do a sorta 'last week of summer hoorah' kinda deal."

"And we're pretty close to the beach. Wouldn't need to save up many hours if you're that desperate for time." Haruichi chimed in. Iharu took all of the information in and, for the first time tonight, seemed genuinely happy. The kind of happiness that can be seen all the way through someone's core.

"Did I miss something?" A familiar, but muffled baritone rang out from the left of the group. It was Aoi, back from a successful shopping spree in the festival. His arms were laden with bags upon bags of different types of food. It was almost comical how many bags there were seeing as one couldn't even find his large torso. Ranging from white plastic bags, to brown paper ones, to clear ones showcasing the goods inside. All seemingly stuffed to the brim.

"Is that... a hamster butt hanging out of your mouth?" Haruichi asked. Aoi quickly chewed and swallowed it so he could speak more clearly.

"Its hamster shaped kikufuku mochi. I almost feel guilty eating them because they're so cute. Unfortunately for them, they're just as good as they look. Don't worry, I bought enough for everyone. Three of these boxes are for me though." Aoi paused and stared at the bags really hard for a second. "Actually, it's two now, but my point still stands."

######################################

Haruichi made the suggestion that, maybe, they should be making their way back to base but Iharu became very irate at that suggestion. So to pacify him, the pair-turned-quartet walked around the festival a little longer, buying some more food to help Iharu feel more like his happier self. Well, everyone else walked. Kafka started giving Iharu a piggy back ride when it seemed like he was swaying on his feet and complained about foot pain. They had made it halfway down the other side of the street when Kafka looked over and saw something that jogged his memory. Aoi noticed the feeling of disconnect in the group and turned around, causing Haruichi to look as well.

It was another Torri gate, nestled between two brick buildings, looking like it was erected as a protective marker. Blocking against the bustle of the festival, locked behind its towering height was a well worn stone path trailing up and to the left, hiding its destination behind a thick grove of trees. What refreshed Kafka's memory, however, was that the trail was lined with a multitude of overly colorful paper lanterns in a variety of shapes and sizes. The stillness of the trees and the ethereal light pouring out from the lanterns contrasted against the feeling that came from being out on the street. It really felt like there was a chance one could get swept away by playful spirits if one made the decision to turn off from the sidewalk and explore this detour.

"Hey, Iharu? Kafka asked, shifting his friend's weight on his back and rousing him from the light slumber he was about to slip into.

"Yeah," Iharu said sleepily, "What's up?"

"Didn't you say there was a shrine that you wanted to take Reno to that had paper lanterns and was close to the festival?" Iharu looked over at what Kafka was looking at and lit up a little at the memory.

"Oh yeah! Thisss might be it actually." Kafka looked over at the other two members of the party.

"I think we're going to take a detour. He had plans to stop by the place earlier. The path ahead might be long, so you can go ahead on back, If you want."

"Oh, no. We're sticking with you to make sure you both actually make it back to base." Haruichi walked over to stand under the gate and made an 'after you' kind of gesture. Kafka shrugged his shoulders and walked ahead of Izumo and Kaguragi.

The path had no steps, but sloped upwards gently. Turning sharply left then right then back again, it took the group on a slow and peaceful journey up a hidden hill behind the buildings back on the main boulevard. Kafka was in the lead, setting a slow pace with a sleepy Iharu on his back while Aoi and Haruichi had a quiet discussion further back. Still keeping pace, but leaving enough room between the two of them as to not make things feel rushed.

The path lived up to its initial impression back at its entrance. The trees seemed to block any sound from the festival down at ground level. Not to make things eerily quiet, was a methodical thrumming of cicadas and crickets weaving through the quiet rush of leaves dancing in the light wind. The lanterns were attached to arms connected to rough-hew logs and cast their warm, glassy light over the leaves, bushes, and stones. The shards of colored light danced over Iharu's partially lidded eyes, preforming a hypnotic dance that succeeded in keeping him half awake, half asleep.

His thoughts walked themselves backwards through the events of the day. Starting with the foods and the drinking, quickly sweeping past the terrifying chase against the giant squid monster, slowly reliving the events after, though, and before the movie theater. All the way back to the start, with Reno. Was he sad that he didn't get to do any of this with Reno? Absolutely. But considering the alternative was spending three hours in the barracks, wrapped up in a bare minimum of three stolen blankets, and blowing all that time feeling shitty about the situation he was in; getting to experience all of this anyway, in spite of how he wanted things to go, and having fun with someone he always worked with and was now getting this chance to be closer to as friends... well... this night did a fine job of making him happy anyway. And that was okay.

"Hey... this was nice." Iharu mumbled as he nuzzled Kafka's shoulder. Kafka just gave a big, warm smile back and let Iharu enjoy the scenery as they continued to find the end of the path.

The group finally hit a set of stairs that led to the main part of the shrine. Cresting the top of them, they were greeted with a lovely sight. A moderately sized shrine and a couple outbuildings were surrounded in the thick grove of trees on this hill. The lightly cloudy night sky was visible only in the center of the grove, with a half moon peaking out from the edge of the canopy's opening. It initially seemed that the main source of light was coming from candles and more of the lanterns that lined the path up here. Looking around longer proved that a building off to the right had electric lighting and was the one providing the most light. The light bulbs inside seemed to have attracted all the bugs in the forest and made the projecting light flicker chaotically onto the ground.

Both the shrine and the buildings around it appeared to be old, but very well maintained. Shimenawa ropes of all sizes lined the roofs of the Shrine and select other buildings. The candles, some exposed; others in glass containers, were on the floor of the main shrine and illuminated the collection box at the end of the stone path.

The four of them walked down to the end to pay their respects and make donations. Since Aoi's hands were full and he didn't have much money left after his buying spree, Haruichi paid for them both. Kafka's wallet was in the back pack on Iharu's back. So, without jumping off, Iharu took off the bag and pulled out both of their wallets. Kafka had plenty left but Iharu only had a couple 1000 yen bills and a lot of spare change. He dug out some 5 yen coins and tossed them in with Kafka's donation, still riding on his back. Haruichi made his and the whole group held their hands together in silent prayer.

The group turned around after a moment and walked back toward the entrance they came through. This time staying closer to the right as another group of people walked into the holy grounds as well. Sticking closer to the right afforded the group a good look at the wares the only properly illuminated building was selling. It was mainly some snacks and wooden key chains. There was the omikuji box of course, right next to a display of handmade protective charms and talismans. There was a man on the inside working away, oblivious to the world as a women sang a gentle song on a small black radio. Iharu glanced over the selection of charms and saw one that immediately caught his eye.

"Hey! Heyheyheyheyhey." Iharu's hand shook as he pointed at the charms display.

"What? What is it?" Kafka asked, trying to look at where Iharu's hand was pointing at.

"Looklooklooklook. The blue one." Iharu said vaguely. Kafka walked closer and leaned in to scan the display stand better. He found the light blue one that Iharu was pointing at. It didn't stand out much more differently than the rest, with all of them having the same complicated looking decorative knot pattern and they all were made with different colors of fabric. What he finally put together was that the pattern on the fabric... had snowflakes on it.

Kafka sighed heavily. "I take it you want the blue one for Reno?"

"Yeah, yeahyeahyeah." Iharu nodded quickly.

"You do realize you're broke now, right? You don't have enough money on you to pay for one." Kafka stated. Iharu hung his head and started to whimper loudly and pathetically into Kafka's shoulder.

All Hibino did was sigh heavily again. "Hand me my wallet." Furuhashi gave a small, delighted squeal as he dug out Kafka's wallet again. He paid the man for the charm and turned to meet back up with the other two. Looking around, they found them at a different part of the grounds, standing by a makeshift stall. Getting closer, they could see that it was selling bottles of plum wine and offering free samples to interested buyers. Aoi was sampling his, while Haruichi was having a conversation with the old lady running the stall. Aoi nudged Haruichi to let him not be shocked by their arrival. As Haruichi let Kafka in on the discussion he was having, Iharu immediately spaced out of it and let his eyes wander over the stall. The eyes eventually landed on the label that was on the bottles.

"Oooohhh!" Iharu cooed, "There's snowflakes on it."

"Don't tell me you want to gift Reno that too?" Kafka said exasperatedly. Iharu started to whine again as Haruichi passed a small wad of money over to the shocked lady behind the table.

"That's okay. I shouldn't be needing a whole case of wine anyway." Haruichi walked over to the side and grabbed a large plastic crate of wine bottles.

"And yet... You're buying a whole case of it anyway?" Aoi said with a raised eyebrow. As they walked back to the entrance, Izumo pulled out a bottle and tried to slide it into the open portion of the bag on Iharu's back.

"It's called 'Supporting local businesses'. And it wouldn't hurt to have something to surprise him with on that beach da- Hey!" Haruichi refuted as Iharu pulled out another bottle from the crate as he backed away.

"And, yoink!" the mischievous mohawked man giggled as he held his ill-gotten prize over his supplier's hands.

"Haven't the two of you had enough alcohol tonight?" Aoi said, witnessing the altercation.

"Hey, we made plans to get plastered tonight and I'm still feeling way too sober for that goal." Kafka said as he helped Iharu keep the bottle out of Haruichi's reach.

"You are a horrible role model, you know that?" Izumo said, giving up on the task in favor of protecting the rest in the crate.

"Eh, open." Iharu said, rudely tapping the lip of the bottle to Kafka's mouth.

"Ya could say please, ya know." Kafka returned as he took the bottle from Iharu. He did a partial transformation on his mouth and stuck the largest fang into the cork at the top. Wiggling slightly, the stopper popped satisfyingly and as he spit the cork into his hand, Iharu took the opportunity to steal the wine back.

"HEY! Leave me a sip of that, will YA?"

###########################################

The group made it back to street level and started back on the path to headquarters. They began the trip with the intention of taking a bus back, assuming the truck that Haruichi and Aoi came in on already left without them. The two of them weren't surprised, they were the ones that offered to look for the missing kaiju signature and haven't reported back on it yet, as it was hard to do so since the earpieces only have so much range. And seeing as how long the two of them had been gone and how late it was, they thought that it would be less of a hassle if they hiked it back to base and went inside quietly, just to give their reports in the morning.

The closest bus station was still a ways away, so the group started to walk in the general direction. The walk was quickly derailed as they passed the restaurant that sold Kafka and Iharu their new hats. With some major protesting from Aoi, who was against the idea, Haruichi purchased a dark navy blue one for Aoi and a vibrant red one with silver stars for himself anyway, seeing as Aoi still had his hands full with bags and physically could not intervene. The grumbled protests from Aoi were eventually silenced when he got to keep a large chocolate peanut butter milkshake all to himself.

Thankfully, the bus ride home was uneventful, save for Iharu drunkenly talking Haruichi's ears off when he asked what the Ranger Rika film was all about. However, problems began to arise again as they reached the main gate of the base.

"Ssso, how are we gonna get inside?" Iharu slurred from the top of Kafka's back. He started to carry him again after they got off the bus and saw that he was still swaying on his feet. They were all the way through the empty parking lot and reached the imposing security wall that surrounded the institution. Just under half a kilometer, was the double gated entry point. One of three that were imbedded in the thick concrete barrier.

"What do you mean?" Izumo asked as he turned around to look at the two behind him.

"We probably should've been back, like, hours ago. So if we show our i.d's to the guard, we're probably going to get flagged and that's not something that we want to deal with right now." Kafka said slowly, the gratuitous amounts of alcohol finally catching up with him.

"Did you guys have any sort of plan to get back inside quietly after this little exhibition of yours?" Aoi asked as Haruichi just looked annoyed. Kafka looked back at Iharu as Iharu could only shrug back an answer. He looked back and thought hard for a minute.

"Well... I think Shiggys' working the east gate tonight." Kafka said.

"And... Who's Shiggy?" Haruchi inquired.

"Oh, he's super chill. Dude works the late shift and isn't really a 'by the books' kinda guy. If either one of you has an i.d. on ya, he'll probably just let the whole group on in, no question." Aoi and Haruichi looked at each other, silently debating if they should go through with this. Aoi tried to give a very pointed look to Haruichi, indicating that he should be the one to whip out the i.d., but Haruichi had to defend himself.

"Sorry, but I only carry some cash out on missions. I leave the wallet and cards in my locker."

"Why do you even bring cash with you in the first place?" Iharu mumbled out.

"Last second grocery buys. Snacks, body wash, other things I forget sometimes." Haruichi turned back to Aoi. "So what about you? You can't tell me an ex-military officer doesn't carry at least six forms of identification for emergencies." he mocked. Aoi looked at Izumo, down to the ground in deep thought, gave a hard glance at the plethora of bags he was still holding, and finally hung his head in defeat. Kaguragi sighed heavily as he turned his back to his partner.

"Haruichi... I give you permission to touch my ass." Haruichi gasped in delight as he carelessly dropped the plastic box of wine and wiggled his fingers in excitement.

"Ooohhoohoo! This is a rare treat! What's the occasion, might I ask?"

"If I'm right, my wallet should be in my left back pocket. JUST the left one." Aoi said, looking back with a very pointed expression.

"Yeah you say that, but maybe I should check the right side too. Just to be sure." Haruichi giggled darkly, clearly taking too much joy out of this.

"Do that and I break your ha-nds!" Aoi's voice cracked when Haruichi slyly pinched both of his ass cheeks.

"Ah, would you look at that! Found it." He said as he pulled out the wallet.

"Kafka... shoot me if I ever start acting like that around Reno." Iharu said.

"I don't know. It's kind of endearing... in a weird way." Kafka quirked an eyebrow at the odd scene.

"Ah, trouble. I'm not seeing your base i.d., babe." Haruichi said after a few seconds of rummaging around in the wallet.

"You're sure? Fuck." Aoi cursed quietly. "Do I even trust you enough to look in my front pockets?"

"Nope. I'm going to look anyway." Haruichi giggled again as Aoi visibly winced at the feeling of the other's hands slowly sliding into his thin front pockets from behind. Izumo's hands didn't stick around long, which Kaguragi was thankful for, but it only brought them back to the original problem.

"I'm not feeling your i.d. in here either." Haruichi said as he gently patted Aoi's hips.

"Shiiiiiiiit. That means I never took it off the lanyard in my locker." Aoi threw his head back in disappointment. While this exchange was going on, Kafka and Iharu were looking off in the distance, specifically at the impossibly tall wall. Kafka scanned the parking lot to make sure that there wasn't that many cars to worry about and asked Iharu a question.

"You think If I run fast enough, I can scale that?" He said, nodding to the concrete barrier.

"What, in kaiju form?" Iharu contemplated for a moment, "Yeah. I think you could."

"I know I could, but what about if I carry three other people?" Kafka nodded back to the other two who were deep in what seemed to be a battle plan discussion. "Plus baggage."

Iharu took a long look at the pair next to them while he processed what Kafka was suggesting. He began to chuckle darkly as it all fell into place for him.

"I don't know man, but it be hilarious to try." The two of them began to chuckle in agreement before Kafka decided to put his plan into action.

"Haruichi! Grab the box. I wanna try something." Kafka said as he walked into position.

"Oh, that's great! Honestly, me and Aoi here were getting nowhere with a pla-HEY!" Haruichi cried out as Kafka grabbed him by the waist forcefully after he picked up the crate. Aoi was also none too pleased with where this plan was going, shall we say.

"Passengers, this is your captain speaking. Flight Kafka 690 will be taking off shortly, so please make sure that all baggage is secure and accounted for before it's wheels up and time for take-off." Iharu said smugly as Kafka walked back a few feet, holding a struggling Haruichi and Aoi.

"This is BY FAR the stupidest plan I have ever been forced to be a part oooOOFFFF!" Haruichi screamed as Kafka began to run full sprint toward the insanely high wall. As he got closer, his legs turned into his kaiju ones and the flaps on his calves flared open to reveal the after burners the transformation offered. Jumping onto the wall itself, Kafka's afterburners set fire to the bottom of his pant legs as he rocketed himself and everyone he was carrying into the sky. He could feel his back and elbows transform too to help him keep his back straight as the burners on his elbows helped stabilize him as he somehow managed to stay rooted to his path.

"Kafka you BASTARD!" Aoi screamed.

"If I drop this, I'll KILL YOU!" Haruichi mirrored, changing his grip on the crate of wine, somehow having not dropped any bottles yet.

"FUCK YEAAAAAHHHH!" Iharu cries of joy overshadowed the screams of the others.

"ALLLLMOOOOST THERRRREEE!" Kafka shouted, deep in concentration. The top of the wall got closer and closer, the end of this terrifying ride nearly in sight. The screams of the whole group rose to a deafening peak as Kafka just barely passed the edge of the wall. Relief was felt only for a brief moment when a noticeable shock wave passed through Kafka's body and transferred into the bodies of the others.

"Oh shit." a collective conclusion that was voiced by the whole group.

#########################################

It was just passed one in the morning when Reno and the team he was with made it back to base. He was so very tired. No one ended up being injured, thank God, but the anxiety of the situation took a severe toll on everyone involved. The mole kaiju were easy to take out, but the process to do so ended up becoming the world's most stressful game of literal Wack-a-mole.

Reno thought things would get better when everything was over, feeling hopeful on the chopper ride back, but when Reno pulled up his Chatter app and saw he's feed was just a timeline of Iharu and Kafka having the time of their lives at the food festival, it really put a damper on the ride back.

'I guess he really wanted to leave base today' Reno thought somberly. Iharu was his own person. If he wanted to leave, that's on him. If he wanted to take someone with him, that's on him too.

'It's just... I really wanted to go with him. And thought... he wanted me too..." Reno packed away his gun and excess supplies into his locker, feeling sluggish as he did. Suddenly, a loud metallic slamming noise decided to ring out through the locker room that he was in and dislodged him from his thoughts. Suit half unzipped, Reno tied the sleeves around his waist as he looked down the aisles to see where the door slamming was coming from.

Looking down the row behind him, he saw what seemed to be a very pissed off Kikoru Shinomiya, telling by the feral growling and tearing at her spare bio suit.

"Ummm... Is everything okay? Shinomiya?" Reno asked tentatively.

"I"M GOING TO MURDER THAT PRAWN HEADED RAT BASTARD!" Kikoru growled out as she finally managed to get her lower half into the power suit. Reno only became increasingly concerned now knowing this unbridled rage had something to do with Iharu. He couldn't ask anymore questions, however, since Vice Captain Soshiro Hoshina decided now would be the time to make his presence known.

"Reno. Good to see that you and the rest are back safely."

"Ah! V-vice Captain." Reno stuttered out, startled. "I was just getting my stuff packed before I joined the others for the after mission briefing."

"Good to know, but I think the rest of the team can make the report without you for now." Hoshina said curtly.

"S-sir?" Reno questioned vaguely.

"Don't worry, it's nothing life shattering. I just want to ask you about what the original plans you had with Iharu Furuhashi were about." Hoshina said, his voice giving off the sense that there was some concealed irritation.

"Um, plans? You mean the trip to the movies?" Reno asked.

"Yes, and where you were... haa, hold that thought. Go for Hoshina" he said as his hand made it up to his earpiece.

"Hoshina, this is Okonogi. We've got a massive disturbance at the front gate."

"Define 'disturbance'." Hoshina requested. If one looked closely, you could almost see his temple throbbing in a matched rhythm with his heart.

"I'm pulling security footage now. It's... Kafka Hibino, Sir? It appears that he is trying to... run up? The outer wall and is carrying three other Division members."

"I'm sorry? Other Division members?" Hoshina clarified.

"Yes Sir, that is correct. Just a moment... It looks to be Iharu Furuhashi, Aoi Kaguragi, and Haruichi Izumo. The absent members from this afternoon."

"What the hell is going on?" Reno asked, adjusting his own earpiece to the main channel, wanting to be included in the conversation.

"Sir, update! Kafka had made it up the wall, but has tripped and all four of them are in free fall on the other side" Okonogi reported. Hoshina's sigh turned into an exasperated growl toward the end.

"Come along Reno. We're apparently going to have to save our respective dumbasses." Hoshina turned to leave the room with a puzzled Reno trailing behind.

"Respective dumbasses?" Kikoru muttered. Immediately, a light came on upstairs. "Not until I get a hold of that ASSHOLE FIRST!" Kikoru turned and blasted past the vice captain and ran in the opposite direction of the front gate.

"Who put a bug in her suit?" Hoshina asked as they both leaned on the doorframe and watched her go.

"WRONG DIRECTION, KIKORU!" Reno added helpfully.

######################################

"SSSHHHHIIIIIIIIT" Everyone screamed as they realized what was happening. Kafka relaxed his arms as Haruichi and Aoi planted their feet on his hips and pushed themselves away as far as they could. Iharu, though, hung on for dear life. Haruichi and Aoi still had the their bio suits on, so the landing from such a height didn't give them much trouble. Izumo landed on the balls of his feet and managed to roll with the momentum onto his thighs, through his knees and back onto his butt. All while managing to keep all the wine bottles in the crate. Well, most of them. Two had slipped out during descent and were still up in the air. He rushed forward, leaped into the air, and grabbed them before they touched the ground. Aoi just tanked the landing and kept on his feet.

"You good?" Haruichi asked.

"Just fine." Aoi said through gritted teeth.

Kafka and Iharu were not so lucky.

Kafka also tried to roll into the fall, but messed up and landed on his foot weirdly. Iharu still hadn't let go at this point, so when Kafka fell to the ground, Iharu's knee made contact next.

"Fuck! That was a knee!" Iharu exclaimed. Once momentum seemed to stop, the two of them untangled and rolled away from each other.

"Well, that didn't look pleasant." A sly voice from away came into clarity.

"Vice Captain!" said Haruichi.

"Vice Captain, Sir." said Aoi when he felt recovered enough to speak.

"Well, shit." came from Kafka, knowing he'd been caught.

"YOU THIEVING PIECE OF CRAP!" Kikoru had made a beeline to the crumpled Iharu and began to physically berate him with her foot. "WHERE THE HELL IS MY BRADA BACK PACK?"

"Here, here! It's right here! WAIT, MY SHIT'S STILL INSIDE!" Iharu said as he handed over the stolen bag, only to realize too late that he left his gifts inside.

"I can see that! What is this? Wine? Plum wine? and a beer glass?" Kikoru took a whiff inside the mug, "A used BEER GLASS? What the hell is this doing in here?" Kikoru pulled out a ring of keys next.

"And who the hell's keys are these?' She asked. Hoshina immediately took them from her hand and looked at them in his.

"Kafka... why the hell does Iharu have my keys in a stolen back pack?" Hoshina said, gritting the words through his teeth. Kafka and Iharu looked at each other for a moment before shouting in unison

"OH SHIT! WE FORGOT THE BIKE!"

"YOU WHAT?" Soshiro screamed, hauling Hibino up by his collar.

"And is this... are there FRY CRUMBS IN MY BRADA? IS THAT A CHILE SAUCE STAIN? IN MY BRADA?" Kikoru began to weaponize the empty bag and used it to beat the already downed Iharu.

"Oh, damn. I didn't know that was Brada." Haruichi said, trying to pass by the commotion.

"Thanks Captain Obvious, I think we figured that out." Kafka retorted as he was dragged off the ground by Hoshina.

"NONE of you go too far. You all have some explaining to do." Hoshina said, gripping tightly to Kafka' forearm.

"Kikoru, I think he's had enough!" Reno said as he finally stepped into view and intervened in the one sided fight between the two of them. As he helped Iharu off the ground he asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

It didn't take Iharu very long to realize who was helping him up and immediately threw his arms around Reno's neck.

"AEDZGJNSTR, RENO! You're back! I'm so happy now!" he said as he gurgled drunkenly around his words. "I'm so happy that you're back! I was missing you all day. I'm sorry that left without youuu. I prepaid the tickets and Kafka said I should use them, so I did, but I was wishing that you were there 'cuz it was a great movie and I went to the festival without you too and it was making me sad, but I had food and I thought I would be okay and then I saw this mug and it reminded me of you-" Iharu broke away to grab the somehow intact mug from Kikoru's hands.

"It was this mug, 'cuz see! It has snowflakes on it and it made me think of you and how much I missed you and how I wanted to take you with me on the date but I couldn't and I thought about how I thought I blew my chance to tell you that I love you-" he took a big deep breath, "But Kafka and Haruichi said that I could take you to the beach and I felt happy again so the mug made me happy again because it still reminds me of you so I want you to have it." Iharu had finally stopped talking for a moment and looked deep into Reno's widened eyes with his watery, eager ones. Reno could feel his face start to burn once he slowed down all the words that Iharu had said and realized what it meant. Before Reno could even begin to tell him anything, Iharu looked like he remembered something else and turned back to a stunned Kikoru, who had been listening to the entire conversation. He grabbed the protective charm and the bottle of wine and clumsily shoved them into Reno's hands.

"Oh! Also, Me and Kafka and Haruichi and Aoi all went to this shrine that I wanted to show you because I thought it was pretty and you remind me of pretty things and when I was there I saw this charm and it has snowflakes on it, so of course I had to buy it- well, Kafka bought it, but I still want you to have it 'cuz its pretty and do you think they'll let me put this on your gun? 'cuz I think that would be cool-ohohoh! OR I could put it on the suit! That would be really cool if they let me do that. Oh and speaking of cool- looklooklook-" Iharu picked up the bottle of plum wine and showed him the label.

"This has snowflakes on it too! It's going to be a surprise when I take you on our beach date in a few weeks!" Iharu had wrapped his hands back around Reno's neck and begun to swing themselves around, causing Reno to put his already full hands on Iharu's waist to keep themselves upright.

"I'm going to save up my hours again and when we go to the beach, we're gonna go on a picnic and I'm gonna break out the bottle and I'm gonna tell you how much I looove youuu and how much I like being around youuu and how much I like being yourrr rivaaal..." Iharu had finally stopped spinning them around and leaned all the way onto Reno, wrapping his hands tightly around his crush's shoulders.

"Doesn't that sound really nice?" He whispered, gently nosing the shell of Reno's ear.

Reno felt like he was shaking. Whether from shock or excitement, he wasn't sure. He took the bottle that was still in Iharu's hand and tightened his around the sleepy drunk's waist. He felt his face flush even harder, blood flooding his brain and making his ears and shoulders feel like a million degrees in the cool night air. Burying his face into Iharu's shoulder, Reno confessed his only thought on his mind.

"That... sounds amazing, Iharu." But Iharu wasn't listening. Having fallen asleep, nuzzled into Reno's neck and breathing softly, almost snoring.

"Well, wasn't that a touching display." Hoshina said sarcastically, not one to let the quiet stand infinitely. "He's still getting a hefty reprimand, as well as you." He said, directing the last bit of statement to Kafka, which he was now holding by the ear.

"What the fuck possessed you to write in three hundred AND THIRTY SIX HOURS? DID YOU THINK YOU COULD HONESTLY GET AWAY WITH THAT? AND YOU LEFT MY BIKE BEHIND?" Hoshina said as he began to drag Kafka away, causing the rest of the group to cringe in response to the abuse.

"Forget a week of janitorial duty! It's a month- no, three months! And you can forget the office sex too!" Aoi and Haruichi were nodding along solemnly to what Hoshina was saying, mentally grieving for Kafka and any spare time he would've had, only to snap back to reality at the last bit of punishment.

"Oh, come on! It was a joke- wait, lets thINK ABOUT THIS!" Kafka cried, 'Three months for a joke is a bit much, don't ya think! I'll get the bike back, I swear!"

"YOU CAN'T EVEN DRIVE IT! If you keep arguing, I'll cut out the blowjobs too!" Hoshina said sternly, still dragging Kafka away. His cries of disappointment were heard all the way to the guard house.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Bonus/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"You sure you don't want help with that?" Kikoru asked, carrying her (apparently) expensive black back pack and a couple plastic bags of food that Aoi got her at the food festival.

"No thank you, I'm good." Reno said as he struggled to carry an asleep Iharu, the items he got for him, and the bags of food that Aoi also got for him.

"Are you at least aware that you have to make a left turn in about twenty feet?" Kikoru retorted, smiling smugly at all the trouble that Reno was going through to not disturb Iharu's sleep.

"Yes, Kikoru, I know where I'm going. A fair bit better than you, since you still can't remember where the front door is." Kikoru snobbishly stuck her nose in the air at the insult.

"The front door was always down and to the right of the of the mission personnel lockers. It still seems stupid that they would change the layout in such a drastic manner."

"Whatever Kikoru. Have a good night." Reno turned to go into the male barracks as Kikoru parted to go to her side of the building.

He walked into the area holding the bunks and put Iharu down on Reno's bed since Furuhashi slept on the top bunk. Reno knew better than to try and get him up there by himself. He set him down as gently as he could, making sure not to catch any of the gifts under Iharu. Reno set his stuff down and leaned over to put the deeply asleep soldier's feet on the bed, and since he was down there, took off Iharu's shoes too. Carefully wrenching the sheets out from under the body, Reno tucked him in as gently as possible. Getting shocked for a moment when Iharu shifted and grabbed the blanket from Reno's hands, but when all Iharu did was tuck the sheet under his chin, Reno let out the breath he didn't know he held.

Not wanting to leave him alone so soon, however, Reno took a pillow from another bunk and placed it on the floor about where Iharu's head was. Getting to the floor as carefully as possible, he sat down on the pillow and opened the bags of food, courtesy of Aoi. He rummaged around quietly and started to pull out some of the goods based on what seemed more delicious at the moment, eventually pulling out a large, marked takeout box that just said 'kaiju squid' on the top.

Before he opened it, he felt a hand lightly smack him on the back of the head. Reno turned around, thinking that he somehow ended up waking Iharu, only to see that he was just shifting in his sleep. A hand was now exposed from its place from under the covers and was hanging limply from the bed's edge. Thinking for a moment, Reno gathered some courage and bravely placed Iharu's hand on the top of his head. In doing so, he could feel Iharu's fingers lightly twitching in his hair, almost like it was trying to brush through it in his sleep. Reno just smiled and went back to his midnight meal.

(holy fucking shit, I did it! I got this made! World, prepare to meet my first public fanfic.)

#the last tag you added was the final blow btw i might not recover from pls someone make this into a meme #kn8 #fic reccomendations

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mochisdoll · 3 years ago

Note

i had an idea daiya no ace boys building pillow forts.

So I didn’t know if this was meant to be like one on one or multiple all building it together, but the ladder sounded more fun so I went with that. I could do one for each of them separately if you want

Feat: Miyuki, Kuramochi, Sawamura, Furuya, & Haruichi

"Make way Miyuki, sleepover in your room." You declare as you opened the door for Kuramochi and Sawamura who were carrying blankets and pillows piled high in their arms.

"Not in my room." Miyuki protested.

"We always hang out in your room! And we wouldn't want to bother anyone else, since your roommates are already away in the first place.” Sawamura told him, dumping the pillows onto the floor.

Miyuki sighed and leaned back in his chair. "So you're bothering me instead?"

"Yep, now get ready. This will be the best sleepover of your life, we're building a fort!" You held up the pillows in your hand.

"I don't want to build a fort, we're in high school."

"Is the fort off then?"

You all turn to see Furuya in the doorway holding several blankets and a look of anguish on his face.

"No, no, Furuya! It's still on. Just ignore him! He's being lame."

Kuramochi leaned over to Miyuki, putting up a hand to cover his mouth as he whispered. "Furuya told us he's never had a sleepover, Y/n felt so bad for him that they felt like had to have a sleepover. C’mon man, for them.”

Miyuki rolled his eyes but begrudgingly accepted his fate as Haruichi carried in a gaming system and a stack of games.

“Kanemaru said him and Tojo will be here soon with snacks.”

“Just how many people are coming?” Miyuki could feel a headache coming on.

“They’re just coming for the fort, not spending the night. Also, Zono and maybe Shirasu and Kawakami. Aso wanted to come but he’s swamped with classwork. ” You counted off on your fingers.

“But no first years allowed!” Sawamura exclaimed.

“How mature of us.”

“You’ve gotta cut it off at some point.” Kuramochi said as he began to spread out the blankets.

When Kanemaru and Tojo showed up, construction on the pillow fort began.

“Ugh, it’s sinking in the middle.”

“Use this to hold it up!”

“You kidding? If a metal bat falls on one of us it will hurt like hell.”

With the many, many pillows and blankets at your disposal, you were able to make a fort big enough to fit all of you, even the tardy Zono, Shirasu and Kawakami.

The night began with a Super Smash bros tournament that ended up getting a bit too heated to the point where you felt the need to put an end to it.

“There was lag! I would have and dodged in tune if there was no lag.”

“You lost Zono, just accept it.”

“Kawakami, I will go over there and-“

“Ok guys, maybe a change of pace. How about a movie?”

You all settled down into the fort as the choice movie, Titanic, picked by Sawamura and Kuramochi, started to play. Around the halfway mark, the people who weren’t sleeping over left and all that was left was the original six of you.

Miyuki reclined next to you on the ground, leaned up against the same pillow. All that illuminated the room was the light coming from the tv. The rest of the boys attention was being held by Leo Decaprio on the screen.

“Wow, can’t believe you decided to join us in the fort.” You whispered to him, to not break the focus of anyone else in the room.

“What’s the point of letting you guys wreck my room to build a fort if I’m n not going to get inside it? Plus it’s a sleepover, everyone has to sleep on the floor.”

“Your logic is sound.” You smiled at him, glad that he finally let himself indulge in being a high schooler.

By the time the movie had ended, all of them had passed out, not used to staying up too late because of the need to constantly wake up early. You turned off the tv and took your spot between Miyuki and Kuramochi.

It was nice. The ceiling of the fort hung low but it didn’t matter because everyone was laying. The usual cold dorms of Seidou felt warm with you wrapped up in blankets, surrounded by friends and pillows.

——

“So, Furuya. How did you find your first sleepover?” Miyuki asked as he folded a blanket.

“First sleepover? I’ve had a sleepover before.”

Miyuki morphed his face into one of annoyance and turned to Kuramochi.

“It’s not his first one?”

“Yaha, about that. Yeah I lied, just needed to make sure the fort would happen. Y/n, did really want to build one.”

Miyuki turned to you and you gave him a worried smile. Warmth, and the memory of you pressed against him when he woke up spread throughout him.

He decided to not get mad at you.

#daiya no ace #miyuki kazuya x reader #miyuki kazuya #kuramochi youichi #sawamura eijun #furuya satoru #kominato haruichi #ace of diamond

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alitaimagines · 4 years ago

Text

[ request by anonymous: hello! could i request an imagine (or hcs? whichever you'd rather work with) with the kominabros from daiya and an S/O that plays baseball too but can't be on the team because she's a girl? ]

☆ previous imagine: ♡ ☆ masterlists: ♡ ♡ ☆ requests: open.

kominato ryousuke:

okay, so our tsundere is a little weirded out by the fact that you play baseball, and play it so well. it’s not that he’s jealous of your ability bc he could care less but he wondered why you attended Seidou knowing you couldn’t play.

the two of you probably met while you were practicing on the field while it wasn’t being used. you were batting while a friend of yours pitched. your skills as a batter were insane and he wanted to know where learned.

after he confronts you, he finds out that you learned to play in a girls little league team. soon after, you played on a co-ed team and even though you couldn’t play baseball at Seidou, he figured that the school must’ve been your district school so you had no other choice but to come here.

for the sake of everything, lets say you still play on a co-ed team! he’d watch your games as long as they didn’t collide with him. that’s also the place where most of his jealousy bubbles up from and honestly, you can tell when he’s upset or bothered.

you’re very close with some of your male teammates so it’s a given that when you win, some of them will come up to hug you. to make it an even bigger deal, you have an ex on the team and when he finds that out, he’s MAD pissed. he’ll watch and make sure that your ex isn’t getting too close to you.

he’ll kiss you and stare at your ex with those eyes that terrify his entire team. he above doing the dirty in your teams dugout just to prove a point but if you aren’t the type of person to do that, he’ll just give you a long hard kiss to prove it.

Ryou lives for the days that the two of you can practice together. it’ll be just as the sun is going down, the air isn’t too hot, and the two of you are just playing for fun. those days usually end up being some of his favorite memories and he’ll cherish them forever.

one day, he hopes he can see the two of you doing that with your children as well.

kominato haruichi:

our lil birb will be almost like his brother but he’ll have you around the team even more. he hopes that you and Kuramochi can get along. being that the two of you are very prevalent in his life, Kuramochi knows not to tease you as much bc of how much you mean to Haru.

sometimes Kataoka will allow you to play with the team, even if it’s just a practice. he sees the way you play with Haruichi and will see that when you do play, you take it seriously, and it’ll give the boys a run for their money.

if you’re interested in starting an recreational softball team, Rei and Kataoka will help you with it. Haruichi would bring it up to them and they can see how serious he is about helping you. Kataoka brushes it off meanwhile Rei will find it so adorable.

Haruichi is DEF the kind of boyfriend who will let you wear his jersey. he’ll let you wear it when you’re out there playing with the girls. seeing HIS number slapped on the back of HIS girlfriends back, it’ll give him serotonin for fucking days. he’s a lil possessive when it comes to you.

Sawamura will beg for you to let him play with you and Haruichi. in a way, Sawamura will become a close friend of yours bc of his relationship with Haruichi and honestly, Furuya probably gets dragged into it as well. the seconds years are bunch of idiots and they share on brain cell and the one who has it 99.99% of the time is Haruichi.

if he sees that you’re upset because you can’t play with the team, he’ll try every bit of him to see what the possibility would be for you to even be considered to try out. he knows it’s almost near to impossible but he’s hoping that they consider it, even the tiniest bit.

Ryou will see his little brothers relationship and for the first few times he meets you, he’ll tease the two of you but you know behind the facade, Ryou means well. you know the relationship the two of them have together so you best get used to Ryou’s attitude bc it ain’t changing just bc of you.

in the end, baseball is what bring you and Haruichi together. obv’s there’s other things that do but a lot of it boils down for both of your love for baseball and just like his brother, one of his favorite memories is playing with you. hell, I see him as the kind of person to do a public proposal at a Nippon game but those headcanons are for another day/ask.

ALITA

#daiya no ace #daiya no ace x reader #daiya no ace imagine #Ace of Diamond #ace of diamond imagine #ace of diamond x reader #kominato ryosuke imagine #kominato ryosuke #kominato ryosuke x reader #kominato haruichi #kominato haruichi imagine #kominato haruichi x reader #anime imagine #anime x reader #anime x you #anime #sports anime

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oikawasballs · 5 years ago

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Mad Dog and Puppy

Hey so it was brought to my attention that people can no longer access the original “Mad Dog and Puppy” English translation post since the OP deleted her account. She’s a friend of mine and she felt bad so she asked if I could repost it, so here y’all go:

From Haikyuu!! Light Novel 6, Chapter “Mad Dog and Puppy” written by Kiyoko Hoshi with illustrations by Haruichi Furudate.

One fine holiday in fall, there was a man standing in a convenience store nearby Aoba Jousai High School. The guy, wearing a volleyball jersey, walked out as the opening and closing door made an electronic sound. The man’s name is Kyoutani Kentarou, a second-year member in Aoba Jousai High’s volleyball club.

Kyoutani tore the wrapping of the chicken—chicken is his favorite food—that he took out of the convenience store bag before sinking his teeth into it, making an audible noise; this was how he walked toward school. The volleyball club took Mondays off. Practice starts morning today, which is a Sunday.

Kyoutani had not attended the club for quite a while since the middle of his first year due to various circumstances, though he has been recently thrown into the spotlight for coming back after being recalled by Oikawa, the team captain.

At the preliminary round of the Inter-High Miyagi Finals in June, Aoba Jousai suffered defeat at the hands of Shiratorizawa Academy, the invincible champions. It was necessary to regroup and reorganize the currently completed team in order to clear themselves of the disgrace come the next Spring High School competition, move on from second place and aim for the Nationals. What they wanted to strengthen in particular was their offense. The fighting strength that served to be the trigger of that was Kyoutani, whom Oikawa jokingly called “Mad Dog.”

**********

For Kyoutani, club activities are frankly troublesome; everyone in the club is annoying and he wished they would stop calling him Mad Dog or anything for that matter. Though he tries not to care about that too much, as long as he gets to keep playing volleyball.

While there was a common agreement for the time being among the manager, coaches, the captain and other third-year members on what to do about him, at any rate, Kyoutani‘s fellow second-years had more complex considerations. They, who had been practicing everyday since he left, felt they’d been working hard only to be sidelined by Kyoutani who just came back as if nothing happened when they thought he already quit.

That same Kyoutani also did not seem keen to a change of heart just because he came back, his attitude still as bad as his manner of speaking. And while they thought things would turn out fine if Kyoutani thoroughly practiced at the very least, he would often still come late to practice.

In the third gymnasium where the volleyball club is gathered, Yahaba Shigeru, a second-year back-up setter, clicked his tongue silently as he glared at the clock on the wall.

**********

Kyoutani was noisily eating his chicken while walking down the road when his mouth came to a stop. His feet, hurrying as he thinks he’s running late, stop at the same time. He noticed a small cardboard box placed at the middle of a gaping-wide, empty plot of land—basically like a missing tooth—in the residential area along the street he uses everyday to go to school.

“…?”

The empty lot was covered in tall grass, and it didn’t seem like it had only been there since yesterday or today. But Kyoutani had never noticed this area. That it had suddenly caught his attention must have been because of the cardboard box. The cardboard box from an online shopping website that could often be seen here and there did not appear to have been trampled upon or crushed nor did it appear to have been drenched in rain and lost its shape; it was properly, squarely propped up and brand new, which made it unnatural, and it was almost like a poorly constructed trap.

Regardless, Kyoutani came up and stepped into the thicket quickly without hesitation and peeked inside the box.

“…Fur?”

A light-brown furball that is around two sizes smaller than a volleyball is inside wrapped in an old towel. As soon as he tried to crouch and touch it, two wet, small, black eyes appeared from inside the round ball. Kyoutani, surprised, pulled back his stretched-out hand.

“It has eyes!”

Inside the box, the furball opened its red mouth and made a vague sound. That is when Kyoutani finally realized.

“A dog.”

What was inside the cardboard box seemed to be an abandoned puppy. It’s very small and frail, and it doesn’t have a collar on. That said, a lot of dogs walk in that area, so it’s not an unusual sight at all. Kyoutani, concerned he was going to be late, resolved to leave the place immediately.

However, the puppy clambered up the box making it tumble and fall to the ground and followed Kyoutani as it cried. It turned back but cried helplessly with its small tail waving back and forth.

“… Meat.”

Kyoutani noticed that it was following because of the chicken he was holding, so he threw the last of it into his mouth in one go, noisily chewed and then drank water. He then folded up the paper wrapping, pocketing it and immediately walked out of the lot.

It is a dog after all. It only tried to follow me because I had food, that‘s all. Thinking that, he headed to school without looking back. He would get a scolding if he arrived late, so it was for his sake that he rush and ignore some dog.

Walking at a quick pace, Kyoutani slowly sulked. A rush of memories came and went and he suddenly felt bad.

He expected to be made to come back by Oikawa, the team captain, but the unsettling part was having to hear complaints from other members for such a small matter as if he was the only one who had been causing trouble all the time. He even thinks to himself of quitting this shitty club on the spot if he so ever hears someone self-importantly explain to him that volleyball is about team play while lecturing him. Thinking that, he even became angry at himself for staying with the club for these past months without quitting. The wave of exhaustion that had slowly been building over him was starting to crash. There probably really wasn’t much of an excuse for losing his shit on people, but he realized that his desire to start yelling and acting like a completely impatient prick was really only a desire to let out his exhaustion, frustrations, and confusion.

He’s never told anyone that and never will. He thinks, just maybe, that they wouldn’t understand.

“…”

Club activities are annoying, and the fact that the cuff of his jersey keeps brushing against his ankles whenever he takes a step is annoying too. The grass in the empty lot might have been wet with the morning dew. He thought of that as he looked at his foot. And when he did, he realized he was about to step on a black-ish shadow or something, so he stopped in panic as if a piece of trash had landed in front of him.

However, before his feet was no trash but the puppy earlier looking up at Kyoutani.

It made a sound.

“The dog.”

Why is it still following him when he has no food anymore? Does he still have the scent of meat? Without realizing, he tried to take a sniff of his jersey, but he’s not sure. Kyoutani furrows his eyebrows and glared at the puppy silently. However, the puppy, probably because it was still small and untrained or because animals cannot precisely comprehend human emotions, coiled around Kyoutani’s feet and cried.

“…You’re in my way.”

That is what he said, but of course his words remain undecipherable to the puppy, who bites Kyoutani’s pants while tumbling and crying; it is enjoying the moment, even letting its tongue out.

“…”

He strangely became irritated while looking at that innocent furball. “Becoming attached to anyone and starting to beg food from them is probably what you do. You probably go around stealing people’s convenience store chicken knowing they couldn’t possibly resist a small creature like you, but that’s where you’re wrong,” he said.

Okay, maybe he had been a little harsh. Or maybe a lot.

But having accepted the puppy wouldn’t understand anything he was saying, Kyoutani left the poor dog and ran away. He has to go to the club anyway.

He thinks he can hear its helpless voice from behind him, but he ignores it and continues running.

Yahaba would probably see this as some kind of sarcastic mockery, wouldn’t he? Well, of course he would.

This whole thing is stupid.

Kyoutani thought it was ridiculous to be running then when he was already late anyway, but he continued to sprint toward school, never slowing his pace.

This day is going to suck.

**********

“You’re late. Are you actually serious about this?”

As soon as he arrived at the gym and removed his jacket came Yahaba’s jeering. Kyoutani, ignoring him—though he does momentarily get upset about it—joins for spiking practice. He did arrive late, and he has no choice but to explain to them that it is a dog’s fault. He’s watching Yahaba while he speaks, can’t even explain to himself why, because he shouldn’t care, but he does. Regardless, the benchwarmer didn’t mind telling him things as they are.

While Yahaba has been grumbling his discontent even after Kyoutani had silently fallen in line, he finally shuts up when his fellow second-year Watari glares at him. Oikawa, the captain, who had been looking at what Yahaba had been doing from across the net, also kept calmly focused on his own practice. This degree of dispute had not been a rare occurrence since Kyoutani’s return, but it was better compared to last year’s. Things were grimmer that time to the point that Kyoutani would ditch club activities. He supposes it’s better now since he hasn’t quit yet.

The gym’s atmosphere returns to normal and practice restarts after having momentarily paused. Yahaba and Oikawa stand on either side of the net, and they go and toss to the spikers who enter the court taking turns. Next is Kyoutani’s turn. He throws the ball to Yahaba, the setter, and runs. The toss was made. He steps in looking at the ball, jumps and hits it.

Before that, everyone else made impeccable spikes that no one could complain about. However, Kyoutani hits the ball taking advantage of his weight and power, but upon landing, bumps into Yahaba while bearing that excessive force on his way down.

“Ow! Why would you bump into me?! Watch where you’re going! You came late and still have the guts to do that?”

Kyoutani also grows angry as Yahaba complained, his hands on the floor.

“What does my being late have to do with bumping into you?”

“Whatever! I’ve had enough of your excuses. I’m just telling you to take things seriously!”

That caused Kyoutani to hesitate. He had expected Yahaba to supply his reasons for him, so he could just deny everything while watching the results.

He gets up heavily and looks down at Yahaba, who is still on the ground, and says:

“Aren’t you the one who should be taking things seriously?” Even to himself, Kyoutani knows his voice sounds way too harsh, but he can’t help it, and he can’t explain it, and he won’t even try.

Yahaba’s eyes fix instantly in that furious way that Kyoutani tiredly decides he’s never going to live down. “What did you say?!”

Kyoutani takes a deep breath. He can’t talk about this, he’s barely holding his shit together. “…I’m going home.” And that sounded so pathetic he’s almost ashamed of himself.

“Huh?!”

Yahaba, his eyes wide upon hearing Kyoutani’s quite selfish remarks, didn’t try to stop him. “We don’t need Kyoutani in the team. We can win without him. We’d be better off without him,” he thought.

The club members were dumbfounded. Kyoutani who had just arrived left the gym alone.

**********

The winds of fall felt awfully cold as if in connection with him leaving the hot, stuffy gym. Kyoutani returned to the path he had dejectedly come from.

He came to play volleyball, yet he couldn’t do a single decent spike. He was so frustrated, asking himself how it had come to this point he almost wanted to scream. Club activities were troublesome, and all the club members were annoying. Come to think of it, it doesn’t matter if it were a team composed of hard-working individuals or even if it weren’t a school club at all as long as he can play volleyball. There are a lot of teams everywhere. Volleyball isn’t something people cannot do if they aren’t wearing the Seijou uniform.

At that moment, Kyoutani heard some crunching sounds in his pocket. It’s the paper wrapping of the convenience store chicken. He took notice of it at once and wanted to quickly throw it away, thinking of it as a huge bother due to his frustration. He thought of going back to the convenience store when he realized upon raising his head that he was all of a sudden back in front of the empty lot earlier.

“…”

It felt like a premonition of a mildly uneasy event to come. However, without even giving him time to escape, the thicket rustled, revealing a dark reddish-brown furball that tumbled out.

It makes a sound.

“…It’s you again.”

The puppy coils around the cuff of his jersey pants as if it remembers Kyoutani or it remembers the smell of the convenience store chicken. Why is that? Why is it so attached to him? He never gave it food, yet why? Kyoutani was struck with questions. But he immediately stopped thinking about it, and at that moment thought of once again running away to another direction.

“What is it with you? You could be playing with other dogs, you know?”

Oh hell no. Not now.

He turns too fast, knows he does, stumbles and feels like an idiot, but who the hell could blame him? Yahaba is feet away, wearing the same Seijou jersey uniform. He stands with seeming unease, glaring at Kyoutani, his gaze fixed on him like a spotlight of pure, unrelenting interrogation.

“You came back to us after being asked, and now you’re playing with a dog?” His voice is so off-hand that Kyoutani can’t read it. That makes him nervous.

However, Yahaba seemed surprised when he noticed the cardboard box sitting there.

“Oh, is that an abandoned dog?”

Kyoutani sulkily nods as the puppy remained coiled around him.

Yahaba raises his voice for some reason. “Are you going to take in an abandoned dog or something?” There’s all this shock and excitement in his voice that would be funny as hell if it were, oh, any other time and any other day. “This ain’t no shoujo manga, you know! For goodness sake, stop fucking with me! For all I know, you could be planning something awful!”

What the hell is he talking about? Goddammit. “Fuck off, Yahaba. Damn, you’re so fucking crazy. Just leave me alone!”

Kyoutani thinks it may say something about their relationship that Yahaba doesn’t even blink.

“But what are you really doing here, Kyoutani? I don’t buy that you left practice just to play adorable puppy finder, though that’s what I’m going to tell anyone that asks, just so you know.”

Annoying little shit.

For his part, Yahaba had never liked the careless and conceited way Kyoutani behaved since he joined the club in their first year. Or rather than not liking him, it was annoying that Kyoutani kept causing trouble with their senpais despite the two of them belonging in the same year. Kyoutani would yell “fucking shits” to their third-year seniors and just generally go around not giving a fuck like he had no common sense. You’d think he’d been living his whole life so senselessly.

But indeed Kyoutani was amazing. It was frustrating but he was incredible and had no equal among their grade. They had him join practice matches, and was also a regular first-year player in official games. That’s why it was frustrating, since the same people also expected something out of him. Yet that guy…he was amazing yet picked fights with their senpais and was hated by them in return. He would take on challenges he could not win; it was as if he didn’t care about anything at all. People were honestly relieved when he stopped showing up to club activities.

But even Yahaba could not vocalize any complaints when Kyoutani was called back by Oikawa. They treated him like some hotshot rookie despite him being gone the whole time. Even worse, he barely came to practice making people wonder why he even came back at the first place, though he still played as amazingly. He was really a frustrating fellow.

Irritated by the memory, Yahaba watched Kyoutani standing before him. He silently glared at the dog biting and pulling at the cuff of his teammate’s jersey.

With his back turned, Kyoutani thinks he can actually hear Yahaba grinding his teeth.

“Why the hell did you even show up late just to leave on your own and then bother some abandoned dog?”

“I‘m not bothering it! This dog just followed me by himself!”

“Are you trying to appeal to girls by telling them animals like you?”

“What the fuck?!”

They just keep exchanging words like that, and while they do so, the puppy tumbles around Kyoutani’s shoes and seems to be falling asleep.

Yahaba continues, dropping his voice to convey how very, very serious this discussion suddenly is. “You know that dog is going to be trouble, right? We have to make sure it’s taken somewhere farther from here.”

Kyoutani searches for the right response. Play dumb? Look shocked? Throw a fit? Or…“Huh?”

“I think I have an idea.”

“Does it involve leaving?”

Yahaba grins at him now like he’s the funniest thing ever. Then he laughs. It’s an odd, almost foreign sound–he hasn’t heard Yahaba laugh in way too long, and it’s edgeless, and it’s amused as hell, and it’s just Yahaba all over again. And through all this, Kyoutani tries not to pay attention to how weird this whole thing makes him feel. “Sort of.”

Kyoutani raises his brows at that statement. “I really, really don’t like how you said that.”

“Jeez, stop glaring! And anyway, as if I’m going to believe you. You senseless moron. I wouldn’t even be surprised if you ate that dog alive.”

Kyoutani decides to ignore that, not sure why Yahaba seems determined to piss him off. Bastard.

Yahaba continued mumbling and then held up the puppy that had fallen asleep atop Kyoutani’s shoes. “This puppy needs to eat. You think you can get some dog food?”

“Sure, I can pull them out of my ass,” Kyoutani snapped.

Yahaba snorts his opinion of that one, then he looks up, studying Kyoutani’s face. Kyoutani doesn’t dare move. One wrong move and he won’t be able to breathe. Yahaba does that to him sometimes.

Yahaba relaxes then. Whatever he saw, or didn’t see, in Kyoutani’s face seems to satisfy him. He then puts the puppy back inside the cardboard box, holds the thing up to his chest and urges the other boy, “Hey, we’re going.” He doesn’t even know why he’s saying this. He’s not seriously thinking of–he just isn’t.

“…Huh. Where?”

Kyoutani grew flustered. Where on earth could they be going with a dog in hand? At any rate, Yahaba didn’t seem to have any idea where to go either.

“For the meantime, how about the police? They might tell us at least where to bring it. Anyway, you carry it since you found it in the first place. I don’t want to get bitten. Hey.“

Yahaba’s eyes flicker down, fixing on Kyoutani with that disturbing team-radar that he seems to have tuned on him at some point.

Kyoutani takes a slow, deep breath, clearing his head. Thinking this through will mean he’ll screw it up. That’s what always happens when he overthinks something. It’s what happens when anyone overthinks something. Do it or don’t, but don’t sit on your ass–or stand in the middle of an empty lot–and try to think about it.

“Fine. I think you’re out of your mind, but fine.” The grumbly undertones hide the worry.

“Great,” Yahaba answers with a spastic nod, and the tiny fluff of hair at the top of his head jerks around hypnotically. Kyoutani realizes it’s almost impossible to look away. "Let’s go then, Mad Dog-chan.“

Kyoutani gives him a narrow look and makes a bitterly amused sound. "I hate that.”

“You never told us before,” Yahaba actually looks concerned.

“Nobody asked.”

“I mean, I remember you telling Oikawa-san to stop calling you weird names, but I don’t think anyone’s realized that you actually hate it.”

“What a fucking surprise,” Kyoutani sneers.

Flexing his fingers, he takes a breath and lets it out like he was taught. Easy and slow. It’s been worse. Other people have done and said worse. At least, he thinks so. “Whatever. Call me anything you want, just tell me where the fuck we’re going.”

Yahaba pauses, looks at him seriously. And though they’re standing right in front of each other, the look in his eyes says he may as well be a thousand miles away. “I guess we have a lot to talk about, Kyoutani.”

Are you lying to me, Yahaba? “Any reason why?”

Yahaba drops his head to contemplate his outstretched foot. “I’m bored?”

“Try again.”

“Because you apparently want people to ask you stuff? And I think that’s cool. I can think of a lot of things to start with.”

Kyoutani bites back something snarky and unkind, swallowing a lump in his throat and wondering if he could possibly be any more annoyed than he is right now. But whatever. It’s never comfortable to remember their earlier spats, and if this could make things a little better, then what the hell. Besides, he just isn’t up to any more arguing today. He shrugs his shoulders. “You ever tell anyone anything, I’ll deny it.”

Inside the box they’d been pushing back and forth to each other comfortably slept the lumpy, small ball of fur. Its breathing was surprisingly fast, faster than when it was coiled around Kyoutani’s feet, as if to show evidence that it was a living thing.

**********

Somehow—and Kyoutani has no idea how, never will, doesn’t even care—Kyoutani and Yahaba walked the road side by side carrying the cardboard box. Both of them were completely silent, though they sometimes peeked inside when the dog moved or made a sound. And when their eyes accidentally meet, they would turn away and awkwardly face somewhere else. This happened many times over, uncomfortable enough for them, until Yahaba who was then lightly carrying the box finally said, “Having a dog inside an online shopping website’s cardboard box feels almost like you got a dog delivered to you, doesn’t it?”

“…”

Yahaba, a bit embarrassed that Kyoutani only continued walking without giving any response, snapped. “Hey, you’re supposed to say something in return when someone talks to you. What sort of reaction was that?”

“…You’re boring.”

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from! And just so you know, when the senpais are proved right and we actually end up becoming friends in the future, you’re going to feel so dumb for ignoring me.”

Kyoutani makes a weird sound right next to him. Like he’s choking to death, though he can still walk okay, so Yahaba’s not too worried.

“Oh, there’s the police box! Let’s go.”

The two entered while carrying the box. A young police officer is seated on a chair writing something, and he looks at their faces. The police box was small to the point that nobody could fit anymore after the two went in; it had posters about remittance fraud and traffic safety, leaflets about wanted criminals and maps of the neighborhood pasted all over. The police officer examines the insides of the box without a word after taking a peek at them as if suspecting Kyoutani’s bad expression.

“Whose dog is this?”

However, Kyoutani just says vague statements like, “It went after my convenience store chicken,” and “I came from practice.” Yahaba had no choice but to answer from the side.

“Um, it’s an abandoned dog, so we’d like to ask what we should do with it.”

“Doesn’t it have a collar?”

“It’s still small, and it was in this box wrapped in a towel. I think it was thrown away.”

“You picked it up?”

Yahaba shook his head upon being asked by the police officer. “This guy did,” he said as he turned his eyes to Kyoutani, who was just staring straight ahead, like he had nothing to do with this conversation at all.

“You there,” the police officer said nodding his head. He took out documents from a drawer and looked at Kyoutani. “It will be received here at the police box as quasi-lost property, but will you care for it in case the owner did throw it away or the owner doesn’t appear?”

“…Huh?”

Kyoutani was surprised and then looked at Yahaba as if asking for help. However, Yahaba just shrugged. The police officer looked at the two and started explaining, as if he had been repeating a set phrase he had gotten used to saying often, with a gentle nod.

“Ah, in case the owner does not appear, it will be moved to a health center after a few days, but there it will be temporarily …”

Despite him just having started speaking, Kyoutani suddenly slams the desk. The color of the police officer’s eyes changed, but Kyoutani yelled without regard.

“What crap is that? We’re asking you where to bring it so we can have someone take care of it! That’s what I want to hear about!”

“Just wait, you idiot!”

Shaking off Yahaba’s effort to stop him, Kyoutani glared at the police officer. “We don’t need your help anymore!!”

Having said that over his shoulder, Kyoutani rushed out of the police box carrying the cardboard box, the puppy poking its face out of it. Yahaba was left alone in the police box, bowing his head saying, “I’m sorry. That guy’s an idiot,” as an excuse and followed Kyoutani who had run off to somewhere.

Upon finding Kyoutani who was standing a little far away all the while holding the box, Yahaba ran to follow him without pause.

“What the hell was that back there?! You do understand you’re not helping, right?! Though I was surprised too when he told us to bring it to a health center…”

“I know he was surprised, but would a person normally suddenly yell like that? You would have to be crazy to yell at the police, right? Was that occasion not more appropriate to just look annoyed, get out without a scene and ask for help? What was the point of coming all the way here only for you to get mad?” thought Yahaba, but he didn’t feel Kyoutani would comprehend it even if he said it. The newborn puppy seems more likely to understand than Kyoutani. Even now, Kyoutani continues to silently glare at Yahaba’s feet, making Yahaba wonder what it could be that has piqued his interest. The dog inside the box was staring at Kyoutani’s face with its wet eyes.

While it was looking at them, Yahaba found himself suddenly thinking of many different trivial things:

“This guy doesn’t really have a clue. Fine, let’s go to the police, he said. They’ll help us. Or not. I don’t understand why this dog is ignoring me, why it’s so attached only to this jerk.”

"Stop deciding things on your own. I really don’t understand you.”

Just as Yahaba said that, Kyoutani quickly turned on his heel without even nodding at Yahaba and walked toward town, still carrying the box. "I’m trying to help, asshole.”

Is this guy serious?

“Wow, you’re really something else,” Yahaba thought with a slight sense of admiration. Moving his brows as if to ask where they’re headed to, Kyoutani just ignores him and goes to walk steadily alone. A helpless cry can sometimes be heard making a sound.

While gazing at the distance with Kyoutani’s back getting smaller and smaller, Yahaba tells himself: “This is good for now. The mad dog and an abandoned dog—that’s just too much for me, and surely this task would be too much for anyone, too. Anyway, he’s not a kid anymore, and he’ll probably figure it all out by himself. And even if he doesn’t, that wouldn’t be my fault.”

However, Yahaba felt his mood grow heavy and clouded. Something is pulling him into action, like small fishbones poking the insides of his throat. In his mind’s eye, he can see Kyoutani looking at him absently, and Yahaba hates that look on his face: stubbornness warring with an unhappiness so deep he can feel it from here.

“Oh, this is bad.”

There’s no reason why he should, why he should want to do this. None at all.

He eventually accepts it.

“Wait for me, for fuck’s sake! The senpais will get mad at me if I don’t come back with you!”

In the end, Yahaba chases Kyoutani and the puppy.

**********

Beyond the police box is a main road that gets a lot of pedestrian traffic. Yahaba stopped and turned to Kyoutani and the puppy. “Okay, listen to me before you decide to get stubborn. With how things have turned out, it’d be best to entrust this to someone we can trust.”

However, Kyoutani only glares at Yahaba, his expression betraying his disagreement.

“…”

“What’s that look for? I mean, can you take care of this? Or do you actually want to go back to the police?”

Kyoutani was exasperated as he averted his eyes; the puppy stretches its body from the box and licks his chin. Kyoutani puckers his face and half-heartedly returns the puppy inside the box as he was tickled by its fur. Yahaba tried not to pay attention to the cute interaction.

“Neither of us can take care of it. And since that’s the case, we’ve got no choice. Surely kind-looking people love dogs. A kind little girl and a puppy—that’s the best-case scenario, right? It should be totally better visually than you and a puppy, shouldn’t it? Right?”

While he didn’t really understand why the person they would hand the dog over to had to be a girl, that scenario was indeed better. If they can’t take care of it themselves, there’s no choice but to find another person who can. Kyoutani reluctantly agrees.

“Fine, let’s find one.”

Yahaba hadn’t even realized he wasn’t breathing until it escapes in a soft sigh. Okay, that’s done. He immediately looked around their surroundings. It’s still early in the morning, and naturally his eyes would land upon a person who is out to walk their dog. Among these persons who already have a dog, there should be at least one of them who would not mind taking in another one, he thought.

He tries approaching a few people, but none of them would take in a puppy. While he thought taking care of one or taking care of two made no difference and took the same amount of time and effort, it was probably not so. Is there no one who would willingly accept a dog and just think of it as the little brother or sister of the dog they already own?

When the two grew tired, the puppy who had been quiet inside the box all that time suddenly made a shrilling bark.

“Woof, woof, woof!”

The two looked at the distance thinking it was barking at the appearance of its original owner. But the person immediately averted his eyes and looked at the ground.

The person that was there was a poorly built man who didn’t quite fit the morning atmosphere. Yahaba, his eyes not particularly looking at anything, tells Kyoutani with a small voice, “Hey, make it shut up. Do something, Kyoutani,” imploring him to make it quiet, though the puppy didn’t seem to care and continued to bark. After a while, the man seemed to have noticed that it was him being relentlessly barked at by the dog.

“Hey, what is it?”

The man slowly comes close. The way he’s looking at them is threatening. The way Kyoutani was looking back at him is also threatening, but it is a wholly different notch higher. The dog continues to bark even more. This is bad, and it’s getting worse, thought Yahaba who decided to just let this misunderstanding come to pass. Just as when he had convinced himself that it was best not to say anything unnecessary, to fake a smile and avoid making trouble and to slowly move on without provoking anyone, Kyoutani suddenly dashed out toward the man barking like a dog.

“Who’re you? We’re not doing anything! What are you looking at?!!”

“…!?”

Yahaba promptly pulls the mad dog back and ran away. He can hear someone yelling, “You want a piece of me, brats!?” But it was preferable for school sports club members to just run away. Yahaba yells while running for his life:

“Why would you go pick a fight with someone like that?! Look at your opponent!”

“Shut up!”

“Huh!?”

He continues to run regretting not escaping alone and deserting this idiot and his idiot dog. Yahaba finally came to a stop thinking they’d be fine by then having come from several blocks away at that point.

“Fucking hell.”

He clicks his tongue looking at Kyoutani beside him with the cardboard box in his hands not even looking tired at the very least despite running out of breath, at least compared to himself who is breathing with his shoulders. It really angers him.

“Why did you fucking come back…” Yahaba told him and looked at the distance as if unable to endure any further. Suddenly, the color of his eyes sharply changes. Yahaba combs his hair with his hands, steals the cardboard box from Kyoutani uttering, “Sorry!” before running off. Kyoutani chases him, the hardest chase he gave in his whole life.

In the end, what Yahaba was chasing after all was a group of high school girls in uniform.

“Girls! What do you think? Would you care to look at a puppy? A puppy!”

The girls variously reacted with caution at first: “Eh?”, “Is this for filming or something?”, “Does it bite?” But they timidly looked inside the box, likely enchanted by Yahaba’s gentleness. They then shriek out of joy upon noticing a puppy curled up into a ball inside.

“Eh, is this really a dog? Oh no, it’s so cute. Look, look!”

“What’s this? Is this a real dog, like does it really move? Why is it inside a box? You’re doing this to record our reactions, aren’t you?”

“What dog is this? It’s so fluffy.”

“Isn’t this a Shiba? Shiba Inu. Right? Did I guess correctly?”

One of the girls who came forward and said that blushed with a hiccup. Her eyes were fixed onto the face beside Yahaba’s. That prompted him to look at the space next to him, and there was Kyoutani glaring at the girls, his eyes brimming with bloodlust.

The other girls also notice Kyoutani’s stare and find themselves frozen.

“Hey, what are you doing?!”

It was too late, however, and the girls let out a high-pitched scream and ended up running away. Yahaba loses his patience and violently gets mad.

“Stop glaring! One of them could have taken this dog! We had good communication, and you were staring at them as if you wanted to turn them into stone! What was that all about? Are you some kind of Medusa!?”

Kyoutani steals the box and the dog back from Yahaba and snaps back. “Do you have some ulterior motive?!”

“I don’t! I mean, I did but that’s got nothing to do with what happened just now!”

“You never have no ulterior motives.”

The puppy also cries as if to add to the tension.

“Are you a total idiot!?”

A car pulled over next to the two boys who had been arguing at the middle of the road. They immediately kept their mouths silent, then a woman revealed her face from the driver’s seat and spoke. Her words were beyond anything the two could have possibly expected.

“Excuse me. You don’t really want to throw that dog away, do you?”

Noticing that Kyoutani is instantly growing into a frenzy upon hearing that sentence, Yahaba stops him saying, “Just wait!” What is up with him? Is he some kind of feral child? Is he less evolved than a dog?

The woman gets off the car and speaks to them while Yahaba calmed Kyoutani down.

“Do you know what would happen if you threw that dog away? Even if you leave it to an animal shelter, there is no guarantee that its owner would be found.”

“It’s not like we don’t know that already!” Kyoutani barks as if ready to bite, while the woman asked with mild bewilderment, “Eh, then why are you …”

“You shut up already,” Yahaba seethes and commands Kyoutani to keep quiet before he told her the actual story of how they picked up an abandoned dog and how they were then trying to find a new owner. Upon hearing their and the dog’s bizarre adventure, the woman apologizes saying, “I’m sorry. It seems I misunderstood the situation,” then she struck the hood of the car she had been riding.

“But it’s a good thing I called you out. I’m going to look for its owner myself.”

“… Eh?”

Kyoutani and Yahaba looked at her blankly and observed the car she’s been riding in more carefully. The hood of that roundish car had drawings of dogs and cats, written on it was the name of a veterinary hospital.

“Veterinary hospital…?”

The woman worked at a veterinary hospital and she explained that she can find an owner by coordinating with organizations that help abandoned dogs and cats.

“Our hospitals also have fliers recruiting people who want to own pets.”

Upon saying that, the woman took the box where the puppy was in from Kyoutani. The puppy whined and licked Kyoutani’s hand when his hands let go of the box.

“I will contact you when we find an owner.”

She places the box on the rear passenger seat saying that and closes the door. Then they could see the dog through the glass but couldn’t hear its cries.

The woman hopped into the driver’s seat and immediately drove off. Yahaba bowed at its rear window, but Kyoutani just stood there stiffly as if feeling uneasy.

The car was soon out of sight, and the puppy issue ended an instant too soon. The two of them quarrelling just earlier then felt like a dream. But it was not a dream; it was real. And speaking of reality, they must go back to the club soon. Yahaba turned to Kyoutani who was standing beside him. “Hey, look. The dog’s gone now, and we have to go soon.”

“…”

Kyoutani glared at Yahaba as if sulking. And he kept at it. But Yahaba understood how Kyoutani felt. It was a strange feeling, as if a hole had been punched through his heart, or as if a feeling could not linger because of how fast reality had unfolded. But they can’t afford to slack off here, either.

“Everyone’s waiting. You caused some trouble for the senpais, and it wasn’t something you should have shown to our juniors, either. Just realize that you have teammates who are waiting for you just like that dog has friends waiting for him, too. I think it was cute that you immediately tried to search for a rightful owner and it got attached to you. It’s so unlike you.”

Yahaba continued watching Kyoutani who was staring intently at his shoes like a sulking child. Yahaba felt stupid for feeling frustrated earlier somehow.

Why did I have to tell a jerk like him words like that? He came in late and left by himself. He picked up an abandoned dog on his own and caused trouble for me. And now he’s sulking that the dog is gone. I’m honestly glad when he doesn’t show up to practice, yet why did I bother following him to bring him back with me…

Yahaba fell into silence as Kyoutani raised his head. And then he said, “Let‘s go. Quick.”

Then he immediately walked forward alone.

“Huh?! Oi, wait for me! I’m the one who’s supposed to be saying that!”

“You smell of dog.”

“You smell worse!!”

**********

The two walked up the school path, alternating between silence and bickering. Neither of them talked about the puppy. They probably will never talk about that dog going forward, Yahaba thought.

Soon enough, they were at school. Just as when Yahaba thought of suggesting that they explain to the senpais why they were late, he heard a feeble cry from somewhere. He looked around expecting something bad about to happen, when they noticed they were back at the empty lot where they had picked the dog up.

“Here…”

The thicket brushes against their feet. Without them realizing, they stopped and explored the area before a kitten revealed its face amid the grass.

It meowed.

“It’s a cat.”

“Hey, don’t look at it. Act like you didn’t see it!”

So said Yahaba as he pulled Kyoutani away. Yet the kitten helplessly climbed up Kyoutani’s jersey using its claws, and before he knew it the kitten was perched atop Kyoutani’s large shoulders meowing.

Then it licks Kyoutani’s cheek.

“Why the heck are they so quick to get attached to you!?”

“It’s not my fault!”

“I hate the fact that you’re so easily liked!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

It had been around an hour since practice started. The two, wearing the Aoba Jousai volleyball uniform, were still a far way off to returning to the third gym, however.

**********

The End

#kyouhaba #kyoutani kentarou #yahaba shigeru #mad dog and puppy #haikyuu #hq #This should be exactly as the translator translated it but if you notice any issues with my repost please let me know

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spitzofseidou · 4 years ago

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ace of diamond (season 1) review

Hey there! I have recently finished the first season of Ace of Diamond and I’m going to be reviewing on five categories: plot/pacing, characterization/relationships, voice acting, art and OST. Aaaand because of how much I enjoyed it, I’m going to throw in my favorite character, dynamic and OP/ED. At the end I’ll be adding rewatchability/recc score.

Genre: Shonen / Sports Subgenres: Comedy / Slice of Life / School Synopsis: Sawamura Eijun is a unique southpaw pitcher from a small town in Nagano with a lot of potential but unpolished skills. After being scouted to play for Seidou High School (a prestigous baseball school in Tokyo) he is encouraged by his friends and family to go and accept the offer and pursue his passion for baseball at a higher level. Confident to the point of arrogant, he declares that he will be the ace pitcher on this new team and be the best -- but has to grapple with the fact he is surrounded now by extremely powerful, talented players who have been honing their skills for years-- some of whom are better than him, like his rival Furuya Satoru, a pitcher with a wicked fastball. Together, this team aims to be the best in Japan and aim for the Summer Koshien, tackling formidable teams who stand in their way--as well as work on their own goals, dreams, fears and insecurities.

Plot & pacing: The pacing of this show is very well done. In a 75 episode first season, it is rather long, with many of the baseball games drawn out. But its well worth it, as the writing brings a lot of emotional gratification by “feeling what they feel.” Starting with Sawamura being scouted, going through intense spring training and the selection of the summer starting roster, throughout the highs and lows of the summer season and into the post-summer scrimmages and finally rounding out the season with the third-year retirement game before the fall tournament raffle, every bit is given important narrative attention.

The reveal of information through the eyes of the protagonist; not knowing about Chris Yuu Takagawa’s injury until Sawamura knows it, not knowing how much the current third years sucked as players until the right moment through flashbacks during the tipping point of the finals game, for example -- is such an important choice that we as an audience feel what he feels. The summer games feel very high stakes, the emotional impact is well-earned; every victory feels like it was earned and not given through plot armor or well ~obviously Seidou is the protagonist team, they have to win.~ Seidou as a team was written as strong but not invincible. SPOILER: This is emphasized at the finals game against Inashiro. Despite losing, while emotionally devastating, it feels like it was a logical writing choice and will be important growth for not just Sawamura but the team as a whole.

The yips arc that follows the loss wraps up in a very wholesome retirement game, with Sawamura not fully recovering, but beginning to do truly do so, and the hopeful note of beginning the fall tournament, leaving the audience ready and excited for more.

As a side note, Ace of Diamond very beautifully balances comedy to drama, so it takes itself seriously but is also genuinely comedic. I have two running jokes of “fellas, is it gay to x” and “screenshot of out context being x” as well as actually laughing over some of the planned jokes. But it is truly an emotional carthartic journey.

[Did I cry? yes. so much.]

characterization & relationships: All of the characters feel very well-rounded with diverse ethnic and social backgrounds and personality traits. Some may be static but many of them experience growth to become better people and players. Sawamura is a good “bouncing board” of a character, as someone who goes from arrogant to experiencing several setbacks and a devastating loss that makes him examine his own biases, weaknesses and flaws that also reveals to his opponents their own shortcomings. Several other characters are better players than him, and that’s okay. On the flipside, one of the canon examinations as well as audience reaction is that Coach Kataoka has a team who is a family, a well-oiled machine who works amazingly together because they trust and care for one another, that he encourages growth and inspires them to be the best not just as baseball players, but as individuals as well. The opposing teams are also not just blank slates to fight against, but thoughtful people with their own desires, backgrounds and flaws--Mei Narumiya is cocky and unable to handle criticism once put on a pedestal, Sanada Shunpei has low stamina, etc etc.

Something that’s extremely important to reemphasize is the relationship the Seidou team has to one another in that everyone affects everyone else. Sawamura chooses to go to Seidou specifically because Miyuki Kazuya, a first year at the time, encouraged him to pitch, so he had one upperclassman who already believed in him by the time he enrolled. Sawamura has both batchmates (first years Furuya Satoru and Haruichi Kominato) that encourage him through rivalry (Furuya) or gentle friendship (Haruichi) and several upperclassmen he admires and multiple times states he adores this team as it is, because he looks up to them for guidance and inspiration-- quiet team captain Tetsuya Yuuki, loud outfielder Isashiki Jun (the namesake of this blog, “the spitz of seidou”), speed demons Ryousuke Kominato and Youichi Kuramochi, and more.

In particular, he has an exchange of growth with Chris Yuu Takagawa, someone he mistook for being uncaring and hopeless about baseball with a dead-eyed appearance. Chris, after being injured, all but had given up on playing again, but Sawamura��s noisy and blunt personality who kept pushing him encouraged him to return to the field, and have hope again. Chris is a teacher that Sawamura then deeply respects and is there for him when he has the yips, returning the favor to help break him out his funk. The symbolism. *weeps*

Important to note also it that is isn’t just about Sawamura and the effect he has on them, but the relationships they have with each other. The Kominato brothers have their own relationship where Haruichi wants to be like his older brother; Isashiki may act wild and aggressive and cocky, but he is truly humbled by their team captain Tetsu; Miyuki and Chris met years before Seidou and that informs their dynamic and the kind of players they are today. This also extends to other teams; some have similarities like Akikawa Academy revering their pitcher Yang Shunchen and how that parallels with Seidou adoring Tanba even when he was out with an injury, and others juxtaposed with them i.e. how some players at Inashiro seem to resent the spotlight Mei receives or Shirakawa callously telling another player to kill himself.

I also wanted to note the way Coach Kataoka also sees his team; he is in many ways like a stern but loving father figure who wants the best out of his boys in every way, off and on the field. Other coaches seem to care more about money or fame than their wellbeing (Coach Todoroki or the replacement coach for Seidou), and others have different styles as coaches whether from pro experience or just age. It really emphasizes that it’s not just about the talent a team may or may not have, but how those players are nurtured as people.

(Favorite relationships: Chris & Sawamura, the Kominatos, Miyuki & Chris, .)

[Side note: if you care about shipping, this is a buffet, you’re going to have a great time.]

Voice Acting: The voices of this cast are spot on. Everyone’s voice seems to match their face and personalities and all of the voice actors give 110% to the character. The voices really make it for me, as I’m very particular about the sounds. It feels very realistic and the voices really make them seem like actual people and gives the audience a reason to invest. I’ve got nothing but praise for the voice actors and voice direction of this cast. Art: I could go on and on about the art. The motion is very fluid, the backgrounds are amazing. The character designs are stunning and everyone feels unique and given thought. Style-wise it was very refreshing to see as a lot of modern anime I’ve been watching seems to have the stereotypical “2000s” feel, whereas Ace of Diamond feels like a gorgeous late nineties/early 2000s homage--fitting since, despite airing in 2013-2015, the manga originated in 2006 and it followed the art of the manga nicely. The color palettes are very beautiful and vibrant. I remarked more than once while watching it that it was clear that the artists cared for studying human anatomy, movement and realism (in comparison to how some battle shonen care more for looking cool.) The art is what drew me in to begin with and it never disappointed. OST: I loved the OST so much. Frying-Pan did such an amazing job delivering gorgeous pieces of music. The beauty of it was just off the charts and went above and beyond to make fitting pieces for character themes, scenario specific pieces etc. Also the OPs by Tom H@ck and Glay were appropriately themed and got me pumped every time. I love the various endings also and their little character revealing bits. I like them all so much I never skipped them while watching.

[Favorite OP: Perfect Hero. Favorite ED: Cloud Nine. I listen to Cloud Nine literally every day.] Can I rewatch? Absolutely! Even knowing what’s going to happen, the emotional journey is worth it. Would I recommend? 10/10. Even if you don’t like sports, this is a great one. It was my first sports anime and it has set the bar so very high.

#spitz watches #spitz reviews

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schemingyourmind · 4 years ago

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for last 1 years, I kinda Fangirling toward....

Iwanaga Tetsuya.

I mean, he’s actually the real high spec ikemen. I know him because he’s played the role as Mamiya Haruichi at Doubt: usotsuki otoko wa dare. I don’t know anything WHO is he at first, but most of tokusatsu fan kinda giving a hilarious reaction when he plays as Mamiya, even one of my twitter friend who kinda following tokusatsu series said this: “he’s kinda type of ikemen for our age (compared to johnnys idol tho). I bet you will like him immediately”

and what she said is.... true 🤣

Since then I’m looking his variety show (and most of them are quiz variety show). he’s kinda famous because of his “wild” acting as (Shin?) Kuroto Dan from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. any kind of variety show are USING bgm from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid as his “official” soundtrack. LMAO I CANT EVEN... 🤣 He also cherishing his role as Kuroto Dan (he played some romantic movies yet most most of people knw him as Kuroto Dan), even his Twitter’s photo profile is a figurine of himself as Kuroto lol.

now, how weird is he as Kuroto Dan?

welp

uh... okay

and I also understand why he was choosen as Mamiya Haruichi

he also played as a director from a company on kamen rider ex aid. (mamiya is an IT director for his own company. what a coincidence, huh?)

(told ya, his makeup for Mamiya is.... QUITE BAD:( idk on the film since I haven’t seen the film itself but to using this photo as his promotional pic is kinda... errrgh)

I remember on one article(Video?) that covered about Doubt’s release, Hotta Akane (Sakurai Kana’s actress; Doubt’s MC for live action) said that Iwanaga’s gap when acting and not acting is VERY DIFFERENT. He can act like the crazy one as Kuroto Dan (Mamiya also kinda have a similar vibes tho), while his appearance is kinda..... PRINCELY. lol.

I’ve read once about his way of life. He said on an interview that he still want to explore himself. That’s why he didn’t hesitate to act as weird as Kuroto Dan at his finest. what a totality! He will always explore new thing.

Now, how smart he is?

according to his official profile from his agency, let me list ok?

- IQ above 148 (also Mensa’s member since 2013)

-was a model for Japanese magazine while doing his master degree on pharmacy (idk if he still doing it or not but currently he appears on Japanese TV as a talent)

- have a license as pharmacist

-TOEIC score above 830, TOEFL score above 60 (*CBT based test; this is maybe kinda standard for en speaker but for Japanese, his English ability is very high.... as we know, Japanese’s English ability is kinda... welp...); because of it, he had a chance to interviewing American actors (forgot the film) and went to Egypt without any interpreter crew(He still need Arabic translator tho)

-had a triple A score from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut test (!!!)

-Color therapist trainer

-Aromatherapist

-Kanji, math, JP-EN interpreter? too much lol i can’t. help.

-really loves quiz even sometimes he made some quiz questions on his twitter lol

Iwanaga is also a regular for プレバト！(Purebato; PRESSURE BATTLE; Japanese variety show）as a special student for Haiku (Japanese short poem) and also for color pencil illustration. his skill for drawing actually is FREAKIN’ GOOD.His choice of color when drawing actually is good but for he still need some improvement on water color if he really want to became a special student for water color segment (because most of the special studend from talent/artist on Purebato have a very high skill) He is also quite good quiz player and sometimes appear as a regular on several quiz variety show (but idk why only appeared on Toudaiou once; maybe those kind of quiz game play isn’t really befitting him or maybe to make sure his ‘smart talent’ title is still relevant, idk.).

He is also kinda give me a fuel to not giving up on learning something new. haaaaaaa. I want to be as smart as him lol. /nah impossible

#iwanaga tetsuya #tetsuya iwanaga #dan kuroto #haruichi mamiya

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queenofmoons67 · 5 years ago

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2010s Collection

I’ve been writing fanfic for almost an entire decade!! So I decided to celebrate by putting together a collection of links to my most significant and/or favorite work per year! (By original posted date)

(All links go to AO3 except the ones noted FFN)

2011: “Things Change,” (FFN) Alex Rider; 6k+; After Scorpia Rising- Alex Rider never left for the States with Sabina and her family. What happens when Mrs. Jones sends a folder to the media? Alex is sent to the SAS with K-Unit and Fox?

The second fic I ever posted (though only by two days), and the first multi-chapter fic I finished!

2012: “A Well Earned Rest,” PJO x Avengers; 3k+; The Avengers are in New York City when the Battle of Manhattan happens, and they don't go to sleep. Also, Clint has a secret. Will the Avengers make it through?

One of my earliest fics, but also one of my most popular! I still get favorites for it. ❤️

2013: “Life Isn’t Our Style,” (FFN) PJO; 43k+; sequel to No Vampires Here! Not! Percy and Nico run away from their lives at camp and NYC and the underworld. Twenty years later, they're back with some family.

One of my first attempts at a long fic. I never did complete it, but working on it taught me a lot, from molding my ocs and plot to writing romance.

2014: “Off the Beaten Road,” Hardy Boys x SPN; 5k+; What would have happened if Joe Hardy was one of Azazel's children, and arrived in Cold Oak at the same time as Sam Winchester?

This fic went on hiatus for awhile, but I did eventually come back to it and fight to complete it.

2015: “That One Time Alex Rider Met the Avengers,” Alex Rider x Avengers; 2k; Alex Rider is in NYC the day Loki attacks.

I’m kind of in shock that I was still writing Alex Rider fic in 2015, but just like 2012’s fic, this one still gets frequent favorites!

2016: “The Road (Has Got No End),” Merlin x The Musketeers; 7k; Lancelot wakes up in 1630s France and creates the identity of Aramis. He makes a new life for himself, and then one day he spots a man with familiar wild black hair and blue eyes.

One of my all-time favorite fics. I really tried to do something different stylistically with it, and I got so much fantastic feedback on it. ❤️

2017: “The World Knows Our Name,” Teen Wolf; 4K+; More than a decade in the future an incident reveals werewolves to the world. As the True Alpha, the American 'wolf community pushes Scott forward as their main representative, throwing the entire McCall Pack into the spotlight as people try to figure out what to do with this revelation.

So many choices for 2017!! The other years did, too, but most of them had clear standouts. 2017 had too many standouts. But in the end, I had to go with this one. I really put my heart into it, and I think that shows in both the quality and the feedback I received.

2018: “this world we live in (wasn’t built for the living),” Hardy Boys x SAO; 13k+; The last thing Frank and Joe expected was to find themselves trapped in the death game known as Sword Art Online: a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game where if their avatars die, they die in real life. The only way out is through one hundred levels of Bosses, Player Killers, and emotional turmoil.

This fic is also known as my baby. And that’s really all that needs to be said.

Ok but, seriously: This fic challenged me like no other to consider how loss and trauma affects a character and their actions. My writing evolved even while writing this fic.

2019: “if the sky comes falling down,” Yona of the Dawn; 2k+; Sometimes brotherhood is kicking boulders off each other’s chests, and sometimes it’s deciding the others need a good cuddle.

The number of times I reread something I’d just written and then forced myself to delete and rewrite it because it was out of character qualifies this fic all by itself. This fic pushed me characterization-wise, and I still go back and reread it (for fun this time).

Did—did I say 2017 had too many standouts? Clearly I jinxed myself, because 2018 and 2019 are also chock-full of standouts, and it’s really tempting to list them all. I won’t—but only because I plan on doing a year in review post, too. But that doesn’t include 2018 and this fic, and that would leave my decade review without a Daiya fic which would be a crime, and I’m short a fic from ten anyway because I didn’t start posting till 2011. So here it is!

2018 Bonus: “strike the match (let it all burn),” Daiya no Ace; 8k+; Eijun, Furuya, Haruichi, and Raichi find themselves in the middle of a hostage situation.

This entire series is my baby, but this fic especially is. The final product is about twice as long as I planned on it being, and like 2019’s fic, it was a challenge in characterization since I had multiple POVs. It also challenged me to write tension.

I may have only been on tumblr for about a year and a half now, but thank you everyone for following and supporting me! See you in the new decade! (And lookout for that year in review post!)

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rayraywrites · 5 years ago

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Chapter 4

Pairing: Kuramochi Youichi x Sawamura Eijun

(minor: Furuya Satoru x Kominato Haruichi; Miyuki Kazuya x Kawakami Norifumi)

more ships to be added

Characters: Sawamura Eijun, Kuramochi Youichi, Furuya Satoru, Kominato Haruichi, Miyuki Kazuya, Kawakami Norifumi, Takigawa Chris Yuu (more characters to be added)

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Total Word Count: 4341

AO3

Summary:

In this universe, you don’t meet your perfect match by happenstance. You’ve grown up with them, maybe not physically, but they’ve always been there. In your mind. Speaking to you.

In this universe, humans are not the most powerful, and there’s pockets of our world that lead to the other. To the fae. And there’s so much more to them, than can ever be understood.

Eijun and Youichi. They stand upon the divide.

“It was as if I had emerged from a dream. The newly familiar trees suddenly gave away to the foliage I remembered from my youth. According to the villagers, I had disappeared for a few years, though they had long since given up on ever finding me. Even to this day, I’m not sure how I got to this other world, and that is the only word for it - a world, much unlike our own. Where strangely powerful beings with magic poured out of them like the way water flows down a river. But even more than the wondrous new experiences – I got to meet the one who completed me, the one who had remained suspiciously silent my whole life. His hair, a blushing pink, and sharp smile have begun to haunt my dreams.”

This diary entry was discovered amongst Isashiki Jun’s belongings following his return back to the human world (as he put it). He had vanished for a few years following a walk through his local forest. I have an instinct that he was able to cross realms because the forest was running along a ley line.

Based on this entry, I, and my esteemed colleagues, have postulated that his soulmate could have in fact been one of the elusive fae – but I cannot confirm this notion as he soon disappeared again. I have long assumed it is back to his matched.

Somewhere within me, I find pity welling up, as a match of that kind is doomed to fail from the beginning, by its very nature. The immortal fae and his very mortal human.

An excerpt from the “Book of Fae and Humans” written by Masuko T. (225 AD)

––––––

With a lively giggle, he clapped his hands together. Smiles were all that showed up on his face, for even when there was something that could make him unhappy, a small hum would appear in his head, or maybe sometimes an actual song could be heard bouncing around his head. It was always the same soothing voice, that wished him a “restful sleep” each night, or a “blessed day” each morning.

Not that he understood any of the words, nor their importance, as to him it was simply babble. But even when so young, he could sense the affection in the voice, and he responded in the only way he could.

Giggling and enjoying life to the fullest.

To his left, he could see his mother sitting on the big blue chair that she was always on when he went outside to play. He saw a dress in her hands, and smiled a wide, toothy grin at the pretty. sparkly material. He used to grab for it, even when she had refused, but the voice in his head would distract him when he threw tantrums.

So instead he laughed and clapped along to the music in his head, giggling at the lilting tones that rose and fell as they sang of a brave Fae warrior fighting her way through a horde of vicious hobgoblins. The song described the warrior’s near failure as a tremendous number of enemies encircled her, with bloody and disgusting weapons pointed down threateningly at her kneeling form. The little boy flinched, and cowered into himself. But then the voice soared, high in register, as it described the sudden surge of power that built up in the fae’s body, the support of her people filling her with the strength she needed to leap up. The voice sweetened slowly, describing the victory so earnestly, it almost brought tears to the listening boy’s eyes.

The boy was unable to understand the smooth flowing voice that sang in an otherworldly tone, and nor was he old enough to understand the meaning of the song. But yet, he felt the emotions welling up inside him, till he could no longer hold them back and instead large fat tears rolled down his cheeks. To his mother’s surprise however, there was no accompanying scream of pain or annoyance as was the usual occurrence, but instead only sniffles and fists struggling to wipe the tears and snot away from his face.

As the song reached its climactic finish, the warrior having defeated the hordes and returning to her people, where she was greeted by his loving and caring matched, who hurriedly began to heal all of the warrior’s wounds. The song ended with a joyous tone, pleasant and calming while also vivacious and lively, which managed to stem the flow of tears pouring down his cheeks. The ordeal left the little boy exhausted, for the changing emotions weren’t something his young body was accustomed to.

Slumping down slightly, he tilted his head back, to look up at the sky. A bright blue expanse greeted him, dotted with big, fluffy, white clouds. With a loud call for his kaa-chan, he began reaching up for the clouds, the tiredness from before quickly leaving him. Unconsciously, he shared images of the blue skies and clouds with his matched, unable to control his thoughts.

But these new images were soothing for the anxious fae, who had also received all the emotions and tiredness caused by the song. The clouds and sky indicated that things were fine, or at least, would be fine.

As the boy got distracted by the things around him once more, he clapped his hands again, trying to start another song, but unsure how he would go about it. Babbling came out of his mouth, his eyes crossing as he struggled to say the word that would get his wish across. Both in his mind and with his mouth, he tried to convey his desires, slowly but surely managing to shape his mouth around the word that he’d heard his mother say before.

唄 “Uta.” Song.

Giggling at the shocked gasp that reverberated in his head, mimicking the one that forced its way out of his kaa-chan’s lips, he called out again for a song.

For the boy’s matched, it was the first time the fae had heard the boy speak. And that the first purposeful word he ever said being for him, made the fae tear up just a bit. So he sang again, this time a soothing song of his own composition. It described the rolling hills of the Spring fields, melding with the Dark forest along their border till a fae could never tell where the Spring Court’s realms began, and the Autumnal Court’s lands ended.

And so the days passed, the little boy’s head filled with songs and stories, the fae spending his time crafting songs and absorbing everything he could from his young match.

––––––

He scrambled to sit down in front of his kaa-chan’s chair, the tone of her voice leaving no option but simple acquiescence. She had a soft smile on her face, and he never wanted to turn it upside down. He had heard from kids in the village that they never listened to their mothers, instead choosing to keep playing and ignore the demands of their kaa-chan. But he had seen their smiles turn upside down, frown his mother had said when he brought up the topic. So he promised himself to never let her frown, and instead did everything he could to make her happy.

So when she called, he came.

Settling himself comfortably at the foot of her chair, he tangled his fingers into the fabric of her dress, already impatient to go play games again. She seemed to sense his restlessness, as she quickly ran her fingers through his short hair, tugging lightly at the strands to bring his head up to face her.

“Youichi, you’re a big boy now, even if Kaa-chan wants you to stay her little boy forever.” He grinned toothily up at her, giggling when she tugged on an errant tuft of hair at his cheeky smile. He had seen his sixth winter just recently, something he brought up quite often, especially amongst the other boys in his village, all of whom were older than him and often teased him about his age.

She continued speaking in the soft, dulcet tones he’d come to realize meant that his kaa-chan was nervous. She didn’t want to discuss this topic, but had no choice. So he tried to control his wandering mind even more, and gave her his full attention. With a careful breath, both to stabilize her voice and for a final moment of stalling, she began telling him about the matched and soulmates. Immediately, he realized who she was talking about.

His Ei-chan!

They spoke in his head, and whenever Youichi was able to talk to Ei, he always felt really calm and happy. He didn’t tell his kaa-chan, but sometimes Ei even helped him with his reading, sounding out the words he was struggling with, and explaining the sentences till he understood them perfectly. His eyes sparkled as he reached out to his Ei-chan, excited to share the news in case his soulmate hadn’t known!

“Ei-chan! Ei-chan! Guess what? Kaa-chan told me that we’re matched! That means we’ll be together forever right?”

At first the only reply he received was a choked gasp, but then he heard the familiar soothing voice spill into his head. However, unlike the normal tinge of excitement that usually decorated Ei’s voice, some confusion and a bit of hesitance coated his words.

“I’m glad you know now Mochi! Forever is a long time kid, but if you’ll have me,” Ei’s voice broke a little, as if he was struggling even to think those thoughts, “I’ll be there for you, forever Mochi.”

Over the rest of his conversation with his kaa-chan, she told him everything she knew about the matched, about the inability to introduce yourself truly to your matched, about how all matched always meet up, even if it’s for a very short period. Youichi kept repeating all the information he understood to his Ei-chan, wanting to tell all the good news to his best friend.

But something made him confused, if everyone always met their matched, what about his kaa-chan’s matched? She rarely spoke about tou-san; only brought him up once a year in the middle of Winter. She would pull out a small frame from the back of the shrine, and move it to a place of honour at the head of her bed. Youichi had sneaked into her room once, to see that it was a painting of a man that looked a lot like him. Was that his tou-san?

Hesitantly, he placed a hand on his mother’s knee, pausing her in her speech, and asked his query with all the tactfulness he had gained in his six-years of living. “Kaa-chan, where is your matched? Where is tou-chan?” Unlike all other times he’d asked about his father, she didn’t seem as surprised by the question, though her face took on an expression of melancholy. She gently stood from her chair and moved to sit down on the porch alongside him. With a soft pull at his arms, he tumbled into her lap and cuddled into her chest.

“Your father, your tou-san, was one of the most loving and caring men I’d ever known Youichi.” Her voice shook slightly, as if trying to suppress the tears that were welling up inside her. “You’re right, he was my matched, and I’d known he was my soulmate from when I was very little.” Youichi saw the soft smile on her lips, a smile that only came out when she was exceptionally proud of Youichi.

He started slightly when he felt her hand raise to his shoulder, but settled again when she simply began running it down his back. “He was only a few years older than me, but he would defend me against all the boys in the village when they would go pick on me. You’re a lot like him Youichi,” she poked his nose lightly with the tip of her finger, pulling a small giggle out of his mouth. “We grew up together, one of the lucky pairs to be born near each other. Guess that should have been a sign?”

He was shocked to see tears building up in the corners of her eyes, and immediately reached up with his right hand to try and wipe them away. In his haste, he nearly smacked her in the face, but his concerned panic was enough to pull a watery chuckle from her, “it’s okay Youichi, Kaa-chan will be fine.” She took a steadying breath before continuing to speak, “anyway, a few years before we had you,, your father began began struggling with walking, and was often very weak. We were all concerned about him, but unfortunat–” she could no longer hold back her tears, so he watched in growing horror as they rolled down her cheeks. Clearing her throat, she managed to finish her sentence, “unfortunately, whatever problem he was facing it spread to his eyes as a ghostly film where he couldn’t see.” She smiled sadly, brushing away the errant tears with her fingers as she whispered the last bit, “he eventually succumbed to the pain just about a year after you were born.”

He felt a pressure building in his chest, something that had never happened before, which made him panic. The pressure continued to grow till it erupted out of him as a loud wail, and tears streaming down his cheeks. His kaa-chan looked so sad, and he wanted to remember his tou-chan. His chest was heaving as he struggled to get all these sudden emotions under control.

His mother chuckled weakly, recognizing the penchant for explosive crying as something her son had definitely inherited from her husband. Shushing her son gently, she slowly began to bracket the truth with a much happier ending. “But he loved you very much Youichi, in fact the first time he held you in his arms, he turned towards me and said that even if he loved me with his very being,” she paused to bend down and place a soft kiss on his brow, “he would fight for you with everything he had.

With that, she let the, now much calmer, boy go off to play with his friends, trusting that he had taken what was important from their conversation. As he glanced back towards his mother one more time, he saw that she had stood up on their porch, her hands clutching onto her sunhat tightly, but her eyes were focussed upwards on the skies. He turned back towards his friends, laughing loudly as they chased each other. He sent off short messages of affection to his matched, descriptions of the flowers and bugs they would find while playing.

For a child’s mind, those heavy emotions and feelings were short-lived, as they were slowly written over with events occurring in front of him. He didn’t remain concerned about his mother for very long.

But while he played, he would never know that she was praying for her husband to watch over their precious son, praying that the boy would never find out the true pain his father had to suffer in the last ten years of life. How there had been days where he hadn’t been able to sit up from the pain, but hadn't been able to simply rest his aching body. Or times when he couldn’t eat because swallowing hurt too much. She hoped Youichi never realized that she had felt all the pain her husband had, as with that level of inner torture, he hadn’t been able to block their connection enough – she had gone through it all.

But what she prayed for the most? Was that her son would never experience that pain.

––––––

Taking a deep breath, he let his shoulders relax slightly, keeping them pulled back. As he took another breath, he could feel the quiver of the feathers on his arrow brushing lightly against his cheek. For a moment it felt as if his entire sight was limited to simply the target sitting a good distance from him. He forced himself to ignore the distractions around him, how the branches of the trees swayed from the power of the wind, how many arrows that had missed his targets only to land harmlessly onto the grass. His vision narrowed swiftly, till all that was left was the red marking at the center of the cloth. He forced his senses to a point of awareness limited only to the weapon in his hand, and the target crying out for him. The hand holding his bow was steady, like a rock in its firmness, while he could feel the itch of the fingers pulling back the arrow, ready to let another loose.

Finally his fingers eased off on their pull, and he could feel as the tips of the feathers brushed their final touch against his cheek before soaring far from him. He felt the bend and sway of the arrow as it glanced against the bow, eventually leading to its direct trajectory. His eyes remained locked on the target, but he knew this one, this one would make it directly into the center. It gracefully made its way to the target, sinking forcefully up till the fledgling feathers were all that peeked out from the target.

He had closed his eyes just before the arrow made its mark, so the thumping noise of arrow piercing its way through the target was all he heard, and it was all the sign he needed.

Success!

Opening his eyes, he smiled brightly, staring at the target with a feeling of contentedness running through him. He had only managed to make his mark every fifth or so shot, so getting this one had felt so good, he almost shouted out in joy. In fact, he saw no reason to not shout!

“Kyahaha!! I did it!” He threw his hands up in excitement. Laughter bubbled up inside him, the relief at finally making such a good mark, but also amazement of the fact left him in an unstable position, where laughter was the only response he could produce. Still riding the high of his success, he excitedly reached out to his matched, knowing that Ei had been instrumental in his ability to make it.

Ei was never one to do any hunting himself, which was something Youichi didn’t fully understand as Ei had said that he lived in a village much like his own. But even so, he always gave Youichi all the support and advice he could. So he was extremely excited to be able to share this moment with his match.

“Hey Ei! Guess what?I” In the meantime, he began gathering up the arrows that had missed their targets, internally wincing at how many had simply soared beside them. He also made sure to pick up the game he had caught in the traps he’d set earlier in the day. For all his inexperience with hunting animals, Ei was inordinately good at figuring out the best way to trap small animals.

“What is it Mochi? Did you finally figure out how to walk without tripping?” He scowled and sputtered at the teasing Ei sent at him, even if his sudden growth spurt had in fact made it difficult for him sometimes. But he just wasn’t used to it! Not something Ei should have been teasing him over!

“Shut up baka! I meant I made my mark! The arrow sunk directly into the middle of the target!” He waited for the joy and elation that he knew Ei would be feeling, and he was absolutely correct when he heard the response.

“Really? That’s fantastic Mochi, I’m very proud of you – you’ve grown so much in such a short time.” He couldn’t help but blush at the praise Ei was heaping onto him, but simply laughed and continued to excitedly babble to Ei, receiving all the pleasing hums and “ahhs” he wanted.

That was something he had always appreciated. The fact that even when Ei didn’t seem to grasp all the nuances, he was always willing to listen. At first he had thought the maturity Ei showed was because he was older than him, but there was a voice inside him that said there was something else here at play. He could have excused the maturity, and the more formal manner of speech, but the almost ethereal singing and the complete lack of awareness of normal everyday things made any excuses futile.

There was only so many times he could explain the concept of a school to Ei before he felt something was off. Regardless of age, he would still know what a school was right? Or why they hunted for food. Or what a birthday was – Youichi had turned thirteen just the previous month, and like always Ei had been completely lost. But Ei was also exceptionally intelligent in certain areas, holding a mastery in artistic ventures as well as explaining strategy to him. Youichi rarely lost schoolyard battles after Ei started coaching his thinking.

One day, he hoped he would get to meet his matched, and be able to get the answers to the questions he’d been asking since he was a little boy. And maybe then, instead of Ei singing him to sleep, as he did each night, Youichi would be able to whisper his good night! and sing for Ei in his warbly voice.

“A really good job Mochi, I know how much you were struggling with your bow and arrow, but you did it. Just keep practicing each day. You got this!” Youichi blushed brightly again, laughing louder than before to mask his giddiness.

Kyahaha!

––––––

He remained light on his feet, running with a speed he had quickly become famous for in his village, but with the grace and agility he had trained into his body. Soundless he remained as he leapt over logs, avoiding brambles and branches with an ease that spoke of limitless comfort in these woods. His eyes barely glanced around his surroundings, instead locked onto the small tail of the deer he was following.

He had patiently waited for this deer to isolate itself from the herd, watching as it searched for better food, for access to clean water. He had seen that it was a strong deer and knew it would be a worthwhile catch for his village. Even though he tended to follow only those that were old or frail, listening to Ei would rub off on anyone, this time he couldn’t avoid the prize that walked willingly into his arms.

However, he still had to chase after the deer, so he followed along, trying to cut off the deer where he could but easily getting left behind by the much faster animal. For a second he debated giving up, returning to his hiding post to seek out one of the weaker deer, but then it paused almost briefly and glanced back at him. As if to mock his inability to keep up. So he glared, and forced himself to pick up the pace, managing to catch up to the deer enough that he was only an arm’s distance away.

As they ran, he began to notice that he was struggling to recognize some of the plants that he passed. And even when he recognized a shrub, there was a life to it that he’d never seen before. The sunlight that had been streaming high in the sky, it being midday and all, slowly disappeared which prompted him to take a peek up at the sky. Rather than a high noon sun, it seemed to be approaching the early morning rising sun.

His confusion inadvertently caused him to slow down till he was barely jogging. The deer had long ran away by that time, though he was already quite distracted from the chase. Running his fingers along a few of the low-hanging branches of a large willow tree, he noted that it felt much softer but more importantly, it almost felt more alive. He had also never seen a willow tree this deep into the woods, only ever near the village where they’d been purposefully planted many years before he’d been born. But even though he was distracted by the odd foliage, his ears remained attuned to his surroundings.

So when he heard a branch snap, he immediately became alert, hands grasping his weapons tighter, and feet spreading slightly so that he could run again, should the need arise. He could see that there was someone standing behind one of the trees to his left. Everything inside him was screaming for him to get away, not trusting anyone who simply stood and watched others, but he found he couldn’t convince his legs to cooperate. He remained rooted to the same spot, wincing as the person slowly stepped out from behind the tree. His eyes widened marginally as he gazed upon the resplendent beauty of the figure approaching him.

He felt his shoulders shudder from the nervous energy coursing through his body. The hand resting on his quiver twitched, ready to notch an arrow and let it fly if necessary. There was something about the ethereal being in front of him that made him want to come closer, but everything he had learnt growing up told him that a decision like that would only lead to doom. He trembled slightly as they stepped closer towards him, away from the tree’s shadow. Immediately his hand clenched his bow tighter, ready to spring into action. In his mind he kept repeating the same wish for the person to leave him; something made him hesitant to yell this desire out loud – he trusted those instincts.

But suddenly, the approaching person froze, and a shocked expression passed across his face, before it turned into hesitance. Then he heard it.

“Mochi?” The figure’s voice was soft and smooth, but what shook him to his core, was the accompanying familiar voice echoing in his head.

Mochi?

#daiya no ace #kurasawa #kuramochi youichi #sawamura eijun #ace of diamond #a faerie tale #ray ray writes #chapter 4

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ssho25 · 6 years ago

Text

Hopelessly Devoted to You

@thatsthat24 makes a list for inktober prompts and I really liked day 18: Draw your OTP in Halloween costumes that are designed to go together! (Shout out to him for the inspiration) But I am unfortunately not an artist, so I wrote a fic instead. So...yeah. (also available on ao3)

“Thank you for your patronage. Please come again,” Kazuya repeated for the umpteenth time that day. He focused on maintaining his gentle bow and smile, trying his best to ignore the giggling girls as they walked by him.

“Miyuki-kun looks so handsome,” one of the girls whispered.

“The waiter uniform really suits him,” her friend agreed.

“Ahh~, I should’ve taken a picture for my phone background,” chimed the third.

Once they rounded the corner, Kazuya let out a large breath he didn’t know he was holding. He whipped his head over to the clock. 12:45pm. Good, only 15 minutes left of wearing that ridiculous outfit.

It was the annual cultural festival at Seidou High School, and Kazuya was designated as a waiter for his class’s café. Usually he’d weasel his way out of things like this, using baseball practice as an excuse. But this year, the girls had guilted him into it.

“We know you don’t have baseball practice Miyuki-kun. Maezono-kun already told us,” one complained.

“It’s not fair if you make us do everything,” said another.

“You can at least do some work the day of…”

“Okay, okay, I got it,” Kazuya said, his hands at his chest raised in surrender. “Just give me whatever job there is. I’ll do it.”

That was how Kazuya found himself in a well tailored, form-fitting waiter costume that looked like it belonged to a high-end café. The flattering uniform made him stand out way more than he liked, earning him unwanted attention not unlike the girls who just left. He inwardly cursed his past self for giving in so easily and not getting the details beforehand. And just when did his classmates get his measurements? These clothes fit waytoo well to be a coincidence.

“Hey,” Kuramochi called out. “Stop slacking off and bring these orders to table 4.”

“We’ve been doing this for the past 2 days now. I’m allowed to complain,” Kazuya argued, yet still walked over.

“It’s just until your shift is over.”

Kazuya picked up the desserts one by one and placed them onto his tray. “Easy for you to say. You’ve been hiding behind this curtain all weekend.”

“You’re fault for saying you’d do whatever,” Kuramochi muttered as he cooked some fried rice.

Kazuya pouted, but quickly replaced it with a professional looking smile as he approached table 4. “Here is your parfait and pancakes. Please enjoy,” he said to the couple at the table.

“I agreed to help out,” Kazuya continued when he returned to Kuramochi’s cooking station. “What I didn’t agree to was being stared at by so many girls.”

“Don’t pat yourself too hard on the back,” Kuramochi commented sarcastically.

“I’m not bragging, I’m uncomfortable,” Kazuya corrected. “Why are there so many girls anyway?”

“You can thank our classmates for that,” Kuramochi explained while cooking an omelette. “Ever since the fall nationals, you’ve been really popular, especially among girls. So, they’ve been telling everyone that you’re the waiter here as our selling point.” Kuramochi scooped some rice into his omelette and began folding it up. “So, congratulations. They’re all here for you Mr. Ladies Man.” He drizzled ketchup onto the finished omurice and handed Kazuya the plate. “Now quit whining and take this to table 1.”

Kazuya took the plate to the corresponding table and came right back to Kuramochi. “Don’t get mad at me. I didn’t ask them to take my picture.”

“I bet you’d be okay with it if it was Sawamura,” Kuramochi countered.

“Why would I let Sawamura take a picture of me?”

“Besides the crush you have on him?”

“I don’t have a crush on him,” Kazuya said defensively.

“Uh-huh. Yeah, sure you don’t,” Kuramochi replied unenthusiastically, clearly more focused on cooking than he was on the conversation.

“I don’t!”

“You keep telling yourself that.”

“Because that’s the truth.”

“Mm-hmm. Whatever lets you sleep at night.”

“You think I lose sleep thinking about Sawamura?”

“I didn’t say that. You did.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Kazuya said matter-of-factly.

“How’s this? Haruichi and I know you keep a picture of you and Sawamura in the side pocket of your duffel bag.”

Kazuya froze in shock, but brushed it off before Kuramochi noticed. “You’re just making that up.”

“It’s from the time the newspaper club asked to write an article on the baseball club after we won the fall tournament. Sawamura has his arm around you and looks cheerful as ever, but you weren’t looking at the camera.” Kazuya didn’t retaliate, so Kuramochi continued. “I’m guessing the photographer caught you off guard, ‘cause you had quite the gentle expression while staring at Sawamura.”

Kazuya’s eyebrows scrunched up. “How did you…?”

“A few weeks ago before practice, the picture fell out without you noticing. Haruichi picked it up and was going to call out to you, but then saw what it was and thought better of it. After practice, he gave it to me and I slipped it into your bag while we walked to class.”

“…Okay, so maybe you do know about it,” Kazuya reluctantly admitted. “But there’s no special meaning to it,” he quickly added.

“Oh?” Kuramochi asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s…it’s just a good luck charm,” Kazuya answered.

“What an interesting choice of a good luck charm. Why that one?” Kuramochi inquired.

“N-no reason…”

“You sure about that?” Kuramochi pointedly asked, his gaze boring holes into Kazuya.

The conversation was cut short when Kazuya and Kuramochi heard the familiar sound of a cell phone camera shutter. They turned towards the sound and found Sawamura had snuck up on them, a self-satisfied smile on his face and his cell phone primed and ready to take photos.

“Hey, no pictures,” Kuramochi called out.

“Whoops, already sent it to Onii-san,” Sawamura unapologetically said.

“I thought I told you no,” Kuramochi retorted, a scowl on his face and his fist raised as a threat.

“Sorry Kuramochi-senpai,” Sawamura replied more seriously, “But Nii-san asked for it. And to be honest? I’m more scared of him than you.” The look on Sawamura’s face was more than enough proof that he wasn’t messing around.

“…Yeah, that’s fair,” Kuramochi reluctantly said, recounting the not-so fond memories he had with Ryousuke.

Rather than sympathize with the two of them, Kazuya was more concerned about something else. “How long were you standing there?” he asked Sawamura.

“Hmm? Oh, not long at all. I just got here,” Sawamura replied.

“So, you didn’t hear us talking?”

“About what?” Sawamura gasped. “You were bad mouthing me, weren’t you?”

“Actually, we were complimenting you and that last game we played. Your pitching was the best you’ve done so far,” Kazuya said.

Sawamura blinked in disbelief, though it quickly turned to prideful acceptance. He folded his arms and upturned his nose. “Hehe, it’s rare to hear that kind of flattery from you Miyuki-senpai. Of course, I did work hard on those pitches, but…”

Sawamura happily chatted away while Kazuya let out a small sigh of relief. Thankfully, Sawamura didn’t hear the conversation from earlier. Even so, Kazuya couldn’t help but smile at Sawamura’s energy; it was quite infectious really.

Kazuya felt a pair of eyes staring at him and found Kuramochi to be the offender.

“Still don’t have a crush?” Kuramochi’s raised eyebrow seemed to ask.

Kazuya waved his hand in dismissal causing Kuramochi to roll his eyes and go back to cooking. Kazuya, wanting to forget Kuramochi’s ridiculous ideas, returned his attention to Sawamura. “So, what brings you here?” Kazuya asked, interrupting Sawamura’s monologue.

“Huh?”

“Did you really just come to take Kuramochi’s picture?”

“Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go out with me.”

Not only did Kazuya freeze, but so did Kuramochi who had been eavesdropping. “Go…out with you?”

“Yeah. Go out and see all the booths in the courtyard. I heard there’s a really good yakisoba stall down there.”

“…Oh.” Kazuya felt a little disappointed, but paid no attention to those feelings. “Why me?”

“Well, everyone else I asked said they were working at their classroom booths. And since I needed a picture of Kuramochi-senpai, I thought I’d might as well ask you too.”

“…I see.” Again, Kazuya wasn’t too happy about Sawamura’s response. He tried not to show it because he knew Kuramochi was still watching and would comment on it later. “Unfortunately, I can’t walk around with you, Sawamura.”

“Aw, why not?” Sawamura asked.

“Yeah, why not? Your shift is done,” Kuramochi chimed in, pointing to the clock.

Kazuya’s eyes followed Kuramochi’s finger to the clock and sure enough, it was a few minutes past 1:00pm. He glared daggers at Kuramochi, but Kuramochi was unfazed.

“Just take him Sawamura. He’s been whining all day and I’m sick of it already,” Kuramochi added.

“Yay!” Sawamura cheered. He grabbed Kazuya’s wrist and began to drag him out of the classroom. “Let’s hit every stall we can!”

“H-hey, wait!” Kazuya protested. “At least let me change first!”

…

“Man, high school cultural festivals are so much fun!” Sawamura exclaimed.

Kazuya chuckled. “You say it like it’s your first one.”

“Well, it kind of is. Last year, we were so busy with club activities that I didn’t get to enjoy the festival. It’s the same for you too isn’t it?”

Kazuya shrugged. “Can’t argue with that.”

For the past hour, Kazuya had let Sawamura drag him around the school, trying out the many different food stalls and booths other students had set up. It was honestly a lot of fun and it was a shame the festival would be over by the end of the day. But at least he got to experience it before it was gone.

Kazuya suddenly heard paper crinkling next to him and looked over to see Sawamura taking a large bite out of a taiyaki.

“Mmm,” Sawamura said as he happily munched away.

“You’re still eating?” Kazuya asked. “Aren’t you full?”

“But it looked really good! And I was right. Here, try some.” Sawamura extended the treat towards Kazuya.

Kazuya looked down at the taiyaki in Sawamura’s hands, debating whether or not to take a bite. Wasn’t this the infamous ‘indirect kiss’ girls always talked about? Wouldn’t he be giving people the wrong impression about them?

…Wait a minute. Why was he concerned? This was simply his junior offering Kazuya a taste of some food. Thinking about this any longer would mean he wanted something from Sawamura. But that couldn’t be true. Nope. Nuh-uh. That’s something someone with a crush on Sawamura would think.

Kazuya leaned forward and took a bite out of the taiyaki. He straightened back up as he chewed. “Mmm, it is good,” he said in between bites. He turned to his side to see Sawamura was no longer there. Confused, he craned his neck behind him to find Sawamura frozen in place, shock and a light blush dusting his cheeks. “What’s wrong?” Kazuya asked when he returned to Sawamura’s side.

Sawamura’s eyes wouldn’t meet Kazuya’s. “I…I thought you were going to hold it yourself,” Sawamura answered, his hands slowly returning to his chest.

It occurred to Kazuya that he basically let Sawamura feed him like a real couple and what they did was quite embarrassing and intimate. “…Oh,” was all Kazuya could lamely say as the heat crept onto his face. He rubbed at the back of his neck, his eyes suddenly very interested in whatever he could see through the building’s windows.

“Did something happen?”

“Are they fighting?”

Whispers from other students reached Kazuya’s ears. He realized they were drawing in an audience and needed to keep moving. He cleared his throat before speaking. “You said you wanted to visit Kominato’s classroom?”

“Y-yeah. It’s this way.” Sawamura pointed down the hall and they resumed walking in that direction.

Though the noise and energy of the students around them continued, the silence between them grew thick. Kazuya wasn’t quite sure how to approach the situation. Should he brush it off like it was nothing, or completely forget about it all together? And again, why was he so concerned?

Kazuya suddenly felt something nudge his arm, bringing him back to reality. He looked at his elbow, but figured he must’ve been imagining things when he saw nothing wrong. A second nudge prompted him to look again, and he realized they were coming from Sawamura.

Sawamura didn’t say anything, only gave Kazuya a look. Being battery mates for so long, Kazuya became accustomed to reading Sawamura’s non-verbal communication.

I’m sorry.

Kazuya raised an eyebrow. What for?

I kind of…made it weird. Sawamura diverted his eyes, letting his shoulders droop and his head downcast.

Kazuya hated to see Sawamura like that and gave him an ever so gentle nudge back. Don’t worry about it.

Sawamura peeked at Kazuya through the side of his eye. Really?

Kazuya shrugged. Wouldn’t be the first time you did something weird.

Sawamura’s cheeks flushed red as he shoved Kazuya. He didn’t put much force into it, but it was enough to make Kazuya fumble a little with his steps.

Kazuya chuckled at Sawamura’s antics, knowing that Sawamura wasn’t as hurt as he seemed. Eventually, Kazuya could hear Sawamura quietly laughing along with him. He smiled at Sawamura and gave him another nudge. Yeah, really. It’s okay.

Sawamura reciprocated the gesture with a soft smile of his own. But instead of a nudge, Sawamura left his arm to rest against Kazuya’s. Kazuya was surprised by the intimacy, but welcomed it all the same. He kind of…liked it.

They continued to walk shoulder-to-shoulder until they heard…

“Miyuki-senpai! Sawamura-kun! Over here!”

Kazuya and Sawamura turn their heads to see Toujou standing by a classroom, one hand holding up a large sign while the other beckoned for them to come over. Kariba was standing beside him, waving as well. Sawamura dashed ahead to meet with his friends, leaving Kazuya behind to catch up.

Kazuya didn’t want to admit it, but he was a little hurt by the lack of hesitation from Sawamura. He also didn’t want to admit how he almost reached out to stop Sawamura from leaving his side, how surprised he was with himself when he realized what he was about to do. Kazuya actively ignored how he missed the warmth of Sawamura’s arm against his own, and how Sawamura’s bright and cheery smile directed at other people made his chest feel funny.

Acknowledging all these things would mean acknowledging Sawamura had an affect on him. Coming to terms with that was hard, and a little bit scary. Worst of all, it would mean Kuramochi could be right and that Kazuya might actually have a…no. No, no, no. It’s not a crush. Infatuation maybe, but definitely not a crush.

“Senpai! Hurry up!” Sawamura shouted.

Kazuya shook his thoughts away and made his way over to Sawamura.

“Miyuki-senpai, let’s take a picture!” Sawamura said.

“Picture?” Kazuya questioned.

“Our class is running a photo studio for the cultural festival,” Kariba explained. “We have a bunch of props and costumes you can use to take pictures with your friends.”

“You can trust Kominato, he’s really good with the camera,” Toujou added.

“So let’s go!” Sawamura said.

“Yeah…I think I’m good,” Kazuya responded. He had enough pictures taken for one day.

“Aw, please?” Sawamura begged.

Kazuya wanted to resist, but found it incredibly difficult to do so. Since when was he so weak to Sawamura? Probably when he started thinking Sawamura was cute…but when did that happen? “All right, but just one picture.”

Sawamura’s whole face lit up with excitement and Kazuya hated how adorable he thought it was.

“Right this way,” Toujou said as he gestured to the doorway.

Kazuya and Sawamura walked into the classroom and were surprised to see how elaborate the makeshift photo studio looked. There was a hair and makeup stations, racks of costumes, boxes of props, and a blue backdrop in front of Haruichi. A group of guys were making silly poses as the camera flashed before them.

“Whoa, this almost looks like the real thing,” Sawamura commented in awe. Kazuya had to admit, it did look quite professional.

“Hello there!” One student said as they approached the duo.

“Hello,” Kazuya replied. “How much are the photos?”

“You can get 1 photo for 200 yen, 500 yen for 3, or 600 yen for 6.”

“Could we just get 1 picture, please?”

“Certainly. Would you like to try on some costumes?”

“Oh, no. That won’t be necessary,” Kazuya replied.

“What are you talking about, Miyuki Kazuya?” Sawamura exclaimed. “Of course we have to put on a costume!”

“We can just take a normal photo.”

“We can NOT ‘just take a normal photo’. Where’s the fun in that?” Sawamura linked his arm around Kazuya’s and began to drag him towards the racks of clothes. “Come on, we’re going to find really cool ones!”

“H-hey, I don’t…” Kazuya tried to protest, but to no avail. Sawamura was already sifting through the costumes, trying to find the ones he liked the best. Kazuya sighed and began to look at the costumes as well, but was doubtful of finding something he would agree to. A butler’s suit? No, he already felt like a butler all weekend. A vampire? Yeah, no. He wasn’t too keen about wearing a cape.

Kazuya went through an entire rack of costumes, each one worse than the one before. He made a silent prayer that Sawamura wouldn’t make him wear any of these. He looked to his side expecting Sawamura to be there only to find that Sawamura had stopped moving in the middle of his rack.

Kazuya approached Sawamura and saw Sawamura’s eye sparkling at one particular costume. Kazuya took one look at the costume and knew exactly why Sawamura was so enamored by it. You could only see the back, but Kazuya could tell it was a Yomiuri Giants baseball jersey. A big number 14 was centrally located on the jersey, but the most important detail was the word ‘SAWAMURA’ written in capital letters above the number.

“It’s like it was made for me,” Sawamura whispered, his eyes wide in amazement.

“It’s the jersey for Sawamura Eiji,” Kazuya explained. “He was the pitcher. The ace even.”

“Really?!” Sawamura’s head whipped over to Kazuya so fast, Kazuya thought Sawamura might’ve hurt himself.

“Yeah really. He was so good as a player, he retired the number 14.”

Sawamura’s jaw dropped in bewilderment and turned to look at the jersey again. “I have to wear it.”

“I mean, do you have to?” Kazuya asked.

“Yes!” Sawamura quickly replied. “And look! There’s another jersey here. So we can match!”

Kazuya looked at the jersey Sawamura was pointing to and saw another Yomiuri Giants jersey. This one had the number 10 and ‘ABE’ written on the back.

“You told me Abe Shinnosuke-san is a catcher, right?” Sawamura asked.

Kazuya nodded in reply.

“Isn’t he the captain as well?”

Kazuya nodded again.

“See? It’s perfect then! An amazing pitcher and catcher, just like us!” Sawamura exclaimed. His enthusiasm and excitement were so blinding that Kazuya forgot how to say no.

The two boys donned the jerseys and found the matching baseball caps in a prop box to finish their ensemble. They walked in front of the blue screen and turned to face the camera.

“Hello Miyuki-senpai, Eijun-kun,” Haruichi said.

“Hey Harucchi!” Sawamura replied.

“I see you’ve found the baseball jerseys,” Haruchi said, gesturing to their outfits.

“Yeah! Where did you find these?” Sawamura asked.

“I brought them from home,” Haruichi answered. “My dad is a big fan and so I asked if I could borrow them. I figured there would be some baseball fans who’d want to wear them.”

“Nice going, Harucchi!” Sawamura complimented, giving his friend a big thumbs up.

Haruichi chuckled. “You’re welcome Eijun-kun. So, how many pictures would you like?”

“Just one is fine,” Kazuya said.

Haruichi nodded. “Just let me know whenever you’re ready.”

Sawamura quickly threw his arm around Kazuya’s waist. “Ready!”

Kazuya wasn’t sure he should do, but eventually let his arm settle around Sawamura’s shoulder. “Ready.”

“Okay, I’m going to take the picture on the count of 3,” Haruichi said as he positioned himself.

“Hey, Sawamura?” Kazuya whispered.

“1…”

“Yeah?” Sawamura whispered back.

“2…”

“Thanks for taking me out. I had a great time,” Kazuya replied.

“3!”

Click!

Haruichi caught the picture as it came out the front of the camera. “All done,” he announced.

“Huh?” Sawamura said confusedly.

“This camera is a polaroid. That means the picture develops right after you take it,” Haruichi explained. “So, who wants to keep the photo?”

“Sawamura can have it,” Kazuya answered as he took off the costume. He gave it to the student waiting on the side.

“Really? Are you sure?” Sawamura questioned as he began to take off his outfit as well.

“Yeah, you’re the one who wanted to do this, right? So you should keep it.”

Sawamura smiled brightly. “Thank you, Miyuki-senpai.”

Kazuya smiled back. “Don’t mention it,” he replied as he walked to the front of the classroom to pay for their photo.

…

“Here you are, Eijun-kun,” Haruichi said as he handed the photograph to Eijun.

“Thanks, Harucchi.” Eijun looked down at the photo and was surprised with the results.

Haruichi had zoomed in so only their upper body was showing. Miyuki’s playful charm was captured in the picture, with his all too knowing smirk and his angled baseball cap. Eijun on the other hand, wasn’t even looking at the camera. He had a gentle smile while staring at Miyuki.

Eijun realized the camera shutter must’ve went off when Miyuki was whispering to him. He never expected Miyuki to thank him, or even say something so nice. But Eijun was glad he heard it.

“Now I have a good luck charm too,” Eijun whispered as he smiled at the photo.

“What was that?” Haruichi asked.

“Nothing, it was just something I heard Miyuki-senpai say before,” Eijun replied as he slipped the picture into his pocket.

“Sawamura, hurry up or I’ll leave you behind,” Miyuki called out as he exited the classroom.

“Coming,” Eijun called back. “Thanks again, Harucchi,” he said before lightly jogging after Miyuki.

“What took you so long?” Miyuki inquired once Eijun caught up to him.

“Just admiring the good job Harucchi did,” Eijun explained.

“Is it really that good?” Miyuki asked. “Let me see it.”

“No,” Eijun rejected.

“What? Why not?”

“If you wanted to see it, maybe you should’ve said you’d keep it,” Eijun cheekily responded.

Miyuki looked appalled, but it quickly changed to a playful smile. “You little brat,” he said as he locked an arm around Eijun’s neck and began to ruffle up Eijun’s hair.

“Hey, cut it out,” Eijun said through laughs, trying to get out of Miyuki’s hold.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Miyuki said.

“What if you make me lose all my brain cells and then I can’t pitch?”

“Do you even have any up here?”

“Hey!” Eijun shouted.

Miyuki laughed. “If that happens, I’ll take responsibility.”

“Then you have to promise to catch for me every single day until I die!” Eijun negotiated.

Miyuki’s grip on Eijun loosened as Miyuki started to laugh again. “Aren’t I already doing that?” Miyuki continued to laugh, seeming to have forgotten all about the photo.

Eijun stopped trying to escape Miyuki’s arm and smiled at Miyuki instead. He liked it a lot when Miyuki genuinely smiled; it was a rare and beautiful sight. It made his face feel warm and his heart beat fast, but he made a mental note to not say anything until Miyuki’s feelings were the same as his.

Hurry up and say you like me too.

#Misawa #miyusawa #daiya no ace #ace of diamond #dna #fluff #mutual pining ish #thank you thomas!#this was fun to write #but I'm kinda stressed cause school is super busy #ps they aren't in halloween costumes but they are baseball nerds so this is more appropriate #don't mind me #My writing

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nekumiko · 6 years ago

Text

Colors

Fandom: Daiya no Ace

Genre: Romance

Rated: T

Words: 2,051

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Summary: She’s fascinated with his hair. Just his hair. But Ryousuke finds it invasive, and of course he won’t let her off that easily.

Chapter Four: Trigger

"Copy?" Aya flops down on her bed, brown hair splayed all over her pillows. "What does he even mean by that?" She holds up her sketchbook, flipped open to her drawing of Haruichi. Then, even if it had been a month since she actually talked to him, she remembers how Haruichi talked about his brother.

Haruichi had enrolled in Seidou – had started playing baseball, even – because of his older brother. And with him playing second baseman today, it's easy to deduce that Haruichi likes to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

And based on experience, the older Kominato doesn't like that.

"Oh no!" She suddenly sits up. "What if, right at this moment, poor little Haruichi is out doing errands for his seniors and he accidentally bumps into his brother who would bully him?"

Or maybe not.

Maybe Kominato only doesn't like being followed by her. Maybe he just doesn't like her.

"Well, it's just one more year. That's nothing compared to the rest of his life without me." Aya falls back on her pillows, then turns to her side to hug the nearest one. "He should even consider himself lucky." She hides her face under the pillow and closes her eyes. "He won't be the one returning to a life of stagnant gray."

The next day, Aya spies the principal and vice-principal heading towards the field to presumably watch morning practice. It's one thing to be caught by the Coach sometimes, and another to let the misunderstanding of her constant presence there extend to the school officials. No way would she let that happen.

But then she doesn't watch the after-school practice, nor drop by for the next two practice days. And despite her excitement, she doesn't even attend the Kanto game anymore.

Firstly, it's a school day. Secondly, Seidou would play against Yokohama, where most of her old classmates back in Kanagawa are now studying. She wouldn't want to hear again the lines, "As expected of Makoto-san! If she's not holed up in a corner with a sketchbook, you'd find her in the bleachers of a baseball game!" and "What's that? You're drawing baseball players now? You've just combined your eccentricities!"

And, okay, maybe she's still a bit bitter.

What is she even trying to prove? That she can survive without a muse? She certainly did before, so it shouldn't be any different now. And didn't she once wish to stop depending on the senior so much for her to be productive? But here she is, in the middle of a creative stump. The world has become a boring gray, hence it started reflecting on her daily works - if it's not black-ink-abused, it would simply be colorless.

Friday rolls around and she's kicked out of the club room, only allowed to return once she picks herself back up. In the one year she's been with the Art Club, she knows it's just out of disguised concern and trust, so she harbors no hurt feelings. But it leaves her no choice but to set out for the field.

Nope. She also has the choice to procrastinate for one day more.

On her way home, she shoots Miyuki a message to ask if there's a game tomorrow, to which he answers hours later with an affirmative.

(Yet it was an unusually clipped reply. Aya is highly suspicious that he's pissed – not at her, though, for there are telltale signs if it is so – but unless she wants to be put into a grayer mood – for an upset Kazuya would, in turn, upset her too – she chalks it up to him just being exhausted.)

And what luck. To narrow the participating players in Summer Nationals down to twenty, double-header games have begun. In one day, two schools would be invited over for practice games against Seidou's first-string and second-string at the same time on different fields.

It hadn’t been a problem last year. With Miyuki and Kuramochi getting into first-string, she got to support them while she watched the pink-haired senior.

This year, though, Haruichi has been confirmed to be promoted to second-string.

Damn Kominato Ryousuke.

If she chooses the first-string game, it'd be like betraying a new friend. And if she chooses the second-string game, he would believe what she said last time about preferring Haruichi over him and—

WHAT.

Why does she even care what the third-year would think? Why does she even think that he would so much as spare a thought of her?

As she mulled things over, Aya's feet leads her to Field A well after two innings. She barely finishes squeezing her way towards the front of the crowd when Furuya steps off the mound, as urged by Miyuki – the evil being who 'forgot' to inform her that today's a double-header.

Not long after, Tanba runs out of the dugout, claims the mound, and immediately throws a curveball that leads to a strike.

"Hey, hey! I'm getting bored out here!" Jun-san complains lightheartedly when his friend throws another strike.

"You seem to be in a real good position," Kuramochi adds.

But all these had happened only in Aya's peripheral, for her eyes had already instinctively searched for him and locked there.

"You're finally acting like the ace," Kominato Ryousuke says with his signature smirk. "A little late, though."

Despite being in the gray moment of indecision, she still ended up choosing the older brother. "This is crazy," she mutters to herself.

What's even crazier is that two weeks later, she's still banned from the Art Club.

What is going on with her? Is it because she only drops by during games now? Does she really need to see him every day? Or has she ultimately jinxed everything and the world of colors had finally failed her, as what everyone back home expects?

On times like these, she reverts back to drawing pictures of the past – of her elegantly boring life back in Kanagawa. Today, she draws a portrait of herself in a kimono, in her personal favorite color – gray. The color that describes her family's status, and the future she is being forced into. But it's also the color of her safe space. It's true that she had fought to get her parents to arrive at a compromise, yet a gray life is what she could always fall back to if this all turns out to be a wrong decision, a mere whim.

"Won't you be ruining your eyesight, drawing in a place like this?"

Aya stops. Slowly, she straightens up and looks to her left.

The twilight shining in through the stair windows is still bright enough for her to actually see what she's doing, even to see the gray dust motes floating in the air. And right now, floating in between her and Kominato Ryousuke.

"Just where did you come from?" The moment she asks that, she realizes she had dropped polite speech. She opens her mouth to apologize.

But he simply answers, "I forgot something in the classroom."

Right, the Art Club is way up in the third floor of the school building, where the third-year classrooms are. It is close to the set of stairs that not a lot of people go through at this time of day, so Aya had been settling there in hopes of the members taking pity on her when they see her.

What a successful plan that is, so far.

"I see." She nods slowly, then hesitantly turns back to the sketchbook in her lap, not quite knowing if she should continue drawing.

Maybe Kominato let her rude question slide, but maybe he won't appreciate being blatantly brushed off when he for once approached her with nothing but curiosity. Especially when he doesn't move at all from his seat on the steps, with only Aya's box of colored pencils finally serving a purpose – a barrier between them. "So this is where you usually are these days," he finally speaks again.

"Actually, I would've been in the club room, but since I'm temporarily not allowed in there for producing very uninspired works..." she trails off with a sigh.

"How so? You were even watching the second-stringers' game today. Haruichi had played."

"But you didn't."

The senior goes silent.

This is the part where Kominato would call her out for being creepy again, and Aya is ready for it.

But today he just... continues to say nothing in response.

Confused, Aya turns to look at him again.

The dimming light from the stair windows doesn't do much, though, especially when his face is turned away from her. But he is obviously biting his lip.

"Kominato-san? Are you okay?"

He breathes deeply. "You're really… something else."

That statement is still grounds for an argument to start, but there's just something about his tone that says otherwise. That suddenly makes her heart flutter. That slowly triggers colors to seep back in. It's so startling, that the only thing she could do was to look back down at her sketchbook.

Kominato finally clears his throat. "May I... see the drawings you usually do?"

"Huh?" Surprised yet again, she snaps her head towards him. What is going on? Why is he suddenly interested, when all this time he had hated the idea of her drawing him? And did he of all people stutter?

The guy is apparently not looking at her, but at her in the current page of her sketchbook.

Of all the things she has to draw today, it’d have to be of her fitting a kimono. Not-so-discreetly covering it with her arms, she decides the best way to take his attention off it is to comply with him. And he is asking nicely. "Sure, why not?" But she pauses at the first drawing she reveals. "Oh. Do you mean you want to see the drawings I have of... of you?"

Kominato nods. "I want to confirm something."

Again, what exactly is happening here? Is she in some kind of dream?

He looks up at her. "Well?"

This has got to be the craziest thing to happen to her this week. "Okay," she says, dragging the last syllable out of reluctance, but then continues to turn the pages.

Now, it's one thing to have a muse who doesn't exactly get flattered for being one. And another to have said muse looking at your unsolicited drawings of them.

But she isn't cringing, for all her brain registers right now is that the boy had scooted closer to practically hover over her shoulder and she could feel his warmth and he smells so nice and –

"Are requests open right now?" He's suddenly putting the distance between them back up.

"What?" Her eyes widen at all her thoughts during the ordeal, the sudden loneliness she felt when it ended, and the weirdest thing that's ever come out of his mouth.

"Requests. You take requests from people and draw, don't you? Commissions, you call them?"

"You... you want me to commission you a drawing."

Kominato suddenly faces forward, at the big windows. "Yes. But please draw my eyes properly."

It takes everything in her not to laugh out loud. She bites her lip. "I'm sorry, Kominato-san, but that's pretty hard to do. I don't exactly know what your eyes look like."

"Is that so?"

"Mmm-hmm, so - what are you doing?"

"How about now?"

She's now backed up against the wall, a clear view of Kominato Ryousuke's black irises right in front of her. Relying on her photographic memory, she closes her eyes after a few seconds. "1200 yen. That's an inked close-up portrait of you, in full color."

"That's fair."

"I think so too." But when she opens her eyes, he's still there. "Senpai," she now whines, sliding the sketchbook in between the small distance between their faces, "is this actually a trap?” And with a sudden burst of courage, she jokes, “I didn’t know you feel that way."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Finally, he draws back from her. Even better, he stands up. "Okay. I'll see you around."

She peeks at him from one corner of the sketchbook. "Please expect your order in a week or so."

Kominato nods noncommittally, already bounding down the stairs.

As Aya tries to process everything that just happened, she first notices that the world of gray is gone.

Previous: New (art) interest, he seems

Next: Truce

#kominato ryousuke x oc #ryousuke x oc #kominato ryousuke #diamond no ace #daiya no ace #ace of diamond #ace of diamond fanfiction #diamond no ace fanfiction #nekumiko

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musicprincess655 · 7 years ago

Link

FIC IS COMPLETE

“Rei-chan, I promise I’m fine,” Miyuki pleaded, giving Rei the best puppy dog eyes he knew how to do. Which was pretty good, considering he could shift into a canine species.

“Sawamura?” Rei asked.

“Kaji-sensei says three more weeks,” Sawamura replied without looking up from tying his shoe. Miyuki glared at him.

“Traitor,” he muttered.

“Sounds like you’ll be riding the bench with me for three more weeks, Miyuki-kun,” Rei said sweetly. “I could use help taking notes.”

“Rei-chan please,” Miyuki tried again, turning up every bit of charm he knew how to use. “It’s my last year, I don’t want to start it sitting out.”

“I’d have a lot more sympathy for your cause if you hadn’t lied and hid this from everyone,” Rei said. “But since you decided to be a complete idiot instead, I feel absolutely no regret in benching you.”

“Am I ever going to live that down? I apologized.”

“And the apology is the reason you’re allowed on the bench and not banned from practice entirely,” Rei said. Luckily, Miyuki had known her long enough to know when the subject was closed, but she didn’t think that meant she was exempt from the complaints.

“Takashima-sensei?” Rei turned to see Nagao, Inamoto, and Hidokoro looking at her expectantly. “We finished that work you gave us.”

“The reading for your lesson tonight is the next chapter,” Rei said. “Take notes. This one’s important.”

“See you after practice, Sensei.” They waved, disappearing back into the school. Sometimes, they stayed to watch practice, but with the school year ramping up, they’d started devoting more time to their studies. Rei wondered if it was out of habit or something else.

The trio from Sakurazawa had become permanent fixtures in Seidou. Once the dust had settled from the death curse, it hadn’t been quite clear what to do with them, although there was a vocal faction calling for them to be sent to prison just like the rest of the members of Maimon. It wasn’t a faction that had a lot of support, considering how enthusiastic the trio had been in giving names and information on the group.

Still, even Rei had to acknowledge that they couldn’t just release the three into the world, although her reasons were very different from others. Letting them go without any support just kept the reasons they’d fallen in with Maimon alive.

What had really turned the tides in the trial of the trio was the support of the coven battle teams, which had earned everyone’s respect for how well they’d defended the city from the death curse. Especially important had been the members who’d lost cities and people to the death curse. Kuramochi’s testimony in particular had stood out.

((“Throwing them in prison won’t solve anything,” he said. “That just gives more of a reason for more kids like them to fall into the same situation. They didn’t plan this curse, and they wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t think they had another option. Punish the people who planned this, but don’t punish them.”))

In the end, the more sympathetic groups had won out. The trio was on a kind of house arrest in Seidou, boarded up in a larger room that could hold the three of them. Rei was tasked with organizing a guard for them and keeping them in line.

Basically, they were Rei’s problem now, and it was a better outcome than she’d been hoping for.

She was taking the opportunity to catch them up on everything she thought they needed to know about magic. Their knowledge was spotty at best, which was to be expected considering how long they’d been out of school. However, all three were bright students, and they learned fast. Rei was already trying to figure out how to sell the idea of admitting them as students in Seidou next year or the year after to the board. It would be an uphill battle, but she thought she’d gained a lot of support this year because of how she’d handled the death curse.

She took stock of the team on the field. Most people had healed enough that it was no problem to let them practice, although Tesshin had been taking practice slower than usual this year. Still, despite some calls to cancel the yearly match between Inashiro and Seidou, all four teams had vehemently protested, so Tesshin needed to step it up if he wanted to win.

Sawamura had healed beautifully from his concussion, and in the months he’d had to practice without Miyuki, his control had improved. Rei privately thought it was good that they had no choice but to develop individually from each other, no matter how incredible they were together.

Furuya’s shoulder had healed, and during his physical therapy, he’d actually developed stamina and control. He was stronger than ever, and Rei couldn’t wait to watch him and Sawamura compete for the main ace position. They would drive each other to new heights.

Kanemaru had also healed from his concussion, and he was coming out swinging, determined to make starter this year.

Rei was thrilled with how the team was starting to shape up, slow start aside. It was only the end of April, and this summer would be one to remember, she was sure of it.

“Haven’t they started yet?” Rei turned to see Kominato Ryousuke clumping along on his crutches. “They’re slacking off.”

Ryousuke wasn’t quite as healed as everyone else on the team. His leg had been truly destroyed, and he wasn’t even out of the cast yet. He had a long road to recovery ahead of him, but Rei had high hopes for him yet. He was technically only a sophomore, he had a long time left here. In the meantime, Rei wanted to see how the teamwork between Kuramochi and Haruichi developed.

“They’ll get started soon,” Rei promised him. “Do you want to sit in the dugout with me?”

“And listen to Miyuki complain about being benched again?” Ryousuke asked. “Pass. I’ll go hang out on the bleachers.”

He clumped back off, and Tesshin stood up, ready to start practice.

“So when are we signing adoption papers for Nagao, Inamoto, and Hidokoro?” he asked before he headed out.

“I wasn’t aware we were adopting them,” Rei replied.

“We kind of already have,” Tesshin said. “They come over every week for dinner.”

“Because I feel bad that they’re cooped up here at school,” Rei said.

“You’re personally tutoring them.”

“They deserve an education just as much as everyone else.”

“You’ve started planning how you’re going to get the board to admit them next year.”

“You saw that?”

“You left it out.”

“Fine,” Rei sighed. “We can talk about this later. And ask them later. Right now you have to run practice.”

“Alright team!” he called, drawing everyone’s attention. “Laps, and I want to hear you across the field.”

There were some groans, but everyone took off running. Rei watched as they lapped around, steady footfalls warm and familiar. They’d lost a lot this year, but they’d kept enough to rebuild, and rebuilding they were. Nothing was the same, but that was okay. Things never stayed the same year to year on this team.

It didn’t mean they didn’t still have some things from last year. There was still Sawamura, happily shouting louder than everyone else. They still had Kawakami, with his steady hand. They still had Furuya, who was more like a quiet storm than anything else. There was still Kuramochi, and Haruichi, and other pillars they’d depending on last year.

And there was Miyuki, who would be captain when he managed to get off the bench. Rei was stupidly proud of him, and she’d tell him that when she was done being furious at him for pulling that ridiculous stunt.

Nothing was the same. But they moved on anyway.

The future looked bright.

#miyusawa #misawa #katarei #daiya no a #ace of diamond #dna #my writing #magic au #dyfam

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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Bookshelf Briefs 5/4/21

Days on Fes, Vol. 1 | By Kanato Oka | Yen Press A manga about the joys of music festivals is something we’ve seen before, but usually it’s from the perspective of the band playing onstage. This new title is devoted to the happiness found in being a concertgoer at these festivals, told from the perspective of two high school girls—one a festival veteran, the other a newbie—and the veteran’s older brother, who runs a cafe, and his friend/employee, who is… Eeyore, frankly. Aside from the fun festival stuff, including an impromptu fashion show the girls give us, I was left wondering if this is a BL or yuri manga—the two guys, especially, given off a very couple vibe without actually being one. I’ll definitely be reading the next volume. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 43 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – I originally thought I wanted to see Haikyu!! end with Karasuno triumphing at the National Tournament. Furudate-sensei doesn’t go that route, though, and this volume in particular proves why that was absolutely the right choice. After two years in Brazil honing his skills playing beach volleyball, Hinata returns to Japan and joins a pro team (alongside some familiar faces) in the top tier of Japan’s volleyball league. This volume finds him facing off against Kageyama (and some familiar faces) for the first time since middle school, with even more familiar faces among the spectators. We needed this final arc to see how good Hinata has become, how it’s become clear even to those who once doubted him that he is a very valuable player even without Kageyama by his side. The best part, though, is the obvious respect Kageyama has for Hinata. They’ve grown in so many ways. Sniff. – Michelle Smith

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 12 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – The majority of this book is about the summer break from school, and attempts of the group to go to the beach as a fun activity. The difficulty is that Najimi ends up not going, so the rest of the cast, who rely on Najimi to be so over-the-top extroverted that they drag everyone else with them, is feeling awkwardly quiet. But once we get there we get a lot of fun in the sun. That said, we may be setting up an important plot point ahead, as in order to get rid of some unwanted guys hitting on her, Tadano says that he’s Manbagi’s boyfriend… something that afterwards she does not entirely seem to be opposed to. Are we headed for a love triangle? Still one of my favorite school comedies running right now. – Sean Gaffney

Satoko and Nada, Vol. 4 | By Yupechika | Seven Seas – The final volume of this story is mostly happy and heartwarming, though it can also be quite realistic—when their time together is up, Satoko and Nada go on to have separate lives, though the epilogue does show them meeting up again years later. Still, the impact they had on each other’s lives is astounding. As for the manga itself, it’s still showing off the differences between not only Japan and Saudi Arabia, but also both nations and America. Both women end up living strong, fulfilling lives, and you will be very happy to have watched part of it. This is one of my favorite pickups of the last few years, and at only four volumes it also would make a great gift set. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 45 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – It feels like a dam has burst, reading this volume. The back half of the book contains some of the most amazing art in the entire series, with Kyoko literally running away from everything as fast as she can only to find Ren proving that he can run faster and confront her harder. That said, the front half of the book is also excellent—this series is now 45 volumes long, and has come a long way from a girl and her rage gremlins that surround her trying to get revenge, but it’s nice to know that whenever there’s a real problem, Ren can always turn to a giant chicken for advice. That said, she’s not a man, she’s a Kyoko Boo, so I’m on tenterhooks waiting for her response. Which, erm, is not scheduled by Viz yet, alas. – Sean Gaffney

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 14 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media Throughout this series we’ve been wondering exactly why the human world is relying on doofuses like Braver to try to save the princess from her presumably horrible fate. OK, let’s be fair—no, we haven’t. We’ve been watching Syalis be a combination of evil gremlin, naive doofus, and teenager growing up. But it comes to mind in this new volume as her mother the Queen, running away from home after an argument with her husband, stays over for a bit with Syalis. We’ve met the Queen before, but it’s no surprise to find that she and her daughter are quite similar… or that the King is likely to be far less accommodating. Also, there’s that pesky human/demon war. Can these problems be solved? – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 12 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – Well, so much for moving in together. After the last volume saw Zen and Shirayuki finally be able to be in the same building with each other, this new one sees Shirayuki being reassigned, meaning a long time away from Zen. Yes, Snow White with the Red Hair appears to be turning into a long-distance dedication. (Can we get fantasy Casey Kasem?) Oh yes, and the Queen, who apparently is allergic to being in the castle, has decided to abdicate in favor of the eldest son, which leads to a big ol’ ceremony and also the reintroduction of characters we thought might be gone, like Kiki’s wannabe fiancee. In any event, it appears we’re definitely headed for a new arc in the next book. – Sean Gaffney

What the Font?!: A Manga Guide to Western Typeface | By Kuniichi Ashiya | Seven Seas – While there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of manga with anthropomorphic characters, I can safely say that What the Font?! is the first I’ve come across featuring fonts personified, putting a literal face to typeface. Ostensibly, the story is about Marusu, a salesperson who has been put in charge of a proposal layout despite having no formal background in design or typography. But What the Font?! isn’t really about telling a story; it’s about providing Marusu (and by proxy the readers) a crash course in Western typefaces, their history, aesthetics, and uses. Most of the volume is presented as four-panel manga accompanied by informational tidbits. The humor isn’t always particularly funny or invigorating, but some of the jokes are quite memorable as Ashiya finds ways to successfully convey the characteristics of fonts through human personalities and behavior. What the Font?! is an accessible and frequently entertaining introduction to typography. – Ash Brown

By: Ash Brown

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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gastricpierrot · 7 years ago

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Title: When Stars Align

Series: Daiya no Ace

Pairing: KuraRyou

Rating: T

Summary: Nothing good ever comes out of an intimate relationship between a human and a youkai, Ryousuke knows. He’s heard more than enough stories on betrayal, on disasters, on families being shunned. And being an onmyouji, he knows better than anyone else.

And yet, he lets himself fall.

Warning: i probably undermined the confrontation scene a bit but i?? tried??? _(:D

Also on AO3

[Ch.1][Ch.2][Ch.3][Ch. 4]

[Ch.5]

It’s like plunging face first into a pool of hot water.

Ryousuke fights to breathe past the instant realization that she knows, she knows, she knows. Because even if she does if he can resist it won’t matter. He digs his fingernails into his palms, letting the sting keep him grounded. He can do this. There’s no other choice but to do this.

They kneel and bow before the minister present in place of the Emperor, going through some processes of formality before proceeding with their preparations. Ryousuke takes his position at the circle of onmyouji, resisting the earnest urge to punch himself in the chest to slow the beating of his heart and dislodge the lump in his throat. He mustn’t be this anxious, mustn’t let himself slip.

He keeps his gaze trained towards the floor as Tamamo no Mae is led to the centre of their circle, not wanting to risk any further contact with her because just being there is extremely risky as it is. He mentally blocks out the sound of her silky voice, the scent of her perfume, the weight of her currently suppressed aura that only he can perceive. It’s fine; confrontation isn’t the main purpose of this ceremony, even if it’s best if they’re able to somehow get rid of her in the process. Mostly everyone involved who’s from the Bureau are already certain that she’s the Nine-tailed Fox; the only thing they have to do now is to expose her true nature to the royal court that remains in denial. For now, all Ryousuke has to do is keep his calm and not mess up.

There’s a moment of tense silence once everyone’s ready, broken only by the knock of Abe no Yasunari’s tools to signify the beginning of the spell. Ryousuke clasps his hands together, pressing hard at where his fingertips meet as he recites the chant he’s long memorized but never found the need to use until then. He feels his stomach churn, and he takes a deep, careful breath. It’ll just take thirty minutes if it’s successful; he just has to pull through the next half hour.

“Boy.”

And there it is—the fox seeking her kind. Ryousuke decides to ignore her despite knowing he’s leaving his mind vulnerable; he can’t spare the focus to drive her out at the moment. She can dig up whatever fears or memories or even try waking it that’s already stirring to her presence, but Ryousuke can’t falter or else everyone else’s efforts will be for naught. He came all the way here fully prepared to be singled out; she won’t catch him off guard so easily.

“No need to be shy, I know you can hear me,” the fox continues, an icy undertone to her voice despite her friendly words. “Why don’t we have a quick chat? It’d be a moment before this whole thing is over and I’m getting rather bored.”

Ryousuke wills his thoughts to remain blank, only keeping the visualisation of the spell’s words clear. He senses her trying to interfere, trying to force him to acknowledge her.

“Ah, poor thing,” she speaks after a foreboding minute of silence, tone dripping with sympathy that sounded almost genuine, “Your parents left you as well, didn’t they? I understand, it was the same for me, too. I suppose it’s simply the fate of foxes born to humans to be abandoned—but worry not, I can assure you that the rest of our kind are much more accepting. So what do you say? Help me escape and I can make your life much easier. You won’t have to try so hard to hide your true nature anymore, and there’ll no longer be the need to work yourself to the bone every day. Oh, and you can bring your precious little brother along, if you wish!”

To tell the truth, Ryousuke stopped registering her words after she mentioned helping her escape. So she’s worried about the position she’s in despite her calm exterior—as she should because really, it’s her alone against a group of the best onmyouji in the country. Even if she’s to fight, she would no doubt sustain some degree of injury before she’d be able to make an escape. Just this purifying ritual would weaken her significantly if successful.

But honestly, does she really think she can sway him with those pathetic suggestions? Either the records are wrong, or she’s really underestimating him.

“Ryousuke, don’t you think it’s rude to ignore the person talking to you face to face?”

Ryousuke nearly bites his tongue. That cursed kitsune—using his mother’s voice like that. He feels her smugness in successfully finding the chink in his mental armour, feels her digging even deeper faster than he can consider how to react.

“I do wonder why you’re still willing to put up with everything up until now,” Tamamo no Mae speaks in the perfect imitation of Ryousuke’s mother. He’s sure that if he opens his eyes right then, he would see her sitting there before him in the flesh; her hair tucked behind her ear on one side, her smile almost a mirror of his own. The lady who gave birth to him, the lady whom his father took away along with Haruichi once after he almost harmed them due to his own incompetence. “Mother’s so, so sorry for what we did—you must be so tired after working so hard, dear. I promise we’ll make things return to how they were again, so why don’t you come with me?”

I don’t need you.

It’s a reflex thought, one he’s so deeply ingrained into himself that he doesn’t even realize his slip until it’s too late. Ryousuke inhales sharply, nearly missing a word and falling behind the incantation. He can’t decide who he wants to punch more; the wretched Fox, or himself for still being unconsciously hung up over something he’s so damned sure he’s gotten over long ago.

“Of course you do, silly. Every child needs their mother.”

And I need you to shut up and let me concentrate.

Might as well tell her to shove off now; Ryousuke figures he has nothing left to lose. He would’ve appreciated it if she could respect his wishes like a decent person, though, which she of course, insists on not being.

“You’ve always been like that, haven’t you? Putting on a strong front to hide how you really feel,” Tamamo no Mae coos sympathetically. Ryousuke could almost feel her hand caressing his cheek, touch devoid of any warmth. “Isn’t it exhausting to keep so many secrets at once? Don’t you think it’ll be much easier if you could just disappear?”

It’d be much easier for me if you’re the one who disappears, to be frank.

“I can show them too, you know.” The fox’s tone takes a sudden malicious change, seemingly growing steadily annoyed by Ryousuke’s retorts. She’s running out of time and she knows it. “You may be able to expose me with this ritual, but I can also show them what you really are, boy. Do you really want to be seen as a monster fit to be hunted down again?”

Ryousuke doesn’t answer to that, physically falling silent along with the others and leaving only Abe no Yasunari’s voice ring clear throughout the hall. Even with his eyes kept closed, he could perceive the harsh light coming from the centre of their circle. They’ve completed the first portion of the spell, that is inviting the gods to join them. The rest would be up to Abe no Yasunari; he’ll be the only one who can hear their voices and complete the ritual. The role of the other onmyouji now is to control and maintain the spiritual wavelength in the room so no one accidentally gets vaporized by the gods’ aura.

Ryousuke senses two—no, three divine entities present with them. His scalp tingles from the cluster of power radiating before him, but there’s also a certain calmness in the air that came with their arrival. The burn in Ryousuke’s gut slowly subsides, almost as if it’s intimidated back into submission.

He nearly breathes a sigh of relief. As much as he hates to admit, a tremor’s beginning to manifest in his hands from the strain of enduring so many sensations at once. He isn’t sure how much longer he would’ve been able to keep up his composure had the gods not indirectly given him that subtle boost.

“If you may, Tamamo no Mae-sama.”

The rustling of clothes follows Abe no Yasunari’s directive, as well as a blast of hostility so concentrated towards Ryousuke that it almost feels like he just got impaled through his temples.

“Traitor,” the fox hisses into his mind as if he ever saw her as kin in the first place, every word she says piercing into his consciousness like stakes. “You think you’re doing yourself any favours by going against me? You think you can suppress a fox’s power forever? You’re nothing but a fool.”

Ryousuke bites his lip; just a little more, just a little more. Just a little more until the moment of truth.

“And you think I’d let you off so easily after all I did to be nice? Mark my words, foolish onmyouji, that from now on you’ll—“

Her threat is cut off by a growl—her own when the spell reacts to her malevolence and, Ryousuke hopes, rebounds as some sort of damage on her being. Ryousuke simultaneously feels heat against his face, the gods vanish; and hears panic erupting from all around him. When he finally opens his eyes, Tamamo no Mae is no longer the beautiful young lady he saw earlier, in her place a fox as tall as an average adult human with golden fur and nine tails unfurling behind her back. Her teeth bared in a bloodthirsty snarl, her breathing slightly laboured.

Ryousuke isn’t spared from being awestruck by the Fox’s true form; time seems to in fact slow for a short moment after the revelation. The Nine-tailed Fox is almost on par with a god in her own right, and her regal appearance and aura only serves to bolster that. If she hadn’t been an enemy, Ryousuke couldn’t help thinking he might’ve one day come to admire her.

Then just as the moment passes and the onmyouji move to face her, she lets out a single ear-splitting yowl, and strikes out with her tails, catching everyone off guard with the sheer force of it. And in that few seconds of distraction, she lunges towards Ryousuke’s direction.

Ryousuke tenses for a second too long, his spell right at the point of release when she passes right through him and flees out the window behind him.

In that brief moment of contact, deep in the recesses of his mind, Ryousuke hears the sound of a nail being hammered down.

“Ryousuke!”

And the last thing he hears before the world goes black was the order to hunt down the Fox.

xXx

For a second, Youichi’s vision goes blank.

It’s the sensations that led up to it that worries him more, though. The thin thread of a link between Ryousuke’s mind and his own seemed to have strengthened dramatically at one point, so much so that it almost feels as if they’ve formed a literal emotional bond. Ryousuke’s stress and tension flooded to him full force without warning; pride was pretty much the only thing that kept Youichi from curling into a ball and do nothing but try to breathe until it’s all over.

And then there’s fear, annoyance, and something quite different that Youichi can’t pinpoint. It wasn’t as much of an emotion than it is a sort of…presence. It wasn’t the Fox, Youichi could tell that much due to the faintness of it. It was more like there’s something else inside Ryousuke’s mind, something right on the brink of waking from a deep slumber.

Youichi starts at the sudden realization. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s not impossible so what if...? It would explain his inhumanly powerful spiritual energy, to the very least. No pure-blooded human has ever been born with that sort of power for a long time; their bodies and souls have eventually became unable to produce that level of energy as the bond between humans and nature weakened over time. Youichi doesn’t know—and doesn’t think he’ll ever know, for that matter—how it came about, but Ryousuke must be, in some way, part youkai.

…Whoa.

Youichi has to sit back for a moment to let it sink in. Even though there’s never a short of conspiracy theories surrounding Ryousuke from the guys in the mountain, it’s still pretty wild. Youichi wonders if that’s partly the reason why he’s so unnerved about facing the kitsune. Maybe there’s something about her that gives her a sort of upper hand over him? He doesn’t know. It’s probably also not his place to know.

If anything, he should be concerned over Ryousuke’s current wellbeing rather than the truth of what he is. That sudden blackout was frankly bad news; it meant Ryousuke’s fallen unconscious for some reason. There are only so many possibilities since he’s supposed to be in the middle of work, and Youichi doesn’t like even one of them. Is he getting help from the other side? Can he… can he even still be helped?

“Ryou-san...?” Youichi reluctantly taps into the link that’s surprisingly still there. He half expects silence, half expects Ryousuke’s voice to pop up out of nowhere and casually toss him a snarky remark because he thinks he’s definitely capable of surprising him like that. “Ryou-san, hey, you there?”

Only this time it’s silence; an uneasy silence that does nothing but make Youichi’s unease worse as it stretches on by the second.

As much as Haruichi would want him to, as much as he himself genuinely thinks that maybe he should go check up on him or something, Youichi can’t leave. He can’t risk leaving the place defenceless because who knows what the heck happened in the Capital city? For all he knows, hordes of youkai might already be starting to run rampant across the country and he’d soon be so busy that he’d barely have the chance to catch his breath. Besides, Ryousuke entrusted the task of protecting his hometown to him; he’d definitely want him to prioritize that over his own safety. Youichi’s concern wouldn’t be appreciated where Ryousuke is.

He knows Ryousuke’s alive, at the very least. As long as he can still access their link, he’ll know that he’s alive. He repeats it to himself, clings on to it as his one reason to stay.

Yet it’s strange how less and less comfort that gradually brings him.

xXx

Haruichi knew something isn’t right when Ryousuke doesn’t return within the usual timespan.

The letter is painfully vague, disclosing nothing but the fact that the kitsune might’ve done something to his brother during her escape and that the Bureau is keeping him in the Capital for supervision a little longer. Haruichi could only imagine the worst. What if that’s just a pretence and they’re actually holding him there because the truth’s been revealed and they just haven’t decided what to do with him? What if facing the Fox had permanently damaged Ryousuke in some way or another? Haruichi watched his only family leave fearing the worst, and now that he’s staring right at it he feels a whole new sense of uselessness weigh down on his shoulders. Why can’t he ever do anything at times like this?

Haruichi takes a deep breath, balling his fists. This isn’t the time to wallow in self-hate. Think; there must be something even he’s capable of while he waits. If only he could figure out what’s going on in Ryousuke’s side now—he could perhaps prepare something that could be of help to him when he returns, something that perhaps he as one of the only few people who are fully aware of his circumstances can do.

There’s an old couple praying at Youichi’s shrine when Haruichi seeks him out. Not wanting to disturb them, he keeps himself out of sight and waits for them to leave, only emerging from his spot once their footsteps have faded into the distance. As he approaches, he offers a slight wave to Youichi, who, looks to have been expecting him.

“Good afternoon, Youichi-sama,” Haruichi greets, stopping a respectable distance from the tengu. Youichi nods, his efforts to keep the troubled look off his face not quite paying off because Haruichi could see his tension just fine. He’s heard from Eijun about Youichi’s link to Ryousuke. Haruichi really doesn’t fancy the idea of constantly bothering the local guardian with personal affairs, but since Youichi has practically gotten himself ankle-deep in said affairs anyway, he figures there’s little left for him to lose.

“Hey.” Youichi seems to hold his breath for a second before continuing. “I’ve got some news about Ryou-san that I think you should know.”

Straight to the point, huh. It’s funny, how the hundreds of worst case scenarios that occurred to him earlier have now simply blended into one blank thought. Haruichi swallows, and nods.

“I actually heard this from someone else but uh—“ Youichi moistens his lips and averts his gaze, searching the air for the right words— “I think he might’ve been cursed by the Nine-tailed Fox.”

“But he’s with the best onmyouji around; they should be able to do something, right?” Haruichi asks, mostly for his own sake because it’s that easy for a few words to send his mind reeling. If it’s something even they can’t do anything about then…then…

The hesitance doesn’t leave Youichi’s demeanour, his eyes refusing to meet his. “I’m…not too sure about that.”

Haruichi’s afraid to ask. And yet.

“What do you mean?”

A moment more of reluctance, then a resolute breath. And finally, Youichi looks at him.

“I don’t think they know about it.”

“Is that even possible?” They’re onmyouji; detecting and dispelling curses are supposed to be one of their specialities. It’s highly unlikely that they wouldn’t notice anything even if Ryousuke denies it (which, let’s face the fact—he probably would if he thinks it’s something he can deal with himself). Maybe Youichi’s misunderstanding something? Then again, nine-tailed foxes are borderline legendary creatures, so the odds aren’t completely improbable. If there's a type of youkai that can outsmart even the best onmyouji in the country, it'd be them.

Sometimes, Haruichi hates his own rationale.

“Curses aren’t exactly my thing, but that’s kinda what it feels like,” Youichi says, rubbing the back of his neck in thought. “His consciousness is pretty much back to normal as far as I can tell. As unreliable as it is, it’s just a bad feeling I’m still getting despite everything.”

“Then…then what’s there we could do?” Haruichi asks, the question directed more to himself than Youichi. If even full-fledged onmyouji are unable to take any action, what more can a self-learned fledgling and a youkai deity who specializes in combat do? Is there really nothing they can do apart from watching the curse take its effect and torment his brother until possibly the end of his days?

“I don’t know.” Youichi runs his fingers through his hair, exhaling in what seems to be exasperation. And for the first time since their conversation started, Haruichi notices the concern on the tengu’s face. Because despite what Youichi says and how he acts, Haruichi knows how he’s come to see Ryousuke as some sort of friend. He figures there should at least be a sort of special status granted to the ones you work with to protect something, after all.

And quite suddenly, Haruichi feels much less alone. He’s no longer the only one who has to fret himself restless over Ryousuke’s wellbeing. He hasn't been alone for a while now, much to his shameful realization. Some part of him has always been subconsciously blinded by the past, by the rejection Ryousuke unfairly faced all those years ago that left a huge impact on him at very impressionable age. It’s different now. There are more people who care now.

It’s at that moment that his long period of uncertainty comes to an abrupt end. He finally knows what he wants to do, even if it’d end with crushing expectations on his shoulders, even if he’s going to put his life at risk. Even if he’s going to have to train until he pukes blood like Ryousuke did because it’s the only way he can help directly, it’s always been the only way he knows that would make some sort of difference even if he’s been too cowardly to face it all this while.

“You have any ideas?”

Haruichi wonders if it’s really that obvious; all it took was one look at him from Youichi for him to ask. He allows himself just a second more of hesitance before nodding, resolute.

“If it ever comes to it, I’ll help him remove the curse.” He clenches his fists at his sides. “I’ll do whatever it takes to gain the skills to do that.”

And if Youichi thinks he’s being overambitious, he doesn’t show it. In fact, he seems impressed, to an extent. Pleased, even. If their situation hadn't been this solemn, Haruichi would've wondered with amusement how things have progressed to the point where he's become someone a local deity can feel proud of.

“Well, good luck with that, kid." Haruichi lurches a step forward when Youichi pats his back in encouragement. "You're definitely gonna need it."

xXx

Unlike a good majority of the onmyouji around him, Ryousuke’s decided to stop trying to figure out if the kitsune’s done anything to him.

It’s five days before he’s allowed to leave. Five. Days. He’ll find out sooner or later anyway, so he really doesn’t see the point in him keeping him quarantined for so long. He just wants to go home, is that really such a difficult request? Really, it’s not like he was dying on the spot or anything. He’s sure he’ll figure something out if it’s going to be a prolonged curse—which, is turning out to be a rather likely possibility given the lack of immediate signs at the moment. Though, that’d only be true if the Fox truly had managed to make her move in time before she was forced to flee. With all these uncertainties, it’s difficult to decide what’s exactly going on.

Of course, as though being singled out by the Fox and being the subject of scrutiny for days aren’t bad enough, Kazuya’s assigned to accompany him back “just to be safe, for Ryousuke-dono’s sake”. To say neither of them were too keen on the arrangement might be quite an understatement, though Ryousuke has to admit appreciating the extra hand when it becomes apparent what the Fox’s escape has triggered among the youkai along the way. It isn’t exactly easy to keep swarms of unusually malicious youkai at bay while still recovering from the miasma of the city, not even for Ryousuke.

But Kazuya doesn’t need to know that, of course. Ryousuke decides his ego’s huge enough as it is.

“Heh, it’s been a while.”

Ryousuke says nothing as Kazuya marvels at the sight of his hometown once they're there, his usually cocky expression softened to something marginally resembling fondness. He used to drop by often back in the day, mostly to torment Eijun periodically and have surprisingly solemn chats with Tetsu about stuff Ryousuke never took an interest in finding out. Ryousuke’s never really expected him to be the sentimental type, so he’s careful to keep this observation in his memory for future blackmailing purposes.

“You’re free to go back now, you know.”

“Wow, not even an offer to stay for a meal?” Kazuya feigns a look of severe hurt at him. Ryousuke merely shrugs, nonchalant.

“Unlike you, I’m quite the busy person. I suppose you wouldn’t want to be waiting for me to get all my things sorted out before you get to eat?”

“...Point taken,” Kazuya admits after a second of thought, familiar enough with Ryousuke’s workaholic tendencies to believe his half-lie. Though, it’s not like anything’s going to be different even if he doesn’t, really. “Well. Guess I’ll be on my way, then.”

He flicks his wrist in a backhanded wave before walking off, heading towards the direction of marketplace with more purpose than Ryousuke's ever seen him have while at work. Ryousuke goes the opposite direction, soon strolling through the familiar streets, past familiar buildings. And Ryousuke-sama’s back, whispers are exchanged among the tiny street youkai who spot him, word of his return slowly spreading like a wave across the area. Ryousuke’s back.

And as he enters his own home, Ryousuke wonders if Haruichi’s prepared enough food for his share as well this time.

#kuraryou #kominato ryousuke #kuramochi youichi #diamond no ace #daiya no ace #fanfiction #PHEW THATS ONE MORE CHAPtER DOWN #HONESTLY KUDOS TO YOU GUYS WHO PUT UP WITH MY EXTREMELY SLOW UPDATES ILYALL

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