#Dumbass snakes that happen to be very deadly

[weirdthinkingdragon]

Slithering Chains PT (1/3)

Yandere naga present mic x reader

quirkless/aged up au. Warnings: Only swearing for now

“C’mon Y/N! It will be fun! Rumor has it there are friendly nagas on the island!” Gushed Mina. That makes me cross my arms. She’s seriously out of her mind if she thinks it’s a good idea to go to an island for something that’s a supposed rumor. 

“I highly doubt they’d be friendly. Especially since we’d technically be invading their territory.” I reply. She rolls her eyes and huffs. 

“Besides, why should we go looking for a damn overgrown lizard?” Katsuki cuts in with a scowl and his arms crossed. Hanta shrugs. “I’m with Mina on this. It would be really cool to see one,” he turns to Eijiro. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping we could go camping instead somewhere. Katsuki still has to show me those incredibly manly skills he learned back in boy scouts he hasn’t shown me yet.” Katsuki’s face went to full-on pride. 

Mina suddenly jumps up and down. “I have the PERFECT idea! We should go camping at the island!!! That way we could do both!” 

“Ooh! That’s a great idea! Count me in!” Exclaimed Denki. 

Katsuki’s face falls into a deep frown. “That actually sounds like a good idea!” Eijiro cheerfully replies. Mina fist-bumps the air and tackles Eijiro into a tight hug. “You can definitely count me in!.” Hanta pipes up.  

I can already tell we’re not going to win this argument. Wait, didn’t Hanta go to boy scouts as well? “Weren’t you in boy scouts too? Can’t you do the same things?” I question. He sheepishly smiles at me. “Eh, I didn’t last very long in it for a few different reasons.” 

“Not showing up half the damn time and hanging out with dunce face really didn’t help.” Katsuki informs. They both flinch at his words. “Uh… let’s not talk about that…” 

They all suddenly turn to me expectantly, even Katsuki, probably hoping I deny. You know what? There’s nothing too bad that could possibly happen, and they most likely won’t stop begging until we do. “... fine,” I turn to Katsuki. “You better have some mad skills.” 

He glares at me annoyed. “Of fucking course  they’re good!” 

I smirk. Sometimes he’s so fun to piss off. “Well, pack up guys. We’re going camping.” 

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It took a little longer than we thought to find a boat that would take us. No one wanted to go to the island. We eventually found a place around the ocean that would bring us for a rather large fee. None of us were happy about that but it was the best shot we had. Also if something happens to us on the island we’re on our own since they won’t come back for four days to pick us up. Good thing we packed extra food. We also only brought three tents since they’d be a hassle to carry otherwise and we can take turns carrying them if needed. 

We get right up to the island and get dropped off on a sandy beach. The boat immediately pulls away from the island. A nagging feeling was rising in the back of my mind. “You wonder why none of them wanted to come to this island?” I suddenly question. 

“It does seem a little odd. Even the one we came on left pretty quickly. I’m sure it’s nothing important though!” Eijiro replies. 

I refuse to let it fly by. Something about that seems more wrong the more I think about it. Looking at Katsuki, he seems to be thinking the same way I am. The other four take off towards the tall trees not too far from the beach. With the sun being at its highest peak, the trees are casting a large shady area half over the beach. I’m a little jealous of how he’s carrying two of the tents and his backpack so effortlessly. 

Luckily they waited up ahead for us. “Seriously, if you and I weren’t around, I swear they’d have died of their crazy antics years ago.” He grunts in confirmation. Denki sees something and takes off in another direction. 

“Denki! Get your ass back here! We need to stick together for now!” I yell at him.

“Come here then! This place has weird blueberries!” 

Oh no. “Denki! Don’t eat them/Don’t even touch the fucking bush!” Katsukii and I yell simultaneously. We quickly get up to him with the other three trailing behind us. Katsuki goes right up to him and slaps the small black berry in his hand out of it. “You fucking dumbass, that’s nightshade!” 

Looking at the bush, it wasn’t just any nightshade. I facepalm. “We haven’t been here for even ten minutes and you already almost ate deadly nightshade.”

From the fear that grew on Denki’s face, he understood well the name of the plant and stepped away. “Whew, well, uh… Good thing I didn’t eat one yet, huh?” 

The only reply was Katsuki smacking Denki on his forehead. 

“I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!” He shrieks. 

Boisterous laughter comes from above. We look around, and my eyes catch onto a long tail draping across a few of the branches higher up. It was light green with darker green lines across and a pale yellow underside. “Good thing ya caught your friend! I was just about to stop him myself!” The large serpent body trickles to the floor like molasses until the too human-like torso comes down as well. His hair is incredibly long. It’s past where his torso ends and the snake part begins. He’s. Fucking. Massive. I look at Mina. “You didn’t tell me they were this big!” 

“How was I supposed to know!? The news never said anything about their size!” She yells at me. Katsuki goes into a fighting stance like he could actually do harm to the giant thing. Judging from the chest and face, it’s a male. His green eyes match the light green on his tail, and his hair matches his underside. 

The naga replies with another laugh, leans down, and pokes my nose. “Well, I am! And you guys must be curious humans, huh? There haven’t been any here in quite a while!” 

My brain is still trying to process how large he is. He’s longer than four of me together. An intrusive wanting of touching his tail pops up in my mind. Seriously!? I JUST saw him and want to touch him? What the everloving FUCK mind!?

He looks at our backpacks. “Ooh! Ya guys stayin’ for a few days? That’s great! You guys can tell me more about your place!” Mina wasn’t kidding about them seeming to be friendly. “Those bags seem heavy, would you like me to help?” 

I shake my head. “Nah, we got it. Do you know a place we could set up a camp though?” I ask him. He nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! There’s a pretty good open area by my cave!” He takes a sharp left turn with his body a little ways ahead of us. 

We all look at each other and shrug. He seems friendly enough. Well, Katsuki is the only one still not on board with being around the naga. The naga could be faking, but he seems pretty genuine. My bet is it just hurts Katsuki’s pride he wouldn’t be able to take the naga down himself if a fight breaks out. He’d still try though knowing him. 

The naga kept stopping and looking behind to make sure we were following. Most of us were falling a bit behind since he was still rather fast despite his constant stopping. It must have been about twenty minutes until we got into a clearing with a giant cave next to it. Denki is breathing rather heavily. He throws off his backpack and faceplants into the soft dirt. We all laugh at him, even the naga. Throwing my backpack off, I roll my already stiff shoulders. Man, how do hikers keep those giant backpacks on for so long? 

I look over at Katsuki. Once again, the all-powerful man doesn’t even need to do that. “Dude, I seriously envy you sometimes.” He rolls his eyes. “You’re just weak, dumbass. You’re also not used to it.”

“Hey, hey, hey! No need to be talkin’ like that! We’re all friends!”

Katsuki’s face goes into a snarl. “You can’t tell me what to do, you fucking overgrown lizard.” The naga has an astonished facial reaction for a second. “Sorry about him, he’s always like this.” Eijiro sheepishly informs. 

He shakes his head, and grows a smirk. “Well, good thing you’re all used to it! I gotta say, haven’t been called an overgrown lizard before! Also, shouldn’t it be ‘an overgrown reptile’?” He goes up to Katsuki and starts poking his forehead. “What other so-clever names ya got hidden up in there?” Katsuki tries to bite his finger, making him quickly pull his hand away. “Feisty!~” 

“We all kinda have a nickname he gives us. Mine’s shitty hair, but uh, please just call me Eijiro! What’s yours by the way?” He questions. 

His eyes widened. “Right! Name’s Hizashi! Ya probably heard of me at some point!” We all look confused at each other. “Nope, sorry, that name doesn’t ring any bells.” He grew sad for a moment about that, and mumbled something. 

I decided to try bringing him out of… whatever he’s getting into. “Mine is Y/N. The crabby one is Katsuki, the other blond is Denki, the pink-haired is Mina, and the black-haired one is Hanta. We may not have heard of you, but maybe you could tell us about yourself after we set up camp? As long as you’re truly okay with that.” I say, a little concerned we might still be intruding on his territory. 

“I’d love to! And of course you guys can stay around here for a while! It’s probably better since some nagas don’t like humans too much.” Katsuki crosses his arms. “Well, I dare them to take me on.” Hizashi pinches his cheek for a second, only to be nearly bitten again. “Aw, like ya could do much harm to us! Your enthusiasm is great though! They’d easily crush you.” 

“Oh yeah? Well, I’m not going down without a fight.” I roll my eyes at him. The others snicker at my reaction. “Anyways, we’re burning daylight. Let’s set up camp, and maybe our new friend could show us around a bit.” 

He mock bows. “Gladly, your highness!” Mina snickers and whispers “I ship it” jokingly. I give her a “really bitch?” look, making her almost keel over in silent laughter. It doesn’t take long for us all to take out our things and start setting up the tents. I pull out my rolled up sleeping bag to place next to the tent. “Yellow, huh?” Questions Hizashi. He gets a far-off look in his eyes for a second. I look down at the giant obnoxious yellow sleeping bag in my hands. 

“Not my choice of color, but it was on sale for a really good price, so I thought I might as well. Is there something wrong with it?” I ask. 

He shakes his head. “No, not at all! It just reminds me of another human that came here a while ago!” There was a look in his face that almost seemed obsessed. None of the others noticed the possibly red flag. Mina was too busy goofing off with Hanta and Denki, which were having trouble setting up their tent. Eijiro was trying to help Katsuki, but he kept messing Katsuki up, making him get multiple smacks on his head. 

“Is it okay to ask what happened to him?” His face turns into a harsh glare. It was easy to tell it wasn’t directed at me. “His “friends” took him from me when he left my cave one night. I waited years for him to return, but he never did. They must not be letting him return!” His tone went from angry, to sad, back to angry. 

Something doesn’t seem to add up with that. If he really wanted to return, he would have visited a while ago. Then again, it was pretty hard finding a boat to bring us here, and life can get hectic quite easily. I decided to put it in the back of my mind and focus on the now. 

The sound of tazing brought my attention to Denki, Mina, and Hanta. Mina has an electronic flyswatter in her hand, and smacked Denki with it. “Mina! That’s not what that’s for!” I yell at her.

She laughs. “Come on, it’s not hurting him too badly!” 

“Easy for you to say! How about I zap you now!?” He swipes it from her and smacks her forearm with it, making her shriek.  

I facepalm. “Which one of you idiots brought the flyswatter?” Hanta and Mina point at Denki. I glare at Mina. “What were you doing digging in his backpack when you could have been helping me put up the damn tent?” She replies with an embarrassed smile. 

I’m struggling to keep the tent up and push the tent pegs into the ground without a hammer. “I can help ya! What should I do?” Hizashi asks. “Could you help me push these in?” He nods and I move out of the way to hold the tent tight. He slams the tip of his tail on the peg, pushing it all the way down in one go. It honestly startles me. “Jeez dude! A little warning would be nice!” 

He rubs his neck sheepishly. “Sorry!” As we do the other three pegs, I can’t stop looking at his tail. He seems to notice, and wags the tip of it. “Like what ya see?” He teases. I look away in embarrassment. “Don’t worry about it! I was kinda the same way the first time I saw one of your kind!” He puts his tail in front of me. “I can tell you wanna touch it. Go ahead!” 

I’m unsure about it, but place my hand gently on the top of his tail. It was the back of it closer to his human torso. Nothing but raw muscle, and the heat it radiated was phenomenal. I quickly take my hand away. 

“You two are getting along well quick! And to think you didn’t want to come Y/N!” Mina comes up and teases. Hizashi seems surprised by hearing that news. “Aw, good thing ya did though! It’s already fun having you guys around!”

“Yeah, yeah. Enough of that stupid cheesy talk or whatever. Show us around.” Katsuki says half-heartedly like he really doesn’t want to be here. Hizashi ignores his lack of enthusiasm and nods with a smile. He then starts to move his body to the right of us. 

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A few hours after, we arrive back to our camp exhausted. The sun was close to setting. Even Katsuki’s breathing was slightly ragged. We’ve learned a lot about this place.  Mostly not many nagas are too open to humans, and there aren’t that many due to most being quite territorial as well as females being rather rare. The four of them were horrified learning we could have met a bad end. Katsuki and I called it that they wouldn’t be too friendly. 

There is also the giant pile of wood he’s been collecting in case any humans visit. That’s so nice of him. He told us it gets pretty boring since not many talk to him, even the others on the other side of the giant island. That makes me feel rather bad for him. Of course, Mina being Mina, hugged him then. He returned the hug with no objections. He also told us the lifespan of nagas can be an average of 800 years. He himself is only about 300 years old. We all almost fainted from the shock of that. 

He helps haul a ton of rather large pieces of wood and sticks next to his cave. The pile was a bit farther out so it wasn’t in his way of his cave. Katsuki starts setting up the fire with a bunch of giant rocks that Hizashi still has around. It takes him no time at all to start a good fire. 

“Way to go dude! Knew you had the skills!” I tease. He glares at me in a way that shows he’s dangerously close to smacking me. I only give him a smirk in return. “Of fucking course, dumbass. Why would I not?” I shrug in reply.

“Hey, you guys want marshmallows? I brought a few bags.” Hanta says, grabbing a bag of marshmallows out of his backpack, along with two short roasters that can extend. 

“Sure dude, pass me the bag. I’d rather eat them not roasted.” Denki informs. Hanta passes him the bag while he extends the roasters and passes one to Eijiro. After Denki opens the bag, Hizashi reels away a little bit, catching my attention.

“You alright?” I ask him. “Heh, yeah! Those things just smell a little too sweet for me, ya know?” I nod in understanding. 

“Oh yeah, I guess it would be pretty weird, huh?” Mina wonders aloud. 

“Would you like us to put them away?” I ask. Denki hugs the bag of marshmallows to his chest. Hizashi shakes his head. “Nah, I’ll be fine. Thanks for being so considerate though!” 

After a bit, we decided to tell scary stories. The cheesy usual thing to do. Hizashi seems rather invested in every story told, no matter how bad it is. Right now, Mina is saying hers, and it’s actually pretty good. It’s about a male serial killer that fell obsessed with a male victim of his. The male refused to be with the killer for the obvious reason of them being a killer, and that they’re not interested in men. They were able to escape the chains the killer put them in, and picked up a large piece of a broken mirror that was near him. He decided to give the killer the element of surprise by pretending to still be chained.

“And so, while the killer’s back was turned, the male plunges the glass through the killer’s back!” she brings her hands up for some sort of dramatic emphasis. “They ran towards the still-chained other person and helped them pull the chains free while keeping an eye on the killer who fell to the ground. The man knew the killer was still alive, there was no way they died that quick. He helps the victim pass the killer and tries to pass himself, only to be grabbed by the ankle by the killer! He was still weak though, so it was easy enough for the man to break free and run outside. Luckily for them, they were in a neighborhood with a house not far away.”

We’re all honestly at the end of our seats listening intently. Well, minus Denki who seems rather terrified. Hizashi has an unreadable expression. 

“The neighbors were terrified, but called the police for help. The only problem?... There was no body on the floor when the police investigated. There was only blood. To make things scarier, the blood belonged to someone not in the system.” She grows quiet. 

“Is that it?” Denki questions. 

She shakes her head. “The man knew the killer would come for him again. He moved to the other side of the country. Everything seemed fine for him years later, starting his own family and moving on. At least, until he came home from work one night to a rather quiet home. He enters the home to the copper smell of blood overpowering him, bringing back memories he’s tried so hard to forget. He turns on the light to see his wife in her own blood, his blood freezing in fear. The familiar voice of the killer whispers behind him “You want a family? Well, now we can be.” and the last thing he saw was his children with nothing but fear tied up on the couch in the living room.” 

I was in shock that she said a story so dark. “Damn Mina, that was a wicked story! Where did you learn such a story?” I ask. 

“It was actually from a book a friend told me about!”

“They sure have a shitty taste in books.” Katsuki quips. 

“Like yours is probably much better, little boy scout.” I sarcastically reply. His fists clench. 

“Uh, hey! Maybe we should all go to bed! We have another big day tomorrow of exploring.” Eijiro pipes up, trying to prevent Katsuki from doing anything drastic. Katsuki growls and stomps off to his and Eijiro’s tent. 

Mina lets out a big yawn herself, stretches, and goes towards our tent. Denki and Hanta go to their tent as well. Hizashi puts a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, uh… Would ya mind hanging out with me for a while yet?” 

I shrug. “Sure, just let me get my sleeping bag.” I go and get it, Mina giving me a teasing smirk. “Don’t you get those thoughts in your head.” 

I drag the sleeping bag over close to the still burning fire. It grows quiet between us for a bit, the only sound being the crackling of the fire and the chirping of the crickets. His tail wraps around the bottom of my sleeping bag, trapping me from moving if I decided to by being around my feet. I reach down and pat his tail. 

“So, is there anything you want to talk about now?” I ask, lowering my voice to a near whisper so the others could sleep. “Well, how long are you guys planning on staying?” 

“After this, three days. We couldn’t get them to change the amount of days. It was so odd and hard getting here.” Hizashi perks up at that information. “Anyways, what are we doing tomorrow?” I ask. 

“Ooh! There’s a waterfall not too far from here I think you and your friends will like! It’s kinda hidden, and we’ll have to be careful since it will be close to two of my kinds territories, but as long as we don’t do anything it shouldn’t be a problem. One of them is the other most friendly naga I know! He may even come say hi!” 

“I bet Mina will be happy about that.” I felt more of his tail stealthily trying to go farther on my legs. 

“You’re really not being stealthy you know,” His tail stops. “Sorry. I just can’t help but wanting to touch someone as cute as you!~” 

Heat rushed to my face. “Well, you can hug me if you want. You just had to ask.”

He didn’t have to be told twice before his tail wrapped more around my sleeping and his bare torso went against my back. This isn’t exactly what I had in my head, but I did say hug. He’s still rather warm to the point of it slightly going through my sleeping bag. “How are you still so warm?” 

“This place usually doesn’t get that cold. My body’s most likely used to that.” 

“Makes sense I guess.”

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I wake up to feeling something tight around me, and whispering. I can’t move my arms either. It’s obviously Hizashi. “Katsuki bro, you don’t have to do anything! He’s not hurting them.”

“I don’t fucking care. There’s something about that damn thing that isn’t sitting right!” 

“Aw, you truly care about-” Denki starts. He suddenly stops. 

“You’re probably just overreacting. We’ve only been here not even a full day. He’s still pretty friendly.” Eijiro sounds almost desperate. 

“That’s the thing you fucking dumbasses! Did you not hear him last night with Y/N? It’s not fucking-” 

“Well, mornin to you guys too!” Hizashi suddenly pipes up, silencing all of them. Ugh, it’s too early. I groan and nuzzle closer into his tail in front of me. I don’t feel like opening my eyes to look at them.

Hizashi laughs. “Morning to you as well!” 

I felt someone get close to me besides Hizashi. “Mina, I swear if you touch me with that fly swatter…” She steps away, confirming my prediction. “How did you know?”

“You dumbasses are known for doing such stupid things. Not really a surprise.” Katsuki replies. “Aw, Katsuki, you don’t have to be so mean about it!” Denki jokes. 

“Shut up guys. It’s too early.” I grumble. 

“Early? The sun is already half way to its highest point!” Hizashi replies with a teasing tone. I only reply with a groan again. 

Hanta clears his throat. “So, uh… What are we doing today?” 

“I already told Y/N last night, but we’re going to a waterfall today!”

“A waterfall? How did we not hear it on our walk yesterday?” Eijiro asks. “Simple! It’s the other direction over a cliff!” he states like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “C-cliff? Isn’t that dangerous?” Denki asks. 

“We will be fine! I’ve done it many times before!” 

“If you say so…” Eijiro replied, sounding quite unsure. 

Hizashi unwraps around me almost reluctantly. He rubs the top of my head, waking me up a bit. “C’mon, ya gotta get up so we can go Y/N!” I ignore them and try to sleep again, using my arms as a pillow since Hizashi is no longer by my head. 

“Tzzt” Something touched my arm and sent a sharp pain through my arm. I instantly knew what it was, and I am NOT happy. I get up instantly. “Minaaaa!”

“Oh shit!” She drops the electric fly swatter and takes off running behind Hizashi. 

Denki and Hanta start laughing. “Get her Y/N!!!” Hizashi blocks me with his hands and holds Mina by his tail while chuckling. It wasn’t light like usual though. This sounded slightly darker if that makes sense. All I know is it sent a chill up my spine. I glare hard at Mina. 

“Now, I know whatever that thing was woke ya up, but let’s not focus on that, and let’s get going to the waterfall, yeah? If you want, I could carry you for a bit more sleep!” I back away in embarrassment. “That’s okay. Let’s just get going then.” 

He laughs normally again and lets go of Mina. 

----------------------------------------------------

It didn’t take too long to start climbing the cliff  to the waterfall. The crashing waves of it is able to be heard in the distance. Hizashi is leading the way with us rather close. It’s getting rather narrow and crumbling with a really high view in front of us. It’s beautiful with the trees, but terrifying how one step can make you fall off the edge. More ground crumbles under my shoe. My foot is basically off the edge at this point. I look up at Hizashi. I’m right beside him while the others are a bit back. “This seems like a bad idea. I think this is more-” My foot slips and I start to fall. My heart feels like it stopped. “Shit!”  

“Y/N!” they all yell. Faster than someone can even blink, Hizashi’s tail wrapped around my torso before I got too far down the cliff. I look down to see a very deep drop that would obviously kill me, but what was even more concerning was the naga looking up at me. It has to be twice the size of Hizashi. 

Hizashi kept a very tight grip on my torso as my legs shakily kept trying to give out as he had me stand up. We all stopped for a moment. “That’s it, fuck the waterfall. This isn’t worth going for.” Katsuki says, even more angry than usual. 

I can feel Hizashi shaking as well. “Heh, that was not a part of the plan. We’ll be going down towards the waterfall soon. I’ll see if Toshinori would let me bring you guys through his territory on the way back.” 

“Well, why didn’t we do that in the first place!? Y/N could have died!” Eijiro exclaims. “I’ll admit, I thought the fear would be funny. Definitely not now!” 

He kept me closer to him as we went down the cliff. It felt better the closer the even ground came to be. The giant naga I saw earlier comes fast into our view. He has a bright golden tail that matches his hair. The most obvious part of him is a giant scar on his side. His eyes show great concern. “Are you all okay!? I saw what  happened a bit ago,” His eyes squinted at Hizashi. “And I TOLD you to stop taking that way with visitors!” 

Hizashi replies with a teasing roll of his eyes, but it’s showing that he understands and does regret taking that route. “Very shaken up, but fine I think.” I reply. It wasn’t until now I noticed how the waterfall is much louder. He nods. “That’s a relief. I take it you’re going to the waterfall?” 

We nodded. Mina quickly goes up to him. ‘Hey, what’s your name by the way? Mine’s Mina!” 

He grows a kind and friendly smile on his face. “Toshinori. Nice to meet all of you. We haven’t had any humans visit in quite a while.” In quite a while? So people DID used to come here. That’s making the unnerving feeling rise up again. Something must have happened to make them stop coming. But what could it possibly be? These two are friendly. Is it because they might be the only ones that are friendly? Maybe he’d know. I could ask Hizashi, but something feels like that’s a bad idea. 

Mina suddenly pulls out a camera. “You brought a camera?” I asked. “Well, duh! I forgot earlier if I could take pictures of them, but seeing the one even bigger than Hizashi reminded me!” she looks up at Toshinori. “Could we take some pictures to show my other friends?” he perks up at that. “Why, of course! Why not wait until we get to the waterfall? We could do a group one!” 

Mina fist-bumps the air. “Yes! In front of the waterfall would be a GREAT view! Let’s go!” 

The rest of us told our names to him, well, Eijiro did for Katsuki again, on our way to the waterfall. Hizashi still hasn’t let go of me. Toshinori’s brows seem to crease in worry about that. I pat his tail twice. “Uh… Hizashi? Could you let me go now?” He does reluctantly. Mina giggles again. I decide to ignore it. The waterfall was finally in view, making the others grow more excited. Toshinori was farther ahead with the others. 

Now would probably be a good time to ask Toshinori a few things. “Why don’t you go ahead with my friends for a bit? I want to ask Toshinori a few things I’d like him to answer personally if he can.” He almost seems to go on guard after hearing that, but makes himself relax. “What about? Ya gonna talk about me?” He teases. 

“No! Of course not! I want to hear the story about that crazy scar on his side.” I lie. The scar might be interesting, but there are more important things at the moment. He seems unsure of my answer, but nods and heads up to lead the way. 

“I need to ask you a few things.” He looks down at me. “Is it about my scar?” I shake my head. “No, I want to know if you know why no humans want to come here lately.” He looks at Hizashi, who I can swear started moving more slowly, then back to me. He nods. 

“Do you know why humans no longer want to come to the island?” His smile disappears. “To prevent you from being afraid, all I will say is it’s safer for you to leave the island sooner than later.”  

My face scrunches up in frustration and confusion. “That doesn’t make sense! Why though? What could be here you guys couldn’t help us from?” 

“At least a little more information, dumbass.” Katsuki pipes up from behind me. Toshinori shakes his head and goes back to the others. I look beside me to see Katsuki crossing his arms. “I still don’t trust these overgrown lizards. Especially now.” 

“You and I both. Well, I trust they aren’t going to kill us, but I don’t trust they’re not telling us what they should.”

“It’s good we’re staying here two less days.” I look at him confused. “What do you mean?” 

“I told them to make it two less days, or when we get back I’d make their lives hell. I wanted to be here the least amount possible.” 

“Are you sure they’ll listen? They might leave us here if you threatened them.” He grew a sadistic smirk. “Kyoka is making sure.” I shake my head while smiling at him. “Always the ever-clever one, huh?” 

“Someone has to be since you dumbasses sure won’t.” I roll my eyes at him again. “Can’t argue with that. 

.

.

. 

Nerd.” I take off running to catch up without looking back, afraid of being smacked if caught. “Y/N!!!” He angrily screams, and it’s easy to tell he’s running after me. “Hahahaha!” I ran past Hizashi. His tail slams down between Katsuki and I. “Let’s save rough play for later, yeah?” 

I pout. “Aw, Hizashi, you’re no fun!” 

He pouts back. “No fun? I’m PLENTY of fun! C’mere!” He wiggles his fingers, signifying what he’s going to do. I shriek and jump away, but with no success since he's faster and uses his tail to get me stuck in place. 

“That’s enough Hizashi.” Toshinori harshly says, and takes me out of Hizashi’s grip, keeping his body closer to mine so Hizashi can’t. 

The others seem confused by Toshinori’s reaction, but shake it off. Katsuki glares harder at the two nagas. I decide to ignore everything and look at the waterfall. It’s really high up and beautiful. I stop. “Hey, wouldn’t this be a good area for the picture? We could get a large portion of the waterfall in it!” 

Mina quickly takes out her camera again from her pocket. “Yes! Let’s do it!” We get situated. Toshinori is on my right with Eijiro and Mina. Katsuki stays close on my left with Hizashi next to him, with Hanta and Denki unnecessarily crouching in front of him and doing the peace sign. Toshinori grabs the camera with his tail and is able to hold it out to hopefully show all of us in it. No doubt Katsuki isn’t going to smile in it. 

He took a few, and they all turned out great. We then wander close to the bottom of the waterfall where there’s a rather slow stream that goes half way up my calves. I know since we all took our shoes off and entered the shallow stream with the nagas not too far away just in case. While the others are messing around and throwing water at each other, I saw a really cool looking rock a bit farther in the water. It’s in a bit deeper water though… I could possibly ask someone to help. Nah. I look over to see Hizashi being busy talking with Toshinori. It doesn’t seem too friendly whatever they’re talking about judging by their movements. Katsuki is fairly close to them without them realizing, and he doesn’t seem happy with whatever he’s hearing. His face is crunched even more than usual. 

I look down towards the rock again and reach for it. The water goes up past my shoulder, getting my shirt wet. The current in that part is much stronger, almost making me lose my balance. My hand touches it, and I try to bring it up. It’s rather stuck in the ground. I firmly grip it and yank it. It comes free, kicking up a lot of dirt with it. Rinsing it in the water a bit more, it came out clean and was a rather large agate. It’s the size of my palm. A really cool one with multiple lines in it too. I dry it a bit on the bottom of my shorts and put it in my pocket. 

---------------------------------------------------------

The day went by rather quickly until we returned to our camp. Toshinori didn’t come with us, much to Mina’s dismay. We definitely got some kind of sunburn today. Denki looks like he’s gotten the worst of it. Katsuki nearly slapped him until I prevented it. I’d rather not hear how loud he can scream in pain. 

We didn’t feel like doing stories tonight. “Ugh, after this, I don’t think I’m ever going outside again.” Denki complains. “You will, even if I have to drag you.” Katsuki threatens. “Aw, big old buff boy truly does have a heart for us!” I tease. He harshly slaps my shoulder. “Point taken.” I say in a bit of pain. “You shouldn’t hurt your friends like that.” Hizashi pipes up being next to me on my right. Katsuki ignores him. “Forgot to mention, the boat will be here tomorrow to pick us up.” Hizashi tenses up. 

“How do you know that?” Hanta asks. “It’s Katsuki, how else?” I reply. “But we’re having so much fun here! And Hizashi has helped tell me so much about nagas!” Mina whines. “True. well, it was fun while we were here though!” I look at Hizashi. “Thanks for that!” He nods. “Of course!” Something didn’t feel too genuine or enthusiastic with his answer. I heard Hanta snoring. He must have passed out not too long ago. 

Eijiro yawns. “Man, today sure was fun though! Hopefully we can come back some day!” Katsuki and I share a look. “Yeah! It’s hard to find a boat to take us though, so it might be a while.” I inform, trying my hardest to not give away that we won’t be coming back. 

“Hey, Katsuki, could you bring Hanta to our tent? I can’t carry him.” 

“No. The dumbass fell asleep out here, he can stay out here.” Eijiro rolls his eyes at him. “I’ll do it.” He gets up and bridal carries Hanta to the tent with Denki following. Mina goes to ours. Katsuki pulls me close. “Don’t trust that fucking naga. Stay away from him.” He hisses, gets up, and goes to his tent. What was that about? He hasn’t been wrong before though, so it might be best to listen. It stayed silent for a while after Eijiro went to his tent and most likely everyone was asleep. 

I put my hands in my pockets and felt the rock. “I want to give you something to remember us by when we leave,” I take out the rock and give it to him. Something glinted in his eyes and he took it and cupped it with both hands like it was the most fragile thing in the world. A feeling is telling me I just made a big mistake. Why though? It’s just a rock? “It’s not much, but maybe you’ll like its memories?” 

“I’ll definitely treasure it!” his voice becomes more quiet. “Just like I’ll always treasure you.” He means like everything we’ve done the past two or so days, right? 

“Well, goodnight Hizashi!” I say, and go towards Mina and I’s tent. “Could we please do the same thing as last night? As a parting gift or something? It will get so lonely again.” His tone became rather saddened. I almost gave in on pity for him. I remember Katsuki’s words though, and try to think of an excuse. Right! Sunburn! “Sorry Hizashi. I really don’t want to be touched tonight, especially with this sunburn. That will hurt.” 

“Maybe the cold of my cave could help with that! Why don’t we try that?” He sounds desperate. Him being desperate sends off another red flag in my head.

“Sorry. I’d rather be alone tonight.” I say and enter my tent, zipping it up. 

He must have given up since he goes quiet after that. It doesn’t take long after that for sleep to start to overtake me. 

.

.

.

.

.

. 

...Did the zipper just open? I was too tired to check. It’s most likely nothing.

[baoshan-sanren]

The YinYang Master (2021) liveblog

okay so the city is where the people live and outside of the city is where the monsters live, got it

the yinyang bureau are the dudes who fight the monsters? sure

off the bat, chen kun (qingming) is accused of like killing a bunch of people in the bureau, no clue if he actually did it, but the person i assume to be the female interest does not believe a word of it (or does she)

anyway, he gets the fuck out of there, good for him

seven years later?

are these?

three raccoons in a trench coat? 

there are. there are three raccoons in a trench coat, each wielding a sharp and deadly weapon

it’s been ten minutes and this movie has got my attention

OH WE’RE GETTING CHEN KUN WHO FIGHTS WITH A FAN

AND DRINKS LIKE A FISH

AND HOPS AROUND WITH HIS HAIR LOOSE GOOD LORD

hello flying demon things I like your wings

here’s the female love interest again and uh

she’s

a bit terrifying now

whoever is dubbing her must’ve smoked two packs a day for ten years because holy hell that is some gravel

the flying demon thing stole some red gem that I assume is very important

SHE TOOK HIS ASS DOWN WITH ONE ARROW 

NOT TO BE A LESBIAN BUT OH MY GOD

okay these things aren’t raccoons, what the hell are they? are the weasels? I’m gonna call them weasels 

anyway I’ve had these weasels for 15 minutes but if anything happens to them

THEY ARE FERRETS 

A FERRET SWALLOWED THE RED GEM THING 

this is quickly getting out of hand you feel me?

OH MY GOOOOOD WHO IS THIS LADY VILLAIN NOW

can you imagine having to report to your boss like, I stole the thingy but then I was defeated by three ferrets 

I would die on the spot, like rip to this dude but I’m different

she has some kind of freezing ice power and I like it

now where are we

THERE ARE BADASS LADIES EVERYWHERE IN THIS GUYS

GUYS

I HAVE BEEN MISLED ABOUT THIS MOVIE

AND WHAT IS THIS LOOK? GOOD GOD

anyway, I’m not feeling too hot about this poor ferret’s prospects bc that red gem thing TALKS TO YOU and it sound pretty evil

ah shit, so the yinyang bureau is all like “those ferrets belong to qingming so he’s the one who did it, which means we were right to accuse him of trying to steal the red gem seven years ago”

no wonder this dude drinks, everyone’s out to get him

so the red gem is actually the snake? or like it was the snake? or is the soul of the snake?

this official-looking dude is just talking shit in front of this gravelly female chief of the bureau like he’s got a death wish

good, tell him to zip it

oh shit now we’re getting some past events and they are.... eventful

hm this cimu guy is getting a lot of screen time for a dead dude, perhaps he is not dead?

just now realizing the yinyang bureau boss lady is zhou xun I feel stupid

BOYA 

he’s in some deep shit for losing the tribute to a drunk dude and a bunch of ferrets in a trench coat 

and I have to say that’s a pretty valid thing to be in trouble for

"I fought with Qingming and he fled in defeat” *SNORT*

did this girl just

hit him with a really long cucumber?

w h a t  i s  h a p p e n i n g

her name is Shenle and I am now signing the adoption papers 

her and boya are going into the monster realm to find qingming and I can just sense a bunch of oncoming shenanigans 

I was right

i’m just now realizing that qingming intentionally left boya this spell so he can summon the bridge and come find him

what are you up to mister?

GUYS THIS MONSTER REALM 

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I PICTURED GHOST CITY IN TGCF AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH

qingming just made boya his familiar and let me tell you

not nearly as romantic as it was in the dream of eternity

BUT FUNNY THO

qingming is kind of a dick too and I think I like him more

jghgjfkdghdks what is this little red monster thingy what is happening

idk what makes costume designers stuff chen kun in these high collar robes but I am here for this look

ACTION ACTION ACTION FIGHT

this is a lot of romance for me personally right now but

i’m fucking really digging the fact that both chen kun and zhou xun are like 

grown-ass adults and experienced actors

she’s even older than him by a couple of years I think so like

for a hetero romance this is basically the only kind I care to see

I KNEW CIMU WAS UP TO NO GOOD

oh maybe he’s dead actually? what is his DEAL

okay this lady isn’t listening to anything you’re saying like why even bother

this poor fucking ferret

OH NO 

NOT THE FERRET

okay this bitch can eat my entire asshole, fuck her and her righteous bullshit 

aaaand now we’re all getting drunk

chen kun shouldn’t be allowed to do anything ever seriously he’s too hot to exist I feel attacked 

hey asshole lady, do you think maybe now you can admit you were wrong and qingming was right?

now we’re all “I should’ve trusted you”

she’s literally going “when this is over, this bracelet will be yours again” I know there’s some magic thing happening w the bracelet but that’s an euphemism if I’ve ever heard one 

you just called him a monster to his face like 10 minutes ago

this lady’s got some balls

qingming you’re too nice, I would’ve made her work for it

OH WE GET TO MEET THE BAD GUY BOSS

hnggg this fight scene is just

I am watching this film for the plot

oh crap the asshole lady is dead already?

that was a short redemption arc

and the snow lady is dead too hmpf I actually liked her unhinged little laugh

I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW WHO THE BAD GUYS IS

i feel like the entire monster-fucking dark side of tumblr needs to get a load of this dude

where you going spider dude?

oh this is

not a good development 

okay I am definitely not vibing with boya being depicted as an absolute dumbass for 90% of this film like

you could take him out of the movie completely and not lose any of the plot which is... not good

STOP STOP I’M ALREADY DEAD

I have to say these special effects are a bit over the top but so visually satisfying omg

also like

making me actually invested in every single small character within a space of 2.5 hours is pretty impressive 

hngggg

i’m starting to think that the whole point of this movie is to showcase how hot chen kun is in any clothing with any hair under any circumstances 

oh so now that the bad guy is dead the asshole lady is alive again

which is kind of a cop-out but whatever 

“you promised to live and die by my side and never betray me” BIG WORDS FROM SOMEONE WHO BETRAYED HIM FIRST

ahh I get what he did now

that’s pretty cool

and kind of sad

I’m not crying kind of sad but that shit hurted

still, I do like this ending

although this whole thing would’ve been much better as a drama at least 30 episodes long I don’t feel like I wasted 2.5 hours

so yeah, I def rec this if you have time to kill

[a-stone-world-saga]

“Senkuu-kun? Senkuu-kun!”

Senkuu grunts and doesn’t look up from the frothing beaker in front of him, carefully stirring it as his other hand pours the transparent contents of a second beaker into the mixture. He checks the temperature, then cranks it up five degrees more, noting the colour change as the previous dull blue gradually lightens to a brilliant pink.

“Senkuu-kun!” Yuzu says once more, voice just shy of a shout as she slaps her hands down on the opposite side of the table.

It’s only due to years of having Taiju and Yuzu barging in on his experiments at the most inopportune times that prevents Senkuu from startling as he very calmly tips the rest of the highly volatile acid into the boiling contents of his first beaker before shutting off the hot plate that it’s balanced on.

The beaker bubbles, and the pink looks almost ominously bright at this point, but - miracle of miracles - it doesn’t explode.

He finally looks up, right eye twitching. “Yuzuriha. What.”

Yuzu of course just gives him a look, not at all cowed by their near-miss with death. Senkuu feels like maybe all the experiments he’s dragged her and Taiju into over the years probably weren’t the best for developing their self-preservation instincts.

“Don’t you what me, Senkuu-kun,” Yuzu crosses her arms, and it earns her a little more of Senkuu’s attention. Yuzu doesn’t normally get so worked up.

He frowns. “What’s wrong then?” He recalls the date. Ah. “Did something happen with your art fair? That’s today, right?”

Yuzu huffs. “Yes it is, and it’s being held in the front courtyard. A lot of us are using the chance to show off for the journalists and university scouts that came today, you know.”

Senkuu blinks at her. “Yeah...? You told me, I remember.”

Yuzu smiles, all lethal sweetness, and Senkuu has to double-check that there’s actually a table separating them.

“Yes I did,” She agrees. “But did you tell your boyfriend?”

Senkuu stares, and an inkling of understanding begins trickling into him. “Well, no, why would I? He’s on that business trip overseas.”

There’s a moment of silence. Yuzu arches an eyebrow. Senkuu is juggling what amounts to a very colourful bomb so he can’t slap a hand to his face the way he really, really wants to.

“Let me guess - he’s not on that business trip overseas, is he?”

“He must’ve returned early,” Yuzu confirms, finally relenting with a reluctant smile. “He’s out front right now, and it’s cute I suppose, that he wants to see you first thing after coming back.” She giggles at the face Senkuu makes. “But maybe you could get him off the campus so he isn’t clogging up the entrance with his fans.”

Senkuu heaves a sigh and contemplates ignoring the whole problem and just hoping it’ll go away, but today is a big opportunity for Yuzu, and he’s pretty sure that even if he stays in his lab, his stupid significant other will just come get him once he loses his patience with simply waiting.

Senkuu looks down one more time at his ongoing experiment, and then heaves a mournful sigh and moves the whole thing to the sink, hooking a foot under the table as well to pull out the chemical disposal bin.

Yuzu claps her hands together. “Wonderful! Have fun with your boyfriend this weekend. I’ll see you on Monday!”

She’s gone again in the next breath, and Senkuu is left rolling his eyes at thin air. He shoves his safety goggles up, watching the water run for a moment before glancing out the nearby wall of windows. It’s a nice day - clear skies, spring weather.

“-it’s cute I suppose, that he wants to see you first thing after coming back.”

Senkuu scoffs and ignores the ridiculous squirmy feeling in his chest.

“That dumbass better not have brought flowers again.”

-0-

Fifteen minutes later, Senkuu rounds the side of a building and grimaces at the sight that greets him - a literal mob at the school gates, pressed up around one person leaning against the side of a damn limo. The blond hair is unmistakable, that much brighter under the sunlight, and his signature grin could charm the feathers off of birds, never mind the idiots twittering around him at the moment.

Nanami Ryuusui is as much a force of nature as always, charismatic without even trying, if the crowd around him is anything to go by, all of them vying for his attention. Even from this distance, Senkuu can see that he’s shed his suit jacket but he still has on a white button-up, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, collar folded back to bare his throat and part of his chest.

He looks good, and it’s been a month since Senkuu last saw him. He’d been in Italy, for a series of conferences on a new sailing vessel he’d finally finished and unveiled. They haven’t even had time to skype much over the past few weeks, Senkuu busy with his final projects and exams and interviews, Ryuusui with his speeches and meetings. Senkuu hadn’t expected to see him again for at least another week or so.

He stops a few feet short of the crowd, debating whether or not forcing his way through to the limo would be worth the hassle. He could always just go out the back and then circle around, although that would take him twice as long.

He eyes the throng of bodies in front of him. Or maybe not. It doesn’t help that he’s not very tall.

Still, he doesn’t feel like getting elbowed in the gut today, so the back exit it is. Or that’s what he decides, but just as he turns to leave, brown eyes glance up, slicing over the heads of all the people between them, and catches Senkuu’s gaze like very little else can.

Senkuu stills as Ryuusui straightens from his slouch. There’s a girl at his shoulder, still babbling at him about something or other, but Ryuusui has always had a way of looking at Senkuu like the rest of the world could disappear and he wouldn’t even notice. His eyes seem to light up, even though Senkuu knows that’s not physically possible, and without so much as a by-your-leave, Ryuusui surges forward and begins pushing his way through the crowd. He has much better luck with that than Senkuu would’ve (without his electricity ray, but his university has informed him that it sets a bad example if he leaves bodies everywhere, and also it’s illegal), and the sheer force of his stride as he powers his way towards Senkuu ensures that his fans part for him.

“Senkuu!” Ryuusui exclaims, and his grin is smaller than before when he was grandstanding for strangers but it’s also softer, and Senkuu finds himself smiling back before he really registers it on his own face. He ticks it up to a smirk and swings his bag out of the way just as Ryuusui reaches him.

“Hey dumbass, what did I saw about picking me up from school-”

The rest of his sentence is lost as Ryuusui reels him into a kiss, and it isn’t as if Senkuu wasn’t expecting it because this is how Ryuusui always greets him - open and happy and unashamed.

And Senkuu isn’t one for public displays of affection, but he supposes he doesn’t mind so much when it’s Ryuusui’s lips on his, one calloused hand splayed along the curve of his cheek, the other snaking around his waist to pull him close.

Whispers and squeals swell all around them, but they both ignore it with the ease of long practice. Senkuu breaks the kiss off first, but he stays pliant in Ryuusui’s grasp even as one his own hands curls possessively into the collar of Ryuusui’s shirt, fingers brushing over warm skin, gratified when he feels Ryuusui shiver.

His smile is smug though when Senkuu looks at him again, and the arm around Senkuu’s waist is equally possessive as he begins leading them both back to the car.

“Missed me, Senkuu?” It isn’t really a question, not here, with press and prying eyes all around them, so Senkuu only rolls his eyes in response.

“I’ve barely had time to sleep, let alone miss your idiot face,” He shoots back as he clambers into the limo and meets Francois’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Hey Francois. Did you enjoy Italy?”

He’s granted a faint smile and a regal nod. “I did, Senkuu-sama. I learned several new recipes I can try this weekend. Will you be staying with Ryuusui-sama until Monday?”

Ryuusui slides in then, shutting the door behind him and muting the chatter outside before turning an expectant grin on Senkuu. “Of course he is, right Senkuu? I even wrapped things up early this time.” He sighs dramatically as Francois starts the vehicle and smoothly pulls away from the curb. “I would’ve been here even faster if I’d taken my helicopter, but Francois said you wouldn’t appreciate that.”

Senkuu goes through with his earlier urge and slaps a hand to his face, partly out of exasperation, mostly to hide the amusement twitching at his lips. When he lowers his hand again, Ryuusui is smiling knowingly at him, and Senkuu can only sigh in return. It sounds disgustingly fond even to his own ears.

Oh how far he’s fallen.

“Francois is clearly in possession of all your common sense,” Senkuu mutters. He flicks a considering look at Ryuusui, then glances back at Francois when he sees the partition rising to give them some privacy.

Bless Francois and their obvious mind-reading abilities.

He turns to Ryuusui again, only to huff a laugh when he finds himself being tugged close once more. He goes willingly enough, letting the man maneuver him until he’s flat on his back, head and shoulders pillowed on Ryuusui’s lap.

Loose strands of hair tickle his cheek and collarbone as Ryuusui leans over him. A warm hand grips his chin, a thumb runs along his bottom lip.

“Did you miss me, my star?” Ryuusui murmurs, and Senkuu has to close his eyes for a moment against the sheer unwavering intensity of his gaze.

Sometimes, Ryuusui reminds him of a storm, relentless and overwhelming and beautiful the way only deadly, untamable things can be.

When he opens his eyes, Ryuusui is still watching him, smiling a little when Senkuu reaches up and tangles his fingers in long blond locks.

“Do you really have to ask that every time?” Senkuu grumbles without any real heat. He tugs at Ryuusui’s hair, and of course Ryuusui obliges, leaning down further until he’s close enough for Senkuu to kiss again. The angle’s a little awkward like this but neither of them minds, especially when Ryuusui deepens it, licking into his mouth with a hungry noise at the back of his throat, one large hand slipping under Senkuu’s shirt and dragging up the ladder of his ribs. Senkuu kisses back just as fiercely, his free hand curling around the arch of Ryuusui’s neck, pressing lightly against the groan vibrating under his palm, and suppressing a whimper of his own that Ryuusui drags out of him anyway like he wants to keep every sound Senkuu makes.

Senkuu is embarrassingly breathless when they finally part, and his lips feel far too swollen, but Ryuusui looks similarly flushed and kissed senseless, and Senkuu can feel the hard line of his cock under his shoulder blade. He twitches a shoulder just to see Ryuusui’s eyes snap to focus and darken even further, but they both know better than to fuck in the limo.

Francois won’t kill them, but death would probably be preferable to whatever they’d have in store for them as an alternative revenge.

“I missed you,” Senkuu says instead, marveling at the way Ryuusui freezes, eyes wide and vulnerable for just a breath of a moment, as if he never knows until Senkuu tells him. “Of course I did, you dumbass, it’s been a month. You could’ve called ahead, you know. I would’ve come out to the airport to meet you.”

Ryuusui blinks, breathes, and then his expression melts into another cocky grin. “I wanted to surprise you. Besides, I know you’ve been tired lately. I could save you the drive, so why not?”

Senkuu hums, his hand finding Ryuusui’s and squeezing briefly with the thanks he doesn’t say. Ryuusui chuckles and runs gentle fingers through his hair. “How about you get some rest now? I’ll wake you once we’re back at my place, Francois can cook us dinner, and you can tell me all about that teaching position the Weinberg University offered you.”

Senkuu arches an eyebrow. “I didn’t tell you about the offer yet.”

Ryuusui snorts. “Please, it’s you. Any school would’ve been tripping over itself to get you on their staff.”

Senkuu smirks, because yeah, he knows he’s that good, and the school board of the university Byakuya teaches at reportedly cried when it became clear Senkuu had his heart set on his stepmom’s school. But he also has to fight down the rush of heat creeping up his neck, because Ryuusui’s always had an unshakable faith in him, and somehow, hearing it from him means more to Senkuu than flattery from anyone else.

He rolls onto his side and presses his face into Ryuusui’s shirt instead. Above him, Ryuusui makes a surprised sound that shifts into amusement. “Sleep then?”

Senkuu hums a muffled affirmative, but after a moment, he also adds gruffly, “I’m glad you’re home, Ryuusui.”

The fingers that haven’t stopped petting through his hair pause now, but they start up again after a few seconds.

“Yeah,” Ryuusui agrees quietly, voice pitched low like he’s imparting a secret just for Senkuu. “Yeah, me too, Senkuu. Me too.”

Senkuu nods, satisfied, and closes his eyes, curling into Ryuusui’s warmth. He drifts off to the feel of Ryuusui’s fingers in his hair and his hand still clasped firmly with Senkuu’s own.

[duhragonball]

Vento Aureo Reread, JJBA Ch. 478-485

Time for the Man in the Mirror.   But first, an update on Trish Una’s hair.

I call this look “The Faux-suke”.   At least it looks more like hair now. 

After Narancia returns from his disastrous shopping trip, the team is worried about sticking around in case more of Formaggio’s teammates drop by.   At the same time, traveling would also be very risky.   Luckily, the Boss contacts them with new orders to deal with this problem.   He left a key in Pompeii, which Bruno must retrieve in order to use a special “ride” that will help keep them safe.   Pompeii isn’t far away, so Bruno sends three of his team to fetch the key: Fugo, Giorno, and Abbacchio.

The only problem is that one of the Execution Squad is waiting  for them when they arrive.   Illuso’s Stand, Man in the Mirror, uses mirrors as a gateway into another dimension.   I suppose his biggest weakness is that he has to set up a bunch of mirrors to make his play, and I doubt there were a whole lot of them lying around Pompeii, so he probably had to bring his own.  That’s not such a big deal, except I don’t understand how he got to Pompeii and laid his traps before Giorno and the others arrived.   Maybe one of Illuso’s teammates spotted them on the road and called Illuso to let him know where they were headed. 

Anyway, Man in the Mirror makes for some confusing visuals, because the “mirror world” looks almost exactly like the real one.   Yeah, everything’s reversed, but that doesn’t mean much in Pompeii, where everything is mostly ruins.   Fugo’s watch is backwards, and a label on a trash can is backwards, and that’s about it.   What’s important about the “mirror world” isn’t that it looks like a reflection of the normal world.    What’s important is that Illuso can decide what goes in and what stays out of the mirror world.   For openers, he pulls Fugo into the mirror world, but leaves Fugo’s Stand outside, so Fugo can’t defend himself.

On the flipside, this leaves Fugo’s Stand unattended in the real world.  Purple Haze mostly just punches things, but it also has bulbs on its hands that release a deadly virus once they burst.   The virus kills everything in a matter of minutes.  The only saving grace is that it has a limited range, and the virus can be sterilized upon exposure to any kind of light.   It’s not entirely clear if Fugo can fully control his Stand, since we only see it in this situation, where Fugo can’t tell what it’s doing.   It sort of raves around, which Giorno thinks is because Fugo is trying to fight inside the mirror world, but it’s hard to tell.  

Personally, I’m sorry that Purple Haze only got this one arc, because I think it’s a pretty awesome Stand.   You can’t jack around with Purple Haze.   Fugo doesn’t like to use it because the virus doesn’t distinguish between friend and foe, and once it’s released, he can’t control what it does.    But if he was surrounded by enemies, look out.   If Formaggio had tried to shrink Fugo instead of Narancia, he would have gotten killed immediately, because Purple Haze would be deadly at any size.  

As it is, Fugo kind of sucks, because this is the only fight he gets to be in for the whole Part, and he has to share it with two teammates, and he gets benched pretty early on.   Giorno wants to figure out a way to save him, but Abbacchio insists that the mission should come first.   He retrieves the key, and Illuso tries to pull him into the mirror world, but Abbacchio is ready for him.  Unlike Fugo, Abbacchio can make his Stand look like himself, so he tricks Illuso into pulling Moody Blues into the Mirror World.

At first, this seems to be an ideal solution, since Moody Blues can now tee off on Illuso while Abbacchio is safely outside of the Mirror World.   It helps that Man in the Mirror kind of sucks in a fair fight against another Stand.   But Abbacchio has to look into a mirror to see what’s going on, and Illuso uses this to grab hold of him. 

Illuso uses his control over the mirror world to allow only part of Abbacchio and part of Moody Blues to enter, thereby immobilizing both of them.   But Abbacchio refuses to give up, and he cuts off his own hand, allowing Moody Blues’ severed hand to float away with the key they were after.  

I’m pretty sure this was an application of Moody Blues’ power to recreate past events, since it’s forehead showed a timer counting down.    In this case, Abbacchio must have rewound to the time when he found the key and picked it up, so that Moody Blues would imitate those movements in reverse to put the key back.   Well, just the hand of Moody Blues, but you get the idea.   This way Giorno can find the key in the same spot Abbacchio did, and as long as he doesn’t look at any mirrors, he can leave Fugo and Abbacchio behind to complete the mission.  

But Giorno doesn’t do that.   Instead, he picks up the key and sits there like a dumbass, allowing Illuso to pull him into the mirror.   But Giorno’s a dumbass like a fox, because he got his hand infected with Purple Haze’s virus right before he got pulled into the mirror.

The virus is as contagious as it is deadly, so Giorno quickly infects Illuso as well.  So it looks like Illuso will die along with Giorno, allowing Fugo and Abbacchio to escape the mirror world when Man in the Mirror deactivates.  

But three can play at this mutilated hand game!  Illuso can use Man in the Mirror to remove himself from the mirror world, leaving the virus behind.   This isn’t exactly a clean break, and it shreds most of Illuso’s arm, but I guess it beats being dead.   

However, this plays right into Giorno’s hands, since Illuso is back in the real world, where Purple Haze can finish him off.   The mirror world can’t save Illuso now, because if he goes back, Giorno will just expose him to the virus again.   But Fugo can’t track Illuso’s movements to find him with Purple Haze.

Ah, but this brings us to Phase Three of Giorno’s increasingly convoluted plan to beat Illuso.  Before he got pulled into the mirror world, Giorno used Gold Experience to turn a brick into a snake.   That snake will pursue Illuso wherever he goes.   Meanwhile, objects in the mirror world move in accordance to their real world counterparts, so all they have to do is follow the moving brick in the mirror world that correlates to the snake.  So at this point I think it’s safe to say Giorno can now control his creations completely.  Well, he may not have direct control over the snake he made, but he can assign it a task for it to carry out in his absence, almost like an automated Stand.

So Fugo gets his big Hero Moment where he uses Purple Haze to kill the bad guy, although he got a huge assist from Giorno and Abbacchio to do it.  Illuso is upset that he lost even after sacrificing his own arm and coming up with a last-ditch plan of his own to trap Purple Haze in the mirror world, but all his efforts were for nothing.   I feel like that’s one of the themes of Vento Aureo.   It’s not just the determination of the heroes, its how the villains also have a relentless drive to win no matter what, and yet the villains always come up short because their cause just isn’t worth fighting for.   Giorno and Abbacchio sacrificed their bodies and risked their lives to save their teammates, and ultimately to protect Trish.  It works because they’re willing to die for their cause.   Illuso isn’t willing or able to go that far, because he’s only in it for power and money, and he has to be alive to get it. 

Once Man in the Mirror wears off, Giorno is reunited with the snake he created, and he reveals Part Four of his ridiculous plan.   Since he created the snake in the presence of the Purple Haze virus, it’s naturally immune to the disease, and so Giorno can remove antibodies from its blood and put them in his own body to cure himself of the infection.  I have several problems with this.  

First, Giorno hasn’t even used his Stand on living targets until a few days ago.   That says to me that he’s never even attempted something like this, so he has no way of knowing if it’ll work.   To be sure, he didn’t actually need it to work, since by this point he’d already accomplished his immediate goal of eliminating Illuso and saving his teammates.   But it’s still kind of nuts that he even came up with this idea at all.  

Second, what happened to the thing where attacks on Giorno’s creations would be reflected back upon the attacker?   Is Giorno immune to that rule?   Because it sure looks like he’s attacking that snake.   

Third, I don’t think you can just put snake blood in your own blood and you’re instantly cured of whatever diseases a snake is immune to.   One thing I do like about this wilder side of Gold Experience’s powers is that it hearkens back to Dio’s twisted experiments grafting zombies onto other zombies.   Maybe it works on some level that not even Giorno understands, but again, it seems strange that he would even come up with this plan if it involves things he never considered trying before. 

Finally, the Purple Haze virus isn’t a virus at all.   It’s part of Fugo’s Stand, so why would antibodies have any effect on it?   To be sure, those antibodies were created by a Stand, but they’re real antibodies, even if they were artificially produced.  I just don’t see how they would have any effect on a Stand. 

In all fairness, I’ve seen faster and looser interpretations of super powers in other comic books, but it feels like Araki cheated this time around.   Instead of coming up with a genuine solution to Man in the Mirror, he just invented new powers for Giorno to beat him with.   I guess what I’m trying to say is that I liked Abbacchio’s approach better.

Fugo is still duly impressed with Giorno’s resourcefulness, though, and he pays respect to him while he recovers from the virus.    But Giorno says it was nothing, since he predicted every step of his plan, so the risk was minimal at best.   He praises Abbacchio instead, since he went so far as to cut off his own hand to get the job done, taking greater risks with no way to know if they’d pay off.   That seems like kind of a left-handed compliment to me.    “No, Abbacchio is braver than I am, because he had a stupider plan than me.”