#and Keiichiro would have still been poisoned

[firebirdsdaughter]

Oh, Touma...

... Pegged you as the one most willing to die for this from the beginning.

Not that the other two aren't all in, Touma’s just... Clearly hardcore singleminded. Like, self-destructively.

He’d die w/out a thought if it was the surest way to ensure that Aya would be brought back. He’s down for this.

Of course, this being only episode 16, him being one of the core team, and the title of the episode make it pretty clear that's not gonna be happening. But he would.

(this turned into much musing, so more below)

I’m, of course, excited bc maybe it’ll be Kairi-Touma brotherly feels. Bc I’m inferring from the preview stuff I've seen that Kairi does indeed hesitate. I mean, he’s just a kid, and as I’ve mentioned, I hc Touma as slowly becoming a dad/big brother figure to the other two, even if they didn’t notice. Kairi’s lost his older brother, he’s not gonna be ecstatic about the idea of having personally cause the death of/hurt someone who has been starting to become another to him. And Umika would never until they’d exhausted all other options. I mean Touma’s been an anchor for them several times (so has Umika, too, though in a different way). I’m super excited that this could be the beginning of that--keeping in mind my, uh, skewed perceptions. This might also be the Touma starts to think about caring ep. At the very least, he may begin to realise these two kids care about him.

But also... Did they just ask the the actor to make the most ridiculous faces he possibly could? Bc those are pretty impressive. Plus, given the way the Gangler is apparently behaving around ladies, I’m wondering if it’s going to try and hit on Tsukasa and she’s going to be like ‘... Okay something’s wrong here. Kairi, Umika, why is your stoic chef trying to flirt w/ me what is this?’ (there’s this preview/spoiler image of those two and the three Patos in Juer and it looks like Tsukasa’s talking, so I just made that up--plus the images of her interacting w/ Gangler¡Touma in suit).

This is gonna be weird though. Like. There’s no way they can explain it w/out revealing their identities. It’s not even poor communication kills. It’s ‘the fact that we cannot communicate this in any way is fucking shit up.’

I’m certain they’ll make it. I mean, the preview did kinda give that away.

Plus, I think if they killed Touma off, Kairi and Umika would starve to death and that would be, in a word, bad.

Oh, and something a comment reminded me of--Blue got switched w/ an enemy in Dekaranger, too. That guy who tried to blow up the base? Wow, it’s almost like Toei recycles plots sometimes.

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

The Marvelous/Kairi one was so funny! Could you do a follow up with Marvelous/Kairi/Keiichiro? 25??

I can and will make Captain Marvelous kiss everyone. Which is to say that, Anon, normally I stick pretty strictly to doing prompts in the order that I receive them, but this one is skipping the queue kind of a lot because I am so very in the mood to write more of that story. 25, for those of you who might have forgotten or are new, is what I’ve started thinking of as the “Get A Room” Kiss.

Kairi and Keiichiro are separated again in the fighting, and while Keiichiro’s not exactly happy about it, he trusts the LupinRangers to take care of themselves. The city’s in too much danger to focus on soothing his own nerves. Then, after the fighting’s over, Jyuoh Eagle hails him by name, and he remembers the achingly earnest man with the impossible dream he’d met off-planet, so he and Tsukasa have to go meet the other Jyuohgers and find out what the rest of the team is like if their leader is like that. Nearby, Sakuya is making sure that the kids with the trains have a way to get home and that their parents know where they are this late at night. They seem awfully young to be getting caught up in things like this, sweet and smiling and full of manic teenage enthusiasm.

Eventually, though, everyone disperses. ToQ Gogou gives Sakuya an impulsive hug before her team hurries into a nearly train station and apparently vanishes. Jyuoh TheWorld, who Keiichiro realizes he’s met before, trades phone numbers with Tsukasa, saying something about repairing some of her plush collection, while Jyuoh Lion gives them a demo CD for his band before bounding off. There’s a sense of camaraderie that Keiichiro appreciates. Solidarity between people trying to make the world a safer place.

And then it’s just his team, and Tsukasa and Sakuya both look exhausted, so Keiichiro says, “I’ll take the car back to HQ, you two go home,” and they’re gone too.

He doesn’t realize how worried he’s been until he hears a rustle behind him and Kairi says, “So that was a whole thing. What’s the deal with those train kids?”

“They’re fifteen, is the deal, they should be in bed, not running around putting their lives in danger.” Keiichiro relaxes all at once and turns to pull Kairi into a hug. “I was worried about you. How are the others? Did I see Tooma talking to one of those...pirates?”

“The Gokaigers. Yeah, we hung out a little before they had to go, they’re pretty cool.” Kairi sounds calm enough, but his arms around Keiichiro’s shoulders say that he was just as worried.

“You would think that.”

“Well, yeah, who wouldn’t think space pirates are cool?” Kairi’s eyes gleam in the streetlights. “Also, I kissed Gokai Red.”

Keiichiro raises an eyebrow. “Really.”

“In my defense, he hit on me first. Invited me to ‘come up and see his ship,’ even.”

“Well, he’s a pirate, I assume he knows treasure when he sees it.”

Kairi turns bright red and coughs. “Well. I, uh. Not like I was gonna leave with him or anything, but I figured you deserved to know.”

“Thank you. And of course not, I trust you.” Keiichiro takes a moment to enjoy Kairi’s continued blush before adding, “Also, I’m sure I’m a better kisser than some pirate.”

“I don’t know, it’s been a while, I might need a sample for comparison.”

Keiichiro’s about to respond to that when a massive shadow falls over them and instead he says, “I thought you said they had to leave.”

Kairi steps back, peering up at the pirate ship floating overhead. “They did leave.”

A hatch opens on the side of the ship, and someone drops out, landing neatly on his feet on the ground--a stocky man in a red coat with a distinctly swashbuckling sort of air.

He nods briefly to Keiichiro and then advances on Kairi, picks him up by the front of his shirt, and sticks a hand into the back pocket of his pants--

Keiichiro says, “Excuse me.”

--and comes out with some kind of small red figurine. “Pretty clever, picking my pocket. So were you aiming for DekaRed specifically, or did you just grab whatever you could reach?”

“Kairi, you didn’t.”

Kairi grins. “Well, I would’ve snagged whatever, but that one looked interesting, I wanted to show him.” He jerks his head in Keiichiro’s direction. “Anyway, it did what I wanted it to do.”

The pirate stares steadily at him, not yet setting him down. “Which was?”

“Figured it’d be a decent excuse for you to come back.”

A long, long pause, and then the pirate smirks and lets go of Kairi’s shirt, letting him drop the two or three inches to the ground. “I get you. So about the other thing you stole from me, then--”

Keiichiro buries his face in his hands, and then looks up again immediately at Kairi’s slightly nervous laugh and, “Yeah, about that.”

“What about it?”

“Gokai Red, meet PatRan Ichigou.” Kairi gestures in Keiichiro’s direction. “Kei-chan, this is Captain Marvelous. You know, the one I was just telling you about.”

The pirate’s got a firm grip and an appraising stare, but with that Keiichiro’s on familiar ground; he dealt with worse just at the Academy, let alone the sort of nonsense you deal with talking to city administrators. “Asaka Keiichiro. It’s a pleasure.”

“So you’re this city’s other Red.” Captain Marvelous looks him over thoughtfully and then jerks his head at Kairi. “Likewise. So is he always this reckless?”

Keiichiro grins. “Oh no, usually he’s much worse.”

Kairi sputters. “Babe!”

“Kairi, I love you, but I’m not going to lie to a colleague just so you can pretend you have good impulse control.”

More sputtering. “You’re calling me reckless? Who’s the one who got himself poisoned--”

Captain Marvelous leans back against a lamppost and raises an eyebrow. “A colleague?”

Keiichiro shrugs. “We’re all sentai here. You may be a pirate, but if you’re also sentai then I’m willing to assume your heart’s in the right place.”

“Really.” Captain Marvelous looks momentarily thoughtful at that. “So did your other half here tell you--”

“That he kissed you? Yes, actually.”

“How do you know I didn’t kiss him?”

“He was fairly clear about who’d initiated, thank you. But as long as he’s not upset about it, I can hardly blame you, he’s worth kissing.”

Next to them, Kairi starts blushing and sputtering again. Captain Marvelous’ eyes flick to him for a moment, but his calmly amused expression remains the same. “Did he tell you that he’d said I ought to look you up if I wanted to see about doing it some more?”

Keiichiro feels his own face warm up, but he stays steady--he doesn’t know if Kairi was trying to make him jealous, but he’s certainly not going to lose his temper in public about it. “Be my guest. I trust him to know what he’s doing.”

Captain Marvelous straightens up from the lamppost. “Well, I did come here to get back the things he stole from me.”

“Hey, don’t rip my jacket,” Kairi says mildly as Captain Marvelous grabs his lapels, and--

Well, at this point Keiichiro’s sure there should really be laws about this sort of thing. In fact, he’s going to propose some. Yano Kairi officially banned from making little sighing noises and turning into jelly when his boyfriend is both in public and in uniform. He’d never expected to have to apply those laws to seeing Kairi kiss another man in front of him, but it’s certainly a learning experience.

When Captain Marvelous stops kissing him, Kairi actually sways, sounding out-of-breath as he says, “That was way more of a kiss than the one I got from you.”

“Your other half seemed to be enjoying the show.” Captain Marvelous grins. He hasn’t let go of Kairi’s jacket. “And that is what I do. I make things showy.”

“You sure do.”

“Anyway, it goes against all of my instincts as a pirate, but I should probably return you now.”

“Actually...”

They both turn to look at Keiichiro, Kairi dark-eyed and flushed, Captain Marvelous a bit unsteady himself and with his fingers still curling around Kairi’s lapels.

This might be the most reckless thing Keiichiro’s ever done in his life (outside of nearly getting himself killed), and Tsukasa won’t believe it if he tells her (which he’s not going to), but his voice comes out calmer than he’s expecting. “If you’ve got the time, I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to compare methods. You know, with a fellow sentai.”

Captain Marvelous stares at him and then huffs out a laugh. “Let me call my crew and tell them I’ll be a while.”

When he lets go, Kairi stumbles and then sways into Keiichiro, slinging an arm around his shoulders and murmuring into his ear, “This is really what you want, Kei-chan? You’re not just. Like. Doing this because you think I want it, right?”

“If I didn’t want to,” Keiichiro says, still more steadily than he feels, “I wouldn’t have said it. You know how I feel about you making that noise.”

[atopearth]

Pub Encounter Part 5 - Soichiro Toyoizumi Route

Soichiro seems like the perfect gentleman. He owns the bar, takes care of everyone, is very serious about his work and is always watching out for Shiori since she’s surrounded by all the guys lol. Gotta love the cliche where the heroine is about to get dragged off by random crappy guys at night and the guy coming to her rescue haha. But I guess at least for this time around, Shiori is actually visibly scared and trembling over the idea of what could have happened to her if Soichiro wasn’t there. I feel like a lot of other stories romanticise it and focus on the guy being a hero whilst neglecting how frightening it can be for the girl, so I’m glad the game addresses that a bit. It was very nice and thoughtful of Soichiro to take her to a warm nearby cafe and have a coffee to calm her down, and hold her trembling hands, I think that’s important to give her warmth and assurance. It was so cute when Shiori was self conscious (since she was the only one at the bar for now) so she kept saying something to Soichiro and then saying it was nothing when he asks what is it, and then loll when he did it back to her for revenge haha. It’s pretty nice to see them spending time together wine tasting at the bar when it’s a day off, I think seeing how happy Soichiro is doing that, and seeing Shiori so interested in his job is sweet. It was certainly refreshing when he sat next to her to drink the wine instead of always being behind the bar and keeping that distance. Shiori was so adorable when she found out that Soichiro got top sommelier and kept blabbering about how she didn’t know what to give him as a gift so she got him a bouquet of flowers haha, she’s so innocent and sweet lol.

Lmao at Shiori talking to Minoru about Soichiro, he’s like her new buddy to talk about her love life haha. LOL when Soichiro got her to try the nectar of rhododendron and then told her that even though it’s not dangerous, it is mildly poisonous! Would have been nice to know that beforehand, lol! Although I do admit that it was kinda weirdly sweet when he lightly kissed her on the lips and told her that now he’s like “poisoned” too, so if anything happens, they’ll both be in it together lolll. It was cute when he invited her on a date, but it was saddening when he implied that they shouldn’t be together due to their age difference, which is a logical problem to think about. She could probably be his daughter lol. Although when she persistently showed that her feelings were love and he reciprocated by singing her a love song with his jazz band, that was so sweet. Or not! He’s not ready! Which is fair enough tbh, compared to her who has a whole future in front of her, Soichiro is like nearing his elderly years, I think it’s normal to think about whether he really wants to start a relationship right now, and with someone so young too, and whether he can even take it since what if she falls out of love. For him, she’ll probably be the last woman he’ll ever be with, but for her, she’s young and has so many choices, he’s probably not even sure he wants to limit her choices to him. However, I do have to say, if he’s not ready, he really shouldn’t do all these things to her and get her hopes up! What if he changes his mind later?!

Keiichiro was pretty crazy to nearly attack Shiori thinking she was the one who stopped Soichiro (his brother) from giving him any more money. Although I guess I can kinda understand why he would be so desperate (even if it doesn’t excuse his actions). He’s been relying on his brother’s financial support all these years so that he could keep up his dream of making art with his flower arrangements and yet now Soichiro is suddenly cutting all that off! I mean, they had an arrangement where Soichiro would support his dreams as if they were his, so you really can’t blame him for thinking Soichiro betrayed him, especially when he just tried to cut him off without explaining anything to him, I think that was the worst tbh. You can’t just do that when you both decided on this together as a sort of vow and considering how old they are, it must have gone on for decades tbh. Glad he ended up talking to Keiichiro properly and telling him that he believed himself to be stunting his growth and development as an artist because Soichiro has always been protecting him and so that closed him off like a flower in a greenhouse, not being able to really present the beauty he should be able to.

I thought it was an interesting take on the “genius” thing though, usually it’s people like Soichiro (who can do anything quite easily and master it) that end up being the famous and successful one, but in this scenario, Soichiro acknowledged Keiichiro being the one who could bring magic to his work, and so he chose to dedicate his life to helping him bring that magic to the rest of the world instead of doing anything for himself. If you look at it from an outside perspective, I guess it was a pretty toxic relationship since they were both relying on each other to achieve their dreams instead of themselves individually. I just think that Soichiro could have handled it better instead of just trying to cut Keiichiro off without explanation. Otherwise, I guess it’s nice that Shiori allowed him to realise that his relationship with his brother wasn’t really helping him grow as a person (when she commented on the flower arrangement that portrayed the brothers’ relationship), and that they both ended up limiting themselves to a stagnant dream. To be fair though, they should have realised how unsustainable this was when this “dream” obviously wasn’t feeding Keiichiro. Nice of Minoru to give Keiichiro a job opportunity though, first step in his new way of approaching the flowers I guess! I think I can understand why Soichiro could never tell Shiori he loved her until now though, his life had been so bounded by his relationship with his brother that they both practically lived for each other, and him loving Shiori would change his priorities and what would be most important to his life. So it was a difficult decision to make. In a way though, because of how things unfolded and handled, you really can’t blame Keiichiro for thinking that Soichiro dumped their relationship of many years for a random girl lol.

As expected, both brothers are happy and Shiori quits her job to work at Audire. I think it was really cute how Soichiro invited all the regulars to have her formal debut at the bar as a worker now. But I think considering their future and how much she disliked her work, spending as much time as she can with Soichiro in an environment she likes would probably be a better use of her time. I might have enjoyed the good ending more than the best ending tbh, just because I found it so cute to see Shiori complain about having to go to work when she took a day off to spend the whole day with Soichiro. And then seeing him so considerately close the bar early to spend the night with her, and then prepare dinner etc when she had to go to work just made my heart feel so warm. Soichiro totally isn’t my type and I honestly don’t feel much of the romance this time around, but I found the good ending very heartwarming. I really wanna say that it was crappy that Soichiro just let her win the drinking contest by making her drinks less strong, but really, considering how reckless Shiori is, I honestly doubt she would have ever admit her loss until she collapsed or something, so I guess it was right for him to take that into account and let her win so she doesn’t destroy her health lol.

Overall, I like Soichiro, but I like him as a person more than a romantic interest. I feel like the romance fell kinda flat in terms of their love chemistry as partners. It felt like it was one of those she changed his life so he likes her kinda stories, which is fine, but it just didn’t have the romance for it imo. Otherwise, I quite liked Soichiro and his back story since it felt different. It was definitely shallowly explored, but I did like how he was like a genius that didn’t know what to do with his life so he relied on his brother to give him purpose to it, I thought it was an interesting take on the different lives people lead and found it pretty interesting. I also liked that it shows how important communication is, because if Soichiro kept hiding the reason, Keiichiro would have hated him forever, yet when he explained it to him properly, it benefited both of them immensely by relieving them of the shackles where it was always designated that Soichiro was the protector and Keiichiro was to be protected, so seeing them independent in the end was nice. Even though things happened in a very simplistic and easy way (the bro got successful so fast, you gotta wonder how he couldn’t feed himself all these years lol), it was still a nice read. Definitely my second pick after Ryunosuke🥰

[r4bbitdragon]

firebirdsdaughter replied to your photo “k-keichan. uh. buddy. pal. friend. are you… ok. (hes ok but hes dead.)”

Admittedly... They gave a... Semi decent reason for him to keep going; that there was no way of knowing if he'd hold up all the way back to the surface. But... This is also extremely accurate.

oh yeah it’s an ok... Excuse. i mean, for all the horrid luck the patos have, keiichiro was Incredibly Lucky that all that was below the mountain was the crane trigger machine. if it had been literally Anything Else, (like, for example, what the evidence was initially suggesting it was, some kind of monster) he would be Dead. and, very possibly not particularly helpful in his deadness? like, if it really had been a monster he... could have done his best with the drill but wouldn’t have been in any state to fight it, so: a good chance dead. and field trip still likely canceled.

but, like, this entire scenario was caused by keiichiro being unable to follow basic safety precautions in the face of disappointing a child. first off: nobody would have gotten poisoned in the first place if they had just followed protocol and let HQ examine the lupin piece. ‘oh, weird, there’s some kind of poison booby trap in here’ ‘wow, good thing we caught that. someone could have Died.’ and like... im not gonna rag on him too hard here, they hadn’t had any such problems with pieces yet so far so they didn’t have the experience to entirely estimate the level of possible danger. but still: safety abandoned for the chance of acting fast enough to make a child happy. 

and then again in choosing to continue on despite the poisoning: safety abandoned. yeah, he cant be sure whether or not he’d make it to the surface if he tried to double back now but that’s still a... Better Chance. as opposed to just stubbornly continuing on which, in most scenarios i can think of besides the one he lucked out on is much more certain death. but, and here’s the catch: he is not at all really thinking about the chance of survival, because he.............. seems to have extraordinarily poor self-preservation instincts. the only real mental math hes doing is seeing if he has literally any chance of helping the kid in time, and going with whatever course of action allows that.

and thats... admirable??? like, him being willing to give his all just to help someone is heroic as all get out. but it’s also... Dumb. like, he Really Just Wants To Be Helpful, but here’s the thing. allowing the field trip to happen would be ok short term helpfulness, but generally speaking, in terms of overall helpfulness, it’s much more helpful to be alive than dead. why? it gives you the chance of continuing to be helpful in the future. so: giving your all to assist a child in an small way? rock on, rad! literally dying?? um... hm, dude, pppprobably not for stakes as low and consequences as high as that. like, im pretty sure that even the kid in question, for all his lupin fandom, would... not recommend that course of action.

anyways keiichiro i love and respect you so much but Please Find A Self-Preservation Instinct I Beg You.

[firebirdsdaughter]

LuPat 15 Raw...

... Okay, I might be sobbing, but I’m also just very emotional right now for a number of reasons.

(below bc long post)

(in no particular order)

MY BABIES

So... That POV cam... Either Hilltop mysteriously shrunk for a bit there, or it was on his tie pin. Bc it looked like he was shorter than Kairi.

Though since Kairi seemed to be focusing on the camera, seems more likely he just shrunk.

I like Hilltop interacting w/ the Lupins, I hope it happens more. Never mind the whole sides or fighting monsters thing, I feel like having a kinda parent figure would be really good for them like, in general. Like, yes, there’s Kogure, but he appears and disappears, only coming when he needs something from them--and I’m not even talking about the Collection stuff or anything else. Just someone who can look out for all three of them on an ordinary basis and give advice like the advice Hilltop gave Sakuya. Like Mario ‘protecting everyday lives’ in Zyougher. I think it’d be nice.

Aw. I can’t tell if there’s a big ulterior motive for this bc I don’t speak Japanese, but Umika coming to visit and bringing flowers for Tsukasa is adorable. Plus dragging Kairi along.

On that note, her stopping him from sneaking out at the beginning of the ep was gold, too.

Oh, Sakuya. I think he’s getting better, though. That was pretty calm for him, and he was more sensible and focused on his duty it seemed to me. You can do it, kid!

I knew Kairi was gonna wander into Keiichiro’s room. Oh, and yes, I am crying. And no, I have no clue what is being said.

I still love how none of them seem to be judging the kid for his choice of hero. ‘Cause that's not the point.

Yeah. I think, though he was in full ‘hot head mode’ when he said it, that this is what Keiichiro meant by ‘we will not be counting on their help.’ The Patos can’t assume that that Lupins will kill the Gangler, or rely on them to do so, at least not yet. Yeah, the Lupins would, outside of a few situations, absolutely take it out, but even the slim chance that they’d fail or not do so is a risk too large to take, especially w/ someone like this guy.

Totally knew Tsukasa was gonna be there. Also pretty sure she told Sakuya he was late.

Okay, so, I actually did not realise Touma was in this scene initially. I just thought ‘wow that guy w/ the bag has dodging skills!’ and only afterwards realised it was him.

Secondly, I really hope you didn’t have fruit in there, man. Either way, I think those groceries are done for.

Okay, so yeah, it’s Touma’s anger getting the best of him, but it’s actually beneficial? Bc he’s better able to dodge, and if the Gangler is focusing on him, it’s not running amok shooting innocent people. Good on you babe, even if it’s not what you meant to do. Which it might have been. I couldn’t understand what you were saying.

Okay, either Kairi was thinking ‘ah, yes, poison I’ve seen what it does’ or ‘kinda pissed this guy hurt Kei-chan’ and I like the cute option.

I love how Touma seems to be like ‘No wait, I thought rushing in to fight was my job what are you two doing?’

Wow. You know, for all he’s got his ass whooped, this guy is actually pretty clever. He’s used the Lupins goals for the Collection Pieces against them twice now, and in different ways so it wasn’t them falling for the same thing twice. Pretty shrewd. Okay. I accept you as the two-parter villain.

I really love how it was Touma who ran to Kairi. Have I mentioned I would die for Big Brother Touma? Because I totally would.

Also, Umika running up to attack the Gangler. I think Umika should punch stuff more. Let Umika punch stuff. It can be Sakuya. I don’t mind. It might help.

Uh... Nurses, might I advise that medical professionals attending to Asaka Keiichiro just avoid using the word ‘Gangler.’ I seriously thought they were gonna just turn around and he’d be gone. It was more realistic than that.

I was already sobbing, I cannot sob more (okay, maybe I can), but I was screaming ‘MY BABIES.’

Okay, but Keiichiro showing up w/ Goodie is very important to me. Like, did Goodie come find him after he snuck out of the hospital? Also that he was using Goodie to help stabilise his shot, and given that I think Goodie made one of his usual announcements, I don’t think the Flying Carrot Gremlin minded.

Yeah, Umika popping up to stop the asshole from escaping! Seriously, if/when these teams start working together for actual periods of time, they are gonna be unstoppable.

Also, Touma supporting Kairi. ^^

Aaaaaaand, now Keiichiro’s fine and the other two are still dying.

Sorry, monster dude, pretty sure the boss said that he didn’t give a damn.

Aw. Keiichiro’s just happy the kid is happy. Though, he may have run to Sakuya, but I’m pretty sure he’s dressed as PatrenUgou, which is all three of you--so there’s that.

Hmmm... So it looks like next ep might be focusing on Kairi and Touma’s relationship. I like that! Very excited. Seems to be one of the ‘monster switches bodies w/ a hero’ thing, and though it does look a little goofy, it also looks like it’s gonna be good. <3 Can’t wait for next week again.

Seriously though, Touma kinda looks like a muppet in some of those shots? Though he’s also so pretty... ^^

There’s probably more. But I'm gonna think about it later. No word on how later.