#hiorin headcanons

[hiorintruther]

The scans have been out a few days now so I’m posting this. We just got Hiori’s backstory so let me expel more Hiorin headcanons onto you good people (seriously why are we so delusional abt this ship???) — obviously massive spoiler warning as of chapter 206 of the manga.

Also a cw for child abuse — these hcs pretty much all deal with their trauma:

Hiori and Rin have had a very long, very depressing trauma dump conversation about their families.

Rin has decided to add Hiori’s parents to the ‘I’ll fucking kill them’ list inside his head… which he totally has for no reason in particular…

Hiori likewise understands Rin’s resentment towards Sae deeply and doesn’t blame him at all for feeling so angry and upset.

The fact that the family members they hate are all telling them they aren’t good enough as they are (Sae explicitly, Hiori’s parents implicitly) ends up becoming a means of mutual understanding between them, allowing Hiori to feel a bit safer around Rin and Rin to not hate Hiori like he does the rest of Blue Lock.

Rin has tried to subtly allude to the idea that Hiori can move in with him at any time to get away from his family. Hiori has only half picked up on the signals though because a) Rin is shit at communicating anything nice, and b) Rin’s almost year younger than Hiori so it doesn’t actually make much sense to do that but it’s the thought that counts.

A lot of their conversations take place in the monitor room, in the dark, where they feel safest being vulnerable with each other (aka: see my fic on AO3).

Hiori has used dry, dark humour as a coping mechanism in front of Rin before and Rin has started doing it too occasionally.

So many “lol I hate my family, I hope they die, jk… unless?” jokes.

They end up having a mutual understanding for one another and can almost subconsciously pick up on when something reminds the other of their trauma.

For some more domestic, outside/no Blue Lock hcs (there’s a ton of food-related ones here idk why):

When they make dinner, Rin is sure to mix a healthy, balanced meal with convenience store foods coz Hiori hates eating a very strict diet. It reminds Hiori of the way his parents used to control everything about his life down to what he ate. Sometimes, Rin even makes a separate meal for himself because he wants to calorie count and know exactly what he’s eating, but Hiori’s had a bad day and really needs some instant ramen and pudding.

Hiori doesn’t have a big sweet tooth though, as a result of his parents’ conditioning. He didn’t grow up accustomed to sweet things so he finds anything too sugary difficult to eat (this comes from the egoist Bible where his least favourite food is cotton candy because of the sugar content). His love of salty food however is through the roof and Rin has to remind him to check the sodium contents on the meals he chooses at the convenience store.

Rin has stopped insulting or talking badly about Isagi around Hiori, purely because Hiori feels safe around Isagi. It’s a challenge, and mostly they try to keep Isagi out of their conversations altogether, but if he does come up Rin attempts to be neutral.

Sometimes, Hiori holes himself up in his computer room playing shooters. When that happens, Rin knows to leave him alone until he’s out of his slump, because it’s usually a sign that Hiori is remembering some bad memories. They both like their own space anyway, so it isn’t as if much changes in their routines.

While Hiori’s in a slump, Rin restocks their fridge with energy drinks and instant meals so Hiori can dip in and out to get food when he wants it. He eats alone unless Hiori texts him saying he’ll be out to get food.

Rin also doesn’t bring up anything to Hiori once Hiori re-emerges from his room, letting Hiori come to him if he wants to talk about it. Hiori knows Rin struggles with dealing with trauma, so he usually leaves it.

Once when Rin was having a particularly stressful time, Hiori bought him a whole box of his favourite ice creams (the ones he used to get on the way home from practice) and they had a competition to see who could get the most “winner” sticks. Rin won.

Hiori has also attempted to learn how to cook so he can make Rin food when Rin isn’t feeling up to cooking. Rin says he’ll just order takeout but Hiori insists on trying some of his recipes. How successful he is varies on how easy it is to throw the ingredients in a pan and let them simmer.

When sleeping together, they usually stick to their own sides of the bed but sometimes when Hiori is feeling upset he reaches out to Rin as a comfort. Rin isn’t the best at providing said comfort, but he lets Hiori into his arms in those moments.

On the flip-side, if Rin has been feeling angry or frustrated because of Sae, Hiori will slowly snake his arms around Rin’s torso and hug him close, becoming the big spoon despite being smaller. Rin places his hand over Hiori’s as a reassurance that he feels reassured doing this.

Sometimes, but not always, this nighttime cuddling leads to talking about their pasts. Rin always holds Hiori very close and says that Hiori was never in the wrong and never deserved to go through anything that happened as a result of his parents’ expectations (usually with a lot of colourful language). Hiori likewise will do the same for Rin whenever Sae gets brought up, although he’s less vulgar. His words are somehow even more scathing though.

They both find it easier to open up in the dark. It feels like a safety blanket that can hide their vulnerability, especially for Rin.

[chodzacaparodia]

🌵🍄🥤🎲🪐🥐🦋☁️🌸 some more if you have free time ofc

Hiii <3 I will always find time to answer questions (usually with a slight delay, but I will always answer them lmao) 🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

I really like this Shinso Hitoshi Kin/Simp playlist

(and this is longer, spotify version of this playlist)

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Maybe Hiorin this time?

Hiori and Rin like spending time together at home, watching movies (horror movies) and playing games together (not only do they play the same game together, but they also play alone, but next to each other). But apart from that, they like to go to haunted houses together or visit places that are believed to have paranormal activity. Rin not only likes horror movies, but is interested in paranormal phenomena, and Hiori, who became fascinated with Rin's hobby, suggested such trips to him. Hiori pretends to be scared and hugs Rin, asking him to protect him, and Rin, knowing he's joking, calls him an idiot and hugs him too.

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

Maybe Sakuatsu fic this time?

People Will Say We Are in Love by tirralirra

🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time? 

ME LMAO Seriously, it's my fault that I browse YouTube, tumblr, ao3, manga, books, Facebook, everything when I should be writing

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

I still have almost a week of vacation!!! Man, how I love having time off from work! And I can sleep little longer

Sooo I have time for my family and friends! Today I'm supposed to meet my friend! As long as these temperatures don't melt us sooner

Suo Hayato and Newt. My beloved characters. I'm in the middle of reading "Wind Breaker" and I just finished "Crank Palace" by James Dashner and will be starting "The Maze Cutter". I love these guys with all my heart. And now I've fallen into the Newtmas hole hahah

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately 

🥰🥰🥰

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

I once got an ask about my username and I answered it here

But basically song "Therapy" by All Time Low made me choose my username ♡

🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them

This is JJ!!!

Have a nice day! 💖

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

[boinin]

HioRin for 6, 17, 29, and 30

Hioriiiiiiin. They're such a lovely pairing, even constructed from crumbs 🥲 I just need them to nerd out about horror in canon, even once.

6. What is their favorite feature of their partner’s?

Rin above all is drawn to Hiori's calm kindness. Hiori has a presence that soothes Rin's demons and puts him on a more even keel. Yet Hiori has a spine, and isn't afraid to call Rin out when he's being a dick. Rin values that more than he'd admit.

Hiori sees through the edgelord to Rin's vulnerability. They bear similar scars, and when Hiori opens up to Rin about his parents, he's surprised by Rin's level of empathy towards his situation. Rin teaches Hiori that it's OK to rage and experience anger, rather than gloss over everything. Hiori also finds Rin adorable when he's flustered, and likes to tease him.

17. Who says I love you first?

He wouldn't say it aloud, but as for who'd show it first, it'd be Rin. Through his actions, he'd make it clear to Hiori how much he values him. Hiori has the emotional intelligence to realise what Rin won't say.

Then, Hiori would quietly say I love you one night as they're going to sleep. Rin panics, pretends to be already asleep, goes on to act erratically the following day, corners Hiori and asks him if he meant it, before accidentally revealing that he loves Hiori too mid-outburst.

From then on, they both say it at night, curled around one another as they're slipping into dreams.

29. One headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart

The headcanon that they both had abusive childhoods and trauma bond as a result. 😭 Them getting together despite their hangups and healing by each other's side is a heck of a trope.

30. One headcanon about this OTP that mends it

Love the idea of these two being introverts together, comfortable only in the other's company, playing horror games and binge watching movies on their days off.

[giggly-squiggily]

Oooooo hc eventtt!! Can you do something in blue lock for me? It’s Lee!Rin and Ler!Sae, my headcannon is when Rin and Sae reconciles, it takes Rin a while to adjust again so he may be a little bratty when talking to Sae, though his brattiness is just his way of playfully provoking Sae. But Sae does have an effective method to bring Rin to his knees, something he does back when they were kids.

I rlly need a reconciliation between these two istg😭🙏

(Headcanons to Dabbles: OFFICIALLY CLOSED)

AHHH! God I love this so much! We're writing all the brothers in this event! :D I've gotcha covered, anon! This headcanon is beyond adorable! :3

“Hm.”

“What?” Rin grunted at the sound, unsure if it was a laugh or a grunt. “What is it?”

“Nothing. I just remembered how much you like those.” Sae nodded at the owl phone case Rin was using. “It’s cute.”

The younger of the two fumed, cheeks warming at the comment. If the case wasn’t a gift from Hiori, he’d likely chuck it- burn it maybe. Oh how he hated that smirk on Sae’s face.

“I’m sure you’re used to being called that, given how much taller Shidou is to you.”

Sae froze, brow twitching. Rin knew he screwed up but didn’t care. “Take that back. Immediately.”

“No way.” He puffed his chest, refusing to back down. Okay- maybe a part of him wanted to do this. When was the last time he intentionally pissed off his brother?

Last week. But who’s really counting the days?

“Rin…” Sae turned to face him properly, the look on his face one that’d kill a lesser man. “Last chance.”

He should shut up. Count his blessings and run. Instead, he raised his chin.

“Make me.”

Silence. Sae narrowed his eyes at him.

Then…

“Gah!” Rin yelped when he was pulled back into his chair, already laughing as fingers dug into his ribs from behind. “Shihihihiht, yoohohou soohoohn of a bihihihihitch! Gheahahhaa, cuuuhuhuht it ohohohohohut!”

“I warned you, didn’t I?” Sae growled in his ear, no real malice in his words as he scribbled and dragged his fingers up and down his sides. “I told you to take it back, but you never listen. This is what happens when you act like a brat.”

“Gehahahahaha! Aheahahhhahaa!” Rin had no response, opting to sink down his chair in a vain attempt to get away from his brother’s tickly fingers. “Ohhoohokay, Ihiihihll lihihihisten! Stahhahap!”

“Hmm..alright.” Sae pulled back, dragging him back up his chair by the sleeve of his shirt before patting his head. “Behave.”

“I’ll think about it.” Rin muttered, earning a jab to the ribs. 

Worth it.

[galaxynajma]

hiori for character ask game not sure if you done him yet

Sexuality Headcanon: bi but with a preference for men

Gender Headcanon: trans because everyone in bllk can be trans ( him Isagi and Nanase are all getting their top surgery on the same day)

A ship I have with said character: hiosagi tabiori and hiorin

A BROTP I have with said character: probably team kindness <3 rare wholesome relationship in blue lock

A NOTP I have with said character: can’t think of one

A random headcanon: I like to think that he sleeps with Lofi music on mixed with rain sound effects

His biggest peeve is when a strand of eyelash hair gets in his eyes

Him and Karasu would play smash bros on the weekends ( Hiori would always win

General Opinion over said character: Hiori has to be one of my favorite character designs and honestly he’s pretty high up there with being my all time favs and I’m glad he’s getting the spotlight he deserves in the most recent chapters <3

[hiorintruther]

A comprehensive not-PowerPoint presentation on why I ship hiorin even though they’ve only interacted twice… and that’s being liberal with the word “interact”

(For @zevacheiznekam coz they asked me to 😌)

Do bear in mind that Hiorin as a ship is quite largely based in headcanon. While shippers like myself use canon as a basis to scrape whatever details we can about Hiori and Rin, their (brief) interactions and their personalities, canon material is more of an anchor from which several generally accepted headcanons have sprouted which we all kinda sorta abide by, although different people might have slightly different interpretations. This is just my interpretation. Also, this did sort of start as a crackship for me but then I started actually thinking about it and, uh, I don’t think it’s a crackship anymore when I’ve written nearly 50k words of fanfic for it on my AO3…

For starters, I began shipping Hiorin based on one singular interaction. It also happens to be the only one of two times where they properly talk to each other at all. This interaction (below) comes from the U-20 match, right after Rin has been roundhouse kicked in the face by Shidou. It was a moment that surprised me because despite spending the match getting progressively more and more aggressive to everyone else, Rin here isn’t aggressive towards Hiori. He lets Hiori help him up and they even manage to engage in a very brief but mutual conversation.

Now sure, Hiori is just being nice here and Rin is probably a bit stunned. They haven’t interacted since this moment in the manga and likely won’t again in any real capacity. Still, it was this interaction that got me trying to imagine what it might look like if they could be closer — mostly in the context of Rin actually being able to make a proper friend. He does seem to have a certain level of tolerance for Hiori that he doesn’t for the rest of Blue Lock (which I’ll explain later), plus Hiori is probably the only one patient, kind AND calm enough to be capable of being Rin’s friend without Rin despising it. Other kind characters like Nanase and Bachira are in my opinion too bubbly and talkative in canon for Rin’s more broody personality (although I do love a good sunshine x storm-cloud ship don’t get me wrong). Meanwhile, Hiori is equally as kind but calmer. More quiet. He’s also not got a drive to try and defeat Rin or devour him, which I think Rin would appreciate given he hates people who do try to go against him like Isagi and Shidou.

The only other substantial interaction we have for hiorin comes from the Third Selection tryouts match in which they’re placed on the same team. I’ve already made a post about it so go to that here for the relevant screenshots from the manga. I will copy over the conclusions from the post though. From this match I inferred that:

Hiori can keep up with Rin like it’s a regular day (speaking to Hiori’s adaptability)

This, for Rin, translates to “Hiori is reliable”

Rin can trust Hiori to definitely get the ball to where it needs to be if they cooperate, even though they’ve never played together before (and they didn’t even discuss a plan beforehand but were able to immediately link up without issue — see again Hiori being adaptable)

Rin doesn’t look down on Hiori the way he does with Isagi or Shidou, probably because he doesn’t see Hiori as a threat or insulting

This concludes all of their interactions in the manga. From here, me and other shippers use these small conclusions from canon as well as canon-adjacent information from things like the Egoist Bible Character Book to build a hypothetical situation in which they ARE able to start talking to each other more often and build a bond. Most of the fics about this pairing that take place in the canon universe will deal with overcoming the hurdle of ‘getting them to actually interact’. For us shippers, after that hurdle has been cleared it’s rather smooth sailing to imagine a relationship forming for a lot of reasons.

To begin, the obvious thing to focus on is their similar backstories. More specifically, the emotional responses they have to their backstories and how it could be a source of understanding between them (spoilers for the manga up to chapter 206). The resentment Rin holds towards Sae is incredibly similar to the resentment Hiori holds towards his parents. Both have canonically been shown wanting to hurt/kill their family members due to how these family members treated them, as well as the feelings of false love associated with these family members being a big part of why Rin and Hiori want to hurt them. Rin feels betrayed by Sae because he thinks Sae pretended to love him and care about him in their childhood to further his own ambition only to throw it all away like it was meaningless, meanwhile Hiori feels that his parents don’t actually love him and only want him to be the best because they never could be. This similarity is something that us shippers tend to use as way for Hiori to be able to understand Rin in a way that other characters can’t, as well as a way for Rin to be able to actually articulate his emotions surrounding Sae to someone who is able to understand him to a certain degree and won’t think he’s being “too edgy” or “over-reacting”. We can count in Hiori to not be judgemental of Rin.

Beyond their families though, the two of them just have similar interests and personalities. Rin likes horror games (Egoist Bible) and Hiori is a gamer. They’re both quiet, more reserved and Hiori’s ideal type in a romantic partner is someone who will leave him alone a lot (Blue Lock wiki). They’re ‘no-nonsense’ people who prefer to be blunt and to the point. It might seem a bit superficial but considering they basically never interact, it’s rather a lot to go on.

Overall, the completely made up dynamic that has been created by us shippers after taking all of this information into account goes something like this:

Rin doesn’t find Hiori as annoying or threatening as the rest of Blue Lock because Hiori is adaptable, no-nonsense and doesn’t try to come for Rin’s position as number 1

Hiori has an understanding of Rin’s trauma because he himself experienced something incredibly similar

They get over the ‘start talking’ hurdle and begin to realise that they actually have similar interests and can hold a conversation for longer than 2 seconds

The relationship builds from there, with Hiori being the ‘exception’ in Rin’s life and Rin being a safety where Hiori can talk about his true feelings without having to filter himself or be kind

In terms of other headcanons, these are a couple that I’ve seen floating around:

Neither of them like PDA very much. You might see them holding hands if you’re lucky

They play co-op together a lot, especially co-op horror games

They don’t pry into each other’s business. If one of them wants to talk about something, they will

They have the type of relationship where they’ll sit in silence not talking to each other for 30 minutes, then one nudges the other a bit and suddenly they’re cuddling (only in private, obviously)

They have had many long, depressing trauma-dump sessions with each other

It isn’t a depressing relationship though, mostly because Hiori is a light in Rin’s life and Rin feels like he can be more ‘the old him’ around Hiori (see: Rin’s light novel)

They both like striped clothing (see: Rin’s casual design and Hiori’s onesie, coaster design and child design)

And with that, I have finally finished my overly long, overly indulgent explanation into why I and others ship hiorin. It’s 3am for me rn so I might have missed smth so if any other hiorin shippers out there in the aether wanna drop in with their perspectives and/or stuff I forgot to mention, feel free! As for @zevacheiznekam, I hope this answered your question and you didn’t get too bored half way through 😅

(Also, if you wanna see some hiorin artwork, uh, shameless plug)

Sources used:

Blue Lock manga

Egoist Bible

Blue Lock light novels (we’re actually getting a Hiori one later this year which will hopefully add some fuel to the hcs!)

Nomura’s art

[boinin]

Ok, so I wanna see 20 for HioRin and RyuSae, but I’m curious what their reactions are to each other, rather than just the parents.

sure! sorry for the delay, I had guests this weekend so I couldn't squirrel away writing as I usually do. Ask game here, willing to answer for ships for a few more days if anyone's got questions they'd like answered.

20. What do their family/friends HioRin think of their relationship RyuSae?

Sae tells Rin one day, without preamble. Just I'm dating Ryuusei, like he's telling the time. Rin's shoulders bunch and a hundred responses run through his mind, each of them more lukewarm than the last. He settles on OK, returning his attention to the slasher film he'd been watching. Sae lingers for a moment, before slipping away silently.

When he's gone, Rin sinks his head into his hand and barks out a groan. Does his shitty brother do everything in his power to piss him off?

He tells Hiori about it online, when they play games later that night, failing to keep the venom from his voice. Hiori hums softly as Rin tails off, keyboard and mouse clacking as he takes out the zombies that were about to swarm Rin on-screen.

Would Sae have told ya if he didn't care? Hiori eventually asks, after carrying both of them to first place; Rin's too preoccupied to contribute to their rank. I don't understand why he picked Shidou-kun of all people—and I don't know him like you do—but if it wasn't a big deal to him, I don't think he'd have said anythin' at all.

Rin grunts and changes the subject, and Hiori indulges him, cheerful in spite of his sullen mood.

But the next morning, when Sae leaves his bedroom, Rin is waiting for him in the hallway. Warn me if you're inviting him over, he says over crossed arms. And don't expect me to talk to him.

Sae simply nods and pushes past him to the bathroom. The tension in Rin's shoulders ease a little. Life goes on.

20. What do RyuSae think of HioRin?

Sae's not really sure when Hiori stopped being a friend I play with online and started being the guy I sneak into my room while everyone's out of the house. He catches them one morning, brushing their teeth in the bathroom. Hiori smiles and waves, cheeks a dainty pink. Rin's face turns scarlet.

Rin refuses to address the situation, but he stops sneaking around. Hiori comes over frequently—his parents are lukewarm, Rin explains when Sae asks. Rin hasn't been calling him a shitty brother as much lately. Only once, after Sae asks to make sure the two of them are being responsible, prompting Rin to call him a hypocrite after what he's been forced to overhear when Shidou stays over. Sae concedes his brother has a point. After that, he buys spare condoms and mouldable earplugs to leave in their shared bathroom.

Shidou is pleasantly surprised at Rin's character development. When he congratulates Rin on becoming less lukewarm himself, he narrowly dodges the resulting punch. But they turn a corner eventually. When he notices Rin's nervousness before one of he and Hiori's first public dates, Shidou sits down with him and offers some advice. None of it is received well, but Rin's less uptight by the time the doorbell rings.

Shidou's the driver between the four of them hanging out together. Hiori's reasonably easy to win over, and Sae quietly values Shidou making an effort with his brother. They'll pull up party games on an old console—Hiori usually wins, so the competition's really for second place. Shidou also enjoys making food for all four of them. The one and only time Rin willingly compliments Shidou is on his cookery.

---

Overall, I think Hiori would give Shidou the benefit of the doubt, when it's clear the animosity between Shidou and Rin has eased. Both good-natured, they'd eventually bond and enjoy teaming up to tease their Itoshis. Rin wouldn't warm to Shidou exactly, but he'd eventually find himself missing the buzz Shidou creates when he's around. Shidou borderline flirts with Rin and does his best to win him over, undeterred by his glares. In time, Rin would ask Shidou about the things he doesn't want to talk to Sae about. They still clash, but become brotherly in a different way to Rin and Sae.

[hiorintruther]

An Updated ‘Reasons Why I Ship Hiorin’ — Because It’s Been Ages Since I Made The First One And I’ve Had More Thoughts (and we got more moments!)

Aka: can you tell this ship makes me mentally unwell?

Hi again! It’s been a while. I did make one of these long posts a while back outlining why I choose to ship hiorin even though they’ve barely interacted and on the surface don’t look like they’d make sense at all. Since then, hiorin has gained quite a few shippers in the fandom and I keep thinking about the ship, especially with the Bastard Munchen vs PXG game FINALLY giving us some new crumbs. Unsurprisingly, ever since making the first post I’ve also had a lot more ideas about the dynamic, its potential, some more connections between them that I never touched on before, etc… and rather than editing the other post I thought it would be easier to just make a new one.

Some stuff I go over here might be familiar from the first post. I want this to be a kind of hub for any and all of my hiorin interpretations, analysis, trivia, headcanons, ‘theories’ (which I don’t think will be canon but the narrative potential for them is through the roof) and anything else I think is relevant to the ship. Feel free to jump around and read whatever is most interesting for you. Hiorin is a ship that, for me, is built on mountains of untapped potential. I just want to bring that potential to light all in one place.

Note: for this post I’ll only use information that has been written by Kaneshiro, drawn by Nomura or Sanomiya, or has otherwise been green-lit by Kaneshiro as canon. Merch collabs, voice actor QnAs, the PWC game etc… for me do not count as canon and I won’t use them. Also, the 10-image limit is biting my ass so my formatting for certain bits might be a bit all over the place. Apologies.

So without further ado. Let’s start! Enjoy the yap sesh!

Part 1 — The Manga Canon

Hiorin get their (very sparse and brief) interactions mostly from the Third Selection Arc (chapters 87-108) and the U20 arc (chapters 109-151). We’re also recently getting some new moments in the BM vs PXG match (chapters 250-present).

First off: the tryouts. It’s implied here that Hiori and Rin have never met, as Hiori notices Isagi’s response to Rin and asks if Isagi knows who Rin is. Rin also doesn’t acknowledge Hiori in any way here, so we can presume they’re strangers (although some shippers like to headcanon that they met during the first selection).

That being said during the match, after Isagi has been thoroughly shut down by Karasu, Rin turns his attention to Hiori as a teammate to help him get the ball up the field. Rin has never seen Hiori play before (as far as we know). They’ve never even talked. They’re barely getting familiar with each other’s play styles. And yet, they immediately link up to form a clean back and forth that optimises Rin’s play style. In fact, this duo helps Rin score 1 goal, and it would have helped Rin score 2 had Shidou not rudely interrupted the second.

It’s so deadly that Otoya has to intervene specifically to break them up, so that they can no longer continue their one-two passes up the field and threaten to go for another goal. (Also notice in this page below how as soon as the kickoff happens, Hiori is already running into position in the background. He understands what Rin wants to do).

Not only did Hiori and Rin naturally form a link-up, but Hiori was also fully capable of keeping up with Rin, something Nanase admitted he struggled with during this match and even Isagi was struggling with as well, since later on we see Isagi fail to intercept one of Hiori’s passes due to not being able to reach it in time (which presumably Rin would have been able to were he in Isagi’s position). So, from what we see of Hiori and Rin in this match, they’re on a similar wavelength in terms of skills, field vision and gameplay, and are naturally able to link up even as strangers. I’ll note here that neither of them were playing at full power — Hiori was playing on 0 motivation, and Rin was still utilising his Puppeteer play style instead of his Destroyer. More on this later in the ‘Headcanons’ section.

After the Tryouts, we next see them interact in the U20 match. We start with a brief callback to their tryouts link up in chapter 132, where Rin passes to Hiori. Hiori is acting as a relay between Isagi and Rin, which in my opinion would be a good way to utilise him after the NEL. Whether or not that’s how Kaneshiro chooses to use him in the future is anyone’s guess though.

The next big moment comes in chapter 140, after Shidou has kicked Rin in the face and the game has briefly paused. I think this is by far the most ‘iconic’ hiorin moment. While Isagi is analysing the previous play and Karasu is arguing with the ref, Hiori is the only one who actually checks on Rin. Even Bachira and Reo were right next to Rin and neither of them go to him. Hiori was further down the field but he moved to help Rin first. Not only is he gentle with and worried for Rin, but by some miracle Rin actually accepts his help! It feels almost out of character, given how angry Rin is for the rest of the match, but for this very brief moment he lets Hiori help him up and reassures him that he’s ‘fine’ (yeah sure buddy…).

For many this is the main ‘ooooooh’ moment with hiorin. But what if I told you it actually happens a second time this match? After Aiku goes rogue in chapter 142 and tries to score a goal, Rin ends up slide-tackling him to prevent it. And once again, if you look in the background of the panels following the interception in chapter 143, who is it helping Rin stand? It’s Hiori. And this time they actually hold hands!

The final hiorin moment in the U20 match comes soon after this in chapter 144, when Rin is about to enter his Destroyer mode. When Rin enters Destroyer mode, Hiori is in possession of the ball and so Rin steals it from him in a completely unpredictable move that had everyone stunned.

The U20 match moments, for many of us hiorin shippers, felt like the last time we’d ever see them properly interact. I at least had zero hopes for PXG. But oh boy was I wrong! Kaneshiro might not realise the dynamic he’s setting up with this duo but I’m gonna milk every interaction for what they’re worth! And so with that, I’ll bring you to the BM vs PXG match (note: currently still ongoing, so I’ll update this section as we get more moments). Since the U20 match, we’ve had some changes. The biggest one is Hiori’s personality. After going through his arc in Ubers, Hiori has become more outspoken and confident, playing into his ‘Ultra-Sadist’ style and being more than happy to speak his mind. He’s more argumentative and can whip up a good piece of trash talk (my gamer boy fr!). We see this on full display in chapter 251 when he completely shuts down Rin’s goal opportunity because Rin was too focussed on Isagi to see the bigger picture of the match. Hiori turns around, points at Rin, and tells him “if ya want a goal… come at me with an unpredictable script!”

Notice here how he isn’t simply putting Rin down for not being able to score. Hiori may be taunting Rin, perhaps getting over-confident, but he does still technically give Rin helpful advice. In a previous panel he explains how he was able to read Rin because Rin was too focussed on Isagi, and in combination with Hiori’s ‘unpredictable script’ line it forms some rather blunt and rude but nevertheless useful advice. Hiori is telling Rin exactly how to get past him and what Rin needs to do to improve. Notice the focus on unpredictability. I personally think this is a line foreshadowing Rin’s Destroyer mode, even if Hiori himself is unaware of it. Even if it’s not foreshadowing, Hiori’s advice is reasonable and Rin should listen to it.

The next moment we have of them together is from chapter 259, where Hiori is aided by Raichi to block Rin in a 2-person press, causing Rin to lose the ball. From a purely indulgent, shipping perspective, notice how Hiori’s and Rin’s legs are touching, their hands are on each other’s chests and they’re looking at each other. Raichi is just there lol.

Next we have chapter 270, where Rin has started to awaken his Destroyer and is barrelling his way through BM’s various players. Hiori is one of the players Rin gets past with ease. Rin gets past him with a rainbow flick, to which Hiori acknowledges Rin awakening by saying ‘he is good’. Note here that he is the only player on BM’s side to get actual dialogue in response to Rin overpowering them.

And as of right now, the latest interaction comes from chapter 273. Rin has entered Destroyer mode and has completely overwhelmed Hiori. Isagi actually says in this chapter that Rin has become someone he can’t analyse, a completely unreadable beast of a player. I think this means the ‘unpredictable script’ Hiori spoke of truly is the Destroyer, and Rin has finally been able to get past Hiori with it.

This may be it for their canon interactions, however it’s far from all the canon information we have about them that’s interesting for the dynamic. A big part of the hiorin ship is about looking at their individual information and drawing together similarities and/or parallels. While on the surface they seem very different, almost opposites, digging a little deeper reveals a lot of small coincidences about them that build up to make you realise that they’re a lot more similar than you might initially think.

Part 2 — Where Hiori and Rin Align

Analytical players. Both of them are capable of deeply analytical play styles that utilises field vision and high levels of technical skills. This way of playing doesn’t rely on brute strength or pure intimidation to get through the opponents’ defence, rather analysis, playing with and overcoming their opponents with strategy and out-playing their opponents with sheer levels of skill. This similarity is likely what led to them to be able to so easily link up when they first met. Rin is however also capable of being the Destroyer, which leads me to my second point below.

Sadism. Both are known sadists. Rin’s Destroyer mode is particularly sadistic, aiming to destroy in every way to the point where he will give up goal opportunities to destroy even more. In general, he revels in being at the top, destroying others under him. He’s open with his insults and destroys chaotically, looking for breaks in his opponents’ defence and completely tearing them down until there’s no hope of his opponents winning. Meanwhile Hiori is a self-proclaimed “ultra-sadist”. After his arc, he enjoys watching his opponents scramble to try and keep up with him only to be destroyed by his top-tier plays, especially in a ‘best play’ scenario with his chosen striker of the moment. He’s also not loyal to any one striker and will leave them behind if they’re not playing up to his standards or goal vision. Hiori’s sadism also manifests as him teasing his friends, as we see in chapter 241 when he jokingly teases Isagi for getting shipped with Kaiser by BLTV fans.

Sae connections. Rin’s connections to Sae are obvious, since they’re brothers and Sae is the cornerstone of Rin’s character arc. Hiori also has connections to Sae though. He’s been compared to Sae twice in-universe, once by Sendou in chapter 129 who said his passes had the same level of skill as Sae’s, and once by Yukimiya in chapter 241 who thinks Hiori’s ultra-sadist mindset is similar to Sae’s.

Replacements. In Rin’s light novel, he tells Sae that once Sae is gone, he’ll “find a replacement”. In chapter 239, Hiori tells Isagi that he won’t just be loyal to Isagi and will happily replace him with another striker should they be in a better position for Hiori’s vision.

They’re both gamers. Obviously we know Hiori is one. That’s been a big part of his character ever since we first met him. However, Rin also plays video games, specifically horror games. We get this info from both the Egoist Bible and his prequel light novel, where it explains that he plays horror games to de-stress at night: (chapter 2) “… even games, should be chilling and scary. Playing horror games alone at night is quite thrilling”.

Horror, gore and zombies. As well as playing horror games to de-stress, it’s explained in the Egoist Bible and Rin’s light novel that he watches horror movies for the same reason: (chapter 2) “When he’s done, he watches a horror movie and then goes to bed. This is his daily routine. For some reason, since Sae has been gone, he only watches horror movies. Movies, videos …”. The light novel slightly expands on this to specify that he enjoys splatter films, as well as showing an illustration of him watching rather a gory zombie movie: (chapter 4) “Lately, he's been into splatter films. The one where a killer comes out with an electric saw and a big-ass ax, then blood splatters all over the place. The one where a killer chases you no matter how hard you try to escape, and if you get caught, you end up being dismembered. His heart is pounding, but he’s not the type to show on his face, so Rin watching the slaughter scene without any expression on his face is much more horrifying”. Likewise, Hiori is shown in chapter 206 playing a zombie shooter in which he imagines the zombies becoming his parents and he violently kills them. We see his inner monologue of this in his prequel light novel, showing the depths of how much he wants them to suffer: (chapter 6) “Before he knew it, in his imagination, his parents became zombies. His father and mother are coming towards him, laughing. He shoots without hesitation. Bang! Headshot. The bullet that entered the father's jaw blew off the back of his head. Bang! Bang! His mother's eyeballs pop out and there's a hole in her chest. He aims for vital spots with rapid fire, but they don't fall easily because they're zombies”. Bonus point: Hiori’s favourite movie, Ready Player One, features an important series of scenes where the main characters have to explore a replica of the hotel from The Shining. The Shining is Rin’s favourite movie.

Solitude. Rin is ranked as the most anti-social member of Blue Lock in the Egoist Bible. He says he “doesn’t have time for lukewarm conversations” (although I do think on some level he longs for approval and love from someone, given how much he craves his brother’s attention). He is also one of the only characters who genuinely has no friends in Blue Lock. He tolerated Bachira for a time and trained Nanase begrudgingly, but no one is very close with him at all. Now, at a glance Hiori might seem far more social. He has a lot of friends and seems to enjoy hanging out with them. However, in a Twitter QnA (which tend to have questions compiled for the Egoist Bible or character profiles, but alas Hiori doesn’t have one compiled yet) it was revealed that his ideal type in a romantic partner is “someone who can leave me alone”. The wording he used — 放置し合えるん — seems to imply a reciprocal nature of this ‘leaving alone’, ie ‘you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone’. Now tell me that arrangement wouldn’t work perfectly for Rin? Hiori is also shown in chapter 172 (which is before his character arc) spending time alone in the BM dorms while the others are out training. While Hiori can enjoy socialising, he also needs plenty of time to himself to the point where it becomes a deal-breaker in a relationship for him.

Ochazuke (tea on rice). Rin’s favourite food according to the Egoist Bible is ochazuke, specifically taichazuke. In the Episode Rin extra chapter we see him going to enjoy some taichazuke at a traditional restaurant because he was hungry for ochazuke. When Hiori was asked in another Twitter QnA what his favourite accompaniment for rice is, he replied that it’s the ochazuke brand Nagatanien.

Stripes. Rin’s casual outfits for both the Shibuya collab (designed by Nomura) and Episode Rin feature a striped/ribbed pattern. Likewise, Hiori’s casual pyjamas, childhood design and one of Nomura’s coaster designs feature him wearing striped clothing.

Eyelashes. Both of them have long under-lashes. That’s kinda it for this one lol.

Water connections. Hiori’s favourite season is the rainy season and he has been referred to as ‘water coloured’ in the manga due to his hair colour (it means ‘cyan’ in Japanese — see point 12). Rin’s aura is water and he is regularly connected to the sea in his hometown of Kamakura.

Name kanji (yes, I’m in this deep). In Rin’s surname, the kanji 糸 means ‘thread/yarn’. In Hiori’s surname, the kanji 織 means ‘weaver’. Both of them have kanji relating to weaving, likely in relation to both Rin’s Puppeteer play style (and Sae’s insane control of the midfield), and Hiori’s way of ‘weaving’ together a best play through his skills (and his parents ‘weaving’ his life for him rather than letting him control it himself). To get even more conspiracy theorist-y, when Charles meets Hiori he calls Hiori “水色お兄さん” — literally ‘water-coloured big brother’, likely in relation to his hair colour because 水色 can also mean ‘cyan’. To keep it on the topic of water though, whose aura is made of water? That’s right. Rin’s! (yes I know this is really grasping at straws but I did say this post was for EVERYTHING hiorin).

Part 3 — Family Relationships: Love, Expectations and Abandonment

Rin and Hiori both have relationships with particular members of their family that are similar and also unique among the rest of the cast. For Rin, it’s his relationship with Sae. For Hiori, it’s his relationship with his parents.

To begin with Hiori, his parents only wanted a child who could fulfil their dream of being number one in the world at a particular sport. They held this expectation of him throughout his whole life, pretending to genuinely care about and love him when in reality all they wanted was for him to be the best. If he tried to step out of line, they’d become monstrous, as seen in his light novel: (chapter 2) “Can I take a day off from soccer tomorrow and go play with my friends?” As soon as he said this, the smiles disappeared from his parents’ faces. His mother looked very surprised, and then she made the scariest face he's ever seen. “......!” He doesn’t remember what she said. He just remembers that he was scolded terribly. After that, he was hugged tightly. “Hiori, you are born to be the best at soccer.” “You can play with other kids anytime you want.” “But if you don’t do soccer properly from now on, you will never be the best.” His mother was desperate. His father was behind her, looking sadly at Hiori. “Please, Hiori, trust us and play soccer.” Hiori felt that he had done something very wrong. … What should I do? I said something bad. I'm sorry. The air was stifling, as if he had been locked in a room full of needles. He felt like he would get hurt if he moved, so all Hiori could do was nod.” We also see the extent of this in chapter 206, when Hiori overhears his parents threatening to get a divorce if he isn’t the best. This makes him realise that if he doesn’t fulfil their expectations, his parents don’t want him. In essence, they would abandon him, letting their family fall apart and blaming it all on him.

With Rin, it’s a bit more complicated. His relationship with his older brother Sae is still pretty up in the air as to what really happened from Sae’s perspective. We need to distinguish between what actually happened (which is difficult to determine as of right now) and what Rin interpreted as happening. From his perspective, he has a moment in chapter 125 where he thinks Sae pretended to love him while they were growing up, only using him as a stepping stone to get to the world stage. After that had been achieved, Rin presumes was abandoned. This is unlikely true though (even if it’s tricky to discern for now). This is where I cry on deaf ears for a Sae light novel or spin-off chapter, anything to get his side of the story. My current PERSONAL interpretation of canon is that Sae still loves Rin, however he knows that Rin’s desire to be the world’s best as a duo is impossible, and his way of trying to ween Rin off such a dream was to sever their relationship, he just went about it in perhaps the worst way possible. No matter what really happened though, I’m more interested in what Rin interpreted from being abandoned, which is a mix of hatred and confusion but also still a desire for recognition.

This to me reads as very similar to what Hiori’s relationship with his parents used to be before his arc. Hiori hated his parents. He wished death upon them. And yet, despite that he kept fighting for what they wanted, fulfilling their expectations because he was so afraid that if he didn’t, all the blame would be placed on him for their family falling apart. Rin’s situation is sort of a dark mirror to Hiori’s, where instead of just fearing that abandonment, Rin was abandoned, with all the blame being placed on him by Sae. And yet, deep down, he’s still fighting for Sae’s approval again, trying to find any way he can to fulfil Sae’s expectations. We see this in the way Rin chose Isagi to be his rival after the U20 match not because of anything in particular that Isagi has done, but because Sae acknowledged Isagi. We see Rin’s desire for love in the way he travelled to Tokyo in the Episode Rin extra chapter to possibly watch Sae’s match, even though they’d already fallen out by that point. Even as recently as chapter 273, where Rin gives up a goal opportunity because, to him, Sae wouldn’t approve of it.

Rin and Hiori both strove for love from their families, it’s just that Hiori has now managed to break free from this mindset and fight only for himself, meanwhile Rin is still clinging to the memory of Sae no matter how much he wants to crush Sae for abandoning him. This complicated relationship with love, expectation and abandonment is what draws me to a lot of hiorin’s potential. They both exist at different points along a trajectory of breaking free from their families’ expectations, with Hiori having decided to not try to appease his family anymore meanwhile Rin is still chasing after Sae, perhaps fruitlessly.

Part 4 — Headcanons: Some Fun Ideas

Anything from this point on is pure headcanon, taking into account all the canon information listed in the previous sections. This is NOT ‘speculation’. I genuinely don’t think any of this will be canon. Kaneshiro hasn’t consciously laid the groundwork for Rin and Hiori to interact but he has done so by accident and all the pieces are in place. This section is all about some fun ideas I’ve had about hiorin, mostly trying to use canon as a strong basis so that they make sense. These can range from canon-adjacent to domestic AU material, it’s a whole mix really. I’ll probably come back to this bit every now and again to update it with new ideas I have, so keep an eye out for that.

A shared understanding. Since they’re both familiar with what they perceive to be feelings of false love from family members, it creates a situation where they can understand why they act the way they do better than anyone else. I hc that this would help them to more naturally form link-ups on the field, since they’d be in tune with each other’s mental states as well as general play styles. Off-field they’d be able to recognise when something has ticked the other off or resurfaced some unpleasant memories. I don’t think they’d really be ones to talk about their family traumas to each other openly, but they’d have an understanding of the things they do find out and wouldn’t think the other is overreacting, especially Hiori understanding Rin. While I think it’s good that Rin has friends like Nanase who he can be more chilled out with, I personally prefer the idea that his partner is someone who can actually understand the depths of his issues and sit with him in the eye of the storm until it passes, rather than trying to just ‘fix’ him without being able to understand him properly.

Touch-starved and both slow to physical affection. Since they’re both introverted and Rin is emotionally constipated as hell, they aren’t really a couple that would be very into PDA. Not even hand-holding. But it doesn’t really matter for them. They’re both not very used to that sort of physical comfort especially in the presence of others. However, while I think in general Rin might be a bit more reluctant to initiate intimacy than Hiori, I do think he’d still be more inclined to initiate hugs. Why Rin of all people? Because he grew up with a sibling. And he was a younger sibling at that. On some level he would have received attention from Sae while their relationship was still good, even if only a little bit. Hiori on the other hand grew up an only child in a household where hugs and doting were used as a tool to manipulate him. He’d likely not be used to the idea of hugs as a genuine show of affection. But Rin’s hugs are always genuine and often given out sparingly and tentatively, after a lot of hesitation. They’re both slow to physical affection but they’d find a way to navigate their wants and needs together, taking their time.

All-nighter horror dates. Be it playing co-op horror games or binging horror movies in the dark, I think they’d both prefer that as a date night over going out to a restaurant. It’s an activity they can both have fun with as a shared interest, just the two of them, alone at home with no need to even leave the house. They can let themselves get more passionate and competitive (and sadistic) while playing horror games too.

Owl eyes. According to the Egoist Bible, Rin’s favourite animal is owls (a lot of Nomura’s Rin drawings also feature owls, he has a plushie of an owl in chapter 270 and he wears a ‘fukurou’ (owl) bag in the Episode Rin extra chapter). It is also a fandom-wide thing to say that Hiori has giant eyes. While most people compare Hiori’s eyes to bugs, I’d like to offer comparing them to owl eyes — giant, round, staring into your soul maybe a bit too much. Hiori has owl eyes and Rin loves owls, so I headcanon that Rin would love Hiori’s large, curious eyes more than anyone.

Yoga together. While we only have canonical confirmation that Rin both regularly does yoga and is good at it, I hc that Hiori would also be quite good at it due to his parents likely drilling him with intense schedules and being helicopter parents about his health. Yoga would likely fall into it somewhere as a cool-down activity and a good way to exercise on rainy days. While Hiori initially wouldn’t find yoga fun to do with Rin due to his negative associations with it, I feel like over time it could be a nice bonding activity for the two of them. It requires minimal talking if they’re doing their own routines, and as long as Hiori isn’t messing up the moves I think Rin would tolerate the two of them existing in the same space. At the very least, Hiori wouldn’t try to one-up Rin with moves he can’t do and topple onto Rin as a result (looking at you, Isagi…). They wouldn’t do couples yoga though, just their own thing in the same space.

Sharing food. In the Twitter QnAs, it states that Hiori’s favourite food is salt-grilled saury (saury shiyoyaki) “including the bitter bits”. His least favourite food is cotton candy because “it’s just sugar”. Therefore, I hc that he tends to enjoy bitter food while disliking sweet food. In contrast, we know that Rin quite likes sweet food because he used to eat ice cream with Sae on the way home from practice, plus in the Episode Rin extra chapter he enjoys most blanc at a dessert cafe. Because of this difference in tastes, I like to hc Hiori giving any sweet food Blue Lock offers in their meals to Rin. Likewise, if the main meal Rin is given is ever burnt or charred too much for his liking, he gives the charred bits to Hiori since he knows Hiori will eat them so the food won’t be wasted.

Tea and coffee. As an addendum to the previous hc, I think Hiori would be a coffee drinker and Rin would be a tea drinker. This is because coffee tends to be more bitter, especially ones without sugar like espressos, so I can see Hiori preferring them to tea. There’s also the idea that ochazuke is made with tea, which is a bonus for Rin liking tea over coffee.

Cooking. Last food-related one I promise! While Hiori likely has a ton of technical knowledge about nutrition, dieting, calorie counting etc… due to his mother’s frenzied control of his diet growing up, I headcanon that he doesn’t actually have a clue how to cook. Once again, this is because of his parents being overprotective and worrying that he’d injure himself with a kitchen knife or burn himself on the stovetop. So he has zero clue about where to start in the kitchen. On the flip-side, while Rin isn’t the best cook in the world I reckon he’d have somewhat of an idea of how to cook the basics, plus he likely also has knowledge of dieting and nutrition for the sake of his own health. So while they’d both have things to learn in the kitchen, it would be Rin doing more of the actual cooking while Hiori decides what meals to eat to optimise their health and training.

A joint-aura that’s a blizzard — in the event that they ever were to team up on the field, I think that the aura they’d give off together should be a blizzard. It makes sense to me for them to have this because Hiori has ice associations with the kanji 氷 in his surname, which means ‘ice’, and in chapter 239 when he gives his monologue about finding a reason to play, a metaphorical key appears with a snowflake on it to symbolise his newfound resolve. Rin’s connections to snow are less positive though, since it was snowing the day that Sae abandoned him. I think making their joint aura a blizzard could symbolise both Hiori’s ultra-sadist resolve to play, and Rin finally being able to move on from Sae to associate the snow with his sadistic determination. A snowstorm joint-aura would also emphasise the pair of them having a sadistic, destructive take-down of their opponents.

Hiori has a type. His canon type is already ‘someone who will leave me alone’ as I previously discussed in section 2. However, I do like to semi-jokingly say that his type is also ‘dark-haired, analytical guys with an attitude who are really good at football’. Obviously this is meant to refer mostly to Isagi and Karasu (we’ve all seen the heart-eyes you give them, Hiori!), but it is amusing to me that the description also fits Rin perfectly.

Part 5 — Transformative Works I Recommend For New Shippers

These are just some of my favourite fanfics all linked together in one place. I’ll start with a shameless plug of my own fic:

14 Days To NOT Fall In Love (but guess who did anyway)

Summary: This annoyingly mandated break of Ego's was only fourteen days long. That would never be enough time for Rin to fall for this aggravatingly sweet, understanding, level-headed, cyan-haired gamer boy... Okay, maybe he'd need to exercise SOME restraint. Aka: how Rin and Hiori become mutually pining idiots after the U-20 match through a combination of video games, late night discord calls and learning that perhaps they're not all that different after all.

(Chapters: 10 , Word Count: 67088 , Rating: T)

And now for my personal favourites I think new shippers will enjoy, in no particular order (if any of the authors see this and have tumblrs you want me to tag, lmk!):

catch us in the morning by transrightssokka (kellallyourfriends)

Summary: Hiori looks down and brings his hand up to his mouth, hiding a faint smile. “You don’t wanna go home, do you?” “No shit, I don’t,” Rin says. He’d rather sleep on the sidewalk than spend the next two weeks with Sae. Hiori is silent for a minute. His pretty eyes flick to his feet. Up to the back of the seat in front of them. Over to Rin. “So.” “So?” Rin says. Hiori lowers his voice. “So, what if we didn’t?”

(Chapters: 3 , Word Count: 27206 , Rated: M)

Even When It’s Starless by saturnshots

Summary: Everyone’s had an imaginary friend or two — it’s not often they change the course of your life, but who says being imaginary could stop them from bringing your dreams come true?

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 2838 , Rating: G)

sine wave by starstruckdove

Summary: Rin discovers Bachira’s “super secret surprise” sooner than he’d thought. There’s a new boy standing next to Ego at practice, and Rin knows he’s new because each of his unfortunate teammates have made their presence (loudly and raucously) known in his life. The boy has a nice face–wide eyes and soft mouth, all rounded corners instead of sharp edges. His hair is a shocking shade of blue and Rin finds it almost familiar. “This is your new manager,” Ego says with about as much energy as a dead battery.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 8990 , Rated: T)

Daydreaming by em_hiorin

Summary: Hiori can’t seem to concentrate during practice, as a certain Itoshi has been plaguing his mind.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 1560 , Rating: G)

My family thinks we’re dating. by akiangelsolos

Summary: “Oh, I see.” His mother hummed, placing her silver fork down on the table. “You must be upset, Hiori hasn’t come over in a while. You have to be lonely without your boyfriend around.” “I’m not lonely-” Rin shot his eyes at his mom, “What did you just say?”

(Chapters: 2 , Word Count: 5486 , Rating: G)

Part 6 �� Wow, You Made It This Far? Congratulations And Thank You!

If you’ve made it this far, then I am both immensely thankful and I applaud you. Seriously, thank you for putting up with my insane, delusional brainrot over this silly rarepair that has barely any canon backing to speak of. Hopefully if anything, you now understand why people are starting to take interest in the ship (or at least why I enjoy it). And if you’re a shipper now, welcome to the club! You will now have to watch Hiori and Rin never affect each other’s development, never interact in any meaningful capacity and you’ll be eternally bitter about it 👍. For any aspiring fic writers, I hope this can be a nice hub of info for all of you if you want to consult the hiorin ‘dynamic’ (i say in quotations because let’s face it, I made up like 95% of the dynamic based on analysis and a canon dynamic doesn’t actually exist). Also, bear in mind that in the off chance we do get some more moments, I plan to update this post. So you may end up being subject to even more brainrot in the future.

Until that day comes though, I can only thank you once again. Hiorin is my otp and no matter how much Kaneshiro doesn’t make it come to fruition, he will have to try incredibly hard to make me stop shipping them. The dynamic can change. They can become more and more ‘incompatible’. I don’t care. If hiorin has no shippers, I have passed on from this world.

[hiorintruther]

One of my hiorin headcanons is that Hiori finds Rin getting angry incredibly cute. Like, Rin gets all worked up, starts throwing insults around, looks like his blood vessels are about to explode etc… and while everyone else is thinking some mix of ‘holy shit dude it’s not that deep!’ or ‘well there goes Rin again being insane as usual’, Hiori has borderline heart eyes coz his sadistic side wants to see even more of it. Rin’s frustration and anger is incredibly endearing to him!

HOWEVER, that all switches up when Rin starts being angry towards Hiori himself. If it’s just meaningless anger after some teasing, Hiori probably won’t care, but if the insults start to actually have some bite, Hiori switches right up. He knows his worth. He won’t take shit. So he becomes more like ‘okay Rin. Time out. No passes for you 😌’ and stops linking up with him during training. Which of course makes Rin more angry coz Hiori has most likely gone off to work with Isagi. Which makes Rin more frustrated. Which makes Hiori fall for him even more 🩵

[hiorintruther]

New sideblog for bllk coz I have *emotions*!!!

I guess this serves as an intro post? Hi there :) I’m bachirabuzzings hiorintruther >.< My main is @princesserii but I don’t really use that for anything these days besides the occasional reblog.

I’m a simple girl. I see our Lord and savour Hiori Yo and I cry, scream, throw up etc… I’m caught up on the manga so will be posting manga spoilers.

This’ll probably end up being an all-purpose bllk blog in terms of reblogs but I intend to use it for posting the odd infodump about headcanons, AU ideas, (maybe) fics and, of course, hiorin. If I can ever be bothered, there might be a smidge of fanart sprinkled in as well, mostly from my Twitter.

My top 5 faves are:

Hiori 🩵🩵🩵

Rin

Karasu

Chigiri

Bachira

Idk how important this is but I’ll add it anyway. I’m pretty lax on shipping and multiship most of the popular pairs to some degree, however my OTPs (aka the only ones I’ll ever really reblog and make content for) are:

Hiorin — MY OTP!!! I CAN AND WILL GIVE YOU A 50 SLIDE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ON WHY I’M NOT REACHING

Tabiori — the newest addition to the list!! Hiori’s light novel is something else. They’re basically canon atp

Bachisagi — recently dethroned from being my number 1 otp (Hiorin took its place lmao)

Kunigiri — I live in denial okay!!! They were meant to be!!!

Reonagi — sometimes watching dysfunctional relationships crash and burn is fun (and/or funny)

Ryusae — they’re assholes, they’re antagonists and they’re in love, your honour

Kaisagi — a newer addition but oh my god did the brainrot take hold

I know I know, pretty vanilla in terms of bllk shipping. As I say, I’m a simple girl.

Anyways, I hope this says enough about me and the blog! I look forward to descending into the pits of madness every time a new episode drops. Saturdays are one of the few things bringing me serotonin rn 🥲

[hiorintruther]

Just wrote up a new hiorin headcanons post based on the new chapter but coz the leaks are fresh I’ll leave it in my drafts until the scans are out

[hiorintruther]

hi hello~ can i mayhaps ask for more thoughts about hiorin?

i read ur headcanons and now theyre stuck in my head lol

u dont have to if u dont want to ofc!! have a nice day!

Ooooo sweet summer child, little do you know that you’ve opened the floodgates now! (This is very disorganised and off the cuff my apologies)

———

Okay, so Rin and Hiori interact for this 1 panel in the U-20 match and it’s one of their very few interactions ever, but that ONE panel was basically the only time in the whole game that Rin wasn’t insulting people to high hell and threatening to kill them. Hiori just helped him stand up and was like “are you okay?” and Rin was like “yeah I’m fine (I’m not fine)”. And from that sliver of an interaction, the ship was born!

Later on realising that they both have similar interests and their personalities would probably gel well together if they actually had the opportunity to hang out, it only added much needed fuel to my very small fire. Hiori feels like a calm too Rin’s rage, whereas Rin is the more emotional of the two, no matter how hard he tries to hide it. Hiori is quite perceptive as well, so I think he’d clock on to when Rin is unhappy. I also think Hiori would appreciate having someone around who isn’t very invasive of his privacy and is able to fill time with solo activities.

Where I can see potential conflict (and angst) arising is that Rin might want more verbal affirmation that he’s appreciated and loved by Hiori, whereas Hiori tends to show his love through actions. On the flip-side, Rin isn’t the best at compliments himself so Hiori might get annoyed that Rin is making fun of him or talking down on him in a condescending way when Rin doesn’t really mean to. I reckon if they could get over this hurdle though, their relationship would very much be defined by what happens in the silence. The little acts of love and affection. Hiori having a second controller at his desk at all times even though he prefers to play solo. Rin cooking proper meals for them both. Their sides of the couch having their favourite cushions and blankets.

On the note of that, I like the idea that 99% of the time, when they’re watching movies together they sit on opposite sides of the couch. That’s just the way they do things. But then, there’s that 1% of the time. Maybe Rin had a bad day and is feeling upset. Maybe Hiori is extra cold. Then, they can cuddle on the middle of the couch. It isn’t something they discuss or plan, they just know to do it. They don’t really talk while cuddling nor do they acknowledge the act in any way. It’s another one of their ‘silent shows of affection’.

Oh, but one thing that isn’t silent is Hiori’s laugh. Oh god, his laugh makes Rin melt. Hiori doesn’t laugh often but when he does, oh boy. And if Rin makes him laugh? It’s the one time Rin doesn’t feel like he’s being laughed at. It feels like Hiori is genuinely happy. Of course, Rin tries his best to hide his blushing face behind a facade of cool collectedness, brushing off the laugh with a cold remark, but Hiori knows what’s really going on.

I do think Hiori wouldn’t know exactly what to do if Rin was very upset specifically about his self worth issues and comparing himself to his brother. However, Hiori will try his damnedest to help. My best guess is that he’d be there with hugs and gentle touches and would probably just try to run though things objectively with Rin. He’d be rational about everything Rin says (if Rin is ever willing to open up at all) and would put everything into perspective. If things were getting more emotional for Rin (I’m taking potentially tears, which would be very rare because he’s mister “I nEvEr CrY”), Hiori would cup his cheeks and look into his eyes — the same eyes Rin hates about himself — and talk calmly, bringing Rin back down from the heights of anxiety and stress.

I don’t want this to turn into a “Hiori is Rin’s therapist and personal carer” moment because Rin definitely does his fair share for Hiori too. Hiori doesn’t have a healthy schedule most days. He sleeps at 4am, spends more time cooped up in his room than a NEET in wintertime and has the diet of a 12 year old kid who was told they were allowed to pick their own meals. Since Rin is pretty finicky about schedules and personal health, he’d probably be there reminding Hiori to sleep at midnight and go out for walks every now and again. Rin is also tidier than Hiori, so things stay more in order when he’s around.

I like the idea that Hiori talks about Rin a lot to Nanase specifically, and specifically in DMs. It’s more comfortable for him to gush over text than in person or over call. The way he talks about Rin to Nanase is kinda snarky but also sometimes unusually sappy. Rin is never reading these DMs, obviously. When they first got together, the amount of freaking out Hiori did had Nanase rolling.

On this note, Rin and Hiori never really officially confessed to each other. Not in a conventional way, at least. As with most things, their eventual slip from platonic to romantic relationship was very silent and largely defined by action. They’d sit closer together. They’d eat together more often. Their hands would brush against one another while on walks. The feelings were obviously brewing but by the time either of them brought it up, they’d already basically been dating for months. It was very much a “hey, are we dating?” “Uh, I don’t know? Do you want us to?” “Uh, sure?”. Their behaviour never changed after the fact.

———

Well then, I hope you liked these. I’m surprising myself at how many ideas I have for these two considering they interacted so little. Maybe I should write a fic about these two at this point? I’m very busy but idk I might be able to squeeze out a one-shot.

[hiorintruther]

I’ve come to the realisation I struggle to write about my ultimate faves in any capacity.

Like, Bachira is by far my favourite bllk character. My skrunkly boi has my whole heart in a choke hold. But I… just… can’t write about him. I can’t write analytical posts, funny posts, meta posts, even shippy bachisagi posts… AND BACHISAGI IS MY BLLK OTP!!!

But I have no problem writing about Hiori, Reo or RyuSae. Or any of my other faves for that matter.

It’s starting to bleed into my fanfic as well. I’ve currently written a Ryusae oneshot and now I’m mulling over a Kunigiri university AU. For a while I was coming up with ideas for a very detailed Reonagi fantasy AU. Hell, I have a whole Hiorin v-tuber AU plotted out in my notes app! Absolutely no Bachisagi in sight (well, they’d be a background pair in the Kunigiri uni AU but not a main ship).

My only guess as to why I’m like this is because I already see Bachira and bachisagi as ‘sufficient’. That is to say, I already find the way canon treats them good enough. Sure, I read fics and enjoy them immensely, but I always end up nitpicking the characterisation in my head (especially of Bachira). With my other faves that just doesn’t happen. There are things about other characters I want to flesh out more with headcanons and I’m willing to accept most hcs even if they take liberties with canon. There are aspects of ship dynamics I want to see explored in more depth. I can write about those things for ages. Bachira and bachisagi tho — already enough and anything fanon adds on is a cherry on top.

Gaaaaa rambley rants aren’t gonna be a normal thing here I just had some thoughts idk