#....but probably does have the most plans against him and Tsubasa

[deathfavor]

Anonymous said:  i know there are 5 of them instead of the optimal 3 but kuroko, fmk +the grand generals

FMK - send 3 names

“ The five grand generals?” And she was going to have to kill at least one of them? That…definitely wasn’t ideal. She didn’t wish ill on any of them as it stood. (That didn’t mean that she didn’t have countermeasures and plans on hand should one of the other clans move against them. It was just being prepared.) She just needed to assess this situation logically.

  “  Marry Tatsuomi, first of all.  “  This one she is at least confident in without hesitation. But things were murky with the other generals.  “…I suppose sleep with Shishikado? His knowledge with oni is extremely useful as an ally.” Which left Soma, Naotora, and Tsubasa to decide the fates of in this hypothetical game.  “ I’ve never consider such an act before, but sleep with Tsubasa. I like her approach to matters and I  think she’d be easier to discuss matters with than some others. Her reservations are usually well-founded but not immovable. “ She nods with a fairly confident gesture. Except…that meant killing at least one or both of the other two. “ Sleep with Naotora. He’s a valued ally to our band and works well with us. He was a crucial component to my plan with the black dogs and Orochi after all. “ To which she was very thankful.

 Which meant….  “  My deep apologies to him, but kill Soma.  “  Ah, that probably wouldn’t go over well. “  If it comes to a battle of wills where both sides have facts, and he is on the other side, there’s almost no chance to sway him. He’s strong, which is beneficial as an ally, but a bigger threat if he is in opposition. He also seems to be less inclined to have the adaptable nature of the Uesugi band or the Takeda band, and less likely to have common goals. So for that reason, I’d choose him out of them all. But it is nothing personal against him. Only strategic. “

[mysterylover123]

Top 10 Reveals I’m Excited for in My Hero Academia

mysterylover123

Now first let me clarify what I mean by reveals: There are basically two types of reveals in the story, the Mystery and the internal reveal. Internal reveals are when a character learns something the audience already knows. There is a lot of hidden information I want the characters to learn about, as well as mysteries even the fans don’t know yet.

Also spoilers up until the most recent manga chapter!

#10. JUST WHAT IS BAKUGOU’S HERO NAME?

The fandom has written approximately 20,000 different meta on the question of just what Lord Explosion Murder’s real hero name will eventually be. Recently, Katsuki confirmed that he does indeed have one and has “someone he needs to tell”. Whozat? What is the name, dammit? The answer to this one is probably coming pretty soon, since it’s been brought up in-universe, but we’re all getting pretty impatient to finally learn what it is.

My theory: A play on Bakusatsuo/Ground Zero, or a play on Kacchan that connects the latter to his future goals. The person he wants to tell is...Jeanist! (sorry, Bakugou).

#9. THE LOV’S POWER-UPS

This one’s an internal reveal. Namely, the League has Overhaul’s bullets, the Meta Liberation Army, Gigantomachia and an army of high-end Nomus....but no one knows about this besides the PLF. The kids at UA don’t know. The Pro heroes and cops don’t seem to know, the public as a whole has no idea what a nightmare is brewing behind the scenes for them as the League plots and plans. It’s about time they all learned just what a powerful, dangerous force they’re truly up against in spectacular, horrifying fashion.

My Theory: The League will use their resources (the bullets) to wipe out the Top 10 Pros by erasing their quirks in fights with all their warriors, but the UA kids interning with the Pros will hold their own, showing some hope for the future of heroism.

#8. HAWKS=TRIPLE AGENT=JEANIST KILLER

Another internal reveal, though mixed with a few audience reveals. Namely, did Hawks actually kill Best Jeanist or is this some kind of a bluff? Hawks’ status as a triple agent is something that can serve for some pretty dramatic revelations later on in the narrative - mostly for Endeavor, Tokoyami, and Dabi, learning about his various statuses and having a big “You? No, it couldn’t be!” moment. This one will probably also come soon; he’s been teetering on the edge for way too long. 

My Theory: Hawks’ reveal will come during the aforementioned LoV attack arc, and this will initiate the reveal of Kacchan’s hero name. Basically, the first 3 all tie together into a potential future arc that may be coming up sooner than we think. And tie into the next one...

#7. DABI=?

This one is a big mystery, and one that pretty much the entire fanbase has a solid theory on the answer to. Basically, if Dabi is not somehow Toya Todoroki then we’ve all got nothing. The most prominent LoV member to have received no backstory flashbacks in the MLA arc and no real name during the Hideout Raid, the mysterious firebender is a giant enigma...and yet everything about him dovetails nicely with the theory of him being a re-animated version of the allegedly dead Todoroki sibling. He even looks like Toya, so odds on this one are pretty high.

My Theory: The Toya reveal could come out in this very next arc, given all the Nomu/long lost friend drama of the recent chapters and the Todoroki angst arc of the previous ones. Otherwise, it’ll probably wait for a while to finally be unveiled. And the impact on Endeavor and Shoto will be devastating.

#6. WHAT ARE THE OTHER 5 QUIRKS?

Unlike the Avatar state where we know all the powers ahead of time, Midoriya’s future quirks inside of OFA are a complete mystery. Aside from Super Strength and Black Whip, what are the other 5 wielders’ powers? The fact that we have no answers on this one at all yet is really baffling to me, because DIDN’T ALL MIGHT AND GRAN TORINO KNOW NANA’S QUIRK?!!?! Why hasn’t All Might told Deku what quirk he’ll be getting from her yet? We need this information, dude! Also why does one of the silouhettes look like Bakugo? Are you an immortal timelord Kacchan?

My Theory: I think Nana’s quirk must be related to Tomura’s (Maybe a reversal of decay, like a healing power?). As to the other 4, those are complete mysteries. Maybe super senses, some kind of shield, an elemental power, and a wildcard quirk?

#5. TENKO=TOMURA=NANA SHIMURA’S GRANDKID

This is a great big internal reveal that I’m really impatient for more information on. Namely: 1. All Might needs to tell Deku that Tomura is Nana’s grandson. 2. Tomura needs to find out that his grandmother was All MIght’s Master, and 3. to find out that her spirit exists within Midoriya. All of this needs to go down, because that big fight between Tomura and Deku we have to get eventually is going to need some more personal stakes, and anyway why doesn’t Deku know this yet already? Tell him All Might! He needs to know!

My Theory: All Might will tell Deku, who will let this info slip at a crucial moment when fighting Tomura, calling him “Tenko” maybe at some point; this reveal, which Deku will cop to, will send Tomura into a self-searching spiral.

#4. WHO IS DEKU’S DAD?

It’s pretty much grand Shonen tradition for the protagonist to have a completely absent dad, whose identity becomes a major reveal later on in the story. Deku’s dad is perhaps the most absent father in all of fiction, as we have almost zero information about the guy and Deku never even thinks about or mentions him. There are many, many prominent fan theories about who he is, and technically just a brief picture, appearance and characterization would do the trick, but most fans are convinced he must be someone important.

My Theory: Dad for One theorist here. Plenty of evidence/potential reasons it could be true to work with. All for One has some kinda plan that relates to Deku and OFA, and the reveal will come then. 

#3. UJIKO=TSUBASA=AFO’S DR=DEKU’S DR?!?

One of the biggest reasons I’m a Dad for One theorist is because of AFO’s doctor being Deku’s doctor from Chapter 1. Ujiko, the mad scientst of the League, is Dr. Tsubasa. He took his relative, Kacchan’s childhood friend, and turned him into the winged Nomu that kidnapped Deku during the Hero Killer Arc. Right now he’s turning Tomura into a butterfly or something. Deku and Kacchan need to learn about this connection, and dole out some sweet justice to this guy. (BTW is it my FMA eyes or does he look a lot like the gold-toothed doctor?)

My Theory: Dad for One hired him to supervise Midoriya, and deliberately picked Tsubasa as an experimentation subject to punish him for picking on Deku (which is also why he’s so cool with going after Bakugo), and Deku and Kacchan will find out by seeing him during a future LoV confrontation.

#2. WHO IS THE UA TRAITOR?

The golden question, indeed? Who, exactly, is the UA traitor? Is there a traitor? How did the league find them if not? Is it confirmed there is a traitor, most likely? And if so, who is it? There are so many prominent theories as to who it could be and how this would impact the story; I’ve read decent arguments from all over the board for every single possible candidate, and while there are plenty that have some solid evidence, only one really appeals to me from a characterization standpoint.

My theory: I’m down with the Uraraka traitor theory, because I love the idea of what it could do with her character, the ways it could affect her relationship with Deku, and the possibilities of the Toga/Ochaco parallels. Of course, I’ll be happy as long as it makes sense and crafts some good drama.

Hon Mentions: Eri will learn Nighteye died (she still doesn’t know); Other characters learn Todoroki’s backstory; Kirishima learns he and Mina fought Gigantomachia; Just freaking tell him you like him already Uraraka

#1. DEKU HAS OFA

This seems like a strange thing to list as a “Reveal”, since Deku got OFA in Chapter 1. But when I say this, I mean Other characters learn about it. Obviously, Kacchan already learned and that was great. So think of the possibilities of other characters finding out! In order of who needs to know: 1. Inko, 2. Tomura, 3. Mirio, 4. Todoroki and his family, 5. Uraraka, Oddly enough, the series could probably progress with nobody but Tomura out of that list learning the truth, but still, the possibilities of the drama worth exploiting from the 9th wielder reveal are almost endless. It’s a bomb under the table waiting to go off to craft neat conflict in the future.

My Theory: Tomura and Ujiko know about OFa. They’ll tell PLF and go on a hunt for the 9th wielder among the likely candidates at UA; the first years and Lemillion, Nighteye’s intern. In the process they’ll figure out it’s Deku and the truth will be revealed to all pertinent characters, making Deku the target of PLF trying to harvest OFA for their own control.

[kurogabae]

TSUBASA: TRAINWRECK CHRONICLES

And How Bee Train is Single-Handedly Propagating Cancel Culture in This the Year of Our Lord 2020

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4 -- PART 5 

[[ join me on PillowFort. i have free invite codes if you need an account ]]

So last post was all filler episodes and we're well into season two of this, and I cannot stress this enough, two season anime. The only canon arc we've had was Piffle so far and it was poorly handled and out of order. Surely, absolutely surely, we are in for a canon arc. Shara perhaps? Skip right to Le Court? We all know they'd never dare touch Tokyo. How are they going to pad out the rest of the season?

Why another filler. A bad filler. The dreaded filler that goes against pretty much all of Fai's everything.

It's "A Date With a Wizard" and Kurogane isn't the one getting the date. If you haven't watched or heard of this episode before, buckle up kids. It's a doozy. And big spoiler warnings ahead.

Fort City Bit AKA Fai Dates His Own Fucking Mom (but like an AU version so it's okay I guess???):

You read that right. Fai goes on a date with this world's version of Chii, who was an artificial being he modeled after his dead mother. I could end the rant here but oh, there is so much to this. So much. It's only one episode long but it feels like an eternity.

The premise for magic use in this world is that:

Everyone has magic and that magic is specialized

Your career path is based on your magic's specialization. Like in MLP with cutie marks. And everyone is Fine with this.

Everyone recharges their magic via the sun, which is risen by their king

The king is chosen yearly after everyone in the country has the same fucking dream one night

The whole country runs on magic, to the point that if there is no magic there is no food, no power, no anything. But that's fine, because every day they get recharged by the sun. Right? WRONG! Because the current king is being a depressed little shit and refuses to raise the sun, effectively dooming the country to a slow death. Neat.

BUT BEFORE ALL OF THAT! The episode opens with Fai having a nightmare about Ashura looming like he's auditioning for a role in Attack on Titan. Vague and menacing, which is literally all we know about Ashura because we know nothing about Fai's past. And we never will. At least not in anime-land. No one knows anything. The manga isn't pulling this fakey flashback shit, so why is the anime? I don't know, but I hate it!

Anyway, the family gets the low down from Touya and Yukito - who still do not recognize Sakura and that upsets me because of the implications that there is no Sakura in this universe. (Sidenote: Kurogane recognizes them, even though he's never met them in the anime so far so honestly, just fuck everything.) While Touya is feeding them a frankly lavish meal that he's magiced up he explained their king problems. This leads to my next issue - if you're so worried about running out of magic why are you using it so flippantly and in such an extra ass way? Can you not make normal food? Does it only exist in magic form? Maybe just summon some soup? Does all food cost the same amount of mana? THIS MAGIC SYSTEM IS BAD!

So, back to the whole the king is too sad to raise the sun which powers everyone's magic which is now beginning to run low. Another problem I have. You get a recharge on your magic everyday. They have not gotten ANY recharges for, and I'm quoting here, months. They change kings every year. So even on the low end of things we're looking at 3-4 months before anyone got concerned about the king just. Not raising the sun. Personally, I would have gotten worried after a few days, a week at most. No one wanted to go and find out like "Hey your highness, why no sun? What's got you down?"

That, however, would be logical. This is a place of magic and whimsy! Not logic. Fai is asked to use his magic to figure out what is wrong with their king. Predictably, he tells them they have a better chance of meeting god, so everyone gets thrown in jail. Because refusing to solve a country's weird problems is illegal. Not that jail has ever stopped them before. Not with Kurogane and his muscles around. And while I am always up for watching Kurogane break things I do have to wonder - why are they not just warping free? Mokona said there was no feather. No one said anything about being magically held back. And yet, they are running through the castle, endangering themselves and the children!!!

Obviously this is For Plot Reasons, and I use the words "plot" and "reasons" loosely here.

Somehow the kitties and puppies get separated and Fai and Sakura end up surrounded by guards. Does Fai finally fight? Does he open that can of whoop ass we all know he's been saving? No. He leaps into the air and takes flight like some sort of stork. And while Fai's current cocky attitude is refreshing, he's working on some sort of idiot bimbo in a horror movie logic of "to escape the building I must do upstairs". This is not a man made to last on his own.

And, like Shrek to Fiona, the stairs lead him to the highest room in the tallest tower. Fai, then, promptly loses his shit as if he's not fully aware that doubles exist across the multiverse. Like, yeah, it would be a shock and anyone would be freaked out at the sudden surprise of it all, but Fai acts like he thinks he's stepped back into Celes. Like an idiot. He's better than this.

Now, we learn more things about this messed up king situation. Not only does everyone have a dream every year electing the new monarch, but the new king gets their memory erased for the whole year so that they can "rule with a pure heart" or some shit. Which seems like a baaaad fucking way to run.... anything. At all. Ever. Might as well pick up a fresh baby and put it in charge. It's bad. And it gets worse.

Chii is sad, but she wants to hang out with Fai and it's the first time she's shown any interest in doing anything but being Sad so her babysitter spirits are all like "Oh that's neat!" And Fai takes this is his chance to just... run off for a night on the town with her? They literally vanish and leave Sakura ALONE IN THE CASTLE WITH THE SAME SPIRITS WHO JAILED THEM. In what fucking universe????

Look, they are trying so so so so so so hard to sell this FaiChii shit. Fai leaves Sakura alone in a castle where they have just busted out of jail, he has no idea where or how Kurogane and Syaoran are, he's clearly uncomfortable around Chii as she reminds him of what he's running from, and, oh yeah, she's a copy of his dead mother he created in another world in order to comfort him and his dead brother as a child. Everything is Fine. Let's go get tea.

I'm gonna rapid fire some S tier bullshit:

no one knows where Chii has taken Fai - why is there no way to track your baby-brained king?

Fai leaves with Chii happily and cheerily, again, leaving Sakura behind and alone - who is this man because it isn't Fai

the only clue they have to Fai and Chii's location is that they are no longer on castle grounds, yet somehow Syaoran knows Exactly Where to Look - because sure why not?

Chii doesn't know how to drink???? - does this happen with every king? do they have to be potty trained too? omg they really are babies this is a terribly way to run a country!!!!!!

teaching someone basic life functions is not romantic but Bee Train sure wants us to think it is

"I want to stay with Fai forever and always." - at least he panics at commitment still... and probably incest

“I should be thanking you. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this way.” - What? Uncomfortably reminded of your past and why your life is just shy of a living hell? Who are you? You are not Fai

Kurogane and Syaoran show up to save Fai and Chii, who have been surrounded by guards (I think, I can't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure they're there to take her back to the castle and her Sad Room). Fai apparently won't fight in front of Chii but whatever at this point.

It comes out that Chii is an artificial soul/being (like the Chii in Celes) and because of that she cannot leave the town or she DIES and that means the king dies and I guess they don't have a back up plan for that. Unsurprising but bad. Still, Chii begs Fai to take her away and show her the world and Fai like... hesitates? Thinks about it? Considers it?!?!? I dunno but he doesn't automatically say "Uh no, you'll die and also I have other shit to do, bye" and that's dumb for a lot of reasons.

Eventually he tells her no and convinces her to bring the sun back and be happy because she'll be able to remember him or some shit (you know, unless they take those memories too!) and  they all say goodbye. And I couldn't be more thankful.

Honestly, the real MVP here is Kurogane for not just losing his shit at all of this like I have. He's a better man than I.

Tune in next time as I continue to scream, in vain, at god.

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4 -- PART 5

[cantusecho-archive]

(Episode 5 thoughtsssss.

OKAY. I took forever to write this one up since I couldn’t process my thoughts correctly, and still can’t. But going to try!

Episode starts with the government taking over S.O.N.G headquarters.

Thing about this is, it’s clear that Fudou is using his power and influence to stop them, but why? That’s at the end of the episode it seems and the reason I think is hinted here;

Honestly, the second he said this, it made me think of him wanting to make it into a sword for Tsubasa to use it. However, she clearly shouldn’t be able to handle it since she can’t wield divine power? Maybe Fudou thinks he can wield the power instead? He’s crazy strong, but does he believe he can handle it? It’s possible he does but his exact ideas/plans are still fairly in the dark.

And Noble Red really are just pawns for him. So, if they didn’t agree to his terms, then they would die since that blood is the only way they could live. Basically, this humanizes our villains, as to be expected, since they’ve been abused and experimented on against their will.

However, I’d still be happy with them not being forgiven for their actions (Millaarc especially) because of how much it’s effected everyone, especially Tsubasa. But that’s later on in the episode.

(also it’s interesting that they’re hiding within the remains of Carol’s Chateau)

Now the scene between Genjurou and Yatsuhiro is actually really really nice. It’s nice to see the two of them interacting more, but they’ve also come to a conclusion that it’s pretty much clear that Fudou may be behind Noble Red’s actions. Yatsuhiro says that they can’t jump to conclusions just yet despite being suspicious. Of course WE as the audience already knows that Fudou is behind it. But in terms of the characters, who don’t see what we do, it makes sense.

Also heard a small tidbit about this scene on twitter; according to people who actually know Japanese, one of the documents on Yatsuhiro’s desk is basically hinting to another name in the Kazanari family. The people who could read this made all the connections about Genjurou and Yatsuhiro’s names (they have characters in their names that mean numbers? I can’t remember them offhand but I think Genjurou at least means ten) and said that it’s very possible that Fudou has like...ten+ children. LOL.

Like, he had sooooo many kids, probably hoping one would fight for him, until Tsubasa was born. I can’t find the twitter posts that actually explain all this in much better words so yeah, sorry. Just some interesting stuff.

Moving on! Because of all this investigation stuff, all the Gear users are on standby and are literally left with nothing to do whatsoever.

Eventually, this gives everyone the idea to at least take a break. And so what Hibiki decides to do is invite Tsubasa, as well as Elfnein, to have fun in the town. This is really just a huge callback to S1 episode 9 where Hibiki and Miku take Tsubasa on a date. Lmao.

What’s cute about this is that Elfnein ACTUALLY TAKES A DAY OFF LOL. 

AND SHE SINGS.  ABOUT CAROL PRETTY MUCH.

But what’s clashing in this scene is that while Elfnein is singing and literally having fun, Tsubasa finally opens up and admits how she’s been feeling lately.

This is particularly sad because she literally said in episode 2 how much she loves singing. Before all the chaos in the concert and Fudou tearing down something she loves doing, Tsubasa was happy to sing and enjoy herself by spreading her music throughout the world. It’s taken a long time for Tsubasa to get to this point, even after the Zwei Wing disaster. So for her to feel this way is just really sad to hear and see.

And this sets up the brief argument between Hibiki and Miku. 

Now my feelings on this scene is a lot but I’ll try to be brief as possible; personally, I don’t think Miku was in the wrong. This has been building up within her ever since season 1. However, was her outburst at the best time? No, it wasn’t. Miku isn’t a perfect person (in my opinion), no one is, but that’s what makes her interesting to me.

Even before S1, she’s been dealing with this guilt of hers for so long, so many years. And because she related to Tsubasa’s feelings of guilt and fear, it all came bursting out all at once...so she calls Hibiki selfish. I can see if people think this is rushed or literally came out of nowhere, or Miku’s wrong but it’s not as if Hibiki hasn’t done things wrong too.

Hibiki’s heart is always in the right place, yes, but she’s not perfect either. Normally, pulling people into her rhythm or ideas is fine and ends up working out really well. Her energy is enough to brighten those around her...but not all the time. Sometimes pulling people into doing something you think might help might end up hurting them instead. If you ask a person how they feel, maybe that way you’d be able to figure things out more. 

But Hibiki didn’t ask Tsubasa. This isn’t to say that Hibiki doesn’t care about Tsubasa’s feelings, she cares deeply for Tsubasa, but she technically pulled her along into something that’s really only reminding her that she can’t enjoy songs. It’s hard to explain what I mean haha.

So even though Miku calls Hibiki selfish, which is debatable within itself but I don’t have time to explain it all lmao, I can kinda see her point. I don’t think Hibiki nor Miku are right or wrong here. It’s really just a clash of emotions and miscommunication. At least in my opinion.

And then having Hibiki ask her this question finally gets Miku to openly admit how she’s been feeling for years.

Can I say as a side note how crazy it is for Hibiki to raise her voice back, like she’s actually frustrated so she stresses the words? It made me feel so uneasy, no joke haha.

Moving on, Miku finally admits her guilt, and I think it’s a legit worry. A lot of things wouldn’t have happened in Hibiki’s life if she didn’t invite her to that concert. She wouldn’t have almost died. She wouldn’t have been harassed. Her family wouldn’t be as broken as it is. She wouldn’t nearly be dying all the time from fighting. Hibiki probably wouldn’t be fighting at all.

It may sound unreasonable for Miku to blame herself for all of this, but I can understand that blame somewhat so I guess I’m a bit biased in that regard lol.

Hibiki, who didn’t see all this guilt Miku’s been having, is surprised by her admission. Again, I don’t see anyone in the wrong for this exchange because of the miscommunication; Miku was too afraid to admit her feelings because she thought it would be a burden.

Hibiki, in my opinion, never once blamed Miku for the incident or never saw it in that light before, so she didn’t think Miku would have feelings like this.

I don’t intend to ever write Hibiki doing things right all the time. I enjoy writing her making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

So I’ll leave it at that. After this, there’s Alca-Noise summoned into the city, so everyone separates. Hibiki tells Miku they’ll talk later as Miku takes Elfnein and herself away to safety. 

Now this whole fight just shows how unstable Tsubasa is and possibly what that ability Millaarc used is effecting her still.

Side note: her song and transformation are REALLY good. Tsubasa’s transformation is really high if I had to rate them because it’s so beautifully animated. I love how special each transformation feels for each character this season. They’ve always been special and unique, but these intensify that to the max and I love it.

ALSO, during this scene, Hibiki makes a comment of thinking that the Alca-Noise are possibly a distraction. However, due to these other people from the government that took over, they don’t take her gut feeling seriously, which I think plays a part in the end.  My child was being smart for once and they didn’t listen FFFFFFFFFF

Okay, but Tsubasa fighting.

She starts seeing Millaarc as her and Hibiki are fighting the Alca-Noise.

This is where Tsubasa starts attacking relentlessly.

Tsubasa is the most experienced out of them all, and to see her lose control over herself and nearly do all these huge attacks that start destroying the town instead is really the thing to see.

And all it really is is Tsubasa seeing the Alca-Noise as Millaarc. This is concerning because what if she ends up seeing one of her friends as Millaarc instead, and possibly ends up hurting them? I honestly was really worried that she would end up hurting someone with all these attacks. Luckily not. And she created a lot of damage to the city because of this.

It really feels possible that Tsubasa will have to sit out of fighting for a while. Not sure if they’d actually do that in the show, but it seems fitting. It may not make her feel any better though.

Now the cliffhanger;

Miku and Elfnein are still making their escape before being cornered by Millaarc and that same government man from earlier. Their goal was clearly to get Elfnein out of HQ so they could take her. I could be wrong, but I assume it’s because Fudou needs her help possibly to help turn the Vambrace into a sword? Or whatever else he wants done to it.

But they didn’t come for Miku, and Millaarc wonders what she should do with her before getting a “call” from Vanessa.

There’s no telling what Vanessa told her until probably the next episode I assume, but it ends on a large geyser of blood, making it seem as if Millaarc killed Miku. 

I HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt this for multiple reasons; ---It’s just like episode 8 in G where people probably thought Miku died when the explosion at the tower happened. ---That random dude was there and it’s more than likely him being killed and seems the most obvious choice. ---Killing Elfnein seems pointless (unless she ran out in front of Miku even though Miku was protecting her at first) because they needed her. ---Would they really kill a main character only 5 episodes in?

I think that if Miku got hurt, they wouldn’t be showing so much blood coming out because that seems excessive. Or if she was actually hurt, I think it would have been sooooo much better if they actually showed Miku getting hit. That would make for a better cliffhanger in my opinion. But oh well. If they actually hurt Miku, I’ll be surprised. But for right now, unless the episode proves me otherwise, I don’t believe it at all.

What happens after this is a mystery; because if it’s actually the dude Millaarc killed, then what does that mean for Miku and Elfnein? Will they still hurt Miku another way? Possibly take her with them or just Elfnein? Would they get away? 

I kinda doubt about them getting away because Hibiki literally saying “we’ll talk later” feels like “We’ll try to talk later but we won’t really because shizz goes down to prevent us from talking for a while” LOL.

But yeah, two more days until the episode to see how it all went down. Preview will be tomorrow so that can help stir some thoughts. 

That’s really all I got haha.)

[mayuuunaise]

fic: pretty in punk

a/n: i pounded out roughly 5000+ words instead of making lesson plans :’))) it was so fun and easy to write though!! post s02e05

fandom: b-project: koudou ambitious read on: ao3 | under the cut

Truthfully, Tsubasa is immensely grateful that her fretting and worrying is all due to one big misunderstanding on both of their parts. Though, she is a tad bit concerned and equal parts guilty of contributing to said misunderstanding via misconceived expectations in the first place.

Yuuta tells her it’s fine; it’s nice to have a half-day off playing with the other boys after all. It’s not often their schedules and off days line up so perfectly. Tsubasa should know this, considering how much she spends time looking at spreadsheets and calendar apps just to make sure she can make it through the day without splicing her body in half over simultaneous schedules. Still, she can’t shake off that hint of disappointment in Yuuta’s usual cheer that has set her on edge for the duration of the work day.

It’s the pink-haired idol’s turn to record, and while Kaneshiro is busy making adjustments to the song arrangement, she takes the chance to gather information from his other teammate.

“Aizome-san, excuse me,” Tsubasa gingerly sits at the edge of the sofa, in between the other two members. “Do you mind if I asked you something?”

Aizome sends her one of his usual sly smiles, the one where the corner of his mouth twitches just so. “Is it for a date? Because I would say yes in a heartbeat.”

“What— no, err,” Tsubasa clears her throat and shifts awkwardly in her seat. Aizome seems quick on the uptake because he trades in his amused grin for a softer expression as he tilts his head to the side and chuckles. After a year of working with him, Tsubasa really should know better. Shaking off the flush from her cheeks, she leans a little closer to the idol. “Actually, well, it’s about Yuuta-kun.”

“Talking about another man really isn’t my style, Tsubasa-chan.”

“I just, well, I’m wondering if Yuuta-kun is that big of a fan of Justice Hoover?” She deliberately ignores Aizome’s comments and presses on, fiddling with her cellphone. “If I knew, I would have — err… I mean, Shuuji-san would definitely bring back a souvenir if we asked, right? Yuuta-kun just looked…really disappointed, I want to make it up to him.”

Aizome blinks slowly at her before barking out a short laugh, quickly covering it with the back of his hand. His bright blue eyes dart to the young man in question asking for one more run through of his own solo lines in the recording booth. Tsubasa doesn’t quite understand, but she feels as if she should be a little embarrassed, though is hesitant to ask Aizome if there’s anything wrong with what she’s saying.

Two misunderstandings in one day is clearly enough.

“It’s not really about Justice, and really he’s not as upset as he seems,” Aizome starts. “Though, I guess a part of him is just happy enough that you’re not going to the concert with someone else.”

“Please don’t tease me like that, Aizome-san…”

“Who says I am?” Aizome leans a little closer to her, and Tsubasa can almost take a whiff of the rose-scented conditioner he most probably used after the soccer game. Instinctively, Tsubasa leans back, her spine a little straighter as she prepares herself for another one of the blue-haired idol’s flirty banter. “I’m not afraid to say I’m very happy you’re not going on a date in a VIP room for some foreigner’s live concert.”

“Aizome-san…” Tsubasa trails off before pouting. There’s a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach already telling her that the male isn’t willing to divulge everything so easily. “But I still want to make it up to him. I mean, part of the whole futsal match was because I said something that led to expectations.”

“Tsubasa-chan, it’s not your fault and you know it.” Aizome assures her, a soft smile playing on his lips. Yuuta is almost at the end of his solo parts of THRIVE’s latest song, and Tsubasa feels that this isn’t really something she can freely talk about when the boy in question can actually hear it.

“But still, isn’t there’s something I can do?”

“I’m sure if it’s you, anything would be okay, Tsubasa-chan.” Aizome whispers with a smile that tells her he’s being vague on purpose. The older man expertly shifts the topic immediately when Yuuta steps out of the recording booth, excitedly asking them why they looked so cosy while he’s been hard at work recording his parts over and over again. Tsubasa doesn’t really understand, but Aizome sends her a wink over Yuuta’s shoulders, which only sends the pink-haired young man into another hyperactive frenzy. Kaneshiro has to raise his voice in the recording booth for the both of them to stop fooling around, it’s so distracting sheesh.

Tsubasa asks other people, like Aizome later suggests, but ends up with vague answers that leave her a little more confused than usual. She figures that the person closest to Yuuta aside form his teammates is Ryuuji, but the younger boy simply refuses to give him any more info than is strictly necessary.

“Shouldn’t you figure that out yourself?” Ryuuji pops another bubblegum flavoured chupa chuls in his mouth, waiting for Kitakado to return from hair and makeup. Tsubasa wonders briefly if she should be counting how many lollipops the idol actually consumes in a day, and if she should be mildly worried about it even, but brushes the thought away when Ryuuji narrows his pretty fuchsia eyes at her. As if he knows exactly what she’s thinking and he’s having none of it.

“But, I’ve been trying to think about it properly myself, and nothing came up.” Tsubasa sighs, flipping through her phone’s note sections to check on what else KitaKore needs before their music video shoot. She shouldn’t really be complaining in front of him, it’s entirely too unprofessional. Ryuuji’s incredibly blunt personality makes it easier for her to open up and be honest though. “And Yuuta-kun really has been working very hard lately. I wanted to do something for his efforts.”

“Are you saying we aren’t working as hard as he is?” Ryuuji points the frosty pink sphere of candy near her nose in what seems to be a menacing manner, though the scent of sweet bubblegum fills her nostrils and dispels the dread from the pit of her stomach.

“No, no! Of course not! I would never—”

Ryuji chortles a little bit, before popping the chupa chuls back into his mouth. “I’m kidding. But you’re lucky I was the one who heard that, the other groups might not be as forgiving you know? Nor would they be as generous—they’d be scrambling to get a reward from you as well.” Ryuuji smirks and leans back against the cushions, obviously enjoying how much discomfort he’s giving her at the wall she’s just backed herself into. “But— I do agree, Yuuta has been working himself to the bone lately. Are you praising him that much, Tsubasa-chan?”

“That’s not—”

“Korekuni-kun, Kitakado-san is ready for the group take. You’re needed on set in five!” A staff member cuts them short, popping her head in the dressing room and tapping the watch on her wrist for emphasis. Tsubasa calls out an affirmative almost immediately. Ryuuji sighs and stands up, toying with the lollipop stick in his mouth as he mutters something about ruining his fun.

“Well, when it comes down to it, you’ll know what he wants, Tsubasa-chan,” Ryuuji comments flippantly, the corners of his mouth twitching upward in amusement. “And if you don’t, I’m sure you’ll be enough.”

“Good afternoon! I hope I’m not intruding.” Tsubasa calls out, closing the door to THRIVE’s shared apartment behind her. She’s starting to toe off her boots when she notices the uncanny silence that’s usually absent from the rowdy trio’s afternoons off. “Hm? Are the others out? But the door was unlocked…”

Kaneshiro seems to be the only one in the living room, ears covered with his earphones and eyes staring intently at his laptop screen before flitting down at the sheet music in his hands. Tsubasa attempts to clear her throat, knowing fully well how much Kaneshiro dislikes it whenever anyone bothers him when he looks as focused as he does. It doesn’t work, and while Tsubasa debates over stepping past the receiving area awkwardly, Kaneshiro finally looks up and looks a bit surprised to find her company.

“Ah, Sumisora, what are you doing here? You should have said something, geez.”

“The documents for your next live event just came in, I wanted to give it to the group as soon as possible.” She lifts the manila folder as evidence, before scanning the vicinity for signs of any other humans in the house. “I’m sorry, should I have come at another time?”

“No, no, it’s fine, I’ll just give it to them when they come back.” Kaneshiro makes the motion of cleaning the desk of his stuff, before Tsubasa tries to stop him to say she won’t be here for long anyway. The brunette stands awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck and red eyes darting from the kitchen back to her. “So…uhhh, do you want some…tea or something? I’m sure Aizome has something in there that you’d like.”

“Mm, coffee would be fine, if it doesn’t trouble you!” Tsubasa isn’t entirely sure that Aizome wouldn’t throw a fit should Kaneshiro rifle through his tea collection, even if it is for her. Kaneshiro nods, visibly more relieved from not having to make the effort to prepare tea properly, before shuffling into the kitchen. Tsubasa isn’t quite sure what to do with herself and awkwardly shifts from foot to foot, contemplating on joining him in the kitchen or just staying in place.

“Sit down, you’ve been running around the whole day again, haven’t you?” She hears Kaneshiro grumble under his breath, back turned towards her as he moves to reach for one of the guest mugs he has probably seen her use the most. She squeaks out a quick yes, thank you, excuse me, before sitting near the edge of one of THRIVE’s sofas, taking a quick peek at the music sheet he’s been working on before she arrived. Ah, Kaneshiro has already begun arranging their setlist based on the little information she has given them the week before; as expected.

A glint of light reflecting catches her eye just as she’s about to comment, and Tsubasa is immediately drawn to the dark album case thrown haphazardly on their coffee table.

“Hm? Kaneshiro-san, isn’t this the band that performed with you in the Raijin festival last year?” Tsubasa picks up the cd case and admires the album jacket before flipping it over to scan through the song list. Some have been playing on the radio recently, and she recognizes the single they’ve been promoting with as a punk song some of the younger kids like to listen to.

“Yeah, Ashu has been listening to this a lot lately.” Kaneshiro places her mug on the coffee table in front of them, hers significantly lighter compared to the deep brown of his own. She thanks him before looking back at the album in awe. She doesn’t think she can imagine Yuuta, all bubblegum pop pink, jam to the harsher beats of a punk rock group. Then again, THRIVE’s wild music has been more rock band inspired lately.

“Eh, really? I didn’t know Yuuta-kun was interested in punk bands.”

“Well, Ashu liking punk rock isn’t the most surprising thing in the world, you know. The guy can listen to whatever he wants.” Kaneshiro shrugs nonchalantly, but she has to admit that it’s true. She picks up her mug of warm coffee, and wonders how big the difference between them knowing her and her understanding them really is. “There are lots of things that you don’t know about us.”

“Ah, but that just makes me want to work harder and understand all of you more. I do want to get to know all of you better—” Tsubasa is interrupted by Kaneshiro almost choking on his hot drink. She panics — just a little, she’s grown from her anxious newbie days after all — and starts patting his back and asking what’s wrong. Kaneshiro refuses to answer, but the tip of his ears are stained as red as his eyes. Instead, he shifts the topic back to the next live event and the music arrangement he has been working on before she arrived.

In the end, Kaneshiro’s words seem to have stuck the most, and she wonders if Nishiyama Takanori might be a bit more familiar with the punk rock scene. Tsubasa ends up making calls to a few people and working overtime in order to arrange Yuuta’s schedule just right for her surprise to work. She apologizes quietly to Yuuta when she fills in another early morning schedule to compensate for an earlier day off.

This will be worth it, she has to believe that at least.

THRIVE’s schedule is set to start early for their live event when the tickets arrive in her mailbox that morning. Momo had helped her with booking tickets online at a concert auction the week before, Tsubasa being far too busy running around between sets to properly search for one physically. The red head isn’t too amused at the special treatment Yuuta gets, but Tsubasa assures him that she’ll be sure that MooNs gets their own day off to play around sometime soon.

(Momo laughs softly when he tells her that’s not really the point. Tsubasa doesn’t really have time to dissect what exactly he means before he tells her that he looks forward to her making it up to them as well for how hard they’ve been working.)

“Everyone, good job out there!” Tsubasa is ready with cooling towels and colds water bottles when the unit gets back in their dressing room, still full of energy and adrenaline from a live performance. They’re absolutely glowing like this, hyped up from the fans and flushed from the rush of a good set. Tsubasa really, really thinks she’s far too lucky for landing a job like this.

“Thanks, Tsubasa-chan! Did you see me do that drum solo? Did you, did you?” Yuuta laughs as he picks up his water bottle from her awaiting hands. Kaneshiro practically growls when he slaps a towel over the pink haired idol’s face.

“You idiot, that improv almost ruined the whole set.” The brunette huffs, downing almost half of the cold water in one go.

“Ehhh, but it was fun! The fans thought so too, they were super hyped up, you know?”

“Yuuta, it’s best you talk about these things before hand.” Aizome chuckles before smirking at the disgruntled expression on Kaneshiro’s face. “You know our Goshi doesn’t like being surprised.”

“What did you say!?”

“It’s true, isn’t it? Isn’t that why you’re giving Yuuta such a hard time?”

“Mou, come on now, it’s fine! The live was great, we kicked some major butt out there!” Yuuta laughs before subtly separating the two from getting too close with each other. Tsubasa admits that it’s always so amazing to see Yuuta simultaneously be the reason THRIVE argues in the first place and the reason why they drop it.

Tsubasa laughs, “You all seem to be getting along well, as usual.”

“Hmph, what part of this looks like ‘getting along well’ huh, Sumisora?” Kaneshiro slumps in the seat across from her, arms crossed over his chest as he cools down. Aizome takes the seat next to her, chuckling a little before pulling up his compact mirror. Aizome doesn’t even look at them, but continues the conversation anyway as he readjusts the stray wisps of his blue hair.

“Now, now, Goushi, it doesn’t do well to be such a sore loser.”

“Why you—”

Yuuta has him back in his seat before he has a chance to say anything more. His hands are firm on the shorter young man’s shoulders, “Relax, Gouchin! We should be congratulating ourselves, that was a super awesome set.”

“Yes, it was. I could see how excited the fans and even some of the staff members were when I was in the wing.” Tsubasa compliments before bringing out her cellphone, quickly tapping through a few things before finding the calendar application that she usually uses. “And because of all the hard work that you’ve been doing the past few weeks, Shuuji-san decided to give you guys an early long weekend.”

Noises of disbelief come from the three, asking if she’s serious about it. Truthfully, she had to almost beg Shuuji for the day off, the president only giving up under the condition that she’d be on call still just in case any surprise, extremely important events arise.

“Your last schedule is only until tomorrow at noon, afterwards you’re free to spend the day as you please.” Tsubasa informs them. Aizome already seems to be making scheduled dates from the looks of his rapid typing, and Kaneshiro asks until what time the studio they often frequent is open. Yuuta seems to be the most excited, listing down all of the things he could do for the next few days, which reminds her that she really should give the tickets to him as soon as she can before he makes any set plans that could conflict with the concert’s schedule.

Tsubasa digs through her canvas bag, trying to get a glimpse of the familiar sakura-print ticket holder she normally uses. Her eyes light up when she manages to find it, “Ah, Yuuta-kun—”

Yuuta pauses mid-listing, and turns to her. The others pause whatever they’re thinking of as well and copy his movements, evidently curious as to what she needs. Tsubasa feels a little flustered under their expectant gazes, she really should have thought this out more. Maybe Ryuuji is right, and the boys really would be demanding their own rewards for working just as hard.

(A voice in the back of her head that sounds suspiciously similar to the younger of the KitaKore duo tells her, of course Ryuuji is right, you idiot)

Yuuta snaps her out of her thoughts when he calls her name, and Tsubasa flushes just a little, hand gripping the ticket holder hard enough that it creases.

“That is, uhm…!” Tsubasa decides ripping the band aid right off is better than prolonging her agony in any other way, matter, or form. Her hand shoots out from her bag, gripping the sakura-print cover tightly between her index finger and thumb. “Here!”

Yuuta blinks back at her, big amethyst eyes full of confusion. Tsubasa tries very hard not to look at the other two members of THRIVE when he gingerly plucks it from her hands. “Mm? What is it, Tsubasa-chan?”

“They’re, uhm, tickets…” Tsubasa drifts off and tries desperately to avoid THRIVE’s various levels of accusatory stares. “…to-to a band called Ominous Them? They’re playing in the Shinjuku area soon, and Shuuji-san told me you’ve been a fan of them for a while now—”

Tsubasa finally looks up to find Yuuta’s amethyst eyes practically sparkling in excitement, mouth open in a bright grin that only seems to highlight his prominent canines even more. Kaneshiro rolls his eyes and slumps in his seat, though his own gaze flits back and forth at the tickets creasing in their youngest’s vice grip.

“Tsubasa-chan, do you mean it?” Yuuta laughs and whoops louder, jumping up and down in excitement. “Thank you, thank you, thank you…!!”

Aizome gives her a look from the corners of her eyes, but really, Tsubasa is just relieved to see the pink-haired idol so happy about it. She finally releases a sigh of relief and smiles contentedly at him. “I’m glad you’ll have fun then, Yuuta-kun.”

“Eh, but you’ll be coming too, won’t you?” Yuuta pauses, genuinely confused when she blinks up at him blankly.

“Oh, I thought you might want to invite someone else to enjoy your day off with—”

“Then, Tsubasa-chan! I pick Tsubasa-chan to watch this with!”

“Come on now, Yuuta, you can’t just bother Tsubasa-chan like this.” Aizome reprimands him gently. Yuuta, in turn, gives him a big childish pout. He looks ready to throw a tantrum if the need arises.

“Ehhh, but there’s no point if Tsubasa-chan doesn’t come with me.” Tsubasa can feel her face heat up at his words, what does that even mean?

“Come on, Ashu, don’t be so rude. You don’t even know if she likes music like that.” Kaneshiro huffs and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest in the process. Aizome hums in agreement.

Kaneshiro’s words seem to have hit him somewhere where it hurts, because Yuuta’s expression falls at the realization of the possibility of her not actually wanting to spend her day off with him. “But, uhh… if Tsubasa-chan doesn’t want to go, then I guess—”

“No, it’s not—!! I would be honoured if you wanted me to come with you, Yuuta-kun!”

Yuuta’s face perks up immediately as he jumps up with a loud whoop. The pink haired idol does a little dance in his place, chanting alright, alright, alright! in various levels of excitement. Tsubasa wonders if she should be worried about attending a punk rock show for the first time, especially when Kaneshiro snorts and mouths a sarcastic good luck from his seat across her.

Whatever Tsubasa imagines a punk rock live concert is, it’s definitely not much like the real thing. The walls have been painted black, from what she can tell by the parts not hidden behind various band posters and vandalism at the very least. Her nose wrinkles as it catches a whiff of a weird mix of smoke, cheap cologne and stale beer. Tsubasa fingers the hem of her pastel sweater, awkward and out of place in this sea of dark reds and black.

Her eyes flit over to Yuuta beside her, practically thrumming in excitement. Yuuta, whose bubblegum pink hair has been hidden discreetly and expertly underneath a knit beanie (something in her gut tells her he probably borrowed it from Kaneshiro). Yuuta, whose easygoing personality has instantly scored him some friends from waiting in the line outside together. Yuuta who definitely must not feel any awkwardness infiltrating his body in spite of the new environment. Tsubasa envies him, just the slightest bit.

She bites the bud of self-doubt before it grows any further.

“Have you gone here before, Yuuta-kun?”

“No, not here.” Yuuta shakes his head, a few stray strands flying out to frame his freckled face. He reaches out to tuck it back, exposing the dangling piercing on his right ear. “Gouchin and I snuck into one before we debuted! That was a fun experience.”

Before Tsubasa can ask any more, the distant buzzing of chatter suddenly rise to screams and cheers as the band shuffles their way to the stage. Yuuta joins in beside her, but otherwise makes no move to enter into the fray of people flocking the edge of the stage. How weird must it be for Yuuta, whose everyday job is to stand on the other side, to be now hanging back with the crowd? The brunette claps politely as the front-liner taps twice on the mic with a lazy grin, sweeping his wild hair back with a free hand.

“I’m seeing a lot of familiar faces here in the crowd.” The vocalist notes, scanning through the sea of people. Tsubasa wonders if he can even see anything against the glare of lights? She would have to ask the boys later on if it really is true that you can see the faces of the fans past the third row. “Which is always a fun thing you know?”

Tsubasa can practically feel Yuuta buzzing, all grins as he shouts along with the fans. The drummer plays a haphazard beat before hooting, revving and riling up the crowd even more.

“Shinjuku, are you ready to rock!?”

The band launches into song immediately after, and the sound sends her to almost another world entirely. Kaneshiro has warned her about the intense volume that punk rock music brings with it, Aizome almost teasing when he asks if he’s that worried about her. Really, though, Tsubasa doesn’t think any of his warnings ready her for anything as powerful as this.

It’s loud and chaotic, and the images that flash across her head are too fast for her to properly process. The whole thing makes her a little dizzy, as if they want to throw everything at her all at once.

But she feels so, so alive.

When the brunette turns to Yuuta, the pink haired idol can’t stop his body from moving. He looks at her, and then back to the crowd. There’s a twinkle in his eyes that tell her he’s up to something, but the bright smile on his face convinces her that whatever it is he asks, it’s something that she’d eventually want to fulfill. Yuuta reaches out a hand to her, all wild mischief and sincere heart.

“Do you trust me?”

Tsubasa says yes in a heartbeat, and before she has time to think twice about what Ryuuji would inevitably call a very stupid decision, Yuuta pulls her in and leads the way towards the crowd gathering in front. The brunette can faintly hear the younger man deliberately telling her not to let go of his hand, no matter what happens. (she’s awkward and shy in an unfamiliar environment, of course she’s never letting go of the hand of the one person she actually knows in this punk rock fest)

Bodies press close to each other in a weird form of companionship that Tsubasa has never really seen. And although she’s nervous, her heart beating loudly against her chest, Yuuta makes sure to grin in support, you’re doing great, Tsubasa-chan. Yuuta leans in close, the only way he’ll be able to let her hear him of course, and the blood pounding behind her ears gets even louder. “Just dance! Come on, dance with me!”

“How—What do I do?”

“Whatever feels natural!”

He takes her hands, careful of how his numerous accessories press against her skin. Yuuta begins jumping up and down, not so much as a dance step as it is just making sure that he gets to exhaust his energy and move around. Tsubasa awkwardly follows his lead, steps a little mismatched. Yuuta starts banging his head, making her laugh in delight seeing fluffy bubblegum pink hair flying wild and free, his beanie almost off of his head when he’s done. She can feel the sweat dripping against the back of her neck, incredibly aware of how many other bodies there are in this mosh pit, but Yuuta has the uncanny ability to somehow take all of her attention unapologetically.

She has never seen a Yuuta this free and so genuinely happy.

Yuuta bounces in time to the beat and somehow Tsubasa matches his pace. His grin is somehow extra-blinding before he throws both of their hands up and lets out a loud “Whoo!”

And maybe she actually does feel that this is kind of fun—

But then he accidentally does let go of her hand, and Tsubasa is swept away in the crowd of people shoving and dancing and way too into her personal space; where’s Yuuta?

Shoulders and elbows. Digging into her sides and almost hitting her head. One burly man apologizes for accidentally pushing a young girl almost half his size. One tattooed woman screams for more music too close to her sensitive ears. Too close for comfort. This is far too much she can handle. Where the hell is Yuuta? And—

Tsubasa can’t breathe—

Someone wraps a hand around her wrist and she’s about to scream bloody murder until her bright red eyes meet a spray of familiar freckles. Tsubasa doesn’t know if she wants to cry out in frustration more or melt in absolute relief over finding her idol (or is she technically the one who has been found?). Shuuji-san would skin her alive if she tells him she lost THRIVE’s moodmaker in a sea full of people wearing various pointy accessories.

“Yuuta-kun, please don’t scare me like that!” Tsubasa has to shout over how loud the music is and how many people are cheering as the band transitions into a new song.

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Tsubasa-chan!” Yuuta at least looks as apologetic as he sounds, his hands squeezing her wrists as if to remind himself that she’s right there still. “I didn’t mean to lose you, I promise!”

Tsubasa nods and uses her free hand to wipe away the unshed tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Yuuta sighs in relief, shoulders sagging before smiling softly at her. He takes away her hand from her face and slips his palms over hers firmly holding on.

Tsubasa feels her face heat up and is thankful for all of their jumping around just moments before. “Yuu, Yuuta-kun?”

When the brunette looks up, Yuuta doesn’t quite meet her eyes, his own amethyst ones flicking all over the place before they finally rest on their entwined palms. “This is… just so I can make sure I don’t lose you again. Is this okay?”

The rapid beating of her heart tells her it’s not okay, but she’s held hands with him before, and it really isn’t that weird, right? So Tsubasa nods shakily, and lets herself be overwhelmed by the bright beam Yuuta gives her in response.

“Do you still want to dance in the mosh pit?” Tsubasa knows how much of a good person the idol is, and it’s further cemented by the fact that she also knows if she says no, he’ll pull the both of them out even though he looks like he still really, really wants to play.

And isn’t this supposed to be a reward for Yuuta working so hard?

Tsubasa nods, and barely mouths a just for a little bit more, before Yuuta whoops and hollers. He pulls her close and immediately finds the beat again. Tsubasa doesn’t suppress the laugh that bubbles in her throat as the energy from everyone eventually infects her, and she’s up and about and almost as bouncy as Yuuta.

[venus-says]

Symphogear AXZ Episodes 09-13

When bonds become miracles.

And we finally get at the end of the road on this marathon!

These past 2 weeks have been a wild and fun ride. I’m a mix of exhausted, happy, sad, and excited to close this project, so let’s dive right into it because I have lots of things to say!

So these first episodes (9 and 10) are a continuation of the “new combinations” mini ark that started in the last episode. And I kinda regret that I didn’t do any research beforehand because I could’ve planned these posts more efficiently, but oh well. XD

I’ll try to start with the things I didn’t like so we can move forward to the final ark on a good note.

I think I’ve mentioned this before but I have a serious love and hate relationship with Shirabe and Kirika. It goes more to loving Shirabe and hating Kirika most of the time, but this isn’t what happened in this ark.

Shirabe was very annoying in episode 9, and I think the writers did her very dirty for that episode in specific. They try to play out that because of the walls she built for herself she’s not so open to others and this affects her on battle because Kirika is the only one she can work along with. But that’s not really the truth because we’ve seen her work and get along with the other girls so why would this make her so uncertain about the whole situation? Like, even if you say you can’t make it work, it doesn’t mean you can’t even try, especially in the situation they were at that moment. Maybe it’s just me, but as I was watching every time Shirabe says she can’t work with anyone other than Kirika just sounds like jealousy and it just doesn’t work.

I believe the last minor thing I dislike in this part is Tiki. She’s annoying as fuck and she was getting on my nerves in these two episodes 

Thankfully, as a counter-point to Shirabe annoyance, Kirika and Hibiki’s combination was very fun to watch, and even their interactions as civilians were pretty good and it gave a bit of lightness to such a dense period of the story. And I’m surprised how they managed to put things together to make such a beautiful moment in the end when Kirika jumps to save Hibiki and Saint-Germain, Kirika has already more than once talked about her birthday so when she falls out of the attack and let Hibiki knows why her birthday is so important the moment suddenly gets very emotional and it just works so beautifully.

Talking about the fights on the two episodes, as much as I like Tsubasa and her cool motorcycle their Fast & Furious fight was just so boring, and the way they didn’t even wanted to hear what Prelati had to say just made me roll my eyes even more. The fight against Saint-german was pretty cool, though my favorite part of it was Hibiki being Hibiki and trying to talk with her. If this was any other show I’d probably think this is dumb, but this is symphogear a show about people connecting and I just love these moments.

The last thing I have to comment on this little block, probably my favorite thing about episode 9, I believe they tried to set up a connection between Shirabe and the bunny shrine and I’m very excited to see if they’ll dive in Kirika and Shirabe’s past in XV.

The final ark had its ups and downs, but overall I liked pretty much all of it.

Episode 11 was pretty much just action, and it was pretty good, the choreography for that fight was pretty interesting and it was very good seeing Saint-Germain and Hibiki working together, I don’t know why but I had this “this is very satisfying I wanna see more of you” all the time while watching them fight Adam.

And speaking of him the revelation of him being a puppet was pretty shocking. I didn’t expect that at all, it was a good surprise.

If I have a problem with this episode in specific is that the solution of Gungnir being a philosophical armament was kinda a Deus EX Machina??? Like it came out of nowhere?? I believe they’d know about since they have Gungnir for years, even prior to the current events. I also didn’t like this because it makes that Hibiki is the only one who can truly fight this treat and it makes things less interesting. But they had some form of secrecy about the identity of who was helping the S.O.N.G. team and I wanna believe this is something relating to the next season so I’ll let it pass.

Also, they kinda turn Hibiki into a God and that’s a fucking big deal so...

I like the poetry of making all of the final events play in Hibiki’s birthday, especially if you consider that she was kinda reborn after being released of the God’s power and all. The whole plan to set her free was pretty interesting as well, I wish that the secret weapon they had relating to Miku was giving her Sheshoujing back so that she could get near “God Hibiki” and talk to her more directly, but it still worked fine (besides the moment when they throw the anti-LiNKER in the two buttcheecks of the manifestation of a God).

And it is here where we reach the highest point of this finale when we get to see that, in Genjuuro’s words, people can connect and work together as one. And the big climax moment isn’t against a villain but is the villains getting redemption in a pretty good way. I did dislike the fact that neither Cagliostro or Prelati were actually dead, I think it’d make a better thematic rhyme if in that moment it was just Saint-Germain and the other two manifested near her because of the resolve in her heart and by the influence of heavenly power around her, but nonetheless it was still pretty good, and it somehow brings us back to season 1 finale that I loved.

Sadly this isn’t the end of the season because we didn’t get to use the opening as an attack yet.

And the first part of episode 13 broke the mood for me. Adam revealed a beast form, and once again the final fight isn’t a direct straight forward combat where both sides are trying to argue to finish the situation in the best way possible, just a big fight.

But hey! They turned Hibiki into a Gold Saint and she finished Adam off with a Pegasus Meteor Fist right in his monstrous stomach. At that moment I was just clapping in standing ovation because is so absurd.

The final slice of life part of the episode was pretty good, even Tsubasa’s grandpa being a major dumbass I enjoyed. Of course, to me, this would be even more perfect if we’ve had cut from the alchemists saving the city direct to this more normal environment, but I still like it.

We have Maria feeding Tsubasa and the latter being out of her character because of tomatoes. 10/10 high-quality content.

The post-credits scene was quite interesting and i’m very glad that I’m watching this one day before the new season comes out because it’d kill me all the questions they’ve dropped on top of my head like if it was nothing. Is Miku free from Balal’s curse? Does she also have the ability to be a vessel for divine power? Will she ever get her gear again? What does all of that mean??? I NEED ANSWERS.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some of them. I don’t know when I’ll be able to watch XV’s first episode, but as soon as I do I’ll post a review so be in alert for it!

Before I go, I’d like to once more thank everyone who stuck with me during the past 12 days. If everything goes right this week I’ll try to get more active in here again and I hope I’ll still have you all with me. Thank you and see ya~

[tsukino-project]

HC for how the THRIVE members act around their crush and how they'll confess?

So -- it’s probably my fault that it took this long to post this one. I’ve made mine with so many points, that the other mods tried their best to come up with as many. Sorry about that. m(_ _;)m But I assure you, it’s definitely worth the wait! So without further ado, enjoy~!

~Mod Suki 🐱 7.30.18

Goshi - (Mod Suki 🐱)

- Music.

- It’s really all about music. He’ll talk nonstop about music with you.

- Casually drops some recommendations here and there but he’ll definitely listen to some of yours too.

- He’ll invite you out in the pretense of only shopping for CDs, but takes you out to dine in cafes, sing in karaokes and all the other music-related stuff, along the way.

- He’ll even help out in choosing the right stuff for you. (Music player, headphones and the like.)

- Oh. And going to concerts is the norm. You’re likely not allowed to refuse.

- He’ll talk animatedly about everything and anything if and only it’s music-related.

- Otherwise, he’s the grouchy tsundere that he is. Even with you.

- He’ll likely avoid having you around THRIVE. Who knows what those two will be up to.

- But if it can’t be helped, he’ll probably just deny whatever ‘stupid stuff’ those two are revealing about him to you

- He’ll show a bit of affection, complimenting you and stuff…

- “Heh - You’re good.”

- But you need to be attentive to hear them because he’ll probably not be repeating them for a second time.

- But if you managed to pester him enough, he’s likely to repeat it – along with a blush, a stutter and some demeaning words – so do have your camera ready, or better yet, a video camera… It’s a moment worth memorializing.

- Day of confession… He’ll be moodier than ever. His nervousness an all-time-high.

- Yuuta and Kento will complain about him being stricter than usual during rehearsals.

- But since he’s a natural professional when it comes to music, he’ll give his best performance no matter what.

- Quickly leaving the venue is a must, to avoid the nosy duo’s further teasing.

- He’ll be pacing back and forth and grumbling while waiting for you to arrive. (He’s that uneasy.)

- “ !! – You’re late.” *grumble and blush* (No. You’re not. He’s just too early. And you look stunning in your yukata.)

- He’ll end up walking ahead of you in his nervousness, and when he sees you a few steps behind, he’ll try to hold your hand but ends up going for the wrist instead.

- Taking you to a somewhat secluded place but with the most magnificent view of the fireworks, readying himself.

- “I love you.” *fireworks as background noise*

- “I - I’m not repeating it, stupid! It’s your fault for not hearing it the first time!”

- But since he’s pretty much weak to cute animals(He’ll totally deny this one.), making a puppy dog eyes along with a cute pout will surely do the trick.

- “Tsk.” *holds your hand* “I love you.”

- Blushes and looks away from your sweet smile.

- But he’ll look back after the initial embarassment pass and smile his own happy grin.

Yuuta~☆ ~Mod Mika 🐰(I hope these are okay! I’m very very new to B-project, so I’m still learning the characters) 

- He’ll continuously offer them his prized rainbow puddings, feeling immensely satisfied every time they accept one. 

- EXTRA excitable. He will not remain still at all due to how happy their presence makes him. 

- Will try to show off in front of his crush, just small things like how well he could prepare them tea/coffee or whatever else they may drink. 

- He likes to spend time with his crush with his fellow THRIVE members as long as he gets most of their attention. 

- If he’s not receiving the most attention, he’ll sit in the corner, almost sulking while longingly gazing at them. He isn’t even aware he does it unless it’s pointed out. 

- Tries to look extra appealing for you but also attempts to do it subtly - not that subtly matters because honestly everyone knows he has a crush on said person. Goushi and (mostly) Kento tease him about it.

- Yuuta doesn’t even realize he has a crush until it’s explained to him. He thought it was strange that being near them made him feel so warm and giddy. 

- He ends up unintentionally following them around quite a bit, though he genuinely tries to avoid doing so. 

- He’ll do anything that’s asked of him. If his crush says they’re thirsty, he’ll appear with a beverage for them in seconds. 

- Compliments at any given opportunity, he’ll also always remind them they look stunning each time they meet. 

- He’ll debate on how to confess for a little while, wanting it to be a perfect process. 

- He’ll also pester his fellow THRIVE members for ideas and advice, especially Kento since he’s a natural with women. 

- Eventually he decides upon a simply planned date 

- However, that doesn’t matter, he ends up blurting out his feelings by mistake once they do something simple that utterly captivates him. 

- He then attempts to correct himself, settling for a messy yet sweet confession.

Kento - (Mod Kayu 🐼)

- Faces a really hard time in winning your heart because you feel his flirtatious behaviour with you is the same as it is for other girls.

- ‎Gets all serious around you.

- ‎Very protective and gentlemanly. Won’t even look at Tsubasa or any other woman once he has his eyes on you.

- Gets really jealous when he sees you conversing with guys other than him.

- ‎Especially Goshi. 

- ‎Teases you. A lot! 

- ‎Unintentionally gives you an inferiority complex when it comes to fashion and style.

- ‎Thus he’s getting into casuals these days.

- ‎But if you ever need advice on clothes, latest fashion trends, shoes, perfumes, whatever.. you know where to go.

- ‎Takes time to realize he has to do something out of the box to win you. Quite slow on updating himself.

- ‎Hesitantly reveals his vulnerable side to you, thus indirectly emphasizing on why he needs you in his life.

- ‎Gets all flustered if you compliment him randomly.

- ‎Hides his embarrassment by shooting an equally flustering comment at you.

- ‎Lots of cheesy compliments and pick up lines. He never seems to run out of them (Actually renews his stock of pick up lines every night from the internet.)

- ‎"Your cheeks seem cold. Let me warm them up for you, princess. Kisses your cheek".

- ‎"I don’t exercise very often but I’m sure my heart is in a pretty good shape…. Because whenever I see you, my heart starts beating around 7000 per minute, which is way more for an average heart.“

- ‎When he feels he can’t hide it any longer, he decides to confess.

- ‎Tries to make it heartfelt and honest. Shows his true self.. none of his usual flirtatious attitude. Just his true self that was so mad in love with you.

- ‎Unexpectedly, he chooses to say it privately in a celebration party, so that a good night’s sleep can heal all hard feelings. Though he’s unsure if you’ll want to see him again after what he’s about to say.

- ‎Loads of teasing and nosy questions from Yuta and Goshi. He’s not able to keep his head clear.

- ‎So he just drags you away from them and the two of you end up at the terrace, fondly gazing at stars while secretly cherishing each other’s company.

- ‎His heart leaps with nervousness as he notices those e/c hues glimmering in wonder and fascination, those s/c cheeks blushing ever so lightly, those tender lips he always wanted to capture against his own. He knew.. it’s now or never.

- ‎Takes your hand in his own, inhales deeply, cups your cheek and says it lovingly.

- ‎"F/n, I can’t hold these feelings any longer. I’m… I.. I like you. I really do.”

- ‎A moment of a blank stare from you is enough for him to believe he was rejected. He lets go of your hand and steps back vaguely.. as if he felt he crossed his limits.

- ‎Blue eyes glimmer for a fraction of a second before completely darkening out. His usual gaze of fondness and admiration is now hollowed out and seems lifeless.

- ‎Until you reach out for his hand and break the torturous silence.

- ‎"I like you too, Kento" you state shyly with a hesitant smile.

- ‎Cerulean hues light up with joy and exhilaration as he continuously reminds himself it’s not a dream.

- ‎Happy and embarrassed as heck.

- ‎Most probably twirls you into a hug from behind and dramatically asks you to be his girlfriend.

- ‎The day ends with a desperate Tsubasa trying to keep Goshi and Yuta from interrupting your sweet moments.

[kanasmusings]

[Translation] SolidS Drama CD Vol. 4 - Kumo no Mukou ni - Track 2

Here’s the second track~ 

Under the cut as usual, enjoy!

SolidS – Kumo no Mukou ni Drama CD Track 2

  (Tsubasa’s humming and drinking coffee)

(door opens and Rikka walks in)

RIKKA: Oh? I can smell the rich aroma of coffee~

TSUBASA: Yep, that’s right! I borrowed Shiki’s most prized possession.

TSUBASA: It’s to get me pumped up before work.

RIKKA: I guess Shiki won’t get mad if it’s for that.

RIKKA: (he puts a bag down) Alright then… I’m done preparing~

TSUBASA: Great work~

TSUBASA: Good luck with your work today, Rikka. You’re going to Kyoto all of a sudden with Dai-chan for work, right?

RIKKA: Yeah. Haiduki-san contacted us this morning and he said he’ll pick us up from here in a while. After that we’ll be riding a bullet train from Tokyo Station.

RIKKA: We’ll be there until the day after tomorrow. I know there were certain circumstances but it really was too sudden, huh?

TSUBASA: I see. Did someone suddenly fall ill or something? You’re gonna participate in an event, weren’t you?

RIKKA: That’s what I heard. There’ll be a kimono exhibition and then an interview. And then after that there’s a photo shoot around the city I think…

RIKKA: He said he’ll explain to us in detail on the bullet train.

TSUBASA: Spring in Kyoto, huh~ I feel like it’ll make for great pictures!

RIKKA: That’s right~ (sighs) I kinda wish I could just go sightseeing though.

TSUBASA: Totally! I wonder if the cherry blossoms are in bloom already~

RIKKA: I wonder. Maybe they’re still buds just like here in Tokyo.

TSUBASA: Ah, Rikka, there’s some coffee ready. Want some?

RIKKA: Yes, thank you.

RIKKA: Your mornings sure are elegant, huh, Tsubasa~

RIKKA: You start work at noon today?

TSUBASA: Yep~ There’s a meeting and a few formalities before the start of the CM filming.

TSUBASA: There’s gonna be a briefing on a lot of stuff so they said we needed to all be there.

TSUBASA: It’s gonna be until night but I think I’ll be back before dinner.

RIKKA: I see. It was a CM for a drug company, right?

TSUBASA: Yeah. It’s a CM for a nutritional drink.

TSUBASA: “A step forward during a crucial moment.” is the concept.

TSUBASA: It seems like it’s a series where people from different jobs will cooperate with each other.

TSUBASA: My partner’s an author.

RIKKA: Eh? An author…? Who?                      

(Tsubasa picks up a book and shows it to Rikka)

TSUBASA: Here. He’s this book’s author.

TSUBASA: “An up-and-coming novelist!” He’s Kuriki Yohei.

RIKKA: Ah, I know him. He’s gotten several awards recently, right? I remember seeing him on the news.

RIKKA: If I remember correctly… He’s being called the number one author preferred by young readers.

TSUBASA: Looks like it~ I’ve read all four of his works, too.

RIKKA: What were they like?

TSUBASA: Hmmm… My impressions are… They’re like charcoal fire?

RIKKA: (chuckles) What’s with that? That sounds like an impression fitting for his books, huh?

TSUBASA: All the subjects you can pick up from his books are really difficult!

TSUBASA: Like, there’s the harmful effect of an internet-centric society or… Something about a family who moved to live in a virtual forest and stuff.

TSUBASA: His composition’s really difficult and I felt like “Woah, what the heck?!” when I first started reading one.

TSUBASA: But, when I resolved myself to read it, I couldn’t put it down.

TSUBASA: Even after thinking it’s difficult at first, it leaves a unique kinda fire inside your heart after you’re done reading.

TSUBASA: That’s why it’s ‘charcoal fire’. Did ya get it~?

RIKKA: It’s a heat that slowly swallows you, was it?

TSUBASA: Yep, yep! That’s kinda how it is.

RIKKA: Hmm~ I feel like reading them now, too. Will you lend it to me next time?

TSUBASA: Of course~

RIKKA: So, going back to the CM topic, you’ll be co-starring with Kuriki-san, huh?

TSUBASA: Yep. It seems like they’ll show me at a crucial moment before a live and they’ll show him during a crucial moment with his deadline.

RIKKA: It’ll be about both of your challenges, right~

RIKKA: I hope that it’ll be a good commercial. I’m looking forward to it.

TSUBASA: Thank you~

RIKKA: It feels like it will be a passionate one, huh?

(door opens)

DAI: Sorry for the wait.

RIKKA: Ah, no, I just got finished [packing] a while ago. Wait, Dai—Is that all you’re gonna bring with you?

DAI: Hm? Yeah, that’s right.

RIKKA: Isn’t that rucksack the one you’re always using?

DAI: Yeah.

RIKKA: Is there… did you really bring stuff that’s for a 2-3 day trip…?

DAI: Of course. This is enough.

DAI: We’ll still be in Japan after all. If I need something I can just buy it somewhere there.

TSUBASA: Dai-chan’s always carried a few things during times like these, huh~

RIKKA: Back during my model days I was always running around here and there so I thought that it’d be better to have a compact case but…

RIKKA: I kinda feel like I just lost.

DAI: That’s a weird thing to be upset at losing about.

RIKKA: (laughs) But, don’t you think it’s kinda cool that you look like you’re used to travelling because you’ve only got a little stuff with you~?

TSUBASA: I feel ya~! You’re still fine. It’s not like Rikka’s carrying a lot of stuff either.

DAI: Shiki’s stuff is even fewer compared to mine, you know?

RIKKA: He’s an exception. His lack of stuff is totally on a mysterious level.

TSUBASA: He does go on overseas trips with only one bag. Like, the other day he managed to survive in Nagoya with only a small bag and his wallet.

DAI: Yeah, he did. I remember that.

DAI: He did buy souvenirs but the paper bag was bigger than his own stuff.

RIKKA: Unbelievable.

TSUBASA: His bag might be mysteriously connected to the paper bag, ya know~

RIKKA: (chuckles) I feel like that’s possible.

DAI: Is it really?

RIKKA: I kinda hold a grudge against Shiki for not needing to bring skin care and hair products.

DAI: Ah… Though he looks like the type to bring coffee-flavoured candy and sake bottles.

RIKKA: Maybe I’ll inspect his stuff next time.

RIKKA: It might be fine for now but in 5 years or so, if he doesn’t take care of his skin and hair, he’ll have trouble with it.

RIKKA: My goal is to be as cool with our personal appearance even when we become “Old Men SolidS”. I’ll have everyone do their best, too~

TSUBASA: Woah~ Rikka’s on fire~

DAI: Anyway… “Old Men SolidS” sounds weird.

TSUBASA: Right~ Specially if Rikka says it, I feel like there’s an underlying omen… Old men…? Or something. I totally can’t imagine it…

DAI: I agree. Everyone aside from Rikka will look different.

RIKKA: Really? Although I’d be happy if that were true~

RIKKA: But, we’re human so we’ll age. There’s nothing negative about getting older.

RIKKA: I at least want to be able to age coolly and be admired a little.

TSUBASA: Oh-ho~ Rikka’s sense is so grand.

TSUBASA: I can’t imagine you as an old man but I can imagine Shiki!

TSUBASA: He’d definitely suit being a part of Old Men SolidS!

TSUBASA: (trying to imitate Shiki’s voice) “I’m Takamura Shiki, 40 years old. I’m still fired up for work as usual!” he’d definitely say something like that!

SHIKI: Sorry for being such a predictable old man.

TSUBASA: …! (in a high-pitched voice) W-woah…!

SHIKI: Though you’re not wrong about the fact that I’ll still be gung-ho about work when I’m in my 40’s.

SHIKI: I’ll stay in this industry for my entire life.

TSUBASA: Y-you surprised me…! Can you please not just appear so suddenly?

RIKKA: I almost spat out my coffee…

DAI: I’d have been soaked if I continued walking forward.

SHIKI: It’s not sudden. I came in normally from the door.

SHIKI: You were probably too excited about Old Men SolidS that you didn’t notice. I think it’s still good but are you sure you’re not gonna be late?

RIKKA: Eh? Ah, it’s already this time.

TSUBASA: Ah, I’ll clean the cups later.

RIKKA: Thank you. Dai, let’s go.

DAI: Sure.

SHIKI: Do your best.

RIKKA: Yes, we’ll do our best at work~ Good luck to you two as well.

RIKKA: Especially you, Shiki. I heard that your deadline’s coming close. Get some proper rest once in a while even though you’re busy, okay?

SHIKI: I’ll try. I’m sure Haiduki will coordinate it just fine. There are lots of times when things don’t always go according to plan. Outside influences might cause a delay on the matter at hand.

RIKKA: I see.

SHIKI: Fortunately, the topics at hand are completely different from each other and I can think freely about what to write. I hope I get something done.

SHIKI: Well, it’s what makes it fun.

DAI: It’s great that it’s for a SolidS song too, isn’t it?

SHIKI: Totally. That’s why I might make you sing more dazzling idol songs again.

DAI: That’s… I hope you don’t…

RIKKA: Eh~? Isn’t that fun? I plan to sing it with all I’ve got though~

RIKKA: Bring it on~

TSUBASA: Me, too!

DAI: He might really make us do it so stop that.

SHIKI: Look forward to it.

RIKKA: (chuckles) Now then… We’ll be on our way for real this time.

DAI: We’ll be on our way.

TSUBASA: Take care~!

SHIKI: Be careful.

(door opens and Rikka and Dai leave)

TSUBASA: I wonder what they’ll bring us for souvenirs~ I’ll look forward to it~

SHIKI: If they had that much free time, it’d be fine. But it looks like their schedule’s packed.

TSUBASA: Eh? Is that so?

SHIKI: It was an irregular request. A few days ago, an old desk worker retired and the one that took over wanted to do a prefecture-specific job and snuck it in. It went by completely unnoticed.

SHIKI: It was found out when the other party called in to confirm.

TSUBASA: Aw man… So that’s why Rikka and Dai-chan were suddenly called to fill in.

SHIKI: Exactly. If those two are there they’ll be able to do most of what’s needed.

SHIKI: They’re very versatile and there’s two of them. Plus, they’re pretty well-known.

SHIKI: The agency’s happy that they can show off talents who are good at not only singing and dancing.

TSUBASA: That’s great, Producer~ Don’t you feel so proud?

SHIKI: I guess.

SHIKI: By the way…

TSUBASA: Huh?

SHIKI: I’m curious about this aroma that’s filling the room.

TSUBASA: Geh…!

SHIKI: Tsubasa, that coffee you’re drinking, could it be…

TSUBASA: (in a slightly panicking tone) Oh no! Looks like I’ll be going out, too~!

TSUBASA: It’s a little early but I guess I’ll go shopping and eat an early lunch along the way~

SHIKI: Hey.

TSUBASA: I won’t be back until dinner so do your best at work, too, Leader! (he blows a kiss)

(Tsubasa opens the door)

TSUBASA: I’ll be going now~

(door closes)

SHIKI: Hey, Tsubasa. Hey, wa—

SHIKI: (to himself) Good grief. They drank such expensive coffee.

SHIKI: (to himself) Do your work properly in exchange.

  ==END==

※ Please don’t re-post these translations without permission.

[letsplaystarrysky]

Starry★Sky in Autumn -Hoshizuki- 10/13

With the school festival finished, life for Tsukiko and her classmates returns to normal…

...well, as normal as these guys ever get anyway.

Normal also means the prank war between the boys and Haruki-sensei has returned. This time the students think they have a foolHaruki-proof plan set in place. Tsukiko watches on, amused…

They do manage to trip him, with some accidentally-but-probably-on-purpose help from Mizushima. I have no idea what the total score for the year is at this point, but the students get one up on Haruki, which means they get his lunch. The utter tragedy of it.

But anyway, on to the next event of the year, which is...!

“The school trip!!!”

Haruki: Okay, you’re right, but before that we have the HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!

Aw heck yeah, the Halloween Party!

I like to imagine what all the other seasons’ guys dress up as.

I’d love for Tsubasa to dress up as Einstein just to set up a joke where Oshirou complains that he’s the wrong scientist and should have dressed up as Edison.

But I digress…

The Halloween party discussion by the way is chaos, what with Haruki being Haruki and getting all fired up, Mizushima being Mizushima and flirting with Tsukiko, only for her to bluntly turn him down and tell him to behave, which turns into the students teasing him for having sexy glasses and unruly hair.

Mizushima: ahem. The glasses have nothing to do with it.

(actual quote from the game, translation is 100% accurate)

And the students also declaring they will come up with costumes so scary they’ll scare Naoshi to tears.

But, Haruki gets the conversation back on track, after the Halloween party comes the school trip. According to Haruki the school trip is an all-important event in the storyline of their youths, are they ready?!

Yeah!!

Of course they are.

So anyway, what’s the school trip going to involve?

Haruki: We’re going stargazing!

…

You freaking nerds I love it.

So class ends with Tsukiko’s head full of all the fun things to come in her near future. On her way out of homeroom, she remembers that Hoshizuki had said he wanted to meet with her after school, something about the school trip, so she heads in his direction.

On her way, she’s joined by Haruki and Mizushima, who are going in the same direction.

Haruki: Are you going to the nurse’s office?

Mizushima: Some health rep work?

Tsukiko: Just a meeting.

Mizushima: … ah!

Haruki: What’s up? Did you forget something?

No, more like he remembered something.

What does he mean? He only agrees to tell when Tsukiko expresses that she’s curious too, because he’s nothing if not consistent.

Mizushima: Today’s Kota-nii’s birthday.

What, really?! Why didn’t he say so earlier?? Mizushima protests that he just remembered it himself, and besides, Kota-nii doesn’t like people to make a big deal out of his birthday anyway. Even so, Tsukiko says, it would be nice to do something for him, wouldn’t it? She wouldn’t feel right if they didn’t do anything.

Haruki agrees and even though Mizushima tries to wash his hands of it, they can tell he wants to do something too. They decide to just get together the four of them later for some stargazing. Haruki proposes bringing alcohol, moreso for himself than anyone else, and he drags Mizushima off to get ready. Tsukiko waves them off and says that when she and Hoshizuki finish their meeting, she’ll invite him up to the rooftop gardens.

After said meeting is finished and it’s already pretty dark outside, Tsukiko lingers in the nurse’s office trying to think of a way to get Hoshizuki up to the roof…

“What, are you going to start cleaning or something?”

Tsukiko looks around at the state of the office and admits that she really does want to clean up, but… she seques awkwardly, she also wants to go stargazing!

Hoshizuki: You do that, bye.

Tsukiko: I-It’s dark and I’m scared, can you come with me?

Hoshizuki: What? Why me?

Unable to think of an excuse she just awkwardly insists that it has to be him. He looks down at her suspiciously. She’s acting like Naoshi, that must mean she’s up to something. What? Tsukiko does an increasingly terrible job of acting innocent, no no, what’s he talking about? Come on, Hoshizuki-sensei, let’s go. Come on now, quickly! Ugh! Fine, he agrees, just stop pulling on his sleeve. Geez…

When they get to the rooftop gardens, Haruki and Mizushima are waiting with crackers, which they pop the moment the door opens. Happy Birthday, Kotarou-sensei! Happy Birthday, Kota-nii! Tsukiko looks up at his surprised face with a smile and a, Happy Birthday, Hoshizuki-sensei. He falters a bit as he says thank you, then accuses them all of having too much time on their hands.

Tsukiko: It’s your birthday, though! That only comes once a year!

Hoshizuki: Yeah, yeah, calm down.

Haruki: Try to act a little more excited, will you?

Mizushima: I told you guys he’d be like this

Hoshizuki: wow i’m so happy guys thanks… Happy now?

(Ishida’s deadpan delivery of that line is A++)

Well, anyway, he’s here now and it’s a party. Haruki declares it’s time for a toast (read: start drinking). Hoshizuki immediately shoots down the idea of alcohol, since Tsukiko’s their student and that’s bad form, plus he still has work to do. Haruki counters that he’s only going to make Mizushima drink with him so it’s okay. Mizushima was not aware of this plan.

The pour some drinks and Tsukiko is enjoying watching Haruki and Mizushima interact when she feels Hoshizuki’s gaze on her. What’s up? He (accurately) guesses that this was all her idea. She admits that it was her who first brought up wanting to do something for him and he gives her a wry smile.

Did he...really not like it?

His tone is soft as he answers that he didn’t say that.

How did he know it was her idea though? He smirks, who else would have thought of it? Although, he wouldn’t put it past Naoshi, he could tell right away it was her. As he says this, he looks up at the stars and looks so beautiful that Tsukiko’s heart skips a beat.

This quiet moment is broken when Haruki suddenly raises his voice. What’s up all of a sudden? He just remembered that the planetarium has a new program. Why don’t they go watch it? They all agree this is a good idea, and head over to the school’s planetarium. Haruki turns the program on, and as Tsukiko’s watching, she feels a sudden weight on her shoulder… in the dark she realizes Hoshizuki’s fallen asleep and slumped over to rest his head on her shoulder.

I’m sad there’s no CG for this.

Tsukiko wonders momentarily if she should wake him, but in the end decides to leave him be. In fact, having him resting against her is so comfortable the sound of him breathing starts to lull her to sleep as well…

Before she knows it, she’s being woken up by the equally sleepy voice of Hoshizuki. She blinks in the light and wonders for a second when the planetarium show finished.

Hoshizuki huffs good-naturedly. Honestly, what’s he to do with her? He’s one to talk, she points out, he fell asleep first.

“Ah, you noticed? Planetariums are pretty nice, aren’t they? They’re pretty to look at and great for a nap.”

Tsukiko: I’m pretty sure something you said isn’t quite right, there.

They leave the planetarium and emerge under the real stars, where it’s noticeably gotten colder. They can definitely feel the change of seasons in the air. Haruki points out that Tsukiko and Mizushima should enjoy feeling the seasons change while they can, since they’ll be adults and notice it less in no time.

Mizushima: Thanks for ruining the mood, Haruki-sensei.

Haruki: I’m going to make a proper adult out of you before your student teacher time here is up!

Hoshizuki: Please do.

Mizushima: Being a proper adult sounds awfully boring.

That’s like, the most true thing Mizushima has ever said.

As she, Haruki, and Mizushima are talking, Tsukiko notices Hoshizuki hanging back and watching on with a look on his face she can see means he’s having a good time.

But anyway, it really is cold. Haruki suggests they break the party up for the night. As Tsukiko gathers her things and prepares to follow him, Hoshizuki tells them thank you.

Back at ground level, he offers to walk Tsukiko back to the dorms while Haruki and Mizushima lock up. For a while the pair of them walk in silence. Tsukiko’s just trying to think of something to talk about, when…

“...thanks.”

He says it so quietly you almost can’t hear it.

For the party, she asks. Yeah, he admits, he doesn’t know what to do in situations like that, and it makes him uncomfortable, but all the same he admits it made him happy. Hearing this warms Tsukiko’s heart. She wishes him happy birthday once more, and he pauses, only to change the subject by comment on how the moon looks pretty.

Then the writing gets really awkward so we’ll just end here like the writers should have done :D

[lucanogis]

fic: to have and to hold - pt. i

Title: to have and to hold  Fandom: Gakuen Alice Pairing: Hotaru Imai x Luca Nogi Length: 5k Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a spy in need of money must be in want of a groom. Or: Hotaru wants to fund her inventions. A widow wants her husband's murderer. And Luca Nogi? Luca Nogi can't help but want the newest addition to his crew. // Part 2 in the GA-crew!verse, written for @ga-party‘s writing challenge: Wedding AU. 

{ao3} , {ffn}

Chapter 1: The Plan

Apartment 2B is wholly unsuitable to house a bunch of Japan’s most notorious criminals.

Not only does it come with ten discret neighbors, some of which not only share the building with them but actual room walls, it also lacks any of the equipment necessary for Hotaru Imai to create one of her masterpieces. Instead (and she has made it a point to take inventory of all the many useless additions to her new home) it has three separate gaming consoles, an added fridge for “cooking experiments” and a pet raven called ‘Mrs Rogers’. The roof, which is used for training or weapon storage, also features a fake palm tree and a hot tub the size of a small country. It is therefore completely unsurprising to Hotaru that Mikan decided to move in immediately after her first visit.

The far more complex question is why she has decided to move in as well.

It’s been roughly six months since Z, her former crew, chose to not only join The Academy, a merry band of ruthless murderers, but also unceremoniously oust her in the middle of a job. Luckily - or, if her best friend is to be believed, due to fate - she managed to team up with Mikan’s new crew to escape her own death. Said crew, named Nova by its founder and apparent leader (and Mikan’s idiot of a boyfriend) Natsume, has since welcomed her with open arms. It’s not too difficult for Hotaru to see why, given their apparent inability to budget.

But no member of Nova ever demanded that she join them in their apartment. Hiding made sense the first few weeks after her near death experience, sure. But Hotaru had somehow managed to keep her cover during the ballroom altercation and thus whispers of her joining a new crew had been, if anything, little more than an unconfirmed rumor. At first she’d woken up at night in cold sweat, wondering whether Z had sold her identity, whether they would come after her or any civilians connected to her, like her brother. But research had revealed to her that those who knew her by name had been disposed of as well. As such, that particular worry of hers has slowly but certainly vanished, leaving her to focus on her job.

More often than not, Hotaru keeps her hands and her mind occupied with weapon designs. She trains on the roof, getting to know each member of Nova and their unique skills. She goes on missions with them, always conscious of the distrust some still feel towards her and conscious of the distrust she can’t help but feel towards them.

The moments where her thoughts at last quiet down bring her the answer to her own question: Why did she stay in Nova’s apartment? Because, as incongruent as it seems, it makes her happy.

Of the eight, now nine, crew members Nova has, only six regularly live in the main apartment. The remaining two are scattered throughout the city, either by choice or due to an assignment. Hotaru has to admit she doesn’t miss their presence - being roommates with people that aren’t just Mikan is difficult enough. She has to deal with Natsume burning every meal he tries to cook, Misaki and Tsubasa being disgustingly in love and Luca Nogi being, well. A distraction at best and a threat to her sanity at worst.

Hotaru doesn’t pretend that Luca isn’t attractive. She certainly won’t deny that they’ve had sex in the goddamn hot tub she hates so much. And she won’t even lie and say that he doesn’t have the uncanny ability to make her feel calm, regardless of their turbulent job. But unfortunately for him, Luca has one glaring flaw: He is a spy, much like her. As much as Hotaru likes to fuck spies, she doesn’t fuck with them. It conjures up feelings in her heart and feelings conjure up memories; of darkness and blood and screaming until her throat grows raw and - Suffice it to say, she has no interest in attachments. Mikan is fine because Mikan has always been there. Nogi, however, is not a risk she is willing to take.

Hence they’ve agreed on a particular kind of relationship: Professionals, working together, who sometimes have sexual encounters in expensive bathrooms but who do not, under any circumstances, have an interest in anything more. Hotaru is satisfied with that arrangement. Romance, or the illusion of it, will never weasel its way into her life.

Naturally that doesn’t change the fact that only a week later, Hotaru finds herself standing at the altar, with Luca Nogi sliding a ring onto her finger and white chiffon caressing her skin.

Apartment 2B, Tokyo / April 3rd, 2am

“You need to buy the apartment next door,” Hotaru Imai says. She’s seated on one of the living room armchairs, comfortably basking in the final rays of the setting sun. Her best friend is out on a minor reconnaissance mission and she’s lounging in the living room with Natsume and Luca, something she would normally avoid but which has become necessary due to the simple fact that there is something she wants. “Either you do it yourself or I do it using your funds when you and Mikan are busy having alone time.”

“You’d think I get a choice in this,” Natsume Hyuuga, the Black Cat, comments, “given that this is my crew we’re talking about. And my apartment. And my money.”

“Funny,” Hotaru replies, leaning back and taking a sip of her wine. “I think I vaguely remember most of our funds coming in due to inventions I sold on the blackmarket.”

“She has a point,” Luca Nogi says. He’s sitting cross-legged on the wooden apartment floor, his pet raven picking seeds out of his hand. Natsume narrows his eyes at his best friend.

“You’re only saying that because she’s the only person in this apartment willing to play poker with you,” he declares. “Also, where did your loyalty go?”

“I imagine it’s in the hot tub,” Hotaru says. “You know, with the rest of our crew money.”

Natsume rolls his eyes, though with a sense of triumph she notices him wince at her words.

“You see then why I don’t have the money to buy the flat next to ours,” he says.

“I’ll take a job. Something nice and flashy,” Hotaru offers. “Come on, there must be something you’ve decided against that you can dump onto me. This is a simple trade, Hyuuga: You get to send me on a garbage mission no one else is willing to do. I get to use the money we make to buy another apartment and use it as a work space. It’s a win-win scenario.”

Natsume blinks. “When did you get so desperate?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Hotaru says sarcastically. “Probably around the time someone decided to crap all over my laptop.”

They both turn to stare at Mrs. Rogers, who makes a caw sound before flying up to sit on Luca’s shoulder, half hidden behind his blond hair. Her owner grimaces.

“I did tell you to cover up your stuff if you’re not around,” Luca says. “And I also apologized. Like, fifteen times. Today.”

Hotaru rolls her eyes at him before turning back to the Black Cat. “Look, my reasons don’t matter,” she says. “You need an inventor and I can’t fulfill that role properly until you give me space I can actually work in.”

Natsume folds his arms. He looks less than happy about her demand. “Doing extra missions isn’t an option,” he says.

“Well, why not?,” Hotaru asks. “I’m offering to do them. I can handle danger and without proper equipment, that danger’s only going to get a lot worse for all of us anyway.”

“I get that,” Natsume says tightly. His demeanor changes as he squares his shoulders and narrows his red eyes ever so slightly. This is no longer a friendly discussion, she can tell. “But Imai, I don’t have the money to pay for that flat. And as for the missions you’re volunteering for, I decided against doing them for a reason. They’re not worth the risk. I won’t jeopardize this crew. Not for money and not for you.”

Not for her. Of course. With a sigh, Hotaru drowns the rest of her wine. Again and again, she finds that the Black Cat and her have similar end goals but very different opinions on how to reach them. Normally she would continue arguing but in this case she can tell that any further push on her part would only strengthen Natsume Hyuuga’s resolve. Promises of weapons and handy gadgets are apparently not attractive enough for him to take a risk on an operative, even if it’s just his newest one.

“Pity about that exploding pen I was going to build you,” she says casually. Years of spy training are the only reason she’s able to keep the frustration out of her voice. “See you tomorrow. I’m turning in for the night.”

Hotaru leaves her two companions behind, retreating to her room on the far side of the apartment. Once the door is shut behind her, she balls her hand into a fist and punches her pillow, once, twice, a third time. Only then does the anger licking at her throat subside a bit and give way to exhaustion. She drops down onto the bed, staring at the ceiling with a furrowed brow. Six months she’s worked with the Black Cat, but still he’s unwilling to trust her enough to take a few risks. If she wants to go on a more dangerous mission to earn a larger sum of money, who is he to try and stop her? And who is he to doubt her, to think that she hasn’t calculated the risks and rewards of her plan, hasn’t made sure that no harm will come to Nova?

It’s yet another reminder that Hotaru is still an outsider, much like she’s always been.

She blinks up at the ceiling, able to trace every inch of the plan she pinned onto the wall above the bed despite the room’s darkness. She’s working on an intricate fabric, more than five times as strong as the gear they’re using right now, and able to deflect most bullets. The delicate mesh is no weapon but a shield, one that will keep Nova’s agents out of harm’s way. If only she could convince Hyuuga of its merits, make him realize that the money he gives her is money well spent. Perhaps then the suit she’s working on would be finished and the dreams that plague her would disappear. Perhaps she’d no longer wake up wondering whether today is the day she dies, or even worse, whether today is the day Mikan dies.

But the fabric is impossible to make without a proper workbench and bigger tools and as such, it will have to wait.

Closing her eyes again, Hotaru turns to press her nose into her pillow. Yesterday she’d spent the night with Nogi, and the satin under her skin still smells softly of the cologne he was wearing. They’d come from a reconnaissance operation, his hair still tousled from running, and something inside her had quaked at the thought of doing anything other than kiss him.

So she had done just that.

Right here, in this room, in this bed in fact. She’d straddled his hips with her legs, feeling every inch of him beneath her as she pushed him deeper into the mattress, gazing down at his flushed face from above. He’s always blushing, Hotaru remembers thinking, strangely fascinated by the fact that everything he felt was immediately on display.

Sex is always fun for Hotaru. It’s a way to see anatomy in action, similar to watching her inventions do their job. The way muscle moves beneath skin, the way bodies fit together, the way nerves respond if she strokes them just right - The grip of his hands on her hips and the way she moved against him and he moved against her, their breathing labored as it had been when they ran from their pursuers but at the same time labored in a different way, another kind of fight, a primal kind of combat.

After, Luca had almost fallen asleep next to her, curled up on her covers, but Hotaru kicked him out as soon as she saw his eyes fall shut. He stole a kiss from her before leaving, a fast but heated one, something he always does when they sleep together. It’s almost too intimate every time, but she can never quite tell him to stop. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Even if he takes liberties now and then, she controls this little battle of theirs and they both know it.

Hotaru concentrates on relaxing her breathing, allowing the memories of their night together to once more fill her mind. Hopefully thoughts of more enjoyable times will chase away the fear that gnaws at her, the knowledge that one day their lack of money will result in one of them laying on her lap, gasping for breath as they slowly bleed out. Hopefully images of death won’t haunt her again.

Somehow, she doubts it.

Apartment 2B, Tokyo / April 4th, 8am

They’re sitting around the kitchen table the next morning when Natsume announces they’re going to have an impromptu meeting.

Hotaru is sipping her coffee, idly listening as Mikan recounts her mission from the previous night. Tsubasa is sitting on the couch, reading a newspaper with Misaki’s outstretched legs on his lap. Luca is in the process of making pancakes. He turns around at his best friend’s declaration, wearing a quiet smile on his lips.

“What are we discussing?,” Hotaru asks suspiciously. Is the Black Cat going to kick her out because she asked for more money?

Natsume grunts instead of answering. Luca turns to her.

“There’s a mission that we’re perfectly suited for, I think,” he says. “But we still have to vote on whether or not to take the job.”

This is another one of Nova’s oddities: Although Natsume choses which jobs might be suited for them, every member of the crew can veto an operation. It’s a democratic system, Mikan explained to her once. It’s also a hassle every time.

Luca dumps the finished pancake onto a plate and places them on the table. Tsubasa peeks over his newspaper.

“Breakfast done?,” he asks. Luca nods.

With a grin, the dark haired man gets up, unceremoniously dumping his girlfriend’s legs onto the floor. He sits down opposite Hotaru, Misaki following close behind. Once they’re all seated, Luca vanishes for a few moments before returning with a file. Generally, Hotaru would prefer technology over old school materials, but even she has to admit that hackable objects aren’t the best place for sensitive data. Natsume takes the folder from his friend and tosses it on the table.

“Client’s name is Yuki Arakawa, twenty-three years old, born in Nagoya. Met and fell in love with an investment banker by the name of Ichida Seiji when they were both twenty. Their relationship was reportedly great and so they decided to ruin it by getting married as soon as possible. They got themselves a team of event planners and ended up renting D-Lounge, over in Shibuya. Their grand day was looking to be perfect.”

Natsume pulls a picture out of the folder, showing it to the group. On it, a young woman grins widely into the camera, showing off an impressive diamond ring. A man is standing behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist.

“What happened?,” Mikan asks softly. Natsume sighs.

“On their wedding day, a year ago now, Ichida suffered what officials say was a heart-attack. He made it through the ceremony, exchanged vows with his new wife and then collapsed on the dance floor. Medical examiner says the excitement of the day was literally...heart-stopping.”

“It’s not an uncommon cause of death,” Luca notes. “But autopsy reports do show that there was a foreign substance in his blood. When Yuki Arakawa asked the police about that though, they told her that her husband probably just tried to dampen his own nervosity by indulging in some….ah….illegal substances, so to speak.”

“Did he?,” Hotaru asks. A young, overly excited man taking drugs doesn’t seem too strange a story. Luca shrugs.

“It’s hard to say from the medical report,” he says.

“What matters to us,” Natsume interjects. “Is that his widow doesn’t believe the police’s story. She hired a private investigator to dig into the whole thing. And lo and behold, they found something.”

Luca leans back in his chair. With a quick glance at the folder in front of them, he continues.

“Turns out that Himawari Events Management, the company they hired to plan their wedding, have had a number of dead clients in the past two years or so. There’s been a handful of freak accidents, grooms or brides crushed by falling chandeliers, and a couple of strokes and heart attacks. Suffice to say, the whole thing is more than fishy. But when Yuki told the police as much, they send her away. Next day, a couple of goons cornered her on her way back from the cemetery, roughed her up pretty bad. They told her to keep her nose out of her husband’s case.”

“I’m guessing she didn’t,” Tsubasa comments, taking a bite out of his pancake. He leans forward to pick up the picture of the couple, looking at it from up close. “So someone’s making a game out of killing people on their wedding day? Jesus.”

“Presumably,” Natsume confirms. “What Yuki Arakawa expects us to do is find whoever killed her husband and… bring them to justice. She’s wealthy and the job comes with a nicely sized payment. However…”

“However,” Luca picks up where he left off, “This kind of mission would necessitate us going in undercover, scoping out the event planners. Our best shot is booking a wedding of our own and making sure to find the killer before one of us ends up dead.”

Mikan gnaws on her lip thoughtfully. “Natsume and I are pretty well known, as far as operatives go. And you said Yuki Arakawa suspects the murderer has ties to the police. If we show up looking to plan a wedding and they run any kind of background check, we’ll be in serious trouble.”

“Same goes for Tobita or Shouda,” Tsubasa adds. “They have their own cover identities to protect. We can’t exactly send them to find a killer who’s in league with the cops. As for me...” He glances at his leg, where Hotaru knows layers of bandages are hidden under the fabric of his jeans. “I’d volunteer, but I’m still not exactly in top shape.”

“Which is why I didn’t want to take on this job,” Natsume mutters. Hotaru can’t help but stare at him as surprise wells up from within her. So he’s given me one of the jobs he initially refused, she thinks, blinking in disbelief before composing herself.

“If Mikan and Natsume can’t go because their covers were blown months ago,” she muses out loud, “and Sumire and Yuu can’t go because their current identities are too precious to waste on this mission, then our only option is to send in people whose faces won’t get flagged by the cops and whose identity as agents is unknown to them.”

Luca inclines his head, quietly agreeing with her.

“Your cover is intact,” he says. “So is mine. We can go in as a couple, set up a wedding in the next two weeks and keep an eye out for anything that looks suspicious.”

Hotaru finds herself nodding along. “Mikan and the rest can do an in-depth check from here, hack into the company’s business servers. The two of us -”

“Go in as bait,” Luca finishes. “I’m sure the client is willing to fund our wedding if it means she gets her husband’s killer.”

“And all we have to do is go dress shopping and show up on the big day,” Hotaru muses. It’s certainly a step up from getting shot at and crawling through drainage pipes.

A small smile makes its way onto her face. It works, this plan. They’re the right age for marriage and have certainly kissed enough times to sell the whole ‘young couple in love’ thing.

“Won’t two people getting married on such short notice seem weird though?,” Misaki asks. “I mean, I get that there’s shotgun weddings and all that but…Pretending you’re that into each other seems difficult. ”

Hotaru snorts. Getting Natsume Hyuuga to give her this mission was difficult. Surviving up to this point was difficult. Hell, even cleaning bird poop off her stuff was difficult. But pretending to be in love? Oh, pretending is something she has practiced for most of her life, something she has always needed to hide her bluntness and general lack of charm.

“I don’t think it’ll be an issue,” Hotaru says, allowing herself a smug grin.

Apartment 2B - rooftop, Tokyo / April 4th, 10am

After a unanimous vote in favor of accepting the job, Hotaru makes her way up to the roof with a spring in her steps. While it’s certainly true that a job tied to the police will be risky, she’s confident that they’ll have the murderer found and eliminated before any trouble arises. This mission will go wonderfully and it will finally, finally give her the money she needs. She pushes open the door to the roof and steps outside.

With a content sigh, Hotaru walks up to the balustrade and breathes in the fresh morning air. Her victory makes the spring day seem all the more enjoyable. Far below her, the city is bustling with activity, people running to go to jobs of their own, jobs that involve far less death than hers does. Far less excitement, too, she thinks to herself.

Creak.

Hotaru whirls around at the sound and comes face to face with Luca Nogi, his pet raven comfortably perched on his shoulder. His steps must have been silent enough to trick even her expertly trained ears.

“So,” he says. “We found you a job.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Hotaru mutters. “And...thank you, I suppose.”

“You were the one fighting tooth and nail for it,” he reminds her gently. “I did nothing, honestly.”

“Yeah right. Like Hyuuga would ever change his mind just because I asked him to. I can guess that you pushed him to give me what I want, so just accept my honest gratitude while it lasts.”

“I’m guessing I won’t be seeing your honest gratitude all that often, so alright. You’re welcome, Hotaru,” Luca says. He rests his elbows on the balustrade, watching her as she gazes down at the city.

“You must really want some new guns if you’re agreeing to a mission that could blow your cover,” Hotaru comments. He turns his head, a frown on his face.

“Or, you know, I just wanted to help you out,” Luca says slowly.

Hotaru snorts. Yeah right, she thinks. Why else would he defy his best friend for her? It’s not like they aren’t already sleeping together and if there’s one thing she has learned living in a world of spies, it’s that no one does anything without expecting something in return.

“But,” Luca continues, after a short pause. “You are also right about our equipment being bad. And you were right about our budget, too. We’re usually better at keeping it in check, but that’s generally Yuu’s job and he’s not around at the moment. I try to keep an eye on it but...numbers and maths aren’t my strong suit, I’ll admit.”

“Isn’t it Natsume’s job to look after the money?,” Hotaru asks. Luca’s face darkens.

“Natsume has enough on his mind,” he says softly before shaking his head. He reaches out to touch her elbow, turning her gently towards him. “But anyhow, I came up here for a reason.”

“Oh yeah?,” Hotaru says. She has a pretty good idea of what he means by that. Pushing away from the balustrade, she begins walking backwards until she feels the edge of the training mat at her feet.

“We can certainly have a little morning training session. Some close quarter combat. I’ll win, but hey. You get to watch me move.”

This is the part where Luca walks towards her, lets his hands rest on her hip. The part where he kisses her until they tumble onto the mat, their legs wrapping around each other. He wants her, she can tell by the way his pupils dilate ever so slightly and right now, she wants him too, wants to feel the bare skin of the man who is currently helping her get the money she needs. But Luca only blinks at her, his cheeks coloring. He clears his throat.

“As nice as that sounds, I came to ask you a question. I….That is, you….Do you….”

“Do I what,?” Hotaru interjects impatiently. Luca opens his mouth as if to talk, before stopping himself again.

“This isn’t how it’s done,” he mutters, more to himself than to her, before turning around, his blue eyes trailing across the roof.

Hotaru watches him, annoyance rising up within her. Not only isn’t he joining her at the mat, now he can’t even answer her question? She’s about to leave when he seems to find whatever he is looking for. With purposeful steps that make Mrs. Rogers fly up from his shoulder and seek shelter elsewhere, he walks to one of the many tables she’s scattered machinery parts on. He rummages around before grabbing something and turning back towards her.

“My mum did raise me to be a gentleman,” Luca tells her. “Obviously her teachings didn’t always take, I mean she once said to never use violence and to never steal or kill and honestly, now that I think about, she told me not to do any of the things that are now my job, but -”

“Nogi,” Hotaru says icily, interrupting his rambling. “Get to the point.”

“Right,” Luca says. He takes a deep breath and comes closer, until there is little more than a hand length of space between them. Then, he does something that shocks Hotaru.

He gets down on one knee. “Hotaru Imai,” Luca asks, “Will you marry me?”

Out on a rooftop in April, shivering slightly in the cool morning air and wearing yesterday’s hoodie isn’t exactly how Hotaru expected to be asked that particular question.

“This is a job,” she reminds him. “You don’t have to do this.”

“But I want to,” he says. “So, will you marry me?”

The sincerity in his voice merrily skips over all her walls, jumps past all the parts of her mind dedicated to assessing each situation and lands squarely on her heart, making it tighten in her chest. But no, this isn’t, this can’t be sincere. This is part of the act, Hotaru thinks.This is getting into character. She puts on a saucy smile and offers him her hand.

“Why yes, I will” she says, with a brightness that has little to do with the anxiousness she feels.

Luca reaches out, delicately taking her hand in his. His skin feels warm, clammy almost. As though he’s legitimately nervous. With his other hand, he produces the object he picked up from her work table and slides it onto her finger. It’s cool metal, shaped not quite like a ring, more like a hexagon. A steel nut, something meant to hold her screws in place when she fastens multiple pieces of an invention together. She must have left one lying around. Somehow, despite its less than ideal shape, it fits her finger perfectly.

“It fits you,” Luca says, echoing her thoughts. He clears his throat and gets up again, still holding her hand. Then, he lets her go and steps back again. There is a peculiar look on his face, as though he can’t decide whether the metal on her finger makes him happy or sad.

“I guess we’re engaged now,” he says.

“It would seem that way,” Hotaru replies.

With a curt nod, Luca leans forward. His lips brush her cheek, gentle enough to be little more than a feather caressing her skin. Somehow, the touch still manages to make her shiver. Hotaru wonders whether her pupils are as dilated as his were before, whether her desire is clear on her face. It probably isn’t, she thinks. Outwards expressions of emotion were never her thing. But this is acting, after all. She lets herself smile, expecting to see the same expression on Luca’s face as he draws back. Instead, his usually happy eyes are curiously blank.

“Have fun with your morning training,” he tells her, before turning around. The rooftop door falls shut behind him and Hotaru is left alone next to the training mat.

There is a strangeness to the whole situation that she can’t place her finger on. This morning, after realizing that Natsume had given her a mission because Luca pushed him to do so, she’d felt a gratitude towards him that was difficult to put in words. And then he’d agreed to enter into this fake marriage with her, to pursue the killer and finish the mission by her side. Despite her insistence that they not grow attached, he’d done his utmost for her.

She finds herself staring at the improvised ring on her finger. When he first gave it to her, it was still warm from being kept in his palm. Now the metal is cold. Hotaru pulls up her shoulders in an attempt to let the feeling of wrongness slide off her back but it sticks like oil to her skin. Still, she forces herself to smile. The money she needs is so close, she can almost smell it and her brand new fiancé’s behaviour can’t dampen her excitement.

There is however one thing Hotaru can’t help but notice: Somehow, getting engaged to Luca Nogi feels less intimate than all the moments they shared before.

[kurogabae]

Tsubasa: Trainwreck Chronicles

And Why Bee Train Personally Owes Me At Least a Grand; an Essay by Popular Demand

part 1 part 2

For those of you who might not know, I love Tsubasa Chronicle. So much. But for the love of Kurogane’s beautiful biceps is the anime awful. Now, I’m not one of those “manga purists” who always insists the manga is better than the anime, I tend to find them equal pretty often. This is not one of those cases.

Once upon a time CLAMP made a deal with Bee Train for a Tsubasa anime. Cardcaptor Sakura had done so well! CLAMP was a solid name to back! Bee Train had nothing to lose - except the trust of every CLAMP fan ever. I don’t know how hands on CLAMP (or rather Ohkawa) were in the production but I feel like “not at all” is a fairly solid guess. It was a mess folks. Production was rushed, story was disregarded, plot was cut up and Frankensteined back together, I’m not even going to talk about the English casting.

In fairness, it wasn’t without it’s good points. The soundtrack was flawless, the Japanese cast was amazing, and when Bee Train tried they really did manage to make the series look nice, which imo makes the rest of the subpar animation even more of a slap to the face. They even had some genuinely enjoyable filler episodes - the chibi episode and the Kero and Mokona episode are always the first to come to my mind - but overall? Not even a hot mess, just a mess. 

Under the cut we’ll go arc by arc. I’m not going to rewatch the series just to write this so forgive me if I’m missing facts or if something I say is slightly inaccurate. Also, beware of spoilers for the manga if you haven’t finished reading it. That means you Nick. I’ll write you up a spoiler free copy of this later. Anyway, let’s go.

Opening and introductions:

You’d think, as the start of your series, you’d want the first episode or two to look really nice right? Catch the eye, impress the new viewer. Not Bee Train! [x x] The whole thing is subpar at best. Syaoran and Sakura’s introduction isn’t so bad for the most part, they’re cute and Bee Train tried to add a little more interaction between them before Sakura loses her feathers, which I am all kinds of behind, but... there’s a point where they run from castle guards. And Syaoran sort of just... grabs her and runs and Sakura is left literally flapping in the wind? [x] Also Sakura looks stoned out of her mind in like 90% of the shots she’s in. Touya probably thinks Syaoran is giving her drugs. But honestly, I don’t have too many problems with how the intro happens, mostly just the way it looks.

Fai’s intro can go by with almost no comment aside from the fact that his face looks like it’s melting. Sadly, this is not the worse his face will ever look. Pretty meh.

Personally I think Kurogane’s intro got the short end of the stick visually and I’m not just saying that because he and Tomoyo are my favorites. They both look pretty awful and, as always, where’s the beef???

Also Yuuko deserved better. 

Hanshin:

If possible, the animation gets even lazier. We’ve added Mokona to the party and they cannot decide how big she is. I’m not being nitpicky either. Her size fluctuates wildly. Here are just a few examples set only in Hanshin. This problem persists throughout the series. Also I don’t know how to exactly put this into words but... everyone’s eyes are just extra jacked up. 

Plot wise we mostly follow canon. Until they decide Sakura should get more screen time. “Great idea!” I can hear you say. “We love Sakura!” Well so do I. Problem: she has one (1) feather to her name and is comatose. Sakura is not really going to do anything. Yet the camera keeps going back to her- oh wait she’s awake. Sort of. Oh she’s getting dressed now, we even get a very weird little montage of her trying on clothes. Now she’s wandering the town, meets up with the leader of the Mohawk Gang whose kudan Kurogane beat the crap out of. Luckily she’s a super cute girl (who is barely conscious and doesn’t even talk? She’s so far from Mokona she probably can’t even understand these guys anyway but...) so they take her out to lunch instead of doing something Terrible. To the restaurant Touya works at. He serves her and doesn’t recognize her, meaning there is no Sakura in this world, at least not one related to him. This happens a lot.

In the anime Sakura is sometimes, for reasons unexplained and inconsistent, “drawn” to her feathers. She’s looking for her feather. There is an absurd Looney Tunes moment where she climbs some sort of tall thing (oil rig? construction site? world’s weirdest flag pole?) and jumps off of it before Syaoran and Co. (who have located her after Arashi, who would never have lost track of her in the first place let’s be real, tells them she’s gone AWOL) can stop her.

And then she flies. Literally and truly fucking flies. Through the sky. Thanks I hate it. 

Syaoran catches her, brings her back home, and the story pretty much continues. One fun change was that the whole family had to share a room, they didn’t get separated like in the manga, so we get treated to this Gay Fucking Scene(tm) of Kurogane waking up and the first thing he sees if Fai sleeping while angelic music plays in the background. So that was nice.

Oh god hang on, I had to come back and add this because I literally always forget: Kurogane sees a version of Tomoyo in this world and goes running after her, leaving Fai and Syaoran to meet Touya and Yukito on their own. This results in both of them missing Kurogane’s kudan fight and Kurogane missing the “same face, different person” talk/reminder. They still can’t draw Tomoyo. 

Also this.

Koryo:

Where’s the beef?

Much in the spirit of Hanshin, Koryo keeps mostly to the plot and has overall meh animation with a few choice moments of dear god why. Surprisingly, they made a few changes that I didn’t hate - the village had gotten a group of rebels together against the Ryanban. He also stole Chu’nyan’s mother’s body, making it so that her spirit could never find peace, making him even more of a dick.

This is where we see the first instance of the anime really being geared towards younger audiences than CLAMP had planned for. In the manga Sakura wins everyone new clothes via dice gambling, but in the anime she wins a lottery. Not a big deal, but we see more of this. Another thing change is that there’s a whole secondary plot added to everything when they try to, again, give Sakura a more active role. There are better ways to do this, but Bee Train sort of just tosses her into action and then tosses Syaoran in after her. It’s always bad and pointless and never amounts to anything. 

Anyway, she ends up inside the castle, somehow Syaoran manages to follow after her. Goodness knows what the dads are up to. (Probably this.) Some Really Weird Stuff happens and from what I remember the spirit of Chu-nyan’s mother hops a ride out of the castle with Sakura. Who, uhh, teleports her and Syaoran out. Yeah.

The rest of the arc goes pretty much how the manga does with a handful of minor changes - like the fact that Kurogane never bought a manga in Hanshin, so in order to block Kiishim’s killing blow he’s tucked the hammer he was using to fix the roof in his shirt, which is a much smaller shield than a whole ass book and I think that’s dumb. Still can’t get Mokona’s size right, to awkward and hilarious results.

And remember kids, we won’t show you dice but we will show you this.

Big Lake and Shipper Fish:

The animation in this part is actually pretty nice. Considering. The things they changed were needless and weird.

Sakura and the fish talk. How? Why? We don’t know, it’s never explained or examined. We are meant to accept it Because Sakura, which only works most of the time. The fish tries to tell Sakura that she knows Syaoran - we all know this will not and cannot work. Why does this happen? What was the point of adding this? It is so weird and awkward. It messes up the flow and is so extra. I understand your desires Shipper Fish, but please, let things take their course.

Jade:

Fuck you and fuck your animation. It looks The Worst, which is a bummer because this world changes the fewest amount of things. Anything I could point out are really minor:

somehow Fai can read

they never show how the family gets their clothes, and 99% of the scene in the tavern is skipped

breaking and entering!

Mokona bites Kurogane in the ass

they don’t have horses

no Kuro-dork looking at the snow like an excited child

they nerf Kurogane’s BAMF

the feather isn’t hidden behind a wall, they need the pure hearts of children?

Kyle was a way lazier villain 

Filler #1 - Lightning Jazz Hands:

Alright, that looked neat as hell, I’ll admit. My compliments end here.

Story: nosy little shits got themselves cursed. Gonna fight in a competition to win a Big Magic. Is the Big Magic a feather? Stay tuned! (It’s not, because then the girl would die and that would be Too Sad.)

So the people in this country can shoot lightning out of their hands, that would be awesome and possibly scary, but I guess Kurogane is water/ground type because he gets it and only says, and I quote, “it tingles”. So your lightning powers mean nothing, add no stakes, and the Fam can’t do it so what is the point?

This filler is also famous for its KuroFai baiting, which is impressive, seeing as the anime tried very hard to make them Not Gay. I mean it failed but yeah.

Syaoran is the only fighter they have left because Kurogane and Fai are children and Sakura is making friends with the cursed girl. Keefer... Keepha... fights Syaoran, and obviously Syaoran wins because we’re supposed to think this is a feather. They really play it up to, even after we learn the Big Magic isn’t a feather Syaoran still hesitates before handing it over. For dramatics I guess? I don’t know, there’s literally no reason for him to not give it to the needy couple.

Boring filler. Only fun was watching Kurogane get excited over fighting people.

tbc... with Outo

[part 1] [part 2]