#it's nobody's fault

[yuseirra]

On Kamiki- so what IS the truth about this guy? A summary

So vol.16 is out in my region (I get distressed tbh) I do wonder what kind of intention the author had in releasing something like this into the world, but I’ve already talked about that a lot in other posts—and if I don’t get sick of it, I might talk about it more in the future.

But in this post, I’d like to plainly and briefly summarize just what on earth this particular character is supposed to be, what their deal is, and why they ended up swallowing the entire latter half of the story.

If you’ve read many of my posts, you probably already know all of this.

But let’s go over it one more time!

First of all, if we’re asking whether Kamiki is a good guy or a bad guy (and this is important), then:

He was good— it is that he went insane.

The process and circumstances of that descent into madness are portrayed rather ambiguously within his short amount of screen time, and in fact, the decisive clues are found in the anime songs.

The full lyrics of "Mephisto" and "Fatal" are essentially dedicated to this character, and if you dissect those lyrics, you can draw out his situation and his goals.

This character has been doing something ever since Ai died—because he wants to see her again.

And if you look closely at the lyrics, there are lines about “gathering light,” about lacking “love,” about wishing upon a “star,” about a life driven mad by a selfish “star,” and so on. You’ll find a lot of expressions that would seem strange if a regular person were talking about themselves or others, like “I forgot who I lived with,” “I forgot who I was,” “I’ll become you,” “a creative fall from grace,” etc.

Here, the “star” would be Ai. And in the songs, we hear about “sparkle” (as in "egoistic sparkle," "you who won't forgive the sparkle") and even “jewel”—all of which might refer to Hikaru. After all, Ai once likened Hikaru to a jewel. The twins’ names were chosen by Ai with this man in mind.

I’ve analyzed before that in this manga, “star” = “god.”

I’ll skip the longer explanation here, but another important point:

The “star” can inhabit people. There’s a passing line in the story that hints at this.

Especially in "Fatal," there’s a line about “your sparkling eyes” and the “lack of love.”

And this “eye” is crucial. It implies that “god” resides in the eyes. Through these eyes, influence can be exerted.

The narrator of "Mephisto" and "Fatal" is the same person. If you combine the two songs, here’s the conclusion you get:

“Kamiki is trying to gather the love that radiates from the light of the eyes of the stars in order to become a god-like being similar to Ai—and that also becomes his way to get closer to her.”

Even his name, Kamiki Hikaru, is a clue.

His true nature is Sarutahiko Ōkami, the god of light.

This god is known for emitting light from his eyes (and entire body).

And this is the very god who protects the Aratate Shrine that appears in the story,

together with his wife, the goddess of performing arts, Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto.

If you make a wish at that shrine, this divine couple is supposed to grant it together.

Now, what is this god’s ability?

It is “to guide people toward good.”

But as the story suggests, at some point, his eyes go dark.

That happened because of overlapping misfortunes and despair.

And as the songs say, the reason for this darkness is a “lack of love.”

He was supposed to obtain that love from Ai—who, in this framework, is a reincarnation of his wife, Ame-no-Uzume. (The “reincarnation of the morning star” in IDOL hints at this. Ame-no-Uzume is the goddess of art, laughter, happiness, and dawn—the star that rises at dawn, the “star,” literally.)

If things had gone well, Kamiki might have been healed only through Ai, who had the “eyes that convey love.” That’s how it should have been.

But Ai left him.

And as a result, a fatal flaw emerged in his abilities.

This damaged something at his core, and he began to fall apart.

When this man speaks to others, the opposite of what his power was originally meant to do occurs.

Instead of inspiring goodness, he begins to amplify ruinous outcomes.

“Fatal” refers to Kamiki in his corrupted state. That’s why the song’s title is in the masculine form.

Of course, to him, Ai is the true "fatale"—his femme fatale.

Sarutahiko is supposed to be a protective and guiding god, shielding people from harm—

But in his flawed state, the destinies of everyone around him become distorted.

This includes what happened with Ryosuke and Nino.

The god who was once supposed to amplify goodwill instead begins to amplify malice.

When he says things like, “Should I go see her?” or “I think I’ll bring her flowers,”

those words end up pushing people’s existing feelings about Ai into extreme, destructive directions.

Until then, Kamiki didn’t seem to have strong malicious intent, but being in a love-deprived state seems to have altered the nature of his power.

(Sarutahiko and Ame-no-Uzume are a famously harmonious couple in the original mythology. And even in the manga, there’s no strong sign that Hikaru and Ai, their respective reincarnations, held negative feelings toward each other. In fact, there are many hints that they cherished one another.)

But once Ai is murdered, this man falls into despair.

From then on, he stakes everything on seeing her again.

He wants to reclaim his wife—Ai—but she’s become a star, residing within others.

Realizing this, Kamiki began to seek out people with "starry eyes"—probably in hopes of drawing closer to Ai in some way.

Looking at the songs, it seems he tried to revive her but failed because something was missing.

So he decided to become something similar to her instead.

Unfortunately, there’s a myth that this god—Sarutahiko—drowns to death.

And that’s how the manga ends up in this tragic shape.

This manga and its songs are intricately intertwined.

The story revolves around the idea of “eyes that convey love.”

Ai is the one who delivers that love through the eyes,

and Kamiki is the one who needs that love to be delivered to him.

This is even stated directly in the dialogue, it's a crucial hint in order for this story to be understood.

The reason Kamiki’s eyes briefly lit up when he saw Ruby is exactly that:

Ai, now a star, resided in Ruby’s eyes → Love radiated out → That love reached Kamiki and momentarily filled him → Kamiki felt joy and said something like “Maybe you could shine even more than your mother.”

That’s also why he later said something like, “If I had killed Ruby, I could’ve felt Ai again.”

And that is truly the case.

But does that mean Kamiki actually tried to steal Ruby’s light by killing her?

This is where things get murky. Probably not at that time.

Shortly after meeting Ruby, he also went to see Aqua.

He even funded the twins’ movie, and acted like he was about to die.

Going to meet Aqua was probably part of his plan—he said there was something he needed to do.

If he had seriously intended to kill Ruby, would he have gone to congratulate her twin brother?

Most likely, he just wanted to speak with the twins—perhaps for the last time, as he said.

The video of Ai was something that caught him off guard, but his actions up until then were all deliberate.

What’s clear is that Kamiki has two powers: the power to move people, and the power to grant wishes. It's the nature of the god he stands for.

(Which is why he spoke of wishes when talking to Aqua and Ruby near the end.)

But because of his “flaw”—that is, the absence of love, the absence of Ai—those powers became extremely destructive.

If you pay attention, you’ll notice that the wishes people make in the story do come true—but always in a warped or tragic way.

This applies even to things concerning Kamiki himself, so it doesn’t seem like he’s in control anymore.

The god at Kamiki’s core, Sarutahiko Ōkami, is known as the “noble god.” This is why the idea of this character having possessed a "noble soul" has been brought up.

He is a native sun god predating Amaterasu, also known by the name “Great Bright Deity,” or “God of Radiant Light”—a title subtly echoed in this character’s name.

He famously entered a romantic and loving marriage with Ame-no-Uzume, the goddess of performing arts, and the two are always enshrined together. They are a divine couple who bless people’s romantic and fated relationships with love. That’s likely why Ai possessed the power to send love.

As depicted in Fatal, these two figures are indeed a fatally destined pair—one of inevitable fate.

Had they not fallen apart, they could have been very happy.

In fact, if we set aside the accusation that Kamiki did something to Ai, the actions he takes can consistently be interpreted as kind and broad-minded. In fact, to the point where it might feel almost unnatural. Ai really did meet someone who was good to her. That’s why she wanted to live with him forever. That is the truth of their relationship.

However, the impression forced onto him is so strong, and the story deliberately guides the audience to view him with suspicion and negativity—so much so that this truth is obscured.

But if he weren’t someone with a good soul, there would have been no need for such hints to be included. In the end, just what he did, with what intention, and how much malice—whether he truly meant to do those things or not—all of this is left strangely ambiguous. He never gets to explain things about himself properly.

And of course it is. Because originally, he was a being meant to lead others toward goodness.

How far he may have fallen or how extreme his actions were in order to see his wife Ai again—that’s where the real ambiguity lies. And honestly, it doesn’t feel like those details will ever be fully revealed. Personally, I feel it would be kind of cruel of the authors to make a benevolent god like him really go that far so perhaps that's why that ambiguity exists.

The story has deliberately shrouded this character in mystery, leaving everything in the realm of speculation.

[in-yr-dreams]

like if im being rlly real i do not fucking understand most of the posts in which anyone is making some kind of point

if a five year old can't get it i can't either sorry

[soulmusicsongs]

It's Nobody's Fault - Christine Kittrell (It's Nobody's Fault / I'm A Woman, 1962)

[nonborderlinary]

.

[demigods-posts]

headcanon that percy stays ready to clock the minotaur. this man would pause his lunch break to give this bull it's horn a third time. this man would dehydrate for two days if it meant he could murk this bull at the end of it. this man's beef with this walking beef is so grandeur. it was the first monster he killed the moment the battle of mamhattan began. this is one of percy's consistent bloodlust moments and no one will ever fault him for it.

[meticulousmaker]

another random thing that stands out to me rewatching Steven Universe as an adult:

throughout the show there's this clear Vibe that Steven has inherited some big magical destiny, right? and it makes sense narratively: he's the son of Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion, now being raised by her friends who were the last remaining survivors of an interstellar war. he's like a human child in most ways, except he has magical powers that start to become more obvious as he's getting older. no one like him has ever existed before. it's a big deal. raising him and figuring out how he's going to grow is its own unique challenge, because nobody knows what to expect. so of course there's this magical destiny vibe, given all that.

What's interesting to me, though, is that this magical destiny is in no way literally, physically present in the story, it's just something everyone kinda feels. Like, there's not some ancient prophecy about a half-gem, half-human savior. He's not the Chosen One in any literal sense, he just happens to give off Chosen One vibes. And I say that's interesting because it means that the fact he was kinda raised with this Chosen One vibe is completely a decision everyone around him made, for better or for worse. And the show is aware of this, because the weight of Rose's legacy and everyone's expectations of him is a constant theme, and as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all grow and develop, they also realize the downsides of them putting those expectations on a child. Like, Steven spends his whole childhood being told about how great Rose was, and how because he's inherited her gem he will probably inherit her powers - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine how awful things could have been if Steven had no exposure to the Gems and no knowledge of what they were or how they worked, and then his powers started coming in? It was hard enough even when he was surrounded by the most qualified Gem Experts on Earth. But being primed for all of this "you're going to have your mother's magical powers" stuff put a heavy weight on his shoulders, and then the fact that nobody else quite knew how his abilities worked meant he was constantly faced with the adults in his life looking to him with concern because they didn't know what was happening with him. That's gotta leave an impression on a kid - and, well, throughout the show and especially in SU Future we definitely see that it does.

I like the way the show handles the pressure that's put on him, and the fact that everyone is just... trying their best in a completely unprecedented situation. Nobody knows what to do or how to raise this kid, and that inevitably causes problems but everyone is trying. And Steven can feel that everyone is trying without knowing what to do and he just wants to help and not be a burden and none of his caretakers have said that he's a burden but he can feel everyone's confusion and concern and the expectations he's not living up to and he cares so much, about everyone, about everything. He's in an extremely unique position that grants him opportunities to help that nobody else has, and he feels like he's failing everyone if he can't fulfill that, and in the end it never should have been his job to fix things but somebody had to try. Somebody had to try, and he was one of the only people with the ability to stop the Diamonds, stop the war, stop the lies, stop his world and everyone on it from being destroyed... and he was just a kid.

[starry-bi-sky]

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[nic-is-the-worst]

[lazylittledragon]

mombin pt 9!! it's been too long i'm sorry

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)

[taechnological]

sae need ur opinion cus im really confused if i said something mean or something. my friend wanted to play games but ended up telling me his console needed to udpate first. i said okay. hours past and i get weary and fall asleep. when i wake up i get a text saying he fell asleep waiting for the update (which shouldve been only like maybe an hour cus his connection sucks). i said i fell asleep too but then i said, next time if ur too tired let me know so i dont wait around if u fall asleep. and he never responded and its been 3 days… im starting to wonder if i said something wrong?? did that sound mean? he didnt even say 'my bad i fell asleep' just that i fell asleep. sure i was a little :/ about it cus he didnt seem to be mindful about my time, but i was just basically saying next time give me a heads up. cus i did wait for a bit before i did something else and fell asleep. i just dont want to think we're gonna do something /he/ asked to do but then dont cus he was too tired in the first place. he could've just said so..

hmm well maybe try texting him like a hello or whassup or start any random conversation and see how it goes? u can't read tones over text so maybe he did take it that way or maybe he didn't and you're just overthinking~ just shoot him a text and if he seems mad simply explain yourself it shouldn't be that big of a deal~

[nat111love]

MY FAULT: LONDON (2025)

[bet-on-me-13]

Unknown, the Wandering Hero

So! We all know the typical Vivisection AU, right? Danny is revealed to his parents and they take it in all the wrong ways. They capture him, Vivisect him, and eventually he manages to escape with the help of his friends.

But what about his Rouges?

Sure, we all like to think of some of the more friendly ones like Ember, or Sydney, or Johnny 13 and Kitty, but he has WAY more Evil Rouges than good ones.

Without Danny there to reign them in, the Rouges spread out across the world to fulfill their obsessions, unhampered by the Heroes and Villains of the world that have no means to fight them.

And Danny? He feels responsible. He was the one to open the Gate, he was the Sacrifice, the one to let them through. And when the going got tough he just up and left? No, that won't do.

His Obsession is Protection for a reason, and nothing has changed. All he needs to do is expand his area of focus a little.

Danny, after healing up, starts wandering the world in search of the Ghosts who have escaped into the Mortal Realm. He battles all of his old foes, as well as many new ones who he hadn't met before.

His travels take him far and wide.

He defeats Skulker in Metropolis, as he is trying to hunt down the Super Family for their pelts. They are the last of their race after all, so he is inclined to try and hunt them. Honestly dealing with Skulker was easy, dealing with the Rich Asshole who was funding him was a nightmare.

He chases down Spectra in Gotham as she tries to feed on the misery of an entire City. (Thanks to @impyssadobsessions for the idea, this Prompt specifically). She is actually a very tough fight, especially powered by both the Misery of an Entire City as well as his Own Misery, but he manages.

He defeats Technus is Central City, as he tries to Raid Star Labs for their advanced Tech. It actually took a while to beat him after he amped himself with all that Power, and he did need help from the Local Hero to deal with him. He's just thankful Technus is one of the more "Harmless" ones.

After every Victory, he sends them back to the Realms using the Banishing Spell that Sam taught him a while back (the only bit of magic he ever really managed to master).

He knows they'll eventually find their way back out, but it's all he can do anymore. It's his eternal Punishment for unleashing them out into the World in the first place. He was the Catalyst for this Situation, now he was tasked with Fixing it, no matter how long it took.

...

The Justice League is caught in a tricky situation a the moment.

In the past few months, they have been encountering more and more of these Extra Dimensional Beings known as Realms Ghosts across the World.

Justice League Dark has had some success in battling them, but even they are getting tired of having to deal with every single incident alone.

They did get approached by a Government Agency known as the Ghostly Investigation Ward that seemed to want to help, but it didn't take long to realize that their main Aim was to Genocide the entire Race. The JLA had quickly cut ties after realizing that, and took what little Tech and Information they had been able to gather.

Still, it wasn't easy to deal with these Entities.

Thankfully, they have had some outside help. An Unknown Being has been routinely showing up whenever a Realms Ghost appears and defeating them, before using a (as described by Constantine) "Rudimentary Banishing Spell held together by willpower and luck" to send them back to their home Dimension. There's honestly no way it should be functional, but he did make it work either way.

They don't know much about this Unknown, aside from the fact that he seems to be the only one able to consistently damage the Realms Ghosts. His Powerset leads them to belive he may be from the same Dimension, or at least drawing his power from the same Source, but as he actively avoids the League and takes every opportunity to not talk to them, they know they aren't getting any answers any time soon.

Over the past few months, they had affectionately started referring to him as Unknown, creative they know, because they could never get his Real Name. Sure, some of the Realms Ghosts seemed to recognize him, but they always called him stuff like "Whelp" and "Punk" and "Usurper", which were not very good names to use when referring to him. Although the last one was a bit concerning.

They had only managed to trade a few quick words with Unknown in the past few months, but it was enough to get the Gist of it. He was just doing his job, sending the Realms Ghosts back where they belonged. There was apparently a Tear in Reality letting them through, but he seemed hesitant to reveal what he knew about it.

After a few months of sparse interactions, they eventually managed to convince him to at least take an Emergency Communicator. Just in case. They even let him take it apart to look for any Tracking Devices, which earned them a small bit of trust. They took whatever wins they could.

Fortunately, it seemed he never did need it. In fact he was getting more and more efficient with every battle, defeating his foes in half the time it would have taken before.

Unfortunately, it didn't last forever. One day, the Communicator went off, a distorted voice quickly saying, "Need backup, some of them decide to Team Up" before cutting out.

They quickly rushed to his location, finding an active battlefield with no less that a dozen Ghosts battling Unknown. And he seemed to be on the ropes.

With their arrival, the combined force of the Justice League and Unknown eventually managed to defeat the Group of Ghosts. Justice League Dark volunteered to work on the Banishing Spells while the others cleaned up the damage from the Battle.

One of them approached Unknown to make sure he was ok, and froze.

During the battle, Unknown's Mask had been Torn off, and they could finally see the face of the Hero they had been working with for the past few months.

And he was a Child.

[grunklebongrip]

Every time someone uwu-ifies Fiddleford, I find a new way for him to cheat on his wife

[alaskan-wallflower]

thinking about imperfect boyfriend soda

imperfect boyfriend soda who gave into his impulses way too much for sandy’s liking, and would brush off her concerns with “quit worryin’ so much, baby” or “aw, don’t be such a square, sandy girl”

imperfect boyfriend soda who flirts back with the girls at the dx and seems to be blind to the absolute hurt in sandy’s eyes whenever he does this

imperfect boyfriend soda who would vent to her way too much about things she genuinely didn’t know how to help with—she only had an older sister who moved out years ago, she doesn’t know how to help him.

imperfect boyfriend soda who gets into trouble with the cops, and who worries sandy sick day in and day out because who knew what kind of trouble he’d get into with steve?

imperfect boyfriend soda moves way too fast for her liking—she isn’t sure she wants to marry him in a year. she isn’t ready.

imperfect boyfriend soda who accidentally says the wrong thing at the wrong time— “thank god you ain’t trashy like the rest of the greasy broads”

imperfect boyfriend soda who is impossible to read, and who doesn’t tell sandy when she’s doing something wrong and then explodes about it weeks later

imperfect boyfriend sodapop is so important to me

[luthqrs]

JENNIFER JAREAU in CRIMINAL MINDS 2x16 | ‘Fear and Loathing’

[mxtxfanatic]

My new fandom ick is about to be alternative reunion aus where the Xianle trio meet again under different circumstances and Xie Lian is just “wracked with guilt and regret” over how their friendship fell apart because “everything was his fault for not being a good enough friend.” First of all, Xie Lian ain’t do shit to them to feel guilty or regretful over. They were the shit friends to him, not the other way around, and he 100% knows and has come to terms with this. There’s a reason canon!Xie Lian is not walking around offering apologies to those two.

Second off, Xie Lian thinks about the clown brigade as much as resurrected Wei Wuxian thinks about the manchild he babysat due to contractual obligation: not at all unless forced to. He ascends and does not ask about them. He does his first mission and does not ask about them. He does his second mission and does not ask about them. He doesn’t even think about them unless someone or something else brings them up first. Meanwhile, the one-braincell duo are sending clones to accompany and keep track of him, all the while lying to everyone in the heavens that they just have no idea why their two “attendant gods” keep sneaking out to assist Xie Lian, going so far with the farce as to PUBLICLY threaten these clones with punishment for daring to aid Xie Lian (even though all they do is nag at and hinder him frfr), all cause they wanna play both sides of the fields by hanging out with their former friend again but in disguise so as not to run afoul of their new big status friends who think Xie Lian’s a loser.

Exactly who’s the one feeling guilty and regretful about the friendship breakup?