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winntersnow · 11 months ago

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A needlessly long talking about AraiBeni (Winters repair insanity)

So AraiBeni, huh

It’s a pairing I know only a handful of people know about let alone actually get into.

I can literally count them on my hand.

I'm being serious.

I completely understand why, Arai dies within the first five seconds of the series.

A lot of people don’t even know who his ass even is.

Dies, kababgo, gets glocked, gets fucking blickied.

Nothing guy does nothing gives us nothing and that’s the end of that-

So why AraiBeni?

So before I get into the insanity of how I write their relationship let’s get into the whys first and the actual proof for at least a friendship that went on with them in cannon.

To start off with, in chapter ten of the series and both of their first appearances we can see them accompanying Aki and Himeno to the scene of the leach devil.

Sticking close by each other, something that’s explained in chapter fourteen where Himeno confirms both of them are her rookies in training, for about six months now, or at least Arai has been meaning he and Kobeni have known each other for about half a year.

Now, it doesn’t outright say the two are 100% buddies/devil hunting partners but it’s something we can infer from their time together we see even when not with Himeno (chapter 28 before the shooters attack where they are clearly on their own together)

This doesn’t outright prove anything right now but does show the two spent a decent amount of time together.

One of the first most obvious indicators of some kind of care would actually be in chapter fifteen. With him attempting to calm her down after she begins to panic after learning they are trapped inside the hotel.

Very fast to comfort her after just a few lines of dialogue from her previously.

Like he’s done it to her several times before this, which with how Kobeni is and how Arai seems to be would make sense.

His words also suggest that Kobebi has told Arai a decent amount about her family life already.

About her sibling and bits about her family.

Maybe this could be considered small talk in other cases, but again thinking back to the shy, nervous person Kobeni is around people in general, her talking regularly to Arai shows some kind of relationship.

Arai’s attempt to calm her down ends up doing the complete opposite Unfortunately, Kobeni panics more while Power laughs at her and Arai snaps at her venomously to cut it out.

The following doesn’t hold much else for my point, but I would love to point out that Arai locked himself in a room with Kobebi in his moments of panic and his own moments of fear.

Definitely a reach on my part but still makes me kick my feet back and forth and grin so wide like: ‘Ohhhhh sharing a room as one is having 100 separate panic attacks and the other got knocked out for trying to drink from a toilet!!! What will they doooooo kiss??? Ohh ohhh’

Anyhow in chapter 17 emotions are at an all-time high in the hotel.

Power eats everyone’s food supply and the infamous exchange with Arai and Kobeni starts after Arai attempts to defend Power from her.

Kobeni accuses him of being a spy.

All this time he remains surprisingly calm until she literally brings the knife to his throat because-

Ya.

Not so much as what seems like a few minutes later in the next chapter even with this he immediately teams up with Kobebi to attempt to murder Denji.

He doesn’t even look uncomfortable around her after the fact like she’s done this several times before and Arai just doesn’t care.

Or there is something wrong with him-

Or all of the above.

Either way, he just shows no real grudge to it like any normal person would.

Where combined with how we also see Kobeni act this was definitely not a one time thing and Arai still stuck with her.

It’s almost more funny to me than anything, but ya guy had to tolerate her more than most did.

(Also small side note that’s rather unimportant but still an extra note note that In Japanese Kobebi calls Arai ‘Kun’ instead of ‘San’ even with Arai being two years older than her, just something interesting I saw pointed out by a few separate Japanese fans)

Ok moving on to the meat of this entire little segment of mind, that takes place in what’s mostly chapter twenty-eight.

The shooting.

It’s the most clear cut of my points honestly, but I also have a few other things I took away from it that I’ve seen no one else talk about.

Haven’t seen a lot of people talk about the MAIN stuff even.

I imagine you all, especially those who know me personally, know too how unwell the scene where Arai takes the bullet for Kobeni makes me.

The guy was shot in the neck.

Only had a few seconds to react if even that much and what does he do with those last seconds?

Dies for Kobeni.

Dies for her when he has to be in some kind of shock with that hole in his neck.

You… have to care about someone a lot to do that.

To die for them with zero hesitation like Arai did for Kobebi.

You can realistically say either way rather what Kobeni felt for Arai was love or not, but with Arai, I think he was definitely in love with her.

Died for her right there on the pavement.

I’d bet money that he’d do it again and again.

And for Kobeni, a person was made the last priority with her entire family, and made the least important.

Made to feel so mind-numbingly worthless compared to all of them, like she WAS a last priority like they care so little about her, would make her risk her life because that’s how little she matters.

For this fucking dude to think she’s worth giving up his life for with absolutely no hesitation is something she’d never expect in a hundred years anyone to do-

And yet he did.

Does twice even but I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

In response to his death, Kobebi responds in a way we’ve never seen since.

Instead of fleeing like she could have.

Finding a place to hide to save herself.

Takes the walkie-talkie off the dead woman’s corpse (after Kobeni killed her) and tracks down the people responsible for the shooting to attempt to kill them knowing fully well how dangerous they are.

It always boggles my mind, this scene is talked about so much but never the reason why she did this.

People make this out to be just her saving Denji but with all of Kobebi’s past actions and behaviors, I think this hardly makes sense.

Instead, I’ve always strongly believed it was revenge for Arai, why she asks Katana man and Akane if ‘they’re with the shooters’ before instantly attacking them.

I think Denji was more of a second bonus thing.

Arai was the main person in her mind.

Getting that revenge for his death against people she knows has to be insanely strong.

And this is the only real time we see her like this.

She had to have really cared about him to risk herself for revenge like that.

Because he was kind to her? Her friend? Such a rare person that was kind to her?

It’s something she even blames himself for as she laughs hysterically and sobs about ‘him shielding her’ to Denji.

The only time we see her blame herself for anything.

(Another extra note to this scene is that I think after he was killed Kobeni placed the first layer of her uniform on top of Arai’s body to give him some kind of decency in death. As when she’s walking with him she has it on and when she confronts Katana man and Akane she does not. Taking it off by some point to probably put it over his corpse as I see no other reason for her to take it off)

In the following chapters after this Kobeni doesn’t quit public safety, but in fact stays if only to help capture Akane and Katana man. I strongly think this is to get her to actually take revenge on them.

Yes, she did say it was for the money but I definitely think the main reason was for Arai.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t be putting in all this needless work into it. (Money was still another reason though don’t get me wrong)

It really says a lot about how she had to feel about him with how selfish most of her actions are in the series and her pain priorities being about her own survival to risk it all to get revenge on the man who died for her.

The man who was kind to her.

I for one think it’s very bittersweet on both their parts.

Even more so getting to Violence fiend.

Following the theory it’s the devil of violence inhabiting Arai’s body with his memories and feelings, clearly still cares deeply for Kobeni.

Even with the fiendafcation.

Forgetting everything.

That love for her remains.

It so clearly remains with him with that need to look after her.

I would go deeper into it but this is about AraiBeni, my talkings about Kobence can wait another day, and with that resolves my full cannon exclamation on them caring about each other and all my proof.

Woof.

That was a lot and that’s only the fucking beginning of it.

Like tip of the iceberg stuff to start you off with before I delve into my personal writing of their romance and why I write it that way in painful detail.

Are you ready?

LETS GO.

To start with.

I have always imagined the very start of their relationship to be the most rocky thing you can possibly imagine.

(Note Even with this he finds her attractive right off the bat not at all feeling anything yet but he thinks she’s pretty and is very polite because he’s the classic 1990’s guy.)

Remember when I said I think Kobebi has probably threatened him with a knife a few times?

Ya, that’s what I think their first meeting was like.

Because of Arai’s stature no doubt.

He’s a very tall, well built man with a scar on his face, and doesn’t look like he knows how to smile.

Yells just about every word he says.

Kobeni is a very small woman with massive amounts of anxiety.

It’s not a good mix.

Misunderstandings happen, Kobeni reacts from fear and it ends up with Arai getting a bloody arm for his troubles.

It’s something that’s hard to completely fault either of them for but still just an awful thing for both of them overall.

She slices his arm open-

In every right, he could get a new buddy.

Himeno even asks him if he wants one.

That Kobeni has been through buddies like this before for doing the same thing to them.

Getting started by them and physically attacking them-

But knowing he had made his own faults and feeling no need to do so he turns the offer down and continues to work with Kobeni although as you can guess things are more than a little tense between them both.

(Also on a darker note another reason why he’s so meh about the entire thing is because his mother for reasons I won’t get into has also hurt him similarly to that, on multiple occasions so in a way he’s completely used to it)

(It’s fucked up but it’s supposed to be fucked up)

I think even with that the first instance of something sparking or more just the start of something happening with them would be training and being forced to go drinking with Himeno.

Just training in general with the shared dread and knowledge that hangs over both their heads in terms of just how short a life span they most likely have now.

The fear of death, that continued fear as they continue their training together, how fucked they are.

It’s something they both understand and having another person be in the same boat gives them both a little bit of comfort even before they become even just friends.

Kind of patting the earth before anything begins to be built.

That and that their boss is a freak.

Something only really starts after they accidentally bump into each other after needing a break from their selective households for what is basically the same reason.

they’re able to talk and mention why they’re devil hunting at all.

Both for their families.

Kobeni for her sibling and brother (Arai doesn’t know yet that they’re fully forcing her)

And Arai for his mother and they don’t lose the house after the recent death of his absent father, the person who was originally helping with bills.

One of the most important exchanges

also takes place that night, with Arai asking her what he can do for her to help her be more comfortable with him so they both can get along better and be better partners.

Kobeni tells him she’s not sure, she knows getting along with something they have to do if they want to live longer but she’s so scared of everything all the time.

She’s so scared of him still can’t let herself relax around him.

(I think Kobeni has always been a weary and paranoid person. It’s not just anxiety and being awkward with people but again downright fear of his presence. Both from what I mentioned before and what her past experiences with men and people overall has to have been like.

How she has to be used to being treated like with how she acts in general with her quickness to lash out at others and flinching.

Her parents just overall solidifies this point for me.)

Arai, wanting to get closer to her to form some kind of bond offers to buy her coffee as a way to spend more time together outside the work environment so they can get more used to each other.

(mostly as a means to try and survive as long as possible, the more he can make a relationship with his buddy the longer he feels he can last.

Especially with how important I think he views relationships and building them in general.)

She’s wary, but wanting the free coffee and knowing this is in her best interest too, agreed in the exchange of letting him ride to work with her. (Arai originally took a train)

It even gets her to smile a little, something that makes his heart flutter, it’s the first and definitely not the last instance of it doing this.

It’s all a thing that’s built from so much warryness on both sides and only even started by both of their fear of death and knowing they’re going to die quicker if they never get used to one another.

It’s a…

Start…

It’s a decent start at the very least.

(They’re both side-eyeing each other)

The first car ride is awkward as fuck.

Awkward and kind of tense something that’s quick to stop when they come across a bunch of parked cars.

Arai goes to check it out by himself (Kobeni is too spooked to and like hell he’s gonna push her after last time) and runs into a fiend.

It beats his fucking ass, he’s still a rookie after all and only doesn’t die because Kobeni eventually comes in to kill it with him.

(She does this literally mostly just to get free coffee from him and waits so long to go and help he almost loses a damn arm. It’s something she feels guilty about especially when after the fight he asks if she’s okay when he’s the one hurt)

So guilty in fact she actually goes to see him at the hospital while he’s getting his wounds looked at.

It’s where she overhears the guy arguing with one of her past buddies (whom she harmed in the past)

Hears Arai tells the guy he’s not interested in his suspicions about Kobeni and defends her when he insults her.

(It’s so rude of him to Arai in general to insult his coworker at all Plus Kobeni just saved his life which is something that has now gotten a lot of Arai’s respect and more of his trust, especially with watching HOW she fought. She really is capable now in his eyes)

It kind of makes her feel worse for the whole almost letting him die thing and tries to tell him what Arai refused to listen to but Arai doesn’t want her to tell her if she’s only going it because she feels like she has to.

He’s mostly right to so she ends up not saying anything about it.

(It would have been about her devil contract, the bad luck devil how she's literally a bad luck charm)

It gives him even further appreciation for it a everything else he’s done for her so far.

None of her other buddies had done anything close to any of this before.

Stayed with her after she hurt them.

Not lose their temper.

Try so hard to build a bond.

And now this..?

It’s something that is hitting her really hard now.

Shakily giving him a card she brought and explaining she really is trying to get along with him just like he is with her.

It’s actually another big reason why she came even if her fear of him is still there.

She’s trying right back with him in her own way.

This.. trying to get coffee with him… it might seem so small but she is trying despite her fear.

Arai mostly understands this too and appreciates it a lot.

Someone trying to form connections too even in such deep terror is enough to get even more respect out of him.

He tries back even harder with her.

It’s something that’s really good for both of them.

They’ve taken a step.

A step!!!!!!!

More steps happen once Kobeni slowly gets more and more okay with having him in her vehicle so much as does Arai being around her.

She’s kind of jumpy, still snapping at him more than he should be from just her nerves but he’s honestly not taking it personally at least not fully.

(A lot of this by this point, especially as even more time passes is solely thanks to her paranoia again. She’s reacting so much on instinct and survival with her parents and just about everything else, it’s always protected her. ignoring it is something that’s very hard and always seems to be there whether she wants it or not) (Most of the time she doesn’t fully care or think about it but it’s starting to upset her now)

The little get-togethers they start having more and more also helps them get more used to one another.

Showing up with marks and bruises multiple times for reasons both of them suspect but neither talk about, yet there is a slimmer of further understanding in the air.

It’s comforting to some extent.

(Note that with this there is a slight misunderstanding of how these marks came to be in each other's mind, Arai assumes they were an ‘accident’ like his mother with him and Kobeni assumes Arai fully knows what his mother is doing to him is fully purposeful.) (it’s complicated)

They talk about various things together.

Writing (Arai convinces her to give it a shot by trying it out) more about both their families, devil hunting, BIRDS (note Arai will not shut the fuck up about birds, that is not important for this but he really fucking likes birds), what they’ve done before this, Arai mentions how he used to go to college. (Kobeni twitches)

Arai gets to have someone to talk to about things all his old friends never really liked to talk to him about (because you know men and the fact they’re men) it’s something he enjoys.

As does Kobeni.

Arai is still so kind to her as well, so patient.

It’s something she’s still not used to even with what she’s already seen from him.

Cute guys and their chatter.

All the while the lingering weight that is the knowledge that with every day they’re closer to death is always lingering around them.

Just two people who are doomed to die fighting devils just like all the others.

They are doomed they are doomed in every way possible.

It’s scary.

It’s a thing that’s not actually mentioned too much but oh does it linger above their head and are they both too aware of it.

It’s just not very fun to talk about how you're probably going to die soon when you’re only 20 something and still want to do so many things.

It’s even more of that understanding I mentioned earlier with the two of them just being devil hunters in general, it’s again comforting.

Honestly, you can really say a lot of their little bonding is because of all the trauma bonding but you know.

All of it becomes a sort of new normal/routine for them.

Seeing each other basically every day, getting coffee, training, and talking…

It’s a new normal they get enjoyment out of.

The obligation and their original want to only get okay with each other to live longer has changed into a genuine liking and comfort with one another.

It really has grown into a friendship now.

With something else mingling in the center of this.

You can probably guess that that is

Kobeni and her thing of being so incredibly lonely for so long without not anyone besides her family in her life.

She either lashes out and scares them off or they just leave in general and yet Arai has stayed with her.

(Kobeni’s own annoyance with her paranoia is hitting a peak, she now really does want to trust him but something in her isn’t letting her completely and it drives her a little bonkers especially when it comes to anything romantic because- *looks at her past* you know)

(Kobeni and romance and how it’s even harder for her than anything else, to let herself trust someone that much. Go that far. Do that much. It’s incredibly hard especially when anyone mentions it. Brings it up)

Stayed with her even with everything.

He’s kind and polite and acts like a gentleman, has stuck his neck out for her more than anyone has ever done anything for her.

It almost leaves her unable to understand how to react.

(*He’s so nice to me I have to kill him* meme)

It makes her feel like she’s worth something, that she’s safe around him. (Rare I would think)

It makes her feel like she’s something special.

It makes her heart skip a beat.

Arai and his thing of having another person to talk to after his friends stopped talking to him after taking this job. (He’s a dead man walking it hurts them to talk to him)

Absolutely loves her smile on the rare occasion she does it.

Like it makes his heart flutter every single damn time.

Man can absolutely not get enough of it and when he gets to see her actually be happy.

He wants to see it more.

He WANTS to see her happy and comfortable because she’s so special to him now.

He doesn’t want to see her suffer like she always seems to be.

It’s actively starting to hurt him seeing especially with just how frequently it is

(Cringe Arai)

It’s honestly impossible to say who ‘fell’ for the other first because that’s never how I’ve thought about it.

No real moment of ‘oh shit I love him’ ‘I love her’ for either of them, not a big one at least, it’s more this slow creeping thing that sneaks up on them, just barely at first, back of their heads before it gets stronger and stronger.

Just BAM-

Love, or whatever you non aro freaks call it.

(It even gets to a point where she feels comfortable enough with him to retreat to his house for shelter when her parents are being especially bad or just to get away from them in general.)

(First time when he wasn’t at the park like he normally is, after her parents locked her out so she just fleas there, and he, of course, lets her in)

(Something something she’d even have a few smaller things always at his home like a toothbrush just because she’s there so much)

With all this time passing them by (multiple months), their death also looms over them more and more.

Arai from this and a combination of that wanting her to be happy thing starts taking her out to little places.

(They’re probably gonna die soon any day now as their training turns to missions. Arai wants to give her this much before that. She deserves that much at the very least.)

(Yessss Arai spoil her completely and utterly fucking rotten.)

It’s something that’s kind of hard for her to be ok with with what I mentioned earlier but because she trusts Arai not to do anything or take advantage of anything (even if a part of her mind is still wailing he will) she rolls with it.

Even takes him out to a few places as well.

He gets to meet her siblings, and thinks they’re good kids.

Now, it’s obvious these are fucking dates.

Like these fuckers are going on dates, but do they admit to that?

Nah.

Of course, they don’t.

They both are so venomously against ever even acknowledging any feelings they know they have for each other.

Because oh boy do they absolutely know they both have feelings for each other and it’s not a ‘do they feel the same way’ thing, they’re not stupid, but they do Jack shit about it.

In fact, it’s almost a weird unsaid thing they share, that they don’t bring it up, just like they don’t openly bring up how they’re gonna die soon.

So it’s just these two morons dancing around their clear feelings for the other.

This is for a lot of separate reasons for both of them.

Arai thinks it’d be improper of him to ask out his coworker.

Oh, how scandalous to ask out his work partner!!!!!!!

And Arai is so fucking strict about what he thinks is inappropriate (like he even was unsure about taking her out or even hanging out with her outside work in general because he thought it might be inappropriate) (it’s like an actual huge concern for him)

(He’s extremely serious about it it’s actually a big part of how he acts in general)

(Besides he’s not stupid and with all her very strong and downright aggressive reactions to anything like it keys him into she probably has a problem when it comes to that.)

Kobeni’s reasons for it tie back to her fears about relationships and what that might turn into when it comes to what she absolutely doesn’t want.

It scares her and Kobeni stays away from things that scare her.

(Kobeni ultimate sex hater as she should be)

Even if a part of her wants to kiss him it’s not worth that risk.

The last and biggest thing with it is just how they both think they’re going to again, die, so what’s even really the point of trying to go anywhere with one another when this is already so nice?

Get together just to die and hurt the other?

No never….

Arai doesn’t want to hurt her.

Kobeni doesn’t want to be hurt.

They say nothing and continue doing what they’re doing for a while.

Of course, no one can dance forever.

It would stop somehow eventually and every time Kobeni always has to be the person to make the first move in the relationship in my book.

Always.

No real acceptions.

I feel so strongly about this because with the sheer lack of control and say Kobebi has in her life constantly with literally everything she’s getting full say and chooses to start up his relationship because she wants it herself even with that fear.

I want it to be her full choice, not Arai’s, it’s about Kobeni and having this control.

(I love writing it at first happen in the hotel, just fucking making out with him in the heat of the moment. In my broken reality in my crazy mind, something went down. They made the fuck out and it was a messy ass make-out session. They cuddled. I don’t make the rules.)

(She freaks because of more stuff I already mentioned and thinks she broke this unsaid truce and messed up what they had —> messes up further)

(It’s something she would apologize for. Ask why the hell he sticks with her. He tells her because it’s because he cares a lot about her. That buddies stick together)

(It’s the push shortly after she asks him out, or wound be about to but then he gets shot, whatever)

(Note I always write her asking him out)

(Kobeni’s choosing, ETC)

(He also learns about the extent of how shitty her parents are too besides the whole assuming most of it is accidents thing I mentioned which is a very horrible thing to learn about)

(He’s upset, to say the least)

*clears throat*

If he didn’t fucking drop dead the relationship would have gone extremely slow and I mean extremely slow.

Arai is slow because he’s so traditional thinking when it comes to relationships (it’s even gotten him dumped in the past, loser)

Kobeni wants to go slow because of obvious reasons. (Real for it, she is in fact NOT a loser)

It’s slow, it’s soft and tender enough to make a dog lose its goddamn mind.

(Like huh what the actual FUCK is wrong with both of you, this is why you die 99% of the time Arai and it’s better that way.)

Slow and steady does win the race to their little insanity after all.

‘Race’ whatever the fuck those yahoos are doing hand holding or whatever like what the fuck.

One step at a time with what she’s okay with, he’s completely cool with it again he likes taking it slow.

Arai thinks he’s soooooo lucky to have her, it feels all so different from anyone else he’s ever dated, he’s not sure why this is (it’s probably the trauma bonding) (he’s very mushy about it)

Kobeni thinks her luck is good for once as well. (She may love her loser boyfriend)

They’re not openly fluffy about it persay…. Not out in public at least (that’s her and Violence) (and oh boy there are a lot of key differences between how her and Violence would work out VS AraiBeni, Violence is a lot mushier, and ‘I miss my wife’, Arai is not, but that’s for another time) but their care and love for one another is still very much there in every regard.

Obvious.

Like ya, I think they love each other guys!

(Kicks Arai off a train into a frozen lake)

(He falls with a splat and turns into a creature)

Everything would take longer than most would to work itself out, again it’d still be slow things are far from over.

Kobeni is far from being okay with everything.

Getting intimate, getting Kobeni to move in with him, sharing a bed, ETC.

especially when things get further down the line.

Arai is still so stuffy about certain things (his job, how things should be done, and everything with his mom..)

(She hisses at him and says the stuff with his mother is bad just like the way her parents treat her is fucked up)

It’s done mostly by Arai having so much undying love and care for his girlfriend and wanting her to be comfortable in everything they do, lets her take the lead in basically everything they try out especially when it depends on the sexual side of things.

His very idealistic ideas on what a man should be, that he should be the one taking charge, on top, ETC shoved aside just like that because her comfort matters infinitely more to him than that.

There’s no even ‘oh let me think about it’-

No, it’s immediate, her comfort and happiness matter a lot to him, You’ve read this entire thing you get that.

(It’s only out of letting her be comfortable at first but then he learns he enjoys it, and tells no one about this, you’d have to pry it from his corpse)

Kobeni tops, I don’t see it any other way.

Like I stated before, for me this is always needed so she can have all the control in the world.

(Hell yeah you top that guy like 2X bigger than you!!!)

(It actually gives her a huge confidence boost)

It’s all another thing she really appreciates from him.

Now, thinking further down the line I really don’t think… they’d ever have sex.

I just can not see them doing that in 99% of all my own stuff.

Kobeni is asexual you can not change my mind on this.

She’s not going to have sex with him.

(Connected but not she sees sex as this inherently bad thing. It’s about pain and power and control. Control and power over her and she’s sick and tired of power over her.)

(Arai thinks the complete opposite and thinks it’s crazy she even thinks that way. He thinks it’s the embodiment of the most loving trusting thing you can do with another person. It’s why you have to marry them first. To really show that love to one another before you do anything of that sort. It’s about love and trust to him. And love and trust and forming relationships is very important to Arai.)

(Not trying to point out their differences in viewpoints are just interesting to me)

Arai doesn’t try to convince her otherwise, he has no right to do so, no right at all.

And respects it when Kobebi is firm on her reasoning.

He doesn’t want her to be uncomfortable..

He’d never want that!

That would defeat the entire purpose of it!!!!

No sex allowed in this household, Beni says so.

She’s so right for it.

(Don’t get me wrong he’s still pent up as all hell he’s just still very respectful)

(Winterrrrrrrr what about more?? After that, what about marriage isn’t that super important to Arai?????)

(I JUMP AT YOU SINKING MY TEETH INTO YOUR THROAT AND SHAKING RAPIDLY LIKE A WILD ANIMAL)

THEY WOULD NOT!!!!!!!!!

Kobeni wouldn’t like the idea of being tied to someone like that. (It’s like a contract, like a Devil contract!!)

Arai would be really big on it but Kobeni would not.

They would not.

Ever.

…………

But-

Just like with everything in their relationship, to make her more comfortable with it, Arai asks if it would prove they would be equals in all this if he took her last name instead of the other way around.

(Another instance of Arai throwing away man insanity) (SCREAMS)

Kobeni meets him in the middle, especially with how important she knows this is for him and agrees.

(Their wedding would 100% go wrong in some way with her luck, it starts absolutely downpouring on both of them. They’re soaked to the bone. Arai smiles faintly and tells her it’s a good thing he’s never minded rain. Kobeni hesitated before she smiles too, she says she’s never minded it much either)

(It’s a scene that makes my mind melt in its skull)

(I hate them X3)

Thank god Arai died.

Now, I realize the majority of this was just summarizing my fic in the strangest way possible but you all get it now.

You understand completely correct?

Slow burn between two people who know they’re probably going to die soon, started by that want not to die, Arai reaching out, her reaching out next until it slowly grows into so much more of something they both needed so badly and helping each other on the way from the other’s influence?

(Yes Winter we get it, we understand!!!!! Understand completely!!)

(Good I’m so proud everyone should understand my genius vision)

In conclusion, these guys are freaks and I hate them. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk about them.

(No seriously thank you if you made it this far I really appreciate it especially since this is for like three people thanks so muchhhh)

#hiroaki arai #violence fiend #chainsaw man #kobeni #katana man #akane owari #I LOVE THESE FUCKERS #ARAIBENIIIII

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winntersnow · 1 year ago

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The mortal in the immortal - an Aldo character study

I would think for most of you, your minds hit a blank seeing this pop up on the tags.

‘Who’s Aldo?’

I don’t blame you, guy doesn’t appear all to much.

I only care and know him because I’ve always had such a strange fascination for what I like to call ‘nothing guys’.

Very small, even smaller than side characters in media that are so insignificant that most fans don’t even know their names.

Aldo of course being one of them.

One of the three immortal brothers in the International Assassins arc that caught my eye once I fully understood what was happening with the guy's little mini arc with all the other insanity going on.

Even if it was small I think it was all incredibly interesting, especially for a nothing guy.

I would go as far as to say I think flew over people's heads and misunderstood it as a whole the full meaning of what Aldo goes through besides just ‘he was guilty.’

It’s something a bit more interesting and profound about the arc of a person who discovers their own humanity for the first time and what such said person chooses to do with it.

With all that let’s start getting into it shall we?

Right from the very start there is something a little different about Aldo compared to his sibling.

With Aldo vomiting after he and his brother kill Tendo, Kurose and the unnamed third devil hunter they’re with, and his brothers not really caring much, to say the least.

As this is his first kill and all that.

Why overall, this was his first kill when his brothers clearly killed multiple people themselves is anybody’s guess and not exactly important for what I’m trying to convey but just for details sake it’s either because he’s the youngest brother, something to deal with the scars on his eye or a mix of the two.

With them keeping Aldo away from the brunt of murdering at least.

Something that gives them a bit of depth methinks, trying to protect him from that.

Either way it’s very clear that so much of Joey’s and the unnamed second brother (let’s call him Kirtus for convenience) humanity has been completely sapped away from them through the killings they’ve had to have committed.

Through their own ego and beliefs.

They’re Ruthless, soulless, and emotionless.

They quite literally say this about themselves.

Aldo though? Not so much.

Not at all from everything that goes on but the important thing is, he feels he is soulless like them.

Believes it extremely strongly even.

It sounds like I’m jumping a little ahead of myself, but again it’s quite literally something Aldo thinks to himself remembering the things his brothers said to him when he’s pretending to be Kurose and connecting it to his ‘immortality’.

‘I am immortal.’

It’s a phrase that’s said multiple times by the brothers and most importantly by Aldo that most people misinterpret.

They are of course not really immortal.

Joey and Kirtus die.

So quickly even, with Kirtus being hit by a car and Joey being killed by Yoshida.

Their mentioned survivals when we first see them was luck and luck alone.

It’s something that boosts their ego on living sure but what they really mean when they say this is their removal from their emotional save feelings.

They are so far removed from their own humanity and morals that they feel nothing about anything.

Put to further sense when exactly this phrase is said by Aldo in particular.

After his brothers are killed, and before he goes to confront the others (in the building that’s eventually cast into hell.)

Like in a very repetitive, broken kind of way.

Desperately even.

(After his siblings are killed)

(Before entering the building)

He’s again enforcing what his brothers have always told him on to himself in these moments his emotions have to be at a high point.

That’s the reason, not because the guy thinks he literally can’t die.

It’s what he’s been raised to believe or think.

A big part of his mental decline along with his family's deaths of course.

Trying to continue to convince himself that he’s not scared, that he can’t feel anything because once again he has no soul, so he shouldn’t be feeling right?

Moving onto the actual meat of this entire thing now that any confusion on this phrase is fully cleared out.

Aldo once again is not like his brothers.

His brothers have fully made this phrase true about themselves, but Aldo even if he believes he’s soulless, absolutely is not, and some that he himself starts to learn.

Crashing down on him after he takes the appearance of Kurose and flees to the dead man’s friend's house for shelter.

Already fighting with himself for sure.

He gets to the guy's house with a face that doesn’t belong to him and-

Loses it.

Badly, breaks down sobbing apologies.

Everything really and truly crashing down on him.

The life he took most obviously.

People who don’t have emotions.

Those who are soulless do not cry like this.

Aldo is not immortal.

He has emotions, he has a heart and it’s horrible.

It’s a horrible thing to all crash on a person after they lost everything and taken an innocent life.

After he quite literally has nothing now but this.

So what does Aldo do with these new realizations about this?

Stay with the friend?

Run maybe to go anywhere else?

Start a new life away from this?

Do anything good at all?

No.

He denies it.

He hides from it and dives right back into a thing he now fully knows is wrong by the mere mention of a brother.

His own mind going to his dead ones.

‘A pro always gets the job done.’

He’s choosing to go back after all that.

After everything that just fell on his head, with all that guilt that really does belong to him and the gravity of his actions..

Aldo decides to go back and finish what his brothers started.

Get the job done like a ‘pro’.

The next time we see him repeating that phrase again; ‘I am immortal.’

He’s gained so much, and can again logically get away but clings back to that, to go on the same path.

Unlike before it’s a very direct and clear denial of a thing he already knows isn’t really true.

More of a promise to make it true until he’s like his brothers.

To make himself soulless and emotionless like them but doing the same things that made them immortal too.

Realized emotions be damned.

A sort of continuation to this very unfortunate cycle of the brothers of losing everything then losing their own humanity in their own convincing of themselves that they are not human.

Aldo managed to get through one round of it but not quite this round after getting so close to getting out of it.

There is a mortal in the immortal a lot of it, even after believing all his life there wasn’t, even with his immortal brothers around him.

But he chooses to ignore it.

To try and hurt more people which is where his arc comes to a close.

Getting tossed out of a window, pretending to be Halloweened then we never see him again.

Really a mystery what happened to him, if he went back to America, or stayed in Japan.

With how everything ended for him and the direction his arch went in more keen to believe he didn’t go in a very good direction.

Even him deciding to kill again is very debatable with his pushing away of his humanity.

Even if that humanity is still there in every right for now at least until it’s gone.

Something we will never be sure of unless he appears, which I doubt he will.

He’s just a nothing guy with a very interesting arc on his own morality as a person and what he chose to do with it in the way he did.

I enjoyed reading it a lot and think about Aldo every now and then.