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yuseirra · 2 months

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ONK theories: how the ryosuke incident played out & the character's motives/about how the manga will go

ONK SPOILERS CH 155 and beyond:

To get straight to the point, I've correctly guessed all the key elements of the latest chapters of this manga. I'm quite confident in my abilities, so keep making posts about onk... I should stop.. I'm nervous talking about work that's still in progress but well!!! When will I be able to do this again!!

Although I'm usually terrible at solving mysteries and just watch while going "Oh~ Oh~," this manga is more about emotional analysis than deduction, so I've been able to guess a lot of the major points correctly.

Here's what I've guessed right:

Aqua has romantic feelings for Kana.

Ai liked Kamiki quite a lot and was considering him in her future plans.

Kamiki wanted to take responsibility for the children, but Ai hid and disappeared to protect him and avoid burdening him.

This process likely occurred unilaterally without Kamiki knowing about Ai's feelings and circumstances.

I got all of this right. There are some minor differences in the details. Ai didn't just like him quite a lot, she loved him deeply and informed him about the pregnancy (though she said it would be difficult to keep the baby), and they broke up after that.

Having guessed these things consecutively, I have a good sense of what these characters' personalities are like and what actions they'll take, so I'm motivated and have been continuously writing about it. I'm quite confident in this area.

Previously, I wrote a post about something odd during the dome performance celebration incident, but I didn't consider Nino at that time. Even then, I felt that Kamiki didn't seem like the culprit.

Please read that post first, as I plan to continue writing from there. I'll put the rest in the read more for viewers who scroll past!:

In that post, I focused on three possible scenarios.

It’s true that Kamiki leaked the address to Ryosuke. That isn’t a lie, and that character probably believes he is responsible for Ai’s death because of it. So, with that as the baseline, I came up with three possibilities:

If Kamiki and Ryosuke weren’t acquaintances from the start

If they were acquaintances and went to the hospital for Ai’s delivery with a common purpose

If they each had different purposes but met near the hospital on Ai’s delivery day and became acquaintances then.

Except for the first case, the assumption was that the "middle school boy" near the hospital on Ai’s delivery day was Kamiki. However, with Nino entering the picture, I started to think it might have been Nino who was near the hospital.

Therefore, I think it’s most likely that Kamiki is case 1.

There are reasons why it isn't case 2, which you can see if you read the post. Even if it were case 3, I concluded that Kamiki likely had no intention to harm Ai.

So, why do I think it’s most likely that Ryosuke and Kamiki weren’t acquaintances?

If Ryosuke, Nino, and Kamiki are connected in some way,

the one most likely to be acquainted with Ryosuke is Nino.

Ryosuke is a big fan of B-Komachi and Ai and even personally handed over stardust sand at a handshake event. If Ai remembered him as a fan, he must have been either extremely enthusiastic in his activities or conspicuous in some other way. Given Nino’s interest in and jealousy of Ai, it’s highly likely she took notice of Ryosuke.

If Nino found out that Ai planned to have babies, she might see it as an obstacle to Ai’s career as the perfect idol. So, she could have coaxed Ryosuke by revealing this information and formed some kind of collaboration.

From my perspective, Kamiki doesn't seem like the type to have any aversion to the idea of having children with Ai. Even if he thought Ai left him because she got pregnant, she told him she wouldn’t keep the babies before leaving. So, if he later found out that Ai did have the babies, his reaction would likely be one of confusion or curiosity rather than dislike. Something like 'Why did she have them when she said she wouldn’t?' And then, I think his reaction would go beyond surprise to possibly even happiness.

The character’s attitude towards the main characters, the twins, is pretty tender. Even if you assume "Mephisto" is his song, he calls out to the children telling them to come after him. He shows no signs that he intends to harm them. It just makes sense to me that he does care for Ai and his twins. They're his kids too. I keep talking about this, but Kamiki's said he was glad Aqua got to meet and talk with him in 153 and it makes sense given this character’s past personality that he has a father's heart. What he says seems genuine.

Nino is different. Nino cares about Ai, but I don’t think she has positive feelings about Ai’s babies. The whole group went on hiatus because of those babies (which made Nino realize the group revolves around Ai). Ai not only focuses on being an idol but now has something else to focus on because of them. To me, it seems Nino not only hates Ai but also desperately wants to preserve Ai as an idol. She doesn’t want that image to be tarnished at all. If there’s something that threatens it, she might want to remove it. The issue is how extreme she would get. If Nino knew about Gorou’s death, she would realize that someone died because of her actions, which could lead to her breaking down. That could have caused her to act out even more. Nino’s mental state, based on the few panels we’ve seen, seems really unstable and destructive.. the way Ryosuke's been.

When Kamiki and Ai were dating, he didn’t show any signs of being obsessed with Ai’s idol work, like saying, “Wow, you shine so brightly, I want to preserve that image.” At least, based on the movie arc, he seemed to have had a normal relationship with her, aside from his terrible life circumstances. I'm thinking he changed to his current ominous self after Ai’s death. Up until just before they broke up, he seemed fine. There wasn’t a big difference from when he was younger.

The "IDOL" song was a spoiler. It had the stance of, “Our invincible idol Ai, I’ll protect you no matter what. I can’t forgive you for being less than perfect, and I can’t forgive myself either for being this way.” That perspective came from a fellow member. That’s why Nino, who is obsessed with Ai’s "perfection" and would be hostile or at least unkind towards the hidden "children," fits this profile.

For these reasons, I think it was Nino who was at the hospital and collaborated with Ryosuke.

Did she really intend to go as far to harm Ai’s children in a physical sense? That, I don’t know yet...

And then the first attempt failed; Gorou died.

Ai returned to her activities, hiding the existence of the children and doing well. Perhaps, that led Nino to think, "Is this enough...?" and kept low for for 4 years. She had her own career going too and if Ai was performing beautifully, there wasn't a need to take more action.

But then Ai tried to show the babies to her boyfriend... If things had gone well and Ai and Kamiki had become close and interacted well with the children, Ai might have even tried to reveal everything... Maybe Nino wanted to prevent that from happening.

Looking at chapter 132, which shows a glimpse of Nino's insanity, it seems (surprisingly) that Nino didn't want Ai to die either. Ai was very significant to Nino, right? She hated her, was jealous, and wanted her gone, but didn't actually wish for her to die. If someone like that disappeared, it would feel more than liberating; it would feel empty. Nino doesn't seem all that sane. For this character, Ai became an obsession at one point, and losing Ai meant losing her "idol". Kamiki, on the other hand, while he also idolized Ai to some extent, speaks as if he understands that Ai was just an ordinary person. To him, Ai was the love of his life and partner. He liked her differently, not just as an idol to be worshiped.

Nino probably coerced and used Ryosuke again, giving him a knife to scare Ai, which led to her death, resulting in Nino's "regret." Maybe she even arranged for Ryosuke and Kamiki to meet? That bouquet of flowers...; I mean, could it be that Kamiki really asked to deliver flowers to celebrate the dome performance? If Ryosuke was introduced to him as Ai's fan by a B-Komachi member, Kamiki could've just lent the flowers to him to pass it on his stead. Isn't that possible? Am I thinking too optimistically? But it's not because I like Kamiki's character that I interpret it this way; (if he's the one who killed Ai, I'm ready to grab him by the collar and spank him anytime) it's just that his personality shown around that time doesn't fit with him intending to "scare" Ai. He's too mild..;

I can't quite guess how Kamiki and Nino, or Ryosuke and Kamiki, met.

I think it's more likely that Ryosuke and Kamiki met shortly after Ai’s phone call. Honestly, I can’t really picture Kamiki and Ryosuke being long-time acquaintances. What would they do together? Is there anything that would keep them in contact? Meeting his girlfriend’s hardcore fan—what’s the point? It would make sense if Kamiki had the intention to harm Ai, but I believe Kamiki when he says he didn’t actually think Ai would be killed. This seems true to me. I don’t think he could have imagined that the person who killed Gorou wouldn’t kill Ai. Up until that point, Kamiki was probably still relatively gentle. He hadn’t darkened yet.

We need to look at Kamiki’s personality. Even when someone like Airi, who exploited him, died, he was mentally distressed. The timing is a bit tangled... thinking about it, did that happen after the main characters were born? I think this guy was simply... entranced by Ai? As Aqua says in the very beginning (chapter 2), he’s like a moth drawn to a flame, unable to stop himself even as his wings burn and he falls. He seems to genuinely like Ai a lot. He probably blames himself for her death and can’t stop. Omg I just noticed, Aqua’s line is strikingly similar to what's described in "Fatal"...

Kamiki and Nino seem to cooperate, I think their common goal is related to Ai.

After meeting with Ruby, Nino says that no one can surpass Ai, not even her daughter, and she wouldn’t accept it.

In contrast, Kamiki was actually happy when Ruby showed the potential to surpass Ai. He was disappointed when he thought she just wanted to resemble Ai.

From this, it seems they both do want to find someone who can surpass Ai.

Nino can’t accept such a person, but does Kamiki feel the same way? If so, his reaction to Ruby should have been different. I think their intermediate goals are the same, but they might want different outcomes.

I suspect that Kamiki is searching for someone who can replace Ai to offer as a tribute to a "god." Thinking that he simply can't accept someone surpassing Ai and kills them seems too simplistic given the songs. The songs clearly express the desire to find a way to fill the "Lack of AI" (absence of Ai). The songs really seem to reflect Kamiki’s feelings. He is looking for a way to revive Ai or at least meet her again, and there is likely a character in the story who can make that possible. In a world where gods can reincarnate souls, there would be someone with the persuasive power to claim they have such abilities, whether it be real or just a mere taunt.

Ruby is the one who showed that potential, but considering that Kamiki just passed by Ruby in chapter 155, it doesn't seem like he would harm her. I closely examined chapters 153-155, and no matter what, he doesn’t seem like a crazy person who would harm his own daughter for the sake of his wife/girlfriend. If Ai hadn’t died, he would really have been the kind of person who could have raised the children with her as she envisioned. After Ai's death, he strayed off and is now firmly on the wrong path. That’s probably why Ai asked the main characters to help him, she knows what kind of person he originally is.

Continuing on, "stars" are likely the "gods" of this universe. The black star is a "god who loves absurdity and irrationality" and probably possesses great power but demands a high price in return. It seems that Kamiki is influenced by that.

In the anime, Akane's star eye color is different. That might be because it's an imitation. The humans truly inhabited by gods are different. Ruby, Aqua, Kamiki, and Ai are likely to have something inhabiting them.

The white star and the black star may each correspond to the "god who loves humans" and the "god who loves absurdity and irrationality" mentioned in chapter 144. The line "キラキラお星様宿したあなたのeyes(Your eyes with glittering stars in them)" in Fatal’s lyric could imply that Ai may also be a person inhabited by a star=god. Pay attention to the word "宿した" in the lyrics. The original Japanese lyrics can be translated like this: "your eyes that the sparking star that dwells within"

宿した< I looked it up, and it can be translated as "bears" or "conceives" "dwells".. it seems like a "star" was blessing Ai, it lived in her as she was alive (the fact that there's a "god that loves humans" oddly works with how Ai's whole life was about loving, too..)

Coming to think of it, didn't this manga start with a disclaimer that "this story is fiction"?

Then, is this manga in fact a stage meant for the gods?

Wow, and I JUST noticed as I went back and checked, the first scene of chapter 1 has the exact same quotes compared to what Kamiki says in chapter 153.

Fiction being "Fabricated, exaggerated, and everything inconvenient being completely concealed".

But Aqua rebuts him saying what he's made isn't one:

With the basis being Ai's love was genuine and therefore "true".

I have a feeling that the conclusion of this manga might be something similar.

It might be that everyone is like pawns in the game of gods, but the sincerity within them is all genuine.

The development is somewhat ambiguous... but this manga is definitely well-structured. There are certainly a lot of hints, and I see that things mentioned in the very beginning are being brought up again in the latest chapters? Still. So, looking at the bigger picture, maybe we don’t have to worry too much.

There's no new chapter this week... I backed up some drawings on Pixiv without knowing about the break. If I had known, I would have drawn a bit more before uploading... ;v;) well, it'll have to do!

Maybe now is the time to really sit back and watch patiently.

If things go the way I think they will, I can draw a lot more stuff, so I wonder how it will turn out...

The songs are definitely spoilers, for one thing.

They’re definitely related to the development of the story. It feels like they’re spoon-feeding us, but I'm not sure what exactly they’re spoon-feeding us. The creators seem to have a lot in mind.

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #hikaai #nino #ai hoshino #spoilers #this's a really long post hehe #oshi no theories

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zaenaris · 2 years

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i just hope that the wedding next chapter will be Drakemma. Because Takemichi is still a adult in mind (26), like Mikey (18/19). Considering that he met Hina in 2003 and that he timeleaped in 1998 (5 years before), he will be a lot older than her. And i'm sure that he's aware of that, he's not idiot. He stayed platonic with Hina when he was in his 14 and 16/17 body after all. But here? He's really a lot older now. And i'm done hearing people saying nasty things about Takemichi about that.=(

Exactly, like I'm still horrified by the thought that both Takemichi and Mikey, in order to save everyone, stayed for - what appears to be in ch.277- years in their child "version". Honestly having the mind of an adult and the body of a child, be stripped by your autonomy is horrifying and I know the fandom is focusing elsewhere (and for many good reasons), but I find it absolutely terrifying.

Yeah, Takemichi haters always says terrible things even if Takemichi always stayed platonic with Hina, sure he thought in a few occasion she is cute, but I mean, it's true! It was not in a pervert way, it was platonic. He was always age. appropriate with her in the past, even the kiss, while Takemichi wanted it, was initiated by Hina. Sure I can understand that, thinking about it, can be strange, but it's also true they were dating at the time, and rejecting her out of nowhere would have been strange. When Hina later found out the truth, that the Takemichi she was talking with was the one from the future, Takemichi's action never changed, he was never inappropriate with her (not even when she was 17 and almost of age)

Even when his 15 y/o self (when he came back in one of the time leaps) was about to cheat on Hina with Emma, he immediately stopped because he obviously knew it wasn't right!

So yeah, I understand some moments could be read as weird if you think about and, but Takemichi haters are always ready to say the worst things about him even if he was never inappropriate with any of the kids.

Back to the fact that Takemichi is in his 40s if, as it seems, he stayed in the past for all this years, as you said it implies that he met Hina when he was so much older and yeah, that would be really weird, kind of uncomfortable.

I hope Wakui kept that in mind because, as much as I like TakeHina when they are the same age, it would be really weird for them to end up together in this TL if Michi stays so much mentally older then her. In an ideal ending, it would made more sense for Michi to end up with Mikey, which is closer in mental age with, and that knows about time leaping and have memories of the others TLs (see my multishipper side lol) but the manga industry won't allow it of course.

So yeah, DrakEmma would be really nice, because they were always meant to be and they're adorable, they deserve their happy ending.

Idk, seeing how rushed the whole thing was (we don't really know what happened, manga industry is very hard, editors and publishers can be monsters, and not always authors have the freedom to do what they want. This is not to justify a rushed ending/writing, this is just analyzing the thing taking into consideration different facts), probably whoever gave the idea of TakeHina wedding didn't consider the implications of it, especially is TakeHina started dating when they were in middle school like in the others timelines.

Having the protagonist marrying his love interest from chapter one is the most "easy" (sometimes boring, but plausible) solution most of the time, but in this case it would feel some important things weren't taken into consideration.

Idk, from ch.277 it was heavily implied Takemichi and Mikey stayed in the past for all those years, but will they "come. back". to their respectives "presents"? Or to hell the present and they just decided to live in the past? If that's the case, they are so much older then anyone there. Again, how could that affect their relationship with the others??

Idk, I'm once again probably asking too many questions that won't find an answer lol

While I kind of expect TakeHina wedding because of what I wrote before, I kind of prefer it was someone else's wedding as well

Or at least that the time leaping thing was addressed again, just to understand better.

We'll see next week I guess

#tokyo revengers #hanagaki takemichi #tachibana hinata #takehina #manjiro sano #maitake #tokyorev spoilers #zae talks about tr #tokyorev ending

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ram-de · 10 months

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[read] oxnard is my son

Reading wolfsong rn and why is the writing style so eerie LIKE... you know what it reminds me... Like typical murder thriller storytelling in mangas I used to read. (like I know it will? Eventually involves murder) BUT MAN ITS SO EERIE

I guess it's the way the story is told like a diary. Like a dissection to the innocent thoughts of ox... he's so precious like I get why gordo wants him in the pack it's the paternal instinct. Ox's dad is probably the murderer right...

Not going to comment about the romance bcs it felt icky at the point I know I know no yucking peoples yums and its just like, what, 5?6?years age gap. but idk they're like at different levels of school... Like... Typically high schoolers wouldn't date a middle school kids right?? Then again idk when I was in middle school, ive heard of (typically girls) students that thought of dating highs schooler as something, like, normal... Idk how they would meet in the first place but?? Like alright ill stop writing. This is a post about wolfsong asshdhdjjj idk the point is im not too keen on age gaps...... Typically I wouldn't even mind 6-7 years if that happened when they're both adults at their 20s or something it's just this one they met at the very young age... ;-;

But I looked up at some spoilers and got reassured that the romance part happened in later parts, which I guess?? Makes it better??? I DON'T KNOW guess I'll see how it's handled OK, in tj klune I trust

ALRIGHT AGE DISCUSSION ASIDE I love love love the writing of the book so far. It has the thrills, the suspense but also... How soft it can be. I've read like, what, two books involving werewolfs so I get the gist of like wolf-traits but not so much on packs and groups aspect of it. Wolfsong delves heavy (as far as I read) and the affectionate (I would say platonic) touches, ruffling heads, patting backs LIKE... ox deserved that yes give my son the affection he deserve

Idk why ox is in two packs tho aren't wolves like territorial how come he has gordo's and the bennets... Hm...

UGHH OX LEARNED HOW TO TEXT😭 that's my son right there (we're barely years apart)

Joe uses =D emotes... I uses :D (and I know I've said enough about the age topic but the fact that joe has to ask for his mom if he can go to cinema with ox is a bit... Like this doesn't make it better, mentally THIS kid is a kid!!! what do I do im like pretty invested in this book but also... Is the age gap rly necessary mr klune... I'll pretend that joe is only two years younger for the rest of my readthrough for my own sake and see if that changes anything. Crisis averted! I'm a genius.)

Did my son ox really just had his 𝕴 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖈𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚 moment HSGSHJSSJJ

Did gordo just sneak into ox's room in the middle of the night... like is he,, is he sneaking through thee windows or the front door. And did they lock the house when they left I HAD SO MANY QUESTION

PackOursMineBrotherSonLove

STOPPPPP IF I ENDED UP LIKING WEREWOLF STORIES I'M BLAMING TJ KLUNE AHHHHH

Why is he leaving my man gordo in the forest why is this so eerie and why I am having a lot of fun reading this chapter... noooooo he's leaving gordo's pack😔

I LIKE PUPPIESS I've been watching a lot of cute doggies wagging their tails videos though I'm not too keen on alpha/beta/omega dynamics (why the hell i read a werewolf book then, uh, tj klune)

They really spammed (pack pack pack pack) in my son's head hsgzhsjsjhs so are they sharing like a mind?? Telepathy??? Is ox tethered to two packs now... Pls no abusive alpha😔 I trust in you nephew joe

Omega were dark things in the wolves society??? I thought they're the one that can get pregnant??

Tethers... Possessive... ANYTHING TO SAY GORDO....??? I'm sure he's gonna be paired up with Mark for second chances stories in another book bcs I know this is a series

This isn't fair to Jessie ngl

I'm visualizing the story as if it's told in a manga medium and I'm floored... It fits so well... The dramatics...! The sound effects in the bg. I'm being weird

"I'm always going to be here." Ox denied what his mom said, but he promised Joe the same thing himself. Loyalty runs wild within the pack...

JUSTICE FOR JESSIE she was brought to the story to be given dirt I hate this tropes in mm books sometimes AND WHATEVER HAPPEN TO GORDO'S GUYS, like Chris?? (fuck me I spoiled myself looking for posts about Jessie, WELL OK THEN)

Ok I wrote too early there he is, chris

thank the lords that my son ox is checking out peers his age at this point bcs pls let joe's be one-sided until for a longer while. on another note, Carter... Cutie... same age... what we could have... 😔 I could get away with forgetting but mr klune kept reminding me of the age problem ughgcgj (and I keep writing it to the point of casual reminders) I will try harder to ignore things I do not want to perceive.

I was so used to see a/b/o dynamics being soooo sexualized (is it a sexual term? Idk) in like memes when I casually scroll Twitter or YouTube so I can't take the whole 'My Alpha' thing seriously... Tho it's nice to see it portrayed like, possessiveness, taken two levels higher I guess, then again it's... This isn't really Abo per se?? It's like typical cute wolf pack dynamics. If so, I don't mind pack dynamics that much.

wait they took ox's mom (I forgot her name) to training and bonding too that's so cute AAAHHJ I love love love tu klune's side character and how it brings a lot of life to the story, how they're incorporated and like have character growth... (I STILL LOVE THE KIDS AT CERULEAN SEA though I forgot most of their names except Lucy I'm sorry dwarf daughter slime son uhh fairy kid and griffin (not?)kid and Lucy too)

my son ox forgets names easily too, he got it from me😭

Carter and ox being domestic. this is love... I LOVE THIS PAIR.... Who tf is nick? Wdym he never saw him again. DID... DID JOE KILL HIM...

Four years later, and Joe is actually 20💕 brainwashing myself has never been this easy

AHHHHH I remember ox's mother name... Remembered the spoiler I saw.... Connected the two....... Spoilers alert even tho it's in tags pls😭 ok I'll mourn ig....

Fuck me ox is catching feelings... I tried to ignore the age but they kept mentioning Joe's age and how short he is AND I'M.... OKAY... But then Joe turned 17 and suddenly ox is realizing the butterflies like I'm sorry is the age gap really necessary mr klune 😭 but I like everything else.... The characters, the world, the writing... I need to pause and sleep it off for now...

I CANT SLEEP I WANT TO READ AHHH ok ok it's ok, haven't even see how it's handled so it's ok. Alright denial is a river in Egypt whatever which means I'll get over it soon so...

I warmed up to joe(21) and ox(23) already😭 CUTE my son is so clumsy and delusional (mildly)

am I yucking someone else yum... if so I'm sorry but the later half of this chapter, seriously... The word underage is mentioned and this is still the direction they went with shzvjsjshshshs how can I live in denial if things kept getting shoved on my face wdym it's okay carter😭

flustered ox is so... Hes so cute UGHH not to mention joe(21) being smug about it like this man (guy (kid)) is confident as hell. He's gonna be the death of ox (hopefully not literally)

I folded so easily because why is this so cute... This is like peak friends(both adults and /over/age) to lovers pipeline

PLEASEEE joe(21) just did a proposal... a cutiepie and a half

this is cracking me up so bad I love this book (certain trope aside) they're just hiding outside listening😂

Okay, okay, so the reasoning being that thing about experiences and how some kids mature early and stuff balut werewolves minds and compatibility and stuff. Fair, fair, but, AHHH whatever, moving on...

Maybe I teared up a bit,,, oxnard my son you're indeed worth everything😭

Joseph you possessive pup... His speech? Poem? Is peak creep and obsession... As expected from alphas ig

#readingrams #Wolfsong #I am bitter about the age thing okay😭

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dimdiamond · 1 year

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Random Writer Anon!!

When you get this answer one of the questions (or all if you really want!) then pass it on to 5 writer friends! 🥰If you have more than one WIP, pick at random! We want you to talk about your works, and celebrate with you! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to answer these questions, I’ll be back with more next Sunday. 😉

What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

How has this WIP changed since the “daydream/brainstorm” stage?

Who is your favorite character in this WIP and why?

Hello writer anon!

Sorry for not answering it all this time, I was trying to choose one WIP from the many and now I need a push to make me finally write again after a long time.

I'm answering about a WIP I haven't posted and nor I intend to until I finish the fic (I'm close to the middle I think????). For now its title is "Distant Dreamer" and it's basically Erased au (don't follow faithfully the manga besides the basic premise) with modern Tintin having the ability to travel back in time and to save his friends' lives he travels back to his childhood. It is mystery, thriller and full of angst but has its light-hearted moments and will have happy ending.

What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

Every plot point has its good moments but I am really looking forward to writing kid Tintin meeting young Haddock. Tintin knows Haddock from his timeline but this Haddock is so different and not at the same time and anyway this meeting is very important for both of them and will lead to huge changes in the timeline. There are other things I'm also excited about but I don't want to reveal too much (and whoever has read or watched Erased may have already made some speculations).

How has this WIP changed since the "daydream/brainstorm" stage?

Hmmm many things to be honest. I tend to not have strict planning so I can feel free to discover and develop things while writing but, of course, I do have a plotline and basic plot points to follow. It's just that many times it might get me more than one chapter to cover an event that I might have thought it would take less. As we speak I'm not sure yet how a subplot will go but it will begin much later so I have still time lol.

Who is your favourite character in this WIP and why?

Aaaa tough choice, especially since not all characters have appeared yet at the point I have stopped last time! I love writing Tintin in this fic (warning he is not the Tintin we all know because of his past and ability and reliving his childhood definitely shakes him up) and kid Chang as he is THE difficult boy (I wish I was kidding). Every character (ocs too) is fun and interesting to write in this fic but if I have to choose a favourite character I think I'll go with Haddock. He has his trauma and past but still tries his best to help and support whoever needs it. Oh, and he plays electric guitar. What else do you need?

#thank you for the ask!#feel free to ask me anything about this wip or some other from the many in my list #anyway i am really excited about this self-indulgent fic #actually all my fics and art are self-indulgent lol #and yes this is in the end a haddotin fic so i will tag it properly #tintin #the adventures of tintin #haddotin #erased au #haddotin fic #my fic

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rainy19days · 2 years

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I guess I should make some kind of introduction if I'm doing this tumblr - fandom shit.

(It turned out longer than I initially intended and more like me venting on my life rather than an introduction so feel free to ignore this post)

One shitty day around September I started to think about the things that made me happy when I was a teenager. One of those things was reading yaoi manga (obviously). But I stopped reading yaoi (or any kind of manga to be exact), or watch anime, or draw, or write poems and stories when I met my boyfriend. Life had fucked me up and falling in love fucked me up even more but also it kind of healed me in a lot of ways, it's still confusing to me to this day. Anyway, I threw myself headfirst into this relationship leaving everything behind, I didn't need anything beside him. This love was my escape, I needed to separate myself from my past and at that time it felt freeing. Skipping 10 years later, I realized no relationship is perfect. Even this boy who I know FOR SURE that I've been chasing through fucking lifetimes to finally meet again, because he's my fucking soulmate, even he is not perfect, and well I guess we'll try to be better again in another life... But, I'm getting distracted here... What I'm trying to say is that we both kind of gave up or forgot about ourselves. We stopped being our own separate selves. And that is fucking sad.

So that one shitty day I decided to try logging into my old tumblr account. Of course I didn't remember the password but I finally managed to log in, and I immediately felt a little nauseous when I saw my original introduction as a 22 year old. I never realized it's been full 10 years. 10 long years of not doing the things that I used to enjoy so much.

It was kind of strange and unfamiliar to be on this app again, not to mention the last time I was here I was on my computer, I don't even remember if the app existed. Of all the blogs I followed only one or two keep posting. I felt out of place, so I logged out and instead I started to wonder if Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai had been completed. It was the first title that immediately came to my mind. I remember being obsessed with it and that the last chapter that was out but not translated at that time was when Yashiro left after having sex with Doumeki and talked to Ryuuzaki in the car. After some time of digging the internet (God, it's so difficult to find anything nowadays, all the manga reading sites that I used in the past are gone) I finally found out that the manga is still ongoing and without a moment of hesitation I devoured it from start to finish. All the feelings that I had for this ship came back to me with a new force. How did I live not even thinking about it for so long? Was I dead?

Not sure how I was gonna function until new release that was supposed to be at the end of November, I obviously reread Saezuru countless times. I also tried rereading other stuff and looking for something new but nothing compared to this. Then, something hit me. What was the name of this manga that I used to see some random panels of in my explore page on instagram? About some teenagers doing teenager stuff but also being kinda gay about it. I specifically remembered the panel of two boys on the bed, one with his upper body on the floor, the other on top of him. I was almost positive that there was number 19 in the title, so it didn't take too much time to find it and start reading. Yeah, the beginning is a little bit dark and I was a little confused looking at those short, a few panels long chapters and random art, but when the middle school part began I was immediately in love. I logged into tumblr again and proceeded to read as many posts analyzing this masterpiece as I could find.

I'm obsessed. I feel like a teenager again. I can't think about anything else. My mind is preoccupied with TianShan and I can't function anymore. There are so many thoughts, so many ideas in my head I'm scared it's going to explode if I don't let it out somehow. That is why I created this side blog. The only problem is that I'm an adult and I got adult stuff to do. I wish I was around when I still had some more free time on my hands. Also, I feel a little creepy for being 32 and drooling over 15 year old boys. On the other hand... isn't Old Xian about my age? Maybe it's alright then lol.

I think that's it. Just wanted to explain how I got here and warm up before posting anything else. Now I'm embarrassed thinking that someone might actually read this. At this point I can't tell if I'm going to post much of my own content or if I'll just abandon this blog when life gets in the way. Nevertheless, here's where my fandom journey begins.

#I don't know what I'm doing #hi there I'm new here #rainy19days personal

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violettelueur · 3 years

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— JUJUTSU KAISEN EPISODE NINETEEN || BLACK FLASH

↳ featuring : basically everyone at this point from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : mention of blood + mention of violence + EXTREME grammar issues

↳ form : story

↳ published : 13 april

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 4.6k

↳ synopsis : within the jujutsu world, there were three famous clans to be aware of, the Kamo clan, Zenin clan and the Gojo clan. However, unknown to many sorcerers there was one last family that was known to be apart of the three, only for them to disappear after the golden era leading some to speculate that they had died in battle after the sealing of ryomen sukuna, but....

↳ previous episode : sage

↳ next episode : nonstandard

↳ barista’s notes : let me admit, this will probably have terrible grammer issues here and there because i started this at 10:30pm and how it is 4am....ʕ ㅇ ᴥ ㅇʔ but also fun fact, when i was writing the fight scene, i legit had to grab a chopstick and try to reenact the scene i needed to write for in the kitchen ʕ ꆤ ᴥ ꆤʔ BUT moving on from that, thank you so much for being so patient with the series and hope you enjoy this special cup of classic black coffee ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡

BEFORE READING, I NEED YOU TO BE AWARE OF THIS:

1. the whole story belongs to Gege Akutami and the credits go to them and them only.

2. the spell curses used belong to Tite Kubo due to them being the ‘Kidos’ being used on the manga and anime ‘Bleach’ - but none is mentioned in this chapter.

2.5. for the ‘cursed spells’/kidos (bleach) i will link this video here and tell you the time stamp to check out what i am intending to show - remember i add a few twist here and there by adding the katana to link with Y/N’s cursed technique : hopefully this video is slightly better...

Destructive Curse Spell Number Sixty Three : Raikoho (6:29-6:44)

Destructive Curse Spell Number One : Sho (4:56-5:04)

3. if you are confused on anything, please don’t hesitate to message me since i know this whole thing is so confusing.

A multitude of running footsteps continuously pounded against the wooden floor below, as everyone was determined to get away from the special-grade curse that was chasing them at this very moment in time, as what followed everyone was a vast wave of wooden branches that was violently destroying the corridor behind them.

“Are you all right, Inumaki-senpai?” Fushiguro asked with concern enveloping his overall tone, as the mentioned upperclassmen seemed to be struggling right now.

“Salmon,” Inumaki replied, in an attempt to reassure his classmate that he was doing and going to be alright, when in fact it looked as if it was the complete opposite currently.

“Here it comes!” Kamo yelled out to warn everyone as he spun around to face his opponent, leading the cursed spirit to launch a few sharp branches towards him as well as you, once you fully turned around to make sure that your classmate from the Kyoto side was going to be safe.

“Stop,” Inumaki commanded leading his curse technique to come to effect as his voice not only echoed through the hallways but forced the curse and its attack to come into a sudden halt, leading Kamo the given opportunity to launch his technique as a rapid long-ranged shot of blood directly attacked towards the curse’s head (which was somewhat covered in burns due to your last technique before everyone started to flee by your command) causing some fragments of it to chip off to which surprised Fushiguro slight as you stood at the top of the stairs just above Inumaki.

“Hurry! He’s just gonna heal right away!” Kamo instructed everyone as he ran up the stairs causing you to give one last look at the curse before rushing up the wooden steps as Kamo has told you.

From what you could observe, the branches seemed to be the curse’s weakest point since Kamo’s last attack managed to hit its head causing you to come to that conclusion while your curse spell managed to cause some permanent damage to the curse due to the damage that remained after. However, even if you did want to continuously use the same curse technique over and over again, to not only cause the building that everyone was residing in to collapses and burn down but it also put your comrades in danger, something that you ultimately wanted to avoid at all cost.

Hearing a small but noticeable cough, you quickly turned your head back slightly to discover Inumaki’s face glistening with sweat as he took another sip of his medicine leading you to become more concerned about how much longer he could since this plan that suddenly came about wasn’t the most practical of them all, yet...it was the best for now.

Right as you turned back to look forward, you noticed that you were coming to a door leading you to push yourself further as you reached your arm out to slam the door open before jumping over the balcony to the roof that was slightly down below leading the boys to follow after. However, mere seconds later, there was an explosive sound erupting from behind causing you to quickly turn back to find that the curse had already made a wooden pathway with its branches as a way to walk over to everyone.

“Inumaki-senpai will stop it. Don’t worry, just go,” Fushiguro mentioned as he guided Nue towards the curse, leading the shikigami to fly straight towards the opponent with no hesitation.

“No wait!” you shouted, as you reached your whole arm out like you were able to reach the owl-like creature in time. However, the second Fushiguro turned to face you to see what was wrong, the curse’s arm swiftly punctured the shikigami straight through causing Inumaki to collapse to the ground with blood seeping out from his mouth leading you to realise that your upperclassman was at his limit.

On the other hand, before you could even react, you heard someone behind you being thrown causing you to look behind only to discover Kamo’s body being flung to the other side with Fushiguro right behind him to catch his fall leaving you in the middle on the rooftop between your classmate and the curse.

“Are you alive, Kamo-san?” Fushiguro questioned in a panic since he was not only troubled by the fact that one of the students could be in life-critical condition but with you also being in danger due to where you were standing currently and him having no idea why the curse was going after you.

Steadily, your hand slowly moved towards the dark blue metal pole that has been hanging on your belt for some time as you hooked your katana horizontally on your back, so your other hand will be free to freely manoeuvre the weapon of choice that you were choosing to handle the curse.

However, it seemed as if Fushiguro had other ideas as his hands shakily began to hesitantly raise up as if he was going to summon another shikigami into the battlefield. Although, before he was able to completely commit to his plan, there was a sudden pressure laid upon his shoulder catching him by surprise as he turned to look back at Inumaki, who was somewhat struggling to stand.

“Mustard leaf,” Inumaki stated with determination with a hint of tiredness lacing in his tone, leading you to turn your head back to notice him beginning to stagger towards you.

“Inumaki-senpai...That’s enough!” Fushiguro mentioned in a worried tone causing you to grab onto his sleeve once he stood by your side, only for him to present you a small smile once he turned to you - as if to tell you that everything was going to be okay.

“Blast away!” Inumaki suddenly roared leading to curse’s body to instantly flung itself to the other rooftop that was positioned above you just a slight bit before he fell to his knees with blood began to profusely run down his mouth causing you to kneel down by his side as you supported his body with one hand while your other hand gently on his neck to begin the process of reverse cursed energy to ensure that he was going to be stable before someone was able to take him to Shoko - if someone even could at this point.

However, it seemed as if Inumaki’s attempt was futile as the special grade curse sat up with no issue at all leading you to wonder how strong this curse was since it didn’t seem to take any damage whatsoever from Kamo’s and Inumaki’s attempts leaving you to the conclusion that you had to use your curse technique at this point.

“You can’t cut me with that dull blade,” the curse stated before raising its arm to not only block but shatter the weapon Maki was swinging towards it leaving her to look at it with widened eyes before tutting in annoyance leading Fushiguro to jump over you to attack the curse with his weapon once again, only for him to miss slightly as he managed to slice off a piece of the branch that acted as its eyes.

“Now this sword isn’t so bad, but you could just give me the girl as we will call it a day,” the curse commented while healing the tattered branch causing it to grow back, leaving no trace of it ever being cut off by Fushiguro.

Although, it seemed as if Fushiguro and Maki had something else planned as your classmate reached into his shadow that was manifesting below him to replace his sword with another cursed tool before giving it to Maki, who tossed the broken tool she had to the side.

“I have something even better. This one feels disgusting to use, though,” Maki mentioned before quickly unfolding the weapon to reveal a three-sectioned staff before swiftly spinning around to swing the weapon across towards the curse, resulting in the curse to block the attack, only for it to be violently and forcibly pushed forward into the forest.

“Gojo, run towards the edge of the veil and stay there!” Fushiguro yelled out to you before him and Maki sprinted forward towards the direction to where the curse was located, causing you to stare at him in confusion before instantly turning back to check in Kamo was still right behind you to which lead to carefully place Inumaki down on his back as you rush towards the Kyoto student’s side before you proceeded to turn his body to discover that his face was damaged badly causing you to place your hand over his head leading you to heal what you could before transport arrive.

On the other hand, before you could even worry about how you were going to get both Inumaki and Kamo to the end of the veil, you suddenly heard someone calling out your name causing you to peer up to the sky, only to find both Itadori and Todo coming down towards you in a speed that not even Sonic the Hedgehog could even achieve.

“GOJO!” Itadori yelled before powerfully landing right in front of you, leading you swiftly to grab on to the top of the roof to maintain some balance while using your other arm to cling onto Kamo’s body to make sure he didn’t fall as well.

“Itadori!” you replied in relief causing your classmate to smile at you even in the tough situation you were in right now.

“Gojo, Nishimiya is going to get those two out of the veil but according to her, the veil is an anti-Gojo Satoru one,” Todo inform you causing you to look at the first-grade sorcerer with widened eyes before you turned your head to the side to observe the veil that was enveloping all the students right now.

“Anti-Gojo?” you muttered under your breath, before turning your head back towards the muscular student, only to see him smirk confidently at you before Itadori took his hand out as if to help you up.

“Don’t worry about the other two, they will be safe, we all need to head to where the curse is right now!” Itadori mentioned leading you to turn to him as you quickly noticed the amount of cursed energy that was surrounding him right now, causing you to wonder how much he has improved over the past few months he was away.

Placing Kamo gently on his back, you grabbed onto Itadori’s hand causing your friend to pull you up before Todo stretched out his arm behind you, trying to convey for you to sit there so both he could carry you to the destination where you needed to be at this very moment in time.

“Todo...I need you to follow a plan,” you sudden declared, causing him to turn to you with a confused look while you seated yourself on his large arm (which surprisingly managed to keep you still with the help of Itadori, who placed his arm behind your back). “Just promise me you won’t tell anyone about my curse technique at all, not even a single word of it,” you said to him with a threatening tone causing itadori to look at you with a somewhat frightened expression on his face while his friend peered at you with a smile.

“I’m fine with that, but I also need you to help me with one thing,” Todo mentioned as he turned his head to face forward.

“And what would that be?” you asked.

‘Ah...this is going to be a drag…’

ꕥ

"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Destructive Curse Spell number sixty-three: Raikoho!" you chanted, as you placed your hand out like a claw leading to an exciting orb of yellow concentrated cursed energy to manifest itself within your palm, before rapidly striking down towards the targeted special grade curse like a destructive lighting bolt leading Todo to grab Maki within his grasp a second before the cursed spell hit the ground which leads to your opponent being paralysed.

“Keeping to the deal?” Todo asked you with a smile on his face causing you to shift your eye to the side, where he stood before unhooking the metal pool from your belt.

“Yeah, I am,” you answered causing him and Itadori to move to the side for a second - which Itadori was confused about since he didn’t know what show he was in for.

Fushiguro, who was crouching down with a speck of blood trailed down on the corner of his mouth began to argue against the appearance of you and Itadori. However, it seemed as if you weren’t listening to him to or to any of the student behind you at all since you needed to concentrate on both the situation you were in right now but also on the little deal you made with Todo - even though, regardless if you were able to show him the technique or not, you knew that Todo was keeping his word about keeping your technique a secret...that was what you could rely on him as well as his strength.

‘Black Flash huh...now that is a drag…’

“Now that you are here, why don’t you come peacefully?” the curse asked, causing you to mentally sigh as it was causing your concentration to waver, but you really weren’t in the mood to answer.

Stretching out your arm, you held the dark blue metal poll right in front of the curse before letting the weapon extend itself before forming an extremely sharp blade at the top leading the curse to look at it in confusion since it seemed to notice that your katana was missing due to it remembering that it was handing behind your lower back area.

ꕥ

“This is my gift to you! Think of it as a welcome to the Gojo Clan gift!” Gojo excitedly announced as he presented you a gift box with a bright smile on his face, causing you to look at the gift in surprise since you didn’t expect him to give you anything when you came to his clan estate but also by the fact that the ribbon tied into a bow was the same colour as his eyes.

‘I don’t know if it’s because he is being egotistical or he just like the colour blue’

“Thank you,” you said with much gratitude before taking the box away from his grasp leading him to gleefully chant that you open it in front of him since he was desperate to see your reaction.

Looking at the box, you couldn’t help but notice a little note saying ‘a gift from a father to a daughter’ leading the corners of your lip to twitch a little since you came to the realisation that it had been a while that someone had ever given you a gift before you processed to tug the tail of the bow before lifting the lip once the ribbon was fully removed.

“A metal...pole?” you said in a confused tone as you tilted your head to the side, before letting your fingertips touch the ice-cold metal as they began to trace the gold detailing that was embroidering the gift.

“No, no dear, it’s a polearm that just needs to be extended with cursed energy! It was made by your ancestor during the Heian era and I’m surprised it managed it stay intact after all that time here in the Gojo Clan since it was a gift from them to us,” Gojo informed you, as he took a sip of the sweetened coffee that you had brought from him before coming to his estate. “I thought that it might be better if it was in your hands from now on, besides it does technically belong to you,” Gojo suggested with a bright smile on his face, once you lifted the weapon out of the box to observe it more.

Turning it around in the light the room provided, you couldn’t help but suddenly notice a small design of what seemed to be a small flower depicting a tsubaki painted in a light pink right in the middle of the metal pole causing you to stare at it in absolute curiosity.

“Thank you so much, Gojo-sensei,” you stated once again in appreciation once you placed it back into the box causing Gojo to pout at you which led you to look at him in complete confusion the second you looked up to face him.

“CALL ME DAD, Y/N!”

ꕥ

“Are you even listening?” the cursed questioned you as if seemed to be getting annoyed at the fact that you were just standing in front of it with no emotion attached to your face, causing the students behind you to look forward since they were beginning to become confused on why you haven’t attacked yet.

Although, it seemed like it didn’t have to wait long since you used your other hand to grab onto the pole before beginning to spin the now extended polearm aggressively leading the curse to now be on its guard since it had no idea what you were planning on now.

‘Black Flash is a distortion in space that occurs when cursed energy is applied with 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit, it can amplify a normal attack’s force by 2.5. It’s such a drag process but since this curse likes to get up close and personal, it seems like the best choice for now’

Suddenly, you quickly grabbed the polearm halting the spinning motion before using the ball of your foot to push yourself swiftly across the lake to appear in front of the curse, catching it by surprise since it seemed like you had just teleported right in front of them, only for you to violently swing your polearm down onto its shoulder leading it to groan in pain causing you to speedily spin around behind it leading the polearm to now swing across before forcibly landing the sharp blade to its side, suddenly causing the formation of a familiar black spark that danced around the area you were in like electricity currents causing Todo (who was observing from the sideline) smile at the scene with confidence, while Itadori looked at the same battle in shock.

However, before Todo could even call you to remove yourself from the battle, you instantly placed your hand above the other in order to rapidly rotate the polearm leading the other end to strike its other shoulder (while the blade was now facing downwards) causing another flash of black to appear once again to which lead the curse to cry out in agony, causing everyone to admire the fight with such astonishment.

“Gojo! Switch!” Todo yelled out, leading your concentration to instantly waver once again which caused you to push the heel of your back foot to quickly retreat to the side where everyone was before the curse could even afflict any attack on you in retaliation on what you had just done to it.

“Told you there is nothing to worry about,” Todo mentioned as he looked down at Fushiguro causing the shikigami user to look at you with his surprise before turning to look at Itadori.

“If you die again, I’ll kill you myself!” Fushiguro declared causing you to look at him with a complete perplexed look on your face since the sentence he just stated didn’t make any sense, leading Panda to extend his arm out to carry his lower classmen to the other side of the veil.

“Pandash!” Panda yelled out before carrying both Fushiguro and Maki to safety.

“Guess I can’t afford to die now,” Itadori muttered before rolling his shoulder to prepare for his turn on the battlefield with determination after witnessing your performance.

“I won’t lift a finger to help, Itadori. Not until you land a Black Flash. If you can’t land a Black Flash, then I’ll just watch you die, no matter what happens to you,” Todo declared with his arms crossed with one of his hands holding on to your katana, leading you to stand up straight with a dumbfounded look on your face after what he had just yelled out before taking your original weapon from his grasp.

‘HUH?! WHAT WAS THE POINT IN MY LITTLE PERFORMANCE THEN?!’

“Got it!” Itadori replied after letting out a breath, causing you to look at your classmate with the same surprised expression, even though his back was facing you right now.

“Don’t you think that is a bit dangerous?” you queried as you turned back to look at the Kyoto student, only for him to give you a serious look on his face as if to say that he believed in Itadori and his threat was just a fluke.

“I guess I can’t stop you then...I already know he’s got this,” you muttered before shrugging your shoulders since you knew there was no way Itadori wanted you to interrupt this lesson.

To be honest, Black Flash was the perfect move for him.

Suddenly, you heard a loud explosion from behind causing you to turn your whole body around to find Itadori punching the ground leading a huge splash of water to arise before noticing two pieces of rock attempting to strike the curse, only for them to be deflected the second it touched its hand.

Once the water dropped down, you witnessed Itadori’s fast reflexes as he managed to dodge the curse’s attack, landing a few kicks towards its stomach before Itadori used his last kick to target its face. However, you could tell then intensity was low meaning he wouldn’t even hit a single Black Flash with an attempt like that, only for the result you had come to happen as he attempted the technique once he landed a punch against the curse’s torso, only for Itadori to force himself back once the curse retaliates by trying to hit him with its branches, only for the effort to be futile.

“My friend,” Todo said causing Itadori to look at him, only to receive a smack across the face leading you to look at the scene with a fed-up expression since the connection on Todo’s hand and Itadori’s cheek was quite loud for a normal slap to sound.

‘What...The...Hell?’

“Anger is an important trigger for sorcerers, sometimes then can be taken down purely because they accidentally angered their foe and the opposite is also true. Sometimes they lose because their own anger disrupts their cursed energy, so they can’t exercise their abilities. Your friend has been wounded, and worse yet, they’ve rained on your honeymoon with me, you best friend, so I can really understand why you’d be boiling with rage,” Todo expressed with understanding, only for you to look at him with an extremely fed-up expression depicted on your face.

‘I don’t think the ‘best friend’ bit is why he is really angry, you drag’

“But that rage is too much for you, put it away for now,” Todo then informed Itadori before slapping his face again leading you to vocally express your confusion about the scene that was happening right in front of you.

“Huh?” you uttered out.

“Are those stray thoughts gone now?” Todo questioned with a small smile plastered on his face.

“Yeah, not a single one left. Thank you so much, best friend!” Itadori replied with a confident smile on your face leading you to tilt your head to the side as you witnessed this scene - if you were going to tell this to Kugisaki, you wouldn’t know if she would believe you or not…

Walking back out into the river, Itadori raised his fist up while peering at the curse with an intense stare only for his opponent to quickly push itself forward leading Itadori to follow as branches began to invade his side. However, it seemed as if Itadori hadn’t noticed them at all since he was directing going straight down the middle, leading his fist to make contact with the curse’s torso causing the manifestation of the black spark that you and Todo were waiting for.

“He did...it,” you muttered in amazement as the curse’s branches suddenly disappeared while its body was forcibly pushed back.

“Now you understand the taste of cursed energy,” Todo mentioned as he proceeded to walk into the shallow river with a proud smile on his face. “Up until now, you’ve just been throwing an ingredient you’ve never tasted before into a pot and boiling it without knowing why. But after experiencing Black Flash and understanding the taste of your ingredient, your cursed energy, you stand on a completely different level as a chef than you did three seconds ago. Congratulations, brother, you can become strong,” Todo then expressed with joy leading your classmate to look at him with a concentrated expression on what he was trying to explain.

‘I guess that is a good way to describe it. To be honest, it is kind of similar to Gojo’s teaching but a tiny bit better…’

“It can heal?!” Itadori asked in shock, as it noticed the growth of the curses’ hand.

“A cursed spirit’s body is made up of cursed energy. Unlike us, they don’t need any advanced reversed cursed technique to heal like how Gojo does. An injury like that is nothing to a special-grade, but there’s no doubt that it shaves away their cursed energy and if you crush their head, it’s game set,” Todo explained before turning to look at you with a

“Now, shall we get cooking?” Todo asked you and Itadori in an assertive tone, leading you to look at him with a surprised expression before sighing as if you had a choice to not fight anyway.

However, before you could even take a single step into the river, you notice something from the corner of your eye causing you to raise your polearm swiftly seconds before you were now suddenly violently pushed back to extreme lengths away from the battle you were going to involve yourself in causing Itadori to yell out your name in complete panic. Although, there was no point in chasing after you, as you were now concealed within the multitude of trees that were surrounding the area with a hooded intruder, who was now keeping you at more than an arm’s length away from the two students you were supposed to keep an eye on.

“Destructive Curse Spell number one: Sho!” you chanted, leading a small ball of concentrated cursed energy to form in the middle on your polearm leading to the weapon and the person, who was pushing you, to be blasted back leading a distance to be created between you both giving you the space to press your feet down onto the ground to gradually pause your movements as you placed your hand on the ground to give you more support.

“Who are you?” you asked in anger before standing up straight in a defensive position and you aimed the polearm’s blade downwards to the ground, leading the person to raise up what seemed to be a pair of tonfa’s like the ones Fushiguro had earlier during the event, only for them to be metal rather than wood.

“WHO ARE YOU?!” you queried once again, getting irritated at the fact that the person was just giving you the silent treatment which caused them to giggle slightly as your frustration.

“Isn’t that a warm welcome for someone that took care of you so dearly?” the person spoke with a soft tone, causing you to freeze up in shock after realising how familiar that tone was to you to which lead the instructor right in front of you to slowly remove their hood leading their hair to spill out as well as to slowly reveal their face to you under the light the tree could, causing you to let out a breath of shock as your eyes widen at the sight in front of you.

“Mother?”

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thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness · 3 years

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Chapter 7: “Feelings”

“I don't think music can save the world; everything will remain the same. I can’t answer properly when I’m asked why I think like this, but I can’t help it, because that’s how I think.”

Note before reading: This is chapter 7 from Kaoru’s first book “Dokugen”, released in October 2015. Kaoru started writing a montly section in “Ongaku to hito” music magazine during Dir en grey’s hiatus in 2012, and later these publications were selected and compiled in two books.

You can still get these books at the Tower Records official site.

*The title of Kaoru’s section /book “読弦“(dokugen) can be translated as “string reading” or “reading the strings”* You can read other Dokugen content → here

----

This time, the guitar I’m going to talk about is one of the purple glitter ones I introduced in chapter 1, the prototype of the model I’m currently using the most, the D-KV PROTOTYPE. I haven’t decided yet a name for this one, the KV is just the item’s stock number.

The motivation behind making this guitar is I started to feel that Ganesha, which I had been using until then, didn't suit me anymore. But before, when I was wearing make-up, it did suit me. Maybe I felt something wrong with having this guitar.

That's why I decided not to make a model right away, but to try for a while a guitar called Viper, one that was already on the market. As I wrote before, when I got it and I started using it, the Viper model was able to reflect the ease of use and design I like.

I customized this new one to the point that you won’t understand the changes until you take it into your hands and play it. First, about its looks, I decided to design it this way because I wanted to make the best use of the texture of the wood. To get the feeling that the wood grain is white, first you have to apply white paint to the extent that it soaks into the grain, then apply brown to the surface, and scrape the surface to get white grain.

Actually, I didn't intend to attach a tremolo arm to the bridge (the part where the strings are sticking out), but I was designing this guitar when we were making the album called “Withering to Death”, released in 2005. At that time, I used the tremolo arm for the song “Kodoku ni Shisu, Yueni Kodoku” so it was added but, in the end, as I used another guitar when I played it live. I didn’t need the tremolo arm, so it became such a mysterious customization…. like, why did I attach it?

Then, this guitar should have appeared on stage for the first time on October 23, 2004 at the Hibiya Open Air Concert Hall.

I remember the live performance of that day well, and almost at the same time I was playing the notes of the song "Shokubeni", that starts with my guitar, my feet started to shake, and at that moment I felt an earthquake.

It was the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake.

I'm from Hyogo, and at the time of the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake (Kobe earthquake), I was working at a factory in Osaka doing a night shift. Because the inside of the factory was big, nothing fell on me, but I couldn’t stand because of the terrible shaking.

That day, due to safety reasons, the factory stopped, and I had to go home in the middle of that situation. I couldn’t go by train, bus or taxi, so I decided to walk a distance that usually took me 20 minutes by train. I walked back home on a road where the ground was cracked and sticking out, like you could see in films and manga.

I got hungry on the way, and at the gyudon shop I was told that the bowl I was eating was the last one, because they couldn’t cook rice as they ran out of water. I was so hungry that I should have felt it was really delicious, but for some reason, I didn't feel it was that delicious. I guess I was thinking somewhere in my heart that it wasn’t the right moment to be eating.

In my hometown, Hyogo, the buildings in the neighbourhood were completely destroyed and the highway collapsed. I walked home in such a situation. On the way, I made a phone call to my parents’ house, and I could confirm they were safe.

The house I lived in was okay, but I lived a few weeks without food, water, electricity and gas. A few days after the earthquake, the train started to work, so I was able to move to get food and water. Yes, you could go to the zones where nothing happened just for a few minutes. I still remember the strange feelings and complicated feelings of that time.

At the time of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, we were pre-producing the album "DUM SPIRO SPERO", released later in August of that year.

In the studio, the 3 stringed instruments people were there and 4 manipulator sound masters, so we were immediately evacuated from the studio to a nearby park and we waited there for about an hour. We returned to the studio and started working again, thinking that the aftershocks had finally ended. When we saw the news on the internet about it, we completely stopped working. We were doing pre-production for a few days more after that, but I was doing it while thinking many times “should we be doing this in these circumstances?”, “should we continue recording and pre-producing?”.

Even if we did that, if we stopped, I thought that moment was the time to write songs and play the guitar. It's a selfish belief, but I hoped everyone would listen to that album soon and let everyone know that album would be released as soon as possible. With that feeling, I devoted myself to making an album.

I don't think music can save the world; things are going to be the same. I can’t answer properly when I’m asked why I think this, but I can’t help it because that’s how I think. Even though that’s how I was thinking, I thought that people who were connected to music would feel hope. I wanted to believe that.

"DUM SPIRO SPERO" means “as long as you live, you can have hope” in Latin. We only recorded unpleasant songs for this album, but it’s an album packed with more feelings than ever.

Every person goes through a morning every day, the night comes, and tomorrow will come again. No one knows what will happen tomorrow. “I’m going to live more frantically now than I did before”. I strongly felt like that when I made this album.

It hasn’t change until now, yet, this year that feeling might not be that strong.

I am going to live to the fullest so no regrets will remain no matter what happens. It would be great if I could continue living like that, but if I can’t, I want to think I had a good life.

With that feeling in mind, I'm about to go on a tour for the first time in a while.

See you next month!

P.S It seems that the factory that I was working in at the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake has disappeared. I wonder if there is still a tasty bento shop nearby.

You can read other Dokugen chapters → here

#dir en grey #kaoru #dokugen #translation

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dekusheroacademia · 3 years

Text

Bakudeku ship manifesto part 1: Deku’s side (up to chapter 257)

Today I was taken by nostalgy. I remember reading fun ships manifesto on livejournal and I honestly loved them. They summarized the main reasons people shipped a character and the important events.

So, I decided to write one for BakuDeku, this is part one, which will be the story from Deku’s perspective, as I feel Bakugou and Deku lived through the same events very differently.

This “manifesto” will be divided in PART 1 “Deku’s real feelings for Kacchan”, PART 2 “Bakugou’s feelings” and PART 3 “Two sides of the same coin” where I will summarize how the manga, anime and openings/endings treat these two characters’ as complementary.

I also want to premise that everything listed here is canon, and I believe is intended by the narrative to show us the progression of the friendship between Deku and Bakugou. Of course, some people (like me) decide to ship them together, but this doesn’t change the importance of their friendships and their hero journeys.

This list will touch on some manga spoilers (pre chapter 257, but after season 4 of the anime), and I will indicate the point you should stop reading if you don’t need spoilers. I also added information from the novels.

Deku's real feelings for Kacchan

1)The bullying

Deku and Kacchan used to be friends, as kids, playing together with Deku in the clear role of the follower and Bakugou being the little leader of a band of kids. While it's clear that Bakugou was always arrogant, the real bullying stars when Deku finds out he is quirkless. I will not talk here about Bakugou's side of the story, just about Deku's.

Deku never really knew the real reasons for the bullying. In his mind, Bakugou looked down on HIM for being quirkless, even gifting him with that cruel nickname. The bullying seem to take mostly a sense of indifference, from Bakugou, later one. We even have a scene where Bakugou's minions bully Deku, and Bakugou tells them "let him dream at least", regarding Deku's dream to be a hero. (this is from Deku & Bakugou rising one shot).

It's only when Deku shows (in the second year of middle school) that he doesn't just have a dream but he has the mind and intelligence of a hero, that Bakugou turns even more bitter.

Deku recognizes Bakugou's actions as something born of hatred, probably, and resentment, and superiority but he does not know they were born out of Bakugou's belief that Deku felt himself superior to him till later on. Look at Deku's baffled and surprised face when Bakugou finally tells him why:

We, of course, know Deku has a decisive tendency to minimize the dangers, he throws himself into danger, he sees behind the pain/danger to reach through with his need to save. And this is definitely a problem (but I will talk about it with the new manga spoilers and chapters), but also a fundamental side of the way Bakugou and Deku’s relationship is described and written.

2) Deku’s real feelings

Going back a little, let's go back to Deku's feelings for Bakugou. Deku never stopped calling Bakugou "Kacchan" and never stopped wishing or hoping to be able, one day, to walk side by side with Kacchan. Here is what we have in the first novel:

Even with all the bullying*, Deku admired and respected Bakugou, and cared for him. (*Little note: Deku also uses the word "teasing", instead of bullying, clearly trying to minimize, maybe out of wishful thinking (at the same side, Bakugou uses the word "bullying", so he is at least self aware).)

The admiration is definitely implied in the way Deku studied Bakugou’s quirk and his moves, often compliments him, even “steals” his moves. I am sure no one could disagree on this point.

The care is implicitly stated when Deku feels guilty at the mere idea of lying to Bakugou about his quirk, so much that he breaks part of his promise to All Might. This part is particularly heartbreaking because Deku really feels like he is betraying Kacchan at the idea of having not told him the reason. The prefers to tell him the truth (or part of him) than having Bakugou think that Deku made fun of him for all those years.

It is also implied in Deku's shock at the idea of Bakugou giving up, as we know that his winning spirit is what Deku always admired. Deku knows Kacchan, his bad sides and his good sides. (Seen here during the Baku & Deku vs All Might fight)

Then, of course, Deku explicitly states that he always admired him. We see that in flashbacks multiple times:

And we have Deku himself yell about it during Kacchan vs Deku part 2:

All Might was the hero both Deku and Bakugou admired. They wanted to be like him, for different reasons, Bakugou because he wanted to win and Deku because he wanted to save people. And yet, while Bakugou had always thought his reason was what Deku looked down on, Deku instead admired it. All Might was the distant hero dream, but Bakugou was, for Deku, the amazing hero he could admire and see every day. This amazing person in his life.

Another small addendum. Deku, in two occasions, gets inspiration from Bakugou’s desire to win (during the first villain attack and to save Kota) and becomes almost as aggressive/determined. He admits this during Deku vs Kacchan 2:

So it is clear that while Bakugou tried to get rid of Deku, Deku never stopped considering Bakugou someone worthy, someone to admire even with all his jerkiness and faults.

I’ll talk more about this in the last part (Two sides of the same coin), but it’s just to show that Deku has a part that mirrors Bakugou’s Desire to Win very well, as much as Bakugou learns that he also has a Desire to Save.

3) Deku's hero journey: protecting Bakugou

Deku’s hero journey started with saving Bakugou. Here we got even All Might recognizing it:

Deku always wanted to be a hero, and he admired Bakugou as a kid, alongside, of course, All Might. We know that Deku has definitely the intelligence needed to be a hero (recognized by Bakugou in "Deku & Bakugou rising") and the kindness/care to be a good hero (recognized by Bakugou too, mostly during that river incident). Still, the moment that makes Deku a hero is his first saving. The first ever person he saved was Bakugou, but, most importantly, he saved him because he was Bakugou.

Once Deku had been attacked by the sludge monster, he accidentally kicks the monster free. He feels sadness and guilt when someone else gets attacked, but he doesn't act, after all he is just a 14 years old kid without a quirk, and the world is full of heroes.

It's just when he sees that the taken kid is Bakugou that Deku starts running. He doesn't know why, or how, but his body moves on his own because Bakugou needed saving. Among the reasons he list, "Kacchan" is there, a full and complete sentence.

Deku acted to save Kacchan, and doing so he also showed All Might that he has the "need to save" necessary to be a good hero and his successor. Deku is a hero, with or without quirk.

Luckily, he gets a quirk. He works for it, he starts learning how to use it (just wanted to add that in two occasions he looks at Kacchan's abilities and moves to adapt them to his quirk and change his style).

Bakugou is Deku's first save. But Bakugou is also Deku's first failed save. These are both fundamental things in a hero journey. When Bakugou gets kidnapped, Deku is worried. There is no doubt here. Kacchan is his in the most instinctual sense of the word. He is his friend, his childhood friend, his Kacchan. Even Mr. Compress comments on Deku's use of the word "his". This is not just another person to save, it's his person to save.

Still, when Bakugou is, again, in danger, Deku fails.

Of course, Deku is extremely hurt. He risks losing the use of his arms and he has failed to reach for Bakugou. Kirishima suggests they go and save Bakugou, and Deku agrees. There is, technically, no need for a bunch of kids to not trust All Might, to not trust the heroes and yet they decided they need to save Bakugou. Kirishima failed to protect his friend and be there, Todoroki was the one who missed Bakugou (in the pearl) by just a couple of inches, and Deku was the one who had not gotten Bakugou back and failed to save him.

Deku might not know why Bakugou hates the idea of being saved or helped by him, but he knows Bakugou does, enough to plan the whole escape on Kirishima.

This is the big change in Bakugou's feelings, but I will write about it in the second part, for now, let's focus on Deku.

4) Post Kidnapping: everything changes

Deku saved Bakugou, he did not expect anything in return, but he immediately notices something is different. Unknowingly to him, Bakugou had started to wonder if Deku is not the real and ideal hero, the one who was always in the right.

The license exame is the first time we see Deku and Bakugou interacting after the kidnapping and the saving. Deku says that they had not really talked, until Bakugou walkes up to him, out of nowhere, and tells him that no wonder he passed the exam, because Deku had finally made the borrowed power his own.I think this is particularly meaningful because Deku had always seen OFA as a "borrowed power" himself, so much that he had tried to adapt his style (and even costume) to All Might. Bakugou is the only one who knows Deku used to be quirkless, and who can recognize that Deku's power... is really his power now.

And here we get at the confrontation (Deku vs Kacchan part 2) that really changes a lot in the relationship between Deku and Bakugou. I'd say this is the confrontation that not only clears things between them, but also fulfills Deku's wish of walking side by side with Bakugou.

I already talked about how during Deku vs Kacchan part 2, Deku finally learns why Bakugou had always hated him. He also is finally able to express his own feelings clearly and to make Bakugou listen. He admires Bakugou, and now he has enough self confidence to turn that admiration in something more: not anymore a need to emulate or look up at him like some unattainable hero, but a need to surpass him.

This definitely changes the previous dynamic. While before we had Deku looking up to All Might and Bakugou, now Deku finally gets recognized as someone that made the quirk is, someone who can be a rival BECAUSE he never looked down on Bakugou.

Deku goes from "I always chased after you!" (said in the fight) to becoming an equal (in his own eyes and in the eyes of Bakugou). And even All Might recognize the importance of each others in their journeys to become a complete hero.

(this part will have MANGA SPOILERS, so be careful if you don’t want to be spoiled)

5) A new dynamic (manga spoilers)

Now Bakugou knows Deku's secret, not only that but their dynamic and teasing completely changed from this point on. Deku is never ever agains shown as saddened or scared by Bakugou's words, and Bakugou goes from ignoring him to actually interacting with him. We have scenes where they spur each others.

Deku (chapter 207) recognizes that there's something different, and now Kacchan is learning from HIM (win by saving).

This becomes their new normal. A normal where Bakugou participates in Deku and All Might's secret meetings, and where Bakugou even express worry about them not being able to keep the secret well. We have now a worry that is visibly reciprocated.

The worry, for Deku, goes so far as to trigger a new secret quirk out of his need to defend Kacchan. Monoma specifically chose to target Bakugou because he needed to get to Deku, and his words are, coincidentally, Bakugou's biggest insecurity. Deku, once again, loose all clarity when it comes to defending Bakugou, so much that black whip is activated.

From this point on, most of Deku and Bakugou’s interactions, from Deku’s side, are quite innocuous and humorous. They help each others, Bakugou helps Deku with black whip and the training. They work with each others and Todoroki, they get tangled in Todoroki’s family business.

Deku is always ready to admire Kacchan, and Bakugou’s bullying had turned into teasing.

Here, before the big war, we have Deku summarizing his feelings towards Kacchan and their new relationship. This was his wish. Being at UA, having friends, having All Might as his mentor and being almost back to friends with Kacchan are all important things that he lists, and he feels blessed.

The 5th light novel should be set around here, I think, and this is where we have another “I can’t imagine a world without Kacchan” scene.

(translation here)

The rest is... post chapter 257, which I will talk about in Bakugou’s side, and then as soon as we know what’s going on, I will add some extra posts.

BAKUGOU’S SIDE SOON

#bakudeku #dekubaku #my hero academia #katsuki bakugou #izuku midoriya #meta #ship manifesto

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mmilkbreadd · 4 years

Text

Chapter twenty five: “The End”

Masterpost - Prev.

Warning(s): a bit of swearing ; post-timeskip manga spoilers!!

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Or aka, ‘The Sakusa Kiyoomi Theory’

Act One: “Who is Sakusa Kiyoomi?”

Saturday, 6:23 am, “y/n's home”

“You're late,” said y/n with crossed arms, she was already waiting for him at the door of her house. “I hope this doesn't become routine.”

It was already morning in the streets of Paris. Tendou Satori and her neighbor (and best friend), y/n l/n, were walking towards their famous bakery and chocolate shop, ‘Sweet Strawberries.’ It was a small place with a few tables to sit for tea and delicious things to eat. Also, although it was small, it was quite crowded.

“Woah, how angry you are today, little baker... More than usual, actually” y/n shook her head at her friend's comment. “But obviously I already know why, and it seems that you know why too.”

Y/n decided to ignore what Satori had said, and keep walking quite ahead of him. It was still an hour before the store opened, but they already had several orders that were due to deliver around nine in the morning. A three-tier wedding cake, forty heart-shaped chocolates for the anniversary of a married couple, and of course, the strawberry cake for someone named Sakusa Kiyoomi.

Around a quarter to seven, they arrived at the bakery, and they got down to work to get all the orders completed on time.

Tendou was more dedicated to the chocolate part, of course, and to serve customers. Despite y/n had advanced a lot in terms of her social skills, she still needed to learn a little about how to communicate normally with a person.

“That 'Sakusa Kiyoomi' has a Japanese name, do you think he is too?” y/n asked, wiping flour from her hands.

“I don't know, they could be. But doesn't that name sound too familiar to you?” Satori replied.

“That's exactly what I was thinking!”

“Weird.”

“Yeah... Anyway, the customer asked not to make the chocolate so bitter so add more milk to that please.”

“Yes, boss!” Satori made a military signal and continued his work.

Act Two: “Pretending to be Sakusa Kiyoomi.”

8:39 am, “Paris” (?)

Bokuto Koutarou, along with Miya Atsumu and Hinata Shoyo were lost in Paris. They had circled the Eiffel Tower at least five times. But it seemed they hadn't realized it yet.

They were more lost than Bokuto studying math. But a simple city would not defeat them so easily... would it?

“Maybe we should have brought Sakusa,” Hinata said after round number six.

“And hear him complain about how dirty everything is? No thanks,” Atsumu Miya replied, shaking his head. “We don't need Omi-Omi. I, Miya Atsumu, am enough to know where we are.”

Atsumu put a hand on his chest, pretending to be offended. Bokuto and Hinata looked around, ignoring the enormous tower behind them, wondering where they were.

“And where are we then?”

“Paris, of course” he replied. “I can’t believe you’re seriously asking that, Shoyo.”

Hinata and Bokuto looked at each other, unable to believe what their teammate was saying.

“Sure…” Bokuto said, getting his phone out of his pocket. It was time to be the serious person of the trio. “Akaashi, we got lost” and that time was now over. Koutarou was crying as he spoke to his friend, who was on another continent. “No, I can't stop crying, Akaashi. I swear I was following the steps you wrote on the map so we wouldn't get lost, but Atsumu wanted to take the lead, so he broke the instructions, and we don’t know where we are. It's all his fault...! No, Sakusa has not come either.”

“Hey! It wasn't my fault,” the dyed blonde complained, crossing his arms. “And we never needed Omi-Omi!”

“Okay, Akaashi, I'll do it. Bye, love you… As a bro of course” Bokuto finished saying and hung up. “He told me I have to call Tendou. Is the only way.”

Hinata started shaking his head from side to side, while Atsumu slapped his forehead with his hand. Then a message came from Keiji; It was the number of Tendou Satori himself. Bokuto started dialing the numbers that appeared on the screen of his phone, on Hinata's.

“Wait wait, shouldn't I speak? He might recognize your voice” Hinata said, awkwardly taking the phone from Bokuto's hands.

“He would also recognize yours, Shoyo. I'll do it.” Atsumu snatched the device from him and pressed the call button. “Hello, sir, what’s up? I'm Sakusa Kiyoomi, could you help me get to your store? I'm a bit lost... How did I get your number you ask? Eh– It's on your website dude! You should delete it, some people pretend to be someone else and you should not fall for that...”

Act Three: “If Sakusa Kiyoomi was real, we should have brought him.”

10:04 am, “Sweet Strawberries Bakery and Chocolate Shop”

“I can't believe it took us almost two hours to get here! It wasn't even that far from the hotel” Hinata said looking towards the building that was a few meters in front of them.

“Six blocks. Can’t believe it either.” Atsumu wiped the sweat from his brow. “And now that? Are we going in or not?”

Bokuto went pale. He was going to see you, after so many years without communicating or having exchanged glances. He never imagined that he would see you again after that cold day in Miyagi. He had made a thousand scenarios in his head of how you two meet again: in some distant future you visit your hometown and he visits Hinata, and thus you meet in the park or on the street. You would have your own family, and he would have his. But that would happen in many years, not now. Not at this moment, when neither of you had grown enough... When he hadn't managed to forget you yet. But these weren't Koutarou's inventions, this was reality.

The incredible and stupid reality.

“I don't want to go in,” Bokuto said suddenly and stopped walking. “I’m not ready.”

Atsumu, who was already one step away from the door, turned to see him. Hinata collided with Miya's chest because he was walking right behind him.

“What are you talking about? Let's go in now” Atsumu said walking towards the ex-owl. “We didn't change the whole tour just so you don't go see your little girlfriend… We change it so you do! Don't be scared, do it now or you'll regret it for life. I remember how you talked about her during practice, and I even want to meet her after that! Come on dude, use the little braveness you have left.”

It seemed that Atsumu's words, or Hinata's smile next to him, made Bokuto take courage and head towards the entrance of the shop.

A bell rang before three pairs of feet echoed through the small place. There was a great smell of chocolate that invaded every inch of the establishment. Hinata paced around the place until the sound of a door opening made the three teammates turn their heads to where the sound was coming from.

“Welcome, what can I offer-- So all of you are Sakusa Kiyoomi, huh?” Satori Tendou said, coming out of the back-room. “You see guys, I never believed this would happen. It makes me think a lot too… So, is Sakusa Kiyoomi even real?”

Atsumu, Hinata, and Bokuto were paralyzed in place for several seconds. The former Shiratorizawa monster stood with his hands on his hips, staring at them.

“Is it Sakusa Kiyoomi? Tell him I'm coming in a minute!” y/n yelled from the back room.

“Oh no, y/n, it’s someone much better!” Tendou replied, holding back his laughter. “You won't believe it even if you see this!”

Then, silence took over the place until a few quick steps interrupted it. A figure appeared through the door, with several boxes in their hands. A pile of boxes so big it covered their face.

“Help me, Satori, I'm going to fall” y/n complained, and after Tendou took out the boxes that covered her view, she saw her friend smiling widely. “What?”

Satori, who couldn't contain his laughter anymore, gestured with his head towards the three statues in the middle of the place. And finally, seeing her friend's face, he started to laugh out loud.

“Kou?”

“A-and Hinata!” shouted Bokuto nervously. Shoyo looked at him and then pointed at Atsumu.

“And also Atsumu!”

“And Saku– shit, we should have brought Omi-Omi after all…”

───∘°❉°∘───

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Note: I am very very very very sorry for not posting this sooner, but I had thousand of things going on in my life. Now I’m better and ready to finish this beautiful, and crazy, love-story.

I hope you loved it as much as I did. I truly enjoyed it writing, and I’m happy to finish it too.

I’ll appreciate it a lot if you comment down below what you thought about the series. I’ll read you later -Tina.

────────∘°❉°∘────────

Tags in reblog!

Thanks for reading🥰

#bokuto #bokuto x reader #bokuto smau #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu!!#haikyuu smau #atsumu #sakusa #hinata

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shreddedleopard · 3 years

Text

Dreams, Curses and Children.

Been re-reading some stuff for writing fic, and I just keep coming back to this chapter and this scene and I can’t help it.

So we know Ackerman surname is often translated to Farmer:

(Link to full Reddit discussion)

Farmers cultivate the land. Create new life. They grow stuff. What is shown repeatedly in shots of Grandpa Ackerman’s room?

Plants.

Everywhere.

… all while he talks about different bloodlines, and how the existence of these different bloodlines disrupted the King’s rule. The rule of the Titans.They affected the King’s ability to use the Founder in the way that he wanted …

Ackermans can’t become Titans. Much later, this is confirmed. They are literally ant-Titan and anti-Founder in every way 😂.

Also notice what’s on the shelf behind his bed.

An apple and a book. Where have we seen these things before?

The story of Ymir and/or Christa - a story about a girl who gives her fruit to a monster hidden beneath a hood. At least in Historia’s version he wears a hood. If you look closer on the cover of this book, as its shown in the anime, it’s interesting ...

Two girls, two apples. One with a crown the right way up, decorated with what looks like flags. The other, the crown is upside down - signifying the end of rule? The disruption of power? - and what’s more, the crown is made of plants and flowers.

So … does the book Frieda reads to Historia literally tell the tale of how the Royal Family’s reign will come to an end? How the era of the Titans will end? A girl giving her fruit to a monster under a hood …

Ahem, just gonna leave these here, ahem. Thanks Key!

(‘I saved them … the lives of the children they would bear …’ says Zeke, the stone-throwing, euthanasia planning antinatilist nemesis to Levi, Mr. Let me just open an orphanage with the Queen who’s now pregnant, can’t stop getting distracted by children, constantly depicted as fatherly figure, literally pro-life.)

ANYWAY.

The scenes in Grandpa Ackerman’s room are shown in a Kenny flash back right in the middle of the scenes where Historia literally overthrows her father and rejects her destiny as successor of the Founding Titan.

The chapter is titled Dreams and Curses. In a much later volume, we are shown that Ymir is a girl that ‘dreams of a world free of curses and fate.’

That world comes into being with the destruction of the Titan powers and her freedom from PATHS.

Which, so randomly, coincides with the birth of this cutie …

All that gorgeous wavy hair! I wonder if there’s anyone else who has hair like that who’s been connected with royalty … Uh, wait.

Isayama also said this once:

Look. I’m not saying it’s what happened. Clearly the guidebook tells us Historia married her stone-throwing bully, no wait, her ‘childhood friend’ and had a child with him.

I keep thinking about this anime scene addition, back in Season 1.

Alright, so maybe her childhood friend has a BAD LEG and uses a stick which he tends to leave hooked over the back of his child’s crib

…

(Sarcastically insert here: panel of cardboard cutout husbando strolling along to Hisu and child in birthday scene of manga alongside panel of wheelchair Levi. Because I’m out of image room.)

And is linked with FLOWER AND PLANT SYMBOLS because one of the only three times we saw him, he was forking some hay at the orphanage

…

(Insert here: image of Levi kneeling in front of dead Kenny after Dad discussion with close up of daisies.)

🥴

Or maybe Eren dreamed about a different baby’s crib at the start. Maybe this is just some random image with no significance at all.

I just hate how the Ackerman idea makes more sense to me, narratively (not even necessarily ship) speaking.

#alright I’m done for a bit again now #I’m sorry I just can’t help it #I look up this stuff to help with writing and BAM #Rivahisu #Royal Ackerman connection #SNK thoughts

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bluesylveon2 · 4 years

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My My, I Could Never Let You Go

Summary: Sasha Zoe just wants her dad to walk her down the aisle. There is only one problem: she doesn't know who her dad is! Sasha invites 3 men in hopes of finding out which one is her father. What could possibly go wrong?

Pairings: Levi x Hange, Sasha x Niccolo, and other background relationships

Disclaimer: This is a Levihan Mamma Mia au. This fanfic is inspired by Mamma Mia which is directed by Phyllida Loyd, written by Catherine Johnson, and uses music from the pop group ABBA. Attack on Titan is a manga/anime series written by Hajime Isayama and published by Kondasha

Author’s Note: Hitch is finally revealed! Again, the characters are in their S4 looks except a few (Marco, Rico, Nanaba, etc.) I originally planned to end the chapter after Hange fell, but I decided to keep writing. I hope you enjoy the long chapter! Also, I made a masterlist! (I’m too lazy to keep scrolling through my blog).

EDIT (6/28): this chapter is edited but I forgot to post this earlier. I will fix the others later

Need to catch up? Catch up here!

Chapter 4: Mamma Mia!

Nanaba digs through Rico's stuff while Rico is busy showering. She is looking for a facial cream Rico wouldn't stop recommending, and she wants to see what was so great about it herself.

Something about finding love, she remembers.

Nanaba knew Rico likes to be overprepared, but she did not expect her to pack so many clothes. Something caught her eyes during her search. She looked up at Hange, who was fixing the broken shutter in the room. Nanaba smirked.

"Hey, Hange," she called and set her arms to fire the garment. Hange stopped her drilling and turned to Nanaba.

"Catch" is all Nanaba says before flinging the thong in Hange's direction. Hange quickly dodged her attack, but the thong flew out the window and into the hotel courtyard.

Meanwhile, Moblit was busy sweeping the courtyard for Sasha's bachelorette party when a random thong landed on his head from the middle of nowhere.

"Aargh!" Moblit screams. Hange quickly sets the drill down on a nearby table. She looks down from the window to find Moblit and a blue thong on the ground near him.

"Sorry, Moblit!" She apologizes for the second time that day and closes the window.

Hange sweatdropped as Moblit came back up to return the thong. Rico, who finished showering, watched with only 2 towels on (one on her head and the other around her body). Nanaba also watched Moblit return it with a red face. The two sent out a sigh of relief when Moblit closed the door and left. Hange burst out laughing.

"Ahh, I really missed your antics, Nanaba" She laughs and starts preparing the wine. Nanaba and Rico laughed with Hange. It was pure coincidence Moblit just happened to be there.

Nanaba returns to looking through Rico's stuff for the cream. She pulls out a different cream instead.

"The world's most luxurious moisturizer," she reads out loud, "contains 24-karat- gold flakes and extract of donkey testicle."

Nanaba looks at Rico with a 'are you serious?' look.

"You're just jealous" Rico grabs a glass of wine and thanks Hand.

Nanaba grabs a glass herself and looks back at the label.

"And it costs A THOUSAND DOLLARS A DOLLOP!" she yells and looks at Rico as if she lost her mind.

"That's the price you gotta pay if you wanna drink before 11 in the morning" Rico holds up her glass for a toast. Hange and Nanaba follow.

"And we do!" They all cheer and clink their glasses together.

---

Sasha was finishing up some chores in the hotel when she saw three men carrying suitcases and looking at the view.

Sasha's jaw drops from shock. They're here! She cheers on the inside.

She can not see their faces, only their backsides—the one on the very left is tall with well-groomed blonde hair. The one in the middle was the tallest of the group. His sand blonde hair is not as well-kept and is well-built. The last man is the shortest and palest of the three. He has straight jet-black hair styled in an undercut. Two of the men wore collared shirts and slacks. The man in the middle was dressed more casually. Almost as if he was ready to go on an adventure.

Sasha dropped what she was doing and walked to the front. She couldn't hide her excitement, but she didn't want to overdo it and scare off the men. Sasha took a breath before walking outside to greet them. Looks like she will keep the excitement to herself and look calm and collected on the outside.

"Hi," Sasha says nervously.

She facepalms herself mentally. Way to look calm and collected, she thought.

Levi, Erwin, and Mike turn around to face the newcomer. The newcomer is a tall woman with light brown eyes and short reddish-brown hair pulled up in a ponytail. She also wore a peasant blouse and shorts. There were straps, like the ones for swimsuits, visible on her shoulders. They all raised their sunglasses to their heads.

Now Sasha has a front view of the three men. The first man has a professional-looking face with blue eyes and the most enormous eyebrows she has ever seen. He looks like a man who would lead an army, and it reminded Sasha of Armin. The second man looks the most open of the three. His hair is parted down the middle, he has light green eyes and has a mustache and beard. It was more impressive than Jean's Sasha notes to herself. The third man is the most intimidating. He has steel-gray eyes and dark circles. He also had a blank face, so Sasha couldn't exactly read the guy. He kinda reminded Sasha of Mikasa.

"May I help you?" Sasha asks with an inquisitive tone in her voice. No nervous tone this time. She mentally high-fives herself.

Mike decides to introduce himself first. "Sure. We're here for the wedding." he smiles.

"I'm Mike Zacharias"

The man on the left introduces next, "I'm Smith. Erwin Smith"

The last man introduces himself "Levi Ackerman."

Now Sasha was confused and felt kind of disappointed. Where were all the glitters and sparkles? Where was the voice telling her, 'He's your father.'? Where's the sign that falls out of thin air that reads 'He is your father!'? Sasha felt nothing but confusion. She could not tell who her father was with one look.

Levi examines the new girl. She looks almost like a copy of Hange. She even had similar colored brown hair and eyes. The only difference was that her hair was neater, unlike Hange. He remembered how Hange would lazily tie her hair up in a ponytail. It suited her personality, though. "You were expecting us, right?" he asks in a calm tone.

This snaps Sasha out of her reverie. "Yes!" she exclaims, trying to act as normal as possible.

"Are you Hange's daughter?" Levi asks. It's better to ask than to assume.

Sasha smiles and nods her head.

Mike laughs. "I thought you looked familiar." He shifts around a bit and points his index finger at her. He looks as if he was grasping for the answer in his head. "Sasha, right?" he asks.

"Yes, that's me!" Sasha's grin grows even wider. She can not believe that her father is in front of her. Now she just needs to figure out who without her mother knowing.

"You know," Mike began, "I used to have a great aunt who lived on this island named Alexandra. I called her Sasha for short."

Sasha gasps in realization. Mike could be her father! She places a hand on her chest and tries to not jump up and down. "I'm named after an Alexandra."

Erwin clears his throat. "I apologize for interrupting, but can you show us to our room before we see Hange?" Erwin interrupts.

"Sure!" Sasha exclaims and begins to lead them to their room.

"I just want to freshen up before the big reunion," Erwin clarifies. Then, all three men start heading to the entrance of the hotel.

"No!" Sasha stops walking and holds her hands up in the air to stop them. The three turn to Sasha and look at her questioningly.

"I mean, yes," Sasha tries to calm herself, "But come this way. It's a shortcut." She gestures with her hand for them to follow before heading back to where she came from.

All three men looked at each other and shrug before following Sasha. She seems like a nice and trustworthy girl. It seems Hange raised her right based on first impressions.

Sasha starts leading the trio through the hotel's tunnels. Sasha loves hiding food there, and it was a great place to play hide and seek with her friends when she was younger. It was also a great location to hide from Moblit when he would babysit her. So she didn't want Moblit to find her food stash.

Erwin is astonished by the turn of events. This was not how he expected when he came back to the island.

Sasha, who is ahead of the group, turns around. "Come on." She says. Mike immediately follows Sasha. What is a perfect vacation without an adventure? Meanwhile, Levi grimaces a bit and tries to not get any dirt on his clothes.

---

Hange and Nanaba were sitting on the couch laughing at Rico's jokes. Rico is on Hange's left, and Nanaba is on Hange's right. Suddenly, Hange remembers the status of her hotel.

"Oh my gosh. I have a crack in my courtyard. I have to fix it!" She exclaims and moves to stand up

"Hey, Hange? Hange" Nanaba starts. Rico wraps an arm around Hange's stomach.

Hange glares at Rico. "I'm serious. Move"

Rico pushes Hange down on Nanaba's lap. Rico has a lot of strength in her despite her petite build. She also is a woman that should never be underestimated. She pushes Hange's head to rest on Nanaba's arm. "Sit down!"

"She won't let me go" Hange laughs and looks at Nanaba.

"You can always get Moblit to do it. I'm sure he won't mind." Nanaba reassures her. Hange always talks about how Moblit is so dedicated to his job and helping Hange. Nanaba only prays he agrees after the incident from earlier.

Rico places a hand on Hange's thigh and lightly shakes it. "I know you will make a fortune with Sasha and Niccolo's plan, but are you gonna be okay until then?"

"I think Rico is trying to offer her bling," Nanaba suggests and raises the arm Hange was laying on.

"No, I'm serious, Hange. I know you even refused Pieck's help before, but this is now. Do you need a loan?" Rico has a stern look on her face.

"No, no." Hange places a hand on Rico's shoulder and moves to pick up her drill. She waves it around a bit. "I'm just whining, you know me. I don't need any more help than what I already have."

"Yeah, but are you being taken care of?" Rico inquires.

"What do you mean?" Hange asks, confused.

"Are you getting any?" Rico asks with a teasing tone in her voice and smirks

Hange has a feeling she knew what Rico was suggesting. She smirks to herself internally. Two can play at this game.

"Oh, you mean…." Hange raises her drill and presses the button for it to whirl. Rico yelps from the surprise.

"It takes too much energy," Hange clarifies to her best friends.

"Yeah. It's just more plumbing to maintain, isn't it?" Nanaba asks and takes a sip of her wine

"Yeah," Hange laughs and sits up. "I'm so glad that part of my life is over" Hange sighs in relief and moves her left hand in the air as if she is pushing something away. Hange has Sasha, her friends, and her hotel. She is happy with that.

"I don't miss it at all," Hange adds as her friends watch her. She moves to pick up her wine glass and drinks some more. Hange enjoys being single. At least, that's what she keeps telling herself.

---

"Then it's just right here." Sasha stops walking in front of an old-looking barn. She ushers them inside with Mike going first, followed by Erwin, and finally Levi. Mike didn't mind entering the barn. Erwin keeps looking around the area, confused.

"Where's Hange?" Levi asks. He is just as confused as Erwin.

He attempts to look around some more to find her but is stopped by Sasha. She pushed him inside before running inside herself and closing the door.

Sasha walks inside a few feet before pointing up to the hatch door and smiling. She couldn't contain her excitement. "Up you go."

Levi climbs up first, followed by Mike and then Erwin. They looked around the room. It was full of unused and old items. There were three mattresses laid out along with sheets and pillows. There was also a window on the opposite side to let some natural light in.

Levi looked around the room. He didn't like how filthy it was, and it reminded him of Hange herself. He stopped looking when his gaze fell on the wall to his right. There was a corkboard full of worn-out recipes and a few medals. Levi walked up to the awards closely.

"Archery," he mutters quietly.

"You know, I don't want to seem ungrateful for the tour, but where is my room?" Erwin turns to Sasha after walking around the room

Mike laughs. "Don't hold your breath, Erwin, but I think this is your room."

All three men were facing Sasha now. "Can we see Hange now?" Levi asks. He is hoping to see her before he ends up cleaning the place.

Sasha smiles before the big reveal. "I sent out the invites. My mom doesn't know anything." She is too excited to keep it to herself.

The men groan in disbelief; they came all this way to Kalokairi under the assumption that Hange invited them, not Sasha. Hange would be laughing if she saw this herself.

Sasha's smile grew wider. "Well, she's done so much for me; she always talks about you guys and the good old days. So I thought it would be an amazing surprise for her if you all showed up at my wedding."

Levi walks up to Sasha to stop her from talking any further. "Hang on, Sasha." He puts a hand on her shoulder. "I can't be here. The last time I saw your mother, she literally kicked me off the island and said she never wanted to see me again." Levi thought back to Hange's face after he broke the news to her. How he witnessed the smile he loves fade away because of him, leaving nothing but a broken heart.

"That was years ago! Please. Just try to come. It would mean a lot to me!" Sasha pleaded. She was starting to get frustrated with Levi's hesitance.

"Why?" That was all Levi says. Erwin interrupts again.

"Listen. I can tell you both went through a lot, but can we go back to the boat?"

"I agree," Levi says. He and Erwin turn to Mike, expecting him to agree. They did not expect Mike to be laying on one of the mattresses with his hands behind his head.

"This is an adventure, Erwin. It's good for you." He reasons with him.

"Oh," Erwin says. He did tell Mike he wanted to go on an adventure after all.

"Look, it was a long shot sending the invites, expecting you all to reply. Look at yourselves now. You all came all this way for a wedding. Surely there must have been a special reason for you to come. Like a siren call?"

Mike laughs while writing in his journal. Levi quickly wipes some dust on a mattress before sitting down.

"You are a little minx, you know that? Just like your mom." How else did Hange convince Levi to go with her to Kalokairi when they were practically strangers at the time.

"Well, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree." Sasha laughs but stops after hearing her mother humming nearby. All three men became alert. It seems like they had heard her mother too.

The trio looks at Sasha after hearing Hange open the door.

Sasha looks at them in shock. Why is her mom here now? This cannot be happening right now! It is too soon! She has no choice but to act now.

"No." She whisper-yells while holding her hands out in front of her to stop an unexpected reunion sooner than expected

"It's Hange," Mike whispers while walking up to Sasha. Levi and Erwin follow him.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, Mom can't know," Sasha whispers, so her mom doesn't hear her.

"I'm gonna go, but please stay. Promise me to not tell anyone I invited you. Promise?"

"You got it," Mike miles and gives her a thumbs up.

"It's a promise," Levi agrees.

"I might regret it, but okay." Erwin complies.

"Okay," Sasha reassures herself and the men. Then, she walks to a closed window and takes out a plank. Sasha gives it to Erwin, who was the closest to her, to hold before leaving. Then, she turns to the men again.

"Remember your promise," She glares at them before shutting the window and leaving. Sasha ran off. She needs to find her friends and stop her mom from meeting her past lovers.

She is Hange's daughter, all three men thought simultaneously.

---

Hange, hearing the window close, looks up after hearing the sound. She walks to the hatch door, opens it slightly, and strains her head to investigate. Hange was expecting a bird to have accidentally flown in. But, she did not expect legs. A man's legs, in fact.

The mystery man stood with his hands in his pockets. It felt a bit familiar to her, but she couldn't put a name to it. Hange followed the legs upward as the man turned around. Luckily, he didn't look down to see Hange. The neat blond hair and the huge eyebrows were the icings on the cake. She recognized him immediately.

"Erwin?" she whispers and turns to find another pair of legs. This man was facing her direction but looking somewhere else in the room. Hange knew that face anywhere.

"Mike?" she whispers again. Hange prayed that Mike was unable to smell her right now. This was too much of a coincidence for two of her lovers in the same room. She looks at the last man in the room.

Hange hears some whistling and turned to the source. This man was walking around the attic, organizing and cleaning some things. The man turned to Hange's for a split second while wiping some sweat off his face. I couldn't be. He couldn't be here after everything between them! She knew that scowl from anywhere.

"Levi!" Hange quickly closes the hatch door before they could notice her. What the hell is going on? Now there are three! The wine must be playing tricks with her mind!

Hange felt her palms get sweaty. There was too much going on right now, and she must be dreaming. There is no way Levi, Erwin, and Mike are on the same island as her, right? Hange couldn't focus and wiped her sweat off on her overalls.

This is all a dream, Hange repeated to herself. She just needs to reassure herself by looking again from a different angle! Because that's what people do when three ex-lovers appear out of thin air, right?

Hange made up her mind and hastily ran out of the barn.

Just one look, and then you go home, Hange repeated to herself over and over again in her mind. The part of her life with the guys is over. She must have gone crazy with the wedding, and her mind is playing tricks on her. Hange went around the barn to the window on the side. Just one peek, and she's done. She opens the shutters to find the window boarded up.

"Shit," Hange whispers to herself. She forgot she boarded up the windows herself a long time ago. Hange looks to her right and sees a ladder leaning on the side of the barn. She follows it up. The only way to look inside is to look from the hatch on the roof.

What a coincidence for a ladder to be there, Hange thought as she started climbing it slowly to not make a sound.

She pushes herself onto the roof while maintaining her balance before she fell off. Hange tiptoes quietly to the hatch. Although she wanted to peek then run, Hange can feel excitement run through her body despite the multiple alarms ringing in her head. She hasn't felt that feeling in a long time. The last time Hange felt this type of excitement was 21 years ago.

Hange is too blinded by her that she accidentally steps on a loose board near the hatch. "Shit," Hange curses again in her mind and quickly steps away from the hatch.

---

Inside the goathouse

"Did you hear that?" Erwin asks, alert while looking up at the roof. Erwin swore he heard a creak earlier. Maybe it was Sasha trying to get in without alerting Hange? Erwin turned to Mike and Levi, hoping he had not gone crazy since arriving at Kalokairi. Mike is busy writing in his journal for his new book, and Levi is still cleaning up the place.

Levi is too busy whistling to himself and cleaning. "Your mind must be playing tricks on you, Erwin" Levi doesn't turn around and continues cleaning.

Erwin looked at Mike, who shrugged. Erwin heard something coming from the roof, and she knew it. He only wishes he was tall enough to look. Erwin turns to Levi but the man too short to help. Erwin then turns to Mike. He smiled

Perfect

---

Sasha finally grabbed Mikasa and Historia and was running back to the goathouse with the girls. Sasha was confident in her running skills, after all. She used to run track in high school, and she used food as a motivation to reach the finish line. Sasha improved her skills after the food incident with her teacher, Mr. Shadis. It's her third-best skill after archery and cooking.

Sasha and her friends ran outside to find Hange on the roof, acting like a teenage schoolgirl with a crush.

"Holy shi-mmppgh," Hitch yells before Annie comes up from behind and covers Hitch's mouth with one hand. Annie tiptoed a bit to reach Hitch's ear.

"Shhhh," Annie hisses into Hitch's ear. "We don't want Hange to find us!" she whispers and looks up at Hange to see if she heard Hitch's scream. Good thing she is too busy acting like a woman in love to even notice the girls. Annie lets go of Hitch.

Sasha analyzes the situation. There was still time to hide outside for a bit before moving in to hide in the barn. Sasha could then talk to her dads once her mom leaves.

Sasha turns to her friends. They were still watching Hange on the roof. "Follow me" She beckons them, and they run towards the goathouse.

---

Hange looks into the window from an upside-down view. She is lucky the trio's backs were turned away from her, and they were preoccupied to notice her staring. Erwin and Mike were talking to each other, and Levi was fixing the sheets on a mattress. Hange felt the blood rush to her head, and she started to feel dizzy.

Hange sits up and walks towards the hatch again. She didn't get a good look at the men, and she is upside down. It was an excellent excuse to peek just one more time.

Just one more look, and then I'm out of here.

She slowly walks up to the hatch again. She is not going to make a sound this time and just take one peek. As Hange grasps the handle, the hatch suddenly opens from the inside. Hange, startled by the hatch suddenly opening, falls forward.

"Ahhhhh!" She screams as she fell before landing on something soft.

---

Hange looks up from her spot on the mattress to find Mike, Erwin, and Levi staring down at her in shock. As the adrenaline in her body diminished, Hange notices the very compromising position she was in. She is lying on a mattress, and her legs were up in the air to form a V.

Talk about an embarrassing position; she berates herself and scrambles to look at least look decent.

Mike chuckles. "You always knew how to make an entrance" He turns to Erwin. "It's a good thing I moved away on time, or else Hange would have fallen on top of me."

All three men take a look over Hange's appearance. She had changed her fashion sense slightly since they last saw her.

"You look great, Hange." Mike compliments her.

"Your overalls really suit you," Erwin speaks next.

Mike and Erwin both turn to Levi, expecting him to speak next, but he was quiet the whole time. What they don't realize is all of the emotions Levi felt at the moment. He always thought about how he would react to seeing Hange again. Now that she's here...he didn't know what to do.

Levi notices everyone's staring and coughs in his fist "...You don't look shitty at all..." he looks away from Hange's stare to look at anything else.

Mike and Erwin both sweatdrop. What a great way to start a reunion, they thought.

Hange looks at Levi, confused. "Uh...thanks? I guess?" unsure about how to respond to Levi.

As much as Hange likes to receive compliments (only sometimes because she is too busy to focus on her appearance), she needs to figure out why they are here. So she shakes her head to focus and looks up at the men in front of her.

"This must be a dream. You are all just figments of my imagination here to compliment my fashion choices."

Mike laughs. "You want me to tickle you, Hange? I hear it can help wake people up," Mike suggests with a playful tone in his voice. Then, he begins to lean forward to tickle her.

Hange starts kicking her legs to stop Mike. "Don't you dare, Mike Zacharias!" she laughs despite using his full name to scold him.

Erwin walks forward after Mike moves back to his original spot. "Do you remember me, Hange?" he asks, placing a hand on his chest.

Hange gasps and smiles fondly, "Of course I do, Erwin. I can never forget your huge eyebrows." Erwin laughs at Hange's statement, content to see her infamous smile again.

(Despite Erwin having the face of a movie star, Hange still remembers him for his big eyebrows.)

Hange shakes her head, remembering why she was here. She is here to interrogate them, not chit-chat!

Levi steps forward to also speak but stops when Hange quickly scrambles to stand up.

"Why are you here? What are you doing here?" she yells and startles the men in the room.

She is upset but luckily not enough to kick us off the island personally, Levi thought. He knew from personal experience.

Levi has to admit that he is jealous of the way Hange interacts with Mike and Erwin. She treated them as if she was reuniting with old friends. Meanwhile, Levi didn't get the time of day. He stared at Hange's eyes when she talked. Although she was laughing with Mike and Erwin earlier, he noticed something hidden deep within her light brown eyes every time she looked at him.

Hange glares at Mike first.

"I'm writing a travel piece," Mike says nervously.

She turns and glares at Erwin next. Erwin hesitates for a second, unsure about what to say. Then, in an ah-ha moment, he remembered the last time he came to the island. "My co-worker wanted me to go on holiday again."

Erwin sighs in relief after seeing Hange's reaction. She seems to believe him (for now). Hange turns to Levi and glares at him, too, waiting for his response.

Levi, caught off guard because he was deep in his thoughts, stutters, "I-I just wanted to say hi."

A great way of acting normal, Levi beats himself up in his head.

Hange can not believe this. This could not be happening to her. This has to be a dream, right? She is going to wake up and find none of her ex-lovers on her lovely island.

She needs to know why they were here.

"What is all this?" she raised her hands up, shaking them to include whatever was going on right now.

Mike and Erwin move to stand side by side with Levi. "Uhhhh, one of those rare moments where three strangers share a common thought," Mike speaks up, and Erwin hums in agreement.

Hange looks at them again. Here she is assuming they all knew each other, but in reality, they don't. Despite this, Hange wants clarification before she starts celebrating.

"Strangers. As in you three don't know each other," she asks, eyeing them cautiously.

All three men look at each other confused. They all know Hange is a smart woman, but why is she asking something so obvious?

"Precisely," Erwin clarifies.

Hange sighs in relief. "Okay. Good, but why are you here?" she asks suspiciously as she walks around the men, eyeing them suspiciously. It's a very tiny chance for three past lovers to appear at the same time. Unfortunately, Hange just so happens to be part of that slight chance. She doesn't know if she should consider it a blessing or a curse.

Hange turns to them. "Who said that you could stay in my old goathouse?"

"Didn't catch the name," Erwin spoke up immediately and shrugs.

"A Greek lady!" Mike adds.

"Well, she spoke Greek," Levi jumps in. He did not want to rat out Sasha because she is Hange's daughter. He had promised Sasha not to tell Hange that she invited him and the others here after all.

Mike turns to Levi with an ah-ha moment. "Maybe, she said we couldn't stay in the goathouse?" Erwin also turns to Levi and nods in agreement. Levi looks at Mike like he was crazy. Would Hange really believe that?

It seemed Hange believes their charade when the trio looks back at her. Hange wiggles a finger at them as if she figured out their reason for being there.

"Yeah, that's it. You cannot stay here because I'm closed and I'm full," Hange states matter of factly and plays it off with a laugh. She starts heading to the hatch door on the floor.

"I'm also really busy. I have a wedding. My uh-local girl's getting married." Hange adds, attempting to give the men a good reason to leave the island. She starts pulling the handle.

"Don't worry about us, Hange." Levi attempts to reassure her that everything is fine, "Mike is used to roughing it, and Erwin…" He trails off.

"Is spontaneous," Erwin adds to save himself from exposing their secret.

Hange stops pulling the handle after coming to a realization about something. Levi never explained why he is really here. She stands up and looks at Levi with a stern look on her face.

"What about you?" she looks deep into his steel-gray eyes. She fell in love with those eyes a long time ago, but they were also the same ones that also broke her heart.

"I just want to see the island, Hange. You know how much it means to me." Levi answers honestly. Kalokairi means so much to him because it is where he and Hange fell in love. They focused on each other and tuned out the world around them.

Hange stares at Levi for a few seconds before opening the hatch. "I'm gonna arrange a boat for you three to get back to the mainland." She wiggles her finger at the trio again and begins going down.

How will she explain this to everyone on the island if they see her parading around with her entourage? Hange thought and groans. What a hassle to deal with before your daughter's wedding.

"I have a boat." Mike interrupts Hange's thoughts.

"You have a boat! Good! Now get on it." Hange exclaims and climbs down more. Internally, she wants to bang her head against the wall. But, of course, she should've known that! She went on boat trips every night after she met Mike.

"And anchors away. Away, away." Hange moves her hand in a shooing motion and reaches up to close the hatch. She stops after being interrupted by Levi.

"Hey, Hange," Levi calls out and takes a step forward. Mike and Erwin follow his lead.

"It's good to see you." Mike and Erwin smile at Hange. Levi only had a smaller smile than the other two. Hange can tell all of them genuinely missed her.

Hange just stares at them as she closes the hatch and sighs. Of course, they would miss her. She treasured all the memories with them together. She is sure the men share the same sentiment too. It is one of the biggest highlights in her life next to Sasha's birth.

Suddenly, Hange felt the excitement from earlier diminish into nothing as reality kicks in. Instead, she can sense both dread and fear grow in her body as every second passes. She knew what she needed to do right away.

Hange needs to find Sasha. She needs to see her now.

Author’s Note:

I reread some of the past chapters, and yeesh. I need to do some editing when I finish this.

I know Sophie is an artist, but I don’t see it fit Sasha’s character (more like Jean or Moblit). I chose archery (because of hunting) and cooking to fit her character more.

To whoever suggested Moblit to be added into the story on @fanmoose12 account. I decided to mess with him 2 chapter straight haha

#levihan #levi x hange #levihan fanfiction #nicosasha #erwin x hange #mike x hange #Aruani #mikenana #hitch x marlow #marco x mina #pokkopikku #snk #attack on titan

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makeste · 4 years

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BnHA Chapter 272: (Directed by Michael Bay)

Previously on BnHA: The My Child Soldiers Academia arc finally started to live up to its name as Tokoyami became the first (but I assure you not the last) victim of traumatic mental scarring courtesy of Horikoshi’s sick games! So he and Dark Shadow showed up to stop Dabi from murdering Hawks and were all “please don’t kill our mentor.” Dabi was all “AH BUT YOUR MENTOR KILLED SOMEONE ELSE, AND ISN’T THAT JUST LIKE THE HEROES THOUGH, THEIR HANDS ARE SO STAINED WITH BLOOD” and then he tried to set both of them on fire several times in succession. Hawks was all “Tokoyami just run away while he’s in the middle of his five-hour sermon” and so they tried but Dabi followed them! But then Geten was all “ALL RIGHT EVERYONE... CHILL” and fucking froze everything for no discernible reason, and Tokoyami fled the building with an unconscious Hawks in tow as the battle raged on. The chapter then ended with Gigantomachia being all “I smell my master!” and standing up, hahaha oh fuck.

Today on BnHA: Well you guys are not going to believe this, but it turns out that Tomura waking up is actually a very bad thing. A “worst case scenario” if you will! Because, get this, he has a quirk that can destroy anything, which spreads from whatever he touches to fucking everything and everywhere else. Gosh, if only we’d known about this since like 35 chapters ago. If only we’d had a spy among the villains who could have warned us, and three entire months to plan our attack, and literally every single hero in Japan on call to help us when the time came. Anyway so you’re really going to be shocked by this I’m telling you, but it turns out that when a crazy powerful person who wants to destroy everything finally wakes up, he immediately starts destroying everything with his crazy power. So X-Less dies and Crust dies and everyone else runs, and meanwhile the kids, who are on the outskirts of the city finishing up the evacuation, stand there in shock as the plot rampages toward them ready to swallow them whole. The chapter ends with Deku powering up to FORTY-FIVE PERCENT YEAHHHHH, and oh shit. Finally we’re doing this.

I am not even remotely done with all the shit I’m supposed to be finishing up, but fuck it, I need a break and reading the new chapter is by far the funnest thing on my current to-do list, so!

OH SNAPS MY BOY HAS FINALLY OPENED HIS EYES

IT ONLY TOOK HIM... OKAY LOOK I’M NOT GOING TO GO BACK AND COUNT ALL OF THE CHAPTERS, BUT LET’S SAY... FIFTEEN. ...HUNDRED. CHAPTERS TO FINALLY SNAP TO IT AND COME JOIN THE PARTY. BUT IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! PROBABLY. AHH LET’S JUST READ ON

-- ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohm --

[puts on glasses and unfolds map while poring through a mess of scribbles on post-it notes] -- hold up, if my calculations are correct, I’m pretty sure “somewhere a bit further from the hospital” is, in fact, where a certain THREE TROUBLE-PRONE DISASTERS ARE CURRENTLY HOLED UP. AHHH

can it really be true. are we finally rejoining our protagonist and his buddy cop friends after 97 years. how will everyone react to Deku reacting to Tomura waking up ahhhh

so Burnin’ is yelling at the civilians to let them know if they have any family or friends who need assistance evacuating

god I hate the fact that this is a fucking understatement

they’re not taking any chances after Kamino and Fukuoka huh. fool them once, shame on you. fool them twice, oh shit. but there will not be a third time! no one fucking destroys three cities in the span of six months on their watch, no sirree

(ETA: ...)

lol the kids are trying to get the elderly citizens on a bus to evacuate, but a lady is trying to give them candy and Kacchan and Ochako are of two different minds on whether or not to accept

Kacchan is absolutely right about Ochako’s motivations, but in her defense, who the fuck turns down free chocolate

IIDA!!

FUCKING CHRIST JAPAN IT’S 200 YEARS IN THE FUTURE AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T SWITCHED TO DIGITAL RECORD-KEEPING? WHY IS THIS THE MOST REALISTIC THING IN THE ENTIRE MANGA TO DATE. MY GOOD SIR, IIDA IS LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH, ALL RECORDS AND BUILDINGS ABSOLUTELY CAN AND WILL BE COMPLETELY OBLITERATED IN THE CARNAGE TO COME. I’M SORRY TO BE THE ONE TO INFORM YOU OF THIS, BUT DAMN IT SOMEONE HAS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

(ETA: I sure hope these poor bastards had good insurance.)

also. this man here who looks like Beaker from the Muppets, who presumably has the power of Doing Anything Those Wacky Flailing Inflatable Tube Men That You See Outside Of Car Dealerships Can Do. ...yes. that’s it. that’s an intentionally incomplete sentence with a subject but no predicate. I just feel like we should all sit and stare at him for a good thirty more seconds before continuing on with our lives

OH MY GOD

THEY’RE EVACUATING THE PETS TOO AHHHH. EXCUSE ME CERTAIN SOMEONES WHO THINK ALL HEROES ARE “DIRTY.” I SEE YOUR ARGUMENTS AND RAISE YOU THIS ONE SINGLE PANEL. YEAH THAT’S RIGHT. NOW WHAT DABI. AT A LOSS FOR WORDS I SEE. YOU JUST SIT AND PONDER THAT FOR A WHILE

is... this... a space shuttle man

is this literally just a man with a Boeing for a head. FUCKING QUIRKS THOUGH!!!!! ~*~wild~*~

OH MY GOD AND WE’RE BACK

time for some HORCRUX SHENANIGANS!! IS YOUR LIGHTNING BOLT SCAR BURNING DEKU. I CAN’T BELIEVE HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED IS BACK AHHHH

so now he’s slightly hunching forward with his hands pressed together and Todoroki is immediately sensing that something is wrong ahhhhh

(ETA from like 5 days later: I had that as “Tokoyami” instead of “Todoroki” for the better part of a solid week you guys. SHOUTO YOU WERE GONE FOR SO LONG I FORGOT YOUR FUCKING NAME whoop.)

here come dat angst. here comes Horikoshi’s hand beckoning the trio closer and welcoming them to the pain parade ahhh. from now on that’s how I’m ending all my sentences btw. it just seems right. ahhh

OH MY LORD OH MY

ladies and gentlemen, YOU WERE SAYING DEKU DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT LATELY? HE’S NOT INTERESTING ENOUGH AS A PROTAGONIST, IS HE? well maybe that’s because Horikoshi has been saving this one juiciest of plot nuggets for a rainy day precisely like this! BRING ON THAT CHOSEN ONE ANGST AHHHHH

anyway so yes it is indeed OFA speaking to him in the form of Lil Bro a.k.a. the first user

lol I’m trying to think of commentary but it’s difficult seeing as I’M ALREADY SCROLLING DOWN TO IMPATIENTLY READ THE NEXT PAGE

lmao the fuck

okay Princess Zelda. can you get any more flowery with those descriptions though. A TRANSCENDENT BEING. A SUPERLATIVE ENTITY. A SUBLIME, PREEMINENT ORGANISM. FREED FROM ITS SHACKLES. UNFETTERED BY ALL EARTHLY LIMITATIONS

OH MY GOD

it absolutely boggles my mind that this guy is somehow still alive. ??! how many chapters and panels has it been now. he’s like the goat in the t-rex pen in fucking Jurassic Park. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET EATEN ALREADY

...

do you... want a blanket. ...?

(ETA: do you ever just. wake up and you’re like “ah shit it’s cold”, and then you destroy an entire city. mm.)

do you all suppose X-Less is fully aware that he’s about to die though? he hasn’t even moved. I imagine that sitting next to Tomura actually is much like sitting next to a giant t-rex. like he has to know there is no getting out of this alive. poor guy

damn Mic isn’t even looking back he’s just running back into the main room where all the rest of them are

wow this fight is still going on

I don’t know why, I just expected it to all magically be over all of a sudden now that we have bigger things to worry about. do you guys remember when we were all worried about the High End Noumus being the biggest threat. hahahahaha

(ETA: moment of silence for ALL OF THE FUCKING HIGH ENDS lmao. that did not go how I expected that plotline to go AT ALL, but at least we got the best fucking battle in the entire manga out of it.)

jesus CHRIST ENOUGH WITH THIS

WE GET IT TOMURA IS DANGEROUS AND SCARY AND EVIL AND AWAKE!!! JUST PLEASE GET TO IT ALREADY GOD I’M BEGGING YOU

FINALLY

goddammit. my reaction to this should have been much more “!!!” and “OH SHIT”, but he dragged it out so much that my initial reaction was one more of relief than horror. maybe it’s because of the way I read the chapters, constantly pausing to do commentary as I go along, but whenever a chapter has a ton of panels of people just staring into the distance awash with dread, it really stands out to me lol. there’s only so much I can write about that kind of thing. ah well at least we’re finally getting to the action

I genuinely can’t tell if Ujiko is frightened that he’s about to be disintegrated by Tomura’s quirk, or excited that Tomura is awake

maybe both lol. well don’t worry you’re not gonna die that easily, much as you would not catch me complaining if you did

thanks Gran

lol where was all this speed throughout the rest of this arc though. “we’re only competent when the plot necessitates it” huh. is that right

oh shit it’s destroying the rest of the lab

those are all of Ujiko’s collected quirks, right? someone please tell me if this is a good or a bad thing. on the one hand if they’re all destroyed it means Tomura can’t get them and Ujiko can’t make any more Noumus. but on the other hand this means they won’t ever be able to give them back to the original users (if any of them are even still alive). and also that’s a lot of evidence that’s being wiped out as well

oh shit they didn’t know about this?!

even after Deika City, you didn’t put two and two together?? even with all of Hawk’s intel?? what the hell did you think happened there?

well this explains why everyone was so la-dee-da-no-rush about capturing him though. well that’s on you guys. next time maybe don’t waste 20 minutes uselessly battling redshirt Noumus while Mirko has to do everything herself

anyway so I feel like people other than X-Less are almost certainly going to die here, and fuck. I’m not ready for any of this

AHH THE KIDS

BIT SLOW ON THE UPTAKE THERE KACCHAN LOL. FOR A MOMENT YOU HAD ME WORRIED THERE WAS SOMEHOW A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THREAT APPROACHING FROM THE OTHER SIDE, BEFORE YOU TURNED AROUND TO LOOK WHERE THE OTHERS WERE LOOKING

ALSO JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT SHOUTO’S DAD IS IN THAT HOSPITAL, ALONG WITH THEIR TEACHER! HERE. COME. DAT. ANGST

LOOK AT THIS CONSPICUOUSLY INTACT BUILDING AS IT STANDS THERE ALL OMINOUSLY WITH THE NEARBY BIRDS AND CRITTERS FRANTICALLY FLYING AWAY

I want to see it crumble so bad. now this is the kind of foreboding cinematic disaster movie bullshit I can get into

FFFF WHY IS THIS PANEL SO HARD TO SEE

THERE’S TOO MUCH CHAOS AND TOO MANY PEOPLE LOST AMIDST ALL THESE SHATTERING AND FALLING TUBES, BUT I NEED TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS SAFE AHHH

...okay so I see Ryuukyuu in the top right, and I think that’s RockLockRock on her back. Thirteen is clearly there in the bottom center, but I don’t know who that is next to them. and then of course Gran and Mic on the left. and a bunch of others spread out in various other places, but... where the hell is Aizawa??

OH THANK GOD

FUCK YOU HORIKOSHI, I KNOW FULL WELL YOU’RE NOT JUST GOING TO KILL OFF THE WORLD’S PREEMINENT DAD STRAIGHT UP OUT OF THE BLUE HERE, AND YET I STILL FELT ANXIETY AT THIS LAST PANEL. HOW DID YOU EVEN

BITCH YOU BETTER LET THE FUCK GO BEFORE I --

!!!

oh my god I gasped in real life. stop making me fear for the lives of main characters!!

he. he --. crust. he. ...

I literally stopped reading and had to stop and cover my mouth with both of my hands I’m

silence. no screaming. no flailing. no freaking out. just silence

shit. rest in peace you old sedimentary bastard. respect to you for saving the father of my children in your last fleeting moments. I still have not the slightest idea how you rose through the ranks to somehow become the sixth fucking highest rated hero (HERO BILLBOARD CHART, IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT. ARE YOU FEELING OKAY), but you sure did go out with style though

also this may be tacky of me to point out during such an emotionally charged moment, but one second Aizawa is wearing his goggles like normal, and the next they’re suddenly pushed up onto his forehead so we can see the anguish in his bloodshot eyes. there was no reason to do that other than angst and we all know it. so yes Shouta you dramatic bitch, I am calling you out. why Horikoshi felt he had to add to your many accumulated traumas is beyond me. you don’t deserve this and I am so, so sorry

OH GOOD I WAS JUST ABOUT TO ASK WHERE THE FUCK ENDEAVOR WAS

seeing as we just went over this with Gran, I will take the high road here and won’t ask why you’re only this fast now and couldn’t have been this useful this ages ago back before Tomura woke up. oh wait does sarcastically saying I won’t bring it up count as bringing it up. well whatever. middle road, then

sob I’m getting flashbacks to the end of Return of the Jedi when they’re all frantically flying out of the Death Star as it explodes

friendly reminder that Ryuukyuu, clearly the fastest one here despite carrying like 20 people, was number 10 in the rankings for some unknown reason. again, r.i.p. Crust you well-meaning geriatric soul

also just a stray thought, I hope it’s clear now why it was so important to give Deku those additional quirks. at a minimum he needs Blackwhip and Float just so he doesn’t instantly die the moment he’s in Tomura’s general vicinity. sob I’ve joked so much about flying quirks and here they are becoming fucking prerequisites now

anyway so Ujiko is mourning the loss of his lab, which again, good riddance mostly. but r.i.p. that evidence though

(ETA: nah the “total loss” part is referring to how the heroes fucked up so soundly and thoroughly. anyway no one would blame Mic if he accidentally dropped Ujiko in the midst of all this chaos, I’m just saying. I guess they need any intel he could still provide now more than ever though.)

OH MY GOD!!

LAUNDRY HERO WASH?! THIS SUDSY BOI CAN ACTUALLY KICK ASS WHAAAAT

oh my god oh my god it’s still spreading??!

fuck fuck fuck at this rate it’ll reach the kids

(ETA: that happened really fast actually.)

-- oh FUCK NO you had better NOT FUCKING TOUCH FUCKING PIXIE BOB, I WILL MAIL MYSELF TO JAPAN PANDEMIC OR NO PANDEMIC. DO YOU NOT SEE THE SIGN THAT SAYS “OFF-LIMITS.” RESPECT THE SIGN

SOB SHE’S SO BADASS BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S STILL DISINTEGRATING FUCCCCCK. FUCK MY LIFE, FUCK EVERYTHING

AHHHHH

I can’t tell if her earthbending was able to stop it or not?? god help us all if it didn’t, I’m not even sure what else could stop it at this point

SHUT UP UJIKO!!

they really did. only to fuck it up completely at the finish line. well, the man most singularly responsible for it is dead now, again r.i.p. Crust you useless old legend

lmao despite myself

“by a miracle, or maybe through sheer will” even he acknowledges that Tomura waking up was basically complete bullshit. yes blah blah yadda yadda got zapped by some exposed wires explanation science. because we all know that getting electrocuted will fix you right up when your heart has stopped and you have completely flatlined. you can definitely trust Horikoshi on this and there’s absolutely no need to google how defibrillators actually work

also is he somehow wearing a cape now. again by a miracle or maybe through sheer will

YESSSSSSS

(ETA: one has to wonder what Ujiko’s plan was, assuming this scheme had actually played out. were they just banking on Tomura not waking up cranky and disoriented and wanting to test out his power. his quirk doesn’t exactly distinguish friend from foe here I’m just saying.)

the part of me that goes all “ooh ahh” when all the buildings explode in Independence Day is singing inside. but never fear, the rest of me is appropriately horrified though. what was that Burnin’ was saying about the city becoming a large-scale battle zone? sob

also this page sure serves as a nice refresher for exactly why Tomura Waking Up Was Bad, which was inexplicably a topic of some debate in recent weeks. yes in spite of everything the villains are still the bad guys who’d have thought. almost as if the purpose of humanizing a character is to show that they’re human, not that they’re right

WHAT’S THIS NOW???

WELL I’LL BE. IT’S BEEN AN EVENTFUL THREE MONTHS, APPARENTLY!??

HOOAHHHHHHHH

IT’S A BIRD IT’S A PLANE IT’S A BADASS OH SHIIIIITTTTTT

finally finally finally!!!!!!

THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN, REPEAT, THE SHIT HAS HIT THE PROVERBIAL FAN. THE PLOT IS FINALLY HAPPENING, REPEAT, THE PLOT IS FINALLY FUCKING HAPPENING AHHHHHH

and there is no one coming to save them this time. no one to arrive at the last second and say “it’s all right now because I am here.” they have to save themselves. they have to save everyone. the training wheels are finally coming off. the safety net has been removed. after 272 chapters, the story has finally reached a point where these kids, these children, who in spite of all they’ve been through have been protected and shielded from the worst of it up till now, will finally have to be the ones to save the day all on their own

and they are not ready. but also maybe they kind of are??! but they definitely are not. and oh god oh god oh god, FINALLY WE’RE REALLY DOING THIS. TIME TO FIX THE MESS THOSE SILLY GROWN-UPS MADE, CHILDREN. YOU GOT THIS

#bnha 272 #shigaraki tomura #midoriya izuku #aizawa shouta #ujiko daruma #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #if the next few chapters don't feature some kind of avengers-style epic team up pose I will sue #what has this all even been building up to if not that #remember that the kids are not allowed to die though horikoshi #remember what we agreed upon #you remember right #right #horikoshi???

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a-crimson-lion · 4 years

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“It Makes Me Wanna Keep Him At Arm’s Length” An Overview On Katsuki Bakugo’s Development

[I should by no means be the one writing this analysis, but here we are. Obviously it’s an overview on Katsuki’s character development, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Keep reading if you want the details.]

Table of Contents

i) Prologue

I) A Brief Explanation

II) The “What The F*** Is Your Existence” Phase

II.A) Breaking The Barriers

III) The “I Can’t Let You Get Ahead Of Me” Phase

IV) The “Why Don’t You Care About Yourself” Phase

V) Final Address+Conclusion

Word Count: 4415

[Warning: Contains manga spoilers up to Ch. 284. Will also include spoilers for the movies and OVAs, as well as the special Deku & Bakugo: Rising two-shot manga. Reader’s discretion is advised. Not scared off yet? Good. Let’s do this.]

i) Prologue

Alright, no beating around the bush, I guess.

We all know this has to deal with Ch. 284, and the milestone that came with it. We got a rare look inside Katsuki’s perspective, and we saw firsthand how much his perspective has changed from the start of the story. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten such an in-depth look into Katsuki’s psyche since Deku vs Kacchan 2. It’s honestly impressive.

...which is why I’m so confused by a certain kind of response to it.

When you look past the swarms of tumblr posts absolutely losing their s*** over Katsuki getting further character development, you come across an… admittedly troubling response. The idea that “Katsuki always cared.” The idea that as early as the Battle Trial, if not middle school, Katsuki was secretly keeping an eye out for Izuku in their tumultuous relationship.

...no. Just-. No, what the-

I’ll get to why this particular response pisses me off in a bit, but before that, I wanna give a run down of Katsuki’s development, according to the narrative. Anyone who’s been around my blog long enough knows that I don’t exactly hold Katsuki in good graces. (Pretty much the opposite, actually.) However, in light of recent developments, that’s not what this post is gonna be focusing on. And as such, I’ll keep the snark and branch conversations to a minimum… to the best of my abilities.

So… how are we gonna do this?

I) A Brief Explanation

After we finish this brief “tutorial” section, the next three segments of the post will cover the various time frames of Katsuki’s development. I’ll be going through a general rundown of Katsuki’s perspective and the various evidence points that lead me to my conclusions. It’s essentially a glorified retelling. Sound good? Alrighty then!

II) The “What The F*** Is Your Existence” Phase

Time Frame: Ch. 1-Ch. 116 [Sludge Villain Arc-Late Provisional Hero License Exam Arc]

In case the Prologue didn’t make things clear, let me spell it out: Katsuki didn’t always care.

At least, he didn’t “always care” in the positive sense.

To clarify, this isn’t just 3rd Year Middle School Katsuki to UA Katsuki. This is all the way back to the River Incident. Katsuki has had this mentality for that long and then some when you shift out of backstory territory. We’re talking about the same kid who nearly murdered Izuku in the Battle Trial, blasted Izuku to kingdom come in the Training of the Dead OVA, and decked Izuku during the Final Exams. So…

The following hinges majorly on the line Katsuki stated in Chapter 284, and the title of this analysis: “It makes me wanna keep him at arm’s length.” Contrary to popular belief, this does not just apply to the idea that Katsuki wants to stick around Izuku to keep him from destroying himself.

...it’s also a major contributor to the reason Katsuki bullied Izuku in the past.

So let’s backtrack to the River incident. Katsuki takes one wrong step on a log, slips, and falls down into the river below. Izuku is the only one that goes down to help him. This infuriates Katsuki because he was fine, as was said by him and everyone but Izuku that was present that day. This is also the first time Katsuki becomes aware of something he echoes in the Ch. 284 flashback:

“He just… Deep down, he doesn’t take himself into account, y’know?”

This is Katsuki’s first run in with Izuku’s inherent selflessness. Initially, he takes it as pity; in his words, Izuku is “looking down on him.” And this bothers him a great deal. Then when it comes to Quirks, Katsuki gets one and Izuku doesn’t. This assures Katsuki of something he shortly discovered previously: Izuku isn’t all that special.

It’s a brief comfort. Because Izuku hasn’t taken the damn hint and stopped hanging out with him and his friends. The Quirked kids. The normal kids.

And worst still, he’s willing to get in Katsuki’s way just because someone else is in his line of fire. In the back of his mind, it’s the River Incident all over again, though he’s not being feared for; he’s being feared of. It’s all wrong. Deku isn’t strong like the rest of them. Deku can’t be a hero. Deku knows that.

...he knows that he doesn’t stand a chance, right? He knows how the world really works. Is he… is he putting on an act?

One of the few remarkable traits Katsuki has right from the get-go is his disdain against dishonesty. So, when he sees Izuku putting on a brave face and acting like a hero, and Katsuki decides that Izuku’s just “pretending,” Katsuki takes the matter into his own hands. He’ll get Izuku to show his true colors in due time. That’s what heroes do, right? Take down the bad guys? And Izuku faking about caring for others when everyone else clearly puts themselves first and foremost sounds pretty bad guy-like, at least at the time.

So, Izuku keeps on trucking, occasionally trying to join back up with Katsuki’s group on a near frequent basis. Even when that fails, he tries his damnedest to catch up.

But what many people forget is that at some point, Izuku stopped following, at least actively.

By Chapter 1, he’s making sure to keep from drawing attention to himself. He’s not as enthusiastic as everyone else in the class, he tries backing away from Katsuki and shrinking down on himself, tries defusing the situation. That doesn’t sound like Izuku’s still trying to keep up. Even in the special two-shot manga dedicated to Heroes: Rising, Izuku isn’t the one to draw attention to Katsuki’s presence. And even when he does go after Katsuki and the villain, his attention is more so focused on the villain, thoughts of staying out of Katsuki’s way to not offend him likely somewhere in his mind.

So then why does Katsuki keep antagonizing him in the first chapter of canon proper? And even before that, most likely?

“It makes me wanna keep him at arm’s length.”

...Izuku didn’t stop being Izuku. Izuku didn’t stop being selfless.

And his selflessness is what pisses Katsuki off to no end. So, he keeps pursuing Izuku, keeps trying to get him to “drop the act.” Makes him a “punching bag,” as Izuku states in Chapter 8. Because the way things work, Izuku should not be trying to be a hero. He should not be trying to put on a brave face when he’s scared s***less. He should not be sticking his neck out for others when he doesn’t (or rather, didn’t) have anything to stick up for himself.

Katsuki was born with something that made everyone consider him prime hero material. Izuku was born without that, and was considered the opposite… and yet, he still tries.

And this character trait, this selflessness, it drives Katsuki insane. And it continues to do so well beyond the Battle Trial Arc. Even when Katsuki is able to begrudgingly accept that Quirkless Deku has a Quirk now, somehow, his selflessness continues to bring Katsuki grief. While it’s never inherently brought up, this is the dividing factor between Izuku’s fight against Shoto in the Sport’s Festival and Katsuki’s fight with Shoto in the Sport’s Festival.

Izuku was willing to go all out at the cost of himself just so Shoto could accept what was his. Katsuki just wanted a good brawl, to be the undisputed first place.

This even continues well into the Final Exams, though the fact that Katsuki is running high on arrogance and anger does nothing to soothe matters. It takes a deck to face and later an explosive kabedon wall smash to get Izuku and Katsuki working together, and let’s not forget that when Izuku was trying to get Katsuki to realize they were still fighting All Might, regardless of whatever handicaps he may or may not have, he gets decked in the nose for his efforts. While it’s technically a subtler play on Izuku’s selflessness and concern for others, Katsuki likely took it as further mockery, another attempt for Deku to try and get under his skin and throw him off.

In any case, throughout this time period, Katsuki cares f*** all for Izuku or his philosophy, opting to brute force things up until the very end of the time frame. But what causes the eventual shift?

II.A) Breaking The Barriers

A number of things, actually.

None of the proceeding events ever do a clean cut on Katsuki’s worldview. It’s more like chiseling through a wall than breaking it down with a hammer.

The Sludge Villain is the first hint that Izuku might not be faking and Katsuki might not be at the top. While many claim that Katsuki leaves Izuku alone because he feels indebted to him but doesn’t want to admit it, it’s more than likely that he’s more focused on his own self-loathing. This incident is what defines him for a good chunk of the series, to his chagrin.

The Battle Trial is just another nail in the eventual coffin. Katsuki thinks he’s finally got Izuku right where he wants him, only for Izuku to pull a 500 IQ play and prioritize the exercise over his and Katsuki’s squabbles, taking the brunt of Katsuki’s attack and attention while giving Ochako the opportunity to capture the bomb. That look of frustration is Katsuki realizing that not only did Izuku get ahead, he got ahead with the very thing Katsuki despises. Needless to say, it f***s with him well until the aftermath outside of UA’s gate.

Shoto refusing to use his flames is another chip off the marble that is Katsuki’s pride. It reinforces the idea that Izuku is doing something that Katsuki isn’t, something that Izuku shouldn’t have in the first place, beyond a Quirk at least. So, Katsuki rages, because he can’t understand why it’s such a big deal, in both Izuku’s and Shoto’s cases.

The Final Exams just hammer the point home further. Katsuki’s one-track minded attempts to bring down All Might are met with no results. He would have failed that exam if it wasn’t for Izuku’s selflessness or Katsuki “lowering himself” to cooperate with him. Had Katsuki not gotten decked in the face and dragged off or got saved at the last minute while he was knocked out, he definitely would have failed on account of becoming a liability.

The Training Camp attack is an odd mix of Katsuki’s current philosophy and the next stage in it. He knows Izuku’s gonna go and save his ass, and he wants no part of that because hasn’t he made him suffer enough already? Hasn’t he already proved time and time again that he’s getting better, despite the fact that Katsuki doesn’t want or believe it? Despite the fact that it shouldn’t even be happening if things were right in the world? Izuku does recognize Katsuki’s wounded pride, however, which is instrumental in getting him out of All For One’s clutches during Kamino.

If we briefly direct our attention to the Make It! Do-Or-Die Survival Training! OVA, Katsuki is pretty adamant on claiming he only got the power back on in the underground mall to complete the exercise. And I don’t think that’s Katsuki’s “tsundere” talking, either: I genuinely believe that Katsuki’s only thoughts at the moment was getting the exercise done. Everyone else was just secondary. And remember, Katsuki hates dishonesty, which is probably why he doesn’t take credit for “saving” Izuku and Shoto. While his actions did save the two of them and everyone else in the mall, that wasn’t his intention, which is an interesting flip on Izuku’s performance back in the Battle Trial. Couple that with the fact that Katsuki is injured (and therefore weak, and in need of help), and it’s no wonder he’s in a sour mood towards the end of it all.

And this sour mood carries over to the final nail in his coffin: the Provisional License Exam. He only gets by the first half because other people had the sense to tag along, but the second half regards his undoing because he still doesn’t get the whole selfless aspect of saving people in the second half of the exam. This was also foreshadowed back in the aforementioned OVA with Katsuki’s excessive animosity towards the victim dummy. Whether they be real or fake, Katsuki’s disregard of either victim doesn’t grant him his hero license.

This is the straw that breaks the camel's back for Katsuki. And ultimately, this sparks the start in his shift to the second phase of his development.

III) The “I Can’t Let You Get Ahead Of Me” Phase

Time Frame: Ch. 117-~Ch. 257 [Late Provisional Hero License Exam Arc-Early Paranormal Liberation War Arc]

Since this is only the second phase of Katsuki’s development (and given that this is Katsuki we’re talking about), don’t expect to get much of an upgrade with this shift.

Essentially, it boils down to two things: Katsuki stops viewing Izuku as an annoyance, and starts viewing him as an obstacle. Simultaneously, he starts seeing the viability of saving, at least as a tool in a hero’s kit.

Let me explain.

While Deku vs Kacchan 2 is the first time Izuku and Katsuki have attempted to talk out their issues… not much gets addressed. Sure, Katsuki becomes aware of Izuku not looking down on him, but Izuku is never made aware of the deeper issues regarding Katsuki’s loathing beyond that. It primarily serves as a half-barebones narrative checkpoint, a segway for Katsuki to get in on the secret of One For All.

...let’s also talk about that, shall we?

So Izuku’s been getting better as a hero and with his Quirk. Then Katsuki finds out after he gets kidnapped and rescued that Izuku is the successor to their mutual idol. And that’s after essentially being told he can’t be a hero in his current state due to the PLE. And what is his usual response to adversity? He decides to get ahead of it.

He’ll surpass Class 1-A so there won’t be another Battle Trial. He’ll surpass Izuku and One For All so he can truly claim that he’s the best of the best.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see more of this development until the Joint Training Arc. However, keep in mind that this is only the second stage. Katsuki wants to prove that he’s the best, so of course he’s gonna step up his game. That means taking advice from the LITERAL (former) #1 HERO, and making the victory as flawless as possible. After all, Katsuki himself said in Chapter 208:

“I’ve decided! We’re gonna win this match with a perfect victory! 4-0, with everyone unscathed! That’s the kind of victory there is for the strongest guys out there!”

...it might be a slight exaggeration when he says he’s hardly changed at the end of that chapter, but then again it is a stretch to even call it an exaggeration.

That aside, Katsuki also makes it part of his agenda to keep tabs on OFA. This would fit into the “Katsuki secretly cares” agenda, but we haven’t reached that point. Right now, in these moments, Katsuki figures that if One For All starts getting freaky, he wants to know about it so he can get a leg up. And maybe part of him still wants to call Izuku out.

He was minorly ticked when Izuku allowed himself to make a mistake during their unauthorized fight. And he constantly reminds Izuku to not forget that he’s supposed to surpass him (or the other way around).

Taking off the rose-colored glasses for a moment, it does make sense for Katsuki to say this beyond the context of positive motivation. We are talking about the same Katsuki who lashed out at Shoto for holding back. It’s reasonable to assume that he doesn’t want Izuku to do the same, and lagging behind more or less equates to holding back.

And Katsuki still isn’t completely invested in Izuku’s training for Izuku’s sake. After the Joint Training, Katsuki tries getting Izuku to manifest Black Whip again, and nopes out shortly afterwards when nothing comes of their sparring sessions in Chapter 217. This still isn’t the Katsuki we see in the 284 flashback. He’s still got a ways to go.

Yes, this even rings true for Katsuki during Heroes: Rising. While the film might be the ultimate Bakudeku dream come true, there really isn’t… much depth in regards to Izuku and Katsuki’s past. Y’know, the thing that most people are hoping gets resolved? It only gets referenced a few times in the film, but doesn’t overall factor into anything meaningful. Most of the time when Izuku and Katsuki team up, Katsuki only gets to the fight because he wants to throw hands with villains on an island where (if the status quo had remained unchanged) was likely selected because it had little to no serious villain activity. It just so happens that protecting and working with Izuku is an unintended byproduct of these fights. Katsuki even drops the infamous “lowering myself to work with Deku” line just before the big climax. And even with the transfer of OFA to Katsuki, it strikes less as overcoming a longstanding obstacle and more as plot convenience, especially since by the end of the fight OFA nopes back into Izuku so hard that Katsuki gets mind wiped about the whole thing.

Even during the Endeavor Arc, we don’t see much growth beyond the Ending fight, where Katsuki prioritizes saving Natsuo over throwing hands like he usually would, learning to take saving as more than a tool. This is significant considering it’s Katsuki, but unfortunately, there’s not much else thereafter. The entire arc won’t get referenced as an overall stepping stone until Ch. 284.

And thus, we head to the final phase.

IV) The “Why Don’t You Care About Yourself” Phase

Time Frame: ~Ch. 257-Ch. 284 [Early Paranormal Liberation War Arc-Paranormal Liberation War Arc (Present)]

So here’s an interesting tidbit: Katsuki can’t handle nonphysical confrontation.

Leave him with the fact that his kidnapping could have gotten most of the class expelled because they decided to go rescue him or avoided such while knowing of the operation? He’ll pay back Eijiro for the expensive night vision goggles and make Denki suffer Quirk overuse so he doesn’t need to be reminded.

Get stuck in the middle of a Todoroki Family Drama scene? He’ll try bragging about how he did better than the current #1 Hero to attempt curbing off the situation.

Put him in a discussion with Izuku where they address his additional Quirk manifestations and the full weight of his potential/legacy? Katsuki will brag about having a skill already in his toolkit to ignore the fact that he has the potential to fall behind.

This defines the earlier days of this phase. We don’t see what happens in the timeframe between that and the start of the War Arc until the Chapter 284 flashback. I believe that during the gap between 257 and this flashback, Katsuki allowed himself to process the full weight of what he and Izuku were told during that meeting.

And this marks one of his biggest revelations to date.

Izuku’s selflessness is no longer something annoying. It’s a potential fatal flaw.

For the first time, it’s hitting Katsuki that Izuku is no longer an obstacle, or just an obstacle. Izuku is a person who is working himself to the bone and past that, who would die at the drop of the hat if he thought the payoff was well worth it. He’s finally starting to see that what Izuku is doing to himself is dangerous, and he wants to know what he can do to prevent the serious ramifications.

This is a big phase in his development, no doubt, but um… it’s not the last phase.

If I’m being honest, we’re nowhere close. Why? Well, two reasons:

A) Katsuki still has yet to properly take a loss.

Any and all of Katsuki’s losses are either in his head or narratively negated. And his disproportionate win/loss ratio doesn’t do him any favors either. He’s culminated a philosophy that he can’t and shouldn’t lose, but losing is a crucial aspect of improvement and being human in general. In the case of the story, Chapter 275 suggests that Katsuki wants to face off against Tomura as payback for Kamino. He essentially wants to extend the narrative and treat that loss like a delayed win, as if the loss hadn’t happened yet. Many people claim that this is a bluff he used to cover his true intentions of keeping an eye on Izuku, but I don’t think that’s the case. While sticking by Izuku is a contributing factor, getting a win is equally so, because Katsuki hasn’t properly adjusted to a loss. His strategy for dealing with any kind of loss is just to bulldoze through it like nothing happened, instead of taking the time to understand why he lost and to apply that knowledge for future encounters.

Be aware of your surroundings during the Sludge Villain.

Focus on your priorities and communicate with others during the Battle Trial.

Don’t ignore the situation just to focus on your own intentions during the Training Camp attack.

HELP PEOPLE during the Provisional License Exam.

There are so many lessons Katsuki could have learned sooner if he had taken the time to properly digest his losses. But he didn’t. He still doesn’t. He might have learned some of them eventually, but the fact remains that he nearly ran head first into a suicide mission just because he couldn’t take the loss and was dead set on getting even.

And keep in mind, Katsuki was lamenting on struggling to keep up with Izuku earlier before their encounter with Tomura, and how he couldn’t afford to stay a loser, so this is likely less far-fetched than you think.

Okay, so then what’s the second reason Katsuki’s development is far from over?

B) He hasn’t fully connected the dots on what he did to Izuku.

So far, Katsuki has recognized that he was off-put by Izuku’s selflessness, and that he bullied him over that.

What he hasn’t recognized is how much of a role he played personally in that part of Izuku’s personality, or at least it’s present day incarnation.

Let me clarify a bit. Katsuki is aware that he was distrubed by Izuku’s selflessness. He is aware that bullied him and that, at some degree, was wrong. But I don’t think he’s quite connected the dots on how his intervention has led to Izuku’s current brand of martyrdom.

At the start of the series, Izuku just cares about others. After making sure he gets down to the river safely, he’s willing to lend a hand to Katsuki, who fell from a pretty concerning height ig we’re being honest.

But this unnerves Katsuki. And it leads to his physical altercations with Izuku from time to time.

Remember, Izuku followed Katsuki at the time, but somewhere down the line he stopped. But he never stopped being Izuku, so Katsuki continued to pursue him. Izuku had already been willing to give up in some degree on ever keeping up with Katsuki the way he used to. He knew, at some level, that he wasn’t accepted.

That he wasn’t worth as much as everyone else.

Katsuki bullied Izuku because he was selfless. But Katsuki’s bullying, coupled with the rest of society’s ostracization, twisted and warped that selflessness with low self-esteem, low self-worth, and self-destructive tendencies. Katsuki wasn’t the sole bully of Izuku, but he was a primary perpetrator. And his actions only made the very thing he despised so, so much worse.

...and until he can recognize THAT aspect of his relationship with Izuku, his journey is far from over.

So yeah, Katsuki’s making progress, but we’re still not out of the woods yet.

V) Final Address+Conclusion

So now for the obvious question: why did I write all of this?

I said it at the beginning, about how some people claimed that Katsuki cared all along. I brought up a bit about how it pissed me off. Why, exactly?

Because when people insist that Katsuki threatening Izuku to not go to UA comes from a place of concern, they disregard Chapter 1 Katsuki’s gigantic ego and utter disregard for others, much less so for Izuku.

Because when people insist that Katsuki’s shocked face at the end of the Battle Trial was because he was upset with how he hurt Izuku, they disregard the fact that Katsuki was willing to almost murder Izuku, and if not that then brutalize him, and that at this point Katsuki absolutely loathes getting shown up, which is what Izuku inadvertently did.

Because when people insist that Katsuki always cared from the very beginning, they (un)intentionally undermine one of the few things that draw people to Katsuki’s character: his character development.

On his own, Katsuki is an prodigious, antisocial and angry teen looking for fame and fortune in the industry who grows into a dedicated source of confidence and understanding as he finally allows himself to branch beyond his initial handicaps. If you insist that Katsuki always had the awareness and concern he displayed in 284’s flashback, what do you get instead?

A selfish, self-centered, fickle, emotionally-constipated asshole whose growth is more comparable to a ramp instead of a mountain.

...not as impressive, is it?

While I’m pretty sure this is just a minor trend, that doesn’t excuse the lack of care it demonstrates. If you aren’t willing to admit and live with the fact that Day 1 Katsuki is the worst of the worst and that he did progressively get better through trials and tribulation, why bother? When you insist a character like Katsuki was fine from the start, you take away part of what makes that character so endearing. If they were never an ass to begin with, then what the hell was their problem at the start, or even now? Why the hell would we condone that? It’s important to recognize character flaws and to give them their due, because seeing a character grown out of them is far more self-fulfilling and relatable than insisting that they were always in the right place from the start.

...but then again, that’s just me. Thanks for reading.

-Crimson Lion (20 September 2020)

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cno-inbminor · 3 years

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hii :p for one writing a fic about a certain character do you think it is necessary to have read the whole manga in order to get the characterization right? i was discussing this with my friend and she was like 'ppl who have not read the manga and just watched the anime are not entitled to write about that character ' and i was like oh okay

well,,,that's a pretty decisive opinion to have. short answer: no.

long answer: no, with explanation.

fanfiction(.)net has 'world' filters, and the two options (for anime/manga) were... 'anime' or 'manga', and I never really understood why way back in middle school when I first started reading/watching anime/writing fanfics. I would just watch the anime and rarely ever went to read its manga source because time constraints. and that would essentially be the answer to this.

I could maybe see where she was coming from if the anime and manga had stark differences. I used to think an anime was pretty much a straight copy from its manga source, but the more you get into the fandom/details, you later find out the anime might have changed certain things or depicted something differently. but honestly, not everyone has that time? if you do, great. if you don't, also fine.

depending on what you consume, you have your own thoughts and creative opinions. with fictional characters, instead of concrete, black-and-white interpretations, there's flexibility in thinking how they might act or respond to something. some characterizations might be more popular and more agreed upon, and others not. there shouldn't be "entitlement" involved -- why do you have to be entitled to your own thoughts?

I'm guessing nowadays, it's not often that the anime strays too much from the manga. certain characters have less screen time maybe or certain moments got translated incorrectly (e.g., the infamous dumbledore asking harry if he put his name in the goblet of fire moment in movie vs book). is reading the whole manga necessary? nah. I certainly haven't read all of haikyuu, naruto, or inuyasha, but that didn't stop me from writing scenarios/fanfics. for my own peace of mind and curiosity, I did a lot of digging around to see specific chapters that had certain/desired characters in them.

But unless there's a preponderance of evidence that they're very different between the manga and anime, it's pretty easy to just say 'anime only'. or scour through fandom wikis for specific chapters or explanations, and form your own opinions.

((sorry this was SO long, please let me know if I didn't make sense. I did just wake up thirty minutes ago and it was 5AM LMAO))

#grey face #anon #I'm gonna add here that there's a certain privilege of time; concentration; mental capacity; and processing #to be able to get both sources and go from there -- especially reading an ENTIRE manga for an anime in production #when fruits basket (2019) was coming out -- plenty of ppl said 'anime only but what do manga readers think of this moment #or how was it depicted there?' and people would be cordial and provide sources. and they go from there #okay I'll shut up now SORRY i tend to overexplain #have a great day my love

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kdtheghostwriter · 4 years

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The Dust Up in Jaku

You sure are!

Okay, housekeeping first. I don’t often go here. In fact, this is my first proper visit. I’m caught up with the manga entirely to be clear. I just don’t always go looking for feedback. This blog is miscellaneous, tailored mostly to my whims at the time, but it’s known primarily for its monthly posts on Shingeki no Kyojin. That series is ending soon. These posts have been for practice primarily. A way for me to keep my writing chops warm for other projects. They’ve been incredibly helpful in that regard. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do to supplement that practice after the series conclusion. I don’t see myself doing monthly meta posts anymore. I started doing One Punch Man write ups a couple years ago and doing the occasional meta for big plot developments is probably the ticket. But then there’s BNHA.

My Hero Academia is a bit more…shall we say ‘aggressive’ in its storytelling. That’s what I’ve seen in this latest arc anyway. I’m a fan. And I figured, hey, I can dip a pinky toe in the fandom for a bit. So, before reading any further, please note that this will read as the perspective of a reader that has one eye on the story and doesn’t spend a great amount of time in the discourse.

Okay so let’s start with the obvious or what should be the obvious. Bakugo isn’t dead just yet. If for no other reason than Gran Torino getting spiked by Shigaraki only to supply a sassy quip moments later. You don’t die in a shonen series without permission. Besides that, though, no one I’ve seen seems to be asking the important question here.

What is All For One’s idea?

We saw him reach out to Tomura who was himself on the verge of death and took full control of his body. Those telltale black tendrils have seldom caused bodily harm on their own and there’s little evidence to believe they’d start now. We then can make one of two assumptions.

Quirk theft: AFO has the ability to steal and redistribute quirks and Shigaraki made clear that stealing One For All was his main goal in this fight outside of surviving. Bakugo is one of the few people who know about this secret war and he more than anyone there would recognize that losing OFA to Tomura would be in the nicest terms a disaster.

Forced Quirk Activation: Considering that Kacchan is a walking napalm bomb, this is another possible disaster. Using a massive explosion to escape the battlefield at this moment has some very “I’ll get you next time, Gadget!” energy.

And Tomura has to escape this. I’ll explain that later. But first I must laugh.

No, that’s not Garou after his first hour in the Monster Association. Tomura has been annihilated over the course of this fight. He’d probably be dead two or three times over if it weren’t for his fancy Deadpool Healing Factor which itself wouldn’t be working if Eraser Head wasn’t out of commission.

Shout-outs to Aizawa by the way. There’s a reason Tomura stopped in the middle of the battle to tell him how cool he was.

Anyway, more to the point: Shigaraki can’t beef it here. Don’t get me wrong, as tragic as his story is, there really is no other option currently than to destroy him. The only other course of action is to say, “Please, Tomura, don’t make this entire city and the innocent people living there disappear into dust.” Which…yea. On top of that, he’s the series antagonist and the clear foil for our hero Deku. Narratively it just wouldn’t make sense to have him climb that mountain before he’s ready. And he’s still not ready. His arms are thrashed yet again from his current onslaught.

For anyone having trouble visualizing this, imagine Shiggy as a red rubber ball and Deku is a paddle, smacking him repeatedly. I have this great picture in my head of the news chopper zoomed in on Deku as he calls out every state and major city in the contiguous United States. Jokes aside, the art is phenomenal. This panel in particular really hammers home the aforementioned duality like so many haymakers to the face. The damage is stacking up faster than his regeneration can supply but All For One has stepped in to take the reins, surely saving his neck but that isn’t the only reason Shiggy will see his way out of this spot.

Yeah! Remember him? This big fucker is still on his way. And he’s got the League of Villains in tow. Why is that detail important?

The only thing more important than a major plot event like this is the aftermath. You can easily develop your characters through the way they react to the events that occur to them. Somebody has to break it to Tomura that Twice is gone and I don’t envy the one who gets that job.

Also…lol okay, I don’t wanna do the trolly thing of “oooh Dabi’s a Todoroki!” but c’mon man Dabi’s a Todoroki. I’ve barely paid attention to this subplot and even I know that. Shonen series are by their nature very melodramatic and it would only make sense for such a massive bombshell to be dropped now, in the midst of life-or-death struggle, with direct implications for the Number One Hero and his children – one on each side of the law. Point is! None of that can happen if Shigaraki bites the big one so I’d expect the dusty lad to keep kicking for now.

The same goes for Bakugo, although, he may have early retirement in his future. The main reason Kacchan can’t die here is because, despite what you may think of him as a character – and I’ve seen enough discourse to know that many many people are not fans, such is your right – having a teenaged bully redeem himself by sacrificing his life is a bit much. Especially when you consider this little nugget.

All Might has him pegged here. I would never endorse someone telling another person to kill themselves even when done ironically but Katsuki was a child and children say any manner of dumb, reckless things. More than that, children lash out when they’re scared, and nothing scared him more than being surpassed by Midoriya. All Might goes on to point out that Bakugo earnestly helping with Izuku’s training is his way of atoning for his past behavior. I agree with that stance and I think it’s more than enough. He knows he was wrong and more recently he’s discovered that he knows he wants no harm to come to Deku. Bakugo learned a big lesson in this chapter; by extension, Deku must learn a lesson as well.

Then there’s this geek.

Disclaimer: I don’t hate Endeavor so much as I’m apathetic towards him. He’s the Number One hero by default and it shows throughout this arc. Even here, we see the rookie Kacchan barking orders at him and Shoto and coming up with a pretty solid plan to finally end this damn fight. It didn’t work, but that has more to do with outside interference than inexperience, and it’s not like Endeavor was rapt with ideas to begin with.

I will defend him slightly, however. Some people have gone so far as to call him useless in this fight and I wouldn’t. Shigaraki got a massive buff even if he’s only at 75% capacity. Enhanced speed and strength, plus a healing factor means he has a threshold that Endeavor just can’t overcome. The days of one guy taking on the Final Boss is long past gone. Even so, this must be pretty mortifying for a guy so obsessed with climbing the ladder. His second real test as the top hero and he gets his ass kicked for an hour or more by a shaggy kid who forgot his lip balm at home. LOL is what I’m saying.

Thanks for indulging that aside. Back to Deku. The very first panel of this chapter is a nurse warning him that repeated injuries could result in him losing the use of his arms. Naturally, this follows with Deku smashing Shigaraki in the face five or six times in a row. The combination of Float and Black Whip is keeping the villain suspended in the air where his disintegration quirk can’t reach the support team below. A fact that Deku points out when Bakugo shouts at him to disengage. This is a great bit of dramatic tension, because neither one is wrong. Izuku’s body is falling apart. I mean, Tomura’s is too, but Tomura can lowkey ignore that and if he reaches the ground, everyone is screwed anyway.

This plays into Bakugo forming the plan with the Todorokis in the first place and then intercepting AFO’s attack on behalf of the helpless Deku. He sees One For All as a cursed power, but he’s smart enough to know that this power is the only chance they have of winning. He then saves his friend to help them win.

Now we come to the bit that has me more interested than even Kacchan’s fate. That being Izuku’s reaction, both in the moment and after the battle is done. As previously noted, Deku is not in less danger now. He’s emptying the tank right here despite possible long-term damage to his body.

The implications of that statement are terrifying. More so coming from a teenaged boy that hasn’t even made it through a third of his life yet. The legacy of OFA is dark and bloody. It was Bakugo who pointed out that the previous holders of the super strength quirk all died young – all murdered at the hands of Tall, Dark and Faceless. Toshinori would have suffered the same fate if it weren’t for a time sensitive cocktail of rage, survival instinct and adrenaline. Deku is sipping from that same cocktail right now and he’s in better shape than All Might was (barely) but it’s clear that he cannot 1v1 a boss with a replenishing health bar. Perhaps if he could sustain an attack without his limbs exploding like Squidward after too many Krabby Patties? Oh well.

My Hero Academia is an origin story. The story of the hero Deku and his journey to number one. With that in mind, we know he can’t lose but he doesn’t necessarily have to win. Not here at the very least. I have no clue how this arc resolves itself but finding out is going to be much fun.

#bnha meta #bnha 285 #my hero acadamy #izuku mydoria #katsuki bakugo #tomura shigaraki #shoto todoroki #toshinori yagi #all might #endeavor #i whip my nemesis back and forth

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