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oquinn53 · 3 years

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BNHA THEORY RAMBLING WITH SPOILERS

Okay so second bnha rambling with theories because I can’t think straight so I think of bnha! Specifically Deku.

Specifically, Deku’s endgame. There are so many theories out there and I just.... think about Deku specifically a lot. I mean he’s the protagonist and everything and I love him and a common theory that I actually do kinda think about a lot is Deku losing OFA. But I don’t think he’ll end quirkless. I think a lot of things need to happen but let’s start with me rambling about Deku’s characterization, how it can all be wrapped up in this:

Deku has PTSD. (This part is LONG and talks about masochism and mentions suicide and all that. Other points are shorter!) And I don’t mean post war arc or even post Bakugo’s kidnapping, if we want to go that far back. Deku has PTSD from the VERY start. This kid is a walking mental illness. Sources? Hi, I’m a Civilian With PTSD and I saw Deku at the beginning and I watched Deku’s horrible mental health deteriorate EVEN MORE than it started off as. This is really important to me, to state that he has it from the beginning, because I believe in the character growth and development. I might be talking out my ass but it’s fun so. Why do I say he starts out from it? Let’s look at symptoms.

A) hyperfixation, my old friend. Deku fixated hardcore on All Might and Heros in general. But he fixated specifically on All Might and he gets EMBARRASSED about it a lot. (Funny enough, the embarrassment of it is also a symptom of ADHD but I’m not as well versed in that). Hyperfixation is a very very common coping method.

B) His anxiety. Kinda self explanatory here. He’s a bully victim. He also has been literally classified as LESS. Quirkless. But also defenseless. Useless. We’ve heard that, his anxiety is there but it’s because of what DEFINES him. His self identity was born from what everyone else tells him. He’s a determined boy, but his sense of self is only wrapped up in what other people think—or specifically, what All Might thinks. Which blends a bit with...

C) A loss sense of identity. I talked about this a little bit he last part but Deku’s goal to become a hero is so tied to All Might that even when he gains the quirk, he has to have it beaten into him with warning of losing the use f his arms for him to realize he’s NOT All Might. But that’s still what he sees, even when he switches to using his legs more. He has no idea who he is. He just copies. He copies Bakugo’s moves again and again. And while it’s cool to see all the parallels and growth of Deku learning from others, there is a message of “making it his own” when Deku copies others again and again because he has no idea who HE is. He analyses like crazy because figuring out how other people do things is the only way he can figure out how HE can do things. Also, the whole language change because his image of victory is Bakugo? Literally his speech pattern isn’t his own, his every day one matching his mother’s.

D) repressed and heavily released emotion. He’s 0 or 100, both when he gets OFA and with his emotions. I mean. Feral!Deku. Do I need to say more? Yes, because I was to drive home how not okay Deku is from the very beginning. Boy cleans the beach and screams bloody murder. He has no idea what emotion to have and needs to let it out. Doesn’t matter he just did a shit ton of physical release, he has so much emotions that he doesn’t know what to do with. Just like Bakugo’s anger, Deku’s emotion usually comes out as his tears. Boy cries a lot but sometimes tears aren’t enough and Deku screams a LOT. Even his own excitement bursts out in bigger ways, with his mumbling and fact dropping (god, also slightly autistic coded maybe? Blurred lines with ADHD there, it again, not my area of expertise)

E) black and white thinking. He’s young, so that explains some of this but just like I mentioned above with the 0 or 100, he represents the mindset of civilians. He literally blinds himself at the very start to even what’s happening to HIMSELF. He sees hero and he sees villian and those are his two categories. Bakugo literally tells him to kill himself and Deku thinks about how that would negatively affect Bakugo. He doesn’t and never does see Bakugo as a villian for this. He sees “wow that wouldn’t be good for his Hero image” and because Deku sees Bakugo as a hero, everything has to fit into that. And while Deku has huge growth with this next part, he also originally viewed villains as just villains. He learned a LOT and while the society’s image becomes less black and white for him (because the whole manga revolves around the gray morality of it all) he still doesn’t see much gray area. It’s win or lose. With the sports festival, he literally won the race without his quirk. He got through the Calvary battle despite being a giant ass target. He placed in the top 8 (which he probably would have gotten higher on if his goal didn’t change) and despite accomplishing his goal with Todoroki, he broke down about not doing what All Might asked him despite gaining permanent scarring and a hell of a warning re his arms. But to point back at the beginning, this is reinforced with his entrance exam. Passing the written exam meant NOTHING because he did “””nothing””” in the practical.

F) last point, Deku’s a masochist. Obviously with the broken bones and things but I’m not even just talking about the physical damage he does to himself—which is, what, 95% of the time what he gets most of his wounds from? Anyway—I’m talking about his mindset. Masochism isn’t just the physical act of causing pain. It’s that mindset of deserving pain. The reasoning doesn’t matter. Deku only “betters” himself for the sake of giving more to others. He trains so hard, not for himself, but for others. On the outside it might seems like his goal of becoming a hero is his own but he sacrifices his body and dives into situations where he’s literally been warned he’s going to die and he just does it anyway. Eri’s Arc and him “changing the future” is what I’m referring to here and you could say “well he DID say he would change that future!” And okay, sure, but he was told Sir is never wrong. But he would rather rush into that future where he dies than take even a moment to think through his actions. But anyway, my point is him at the beginning so I specifically mean the training montage. Where he was ALREADY on a tough schedule that he knew would be difficult and he literally adjusted it and added MORE. Because, to circle back to other points because mental illness always overlaps points, he can only think of himself as 0 or 100, black and white, Able To Save or Failure. If he can’t be at 100 then he believes he deserves pain and causes it to himself. The only time he regrets his injuries is when it prevents him from giving MORE of himself to others. He learns his shoot style not because he doesn’t want to hurt himself but because he doesn’t want to become useless to others. He trains and loses sleep and puts his body through hell because he thinks of himself only as something for others. (I think wanting to save Shigaraki is a powerful moment not because it’s Pure Boy Deku but because it’a his own thinking, his OWN want, but.... it’s still not for him and will still cause him pain). And a last point on this, Heros Rising showed us that Deku is willing to give up his quirk and his dream to win and it showed us that while he believed he didn’t have any other choice, he was deeply disappointed in himself. Winning wasn’t enough. Hurting himself THAT MUCH wasn’t enough. He let All Migjt down and giving up his dreams, almost dying, becoming quirkless, all wasn’t enough to counteract the shame he held. Like god. Baby.

Other small observations or relevant commentary:

1) The doctor who told Deku he was quirkless is the same doctor who worked on Shigaraki. Same doctor who can perseve dead bodies. Same doctor who worked with AFO and all that. (See? Short! Will be relevant soon)

2) One for All is tied to All for One. OFA was literally created the moment a hand reached out to help. Can one even exist without the other?

3) Bakugo needs to apologize. Horikoshi has literally said in an interview post Heros Rising that Bakugo needs to apologize. Sacrificing his life to save Deku is NOT how you apologize to Deku. Deku will ask for a receipt on this type of apology. Return to sender. Unacceptable. So. Bakugo needs to apologize.

4) Deku’s dad isn’t in the picture yet. Hasn’t even been spoken of except for the fact we know his quirk is fire breathing and his name is Hisashi. Oh and he’s abroad. Oh and Horikoshi said he’ll be in the picture at some point. Given we’re in the final arc......... this might not be relevant at all to my theory because I have mixed thoughts on AFO being Deku’s dad but it would connect a few things in the theory.

SO. Finally, all of this together had me thinking about Deku’s characterization and what this (now with COMBAT related ptsd and not just civilian ptsd) means for his ending.

Like I said, I think he’s going to lose OFA. And I originally didn’t think so because Heros Rising showed his losing it and why would they do that again? The movie is canon. Horikoshi himself said so and was a huge part of the production of it. So they did that and wouldn’t do it again. Except.... Deku GAVE OFA away. Which is significant because it was his choice. And he had shame and we witnessed how much that hurt him, but we haven’t seen what’s now been tried TWICE: OFA being forcibly taken from him. Maybe by Shigaraki, since that is building up big time. But maybe by saving Shigaraki.

Either way, what’s more significant to me than how he has it taken is what that means for him, based on everything else above: he would lose his entire self identity. He would literally have no idea who he is anymore except for the only reference he’s ever had, which his from when he was quirkless. He gained friends only after he had a quirk. Every bond he has is tied to him being a hero and he was told it was impossible for him to be a hero without a quirk. Even All Might’s adjusted answer to him at the beginning involved giving him a quirk as the answer for him being able to become a hero.

I think this is the absolute perfect chance for Bakugo to say “since when did you need a quirk to be a hero”. And it doesn’t matter much what the context is, what causes Deku to still need to be a hero (whether a Situation or just an identity crisis) and I think about Quirkless Deku as a hero a lot, since that’s how he was originally written in the one shot before he was revamped for bnha.

But I don’t think Deku will end quirkless either because of who his doctor was. I think Deku had a quirk. I think the doctor stole it. Whether that’s because AFO is Deku’s dad and saw his quirk and knew he had to take it for some reason or whether it was independent and the doctor saw it and took it. The whole toe thing can be written off so easily that Deku could easily have had a quirk at some point.

And maybe, if AFO and OFA are cancelled out, the quirks that were stolen go back to their original owners. Meaning Deku gets his ORIGINAL quirk back.

As in, Deku gets his own identity.

And what would that quirk be? Hm. I don’t know. But. His mom can move small objects. His dad can breath fire. A mutation, maybe? I’ll leave that one up in the air.

And there are a lot of implications here that this could mean for him, as far as healing. And I just want him to be happy.

#bnha spoilers #bnha theory #bnha ramblings #Deku #character analysis #tw masochist #Deku has ptsd and no one can convince me otherwise

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musicfeedsmysoul12 · 4 years

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Soulmate Change

Soulmate marks can change if something happens that's big enough to make them do so.

Like say... telling your soulmate to jump off a roof.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Soulmates are the way of things. You have a mark that shows an important part of who your soulmate would be. These marks would glow to your soulmate upon first seeing them (and knowing what they were.)

Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku are soulmates. Izuku was born with a mushroom cloud in orange on his right shoulder while Katsuki had a green fist on his lower back.

The boys were best friends instantly. They did everything together.

“Gonna be hewoes!” They would cheer. Soulmate heroes were fairly common. They made the best teams.

Katsuki’s quirk came in, explosions on his palms and they waited to see what Izuku’s would be. Something about his hands they assumed.

But there was nothing.

Quirkless they diagnosed him as.

At first, it didn’t seem to affect them.

Then Katsuki began telling him to stop being stupid. He couldn’t be a hero. He was weak. He wasn’t going to be a good one.

The bullying came next. Being shoved around or the occasional burst on fire on his skin.

Izuku put up with it though. A part of him believed in soulmates fiercely. He wanted to believe his soulmate would be his friend again. That they would face the world together.

And then…

“Take a swan dive off the roof.” It echoed. It echoed in his mind and screamed in his soul throughout the day. He kept hearing it as he fought a villain, as All Might praised him. As he was handed a quirk. As he spotted the green vase on All Might’s lower arm and convinced him to come to see his house. As his mom dropped a pan and All Might gasped at seeing the hairbrush on his mom’s neck. Later the brush would make sense. In a way.

But his mind focused on those words.

Swan dive off the roof.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to rage.

Instead, he made a choice.

One thing about Marks was that they could change. It wasn’t that common. Maybe eight cases or so a year? Or more but eight would make the news. Izuku had only ever known that his teacher’s mark had changed.

But they could. When something happened that shattered the soulmates’ trust and belief. When something happened that made them unable to accept their soulmate anymore.

Some of the cases to make the news had the soulmate of a villain testifying against them, and it would always focus on the devastation of the villain as they saw the mark had changed.

Take a swan dive off the roof.

Izuku goes to sleep with a mushroom cloud and wakes up with a blue engine on his arm.

“Izuku…” breathes his mom upon seeing it. All Might- Toshinori- looks confused as he sits there, having spent the night on the couch. “What happened?”

“... he told me to take a swan dive off the roof and pray I had a Quirk in the next life.” Something smashes and Toshinori stiffens while his mother looks broken.

It’s simple to change it. The people look confused at him changing it until they figure out they met young.

“It’s why we say people should separate the kids if they’re soulmates,” the social worker who is documenting their case tells them. “Kids change as they grow up. Teens to but I’ve found teens tend to be a bit more stable in their souls at age sixteen and on.”

“So it’s more common then we know?” Asks Izuku.

“For kids? I’ve seen about twenty in my six years change because they were kids.” Explains the woman. “We need to know what happened though kid.”

“He told me to take a swan dive off the roof and hope I got a Quirk in my next life.” The woman freezes.

“... well fuck that kid then.” She looks angry and Izuku feels a bit of gratitude to this woman, for taking his side.

He doesn’t have to bare his mark he’s told. He’s underage.

So he doesn’t. He keeps long sleeves and works out. He cleans a beach and learns history from Toshinori who is over all the time and eventually moves in, hand in hand with his mom.

He doesn’t think about his mark.

-0-

Bakugou Katsuki has known his soulmate since they were children.

He wants him as far away from heroes as possible.

It’s easy to discourage him. Make himself scary. Be a bully. Torment him.

It hurts to do so. It kills him inside.

But he wants his soulmate safe.

(And a small part laughs in joy at the sight of him on his knees. Crying. His soulmate shouldn’t look down on him and he does and he hates it.)

His mom finds out though, after the slime attack.

“You told him to jump off a roof you brat?!?” She screams and he shouts back, explaining himself.

It doesn’t help it.

“You stay the fuck away from Izuku Katsuki.” She tells him and closes the door behind her. He glares but decides to listen.

The slime attack should have put Izuku off. It should have. His scolding should have done the rest.

He’ll be safe.

(“You didn’t tell him?”

“No. He deserves to find out the hard way.” It’s cruel. Mitsuki knows this.

But she does it anyway. Her son hurt his soulmate enough for the mark to change. Her son told him to kill himself.

She knows the school praised Katsuki, put him on a pedestal. He had the strongest quirk in school after all. They let things slide. And maybe she did to.

But words and actions have consequences. It was time he learned that.)

-0-

He gains One for All a week before the exam and it hurts when he breaks his arm but it’s enough for them to know he needs to figure out how to hold it back. He analyzes and analyzes, figuring out where to focus it and how.

He breaks his finger the day before the exam but it’s enough.

He’s a late bloomer they tell the doctor. Toshinori speaks up and says he has a strength quirk to, one that hurt him pretty bad because his body wasn’t ready and suggests that why his took so long.

They let them think what they want. Hisashi has left Inko for his soulmate before she’d known she was pregnant. He hadn’t sent her anything, and she didn’t want it anyway.

Toshinori claims to be All Might’s secretary in his own agency, and they can say they had met after Hisashi had walked out, that he’d been early. That Inko hadn’t been sure, that Toshinori hadn’t seen the brush on her neck and she hadn’t seen the vase.

Both put on brilliant blushes at the look and Izuku gags because that’s not an image he wants in his head, thanks.

But it’s enough that they ignore it when they put it down and soon he’s sitting in an auditorium, trying to ignore… trying to ignore the blonde next to him.

He’s quiet and doesn’t mutter, not wanting Katsuki’s attention. He wants to focus on himself and what’s going on first.

It’s later though. At the entrance to the fake city, he sees it. The boy who’d stood up during Present Mic’s speech.

He has engines in his legs.

He tries not to puke.

Instead, he focuses on doing well. He’s not the best. He holds back, knowing his quirk is to much for him.

At least he holds back until the zero pointer. He can’t let someone get hurt. He doesn’t care it’s a test and there might be safeguards.

It’s a robot. And there is always a possibility of malfunction.

He throws himself at the robot and smashes it. He breaks his arm, his legs. He doesn’t care.

He falls and is saved.

He’s barely aware of his sleeves missing, of the engine shown on his arm.

He’s barely aware of someone seeing it.

He’s barely aware of a choked gasp, and people whispering at the engine.

But he knows it happened.

-0-

Iida Tenya isn’t sure what to think. He stares at the boy on the ground with the engine on his arm and thinks, it explains the fist.

He wants to focus, his mind is going a million miles an hour as he thinks things through.

But his mind keeps going back to the engine. He boy is taken to the infirmary to sleep off his healing and Tenya decides to wait for him.

A green-haired woman and a skeleton thin man are there. The man is in an ill-fitting suit and the woman looks worried and stressed.

She sees him and her eyes frown, taking him in before she sees his legs.

A look is on her face then and the man stares at him too.

“Toshi-“

“Go see Izuku,” he says. “I’ll talk to him.” The woman nods and the man walks to Tenya who hesitates. “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re an Iida aren’t you?”

“Ah! Yes sir!” Tenya says nervously. “You know my family?”

“I’m All Might’s secretary.” The man explains and oh that is… wow. “So, you’re Izuku’s soulmate.”

“Ah… yes. If that is the boy who broke his arm.” Tenya looks at this man, who must be his soulmate’s father, and is quietly utterly terrified.

“... it’s not private so I’ll tell you but Izuku’s mark Changed to the engine.” The man says and Tenya feels his heart stop.

What? His… that…

“I… how…”

“That is private but know that Izuku might not be ready to date anyone right now.” The man tells him.

“Ah! I do not wish to date currently sir! I simply wish to get to know my soulmate!” Tenya shakes his head and he puts all his thoughts away while the man studies him a bit more. He nods.

“I see. Tell you what-“ he hands him a business card. “That’s my number. Call me later and I’ll give your number to Izuku. He can decide. It might be easier not to be face to face for a while.”

Tenya agrees. He also needs to think about this.

His mark has never changed. His soulmate’s has.

It's a bit of a bitter thought.

-0-

Izuku texts his soulmate a week after the exams. When the whispers surround him and he just wants to die.

My school sucks. Is all he texts.

Perchance why? Is texted back.

Everyone thought I was Quirkless forever but it turns out my Quirk needed a certain amount of power to activate. But anyway Quirkless means bullies.

The answer back was horrified but it did compel them to speak more and more. Eventually, it became phone calls and long chats.

The real test was three months after the exam when they met up with their families.

Izuku might have fanboyed. A little.

… a lot.

But they took it in stride.

Tensei found it cute and teased his brother’s soulmate gently as the boy blushed and stuttered. He backed off when Tenya shot him a look, standing in front of his little soulmate a bit.

Time goes by after that and then one day, visiting and sitting on a pier of a beach, Izuku speaks.

“My old soulmate told me to take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk.” Tenya drops his orange juice and turns, eyes wide, to stare at Izuku. “It’s why the mark changed. It’s why it’s taken me so long…”

“I won’t leave you,” Tenya tells him. “I won’t do that, I swear. I would…”

“I know.” Izuku smiles at him. “I know. But… I’m not ready for anything but friends.”

“Me either,” Tenya admits. “I’d like more but I wish to wait as well.” He reaches out though, taking Izuku’s hand and the green-haired boy squeezes it. They smile at each other again.

It’s just right for them.

When they go to UA, they go together, getting in early. That’s when they see Katsuki. He’s there early too, sitting in a desk and smirking. Izuku freezes. Tenya’s fists clench. But they keep their distance.

(Katsuki wants to demand what Izuku is thinking being here. Why isn’t he talking to him? Why isn’t he going near him? Why? Why? Why?)

When it’s testing time… that’s when it happens. Izuku uses his Quirk and grins- he hadn’t hurt himself- and Katsuki snaps.

“What the fuck DEKU?!” He roars, charging at him, ignoring the flinch Izuku gives. He’s caught by their teacher but he doesn’t care. “You fucking liar! I’m your damn soulmate and you haven’t said shit-“

“No, you’re not,” Izuku speaks. And then he rolls up his sleeve and…

It’s gone.

The mushroom cloud.

It’s gone.

Katsuki freezes, eyes wide.

“Wha… no it couldn’t… it couldn’t change…” he breathes. Izuku looks at him and he looks terrified, but his eyes glance to someone behind them (that’s an engine, his soulmate found another that fast?) before he straightens his shoulders.

“Why wouldn’t it? How long have you tormented me? Bullied me? Said cruel shit to me? Why wouldn’t it change when you stopped being the Kaachan I knew as a child?” Izuku asks and his words feel like bullets.

“... you were Quirkless. I wanted to protect you, make myself scary so you wouldn’t…” Katsuki breathes (but it’s not the full truth and he knows it like Izuku knows it by the way his mouth slants).

“Actions and words have consequences,” Izuku tells him before he walks away to grab onto a different hand.

The teacher lets him go and Katsuki stands there. His body is shaking.

What…

What had he done?

#bnha #soulmate au #iideku #fanfic

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ao3feed-bnha-rarepair · 3 years

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Memento Mori

Memento Mori by MentalMachination

"If you dream of being a hero so badly then why don't you take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a better quirk in the next Life?"

And so he did, he threw himself off the roof of his four-story school building.

When Izuku Midoriya was 5 his quirk finally manifested, or at least he thought he did. The doctor named it Pyro Corporis, a quirk that allowed Izuku to turn his entire body into fire, but his Bakugou called it worthless. For the next 9 years of his life, Izuku would grow up bullied and isolated, convinced his quirk was weak, but he still held onto the distant dream of becoming a hero. But then, a new student transfers to Aldera during his last year of jr. high. Denki Kaminari, who shares this same dream of being a hero, transfers into his class and everything changes. Together they'll train to become heroes and see what interesting developments come to be with Izuku's REAL quirk...

Words: 8102, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: M/M

Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko, Bakugou Katsuki, Kaminari Denki, Class 1-A

Relationships: Kaminari Denki & Midoriya Izuku, Kaminari Denki/Midoriya Izuku

Additional Tags: BAMF Midoriya Izuku, Suicide Attempt, Bullying, Bullied Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has Multiple Quirks, Midoriya Izuku Has a Fire Quirk, Sensei | All For One is Not Midoriya Hisashi, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Midoriya Izuku Swears, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Tags Contain Spoilers, Panic Attacks, Midoriya Izuku Has a High Pain Tolerance, Midoriya Izuku Has Panic Attacks, Aldera Middle School, Depressed Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Midoriya Izuku is Bad at Feelings, Bisexual Midoriya Izuku, Bisexual Kaminari Denki, Kaminari Denki Has ADHD, Kaminari Denki is a Dork, Kaminari Denki Has A Crush, Bisexual Disaster Kaminari Denki, Midoriya Izuku is So Done, Bisexual Disaster Midoriya Izuku, Flustered Midoriya Izuku, Friends to Lovers, Canon-Typical Violence

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32904928

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Kamideku #♥#Kamideku #🐰#⚡#⚣#R:T #W:D #W:S #A:Mental #Quirk AU #Mental Illness #Hurt Comfort #Fluff #Angst

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ao3feed-bakusquad · 3 years

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I'll Never Wake Up

I'll Never Wake Up (From The Dream I Dream With You) by Rocky Horror Ficture Show

"Did you think of methods" "Uh, no sorry… I" "Tch, have to do everything myself" "I'm sorry…" "It's fine. I had a plan in mind anyway. A form of karmic justice if you will… for something I told someone not too long ago." "Oh, uh, what is it?" Piercing red eyes turned to meet his own, "How do you feel about taking a swan dive off the roof?" --------------------------------------- This is an AU based off of the novel My Heart and Other Black Holes. Kirishima and Bakugou meet on the website blindinghope.com (named after the song by The GazettE) and agree to die together. However, as the date grows nearer, Kirishima begins to realize that the two of them had more to stay alive for than they had previously thought. Despite his doubts, he can't betray Bakugou like that, not when he's in this deep... right?

Words: 6444, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Lost and Insecure (You Found Me)

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Bakugou Mitsuki, Bakugou Masaru, Bakugou Katsuki's Parents, Bakugou Katsuki's Family, Kirishima Eijirou, Kirishima Eijirou's Parents, Kirishima Eijirou's Family, Class 1-A, Class 1-B, Class 1-C, Shinsou Hitoshi, Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Inui Ryou | Hound Dog, Ishiyama Ken | Cementoss, Kayama Nemuri | Midnight, Ashido Mina, Sero Hanta, Kaminari Denki, Jirou Kyouka, Yaoyorozu Momo, Dabi | Todoroki Touya, Hagakure Tooru, Asui Tsuyu, Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko, Midoriya Hisashi, mentioned at least, Monoma Neito, Iida Tenya, Aoyama Yuuga, Tokoyami Fumikage, Shouji Mezou, Uraraka Ochako

Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki & Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina & Bakugou Katsuki & Kaminari Denki & Kirishima Eijirou & Sero Hanta, Bakugou Katsuki & Todoroki Shouto, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Class 1-A, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Bakugou Katsuki, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki & Kaminari Denki, Kaminari Denki & Kirishima Eijirou, Ashido Mina & Bakugou Katsuki, Ashido Mina & Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki & Sero Hanta, Kirishima Eijirou & Sero Hanta, Bakugou Katsuki & Jirou Kyouka, Jirou Kyouka/Yaoyorozu Momo, mentioned dabihawks, though that comes wayyyy later, like, probably in a sequel or the epilogues, Bakugou Katsuki & Uraraka Ochako, They are BROS, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, eventual shinkami, so, Kaminari Denki/Shinsou Hitoshi

Additional Tags: Bakugou Mitsuki's Bad Parenting, She means well, shes just really bad lol, Bakugou Masaru's Bad Parenting, he also means well, his wife just takes control of the relationship, if you haven't read the omakes at the end of chapter 207 then do so, otherwise their relationship dynamic will make zero sense, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Adopts Eri, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Adopts Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Adopts Todoroki Shouto, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Adopts Bakugou Katsuki, dadzawa okay, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, its a dark fic guys, this is based on the book My Heart and Othe Black Holes, actuall should I tag that under fandoms???, Canon Compliant, But also, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, its an alternative version of their meeting, But everything else is Canon Compliant, Bakugou Katsuki Needs a Hug, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Oh, he's so bad at feelings in this, Bakugou Katsuki is a Dork, Bakugou Katsuki Needs Therapy, Bakugou Katsuki Gets Therapy, Kirishima Eijirou Needs a Hug, Kirishima Eijirou is a Good Friend, Kirishima Eijirou Needs Therapy, why isnt that a tag, literally none of class 1-A is okay guys, They all need therapy, but especially eiji in this lol, Kaminari Denki is a Good Friend, Kirishima Eijirou is a Ray of Sunshine, Midoriya Izuku is a Good Friend, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku are Best Friends, eventually at least, because we support morally gray characters and personal development in this house, Sero Hanta is a Good Friend, Ashido Mina is a Good Friend, Jirou Kyouka is in the Bakusquad, Shinsou Hitoshi is in the Bakusquad, eventually, Kaminari Denki Has ADHD, Ashido Mina Has ADHD, Bakugou Katsuki Has Issues, Autistic Bakugou Katsuki, Written by an autistic, ADHD, author lets gooooo, Kirishima Eijirou Has Two Moms, This is so many tags im so sorry, there's more but i will stop there lol, no beta we die like the men kirishima wants us to be, no beta we die like jason todd, gotta get those cross fandom clicks you know how it is, (that was a joke), I'm Bad At Tagging, Bakugou Katsuki has PTSD

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32754865

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Kiribaku #♥#Kiribaku #Bakugou Mitsuki #💥#💎#⚣#R:T #W:S #A:Rocky #Dadzawa #Bakusquad #Mental Illness

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thunder-the-ranger-wolf · 3 years

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Wolf's Fanfic Masterlist pt 3: BNHA pt2

Disclaimer: I mainly write AUs. I am behind on or flat-out ignoring the source material for pretty much every fandom on this list. If I like the source material, I will get to it at some point. Feel free to ask questions. I may or may not rant about source material that I have a love-hate relationship with.

Links will appear as things are written and posted on AO3 and Tumblr. BNHA oneshots and snippets will be another post.

BNHA (My Hero Academia)

Shipweek

Scraps/one-shots that were too small to be considered stories but told a story all their own.

NaoMight Week 2020

All For Izuku

The first Weilder of OFA is Izuku's imaginary friend growing up. Yes, that's as weird as it sounds. No, I am not up to date with canon. This was written around the time the Failed Camp/Bakugo Kidnapping Arc became animated.

Better in the Worst Way

"Take a swan-dive off a roof and wish for a Quirk in your next life." Izuku does. What he doesn't do, is die. He thinks. Instead, he wakes up four years old and determined. Not to burn the world down, but to make it hear him.

Bitter Taste

Mic is closer to All Might than Aizawa is, but Aizawa still comes through after the former Number One Hero returns from a date gone wrong.

Generation Overtime

One For All works strangely in that it generates a new life-force with each new holder. The Quirk is passed down, but the embers of One For All remain with the former user until that user dies. So it’s the user’s life the new being is attached to, not the Quirk’s passing. Eight holders later, Piripiri Hisashi grows up as a younger brother to one Yagi Toshinori.

Just Enough

Something is up with Mic, and Aizawa is determined to figure out what it is. But he doesn't have the best track record in dealing with emotions, even when it comes to his partner, so it might take a while. Or: Five Instances of one Yamada Hizashi acting strange and one Aizawa Shota doing what he can to figure out why.

Push and Pull

Inko isn't a Hero, but her Quirk is still useful. Especially when it comes to keeping track of her little boy.

Quirk Daemons

The whole "Izuku can see others' 'Quirk-creatures'" in a world where everyone can see their own creatures but not anyone else's. Kind of inspired by His Dark Materials.

Singing to the Sky

Gran Torino taught differently than Nana did. After all these years, Toshinori still isn't quite sure if that's a good thing. Based on a song.

"Hey, Yagi-san, you still believe what your mentor told you?"

"Gran Torino has told me many things that I may or may not still believe."

"The one about losing yourself. When you grow up."

"Your heart dies." Yagi finished. The words felt bitter on his tongue.

Spiritual advisor

Izuku can see ghosts. Here's how that affected his younger years.

Strays

Scrapped Snippet: Inko worked as a legal assistant at one of the most popular mediation contracting firms in Tokyo. An old coworker of hers from when she and her team were contracted to Might Productions shows up on her doorstep with her son in tow. Yagi Toshinori is not Izuku’s father, but she certainly wouldn’t mind if he were.

Take a Break

Scrapped Snippet: One For All is a stockpiling power and we know later on that manifests as Midoriya having multiple quirks from past users. Some people claim All Might didn’t have full access to his powers due to the trauma he’d undergone. That’s perfectly valid, but Yagi Toshinori is no fool. He will absolutely work himself to death for the right cause. That’s basically what Heroism is, in his eyes. So what if the past users had enough of that bullshit and manifest to stop him?

The Yagi-Todorokis

AU of an AU where Toshi and Rei were childhood sweethearts, but lost track of each other after high school. Not long after Endeavor's debut, Tohi spots a familiar face and does his best to catch up with his old friend. But Enji, as usual, is a dick. So Toshi becomes something of an unwanted house guest as he does his best to keep Rei (and their growing family) safe.

Training Days

Aizawa can't get Shinsou to understand why his Quirk can't be the end-all be-all. Mic has a peculiar solution, which seems to amount to riling Aizawa up.

Walked Home

A stranger overhears Katsuki telling Izuku to jump off a roof and wants to make sure the kid gets home alright. Izuku is extremely wary, but agrees. The Sludge Villain happens anyway.

You Worry Me

Kids talk, Toshinori finds out a few days into this community service project. But Izuku doesn;t seem to have a problem with the words coming out of his mouth and Toshinori really, really wishes he did. Since Izuku won't reach out for help, Toshinori will have to do something about it himself. Luckily, the staff at UA is more than willing to help.

#thunder attempts to write #wolf's fanfic masterlist

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wildcardwriting · 5 years

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In the Face of Adversity, A Flower Bloom #1

[My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia]

Next Chapter | In the Face of Adversity, A Flower Blooms on AO3

Summary:The fact he was given some mystical bullshitty flower power quirk should have been the first hint that his life sucked. Unfortunately, life hated him far too much to let sleeping dogs lie, and feels he needs to suffer more.(Yoko Kurama-esque powers Izuku and a world made to crumble beneath its own weight.)

XXxxxxXX

Chapter One: Into Diverging Paths and Vicious Thorns

XXxxxxXX

The fact he was given some mystical bullshitty power over flowers should have been the first hint that his life was going to suck.

Unfortunately, life hated him far too much to let that be the end of it. By the time he had reached eight years old, yet another thing happened that completely and utterly made him curse the world.

For one thing, no one but him seems to see the small fragments of light that fell from the sky. It was like shiny snow falling from the sky. His mother didn't seem to notice it and neither did anyone else. When he mentioned as much to Kacchan he was given one of those dismissive and irritating looks before being pushed away. Eventually, everyone called him a liar and it got to the point where he didn't mention it to anyone. He'd just shrug and go about his day.

He didn't mention his new quirk to his mother or anybody else, first because he thought it was a stupid quirk, and second because he had seen what happened to kids who had terrible quirks. Ichikawa from class 3-A was bullied because all he could do was put his hair on fire. Naomi from class 2-B could enlarge the size of her breasts at will and as such started getting some rather dubious offers from the student community and those are just the ones he could think of off the top of his head. The list went on and on. People who had dumb, terrible or useless quirks were thrown to the bottom of the social ladder. If they tried to fight back they were scorned by their teachers and family members alike for acting out in anger. To the world, it was their fault for being born weak, while people who had strong quirks were above it all.

He watched this and started to write in his notebooks. Pages that were once filled with his analysis of heroes started becoming filled with harsh words against the people around him. He had no one to talk to and no friends to help him, so little by little, he grew cynical and cold. In another universe, he might have been nicer, more resilient but in this one, he grew cold against the world.

How could he not?

In the face of such pain and despair, he grew angry and vicious.

This was not the world he wanted to live in.

(And so he wrote. Pen in red ink and anger against the world.)

XXxxxxXX

[Age 8.5 to Age 10]

If the flowers in his neighborhood seem to last longer and be brighter, more vibrant than anywhere else he never let on why. His quirk was stupid enough already. The last thing he needed was to be bullied for his stupid flower power or if an adult had found out, sent to juvie for unauthorized quirk usage.

Time passed and he got older and older and several things changed in his life.

Kacchan had long abandoned him, instead spending his time with all his little groupies and bullying him whenever he was seen. His mother sensitive soul that she was, became more fragile and more sensitive since he was declared quirkless. She started micromanaging him, getting him a phone and demanding to know where he was every second of the day. If he was late with a text or a phone call she would get upset. She didn't ask about dreams or goals or hopes for the future. She simply told him to focus on school and put brochures of menial jobs on his desk every so often. She didn't use her quirk in the house. She didn't talk about quirks. It was almost like she was ashamed of him. Her looks of love turned into looks of pity and she demanded more out of him.

Better grades, better this, better that but the more she asked the more imprisoned he felt.

And he got that.

He understood why she was sad and frustrated but in the back of his mind he couldn't help but hate her a little. He had told her about the shiny snow and the plants but she wouldn't listen to him no matter what he showed her. The fact that he was titled quirkless by some doctor seemed to invalidate him as a person in every single way. The doctor said he was delusional and refusing to face the truth and she believed the doctor instead of her son. His worthiness as a person wasn't equal to his quirk, because he was still a human being even if he didn't have a registered power. But still, she didn't see that. She treated him for all intents and purposes like a very stupid, very troublesome pet and she was the caretaker fed up with him.

But it was manageable. Sort of.

Unfortunately, when word got around the neighborhood, people started to whisper behind his back, and they started to point at them, made fun of them as they held them up is an example of what not to be.

"Look at them," They'd say. "That's what happens when your son is quirkless."

"No wonder the father abandoned them." They'd whisper.

And on and on it would go. They speak of dark things, of secrets and affairs and divorces, to the point that he was feeling constantly angry to the people around him. He was smarter than they all thought he was and noticed their actions a mile away. They always stopped talking as soon as he neared them and pointed at him. It was obvious they were talking about him.

It started to get to him after a while that he was feeling a little less than charitable and he acted out in the only way he could.

If Satou-san garden wouldn't grow, or Nana-san found rotting vegetables in the fridge every so often or any of the dozens of things that went wrong in the neighborhood, well that had nothing everything to do with him. Things just happened. Bad luck couldn't have happened to set of worse people. Still, he was careful not to do anything too severe and not too often lest anyone start getting suspicious about a quirk being used. Even those moments of lashing out did nothing to tame the loneliness he felt.

With his mother away at work constantly he looked towards the computer to give him some company, diving deep into the internet and started exploring. He watched dozens of videos on dozens on subjects and when that got boring he switched off to reading anything he could get his hands on. Wheather that was manga or medical knowledge, he read anything and everything. He browsed cookbooks and math books and social studies books. He read about princes and kingdoms and policies and laws.

Every day was something new and exciting that was waiting to be explored.

If he felt like learning something special, then he learned it using Youtube videoes for guidance. The subject didn't matter, because when he was online he was a person. He had everything he could ever want online. There were chat forms and fanfiction forms and everything under the sun. For the first time in his life, he felt alive. Because online, no one knew who he was.

He could gush about the newest manga chapter or the newest medical discovery and people talked to him. It was so amazing.

He was happy for a little while until his mom came home.

She was always grumpy when she came home. Stressed and worn, she was an office lady that refused to come home. Even though there was no need to work, (Hisashi sent them enough money to live on) she had gone back to work. Maybe it was her attempt to escape the situation at home, maybe it was guilt, regardless nothing was ever the same since that appointment to the quirk doctor a few years ago.

It used to be that when Izuku came home dinner would be waiting for him on the table. Now he made dinner and took care of the house. He had learned what most people learned in their early twenties. He could cook and clean and wash the laundry. He knew how to pay the bills and when to put out the trash. He had become an adult in the body of a child. The internet had enabled him to learn everything he needed to know while his father's money had given him financial freedom his mother refused to even contemplate.

Unlike his mother's pay which she put into a bank account, his father's support was wired into an account linked to debit card. The money was sent automatically every month at a certain time and day. It was a substantial amount good for taking care of a child and good enough for a mother being out of work. His mother had given him the card a long time ago and had never asked for it back and since she was never home she never received the bank statements either. Izuku used the money to buy everything from groceries to plant seeds. He spent the money on frivolous things and an online school that he granted him a level of freedom he knew his mother would never allow him.

He prepared himself for a life outside that house and he did everything possible to ensure it. Someday he knows his father's money will run out, and when that time comes he knows he has to be ready. There may even come a point when his mother leaves him, so he needs to ready for anything. So he trains during the early mornings before he heads to school.

He practices his quirk with the various plant seeds he buys, and random weeds that he brings in from the outside. He practices controlling them and making them do things. He practices everything. He tries to make them grow bigger, smaller, wider, heavier and even turns them to dust. He tries to mutate them, and change them from a non-poisonous plant to a poisonous plant, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. He learns to form flowers instantly from seeds and turn them back.

Besides his little experiments and his little pranks his quirk mostly goes unused, until he stumbles over a certain anime and suddenly he's filled with possibilities.

There are suddenly a million and one things he can do with his quirk.

Poisons, and Homeopathic healing, and even fighting. Minamino Shuichi used flowers as his weapon and to heal his teammates so why couldn't he? Sure, he may not have had spirit energy but the principal was still the same. Kurama could use plants and so could he.

He just needed to try.

XXxxxxXX

I have no f****** idea what I'm doing. This fanfiction wrote itself. I didn't plan for it and the plot is probably Swiss cheese. I have no idea if I'm going to continue it or leave it as a One-Shot. Let me know what you think. Keep in mind I have issues with this anime, so many issues. So if I do continue it, expected to be sassy, sarcastic and probably somewhat random if not a little cracky.

Next Chapter | In the Face of Adversity, A Flower Blooms on AO3

#boku no hero academia #in the face of adversity a flower blooms #izuku midoriya #bamf izuku #wild card writing #ao3 #fanfiction

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kitsunesfandomtime · 2 years

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How to Make a Monster?

Summary: Have you ever wondered how a monster like All For One can occur? Someone willing to use and dispose of people like a cheap lighter? To allow experiments and death of children and trauma to manipulate the vulnerable?

The scariest thing isn't that he is a monster, is that he is a human being and once was a child also. So how did he become a monster...?

Word: 1113

First, live in a society in a chaotic state where people with literal superpowers are emerging. Second, have children that can be pretty impressionable of this society. Then finally, they are born wrong.

"Again!? Hisashi, what is wrong with you!?" A woman was screeching and dragging a small boy behind her through the house. Her black hair and brown eyes were utterly ordinary. A beautiful skirt and blouse indicate a woman that is well off. Hisashi was being dragged by his wrist, looking quite ghastly with blood on his face and dirt covering his form.

"They picked a fight and called me a freak. All I did was give them something to cry about," Hisashi spoke as a matter of fact. Still able to taste the copper in his mouth in his mind, all he did was defend himself. So now all the other kids know not to mess with him or his little brother when he is well enough to go to school.

His mother didn't seem to like that response as her hand grabbed the back of his neck. Her nails trail his skin, making him instinctively freeze up even tho it didn't really hurt. Almost like a scruffed kitten, he stopped fighting, allowing himself to be taken into the bathroom.

"A normal child just punches they dont rip off flesh! They had to take him to the hospital before it became infected," she shouts as she turns on the sink. Hisashi's hand grabbed at the ledge instinctively before he was pushed forward near the water. Using her other hand, she scoops the water to try and clean his face of blood and dirt. "If your father hears about this he will flip. Can't you just behave yourself for one day!?"

He kicks and tries to pull away from the water, wondering why he was being punished. He coughs as some get in his nose, trying to breathe before was yanked back. Coughing and trembling a bit as he tries to catch his breath. "I know but they would have beat me up and I was out numbered so I-"

"Stop! Children don't talk like that just- If you are going to commit such dirty tactics dont, please I am begging you. Little boys should not have bloody faces or smile at others pain," she spoke as her son coughed and trembled, her expression softened. Grabbing a towel, she began to dry his face as he tried to recover from being cleaned up.

All he did was defend himself, unable to understand why was he the one in the wrong. His throat and lungs burned from the water as he tried to breathe. He had accidentally inhaled some water during his 'dive' for a second as he looked up at her face.

Her expression was soft now despite having just been so rough toward him moments ago. Drying his face as if he wasn't close to tears from inhaling water as he coughs. He is a bit teary-eyed as he tries to be careful with his words now and realizes that his own mother was a threat. He tucks his shoulders in and lowers his head as he forces himself to break eye contact.

"I-I'm sorry," he spoke softly as he slowly began to understand what he was doing wrong. His mother doesn't like when he talks back, needing to remind himself that as he shrinks back. Though he was close to crying for real since he choked on water. So less acting and more about playing it up before his mom gets a bit... Violent.

Mothers were meant to be a symbol of maternal affection and self-sacrifice. Never allowed to think your mother might be flawed. Her demeanor softened the moment he played up his vulnerability as she brushed her fingers thru his hair. Women were, in fact, terrifying in how quickly they would change their tune.

"Sorry I was a bit too rough but you have to understand what your doing is evil. Even if you claim it is to defend yourself," his mother's very demeanor has softened as she gently scolds Hisashi. Her hand goes to brush through his hair in a comforting gesture, "There we go much better at least they didn't have any superpowers it could have been much worst."

Hisashi pauses, remembering that there had been people with powers. He was close to the age people with abilities seemed like fantasies. They were heroes and villains alike from the tv and comic books brought to life. He wants that. He wants to be able to do amazing stuff like that.

"I kind of wish i had powers like that, do you think i might have something like that...? Then maybe i can protect myself better?" it is an innocent question, but his mother's kind expression twisted in discomfort. As if he had asked something disturbing when he thought it would be something anyone would want.

"I hope not it would only give people more reasons to bother us," her voice crushed the very hope he wanted. Yet Hisashi felt his heart drop as he wondered why he even bothered to think otherwise. "Maybe we should consider dying your hair. It's because it's like neither of us that people keeps accusing you of being meta human."

The small boy shakes his head as he looks at her wide-eyed. Knowing that they have been talking about dying his hair black or some other dark color. Physically recoiling as his hands move to his head as if to protect it from her.

"Please don't! I like my hair as it is, I won't cause trouble," he spoke up quickly as he stared wide-eyed. If she had tried it, then he would fight it to hell and back. He refused to simply blend into the crowd of people at his school and just be a nobody. But she just giggles, finding his reaction cute.

"Alright alright I wont dye it but i am serious. This better be the last time I catch you being a little monster," His mother was firm as she made sure to look him in the eye. Her hand gently touched his face so that he couldn't look away. Making it clear she wants him to promise despite the fact she was asking him to roll over and get hurt.

At this moment, Hisashi realized something he could do as he forced himself to look her in the eye. Even as he felt sick and ill that he would have to pretend, he slowly smiled, "I promise to be better mama!"

That he can lie with a smile.

#Yoly's writing #My Hero Academia #All For One MHA

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thefinalcinderella · 7 years

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DIVE!! Book 1 Chapter 8-THE DAYS OF GRAY

Whoop we’re three chapters until the end

Full list of translations here.

Previously on DIVE!!: A preview for Youichi’s problems in Book 3.

The wind that still dragged on the coolness of spring gently blew past the water surface that flickered with the hazy sunlight. Speckled clouds floated across the light blue sky, which would soon be peeled off like veil and become a blue fit for summer.

The youthful smell of trees, growing fresh green leaves.

The sprinkled sweet fragrance of flowers.

It was a shining, fragrant early summer, in June, where the wings of insects flutter about eagerly, carrying one grain of pollen on their limbs.

In mid-June, Sakuragi High welcomed the opening of the pool for the summer.

The opening of the Sakuragi High pool wasn’t only an important event for their diving team, but also for the MDC members. It was the day where the seasons changed with a click so that you could exchange your school uniform for summer clothes. Tomoki and the others, who went all the way to Tatsumi during the winter months, will borrow the Sakuragi High pool from today. For Tomoki, this brought both advantages and disadvantages to him.

The advantage was simply that the distance between his house and the pool would shrink. Sakuragi High was around the same station as Mizuki Sports Club, and if he rode his bike quickly, it didn’t take that long to get there. If you think about the two hours it took to go to and return from Tatsumi, then this was extremely close, and because of that, he had some leeway physically and mentally.

The disadvantage was that he had to start battling the cold. Diving was a sport that was colder than it looks. You were only in the water for a moment, and most of the time you were on the poolside, and during that time your wet skin was exposed to the air, which would quickly steal away your body heat. Even in the indoor pool of Tatsumi, which was well-equipped with air conditioning, it wasn’t unusual to see divers rubbing their goosebumps on the steps of the diving platform. To say nothing of the exposed outdoor pool, where the wind blows against you without mercy, its coldness could not be compared to the indoor pool.

There was also rain. There were also gusts of wind. The summer sunshine would dazzle a diver’s eyes, but is too fickle to warm their cold body. Nonetheless, since competitions weren’t always done indoors where the conditions are better, divers must also be familiar with these unfavorable conditions.

After greeting the Sakuragi High Diving Club’s advisor and members, while turning to the outdoor pool for the first time this summer, Tomoki was mentally preparing for the wind, rain, and sunshine he’ll have to deal with from today on.

Of course, it wasn’t just the environment that was an enemy. This year, Tomoki had to face off against an even bigger enemy.

The forward 3½ somersaults in tuck position. Tomoki still hadn’t even once been able to perform that technique successfully, even with the qualifying trials for the training camp coming next month.

“Do the first one.”

Kayoko emphasized this to the depressed Tomoki many times.

“Once you’ve done this technique successfully even once, you’ll instantly get the hang of it. Memorize the scenery of the 3½ somersaults with your eyes. If it’s you, it can be done. So, if you can just do the first one, everything after will be easy if you just tear down that barrier.”

The first one. Tomoki also understood the meaning of Kayoko’s words. Truthfully, once Tomoki succeeded in any event even once, it was all smooth-sailing afterwards. But, he couldn’t do the “first one” of this one no matter what.

From 2½ to 3½. The difference of one turn was a lot bigger than Tomoki thought it would be. Even Reiji and Ryou, who volunteered for it, gave up on the 3½ after just under two weeks of practice, and returned to the steady road of honing their existing skills for the qualifying trials. The barrier of the 3½ must have been very thick, since Ryou, who usually chose to show off over winning or losing, withdrew pretty quickly.

How can I do another somersault?

Youichi, who Tomoki consulted, responded, “if there is a secret to increasing somersaults, then I’d like to know as well. Thinking about it with your head is no good. Practice and fail to the point of death, and when you had enough and was about to give up, you’ll suddenly be able to do it. Techniques are like that.”

Tomoki was going to practice until the point of death. He completed spotting thoroughly and was able to grasp the sense of rotation to an extent, and even in the pool he had to attempt it many times while fighting his fear of failure.

However, he still couldn’t do it.

This was a slump.

If he was only demonstrating fifty percent of his power, he would be able to reflect on the result of his lack of effort. If it was eighty percent of his power, he could encourage himself to hold out a little longer. But, even though he was putting in more than one hundred percent of his hardest effort, he felt incredibly upset that he wasn’t able to do anything. If he had no talent, then he had no self-confidence, and his heart wavered as he wondered whether he should just quit diving now. He wanted to gather his luggage, get on a train, and escape to a town where no one knew him.

However, at the end of June, a month before the qualifying trials, it wasn’t actually Tomoki who got on a train with his luggage, but his parents.

Megumi, who had star-gazing as a hobby, and Hisashi, who stuck his neck into everything, left on a tour with the “Star-gazing Society”, who they were on good terms with. On the same weekend, Hiroya was going camping with his friends from class.

As a result, Tomoki, who was the only one not going anywhere, was left alone in the house along with Chikuwa.

On the weekend, he was alone at home.

If it were a middle schooler who was a little bit interested in the other sex, they might somehow feel a sweet thrill in this situation. And if there was a girlfriend, they would thank God for this once-in-a-lifetime chance. However, Tomoki couldn’t afford to have such pleasant thoughts because he was exhausted from practice every day. That evening, after he returned from practice he fed Chikuwa, heated up the shrimp gratin that his mom had prepared, he didn’t remember Miu until he suddenly felt lonely at the suddenly silent dining table.

The shrimp in the gratin might be the one to blame. The curved backs of the shrimp unwillingly reminded him of the somersaults he tried hard to forget at mealtime.

Tomoki glared at the shrimp and stabbed his fork through it forcefully. In that moment, he felt an unbearable loneliness. Across Japan, even among the many middle school students, the only middle schooler worried about the “3½” was him.

A worry that he could not share with anyone.

He had no choice but to figure it out by himself.

Tomoki had experienced this kind of feeling many times in doing the personal contest that was diving. The loneliness from the time of his failure stung his skin more than the loneliness from being exposed to the wind while standing on the platform all alone.

After finishing his dinner silently alone, Tomoki suddenly wanted to hear someone’s voice in the silence. Rather than talking to someone, he just wanted to listen. He wanted someone to call his name, and know that he is here.

Tomoki, who was lacking a social life in diving and at school, unusually for him thought about calling Miu himself, but he was worried about a few things.

The first thing was their last phone call. Why did she call him Sakai-kun that day?

Second, since that phone call, contact from Miu had suddenly stopped.

Third, recently, Miu seemed somewhat distant even when they were face-to-face at school.

Although everything was entangled in his mind like untied shoelaces, Tomoki had been too busy to think about it seriously. Did something happen? And while thinking that, what happened? And it wasn’t until Tomoki, who never thought about it seriously before, finally got seriously impatient enough tonight to call her. However, her mom told him that Miu wasn’t there.

“I’m sorry. Miu is camping with her friends from class right now.”

Camping.

Tomoki looked back at the seat where Hiroya always sat at the dining table.

Hiroya went camping with his friends from class.

Miu went camping with her friends from class.

Hiroya and Miu were in the same class.

That means, right now, the two of them were camping together.

…

Rather than the fact that the two of them were camping together, Tomoki was more shocked that he didn’t know about it.

Somehow, his heart was pounding. It was painful to breathe. His chest, which had never throbbed because of Miu, felt like it was about to explode.

Tomoki stepped away from the phone and walked aimlessly around the room. Uselessly, he walked up the stairs, and then came down again, still without purpose. He was assailed with unease for reasons unknown, and it would probably get even worse if he stayed still, so rather than that…he took Chikuwa with him and headed out.

It was during his second run that Tomoki came across an unexpected person.

Gushed-out sweat. Quickened heartbeat. Hot breath—

The more he kicked at the ground and advanced forward, the clearer his head became. The pain of his body helped numb the pain of his heart.

About four months since he started self-training, Tomoki’s runs with Chikuwa had seen a lot of progress. At first, he could only run for an hour at best and was often frustrated along the way, but recently he was even able to include slopes and stairs as parts of his run and enjoyed the scenery of the neighbourhood.

For Tomoki, who usually jogged in the neighborhood at dawn, running at night was a fresh experience. It was already past seven p.m., but the sky was still faintly colorful with the remnants of the red of sunset. Grilled fish. Curry. Simmered foods. Miso soup. Stew. While inhaling “tonight’s scents” from the windows of the houses lit with warm lights, he slipped through the waves of office workers going home, and turned transparent as though he was also one of Earth’s scents. He became soft, feeling like he was going to dissolve into the air.

That night, in the park that Tomoki continuously stopped at to let Chikuwa drink water, there was a strange figure tightly pulling on a rope.

When he first saw it, he thought it was a ghost or something.

It was in a sandpit at an unpopular park. A black shadow was swaying as it rose to the top of a metal pole in that corner—

As soon as he understood that it was actually a person, Tomoki let loose a weird “Hii!” sound. The figure wasn’t just on the metal bar, it was also grasping the rusted metal bar with both of its hands, and doing a handstand on it. It gathered its two feet and pointed them up high at the sky, and kept still without moving the hands that supported its whole body an inch.

Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds…Tomoki timidly approached the sandpit, finally saw its face at the forty second mark, and was surprised.

“Okitsu-kun!”

The man who was doing a handstand on the iron bar was Shibuki.

“Oh.”

Maybe because Tomoki’s voice interrupted his concentration, Shibuki jumped down from the metal bar with agility, and when he turned around to face Tomoki and Chikuwa, he said, “Oh”, again.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds…a long silence visited again. This was the first time the two of them met outside of practice, and neither of them were sure what to say to each other.

“Um…were you practicing for the sixth group?” (1)

Tomoki finally opened his mouth.

“No, something else.” Shibuki looked away, embarrassed, and rubbed his rust-covered palms on his jeans.

“But you were upside-down. It’s really cool to be able to do that in a place like this.”

“It’s just a way to kill time. Your house is close by, huh,”

“Ah. Yeah, I live around here.”

At the feet of the two having an awkward conversation, despite Chikuwa dribbling his thirsty tongue, he was waggling his tail with all his might to get Shibuki’s attention. He was not a particularly thoughtful dog, so he believed that everyone he met was a lovable human being, and that if he just waved his tail, then they would return his love.

Looking at that pitiful figure, Shibuki suddenly muttered, “Throat”.

“Throat, it’s thirsty, this dog.”

“Oh, I came to give him water.”

“Hmph.”

Shibuki returned his gaze to Tomoki from Chikuwa, and then smile broadly, like a tense string had been cut.

“You too.”

“Eh?”

“Your throat, aren’t you thirsty? You ran enough.”

Tomoki’s cheeks suddenly flared red. He wasn’t panting. He already stopped sweating, too. Nonetheless, Shibuki was able to perceive that Tomoki was doing self-training rather than just taking his dog for a walk.

“Come to think of it, I’m thirsty too.”

Shibuki took out a 500-yen coin from the pocket of his jeans, while looking at the shaken-up Tomoki with a seemingly pleasant face.

“Wait. Let me buy us something first.”

After letting Chikuwa drink water, the two of them leaned on the bars on the jungle gym side by side, and Tomoki pulled open the tab of the sports drink Shibuki bought for him. The scent of lemon, his favorite flavor, rushed in from his nose to his throat. Tomoki raised it to his lips and drained it down, gulping repeatedly, as it became a more reliable liquid to quench his thirst.

A sports drink given to him by the grandson of a genius diver from Tsugaru, and he was drinking it with him shoulder-to-shoulder. Tomoki felt weird, but the night wind was cool. Chikuwa was at his feet sleeping soundly, and the sky was unusually clear, so somehow, he felt comfortable and forgot about it, and just when he felt that way,

“It’s my housemate.” Shibuki suddenly spoke up. “My housemate can’t stop talking, or rather, it’s hard to calm down when we’re together, or it’s more like, I feel an itch to do something…well, sometimes I escape here.”

So that’s what it was. While nodding, Tomoki suddenly turned his head.

“Housemate?”

“It’s Ooshima, the guy who teaches the elementary schoolers.”

“Oh…you live with Coach Ooshima?”

It was the first time he heard of this. Shibuki was still a second-year in high school, so even though he came to Tokyo from Tsugaru, he wasn’t at an age where he could live alone.

“My mom couldn’t come with me since my little sisters are at home, Fujitani-san’s busy, and I couldn’t possibly stay with that female coach. On that point, Ooshima is single and has no responsibilities. And if I lived there I’d get a special allowance, so I decided to stay with him, but I’d never thought he was a guy who talked so much. When I’m ignoring him, he talks to the TV and the fridge. He even talks in his sleep. That’s just not normal.”

Tomoki stared at Shibuki’s weary profile.

“Something wrong?”

“No, um, I was just thinking that you weren’t going to talk so much either. Since you don’t talk a lot at practice.”

“Oh, that’s just a habit. I practiced with Gramps ever since I was little. When he died, I dived by myself, and I never had the habit of being noisy with my friends. Besides, it’s more like…I’m not good with pools. It’s weirdly hard to breathe when I’m over there.”

Shibuki’s expression suddenly stiffened. To Tomoki, it looked a little pitiful.

“Do you hate the pool that much?” He asked in a low voice. Shibuki instantly nodded.

“It’s too narrow and shallow. Too cramped, stuffy and noisy. You guys do so well in such a small space. Is it fun to think about how many points you can get from those old judges, or how much points will be taken off, while you’re diving? I’m different. For me, diving isn’t a tool to butter up a judge, or anything like that.”

“Well then, what is it?” Tomoki asked immediately. “What’s diving for you, Shibuki-kun?”

“What’s diving for me?”

“Is it something like a grudge, or revenge? Do you hate diving, or not?”

Shibuki bitterly smiled, “No way.”

“There’s no way I can hate diving. For me diving is, to put it strongly, the Okitsu blood.”

“Okitsu…blood?”

“Diving is a sacred ceremony passed down through the Okitsu family. For generations, someone from my family had been the head of the fisherman’s union of the fishing villages, but a long time ago in our village, every time there was a poor catch, there was a ceremony where the head fisherman had to jump down from a cliff in order to appease the wrath of the sea god. They had to sacrifice their bodies to sea to request a big catch. That’s why, the men of the Okitsu family have the skill of diving from a rocky surface hammered into them ever since they were little. In my old man’s generation, it was already abolished since it became a problem that was deemed an anachronism and a danger, but Gramps thought it would be good as a hobby, and continued to teach diving to me, his grandson. He told me while doing so, that I would be the last man to succeed the Okitsu blood.”

As if to check that, Shibuki stared intently at the blue veins criss-crossing the back of his hands.

“I don’t believe in the sea god or anything like that. But I do believe in this blood. It’s the blood that I received from those reckless people who threw themselves into the wild sea in the distant past. For me, diving is a challenge to the sea that had spurred on this blood. But then, suddenly…I was at the pool.”

Before they knew it, the traces of color had disappeared from the sky, and the darkness spread, like purple pearls being sprayed against a deep, dark blue. While looking up to search for stars above the trees, Tomoki felt that he now knew, deep in his skin, why Shibuki kept on rejecting the pool. It was the sky without a ceiling, the outdoors without walls, the soil without pavement. In that situation, this might have been the first time that Shibuki could be himself. However…

“Okitsu-kun, you diving into the sea, and us diving into the pool, might be two completely different things, but…” Tomoki said while still looking up at the night sky. “But, Okitsu-kun, I think your grandfather challenged even the pool seriously. I think that even with you, he was trying to raise you into a diver who could also be accepted in the pool.”

“No way. Gramps hated the pool. His years as an athlete were like a complete nightmare for him. That’s why he came back to the sea of Tsugaru. That’s why he never thought of me trying to dive into a pool.”

“Well then, how did you do the forward 1½ somersaults in pike position?”

“Ah?”

“What about the inward 2½ somersaults in tuck position? The armstand forward 1 somersault in pike position? From who did you learn the forward 1½ somersaults and 1 twist? You had never been in a competition, so you probably don’t know, but all of your techniques are basic dives that divers frequently use in competitions. You had firmly mastered them before you came to Tokyo. You have learned all the necessary things.”

Shibuki’s sharp eyebrows trembled.

“Are you saying that Gramps wanted to put me in a competition?”

“I feel like that when I watch you. You even have the body alignment that Coach Asaki is so obsessed about. You were perfect from the beginning.”

“What the…well, are you saying that Gramps wanted my diving to be scored? To give a performance that the judges would like, or doing a quiet entry? He wants my diving to be like that?”

Tomoki took in a deep breath besides Shibuki, who raised his voice as he got worked up. He didn’t know how Shibuki was feeling. But, as Shibuki who grew up near the sea would think of the sea, those who grew up in a pool would think in the way of someone raised in a pool.

“Of course, our diving might be a lot more inconvenient in many ways compared to your diving, Okitsu-kun. Anyways, since it’s a scored competition, if there are no judges nothing could begin, and nothing could be ended. We always cared about our scores, and get scared of deductions.”

Tomoki looked up at Shibuki with great effort.

“But, that’s not just for diving, everything’s like that. You may have lived freely in a wide environment, but our lives are always constantly scored or deducted. There are judges in all kinds of places, and if you spent your life well, it would be held up as the model for everyone else to live by. I can’t really say it well, but I want to dive to overcome that…not for things like winning a competition, or getting full points. Someday, my own best moment when I will break through will come. I believe in that, which is why I dive.”

“The best moment?”

“Yep.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with judges…”

“Yep, but if that moment ever comes, it’d be nice for it to be on a big stage, if possible. In order to get to the big stage, I’d have to win from a small stage first. I think that the qualifying trials are one of those.”

“The best moment on a big stage, huh.” Shibuki narrowed his eyes as he bent his back while leaning on the metal bar of the jungle gym. “I guess you guys will have your best. But for me, my best is only at the sea.”

Then why did you leave the sea?

What is your contract with Asaki Kayoko?

At the moment Tomoki got up the courage to ask him, Shibuki raised his right hand and hurled his empty can into the air.

Thunk. A sound like empty plating being hit. The empty can landed in the trash cans next to the swings. The sound caused Chikuwa to flutter his eyes open, looked around uneasily, and gave a big yawn.

“I should be going home soon. My housemate is even more of a worrier than a talker.”

Shibuki didn’t really sound like he was complaining, as he stood up first and stepped forward. He then walked a few steps before turning back to Tomoki with a “You” like he was giving him something that he had forgot.

“You can definitely do 3½ somersaults.”

“What?”

“I also have a little pride. I had complained to Asaki Kayoko about why a second-year middle school kid gets to be taught the 3½, but I can only count the number of splashes. She said, ‘Because that kid has the diamond eyes.’”

Diamond eyes.

“What does that mean?”

“If I knew, I’d tell you.” He murmured as he turned his back and flicked his hand while leaving. Chikuwa waved his tail three times affectionately, then yawned again. Tomoki had no way of knowing what Kayoko’s words meant, but they left a strange sense of weight in his chest.

--because that kid has the diamond eyes.

Was it his own trump card? Was it the strongest weapon that Youichi mentioned?

Whiling repeating Kayoko’s words in his head, Tomoki felt some sort of unfathomable power well up inside of him as he got up, and started to jog back home with Chikuwa.

The 3½ somersaults of the forward dive that he had struggled with.

The first time Tomoki succeeded with this technique was a few days later.

Translation Notes:

1. A reminder that the sixth group of diving is the armstand dives

Next time on DIVE!!: nopenopenope

#dive!!#dive novel translation

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thefinalcinderella · 7 years

Text

DIVE!! Book 1 Chapter 4-CONCRETE DRAGON

First of all I just want to say: what the heck is a “”””concentration dragon”””””

Second of all: why is no one pointing out that the subs spelled Miu’s name wrong.

Anyways, the anime was cool, I can’t wait till best boy Shibuki shows up next week. (He’ll show up next chapter) Also, editing this chapter makes me wonder what I’ll do when that scene comes, since I don’t want to spoil anyone before the anime shows it, though I don’t think it’s a big secret (maybe the circumstances surrounding it are though), so we’ll see.

Also this chapter was hell to translate, and apparently I missed a complete sentence? There’s probably a lot of iffy sentences in here, so feel free to ask me for clarification.

Also now I’m wondering if Youichi has any actual friends, like, anywhere. Book 3 seems to say that he does not.

Full list of translations here.

Previously on DIVE!!: Very ironic title.

April. Whenever the season that cherry blossoms began to bloom arrived each year, Tomoki always remembered something that Coach Fujitani’s wife, who was a former diver, said in a spring of many years ago.

“Cherry trees have strange shapes, don’t they?”

She had said so while looking up at the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Those were probably from the row of cherry trees that stretched from Tatsumi Station to the swimming center. A layer of pale pink cherry blossom petals covered the heads of Tomoki, Youichi, Reiji and Ryou.

“They bend and twist in unexpected directions. Cherry trees really do have strange shapes.”

While everyone was watching the cherry blossoms, she was the only one focused on the deformed trunks and branches.

“However, if you think about it, it’s because cherry trees have hidden such a strange energy that they are able to make so many beautiful flowers to bloom at once. Even the cherry tree itself cannot control such an explosive energy. It probably ends up swirling around in the trunk, making it bend and twist so much.”

Though those words didn’t have an impact on Tomoki, since he was still young at the time, but as the years went on, they took on a strange weight.

The beautiful flowers and the distorted tree beneath them.

A brilliant contrast.

Even in the sports world, the more beautiful flowers that you tried to make, the more distortions that might be created elsewhere, Tomoki thought. The distortions were reflected in the athlete’s body, or their heart, or their interpersonal relationships, and something got damaged. Something was taken away.

The top athletes who were active on TV. Beneath their brilliant smiles with dazzling white teeth, do they hide a large, violently twisted tree?

If it got chopped down, will dark blood spurt out?

“Tomo-kun, Tomo-kun.”

A sweet voice came from besides Tomoki, who was fascinated by the cherry blossoms in bloom.

When he turned to look, he saw Miu, wearing a light pink jacket perfect for cherry blossom viewing, and having an uneasy look in her eyes.

“Ah, sorry.”

“It’s okay. Tomo-kun, I thought you were sleeping with your eyes open.”

“No, I was just a little dazed…”

While hiding his awkwardness with a faint smile, he lifted himself up from lying on his back. On the vinyl sheet spread on the lawn was a colorful lunch box brought by Miu. It was sprinkled with a nice smell, like a small flower garden.

“Hey, I made a lunch box.”

“Okay.”

Only one day. Because there was only one day left of spring break, he was invited to go to Yoyogi Park in the afternoon. Since it was cherry blossom viewing season, there were couples everywhere in the park, and even the places without cherry trees were filled with the sweet scent of the blossoms. Compared to the freezing training room, this is like the Palace of the Dragon King (1), thought Tomoki as he side-eyed the neighbouring couple kissing unashamedly in the open. Or, maybe this is just the original appearance of the world, and I’m the one at the bottom of the ocean.

“Look, look, I made it with Mama. It has the side-dishes that were your top ten in the survey you took before.”

If you looked up a little from the bottom of the ocean, you could find casual enjoyment floating around anywhere.

“Tamagoyaki. Fried chicken. Viennese sausages. Spaghetti. Hamburger steak. Fried rice. Yakisoba. Onigiri. Cream croquettes. Fries. Right?” (2)

Every time Miu opened the dividers of the Tupperware, a colorful side dish appeared. It’s like we’re playing house, but I wonder if it’s too happy, Tomoki thought.

“Mama said while making it that Tomo-kun must be a very straightforward boy, because you can see it from looking at his top-ten.”

While listening to her talking, Tomoki extended his wooden chopsticks to the hamburger steak in the red box. At that moment, he shouted, “Got it!”

Miu started at his raised voice, and she almost dropped the lunchbox.

“As expected, the hamburger steak was number one. Mama and I were taking bets. Mama said it was the onigiri, but I knew it must be the hamburger steak.”

“I, I see…”

It’s a little tiring, but this is the price of happiness, Tomoki said to himself. Despite the fact that he told himself this many times, occasionally when the wind briefly turned over the vinyl sheet, he suddenly thought, I wonder what everyone at the MDC is doing right about now?

It had been three days since Tomoki started to skip diving practice.

He couldn’t even explain to himself why he absolutely did not feel like going to practice. Was it that he didn’t want to be hurt even more by Reiji and Ryou, or that he didn’t want to hurt Reiji and Ryou anymore, or that he wanted to show those two how he has been hurt enough already ?

“So, Saitou-kun from Class B was called to the art room by the art teacher Fukami-sensei. And when Oda-chan and Jin-kun were wondering what happened and went with him, Fukami-sensei yelled at them, ‘I only wanted Saitou to model for me!’ His face seemed to have turned all red too…”

The stories from school that were being spoken from Miu’s cheerful profile, as far as Tomoki was concerned, were like stories from a star that was hundreds of millions of light years away.

“Sorry, Tomo-kun. Are you not having fun?”

“Ah, not at all.”

When he turned around to say he was having fun, he met with Miu’s uneasy eyes. Her naturally wavy hair bathed in the spring sunlight. Eyelids that only drooped down for sleep. Soft petal-like cherry blossom-colored lips that seemed like they’d peel apart easily when touched.

Still, he’d never touch them. He’d never be able to feel like doing the weird things like the neighbouring couple was doing. While thinking that, Tomoki abruptly started to talk rapidly.

“Um, have you ever felt like you’re being boxed in?”

“Boxed in?”

“Yeah…I don’t know why I’m saying this…I don’t know how to say it well, but I feel like I’m in a very narrow and shallow place. If you want to see a wider place and watch TV or something, you’d see the important-looking people there, but they look like they’re in a narrow, shallow place. Sometimes, when I think about if I’d have to live in a box like that for the rest of my life, I feel hopeless. But, whenever I dive, I feel like I could overcome it.”

Oh. It was as Kayoko said—he was aiming for the top as well. He wanted to try to see the scenery from the top. However, it was an extremely vague top, it was a summit, an impression like a mountain peak rising through the clouds, and when that became complicated with the cold reality of the Olympics or the representative selection trials, it suddenly became a little stifling.

“I just wanted to overcome it, but…”

Tomoki shut his mouth there. Though he tried saying it to someone, as he did it he felt like what he was saying was terribly boring, and suddenly felt embarrassed.

However, Miu stared at him without breathing, and suddenly a smile spread across her face, like a flower bud blooming.

“It’s wonderful.”

“Eh?”

“I think the way you dive is wonderful.”

“…you think so?”

“Yes. If it’s you, you can surely overcome things that me and other people couldn’t. Whenever we look at you, we feel like we can cross over anything.”

Pale pink petals landed in her hair, shoulders, and cheeks, as if they were words trying to tell her to tightly weave them into pressed flowers or such. For the very first time, Tomoki thought that this was a very wonderful occasion. It might have been because he was happy to be praised, but he thought she was lovely.

If I only I wasn’t so awkward and hanging my head down right now, and somehow was able to tell her that honestly…this was something that Tomoki would think about many times after this.

When they parted,

“I will cheer you on when you dive, but sometimes it’s nice to switch things up and have fun, right? So, next time I go bowling with Hiro-kun and Yama-chan, Tomo-kun, you should come as well.”

If I had said “yes” to Miu’s invitation, something might have changed. He would think that again and again.

Straightforward, the word Miu’s mom used to praise the top-ten dishes of the bento.

Tomoki had been too tired from diving practice, so he had asked Hiroya to fill in the survey for him. Those were Hiroya’s favorite foods.

“Welcome back.”

When Tomoki returned home, his father Hisashi was in the living room, engaged persistently in challenging the computer.

He had bought a laptop impulsively to begin going on the Internet. Nevertheless, before he could connect to the Internet, he got hooked into one of Windows’ card games, and thus got stuck that screen whenever he had free time. When he got tired of card games, he also got tired of the computer.

“Is it still four o’clock?”

Hisashi’s inflamed eyes went towards the wall clock, then to Tomoki.

“You’re early today again.”

“Yeah. Where’s Mom?”

“At the neighbourhood association meeting. Hiro’s at a party with friends. Were you on a date?”

“Ah…”

Tomoki widened his eyes. Seeing that, Hisashi also widened his eyes,

“Why, I hit the bullseye. It got me.”

“…”

“But you also have that half-done lie, and it’s going to get exposed soon.”

Casting Tomoki, whose ears have gone red, a sideways glance, Hisashi restarted the card game with a nonchalant face.

“Well…” Tomoki began to confess towards his back. “I skipped practice today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday.”

“Ah, I knew.”

“What, how?”

“Fujitani-sensei called last night.”

He immediately felt exhausted.

“Then, both you and Mom were playing dumb?”

“We weren’t. We were waiting for you with open arms to come and discuss it with us. But since you’re not telling us anything, that’s why I’m playing games.”

Despite having the stuffy job of designing telescopes and other things, Hisashi had a somewhat childish playfulness.

“Yeah. That was…bad.”

“Uh-huh.” Although he nodded, his eyes were affixed to the cards, so Tomoki had no idea how much he was listening.

On the contrary, thanks to that Tomoki felt it was easier for him to talk.

“Well, I’ve been thinking these days…”

“Uh-huh.”

“Doing things like diving isn’t very fun, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s nothing more than a disaster waiting to happen. I feel scared and sore everyday, I can’t sleep as much as I want because of self-training every morning, I can’t eat as much as I want because I can’t get fat, and really, I love pudding and other sweet stuff, but I always have to avoid them. Do you call the sweet part at the bottom caramel? That’s actually the best part, but since I can’t get fat I have to give it to Chikuwa. It’s like I’m working hard to cut down my own body, right? And, in the end when I worked so hard in so many ways, my clubmates hate me, and my friends at school are also leaving me quickly. I’m going to be the uncool kid who gets left out of all the latest trends!”

“Uh-huh.”

“What do you feel about what I just said?”

“Yeah…ah, I lost again.”

Hisashi placed his hands against his forehead. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. At the four second mark, he pulled himself together and turned around to look at Tomoki.

“So, what did you do to make your clubmates hate you?”

It seemed like his words have been heard, more or less. Plus, rather than latching onto the part where Tomoki was about to cry when he was talking about caramel, Hisashi had wonderfully grasped the important part that he had let loose, somehow.

“I thought they were your friends, but it must be rough, eh.”

“It’s probably because they are my friends.” Tomoki mumbled.

“Huh?”

“It’s because they are my friends they feel annoyed, bitter, and jealous when they’re lagging behind. You can’t do anything like that with total strangers.”

Because they are my friends?

While Tomoki reflected on the meaning of those words, Hisashi said, “Ah”, like he remembered something.

“Is Fujitani-sensei’s Youichi-kun one of those friends?”

“Definitely not. Youichi-kun would never be jealous of me.”

“I see. No, it’s because Youichi-kun called a little while ago.”

“He did?”

“He said he’d be waiting for you at Hakusan Park at five.”

“Five?”

Youichi was sometimes unconcerned about the other person’s convenience like that, calling people on a whim. And if Tomoki was late or didn’t go at all, it was like he’d be cursed at as a heinous villain for breaking a promise with his male comrade.

Tomoki looked at his watch. It was four-twenty. It wasn’t too late yet.

“I’ll be going out for a bit.”

Putting on the parka he had just taken off and dropping his bike keys into his pocket, Tomoki ran out under the reddening evening sky.

It takes thirty minutes to bike to Hakusan Park from Tomoki’s house. His middle school friends would have taken the train or bus for such a distance, but Tomoki decided to put his body to use. He thought this could be taken as part of training as well. While the cool wind of dusk blew on his sweaty skin, Tomoki smiled bitterly. Even though he had skipped so much practice, he was still unconsciously thinking about diving.

Youichi calling him out like this must be because of his skipping. Because it was the first time he had been absent without notice for three days, he might have been worrying about what happened, or maybe he was just angry. Either way, Youichi’s mood would definitely worsen if he was late, so Tomoki rode his bike with full speed, only resting his feet once from pedalling on the way there.

It was when he passed by Sakuragi High.

The high school that was affiliated with Eidai that Youichi goes to. There was no need to look for the on-site diving pool, since the towering diving tower would tell you. It cut a grim silhouette in the peaceful streets away from the city center. Looking up at it from the neighbouring path was like looking at a rare mythical creature.

Tomoki would never forget the impact of passing through this path for the first time in the summer of second grade.

Five meters, seven-point-five meters, ten meters—the three heads of the beast that suddenly appeared on the other side of the concrete wall. Since there were no high buildings in the area, even now they overwhelmed Tomoki with their impressiveness. What is that, he had thought. It looked like a dragon monster that would challenge Ultraman. It was a concrete dragon!

Throwing his head back so much that it seemed like it fell off, Tomoki had sucked in a huge breath. His swelled-out chest was filled with excitement. Then a strange shadow was added on the dragon.

It was a person. A boy appeared on the dragon’s tallest head.

The boy had skin tanned from the August sun and long limbs. His face was too far away to be seen clearly, but he had a slender, firm body, looking like a majestic Ultraman who commanded the beast. A boy who tamed a dragon. Tomoki was watching when suddenly the body nimbly flew into the air.

He fell!

From then on Tomoki went nuts. Abandoning his bike, he dashed through the back gate of the school, running with all his speed towards the dragon. He was thinking that the boy would die from falling from such a height, so he needed to call an ambulance as soon as possible.

However, when Tomoki passed through the courtyard and the side of the clubroom, finally reaching the base of the dragon, what appeared before his eyes was a dazzling swimming pool, glistening in the sun; the entire form of the dragon, looking even bigger from the front; and the overhead practice scenery of the kids jumping down one after another.

Are they jumping into the pool below…?

Looking at the world hidden by the concrete wall, Tomoki felt exhausted. At the same time, he was attracted to the strange way of playing that involved flying from the head of the dragon.

“Hey, you.”

Behind Tomoki, who was standing on the poolside, someone’s voice pierced into his back. He turned around and caught the sharp gaze of a tanned boy, glistening with water droplets.

Long limbs. A balanced form. And above all, his dark skin. He knew immediately that this was the kid who had been on the dragon a minute ago.

“Um…um, I…”

He’s going to yell at me for coming in without asking…but as Tomoki slowly walked backwards, “You, do you want to dive?”, the boy said with an angry face.

“Eh?”

“If you want to dive, I’ll let you into the MDC.”

Diving. Tomoki didn’t know words like that yet.(3) However, he got the point in his own childlike way, so he instantly nodded.

“I want to join it. I want to join this place.”

Towards Tomoki’s innocent reply, the sour-faced boy flashed his white teeth for the first time.

“You’ll regret it.”

“Huh?”

“You’ll regret it a lot and become stronger.” He said while laughing—that was what Youichi had said to him six years ago.

I want to dive. Towards their son who had suddenly burst out that sentence as if he was delirious from the heat, Tomoki’s parents were unusually cautious. They had first called MDC to receive information about admission, and then they went to Mizuki Sports Club to listen to a detailed talk from Coach Fujitani. They’d also decided to visit Sakuragi High School. As a result of all this, they learned that diving was not as dangerous as they thought it was, and that it was rare for a major accident to happen as long as one was cautious and not negligent, and so they felt relieved. The Sakuragi High pool couldn’t be used in the winter, and although they had to go to Tatsumi through a bottleneck, in the end his parents agreed to let him join.

“You see, Tomo. I’ll say it now: when I was a kid, I was praised as an athletic prodigy. But, I wanted to do everything, and couldn’t put my mind to doing only one competition, and I wasted my abilities on this and that. Well, that’s what they call a ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’ Watching you and Hiro, you seem to have gotten my athletic skills, while Hiro seems to have gotten my willingness to do everything. It’s your life, so you can do whatever you want with it, but it might be good to have accomplished one thing until the end.”

And it was with those words from his dad that Tomoki started to do diving.

Even though his father didn’t mean for him to do that, when Tomoki joined the MDC, he quit boys’ soccer and English class. He had also lost interest in collecting the monster cards that he had been obsessed with, and the girl that he had liked at that time.

When he looked back on that day where he looked up at the Sakuragi High diving platform, he really felt that it was a turning point in his destiny. For the next six years, Tomoki, like Hiroya, could have been able to do whatever he wanted to do every day. But he became fascinated, sucked in, engulfed, and stolen away by the concrete dragon. He became addicted to the fears and pleasures of the world of water.

Oh no, I’m late.

While putting his pedalling feet into turbo mode, Tomoki felt he now knew a little bit of the reason why he did not want to go to practice.

Even if he was feeling awful about his friends’ words, if he was before the lush diving pool, he would have not been able to stop himself from climbing up the diving tower. He would not have been able to stop himself from throwing himself into the world of water that was filled to the brim with goodwill and malice.

Though he said all those things before, in the end he still loved diving and couldn’t leave the water. That might be something that he himself found annoying.

“I heard about it from Reiji. He was sorry about all the bad things that happened. Ryou seemed like he’s still sulking, though, but since it’s him I feel like he’ll let it go and return to his old self eventually. But you aren’t in elementary school, so don’t skip practice over something like this.”

In Hakusan Park, which didn’t even have a tenth of the cherry blossoms that Yoyogi Park had, green buds were illuminated by the sunset glow.

Tomoki passed through the stone gate while thinking that today must be some sort of park day. He found Youichi perched on a bench in the shade of a tree.

“We’ve only got three people now.”

Tomoki sat shoulder-to-shoulder next to Youichi, and removed the black hood of his parka. Then he murmured slowly, “There’s only three people. Now, we’re thirteen-year-old boys diving in Tokyo. It’s only me, Reiji, and Ryou. Isn’t that a great thing? Among the tens of thousands of people who are the same age, we’re the only ones still diving. We know the pain of striking your body against water from a ten-meter platform…”

The pain of being swallowed by water while you faint. The skin that instantly swells up. The ache in your ear that gets stronger as you dive. The phantom lower-back pain—

“That’s why we thought we were special. Everyone’s personalities were completely different from each other’s, and I don’t think I’d want to associate with Ryou in particular apart from diving, but I thought we had something special that tied us together. So that’s why it was so shocking when those two turned the other way against me…”

Tomoki faltered at the end of his sentence, but then regained his strength.

“But, because there’s only three people, they were also pretty frustrated. While I was happy, I didn’t even think about their feelings, and I’m sorry about that.”

“Sorry, huh.” Youichi snorted. “You’re pretty soft-hearted, too.”

“Soft-hearted?”

“You’ve just won. Asaki Kayoko was paying more attention to your diving over Reiji’s and Ryou’s. Your talents were valued. There’s always a contest like this in sports. Even though everyone is doing it with that in mind, will you feel depressed every time you’ve won?”

“No, a contest is a contest, but my friends’ feelings…”

“LIsten, Tomo.”

Cutting Tomoki off, Youichi’s eyes were rippling. Usually his eyes only looked cool like that when he’s talking about diving.

“If you want to excite a hundred thousand spectators at a huge venue one day, you’ll have to forget about the one or two people beside you. If you pay attention to every single person close to you, you won’t have any energy left to excite those spectators.”

As the sun has completely set, the ultramarine of the night began to take over the red sky. It was like a fabric gradually fraying as it began to fade little by little.

Tomoki pondered Youichi’s words in his head, and suddenly smiled. If you pay attention to every single person close to you, you won’t have any energy left to feel the excitement of the spectators. Even though he said that, it was funny how he worried about Tomoki, who was close to him, and it made him happy.

“I can’t be like you, Youichi-kun, but I’ll continue diving. I don’t know what will happen with Reiji and Ryou, but I’ll try to do my best anyways.”

I’ll do my best anyways. After being troubled for three days, this was Tomoki’s conclusion.

I’ll do my best anyways. I’ll do my best anyways. I’ll do my best anyways.

Even though it really was a simple-minded conclusion, if he repeated it without being ashamed, he’d draw energy from it, in a way.

“Well, do your best anyways. If you’re not going to quit diving, there’s no reason for me to argue with you.” Youichi said without hesitation, then looked at his diver’s watch on his left hand. “Ah, Tomo. Do you still have time?”

“Yeah, a little.”

“Well then, let’s go to McDonald’s. My treat. I have something to ask you.”

While saying that, Youichi had already gotten up and turned his feet towards the gate.

They sometimes went to the McDonald’s in front of the station after returning from dryland training. Tomoki, who usually refrained from eating between meals, only slacked off against his better judgement when he was with Reiji and Ryou, and placed his hand on a forbidden hamburger. Tomoki was more curious about whether even Youichi sometimes ate hamburgers, than wanting to hear what he has to say,

The two of them rode their bikes and entered the restaurant, which was crowded with students.

When Youichi went to the counter and ordered only coffee, Tomoki felt somewhat defeated. When Youichi flatly refused the temptation of “Would you like fries with that?”, Tomoki also felt a lot of self-hatred. Youichi might have been unexpectedly keeping up that constant effort, since his diving friends kept a distance from him because they thought he was “dry” and “hard to talk to”.

However, the talk that Youichi started at a table stained with the smell of cheap oil was more interesting than he thought.

“Do you know why Asaki Kayoko isn’t showing up right now?”

“I think it’s because she went to Aomori.”

“So, that’s the purpose.”

“Well, she said she had something important to do there but…ah, and she also said something about bring back a souvenir.”

“Souvenir?”

“The souvenir is a rival, or something like that.”

The souvenir is a rival. Even though it sounded funny coming out of his mouth, Youichi didn’t laugh at all, and seemed to be thinking about something.

“Youichi-kun, do you know something?” When Tomoki asked, Youichi jutted his elbow out and said, “I’ll only say it here.”

“It’s Tsugaru’s Okitsu.” He whispered those words solemnly.

“Tsugaru’s…Okitsu?”

“Ah, if my intuition is correct, he’s the guy that Asaki Kayoko will try to set up to become your rival. Okitsu Shibuki. Sixteen years old. The phantom high school diver.”

The phantom high school diver, Okitsu Shibuki—

It was genuinely the first time that Tomoki had ever heard of that name. Regardless, not only was that name odd (4), but it also instinctively excited him somewhere within. At the moment Youichi spoke that name, Tomoki wondered why he was suddenly feeling so hot, and gripped the paper cup of his iced tea with both hands tightly.

He indented the paper, as the tangible feeling of ice spread to his palms.

As he listened to Youichi talking about his rival, Tomoki held the paper cup that partitioned off the ice until his fingertips became numb.

Translation Notes

1. The Palace of the Dragon King is the mythical undersea castle of the Japanese dragon god of the sea Ryujin. It appears in the myth of Urashima Tarou, where a turtle takes him to the undersea palace for three days, but it turns out that 300 years had passed in the future.

2. Tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), hamburger steak (beef shaped into patty), yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles)

3. So throughout this flashback Tomoki keeps using the word “ダイブ” (daibu), which is how Japanese people would say the English word “dive”, but Youichi uses “飛込み” (tobikomi), which are the kanji characters for “dive”. Tomoki was probably too young to know what they meant back then.

4. Shibuki (飛沫) means splash, so his name is literally “Splash Okitsu” lmfao. His grandfather, father, and little sisters have sea-themed names as well.

Next time on DIVE!!: Best boy arrives.

#dive!!#dive novel translation

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