#History Chapter 3 Notes & Concept
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ebookncertblogs · 10 months ago
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NCERT Social Science For Class 10th History Chapter 3 Notes & Concept- The Making of Global World Class 10 Notes
Download comprehensive CBSE notes for NCERT Social Science For Class 10th History Chapter 3 Notes & Concept- The Making of Global World Class 10 Notes from E-book NCERT. These notes cover key topics such as global trade expansion, the impact of colonialism, and technological progress, helping students effectively revise the chapter. Explore the flow of trade and labor, including migration patterns. Access the free Notes PDF for a complete overview and enhance your understanding of globalization and its economic implications. NCERT solutions are also available, prepared by subject matter experts.
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midnighthazee · 9 months ago
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Greenridge (SKZ ABO Series)
*A Completed Series*
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Summary: Omegas - once beloved, now abused. Omega y/n has a chance at a new life away from her old pack when she stumbles onto the territory of the Greenridge Pack (Stray Kids). Of course she is terrified they will be just like her last pack. Little does she know that she has been led wrong her whole life and this pack is not like all the others. The Greenridge pack is in need of an omega and when they find her, they know she's the one. Can she fill the spot and learn to trust them? Or will her old alpha find her before she can?
Warnings: NSFW, 18+, MDNI, SMUT, M/F, M/M, MMF, explicit language, creampies, double p, abo dynamics/werewolf themes (marking, aggression, etc), mentions of abuse/torture, mentions of blood, mentions of noncon, mentions of death, fear, Dom/sub dynamics...
*I tried to list all warnings I can think of, if there's more detailed ones I missed here, they will be on the chapter they're included in.*
Relationships: SKZ x SKZ , SKZ x Reader
Chapter Masterlist:
Preface
Characters
Prologue: A History Lesson
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
*Greenridge Aesthetic
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
The Morning with JiLix 🥰���💦
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Bonus Drabble
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25: Epilogue
Please note: Pics I got from Pinterest - I don't own any. Written work is all my own words. Any similarities between concepts and names is coincidental. Most ABO dynamics follow similar meanings - I used a mix of what I've read. Not trying to steal anyones ideas or take credit for them!! Please do not copy my work! Let's all get along and respect each other here! 💚
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becausebuckley · 6 months ago
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michelle's buddie fic recs: week 6!
and what a week it's been... idk about you all, but i'm very much looking forward to all the 8b spec fic after seeing That One Leak...
this is a mix of fics with all ratings, so some include NSFW content. please take a look at both the ratings and the fic tags before reading! some might also contain spoilers for season 8.
if you come across something you like in this list, remember to show some love to the author by leaving kudos and a comment!
a graveyard in blue | moonlightmornings/@moonlight-mornings | 12.9k | GA
After a call goes south because of limited resources and an equipment malfunction, Eddie's brave move to rescue a young girl takes a nasty turn. i love how this captures the energy and vibe of a rescue!! genuinely feels straight out of an episode <3
and i'd do it over and over again | playinginthunderstorms/@playinginthunderstorms | 4.4k | E
Buck and Eddie hook up at the end of "Confessions". oh when i tell you i savoured this one... such a wonderful fic that captures buddie's first time so so perfectly!! i love how their dynamic is written here <3
everything in between | simplyylupin | 2.1k | T
They’re quiet for a moment, mulling over the unsaid, and then Buck’s bringing his phone closer to his face, eyes squinting. “Are you naked?” the absolute codependency of these two <3 so good!!
hot ghost problems | ebjameston/@ebjameston | 40.9k | T
The ghost would prefer to go by Buck, if Eddie wouldn’t mind. this was a reread! i was reminded of the magic system here and revisited it - can confirm that magic and ghosts and all that are so very good here, and i love the diaz siblings!!
i'll tell them put me back in it (and i would do it again) | paleredheadinascifi | 4.8k| T
Eddie doesn't know how to make his listening history private. Buck doesn't know what to do with the words in front of his eyes. Chris cannot believe he has to deal with either of them. the sheer brilliance of this concept... such a lovely look at the buckley-diaz dynamics! i was smiling the whole way through <3
it's golden, like daylight | rarakiplin/@hoediaz | 8.7k | T
“Shut up,” fingers dig into his ribs, “I mean, would you want to? Be married again?” such wonderful firefam dynamics!! i read this last week, i think, and already reread it this past week as well. a new favourite for sure <3
lonely little love dog | littleghost/@ghostlandtoo | 24k | M
When the 118 is closed for reconstruction after an earthquake, Buck is a floater for different stations around the city. He tries not to let it get to him. Much. this is such a fascinating look at buck's character!! and i LOVED the mara scene <3
parabola | semperama/@semperama | 4.6k | T
“Hey, uh. By the way.” Buck’s been thinking about this, and he has to say it now, or it’ll explode out of him at a much worse time, in a much worse way. “Make sure you don’t forget to change your will again.” truly no fic captures the angst with a happy ending tag like this. also this fic is how i learned that there's a special ao3 tag for eddie's will, which sounds about right. anyway, point is, this is wonderful!!
the last shred of truth in the lost myth of true love | lemonzestywrites/@lemonzestywrites | 25.7k | E
After the events of 6x13, Buck is worried he's lost his charm in bed. Eddie eagerly offers his services to prove otherwise. a reread of one of my favourite fics <3 there's something about the intersection of smut and feelings realisation and introspection in this fic that just hits so very hard, it's lovely <3
the whale fall principle | fastcardotmp3/@fastcardotmp3 | 95.5k | M
Daniel Buckley lives, but he’s still deciding what that means. Maddie is having a baby, but it isn’t her husband’s. And Evan knows his purpose. Until he doesn’t anymore. okay so definitely heed the creator chose not to use archive warnings tag here (there are specific warnings in the chapter notes) but holy shit, this fic. genuinely the best buckley sibling dynamics i have read, like, maybe ever. such a wonderful eddie and chimney and everyone, and such gorgeous writing!! if this one sounds up your alley, you're in for a treat <3
to ebb and flow | akapeterman/@akapeterman | 5.1k | GA
buck is sick, eddie is worried, and christopher is an angel. they'll be okay. i've really been vibing with sickfics lately, can you tell? this is another lovely lovely fic, such great hurt/comfort/domestic fluff!!
wait for me to come home | written_promises | 1.9k | GA
Eddie comes back home to LA from Texas to find Buck waiting for him… in his bed. Because he’s been living in Eddie’s home. and eddie's bed is exactly where buck should be<3 so soft and sweet and beautiful!!
we return to each other in waves | cozycatwriter/@leon-trans-kennedy | 3.1k | GA
“Yes I do. Of course I do. You saved Chris and looked after him the best you could during a tsunami-and you’re still recovering from an embolism from having your leg crushed on the job. The least I could do is look after you and let you stay the night. Besides, Chris would want you to stay.” post-tsunami fics my beloveds <3 it genuinely makes me so happy to see new ones pop up, and this is truly an excellent one!! i love the bed-sharing especially!
you need a friendly hand (and i need action) | AmZamReads | 13.1k | E
Eddie picks up pottery as a hobby and accidentally blows up on Instagram for "accidentally" posting thirst traps of him throwing on the wheel. Buck stumbles across the account and immediately becomes obsessed with Eddie's hands, and horny shenanigans ensues. this fic makes me wish i could make pottery. i love eddie's pottery friends!! and a lovely buddie dynamic too <3
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3wisellamas · 1 month ago
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Tenna the Lightner
So I just did a replay of chapter 3, finding all the little things I missed the first time (like Tenna's Pipis Room embarrassingly enough), but there's a thread I've noticed throughout this whole playthrough:  Tenna is one WEIRD Darkner.  Like, weirder than most.  I'd even go as far as to suggest he might not even fully be a Darkner at all, at least not in his own mind.
Something to note is that while a lot of Darkners seem to know their own histories, and to be at least aware of the Light World and their object forms, it's not until TV World that we really see how deep that knowledge goes.  King tells us how he was betrayed by the Lightners and of his desire for revenge, but doesn't say much about them beyond that -- as if he's only aware of Lightners as a concept, unknowable gods whose presence can no longer be felt.  Queen, also, explicitly sees Lightners solely as their search history, and as a computer she doesn't really...interpret those searches correctly, to say the least.  Even Spamton and the other Addisons, whose entire existence revolves around advertising specifically to Lightners, don't seem to be too aware of them beyond their job.
But Tenna.  Oh boy.  Tenna LIVES more in the Light World than the Dark World.  Let's begin with the biggest piece of evidence:  This image.
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This stopped me in my tracks when I first played chapter 3, because of how out of place it is.  Even with TV Worlders in general being slightly more aware of Kris and the rest of the Dreemurr family than other Darkners, this image and Tenna's accompanying comment stand out as the first time ANY Darkner has proven they can perceive the Light World directly.  Spamton had a blue sky and a sun painted in his shop, things that don't exist at all in the Dark World, but not an actual photo like this.  How in the world did Tenna even get this picture of himself, I wonder?  Did he have a Shuttah snap it while someone was carrying a mirror nearby?  However it happened, the important part is TENNA CAN SEE THE LIGHT WORLD.  And in particular, HE CAN SHOW IMAGES OF IT TO OTHER DARKNERS.  Note that, at the beginning of all three boards, he shows (or has Mike show) photos including blue skies and sun, more than likely where Spamton got his own idea of "Heaven" to paint.
More rambling under the cut; I'm just getting warmed up here.
There's also the fact that, while other Darkners will acknowledge their Light World forms and even where they're located -- Queen straight-up saying she's a computer, Pippins mentioning they've been lost in the couch, that one Zapper that knew he was from Catti's house, Lancer and Rouxls hopping into your inventory as playing cards -- Tenna is also the first Darkner to identify and talk about his Light World form as if it's his own body, right down to saying he'd join in adventures if he wasn't plugged into the wall and that he'd look better with a tan -- his LIGHT WORLD form specifically would look better with one, that is.  He also isn't just limited to knowing about and identifying as his Light World form, either, if he really switched on that music video himself after you give him to Mettaton -- aside from...whatever was going on with Spamton and that glitch egg Noelle encountered in her game, we haven't seen any evidence at all that other Darkners are able to take any physical action on their own, outside of the Dark World. If Tenna can change his own channels, which would necessate physically turning his own dial, and possibly even use this ability to communicate with Lightners in some sapient way as I've seen LOTS of fanartists suggest, it's an ability unique to him!
There's also another moment where he shows more extensive knowledge of the Light World than any other Darkner we've yet encountered, one I think is even more damning:
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If you get S-rank on either board and access the special dressing room, Ramb reveals to you that Tenna reprogrammed the video games he has you play himself, using an existing video game as a base.  It looks like that wasn't all he was able to do with this skill, though -- while the above effort is clearly unfinished given that you can easily glitch it out with the camera, it's still scarily accurate for someone who's stuck plugged into the wall in the living room, and stuck as a Darkner unable to explore the Dreemurr house on his own.  Again, I wonder how he got this knowledge -- did Kris share their house layout with Tenna at some point?  Did Shuttah snap photos of the rest of the house?  Did Tenna, as my friend suggested, send a bunch of Pippins on an expedition to roll across the floor into the kitchen?  Regardless of how he got the knowledge from his limited vantage point, Tenna knows his own house very well, in a surprising amount of detail at that, and he specifically reprogrammed a game to be able to explore it himself.
I think that's the key to my theory:  Tenna wants to know about and explore the house he inhabits, and not the Dark World created from it.  Hell, he barely has ANYTHING to do with his own Dark World -- at certain points in the chapter, a Shuttah will describe what things were like before Tenna came, and what lies beyond his studio.  At one point they describe a "great wilderness" that's clearly supposed to be the kitchen -- "frozen waste" (the refrigerator), "watery basin" (the sink), and "metal desert" (stove or oven), as well as the "purple cliffs" that are definitely supposed to be either the couch or stairs.  At another point towards the end they mention others who left for "the far land", and that a "legend old hermit" knows the way; as far as I can tell at this point, this has to be referring to the toys and books Toriel took from home to her classroom, with fellow teacher Gerson possibly being the hermit?  
But all of this is outside of Tenna's studio, where he's in control -- literally, the guy can and does do whatever the heck he wants in there, laws of physics be damned.  The STUDIO is TV World, but it lies within a much, much larger Dark World taking up the rest of the Dreemurr house.  A Dark World Tenna clearly wants absolutely nothing to do with, and why would he?  He's not in control.  The Darkners there don't cater to his whims, aren't bound to his contracts.  He's built his own world, whose entire purpose is to be whatever he wants it to be...
And he builds it to resemble the Light World.  Or, to encapsulate his family's Light World.
Literally everything in Tenna's studio is a memory of the Dreemurr family, HIS family.  The cowboy shows Asgore used to enjoy, he has a set for that.  The cooking shows Toriel used to watch, and the kids used to make fun of, he has a set for that.  All of his prizes, from the floral cowboy shower curtains to the chocolate candy to the sink fur traps to the talker-backer(?) are geared toward an individual member of the family, save for two -- the Ralsei plush (either for Ralsei, assuming Tenna thinks he's a relative, or for us, the player, as others have pointed out), and the family car (which Tenna admits he drives every day himself if you visit his bonus room!  In other words, HE INCLUDED A PRIZE MEANT FOR HIMSELF AS A MEMBER OF THE DREEMURR FAMILY).  And it also extends to his memories of the Holidays as well with Dess' music video channel, and even a song she herself enjoyed and shared with her younger sister.
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(Yes, Raise Up Your Bat is a real song in-universe.  And Tenna must've enjoyed it himself too, if he kept it around!)
All of this is not just a cry for his family's attention, to go back to watching him, but to be included in their lives beyond that.  His fondest memory is of being watched by everyone during the holidays, with an area just outside the walls of his studio even modeled after that, with snow and Christmas trees scaled up to Tenna-size.  But, more importantly, I feel like he enjoyed being a part of the family in those moments, not just being watched by them.  He watched his family shrink from that point, until no one tuned in anymore, and he doesn't seem to be aware of where they all went -- Tenna's shocked when Kris tells him Asriel went away to college, like he didn't even notice the kid who'd enjoyed video games with Tenna grew up.  He suggests Asgore return to watch the cowboy show he liked, and DESS return as well, as if he's unaware of what happened with her (Maybe.  Tenna does backpedal a bit on that one -- I'm guessing he HAD to have at least seen the news reports of her disappearance.)  Notably, he doesn't actually mention Toriel's and Asgore's divorce, only them arguing, claiming it's a normal thing for couples to do -- COUPLES, as in still together, not former partners.  In general, for someone so obsessed with his family's attention, he either pays very little attention to them in turn, or he's locked out of the loop, and given he frequently asks Kris about specific people I'm guessing it's actually the latter.  Tenna is not aloof, he's driven by loneliness and desperately WANTS to know about his favorite viewers!  He misses them dearly, in more ways than just as an audience, and that might be a big motivation for why he modeled his game after the house, a subconcious desire to escape from his own reality and find out for himself.
We also have someone we can look at for another side to this:  Ramb.  The guy's a Plugboy explicitly stated to be from Cyber World, even fondly recounting his own memories of Queen, Swatch, and Spamton.  But while he now lives in TV World, he doesn't belong there -- that one Pippins mentions that, despite themself being from Card Kingdom they didn't turn to stone because they fit in with the other inhabitants, but Ramb never did, and so he became a statue in the end.  Like Tenna, Ramb also has a very close attachment to Kris, someone who played with him as a toy and broke him out of his normal role -- I feel like this makes him a nice foil for Tenna, who might also feel as though he doesn't belong, as attached to the Light World as he is.  Tenna breaks a LOT of the rules Ralsei sets forth for Darkners like himself, even if he still wants to fulfill his purpose of entertaining the Lightners above all else.  He's understandably devastated by the idea that he's due to be thrown away, for being old and obsolete -- and rather than accepting it as Ralsei suggests, the idea that he's gotten old breaks Tenna completely and he does what he can to ENSURE he won't be tossed onto the curb.  He captures Toriel and is willing to hand her over to the Knight, and also captures and tortures Kris and Susie for even suggesting that they're tired of playing his games.  And most interestingly, with them trapped in prize balls, he takes it upon himself to play the game for them -- Tenna gladly becomes Player 1, something Ralsei has to be FORCED into, stating it's something he's not supposed to be!  I also find it interesting that, despite not even having a chair for himself nor even a reason to be there (having an in-game avatar to give hints instead), Tenna absolutely insists on joining the Fun Gang for the video game rounds, with his absences to take calls only being temporary, rushing back in to rejoin afterward.  It could be Tenna wanting to keep an eye on them, making sure they don't try to leave and/or see their reaction to the games he created, but more than that, I get the feeling he just wants to be included, since these are the moments he gets especially chatty and friendly and un-host-like, letting his antennae down so to speak, like he's just playing video games with his friends and/or sibling!  
There's also a couple very subtle hints that, like Ramb, Tenna doesn't really feel like he belongs in TV World, at least not anymore, and his desperation to maintain control of his former employees during the latter part of the chapter could partially stem from that.  His shame over keeping a Pipis being one, and the other...well.  It seems pretty benign to a Lightner, but from a Darkner's point of view Tenna playing a "TV Statue" in the Suziezilla game has to give one pause:
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Finally, there's the specific, loaded words Tenna uses in Castle Town for being given to another Lightner to enjoy:  "Adopt."  "Forever home."
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Tenna doesn't just want new viewers, he wants a new FAMILY.  And specifically, he doesn't want a Darkner family, he wants to become part of another LIGHTNER family!  Because he saw himself as a Dreemurr, until Toriel wanted to get rid of him.  A lot of people like to point out Tenna's mental health issues coming from being a child of divorce, but I'd say there's a little child abandonment and social isolation going on in that TV head of his too.  Maybe that's why he and Susie get along so well, given her own implied neglect, and is one of many reasons why Tenna so urgently wants to impress Kris, another non-goat monster welcomed into the family.  
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In a lot of ways, Tenna turns the formula established in the first two chapters of Deltarune on its head.  In those, we had a main boss character, a cruel ruler whose presence dominates their particular Dark World and whose plans involve destroying or expanding into the Light World.  And then, a secret boss hidden somewhere in the chapter, requiring effort to find / battle but always with certain themes behind them:  Freedom.  Reaching beyond the Dark World's confines into "Heaven."  If you look at Tenna, he's the latter type of boss rather than the former:  He cruelly rules his studio, sure, but it's just a small part of the larger Dark World, his sphere of influence basically limited to those he suckers into signing his contracts.  He isn't even the final boss for his chapter, with the Knight taking that role.  He has zero ambitions at all for the Light World, but he knows of it far more extensively than other Darkners, with its entertainment literally beamed into his antennae at all times, and in his own way Tenna yearns to reach out to it in turn, to gain his freedom from obsolescence.  To break the rules, and be more than just an old, obsolete Darkner.
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vasito-de-leche · 1 month ago
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;R1999 A Study on Afflatus (I)
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Analysis and theories regarding the concept of Afflatus within the universe of Reverse: 1999
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if you're from the old r99 news server or the current r99 rp one (or if you've talked to me at any point about r99) then you might know how obsessed I am with afflatus analysis!
so after going feral on my main account about it, and seeing my afflatus thesis drafts just catch dust on my wips, I decided to just open a discussion about it in the fandom! just little by little as I get the thoughts out of my brain!
so yes, this is very much an invitation for people to discuss and theorize about smaller details of the game such as afflatus, medium and other things--there are many fun ways to interpret the way afflatus applies to characters, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts! ping me in your posts, go feral in the reblogs or comments!
as usual, transcripts were taken from the R1999 Neocities transcript project!
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During the first few months of GL's launch, "Afflatus" was generally considered an extradiegetic aspect of the game--a simple mechanic meant to facilitate gameplay for the player, without any relevance to the lore or the plot. Throughout the course of the following patches, namely within the main story, this idea was disproved in many ways, and there were plenty of clues that reinforced its existence in-universe from the very beginning. For the sake of those who have never noticed, I'll do my best to be thorough, but there may be some instances of Afflatus that I missed, feel free to let me know!
The very first time Afflatus is mentioned is in the main story; Chapter 01 - Stage 4 "Chicago Rescue," Sonetto is the one to bring it up during one of the battle tutorials.
Sonetto: That's quite a lot of critters! Timekeeper, we must do something to turn things around now. Remember what the instructor said in class? "Afflatus is a way to hunt in the world." "Observations of the minerals, plants, stars, and beasts as well as our experiences with the spirit and intelligence let us better understand our own existence." Sonetto: Select a proper target for me, Timekeeper. Sonetto: Use an incantation that is strong against the enemy's Afflatus to defeat them more quickly. You can take it from here, Timekeeper.
The fact that this conversation takes place during a game tutorial doesn't instantly render the contents discussed as "just meta," since we've had many different instances of game mechanics being relevant to the overall history and worldbuilding of the setting; Artificial Somnambulism Therapy is both a game mode and a type of therapy developed by Mesmer Jr's family, used extensively within Laplace, as well as a key plot point in Chapter 3 "Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien"; Picrasma Candy is a way for the player to continue playing and an actual medicine for arcanists developed by Medicine Pocket that Argus heavily depends on to use her own arcanum. Bluepoch makes a point to further develop their story through these mechanics, thus it is impossible to separate them from the story itself--battle conversations, daily tidbits, loading screens, items and other details can all be considered canon! Afflatus is no different.
Another early instance of Afflatus occurs in the Tutorial Notebook, which disappears forever once completed--so the following screenshot was taken from this video!
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The text reads: 
Sometimes, our Afflatus is strong or weak against an enemy. We need to follow this principle and select the proper arcane skills based on the enemy. Strong or weak? Like a cat to a rat? The relationship between different Afflatuses is like the ecological cycle. When your Afflatus is strong against the target's, your incantation will deal more damage. ─ On Afflatus, Chapter 1
The sticky note implies the existence of a book or research on the subject ("On Afflatus, Chapter 1") which, in turn, supports Sonetto's dialogue about the Afflatus lessons she received in SPDM ("Remember what the instructor said in class?"). With this we can understand that Afflatus exists within the world to a degree that allows it to be studied, also eliminating one of the earliest theories in GL about how Vertin is the only person who can perceive Afflatus due to her status as the Timekeeper.
To my knowledge, there are no direct explanations nor clues as to why or how one would discern Afflatus in others as of writing this. What is the point of assigning Afflatus types in-universe? How can it be done? Sadly, I don't have answers to these questions in particular!
But let's analyze our current examples so far.
According to Sonetto's knowledge on the subject, Afflatus encompasses "observations of the minerals, plants, stars and beasts as well as our experiences with the spirit and intelligence," that allows people to understand themselves. This serves as a list of both Natural (Mineral, Plant, Star, Beast) and Primal (Spirit, Intellect) Afflatuses, while hinting towards the purpose of Afflatus as a tool of introspection.
With this, one may theorize that Afflatus can apply to every living being, as it tackles observations with the surrounding world (Natural Afflatus) and one's inner world (Primal Afflatus). This is partially true, there is a small yet important distinction to be made!
The 1.5 "Revival! The Uluru Games" patch explored the physiological and social differences between humans and arcanists through Ezra and Spathodea, and a new batch of loading screen tidbits were added, such as this one:
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The text reads:
The arcanum's Afflatus categories do not apply to humans. However, factors such as personality and preferred instruments may cause certain individuals to have a closer affinity to a particular type of arcane Afflatus.
This daily tidbit confirms that arcanum's Afflatus categories do not apply to humans. The rest of tidbits emphasize on the contrast between the two groups in different aspects; humans cannot cast arcane skills, they use technology and commands rather than incantations, they're considered rational instead of passionate, reason vs instinct, etc etc.
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But I believe there is an important distinction to be made! The first loading screen tidbit mentions "arcanum's Afflatus categories," rather than Afflatus itself. There is an aspect of Afflatus that is directly linked with arcanum, and thus it makes sense that it cannot be applied to humans.
We can see this happening in Greta Hoffman's report from the Special Chapter - "The Star" in which she explains her interactions with 37's mother, 77. Here are a few excerpts.
Writer of the Report: I'm not sure whether she was making fun of me or being serious, but I had this feeling that she was eager to tell me how she was granted the secret through a moment of afflatus. It seemed she just saw through the laws behind all things instead of finding them through logical deduction.
"HER": "The rhombus can't be seen with eyes. You shall close your eyes, hearken to the teaching of the supreme existence, and seize the moment of afflatus!" Writer of the Report: Of course, I didn't see anything, nor did I understand what a moment of afflatus was. Perhaps it's just another privilege enjoyed by arcanists, just like their right to be lunatic. Nevertheless, she reached the correct conclusion in a completely wrong way. Is it really possible?
Writer of the Report: But, if there is a god, why are you playing such a prank on us, after we had suffered from the collapse of all the existing orders and the failure of all the great laws? If this is what she called the glimpse of the supreme existence, the moment of afflatus, do you have to present it in such a cruel way?
Even Matilda brings up afflatus during this chapter, in reference to her job monitoring new members.
Matilda: &$#% ... I know she's a rookie, but even so, she's way too unbelievable! "Guide new members with caution and patience. Trigger their afflatus at the right time." Oh, I have to admit, Vertin is doing it better than me for now.
Note the distinction between capital A "Afflatus" and lowercase "afflatus." In this context, the "moment of afflatus" exists as its namesake implies--as an inspiration, a moment of divine impulse that only arcanists can utilize and, therefore, cannot be explained nor proved through human logic.
That is the basis for the tension between Greta Hoffman (a mixed whose arcane blood has been so diluted she can easily pass off as a pure-blooded human) and 77 (a pure-blooded arcanist from an isolated and ancient arcanist society) as two characters from vastly different groups that cannot reconcile nor find a middle ground in their differences. This is the arcane aspect of Afflatus as the 1.5's tidbit mentions, the part that cannot be applied to mankind. But Afflatus also exists as a tool of introspection as mentioned before, which encompasses aspects that any living being can relate to--therefore, it explains why we have both playable and non-playable humans with Afflatus types.
To further understand how non-arcane living beings can still lean towards different types of Afflatus, let's examine the enemies in the game.
The main story is very consistent with how they portray enemies, if you pay attention to their battle information you can see all the deliberate details Bluepoch has added; every enemy comes with a short description that might evolve and change along the story in future renditions of their fights, there are different card sets for different factions (Manus Vindictae's deep black and blue cards vs the Foundation's white and light blue cards), each attack/incantation is uniquely named, giving context and insight into the enemy you're fighting, some even have uniquely named traits/buffs/debuffs!
And as far as I know, every single enemy in the game, regardless of whether they're arcane in nature or not, has an Afflatus assigned to them. Let's look at arcane beings first.
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We see that all three examples match their respective Afflatus; a Mineral Carbuncle with a Mineral Afflatus, a Dryad, commonly associated with nature has the Plant Afflatus, and Druvis III, a playable character, retains her Plant Afflatus even as a mysterious NPC boss fight in which her regular incantations have been switched to Manus Vindictae.
And we can also see continuity in Afflatus in other bosses, such as Matilda and Lilya in later chapters--they both retain their own Afflatus as playable characters, and much like Druvis, Matilda's cards are concealed as the default Foundation set for the sake of keeping their identities concealed. There is a clear intent behind these choices.
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In the Surface levels of Artificial Somnambulism, the ones that directly correlate to the main story, also feature many other playable characters with their respective Afflatuses; La Source in "Misty Lake a"; The Fool, Bunny Bunny, Pavia, Satsuki and Tennant in "Floating Park a" ...
And I do want to mention that there are instances in which the game allows us to fight playable characters whose Afflatuses have been changed--but there is still an clear goal behind this.
The beta levels of Artificial Somnambulism feature the same aforementioned characters as the alpha ones, but a few of them have different Afflatus. This can be explained within the main story as the direct result of Vertin's mind being tampered with, as we see her struggle to remember and forget things clearly during her AST induced coma in Chapter 3.
???: Her traumatic segment has been reactivated. Increase the power, stabilize her psychube. Try the next dream. Z: The artificial somnambulism therapy may not work on her, Mesmer.
Mesmer Jr.: It means she had suffered the same traumatic experience repeatedly. Even so, she showed no behavioral or cognitive impairment. Back then, as we held her down and put the helmet on her, she even advised me in an extremely calm manner … “I agree with your judgment, but it’s just for this time.” … She was the bellwether of the “break-away” incident after all. I’ll say she’s been well-behaved this time. Sonetto: … I-I thought … Timekeeper is receiving for her low spirit. But you said you held her down … Mesmer Jr.: Oh, that’s just another description of the method used for the same purpose. The aim was to ensure Vertin was unconscious and taken back. That’s the direct order from the vice president of the committee, Constantine. The order from on high was given on the premise of rational thinking and consideration over pros and cons─you are not questioning the reasoning of mankind, are you?
A similar situation happens during UTTU Week, which features playable characters as different characters within the story that UTTU is attempting to share. For example, in 1.2 "Nightmare at Green Lake," the playable characters you fight in UTTU Week represent various different archetypes and tropes in horror.
These inconsistencies are done on purpose, as they're not meant to reflect the truth 1:1.
Now, let's look at human enemies. Here are the two human children from the beginning of the game who disrupt the suitcase--despite being humans, they both have Afflatus assigned to them, and not only that but different types as well, Star and Mineral respectively.
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So, to backtrack again! Afflatus cannot be applied to humans from an arcane point of view, simply because humans cannot cast incantations. Therefore, their affinity for a specific type of Afflatus is based on something else, something that they share with arcane beings--such as personality, experiences and preferred instruments.
I want to propose the interpretation of Afflatus being the totality of one's experiences in life; depending on your experiences, the way they've shaped your thinking patterns, your instincts and your personality, you may have an affinity for one Afflatus or another.
This ties in with a different aspect of Afflatus: the idea that one's Afflatus type can change, as the person goes through big changes in their life that influence them in different ways.
If we acknowledge that these battle details are all deliberate and meant to add to the narrative, there are two outliers whose Afflatuses change. The first one is Kakania herself; her debut in 1.7 "E Lucevan le Stelle" includes a fight against her in Stage 8 "Mirror and Lantern" which clearly states her Afflatus is Intellect.
One could argue that this is not the true Kakania, as the battle involves fighting mirror versions of her--but as a reminder, the true one is, in fact, hidden among them! And furthermore, if the reflections are exact versions of the real Kakania, it makes sense that they would have the same battle information as her.
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As we all know, when Kakania becomes playable in 1.9 "Vereinsamt," her Afflatus is not Intellect but Plant--I'd like to explain this change as the development Kakania goes through in this specific arc of the story.
Her idealistic views and activism, both for her city and her patients, are directly challenged as the story progresses. She realizes that none of her friends within The Circle were the people she thought them to be, namely Isolde whose complex life and struggles were both overlooked and impossible to discern in Kakania's eyes due to their close relationship, and she also sees the town she acknowledged as flawed but still worth fighting for, turn into violent patriots. Everything that Kakania stood for is gone in an instant, and we see her fighting spirit turn into a desperate near-suicidal attempt at making up for her perceived wrongs.
Such radical events like this would warrant a change in Afflatus, as Kakania adjusts her views due to her experiences.
And then on the other hand, we have The Guiding One's Harbringer boss fight in 1.9's Stage 21 "A Homage Paid"--one of its core mechanics is to change Afflatus to that of the last attack it received. Here we see that distinction from before, the lowercase afflatus referring to the arcane aspect, rather than the experiences a person goes through.
As far as I know, this section of the game also becomes unplayable (or is currently unplayable, I can't seem to access it anymore) so the following screenshots are taken from this video!
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Kakania's Afflatus change is something that seems to be directly linked to her evolution as a character, while the Guiding One's Harbringer's Afflatus change is directly linked to its status as an arcane construct, using it as a "mimic strategy" during battle. The psychological aspect vs the arcane aspect of Afflatus respectively.
Next, I'd like to discuss some assumptions made about the different Afflatus types; we expect that Beast characters must have an affinity with animals or be animals themselves (Darley Clatter, Getian, Medicine Pocket, Nick Bottom ...) and we expect that Star characters are all related to celestial bodies or the skies (37, Lilya, Matilda, Lorelei, Voyager ...) due to the naming conventions of the Afflatus. And yes, there are motifs within the Afflatus types that match their naming conventions, but a quick look through the character list prove there is much more to offer, as a good chunk of characters don't align with this initial read of their themes.
We have Pickles, a literal dog, and Kaalaa Baunaa, an astronomer, both with Mineral Afflatus instead of what one would expect of them. It's similar to how fandom perceives Awakened as the sole category for sentient objects, when we have characters like Door and Darley Clatter who are undoubtedly objects, implied to have been given sentience, and thus fall within the group of pure-blooded Arcanists rather than Awakened.
I would also like to point out that these initial motifs have nothing to do with a character's Arcanum--another theory I've seen around is that Afflatus types influence an arcanist's arcanum, which can't be further from the truth. One could argue that Kaalaa Baunaa's arcanum (the summoning of meteors and planets) is related to her Mineral Afflatus--both relate to rocks, after all--but just like the previous assumptions, this falls apart when you examine other examples. Jiu Niangzi's arcanum has nothing to do with rocks nor minerals, but liquor. Ulu's arcanum revolves around fire, yet she's still Mineral.
As far as we know, arcanum is something that can be inherited through bloodlines or lineage--think of Mesmer Jr's 01 Story in her Cover Profile, which states “Nobody is more talented in this than Mesmer Jr. Her bloodline gives her outstanding ability and keen senses, which makes everything clear and intelligible to her” in the context of performing AST, or Tennant, whose 02 Story hints towards her father performing the same type of arcanum she's known for--but it's also something that can be taught. We see this most clearly within students of SPDM such as Sonetto, as her skill set matches that of the SPDM students fought during Chapter 3, portraying the "standard" arcanum taught to all arcanist children.
But not only that, arcanum can be influenced by other factors, such as a character's situation and interests--Blonney's arcanum revolves around making drawings come to life, which correlates with her love for storytelling and horror as a child. Pavia's shadow arcanum is hinted to have been formed out of necessity or as a result of his childhood in a dark basement. Tooth Fairy utilizes the fairies she traps.
We also know that arcanists from the same family may not inherit the same level of arcane power, as seen in Shamane and Kumar; the latter was cast out of her family due to her weak arcane power. In all of these cases, Afflatus has nothing to do with arcanum.
So what exactly do Afflatus types tackle?
These are the Afflatus as I've analyzed them, as much as I could summarize it for easier digestion!
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With this interpretation, we can see that Star relates to celestial objects and the skies, but also trailblazer geniuses and unstoppable forces, that which is out of reach for common people. Mineral relates to solid materials and stability in permanence, but also the rigidness of strict systems or traditions or stagnancy. Beast relates to wild animals and creatures found in the world, but also the survival of the individual, the struggle to find a place for oneself no matter what. And Plant relates to the flora and the natural cycles in the world, but also the safety of a collective, that which is inherent to the world such as community or change.
This is why these belong to the Natural category of Afflatus: they are concepts that already existed on the world or were manifested into it, from the ground we touch, the people we interact with, to the ideals and beliefs that influence and create societies or bring people together.
On the other hand we have Spirit, relating to the soul, the supernatural and the spiritual aspect of things, but also the unknown, to follow one's gut instinct or embrace the inexplicable. "The way I see the world is unconventional, because I feel these different things about why and how things are the way they are." And then Intellect, relating to the mind and the logical aspect of things, but also the different mindsets and patterns of thought one can have to rationalize things. "The way I see the world is unconventional, because I have these different rules about why and how things are the way they are."
This is why they belong to the Primal category of Afflatus: they are, as the name implies, ancient impulses and habits that mostly exist within ourselves, our thoughts and our feelings.
The Tutorial Notebook also mentions an "ecological cycle," there is a relationship between the different categories that explains why some are strong or weak against others. It's rather easy to understand for the Primal Afflatus, as it's the classic fight between hearts and minds, but Natural Afflatus is a little harder to grasp.
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We see the relationship between Beast and Mineral; the former is weak against the latter, the latter is strong against the former. You may read the Natural Afflatus wheel clockwise or counter clockwise.
Using the previous explanations, let us examine this cycle!
Beast is strong against Plant, because it's the disruption of a community or the harmony of the world through a single individual desperately fighting to change their current situation. A desperate animal does not think about the consequences its actions has on the environment while it tries to survive. Plant is strong against Star, because it's a tight-knit collective that embraces change and thus, the lone genius cannot shine above the rest. In an environment that welcomes everyone and everything, there is no way to stand out. Star is strong against Mineral, because it's a single individual choosing to disrupt the status quo, the stability of their society, for the sake of a dream or ideal. A single genius can topple over entire societies. And Mineral is strong against Beast, because a rigid set of rules or traditions leave no place for those who don't fit inside of it or who oppose it. A government that advocates for mankind's superiority leaves no room for arcanists and their rights, it forces them to assimilate within their established rules.
And this cycle goes backwards and forwards!
But I would also like to propose a different type of relation: we understand the aspect of having advantage or disadvantage, but what about Afflatuses that directly mirror each other?
Beast and Star are two Afflatus that directly correlate to an individual against a collective, whereas Mineral and Plant are two Afflatus that directly correlate to a collective against the individual. They're foils of each other; Beast is the underdog, Star is the genius, while Mineral is the stagnant and rigid yet stable and secure systems while Plant is the ever-changing and adaptive nature of the world.
We may also see this in a more precise way: the ecological cycle and Afflatus relationships exist because someone of Mineral Afflatus who is stuck in their ways and refuses to change can be easily upset by someone of Star Afflatus whose nature is to radically change traditions and offer different paths. This is why Semmelweis, a Mineral Afflatus who is hellbent on clinging to the human aspect of herself and sticks to her stubborn mindsets, has such a fascination with Lorelei. Or rather, why Lorelei has such an effect on Semmelweis, as she is a Star Afflatus that begins Semmelweis' journey of self-discovery and acceptance within Series of Dusks.
We can also see previous themes discussed within this post here: one would think that such a radical change is enough to cause Semmelweis to change Afflatus, but we see through her gamemode and the different endings presented that this change is still very much in line with her mindsets and behaviour, Semmelweis remains stubbornly adaptive and pragmatic to the very end, and choosing to follow Lorelei has brought her a deeper insight to understand herself without radically changing who she truly is.
Another example would be Forget Me Not and Druvis III; we know that Forget Me Not is Mineral Afflatus due to his boss fight in Chapter 2 - Stage 13 "Documentary" and Druvis III is Plant Afflatus.
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We see the foil dynamics of Afflatus that don't directly interact with each other: the reason Forget Me Not and Druvis III seem to have this type of relationship can be explained through their Afflatus, with Forget Me Not insisting that she perpetuates the very same cycle of revenge and pain, to never move on and continue in the same spot of grieving and mourning for her family. While Druvis III's entire development throughout the Chicago arc--and even leading into the next chapters--tackles her desire to grow and move on, to finally let go of the worst night of her life that took her family away and begin healing from it. It's exactly what Vertin notices within her, and why she's able to connect with Druvis III.
Vertin: Once you dispel the arcanum, it would not be what it is now. I think you are clear, Ms. Druvis, that … Every tree lives for tomorrow.
And that's where I'll leave this extremely long introduction to my study on Afflatus! I'm planning on discussing other themes in the future, such as the way a character's Medium serves as a bridge between their Afflatus and Arcanum, and analysis of the cover profule, but also proper in-depth analysis of each individual Afflatus!
There is so much to look at when discussing Afflatus, every single Insight material has its own description, and each stage for each Afflatus tells a story that relates to their themes!
Please don't be afraid to reach out with your own ideas or observations, I look forward to what everyone else thinks! And congratulations for making it this far <3
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seokizaten · 1 month ago
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The Gold He Holds [Zhongli] —⋆。°✩
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Series Introduction: How shameful it is to be a mortal, falling in love with an Archon who had eyes for someone even before you were born?
Themes: Zhongli x human! reader, unrequited romance, angst, one-sided love, inaccurate lore, she fell first - he fell harder trope, slow burn, history, jealousy, slow romance... like REALLY SLOW (this is for y'all again, my slow burn girlies)
Author's Note: This is my top favourite fanfiction I ever wrote (because Zhongli is my first love in genshin, and because I personally love the concept lol) Thank you for taking an interest with my work, I hope you enjoy!
Chapters:
prologue || chapter 1 || chapter 2 || chapter 3 || chapter 4 || chapter 5 || chapter 6 || chapter 7 || chapter 8 || chapter 9 || chapter 10 || chapter 11 || chapter 12 || epilogue Status: Completed
Masterlist
Playlist:
Incomplete, but this is what I listened to while writing
Note:
The plot used in this fanfic is from "The Gold He Holds.", my original work from Webtoon! (Unpublished for now) and "Natsukashii." from Wattpad!
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This is a fanfiction based on Genshin Impact’s Zhongli, all made with my imagination. Please do not copy, translate, or repost to another platform without my permission!! —⋆。°✩ Thank you so much!!
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skysiren41 · 6 months ago
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My thoughts on Poppy Playtime chapter 4
So I just finished watching Dawko's playthough of chapter 4 and here are my thoughts
Spoilers obviously for chapter 4
● While I think this is still a good chapter, I don't think it's was as consistently good as chapter 3. I'd still consider it the second best of the chapters but it just has a few things that hold it back from being the best
● I think my main problem is how it handled it's villians, specifically Yarnaby and Dr Sawyer. With how much Mob promoted them and build up the history they have they don't really explore either character. It's especially disappointing for Sawyer, whose been build up since the start of the series as one of the big bads. They don't really show up all that often, and I found their deaths kinda anticlimactic
● Pianosaurus fans were done dirty, such a cool concept and design wasted on one cutscene. Personally I think it should've been Pianosaurus who chased us first instead of Yarnaby, it would've been short yeah but it would've at least give us Pianosaurus fans something
● I'll be honest I did not care for the Nightmare Critters. I get what they were going for with them being rival or evil opposites to the Smiling Critters, but I don't know I feel like they were only added due to how popular the Smiling Critters are. I think you could've removed them and put Pianosaurus or Yarnaby instead in their moments instead
● On a more positive note I wasn't expecting to enjoy Doey as much as I did. Not only is the animation on him fantastic, but I think the way they wrote his character was really well done. He's definitely one of the most tragic characters in the game and has honestly already become one of my favorites
● One thing I've always respect about Poppy Playtime is how dark it's willing to go to show the horrors of what these toys have gone though. Like holy shit I thought chapter 3 was already pushing it with the Dogday scene, but THIS chapter literally starts with a kid dying in the first minute, and it's only downhill from here. I appreciate that unlike something like Fnaf which seems to be too nervous about going in a darker direction, Poppy Playtime actually matures with it's audience and isn't afraid to explore dark themes
● I wasn't really shocked when Ollie was revealed to actually be The Prototype, I called it since chapter 3 with how he just showed up and how it was later showed in a tape that The Prototype can mimic voices
● Same with Huggy Wuggy being revealed to be alive, that's been teased since chapter 2 though I'm curious about how there gonna handle him
● Kissy continues to be the MvP and the only toy I can trust in this god forsaken factory
● I like how they explored the morality of Poppy's character. When you think about it, it's because of her want for revenge that not only allowed The Prototype to manipulate her, but she indirectly caused the Safe Haven to be attacked which resulted in the deaths of both the toys there and Doey. I've always loved when media has a character be so caught up in getting revenge that they indirectly cause harm to the people they care for, and I think they do it well here with Poppy
● As always the voice acting is superb. I especially wanna give my praise to Michael Kovach as Doey, he absolutely killed it. I know some are getting tired of him appearing in a lot of indie shows and games, but I think it shows just how talented of a voice actor he is
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liillyliilly · 1 year ago
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mentos and coke-a-cola kuroo tetsurou x reader words; 15706 synopsis: as vice captain of a co-ed intramural team, you found yourself increasingly close to the members of your team. including the witty, loving, captain of yours, kuroo tetsurou.
FROM TETSUROU: ATTACHED: 3 IMAGES
You think to yourself, how many times did you have to tell Kuroo Tetsurou that you were not in fact his personal gym journal? Sitting at the central table of the university library, you had to quickly set your phone down. Then, you opened your laptop to text him, glad that your laptop blurred photos unless you had clicked on them.
This hadn’t been the first time he’d sent you photos of him. Nor had it been the second. By the eighth time it had become routine, he’d send what he considered the ‘best’ photos from the week to you, and expect detailed analysis and thoughts on the way his joggers hung low on his hips with Calvin Klein underwear showing the brand label boldly.
He always posed without his face showing in the photos. Just glimpses of his chin or cheek in the photos. Even though that had always been your only suggestion for him, just a little more of his face and a little less of the v-shaped muscles near his hips.
Kuroo never understood why the most obvious form of flirting never worked on you. Perhaps it had been because of your systematic desensitization to the possibility that he was trying to overtly make you see him as attractive. Perhaps it was all in his mind. The concept that photos could equate to romance. Or how he began deluding himself into finally overcoming the imposed relationship barriers you had begun building once you joined his recreation team for intramural volleyball at The University of Tokyo.
TO TETSUROU: kuroo put the softcore porn thirst traps away 🤢
FROM TETSUROU: i need your opinion
TO TETSUROU: ??? my opinion? i don’t have an opinion on your abdominal muscles or your back or your arms. I need to STUDY the human ego not your body (my philosophy major homework is kicking my butt right now)
You flit from the message tab on your laptop, opening a pdf copy of your textbook to copy notes from. You just needed to finish two more chapters and then you would drop by Kuroo’s place for dinner. He had invited the whole team, but everyone else said that they couldn’t make it. You had tried to deny his offer, but everyone else in the team said that you should just accept the free food.
The part that you hadn’t known at that time was that there were two group chats related to your volleyball team, Consensual Sets. (The team name had all been Ito’s idea, the setter on your team. Kuroo had strongly suggested Setters of Catan, and you had proposed Block Party. In the end, Ito’s pun won the hearts of the rest of your seven member team.) There was one group chat that had everyone, and another that had everyone but you in the messaging history.
Kuroo had dubbed the secondary chat as his collection of wing-people. But mostly they were unhelpful in actually progressing his romance with you. But this time, the dinner he wanted to have was successfully handled by the other five members. It was simple for the rest of the team to just decline the offer due to fake excuses and then to strongly encourage you to go get food with Kuroo at the end of what had been a long week for you academically.
FROM TETSUROU: you drive me crazy 🤕 (just drop out of philosophy and switch your major, all the cool kids do that my dear confucius)
Kuroo was wiping sweat from his forehead using a towel in his bathroom. Instead of doing cardio at the gym, he had decided to just run back to his apartment on the outskirts of the university. That way he could shower before you’d show up to get food. He still didn’t have an idea about where to take you. There was a fine line between a potential date and forcing you to go to a fancy restaurant against your will. He didn’t want just to go to a drive-through, but then he remembered how much you loved the fries at that one burger shop.
He would always try to make you eat a balanced meal, trying to make your diet secretly better. It was all for your good though, because he was aiming to make you live to be 100 through his secret dietary aids he had been slowly integrating. Hell, you couldn’t even eat pizza without also craving a side salad now because of Kuroo’s insistent nature.
TO TETSUROU: i will forcibly remove my number from your phone pls give me peace of mind and stop acting as a shoulder devil for my future career choices
FROM TETSUROU: you love me really
And you did, you loved him like a best friend. Almost like an overbearing, annoying, childish older brother. But also, as a role model to some degree. If you could call being the captain of your co-ed volleyball recreation league team a role model figure in your life.
It was around thirty minutes later when you finally shoved your laptop into your bag and got onto your electric skateboard to get to Kuroo’s apartment.
Knocking a few times, you had shoved your board under your arm and unclasped your helmet.
He swung the door open with a big smile, “I got Thai. From Suguru’s mom’s restaurant, discounts for friends of that brat.”
You rested your board against the door once you had entered his apartment, removing your helmet and trying to pin down the hairs that had been rustled by your head protection.
You set your helmet down on the coffee table near the entrance, setting your board against the wall unobtrusively, “Suguru’s mom is such a sweetheart, remember when she brought food for our team after our big loss last year?”
Daishou’s mother also bought the team amulets, with Nagas (which you had learned were essentially snakes) surrounding a Buddha for good luck and for protection. Yours hung up in your living room, next to your roommates various other key chains. Before you left the house, you always rubbed the charm. If the luck Daishou’s mom seemed to have was due to the amulet, then there wouldn’t be any harm in trying to get some of it to rub off on you as well.
Kuroo pulls out a chair for you and you sit down proceeding to open some chopsticks. One pair for you, and then you open another for Kuroo, resting the wood utensils onto his plate. He opened the fridge and poured some glasses of water from his Brita.
He smiles to himself when he finally sits down, “We really couldn’t stay sad when we had khao soi and pad kra pao, and that mango sticky rice. I dream about that sticky rice literally every night.”
You agree, accepting the styrofoam box from Kuroo to get some rice and egg onto your dish. Kuroo was busy pouring curry onto his plate.
“It was so sad that we lost last year.” You chew your food, waving your chopsticks around a little in the air, “If only we had gotten more team practice time in, I think we almost could’ve been up to your level Tetsurou.”
Kuroo leans back into his chair, sipping his water, “It would take a lot more than just two practices a week to get everyone on our team last year up to my level. But this year, we might actually have a chance, The Consensual Sets have a lot of connecting people.” He sits forward again, getting some food into his mouth.
“Yeah, I still can’t believe Suguru agreed to join full time instead of just being an alternate! With his regular season on top of our intramural team, he’s gonna be so tired out.” You jab the chopsticks in Kuroo’s direction, emphasizing your point.
“At least he brought us a replacement alternate, Mika is gonna be great to have on the team- even with her lack of skills.”
You roll your eyes, “Mika has skills!”
“Sure.”
The other members of the team had joined Kuroo’s team for a variety of reasons. Ito Yuuta, the setter, joined because he wanted to beat his twin in intramurals this year- and because his friend from high school, Alba, was also on the team. Ito was also the only first year on your team. Alba, a spiker, joined because she needed something outside of her architecture major to keep her extra busy. She was a second year student like you.
Daishou and Mika, who came as a set due to their dating status, joined because Daishou had been convinced by Kuroo to join for fun. You suspected that Kuroo was still carrying some lingering sadness at Kenma not joining the university team, but Kenma was busy with his multi-pursuit endeavors to join a recreation league. Kenma did come to an occasional game to support his best friend though.
Mingzhe, the libero and defensive specialist, was an international student from China. He had joined the team because he was too busy with his Computer Engineering and Science double major to be apart of the regular team. The University had been devastated that Mingzhe denied their offer for him to join. But it only elevated your own team to have such a good player.
The reason you joined? Because you wanted friends. Kuroo had made a poster advertising his desire for people to join a small co-ed volleyball team. You had taken a photo of the poster, went to the open gym time that he had outlined, and the rest became history relatively quickly.
Kuroo hadn’t been captain last year though, it was a collection of older fourth and third years who made the team. All of whom were in the sports marketing major with Kuroo. But they weren’t really playing the game for the love of the sport, but rather for extra credit from their professors. The old team name had simply been ‘Extra Credit for Prof. Singh’s Sports Marketing 5910 Special Study Course’ but it was always shortened to ‘Special Study Kids’ on the excel spreadsheets that listed out opponents and playing time.
Kuroo had shifted the narrative, he wanted this year’s team to be for fun- genuine fun and love for volleyball. And you had found yourself enjoying playing, even though you were sharing a position with Kuroo who scared you with his ability to read the opponents. But Kuroo always told you that without your support blocks, then his own blocks wouldn’t work most of the time. That had been a major ego-boost.
He knew how to do that for a lot of people, you recall. Kuroo could make people feel special, feel seen, without having to do much except for just show off his sincere love for people. A person like him was rare to find even once in life, so you wanted to stick around him for a long time. (Even if Kuroo got onto your nerves, he balanced out his provocations with kindness.)
“Thanks for the food, I can’t believe everyone else said no to free food at your expense.” You pat your stomach, rolling your shoulders a little to get comfortable in the metal chairs Kuroo had.
“It’s no problem. What do you have planned for the rest of this month?”
Pursing your lips, you try to recall your schedule.
“Besides our two-a-weeks, games, and classes, I don’t have much else going on in September.”
“Do you want to come watch a game then?” Kuroo grabs your plate, starting the sink faucet, you grab a towel to dry off the two plates. He tries to bump you away with his hip, but you resist and narrow your eyes. He yields and hands you a cleaned dish to dry.
“Is it the game you were talking about at practice? The reunion game?” You set the ceramic dish onto the shelf, waiting for Kuroo to hand you the other plate to dry.
“Yeah, it’s a bunch of my buddies from high school, we wanted to play a game before some of our pals leave for other countries to play professionally. Remember Bokuto? I mentioned him a few times.”
“The owl furry guy?”
Kuroo chuckles, turning around and leaning against the sink to watch you put the other plate away onto the cupboard shelf. “Yes, the owl guy. And Kenma will be playing, and Akaashi, and Fukunaga, and Kai, and-”
“I think I get it. A Nekoma versus Fukurodani game?” You suggest.
You had met Fukunaga once before, when Kuroo took the team to a comedy show of his the day before a match some time ago. Fukunaga’s set had been so hilarious that you asked Kuroo to personally introduce you to the comedian. Kuroo had been hesitant, for reasons unknown to you, but ultimately gave in to you and introduced the pair of you.
Fukunaga had taken one look at you and immediately pointed out what he liked about you. Which made you laugh, Kuroo hadn’t been entertained by that joke though. His reaction had been furrowed eyebrows, a huff, and defensively folding his arms- you had pointed out how overly dramatic Kuroo could be sometimes. Fukunaga had just smiled and shook his head.
Kuroo clarifies about the game, “More like a Nekoma versus an agglomeration of other high schools. Hinata, this crazy little dude, and my protege Tsukishima will play with Akaashi and Bokuto.”
“Okay, I’ll bite, I’m in.”
He had texted you the details of where to go, when to be there, and what color to wear to show your support for Kuroo’s team. You had been tempted to wear anything but the red and black combo he asked you to wear, but in the end, you wanted to be a good friend and wore what he asked you to wear.
The game was intense, to say the least. A lot more yelling and commands came from Kuroo than you had seen during your own games. It was nearing the end of September, and instead of studying for an exam, you were here in a gym watching a group of cohorts from the Volleyball World of High Schoolers play to their heart’s contentment.
You screamed when Kuroo got a good block, and you remained quiet when the opposing team scored a point. One of the things you noticed was how much higher they had made the net. In the intramural league, the net was at least a few centimeters shorter than the one they were playing with.
The tall blonde made a face at Kuroo through the net, and you almost found yourself laughing at how Kuroo teased him back. A ginger with the jumping power of a kangaroo kept making the most insane plays you had ever seen, keeping you on the edge of your seat for most of the game.
Ultimately, the Nekoma reunion team takes the win. You could see Kenma’s sour expression from where you had been sitting. Kenma immediately went to sit on the bench to play on his nintendo when the rest of his team was clapping each other on the backs.
Kuroo waved you over, face beaming.
When he pulls you in for a hug, you realize your hands get wet, soaked, not even a little damp but instead dripping wet. But he keeps his arms tightly around your waist. It wasn’t one of the usual hugs you exchanged with him, where your arms crossed around his chest and he did the same. In this hug, he had wrapped both arms around your waist, which made you wrap neatly into his chest.
"Your jersey is soaked, did they pour water over you Tetsurou?" You chuckle a little, talking into his body almost.
"Nope. This is all homemade sweat."
You pull away from the hug, wiping your hands on your thighs. Only to realize that your red shirt is soaked through the front as well, an imprint of his body outline on yours. You grimace, knowing that you now smell heavily of a unique perfume you’d dub ‘Kuroo après le match de volley’.
Kuroo shrugs, then wraps his arms around you again, which earns him a groan from you.
"You love me really."
You don’t say anything in response, letting him have his moment.
The post-game dinner was fun, even if you did have to complain to Kuroo about him buying your food for you. He had been too insistent about paying, even secretly paying for you when you went to the restroom.
“You took the train, yeah?” Kuroo asks once you exit the restaurant.
“Yep.”
Nighttime on the bullet train in Tokyo back to the university was always your favorite. Being able to stuff your ears full of music while you watch the passing scenery had such a hold over your emotional well-being. During train rides like that you thought maybe you could study Ralph Waldo Emerson again. But then you push away the thought because you remembered how much of an annoyance you found reading his pieces. You would always prefer Thoreau to Emerson at the end of the day when talking about the Transcendentalist Movement.
Kuroo nods, yelling out, “Kenma, I’m gonna take the train, you’re good to head back to your house! Text you later!” He waves enthusiastically to Kenma, who just throws a thumbs-up in regard to Kuroo’s statement.
The walk is mostly silent, with hands brushing against each other. The train station is vaguely busy. Kuroo had changed into some joggers and a loose t-shirt that had a neckline that was a little too stretched out so you could see his collarbones and the start of his chest. The design of the shirt was a logo for a cologne brand, with cursive writing.
While waiting for the train, you kicked your feet against the pavement a little, listening to Kuroo talk about the game and his favorite moments. His passion for volleyball was clear, but it just wasn’t the only thing Kuroo wanted to do for the rest of his life. His love for teaching other people, and helping others achieve their own passion outweighed his personal feelings. He just had a heart so open and willing to help others, that the blurred lines of what he loved and what others loved had become interwoven.
His belief of lowering the net for others, that helping aspect of his personality shone through with your recreation team. Although it was a casual team, it also meant so much more to everyone because Kuroo’s appreciation and understanding for the volleyball essentials and foundations made everyone want to do better. Made everyone want to play volleyball.
The train roared in, and you lifted your head, going to stand near the yellow painted lines where the door would be near. You turned around, and Kuroo was still standing fairly far away.
“Tetsurou?” You held your hand out for him to take, an effort to urge him to wait nearby with you.
Kuroo freezes. In his mind, his slightly exhausted mind that had lowered inhibitions from physically exerting himself with the game earlier, the two options were to grab your hand or to play around with you. He let his teasing, flirtatious, scheming personality win out over his shyness and earnest kindness.
He bent down, and rested his chin in the palm of your hand, so you had ended up squishing his face slightly. Once you realized that it was his face in your hand, you tried to tug your hand away with a laugh and with your tongue peeking out between your teeth as you bit down on it.
Kuroo didn’t know how to stop when he was ahead. He used his hand to grab a hold of your wrist. Then he gently bit down on the space between your pointer finger and thumb, pressing a kiss to the skin immediately after. And he would’ve continued with the affectionate kisses to your hand, but you swallowed thickly and your fingers began to twitch.
You couldn’t comprehend why you had wanted him to keep going. It was knotting your stomach, and turning the gears in your brain.
He stood up properly, noticing how the train had stopped. He slid a hand into your hand that was still outstretched and stunned from his actions, “The train won’t wait for us, c’mon Confucious.”
That night, you had spent a lot of time looking up onto your ceiling. Tapping your tummy to make little songs as you run through the day you had experienced over and over again.
Your phone dings.
FROM TETSUROU: ATTACHED: 3 IMAGES
FROM TETSUROU: thanks for coming to the game! hope you had a good time watching. kenma got photos of us celebrating after nekoma grad team won
FROM TETSUROU: im really glad you wore red
Kuroo’s head is resting on his pillow, the light of his phone shining on his face as he lays on his bed in the dark. He can feel his palms sweating, and he keeps shoving his face into the pillow before taking a peek at his phone again. Under the blankets, his feet keep bouncing from the mattress as he fights against what feels like hypertension in his blood. You still hadn’t responded to his messages.
You looked at your phone for a moment, your eyes slightly static and blurry. You read his messages, trying to think of what to say. Your red shirt lays in your dirty clothes basket, and a grin starts to make your face hurt.
FROM TETSUROU: i think i love you
FROM TETSUROU: i love you a lot
FROM TETSUROU: do you think you could love me back?
FROM TETSUROU: UNSENT THREE MESSAGES
You look at the notification that tells you Kuroo unsent texts that you hadn’t got the chance to read. You shrug, responding to the messages you did get a chance to read.
TO TETSUROU: the game was so much fun! wearing red for you was also fun, i felt like a cheerleader lowkey- i mean you should’ve seen some of the looks i got from this grandma who clearly just wanted to watch the game lol after the game tho! she said it was nice to see young people cheering so passionately so i guess her dirty looks were all in my mind
FROM TETSUROU: that’s hilarious- whose granny was it tho 💀
TO TETSUROU: no idea but she really liked you 🫣
FROM TETSUROU: 😐
TO TETSUROU: i’ll see you at practice next saturday! goodnight tetsurou, sleep well
FROM TETSUROU: goodnight ♥️
FROM TETSUROU: UNSENT ONE MESSAGE
FROM TETSUROU: goodnight confucius 🙂
The first Saturday of October was a practice for the members of Consensual Sets. You were busy tossing serves over the net for Mingzhe to receive. Alba was jumping on Ito’s shoulders as she asked him repeatedly to let her tape up his fingers this time. Daishou and Mika were tugging on their knee pads, and when Mika started pouting at the way her nails got tugged by the fabric, Daishou knelt in front of her and pulled the pads up where they belonged with a huge smile as he looked up at her.
Daishou and Mingzhe wanted to do some quick laps outside, but you wanted to warm up by doing some flying dives. While the flying dives did hurt your elbows from impact catching your weight, they made for great practice to get you better prepared for your back row position duties. Alba finally got to tape up Ito’s fingers as he looked terrified at giving her the tape he used.
Mika decided to stretch out, only really getting ready to hit some serves for the rest of the team today. Her role as a support, and as an alternate wasn’t needed for most games, but in case of emergency, at least she had created a weapon for herself with that nasty jump float that makes you chew the inside of your mouth.
Fifteen minutes into the practice, when everyone was done warming up and getting water, you looked around the gym. The only other people here were a group of basketball guys playing a game of pick-up on the other end of the courts away from where you’d set up the net. You were the first one to notice a lack of one particular person.
“Does anyone know where Tetsurou is?” You ask, going over the bench were Mingzhe was meditating.
Ito shrugged, “Maybe he couldn’t make it today?”
Alba rests her chin on Ito’s shoulder, commenting, “Perhaps he’s sick? Our fearless leader lost to the measly germs of society. Damn it, I curse the bloodline of those germs.” She dramatically clenches her first and Ito tries to hide an amused smile on his face.
“I’ll text him, I’m sure he’s just running late.” Daishou says, accepting his phone from Mika.
You, as vice captain of the team, decide the best course of action is to start running some drills. 10 spikes, 10 serves, 10 receives, and then 10 blocks. Each person alternated the roles until everyones did their 10x4 drill.
Even after the drill, Kuroo still hadn’t shown up.
“Suguru, any sign of Tetsurou?” You question, getting some water.
Mingzhe, looking nearly sweatless and unaffected by the drills, is still meditating in the center of the court. Alba tried waving her hand in front of his face. But Mingzhe opened one eye right when she started making a face- which caused her to jump back in alarm. Ito audibly laughed at that exchange while adjusting his taped fingers, away from where Alba could see so that he didn’t hurt her feelings.
“He said he can’t make it, something about a presentation for a class of his, apparently it slipped his mind. But he did send me a list of what we should do today. Let’s go for two miles outside!” Daishou shouted out the instruction to the rest of the team, then patted you on the shoulder. “Don’t worry so much, Tetsu would let you know if something happened to him. I think you’d be the first to know if he got hurt or sick or something. Trust him.”
After practice, you make your way to Kuroo’s building, the one where all his classes were held.
You scanned your badge and entered the building, appreciating the cool sports poster that Kuroo’s department had covering the walls. Tall posters of soccer players, basketball players, and even some table tennis players. The coolest one was a blue poster where a soccer player had altered edited eyes to seem like they shined gold, and there was a huge skeleton behind them making the player look imposing and strong. You snuck a photo of the poster, then shoved your phone back into your pocket.
The weight of the spam musubi you got for Kuroo, and the two cold banana drinks made your bag feel heftier than usual. In reality, the actual tangible weight didn’t affect anything. You just felt strange being in a building that wasn’t your own.
And you’d been thinking about Kuroo again. More specifically, the way he’d bitten and then kissed your hand. You felt your throat swallow thickly as your brain flashed images of what it might have been like if he had bitten and kissed elsewhere on your body. Of course, Kuroo had done it as a tease, a little game, you reason.
But why did your heart begin to stutter when you found him sitting in a niche, his hand in his hair as he scrolled through his laptop? He looked exhausted, and slightly upset. He was bouncing his leg, his knee hitting the top of the table occasionally.
You slid into the alcove opposite of Kuroo, pulling out the treats you got for him.
“Tetsurou, take a quick break.” You shoved the musubi and drink in his direction.
Kuroo shut his laptop, then looked from the food to your face then back to the food. He covered his face in his hands as he propped his elbows onto the table. His words were muffled by his hands, “Thank you.”
You reached out and touched his forearm, “It’s no problem, eat up.”
He tried to split the spam musubi but you shook your head, holding your hand up to deny him. He gave a downturned smile as he bit into the sustenance. He let out a hum, “This is really good, this is just what I needed.”
Sipping on the banana drink, you rested your foot overtop of his under the table.
“How did the presentation go?” You purse your lips, trying to give Kuroo your best hopeful look.
Kurooo grimaced a little, “Professor Singh said it needed some more work.”
“What was the grade?” You prepared yourself for the worst. That Kuroo failed and would need to disband the team that you’d grown so attached to. And your next game was in three weeks, at the end of October too.
“Oh he gave me full credit, said it was the best he’s seen this year. But if I want it to be my thesis project for senior year next year, then it would need more tuning. Then he proceeded to give me a list of corrections to make.” He pulled out a sheet of paper that was bulleted, Kuroo gave it to you to read and you started feeling bad for him.
He finished off the musubi, then rubbed his eyes, his reading glasses pushed up onto the top of his head in the process, “This isn’t even half of the things that need to be fixed. Professor Singh said he’d help me though, so it’s not like it’s the end of the world.”
“Still, I’m sorry, that’s rough.” You suck in some air through your teeth, and click your tongue just barely, “I’m sorry.”
Kuroo waves his hand to diffuse the air between you two.
He rolls the sleeves of his white button up down, the arms are wrinkled, and he undoes the top button of his shirt, releasing his throat a little so he can relax into his spot. Kuroo sets his head on the table, his hand on the bottled drink you had gotten him, he rocks the bottle around in circles, the liquid sloshing inside.
You bite the inside of your mouth, racking your brain to look for anything that could possibly ease Kuroo’s contemplations.
“Did you still want to try my electric skateboard out?”
Kuroo jolts up, sitting with his back straight.
“Hell yes. Please teach me.” He holds his hands flat together in front of his face in what you recognized as some kind of prayer posturing.
“Okay, my dorm is just a few miles away, let’s head out.” You pull your backpack over your shoulders as Kuroo tucks his laptop into the shoulder bag he has.
For a moment, you fight against the urge to hold your hand out for him to take.
When you do end up holding your hand out, ready to accept his, Kuroo wipes his hand against his thigh discreetly before he rushes to grab a hold of your hand. His hand is bigger than yours, more rough, but it’s warm and comforting with the way that he intertwines your fingers with his. He swings your connected hands back and forth as he starts talking about the upcoming game, and how he’ll go into the gym with Daishou to join in on Daishou’s regular practices with the university volleyball team tomorrow.
Kuroo was not built for your skateboard, but he had fun trying to balance on it as you tried to support him with hands on his waist.
“I’m ticklish there.” He feels his stomach tighten when you squeeze his sides.
“Blah, I’m trying to prevent you from eating dirt. I can’t hold you by the shoulders since you’re too tall standing on the board.” You explain, keeping one foot on the back of the board to keep it from moving too much as Kuroo wiggles around trying to find a balance.
You probably spent two hours trying to get him to actually start the board up and go further than a few strides away from you. But in the end, he could successfully circle around you without your hands supporting him. Alba and Ito came around to the part of the campus you and Kuroo were occupying.
Alba jumped up and down as Ito covered his ears, awaiting Alba’s yells to call for attention. She was tossing up a Mikasa volleyball, and Ito had a Molten under his arm.
“Let’s play two versus two since Kuroo couldn’t be bothered to come to practice today.” Alba lifted a hand up and spiked the ball in your direction, and you received the ball with ease as you dropped your hips and crouched down. Kuroo caught the ball you had dug out, spinning it in on a fingertip before just palming the ball with one hand.
Ito rolled his eyes and rolled his shoulder, “Not today, it’s almost dark out.”
Alba took her ball from Kuroo, trying to balance it on her head.
“What does our gorgeous vice captain have to say then? Let her decide, my absolute queen.” Alba blows a kiss in your direction, which you fake catch with one hand before pressing your palm to your heart and playfully, although also impishly, sighing deeply.
You glance at Kuroo’s expectant eyes, he adjusted his shoulder bag again. He was still in his dressy presentation clothes.
“Maybe next time, it’s been a long day, my legs are jello and my arms are sore.” You complain lightly, “But Alba, maybe Ito wants to play DIG 2000 on the computer with you?”
Ito smiled, DIG 2000 was a simulation game similar to the FIFA 23 sports video game. Alba nodded, bouncing the volleyball on her head a few times before turning to Ito, “Let’s go back to yours then.”
Ito copied Alba, bouncing the volleyball with his foot instead of head, and nodded, “Sounds good.”
The pair walked off, Alba talking excitedly and Ito listening intently.
Kuroo walked to stand close by you, holding your skateboard in his hand.
“If they don’t start dating, I don’t think I’ll ever believe in love.” He jokes.
You raise an eyebrow, “Really? But you love all people, you got that big heart behind all the muscle. I find it hard to believe that you need proof of romantic love to believe in love at all.” You think about Plato’s symposium which defined love as two people becoming one through a connection and Aristotle's emphasis on philia, the platonic love between friends.
Western love philosophy had always been rooted in two main branches of thought, the classical beliefs of the ancients such as Plato and then the French Skepticism that believed love was a guise for sexual fulfillment.
You noted that you’d have to thank your professor for their in depth analysis about the Love Unit your class had covered earlier in the year. Clearly, more than you realized had stuck into your brain.
Kuroo starts walking back to your dorm, you trailing after him.
“I think that love can be found in all things, but I was more so thinking about Alba and Ito you know? Like, if I see two people like them, who are clearly compatible, then it feels wrong when they don’t become more than just friends. When clearly, like, they’d be brilliant together. The way they bounce off each other for example,” Kuroo focuses his eyes straight ahead, knowing that you’re looking at him with those bright and curious eyes he’d fallen for- knowing that he’d be powerless to look away once he locked eyes with you.
Kuroo continues, “I mean, Ito takes such good care of Alba, and she doesn’t even realize that she reciprocates naturally sometimes. Like all the times she asks to tape his fingers before a game or practice, and he reluctantly lets her? Then he proceeds to fix the tape when he knows she isn’t looking. That’s love.” You can hear the sigh he lets out with his concluding statement.
You take your board back from Kuroo, playing with one of the wheels as you bump your hip into his for a moment, then you give your two cents to the discussion.
“But does that mean they need to be romantically involved? If we’re using our friends as examples, then I’d like to point out Daishou and Mika. Or even Mingzhe as an example. When we see Daishou and Mika, it is very blatant that they’re in love. They equally fawn over each other, they kiss, they feel that physical pull. When we look at Ito and Alba, they never cross that physical boundary. I think that love has a physical element to it as well as emotional. I think they might just love each other as best friends.”
Kuroo swallows, puffing out his cheeks for a second. If you believed that love needed a physical element, then why did you initiate touch with him just as frequently as he did with you? He wasn’t so egotistical to believe that you were hiding feelings from him, but it was a unique argument to think about in his head. He feels the heat in his cheeks and his ears, he’d kissed you before. Albeit, on the hand, but it had been a kiss. You’d let him cross a boundary that he wasn’t sure even existed between you two.
If the kiss had been anywhere else, would you have let him press his lips so tenderly and longingly the way he did? Would you have pushed him away? Would you’ve made a disgusted look? Would you reciprocate, kissing him back?
He’d known you for two years now, and he wasn’t sure about anything besides the fact that he wanted you to stick around him for as long as possible. For eternity if possible. For infinity, if it existed. He wanted that physical element though too, to hold and kiss you. To bite your earlobe, to scratch your back, to hold the back of your knee as he pressed his lips to the inside of your thigh.
He releases a breath, looking at the space between your eyebrows rather than your eyes.
“What about the innocent kind of love? Love shared between kids for example, they don’t necessarily cross that physical boundary you talk about. But you know when two kids love each other. It isn’t just that physical element that adds to the definition of love, it’s simply the feeling shared equally between two people. It isn’t just friendship, but it’s clearly love.”
“I don’t know. That’s a good point though. There’s definitely nuance, and I think I might have philosophized myself into a corner here.” You laugh, smiling at Kuroo.
The layers to this conversation had begun to hurt your head. Philosophy was much easier when it was sitting behind a desk, at your laptop. Philosophy was harder when it seemed like Kuroo was pressing you for answers, for your thoughts rather than a structured argumentative essay with dozens of academic pieces of evidence.
At the end of October was a selection of games to be played all Friday evening. All the intramural recreation teams were at the large gym of the university, and the Consensual Sets put on the team shirts made by Mingzhe. They were a dark grey, with the team name printed on the front, and everyone’s nicknames on the back of the jersey style top.
Kuroo just had Tetsu on the back of his. Mingzhe had put his name in a simple cursive, Alba and Ito swapped names for fun. Daishou had his full first name, and Mika put Mika-Mika as her name. As for you, you put Confucius on the back of your jersey, grateful that Kuroo had given you a nickname that actually suited your personality.
After winning the first two games, you found yourself playing against another team that had been undefeated for the entire intramural season thus far.
It was halfway through the second set, and you were exhausted. But just one more rotation before Kuroo would be back to the front with you and your killer duo block could be utilized for a perfect angle.
When Kuroo would twist his body to the side, and you’d barely skim the ball so that the spiker would be forced to send the ball straight to the libero, Mingzhe. Mingzhe had the freaky ability to reign in the ball and get it to Ito without Ito needing to move too much. Ito would then, of course, set the ball right to Daishou or Alba, depending on who would have a better shot at scoring that moment.
However, in this current rotation, you were on the end of the front row, with Ito in the center of the front. Kuroo was behind you on the back row, Mingzhe on the far back corner. Daishou was on the other side of Ito. Everyone was ready to play. You could hear Alba from the back next to Mingzhe, getting after him for not wiping the sweat off his shoes. Mika was busy refilling bottles, but still ready to swap Alba or Mingzhe if needed.
“Chance ball!” You call out, getting ready to jump up for a block. But at the same moment, Ito shifted his body to try and set the ball that Alba had received. He just happened to get a little too close. So that when he was backing up and jumping to get a touch onto the volleyball, he slammed into you.
Hitting the ground with a thud, you felt the air get knocked out of you. And once you could feel the force your back had slammed into the gym floor, the combination of painful sensations was just too much and you choked out a sound of anguish. Tears were streaming down the side of your face as you were gasping for air, but ultimately just choking on your empty lungs.
“Idiot!” Kuroo shoved Ito, knocking Ito into the net. Ito held his hands up defensively, but understood the reaction Kuroo had had. The referee called an emergency time out, and called over the nurse. Kuroo had picked you up, making you sit up. His hand was rubbing your back, telling you what to do.
Ito tried to go over to you as well, but Alba had grabbed the back of his shirt and gave a look to Ito by directing his eyes to where Kuroo was holding you. She mouthed something that you couldn’t distinguish. But then again, you couldn’t distinguish much due to the panic state you found in perpetual motion within your cells.
“Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth.” Kuroo’s jaw was clenched, and his other hand was on your thigh. You kept trying to inhale through your mouth though, your body nervously reacting to the lack of oxygen. “Listen to me, c’mon, please, just relax okay. You’re safe, I got you. Just relax.”
The nurse arrived with a first aid kit, but once she saw how Kuroo was following standard protocol for an injury like this, she left the kit for Kuroo to use. He said a quick thanks, and the nurse went to go check on some other college student who had blood dripping from his mouth. The bloody kid was holding up a tooth and his teammates were clapping him on the back.
Kuroo tilted his head up and called out to where Mika was filling up bottles near the back of the gym, “Mika, can I get a water bottle over here?”
Daishou ran over to Mika, picking one up and running back over to Kuroo and you. He handed the bottle to you and crouched down on the other side of you.
You had taken a sip of the water, and your breathing was normal again, and the only concern was the pain in your mid to low back.
“You took quite a fall there, Confucius.” Kuroo brought his hand up from your back to caress your head, soothing you.
Daishou chuckled, sitting down, and stretching his legs out. But he scrambled to get back up when Mika asked for his help carrying all the other water bottles over to the Consensual Sets break bench.
Ito was busy sulking over on the bench, getting chewed out by Alba and Mingzhe for not listening to your call of ‘chance ball’. In that scenario, Ito was supposed to wait until after the rally went back over to the other team instead of trying to catch the ball to set it.
Ito was just awaiting when the true test of his spirit would be put through the wringer. That of course would be the eventual moment when he was on the receiving end of Kuroo’s fury.
Everyone on the team knew, if you were at the center of an issue, Kuroo would ultimately be there resolving it. Usually you never get too injured, it was just supposed to be a casual intramural team, but the seven members of Consensual Sets had grown into a tightly knit friend group who really wanted to chase down the championship at The University of Tokyo.
That did put some more strain on the level of ability everyone had, and the intensity of which Ito had been aiming to score just another point. But it also reminded everyone, you getting hurt, that this was a casual team. There was nothing to be gained except for a fun time and some good stories to tell.
Kuroo was glad that you hadn’t landed too badly, he’d be much more angry at Ito if you would’ve landed on your head or your bad knee that hadn’t healed up all the way from the sprain you got a few weeks ago. Now, Kuroo tried to focus on keeping his heart rate down so you wouldn’t be able to hear it pounding in his chest.
Completely aware of his own protectiveness for you, Kuroo had been the first one to react to the collision between you and Ito. He’d always been the first one to make sure you were okay. And he wanted to keep it that way.
You decide that you want to get back into the game, leveraging your hand against Kuroo’s shoulder, “We still have to finish the set, we’re ahead by three. Just five more points and we win.” You tried to stand up, only to get dizzy and stumble back. Kuroo caught you again, bringing you back to the ground to sit in between his legs so he could hug you from behind.
“Yeah, no. We’re gonna have to cancel this match for a different day.” He rubs his thumb over your elbow, trying to ease the bruise that was forming there.
You spin your head around to face Kuroo. He can feel the way his Adam’s apple bobs at your face being so close to his.
“Yeah, no, trade Mika in for me. Let’s finish the game.” You pouted a little, and Kuroo could only roll his eyes in response. He never could say no to you indefinitely. He did make you finish the water bottle before he would let the game resume with Mika’s substitution in your place.
And the game does get finished, a sequential five points with Kuroo getting a block kill for the winning point. He had made you sit on the bench, wrapped in his blue Nike windbreaker.
Everyone, except for Daishou and Mika who rode to the gym on her motorcycle, piled into Kuroo’s Toyota Sienna minivan. You sat in the passenger’s seat, as usual, and Ito was relegated to the very back of the car with Alba sprawled out trying to take a nap. Mingzhe enjoys the silence of the middle row all to himself, adjusting the temperature to be freezing. You rest your head on the window, looking outside at the busy streets.
“Who’s getting dropped off first?” Kuroo hands you the collection of semi-final medals, an award for making it to the top four teams. The finals would be in three weeks, and you fully intended to take the championship trophy home.
“I live the furthest away, so you can work your way towards your apartment if you drop me off first.” You say, putting the medals into your duffel bag. You’d pass them out at team practice in a few days.
Alba sits up, and Ito’s relieved to have her legs off of his thighs.
“I have to work early, like super early tomorrow morning. Drop me off first please.” Alba announces, poking her head next to Mingzhe’s seat so that she can have Kuroo hear her better.
You groan, “Alba you live the furthest from me, Tetsurou would have to go back and forth to drop me off second.”
Ito raises his hand, inserting himself into the discussion, “Yeah, but I live closer to Alba, and so does Mingzhe. Kuroo can just go to the East Campus first, and then drop you off last.”
Kuroo grins, “Sounds like we have a winning plan. Alba, Ito, Mingzhe, and then you, Confucius.”
The engine starts, and Kuroo double checks the GPS before merging onto the main street highway.
“I still think it’s illogical to go past your house to drop everyone off, then go past your house again to drop me off.”
“Just stay the night at mine then?” Kuroo says, keeping his eyes on the road fully, not even considering glancing in your direction for worry of getting seen right through by your perceptive instincts.
Alba bites down on her lips, squeezing Ito’s arm in anticipation for what will unfold. Ito tries to push her off, but she just holds on tighter.
Mingzhe is too busy swiping through his Tinder to pay attention, but he’s passively listening in on what you could possibly say in response. Mingzhe needed to find a date for the Chinese cultural exchange event the school would be having, and you had to hear about how all his potential dates were just not up to his par. The exchange event would be a few days before the Intramural Finals.
You think for a moment, it would save Kuroo a fifteen minute drive in the bad traffic. And anything to avoid the traffic of an evening rush would be best, especially since Kuroo was bad at estimating when he’d need to buy gas again. If you stayed at his place, then you would have a ride to your early morning Saturday class without having to ride the bus onto campus. In addition, you’d get free breakfast since you knew Kuroo liked to make big meals in the morning.
“I’ll get a ride into school yeah?”
“Yeah. I have a class at the same time you do tomorrow.” He lied. His earliest class would be two hours after your class.
“Then I guess so. You got an extra toothbrush?”
“Dozens.”
Kuroo’s apartment smelt like him. But in an unfiltered, undiluted way. You inspected some photos that he had around, but you were more interested in the calendar he had posted on his fridge.
He had everyone’s birthdays written down on a notes section of the entire year overview calendar. Your birthday was circled multiple times, and the entire week before and during your birthday had been highlighted bright yellow. He had already started brainstorming ideas about what to get you, and had a few sticky notes on the fridge listing things.
You noted some books you had mentioned, a website address of what you identified as a custom volleyball brand with a drawing of a volleyball Kuroo had done, a bunch of question marks around his note of matching hoodies, and then a heart around the words ‘ring’ and ‘house key’.
Kuroo saw the way you honed into his fridge and tried to pull you away, “You’re spoiling your surprises.”
You folded your arms, “I don’t like surprises.”
“Fine then, you’re spoiling my surprises. I get you things, and my reward for doing so is seeing your reactions.”
You waved a hand, dismissing him. He had told you that the toothbrushes were under his sink.
While you were in the bathroom, brushing teeth and then taking a shower, Kuroo quickly cleaned areas of his apartment that you might meander into. Once he was satisfied with the cleanliness, he tried to remember how to set up his pullout couch.
Changing into your backup sweatpants and the loaned Nike sweatshirt had given you in tandem with his windbreaker, you hugged yourself to embrace the soft fleece that was coating your skin.
Once you saw the pullout couch, with a pile of folded blankets on top of a grey pillow, you started to make the bed. Unfurling the blankets and slightly fluffing the pillow. Before crawling under the blankets, you decided to scroll on your phone for a minute, setting alarms for the morning and responding to some texts from your friends and teammates about today.
“What are you doing?” Kuroo had changed into shorts and an oversized shirt that he tucked slightly into the waistband of his shorts.
“Texting?” You answer.
“No, what are you doing sitting on the couch?” Kuroo was holding a pillow from his bedroom, the one he used to press against the side of his head. (Also the one that had caused his incessant case of bedhead spiky hair.)
You uncross your legs, dangling them over the edge of the couch, “I’m sleeping on the pullout couch?”
Kuroo tosses his pillow onto the couch, crawling under the blankets you had set up. When he pulled the blankets over his shoulder, you were tugged back a little. In response, you just stood up and went around to kneel in front of Kuroo, attempting to make eye contact.
“Where do I sleep?”
He reaches his arm out and pats the space next to him.
“No.”
He sighs, rolling onto his back as he brings his hands behind his head. The obvious flex he does in his biceps from the way his shirt sleeve rolls down does not go unnoticed by you.
“Then I guess you’re sleeping in my bed then, first door on the right. Goodnight.” He immediately covered his head with his two pillows.
You tried to pull one of them away from Kuroo, but his grip was stronger than your slight strain to jerk the pillow out of his grasp.
“You win this time. But next time, I will take my rightful spot on the pullout couch.”
Kuroo mimics you, imitating a high tone, his voice is muffled by his pillow barriers around his face. You stick your tongue out at him even though he can’t see it.
At least his bed was comfortable, and cold. Cotton sheets that definitely had to be a higher thread count than your own, and he left you with only one pillow. He had a few plushies from all the times the pair of you went to a big box store to buy groceries, and instead of buying bananas or a fresh watermelon, he’d spend his money on collecting an array of large stuffed animals.
You had asked him once about why he bought them. He just said because they were cool to have around his place. In reality though, you had gone through his phone once, when he was going through yours for fun trying to find dirt or juicy gossip, and you found out the truth about his assortment of plushies. You went to his notes app and only found a list of things he wanted to buy for his future kids, and a list of maybe fifteen stuffed animals was at the top. He’d already crossed off around ten of them, so he needed only five more to complete the collection he wanted to curate.
It was a cute sentiment that he had, thinking about his future children so soon. Which is why for his upcoming birthday, in a few weeks, the same day as the final for the intramural championship, you had three stuffed animals in a bag in your closet to give to him to celebrate the eventual win.
Kuroo looked through his phone, spending some time watching volleyball videos before going to sleep. He was also biding his time, wanting to check in on you before he fully went to sleep. He just wanted to make sure you were sleeping well before he let himself sleep. His phone beeped, once and then twice.
FROM SUGURU: ATTACHED: 3 IMAGES
FROM SUGURU: got some good photos of you and our dear vice captain, say thanks to me, mika 💖, and mingzhe for actually CAPTURING the way you are so sickly deadly embarrassingly openly precisely adoringly obsessively entirely fervently passionately feverishly restlessly frantically FREAKING HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE with her
TO SUGURU: 🖕
TO SUGURU: she looks good in the photos
FROM SUGURU: i feel ill thinking about what your plan with these photos is now 😟
TO SUGURU: exposing your rough drafts for proposing to mika in the gc RIGHT NOW
FROM SUGURU: I’LL MIC DROP THE DRUNK VIDEO OF U WHINING ABOUT NEEDING OUR VICE CAPTAIN TO KISS U AND HOLD YOU- I’LL DO IT DON’T TEST ME MF
TO SUGURU: hand hovering over the collection of mika stalker photos you have that you’ve sent to me
FROM SUGURU: literally this close to posting on my instagram the HUNDREDS of text messages you’ve sent me about her, including the ones from the day Consensual Sets spent at the beach, AND the ones from the week after she broke up with her loser ex, AND the ones from that time you almost kissed her, and then the other time you also almost kissed her like the love sick loser you are
TO SUGURU: i’ll kill you.
FROM SUGURU: i’d kill you first + here’s more photos mika my darling angel, wants me to send to you that i took on my phone. you better be grateful to me for forever you ass. I’m single handedly providing all the pictures for a wedding video slideshow.
FROM SUGURU: ATTACHED: 5 IMAGES
FROM SUGURU: date her asap. mika wants double dates and i’m tired of asking mingzhe to find strangers online to satiate mika’s yearning for the double date extravaganzas she wants. Ok goodnight pookie bear tetsu i hate your guts 🔪🫰🤬💯
Kuroo lets his falling phone hit him in the face as he huffs. He didn’t sleep well that night. The same iteration of her getting slammed into and crashing onto the ground keeps replaying over and over again. Kuroo wakes up in a cold sweat two different times that night.
“Thanks for the ride onto campus,” You click your seatbelt into your seat, as Kuroo taps the steering wheel a few times.
“No problem, I have class too, remember.”
“Ahh, yes, you and your fancy finance and sports marketing double major.” You giggle, holding up your pointer finger into the air in an ‘actually…’ pose that you know Kuroo hated.
He puts his hand behind your seat, hand coming near the back of your head behind the head of the chair, to reverse out of the parking lot.
“Don’t forget my minor in chemistry.”
“So weird. You’re going into sports promotion and business, but you have a science minor?” You shake your head in disbelief.
It never shocked you at just how smart Kuroo could be sometimes. When he did or said things that made you wonder if you were actually learning anything at university. Or when he could treat you to an entertaining story about his lab classes, those were the memories you’d take with you into the future. Stories Kuroo shared about his college experience, which often contrasted with your own experiences.
All through the differences though, the pair of you had become so close.
The way your friendship had increasingly deepened, and at such an unprecedented rate for you, had you feeling like he’d been doing much more for you as of late. You hoped you hadn’t been imposing on him since you stayed over at his apartment. Even though he had been the one to suggest it, you felt guilty at accepting the offer. You felt guilt that you’d been possibly taking advantage of him.
He’d been the most caring, and considerate friend you’d ever had. The closeness of you two began to feel like each time he did something, you’d need to supplement it with your own acts of kindness. Drowning in friendship wasn’t an expected result of joining a intramural volleyball team.
Kuroo shrugs a little, speeding up a little more, “I think it makes me stand out. Plus, who doesn’t love chemistry? It’s just like math with better concepts.”
You play with the hoodie strings of a borrowed top from Kuroo.
He notices your silence, but doesn’t comment on it, just continuing the drive to your building. He let you out near the entrance. The tall Humanities building had walls made of glass windows, letting people look in on lectures and socratic seminars. The concrete details blended with the fragile glass details in a dichotomous way that just worked so well.
When you shut the door to the car, Kuroo rolls down the window, calling out to you before you enter the building. Your roommate stood on the steps, holding your backpack that you’d asked her to bring. She lazily scrolled through her phone, waiting for you to talk to her and then you could go to class with her. She’d never been much of a morning person.
You turn around and rest your arms in the empty space left by the window being rolled down. Tilting your head, you waited for Kuroo to say what he wanted to say.
“You know you’re mentos right?”
The confusion is blatant on your face. You clarify, “I’m mentos? I thought I was me?”
Kuroo smirks, “You’re mentos and I’m coke-a-cola.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Your roommate called out to you, letting you know that class would start soon and she wanted to get a good spot in the lecture hall. You waved to her, signaling you’d only be a few more seconds.
“You’re my chemical reaction.”
You laugh, “You make no sense sometimes I swear, but okay. I’ll be mentos and you can be coke-a-cola.”
Kuroo watched as you bounded up to your friend, sliding your backpack on. Your roommate asked about the top you were wearing by tugging on the waistband of the deep red hoodie. Kuroo knows he’s being talked about, because you jut a thumb in his direction and your roommate turns around to look at his car and she nods with understanding.
Kuroo doesn’t see your roommate wiggle her eyebrows, or how she makes a kissing face at you teasingly. He’s too busy driving to the library to find a spot to nap while he waits two hours for his own class to start.
The final two games would be critical. On November 17th, that Saturday, the gym for intramural volleyball would declare the winner. Out of 32 teams, and after five months of training, games, and unique coaching opportunities, there could only be one winner. Consensual Sets would go against EZ Pass, and Ice Ice Blockers would oppose Monster Spikes. You had found it funny how the final four all had different volleyball skills as their team name, setting, spiking, passing, and blocking.
But before the Intramural Finals, Mingzhe still needed to attend the Chinese cultural exchange event on Wednesday.
On that Monday, Mingzhe was complaining to you during team practice.
“Listen, I still haven’t found someone to be my plus one.” Mingzhe paced a little in front of you, as you wiped off a volleyball. You wanted the ball to be cleaned properly before the team would start playing with it.
“Just ask Daishou or Ito, it’s your pick. Either way, you’d have a great time.” You pull out your elbow grease to get a particularly nasty scuff out of the ball.
“It needs to be a woman. It’s a date type of event.” Mingzhe suddenly turned on his heel, facing you straight on. You brought your head to the side, eyeing Mingzhe’s rapid shift in mood. “You. You should be my plus one.”
You gape, loosening your hold on the ball that Mingzhe just ends up taking from you.
“It’s perfect! You’re interesting, we have a good friendship, fake dating for this event would be easy-peasy.” Mingzhe smiles, looking entirely too self-satisfied.
“Fake-dating?” Sourly, you try to take the ball away from Mingzhe, who just brings it closer to his chest.
Kuroo comes around to the pair of you, putting a hand on Mingzhe’s shoulder. “What’s happening? We need this ball to do the drills, it should be good by now yeah?”
Mingzhe hands the ball to Kuroo, “I was just finalizing plans for our date on Wednesday.”
Kuroo almost drops the volleyball that was placed into his hands. But he grasps onto it, trying to appear composed and chill. You tug on your knee pads, making sure they’re secure. In doing so, your shorts ride up a little and more of your thigh is exposed. Kuroo again almost drops the ball at how quickly his eyes flit to the exhibited skin of your legs.
“Date?” Kuroo wonders if the word sounds as dumb as he felt saying it.
You raised your shoulders, “Yeah.”
Mingzhe claps his hands, “Our fourth date, remember?”
Mingzhe was already trying to get into the acting persona of a fake relationship and you were not amused, shoving his shoulder roughly as you walked over to Alba. Kuroo had interpreted the shove as playful, as romantic, as being adjacent to love.
Kuroo looked between Mingzhe and you. Then he looked at Daishou desperately asking for help with his glance but Daishou was too busy helping Mika with her knee pads again. Kuroo then went back to looking at the space you had occupied.
His heart lurched, and just like a bad sickness, he couldn’t help but continue his downward spiral.
“When did you guys start dating?” He folds his arms in front of him, shuffling his feet a little.
“A few weeks ago. Just trying it out, you know.” Mingzhe said, “She’ll be going with me to the exchange event, it’ll be fun to see her dress up formally for once.”
Mingzhe, unaware of Kuroo’s radiating tension, goes over to where Ito had called him.
Kuroo, dumbstruck and frustrated, called out a change of plans, “We’re doing a three versus three.”
You stood on the other side of the net, blocking spikes from Daishou. Each time Kuroo served, he went straight for Mingzhe’s throat- putting more force than he typically did. Alba was drenched in sweat by the end of the single match. Ito had his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
“Are we done yet Tetsu?” Ito asked, and Alba made her way under the net, patting Ito on the back.
Mingzhe had fallen to the ground and was laying on his back, sweat dripping from his black hair to the gym floor. You had half a mind to join Mingzhe. But Kuroo still looked fired up.
“Yes, we’re done for today, Ito. Good practice everyone!” You called out, and Mika gladly started packing up the shared bag she had with Daishou. Kuroo looked at you with pursed lips.
Kuroo and you stayed behind to take down the volleyball net, and as he began folding the white ropes, you began to speak, “Our three versus three is supposed to have more balance than that. You weighed the sides wrong. Alba never has to spike that much, she needed to practice her receives today. You just kept serving straight to Mingzhe, not to mention you had Suguru aim solely for Mingzhe too. He’s going to be exhausted tonight.”
“Worried about your boyfriend? He’s supposed to be essentially a professional anyway. Mingzhe is fine.” Kuroo kept folding the net, however, you could see his knuckles were white and each time he folded the stringy-material he left a mark on his hand from the unneeded strain he was putting
“Mingzhe is a friend. We aren’t dating, Testsurou.” You take down the side rods, detaching the sections so you could carry them easier.
“Oh really? Four dates in a row sounds pretty serious.” He gnaws at the words he sends your way. “Wouldn’t be surprised if you two were going to start acting like Suguru and Mika soon.”
You put the rods away, not saying anything to Kuroo’s comment.
He pushes further, “How long have you liked him?”
“It isn’t like that.” You face Kuroo, hands on your hips, “Mingzhe was joking about it being our fourth date. Calm down. I don’t know why you’re so pressed over this.” You say.
“You two don’t go well together.” Kuroo claims, “He’s not right for you. He’s going back home at the end of the year anyway.”
You take the folded net from Kuroo, but he tugs it away from you, pulling you closer to him.
You’re both gripping the net, standing barely a foot apart. Kuroo is looking at you, a twitch in the vein of his neck tells you he’s upset without him having to say anything.
“It’s not even a date, Tetsurou. I’m his plus one. He just needed a girl to go with him.” You explain, trying to get the net away from Kuroo, but his hold is stronger than yours.
“It isn’t a date?”
“Not in my book. It’s not a romantic date. We’re going as friends. Why, just why does it matter so much to you?”
He lets go of the net, and grabs a hold of your arms instead. He opens his mouth a few times, only to close his mouth soon after. Fully taking the net away from you, Kuroo puts it into the storage room.
You sigh with exasperation, going to grab your skateboard.
“Let me drive you, it’s dark out.” Kuroo swings his keys on his pointer finger.
You turn around, tilting your head down slightly to glare at him, “Are you going to throw another fit?”
“Geez, someone’s mad.”
Your jaw drops, then you shake your head with a snicker dying out on your lips.
“You can be so hot and cold sometimes Tetsurou. Did you know that?”
Kuroo holds the gym door open for you to exit. He locks it up once he steps out as well.
“That’s why I’m the coke-a-cola, and you’re the mentos.”
“I really need you to explain your analogy to me.”
The Chinese Cultural Exchange Event at the ballroom of The University of Tokyo really was a stunning celebration. Lanterns were hanging from the second floor open balconies, and the marble pillars were covered in a mixture of bamboo and woven leaves to showcase the Horticulture Department’s skills of arranging foliage. There were tables filled with classic Chinese dishes, along with unique Chinese-Japanese dishes from the diaspora history of China to Japan.
You were surprised to see just how many exchange students the university had from China, it seemed like there had to have been at least a hundred or more Chinese exchange students, including Mingzhe.
Mingzhe has asked that you wear red and black to match with him. You thought it was funny that so many men in your life asked you to wear the red/black combination so frequently. Your dress was formal of course, but you had opted for a loose silky maroon dress that had black lace detailing.
The long sleeves of the dress were a sheer black, so that air could filter to your arms as well. Even though you never opted for a sweetheart neckline most of the time, the lady at the store had said you’d look great with this specific dress. So you had bought it and called it a day.
Mingzhe, as you were coming to realize, must have been rich because there was no way his tailored suit would’ve cost any less than one million yen. Mingzhe clearly had only worn red leather shoes to match slightly with you, because otherwise he was in an all black outfit.
You put on a forceful smile as Mingzhe puts his hand on the small of your back and introduces you in Mandarin to one of his friends. Once the conversation died down, you leaned over to Mingzhe with gritted teeth, “I’m actually going to murder you. You didn’t tell me that the Chinese exchange student association at our school was filled with rich kids.”
An older lady, presumably an exchange coordinator, stops to compliment your dress, in Mandarin. You fumble over the words of thanks that Mingzhe had taught you a few minutes ago. When Mingzhe laughs into his cup of water, you elbow him in the side discreetly.
“Just what are you telling people about me?” You demand. Mingzhe hands you a glass of water from the plate a dressed up server was walking around with.
“Girlfriend, three months.”
Your eyes widen, and Mingzhe chuckles.
“Close friend who I play volleyball with, who graciously accepted my invitation to join me tonight.”
Moving your head up and down appreciatively, you sip on your water, “That’s more like it.”
Scanning around, you tried to see if you knew anyone. Which was a long shot, but-
“Kenma? Is that you?”
The dip dyed blonde makes eye contact with you and raises a hand. Kenma makes his way over to you, eyeing the way Mingzhe had his arm around your waist with suspicion.
“It’s nice to see a familiar face.” Kenma comments, shaking hands with you and Mingzhe.
“What are you doing here?”
Kenma smiles, pointing to an enamel pin on his suit jacket, “Got a sponsorship from a Chinese company. Said Chinese company has a college aged daughter, and thus, here I am as a plus one as a favor to my sponsor.”
You nod, trying to make an estimation for just how much net worth Kenma had. Mingzhe started talking to Kenma about what games he’d seen Kenma play, because apparently Kenma’s streams were popular on a Chinese video server called billibilli. You were glad that your parents limited your screen time as a child, otherwise you’d be just as chaotically involved in the conversation Kenma and Mingzhe were having about a new game that was releasing soon.
The rest of the night was spent listening to more of Mingzhe’s Mandarin speaking skills, as you swished around in your dress waiting for the time to go.
Mingzhe threw back a shot, well, a quick drink from a flask that a student had snuck in, “Let’s dance!”
You tried to pull back, but Mingzhe grabbed you by the hands and pulled you into his chest. A smile that you’d never seen on his face appeared, and instead of harmonious traditional Chinese pop music, someone hijacked the music- rap music you were sure was not school approved started blasting.
The administration looked furious, but Mingzhe just kept giving you that face splitting smile. He mouthed his words again, and the only response you could give was moving his hands from your back to your waist.
The club style dancing eventually devolved into a mosh pit that was quickly disassembled by the administration due to the cutting of music. The students groaned, but the administration said that the event was over and that everyone needed to get back to their housing.
Mingzhe dropped you off at your dorm, running a hand through his sweaty black hair.
“Had fun?” He asked.
“Yes. It was very fun.”
Instead of just waving, Mingzhe opened his arms up, and you gave into the offering of a hug.
His hugs were different from Kuroo’s hugs. For one, Mingzhe was shorter than Kuroo, so you could feel more of his face than just solely his chest or neck. For another, Mingzhe didn’t smell like Kuroo. Mingzhe was mintier, like spearmint and peppermint- it burned your nose a tinge. Mingzhe was also lankier, arms not quite packing as much heft to them like Kuroo’s did.
“Don’t look now, but I think someone is spying on us.” He whispered into your ear, and you grabbed onto his shoulders tighter. The bounce of his body as he laughed shook you, and you slapped his shoulder. “You really shouldn’t trust me when I say things like that.”
“If people knew even a fraction of what I know about you, you’d be immediately canceled.”
“Good thing no one knows me like you.” Mingzhe swiped at your cheek with two knuckles, a gentle caress. “You know I have feelings for you right?”
You nod affirmatively.
“But I’m also guessing, and tell me if I’m wrong, but there’s a different black haired boy on our volleyball team that holds the key to your heart?” Mingzhe murmured. You could practically hear the deep ache in his soul.
You nod again.
“Well, I can’t win them all. Here’s to being good friends.” Mingzhe grabbed your hand and shook it a few times, “When we win on Saturday, make sure to at least give me a little peck on the cheek.” He brazenly states.
“No promises.”
Mingzhe throws his head back, dimples coming out to show off.
“Thanks for a great night Mingzhe, I’ll see you on Saturday.” You pat him on the cheek, separating the pair of you. Your heels were killing you, and all you really wanted to wear was the fleece hoodie Kuroo gave you that you hadn’t returned for weeks now.
He salutes, walking backwards for a moment. Then he calls out with mirth laced into his words, “I always get cock blocked by the middle blockers I swear to the gods.”
And you thought, Mingzhe was absolutely correct.
TO TETSUROU: ATTACHED: 3 IMAGES
TO TETSUROU: she seemed to have fun tonight at the little event thing
Kenma had paused his late night stream, sending photos of you and Mingzhe dancing- leaving absolutely no space for Kuroo’s mental sanity. Kenma knew that sending the photos could possibly instigate something that he didn’t want unfolding.
FROM TETSUROU: i don’t care.
TO TETSUROU: hmm yeah sure
FROM TETSUROU: i dont care- i just want her to be happy, genuinely happy. like so happy she literally feels sore in the mouth from smiling so much
TO TETSUROU: there it is
TO TETSUROU: look, here’s the situation. she isn’t into mr. libero chinese model guy- she likes you.
FROM TETSUROU: i wish
Kenma felt his eye twitch at Kuroo’s message. How long did Kuroo have to keep the back and forth before Kenma just wrote out a confession for his friend and mailed it to you?
TO TETSUROU: she likes you. the only logical conclusion is that you both are giant pussies who are so afraid to break the friendship between yall that you’ll end up missing each other in the process. like those stupid freaking robots on mars, the ones that battery died before they could share data.
TO TETSUROU: regardless, she’s hot, you’re hot, get together and have a bunch of weirdo genius kids or whatever it is you want the point is that you need to say something before its too late
TO TETSUROU: stop ignoring my messages.
TO TETSUROU: tell her on saturday. after you win the finals and get those gaudy trophies- just like pull a tetsurou move and pull her into you and kiss her so good she forgets her name.
FROM TETSUROU: i always knew you were a freak on the down low
TO TETSUROU: i always knew you were a freak out in the open but a sweetheart teddy bear on the down low. we could go for hours, but the main thing here is: tell her, kiss her, live happily ever after
FROM TETSUROU: i feel sick
TO TETSUROU: you care too much. and you know what? SHE LOVES THAT ABOUT YOU- im tired of telling u what to do. Tell her, dont tell her, grow old without ever experiencing the touch of your woman, do what you want. but honestly, if i have to witness one more longing gaze ill vomit so for my sake, your best friend, tell her and be happy.
Kuroo powered off his phone.
Then he immediately turned it back on to look at the photos Kenma had sent him. He kicked off his blankets with his stewing offended reaction to the photos. Plugging his phone in, Kuroo got a glass of water from his kitchen.
The moon wasn’t out, or at least it wasn’t visible. Storm clouds thundered, lighting struck the ground in bolts of blue and grey. At least the weather understood him. He could always trust the universe to send him a message with what the weather was. Sunny days would be happy, rainy days would be brilliant, and stormy nights would reflect the inner turmoil of his spirit.
He scratched an itch right above his knee, leaving white marks from how his nails drug against his skin. The clock told him that it was Thursday at two in the morning. He counted on his fingers. The end of the finals game would be around eight in the evening on Saturday.
He had sixty-six hours to decide if he would give his heart away. Sixty-six hours to conjure up a magic spell to make him anyone besides himself as he uttered the words, “I love you.”
Sixty-four hours goes by much quicker than Kuroo would expect.
“Okay, listen up everyone.” Consensual Sets was huddled up, you were giving your final speech of this year. Your team had won against EZ Pass, and now the final match would be against Monster Spikes.
You were aware of how tired everyone was. In the third set against EZ Pass, Alba twisted her ankle, leaving the team to substitute her out for Mika. Resulting in an extremely close third set, but in the end, you were able to do a block kill and Daishou was able to get a good spike in to secure the win in Consensual Sets favor.
Alba sat on the bench, with a bag of ice on her ankle. Although she’d never say it, she was angry. Her face was entirely blank, devoid of any emotion. No comments or out of the blue thoughts rambled out of her- and you knew that Alba was fermenting in her own self pity.
Ito was sitting next to Alba, as the rest of the team stood around with arms around shoulders. You could feel the sweat from everyone’s bodies in the team circle.
“Monster Spikes as a whole lacks the ability to connect. Their passes are sloppy compared to ours. Ito, your setting skills outweigh that other setter. Kuroo, your blocks are always on point. Alba, Daishou, Mika, you're some of the best spikers I’ve seen. Not to mention Mingzhe being our solid foundation as libero, nothing gets past you.” Your speech wasn’t organized, it wasn’t even meant to be motivational.
But you continued, “These past six months, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. So many team practices, so many late night drives, so many junk food purchases.” You look down to the gym floor, “I was so worried when I started college that I wouldn’t find my people. But look at me now, I have the best friends in the world and we’re playing in a championship. We don’t need to be a school sponsored team, just being on a intramural team is enough to make me glad.”
You don't see the way that Alba wipes at her eyes. You miss the way that Mingzhe and Ito share a big smile at each other. Mika rubs your back, urging you to continue. Daishou and Kuroo kick each other in the shins, an amicable gesture between rivals turned competitive friends.
“So, you know what, let’s go out and win this. Connect every receive, every toss, every spike. We are the blood that flows through, let’s make it easy for each other to show off our skills.” You stick your hand into the center of the team. Everyone stacks their hand on top of yours.
Kuroo had told you that you should be the one to give the final speech, you should be the one to speak before the final game with this team. His selfish desire to hear you tie up the loose ends of a season of volleyball, knowing how he’d fumble the speech due to his inability to accept that this team would never be the same after their last game.
But also, Kuroo knew that just hearing you talk would soothe his nerves before this game. Hearing you express your thoughts and emotions about your team, the team he shared with you, would do wonders for his confidence in the game.
After listening to so many of Kuroo’s pre-game speeches, you had an idea of what would be good to say. In the end though, this speech was uniquely yours. A testament to the power of connection.
Kuroo locks eyes with you. You nudge your head in the direction of everyone’s hands, he shakes his head, mouthing that this call was all yours. You mouth a thank-you to Kuroo.
Looking around at your friends, you give the last cheer of the year, “3, 2, 1, let’s play!”
Kuroo wins the coin toss, and Mika serves first.
She starts with a jump float that undeniably starts the team off on the best footing possible. A service ace right off the bat, and Daishou can’t help but pump his fists and give a yell of excitement. He loved to see his fiancé play a game that had become the center of his universe, more accurately though the center of Daishou’s universe was a mixture of volleyball and Mika.
The game picks up with an indomitable force, the speed and increasing frequency of you having to jump up to block or to give a feint hit is more than you’re used to. Kuroo’s breathing is heavier, and between points scored, he keeps his shoulders low. Ito keeps shaking out his hands, then rolling his dominant shoulder. The only one who still looks moderately normal is Mingzhe, who’s sporting a dimple on only one side of his face.
After set one, Consensual Sets is ahead 1-0.
Four more to go.
1-1.
2-1.
2-2.
Alba is sitting on the edge of the bench, eyebrows furrowed, her hands grip the plastic seat. Each time Daishou spikes, Alba purses her lips.
During a time out, you sit next to Alba.
“Thank you.” It’s a quiet moment shared between you and Alba, everyone else getting some water for a moment. You express your gratitude plainly, because that’s all that's needed to get the sentiment across. You appreciated her, and she knew it too.
Alba’s bottom lip quivers, “I just wanted to play one more game with everyone. With Mingzhe behind me, with Ito sending me those smooth tosses, with you and Kuroo as my wall of defense. With Daishou shouting at me telling me to fix my form. With Mika telling me to ignore Daishou. One more game with everyone.”
You pat her knee.
“Alba, we couldn’t have gotten here without you.” Smiling, you hold her hand, “Remember, this is all for fun. And as long as you’re having fun- then we’re winning. You’re on the court just as much as I’m on the court, even if it might not seem like it.”
She wipes her face with the back of her hand, “You suck- making me cry like this. I'm such a baby, screw you.”
Ito laughs once he hears Alba’s comment, full body laughing. It's a new sound for everyone on the team, to hear the joyous childlike giggles erupting from the most stone-faced member of Consensual Sets. Following suit, everyone else joins in, laughing. Mingzhe even snorts.
The opposing team raises their eyebrows at you all, but in the end, it's just a game of volleyball. It's a game being played by a group of friends who like spending time together. You weren’t sure that friends was the right defining terminology anymore. There had to be a word for what everyone shared, because it was deeper, more meaningful, richer than just being ‘friends’.
Kuroo watches as Alba punches you in the arm, and the grin you give in response stuns him. You stand up from the bench to escape Alba’s gentle wrath. You bump into Kuroo, turning around and giving him that smile that made him feel like himself.
He just can’t help the way he grabs your face and slots his lips to yours.
To his surprise, you wrap a hand around his neck and pull him in closer. He rubs his thumbs on your cheekbones, letting his cold nose bump into yours. You tilt your head so you can breathe through your nose a little better. He moves from your lips to the side of your mouth, rapidly placing gentle pecks there before doing the same all over your face.
Wrinkling your nose, you make a noise of complaint at being gross and sweaty.
When you pull away, Kuroo’s face follows yours, trailing closely. He reminds you of a cat trying to nudge their way under your hand. He connects to your lips again, humming against the plush of your skin. Thinking back to his failed confession at the train station, he nips at your lips before kissing them lightly. It’s hard to kiss when he’s smiling this much.
“As much as I love a free show, we have a game to win.” Mingzhe tugs on the back collar of Kuroo’s shirt, ripping him from you. Kuroo wriggles out of Mingzhe’s hold, trying to attach himself to you again, but gets shaken out of his one track mind, his desire to just keep kissing you, when the referee blows his whistle.
Serve. Receive. Set. Spike. Block.
Block. Receive. Set. Spike.
Receive. Set. Spike.
Block. Spike.
Spike.
3-2.
“LET’S GO!” Ito screams, whipping his head around to look at Alba. She waves a little from her spot on the bench. Ito thinks to himself, if Kuroo can confess, then surely he can too.
Although, Ito’s kiss is much less tame than Kuroo’s. Ito’s kneeling on the bench, arms wrapped around Alba’s torso as she’s practically hanging off of the bench, only supported by Ito’s hold.
Mingzhe throws his hands up in the air when Daishou and Mika kiss as well.
“Can nobody just appreciate the win? What's with all the kissing?” Mingzhe speaks into a void, rubbing his forehead with exasperation.
“This is appreciating the win.” Kuroo wraps an arm around your waist, pinching your side. The pinch makes your body move closer into him.
“Oh yeah, suddenly everyone on our team is in love and I’m here, just the best libero in a loveless existence. At least I’ll always have volleyball.” Mingzhe jokingly states, hugging the volleyball to his chest.
Alba holds up a marker, “I can draw a kissable face on the ball if you want Mingzhe?”
Ito laughs loudly again, resting his chin on Alba’s shoulder.
Mika, in her wisdom, tells everyone to line up for a group photo before awards are handed out.
Three sequential clicks of Mika’s phone, and one of your opponents double checked that all the shots they took were good. Handing the phone off, the tall girl who had kindly taken the photos of your team shook your hand.
“You’re one of the best blockers I’ve seen on an intramural team, how’d you get so good?” She asked.
You shrugged, but Kuroo spoke up, “I taught her everything that she knows. But also, my girlfriend is a quick learner too, an easy study if you will.”
The girl nods, bowing curtly before going over to her own team.
You grab the front of Kuroo’s shirt, pulling his face down to yours.
“My boyfriend really is a handful. What should I do about that?”
Kuroo smirks, grabbing a hold of the front of your shirt as well.
“Definitely kiss him. That’s the best solution.” He nods his head.
“One question first,” You comment, smoothing out his shirt where you had twisted the fabric, “Explain the mentos and coke thing.”
Kuroo slips a hand under your shirt, resting on your bare hip, “You put mentos in a bottle of coke then, bam. Explosion. One of the coolest chemical reactions I know of.”
“Wanna try that out?”
“Yes, please.”
TO SUGURU, ITO, MINGZHE, ALBA, MIKA, AND TETSUROU: ATTACHED: 3 IMAGES
TO SUGURU, ITO, MINGZHE, ALBA, MIKA, AND TETSUROU: my epic teammates, my best friends, my family.
FROM SUGURU: i’m going to be sick why are you so sentimental
FROM ITO: alba and i are on our way don't start without us!
FROM MINGZHE: ur lucky i got a flight in time for this
FROM ALBA: i bought you a photobook for all our pictures! and i got tetsu some mentos like he asked
FROM MIKA: sugu and i will be there soon, needed to get gas for my bike
FROM SUGURU: what's the point of having an engagement party if we can't even play volleyball
FROM TETSUROU: suguru i’ll make you chopped liver. i don't know who told you we wouldn't have a volleyball at the party ??
TO SUGURU, ITO, MINGZHE, ALBA, MIKA, AND TETSUROU: make sure to add songs to my playlist for tonight! thanks for getting mentos alba! Make sure to sign your names into the guestbook when you get here
FROM TETSUROU: me too?
TO SUGURU, ITO, MINGZHE, ALBA, MIKA, AND TETSUROU: tetsurou what am i going to do with you for the rest of our lives 🥲
TO SUGURU, ITO, MINGZHE, ALBA, MIKA, AND TETSUROU: ATTACHED: 3 IMAGES
TO SUGURU, ITO, MINGZHE, ALBA, MIKA, AND TETSUROU: consensual sets reunion + their engaged captain and vice captain (look at how cute my ring is 😭 thank you tetsurou 💖) (also peep the coke and mentos explosion behind us in that last photo!!!!!!)
FROM TETSUROU: wedding in 5 months be back soon everyone! it was nice seeing everyone again. love you all ! 🙏🏐💍
186 notes · View notes
etrangeres · 9 months ago
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The Curious Case of Kaitou Kid
(UPDATED 11/27 JST. Sections with significant new portions will be bracketed with a ☘️)
We love alliteration in this household.
To start with an anecdote, I went to the main Animate store in Ikebukuro some 2-3 weeks after M27 began showing in theaters. I had two reasons to be there: hopefully grab some copies of the Magic Kaito Treasured Editions, and grab what movie-related merch I could. The former I managed, but the latter was a lot harder. Despite them devoting nearly an entire wall on the right side of the first floor to Detective Conan merch, every single piece of non-blind box Kaitou Kid merch had been snatched up already. This trend of Kid’s merch being sold out seemed to continue for at least a couple weeks afterward, at least in and around Tokyo.
This demonstrates something I think we all already know: Kaitou Kid is a crazy popular Detective Conan character.
…Detective Conan character? Yes, but… No. But definitely yes. But… yes?
Kaitou Kid - real name Kaito Kuroba - is such a funny character if you think about him for more than a few seconds. So I chose to think about him for a few, uh. Days.
When I say he’s funny to think about, I don’t necessarily mean in terms of who he is as a character - which is admittedly also fun, because I think Gosho Aoyama is the king of gap moe - but more in terms of his placement in the greater DCMK canon. I mean, the fact that we have the “DCMK” acronym at all signifies the importance of tying these two series together. Even though they technically take place in different worlds. You know. Technically.
So I want to (mostly) chronologically go through Kid’s history in Detective Conan, how it relates to his origin as Kaito Kuroba in Magic Kaito, and amuse myself with the strange relationship he (and his source manga) has with the juggernaut that is Detective Conan.
Before we jump into this, some basic notes:
-I don’t mean for this to come across like some academic thesis. Nor did I actually think this would hit over 18k words. I’m just Like This.
-Any translations you see here are done by me, from the source Japanese.
-There will be concrete mentions of events from M27. They are comparatively trivial in terms of the mystery the film offers, but there will be spoilers for certain major parts of the plot as they relate to Magic Kaito elements. This will be clearly demarcated, should you wish to avoid those spoilers.
The MK to DC Pipeline
So I don’t know how many people actually need this information, but for completion’s sake:
Magic Kaito is Gosho Aoyama’s debut serialization (important distinction), and it began in June 1987. Though roughly the first two volumes’ worth of chapters were published at a fairly consistent monthly rate, it grew more and more irregular after that due to the popularity of both Yaiba and (more importantly for our discussion) Detective Conan. Due to it still technically being an ongoing series, it is currently Weekly Shonen Sunday’s longest running manga. This just so happens to be followed by Detective Conan, and they lead this particular ranking by a fairly wide margin.
The manga as it currently exists came out of the one-shot “Nonchalant Lupin,” which he submitted to Shonen Magazine’s manga contest after his editor told him to “draw the story you most want to draw” (Treasured Ed. V5). The one-shot won an honorable mention. His comment in Treasured Ed V1 also mentions that he “all but became a mangaka because I wanted to write about a high school kaitou,” so he’s clearly attached to the concept. He’s also clearly attached to Magic Kaito itself; a number of excerpts from the Gosho Aoyama 30th Anniversary Book, for example, talk about how a greedy part of him immediately thought of Kaitou Kid on the silver screen when he heard about the first movie being greenlit, or how he thinks Detective Conan will one day end but Magic Kaito may not because that’s what he really wants to be writing.
Back to our timeline: the Kindaichi Case Files were gaining steam in the early 1990s, and Weekly Shonen Sunday wanted its own version of the boom. Gosho himself was approached by the editorial team at Sunday to do a mystery series, and he accepted, not thinking it would last very long - not only because he wasn’t all that interested in the idea, but because he didn’t think there would be enough material to last more than three months.
It has lasted 30 years.
I say all this not to indulge in the depressing truth that Magic Kaito only has just shy of 40 chapters, but to specifically highlight the synergy Magic Kaito has with Detective Conan - despite the existence of magic in the former - due to their shared inspiration of Arsene Lupin. Things like Sherlock Holmes and Kogoro Akechi are pretty obvious inspirations for Detective Conan that I don’t need to go into in much depth, but the idea of a “high school kaitou” still very much bleeds into aspects of Conan’s character. Many of the things Kaito is either capable of naturally or has to deal with due to the inherent nature of his position are things that are also reflected in Shinichi.
Feats of physicality (Comes naturally to Kaito due to genetics and practice; enhanced for Conan via Agasa’s inventions)
Master of disguise (A practiced skill with makeup and voice changing for Kaito; use of a voice changer and aid from people in his life to deal with disguises)
Secret identity (a flipped perspective version: Kaito has a straightforward secret identity, while Shinichi has to keep his survival a secret)
The “bumbling police” (A good kaitou story will have a morally upstanding but kinda dumb detective that demonstrates the sheer skill of the kaitou in question while putting a contrast to their morals. Nakamori is this to Kaito; though not a one-to-one, characters like Megure or Kogoro serve similar roles to Shinichi to demonstrate his skills as a detective.)
“Why are you like this????” (Admittedly the most Vibes of the list, but there’s a level of gray morality. We root for the main character while knowing that what they’re doing is at times questionable. Kaito goes without saying, but Shinichi is more likely to engage in suspicious behavior like breaking into cars, bugging people’s houses, or even stealing evidence after becoming Conan.)
Motive (The most interesting - and sometimes the funniest - overlap is the fact that they’re both after a shifty organization. It’s a bit surface level at first, but there’s a suspicious level of overlap between not Shinichi and Kaito, but Shinichi and Toichi.)
All of this is to say that pushing DC and MK into DCMK is almost comically easy once you adjust for tone (and, uh. remove Akako, I guess) because Shinichi is BUILT from the kaitou framework and tweaked into a detective. So it’s no wonder Gosho decided to throw in a Kaitou Kid cameo that turned into the character asserting himself as a recurring sub character, as opposed to a quirky crossover character.
Even if he’s still both. And also a secret third thing.
The Last Wizard of the Black Star
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So, there’s not much to mention about Magic Kaito’s early run. All chapters in the pre-DC era are stand-alone stories, with the plot starting and concluding within the span of a single chapter. It was a bit of an “anything goes” era, with the genre fluctuating all over the place and a lot of things we consider “standard” in any given Kaitou Kid story not yet being fully codified. Many of these weirder chapters have their own charm if you allow the gag manga energy to take you for a ride, but if gag manga isn’t your thing then it feels like these chapters are where Kaito himself is at his most…incongruous with the character that would eventually show up in Detective Conan. (Let it be known for the record that I personally find these early chapters SO silly and would kill for an animated adaptation of Clockwork Heart, the truly bonkers third chapter.)
The biggest “what do you MEAN that wasn’t there from the start?!” is by far Blue Birthday, which is the chapter of Magic Kaito that was published immediately before Detective Conan began serialization. It took about half of the currently released chapters to introduce Pandora, a now fundamental concept that is likely to be included in ANY one-paragraph summary of Magic Kaito’s plot. It isn’t the only thing, of course; though Kaito’s card gun debuts in the very first chapter, his hang glider doesn’t show up until Chapter 10.
The other major thing worth pointing out in the pre-Black Star era is the general pacing and fundamental makeup of the stories themselves. Very few case-only (or heist-only, as it were) characters show up in these chapters. When they do show up, they tend to be pretty flat, are often ridiculous, and are there to facilitate the hijinks of the day (the gun-crazy detective, the weird robot inventor, the irresponsible prime minister).
This changes with Green Dream, and it’s an immediate change. Detective Conan has been in serialization for over half a year by this point, and already its formula is bleeding into Magic Kaito. There are multiple new characters per heist, and multiple pages with two to three times more text than before are dedicated to setting up a fundamental conflict. Kaito is also more likely to take a stance in this fundamental conflict and use his talents and status as Kaitou Kid to lead it to a conclusion. Behind all of that, though, Kaito himself is still the cheeky little agent of chaos we all know and love throughout these chapters. (As an aside, the Kid mark used on his advanced notices debuted in this chapter!)
The big watershed moment is very obviously Black Star - the Detective Conan version, in this case. In both this and the Magic Lovers case (despite his very little screen time in the latter), readers of Detective Conan are introduced to a FAR more serious version of the Magic Kaito character. This is largely because what we’re seeing in Black Star specifically is a 100% outsider's perspective. Though we’ll very shortly find out this is not Shinichi’s first meeting with Kid chronologically, it is the first time he not only hears his name, but also has any real interactions with him. Kaito wears the mask of his father in his performance as Kid, and you could very much argue his guard is WAY up around probably the weirdest child he’s ever met. So in a story from Conan’s perspective, we have no way of seeing behind that mask.
Personally, I always put a bit of an asterisk next to DC’s Black Star. This is the case that feels the most like a “crossover” than any other Kid case after this, and of course it would. It’s the very first one! It’s the Kaito and Aoko cameos that really bring this vibe for me personally; great care is taken in Detective Conan not to pull much of anything from Kaito Kuroba’s personal life except in a few stand-out cases, and those  almost never involve anyone in our core cast directly. And I don’t even mean in the “he’s only ever shown in his Kid costume” way, because there are plenty of times where he shows up not wearing that. They key for me is that Kaito is always “at work” as a disguised Kaitou Kid as opposed to as Kaito Kuroba - the hat, the darker clothes, the low-effort disguises as police or staff. That kinda thing. But the appearance of Kaito and Aoko in their casual wear or school uniforms here really makes this case stand out in a way that later cases simply don’t joke about.
Detective Conan shows us Kaito at work. It’s why he comes across as so difficult to grasp and almost intimidating in these earliest of appearances. Those vibes obviously continue into The Last Wizard of the Century, the third theatrical release and Kaitou Kid’s very first movie appearance! His grand total screen time is only a fraction of the movie’s full run, but the vibes have a heavy overlap with that first conversation Conan has with Kid on the roof in Black Star. Though there are debates regarding the movie’s canonicity, this also marks the point in at LEAST movie continuity where Kaito figures out Conan’s identity, so there’s that precedent set. (Put a pin in that, by the way.) This also marks the first time Kid disguises himself as Shinichi.
What’s more amusing to me is that Magic Kaito’s Black Star seems to have been published to coincide with the movie’s release. Magic Kaito’s very first chapter after Kaitou Kid’s appearance in Detective Conan brings Shinichi Kudo to Magic Kaito. This is his only appearance in Magic Kaito to date, whether it be as Shinichi or as Conan. Gosho mentioned in his note on the Yaiba vs Kaito chapter that he really likes crossovers (same hat), so I have to think that the limited run of Magic Kaito is likely why we don’t see more DC characters in MK. Though in a Q&A he did toy with the idea of Conan showing up in Magic Kaito one day, so…
All that said, every time I think of MK’s Black Star my brain shoots off in two directions. The first and easier to articulate direction involves Akako’s presence, but we will get to that in the next section. The second direction is the very existence of this chapter at all.
As I mentioned above, this is the first new heist for MK after Kid showed up in DC. It is also the first multi-chapter heist, which indicates even more influence is bleeding over. It was also published alongside the movie, probably as part of a promotional stunt. Something about it feels like a doubling down of sorts on the stapling of these two series together. Kid showing up in Detective Conan is a fun reference; Shinichi showing up in Magic Kaito instead of the more recognizable Conan feels like a statement of shared worlds, largely because of how it makes you think about the timeline. The Akako issue aside, it really feels like he wanted these worlds to collide. If you have your own Lupin analogue AND your own Sherlock analogue, why wouldn’t you want to pit them against each other?
Add More Staples!
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It’s at this point that updates to Magic Kaito get… particularly sparse. But there’s a LOT of stuff going on across the DCMK space as a whole in these few years that feels like it’s trying to tie the two series together.
We start off with the Twilight Mansion case, which introduces Hakuba into Detective Conan. Which would be fascinating by itself, but this was also Hakuba’s first appearance in EITHER DC or MK in TEN YEARS if you don’t count his one-panel cameo in MK’s Black Star. The framing of his introduction in Detective Conan is interesting, because the paneling and composition very clearly tell the reader that the character that’s about to be introduced is either 1) important, or 2) already known. In Hakuba’s case it’s clearly the latter, but this would make very little sense to someone that isn’t as aware of his place in Magic Kaito.
Enter The Gathering of the Great Detectives, the animated adaptation of the Twilight Mansion case that was turned into a two hour special and opened with MK’s Black Star. There are ways in which it’s an odd choice, given Hakuba barely appears in Black Star at all. But I think Hakuba’s status as yet another Magic Kaito character being introduced into the narrative provided an opportunity for them to adapt a Magic Kaito heist for TV broadcast, and the chapters featuring Shinichi were the easy choice. The Yaiba vs Kaitou Kid vs Conan OVA had come out shortly before this, so it’s technically not the first time a Magic Kaito chapter had been adapted. But that was more of an altered gaiden OVA compared to this, and this TV adaptation seemed to hit you over the head even harder that there was merit to delving into Magic Kaito if you were a fan of Detective Conan.
☘️Between these two was the first of many OVAs, and the first of a couple of attempts to shove Conan into Magic Kaito material: Conan vs Kid vs Yaiba. This is an adaptation of an August 1993 chapter of Magic Kaito, and is the chapter that broke a roughly three year break in publication (it was then followed a few months later by Blue Birthday). Much of the main plot of the chapter is largely kept intact, with one fairly major (and obvious) difference: Detective Conan’s involvement. Much of the core DC cast has been dragged into the plot, which is at first a little odd considering the explicitly battle shounen-style magical flavor of Yaiba.
This OVA handles that incongruity with the “fever dream” solution. In Conan’s side of the story, things get increasingly more and more ridiculous until the final reveal that Conan had fallen asleep reading Yaiba. Which is to say that, plot wise, the OVA ultimately amounts to nothing. But that’s fine, because what’s more interesting is how early they display Kaito’s carousel of emotions in this OVA as compared to the “mainline” media (manga or movies). What’s also worth noting is that this is the first appearance of Akako in DC media, right before she gets a more mainline debut in EP219. She’s a one-scene wonder, bursting in with an ominous fortune and leaving in a very magical disappearing act.☘️
But the OVA, in the aforementioned fever dream context, excuses her existence. In the manga, though? Oh, Akako. Bane of the DCMK world. Sole reason we must argue that they take place in parallel worlds despite how ridiculous that sounds.
In the manga, Akako gives Kaito her premonition about the Demon of Light coming after the White Sinner. This is also in the episode, if memory serves. But in the episode as aired on TV, Akako features very little after that… because they fully cut the scene of her attempting to use magic at the base of the clock tower. Magic does not exist in Detective Conan, after all. It was eventually put into the episode another ten years later on the bonus DVD that came with certain versions of the Treasured Edition of Magic Kaito Volume 4.
More broadly, Akako is clearly a sticking point for the combining of these two “worlds” into one. Gosho himself takes the easy way out by ignoring Akako’s existence entirely in the Detective Conan canon, just as the TMS adaptation of Black Star did. He’s often brought up the concept of the two taking place in parallel worlds where the only major difference is the presence of magic in one and its lack in the other, as in his comment on Akako’s intro in Treasured Ed. V1: “In truth, the biggest bottleneck when it came to introducing Kaitou Kid into Detective Conan was the inheritor of Red Magic herself! So please just accept the two series as parallel worlds (lol).” He’s much more straightforward in his comment for Sun Halo in Volume 5: “You really gotta have Akako use Red Magic! (Please just assume Akako does not exist in the Conan world…lol)”
Despite this insistence she doesn’t exist, Sky Walk features an almost blink and you’ll miss it reference to her. Nakamori brings up the idea of Kid’s assistant being in play, to which Conan shows surprise at him having an assistant at all. Nakamori replies that there are multiple reports, some of an “old man” and others mentioning a “young woman.” The old man is obviously Jii, but the young woman is very likely meant to be a reference to the stunt Akako pulls in Akako’s Delivery Service, a very early Magic Kaito chapter.
As you’ll notice, Akako is still very much a practitioner of sorcery as of something as recent as Sun Halo, so it’s not as though Gosho has simply opted to phase her or her magic out of Magic Kaito. But considering there are MULTIPLE DC cases that deal with debunking the supernatural, her presence would most certainly complicate things. That being said, Magic Kaito’s world and plot do not seem to hinge on magic in an intrinsic manner (unless Pandora is literally a magic gem, as opposed to the tale of the gem being a metaphor for something), so I personally don’t see too much of an issue with magic being very rare, even in Detective Conan’s setting.
To keep with Magic Kaito for a little while longer, Golden Eye was the single heist released during this period. As far as its significance is concerned, I actually think Gosho said it best in his comment in the Treasured Edition: “Magic Kaito may be a thief story, but it’s also a magic story, so it was incredible to finally be able to mention the actual legend Harry Houdini. Even so, there’s an awful lot of deduction going on, so in this story you can also really feel how it’s been corrupted by Conan (lol).” It was a thought I had about Golden Eye even before reading his comment, so I’m a bit amused to find he actually called it out to be honest.
The following Detective Conan cases - Sky Walk, Three Instruments, and Four Masterpieces - and the movie Magician of the Silver Sky are all more along the lines of Black Star in terms of Conan and Kid’s relationship, but with an extra added pinch of “coming together for a common cause” in the movie. Sky Walk specifically also introduced Jirokichi to the mix, and he becomes the only Detective Conan character whose purpose in the narrative is tied exclusively to Kid. It’s in this way we begin to create a Detective Conan-exclusive environment for Kaitou Kid, which in turn establishes him more and more as simply “a Detective Conan recurring character” as opposed to the main character of another story that’s here for crossover shenanigans.
There’s a Pandora’s Box reference in Three Instruments that makes me want to pull my hair out because don’t say Pandora that word is important, and Four Masterpieces is a lot more “murder mystery involving Kid.” They happen very rarely in Detective Conan, but they happen basically NEVER in Magic Kaito (Dark Knight doesn’t count), so this lowkey feels like another way we’re shoving Kaitou Kid into the rules of Detective Conan.
In Magician of the Silver Sky, Conan expresses a level of shock when “Shinichi” passes the pinch test. This then marks the first time (in movie continuity, at least) that Conan is aware that Kid naturally resembles him.
But the funniest thing about this series of cases (and the movie) for me is the cracks in Kid’s mask, whether that be for Conan himself or for the reader. The final confrontation in Sky Walk ends on an almost comical note with Kaito being blasted off again via gasoline fire, and there’s a stinger at the end of Four Masterpieces showing a pathetic Kaito after Conan has just shot a mecha-powered soccer ball directly at his stomach. And that’s not even getting into the movie, whose entire first act drops us into a tense confrontation with a very suave Kaitou Kid before rewinding back to when he put on the least convincing act ever as a disguised Shinichi Kudo.
Have I mentioned he contains multitudes yet? King of gap moe. 
But we aren’t truly there yet. He’s a little silly for sure, but there are still times where the mask is on about as tight as it can be in Conan’s presence.
☘️The last two OVAs from this era - Conan, Kid, and the Crystal Mother and Follow the Vanished Diamond - have varying levels of significance. The latter matters extremely little to this conversation on the whole except for Kid finally showing up toward the end. Heiji and Kid have only ever had cursory interaction in DC to this point, and this frankly continues that trend. It’s worth noting that its release right before Movie 10 is significant specifically in this regard, though.
No, what’s way more interesting is the extremely forced adaptation of Crystal Mother. The bare bones and much of the meat remains - it’s still very much recognizably Crystal Mother in every way that matters and then some - but we’ve once again stapled Detective Conan to an adaptation of a Magic Kaito chapter. To accomplish this, they find ways to make Magic Kaito fit the world view of Detective Conan, like with OVA 1… But this time, it requires many more changes that wind up feeling a little more forced.
These changes are largely focused on Pandora and MK’s organization. Though Kid still looks at the jewel through the moonlight, all mentions of Pandora are dropped. Snake being recognized by Conan under the code name “Jackal” as an international jewel thief also has some interesting implications. A more generous reading would be that he potentially had another, more general-use, code name before joining his organization and receiving the name Snake; a less generous reading would be that the OVA has recycled Snake into an otherwise original character for the OVA that has taken Snake’s place, thereby removing any implications of a Pandora plot existing at all. Regardless, Jackal seems to have had previous run-ins with Kid. Which of these readings you opt for greatly changes the implications of Kid’s own personal plot in DC. At this point, despite pulling a very real crossover this time around, they apparently aren’t ready to commit to Kid’s motives being the same across both series.
In addition to Jackal, an assassin by the name of Rose is introduced in this OVA. Though she’s working with Jackal, her purpose seems to be to give Conan someone to confront in a more tangible manner, since Conan and Kid’s paths can’t really cross without drastically changing the story. Otherwise, the last major note I have for this OVA is the final scene. Conan hearing Kid saying he’d come after the Jewel of Destiny next is a nod to the at-the-time upcoming movie, Movie 8.☘️
The last two stories mentioned here - Detective Koshien and the movie The Private Eyes’ Requiem - are actually a lot less about Kid and a lot more about Hakuba. So let’s talk about the cosplay detective for a little while.
Hakuba is interesting to me, for a couple different reasons. One is the cadence of his appearances in Magic Kaito. He is introduced late into the pre-Blue Birthday run and is in a total of three chapters. Those three chapters speedrun his discovery of Kid’s identity… and then he’s gone until his first Detective Conan appearance. Golden Eye is his return to Magic Kaito in a short but fairly significant scene that fills out the contours of his relationship with Kaito with regards to that identity, at which point he is in all but one case thereafter.
The other reason is that he seems to slip through the cracks of “significant Kaitou Kid relationships” unless you consider yourself a Magic Kaito fan. But I think this is largely due to the line in the sand we shall not cross: Kaito Kuroba’s personal life is off-limits in Detective Conan. As a result, Hakuba is framed far more often as a detective in his own right that just so happens to have some manner of connection to Kaitou Kid in his few Detective Conan appearances.
This connection is made fairly obvious in Twilight Mansion by both having him introduce Kid’s presence in the case, and having him and Conan highlighted as the two people that are after him at the end of that case. But his next appearance, Detective Koshien, only implies a connection in passing and chooses instead to focus on contrasting him with Heiji in preparation for the movie. In an interesting move, the plot developments of the case actually give Hakuba an excuse to avoid wearing a school uniform like the other students because he ultimately settles into the “foreign detective guest” role. There are, as a result, zero indications that he and Kaitou Kid’s civilian identity are actually classmates - or that he attends a Japanese school at all.
As for the movie itself, Hakuba was Kid in disguise the entire time, so there’s very little we can discuss when it comes to Hakuba himself. But after Kid’s frankly poor performance as Shinichi in M8, his performance as Hakuba in M10 is almost uncanny levels of spot-on (which admittedly turns into a very funny contrast with his Hakuba disguise in Green Dragon).
All in all, this selection of chapters, episodes, and movies pulled more of Magic Kaito into Detective Conan (when those details weren’t flying in the face of it), while Kid himself began to more closely resemble the Kid of Magic Kaito in the small moments. In Magic Kaito, meanwhile, we’re starting to see far more obvious influence from Detective Conan in the writing and pacing of its heists.
But the gates have not yet been thrown wide to truly allow the silly in.
Throw Wide The Gates That We May Sillie
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The collection of chapters that start this portion of the list are, in a word, fascinating from a Magic Kaito perspective.
We start with Shinichi’s Childhood Adventure, which does a couple of notable things. First, it confirms that Toichi was the magician that taught Yukiko how to use disguise makeup for her acting career. It was implied to be him in a very “if you know, you know” fashion in the Golden Apple case over 200 chapters prior, but this makes it inarguably clear. The extension of this confirmation is that Toichi also taught Vermouth the art of disguise, which is a particularly interesting connection to think about. As obvious as it sounds to say, this chapter is also the start of confirming that many things we know of Magic Kaito’s plot and backstory remain consistent in Detective Conan as well. The case ensures you don’t need prior Magic Kaito knowledge to pick up on Toichi being the first Kaitou Kid. That he meets Yukiko with Kaito in tow also means (unless my memory is failing me) that this is the first and only time Kaito’s name is spoken within the Detective Conan manga. It also confirms that the author that named Kid was, in fact, Yusaku.
The big part of this case that people tend to bring up in the wake of the M27 reveal is the “I’m your younger brother” conversation from Toichi to a young Shinichi. Now, 2006 is earlier than what meager sources I’ve managed to find that seem to indicate he had the familial relationship in the back of his mind, so I’m personally not sure how much stock I place in this conversation as any form of foreshadowing. The other aspect people bring up with regards to the family terminology - the reversial of younger and older brother - is easily answered by the context the case is set in. Toichi is referring to the order in which Yusaku named them - Shinichi first, as Yusaku is his parent (親, oya), followed by the moniker "KID" for 1412 as Kid's name-giver (名付け親, nazuke oya, a term that can also mean "godparent" in certain contexts that more literally translates to "name-giving parent"). As such, Shinichi is the "older brother" between the two.
What the entire case does seem to indicate regardless, though, is that Toichi and Yusaku are aware of each other on more than a surface level. At the very least, we’re meant to take away a passing of the baton, from father to son, in their relationship as friendly rivals. It has, apparently, always run in the family.
All in all, this case is a far more intentional mixing of Magic Kaito with Detective Conan because it deals with past events. It says “these things were always here, intermingling” and concretely refutes the idea that the modern Kaitou Kid was the first point of contact, retroactively entrenching the character even more into the world of Detective Conan.
We switch back to Magic Kaito for a heist with Dark Knight, which Gosho acknowledges in his Treasured Edition comment is “another story with a strong mystery feel, and a dark conclusion that isn’t very Magic Kaito-esque.” This also happens to be the first Magic Kaito case to feature Superintendent Chaki, a Detective Conan character and Nakamori’s boss as introduced in Black Star.
The following series of four Detective Conan cases all look at slightly different aspects of Kid that haven’t really made themselves known in DC yet. First is Purple Nail, a personal favorite and the case that arguably leans the most into the idea of a magic show. The focus on having an audience and the employing (and challenging) of Thurston’s magic principles give it a slightly different vibe to other cases. In relation to Thurston, Kid actually opts to approach Conan ahead of the heist to personally challenge him. In the manga, it’s the first clear look at Jii in Detective Conan. But the thing that stands out to me is the sheer level of emotional expression on display from Kid. It’s not in a small moment at the end of a case anymore, but in various moments throughout. You see his panic when Conan shows up above the building, or his sense of satisfaction when running through the crowd in the middle of his trick. All of it combined makes it feel much more like, by this point, Conan and Kid are engaged in a game.
After that is Iron Tanuki, an amusing oddball of a case. That Jirokichi used a fake notice to send a secret message to Kid pleading for help is interesting enough, given it displays a level of begrudging trust the former has in the latter. But more amusing is Conan’s choice to facilitate this upon realizing the truth of the situation, as well as his choice to stay behind and ask Kid if there was anything he could do to help to open the titular safe. If Purple Nail was their first real game, then Iron Tanuki is the first time they really came together in anything resembling a cooperative stance.
Kirin’s Horn seems like an outlier at first - and it sort of is, since Kid thought a little shock and awe was in order - but the case also demonstrates a level of familiarity. Conan remains flat on the ground because he knows how Kid works, and knows figuring out why he’s chosen to knock him out this time is the key to the case. There’s also a level of gag to this case via Kid’s choice to disguise as Genta, and the stinger of Conan getting the last laugh via something as silly as a paper taped to his back.
The fourth case, Ryoma’s Gunbelt, is where the real fun starts. Despite the rather nonstandard premise of Kid opting to return stolen goods, the general flow of the case is fairly standard for a Kid case in Detective Conan. The standout of this case, in my opinion, is the final conversation between Conan and Kid. They speak of their respective mothers in a conversation that reveals key details about each other, and do so surprisingly candidly. There’s an argument to be made that Kid knew of Conan’s identity by this point; regardless of that argument, that Conan spoke of his mother with such identifying details once again indicates a level of trust. Kaito implying Phantom Lady is his mom, while not particularly identifying, returns that trust. And that’s not even getting into the fact that a Kid case in Detective Conan is introducing a pretty important fact about Kaito’s mom.
Skipping ahead a bit, what makes this case notable is not the case itself, but rather its pair: Phantom Lady, a Magic Kaito heist published a year later that serves as an immediate prequel to Ryoma’s Gunbelt. This is the first time since Black Star that Magic Kaito picks up on a Detective Conan case in any capacity, and arguably the first time at all it does so with such a direct connection. The mentions of the Black Star served as a vague framing story for the clock tower heist, but Phantom Lady ends with a shot of the three treasures that assumes you know exactly where things go from here.
All of these cases do much more to peel away the mysterious veneer from Kaitou Kid, and give him a more candid and open relationship with Conan.
But the big thing of this stretch, and a turning point as a whole for Kaitou Kid in the franchise in my opinion, is The Lost Ship in the Sky. Now this? THIS is a Sillie Movie. Kid is playing around with goats, smirking like a fool with Conan before jumping out of a helicopter, and making the most inappropriate sounds when Conan’s hand wanders a little too far. He and Conan are actively seeking each other’s help and indulging in silly banter, even as Kaito makes a fool of himself with Ran. Speaking of Ran, this is the movie where she first fully realizes that Kid naturally resembles Shinichi. And as a cherry on top, we also get a shot of Kaito Kuroba himself.
And the movie was far from the only thing happening in April 2010.
☘️First is the OVA that was released just a few days prior: Kid in Trap Island. What starts as a standard Kid heist gets utterly derailed when the Detective Boys shoot Kid out of the sky, and now he has to chaperone them back to safety. Despite Kaito not being named in any capacity, we get to see him out of (most of) his costume and even hear about his fear of fish for the first time in DC media. Heck, Jii is even mentioned by name as well!☘️
Then there’s what aired the very same day the movie came out: Secret Birth of Kaitou Kid, the first episode of TMS’s adaptation of Magic Kaito.  After years of teasing the door open on who Kaitou Kid is behind the mask, TMS adapted the first chapter of Magic Kaito and aired it in the Detective Conan TV time slot. It, too, is an incredibly silly episode of an incredibly silly first chapter of an incredibly silly gag manga. THIS IS KAITO KUROBA, Detective Conan said. OBSERVE HOW SILLIE HE IS.
Testing the Waters
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TMS eventually made 12 of these episodes. Based on the air dates, I can only assume Secret Birth of Kaitou Kid was meant to be a one-off, or at the very least it was a testing of the waters. Whatever the case, the remaining episodes got greenlit and were aired over 2011-2012. The most interesting change to the second half of these episodes is the addition of new plot points related to Magic Kaito’s organization, chiefly the new member Spider. They were introduced alongside Hakuba, who I imagine they wished to give a larger role in the episodes he did show up in. Another major takeaway from the TMS adaptation is their decision to animate Akako’s Delivery Service in The Witch, The Detective, and The Phantom Thief, albeit edited and extended to deal with the new anime-only plot points. In terms of Akako’s feelings for Kaito and Hakuba’s discovery of his identity, it’s a fairly significant chapter. Despite that, this is the only animated adaptation. I have some… complicated feelings regarding this, but now is not the time. 
As for the manga, we have a major arc in Mystery Train. This is not, in all technicality, a Kid case. If anything, his presence is pure coincidence, given he was only there to stake out the train ahead of the actual heist. Though this is a purebred Detective Conan plot, with the Black Organization’s involvement, Kid winds up a key part of their plan to convince the Organization that Sherry is well and truly dead.
Though his appearance in this case would be referenced in the future, this would be the first and last time Kid was directly involved in a major Detective Conan plot beat. This chapter was released before I had an active interest in Detective Conan, so much of what I’ve seen are second- or third-hand accounts from Japanese fans who went through the arc’s release. In short, reception was very mixed to Kid being such a major part in the resolution of this conflict. While there are those who enjoy his inclusion, either because they’re fans of Kid or because they accept the manner in which he was dragged into the plot halfway through, there are also those who consider him a “cheat” character who taints the worldview of Detective Conan by his presence alone. Gosho himself has also mentioned that he won’t be involving Kid in Black Organization plots anymore, either, due to the backlash.
My personal view on Kid’s involvement in Mystery Train is that the arc felt very much like a capital-E Event, so I bought it. There was a clear amount of luck involved in his presence there, so I could see how some may think the entire thing contrived, but it’s that coincidence that sells it for me. It’s Conan needing to fly by the seat of his pants to ensure Haibara makes it out alive, and further impresses upon us that they were half a step away from potentially fatal consequences. Nevertheless, this seems to be a case of an attempt to integrate Kid into the greater Detective Conan narrative that ultimately failed, so he returns to being largely divorced from the overall plot.
Despite this, though, there appear to be multiple chapters after this that focus on systematically introducing Kid to members of the extended cast. This starts with Blush Mermaid, Sera’s first presence at a Kid heist. What’s also unique about this chapter is the small but significant scene at the end that actually does continue the overall main plot - in this case, Sera’s misgivings over the death of Akai. Though Kid will not be overly involved in the main plot from here on out, his chapters do start featuring B Plots that touch on said main narrative. It’s… a half victory, of sorts, in terms of integration.
The other major takeaway from this case is a continuation of Conan and Kid apparently keeping a score of sorts. Due to Kid’s assistance during Mystery Train and the lack of a real theft, Conan lets Kid go. We’re in real “friendly rival” hours now.
Twin Bets pits Kid against Kyogoku, a frankly long overdue confrontation considering he’s Sonoko’s boyfriend. There’s a half-argument to be had that this also involves Kid in a major B Plot for the series as a whole, since this is a romance plot with a major recurring character. There’s also a level of intrinsic amusement in a Kid vs Kyogoku confrontation, since it comes down to (to quote my girlfriend) “guy who is literally from another manga but feels like he belongs here vs guy who somehow belongs here but definitely should be in another manga.”
Twin Bets also serves as the very first time Kid looks at the gem of the day under the moonlight in a Detective Conan chapter. It's the first case post-TMS Magic Kaito where it's applicable for him to do so; he's a bit busy with other things in Mystery Train, and he calls out Blush Mermaid for being a fake. This trend would continue in every case afterward where the plot wasn't otherwise preventing him from doing so (like the murder in Azure Throne).
Normally, this particular stretch of chapters would include quite a few more due to how many of them follow this “Kid, meet [Character]” format. But some of you may have noticed that, despite all the ample opportunities I’ve had to speak of it, I’ve avoided mentioning a certain number…
1412
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Thousands of words earlier in this retrospective, I mentioned that Detective Conan’s Black Star felt the most like a crossover chapter. What I didn’t mention at the time, however, was that it also feels like one of the most fundamentally necessary Kid cases in Detective Conan. Not because it’s Kid’s first appearance, but because it introduces a piece of information about Kaitou Kid that eventually becomes baked into his identity despite the fact that it was introduced outside of his source series.
1412, the Interpol criminal code assigned to the internationally renowned phantom thief that was subsequently transformed after an author misread a journalist’s hasty scrawl as “KID.”
It feels like no small coincidence that the A1 adaptation of Magic Kaito added “1412” to the end of its title not just to differentiate this adaptation from TMS’s Magic Kaito specials, but to also indicate that this version of Magic Kaito would be the marriage of its namesake manga and Detective Conan.
In this regard and more, Magic Kaito 1412 modernizes aspects of the original story.
Technology, for example, was updated to reflect what a high school student like Kaito would be doing. Instead of reading the news in the papers, he’s scrolling through news sites on his phone. This is the most common kind of update that you see across adaptations of all stripes, so it’s the less interesting change.
The anime also modernizes with regards to itself, looking inward to find out what people associate with Kid in the modern day and adjusting the story - and the order that story is told - to account for that. This is expressed in ways both large and small. Blue Birthday, for example, is pushed way up to episode 2 of 1412 to introduce Pandora to the audience as soon as possible. Given Blue Birthday is also an Aoko-centric episode, it’s equally fitting that she gets the second episode. Jii’s significance is heightened by reworking the scrapped chapter Hustler vs Magician, a chapter that also coincidentally focused on an aspect of Jii’s past, into episode 3. This focus on major characters continues into episodes 4-6, which introduce Hakuba (chapter 15), Akako (chapter 6), and Shinichi (chapter 23), in that order.
There are also minor changes, likely made for pacing or simply content reasons. One small but frankly fairly significant change involves Kaito’s card gun. He’s shown using it in the first chapter of the manga, which also means he’s using it in the first episode of TMS’s adaptation. Since it eventually comes to be a signature weapon for Kaitou Kid, 1412 prevents Kaito from using it while in his civilian identity (like when he’s panicking about the fish with Aoko). Due to moving Blue Birthday up to episode 2, heists that originally weren’t really bothered with holding the target up to the moon include scenes of Kaito doing just that. Jii is suspiciously absent for most chapters until Black Star, so 1412 inserts him into animated adaptations of older heists, such as helping Kaito prepare the fireworks for Blue Birthday or providing an anime-original explanation of magic vs sorcery. There are similar one-offs with other characters as well, like a short scene of Hakuba being inserted into Akako’s introductory episode.
As a proper series in its own right, as opposed to a series of animated specials, 1412 also had to decide on a unified tone. Though TMS’s adaptation fluctuates wildly, 1412’s tone is a bit more even across the board. It’s comedic and dips its toes in gag vibes without taking it to absurd levels. While TMS’s adaptation of the first episode includes an entire apparatus outside the classroom window in episode 1, Kaito simply jumps out the window and makes it to the ground after running around the classroom in 1412. Though it also pulls away from some of the more atmospheric moments of TMS’s adaptation, it pulls back far more from the gag energy.
As a result of the above two points, many chapters are shuffled around or cut entirely. Chapters like Clockwork Heart, Japan’s Most Irresponsible Prime Minister, or I Am The Master are a level of absurdity that doesn’t fit with modern Magic Kaito’s energy, so they were completely cut. The Police Are Everywhere (chapter 2) was pushed back and adapted as The Princess and the Thief’s Improv (episode 15), because the emotional core of Nakamori potentially getting removed from the police force simply doesn’t work that early in the story outside the gag context. Akako’s Delivery Service was also unfortunately cut… Whether it be because of Akako’s appearance as Kid and the subsequent punchline or because of the technology Hakuba used to ascertain Kid’s identity, they apparently determined it was either too outside the tone or too difficult to adapt. Hakuba’s call in Golden Eye truly comes out of nowhere as a result, though, and that’s one fewer episode for a character that already had a bit of a spotty appearance record early in the manga’s run.
When the anime was announced, there were 30 chapters out. Seven of these were ultimately not animated, and many of the two chapter cases could be easily adapted into a single episode. They needed more material to fill out the remaining episodes, so they did this in two main ways.
The first is by reaching into some key Detective Conan cases. Black Star is a bonafide Magic Kaito case, but shifting it and Shinichi’s appearance in this adaptation to episode six - right after a series of core cast introductions - is actually very telling. 1412 was not only concerned with adapting the manga for modern sensibilities, but also with adapting Detective Conan for a Magic Kaito audience and further strengthening the connection between the two. This “adaptation” resulted in anime-original retellings of Ryoma’s Gunbelt, Sky Walk, and Purple Nail from Kaito’s point of view. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a decision early on in the anime’s development, and if it was their existence that necessitated the tone of 1412 be evened out via not adapting the more “out there” chapters of the source manga.
The second thing they did to fill the run time was for Gosho to write an entirely new heist to function as a finale for the anime. This was Midnight Crow, the first heist to really touch on the driving plot of Magic Kaito (outside of Snake showing up to be ineffective) since Blue Birthday. Gosho’s comment on this case in the Treasured Edition is… a lot.
After a standalone anime adaptation was greenlit, the topic of what we should do for the final episode came up at our first meeting, so I said “Why don’t I write the ‘Black Kaitou Kid’ story I have saved as a trump card in Sunday and use that in the final episode?” Thus I wrote Midnight Crow! I’ll never forget how surprised the members of staff looked when I bluntly told them that Toichi is actually still alive (lol). (…) Though Chikage made Kaito work as Kid in Phantom Lady, she tried to get him to quit in Midnight Crow because of everything that happened in Las Vegas… But that’s a story for another time (lol).
The story itself has plenty of hints that Kaitou Corbeau is a Toichi-Chikage tag-team, but actually seeing him spell it out so casually sure is something.
Speaking of spelling things out, though, I also want to take an aside to touch on the Magic Kaito 1412 novelizations. Six volumes were published roughly concurrently with the anime’s run, and though there isn’t anything drastically different from what we already know from either Magic Kaito or Detective Conan, sometimes the narration can be quite enlightening. For the purposes of this, though, I specifically want to touch on that pin from earlier.
In the movie continuity, there is very clearly a moment where Kaito figures out Conan’s identity in The Last Wizard of the Century. There is no concrete equivalent to this in either Detective Conan or Magic Kaito, and 1412 doesn’t really expand on this either. I mentioned the possibility that Ryoma’s Gunbelt would have given Kaito ammo to figure out who Conan might be, but it’s not the most compelling argument. I’ve heard tell that Gosho once implied Kaito may have simply come to this conclusion on his own outside of the movie continuity, and I’ve personally always taken this stance given he seems to recognize Conan as a “high school detective” in Fairy’s Lips - and simply DOES know, no arguments, by Azure Throne.
Taking novelizations like these as fully canon is always a bit of a risk, but there’s a very interesting expansion on this particular issue in Volume 3, during the Ryoma’s Gunbelt adaptation. After Kaito runs into Conan while under disguise at the museum, the novels go into a brief explanation of how Kaitou Kid came to be known as such (aka the 1412 thing), followed by a flashback to Kid and Conan’s first meeting in DC’s Black Star. The narration then turns to what happened after the fact. This is fairly long, but as far as I’m aware these novels aren’t available in English, legally or otherwise. As such…
***
Kaito investigated the child that was on the roof of the Beika hotel - the young boy who called himself a detective, and with whom Kaito fought during the Black Star incident.
His name was Conan Edogawa.
He was a distant relative of Hiroshi Agasa, inventor and scientist, and was currently freeloading at the house of Kogoro Mouri, the famous detective “The Sleeping Kogoro.”
…And that was all he really figured out about him.
Conan Edogawa was full of mysteries.
But there was one thing that bothered Kaito.
Kogoro Mouri had a high school daughter named Ran. And Ran Mouri was the childhood friend of Shinichi Kudo.
That Shinichi Kudo.
The very high school detective that cornered Kaito during the clock tower heist.
Before his run-in with Conan, Kaito had looked into the young man that had aided the Metropolitan Police Department.
At a certain point after that clock tower incident, he had apparently gone missing.
He was not officially registered as missing, nor did it become a massive incident. But he stopped attending Teitan High School and disappeared from his home. He was apparently gone because he was busy chasing after some case a client had requested of him, but…
The elementary schooler Conan Edogawa appeared before both Ran Mouri and Kaitou Kid as if taking his place.
Shinichi Kudo, and Conan Edogawa.
Due to their mysterious nature, the two detectives continued to fascinate Kaito.
By the way…
The certain young novelist who had given Kaitou Kid his name was currently a world-renowned mystery writer.
His name was Yusaku Kudo.
Shinichi Kudo’s father.
Then there’s his mother, Yukiko Kudo, who was an essayist. She was a former actress, and once studied under the magician Toichi Kuroba to prepare for a role. Kaito had even once met her alongside his father in his childhood.
A strange turn of fate connected the Kudo and Kuroba families across multiple generations.
Did Kaito realize…?
Did he know that Conan Edogawa was actually Shinichi Kudo, who turned into a child after being forced to take a strange medicine?!
-
Professor Agasa was aware that Conan Edogawa was actually Shinichi Kudo… and it was likely only a select few others knew this. Not even Ran Mouri, his childhood friend, knew.
If Shinichi Kudo was keeping his identity a secret… then the reason he became a child must be pretty dangerous. Something that involved crime and the underworld. Just knowing the truth could put your life in danger.
It was only obvious that Kaito kept his identity as Kaitou Kid hidden.
But Shinichi Kudo must be living an even more troublesome life.
***
The narration of these novels knocks on the fourth wall fairly often, explaining that middle bit of this particular excerpt. It never confirms for sure whether or not Kaito managed to connect the dots, but the aforementioned questionable canonicity of novelizations like this means that was probably the safe choice. That there’s extra information here at all about Kaito looking into both Shinichi AND Conan is a pleasant surprise, as far as I’m concerned. But it’s also a bit frustrating that we don’t yet have even a hint of how this occurred in the manga when we now have two potential sources of that knowledge in the movies and these novels.
Which you opt to take as the more likely canon is probably up to personal interpretation, but I think I’m personally a bit more willing to go with a version of the novel’s events. I prefer to include the movies as a level of canon unless they outright contradict the manga (like M10 does, tragically), but the novel’s versions of events is probably the safer option.
But it’s the inclusion of extra scenes like these that further connects Magic Kaito - especially this particular iteration - to Detective Conan. They are holding hands so tightly now.
This all eventually culminates in Sunflowers of Inferno. Though M14 is the more obvious turning point with regards to Kid’s general behavior and personality in Detective Conan movies, Sunflowers of Inferno is a slightly more interesting turning point: all three movies after 1412 airs involve aspects of Magic Kaito, whether it be in its story or in its theming.
For this movie, it’s a very obvious example of the former. I think the plot of M19 is… strictly okay, but Kid’s motivation throughout being related to Jii is something I really enjoyed about the film. You know, assuming you don’t think too hard about Jii’s age as it relates to the timing of the flashbacks. Outside of that, Kid’s behavior in the movie almost looks as though it’s walking back from M14, but that’s only because Kid is playing the villain for most of it. Once that facade is dealt with he’s fully cooperative with Conan, to the point that the latter trusts the former with Ran’s safety. The opening scene with Kaito in his dark heist garb is also a nice bonus.
All in all, I think 1412 airing actually has the biggest effect on the movies. I’m not sure if that was intentional - movies 23 and 27 have the same director, so it could just be that her artistic vision includes MK in it - but for Sunflowers of Inferno it was almost certainly intentional as a show of fireworks after the ending of the anime. As for the manga, 1412 airing actually seems to have had very little influence on the Detective Conan chapters featuring him. Though Kid is a lot more likely to resemble the version of the character from Magic Kaito now, the manga seems a bit more concerned with introducing him to the new guard.
Meet The Fam
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The Detective Conan cases in this section continue the general trend from after Mystery Train of either 1) introducing Kid to a significant sub character, or 2) running parallel to a B Plot that is concerned with the main narrative.
Luna Memoria does a couple of interesting things. First, this is the first time Conan explicitly asks Kid about investigating the jewel of the heist, since he knows Kid is on the search for a “special jewel.” Kaito is very candid in his response, telling Conan he ran into the deceased owner as the readers get a small flashback to Kaito Kuroba reverse pickpocketing the necklace. It’s an interesting conversation to have in the first Kid case since 1412 aired, especially since this aspect of Kid’s MO hasn’t really been discussed in any concrete way in DC before this point.
The second thing it does is have a small but nonetheless amusing B Plot with Okiya. While taking pictures of potential targets for his disguise, Kaito inadvertently gets a picture of Okiya’s voice changer. So Okiya joins Conan in confronting Kid in the bathroom and Very Nicely requests they get that picture back. Kaito has an “oh shit” moment, gets the heck outta dodge, and the chapter ends on a comical note when Kid can’t escape because Nakamori refuses to stop looking for him.
The next DC chapter, Fairy’s Lips, does a little bit of 1 and a little bit of 2. Surprisingly enough, Heiji has not had a significant confrontation with Kid in the manga before, and now Kid is getting himself involved in his and Kazuha’s romance plot. This chapter is retroactively significant because it’s the key jumping-off point for Heiji and Kid’s relationship in M27. But it’s also surprisingly significant for the MAIN main plot of Detective Conan by bringing in Koumei as a secondary detective that’s working to capture Kid… because he’s in Tokyo to receive a mysterious envelope addressed to him. The truth of the envelope’s contents is an Extremely Big Deal, and though by this point in the manga I was fully aware that plot developments would often happen in otherwise standalone cases now, I was personally not ready for that in a Kid case. So there’s that.
Between these two cases is the Magic Kaito heist Sun Halo, which puts a focus on Aoko for the first time in a while. It’s also very minorly a Magic Kaito version of a suspicion arc - the first one since Kaitou Kid’s Busy Day Off - though it ends with a return to the status quo. This chapter, as mentioned way earlier, also features some magic shenanigans from Akako in a more concrete way than we’d seen in a while. There’s some stuff about these chapters that are more disturbing the longer you think about them (what do you Mean Kaito just carries some blood neutralizing spray around with him so people can’t figure out his identity based on his blood), and the general tone is a lot more somber because Kaito is suffering from both pain and blood loss. It feels like an extension of Midnight Crow’s tone, in that regard.
After these three chapters is our next Kid movie, Fist of Blue Sapphire. This movie features a romance subplot between Sonoko and Kyogoku, and thus brings Kid back into it via certain aspects of the movie plot. As a post-1412 movie, the major feature of this movie is not the plot, but the thematic underpinnings of said plot.
Many post-Blue Birthday Magic Kaito heists tend to overlap aspects of Kaito’s situation with that of the characters introduced in the heist. The feature character of Red Tear is a woman who has grown to hate magic after the untimely death of her parents. The titular Dark Knight lives a double life as a notorious criminal for his son’s sake, and Kaito works to make sure his son never finds out about that double life. The thief in Golden Eye is attempting to salvage her father’s legacy. If they aren’t straight parallels, then they present what-if scenarios or twists on what Kaito is going through.
Fist of Blue Sapphire pulls something similar with Rishi, one of the movie-original characters. He’s torn up enough by his father’s death that he chooses to dirty his hands in order to get his revenge. After Midnight Crow, where Toichi himself wants to ensure that revenge is not Kaito’s only driving force, this presents a what-if scenario - an alternate path that Kaito might have chosen, had his admiration for his father not won out over his grief at his death. It’s interesting to see this particular thematic through line in a Detective Conan movie because it’s never been shown in a Detective Conan manga case before, and it’s one of the reasons I’m particularly fond of Chika Nagaoka’s Kid movies.
Another major aspect of this movie is how the sheer amount of screen presence Kid has gives the movie ample time to show what more involved cooperation between Kid and Conan looks like. The second Kid is framed for the crime, he chooses to go to Conan; if Kid looks to be in genuine danger, Conan begrudgingly comes to his aid. They spend time talking over the aspects of the case, and work seamlessly together during the climax. It’s by far the most actively cooperative they’ve been before or since, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere (and the spirit doesn’t quite go away, either). The clearest indication of this change in relationship is the line spoken by Kaito after he’s dealt with his wounds on the roof: “A magician makes you believe he holds something within his clenched fist, and a detective guesses correctly what they hold before it’s ever revealed.” It’s a stark contrast to probably his most famous line from Black Star about phantom thieves being artists and detectives being no more than critics.
Fist of Blue Sapphire happens to be one of those movies that I personally have any concrete info about via things like guidebooks. I don’t want to bloat this more than it already is, so there’s only two things I read that I want to share. 
The first is Kappei Yamaguchi’s seeming reaction to the script during recording, specifically in regards to his laugh. Normally, Kid in Detective Conan has had a sort of booming, open laugh, but twice during the recording for Fist of Blue Sapphire he opted to go for a version of the laugh as written out in Magic Kaito - an “ahaha” vs a “kekeke” kinda difference. He talks about this in the Kaitou Kid Secret Archives, but an online article on the movie from Movie Walker expands on this from Nagaoka’s point of view:
This time, we have a lot of aspects from “Magic Kaito” and Kaitou Kid’s true face in this movie. The moment I thought “This is just Kaito” was during ADR, when Yamguchi Kappei-san laughed like ‘hihi!’ Kappei-san said to me “I did it even though I thought it’d be struck out.” (lol) I could tell in those words that he met this movie with his own interpretation. I was impressed. We have a very cool Kid as a result.
It’s also in the Secret Archives interview that we get the “His speed may be at 100, but he has zero combat ability at all” comment from Gosho to Nagaoka, which is… extremely funny.
The other major thing from the Secret Archives interview (and elsewhere) is an anecdote about a certain regret. Nagaoka herself seems to be a big fan of Magic Kaito, but after M23 was released to theaters, Gosho lamented that he should have had Kid allude to Aoko. This was brought up again in a more recent Animage article: “Actually, back during Fist of Blue Sapphire, Aoyama-sensei had told me something akin to ‘We should have had Kid say “I have a better sapphire (Aoko) already” when he returns the blue sapphire,’ and I responded ‘You’re going to tell me that now, Sensei?!”
This is all to say that, despite the lack of any obvious elements akin to Jii in M19, they were clearly thinking of Magic Kaito while making M23.
☘️The next case on our list isn’t really a Kid case at all, but I consider it significant in the way it illustrates Kid and Conan’s developing relationship. Yusaku Kudo’s TV Show Case’s big twist is that Vermouth had been in disguise as Yusaku the entire time, but what’s important is that instead of being suspicious of his dad’s double showing up, Conan immediately assumes and trusts the double as being Kaitou Kid. “Kid” claims he’s here to help after Yusaku stated on the news that Kid wasn’t the culprit, and the following events snowball into interesting events and implications.
The first and most obvious is Conan’s implicit trust and expectations for Kid. He is visibly disappointed when “Kid” doesn’t respond to his deductions the way he assumed he would or didn’t pick up on details he was convinced Kid would immediately notice. It’s actually a staggering amount of trust, despite everything.
Then we have the fact that Vermouth was able to use this tactic at all. Her visiting the Kudo residence was a failsafe to ensure Yusaku really was out of the picture, so she needed a way in. Personally, I think it’s safe to assume she didn’t adjust after Conan thought it was Kid - she knew this would work from the start. Yusaku absolving Kid in the news is a perfect in for someone who was already fully aware that Kid had teamed up with her Silver Bullet before in Mystery Train. And she was right. Conan’s immediate assumption and subsequent display of trust blinded him to the possibility of the other infamous master of disguise on his list.
(What this does - or doesn't - say about Vermouth's knowledge of Kid, aka Kaito Kuroba, to the point that she so successfully tricked Conan in the first place is another matter entirely.)
That this particular case works as a prologue of sorts to the minor Black Organization arc that follows is also interesting to consider. Kid didn’t appear in the arc at all, but he certainly was used as a tool for it.☘️
The subsequent DC chapters continue the “Kid, meet [Character]” trend with Amuro (and Kazami) in Queen’s Bang. He’s a fairly active part of the process, not the least of which because Kid belittled his card trick skills as they were lining up to enter the museum. Though this chapter doesn’t have a relevant B Plot, it is the first reference to Kid’s presence in Mystery Train since Blush Mermaid - and a pretty significant one at that, since Amuro was the one that actually had to deal with “Sherry.” It's also one of the first real references to Magic Kaito itself, albeit still somewhat vague: Kazami mentions Queen Selizabeth from Ingram, a fake country in a series that does not normally deal with fake countries. (Selizabeth was also the name of the ship from Black Star, as it turns out, but that's less a hard reference and more of a reference with a wink.)
Siren Splash’s main character introduction is actually Azusa, which feels a bit like a follow up on the minor role she had in Queen’s Bang. This case has a couple of fun things that sort of cover the entire spectrum of ways in which a Kid case could be fun for our purposes. The least significant of these is Kid’s skates, which (if memory serves) haven’t been seen since chapter 10 of Magic Kaito. Gosho mentions wanting to use them again in his Treasured Edition comment on that case, so it’s a lot of fun to finally see them show up again.
Going up to slightly more significant, there’s a Very Ominous Comment from Kanenori about his left eye, which serves as foreshadowing to information we find out about him about a volume later. And then we have the end of the case, which is a little difficult to talk about because we don’t have any elucidating information yet. Regardless, I’ve always been amused that, despite Conan being the talk of the various police departments, he’s largely avoided being in the news… except where Kid is involved. It seems that’s finally coming to a head with the older gentleman that is none too pleased about the news story covering Conan’s victory. We don’t know what role this man has yet, but if this has ties to the main plot, then this is a very amusing way in which Kid has affected the main plot.
There’s not much else of note to say about this series of chapters, because it’s largely continuing the trends of the era that led to 1412’s release and codifying a less mysterious Kid, and an (at times) more cooperative Conan. But it’s also a comparatively sparse number of chapters; in the over seven years since 1412, Kid had only featured in four chapters here. You probably wouldn’t expect any major developments from a precedent like that, right?
…Right?
Erasing the Line in the Sand
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We have now entered the modern era - specifically, the immediate lead-up to M27. Recency means some of these things are going to be a little bit harder to extrapolate on, largely because we have no idea if this is the start of something new, or perhaps just an outlier in the general trend. Regardless, some of this stuff fully makes my brain spin. Never mind brainworms - I have brain bees, and they will not stop buzzing.
We start with the most-recent Kid case in Detective Conan as of this writing, Azure Throne. This particular case is significant for multiple reasons, besides just being a good time. First, it’s Hakuba’s first appearance in Detective Conan since Detective Koshien, which means it’s been a whole seventeen years. Help. It’s arguably also the closest it comes to a proper Hakuba vs Kid case in Detective Conan, since Twilight Mansion is a little too busy with other aspects of its plot to spend much (if any) time on Hakuba’s relationship with Kid. Hakuba is also just a little insane, given his plan was to airlift the entire observation deck and sink it into a pool to trap Kid… There’s some minor Magic Kaito gag energy in that idea, and Hakuba’s never done things by halves.
Next, we have yet another reference to Kid’s presence in Mystery Train. Queen’s bang was only a couple years ago, and in Conan Publishing Time that’s no time at all considering Mystery Train was back in 2012. It’s interesting to get two references to that particular case so close together. 
And speaking of references, my third point of interest for this case is that it straight up references Golden Eye. There’s even an illustration of Cartier, the security company manager that Nakamori is thinking about when he responds to Jirokichi’s comment. Magic Kaito has certainly referenced Detective Conan before, and 1412 itself pulls heists whole-sale from it to fill out its runtime. But this is the first time it’s gone the other way around in such a specific manner.
It’s also, somehow, the very first time Kid has assumed the Shinichi Kudo disguise in the manga. And even more surprisingly, it’s done so at Conan’s request. Sure, Kid was the one begging Conan to free him of suspicion for the murder that just happened, but “disguise yourself as me and make sure Ran doesn’t find out” was the condition Conan put forward for his cooperation.
This connects to the fifth and sixth points that I’m concerned with. The fifth point is Ran herself; she has a comment toward the end about how she can’t forgive Kid for “disguising as Shinichi every single time.” Which is, you know. Kinda weird, if all we’re considering is manga continuity. This is his very first time assuming this disguise in the manga! So in Gosho’s mind, at least, the movies aren’t not canon. Considering more recent movies are more likely to require “homework” to fully enjoy them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were more carefully written to slot into canon more easily than early movies were.
The sixth and most hilarious point is a single aside in a conversation Kid and Conan have.
Actually, why do you look so similar to me?
Why would I know?! Maybe we have a shared ancestor or something. (To be honest… I’m not even changing my voice much, either…)
Now, the addition of that voice comment makes the whole thing sound like a gag - they do have the same seiyuu, after all - but their similarity has always been a bit of a gag… In the movies. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure it’s ever really been brought up in the manga, so this is a joke that feels almost necessary after Conan requested Kid to disguise himself as “Shinichi,” which Kid managed to do despite being not at all prepared for it.
And, you know. It’s also foreshadowing now. Not by much, considering the movie was only a few months out, but still.
tl;dr: There’s a lot going on in Azure Throne. It is probably the densest of the Kid cases in terms of its relationship to itself and its relationship to Magic Kaito. As a result of that, there’s something about this case that feels like the purest mix of Magic Kaito and Detective Conan. It also feels pretty clearly written with the movie in mind, considering it not only had the aforementioned foreshadowing, but also brought in ideas from previous movies into the manga to create synergy between them.
After that we have Green Dragon, a Magic Kaito heist that ran through M27’s theater release. Meeting Aoko’s mother is certainly a standout of this particular heist, but what I personally find more interesting is the tone. It eschews the steady creep of drama into the narrative by pulling back to something more comedic, and in some ways feels a little like a return to form. Kaito’s fear of fish is brought up again for the first time in ages, and Midoriko gets a whole host of muscle men to corner Kid.
The chapter also opens with a reference to the crimes (as Midoriko would prosecute them) Kid committed in Queen’s Bang. In terms of time, it’s been over ten years since the last MK heist referenced DC in any meaningful way. But in terms of heist count, Phantom Lady was only three heists ago.
It is at this point I must discuss the movie, The Million-dollar Pentagram. As the movie is not yet out on Blu-ray as of this writing and the international offerings were a bit spotty (especially outside of Asia), I want to give another spoiler warning for the information I’m about to go into. I mentioned earlier that later movies require a bit of “homework” for full enjoyment, and M27 is no exception. It has also turned into one of the more common complaints I see from casual DC movie enjoyers, at least on the Japanese side of things - because yes, there is a whole audience of people whose only exposure to the franchise is the yearly movie. While the most easily recognizable pieces of “homework” for this particular movie are clearly cases like Fairy’s Lips or even M21 for familiarity with Momiji and Heiji’s attempts to confess to Kazuha, it is also very much arguable that the second major pillar of this movie requires a working knowledge of Magic Kaito. Like, not just knowing who Kaitou Kid is, but knowing who Kaito Kuroba is.
Which means I’m going to be talking about a lot of this movie in concrete detail. The main thrust of the movie is, to put it very simply, a treasure hunt. What I discuss will give you very few clues as to how or why that mystery is solved, but it will end up touching on key events, motives, and emotional beats. If you’d rather keep yourself unspoiled so as to enjoy those aspects as well, please skip to my discussion on FILE.0. You can find that by scrolling to below the second horizontal line, or doing a Ctrl+F search on “FILE.0.” That being said, there will also be more concrete references to the post-credits scene everyone knows about by this point in the final section of this retrospective as well.
——
There’s a lot I want to discuss with regards to M27, but it’s frankly hard to conceive of how I’d go about it. Going through the movie chronologically would take far too long, so I think I largely just want to list up a few interesting elements and then dive into what significance I think those elements hold. For the curious, I saw this movie twice in theaters: once about a week after premier, and again when they were running English subtitles at certain locations.
Let’s start at the beginning, with the most amusing thing this movie did before it was even released: the lack of a pre-screening. Movies like these usually have a seiyuu event of some kind attached to an early screening of the movie that fans can attend via lottery a little while before the official release, but they used the framing device of Kid “stealing the pre-screening” to avoid holding one at all. This isn’t strictly related to anything I’ll discuss further, but it is amusing to think that they believed the information presented in this movie was important and significant enough that they didn’t want to risk people talking ahead of the official release. And, you know, it WAS, but we’re not getting into that just yet.
Also somewhat minorly was the cover of an-an being Shinichi and Kaito, as opposed to Conan and Kid or even Shinichi and Kid. There’s also been a handful of DC merch that includes both Kaito and Kid in the lineup, and I don’t think stuff like this has happened since 1412 aired. It’s clear in hindsight they were focusing on his civilian identity because of his motive in the film and the reveal in the stinger.
As for the movie itself, I want to start REALLY basic, and actually talk about the score of the movie. The Million-dollar Pentagram is the first Kid film since Yugo Kanno took over from Katsuo Ohno for the movie soundtracks. This normally wouldn’t matter too much, except for the fact that Kaitou Kid has utilized a variation on the same two themes since The Last Wizard of the Century. There was apparently quite a bit of back and forth as to how to handle this aspect of the soundtrack, but in the end they went with a completely new theme: The Grand Circus (華麗なるサーカス). If you’re reading this and somehow haven’t heard it before, I highly recommend you give it a listen. It serves as his calling card throughout the movie and is a much more playful tune. I can’t help thinking about Toichi’s conversation with Kaito in Hustler vs Magician about how the pierrot is the most important member of the circus (yet another reason I’m glad this chapter got salvaged in the 1412 adaptation). I definitely don’t dislike his old themes, but I do enjoy that the vibe of this one expresses a side of Kid in Detective Conan that has seen more screen time lately, but has until now had no musical motif to express it.
Another amusing part of this soundtrack is a certain melody, only a couple bars long, that repeats throughout the entire score. This melody just so happens to play during the final major reveal of the movie: that Toichi had been disguised as Yoshihisa Kawazoe the entire time. Kawazoe is a local detective that is in and out of the movie for almost its entire runtime. Toichi was, in essence, with us the entire time. Just like this melody was, weaved in and out of the soundtrack. It’s a nice touch. Kanno mentions in the Toho Cinemas guidebook that there’s very little impact to a melody introduced in the final moments, and that he wanted to inspire a sense of deja vu alongside surprise by accompanying that final reveal alongside a melody that had played the entire time. It’s kinda neat.
As for Kid’s behavior in this movie, it’s informed entirely by his desire to discover why his dad apparently went after this “potentially world-destroying” treasure, found it, and then left it alone. There’s an overlap between this and his motive in M19, considering both are more personal in nature, but M27’s motive is also far more fundamental to Magic Kaito. Kid is mentioned multiple times to have an assistant of some kind in Detective Conan chapters, but the only mention of his dad is that 1) he exists, and 2) he was the previous Kid. He’s not at all connected to Kid’s search for Pandora or his reason to be the second Kid in the first place, so bringing his dad into things as a motive feels more poignant if you know Kaito’s always been chasing him. Which is to say, it relies a bit more on knowing Kaito’s personal story from Magic Kaito.
The plot leans into this “if you know, you know” vibe by having Kaito only ever indirectly refer to his dad. When he explains why he’s searching for these swords to Conan and Heiji, he only refers to “a certain thief.” In a moment of respite, he only just barely gets to say the first sounds of “dad” before he’s interrupted by one of our culprits. It’s not said in any capacity until the very end of the movie, when the treasure is found alongside Toichi’s glove and a notice from Kid the first: “Wake not a sleeping lion.”
Going back to Heiji and Conan, he’s not openly cooperative with them until they save him from near death. It’s at that point they share info and Kid ropes them into solving this puzzle because it’s what they do best. The rest of their cooperation in the movie usually takes the shape of a “2+1” format. Conan and Heiji are obviously working together while Kid comes in and out via a number of disguises. There’s a comedy to his disguises in this film, since they’re almost too easy to see through. It’s likely in part so Heiji and Conan can be aware of his presence, since they’re technically working together. Minami Takayama also picks up on this in her movie pamphlet interview, adding that he “seems more open and honest this time, probably because that’s just how badly he wants to solve this mystery” and that it feels more like “Kaito Kuroba and Shinichi Kudo have taken a step closer” as opposed to it just being Kid and Conan this time around. Kappei Yamaguchi in the same set of interviews says he’s “basically Kaito” with Conan, even if he still mostly behaves as Kid with Heiji.
To summarize, Kid’s behavior in this movie is far more open due to the goal being tied to his dad, and with Conan specifically the mask is basically off. Add this to the comedic touch of his disguises throughout, and you’ve got some good Magic Kaito vibes despite his reduced screen time compared to M23.
But that only lays the foundation for those vibes. There are plenty of other reasons why it feels more Magic Kaito-y, given key aspects of this movie bring in more aspects of Kaito’s civilian life - and certain emotional beats rely on your knowledge of that.
To start with a more minor beat that wraps up things mentioned above: Toichi’s glove. Kaito takes it with him after discovering the treasure, and there’s a short scene while he’s flying through the sky (after a more significant moment we’ll discuss later) that sees him looking at the glove with a frankly mixed expression. The novelization of the movie mentions him smiling happily as he soars through the sky, but that is not the expression we actually see in the movie. He has Thoughts about finding his dad’s glove there, but the audience is left to guess what they may be. It’s a hole that’s nearly impossible to fill without knowing Kaito’s backstory (and, arguably, without knowing about Midnight Crow).
And we’ll get to Midnight Crow’s significance, just you wait.
The second beat I want to talk about is Nakamori. First (and more minorly) is his engagement in some true gag Magic Kaito energy. A short scene with a disguised Kaito at a hotel alongside Conan and Heiji ends with Nakamori up against the window, looking in with multiple police officers behind him, as he realizes he’s found Kid. Kid then runs, and Nakamori and his officers run across the screen as Conan and Heiji continue their conversation. Real goofy hours.
But the actual most important story beat with Nakamori is him getting shot by one of our antagonists. He’s shot while on duty and escorting another principle character, and the framing of the movie puts us in Kid’s shoes as he discovers a gun aimed at the both of them just a little too late. This decision carries with it a couple of interesting tidbits, whether they be for our purposes or for how it seemed to affect the people that worked on it.
I want to do the latter first, since the snowballing is less extreme. Yamaguchi has talked about this scene a number of times, whether it be in interviews or during seiyuu events. As a voice actor, he was surprised at his own performance as Kid yells out Nakamori’s name. It was desperate and loud in a way he’d never been before, but it still felt natural to him; he thought it was indicative of just how important Nakamori is to Kaito, and that this was less Detective Conan’s Kid and more Magic Kaito’s Kaito Kuroba.
Related to this is a comment he made at a stage event that in his heart, he’d wanted to say “ojisan” instead of “Inspector Nakamori.” But he felt that it would be too difficult to display their relationship that way, so he went with the latter. There’s a lot of character interpretation you can do with regards to what Kaito chose to say in the moment, but I also can’t deny the possibility that it simply comes down to the “Kaito and Nakamori” dynamic not appearing in Detective Conan at all. Well, at least in part.
The other major ramification of this narrative decision is actually Aoko’s appearance in the movie. Nagaoka recounts in multiple interviews, such as in Febri or Animage, that she originally felt the tension in the movie was a little too slow-going, so she suggested someone get shot. The original plan suggested shooting Nishimura, the Hokkaido police detective, but Gosho said Kid wouldn’t save him if that was the case. It was here Nagaoka suggested Nakamori, to which Gosho agreed. He then added, though, that if he was in the hospital, then Aoko would likely show up.
Thus we have Aoko’s first theatrical appearance, and her first appearance in Detective Conan at all since Black Star. Her appearance in this movie grounds Kid’s emotional narrative in Magic Kaito; it implies the existence of Kaito Kuroba in ways Hakuba or Nakamori never could, because her significance rests entirely in his civilian identity. There are scenes dedicated to Kaito watching over her in disguise as she waits for her father to wake up, only leaving once she seems to be okay. He’s on the phone with her in one of the last scenes in the movie, and his smile when he ends the call is the softest it’s ever been in Detective Conan.
That’s not all, though. In a cute example of the movie affecting the manga, Gosho told Nagaoka later on that a gesture Aoko performs - a two-handed clap to the face that helps her psych herself up - was brought back into Magic Kaito for his April serialization. We see Midoriko do the very same gesture when she wakes up after her quick nap, as it turns out.
There’s something else I want to mention about Aoko, but that fits better elsewhere. So before we talk about the elephant in the room, I want to mention the theme of the movie. Both Nagaoka and Takahiro Okura, the script writer, have described the movie as dealing with “parent-child relationships” and “inheritance.” All of the antagonists follow after their forefathers in some way, but it’s an idea most obviously expressed by Hijiri Fukushiro, the main movie-original character. The complicated feelings he has about following in his father’s footsteps, and the things he does as a result, can all too easily be compared to Kaito’s own struggles. As I mentioned earlier, Nagaoka does something similar with M23, but it’s even more powerful here because Kaito is just as determined to chase after his dad as the many other characters in the narrative are to deal with the legacies their forefathers left them.
So. 
Elephant in the room. 
The ship-breaking shot heard round the world.
Shinichi Kudo and Kaito Kuroba are cousins, and their fathers are twins.
I want to just trace this thread throughout the movie, in as brief a form as possible.
It starts with the very first confrontation between Kid and Heiji. When Heiji gets the upper hand and knocks Kid’s monocle off, cutting through the brim of his hat in the process, the moon peeks through the clouds and gives Heiji a clear view of Kid’s face. He’s immediately shocked to discover he resembles Shinichi.
Heiji has a couple of moments following that clearly illustrates he’s ruminating on this. When he first sees Conan, he crouches down and takes Conan’s face by the chin, examining him. When Kid and Conan banter on the train, Heiji sits behind them, a confused but thoughtful look on his face.
Shortly after the above, Heiji confronts Conan: “Do you have any siblings?” He brings up the physical and vocal resemblance Kid has to Shinichi, but Conan brushes it off. “It’s a coincidental resemblance. It happened by chance.” Heiji drops the subject, but there’s an argument to be had that the way Conan says that last line sure is suspicious.
The movie follows the main plot until Aoko’s introduction. In one scene with her, Heiji, and Conan, she watches the latter two talk with interest. She crouches to the ground and stares at Conan, telling him that she’s reminded of her childhood friend’s younger years when she sees him. This is the first time their resemblance has ever been phrased as “You look like Kid/Kaito,” as opposed to the more common reverse. Nagaoka remarks in an interview that Aoko’s presence in this movie presented the perfect chance to further thread the foreshadowing of their resemblance throughout the film, and personally I rather enjoy that one aspect of this foreshadowing comes from the Magic Kaito angle.
Post-credits. Yukiko is surprised to discover Yusaku has an older twin brother. Yusaku is a little…cagey, in my opinion. He expresses mild surprise he hasn’t mentioned it before, says they keep in regular contact despite not seeing each other in over 20 years, mentions he receives gifts every once in a while (including the extremely plot-relevant missing sword) and hints to Yukiko that she’s likely met him before. As she continues to guess who it might be, Yusaku attempts to change the subject to his new book; he wants her opinions on it. This is when he receives a text praising his most recent novel, signed by “TK,” and Yusaku smiles. The scene cuts to a skyline view and Kawasoe standing atop a tower of some kind. He looks at his phone: “Thank you, Nii-san! YK.” He laughs, and the disguise comes off, revealing a smiling Kaitou Corbeau.
Now, I mentioned Midnight Crow earlier, so I want to recover that pin now. Midnight Crow is a Magic Kaito case. It is the case that very strongly implies Toichi’s survival. Absolutely none of this is brought up in Detective Conan in any capacity whatsoever. Not even a REFERENCE to a “Kaitou Kid in black.” I’ve seen multiple stories, whether they be about themselves or about others they went with or saw in the theater, about people that were simply confused as to why THIS was the stinger in this film. I even have a personal anecdote myself, given I dragged my roommate with me to the movie and what surface knowledge she had did not do anything to help her understand what the heck was going on in the post-credits scene.
Within the film, in the vacuum of this one movie, the connection between Kawazoe and “the guy that wears a monocle like Kid who seems vaguely threatening” is actually really well foreshadowed! It’s even BETTER foreshadowed if you know Magic Kaito, because the relationship between Hijiri and his dad has parallels to Kaito and his dad. Because Kaito’s first disguise in the movie and Toichi’s disguise throughout used the exact same method: taking advantage of someone’s vacation, and thus their absence. Because you know this man is Kaito’s dad, the thief who found this treasure before and chose not to steal it, and is now taking advantage of Kawazoe’s klutzy nature to give Heiji and Conan information so they can find and protect it.
As far as Kaito and Shinichi’s resemblance is concerned, it was always used as a joke in previous films. Considering how long this running joke went, I imagine that made their blood relationship that much harder to accept. It was clear they were doing something different with it from the very start of this movie, though, when Heiji’s reaction to the resemblance isn’t played for laughs and it just kept coming up.
This also doesn’t necessarily come out of nowhere. The earliest piece of info that I can personally confirm is from a six-page interview with Gosho in a 2011 issue of Hayakawa Mystery Magazine celebrating the release of M15. After the interviewer implies that the similarity between Kid and Shinichi may be due to Kid being written first as a protagonist (further implying it’s a stylistic “protagonist” thing), Gosho replied, “Their resemblance is not just because of the order they were written in, but because there’s a secret backstory. There’s no way someone that looks so similar exists, you know? (lol) As for why, look forward to it, I suppose.” In the No. 22-23 2024 issue of Shonen Sunday, Gosho also has a little cheeky comment saying he’s relieved he was finally able to talk about Kid’s secret…
The other comment complicating the timing of when Gosho would have first considered this is a comment from Yamaguchi during a later screening of M27 alongside the seiyuu. According to fan reports, he mentioned being told that Kid had a “secret backstory” when he was given the offer to voice him. Combined with the fact that Gosho had apparently specifically chosen Yamaguchi despite the latter already being onboard as Shinichi, and Gosho choosing to go with a Kid cameo in DC in the first place because he wanted to introduce a regular rival… Maybe the idea of them being related existed well before that 2011 interview.
You might be able to tell, given how much I have written about M27 alone, that I think it’s a very interesting movie from a Magic Kaito perspective. It borrows from it the most by far, and I have to agree with the Febri interviewer when they said this movie has the biggest crossover between the worlds of Magic Kaito and Detective Conan by far. Because aspects of the theme, Kid’s motivations, and the entire post-credits scene are frankly lost on you if you’ve never bothered to read Magic Kaito. It’s a very funny thing for the “yearly event movie” to do, if I’m being honest, but this movie relies on the strengthening ties the two stories have made over the years. It sure did break box office records, though, so it seemingly worked out for them.
My only question at this point is whether further media, manga or movie, will pick up on the movie’s main revelation.
——
Since merch releases and promotion for M28 are ramping up, I wasn’t expecting much out of the Magic Kaito or Kaitou Kid mines for a while. Imagine my surprise, then, when FILE.0 was finally released as part of the special rerelease of Volume 1. At a mere four pages, one could barely call it an extra chapter; if it could be called anything at all, it’s more like an omake of sorts. Here we have Shinichi taking a trip to Tropical Land to plan out his date with Ran - and with Fate, of course.
It’s honestly pretty cute, the way he’s likely taking way too many notes on what he could do there. But what ends up happening is Shinichi stumbles upon a scene from Magic Kaito (Kaitou Kid’s Busy Day Off, to be exact), right as Kaito says his embarrassing line about ice cream being as sweet as it is cold. Shinichi is taken aback at how cringe this guy’s being, but he likes the idea of ending his date here by the fountain, so he takes notes regardless.
Did we really just put Shinichi in a scene from Magic Kaito for a rerelease of Detective Conan’s inaugural volume? With Kaito and Aoko, right there? It feels so small and so silly, but I still can’t get it out of my brain. The last time Kaito and Aoko showed up just as normal people in front of our main cast in any capacity was in Black Star, and I’ve already mentioned that this appearance makes the chapter feel even more like a crossover. But now, after everything that’s happened, they show up again. Maybe the line in the sand is still there, but I think it’s moved.
Final Thoughts & Hot Takes
The very nature of Kid originally being from another older series means I have no idea where we actually go from here with all of this. I have no major expectations at all for when or how or IF Shinichi and Kaito being related will be brought into the manga in any capacity, largely because there’s very little precedent for it. You have things like Ran already knowing Momiji in the manga even though they only ever had a “first meeting” in M21, or James Black knowing about Akai’s survival first being confirmed in M18, but stuff like that that’s a pretty rare occurrence. Even so, Takayama and Yamaguchi discuss the idea themselves in an Animage interview. She mentions that the movies seem more connected to the manga nowadays, while he muses at the idea of Fairy’s Lip leading into M27, which may very well then lead back into the manga.
Regardless, I don’t think anyone would argue if you said Magic Kaito felt more integrated into Detective Conan now than it did 20+ years ago, when Kid was first appearing in the manga and movies.
So to cap everything off, I think some Hot Takes are in order.
The cousin reveal isn’t actually all that bad. I’ve admittedly been on this particular train for a decade, so this was like every national holiday and then some rolled into one. I definitely have some questions about things like Shinichi’s Childhood Adventure or Yukiko’s relationship with Toichi, but for me personally none of them really snap this reveal in two. Nor do I think it dampens the way they were brought together as detective and thief, especially since I think you could reasonably argue that Toichi and Yusaku maintained their distance not only due to the divorce, but because of Toichi’s new profession. “Over 20 years ago” puts them at probably no more than a couple years before Toichi became Kid, when he was likely traveling for his magic show, as opposed to the young age they apparently were when their parents divorced. It’s also made fairly clear in DC that Yusaku knew who Kid’s civilian identity was… or at the very least, that’s how I read that interaction. If they intentionally kept their halves of the family from meeting, then it’s pretty incredible Shinichi and Kaito met at all. If the manga touches on them being related in any capacity - and again, I have no clue how likely that actually is - then it’s not going to suddenly supersede the relationship they have now. It’ll just add to it, assuming they chose to entertain it at all, and that complexity could be fun. This is all admittedly personal, of course; my shipping preference leans very heavily into “weird platonic relationships,” so that informs this particular take by quite a wide margin.
1412 is the ideal way to consume Magic Kaito. I don’t know how much I even like this hot take, but I can’t help thinking it’s true regardless. It more closely resembles Detective Conan in tone and vibes than it resembles its own source manga in a couple of key ways, so I do actually think this - over either the manga or the TMS adaptation - is the way they want people new to Magic Kaito to consume it, especially if they’re coming in from Detective Conan. That Gosho created a new finale for it, and did so by pulling out the “Toichi is actually alive” card, is also fairly telling. And if people like it enough and want more, the manga is still plenty available.
Magic Kaito has become a Detective Conan spin-off. I think I also hate this take, but I also believe it to be true in any way that functionally matters. We must respect that Magic Kaito came first - that Kaito and Aoko and Hakuba came first - but Kid’s modern popularity can be almost entirely attributed to Detective Conan. And honestly, I have to wonder if it’s still running, albeit irregularly, because of that. Phantom Lady jumps off of Ryoma’s Gunbelt, Green Dragon references Queen’s Bang and takes a quirk from the movie for both Aoko and Midoriko. The tone does a clear shift after DC begins serialization as well, and goes even further into mystery solving after Kid makes his first appearance in DC. If you didn’t know any better, you might think it was similar to something like Zero’s Tea Time: a spin-off for a crazy popular character. It’s not, and it never actually will be, because Magic Kaito came first. But I think it sort of has become one.
The line in the sand is not bad, until it is. I don’t actually mind the parallel worlds argument, largely because I can understand what kind of slippery slope Akako is for the logic-driven Detective Conan. There’s also a part of me that doesn’t really mind Kid plots being largely stand-alone, with little to no involvement with the main plot. I could even also buy the two shady organizations actually being different, if and when we ever get information about MK’s organization. But after coming this far, and developing Conan and Kid’s relationship to the level that you have, I think not delving into who Kid is when he takes off the costume becomes the more contrived option. Gosho’s said before that solving the DC plot will not simultaneously solve the MK plot due to those organizations being different; I don’t think that means Kid should be verboten from Black Organization plots entirely. I don’t think it means Kid shouldn’t maybe suffer a consequence or two for being so open and casual with Conan, or that we can’t have a running side plot involving him. But then you run into the problem of Magic Kaito being its own series, and if you erase the line in the sand - if you let Kaito Kuroba be in Detective Conan - what do you do with Magic Kaito? The two worlds have overlapped so heavily with M27 that I almost wonder if we’re at a breaking point. Maybe this is the real Pandora’s box.
Kaitou Kid is a Detective Conan character, but Kaito Kuroba might not be… yet. I think DC has claimed Kid for its own. Especially the performance of Kid as displayed by the man behind the mask. But that mask has been chipping away, and Kaito himself is usually the one speaking to Conan at this point in both the manga and the movies. Even so, to so many people, that’s still just Kaitou Kid. I’ve seen disappointment expressed at that suave gentleman thief from the Black Star and M3 era being nowhere in sight in modern times, and it’s because it was always an act. You can’t keep up that act when you choose to trust someone, and they trust you back. You just… start becoming yourself. But he’s not truly himself in DC yet, despite the few scant appearances of Kaito himself we’ve received. For some reason, Kaito Kuroba still feels like a crossover character, and his appearance some special event, compared to Kaitou Kid. FILE.0 was a surprise in this regard, but in relation to the above, I have to wonder: Should Kaito himself ever feel as entrenched in DC as Kid is?
Kaito Kuroba - who many and more know as Kaitou Kid - is such a funny character if you think about him for more than a few seconds. His popularity in the Detective Conan vacuum is more than warranted, given his back and forth with Conan, but I really do want to believe that it’s the duality of his appearances in Magic Kaito and Detective Conan that contributes to this popularity. If M27 and some of the recent trends in both DC and MK are anything to go by, maybe I’m not so far off the mark.
We’ll likely get more stuff to enjoy in the meantime, but I’m currently looking ahead to Magic Kaito’s 40th anniversary in 2027 and hoping we get another movie… Or maybe another major manga arc. If you’ve managed to read all of this, you have my deepest gratitude! I hope this adventure was as enlightening for you to read as it was for me to write.
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pxnsneverland · 2 months ago
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Riding With Devils | biker!Austin Butler x OC (part 3)
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(gif source: shadowhaert)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
plot summary: Sophie Ann Sutton appears to have the perfect life as a high school senior in a small town. With straight A's, a thriving social life, and a scholarship to her dream college, she feels invincible—especially with her loyal best friend by her side. But everything changes when she crosses paths with Austin, the dangerously charming son of the local biker gang's leader. Their worlds collide in an electrifying romance that defies all expectations, pulling Sophie into a whirlwind of rebellion, excitement and danger.
pairings: austin butler x oc
word count: 3958
warnings/notes:
Chapter 3: The Girl on the Trellis
For the next forty minutes, they worked through Miguel's assignments, finding an unexpected rhythm. Sophie provided context and analysis, while Austin translated academic concepts into real-world applications that resonated with Miguel. Despite her initial reservations, Sophie found herself impressed by Austin's intuitive understanding of literature and history, even if his interpretations lacked formal structure. When Mrs. Ramirez announced the end of the session, Miguel closed his textbook with obvious reluctance.
"This was... not as bad as I expected," he admitted. "Same time Friday?"
"We'll be here," Sophie confirmed, gathering her notes.
Miguel stood, shouldering his backpack. "Cool. I should get back to practice before Coach sends a search party." He hesitated, glancing at Austin. "Thanks for the Peterson tips."
Austin nodded. "Just telling it like it is."
After Miguel left, Sophie busied herself organizing her materials, acutely aware of Austin watching her.
"You're good at this," he said finally. "The teaching part."
Sophie looked up, surprised by the genuine compliment. "Thanks. You weren't terrible yourself."
Austin laughed—a real laugh that transformed his face, softening the hard edges. "High praise from the future valedictorian."
"I never said I was—"
"You didn't have to." He leaned forward, close enough that Sophie could smell leather and motor oil clinging to his skin despite the clean t-shirt. "It's written all over you."
Sophie found herself unable to look away from his intense blue eyes. "You make it sound like an insult."
"Not an insult. An observation." Austin's voice dropped lower. "You're exactly who everyone expects you to be. At least during daylight hours."
The memory of wind in her hair and his solid warmth beneath her hands flashed through Sophie's mind. She swallowed hard. "What happened at Mel's was a one-time lapse in judgment."
"Was it?" Austin's gaze was knowing. "Because the girl who climbed down that trellis didn't seem like someone having a lapse. She seemed like someone finally waking up."
Sophie gathered her books with trembling hands. "I should go. Student council."
"Right. Wouldn't want to keep Jimmy-boy waiting." Austin stood, towering over her. "For what it's worth, I think he was lying about the emergency meeting."
"Why would he lie?"
"Because he saw you sitting with me." Austin's smile held no humor. "Some guys can't handle losing what they never had."
Sophie shouldered her bag, trying to regain her composure. "This mentorship is strictly professional. Whatever you think happened between us—"
"I don't think, Princess. I know." Austin stepped closer, lowering his voice. "I felt your heart racing when we took that corner on Henderson Road. You held on tighter than necessary."
Heat rushed to Sophie's face. "That was fear."
"Was it?" His eyes challenged her. "Funny thing about fear and excitement—they feel almost the same in the dark."
Before Sophie could formulate a response, the library doors opened again. Principal Winters entered, his expression tightening at the sight of them standing so close together.
"Miss Sutton," he called, his voice carrying across the now-empty library. "The student council is waiting for you in room 103."
Sophie stepped back from Austin, grateful for the interruption. "Yes, Mr. Winters. I was just leaving."
Austin watched her retreat, that knowing half-smile playing on his lips. As she reached the door, he called after her, just loud enough for her to hear. "See you Friday, Princess."
Sophie didn't look back, but she felt his eyes on her all the way down the hall.
***
Austin waited until Sophie disappeared before turning to Principal Winters, dropping the amused facade.
"You want to tell me the real reason I'm here?" he asked bluntly. "Because we both know it's not my mentoring skills."
Winters removed his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Your father made certain... arrangements with the school board. I'm simply following directives."
"What kind of arrangements?"
"The kind that keep our funding intact." Winters replaced his glasses, his expression hardening.
"So I'm here to fulfill some deal my father made," Austin clarified, his voice dropping to ensure the remaining mentors couldn't hear. "And Miguel Hernandez just happens to be my assigned student."
Winters shifted uncomfortably. "These arrangements are above my pay grade, Mr. Butler. I was told to pair you with Mr. Hernandez and Miss Sutton. That's all I know."
Austin studied the principal's face, noting the beads of sweat forming at his hairline despite the library's cool temperature. Winters was lying. Maybe not about the arrangement itself, but about his knowledge of its purpose. Austin had grown up reading people's tells enough to know.
"And Sophie?" Austin pressed. "Why pair me with the student council president? Seems like an odd choice."
"Miss Sutton is our most capable student mentor. The board felt Mr. Hernandez would benefit from..." Winters trailed off, struggling to find the right words.
"A balanced approach?" Austin suggested, his tone making it clear he wasn't buying it.
"Precisely." Winters glanced at his watch with obvious relief. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a faculty meeting to attend."
Austin watched him hurry away, piecing together the implications. His father hadn't just arranged for Austin to mentor Miguel—he'd specifically engineered the trio, ensuring Sophie was part of the equation. But why? What possible value could Sophie Sutton have in the power play between the Devil's Mark and Ricardo Hernandez? Unless his father knew about Tuesday night. The thought sent a chill down Austin's spine. Frank Butler had eyes everywhere in Millfield. If he'd discovered Austin giving Sophie a ride home, he might have misinterpreted the encounter—seen it as leverage, a potential weakness to exploit. Austin clenched his jaw, cursing himself for his carelessness. He'd drawn Sophie into a dangerous game simply by noticing her, by allowing himself that brief moment of connection with someone outside his world.
As he left the library, Austin's mind raced through contingency plans. He needed to maintain his assignment, gather the intelligence his father wanted, while somehow keeping Sophie clear of the inevitable fallout. An impossible task, given that they'd be sharing a table three times a week. The hallway outside the library was empty except for a solitary figure leaning against the wall—Ray, wearing his leather jacket despite the school's obvious discomfort with the Devil's Mark insignia.
"How'd it go, teach?" Ray asked, pushing off the wall with a smirk.
Austin shot him a warning look. "What are you doing here?"
"Your old man wanted a report." Ray fell into step beside him as they headed toward the exit. "Wanted to make sure you were taking the assignment seriously."
"Tell him I'm following orders," Austin replied coldly. "Miguel Hernandez is exactly where he's supposed to be."
"And the girl?" Ray's tone was deliberately casual. "Your trellis-climbing princess? That a coincidence or part of your old man's master plan?"
Austin stopped walking, grabbing Ray's arm and pulling him into an empty classroom. He shut the door behind them. "Listen carefully," Austin said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Sophie Sutton is off-limits. She's not part of this."
Ray raised his eyebrows. "Seems like your dad thinks differently. Why else pair you two together?"
"I don't know yet," Austin admitted, running a hand through his hair. "But whatever game he's playing, I'm not dragging her into it."
"Since when do you care about collateral damage?" Ray studied him with growing concern. "One motorcycle ride and suddenly you're her knight in leather armor?"
Austin turned away, staring out the classroom window at the football field where practice was in full swing. Miguel Hernandez was running drills, his movements precise and powerful.
"She's different," Austin finally said. "She doesn't belong in our world."
"No shit," Ray snorted. "That's probably why your old man's interested. Clean record, perfect family, connections to half the town through that student council gig. She'd make excellent leverage."
The thought made Austin's stomach turn. He'd seen how his father operated, using people's weaknesses against them until there was nothing left but broken loyalty or fear.
"Just tell him I'm handling Miguel," Austin said. "The girl is irrelevant."
Ray's expression turned serious. "You know it doesn't work that way. If Frank Butler wants information on both, that's what he expects to get."
"Then make something up," Austin snapped. "Tell him she's boring. Predictable. Not worth his time."
"Except she isn't," Ray pointed out. "Not if she's got you this worked up." He sighed, lowering his voice. "Look, I'll buy you some time, but you need to figure this out fast. Your dad's not the only one watching. Hernandez has people everywhere too."
Austin nodded, the weight of his position settling heavily on his shoulders. "I know."
"Friday, then?" Ray asked, moving toward the door.
"Yeah. I'll have something by Friday."
After Ray left, Austin remained in the empty classroom, watching as Miguel finished his drills. Sophie was caught between two worlds, whether she realized it or not. The thought of her green eyes clouding with fear when she discovered the truth made something twist painfully in Austin's chest. He'd spent his life accepting the inevitability of his path, the legacy of the Devil's Mark that ran in his blood. But for the first time, he found himself wishing he hadn’t.
***
Sophie arrived at Room 103 to find the student council already deep in discussion. Caroline Peters, the vice president, looked up with obvious relief. "Finally! We've been waiting forever."
Sophie slid into her usual seat at the head of the table, still unsettled from her encounter with Austin. "Sorry. Mentorship program ran long."
"So we heard," Caroline replied, her tone suggesting she'd heard more than just that. "Jimmy said you were paired with Austin Butler? Is that true?"
Every eye at the table turned to Sophie. Expressions ranged from curiosity to concern. The Devil's Mark wasn't just another motorcycle club—they were Millfield's boogeyman, the shadow that loomed over the respectable people of the small town.
"It's not a big deal," Sophie said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Principal Winters paired us with Miguel Hernandez—the new football transfer. It's just a school program."
"Just a school program?" Jimmy scoffed from the far end of the table. "Butler's not here for community service, Sophie. Everyone knows his family runs half the illegal operations in the county."
"That's just rumor," Sophie countered, though she knew it wasn't. "And regardless, the school approved him as a mentor."
Caroline leaned forward, lowering her voice. "My dad says the Devil's Mark has been moving in on new territory lately. There's talk of a turf war with the Southside crew."
"What does that have to do with school?" Sophie asked, irritation creeping into her voice.
"Miguel Hernandez is Ricardo Hernandez's nephew," Jimmy said, as if explaining something obvious. "Hernandez runs the Southside crew. Butler's father leads the Devil's Mark." He stared at Sophie intently. "You're being used as cover for whatever game they're playing."
Sophie felt a chill run through her. Austin's focused questions about Miguel's neighborhood suddenly took on new meaning. The tension between the boys, the careful assessment. It hadn't been about academic mentoring at all. "That's ridiculous," she said, more to convince herself than anyone else. "This is a school program. We're helping Miguel with his grades."
"Wake up, Sophie," Jimmy pressed. "Why would Austin Butler, who dropped out senior year, suddenly care about tutoring?"
"He didn't drop out," Sophie found herself saying. "He graduated. He was in Mr. Peterson's history class."
Jimmy's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"
Sophie realized her mistake too late. "He... mentioned it during the session." An uncomfortable silence fell over the table. Sophie could feel their judgment, their curiosity. Perfect Sophie Sutton, suddenly defending Austin Butler's academic record.
"Look," Caroline said finally, "maybe we should focus on the actual meeting agenda. The spring dance budget needs approval.”
"Right," Sophie said gratefully, seizing the opportunity to change subjects. "The budget."
For the next hour, she threw herself into student council business with laser-like focus. The spring dance theme was debated (Garden Gala won over Midnight in Paris), the refreshment budget allocated, and committee assignments distributed. Sophie maintained her usual efficiency, but her mind kept drifting back to Austin's words in the library. "The girl who climbed down that trellis didn't seem like someone having a lapse. She seemed like someone finally waking up." Was he right? Had Tuesday night been her true self emerging, not some temporary insanity? And if Jimmy's suspicions were correct—if this mentorship was a cover for something darker—what did that make her? An unwitting pawn or a willing participant?
"Earth to Sophie," Caroline waved a hand in front of her face. "Meeting's over. You okay?"
Sophie blinked, realizing the room had emptied except for Caroline and herself. "Sorry. Just tired."
"This doesn't have anything to do with Austin Butler, does it?" Caroline asked, her voice dropping to a concerned whisper. "Because Jimmy's been telling everyone some pretty wild stories about Tuesday night."
Sophie's stomach clenched. "What kind of stories?"
"That you snuck out to meet him at Mel's. That you left with Butler on his motorcycle." Caroline's expression was more worried than judgmental. "I told everyone it was ridiculous, of course. You'd never do something that reckless."
The irony wasn't lost on Sophie. Even her closest friends couldn't imagine her breaking the rules. "Jimmy's exaggerating," she said carefully. "I did go to Mel's with him and Maggie, but only for milkshakes. Jimmy got... inappropriate, and we found another ride home."
It wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't a complete lie either.
Caroline seemed relieved. "That makes more sense. For a minute I thought—" She stopped herself, shaking her head. "Never mind. It was silly."
"What?" Sophie pressed.
"Just... you've seemed different today. Distracted." Caroline gathered her books. "But I'm sure it's just stress from all your commitments. Try to get some rest, okay?"
After Caroline left, Sophie remained at the table, staring at her student council notes without really seeing them. Different. Austin had used that word too. Real. As if the Sophie everyone knew was somehow less authentic than the girl who'd clung to a stranger on a motorcycle in the middle of the night.
***
Austin cut across the abandoned train yard, his motorcycle's headlight slicing through the gathering dusk. The Devil's Mark clubhouse loomed ahead, its windows glowing amber against the darkening sky. He'd taken the long way back, needing time to process the afternoon's revelations. Inside, the main room buzzed with activity. Men in leather jackets played pool, cleaned weapons, or nursed beers while discussing business in low voices. A haze of cigarette smoke hung in the air, stinging Austin's eyes as he made his way toward the back office.
"There he is," Frank Butler announced as Austin entered. "Our academic ambassador."
Three of his father's lieutenants laughed, but Austin noticed they watched him carefully, gauging his reaction. "The program's set up like you wanted," Austin reported, keeping his voice neutral. "Miguel Hernandez, three afternoons a week."
Frank leaned back in his leather chair, fingers steepled beneath his chin. "And the girl? Sutton, was it?"
Austin's jaw tightened imperceptibly. "What about her?"
"Just curious why Winters paired you with the student council president." Frank's eyes narrowed slightly. "Seems like an odd choice."
"Principal said she's their top student," Austin replied with practiced casualness. "Probably thinks she'll keep me in line."
One of the lieutenants—Jackson, a heavyset man with a scar running down his cheek—snorted. "Good luck with that."
Frank studied his son's face, searching for something Austin was determined not to reveal. "This Sutton girl. She connected to the judge?"
Austin's blood ran cold. Judge William Sutton presided over most of the criminal cases in the county. He'd sent three Devil's Mark members to prison last year alone.
"I don't know," Austin lied smoothly. "Didn't come up."
Frank's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Find out. Could be useful."
"Sure," Austin agreed, knowing refusal wasn't an option. "Anything else?"
"Just remember why you're there," Frank said, his voice hardening. "Hernandez is moving product through the high school. We need to know his distribution network, his suppliers, and most importantly, who's protecting him on the force."
Austin nodded, already calculating how to get the information without drawing Miguel into a war he couldn't survive. "I'll handle it."
"I know you will, son." Frank's expression softened slightly—the closest he ever came to displaying affection. "You've never let me down before."
The weight of those words pressed on Austin's chest like a stone. His entire life had been shaped by his father's expectations, by the legacy of the Devil's Mark that stretched back three generations. Every decision, every action measured against the code of loyalty Frank had drilled into him since childhood.
"Meeting's over," Frank announced to the room.
As the lieutenants filed out, Frank gestured for Austin to stay. "One more thing," he said once they were alone. "Ray mentioned you seemed... protective of the Sutton girl."
Austin kept his expression carefully neutral. "Just playing my role. School would get suspicious if I didn't treat the mentors with respect."
"Respect is one thing. Interest is another." Frank rose from his chair, moving to the window that overlooked the quarry. "I taught you better than that, son. Attachments are weaknesses our enemies exploit."
"There's no attachment," Austin insisted, the lie bitter on his tongue. "She's just part of the cover."
Frank turned, his eyes cold and calculating. "Good. Because Judge Sutton's daughter could be valuable leverage in ways you don't yet understand." He paused, letting the implication settle between them. "Don't forget whose son you are."
"I never do," Austin replied, the words practiced and hollow.
Outside, the night air offered little relief from the suffocating tension of the clubhouse. Austin swung his leg over his motorcycle, the familiar machine the only constant in his increasingly complicated existence. The engine roared to life beneath him, vibrating through his body like a second heartbeat. He rode without destination, following the winding back roads that traced the outskirts of Millfield. The town lights glimmered in the distance, a constellation of order and respectability that had never included him. His mind drifted to Sophie—to the way she'd looked in the library, her careful composure betrayed by the flush in her cheeks whenever their eyes met. She was everything he wasn't supposed to want: structured, privileged, untouched by the darkness that defined his world.
And now she was unknowingly entangled in a power struggle that could destroy everything she knew.
Austin pulled over at the ridge overlooking town, cutting the engine. The silence pressed in around him, broken only by the distant sounds of night creatures. Below, the neat grid of Millfield streets led inevitably to the manicured neighborhood where Sophie slept, safely tucked behind white columns and pristine lawns, unaware of the forces converging around her.
For the first time in his life, Austin Butler questioned the path laid out before him.
***
Thursday morning dawned with merciless brightness, sunlight streaming through Sophie's curtains to illuminate her sleepless form. She'd spent the night replaying the mentoring session, analyzing every word, every look exchanged between Austin and Miguel. If Jimmy was right, what did that make her? An unwitting accomplice? A pawn?
"Sophie!" her mother called from downstairs. "Breakfast!"
Sophie dragged herself from bed, mechanically going through her morning routine. Shower, hair, makeup, clothes. But as she applied her lipstick (Blush Pink, never Red), she found herself studying her reflection with new eyes. Who was she, really? The reflection offered no answers, just the familiar mask of Sophie Sutton.
Downstairs, her parents were already seated at the breakfast table, her father hidden behind his newspaper as usual.
"There you are," her mother said, sliding a plate of eggs and toast in front of her. "I was beginning to worry you'd overslept."
"Sorry," Sophie murmured, picking up her fork without appetite. "I was finishing an assignment."
Her father lowered his newspaper slightly. "You look tired, sweetheart. Not pushing yourself too hard, are you?"
Before Sophie could answer, her mother interjected. "Of course she is. That's our Sophie. Always striving for excellence." She patted Sophie's shoulder with maternal pride. "Oh, I almost forgot. Judge Williams called last night. He wants you to babysit on Saturday. His daughter simply adores you."
Sophie nodded automatically. "That's fine."
"And Mrs. Peterson mentioned the debate team needs extra practice before regionals. She suggested you might organize a weekend session."
"I'll take care of it," Sophie replied, the words coming out automatically.
Her father folded his newspaper, revealing a serious expression. "Speaking of taking care of things, I heard something concerning yesterday." He set down his coffee cup with deliberate precision. "Bill Henderson mentioned seeing you at the library with Austin Butler. Is that true?"
Sophie's fork clattered against her plate. "It's a school program. Principal Winters assigned us as co-mentors."
"Austin Butler?" Her mother's hand flew to her pearl necklace. "Isn't he—"
"Frank Butler's son," her father confirmed grimly. "Leader of that motorcycle gang that's been causing trouble across the county."
"It's just a mentorship program," Sophie repeated, her voice steadier than she felt. "We're helping a transfer student adjust to Millfield's academic standards."
Her father's expression hardened. "I don't care what Winters is calling it. The Butlers are dangerous, Sophie. Frank Butler has been in my courtroom more times than I can count. That family operates outside the law."
"Austin isn't his father," Sophie heard herself saying, then immediately regretted it as her parents exchanged alarmed glances.
"You don't know these people, Sophie," her father said, his tone softening to one he might use when explaining a difficult concept to a child. "They appear charming, even reasonable, but underneath they're calculating predators. I want you to request a different co-mentor today."
Sophie stared at her plate, conflicting emotions churning in her stomach. Part of her wanted to agree immediately. But another part rebelled against her father's certainty.
"I can't," Sophie said, surprising herself with the firmness in her voice. "Principal Winters specifically selected us for Miguel. Backing out would look irresponsible."
Her father set his coffee cup down with a sharp click. "Sophie Ann, this isn't about appearances. This is about your safety."
"I'm perfectly safe at school," Sophie countered. "We meet in the library with supervision. It's three afternoons a week for a month."
"William," her mother interjected, placing a calming hand on her husband's arm. "Perhaps we should speak with Principal Winters directly. I'm sure he didn't realize—"
"He knew exactly what he was doing," her father cut in. "The school board's been pressured to implement these 'community outreach' programs. It's all politics."
Sophie pushed her eggs around her plate. "Dad, I'm seventeen. I can handle myself in a supervised school program."
"This isn't about your capabilities," her father said, his voice softening slightly. "It's about the company you're keeping. People like Austin Butler don't change, Sophie. They're born into that life, raised in it. Whatever he's doing at Millfield, it isn't about helping students."
The certainty in her father's voice made Sophie pause. Hadn't she thought the same thing yesterday? Hadn't Jimmy's warnings raised the same red flags?
"I'll be careful," she promised, a compromise. "If I notice anything suspicious, I'll tell Principal Winters immediately."
Her father studied her face, clearly dissatisfied but recognizing the stubborn set of her jaw—an expression he often wore himself. "One week," he conceded finally. "Then we reevaluate."
"Thank you," Sophie said, relief washing through her.
"And Sophie?" Her father's eyes were serious. "No contact with that boy outside of the official program. I mean it."
The memory of Austin's solid warmth beneath her hands, the exhilaration of the motorcycle ride, flashed through Sophie's mind. "Of course not," she agreed, the lie bitter on her tongue.
Stay tuned for part 4!! Click HERE to view!
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Your Mihawk has me weak on my knees so I wanted to request something for him.
S/O has scars on her body, mainly on arms. She does fight but some of them look… too precise. One time after she loses a fight she is really pissed and nervous, she goes to a place alone. There he sees her just giving herself a scar with a knife on her arm. Turns out she was taught scars are signs of losses and if she doesn't get one in battle then afterwards she needs to do it herself. That's why she's so determined to always win. She hates scars.
@patisilence tagging since I'm not sure if you'll get this since I had to save it as a draft to format everything right.
Anyway.
I DID IT I ACTUALLY FINISHED IT
I'M SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG 😭😭
And I honestly really really want to thank you. This is my first ever fic-request, for one.
And also, writing this has been an absolute emotional rollercoaster. I have kind of a personal history with self-harm and I wanted to depict it as realistically as possible. Which resulted in heavy focus on character development, which resulted in this practically turning into a novella. I'm going to split it up into a few chapters to streamline things and link them all in this post.
If I do it right, then the entire thing should already be posted when I post this, but I'm still pretty new to Tumblr so bear with me. Each chapter should be between 3k-4k words.
And ALSO ALSO I've been planning a longer Mihawk X OC fic, and I really hope you don't mind me using this concept for it? Because it honestly ties a lot of things together for me
Soooooo without further ado, here's the whole author note thing.
Your Scars Are Mine
Ch. 1
LA! Mihawk X AFAB!Reader
Tags: Fluff, Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Mentions of Violence, I guess that's it, I'm bad at this
⚠️ MASSIVE ASS TRIGGER WARNINGS⚠️ : Self-harm, Blood, Implied PTSD
Summary: In the few months that he has known you, Mihawk has noticed the scars on your arm. You've refused to talk about them and skirted around the subject successfully, but a trip to Shells Town throws everything out into the open in a way that neither of you were prepared for.
Ch. 2
Ch.3
You were hiding something.
In the few months that Mihawk had known you, he had come to learn a fair bit about you. He knew, for instance, that you had over the past few years made something of a name for yourself as a sword for hire, typically among pirate crews who required a more discreet touch.
That this reputation of yours had led the Buggy Pirates to hire you to assist in stealing a map of the Grand Line from a Marine base in Shells Town. You had failed to procure the map before it was stolen by other hands, leaving you in their debt. Buggy had sunk your sloop to prevent your escape, and you had gotten stuck working for the ridiculous crew for a brief time, remained stuck with them until the Strawhat upstarts offered you passage with them.
Mihawk knew you had traveled with them as far as Baratie, where you had crossed his own path for the first time at the bar on the ship's deck. Where you had approached him with a bargain—if he left Roronoa Zoro alive after their duel the following morning, you would serve him for a year, an errand girl to send off on whatever menial tasks the World Government assigned him.
"And why would I want a little bird flitting around after me around for an entire year?" Mihawk had asked coolly.
And yet you had made a fair point—acting as a government lapdog was growing old. He had been sent after the vice admiral's grandson, for heavens' sake, as if he had nothing better to do with his time than to handle the old fool's family disputes.
Though the surly pirate warlord wouldn't have dared to dream of admitting it at the time, you had his attention. Your offer of unquestioned devotion, your confident demeanor as you sipped a glass of whiskey and kept your eyes on his without showing an ounce of fear or intimidation. You were certainly an interesting diversion from the otherwise dull task that had been laid before him, and your certainty that he would accept your offer had irritated and intrigued him in near equal measure.
It was intrigue that won out in the end. He had left his challenger clinging to the edge of life and taken you with him on his departure. You stayed toe to toe with him in wit and banter, and that alone would have been more than enough to draw him closer to your charm. He had wanted you before two weeks were out, wanted to claim you as far more than his "errand girl," and it was easy to see from the way you effortlessly returned his subtle flirtations that you wanted the same.
And now you were lying back across his broad chest in the hammock aboard your new sloop, a book open over your chest and his hand resting over your stomach, his other tucked under his neck as he frowned thoughtfully up at the roof of the small ship's cabin, pondering over the whirlwind of events that had led up to this moment.
It had been just over two months since the pirate lord had taken you as his lover, and you had been an open book about most things. Your training under your grandmother. Your setting out on your own from a small island village to find your parents, or some clue of their disappearance. The many and varied pirate crews you had served as a hired hand.
Yet you refused to discuss your scars.
Any seafarer with a history as sordid as your own had their share of battle scars. Mihawk had a fair few of his own; one didn't become the most renowned swordsman in the world without a few losses, after all. Yet your voice turned to clear contempt when yours were mentioned, even in passing, and you tensed like a statue when his hands brushed over them. You were confident to the point of near arrogance, yet you clearly held nothing but shame and contempt for the many marks that marred your delicate skin.
Some of which appeared oddly...uniform, for having been gained in battle.
It was in part—in great measure, honestly—the mystery of you that had drawn him in to begin with, and this was just another mystery that Mihawk intended to unravel.
You closed your book abruptly, stirring him from his thoughts as he glanced down at you. He watched you gaze thoughtfully toward the ceiling for a long moment, your hand resting over his at your stomach, before you finally spoke up.
"Reading a book is just staring at a dead tree and vividly hallucinating."
You tilted your head back, grinning as his mouth turned down in a frown and his brow furrowed at your ridiculous statement. Mihawk sighed wearily, plucking the book from your hands and lightly rapping you over the forehead with it.
"No," he scolded, as you giggled softly. He sighed heavily again, dropping the book over the back of the hammock before pinching at the bridge of his nose. "Are you trying to give me a stroke?"
"No," you said, imitating his scolding tone. You stretched your arms out over your head, arching your back for a moment, before rolling over to lay across his chest and brush your lips to his. "But it's fun seeing the look on your face."
"You irritate my very soul, little one," he said, shaking his head as he wrapped his arms around your waist.
"And I enjoy every second of it," you countered, grinning as you laid your forehead against his.
"I can tell."
Your grin managed to draw a small smile from him, before he lifted a hand into your hair and pulled you down into a slow, deep kiss. Your fingertips came to rest at his broad shoulders, the hammock swaying slowly in the steady ocean waves carrying the ship along. He knew as well as you did that he wasn't honestly irritated—your strange sense of humor had grown on him, as starkly as it contrasted to his dry sarcasm, and he rarely had the pleasure of meeting anyone as adept at keeping up with his own banter.
You lay your cheek at his shoulder when your lips parted, your eyes slipping shut and your contented sigh tickling against his neck.
"If the wind holds steady it will be a few hours before we make port," you said, your voice low and soft. "I suggest we don't move from here in the meantime."
"I'm not sure I've ever heard a finer suggestion."
Mihawk pulled one of your hands to his lips, brushing a kiss across your knuckles. He pulled his hat down over his eyes to block out the sun pouring through the windows of the small cabin, tucked his hand back behind his neck again, and shifted beneath you to get comfortable as he closed his eyes. His arm remained curled around your waist, his hand slipping just beneath the hem of your shirt so his thumb could rub slow circles over your soft skin as you both drifted off toward the peaceful recess of sleep.
The first thing that struck Mihawk when he woke was that you weren't in his arms.
Every day and night for nearly two months, he had fallen asleep and woken with you against him, and the absence of your warmth jarred him instantly awake and aware. His eyes scanned around his surroundings as he sat up, taking in where he was—the small cabin of the sloop he had recently bought you as a replacement for the one Buggy's crew had sunk.
His sharp yellow eyes darted toward the door, taking in the sound of unfamiliar, muffled voices outside the cabin.
He was standing in an instant, straightening his hat and pulling Yoru onto his back as he slipped silently through the door and onto the small deck of the sloop.
There was another sloop tethered to yours.
A pair of no-name pirates holding you against the bow ny your arms, their captain pressing the barrel of his pistol to your forehead as they bickered.
"There has to be something on board."
"We could just take her. Looks like she's probably a feisty little thing."
"Still have to check the cabins. Could be—"
Mihawk cleared his throat.
The trio turned their heads in almost comedic synchrony, their jaws dropping at the mere sight of him leaning against the door of the cabin. Mihawk's eyes flickered from them to you, and you averted your eyes, clearly ashamed to be seen in such a compromising situation.
So he shifted his gaze back to the opposing pirates, his eyes flickering between each of them.
"You will remove your hands from the girl or I will gladly remove them for you," he said levelly, lifting his eyebrows.
They quickly let go of your arms, and stepped away when he moved forward to wrap a hand around your wrist and pull you to him. He curled his arm around your waist, lowering his head over yours for a moment and murmuring quietly, "Are you hurt?"
You shook your head no quickly, your jaw set at a rigid angle as you turned your gaze down to your feet, your shoulders tense. He pressed a light kiss to your temple for a long moment before lifting his gaze back to the trio that had dared board your ship, his eyes narrowing in an unspoken threat.
"Go." They remained frozen, glancing between each other. "Now."
They scrambled back over to their ship immediately, severing the ropes that were tethering it to yours. Mihawk kept his arm around you, but his eyes remained trained onto the opposing sloop as it drifted away on the wind, debating on just drawing his sword and splitting it in half on the spot.
He turned his attention back down to you when you began to pull away from him. He pulled you in close again, frowning. It wasn't at all like you to be bested by a few no-names, and it was clear that you weren't taking it very well.
"Tell me what happened," he said finally.
"I woke up," you said curtly. "Thought I'd check the charts and see how far we were from Shells Town. They were already on the deck. Seemed to think this was a small merchant vessel since there's no flag. I'd left my knives in the cabin and I was still half asleep when I came out here. By the time I registered what was going on, one of them had a pistol to my head."
You really weren't making a very good case for him to not sink their boat. He cut his eyes briefly toward the sloop before looking back down at you, your face shadowed by your hair as you stared down at the deck floor.
"Their captain started questioning me about cargo," you continued. "Told them there wasn't anything valuable on board. They were discussing taking me as compensation." You sighed heavily. "And that's when you chose to enter stage left and take approximately twenty years off the end of their lives."
He rolled his eyes the slightest bit at your quip. "I would have taken a great deal more than that had they hurt you."
"Well, they didn't," you replied, your voice still curt. Mihawk lifted an eyebrow. "And it's perhaps best not to go splitting any boats in half a stone's throw away from a naval base," you added, nodding back toward the bow of the vessel.
Mihawk gave a quick glance as well. He had been too focused on the fiasco he had just awoken to to notice that Shells Town was visible on the horizon now. It wasn't as if the Marines could do much about it if he did sink the sloop, but you were right—it would still be more of a hassle than it was worth. He sighed, shaking his head a little, and curled a hand under your chin to lift your gaze to his. You still kept your eyes averted, your jaw set. He hadn't seen you lose a fight before—apart from sparring with him while training, but that hardly counted.
You had proven to be quite the fighter when he had decided to test you. You were nowhere near his equal, but you knew precisely how to play to your strengths with your pair of daggers and your throwing knives. Your stature made you difficult to target even in single combat, your movements a graceful dance that toed the line between evasion and power.
Yet one loss—and a rather inconsequential loss, at that—and you were beating yourself up over it quite a great deal more than what constituted normalcy. Mihawk wasn't sure whether to scold you for being dramatic or attempt to comfort you.
"You were caught off guard, little one," he said after a long moment, brushing a thumb across your cheek. "There's no need to be so upset over that."
"I'm not upset, I'm annoyed," you retorted, pursing your lips a little. "Blades or no, I should have been able to take care of those idiots."
"Annoyed, then," he allowed with a small sigh. "And I've no doubt you would have had I not woke. I was simply able to handle it a bit more...subtly."
"Oh, yes, because sauntering out onto the deck with a giant sword and threatening to cut off their hands was so subtle," you said, your voice dripping with sarcasm as you finally rolled your eyes over to his, lifting your eyebrows.
"Don't be a brat," he chided lightly. "We still have at least half an hour before we make port." Mihawk abruptly wrapped his hand around your chin and pressed his lips to yours in a brief, deep kiss that made you draw in a sharp breath. He parted just as you started to lean into it, resting his forehead against yours. He lowered his voice to an intimate murmur. "I would truly hate to have to spend it punishing you, my little bird."
You quirked an eyebrow, your lips curving in a small, coy smirk. "No you wouldn't."
He gave you a thoughtful frown and a small shrug of his shoulder. "Perhaps not." You let out a small cry of alarm when he stooped down and quickly scooped you up from the deck floor, one arm beneath your knees and his other curled around your back. "I suppose we'll just have to find out."
You chuckled lightly as he carried you to the door of the main cabin, plucking his hat off of his head and placing it on your own as you brushed your lips to his in a soft, teasing manner. Mihawk lifted his eyebrows when you nipped lightly at his bottom lip.
"You're really pushing your luck, my dear," he cautioned.
He lowered you down to the double bed in the cabin, his thumb rubbing small circles at the back of your neck. You lifted yourself onto your elbows, your lips nearly brushing his before he pulled back just far enough to stop you, lightly gripping your hair at the nape of your neck to keep you from sitting up any higher. You gave a small whine of protest, but didn't try to struggle against his grip—you and he both knew there was no point.
"Lie down." His voice remained low and intimate, but there was a subtle command in his tone, in the way his gaze burned into your own. You bit your bottom lip lightly, lowering yourself back down onto the bed fully. A soft, quivering sigh left your lips as he slowly began slipping the buttons down the front of your shirt loose. "Hands over your head. And you don't move them an inch until I tell you you can."
"Mmm..." You hummed thoughtfully, and Mihawk paused in unbuttoning your shirt as you lifted your arms from the bed, holding your hands high above you, straight up in the air. "I think my arms might end up getting tired."
Your lips pursed a little, clearly struggling to keep a straight face, and he lifted an eyebrow at you. "You're certainly in rare form today."
Mihawk wrapped his hand around both of your wrists, shoving your hands down into the plush white comforter over your head, and a couple giggles escaped you before you bit your lip again. It was honestly a bit endearing, how cheeky you were being—and all the moreso, as it appeared you were being so brazen just so he could have his fun with your punishment.
You were enticing him more and more every passing day, beyond the physical desire that had led him to claim you as his a couple months ago. It wasn't a feeling he was particularly accustomed to, nor was he quite sure what to make of it yet. He knew only that when he had seen you held captive against the bow of the boat, an emotion had flashed through him for a moment that he hadn't experienced in years.
For the briefest moment, Dracule Mihawk had felt fear.
He was not ready to contend with the connotations of that.
And he was a bit too busy at the moment, anyway. He let his forehead touch yours, his lips hovering a breath away from your own.
"You don't move your hands," he repeated, tilting his head to just barely graze his lips against your neck, drawing a small moan from your lips, "until I give you permission. Understood?"
"Yes, sir..." you sighed softly, your eyes slipping shut as he kissed down your collarbone, pushing your shirt open. His hand released your wrists and trailed down your arms, down to knead at the soft tissue of your breast through the sheer lace of your bra, feeling your nipple harden against his palm. He tugged the cups down, just a bit too hard given he felt one of them tear in his grasp, but that was a problem for later, not now.
You gasped out when he briefly pulled one of your stiff nipples into his mouth, his grip tightening slightly around your ribcage as you arched your chest toward his swirling tongue. His gaze flicked up to watch you writhe and shudder under his touch, your fingers digging into the bedsheets behind you, your hands searching for anything to keep occupied with.
"Very good," he praised, lifting a hand to brush a few strands of hair out of your eyes and brushing his lips to your jaw. "You see?" He wrapped his hand around your jaw and lightly pressed his lips to yours. "It's much better when you're a good little bird, isn't it?"
"This—doesn't feel much like a punishment," you commented, gasping softly as he circled the pad of his thumb around your nipple, lightly skimming across it once or twice.
"Yet," he corrected.
And gave you a small, devilish smirk, before lowering his head and biting down on the tender skin at the crook of your neck. Just hard enough to leave behind a small bruise, to draw a sharp cry from your lips and send a shiver through your body.
He straightened out as you heaved a sigh, standing over you. Your eyes remained glued to him while he shrugged away his long coat and tossed it back into a chair behind him, noting how your hands tightened down on the bedsheets again.
"Remember we still have a half an hour before we reach Shells Town." His fingertips curled around the waist of your shorts, the lace of your panties beneath them, and slowly inched them down your hips. "I could spend the entirety of it teasing you." Mihawk noted the movement in your throat as you swallowed in nervous anticipation, your eyes glued to his as he pulled them up the length of your legs and off, flinging them aside. "Making you beg for release but never allowing you the satisfaction."
How beautiful it was that it only took a few words to pull a blush to your cheeks and make your breath hitch. He brushed a light kiss to your calf and pushed your legs apart, rubbing his palms up your inner thighs.
"You're going to have to be on your best behavior if you want more, my sweet little bird." Trailing a single finger up your soft folds, dragging through your slick arousal and across your clit, pulling a small whimper from your lips. "Or would you rather I just torment you?"
You bit your lip, shaking your head quickly, your eyes flickering between his eyes and his fingertips trailing up. It was a struggle for him not to chuckle at you—always just cheeky enough to be amusing, but you knew the pleasure he could give you, were so desperate for it that you folded like a cheap deck of cards under his slightest touch.
Absolutely perfect.
Mihawk moved his hands up from your thighs, curling an arm under your back to lift you up and shift you further back on the bed. Your breathing was ragged with anticipation as he brushed his lips to your stomach, trailing his hands back down to your hips, his lips lower and lower, grazing slowly across the soft skin between your hip bones.
Shifting lower and dragging his tongue slowly up your slit, circling the sensitive bud at the apex, giving a quiet growl of approval as your breathy, shuddering moans filled the small cabin and your hips arched in his hands.
His gaze turned up toward your face, watching you draw closer to falling apart with every passing moment. This was only the beginning, and he still hadn't decided if he was going to give you what you wanted...but the sight of your divine, nearly naked and writhing under his touch with his hat still resting on your head made him just a little weak.
He moved from between your legs before he could get lost in the sight of you and the sweet sounds of your moans, reveling in the agonized whimper that left you as he trailed his mouth back up your stomach.
Across to your ribs, pausing at your breasts to brush his lips and his skilled tongue across your sensitive nipples.
Dragging his tongue up the column of your throat, seizing a fistful of your hair and crushing his lips to yours in a deep, possessive kiss, shoving your hip down onto the mattress to keep you from grinding against him, shifting his hand between your thighs to circle a finger around your tight entrance without pushing in. Your low moans and whines of protest were like music to his ears, your knuckles gone white from the force with which you gripped at the sheets over your head to keep your hands from wandering.
Every slow pass up and down your body brought you closer to the peak of pleasure but never quite there—and brought him closer and closer to caving in and giving it to you. He had to wonder whether you had any idea just how much of a temptation you were to him. It had been years since the pirate lord had allowed any woman to affect him quite as strongly as you had.
How much time had passed couldn't be ascertained for sure when he reached his breaking point—his mouth pressed into the crook of your neck while you moaned and begged desperately in his ear, one of his hands squeezing your breast hard enough to bruise the soft flesh while his other worked his belt buckle open and shoved his pants down his hips in a desperation that rivaled yours.
He shoved your open shirt up your shoulders and arms and flung it away; gripped one of your thighs, pushing your leg up as high as it would go, and the low growl that left his throat as he thrust into you was drowned out by your own cries of abandon. Your hips arched up from the bed to meet his, one of your arms flinging around his neck and your hooking beneath his arm to grip hard at his shoulder.
"I don't recall giving you permission to move," he breathed into your neck. He gritted his teeth as he pushed his hips forward hard, shoving yours back down into the bed as you cried out again, your slick walls tightening around his cock.
"I—I'm sorry, I can't—I can't—please—" You gasped, your head falling back as he moved in you in deep, hard thrusts, your fingernails dragging down his back. "Oh God, please—"
He lifted a hand to grasp at your hair as he crushed his lips to yours, delving his tongue into your mouth and drawing in a deep breath as you moaned desperately into the fierce kiss. The prospect of punishing you, of what the hell he had even been punishing you for was forgotten in this rush of unquenchable lust and desire, of pure carnal need for your body.
He normally hated losing control, but this was on another level entirely. There was no room to hate this, no room for anything but pure pleasure, for getting lost inside you as your walls tightened around his cock, as every muscle in his groin tensed and tightened in anticipation of impending release—
Your lips breaking away from his, your cry of abandon as your climax swept over you pulled him right over the edge with you. He pulled your hip up from the bed to slam into you as he came, gritting his teeth against a low groan, the rhythmic contractions of your tight channel milking him dry. His hips jerked toward yours with each intense wave of pleasure, fingers tangling in your hair as he pressed his lips to your neck, the two of you shuddering and tangled together over the bedsheets.
Mihawk heaved a shuddering sigh into the crook of your neck, his fingers tangled in your hair as he brushed his thumb across your temple. Maybe it was the lingering euphoria, but he didn't even think about the next words that left his mouth before he heard them himself.
"God dammit, (Y/N), I love you."
But it was impossible to deny any longer. You really were everything he had never realized he craved. No, it wasn't just the euphoria in the moment—it was that brief flash of fear earlier at the thought of you being hurt, at the thought of losing you. The utter fury at the morons who had briefly held you captive. How perfectly you balanced and complemented his desires.
He felt as much as heard you draw in a small gasp beneath him. "Y—you—wh—?"
"You heard me," Mihawk interrupted your quiet, almost cautious stammering, murmuring against your neck. He brushed his lips against one of the small, round bruises he had left on the soft skin, and said it again, quietly, "I love you."
You were quiet for a long moment, but he wasn't concerned, still trailing kisses up the side of your neck. He had seen it in your eyes before now, heard it in the softness of your voice when you lay against him, your fingers in his hair and your lips brushing his.
Several seconds passed, before you turned your head slowly and pressed your lips to his, tentatively at first, and then deepening the slow kiss with a soft sigh. He shifted onto his side, tugging you to him by your hip. Your forehead came to rest against his as your lips drifted apart, still barely a breath away, your eyes closed, your voice a quiet whisper.
"I...love you."
(Ch. 2)
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perfectwitchcrown · 4 months ago
Text
Make the Exorcist Fall in Love - Witches Part 3
Links to Part One and Part Two
This is an update to my previous posts on the Witches in Make the Exorcist Fall in Love I’m adding another possible origin for Charlotte’s name, information on medieval conceptions of Virgil the poet, and a brief addition on demonological references within Ekuoto.
Content warning for reference to sexual violence and misogyny
Charlotte
Previously I mentioned that a potential origin for Charlotte's name was as a reference to a Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story, "When I Was a Witch." However, I recently found another possible source that I think is also worth noting, which is Jules Michelet's La Sorcière, a 19th century text on the history of witchcraft, including a witchcraft case involving a woman named Marie-Catherine Cadière, who in some versions of Michelet's book is referred to as Charlotte.
As background context, I was reading Marion Gibson's Witchcraft: A History of Thirteen Trials recently, and in one chapter she writes about the witch trial of Marie-Catherine Cadière and Jean-Baptist Girard from 1730-1731 in France. This is a fairly well documented event, so I'll only provide a short version of the circumstances as those who wish to read more can do so, although I should warn that the details are upsetting. Cadière had been a member of a religious group led by a Jesuit priest, Jean-Baptiste Girard. While a part of this religious group, formed mainly of women, she began experiencing religious visions, which Girard capitalized on. Later on, Cadière accused Girard of several things, including rape and witchcraft. In response, Girard accused her of slander. In the end, both were acquitted of their charges. The trial was highly publicized in it's time, including internationally. I was able, for example, I was able to find a 1730 English language text on the case in it's tenth edition.
Later on, in the 19th century, this case was also described in La Sorcière by Jules Michelet (known as Satanism and Witchcraft in English). The book "stated that medieval and Renaissance French 'witches' had been early pantheists too: revolutionary pagan priestesses, healers, and mesmerists, sexually liberated, and in touch with an old deity wrongly demonized as Satanic" (Gibson 150).
It should be noted that his historical analysis in this book is considered fairly inaccurate by current scholars (its style of historical writing is also painfully 19th century), but as a text it's had a lot of impact in the way witch trials are thought about in the popular imagination. I've paged through some of the translation available on Project Gutenberg. Here's some quotations I think are interesting in considering this text in relation to ekuoto:
"At what date, then, did the Witch first appear? I say unfalteringly, 'In the age of despair:' of that deep despair which the gentry of the Church engendered. Unfalteringly do I say, 'The Witch is a crime of their own achieving.'" (Michelet 9)
"In its earliest phase the Black Mass seemed to betoken this redemption of Eve, so long accursed of Christianity. The woman fills every office in the Sabbath. She is priestess, altar, pledge of holy communion, by turns. Nay, at bottom, is she not herself as God?" (Michelet 148)
Michelet also, according to Gibson, repeatedly calls Cadière the wrong name in the book, referring to her as Charlotte instead of Marie-Catherine. Here's an important caveat though. For whatever reason, the French edition on Project Gutenberg does not use this mistaken name, nor does the English translation available on it. I was, however, able to find another English translation that refers to her as Charlotte. Additionally, the wikipedia article on the book refers to her as Charlotte, which suggests to me that either that editor read one of the translations I came across or another one that also maintains that error. Now, I don't know exactly what is going on, but I have several theories that I unfortunately don't have the resources or the energy to fully investigate.
An early version of the original French may have mistakenly referred to her as Charlotte, and the version on Gutenberg is from a later reprint that fixed that error
An early English translation of the text mistakenly referred to her as Charlotte, and the mistake is not actually Michelet's but has been spread around in English
Control + F was not working right for me (I do not speak French and used control + f rather than scroll through)
Now, regardless, it doesn't really matter for our purposes. Ultimately, if the text is being referenced, depending on the edition the authors of ekuoto came across, it seems entirely possible that this mistake was present in that edition. Which, again, I don't find it improbable that they may have come across the text, as it popularized a sort of imagining of those accused of witchcraft in Early modern Europe as feminist rebels against the church, and while it's analysis isn't held as historically accurate anymore, it has popularized ways of thinking about witch trials outside of academic circles. This presentation also super lines up with how the witches have been presented in Ekuoto. The book is also less niche than the Gilman story. But, again, Charlotte is a majorly popular name, and the historical Cadière, although heavily referenced in Michelet's book, is not the main figure of it. I did however consider it an interesting enough possibility that I thought it was worth bringing up.
Also, randomly, Michelet's book was apparently the inspiration for the 1973 animated movie Belladonna of Sadness. The more you know.
Virgil the Sorcerer
Speaking of names: Vergilius. On one hand, his name is an obvious reference to Virgil from the Divine Comedy. However, if you were to page through Michelet's book, you'd also see several references to Virgil as a magician. This is because there was a medieval conception of him as a sorcerer. Which I think is hilarious. Virgil's all over the place status in stories is so funny to me because like, he was a real guy. People have been making shit up about him for centuries. Anyways, I read an article, which I'll cite at the bottom, about how this association came to be. The short of it is that he became associated with the idea of prophecy and people started telling stories about him as a magical figure at least by the 12th century and giving him increasingly complex backstories (that I should mention have nothing to do with his historical background LMFAO). Like, magical girl backstory shit. Like his mom was a fairy and he was born with a divine symbol on his forehead before becoming magical at age 14 level stuff. Unfortunately the article didn't include any of the stories, because I was so deeply fascinated. He's a fairy tale figure at this point, and often a mentor figure. As the article states, "Almost all the tales present Virgil as an essentially benevolent character who helps the underdog, and is always ready to punish the wicked" (Wood 94-95). He's like a helpful wizard archetype.
Now, there's a medieval story that sort of doesn't follow this storyline called Virgil in the Basket. It's a sort of misogynistic story with a big "don't trust women, they'll trick you!" theme, where Virgil is tricked by a woman who promises to pull him up into her bedroom in a basket. Instead, she traps him in the basket for everyone to laugh at. He then takes revenge by making all the fires in town go out, with them only being able to be ignited again from her genitalia. This second section seems to have decreased its appearance in artistic renditions of the story as time went on, with the basket section being more focused on.
Later on in the early 20th century, Andrew Lang included a version of the story called "Vergilius the Sorcerer" in his The Violet Fairy Book. In it, Virgilius is a young bookworm who's been sent alone to Toledo following the death of his father. He ends up tricking a spirit in a cave into giving him books to learn magic, which he then uses in various ways to solve problems he comes across. He falls in love with a young woman, who tricks him with the basket. The cruder punishment Lang changes to just having fire appear from her, so she has to stand in the town square for three days for everyone to get fire again. He later falls in love with a princess, who turns against her father for him, and they found Naples and it talks a lot about how a tower in Naples is built on a foundation made of eggs, which appears to be another Virgil legend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_dell%27Ovo.
Anyways, I think that's an interesting set of info on Vergilius--his name is both a Divine Comedy reference, and also referencing a period of Medieval folklore that places Virgil as a magician.
Lucifer and Others
Also, I thought it was worth mentioning that Make the Exorcist Fall in Love bases it's hierarchy of demons (with Lucifer as Pride, Satan as Wrath, etc etc) on Peter Binsfeld's description of them in Treatise on the Confessions by Evildoers and Witches, a demonological text from the 16th century. Unfortunately, it was not translated into English until 2024 so I was unable to read it, and the only copy I could find for free was in Latin, which I do not know. In all likelihood, Ekuoto is not directly in conversation with this text but rather it's lasting memory in the cultural consciousness, as this assignment of demons to sins is pretty common as the text was very influential. I wanted to read it though...
Book of Enoch and Paradise Lost
Others have explained the influence of the Book of Enoch on Ekuoto far better than I have, so I will only touch on it to say that I am in agreement with others statements that the section on the Nephilim is in reference to it. The presence of the flood is the nail in the coffin for me.
I recently made myself actually sit down and read Paradise Lost and found that it also appears to reference the Book of Enoch. As far as I can tell, the Bible does not actually connect the flood with nephilim, just generalized wickedness (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!). Paradise Lost, however, connects the two as does the Book of Enoch. Which, I think is interesting. I've seen lots of buzz about the potential relation Paradise Lost might play in this arc because of the role of Lucifer. I would be really interested to see if that's the case. My key things I'd be interested in seeing are:
how it might engage with the themes of gender and sexuality in Paradise Lost. I found it very very "yay patriarchal heterosexual unions!" in it's presentation of Adam and Eve, but it also simultaneously has a section where Raphael says the angels have like spiritual rather than bodily sex but also all the angels depicted are men. Since we've seen Ekuoto engage and subvert the themes of misogyny in other texts, so I'd be interested in seeing how it engages with this one
The singular Mammon dig in the poem that's like this dude wasn't even good in heaven he was staring at the gold sidewalks all the time
The fallen angels of the poem are punished physically by being turned into serpents after Lucifer/Satan causes Adam and Eve to eat the apple. The fallen angels in Ekuoto also seem to have experienced some sort of physical change in relation to their fall -> what caused that?
Other Assorted Notes on Names
I do want to really emphasize though that everyone's name in Ekuoto has seemingly been a direct reference to either a literary figure or a Biblical character, outside of Imuri it seems, unless she's also some literary reference I'm not aware of. Her surname, Atsuki contains the kanji for love and moon, but as for her first name idk what the deal is. I tried looking it up, and best I could find was that her name is also the name of a sci fi seinen manga that ran from 2006 to 2020, so I'll do research on that end. It does involve people frozen in ice though so like hrmm...
I still don't feel confident pinning down what Charlotte's name is in reference to. But, if we get more on her I'm sure it will become more clear, and I feel we will since we haven't gotten any of her past despite being a senior member of the witches , and since her romantic feelings for Vergilius haven't been fully dealt with.
Leah and Daniel are both names from the Bible. Barbara is the name of a Saint. Dante is obviously Dante (which idk if anyone cares but Dante was historical Dante's nickname, Dante is the shortened form of the name Durante). The Book of Mark from the bible is called マルコ福音書 in Japanese, or the Gospel of Marco so I guess that's where Marco's name is from.
As for the other people I'm unsure of: Mother Rosa could possibly be a reference to Rosa Mystica, a name for Mary. Idk about Asmodeus's nickname Aria. Aleksandra I am also not sure about. Manon, as I've mentioned, is possibly Manon of The Craft but that feels way too contemporary in comparison to the rest of the cast so I'm also holding off until we learn more about her. Mikhail -> Archangel Michael feels just way too on the nose, especially since Archangel Michael gets mentioned frequently enough so I'm also holding off on him. Tachibana is another shrug, although according to the wiki her name uses the kanji 立花 if that's of any help to anyone. Of Leah's friends and family, I feel certain her father Hans and her friend Ella's names are taken from Grimm's Fairy Tales, what with the (not Grimm's) fairy tale references to Baba Yaga in her arc. Not sure about her brother Leo though, although it's another very common name and was the name of several popes. Minor character Charles (church guy with a mustache who I also believe has one or two files in the volumes) is another shrug. Pope Johannes and Cardinal Heisenberg are two other shrugs. Luka is another shrug also but means light so that may just be the only deal w it. Yamato and Catherine are both demons whose names aren't taken from demonological sources or just general religious sources. Not sure what the deal is with Yamato, especially since he was such a minor character. Really not sure what the deal with Catherine is either. I was totally throwing my hands in the air with her and the best I could come up with is that there is a video game called Catherine and apparently there is a succubus in that, or Catherine of Wuthering Heights but that's just because she was the most famous literary Catherine I could think of. I was trying to see if there was any connection based on her headless horse and horseman, so I looked into some stuff along those lines but couldn't find the name Catherine in relation to any Dullahan stories or in Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Abbot Nicholas I'm also not sure, but may be a reference to Saint Nicholas of Myra.
I will say, while I was looking up Saint Nicholas of Myra, I found that one of his most famous legends is about trying to sneak money to a father who'd lost all of his money, could not longer afford dowries for his three daughters, and so the daughters were going to have to become sex workers (the father's role in this varies in the stories I was seeing, with some portraying him as more reluctant and others stating he would sell them to a brothel with less of an emphasis on reluctance. None of the stories I saw seemed to have any real interest in what the daughters thought about all of this whole situation, although to be fair I only came across a few) (this is also where Santa putting gifts in stockings came from apparently?). This could totally be a coincidence in terms of naming, but it did make me take note of it. But, again, he could be called Nicholas for completely unrelated reasons, and in reference to another Nicholas. Saint Nicholas of Trani, for example, was a Saint who repeated the Kyrie over and over again so much that his mother worried he was possessed, which again, is another hmm moment for me what with Nicholas ekuoto's possession. If anyone has any suggestions for any of these characters, or anyone I may have missed, I'd love to hear it! I tried going through the character poll to try and avoid missing anyone but who knows haha.
Anyways, that's all for now! I've got a meta on the image of the forests in the story in the works but I think I'm going to hold off on it until we get more Baba Yaga. I also have another meta prepped for when the latest case files are translated. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I parsed through a google translate of them and there's some really interesting stuff in there.
Citations:
Gibson, Marion. Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials. Scribner, 2024.
Wood, Juliette. “Virgil and Taliesin: The Concept of the Magician in Medieval Folklore.” Folklore, vol. 94, no. 1, 1983, pp. 91–104. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260172. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
Was too lazy to write this citation but the version of Michelet's book I read: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31420
22 notes · View notes
staybabblingbaby · 9 months ago
Text
Soulmate Garden AU Ch.4 (Lewisia) a2d3 Addition Post (+1,308 words)
[Caution: These are not full fics, or even full parts of fics for some, these are part of my writing progress archive!]
Concept: Growing up, you knew Soulmates weren't all that they cracked up to be. So when, on your 18th birthday, your skin is painted with a garden of flower buds, you resolve to hide it from everyone. Who had ever heard of someone with 8 soulmates, anyway?
Or; Reader has 8 soulmates and no issue avoiding all of them. It's up to SKZ to show her that while every soulbond might not be made of fairy tales, theirs certainly could be.
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Word Count: 2,866
TO THE UNAWARE: THIS IS A PROGRESS UPDATE OF A CHAPTER NOT REMOTELY CLOSE TO DONE! PLEASE DON'T EXPECT A FULL OR POLISHED PRODUCT HERE
Notes: The first addition post in the history of the archive! Huzzah! This chapter just keeps growing, I was expecting this to be shorter than Lino's chapter, but I think it's gonna be quite a bit longer. Some genuine editing notes - I think the transition into the flashback is a bit awkward and I would like to smooth out the whole morning sequence. I'm not even 100% sure what that vibe is and it shows. I also don't like the complete change in Reader's mood while she's talking to Jake, so I either have to make her morning more lighthearted or show her shoving her feelings down somehow. I genuinely operate like this, just code switching between private emotions and public face, so idk. What do y'all think? Is it was weird and jarring as I think it is? I also need to find a place to mention that this Stray Kid (dunno if I've mentioned who it is yet - obscuring just in case some of you haven't gotten it yet) is wearing a mask. I completely forgot to, but it's important for later. At a point in this one where I think I need another pair of eyes. Writing by yourself is hard :c
Dividers by @saradika
Warnings: She/Her Reader, Flashback (yelling), pls lmk if this needs smthn more specific
Leave me comments or questions or anything! Love hearing from folks <3
Masterlist <3 | Main Part
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The next morning marks a return to routine.
You roll out of bed half awake, sleep-mused and ready for murder. Your mood isn’t improved by the way you’d gone to bed - still in your work clothes with day-after mascara gluing your eyelids together.
A quick stop by the restroom to strip and scrub your face is a necessity, otherwise you’re liable to just crawl back into bed and rot there. You brush your teeth while you’re there, doing your best to ignore the remaining traces of grey streaks down your cheeks where your eyeliner hadn’t been as water-proof as advertised.
You don’t even know why you’d cried. After all, it’s not like you were the one rejected by your soulmate for no reason.
You do your best to shake off the maudlin feeling of the morning, ambling your way into the kitchen. As tired as you are, you still spot your twenty on the counter where you’d left it. You press your lips together to stop the bottom one from trembling and open the fridge. There’s a plate of eggs, fruit, and toast inside.
Taylor, freak of nature that he is, has been up for hours already, you know. He’d probably been up and out the door before the sun had even thought about rising. Weirdo.
your roommate is well aware of how non-functional you can be in the morning, so it’s not unusual of him to leave you leftovers when he makes breakfast. The little note on top isn’t new either, usually a reminder, grocery list, or a little encouragement for your day. The whole thing makes you smile, usually.
Today that little note makes your eyes prick with a new wave of tears.
‘Give yourself a chance. Bet’s still on <3’
You very deliberately do NOT cry, though it’s a near thing. You’d done enough crying last night. But if you sniffle a bit into your eggs, well. That’s for you to know, isn’t it?
You leave the money where it is.
It’s a Tuesday, so after breakfast you drag yourself back to your room to throw on your largest, rattiest, t-shirt and a pair of leggings to head to the gym.
You can’t help it when eyes catch on the newly-bloomed marks on your skin as you strip away your sleepwear. You take a moment to wonder why looking at your mark, a daily ritual you’ve kept for years, feels odd to you.
It occurs to you, only after several long seconds of staring blankly at your stomach, that you hadn’t taken the time to look at your mark at all since since you’d met your first soulmate. Things have been... hectic, to say the least.
It’s no wonder looking at it feels weird. It might as well be a whole new mark, for all the changes that have happened since you last saw it.
You decide, in the name of returning to your routine for good, that you can’t skip even this tiny part of your daily rituals.
You shuffle over to your closet, swinging open the door to reveal the full-length mirror hanging on the other side. You don’t bother with your usual rounds of self-depreciation or daily affirmations. Instead, you find your eyes glued to droopy purple petals and blankets of white stars across your abdomen.
The names of the flowers come to mind with ease as you trace gentle fingers over echoes of delicate petals. ‘Bellflowers’ You recite to yourself, drawing your finger up thin stalks and back down dipped heads. ‘Edelweiss’ you muse, lightly tapping each fuzzy white star.
The knowledge comes easily to you, not from any cosmic force, but because of course it does. Your sister hadn’t been wrong when she’d said that asking a person’s favorite flower had been basically an obsession of yours.
The habit had started well before you’d gotten your mark. Before you’d even properly known what soulmates were, really.
Gardening with your mother had started as a way for her to drag you out of the house to get some sun while keeping an easy eye on you. Before your sister was born you’d spent many a joyous afternoon learning to work the soil beside your mother.
After the advent of your favorite gremlin, you’d spent those afternoons tending to the family garden alone.
You remember being grateful to the newborn back then. Those solitary afternoons were some of the most peaceful in your memory.
At some point the ‘family garden’ had become more ‘your garden’. Your mother wouldn’t even bother to plan it out with you by your sister’s toddler years. She’d drive you to the store, hand you a bit of cash, and leave it all in your tiny hands.
You’d spend hours researching the best ways to nurture your plants. What flowers liked being planted together, which ones should be separated. You learned about soil types and the nutrients found in them. You learned about ph. values, how to measure them, and why they mattered. Anything to have your garden thriving more brightly, more beautifully, for longer.
If you weren’t in the garden you were in the library by your house, nose buried in a gardening book.
You vividly remember the day it all went wrong.
It hadn’t even been that dramatic, as you recall. At least, not in terms of your parent’s usual fights. It was heartbreak- despair- that marked the day, instead of fear.
You’d been digging up weeds, clawing up deep roots with your gloved hands and a trowel, when your father had come storming outside. You don’t even remember what he’d said. Something about you always taking your mother’s side because of your shared hobby, you think.
Never mind that the woman hadn’t put so much as a toenail to the dirt since your sister had been born.
He hadn’t let up for quite a while, if memory serves. Stood there yelling at you in your safe space for close to an hour. Maybe two, but your child-brain couldn’t be trusted with the time. It might have just been minutes, now that you think about it.
Nonetheless, he’d yelled and yelled and yelled. He hadn’t trampled on or broken anything, hadn’t even made sense. And yet, when he’d finally left, everything was different.
The blooms you’d worked so hard to nurture were no longer beautiful, and the soil you’d once called home was no longer safe.
You hadn’t tended another garden after that season. You’d seen your plants to winter, and you’d let go. You’d turned away from the sun and soil and leaned into your books and silly questions to fill the hole left behind.
You’re sure you left claw marks in the dirt.
Something like a gentle humming fills your soul, and you notice how tightly you're clutching the garden around your waist. You gingerly pry your hands away and study the crescent moons you’ve left behind, soft skin indented where petals should have ripped.
You wonder if you’ll leave claw-marks in this garden too.
You tear your eyes away from the mirror, ignoring the gentle tingling up your side where your fingers had dug in. You quickly toss on a camisole, forgoing your usual privacy wraps, and your t-shirt over that.
There was nothing for emptying your mind quite like running yourself into the ground at the gym. With full awareness that you’re going to regret your gym session later, you flee your apartment.
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Maybe jogging all the way to gym wasn’t such a great idea. It’d sounded fantastic at the time, a head start on your cardio and a way to remove yourself from your negative headspace before you tried to toss around weights you barely knew how to use.
It had sort of worked, but now you hadn’t even entered the building and you were already a sweaty, panting, mess.
After guzzling down half of your water bottle you enter the building, resignation in your heart. Cardio wasn’t even your focus today.
The automatic doors slide open with their usual swish, and you’re greeted by the familiar stale smell all gyms seem to share, no matter how clean. It’s comforting, even if you do wish you could go home already.
There’s someone already at the receptionist’s desk when you approach, talking in slow and measured English. You try not to be annoyed with the tiny delay, but your mood really hadn’t been helped by running from your thoughts, no matter what you’d hoped.
Alas, you’ve ventured into the public and so you’ve encountered a member of the public. Shocker. You cross your arms and bite back irritation that this complete stranger hadn’t done anything to earn.
Luckily enough, the low and measured cadence of the stranger’s voice is soothing enough to zone out to. Unfortunately, your latest obstacle is the only thing around to rest your eyes on, and so you find yourself studying his form.
His back is broad and built, huge biceps on display in a tight fitting black t-shirt. You kinda wanna squish them.
A vivid tattoo sleeve runs all the way down to his wrist, and you find your stare glued to it. Large boldly colored flowers take up the majority of the space, vague outlines of crashing waves and rolling mists fills in the rest in a luxurious combination of oriental art styles.
You can’t help but think it doesn’t look finished.
Dragging your eyes away from such beautiful ink is quite a task, but you don’t want to seem judgmental for your admiration. That arduous labor is made infinitely easier by how fine the man himself is.
You really can’t help the way your eyes trace up and down his form. It should be impossible, you think, to somehow bulk up in only the right places, but by Jove his man has done it. You’re quite jealous, honestly.
Your eyes come to a rest on the stranger’s backside. Quite jealous, indeed.
You try to shake yourself from your admiration, reminding yourself that there were very many well-muscled men in this place and that you’d always endeavored to keep a polite line-of-sight, even when they don’t. It hadn’t even been a hard ask, until now. You drag your gaze back up to the back of his head.
You’d be polite if it killed you. Even if neither the stranger or the scrawny receptionist had noticed your wandering gaze.
Especially then.
While you were.... distracted... the man’s conversation with the receptionist seemed to be going a whole lot of nowhere. From what you can gather, he’s looking for a short-term membership, and the receptionist is trying to tell him they don’t do that.
You know this to be true, even the trial period was an entire month. You’d specifically chosen this gym for that reason. If you hadn’t been able to stick it out for a month, you know you’d have never used the place enough to justify a membership.
Your sympathies to this stranger, it seems he really just needs a little less than a week. You know there are some no-commitment type places not too far though, so you wonder why he’s stuck on this place.
Their back and forth goes a while longer, but it’s evident that the beautifully-built stranger can’t really argue his case properly. Whether because of the obvious language barrier he’s working with, or because he’s run out of arguments, you can’t be sure.
Eventually he steps to the side to make a call, and you’re able to approach the counter.
The receptionist (you think his name is Jake. The owner’s nephew, if you recall correctly) looks relieved to see you after whatver hassling the stranger had given him. He lazily waves the clipboard and it’s sign-in sheet at you in greeting. You take the clipboard, trading him your membership card and driver’s license for it, and turn to prop your knee up on the counter to balance it while you write. Incidentally, your choice of position keeps the stranger in your line of sight.
You magnanimously ignore Jake’s gaze wandering to your chest, if only because you’re still looking not-so-respectfully at the tattooed stranger a few feet away.
“So what was that all about?” You ask him as you hand back the clipboard. He shrugs at you as he types a second longer.
“Some big-shot who needs a security detail,” He answers, unimpressed, “Says this is the only gym in, like, five miles of his hotel that he doesn’t need an entourage to go to.”
You hum your understanding, now trying to place if the handsome stranger was someone you knew of.
Such situations weren’t uncommon for this gym. Celebrities that actually lived in LA weren’t spotted here very often but, since it was settled very close to quite a few high-security luxury hotels, the building saw it’s fair share of famous faces.
Security was kept quite tightly, and a certain code of conduct was expected amongst the gym’s members. It was another justification for the long trial period, wherein one could only access the front room with the basic weights and machines. All the fancy stuff (including a pool, rock wall, dance studio, and all sorts) was in the back.
It was also another reason you yourself were a patron here. The high security and strict standards made for a quiet and comfortable atmosphere.
At least, as long as you ignored the judgmental stares.
“What’s the issue, then?” You question Jake, “Doesn’t the owner make exceptions for high-profile clients?” You phrase it as a question, but you know he does. The unfamiliar faces that pop up for a few days every now and then wouldn’t show up otherwise.
Jake just sighs like he’s had this conversation a thousand times. Considering the celebrity (?) waving his hands around as he spoke rapidly into his phone not far away, maybe he had.
“He does, but he’s out of town and no one else can adjust the contracts.” He eventually explains. He finally hands you your stuff back, and you hum consideringly as you put the cards back in your wallet.
Another glance at the furrowed brows on the stranger’s masked face has pity welling up your throat.
You turn your gaze to focus on Jake.
“Do I still have that visitor pass?” You ask him, knowing that he still has your details up. Jake glances at you with a raised eyebrow, but obligingly checks the computer.
“Yup,” He confirms, “You’ve been paying for it since you dragged your poor roommate in here that one time. Why?”
“Can he use it?” you nod your head to the frustrated stranger. From where you’re sat, still perched on the edge of the desk, it looks oddly like he’s begging whoever’s on the other line.
Jake levels you with his most deadpan stare. It’s quite a good one, completely unimpressed. You think it must be something about customer service that allows him to make that face. Or maybe it’s just you.
“You realize that your visitor pass is you vouching for your visitor’s character, right?” He reminds you, “If he does anything, breaks anything, pisses off the wrong lifeguard it’ll be on your head.”
You just shrug. It’s not like you couldn’t find a new gym if you had to. You’d miss this one, with it’s quiet atmosphere and abundant amenities, but you didn’t require it’s security and discretion like some of the other clients did.
“I’ve got a good feeling about it.” Is all you tell Jake. It’s not even a lie.
The poor boy just rolls his eyes at you. He still turns to rifle through the desk for the right form for you to fill out though, so you’ll take it.
“You a fan of his or something?” Jake asks as he hands you a different clipboard.
“Nope!” You answer cheerfully, starting to fill out the form, “No idea who he is.”
Jakes huffs an incredulous laugh, and turns a considering gaze on your new friend. And the stranger does have to be a friend now, because “some guy” is not an option on your paperwork.
“I bet he’s a wrestler,” he finally says after a long moment, “Or a sportswear model.”
You gently bop him on the head with your clipboard, “I refuse to participate in your speculation.” You admonish, ignoring his whining.
“I’ll show you his picture when you leave,” He smirks back, “and whatever google says about him.” He shrugs when you send him a cutting glare, “It’s not speculation then.”
“Respect your customer’s privacy, you weirdo.” You scold. He just laughs as you hand him the form, all filled out and just waiting for the stranger’s signature. You know full well that Jake will go through with it, regardless of what you say, so you give up easily.
He won’t get fired as long as you don’t blab outside of the gym. Privileges of nepotism. You exchange farewells as you hop off the counter, and he begins to wave over Mr. Celebrity. You meet the eyes of you on-paper friend and offer him a quick nod before you scuttle off deeper into the building.
Hopefully he’d be too grateful of your offer to find you terribly strange.
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I could really use some feedback for this one, if y'all have the time. 人´∀`) Especially regarding my dialogue and transitions. plsplspls I would be so grateful. My comments, dms, and ask box are all open
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utilitycaster · 5 months ago
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unfortunately for me i finished divergence even more upset at bells hells. after seeing asmodeus willing to live as a mortal for a while to escape the divine gate made me remember back in calamity that he sais he does not hate his siblings, he hates mortals. he lived 80 years as father milo and still hated mortals. seeing the work and suffering the other gods did to banish the betrayers and lock them from exandria to now breaking the divine gate and him walking exandria again is upsetting.
as the backdrop to a new campaign its a great concept. but in a way that feels like a setting foreward or history notes, like vespins story. as a campaign asking me to see the pcs as heros (not just protagonists but heroes) its hard to do that.
i noticed you said you expect a far futute campaign, why not a near (20 year future)? is it because logically it would be too chaotic and paint bells hells in a bad light if aimed for realism?
Keeping this brief:
Overall, and I've said this before but I will continue to reiterate: the factual endstate of Campaign 3 (gods as mortals, the various PC endings other than possibly Keyleth and Vax and even that I think I could have been sold on) is fine by me on both a "cool setting" but also a general like, moral level. The execution was piss-poor. The destination is fine, the journey sucked. You get my drift. I am not a good person to come to if you are upset about the state of the endgame; I find it an adequate ending but an unearned one. Yeah Asmodeus is gonna hate mortals. So do a lot of mortals. I genuinely believe that there was a way to tell this story in which heroic PCs chose, after thoughtful consideration, to have the gods take on mortal form. That was not what happened in Campaign 3, but it would have been very possible with a better planned party.
To that point re: Bells Hells I think it's best if you understand that the best analogy for them is not people of evil intent but rather people who loudly play Tiktoks on the bus without headphones, or are rude to waitstaff. They are ultimately a party that falls to their least common denominator which is unfortunately some run-of-the mill inconsiderate dumbfucks. I do not find them heroic but I am really turned off by the idea that they need to be punished by the narrative particularly since, as the What of the ending is fine and the How is the problem, the time for something to have happened was like, during the campaign. Much as I would about someone who loudly plays TikToks on the bus without headphones, I simply wish my future interactions with them are kept to a minimum.
Anyway no, the reason I don't think there will be a near-future campaign is because I think this did feel like a closing of a chapter, but the cast has also explicitly said they will have more things set in Exandria. I would still not personally bet money that there will be a campaign 4 at all. It may happen. It may not. I have no particular insight into this.
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malinowaj · 7 months ago
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2024 fandom review
thank you for the tag @nerdyfangirl76 and @almostlake 💜
warning: this got really long
fics written
in 2024, i posted 3 finished fics and one currently on-going WIP. in total that was 122,542 words and i keep looking at that number in complete disbelief.
i started the year by saying, multiple times, i'm not going to write anything because it's been nearly a decade since i wrote for fun. then i had an idea and was all "well, maybe if i wrote this one short thing, posted it and then dipped never to be seen again". insert my friend laughing at me at regular intervals because we all know that's not what happened.
always losing to win is very dear to me, for several reasons, and it'll never stop blowing my mind how many people have read it and been on that journey with me.
fics read
my AO3 history is about 300 fics, but i did not sort out my logins until months into the year, so the actual number is probably somewhere closer to 350.
i tried to pick a few favourite fics i read and limiting myself to just these is hard. i regret to say none of these have received the praise, comments and love from me that they deserve, because it took me months to get over my comment shyness. but i hope this makes up for it a bit. (new year's resolution: more comments for everyone.) in alphabetical order by title:
almost is never enough by @in-amor-veritas
there's a scene in this with kent's 747 that i have the strongest, plot-wise most insignificant headcanon about and i think about it every time i hear the song. which is often. and then i end up thinking about the whole story.
another dose by stargazers
it's such a beautiful version of wilmon, because it's so them. and it's hot.
chasing our sunlight by fitz_y
if there ever was a fic that lives rent free in my head, it's this. the way it deals with so many heavy topics has made me cry, but it's such an incredibly crafted story i come back to it often.
forever i'm yours by @goldenwilmon
the way the fall in love in this one? hands down one of my favourites ever. whenever i need some fluff and happiness in my life, this is the one i go for.
little light by @unfortunate17
possibly one of the first, if not the first, wilmon fic i read in 2024. it broke something in me, but also healed something in me.
reckless abandon by @zee-has-commitment-issues
i absolutely love the concept and the way all the characters are so well-rounded. one of the fics i could not stop reading and can't wait to read again.
so loaded, eye low by @enjoythesilentworld
the chemistry, the angst. the sweet, delicious angst. and hot as hell.
where be left off by @gulliblelemon
the best way for me to fight some physical pain? some emotional pain. and this one has it, in the best, most beautiful way. very few fics have i devoured like i did this one.
the wolf comes home by @phneltwrites
after months, i still keep thinking about a particular line in this one. the trauma aftermath, the way they deal with it. also my favourite established relationship wilmon.
looking forward to in 2025
i can't wait to read and see all the amazing fics and gifs and edits and everything this fandom comes up with. i already know there'll be so many wonderful things i'll enjoy.
as for my own writing, i'm trying to get a good chunk of hope and legacy written before the insanity that'll be my life from late january to the end of february. (no context chapter 4 spoiler: simon steals a flag.)
there is also in from the cold, the espionage AU i have about 10K written for - and that's barely the beginning. i don't know if it'll ever see the light of day, but i do love the concept and all the research i've done for it.
i have been thinking about space wilmon lately, and while i said i'm not going to go down that road myself, i did remember a few lines from record of a spaceborn few that may have sparked an idea. it might become something one day, or it might never be more than the few disjointed lines and ideas i have typed in my notes.
there's also a file with a list of songs that i might want to build stories around. in general i have a lot of ideas, but very few of them might become anything. i'd like to put it down as "english is not my first language so writing is slow" thing, and while it is that too, it's mostly me being a perfectionist and not able to let go. (which is why i should probably have a beta telling me 'this is fine, go post it'. if anyone feels up for doing that...)
the biggest, warmest thank you to everyone who's read anything i've written, left kudos or comments, sent messages, in any way engaged. it has made my year, and this fandom experience so special 💜
not tagging anyone, but if any of the authors i mentioned haven't done this yet and would like to, i'd love to read your reviews.
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serendipity-by-chance · 8 months ago
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New Gen 11
so like ive been having thoughts about ng11 given the recent chapters and all and wondering. whats the point of them lol. this is like me questioning the author again lol.
like we were first introduced to them very early on with sae's intro. ever since then the 11 players of ng11 have been mysterious. even more so with how much the manga heaped praises on sae making him compete against all bllk players and still coming out on top. also being the only one (prior to charles) who could actually play with shidou. and given that sae is genuinely the best midfielder we've seen so far, it was obvious that we would be excited for the ng11. However, ng11 is still confusing. according to bllk wiki (bear with me i havent read the manga in a while and im too busy with finals to reread and find the panels but trust once exams are over i will!) ng11 are players who are categorised as the "next gen" of football superstars. which would give u the idea that theyre the best of the best in the current gen. but here's the thing. they're not. look at loki. he's the same age as sae (i think i forgot sae's age but loki is 17/18) but loki isn't part of ng11. which u can say maybe he isnt anymore cause he's pro but remember when we see Michael for the first time isagi knows he is part of ng11 (chapter 157) which means isagi knows who the ng11 are right? Also when we see lorenzo for the first time (210) once again isagi knows who he is. Which definitely means that isagi knows who ng11 are. but thats not the case for loki which can lead us to think loki was never part of ng11. but loki is definitely a better striker than kaiser so why isnt he part of ng11? my problem with ng11 is how it seems so inconsistent? what makes one part of ng11?
again bllk wiki says that ng11 players are those of the next gen who have skills that cant be copied by others in a sense? like we see when michael makes his first kaiser impact even noa admits that michael is better at his speed of shot than noa and thats not sth he can easily copy. not to mention sae with his flawless pass. so is that all that makes one ng11? a skill that others cant copy? so ig ng11 is just the bllk version of knb's miracle generation (this came to me when i was rambling to my sister). the whole concept and history of ng11 being still ??? is so weird to me especially given that we have 3/11 of them in the manga now with sae and michael playing such pivotal roles to the two biggest characters (isagi and rin).
anyways, this thought came up to me cause i was seeing people on twt being like "so rin is better than ng11!!!" cause kaisagi decided to team up to beat him which made me think "huh, is he?" which then made me start questioning what exactly makes one ng11.
but whether rin is better than ng11 or not is still up for debate. especially cause there's 8 other players we havent seen. also... they all play different position lmao. rin is definitely the best in bllk. with rin vs kaiser debate... hmmm. even im a bit like... confused. id say in terms of their personal skills they might be more evenly matched? the kaisagi team up is necessary bc while rin has pxg on his side the entire bm team is divided betn kaisagi with both of them in a tug of war to turn the team in their direction. the match of bm is never bm vs other team lol. its always isagi vs kaiser vs other team. kaiser doesnt fight with just rin he fights with rin AND isagi and the same goes for isagi. which is why the next chapters will be so interesting.
anways these are all my thoughts on ng11! maybe i'll do a better one when exams end and i reread the whole manga and take proper screenshots and notes.
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