#which is true kaname isn't dead

[meymeyzart]

Mourning

[sonitavalentine]

Will kaname ever find a true love , like a love love , not the complicated kind he always got , i really don't wish for him to waste his one chance at happiness searching for a dead woman's traces , its not like she has done any of that. She just yells at him for no apparent reason. I hope hino stop torturing kaname like this. Even though this story is supposed to be about kaname, yet we still don't get much of him or Know even a bit about him .

I think I said it some time ago that VKM would win if it was a wholesome story about Kaname's life. Like the whole plot would look so much better if it was focused on one timeline with flashback here and there when Kaname, for example, would be finding something special about his past and thus readers would know details of the pas thousand years as well. But with the way the story's built now... it's just a mess, I have to say.

As per him finding a real love, I agree with you - I don't want him to waste the chance he was given, but there's not much space for hope: VK and VKM is a shoujo manga where events are focused on main female character and the huge problem with the majority of such stories is that authors rarely allow main male characters have something outside love interest which is the main female character (projectio-o-on!). Like, the Vk could've ended chapters ago if Hino let Zero get rid of painful feelings for Yuuki and fall for someone else. Hell, VKM could've ended many chapters ago as well, if Hino just let the awoken Kaname live fully like a human being and love another girl. These choices are so much better than both guys focusing on Yuuki and Yuuki only, I mean what's the profit? The only outcome that the majority of readers get from such plot is that neither yume nor zeki were the true love because obviously Yuuki truly love both... I'm afraid true love isn't about that.

So, I'm sorry Anon, but I don't think Kaname will ever find a true love outside his interest for Yuuki. We have to stick to the genre. Not like I'm against Kaname&Yuuki as a couple now, no. If they're happy together in the end - good, amazing, fantastic. But Hino never makes any couple in VK that involves the main trio happy without showing that Yuuki was also craving for someone else, so... This indecisiveness in Hino is what distanced me a lot now from the manga that was once my most favourite.

[keikakudori]

what are aizen’s thoughts on love?

For his thoughts on love, Aizen's thoughts can best be described as complicated. That is, to put it lightly and to describe them in a single word. Of course, where Aizen is concerned, a single word is typically wholly inadequate.

In another vein, his thoughts on love could be that love is dangerous for him. If we're talking about strictly canon, then it's true that everyone that Aizen cares about becomes lost to him, be it through death or through his own actions. Of course, when speaking strictly canon, it's also true that one could cay that Aizen barely cares about anyone when that is not true in the least. We do see Aizen care about others, but how deep that caring actually goes or how genuine it is remains what you truly have to question when all's said and done. He doesn't care about very many people.

And when you look at the fact that the list of people he cares about isn't very long? It becomes even more tragic, honestly. The only people that he's depicted as being close to in canon are Kaname, Gin, and Shinji. That's it. That's all the people on the list, and obviously Aizen is far closer to Gin and Kaname than he is to Shinji.

So yes — Aizen's thoughts on love are that it's probably better if he doesn't love anyone. It's probably better if he doesn't let anyone love him, either. That way lies pain and a sensation of a near inevitable sort of loss. After all, if he doesn't let anyone close, then he won't hurt anyone else, even inadvertently. It's something that helps to compound the sense of loneliness and isolation that he experiences around most people.

Though he will not say so outright, Aizen did kill his own mother. It wasn't intentional. It wasn't something that he wanted. Yet he still did that. He learned it in the Academy when he and his then-classmates were learning about the necessity of controlling their reiatsu around others and training with the basic precepts of that ability. Aizen has always been a very intelligent individual, and he put the information together swiftly. He understood that her death had been his fault because of himself and his own power. It might've been that moment when he began to realize he'd not find someone else to share his views.

Yeah. Lovely, ain't it?

Outside of canon, the amount of people that Aizen cares about only has one or two other names on it; a few of the Espada, Celeste ( @fenixias ), Hiyori ( @viciousvizard ) and that really isn't much of an amount. Of course, given events in canon, the Espada that survive are left to understand he's betrayed and discarded them - such as Aizen's actions with Hallibel - and he has destroyed his relationship with Shinji and Hiyori with his Hollowification experiments.

Then there's the fact that Aizen kept the promise that Kaname asked of him and killed him as a result of that promise.

As for Gin? No. He never wanted Gin dead.

Aizen's first experience with romantic love remains his own experience of how to grow bitter and rotten thanks to how Shinji handled him and their relationship, if it could even be called a relationship. In a very specific way, he was treated almost like a mistress. He was hidden away from others. He was neglected. He was very literally kept a guilty secret with their relationship being kept under total lock and key by Shinji and his own way of treating his lieutenant, which was to say not very well. The nights were rare when Shinji would not immediately push Aizen out of bed after they'd been intimate or left on his own and they were left to sleep together until the morning light and Aizen cherished those nights deeply. But they were few and far between, happening rarely and therefore the resentment was left to build up slowly in Aizen.

He doesn't hate Shinji, not the way he used to but he does feel a certain resentment and bitterness towards him along with love. He does still love Shinji - and is still in love with him in a small way - but it's become something coarse and thorny. So it is that his first real experience with love became something twisted and, unfortunately, left a profound impact on him as a person. The impact is something that still echoes down the years and we see some of it in how Aizen treats Momo, with that seeming closeness but ultimate indifference. Shinji left Aizen damaged but not incapable of love or caring.

Kaname and Hiyori he loves as friends. It's simple. In a very real way, they're among the only friends he's ever had.

His mother he still loves with the simplicity of a child; Naoko's presence in his life is still very much there, even if he lost her when he was still barely more than a toddler. That love lingers and is unlikely to ever vanish. But the fact that he lost her during what is known as the formative years for a child also left a significant impact upon him as a person. It instilled a feeling of I'm too much; I'm suffocating; I'm too much to be around. I hurt people I care about. deep into him and his soul and that pain has been something which has shaped so much of how he views himself and his own power with resentment.

Mind you, this isn't conscious thought on his part. It's the kind of view that takes outside help to clarify or an external force to bring it into focus.

To add yet more complexity, Aizen's view of love is also that it's dangerous. This one is a more conscious line of thought, if not something that is active in his head. The knowledge of how love is dangerous ties into his emotions for and towards Gin. Aizen is aware - well aware in fact - that Gin has every ability and readiness to kill him. He's highly aware of that fact. He's also aware that if he were to ever confess his emotions towards him, that would provide the younger man with power untold over Aizen. In truth, Gin's rejection could be enough to shatter Aizen outright. Equally, Aizen does not try to show this emotion. He realized it long, long ago on a night when Gin told a stupid joke over one of their latest victims, a joke which had Aizen laughing, and then he realized. So he buried it almost immediately.

And while Aizen may not speak his feelings or even let it close to conscious thought? He does show it in his actions with Gin. He shows it in how he smiles at him indulgently when Gin's being chaotic. Sharing his food with the younger man is significant because they both come from the same sort of background in the Rukongai. He allows Gin to steal his yukata and his kiseru on a regular basis. He shows it in how he'll corner Gin in order to get medicine down his throat (and how many times he dragged him to the Fourth when Gin was really sick), accepting that he'll be fought the entire time. He shows it by sharing himself with Gin.

It is, in fact, love which spurns Aizen onwards in the canon divergent verses to display so much.

Aizen may still be in love with Hirako Shinji in a way, but that love is vastly eclipsed by what he feels for Gin. In the red!verse, this love he carries is enough to have Aizen ready to lay siege to Silbern practically on his own; the monster is there for what is his. In the f!verse, the love Aizen carries for Gin is what finally helps him to achieve Bankai for the first time in his life. In the zombie!verse, that love has become rage and Leviathan has shown itself at last to try and take Gin away from Gigi.

I know some people may not understand this kind of emotional extremism from Aizen, but he's been trapped in Muken for two years. That's two years of total isolation and sensory deprivation. He might be over-correcting, or even overcompensating. But it's equally true that Aizen does feel emotional extremes at times which is why I don't think the fact that his thoughts on love would be something that is easily clarified. He thinks it's messy. He thinks it can be ridiculous. He thinks that he's better than that foolishness. And yet he's very much a man who does feel love and is capable of loving others. He loves Gin so much that he'll break the world rather than lose him again.

tl;dr? Aizen's thoughts on love boil down to "shit's messy no thank you" whilst absolutely being in love and devoted to Gin.

[industria-adastra]

Romantic Horror Modern/No Vampires AU?

So the thing was that I wanted to challenge myself and incorporate the whole Kaname Kuran (Real) and Kaname Kuran (Ancestor) thing that was in VK alongside Kaname (Ancestor) telling Yuuki that he was basically the cause of her real brother's death in a modern/no vampires AU whilst also making it Yume. The idea isn't fully fleshed out yet but I have a few keypoints.

Kaname and Yuuki are not going to be related in this AU but I feel like I could make a similar/even more horror-like/dark romance thing if they were siblings - However I'd have to add the parental horror from Juuri and Haruka... Honestly both sound like pretty interesting paths I could take with this AU

The main thing is that this is based off the manga/manga oneshot "The Summer Hikaru Died". As the title says, "Hikaru" dies out in the woods/mountains and is thusly replaced by an eldritch being who basically uses his body like a skinsuit. One of the only people who knows this is Hikaru's best friend, Yoshiki...who was tragically also in love with him. It's not clear whether Hikaru liked him back, but this "Hikaru" definitely wants to keep Yoshiki around.

So I'll keep Kaname and Yuuki's close (enough) relationship in canon, by basically making them neighbours and childhood friends. (They're both named Kuran in this idea, but they're unrelated. Rido is Kaname's emotionally distant dad in this. Kinda like when two people both have Smith as a last name but are unrelated, or at least so distantly it wouldn't even matter.) Kaien still raises Zero (and Ichiru as well possibly? I'm not sure whether to make it so Shizuka becomes his adoptive mother or just make her the older woman he has a crush on but won't pursue).

Now, where does the real and ancestor Kaname thing come in? By ancestor Kaname being an eldritch being who now pilots the previous Kaname's body. Yuuki is obviously not happy about this but also wants to do her best to view "Kaname" as his own person and not as a replacement for the Kaname she knew - this being because he acts perfectly like the one she knew. She knows this "Kaname" is not responsible for Kaname's death (which in this AU is still by Rido's hand), but her best friend is still dead. And he's making it very hard not to do so, even as she tries to introduce him to new, different things in order to at least differentiate him from the Kaname she knew. She cares for him, but she's mourning too. Basically it's complicated(TM).

Ancestor Kaname is obssessed with her via a combination of the previous Kaname's feelings (which were never spoken out loud), and his previous lack of experience dealing with human emotion or even normal human experiences. And Kaname latching onto Yuuki leads to messed up things happening because I did say this would be a horror romance AU.

Would there be a happy ending for this AU.... Maybe a true happy one is possible, but a merry bad ending is also equally, if not more possible.

[justsalpals]

(spoilers for AI: the Somnium Files, but not for the Nirvana Initiative as it isn't out yet at time of writing)

This has been a long build coming, but I've got a goddamn bone to pick. Overall the story has its problems, but I can overlook them to simply Vibe and have a good time with my video game. It's not the type of game you're supposed to get nitpicky about, and I respect that.

But on the right side of the flowchart, in the path leading to either the Iris end or true end, Date's character gets fucking slaughtered.

I love Kaname Date. I love him so much. He's a bit too disrespectfully horny for my (and most people's) tastes, but he's actually extremely deep as a character. He's genuinely really smart and good at his job, honing in on Saito immediately after every murder with evidence to back it up.

He's goofy, loves puns, is always breaking the tension with something dumb and/or horny, but is extremely professional when it comes to his work. The interogation scene with Saito!Iris feels masterful. When speaking to Mayumi, he is patient and kind while still upholding picture perfect professionalism. He gets help from Aiba sure, but it feels like a give and take. It's not just her solving everything, they bounce off each other and have an actual partnership. It's a conversation, not a lecture. They cover each other's blind spots. He escapes into his work to push aside any nasty feelings looking overhead, throwing himself into murder investigation so he doesn't have time to think about his friend being DEAD.

And of course, his entire relationship with Mizuki. Not trusting himself to be the family she needs, but unable to sit by and watch this little girl in a bad situation. Considering Renju and Shoko (or at least Renju) his friends, but putting his foot down when so many people would just pretend not to see. Inviting her into his home, giving his bed, carving out a place in his life where she can fit because she deserves to have somewhere safe deserves to have someone she can shout at and mock and just be a KID to. I could write fucking paragraphs about their relationship and the Mizuki ending, but I will refrain.

The right side of the flowchart, the "true" ending, take that all away from him. Suddenly he feels like a watered down ghost of himself, with a terminal case of Protagonist Syndrome. Aiba has to explain everything like he's a child. So much of his personality feels muted down and bland as the game chooses instead to focus on the mystery. Which, fine, even if I don't like it I can understand why character sometimes takes a backseat to plot. But the introduction of Falco feels like a man we don't even know. There are shared components of course, and I can see the described past fitting well enough to the Date we know. But suddenly revolving his whole life around the Sagans feels like he's just throwing away the life he led as Date, and I know I'm not the only one who feels Mizuki got unfairly shoved aside in that timeline.

I hate right side of the flowchart Date so much. I miss my surprisingly competent, wise cracking, accidental father so much and he was TAKEN from me and the accepted true end has a pale imitation. The Sagans are lovely, but this has made me bitter towards them and those wonderful ladies have done nothing to earn my ire. They do not deserve this.

Tune in next time to hear my opinions on all the people Date has slept with, the verdicts may shock you.

[godkilller]

❝ gin--! ❞

he had called his name that night - screamed it, really -- when he had seen the small body being swept under kisuke's arm. he had screamed after them, those two -- only the howling from his captain had diverted kisuke urahara from what he had been about to do. for all of aizen's abilities -- he could not yet face down a bankai.

he had tried, though -- had tried. the captain had been skilled, however. cunning. even with the kanzen saimin in place, he had still landed a hit and kaname-- kaneme! he'd been breathing at least, and it'd been enough for aizen to pull him up and get them both to the fourth that night, collapsing from pain and bloodloss, deliriously mumbling of having been attacked by interrupting the captain in what he'd been doing --

collaborators.

he had made urahara into a proper patsy, had cared only about that -- until he'd woken up and found everything out. a month and more -- more -- since kisuke had taken him. and more than him -- more than that, more than --

a hilt wrapped in a shade that was not teal was grasped between his fingers as he stared at the place to which he'd been guided, coaxed, kyoka's awareness linked to another, one not his own. weeks it has been and he is here now, the shop standing no chance against the wrath of the one who now wears the haori lined with turquoise. a shade so near gin's eyes -- he is here, now, the smoldering wreckage proving his fury as he sweeps to --

there.

the entrance is easy to discover, a flaring of power and it splinters under the weight of his wrath. he is quick to launch himself down there, quick to call out again.

❝ GIN--! ❞

he can sense him down here.

❝ GIN--! WHERE ARE YOU?! ❞

his is the seat of captain now and he is willing to admit he's being reckless by doing this -- but oh, the cracks in the blade that is cradled between finger and palm, the loss of not just him but the youth that had become his shadow too in one night? no. no, aizen is calling, power seething around him, seeking for him. he knows he's here. he can sense it.

he had made a promise to shinso, hadn't he--?

and to himself.

he's going to murder the former captain when he gets his hands on him but better, now, to find gin and get him out of here, isn't it--? best to sweep in and out. before the humans can investigate but oh, he's seething.

          THAT NIGHT WAS A BLUR, ROARING ECHOES AND A BLASTING FORCE.  Tsukabishi Tessai, alongside Urahara Kisuke, had been formidable indeed. Yet their appearance in the midst of Aizen’s experimentations upon Gin’s captain was a necessary interruption indeed. Not even that, an interruption, no, planned. They were to be framed, after all. Their attendance was expected and one could have even ventured to say ‘perfect’ ... that is, prior to Tessai’s casting of Hado number eighty-eight, Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raiho. Something Aizen had believed a subsequent casting of Danku, a Bakudo level eighty-one, to be sufficient in blocking. AND IT DID.... somewhat. Perhaps he hadn’t accounted for how serious Urahara and his allies would be in stopping them from walking away, because the Kido Master shattered through that protective wall within a flashing spark and blaze.

          It was the first time Gin had ever seen a split-second show of shock grace the Lieutenant at his side’s features. Maybe that was why he acted fast, faster than Aizen and Tousen, he had always been focused on training himself to strike wickedly swift, and he did not disappoint them then. Gin had drawn Shinso and cut lightning. But he was still, no matter his speed or darting blade, a mere boy, a Third Seat standing against the snarling storm of a Kido Master’s design, and for the split second of deflecting there came many more agonizing seconds thereafter of rippling defeat as the high level Kido won over. Shocks shot through his body, cracked across Shinso’s blade till it flew from his grasp and embedded itself into the ground, a mirroring effect onto its wielder as Gin was blasted by that same force which proceeded to send him backward, flying, tumbling, tumbling, and black.

          Perhaps they had felt guilty, striking down some young and promising kid when they truly had wanted Aizen to be hit, and that was why Gin awoke within an unfamiliar abode. Or maybe Urahara Kisuke wanted information, and Gin was to be hostage, informant, kept holed up -- because when Gin gathered his surroundings, his state  ( sore, scuffed up, and the worst headache -- the rest he couldn’t tell, bandaged up -- where was Shinso? A hand flying out, reaching, searching blind before he even turned his head to look. Ah, fuck, he must’ve dropped it, yeah... he dropped it, and they hadn’t taken it with him, damn it )  ... it was his immediate reaction to seek an escape.

          That hadn’t gone too well. Guarding the exit, despite Gin’s careful and silent steps, was Yoruichi. He knew he couldn’t outrun her. Flash Goddess, wasn’t she? Best to not even bother making a fool of himself. Especially whilst still aching from the blast he took.

          He was implored to rest, to stay put, to recover and that he couldn’t go back.

          Gin couldn’t open a Senkaimon without Shinso, and thus that held true; he couldn’t go back even if he managed to run past the shopkeeper and bolt.

          Urahara Kisuke was not a cruel man, Gin found, but he was also the secretive type, and the kind of man that seemed to believe that he knew what was best. That sort of cruel. He believed and enacted his beliefs regardless of protest. Like so, in that keeping Gin here was best. Part of Gin wanted to agree, to stay, be plucked from Aizen’s clutches and be free of those howling nights... yet the other yearned to return, ached even. He felt he didn’t belong, this was wrong. Particularly a potent realization that he was no longer within the Seireitei, he wanted to return to Rangiku. Oh, she was going to be so worried. No doubt Aizen still spun the story of the villainous Urahara Kisuke, no doubt Gin’s own name had been listed as one of his victims. But Aizen would know better than to write him off as dead, surely. No, he’d know better, knew his boy prodigy could take a hit -- and certainly his Zanpakuto remained behind, yet solid and tangible, it hadn’t vanished to signal the death of its wielder. Likely Gin was reported as kidnapped.

          And Aizen would likely be searching for him, among others.

          Gin couldn’t deny the fact that, despite a fresh form of hatred brewing beneath him, seething really, a sickly stomach and a choked up throat.... how it terrified him, sometimes, to know he was well and truly entrapped by this man, no escape, already far too tangled to ever hope to pull himself away... oh, and yet he couldn’t deny that he wanted Aizen to find him. HE WAS TOO FAR DOWN THIS ROAD TO SHY AWAY NOW, too far down the line, he didn’t know what to do with himself if Aizen didn’t find him.

          Luckily, the thought didn’t plague Gin too terribly... even as days stretched on and Gin inevitably had to cave into eating what was offered to him, kind words and warm food did not reach him -- hollowly, patiently, he waited in near-muteness. HE WOULDN’T TELL URAHARA ANYTHING, no matter his gentle demeanor and respecting air, Gin steeled himself akin to a prisoner of war and it became apparent to the older man that the kid had no intentions to trust, to open up. Gin didn’t do that shit for anyone. He’d be damned if he caved and spit his secrets to the one man Aizen had verbally made known that he loathed... and if Aizen found out Gin confessed anything? Wouldn’t he then become a loose end a little... too... costly to be kept alive? Gin saw what Aizen did to pawns who disappointed him. Even Tousen, one of his top favorites, occasionally earned himself a scolding look that spoke of authority and displeasure... would Gin risk everything he had worked for thus far simply to confide in a stranger, shopkeeper, who had stolen him away from it all? No, not worth it.

          Besides, Gin knew it wouldn’t be much longer here.

          Weeks turned to a month, or something close to it.

          But Gin knew it’d be soon. Aizen was, after all, a thorough man.

          So was Urahara, as he had Gin moved downward, below the shop, across an an expansive underground training area  ( Gin didn’t bother trying to wrap his head around the fact that the ceiling looked like the sky outside, save for that ladder and opening... a strange set-up indeed )  A SMART MOVE, ultimately, as it kept Gin from being able to run away without first crawling from the single exit and entrance to the underground space, and it also kept him from getting absolutely leveled alongside the shop the moment Aizen’s reiatsu became known overhead. 

          Gin was accustomed to Aizen’s reiatsu in that he hardly even shuddered upon its weight thrashing downward, and the subsequent explosive force that wrecked the shop above. The Third Seat simply sat upright, looked upward, and held his breath. IT WAS BROAD DAYLIGHT UNDERNEATH THIS FALSE SKY, BUT GIN KNEW BETTER, he felt the chill of the air above flowing in from cracks, drafts, he knew too that Aizen would not act so boldly within a blanket of sunlight -- not yet, at least -- but still how odd it was to see moonlight begin pooling in, downward, from a sunny ceiling crumbling to give way for its visitor.

          A visitor who descended from the false sky’s wreckage as a nightbringer would, doused in darker hues, an ethereal world-ender he was making himself to be -- to become -- before Gin’s own eyes. A PART OF GIN’S UPBRINGING IN THE RUKONGAI URGED HIM TO RUN AND HIDE AT THE MERE SIGHT, seeing such a display of desperate might  ( Aizen was desperate, Aizen was pissed off, he had come for Gin and Gin alone in this moment and it both sickened and pleased him ) ... and part of Gin wanted to turn and run and not look back. HE WANTED TO STAY, HE WANTED TO WATCH THE KOI POND AND THINK NOTHING OF DEATH, CLEAN FINGERNAILS, THE PURRING OF A BLACK CAT, WARM CLOTHES... HE WANTED TO CRY, NO, TAKE ME HOME, I MISS HER, SHE’S WAITING FOR ME, PLEASE -- AH, HE WANTED TO GET OUT WHILE HE STILL COULD, STAY AWAY FROM ME, NO, HELP ME.

          Part of him lingered in shadow, stepping half a step backward rather than forward, into visibility, into Aizen’s frantic range of sight. He could hide himself still, wait for Urahara to step up to challenge Aizen’s wrath, wait for them both to clash and destroy... and then slip away. Or he could open his mouth now, and seal his fate to remain tethered to the man’s side forever more.

          He teetered there, for a second alone, at the precipice. 

          Then the boy called out to Aizen. A quick response, a signal; I’m here!

          Gin had never been one to listen to self-preserving advice.