#why did the mangaka had to put him in a suit | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

soul-dwelling · 4 months ago

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Sorry to bug you with another MHA rant - but I think it's a point that isn't often brought up: The storys/Deku's "elitism" (maybe not the best word)

What I mean is the fact that Deku allways has to be "the best" and everything is framed through that lense in a way - maybe not in every moment, but in the ultimate analysis - like him only becoming a hero after getting the best quirk or how he only wanted to go to UA or only really idolised All Might - like I know Endeavor had a bad rep but wasnt he said to have solved the most crimes, ergo saved the most? Or shouldnt Izuku care about rescue heroes more if "rescuing" is what he actually cares for.

But the UA thing - it seemed to me like his dream wasn't even to become a hero, but his twisted romantisced perfect life version of a hero. Hence why he didnt try to apply to a mediocre school - I mean if UA lets quirkless do the exam, wouldnt there be any low to mid level school taking him, even if for PR reasons.

Yet other schools are so unimportant that they disapear basically as soon as they get mentioned.

But maybe my point is still debatable, and I admit one can find examples at the start that contradict it, like Deku basically jeopardising his chances of winning the sports festival to save Shoto.

Yet what matters is the end - and the way to it too - cause yeah, in the end, without a quirk, he didnt even try to be a hero, and didnt even try to get support equipment that literally wasnt some experimental futuristic uber powerfull suit, from the same makers thath gave non powered Allmight the ability to go toe to toe with the biggest villian of history. But that was already clear on the way during the end - like the fact Deku got seven quirks - obviously only made to show how he is special and strong on another level than anyone else

Yet why should he be? Especially with how popular Bakogou and Shoto where, why couldnt they just stay on a simmilar level and take on the main vilian 3 on 1. I mean even Naruto did that (even if Kaguay was bad for unrelated reasons) Especially with how the whole "saving Tenko" thing basically went nowhere, and could as well not have been introduced - might as well show AFO taking Tenko totally over to drive the point how evil potatoe man is way earlier and then focus the fight on guts and everyone working together - cliche, but doesnt bait the audience with some redemption and reform Hori obviously doesnt want to adress. But even speaking of Hori, i dunno, even his comments about "oh if Hero Academia didnt succeed, I would have quited being a mangaka" - like other magazines dont exist, like there aren't any other alternatives, like a story can be succesful without going for hundreds of chapter - seems to be the same attitude. But lets see if he actually does the Horror manga or if his health really declined as badly as many fear, in the later case, maybe he just got depressed, cause bad health sucks, I ain't gonna lie...

Long response below (about 14 pages, single-spaced)--and disorganized at that.

I am going to again copy your question (in bold below) and respond to it in bits and pieces, as well as putting in headings to help outline my answer.

I’m writing this as quickly as I can, so I apologize for rambling, awkward transitions, and going all over the case within a dash-filled sentence or a paragraph that is way too long.

(Spoilers and whining as well about Fire Force.)

Izuku should be the best boy

Sorry to bug you with another MHA rant - but I think it's a point that isn't often brought up:

The storys/Deku's "elitism" (maybe not the best word)

I’ll get to more specifics about this first part of the submission in a moment. But first, a little rambling.

My defense of Izuku as having to solve most problems in My Hero Academia: he is the protagonist, I have said he should be too good to be true (without ignoring how, if Izuku was a girl or a woman, the worst people online would make bullshit “Mary Sue” misogynistic arguments). We need to be cheering on Izuku: having his literal only so-called flaw be that he has no Quirk means that we side with him when we see how helpful he is, how smart he is, how heroic he is, and we take his side against even the best and most rational arguments by Bakugo, All Might, Recovery Girl, Gran Torino, Nighteye, Shigaraki, and All For One.

That being said, that doesn’t mean you have him solve every last problem or else you undermine the manga’s message that collaboration is good. (Granted, Horikoshi undermined the value of collaboration repeatedly in his own story.) If you have Izuku solve everything, then Ochaco does not fix the poor counseling and health care system to address what potentially dangerous Quirks do, then Shoji and Koda don’t teach anti-bigotry practices, then the Todorokis don’t stop Dabi, and on and on.

Now, to focus my answer a bit more:

I talked about this elsewhere, but I think Izuku’s story would have improved had the manga made Izuku the best hero before he got the best Quirk. I know this lapses into “too good to be true” territory--but that’s the point, make him too good to be true: kid who knows more about Quirks than anyone else, kid who helps the elderly in his neighborhood, favorite “grown up” to the kids in his neighborhood, helpful neighborhood civic-minded community organizer.

Maybe my recommendation is too clean and risks making Izuku without flaws. And it makes All Might too perfect as well: the plot can move forward only if All Might does something reckless, like handing over the Quirk to someone who even with a months-long workout regiment has zero time or instruction how to use One For All without almost getting himself and Ochaco killed during his entrance exam? But that means the problem is also that I don’t think Izuku and All Might ever clear the bar of early installment foolishness--similar to how the manga never convinced me that Bakugo could ever make up for telling Izuku to go kill himself. Maybe these are problems in the writing that will get corrected in the next adaptation, like that Hollywood adaptation, but as I also said, if you do correct these problems, I don’t know whether that takes out complexity in characterization and potential for character progression.

Is it good that All Might was an idol?

or how he only wanted to go to UA or only really idolised All Might -

I may push back a bit on whether Izuku only really idolized All Might, for two reasons.

First, I wish the story had done more to toy with whether idolizing is a good thing.

My Hero Academia ends without a useful thesis statement on the whole thing. All Might serving as the Symbol of Peace had its benefits and disadvantages, and the story never came across to me as defining whether he did more harm than good, although Stain’s final remarks to him get close to a summary statement. And Izuku idolizing All Might gave him inspiration and examples what to do, but he never quite made the base of One For All his own and kept struggling even to the end to figure out a way to use the base of One For All as his own, an opportunity thwarted as well when Izuku defeats All For One and Shigaraki with just punches and when so much of his fighting in the final arc was using a whole new set of Quirks comparatively recently introduced such that it is harder to really compare how Izuku uses One For All compared to how All Might uses One For All.

Second, while “idolize” may not be accurate enough, Izuku’s joy and knowledge about pretty much all Pro Heroes is something integral to who he is. But yeah, I do wish we saw him pulling more from their examples. The manga barely gave attention outside of flashbacks as to how Izuku took inspiration from others to learn how to use his other Quirks, and even then he was pulling more from the examples of his classmates like Ochaco and Sero to use Float and Blackwhip.

Izuku and Endeavor should have interacted more

like I know Endeavor had a bad rep but wasnt he said to have solved the most crimes, ergo saved the most? Or shouldnt Izuku care about rescue heroes more if "rescuing" is what he actually cares for.

I would have loved to have seen more interactions with Endeavor and Izuku, and I say that as someone who despises Endeavor and would rather never have him pop up in the manga again.

Like, the anime gag of Izuku breaking the fourth wall to look at the audience with a question mark after Endeavor said something abstruse but profound and understanding Izuku’s link to All Might--that is something that shows Endeavor’s knowledge and wisdom while not ignoring he is an abusive sack of shit and that even Izuku is perplexed that this violent hothead may have something deeper going on.

Izuku is our main character--while I do not want to overshadow how Shoto responds to his own father, it is weird not to have our main character have some one-on-one interactions with just him and Endeavor. We had that really good scene between the two at the Sports Festival--could we do something like that again, especially when it comes to how we contrast what heroics mean to each of them, how their regard for All Might could influence the other (such as Endeavor inadvertently making Izuku realize that All Might is human and hence makes mistakes, and Endeavor getting over himself and realizing that while he now knows the burden All Might carried he also needs to appreciate that All Might is a good guy and has done incredible good for Izuku as well as for Shoto).

I also want to push back about Endeavor solving so many crimes--not that this is not true, it is true, you have that correct, the manga says so.

I just get bothered how that detail feels like a retcon, even though technically it’s not.

When we first meet Endeavor, we know he is the Number Two Hero, so it is not out of the ordinary to realize he got to that title not just by strength and superpowers but also by actual skill, whether in rescue, detective work, or number of people saved.

You bring up rescue work, not necessarily about Endeavor but in general. I’ll talk more about rescue work in a moment. But rescue work never struck me as Endeavor’s forte, although some of that is the fault of writers other than Horikoshi: dude ended up killing someone in Vigilantes and not noticing--I do not think he is that good at rescue and saving people. (And this all becomes even more disturbing for me to try to make jokes about as I have the dawning realization that of course he sucks at rescuing people, he got Toya killed and couldn’t save his own dad.)

I just wish that we did more with that detective work long before we’re just told, “He’s good at detective work.” He is able to decode Hawks’s message--great, why couldn’t we have gotten this hint earlier? If he had figured out that All Might somehow passed on his Quirk to Izuku, maybe that would have helped make him look smarter--he could have the same reaction Shoto has to emphasize this similar familial tick (“Izuku and All Might have a similar Quirk”) and unlike Shoto (“Are you his secret love child?”) could instead take the more accurate approach (“All Might somehow passed on his Quirk to Izuku--is that why his Pro Hero work has been slowing down?”).

Rescue work and Izuku’s lacking skills

Let’s circle back to rescue work, and what it says about Izuku’s lacking skills.

Remember in the License Exam arc, how Izuku did not realize he had to talk to the actors playing victims, because Aizawa either sucks at teaching or Izuku is just that bad at understanding the logistics of doing hero work? Either way, it shows that the story had more to offer--and just didn’t.

Numerous complaints about this final arc and its last chapters have circulated so frequently that I can’t tell whether they are repeated so much as to be correct but cliche, or repeated so often that we accept them as truth and ignore the glaring flaws. In other words, I am bothered by the repeated complaint online that Izuku was never serious about hero work, that he had no plan before getting One For All, that he was not thinking enough about the logistics of what he was training to do. I’m not going to say whether that assessment of Izuku is correct or incorrect, as the complaint strikes me as something that is a flaw with the story itself, not the character.

Izuku strikes me as someone who of course would think about a plan to be a hero, how to save people: he had a plan for delaying the Slime Monster to try to save Bakugo, it just wasn’t a good plan; he had numerous Pro Hero names thought up when he was a little kid; he had copious notes about how Quirks work and was still filling out new journals during the Sports Festival.

But, yeah, I can’t ignore that Izuku did not have a plan in mind for the logistics for Pro Hero work--because he is inexperienced, he is a teenager, he has not yet worked as Pro Hero, of course he doesn’t know all the logistics, that’s why he is in school and that is ostensibly what the manga is supposed to be about, teaching Izuku how to do Pro Hero work and by extension showing us in the audience how this world works. This is not an insult to Izuku: he literally does not know these things, that’s great, we get to learn along with him, we don’t feel ignorant because even best boy / smartest boy Izuku didn’t know.

But actually educating Izuku, and by extension us audience members, on Pro Hero logistics would require this “academia” manga to actually be about “academia,” and Horikoshi or his editors or the audience itself seem to have an aversion to learning shit.

(This is also why I hate the excuse that we only get Year 1 of the Class A because otherwise it would be boring to keep having another Sports Festival arc, another School Festival arc, another graduation arc for each school year. Look, Horikoshi is exhausted, I appreciate he does not want to repeat those stories--but as for fans saying that stuff would be boring, bullshit, that’s a challenge, rise up to face it, give me that Sports Festival that shows how far those who lost the first year have come, show how far those who won the first year have fallen, give me new School Festival activities with new characters, make the graduation change each time especially depending on whether the world is doing well or has gotten worse since All Might retired.)

So, the manga does not do the “academia” thing much--and then the manga never felt like it actually addressed how these logistics to Pro Hero regulations work. We get bread crumbs that don’t lead very far: we wait until the Nighteye arc to learn that there is the Hero Network, and it gets namedropped so that Ochaco and Tsuyu can ask about it and get answered by Ryukyu.

The thing is, having the students be flat-out ignorant about some of these details would help build the world and help characterize these characters. I wrote in another post how we had this great opportunity to show that Izuku is so idealistic that he may be ignorant as to all the workings that go into an agency: insurance, staffing, merchandising, specialization. I wrote in that post how excellent it would be to bring back Tenya’s brother Tensei to talk about how in Vigilantes his agency was such a well-oiled machine because he had numerous sidekicks all focused on making up for skills he as a speedsters lacked, as a way to show that an agency has to be designed smartly--and that Izuku is someone who just hopes that things will work out and never struck me as an organizer.

If Izuku really is that ignorant about organizing and is better suited as a cog in the machine, a teacher, or someone who is just good at designing plans and executing them but not leading a team, we could build on what the manga already showed us about who is good at that leadership. I mean, hell, we did an entire opening arc in the manga that Izuku is not a good class president, leave that to Iida and Momo.

And we also saw during the School Festival that Mina, Momo, Jiro, and Iida are good at organizing the Class A activity--maybe those are skills they have that Izuku lacks. It would help to do more to justify Mina’s value to this story: she is a fan favorite, but there are only so many gags you can do about her academic skills being wanting before you need to emphasize that her people skills and leadership skills are why she is in this cast. And it would go a long way to clarify why Ochaco recruited Iida, Momo, and Jiro for her Quirk counseling initiative. See why I am getting annoyed with how this manga went? It already had the details there in the characters but never gave us those stories. And it’s going to be annoying should those stories ever happen because they were not part of the original manga, not in order of chapters to read in order to get to these logical conclusions, and will instead be some light novel or OVA or spinoff manga or film that you have to pay more money to get rather than just being part of the main manga that I’m already paying Viz to subscribe to.

The manga failed to criticize its own romanticizing and show a changed world

But the UA thing - it seemed to me like his dream wasn't even to become a hero, but his twisted romantisced perfect life version of a hero.

We really needed this manga to dig into its worldbuilding.

There was a post my friend dchan87 reblogged from ilovereadingandstuff and thekingofwinterblog a bit ago, about how Amphibia did well at leaving enough holes for you to fill in, while My Hero Academia was trying to answer so many questions that it could not answer some of them at all, could not answer some of them sufficiently, or over-explained some of them and failed to satisfy enough of the audience. On a related note, I am loathe to say that Ohkubo did great with Soul Eater by leaving so many holes there for the audience to fill in the gaps, which the fans did expertly for 18 years…until Ohkubo fucked that up and gave bad answers in Fire Force, thereby cancelling out much better fan theories and compromising the intended message of both stories, but I’ve complained enough about Ohkubo’s bad writing for a decade.

But to get back to my point: we needed that worldbuilding to either be like Amphibia or like Soul Eater--just enough, not too much to weigh down the story with “realism” that cancels out believability. We got so many hero schools that we don’t know why UA is so good and whether Izuku’s choice was just obsessing with the alumni (All Might but also Aizawa, Present Mic, Endeavor, and so on), or whether he was making a rational choice.

However, as I am someone who went to grad school because I slightly idealized one of my professors having gone to that same school, and have some regrets about my educational choices: I mean, yeah, believable and realistic, so, can’t quite fault Izuku entirely for romanticizing. Izuku needs to have flaws so that we have a plot--I am fine with him romanticizing UA and the overall Pro Hero society. I just hate that nothing much comes of that once All For One shows how under-prepared the heroes were to stop Shigaraki’s transformation, how unprepared Japan and the world were for All For One’s threat, how little of Pro Hero society seems to have changed in Chapter 430, how little we see Izuku change his mind after Nagant, how it’s left to Ochaco and others to verbalize what needs to change but the story skips over just what exactly Ochaco, Shoji, and others do to change this world.

Should Izuku have gone to UA?

Hence why he didnt try to apply to a mediocre school - I mean if UA lets quirkless do the exam, wouldnt there be any low to mid level school taking him, even if for PR reasons.

God, I would have loved it if we had had Inko take Izuku aside and bring up that UA may not be his best choice. I know we don’t want to step on Ochaco’s storyline, and money doesn’t really seem to be a concerned in this story despite the lipservice given to it, but imagine if Inko, practically a single parent, having to tell Izuku, “UA is too expensive, try a mid-level school.” We got close to that when she refused to send him back initially despite All Might’s encouragement, but that wasn’t money, it was because All Might and the teachers could not protect the kids from a fucking villain attack.

Again, maybe I’m grabbing too much from my own life, but there are totally parents who will say, “Does it really have to be that school? Think about money, whether this education is worth it, location. Why not aim for this school instead?”

Even All Might could have brought it up: “UA was right for me; I don’t think it will be right for you. Don’t chase the ring, focus on the plan that works for you.” But we already saw from Gran Torino that Izuku and All Might reinforce their worst qualities in each other of romanticizing, idealizing, and not trying something new. Again, do you want flawed characters who can progress, or do you want everyone to be perfect from the beginning? I’m not even asking you--I’m asking myself, because this is the trap I fall into when re-writing these stories, making everyone absolutely perfect instead of believable and having flaws that keep the plot going.

The manga also sort of retconned a lot of the entrance exam details. The manga does show Izuku was able to go into the exam when he had a Quirk--although, yeah, wouldn’t he have to schedule this ahead of time even without being registered with the government as having a Quirk? Then the manga reveals that Support and General and Business Tracks at UA may not require a Quirk, so Izuku could have gone into any of them…but that would require he show technological aptitude, or take Shinso’s path, or have PR skills, and none of those quite work, especially as we need Shinso as the foil to Izuku for both of their storylines to persist. (Aside: Man, Shinso deserved a better wrap-up in this manga. What is his Pro Hero name?)

Yet other schools are so unimportant that they disapear basically as soon as they get mentioned.

We needed more spinoff stories. I loved that all-girls school in the anime-only Momo arc during the license exam. I wanted more of the schools doing something in the final arc and especially getting closure: what happened to Inasa and Camie and the rest in Chapter 430?

Is self-sacrifice heroic?

But maybe my point is still debatable, and I admit one can find examples at the start that contradict it, like Deku basically jeopardising his chances of winning the sports festival to save Shoto.

The manga did well at explaining the stakes for the Sports Festival, and while important for the sake of characterization, it wasn’t life or death (until Izuku almost got himself killed by Shoto, which…yeah, these two characters have flaws, to put it nicely).

Aizawa said it was about being scouted--and any of us can use logic to suppose that, first, they have three years of these festivals to make an impression, and second, there are other ways to make an impression, as Shinso shows.

All Might said this was Izuku’s time to show he can be like him, a symbol to people and the inheritor of his legacy--and while that is too much to put on Izuku, especially (as online people have said on Reddit and elsewhere) All Might brings all of this up without also putting on the pressure or just being honest about the potential threat of another All For One or indeed the actual All For One returning. And even those stakes are not that pivotal: Izuku and All Might make it a big deal, and it is for the arc, but in the overall manga, even before the Sports Festival ends, we know it’s not as big a deal, it’s just Izuku’s entrance to the larger national and international audience, it won’t end his career.

I guess my point is, yeah, I see how Izuku’s willingness to lose the Sports Festival butts up against his idealized image of a superhero--and even then, it is hard to discern how those two details contrast or potentially contradict because the story itself overly idealized and overly romanticized it. Think about it: it’s Recovery Girl who has to set Izuku and All Might straight, that this play-hero routine is going to get Izuku killed. The story wants us to see Izuku almost getting killed by Shoto as heroic and the correct thing--and keeps emphasizing that Izuku is going to get himself killed.

I can’t quite wrap my head around all of these details to make a clear statement, beyond saying that My Hero Academia has always has a problem when it comes to whether self-sacrifice and death are ideals that heroes should aim for. We have shown over and over again that self-sacrifice in this story, or otherwise reckless actions, are not wholly good: Gentle ruined his career by inadvertently showboating or interfering and not paying attention; Ochaco may have redeemed Toga in her eyes but almost died and ended up with Toga dead; the Todoroki family got physical scars but no better ending and now have Dabi slowly dying; Izuku is scarred up, without a Quirk, debased by his teacher and now coworker Aizawa, and didn’t get Pro Hero society to put away the statues, get rid of the ads and marketing, and get some free time.

I mean, I keep turning back to this point on this blog, but how the hell was Fire Force better at imparting the lesson, “Getting yourself killed is stupid, you still need to survive another day to keep rescuing people, figure out how to save others without getting yourself killed”?

The mech suit ending doesn’t hold up and potentially undermines the intended moral

I have read enough fans trying to make this work. I’m not entirely convinced by their ideas, but I’ll summarize a few of them.

First, there are people pointing out that Izuku didn’t have the money to get that support equipment to keep doing Pro Hero work. I’m not convinced, but I appreciate people pointing out the limitations: maybe the global economy got so bad that even rich students like Momo, Shoto, and Tenya could only do so much; the manga volumes say All Might used all of his remaining money on his mech suit against All For One.

Second, there are people pointing out that, while the All Might suit was proven to work, that was a quick job and that everyone wanted to get it correct, which required eight years of work with Mei and Melissa collaborating in completely different countries. (Sidebar: Just put Mei and Melissa in the same nation--for shipping or platonic or just mutual relationships with the main cast.) I’m less convinced by this explanation, as it is bizarre to wait eight years when you really need to get Izuku testing out that mech suit in a controlled environment instead of out in the field unless you are dealing with the kind of dire situation All Might was against All For One. It’s all the more bothersome because the manga already gave us this story--twice: in the main manga with Izuku almost getting his body torn apart testing Mei’s equipment, and in Team-Up Missions with now both Mei and Melissa almost killing Izuku with dueling support equipment for Crash Test Deku to try out.

All of the “you can still be a hero with this expensive mech suit” argument also bothers me because the opening conceit of My Hero Academia--”in this fictional world, you need a superpower to be a superhero”--is already a ridiculously stupid question: of course you can, that is answered by Chapter 1, it’s been answered in comic books since Batman and Iron Man, the manga practically says yes, you can, because Quirks held by Mei and Ojiro give them very little advantage in combat (granted, Mei is not a fighter), and Knuckleduster in Vigilantes has no superpowers. It’s that Amphibia problem above: when you over-explain, you answer the question that was supposed to drive the story, so now that you answered it, you have no story, and everything after is over-explaining everything and potentially undermining the point you were trying to make (see also Fire Force over-explaining Soul Eater and hence ruining both stories).

Izuku should have been the Hulk

But that was already clear on the way during the end - like the fact Deku got seven quirks - obviously only made to show how he is special and strong on another level than anyone else

And Izuku having more Quirks could show how smart he is at using them all, or have been for a longer story to show this new challenge that affects him physically and emotionally as his confidence is shaken with the seemingly sisyphean failure of getting one Quirk correct only to fail again and again with the next (but I don’t think he even got a handle on the first Quirk to begin with).

It’s another set of missed opportunities, especially, so that we don’t act like Izuku is special, if we get some more worldbuilding by showing what people like Shoto do with multiple Quirks, how that has been a mental struggle for him and hence allows Izuku and Shoto to both develop their relationship by trading notes on how to do it.

Or, it can be an opportunity to show the danger Izuku faces that the Nomu face: what happens when you have more Quirks than your mind and body can handle? Then you can bring in Dr. Yoshida, Kurogiri, the science behind Nomu, and actually delve into how evil All For One and Garaki are, the hope Aizawa and Mic have at the potential of bringing back Shirakumo, and keep moving forward with the elements you already have to your story rather than disposing the Nomu as just raw muscle, plot devices, and empty characters. It opens up questions for Izuku: by getting all of these additional Quirks, could his mind get warped? Is Izuku becoming inhuman? The boy is already a bundle of nerves, anxiously talking to himself, muttering his way through all that he knows about Quirks--what happens when he has a momentary slip-up and over-reacts, mistaking an error anyone makes for one where he thinks he is losing his mind? That’d be relatable for readers, especially when dealing with forgetfulness due to anxiety or this godawful ongoing COVID pandemic world we’re in--and it’d be a silly notion for Izuku, of course he’s fine, it’s a fear that quickly would be corrected by everyone around him. But it sets up a contrast that is worth exploring: what happens when the smartest person risks losing himself due to too much physical power? This is literally Bruce Banner and the Hulk--and Horikoshi whiffed at even trying to get his comic book nerd on there.

The Izuku/Bakugo/Shoto dynamic never worked for me

This is a “me” problem, but I don’t like the chemistry of Izuku, Bakugo, and Shoto. Izuku is too meek, Shoto is so passive despite having a fiery temper when pushed, Bakugo is too violent and angry. This isn’t id-ego-supergo, this isn’t Kirk, Bones, and Spock, it isn’t Wonder Girl, Starfire, and Raven, it isn’t Batman, Booster Gold, and Ted Kord, it’s just a mess. Izuku and Shoto are both too passive to balance Bakugo, Shoto and Bakugo are too fiery for the meek Izuku to get to do much, Shoto and Bakugo have far better chemistry bouncing off of each other alone due to shared temper but different elements of releasing it (think Kirk and Spock).

I have not sat through the entirety of the third and fourth films to see how they coordinate well in combat, but I also don’t like sitting through movies just for gorgeous animation and fight sequences--I want a good story that pushes character progression, even for the movie-only characters, and when the third and fourth movies are instead about the progression of Rody, Giulio, and Anna, I don’t care about Bakugo and Shoto, and Izuku is pretty much just the Matthew McConaughey chaos agent there to cause change, not to be changed. (I took that description of McConaughey from Patton Oswalt. And, disclaimer: fucking hell, Oswalt, stop stanning transphobes like Chapelle, Jesus.)

I think I get your point about Izuku, Bakugo, and Shoto being better served for the story if they were more like a Naruto trio, as Naruto, Sakura, and either Sasuke or Sai. But I almost think the better option would be like One Piece, where it’s not that any of the three stay at the same level, but that their involvement in the plot and their power scaling depends on the arc, situation, setting, and opponent. Izuku, Bakugo, and Shoto don’t have to stay at similar level: it’d actually help similar to One Piece is any of them feel like the Sanji or the Nami or the Usopp or even the Zoro where they feel like they failed to keep up or failed at a task. Or, think Maka, Black Star, and Kid: Maka repeatedly felt like she was falling behind two gods, why not have Izuku thinking he’s falling behind, then, boom, he has new Quirks and risks falling even further behind rather than using these new powers to pass them by.

There is that moment in the Sports Festival where it is Izuku slamming down the metal shielding to explode past Bakugo and Shoto: I wish that had been their dynamic for the rest of the series, the three in competition to get ahead of the others. I don’t think the manga ever topped the Sports Festival arc, and I think losing that potential dynamic between these three characters as shown in that explosion is one reason. Izuku had that drive; what happened to that drive after the Sports Festival? Shoto thankfully mellows out after Izuku sets him straight on his Quirk being his alone, not Endeavor’s, but now he lacks the same action-y forward momentum, more of his story being a mature introspective focus on how he mentally grapples with his father both being his greatest enemy and his best mentor at using the same Quirk they have, but as I said, while mature and introspective, it’s not something easy to visual in an illustrated manga that has to use images to tell its story. And Bakugo is just the worst.

Kill off Shigaraki earlier

Especially with how the whole "saving Tenko" thing basically went nowhere, and could as well not have been introduced - might as well show AFO taking Tenko totally over to drive the point how evil potatoe man is way earlier and then focus the fight on guts and everyone working together - cliche, but doesnt bait the audience with some redemption and reform Hori obviously doesnt want to adress.

My friend has an idea about how to fix “saving Tenko.” We’ll get to that another time, when they are ready to share it.

Tenko/Shigaraki coming to realize he was a hero to villains, then getting subsumed by All For One, should have been the end of his story. It’d be tragic, but the ending for him already was: if you’re going to kill him off, just do it once and be done with it. Typically a play works better with only one twist; to reverse that twist by having Shigaraki re-assert himself just to die again ruins the twist.

This could have been salvaged with better visuals: Shigaraki and Izuku both ending All For One could have been visually dynamic, where now Shigaraki is where All Might stood alongside Izuku in the first film to deliver the final punch. Imagine if you staged that image where it is Izuku (in the real world) and Shigaraki (just imagined and hence only a vestige), with an image of All MIght in the same pose as Izuku, and an image of Nana in the same pose as Shigaraki, delivering the last attack on All For One. We are in the eyes of All For One, we are seeing what he sees--or maybe he’s imagining it, and it is freaking him out all the more, the legacy of Nana and All Might in Shigaraki and Izuku, finally ending him.

But we didn’t get that image; we got something that looks more like Shigaraki and Izuku punching at each other. It’s not even Shigaraki doing that punch to send Decay or One For All back into Izuku. (I’m not saying I would want that ending, I hated that ending in the second film, but it would have justified the worse visuals we got instead of what I think is the better option I’m offering.)

To get back to what I was saying about reversing your twist: just do the one twist, All For One reasserting himself, our last image of Shigaraki is him dying in horrible fashion, his entire life has been suffering, he gets no final words with Izuku, nothing to say to Spinner. Make it hurt. Then you have to have Izuku, Spinner, and the rest making sense of this with each other, not with any direction by Shigaraki, so that they get to be their own characters, not just enacting Shigaraki’s will. It sucks to keep Shigaraki a permanent victim throughout the story, but maybe this story needed one character who is utterly destroyed and a victim--not a Star and Stripe who manages to offer one or two advantages to save the heroes, not Izuku still getting a full life after losing his Quirk, just someone who was groomed from the beginning and never had a chance, so that, when Scissors Boy is saved by Granny, that is our vicarious resolution and higher state, someone who unknowingly carries on the legacy of what Shigaraki could have been if he had been given a chance.

Does that mean we keep the Force Ghost of Shigaraki there looking at Izuku in the final chapter? I don’t know--I don’t even like that artwork, Shigaraki looks off-model, the image does not convey that it is a spirit and just looks like bad layering of the art.

Shueisha owes its mangaka more

But even speaking of Hori, i dunno, even his comments about "oh if Hero Academia didnt succeed, I would have quited being a mangaka" - like other magazines dont exist, like there aren't any other alternatives, like a story can be succesful without going for hundreds of chapter - seems to be the same attitude.

Horikoshi gets to live his own life: if he would have changed careers if this manga did not work out for him, that is his decision, I respect it, he should do what makes him happy but also should keep doing illustrations that fulfill him as a hobby, as work, or whatever he wants. I will not hold that against him, and I would not hold it against him that he had a mindset of, if this doesn’t work, I give up.

I’m also less interested in criticizing Horikoshi’s mindset because of what you are pointing out.

Yes, there are other magazines--and we see how difficult it is to get a pilot manga accepted by any, to get that one-shot to be successful, to get through the first year of publishing, and to attract an audience, advertisers, vendors, and anime producers.

Yes, a story can be successful without going for hundreds of chapters--but try telling that to the worst people on the Internet. (The stupidest video I sat through this week, more obsessed with what didn’t work with a Hollywood company, than whether their films were any good.)

Horikoshi could be satisfied with a good story that didn’t last for hundreds of chapters--but we see how enough dicks online are just the worst about good stories that ended before their time or before they were given a chance. Just to name a few from the Shueisha/Viz camp: Magu-chan, Candy Flurry, and Ginka and Gluna all deserved better.

It’s the equivalent of so many YouTube videos and online essays lifting up some stories and denigrating others: “This manga is the best manga ever!” “This creator is the GOAT!” “This moment in animation changed everything!” Well, why not talk about the stuff that demonstrates good craftswork, is competent or even excellent, is not necessarily the first ever or the best ever but is something someone enjoys and digs into why it works? People do enjoy My Hero Academia without thinking it is the best (it is not), that Horikoshi is the GOAT (he is not)--but because the story has its really good points, that Horikoshi is really talented and one of the best (of many who are also some of the best), and it is fine to just be good enough or excellent, not perfect, not superior, not comparatively better, just really, really good.

Sidebar: Oumagadoki Zoo had the same problems with ending

Also, just going to throw this out there: Oumagadoki Zoo had one of the worst endings I have read in a manga for some time, refusing to commit to its sad ending, leaving the door open to more stories that would have continued all that worked so well in the previous arcs and world being built but didn’t get the chance it deserved, so I kind of wonder whether Horikoshi has struggled with endings before due to publishing power dynamics outside of his control, or a refusal to commit to something going really bad and not dealing with the darkness that brings.

Granted, though, Oumagadoki Zoo is more often lighthearted than horrifying, so I can’t blame him for canceling out the pseudo-deaths he introduced just a few pages earlier--at least readers were not traumatized by those pseudo-deaths and got the equivalent of Tinkerbell coming back to life by the readers just believing enough.

We need to take care of our health. (And I don’t like horror stories.)

But lets see if he actually does the Horror manga or if his health really declined as badly as many fear, in the later case, maybe he just got depressed, cause bad health sucks, I ain't gonna lie…

My petulance: despite running a Soul Eater fan blog, despite what I teach and research, I am not a big fan of horror in visual content (I can read it, I don’t like watching it or seeing it). And I tend to prefer a good story over good visuals, so I don’t know whether a horror manga by Horikoshi will appeal to me.

And yes, health problems are serious--not ignoring what I am going through with health problems and what people I know are going through as COVID persists, mental health problems persist, and aging, lack of accessibility, and physical health problems persist. And all of that is an indictment against me, as I am failing at being more sympathetic to Horikoshi when I am highly critical of how My Hero Academia wrapped up.

#my hero academia #izuku midoriya #mha spoiler #mha spoilers #spoiler #spoilers #long post #dwells whines about fire force

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maguro13-2 · 9 months ago

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The Actual 100% Completion Award (Inspired by Stomp Vs Audience)

Balan : Welcome ladies and genltemens to the 100% completion award show. As your reward for collecting everything to get a 100% completion we won't be doing the musical number

Leo : (to Emma) Eh, what?

Emma : (To Leo) What did he say?

Balan : Unfortunately, the 100% completion award from sunshine was just a postcard from Isle Delfino, which Mario got pissed for getting blamed on ruining their island and had their leader go bananas on over a postcard from the hotel's casino. (Clears throat) Okay boys and girls of the video game, mangaka, anime inudstry. For winning and collecting every single trophy of mine to collect, I give you a different show than me showing my hot humanoid face. Please put hands together for...The Stomp!

Leo : (to Emma) : What's a stomp?

Emma : That's not part of the 100% completion reward.

Balan : Stomp performed by creative artists, the STOMP group!

(the STOMP cast rhythmically clangs on their trash cans loudly, much to the irritation of the audience.)

Cloud : This is what fans of our company get a 100% completion award?

Tifa : This looks more irritated than the game itself! I should've know that it was stupid to have a Sega veteran work for us!

Sephiroth : I'm still not interested on whether I give humanity into Despair or I see some kids bang pots and pans at the park for free.

(The STOMP leader continues his loud clanging.)

Yuffie : Oh for the love of God! This is why we can't have nice things for Square Enix! I wished this would stop performing and never do a 100% completion award! It's way worse than the postcard from Isle Delfino! I wish this would end well!

Leo : You sure this is a good idea to have a Stomp crew banging on something?

Emma : I believe that cloud and the other Square Enix veterans are not interested with the 100% completion award.

Balan : What are you kids talking about? This is the perfect idea for having a show for all players to a 100% completion award. I wonder how fans of Square Enix will here about this one!

(The clanging continues as the audience cringes, complains, and groans loudly.)

Cloud : [fed up] Oh,That's it! I just had about enough of this crap!

Sephiroth : [fed up] I'm taking my business elsewhere!

Zack Fair : [fed up] I'm getting myself a refund for this one!

(One by one, several audience members get out of their seats with a creak, exit the theater, and demand their refunds at the cash register by stamping the word: "REFUND" on their tickets. All of these sounds are set to a STOMP-like rhythm; seeing all of this happen, the STOMP leader bangs louder on his trash can lid, and the other other members also bang louder on their instruments while letting out war yells.)

Edward Elric : I can't take it anymore! I want to end this now!

(He pulls a gun out, cocks it, and kills himself, and other audience members follow suit. The guns' sounds are also set to a STOMP-like rhythm.)

Emma : Oh God! They're killing their selves...!

Leo : With Rhythm!?

Kairi, Winry, Aerith : [as we zoom by several audience members that kill themselves] Make it stop!

(Next, more audience members cut their arms with a scalpel, also setting it to a rhythm; as this happens, the STOMP cast does a big finale, where one member bangs his broom on a trash can while another wears it and the leader beats his sticks on many lids in a ninja-like fashion. At the end, the leader exhales in joy, but gets shocked when he sees the remaining dead audience members. To the end of it, the last one living is Patty herself waving to the Stomp crew "Goodbye")

Patty Thompson : See you on the otherside, c*cksuckers! (shoots and kills herself)

Balan : Well, I guess the 100% completion reward would be a great success. Also, the last one committed suicide. Seems like that they like it, ehh? (bumps into Nights) Get it?

Lance : ...Eh, I can't be a villain no more. Soup 2 nuts?

Balan : Soup 2 nuts. (both him and Lance shoots and kills their selves)

Leo : Well, this sucks.

Emma : We should be get going. (the two sneakily walk away, and then runs off)

Stomp Leader : Why did we even think our sevles as 100% completion award? Stupid maestro and his stupid game.

[iris out]

#balan wonderworld #final fantasy #fullmetal alchemist #kingdom hearts #soul eater #robot chicken #square enix #studio bones #arzest #adult swim #funimation #crossover #dark comedy #humor #dark humor #funny

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noirepersonal · 3 years ago

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I'm rewatching Mob Psycho 100 and fucking hell, I forgot how good and shocking it can be to see two characters struggling about life, at different ages, just as I did/am.

Mob, as a teen, feeling bland and useless and not knowing what to do with his life, afraid he'll fuck up his entire adult life by making one wrong choice. Afraid he'll be alone all his life.

Reigen, the 27yo who feels lost in life and struggles to find a purpose in his life. Trying to find the colour in his life again. While pretending to be a mentor for Mob and giving half-assed life advice when he too has no fucking idea how life is. He PRETENDS to be an adult while trying to find his path again while his family is dissatisfied with his life.

This anime is able to connect with both adults and kids at the same time and I will never stop loving it.

I can't fucking wait for season three. "I knew it all this time. You're a good man, teacher," makes me cry my eyes out even now.

#noire's useless rant #look i love this anime more than one piece and that says something #also reigen is a fraud but he's so fucking hot #why did the mangaka had to put him in a suit #and gave him beautiful HANDs #he likes to flap around

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holycow99 · 3 years ago

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石田お寿司 12/9/21 stream translation Part 2

This is not the full translation of the stream. I only translated the parts I could understand & interpret or parts I found interesting/important. I’m still a beginner in Japanese, so the translations may not be accurate. If you want to repost, please repost at your own risk.

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*Someone asked about Choujin X.

I: I’ve given the manuscript for chp 8. It’ll be released in a few days. I don’t really have much to say about this. I wanna write this month’s goals for Osushi. The big plan is to fix(?) chp 8. Then, I wanna release another two chapters this month. Chp 8 has 20 something pages. I want to at least draw the chapters in a weekly pace. What I mean by that is I wanna draw 72 pages per month. If I could draw 72 pages a month, I drew 18 pages per week during Weekly Young Jump too. So, I wanna draw 18 pages per week, which is 72 pages per month. That’s the amount of pages for weekly publication. It’d be nice if I could draw at least this much by myself. If I drew 25 pages weekly for three weeks, It’d have a total of 75 pages. I can currently get it done. If I updated 3 chapters a month, I’d have a total of 70-something pages per month. Then, nobody will complain. It’s not like anyone is complaining. It’s so that I won’t complain to myself. This is directed towards me as a challenge. Of course, it’s okay if I couldn’t do it. It doesn’t matter if I can or can’t, I thought it’s better to have a goal.

C: And the fact that you’re streaming right now is amazing!

I: Right? I spent a lot of time at the end of August doing rectifications, plotting, etc. They’re all important things to do. Since I have a little bit of free time, I thought of streaming.

C: It’s okay to draw the chapters slowly. Do you concern about maintaining the quality?

I: The quality is as usual. I mean, that’s one of the reason. It’s also to match the quality of the work. The drawing style in Choujin X is different, so of course the drawing will be different too. There are things that have changed. I want to match the vibe of the work, and also, I wanna prioritise speed over the quality. By speed, I don’t mean I wanna write them in a hurry. I want them to have a quality that’s easy to balance. I’m still playing around with it.

C: Until what chapters do you plan to release the physical copy?

I: I can just release it. I do have a plan for it, like releasing 2 volumes altogether.

C: I’m okay with anything as long as you don’t collapse later on.

I: You’re exactly right. I’m doing it with ease. So that the serialisation will go well, I’m adjusting my pace. This is just my ideal, but I wanna serialise another manga. It doesn’t have to be serialised, I have another stuff I wanna release. I’m finding the time to make one. If I make it a rule to do other things after I’ve done 75 pages per month, I don’t have to draw more. I could use the time to do other stuffs.

C: Don’t push yourself.

I: I’m not.

C: Are you overworking?

I: Not at all. I have many hands.

C: Did you play JJ?

I: I played the game like hell.

C: Is it easier to not have assisstants?

I: That’s a good question. This is kinda weird, people say that your work will progress more if you have more assistants, but that’s not the case. I did TG without knowing that. People will ask you to check on their works. So, the more the people, the more the workload. There’s probably an appropriate number of people you should have. 4 people would probably be enough during TG. But there were more people, like the helpers, but they did regularly help. It was quite a lot. I won’t be able to do my own work when there’s a lot of staffs. I don’t have assistants for choujin X so that I can do it with ease, and umm… It’s the fastest way for me. Of course, I do think the quality of the work will increase if there are staffs. I’m trying to see if I can speed up my work to a certain extent without having to check on others’ works and consider about other people, while creating the quality contents I’m capable of.

C: Working alone or with assistants finish faster?

I: It depends on the stuffs you’re making. For choujin x, I think it’d be hard for me to draw them if I had assistants. It’ll be great if we can have divisions.

C: Are you gonna hire a care assistant? (t/n: The Japanese word is Meshistant, which means assistant who mainly takes care of the mangaka’s meal, chore, etc. So, I just put it as care assistant.)

I: Definitely no. I didn’t let my assistants do the chore. I even cleaned the toilet myself. I kinda hate it. I hate the label they give to such people. Meshistant. I don’t like people who call them that. I don’t mean you. I probably won’t be fond of mangakas who use that word. They’re your staffs, right?

C: Do you think of the story all by yourself?

I: Yeah. Sometimes I do get ideas from my surrounding. But, most of it came from mine.

(t/n: I’m not sure if the last sentence is correct. I couldn’t really understand what he meant, but it’s something like that.)

C: I’m having a hard time to sleep. Recommend ways for me to sleep well.

I: Probably read books. It can make your eyes feel tired. Then, maybe by not sleeping? But you might think it’s better to sleep. I understand. I wanna keep trying to fall asleep, but then I’ll watch movies while lying down. I have trouble sleeping lately. I used to sleep a lot.

C: Meshistant is also an honourable job.

I: Then, why not just hire people who specialised in that. Like housekeepers. They have that, right? Something like a home helper. That is better, isn’t it? Using assistants who’re enthusiastic to draw manga to do stuffs like that is awkward for me.

*Someone commented about hiring maid.

I: Maid? Then, I’d like that. Hahaha. Should I hire a maid? I’m recruiting maids.

C: Even at the age of 250,000, you still have trouble falling asleep.

I: Yeah.

C: Are they hired to make meals?

I: Yeah. There’s various types of assistant in the manga industry. This one refers to an assistant in charge of meals.

I: What did I wanna talk about? Oh yeah, about Animal Rap. I’m thinking whether or not I should upload animal rap video during stream, but where is the file? I’ve decided to upload it after this stream ends. What was it that I wanna talk about? Can you tell me about my current status, such as about the Sui exhibition in Osaka and Nagoya, or about Ms. Towada’s illustrations?

C: How about a live rap?

I: Good idea.

C: About the plan for 30,000 subscribers.

I: That’s right 2x. We’re talking about what to do to celebrate 30,000 subscribers.

C: I can be your maid for free.

I: I’ll definitely pay you. If it’s for free, then you won’t feel your sense of duty. I’ll give a huge salary and pressure you so that you’ll work responsibly.

C: Ms. Towada can both write novels and draw. Amazing!

I: I also can. Hahaha. I also…ah, but I can’t write novels. I won’t lose to her.

C: Do you have double eyelids.

I: Mine is hidden one.

C: Appear in First Take.

I: I won’t.

C: Are your eyelashes long?

I: Yes. My eyelashes are long, I have hidden double eyelids, I am of medium build…but I’m already worn-out.

(t/n: He used the word ‘boroboro’. I couldn’t really find the proper word to translate it in this context. Worn-out is the only one I could think of that suits the context.)

C: Are you handsome?

I: Well…I’m pretty good looking.

C: Have you been going to the gym?

I: No, I haven’t, since I was busy with work. I wanna go though.

C: I wanted to go to Mr. Kunimitsu’s concert.

I: Me too.

C: Which one is more handsome? You or Kaneki?

I: Wouldn’t that be Kaneki?

C: How about another stream with Ms. Towada?

I: I re-listened to the stream with Ms.Towada. For some reason, she was laughing a lot in the stream. Though she always like that. It’s slightly embarrassing. She’s acting like she’s at home. It felt like she’s disclosing my family situation, so it’s a bit..., but I can do that again from time to time. When I wanna do something related to JJ, then I’ll call her. That’s the most suitable content.

*Someone asked him to invite his younger sister.

I: It’s impossible to invite my younger sister.

*People wanted Goubaru to be the guest.

C: Goubaru, huh?

C: Do you have someone you wanna invite?

I: No, I don’t. The corona is one thing, but I’m completely okay with not meeting people. I do talk to people I’m close with. I think that’s already enough. It’s not like I have someone I’m involved with. I do usually talk to Mr. Kunimitsu.

*People want Hanae Natsuki again.

I: Hanae? That’s definitely impossible.

*He’s talking about Japanese youtubers.

C: Can you beat boxing?

I: I’m practising at the moment.

*Currently taking about Japanese artists.

* Someone asked who he thinks could be the next popular artist.

I: Lately, I only listen to instrumentals. The one that I like recently is the girl band called Chai. The group’s vocalists are twins. The group is great. It’s not like I like the band because there’s someone who caught my intention. I listened to their songs first before I decided whether I liked them or not. I thought this kind of voice also exists.

C: Congrats for TG’s 10th anniversary.

I: Thank you. Thank you to Brazil as well. (t/n: Someone commented Brazil.)

*He pinned his Chai comment.

C: People who just came don’t understand what’s going on.

I: It’s okay if you don’t. Hehe.

C: Sensei, can you eat choco mint?

I: I can.

C: I thought the bgm was from Animal Crossing.

I: This is Yorushika’s Escape.

*Still talking about Japanese artists.

C: Have you seen Midsummer?

I: Yes, I have.

(t/n: He said something about the new evangelion movies. But I couldn’t really translate that part properly. He basically watched the Rebuild Evangelion movies from the start since he never watched it before. He planned to go to Yamaguchi prefecture, the birthtown of Evangelion’s author to watch the last movie.)

Y****: I’m reading Toro Hedoro! I recommend it!

I: I do read that. Don’t underestimate me! I do read One Piece as well, but half-way through.

C: You can watch the Evangelion movie on Amazon Prime.

I: I wanna watch the final movie at the cinema. Has the final movie come out? It has? But I’m still gonna watch at the cinema.

C: Have you read Tokyo Ghoul?

I: Nope.

C: I recommend Tokyo Ghoul!

I: Is that so? I have a story regarding TG, but it’s probably gonna be quite deep.

C: One Piece has reached 100 volumes!

I: That guy and Odacchi have reached 100 volumes, right? Hahaha. That guy is Luffy, while Odacchi is Oda sensei. Hahaha. I can’t call him that. Odacchi is Oda sensei and Kishikage is Kishimoto sensei. I see, that guy has reached 100 volumes? Way to go! Hahaha! No one is watching this anyway. I’ll properly lick his boots if he’s in front of me, since he’s the real deal. I’ll be very obedient and sucking up to him.

(t/n: Ishida was using the word ‘aitsu’ to refer Eichiro Oda. As far as I know, it’s an impolite way of calling someone older or in higher status than you in Japan.)

C: He’s scarier than Hikakin (a Japanese youtuber.)

I: Right. We are in the same industry after all. But I think Young Jump and Jump are different subsidiaries. Although, Hara sensei seems to have met with Odacchi, so maybe there’ll be an opportunity for me to meet him. But probably no. Someone like me won’t be able to meet Eichiro Oda sensei. I won’t meet him. He seems like a unique person.

*Ishida talking about an illustrator and youtuber called Saito Naoki.

(t/n: I couldn’t translate the first half of this part because they’re talking about something that had happened, and I don’t know the context of it.)

I: The name ‘Saito Naoki’ is very nice. Is it a pen name? It totally sounds like a real name though.

C: Are you close with Kishida Mel? (t/n: Kishida Mel is an illustrator and a character designer.)

I: I’ve never met him, but Kiyoppi, Kiyohara Hiro sensei and Melcchi are good friends. He’s like a friend of my friend. You have things like that, right?

C: The name ‘Ishida Sui’ is cool!

I: I seriously wanna change my pen name. I wanna change to something like Gengoro. I wanna change to a manlier name. I didn’t give a thought about my name before. I used that name because I thought I was gonna be famous in the future, so I didn’t wanna use my real name. I seriously thought that I couldn’t become a mangaka if my real name was exposed. I was like “Since I’m gonna be famous, let’s avoid using my real name.” I was being vigilant about it, so I half-heartedly named my pen name.

I: The name Gengoro is nice. Tagami Gengoro. Tokyo Ghoul’s author, Tagami Gengoro. The Tokyo Ghoul’s author, Tagami Gengoro’s exhibition is now open. I’d definitely sounds like a bearded fatty. With round glasses to top it off. Isn’t Tagami Gengoro a character from a gay manga?

*Ishida searching for Tagami Gengoro.

I: Everyone, don’t search for it. I’m scared something dirty will appear. Is it not? Oh, it isn’t. what’s the name again? There is a character named something Gengoro, right? It’s Tagame Gengoroh! I got it now! Tagame Gengorohw as born in 1964 and a Japanese mangaka. He calimed himself to be a ‘Gay Erotic Artist’. This is the one! It’s Tagame Gengoroh sensei.

*Ishida was looking at Tagame Gengoroh sensei’s illustrations.

I: This one. Wow, this is indeed gay! Hahaha.

C: I can’t believe it came out of your mouth.

I: Surprisingly, I do talk about these kind of stuffs. (t/n: I mean, he’s the man who wrote a whole R-18 chapter.)

I: So, I can’t use the name Gengoro, since there’s someone with this name.

C: Is the name ‘Ishida Sui’ an anagram of your Surname?

I: Yes, it is.

C: Are you gay?

I: Hahaha! Even if that’s true, you didn’t have to ask that kind of question! Let’s just say that I’m okay with both.

C: Kuso Miso. (t/n: Kusomiso is a gay manga.)

I: Of course, I’d be reading them (probably referring to gay manga). I mean, manga like Kuso Miso Technique are popular, right?

C: Ishida GayGoro.

I: Hahaha. That’s just gay.

C: You’ve been to a gay bar before, right?

I: Not at all. When I was hanging out with the staffs, Goubaru said he wanted to go to a Okama bar while crying.

(t/n: According to the internet, Okama is a term referring to guys who adapted female characteristics.)

C: I think it’s completely normal to be gay nowadays.

I: We’re talking about gay now. It’s not normal in the first place. It’s just a sexual orientation. If you pick on every little thing, everything will become a problem. Those who deliberately say they’re not prejudiced against gays are actually are. Even if you tell that to people, they’ll probably filter what they wanna say. They’d be conscious of every single thing they say. Things like that don’t matter.

C: Sensei, let’s talk about something else.

I: Why? I’m okay with it.

C: I’m bi.

I: Does it matter? It’s okay.

C: It’s difficult to say something regarding gender issues, right?

I: Well…It’s difficult, since it’s concerning your mindset. It doesn’t only apply to gender issues; you can hurt someone by making careless remarks. It’s just that you sometimes accidentally let out your opinions. I also think I sometimes make unnecessary remarks, so I might do that.

C: I want to be embraced by Masataka Kubota. (t/n: Masataka Kubota is a Japanese actor who played as Kaneki in the live-action.)

I: That’s right. Must be nice. I want us to embrace each other.

Part 3

#ishida sui #tokyo ghoul #jack jeanne #choujin x #chojin x #ishida sushi channel

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prioritysope · 4 years ago

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Falling

Reader: Female

Character: Akaashi Keiji

Rating: Explicit

Chapter: 0/?

I also posted this on my Archive Of Our Own and Wattpad account if you prefer reading it on there instead.

spotify playlist: falling | music playlist

You were on your way to your new job. In your short 22 years you have hardly had a job in an office in a manga office, but you were fired only because the central office did not believe your accusation that your boss was sexually harassing you, and they decided to believe that old man and not you. . You spent 2 years working there, having to endure his harassment, just to have money to support you. Since you just turned 18 you left your parents' house, to follow your dream of being a mangaka, which they did not support.

After that incident at your first job, you decided to go a year out of work. You were afraid that something like that would happen again; however, you reached a point where you realized that you needed to get on with your life. You spent a couple of months looking for jobs until one day you got accepted into your dream company. Shonen Jump Magazine. You were too excited.

From your place you could see the big sign of the building. You let out a sigh before entering. You felt your heart beat hard in your chest, it seemed like you were going to explode at any moment.

You went straight to the elevator. You remembered that you had written down on a piece of paper, the floor where you should go. You took it out of your purse, which was hanging on your left arm. Floor 6. You waited quietly in front of the elevator, which in a couple of minutes opened in front of you, but you waited for everyone to leave. Being completely empty, you entered, staying in a corner. When it was already somewhat full, the doors were closed.

Floor 1

Floor 2

Floor 3

Floor 4

Floor 5

Then floor 6.

You waited for everyone to come out quietly, giving kind smiles to those who were watching. You left calm, going to the large desk that was in that big office. With a small smile, feeling the nerves to the surface. You cleared your throat when you were standing in front.

"How can I help you, miss?" The secretary spoke. She looked quite friendly. Her short black hair suited him quite well with her slightly round face, but she looked very cute.

"Good morning. I come to find Mr. Kita, I am the new graphic designer, L/N Y/N." You told him, giving her a smile.

Yes, despite your dream of being a mangaka, you also loved everything that was about graphic work. Perhaps with time you could show that you also have the talent to make mangas.

"Welcome, Miss L/N! Come with me, I'll take you to her office. I almost forgot, I'm Kimura Akira." She murmured, getting up from her swivel chair. She walked up to where you were, bowing, which you reciprocated.

Kimura started walking, and you followed her. Some employees made referrals to you, which you reciprocated in the same way. For a strange reason, you already felt part of everything. They both walked into a huge office, where everyone could be seen working and a white-haired man with black tips talking to them about something. With respect, Kimura opened the door, which made everyone turn their heads towards you. You felt your heart in your throat because of how nervous you felt right now.

"Sorry for the interruption, Mr. Kita." Akira apologized, bowing. "The new graphic designer you hired has arrived."

You bowed to him, a small smile on your lips. "Greetings, Mr. Kita. I am L/N Y/N. I hope to be very helpful in my time working." You managed to say, despite your nerves eating you up.

Everyone in the office welcomed you, except one, who looked very focused on his work. Maybe he was so focused that he didn't notice your arrival. You returned your gaze to your now boss, who was looking at you serious.

"Welcome, Miss L/N. I hope the same energy that you are radiating now is the same every day." He said in a totally hoarse voice. "From now on I will tell you that your partner will be our exemplary employee, Akaashi Keiji. He is also a graphic designer, so you can help each other. I hope you get along." He pointed to the side of the office, being the same guy who didn't welcome you.

You only dedicated yourself to nodding to go to slowly approach his desk, which was right next to yours. You just went to yours, putting your things on top and sitting in the swivel chair. After a few minutes, you felt a hand touch your shoulder, which turned your face. He was the pretty boy, no, up close he looked more handsome. Her black and somewhat curly hair fell perfectly on his forehead, her blue eyes with some green looked beautiful and his eyelashes were to be envied. Also, that he was wearing glasses, which made him look cute.

"Sorry for not welcoming you, I was very focused." He said in a low tone, but his voice was hoarse. What a beautiful voice. "From what I see, you are the new graphic designer, welcome, Miss L/N."

Why did my last name sound so good in his voice?

You felt faint.

"Thank you very much, Akaashi. I hope we can work well." You whispered You were too shy in front of him."I hope so too." It was the last thing he said before going back to his work.

#prioritysope.fic #haikyū!!#haikyuu smut #haikyuu x reader #akaashi keji x reader #akaashi keiji #akaashi smut #akaashi fluff #akaashi x y/n #akaashi keji x you

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fuanteinasekai · 4 years ago

Photo

Time to talk volumes 25 and 26! I said I would translate the afterwords for both volumes together, and I have regrets. So, it’s a week late, but I finally finished.

Why did I put volumes 25 and 26 together? Because each contains about half of the 5 chapter long “Village of the Sleeping Vessel” arc, and because they were treated as two halves of a whole. As you can see above, both the cover illustrations and the afterword illustrations are part of a set: complementary Natori/Matoba covers and complementary Natsume/Tanuma illustrations. Because I’ve never compared these two pairings or anything.

The covers are interesting for the way they seem to reflect Natori and Matoba’s contrasting points of view. But I’m most personally interested in the afterword illustrations because they seem rather optimistic to me, and because they tell a story. While the first half was melancholy, and seemed to suggest that Natsume and Tanuma would be drawn to each other even if Natsume were hopelessly cut off from the human world, the second half seems to show Tanuma being able to cross that line and come see him anyway.

Anyway, author’s notes translation ahead!

Volume 25

お疲れ様でした。

この��ネタバルとなりますので最後に読んでいただけるち嬉しいです。

２５巻目となり夏目たちの関係性も変わりつつある中、夏目友人長を描き始めた頃にいつかやってみたいなと思っていたお話もやっと描けるようになってきました。話を思いつきつつも初期の頃の夏目やニャンコ先生でほうまくビジョンが浮かばずやれなかったものが少しづつ描き取れるようになってきました。

反対に初期これがやりたいと思いつつ、今の関係性ではもうそこはクリアしてしまったから描くことは出来なくなったなという話がいくつかあります。簡単には寄り添えなかった頃の夏目でしか表現出来ないような話が使えなくなった事が寂しいような、それもまた良いかと思えるような不思議な気持ちです。そんな描くには時期を外してしまった話も形や方向を変えてちゃんと育てていつかまた見えたらぜひ描いていってみたいと思っています。

Thank you for reading.

Spoilers follow, so please read this last.

With volume 25 and relationships between Natsume and others changing, I’m finally able to draw the stories I wanted to draw when I first began Natsume Yuujinchou. As I think up stories, I’ve been able to gradually write down things that I couldn’t draw in the beginning, when I didn’t have a clear vision for Natsume or Nyanko-Sensei.

On the other hand, there are things I wanted to draw in the beginning but can no longer do because that issue is already settled in the current relationship. To put it simply, it’s sad* that I can no longer use the kind of story that can only be expressed by a Natsume who doesn’t get close to others, but I have a funny feeling it’s also a good thing.** In order to draw that kind of story, I’d like to change the form and direction of the stories for which I missed the time period and develop them properly, and if I see a chance again I’d definitely like to draw one someday.

“Sad” here is sabishii, which is commonly translated as lonely or desolate, but can also refer to the melancholy of something no longer existing. ** Fun fact: she used this same “funny/strange feeling” expression when she said Tanuma was the reason for the “characteristic distance” between him and Natsume.

—

{Note: in addition to the afterword illustrations, Volume 25’s afterword background is illustrated with silhouettes of the Mid-rank yokai on their mission, as well as what appears to be Nishimura, Kitamoto, and Taki. Also the kitty brigade. Also Sensei in a suit for the anniversary bit. Volume 26 is arranged differently and does not have background illustrations. Additionally, the only mini illustration in 26 is this at the very beginning:

}

特別編21

16ページという事で何が入るか悩んだのですが中級達の得体の知れなさも出せるものを描いてみたいなとやってみました。連載が長いので時々、自分にこっそりお題を出して描く事があるのですが（例えば『つきひぐい』の回はモノローグ禁止とか）せっかく小ページの回なので「主人公を描かない」を。けれど描いてみて夏目が出ていないとなんとなく閉鎖的な感じもして、そこが新鮮でもあり反面、異種間の緩衝材的な存在は大事だなと再確認した回でした。

Special 21

I was worried about what I could fit into 16 pages, but I wanted to try to draw something that would display the mysteriousness of the Mid-Rank yokai. As the series is so long, I sometimes draw something where a secret problem for myself appears (for example, in “Tsukihigui” monologues were forbidden). For these rare few pages, it was “the protagonist can’t appear.” But when I started drawing it, it somehow felt closed off without Natsume appearing, and while that was novel on the one hand, it also reaffirmed that some kind of buffer between species was important.

—

第百·百一·百ニ話～　依代*の眠る里

百回記念日という事で担当さんと話し合って久しぶりに長めのお話を描かせていただけることになり感激でした。いつもなら登場したらすぐ帰ってしまうキャラ達をもう少しじっくり描けるのは本当に嬉しくて。

初期から描いてみたい話だったのでワクワクしつつも、アレと同じ形がいっぱいいたと言う事にジョックを受ける方もいるのではと気を引き締めながら描きました。田沼やタキといる時は自然でいられるようになってきた夏目ですが、祓い屋としての名取や的場といる時は強くあろうとする面があるのか、かえってそういうものが意外に脆さになるのかも知れないなと描いていて感じました。

成長したから出てくる不安定なものも描きとっていけたらなと思っています。

Chapter 100, 101, 102: Village of the Sleeping Vessel

I was moved when, after talking with my editor about commemorating the 100th chapter, I was given a chance to write the first long story in a long time. I was really happy to be able to put a little more care into characters that normally leave as soon as they appear.

At the same time as I was excited to be able to do a story I’ve wanted to draw since the beginning, I was also bracing myself that some people would be shocked by so many of the same shape. Natsume has gotten to the point where he can be natural around Tanuma or Taki, but with exorcists like Natori or Matoba, there’s a side where he tries to be strong, and I felt while drawing like that sort of thing might, all the more, unexpectedly turn fragile.

I think it would be nice if I could keep drawing uncertain** things that appear as a result of growing up.

* “Vessel” here explicitly refers to vessels designed to be occupied by kami, known as yorishiro.

** This “uncertain” is actually the same “unstable” that she used when talking about Natsume and Tanuma’s “unstable worlds,” (aka my blog title) so I was a little startled to see it here! It’s also super-vague, which always makes me Suspicious.

—

特別編22 ８ページという事で悩みました。小ページだからいっそいっぱい描きたいキャラを出そうと言う事でみんなに話を聞いてまわる話にしてみたいなと。パトロールは大事ですよね。

Special 22

I was worried about there being [only] 8 pages. Since there are so few pages, I thought of filling it with characters I wanted to draw, and I wanted to go around talking to everyone. The patrol is very important, isn’t it?

—

Special Anniversary Notes:

こんにちは、緑川です。夏目友人帳、２５冊目となりました。何度目であろうと　こうして一冊にしていただく度、緊張と嬉しさを噛み締めております。相変わらず漫画を描く楽しさや難しさと格闘しておりますが面白く読んでいただけるものが描けるよう頑張っていきたいと思っております。どうぞよろしくお願い致します。

Hello, This is Midorikawa. We’ve reached Volume 25 of Natsume Yuujinchou. No matter how many times it happens, whenever I get a new volume like this, I enjoy the tension and happiness. As usual, I’m still grappling with the enjoyment and the difficulty of drawing manga, but I’d like to do my best to be able to draw something that’s fun to read. Thank you very much.

長い間、コミックスでお馴染みだった、左端の1/4コーナーですが、この巻からなくなっております。雑誌では広告が入る場所で、ネームの時は展開やシーンのタイミングを見ながらどこへ入れるか悩ましいスペースだったのですが、コミックス化の際にはなかなかお伝えする機会がないご挨拶やお礼を書き込めた思い出深いスペースでした。

The 1/4 space on the left side of the page has been familiar in comics for a long time, but it’s missing from this volume. It’s a space for advertisements in a magazine, but when I’m captioning, I worry about where to place it while looking at development and scene timing. But it was a space full of memories for me, where I was able to writing greetings and acknowledgments I hadn’t really had a chance for when it was turned into a comic.

夏目100回記念

長く続けさせていただき連載100回目を迎えることが出来ました。本当にありがとうございました。「依代の眠る里（第一回）」が丁度百回目となり、掲載号ではLaLaの先生方がご協力くださりそれぞれの作品のどこかにこっそりと隠れニャンコ先生を描いてくださいました。とても可愛いニャンコ先生をたくさん描いてただけて、ご協力いただいた先生方や企画を考えてくださった編集部様方や読んでくださってきた読者様方に感謝で胸がいっぱいになりました。大事に致します。

Natsume’s 100th Anniversary

After a long run, the 100th chapter of the series has arrived. Thank you very much. When the exact 100th chapter (Village of the Sleeping Vessel Chapter 1) went to print, the LaLa senseis [mangakas] cooperated to secretly hide Nyanko-sensei in each of their works. I am full of gratitude to those who drew so many super cute Nyanko-senseis, to the editorial staff who planned it, and to the readers. Take care.

お手紙

お手紙とても励みになります。可愛いイラストを描いてくださったり、素敵なお話をきかせてくださったり、思いを込めて感想を書いてくださったり、とても嬉しく大切に読ませていただいています。なかなかお返しできませんがまた楽しんでいただけるよう頑張っていきたいと思っています。

Letters

Letters are very encouraging. I’m very happy to carefully read your letters: the cute illustrations, lovely stories, and thoughtful impressions. I can’t really answer them, but I want to do my best to keep appreciating them.

Volume 26

{Note: Volume 26 does not have an overall commentary, just the usual “thanks for reading, please save this for last.” Also both volumes have an acknowledgements section I did not translate. Please spare me.}

第百三·百四話依代の眠る里

久しぶりに長めのお話を描けて本当に嬉しかったです。読切形式だといつも途中でもう次は何をと頭がいっぱいになりますが、こうしてすぐに締めずに展開できるととてもワクワクして漫画家になりたかった頃の気持ちが思い出されました。短く切ってしまいたくない話も沢山あるのでまた機会がありましたら読んでいただけると幸せです。ずっとやりたかった依代の里のお話でしたが今の心境になれた夏目だから帰れた話でもあるのかなと感じました。同業だからの連帯認識とその時の考えで会う度に変化していく名取と的場の微妙な立場も描き取っていきたいです。絆ある友人を人事ている夏目、祓い屋である事でも力になれるはずだと信じている名取、おおくを知り見る事は出来ている故動く事が出来ない事もある的場、きっと力になれるはずなのに同行できない田沼、秘密を見守る猫達、ニャンコ先生、描きたいものがいっぱい描けて楽しかったです。そしてもっとこの話で描きたかったなと思っている事もあるのでまたしっかり練って描いていきたいです。

Chapters 103, 104: Village of the Sleeping Vessel

I was really happy to write a long story for the first time in a while. With standalone stories, my head is always already full of what I’m going to do next when I’m halfway through, but this time I was really excited to be able to develop the story without immediately bringing it to a close. It reminded me of how I felt when I first became a mangaka. There are many other stories I don’t want to cut short, so if I get another chance I’d be happy for them to be read. I’ve wanted to do the Yorishiro Village story for a long time, but with Natsume’s current state of mind I feel like there are probably other stories I could return to. I also want to keep drawing Natori and Matoba’s delicate position, which changes whenever they meet because of the sense of solidarity as colleagues, and because of their thoughts in the moment. I was happy to be able to draw so many of the things I wanted to draw: Natsume who believes in his close friend[s], Natori who believes he should be able to support [Natsume] even though he’s an exorcist, Matoba who sometimes can’t act because he is able to know and see so much, Tanuma who surely should have been able to support [Natsume] but couldn’t accompany him, the cats who keep a secret, and Nyanko-sensei. Also, sometimes I think about how I wanted to draw this story even more, so I want to keep polishing it up properly.*

* A little confused by present tense here. Maybe she wrote this note while they were still editing between magazine and tankobon?

—

第百五話　クッキーと森の入り口

里から帰った夏目は田沼に色々報告せねばならないのではと思い出来たお話です。ニャンコ先生について、妖絡みで仕事をしている人達について。けれど隣あってみると話すというより一緒に何かやっているうちに気持ちの整理がついていき、夏目なりに田沼への報告が出来たのではと感じました。アニメグッズで担いだ風呂敷に穴が空いていてみかんを落としているニャンコ先生を描いてくださった絵があるのですが、ああいう可愛いお話も描きたいと思っていたのを思い出しました。

Chapter 105 Cookies and The Forest Entrance

This is a story that developed out of the thought that Natsume had a lot he needed to tell Tanuma when he came back from the village. About Nyanko-Sensei, about people who work with yokai issues. But when I saw them side by side, I felt that rather than talking, Natsume would sort out his feelings while they did something together, and that he would be able to report to Tanuma in his own way. There’s an anime merchandise illustration of Nyanko-Sensei dropping satsumas from a hole in the furoshiki slung over his shoulders,* and it reminded me that I wanted to draw a story with something cute like that.

*Good news! I found the merch:

—

第百六·百七話　亡き友を訪ねて

依島さんは２０巻目の「とおかんや」といお話で夏目と先生と名取が会いに行った元祓い屋です。２４＋３２ページでは入らないかなとも思ったのですが、ずっと描きたかった話で、依代の里をやった今描いておきたいと入れさせていただきました。依島さんを描く時は時代を少し離れて描けるような気がして楽しいです。夏目と対等の妖力を持つ相手との行動も描けて新鮮でした。そんな力ある先輩が事情があるにしろ辞めて引き篭もっている現状は後輩達には少し複雑なのではと思っています。賑やかな娘達、広いお屋敷、キラキラしていた空間に透けてくる侘しさのようなものに気付いてしまう瞬間の様なものも描いていけたらと思います。

Chapter 106-107 Visiting a Late Friend

Yorishima-san is a former exorcist who Natsume, Sensei, and Natori met in Volume 20, “Ten Days.” I was worried that it wouldn’t fit into 24+32 pages, but I’ve been wanting to draw this story for a long time, and now that the Yorishiro Village arc is done, I got to fit it in. When Yorishima-san appears, I feel like I get to draw something a little out of time, which is fun. It’s also refreshing to be able to draw Natsume doing something with someone who holds the same level of spiritual power. I wonder if it’s not a little complicated for the juniors when that kind of powerful senior goes into seclusion without regard for circumstances. I got caught up with the cheerful daughters, spacious mansion, and sense of refinement that sparkles through the space, and the time spent drawing seemed to pass in a flash. I wish I could have kept going.

#The text isn't showing up in drafts so please open if you want the translations.#This was really long and I'm out of practice #so there may be a few mistakes #But I think I at least got the ideas down #gonna go lay down for a while #spoilers #though minor #if you haven't read everything up through 2020

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thereisnochillinsideme · 4 years ago

Text

The rain, Akaashi Keiji part two

I'm sorry it's been such a long time I've just had some stuff going on but here it is, part two. I also think @bakudummy asked to be tagged, if you didn't ask me to I'm sorry please tell me I'll take it off anyway enjoy! Akaashi was currently locked in a debate between himself and himself. While one side was telling him that it would be fine if he visited [Name] and Takahashi in normal clothing while the other was telling him that they weren’t close enough and that he was required to wear a three-piece suit. The first side then argued back that they might think he’s rude if he showed up for a cup of hot chocolate in formal wear. In the end, he decided that after picking [Name] and her cake off the street and getting her to Takahashi’s apartment, what he wore probably mattered the least to either of them right now and settled on a cotton T-shirt. He made his way out of his apartment and knocked on the door to his right, which was opened by Takahashi. He hadn’t usually seen her like this. She had changed out of the pencil skirt she so usually wore to work and was currently in a sweater and leggings. She also looked surprised to see Akaashi in anything but his work wear. She let him in and went back to the stove, where the milk for the hot chocolate was bubbling on the stove. He saw [Name] spread out on an armchair, now changed out of her wet clothes. She saw him and immediately perked up, changing her position to see him better. He took a seat on the couch across from her. She gave him a smile and immediately began speaking to him.

“Stoneface-san! Feeling better?”

“Yes, much better. How about you?”

She smiled. “I’m doing great! I got my cake, I got to meet you, I got to see Yo-chan, and now she’s making me hot chocolate!”

Akaashi smiled at the childlike elation she had at the situation she was in. She was an optimist to the bone.

He was a bit jealous of her, though he didn’t realize it. He was jealous of people like her. They didn’t have a care in the world, complete confidence in themselves. And people like him or Takahashi were following them around making sure nothing happened to them because, jaded and anxious as they were, they didn’t want that optimism to fade. It gave them strength too. It reminded him of the former captain of his high school volleyball team. Bokuto-san’s confidence was a force to be reckoned with and now there he was, playing professionally on a world stage.

Takahashi walked over with two mugs of hot chocolate, setting them on the coffee table that separated him and [Name]. [Name]’s smile grew wider upon seeing the drink and she happily picked it up and immediately took a big sip.

Immediately she started coughing.

“Ah barned mah tahnge.” She said, with her tongue hanging out.

Takahashi and Akaashi started laughing in unison as [Name] also began laughing with her tongue still hanging out.

“Why are you laughing? You burned your tongue?” Akaashi asked through chuckles.

“It is funny,” [Name] said through sips of cold water to soothe her tongue.

Time was spent happily drinking hot chocolate while [Name] told them jokes and stories.

Putting down his mug, Akaashi looked at [Name].

“[Name]-san, I’ve been meaning to ask your full name, as I didn’t get it when I met you.”

[Name] smiled. “[Last Name] [Name]”

Akaashi did a double take. “I’ve been calling you by your first name this whole time? That’s incredibly disrespectful as we don’t know each other well”

“It’s fine, Stoneface-san. I’ve never liked using my surname as it puts a formality barrier between me and who I’m talking to. Please use my first name.”

Akaashi nodded in acceptance. “So [Name], what do you do for work?”

She winked. “If I told you it would be no fun. It’s your job to guess. Your hint is that I’m in the creative field.” After many consecutive wrong guesses, [Name] changed the subject and started telling them what had happened to her at the train station that morning. As they laughed, Akaashi began to realize how much fun he was having.

It had been a long time since he had done anything like this. He maintained a strictly professional relationship with his coworkers and Bokuto-san was not free most of the time with having gone professional. He would come by and have a drink with Akaashi ever so often, but Bokuto-san usually found himself leaving early to spend more time with Shoyo. Akaashi didn’t mind that he was branching out and he knew that their adult life was definitely going to impact their friendship. However, it was not after he lost them that he realized just how much he cherished the carefree days on the volleyball team, how he would chase Bokuto-san around with an umbrella to stop him from getting wet in the rain.

It was probably why he spent so many late nights at work, trying to quiet his mind by occupying it. His high school friends were all busy with their own lives, he felt he should be as well.

“Stoneface-san?” He heard

He snapped out of his daze and saw [Name] staring at him, slightly concerned.

“Are you okay? Your stare was really blank and you didn’t laugh when I told you about when I threw a squid tentacle at the guy who came to collect my taxes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just feeling a bit tired. I also have some work due tomorrow, so do you mind if I take my leave?”

Takahashi looked at him, obviously concerned, but trying to hide it. “Yes of course, I’ll show you to the door.”

She walked him over to the door of the apartment and opened it, letting him go through.

“Thank you for looking after [Name] today, I’m sorry if she was a bit of an inconvenience. It was nice to have you both over, we should do it again sometime.”

Akaashi nodded, thanked her, and went inside his own apartment.

He didn’t mean to leave so abruptly, but he wasn’t lying, he did have work.

He made his way to the small desk by the window of his apartment and sat down, picking up the large, stapled sheet of paper by his window.

Today, his work was a bit more enjoyable than usual. He was editing one of his more favorite comics that was published in his magazine. Asuma no Sekai was a comic set in a demon world, with the main character being an incredibly lazy demon who preferred eating cake to doing her job. The crazy schemes she pulled to get out of doing her job were sometimes more work than doing the actual job and always made the reader laugh. Editing it was a more favorable part of Akaashi’s week and it never failed to lift his mood. The author was Sakurai Daisuke. He had never met the author in person as he usually sent someone else to pick up his manuscript, but he looked forward to meeting someone who was such a good mangaka.

After spending a couple hours reading, laughing, and editing the work, Akaashi went to bed as he had work the next morning.

[Name] had left on the first train that morning and though Akaashi was slightly mournful that he didn’t get to say goodbye, he continued on with his day like normal.

As the week went by, [Name] occupied Akaashi’s thoughts slightly more than a normal person would. He would pass by the cake shops in his area and wonder if she would enjoy the one in the display window. He was confused by why he was thinking about her so often, but chalked it up to the fact that there were a lot of cake shops in his area.

Later that week, on an afternoon while he was home, Akaashi got a call from his employee, Okomoto Chiyo. She sounded extremely distressed.

“Akaashi-san! I’m so so sorry to bother you!”

“It’s okay, what do you need?”

“My wife is sick and I’m home taking care of her. I was supposed to pick up Sakurai-san’s manuscript today, but Nanako’s been throwing up all day and I can’t afford to leave her now. Do you mind picking it up?”

Akaashi was slightly annoyed, as he had just gotten home. However, he knew that he couldn’t possibly ask his employee to leave her sick wife.

“It’s completely okay. May I have Sakurai-san’s address? At least I can finally meet him.”

“It’s xxx-xxx on the other side of the city. The train will be able to get you there really fast. Sakurai-san should have completed her manuscript by now.”

“Her?” Akaashi was confused

“Sakurai Daisuke is a pen-name. The author is female. She picked a male name to sound more ambiguous.”

“Oh, that comes as a bit of a surprise.”

“Thank you so much for doing this, Akaashi-san! I am forever grateful to you.”

“It’s no problem.”

Akaashi looked out his window and toward the train station which was a couple blocks away. It was raining.

As he turned, his eyes fell on a now-dry neon yellow umbrella. He must have forgotten to give it back to [Name].

He picked up the umbrella, put on a long brown coat, and ran out his apartment door.

He was able to make it onto the train last minute, sitting on the seat in relief. As the train moved along, he thought about what the author might be like.

Thinking about it now, it was fairly obvious that this author wasn’t like most of the male authors Akaashi’s company had published.

There was barely any fan service in the series and the author made sure to write her female characters just as realistic and flawed as her male characters. Most of the male authors drew one woman with an unrealistic body and made her show up every now and then to rip her clothes off and leave. Sakurai-san’s female characters had personalities and all different body shapes, some bigger or smaller, darker or lighter, more like the women he would see in the real world.

The train announced his stop and he walked out, looking at the paper where he jotted down the address.

He navigated his way through the twists and turns until he finally got to the apartment building.

He entered and went to the specified floor and found the correct door.

As he raised his hand to knock, Akaashi suddenly felt a bit nervous to meet this author who he borderline idolized, especially when he found out he was wrong about her gender the whole time.

Nevertheless, his hand tapped lightly on the door twice and he heard footsteps rush to open it.

What he saw behind the door was definitely not what he expected.

[Name] was peeking out, wearing a large animal onesie, holding a plate of cake with a plastic fork.

“Stoneface-san?"

#haikyuu #hq #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu fics #haikyuu x reader #hq x reader #hq x yn #akaashi x reader #keiji x reader #akaashi keiji x reader #fukurodani x reader #haikyuu drabbles #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios

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seoafin · 4 years ago

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tbh,, i havent read the raws of the interview yet, only the translated ver from fan-translator and b4 i start, i think that this will be just me talking in circle and in no particular order AND a real mess (my brain does weird things after exams) but uhh here we go

gojou collects talented people, and by doing so he finds the people he can most probably relate to, except that he can't, not really, because something in the universe shifted when he was born. and it makes me think of how he's always known it, that he is special, and he's proven it, time and time again— he wants to take in talented ppl and he does, but there rly isn't much he can do for them. for they are talented, more talented than the world can understand,,

but they aren't gojou satoru

gojou took in megumi, bc he knew megumi was strong, and would grow up to be someone even stronger, but gojou can't facilitate or encourage his growth, bc for all they're similar, they are so fundamentally different. ALSO,, while geto was in his life, gojou rly judged everything according to his understanding of geto’s moral compass. gojou wears a human suit and geto is how he learnt to wear it well 🏃

the dragonfly analogy regarding to geto’s response to gojo, who was shown wearing a dragonfly patterned yukata in HI arc,, i’m trying to not think abt the fact that dragonfly symbolized victory in jpn....pain. i quoted from a web here for more explanation : In Japan the dragonfly is known as the "victory insect", or kachimushi, because of its hunting prowess and also because it is known to never retreat. Dragonflies are agile and fast fliers and can even hover, but never fly backwards

and bringing this up again, matricide and patricide are 2 of the 5 worst act to commit in buddhism, and it was said that if u commit one of those act u’re going to spend a real long time in the deepest pit of hell before continuing the samsaric cycle (higher chances to be born as an animal after that probs)— this might be geto’s divine retribution. held no power over his own body and could be considered that he’s the same as those “monkeys” 💀

ALSO the fact that sukuna's interest is "eating" rly drives home his hedonistic philosophy of seeking pleasure for himself. and he’s a cannibal...makes me think if he’ll just chomp on ppl with the mouth on his stomach

randomly, to date i think he hasn't really called himself a human, shaman, or a curse, and has held himself apart from all 3, and we've also the intro of the cursed wombs so i wonder if he’s trying to become, or is, a different entity altogether

so onmyoji got mentioned in the interview and what they practice is called onmyodo and abe no seimei and kano no yasunori were the notable practitioners,, and the kamo in jjk is the same as irl who served the imperial court back then

maybe i was right when i said that the relation between the govt. and jujutsu elders are similar to how the shogunate and imperial court work (ie, the former holds the actual power) but... lets see later,,

and i cant believe that i actually nailed it on the analogy of jujutsu practices by religion,,, so mahayana buddhism, shintoism, and taoism is present in jjk along with their respective jujutsu practices...but between the 3, it shld (?) be taoism > shintoism > mahayana buddhism (which could took a path to pure land buddhism)

it’s weird that the number of curses are supposedly higher in jpn comparable to other countries when taoism was brought from china....tengen sus

so the zenin family tree is sth like :

brothers: [toji's dad] ; naobito ; ougi

so toji, naoya, and maki & mai are cousins of the same generation

[toji's dad] → jinichi (probs) ; toji → megumi

naobito → other brothers, naoya

ougi → maki, mai

but yea i’d call anyone who’s within/close or below my age range as cousins and others above 30 as uncles/ aunts LMFAO,, i dont rly memorize my own family tree 😭😭 especially since most call the other by honorifics instead of names : aunt, uncles etc or attaching said honorifics at the end of a name for an older sibling figure/ older cousins [but like ppl in my country also call the other who are older with sibling honorific even if we’re strangers,,, rly similar to korea’s hyung/oppa—eonnie(unnie)/noona but some uses more genderless honorific] (1)

tw // topic of incest, mentions of abuse

if anyone got the wrong idea when reading this : i am not glorifying/ romanticising incest(uous themes),, i’m looking at this with absolutely no lenses of bias even tho im rly against it

初恋 = literally : first love, or puppy love

恋 = romantic love/ deep longing

i literally don't know how else to put this...🧍and with language barrier...using a western interpretation of the eng word "love" to explain a jpnese term is not quite that simple, unfortunately

that thread omg,, i rly do understand how exactly someone could associated kindness with love bc of my upbringing, it was when i was slightly older that i was just...oh so its not like that orz,,, so the most plausible explanation would be that

but the problem is that,, akutami never specify when exactly she had a crush on them,, and when megumi answered todo’s question she had a “♡” reaction 😶,, uhmmm there’s rly no way to look past this if its this way or be in denial

i’ve seen some of "why wouldn't mai react that way after hearing megumi say he'd like someone who's compassionate when she's surrounded by men like naoya",, well I MEAN,,, that, but also mai probs admires that megumi grew up so well out of the clan, regardless of the fact that he had the foundation (10 shadows) to do so. imo she seems happy for him the way she can't be for maki, bc maki ultimately had to leave her behind

hate to say it but yea,, the 3 clans most likely still practice inbreeding in order to preserve their power and presumably their wealth too 😀

i had an idle thought abt it at first but i filed it deep in the back of my mind asap,, bc i ont wanna jump to conclusion abt this out of all things too early. it’s probably not even in jjk, but all those elite clans in other ani/mangas that produce powerful heirs and whatnot also do the same,,, but this way of (my personal) thinking was influenced when i first got into tsukihime (type-moon),,, i read abt the nanaya family background and found out that they practice that in order to keep their bloodline “pure” (to keep it short : they have an optical power),, and i had this kind of assumption ever since so there’s that

i’m,, convinced the zenins' inbreeding made it more difficult for them to get powerful shamans bc they got 2 jujutsu technique-less children with heavenly restrictions in the same generation: toji & maki

even more convinced that maki might be a bit stronger than toji bc toji could see curses without aid while maki can't so the pay-off must be higher,,, SJJASN IDK ,,, plus naoya sort of implies his older brothers are nothing compared to him, and idk if we should take that as his arrogance or that his older brothers rly are weak/powerless. it would make sense as to why naobito had a lot of sons, ig, as head of clan

i feel so bad that if one of the factors that can caused heavenly restriction is inbreeding,, toji and maki and mai had no say in how they wanted to be born but are scorned for it,, typical asian families projecting their traumas and ideals onto their kids but get mad when they realize that those ideals are ugly...😁😁😁

since the zenin are conservative,, i wonder if they still hold onto old jpnese dining traditions. where in ancient jpn, hierarchical relationships were made readily apparent even within families. a dining table where everybody sat down and ate as equals would be unheard of. rather, each individual is given their own table that indicates their status,,, someone who is not considered “strong” according to the zenin’s views most likely have no place at the table, and probs eat when those who are “strong” finished/ serve them when they are eating

if toji was tossed into a swarm of curses,, i dont think abuse during said time is below them,,,

the zenin clan was already great, but they further amassed power and strength by, what i assume to be, marrying and adopting powerful individuals into the clan 🤔 ,,, i imagine they're like the hiiragi but without doing what they did to shinya (ons reference)

BUT after all that, i like to think that since akutami’s a big horror fan, jjk might be an outlet to explore said topics or even darker ones, so i wouldnt be that surpised abt it. given that there’s more than enough “red flags” before this was dropped : a reference to “tale of hikaru genji” when a grown woman asked for gojou’s number in HI arc (out of all things); granny who transformed into the man’s daughter, sat on his lap and man just touched her waist; mei mei and ui ui ; and...this (incestous theme is in the novel btw)

lets not start with whatever the fuck in kubo’s head in the interview otherwise i’m writing paragraphs with every curse words possible,, those big 3 mangakas are so— UGH,, a planet w out (cis) men like him sounds real good rn 😌 if one of yall out there decide to do it,, pls hmu rly cant do this shit anymore

akutami said i like my men pretty and i like women who will step on my neck and spit in my face (I REMEMBERED TATSUKI FUJIMOTO’S INTERVIEW WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABT MAKIMA AND IT WAS SO 😭😭😭😭) but ykw,, love that for both of them <3

when i said 3 : one piece, bleach, naruto. aside from the blatant depiction/ characterize of women in those 3,, idk if some ppl arent aware yet but oda is friends with two (2) convicted pedos,, man...the major disappointment and disgust when i first find out abt it

anyways this is just my 2 cents (which i think rightfully belong to the trash can) so pls just take this w a lil to no grain of salt - 🐱

YEAH THE ♡ LMFAO I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST A “good answer ♡“ heart BUT NOW IM RE-EXAMINING?????

honestly i wouldn’t be surprised if the three clans practiced inbreeding. but ik people are going to be 😡😡😡😡😡 about it when the queen of fucking england is literally married to her (something) cousin. i’m not justifying it but like....love the double standards, just as always with the west 😍

DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT FUCKING PED* LIST THEY SHOULD ALL BE IN JAIL. JAILLLLL. it’s all so gross. that’s why i fucking hate when people look towards manga for positive representation because the chances of that are super slim to zero, especially since the industry is saturated with misogyny and ped******* and a lot of other gross stuff.

i think ppl forget jjk is a horror manga LOL so obviously it’s going to confront darker themes. the question is whether it’s going to be done tastefully or not......

#honestly I don't have high hopes unfortunately 😭#but who knows I might be...pleasantly surprised #idk I don't have high hopes in manga nowadays so hmmm #anyway as always I enjoy ur thoughts <3 ❤️❤️#hope ur doing well!!!#and getting all those genshin impact goodies #🐱 anon #long post

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monkeydluffy19920 · 4 years ago

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I also noticed he’s wearing the circles like Nami does. Is there a reason for those circles?

——————————————————-

Greetings @icantthinkof1posts and many thanks for the submission :) I’ve never paid attention to this detail while watching Heart of Gold-tv special before so thanks for pointing this out! Now that I look at the jacket pattern it surely reminds me of Nami’s skirt and jeans’ circles and after browsing her outfit gallery in One Piece fandom wiki it seems like these circles appear in many of her outfits:

The reason how those circles ended up in Sanji’s jacket in Heart of Gold probably remains a mystery forever but it indeed is a nice detail from the perspective of shipping. However, I think it is partly a coincidence, they both enjoy fashionable clothings and maybe they like same clothing brands. An interesting topic and for example my fellow shippers @pernanegra [x] and @sanjiafsincedayone [x] have written nice thoughts about clothing related to Sanji x Nami for Sannami week- event.

But in general, it’s actually pretty interesting to notice that Sanji and Nami indeed do seem to have some similarities and/ or “parallels” when it comes down to their style and clothing. For example in the following cases there seem to be something:

Sanji’s Alabasta’s outfit

First one might be very far fetched but I admit when I first saw the desert outfit after a long while, the sun on his sleeve reminded me of the logo of the Sun Pirates and guess who was part of the Sun Pirates? Arlong and then who was working under Arlong? Nami!

It’s hard to say did Oda-sensei mean any foreshadowing in this but now to think about the connection to the Sun Pirates came up later in the story line when Jinbei revealed to be close to Arlong.

Sanji knew about Nami’s backstory because Nojiko told it to them earlier when Nami struggled to fight against Arlong’s terror. She didn’t know Sanji knows so she was probably surprised why it was difficult to Sanji to face Jinbei’s confessions.

Actually the Nami’s backstory that returned in Mermaid Island arc turned unexpectedly into a parallel at the latest in Zou arc where Nami became the one who learned about Sanji’s backstory (well there was also Brook and the others but the point is, they both know their backstories)

A bit similar pattern in shirts

Before the Strawhats arrived to Alabasta, Nami wore this colorful heart-patterned shirt and later she changes it to the black/blue bikini top. Sanji also switches his outfit in Skypiea to this red-shaded and flowery patterns too that are a bit similar to Namis (who knows, maybe the same brand?)

Punk Hazard style

Sanji’s winter outfit after the main adventures in Punk Hazard is stylish and has Nami’s colors and those S-patters partly resemble Nami’s iconic pinwheel tattoo. Her jacket instead follows a bit of Sanji’s suit jacket style (with 6 buttons)

Of course those swirls in Sanji’s jacket and in Nami’s could also represent the symbolism behind their names. My fellow shipper @eleamaya wrote a interesting analyze about their names: Sanji = whirlpool // Nami = Wave both things are linked to swirls.

The swirls can also be symbolism for Sanji’s curly eyebrows and now to think about, the symbol of the Arlong Pirates reminds a bit of a whirlpool if one looks quickly.

wearing blue and orange

There are obviously dozens of outfits Nami has worn but one thing that crossed my mind after browsing the One Piece’s fan gallery was that she wears a lot of blue, either the top or the bottom part which is nice because blue is a nice color.

(and yes I am color blind, I can’t distinguish blue and purple-ish well *laughs*)

Also Sanji likes to wear blue but also he has worn a lots of shades of yellow/orange. Shipwise this is an interesting thing to notice because their theme colors are blue and orange. Eleamaya linked it to the colors of the sunset which has these two very colors and she also pointed out there the common link in their names (related to the element of water).

(btw @sanjiafsincedayone‘s post about orange and blue sums ups well this theme)

ties

Both Nami and Sanji have been seen wearing ties both in canon and in Color Spreads, if we return into a earlier subject, Nami wears blue again in Water 7.

Offering the suit jacket to the lady

Sanji is a gentleman so it’s natural nice gesture for him to offer his jacket. First time he offered it to Nami when they survived the ordeals in Little Garden. Nami’s reaction was annoyed.

Later he gave his jacket when they were freezing in Punk Hazard’s cold side. Then Nami’s reaction was more friendly (she seemed actually be surprised about him doing it again). This is most likely because they’ve known each other for a longer time in Punk Hazard arc.

Number 3 in clothing

There has been great analyzes about this topic but to sum it a little bit: Oda-sensei has given each Straw Hats a “theme”number that is based on their birthday and names, Sanji’s is 3.

He has worn number 3 in his outfit in Whole Cake Island arc in flashbacks when he was a child, mostly so their father and his minions could distinguish Sanji and his siblings. Nami as well has worn number 3 in Water 7 arc. Actually Luffy has also worn numbers in the flashback arc. but they are linked to his own birthday as far as I remember, Nami is only strawhat who has worn numbers “just for fun” so far but correct if it’s false.

Of course it might be that since Nami was the third one to join the Straw Hats, her number also is therefore 3 which could be the reason why Oda-sensei made her wear that in Water 7.

clothing details in official art

@sanjiafsincedayone also wrote posts about the colors blue and orange and how they appear in One Piece. Oda-sensei likes to share his official One Piece art in Color Spreads between the chapters and in art collections (Color Walks) and once these are published, we fans then enjoy to find details that match to our OTP.

Here are some of the stylish details that has been pointed out in Sanji x Nami posts about official art:

- similar/matching accessories

One thing Sannami fandom has pondered together is that they like to wear accessories, for some reason there has been a couple of drawings where the accessories are very similar to each other

(the picture below with giraffe theme is from Color Spread chapter 357 and the picture below with similar flowery necklaces is from Color Walk 5)

(They both seem to really enjoy wearing necklaces)

(and who knows, maybe that necklace that appears in Color Walk 4 could be the same as in chapter 357)

When it comes down to similarities, there has also been same styled wristbands in chapter 878′s Color Spread

and sunglasses in the Color Spreads of chapter 941 and 835

Sanjiafsincedayone pointed out also that Nami seems to like to wear blue colored kimonos in Color Spreads

A couple of times Sanji and Nami either wear the same patterns in their clothes (i.e chapter 507)

or one wears swirls and the other rings (Chapter 937)

- character shirts, a (far fetched) foreshadow?

In chapter 692′s color spread Sanji wears a shirt where there is a character who l1ooks very much like Nami (with all the bikini top-style and curly hair)

Nami has actually worn character shirts as well, in chapter 578′s Color Spread. If the theory would be far fetched then we could imagine that picture in her shirt could be referred to Alabasta arc (because of the cactus and desert) where he referred himself with a codename Mr Prince.

If we wanted to put this thought of this even more trickier we would think about Sabo’s background as a noble who never wanted to be a noble and ran away, just like Sanji did so that picture on her shirt could be also a parallel

but since the guy looks more like Sabo perhaps it was more likely foreshadowing to Dressrosa when the Luffy’s long lost brother made a comeback.

And now to think about, Nami’s outfit in chapter 771′s and 588′s Color Spreads could have foreshadowed the upcoming art since Sanji also wore ruffle-styled shirt before the tea party? (and actually, Nami’s WCI arc dress had ruffles too).

fun fact: Robin’s outfit in that Alice in Wonderland themed Color Spread was very close to what Sanji wore in WCI)

sweet escape

The gingerbread theme in chapter 902′s color spread was cute and as a shipper the view of Sanji and Nami sharing the same pattern icing/frosting/topping is cute (there were other Straw hats too in that picture but their patterns were different).

Movie 2 Clockwork Island

Last but not least in the list is One Piece’s second official movie. Yes, it’s a movie and therefore it’s non-canon but I find it interesing that out of all outfits and characters, Nami and Sanji are dressed as they could walk to the wedding aisle any minute. What makes it even more amusing is that Usopp and Zoro are dressed more traditionally and could bless their union *laughs*

And after the Whole Cake Island’s and Thriller Bark’s events and marriage theme that is quite a parallel in total (first Nami being the damsel in distress who needs to be saved from a forced marriage and then later Sanji being forced to marry because of his father’s policies) the more funnier the link between the arcs and movie 2 feels (since there is too Nami being kidnapped and almost forced to marry someone she doesn’t want and the movie’s promo picture includes a bridal carry)

When it comes down to the concept of the word canon, It really depends on the shipper which is counted so called shipwise-material. For some everything is potential but dor some, only manga as canon counts and therefore everything else like side stories (fillers, movies), merchandising (ads etc.) is shipwise just so called “nice extra” (like some of these examples mentioned before) since these filler-stories and movies are still mostly handwritten and directed by someone else than the main mangaka. Obviously Oda-sensei is the main supervisor and is very strict about what should happen and what not and he might do these detail things just for fun and it’s us reading it as signs for OTP. So all in all, as always said,

as much as we like to seek for details to support the ship, it’s all about interpretation ;)

#one piece #nami #sanji #sanami #sanji x nami #sannami #otp #mellorine #long post #luffy #zoro #usopp #nakama #submission #analyze #//sorry got carried away *laughs*

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giogio-gucci-gangstar · 4 years ago

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The Unwilling Wingman pt 4

this chapter is chaos, but the next will be even better!!!

Josuke had to physically restrain himself from rubbing his hands together maniacally, but he guessed he still looked pretty unhinged walking down the street with his hands stuffed in his pockets grinning wildly. Oh well. Koichi had just given him the best possible idea of how to brainwash Jotaro into loving Rohan. Okay brainwashing his uncle made him feel a little gross , and his plan absolutely did not guarantee love, but it sure as hell was a nearly foolproof way to get Jotaro to ask Rohan on a date.

Koichi had reminded him of that weird guy obsessed with dogs from their psychology class, and he was pretty sure that if that Russian dude could condition dogs into salivating at the ring of a bell, he could condition Jotaro to ask for food at the mention of Rohan’s name.

Josuke just needed to associate food with Rohan, which shouldn't be hard because the man looked like a wilted leaf of lettuce. Obviously he couldn't say that, out loud, because of Heaven’s Door, but he could make the link between Rohan and food in another way. Or specifically an association with Rohan and eating at Tonio’s restaurant so that the next time Jotaro sees Rohan (or more like when Josuke schemes for them to meet up) he asks him to go to Tonio’s. Damn brilliant if Josuke did say so himself.

~~~

“Oh shit ROHAN just texted me.” Josuke had taken Jotaro to Tonio’s six times by now, right after he mentioned Rohan, so now was the perfect time to see if it had worked. He tried not to stare at Jotaro but the stoic man slowly looked up from his notebook and frowned.

“Have you had lunch yet?” So close, Josuke was sitting at the edge of his seat.

“Nope! And man am i STARVING!”

“Wanna go to Tonio’s”

“YES OF COURSE I DO I LOVE THAT PLACE” Jotaro looked over at Josuke skeptically, and pulled down his cap with a soft yare yare.

“Lets go now if you're done acting weird.”

~~~

After another invigorating lunch at Tonio's, Josuke was ready to introduce Rohan into the mix. Enough test runs, hopefully the same reaction held when Jotaro saw Rohan not-so-serendipitously on the street.

A few days later was the make-or-break moment. He had instructed Rohan to accidentally meet with them up at the corner near the park. Josuke, looked around frantically wondering where Rohan could be when he finally caught sight of his atrocious green hair.

“Oi Jotaro is that Rohan over there?” Josuke was doing his best to act cool.

“Maybe.” Replied Jotaro expressionless as ever. Oh shit, Josuke hadn't thought of what would happen if Jotaro was actually embarrassed over standing Rohan up last time… Josuke almost bent over laughing, the idea of Jotaro feeling something as stupidly normal as embarrassment was absurd.

“OI ROHAN HI!” Josuke waved frantically trying to get the mangaka to look over nonchalantly. Of course he didn't, that little green bastard flipped his hair in the sun and sauntered over swaying his hips in an obscene way that made Josuke feel like he was watching something pornograhic in public.

“Oh hello Josuke. And Jotaro, almost didn't see you there.” Rohan flashed a sly smile, god that was disgusting.

“Josuke, is it time for lunch?” Oh god yes it was starting to work.

“Yeah,” Josuke could feel himself getting light headed, being around them both was just too much, “but sorry Im not feeling so great gotta go do homework or take a nap or something…” This was not the previously discussed excuse, which he realized when Rohan threw him a pointed look.

“Alright. Rohan do you have any lunch plans?” That was it the magical moment Rohan had been waiting for, his whole face lit up in an expression of happiness that had absolutely no right being on someone like Rohan.

“I can take a break for an hour or two I suppose.” If Josuke wasn't feeling so physically nauseous from the combined presence of those two he would have slapped that gross little grin right off his face. But Jotaro was there and this was how he was getting paid…

“Want to go to Tonio’s?” Jotaro suggested in that deadpan voice of his, but oh no! He was looking down and away, tugging at his hat.Oh my god that was just too much for Josuke he had to get out of there before his sneaking suspicion that Jotaro was blushing under his hat was confirmed.

“Uh bye guys have fun or whatever gotta go!” He shouted as he scurried away.

~~~~~~

Josuke spent the rest of the afternoon burrowing under his covers trying not to think about how he sold his nephew to a lunatic for the afternoon. Instead he tried to focus on the money he earned and what he would spend it on. Maybe some new shoes, or a new suit!

It was around 7 when the doorbell rang. His mom was working late tonight so he hesitantly opened the door, to see Tonio standing there with a bag.

“Oh what's up Tonio?”

“Rohan wanted me to bring this to you as a ‘thank you’.” Tonio explained. Well, that was actually pretty cool of Rohan Josuke thought. He was also never one to turn down free food.

“Oh also, now I understand why you didn't want Pearl Jam to fix up your food all those other times with Jotaro. Watching him and Rohan heal together was miraculous.” Ok one sec, hold the fuck up. What did he just say?

Josuke stood there dumbfounded for a few moments before he could spit out a soft, “Excuse me?”

“They both had so many of the same issues it was apparent to anyone that they are extremely compatible.” It was starting to come back to Josuke, that odd favor Rohan had asked him in the beginning when he started conditioning Jotaro to associate him with Tonio’s. He had requested that Tonio not use Pearl Jam on Jotaro’s food until he was there.

“What did you do to them Tonio.” Josuke was wheezing. Surely Rohan put Tonio up to this, it was just to make him uncomfortable to make up for being nice and buying him dinner. Right?

“I just gave them what they needed. Turns out it was each other, so romantic dont you think? Finding love in such a classic Italian restaurant such as mine?” Josuke stood there in stunned silence. Which Tonio took as encouragement to continue. In detail.

#unwilling wingman #josuke #jotaro #rohan #josuke higashikata #rohan kishibe #jotaro kujo #jotahan #my nonsense #jjba diu #diu #diamond is unbreakable #tonio #tonio trussardi

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softlimefluff · 4 years ago

Text

Fashion Mafia Art

Hi everyone!! Jess over at @alittlewhitetulip and I have been working on a collab fic for a bit about how AriHan and JessCiutto meet each other, and IT’S FINALLY DONE. We’re really proud of it and hope you enjoy learning a little more about everyone’s dynamics!! This fic happens about 2 weeks after the Giovanna twins are born (we love u @dongiovannaswife 💕) (P.S. The title is inspired by the song Fashion Model Art)

“They said another client’s coming in soon and there’s a limit on how many people are allowed in the store, so I should go…”

Giving Rohan a kiss on the cheek, I grinned up at him.

“I’ll just be around the corner. We can video chat if you want~”

With a kiss to my knuckles, Rohan nodded and pulled up his phone.

“I’ll text you the outfits. Stay safe, okay?”

“I will… I’ll miss you~”

Winking, Rohan walked me to the door and stole another kiss, letting his hand slip over my stomach for a brief moment, before pulling his mask back up and returning to the fitting rooms. Putting my mask on as well, I ventured out onto the street in search of a coffee shop.

While the streets were less busy this time of day, Napoli still bustled with afternoon errand-goers, everyone clad in masks as they sought out their next destination. Adjusting my messenger bag, I looked up Centrale del Caffe and followed the map until the glowing storefront appeared.

Getting in line, I looked over the menu, settling on a hot herbal tea and pastry and stumbling through the order in my limited Italian vocabulary.

Why hadn’t I gotten Rohan to Heaven’s Door it into me like he did for Koichi?

After locating the Wifi password and an open table (the last one left), I slid into the booth side of the table, noticing Rohan had sent me a few pictures already. As I scrolled and replied, my name echoed out from the counter, and I went to retrieve my order.

Back at the table, I arranged the cup and pastry into an aesthetically pleasing setup and shyly took a picture, blushing and taking a bite of the croissant as I glanced around after. Everyone else was busy, thank goodness.

Glancing back down at my phone screen, I texted Rohan back, adding little heart reactions to the outfits I liked best.

***

“Hm.”

Looking over Ari’s reactions, Rohan walked out of the dressing room to look for more options to try on. Outside the shop’s glass windows, he saw a couple looking in, before trading their goodbyes: a gentle hug and a quick squeeze of their hands. The man then entered the shop, glancing around. He wore 4 small buns in his slicked-back blonde hair, and a vintage suit that screamed high fashion.

Now this was someone interesting. It took everything in the mangaka not to instantly use Heaven’s Door to read the mysterious stranger. The blond seemed to sense Rohan’s staring, as he quickly met the man’s gaze.

“Hey. You work here?”

Folding his arms, Rohan scoffed. “No. I’m here to shop, just like you.”

“Ah. My bad. Any idea where someone who can actually help me is?”

Gesturing to the front desk, Rohan sniffed out a laugh.

“If you’d be so kind to step this way, I’m sure the proper staff can help meet your needs~”

The blond raised a brow. “Like I said, it was an honest mistake,” he spoke, walking up to the counter. Carefully tapping his fingers on the desk, he called out into the shop: “Excuse me?”

***

Settling in at the table, slowly sipping my tea, I noticed a new message from Rohan. “I met the other client. He looks interesting.”

I quickly typed out a reply.

“Don’t read him with Heaven’s Door!”

“Tch, I promise I’ll behave~ I’ll still be in here for a while longer. Text you when I’m done?”

Texting back a pink sparkle heart emoji, I slipped my phone back into my bag and glanced around. I hadn’t realized it, but the street outside had gotten more crowded—a little faster paced. The bustling scene, full of people of all ages and styles, would be perfect drawing practice.

Not wasting a moment, I laid out my laptop and sketchbook, carefully arranging a pile of pens and pencils nearby so I could find them easily. Popping my headphones in, I chose a song, then opened my sketchbook to a new page.

Before my pencil could hit the paper, I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder. With a start, I quickly pulled at the headphone cord and looked up at the stranger.

In front of me was a young lady—the creamy white of her tea length dress stood out against the stained wood interior of the coffee shop, and a beige coat draped itself picturesquely across her shoulders. Dark hair fell in gentle waves around her face, and I caught a glimpse of dangling gold earrings between the strands. She could have easily fit into a high-end party if she wanted to.

“Posso sedermi?”

Ah, I haven’t heard that phrase before.

“Mi dispiace, ma non parlo…”

“Oh, do you speak English?”

I nodded back and the stranger continued.

“Is it alright if I sit here?”

Realizing all the other seats were taken, I rushed to move my stuff back to the imaginary half line of the table. “Yeah, sure! Of course!”

Sitting down in the other seat with a “thank you,” she took off her mask and gave me a bright smile. While setting her things on the table—a cup of whipped coffee, some pens, and a small leather-bound notebook—she motioned over to my sketchbook. “My apologies for interrupting your drawing! Were you about to sketch the street?”

“Oh! Yeah, I was. There’s so many people around and it’s so full of life. I wanted to capture the moment...”

“Yes, it is quite lovely, isn’t it? You have a good eye.”

The lady winked at me, a playful grin dancing on her lips. She suddenly straightened up in her seat and stared directly at me.

“Ah! But how rude of me, I didn’t introduce myself! Hello, I’m Jess! It’s lovely to meet you. What’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Returning the smile, I offered a hand out to shake, then thought better of it, opting for a small wave instead. Already, Jess seemed to be a bright, bubbly person from the enthusiasm of her introduction.

“I’m Ariel. It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Ariel! That’s such a beautiful name. Are you an artist?”

“Technically, yeah! I do a little of everything--drawing, painting. I even do stained glass.”

“Glass art? That sounds fantastic! Would you mind telling me about it?”

We quickly started a longer discussion about my work, soon branching off into what Jess did as well. In between sips of our drinks, Jess explained she was a writer and had moved to Italy two years ago for inspiration. Originally from Hong Kong, she had been planning to go back to visit, but because of the current situation, she had to stay put.

“Do you live alone?” I asked her halfway into our conversation.

A soft flush spread across Jess’ face, and her bright smile melted into something softer, almost shy.

“Ah...no. I live with my partner, actually… I’m out with him today, but he’s shopping just round the corner at this little vintage shop. I would’ve stayed to shop too, but there’s a limit on how many people can go in.”

“Oh, really? That sounds like the same place my husband’s at~”

Jess’ eyes widened and she gasped, leaning forward in her seat.

“Really? They could be talking to each other right now! I wonder if they’re getting along?”

Laughing, I made a little grimace.

“Rohan doesn’t always know how to play nice with strangers. But, if your partner is at all interesting, he’ll probably cooperate… He’s a manga artist, you see, and he loves looking for character ideas while we’re traveling.”

Jess froze for a moment, eyes narrowing. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, trying to form a question.

“...He wouldn’t happen to be the Rohan Kishibe, would he? As in, the manga artist who draws Pink Dark Boy?”

“Yeah! That’s the one! Aah, I’m surprised you know it, Jump hasn’t put translations out in many countries!”

A soft squeak came from Jess. “Oh my god, oh my god, I am such a huge fan! His work is absolutely incredible and—wait. You said he was your husband...”

The realization seemed to dawn on Jess, and she burst into a squeal.

“MRS KISHIBE?! OH MY GOSH, IT’S AN HONOUR TO MEET YOU!”

Laughing with her enthusiasm, I blushed a bit and grinned.

“Thank you! Heh, I’ve never really met anyone who knew Rohan’s work outside of Morioh... I’m so glad you appreciate Pink Dark Boy, though!! I’m sure Han would be thrilled to know there’s someone out there reading his stories.”

“I CAN MEET HIM?!”

I laughed again, nodding.

“Yeah. Of course you can meet him.”

“OH MY GOD! Seriously, you don’t know what an honor this is, I—a moment, please!”

Jess turned to dig into her bag, producing a copy of the newest summer edition of Pink Dark Boy.

“Do you think he’d sign it for me?”

“Of course he would! I’ll text him now and ask, if you want?”

“If it’s okay? PLEASE.”

Pulling out my phone, I tapped out a message to Rohan and took another sip of tea, listening to Jess gush over the cliffhanger at the end of the issue. With a small gasp, she turned to me again.

“WAIT. You know how this arc ends, don’t you?”

“My lips are sealed. You know I’m not allowed to share until it’s been published.”

“BUT YOU KNOW.”

“Jess, I helped WRITE it~~”

***

Looking down at his phone, Rohan hummed, reading the text that had just arrived:

“Babe, there’s a fan of yours I just met at coffee. Her name’s Jess and she’d like an autograph, if that’s okay? She says her partner is actually at the same shop as you too. Name’s Prosciutto, like the ham. (Don’t laugh, she’s serious). Jess seems really nice, so we’ll probably be here for a bit more chatting. lmk when you’re done and you can meet us here.”

Muttering “Prosciutto?” under his breath, Rohan wrote a quick reply and scanned the store for the man from earlier. The blond was currently in front of the triple mirror, looking at a slim cut suit and testing the fit. Rohan had to admit, the man knew fashion.

“Prosciutto?”

No answer. The man continued to adjust his suit, though he did tuck his hand into the inner suit pocket.

“Excuse me. Are you Prosciutto?”

The blond glanced up this time. “...I am,” He answered, but there was an edge to his words that hadn't been there before. “And I don’t remember giving you my name.”

“My wife told me. She’s chatting with your partner, Jess. They found each other at the coffee shop.”

Prosciutto’s eyes narrowed, when a ringing went off in his pocket. His hand was still in his inner suit, so he used his other one to answer it, fishing out his phone and pressing it to go on speakerphone. “Bella?”

“Bello! Pro, I met Rohan Kishibe’s wife at Centrale del Caffe! You know, the Rohan Kishibe? The manga artist that draws—��

“The manga artist who draws Pink Dark Boy?” “—YES! And I think the two of you might be at the same shop right now!”

Prosciutto turned his gaze back to Rohan. “I think I see him. I’ll let you know,” He paused for a moment, before speaking up again: “Shall we pick up your bouquet from the florist later?”

“...Of course! I ordered tulips. I’ll see you later then! Play nice with Mr Kishibe, please!”

Something changed in Prosciutto, subtle. Chuckling, he pulled his hand out of his suit, and it was only when he relaxed did one realize he had been tense before. “Sure, darling. I’ll see you later. Bye.”

The call ended, and the blond turned round. “...Rohan Kishibe, yeah?”

Finally.

Nodding, Rohan bowed slightly. “One and the same.”

“I see. I thought I recognized you from the inner leaf pictures,” Prosciutto nodded his head in greeting. “Sorry about not answering you before. I tend to be wary of strangers. People around here have a lot of...character.”

Rohan grinned at that. “If you only knew~ That’s why I enjoy traveling so much--it’s the perfect way to research for my manga.”

“I suppose that’s one way to see things." Prosciutto fixed his cuffs, looking at the mangaka. “You already heard her, but my partner is a big fan of your stuff. Pink Dark Boy, was it?”

“Yes. That’s my manga.”

“Right. And would you mind meeting her?”

“Not at all. My wife actually asked if we could go over to that coffee shop when we’re done.”

“Then it’s settled. I’ll figure out what outfits I’m getting.”

“If it helps, I think that one suits you well.”

“...Suits, huh?”

Crossing his arms, Rohan smirked. “I said what I said.”

“Right. I’ll get it. Did you find anything for yourself?”

“I did, actually. I’m about to try them on.”

“If you want a second opinion, I’m happy to offer it.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. If you wait around, I shouldn’t be long. Then we can head over?”

“Sure. I’ll text Jess and ask for directions.”

***

“AH! A bigger table just opened up! Can we move?”

Jess pointed over to a 4-top in the corner with room for all of us. Before anyone else could claim the spot, she gathered up her belongings and ran over, setting her bag down on the table with a grin.

Smiling back, I stowed everything in my messenger bag quickly and came over, our newly unoccupied table filling up instantly. Rohan had texted me that he would arrive with Prosciutto in a couple of minutes, so I kept a watch on the street door.

It wasn’t long till I spotted Rohan walking towards the cafe, chatting with who I assumed to be Prosciutto. I waved Rohan over, grinning as he walked over to our table.

“Hello, Mr. Kishibe~”

“Hello, Mrs. Kishibe~”

Rohan smiled, pulling his mask down and kissing the top of my head, before turning his attention to Jess.

“Hello. I’m Rohan Kishibe.”

“Ah, yes! Hello, I’m Jess! It’s an honour to meet you!”

“Likewise. Before we start talking, I believe Prosciutto said he wanted to speak to you..?”

Rohan nodded his head over to the blond, who was standing outside the cafe. Prosciutto had taken his mask off to smoke, smiling round his cigarette when he spotted Jess.

A soft flush dusted across Jess’ cheeks and she returned Prosciutto’s smile with a beam of her own. Quickly turning back to Rohan, she nodded. “Ah, yes! My apologies, it won’t take very long. Thank you again for taking the time to meet me!”

Rohan and I watched Jess head out of the cafe with her mask, before turning back to each other.

“So, how did shopping go?”

“Good, good. But the person I met while shopping was even better.” Rohan took a seat, leaning in to whisper. “Prosciutto. He’s hiding something. There’s more to him than meets the eye.”

“Hiding? Like, in a suspicious way?”

Rohan nodded, glancing out the window at the couple as I bit my lip.

“Han, it’s not our place to meddle. Jess seems like a lovely person… Do you really think she would be with someone questionable?”

Rohan narrowed his eyes, humming in thought.

“Why don’t we find out?~”

A few seconds later, Heaven’s Door appeared by Han’s side, starting to glide towards the entrance of the cafe.

Following Rohan’s lead, I reluctantly called out Hearts on Fire and did the same, watching Heaven’s Door perch on her shoulder and hide behind the cafe doors. With our Stands’ senses, we could make out bits and pieces of the conversation outside.

“...sure it’s safe inside...”

“...certain...everything looks fine...no one from enemy territory around…”

“...have work tonight...low intensity job…”

“...don’t track blood through the house again…”

Rohan and I shared a glance. This didn’t sound like normal couple talk. Carefully, Hearts on Fire moved from behind the door and out of the entrance.

Something whizzed past Hearts, the high whine ringing in my ear. A gasp almost fell from my lips, but Rohan gripped my hand tightly, a sign for me to stay quiet.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Rohan murmured.

I was. Prosciutto's cheeks had ruptured with three pairs of eyes, blinking their chlorine-green scleras and neon yellow irises. Jess’ arms grew branch-like limbs, pulsing and twisting with an ominous blue glow.

But the physical changes weren’t the most terrifying part—it was their gaze. Prosciutto’s eyes were an icy blue that froze you to your spot, and Jess’ dark eyes bore into you, making you feel as if you’d been turned inside out. They were terrifying and they were staring straight at our Stands.

Immediately, Heaven’s Door shrunk behind Hearts’ shoulder, realizing that other Stand users had just joined them. Prosciutto spoke first, tone harsh and cutthroat.

“Who sent you? Don Giovanna? Another Caporegime?”

“Answer us,” Jess ordered, “Or you won’t ever get the chance to.”

The branch growing from Jess’ arm started snaking towards our Stands, and Hearts On Fire sprung into action. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, she switched on her blue light, bathing the Stands and their users in a calming cerulean beam.

The effect was immediate. “What...is…” Jess looked over at her hand with unfocused eyes: the branch growing from her dipped and swayed, relaxing under the light’s influence.

“Jess...we’re under...attack...” Prosciutto slurred, his movements significantly slower. “Keep your guard up…”

“Wait! Wait…” Jess looked over at Heaven’s Door once more, gaze narrowing. “Doesn’t that look a little like...Myo?”

“Who?”

“Pink Dark Boy! The main character!” Suddenly Jess gasped, tugging at Prosciutto’s sleeve. “I think that Stand...belongs to Kishibe-sensei..!”

Prosciutto frowned, brows furrowing. “So why would they attack us..? We haven’t done anything...to provoke them..!”

Even under Hearts’ influence, Prosciutto was still on high alert. From behind him materialized his Stand: it only had an upper body and supported itself on claw-like hands, its face and body covered in the same eyes that had appeared on Prosciutto’s cheeks. Dragging itself across the floor, its imposing form started lumbering towards our Stands.

“Prosciutto, wait.” Jess turned her attention to Hearts now, clearly doing her best to focus under the blue light. “If the short Stand is Kishibe-sensei’s...then is it possible…? Does the taller Stand belong to Ariel? Does Ariel have a Stand..?”

Hearts On Fire nodded in answer, switching her light off and bowing politely as she spoke.

“We mean you no harm. We only wished to be sure you were safe, Mistress Jess.”

Without the light, Prosciutto and Jess looked much more awake, slowly gathering their bearings. When she heard what Hearts had said, Jess’ eyes grew wide, a soft laugh escaping her.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding…I’m not in any danger. Could we go back inside and talk?”

***

“So you’re saying that there’s nothing the matter here? We only heard bits and pieces of your conversation, but…” I lowered my voice a bit and continued, “blood all over the house sounded pretty suspicious… I’m sorry if we overstepped a boundary, we just wanted to make sure you were safe, Jess.” I looked up at the two of them, embarrassed.

“First of all, you shouldn’t go messing with things that aren’t meant for you.” Prosciutto sat with his chair pulled back, arms crossed, one leg slung over the other; his expression was anything but kind.

“We meant no harm,” Rohan had his arms crossed too, glaring down the man across the table with an equally icy stare. “If anything, we should be the ones scared about getting hurt, seeing that you mentioned Don Giovanna. Now, what is it you actually do?”

“Why don’t we let Jess explain, yeah?” I glanced over, hoping she could shed light on our misunderstandings. She took a deep breath, nodding.

“If you’re aware of who Don Giovanna is, then it shouldn’t be hard to put things together from there… If we explain more, can we trust you to not compromise his position?”

Rohan nodded, sitting up now to listen. “You have our word.” I nodded as well, listening intently.

“Even though I don’t know Prosciutto’s exact position for my own safety, I know enough to say that he works under the Giovannas—he makes sure things go to plan and that trades don’t fall into the wrong hands. He’s on the Don’s side...even if he has to get his hands dirty.”

Raising an eyebrow, Rohan leaned forward. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“If by that you mean killing, then yes. If someone is a threat to the Don’s safety, then I get rid of them,” Prosciutto talked about it like he was discussing the weather. “That’s the way things work.”

I looked over at Jess, who was watching her partner with a soft gaze. “How did the two of you find each other anyway? It doesn’t seem like you two have a common ‘boy meets girl’ story…”

Laughing slightly, Jess agreed. “Anything but common. I had rented an apartment here in town and this guy turns up in the middle of the night, unlocks the front door and barges in, COVERED in blood. I had been finishing up one of my manuscripts and, honestly? I was too tired to be scared.”

Prosciutto smiled slightly at the mention, his glare going away for a moment. “You were scolding me while bandaging me up.”

“What else was I supposed to do? I didn’t want a corpse in my house, but that didn’t mean I was happy to be wrapping up a bleeding stranger at four in the morning.”

Jess pulled a face at Prosciutto, before continuing with her story.

“Anyway, turns out Prosciutto used to rent the place, but had been on mission for a while and couldn’t turn in the cash for the bill. I felt really bad once he had explained...when I caught him trying to sneak out in the morning, I suggested that he stick around till he found somewhere else. And...yeah! The rest is history. I keep out of his work where necessary, but we take care of each other where we can.”

“Aw, sweet~” I smiled over at them and grinned at Rohan. Even if he was putting on a cold face, I knew he couldn’t resist hearing a story like that. It was too weird and bizarre—just how he liked them.

Rohan rolled his eyes at my gaze, before turning back to Prosciutto. “So tell me one more time, Prosciutto. You know Don Giovanna? You work with him? Not against him in some rival gang or…?”

“He’s my Don. I’m loyal, and it would be stupid not to be.” Prosciutto sighed, clearly wanting this part of the conversation to be over. “...So. Jess mentioned you draw cartoons?”

Rohan’s face crinkled up as he tried to disguise his mild disgust at the way his art was being described. He didn’t hide it very well. “They’re actually called manga in Japan and it’s an ARTFORM. People pay to read my new issues. Sometimes, the shops can’t even get enough copies on the shelf to keep up with the demand.”

“Mm. Good for you, then.”

Jess’ eyes lit up as she remembered her original reason for wanting to meet Kishibe-sensei. “Would you still be willing to sign my copy of Pink Dark Boy? It’s the newest print.”

Reaching his hand out, Rohan accepted the small tome, looking the pages over and admiring the Italian printed version. “They do a nice job here. I’m impressed.”

“They do!” Jess grinned, bouncing in her seat slightly. “There’s a bookstore around the corner that sells them.”

As Rohan signed the inside cover with a little flourish from Heaven’s Door, I snuggled closer to him. “We should go there after and see if we can take a few home as souvenirs~”

Having handed the book back to Jess (who proceeded to grin and gush about it to Prosciutto), Rohan glanced at me and leaned over to kiss my cheek.

“Good idea. We should~”

I blushed as Rohan stole a full kiss, biting my lip gently before pulling away. Kissing around others made me shy, but sometimes Rohan liked to show off—to show everyone that I was his and he was mine.

Averting his gaze from me and Rohan, Prosciutto pushed back his chair and stood, looking down at Jess.

“Are we going soon? I need to make a few calls before heading out.”

“Mmhm! AH, WAIT! BEFORE I FORGET.” Digging into her purse, Jess produced her phone, presenting it to me. “Ari, can I have your number?”

“Yes!! Sorry, we should have done that earlier. I have a business card too if you want. It has art on it and everything~” Pulling a small stack from my messenger bag, I deposited them on the table for Jess to pick while I made a new contact in her phone. Jess was still sorting through the card designs when I held my phone out with a smile.

“I need yours too.”

“YES! RIGHT.”

As she picked up a card and began typing, I stowed the rest away and looked for my mask, putting both ears on and adjusting the nose. Once Jess returned my phone, I packed everything up, using a dose of hand sanitizer and offering some to Rohan as well. Little routines were different now, but we wanted to take every precaution now that we were trying to…

Well, that’s a discussion for another time~

Standing up and bowing slightly, I greeted Jess and Prosciutto once more.

“Thank you for talking. I’m so sorry, again, for any misunderstanding.”

Jess smiled and shook her head.

“Please, don’t worry! It was an honest mistake. I’m just glad I ran into you, Mrs. Kishibe~”

I grinned under the mask and took Rohan’s hand. “I’ll text you later? Maybe we can meet up again before Rohan and I fly home.”

“Oh, I’d love that! Please don’t hesitate to send a message, I’m always glad to talk!”

“Will do. I hope you two have a nice afternoon.”

“Same to you! Stay safe out there, okay?”

“We will!!!”

After exchanging pleasantries and waving goodbye, Rohan and I finally had our masks on and made our way to the exit, leaving the couple behind to chat at the table.

***

Prosciutto watched Jess wave goodbye to Ariel and Rohan, raising a brow as she turned to him with a large beam. “...So, that was the Rohan Kishibe that you’ve been gushing about?”

“Mmhm! Like I’ve said, his storytelling and worldbuilding skills were ahead of his time.” The both of them took a moment to put on their masks before heading out of the cafe, Jess’ fingers deftly moving to twine with his own; his chest tightened in that funny way it always did when she squeezed his hand. “His coloring technique had changed around a year ago, and I’d been wondering what had caused it. I think I understand what it is now~”

“And what is it?”

“It’s the power of love, of course!” Jess announced with a dramatic swoon, before quickly switching to a deadpan: “I’m joking. His wife is incredibly skilled when it comes to color theory, and she had mentioned offering him suggestions every now and then. I think it’s quite sweet: the two of them make a good team.”

“Is that so? Then how about we try something similar? You write, I read your work—”

“Oh no you don’t, mister,” Jess warned, but he could hear the grin in her words. “The last time you did that, you ended up taking over my editor’s job! The poor thing was just sitting in the corner as you took the manuscripts meant for them to look at.”

“I promise I’ll behave this time, then.” Prosciutto put a hand to his chest, smiling under his mask when Jess rolled her eyes. “Will you, Miss Writer, let me read your work?”

“Hm…since you asked so nicely! Come on then—you can read my newest draft. It’s got a plot twist that I’m pretty proud of, if you ask me…”

#it's done it's done aaaa #ily Jess ty for being patient while we learned how to write together!!!#I learned so much about u and writing prosciutto #10/10 would collab again #self ship #AriHan #JessCiutto #naples

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tinytanpopo · 5 years ago

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Now that Gegege no Kitaro 2018 is over, and I remember it's one of your favorite Gegege no Kitaro iteration, what's your overall and concluding thoughts about it? What are your favorite episodes of all 97 (or each season) episodes? The positive and negative? Characterization of Sawashiro Kitaro and the other Kitaro family (including Mana)? I would love to know your opinion of the sixth remake!

This is going to be a long answer. And full of spoilers, for those of you looking at this who haven’t watched the 2018 version of Kitaro. Here goes!

What are your favorite episodes of all 97?

I watched all 97 episodes 3 times over the course of its run. I started out watching on my own, then eventually my friend wanted to watch with me. But the crappy Crunchyroll subs got in the way of his enjoyment, so I polished them for him, and then we started watching together.

So for each episode, I’ve…

1.) Watched for my own enjoyment when the raw came out

2.) Fixed the subs

3.) Watched and enjoyed again with my best friend.

Before my friend and I started watching together, I also did a rewatch of the series up to the middle of the Backbeard arc, so, 3.3 times? And it only made me like each episode more, and notice more tiny fun details about it. Sawashiro actually smiles a lot, u guys

Anyways, here are my stand-out favorites. Titles may be self-translated or shortened, as I’m looking at the Japanese wikipedia entry for the episodes, and my opinions are mostly disorganized gushing:

1: The Day the Youkai Awoke. Kitaro, Eyeball Dad, and Mana are all very cutely introduced, as well as their dynamics with each other. Great action, ends with the apparent death of the hero. (I was new to Kitaro.) Got me to watch the next week, that’s for sure! Also, world full of weird freaky monsters, already suited to my tastes.

3: Tantanbo’s Youkai Castle. The episode that earned Sawashiro Kitaro his “Gorilla” nickname from the fandom. Also Mana asked to be friends and made Kitaro bashful and the whole latter half is so sweet. FRIENDSHIP

6: Sunekosuri. This is the first Kitaro episode that made me cry, like I really wasn’t expecting that kind of emotional impact. Another thing that kept me watching was that, even though Kitaro has its formulas (as does everything), I still didn’t know what to expect.

7: Ghost Train. Ah, my first experience with the Ghost Train story. Y'know this is the only one where the human passenger pair are both already dead? I’ve seen many other renditions of this story, but this one’s the darkest.

11-12: The 808 Tanuki arc. The whole Kitaro Family shows off their skills in a big cool battle, and Mana overcomes an intense struggle to save the day (with some credit to Murder Momen Rollo Cloth). As my friend often says, Mana is too good for this world.

13: Wanyuudo. Got some insight to Kitaro and Ratman’s odd, long-lasting friendship. When I first watched this, I didn’t really understand why they were still friends. But over the next 2 years, I would.

The meta reason? Ratman was Shigeru Mizuki’s favorite out of all his characters.

14: Makura-gaeshi. The second episode that made me cry. (not hard for a show to do that, but still) Also shot my already-present respect for Eyeball Dad through the roof.

I’m pretty sure this is the episode that changed GeGeGe no Kitaro from “one of the shows I watch once a week” to “I must find and learn about the rest of this franchise.” I’d looked up characters and little facts here and there on wikis, and occasionally browsed the Kitaro tag on Pixiv before this point, but this was the tipping point.

The door to the unseen world was open, and I jumped through.

18: Kawauso’s Lie. haha, Mana’s a city girl who’s scared of bugs

22: Gyuuki. Body horror, despair, and a really good Catgirl episode.

27-37: The Backbeard arc, or 6th Kitaro’s version of the “Great Youkai War” story. For a refreshing twist, the designated “Witch” isn’t evil in this retelling. In fact, Agnes quickly became one of my most favorite and relatable characters.

She definitely had a rocky start with the Japanese youkai, and watching her develop friendships with Mana and Kitaro was great to see, and even better on the rewatch. My friend likes Agnes a lot, too. Just assume I cried at the Mana/Agnes friendship stuff, I’m sure it happened on the rewatch, too.

Also Kitaro finally invites Mana into GeGeGe Forest! She fucking earned it!!

38: Kasha. I had already seen Reverse Mochi Murder 3 different times by this point, but it’s best whenever freaky ghost-eyeballs are involved.

Also Mana punched Kasha in the face. Well, Kitaro’s face.

39: bang. I lost it.

40: This is the darkest version of Sara-kozo! And I like it. His song was best put to use in the 4th Kitaro series, and even had a callback in one of my most favorite episodes of that series. The song, of course, is terribly catchy.

42: The Great Youkai Trial. Having seen the other versions of this story, I’m glad the writers made the 6th series version stand on its own, weaving it into the overarching Nanashi plot.

43: Odoro-Odoro. This isn’t the first Odoro-Odoro retelling where Kitaro’s efforts are thankless and reviled, but it is the one that shows it the most intensely.

47-49: Nanashi arc conclusion. Each Kitaro anime has its harsh and intense moments (even the relatively gentle 5th series), but 6th is the one that goes hard most consistently. Not just into darkness, but

50-51: complete and utter sweetness KITTENGIRL dgjklfhjlkHFDGKMBHKjl

54: Dorotabo. Sometimes, there is no “right” choice that can make everyone happy. Being a mediator can be hard, frustrating, and sometimes impossible. But despite all the stress, frustration, and repeating the same tragic scenarios, Kitaro keeps on trying.

Also, Kitaro totally carried that frog up to the roof of his house for company at the end of the episode.

56: Vampire Elite. The most sympathetic retelling of Johnny’s story. And a great Kitaro/Ratman friendship episode.

57: La Seine. He doesn’t have a top hat this time. A great retelling of Hand, and a Kitaro/Mana friendship episode. Two vampire episodes in a row, and it didn’t feel repetitive at all.

58: Kamaboko. 6th Kitaro’s crossdressing episode, with Sawashiro Kitaro at his most vindictive. Fun for all sorts of reasons. :3c

59: Ushiro-gami. Also known as the youkai cactus episode, somewhat of a series staple. This one had great horror vibes, and Mana overcoming her fear and risking her life to help Kitaro save the day. Never gets old! Mana’s the best.

62: Kitaro and Ratman fighting like children. Kitaro’s shocked face when Ratman steals his pork. Kitaro’s admiration for Ratman’s persistence to keep on living, and appreciation for yanking him back to reality during the end of Nanashi.

The Kitaro/Ratman friendship dynamic is eternal.

64: Suiko, the Water Tiger. If you find an old jar in a dirty hole somewhere? Don’t open it, don’t drink it, don’t let anyone force you to drink it. And if the jar starts talking, shove some dirt in it.

That town full of assholes totally deserved what they got, though.

66: The Grim Reaper and the Hidden Village. Well, in this context, “hidden village” is more like “Shangri-La,” which is what I changed it to in the fixed subs. The only other version of this I’ve seen is the one from the 2nd Kitaro anime. It’s a well-known trauma episode in the fandom.

In the 2nd anime, Kitaro got the trauma. In the 6th one, Mana did, and Kitaro already knew it was coming.

68: Hell Exile. Yet another one where I wasn’t sure if it’d end cynical or hopeful. One of the fresher takes on the Hell Exile story, too.

69: Ibukimaru. Nicely advances the Four Treasonous Generals arc, and has some interaction between Rei and Mana. Oh yeah, this arc introduced Rei Isurugi, an intense chuuni with Megaman demon powers. It’s neat to watch how Rei and Sawashiro Kitaro bounce off each other as individual characters.

70: Mysterious Footprints. Calls back to another one of 2nd Kitaro’s infamous trauma episodes, incidentally one of my favorites. This was great, but the 2nd anime had more intense face-melting.

72: Iyami. Mana Is Gay. That is all.

73: Yamata-no-Orochi. A great take on Kitaro’s Orochi story, now with more monkey’s paw shenanigans!

74-75: Conclusion of the Four Generals arc. Mana convinces Kitaro not to resign himself to shouldering the heaviest burden alone, as he so often does. Agnes and Adel make an appearance(yay!), and they team up with Mana and Catgirl to help save the day. Rei finally chills out, and gets a new mentor.

77: Neko-sennin. Nurarihyon startles the holy hell out of Kitaro, and further establishes how he’s going to operate this time around, connecting to his previous actions in episode 76.

Also, cats. Kitty Kitaro. Cats are my second-favorite animal, so I appreciate the many Kitaro stories involving cats.

78: Mouryou. This one gets retold in several of the other Kitaro series, with decent variation. This one has its own 6th Kitaro touch, with that fucked-up photographer, and an ending I was positive would be dark.

80: Onmoraki. I’d also consider this story a Kitaro staple, though Onmoraki was way tougher this time. Must have had something to do with Nobuyuki Hiyama. :B This is always the episode where Kitaro puts on his old painter costume, and proves he can’t think up fake names worth a damn. Gets me every time.

81: Hideri-gami the mangaka. I love comics, I translate comics, GeGeGe no Kitaro originated as a comic. This episode’s just a love letter to the medium. And seeing Kitaro genuinely enjoying Hiderin’s Totally Original Comic Do Not Steal was adorable.

83: Houkou. Some kind of disaster usually happens in this story. In the 4th anime version, Kitaro was burned to ashes. This one hit harder. Nobody won. No one was happy. We’re reminded of Dorotabo, and how Kitaro never “gets over” tragic situations like these, no matter how often they repeat. I think it’d be worse if he was desensitized, and gave up trying to make anything better.

84: Mr. Chin. The Japanese dialogue is full of puns involving the word chin and yeah I lost it. Sunday morning changes with the times, and they still get this guy in.

I died at “three rainbows” ghjghjk

89: Te-no-me’s Curse. Te-no-me is a youkai who either shows up in the youkai trial story, or has an episode for himself. Also, we finally get to see that Kitaro can just pop his hands on and off. Well, maybe not as casually as in the comics…

90: Sazae-oni. Normally you’re not “supposed” to do “it was all a dream” endings, but this is the first time they’ve done that with Sazae-oni, and the dream reveal means we just saw inside Sawashiro Kitaro’s mind. The fancy sushi restaurant exterior, the plain sweets shop, the body pillow how does he know about those?! Does he know why they look like that?!!

Kitaro seemed disappointed that he didn’t get to sing on stage. And Rei was in his dream-audience! An adorable episode.

93: The Phantom Train. Catgirl got Homuhomu’d. But KitaNeko is finally canon. This whole episode left the fandom reeling, as usual for 6th Kitaro. Best retelling of the Phantom Train story yet.

94: Hot Springs Trip. Mana carried Kitaro over 90 episodes ago, and Kitaro doing the same for Mana repays that favor, in a way.

Kitaro also admits he has Terminal Kitaro Face.

95-97: The end. I did not think they would poof Kitaro. That’s the deadest I’ve ever seen him, in any version. And the most broken, worse than a giant hate-baby crushing his dad. Kitaro giving Ratman his chashu pork made my heart explode, Mana’s sacrifice made the heart-pieces explode, and Mana reuniting with Kitaro 10 years later made my heart whole again.

Nurarihyon offing himself made sense, especially with this being his most dignified characterization in any version. Glad they let Shu-no-bon live, even if he was an actual hardass this time. Shu-no-bon’s usually a teddy bear in comparison to dual-wielding gatling guns

I’m sure the prime minister didn’t keep her position for much longer.

Episode 97’s subs left out most of Mana’s text to Catgirl at the end, so here it is:

“Cat-Sis! Here’s the pic Nebutori took for us on our recent trip! Also, I found a sweets shop near my workplace. Let’s ask Kitaro to go there with us!”

A very sweet ending, indeed.

The positive and negative?

I wish we’d gotten to see more of Agnes and Rei outside of their own arcs, and the conclusions of other arcs, though they clearly had their own lives to live and paths to take.

We didn’t get Akamata or Shisa or a bunch of other youkai I was hoping to see in the episodes. We didn’t get stories for Jami or Kamanari, both of who showed up as bit characters at the very end. But I can accept this, too, as writers and staff working within limits, and telling the story they wanted to tell as best as they could.

I’m glad they focused more on new stuff than old, though. Maybe they didn’t want to risk a repeat of 5th Kitaro’s non-ending, but they were ready to end the 6th anime with the Nanashi arc. Even with a 2nd year, though, the writers didn’t lose their focused storytelling, and ended the series in a way that left my heart full.

Characterization of Sawashiro Kitaro and the other Kitaro family (including Mana)?

Sawashiro Kitaro continues to be that weird youkai kid, that boy who lives in the woods. He’s chill and has a bunch of comic book youkai powers, a unique sort of superhero, while also not being a cop, thank goodness. Every Kitaro is a bit of a pessimist (except 3rd anime’s Toda Kitaro, I guess), but Sawashiro is especially so. This made his gradual development even more fun to watch. The fact that he never could give up on that dream, not completely, made me appreciate that development even more.

Sawashiro cried the least out of all the Kitaros—twice, and it was only onscreen once. He kept everything in so much, it’s no wonder he imploded and went to Ultra Hell when the prime minister pot-shot him.

And, Sawashiro Kitaro is so pure and cares so much it hurts.

Eyeball Dad. Since Isamu Tanonaka passed away in 2010, the legendary Masako Nozawa (the original voice of Kitaro) took on voicing the role. Like Kitaro, Eye Dad’s characterization changes a bit with each anime, though not as much. Nozawa’s performance made Eye Dad feel more laid-back this time, I think, and more patient. In older series, he had more “Showa dad” tendencies. And we got to see him outside of eyeball or mummy form! 6th series spoiled us!

Ratman. He’s usually the same between every adaptation, save for the voice. Sometimes he’s nicer, sometimes he’s more of a bastard. But he’s always Kitaro’s friend. He may nasty, greedy, and cynical, but he’s usually right about how the world works, and his priorities are hard to disagree with entirely. He knows how to survive, even when treated like dirt for centuries. Ratman’s got a particular brand of wisdom, if you look past the ringworm.

Catgirl. In other versions, she looks like she’s in elementary or middle school, and 6th anime is the most mature she’s ever looked. This is also Catgirl at her most tsundere, but with zero “mean girl” tendencies. All it takes is Mana shooting pure admiration at Catgirl for them to become friends, and that’s cute. I always like Catgirl, and the 6th anime is no exception.

The Kitaro Family. Sandy’s mostly unchanged, except now she doesn’t own the Youkai Apartments, and can use modern technology to make a shitload of money. Old Crybaby is 100% the same, down to his old person banter with Sandy.

Rollo Cloth’s minor interest in finding a girlfriend got turned up to 11. He’d get a lecture from every previous Rollo.

Wally Wall has less vocabulary, no wife and kids, and they thankfully didn’t show his mouth this time. Still a good dude.

Mana Inuyama. The 3rd anime had Yumeko, but even if she wasn’t damseled as often as you’d expect from a typical 80s cartoon, it still happened a lot. In the 6th anime, Mana clearly has more agency from the get-go, and refuses to leave herself out of Kitaro’s business. She’s serious about being his friend, and never stops being serious about it, even when things worse than she could ever imagine happened.

All she has are good memories with Kitaro.

Like my friend said, she’s too good for this world.

What’s your overall and concluding thoughts about the 6th Kitaro anime?

What an emotional roller coaster. The writers pulled no punches with this, and very much managed to make “their own Kitaro” while still firmly being “Kitaro.” With the dark and cynical twists it sometimes took, I often didn’t know if there’s be a happy ending to an episode, or a bitter one. It’s a Sunday morning cartoon at its core, but very good at making the audience forget that.

6th Kitaro was my introduction to Kitaro as a whole, and I was hopelessly obsessed by episode 14. Well, because of episode 14, probably. I downloaded all the other Kitaro anime series, got into the comics (official ones by Mizuki, official ones not by Mizuki, and a shit-ton of doujin), and now my brain is just “kitarokitarokitaro” all the time.

I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon.

#gegege no kitaro #ask #books-are-my-life-stuff #long post

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hot-mic-imagines · 5 years ago

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Are you cheating on me?!

Note: This is another shot inspired in my self insert MC EROS an eromangaka and Odaiba division leader.

Ichiro didn't expect that question, why were you asking him this? You were helping him get the house somewhat decent and were putting his and the clothes you had in the Yamada's in his closet.

-What? No!

-Then explain this!

She was holding all the ero manga that Ichiro had hidden in his closet. Fuck.

-Are my manga not enough for you? What can I include so you only read me?

She was putting her body closer to Ichiro. With various of his ‘treasures’ in her hands. She was pouting and closing her arms so her boobs poped out more than they already do. Eros was hitting his weak spots: her cuteness and that big pair.

-It… It’s not like that… I swear that you are my favourite ero mangaka!

-You promise?

-Of course I do!

At that point Ichiro couldn't go back anymore, and she was getting dangerously close. One day she would kill him in one of his plays just to get him embarrassed or/and hard.

-Than, you have to tell me why you didn't tell me that you had a kink for sailor suits or bondage. I tell you mines and are way more embarrassing than this!!

She put her tongue out as a protest signal.

-Sorry, I just like to go little by little, ya know?- and then Ichiro realised something-. Wait, how did you know they have bondage in them?

And now the one red was her. Point to Ichiro.

-Just… You know… One has to do some research for her job. And you know mine, so…

-That one got launched yesterday.

-Well, I...just…

Bingo. It was one of the guilty pleasures of Ichiro, to make her girlfriend pay. She was extremely cute when she flustered. So, before she could run away, he grabbed by the hips. A smugly smile on his face.

-You know, We don’t have cosplay but I can improvise some ropes with the sheets. And, you know, punish you a little for trying to scare me like that.

#hypnosis mic #ichiro yamada

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cheemerthelizard · 4 years ago

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Crusader of Life 2: Chapter 13

Lily was supposed to be taking a normal walk, but a strange encounter was right around the corner...

“Take this, Dio!” Kakyoin shouted. “20-meter radius Emerald Splash!”

But why was he using that? For some reason, he already knew. He knew The World’s secret was time, and he knew that doing this meant his death. Why did he know this, and better yet, why was he still going forward with his plan?

In the blink of an eye, Kakyoin was sent flying back. He knew why. Dio stopped time and punched a hole straight through his abdomen. He wasn’t at all surprised when he violently collided with a water tower, either, though it still sent an unbearable amount of pain through him.

Right on time, Lily’s voice screamed out to him as he could barely make out her form struggling to jump off the building she was on to make her way to Kakyoin while Joseph held her tightly with Hermit Purple. She would make it, but he would faint before she was done healing him.

When Lily finally made it over to Kakyoin, who could now only tell it was her because his deja vu told him so, he could just make out her voice saying, “Wake up.”

Wait. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to say, “Don’t move.” Her voice was too calm, as well, for someone desperately trying to save their boyfriend’s life.

“Noriaki, wake up.”

Noriaki? Lily only called him Kakyoin. No, he’d heard her voice say Noriaki before, but when?”

“Noriaki, it’s a bad dream, wake up.”

Kakyoin’s eyes cracked open, the pain from his dream no more than a horrific memory, in the comfort of his bed, Lily right beside him, nudging him awake. Right. This was Morioh. Dio had been gone for years now. He was fine.

“Did I wake you up?” Kakyoin groggily asked.

“You slapped my face with your hand while you were asleep,” Lily chuckled. “It would’ve been cute, but I knew that unpleasant look on your face meant you were having nightmares.”

“Looks like the day’s about to start, anyway,” Kakyoin yawned. “Might as well get up.”

“Right, weren’t we both assigned to the same person today?” Lily recalled the individual clipboards given to her, Kakyoin, and Jotaro as she rose out of bed. “We’re dealing with an adult, if I’m remembering right, who’s been alive for quite some time after being struck by the arrow, and has probably figured out his abilities by now. That’s why they teamed us both up for this one, because he may be tough to deal with.”

“Heard he’s a mangaka, too,” Kakyoin added. “Just a cool little fact.”

“Only you would look into our target’s personal life,” Lily chuckled. She took a seat on the couch and stretched her arms out to try and wake up.

“It helps to know what you’re dealing with.” Kakyoin started up the coffee maker. “What flavor?”

“Vanilla,” Lily answered. “Rohan Kishibe, wasn’t it?”

“I think so,” Kakyoin replied. “Good thing today’s Sunday, or Josuke wouldn’t be available until the afternoon.”

“I’ll bet it was planned that way.”

“Well, planned or not, we should try to get this out of the way as soon as possible.” Kakyoin said, holding Lily’s coffee right in front of her face from behind. “If it doesn’t take long, then we can take the rest of the day off, just us two, alone.”

“No Emily?”

“No Emily,” Kakyoin repeated. “She likes it better at Josuke’s, anyway. The day is all ours.”

“That’s only if this Rohan guy doesn’t put up a fight,” Lily reminded him before either of them got too excited about a day off.

“Right, of course.” From the looks of it, Kakyoin was already too far gone, too busy daydreaming of how to spend the day after the two of them had a friendly chat with their target and found out he wasn’t at all a bad guy, then promptly leaving. “But we should plan ahead, anyway.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, now,” Lily smiled. “You’re going to be severely disappointed if this guy actually puts up a fight.”

Kakyoin sighed. “I guess so.”

“Anyway, I’m thinking of taking a walk before we have to deal with him,” Lily said. “It would be great if you could drop Emily off for us, too, and I’ll pick her up later today.”

“Of course,” Kakyoin nodded. “I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“I love you, too,” Lily replied.

Ah, the air in small towns was so much better than the congested air of the city. It was always refreshing to just breathe and walk and swing her arms back and forth without bumping into someone. Big cities were nice and had their charm, but small suburbs were a nice place for a getaway. The whole atmosphere felt different in Morioh, like the sky itself was a different shade of blue.

Suddenly, breaking her from her thoughts, someone practically rammed into Lily’s shoulder. The man who did so had blonde hair, neatly kept back save for two strands right above his forehead, blue eyes, and a suit and tie, along with a light purple coat.

“Oh, pardon me!” Lily exclaimed. The man turned around.

“Oh, no, that’s my bad!” he laughed. “I wasn’t paying attention at all, so I didn’t realize there was someone in front of me.” The man reached into his jacket’s inner pocket, seemingly looking for something, then quickly pulled it out.

“It’s no problem, really,” Lily smiled. “Are you here for vacation, too? Well, I wouldn’t call it vacation for me, rather a business trip.”

“Actually, I live here,” the man said. “Northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are. Where do you work?”

“You live here? It must be nice. And I work for the Speedwagon Foundation. I’m here for some confidential business, though, so I can’t tell you anything.”

“Ah, what a shame!” the man joked. “Well, I hope I’ll see you around… um… what was it?”

“Lily. Lily Kakyoin. And you?”

“Yoshikage Kira. I’ll be looking out for you, Lily. Bye!”

“Bye!” Lily called.

What a nice man! Morioh was filled with friendly people, such as that Kira fellow. That’s what Lily was fighting for. The kind people of Morioh who couldn’t defend themselves from attacks from Stands. It was too bad that she couldn’t do much, she was always just the person who helped calm the aftermath. If only Ace of Pentacles had some sort of fighting capabilities. Even Josuke’s had those…

No. She wasn’t going to pity herself. She had a power that could help her evade attacks, that was far more than others had. She joined the Speedwagon Foundation to help others as best as she could, and help others she would.

“What are you doing here?” Jotaro asked, startling Lily yet another time today.

“I’m just taking a walk,” she answered. “I’ve found that refreshing strolls really help brighten the mood for the rest of the day.”

Jotaro nodded. “I heard you guys got either a tough one or an easy one today. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

“Just remember, anyone can be a Stand user. Be prepared at all times.”

“Of course,” Lily said. “Be safe!”

“You too,” Jotaro replied, then walked to the other side of the road, leaving Lily alone once again.

***

As Lily made her way back to the hotel, she turned around quickly. “Alright, why have you been following me?” she demanded. Kira looked at her and tilted his head in confusion.

“I should warn you, I know how to defend myself,” Lily balled up her fists and summoned Ace of Pentacles. “I won’t go down that easily.”

Kira only laughed. “So, you’re a Stand user, too. You really might actually put up a fight.” He summoned his own Stand, a cat-like humanoid. Lily’s eyes widened in fear. She did not plan for this. However, with some deep breaths, she calmed herself. She was really close to two other Stand users, who would definitely be able to take this guy on. Even if this man attacked her, she could get away with some quick maneuvers from Ace.

“If you’re thinking about running, it’s too late for that,” Kira chuckled. “Killer Queen has already touched your jacket.”

“What do you mean?” However, before she could finish that sentence, Lily felt a burning sensation from her shoulder, spreading down to the rest of her body. Without even realizing it, Ace had duplicated Lily, saving her from being completely obliterated. However, the explosion from her original body shot her back into some bushes and left her in terrible condition.

“So much for putting up a fight,” Kira muttered. From inside the bushes, Lily could see him pick up a hand and place it in his pocket, then leave the alley.

She got out of there alive! Sure, she was almost dead, but that could be fixed with her Stand. It would take a while, and it would require a lot of energy from Lily, but she was alive. She didn’t even need to fix herself all the way, just enough to get to the front doors of the hotel. Breathing heavily, and wiping blood away from her eyelids with almost no success, she summoned Ace of Pentacles, and poured every ounce of energy she could into healing herself.

“You thought you got away, didn’t you?” Kira’s voice made Lily’s breathing come to a halt.

“I could sense a Stand’s energy coming from here, you’re not sneaky. Now, where on earth could you be?” Somehow, Lily had a feeling he already knew where she was, but was just teasing her, and it was confirmed when his hands rustled the bush she was pushed into from the explosion. “Killer Queen can turn anything it touches into a bomb, and it just brushed against the bush you’re hiding in.”

“How… did you know…?” Lily asked, forcing words out of her mouth like she was trying to make herself gag.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kira laughed. “Your blood is spilling out. Now, since you can’t really run, I suppose telling you about myself wouldn’t hurt one bit, would it?”

Lily could care less about Kira’s little monologue. Right now, she needed to heal herself up enough to sprint out of these bushes, or she’d be gone in an instant. Of course, that was very hard, considering her forehead was still spilling blood and it was getting in her eyes. Maybe she should heal that up first.

“Oh, you know what? I don’t know what your Stand does. I should be careful and get rid of you now.”

“Wait!” Lily exclaimed. “If I don’t tell anyone about you, will you let me go?”

Kira’s hand lowered slowly. “Nobody?” he asked. “You won’t tell a single soul about this? Not even those Speedwagon friends of yours?”

Uh oh. He knew about Stand users working for the Speedwagon Foundation, and how it dealt with supernatural matters, like vampires, Stands, weird men encaged in pillars; more specifically, Joestar business.

“Not a soul,” Lily promised, still hiding in the bush.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Lily gulped. She hadn’t thought of something there. “Well, if you kill me, then my husband and my close friend and his uncle and HIS close friends will all notice me disappear, and they’ll hunt you down for killing me, so you better think of something quick.”

“Get out of the bushes,” Kira ordered. “It’s pathetic to bargain for your life in there.”

Lily did as she was told, revealing her tattered clothing and the gashes in her skin. She could barely stand upright. It was pathetic to beg for her life in a bush, but right in front wasn’t much better in her condition.

“Now, I think I know a way that you can get out alive and not tell anyone about me,” Kira slowly caressed Lily’s neck, until she grabbed his hand and held it far away from her.

“I’d rather die than cheat on my husband, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” she scowled.

“Quite the contrary, Mrs. Lily,” Kira chuckled. “I already have what I want from you, and I could kill you right now if you posed any threat. However, I know you’ll cooperate, because now your neck is a bomb. A bomb that could go off at any moment. All I have to do is close my thumb onto my fist, and snap!” Kira moved his thumb down, but stopped just in time. “You’re gone.”

Lily’s eyes widened in fear. She was a living bomb. One that could explode whenever Kira wanted it to. There was only one thing keeping her alive right now, and that was her sworn secrecy.

“Now, I know you won’t betray my trust, will you?” Kira asked. “It’d be a shame if that husband of yours was suddenly a single father, if you have any kids.”

Lily gulped. “Of course I won’t,” she answered quietly.

Kira nodded. “Good. Now, heal your wounds all the way before you go back to the hotel. I don’t want anyone questioning you on what happened. I don’t know how good you are at lying, and so you might let the truth slip. Can’t have that, can we?” As Kira left Lily in the alley, he said one more thing. “Remember: if they find me, I’ll blame it on you.”

When Kira was out of sight, Lily collapsed on the ground again. All of those wounds made it excruciating to stand up, but she wasn’t about to kneel down as if she was submitting to him. Although, with what happened, it might not have been much different. Summoning Ace of Pentacles, Lily continued to heal her wounds, and touched the part of her neck that Kira caressed. His words echoed in her ears. If they found him, he’d blame it on her. That meant she not only had to never mention him to Noriaki and Jotaro, but also had to intentionally steer them away from him. But if it’s what would save her life, then it’s what had to be done.

***

“Lily!” Kakyoin chimed. “You’re back!”

“Yeah, I’m back,” Lily smiled as she entered the doorway. There was something different about her, but Kakyoin couldn’t put his finger on it. Well, except for her tattered clothing.

“Yikes,” he said. “What happened to your clothes?”

“Someone bumped into me and I fell into some bushes,” Lily explained. “Is Emily at Josuke’s place?”

She was hiding something, Kakyoin could tell. Twelve years of living with Lily made him notice the little things. But he decided to leave it alone for now. “Sure is.”

“Good.” When she talked, Lily rubbed the crook of her neck and frowned.

“What happened there?”

“Huh?” Lily asked nervously. “Oh, I'm just kind of sore there. Come on, let’s get to that Stand user, Rohan Kishibe. Then we can take the rest of the day off.”

Something was definitely bothering her, but she was right. Kakyoin would push it further when they were done with Rohan. “Right. Let’s get this over with,” he replied. “I’ll hail a taxi for us, is that alright?”

“That’s more than alright,” Lily smiled. “I’ll wait in here.”

“Then it’s a deal.” Before he left, Kakyoin kissed Lily’s forehead. “And remember, if there’s anything troubling you, just let me know.”

“Of course I will,” Lily told him as he closed the door. When she could no longer hear his footsteps, though, her smile melted, and she continued rubbing the crook of her neck. One wrong move. One wrong move was all it would take, and it would be the end of her.

#oc #crusader of life #diamond is unbreakable #jojo's bizarre adventure #fanfiction #my fanfiction

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