#and really really hope Oda doesn’t screw it up

[misslovasstuff]

Pudding’s and Sanji’s reunion with each other better be full of yearning.

I want Sanji to CRUMBLE when he realises she loves him.

I want him to BECOME A MESS when he gets to know Pudding kissed him.

I want him to HAVE THIS MIXED FEELINGS when he learns that the memory of probably his first kiss ever was removed and he was unaware this all time.

I want Pudding to be SELFLESSLY IN LOVE as she always is. I have to see her eyes lit up when she sees Sanji and realising how she must come to terms with her feelings and be honest with him.

I want ROMANTIC ANGST AND YEARNING

I want Sanji to COMBUST WITH ANGER cause what do you mean the woman he almost married has been kidnapped this whole time??? and she doesn’t hate him?? and she’s in danger and suffering right now?!! I want him to get the angriest he has ever been.

Pudding on the other hand, I’m so scared of her reaction cause similar with Sanji, I sense her tendencies of sacrifice and she better not pull any funny move like that cause … I want angst but let’s keep it moderate yea?

[quinloki]

👋🏼 hello, Silk here~

Not meaning to infodump here, but my friend helped me make up ALOT of new lore for my OC River last night, and the most hilarious part was when we were done he looked at me like:

“You know, I hope Oda doesn’t come out with anything that contradicts everything we just came up with bc we’ll be screwed xD”

And I just look up from where I’ve been furiously writing it down like “Oh. OH you’re right >.<“

Does that ever happen to you, when you’re writing for fandoms that are unfinished?

Anyway, hope you feel better soon 🙌🏼

I actually never made an OC before Quill - At least not one for a show. I've had plenty of D&D PCs, but that's not - to me - the same thing. I usually don't build anything for those characters so much as letting the campaign they're in shape them.

But! Keep heart about AUs and such possibilities, if you really like something you've come up with, there's no reason to abandon it if the canon world changes in such a way that it doesn't fit anymore. You can try to think up ways to help make it fit, or just keep it in regardless.

Sometimes it's the exception that proves the rule - like how I made a devil fruit that's smooth and tastes sweet xD I have no reason for doing so, I just wanted to. Fic and Art and OCs are fun like that.

And thank you, I'm looking to turn in early tonight and sleep in late and that should help put Saturday back on track for me.

[hyenahunt]

Secret Service: GLOBALISM - 8

Writer: Akira

Season: Winter

Characters: Madara, Gatekeeper

Proofreading: bakemonoremy (JP) & Skyress (ENG)

Translation: haranami

Gatekeeper: Haha. I hate to break it to you, but you can’t cut blood ties. I don’t need ‘em to threaten you, though; there’s a trump card I’ve reserved just for you.

Location: Temple Zero

[That night at Temple Zero, part of the Shikoku Pilgrimage.]

Madara: ……

Gatekeeper: …Any changes in the situation, Mikejima?

Madara: Ooh! Welcome back, partner ♪

Sure took you a while. I was starting to get worried, yanno — it felt like you were never gonna come back! Oh, I was so sad, waiting out here all on my lonesome! Hahaha ♪

Gatekeeper: I’ve got a lot on my plate. SS has only just started, but people are already causing trouble left and right with their every damn breath.

It almost feels like I’m dealing with a guerilla movement. It isn’t enough to kill off the leader; even the civilians are armed to the teeth and raring to fight back.

Sooner or later, this is gonna be too much of a mess for me to handle alone.

Madara: Hahaha! Must’ve been rough!

I can help you out, then — providing that sorta support is my forte! But of course, I’d have to charge you separately!

Gatekeeper: Absolutely not. Do I look like Oda Nobunaga to you? I’m not skilled enough to maintain control over people who could betray me at the drop of a hat.

Madara: Is that why you’re tying everyone down with these rules and orders?

It’s a reaaal shame you have to resort to using sneaky little tricks ‘cause you don’t have enough charisma to compel people to listen to you ♪

Gatekeeper: You oughta learn from my example and teach yourself to do the same. You’re better off giving up on love.

If you keep your hopes low, you’ll never feel let down. And that means you’ll be invincible.

Madara: It doesn’t really seem like you "invincible" people are all too happy, though… Looks like your humble servant, Mikejima Madara, is still a lil’ too young to have the secrets to life all figured out! Hahaha!

Gatekeeper: That’s not up to you. We’re the only ones who can decide our own happiness.

But forget it. The point is, things are more or less progressing smoothly thanks to your help.

It was a bit of a hard blow to let that boy Ibara get away, but I should be able to deal with him if he’s on his own.

He hasn’t noticed it himself, but he's following in the Boss’ footsteps.

That’s why I can read his every move. He’s no match for me at all when we’re going head-to-head in the same playing field.

There are years of experience between us — he’s far beneath me. I don’t even consider him a threat.

Madara: Hahaha. Ibara-san looked suuuper shocked back then!

I bet he was ready to backstab me at a moment’s notice, but he didn’t expect that I’d be the one to betray him!

Gatekeeper: Things have been going well for him lately, so that’s probably given his ego a good boost. It’s a bad habit of his to get carried away to the point that he lets his guard down and screws up.

You can’t ever shake off a habit like that. Not even if you spend your whole life trying.

Madara: You suuure know a lot about us, huh, Gatekeeper?

Well, I guess it’d be easy enough for a professional like you to grasp our personalities by analyzing our conversations and past records on HoldHands.

Gatekeeper: Oi. This just means the ES management understands its idols well. You oughta be happy about that, Mikejima.

It’s downright creepy that people you don’t even know are out there learning every little thing about you.

But that’s what being an idol is all about, isn’t it? It’s utter bullshit, if you ask me.

Madara: Well, there are idols who sell off their private lives like it’s just another part of their jobs.

Gatekeeper: You’re not one of ‘em, though. Is that ‘cause you’re scared of people knowing who you really are?

Madara: I mean, my parents aren’t exactly on the up and up — my mother in particular… But my father’s a civil servant, and he swore that he’s washed his hands of that kinda shady business, so I’m mooore or less getting by.

But normally, there’s no way you’d be able to become an idol if you’ve got parents like that.

Gatekeeper: Hmph. The industry was up to its neck in dirty dealings during the Boss’ reign. Times change, I guess… if only on the surface.

Madara: I’ll say this juuust in case, but there’s no point in using my parents to blackmail me. I’ve cut ties with ‘em completely.

Gatekeeper: Haha. I hate to break it to you, but you can’t cut blood ties. I don’t need ‘em to threaten you, though; there’s a trump card I’ve reserved just for you.

Madara: ……

If you lay a finger on Anzu-san, I’ll kill you.

Gatekeeper: I’m a living corpse — you’ll need to try something other than death threats if you wanna intimidate me. You fools treasure Anzu like you would a god, so I’m gonna make good use of her.

But there’s no need to worry. As long as you don’t betray me, I’ll make sure she’s safe and sound. She’ll be kept in a secure location that no one else will be able to breach.

Beats me why you’re putting a worthless little girl on such a high pedestal. But maybe I’ll be able to understand soon enough, when I get the chance to observe her from up close.

Madara: Oh, I’m not gonna betray you! But I guess that doesn’t sound very convincing considering I just stabbed Ibara-san in the back...

Still, the die has been cast. It’s too late for regrets — there’s no going back now.

✦✦✦✦✦

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[makeste]

Bnha is a little too irregular for me right now (covid is the worst :( ), so I started reading One Piece and it's like, soooo long. Got me thinking, how long do you think Bnha will be? Personally I think we're just before time skip and it will take, like 300-400 chapters to end? So manga would be 600-700 chapters long. I could be wrong of course. Thoughts?

One Piece is fucking awesome, and the beauty of it is that is is 12 million chapters long so it will take approximately 182 years to finish reading, and you are almost guaranteed to be entertained for the vast majority of that time lol. I actually took a break from it a little ways into the Wano arc (sometime in the middle of what would later become volume 92) because it was getting harder for me to keep up with the plot week by week, especially since I was really into BnHA fandom by that time. my plan was to binge it once Wano ends. however when I was looking at the list of chapters on Wikipedia just now I saw that Oda is only 11 chapters away from breaking the 1k mark, which is pretty awesome. so I might try to catch up in the next month or two in celebration of that milestone, because damn.

with BnHA though, my own guess for how long the series will be is actually a lot shorter than most estimates I’ve seen. first of all, full disclosure that I am definitely biased regarding the timeskip part, because I personally am not the biggest fan of BnHA timeskip theories, unless they’re really short timeskips like the 3-month one we got recently. the thing is, this is explicitly a manga about their time at UA. it’s in the title and everything lol. and I like that. I like reading about them as kids, little hero eggs gradually growing into little hero chicks who will eventually become big hero birbs, but not just yet. a lot of the story’s appeal for me comes from that. there’s a certain... I don’t necessarily want to say innocence, but idealism, maybe?, that’s associated with stories about young adults, and doesn’t always carry over into the stories about those same adults once they’ve grown up. and I want the story to keep that.

there are a lot of things about the current setting that I’m very attached to and don’t want to lose. I like that they’re kids, and that they’re full of potential but don’t always know what they’re doing, and they screw up and make mistakes and get in over their heads, and are dealing with all of their messy jumbled teenage emotions. I like that they’re living with each other in the fanfic dorms and seeing each other every day in their classes. I like that romance isn’t a big part of the series (though there’s still plenty of shipping fuel to go around). I like that we get to see them interacting with their parents and siblings and get to see those relationships. and most of all, I like that -- unlike almost every other young adult series I can think of -- BnHA acknowledges that they are just kids, and the adults by and large actually treat them as such. and yes, I’m even including the child soldiers arc here, because the decision to basically draft them into a war was handed down by the HPSC (an organization that likely has a history with child abuse from what we’ve seen). U.A. was against it, and tried their best to keep them away from the front lines, chilling out in the woods and helping with evacuations instead of fighting villains. contrast this with, say, a:tla, which I love, but which is very much one of those series filled with full-grown adults who are all “it’s up to this 12-year-old and his assorted 12-to-15-year-old friends to lead the battle to save the world lulz.” and this includes possibly the most beloved full-grown adult of all time, who nonetheless peaces out with an ironclad argument of “while it is true that the final villain is my actual brother, I’m still going to let the 12-year-old handle it because something something politics slash destiny.”

but anyways lol got sidetracked there. so steering this back on course now, I genuinely, truly love that in BnHA there are all these adults in the characters’ lives who are trying to keep them safe and nurture them and shield them from that extra burden of responsibility for as long as possible while they’re still learning. and so the kids have that extra safety net of support, which to me as a reader is just... comforting, I guess. like, I understand that it’s not going to last forever, but it’s reassuring to know that it exists for them for now. and I’m not in any hurry to say goodbye to that in favor of just tossing them out into tHE REAL WORLD!! lol. like omg no my babies.

anyway but so the point is that, with respect to everyone else’s theories, I personally don’t want a timeskip lol. and tbh I don’t really see the need for one either? if anything, we’re about to enter the most chaotic period in the entire manga once this arc ends. I’m assuming Tomura will survive this and escape somehow, the better to live and fight another day. and so if that’s the case, I feel like this would be the absolute weirdest time to do a timeskip, because how far ahead can we even jump lol. too far and we’d basically be coming back to an already-destroyed world lol whoops. basically I just don’t see how we can jump ahead more than a few months at the most, assuming that the threat of Tomura is going to be looming over everyone’s heads the entire time. plus we’d miss out on what I’m betting is going to be some of the most intense worldbuilding drama in the entire series, with our beloved characters potentially being swept up in like half a dozen political controversies. I sure don’t want to miss out on any of that. we didn’t wait so long to see this war play out only to skip out on the highly entertaining aftermath of it all.

anyway so that’s my as-usual-longer-than-necessary rant about timeskips. so now let’s talk about the series length. and here, I’m basically just basing my guess off of what Horikoshi has said in interviews. off the top of my head, there are three times he’s mentioned the ending of the series in interviews. first, there’s this interview, published in July 2018:

Interviewer: Previously in SUGOI JAPAN*, you mentioned that you would like Boku No Hero Academia to be a short and concise story and not drawn out, but what percentage of the story is complete at this point?

Horikoshi: When the decision to extend the series happened, I personally thought “I guess I want to end it here” and it was around Volume 30.

Interviewer: So then are you 2/3 done with the story?

Horikoshi: That’s what I had originally planned, but when I think of all the things that must be set up before getting into the last arc, I realized, “Ending the series at Volume 30 will be impossible” (laughs). However, the current arc that is going on all has purpose that will be relevant in the last arc.

*this is referencing a remark he made back at an awards ceremony back in March 2017.

second, we have this interview from August 2018, where he again mentions wanting to keep the story concise:

Do you know what the ending of My Hero Academia is? Do you think it'll be 80+ volumes like One Piece?

No, it won't be infinite – I don't have the stamina for it to be as long as One Piece. I'd like to keep it concise.

and lastly,  this one which was published in December 2019:

What can you say about the future events of the manga?

I’m conscious of the end of the series, and writing towards that. I think the story will always be moving in big ways going forwards. My Hero Academia has a lot of characters, a lot of characters doing different things with different motivations, and the story is heading towards a conclusion where all of that comes together and heads towards the end.

my takeaways from these interviews are that (1) he originally planned for the story to be about 300 chapters long, (2) he’s had a clear idea of his overall endgame for a while now and has been steadily working towards that (as he put it in another interview, he knows all of the dots, but is still figuring out the lines to connect them all), and (3) he specifically said a couple years back that he did not want to write a long One Piece-length series, and his goal was to write a more concise story than that. Horikoshi’s pacing has always been much faster than Oda’s (or Kishimoto’s, or Kubo’s, etc.), and so I think it’s a realistic goal for him to wind up with a significantly shorter story in comparison.

my best guess is that BnHA won’t be much longer than 400 chapters, or a little over 40 volumes. he said back around chapter 180-something that he was nowhere close to being two-thirds of the way done. but it’s been two years since then, and if we haven’t reached at least the two-thirds mark by this point, I would honestly be very surprised. it would mean we’ve barely made any progress at all, and I don’t know about you, but the past few arcs have felt very purpose-driven to me. I think he has a pretty good idea of where he’s heading at this point, and that to me supports the idea of a shorter story than a lot of people have speculated. mind you, he might end up doing a sequel or something afterwards (although I kind of cringe thinking about all the ways we’ve seen that kind of thing go wrong in the past, ngl).

but as far as the series proper, yeah, I’d say 400 chapters is my best guess. ultimately I just hope he’s able to tell the story he wants to tell and gets as much time as he needs to do so, without feeling any pressure to then drag it on past that. knowing when to end your series is so underrated honestly. I have my fingers crossed that it’s a skill Horikoshi hopefully possesses.

[xfangheartx]

One Piece and LuffyxNami?

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Luffy

Least Favorite character: Akainu

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): LuffyxNami, ZoroxRobin, UsoppxKaya, ChopperxCarrot, and SanjixVivi.

Character I find most attractive: Luffy. He’s both cute and sexy at the same time. XD

Character I would marry: Law (sorry Law fans)

Character I would be best friends with: Nami. She’s sassy and I like that. ^^

A random thought: I hope Wano doesn’t end TOO quickly.

An unpopular opinion: The way Oda draws the girls is really sexist (it could be a popular opinion, though).

My canon OTP: Luffy/Nami

Non-canon OTP: Uhh...I do not know. ^^;

Most badass character: Zoro.

Pairing I am not a fan of: SaNami. I know that a lot of people like the ship, but I just can’t see the appeal.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I hate to say it, but...Luffy after the timeskip. I feel like Oda really should have had him talk to his crew about what happened after Ace died and stuff. Instead, he just chooses to just focus on the adventure aspect of the story. I mean...losing a loved one? That’s not something you get over after just 2 years. Not to mention all the mental, emotional, and physical trauma he suffered during the war.

Favourite friendship: Luffy and Zoro. It’s also tied with Luffy and Usopp.

002 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when or if I started shipping it: After rewatching the show back in 2010, I kinda fell in love with this pairing. It got stronger after watching Strong World, Film Z, and Film Gold.

my thoughts: “...She is his QUEEN.”

What makes me happy about them: Just seeing the trust they have in each other. Besides, Luffy would literally be lost without Nami since she is the navigator.

What makes me sad about them: The fact that there aren’t as many moments between them anymore.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Nami still acting like a bitch with Luffy.

Things I look for in fanfic: Them cuddling together and just being all affectionate. I also look for a few lemons here and there, and I might even write one myself, once in a blue moon.

My kinks: Luffy showing his musculature to Nami who thinks it’s absolutely HOT.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I guess if they’re not the endgame, I can only see Nami being single and she’s okay with that. Luffy is, too, because he wants someone to have that freedom.

My happily ever after for them: Them sailing the seas together as King and Queen, along with their crew. ^^

[tsarisfanfiction]

Thinking thoughts and wanted to know your opinion law went from this seemingly laid back almost easy going personality to this brooding serious man during the time skip do you think he’ll slowly ease back into his old personality once this emperor stuff is taken care of and do you think his crew miss his laid back ways?

Ooh, hello Anon!  This is an interesting question for sure, but honestly?  I don’t think Law’s personality really changed.  What changed is his situation (and two years of additional experience).

Aaaaand my explanation/character study got super long so it’s under a cut.  Oops.  Vague warning for Wano spoilers at some point (I give an actual warning when I get there but a few other things may have slipped in earlier so watch out if you’re anime-only, I guess?)

Okay, so: Sabaody.  Laid back, taunting so-and-so noted by Kid of all people to have zero manners and perfectly happy to poke fun at Drake (note: Drake is also former North Blue, we know their backstories intersected - although whether they know that is another matter entirely, although I headcanon that Drake knows and Law doesn’t but that’s a whole other thing, just like I headcanon that Drake, Penguin and Shachi totally knew each other as teenagers.  I mean, neighbouring islands?  Pirates?  Don’t try and tell me the Barrel Pirates never visited Swallow Island when it was literally right there, and what little we know of pre-Hearts Penguin and Shachi they would totally have been in the pirate kid’s face, but I’m getting off-track).

Law spends a lot of time in Sabaody watching.  When we first see him, he’s watching Killer and Urouge duke it out, and doesn’t do anything to influence what’s going on until Drake arrives (again: Drake, North Blue, a Known Quantity.  Killer?  South Blue.  Urouge?  Sky Islands.  Unknown Quantities, and possibly the first time he’s seen either of them in person).  Then we see him in the Auction House, and we all know he wasn’t there to make a purchase.  One of Oda’s brilliant tie-backs - the Auction House is one of Joker’s things.  Joker is Doffy.  Law is tracking Doffy.  It’s not rocket science that he’s there to get more info.

Then the Strawhats happen.  Law sits there amid all that carnage, seeing the entire crew reunite in the middle of the Biggest Thing Ever To Happen on Sabaody (I mean… punch a tenryubito, nice one Luffy).  Doesn’t join in, doesn’t try to leave.  Sits and watches.  His interaction with Luffy is more info-gathering: this guy just punched a tenryubito and now the Marines are here.  What next?

I love the Three Captains Beatdown.  (I am delighted we finally have the Part 2).  Luffy and Kid are being Luffy and Kid.  They’re crazy, they’re strong, they’re not backing down.  Law has his pride.  He’s the ‘weakest’ of the three (by which I mean he has the lowest bounty and in pirate-speak that means weaker) and both Kid and Luffy are completely not his type of pirate (again, revisited in current manga events and thank you, Oda).  If he doesn’t act then, he’ll lose a whole load of respect, and also put his crew in danger because, you know, the admiral is coming and Shachi already admitted Rayleigh’s haki nearly took him out.  So we have three of Law’s big traits coming out in Sabaody (imo): Protectiveness of his crew, Scheming, and being an Intentional Pain in the Ass (with a subsection of Pride but all pirates have that one so I’m not gonna focus on that too much).

As for Marineford, that’s really a case of sticking his tongue out at the World Government, let’s be honest (plus the whole Will of D schtick we still don’t know the full depth of).  What better way of saying ‘screw you’ to the WG than saving someone who just broke out of Impel Down and has made themselves out to be a royal nuisance but hey it’s okay because he’s dea- dammit Trafalgar came in and now he’s not dead?  Also really got his name on their radar for Shichibukai fun later. 

All three of these traits still show themselves post-timeskip, but up until Zou/Wano there is one big factor that’s changed.

Law is alone.

He’s sent his crew off somewhere safe (there is no other reason for ditching most of his fighting power all the way to Zou other than to just keep Doflamingo’s strings away), his scheming is reaching its peak, and then the Straw Hats come in and make a mess of everything.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be much more serious when I’m alone in a keystone of my greatest enemy’s lair with my nakama too far away to help, and then the Strawhats crash the party.

He’s met them once before, presumably also read about them in the News Coo, so he knows they do unpredictable things at the worst times.  He also knows they’re strong, so Scheming Law comes in again, allies with them to both try and stop them from messing everything up, and also get some additional firepower in to replace his crew’s strength (or at least a bit of it - considering the Strawhats are half the size of the Hearts and if anyone tries to tell me Law, Bepo and Jean Bart are the only powerhouses in that crew I will fight, how much exactly it compares is a grey area).

Too bad Luffy is, well, Luffy, and it doesn’t quiiite pan out the way Law planned (but he’s learning!  Latest chapter is gold).  But again, Punk Hazard: we see Pain in the Ass Law (vs Smoker), Scheming Law (basically main Law right now), and Protective Law (Heart Pirates hidden away safe).

And this continues into Dressrosa, with of course the addition of Tragic Backstory (it’s One Piece, he was going to have one.  Even if Law’s ends up particularly nasty).  Law is facing his greatest enemy, the one he swore to defeat after thirteen years, and then he gets outsmarted.  So we have out of his depth, defeated Law - although he’s still being a Smartass to Doffy because he can.  Again, I think being tense, snappy and generally not a happy guy is pretty fair in that situation.  Luffy simultaneously makes things better and worse - Law has to rely on him to get him out of there, and we know Law’s not one for trusting easily (Jean Bart’s recruitment is an interesting case and I wonder if he was planning on keeping him straight away or if it was another FU to the tenryubito plus ‘hey, fighting power’ moment but then Jean Bart was actually loyal and also a goof).  But Luffy does it, they win, hooray.

But now?  Now we have Law alone with the Straw Hats forming a Grand Fleet and he’s really back-footed here in terms of power balance.  It is Not Smart to rib the pirates who a) outnumber you like hell and you have no hope of backup anywhere and b) are the ones that are going to get you back to your own crew.  This isn’t like Sabaody, where there’s Luffy and Kid and he needs to prove himself to them as well as keep his crew safe.  His crew are safe (he thinks… we’ll get to that in a minute), Luffy’s seen him at his absolute worst in the last 13 years, and all his scheming for the last 13 years has reached a conclusion.

He’s lost, he’s tired, and really he just wants to go home to his nakama now.  Can you blame him?

Then, we get Zou.

Zou is fun.  Zou is really, really fun.  We get the reunion!  Which we see literally 1% of and I’m mad because that would have been so good to see.  Bepo literally jumps on him and he lets him.  I bet the rest of the crew did, too.  We see Law with his crew of idiots and he loves them and there’s so much scope in there for Law finally being able to relax for the first time since Time Skip.  And the Hearts get on well with the Straw Hats.  We see Penguin and Usopp dancing together later on, we see Law teasing his crew (not introducing them?  Their reaction to that is the sort of thing we would see other pirate captains punish for mutiny but he just shrugs it off.  He knew they’d react like that).

But there are two big elephants in the room here (unintentional pun whoops).  Number one: Sanji’s disappearance and his ally’s reaction to that.  We see that covered pretty well in canon, Law realising that his ally is about to have two yonkou after his head at the same time and the problem that poses for him, Law getting dragged into a new alliance with the Minks and Samurai (Law being a total goof about Raizo but Keeping Up Appearances because Strawhats).  Law presumably making the executive decision that breaking his alliance now would be a bad idea (Kaido is still annoyed with him, the Minks adore the Strawhats, Luffy is a clingy rubbery bastard that won’t let him go anyway), and once more we have a back-footed Law.

The second elephant is fun for me.  It’s never fully stated in canon, but.  Jack attacked the Minks.  The Heart Pirates were living with the Minks.  The Heart Pirates fought with the Minks (we saw that).  Bepo was treated by Nami (we also saw that).  The Heart Pirates got caught up in that whole mess.  At the minimum, the whole crew got poisoned alongside the Minks.  I reckon some of them were probably tortured, too.  Law came home to his crew expecting them to have been safe and they weren’t.  And now he’s asking them to go straight to the lair of the crew that did that to them.  That’s not going to settle particularly well with him, either.

We don’t see the journey to Wano (disclaimer: I haven’t seen anything past WCI in the anime so I have no clue what fillers may have been added), but there’s still four Strawhats and the samurai on board, so even back in his own ship Law can’t fully relax, but I bet he’s still like Zou-Law.  A little peeved, trying to work out how the hell he’s going to deal with Kaido with or without Luffy and the half of the Strawhats that have gone on a suicide mission, but genuinely happy to see his crew again.

Then he manages to kick all the intruders once they arrive at Wano, and the first we see of him, he’s chilling out.  Watching.  He even has his crew on info-gathering/watching (we see Penguin, Shachi and Bepo but I bet they’re all doing it).  Hello, Sabaody!Law!  Chilled, keeping an eye on things, scheming (just no-one to irritate because they’re trying to keep a low profile).

And then Luffy returns and we’re back to Punk Hazard, except this time, Law’s crew are in the mess, too.  Law’s plans are crumbling, Luffy is being a royal nuisance, and then things go from Bad to Worse.

I don’t know how far the anime has got so vague blanket manga spoiler warning from here.

Luffy gets captured.  Kaido knows they’re there.  Kaido attacks his crew.  If it wasn’t for Shinobu having a devil fruit useful in that situation, that would have been bye-bye Penguin, Shachi and Bepo.  So there go Law’s plans and his crew are in danger.  Punk Hazard but worse.

Then, thanks to the traitor, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo get captured.  They’re also accused of being the traitor, and Protective Law rears his head big time.  The Heart Pirates in effect leave the alliance.  Not officially, because Law knows he’ll need them later even if it’s only as bait while he gets the hell out of there with his crew, if required, but he strikes out and they hear nothing from him until voila, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo are back!

And this was the return of Pain In The Ass Law.  He’s smirking at Hawkins, and someone else I’m currently running with the theory of Drake.  Oh look, North Blue buddies!  Known Quantities.  Some scheme is hatched (looking forwards to that one).  He’s also protecting the hell out of his crew, because Hawkins hit him where it hurts (North Blue not-so-buddies.  Known Quantities.  Works both ways).

Now?  Now, we’re looped right back to Sabaody again.  The Three Captains are back, Law is back to being surrounded by idiots but still proving himself whilst protecting his crew and scheming (and this time knows how to include Luffy and Kid into his schemes!  Character development!).

It’s been two years, he’s been through hell (again, Oda please give him a break), but the core things we saw back in Sabaody?  They’re still there, and the closer he is to his crew the clearer we see them.

So to answer the question will he go back to that?  No, because that’s not how character development works, but I do think we’ll see the Pain In The Ass Law more once Protective and Scheming Law aren’t needed in earnest (unfortunately, as long as the Strawhats are around, he’s always going to have some sort of guard up because he’s learnt and he’s not stupid.  As they’re our protags, that means we’re probably only going to see Law much while he’s with them).

As for his crew?  We know, thanks to the SBS, that Penguin, Shachi and Bepo have known him since basically the day he lost Rocinante.  Whatever hell of a mess he is at the moment, it’s not going to be anything like 13yo Law after his whole life crumbled again.  It’s not known exactly when he meets the rest of the crew (except Jean Bart), but it’s somewhere in those 11 years between Minion Island and Sabaody (and maybe some again in the time skip).

So some of his crew, at least, have seen him worse and basically learn to love again (as cheesy as that sounds).  They might not like the blip, but they’ve seen him worse, so they’ll know that it’ll pass.  And as I’ve been saying, we’ve seen him far more without his crew than with them.  There’s a high chance that how he acts with them hasn’t changed as much as the change we’ve seen as readers.

This basically turned into an Essay on Law oops.  But it was a very interesting question!

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 990 - Initial Thoughts

Well, okay then!

The new chapter FINALLY gets translated so I get check it out, both sides are teasing, pleasing and treasoning Something big is bound to happen in 10 chapters time though, OP1K is closing in on us quick and fast. Spoilers for Chapter 990, Support the Official Release

YES POUND, the receipts are enough to bring him on the ship, the family is complete!

Sasaki’s loose though, mainly thanks to BM’s Delphinium, it’s interesting though, their friendship seemed legit so this cuts deep for Sasaki - he’s not bothered about the Wano stuff as a whole, he just wants payback for himself

Thankfully, the Su Long Minks are able to kick most of the Ass, only Jack is really holding them off thanks to his durability as the Scabbards and Kaido still stare each other down (bit of an odd tactic, especially since Su Long has a time limit until death)

The Teases though! Inu and Neko stop Kin’emon from attacking, in shadowed out Su Long forms, so they could have the honors of taking on Jack

King just echoes my concern about Queen screwing up so much, but interestingly Queen doesn’t think that Babanuki was swayed, Tama’s DF still allows a wildcard to come into play

King though is rallying the Flying Six, meaning this will be some of the bigger fights

I TOLD YOU HAWKINS WAS ALIVE! Though shame he’s not the guy with Law, his buddy though Drake is there with him and there is a note that Hawkins could easily bounce since he doesn’t want to be here.

Here’s the interesting part though, 1% - that’s the probability of ‘that man’ being alive by the morning. But who is that man? Drake could easily think it’s Luffy (or ‘Stealth Black’) but what if it’s not, what if it’s Kaido? or Jack, or Queen or King? Maybe the 1% is Luffy but that’s his chance of Dying? The odds are nondescript, but Hawkins should know how Luffy’s avoided death, even in Marineford his cards would not be certain of Luffy’s death after all

Also gotta talk about that BIG ASS HELMET behind Hawkins, first the sword now this helmet, was there some Ancient Giant Shogun or something?

Back with the enjoyable Ulti/Pay-Pay stuff though, I really hope we see them again. But seems that the Yamato bounty has been called off for them and all focus is on the raiders. 

Pay-Pay just give her the damn Piggyback ride!

Who’s Who is making his moves though, asking Drake to take down his primary target: Queen. Hawkins looks at his cards though, did his predictions change?

The Oniwabanshu do provide a proper challenge for the samurai prisoners and yakuza but old Mega Forehead leaves the battlefield, and it is noticed

Good on the raiders to at least try and pave the way for Luffy against a Number, but Zoro and Jimbei are quick clean up crews

Thriller Bark mentions again, I feel like Moria is still set to show because of this

Zoro being a bit bloodied seems a bit worrisome, given how the rest are unharmed, including Sanji who was drilled into a building by King

LUFFYWHYAREYOUINGEARFOURTHYOUSAIDTOCONSERVEENERGYNOTWEAROUTYOURHAKIFORANOTHERTENMINUTES!

I had to look at Myo-o (Fudo Myoo) for a reference and...I kinda see it? I guess Hyou isn’t used to this much Haki coating and steam emanating from the body

Alas the twist belongs with Drake, Who’s Who led him straight to Queen because they knew he was a traitor

I’m conflicted by Hawkins as well on this, it seems he’s testified information that points to Drake being the one that freed Law - and he would be sore about that given how he got cut up - but surely this’d also be an out for him? Maybe he’s playing a longer game, making sure he knows what Drake’s plans are before joining in on them?

I still don’t think it was Drake though, the guy was wearing a kimono and the wooden sandals wasn’t he? Sure it could be a disguise but why hide that from us after we knew he was in SWORD?

X Calibur, yes. Just, yes. I was hoping he’d have an attack like that. Though it is a shame that Luffy couldn’t take out 2 Numbers alone

Drake sees his opening though, another unlikely ally declaring themselves! This one though thanks in part to Coby, who’s pro-Luffy dialogue convinced Drake to make a gamble on it.

‘Pirate Alliances and Betrayal go and in hand’ was the theme that carried over into Wano as we (still) fear the stability of Law and Kid’s working with Luffy, as well as whether the Straw Hats will be forced to sacrifice the samurai to defeat Kaido. But right not the treachery is unravelling for Kaido’s forces with Drake. It’s interesting that Drake thought he could escape Wano but decided to stick to the mission, Hawkins as glad as I am that he’s alive does make me concerned, is it just bitterness or observation. I hope the latter partly because of my 5 Captains theory. The pace of the story is jam packed because this whole chapter is just moments after the last, the battle is still in its infancy as Inu and Neko have just turned Su Long - and they refuse to show us STILL! No Carrot this chapter but the focus has mainly been away from the crew as a group aside from Zoro and Luffy, looking more at the enemy side as we prepare truly for the tower climb, the Flying Six will have to fight the rest of the crew if they are to push their way up to Kaido, who’s basically just chilling, but Jack’s about to be wiped out so if Oda does show it that may be a little cathartic Painfully, another week break, it was only 2 weeks since our last one D: Oda I know you’re giving space for the Volume Release as we feast on the juicy SBS content and whatever Sanada says, but the 1000th Chapter is so in sight it hurts to delay!

[nad-zeta]

Match up 💎

Sooo I’ve been reading a bunch of your match ups (THEY’RE AMAZING BTW) And I wanted to request one if you are available    🥺👉🏻👈🏻❤️Alrighty, so I have a very introverted personality, but I am social when I have to be. I lowkey rather watch netflix and eat ice cream than go out. I really love to make people laugh and feel good about themselves. I really don’t like being the center of attention, I rather see others happy (Idk why I guess its just a better feeling for me.) I love to read anything romance, I’m a sucker for a good love story. I’m pretty sure I have an overactive imagination, leading me to play out at least 50 fictional scenarios in my head everyday loll. I am caring, and when I love someone, I tend to give everything I can to the other person, even if I don’t get anything in return (it gets me screwed over a buunch of times =_=) I’m extremely insecure and I try my best to work on my self-confidence even though nothing works for ya girl Even though I have to work on myself, that doesn’t stop me hyping up anyone in my life that is sad or feeling insecure as well. I don’t know who I would fit with from Ikesen, but I am excited to see what you think 🥺❤️❤️❤️ Thank you so much ^-^   

Awww thanx so much! You are such a sweetie pie! Thank you for the request @ikemenduo ! I hope you enjoy it <3And I hope you have the best day today! 

So I match you with........................... Ieyasu 

Your first task given to you as the new princess of the Oda forces was to care for Azuchi's very own hedgehog. He had gotten injured a while back and didn’t take it seriously now; he was sick. TBH the Oda forces, were all too happy to pass off the problem to someone else, cause it is true what they say doctors truly make the worst patients. You walked into his palace, not knowing what to expect, you had been teased like mad by Masamune and Mitsuhide for being tasked with caring for the sour puss. You walked in to introduce yourself only to be met with Ieyasu running a massive fever and maid scurrying around. The maids pulled you into the room to help them. You knew how to care for sick people, you were by no means a doctor or anything, but you knew what to do from what your mom and dad would do when you were sick. You shooed out the maids as they were just pointlessly running around and sat beside Ieyasu’s bed with a bucket of cold water. You squeezed out the washcloth and placed it on his forehead. You couldn’t help but trace the contour of his face with the tips of your fingers. You introduced yourself and started chatting to this blond porcelain doll. You low key told him all about yourself cause you thought he wouldn't hear you, little did you know even though he was sleeping he listened to every word. He smiled inwardly to himself at the silly girl soothingly caressing his face and telling him, her whole life’s story.

Caring for Ieyasu was definitely not an easy task, the suborn man would constantly try and get up to work. Although through your many days of nursing, this baby duck back to health, the two of you had come to understand each other. You would scold him whenever he would overwork himself, and he would tease you in his own contrary way. Often the two of you would sit and have some tea together. Nothing softens this porcupine boy’s heart quite as much as an optimistic, sweet, caring person. At some point during your tea and chat sessions, Ieyasu revealed his whole back story to you and the reason why he is so adamite on being strong and wanting to get to work. Cue you now becoming Ieyasu’s personal cheerleader. You build up this softy boy so much, with your kind words and caring nature. You had also discovered that Ieyasu has the most beautiful smile, so you have made it your personal mission to bring that smile to his face as often as possible by cracking them jokes and being your cute, lovable self.

One night you got scared, it was a stormy night, and you were alone in your room. You have an incredibly overactive imagination, and your mind was now playing tricks on you. You saw a shadow cast by a tree on the floor of your room. Your logic mind said it was just the shadow of a tree, but your imagination was telling you it was a ghost coming from the depths of hell to terrorize you. Just as you had that thought, a flash of lightning struck followed but the loud rumble of thunder. You jumped up and screamed, you were freaking out. You threw the covers of your futon over your head when another flash of lightning blazed across the sky. The longer you were alone in your room, the crazier the stories would get. You were now convinced a lightening monster was after you. As the loud thunder rolled and another lightning bolt touched down to the ground, you ran your way to Ieyasu’s room. You didn't want to be alone anymore, and Ieyasu had such a calming presence, you thought. Plus, if there was a monster after you, Ieyasu was a warlord, so he should have no problem slaying the beast. You didn’t even announce yourself as you ran into his room. He was awake and sitting in his futon comforting wasabi when he saw you running towards him. “Don’t tell me you are afraid of a little thunder and lightning.” His voice was tender and soft, and as he spoke, he rolled his eyes and lifted up the covers of his futon to invite you in. You didn’t have to think twice; you basically dove into his arms. Ieyasu was low key so happy. He was now stoking the hair of his two favorite girls in the world, not that he would EVER admit that out loud. You fell asleep in his arm, and you couldn’t help noting how soft and comfy he was.

Part of your duties as Ieyasu’s caretaker was to care for his pet fawn as well. You have come to really love the sweet little guy, she was so freaken cute and playful. You loved watching her come into Ieyasu’s room in the morning and sneak up behind him while he was working. She would legit start nibbling on his hair as if it was a piece of soft cotton candy. You would legit break out in laughed at Ieyasu’s shook face. Wasabi was a mischievous little deer and would often get up to all sorts of mischief. You went to get some food for the adorable fawn and walked outside as if to coax her away from nibbling on Ieyasu as if he were a snack, her ears perked up when she heard you call her from outside. She sprinted out the room and almost rammed straight into you. Ieyasu watched the two of you with fond eyes. Wasabi being the mischievous fawn she was, grabbed your basket and started teasing you with it. The two of you played and ran all around the garden. You were having so much fun you didn’t pay attention to where you were running landing you straight in the pond in Ieyasu’s garden. Wasabi thought this was some new fun game, and joining you in the water splashing about. You couldn’t help but laugh at the whole scene. Ieyasu had been watching the two of you the whole time and couldn’t help but chuckle, as he walked closer to you in the pound his chuckle changed into full-blown laughter when he saw you “you look like a drowned rat. “ He walked up to you, offering you a hand to help you out, but you had other plans, you couldn’t help yourself, you pulled him to fall into the pond next to you. The two of you were now laughing and splashing each other in the pond. When the two of you were done playing and having fun, Ieyasu stood up and said: “Silly girl, let’s get dried off before you catch a cold.”

Ieyasu literally had you sit in front of him as he gently dries your silky hair for you. Gosh, he loved this silly woman so much. He had decided now was his perfect opportunity. As he dried your hair, he told you he needed to tell you something, as you turned around, you look at him. He took your head gently in his hands, turning it back away from him if you looked at him now he would lose his nerve. He took a deep breath and said that he loved you. You turned around, wearing the brightest smile. Hells, he loved that goofy grin of yours. You kissed his cheek and said, you loved him as well. You then stood up and stated that it was now your turn to dry his hair. This boy was blushing like mad the entire time. He was so happy. You had long ago fallen in love with this fluff ball. And you were but all too happy to finally confess your love for him as well. What made you even happier, however, was this golden opportunity to finally be able to touch his hair without looking like some creepo. You have always wanted the opportunity to see if his hair truly was as soft and fluffy as it seemed, and you were not disappointed cause OMW it was the softest and fluffies hair you had ever felt. Once you were done, you kissed his red cheeks. The two of you two cuties spent the rest of the night cuddling and chatting away. 

You found out your softi boy also is a secret romance novel fan. You were cleaning his room one day when you discovered his guilty pleasure. You had stolen a couple of his books to read for yourself, and damn were they the best romance stories you had ever read. Hehe, Ieyasu saw your reading one of his precious books the one day and all while red as a tomato asked you where you had found the book. You couldn’t help but tease him a little. A new favorite for the two of you is to read together. You will sit in Ieyasu arms while he reads the newest romance book to you. 

Often the two of you can be found nestled in each other’s arms; you loved hugging and cuddling Ieyasu. He was so freaken soft and cuddly, snuggling him was like cuddling the softest pillow in the world! And don’t even get me started on his sweet, sweet little kisses. 

Other potential Matches…………Yukimura 

I hope you enjoyed it love! and I hope you are staying safe and well! 

[mysaldate]

On the topic of BSD mental issues..

Because a lot of people in this fandom just LOVE to bestow their own mental problems on characters and even go so far as to claim not a single BSD character is mentally alright, I went on a little rant to debunk this bulshit of a claim. If you’re one of those who support the “everyone is mentally ill because I said so” theory, don’t even bother reading this, please, and save us both the time.

If you do read, however, please keep in mind those are just my opinions and analysis and why I personally find the claim that everyone is mentally ill bulshit. You’re free to believe what you want but I’ve had multiple people come spurting out insults at me simply for not believing every single character is mentally diasbled.

First, our beloved ADA Atsushi - He's actually doing really well. Sure, he's not 100% ok but we were given no serious childhood trauma impacts (except for flashbacks that don't really... do anything to him mentally except for motivating him to do better which is, you know, not a sign of mental illness), he doesn't have self-destructive tendencies, he doesn't feel like he owes the society anything but he doesn't slip to nihilism either. His motivations are humane and sane and relatable. I mean, if anyone told you your friends would be in mortal danger if you stay with them, wouldn't you try to get away from them too? Dazai - Ok, Dazai is far from stable. He still handles his issues surprisingly well though and his constant suicide attempts are really played off as a joke, which is not the best way to handle them but it takes a lot of seriousness from it and kind of makes it hard to believe it's what he actually wants to do with his life. Especially since there are times where he goes out of his way to make sure he stays alive (Dead Apple being just one example). Kunikida - Arguably one of the most stable characters in the show. Some people claim he has OCD but have you ever seen an actual OCD patient? His love for schedules and hard time when they can't be kept is something that runs in my family and nobody has ever been diagnosed with OCD. People need to realize that having your life planned out is not a mental illness. Yosano - I'm a little more benevolent about Yosano, especially since she has a more psychotic side to her and she seems actually damaged by her childhood but I stiil stand my point that she is doing extremely well for someone who supposedly has a mental illness. It's almost as if the "insane" side of her was purposedly overblown for comedic purposes. Ranpo - I know a lot of people say he's autistic but I don't agree with that hc. Why? Well, I have a classmate who's not autistic and she's exactly like him. She's smart, almost genius, has great deduce skills and brilliant crime-solving abilities (tested multiple times with Black Stories or whatever that game is called in english) but she is unable to live on her own. She knows close to nothing about real life, skills used for everyday functioning and as for public transport, she only learnt how to use it recently and she's almost 19 years old. I also have an autistic friend who specifically said he'd find it insulting to hear that Ranpo is supposedly autistic. Tanizaki - I'm not sure what to say here, Tanizaki is a normal guy. Nothing special about him. He's willing to go great lengths for his little sister but I think anyone with younger siblings can relate to that. At least anyone who cares for their younger siblings. Kenji - Go on and tell me how Kenji of all people has a mental illness, I dare you. And if you pull out his cheeriness, you're obviously just too depressed to fathom that some people might actually enjoy life. Fukuzawa - Again, one of the most stable characters in the series. Say what you will but he's not unstable and his ability to stay calm at almost any situation except for when his kids are in danger is just further proof of this. Kyouka - I'd say she might have issues. My afforementioned autistic classmate pointed out that she feels autistic to him so there's that. Also her childhood visibly screwed her over. However, she's still surprisingly stable and normal despite all of that so while she might have some issues, they are greatly balanced by her strong will and natural personality. Naomi - I wouldn't say Naomi is 100% ok in the head but not to a point where I'd claim an actual mental illness. Sure, I'm not a doctor but nor is anyone who diagnoses her with whatever it is they diagnose her with. Haruno - And exactly what is wrong about Haruno? She's cute, positive, cheery, hard-working and supportive. And she gets scared in situations that invoke this. Literally NOTHING weird.

Next up is our dear Port Mafia Akutagawa - No denying it, Aku has serious issues. Again though, he's doing far better than most people with similar problems but that could just be due to him letting his frustrations out via murder. Chuuya - No issue found here. Sure, he's a little short-tempered but that's about it. A lot of people are short-tempered without being mentally ill. And he could be portrayed with some serious issues due to his origin and past. Gin - Do we even know enough about her to diagnoze her? All we know is that she's silent, a little shy and that she's always on odds with Tachihara. Make me a diagnosis from that. Higuchi - Aside from her massive crush on Aku, there's nothing weird about her. She probably picked the wrong job but she's willing to work hard anyway to earn her place there,, which is not exactly typical for people with mental illnesses. Hirotsu - STABLE PERSON. Just... what else is there to him? He is literally the voice of reason who commands the black lizard solely because he can actually keep them under control. Geez, there is literally nothing linking him to any mental problem! Kajii - This guy's got issues, no denying it. And I won't even say he could do worse because obviously he could but he's fairly close to being the insanest (is that a word?) he can get. Kouyou - Oh look, ANOTHER completely stable person. I mean, come on, she's been an executive since Dazai and Chuuya were 15, that's seven years. Clearly she couldn't hold her position if she weren't stable. Not to mention, we saw her being stable in stressing situations so. many. times. Elise - She's an ability. No comment. Mori - Yes, he has his issues. But he's the hypercompetent Mafia boss who stayed in charge for a very long time already and there's no sign of anyone overthrowing him any time soon, nor planning to because he's just a great leader, something he couldn't be if he was mentally ill. Oda - Do I even need to elaborate on this? Oda is very probably the sanest person we got, one who sees the wrongs of his past and does his best to overcome them and repent, all of which goes without him being depressed or self-loathing in the slightest. Randou - This has been talked about a lot. Randou is sensitive and impulsive and sometimes acts on emotions rather than rationallity. None of that makes him a mentally ill person. It just makes him a person, a human being we can all relate to. Ace - Ace is a selfish human being who thinks too highly of himself and is manipulative and abusive. Is that a problem? Yes, obviously. Is that a mental illness? Not necessarily and more likely no than yes. He does things for his personal gain and everything went his way for far too long for him to expect it to go any other way. And as we all know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutelly. Q - Does anyone really think Q is sane?

Now for the group that so many people dislike it’s honestly sad, the Guild Francis - Francis is, first and foremost, a very loving husband and father. He goes on this insane mission to Japan to obtain a mystical object he believes is real but never got any deffinite proof of. Is he naive? Perhaps so. And after he loses, he gets depressed and broken because he finds out his wedding ring disappeared, probably because his wife did something. That breaks him. And honestly? He has every right to break down. It's understandable and human and it does not make him mentally ill. Louisa - While yes, she is very shy and some argue she has some sort of anxiety disorder, all of this can be explained by the fact that she's practically a child. She's 18 dammit. Who could leave their home country at 18 only with an organization of older people, who also all seem very sure of themselves, while having no combat ability and nothing to really bring to the table? If she were mentally weak, there's no way she'd go looking for Francis after his fall, it's actually more likely she'd hurry back home, probably with tears and fear of being arrested if she were to stay in Japan for longer. Margaret - Name me one thing that makes you think Margaret of all people would have a mental issue. One thing. Most of her screentime is her being a vegetable. And while that is certainly a health problem, not a mental health one. Nathaniel - Hey, he was completely ok before meeting Fyodor. Being religious is not a mental health problem and f you if you say otherwise. John - Again, nothing unstable about John. He's not even that selfish, doing what he can to support his family and even picking up the remainings of the Guild to keep the people together and give them new hope because, y'know, hope is very important to people. Lovecraft - He's not even human. You can't apply human mental health logic to him. Herman - We've seen him for how much... 2 minutes total? And even from just that, he seemed like a calm and composed guy. No sign of mental problems whatsoever. Mark - He's hyper, that's what people say at least. But is he really? Kind of hard to believe when all we've seen of him is two scenes of adrenalin rush, one scene where he tries to lift the spirits of his coworkers and one scene where he just decides to go back home because this adventure is obviously over. No sign of mental illness here either. Lucy - A little more visible traumatic impact than with Atsushi and some abandonment issues, which are completely understandable and relatable. Not necessarily a mental illness. Poe - Ok so Poe doesn't feel well in company of others and he is a little psychotic when he gets too into his self-assigned role but 1) introverts are not mentally ill and 2) it's completely natural to get carried away when we witness the person we believe wronged us getting some karma back.

The one group that appeared for such a short time, yet everyone seems to love them, the Rats Fyodor - The most obvious god complex, clearly. He's not sane but he's stable so there's that. Nobody says he's ok, he's clearly not. But he's composed and smart enough to not let his issues control him. Ivan - Part of his brain is literally gone. He's not ok. he can't be. And unless part of your brain is missing too, you physically can't relate to him. Pushkin - Actually a stable, understandable character. Weak men are known through all of history to be the causes of major drama simply because their complexes over being weak lead to them finding joy in torturing the strong. It's not a mental illness, it's just bad character. Oguri - Clearly, Ogugu has issues. Call it survivor's guilt or PTSD or whatever you want, he has issues. Nobody is denying that. Still, he's doing fairly well when not desperatelly trying to seem evil.

I do not feel like doing the Hunting Dogs for the sole reason of me not liking them enough to focus on their mental states but they are pretty much lab rats, artificially enhanced humans and that alone should be enough to explain why I don’t believe in applying normal psychology to them. As for the Decay of Angels, there’s still much more to learn about them so I won’t get into that just yet. And when it comes to the governmental agents, I haven’t read the novels so I only know a bit about Ango and I honestly don’t see how anyone could think Ango has a mental illness.

I repeat again, these are my opinions, based on my experiences and what I’ve studied about mental illnesses (because believe it or not, I study about these things quite a lot). It doesn’t fit except for Tumblr romanticised versions of them and even those are iffy. You’re free to agree and disagree with all of this or with just certain parts but please don’t feel required to share your thoughts, I frankly don’t much care.

With that I bid you goodbye, at least until another thing prompts me to make a long-ass analysis almost nobody will read, nor care for.

[neverwatchedonepiece]

603-604: "Launching the Counter Attack! Luffy and Law's Great Escape!" and "Get to Building R! The Pirate Alliance's Great Advance!"

DING, DING, DING! It’s round two. And you know Luffy ain’t playing this time.

Not a huge amount happened over episodes 603 and 604. Still, the episodes were essential. The story needed a transition phase to tie up the plot threads and set everything up for the final push against Caesar.

Everyone is safe inside the lab, the Strawhats are all accounted for (sans Chopper, who is still in Caesar’s lounge), Luffy is in an alliance with Trafalgar Law and - I never thought I’d say this - Vice-Admiral Smoker of the Marines!

Actually, what the hell am I talking about?

Loads of big things happened.

Including this sweet and juicy nugget of off-island context that has me rubbing my hands with glee.

Juicy Opening Reveal Alert!

Attention: Kidd, Hawkins and Scratchman Apoo are discussing an alliance. This is not a drill.

It started out fairly innocuously. I say “fairly”. The Brokers and Dodgy Characters of the OPverse were kicking back and watching Caesar’s madness play out. Pekoms and Tamago had some lines, so I focused in on them.

“How did those big names get caught by Caesar?” Pekoms asked. “So that’s where they are now. What should we do?”

“We wait a bit and see how things play out,” Tamago answered.

This was a teeny tiny scene. But it was interesting. Why? It revealed Pekoms and Tamago know Caesar by name. Maybe Caesar introduced himself to his audience and I missed it, but if he didn’t, then that’s interesting.

After that, the action switched back to Kidd, who had also been watching Caesar’s broadcast. Kidd has earned himself a 470 million bounty, which is impressive. His right hand man, Killer, has a 200 million bounty. Less impressive. Kidd seemed happy Luffy had finally made some moves. He switched off the feed. “You’re not the kind of guy who wants to play an arms dealer, are you Killer?”

Not sure what Kidd meant by that. Does he mean Killer’s not interested in what Caesar has to offer? Or that he doesn’t want to get involved with an obvious head case like Caesar? 

They walked off through their extra edgy hideout complete with gloomy paint job and atmospheric candelabras (lol). They discussed Law and his shenanigans on Punk Hazard. Kidd couldn’t believe they were all there together. He thought Law had lost his mind when he became the World Government’s lapdog. But now... Law was definitely up to something. Kidd does not want to fall behind, so they’d have to make a move too. 

Upon opening the door an explosion boomed them right in the face. It was Scratchman! At first I thought, is this an assassination attempt? Then the camera panned to Hawkins and I thought.... okay, so a team-assassination attempt?

Nope. Killer had called them to Kidd’s hideout to discuss forming an alliance.

This is cool. I like this seemingly random development. Oda has made a good move here showing the other rookies in the Worst Generation are also working hard behind the scenes. They’re in the New World now. The Yonko are a-callin’. If they don’t team up, they’ll be destroyed. (R.I.P. Gangster Pirate dude and dinosaur guy. Still not sure what Urouge is up to.) 

I kind of hope their alliance works a little more smoothly than the Strawhat/Heart Pirate alliance does at the moment. xD

Just Get Out of the Damned Cage, I Don’t Even Care Anymore...

There are a few teething problems but I’m sure Law has now realised that Luffy is a major loose cannon and will learn how to point him in the right direction. Maybe. At some point. In the distant future. (Ahh, that golden moment when Robin and Franky straight up told Law not to turn his back on Luffy because he’ll be off like a rocket, yelling their secret plans at the top of his lungs.)

Law’s cunning plan from the episode 402 cliffhanger was revealed. It was surprisingly simple and dangerous. But then if it’s not dangerous, is it really a good One Piece plan?

Absolutely not.

Law asked if anyone could set the nearby broken ship on fire. Franky obliged.(That fireball was badass, by the way. Just need that on record.) Once the rising smoke had obscured Caesar’s view of the cage, Law revealed his sneaky ruse. While he had freeloaded at Caesar’s house, he swapped most of the seastone chains with normal ones. Law broke free from his and freed Luffy, Robin and Franky.

Once he had failed to convince Luffy to stop cheering like a madman, Law dealt with a spot of business.

Smoker and Tashigi. They knew too much. They knew Joker’s real identity. He had their destiny in his hands. I knew he wouldn’t kill them (not evidence for that, I just didn’t think Oda would go there) but I was not prepared for what would happen next. 

Law unshambled them and struck a deal: he would spare their lives because if they made it back to Marine HQ it would make life difficult for Vergo. In exchange, Smoker and Tashigi were to FORGET everything they had heard about Law and Joker. This was not a favour. It was a condition of their release.

Now, this had me bewildered. Why, if Law is no longer working for Doflamingo, is he still protecting the guy? If Doflamingo goes down, then surely Vergo will also go down and the whole operation will fall to pieces? Unless what you guys hinted at is bigger than I thought and Doflamingo has so many side hustles that some Marines being mad at him is small potatoes.

At any rate, the deal was accepted, despite Smoker’s pride, because of Tashigi’s sense of duty and practicality overcame it. She basically said, “Yes, untie us for the love of god. We need to live because if we don’t, we can’t save our people from Vergo and we can’t rescue Caesar’s experiment kiddies!”

So the deal was done. The neatness of Law’s plan was totally ruined when Luffy bent the bars of the cage and pinged out in a fit of enthusiasm. Then Franky basically turned to Law and said, “Yeah, I’m gonna pass on the plan. I’m off to look after Sunny.” 

Then he farted himself out of the plot.

I think I just made a new sentence there.

Deal done, Law roomed them all to the back door, whereupon the sneaked inside the lab and pulled a Very Important Lever that meant the Fodder Marines outside did not die a horrible, painful death from Caesar’s chemical weapon.

Yay!

And there was this great, dramatic reveal moment. 

Look. Look at this Beautiful Shot

While Luffy, Law and Smoker stood with their backs to Caesar’s bemused minions like total badasses, the poison gas rolled over the island. 

Zoro, Sanji, Brook and Foxfire still hadn’t caught up to the dragon. However, Sanji because super motivated by tits and found a sudden burst of speed. The only thing was, the dragon wasn’t quite good enough on its own. It was tiring too.

Luckily, Nami and Usopp rode up on the back of Brownbeard and caught Brook just as he fell off the dragon. They all leapt on Brownbeard’s back (dragon included) and galloped to the front door.

Which was rapidly closing, as the Marines had all scuttled safely inside!

Indoors, the Marines squinted. What was that white, powdery cloud in the distance approaching at speed? 

It was the rest of the Strawhats trying really damned hard not to die.

Zoro and Kinemon teamed up to slash the doors and force their way in. I thought it was majorly dumb at first (to be fair, so did most of the other characters). But the Fodder Marines patched up the hole with a speed that makes me think they’ve missed their calling and should be flipping houses instead.

Still think the gas would probably seep through those gaps but maybe Caesar’s got some wicked air filtration system going on. I mean, it is a state of the art lab specialising in chemical weapons research.

Have I Left the Stove On?

There was a moment after the Strawhats reunited where the action cut to a shot of the devastation Caesar’s weapon had wreaked across Punk Hazard. 

If you thought the island was screwed before, it’s beyond help now. Utterly Pompeii’d. Every inch of it is covered in petrifying, poisonous ash. There is nowhere on Punk Hazard that is now habitable. Caesar took immense pride in this achievement. Some people just love destroying stuff, right? The only thing that survived outside was a single DDM protected by a bubble for Caesar’s broadcast. 

Brook’s ghostly form confirmed it. Going outside would be a Bad Idea.

Inside, a lot of guns were pointed at the Strawhats and Brownbeard (Brownbeard was just pleased the Marines had remembered his name. Awww...you’re infamous now, Brownbeard. Just like Luffy. Enjoy it!)

Once the plot threads and outstanding issues of the whole reuniting scene were dealt with (Law unshambled Nami and Sanji and also told Smoker not to let his men stand in the way of the pirates), the plan to fight back against Caesar and escape the hell of Punk Hazard began.

As Law had been a guest at Caesar’s Weird Hotel, he knew the layout of the labs. They were in the foyer of Building A. To escape, they must force a path through to Building B, the large central area. There, they would find a gate at the back leading to Building R and a door marked R-66. Behind that door, is a passage to the sea that would be unaffected by any poison gas.

Law declared he’d rather not have to create a massacre, but could only give everyone about two hours. To anyone staying longer than that, Law could not guarantee their safety.

And the idiots still tried to attack the Strawhats, so I don’t have much hope for them.

One of the most interesting scenes here was the one between Zoro and Luffy. While fighting Marines, Usopp updated Zoro on what had happened. Caesar had soloed everyone with his de-oxygenation trick. Even Luffy had fallen for it. Zoro took that hard. He had flashbacks to Sabaody, to everything he had trained for in the past two years. What the hell? How could Luffy just lose like that?

Luffy (who had hatched a secret plan with Robin I know nothing about yet because Oda did let us hear it), was heading for the next room. Zoro caught him before Luffy barged his way through.

“LUFFY! GET A GRIP. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW WORLD!”

And Luffy replied, “YEAH, SORRY. I WON’T LET MY GUARD DOWN AGAIN.”

Then he tried out a hilariously dumb UFO move on the Fodder Marines and Zoro performed a mental facepalm.

I liked that glimpse of the relationship between Luffy and Zoro there. Sometimes, even though Zoro has his moments, he’s always there to give Luffy a kick up the arse and deliver some home truths on occasion. And because Luffy respects Zoro, he will take them on board and acknowledge them. But of course he’ll still have a damned good time and try out dumb moves on fodders because when else can you do that, am I right?

He Did Not Leave The Stove On

In the lounge, Caesar was about to take a special delivery from the Bad News Fairy.

One of the nice things about Caesar is that he is not a total dumbass. He looked at that cage. He noticed there were no petrified bodies clawing at the front door. He *knew* something wasn’t quite right. He asked Monet and Vergo. Vergo actually hypothesised that the Strawhats had broken free and helped the Fodder Marines escape too. But Caesar ignored him.

Then the Bad News Fairy arrived. A minion burst through the door. “Master! All of the enemies have entered the lobby with Strawhat Luffy in the lead!”

You all probably remember Spandam and Enel and those golden freakout faces. Caesar is giving them a run for their money. I love how he can shift seamlessly from twirling round the room in joyful glee, to “wait a minute....” suspicion, followed by shrieking outrage.

Two in-universe hours, Caesar. That’s how long you have.

Can’t wait to see what nasty tricks you’ll pull in your increasingly futile attempts to cling to power in Punk Hazard.

And they will be futile, because if there’s one thing we all know about Luffy, it’s that he always, always learns from his mistakes.

He is going to kick your ass and kidnap you.

At least he recycles?

[sarazanmai]

About one piece, what did Oda do previously? (I'm talking about your tag). Cause I wanna read one piece and I want to manage my expectations. I really don't want to drop this manga.

There was an arc a while back where he used some pretty bad gay and trans stereotypes. It was several years ago and it wasn’t the focus of that arc, but its still something that leaves me just hoping he doesn’t screw things up with O-Kiku.

Also @ whoever writes the OP wiki, fuck you for not using feminine pronouns for her. She isn’t non binary so using neutral pronouns is still inaccurate.

[fgodestinyawakenings]

EOR Shimosa Singularity: Chapter 15~END

Kinda taking a break in writing and this... Away from FGO for a breather until Oda Nobunga’s event rerun kicks in. My interest went elsewhere temporarily but I’ll definitely get back once LB4 or new event starts!

Chapter 15 & 16

Combining final two chapters into as there’s nothing much left. The first arrow is the final chance to grind for bond points before facing the final conclusion of the 3 remaining boss! 

1 Lancer Boar + 2 Assassin Ghost first wave, 3 Saber Samuari and one giant Lancer Orochi. So bring your required Servants to grind for bond in this final mob fight!

Second arrow... Where my Command Seals gone because of his fucking gimmick for this entire fucking fight! You’re facing Saber Emperiyo aka Yagyu Munemori with again, Musashi being locked for as your NPC support

Saber Empyrio has Human trait.

Gimmicks: 

Normal Attacks Removes Your Servant's Buffs.

He has a Permanent Mental Debuff Immunity

First HP Break: Gain a permanent Attack Up Buff for 5 Turns.

Second HP Break: Gain a permanent Defense Buff that Greatly Reduces the Amount of Damage Taken from Enemies' Normal Attack by 100%

Player's Front Party Gains a NP Gather Up Buff [Unremovable]

I know it doesn’t look hard to some... The most fucking annoying thing is his remove buff that also removes taunt! >.> Regardless bring your best Archer team to finish this fight

The second last battle, where you’re no longer NPC locked to fight Amakusa Shiro. Being an Avenger via plot reason, is your final fight your playable Servants in this Singularity

Gimmicks:

Amakusav has a Permanent Mental Debuff Immunity.

First HP Break: Gain a Critical Damage Up Buff for 5 Turns.

Player's Front Party Gains a Star Gather Up Buff for 5 Turns.

Second HP Break: Gain A NP Damage UP Buff for 5 Turns.

Player's Front Party Gains a Star Absorp Up Buff for 5 Turns.

With BB around since this is after CCC event, bring a party revolving her to defeat Amakusa!

Using NPC Musashi for this final fight, Saber Kojiro doesn’t have any gimmicks. Do your best to keep her alive and defeat the final boss of this Singularity!

The final two chapters are Visual Story Mode, which... The singularity has finally been completed!

Thoughts & Observation

This is actually difficult for me to say because... I delayed this so long to complete it. But quoted with Edmond’s words, “Wait and Hope” with the right Servants, it’s going to feel easy to complete. 

But otherwise immediately on the release to start the quest, it’s going to feel difficult if you ended up realizing you don’t have the right team to bring

On regards to NPC Musashi... Chronological order, this is the first they started with NPC support? If Shinjuku is tutorial mode HP bar, then Shimosa is Spartan tutorial for NPC-locked Servants for this.

I’m giving neutral as I don’t want to delve further that turned this post to a nasty anti post. She’s actually manageable if you can work around with the units you have to defeat your bosses

Hozoin Inshun

His boss fight is considered the easiet despite being support locked to Musashi. Given by the class affinity, it give players to get a feel of using her since she’s going to be locked to you in major boss fight

Skillset aside ignore evasion... Revolves buffing more and more on his normal attacks together with his NP. There’s also him debuff one of your Servant with NP seal, so careful your timing in releasing your NP

Which... By those buff if they actually stack... You’re in for a world of critfest. Yes, his gimmick already involving buff of crit chance so you want to avoid that!

HP recovery 3k per turn... With the right team, you’ll definitely be able to outdo that healing

Servants:

ST Sabers: Aside Musashi, you can always bring more like Bedivere and Caesar to back her up in killing him for DPS

Buff Removal Servants: Mainly you really don’t want his crit and attack buff to keep stacking

By traits:

Brynhildr’s beloved

Humanoid: Nightingale & Okada Izou

Male: Tamamo Lancer, Medb, Stheno

CEs:

NP Seal: He’s not doing heavy damage... But one way definitely to stop him from buffing himself

Kiyohime’s CE

Holy Shroud of Magdalene

Tomoe Gozen

Aside from DW trying to screw every player’s phone from their fire animation... This is the start of the chapter where burn debuff is stackable

Given with that sudden change for that debuff, Tomoe’s first gimmick of normal attacks inflict burn debuff dealing 100hp per turn for 3 turns

Mental Debuff Immunity preventing her from being charmed and stunned by Servant’s NP/skills

With an ST NP that adds and even buff her burn status, her skillset lacks defensive with only guts to keep her alive. Yet, majorly all are buffing her attack and NP damage, so be careful of getting your Lancer and support killed

Servants:

ST Lancer: Once again, Cu Chulainn is one of your best candidate with guts, evade and own debuff removal + heal to keep himself alive while killing her. Other than him, there’s Diarmuid and Jaguar Man as alternative DPS

ST Berserker: Not that it’s not recommended... You’ll definitely need to find one that has its own debuff removal, or a support with them removes the burn from killing them

Taunters: Aside her NP, you’ll definitely want them to take in all the burn debuff away from your support and DPS

Debuff Removal: AOE skill/NP preferably to heal your whole front-line. Otherwise on ST skill/NP, priority is your Support and DPS to keep them alive.

By Traits:

Female: Jack & Carmilla

Demonic: Tawara Touta, Raikou

Humanoid: Nightingale & Okada Izou

Weak to Enuma Elish

CEs:

Taunt CE: On your taunter to let her hit them as long as possible

Art of Death

Mochizuki Chiyome

The biggest headache isn’t her gimmick of debuffing your team on normal attack but HP break. Which, especially crucial if you need your support ready to activate their skill for defense from her NP

Thankfully it last for 5 turns... But RNG pretty much screwing you right there

Skillset has NP seal, increase arts performance, an additional curse debuff when normal attack, evasion + 1 unexpected NP charge

Her own NP also doesn’t help with HP break since it also debuff your one targeted Servant with Skill seal

Servants:

ST Casters: Medea definitely with her own buff removal NP as support and DPS hybrid to remove evasion and buffs to deal more damage against her.

AOE Caster: If you didn’t have Medea ready, AOE is still a choice since... Until Salem’s 4* ST NP Caster, most of the Caster are support or AOE. This is if you’re starting this Singularity upon release

Taunters: Again aside from debuff... You definitely don’t want her NP debuff to land on either DPS or support

By traits:

Female: Jack & Carmilla

Evil: Sanson & Vlad III

Humanoid: Nightingale & Okada Izou

Weak to Enuma Elish

CEs:

Art of Death

NP seal

Taunt CEs

Ignore Evasion CE

Shuten Doji & Raikou

Definitely the worst fight about this is Shuten’s charm and her class as Berserker for this Singularity

Raikou herself isn’t unless you actually brought Demonic Servants in your party

Gimmicks, definitely Shuten with a permanent buff that she drains your NP on normal attack and even a debuff immunity once HP break

Raikou isn’t that bad if you can handle for 5 turns of crit damage up buf

Servants:

AOE Assassin: The preferable Servants to have to wipe both Shuten and Raikou. But because aside Scathach, most of the AOE assassin are 5* and Kato will only be out once you finish this story. So if you don’t Scathach and want this for DPS, borrow either Shuten or Cleopatra for DPS

ST Assassin: Pick any for DPS with a support to buff and keep them alive from their AOE NP

AOE Berserker: Not your best answer to have... Just be careful for Raikou’s crit on HP break

By traits:

Female: Jack & Carmilla

Demonic: Rama, Touta and Raikou

Evil: Sanson & Vlad

Dragon: Siegfried

Divine: Oda Nobunaga, Arjuna, Karna, Scathach, Enkidu

Weak to Enuma Elish

CE:

Star Regenration CE: If you find yourself really lacking of it

NP regeneration CE/Increase NP generation CE: Definitely for support Servants so they can spam their NP often

Ignore Evasion CE: For against Raikou’s second skill

Versus & Fondant au Chocolat

Caster Limbo aka Ashiya Douman

The one fight I’m YOLOing because of the lack of Riders... Which surprisingly survived thanks to George, Quetz, Ishtar and Mecha Eli-chan

And considering this isn’t Ashiya Douman’s true form plot wise... It’s somewhat easier? Except this is the fight with Lahmu with that constant spamming debuff on normal attacks

NP wise being your still typical giant ghost doing AOE attack that drains front-line Servants 

Servants:

ST Riders: Ushiwakamaru and your other available ST Riders definitely recommended to bring in this fight against him

Debuff removal Servants: Definitely needed on your DPS to keep them alive to deal damage at Douman

AOE Defense Servant: Party Evasion/Invincibility for against Ashiya Douman’s NP

Undead trait: Scathach & Martha

Large trait: Arthur

CEs:

Kiyohime CE & Holy Shroud of Magdalene: For a ghost.. He still got his trait. So do equip these CEs on both DPS & Support respectively

Healing increased CE: Particularly for your healers if needed thanks to his debuff spamming on normal attacks

NP generating CE: As his debuff spams that too, you can consider this equipped in attempt to get your NP charged as soon as you can

Yagyu Munemori

........ MY WHOLE COMMAND SEAL GONE BECAUSE OF THIS DAMN OLD MAN!

Excluding permanent buff from CE and gimmicks of this fight, The worst of this is basically his own permanent buff that removes all your Servant’s buff on normal attack.

You can’t even use taunt without that getting remove on his normal attack, but timing it on his usage of NP

Aside from ST NP that debuff attack... His skillset is one thing to be careful with a more offensive and strong defense himself. Also, he definitely has his third skill to charge NP unexpectedly by 1 tick

If you think the one I’m complaining is bad... The real hell begins on his second HP break, where he buffs himself with 100% defense against NORMAL attacks!

That 2nd HP break requires you to get your NP spamming to kill him... And the NP generation buff they give feels bullshit. Because your normal attacks on him doesn’t charge your NP quickly

Servants wise:

ST Archers: David, Billy & Robin. Your best three which this round.. I feel Euryale is unfit after my 2 attempts on this fight. One is partly his evasion and her own HP... 2nd is debuff immunity which rendered her NP charm and 2nd skill. Also since Taunt is rendered useless unless timed well, she’ll die quickly. The three above at least can help each other in both surviving and attacking

ST Berserker: I really don’t recommended because your taunters won’t be able to protect them from his normal attacks. However, it’s still a good risk if you got the right party to beat him

Taunters: Though I say I don’t recommended... They are still useful on his NP because he doesn’t remove them when he used it. It mainly help doing minimal damage against your support and DPS

By traits:

Male: Euryale, Orion

Saber class: Mysterious Heroine X

Riding: Oda Nobunaga

Weak to Enuma Elish

Humanoid: Nightingale & Okada Izou

Human: Sanson

CEs:

Kiyohime CE

Holy Shroud of Magdalene, Melty Sweetheart: I’m recommending defense if you’re opting on not using taunters to equip this CE on either support or DPS to keep them alive

Steel Training

Ignore Evasion CE

Amakusa Shiro

........... The surprisingly easier fight after Munemori despite the gimmicks

Even having a class change, he’s still manageable to handle. But also don’t let your guard down with his NP and skillset

That includes the gimmicks that gives good chance of raining critfest upon first hp break, and NP damage up on the second

He has a mental debuff immunity so charm and stun effect like these will not work on him

Servants:

BB: This is already after CCC, so do bring a party revolving around her being the DPS to defeat Amakusa. Double BB also works well especially on the use of his NP... Otherwise, borrow your friend’s BB will do if you’re not able to get her

AOE Guts: More or less to keep BB and your support alive when Amakusa uses his buff removal from his NP to remove evasion/invincibility

By traits:

Weak to Enuma Elish

Male: Euryale, Orion, Tamamo Lancer, Medb, Stheno

Humanoid: Nightingale, Okada Izou

CEs:

Kiyohime CE: For BB to deal more damage on him

NP seal: Prevent him from using it 

Guts CE: An alternative choice for BB to keep her alive when he used his NP

And I’m done! Now onto a good break before grinding hell returns next week or so! Depending on Aniplex and DW’s schedule since both are dragging a little longer for dead week right now

[snurps]

zoro for the comfort chara ask!!!

thank you so much for asking

  9. Fav canon outfit(s): SKYPIEA god bless that tank top. also wano’s looking good, and his classic outfits are also great. bonus: his bandana in strong world and the red coat in film z.

10. Fav canon moment: aw frick anytime he smiles or laughs LOL. but probably his exchange with kuma, or his duel with mihawk. i also thoroughly enjoyed him cutting up pica though.

14. What I like about the way he’s portrayed in canon: just about everything? the core of his character is being a samurai, and he’s so incredibly loyal to the crew. he keeps an eye on them and protects them all the time (he’s literally done this for everyone in the crew at some point), and he helps keep them grounded. you can tell how much the other straw hats respect him too.

he’s also one of the top “success by hard work” type characters, which i really respect and therefore i hope he keeps his simple nobody backstory in contrast to sanji. i admire him a lot. plus i think his getting lost gag is really something because it’s sort of a reference to a wandering ronin, which he was before he met luffy, but also it’s stupid funny and a great way to take him out of fights when necessary lmao. i love the joke where he survived after “nothing happened” because he got lost on the way to the light.

he’s also not just a stupid musclehead either. whereas i think sanji is the better strategist, zoro’s still a brilliant tactician. he came up with the X strategy in alabasta, and there’s instances where like, as soon as he realized sandai kitetsu could cut stone, he started using it to get through buildings or just to screw with the whiskey peak bounty hunters lol. it’s kinda a thing where because he believes so much in his own ability, he does things that no one else believes is possible, such as trying to push back doffy’s birdcage. and like, who tf thinks of using an actual katana in his mouth? roronoa zoro is who. also he reads the newspaper, even if only to check on their bounties lol.

15. What I don’t like about the way he’s portrayed in canon: the ONE issue i have with him is of course his relationship with tashigi. here’s the thing though, it’s understandable if he’s not a perfect feminist (he’s still pretty good, and i think the treatment of women is one of the issues he takes with sanji lol) because of Oda’s values and also that he’s basically the most masculine person ever. more or less though he treats people the same, even if he’s against slashing down women (and tbh he doesn’t kill male opponents either). 

heck i could actually write a whole analysis about this, but basically that’s how i reconcile his backstory with kuina with comments like “she’s a woman” about robin, and his showdown with monet where he completely outclassed tashigi. it’s more a thing about how oda writes women than zoro. anyone would pale compared to zoro lol. i think tashigi could’ve had way more potential and i hope she shows up again to kick ass in wano too or something.

[atopearth]

Samurai Love Ballad Party Part 1 - Akechi Mitsuhide and Oda Nobunaga Routes

I took the plunge and decided to start this game too lolol. Someone told me Nobunaga is great so I’m hyped, but since we’re going in order as usual, it’s Mitsuhide first~

Heroine seems pretty cool and nice, very self-sacrificing and family-oriented. Being a poison taster is such a terrible job though.. Inuchiyo is so cool and a great guy too! Please protect mee! Lady Oichi seems really wonderful, it’s great that the heroine has a girl friend~ she got so quickly upgraded to teaching Oichi how to bake foods like Castella rather than poison taster, too bad it doesn’t sound like the best job either since if it’s unfitting for Nobunaga’s tastes, she’ll still be screwed lol. Mitsuhide and Nobunaga are very different after all, with the former being merciful and the latter being more ruthless? Nobunaga will not hesitate to rid of any obstacle in his path whereas Mitsuhide has that consideration he possesses for all people. Technically, they’re both good ways of ruling depending on the era and what people need. Since realistically, it would be hard for Mitsuhide’s ideals to survive if he’s not strong enough or tricked etc but Nobunaga’s way of doing things could also lead to extreme fear and rebellion even if that’s what wars demand in leaders. Too bad that the only ones who can truly understand them will be the ones beside them. Nobunaga understands Mitsuhide’s thoughts and seems to agree to a certain extent but he also thinks that what he does is necessary, since loyalty to your leader is so important. Mitsuhide understands Nobunaga’s kindness and his lack of mercy towards others as well, considering that Nobunaga even remembers what Mitsuhide’s favourite food is. Which is why they work together I guess! They may be different but their ultimate ideals remain the same.

I’m sad that Oichi is leaving already, I really liked her. She’s such a cool girl. She understands her situation well. Although she can’t marry for love, she is aware that she is blessed with a great life of luxury that others would beg to have. She’s quite optimistic and kind. I didn’t naively think like the heroine did that Mitsuhide would fight for her return to her home after her job beside Oichi had been done after she left, since it’s practically been decided that once you’re here, you’re probably slaving away here forever, but I did kinda hope that Mitsuhide would help her like Inuchiyo did. But I guess Mitsuhide is kind but also fair. It was nice of him to help out in the kitchen as a pretense so he could thank the heroine for her work in being an emotional support for Oichi and making these desserts etc, it’s what she chose to do but seeing Mitsuhide thank her made it rather sweet.

I really like the existence of Francisco and Luis, it shows the existence of foreign trade to the background story of the era they’re in and also presents cultural differences and an opportunity for the heroine to shine. They’re such nice characters too! Mitsuhide was so cute when he honestly said he wanted to keep the heroine closer to him and that her helping him out every day really makes him happy. Him being so straightforward makes me happy too!😊😊 Lord Katsuie is such an emotionally tender guy to tear up to the heroine’s reason for coming to the castle, he’s such a softie.

Oh no, to think that Oichi’s husband betrayed Nobunaga at a critical bout in the war, instead of being able to lay siege to a key castle, they had to escape before they were wiped instead! That’s pretty bad. It’s kind of inevitable for Nobunaga to have to destroy the Azai (her husband’s clan) considering the betrayal but he can’t kill his sister too! Can’t he just like hopefully grab her back?😢 I know it’s wishful since it’ll be hard in the mess and it’ll be likely for her to be caught up in the battle but.. aiyaa… On the other hand, Mitsuhide really is a gentle samurai isn’t he? He’s considerate but also loyal to Nobunaga and his duty to bringing the best results he can with these wars. The heroine isn’t one to like war and all this bloodshed but really, when Mitsuhide comes into it, she understands it better, since if someone gentle like him is wrapped up in it, it’s definitely not because he thinks war is fun. Omggg when he held her hand though, I totally swooned, and then when she slipped and he caught her in his arms and wouldn’t let go. I know it’s so cliche but it works because I love it lmao. I’m glad Ieyasu has had ninja spies with Oichi ever since she got married since Nobunaga really does care for her. I thought he would since he seemed to really like her and just giving her away to some random wouldn’t be nice but then I thought that’s just how it is I guess. I’m glad that isn’t just how it is!!

The best thing about Mitsuhide is that he helps the heroine in realistically possible ways rather than giving her false hope. He’s nice in a realistic way! I think I can really sympathise with Oichi though, she’s come to understand her husband’s thoughts and feelings and actually really likes him, so how could she possibly just abandon him to his fate now of being killed by her brother by himself? They’re husband and wife after all. But, since he’s a traitor…. Nobunaga should knock her out and take her home, although I guess she’ll probably hate him for doing that, but in the end, hating him is better than her dying I guess.. The heroine is right though, Mitsuhide! What is the point of having your dreams if you lose your heart to achieve them? There’s simply no meaning anymore to it! Following for a reason and following blindly is very different and the latter should never be done. You should never lose yourself!

It’s so corny when the guy saves the heroine in the nick of time but it was so sweet to see Mitsuhide do it! Especially since he has such a noble way of living and wanting to protect all innocent people. His heart is too pure for this era.. But he’s also what the people need as well.. if it wasn’t for him, Nagamasa and those innocent monks could really well have died.. Alongside the heroine… I mean, it’s true that sometimes innocent people will die unintentionally and maybe it can’t be helped, but when it can be helped, then there shouldn’t be such unnecessary shedding of blood. So many people die everyday already, there doesn’t need to be any more.

Seeing things and answering in favour of Nobunaga really let’s you see his gentle side. Especially when the heroine is too scared to run and she tells him that and he’s like why would he kill her when he still wants to eat the Castella she makes hahaha. Nobunaga has a brother called Nobuoki? Ooh~ lmao at Oichi ruining every food she touches hahahaha. Nobuoki sounds very kind, maybe it’s because he’s not a part of the war that he can be so nice and gentle. It’s a different kind of nice from Nobunaga’s and them. Never thought Nobunaga would be incapable of holding his liquor though, that’s surprising! It’s really very sweet to see how doting Nobunaga is towards Oichi and Nobuoki and how much they care for him as well.

Nobunaga really has no poise and tact to all this. He cares for the heroine but doesn’t show it properly, making her think he just wants her physically lol. I liked the nice little detour to Seto village to see what Nobunaga is working hard for, besides the wars he must engage in to achieve his dream. He definitely rushed into asking her to be his concubine and trying to get her into his bed way too fast so you can’t blame her utter rejection lol. But I can’t help but be touched by the kimono gifts he sends and the jar of candy he got for her. That really got to my heart too since it’s something so important to him.

It’s so nice to see him figure out a way to win the battle with so few casualties after being inspired by Hideyoshi, Katsuie convincing the heroine that Nobunaga isn’t too bad haha. The sweetest thing though was when she said they could hold hands and he respected her wishes and did just that. As a man that can probably get most women to listen to him, he listening to her was very comforting, since it shows his high regard for her. It’s nice to see Oichi tell the heroine of her husband’s betrayal to Nobunaga. But yeah lol I was wondering why the heroine didn’t just give the message through the ninja guy but went with him instead, she really cares about Nobunaga too much that she’s not thinking properly huh? Loll. I kinda teared when he had nightmares of his brother and now Nagamasa betraying him. He’s been hurt quite a bit.. But it was so nice and peaceful to see the heroine spend time with her family again, with Nobunaga there too haha!

I’m so devastated that Nobuoki is dead. He was never a guy suited for war but he wanted to help Nobunaga and I’m sure he must have tried his best to defend the castle until the end… But it’s just too saddening… Especially for Nobunaga to swallow. He’s lost one of his most trustworthy brothers and his sister is stuck with a traitor that he doesn’t know if is treating her well or not. The war isn’t going well on all sides and he has so many enemies that want his head.

So, with the death of Nobuoki and with the heroine’s love towards Mitsuhide pushing him, Nobunaga set fire to mount Hiei killing the innocent monks that were in his path… It’ll be sad if Nagamasa dies by Nobunaga’s hands as well. They used to be good friends too! His elder brother tried to assassinate him, his younger brother died as a part of his ambition, Nagamasa betrayed him… Sigh. So in the end, even Nagamasa ended up committing suicide, with honour though so at least that’s reassuring. But it must have been tough for Oichi to see that… I feel so sorry for Nobunaga though, the burden on his shoulders is too much… When he does his best to protect his people by being ruthless to others, his people see him as cruel but when he tries to resolve things through surrender, he is lied to and ambushed by them causing his men to die. Nobunaga’s decisions make a really big impact on the people following him, so the fact that his initial decision to be ruthless would have been correct must devastate him so much… He’ll just think that this is the result of being soft… and then make himself even more ruthless from now on… But I’m glad the heroine persevered and got to his heart because he’s so worth it! He’s a great guy~ Also, when he took her back to his room and was like watch your step blah blah, I was like omggg he’s so much nicer to her these days, it’s crazy. That kompeito kiss was great lolol. Guess that kiss was literally sweet hahaha.

Overall, I have to admit that Nobunaga’s route was a real rollercoaster but a great one where even at the low points, I still loved it because it really questioned my decisions as well. Nobunaga’s life is one wrought with difficult decisions and seeing that beside him as the heroine was really engaging and saddening. It was easy to see that the love and support she gave him through making sweets and being beside him was irreplaceable and heartwarming to him. Nobunaga was a hard nut to crack but he’s such a sweet nut that most will appreciate. Whereas, I think Mitsuhide’s route was nice too because it gave insight on his perspective and what he regards to be the most important beliefs to follow, showing how he might have chose to betray Nobunaga in the future. I’d say that I liked Nobunaga’s route more though, just because it made me think quite a bit and it was emotional.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 003: Superhero Academy Entrance Exam

Chapter 3 of my not-actually-live liveblog of Boku no Hero Academia! And I have to say, this one is my favorite chapter so far. We’ve got new characters, we’ve got weird video game point challenges, and we’ve got a new crowning moment of awesome for our protagonist! All this, and a guy with the power of jeans. What more could I ask for in life.

Notes: As of posting this I’ve read up through chapter 6 of the manga and watched episodes 1-5 of the anime. My comments (aside from ETAs), however, are from my initial readthrough of the chapter and are unedited. And despite residing here on tumblr where BnHA is a trending tag like every week, I somehow continue to remain almost totally unspoiled (boy that feels like I’m jinxing it).

hey it’s some random speech bubbles just spitting out facts about U.A.! how convenient and helpful

damn, they only accept 1 in 300 people... that’s a 0.33% acceptance rate. I’m pretty sure even Harvard accepts like 5 or 6% of its applicants, so this is... yikes

All Might magnanimously declined the People’ Choice Award lmao

“Best Jeanist.” oh my god. for years I’ve thought Eiichiro Oda was hands-down the best mangaka when it came to creating off-the-wall new characters. but this character’s name is Best Jeanist and he’s wearing a turtleneck denim jacket and has onion hair and I just. I don’t know anymore. my world is shook

what makes it better is the implication that there are other jeanists out there. but he is the best

so much the best that he’s won the best jeanist award eight years running

what is his power?? jeans??

shout out to this other guy Endeavor who I’m completely ignoring because he had the misfortune to be standing next to my homeboy Best Fucking Jeanist

Deku actually went home and took a shower and packed and then got on the subway for a forty-minute ride. holy shit this kid is cool under pressure. probably took a fucking nap on the train too

DID HE EAT THE HAIR??? I ASSUME YES? GODDAMMIT THIS IS BULLSHIT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED RIGHT NOW

is this the school? I like the trees just chilling out in the entrance lobby there

“there was no time to test out the power All Might had given to me” -- fjkalsjdfj ARE YOU SERIOUS

THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU IDIOTS DO THIS LAST WEEK

YOU COULD HAVE PACKED THE NIGHT BEFORE

THE SHOWER IS FINE, SHOWERS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT YOU COULD HAVE DONE IT FASTER

HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IF THE HAIR ACTUALLY DID ANYTHING?? YOU SPENT THE PAST 10 MONTHS BUILDING UP TO THIS? YOU WERE CARRYING THAT BALL FOR TEN FUCKING MONTHS ONLY TO DROP IT THREE FUCKING HOURS BEFORE THE EXAM SFKSHLHK I’M FUCKING LOSING IT

I DON’T CARE IF HE’LL OBVIOUSLY BE FINE, I NEED SOMEONE TO GO AND SMACK HIM PLEASE

-- OH LOOK IT’S MY PROBLEMATIC FAVE

HOLY SAVAGE FUCK THAT “IGNORE + WALK PAST” WAS OFF THE FUCKING CHARTS

“ever since that day, Kaachan never tormented me again”

the answer is yes, right? no? are you sure?? damn

wow they still remember the sludge monster and call it the “sludge incident”

here I was thinking this kind of shit happened on the daily in this crazy superheroes&supervillains society, but I guess some incidents are more memorable than others

also it’s nice that he stopped harassing Green Tsuna, but when my previous (I shouldn’t say “previous”, actually... more like “still current”) favorite Gokudera “GOAT” Hayato had his life saved by his protagonist, he not only stopped tormenting him, but he immediately swore his eternal fealty and dedicated his life to serving him, so that’s a pretty high bar. I will give Baku the benefit of the doubt, though

I’m still obviously on board this ship, as evidenced by the fact that Deku thought “I gotta stop flinching instinctively” and I was like “aww they’ll be lovers any day now”

I don’t understand it either

hey hello I’m cracking up in real life here

wow I thought he was gonna fall and that was hilarious, but instead he’s somehow just... floating there? which is somehow even MORE hilarious

HEY A NEW CHARACTER. [takes notes]

WHY ARE YOU SORRY FOR STOPPING HIM IT WAS A NICE THING TO DO

“[SMILES BROADLY] THIS SURE IS NERVE-WRACKING!” HEY I’M SORRY, BEST JEANIST, BUT YOU CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF, THIS IS MY NEW NEW FAVE

HIGH FIVE, GREEN TSUNA. YOU’RE DOING GREAT

“Everybody say hey” this motherfucker better be saying this in fucking English goddamit. (ETA: he is!! yessssssssss)

nobody said hey

“well that’s cool.” nice recovery! gamfuckingbatte you funky boombox man

YEEEEEEAH

nobody said yeah

my god this is a tough crowd. the practical test could just be warming these stone-cold motherfuckers up and it would 100% explain the abysmally low acceptance rate

I love how Deku talks to himself all the fucking time. I want to watch movies with him. we’ll both talk quietly while trying not to annoy people and probably not succeeding.

they’re sitting next to each other oh my god they were roomaaaaates

no but it’s seriously so cute??

there are probably thousands of people there, they didn’t HAVE to sit with each other. (unless seating arrangements are determined by school)

ETA: which they probably are come to think of it. hahaha)

they can’t take the test together though, aw

look at these fucking Mario silhouettes. did Nintendo sign off on these?

is it allowed because they’re blacked out? how fucking sneaky

(ETA: actually in the anime they didn’t make any Mario references at all, which makes me think there actually was a copyright issue)

these rules seem simple enough. actually seems almost too simple. the amount of different quirks they’re dealing with and the lack of guidelines on how not to use them seems to be asking for trouble. but I guess they probably know what they’re doing by now

I thought this was a high school, why is this 40-year-old man here asking questions about the exam

OH SHIT DEKU HE’S CALLING YOU OUT FROM TWENTY FEET AWAY

we would so get kicked out of movies together

now they’re literally referencing Super Mario Bros by name huh

and calling it an “old retro game”... sob

I actually love the pop culture reference so much and hope that more of these follow. this is how people talk in real life. none of that coming across a zombie and not actually calling them “zombies” because that concept somehow doesn’t exist or any of that bullshit. no sir. “you guys know thwomps from Mario? this thing is like a thwomp from Mario”

here we go. this set-up reminds me of Choice from KHR. please dear god don’t actually be like Choice from KHR

yeah, come to think... how big is this school

there’s a guy whose arm bone is sticking waaaaaay out of his elbow and it’s making me so fucking uncomfortable

please go away

THE GIRL IS HERE

AND THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD MAN IS HERE TOO DAMMIT

all these people who don’t even fucking know Deku are still picking on him for some reason. ugh. just more people to show up, Izu. you got this dude

I’m getting strong Hunger Game vibes here

oh damn they sure did run

thd thd thd thd

relax, Deku, I’m sure there are plenty of monsters to go around. plus most of those guys appear to be morons and I’m sure the smiley girl and the forty-year-old man are the only ones in the group who’ll actually pass somehow

oh fucking FINALLY a flashback to him eating the hair!!

he’ll START to feel SOMETHING in A FEW HOURS?!!!

and there he is running off to take a shower as previously established

I am glad he is confirmed as having good personal hygiene, though

“prepare for some real kickback” noooo I’m getting nervous

when you use One for All, clench up your butt

ssshhf this giant fucking robot literally interrupted his flashback right before we got to the good part??

DEKU. CLENCH YOUR BUTTTT

“why can’t I move?” MAYBE YOU CLENCHED TOO TIGHT. SHIT

some bishounen with a crotch laser just appeared out of nowhere and blasted it!

whew

“merci!” you’re welcome, Tuxedo Mask

wow he’s been standing around for four minutes already?? I take back what I said before, Deku. fucking run

everyone else has killed basically all the enemies. fuck why do I feel like he’s about to face a fucking thwomp. how many points were those again

...lmao zero. well shit

these Ender’s Game test-makers have deemed Yuri on Ice over here a “decision maker”

who am I to argue

BAKUGOUUU

YESSS MY ANGRY SON WHOM I’VE ADOPTED FOR REASONS THAT STILL CONFUSE ME HAS GOT THAT .3% ACCEPTANCE RATE LOCKED UP

OH NO IT’S THE YARUKI SWITCH

WHAT’S A YARUKI SWITCH

ah

now feels like a good time to speculate on just how fucking expensive this fucking test is with the giant robots and the entire fucking city built for the sole purpose of being leveled in ten fucking minutes all for the sake of a test which only 1 out of every 300 people will even fucking pass

somewhere out there I hope there are people whose quirks are just “building lots of things really cheaply and effectively”, otherwise this feels like such a waste

haha now everyone is running again but in the opposite direction this time

and so is Deku. NOW he can move, huh

aaaaaand he’s crying again

something better happen or else he’s screwed

oh fuck me, the girl fell, of COURSE it had to be the girl

(ETA: actually upon reflection I think they redeemed this due to two things: (1) tying it back to her not letting him trip and fall earlier, and (2) the fact that she’s not the first person that Deku has had to heroically rescue, and the person who WAS first was not only a guy, but the angry explosive prodigy character. so I’ll give them a pass here)

(ETA 2: after watching it in the anime, a bunch of debris fucking fell on her, so I take back all of my complaining. good show)

AHHHHH HE’S RUNNING BACK TOWARD THE GIANT MONSTER DOING THE HEROIC “I JUST ACTED WITHOUT THINKING” THING AGAIN AHHH

AHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN

HOLY SHIT WAY TO BRING ME BACK DOWN

-- AH?! NOOO WHY IS IT OVER

I’M GONNA GO READ THE NEXT ONE RIGHT NOW

(ETA: and you better believe I did)

BUT FIRST

BONUS:

”I’m glad he came out so unlikable.” HAHA JOKE’S ON YOU

”his face just screams ‘I’m a rotten thief’” LMAO SOB WHY IS HE MY FAVORITE

GOOD CALL CHANGING HIS PERSONALITY THOUGH BECAUSE THIS VERSION NEEDS TO BE PUNCHED IN THE FUCKING FACE:

I HATE HIM

AND THAT’S IT THAT’S THE CHAPTER????

holy fucking shit.

[noisypapercollectionotome]

SLBPxSCM A Leap in Time: Saizo Pt.1

My first fanfic post! I’m so excited! I love Samurai Love Ballad Party and Saizo happens to be my bias in the game. I think he’s a wonderful character, though I enjoy other characters as well. I just decided that I wanted my first SLBP story to be about him. I’m thinking of doing this type of story for some, if not all of the guys, but I’ll see. I used the marriage event story for the first part of the story as I really love that one, but I was watching Drifters at the same time so that’s where I came up with the meshing of the time travel and SLBP and SCM angst to make this craziness. Hopefully this hasn’t been done before. Anyway, hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading!

Saizo-- Sengoku Era:

           Blood trickles down Saizo’s arm, falling to the ground and seeping into the uncaring Earth. His swords lay a few feet away where he dropped them, unable to bear their burden anymore. The ninja drags his leaden feet, though, gripping onto tree trunks and branches as he passes by.

           Damn it, Saizo thought to himself. I screwed up.

           He thought back to how Fuma Kotaro had intercepted him a few hours ago. The pay for the job was supposed to be good—an assassination on a close ally of Oda Nobunaga. Saizo had nearly succeeded, but before he could reach the Lord’s room, Hojo’s ninja jumped in, blocking him from his target and also preventing Saizo from escaping. Fuma was in a class of his own. Though Saizo reacted faster than the other ninja, Fuma’s attacks would hit with precision. Saizo could tell he was just fooling around, yet his wounds were accumulating. He needed to escape—the mission was a failure. The ninja Fuma had surrounded himself with were child’s play; he even noticed how the Lord he had been attempting to kill was only a few short meters behind him aiming his bow at the Lord Assassin’s heart.

           The nocked arrow went flying and just as Saizo turned to dodge the lethal blow, he felt a chain wrap around his wrist and pull him back. Fuma had seen the opening in Saizo’s defense and swung his chain and sickle at the perfect moment. Saizo no longer had enough time to dodge, instead he twisted his body so that when, finally, the arrow hit its mark, it instead pierced one millimeter off from his heart.

           But damn if it didn’t hurt!

           Saizo laughed—or he thought he did. A sigh escaped his throat. Saizo looked down, pulled out the arrow as he quickly, but clumsily made his way past the castle walls seeing as Fuma had let go of him at some point.

           Poison. Saizo could feel its effects almost immediately since it was so near his heart. He could hear the Lord in the distance shouting at his men to catch the Lord Assassin and bring back his body. Lord Nobunaga would reward him for such a fine kill. Saizo chuckled to himself.

           Good luck finding me, he thought. He might be on death’s door, but he wasn’t about to let that ridiculous, bratty lord have the last laugh. Saizo made sure he was out of range of the lord’s troops and remaining ninja before finally deciding to look for a safe haven. He couldn’t return to the village. He had failed his mission. If that Lord doesn’t succeed in killing the Lord Assassin, Iga would take care of it for him. But Saizo could already tell he would never make it back to the village. After much walking he had finally used to last of his energy. He could feel the cold seeping into his limbs, hear the hollow, struggling beating of his heart. He looked through the canopy of the trees to see an endlessly dark sky.

           Fitting. Ninjas born in shadow should die there too. But even so…all I can see is you…

           Before Saizo’s eyes, as he took his final gasping breaths, his lover’s face appeared before him. She smiled sweetly at him from underneath a cherry blossom tree, dango sitting in her lap.

           “Saizo! You’re home!”

           I’m sorry, Little Lady…I wish I could taste your dango one last time…

           Softly, slowly, the Lord Assassin shut his eyes, a sad smile upon his lips.

           And when he next woke up, he heard the blaring noise of human life and saw a world of buildings that reached toward the heavens while people walked between their bases without much thought or care.

           Where the hell am I?

           “Welcome to the future.”

           Saizo turned around to see a blond man in strange clothing smiling at him. Saizo frowned, his guard back in its rightful place.

           “And who might we be, hmm?” Saizo inquired in a threatening tone.

           The man held up his hands and laughed. “I’m not your enemy. My name is Teorus. I’m a Wishes god and I’m here to grant your wish.”

           “Wishes god?” Saizo asked skeptically. This guy has lost it. “And just what wish did I make for you to come running over?”

           Teorus’ smile turned sly in an instant. “To eat Sayuri’s dango.”

END PT. 1