#but i brought josuke today and that was fun! everyones starting to get used to rohan its funny. absolutely love having him up here

[talesofsonicasura]

Diamonds and Voodoo

Brothers and Bandicoots

This was rewritten when I discovered that the document had been nothing but a word salad. This one should be much better!

Taki-Taki returns to Morioh in order to fulfill a particular agreement. Sadly, all she got was her dad walking off, two brothers with daddy issues, egotistical assholes and bandicoot urine on a landmark. Oh joy.

"Yes. I would like to confirm this very information to the Speedwagon Foundation. Apparently defeating Angelo merely revealed a new part of the going ons in Morioh. Something that could only be trouble for everyone living here and maybe even further." Spoke Jotaro Kujo, the man currently on the phone in his hotel room.

Pictures of a now deceased Angelo's mugshot with a report paper taped to the back, another picture of a disembodied hand on a table set with breakfast for one, and a small booklet that read Morioh City's Report. The man could only stare at them with pure concern.

/I wasn't born with this power! No, it was given to me by a man in a student's uniform. He appeared in my cell one night. I was so scared that my balls were in my stomach. In his hand was an ancient bow and arrow, it had to be around 100 years old. Next thing I knew, he shot the arrow into my neck. Saying the reason I survived and got this power because my soul was so strong. If you kill me, then he'll come get you too!/

Information the man had given just before Josuke and Taki-Taki trapped the psycho in his current stone prison. It did answer quite a bit of questions stemming from an incident that happened 10 years ago. One which was entangled in the tragedy of the Joestar bloodline that started over a mere century ago. The blood feud between the Joestars and Dio Brando.

It begun when the Joestar Matriarch, George Joestar, had brought in an orphan boy after this boy's father passed. That boy was Dio Brando, a child whose immense hate turned him into the most vile and dangerous person in the history of mankind. Poisoning George Joestar, ruining the life of George's son Jonathan, becoming a vampire and then stealing Jonathan's body.

Those were some of the key facts amongst a lot of the vampiric bastard's sins. Jotaro then side eyed something at the far corner of the room, a picture frame whose photo was obscured by the distance. Sadness, and rage going through the ocean blue for a few seconds before fading. He turned his thoughts to something else.

"With the Arrow somewhere on the loose in Morioh, it won't be long until the town becomes a horror show. There's also that woman, Taki-Taki Bandicoot, I'll be keeping an eye on her. I don't trust her." His thoughts going back to his previous encounter with the greenette as he looked down on the table.

There were highly detailed sketches of her, Lani-Loli, Toxic and Quill, each marked with key details depending on the individual. The drawings were so accurate, it could be mistaken for a printout if it wasn't for the fact they were made using color pencils. Strangely there was one more sheet next to them but it was blank except for two simple words.

Crash Bandicoot.

"Come on Dad! We're supposed to see Josuke and his dickish nephew today!" The Wumpa Islands, a pair of three tropical islands found somewhere in the ocean near Australia. It was a home to all sorts of peculiar creatures, mystical areas hidden in every place wrought with all sorts of danger and full of mysterious magic. It was also where the infamous Bandicoot Clan made their residence.

N.Sanity Beach, which could be found on N.Sanity Island was a spot for the clan members to enjoy fun in the sun activities. A bunch of floaties with a tube one shaped like a purple dragon next to a volleyball net, a small bar set with seats for 5 and various drinks from non-alcoholic to a few different alcohol, a couch with a makeshift roof made from cloth, and strangely a fridge and TV on the sand.

Taki-Taki, currently by the couch, was trying to put a large hoodie on some... thing? Someone? It or he from the pronoun used stood around 4'7 in height, what wasn't obscured by the large jacket was a pair of blue jorts, red tennis shoes, orange fur covered legs and part of a orange furred lean stomach with yellow at the center. Distressed gibberish coming from the neck sleeve almost if the head was stuck.

Lani-Loli was merely watching the little show alongside another floating mask. This mask looked exactly like the small charm Taki-Taki had given Ryohei but larger with more details such as a goatee made of leaves, larger feathers that were funnily taped on the back, and was alive from the eyes and mouth both curved in a 'seriously?' look. There was no doubt that this particular mask was Aku-Aku.

With a strong tug, the hood finally came down over the large head of a...bandicoot. The almost cartoonish looking bandicoot had large ears, bright teal eyes with hints of innocent insanity, a brown mohawk of hair, a yellow muzzle and large brown bushy eyebrows. His hands were four fingered and covered by fingerless brown gloves.

"I don't know what's funnier: The fact two sane people are meeting Crash or about to learn that he's an actual bandicoot." Lani-Loli mischievously chuckled. Taki-Taki only said that Crash was her father but not about him being BIOLOGICAL. The greenette is actually adopted and the only human of a family consisting of bandicoots, living masks and other oddities.

"To be fair, she has been listening to my advice about being limited to her origins. Although from what I heard about your last encounter in Morioh, caution should still be advised. This is a whole new world we stumbled upon and there are rules to follow." Aku-Aku's deep, powerful and wise voice sent a clear message to everyone.

None of them had much knowledge about Stands but do know the consequences of their own powers, the mystical energy they wield known as Mojo. It was an ancient source of magic that not only fueled voodoo but all branches of sorcery. Something that could cause unimaginable damage if abused.

Mojo was what made Crash who he is, the powers that Lani-Loli and Aku-Aku have, and what Taki-Taki is learning to master but also the consequences if abused that made creatures like Quill and Toxic. Creatures with great power but have the potential to cause devastation if they run amok: Titans.

If that Stand granting Arrow is being constantly misused and what powers a Stand could potentially manifest, Morioh wasn't as safe as it should be. And there might be its own Titans lurking in the shadows. For now, their true nature needed to be limited whenever visiting the town lest the situation could become worse.

Who knows what kind of horror can manifest if Mojo mixed with a Stand?

The Higashitaka household was a bit offbeat nowadays. Due to the recent 'stroke' that the older matriarch had suffered, the aura of the home for the family of three was a bit rugged. Ryohei had been laid off of his work for a bit as both his employers and fellow officers were worried about the man's health. He was what kept the force happy and ready to go.

Thus he was stuck at home being looked over by his daughter Tomoko and grandson Josuke from time to time. Taki-Taki was currently standing by the door with her father Crash next to her. Her face was obscured by the large hood of his jacket. Lani-Loli and Aku-Aku were currently hidden in Taki's jacket so they wouldn't be seen.

She knocked on the door politely despite how loud it sounded. "Hold on!" A woman's voice fires back in an instant. In a few seconds, the door was opened by a young woman who both father and daughter could guess was Josuke's mother. Josuke definitely got his soft face and beauty from her but Ryohei's kindness was there too.

Her hair was violet and short, eyes a similar baby blue to Josuke but more fiery, she was slim though there definitely was some muscle hidden by her yellow shirt and dark jeans. "Hello! Are you Josuke's mom? He does have your looks and you do look a bit like Mr Ryohei." Her odd deduction had the purplette surprised for a moment.

Then hearing her father's name was enough to put two to two together. "You're right, I'm his mother Tomoko and Ryohei is my father. Are you by chance Taki-Taki Bandicoot? I heard about you from my dad and son. Dad was right about you being adorable. Whose this with you?" Her voice, although soft and kind, held a ferocity behind it. Josuke's fiery temper had to come from someone.

"This is my dad, Crash. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I couldn't get home for a few days. Josuke let me stay here until I got back but under the condition that he had to talk about my stay with pops." Tomoko easily remembered her son mentioning that when she had gotten back home later that day.

Although she couldn't help but look at the figure that was Taki's father. There was not a single facial feature to make out due to the darkness of the large hoodie he wore but it was his hands that drew flags. Was the orange section part of the gloves and did he lose a finger in an accident? The hands were very odd and that orange part had a texture that looked more fur than leather or latex. Still...

"I'm sorry to say but Josuke had left for school today. Luckily he should be out by now. He attends Budo-ga Oka which isn't that far from Angelo's Rock, the new landmark which recently popped up." Taki-Taki immediately knew what she was talking about. It was near the place where that adorable turtle in the makeshift pond lived at. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

The Haunt House, an eerie landmark of sorts located near the recent Angelo's Rock. This large home could be recognized from the various broken windows that were either without glass or boarded up haphazardly, old paint that chipped away from even the gentlest of breezes and the vine covered gate with the tilted door marked by a 'No Trespassing' sign.

It was called the Haunt House from the feeling of being watched or the eyes of something watching in the shadows of the window whenever someone walks by. Police often patrolled the place for squatters due to these particular sightings and reports. Coming to the backyard strangely enough was the hoodie form of Crash Bandicoot.

From the glimpse of marsupial's green eyes and lack of companions, it was clear that he was lost. He let out a rumble of pure gibberish obviously annoyed. 'Maybe I should've stayed at that rock weirdo… Then again, Taki probably might not be happy to know I no longer have to go.' Crash let out an impish chuckle. Just because he was evolved doesn't mean he stopped 'marking his territory'.

'Dad, I need you to stay here with Angelo for me. If Josuke still isn't at school, then he'll most likely come through here to get home. It shouldn't take long for us to come back.' His daughter's words echoing in his head.

He felt a bit ashamed for not listening. It just he wasn't used to standing in one place for so long if it didn't involve napping. The bandicoot had a silly smile thinking about a nice snooze in his hammock after a nice slice of Wumpa Fruit pie. The little daydream was popped by the sound of soft skittering that hit his large furry ears.

Crash looked up before tilting his left ear towards the creepy house. The sound had to be somewhere in the upper levels from how it reverberated through the walls. Whatever made it was too big for an insect or small cat to do. Spying an open window with the least amount of boards, the bandicoot giggled to himself as an idea came. Little claws popped from the marsupial's fingers with a simple flex before he leapt onto the wall. Once the talons had a good grip, Crash climbed up the house wall and slipped in through the empty window pane.

"Motherfucker!" "Language!" Heterochromia eyes could only glare at the currently shivering stone convict. Taki had gone over to the school Tomoko mentioned after requesting her dad to stay put. Sadly, they couldn't find any sign of Josuke and looking for Jotaro was impossible without the pompadour prince's help. After visiting the little turtle in the pond, the greenette and her mask companions backtracked to the landmark.

Yet, her mutant bandicoot father was nowhere to be found and a foul smelling puddle was now present on the rock's lips. Normally something as gross as this got her laughing but at the moment the witch doctor was just annoyed. "Guess we were gone for a bit too long. Patience isn't something Crash normally has these days." Lani-Loli said while looking at the wet spot in distaste.

None of them should be surprised that the bandicoot would wander off somewhere. Luckily or disgustingly, there was a scent that could be used to find their lost marsupial. The witch doctor went into her jacket pocket to pull out a small vial that contained a soft luminous blue liquid. Taking off the small cork, Taki downed the tube's contents in a single gulp.

After placing the empty glass tube back in the pocket, the witch doctor then reached into the dinosaur skull she wore. Her hand pulled out a small peculiar object that was hidden in her bone headwear. It appeared to be a fang of some sort but was too thick, too large, and oddly too sharp to belong to any normal animal. Lani-Loli and Aku-Aku exchanged looks then quickly getting a few feet from Taki before she devoured the tooth with gusto.

In an instant, her eyes narrowed into slits and tattoos blazed to life in burning blue. She suddenly hunched down as if in pain followed by the sound of beastial snarling. The statue could only stare in perpetual terror upon the morphing shadow that started to cascade over him. Tears pouring from the frozen orbs from the sight of what could only be best described as a monster.

A distorted scraping noise ripped through the ominously quiet neighborhood before it was quickly followed by the sound of shattering pavement. This ruckus came from the front of Morioh's Haunt House for a battle was being waged at its steps. One of the fighters was Josuke whose uniform was dirtied up a bit along with a few scratches on his face. It was the least of his worries though.

Standing in an defensive position was another teenager around his age and size, a male Stand User from the bright fiery blue aura that flared his form. He had the look of a punk, shaved black hair that looked gray with a mini pompadour which sat at the mods, his eyes that seemed to only have impish pupils alongside a thin but large X-shaped scar or line pattern on his head.

The punk wore a modified blue gakuran with multiple gold pins shaped like money symbols on the fabric. "I won't say this again. Okuyasu Nijimura, you better let me through you bastard! Koichi isn't part of whatever bullshit your up to!" Josuke snarled at his opponent with hot daggers in his baby blue eyes.

The now named Okuyasu merely let out an impish chuckle before speaking with a rough and ruggish voice. "Sorry pal but you'll have to go through me first! Come closer and greet The Hand!" Almost on cue, a white hand with two bulbous baseball patterned protrusions on the palm came from behind the teen's head. The pomp prince quickly jumped to the side as the appendage swatted at his previous position instead, the 'No Trespassing' sign.

Alarms bells went through his head upon noticing the sign wasn't destroyed but it wasn't the same either. The text looked...too short almost if something was missing or had disappeared. It then clicked upon another glance of the item. "That sign! It used to say 'No Trespassing' but now it only says 'No passing'! Your Stand scraped the 'tres' away!"

Josuke's deductions caused his opponent's smile to grow malicious. The spectral arm next to the young man transitioning into something larger. In seconds that limb had fully materialized its true form, a white humanoid puppet outlined by blue armor bearing gold money symbols. The puppet shared a similar build to his master, its colorless hide sharing the same hardened texture of the armor, and his head was held in a white pail bucket that obscured part of its yellow lined eyes and the almost expressionless lips.

"That's right Josuke! My Stand can scrape away anything that it's right hand touches before closing the missing space together. I don't know where it goes or even if it still exists anymore but I do know you'll be sure to follow!" The Hand then scraped the air as a green tear rips right through the dimension. It immediately shuts closed in seconds as the purplette soon found his opponent in front of him at the same time.

He had used the created tear to close the distance between them. Okuyasu held his fist back almost about to speak when… the sound of whistling flew over their heads as a blast of glowing pink had sent Josuke's attacker airborne upon striking his Stand in the chest. The pompadour prince only had the time to blink before a pair of animalistic heterochromia eyes looked back at his.

What stood before had to be one of Taki-Taki's creatures, nothing could have been as odd or mystical like they strangely were. However this one felt off in a familiar sort of way. The creature looked like a bipedal almost anthropomorphic fox. It was monstrous with spindly long arms paired with black paws that held sharp claws, limber and lean build that was perfect for predatory stealth, the face was foxish but could be mistaken for a coyote or cougar from the longer ears and snout, and there were large purple parrot feathers on its back in a leafy plumage manner.

The off signs came from the tattoos around its arm that looked too much like Taki-Taki's, the greenish short hair on its head and the dinosaur skull… It immediately clicked on what or who had just defended his bacon. "Holy shit. Taki-Taki, is that you?" His query being answered upon a large prickly tongue licking his face courteous of the 9 ft beast that once was a human girl.

Josuke's face turned beet red and he honestly couldn't say if it was in disgust, embarrassment or touched by the sticky dog kiss. "Josuke?!" He whipped his head to see Lani-Loli flying over to the two but immediately stopped from the sound of hyena/wolf growling. Eyes were on the now standing Okuyasu who then looked flabbergasted by the new faces.

"What the hell?! Is one of those things that scrawny munchkin's Stand?! Or some sort of monster? No matter, The Hand will scrape you all out of existence!" His Stand manifesting once more with the right hand ready to erase even more space. Sadly, he didn't anticipate what particular creature the greenette was.

Letting out a loud hyena-like cackle Taki threw a large but fast pink orb of energy straight from her hand. It was a glowing magenta torpedo that clipped through the side of the Stand's right wrist in seconds. Okuyasu howled in pain from a chunk of his right wrist exploding outward almost if his body was mirroring the Hand's injury.

"The Snipe, a predatory beast that hunts its targets with high speed projectiles and is a close range fighter's worse nightmare!" Lani-Loli spoke while watching the green haired beast pounce at the off guard teen. Her feet instantly knocked the air out of Okuyasu's chest which forced his Stand to vanish from the lack of breath. He could only look up at the large drooling teeth of the angry beast that currently had him pinned down in fear.

His eyes quickly shut almost if waiting for the end only to scrunch his face in confusion by a soft touch. With a small peek, the young man was greeted to the sight of the large monster's forehead gently pressed against his own. A strange sensation going through his mind in a second before it- no she looked back at him with sympathy.

Taki then looked over to Josuke and Lani-Loli before the feathers on her back started glowing in strange patterns. The purplette was confused by the odd signals but the Quantum Mask knew what it meant. It was a sign of Morse Code Taki had developed for this form. "Josuke! Heal him, this guy isn't your enemy! Apparently he has a reasonable story behind this attack! Something involving his father!"

Lani-Loli's words made Okuyasu's eyes widen in realization. "You...went through my head? You saw the 'thing'." That last word practically quivered in silent despair and sorrow. Taki merely nodded her head before getting off the teenager. She quickly stalked towards the Haunt House. The harsh stench of blood hit her nose full force which turned a small crawl into an urgent run.

Her predatory eyes immediately ignored the man in the darkness for the childlike teenager that was slowly dying on the ground. He had short well groomed silver hair, light almost pasty skin and wore a plain green gakuran but his blue eyes were slowly becoming lifeless from the nasty arrow wound in his neck. Taki knew he would die if he wasn't treated.

"How curious. You the child's Stand or perhaps belong to-" The female Snipe growled before nonchalantly tossing a blast of pink at the unwanted pest. The man must've scurried out of the way from the sound of wood exploding to chips. Knowing there wasn't going to be an interruption, Taki reached for one of her feathers and plucked it off her back.

Holding the item in hand, she let out growls that sounded close to a chant as the piece of parrot plumage began to glow a soothing green. Taki crushed the feather in her hand as it broke into verdant stardust before pouring the powder over the large gouge on the boy's neck. The large wound immediately glowed a vibrant emerald as it steadily shrank. In seconds, the large gash was gone and the young man's eyes regained its vivid color once his breathing had steadied.

He blinked once more before blue eyes settled on the large beast hovering above him. A normal reaction to the sight was to scream but instead he felt his neck and noticed that his injuries were completely gone. Taki definitely knew he was a calculative and reasonable type since he put two to two together. "You...saved me." Despite the youth in his voice, the slight baritone was enough to solidify that this was a teenager and not a child.

"Koichi!" Josuke bursted into the house alongside Lani-Loli and oddly a determined Okuyasu who was following from behind. The punk looking teen no longer had any rips on his clothing or flesh, almost if everything was returned to their previous state. "Big brother, you need to stop right now! These guys can help us! Help d-" He was cut off when Taki quickly got in front of him.

Multiple tiny holes manifesting on her hide and feather plumage as if she was hit with bullet rounds from a tiny minigun. The puncture wounds weren't deep enough to draw blood since she wasn't human at the moment but… they had enough strength to disfigure a normal person like blood swiss cheese.

Taki snarled at the attackers, no, attacker to be precise. The ones to fire the barrage of nasty tiny bullets was an entire shooting squadron that consisted of toy army sized men. Same military clothing but the faces covered in white taping, eyes just beady red headlights and a thick flame of blue around them.

When the witch doctor like this, the number of magic she could use was limited but made difficult spells like mind reading or healing very easy. Okuyasu's memories told her what exactly she was dealing with. The platinum blonde teenager slightly older than Okuyasu, his older brother Keicho and his Stand, a mini army known as Bad Company.

"Big brother…" Was all the younger brother could say upon realization that the attack was aimed for him. Taki gave the three human males behind her a look. 'He's mine.' None of them said a word of disagreement. Knowing what was about to happen, Lani-Loli took it upon himself to get Josuke and his two accomplices away from the approaching battle.

The three humans and mask vanished in a sudden puff of wispy blue smoke. Taki-Taki's sharp nose told her that her friend had taken them to the higher floors of the house. A safe place which made the monstrous witch doctor happy for they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. She then turned her head to snarl viciously at Okuyasu's older brother.

"I can only guess that little mask has the power to teleport others. No matter, it won't take long for my Bad Company to find them once I finish you off. Then your friends will be next." Keicho's threat was backed further when a swarm of mini helicopters manifested in the air. "Fire!"

The Snipe quickly sprinted into a run as the mini army fired their payloads in the form of raining bullets and mini missiles. Wood chips, glass shards, and furniture stuffing erupted in a trail that hounded the quick Taki-Taki, avoiding the deadly miniature ammunition with impressive. She leapt onto the ceiling fan and flung herself into the air whilst throwing another blast of pink energy from her claws.

A large chunk of soldiers and a few helicopters exploded into magenta tinted flames from a successful hit. However, their owner didn't seem to suffer any sign of damage despite the destruction of his soldiers. "Sorry but my Bad Company is a remote Stand. Destroy all the soldiers you want, you can't harm me!" Keicho's words caused even more miniature men to manifest but these ones were operating tanks now!

Taki knew she couldn't fight here with so many weapons aimed at her hide. She would run out of steam before her opponent did. An idea then clicked into Taki's skull which propelled her to make a quick turn. She tossed a few more explosive shots at the tiny army as she ran. Every bullet was a bullseye as even more of Bad Company's soldiers went up in magenta smoke.

Her opponent quickly caught onto what the larger puffs of smoke that slowly filled the room were. "A smokescreen?!" Eyes looking to find the obscured beastie that ran up the stairs and he quickly glared. "After it!" Multiple tiny helicopters manifested to hound their fleeing target as the blonde followed in pursuit.

On the top floor of the Haunt House, Josuke was currently glaring daggers at a certain blue mask. The sounds of an explosive scuffle happening under his feet and a set of blue spectral chains that kept the door of their current location shut. "Lani-Loli, let us out!"

Despite the pompadour prince's demand, the Quantum Mask only shook his head in nervous defiance. "N-no way! You'll be either swiss cheese from gunfire or human flambe by blasts of Mojo! It's suicide!" Lani-Loli fired back with force despite his slight stutter. Of course, the mask flinched when Crazy Diamond manifested with a snarl on his face.

The only ones not getting involved in the potential scuffle was Okuyasu and Koichi who sat on the bed at the opposite side of the room. In the silver haired teen's hands was a yellowish pale egg with green stripes but also radiated a faint verdant aura. A Stand or Stand Egg that had manifested from Koichi's throat once getting into the room.

"I don't care if Taki can become one of those beasts like Quill or Toxic. She needs backup if her opponent's an army!" The large armored Stand clenched his fists as if ready to let loose a punch any second. "That's enough!" An aged voice immediately had the three teens raise their guard to the point even Okuyasu's The Hand manifested next to his master.

Coming through one of the half sealed windows was Aku-Aku whose appearance made whatever fight in either Josuke or Crazy Diamond vanish. "Aku! Where were you?! First Crash went puff then you go awol on us!" Lani-Loli was quickly hushed by a single look from his companion. Glowing yellow eyes then looked at the other members of the room.

"I had a feeling you were in quite a pickle so I went to find Crash first. He's somewhere in the house on the top floor waiting for you. As for Taki-Taki, her opponent is about to walk right into her 'tripwire'." Aku spoke as his gaze fixated on Josuke and his stand. The pompadour youth speaking up in confusion. "Tripwire?"

The tiki-esqe mask nodded in response at the inquiry. "Correct. Snipes are powerful long range fighters especially in confined spaces like this. Their biggest advantage isn't their ability to blast opponents with magic." A smirk then crossed Aku-Aku's face as if knowing the outcome of the ongoing battle.

Taki-Taki continued her trek up the house as Keicho and his forces relentlessly pursued the female. Every time a soldier or copter was in sight, the greenette blasted it with a pink energy shot before she took the chance to flee further. Her running however came to a halt once she reached a mostly clean room. Not a single shred of furniture or anything to hide the witch doctor's large form in sight.

"Got you now." Keicho's voice echoed through the room for hundreds of small soldiers filled it in seconds. Tanks slipping in from the vents, helicopters pouring from the open windows, armored humvees riding up from the stair railing and their owner walking in from the staircase. Taki-Taki wasn't to blind to the fact she was boxed in.

"I'll admit you're quite the fast runner and a nasty sniper. Sadly, this is the worst place for something as large as you. However, my Bad Company can thrive throughout our home base. I suggest you be a good beast and stay down." The older teen deviously chuckled as he stared down at the beast. His laughter quickly died in seconds when he noticed Taki-Taki was now smiling. A smile that revealed razor sharp fangs in a cunningly vicious way.

"It's the ability to set traps is what makes the Snipe a very dangerous Titan to fight."

Bits of pink began to lit up in sections of the room. Her opponent's eyes flickering to the source before they expanded in pure horror. Each light was coming from one of his soldiers in every group. Not even the quadcopters, tanks or humvees were unaffected. The horrifying part was the lights were blinking and were becoming faster per a second. 'Checkmate.'

The house shook hard as a loud explosion ripped throughout one of the floors, smoke tainted with hints of sparkling pink came pouring from the broken windows. In the large mist, the sound of coughing growls turned into pained ones as the large beast obscured shrunk in the purple haze. The remainder of the colorful screen filtered out as the now human Taki-Taki looked down at her fallen opponent.

Keicho was unconscious, bruises and burns covering his face and arms, platinum locks singed slightly black while billowing bits of smoke poured from the strands of hair and his uniform was charred with multiple holes through it. "The Phantom Bomber, a nice Snipe technique which lets undetectable bombs get planted on the enemy. The more collected in one spot, the bigger the boom." She walked over and hoisted the teen on her shoulders without a hint of strain.

Climbing up the stairs, the greenette could hear the voices of her friends from above. With some pep in her step, Taki ran up the stretch of stairs as the unconscious Nijimura brother shook and bounced. It didn't take long for heterochromatic eyes to stare back at a pair of baby blue. Everyone but her father was gathered outside of one specific door.

That door having the sound of familiar babble from behind its wooden threshold. "Taki-Taki! You're okay?!" Josuke looked ready to hug her if he didn't catch sight of Okuyasu's injured brother slung over the greenette's shoulder. "Big brother!" The teen quickly rushed over to his sibling. "Don't worry. He's alright albeit beaten up. Plus, his ego needed a nice kick so common sense can walk back in." The witch doctor chuckled, smiling with her tongue out.

Before anyone could go through the door, a particular situation needed to be handled first. A soft gold aura from Crazy Diamond enveloped the wounded platinum blonde in its soothing embrace. Wounds and damages done to both flesh and clothing vanished in seconds as the teen slowly woke up.

Keicho looked at all the faces surrounding him before he settled to glare at the woman who was the large beast from earlier. "You're lucky I'm a merciful person and you care about your family more than you let on. So, how long has your dad been cursed?" Taki-Taki's words surprised everyone but Lani-Loli, Aku-Aku and Okuyasu for obvious reasons.

There was a reason why the Nijimura brothers, well mainly Keicho, were using the Stand Arrow to create Stand Users. It was for the sake of their father. From Okuyasu's memories, their father had gotten into 'bad' connections with Dio. A deal of sorts that had more consequences than the man had thought. Upon Dio's death, bits of the vampire's flesh that were implanted in their dad had triggered a transformation of sorts.

A being unable to speak and unable to die that skittered through the halls of their home like a mouse for years. "Are you capable of giving him his eternal rest? We've been searching for someone that could extinguish that mindless 'thing' who used to be our father." His plea shook with pure desperate hope and sincere sorrow.

Reasonable for spending years in a house with a monster that was once your father, especially one mistaken for being mindless. "Have you noticed something odd about your home right now?" The question from the witch doctor was enough to widen the eyes of both brothers. It was the lack of skittering from something large that constantly moved through the house.

"Your father isn't mindless or gone. He's still there." Taki-Taki then opened the door to the room. Everyone was greeted to the appearance of a particular marsupial talking to an odd kappa-like creature. The being had thick green skin, slightly deformed from the lumps on his body such as the head or fingers, what appeared to be a beak for a mouth and wore worn clothes such as a white shirt and black shorts.

This had to be the Nijimura brothers' cursed father but what was strange is that he was showing a hoodless Crash something. An old photograph from the slight yellow coloration that showed a man and two very familiar young children smiling at the camera. The two were conversing in unintelligible babble but both clearly understood the other.

"That's our old family photo… He was searching for the photo of what he used to be…" The fact from Okuyasu's lips was enough to paint the picture for them. Despite the vast deformity, their father still remembered them, of their family before it all went to hell. The other oddity in the room finally hit everyone unaware of it.

"What's with the giant animal? It looks like an eastern barred bandicoot...if it was a living mascot costume." Koichi's question was paired with him pointing at the large marsupial. "Seriously dad? If you want to make friends then tell us instead of going into some rando's house after peeing on a town landmark."

The comical looks of eyeballs about to pop out from their sockets and jaws dropping to the floor made the greenette wish that she brought a camera seeing everyone's face. It was even funnier that the pompadour prince's hair looked ready to pop from the intensity of his utter shock. Surprisingly, Josuke was the first to get his speech back.

"T-that's your dad?! H-h-how?!" Now that done it for the greenette began laughing upon the purplette's insinuation. "Hahahaha! I'm adopted silly. Crash raised me ever since I was a baby that got washed ashore on his island. He may be a 'mentally challenged' wacky bandicoot but he's still my dad!"

The marsupial walked over and hugged Taki-Taki before placing a hand on her back. His pose and chest puffed up proudly practically screamed 'Yep, that's my daughter.' Strangely enough, it did make some sense about the young woman's oddness. Both Taki-Taki and Crash carried that same energetic weirdness to them.

"Aw. Such a sweet moment. Sweet enough to make me puke!" An unrecognizable male voice immediately had eyes facing the front. Part of the wall was charged with frantic electricity as if something was inside the wiring. It was easy to tell it was bad news from Keicho's sudden grimace.

One of the power outlets immediately exploded outward in large yellow bolts of electricity. The malevolent energy crackling as it began to form into a near physical entity. This new form resembled a bright yellow kappa from the beak and near egg shaped dish on its head with a long spindly lizard tail, thin almost featureless body and sparks of electricity crackling from its skin.

However it was the items it had that drew up red flags for everyone. In this being's clawed fingers was an ancient bow and arrow. The same ones no doubt capable of granting someone a Stand. "Oh no! Is that the Bow and Arrow, the one you guys have been talking about!?" Lani-Loli's cry made the electrifying entity smile maliciously.

"Guess who's Stand has fully awakened Nijimura? I honestly thought nothing would get you to drop your guard of the Arrow but I guess that chick and her friends was just enough! It was almost easy to snatch it with my Red Hot Chili Pepper's power!" The platinum blonde could only growl at his careless mistake. He was too caught up in his pursuit of powerful Stand Users to realize this kind of outcome.

"Do you really think your capable of wielding the Arrow's power? Your Stand has only just awakened after all! There's no way you can wield it properly!" Keicho hissed while the blue aura of his Stand began to flare up. The enemy Stand or Red Hot Chili Pepper merely laughed before aiming his glare on the blond.

"So naive. My Stand's powers had grown while you were busy. After all, you did say those with a powerful fighting spirit can manifest equally powerful Stands. Here let me show you!" It was quick as a bolt of lightning. One second Chili Pepper was at the socket and the next he was about to punch Keicho's chest. Only if a spin of orange didn't jump in front of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' range.

The Stand merely continued its charge only to cry out in shock when a twirling fist hit his face alongside a glare that were both from Crash Bandicoot. Chili Pepper was smacked back inside the electrical socket from the marsupial's Tornado Spin technique as Crash stood protectively in front of the older Nijimura Brother.

"Lani-Loli!" Aku-Aku's cry wasn't missed as the two masks quickly went into action. Both of them focused a bit of their magic that was quickly released in the form of a violent bluish stream. The shot struck the power outlet as the yellow electricity that threatened to return was shoved back inside the wiring so hard that the sockets literally exploded.

A scream of 'You'll pay for this!' followed until the leftover sparks crackled into nothing. "You saved my life… Why? Why help your enemy?!" Keicho questioned whilst staring at the orange bandicoot. Crash mere made a bunch of hand signals before smiling with a thumbs up. It was sign language.

"He said 'No family should mourn for a death that could be avoided.' Sure you tried to kill me, shot Koichi, created an army of Stand Users and tried to shoot your brother's face but you were only being a big jackass so your family didn't have to suffer. Your lives are already messed up as it is, you don't need it to become even worse."

The older teen who didn't expect the response widened his eyes before he subtly began to chuckle. "You all are insane." The sentence only made a stupid grin pop on the father and daughter duo's face. Everyone's attention was soon back on the blown power outlet.

"I fear that this situation has escalated into unimaginable levels. Creating a cure to the Nijimura matriarch shouldn't be difficult for me to find. However, that Bow and Arrow needs to be recovered as soon as possible. I could only fear what kind of horrors it could create in the hands of that fiend." Aku-Aku's warning wasn't lost on anyone.

Things were only to get more dangerous from now on.

I hope this was much better than my original script! There will be changes to some of Part 4's plot mainly that some deaths will be averted like Ryohei's and Keicho's. I honestly felt it was a dick to kill Keicho instead of using the chance to give him some character.

Taki-Taki's Beast Out ability has made an appearance. This lets her transform into any non-human creature whether it is a familiar or by consuming particular materials with a special potion. Kinda like N Brio's potions but more refined. Her magic is mostly restricted along with speech for particular Titans but she gets access to two powerful spells that can be set on a specific form. Her Snipe form having Mind Read and Advanced Healing Magic.

Crash deflecting an electric Stand like Red Hot Chili Pepper isn't so farfetched if you take the Cortex battle in the first Crash game. He's also more of a forgiving person when you take into consideration his interactions with Cortex in both Twinsanity but also some flashback tapes I heard about in Crash 4.

And Jotaro having trust issues is normal considering how many bad encounters he had with Stand Users especially in Part 3.

Until next time folks! Enjoy this Crash Bandicoot 4 Rap by JT Machinima.

[bubble-tea-bunny]

pool flamingo

[rohan kishibe x reader]

author’s note: idk why i’m so obsessed w rohan but i’m not tryna fight it

word count: 2,188

In the midst of summer, the heat grows to levels of moderate discomfort before the clocks even strike noon, so that when it finally is twelve o’clock, with the sun in the center of the sky, the temperature is nothing less than absolutely sweltering, and it would remain as such until the later hours of evening. A reprieve from the relentless intensity is never truly achieved until the skies turn orange and then black, and the sun is replaced by the moon.

The weather gives Rohan the perfect excuse to remain inside, working tirelessly on the newest volume of Pink Dark Boy. Though it isn’t as if he needs an excuse, and he has no shame in turning down invitations to lunch or whatever else comes his way, with the blunt explanation that he much prefers to spend his time continuing his manga.

He hunches over his desk, pen flying, sectioning out each page into the appropriate number of panels, drawing scene after scene. The first draft is the final draft, the shading and the line work clean the first time around, as is to be expected. His deadline is the end of the week but he’ll be able to send it in for publishing before then.

His focus is broken at the sound of footsteps padding down the hallway and he pauses, careful to lift the nib of his pen from the paper to avoid leaving a dark spot. He listens closely as the thud of bare feet on wood flooring becomes louder while passing by the door to his study, then fading as they move away. They come back, however, now accompanied by a knock on the door.

“Rohan, come out and join me!”

Your voice is chipper, easy to surmise even though muffled. Rohan shakes his head despite the fact you can’t see, and speaks up to be heard from across the room and through the door.

“I’m busy.”

It’s quiet on the other side for a few moments, but you’re not one to be discouraged. You push on. “It’s not so bad today! There’s a breeze!”

You really are trying, aren’t you? Rohan will never tell you that had been the only prodding required, that he is already convinced and yes, he’ll go out and join you, because that would go to your head, the realization that you don’t need much to convince him of anything. And he couldn’t be having you get supercilious. There is just room for one like that in this relationship, and he had already taken it for himself.

He replaces the cap on his pen and sets it to the side before he stands, stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders. His muscles seem to sigh in relief, for his posture when he’s deeply concentrated is nothing short of atrocious. He doesn’t notice how long he sits, hours flying by like seconds. You’d scolded him more than once on the occasion you had come into his study with a snack and a reminder for him to rest his eyes, lamenting that he was much too young to start giving himself long-term back and neck pain. He would always wave you off and tell you he’s fine, but your soft admonition to at least do his best to take regular breaks sits in the back of his mind. He’s working on it.

As he steps away from his desk, he glances at the clock, which shows him that it’s mid-morning. If he had to guess, he had been drafting the new volume for a couple of hours so far today. That was time for you to wake up, make breakfast, and decide this was another perfect day for your summer activity of choice.

Rohan’s hand curls around the doorknob and he pulls it back, revealing you on the other side, still standing patiently, watching him expectantly. He feigns disdain, huffing loudly, but you’re undeterred, and perhaps he is wrong and there is indeed space for both of you to be smug, because the look in your eyes makes it clear you know exactly how tightly wound Rohan is around your pinky.

“Must I?” But Rohan can’t help but tease, tugging on the reins a bit, if only to see your reactions.

You scoff at the absurdity of the question and laugh. “Yes, you must! I don’t want to be out there by myself!”

The corner of Rohan’s mouth lifts, a small smile betraying his amusement. “Fine then. I won’t let you flounder around on your own.”  

You smile too, satisfied that he is finally agreeing. “Thank you,” you respond playfully.

“Where would you be without me?” Rohan muses, staring down at you.

“I dunno.” You shrug. “But I’d be a lot lonelier.”

Perhaps it is the matter-of-fact tone with which you say this that makes his heart jump with something like love, and there is the nearly imperceptible melting away of a small piece of his haughty facade. You pick up on it of course—you are nothing if not observant—but you stay quiet because you know such fondness is entirely unbecoming of the great Rohan Kishibe, and you wouldn’t embarrass him by addressing it and forcing him to admit it out loud. His heart skips another beat and maybe it isn’t with something that is just like love.

“I’ll be out there in a few minutes,” he informs you.

“You better!”

He watches you walk down the hall and disappear around the corner, and chuckles as he turns back into his study to grab a few materials to bring downstairs with him.

Even if Josuke had done him the disservice of burning down his house, Rohan hadn’t been particularly bothered. Well, not about the house. Witnessing the structure go up in flames had further fueled his hatred for the high schooler, yes, but the matter of rebuilding left him indifferent. He had the money to do it and to make any new renovations he so pleased. One such addition to the Kishibe residence, version 2.0, was a pool.

He had it built for you. You would frequently visit the community pool, spending a couple of hours swimming, until your fingers were pruned and the chlorine had thoroughly seeped into your hair, prompting you to make a beeline straight for the shower upon arriving at his house. You basically live in the water, and he wanted to give you a space to swim privately, where you could have the whole pool to yourself.

And when he says it had been just for you, he meant it. Once the others had discovered what he did to the backyard, he promptly shut down any of their ideas of having a pool party. It was only at Koichi’s insistence that he had allowed it, on a particularly hot Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Thinking back on it now, he supposes it wasn’t awful, since you seemed happy to have everyone there. But even despite that, he isn’t keen on having another party anytime soon.

The light blue water glistens blindingly due to the sun and Rohan has to squint as he steps outside. White pool chairs are positioned in the shade, and he settles down in one as he observes you where you kneel on the flagstone, right at the edge of the pool, pushing giant floats into the water: first a dinosaur, then a unicorn, and lastly, a flamingo. You bought them because of the pool Rohan added, for there would never have been enough room at the community pool to use anything bigger than a simple tube. Now, you like to keep your eye out for more fun ones to add to your collection.

You watch the flamingo drift into the center, leaving gentle ripples in its wake, and then you stand, shedding your shorts and loose shirt to reveal your red one piece swimsuit. You leave your clothes in a small pile on the ground, then waste no more time diving in. Your fluid form and smooth descent make merely a quiet splash, and your figure is wavy and unfocused beneath the water, simply a group of colors moving beneath the surface. Several seconds later, you pop your head up.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in?” you inquire.

Rohan sits back and shakes his head. “I’m fine here.”

You grin. “Suit yourself.” You dive back under.

The heat is considerably less severe in the shade, but it’s still warm enough that Rohan’s thoughts are on the air conditioner, and how wonderful it would feel while he works on his manga. He has no qualms about keeping the air on full blast, as it was currently, the rooms kept cool for your return back indoors. Better to be too cold than too hot.

His newest volume is almost finished now, a few pages short, and he’s itching to get back to it. He tries to feel exasperated about being outside, playing it off as if he’d been dragged out here by no will of his own, just as he feels whenever someone asks if he’d like to go out (And bear this weather? he asks, upfront about how stupid he thinks the suggestion is. Forget about it.) But you aren’t just someone, and Rohan wouldn’t ever be irritated with you. So for once, he forces himself to relax and endure the warmth. And you’re right—at least there is a breeze today.

A quiet clack grabs his attention and Rohan opens his eyes to see you reaching out for your sunglasses which you had set on the side to keep dry. You set them on your head and drift over to the flamingo, clambering on a little clumsily due to the wetness of your skin. The pink vinyl squelches as you maneuver your way onto the flamingo, and once you’re finally on, you roll onto your back, sighing contentedly and sliding your sunglasses over your face.

They’re heart-shaped and a shade of red to match your suit. Rohan likes them. He thinks they look good on you. And he also thinks you belong on a magazine cover or a two-page spread, a picture to complement the paragraphs dreaming of a perfect summer, of the hot sun and cold water, of wet hair and the smell of chlorine (or salt, if one finds themselves at the beach). He can’t tell if you’ve fallen asleep, but you look so peaceful, so at ease, and deep down he will admit, though scornfully, that Josuke’s screw-up did have an upside.

Rohan reaches down to the sketchbook and pen he had brought outside with him, and flips to a blank page. His gaze shifts from the paper up to you then back down again, as he recreates the scene before him in black ink, smooth, clean lines trailing across the expanse until it all comes together—clothes discarded on the stones, the blinding water, the flamingo float. Then the subject, the main focus, the sum and substance: you stretched out and relaxed, coaxing the viewer to follow your lead, to let the stress melt from their shoulders and to join you in your stillness.

All he has left is to sign the bottom corner, but while drawing had been the initial distraction from the heat, you’re the main attraction, and he stares at you instead. Rohan prides himself on his accuracy when he draws but when it came to you, there was nothing better than the real thing. And he’d attempted to before, to capture the full essence of your person—the light of your smile and the inexplicable charm you exude when your hair is wet and tangled and drops of water cling to your lashes—as evidenced by the previous pages of the sketchbook he holds, filled with pictures of you. He might never get there, might never reach the point he’s satisfied with his depiction, but he’d never stop trying.

You notice how closely he is watching you and you turn to look at him. You lower your sunglasses slightly, until your eyes are visible, and you smile, asking what it is he’s drawing.

But you know. Of course you do. So rather than teasing, he lets you have this one and tells you exactly what he is drawing. Your smile widens and you hum, returning your sunglasses to their original position. Even from off to the side, he spots the flush of your cheeks, reddening from laying in the sun, your natural blush the most beautiful one.

“Make me look good please!”

At this, Rohan chuckles and shakes his head. You always look good, he thinks. You need no assistance there. And you are the perfect summer, floating languidly out on the water with your heart-shaped sunglasses. Maybe one night he will dream of you with a mermaid’s tail, emerald scales glistening in the sunlight because you take to the water like it’s your second home and wouldn’t that be something, to have a mermaid hidden away? His ultimate secret, his ultimate muse, lounging atop a pretty pink flamingo.

[oingos-bitch]

Another JoJo Mall Fanfic™ -- Rainforest Café (Part 1)

Part 5, Part 4 and Part 2 Spoilers!

"Y-YOU!  YOU'RE  THE  ONE  WHO  STOLE  MY  LUGGAGE!"

Giorno  gulped.  The  short  boy  stalked  over  to  him,  glaring  daggers.  

"I  haven't  forgotten  about  you,  I  hope  you're  ready  to  pay  me  back."  

Echoes'  summoning  was  stopped  by  a  hand  on  his  shoulder.

"Koichi,  dude,  are  you  alright?"

"Yeah,  Okuyasu,  I'm  fine."  He  trembled  in  anger.  "Unless  you  wanna  help  me  put  this  blond  son  of  a  bitch  in  his  place."

"Ohhh."

A  bass-boosted  fart  could  be  heard  as  a  blue  figure  appeared.  

"Why  didn't  ya  tell  me  sooner?  Whose  ass  are  we  gonna  kick  first?!"  Okuyasu cracked  his  knuckles.

"That  blond  bastard,  who  else?"

"Uhmm...Which  one?"  He  whispered.

"Huh?"

It  was  then  that  Koichi  noticed  the  much,  much  taller -- 'And  scarier!' -- blond  male  sitting  across  from  Giorno.  And  he  did  not  look  amused.

"Are  you  done  yet,  piccolino?"

"Wha- what?"

Caesar  sighed.  "I  would  just  like  to  get  my  order  without  any  trouble,  if  that's  not  too  much  to  ask.  However,"  his  green  eyes  narrowed.

"If  it's  trouble  you're  looking  for,  then  I'll  be  glad  to  indulge  you."

His  chair  fell  over  as  he  stood  up.  Maintaining  his  glare,  he  spread  his  arms  as  a  large  bubble  formed  between  them.  Anticipating a  fight,  the  two  teenagers  defensively  posed, shouting  their  stand  names.  Caesar was  just  about  to  strike  before  Deus  Ex  Josuke  appeared.

"Guys,  as  much  as  I  would  love  to  help  right  now,  there's  people  here. . ."

Koichi's  blood  ran  cold.  He  had  the  sense  to  immediately  call  back  Echoes  and  nervously  regain  his  composure,  straightening  his  pose.  Okuyasu,  however,  did  not.

"So  what??  Everyone  should  see  this  asshat  get  a  well-deserved  beatdown!"  He  growled.

"Okuyasu,  no."  Josuke  pulled  his  best  friend  aside  and  leaned  into  him.

"I  know  you  mean  well,  but  we're  probably  gonna  get  fired -- and  I  don't  wanna  make  my  great-gramps  sad!"  Josuke  slightly  teared  up at  the  thought.

Okuyasu's  face  flushed  in  embarrassment.  

"I  don't  wanna,  either!  I-I'm  so  sorry,  Josuke!"

He  began  to  sob  on  the  spot.  

"I-I'll  do  better  next  time!"

"It's  alright,  man,  just  calm  down  a  little."  Steak-hair  patted  his  back.

Everyone  within  a   ten-foot  radius  stared  wide-eyed  at  the  scene.  Even  passerby  stopped  for  a  few  good  minutes!  Josuke  slowly  got  up  and  let  go  of  Okuyasu,  facing  the  crowd.  He  knelt  down  and  waved  his  hands  vigorously.

"Aaaaand,  SCENE!  Uh,  we  hope  everyone  liked  it!"  

Crickets.

He  smiled  from  ear -to-ear,  sweat  beading  down  his  temple.  A  lone  clap  sounded  from  the  middle  of  the  restaurant.  A  few  more  claps  were  soon  drowned  out  by  diners  resuming  their  meals  and  their  conversations.  Josuke  let  out  a  relieved  sigh.

He  looked  around  to  see  if  anyone  else  was  staring -- 'Nope!' -- then  proceeding  to  step  towards  Caesar,  looking  him  square  in  the  eye.

"Next  time  you  mess  with  my  friends,  you  may  not  be  so  lucky."

Caesar  smirked  and  returned  his  icy  stare.

"That  doesn't  sound  like  much  of  a  threat,  coming  from  someone  like  you."

"What's  that  supposed  to  mean?"

Caesar  looked  him  up  and  down.  "Look  at  yourself. . .A  teenage  delinquent,  working  at  the  only  'high-paying'  job  that'll  accept  you,  picking  fights  with  those  obviously  more  experienced  than  you."

"You  don't  know  how  many  fights  I've  been  in!"

"Hm,  no,  but  with  that  attitude,  I  can  guess."

"Wanna  find  out?"  Josuke  grinned.

Caesar  cocked  his  head  to  the  side,  the  boy  seemed  familiar,  but  he  just  couldn't  put  his  finger  on  it --

"Yoo-Hoo!  Caesarino!~"

Caesar  groaned  and  turned  around.

"Hello,  JoJo -- DIO  MIO,  JOSEPH,  WHAT  THE  FUCK ARE  YOU  WEARING?!"

"It's  my  old  outfit! I  needed  it  for  my  job  and  it  still  fits  perfectly!"  He  laughed  heartily.

His  friend  buried  his  face  in  his  hands.  Joseph  took  this  as  a  sign  to  flex  in  front  of  him.

"Whaddaya  think?~"

Caesar  pushed  him  away.  "Awful,  awful,  everything's  awful.  If  you're gonna  dress  in  drag,  you  should  at  least  do  it  right."

"HEY,  that's  what  Jolyne  always  tells  me!"

"And  she's  correct.  Ugh,  JoJo,  you  could  have  at  least  shaved  your  beard."

"But  I  think  my  beard  makes  me  sexy. . ."  He  pouted.

"It  does,  but  that's  beside  the  point --"  Caesar  froze.

No,  absolutely  not,  this  was  the  last  thing  he  needed  today.  The  day  had  started  off  so  badly  already,  he  couldn't  have  Joseph  knowing  his  secret,  too!  It  would  all  be  too  much!

Thankfully,  Joseph  broke  the  silence  quickly.  Grinning,  he  posed  some  more.

"Sexy,  eh?  You  really  think  so?~"

Caesar  tried  his  hardest  to  sound  annoyed.  "If  you  say  so,  JoJo."

"Ah,  but  you're  the  one  who  said  it.~  So,  d'ya  really  think  so?"

The  Italian  pulled  his  face  away  from  his  hands  to  get  a  look  at  Joseph.  He  didn't  really  need  to  look  at  him  for  so  long  to  see  that  he  was  handsome,  but he  really  needed  to  save  his  skin  right  now.  So  he  eyed  Joseph  from  different  angles:  profile,  front,  three-quarters  view,  even  worm's  eye  view!  

This  went  on  for  longer  than  expected,  and  Joseph  began  to  whine.

"C'mon,  you  already  got  a  good  look,  just  tell  me  already!"

Begrudgingly,  Caesar  moved  his  eyes  away.  

"I  guess  so."

"Really?!"  Joseph  beamed.

He  nodded.  "I  mean,  I  think  Suzi --"

Inwardly,  he  groaned.  He  hated  to  think  it,  he  hated  how  it  sounds,  and  most  of  all  he  hated  to  say  it,  but  he  couldn't  risk  raising  Joseph's  suspicions.  Or  worse,  risking  their  friendship.

"-- I  really  think  Suzi  thinks  so."

For  a  moment,  Joseph  seemed  surprised -- and  a  bit  disappointed?  No,  must've  been  Caesar's  imagination.  He  rubbed  at  his  neck  and  shot  Caesar  his  signature  grin.

"Haha,  well,  thanks!  I  hope  she  thinks  so!"

He  placed  an  arm  around  him.  Caesar  jumped  lightly  at  the  contact.  He  knew  it  was  friendly,  something  he  was  used  to,  yet  he  couldn't  help  but  feel  so  wrong  after  what  just  happened.  It  wasn't  fair  to  think  about  having  a  chance  with  his  best  friend  when  he  already  had  a  life  to  live,  a  wife  and  a  kid,  and  a  grandkid,  for  crying  out  loud!  

And  he  had. . . Well,  nothing.  Any  chance  he  had  before  was  snatched  away  so  abruptly.  When  that  bright  light  enveloped  him  and  he  found  himself  laying  on  the  Earth's  soil  again,  he  was  ecstatic!  He  expected  to  find  everyone  else  in  the  same  situation,  waiting  to  reconnect.  Embarrassingly,  the  first  person  he  thought  of  was  Joseph.

Oh,  Joseph.  That  lovable,  goofy  bastard  had  no  idea  just  how  much  he  missed  him.  He  had  planned  everything  out -- how  he'd  introduce  himself,  how  he'd  explain  his  chance  at  a  new  life,  how  he'd  spill  his  heart  out  to  him  and  say  what  he  never  got  a  chance  to  say,  and,  hopefully,  how  he'd  grin  and  say  he  felt  the  same  way.  And  it'd  all  be  uphill  from  there.

However,  he  did  not  plan  to  run  into  Lisa  Lisa  first.  And  he  did  not  plan  to  sit  down  and  catch  up  with  her  over  tea.  And  he  did  not  expect  her  to  be  the  one  to  catch  him  up  on  what  had  happened  while  he  was  gone.  

And  he  certainly  did  not  expect  Joseph  to  be  married  and  have  a  kid.

The  deep  ache  in  his   gut  was  incomparable  to  the  pain  he  endured  before  his  death,  and  it  still  haunted  him  whenever  that  damned  memory  was  brought  up.

Much  like  now.

Caesar  smoothly  moved  Joseph's  arm  back  to  his  side.  Before  he  could  dwell  on  the  thought  any  longer,  he  changed  the  subject.

"So,  what  brings  you  here?"

"OH!  I  just  wanted  to  see  my  son!"

"Your son?. . .I  thought  you  had  a  daughter. . ."

Joseph  smiled  sheepishly.  "Uh,  yeah,  about  that. . .Let's  just  say,  I  don't  think  Suzi'll  ever  trust  me  the  same  again. . ."

Caesar's  eyes  widened.  Inappropriately  enough,  his  heart  fluttered.  Maybe  he'd  have  a  chance?

'No!  He  doesn't  need  his  marriage  damaged  any  further!'

While  he  was  still  deep  in  thought,  Joseph  brought  over  a  familiar  angry  teen.

"Ta-Daaaa!  This  is  my  darling  baby  boy!"

Caesar  did  a  double  take.  Oh,  he  couldn't  be  serious --

"T-this  is  your  son?!"

"You  bet!  Doesn't  he  look  just  like  me?"  He  brought  the  poor  boy's  face  against  his  cheek.

"A  chip  off  the  ol'  block!"

"Dad, stop  it."  Josuke  averted  his  eyes.

"Awwww,  but  it's  true!  Isn't  it,  Caesarino --"

He  scanned  the  room,  searching  for  him. "Caesar?"

He  found  him  by  the  aquarium,  making  his  way  to  the  bar.

"Oi,  Caesar!  Don't  you  wanna  say  hi  to  Josuke?"

Caesar  reluctantly  turned  around.  "Maybe  some  other  time,  JoJo.  My  lunch  break  is  almost  over,  and  I'm  still  waiting  on  my  order."

"Oh,  the  pink  girl  and  blond  boy  took  it."

"Huh?"

"The  pink-haired  girl  and  the  blond  boy,  they  took  your  food."  Repeated  the  elf-eared  bartender.

"Oh,  thank  you.  Where'd  they. . go. .?"  

The  bartender  pointed  to  the  west  of  the  mall.  

"Ah,  grazie."  He  made  his  way  there.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trish  had gasped  once  Caesar  stood  up,  ready  to  fight,  but  soon  lost  interest  once  Josuke  showed  up  and  started  speaking.

"So  boring."

She  and  Giorno  sat  silently  the  entire  time.  There  wasn't  much  to  talk  about,  and  she  didn't  recognize  anyone  else  (yet),  so  she  passed  the  time  counting  down  the  minutes.

She  had  attempted  to  ask  Giorno  about  why  the  midget  had  a  vendetta  against  him,  but  he  just  responded  with  an  "I  don't  want  to  speak  about  it."

'Tch.  You're  no  fun.'

Then  Joseph  appeared  and  she  giggled.  It  was  so  much  fun  to  see  her  usually  stoic  co-worker  get  so  flustered  by  the  old  man,  and  it  was  amusing  for  a  while.

That  is,  until  he  didn't  make  a  move.

She  spent  the  rest  of  the  time  reading  over  the  specials  pamphlet.  Luckily,  she  soon  heard  a  small  "Excuse  me,  Ma'am."

"Hm?"

A  tiny,  tall-haired  boy  anxiously  held  up  a  stack  of  To-Go  boxes.  

"H-Here's  your  order."

"Oh!  Thank  you."

He  hurriedly  mumbled  and  speed-walked  over  to  the  waiter  from  earlier.  Shrugging,  she  and  Giorno  stood  up  to  leave.  Once  they  realized  Caesar  would  be  a  while,  they  exchanged  glances  and  walked  out  of  the  place.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Caesar  found  them  sitting  on  the  fountain,  digging  into  their  food.  They  nonchalantly  looked  up.

"Sorry,  we  just  couldn't  wait  any  longer."

"It's  fine.  Sorry  I  took  so  long."

Trish  smiled.  "Even  with  how  long  you  took,  you  still  couldn't  flirt  with  him  good  enough."

". .Shut  up.  Let's  go  get  Suzi's  wings."

[jojo-at-his-computer]

Of course. I gotta say, this kinda makes me think of the song Pity Party, so I love it.

Josuke X Reader: Happy Birthday To You

It was a lovely morning in Morioh when you woke up, the smell of chocolate chip pancakes and bacon greeting you. You got up, washed your face, put on your favorite outfit, brushed your hair and went downstairs. Your dad was reading the newspaper while your Mom set your place at the table with your special breakfast.

"Happy birthday!" shouted Mom and Dad. You smiled. It was your 16th.

"Thank you guys!" you said sitting down to your meal, instantly drowning your pancakes in syrup and devouring them.

"Imagine that." said Dad in surprise "16! Almost a grown-up." He and Mom smiled proudly.

"Hurry up and eat, then we'll get the decorations put up." You beemed and you finished your breakfast, appetite invigorated.

As you went around the house putting up balloons and streamers in your favorite colors, your mind wandered. Your family had only moved to Morioh a few months ago. You ended up starting highschool in town as a first year, one of many new kids, and you ended up making a few new friends there. Your best friend was Josuke Higashikata, a classmate of yours. He was a pretty nice guy, though if someone were to make fun of his hair, he'd kick their ass. He had a unique pompadour haircut, and while you were a bit nervous to say so, you thought it was cute. You thought HE was cute. Okay just admit it, you were totally crushing on him, hard! You liked everything about him, his hair, his sapphire blue eyes, his smile, and on your first day of school, he saved you from a group of bullies that were trying to shove you into a locker. You've been wanting to confess your feelings to him, but you've been so nervous. You shook your head. Today's not the day to think about mushy stuff like that. Nope! Today's the day for celebration! It's your party and your day to shine!

After putting up the decorations, Mom told you to go ahead and relax in the living room for a few hours until the time that guests would arrive. You played some Mario for a bit, but after falling down and dying for the umpteenth time, you decided it'd be better to watch a few anime videotapes for the time being. But as you went to plug in the VCR, you heard Mom slam the phone in frustration.

"Just great!" shouted Mom. She shook her head and calmed her voice down to not upset you as much. "I'm sorry sweetie, but Grandpa is sick and can't make it, and I just got off the phone with your Aunt. She had an emergency meeting that's running late and had to cancel."

"Oh!" you said a bit surprised. "I'm sorry. That really sucks! I hope Grandpa gets better." You felt bad, but you also knew that your parents would try to get them together again and you all would get to do something special altogether, like a movie or dinner at a restaurant.

"I'll tell Grandpa you said that." said Mom. "It's about time for your friends to start arriving, why not wait in the sunroom to greet them." You glanced at the clock, about 5 til 4 pm, realizing she was right.

"Okay" you answered. You grabbed a copy of Shonen Jump to read as you awaited your friends arrival. 10 minutes, no one yet. That's okay, it's only 5 after 4. 30 minutes went by. Huh that's weird, but they must be running late. 45 minutes now. You start getting a little worried. An hour. You ended up finishing your Shonen Jump magazine. Out of fear and anger, you start pacing the floor in front of the door. Tears start to well up under your eyes. It's 5:15, more than an hour and no one shown up! Without giving it a 2nd thought, you cross to the phone in the kitchen. Mom asked you a question, but you ignored her, all you could think about was knowing why the hell you got stood up at your own party.

You dial Josuke's number at rapid fire speed, hearing the dial tone indicating the phone was ringing. You heard the gentle click as Josuke answered on the other end.

"Moshi moshi, this is Higashikata!" answered Josuke. You couldn't help but feel an odd sense of joy hearing his gentle voice, followed by anger and hurt that he wasn't at your party.

"Where were you!" you said suddenly shouting. Josuke was taken aback.

"(Name) is that you?" asked Josuke. "Where we supposed to hang out or something today? What's wrong?" All of the sudden you couldn't take it anymore and tears burst from you, not being able to hold it in anymore.

"I can't believe you didn't show up for my party!" you shouted "Nobody shown up, the party has been going on since four, and nobody came! Not even Grandpa or my aunt could make it!" you were heaving in-between sobs, shaking before you realized you heard Josuke ask something. You calmed down a bit before you asked him to repeat what he just said.

"Today's your birthday?" he asked.

"Yes of course it's my birthday! I sent you the -" you cut off when it clicked in your brain. You realized what might have happened, why nobody had shown up.

"You didn't get an invitation, did you?" you asked Josuke.

"I don't think so!" answered Josuke, "I wouldn't forget your party if I did."

"Oh my God!" you said feeling weak. "Of course! Something must have happened with the invitations! I'm so sorry. I should have known you'd make it. Well now the party is ruined and it's all my fault."

"Not yet!" answered Josuke. "Don't cancel the party yet. Give me about an hour, I promise."

"Okay." you answered, taking a deep breath. "I believe you, just get here as soon as you can." You hear the dial tone that the line is now dead. You breathed a sigh as you sat on the floor waiting. It was now 5:25. You waited some more. It was 5:55. You called Josuke's house again, but his mom picked up. However she did confirm that Josuke left awhile ago. You said thank you and hung up. At this point Mom looked in the front room where you were waiting.

"I'm sorry honey." she said hugging you. "It's been a couple hours, why don't you join us and we'll cut the cake."

"No mom, I know Josuke for sure is coming." You explained how you found out there was an apparent mailing mishap that prevented the invitations from reaching your friends. Mom shrugged.

"Okay." she said. "But if he doesn't show up before 7, we're cutting the cake without him."

"Deal" you said. You looked at the clock, it was now 6:15, nearly an hour since you spoke to him. Where could he be? Of course! He must be going to get me a present, you reasoned. No sooner you finished your thought, there's a knock at the door.

"Hello", you say as you answered the door. You opened it to find not only Josuke had arrived like he said he would, but he brought some friends with him too. There was Okuyasu and Koichi, two of your friends from school, and two people you didn't recognize, an old man with a white beard and glasses, and a man in his late 20's wearing a white hat that had "JO" on it. Everyone's arms were loaded with giftbags.

"Oh my gosh!" you gushed, "You guys made it! Josuke thank you for bringing everyone here." you said giving him a hug. "C'mon in guys." you motioned for everyone to come inside.

"Sorry we're late," said Josuke, "I called Koichi and Okuyasu, along with my, er, relatives, this is Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo by the way." he said motioning to the old man and the man in white respectively. You remembered Josuke saying he had family members in town recently.

"Hello there," said Mr. Joestar.

"Hello," said Jotaro with a small smile.

"Nice to meet you. Thank you both for coming." you replied.

"We realized that we didn't have any presents." said Koichi.

"And we weren't sure what to get you." admitted Okuyasu.

"Yeah," said Josuke a bit embarrassed. "We kinda panicked and went to different stores. Sorry we didn't have time to wrap anything."

"That's okay!" you laughed. "You didn't have to get me all these presents. I'm happy to have you guys present! (God that's such a terrible pun lol) I'm so glad everyone's here." You led everyone to the kitchen, having the guests put their gifts on one of the tables. There was a whole table with pizzas and potato chips and soda pops, you told the guests to help themselves. You made conversation with your friends and Josuke's relatives as you enjoyed your pizza. Jotaro talked about his marine biology work he's been doing in town. Later you opened presents from your friends. After that, your parents brought out the cake, frosted with pastel buttercream and had 16 candles all aglow. Everyone sang Happy Birthday as you blew the candles, making your wish.

Shortly after the cake and ice cream, the guests started to leave. You said goodbye and thanked everyone for coming. Josuke decided to hang around a little bit before going home. The sun had set and it was nighttime. You and Josuke decided to sit in the backyard and look at the stars.

"I'm so sorry I yelled at you earlier," you said a bit embarrassed.

"Hey, don't worry about it." said Josuke. "I'm sorry I forgot your birthday. I probably should have called earlier, but I forgot, I've just had a lot on my mind lately." You nodded understandably. You couldn't exactly put your finger on it, but a lot of weird stuff was happening lately in town.

"Anyways," said Josuke, pulling out something from his jacket pocket, "I kinda lied. I had something special I've been wanting to give you. I got this awhile ago." It was a small rectangle shaped box. You opened it and inside was a gold medallion necklace with two gold charms, a heart and a peace sign, just like the gold pins he wears on his uniform.

"Oh my, this is beautiful!" you exclaimed. "I love it. Thank you!"

"I'm glad you love it!" said Josuke blushing a little. You sighed. Guess the time is now to tell him.

"So, I've been wanting to tell you for awhile. I've had a crush on you since I started school here. I think you're cute, I love your hair, and I ended up making friends here thanks to you, and I want to be more than friends, but I was so nervous to tell you because I'm afraid you wouldn't like me that way and then things would be awkward and - "

You were interrupted when Josuke suddenly gave you a quick kiss. Both of you blushed a bright red.

"I'm sorry." said Josuke blushing a bit. "I've been wanting to tell you too. That's why I got you the medallion."

"Thank you so much." you say happily. "Now that we're together, you want to see a movie or something this weekend?"

"That sounds great!" says Josuke. You put on the madallion necklace, smiling at Josuke.

"You look beautiful!" said Josuke smiling. You happened to look at your watch, it was about a quarter to 10.

"Oh crap! It's late! You got to get home!" you said in surprise.

"Oh God you're right!" said Josuke looking at the time. "Meet you at the movies this weekend?"

"Of course." you answered. You gave him a kiss goodbye and walked him to the front door. You waved goodbye as he left, then went to help Mom clean up and put away the party decorations. While it had a rocky start, it turned out to be an amazing party. You thought about the wish you made when you blew out the candles, it had come true. You wished to kiss Josuke.

[jjbaconsumedmysoul]

Rohan x Reader: “Please”

The summer of 1999 was coming to a close. The serial murderer had been found and dealt with, and you were about to begin your first school semester abroad in Japan.

You had run into Josuke and the other stand users unexpectedly when you encountered them as they confronted Yoshikage Kira for the first time, unintentionally awakening your own stand powers to in order to protect yourself.

You soon grew close to these friends you’d made in Morioh. You treated Koichi and Hazamada like younger brothers; you caught up on the latest gossip with Yukako and Reimi, and sometimes even Yuya’s girls; you earned money babysitting Shizuka while Mr. Joestar was lazy. And Josuke and Okuyasu had always been your best bros; you three would pull the stupidest shenanigans together.

But Rohan Kishibe… he was different. You certainly admired the brilliant mangaka, though his arrogance sometimes annoyed you. Occasionally you accompanied Koichi as he observed how the manga was created, and became quite fond of silently watching the ink stroke across the page. Rohan was rarely seen outdoors, by you or anyone else, and seldom came to any social outing he was invited to. His work consumed him entirely, or so it seemed.

But sometimes, you would come over without Koichi. You couldn't really say why. You would offer to make him tea, cook him a meal (though Tonio’s exquisite ravioli certainly put your overlooked stir fries to shame). You would ask if he needed anything: more ink, another pen from his desk. Hell, if he needed basic groceries you would go out and get him something.

You always had an affinity for art of any kind, and, after he had piqued your interest in ‘Pink Dark Boy’, you came to love the series from more than just a fangirl standpoint. You would ask him about his newest characters, suggest ideas, laugh about the latest fan theories on the web. Usually he would roll his eyes, tell you that your notions were entirely idiotic, then continue working. But after a while, he warmed up to your conversation. Eventually, you even got to a point where he wouldn't slam the door on you every time you showed up on his doorstep.

 “Come on, (y/n)! Just one last time before we all have to go back to school!” Okuyasu groaned at the thought. Josuke and he had approached during the last two weeks of vacation to expose their brilliant idea: a party! They seemed to be convinced that it would be the best night Morioh-Cho had ever seen. You didn’t shrug the idea off, but social events weren’t exactly your cup of tea.

“We can invite everyone! Even Yuya and Mikitaka, and we can even get Tonio to cater…” Josuke rambled off his list of ‘ingenious’ ideas as you turned to look at Koichi.

“And you’re in on this as well?” you questioned. He rubbed the back of his neck as he looked down embarrassed.

“Well, I think it might be a fun idea. I haven’t been to many parties before.” you chuckled. These boys were so precious, and, honestly, you would do anything to humor them.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Just get everyone on board! People like you, they’ll definitely come if you invite them. We’ll take care of the rest. My mom is helping us clean up Oku’s house and everything!”

You laughed off the boys’ stupid ideas. Over the next week made sure to tell everyone who had helped you defeat Kira. Yukako was set on going with Koichi. Jotaro rolled his eyes, but agreed to attend. Mr. Joestar overheard the conversation and said he’d love to attend as well. Yuya and his girls were extremely excited. Mikitaka was intrigued by the opportunity to attend an ‘earthen celebration’. Tonio even offered to cater for free. Hazamada asked if there would be girls. You stepped on his foot. You even invited Hayato, as you had always felt sorry for the child. He hugged you, muttering thanks, as tears filled his eyes.

Last was the infamous mangaka. You had been going to his house almost every other day, yet you still hadn’t quite gotten up the nerve to invite him. You knew he was sure to refuse, but it would be impolite not to ask, but you might annoy him by asking, but he might actually want to go…

Thoughts swirled through your mind as you handed him a cup of jasmine tea. You brought your own steaming cup to your lips, blowing gently so as to not burn yourself. He had been staring at a blank page for a while. He rarely used a pencil, but at the current moment he would quickly sketch an idea in graphite, only to erase it and redraw something else. Something must have been on his mind.

“Rohan,”

He paused, not used to you interrupting his work. But he wasn’t seriously working right now, so you thought you might have a chance. He turned in his chair to stare at you grimly

“I know you’ll probably refuse my offer, but Josuke and Okuyasu,” He scowled at Josuke’s name.

“Well, they’ve decided to throw a party before the end of the summer–”

“And you think I’d want to come?”

“No.” You simply said. “I’m sure you’d be more content locked in your room all by yourself,” you stopped yourself. That sounded wrong. “I mean, I know I certainly would…” You trailed off. He had a curious look on his face.

“The point is, everyone’s coming. Koichi,” you paused, trying to think of any other people Rohan didn’t hate. “Tonio is catering–”

“And you’ll be there?” he cut you off, yet again.

“I kind of have to go,” you chuckled dryly. “Who knows, it might be fun. Or it might be that I spend the entire night reading on Okuyasu’s stinky couch.” You faltered. “Sorry, I just wanted to let you know–”

“I’ll come.” he stated firmly, looking straight into your eyes. Your mouth remained open, as you searched for the proper words to convey your shocked but amused state. You ended up laughing stupidly.

“That’s wonderful!” It turned into a giggle of delight.

“But don’t bother me for the rest of today. I just got the latest volume of ‘Pink Dark Boy’ in color, go read that on the couch.” He shooed you away. You smiled as you snuggled onto the antique sofa. This might be an okay party after all.

The day arrived. You were going to be busy setting up several hours before the party (despite Josuke telling you that you wouldn’t have to do anything). You had chosen to wear one of your best dresses for the occasion. The front was a bit low cut, and you felt slightly uncomfortable with the amount of cleavage you were showing. But you smoothed it out as you admired yourself in the mirror. Somehow it managed to show off your curves in the most flattering way possible. You had doubted your body would ever look good in a dress like this, but you grinned with surprise.

As you walked up to Okuyasu’s house (though it looked more like a haunted mansion) the door swung open. The two high schoolers burst out simultaneously. Oku began.

“Hi (y/n)– Whoa.” He faltered, a blush rising to his face. He rested one arm over his stomach as his hand came to his mouth. You looked down, laughing nervously.

“It’s not the dress, is it? I don’t know, I haven’t been to many parties before, and I thought I should dress up. I can take it off if it’s too much.”

“Nonono!” Josuke countered, smiling cheekily. “It’s just, really pretty.” The dress really was a far cry from the dumpy rags you usually wore. And something about their reaction gave you a sense of confidence. You proceeded to set out snacks, prepare the soda, and do everything else the boys were too clumsy to handle.

Guests began to trickle in. You helped Tonio unpack his scrumptious buffet. Josuke turned up the music and started doing whatever the hell teenage boys to at parties. You rolled your eyes, but laughed. You were slightly enjoying the small excursion, but you still hadn’t seen him.

The night grew darker, and still the curious mangaka had not shown. You were getting bored talking Yuya’s girls, as all they wanted to talk about was Yuya himself. You excused yourself for a moment, as they continued to chatter, and made your way into the backyard to get a breath of fresh air.

At one point in must have been a beautiful garden, but the flowers had gone unattended for years, and vines snaked up the cracked fountain. However, your eyes weren't quite adjusted to the dim light, so you couldn't make out the detail. You spotted a bench, and breathed in the cool air as you flopped down.

“It’s much too loud in there.” A familiar voice sounded from beside you and you stifled a squeak. He didn't react, merely continuing to observe the decrepit fountain as he sketched its outline.

“Sorry,” you caught your breath. “I’m a bit tired. Wait, how did you get here? I was waiting for you to arrive, but…”

He smirked.

“So you enjoy my company?”

“Of course I do,” you smiled, still awaiting his response.

“I didn't come through the front door. There was quite a commotion going on inside, so I merely slipped into the backyard. This garden is a very good reference.” He continued to sketch as you shook your head amusedly.

“You could have at least said hello.”

“Why?”

“Because it's polite?”

“Why be polite?” You dropped the topic, knowing it would take hours to explain common courtesy to the great Rohan Kishibe. But, somehow, you found his obstinate personality to be endearing.

“Would you like a drink or some food?”

“Tea.”

“I would like a tea, thank you very much.” You corrected, snickering at him as he rolled his eyes. You returned to the din of music and laughter, preparing your usual beverage for the two of you. As you made your way outside, he reached for the glass. You held it out to him, but stopped your hand just inches away.

“What do you say?” You smirked maliciously. He looked up at you for the first time that night.

“Give me the damn–” He faltered mid sentence, mouth still hanging open. Though you could barely see through the darkness, you still noticed as his cheeks reddened.

“Put the tea down.” He demanded. As he was acting strangely, you obeyed him, placing his tea next to him on the bench.

“Yours too!” He shouted as he rose from his seat. As soon as you had stabilised the mug he whisked you away into the garden. At the back there was a stone wall. He firmly pressed you to the cold stone as you gasped slightly. Your mind rushed with thoughts of what a gesture like this could mean. However, he took no notice as pulled one of your hands up above your head.

“Keep your hand looser.” He told you. You remained where he had positioned you as he took your other arm to reach across your waist.

“Now, place your weight on your right foot, bend the left knee. You did as you were commanded. Finally, he trailed his finger along your jawline, delicately turning your face to gaze at the ground.

“Perfect,” he whispered. “Stay there.”

Rohan had done things like this before. He would notice some detail about his environment and become completely engrossed in depicting each and every feature of it. However, usually he focused on a flower, a sunset, never a person. You were honestly flattered, but a bit shocked by this behaviour. And there was something else you felt.

You couldn't deny that you cared for Rohan deeply. Something about him enchanted you, his passion, his artwork, the sheer unpredictability of his actions. You knew it could never be more than a friendship, so you repressed any romantic fantasies that managed to slither into your head.

But now… This was difficult. You held the pose, feeling the cool night breeze ruffle your hair. How you wished he would run his hands through your–

You focused back on the feeling of cold stone behind you. You could hear the strokes of his pencil against the sketchpad. Minutes passed. But all you could think about was him.

Your eyelids drooped. Your mind began to slip into wild fantasies. You let go of all control, just for a moment…

“There,” you heard.

“Rohan,” your voice came out as a low whisper. “May I move now?”

Rather than answering your question, he walked over to lean on the wall next to you, holding out the portrait. You gasped.

It was gorgeous. He had drawn the ivy so it wrapped up and around your legs. He had perfectly captured your silhouette, the wrinkles in the fabric of your dress. Your hair was swayed by a gentle breeze.

“It’s beautiful,” you whispered.

“I merely capture the truth.” You flushed at that thought.

“So you think I'm beautiful?” You muttered, half hoping he wouldn't hear you. He was silent for a second.

“I-I guess.” Was that a stutter? did the great Rohan Kishibe just stutter in front of you?

“Rohan,” You turned to look at him. His eyes shone emerald in the moonlight. You couldn't help glancing at his lips longingly, just as he turned to meet your gaze. Suddenly, you made up your mind.

You quickly leaned in to place a short kiss upon his lips. It was short but wonderful, soft and warm. You could swear that you tasted a slight hint of green tea, as you relished the kiss for as long as you possibly could.

He lurched away. You hid your face, looking down embarrassed.

“What the hell was that?!”

“I'm sorry,” you muttered. But he didn't move. You could hear the chirping of cicadas, as the two of you stood quietly for a long while. You held back tears. Then, you heard his voice again.

“Why did you stop?”

You whipped your head back up to take in his face. He was just as red as you were. But he also seemed… pleading? Slowly, you lifted your hand to graze across his cheek. He shuddered and looked into your eyes. You gradually leaned in, however, before you could even peck his lips, his arms wrapped around you, hungrily. One hand rested on the back of your hip, pulling your torso to collide with his chest. You gasped, feeling his chiseled abdomen through the thin cloth of your dress. His other hand snaked its way up the back of your neck and into your hair, crashing your lips into his. Your knees felt weak at the sudden embrace and you moaned. He took this opportunity to slide his tongue into your mouth, deepening the kiss. All you could do was hold him close and wait until his lips parted from yours.

You couldn’t believe what had just happened. You were so confused, but you loved this, but…

“Rohan,” you whispered, gazing into his eyes. “Do you have feelings for me, or,” you paused. “Am I just another one of your pawns.” His grip around you became firm, but not enough to hurt you.

“Don’t take this the wrong way… I don’t know. I just saw you tonight and realised,” he turned your chin up, almost as if to inspect your face.

“You’re perfect.” And there it was again. That overwhelming desire to touch him, to kiss him.

You threw him around to cage him against the wall, ferociously attacking his lips. He grabbed your ass as you moaned with pleasure. You drew your palms down his chest and he pulled you closer and began to fiddle with the hem of your dress. His lips broke away from yours, proceeding to peck at your neck all the way down to your exposed chest. Your face grew heated as he sucked and bit at a spot just above your cleavage. Suddenly you heard a sound.

“(Y/n)!” Josuke’s call echoed through the trees. You could feel Rohan scowl at the interruption.

“Sorry,” you blurted out, “I-I should go.” You turned to leave, but he grabbed your arm.

“We’re going out to dinner tomorrow. On a date.” A shy smile graced your face. He finally added:

“Please.”

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Crunchyroll Favorites 2016, Part One: Anime and Manga!

Hoo boy, 2016 was a rough year (and that's putting it very, very mildly)--but there were a few bright spots, and that's what we're here to talk about today! Crunchyroll Favorites kicks off its fifth year with another three-part look at all our favorites from the past twelve months!

  The rules were simple: for Part One, only anime, manga, and related media that were released in 2016 (or received a Western release in 2016), or experienced a major milestone (like starting a new season or closing up a major arc). There's a lot to look at in Part One--let's get started!

  NATE MING (@NateMing)

  FLIP FLAPPERS- Finally, a modern magical girl series that steps out of Madoka's shadow and delivers something that's unique, energetic, and positive as hell. Callouts to everything from Fist of the North Star to Sukeban Deka to (of course) Sailor Moon are welcome for longtime fans, while still getting appropriately dark and moody. Cocona is all about the unease of adolescence, and Papika exudes the simple charm of Son Goku in all her pure, heroic glory. Speaking of...

    Dragon Ball Super- I rarely get excited to watch simulcasts as they come out--I tend to wait and binge, but I'm there every week within a day for Dragon Ball Super. In 1995, when I was 13 years old, I wanted a sequel to Dragon Ball Z with Future Trunks coming back. Now, over twenty years later, I get to see a DBZ sequel where Future Trunks comes back--and the series feels even more like the original Dragon Ball. This is the real secret to eternal youth.

    Yuri!!! on ICE- Yeah yeah, "fujo bait" or some other BS, you're just mad their fandom is more organized than yours. That says a lot to me--that a TV anime, a sports anime, can pull together so many people and get them excited, week after week. Lapsed fans have viewing parties, share recommendations, and remember why they were once into anime in the first place. This is what happens when it feels like something's made for you, and that's a wonderful thing. Yuri!!! on ICE was a pretty okay show, but it's what it symbolizes that means so much more to me.

    JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable- I always say that JoJo's is like the original Star Trek movies--the best parts are even-numbered. Diamond is Unbreakable continues Studio David's glorious adaptation of Araki's mega-epic, bringing out all the style and soul and violence of Josuke and the gang's battle to save their town. New to JoJo? Start here--and buckle up.

    Tanaka-kun is Always Listless- Anime comedies are pretty important to me--whether it's the sheer absurdity of Cromartie High School or the more low-key silliness of Tonari no Seki-kun, finding a fairly simple premise and then focusing on it is a good way to hook me. In this case, a lazy guy has to deal with his high-energy friends, and we learn that sometimes, taking it easy is the only easy way to get ahead in life.

    Evangelion 3.33: You Can(Not) Redo- It felt like this movie was never going to come out here after its 2012 release, but holy crap it was worth the wait. After the familiar ground of 1.11 and the bold, assertive new direction 2.22 took, 3.33 brings us back to what Evangelion does best: raw emotional pain, horrifying visuals, and never quite trusting or rooting for anybody we see on-screen. What a ride.

    Rurouni Kenshin live-action trilogy- Another awesome release that was a long time coming, this adaptation of my all-time favorite manga condenses the first 17(ish) volumes of the series into three movies, trimming some plotlines and making them all just work as dynamic, rough, yet stylish martial arts actioners. Thankfully, great fights and drama don't overshadow Rurouni Kenshin's sense of fun. Check these out when you can!

    Thunderbolt Fantasy- Written and created by Gen Urobuchi? Voice acting by Junichi Suwabe, Rikiya Koyama, Nobuyuki Hiyama, and Tomokazu Seki? An opening by T.M. Revolution?! I don't care what you say, you have those credentials, it can be live-action and be made in Antarctica and still be anime as hell. As the only person I know who regularly bought ComicsONE's kung-fu manhua, Thunderbolt Fantasy brought me back to the days of hunting down volumes of Saint Legend and Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre.

    My Hero Academia (manga)- There's always a certain point when a manga hooks me, and I'm in it for better or for worse. One Piece had Arlong Park (and later Enies Lobby). Naruto had the Chunin Exam. Hunter x Hunter had Yorknew City. Now, My Hero Academia's 2016 developments--and a very public, dangerous reveal and its emotional fallout--have pulled me in. I don't just say "My Hero Academia is good." Now I say "My Hero Academia is One Piece good."

    Crunchyroll x Funimation- Competition's good, but everybody wins when we all work together. Funimation are the other half of what we do, and have been in this business a hell of a lot longer. Being able to watch brand-new anime subbed on CR or dubbed on Funi is the kind of thing I never thought I'd see, and I am excited as hell to be a part of this, and to see what good it can do for anime fans.

  JOSEPH LUSTER (@Moldilox)

Dragon Ball Super- Dragon Ball Super went from "this thing I keep hearing is poorly animated" to "my favorite show of the year" in record time. As soon as it was available legally I jumped into a mountain-leveling, rosé-tinted marathon of madness, and as of right now it's the best damn thing since DBZ. Super has completely rekindled my not-so-dormant love for all things Toriyama, and I can't wait to see where they take the series next.

    Mob Psycho 100- I loved the One-Punch Man anime, but I'm pretty sure Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama could take Saitama in an unrestrained fight. That's saying a lot, but it's just another indicator of how much I adored BONES' gorgeously-animated spin on ONE's manga (which needs to come out in English ASAP). It certainly has some of the most creative fights of 2016, and that's a year that brought us the butt-battling of Keijo!!!!!!!!

    Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- On paper, Re:ZERO isn't something I should have enjoyed as much as I did. I read the first volume of the light novel series and found it as clunky and poorly written as most other light novels I've attempted (noted exception: Kizumonogatari), but the anime really hooked me. It's one of the few series I felt I was watching right alongside everyone else, and it never failed to surprise me and punch me in the gut when it mattered most. This one will be remembered fondly down the line, and here's hoping we get more since Tappei Nagatsuki is still churning out volume after volume of the novels in Japan.

  Also, Subaru is great, you just can't handle how devastatingly real he is.

  PETER FOBIAN (@PeterFobian)

  FLIP FLAPPERS- On a visual level, FLIP FLAPPERS is a fascinating tour de force of concept and animation, featuring regular bouts of intense sakuga and amazing environmental design in the diverse worlds of pure illusion all illustrated in a pseudo-classical style. For critics it is a cornucopia of satisfying references to fine art, science, psychology, philosophy, and spiritualism with visual callouts to a diverse range of media from Neon Genesis Evangelion to The Shining to Popeye. For the casual viewer it’s a powerful story of adolescent discovery told both literally and through beautifully-rendered metaphor.

    Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Despite the formulaic basis of Re:ZERO’s story, appearing as one of a dime-a-dozen isekai light novel adaptations featuring a female harem, Re:ZERO proved to have some serious narrative worth. Not quite a deconstruction, Re:ZERO featured a deeply flawed protagonist in Subaru and an atypical narrative featuring a novel premise in Subaru’s ability to resurrect from death. This gave the anime a huge potential for speculation, and created an entire community of enthusiasts and analysts who followed it from week to week to see what happened next.

    ERASED- Halfway through winter season I was absolutely convinced that nothing in 2016 would be able to top the combination of subtle direction, emotional narrative, and unique premise of ERASED. The series masterfully invested its audience in Kayo’s well-being, so for the viewer, the series became less about solving the mystery of the murders than the simple hope that this brave, unfairly abused girl could find some modicum of happiness in a cruel world. Satoru’s altruistic quest, forthright concern, willingness to admit his own faults, and habit of accidentally vocalizing his thoughts made him a truly endearing protagonist.

    March comes in like a lion- This show tells a story that's as difficult to look at as it is to look away from. The inextricable nature of the sources of Rei’s joy and sorrow have created a narrow path he must walk upon just at the edge of despair. Studio SHAFT makes excellent use of visuals, employing darkness and deep water to give Rei’s emotions an elemental quality that allow you to experience the suffocating hold that his depression has upon him, while surrounding the Kawamoto household with a warmth and childlike simplicity that represents the refuge their unconditional love offers to him.

    Mob Psycho 100- Mob Psycho 100 may justifiably have a place on top 10 lists for 2016 simply for visual power of the anime alone. Like FLIP FLAPPERS, Mob Psycho 100 is a demonstration of what is possible when you let artists loose on a project. It also showcased ONE’s versatility as a storyteller, strangely, by portraying the same type of overwhelmingly powerful protagonist through a different lens. Behind all the oddball humor and eye-popping art is the story of a boy who struggles with being normal, while everyone around him wants to stand out.

    Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū- What we have here is one of a kind: a dedicated, generational period piece not only faithfully depicting post-war Japan, but doing so through the the lens of an obscure and nearly-extinct form of artist theater that is uniquely Japanese. Rakugo feels like the sort of soulful, arthouse passion project that a Hollywood director would have to put years of time in to build the clout to justify its creation. Its direction, emphasizing on gesture and expression, is absolutely cinematic, drawing out each emotional note of the melancholic narrative. The somber humanity of Rakugo almost doesn’t feel like an anime, and is a testament to the versatility of the medium.

    My Hero Academia- The next up-and-coming shonen hall-of-famer, in many ways My Hero Academia has already surpassed many of its peers with its fascinating triadic rivalry between Deku, Kacchan, and Todoroki. MHA does a tremendous job of portraying its immensely charming cast of characters' pursuit of diverse personal goals that are equal parts altruism and self-interest. Most importantly, Horikoshi has tapped into the ethos of superheroes, creating inspirational figures that are intrinsically human, but saddled with the responsibility of representing something larger than life.

    JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable- Despite my many attempts to get into the series, Diamond is Unbreakable is perhaps the first iteration of JoJo that had something interesting to say. The slow-burn murder mystery set in an idyllic town and the many asides, notations, and references all work in concert to build the fictional city of Morioh into a nearly real place like The Simpsons' Springfield. With that hurdle passed, Araki’s stylized art and its amazing adaptation into color and movement by Studio David become an art form unto themselves.

    Tanaka-kun is Always Listless- Maybe it was how atypical Tanaka was as a lead in a medium where protagonists are homogenously faceless, featureless, and altruistic that drew me to this series. The entire cast each have some sort of hang-up, but the titular Tanaka-kun just treats it differently (ironically) by treating them all the same. Tanaka-kun definitely has a lot of offer on the classroom comedy front, but it also provides a unique sort of iyashikei, or healing media, in which characters' idiosyncrasies are taken in stride and wholeheartedly accepted, even appreciated, by others. It’s this light-hearted dedication to the positive that makes this anime so dear to me.

    Yuri!!! on ICE- Complaints about animation and 11th hour writing aside, I do believe Yuri!!! on ICE was one of the most important anime this year or perhaps of the past several years. Yuri!!! on ICE is a story meant to appeal to a much more vast audience than the more targeted content we’re used to, and it showed. It's created new fans for the sport of figure skating, reached out to the LGBT community, and represented countries that hardly see a mention in modern media. It was written for a global audience and it reached it. Only time will tell if it's destined to have any sort of lasting cultural impact, but in the present, at least, it has drawn some deserved attention to the art form.

  KARA DENNISON (@RubyCosmos)

  Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress- I had this show dropped on me by a friend with absolutely no lead-in whatsoever. I've had my fill of steampunk and zombies, so I nearly gave it the brush-off... but then I realized Mikimoto was behind the character designs! It's a gorgeous piece of work, and not at all tuned to the tropes I was expecting. The promise of more is incredibly exciting.

    BAKUON!!- Motorcycle anime? Sign me up. It took literally zero arm-twisting to get me into a show about schoolgirls on bikes. Especially when one of them is pretty much literally the Stig. I haven't finished this yet, but I'm looking forward to watching the end very soon!

    Love Live! School Idol Project (pre-2016)- Yeah, yeah, I'm late to the party. After lurking around on the game, I finally gave the anime a try to see what all the fuss was about. And I admit it: it's actually really good. It helped that I was in touch with the characters after playing on the app for so long, I think, but I really did jam with this. Looking forward to starting Sunshine soon.

  EVAN MINTO (@VamptVo)

Space Patrol Luluco- As Crunchyroll’s resident Trigger fan, I’m obligated to put Luluco at the top of my list. It’s the famed studio of loony ex-Gainax dorks indulging in some of the most surreal, self-referential comedy this side of FLCL (the show where Luluco director Hiroyuki Imaishi got his start as an animation director). Not only does Luluco boast references to every Trigger property from Kill la Kill to Kiznaiver and cameos from Little Witch Academia, Sex & Violence, and 2016’s REAL Best Boy — Inferno Cop — but it’s also a surprisingly sincere shojo-inspired cosmic love story!

    Mob Psycho 100- I loved what I saw of One-Punch Man, though I never did finish it (I know, I know). Mob Psycho 100, also from webcomic artist ONE, has some of the same appeal — superpowered battles, lush animation, and an absurd, slightly dark sense of humor — but cuts it with a heartfelt coming-of-age-story. More than anything else, though, I watched Mob just to see what wild shots the animators at BONES would try next, and I was rarely disappointed. Mob Psycho 100 is easily one of the best-looking shows of the past five years; every animator gets a chance to show off their unique style, and even the most mundane scenes are infused with energy and personality.

    ERASED- It’s rare we get an anime series I can comfortably recommend to my parents, but ERASED manages to capture the nail-biting cliffhangers and complex mysteries that drive so many popular modern American TV series. On top of all of that, director Tomohiko Ito (of Sword Art Online fame, go figure) crafts powerful, cinematic visuals without resorting to expressionistic anime flourishes. When it all comes together it’s a captivating experience. The ending needs a bit more room to breathe, but even with a few stumbles at the finish line, ERASED is a series I’ll be recommending for years to come.

    JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable- I wasn’t super pleased with Stardust Crusaders, but Diamond is Unbreakable brings back all of the wacky charm of the first two parts of the JoJo’s saga, EXCEPT WITH STANDS. This time Araki doesn’t hold back, introducing a host of completely absurd Stand powers, including: “transform a person into a newspaper and read their life story,” “heal people via Italian food,” and “a real army but the size of toys.” It’s also much smaller-scale, with a lot of recurring characters, many of whom are some of my favorites in the whole series. Though they’ve dropped the incredible Kamikaze Douga OP sequences, David Production makes up for it with colorful, high-contrast artwork that perfectly accentuates Araki’s manic sense of style. I’m sad to see Diamond is Unbreakable go, but JoJo’s still has so much more in store.

    Only Yesterday- At 25 years old this year, Only Yesterday is hardly a “new” title, but 2016 was the first time we got it in the United States! Produced at Studio Ghibli and directed by Grave of the Fireflies’ Isao Takahata, the film is a beautifully understated, lyrical look at a woman’s life, told simultaneously through a summer spent farming and a series of memories from her childhood. Most of the movie is ordinary almost to a fault, but like many of Takahata’s movies, it builds carefully and almost imperceptibly to a sublime emotional climax. Only Yesterday is easily one of my favorite anime of all time.

    Belladonna of Sadness- Another retro release, Belladonna is the third and final film in the Animerama series of erotic art films produced by Osamu Tezuka’s Mushi Productions. This one, however, is entirely directed by Eiichi Yamamoto (Tezuka co-produced the other two). Suffice it to say, it’s not exactly what you might expect from the studio that produced Astro Boy. A medieval lord rapes a beautiful peasant woman, who seeks revenge by making a deal with the devil. Yamamoto presents the story’s gothic horror — complete with Satanic rituals and frightening descents into madness — with elaborate animated paintings and an incredible psychedelic rock soundtrack from Masahiko Satoh. Not for the faint of heart, Belladonna of Sadness is an arresting work of experimental animation that’s a welcome change of pace from the banality of modern anime.

    One-Punch Man (manga)- I’m finally close to caught up with One-Punch Man, and I’m surprised I didn’t read it sooner! Eyeshield 21’s Yusuke Murata has a great eye for character design and pulls off some surprisingly ambitious page layouts, but it’s ONE’s absurd, childish sense of humor that makes the series stand out so much from its shonen action contemporaries. Saitama’s complete apathy undercuts every opportunity for serious danger or drama, giving the series a sardonic self-awareness that’s relatively rare in shonen action series.

    And Yet the Town Moves- After a 10-year run, And Yet the Town Moves is finally over. Masakazu Ishiguro’s decade-long manga never follows a single storyline for more than two or three chapters, instead constructing a deliberately out-of-order series of episodic comedy vignettes about a small Japanese town and the grossly out-of-place maid café at its center. What always made And Yet the Town Moves a joy to go back to was Ishiguro’s ability to weave endless strings of jokes at his characters’ expense, all while painting a picture of a tight-knit community of decent, lovable folks both old and young. Appropriately for a sitcom that consistently shuns sentimentality in favor of comedy, the final chapter ends with just another dumb joke.

    The Gods Lie.- Lots of anime and manga feature children as the main characters, but it’s rare that these stories really tackle what it means to be a child in modern society. The Gods Lie, on the other hand, tackles it head on with the story of three kids — the oldest of whom are in 6th grade — who live alone in an abandoned house for a summer. There’s a fair bit of high drama in this single book (an absentee father, a sick, elderly soccer coach) but The Gods Lie communicates far more about how how societies nurture and shelter their children through showcasing the fractured but functional surrogate family that the three kids form for each other.

    The Osamu Tezuka Story- Though it’s sometimes a little too detailed for its own good, The Osamu Tezuka Story is an invaluable book for anyone like me who’s obsessed with the life and work of Osamu Tezuka, the “God of Manga” who created Astro Boy and revolutionized both the postwar manga and anime industries. In manga form, author Toshio Ban lays out Tezuka’s life from his schoolboy days sketching in the margins of notebooks to his death in 1989, pulling from memoirs, interviews, and personal accounts from those who knew him best. Tezuka loved to write manga epics about the lives of heroes and historical figures, so it’s fitting that he’d get immortalized in his own manga biography.

  SAM WOLFE (@_Samtaro)

One Piece- 2016 was another great year for the One Piece manga, as the Straw Hats finally did something fans have been anticipating for years: take on one of the Four Emperors of the Sea! Luffy has been making waves on Whole Cake Island, home to the notorious pirate lord Big Mom (and let me tell you, she’s got that name for a reason). Next to Teach, Big Mom has become one of my favorite One Piece villains, largely due to her distorted views on family. But is Big Mom really so bad? After all, her dream is to sit at a table where everyone sits at the same height…

  ERASED- ERASED was a critically received murder mystery and drama that took the anime world by storm earlier this year, and I can’t sing its praises enough. Regardless of your feelings on the ending, ERASED had us gripped, and because the anime promised an alternate ending than its source manga, we were all in the dark. But to me, the success of ERASED was its appeal to both anime fans and non-anime fans. When a newbie asks me for anime recommendations, ERASED is sure to be on that list.

  Dragon Ball Super- Dragon Ball Super really wasn’t on my radar until it was licensed in the States, and boy am I happy it was. As a big fan of Battle of the Gods and Resurrection F, Super was familiar territory, but this year I realized how good of a follow-up this show is to Dragon Ball Z; the power levels are higher, as are the stakes, and Goku is finally an underdog again. It’s good to be back.

  Yuri!!! on ICE- I know, I know, you’ve heard enough about this one, but it deserves the nod. Yuri!!! on ICE is a special show for a lot of reasons: it’s appealing to anime fans and non-anime fans alike, it was an original story (meaning, it’s not based on a manga or light novel), and it told the story of two male figure skaters falling in love. It’s more than just a fujoshi dream come true; Yuri!!! on ICE did something really new, and that’s worth noting, even if you’re not a fan.

  ISAAC AKERS (@iblessall)

As has been my custom with this space over the past few years (okay, just last year), rather than highlighting the shows that made it into my top 10 of the year, I’ll be touching on a few of the year’s offerings that just missed the cut.

    She and Her Cat -Everything Flows- One of the quietest and shortest shows of the year was also a serious contender for being one of its best. Based on an earlier work of the same main title by Makoto Shinkai, She and Her Cat -Everything Flows- is a peaceful, melancholic look at the life of a young woman struggling with the loneliness and sadness that can come with being out on your own in the world. Much like one of my favorite short pieces from 2015, the Animator Expo’s tomorrow from there. She and Her Cat captures with ease and empathy a kind of wistful yet warm existential state. If you’ve been in the main character’s shoes even a little (or, if you’re in them right now), She and Her Cat -Everything Flows- is like getting a nice hug.

    Three Leaves, Three Colors- Studio Dogakobo is well-known for their bouncy comedies, with recent hits like Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and Love Lab leading the list. However, Three Leaves, Three Colors (from the same mangaka as Engaged to the Unidentified) is a somewhat more demure affair despite sharing many of the same trappings. With standout bits of animation scattered throughout and great color work, it’s a pleasure to look at, but it also boasts a rock-solid main trio of friends who play off each other in fun ways. There are even some almost surrealistic comedic interludes interspersed here and there. If you like moe comedies and missed this one this year, here’s your cue to check it out!

    The Lost Village- Arguably the most controversial show of the entire year when it was airing, whether The Lost Village was genius, mediocre, or horrid varies depending on who you ask. I’ve weighed in on the matter with my own thoughts multiple times, but even considering how much respect I ended up having for the show I still find myself a bit baffled by it. That being said, it’s definitely one of the shows I had the most fun watching, writing, and discussing during the year, and I think those who engage with it ready to be flexible with their expectations will find, at the very least, a very unique anime to add to their completed list.

  As for manga… I didn’t read any manga this year and I don’t think Nate will let me put Orange on my list for the third straight year, so sorry. [EDITOR'S NOTE: I would have been cool with this.] Pokemon Special’s still fun and good, by the way.

  NICK CREAMER (@B0bduh)

  FLIP FLAPPERS- FLIP FLAPPERS offered basically everything I want in an anime: great character writing, stirring themes, beautiful worlds, and an overall sense of whimsy that kept the whole thing fun and propulsive even when it was touching on topics like child abandonment and an inability to love yourself. It was an astonishing visual showcase and also a remarkably well-constructed character story, using its many diverse Pure Illusion adventures to consistently illustrate new things about its central characters. It’s one of those weird passion projects that make anime special, and I’m very happy it exists.

    Concrete Revolutio: The Last Song- Okay, when I said FLIP FLAPPERS was everything I want in an anime, I sort of lied - I also like shows with searing political messages, and The Last Song was that all over. Depicting the breakdown of an alternate post-war Japan where superheroes are real, The Last Song was more reflective and bittersweet than Concrete Revolutio’s first season, but just as clever, creative, and engaging. From its wild pop-art style to its smart application of superhero archetypes to the social turmoil of 60s/70s Japan, The Last Song offered me a hefty meal to dig into every single week.

    Sound! Euphonium 2- And reaching the final pole of my anime preferences, Sound! Euphonium continued to be thoughtful character drama done right. The show’s second season was messier than its first, adapting some material that couldn’t match the consistency of its predecessor, but the show’s characters continued to be very strong, and Kyoto Animation’s execution was just beyond compare. While many shows use the open canvas of animation to tell soaring, fantastical narratives, Euphonium demonstrated just how much magic and beauty there is in the personal and everyday.

    Kizumonogatari- Oh, I also watched the first two Kizu movies this year, and they were glorious. Monogatari has been one of my favorite anime franchises for years now, but seeing Tatsuya Oishi’s gorgeous take on the prequel novel still felt like a revelatory experience. Instead of the TV series’ usual embrace of heavy internal monologue, Oishi fully realized Araragi’s depression, panic, and sexual mania through sound and pictures alone, making for one of the most distinctive and visceral film experiences I’ve seen. The Kizu films are a remarkable achievement.

  FROG-KUN (@frog_kun)

Yuri!!! on ICE - An anime that was born to make history. Besides all the pretty boys and ice skating, the one thing that will stick with me about this show is how international its scope was. Yuri!!! on ICE takes you around the world and offers a surprisingly detailed and true-to-life picture of international competitive ice skating. We got to see skaters from Thailand and Kazakhstan excel at what they love on the world stage. As compelling as Yuri's journey as an athlete was, any of the skaters could have been the main character of this story. In fact, this was something that director Sayo Yamamoto and mangaka Mitsuro Kubo specifically went out of their way to suggest. No wonder this series was so beloved around this world!

    Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- This series might look like a typical fantasy-adventure story about an insufferable male nerd at first glance, but I was really impressed by how much empathy the narrative had for its main character. Subaru is an extremely weak character in the scheme of things, and the world doesn't revolve around him. His struggle to connect with others and move past his self-hatred resonated with me for similar reasons that My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU and Neon Genesis Evangelion did. I also happened to really love all the side characters in this series, and there's enough left unexplained by the end to make me burn with curiosity to find out what happens next. Season 2 when?!

    your name.- I got to see Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece when it came out in Australian cinemas in November, and I ended up loving it so much that I saw it twice in three days! In my view, it's the first Shinkai film that balances its macro plot and themes equally with the love story, and that might be one of the reasons why I found it so personally relatable. your name. was created in response to the Fukushima disaster, and I found its message of empathizing with others and treasuring every fleeting moment especially profound in that context. I also think that the film touches on something deep about the way we humans connect with each other, and how it's possible for us to emotionally identify with people we've never even physically met. For that reason, among many others, it has become one of my favorite anime of all time.

  WILHELM DONKO (@Surwill)

Sound! Euphonium 2- The first Sound! Euphonium was already my favorite anime of 2015, and the sequel again managed to make my list this year, as the second season was not lacking any of the traits and attributes responsible for the remarkable first season. Sound! Euphonium 2 kept its authentic grounded tone, which was accompanied by realistic characters and character-interactions, relatable drama, and background art nothing short of stunning. After a bit of a slow start, the season really picked up after the incredibly animated musical performance during the Kansai Competition, and in the end managed to tie up most loose ends beautifully. I’d also like to quickly mention Kumiko’s voice actresses’ unusual and mellow performance, which added a lot of personality to her character in my opinion.

    Haikyu!!- Volleyball? I’m surely not going to care for an anime about a sport I don’t even know all the rules to. Boy, was I wrong. I picked up Haikyu!! around the start of the year, while the second cour of the second season was still running, and was immediately hooked. The show is extremely engaging, energetic, fast-paced, and almost always kept me on the edge of my seat during the matches. Haikyu!!’s cast is equally lovable (even the opponents in the show are great), and undergo some major character development throughout the seasons. I really did not care for Tsukishima at the beginning of show, but he soon became one of my favorites, especially after the thrilling third season. I guess I could say the same about Haikyu!! in general.

    Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- I don’t think I need to talk a lot about Re:ZERO, as it was undoubtedly one the biggest, if not the biggest anime this year. The show was definitely one of the more interesting takes on the Isekai (different world) formula in recent memory, and always sparked a great amount of discussion after each episode. And what can I say? I really liked to see Subaru suffer.

    Love Live! Sunshine!!- I’m fully aware that Love Live! Sunshine!! is the odd one out of all my picks, and I would never objectively consider it as anime of the year, but it was my personal favorite of 2016. Even though I watched both seasons of the original, I never really cared for the Love Live! series, but that drastically changed with the start of Love Live! Sunshine!! While I never warmed up to Muse, I just adore every member of Aqour’s, and generally consider Sunshine!! to be a step up in every aspect compared to the original. However, it wasn’t until my own pilgrimage to the show’s setting, Uchiura and Numazu that I really fell in love with the series. I’ve done a lot of anime pilgrimages, but this one ranks among my favorites. After that I started collecting everything Love Live! Sunshine!! related I could get my hands upon. From art books, to figures to coffee mugs, I have it all – I even play that darn mobile game every day. Yousoro ~

  Honorable Mentions: Flying Witch, KONOSUBA, Ajin.

  BRANDON TETERUCK (@Don_Don_Kun)

FLIP FLAPPERS– Magical girl anime have encountered a bit of a dry spell in recent years. Thankfully Kiyotaka Oshiyama brought us a unique spin on the genre with his directorial debut, FLIP FLAPPERS. While FLIP FLAPPERS was a mishmash of different styles, ranging from campy shojo horror to Mad Max action, each episode worked harmoniously to create a cohesive emotional narrative. FLIP FLAPPERS’ two heroines, Papika and Cocona, learn more about themselves and each other by exploring a slew of psychedelic and dreamlike worlds. Although the peculiar fusion of genres may not suit every audience’s taste, FLIP FLAPPERS had essentially what I wanted out of a modern magical girl anime: creative and experimental animation sequences, heavily allegorical storytelling, and fabulous henshin scenes.

  KIZNAIVER– Hiroshi Kobayashi’s directorial debut, KIZNAIVER, was an ambitious project unlike anything studio Trigger had attempted before. Alongside scriptwriter Mari Okada, Kobayashi created a contemporary adolescent drama that wasn’t afraid to tackle some of the touchier issues in Japanese society. Throughout KIZNAIVER, its cast of misfits constantly grapple between wanting to feel the physical and emotional pain of others and questioning whether an artificial connection could create a sense of togetherness. This was the primary dramatic narrative of KIZNAIVER, and while intriguing in and of itself, it was truly Kobayashi’s thoughtful directing and clever use of visual symbolism that elevated the material. KIZNAIVER may have lacked narrative polish around its edges, but it was one of the most visually poignant pieces of commercial anime to come out of the industry in the past couple of years. Here’s hoping that Kobayashi will have more directing roles in the future as his cinematic vision brings a lot to the table for commercial anime as a whole.

​

Sound! Euphonium 2– The first season of Sound! Euphonium had always been a favorite of mine, and as such, the bar was set quite high when I heard a prequel was announced. Despite a rather lackluster first arc, the second half of 2016’s Sound! Euphonium 2 blew me away. The relationship between Kumiko and Asuka, two of the central pillars of Kitauji High’s concert band, embodied both the heart and soul of Sound! Euphonium’s web of emotional connections. It was beautiful to see their close-knit bond - built upon respect, trust, and understanding - unfold as the barriers between senpai and kohai were broken down. It set the stage perfectly for the resolution of Sound! Euphonium’s many other narratives: Kumiko and her older sister’s mending of their sibling conflict, Reina’s emotional maturing, and Taki’s finding peace within himself over his late wife. With a soulful conclusion to an already fantastic anime by Kyoto Animation, Sound! Euphonium is a series that couldn’t have ended in a more satisfying manner.

​

Mob Psycho 100– Mob Psycho 100 is unequivocally a testament to the creativity and passion of the anime industry’s top animators. Director Yuzuru Tachikawa and animation director Yoshimichi Kameda created an experimental take on ONE’s source manga that showcased the importance of animation for storytelling and expression. While still operating within the confines of a shounen work, Mob Psycho 100 is an anime with a visual and ideological identity that does not confirm to the sterile and idealistic standard of perfectionism that is seen in many contemporary anime. “If everyone is not special, maybe you can be who you want to be.”

​

Love Live! Sunshine!!– Last, but certainly not least, is a pick that you may find a bit strange if you’ve been reading the reasoning behind my other favorite anime of 2016. While I do value artistry in animation and direction, there are times when a fun anime with a cute and charming cast of characters is just as enjoyable to watch. Despite adopting a similar plot structure to the original Love Live! series, Love Live! Sunshine!! knew how to play around with its audience’s expectations, in some cases subverting characterization tropes and outright parodying the original. The girls of Aqours were a low-key bunch of loveable dorks who enthusiastically attempted to emulate the franchise’s previous group of idols (often times with hilarious or unfortunate results). Aqours’ playful banter and goofy antics quickly made me invested in their underdog soul search for stardom, while the intimate relationship between Chika and Riko brought a smile to my face. With the collective energy and excitement it brought to my life while watching, Love Live! Sunshine!! was one of my most pleasant surprises of 2016. Also, Dia is best girl.

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And that's a wrap for Part One of our three-part series! Be sure to tune in at the same time tomorrow for PART TWO: VIDEO GAMES! And if you're still in the mood for past CR Favorites, check out the previous years' features here:

  Crunchyroll Favorites 2015 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2014 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2013 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2012 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll News' Best of 2011 Part One Part Two

  What were your favorite anime and manga of 2016? Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST OF list, so there's no wrong answers--sound off in the comments and share your favorites with us!

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Nate Ming is the Features and Reviews Editor for Crunchyroll News, creator of the long-running Fanart Friday column, and the Customer Support Lead for Crunchyroll. You can follow him on Twitter at @NateMing.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[jojo-at-his-computer]

Okay, @joliejolyne, this idea is so adorable!

Mikitaka X Reader: Lovesick

"Hey Miki, wanna stop by the ice cream place?"

Classes had just ended for the day and you met your friend Mikitaka Hazekaru at the lockers. Well he said his real name is Nu Mikitakazo Nshi, he claims he's an alien who came to Earth after he planet got destroyed. You decided it was just easier to call him Miki, a nickname he grew to like. Josuke and Okuyasu still weren't sure if he was an alien or a Stand user who thinks he's an alien, but you reasoned that, hey, if vampires and Stand users exist, there's no reason aliens couldn't too, so you have him the benefit of the doubt and played along. As strange as he is, you loved your alien bud. It was a nice day, now that school is over, the weekend has started, so you thought it would be fun to have a picnic at Morioh Park.

You two left the school and headed to the ice cream shop. But when you get there, the shop was closed due to broken ice cream machine.

"Ah rats!" you exclaimed. "I was hoping to get some ice cream." Mikitaka smiled and opened his bag.

"Don't worry (name)," said Miki. "I brought some of my own just in case." and sure enough he produced two cones of his own. You forgot that sometimes he keeps weird stuff in his bags.

"Oh boy, what flavor?" you ask him.

"I've got two cones of the cream mixed with red Earth berries and covered with a sweet brown syrup that hardened, surrounded by a cone." answered Miki, unsure what the actual flavor was.

"Ooh chocolate covered strawberry! I love it!" you exclaimed as you took the cone. You and Miki opened your cones as you walked to your house to grab the sandwiches you made. You bit of into your cone breaking the chocolate shell. It was delicious! "Wow this is amazing, thank you!" Miki smiled, a slight redness spreading on his cheeks.

"I'm glad the cream of ice was satisfactory." Miki looked a bit troubled for a second.

"What's wrong?" you asked. "Did you get a brain freeze? That can happen when you eat cold foods, but it'll be better in a few seconds." Miki shook his head.

"No, my brain didn't freeze, but I do feel a bit peculiar. Maybe I'm just hungry." he reasoned. You understood and nodded, you felt a bit hungry yourself but didn't realize it until you finished your ice cream cone. The two of you had just arrived at your house.

"I'll be right back, I've got the sandwiches and stuff inside." You gave your friend a hug, which seemed to surprise him. Rushing to the fridge, you grabbed the sandwiches you made the night before, a few soda pops, and a bag of Doritos and stuffed them into a small picnic basket, and ran outside. "Let's go!" you exclaimed, "Off to the park!"

When you arrived to the park, you and your alien friend sat under a shady tree, it was a warm day, but a cool breeze stirred up once in awhile, which felt good under the shade of the tree. You ate your sandwiches, but you noticed Miki had only taken a bite or two from his. He had this troubled look to him as if he was thinking of something.

"Hey Miki, do you not like the sandwich?" you asked. "I can switch it for another flavor. Miki shook his head.

"No no!" he exclaimed, "It tastes amazing, really. But I seem to have lost my appetite."

"Well what's eating ya?" you asked. Mikitaka looked at you with confusion.

"Nothing's eating me." he answered. "I'm still here and not being eatened." Whoops. You forgot he doesn't understand certain expressions.

"Sorry." you quickly apologized, "It's an Earth saying. I asked if something was wrong."

"Oh! I see." he answered smiling a little, "I'm not sure." He suddenly looked serious, "I didn't want to scare you earlier, but I may have picked up an Earth sickness. I've been feeling different for about a few weeks, nothing like I've felt before on my home planet. I thought I was better for awhile today, but sometime around when I gave you the cream, I felt it again. I knew you've been wanting to plan this picnic, so I didn't want to cancel, I'm sorry."

"Well Miki, of you're not feeling well, I don't want to make you feel worse, coming out when you're sick." you said. You were a bit worried for your alien friend. "Here, try telling me what's wrong, maybe it's not so serious."

"Well," he paused, "It's difficult for me to describe clearly, but I'll attempt it. I feel similar feelings to nervousness, but I also feel warm inside. Not the same as when you have a fever, but more like when you eat hot food. Though sometimes it feels like the heat also rises to my cheeks. Sometimes the palms of my hands feel like they're wet and unsteady. A few times I've had trouble sleeping, or eating." he said motioning to his half eaten sandwich. You thought of his symptoms. These sound familiar. Wait a minute.

"Just out of curiosity, when these feelings occur, do you think of a certain specific person?"

"Yes I do," answered Miki.

"And do you feel like you can't get that person out of your mind, does it drive you crazy, but at the same time, you feel weirdly pleasant, like you really like this person so much?

"Why yes, that's right!" answered Miki. You couldn't help it, you ended up bursting out laughing, confusing Mikitaka.

"I don't understand why you're laughing." said Miki "Did I say something that's funny to Earth humans?" you calmed down.

"I'm sorry Miki, I shouldn't have laughed, that was impolite." you said, "See, I was worried you were sick at first, but after what you told me, I have some good news, you're not sick at all, you're perfectly healthy. Miki, you've got a crush! You're falling in love with someone!" Miki looked like he understood.

"So I'm not sick after all!" he realized. "This makes sense. I've never experienced these feelings before."

"Does your species fall on love?" you asked.

"They do sometimes," he answered, "I've just never myself specifically felt this way about anyone. Have you ever felt these feelings?" he asked you. You were a bit nervous to say, but Miki was your crush. An oddball, but you loved the way he looks at things on Earth that are normal to everyone else, finding beauty and interest with even the most mundane items, and he had an odd, handsome, exotic look to him. It was your turn to blush.

"Yes, I've felt this way." you answered. "Sometimes these feelings do feel weird, and it can make you feel like you're sick. Us Earth humans have a nickname for it, love sickness!"

"Love sickness?" said Miki, "It is kinda funny. How do you get these weird feelings to stop?"

"Sometimes it helps to talk about the person you like." you suggested. "You can tell me, I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Well," Miki began, "the person I feel the love sickness for is," he pauses, "well, it's you!" This took you by surprise.

"Are you for real?" you ask, hoping you heard him right.

"Yes, I am being for the real. You give me the weird feelings." he answered, the blush on his face deepening. "So what do you think of that?" You surprise him enveloping him in a hug.

"I've been wanting to you the same thing!" you shouted. A warm smile appeared on Miki's face.

"I think I feel a lot better now (name)!" said Miki. His appetite invigorated, the two of you continued your picnic.

"Ooops, we're out of sandwiches." you exclaim.

"No we are not!" said Miki, pulling two katsu sandwiches out of his bag. Oh Miki! You tried a bite of the sandwich, it was even better than the katsu sandwiches from St. Gentleman's!

"This is so yummy!!! Does your bag have TARDIS technology or something?" you asked him.

"What's a TARDIS?" asked Miki. You laughed.

"There's a TV show from Britain I like called Doctor Who." you explained, "It's about a time traveler called The Doctor, he's an alien like you are, and his time machine, the TARDIS, is sorta like his spaceship. On the outside it looks like a blue box, but it's really big on the inside. It's an interesting show, maybe we can watch it sometime."

"I'd love to watch the show with you." said Miki. "What do Earth people do when they're in love?" he wondered.

"Well, they do lots of things to spend time together." you answered. "We could go to the movies, or the mall, spend the day at the amusement park, go out to eat for dinner, or," you motion around, "have a picnic like what we're doing now, or even something simple like renting a video and watching it together. There's all sorts of things we can do."

"I'd like to try all those things with you." he said beaming. You wrapped him in a hug and planted a kiss on his lips.

"What's that you just did?" asked Mikitaka.

"Oh, that's a kiss!" you replied, "It's what Earth couples do to express love."

"May we try that again (name)?" asked Miki, "I wasn't prepared for this kiss to happen." You giggled.

"Of course we can." you answered, and you kissed him again, this one ended up being slower and longer. The sun began setting in the distance, wrapping the two of you in the glow of the sunset.

"It's getting darker," said Miki embracing you. "Let's clean up and I can walk you to your house."

"Thank you Miki" you tell him, "I'd like that." After taking a few minutes to clean up, the two of you walk back to your house, the sky almost dark and the first few stars popping out.

"Maybe tomorrow we could go to a place to eat." suggested Miki, "Or we could see that doctor program you mentioned earlier." You giggled.

"Doctor Who." you corrected. "And we can do both of those things since there's no school tomorrow! Maybe even go to the bookstore too. Would noon be okay?"

"That sounds wonderful (name)." answered Miki. He kissed you on the lips and embraced you again. You waved goodbye as you went back into your house.

"See you tomorrow Miki! I love you!"