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hikaritakaishi · 1 month

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Takari Week 2024 - Day 4: Fourth Contact

Days: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Title: Carnelian (Fourth Contact)

Characters: Takeru Takaishi, Hikari Yagami, Sora Takenouchi

Summary: It wasn't a conscious decision. It wasn't even a decision. It just happened. When she noticed, she was already looking into his eyes, wanting to drown in them. Quickly. Desperately.

That wasn't a coincidence. But it wasn't planned either. When he noticed, he already wanted to feel her touch. Madly. Profoundly. Intertwined souls, made to recognize each other in every lifetime.

They had it all. They had each other.

Note: A collection of stories that gives us an insight into Takeru and Hikari's relationship over the years. It was really hard to put all the prompts explicitly in the story, so I tried to metaphorize some of them, in order for them to make sense at the end.

It is composed of two prologues, one for Takeru and one for Hikari, exposing events before 1999. And a final epilogue, summarizing all the feelings exposed in the previous chapters. In the intermediate chapters, we follow all the challenges that a long-term friendship has to face when it becomes a romantic relationship, and how we form solid and permanent bonds with the ones we love the most.

・。。・゜゜・。。・

Something was missing.

A progression, a discussion, an enlightenment. A hug that brought no closure to her spirit nor erased her doubts. Not completely ease her mind. She needed it, she wanted it. But she needed to put her heart to rest in some other way.

Required advice. And thought of someone right away, who used to give the best advice for any type of hard situation. The mother of their friend group. The person she knew was her brother’s first love and Takeru’s brother last. Sora.

Hikari first wanted to call, but reevaluated the position that she was on, and decided to text asking if she could meet her in person. Some things are simply better discussed face to face, eye to eye. Feeling the other person's empathy and seeing their facial expressions while reasoning runs.

Sora didn't even take 10 minutes to respond the message. Did she sound too alarmed? Or too desperate?

“I'll be home all Saturday. Take as much time as you want and as you need, I have plenty.” Followed by a pink heart emoji.

Sora was always so incredibly soft and solidary. Always available to help, even with tight work schedules, and meticulously studying the future she wanted to build. No wonder Taichi and Yamato loved her for so long.

“Thank you so much Sora! I will be arriving after lunch time, early afternoon. I promise it won’t take too long!” Followed by a red heart emoji. Perfect. Finally, she will let herself speak about it for the first time. That thought made her a little nervous, honestly.

As much as she knew it was necessary, Hikari still had troubles opening her feelings to others. It still felt uncomfortable hearing her own thoughts out loud. Messed up argumentative lines, misplaced words, long silences. Failed attempts to explain what seemed inexplicable. Giving up. Quit easily. Self-sabotage.

It was a process, she emphasised to herself pretty much every day. A time-consuming process. But still imperative. Baby steps, little by little, small progresses flourished.

She walked slowly to Sora's house. Mentally preparing what she would say, how she would say. A flawless script. Not that it was difficult to explain, but she wanted to not sound foolish.

Everything simply evaporated from her mind when she arrived. Great. Took a deep breath and rang the bell.

“Hikari!” A very radiant voice welcomed her. It was impossible not to smile and feel loved. Sora was the personification of lovely. “Come inside! I was making some tea; would you like to have some?”

“Sure! What kind of tea is it?”

Chamomile. Of course. Perfect when it comes to avoid nerve wrecks.

“I am alone at home, but let's talk in my bedroom anyway. It's more comfortable. Can you help me with the tea?”

“Yes of course! And thank you so much for your time!”

“You don't have to thank me, I'm always here for whatever you need. Would you kindly be able to bring the cups? I take the pot of tea and biscuits” A plate with Sembei biscuits was placed right next to the pot of tea.

They calmly walked to Sora's room. She closed the door as soon as they arrived.

A small table sat in the centre of the room was waiting for them, with two pads on the floor, one on each side of the table. There was an undeniable effort to make everything look as welcoming as possible.

“Make yourself comfortable!” Sora said while placing the pot of tea and the biscuits plate on the table. “I hope you like the tea and the biscuits; I didn’t know what to prepare so I went for the safest option.”

“You didn't need to bother; I just needed your company.”

“I am so glad you came; we didn’t spoke in such a long time!”

Sora sat in front of her and started pouring the tea into the cups.

“I know right? And I am sorry if I am taking time from you that you might need for…”

“Oh Hikari, you have no idea how I really need and missed these moments. Just to talk to a friend and having them around. So don’t apologising, really, I am very happy that you came! So…” She handed her the cup of tea, with small pieces of the tea plant floating calmly inside of it, contrasting with Hikari’s flustered emotions. “You said you needed to talk about something important, what could it be?”

“Honestly, I don’t even know where to start…” Hikari sighed, inhaling the smell of the tea to calm her nerves.

“Take your time” Sora smiled, and it filled Hikari’s heart with a warm kind feeling of comfort. “Is it something that happened recently or have been happening?”

“Actually, it has been happening for quit sometime, but before getting there… How can I say this...”

Sora remained silent, not wanting to pressure Hikari into saying anything she didn't feel comfortable or prepared for. Hikari was stirring the tea with a spoon and looked away.

“Promise me not to tell anyone about this… specially Yamato.”

“Oh, of course not…” Sora’s voice tone changed, and she could sense the intrigue in it. “But why specially Yamato?”

“It was to do with Takeru.” Said finally, feeling some of the weight she carried on her shoulders finally fall.

“Takeru? I think I know where this is going… “Sora laughed a little bit.

“You know? Did he tell you what happened?”

“No, he did not tell me anything, but I can imagine. But please continue, at the end I will explain you everything that I have in my mind.”

“Ok.” She said suspiciously.” Well, since the beginning of high school, Takeru has become very popular, and when I say very, I say immensely, popular. Mostly around, girls. To the point that he receives several loves letters every single week.”

“Oh really? That much? I mean, he is a very sympathetic person with a gentle eye-catching personality, always cordial and courteous… how do you feel about all of that?”

“At first, I didn't pay much attention, I thought it was normal, for the reasons you mentioned mostly. But lately it has been bothering me a little bit…” Took a sip of the tea, to give Sora space to say something.

“And why is it? Is because you are afraid that he will distance himself from you, or is he acting any differently now that he is receiving a different type of attention?”

“I don’t feel like he is acting differently than before, and I do admire him for the way he deals with his recent popularity, always being careful with the words he uses and always being humble despite everything. A lot of boys would’ve taken advantage of the girls and probably hurt them.”

“Takeru is a soft soul; I don’t believe he would do that. “

“Neither do I. But I keep imagining that one day he might give one of them a chance. And start really… love someone.”

“And that is a completely plausible scenario.” She took a Sembei biscuit from the plate and broke it in half. “Soner or later, he will find someone he really likes. And will go on dates with her, spend time with her…” Continue to talk while eating.

That was exactly what she was afraid of. Felt her heart sinking a little and her throat started burning. Sora was undeniable right.

“… and that makes you feel nauseous, right?” Sora finished.

“Yes, a little bit.”

“Do you want to be that person?”

“I cannot be that person Sora, that is not even an option.”

“Why not?”

“Well, because…” Hikari began to search in her mind for the best words to describe what she had been feeling in the last few months. A tough but sincere analysis. “Because that could do more harm than good. We have been friends for many years, and we have an incredible friendship. Our connect is rare, and I don't want to destroy it. I don’t want to hurt him if I’m not able to be... enough for him.

“I sincerely understand you, Hikari, seriously. I went through something similar when I started to date Yamato, but you know, when you really love someone, the best thing you can do for them and for yourself is to be honest about those feelings. “

“You cannot imagine how betrayed by myself I felt when I realized that… I was falling for Takeru.”

“I can imagine. Have you thought about... exposing it to him? Do you think he might feel something as well?

“I don’t know… I never really planed on saying anything but a few days ago, he received another love letter from a girl he rejected, and I think that now he suspects that I might like him because of the way I acted around it.”

“What did you do?”

“I was so tired of pretending that I was ok with all of that. The love letters, the girl’s whispers whenever he passes by them in the hallways, him pretending that nothing was going on. My feelings simply boiled up and I couldn’t take them anymore. I distanced myself the rest of the day and avoid Takeru as much as I could. And I know what you might be thinking! Like, what a stupid thing to do! But I just couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Oh Hikari, I understand you so well, I felt that too. Yamato had the band, and the band was a huge success for a long time. “Sora looked around, remembering the days before she confessed herself to Yamato. “Too many girls, too many concert, and too much pressure on me to be perfect. I almost gave up on him because of that. But I was being overcome by fear, just like I think you are. “

“Do you think he will be ok with me… confessing all of this? The last thing I want to do is mess up with our friendship.”

“I believe that your connection is unique enough to make those feelings you have something much more than you expect, Hikari, you just have to let them do their magic.”

“I can agree with you… but why is it so hard? To just be honest?”

“Sometimes your feelings can eat you alive if you don’t get them out of your chest. Even if you try to ignore them, they will still exist.”

Hikari continued stirring her tea impatiently. Seemed infinitely easier said than done.

“I need more sugar, otherwise I'll have a drop in my blood pressure.” She took tiny cube of sugar out of a small pink jar that was on the table.

“Do you know what I was referring to earlier? Everyone expected you to fall in love with each other Hikari, it seemed beautifully inevitable. You built something that very few people experience in a lifetime.”

“Beautifully ironic if you ask me. “

“You should romanticize it more, maybe it was fate that brought you together, at the right time, at the right place. I mean, who knows. And even if it was just a coincidence… what an incredible one.”

“You cannot romanticize total chaos, Sora.”

“Oh, how dramatic!”

Hikari rolled her eyes while Sora kept laughing at her facing expressions.

Time went by and they kept sharing memories and advice, in a light tone that almost gave Hikari total certainty that what she was going to do was the right decision. What else could she do? The worst that could happen was that her feelings weren't reciprocated, which Sora dismissed almost immediately. It was either that or lose the opportunity to be honest and see Takeru with someone other than her in the future. You do what you need to do.

・。。・゜゜・。。・

Another week came a way too fast. The weekend was so fastmoving that Hikari did not even notice until Sunday night, when she was preparing her materials for school, and remembered everything she had shared with Sora. Now that the morning was dawned, she will have to go and face him. She had a little knot in her stomach and even her mother noticed that she had barely eaten breakfast.

“Come on Hikari, you got this!”

She asserted in waiting for the ideal occasion, and deliberately waited for the classes to finish.

Takeru noticed her impatience throughout the day. She seemed far, far away from him. Tried to catch her eye multiple times unsuccessfully and could not tell where she was in the intervals between classes. He expected everything to be back to normal, posterior to what happened. It was clearly not, something strange hovered over them. To convoluted for him to decipher. Yet.

“Can you wait for me, after class?”

Hikari was right behind him, standing, speaking graciously and quietly. He was sitting in his desk, waiting for the teacher to come and to start the last lesson of the day.

“Of course, is everything ok?”

Tried not to sound too analytic. Maybe a bit causally worried. She smiled. He knew she had done it on purpose. The distance, the quietude all day long, no mention of the love letters or that afternoon after class. Hikari laid the emotional groundwork.

“Yes, I only need a moment with you, alone. To talk.”

“Sure, I may need it too.” He played her back.Felt the tension build, while observing her confused expression. She did not expect that, and it was apparent.

“Wait for me then.”

Perceived her go to her sit. There was something stimulating about her existence and the way she simply was. Whenever he could, he looked at her distractedly. In her most natural way of being. For as long as he could remember, he had admired her. Beautifully soft, gracefully strong. Consciously vulnerable.

The school bell rang, and Takeru did not want to wait much longer. He packed his things and got up, heading towards her.

“Follow me, I can think of a better place for us to talk.”

That was certainly unexpected. Decided to trust him, and packed her things quickly as well, and hold his hand. Together they walked out of the room, waving Daisuke goodbye, leaving him with a strange feeling that something was about to change.

“Where are we going?”

“To a part of the school where no one had classes today.”

They went down to the top floor, still holding hands. Hikari felt her knees getting weaker and her hands were sweating. She tried to breathe slowly, but it was difficult, mainly because of the speed at which Takeru was pulling her. They passed through several rooms and entered the last one in the corner. He was right, it looked like no one had used those rooms that day. Everything was tidy and quiet.

“These rooms belong to the art and sculpture clubs. They only come from Tuesday to Thursday. We are safe.”

He let go of her hand to open the door. Courteously, he let her in first and followed. They went to the end of the room and placed their backpacks on the table in the right corner, which was next to the window.

The entire room was filled with shades of orange and brown. Carnelian. A slightly stuffy environment, with a little dust visually hung in the air.

Takeru leaned on the edge of the table and looked at Hikari, waiting for her to feel comfortable enough to look at him. She leaned against the windowsill and avoided his eyes, trying to calm herself first. Stretched her back a little and relaxed her shoulders. Took a very deep and loud breath.

“Takeru… I don’t even know how to start… I”

“Look at me, please.”

She looked up to meet his eyes. They brough her an uncomfortable cosiness.

Maybe due to the sunset colour pallet, his eyes seemed more crystal clear now, an angelic blue. The orange touch of his freckles contrasted with the blonde of his hair in a melodical way. Would it be too pathetic to want to hug him again?

“I missed you today.” Takeru broke the silence. “I don’t know what you are thinking, but I hate feeling you distant.”

“I missed you too.” Hikari said honestly. “I've been wondering all day how to ask you to talk about what happened, last week.”

“I thought about the possibility of that being the case.”

“Takeru, I just don’t want to ruin our friendship because of my selfishness.”

“I think we should have talked about this sooner. We could have avoided misunderstandings and…discomfort.”

“That's not an easy conversation to have” She looked out the window. No one was around, but she bet their colleagues were all on their way home.

“I understand, and please be as sincere as you need. I don’t mind being a little hurt” He laughed. “If you do is because I probably deserved it. “

“First of all, I want to apologise for the way I handled what happen the other day. I think I took it too… personally.” The words came out choppy, as if she was trying to force them out. “I just don’t want to lose a… friend, as special as you are to me.”

Hikari waited for a reaction. His face was neutral, until he started laughing.

“Takeru… I am being serious…”

“I know, I know, am sorry but…”

He pushed himself off the table and approached her. He placed one hand on each side of her body, leaning on the windowsill, facing her and looking into her eyes.

Her pale skin felt like snow. Light brown eyes, light brown hair. A scent of vanilla and coffee. Hikari was calmness, even when was being drowned by an ocean of insecurities he never really saw as such. Her lips were dry, probably from impatience to express herself. He did not mind, she looked as perfect as always.

Hikari let her weight fall onto her back, she had no space to move away from him. He was close, leaning down a bit to reach her height.

“What you are telling me is… and please correct me if I am wrong.” His lips move slowly, and those words came out like a whisper.

Hikari looked at his lips first, and then his eyes.

“You've been jealous… can we call it jealous? All this time because of those letters, and yet you say we're…friends?”

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes went down to his lips once again. Whole body shaking from anxiety. Felt his breath close, very close.

“Can you guess?”

Takeru slid a hand to her cheek and placed his lips on hers. Quickly.

One

“Don’t go yet.”

Hikari whispered, when she felt the kiss breaking. Locked their lips once again. A much longer contact. Warm, humid. Her hands pressed in the windowsill. His hand still in her cheek. Felt the other hand reach her waist, pressing it.

Two

“What are the chances of someone showing up here?” She asked, as an excuse to get some air. Her cheeks were burning. Their bodies were burning.

“None. Literally none.” The urge in his voice.They’ve wanted each other for too long. It took them to much time to reach to that.

Three

Hikari put her arms around his neck and let him carry most of their weight. Takeru struggled not to take his hands off her waist and go further. Their noses bumped many times.

They let go for a moment, going for a small perfunctory kiss afterward.

Four

They remained hugged, wanting to eternalize that moment. His head on her right shoulder, hers on his chest. Takeru was inhaling as deeply as he could, pressing on hand flat against her back, smelling her vanilla accent. Their heartbeats synchronized. A powerful feeling that was as beautiful as dangerous, terrifying even. Terrifyingly human.

The heat, the excitement, the nervousness. They had it all, they had each other.

・。。・゜゜・。。・

#digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #digimon adventure #digimon adventure tri #takeru takaishi #tk takaishi #kari kamiya #hikari yagami #sora takenouchi #taichi yagami #yamato ishida #デジモンアドベンチャー tri #digimon 02 #takari #takari week 2024 #takari week #takari fanfiction #digimon

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reliablejoukido · 11 months

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some Daikeru for the soul

okay here's the gist of it

Daisuke has been in love with Ken since middle school

Ken asks out Miyako in his 2nd year of high school (her 3rd year). They become a couple

When Daisuke finds out, he pretends to be supportive, but he stays late after school crying in an empty classroom

Takeru finds him and after a difficult conversation, discovers that Daisuke was in love with Ken, and that Daisuke is bisexual

Takeru is the only person who knows this. They become closer friends because of this

And learning about Daisuke's sexuality becomes a catalyst for Takeru's own discovery

Takeru spends their 2nd and 3rd years in high school trying to figure out his sexuality. He realizes he is generally attracted to men

Takeru tells Hikari. Hikari is super supportive and is the only person who knows about Takeru's sexuality, other than eventually Yamato, who is also supportive

They graduate, and a year or so goes by

The 02 squad have a picnic in the Digital World one day (they try to get together once per season) and Wallace is there too. Takeru notices that Daisuke is being kind of flirty? with Wallace? He's acting like has a huge crush on Wallace. This rubs Takeru the wrong way, because he has a feeling Daisuke is going to get his heart broken again

Sure enough, Wallace casually drops into conversation that he has a girlfriend (which is why he just can't flirt with Miyako and Hikari anymore)

Takeru watches the color drain from Daisuke's face, and Daisuke's entire peppy demeanor seems forced after that

A few days later, Takeru goes to a gay bar. He gets hit on by some men, but none of them are really his type (he has no idea what his type is, and he wants to find out).

To figure out what he wants in a partner, Takeru makes a Tinder profile. And... almost immediately finds Daisuke's profile. Daisuke's profile is sort of interesting-- he's got some sporty photos and some fun ramen chef photos and even some cute photos with V-mon. And his profile is entertaining and very "Daisuke".

Takeru swipes right on a whim, thinking that there's no way in hell Daisuke would ever swipe right on him. He doesn't even like Daisuke in that way. He just... wants to be a little chaotic and see what happens

A few days later, Takeru gets a notification that he has a match on Tinder. He's had a few dozen of these over the past few days, so he ignores it for about an hour

But THEN he gets a text from Daisuke like "WHAT GIVES???"

Takeru's like ?????

Daisuke: Why did you swipe right on my profile, dude!??

Takeru: The only way you could know that is if you swiped right on mine 👀

Daisuke: 😳

Takeru: 😂

Daisuke: Am I the only one taking this seriously?? Are you even like... you know... I mean you don't have to tell me, but...

Takeru: I'm gay, Daisuke. And your profile was fun. I wanted to see what would happen

Daisuke: Well what's happening is that your stupid fedora pics are now seared into my brain

Takeru: You CHOSE to swipe right, Daisuke

Daisuke: Whatever

Takeru: You wanna grab dinner or something?

Daisuke: I guess I MUST want to grab dinner 'cause I'm CLEARLY into you because I swiped right

Takeru: 🤔

Daisuke: Fine, let's grab dinner

They grab dinner

They talk about Takeru realizing his sexuality back in high school, to which Daisuke says he wishes he knew, because he could have used a queer friend back then. Takeru says it was kind of because of Daisuke that he started thinking about his sexuality. Daisuke has no idea what to do with this information

Takeru asks Daisuke to dinner again, just for fun, and Daisuke agrees. They go out a few more times, as friends, and nothing really changes between them (nothing that they notice anyway)

At one point, they go to that gay bar Takeru tried out earlier, but they never seem to want to talk to anyone but each other

Takeru doesn't know why he's doing this, other than that it's fun to spend time with Daisuke.

Then they have another quarterly picnic with the rest of the 02 gang

Takeru and Daisuke think they are being subtle/normal, but pretty much everyone notices them flirting

Hikari catches Takeru alone and says she's really glad to see Takeru so happy with Daisuke. Takeru's like ?????

Hikari's like... aren't you dating Daisuke? I'm sorry, but it's really obvious that you like him

Takeru has an epiphany that he does like Daisuke. Maybe he's liked him for weeks, maybe he's like him for years. The only thing he can think to do is surreptitiously text Daisuke while they're still at the picnic, asking him to come over after they all go home

Daisuke looks up from his phone, raises his eyebrows at Takeru, and then grins at him

Daisuke shows up later at Takeru's apartment and Takeru feels a magnetic attraction to him. Takeru immediately pushes him against the wall. Daisuke's like oh hell yeah, and they make out

Daisuke: Dunno what took you so long, man. I told you weeks ago that I was into you

Takeru: You did?

Daisuke: And they call me oblivious. I told you when we first matched on Tinder! I said... wait hold on lemme find the exact text... "I guess I MUST want to grab dinner 'cause I'm CLEARLY into you"

Takeru: That was you telling me you were attracted to me? I thought that was weird texting sarcasm!

Daisuke: Take it or leave it, man

Thank you for reading my weird Daikeru thoughts today

#daikeru #Daisuke motimiya #takeru takaishi #takedai #daikeru headcanons #daikeru;#my headcanons;#fics: the unwritten tinder fic

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redthreadoffate · 9 months

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the gift of communication

happy holidays to you, dear @citrus-cactus. i was your secret santa and i am very sorry this is so late. i was supposed to post this after one more check once i arrived but my parents told me that there was no need to bring my laptop, so here i am posting it using my ipad and i hope it still looks okay!

anyways, backstory aside, i do hope you enjoy this little thing i wrote! and i'm really sorry if this isn't what you had in mind. i had to re-watch some hurricane touchdown scenes to get wallace's character as good as i could, i would've watched the movie if i had the time so i super apologize if this isn't to your liking. i had a lot of fun writing it and i would really love to know your thoughts if you get the chance to give them :)

just a few notes in case you want to run ; editing mistakes here or there [there better not be…] // timeline is more on adventure 02 in between the ending and epilogue // this is not set in the same world as my other fics due to inspiration reasons // i will post this on ao3 soon // i tried my best to give the digimon feel and i think I achieved it, so…

…without further ado, i present to you this little fic. enjoy! have a merry christmas and a happy new year! 🥰

the gift of communication | main characters ; wallace, terriermon, lopmon, daisuke motomiya | pairings ; slight wallace x daisuke (if you squint), mentioned takeru x hikari, mentioned taichi x sora, mentioned yamato x mimi | genre ; friendship | word count ; 3,598 | rating ; g

Terriermon and Lopmon were enjoying the company of their fellow digimons. They told each other stories, laughed, and even played a little. At some point, they fell asleep next to each other after consuming most of the food and drinks that Miyako had brought for them for the day. Terriermon had his head rested against Chibimon who was snoring softly while Lopmon was a few inches away from them.

The Chosen Children were gathered around in a circle, sans Ken who had told them that he would be late but promised to come as soon as he could. He mentioned something about helping his mom with some gift-giving in an orphanage.

“So, Wallace,” Daisuke started, his head turned to him. “Since when did you like coming here to Japan?” It made him suspicious as he remembered that Wallace had kissed Hikari once. He kissed her cheek, and Miyako’s as well, but it was still a kiss. “Are you here for anyone in particular?” But Daisuke also knew he was in denial about the fact that Hikari and Takeru had had some sort of unspoken romantic feelings for one another. “I heard there are more women in New York.”

Wallace shrugged, simply ignoring Daisuke’s obvious accusations. “It’s a nice place to be in during the holidays. The spirit of Christmas is really taken seriously. Back in New York, people tend to be busy and get caught up with one another.”

“Looks like New York isn’t as cool as people say it is,” Iori said. “I’ve always thought it was a white Christmas there.”

Wallace nodded. “It sounds nice and it looks nice when you see it on tv and the movies but it isn’t spectacular or anything.”

“Nothing for you is ever spectacular,” Daisuke muttered. This made Hikari nudge him without much force and in turn made Takeru chuckle. “Either way, I’m glad you're here, Wallace. It’s been a while and I actually do miss you.”

Wallace’s eyes widened and his eyebrows raised. “You miss me?” he echoed. For him, that was a first for someone. “You. Miss me? You?”

“Am I not allowed to?” Daisuke raised an eyebrow.

Wallace smirked.

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. “Don’t push it.”

Miyako laughed. “Don’t mind him, Daisuke. It’s just Wallace being Wallace.”

“You don’t know much about me,” the American-raised boy defended. It was an absolute surprise to hear that from someone he had not had much interaction with in a while. “How could you say that?”

“We know enough,” Takeru spoke. “Like how you consider us as your friends. After all, you accepted our invitation to this gathering.”

Wallace did not reply. His mind was wondering how this group of friends suddenly thought that they were somehow close. It was not as if he did not like the group, he liked them a lot, especially after they helped him with Kokomon. But he needed to figure out how to handle this.

Hikari smiled at him. “Onee-san is throwing a surprise birthday party for Sora-san the day after tomorrow. You should go, it’d be really fun. We’ll be there, and I’m sure Terriermon and Lopmon would enjoy the company of being with more of their friends.”

“I’ll think about it,” he replied, still a little lost in thought. This invitation to her future sister-in-law’s surprise birthday party was, for him, a big step. He had not known much about them, yet they were thinking highly of him here.

What went into his head when he called Daisuke Motomiya yesterday to tell him that he was in the country, visiting for the holiday and seeing the sights with his mom.

He had called his home’s telephone, which made him feel anxious because he was not so sure what to say if it had been someone else who would answer. Luckily, it was Daisuke who took the call right away.

Was it because he was indebted? Because they helped him get Kokomon back? He did not think so, it could be more than that.

Just then, the door of Daisuke’s room opened and Ken appeared with Wormmom beside him. “I’m sorry for being late,” he said, bowing.

“Ken!” Miyako grinned. “The food’s almost gone, help yourself to what’s left, Wormmon.”

Ken chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry, Wormmon. I’m sure there’s still some good food somewhere there.”

“Of course! I always choose the best of the best,” Miyako said proudly.

Wallace watched as Ken walked from the door and sat down in between Miyako and Iori. They had briefed him of the former Digimon Kaiser. He felt the anger boil inside him as they told him the story, how could someone do that to digimons?

But they had assured him that Ken had changed and was very much on their side. He was a little skeptical, and truth be told he still was, but he told himself to watch out for Ken before he could make his final judgment.

“Hello,” Ken greeted. “You must be Wallace.”

He nodded. “Yeah. And you’re Ken, right? Ken Ichijouji?”

Ken nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, raising his hand.

Wallace blinked a few times before shaking his hand. “And it’s great to finally meet you.”

“Ken!” Wormmom called him. “This is Terriermon and Lopmon!”

The group all turned back. Ken had a smile on his face. “I hope Wormmon treats you well.”

“Hey!”

Everyone laughed.

Iori said, “Try the new chocolate drink, Wormmon. I told Armadimon to hide one for you.”

“Here it is!” Armadimon held up the box.

“Thank you, Iori and Armadimon,” Wormmon said happily as he began to consume the drink.

Wallace watched as they looked at the worm-like digimon drink. Despite what had happened before, they welcomed Ken with open arms. It might take a while but he hoped he would fully forgive Ken and replace the thought of the poor digimons with happier faces. It sounded easier in thought but perhaps interacting with him more will be good for them both.

“This is so good, Miyako!” Wormmon exclaimed. He then dug into some snacks. “It's a good thing I didn’t eat before coming here.”

Wallace laughed. “That’s true, the food you brought really did make me feel full.”

Miyako grinned again. “I told you all! Wallace does like Japanese food.”

“Then I’m sure you’ll like the food that will be prepared for the party,” Hikari stated, smiling. “Please come.”

“I’ll think about it,” he repeated. But to be honest, he was very keen on going. “I’ll have to ask Terriermon and Lopmon first,” he added. “And my mom, of course.”

“Yes!” Terriermon and Lopmon shouted at the same time.

Hikari giggled. “I hope your mom says yes, Wallace.”

‘I hope so, too,’ he thought. He smiled at them. “Yeah, let’s see.”

On the way back to the hotel, Wallace carried Lopmon as Terriermon sat on his favorite spot, Wallace’s head. Wallace had not spoken to either of them as they walked. This did not go unnoticed by his digimon partners.

Both Terriermon and Lopmon were looking at their human partner, then they would look at each other, then back at Wallace, and then make eye contact again, and the cycle repeated a few more times before both sighed.

“What’s got you thinking?” Lopmon asked, looking up at his partner. He touched his cheek and patted it a few times. “You’ve been quiet since we left Daisuke’s house.” He tilted his head. “Don’t tell me you didn’t have fun, Wallace. I know you did, everyone could see it.”

Wallace sighed and looked down at the brown digimon. “I’m just wondering about the party they invited me to. Invited us to.”

“What about it?” Terriermon questioned. “You want to go, don’t you? I saw the way you smiled, you seem excited about it.”

“I do,” he admitted. “I do want to go and it does seem pretty exciting.” But as they left the Motomiya residence, he had a sudden reflection about the other Chosen Children. “But what about the others? I don’t know much about them, they don’t know much about me. I’ll feel left out.” He was never really scared of being alone, but he found this situation different. Maybe because they all had something in common. “I don’t think it’d be fun if that was the case.”

Terriermon and Lopmon looked at each other.

“We’re sure Daisuke won’t leave you alone,” Terriermon said. “And neither will the others.”

“You can’t be sure,” Wallace said.

“Sure we’re sure,” Lopmon said. “They like you, Wallace. They won’t let you feel left out. I’m sure they’ll even introduce you to the others.”

Wallace bit his bottom lip. “I’ll ask Mom if we can go. It won’t be until the day after tomorrow, I don’t think it’ll be too sudden.”

“And besides, your mom will be happy you have friends here,” Lopmon added and Terriermon nodded in agreement.

That made Wallace smile. “Yeah, I think she will be.”

“Cheer up, Wallace.” Terriermon smiled. “I’m sure everyone will be glad if you go.”

He nodded. “Let’s go ask Mom then.”

Both Terriermon and Lopmon grinned. “Yay!” they exclaimed.

“You two do seem so excited about this,” Wallace said, chuckling.

“We want to see you happy,” Lopmon told him. “And we’re glad that you have friends here.”

Wallace smiled and nodded. Then, it dawned on him that in a few days, before Christmas day, he would have to leave the country and head back to New York. He had not told them this—they had not asked—but he would have to soon and it made him feel sad knowing that he would leave them behind. “Just when things were brightening up,” he murmured.

“What was that?” the two digimons asked in unison. “What did you say?”

Wallace shook his head. “It’s not something I want to talk about right now, and I don’t want to think about it yet either. Let’s just enjoy the rest of our stay here while we can. Japan is a nice place, let’s not ruin the vacation. Okay?”

The two digimons looked at each other for a few seconds before nodding as they shifted their eyes to Wallace. “Okay.”

As Wallace and the twins expected, his mother was very happy that he had made friends. “I didn’t expect this,” she admitted.

“They’re the same friends I told you about before,” he said. “I…missed them.”

“Is that why you wanted to come here for the holiday?”

Wallace nodded slowly.

His mother grinned. “I’m glad you’re finally letting yourself out there.” Then she tilted her head. “But how did you find them?”

“I asked for help from Mimi-san,” he answered. “You remember her.”

“Oh yes, that pretty girl you met back home.” She smiled.

“She’s in a relationship,” he immediately said, knowing where that smile was headed.

She giggled. “Alright then. When is the party again?”

“The day after tomorrow,” he replied. “A lot of people will be there. My friends and their older brothers and their friends as well. And Terriermon and Lopmon’s friends, too.”

“My, isn’t that a big party,” his mother said. “And you don’t know the others?” Wallace shook his head. “You won’t feel out of place?” Again, he shook his head. “You won’t be in the corner alone?” He let out a soft chuckle before shaking his head once more. He was suddenly so sure, surprisingly, that he would not be left alone by the group. Terriermon and Lopmon really do have an effect on him. “But you’ll have fun, won’t you?”

“I will,” he assured. “I know I will.” He knew very well that he would have a lot of fun. ‘I know I will,’ he repeated in his head. ‘I know I will.’

“That’s good. That’s all I needed to hear.” His mom grinned. “So what’s the theme? What will you wear? We’ll need to make a good impression on them. I know how you can be, Wallace.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s like you have no faith in me.” His mother frowned. “I don’t know much. I’ll call Daisuke and ask for more information.”

“Okay. But remember to just tell me if you need anything. Anything at all.”

“Yes, Mom.” He smiled.”You’re just as excited as Terriermon and Lopmon.”

“We’re just very happy for you, Wallace.” His mother leaned to kiss his forehead. “My sweet boy, I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

When she straightened her body, she added, “I would very much like to meet your friends one day. Maybe invite them after the party. Perhaps the next day or the day after that?”

Wallace nodded. “Yeah, I’ll ask them. Will you be cooking?” He had always loved his mom’s cooking and was very proud of how others liked them as well.

“Of course, I need to make a good impression on them, too.”

They both laughed.

The day of the party had arrived and Wallace was quite nervous about it. He had kept himself composed and ready for the event the past day but he did not think about what would happen as he was on the way to the Takenouchi residence.

“Aren’t you excited?” Terriermon asked cheerily.

“I am!” Lopmon answered. “What about you, Wallace?”

Wallace put on a smile. “I am. I am excited. But I’m a little nervous, but I guess that’s a normal thing to feel when you’re about to meet a bunch of new people.”

Lopmon nodded. “Don’t worry, you’ve got us. We can leave anytime you want.”

“Thanks, guys.”

They continued to walk and then finally arrived at the condominium. As they entered, having made sure that Terriermon and Lopmon had returned to playing as stuffed animals, he walked to the receptionist and informed them that he was there for the surprise party in the apartment of the Takenouchis.

Just as the receptionist gave him the floor and room number, an unfamiliar voice called his name. “Wallace?”

He turned around and recognized the man in front of him. “Koushiro.”

The redhead smiled at him, his digimon partner in his arms. “That’s me.” He walked closer to Wallace and stopped just a few inches away from him. “Takeru-kun said you would come.”

“I was a little hesitant,” he lied, not wanting to sound too eager. “But I thought it would be fun to make new friends and, you know, hang out with them.”

“I’m glad you think so. I’m sure Taichi-san and the others would love to meet you. Mimi-chan is here already. I know you two are acquainted with one another.”

“Yes,” he said. “We met in New York one time, she recognized my partners.”

Koushiro nodded. “This is Tentomon.” Then he paused. “Let’s get going,” he said as he looked around the lobby. There were not many people but they still had to be careful.

The two, with their partners, rode the elevator going up. Wallace was getting a little more nervous now. He got a warm welcome from Koushiro, yes, but what about the others?

‘What’s got you hot and bothered by this, Wallace?’ he questioned himself. ‘This shouldn’t keep you on your toes.’

“They’re really nice,” Koushiro said, as if reading his mind. “My friends are really nice. You don’t have to worry about them. Not even Yamato-san can ruin your mood.”

“What do you mean?”

Koushiro smiled. “He’s been a handful before, but he’s become very mellow over the past few years. He smiles a lot more, too, ever since he started dating Mimi-chan.”

Wallace looked at him.

“I didn’t read your mind, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Koushiro added with a soft chuckle. “I just saw it in your body language.”

Wallace raised his eyebrows. He was always so calm, not once had he shown people his true thoughts and feelings. How did Koushiro know about this?

“I was like you before, back when I was young. Even before I met Taichi-san and the others. I hid myself behind my laptop, not once showing emotions. But when I started hanging out with them…it felt good, it felt nice. I felt like I belonged. That’s how great they are.” Koushiro looked at him. “Chosen Child or not, they’re nothing to be afraid of.”

Wallace grinned. “Thank you.”

They reached their floor and they quickly walked to the apartment. Not everyone was there yet but when Daisuke saw that Wallace had arrived, he grinned and walked over to him. “You came! You’re here!”

Terriermon and Lopmon grinned as well. “Are the others here, too?” Terriermon asked.

“Of course,” Daisuke answered. “They’re at the back.”

Terriermon and Lopmon leaped from Wallace’s arms and ran down the hallway.

“They’re excited,” Koushiro said as he let Tentomon fly away. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

Wallace gave him a nod while Daisuke’s eyes followed Koushiro’s steps. When he was in the kitchen, Daisuke grabbed Wallace’s wrist and dragged him to the living room. “You have to meet Taichi-san!”

Wallace’s heartbeat raced. He was about to meet the highly talked about Taichi Yagami.

They stopped in front of a young man whom Wallace knew all too well just basing it on pictures. “Taichi-san!” Daisuke greeted. Taichi looked back and gave Daisuke a questioning look before looking at Wallace. “Taichi-san, this is Wallace.”

“Oh, so you’re the Wallace Hikari-chan talked about.” He raised his hand and said, “Taichi.”

“It’s so great to finally meet you.”

Meanwhile, in the background, they ignored Daisuke’s question about Hikari talking about Wallace to her older brother.

“Sora will be here soon, I suggest you find a place to hide. Daisuke can lead you around. I’ll get to know you more later, alright?”

Wallace nodded. “Okay.”

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. “Hikari-chan talks about you.”

Wallace could not help but laugh. “Let’s find a place now. As Taichi said, Sora will be here soon.”

The surprise party was a success. Sora arrived with her mom and was shocked to see her friends surrounding her and shouting “happy birthday”.

Sora’s eyes teared up but she was smiling from ear to ear. “And I wonder who came up with the idea,” she said, giggling.

Taichi went up to her and intertwined his fingers with hers. “Take a wild guess.”

She giggled some more and gave her fiancé a kiss and everyone clapped. Then, Sora went over to hug and thank everyone in the room, including Wallace.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” she said when she stopped over to hug and thank him. “I’ve heard good things about you.”

For some reason, that made Wallace’s cheek turn pink. “I hope so.”

Sora smiled.

The party was still in full swing—that is, everyone was chatting with each other and the food and drinks needed refilling—when Wallace headed over to the balcony for some fresh air. He was just overwhelmed with how friendly the others were, how they welcomed him with open arms, and how comfortable he was with them. He hated that he would be leaving soon.

He has instructed Terriermon and Lopmon to play with the other digimons as he wanted to be alone for a while. The twin digimons seemed to have sensed it as they did not object to the request.

Just then, someone stood beside him, holding up two drinks, and offering one to him. Wallace did not bother to look up as he took the cup, he was actually thirsty but was not yet ready to go back inside. “Thank you.”

“If you just want to stay silent that’s fine with me, but let me stay here with you for a bit.”

Wallace nodded. “The party’s a success.” He looked back at the gathering behind him and then back to the horizon. “Taichi really loves her.”

“He does,” Daisuke said. “They’re in love.”

“How are you and Hikari?”

Daisuke sighed. “I’ll give up soon enough. She and Takeru have a lot of stuff going on, going around each and all. They have a history. They have the present. And,” he paused. Wallace could see how heartbroken Daisuke was about this. “And they have a future.”

Wallace pursed his lips. “There’s someone else out for you, I promise.” He placed a hand on Daisuke’s shoulder and rubbed it. “I know it.”

Daisuke smiled. “Thanks, Wallace. You’re a good friend, you know that?” He raised his hand and rubbed Wallace’s shoulder. “I know Mimi-san is missing a lot.”

Wallace shook his head. “Why does everyone think I’m into Mimi?”

“Uh, because it’s obvious? The way you keep looking at her? The way Yamato-san looks as if he’s about to start a fight soon.”

Wallace felt like he was shrinking. “I didn’t notice.”

Daisuke laughed. “Anyway.” He regained his composure. “I don’t want to ask but it’s bound to happen. When are you leaving?”

“Three days from now,” he answered, his head bowed down. “I don’t wanna leave,” he admitted. “I’m…having a good time.”

Daisuke nodded. “Yeah, I know you are.”

They stayed quiet until Daisuke ended it by asking, “What do you want for Christmas?”

Wallace cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“What do you want for Christmas?” Daisuke repeated. “You’re leaving three days before Christmas Day and I want to give you something before we part ways.”

Wallace was silent. Then, he took out his phone and handed it over to the man in front of him. “Can you give me your email?”

“My email?” Daisuke echoed.

“Yeah,” Wallace nodded, “I’d really like it if we talked some more. Even when I’m back in the US, I want to be able to communicate with you guys properly.”

Daisuke grinned. “You read my mind.”

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aajjks · 6 months

Note

TC!dad!JK

“i know, i know bub. give mommy a second okay?” you say to jinseoul as you put the 1-month infant in his bassinet before pulling your dress down to unveil your breast for him to eat from. motherhood has definitely taken its toll on you and the weight of it all is showing in your exhausted demeanor. you’ve been more forgetful lately and since you aren’t likable amongst both the governors and consorts, you aren’t treated so nicely.

despite your exhaustion, isuel has been very helpful since she agreed to stay in the palace and help nurse jinseoul. you still are overprotective of little ‘seoul but you don’t feel so overwhelmed when you know your son is in the care of someone entrusted by your husband of all people. speaking of your husband, you find yourself missing him.

you wonder if he knows how bad you are at being the queen of goryeo but because he loves you, he keeps his comments to himself. or maybe he doesn’t know at all.

your thoughts are interrupted when jinseoul finishes feeding from you and after a good few pats, he lets out a loud burp and some yummy acid reflux. because he loves you so much, he throws up on your pretty blue dress and don’t feel guilty about it.

“gross, seoul~” you whine as you take a baby wipe from your dresser and use it to clean the white spit from your dress. like his father, jinseoul is fast asleep in your arms with his mouth ajar, snoring away. quietly, you lay jinseoul in his bassinet and pat him back to sleep when he starts to whine.

nearly ten minutes later, jungkook walks inside the bedroom unannounced but you know it’s him. you stand from the bed and bow to show your respect but jungkook just takes you in his arms and pulls you in for a tight hug.

eventually you do relax in his strong arms and take in his scent: *inhale* God, he smells so good. you could scent him forever but you’ll settle for reciprocating his hug; appreciating the comfort.

“Is ‘Seoul sleeping?”

“mhm”

you both pull away but only enough for jungkook to look at your glowing face, his arms still wrapped securely around you. when he lets out a sigh, you raise one of your eyebrows expressing both your curiosity and concern for his sighing.

“what’s wrong?”

“Yn I got a letter today from the Yamato Empress, and she has invited me to come to Yamato for a supposed promise that I was supposed to fulfill….”

you already know where this going: he wants you to come. it’s not often that you travel beyond the palace walls. ever since you’ve began working as a maid you’ve never left the walls, so being offered to travel to another country sounds like fun until you realize you’ll both be in enemy territory.

“a promise to fulfill? in yamato?? i don’t know” you say but since ‘you’re the queen’ you should come. you’re pretty sure that’s jungkook’s way of bribing you into going with him but you’re uncertain. what promise is he to fulfill anyways?

“trust me, if the empress knows my background she won’t like me at all” you sigh “i don’t think i can go. i’m still breastfeeding, jinseoul so i have to stay. why don’t you just go on your own?”

~🫧

He shakes his head, “yn my sweetheart… you are my queen now. Where I go, you go.” he looks into your eyes, and he uses one of his hands to caress the skin of your cheek. There’s definitely improvement in your physical appearance because you had been so exhausted and depressed. He feels some happiness radiating off of you.

“and if the empress won’t like you I’ll kill her- or announce a war.” He looks imho your eyes and you should definitely know that he’s not kidding.

No one should even think of disrespecting you. You are the Kings lawfully wedded wife and the mother to his only heir to the throne- plus you’re the Queen.

“of course I’m going to take you with me to Yamato. What am I supposed to do without you there?” He asks you lovingly, you just make him so soft. And don’t think that he’s not aware of your struggle in the court.

He’s going to make sure that no one disrespects you ever again. “Baby… we will be taking him along, but maybe he could be under the care of Iseul?” he knows you’re really attached to your one month old and he is too, but is he going to be comfortable throughout a journey so complicated?

That’s going to be your decision and he will do whatever you want about that. “ the invitation was for me and mine so you are mine… you will be accompanying me yn.” He declares and you know better than to try to convince him not to take you because that’s not gonna happen.

Jungkook looks at you before pressing a kiss at the corner of your mouth. “Okay?”

______

It’s been seven days and you both have been traveling by the ship of Goryeo, it has been really comfortable in the ship, because there are chambers made exclusively for the king, but still, it’s not easy.

Of course, Jungkook declined the offer to travel by the Yamato ship to the country, because… he doesn’t have the nicest feelings towards the country.

In 2 to 3 hours you’ll be in a different territory, which is Yamato. So Jungkook is busy looking at you as you prepare yourself to meet the empress.

“oh, sweetheart, don’t worry about her-you are the queen of the strongest empire in the world. She’s going to love you.” of course you’re looking radiant in the blue red dress you have adorned on you, it is a little different, however, because it is tailored in the traditional hanbok style.

Jungkook is wearing black, your outfit Colors definitely represent Goryeo. And he loves his country so much.

“relax We will be there in two hours.” He looks at you, getting up from the bed to help you with your crown.

“Here let me fix your crown.”

#ask: tc!jungkook #let’s let you decide if they take the baby or not to Yamato #also I didn’t want to add the joseon Empire flag colors even though I love to add small details so that’s why I chose to #Add South Korea’s flag colors

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danwhobrowses · 1 year

Text

One Piece Chapter 1084 - Initial Thoughts

And we're back

Answers are being told that they'll come, but we're still waiting on them. We've back in Reverie hours for the death of a king

but let's see how this unfolds

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release

No, I will not engage in the Yamato discourse from the colour spread. Yamato was also in the men's onsen so whatever satisfies your narrative, keep it to yourself

Otherwise I love the colour spread; Baeju, Carrot, Tashigi, Boa, Bonney, Vivi, Ulti, Tama, Koala, Rebecca, Perona, Shirahoshi, Mansherry all with the crew ladies, plus Sugar for some reason

Plus the shirts; Nami's 'Weather Queen' should be her new title, Perona has a Kumancy shirt, I think Bonney's shirt resembles another character outfit, probably Robin's coat in Punk Hazard, Vivi gets Oda's love of tigers for her shirt, Ulti with 'Devil Sister'.

I can't tell if Carrot's shirt is just a rainbow or is meant to be Chopper's hat, but she's got the Zeus floatie, also can't decipher Tashigi's shirt, but she, Sugar, Rebecca and Mansherry are on a Merry floatie

Also Bonney do not eat the fish! It ain't cooked

Five points later...Sabo being pretty ruthless on the guardsmen

Bonney and Sabo were quick to join up, thanks to their common cause in wanting to free Kuma

Sabo surmises that Bonney's Kuma's daughter too, while Bonney kept tabs on the Army to explain how she knew to trust Sabo

Plus they're stealing the slaves' collar keys, which is given to Karasu's soot bird

As we know, Bonney states her plans to go to Egghead, which I guess means that Sabo and the Army will know she's there with Luffy when Morgans breaks the Big (albeit fake) News

Bonney getting the princess carry too, I'm sure Ao3 has already got some fanfics

Guards have 'disappeared' because they saw the 'Phantom Room', which I guess is the Giant Straw Hat room too. Sabo impaling a bunch of guards between cooking them isn't helping either

Out of the castle, Sabo and Bonney part ways, meaning that unfortunately Bonney isn't entirely clued in on the main incident

Back with Cobra meeting the Gorosei as we get the recap of the World Government formation

So the successors to the nations were handpicked, and stay in power to this day. Which means that the Doldo family were at one point chummy with the Donquixote family enough to succeed them right?

'Previous Dynasty'? The Ancient Kingdom was indeed in charge, and it was a Dynasty? One family to rule them all...

Alabasta's ruler of the 20 was Queen Nefertari Lili, whose appearance is very similar to Vivi's

Lili was the one who chose to stay in Alabasta BUT there's no mention of her name in the records, she never made it back!

Cobra wants to know if they have info on Lili

Saturn seems to shrug it off '800 years is a long time'

Imu is listening via the Den Den Mushi too

Am I getting a vibe or could Imu be Queen Lili? 19 Swords set down to declare the Empty Throne, the only sword of the 20 that didn't is Alabasta's, she who sits on the throne? Alive through the Op-Op Fruit's immortality power? Think about it

Cobra's shaking the hornet's nest even more asking what is the D.

Lili may not have her name in history, but a letter she wrote mentions the D., and it may be the oldest mention outside of the Void Century

Shirahoshi has been grabbed again! This time by Kuma

Spineless, the nobles pretend not to see Shirahoshi in danger and run away

Fukaboshi my boy fuck shit up!

Kuma launches a blast but it misses, as Charloss disregards all status anyway

Rebecca and the Tontattas are here

Sai and Mjosgard too, the latter giving approval to attack

What? No Let Fukaboshi smack that bitch Mjosgard! Screw royalty status

Double screw status I mean Charloss is ordering Kuma to kill a fellow dragon after all

But Mjosgard is thinking more about escape, which is easier for the pirates Sai and Leo

SATISFUCKINGFACTION

They Accordion'd him XD

I'd love it if they did kill him, but since the chapter title says 'attempted murder' I think somehow he survives...hopefully to get folded even more

Also we have to talk about how this is probably the 'big incident' the Grand Fleet did, they attacked a Celestial Dragon just like their captain but this time on their home turf

And then out comes Morley to grab Kuma, saving the Grand Fleet members in the process

AHAHAHAHA Oda really did the 'Look how they massacred my boy!' meme XD Fucking hilarious

HO SHIT IMU IS HERE IN PERSON TO SEE COBRA!

They Speak too, as they sit on the Empty Throne

Of course there's a break -_-

Oda is cooking something big for 1085

Last chapter I talked about while it was entertaining, we didn't get much development that we didn't know, but this one paid much of the setup off.

Bonney and Sabo's buddy adventure probably could've used some more time, they did just kinda run into each other and escape the palace, but there is the irony that she meets the polite but slightly unhinged brother before meeting the no filter completely unhinged brother - and that's also before meeting the stoic very unhinged first mate. I wonder what of note she intended to mention to Luffy but it also opens the door to the Revolutionaries showing up in Egghead.

I mean I still miss my boy, my merry band of merry crew, but my missing Bonney hours were satisfied a little, still waiting on the Let Tashigi do something hours, also Carrot4Nakama because the colour spread has reawakened it (yes I know it's likely not gonna happen but she deserved better than what she got at the end). Major satisfaction of seeing Charloss get accordion'd, we need the meme of the round table of characters folding Celestial Dragons. But yeah I get the feeling that this is the major incident the Grand Fleet caused that shook the world, no doubt Morgans will use creative license too. Fukaboshi should've gotten a hit in though he deserves a treat and the Fish-Man royal family deserve something other than more trauma.

We're still waiting on some info, but we got answers on Bonney, Shirahoshi and Kuma, while also offering us more.

I don't think Sabo intended to reach the Empty Throne to see what he's about to see, if anything I think he was after this 'Phantom Room'. But still, Oda's gotten bold with Imu directly approaching Cobra and sitting on the throne.

I've convinced myself that Imu is Lili, perhaps there is more to the story too like maybe Lili had a godlike Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit like Nika that took over her mind, but I am eager to hear how this develops, more word on the Dynasty, the Void Century, the 20 Families, I am ready to consume it all.

Oda, let us feast!

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frogs-in3-hills · 2 years

Note

clawing my way into the asks again like a little parasite ahem. Thoughts on susato 👁👁

oh my god susato... *breaks down into sobbing* i actually finished the game an hour or two after i saw this ask and wanted to give it a little bit of time to sit in my head before i started trying to analyze things ^_^; but now i think i'm emotionally ready to think about her without destroying my own psyche. readmore cause this kind of turned into an analysis, albeit a very disorganized one

anyways SUSATO GOOD. i love her dynamic with ryuu so much, she's so competent but does still genuinely feel like a teenage girl at the same time. i think she's really the heart of the duology, especially dgs1, i mean she is literally the central piece of the emotional resolutions for each game and also the reason for 90% of the times i cried while playing. which, btw, was significantly more often than any of the other AA games ^_^; i was pretty much in tears from the moment the final trial ended to like, an hour after the credits stopped rolling. the idea of ryuunosuke going to japan without her absolutely destroyed me because he was so depressed during that six month gap :( and i was so relieved that they would continue to change the world together

also can i just say her design and sprites are incredible?? not only is she just. the fucking cutest. her animations and poses are so sweet, oh my god her expressions are amazing, they perfectly encapsulate her yamato nadeshiko elegance, her deep strength & tenacity & curiosity, and even hints at her deeper feelings of inadequacy. i mean god i am thinking about her teary-eyed smile that rips my heart to pieces every time and her stunned expression when she sees the masked assistant. screaming sobbing wailing banging my fists on the table. the same goes for her theme but like times a hundred, like, i don't really know anything about music so i can't explain why but it's so unbelievably perfect for both her and the overall tone of the game. honestly it might beat out turnabout sisters for my favorite track in the series

which by the way, it's so cool how she immediately breaks from the mold of typical AA assistants with her demeanor. she's the picture of temperance and humility, and despite her age she is the heart of the story and a guiding light in ryuunosuke's journey. this stands in huge contrast to characters like maya, who has an incredibly strong heart but really feels like a child lost in a world of suddenly inherited responsibilities and murderous family conflicts that she's 100% not equipped to handle. none of that is to say that i think all the AA assistants are the same because they are absolutely not, but they do have similar ~vibes~ so it's really refreshing to have a protagonist-assistant dynamic that feels so different from the outset.

but then 1-2 kind of destroys whatever initial perception you had of her right? because now susato's out here being actively hostile to you in spite of the slow trickle of evidence exonerating ryuunosuke. she literally attacks you like five times and hardly ever smiles. because just like ryuunosuke, asougi's boundless determination bled into her, to the point that she p much dedicated her life to studying so she could go to london in order to help him. and now that he's gone, she's left completely lost at sea. literally :(

personally i think her attitude after ryuu provides some reasonable doubt is very telling. first, it shows that she's extremely levelheaded in the face of a crisis, because even though it would be so so so easy and even cathartic to blame ryuunosuke, she realizes that it would be unfair and resolves to help him prove his innocence. however, even though it's clear she does believe in ryuu, we still get a bunch of moments where she makes digs at him and acts randomly suspicious again before moving on. these are probably just little jokes not meant to be taken seriously by the writers, but like i can't help but look into them more and wonder if susato is projecting onto ryuunosuke, due to their aforementioned similar situations. i think she's very frustrated with herself for being so helpless. she clearly bases her self worth on her use as a judicial assistant (which is not so healthy but we're getting there), but without kazuma, what does her help and expertise even matter? and she sees that resemblance between herself and ryuunosuke and takes her frustration out on him, even if she doesn't think he actually killed asougi. she reminds me a lot of godot in this case tbh.

speaking of susato having unreasonably high expectations for herself and other people, HEY THAT'S ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTER TROPES

*gets emotionally ripped to shreds by the narrative*

it's quite clear that the high expectations she has of her loved ones-- mainly ryuu, kazuma, sholmes, and gina-- is her version of unflinching belief. every time she encourages ryuunosuke, she's saying things like "i know you can handle this" and "you have everything you need to take this on, so don't give up now" and she is certainly not lying or exaggerating. susato is the one who decided that ryuunosuke deserves to carry on with asougi's legacy, and therefore there's kind of an implicit don't disappoint me in there. nothing demonstrates this more than what she says to gina in the prison:

Susato: I'm sorry to say...that I must reluctantly bid you farewell. Gina: Eh? Farewell? Susato: Tomorrow, I must begin my journey back home. To Japan. ...I fear we may never meet again. Gina: ...! Oh...right... Susato: I've had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely people here in London. I have so many wonderful memories. And yet...as things stand now... ...it will be a glum parting indeed. Poor Iris is so miserable. Iris: Susie... Gina: Well...well...that ain't my business! Susato: Both Iris and Mr Naruhodo believe you to be innocent, Gina. They've put their faith in you. But somehow...you can't find it in your heart to put your faith in them. Gina: Yeah! That's right, I can't! ...Wot of it? Susato: It grieves me greatly to have to say goodbye to my friends when they are so clearly unhappy... ...because of you. Gina: ...! Wot, it's MY fault?! Susato: Yes. So I have one final request, Gina, before our paths never cross again. Right here and now... ...I want you to show both of them that you don't deserve the faith they've invested in you. Gina: Eh?! Susato: Only by doing that... ...will you truly be as alone as you claim to be.

this was like The Moment where i did kind of a double take and went, holy shit, susato is the best character in this game, i get it now. because we're seeing what it looks like when susato is disappointed in you. this the final chance she's extending to gina and she just gets right to business with "i'm tired of wondering if you're going to trust me, so if you're so determined to push away the people who care about you then i expect you to be straight with me. you need to decide right now if you are truly committed to destroying this chance at happiness because i can no longer accept the way you're treating my friends. and if you can prove to me that you're not worth it then i will give up on you." and not only is this fucking perfect because it's exactly the push that gina needs, it shows the epitome of what makes susato so great: her balance! she knows when to hold back and be patient and she knows when to assert herself. she really makes me think of the temperance card in tarot in that way. gina was never going to take to iris' puppydog eyes or ryuunosuke's insistence that he believes in her; she needed somebody to take her anxieties seriously and then say "oh yeah? prove it." and it is so terribly Lawyer of her to pull the evidence card like that, it makes me absolutely insane. i'm going to think about this forever

it's pretty explicit in dgs1 that she expects the most out of herself though with her thinking that she's a failure of a judicial assistant for losing faith, which is something she shares with asougi. asougi is carrying the weight of his family's legacy on his back and the responsibility of changing the world. i don't know a lot about meiji era japan but i know it would have been extremely challenging to become a defense attorney. there is no room for error with him. they also both try to punish themselves when they don't meet those expectations-- susato trying to throw her legal book into the ocean and asougi doing, uh, literally everything he does in dgs2, but specifically giving karuma to ryuunosuke. i wonder if he learned it from her >_>

i will be honest i'm not 100% sure how i feel abt the way she was handled in dgs2, i don't think she was poorly written or anything! just kind of lacking the bite she had in dgs1. it's hard to compare the way she reacts to gina disappointing her vs the way she reacts to kazuma disappointing her, because gina is her cool friend while kazuma is literally her dead adopted brother who came back to life and is kind of being a legendary asshole about it. so like, i'm not gonna say it's definitely inconsistent or out of character for her to react to asougi's Whole Deal by just kind of frowning in the background, but idk i wish she'd had a more active role in that conflict or been allowed to do something. like, they only exchange a couple of lines throughout the whole game and i think that was a huge waste. i would have at least liked to see a follow up of her and ryuunosuke's conversation about his body going missing, now that they know he's alive, because i find myself being unable to parse how she feels about the whole thing. i really expected her to be angrier or to show something bigger than "wow :( this fucking sucks :(" like SHE'S NOT WRONG! but there was so much opportunity to take it in a different direction.

anyways i think the ending of dgs2 is perfect because she's actively rejecting that path that's been expected of her, she was always supposed to stand by asougi's side and yet she allows herself to be selfish and follow ryuunosuke instead. yes, she knows when to be assertive, but she only ever does it for the benefit of other people. here she knows what she wants and is determined to pursue it-- i think it's absolutely wonderful and i am so proud of her ;-; in the first game she would have had to go back home alone, afraid for her father and for gina and for everyone else that she loves, believing that she had failed ryuunosuke and by extension, kazuma and his legacy. but here she gets to go back home of her own volition and continue to follow the path she believes in, assured in her worth and knowing that she has a true friend by her side and all that is to say i fucking love susato so much and i am losing my entire mind over her and i expect to be doing so for the rest of my days

#thank you for the ask i love an excuse to ramble incoherently about the blorbos <3 #prringlecan #dgs #tgaa #susato mikotoba #meta #dgs spoilers #dgs2 spoilers #tgaa spoilers #tgaa2 spoilers #inbox

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ahiddenpath · 9 months

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Hopes for 2024

I'm not making resolutions for the new year, as the last few years have generously enforced the folly of planning. But I have hopes for 2024, and I'll share them beneath the cut, if you're interested!

Life hopes

-Thrive, don't excel

2023 was a year of difficult, painful growth. I allowed a coworker to take extended advantage of me, to the point where I was nearly doing two jobs. I completed several projects that my seniors could not do. It's not an exaggeration to say that I learned every single gosh dang day on the job.

Growing is good! It's something we should strive for! But not to the point where we deplete ourselves. My goal this year at work is to be gentle with myself. I want to perform well, but I do not want to hurt and push myself. It's just not worth it. I've been in this industry for over ten years. All you get from working hard and excelling is more work.

Related, but looking over my daily journal for 2023... I'd say about 85%+ of the entries are exclusively about work. It's taken over my life, and that is not what I want. I'm unclear how to achieve this in a capitalist country, but I've got to try.

-Be messy, be experimental

Gorgeous notebooks, art supplies, stickers, and prints, pristine and untouched. Projects never started, because it won't turn out well, anyway.

This is all understandable. No one wants to mar their nice supplies with inexperienced hands, or to use them on silly or clumsy projects.

Frankly, I'm tired of worrying about that. I'm hoping that I can release some of that anxiety- and by the way, perfectionism is simply a form of anxiety. I want to make messes and bad art and failed projects, because anything is better than never knowing what I might have made or done.

Light the nice candle. Eat the expensive chocolate. Use the fancy notebook. What good is it doing you in a drawer?

-Health

It's been a hard year. It's been a hard... several years. My body survived, so I won't be disdainful of the wear and tear it sustained.

But I do want to take care of it (especially given the increasing difficulty of receiving and affording medical care). I want to give it exercise, healthy food, rest, and sunshine.

Mental health is always a battle for me, and I was challenged this year by my new job and by a particularly bad situation with my mother.

I'm not sure what the solution is here, but I'm cognizant of the strain and of my need to act.

Creative wants

I have so many projects on my mind, but this is not a to do list. It's just a picture of where my brain is now, creatively.

-Finish the next three chapters of Puits d'Amour

I went to do some editing on PdA today, and I found a whole new chapter I had forgotten about?! Apparently, I thought there needed to be a brand spankin' new/additional chapter between the last one I posted and the next one I planned to post. It's about Yamato's parents talking to him about Sora, whom he was seen escorting to a party.

This is not the first time I've forgotten about my own content, and it will not be the last, but. The point is that I'd like to wrap up the next three chapters of PdA, which I have content for.

I'll worry about what happens next with the story after that.

-Watch Kizuna

I read the Kizuna novelization and avoided the movie. I never felt mentally ready to watch the events described in the book, but I kind of have to for Infinite Possibilities. I am hoping to pick up some little visual and audio things (gestures, voices, outfit choices, seasonal information, etc).

-Print stickers

I want to make Eimi stickers!!! And other stickers of my art! I love stickers! That is all.

-If the redub of the digimon movies comes out this year, I would like to use the bluray quality images to book bind After August again (the cover is a still from Bokura no War Game).

-Commission cover art for Infinite Possibilities phase 1. I reached out to an artist today. Wish me luck!

-Edit phase one of Infinite Possibilities. This one is going to take me a while, lmao!

-I'd like to book bind a new fic. PdA seems a good place to start, as it's recent.

-Continue editing some older works and working on open projects (TIL, PdA, FY, etc).

I have other non fandom related projects that I want to tackle, too, but they require a bit of background. Suffice to say, there is a lot I want to do! I doubt I will match or beat 2023's 75,954 published words and an additional 53,979 words written for Nanowrimo in 2024, but I hope I do a lot of fun and satisfying creative work.

Please take care of yourselves in the new year <3

#hidden's life #2024 hopes #2024 goals

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droshawoluv · 2 years

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For a while I've been thinking of putting words why Digimon Adventure 2020 doesn't make me want to be super invested into it (but still entertained) and it all boils down to: it doesn't make me cry lmao.

I love that, I love being invested in that and characters having emotional rollercoaster everywhere and traumatic backstories or memories and then I am crying along Taichi feeling a deep rooted guilt because how almost killed his own sister, or how they see Digimon get brutally killed and instead of being scarred for life they are like "oh no...anyway off to victory!"

But I have to admit it's nonsensical fun and just a good time at points, which is what I want for every time the destined children are together (which is another issue, when they join they split, when they reunite they are drifted away, when they make it back they are drifted away again). But when it happens, there are fun moments just like every Mimi and Joe episode 🤣 (is the potatomon a reference to Joe singing "Kaze no fraido potato"? Because that's make it a 10/10)

It's frustrating maybe if the OTT plot in the real world appears and gets solved in between the main journey, are we fighting Devimon or are we helping the NASA, or both? Why is Omegamon appearing so much? When did their Crest meaning have to do with something? + the timing or moments or reason behind every new evolution may give that "eh that wasn't as satisfying". But if I look it just as the silly fun and COOL AS FUCK animations and moves, then I have fun myself! Accepting that I won't be crying just of imagining what a character may feel, and see them do stuff made it to me to enjoy it more, I like the wild digimon leveling up because survivor of the fittest type of thing, and they do show nice relationship between each other (in fact, one of the best moments are when there is no ISS crisis AND they are still together as group):

Taichi being a source of support and encouragement to Koushiro, the siblings relationship, Taichi and Sora being that 1-2 leading combo and being the reliable parents. Yamato being that cool tsun tsun but not annoying dude. Mimi is always queen in every universe. Joe using Zudomon hammer what the fuck go off king. Cute things to catch up from that.

And also, the fact that I don't have to watch the same attacking animation 17890 times through the show is so important. Imagine Digimon Adventure or Tamers with these animations, is insane. I thought the warpevolution was already cool, seeing Wargreymon appearance not the first, but the second time show an animation that was the coolest evolution animation ever in that technical stuff.

In summary, a lot of things to not care about the whole of it (so far, chapter 40 already), but taking bits individually (that you may completely forget because it's irrelevant to the big scene) is actually cool! Some I can remember off the top of my head are

Mimi chan kingdom; Joe and Gomamon speaking before Ikkakumon evolution; Yamato having a small "wow these bozos are caring about me and supporting me? Is this...FRIENDSHIP?" bc you know, his crest and all; the way MetalGreymon evolved, like, is not better than the OG of course, but I mean how he was fighting a bigger dude and for MANY times they were trying but not giving up, as in, showing their courage, made sense; Lillymon and the whole nature defeating the machinery of Andromon; Holy Digimon being special and focusing on that; Tailmon fears and struggles up to its Angewomon evolution (MarineDevimon was a good idea to put there); the one solving the ISS crisis being Koshiro not just in knowledge but in action trusted by his friends and leader Taichi; Taichi and Sora playing football together heck yeah cuties show how well you both combine for everything and be cute in front of my salad (they are making it on purpose, Taichi gets trapped and immediately the Love emblem shines to evolve to Garudamon).

Is there a Team Light and Team Hope coming apparently? That's cute. Looking forward to it.

Anyway, just wanted to write about it for so long since I have that "ok I get where this is heading and it's to not make me cry" feeling but I have different thoughts, not mostly bad or anything.

Should start making Gifs of these moments I loved.

#Chapter 40 of Digimon Adventure 2020 goes hard #digital monsters #digimon adventure #tai digimon #digidestined #digimon adventure 2020 #digimon #taichi yagami #sora takenouchi #taichi x sora #taiora #mimi tachikawa #digimon anime #koushiro izumi #izzy izumi #joe kido #yamato ishida

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electrasev5nwrites · 1 year

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Ninja Daily: Vapors 82

“Not now.” Aiko pushed her nose further into her pillow and tightened her grip around Mitsuo with her right arm. Funny. He was shaped differently than she remembered—less round. And significantly less furry than usual.

Blearily, she raised her head just enough to see dark hair and remind herself that she hadn’t fallen asleep snuggling her dog.

“Oh. Good morning, Sai.”

Her fingers had been outside the blanket and were cold, so she wiggled them under the covers to flatten against his abs. Sai was too disciplined to jolt or complain about being used for his hot body, so she didn’t feel guilty at all.

“May I be released?” Sai sounded surprisingly detached and polite for someone being treated like the world’s tallest teddy bear. “I am under orders to report to the Hokage’s office for an assignment.”

Aiko frowned at that, trying to remember if she was meant to report. She couldn’t think of any call… so that meant he was going on a mission without her. Unusual. “What time?”

He seemed to be attempting to check the time through the mostly covered window. “In twenty minutes, I believe.”

She paused. “Are you already packed for your mission?”

“Yes, but the equipment is at my residence.”

Ten more ninja points to Sai. God, he was good at this game, wasn’t he? He should have been a boy scout. He and Yamato could flit about and be impossibly anal and good-natured, saving puppies from trees and carrying old ladies’ groceries.

‘Maybe I’m a little tireder than I thought. Something was definitely wrong with that phrase.’

“Aiko?”

“If you think you’re escaping without a good morning kiss, you are severely mistaken.” Jokingly, she pressed a kiss against the back of his neck and nuzzled him.

Sai gave a good natured sigh and twisted around to give her a flat look.

She giggled and released him. “Alright, alright. You know you’re going to be late anyways. Just tell the Hokage you’re sorry.”

“I apologize for my tardiness, Hokage-sama.” The little twerp gave her one of those patently false grins. The knuckles in Sasuke’s hand creaked ominously when he unconsciously formed a fist. “I was detained by a fair maiden.”

“My god, it’s catching,” Shizune breathed lowly, eyes wide with horrified fascination.

Naruto was practically vibrating with rage. “Not you too,” he growled, grabbing Sai’s collar and yanking on it. Sai merely blinked at him.

“My apologies. I-”

‘This has gone on long enough.’

“I don’t want any of your excuses,” Tsunade interrupted. For the first time, she genuinely rued handing the boy over to Hatake’s team. What the hell was it about that man that inspired devotion and imitation?

She tabled the thought for later.

“And Mr. Ukki needs to be watered every other day, but the begonias can go a week without. They like to be rotated every other day, though, so that they get sunshine everywhere.”

Aiko nodded along and tried to look attentive, even as Naruto detailed how often his mail needed to be picked up to prevent the post office from sending him nasty missives about his full box. Every other day, apparently. He wrote a lot of letters.

“Look, how long are you guys really expecting to be gone?” She raised an eyebrow inquisitively, but Naruto didn’t get the hint.

“I have no idea!” He chirped cheerfully, flashing a toothy grin. “But I bet it’s going to be awesome! I told you we were working with Asuma’s team, right? He’s a wind type too and he agreed to give me some pointers.” He gave a fist-pump. “I’m going to get that wind-natured Rasengan.”

‘Well, whatever works.’

She wasn’t particularly broken up about not being brought along on this mission in specific, though the timing stank. Yamato and Sai could take care of the boys, even if team Ten wasn’t there to pick up the slack. How much trouble could they really get into in a temple, for kami’s sake?

“You do that.” Absentmindedly, she tousled his hair (and was a bit miffed that she had to reach so far up to do it. If he didn’t stop growing she was going to put bricks on his head to stop that shit herself) and grinned at the indignant yowl the action drew out.

“Cut that out, Nee-chan,” Naruto whined, ruffling his hair back up into the ragtag arrangement of spikes that he seemed to favor. Personally, it looked utterly without law or order to her, but it wasn’t her hair. He gave her a surprisingly stern look. “If you ever want to be awesome like me, you’ll have to at least get the original Rasengan down, or you’ll never catch up before I make it even better. Even the pervy sage has the first level.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aiko muttered resentfully, pursing her lips and looking away.

‘Even the pervy sage? He has a twisted way of gauging competency. Proficiency with the Rasengan is hardly the only measure of strength.’

“I mean it.” He slung an arm over her shoulders and steered her out of the post office, his free hand gesturing animatedly even though it was full of envelopes. “You can’t give up just because the second part is harder! Even though that’s so weird, because once I had the first part down, the second really wasn’t that big of a deal and I don’t understand why you’re having so much trouble-”

“Okay, okay,” she interrupted. “Feel free to stop insulting me at any time.”

She probably did know why she had gotten stuck on that stupid purple rubber ball she was beginning to hate. This was hardly her first rodeo in regards to free-form movement of water: so as soon as she’d gotten past the barriers of problems created by maintaining multiple currents without letting them bleed into one another, the water balloon had been easy enough to burst. Cockily, she had thought that the second practice aid would be similarly easy, assuming that she was just that good.

Apparently, air currents were very different to manipulate. Moving air in general was hard. Grasping the damn particles was a massive pain, and forcing them to move according to her will sucked. She could make one current, but as soon as she tried to maintain more than that everything fell apart. Using air as a medium wasn’t as intuitive as using water as a medium.

Hopefully she wouldn’t have such a hard time when it came to using raw chakra and no medium, even if it apparently handled more like air than like water.

As soon as Naruto had gone, she flitted off to run through her self-assigned route. She’d had it on her mind throughout their conversation: apparently, she had been sleeping too deeply to wake up at her alarm, and her brother had come to find her immediately after his briefing to ask her to take care of the house while he was gone. So she had been almost two hours late to run her circuit.

‘It was dumb to stress. Nothing happened, of course.’

Konoha’s northern forests were just as peaceful and free of enemy nin as they could generally be expected to be.

Of course, that left her not knowing what to do with herself. It was bizarre to be stuck in Konoha when almost everyone she spent time with was out on a mission or working. Karin was in the hospital, Ino and Hinata were probably training, and Anko was nowhere to be found. ‘I suppose I could hunt down Kakashi and see if he wants to eat ice cream and talk about boys.’

Involuntarily, she snorted. Probably not, though it was incredibly poor timing for every girl she was remotely close to to be out of town. She’d have to wait for Karin to get back in from wherever she was. Well. She supposed she could talk to Anko, but that was bound to end in tears and humiliation. The older girl was hilarious, but maybe not the person she wanted to gossip about her first sexual experience with. Ino or Karin would find it much easier to relate to her current experiences on the same level, and Anko wasn’t maternal enough to be able to empathize with her throughout the barrier of their lack of shared experiences.

‘So instead of anything remotely enjoyable and useful, I will instead go to that awful meeting.’

She slumped, not caring that she was walking down one of the main streets and she probably looked like a lunatic about to break out into tears. It had been outright cruel of Tsunade to keep from assigning her to a mission just so that she was in town for one of those council meetings, even if it had been couched as a favor. She’d never thought she’d end up with the inverse of a sinecure. It was thankless and idiotic and took up far too much time.

Aiko probably spent far too much time moping over the fact that she had to go to that stupid meeting. That meant she had to rush through preparations to be fit for public. She had replaced the first mesh bodysuit with one that followed more closely to the design of a swimsuit than the weird things with half-legs and half-sleeves, and preferred it immensely. It didn’t weigh down her limbs but still provided protection to the majority of her vital points. The only weapon weighing her down was the single Hiraishin kunai she carried strapped to the underside of her right arm. It did mean that she had to be careful with how she held her arm to keep it from showing, but it was better than going totally without conventional weapons. She was never unarmed by any means, but sometimes steel could do what fists, seals, or ninjutsu just couldn’t. As had become tradition, she slipped on a kimono (orange this time) and the blue butterfly pin before she hurried out the door at the most dignified trot she could manage.

She spoke her piece early: advocating for a re-design of the genin corps, and then sat while the other suggestions were volleyed. Some of them seemed to completely miss the point to her. What good would encouraging more shinobi to settle down to reproduce early do? Trying to persuade more civilians to send their children to the Academy was a little closer, but still wouldn’t get at the real problems.

On the bright side, there did seem to be a chance that she could make a positive change in Konoha through her assignment. By whose standards that chance might be positive varied, however. Probably not by those of the grumpy old men and women who were her peers in the Council.

At this point she wouldn’t deny that the large council had been right to notice that the current graduation rates weren’t putting the village on track to regain full military strength. They had been experiencing a time of comparative peace for long enough that they really should have been in the full bloom of power for the last couple of years. But they weren’t. Konoha was hardly about to lose their position as one of the five strongest villages, but their large numbers and economic prosperity hadn’t lead to a proportional increase in sheer power.

Sarutobi hadn’t been an incompetent peacetime leader, though he had been better in a time of war. (As far as she could tell, he had been better at warfare but preferred a soft touch). He had altered the graduation and academy requirements after political affairs had settled down between the time of Uchiha Itachi’s enrollment and her own. In wartime, the philosophy had been to churn out as many moderately competent soldiers as possible as quickly as possible, which made it easier for children who had already been trained by family members to meet minimum requirements and test out of the system.

That system had many drawbacks, but the one that mattered to the Council was that it was a short-term stopgap measure. Those unprepared soldiers (who had less mental conditioning, less maturity, less everything that mattered) burnt out faster than their counterparts, cracked under stress and were unable to acclimate to other conditions, or got killed and were totally lost as resources.

Those truths were the ones Sarutobi had used to alter the Academy curriculum and requirements. It became much more difficult to graduate after that, and she didn��t see a single example of a student who spent less than four years in the Academy in the last ten years. It was a stark change from the prior situation, and one that she could appreciate.

But it wasn’t perfect either. Though even the dead-last by the new graduation standards was ahead of the curve for the old requirements, the few elites that the system hoped to nurture had a lot riding on their frail shoulders. The third Hokage must have been a big believer in the master-apprentice relationship at that point in his life, because it was clearly where he had drawn inspiration. Much in the manner that he had been taught by the second Hokage and he had hoped to teach the fourth, the aim was to give Konoha a backbone of A and S-class warriors that would outnumber the high-ranked analogues in other countries through close personal attention to their most promising canditates.

Of course, in pursuit of that aim, they had sacrificed the large proportion of respectably B-classed shinobi that formed the meat of the forces in places like Cloud and Stone and had to make do with masses of largely self-taught C classed shinobi who struggled up to Chuunin from the genin corps instead.

The genin corps as a concept wasn’t unique to Konoha, and nor was the fact that those within it were encouraged to become relatively low level jacks of all trades as opposed to specializing. A genin corps member with the talent to succeed in that type of competency could pick a specialty after becoming a Chuunin and make special Jounin, but that was about the pinnacle of what someone who wasn’t picked to apprentice could expect to achieve.

To her eye, the obvious solution to their low numbers of high level fighters lay in the way that they thought about the genin corps. She did understand that not every child had the raw natural ability of a future elite, and that it wasn’t necessary to push them that way – or even intelligent to think that it would be advisable to try to make everyone perform to such high standards. Someone had to perform the bulk of the low-risk and glory-less missions that paid the bills, of course. For most Konoha shinobi, D and C class drudgery was the characteristic common denominator of their lifetime of servitude to the village and not an episode that was short and quickly forgotten when they moved up in the ranks.

But the reliable drones who kept the village buzzing with prosperity in times of lazy peace became a liability in more dangerous times. They were vulnerable to strike teams from the enemies’ higher-ranked and more specialized shinobi. Having higher quality shinobi in fewer numbers was a great strategy for assaults but a shitty one for defense. So Tsunade would have to compensate by increasing the numbers of lower ranked shinobi on any specific mission. Once their numbers started to thin from casualties… they would be on the defensive.

‘Actually, she’s probably reinforcing all the border outpost guards now.’

It would have taken a few days to rearrange all active assignments, and Cloud’s jinchuuriki had only been killed less than a week ago. It would take a full day at the very least for genin and Chuunin teams to make their way to the border outposts. More than that, if they were doing sweeps on their way out, which they just about had to be.

Any half-decent strategist would know that. If she were in charge of Cloud’s forces, she would have gone with a strike force deployed as soon as they’d decided to blame Konoha to hopefully get in before fortifications could be flawlessly tightened—she would aim take out a few high value targets to put Konoha on the defensive, sow panic and confusion. That type of strike could make it possible to wring concessions and force Konoha to back down.

But that was a personal preference. Others might not see the value in anything less than peace or total annihilation. It was admittedly risky to allow your enemies to hold some of their own strength. Not that there weren’t dangers in going for ‘mercy’ and being internationally perceived as weak. Lightning might actually have to challenge Konoha to keep their status. If that was their motivation, then a war in name would suffice. If this really was a vendetta fueled by the Raikage’s sense of loss, however… He would only be satisfied with blood and ash.

Time would tell. But probably not much time.

She must have spoken relatively well, because her suggestion wasn’t tossed out. It wasn’t adopted either, but that didn’t seem to be the way things were done in bureaucracy. Yet another session and smaller committee would be dedicated to investigating the support and logistics available for three of the possibilities mentioned in today’s meeting, hers among them.

Konoha was struggling under the weight of its own bloated government, in some ways. But at least those structures could be manipulated into the occasional bout of usefulness.

Still dressed up like a porcelain doll and not particularly unhappy about it now that it wasn’t a novelty, Aiko wandered out from the council hall en route for dinner. There wasn’t enough time for her to bother getting groceries for dinner before she went out to check the forest in her self-imposed patrol that even she was beginning to feel serious about.

“Uzumaki-chan?”

The unusual address and a voice she hardly ever heard caught her attention. Kurenai was giving her a polite wave from inside the restaurant Aiko had just wandered into, sitting with a blue-haired woman she didn’t recognize.

“Kurenai-senpai,” she greeted politely, gracing the older girl with an incline of her neck. The hastily-chosen title was a formality to be polite and not because she had actually worked with Kurenai enough to see her as a mentor figure.

Kurenai seemed to note the same truth with a bit of amusement. “I don’t think there’s any call for that. We hold the same rank, after all.”

There was something dry but not exactly displeased about the way she said that. Bitterness wouldn’t have been entirely unjustified, considering she was probably hyper aware that Aiko’s promotion had come almost shockingly early in her career. Sure, she was older than Kakashi or Itachi had been when they hit Jounin, but the ‘average’ Jounin could hardly be compared to people like that. And there was probably more than a fair share of bitterness aimed at those extraordinary types, if one was to be honest.

So she didn’t protest, and gave Kurenai a self-effacing smile that was intended to communicate that she wasn’t the egotist that many would expect from someone who had shot up in the ranks. “Kurenai-san, then?” At the amused look on the brunette’s face, she blinked innocently and modified the question to a saccharine, “Kurenai-neechan?”

“That’ll do. Would you sit with us? This is a friend of mine, Otohime. Otohime, this is Uzumaki Aiko.”

“Otohime-san,” Aiko nodded politely, and took a free chair without letting onto her confusion at the invitation. Was Kurenai just curious and friendly, or was there a specific reason?

Looking at her dinner companions didn’t seem to answer that question. Otohime was pretty as a picture, and almost impossibly delicate for a shinobi. The conversation that followed indicated that delicacy was because she was in fact a civilian who Kurenai had been friends with since childhood.

The other two had already ordered, but the waitress that came around didn’t mind having their meals delayed until Aiko’s was ready as well.

“So.” Otohime blinked golden eyes at Aiko, seeming to see right through to her soul. “You’re really a kunoichi, then? Aiko-chan, you’re so little!” She reached across the table and grabbed her hand. Aiko was momentarily stunned by the other woman’s forwardness and didn’t respond before Kurenai chuckled.

“Don’t be alarmed, but if you’re not careful, she’ll talk you into resigning and sign you up to work for her.”

Otohime’s grip tightened around Aiko’s hand, and she gave a faux-stern pout at her taller friend. “What she means is that I recruit dancers, but she makes me sound like a yakuza. Kurenai-chan, why are you so unkind to me?”

Uncertainly, she pulled her hand out of Otohime’s soft, perfumed grip and tucked it onto her lap. “Ah, flattering, Otohime-san, but I’m afraid I have no natural ability.”

The look she received was absolutely scathing. “If you can learn taijutsu, you can learn traditional dance.”

“No, I keep telling you that you’ll be surprised,” Kurenai interrupted fondly, leaning on a hand. “There’s a big difference between learning to perform the dance of death and the less…” she cleared her throat and shrugged. “Well, you know what I mean. Besides, I think Aiko-chan’s current career is going relatively well. I feel like I know you much better than I do because I hear about you every so often. Hatake is insufferably proud of you, I hope you know.”

Embarrassment warmed her cheeks, but she couldn’t imagine him ever saying anything like that. Maybe he would say something to her if she needed encouragement, but he wasn’t the type to brag.

Kurenai must have read the question in her expression, because she easily answered it. “Of course he’s proud, everyone wants to see their students end up doing well. He’s not a man who shares those feelings openly, of course, but whenever Asuma has to whine about Shikamaru-kun being uncooperative he’s always just a little too hasty to muse that he never had those sorts of problems.”

“He is kind of a jackass,” Aiko admitted frankly, forcing the smile off her face. An attractive, intelligent, and ultimately well-meaning jackass, but a jackass nonetheless. She actually liked that about him. Difficult, cantankerous people were fabulous, and his bitch-fu was among the best when he cared to drag his nose out a book to deliver scathing commentary.

Apparently the other two women hadn’t been expecting that bit of bluntness. Kurenai twitched, but Otohime tossed her head back and laughed. “I’ve not met the man, but that’s an amusing character description when juxtaposed with how fond you seem. Perhaps you should introduce me?”

“I like you far too much for that,” Kurenai deflected dryly, before seeming to remember that Aiko was there. “No offence meant, of course!” She waved cutely to deflect a sense of hostility.

Aiko shrugged, forgetting how ungainly the motion would be in formal dress. “None taken. He can be difficult to deal with outside of professional settings.” She stopped and added, “And in them, I suppose.”

Conversation changed after their food arrived, leaving talk of shinobi that Otohime was unfamiliar with behind in favor of the food, weather, and the most recent princess Fuin movie. The focus on anything but the depressing political climate was almost too pointed.

“It was very nice to meet you, Otohime-san.” She genuinely smiled at her two dinner companions when they parted at the door. “And talking with you was fun as well, Kurenai-neechan. Thank you for the dinner invitation, this was much better than eating alone.”

“It was no trouble on my part,” Kurenai assured her, buttoning the jacket she had brought to contend with the night air. “I miss a large dinner party when Asuma’s team is out of town.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Aiko put a finger to her lips in mock thought, itching to confirm a theory. “You two are a couple, yes?”

Kurenai looked like she’d been slapped with a fish. “O-of cour- Where did you hear that?” she rapidly changed tracks, fighting off a blush and giving an ineffectual glare to Otohime, who was engaging in the least graceful hyena cackles Aiko had ever heard.

“From you,” she confirmed blandly. “Before now, it was just a pet theory. I hope to see you again!” Aiko whipped around and set off for home without letting Kurenai recover from her embarrassment, in large part because she liked having the last word. Of course, the setting sun was a reminder…

‘It’s time that I go check on those seals again.’

Really, she was starting to feel spectacularly silly about it. It was possible that her fear of Danzo was outweighing her good sense and that she was engaging in a futile exercise.

At war with herself, she wandered to the outskirts of town and took a deep breath of the heady air. Eventually, she decided, ‘It can’t be embarrassing if no one else knows about how silly I’m being. If I don’t do it, it’ll bother me all night and I won’t be able to sleep. For my own peace of mind, if nothing else, I can go check one more time tonight.’

She seriously considered going home first and changing. But it would be a waste of time. She would just have to change into bedclothes as soon as she came back again, and changing twice would be stupid. Of course, she could just change directly into bedclothes, but getting seen wandering the woods in a kimono would still be less embarrassing than the same in her pajamas. It would just be a quick trip.

Flicker. Flicker. Flicker. Seal after seal, working from the village to the borders, showed nothing out of the ordinary. Until they did, and she was blinking at a rush of color to her left. Reflexively, she leapt and turned—which saved her life.

She didn’t take much time to gape at the three blades quivering in a tree-trunk several inches from her torso.

‘Well, shit. I think I can’t count on the element of surprise.’

“Where the hell did she come from?” a practically dressed blonde woman seemed to ask her group at large. And it was a rather large group, considering that she was one girl. Two full squads… eight enemy shinobi. Well within the limits of Konoha’s territory… Had they really all managed to creep past a patrolled border, or did this mean that a larger force had actually taken an outpost?

Unsettling thoughts to be investigated later, she supposed.

“Ah, hello adorable Cloud shinobi!” Aiko greeted cheerily with a very Kakashi-esque wave. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Aiko tilted her head and blinked cutely, letting the loose bits of her hair move over her shoulders.

A dark-haired man twitched.

Confusing the hell out of them might work just as well as surprise. She probably looked quite the picture—unarmed as far as the eye could see, suddenly appearing in their midst in a full kimono with her headband tucked around her blue and red obi. Thankfully, her kimono was only secured tightly at the waist and allowed her a lot more range of movement than it appeared to. If she had to do anything especially acrobatic like high-kicks she might be indecent, but that was a lesser evil compared to dead.

‘Strangely, I really like the theatricality of this. There are shinobi who wear kimono in the field. I do like pretty things, and these sleeves are great for hiding things… Maybe I should give the wardrobe change a try.’

Unfortunately, no matter how weird she chose to act, they weren’t all off balance enough to fail to recognize that she was a possible threat. “Sorry little girl.” She didn’t recognize the pale man who moved into a defensive posture, but he was a total fox, with incongruously dark eyes and slightly mussed sandy hair. “We can’t allow Konoha dogs to live.”

Suddenly, she hated him. He needed to be taken down a peg or two. Sure, Konoha sort of sucked, but Naruto wasn’t going to settle for being Kage of just any shithole. And besides…

“What’s so wrong with dogs?” Aiko grasped three Hiraishin seals and blurred into motion, dropping directly behind him and yanking his headband off with brutal force that snapped his head backwards and took to the trees in the next motion. Even as she did it, she darkened her chakra signature and went absolutely silent, crouched in the treetop above-head to give herself a moment to think as she slipped the stolen headband under her sleeve.

‘What do I do? If I kill them all, there would be no chance of reconciliation with Cloud, and that’s if I could even manage that. I don’t actually want to be the impetus for a full-fledged war. The Raikage is attacking us because he’s convinced we’re responsible for B’s death. We’ll need every ally we can get to destroy Akatsuki, or at least to not be fighting on two fronts. I could get reinforcements, but anyone else would probably just want to kill them all.’

But she couldn’t let them think Konoha was weak either. The only thing that would stall further escalation would be to scare the absolute fucking crap out of them. She did have one tool in her arsenal that was unmistakably Konoha’s and undeniably terrifying.

Grimly, she swallowed. ‘Let’s hope that the thunder god is still causing nightmares in Lightning, because most of them look way too young to remember Minato.’

“Up there!”

‘He’s a sensor,’ she noted dimly, switching position rapidly even as the practically-dressed blonde woman she’d noted earlier charged up the tree she’d been hiding in. That one must be one of their big guns, then. Odd that she was the only woman in their party.

Stealing the cutie’s headband had been an impulse, but it really wasn’t a terrible idea. Humiliating them could backfire if they were the types to get stronger and perform better when pissed off, but it would also be a good demonstration of strength on her part.

As would separating them. That would be good psychological warfare: if they didn’t know what she was doing, seeing her pick off party members without a trace of a body would be seriously unnerving.

She stopped moving just long enough to hone in on one of the more intimidating-looking fighters (not so coincidentally, one who was on the outskirts of the group) and darted in with the aid of a seal to use inhuman speed to snatch him up by the back of his weird asymmetrical flak jacket and ricocheted the both of them outside of Konoha’s borders. Her left hand shot up to tug off his headband and her right rabbit punched him twice between the shoulder blades and sent him stumbling forward in the same instant that they hit the ground in a new location.

He spun around just in time to see her cheekily hold up his cloud insignia with one hand before tilting her arm to let it slip down her wrist with the other one. “This is nice, I think I’ll keep it, Shinobi-kun.”

‘That oughta leave him steaming.’

The curve to her lips belied her thoughts—it was hard to lie to yourself. She’d done that because it was funny just as much as any tactical reason. Killing these people could backfire, but leaving them stranded and confused in some rice field would be an utterly humiliating way of asserting her superiority over them. (Even if, you know, they would probably wipe the floor with her in a fair match. What the hell did actual physical superiority have to do with dominance?)

One of the first things she needed to do was thin their numbers and leave anyone who wasn’t going to end up in Konoha’s custody thoroughly fucking disoriented. With the flying thunder god on her side, she was almost certainly faster than any of them could hope to be. That didn’t mean that they couldn’t get her when she inevitably stopped to get her bearings, especially if she was so outnumbered.

But she had been gone almost two full seconds, and she could hardly leave the others alone within her country’s borders. So she blurred back into motion, Hiraishin war-song drowning out all other sounds in her ears.

“t fuck just-”

“She’s here again!” The only unmarked shinobi in that clearing was frowning in her direction. Damn, he was a hell of a sensor.

“You’re annoying!” Aiko barked out, grimacing at the hottie who had besmirched her hometown and summon animal in one fell swoop. He had to go. But he was too annoying to be released into the wild to awkwardly stumble until he found someplace to give him directions (as hilarious and embarrassing as that would be).

She crouched and sprang to dodge the blonde woman—and hell, she was fast—and darted to the man who had been a thorn in her side. Unfortunately, he was quick on the uptake and had already moved the first time that she flickered to snatch him in a flanking maneuver.

He didn’t dodge her the second time. He probably didn’t even know what had happened until her hand fisted in the black zip-up sleeveless top above his asymmetrical flak jacket.

“What the hell!” Tsunade stood up with such force that her chest bounced up nearly to hit her in the chin.

“I brought you a present!” Aiko chirped, shoving her blonde captive into the beautiful mahogany desk with an unpleasant thunk as his forehead collided with the dark wood. Belatedly, an ANBU leapt out of hiding and reached for her prisoner.

Tsunade looked pained. “Is that a lightning shinobi?” Her tone was merely incredulous, but that didn’t stop her from reaching out and punching the poor blond chump in the head with enough force to send him flying to the back wall before the ANBU could secure him. Something in their prisoner’s back crunched when he collided next to the doorframe. After a moment, he peeled off and limply fell forward.

She almost felt bad for him. Getting caught up in someone else’s transportation technique was sucky enough when you weren’t immediately pummeled in the head by a Kage afterwards. He probably wouldn’t be walking in a straight line for a few days.

Well. As long as there wasn’t any more head trauma, he would probably be fine.

“Yes, I think there’s six more in the northwest, about twenty-five kilometers south of the yellow outpost. Do you want the rest?”

“In my office?” Tsunade asked a bit weakly. The ANBU securing the chump with wire didn’t seem more impressed. The door flung open and Shizune burst in, wielding steel.

“If you don’t want them, I could just ditch them outside the border like wayward puppies,” Aiko generously offered, brushing her hair back and dropping the two collected headbands on Tsunade’s desk with an absentminded clatter of metal plates. “I should hurry though, I don’t want to leave the rest alone.”

“Those poor bastards,” Tsunade muttered. Shizune just looked confused. The Hokage stiffened seriously and pinned her with an intense stare. “I don’t want any more in my office. Their aim was probably something in the village and we don’t know that bringing them in wouldn’t help them. This one will do as a political prisoner—he’s one of the Raikage’s bodyguards.”

“Grass and Wave Country it is,” Aiko muttered with a distracted nod.

“Wait don’t go back out-” Tsunade slumped slightly, having leaned over her desk in an attempt to reach the teen before she left. “without reinforcements,” she finished wryly, dropping back into her seat. “It would also have been nice to know where exactly she found them. Shizune, get me the best sensor we have in-village, and a strike team.” She held up a hand at a sudden thought. “Two teams! We need to check on that outpost.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama!” Shizune nodded and darted out of the office.

“You, get that man to Ibiki,” she brusquely commanded the ANBU. He hightailed it out of there, the man called ‘C’ slung ungracefully over his massive shoulder (a tousled blonde head hit the doorframe with a rather sickening crack as Boar made a run for Torture and Interrogations).

Alone in her office, Tsunade swallowed down nervousness and resisted the urge to tug on her ponytails. Sitting her office when she knew one of her shinobi was fighting within her borders was against everything in her heart.

After having two of their comrades spirited away (and plenty of time to ruminate on the odd disappearances) the remaining Cloud shinobi had apparently figured out the working strategy of ‘not staying still’.

It was frustratingly effective when she was fluttering about a group as large as this one. Her perception and predictive ability was good, but not flawless by any means. Being outnumbered and trying to pick out targets put her at a vexing disadvantage.

‘Why couldn’t they be stupid enough to stand their ground?’

Time to be a bit more blatant.

Aiko shoved her hands into the opposite sleeves (obscuring the movement so that it would be difficult to tell where the weapon would be coming from) to unhook the kunai on her right arm and drew it out in a snapping motion, directly at the blonde woman.

“Hiraishin!” Someone called out with a strange clipped tone that blurred as she slipped time and space like a fucking champion. She didn’t see who had yelled, but was thankful that using the conventional method had finally clued them in. Now if they would just please be obliging enough to be irrationally frightened of Konoha’s bogeyman technique and scarper off, that’d be great.

She was too close to her target to see if any eyes widened in comprehension or fear. In the same millisecond that she emerged in front of her target with her hand already wrapped around her weapon, she ducked down under the arm that was moving to deflect her kunai with a Cloud arm guard (snatching her kunai down with her) to hit the other girl with as much force as she could muster with her free hand, along with an explosive-primed seal.

Unfortunately, she was no Tsunade. It would hardly be a finishing blow, but she would have hoped to at least stun her opponent. It was not to be.

Even as the force of her blow brought the other girl curling over, a vicious and flexible double-kick snapped Aiko’s knees in a direction that they definitely did not want to bend. Horrifyingly, her opponent seemed to have suddenly grown several inches of razor-sharp toenails that cut into the flesh above Aiko’s knees, puncturing her pretty kimono and sticking it to her flesh with dots of hot blood.

‘Her taijutsu is probably better than mine. She’s faster than I am sans Hiraishin, and she’s definitely physically stronger. It’s like taking a punch from Naruto, sturdy little bastard that he is.’

If she didn’t have Hiraishin, she might in serious shit. But short of something like a disorienting poison or a state of unconsciousness, that massive cheat card could hardly be taken away from her. So Aiko avoided the next blow by means of orienting between three seals to settle behind the group (most of whom had spun to look at the two girls).

The gaping dolts weren’t here to look pretty, apparently, as demonstrated by the unpleasant speed with which two men spun to leap in her direction. She darted backwards and ran a few feet up a tree before jumping to another one, raising her voice in a taunting shout. “You know, you chumps have already failed!” She gave an involuntary ‘huff’ when a flying- was that an axe of all the things- forced her to dodge and flip upwards, grimacing and crouching to get the momentum to bound across the clearing over the blonde lady’s head, at least one man in hot pursuit.

At least she was faster than they were, but even if she was faster, dodging so many put her at a disadvantage. “The grumpy one is in the Hokage’s custody, and at least one team is on the way out here. How does it feel to completely suck at your job?”

An incoherent growl rose up from behind her and the unbearable heat of a near miss from a lightning strike seared across her back, probably singing her clothes from proximity.

‘Ah. Right. Shinobi from the land of Lightning and all that jazz. Can’t stay still if I don’t want to get fried.’

“I guess that means that it sucks to suck.” Aiko swallowed hard, feeling mildly ill from bouncing around like a ping-pong ball. She flung the kunai in her hand straight up into the air so that she could flicker to it and get an aerial view of the clearing. Three of the freakishly persistent lightning shinobi were already in the motion of looking up when she blinked down. She hung suspended in the air in a crouched position for a bare instant to survey the area.

‘One, two, three, four… where are the other two?’

Ah. There they were. One was blending into the tree she had just been on under a genjutsu (that was lucky, he could have killed her if she hadn’t just switched trajectories) and the other one was hiding under ground. Shit shit shit. Neither of those would be easy to grab.

One of the men was slightly further away from the others. That had to be her next target. She drew the kunai close to her chest and snapped it back out in a path that should end a few feet above his head and caught it again a heartbeat later, kicking her feet onto his shoulders and letting her momentum help her ride him to the ground. He hit the dirt face-first in what had to be a painful forwards fall, but the maneuver (and the slight unresponsiveness in her knees that she hadn’t accounted for after the clawed kick they’d taken earlier) left her on a downward path that was going to end with her knees buckling under and her ass hitting her heels. Her torso wanted to bend forward, but the woman in purple and black was coming in hot.

Fuck, didn’t she ever give up or take a second to react? She was relentless and demonically fast.

Aiko could see how the current tableau was going to play out as if it had already happened. If she didn’t move, that scarily strong woman was going to knock her head straight off her shoulders. (Or cut it off with the freaky claws she’d gained in the last minute-and-a-half. Where did those come from?) There was no chance that she would be able to unfold her legs and jump out of the way in time. Perhaps she could roll to one side or another, but that would leave her vulnerable on the ground in the next second as well.

So Aiko snapped her torso backwards with painful force, flinging her hands over her head up to blindly grab at whatever she could reach of the shinobi behind her, came up with a handful of his hair (and barely missed grasping a shoulder) and pulled on the first tag she felt. That one wasn’t nearly far enough away, so she took the millisecond necessary to seek out the tag in Mist and pull on it and two others.

If she’d done that right, they were probably in Wave. She probably hadn’t, however, since the next thing she knew was that she was soaking wet, having apparently landed on a body of water. Her head collided with the surface with a cold shock and she would have sputtered if she wasn’t breathing in salt water. Her body was still curled up backwards, but at least landing in water gave her the mobility to straighten simply by kicking her legs straight (even though that left her floating face-up instead of in any tactical position).

A blow to the back of her head made her see white and lose her grip on a fistful of short-ish hair.

‘Right. That guy. He’s still here and conscious.’

The force of the punch had actually sent her further underwater and would have been considerably worse if it hadn’t been slowed by their surroundings. Her opponent was on top of her in the water, the preferable position. He could very easily kill her.

If she’d stayed, that was. Aiko frantically pulled on the first three tags she could register (by coincidence, the one in Mist, one on the northern border, and one in Grass) and landed somewhere between the three, violently spitting out foul water even as she awkwardly touched down on solid ground with her hastily bent legs. She was probably in Rice country, though she wasn’t about to consult her map. Especially since there was still a fist curled in her hair.

She yanked her head forward and ignored the pain, because the angle dragged his arm up and allowed her to twist just enough to elbow the man behind her with adrenaline-fueled force that audibly snapped a rib. He howled in her ear and let his grip loosen out of shock. It was all the opportunity she needed to turn the rest of the way to push one palm on his chest (planting a seal reflexively) and wrap her fingers of the other hand around the warm metal of his forehead protector. She removed it with the simple expedient of leaping straight upwards and pulling it with her (though there was more than a bit of hair caught in the knot at the back, ew).

‘What happened to my kunai?’

Fuck. It had probably been dropped in the water, and she wasn’t in the mood to go back for it.

“Bye bye, asshole!” Aiko bit out with considerably more venom than was strictly necessary. He’d been a bigger pain in the ass than anticipated.

The five Cloud shinobi still in the clearing were inured enough to her coming and going that they didn’t jump to see her reappear. Though there was at least one confused double-take at her dripping hair and clothes. She took a moment to tug the hairpin hanging limply from her skull free and tuck it under her obi for safe-keeping. Damn, that was a good accessory. A lesser bit of jewelry would have been knocked free in a scuffle like that.

“Almost halfway done!” Aiko taunted as she crouched in a ready position, concealing her breathless and mildly lightheaded state from gulping in water instead of air a few moments ago.

“Don’t be so arrogant!” The blonde woman called out in a bizarrely low growl. Hadn’t her voice been much higher a few minutes ago? Odd.

“We should retreat!” The look that accompanied that call was wide-eyed and frankly a bit crazy, but at that moment Aiko loved the older man who’d given it. “If there are more coming, our mission is lost.”

“Coward!” The rasp was all but inhuman. And it frightened the Cloud shinobi as much or more than Aiko did, because all but one of the men in that clearing turned tail to run. “We can’t get our primary target, but there’s a shinobi right there!” The odds looked significantly better for a bare instant, even if she was now mulling over the unpleasant possibility that there was something going on other than murder that she hadn’t figured out.

Then her heart thudded to her gut. ‘I’m in over my head.’

It wasn’t just that she was outnumbered by high level shinobi. Or that she knew she couldn’t possibly have reinforcements in time to help if this went badly. Those things weren’t bad enough on their own merits, so it was just the cherry on top that she’d never fought a jinchuuriki before.

Well. There was that time with Gaara, but that had been short and she’d had back up. And he had been overwhelmed by his demon into a state of stupid brutality. The blonde woman who had just sprouted the beginnings of a virtual cloak of chakra was definitely in control of her facilities, judging by the obvious intelligence glittering in her eyes and mona lisa smile.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck.’

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction

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