#teio thoughts

[angry-glasses]

Valid reasons to kill someone, according to Tang Mo:

They attacked you first

To get their skill

To get their props (or just one (1) extra rare prop for the ML)

They're annoying

Apparently not valid enough reasons to kill someone:

They're quite literally asking you to???

[alphafemalecarla]

yall ever think bai ruoyao would totally fuck tang mo only to know how it would be like to have sex with his clone after hes learnt how damn good tang mo is at imitating him

[evilmenenjoyer]

Life Sentence

Pairing: Chishiya x reader.

Summary: Chishiya Shuntarou is the Jack of Hearts. With the end of his carefully constructed game approaching, there was only one thing that didn't go according to plan: you.

Word count: 1k

Warnings: none really for this chapter, but for others we've got some emotional manipulation as well as suicidal thoughts and tendencies, and eventual smut and romance. Chapters 1-4 already available on AO3!

–––

Fourteen rounds.

Chishiya supposes that’s not bad for a first time, although a bit underwhelming. As the sole survivor of a game of his own creation, he’d expected to feel a stronger sense of triumph. He makes his way down the empty hallway, glancing at the closed cell doors. He doesn’t have to look into the tiny windows to know who’s behind them; Yaba, Kotoko, Banda, Matsushita. All dead. The explosions had been loud, like multiple collars going off at once.

So why is his collar still placed firmly around his neck?

Chishiya reaches for it, giving it the gentlest tug to pull it off. It doesn’t budge. No game clear comes from the speakers.

At the end of the hall, a door creaks when it opens. He vaguely recognizes the woman that steps out – this whole time you’ve made yourself so quiet and unassuming, tagging along Banda like a sidekick, so easy to overlook. His mistake, really. He realizes now there must’ve been a strategy behind it, that perhaps you weren’t as lost as you made everyone believe you were. It’s as if, this whole time, you were playing a game of your own.

Your eyes meet across the hall, both coming to a pause in your steps. For a few long moments that’s all you do: stand there and stare at each other, like a Mexican standoff in one of those old Western movies, unsure whether to act or wait for the other to make the first move.

“You’re the Jack of Hearts.”

The statement makes him smile, obvious as it is. “You got me.” He raises his hands in mock surrender. It’s just the two of you now, and you know the Jack isn’t you. There’s no point in lying.

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m Chishiya.”

“I know.” Another indication that you’d been paying more attention than you let on. “I’m ____.”

He knows it too, of course. He knew the names of every player in Teio Prison. You cross your arms over your chest, walking towards him in slow, careful steps.

“So you made this game.”

It’s not a question, but he agrees with his head. “I did.”

“Did you count on this happening? Only two people left?”

“I figured it was highly unlikely. But not impossible.”

It complicates everything, of course. The only way to win is for one of you to lie to the other, and not be lied to in return. Learn to trust one another, even though you need the other dead to clear the game. Chishiya knows enough about odds and probability to know that the most likely outcome, in this case, is both of you dying.

Not that he’s complaining. It’s only just gotten interesting.

–––

You end up back at the main area, watching the big panel now showcasing only two pictures: Chishiya and yourself. The clock ticks, closer and closer to the end of the round, and each second that goes by that you can’t figure out a way out of this situation makes your skin crawl with anxiety.

If Chishiya is going over the same worries as you are, he doesn’t let it show. He looks calm, like he has all the time in the world. You watch him from your spot; the curve of the strand of platinum blonde hair that’s tucked behind his ear, the slump of his relaxed shoulders, his hands that disappear inside the pockets of his white hoodie. He’s a looker, you have to admit. The kind of guy that would’ve caught your eye at the subway back in Tokyo, the real Tokyo, that would’ve had you picturing your wedding together for the next fifteen minutes until he got off at his station and you never saw him again.

He finds your gaze before you can look away, making you wonder for how long he’s been aware that you’re staring.

“We’ve really hit a dead-end, huh?”

You bite the inside of your lip in barely contained anxiety. You have. He’s the Jack of Hearts, a master manipulator who’s been hiding in plain sight since the beginning of the game. He must have a plan.

“The way I see it, we have two options,” Chishiya says. “Number one is leaving it up to luck. We guess our suits. It’s one in four, so we each have a twenty-five percent chance of getting it right. Seventy-five percent says we die.”

It doesn’t sound great. Judging by his expression, Chishiya seems to agree with you.

“What’s option number two?” you ask.

“We tell the truth. I don’t know about you, but I could use a break. There’s enough food and water in here to last months; now that it’s just the two of us, probably even more. We take some time to regain our strength, then figure out what to do.”

You frown in suspicion. “You mean just playing house here, until one of us decides to kill the other.”

“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

He circles you, his steps slow and deliberate. You nearly jump when you feel his fingers on your skin, brushing your hair over your shoulders to expose the back of your collar.

“You’re Clubs,” he tells you.

His voice doesn’t shake, doesn’t falter; no indication that he’s lying, but that doesn’t mean anything. He wouldn’t be the Jack of Hearts if he wasn’t good at lying.

He gives his back to you and pushes his hair out of the way so you can see his collar, lit up with a heart shape.

“Spade.”

He doesn’t move for a long moment. You swallow dry, cursing yourself for your millisecond of hesitation before speaking. This will be even harder than you’d thought.

When he finally turns back to you, there’s a small smirk on his lips. “I thought we agreed to tell the truth.”

“How can I know you’re not lying?”

“You can’t. You’re going to have to trust me.”

It’s time to make your guess, the female automated voice comes from the speakers above. Please enter a prison cell. One person per cell, please.

Neither of you move. Your feel as if your hesitation starts to seep from your mind to your body, tensing up your muscles and forcing the words out of your lips.

“You’re Heart.”

It’s sincere, earnest, and you can only hope that if he’d been lying about your suit, this will make him have a change of heart.

He only gives you a nod of his head and turns back towards the cells. Something about the emptiness in his eyes makes you pause, a wave of familiarity hitting you.

“Do I know you from somewhere?”

You can’t tell where. Maybe another game in the past, maybe even before that. He looks at you over his shoulder, but the question doesn’t seem to hold his interest for too long. “I don’t think so. Let’s go.”

Once again, you can’t tell if he’s lying.

–––

Please make your guess.

Did he tell the truth? There’s no way to know. If he didn’t, then you just handed the game to him by giving him his correct suit. It’s not easy to lie to him, under those dark eyes that catch on to every detail.

Even if you survive this round, you don’t know how you’re supposed to do it later down the line.

“Club.”

The silence that follows stretches on for an eternity. You close your eyes, praying that, if the explosion comes, it kills you so quickly you won’t feel the pain.

A bell sound rings through the air, and the door behind you unlocks itself.

[detcobookclub]

Has everyone been enjoying their reading?

This week we have another issue of Case Notes, though this one is a little shorter. This is also where we run into our first problem with keeping things spoiler-free, but do rest assured we'll follow up on some of the discussions within when it comes up again!

Without further ado, let's see what we've got for this week.

1) Japanese Culture

There are a couple of events in the volume that I thought might be worth expanding on from a cultural perspective.

Fire Festivals

The first case of the volume features a fire festival in Akaoni Village, Gunma. First, it should probably go without saying that no village in their right mind would go calling themselves "Akaoni" (Red Oni, a demon-esque creature from Japanese myth), so this is a purely fictional location. The red certainly does bring to mind the fire, though.

Speaking of the fire festival, these are very much real. Japan boasts a number of various fire festivals, some on much larger scale than others. I struggled to find one specific fire festival that this case was referencing, so it's more likely just another variant of the many you can find throughout Japan.

It's a lot more than I could possibly get into for something of this scope, but to jump start any further research if you're interested:

There are arguments for which of the older and larger scale festivals count in the so-called "Three Great Fire Festivals of Japan," but common candidates include:

Kurama Fire Festival (Kyoto)

Nachi Folding Fan Festival (Wakayama)

Oniyo (Fukuoka)

Tengu Firewalking Festival (Hokkaido)

Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival (Nagano)

There's also the Sagicho Fire Festival, which is held at shrines nation-wide in mid-January to burn down their old New Year's decorations and pray for good fortune in the new year.

Japanese Education: Rounin

In the final case for this week, we hear about a pretty troubled family (to put it lightly). The son, Akio, gets a scolding from his father for once again failing his college entrance exams. Someone like Akio, who skips over entering university for multiple years, is often called a rounin (浪人).

People can be rounin for many reasons. Like Akio, they could have failed their exams one or more years in a row. As Japanese college entrance exams are a combination of national AND school-specific exams, a person who passes for their contingency school but fails for their first-choice school could opt to become a rounin to try for next year's exam. Still others choose to become a rounin without even taking a single exam, choosing instead to take a break from schooling or prepare for a better learning environment through a move.

And as students are usually limited to picking one (1) public and one (1) private school to test for in addition to the nation-wide center tests, since public and private school tests tend to each all be on the same day, the stress and pressure for getting into schools can really wear a young student down.

Historically, the word rounin more broadly meant a drifter that had cut themselves off from their home and/or family to aimlessly travel from place to place. The word eventually came to be associated with masterless samurai (which is also the definition many anime fans are also more familiar with, I would think), whether it be through the master's death or the samurai's banishment. As the code of honor dictated that samurai who lost their masters were supposed to commit ritual suicide, those who didn't were looked down upon.

In the modern day, then, students without a "master" (enrollment in a university) similarly carry that shame as rounin.

2) Japanese Language Bonus

Small one this week!

At the beginning of the One Billion Yen Robbery Case, we can see Conan reading a newspaper. Though it's probably immediately obvious the front page of the newspaper is covering the trio of robbers, you might notice the horse on the back page.

The headline seems to read 帝王絶好調: Teiou in Top Form!

"Gokai Teio" is the name of the horse that provides a key hint in locating our missing man... Which means this first page of the chapter gives us not only a big hint as to what the crux of this case comes down to, but also an indication of what our first big hint for moving the case forward will be!

I should probably also note that Gokai Teio is likely a nod to Tokai Teio, a fairly famous Japanese thoroughbred race horse from the early 1990s.

3) Short & Sweet References

Rapid-fire round of a couple of references and nods!

The airline Yutaka Abe flies on is a nod to the very real Japan Airlines (JAL). The general crescent silhouette is also somewhat similar to the shape of the bird's wings on the real logo. (Yutaka Abe, let it be known, is also a very old friend of Gosho's that he served as an assistant to for a while!)

Yaiba real! This shot is from pretty damn late in the manga (like, final confrontation late, if memory serves). It was never actually animated in the first Yaiba anime, though... maybe it will be this time around.

Japanese addresses often use a string of (usually two or three) numbers to narrow down where any given building is located. The Kudo household is second district/block, 21st lot, and would be formatted as 2-21. Which is to say that Shinichi lives at 221 B(eika City).

4) Put A Pin In That

Here's where I must admit ahead of time that, at this moment, this section will be full if incomplete information in an effort to avoid full spoilers. What they are, however, are events or characters whose most interesting bits of trivia or info are revealed over a significant length of time. Rather than choose between dumping it all out now or waiting to discuss it until everything is on the table, I'd rather bring attention to it for now and slowly add more info as we progress along!

Let's start simple.

Conan's Classmates

We've been introduced to Conan's elementary school classmates Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi - the "big kid," the "thin arrogant one," and the "cute girl." Gosho himself has joked that as a template, they basically fit the recurring characters of Doraemon (Gian, Suneo, Shizuka), even if their actual personalities differ greatly. He then continued to joke that you would think this would put Conan in the Nobita position, when - if anything - the kids are closer to Nobita while Conan is more like Doraemon... And they were somewhat designed as a group to easily drag Conan into trouble.

There are various theories as to where the kids get their names, but we don't have any official confirmation at present. The most common theory among fans falls in line with similar naming conventions for our core cast, though, so I will share those here:

Genta Kojima (小嶋元太): Mystery writer Hajime Komine (小峰元), due to the kanji used.

Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya (円谷光彦): Mystery writer Yasuo Uchida's reporter character, Mitsuhiko Asami (浅見光彦).

Ayumi Yoshida (吉田歩美): Mystery writer Ayumi Kitagawa (北川歩実).

There are two other aspects to these kids that are worth discussing, and one of them might be obvious. But for now, we save that for another time.

Akemi Miyano

Given the information revealed in this particular case, you can safely assume Akemi has a level of significance. But this case's anime adaptation is also worth discussing, given TMS's choices in the early run of the show led to some... interesting effects in the source material.

In brief, there are a couple of stand-out early cases that involve our mysterious organization that TMS chose to adapt without any organization elements. This had the secondary consequence in this case of actually keeping Akemi alive at the end of the corresponding anime episode, 'The Strange Person Hunt Murder Case.'

The problem? She needs to die. The anime rectified this with a loose retreading of this case over 100 episode later that otherwise ignores the events of the previous episode, but that initial decision led to two separate but somewhat related consequences in the manga. What those are, and how they're related, is something we'll get into when it becomes relevant later.

And that's all for now. Once again, please feel free to add on your own bits of trivia or observations if you have any!

[saphhhiree]

solitary embers:

the deadly dance of the jack of hearts.

a/n: chishiya x flirty!clever!reader. this is during the solitary confinement game that’s played in season two! my first fanfic on here…. i’m trying my hardest LOL. anyway… list of flirting from the reader, chishiya definitely “hates” it. erm ya this will be a series with smut at some point enjoy!!! also.. i don’t remember like anyone’s name except for urumi, banda and obi

within the dark confines of teio prison, another sinister game of life and death began—the jack of hearts. each player wore a collar with a hidden card suit on the back, and the challenge was to deduce their own symbol without the aid of mirrors or reflective surfaces. the stakes were high, and the players' lives hinged on their ability to trust others to unravel the mysteries of their collars.

amidst the tension and uncertainty, you found yourself in a large room with 19 other players, including chishiya shuntaro, a master strategist that you played with during the game of tag. “chishiya!” you called out, relief washing over you seeing that at least you weren’t alone, you knew chishiya, he’s smart. you needed him on your side for this game specifically. he softly nodded in your direction.

as the hour of free roam began, players scattered across the prison, forming alliances in their quest for survival. you observed the interactions among the others, trying to discern who might be a trustworthy ally and who could be the elusive jack of hearts. soon you cautiously ventured into the prison grounds, your heart pounding with anxiety. the atmosphere was tense, and the sense of isolation weighed heavily on your shoulders. a large monitor displayed the faces of your fellow participants, a haunting reminder of the deadly stakes. as you continued your exploration, you spotted chishiya, he appeared deep in thought, you followed his gaze that was fixated on the same monitor. a part of you wished you could approach him, hoping that his keen mind might offer valuable insights. however, you hesitated, unsure if he would welcome any intrusion. you soon found the snack area, looked around at the large amount snacks and water provided. it seemed the prison authorities were intent on making this a long-lasting ordeal. the realization that this game could continue for what seems like forever only added to the weight on your shoulders. as you continued you search you wound up back in the main room, chishiya still there. you weren’t close in any means, but the shared experience of one game together meant you could trust eachother on a surface level.

"hey, have you figured out your symbol?" urumi asked, approaching you with a weirdly big grin. "um not yet," you replied, trying to keep your nerves in check. "but i’m working on it." you flashed two quick thumbs up with a sarcastic smile on your face. chishiya stood against a wall nearby, listening to the exchange silently. he glanced at you and raised an eyebrow, as if to say, "are you okay?" you offered a small nod, appreciating the unspoken support. you walked over to him,“chishiya.. have you noticed anything that could help us?” you asked, his eyes met yours, he smirked briefly and stated “observation is key. we have pay attention to even the smallest details.” youre curiosity piqued, you winked and leaned in his ear, making it look like you had something extremely important to say, “well, chishiya, i’ve done some observing, and i’ve deducted that you’re one of the most intriguing details about this whole place… i can’t help wonder what’s lurking behind those mysterious eyes..” you leaned back against the way a slight smile on your face. his lips twitched, finding it hard to suppress a smirk as the lightest shade of red dusted his ears and cheeks. “you know, flattery won’t get us out of here.” he turned his head as he spoke, thankful that it’s slightly dim in the room. “ah but it never hurts, does it chishiya? besides, we could all die tomorrow, why not have some fun?” you turned your head to meet his gaze, shrugging as you spoke. “let’s just focus on the game.” he couldn’t read you, were you being serious? or just trying to lighten the mood? or both?? “aw i promise not to distract you too much” you sarcastically spoke, he ignored you, and looked at the the groups trying to observe them without thinking about what you just said.

as the minutes dwindled, everyone walked to find their chosen confinements to say their card suit. you and chishiya slowly made your way to the cells, walking side by side. "i can't help but feel that this game is designed to sow distrust among us," chishiya said, his voice low but steady. you nodded in agreement. "of course our resident genius knows what to do, i get it, it's all about survival. we can't let ourselves get too comfortable with anyone." he rolled his eyes at the first part of your sentence, “let me say it again, flattery won’t get us out of here, y/n” you giggled a little bit side eyeing him. he intrigued you, it felt like forever ago since you guys played tag with usagi and arisu. you couldn’t hide the fact that he piqued your interest that night, watching from afar from the highest floor, then pulling out a homemade taser??? you wanted to break his shell. figure out if his quiet exterior hid a deeper level of insight and emotion. a voiced chimed to let the players know they should retreat to their cells as they had five minutes left. both slowly approaching your cells, you asked, “i can trust you right ?” and turned around. with a subtle gesture, chishiya reached out and lifted your hair, fingers brushing against you neck leaving a trail of goosebumps down your spine. your heart skipped a beat, you found him attractive yea, and this had to be done in order for you to make it to the next round, but you couldn’t help feel soothed by his electrifying touch, a tender twinge of intimacy in the midst of a deadly game. he pretty much read your mind, “i’m sorry, it’s the only way” he murmured, voice soft and hesitant, almost as if he wanted to explain the touch. he leaned in close to you, his warm breath grazing your ear, “hearts.” you bit your lip, trying to steady your racing thoughts. “thank you.” you whispered back, all the confidence you had when flirting with him previously gone. grateful for the moment of trust. you turned back around facing him, “well mr. mysterious, it’s only fair if i tell you yours..” you tried being playful to ignore the fact you could hear your own heartbeat in your ears. he took off his hood, “spades.” you said as he turned back around. he nodded, a silent gesture that was still appreciated.

you entered the cell, as it seemed to hold its breath as you waited for the prompt to give your answer. mind still flustered from the earlier interaction, “hearts.” moments later, a soft click echoed through the cell, confirming your answer was correct.

RAHHHH!!!!!

i will work on pt2 soon! i hope you guys liked it. still working on writing n stuff.. sorry if any of this is ooc!!! enjoy the rest of your day/night :)

PART TWO IS OUT!!

[yurisorcerer]

Interesting stuff.

These are just loose thoughts as opposed to more organized ones but the main thing that's sticking out to me is this: a recurring fixture of this series is that you can't compete against an idea, only the actual people on the field. Previously we see this with Teio's fear that she'll never be able to catch up to McQueen when she's recovering in that show's last arc, later on we'll see it with Jungle Pocket and Agnes Tachyon. Here it takes something of a different form, in that Kitasan Black's admiration of Teio is clearly constraining her in some way (probably most directly obvious during her flashback wherein she imagines Duramente, the horse who actually beat her, as Teio in full racing silks). Once Duramente is injured in the second part of the episode, this fixation almost immediately leaps to her instead.

All told this seems to be building up a somewhat more extreme underdog story than is usual for this franchise.

I think this is probably the most emotionally raw use of the vent stump we've ever seen, in that Kitasan doesn't really say anything she just fuckin hollered into it.

What all of this says about Kitasan is pretty interesting. A lot of what she does in these opening episodes is genuinely offputting, which, ironically, kind of makes her more likable than she might've been as a more traditional protagonist for this series.

"I don't know how to be true to myself" jeez girl, same.

[jsvjbmh]

Kaleidoscope of Death

Had a little bit more time than I thought, so I'm here again. I just like yapping about things. To be honest, these 'reviews' are more for myself XD. They're still unreliable tho.. But good enough for my peanut brain. But hey, if they're helpful for y'all as well, cool! How tho.

Anyway. Kaleidoscope of Death. This one is also licensed for an English release ;d. There is also a drama adaptation of it by the name Spirealm. I watched that one a few weeks/months ago. Most of my memory of the novel is from the drama... I will re-read it when I have my physical copy! (Same with TEIO).

I liked both the novel and the drama, but I have to say that I much prefer the ending of the novel. Didn't like the one from the drama at all... It was an happy ending I guess? But it was fake? It's also a bit difficult to explain. Because I have to explain both the novel and drama.. There are quiet some difference..

In the novel, people who are about to die, have the chance to see a door which they can go through. They have to find a key in that door and escape. They have to do that multiple times and tada, they'll live. Something like that. In the drama, the doors are a part of a vr-game. There is a whole organization in the drama that doesn't exist in the novel. The drama is also missing some doors and there are some characters that exist in the drama and not in the novel and also vice versa.

Oh another thing that I missed in the drama, but it's kinda understandable. In the novel, their whole appearance chance inside of the doors of the novel. In the drama they keep it. The ML likes to cross-dress inside of the doors, so he appears as a regular girl inside of them.

I think that's about it? I'm done yapping <3

[cantalooprat]

after not reading danmei for a while i just thought abt my probably definite top 5

don't pick up boyfriends from the trash bin my white moonlight... my beloved... i mtl-ed all the untranslated chapters to finish it. the slowburn, the yearning, the hidden identities, lou ying who's always always always by chi xiaochi's side...

mist i love time travel stories so it's really no wonder i love mist so much, it's arguably even better on a reread. love the main cp dynamics, the plot, the way everything ties together.

the earth is online my first danmei, one i started bc i was hella into orv and the main cp reminds me of joongdok... i've gone full circle from orv to unlimited flow and now to dungeon/hunter kr bl (solo leveling yaoi lmao). i still like teio a whole lot, i love unlimited flow and the dungeons in teio are interesting and i love hidden identities and the main cp too so it rly was the perfect hook into starting danmei for me.

i like your pheromones obligatory omegaverse and the only slice of life in this list of 5 lmao xingyan are super cute i love the way they fell for each other slowly but surely and also the banger osts. my fav danmei omegaverse fr fr

i was once a legend among everything else i've read, i thought of this one first aside from the first 4 in the list which have dominated my fav list since i started, so it's here as no. 5. love the plot, the cp, the fun crew of the main cast, the shounen manga vibe it has.

honorable mentions:

little mushroom/how to feed an abyss kind of lumped them together because it's interesting to read both and compare and contrast between them. they deal with major strokes of similar themes---the meaning of humanity, the love between a human and not a human, the concept of "eternity" in a post-apocalyptic world.

the supporting male character just wants to be a tool man peak brainless romcom tbh it's just super fluffy and the sweet-n-sour part just before the main cp get together is just so sweetly painful i love

o pretends to be b for the violent admiral interstellar omegaverse version of what's wrong with secretary kim, it actually reads like a kdrama and has some very kdrama plot too

i can read minds but will not be marked for having a doomed side ship that made me too sad for the scant amount of screentime/pagetime they actually had

qiang jin jiu actually peak, also has a doomed sad af side ship, but i nvr finished it bc it was ongoing when i read it and then now it's licensed lmao maybe someday ill get all the ebook volumes when they're all published

surprise! the supposed talent show was actually--- guideverse without it actually being guideverse. has really interesting stages and also being a non-lethal unlimited flow it's refreshing to see that the main cp don't always win

jin gang quan's stories not naming any specific ones but they all have this certain vibe to them that the world she writes is big and doesn't involve only the main chars but at the same time it focuses only on the main chars and im often left wanting more abt the side cast

this list will keep going if i dont stop here

[shiningstages]

I went to go play Uma Musume on my laptop, but DMM had changed their little interface thing so it wanted to redownload both that and deresute, so I did..............and now i can’t play them since my country isn’t allowed...............

[kh3finalmix]

oh yeah im going to post the link for my mutuals server tomorrow, i prommy

[angry-glasses]

not Tang Mo lamenting his bad luck when the planets are pretty much aligning to help him pass the instances

[incorrect-teio]

Mu Huixue: Aren't you gay?

Tang Mo: I like how this implies I did something heterosexual. If so, I apologize.

[alphafemalecarla]

of course friendships aren't transactional! i would just be very happy if I ever got a fucking gift as thoughtful as the ones ive given people and just because my birthday falls in the holidays does not mean y'all just fucking forget about it and don't celebrate a fucking birthday :D

[transthistle]

im convinced that teio is a good novel. and thats why i think the first black tower game is really important. but also im a little too stupid to figure it out or rather i dont wanna think that hard

[latinozevran-archive]

i took this screenshot to send to my gf no context when i was at this part and just came across it again.... leaves u with much to think about truly read teio

[saphhhiree]

solitary embers: confined truths

part two in the solitary embers series

a/n: hii!!! so glad everyone liked part one, this part is gonna be more dialogue oriented, not so much story based… i hope you guys like it!!!! aaaaa story below the cut :)

as you walked through the dimly lit corridors of teio prison, you couldn’t resist teasing chishiya once more. “you know, chishiya, i’ve seen you crack a smile a few times. it seems that i’m starting to break through your tough facade.” chishiya’s lips twitched, and he looked away, trying to hide the fondness that crept into his expression. “i assure you y/n, my smile is purely coincidental,” he replied, though there was a hint of amusement in his voice. “sure, sure,” you chuckled, bumping his shoulder playfully. “i’ll take that as a sign of progress. soon, you won’t be able to resist me.” he rolled his eyes and walked faster. catching up to him he says “you’re quite persistent, aren’t you?” you put both your hands up in defense, “i like to think of it as charmingly persistent” you quipped, flashing him a smirk.

amidst the flirty banter, you both remained vigilant, watching the other players with a keen eye. urumis group continued to manipulate and betray, leaving you and chishiya cautious of forming any alliances. chishiya being chishiya, noticed things no one else did, thus ending up with both of you huddled in a corner waiting for his suspicions to be confirmed. the dim light cast a shadow on chishiyas face, and you couldn’t help but admire how handsome he looked, but this could be the boredom talking as you wait longer and longer. “ugh how long is this gonna take?” you groaned. “shut up y/n” “but i’m bor-“ your sentence was cut off by his hand covering his mouth. you were about to protest when you followed his gaze to a woman walking to the shelf where the 4 different flavors of biscuits were. you almost didn’t recognize her without the tall business looking guy standing behind her. she scans and pick up the red one. in a hurry, she whips her head around to make sure no one’s looking and walks out. you turned back to chishiya who now has a smirk on his face, “hmm” he hums, you can basically see the wheels turning in his head. not processing that his hand was still on your mouth, “did you just… lick me..?” he turns his head with a slight look of disgust and removes his hand “hehehe yea..” he just rolls his eyes and goes back into thought. “hey is it just me or does sneaking around with you make this whole situation a little less terrifying?” you asked, wanting some kind of conversation because you are going to pass out from boredom. “it’s just you.” he says back without even looking at you. “there’s something about you that’s strangely comforting. it’s like you bring a sense of calmness in the storm. you always know the answer” you prodded. his cheeks flushed ever so slightly while glancing in your direction, “i don’t know about that” he mumbled, trying not to show he cares. a lot of people have depended on him. he doesn’t want the life of another person to be on his hands. the guilt of his job still weighed on his shoulders, even in the borderland. he didn’t want to care. “i mean it.” leaning closer to him as you interrupted his thoughts “you have this aura that draws me in, it’s like youre a mystery waiting to be unraveled, and i just can’t help but want to know more..” his eyes met yours, there was an intensity that rivaled yours. he didn’t want to care. he needed to focus on saving his own life. not someone else’s too. “you’re quite the enigma yourself y/n.” his face softened though still no expression. the air around you felt charged, like a balloon waiting to be pooped. footsteps could be heard again and this time it’s a male that approaches the biscuits. he picked out a black one and headed out. “the vanilla ones are so much better.” you mumble, “that’s what i’ve been trying to tell everyone. no one listens to me.” he puffed his lips out visibly upset that no one else enjoy the vanilla ones like he does. you just looked at him, confused as to why THIS was what he a a visible reaction to, not what you said previously. he looked back at you and his face returned to emotionless as he stood up. he looked down at you and couldn’t help but notice how weak you look underneath him. maybe he does care. he offered a hand and helped you up. “thanks chishiya.” you smiled. “that’s the hand you licked by the way.” he replied almost smiling. “EW you’re so mean.” you crossed your arms. “what do you mean? it YOUR spit on my hand.” he laughed. you stopped laughing immediately. “chishiya. did you just laugh?” his face fell as he turned and started walking. “HAHAHAH I MADE YOU LAUGH!!! i knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me” you mocked. catching up to him and pushing his back slightly. “shut up.” he held back another smile as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED IT!! im high as balls so if this sucks don’t get mad pls thank u enjoy the rest of your day/night