#and it's better than pachinko lol

[szkunas]

SORRY, YOU LOST! ౨ৎㅤtoji fushiguro.

synopsis / premise ♱ㅤokay, toji needs to admit it. you’re magical, or something because he genuinely intends to change for you, as stupid as that sounds. unfortunately, he decides to go out to gamble one last time. when he returns, his worst nightmare comes true.

featuring ♰ㅤREDEEMED toji fushigiro X fem!reader.

warnings ♱ㅤANGST ! MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH ! no happy ending ! toji is a little ooc i guess ! BLOOD + DEATH ! assassination mentions ! violence + murder ! gambling addiction ! toji thinks about making you a housewife ! marriage mentions

author’s note ♱ㅤhi. im not dead, lol. just trying to post a lot of things together. i took a small time for myself, to rest, and now i think i can come back with writing with these posts and the event! <3 i hope you all like it, its my first time trying to write for toji

WHOEVER WAS THE IDIOT who invented pachinko, toji hates them deeply. it was probably some very bored and very greedy man. the world will become a better place when those tired, money-crazy expressions disappear. until then, pachinko machines and gambling games will squeeze every penny out of him. or not. no more.

there is a clear reason why some countries strongly prohibit betting shops and casinos: betting is one of the strongest addictions that runs through the sick and desperate, emptying them of their worries for a few seconds and taking the money from their wallets in exchange.

technically, gambling is prohibited both in japan and in many other places around the world: but pachinko, horse racing and speedboat racing, as well as casinos, exist through loopholes in the law. after all, everyone’s true god is money, and taking all of this off the market would shake the economy of the country that seems forgotten by any god in the eyes of toji.

he knows that spending a lot of money on bets is not the wisest decision to make, but he always has faith that he will win next time, when the next time never comes. however, he only has a percentage of his latest work. the rest was well sent where it would be safe: to you, who keeps the money safe and secure from a murderer addicted to gambling.

toji knows you want a lot. you want him to give up his life as the sorcerer killer, you want him to give up his stupid gambling habit, you want to settle down somewhere quiet and start a family. and he wants that too, even if his heart of stone doesn’t let him show it.

but, he hopes you understand that the mere fact that he lets you sleep next to him at night is a sign of trust. he trusts you not to open his throat with a knife while he sleeps, which says a lot about how he feels about you.

even though your relationship has lasted a long time by his standards, what scares toji is the fact that he doesn’t want to leave. he wants to stay, he wants to come back to you at the end of each mission. he wants to let you take care of his wounds, and he wants to dry your tears when you cry for him. in fact, he doesn’t even want you to cry unless it’s from happiness or pleasure.

which is strange.

he only knew love for one woman, and after her passing, he believed he would never again fall in love with anything other than the green notes that create his happiness and destroy his present simultaneously.

a dead wife and an abandoned child on his resume is not what any woman is looking for in a guy. his difficult personality, his history of lack of commitment, his disappearances for days and his addiction to gambling only make everything worse for him. women are drawn to toji like fish to a hook, but they don’t stay long. it lasts even less if they don’t have money or cut off this source of income from his life.

but when he hears the sounds and clicks of the surrounding machines, he can only think that he would stay with you even if you were living on an old mattress in a dark alley.

because love can be as intimidating as it is overwhelming. it can hit a man’s world with such force that it makes him rise from where he is. make him stop making bad choices and, little by little, improve to give you the life that the woman he loves wants. he looks at the nearest clock and sighs. one last game. one last time, he will spend some stupid change waiting for a prize that never comes.

and from there, who knows? and from there, who knows? stop this idiocy of gambling every last penny, work a little more so you can get by for a few months. maybe start a savings account so when you have kids things will be easier?

he waits, and stops. so many times he has seen the message of defeat on machines similar and different to this one. sorry, you lost. the most common phrase for someone who appreciates dopamine more than money in their pockets. but he is surprised when the winning pattern appears on the machine. a winning one.

toji immediately turns to an employee. okay, that was weird. he usually loses any and all bets. this is probably a sign that this is the right path. who knew, the advice of morally sensible people works. don’t use drugs (they don’t work in his system), don’t overindulge in alcohol (which also doesn’t do anything in his system), be responsible and have a stable job. he just needs to review what he achieves in that last part. sorcerer slaying is not exactly a stable job, which every wife dreams of having a husband working with.

wait, did he just mentally call you his wife? take it easy, clown. first, you have to get past your fifth dating anniversary.

but the idea is undeniably attractive. maybe if he gets some good, well-paying work beyond assassination, you can become a housewife. only if you want, of course. toji will drop dead before he forces you to do something you don’t want to do.

the idea is a little cute — really cute, actually. he loves seeing you coming home from work stressed. seeing you angry makes him strangely excited. it’s like getting turned on by playing with fire, and he just wants to make the flames burn hotter. however, he knows how to respect his space when things get serious. that’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want you in an office job.

reduced to a sad cubicle, an idiotic boss and customers as miserable as you, anxious for the time to leave or for him to pick you up. this is not the life he wants for you. okay, toji needs his own fucking car to pick you up from work. this goes on the list of what to start buying to have a responsible life.

as he changes the balls in the pachinko machine, he watches the prizes carefully. normally, it’s just junk that you sell in a random store to make real money. but there is a kind of golden pendant, a butterfly. he asks the employee and takes the item in his hands. he’s a bit of a muggle and extremely cheesy, in his vision, but it’s only fair that in his last bet, one of the few ones he wins, the prize goes to you.

you, the true angel that exists on earth. you, patient and caring, who accept his mistakes and didn’t abandon him when he gave you a thousand and one reasons to do so. you, who he would like to see at the altar and have children with. fixing his own life and making his life better, that’s what he must do now. for you.

waving to the employee who is already used to his presence — after all, toji doesn’t plan on seeing him again — he puts the pendant in his pocket and walks peacefully home, lost in thought. some idiot bumps into him in a hurry, but he’s so strangely happy he can’t even stay mad.

the guy in question looks like he’s on something, with his hands in his pockets as if he’s hiding a weapon and his pupils dilated. His paranoid face is looking in all directions, and Toji knows that look — he’s trying to run from trouble. probably fucked it up and attacked someone. toji shrugs.

well, it’s not his problem.

he just takes out his cell phone and presses the call button on your contact. toji wants to go directly home, but if you want some food or some other gift, he would like to know now. your profile picture is actually adorable, and he caught himself just a moment before smiling like a fool.

the nighttime streets of tokyo don’t stop as he presses the phone to his ear. cars go too fast, and night lights make the city seem more alive at night than in daylight. two rings, three. you don’t answer, and toji groans, checking the time before waiting a little longer. it is weird. usually you are the one who calls, or you are the one who answers almost immediately. and it’s too early, so you can’t be sleeping.

maybe you forgot your cell phone at home and went out to get something you forgot at the office. it would be just like you. he can already hear himself teasing you. airhead. he gives up calling when there is no answer after four tries. he doesn't want to look desperate.

his steps are lazy, light. he’s gotten used to walking quietly due to his line of work, but toji has his chest puffed out like someone who knows what he wants in life. this is a new and at the same time well-known occurrence. his second chance just fell into toji’s lap. not all men are that lucky. and he doesn’t intend to waste it, risk everything and lose everything again.

may his past have taught him the valuable lesson of staying close and protecting those you love.

that’s why, when he turns down the street and stops in front of your house (which has also been his house for almost two years), he freezes. there are some police cars parked in front of the door. okay, maybe some idiot tried to rob the house. are you okay? the idea of you getting hurt makes his blood boil.

but his heart sinks like a crushed animal when he sees the ambulance present. no. what the fuck is going on? he quickens his pace, not caring about the yellow tapes — oh, god, there shouldn’t be yellow ribbons. not here. not in your home, not in the safest and happiest place in the world. do not cross slaps him in the face, making his heartbeat increase. is that fear, in the back of his head?

he had goosebumps. not the good kind.

a police officer comes over to talk to him, explaining that he can’t be here, that this is a crime scene, sir. but toji is faster, his hand searching for the pendant he bought you through a stupid gambling game.

“sir, i’m going to have to ask you to leave—”

“this is my house, i live here with my girlfriend. what the fuck is going on?”

the police officer stops, as if he didn’t expect that kind of response. he checks something with another officer over the radio, and toji is about to punch everyone to go and look for you. what the hell is going on? he only left for three hours and about ten minutes. this shouldn’t be happening.

his green eyes stay focused on the ambulance, on the house that is being ransacked. your house, god, your wonderful house. he waits for you to come out from behind the ambulance, from one of the doors of the house, for you to come running and for him to hug you. but there is nothing like that. you don’t show up, and he suddenly feels like his throat is closing up.

the officer who owes him an explanation that keeps him calm and tells the truth at the same time — after all, a guy with the size of toji freaking out isn’t what anyone wants to face — gets his attention by gently clearing his throat. he looks like a newbie. excellent. you’re nowhere to be found, and toji is getting explanations from a damn newbie.

“you mentioned you live here with your girlfriend, sir—?” the man inquires, and toji crosses his arms, irritated. “can i ask where you were earlier tonight?”

“fushiguro. i’m fushiguro, yeah, and i live here for, two years now. i was out. buying stuff ‘nd all. why do you need to know?”

the officer sighs, his face sad. “you will need to make a statement later, mr. fushiguro. however, this doesn’t have to be immediately, we intend to respect your time with…”

“with?” toji grits his teeth, nearly snapping. “c’mon. i don’t have all night. where the hell is my girlfriend?”

there are some voices shouting instructions in the background, and toji doesn’t pay attention until something appears in the corner of his vision. he turns his face away more quickly than ever, giving the nervous policeman no time to warn him that he shouldn’t do that. and the sight before him makes him freeze.

the paramedics are zipping up a black bag and putting away the equipment they initially brought. toji is no stranger to blood and dead bodies—his body count is high in more ways than one—but he swears he’s never felt so sick. the butterfly pendant falls from his hands and clicks against the floor, with a slight *clink*.

it’s your body. they are putting your body inside a black bag. god, he only got a glimpse, a second, but he’s sure it’s you. pale, motionless. declared dead.

you, dead.

bile rises up his throat thinking about a million things. If he had arrived earlier, could he have helped? he definitely wouldn’t let that happen, what took him so long with the pachinko machine? Was this random, was this chosen? did they kill you because of him, because of him and his stupid career?

he wonders if you suffered. god, the thought of you scared and screaming as you fight to defend yourself makes toji almost go insane immediately. this is— real. and it is not a nightmare, where he’ll wake up besides you, on the bed. you would smile and comfort him out of his scared thoughts. but no. you won’t ever smile anymore.

never again.

he is so out of it for a moment, it’s as if nothing else exists. his ears won’t stop ringing, and it’s like his head is going to melt at any second. he turns to face the officer, who has been trying to get his attention for apparently five minutes.

“we’re sorry, mr. fushiguro. there was a complaint from the neighbors. we’re still not sure what happened, but it was certainly a homicide. maybe random. as it turned out, someone broke into the house and—”

“murdered my girlfriend.” he completes, his hands clenching into fists. toji excuses himself — and the poor officer can see the pain he’s trying to hide with anger.

he’ll probably get called out for a dozen things. identify your body. give a statement, be ruled out as a suspect, god. like he would even touch you like that. the idea is so disgusting he can’t even process it. but it does not matter. it does not matter anymore. his new, peaceful life? fuck that. you are dead.

and so is his heart. again.

toji walks away from the prying ears of the police, and he hates the fact that his hands are shaking as he calls shiu. and old friend and trustful dealer, he needs to ask two things.

“hey, shiu. when you hear this, give me a call as soon as you can. i am serious. i need another job, as quickly as possible, also.” he pauses, pinching the bridge of his nose, taking deep, angry breaths. “i need to ask a personal favor. investigate something for me, and i want the name and address of every person involved. alright?”

he wonders what will he use when he finds whoever did this. a gun? a knife? it doesn’t matter, nothing matters anymore. he steps on the butterfly pendant as he stares at the sky and wishes for blood to pay for yours being spilled.

ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE. THANK YOU FOR READING <3

[yumedoca]

The Visual Genius Behind UY2022 [Character Designs]- An Analysis 🧐 (Long Post)

Hai there, hope you’re having a great day! Today on ‘Yuca Analyzes Silly Things (For No Reason)’, we’ll be talking about how the remake uses different methods and techniques to achieve the fun aesthetic it’s known for as well as analyzing character designs and colors!

Note: There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to this topic, so I might not be able to cover ‘everything’, So I’m only analyzing sub- topics which comes to mind. And more importantly this is the first part of the analysis, since I had to split it because of how long it is and Tumblr only allows 30 images per post, so yeah.

With all of that aside, let’s begin!

First, We’ll divide the analysis into sections to make it easier to understand and explain, for this part we’ll be talking about:

Naoyuki Asano and Colors

Lum’s Multicolor Hair

Character’s Designs

Conclusion (for now)

Naoyuki Asano and Colors We start off with Naoyuki Asano, who is the Character Designer as well as Chief Animation Director (for the first ED, as well as episodes 1- 13) for the remake. As in the reason the remake looks so bright and colorful and the characters is mostly because of him! Actually, this isn’t his first time working on a retro revival which he gave fun and aesthetic designs, since he’s actually done work as a Character Designer on Osomatsu-San as well…

(Fun fact: Takahashi has stated that she has enjoyed his work on Osomatsu-San! But if he was chosen to design for UY specifically because of his work on this show has never been stated). Anyways, there’s a difference in how this remake is colored compared to most standard anime, on the topic of standard anime coloring, let’s look at the ‘Obstacle Course Swim Meet’ since it was first time Urusei Yatsura’s been animated with digital animation (if you don’t count the pachinko machine’s and stuff):

Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE THIS OVA. Not only does it adapt three chapters into one episode, plus it’s own original material, but it also manages to capture the perfect essence of UY. This OVA is basically UY in a nutshell, lol. Storywise it’s hilarious, as to be expected as special created for the 2008 anniversary, but there’s one thing I didn’t like about this OVA, and that is… the colors. Like, how to put it? Boring? Yep, that’s it. The colors are the ones which are usually used in that specific era and were also used for Inuyasha (The Final Act) and Ranma 1/2 (Like this one, OVA 2008) and these colors (or atleast similar ones) were used in other anime at the time. It’s a natural choice they picked cuz Sunrise was doing Inuyasha at the time. But boy do I wish these could be better, It’s like a case of this is how it is because that was the only option at the time, but from a modern point of view it could be made much better, and that’s exactly why UY2022 is such a visual gem!

Lum’s Multicolor Hair Of course, we can’t do a visual analysis on the remake if we don’t talk about what caught all our eyes first: Lum, or more specifically her new design. The fist aspect of her design we’ll be talking about is her hair. Lum’s ever changing iridescent hair has always been one of the most solid parts of her manga design, if you don’t count the bikini that is. But even though it was a staple of her design, when the manga was getting its anime adaptation, they were unable to animate Lum’s hair with it’s original look because of how difficult it was at the time with the restrictions when it came to 80’s animation, so instead they opted to choose a different color, something more grounded instead of the multi rainbow one and they chose dark green since that’s the color they chose for ten and they thought the color balanced well with the yellow in Lum’s design. And because of that most media depictions showed Lum with green hair and because of how more popular the anime is than the manga, her green hair became more well known then the manga’s iridescent color. Which brings us to now. For the remake they opted to give Lum the green(-ish blue for more of a standout color I guess…) hair, but here her hair changes color like in the manga, but here it depends on power, mood and surroundings. Here’s almost all of the different hair changes I managed to find in the remake:

You can also see how her hair is layered with different or similar colors just even in one photo (not the Otoko Kumino one since she’s pretending to be a human), this is something which is inherited and applies to everyone in from the maternal side of her family by the way (as in her, her mom, ten and his mom). However since everyone sans Lum’s hair’s color doesn’t change, the only difference in the layered colors is that they’re more or less darker than the base color. Also to note is that there are some official art which gives her more Iridescent colors from the manga:

And finally her hair changes color rapidly while electrocution…

Then there’s her eyes, Lum’s eyes are colored bright green in the manga, most of the time that is, other times it’s colored dark green, blue or even yellow, so the remake’s colors aren’t that far fetched. Same for her eyeshadow. (Also her bikini’s a bit different as well in the sense her tiger stripes are limited and she also has string which holds it whereas she had no such thing in the manga. This isn’t a big change either, but I just wanted to point it out. I do prefer the manga’s though). That’s all for Lum, Now we can move onto the rest of the characters!

Character’s Designs The character design in general is a lot cuter (like the round faces and all) than the manga’s artsyle, like the manga’s artsyle is cute af, but when the characters are drawn in a clearer and with closer shot they tend to look more elegant (or masculine if we’re talking about the guys). I tend to think of the artsyle as a combination of UY’s early artsyle and it’s final artsyle. It also kinda reminds me of how Takahashi draws the characters in smaller panels.

‘My Man, his Gremlin gf, his cute ex, and the rich dude who stole his ex’

I also realized that the characters hair highlights were based of RT’s art as well, she doesn’t always give her characters highlights, but when she does, they look like…

‘See how the outer highlights look like each other??’

Oh, and I should also state the the highlight change color depending on the surroundings as well similar to Lum’s hair. Now we’ll talk about the different method for colors used to determine the character’s hair:

Characters like Ataru and Sakura have their hair colored as their most notable color (notable cuz of the coloring in the 80’s anime), Like Ataru’s hair in the manga is brown, but I’m pretty sure Sakura’s is black.

Characters like Shinobu and Mendo have their standard hair colors as well, brown and black (which are also their manga hair colors as well), but both are tinted with other colors, for Shinobu it’s a tint of (purplish) pink and Mendo has a tint of dark blue, AKA the most used colors when Takahashi gives them abstract colors for their hair in official manga art:

See?

Characters like Ran and Rei have their manga colors, but as you can see their highlights are colors which sticks out more compared to their actual hair colors.

And Characters like Benten have their alternative hair color from the manga instead of her actual hair color (In the manga, it’s black except when Takahashi’s going abstract, then it’s red). I think there’s also the option to use a random abstractly tinted color or just a random abstract color in general, like for Ryoko, but it’s used very rarely it seems. That’s really all the different types of hair color decisions made in the remake, everything I can think of that is (idk if I missed anything and sorry if I did). The decisions for the eye colors are really more according to what would suit them, and the colors chosen are different colors, some have regular Japanese eye colors like brown (like Ataru and Sakura), some have colors which the average Japanese doesn’t have (like Shinobu and Mendo). The aliens’ eyes also have two differences from the humans’ eyes…

The Aliens…

The Humans…

First, The aliens eyes are colors which are realistically impossible like ‘Hot Pink + Blue’ or ‘Bright Orange + Yellow’ meanwhile the humans have colors which are realistically possible. And second, the aliens have an extra layer of color surrounding their pupils, while the humans do not. An extra thing I want to point out is that Tobimaro’s stars are yellow instead of white, which I found kinda weird since what they were supposed to reference were originally white, but I guess these guys thought it would stand out more or something. Anyways, that’s it for the eyes! Now we’ll talk about skin and clothes. For skin color almost every character is the same as their manga counterpart except for I think Tsubame and Tobimaro, who are noticeably a bit more tan (but I don’t really care cuz somehow they look more handsomer because of that, also Tsubame doesn’t look all that alike to Godai now). As for the clothes it’s a combination of the manga’s and og anime’s colors like the ribbon on the sailor suits are colored like in the og anime instead of plain in the manga, Benten’s outfit is red in the anime instead of the steel color from the manga, The Tomobiki school uniform is like it’s manga counterpart with the black jacket and the shirt instead of the og anime’s blue jacket and random t-shirts and so on… We’ll end this entire part by appreciating how well the remake adapted Oyuki and everything related to her (like she has her actual ice hair? ice one piece? more icicles on her hair? All like the manga instead of the injustice they did to her in the og anime? Hell yea!)

(Okay I have to say she does get ice hair later on in the 80’s version but it’s clearly purple and kinda soft like actual hair, and not much like ice minus a few blocky lines and little glazing, I still prefer the remake though. Also the 2008 OVA gives her ice hair as well but it’s no where near pretty as this one.)

Conclusion (for now) For now we’ll have to stop here since I’ve hit my image limit. I hope I’ll be able to complete this with the next part. The character designs for the remake is very well thought out and a lot of people probably watched the remake because of the character designs. I apologize if I’ve overlooked anything or made any mistakes. If you have any doubts or questions about this analysis feel free to send an ask and if you want me to do an analysis about other characters, feel free to send an ask for that as well (but once I’m done with the next part as well as an analysis on another character). You can check out my other analysis on my analysis tag.  And finally, likes are appreciated and reblogs are even more appreciated (seriously, please reblog this so more people can see this post, since I spent a lot of time on this!!). Hope you have a great day ahead!! 💕

[llycaons]

SO. I've hit 14 books this year!! I do have a goodreads but it's kind of public so it's mutuals-only (feel free to ask!). but here's my list so far

babel by r.f. kuang

kindred by octavia butler

the goblin emperor by katherine addison

horse by geraldine brooks

spinning silver by naomi novik

kitchen by banana yoshimoto

deep as the sky, red as the sea by rita chang-eppig

the buried giant by kazuo ishiguro

annihilation by jeff vandermeer

the order of the pure moon reflected on water by zen cho

the mask of mirrors by m.a. carrick

black water sister by zen cho

the witch's heart by genevieve gornichec

mexican gothic by silvio moreno-garcia

I also attempted, but gave up on

the night tiger by yangsze choo (the stepsibling romance...I couldn't)

the tiger's wife by téa obreht (just a bit slow - may return to it)

song of the huntress by lucy holland (I just hated one of the leads so much 😭 my blood pressure skyrocketed every time it was her chapter)

these violent delights by chloe gong (WOW this book is for 15 year olds and also pretty pretentious and stupid to boot)

black sun by rebecca roanhorse (it did not grab me)

the black tides of heaven by neon yang (frankly this was a bad book)

silver in the wood by emily tesh (shut UPPPPP white rich british man!!!!!)

lucha of the night forest by tehlor kay mejia (very juvenile and an embarassingly heavy-handed 'drugs are evil' moral right off the bat. also just not very well written)

my reading map as of now

borrowed

ancillary justice - scifi isn't my usual genre but I was really intrigued by the sample I'd read, and I loved the raven tower by the same author. audiobook

sistersong - I had such a bad time trying to read song of the huntress I'm wary about this one but I do still want to try it. ebook

holds - physical books

gods of jade and shadow - I don't know much about this one but I do love a more modern take on folktales and I don't know much about mexican mythology

snow crash - I'll finish this eventually lol. another scifi

pachinko - sampled this ages ago. will it be good? idk. I was absorbed

salt fish girl - REALLY looking forward to this one. it says zero copies available so perhaps I will need to buy it 😭

warbreaker - a podcaster I listen to gave a glowing review and I've been meaning to get into brando sando for ages

lolita - lower on my priority list. I'd like to listen to the audiobook but maybe that would be harder. the only available copy is in spanish anyway

holds - audiobooks

warbreaker - I'll takewhatever arrives first. the waitlist is fucking. months long

pachinko - ditto. these are both 20+ hour audiobooks so maybe a physical book would be less tiring. maybe

wuthering heights - I want to know what everyone is talking about when they rave about their toxic doomed love

the final empire (mistborn #1) - another sanderson offering

the watchmaker of filigree street - I have been on the waitlist for so long for this one...

the water outlaws - please be good please please please

giovanni's room - long waitlist for this one too!!

on my list but not in my library

when a fox is a thousand - I want to read this one so bad I feel SICK. libby PLEASEEEE

piranesi - honestly this did not captivate me but it's so short. why not

sorcerer to the crown - only the second book of this series was available, oddly enough. is the second one so freestanding? is it so much better? I'd like to read them in order. lower on my list since it was a new addition

this is like 16 books and some of them are VERY long so I doubt I'll get to this entire list by the end of the year but it's so satisfying to look back and see how much reading I've done 😊 I've done more this year than I have in like, a decade and it's been so wonderful getting back into another long-beloved form of storytelling even if I don't get as obsessed with it as I used to in hs and middle school

[sungbeam]

tag game—!

tagged by: @petrichor-han thanks so much for the tag rain!! hope ur summer's going well <3

no pressure tags: @justalildumpling @jaehunnyy @winterchimez @tranquilpetrichor @hqrana

— currently reading: i think i'm gonna try and tackle either priory of the orange tree or pachinko! i've been on a reading dryspell for forever tho it's so sad 💀

— favorite color: i favor mostly the neutral colors like white, black, and like some shades of brown, but color-colors wise, i love blue! my love for blue ranges from icy pastel blue to periwinkle to dark midnight cobalt, or something of the sort? lol

— last movie: i think the last movie i watched was across the spiderverse actually

— last song: flicker by enhypen! but i remember listening to super (svt) and super chic (p1h) too

— currently working on: errr im on break from LiU (rip sunwoo), so i've been working on various other tbz fics 🥴 ie. my emotional support royalty au (swan song, jcm), better than revenge (lhj), and a secret third option 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️

[demonsfate]

even the PACHINKOS did a better job at portraying Xiao than Tek5, 6 and the comics, but I guess it's bc of what you said; they were already trying to fix her thanks to her BV depiction. I thiiiink it was easier for them to "fix" her first. Because she didn't start a War lol, and Jin is the protag, the repercussions of his actions are of a bigger scale. Which makes me wonder who decided to make her.. you know.. like THAT in Tek 5 and 6 since those are canon games. Was it Harada's team or himself since we know he's prompt to make bad decisions regarding his characters? (side note, I actually like her bye-bye! outro as well lmao. It's silly and it's like woah girl ok?? but I do think removing it was a good choice)

Actually, from the looks of it, the Pachinkos actually seem to do a lot of things better. From Xiao being a better character, to Jin using his Kazama powers, to Jin and Asuka actually interacting (and Asuka seeming to have some importance) to even other characters like Paul having importance to whatever's going on.

Well, yeah, that is true. But what I mean they were quicker to revert Xiao back to how she should be. As she was already getting fixed in Tag 2. Meanwhile in Tag 2, Jin still seemed to retain some of his coldness from Tek6. (Just not as noticeable since it's not a story based game) And whilst better in Tek7, Jin still retained his stupid "power is everything" and "you're a joke" in/outros. Tek8 is the only game where it seems like they're REALLY reverting him to how he should be.

It's really peculiar. Because in Tek5, she was just kinda flanderized and made to be stupid (I guess.) Meanwhile in Tek6, she has her Tek5 flaws, all while being a yandere, too. Whilst I'm not sure who was in charge of her changes in Tek5 and why they did them. But I'm gonna assume the reason why they changed her in Tek6 is because they thought it wouldn't make as much sense for her to still be in love with the Worst Person Ever. So, to make her match Jin - they now have her being madly in love to the point where she's a jealous and even technically homicidal person. So, Jin gets villainized and so does Xiao lol.

Of course, Xiao's yanderism was only ever really seen in Scenario Campaign if you played as her. So, it's easier for fans to forget that depiction of her than it is to forget Jin's depiction when he's part of the main story and it slaps you in your face several times over.

I don't know, whilst Tek5 was a really fun game, it did feel like a turning point for the characters. (For example, whilst Jin's characterization was mostly good - it did set up Tek6 in the end. Some ppl argue it ruined Marduk, but... I don't know as much about Marduk to have a say in that) Like Tek5 was the turning point for the story, and then Tek6 is when the story hit the iceberg and now it's violently sinking.

[libertys-lovers]

💌🎣 𝘿𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝘿𝙚𝙗𝙩 🎣💌

What started as merely a brotherly feud had quickly evolved into a devastating bet for Karamatsu. Everything was on the line; his money, his persona, and even his romantic confidence. Can the mysterious woman across the fishing grounds help him with his debts?

SHIP: 🕶💥Dramatics💥🕶 (Karamatsu x Freedom)

WARNINGS: Swearing, blood’s mentioned as an effect for a gag, and there’s a single virgin joke. (That being said this isn’t an NSFW fic, NOWHERE near it- It’s… well, it’d be fluff if it wasn’t so chaotic-)

AUTHOR’S NOTES: Erm.. this one’s definitely longer than my last fic… just a heads up lmao- Also this takes place before Freedom got her nickname, which is why she’s referred to as “Liberty” instead of “Freedom” throughout this thing lol-

—

The skies of Japan were once again painted with Autumn clouds, the softest breeze blowing through its capital. It would only make sense for its citizens to take advantage of the weather around them. Some would go on simple walks, and others would take their families out. One group may go to the oden stands, and another may go out for a round of pachinko. Strange enough, there'd even be people that'd head to the fishing grounds. Yes indeed, donning their cool-colored clothes, Karamatsu and Todomatsu would visit the grounds. They’d claim their staple spots and throw in their lines, waiting for a catch.

It truly was a day for relaxation... perhaps too much relaxation. Dozens of minutes would pass, and their lines would barely recieve any action. There weren't even any conversation topics that could fill the time in-between catches. They had no choice but to be stuck in the worst silence of all: the Familial Awkward Silence. The brother in blue would fidget with his sunglasses, and his pink counterpart would scroll mindlessly through his phone. The temptation to leave began to grow stronger and stronger, but if they left already, then that would mean they came all this way for no reason, and they simply couldn't have that. So even if they decomposed right in their seats, they could not leave until they had caught something.

A distant giggle suddenly snapped the two out of their boredom-induced zoning out. It came from the hill behind them, the source merely being a couple walking along the street. The two would scoff at the commotion; if this show ever bothered to give their eyes color, they'd most definitely be drenched in green.

Karamatsu sighed, pushing his glasses up; "It must be nice, being blessed by cupid's arrow. To be able to navigate this maze called life, with the compass that is a lover... they better enjoy it while it lasts". His raw jealousy leaked through his smiling teeth.

Todomatsu glared at his brother as he died from second-hand shame. "Why can't you just say you're a virgin?! How did you manage to make your situation sound even WORSE?".

Karamatsu winced from the directness of his unfortunate, self-brought reality; "But... surely someday, the gods will grant us a love never before experienced! We just need to pay for our inner sins". The poor man was willing to say anything to give himself an ounce of hope.

"Mhm, good luck with that"; Todomatsu dismissed him, turning his attention back to his phone.

"...you realize that goes for you too... right?", asked Karamatsu, flabbergasted by his brother's indifference.

Todomatsu shrugged; "Obviously, but I still have the best chance out of all of us to get a steady partner. I've gone on dates, after all". He slyly waves his phone as he spoke, conveniently having his list of (inactive) girls' phone numbers open.

"EH?! Well- well that doesn't mean the rest of us don't have a chance!"

"Karamatsu, have you ever even talked to a girl before?"; Todomatsu asked, with a faux-clueless look in his eye.

Karamatsu opened his mouth.

"That wasn't Totoko-Chan", Todomatsu added.

Karamatsu closed his mouth, furrowing his eyebrows in thought.

"Well... no- BUT that doesn't mean I can't!", spat out Karamatsu. But alas, he had a persona to keep up. With a snap of his fingers and a tilt of his head, he hid his embarrassment and replaced it with a poor veil of confidence. "As soon as I see someone that could truly handle my never-ending love, I'll happily approach them and show them how it FEELS to be one of my Karamatsu Girls, haha!".

Todomatsu shook his head; all of his brothers were shameful, but Karamatsu was on an entire other level. It'd sure be nice to knock that ego down a peg or two.. yes... yes it would be. He’d just need to make Karamatsu realize that he’s not as suave as he LARPS to be, and surely he could! Their fishing lines were still dead after all; there was time to cause a little tomfoolery.

Todomatsu stood up, observing his surroundings. His expression remained innocently blank as he began pointing at the people around them: "Well, there's a girl right there, and right there, and there's a couple of them walking by outside! Plus there's probably all sorts of them on the street right now".

Totty walked in front of Karamatsu, staring down upon him. "If you want a chance so bad, there's a ton of them right here!". Though his face remained wide-eyed, his cheery voice couldn't have been more suspicious.

But alas, it worked. Karamatsu's eyes went white, sweat beads quickly forming into existence on his face. He had been outsmarted, cornered in a conversation of his own creation.

He turned away and shrugged, praying to whatever deity was out there that Totty wouldn’t smell his fear. "Pl-Please! This is no environment to find love! The atmosphere is all wrong! There's too many old guys here watching. There's not even any scented candles! Is wine even allowed in this place-?".

DAMNIT! Totty was so close. He just needed one final push, his +4 card of arguments. And it'd finally hit him; his innocent facade would completely fade into a taunting smirk.

"I’ll give you money if you successfully get a date".

Karamatsu's head immediately snapped back towards Todomatsu.

"How much money?".

"I don't know. How much is in your card right now?".

"Eh? Wait, where are you going with this?".

"Well, if you actually do it, I'll just double it or something. But if you don't, then it'll all be mine, okay!?"; his devious smile beamed brighter than even Karamatsu's sequin pants.

All of Karamatsu's senses officially left his braincell. Deep down he knew he'd absolutely blow it, but both his ego and his money were at stake.

"Hmph... very well. Prepare yourself, young brother, for the lesson of a lifetime".

Karamatsu rose from his seat, taking glances at the people around. This, single-handedly, must've been the most intimidating moment of his life. He didn't want to risk embarrasing himself in front of anyone, and if HE considered something embarassing, then you know it must've been bad. But he couldn't let himself get distracted by these thoughts, not this time. Most of the girls he could've talked to just simply felt out of his league; they were surrounded by friends or seemed much too busy, or they were quite literally out of his league, being up the hill and all.

He turned to the front of him, catching sight of something... peculiar. Across the fishing grounds sat a woman with an entire folding table set up, art supplies scattered all across it. She glared at her notebook, barely paying mind to the fishing line set up next to her. Her headphones cut her off from the rest of the outside world; she seemed at peace, almost. Yes... she certainly seemed easier to approach.

"Hmm, you're considering her, huh?", Todomatsu asked as he walked to Karamatsu's side. "Yeah, she's been here even before we got here". Totty glanced at the woman's desk set-up; "The weirdest part is, I haven't seen her draw a single thing since we got here", he whispered.

Karamatsu pushed his sunglasses up, letting his hand cover his face as he posed; "Heh, maybe she just needs a muse then~".

Leaving his brother disappointed in his cheesy lines yet again, Karamatsu started navigating the fishing grounds to get to her. Though his stride started off confident, his sturdy form became shakier with every fishing stream he walked past. His eyebrows were furrowed, his mouth reduced to a mere squiggly line. It was taking everything out of him to not just rush back and sit at his original spot, but man... he really didn't wanna go broke. At least the girl was still focused on her notebook; he didn't have the added pressure of her watching him as he approached.

He'd eventually stop, only being a few feet from her desk; he couldn't even look at her directly, and he hoped that his sunglasses hid that fact. His chest rose and sunk quicker than ever before; it felt like his breathing was much too loud, but yet this woman still paid him no mind. Maybe this would be less intense than he imagined. He put on his signature smirk and slid himself to the side of her folding table. He didn't let his body face her, as he wanted to remain "cool” and "mysterious". He stood there with his hands in his leather jacket's pockets. He felt sweat form along his face, flustering his thoughts even more.

"Heh... so.... out of all the fish in the sea.... out of all the fish in these very streams... we still found each other... isn't that interesting~?".

Karamatsu smiled, waiting for the girl beside him to respond. Seconds of silence went by; perhaps she was so enamored by him that she was left speechless? He looked over at her, only to see that her eyes hadn't left her blank notebook page. Her headphones were still on; maybe she just didn't hear him? He cleared his throat and closed his eyes, lightly gesturing towards her notebook.

"Hmm, maybe you could draw me a map of your eyes... because I'm already lost in them....".

Karamatsu opened one of his eyes, glancing at the woman. She hadn't even moved since the last time he looked at her. What the Hell was happening right now?! She... she was still alive, right? Like her music couldn’t be THAT loud.

Karamatsu looked back across the fishing grounds, and caught sight of Todomatsu trying his hardest to contain his laughter. Karamatsu's face went white; he knew his finances were all going down the drain if he couldn't successfully talk to this woman. So what was he gonna do? He wasn't just gonna rip off her headphones, and if he tried leaning on the fold-table, the entire thing would surely fall over. He had no other choice; it was the least-romantic thing he could ever do, but he'd have to tap her shoulder.

His hand was shaking as it inched towards her, but eventually it'd reach its destination.

He tapped her shoulder: Once... and then twice.

The woman jumped from Karamatsu's touch, her eyes going wide from surprise. She tore her headphones off, slamming her notebook shut as her head jerked to face him. While the woman was surprised by Karamatsu's precense, Karamatsu was startled by her quick movements; both of them jumped back, practically in sync. Her hips would bump her table by accident, spilling many of her supplies onto the ground. She glared at her notebook through her sunglasses, watching as it landed right on the edge above the fishing stream. It was perfectly balanced; one half chilling on the ground, the other half hanging right over the water. She sighed dramatically, her hand clutching her nonexistant pearls.

"Stay.... sttaaaaaayyyy....."; the woman pleaded, like an owner to their rambunctious dog.

She kept glancing between Karamatsu and the notebook, unsure if this moment was even happening. Her face was incredibly red, her hyper-focused demeanor from a second ago suddenly flipped into a exaggeratedly-embarrassed expression. A similar statement could be said for Karamatsu; all he could do was stare at the woman, for his brain wouldn't let him think of any other action to take. And so he watched as the woman took a gentle step towards the notebook, staring at it with petrified eyes. Right as she took a step, the notebook slipped into the water.

"SHIT-"

She scrambled to the edge of the stream, dropping to her knees and watching as her notebook... floated at the top. Oh thank lord; that's what she gets for failing physics. Her notebook was perfectly fine, one side of cover was just a little wet. She reached to retrieve it, but heard footsteps behind her.

"Please~ Allow me", said Karamatsu as he kneeled beside her.

He got ahold of the notebook, and as he turned to look at the woman, he was greeted by her staring right back at him. The two flinched at the realization that their eyes met. The woman’s hand was still extended towards the book, almost giving the impression that she was reaching for his hand. Karamatsu relaxed his body; maybe this bet would work out just fine… maybe it'd work out a bit too fine. His mind truly got lost in the possibilities of this moment.

And it seemed that Todomatsu saw those possibilities as well, as he watched their shenanigans with a pale face. If his lamest brother got to hold a hand before he did, it would ALL be over. Karamatsu’s advances weren’t supposed to succeed damnit! He had to intervene!

Todomatsu rose to his feet, gesturing to his brother from the other side of the fishing grounds; "KARAMATSU-!", he shouted.

The shouting snapped Karamatsu out of his star-struck trance, startling him enough to stumble. And thus, before he could process anything else, his body was submerged in the water... with the notebook still in hand.

The woman could only watch as Karamatsu fell in the water, getting splashed as she rose to her feet. She glanced around in the direction of the yell, locking her eyes with Todomatsu from the other side. This wasn't the same sort of connection as before though; her eyebrows were furrowed, her confused gaze hardened. Todomatsu caught her gaze, and sat back in his seat faster than her eyes could process. She quickly jerked her attention back to the stream, darting her eyes across its surface. She held her breath and waited for any sign that Karamatsu would come back up.

And alas, he'd emerge from the waters, even with a few fish clinging to him. In his hand was a soggy, sad excuse for a notebook, but it was her notebook nonetheless. He handed the book back to her, a shaken grin on his face as he tried to stand unbothered.

The woman stumbled over her words, her face red with plenty of emotions (90% of them being embarrassment); "I... Are you okay?!? That was- that was terrifying- Thanks though!!, I guess!?".

Karamatsu chuckled, slicking back his soaken hair; "Hmph, it was nothing~ I-".

He heard shuffling from behind him; the woman had seemingly dismissed his ramblings yet again. She was scrambling through her bag, oddly focused on what was inside. She seemed to notice that Karmatsu stopped talking, and she quickly turned back to him.

"Oh! No, I'm listening! I'm just..."

Her voice trailed off as she finished fishing through her bag, whipping out a hand-towel. She gestured it to him, practically staring through his soul. Karamatsu hesitated, being caught off-guard by the offering, but he accepted it. His grandiose gestures immmediately softened as he stared at the towel. Did... did this count as a gift from a girl?!? He began drying himself off, knocking the fish from himself and conveniently covering his blushing face. His eyes remained closed as he dried himself, but even if he didn’t see the woman right now, he still heard her.

"I.. I'm just?? I'm so sorry man!! I just... I didn't see you- And I didn't hear you- And I definitely didn't mean for... all of THAT to happen-"; the poor woman was embarassed as hell, her voice getting incredibly shaky.

Karamatsu sighed, still trying his best to seem intriguing; "No, it's alright. Don't be sorry! It was just fate for us to meet like this, I guess”. His tone became much more somber as he clenched his fist; “I just wish that I could've actually protected that notebook. Just the thought of all those pieces, now forever tainted. Their true, original meaning being only known to your memories and the goddess of time... The poor-".

The woman scoffed to herself with a smirk on her face, and though she tried her best to be quiet, she noticed that Karamatsu was glancing at her. He went silent again, and she took that as a cue to speak.

"Well... it's not like I really lost anything... so it's all good..."; she shrugged as she spoke, beginning to smile.

Karamatsu, meanwhile, threw the towel away and rushed to her side. He posed, almost leaning against her shoulder.

"Ah, but you can't say that about your works of art! I may have never seen them before in my entire life, but I just KNOW they leaked of raw, uncontrolled, passion. You put your heart, your soul, your blood, sweat, and tears into those works. There had to be something in there worth saving~!".

Karamatsu paused his antics to see how she would react. She was frozen, glancing up and down at him. Within an instant, she turned away, holding her face in her hands. Her laughing ensued, but what Karamatsu didn't see was the light pink on her cheeks. She'd eventually regain enough composure to look at him again, shaking her head as her hand still held onto her forehead.

"No... no... like there was literally nothing in there. I've been trying to draw in that thing for weeks, but I just couldn't come up with anything. I was hoping coming out here would do something for me, but... ya know..."; she gestured at the notebook, which was both soaked and still completely empty.

The two chuckled together, and as Karamatsu looked at her, he suddenly remembered his entire reason for being there. He straightened himself and cleared his throat.

"Ah! But... who do I have the pleasure of meeting today...?"; now that he was snapped back to reality, all he could focus on was the mission at hand. Unfortunately for him, the very idea of it made him nervous, and the dreaded sweatbeads had made their return.

The woman seemed to be confused by the question at hand, at least for a second. Her eyes would eventually light-up at the realization of what he was asking; "Oh!... I'm... Liberty! The name's Liberty".

She closed her eyes, too overwhelmed to make proper eye contact. She rolled her hand as a gesture for him to speak; "And you're...".

Karamatsu grinned brightly, filling in her intentional silence; "Karamatsu Matsuno, at your service~!", he said as he extended his hand.

His intent was to merely offer for Liberty to hold his hand, and though he didn't expect her to respond to it, it almost seemed to work. She hesitated, one eyebrow raised and the other furrowed, but she'd reach back to him...

"Well it's nice to meet ya, Kara", responded Liberty as she held his hand.... and gave it a quick, firm shake.

Karamatsu stared at his hand, dumbfounded by what just happened. The shake wasn't... entirely what he was going for... but it still technically counted as her holding his hand. His mind was swarming with thoughts, all of them blending together into static noise. One thought would congratulate him on taking a step towards leaving NEEThood, another thought was playing the sound of wedding bells, and plenty more were questioning the fact this was happening at all. What he didn't realize, however, was that he was muttering every thought he had. All though they were quiet and incomprehensible, they were still blatantly noticeable. Liberty tilted her head, releasing a confused chuckle.

"Are you good?", asked Liberty.

Her voice snapped Karamatsu back to reality; "AH! You-... Your art! I was just... reflecting on the fact that you draw! Yes... what does it look like anyway?". Perfect, he found his scapegoat!

Liberty rubbed her neck, glancing away from the man in front of her; "Awe, well... I don't know... it's like... anime-ish... I guess sometimes it goes into semi-realism." She sighed, reaching into her back-pocket; "Do... do you really want to see it-?".

Karamatsu's entire being lightened; "YES! No doubt about it".

Liberty giggled from his enthusiasm, an "if you say so~" being sung from her lips. She whipped out her phone and scrolled through her phone gallery, selectively showing her personal best pieces. Kara only asked to see as a cover-up for his mutterings, but... but these were actually pretty good-

"Hmm... not too bad... not too bad at all! FANTASTIC, even! STUNNING!"; Karamatsu's smile grew larger with each statement, even giving Liberty a little thumbs up at the end.

 As well, with every statement Karamatsu spoke, Liberty's gaze became more and more averted. Unbeknownst to Karamatsu, Liberty had a curse that plenty of artists shared: the curse of not being able to accept praise properly. He'd watch as she'd wave her hand and dismiss the praises, giggling uncontrollably and struggling to even form a sentence. His eyes widened, his mind trying to comprehend what was in front of him. He couldn't even have a comedic-reaction at this point; his mind was shooting blanks. It's not exactly like the sight of flustered woman was a normal one for him. He… he greatly enjoyed it.

Liberty sighed, blissfully unaware of the state Karamatsu was in. She finally recollected enough braincells to speak; "...Thanks... Thanks man... But yeah, I'd have more of this sorta’ stuff, but ya know... brain's been empty on ideas".

Karamatsu put a hand to his chin as an idea spawned in his head. With a snap of his fingers, he slid in front of Liberty, switching between an endless selection of poses.

 "Heh, then let me be your mine of inspiration; your pencil being the pickaxe!".

Liberty stared at him, utterly confused; "huh?".

Karamatsu froze and stared back at her; "what do you mean 'huh'?".

"I don't know... are ya... like… asking me to draw you?".

"...would you really draw me?".

"Yeah, sure!".

The willingness of her answer nearmost threw Karamatsu in shock, delaying the reaction of his ecstatic persona. He practically danced around her, almost tripping back into the water a couple of times. He sung his thanks to her, promising not to disappoint.

"Then it's settled! I shall be your model, your muse! A bit of charity work from yours truly~".

Karamatsu paused next to Liberty, glancing at her with a bit of a concerned look; "This... isn't going to cost me anything, right-".

Liberty facepalmed as she turned to face him. She was using every force imaginable to hide her smirk, though she was failing quite miserably.

"No, Kara, you need to give me your entire life savings. Hand it over"; she extended her hand, gesturing for him to give her his wallet.

Karamatsu choked, the sticker shock of this commission making him cough up an exaggerated amount of blood. He collapsed and Liberty jumped back, barely preventing her purple blouse from turning a shade of red.

"GOOD GOD KARA, I WAS KIDDING-".

He immediately got back up, his body being completely unfazed. He rubbed his neck, his face donning a reddish-hue from embarassment; "Ah... of course-".

Liberty smiled at him, a pitiful attempt to make him feel less awkward. She'd turn her attention back to her phone though, opening her notes app and beginning to type; "So, what'dya want me to do for this? You got any specific poses in mind, or...?".

"Hmph, I have plenty of ideas for you. We could do this, or this one, or even this one"; he slid back in front of her, switching through poses at a much quicker rate.

Liberty began typing furiously on her phone, trying to describe each one of Kara's poses in substantial detail. But alas, her fingers just weren't fast enough. She shook her hand at him, calling for him to wait a damn second. He'd pause for her, and she'd proceed to type. A flick of her wrist signalled for him to switch to another one, and she'd type again. This process would be rinsed and repeated plenty times, enough times for the both of them to enter an auto-pilot sort of mode. By the time Liberty refocused herself... the amount of concepts typed in her notes was enough to make her app lag. She scrolled through them all, nodding to herself.

"Well... well I definitely have ideas now... I'm sure I'll be able to pick one from these 50-billion concepts...". A genuine smile grew on her face as she glanced back at Karamatsu, who was still swapping through poses. "Hey... thanks man... I really appreciate it-".

The sound of proper praise snapped Karamatsu from his modeling trance. He seemed to have forgotten where he was for a second, but he regathered himself rather quickly.

"It's no trouble at all..."; he smirked as he waved his hand dismissively.

"Yeah, well, I still appreciate it. You've been a real help man!". Liberty grew a teasing smirk as she walked towards him and draped her hand across her forehead. "Perhaps you were the angel I needed today. A true muse sent by the forgiving hands of God, mm~?".

Liberty giggled at her imitation of his character, but Karamatsu was stunned from the display. He couldn’t tell if it was genuine praise or a mockery of his attempts at poeticism, and frankly he didn't care. While Liberty conveniently faced away from him, he covered his mouth and fidgeted with his sunglasses. The sound of her continued speaking jerked his attention back to her.

"Alright... so what'dya want me to do once I finish this thing? Am I just dropping this off at your house, or-".

Karamatsu had no hesitation in answering; his brain was being ran by adrenaline at this point. The sudden boom behind his answer jumpscared Liberty, making her take a step back; "YES! Yes! You can... definitely do that". He held his hand out expectantly, "But I'll need to give you my address~".

"Yeah, yeah, hold on". She rolled her eyes and smirked as she opened a new notes page. "Just go ahead and write it in here, and give it back to me when you're done".

She handed her phone to Karamatsu, being caught off guard by a terrified noise. Her and Karamatsu turned their head to the sound's direction, seeing a petrified Todomatsu across the fishing grounds. He made eye contact with them, immediately shifting back into an emotionless gaze towards them. Liberty turned away with a shake of her head, meanwhile Karamatsu was becoming enthralled with the device in his hands. No wonder Todomatsu freaked out; he finally got to feel how Totty feels whenever he's giving his phone number out... well... it was similar-enough feeling anyway- Karamatsu typed the address in as lightly as humanly possible. He seemed nervous to break the phone, or to even taint it at all.

Curiosity began swarming his mind though... what did a girl's phone even look like? Her phone case was various shades of purple, looking like one of those spilled-paint art pieces. The thing also had... glitter in it? It matched her outfit's colors, but the design seemed almost too cutesy for her; needless to say, Karamatsu was obsessed. He couldn't help but wonder what her wallpaper was... or the sort of photos she took; hell, he was curious enough about what other notes she had in that phone. He had a fight with his inner demons on whether he'd try to secretly snoop…

Liberty noticed he stopped typing, and extended her hand out to him. She glanced away from him, trying her best not to seem demanding. Karamatsu sighed, and placed her phone back in her hand. Those sort of questions could be answered another day, he supposed.

"Sweet! I guess I'll... stop by sometime then..."; Liberty was unsure about the entire idea, but a soft smile was still carved into her face. "But uh, I guess I should probably start on this! I should be done with it by... I don't know... Saturday? Is that a good time to invade your house?".

"Mhm. Sounds perfect~".

"Great! Or, perfect, I guess. I'll try to stop by in the afternoon, but you never know what'll happen, right? But until then… I’ve got a masterpiece to work on~!”.

She began putting her set-up away, somehow fitting it all within her over-shoulder bag. Truly, the workings of this franchise's logic were an enigma. She headed for the exit of the fishing grounds, giving a quick salute to him as a farewell.

"See ya later man!".

Karamatsu watched as she walked out, noticing the slight skip in her step as she left. She seemed to be muttering something to herself, and though he couldn't understand what it was about, he could at least tell it had a happy tone. That went over decently well, he thought.

That being said... what the HELL just happened to him?!? He began jumping around, pumping his fists and laughing joyously. A dramatic "YAHOO!" belted from within him, probably loud enough for Liberty to hear outside the grounds. His cheering was interrupted by a yank backwards; Todomatsu had spawned right to his location, and he wanted answers.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!? WHO'S NUMBER DID YOU GIVE HER, THE HOUSE NUMBER?? WHAT'D YOU D O?!??!?", said Todomatsu, having a crisis over his plan backfiring.

"Relax brother, relax. I didn't write a phone number in there, just our address".

Todomatsu's expression went blank for a second, having to process what his brother just said; "Our... our address? What is she even coming for? Is she picking you up for somewhere?!?!".

"Nonononono! She's just dropping something off for me!". Karamatsu smirked; "She's agreed to create a work of art for me, heh~".

Todomatsu raised a brow, all of his fears immediately being tossed through the window.

"So... so you're not going on a date?".

Karamatsu sighed; "No... but that's alright. The next time I see her, I'll surely sweep her off her feet. You should've seen her, dear brother... she was obsessed with me. Every word of mine had her begging for more-".

Karamatsu cut himself off, noticing the drastic change in Todomatsu's body language; "Why... why are you smiling like that-".

Todomatsu’s eyebrows raised, giving him the slyest expression known to man; "Because you lost the bet~".

Karamatsu went dead silent. He… he kinda forgot about the bet for a minute there- His brain went into overdrive, getting even more shocked once he processed Totty’s words; "EH?!? HOW DID I LOSE?!? Did you not see how well that went?!".

"The bet was for you to get a date Kara, not to get a commission from some starving artist".

Todomatsu giggled, reaching into Kara's pocket and yanking his wallet out for himself. He ran off, staring at Karamatsu with a shit-eating grin.

"Thanks big brother~!".

Karamatsu called for his brother to come back, but in a flash Totty took all of his fishing gear and left. Karamatsu stood in place, his arm reaching out for a brother he knew would never return. He sat down defeated; his rollercoaster of emotions was all for nothing.

Or... maybe that was too harsh of a sentiment to have. There was a certain warmness inside him that he hadn't felt before. Even minutes after the entire encounter, his face was still visibly warm. He wasn't really sure how he felt. Was this how true love felt? Was he just riding off the high of being close to a girl? He couldn't decide, but maybe that was alright for him. He knew he liked her in some form though, and he knew he couldn't wait for Saturday to roll around. He was excited, perhaps inspired. This could finally be the start of the mutual-pining, suspenseful romance he’s wanted all along! Or it could just be another disappointment, but the chance it could work this time… that’s where the fun was.

If only he knew how reciprocated those feelings were. Along the streetside walked Liberty, an aura of excitement surrounding her. She came to Japan for a specific purpose, but never in her life would've she expected her plans to come together so smoothly…

[cheonmaneechan]

Battler keeps his dark skintone in the Pachinko sprites but. almost nobody uses those because they have...other issues

Yeah, that is true. I remember very briefly using the pachinko sprites for maybe less than an hour or even less than 30 minutes into Umineko in Ep 1, only to notice that there are different original sprites that you can use and that those looked better lol.

[masked-and-doomed]

I do not fucking like the first chapter of Lost Lambs the more I dwell on it 😭 it's like wow. My new friend that is also Conclave enjoyer has thought about this wayyy better than I have and has cooler and more coherent interpretations of them. I'm considering fucking scrapping it and doing it anew but also I think the direction it went in is probably what works mostly. I justt AUGH I feel like I don't know the Conclave at all (of course you fucking don't they were here for a small portion of Sign and Baldias is fucking dead and only in the pachinko game)

Like hraahhh

What the fuck mannn. Punches wall. Who are these guysss what were they doing all those years. What were their lives like beforehand. What the fuck ‼️

If only they were actually here to just tell me who the fuck they were then. I could. Write rpf. Lol.

[tempenensis]

Idle Death Gambler

Okay, as a veteran gacha games player seasoned probability chaser, I will try to explain Hakari's domain expansion.

Hakari's domain expansion works like a pachinko machine. If you don't know pachinko, it's similar to a slot machine. It's a gambling machine and it's all about chasing probability much like gacha games

The routine in pachinko goes; you put in some coins in the machine, spin the machine, then see if you can pull the same symbols. The same three symbols, just like in slot machine, indicate jackpot. However, if there's still prize if you pull 2 symbols in pachinko, in Hakari's domain, there's only jackpot which will only be resulted if he can pull the same three symbols. If he doesn't pull a jackpot, then he has to redo the roll.

The probability of jackpot is 1 in 239 scenario (that's even lower than SSR probability in gacha games lol). But he has a huge chance to increase his probability to win jackpot, up to 75% everytime he rolls. Riichi is what he calls the scenario he pulls.

Now. This visual indicators can be an analogy of when we put coins into the machine. The more coins we put, the better chance we have in winning jackpot. In Hakari's domain, this indicated by the color and the number of visual effect appears.

After we put in the coin, then we spin the machine to see if we can pull the same symbols. But this is where it gets hilarious; in Hakari's domain, this is replaced by romcom manga scene lmao, from the manga Private Pure Love Train. The symbols also come from the characters of the manga (tbh idk if this is an actual manga or just very obscure since I can't find anything when I look it up).

The scene that appears also indicates his chance of grabbing jackpot. This is further boosted by what he calls "chance booster", image that appears in the scene unfolding.

So let's see the first instance of his roll. He "put in his coins" and pulls the visual indicators

Two indicators appear, green ball and red train doors. Low probability for the ball, and medium probability for the train doors. He says riichi to start the scenario, "spinning the machine" per se. The scene that he pulls then is the "transit card riichi", with low probability too for jackpot.

All of the starting points are low probability for jackpot. So in result he fails to get jackpot, indicated by the protagonist, Yuki fails to pass through the station gate.

Then he "put in his coins" again, pulling his visual indicators. This time around, the starting visual indicators are gold doors, indicates good probability.

And when he spins, the scene that he pulls is the Friday Night Train, which has high probability too, in addition, it is boosted by Yume appearing in person in the scene. So Hakari pulls a jackpot

And he never has to spin more than 30 times to beat his opponents (in gacha games language, he never spends more than 30 pulls to get the SSR that he wants. I'm truly envious). He has luck EX rank a goddamn tremendous luck

So I hope this explanation helps!!

[ratmonky]

Cigarette Burns

Word Count: 10K

Warnings: non-con, kidnapping, blackmail, torture, urination (no piss kink lol), humiliation, dacryphilia, knife play, manipulation, violence, mild gore, mind break, captivity

AO3 Link

@m00dyb00bs​ as promised this one’s for you fam <3

All his life, Junpei had been an outcast. Being bullied and hated by others was nothing out of ordinary for him. He was simply used to it by now but he had hoped it would stop once he dropped out of school. When you think of it, people usually move on with their life after graduating high school. They went to college or got a job to finally live their life as an adult.

No sane person would continue bullying their victim from back in school but again, Junpei had never been lucky in his life.

Those guys were now battering him without the need to hold back. Since they were all out of school, they didn’t need to be held accountable for anything they did to him. Nobody was going to scold them or call their parents. None of them were children anymore.

Junpei wasn’t weak. He knew he wasn’t but against those guys, he could never win if he tried standing up for himself. Bigger fish ate the smaller fish, it was that easy.

“What happened to you?” his boss asked when he noticed the new bruises on his neck and face.

Unconsciously, Junpei’s hand went to his face. “Oh, it’s nothing, sir.” He calmly brushed it off as nothing but it made him feel at ease somehow that someone took notice of his well-being.

“You’ll scare the customers looking like that,” his boss said, clicking his tongue. “Go to the back, someone else will take the cash register.”

Junpei nodded languidly. He had gotten the picture.

~~~

“Get up.”

His calm voice loudly echoed in the empty alley. Junpei planted his aching and shaking arms on the concrete floor to push himself up. He wobbled as he got back up on his feet.

They were all laughing, the same guy who had told him to get up gathered all his might and punched Junpei in the face, knocking him off of his feet yet again, Junpei’s lanky body crashed on the concrete.

“He bounces off the ground like a ball!” someone laughed, “It’s so funny, I’ve never thought a human could do that.”

“It’s from the impact,” another one pointed out. “Didn’t you learn about that in school?”

“Argh, man don’t remind me of physics!” he whined. “I’ve seen videos of people jumping from the buildings and they bounce like that when they hit the ground, it’s so crazy dude!! They don’t even start bleeding until like ten seconds later!!”

Junpei groaned in pain but tried to stifle his voice. The tension would fade away soon enough and they would forget about him if they kept going on about their stupid argument. His hand went to his face, it was wet. Slowly, he lifted his hand up to look at the blood dripping from his hand. With a sharp gasp he turned over on the concrete he was laying.

He laid on his back, watching the sky.

This could have been ranked in the top five on one of the worst days of his life, it could take second place, the first one being the day his mother had died.

His vision blurred with tears, he couldn’t move a single muscle anymore.

“Woah, he’s crying!”

“Just like a damn kid, isn’t that pathetic?”

“Wait wait wait, I’ll give him something better to cry about.” Their leader who had been using him as a punching bag walked over to Junpei, he pushed down his tracksuit pants and pissed on Junpei.

They all started laughing louder as Junpei tried squirming but couldn’t even move a finger. He then relented, watching the sky and his assaulter standing on top of him while his clothes were getting soaked in urine. He had worked overtime today but he felt almost too sore. He could feel a weird rush on his body, ah, nevermind, that was probably from this guy pissing on him.

Once the guy was done, he pulled up his pants and they all left.

Junpei didn’t move or rather didn’t bother to move as his nostrils were getting invaded with the ugly stench. It was hitting up to his nose bridge, he tried ignoring it but it was too strong.

By the time he found enough strength to move, he decided to walk back to his place using the dark alleys and the empty streets. The cold night breeze felt like a blizzard thanks to him being soaked in piss, the next day he was definitely going to get sick.

A tremendous wave of rage washed over him. He started to wonder where everything went wrong. Why was he still being humiliated like this?  Was it because he was weak and unable to fight back?

Unless Junpei did something to stop them, he would have to continue to live his life in misery. Then Junpei realized the anger he felt towards them wasn’t going to fade away if he only stopped them. He wanted to hurt them like they hurt him for all those years. They had to pay for what they had done.

They had to suffer like he did.

~~~

If there was a button that would kill everyone he hated, he wouldn't press it. However, if there was a button that would kill everyone who hated him, he would press it without hesitation.

Nevertheless, if there existed a button that would make everyone who hurt him and their loved ones suffer, he would choose to press that button.

Death would be too forgiving after all they had done but letting them suffer every single day until their last breath sounded like the perfect option.

~~~

Junpei hadn’t thought he would spend his day off stalking the leader of his bullies who had pissed on him that night but here he was.

That guy was more of a loser than Junpei ever could be. He spent his day walking around and smoking when he wasn’t playing pachinko or disturbing the peace in the streets.

Although it was boring to follow the guy around, Junpei needed at least some information about this guy to hurt him. Junpei could never outpower him and torture him like in his fantasies but if he could blackmail him in some way it would be more than enough. He only needed something to use it against him.

After the fifth hour, he lost hope. The guy was useless, he didn’t have a purpose in his life or something he could use against him. As he was getting ready to call it a day, something happened.

The guy stopped in front of a convenience store, talking to a girl who was sweeping the front of the shop. She said something and they laughed. They walked into the store, Junpei watched through the large store window as he made his way to the cash register and continued talking to the girl until she walked around the counter. The girl didn’t look like she was uncomfortable talking to him.

They continued chatting for a while before the girl crouched down behind the counter. When she was back in Junpei’s view, she was holding a large package. The guy looked annoyed but took the package from her, they exchanged some sort of farewell before he walked out of the store.

Junpei pulled his baseball cap further down and followed the guy to an apartment building. He kept his distance and watched him use a key to get into the building, after a long time of waiting, Junpei made his way towards the building’s entrance but didn’t go inside.

Instead, he checked the name tags next to each doorbell. Then he noticed a familiar last name next to a girl's name.

Bingo.

~~~

They caught him after work the next day.

“Hold him.”

While the two guys held Junpei against the wall, their leader inhaled from his cigarette with a sinister smile as his hand reached for Junpei’s face and cupped his cheek.

Junpei struggled but the other two guys were using their both hands to hold him in place.

The leader’s hand moved up his cheek and carded the long fringe covering Junpei’s forehead back. He took another drag of his cigarette, exhaling it in the vulnerable one’s face before pressing the still-lit cigarette between two other barely healed burns.

When Junpei opened his mouth to scream, the guy shoved the cigarette in his mouth. He forcefully closed his jaw shut and snickered two words, demanding. “Eat it.”

Having no other choice, Junpei chewed. The tobacco which wasn’t made for consumption through the mouth was bitter than anything these guys made him eat before, he wanted to gag as the small leaves covered the inside of his mouth, making it impossible to chew any more as they absorbed his saliva, leaving him with a dry mouth.

They laughed at the same time he was struggling to breathe.

In the end, Junpei so desperately wanted to be the last one to laugh.

~~~

Junpei spent two weeks preparing everything. He learned your working schedule, which route you took home, and just how much your brother treasured you. From his observations, he could confidently say that you were the only thing a guy like him cared about.

You were perfect.

~~~

Tonight was going to be the last late-night shift ever for you. Not because you hated it but because your brother insisted you stopped working at night since he believed it was dangerous for any girl your age.

Unlike any other nights, you had told him you would walk home yourself, although he refused at first, when you lied to him about promising to take a taxi home, he relented.

It had been quite a calm night, even during the rush hour after the bars closed, it was quiet.

Although you weren’t supposed to close the store any earlier than the time that was written on the entry door, you clearly weren’t going to have anyone coming here after this hour. So, you decided to wipe the floors and close the cash register. As the machine was printing out the entire day’s worth of receipt, you flipped the ‘open’ sign on the door to ‘closed’.

Once the store was clean and ready to close, you went to the dressing room to take off your work shirt. It wasn’t your turn to wash any of the shirts this week which meant that you could throw the shirt into the laundry basket that was already filled up with dirty shirts without hesitation. Your coworker was definitely going to be angry but you couldn’t care less, they often left the toilet clogged and never changed the coffee filter when they used the coffee machine in the break room. It was simply your way of getting back at them.

After counting up all the money and leaving the receipts in the small safe, you turned off the lights to exit from the back with the trash. You took out the keys from the front pocket of your pants and locked the back door.

Goosebumps prickled your skin, the cold of the night was too harsh. Strolling out of the warmth of the store into the crisp night air was like being suddenly flung into a blizzard. You shivered, throwing the trash into the large dumpster and wrapping your arms around yourself.

Your teeth were chattering when you bit your tongue out of a sudden because of something moving behind the dumpsters. Whipping your head around abruptly, you tried to see if what you saw from the corner of your eye was just your imagination.

Never the one to have quick reflexes or ever had been in a fight or flight situation, you stood there, staring at a lanky guy who was holding a handkerchief in his hand.

Where did he come from? Was he hiding behind the dumpster?

As if you still weren’t sure if what you were seeing was real or not, you blinked, completely frozen in place.

None of you moved.

“H-hello? C-can I help you?” Maybe he was one of the drunkards but you knew that wasn’t true. He was standing still, not even wavering.

It was quiet.

Seconds passed before you finally came back to your senses. You could simply walk away from him. Internally slapping yourself in the face, you took a step back to turn around.

Then he took a step, it made your breath hitch but you had made your mind. Turning around on your heels, you walked. He moved too. Your pulse went haywire in terror and before you could start running, you felt a cloth being pressed over your mouth, making you lose consciousness almost immediately.

~~~

The first thing you noticed was the smell of mold, dust, and wet concrete.

You felt shivers run down your spine. Your stomach churned and you froze as you recalled everything that had happened. Jolting up from the mold-covered mattress, you noticed two more things as soon as you started moving your body. There was a single metal anklet chaining you to a pillar and your hands were tied behind you.

When you opened your mouth to scream, you noticed another thing. Your mouth was taped.

Starting to hyperventilate, you found yourself crying in fear. Muffled sounds of your sobbing echoed in the dark until a loud creaking noise made you quiet down. You held your breath to listen carefully.

Click.

It was a door.

Someone was here with you.

It had to be your kidnapper.

Footsteps.

He was getting closer.

Okay, take a deep breath. Your brother had taught you how to fight, you had to go for a punch on the throat, kick him between the legs, and shove the inside of your palm up to his chin with everything you got. Well… although you had to be untied in those scenarios, you knew how to fight.

What else, what else?

You moved your leg and the chain made a clanking sound.

The chain, it was long enough to-

“Brought you food, I can’t stay here today but I’ll be back tomorrow night.”

You watched the guy put down a tray of food on the bed. They were all in bowls. Rice and water. By the time you looked up to him, you saw that he was wearing a facemask and gloves. He noticed your stare and kneeled on the mattress.

Suddenly, you started squirming, not wanting him to come close to you. Yet it was futile, he pressed you down by your shoulder.

“I’ll peel the tape off,” he announced and scratched the corner of the tape until he managed to lift enough of it to be able to grab. Then he peeled it off abruptly, making you scream in pain. “Ah, I’m going to be late…” He got up from the mattress while checking his phone. “Like I said, I’ll be back tomorrow-”

“Who are you?! Why are you doing this?! Where am I?!” you screamed, your voice broke thrice as if you were too dehydrated. How long had you been here?

He didn’t answer and walked out from the way he came, you heard him shut the door.

Someone could hear you now that your mouth was free. So you started screaming and finally got up to your feet. You were discalced and the wet concrete was incredibly uncomfortable to walk on, the small pebbles of things you couldn’t see prickled under your feet.

Hours passed, or it felt like hours passed but your throat was sore from screaming nonstop. The chain wasn’t that long, you couldn’t reach anywhere as you only could go around in circles.

Since you were exhausted, you relented and walked back to the mattress to sit on a spot where it didn’t have any mold.

Your stare landed on the tray of food the guy left earlier. You were starving but how were you supposed to eat when your hands were tied behind your back? You could have tried moving them front by sliding them down your back while crouching and then stepping back but the metal chain around your ankle was preventing you from doing exactly that.

Moving closer to the tray of food, you wondered why everything was in a bowl yet again.

The realization hit you at once when you saw the bone design on the bowls. He was messing with you, he expected you to eat like a damn dog. That made you lose it altogether. You kicked the tray as far as you could and continued screaming.

~~~

You had never realized how slow time moved until now. Hours were like years. You couldn’t move because your stomach was sizzling with acid, trying to basically digest itself and making you regret kicking the tray.

No matter how much you tried, you couldn’t reach the food, the chain was too short.

Was this how you were going to die?

Ugh, what are you stupid? People won’t die from starvation or thirst this early and you would be fine… he said he was coming back.

Tomorrow night?

Was it morning when he said that?

You didn’t know the answer.

Your head started spinning again.

~~~

Something was poking your cheek.

“Hey.”

You jerked awake, startling the guy.

It was quiet as he waited for you to sit up. You didn’t have the strength to yell or scream at him anymore.

“You should eat this time, I don’t know when I’ll be back.” He put the tray down on the mattress but he didn’t leave like the last time. He stood there, waiting.

You leaned forward towards the tray, it was the same food from before and they were in the same bowls. Your eyes scanned around the large place, the bowls you had kicked weren’t anywhere to be seen, so they had to be the same bowls.

Your gaze landed on the guy, he was still wearing a face mask and gloves. There were a chair and a large bag next to the pillar far away from the one you were chained to, completely out of your reach.

“Come on, eat now, I’ll put it away or the mice will gather on this floor again.”

“I can’t eat like this,” you replied, shrugging your shoulders. “Untie me.”

“That’s why they’re in a bowl, use your mouth.” Was his answer.

“I’m not going to humiliate myself like that.” For someone in captivity, you sure were asking for first-class treatment.

“If you wanna leave here you might wanna do the things I say when I say them,” he said, walking over to the chair to sit down. “It’ll speed up the process.”

“Why am I here?” you demanded, sounding a little too annoyed. “What process?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, watching you in silence.

“I have a brother,” you hissed through your teeth, “He’ll know I’m missing and once he finds you, he’ll make you regret everything-”

“He’s the reason why you’re here.” His tone was blank, devoid of anything.

“Huh?”

“Eat now, we have things to do.”

“People will notice my absence!” You raised your voice, “I have friends and a job, they will all notice.”

“They won’t.” He didn’t explain further but you weren’t dumb. He was wearing a face mask and gloves, the food was just rice and water.

“Y-you planned this…”

“You should eat, we have things to do.”

There were a thousand different thoughts going through your mind in a millisecond. “I’m not gonna eat,” you grumbled, “Let me go.”

You heard him sigh before he stood up to walk over to the mattress. He grabbed the tray and walked away with it, putting it on the chair.

“I guess it’s better if we start now and then you can eat.” He crouched next to the large back, unzipping it. You saw him take some stuff out but couldn’t make out what they were. “What kind of a guy is your brother?”

The question was weird. You couldn’t place your finger on it but it felt like a trap. As if he was testing you.

“I asked a question.”

Your shoulders tensed when he raised his voice.

“He’s protective and kind,” you blurted out.

That made him scoff, he shook his head before getting back up and turned around. Immediately upon him walking closer to the mattress, you noticed that he was holding a box cutter.

It made a repetitive clicking sound as he pushed the blade out.

Fear came rushing back as you remembered once again that you were kidnapped by a stranger who clearly had planned this out.

“I’m- I’m sorry, please, wait!” You started squirming, hurrying to get up from the bed so you could at least dodge but he already had one hand grabbing your shoulder.

You were going to die, it was that easy. He was wearing gloves and hadn’t even touched you directly in any way, you were going to get brutally murdered and he wasn’t going to leave any evidence behind. You were- You were-

“Don’t move,” he warned, holding the box cutter where you could see it. You nodded rapidly in response, tears already blurring your vision.

You felt your shirt being stretched and before you knew it, being cut.

“W-what-”

“Your clothing is in the way.”  

He tore the rest of the fabric left from your shirt and moved to your pants.

You watched in panic as he hooked a finger under the front of your pants and started cutting. The blade was too sharp, slicing the fabric of your pants smoothly and quickly. You weren’t dumb enough to struggle right now when the blade was so near your flesh, he was being careful to not cut you and you didn’t want to mess up his concentration.

By the time he managed to completely cut your pants and leave you only in your underwear, you caught a glimpse of his red ear and neck.

He flipped you over to grab the remains of your shirt and pants, after grabbing them he walked back to the large bag. The rustling sound filled your ears but you were too busy drowning in your tears. That had scared you and slapped you back to reality. You were helpless in this situation, no matter what you said or did, this guy could do whatever he wanted to you.

As long as you did everything he said, you would be unharmed, right? Wasn’t that what he said before? He also told you to not move so he wouldn’t cut you. Maybe this was just a prank.

Yeah, that had to be it.

Your brother could be a jokester sometimes, he had probably paid someone to prank you. Yes, that was it.

“Why are you laughing?” he asked.

Ahh, you hadn’t realized that you were laughing. Your laughter quieted down but you didn’t answer him because you didn’t know why either.

His footsteps echoed in the warehouse, you heard them come closer before you felt the mattress sink. Instead of turning around, you listened to what he could be doing.

Rustling, plastic wrap opening, and paper being ripped. There was a momentary pause before you heard the familiar click sound of a lighter.

He inhaled and as soon as he did, he started coughing.

He was smoking… or trying to.

“How do people even smoke these?” he asked himself.

Only while he was taking another whiff you realized he probably had pulled down or taken off his mask. You needed to see his face if you wanted to identify him once you got out and-

“Don’t move,” he warned. “When you struggle, it hurts more. Trust me, I know from experience.”

You didn’t get to ask him what he was talking about as a sharp pain on your back made you scream in surprise. Your body twisted and moved away from whatever that was but a hand pressed you down onto the mattress by your head, keeping you in place. He used his knee to press you down by your back to make sure you couldn’t move at all.

“It’s not lit,” he mumbled and after his remark, you heard the lighter again. He inhaled, coughed, and then you felt the sharp pain on your shoulder this time. The pain was more vivid, you heard the sizzling coming from the cigarette and your skin felt like it was burning as the cigarette’s lit tip extinguished on your skin.

“Stop! Please! It hurts!”

He pulled it back but soon again you heard the lighter before he took another whiff of the cigarette, coughed, and pressed it on your skin.

“Why are you doing this? Please stop!”

“Your brother does this to me almost every single day,” he said, holding you in place and twisting the cigarette’s lit end on your skin. “Did you know?”

Petrified, you couldn’t say anything. You couldn’t understand what was happening. Your entire body stilled as you heard the lighter again.

“Please,” you choked out, voice breaking. “I didn’t know. This has nothing to do with me! I didn’t do anything.” You were becoming desperate as his hand moved away from your hair to start stubbing out cigarettes on the other shoulder.

“I didn’t do anything either,” he said. “But he never stopped, no matter how much I begged.”

“I’m not my brother, please, I’m innocent.”

“So was I.”

Another burn and then another and then another-

Your tears had dried by the time he was done.

“Here’s the food, you should eat now before you pass out.”

You couldn’t roll on your back, the skin on your back was burning up and you were sure it was bleeding.

He must have noticed because he picked the tray up and put it right in front of you. This time, you didn’t say anything and stuck your face into the bowl, ëating the rice without taking a breath. As you were gulping down the water, you noticed that you needed to pee.

Seeing that you were done, he took the tray away from you.

“I…”

“Hmm?” He paused to listen to what you wanted to say.

“I need to go to the bathroom.”

“If it’s pee, you can do it here.” He was being serious. “There’s no bathroom here and I forgot to bring a bucket.”

Your lips pressed together but it didn’t stop you from sobbing. “Why are you doing this? I didn’t do anything to you.”

“You should blame your brother for this.”

You knew your brother could be a douche at times but you had never thought he would hurt someone like this. He was… so caring and loving towards you. He was always so careful and protected you from any danger.

“Why isn’t he here instead of me then?” If he hurt this guy to the point of him turning into a monster, he deserved to be here, not you.

“I want him to suffer,” he said.

He was planning to get to your brother by hurting you, it was that simple but he didn’t know your brother like you did. If your brother found out about what he did to you, he would actually kill him. The last guy who broke your heart by cheating on you had gotten three broken bones, there was no way this guy would survive his wrath.

Oh…

You started to connect the dots.

Your brother had anger issues, he took them out from anyone he could overpower. He was caring and protective of you because he was scared someone would treat you the way he treated others.

He had failed miserably.

Everything he did lead up to your torment.

Learning this wouldn’t anger him. Learning this would make him suffer. It could push him into a bottomless hole where he will only blame himself for everything until he would kill himself.

This guy didn’t seem like he was enjoying this, whatever he was doing to you hurt him more than it hurt you and it was your brother who did this to him.

He wanted your brother to suffer by breaking the thing he treasured the most.

“If… I’ll go and check the place again,” he announced. “I didn’t really check if there were any bathrooms.”

You nodded languidly and continued lying down on your stomach.

He came back a while later and grabbed something from his bag anteriorly returning to your side. “There’s a bathroom but the water pipes in there must be damaged, the flush didn’t work and the water coming from the faucet was black. I have wet wipes with me though.”

Metal clinking on metal echoed, no it was a familiar sound of keys rattling. You lifted your head up from the mattress and you couldn’t believe your eyes. He was dangling a key in front of you. He was holding wet wipes and something else in his other hand.

“I will untie you but you have to behave if you don’t wanna be hurt.” He put the key back in his pants’ front pocket and leaned forward to put on a collar around your neck. “Okay?”

“What is that?” you asked, planting your knees on the mattress and using your legs to sit up.

“A shock collar, its voltage is high enough to pin you down.” His explanation was quick as he was unlocking the metal anklet. “Please don’t make me use it.”

He helped you get up but your eyes were on the small device he was holding. It definitely belonged to the collar, it was a remote control. If you could take it away from him, you would be able to run away.

“Let’s go,” he said, holding you by your arm.

Okay, you needed to find a way to distract him. He needed to drop his guard enough for you to grab the device from him.

He led you out of the large opening and down some stairs before making a sharp right turn. You were panicking because all of the windows were blocked by wooden planks and you couldn’t tell where the exit was.

“It’s here.”

You walked inside a filthy bathroom, the tile floor that was supposed to be white was a disgusting brown and the stalls were covered in graffiti. You were discalced, there was no way you were going to walk inside without something between the filthy floor and your feet.

“Can I borrow your shoes?”

“No.” He dragged you inside and led you straight to a stall without a door. “Be quick.”

You stood in front of the dirty toilet, the ceramic was smeared with brown streaks and you could only hope it was mud.

Turning back to him, you trembled in panic. “A bucket… or outside would be better. Please, it’s so filthy here-”

“I have to leave soon, you either pee now or wet the bed later.” He wasn’t looking at you, averting his gaze to anywhere but you. “You don’t have another choice.”

You looked down and remembered that you were only in your underwear, the torture from earlier had made you forget about everything.

Ugh, you pressed your thighs together. You needed to relieve yourself, urgently. Yet another problem came up. “How am I going to do it when I’m tied up? I can’t pull my underwear down.”

His ears and neck turned red immediately, when he spoke, he was stuttering. “I-I’ll pull it down for you.”

There was this urge to scream bubbling in your throat but you had to bite it as you watched him put the device in his pocket and crouched in front of you.

You stopped breathing when his gloved hands reached for your sides, hooking his fingers under the waistband of your panties before staggeringly pulling them down. He was breathing heavily, shoulders moving with each breath he took.

“H-here.”

He stood up, hands pulling down his shirt to cover a small problem you didn’t need to know about.

“Are you going to wait here?” The least he could do was to give you privacy. “I can’t do it when you’re staring, it’s embarrassing.”

As if he only noticed you were still tied up and wouldn’t be able to run away when you’re this vulnerable, he nodded rapidly before taking a step back. “I’ll wait outside, let me know when you’re done so I can-” His eyes were on your halfway down panties, he stopped himself from talking and grabbed the wet wipes from the sink he had placed them on. “Just… be quick.”

Once he left, you took a deep breath, holding back your tears no matter how humiliating this situation was.

Okay, okay, okay.

This is fine.

You stared at the toilet and gagged dryly. There was no way you were going to sit on that…

Wait, you had heard that there were people who could pee standing up, maybe you could too.

Ugh, you would do anything to avoid sitting on this filthy thing anyway.

Taking a hesitant step back and lowering yourself reluctantly on the toilet, you stopped midway to try and see if you could do it.

The result?

It was as expected.

You pissed yourself, not even a drop landing inside the toilet.

A sob left your lips and the shame you felt was immeasurable. The guy was going to laugh if he saw you like this and what’s worse was that he was probably going to leave you like this.

You wondered how pathetic you looked right now.

Ahh, you hoped your brother had so much fun torturing this guy! You hoped he felt so powerful whenever he humiliated this guy! You hoped it was worth it for you to be standing here right now with your piss training down your leg, panties halfway down your knees, and shaking from the pain of the cigarette burns on your shoulders.

Your sobs turned into giggling.

“Are you done?”

“I pissed myself,” you replied, laughing hysterically but as soon as the guy was in front of you, your laughter turned back into sobs.

He didn’t laugh, rather he looked at you in pity. Which made you whimper audibly before continuously apologizing.

“I’m sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry,” your voice got quieter. “I feel so miserable and pathetic. I can’t do this anymore. Please let me go.”

Without saying anything, he grabbed the wet wipes, opening the pack and pulling out a bunch of the wipes. “Come here.”

You took a wobbly step forward and another until you were in front of him.

He crouched, you stilled as he began pulling your piss-soaked panties down, wordlessly urging you to step out of them. Once you did, he used the wet wipes to clean your legs. He quickly wiped at the fluid running down your legs, doing his best to get it all in one go but he needed more wipes.

“Could you spread your legs wider?” He then started wiping your inner thighs after you complied, moving in a circular motion and avoiding looking at your bare pussy. By the time he was done wiping your legs he stood up, grabbing two more wet wipes from the back. “Do girls wipe from back to front or vice versa?”

The question was so out of nowhere that it made you snort.

He sighed at your reaction and pressed the wet wipes on your slit, moving it along your folds.

“Ah.” Suddenly, your thighs pressed together, shaking as you pressed your forehead against his chest. The sensation had caught you in surprise, it even made you gasp softly.

He blushed bright red, wiping the front of your pussy and pulling his hand back immediately. “D-done,” he announced.

You nodded against his chest.

Your plan to escape past forgotten, you walked back to the room and let him lock the anklet around your ankle again before taking out the shock collar. He brought a blanket he pulled out from the bag and draped it over your lap.

“I’ll… I’ll be back in the morning to bring a bucket and underwear for you.”

That was it?

He was going to leave you like this?

You were almost naked except for your bra now and you were exhausted. Having your hands tied around your back when there were so many cigarette burns on your shoulders only added to your pain.

“H-hey,” you called, “Can’t you untie my hands? It’s really uncomfortable.”

He stilled for a moment, thinking. Decidedly, his hand went back and he fished out the box cutter from his back pocket. He pushed the blade out, cutting whatever thing he had used to tie your hands off.

When the pressure disappeared, you felt your shoulders relax. You put your hands on your lap, rubbing your bleeding wrists gently.

He retrieved the thick black zip ties and walked away. “I’ll leave some more food and water then. I’ll leave the wet wipes here too, just find a corner to relieve yourself next time.”

You nodded, he left a couple of store-bought tuna mayo-filled onigiris and a bottle of water on the mattress before placing the wet wipes on the concrete ground.

“Um, uh… Goodnight. I’ll come back in the morning.”

”Yeah.”

He left.

You waited.

Waited.

When you were sure he was gone for the night, you grabbed one of the onigiris, tore the packaging open, and split the ball in half. With your shaking hands, you scooped out the filling and smeared it on your ankle.

Mayonnaise was slippery, it could help you slip the anklet out.

Nevertheless, it didn’t work.

The anklet was adjusted just right around your ankle, it didn’t budge any lower or higher, even with the help of the mayonnaise.

Screaming in anger, you wiped everything off with the wet wipes so the guy wouldn’t notice anything odd tomorrow.

You had to get out of here.

Think.

Think.

Think.

The chain clanked and you froze.

Your eyes landed on the anklet and followed the chain it was wrapped around.

An idea.

This could work.

No.

This was going to work.

~~~

Click.

You pushed yourself up from the mattress instantly.

He was back.

You could feel the blood pumping through your body, hands shaking from nervousness.

It was completely silent before he gracefully walked inside, he was holding a bucket and a plastic bag. His face was blank but his skin was pale and the face mask was barely covering his nose. He was covered in sweat, hair sticking to his forehead. “I ran here,” he panted. “Let’s be quick, I can’t be late to work again.”

He walked closer, dropping the plastic bag near the mattress and placing the bucket carefully down.

Your lips kept trying to curl down into a frown but you fought to keep your expression neutral as he kneeled next to the plastic bag and pulled out a fresh pack of cotton panties. “I’ll put the collar on you and untie you so you can dress yourself up, okay?”

Nodding, you kept your eyes on him as your breathing became ragged. As soon as he unlocked your anklet, you were going to pounce on him, wrap the chain around his neck and hopefully choke him until he passed out.

That was the plan.

Simple.

He instructed you to stand up while you had the blanket wrapped around your waist. Once you did as he told you, he put the shock collar around your neck and gave you the keys.

Dumbfounded, you stared at him.

“You can do it yourself, I’m gonna watch from a distance.”

No.

This would mean that your plan was ruined.

Yet, you took the keys from him and he took a couple of steps back, holding the device in his hands.

Your knuckles were white as you unlocked the anklet and tore the packaging of the underwear open. Putting one on, you let the blanket fall down on the mattress.

“Good, now put the anklet back on and throw me the keys.”

You hesitated but still kneeled to grab the anklet and put it around your ankle. Pausing, you pushed the key inside the lock but didn’t lock the anklet. It still made a metallic click sound but it was unlocked.

With shaky hands you threw the keys back at him, being careful to not move your leg so the anklet wouldn’t slip and fall down, ruining your scheme.

He walked over to where the keys had landed and leaned down to grab them. “I brought some more stuff, they’re in the bag. I don’t think I can torture you like your brother tortures me. I’ll… I’ll be back tonight to take you back.”

The color drained from your face and you stood there, shaking. “You’re letting me go?”

“I mean, I don’t feel enjoyment from this like I thought I would,” he breathed. “My mind was clouded with revenge so much that I wanted to torture you who had nothing to do with it.”

All of his emotions had drained away in an instant, leaving him reeling.

Hatred was a terrifying emotion.

Junpei could feel it surrounding him. He knew he didn’t hate you but his grudge for your brother hadn’t appeared out of thin air.

He knew it wasn’t fair to you to hold you accountable for what your brother had done to him but he couldn’t help but think of-

No matter how it was, Junpei had promised his mother to bear the burdens he had earned.

Your brother was a nasty bully. His crimes weren't anyone else’s but his fault.

Junpei knew that.

There was no way he could hurt you like he hurt him but… the burden was just too much.

His hands were twitching as he struggled to put away the keys. With an audible yet shuddered sigh, he walked towards you to take off the shock collar but he had moved so abruptly that it made you take a step back, the anklet opened and fell on the ground with a loud clatter.

Whether it be from shock or clumsiness, he dropped the remote control for the shock collar as well.

He froze and so did you.

None of you moved.

Your eyes were on the device, it was closer to you than him. If you were quick, you could grab it before he could. You wouldn’t be able to take off the collar right now, your only chance was the device.

He knew exactly what you were thinking.

Both of you moved at the same time.

It was as if everything was moving in slow motion, you saw him reach the device before you but your legs didn’t stop, your body crashed against him, tackling him on the ground.

The device flew from his grasp when his body hit the floor and you groaned.

He was getting ready to crawl towards the remote control when you grabbed the chain.

There was a small moment of hesitation as you wrapped the chain around his neck and pulled it with full force.

The guy’s body stilled, going completely stiff as his hands went to his neck, trying to dig under the chain to pull it away.

You only had to hold out until he passed out, you could do this. Just keep pulling. Keep pulling.

One of his hands reached forward, trying to reach the device.

You pulled harder.

His fingertip managed to touch the remote control.

You planted your feet on the floor to pull the chains, it was enough force to knock him out, or at least that was what you had thought.

Before you knew it, an indescribable pain ripped down your spine. Your grip loosened around the chain and you crashed on your knees and hands but then electricity tore around your body, leaving you spasming on the concrete floor, unable to grasp anything as the electricity zapped through each nerve you had.

It felt like minutes until it stopped.

Your body continued spasming as the guy crawled on top of you with his fist up in the air.

The moment his fist met your face, it was hard. Your whole body jolted from the pain and you bounced off from the concrete. The impact left you even more dumbfounded than the electricity that had zapped through your body.

You felt another punch and then another until finally, he stopped.

He yelled in frustration and pain. You couldn’t tell what he was saying but all of the words were being said through his teeth, he sounded very angry.

Haha, perhaps now he had changed his mind and decided to not let you go.

Maybe if you hadn’t tried to escape, you would have been free tonight.

You heard the anklet’s lock click before you lost consciousness.

~~~

Junpei got scolded by his boss for coming in a half an hour late to work. He was told to work at the back yet again but he endured everything. Just like how he was enduring the pain around his neck.

You had crushed his windpipe, that was for sure. It hurt when he spoke but fortunately it hadn’t affected his voice. If he lost his voice now, he wouldn’t be able to work at all. He needed the money to pay for his rent.

Ahh, he was worried about the wrong things.

He chuckled to himself and his brows furrowed when his throat clenched from the pain.

Tonight, he decided, he was going to finish this tonight.

“Jun! Yo man, I’m leaving now!” His coworker entered the break room suddenly, startling him.

“Oh, alright. See you next week then.”

“Yeah, I closed the cash register and mopped the floors, so you can leave once you restock the cigarette displays!” He checked his phone screen and quickly turned around. “See ya, I gotta catch the last bus!”

Junpei didn’t even get to say anything as the guy left. He finished washing the dishes and walked back into the front of the store. Behind the counter, he started stocking the empty cigarette displays.

The sooner he was done, the sooner he could leave. He already had a day off tomorrow so everything would go according to the plan.

Well, Junpei was never that lucky.

The bell over the store’s door chimed, indicating that someone walked in the store. Junpei had thought it was his coworker who had forgotten something but then he heard the familiar laughter of the same three guys.

He turned around hesitantly as his bullies were leaning towards the counter.

The leader was smirking, “Yo, Jun. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

His boss had never installed security cameras and they knew that. They dragged him out of the shop after grabbing some cigarettes.

It was easy to guess where this was going.

“I had a terrible day, Jun!” whined the leader. “I need you to stay still so it’ll end quick, okay?”

Blood splashed onto the concrete ground when his fist met Junpei’s face for the fifth time. Junpei's eyes landed on the dark red liquid pooling under his feet.

“Woah, these brass knuckles are good!” One of the guys laughed.

“The guy who sold them to me said they hurt like a bitch.” The other one stared at Junpei being battered by their leader. “I’d say he’s enduring it well, if I were in his place I’d be bawling my eyes out.”

“Being punched by that guy is the worst, I’m kinda glad we’re friends.”

“Ew, dude. You’re gonna make me puke.”

The leader glowered at Junpei and swung his fist with everything he had. He drove his knuckles into his face and put all of his weight into it until the squelch of tearing flesh and blood spattered across his knuckles.

Junpei’s body could not take it any longer, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He was out cold in seconds.

~~~

Rage.

That was all he felt as he was packing his bag.

All the thoughts he had, in the beginning, coming back.

He wanted to make that piece of shit regret his entire existence. He wanted to make sure that fucker couldn’t walk out into public without feeling ashamed and scared. He wanted to make him suffer for a lifetime.

Junpei was seeing clearly now.

His plan had been the only right way from the beginning. He couldn’t believe how he wavered from his own resolve just because some girl was playing innocent. You were the same as your brother.

You had to be.

None of it mattered anyway.

What mattered was the end result.

And Junpei knew he was going to get the result he wanted nevertheless if it meant he would lose a piece of his humanity.

~~~

With a sudden bang the door opened, it made you jolt as you were eating one of the melon bread the guy had bought for you.

Your ears were ringing as you stared at the guy walking inside with a backpack. He was shaking violently.

He was wearing the gloves as usual but his face was bare. Well, for the most part. It was covered in bandages that were bleeding through and the rest of his face was swollen.

His appearance sent a fierce shudder through your body because you knew who had done this to him.

Your lips had barely parted to say something when he was hastily walking towards you with a deranged look in his eyes.

You kicked on the mattress to get away but he took out the familiar device from his front pocket. Your hand went to your neck, the collar, it was still on.

Before you could register anything, electricity struck through your body, leaving you spasming on the mattress.

“You know, I was still planning to release you even after what you did.” He started digging through his bag. “But your brother made me change my mind. You really should thank him for that.”

He hadn’t realized how you couldn’t hear him at all from the shock coursing through your body. Once he saw you frothing at the mouth, he turned the device off to crawl on top of you with his video camera pointed at your face. “Good thing that I’m weak, your face is still recognizable.”

You stared into the camera lens and then at him.

Panic started to course through your body.

“Please,” you begged, “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing, you didn’t do anything. You had nothing to do with me and I had nothing to do with you. This is just about your shitty brother.”

“Please…”

“Stop crying, it’s annoying.” He squished your cheeks together with one gloved hand until your lips puckered, continuing to film everything at the same time. “But I’d say your crying face is really erotic.”

You sobbed, tears streaming down your face.

“Yeah, that’s the face.”

He let go of your face and pulled out the box cutter from his back pocket. “Don’t move,” he warned and you didn’t dare to. He sliced your bra right from the middle, this time, the tip of the blade cut your skin.

You yelped in pain and blood started oozing out from the cut. Pressing his finger where your cut was, he pulled the skin down, making more blood gush out. You watched in terror with wide eyes as he filmed the blood streaming down from your chest to your stomach.

“Okay, now tell the audience your name and age.” He returned his attention to you.

He was going to show this to others. This would count as evidence.

“My attacker has dark hair and dark eyes, he is-”

“Introduce yourself nicely or I’ll have to make it hurt.” He pressed the box cutter’s blade against your cheek. “I will edit this video and post it later for everyone to see if your brother even comes close to me.”

“I’m the one with a reputation,” you whimpered, “Please, it’s got nothing to do with me. Please.”

“That’s why you’re here,” he scoffed. “You have nothing to do with this. You’re like me! You did nothing wrong other than existing in this timeline! If only your brother wasn’t a douchebag narcissist, you wouldn’t be here!” He was yelling in your face, you were trembling in fear, completely unaware of what could happen in the next second.

You felt the cold metal of the blade moving down your body until it met the fabric of your panties. He slashed the fabric, giving you another small but deep cut on your hip.

“I feel so sorry for you,” he said but his tone didn’t match his words. “So sorry. You’re so weak and defenseless. Weaker than me. Oh, I feel so sorry for you.”

He tore the rest of the fabric off of you as he panted in excitement.

“I understand why your brother enjoys it so much now! I feel like a God. You’re at my mercy and you will take whatever comes your way because I have the power. If only you were a little stronger! Ahh, you’re so pitiful, it must be so unbearable!”

You froze, unable to do anything but watch in horror, he was so deranged that it was frightening. He had actually lost his mind.

“(name)!” he yelled, holding the camera up to your face, “Introduce yourself so we can begin! It’ll be just like a movie! First the actress’s name and the title screen!”

“I-”

“Speak up!”

With trembling lips, you introduced yourself, arms covering your chest as he was filming you.

“Be honest, (name), are you a virgin?”

A sob.

“I need an answer.”

A nod.

“Ahh, you’re going to be my first as well. How miserable!”

Your eyes widened and you started crying harder.

He put the box cutter back in his pocket and placed the video camera next to your head as he reached behind him to grab his bag. He searched through his bag until he found what he was looking for.

Smiling, he took out a cigarette from the pack and placed it between your lips. “I’ll light it for you,” he whispered. The cigarette was shaking along with your trembling lips as he lit the tip. “Inhale.”

You inhaled and the smoke filled your lungs, the nicotine calmed your senses slightly until you had to exhale.

He took the cigarette away from you once it was fully lit.

“Open your mouth.”

“Noo-”

He forced his fingers in your mouth to pry your jaw open. Holding your tongue tightly between two gloved fingers, he pulled the muscle out forcefully before pressing the lit tip down on your tongue.

You heard it sizzle and the pain was indescribable.

Your hands reached out to his arms, trying to scratch at his skin but it was futile, he was wearing a thick sweatshirt.

Letting your tongue go, he pushed the cigarette inside your mouth.

“Chew.”

Tears blurred your vision, it worked in your favor though, so you didn’t have to see the dark amusement in his eyes as the tobacco leaves exploded in your mouth, absorbing the saliva and leaving your mouth dry.

“Swallow.”

You shook your head, there was no way you could, there was no-

“It’s not that hard. Your brother made me eat it a couple of times before.”

He relented when you shook your head again. His eyes landed on the water bottle he had left for you earlier and reached for it. Opening the lid, he poured it down your face.

The liquid that managed to get inside your mouth helped you spit out most of the leaves but not all of them. While you were busy coughing, Junpei unbuckled his belt. He was staring down at you, watching you struggle with some dark amusement, and the dangerous glint in his eyes made you tense. You defensively squeezed your legs together and watched him pull his pants down just enough to let his hard cock bounce free.

You found yourself violently trembling as panic coursed through your body. There was no will to fight left in you, exhausted and so in pain, all you could do was lie still.

“Calm down,” he assured, caressing your cheek. “What we’re gonna do next won’t hurt physically.”

He reached for his bag again, taking out something you didn’t recognize. “Ahh, this?” Noticing your stare he held it up for you to see, “It’s a condom, I don’t wanna leave any evidence.”

At that moment, you wished your brother would drop dead wherever he was. You wanted him to die in such a miserable way that he would suffer even after death.

Rolling the condom down his cock, Junpei grabbed the video camera pointing the lens at your face. He was being extra careful to not film himself. “Anything you wanna say to the audience?”

“...”

You laid there motionlessly as he placed himself between your legs, moving them until he got comfortable and filming your bare pussy.

He pushed a gloved finger inside and twisted it around before pulling it out. He filmed the clear fluid coating the latex on his finger with a smile.

Junpei put a hand on your thigh, spreading your leg wider and pulling you towards his hips until his cock was looming over your crotch.

Proceeding to film you, he placed his hand on your bleeding chest. He covered his fingers with the blood and used it to smear it around his cock. The condom turned an ugly orange as the plastic rubbing on plastic made a disturbing squeaking noise.

He ran the tip of his cock across your slit and pressed it against your entrance, filming it closely as he pushed himself inside of you.

You tensed and yelped as his cock tore your hymen. It continued stretching your virgin walls until his entire length was buried in your pussy.

For a brief moment, Junpei stilled, he took a deep breath to adjust to your virgin walls squeezing him before he started to move.

“W-wait.” Your tongue felt foreign in your own mouth, it was swollen, most likely bleeding as well.

He listened or you thought he did. You thought it was over, finally, the torture was over- but you didn’t realize the wicked smile on his lips.

Junpei pulled his hips back and slammed into you abruptly. Your mouth opened in a silent scream as he set a pace for himself. His eyes were on your tits, they moved each time he moved his hips, it was almost as hypnotizing as watching his cock disappear into your body.

The pain of your hymen being torn past forgotten, your toes curled involuntarily at his cock stroking a nice spot.

“Stop, please!” Having your tongue being swollen made you sound weird like you were slurring.

“Why? Why should I?” he laughed, voice full of mischief as he lifted the camera up to your face. “You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

Blinking past tears, you turned your face away.

He laughed louder at your reaction before asking a question, “So, how does it feel to be fucked by some loser your brother likes to bully?”

He snapped his hips forward to force a moan out of your pretty lips. Junpei mercilessly humped your pussy, forcing your walls to take the shape of his cock. “Does it feel good?”

You sobbed loudly. “No-”

He cut you off by pounding into your pussy, forcing another moan out of you. “Come ooon, say it feels good!”

“No,” you cried.

“Say it feels good!” he yelled into your face.

“It feels so good!” you croaked in fear, sobbing uncontrollably.

Junpei stilled only for a moment, he stared at you in admiration and used one hand to push your leg to your chest. He buried his cock deeper inside of you, quickening his pace and fucking you frantically, putting his entire weight behind each thrust.

Your walls clenched around his cock and almost immediately he came inside the condom, dropping the camera from the way his orgasm took over his senses, leaving him trembling.

You didn’t remember him pulling out of you nor did you remember him unlocking the anklet but there was a phone being held up to your face now.

It was… your phone.

“Hellooooo?”

A familiar voice was laughing.

At that exact moment, you felt furious, rage filled all of your senses and you wished he was right in front of you so you could stab him with a knife, rake the blade repeatedly along his neck and let him die bleeding.

What you felt wasn’t only rage and anger but murderous intent. You wanted to kill, something you never thought you would feel like you would lust after at any point of your life.

“(name)? What’s up? How are the hot springs with your friends? Ya having fun?”

Junpei was smiling as your face contorted into something vile.

You pressed your lips together and spoke through your teeth to sound clear. “You pathetic piece of shit.”

It got quiet before your brother’s tone softened. “Did something happen?”

“I wanted to believe that there was good inside of you but I guess I was wrong.” Your voice was clear and understandable but your entire body was buzzing with hot tremors of rage. “You’re a fucking disgrace, I hope you die. Die, die die! Kill yourself before I kill you myself, you hear me?!”

“(name)?” His voice wavered as if he was ashamed. How cute, he was already feeling guilty. “I don’t know what happened but you can always talk to me if your friends are causing you a problem-”

“The problem is you! Die! Die! Die! I want nothing from a pathetic excuse of a brother like you! The problem has always been you, I will never forgive you not until I watch you die miserably, not until I watch you get lowered in your grave!”

You were panting by the time you were done.

“Where are you?” he asked hesitantly. “I’ll come to get you right now, it doesn’t matter how far away you are.”

“I don’t wanna talk to him anymore, get the phone out of my face.”

“Is there someone with you?” your brother quickly changed his tone to sound more masculine. “Tell them to give me your address.”

Junpei leaned forward to speak to the phone with a sinister smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll call her a taxi in the morning.”

Silence.

A gasp.

“Jun?”

“Yeah?” Junpei couldn’t hide the smile in his voice.

“I’m going to kill you,” he hissed. “Whatever you did to her, I’ll do it to you-”

“Oh, I did everything you did to me to her. Don’t worry about that.”

“I… I am going to beat you to death.”

“Alright, I’ll post your sister’s sex tape now then. It has her face and everything. She even says her name and age, how gullible is that?”

It took your dumb brother a long moment to realize how he had been chased into a corner.

“But I bet he doesn’t care, right, (name)?” Junpei was laughing hysterically. You didn’t answer. “He’s so selfish after all!”

“What do you want?”

He had finally won.

Junpei sighed dreamily before he answered honestly with his eyes landing on you.

"I already got what I wanted."

~~~

Living a life without the fear of being constantly battered by a bunch of losers was nice. It was quiet and peaceful, as expected.

Junpei was happy. He had even gotten himself a girlfriend. Someone gullible and weak.

The revenge was sweet, being the victor of a fight for power made him more confident and less of an outcast.

[neonponders]

TAG THINGYMAJIG!

answer these questions then tag some folx you wanna know better/catch up with

Tagged by @lovebillyhargrove ✨

1. Three ships

Achilles & Patroclus - Harringrove - Geralt, Jaskier, & Yennefer.

2. Last song

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” Yes, I’m on that train. It’s an incredible song for a LOT of reasons.

3. Last movie

Maurice (1987). The editing of this movie is odd and I actually have a lot of flaws with it lol but it also has its good points. I think it’s due for a remake OR even better, a mini series on some high profile channel. 

4. Currently craving

To finish this dang wip and to sew. My craving to sew is only matched by my fear of sewing lol

5. Currently reading

I’m not sure. I took a break from The Shining to read Maurice, finished Maurice, but I’m not ready to move onto something else haha and The Shining is just really heavy so I don’t know if I’m going to commit to it again. I have The Chosen and the Beautiful, and She Who Became the Sun waiting too. I’m one of these people who collects more books than I read lol I still have Pachinko waiting too. I’ll probably just read fanfic for a while ~

Tagging @peachypunk22 , @edith-moonshadow , @ghostofjellyfishforgotten , @rascheln , @memes-saved-me , @through-rose-glasses

[seoafin]

(hi, teacher toji au anon here lol) omg people seem to really like this au !!! ✋🏾😳 i might cry idk

i can only imagine how toji would be with nobara and yuuji 💀

with yuji, (idk if u see itafushi as a platonic bffs ship or if they like each other romantically, it could go both ways) i feel like he would FEAR toji w everything. i find that so funny because this boy literally charged at a strong ass curse w no hesitation when he first met megumi but now, he sees his best friend's dad and suddenly he's sweating 😭 he would try and impress him alot because he looks up to him ! a guy w no cursed energy being THIS strong ??? IT SPEAKS TO HIM !! but they would be cool w each other :)

(BONDING TIME W YUJI, TOJI AND MEGUMI!!!)

someone pls separate nobara and toji at all times because these two can be HELL when they're together. 😭 i see nobara and toji having that same chaotic parent-child relationship as yuji and gojo. toji mentoring nobara on missions tho >>> 😭

nobara: let's set the couch on fire to use as a distraction!

toji: no

nanami: thank god-

toji: it's better to set the whole house on fire, it'll hold their attention longer

nanami: wait NO NO-

i've said this before and i'll say it again. save megumi 😭

i love how you and 🦊 anon BOTH came to the conclusion that toji would enable the students LMAO everyone on this blog is truly vibing together and sharing that single braincell huh 😭

yuuji and toji go to the pachinko parlor together for “bonding” time even though yuuji’s nervous as hell the first time. then he finds out toji’s chill and in the end they get along super well!!! to the point where they’re more like friends rather than a teacher and student. megumi HATES it.

oh my god....nobara and toji......absolutely CHAOTIC. nobara beating up/intimidating people on the streets??? toji is there with a camera. nobara suggests roughing up people to get answers??? toji is nodding and telling her to watch out for blood on her clothes. nobara is literally his second daughter. once again megumi hates it.

[oakantony]

@iaal​: I’m happy to share more. a continuation of these posts about my horrible, very bad, no good time in the JET program.

lol, we’re not even through my first week on the job. back at my regular campus, I get an email from another JET participant in my town. and I find out...he’s my neighbor. he lives in one of the buildings across the street from my apartment and he was supposed to have come over my first night with a prefecture care package (that included necessities like laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, and some snacks), but he forgot about it until just now. he wanted to know if I had time to meet up tonight to get it?

yes. yes, oh my god, yes. he was the only other foreigner I’d seen since breaking off with my supervisor that weekend, and the opportunity to speak English and ASK QUESTIONS and figure out WTF was going on in my placement?!?! I was OVER THE MOON. I also had NO idea there was another JET in my neighborhood! GAME CHANGER. I replied to his email really enthusiastically and he replied that we should meet, on our bikes, at this particular street corner, at 6pm. we’d bike to the arcade! it’ll be fun!

I left school that day super excited. a prefecture care package? people DO care! I worked FOR the prefecture, so the higher ups had clearly arranged it so I’d have a comfortable start. or TRIED to, anyway. and there was an ARCADE?! I didn’t realize our little town even had one.

I got to the street corner where we are meant to meet and am immediately struck with anxiety. it’s a BUSY corner, right on a highway, and I’m basically a hazard, sitting on the sidewalk with my bike, as drivers are constantly slowing down to look at the redheaded american sitting in the rain, and people are honking, and it was rush hour, and there was high key some sort of zoo effect happening. I checked my ipod clock. 6:05. ok. ok ok ok.

still I waited. 6:20. No sign. I’m 100% confident I got the street corner correct; it’s very identifiable (and not far from our apartments). 6:30. I still don’t have a phone, nor internet, and I’m worried. should I leave? go home?

6:40. I’m getting mad at this point. not necessarily at the guy. like, of course this went wrong. EVERYTHING goes wrong. I decided I’m gonna hold out until 7. because maybe he meant 7 and I’m an idiot. 7pm rolls around. and he’s not there. I turn around to bike home and I see him pedaling up the street. he waves at me, says my name to confirm, and then introduces himself. “you’re a little late,” I said, checking my ipod. it’s 7:03. 

“oh, yeah, I fell asleep when I got home from work. haha. anyway, the arcade is this way!”

“do they have food?” I was down to my last pennies but I was starving tbh.

“I think they have snacks. you didn’t eat before coming here? you should probably start planning this stuff better. that’d be my first piece of advice as a JET veteran. plan your days out.” when I say his tone was condescending... he was aghast I’d be so stupid.

and, holy shit, man, I kinda figured I’d be home by 7:30 if we met at 6! but this is my first time meeting this guy and I didn’t want to ruin a relationship with what was potentially my only ally. in retrospect, that was dumb as hell. this guy was less than worth my time, but desperate times, you know?

he led the way to the arcade and it’s not an arcade. it’s. a. pachinko parlor. pachinko is a type of reaaaally popular gambling in japan and is mostly frequented by middle aged or older japanese curmudgeons. and when I tell you these old men were unhappy to have some random young american girl appear in their space... every single eye turned to me and followed me as he led me to the bar. i perused the menu for a second and realized, no, they don’t have snacks. they have drinks and cigarettes. so I passed. he then explained that I can’t pass; you have to buy a drink to hang out in the parlor. 

“ok, I’m gonna go,” I said. I’m hungry. I’m tired. I’m stressed; I’d been stared down for hours at this point, between that busy street corner and the regulars inside this “arcade.” I ask if I can just take the care package and go.

“oh, I forgot the care package,” he said. why did he have an enormous, heavy-looking backpack then? who knows. “you can come by later tonight and get it from my apartment. it’s This Number at This Building.”

I...ok. whatever dude. he seriously wanted me to find his place on my own? he was going to stay there for however long and expected me to just... show up at his convenience, at his apartment, and collect the items that belonged to me.

I left him there with his cigarette and whiskey neat and had the very distinct impression this guy thought I was an uppity buzzkill and a “typical culture shocked gaijin unprepared for japan.”

I never bothered to pick up my package. I’d already purchased myself essentials anyway. The highlight of my night: I stopped by the conbini on my way home and got a nikuman. it was the most delicious $1 meal I’d ever had.

[demonsfate]

Hi again! "Not only the whole "IF A MERE FATHER-SON QUARREL IS ENOUGH TO DESTROY THE WORLD, THEN SO BE IT" ---> I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this sounded weird from Jin's part. I completely agree that was his T6 personality. I truly hope we see good Jin again in T8 because I can't deal with another character assassination. I totally understand what you say about Xiao and Alisa's interactions, at times it seemed like ok this is important for the plot but how much of it do we need? Is not that I don't enjoy these two characters (Xiao is one of my faves), but I think the writing was just plain bad and all over the place. I can’t even remember what was the whole point of them spending so much time together 💀. Other than fighting over Shin(?) And yeah, Jin didn't care about hurting her which, again, kind of strange when you see him being so protective of her in the past??? Like you can be an ass but you can also care about your friends. Tek writers said NAH he's an ass with *everyone* and gives no fucks! Imo, I think his design in Blood Vengeance is a little weird. He looks young and grown at the same time. His neck area throws me off lol

Really, it felt like Blood Vengeance didn't really know what it wanted to be. With the whole Alisa and Xiao thing - it felt like they just wanted a cutesy slice of life high school thing with the beloved cutesy girls of the series - especially with fuckin LEE being like a teacher at the school??? And... g... Ganryu being the principal or something??? IIRC??? Which I wouldn't have mind if they did just create a full on silly Slice of Life thing that meant nothing but only for fun. But it felt like they also thought, "well... this is Tekken. We can't just do THAT, people want ACTION, and they want the Mishimas fighting" so they just came up with a contrived plot to get that rolling, and just to get some forced fight scenes going. And it all just became a boring mess and had the viewer wondering why they're even watching it or what's even really the plot of the movie.

I ADORE Xiao - a lot tbh. And tbh, I also liked her much better in Blood Vengeance than the anime, Bloodline. Whenever I complain about Xiao's characterization in Bloodline - people get critical of me and say "well we can't have her be a naive bimbo school girl!! that would look bad!!" And I could get into why I don't agree with that statement itself but it's not just that I didn't like that Xiao wasn't nearly as bubbly/cutesy in Bloodline - it's other parts of her characterization I didn't care for. And Blood Vengeance did her better and I'll say how -

in Bloodline, Xiao was able to DEFEAT fuckin Nina Williams - all on her own. A 16 year old VS a trained assassin. And yes, Xiao is trained, too - but not to kill, I'm sure not as harshly, and also not as experienced. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao struggled against Anna. This is much more realistic. As Anna is quite similar to Nina - trained assassin, more experience, and all that. And many argue that Anna is supposed to be the inferior sister in terms of combat skills. So, it shows just how fierce these sisters are against Xiao (who's 18-19 now, but still) Now this might be nitpicky as hell - but the scene where Xiao "attacks" Jin when they're walking to (or from) school. I guess because she didn't like how injured he looked, and he wasn't talking to her? But it just felt like an example of trying to make Xiao just a "cool female character who takes no shit!11!!" trope. Just because in Blood Vengeance, XIao was a very soft person who understood ppl and never pushed them around just bc she got upset. And in the games, she was also very caring of Jin and wouldn't do that. (hell, in the Pachinkos - she's even very gentle with Devil Jin, going as far to softly touching his face - she only attacks him in self defense.) Anyways - my point is, even if it is just a mere joke and nothing more - it felt very out of character for Xiao, and very forced. And one last example is that Xiao actually showed way more emotion for Alisa's "death" in Blood Vengeance than she did for Jin's death in Bloodline LMAO. Like she screamed, but afterwards - she just sounded more... angry at Heihachi than anything. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao showed she was angry at both Jin and Kazuya for why Alisa had to die. But you could really see her tear up, and crying about Alisa - as well as being gentle with her, and holding her mutilated body. There was a lot more emotion that could pull at your heart strings with Xiao experiencing Alisa's death vs Xiao experiencing her best friend's (and potential crush)'s death.

So, whilst I'd still rather watch Bloodline even if I did think Xiao was a better character in it - because whilst it was boring to me, it wasn't as boring as Blood Vengeance was. Nor did it feel as contrived - it just suffered from expositions and stupid writing choices.

I think the whole fighting for Shin thing was actually just an elaborate plan by Heihachi to get Kazuya and Jin together so he can kill them both and take the power of the Devil Gene for himself, as well as get back the Mishima Zaibatsu. Yes, you see - Shin had an elaborate plan and was playing 4D chess, but Heihachi had an EVEN MORE elaborate plan and was playing 5D CHESS. The thing about Jin in Blood Vengeance is that sometimes he looked fine. But many times he did kinda resemble more of a teenager in the face than his game counterpart does. It's hard to explain, I guess he just looked... more baby-faced, meanwhile Jin in games is "rougher" in the face. I rly don't know how to explain it SDSGJNDFGN.

The thing about Jin being an "ass" before is that whenever he was standoffish to his friends - it wasn't because he's just a jerk, it's because he genuinely cared about them. He apologizes to Hwoarang if he felt he broke a promise they made - he showed concern to Xiao by telling her the tournament is dangerous, and told her to go home. (And in Xiao's TK4 ending, he told her to follow her dreams and make them a reality) Jin may seem cold, but he really shows that he cares for his friends (and his coldness is also just another way to care because he doesn't want them hurt by his dangerous life, or his devil - who wasn't even really in Blood Vengeance lmao)

A good example of just how awful his character has become is in TK6 when he says this to Hwoarang -

or in King of Fighters mobile crossover when he said this...

(annoying little brat - they're literally the same age lmao - nearly the same height iirc) When in TK5, when Hwoarang got offended, and suspected Jin thought he'd found a stronger opponent - which Jin is quick to deny this.

Instead, just telling Hwoarang the truth - life has gotten too busy for him and he can't keep his promise of a rematch (which Jin apologizes for that - twice.) Had this been the Jin in TK6 / other medias, he wouldn't have apologized nor would he have denied Hwoarang's claims. He would've mocked him here. But no - Jin doesn't here because not only does he care about Hwoarang, but because he was also a good person. (Altho not gonna give TK5 all the credit, as they did kinda kickstart TK6 Jin - but who knows if TK6 was actually really planned)

But yeah - I'm just really hoping we see the compassionate, and caring Jin who struggles with his morality instead of the jerk Jin who doesn't give a fuck about anyone else or the world for no reason. He definitely seemed to be better in TK7. Because again, whilst it's hard to really say as he wasn't really in it much. But there was Miguel's ending where he showed remorse, and even wanted Miguel to kill him. (Whereas in TK6 when Miguel confronts him, Jin says "I don't need forgiveness from someone who's about to die.) And whilst they kept his "power is everything" (🙄) and "you're a joke" animations - they did remove his "fear the wrath of god" as well as the smirk pre battle ones. And of course, his determination to kill Kazuya in the end of TK7 for what seems like the better good. So I do strongly believe in TK7, they were already trying to do damage control, and make Jin back to being Better. I just hope in TK8 we get the full on good guy Jin we've always known. The actual Jin, not the cheap Kazuya clone LOL.

Tho I'm also hoping TK8 retcons TK6. At least Jin's involvement in TK6 - so therefore there can be something that can excuse his behavior, and ppl can STFU about him being a villain. Either go with my idea that it wasn't Jin, but just Devil Jin who had completely consumed Jin at the time - and everything he said about "helping the world" was just his way of trying to manipulate good people into siding with him on the war. Or, as I've had someone on here tell me before - have it that Azazel just practically brainwashed Jin. (Similar to how Ogre brainwashed Nina in TK3)

Anyways, this went on for toooooo long - but I tend to get rambly when it comes to Tekken SJNDFJGN

[osopine]

Fave skit for each of the 6? + for each of the side characters too if you feel like

ooo!!!!!

osomatsu: the calming detective skits, double date skit w/ todomatsu, the self awareness skit, the osoma skit, the skit where he bothers his brothers, literally all of them

karamatsu: the one where he won pachinko and jyushimatsu keeps ratting him out lol

ch*romatsu: the bathhouse quiz skit bcos he just. kept answering questions when he could've just walked away.

ichimatsu: the skit where he and jyushimatsu tried to even out all the positives in their lives with negatives

jyushimatsu: the same pachinko skit as karamatsu, the one where he kept doing crazy shit at an interview + the jyushipan skit but that's bcos he just left totoko at the baseball stadium

todomatsu: the double date skit w/ osomatsu and those chicks, the mixer skit where he had to choose a brother to take w/ him + the self awareness skit

matsuyo: the skit where she chose three sons to take w/ her in the divorce

matsuzo: when he tried to make oden better than chibita

chibita: literally all of his skits i can't choose

iyami: IYAMI IN THE WIND! IYAMI IN THE WIND!!!

totoko: that skit in season one where she tried different ways to become a popular idol, the kinko episode + all of her interactions w/ nyaa chan

dayon + dekapan: that skit where they were traveling, the fighter jet skit + the dekapan man skits

[ppangjae]

Sorry for bothering but I’m not sure if my request was sent ,it was a soulmate au with jaehyun ,the prompts were 6 and 8 Thank you and I’m sorry for bothering 🥰

note: if you would like to request, please refer to this post! it contains the rules before requesting and a list of AUs and prompts to choose from. to read the other drabbles written for other requests, just search for the tag #prompt drabble game on my blog!

send in your requests!

AU: soulmate!au

Prompt #6: “Quick! Act surprised.”

Prompt #8: “It’s time to put my clown makeup on because I have clowned myself yet again!”

When you turned eighteen, the letter J appeared on the back of your neck. The days, months, and years leading up to your eighteenth birthday has been nothing but hell and back. Being the youngest in your group of friends, you hated watching all your friends get their soulmate tattoos before you did. But once you saw the letter J tattooed on your skin, you couldn’t help but think all of this was a joke. Why?

Because all of your guy friends have names that start with a J. 

You have your best friend named Johnny, your childhood friend named Jimin, your classmate named Jungwoo, and the list goes on. It would be utterly impossible to find your soulmate at this rate. You’ve basically met every single person on the planet who has a name that starts with a J.

That is, until Johnny introduces you to his basketball teammate, Jaehyun.

You glare at Johnny. Johnny grins back at you. Ever since you told him that the letter J showed up on the back of your neck, he’s been doing nothing but introduce you to all of his friends that so happen to have a name starting with a J. So far, he’s introduced you to at least two other Jaehyun’s, Jaehyung, Jungkook, and three Jin’s. His basketball teammate Jaehyun is the third Jaehyun you’ve met.

“Quick! Act surprised.” You say sarcastically. “Another guy with a name that starts with a J! How lovely.”

“Y/N,” Johnny hisses at you and you roll your eyes. 

You glance at Jaehyun, who’s looking at you with warm eyes. There’s something different about this Jaehyun. He’s different than the other two, that’s for sure. 

“Hi, I’m Y/N.” You introduce yourself. You extend your hand out for him to shake but he doesn’t budge in his stance. You quirk an eyebrow to look up at him. He’s looking at you with slightly widened eyes, before you clear your throat. He snaps out of it and shakes your hand.

“Jaehyun.” He shakes your hand. The gentle touch of his hand in yours sends a light shock throughout your arm. When you glance down at your hands, he gives your hand a squeeze. You slowly look up at him and the both of you exchange a look you can’t even describe.

He smiles.

“A pleasure to meet you, Y/N.”

You find yourself going to Johnny’s basketball practices more and more. There’s only one sole reason as to why you show up more, and it’s because of Jaehyun. Your eyes can’t help but follow the jersey numbered 14.

Soulmate or not, you found Jaehyun boyfriend and soulmate material. He’s very charming in his own way. You were starting to understand why all the girls on campus liked and admired him. 

“Y/N, you came!” You look up from your novel to see Jaehyun waving at you. You feel your cheeks heat up. You wave back at him.

“Y/N, you came?” You hear Johnny ask. You look up again and wave at him. 

Johnny can’t help but grin. He glances at Jaehyun and notices how Jaehyun throws a face towel around his shoulder, hiding the back of his neck. He smirks, and his eyes trail back to you. You’re too busy reading your novel. 

You’ll both figure it out, he thinks to himself.

“Jaehyun’s soulmate is Eunha. He told me that he got the letter E when he turned eighteen.”

You remember hearing those words escape the lips of one of the basketball players. Ever since then, you couldn’t help but feel sad and disappointed. This time around, you had a feeling that it could be Jaehyun. It was the way he looked at you, how the both of you grown closer to each other over time, and how he made you grow nervous. But maybe you were just like all the other girls on campus.

“Y/N, I rest assure you that Eunha is not his soulmate.”

“She is.” You chuckle bitterly. “It’s not like you’ve seen the letter on his neck, Johnny.”

“Maybe I have.” Johnny says on the other line. You look up at the ceiling, letting out a sigh.

“It’s fine. I’m just glad that I found out as early as possible.” You try to make things feel a bit better for yourself. “It would be horrible if I found out when—”

“When you start catching feelings for him?” Johnny cuts you off. “But haven’t you already caught feelings for him?”

“Shit, you’re right.” You curse. “It’s time to put my clown makeup on because I have clowned myself yet again!”

“You’ll realize it when the time is right.”

“I had no idea you were a bookworm.”

You watch Jaehyun as he scratches the back of his neck. The both of you bumped into each other in the library. He had a high stack of books in his arms that he was ready to check out. Just the sight of him looking handsome in a beige mock-neck sweater made your heart hurt.

“Surprise.” He smiles. 

“Well, I’ll see you around I guess. I have a book to look for.” You insist.

“Wait!” He exclaims before you get farther from his sight. He realizes he’s in a library when the people around start to hush him. “What book are you looking for?”

“Pachinko.” You reply.

Before you could utter a reply, he grabs your hand and starts leading the way. You raise an eyebrow at him. The both of you find yourselves standing in front of a bookshelf all the way at the back of the library. 

“Oh,” he mumbles to himself, looking up at the top shelf. He glances down at you and smiles sheepishly. “It’s on the top shelf.”

“Can you reach it?” You question and he nods.

As he’s reaching up to the top shelf, you can’t help but feel your breath get caught in your throat. Your eyes stare at the letter engraved on the back of his neck. 

You’re shocked that the letter on the back of his neck is not an E, but the first letter of your name.

author’s note: i’ve always wanted to write a soulmate!au, but i don’t think it’s my forte yet. i might have to practice more lol. i hope you liked this one! thank you for requesting :-)