#this idea of finding solace in each other despite their mildly fucked up mental states and it isn’t toxic or problematic

[hiorintruther]

A comprehensive not-PowerPoint presentation on why I ship hiorin even though they’ve only interacted twice… and that’s being liberal with the word “interact”

(For @zevacheiznekam coz they asked me to 😌)

Do bear in mind that Hiorin as a ship is quite largely based in headcanon. While shippers like myself use canon as a basis to scrape whatever details we can about Hiori and Rin, their (brief) interactions and their personalities, canon material is more of an anchor from which several generally accepted headcanons have sprouted which we all kinda sorta abide by, although different people might have slightly different interpretations. This is just my interpretation. Also, this did sort of start as a crackship for me but then I started actually thinking about it and, uh, I don’t think it’s a crackship anymore when I’ve written nearly 50k words of fanfic for it on my AO3…

For starters, I began shipping Hiorin based on one singular interaction. It also happens to be the only one of two times where they properly talk to each other at all. This interaction (below) comes from the U-20 match, right after Rin has been roundhouse kicked in the face by Shidou. It was a moment that surprised me because despite spending the match getting progressively more and more aggressive to everyone else, Rin here isn’t aggressive towards Hiori. He lets Hiori help him up and they even manage to engage in a very brief but mutual conversation.

Now sure, Hiori is just being nice here and Rin is probably a bit stunned. They haven’t interacted since this moment in the manga and likely won’t again in any real capacity. Still, it was this interaction that got me trying to imagine what it might look like if they could be closer — mostly in the context of Rin actually being able to make a proper friend. He does seem to have a certain level of tolerance for Hiori that he doesn’t for the rest of Blue Lock (which I’ll explain later), plus Hiori is probably the only one patient, kind AND calm enough to be capable of being Rin’s friend without Rin despising it. Other kind characters like Nanase and Bachira are in my opinion too bubbly and talkative in canon for Rin’s more broody personality (although I do love a good sunshine x storm-cloud ship don’t get me wrong). Meanwhile, Hiori is equally as kind but calmer. More quiet. He’s also not got a drive to try and defeat Rin or devour him, which I think Rin would appreciate given he hates people who do try to go against him like Isagi and Shidou.

The only other substantial interaction we have for hiorin comes from the Third Selection tryouts match in which they’re placed on the same team. I’ve already made a post about it so go to that here for the relevant screenshots from the manga. I will copy over the conclusions from the post though. From this match I inferred that:

Hiori can keep up with Rin like it’s a regular day (speaking to Hiori’s adaptability)

This, for Rin, translates to “Hiori is reliable”

Rin can trust Hiori to definitely get the ball to where it needs to be if they cooperate, even though they’ve never played together before (and they didn’t even discuss a plan beforehand but were able to immediately link up without issue — see again Hiori being adaptable)

Rin doesn’t look down on Hiori the way he does with Isagi or Shidou, probably because he doesn’t see Hiori as a threat or insulting

This concludes all of their interactions in the manga. From here, me and other shippers use these small conclusions from canon as well as canon-adjacent information from things like the Egoist Bible Character Book to build a hypothetical situation in which they ARE able to start talking to each other more often and build a bond. Most of the fics about this pairing that take place in the canon universe will deal with overcoming the hurdle of ‘getting them to actually interact’. For us shippers, after that hurdle has been cleared it’s rather smooth sailing to imagine a relationship forming for a lot of reasons.

To begin, the obvious thing to focus on is their similar backstories. More specifically, the emotional responses they have to their backstories and how it could be a source of understanding between them (spoilers for the manga up to chapter 206). The resentment Rin holds towards Sae is incredibly similar to the resentment Hiori holds towards his parents. Both have canonically been shown wanting to hurt/kill their family members due to how these family members treated them, as well as the feelings of false love associated with these family members being a big part of why Rin and Hiori want to hurt them. Rin feels betrayed by Sae because he thinks Sae pretended to love him and care about him in their childhood to further his own ambition only to throw it all away like it was meaningless, meanwhile Hiori feels that his parents don’t actually love him and only want him to be the best because they never could be. This similarity is something that us shippers tend to use as way for Hiori to be able to understand Rin in a way that other characters can’t, as well as a way for Rin to be able to actually articulate his emotions surrounding Sae to someone who is able to understand him to a certain degree and won’t think he’s being “too edgy” or “over-reacting”. We can count in Hiori to not be judgemental of Rin.

Beyond their families though, the two of them just have similar interests and personalities. Rin likes horror games (Egoist Bible) and Hiori is a gamer. They’re both quiet, more reserved and Hiori’s ideal type in a romantic partner is someone who will leave him alone a lot (Blue Lock wiki). They’re ‘no-nonsense’ people who prefer to be blunt and to the point. It might seem a bit superficial but considering they basically never interact, it’s rather a lot to go on.

Overall, the completely made up dynamic that has been created by us shippers after taking all of this information into account goes something like this:

Rin doesn’t find Hiori as annoying or threatening as the rest of Blue Lock because Hiori is adaptable, no-nonsense and doesn’t try to come for Rin’s position as number 1

Hiori has an understanding of Rin’s trauma because he himself experienced something incredibly similar

They get over the ‘start talking’ hurdle and begin to realise that they actually have similar interests and can hold a conversation for longer than 2 seconds

The relationship builds from there, with Hiori being the ‘exception’ in Rin’s life and Rin being a safety where Hiori can talk about his true feelings without having to filter himself or be kind

In terms of other headcanons, these are a couple that I’ve seen floating around:

Neither of them like PDA very much. You might see them holding hands if you’re lucky

They play co-op together a lot, especially co-op horror games

They don’t pry into each other’s business. If one of them wants to talk about something, they will

They have the type of relationship where they’ll sit in silence not talking to each other for 30 minutes, then one nudges the other a bit and suddenly they’re cuddling (only in private, obviously)

They have had many long, depressing trauma-dump sessions with each other

It isn’t a depressing relationship though, mostly because Hiori is a light in Rin’s life and Rin feels like he can be more ‘the old him’ around Hiori (see: Rin’s light novel)

They both like striped clothing (see: Rin’s casual design and Hiori’s onesie, coaster design and child design)

And with that, I have finally finished my overly long, overly indulgent explanation into why I and others ship hiorin. It’s 3am for me rn so I might have missed smth so if any other hiorin shippers out there in the aether wanna drop in with their perspectives and/or stuff I forgot to mention, feel free! As for @zevacheiznekam, I hope this answered your question and you didn’t get too bored half way through 😅

(Also, if you wanna see some hiorin artwork, uh, shameless plug)

Sources used:

Blue Lock manga

Egoist Bible

Blue Lock light novels (we’re actually getting a Hiori one later this year which will hopefully add some fuel to the hcs!)

Nomura’s art