#i didn’t even ask for akito to come home. he showed up first and i got so scared | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrsmarymorstan · 4 years

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Don't why the fans especially the manga readers are hyping about tooru breaking the curse when she didn't even do shit. she just went on that silly adventure and be an annoying crybaby whenever she learns something new about the curse. it was actually akito who broke the curse so i can't understand what you are all hyping tohru on.

Ah yes, I to remember the days when I’d be deliberately antagonistic just for fun and beat on female characters for showing emotions and caring about people. Or indeed, resent characters for having entirely realistic reactions to the cosmic horror and terror that surrounds them. Then I turned 16 and HER WE ARE ten years later and I get to see it from a whole new perspective! What fun.

In your misguided attempt to cause drama by shitting on people having a good time by being excited about upcoming character moments, much like Dr Flemming’s unwashed petri dish, you have hit upon something that benefits further discussion and interest.

That point being, was it TOHRU who broke the curse, or was it Akito?

The answer, I believe, is both. SPOILERS FOR ANIME ONLIES TONY YOU ARE WARNED DO NOT @ ME AGAIN IF YOU MESS UP.

When Tohru sets out to break the curse and stop the love of her life from being locked up in a cold dark room for the rest of his existence, she finds out that the curse is firstly, a bond of blood sworn by the spririts of the past and not something that can be physically manifested, and secondly, that the curse has already begun to break RE: Kureno.

Now, there’s a LOT of theories about why Kureno’s curse broke and if it truly was some random event or if there was a trigger. I think it’s a combination of the two. It’s noted by the maids and by (I think) Shigure that this is the first time in a long time that the entire Juunishi are present. There is also a sizeable age gap betwee Hiro and Kureno, that would about match up between Hiro being an infant when Kureno’s curse broke. Ergo, I propose that his curse broke soon after their first New Year’s together as a complete banquet with no spaces missing. Save that of the cat, of course, but more on him later.

Kureno is the rooster, and I believe that in legend the Rooster was seen as the closest to God because he could deliver messages between heaven and earth. Therefore it makes sense that the first to leave God alone, is God’s messenger. “We have had our final Banquet, it’s time to end the cycle.”

Of course Akito/God does not have a positive reaction to this, and the loss of one Juunishi inspires a great sense of loneliness and fear within Akito similar to that which lead to the creation of the bond in the first place. We do not see God being willing to make any attempt to work on achieving the Cat’s wish of finally being able to form friendships beyond the Zodiac and forming bonds with the humans he was so afraid of before.

And THAT is the crux of the matter. Tohru came into the Sohma’s lives and began to break the curse simply by forming close bonds with them all, and letting them into her life and react to the world around them. Hana and Uo are both friends with Kyo and Yuki, actively choosing to spend time together. We also see that in Kyo attending the same school as Yuki, it opens up that same school to Haru and Momiji where they too can form bonds outside of the Sohma influence. It’s a school THEY chose, not the single sex one Akito picked out. Equally this means we have to give some credit to Yuki for making the brave choice of defying his parents and Akito’s wishes by attending a mixed school, and Shigure (who continues to be the mastermind here) for goading Akito into allowing Kyo to also attend that school and not simply pay off the private school he was MEANT to attend and have them let him back in.

It’s also no real surprise that the two other Juunishi whose curses break before the final scene are Momiji and Hiro. Hiro is shown to be forming bonds outside of the Zodiac too. Not only has he matured enough that he is able to understand things from Tohru’s perspective now and has a relatively positive relationship with her, he ALSO becomes a Big Brother with a little sister he adores. Again, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his curse breaks whilst he is in the same room as her. The Sheep has formed a meaningful relationship outside of the Zodaic, so it is time for the Sheep Spirit to return to its original realm. We then have Momiji, who is absolutely desperately in love with Tohru and is also equally desperate to be allowed to have a relationship with his OWN sister. Momiji’s curse breaks only after he has gone through puberty though and reaches adulthood. It’s when he starts to truly understand the path that is laid before him, and where he stands in it. He WANTS a relationship with Tohru, but he can also recognise that she is in love with Kyo and that makes it all the more painful. He knows that as he ages he is only going to be made to feel more distant from his sister, and that hurts too. HOWEVER, Momiji doesn’t ever stop LONGING for meaningful relationships and a world beyond the life of the Zodiac. He recognises that he does not have anything really tying him to the Sohma anymore, and so his curse breaks. The rabbit spirit has no need to be part of the banquet, and so heads home.

Now, as you can see, whilst Tohru is a key trigger in the breaking of the curse, she’s still not the one to actively do it, right?

Well, wrong. Sort of.

Take note that when we’re told the ACTUAL story of the Original Banquet , we find that the Cat was the first friend God ever made, and was also the first to die. It was the death of the cat that triggered God into creating the eternal bond that would always bring them together, and it was the cat’s terror and dismay at being forced into such a bond that caused them to disown him. The cat has, all along, simply wanted God to make friends. The first who had the curse take effect upon them, was the one who rejectd it the most and as such was then shunned forever more. The cat wanted God to make bonds outside of the Zodiac, and in turn the cat was forever banned form making those bonds. Even though we’ve been show the Cat was granted some realtionships in the form of Kazuma’s Grandmother; it is a relationship made out of pitty rather than love and understanding.

Tohru though? Torhu is the God Damned (excuse the pun) Year of the Cat Fanclub PRESIDENT. Nobody loves and respects the OG Cat Spirit in the way she does. She emphasied with the Cat’s plight in the legend her mother told her, feeling sorry for them being tricked like that and being forced to miss out on being part of the legend. She wanted the cat to join the group! She cradled the cat’s body in much the same way God in his final moments, as instead this time Tohru brings him back into the light and forms a stronger and longer lasting relationship with the cat spirit through love and empathy.

And later on, in that same mountainside, it is TOHRU who is the one who reaches out her hand to god and asks to become friends. It is the act of God forming friends with mortal humans that triggers Akito/God to finally release everyone from their curse. That’s why it happens when it does, when Akito knows that Tohru is safely out of hospital, that she has still welcomed Akito into her life... and that if Akito is going to take those terrifying steps into forming relationships that can end in rejection, she’s going to have to do it on her own two feet.

THAT is how Tohru breaks the curse. THAT is what is important here and what is so FUCKING HARD ROCK about Tohru Honda. We see her willing to stand up to GOD in order to break the curse, but she stands before God as an EQUAL. Tohru WILL break the curse. She WILL fight for her soulmate. She WILL make you be friends with her and address your deep seated issues of self hate and abandonment (not that she has those issues herself ahahahha no I’m just your average happy go lucky teenager with two dead parents who lives in a tent I’M FINE)

Of course, it turns out that everything Shigure and Kazuma told her about breaking the curse was true: That she didn’t have to do anything other than to continue to be herself. HOWEVER, in order to BE herself she needed to try and have a “silly adventure” where she tested her metal and learnt to speak up for herself. Why are we excited? Because we’re going to see Tohru finally find the confidence to speak out against others without harm! We see her get into a fight with Rin about it. We see her refusing to back down against Kagura. We see her standing on her own two feet and saying “No. No I don’t want that. I REFUSE to give in and to leave well alone!”

All before, Tohru has been so scared to speak up for herself because of her debilitating abandonment issues (and please let’s not make fun of people’s mental health issues, okay? I haven’t been having a weekly therapy session for nearly two years now just because for the fun of it) but now she’s got to the point where she feels comfortable and secure enough to show an uglier side to herself that people might reject. She is able to be mean, and shout, and fucking break into someone’s house in order to get what she wants! How can a TRUE fruits basket fan NOT be excitd for that level of character development?

And to end it, please, for the LOVE OF GOD it is 2020. I am 26 years old. I have been on tumblr since 2011. Do not send me hate about female fictional characters and expect me to roll over. My username is “Mrs Mary Morstan”. Mary. Morstan. The most hated female character in all of BBC Sherlock. Do not even try to fucking test me, you Petri Dish.

#Fruits Basket #Furuba #Furuba Manga Spoilers #Tohru Honda #Akito Sohma #The Curse #The Juunishi #Anonymous #greatest hits

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lys-lilac · 3 years

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Yuki Sohma: An In-depth Character Analysis

I remember getting this anime as a recommendation in summer almost 2 years ago. Right, when the reboot season 1 started. I was so engrossed in this that I can’t tell you. The theme of the series always made me keep at the edge of my seat. And yeah, as the title suggests, I got to admire him the most-

I know, many of you might think that I fell in love with his beauty after seeing him in the anime for the first time, but unfortunately, it’s a big no. I love the characters who care about others so much. And he is the perfect example.

Now, the point is, what makes him steal the top rank for me while most of the fandom is basically about Kyo and Tohru? Let me put down the points. But before that, grab your earphones or headphones, and play this song as you read about the things he has been through.

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1. His selfless attitude

His kind nature shines throughout the series. We see in the beginning that it was he who discovers Tohru living in a tent. He welcomes her to stay in Shigure’s home, even after knowing that their curse is being put at risk and takes care of her fever. After she sleeps, he ventures out in the night to dig up her belongings. Even though he mentions that he had selfishly taken her just to rebel against the family curse, still this is replaced by his benevolent and sweet nature towards Tohru. As a result, their relationship is beautiful.

He also has helped her countless times, whether it’s taking her back from her relatives, or lending her hand to carry the grocery bags. These all moments define how pure their bond is and how both trust and care each other.

2. His willingness to sacrifice everything

This point actually reminds of Kasumi Toshiki from Romance MD: Always on Call. Even though he appears plain on the surface, he can go to any extent just for the sake of her happiness. One instance of this can be from season 2 episode 22. Kyo and Tohru seem to be in the hallway, with Tohru trying to grab the script from his hands. Just then, Yuki says whether they would give him way to go upstairs. It is obvious that Yuki would have seen the whole thing, but for her sake, he doesn’t interrupt. The line he says here is-

“You are precious. I look up to you. I cherish you because you provided for me what I desperately longed for.”

Now what did he yearn for? It was Tohru’s love and affection for him, which he didn’t get from anyone else, not even his mother when he was a child.

3. The heart-fluttering sweet moments and his character development

Ah! Thanks to the production for such sweet moments of Yuki and Tohru. Even if the ship is not canon, they will still remain my favorite.

In my opinion, this story actually portrays Yuki’s development in character more than any other thing. This is amazing. The boy, who was unable to let go of his dark past, the truth that he was after was covered with a lid, all are slowly untangled with Tohru’s compassionate nature towards Yuki. Unlike the fan club who adored him only for his looks, she sees him in a different, more friendly light, which mellows him up. What’s more, the once timid boy builds up so much courage within himself that he doesn’t get afraid of Akito anymore and confronts her face to face. The warmth he searched for, finally reaches him just like a soft feather, landing on his palm, giving a soft and soothing touch of happiness.

Let’s look at this background here. Yuki is surrounded by chinese bellflowers, which symbolize honesty, unchanging love and obedience. In his hand lays a white rose, which means, devotion, and innocence. The color white itself and his name are a symbol of peace and silence. This actually is an imagery for his character, and it resembles it truly.

Yuki had no intentions of getting on bad terms with Kyo. But it’s seen in episode 20, that Kyo shouts at him outside the banquet saying it was all his fault. Although he was small, but those words were like a heavy blow to him. What’s more, even when he comes back crying hoping for his mom to console him, she slaps him and warns him not to disappear again. (Noo... T^T)

(Kyo shouts this to him outside the hall.)

There is some fault with Kyo as well for this point. All Yuki wanted was to become friends with him. He yearned for the parental love and friendship which Kyo had since his childhood. But, the latter has the misunderstanding that Yuki had everything.

Yuki says this when he remembers that Kyo didn’t take the hat from his hand when he gives him. This makes him cry so hard, cause he was just a little child going through these painful things, all at once.

“There was something I wanted. Parents who would embrace me. A home I wanted to return to.”

(Yuki cries after being ignored by Kyo.)

Even though Kyo’s behavior initially compelled him to be like that, even though he knew that there is a lot Kyo was internally suffering from, but in episode 22, he just couldn’t take it anymore. Instead of debating, he stays silent and shows his most vulnerable and hurt face to Kyo, because he didn’t want things to end up like that between them. He didn’t want the person he admired to lash out at him every time, when he was at no fault at all, and still is the prey of Kyo’s anger and apathy. This only leaves Kyo speechless, making him break the window out of frustration. This part pains me a lot, because Kyo had at least someone he can throw out his anger and put the blame. But Yuki didn’t even had that.

There is again this pretty imagery here. Yuki, when looking at Kyo, is bathed with the sunlight. This symbolizes the change he has gone through and accepted it, which is really stunning to notice.

[The rest are in paragraph form from here]

Now that I have talked much about his positive points, let’s explore a hot topic which is often a reason of disagreement between Yuki’s fans and Kyo’s fans.

What are Yuki’s actual feelings towards Tohru?

I know that almost all the fandom here will say these feelings which he talks about is what a mother would give to his child. And this point strengthens a lot more as it was confirmed by the author. If that’s the case, then let me state my thoughts on this, which are opposite to the author’s.

Let’s again move back to episode 22 of season 2. In the first half, Yuki talks to Kakeru about his first meet with Tohru when he was a child. At that time, he was tortured so much by Akito, both physically and mentally, that he thinks that there is no purpose of his life, and he is not needed by anyone at all. With this thought in mind, he disguises himself with a baseball hat and runs away from the Sohma estate. After some time, he discovers Tohru’s mother, Kyoko, crying because she was missing. He suddenly remembers to have seen her earlier, crying in the street, and helps her to reach her mother. At last, he places the hat on her head and disappears. It is later seen that he has converted to his rat form, and cries on realizing that at least at that point, he was needed by Tohru, and his thoughts were proved wrong.

He mentions that he almost forgot to ask her name at that time. And when he again was hitting the bottom, Tohru approaches him in the high school, slowly building courage and giving love to him. He also discovers later that the girl, whom he once his hat was none other than Tohru. With things unravelling, their bond becomes stronger.

But, although he mentions that he had only motherly affection towards her and couldn’t see her in a romantic light, I still doubt the line itself.

“But she appeared before the hopeless me once again. To be with me, close to me. She even listened to what someone like me had to say. Time after time, she accepted me time and again. She’s beloved to me. Like how the sky feels so close, yet so far.”

This line, although somehow shows that Yuki is saved by Tohru every time he is in need of it, but it feels weird to say that he only thinks of her as a mother here. I mean, one can also feel like this if he/she is helped by a good friend, or a dear one. And Yuki also mentions that she is beloved to him. But, what about the last line? Doesn’t it sound like, he can’t reach her even if she was close to reach? Because this is the exact meaning. If we analyze word by word, then this makes sense, as Yuki had already realized by that time that Kyo and Tohru had mutual feelings towards each other. In fact, he says it himself that it dawned on him in the last episode of season 1 when Tohru chases after Kyo into the forest, the latter being converted to his monster form. And how could he not? This guy is mature enough to figure out anything. Then this would have been nothing.

One instance of this realization could be the beach arc episode 7 , where he says-

“I probably actually knew, in the back of my mind. What would happen if I opened the lid. What I must do. Thanks for always being willing to lend an ear. Thanks for always accepting my weaknesses.... You probably don’t know that you are the one who’s always saving me. You always shared your kindness, warmth, and joy with me. That’s why, I won’t lose. I will keep going forward, and keep believing.”

Tohru asks the exact thing which was going on my mind listening to that voice acting. Why did he look so sad there? And Yuki replies that she is just like the sky, very dear to him. Doesn’t it sound exactly like a confession to a person about what she did for you till now? Yuki already had realized that, and this is just a proof. He sounds sad, and he also compares her to the sky. The metaphor which comes to mind is that he is basically symbolizing that her vast expanse of kindness is just like the sky, which is so close, yet so far. Even if he wanted, he can’t keep her all to himself. That’s why he just says that she is dear to him. The way it is portrayed here, is just like saying goodbye before parting ways. Huh... I didn’t continue the season afterwards because of this scene. T~T

(Why, why did he cry after saying that she was dear to him....? Isn’t it right in front of your eyes? *sobs*)

And, if he only sees her as a mother, then what does this mean-

“I was so confused, not to mention incredibly embarrassed. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, so I didn’t. I shut it away immediately. I stuffed those feelings down, teased and flirted like a normal guy with the girl he likes. But still, it felt wrong.”

It’s clear here. He had somehow developed romantic feelings for her, earlier. But when he realized it was not what he meant, and saw the gradual progression of Tohru and Kyo liking each other, he changes his mind, thinking that he might have been wrong the whole time. That the feelings he harbored for her weren’t correct. But when he thinks of her as a mother, he feels embarrassed. And it’s no different. Why wouldn’t anyone feel like that if it’s someone of your age? This implies that their relationship wasn’t a romantic one, but not a motherly one either.

Kakeru asks the same thing next. He says that maybe he has twisted his thoughts and feelings just after knowing that he had lost her to Kyo. But Yuki denies it saying-

“It’s not true why I feel like this. But, he properly sees her as a woman. He loves her. You can see it in his eyes. Her too. The way she looks at him... But I... I don’t want that! That isn’t what I want! I’d feel... so lonely. I am not willing to give up. I don’t know when to give up.”

(Such a pure boy... Just cried after saying that... )

Definitely as said above. He is obviously jealous of Kyo here. Not in a romantic way, but because he didn’t want Tohru’s kindness and hope she gave him to recede away. Even if it was like a good friend, he wanted to stay by her side. He is mature enough to see the bonds that she and he shared. And he is not the type to fret over getting rejected or anything like that. Moreover, you can already get a hint from the line that he approved of Kyo and Tohru. This always impresses me. The bond that these two have is so beautiful and unspoken, that it transcends romance itself.

Although this is probably half of my reasonings, I will stop here. Although I covered the most important ones here, but I wanted to discuss many other scenes too. Let’s keep it for next time!

#fruits basket #furaba #yuki sohma #sohma yuki #character analysis #kyo sohma #tohru honda #akito sohma #kakeru manabe #lys's thoughts #analysis and thoughts #i ship the pure and beautiful relationship they have #T-T #coffee with lys

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yuusa · 3 years

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𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝟐𝟐

𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑𝟑𝟖𝟏

𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝟐𝟐:

You stirred in your sleep, cracking your eyes open and seeing the window curtains drawn back with the light peeking through. As you tried to sit up, you felt a weight on your stomach and looked down, seeing Yuki’s head resting on your body with a peaceful look. You smiled at the sight and brushed back his hair, feeling his soft locks untangle underneath your fingers as he breathed quietly. He looked very cute when he was sleeping.

You didn’t remember much from yesterday, but you did remember holding onto something in your sleep. As you stared down at Yuki you wondered if he stayed here all night, you thought that his family would have wanted him to go home once he dropped off your homework. He was still wearing his school uniform, you could feel yourself feeling guilty for making him stay here with you without spare clothes to wear. It must have been uncomfortable sleeping in his uniform.

You turned over your phone, seeing the clock being early in the morning. You reached out to touch your forehead, your temperature has gone down by a lot but you still felt slightly woozy. It wasn’t too bad though, you should be able to attend classes as long as you kept a certain distance from everyone.

You pressed your lips together in a frown, Yuki must have done a lot for you to help bring your temperature down. As you continued to brush his hair you noticed that his fingers would flinch now and then, almost as if he was unconsciously responding to your touches in his sleeping form.

“. . . Did you really have to do all of these things for me. . .” You whispered, thinking that this might be the one chance to say something that he may not be able to hear, “. . . You didn’t have to stay with me.”

There was comfort in knowing that he wasn’t directly listening to you, “. . . Even though we don’t know anything about each other. . . Is it fine for me to think that I could help you? Is that selfish of me?” Your whispers continued as you brushed his hair slowly.

“Am I really the right person for this? Is it wrong to think that. . . I feel like I’m wanted here?” You peered over to stare at the two erasers that Aikyo had given to you with your first meeting, the clean utensils leaning against each other, “. . . Am I. . . Protecting you? Or am I just making everything worse?”

“. . . I’m jealous. I’m. . . Really jealous,” you admitted, biting on the bottom of your lip as your eyes began to tear up, “. . . Everyone looks so happy without me. . .”

You toyed with the grey strands of his hair, his calm breathing being the only thing you heard aside from your own voice, “. . . If I wasn’t wanted. . . Why would I be now?” You felt your tears drip from your face and down to the soft sheets of your comforter, “. . . If I wasn’t born this way. . . Would everything be better?”

You squeezed your eyes shut, the tiny weights of your tears continuing to flow down your cheeks as you held back your sobs. Small hiccups escaped from the cracks of your lips, your chest feeling heavy and your heart aching, “. . . I don’t know what to do. . .”

“Do you really feel that way?”

The feeling of someone’s cold fingers brushing your tears away came to you, you unconsciously leaned into their touch as you snapped your eyes open to see Yuki staring at you with a concerned expression.

“W-Were you listening?” You held onto his wrist, keeping him there as you tried to hold back your cries.

“Do you really think that we wouldn’t want you?” He asked, pushing away the tears from your face as your (e/c) eyes widened, “that’s not true (L/n)-san.”

“. . . How would you know that?” You tried to turn away from his eyes but his hand kept you still.

“You’ve always been welcomed, I’m sorry that you didn’t feel that way, but I’m being honest with you,” you sniffled as he continued, “it’s okay to be confused. You’re trying something new and it takes practice doesn’t it?”

“I’ve been thinking. . .” Yuki started, leaning closer to you as you felt pinned down by his gaze, “. . . You are looking for something too.”

“What do you mean. . .?” You softly asked.

“I learned that. . . It’s hard to love yourself when all you see is the worst parts. . . So you need someone else to love you for you to see your own worth,” you watched as he smiled at you, his shining prince-like figure radiating with positivity, “I think you’re looking for that person too.”

“Y-You’re not making any sense,” you sniffled, feeling his hand trail up to your head as he brushed your tangled strands.

“(L/n)-san, you don’t need to feel burdened.” He replied, your tears coming to a stop as you stared into his grey-blue orbs.

“I-I’m not burdened.” You said, pushing his hand away from you but he only smiled.

“You shouldn’t deny it.” His finger ‘booped’ the tip of your nose, “you look cuter when you’re not crying.”

“W-Wha. . . I’m not!”

“You are.”

Your face began to glow a bright shade as you pulled your blanket over your head, causing Yuki to yelp as you surrounded yourself in a dark nest. You held onto the edges of the blanket tightly for dear life as you heard him chuckle.

“G-Go to school already! You’re late aren’t you?” You felt Yuki’s hands pull at the sheets, trying to free you from your comfortable prison, “l-let go! Sohma-san let go!” You whined.

“I could always skip out and say I got sick because of you.” He teased, pulling the sheets off of your head to expose your blushing face.

“You’re throwing me under the bus?!”

“Yup.”

“B-But your attendance! You have committee work don’t you?!”

“I could worry about that later.” He sneakily rolled you up into a blanket burrito, completely encaging you in the warm blankets as you struggled to break free.

“S-Sohma-san!”

You paused as you watched him laugh at your form, the sound of his voice being so joyous made your heart feel warm. Even though the two of you had never bickered like this before, or even have in the first place, it didn’t hurt at all. Is this what it was like to have a friendly argument? You thought.

It felt. . . Weird.

“S-Sorry, it’s just-“ He continued to laugh, “y-you look like. . . Birds when they. . . Get weighted!”

You silently thought for a while as to what he meant but quickly realized that he was referring to you like a burrito bird. It's when you wrap up the bird in a towel or blanket for them to get weighed when they visit the vet.

In other words. . . He was teasing you!

“I-I’m not! Take that back!” You cried out, trying to escape from the wrappings but Yuki placed his weight onto the folds of the blanket.

“Nope.”

“Y-You’re. . . Insufferable.” You tried to turn your head away from Yuki to look more intimidating but he was finding it hard to take you seriously when you’re bundled up in your sheets. He gave you an innocent smile as if to tease you about the predicament you were trapped in.

“Why are you so strong?” You mumbled, feeling your strands of hair falling in front of your face, but you were unable to push it back.

“I practiced martial arts as a kid.” He replied.

“. . . I see. . . Your cousin said that as well. . .” You saw his smile slowly crack to a saddened frown as he stared at you.

“. . . Do you not like it?” You asked, wiggling your arms out until you finally broke free of your restraints. You watched him cross his arms over on your sheets as he laid his head down, his gloomy expression still present on his face as his bangs shrouded the heavy emotions from his eyes.

“I wouldn’t say like. . . I didn’t find any enjoyment in it.”

He winced at the painful memory, ones that had resurfaced into the conversation. Although he has learned enough to beat Kyo with ease, Yuki never found himself passionate about the sport as much as he was. He never really had any sparring partners unlike Kyo, who had Hatsuhara fight with him while he watched from the sidelines. He still remembers the way Akito wrapped his hands around his head, the darkness enveloping him as the sound of her voice echoed in his mind. It sent shivers down his spine every time he is reminded by the sound of her laughter.

You reached out to pull back his bangs, finally seeing his full saddened expression that he tried to hide from you. He didn’t know why, but having you be able to touch him like this made him feel lighter. There was something about the warmth of your hand against his cold skin that made him feel comforted.

“It must have been hard,” You spoke up, feeling Yuki caress the palm of your hand with his fingers, “. . . I never really practiced martial arts but. . . It looks like it makes you sad.”

“Is that so. . .” He pressed his lips together, “(L/n)-san, can I ask you something?”

“Sure?” You felt him intertwine his fingers with you, shocking you internally.

“Do you think that I will leave you?”

You drew circles with the tip of your thumb on his hand, “. . . I don’t know. You might.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because. . .” Was it right for you to say the truth? You peered down at his eyes to see them filled to the brim with sincerity and kindness, his grey-blue orbs giving you his entire attention while he grasped onto your hand. You weighed down your options, trying to figure out what was the right words to say and the ones you should avoid.

“. . . You wouldn’t like me anymore,” You mumbled, “I’m. . . Nothing like you think I am.”

“That isn’t true (L/n)-san,” he started, “from the way I see things, I think the truest form of yourself is right in front of me.”

“Y-You’re just saying things that don’t make sense.” You retorted, biting the bottom of your lips, “you don’t know that.”

“I believe in it though,” he smiled, “you rarely cry in front of others, but it seems like I’m the only one who saw you like this, right?” He squeezed your hand softly, “you’re showing me a side that no one else sees.”

“You’re crying.” You pulled yourself away from him in shock, trying to cover your eyes.

“I-I’m sorry.” You apologized, sniffling underneath your hand as you turned away from him.

“Don’t apologize, what’s wrong?”

“I. . .” You choked on a sob, trying to keep quiet in the theater while the movie drowned out the noises of your tears. You didn’t know if you could trust Akito fully, but there was something about the look he gave you which made you feel wanted.

"Does that mean I'm special to you?" He leaned forward to press his forehead against yours, the feeling of his warm breath just mere inches above your lips. Was he teasing you again with this?

". . . You were already someone special." You whispered, pulling away and covering your face with your hands. At the same time, he leaned back and gave you another smile.

"That makes me happy to hear."

". . . You should still go to class." You suggested, dropping your hands and clutching onto the edges of your blanket, "I kept you here enough, you should go."

Your heart began to ache at the memory of Akito. You couldn't help but feel guilty about Yuki, out of all times that your memories could have resurfaced, it had to be today.

"Eager for me to leave?" He teased.

You grabbed onto your pillow and lightly smacked him with the soft material, "t-that's not that I'm implying! Go to school!"

"I told you that I'll be skipping today, just say that you got me sick. . ." He caught your pillow before you could hit him a second time.

"Y-You can't!"

"Why not?"

"B-Because you stayed here long enough, don't you think Shigure-san will get mad?" The two of you blankly stared at each other until Yuki fumbled over to the table to pick up his phone.

There were several calls from Shigure that he ignored while he fell asleep, and other messages from Tohru asking when he would be coming home. There was one message from Kyo but it was garbled nonsense that he must have been forced to type up to bring Yuki back home. You yawned while he sighed as he turned to you, "is it fine if I take a call with Shigure-san?"

"Sure, I'm going to wash my face and shower." You decided to take a shower, if you spent too long in the bath it would be awkward for Yuki who is waiting for you to finish.

You yawned and slipped out of bed, making your way to the bathroom with slight difficulty. Once you had left the comfort of your bed, your head became lightheaded and your eyes began to see some static, however, you found this normal in your human body due to your blood pressure. Yuki waited for the door to close before opening a call with Shigure, his phone rang for a few seconds until he heard him on the other side of the line.

"Yuki-kun! Where were you last night? Tohru-kun told us that you were at (Y/n)-kun's house, did you stay over there? Did you sleep with her? You naughty boy!"

"If you don't shut up I will hurt you," Yuki groaned, "I'm fine, did I cause that much worry for everyone in the house?"

"Nope, no one missed you!"

"Shigure. . ." He turned to the door of the bathroom, still seeing that you were inside. He heard the water of your shower turn on and he brought his phone closer to his ear as he leaned his back against your bed.

"Just kidding! Tohru was getting worried that you might stay over at her house without a clean pair of clothes, but it was already too late for her to start walking over to (Y/n)-kuns house! Speaking of (Y/n)-kun, is she recovering from her sickness?" Shigure corrected, his laugh erupting from his lips.

"She's fine, I think her temperature gone down," Yuki responded, "she might be feeling a bit woozy though, she was wobbling to the bathroom."

Shigure hummed, "the school called, are the two of you going?"

"Er. . . Not today."

"So you're skipping for a girl?"

"Tease me again and I will end this call," Yuki mumbled, "be serious here Shigure. And no, (L/n)-san actually got me sick so I will be staying over for a bit longer." His lips curved into a small smirk, this was unplanned for you but this was a great way for him to actually get to talk to you more without the restraints of the public.

Shigure laughed, "my bad. . . I was just thinking that you have been coming over to her house a lot, I was wondering if the two of you were something else?"

The door to the bathroom opened up, your hair still soaking wet as you came out with a towel around your head to dry your (h/c) strands. Small droplets of water dribbled down your chin as you continued to brush your hair with the fluffy material. You were wearing a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt, due to your exhaustion your body was still slightly wet so your clothes stuck to your skin. You walked over to the kitchen, leaving the towel on your neck as you went for a drink of water for your dry throat. Yuki awkwardly gawked at you for a few seconds before hanging up on Shigure without answering him back.

"What did Shigure-san say?" You leaned up against the counter with a bottle of water to your lips.

He let out an exaggerated sigh, "he kept joking with me. The school called for both of us but you got me sick."

"Did you actually say that?!" You almost spat out your drink.

"Yeah," he brushed back his long strands of hair.

". . . I see," you replied, staring down at your water bottle and watching the small ripples form in the clear liquid.

Something about the way he talked about martial arts earlier made you feel as if there was something underneath the surface of his family. It seems as if nearly everyone practiced it at a young age, was it a requirement or simply a sport that was forced upon them? Kyo seemed to enjoy it greatly, but Yuki looks as if he is disgusted by it.

. . . You would be too.

“God. . . Please accept this gift and finally release this spirit.” You dug your nails into your hand before getting to your feet, you reeled your hand back and punched her in the face, her screams echoing in the room as you heard her skull hit the wall. She released an anguished cry while you picked up the bowl of fruit, smashing the ceramic by throwing it onto the floor. The shards covering the wooden surface and cutting parts of your skin.

You hate this feeling.

You grit your teeth and clenched your fist tightly, your eyes glaring down at her in anger. You picked up the broken bowl, the longest shard being held in your hand as you kneeled next to her. The altar of God watching over you, looming over your childish figure as you raised the shard above your head.

You hate this desire.

Yuki heard the sound of plastic crackling and the explosion of water, watching as your fist tightened around the body of the bottle as droplets of liquid fell from your cheeks. Your nails pierced the bottle before lifelessly dropping it onto the ground, the crumpling of the plastic hitting the wooden ground as water continued to drop from your face.

"(L/n)-san. . ." Yuki quickly got off of the floor and took your towel, wiping away the water that drenched you, "what's going on?"

You gasped before flinching at Yuki's gentle touches, you instinctively slapped his hand away, the towel falling onto the ground with a small splat as you stared at him silently.

"W-What are you doing?" You asked.

He tilted his head towards you in confusion, "you. . . spilled water over yourself."

"I. . . Sorry." You apologized, crouching down to pick up the water bottle and towel from the ground, feeling Yuki's stare linger on your figure as you straightened yourself.

You were stupid.

This was a mistake on your own part, getting lost in your thoughts and forgetting about your own surroundings. Yuki is going to question everything and you wouldn’t be able to have an answer for them all. You dumped the bottle into the recycling trash bag, pausing for a few seconds before awkwardly going back to sit on your bed, your body still wet from the water bottle and shower.

"Is. . . Is there something bothering you?" Yuki sat down next to you, the weight of the bed shifting to accompany the two of you.

You fiddled with the edges of your fingers, ". . . I was just wondering. . . Why do you hate martial arts?" You lied.

“I don’t hate it,” Yuki pressed his lips together in a frown as he tightened his fist around your blanket, “it doesn’t bring back good memories, that's all.”

“I see.”

“Is that what was bothering you?”

Of course, he wouldn’t have positive memories of martial arts. It was just another thing the two of you shared in common. Although you felt your reasoning was slightly selfish and self-destructive, it was for the sake of everyone else that you care deeply about.

You would rather die than hurt anyone the same way you did in the past.

You stared at him before giving him a small smile. There certainly was something you could continue trying to do though.

“No, I'm fine,” You spoke up, “but. . . Sohma-san. . .”

You reached out to touch his hand, bringing it close to your lips as you held them there, “I think that you’re really amazing.”

You wanted to free him from his own burdens, even if it meant pushing your own self away from his worries.

#Fruits Basket #fruits basket x reader #Yuki Sohma #yuki soma #yuki sohma x reader #yuki soma x reader

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babybottlepop96 · 3 years

Text

Safe Yuki Sohma x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of self harm, mentions of slight abuse, kinda angsty. Fluffy ending!

A/n: If any of the warnings trigger you, please don’t read.

Lately, it seemed like the world was against you. No matter what you did, how hard you worked, the universe was just giving you a giant middle finger. You study really hard for a test worth ten percent of your grade? You fail. Make plans to go out with friends for the evening? Thunderstorm for the next three days. You have to get away from your alcoholic mother before she really starts to tear you a new one about how your shirt is a little too tight and you look like a whore with your hair slightly curled. None of your friends are available and your boyfriend has an important meeting at his family estate. No matter how much love and effort you put out, all you get is loneliness, heartache and no one to turn to.

Tonight had been one of those nights where your mother had way too much to drink and she was going on about how much of a failure you were to the family. How you disgrace the family name. How she wished you were the cum shot she swallowed. It left you a mess, between the names and nasty comments, the bruises left on your arm from when she grabbed it a little too hard to the freshly thin lines now lining your arms, tiny blood droplets decorating the shallow wounds. You pulled your sleeves down and rubbed your eyes. You quietly left your bedroom through the window and made your way to the Sohma household to see your boyfriend, Yuki.

You weren't really sure why you were going to his home. Maybe because he was your boyfriend that you loved dearly and he was the first person to really show you any form of affection. But you knew it probably would've been a waste of your time, he never hugged you, or let you get too close. The most he did was hold your hand from a distance, and at first that was enough for you. But he would always make sure you ate, well rested, okay. He didn't know about your mother. You didn't want to burden the Prince of the school. Not knowing what to really expect from a relationship, it was just enough. But tonight, you wanted a hug, you NEEDED a hug. Just a long embrace and cry into the chest of the only person who knew gave a damn about you. To have him hold you close and tell you everything was okay. He was the only person you trusted in this world and he was the only one you wanted right now. Forever.

You made it to the front door of the Sohma household, knocking gently. The door opened up and a brunette haired girl opened the door. “Oh, hello!” She spoke and you just cast your head down.

“I-im sorry. I thought this was the Sohma home.” You started to turn away when she grabbed your arm.

“No! This is the Sohma home! I'm Tohru Honda. Won’t you come in?” She opened the door and stepped away so you could enter. You slowly and quietly made your way into the home. “Did you want some tea or a snack?” Tohru asked, her kind eyes sparkled in a way that made you wish yours did that. You shook your head.

“I-is Y-Yuki home?” You asked quietly and Tohru smiled.

“You must be (f/n) (l/n)! He is, I’ll get him for you!” She smiled brightly at you and went upstairs to get the silver haired male. When she finally came back down, Yuki was right behind her. When he saw you he smiled, but when he saw some tear droplets fall down onto the floor his smile turned into a frown and his eyes looked at you worriedly.

“Miss (y/n)? What is the matter? What happened?” He asked, voice smooth and sweet like honey, but the worry in his voice made you sob and you started to head towards him wanting to embrace him and feel safe, but he took a step back and you paused. He saw the hurt flash even more in your red, puffy eyes and you saw a flash of guilt in his.

“I-im sorry!” You turned to leave, knowing he wouldn’t want to hold you. You never questioned him about why he wouldn’t, you respected his privacy, but that doesn’t mean you never thought about why he never did. And yes, it hurt to know that even in a moment of total weakness, he wouldn’t. But what you didn’t know, was that its all he ever wanted to do. He wants to hold you so close and so tight that you complain about not having enough oxygen to breathe. He wants to kiss you close and cuddle with you on days off. He wants all of that and more, but with his family secret, and knowing what Akito could do to you if you ever found out about it, he won't risk you getting hurt. But he also knows that not knowing is also hurting you, but it's better than anything Akito could do, would do, to you.

“No, please don’t leave.” He called to you, grabbing your arm and making you wince. He looked at his hand loosely around your arm, why did you wince? He gently pulled the sleeve up and audibly gasped. You pulled your arm away, quickly covering yourself back up. “Lets go to my room.” Gently taking your hand in his, he led you to his room and brought you to his bed. He sat you down and knelt in front of you. “Please, tell me what made you do this to yourself.” He asked you, gently taking your arm again and slowly rolling the sleeves up and placing loving kisses on the red, angry marks. You blushed momentarily at the new sudden display of affection before you told him the story. You told him how you failed your science test, even though you studied for hours on it. How your mom called you names and bruised your upper arms when she grabbed you. You told him everything you felt and how he was the only one you thought of and wanted to be with. How he was the only one you trusted.

Suddenly, without even thinking, he embraced you, arms wrapping around your frame for a mere three seconds before you were blinded by a puff of purple smoke. You blinked a couple of times after the smoke disappeared and looked to see your boyfriend had vanished. “Down here.” You heard his voice and when you looked down, you saw a small rat sitting in your lap.

“Y-Yuki?” You asked, slowly putting your hand out and the rat climbed into it and you slowly brought him to your face.

“I’m sorry, I never told you.” He looked down and you smiled widely, bringing him closer to peck his little head.

“It’s okay.” You smiled and set him on the bed and he poofed back. You quickly looked away upon noticing that he was indeed, naked. After he changed he grabbed your face and kissed you deeply, making sure to not get too close.

“You will move in with me, here. I will get you away from your mother. I promise you.” That was the day the universe decided it had enough fun with you, the day you broke free from your own “curse.” The day you finally felt…. safe.

#yuki sohma #reader insert #fluff #angst #hurt #comfort #yuki sohma x reader

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seiin-translations · 3 years

Text

2.43 S1 Chapter 4.5 - Drifting Yunichika

5. HIGH, FAST, STRONG

Sorry it took so long, there was a lot going on in this chapter

Translation Notes

1. I don’t think I word it very well here but Haijima literally says “obsessing over the face for their school grade” which I think basically means worrying over acting their age or something like that

2. I don’t know if there even is a term in English for this but a high set (二段トス) is where another player sets the ball instead of the setter because the received ball is off

3. The Sanzu River is the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx

Previous || Index || Next

The Prefectural High School Fall Tournament was held for three days on August 1st, August 2nd, and August 3rd. For the past several years, the number of schools participating in boys’ volleyball official tournaments was fixed at twenty-two. The tournament consisted of the first round on the first day, the second round on the second day, and the semifinals and finals on the third day.

You had to win five matches to win the championship. However, Seiin High School was lucky enough to get a seeded spot in the first round of the tournament, so they would participate in the second round. In other words, they had to win four matches.

Just four matches. Those were the same conditions as the prefecturals a year ago.

As Haijima had said, the fact that there were no sub-prefectural block qualifiers and only twenty participating schools in the whole prefecture would be an unthinkable scope in a large city. That was how close it was to Nationals, but it was also undeniable that it was difficult to maintain the level of competition because there were few competitors.

Seiin High School’s first game was on August 2nd, the second day of the tournament. Before the start of the first game of the day and the second round of the tournament, the banner that read “Nanafu Seiin High School Boys’ Volleyball Team” written boldly and masculinely in black ink on white cloth, hung from the second floor of the stands and released an overwhelming presence. Needless to say, it was in the hand of Kuroba’s grandfather, as it was in the case of Monshiro Middle School. He repeatedly instructed his mother to refrain from having a large cheering squad of all his relatives as she did in middle school, but she asked to at least hang a banner. He reluctantly discussed it with Oda, and the moment he saw the actual thing, he had taken to it completely. I’ve thought about this now and then, but Oda-senpai and Grandpa would definitely get along.

I’m not…nervous today…right…?

He carefully confirmed that with himself. His body was moving well. His heartbeat was normal. Unlike the school gym, the air conditioning was working in city-run gymnasium, so it was rather cool if anything, and right now he was sweating moderately after finishing his warmup. He didn’t feel uncomfortable. I feel like I can really do it today…then again, I always think that before a match.

“Yuniii! Yuuuni!”

He heard someone calling him through the buzz that enveloped the court right before the game. He turned his head to the second floor and spotted Itoko waving at him right above the “Nanafu Seiin High School Boys’ Volleyball Team” banner hanging from the front row.

With a face that said “You found me!”, Itoko stood and pointed to the seat next to her. “Look, look!”

“Ah… Yori-chan…”

Yorimichi, wearing a tight tank top and a Hawaiian shirt, was yawning as he plunked down on the plastic chair that looked cramped for someone of his size. This was the first time he saw him since he became a university student, but with his long hair tied all the way back into a bun, he looked even more like a punk. He was a bit impressed by how even though he was plenty vulgar in his third year of high school, he still had room to get worse.

Come to think of it, he should have returned yesterday. Itoko looked as though she was proud of the achievement of bringing her brother here. It had been about a year and a half since Kuroba started playing volleyball seriously, and this was the first time Yorimichi came to watch a match.

Why did he come? He wondered. Well, he was probably dragged here by Itoko because he happened to be back, but even so, he wouldn’t have gotten up even if Itoko invited him when he’s at home, so why did he decide to come today? I wonder what he’ll think when he watches my game. Would he make fun of me? Maybe he’d laugh and say, “Why are you being so serious about sports?”

He met eyes with Yorimichi. Kuroba thoughtlessly smiled in spite of himself, but Yorimichi didn’t smile. With a bored look on his face, he jerked his chin, as though to say, “Give me something to look at.”

What should I do… What should he show Yorimichi to satisfy him? Can he get him not to say things like “I shouldn’t have come to see this”, “This is a waste of time,” or “I got woken up early for this?”

His back was poked. He turned back with a start and saw Haijima putting his fist on the left side of Kuroba’s back, right behind his heart, and glaring at him with a stern look in his eyes. It was then that he became aware that his heart, which had been calm earlier, was now beating faster.

“Ugh…Sorry again, I…”

“I told you not to look around. Just look inside the court. Everyone’s there. Enemies…and friends too.”

As he felt Haijima’s fist pressing against his back through his uniform for a while, strangely enough, his heart which had been bouncing like a rubber ball gradually regained its normal weight.

“Don’t be in a hurry. Just wait.”

When Haijima said that and lowered his fist, his heart beating in its normal position. It was like he was preparing for battle, and the taping on Haijima’s fingers absorbed his nerves.

Haijima no longer paid Kuroba any attention and started talking to Oda and the others at the courtside. Kuroba hurriedly joined the circle of matching uniforms. Seiin’s uniform was black with blue lines. Only the libero had the reverse color scheme of black on blue. When Okuma was handed the uniform, he made an ominous prediction that the team would lose halfway because those weren’t the colors of a protagonist team, and Oda had gotten angry at him (According to Okuma, the protagonist team’s colors were a combination of “white and blue.” He thought he understood what he meant).

The starting members for Seiin High School were,

Number 1 Oda Shinichiro Third Year Left 163cm

Number 2 Aoki Misao Third Year Center 193cm

Number 4 Kanno Akito Second Year Right 181cm

Number 7 Kuroba Yuni First Year Left 184cm

Number 8 Haijima Kimichika First Year Setter 181cm

Number 10 Okuma Yusuke Second Year Center 187cm

Number 5 Hokao Kazuma Second Year Libero 170cm

Reserve Number 3 Uchimura Naoyasu Second Year 175cm

The above eight members were going into the match with all their strength.

For Haijima, this tournament would be his debut high school game, but as expected of someone with nerves as thick as sewer pipes, he didn’t seem nervous at all as he went over the formation with Oda and the others. They were the only school in the tournament that had a first-year as the setter, which was a position rare for even a second-year starting member to be in due to its importance as a so-called “playmaker” position. It was already attracting attention, but Haijima didn’t care about the gazes of others, or rather, he didn’t notice.

Both teams took the court, and the cheers of the waiting parents grew louder. I wonder if Yorimichi’s voice is mixed in with them…I doubt it, though…

Crap, my mind is on the outside of the court again. I have to focus on the inside of the court. He ruminated on Haijima’s words like they were a magic spell and let them soak into his body.

“Everything is inside the court. Enemies…and friends too.”

That guy said…friends. He felt like it was the first time he heard that word from Haijima’s mouth.

He subconsciously searched for him. Haijima still wasn’t on the court. He was standing on the sidelines and fiddling with the taping on his fingers in front of his stomach. Huh…? He’s doing that thing again…?

He shook his head lightly, put his hands down to his sides, and fixed his gaze on the court, his face as stiffly focused as ever. It was a face that said everything important in this world was on the nine-by eighteen-meter volleyball court.

From the beginning of the first set to the middle, Seiin used the newly incorporated center and right combination attacks from the training camp to get most of their points until the scores of both teams reached the ten point range. The dexterous duo of Aoki and Kanno toyed with the enemy’s blocks so easily that it was funny.

And after all was said and done, it was Haijima who was masterminding that. In addition to the transcendent accuracy of his overhand handling, he was able to set the ball to any place with one hand even when the receives to the front of the net were disordered. In addition, if there was even the slightest opening——.

Haijima’s left hand flashed over the net as he looked to make a jump set. In the next moment, a two-attack was made launched into the opponent’s territory with unbelievable speed.

The other team froze, and the gallery let out cries of surprise. It seemed to have become a rumor in the venue that Seiin, a team that was completely out of the limelight, was displaying an unusual strength from the first game with an incredible rookie in their ranks. There were even people who looked like they were from the high school sports association appearing here and there on the court.

——However. He had not set a single ball to Kuroba, who was in the ace position. He was beginning to feel like he wasn’t going to hit a single ball in this match. He was sure that Yorimichi was in the stands right now, being disgusted that he wasn’t being useful at all. Even the blocker of the opposing team who he was matched up with was starting to get a look on his face like, “Why is this guy on the court?” He was beginning to feel bad that they marked him.

Oda also made a high-speed back row attack. Through the training camp, he had come to be able to match Haijima’s sets, which literally meant “high and fast,” perfectly. Kuroba’s and Oda’s highest points were thirty centimeters apart, but they were able to do powerful back-row attacks as though they were hitting the ball at the same positions.

What the hell am I doing here? He couldn’t help but feel that way. If they wouldn’t let him hit, then the team would be much better off putting Uchimura in, who played better defense than Kuroba. During the training camp, Oda and the others were searching for a formation that prioritized receiving ability by swapping Kuroba and Uchimura.

If it was until yesterday, it might have gone bad. But… He recalled his conversation with Oda this morning.

“What do you think are the features of Haijima’s sets?”

It occurred when everyone was going to the competition venue. Oda had stopped Kuroba and asked him that.

“They’re high, fast, and straight. A B pass somehow becomes an A pass. He’s unpredictable when sending the ball to the front or back, so even his teammates don’t know where it’s going. But the worst is that he has no intention to match the attackers. He makes difficult sets with a face that says ‘It’s your fault if it doesn’t reach you.’”

He answered with complaints mixed in. Oda smiled, looking strangely happy.

“Yeah. The basic ability of a good setter is to make the attacker feel good about hitting the ball. On that point, Haijima’s sets has too much of his own tendencies and are difficult to hit. But why do you think they’re difficult?”

Kuroba was puzzled by the further questioning. Even if he was asked why, all he could say was that they reflected Haijima’s sadistic and inconsiderate personality.

“Haijima’s sets are probably customized to each attacker’s ability with precision. Everyone’s highest jumping points, takeoff, and swing speed is different. The set comes right in at the moment when each person is swinging at their highest points, within a few tenths of a second. However, he doesn’t set the ball to the place where it’s comfortable to hit it, he sets it to where it would be a little difficult. It’s not a place where you can’t reach at all, but a place where you will be able to reach if you really concentrate, stretch your nerves all over your body, and bring out your maximum power to hit. That’s why I’m practicing with Haijima…I’m getting better. I realized that for the first time in a match. I can see my surroundings better than in practice. I’m gaining the ability to hit at the highest point. As far as I know, there’s no setter as dedicated as that guy.”

The word “dedicated” was about as far from Haijima as the other side of the universe, and it somehow sent a shudder down Kuroba’s spine. Seeing his doubtful face, Oda laughed again.

“Kuroba, you don’t believe in Haijima?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe in him, but…”

“Actually, Haijima told me something. He told me that no matter what happened today, I shouldn’t bench you.”

“Huh…?”

“It’s not Haijima you don’t believe in, but just yourself. If you can’t believe in yourself, try believing in Haijima.”

Hokao made a beautiful A-pass to Haijima. Aoki and Kanno ran to intersect each other behind Haijima to divert the block targets. Oda also jumped out to do a back-row attack.

Haijima threw a glance at him for a moment under his hands, which were held in an overhand stance.

“Just wait.” ——Haijima’s words before the game echoed in his head.

Before he could think about it, his body was moving and he was doing an approach run. Two well-paced steps with his right foot and then left foot. On the third step, he stepped firmly on the floor with his two feet, right and left, and lowered his ankles, knees, hips deeply. He swung his arms from back to front deeply, releasing the power stored in his lower body to leap into the air. The entire floor threw his body up high due to his elasticity—the result when one could jump the highest.

There was nothing blocking the space above the net of two meters and forty centimeters. I’m completely unmarked! The opponent’s blocking was completely shaken off by Aoki’s and Kanno’s movements. For a sensible few seconds, he stood still in the air and had a clear view of the opponent’s entire court. The course that he was meant to pierce the ball down seemed to automatically emerge. It was a sport where you had to defend a nine-by-nine meter court with a reaction speed of a few tenths of a second. If you lagged for even a moment, there would be an opening there.

Even though today was the first time they played together, even though they hadn’t played together properly during the training camp, Haijima’s set flew “straight” towards Kuroba’s highest point, so precise and accurate that it was incredible. The timing was perfect. It fit right into his hand without a millimeter of deviation. All he had to do was to leave it to the rotation of his body and swing his arms.

The ball, driven in at an acute angle, bounced up in the opponent’s court with a bang. The highest, fastest, strongest——!

He was able to spike with all his power in an official game, something he kept failing at ever since the middle school prefecturals. He didn’t know what he was stumbling over, so he was at a complete loss for a whole year. Then that single set came to him like a sword of light cutting through the darkness, and he just hit it without thinking about anything, forgetting himself completely——. He still couldn’t believe he hit it. Why couldn’t he do it until now?

“If you can’t believe in yourself, try believing in Haijima.”

At that moment, they connected. Haijima’s—that guy’s—clumsy, easy to misunderstand, disconnected words became one thought. “I won’t let that happen again.” “I’ll prove it at the Fall Tournament.” “I’ll make every ball I set to you the best ones.” “Don’t be in a hurry. Just wait.”

“Kuroba!”

As though he was tired of waiting for the long flight time to end, Oda jumped at him and put him in a headlock.

“Okay, that’s enough!”

With his hair mussed up, Kuroba absentmindedly answered, “Ah…okay.” Hokao poked his shoulder, and Aoki slapped his butt. Kanno, who was moving back to serve, gave him a small peace sign. Okuma and Uchimura were loudly cheering something from the warm-up zone.

“Seiin High School has two immoveable pillars: the high-speed combination performance developed by setter Haijima Kimichika and the explosive offensive power of ace Kuroba Yuni—we’ll be the team that people will talk like that about.”

When it seemed that the referee was going to give them a warning, Oda finally released Kuroba’s head with a “got you” look on his face.

“Well, it’s also because I was talked into it by Haijima.”

He bashfully added, and then his expression stiffened.

“Alright, Kuroba, let’s take it from here.”

“Y-Yes.”

Kuroba nodded, his cheeks flushed. He was so happy to hear the words “Ace Kuroba Yuni” from Oda’s mouth that his inferiority complex from the training camp was easily blown away.

It was just as Haijima said. You’re the team’s ace. He felt like the world was turning out just as Haijima said, and a shiver welled up from deep within him with a little bit of fear and excitement that swallowed that up.

Haijima was the only one who was completely calm about the one play and was already observing the opponent’s court with his mind on the next play. The rotation turned once, and the front row now consisted of, from the left, Haijima, Kuroba, and Aoki. The player must the rotation’s positional relationship until the ball was served, or it would be a positional fault penalty. The moment the ball was served, Haijima must quickly move to the right side and have the line order be replaced with Kuroba, Aoki, and Haijima, the three of them stood by in a tight group near the center of the front row.

“You were considering this from the beginning. Leaving me out from the combination practice…”

He couldn’t help but whisper that question as he and Haijima were huddled together behind Aoki.

In the prefecturals a year ago, Kuroba had been overly conscious of the blocks and fell apart spectacularly after being persistently marked by the opposing team. However, since Kuroba was the only attacker who could hit the ball, they had no choice but to set all the balls to him, and there was no way to get himself unmarked.

But now——Haijima said, “I can do things differently.” If the opponent was aware that their team used the center-right combination a lot, they would become wary of it and adopt a blocking system that was closer to the right, and the mark on Kuroba on the left would weaken. The scenario was to have the seniors play the role of setting the stage, so to speak, in order to have him hit the ball unmarked and get rid of his awareness that he was bad at it.

“How on earth do you make a request like that to the senpais…You really do have nerves of steel.”

He could only be thankful that he was blessed with understanding seniors.

“You’re decisive enough on your own. We’ll do the cheap tricks to get you to hit the ball. If you’re a senpai who’s so obsessed with stuff like keeping face as a senior (1) and ruin our chances of winning, then we don’t need you anyways.”

Haijima declared unabashedly while his gaze was fixed on the opponent’s court. But then he suddenly pouted and added something else in a whisper.

“…That’s why, I’m taking you. To the Spring Tournament.”

Although he didn’t say the word “senpais,” Kuroba supplemented that word in his mind. He A laugh escaped from his lips as he realized that in his own way, Haijima felt indebted to Oda and the others.

“You talk like you alone are taking them, but…we’re the ones taking them, aren’t we?”

Haijima blinked in surprise. Kuroba was embarrassed after he said that aloud, having gotten carried away and talked big. He was afraid that he would be cut down again with “you’re a hundred years too early to say that.” However,

“…Yeah.”

Haijima’s face softened, and he nodded.

Now he understood—everything was in the court. Enemies, and friends as well. He wondered if Yorimichi was watching. However, he didn’t feel like looking up at the stands, when normally he would be curious and try to find him. His feet were properly rooted here, not on the second floor of the stands.

He didn’t look for him, but he just wanted Yorimichi to see this. There was nothing to be shrink from. There was nothing to be embarrassed of. He wanted to puff up his chest and be proud of that this was the volleyball he was so passionate about right now. Above all, he wanted him to see this team.

He saw Haijima touching the taping on his fingers again. He lightly shook his head and fixed his gaze forward with a focussed expression on his face. He didn’t seem to be in bad shape, so Kuroba didn’t mind it at the time.

“Do it with the intention of taking it and hitting it yourself.”

He was told this by Hokao and Uchimura as they went along with his receiving practice during the training camp, to the point he had calluses on his ears. Don’t just sit back and watch the ball after a serve receive, run with the intention of snatching away the set to yourself. The left-side hitters have always been an easy target for the serve. That was why their receiving abilities, not just their spiking abilities, were the key to offense. No matter how good Haijima was, if his serve receive was up to par, there was no way to build an offense.

Even though he knew that, when he received the ball, he felt like he had done his job and stopped moving, but thanks to being told that over and over and repeating it in practice, it was hammered into his body. There was meaning in being taken out of offensive practice during training camp and forced to do only receiving practice.

He was hit by a serve in his bad form and fell on his butt, but he immediately jumped up and ran. Although the receive went off course, Haijima had already entered the ball’s drop point due to his outstanding reading speed and mobility. This was what he meant when he said that with Haijima, a B-pass became an A-pass. An A-pass was a good receive that allowed the setter to return to a position that didn’t move in from in front of the net for the fastest combination attack, but a B-pass was a worse receive than that. When it came to the C-pass, the setter might not be able to get it, and if that happened, the sign could not be used and another player would have to do a high set. (2) However, Haijima didn’t abandon the sign, even if it was a C-pass, and chased the ball himself to force a combination attack.

Haijima alone had the final say on who got to hit among the four attackers on the court, including Kuroba. He judged the situation instantly based on the reactions of the opposing blockers and receivers, and in Haijima’s case, rather than simply striking where they were undermanned, he chose the option that would allow him to harass his opponents the most and leave an impact on the rest of the play.

He noticed that he was being marked by a blocker, but Kuroba sent the desire of being given the ball to Haijima. Until now, all he thought about was escaping from the blocks. But now he was ready to smash one in.

Haijima touched his taping again for an instant and made a gesture of shaking his head. ——What, now?

Haijima opened his eyes wide at the ball that was approaching right in front of his face, and he turned away as though to run from it and knocked it down with his hand.

Beep——.

The whistle sounded, and there were cheers from the opposing court for their good luck. Meanwhile, on Seiin’s court, all the attackers who ended up with half-baked jumps looked at Haijima with astonishment. That was natural for anyone who knew the man named Haijima. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was someone else’s basic mistake, but Haijima——?

The ball rolled fruitlessly to the center of their court. It was unbelievable, but Haijima, who was staring at it with a look that was even filled with hatred, and then as though he had returned to himself, immediately put out his hand and flicked it out of the court.

***

“Thank you for your hard work!”

All the members of the team formed a line facing the advisor and spoke in unison. Oda stepped out of the line and faced his team members.

“Now, we’re going back to school temporarily…”

“Aah…Oda, there’s always tomorrow, so let’s just break up here. Some people live closer to here than school.”

The old advisor interjected with a slippery voice like half of his body was already submerged in the Sanzu River (3), causing Oda’s temple to twitch. “I think you’re the only one whose home is close, sir, but…” Although he bitterly grumbled that, Oda sighed in defeat and turned back to the members.

“We’ll break up here for now. The Nanafu group will stay together and return to the school. Everyone else can go back home. Tomorrow, we’ll meet in the clubroom at six-thirty. Alright, don’t get into any accidents or anything like that, and think of it as a match until you get home, don’t lose focus.”

“What is this, a field trip?”

Aoki let out a strained laugh and quipped, taking over the conversation from Oda, who looked embarrassed.

“The Monshiro group is going far away, so ask your parents to give you a ride. I’ll put the ball case in the old teacher’s car, but Kuroba and Haijima, can you bring the cooler box back home and then bring it back tomorrow?”

“Oh, yes, we can both bring it tomorrow. Our houses are close.”

The two third-years gave Kuroba a casual look as he quickly jumped to attention and answered. Guessing that they wanted him to take a look at how Haijima was doing, he stealthily glanced at his profile. Haijima, who had quickly returned to his glasses from contacts, was looking ahead with a reddened face for some reason. Is he tired…? However, he couldn’t tell the difference clearly because he always looked like he wasn’t thinking about anything, surprisingly, except when his club activity switch was on.

That was the only time Haijima made a basic mistake, and after that it had no effect on him at all, and he went on as usual—or rather, his level of “usual” was unusual—until the end, but Seiin High School continued the play and won the two games of the day. They would advance to the semifinals tomorrow, the final day.

So, they have come to the same place as the prefecturals a year ago.

It was as though they were advancing by tracing the road from a year ago. He was confident that they would break the semifinals this year for sure, and he was plenty motivated, but—a bad feeling that there was an unexpected trap lying in wait for them just like a year ago, continued to hover in a corner of his mind.

They met with the parents who came to support them from Monshiro in the gym’s parking lot. Kuroba’s mother, Kanno’s mother, Haijima’s grandmother, and Itoko and Yorimichi were there. The Kannos’ car and the Kurobas’ car (Haijima’s grandmother seemed to have ridden in the Kurobas’ car) were there, as well as a light pickup truck. The truck belonged to the relative who transported provisions to the training camp. The back of the truck was still littered with vegetable scraps. It seemed that this was the car Yorimichi borrowed to “just drive around in town” in.

Thank you so much for all your help, Kanno’s mother thanked Kuroba’s mother reverently. He wondered about the parent of a second-year being deferential to the parent of a first-year.

It seemed that Itoko had made plans to join with her school friends from now. An amusement building called Suzumu Play-One was built near Itoko’s Suzumu City high school recently, and it had a karaoke place, a bowling alley, and an arcade. It had become a hangout for high schoolers with free time (by the way, Karaoke Box Monshiro was finally demolished at the start of this year). No wonder she made her hair into a bun-looking thing on the top of her head, wore a sleeveless dress-looking thing, and carried a summer vacation-like basket bag-looking thing. He, on the other hand, had just changed out of his uniform and was wearing a T-shirt that was already drenched with sweat, carrying an enamel bag that dug into his shoulders and even a cooler box. He didn’t mind it though, because he wanted to do it.

“Good job out there, Yuni. You were pretty cool.”

“What do you mean, ‘pretty’ cool? Say I’m ‘super’ cool, onion head.”

As he reflexively shot back after being praised with a smile, Itoko took the initiative to load Kuroba’s luggage into the back of the truck, so he took it back and threw it up himself.

“You still have the semifinals and finals. You’ll get carried away if I praise you. Yorimichi? Don’t you have anything to say to Yuni?”

Itoko’s voice turned a bit angry and she slapped the driver’s door. “Aah?” Yorimichi, who was sticking his face into the air conditioner at the driver’s seat, rolled down the window with an annoyed look on his face.

“Ah, um…how was it…?”

“Doesn’t matter how it was. It was pretty cool at the venue. I thought it would be hot, so it took a while for me to wanna go there.”

He sloppily leaned against the door with one arm out the window. Even though he didn’t exercise, his arms were muscular, and they were a size thicker than Kuroba’s who recently started to work hard at muscle training. His tank top was tightly stretched over his thick chest. He could try doing some kind of sport even now…

“Ugh, don’t dodge the question and tell him. You wanted to see a volleyball game, didn’t you?”

Itoko said, putting her hands on her hips with an exasperated look on her face.

“Huh!? Yori-chan, you’re interested in volleyball!?”

“No way.”

He had widened his eyes and unintentionally said that with hope in his voice, but got flatly rejected on the spot.

“I just wanted to see what you’re so into. You probably found something there you haven’t told me about…Well, it looks like you’ll be keeping at it for a long time, so work hard at that.”

“Geez, just be honest!”

Yorimichi withdrew his head from out the window, and Itoko got angry. But for Kuroba, it was more than enough. Those were Yorimichi-like words of support. Come to think of it, he wasn’t drinking while watching the game today. He didn’t come here to make fun of him. He had him understand that he was doing this seriously. He didn’t know what he was shrivelling from. He knew that Yorimichi wouldn’t laugh for no reason at the things people cherished.

That’s why I like Yorimichi…

“…Mm. I will work hard.”

He answered bashfully. Yorimichi was already pretending not to hear and fiddled with the car radio. “There’s only enka,” he complained.

At that moment, he heard a hoarse scream and something being struck.

He turned around and saw Haijima and his grandmother next to the Kurobas’ car. There was more than a head of difference in height between the grandmother and Haijima, which made her look extremely weak. A dark red handbag had fallen at her feet, and her wallet and other small items were scattered across the asphalt.

“Why are you using that without asking me…?”

Haijima said with a trace of anger in his voice. His grandmother’s small frame shrunk. “W-Why are you getting so angry all of a sudden? I thought you didn’t want it anymore since you put it away in the closet…”

“Haijima? What are you doing to your own grandma?”

Confused, Kuroba rushed over as he reproached him. When he crouched down and was about to pick up the scattered items, the old woman also hurriedly crouched down and ran her wrinkled little hands over the asphalt to gather the small items, saying, “Aah, young master, there is no need to do this.”

He was about to pick up the handbag when his hand stopped.

A dark red schoolbag… This is…

“Don’t touch it.”

Haijima’s hand snatched the bag from over Kuroba’s head.

On his knees and speechless, he looked up at Haijima. The summer evening sunlight, which was still beating down on them, illuminated Haijima from behind so he couldn’t see his expression, but he could clearly see that the bag he was gripping had…that Tokyo middle school’s emblem—the one Kuroba didn’t know—embroidered on it.

Why…? Along with that question, he felt anger.

You said you weren’t going back, didn’t you? So why do you still treasure that thing…?

I wonder if I’m hurting right now.

“I ain’t going back” …Even though I believed in those words I heard at the training camp, I might be feeling betrayed.

***

He smacked the top of his alarm clock that ringing shrilly next to his pillow with the palm of his hand as though he was spiking with all his might. He sluggishly peeled his face away from his pillow and looked at the digital display of his now-silent clock. It was 5:05 in the morning.

“Mmm…Gotta get up…”

He had to take the first train in order to get to the clubroom by the 6:30 meeting time. He had to jump over one city to go to school, so a roundtrip to school took up quite a lot of time.

“…Five more minutes…”

His consciousness sank the moment he plopped his head down on the pillow again.

The alarm rang again. He half-consciously hit the clock that was still under his hand, but it didn’t stop no matter how many times he hit it. “…Nn?” It wasn’t the alarm. It was another sound. “…My phone…?” Groaning like a zombie that had risen from the grave, he reluctantly crawled out from his futon.

The Kuroba main house was a purely Japanese home, and Kuroba’s room was also a Japanese-style room with tatami mats and a futon. He could hear muffled ringing from the enamel bag he had thrown to the foot of his futon. Now he remembered that he forgot to charge it yesterday before falling asleep.

“Hup.”

As he was waking up, he raised his upper body vigorously in the manner of a push-up. Midway through, a shiver of pain ran up his back. “Aaagh,” he groaned and ended up curling his back. He crawled over to his bag with his hand behind his back. It was a different kind of pain from the muscle pain he got after practices and games, and his body ached all over, not just his back. His cheekbone was still throbbing with pain.

He thought that if it gave up halfway and stopped ringing, he wouldn’t have to answer it. But the ringing spitefully continued until he reached into his bag and fumbled for his phone.

“Oda-senpai? You’re an early riser.”

When he saw the caller’s name on the display, he thought of Oda’s face, full of enthusiasm like he had been running in the morning. Oda’s house was close to the school, so he shouldn’t have to get up as early as Kuroba.

“Fwah, g’morning…”

“Kuroba, come to school immediately!”

He heard Oda’s voice, refreshing and clear right in the morning, just like the image in his head.

“…? I’m going there now, but…”

“Come directly to the staff room, not the club room. Depending on your answer, we…will have to withdraw from today’s game.”

The sleepiness that had been coiled about his head dissipated at once.

“…What?”

He could only hear Oda’s heavy groans from the speaker.

He thought it was déjà vu from a year ago. No, he really wished it was just déjà vu.

We’re withdrawing…? From the semifinals?

——Again?

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#2.43 #2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu #2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club #2.43 book 1 #2.43 translation

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euphoricjupiter · 4 years

Text

Home

Pair: Daichi x Reader

Warnings: Time Skip, Haikyuu Spoilers, Major Character Death

Genre: Fluff and Angst

Author’s note: Hi! Thank you for taking the time to read this story! It’s my first time writing and releasing a fic, so go easy on me, if you have constructive criticism or have any thoughts on it please feel free to comment! Happy Reading!

You stared at your reflection in the mirror and observed your surroundings before your eyes focused on the bed. Daichi was there. Everything was okay.

Feeling your gaze on him, Daichi pulled his eyes away from his phone to look up at you and grinned. You took in his form, tan skin, rippling muscles, and messy brown hair. He had an arm tucked behind his head and had kicked the sheets off, leaving him in pajama bottoms and a white shirt. You walked over to him while he moved towards the center of the bed so that you could sit. You slowly took in the sight, committing it to memory. You began to card your fingers through his hair gently, making his eyes flutter closed for a second before your hand moved to cup his cheek, your thumb brushing across his cheekbones.

“Morning,” you whispered before leaning to press your lips to his in a chaste kiss.

His hand moved to the back of your neck as he deepened the kiss. Slowly moving into a sitting position, he moved his lips to the edge of your jaw and down your neck, groaning when his phone went off, indicating a phone call. You smiled and pulled away, while he grumbled, and walked into the bathroom to draw a warm bath before heading to your son’s room. Akito lays curled up in bed. You smiled as you saw him roll over and burrow into the blankets even further. Your heart warmed at the sight of your husband’s miniature twin. You gently woke up your son and put him on your hip, carrying him back to the room and handing him to Daichi. You returned to Akito’s room to get his small school uniform, lotion, and other necessities before heading back to see that Daichi had already begun to give him a bath, and was humming a melody.

You quietly moved to grab your phone, opening the camera app and pressing record. As if planned, Akito looked up at his dad and moved his hands to his cheeks, letting out a happy giggle when he saw the small bit of foam left behind.

“Oh yeah?” Daichi asked mischievously before grabbing a handful of foam and plopping it on Akito’s head, causing him to let out another round of giggles.

“Daddy silly,” he grinned.

“You’re pretty silly too, buddy. You gave me a beard!”

Akito smiled and looked up into his dad’s eyes, “love you, daddy”

“I love you too, buddy.”

Daichi grabbed a small plastic cup and, with all the gentleness in the world, tipped his son’s head back, pouring the water on his scalp, rinsing the bubbles away before placing a gentle kiss on his head. You stopped the recording, placing your phone down before moving to kneel next to Daichi, leaning your head on his shoulder.

“That was cute you know.”

“Huh?”

“The moment you two had. You’re the best daddy in the world.” you answered, kissing him. He responded with softness, and the two of you pulled away to look down at your son who was playing with the rubber ducks causing small splashes.

“Thank you. For this life, for giving him to me, for being mine. I love you both so damn much.” Daichi murmured, keeping his eyes on Akito. You felt your eyes well up with tears as your nightmare came rushing back.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, his brows furrowed.

“ I love you too Daichi. I’m just scared.”

He frowned in understanding, “you had another nightmare, didn’t you?”

You nodded and he sighed, wrapping his arms around you, and you held him tightly, hiding your face in the crook of his neck.

“Hey, I’m right here. I’m fine. I’m not going anywhere. We have more years ahead of us, okay?”

You nodded mutely, focused on listening to his heartbeat. You knelt there for a moment before you handed Daichi Akito’s dinosaur towel, which he immediately wrapped around him.

As you walked out, you grabbed your phone and paused, “smile boys,” you said, as you aimed the phone for a family selfie. Daichi grinned at the camera, and so did Akito, his little triceratops hood fell forward a little, almost covering his eyes. You looked at Daichi before clicking the button and hearing the shutter.

“Oh, that one’s cute,” Daichi murmured when you pulled up the picture, “send it to me.” You nodded and held out your arms for Akito, who immediately made grabby hands.

“Here, I’ll get him ready, you go shower and get dressed. I already showered last night, so take your time if you want,” you told him as you placed your son on your hip.

“Thanks,” he smiled as you walked out and shut the door behind you, hearing the shower start.

A while later, all of you were dressed and walking out to your respective cars, when Daichi wrapped his arm around you and pulled you close.

“Have a good day. I love you,” he said before kissing your forehead, and then your lips. He knelt down and picked up Akito, lightly throwing him in the air, catching him quickly, making your son let out happy screams, “again again!” he cheered.

Daichi felt his heart grow and complied before blowing a raspberry on his cheek.

“Be good at school, okay?” Akito nodded and wrapped his arm around his dad’s neck.

“Love you daddy,” he said before giving Daichi a kiss.

“Love you too, son.” Daichi replied as he buckled him into his car seat, making sure he was secure before shutting the door. You slid into the driver’s side, and he moved to shut your door before you stopped him, grabbing his hand, feeling the wedding band.

“Be careful okay? Please.”

“I will. I’ll see you tonight okay? We’ll watch holiday movies and have hot chocolate.” he comforted you as he kissed your knuckles, his lips brushing your own wedding rings.

“Promise?”

“Of course. I love you”

“I love you too.” He stepped back, making sure you were completely in the car before shutting the door and walking to his own.

You watched him walk away, polished black shoes, navy blue slacks, and vest which covered the light blue long sleeve shirt. His cap was tucked under his arm and you kept watching as he got into the patrol car, turning to smile and wave at the two of you, before backing out and driving away. You let out the breath you hadn’t noticed you were holding and adjusted the rearview mirror so you could see Akito. “Let’s get you to school baby.”

As the day progressed, Asahi noticed that you weren’t yourself. As his assistant, you were normally always bustling around, and spreading cheer, but today it just seemed toned down. He considered asking Daichi if something was going on, but put the thought on hold. He would ask you first, but if you kept acting that way he would send Daichi a quick text. He stood, walked in the direction of your desk, tapping it to get your attention.

“Huh? Oh, hey Asahi did you need me to do something?”

“No it’s fine, you’re good. I just wanted to ask if you were okay? You seem to have something on your mind.” You opened your mouth before your cell phone rang, and both of you stopped and turned when you heard the elevator doors across your desk slide open revealing an officer.

You shot up from your desk as your stomach began to twist and flip, and Asahi felt his stomach do the same.

“Hello, I’m looking for Y/n Sawamura?”

“That would be me.” You answered, coming around the desk to stand next to Asahi.

“Hi ma’am, is there somewhere we could speak in private?”

Your throat clenched, and Asahi responded for you, “we can talk in my office.”

“Sir I-”

“If this is about Daichi Sawamura I want to hear it as well. He’s practically a brother to me.” Asahi interrupted before motioning for you and the officer to follow him in his office. The officer nodded and you followed mutely. The door shut and you immediately felt claustrophobic.

“Ma’am, Sir, I regret to inform you that Mr. Daichi Sawamura has been killed while in the line of duty.”

Asahi whirled around to catch you as you fell to the floor. You let out a loud scream of anguish as you began to sob. Your chest hurt, and you felt a chill take over your body as Asahi held you while you broke down, tears streaming down his own face.

“NO! NO! NO! YOU’RE LYING!” you screamed, “HE PROMISED ME! HE PROMISED ME HE WOULD BE OKAY! THAT HE WOULD BE SAFE!”

“Y/n, Y/n listen to me,” Asahi urged, but you couldn’t.

You let out loud broken cries. You pulled your hair, hoping that the pain would wake you from what was a nightmare. But it didn’t. You were awake. This was real. Daichi...

“What the hell happened?” Asahi demanded.

“He responded to a domestic violence call. The neighbors reported hearing a male in the house yelling, as well as the cries of women and children. When Mr. Sawamura pulled up to the residence, he arrested the male. According to the eldest child, the male tried to come at him with a large bat, and after placing the man in the patrol car, Mr. Sawamura stood outside with the woman, waiting for another officer to arrive so that he could get more information. It’s at this moment that the offender’s brother showed up and after seeing his brother in the patrol car, fired rounds at Mr. Sawamura, striking him and the woman. The eldest child saw the whole thing. Neither the offender nor his brother made it far, however. Right, when they tried to run they were caught by the officer who was arriving as back up. Unfortunately, neither Mr. Sawamura nor the woman made it. The woman died on the way to the hospital, and Mr. Sawamura died on the scene. I’m sorry for your loss, but we need you to come to the morgue at the Miyagi Hospital, for paperwork.”

Asahi clenched his fists at the thought before looking down at you, dismissing the officer as he bowed and left the room. You were still letting out heart-wrenching cries, shaking as you began to hyperventilate.

“Y/n, Y/n, listen to me breathe,” he begged as he cupped your face.

“He’s gone Asahi, he’s left me alone.” you sobbed deliriously as you buried your head in his chest, your shoulders shaking and he felt his heart break for you and Akito. Akito… he needed to contact Tsukishima and Sugawara immediately.

“Y/n listen to me. You are not alone. You have me, and Suga, and Noya, Tanaka, and everyone else. Do you remember everyone on the volleyball team?” he asked, making you look up. “We were a family in high school, and we are a family still. We’ll be there for you” He promised, letting you curl up as he pulled out his cellphone and called Tsukishima, Akito’s godfather, and your brother.

“Hello? Asahi?”

“Tsukishima, listen to me. I need you to pick up Akito and get Sugawara.”

“What? Why? What’s going on?”

“Just do it Tsukki, and call Nishinoya, and have him contact Tanaka, Kageyama, and Hinata and meet us at the Miyagi Hospital.”

“This is about Y/n or Daichi isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.”

The line cut off, and Asahi helped you stand, grabbing his things and yours, as you were too consumed in your grief to even stand upright. He helped you the whole way to his car, your cries being reduced to soft cries and whimpers. Your hand never left your wedding rings. You looked down at them, promises of a life that had been taken from you, and your heart clenched.

You didn’t notice the group of men and the woman located by the door until you heard Akito calling for you.

“Mama!” He called, making grabby hands at you. You whipped around to hide your tears, not wanting to cry in front of your son, but unable to stop completely. Your son quickly noticed this, however, and so did Tsukishima as he connected the dots.

Asahi calling Tsukishima and giving orders.

Akito being pulled from school.

Immediate orders to head to the Miyagi Hospital

You and Asahi in tears, you to the point that you didn’t notice them.

Either Daichi was seriously injured or…

You took Akito from Tsukishima and broke down in tears again when you looked into his eyes. Daichi’s eyes. Akito, sensing something was wrong, began to cry too and the only thing you could do was keep him pressed close to your chest. Your baby. Your unwitting parting gift from your husband. Tsukishima’s blood ran cold when he saw you crumple again and he pulled you into his chest, with Akito in the middle.

“I’ll be here for you Y/n. You know that right? Me and Tadashi, we’ll support you.”

Asahi stares at the sight before Nishinoya grabs his face, “Asahi Azumane. What is going on? You’re scaring the hell out of me.” Asahi looks down at his husband and starts crying again when he realizes he has to deliver the news. You’re in no condition to do so.

“Daichi…” he falters for a moment but pushes through, “Daichi is dead.” he whispers, making Nishinoya and the others freeze. Sugawara is the first to react.

“W- what?!”

“He was gunned down when he answered a call. He died on the scene.” Asahi spits out, finally looking up to see everyone crying. Kageyama comforts Hinata, Noya is silent, as are Tanaka and Kiyoko, and Sugawara just stares.

“What the hell happened?” Noya growls.

“I don’t know. They caught him as the guy was trying to help his brother escape. Daichi had him in the back of the patrol car, the brother showed up and he started shooting up the place. He killed Daichi and his sister in law, in front of his niece or nephew.”

“Fucking hell!” Kageyama curses. “How did Y/n find out?”

“Another officer came to deliver the news. He told us in my office.”

“Two kids…” Hinata whispers.

“Huh?” Kageyama looks down at the small redhead.

“Y/n’s pregnant” Hinata murmurs. “She’s going to have to take on the responsibility of taking care of Akito and the baby.”

Kiyoko gasps, and turns to look at you holding on to your brother and son. Her heart breaks for Akito, too small to remember Daichi, and the new baby, who will never know its father. The group moves to envelop you in a hug, and you cry harder because it’s not him. It’s not Daichi, and it never will be. Never again.

Tsukishima walks with you while the others wait with Akito in the lobby. The poor baby had tired himself out from crying and slept, stretched out on Kiyoko and Tanaka’s laps. You feel numb when you enter the morgue. It’s cold, creepy, and smells of chemicals, but there, on a cold metal table, lies a body covered by a long white sheet, a toe tag barely visible. You let out a whimper when you recognize the kanji for your last name. Daichi’s last name. Tsukishima’s grip on your hand tightens when he thinks of his brother-in-law and he catches you when you pass out after they lift the sheet. It’s him. Daichi.

He looks like he’s asleep, and Tuskishima wishes he could slap him and shout at him that he’s scaring his little sister but he can’t. This isn’t a joke. It’s a nightmarish reality. You’re admitted to the hospital that night, and it comes out to Tsukishima that you are indeed pregnant. He sighs and rubs his eyes which feel raw before falling asleep from mental exhaustion. The next morning you are released from the hospital and your group stays for the whole day, those who work called in sick and asking for days off.

This is a family, and your family just lost one of its pillars. You head into your room and move to your dresser, taking in Daichi’s cologne, his sunglasses, and other things that belong to him. You look at a picture of your wedding day, feeling more tears well up as you pull on one of his shirts, and you look down, observing the wedding ring on your necklace before looking up.

You stared at your reflection in the mirror and observed your surroundings before your eyes focused on the bed. Daichi wasn’t there. Nothing was okay.

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ae0nx · 3 years

Text

FRUITS BASKET S3 EPISODE 1 + 2 RECAP!

Yayyy! Season 3! Finally! I’m hoping this season will make me understand/sympathise with Akito and maybe even Shigure a little bit more because... honestly? My opinions on episode 2?... I might get some flack for my opinions on them... 😬

But, first: I’d like to appreciate how on the Funimation app we got a little interview/message from a few of the english dub VAs! Specifically Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jerry Jewell, Eric Vale, Ian Sinclair and Brina Palencia (Akito, Kyo, Yuki, Kureno and Isuzu). And it was nice seeing some of their opinions of the characters they play and how much they’re emotionally invested in the story. (Ian’s such a nerd ‘I wanna see giant mechs later this season’ 😂 - I lowkey stan him lol)

You should definitely check it out if you’re interested in what they would have to say!

ANYWAYS, let’s get into it...

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EPISODE 1

I really love this depiction of the original zodiac and how you can just tell from the tone of the scene how desperately the God of the Zodiac was clinging on to these connections that they had with the participants in the banquet. How much they clung on to and loved the cat... Also, interesting how Tohru’s narrating this scene... almost like she can relate to the desperation of wanting to keep things the same... but we’ll get to that later. But also, Tohru is a God

This new opening is beautiful, I love the way that camera moves around the still illustrations and how the general tone just hammers down that... this season is gonna be some real shit lol (which makes me nervous for the opening for the second half 😳). It’s so warped and the general blue, grey and black tone that follows around every Akito scene we get in the anime has bled into every scene in this opening concerning the rest of the zodiac. Almost... like something is decaying. It’s great, it’s just very sad lol. I love the song tho, issa bop.

One of my favourite things in stories is when we get a bigger villain than the ‘pronounced’ villain of the story. Ren’s introduction through a manicured outstretched hand towards Kureno and Hatori is so weirdly gross in what it insinuates (especially when you apply her connection with Shigure) but again... I wanna know why she’s such an asshole to Akito specifically besides the bad mental health management within the Sohma compound. I have an inkling of what it is through memory of the manga, but like Akito and Shigure... I just wanna understand why.

Also, Ren is gorgeous and I’m sorry for simping.

I mean... she’s kinda got a point? She just didn’t need to be so mean about it lol. It’s pretty clear that the connection the zodiac have to each other is real and something they cannot control. BUT, wouldn’t it be easier if this connection wasn’t perpetuated by outer circles of the family and if Akito herself wasn’t so cruel about it? But, I guess Akito - through her relationship with her mother - kinda doesn’t know how to genuinely show love and affection. (Which brings me into my thoughts of how the manga ends and how I kinda... have a few problems with it which I will get to... when that comes lol)

Lol - weeeeeeeee! (flashes back to Tohru being yeeted into the river). Is this a part of Akito’s god-like powers?!

Again. She’s got a point! They’ve both got a point. But, they’re both the source of the problem. It’s really painful to see two mentally ill people duke it out. This whole institution is just rotten.

- I am super curious about what Akira’s relationship was like with the zodiac and if it was just as dark. I’m gonna assume it slightly already was, as the exclusion and degradation of the cat curse is already dark in itself but maybe the rest of the zodiac were just fine with how things were? I dunno if we actually will get the full backstory of Akira and his zodiac but I’m definitely intrigued

Ok, but if four crying children came up to me after I’d just consummated with my partner to reach out at my stomach chanting ‘we’ve been waiting for you’. That would disturb me and scar me for a while too so... 😂. I know it’s supposed to be ethereal and spiritual but... dude, wtf lol

...I don’t like how much I’m into Ren being such a Villain™ 😅

- Akito being seen as a crying child by the older zodiac members has always been interesting to me because yes, they could see her as that through mainly the age gap, general empathy and the way she sometimes irrationally acts out. But, also the depiction of Gods being seen as children having tantrums has being reflected in many different beliefs and myths (especially Greek Mythology) and I just like the fact that this all powerful, all knowing being would be compared to a child. It gives you a different perspective on power.

- Is the paper note in the CD case that Kureno gave back to Tohru an extra addition or was it always there?...

Mannnn... I really wanted Isuzu to fuck shit up after seeing Tohru so upset but... *le sigh* (outfit’s still on point)

But, I’m so glad we get an equal Ethereal Goddess to save Tohru! HANAJIMA! We love her, we stan her. <3

- ‘Tohru will be in my custody’ 🤣 I personally think Hana’s bluntness was a kindness in her conversation with Yuki because if I found Tohru upset? I’d automatically start firing metaphorical shots at everyone in that house

- Shigure fearing Hana makes me sleep better at night <3

Hana’s just like ‘hmm... sounds like someone I know... 👀’ I’m here for this parallel between Tohru and Kureno in the hopes that Tohru doesn’t ever get in as bad a situation as Kureno. Ahhh... Kureno... (Also, Laura Bailey was killing it in this scene as always)

- Hmmm... there’s something terribly poetic about Kyo saving Tohru’s scarf from oncoming traffic... but also, Kyo can’t help himself aha

KWEEEN! I love this look for Uo, it’s very Kyoko. I already said this in Season 1 but I STILL need to get wool-lined jacket. Outfit Appreciation goes to her - 3.5 stars.

<3<3<3 Friendship is magic!

- Megumi is such a good egg as always! From him going to get Uo to him being so wise with his outlook on love and how it takes time to really flourish. The best!

- This whole episode ends really nicely from Tohru’s return home and Kyo washing and returning Tohru’s scarf and Yuki being happy to see Tohru and Shigure being somewhat decent. It was nice to get a bit of relief after the tornado of emotions

Also, this was a nice screencap! Even Kyo is smiling!!! :))))

EPISODE 2

*takes sip of wine* ...ok.

👀... later lol

This scene really highlighted how Tohru is starting to see Shigure and the whole zodiac curse in a new and darker way. For the first time, it felt like Tohru was a little bit more guarded around Shigure and I hope they delve more into this season. Her description of her feeling around the curse being like a ‘dark well with no bottom in sight’ is pretty spot on. Ugh.

Aw! Is this the last we’re getting of Small!Momiji?! I love them :3 (Momiji’s shorts look a little shorter too, like he’s growing out of them ahaha)

- I haven’t found the Yuki fan club funny since their first scene in the anime but their poor disguises made me chuckle

- Yayyy! Kyo has an obsessive fan club too? ...Yay?? 😅 haha

- ‘I won’t kill them but they can go to hell’ why is Kyo speaking like me?! 😂

The fact that we got a scene of Yuki kinda admirably looking at a group of friends (boys and girls) playfully physically interacting and he unconsciously reaches out to Machi almost like he forgot about the curse? Heart eyes... 🥰

Again. Relatable. 😂 God, Yuki. You really are an airhead. Bless your soul. <3

And that look says it all. Damn. Kyo’s sense of hopelessness is heartbreaking but I still stand by it being understandable considering his circumstances.

Kyo freaking out about Tohru being visually upset was super cute but I couldn’t even appreciate the fluff because the whole scene had such a morbid tone to it, despite it being so visually romantic:

KYO’S FACE!!! 💔 Ahhh, my emotions!!!! Also, that shot from Tohru’s perspective under her bangs is great.

- Poor Mitsuru, I’d ask for extra pay just for dealing with Shigure’s ass.

Hahah - what a great metaphor!

- Now that Shigure’s ‘true form’, so to speak, has been fully exposed all his comments that are supposed to be teasing come off so much more awful. Him insinuating Mitsuru wasn’t ‘upper class’ enough for Ritsu was awful

COLLLDDDD. AS. IIIIIIICE. But seriously, Shigure this whole episode was cold in many different ways but I definitely felt this personally since I’ve been told something like this by a family member before... 😕 Also, it’s just gross how both Shigure and Akito are taking their own personal issues and mistrust of each other out on to other people. The curse and the institution behind the curse complicates a lot of feelings for sure, but there’s a difference between wrong and right and I get the general feeling that they both are just using the muddy waters to their advantage. Although, I feel like Shigure is taking more advantage of this than Akito but I’ll get into that in a bit.

- There’s also something about this episode that made me sympathise a lot more with Kureno in a more understandable way. But, it also makes me question the ending of this whole story and the resolutions that happen and what life for the whole Sohma institution/family looks like after the curse has broken.. I guess, I should read ‘Fruits Basket Another’ after this, huh?

😳... Shigure is so petty, man. Really?!

So...

I hate this relationship. I’m sorry. I know there are loads of people who like this relationship. And I’m still giving myself space for the show and the story to convince me why it’s worth it. But... I really don’t like this relationship. It’s so toxic. In so many ways. And in a weird way, this scene made me feel a LITTLE bit more for Akito than Shigure. It feels like Shigure gaslights everyone in his life but none no more than Akito, herself. I hate the fact that he keeps saying he loves her while hurting her or disregarding her. You know, almost like he’s treating her like a child. But on the other hand, I hate the fact that Akito has lowkey gaslighted herself into thinking she can treat people however she wants because she is ‘God’. I understand this is part of the way she was brought up and it seems like life in the Sohma compound has been very isolating for her so there’s been no one really to show her better (or have the confidence to show her better). But, at least I can be a little bit more sympathetic on her side than Shigure’s. I dunno... it’s just all very ugly and toxic and I’m hoping that it’ll turn around somehow.

I just hope it’s not one of those relationships that are ‘so good cos it’s so bad’.

...I’ll briefly talk about the ending theme to end this on a good note lol:

I really like this ending! I dunno if they’re gonna have two endings and two openings for this season but this ending definitely feels like it should’ve gone in the second half as it’s almost spoiler-y? But, then again what anime opening and ending isn’t packed with spoilers lol

All the illustrations are gorgeous, I’m assuming they were drawn by Takaya-sensei herself as it seems very much in her current style of artistry but my favourite illustrations are definitely the ones shown above! <3

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Ahhh! Fin! Sorry, about this one being super long and you probably having to scroll past a whole lot on your dash 😝 As usual, I had a lot to say. I’m open to hearing from people who actually like Shigure and Akito’s relationship btw, it’s just that everything before and episode 2 just really didn’t sail the ship for me, personally. I do want to understand! Haha

See you soooon!

#fruits basket #furuba #fruits basket season 3 #fruits basket 2021

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mmblaq · 4 years

Note

would you like to.... elaborate on the relationship between tohru and shigure? :')

hello! of course, i rant about this probably 800 times a year so here we go!

Spoilers inbound!!! You have been warned!

there is the old debate in the fruits basket fandom on whether or not Shigure actually cared about the kids- namely Tohru. As manga readers know, Shigure’s goal the entire time (from the moment he met Tohru) was to use her as a pawn to break the Sohma curse. Its an inherently dangerous plan- he knew very well how brutal the Sohmas could be (as did Hatori who tried to warn Tohru), especially the woman that this was all for- Akito. And we have all seen the moments where tohru is harmed by it all (akito pulling her hair and pushing her around, akito pushing her off a cliff, threatening tohru and her loved ones, etc)

With that in mind, Shigure blatantly said to Hatori that he doesn’t care what happens, and he doesn’t care who he has to hurt to reach his goal. I think the Sohmas hardened Shigure a lot, and he wants you to believe that he is selfish enough to let people get hurt and he wouldn’t feel bad about it at all, but i don’t actually think thats the case. Shigure lives with Tohru, sees her everyday, she takes care of him, feeds him, does his laundry, brings him snacks while he works, and many other small things that he doesn’t ask her to do but she does because, as we all know, tohru is an angel. In return, shigure offers comfort, advice, a safe home, and a new family.

To me, this was the start of Shigure’s masquerade. As we all know, the series presents a timeline where we first view Shigure as a funny guy, a bit of a pervert, and someone who was generally not very serious, but of course this shifts a LOT as soon as he begins to show his “true colors” (the conversation with hatori, the solemn moments with Akito, etc.) However, i think the real façade was the opposite.

I think his true colors were actually the moments he was in that house with tohru, kyo, and yuki. The moments he shares with them. When he eats meals with them and jokes and teases them all, when he cleans up tohrus cuts, or when he convinces kyo to give public school a try, when he supports ayame’s attempts to reconnect with yuki. its all for them.

Of course, you could definitely say that it was all for his goal and he didnt actually care. Wouldn’t that be such an Oscar-worthy acting job?

But let’s discuss his goal. What is his goal? to break the curse? Yes. But what does breaking the curse mean? it means happiness, joy, love, and growth. He wants Akito to be able to move on and live her life- but if that were the case then that means everyone else in the zodiac would also live their lives. I dont think it was ever just about Akito. I dont think his real moments were the dark ones with Akito in a dimly lit room, i dont think they were the conversation with hatori on his goal and hurting people. It was all a cold façade to me, and the real shigure was the warm goofy man that wrote cheesy romance novels just cuz he could.

i believe everything he did was for everyone, including tohru. As he gets to know her, he comes to love her as real family. And tohru loves him too. You can see this in the smaller actions. And you can see this in the bigger ones too, like when he attends the parent-teacher conference as her guardian, or when he makes sure that tohru goes to the lakehouse and the onsen with the sohmas. when he pats her head comfortingly, when he lessens her worries, gives her amazing advice (remember the laundry analogy? lol), to me that is love and care.

shigure and tohru are certainly a relationship i adore. With everything i said before this in mind, shigure had a darker side, but i think he is inherently light and that lighter side comes out around tohru, and its not fake care or love. Shigure begins to see her as more than a pawn, and even states at one point he feels guilt when he looks at her. And in return, tohru deeply cares for him. Its an interesting brother/sister or uncle/niece kind of relationship to me and i love to see it. Theres a sadness that both of them feel because of the sohmas and can bond on that feeling- and dont even have to speak words. Maybe its because they are both dogs, but they always seemed to have a connection that didn’t require words. The affection is just there.

Overall, i think shigure really is someone who cares about others, despite what we are made to feel on the surface level of the story. I think he cares a lot for tohru over time and theres a mutual affection between them. i truly believe shigure would die for tohru, and ill argue that till death haha

im sorry theres a lot of shigure analysis here, but i feel that’s required when speaking on his relationship with tohru. If anyone actually read this- lemme know what u think!

#fruits basket #shigure sohma #tohru honda #idk what else to tag lol #thanks for prompting me to elaborate!!!! lol i hope it makes sense

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bluecoloreddreams · 4 years

Text

(Disclaimer: this contains spoilers for the Fruits Basket and Fruits Basket: Another manga, as well as taking into consideration tidbits from Takaya’s twitter.)

So, okay, first of all we have to address the YMMV aspect: Some people don’t like this ship. As long as they’re respectful, I have no beef with that. I’m well aware that some people cannot/choose not to make the distinction between “real life” and “fiction”— I have the luxury of this choice, so some of the “problematic” ships/character aspects within Furuba don’t bother me (for the most part). It’s fiction, and I’m aware of this.

Again, some people cannot/do not make this distinction, and that’s none of my business because that’s their personal life. I’m aware that people dislike aspects of Akigure, and that’s fine.

Personally? I’ve been reading Furuba since like, basically the dawn of time. I was reading scans on, like, MSN groups. I remember a friend at church (of all places) telling me about the Akito reveal because I was behind on updates. It’s literally engrained upon my shipping heart at this point.

(Headcanons ahoy! Like literally, this is all headcanon/my perspective on the series as a whole. YMMV/YKINMK/Dead Dove, the whole works, if you know you know

YES I wrote it like it’s an actual research paper because I have No Chill At All, please forgive me. It’s long and pretty rambling.)

Addressing the first elephant in the room: Given my limited interactions with the fandom, my impression of Akigure from a generalized fan POV is that it’s pretty divisive. Every episode she comes up there are “I hate this kid” comments and I cry

Akito is a favorite of mine, and it’s impossible for anime-only’s to make a deep, informed call on her character. On the other hand, a lot of manga-readers dislike her too.

So, why am I talking about whether or not people like Akito as a character?

I’m of the opinion that it impacts people’s ability to view her character arc as one that deserves a happy ending. That she doesn’t deserve to have love, happiness, or forgiveness, all of which are given to her when she and Shigure finally end up together on equal footing. (Do I think the way it’s rushed in the original Furuba ending? Yeah, but hey. Sensei had like a huge ensemble cast to wrap ends on. Now there’s Furubana to look to and it’s just chef’s kiss.)

There’s a mental aspect in this, involving the dichotomy between “reality” and “fiction”.

There is absolutely zero argument that are a lot of things that Akito does that uh, listen, if it was IRL she’d be in jail! Jail for terror baby! Jail for life!

Fortunately, Fruits Basket is a work of fiction. These characters aren’t real, they’re idealized brushstrokes of human nature created to move a plot and a message along.

That’s why Akito and Shigure work as a couple and as characters:

They’re both incredibly deep characters that get passed off as one-dimensional by a lot of people (and the original anime, woof). Some of it is again, because anime-only fans just don’t have the whole story, since Akito’s arc is one that builds gradually until it hits a point where all hell breaks loose, which we are a ways away from.

So what’s the message that their relationship and characters are supposed to pass on?

Well, it breaks down into two categories: world building and thematic arcs. The latter is more important and what I’ll be focusing on, while the former is just a little spice that I, personally enjoy, and won’t really talk about in depth. (It’s that the magical realism in Furuba sets up the idea of soulmates, it’s just…. Something I enjoy and it’s really heacanony, so I can’t really justify spending more words on it!)

When discussing Fruits Baskets in any capacity, I feel like we must first keep in mind the thematic “lessons” of the series:

There is an inherent loneliness in living as a human being, since loss, grief, and hurt are indelible parts of the human experience, and learning to cope with these feelings in a compassionate manner is a life-long lesson

People react differently to the loneliness of existence, and their reactions are based upon their personalities, their upbringings, and their own choices

Everyone is capable of change and learning, if they choose to do so, however:

Personal agency is taught, but in the vacuum of positive reinforcement, the ability of a person to choose to be compassionate is stifled or outright inaccessible

Therefore, if you are not taught to deal with your grief and existence outside of others, your ability to connect may become warped, manipulative, or abusive, and this is not the fault of the child but instead the parental figure

Eventually, you will be aware of your actions, and then it is your burden to choose—some people do not take this choice (the head maid, Ren, Kyo’s bio dad, Rin’s parents, Sawa’s mother in Furubana)

Abuse has long lasting effects on the psyche and can be physical, emotional, and/or mental in nature and must be dealt with in order to grow as a person

“Dealt with” does not mean that it goes away, but that it is acknowledged and given a positive outlet (Yuki’s garden, Aaya’s shop, Rin’s art, Momiji’s violin playing)

Forgiveness is not linear

Forgiving yourself is a long and arduous process, and happens independent of other people’s forgiveness

This is really brought to the forefront in Fruits Basket: Another, when Shiki talks about how his mother interacts with the rest of the Sohma family. It’s shown she’s done what she can to make amends, but recognizes that while she can individually hold relationships with certain family members, as a whole, it's best if she allows them to be away from her.

This is a whole tangent on its own, but there’s a certain blanket of casual forgiveness given to Akito by the entirety of the shown Zodiac in Furubana, in that they trust that she’s raised a kind and thoughtful son and allow him the grace of his own family.

Again, in Takaya’s tweets post-series that acknowledges that Akito’s friends with Uo-chan, despite her relationship with Kureno (and it shows a depth of awareness on Kureno’s part that he stays away

People flourish in environments where love and positive reinforcement is given freely, even when people are in the wrong

This doesn’t mean that no one is ever scolded: see Komaki and Kakeru, Kisa and Hiro, Hatori chews out Shigure all the time, but never ceases being his confidant

So okay, that’s A Lot. But every single character in Furuba follows these themes in their own manner, because the series is about healing and learning how to heal from abuse, neglect, and isolation. Someone’s gonna have to be doing it. Point blank, the end, to tell a story there must be conflict, and boy howdy, there’s a lot of conflict in Furuba. Every personal thematic arc in the series ends up tying into a romantic one, because Furuba is a romcom drama.

There’s a loop that goes “personal betterment”->”crush”/”friendship”->”conflict”->”personal growth”/”relationship growth” in the series for every character. That’s the bread and butter of Furuba.

But anyway. To the question:

I love them because they work, they’re both their own people with their own narrative focuses, motivations, conflicts, and flaws. Both Shigure and Akito are believable in their own right in the context of Furuba, and I think Takaya did wonderfully in crafting a story where their personalities mesh well and give each other reasons to better themselves.

To talk about them together, you have to talk about them separately.

I’m gonna start with Shigure because, truthfully?

I just want to lament about how often he’s simply passed off as either comic relief or absolute trash. He’s so underestimated!

“He’s a joke of a grown man… He is reliable and I trust him.” (Another, v. 3)

He’s incredibly intelligent when it comes to interpersonal relationships, which is why he’s able to do what he does. He’s also incredibly kind—no one made him take in Yuki or Kyo or Tohru. He could have just went “ah, I’d prefer not to” and moved on. But he didn’t, made up some bullshit so Haru would feel like taking in Yuki was a transaction, and let me just tell you, I am the same age as Shigure and if you gave ME three teenagers to be the guardian of?! It would be a full on disaster.

He’s actually incredibly trustworthy (if he wants to be), insightful, and a genuinely good guardian despite his jokes and wisecracking.

He forced Kyo to go back to school, knowing full well it would be good for him. He lets a whole host of children run rampant through his home. Kids who actually enjoy his presence. He’s shown as having a good familial relationship with Rin (who tries to warp that for her own means), Kisa, Haru, and Momiji. His advice to Tohru is genuine, insightful, and ridiculously helpful.

Shigure is good with people. He gets up at the crack of dawn to drive Shiki to see Sawa in Furubana. He’s who Mutsuki and Hajime immediately go “holy shit you need to do something about this” to when they find out Shiki’s getting nasty notes about Akito. He’s who Shiki goes to when Sawa fell down the stairs as a child. As much as Shiki and the others make fun of Shigure, he’s obviously someone who’s trustworthy. And that’s not some new development, he’s always been trustworthy in regards to those he loves. No one asked him to show up to Tohru’s teacher conference, he volunteered. Like this dude loves people, he’s the dog spirit after all, and rightly so.

Does he have his own motivations? Of course! But so does everyone else in Furuba. He’s a complex character, man!

He laughs and jokes a lot because he’s projecting this image of a laid back, doofus. When you think about who he’s friends with, the whole middling goofball act makes a lot of sense. Just like some of Ayame’s over the top behavior is a defense mechanism, I believe that Shigure casts himself as a generally unappealing man to keep himself safe from advances when he was in school, but also to temper the wildly unequal personalities of his other two friends. He’s the sort of person who would just go “eh, whatever makes it easy”, and that’s just how he is.

He doesn’t mean the creepy school girl thing, it’s a bit and I think the only people who don’t realize he’s running a bit are Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru who are absolutely too stupid to realize he’s playing them for reactions. He thinks it’s funny.

Anyway:

When the older Zodiac had the dream of Shigure, Shigure is the only one who made the active choice to seek out that feeling. His soul was touched, and he decided that he wanted that and only that. This doesn’t necessarily mean he went full Jacob from Breaking Dawn, but it does mean he acknowledged there was a bond, and he wanted it.

When you get into the technicalities of the curse, it’s mentioned that their Zodiac spirits influence how they interact with Akito, and that going against her can cause physical and emotional pain. Yuki cries when meeting her, and it’s mentioned that that’s just the normal reaction for the Zodiacs.

It’s hard to say how much of their early interactions are influenced by the curse, but it’s obvious that Shigure has genuine fondness for her. She wasn’t always absolutely broken, as shown in Yuki’s backstory, and was a precocious child, one who sought affection openly.

Shigure has an indulgent personality, and is shown to love being adored. Guess who loves him! Akito! Guess who wants lots and lots of affection! Akito!

Their personalities are very well matched as they get older: They’re both intelligent and coy. They both have fairly sharp tongues when needed, and have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to get what they want.

Shigure wants Akito to be independent from the curse. He’s made it clear to her he doesn’t want to be her father, he doesn’t want to be her friend, he wants to be her lover. Those are boundaries that Akito’s never been given before, and his frankness with her and his jealousy with Kureno is something she agonizes over, simply because she’s never been given any sort of serious interpersonal boundaries, or repercussions for her actions. He’s always kept himself separate from her, because of those boundaries, even when they were children.

That’s important. It opens the door to the idea that her actions have consequences, and is a persistent nagging in the back of her mind.

“Even though you hadn’t realized it, I was waiting for that day.” (ch 101)

For the bulk of the series, the only person who sees Akito as a person separate from the curse, and sees a future where she can grow is Akito. He has an extraordinary amount of patience for her, and forgives her for a lot.

There are only two incidents that Shigure cannot forgive: Her sleeping with Kureno, and at the very end of the series, I’m of the full opinion that if Akito had pushed Tohru off the cliff, Shigure would have been done with her. Look at that expression, that is the look of someone who is toeing the line of throwing away all his hopes and dreams. If she really had pushed Tohru, I just...... The series would have taken a much darker tone.

OKAY that’s enough about our favorite terrible author! (Okay, an aside, Shigure, please share your work ethic, you goof off so much but you’ve published so many things…how…)

ONTO AKITO!

“I’ve finally realized… she hated her own shallowness all this time, from the very start.” // “It’s frightening because you have no choices.” (ch 121)

A lot of people dislike Akito because she, for the bulk of the manga, is violent, manipulative and just downright unpleasant. And that’s fine, but it’s not the point of her arc or the themes of the manga. (It is, however, the point of Rin’s: you don’t have to forgive everyone.)

She’s not the only violent person in the series. If we as readers can forgive Uo-chan and Kyoko, or even Hana-chan for her moment of violence, why can we not extend the same grace to Akito?

Violence is often shown as a knee-jerk reaction to fear and sadness: Kyoko, Uo, Hana, Kyo, Rin, and Akito all react violently to negative situations and feelings. Even Kisa reacts violently when she’s at her worst, biting both Haru and Tohru when she’s in her tiger form, which is shown to actually cause pain like a real tiger would. (It’s played for laughs, but has anyone been bitten for realsies by a house cat? That hurts! How much more would a house-cat sized tiger hurt!!!)

Out of all of them, Hanajima and Kisa are the only characters to show immediate remorse, because they have what the others don’t: A positive support system. Once positive role models and support systems are in place, all of the others begin to learn how to react differently and ease out of the knee-jerk reactions that were ingrained in them.

It’s made explicit in the manga that you have to be taught how to react positively, you have to learn and choose to be good, to be friendly, to love yourself outside of others’ perceptions of yourself. Look at Yuki’s arc. Look at Uo-chan’s. Kyoko’s.

Yuki sums it up nicely in the last chapter of the manga, where he tells Tohru that she taught the Zodiac how to become human. She allows them to grow into people who can make the choice to be loving, compassionate individuals.

Just because Akito doesn’t interact positively with Tohru for the bulk of the manga, it doesn’t make it any less true:

Akito is kept in a juvenile state of being: No one teaches her to suck it up, that the world exists outside of herself, that other people are people and not things. In fact, she’s actively encouraged to act the way she does. She’s incredibly broken, between the maids of the Sohma estate just… allowing her to do whatever the fuck she wants and her absolutely jacked up relationship with Ren and Akira. She has no moral compass at all. No one bothers to teach her that her actions have serious consequences.

She knows, in a roundabout way that hey, these people don’t like me. There’s a serious mental dissonance between what she latently knows—these are all people with no connection to her other than the bond of the curse. This is why Tohru is able to break through to her at the climax of the manga:

She knows she’s wrong, but no one has ever told her she’s wrong but understood why she’s doing it. Akito just didn’t have the words to explain herself. What do children do when they cannot communicate? They lash out. Kids will bite, scratch, yell, kick, fall to the floor and have screaming tantrums out of frustration. Eventually, most kids learn that there are other ways to express frustration, and move along. (Not all, though, but most.)

Akito was taught that this is acceptable, allowable, and is her right as god. She is actively broken and kept that way through the neglect of the Sohma family maids, Ren’s abuse, and how Akira framed her role in the Zodiac.

I can go on and on and on and on why the way Akito was treated for her role in the Zodiac by her parents and the rest of the Sohma estate was just awful. I hate it, it’s terrible, she never had a chance to learn and grow and be the genuinely thoughtful woman we know she grows into.

She doesn’t force her path of forgiveness onto others and is fully cognizant of what she did, the repercussions of her actions, and lives her entire life after the curse breaks trying to right what she did wrong.

“Even if she gets hurt, she says she deserves it. She tells me not to let it bother me, but… I’ve always, always loved her so much.” (Another, ch. 13)

Tohru opens the door for Akito. She extends her hand, offers her friendship despite having seen the absolute worst of Akito. She tells Akito that everyone is lonely, everyone wants bonds, and acknowledges Akito’s worst fears, that Akito herself is selfish and dirty for wanting something assured and unending because she, Tohru, herself is dirty and selfish. Tohru knows what Akito has done, knows she’s injured some of her beloved friends, had plans to lock up Kyo, hurt Hatori.

Tohru still forgives her. One of Tohru’s striking traits in the manga is that she is suffering, every day, she struggles with the grief of losing her mother and the fear of being alone in the world. Through nothing but her own empathy and realization that loneliness is universal, she’s able to forgive people. She forgives Akito and cares for her, and through Tohru, Akito is introduced to the realization that she’s been wrong and that maybe, she shouldn’t be forgiven.

Shigure also forgives her, and this is the crux of their ship.

To me, that itself is wildly important.

They’ve always circled around each other, and Shigure has always been waiting for Akito to be able to come to him again, in full control of her life and choices. He wants Akito the woman, not Akito the god.

He’s been waiting for the day Akito can meet him as an equal. Akito wants it too, and has wanted him to turn and see her for a very very long time. But she’s been terrified, the entire time, that when he does see her as herself, Shigure won’t like what he sees, and will leave. She’s aware of what she’s done post-curse, she’s aware of the impacts it will have on the former Zodiac members, and she’s aware that once the “bonds” of god and the animals is gone, there may not be anyone left for her.

Neither of them are under any illusions at the end of the series: Akito knows she has to atone for what she did, Shigure knows she has to learn to grow into a person who can function alone. They both know that there are people who are against them changing the oppressive structure of the Sohma family.

Neither of them care. There are things that they want, together, and it’s enough. There’s a whole new world for them to explore and learn about. And in Furubana, this is shown to be a lifelong effort on their parts:

“She said after meeting me, she learned so many things for the first time. She smiled happily as she said it.” (Another, #13)

To close, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the curse and Shigure, and how he set things in motion.

Without Shigure, the curse would have devolved on its own, yes, but the circumstances would not have allowed for the freedom the Zodiac had at the end of the manga. It would not have ended with Akito being able to learn and live freely. Allowing Tohru into the Sohma family cracked open a door to compassion and kindness none of them had ever experienced before, because the Sohma family seems to exist in a vacuum of stability and love.

It wasn’t that Shigure knew instantly that Tohru was kind and loving and thoughtful, if anything, his read on her was “completely normal, albeit strange, teenage girl who obviously has a rough life”. But she was normal, she was from outside the Sohmas, and he knew that was enough. No one in the family was stepping up to change the status quo and how stifling and abusive it was, so he did it himself.

He did it because he loved Akito.

Not because he felt bad for himself, or Hatori, or any of the others, but merely because he loved her to the point of manipulation. It backfired in his face, because he got a big ol’ dose of “loving and respecting” juice from Tohru, but he still got the end he wanted.

What I mean to say is best summarized in chapter 123:

“It would be nice to live in a kind world, without any troubles, without any fear, without hurting anybody, without ever being hurt, only doing the right thing. I wish I could reach this kind world by the shortest path possible. … “That’s wrong”, or “that’s stupid”: If it’s someone else’s life it’s so easy to make such irresponsible comments. ...It would be great, but it doesn’t exist. … Little by little, walking one step at a time, is all you can do.”

We get to experience the roughest part of the path with Akito and Shigure, we got to watch them be terrible people who were lonely and in want of love struggle and learn how to get up and move on.

They tease each other, Shigure is thoughtful of the distinction between “the person Akito was raised to be” and “the person who Akito is”. He’s seen her at her messiest, and she’s seen him at his most jealous. They still chose each other, despite the hurt they caused each other, and others. They make up for it, reflect, and live a life that demonstrates that they have learned. They have friends who are thoughtful and loving and would not hesitate to drop everything and help them, lend an ear when they’re frustrated, help them not to make the same mistakes.

And then we get to see them be wonderful, kind, thoughtful, loving parents in Furubana.

We got to see their adorable, kind, compassionate child be friends with the children of the people Akito hurt, because everyone in the former Zodiac’s family collectively decided “never again, no”.

Their child adores them. Shiki in Furubana #13 radiates love for Akito and Shigure the same way Mutsuki and Hajime do.

They are genuinely good parents, even when they tease Shiki, and I think that is testament for how good they are for each other and how much they’ve changed as adults.

I think that’s enough of a reason to ship them, don’t you?

#Mitkun writes stuff #fruits basket manga spoilers #fruits basket another #fruits basket spoilers #akigure #fruits basket akito #fruits basket shigure

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ootori-sibs · 3 years

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Kyoya's second shot

Episode sixteen: Boy's night!

Tw: hallucinations (mentioned), suicidal ideation.

10:29 - I haven't told the hosts that I've been grounded, they would likely ask why.

11:42 - Haruhi is taking the day off, almost didn't note this down, due to its obviousness. The hosts are attempting to fill me in on what I missed; they are attempting to claim she was cornered by many more then she was,

And scolding me for not paying attention.

"C'mon Kyoya-senpai, we're trying to fill you in here!" Hikaru whined, frowning at him, "what are you even writing?"

"I am paying attention, what I'm writing is notes on the situation." He rolled his eyes, what was it with the hosts and assuming he wasn't paying attention? Did they not know how he saw everything?

“What were you up to?” Honey had piped up curiously, “when Haru-chan was hurt? Tama-chan said you were busy.”

Well Kyoya couldn’t just tell him that Honey’s own brother was the reason for Kyoya’s absence. So he merely shrugged, “personally, I don’t see why that’s important information,” he also didn’t want to tell them he’d gotten hurt- they would be sure to ask too many questions.

Hikaru had been a bit rude this entire term, and this rule held firm now. He stared at Kyoya in suspicion, tone brash, “well it is important considering how you've been so damn rude to her this whole year!” It appeared he was angry. This was bad news, if one of the hosts doubted him, then it couldn't be too long until the others did as well. So Kyoya would have to quell their fears quickly- he may have to tell part of the truth.

He sighed, glancing down and putting on the expression of sadness. “Well if you’re going to accuse me, and truly believe i’d ever do that, then i am forced to tell you; I was in the hospital, I had sprained my ankle.” Silence fell over the hosts as he said that, eyes going to Kyoya’s ankle. Kyoya glanced back at Hikaru, seeing the instant guilt in the ginger’s face, “I didn’t want to tell you, because I felt it would be selfish when Haruhi required your entire attention.” That’s the kicker, the instan flash of guilt in his fellow hosts’ eyes as they realised how uncaring they’d been.

Tamaki gasped, clinging to Kyoya, "aw noo! Kyoooyyyaaa! That could never be selfish! You should have told us you were injured, we wouldn't have gotten angry or anything like that."

He had always been the sweetest person, Kyoya had to adore him even more in this moment. He just sighed and leant into Tamaki's touch, something he never did. The hosts reacted as he'd expected, surprise and the obvious reassessment of how they'd viewed any and all of Kyoya's recent actions- even Tamaki was surprised, pausing in his big dramatic comforting to wrap his arms around Kyoya gently, he was so warm… why was Tamaki always so warm?

Hikaru had apologized to Kyoya for being so accusatory, and Kyoya just sighed, "it's fine… I understand." He did, he understood, Hikaru was entirely correct.

"Hmm," Tamaki set his chin on Kyoya's head, he was always so clingy but Kyoya had to admit he loved it, "why don't we have a sleepover tonight? Just the boys?" Oh fuck, Kyoya knew that was going to come back to bite him. The other hosts seemed really keen on the idea, nodding and adding fun things they could do. Kyoya absolutely hated the idea of ruining his friends fun, especially if he was finally going to get the quality time with his friends that he'd wanted for so long.

He sighed, pushing Tamaki away. The poor king looked so confused and concerned, Kyoya couldn't look him in the eyes, hanging his head- the light hit his glasses in the wonderful way that hides his eyes. "I'm afraid I will not be able to join you."

"What? Why?" Tamaki sounded so hurt in that moment, but there was so much concern in his tone. Kyoya felt so much guilt as he heard the other boy's questioning.

"I've been grounded…" a heavy breath left his lips, he felt as if he had admitted to a crime, "I won't be able to attend the after-school session either, as father has forbidden extracurriculars for a week."

There was a silence that fell over the hosts, their expressions one of a deep shock- Kyoya never got in trouble, not to this degree at least. Not once before had any of his family been grounded either, the most being Akito getting forbidden from attending certain parties. Kyoya is an utter disappointment, and now the hosts could tell. "What did you do Kyo-chan? Why are you grounded?"

He swallowed in shame, not wanting to explain, he simply sighed, trying to come up with an excuse, "it's… it's nothing, you shouldn't worry about it. Enjoy your sleepover." Kyoya went to stand up, but Tamaki grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

"Kyoya wait, are you sure there's nothing we can do? If it's nothing then surely you can just talk to him about it? Maybe I can speak to him for you?"

"No!" Kyoya snapped, clasping his hands over his mouth, he never yelled, so the fact that it made him panic clearly showed the hosts that something was wrong, "I… I mean, it's not nothing but I just don't want to talk about such things, it's really not a big deal. Just have your stupid sleepover without me." With that, he yanked his arm away from Tamaki, grabbing his bag and heading to sit and wait in the classroom.

12:23 - The hosts will be having a sleepov Tamaki's being s The hosts know I am grounded and will be unable to join them for any activities for a week.

12:26 - I somehow feel even more alone

He didn't even help with the lunchtime session, ignoring the texts and missed calls. It didn't matter, it wasn't like he was of use anyway, he could do his one job from here. Which was how he spent all his freetime that day: doing the club finances. Tamaki sat next to him in every class, so it was nearly impossible to ignore him and Kyoya had to resort to speaking only when the question asked of him was of academic importance. It hurt him to ignore Tamaki like this, he loved him so much after all- but it had to be done, Kyoya had to keep the hosts from discovering the mess that he'd become.

It wouldn't be permanent anyway, his being a mess. Once he was with Tamaki, everything would get better, the world would be good again. Tamaki was so special, so wonderful, and Kyoya only needed a little bit of love to survive, and he'd fight for it; that love, he'd fight like he'd never fought before. He wanted to kill himself so much, but he promised himself that he wouldn't let that happen, in this moment he swore to himself that he could never kill himself until he had Tamaki.

I refuse to die until I am married.

He'd forgotten to write the date, he always wrote the date. He supposed it didn't really matter as it hadn't been too long since his last entry, only an hour or two. Besides; it wasn't like it was something that had happened in a specific time.

The first thing he did when he got home was breakdown in tears, leaning against the front door and sobbing. He knew this was dangerous; father could come along at any moment. So he got up, and he tried to wipe his tears, heading up the stairs to his room. Once he got up into his room, he broke down again, on the floor and sobbing. He felt horrible, he felt terrible, he couldn't breathe, he was shaking through sobs and gasping for breath. Kyoya managed to drag himself away from the door and to the window, laying down there and just sobbing his little heart out, staring out the window.

He'd never been grounded before, he'd never been such a disappointment in his life. He didn't know what to do or how to handle this, it was entirely new to him. Kyoya was a mess in the moment, tears spilling out in ways it shouldn't be; Kyoya wasn't supposed to be weak, Kyoya wasn't supposed to be a failure, Kyoya was supposed to be just like his brothers and perfect in every way.

He'd been laying there for a while, just crying and wishing he was never born. He had turned his phone off about three hours ago, he wanted to ignore the world for a bit. There was a knock… but it wasn't at his door, it was at his window. Hm, that wasn't where knocks were supposed to come from. Kyoya glanced over and- oh what the fuck? Why was Tamaki here?

"What the… Tamaki??" He sat up, rushing to open the window. He watched as Tamaki climbed in through the window, followed by the rest of the boys. It was certainly a spectacle and Kyoya found himself chuckling at the sight. "Why are you here??"

Tamaki sat up, smiling brightly, "well we couldn't just have a sleepover without you! Since you're grounded, I figured we'd have the sleepover here!"

God… that was the dumbest thing Kyoya had ever heard. He stared at Tamaki for a few minutes, unsure how to react, "are you trying to get me in trouble?"

"Noo! We wouldn't do that to you!" Tamaki clung to him, rubbing their faces together, Kyoya's face went red. "We'll be good, I promise."

Kyoya nodded, "alright then, but you have to be quiet." He stood up, wiping his tears and heading to his bed, were the hosts were gathering.

17:01 - For once, I feel loved.

So the hosts sat quietly around Kyoya's bed, whispering in hushed voices. It was almost fun to hide like this, the hosts almost made the fear fun. They spoke of spooky stories- the perfect topic for such a hushed tone. Keeping the lights off, they spoke of ghosts and ghouls, zombies and other assorted horrors.

When it was Kyoya's turn, he took the torch that was being passed around and took a level breath in. "Recently, only wednesday, Tamaki spent the night at my house," he began, noticing how confused the hosts were, that this story wasn't spooky in the slightest, he almost smiled, "it was after his argument with Haruhi. I had waited for him during it, though that part isn't important. What is important is the fact that I found myself waking up late at night, and whatever had woken me, didn't stir Tamaki in the slightest." He recalled the thing he saw, shivering, "it wasn't a human, it was too tall to be human. It was… almost a shadow with the way it looked, not fully corporeal…" he glanced back up at the hosts, noticing they looked a mix of hooked and concerned, he continued, "it flickered in the sliver of moonlight that came through the curtains, it's eyes gave off more light then that though. It was grabbing at the bedsheets, staring down at us with bright white eyes- I would have woken Tamaki if I had been able to move. It was a horrifying creature, not of this world. It caused no visible harm, but I still believe my story is superior.”

The hosts looked at him in shock, Tamaki's hands were shaking, “is that real? Did you really see it?”

Kyoya paused, god- did that make him sound crazy? He didn’t want the hosts to think him crazy. “N… no, no, it was… just a story. Nothing to worry about.” He smiled, passing the torch along. He was mentally kicking himself for having been so supid, why did he tell them that story? Why didn’t he make something up? Ugh, he was so stupid.

The night continued nicely, with the hosts sharing stories and talking about everything and nothing. For once in what felt like forever, Kyoya felt calm, he felt at peace. Eventually they went to sleep, all curled up on the bed in a big pile. Kyoya was incredibly warm, with his head resting on Mori and Tamaki clinging to his torso, the twins had their legs over his and were snoring quite softly. He was comfortable… he wished this could happen more often.

In the morning, the hosts snuck back out the window, not wanting to get caught. Kyoya woke up alone, colder than when he'd gone to bed. His first thought was that he wished they'd stayed, then he remembered that he was grounded and felt his heart sink. He noticed that the maid's had left him some coffee, but it was out of his reach, and he didn't want to get out of bed… so he just flops down and tries to go back to sleep.

#kyoya ootori #ouran high school host club #tamaki souh #tamakyo #kaoru hitachiin #hikaru hitachiin #takashi morinozuka #mitsukuni haninozuka #secondshot

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animegenork · 4 years

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Fruits Basket Season 2, Episode 19

We are officially giving Tohru a round of applause this week.

Okay but in all seriousness let’s dive right in

I love what this episode brought to us, especially since we only just got to dive into Rin’s psyche a bit last week.

We start off with Tohru being classic Tohru and showing major concern for Rin, who is mostly trying to get the hell out of there before something happens. She specifically says she doesn’t want to get close to Tohru, which is explained better later on in the episode.

As a side scene, Shigure explains to Hatori what Rin is trying to do, which is, of course, break the zodiac curse. They both say that this is absurd, BUT! interestingly enough, Shigure makes a very intriguing statement. He says, “Do you hear that? The sound of breaking.” In a way, this gives Shigure a bit of a mastermind-y edge, which we see throughout the series. But this also shows off more of Shigure’s eagle eye perception, which I know I keep harping on in these posts. In some strange way, Shigure has wanted all of this to happen, and because things are sort of escalating, we get to consistently see this side of Shigure more, for better or for worse.

Anyway, back to Rin. We see a conversation with her and Haru in which Haru refers to Tohru as kind. Rin points out that Haru is also kind, followed by the thought, “I feel sorry for kind people.” We see a little bit later that she feels this way because she doesn’t want people like Tohru and Haru to get taken advantage of. For whatever reason, Rin thinks she is the type of person to do just that, although she does, in fact, love Haru. Naturally, neither Tohru nor Haru would ever think she was taking advantage of them, but that just goes to show how deeply affected Rin is by the events of her past.

This is true for everyone in the zodiac, in fact. They are so deeply affected by everything that has happened to them and around them, that they believe without a doubt they are inherently flawed beyond repair.

What we also see is the first time Rin saw Tohru before her first official anime appearance. She describes that seeing Tohru made her feel the impulse to hug Tohru and lay her head on her lap, which, in case you didn’t pick up on it, is a very instinctual reaction daughters have with mothers (most of the time). This reaction comes to a head a little later on.

During a moment in which Tohru checks up on Rin, the Horse demans that Tohru stop trying to break the curse. For the first time, we see a bit of anger (though it’s not true anger - more like determination) from Tohru as she insists that she won’t stop. She points out that just like Rin, she has precious things (people) she doesn’t want to lose, and so she will keep trying for their sake. This is the first time we hear Tohru raise her voice in this specific manner, hence why Kyo and Yuki are immediately alerted/disturbed to the argument (that wasn’t exactly an argument). This says a lot about Tohru; in general, she’s not much for raising her voice or being angry, but her conviction in this case is so strong the only way to get her point across is by doing those two things.

Rin ends up running away, but she doesn’t make it far. She reflects on how alone she’s been in her search for the way to break the curse, and she’s handled this burden on her own thinking she’d be fine. However, at this point she realizes that she can’t do this on her own, despite having pushed everyone away and purposely making them hate her. This is probably why her first response to Tohru appearing behind her is to hug her and say “Sorry.” (I can’t be sure if she actually said it, though, based on her quiet tone, but oh well.)

Bonding moment achieved.

For my friends who have not had the pleasure of reading the manga: Yuki’s comment about he and Rin having something in common comes into play later. I hope you took note of that, hehe. ;)

(I CAN’T WAIT FOR THAT EPISODE ;ADSJLFJASD;LFAJ)

I could get into the nuances of Haru getting attacked by Rin and her IV or Kakeru being an absolute cutie pie or even Ayame’s too-brief cameo via flashback. However, those scenes were pretty straightforward, and so I’ll leave them alone.

When Tohru goes to visit Rin for a second time at the hospital, Rin suspects she has the ulterior motive of talking about the curse. Tohru, however, had only one thing in mind: bringing Rin some jello.

Have I mentioned how much I love Tohru?

That funny bit aside, the two girls have a serious conversation about the curse. Tohru learns that Akito’s role as “god” is only part of the curse itself - she says the “bond” between “god” and the animals is the curse itself. Rin points out that the zodiac spirits themselves remember this bond, but the family itself is unclear on why this bond is so important. This will make their efforts to break the curse a little harder.

Tohru wants to ask Kureno, and she gets all fired up to do so, but Rin holds her back. When it was just her trying to break the curse, she was willing to put herself in danger. With Tohru involved, that’s not an option. This really speaks to how much their budding friendship affects them both, and it’s a really sweet realization.

Now, the most interesting part of the episode comes in the form of a seemingly innocent question. Rin asks Tohru “What is most precious to you?” Us viewers expect Tohru to give her mother as an answer, but instead, she freezes. We won’t get to see the exact reason, though there are some hints throughout the past couple weeks as to what Tohru’s confusion is.

That night, Tohru has a nightmare about the day her mother died. Meanwhile, Rin reflects on their interaction and silently wishes that Tohru finds someone like Haru to open the “closed door” in her heart. Though Tohru wears her heart on her sleeve, there are some things we don’t see from her, as evidenced by the memory she returns to of the time after her father’s death (that is, her mother disappearing for a while).

And with that, friends, I leave you with one of the closing lines of the episode:

“Because someone who knows how scary it is to be alone... can’t help but love others.”

Is this a summation of Tohru’s great love for everyone she meets? Perhaps. Or maybe it’s one of the many themes Takaya wishes to drive home in us.

I can’t say what we’re getting next week. I couldn’t for the life of me recognize the voice, although now that I think about it, I have my suspicions. And they involve a certain kitty.

See you all next week!

[This isn’t as concise as it could’ve been do to a moment of carelessness in which all of my progress on this post was lost. My apologies ;-; ]

#fruits basket #furuba #fruits basket spoilers #isuzu sohma #rin sohma #tohru honda #i keep having moments where i post these and then realize i forgot something #but anyway sorry this is so late friends #some of my progress actually got erased so oops #i don't know if anyone regularly reads these but thanks for your support

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atopearth · 3 years

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Collar X Malice: Unlimited Part 2 - Sasazuka Takeru Route

I love how the way to get Sasazuka to go out to look for evidence is to have Enomoto say he'll karate chop the PC if it doesn't work😂😂 The password with 26 friends etc is just the alphabet isn't it? I'm proud to say, I actually got the answer without having to rely on a walkthrough!! Hahaah, not that it matters since I confirmed it anyway, but it was pretty obvious with all the letters disappearing in the letter, but yeah 26 friends was the biggest clue that made me realise it. Anyway, Ichika and Sasazuka are so cuteee, lmao when she was talking to herself calling him a jerk and didn't even realise he was there listening and responding to what she said🤣 It's so adorable how lovey-dovey they are hahaha. Btw I forgot to say that I loveee the chibis in this game, they're so cute!!🥺 Awww, it was so sweet of Sasazuka to have hidden his fever from her because he wanted to spend time properly with her on a date (since they've been busy for weeks on end and haven't seen each other). Okay, sick Sasazuka is so adorable. He's so vulnerable and honest, it's so cute.

Coming from Mineo's route, it's kinda hilarious how different Kazuki is with Mineo compared to Sasazuka. He has utter disgust for Sasazuka and the idea of him being his big brother lmao. Ichika staying over with Sasazuka for two weeks is exciting~ I love how she got Sasazuka to wear a pink frilly apron and learn how to cook🤣 HAHAHA when Ichika tried imagining a Sasazuka similar to Mochida doting on their future child and wanting to leave work asap to see his kid😂 Lmaoo when Ichika told Sakuragawa and Sasazuka that she likes him because she finds him adorable and Sasazuka said if there's something wrong with her head, he knows a good hospital🤣 Sasazuka is always shown as the "smart one" that knows everything best and guides Ichika to the "correct decision" but I honestly don't agree with him so harshly telling her that he shouldn't go back to visit Kazuki during the two weeks because that's "babying" him and not letting him grow up blah blah. I understand what he's going for, and that it's true that they'll eventually have to learn to be independent, but that doesn't mean she has to practically cut him off to do that. He's family, and what's wrong with her not viewing him as an "equal" when he's her little brother? Personally, I think regarding Kazuki's approach to music and everything, Ichika has already begun to acknowledge him for who he is rather than just a little brother, but it's not like she can completely change her attitude towards him now just so he can grow up, it's just forceful. Honestly, I think it just irks me that Sasazuka is supposed to be this guy that knows what's good for her allll the time and rejects everything "stupid" she says and that annoys me. And I guess I also hate that Ichika in this case needs to be the one to make up with him when he's so selfish sometimes and needs babying too. Honestly, Sasazuka saying don't bother coming back if she left to see Kazuki pissed me off the most, and if I was Ichika, I honestly would have just left even if it wasn't to go back to visit Kazuki because I don't think I would be able to tolerate someone who would say that to me. Not enough to be like Ichika to even say that she's waiting for him to come home the next day and made dinner for him anyway!! Maybe this is the reason why I'm still single, but if it is so, then so be it because I don't think Sasazuka's attitude ever really pissed me off until now. At least he knows that he hurt her I guess. I think what I hate is that Ichika is going to understand that Sasazuka was "right" and then be like sorry when I feel like he was the one who definitely went overboard with his words even if she was "overbearing".

I love how Minegishi laughed at the view of Sasazuka eating doughnuts with his snappy attitude towards everything lol. I'm glad that Minegishi is a guy who works hard to earn the trust of the people around him, because that's definitely his job too, since work morale and everything is important for getting results. Honestly, it's not that I don't understand Sasazuka's sentiments, but people aren't robots and going all out all the time will just burn them out and make everything flop, so even though I understand, I definitely don't agree with him and I can understand how frustrating it must be to work with Sasazuka since the way he says stuff isn't the most...likeable either lol. But yeah, that was the past, so it's nice to see how much Sasazuka has changed I guess haha. I'm glad Ichika knew it would be inappropriate to ask Kazuki if he's eating well after the concert though haha. I'm happy that Ichika is seeing how mature Kazuki is through his desire to get his music and feelings to Akito. I'm glad that Ichika moving in with Sasazuka was also something Kazuki wanted (more than forced upon him) since he wanted to be independent as well and not hold Ichika back. Well, I guess that explains why Sasazuka was so insistent on Ichika staying, since seeing her would break Kazuki's conviction to be apart from her.

Anyway, I had to take a break from Sasazuka because I couldn't take how the game loves to make it that Sasazuka is "right" about everything and his attitude rubbed me the wrong way loll. The trip to America was nice because I really liked how they visited his mother's grave and Ichika said something like leave him to me lol, it was so cute. That random American dude hitting on Ichika was very...random lol. Otherwise, it was really cute how Sasazuka proposed to Ichika with Kazuki there. Honestly, I really liked how Sasazuka was respectful of Kazuki etc but at the same time, even though Sasazuka and Ichika don't call him a burden towards them living together blah blah but I really feel like the writer feels like he is? Loll. It's just the feeling I get from how everything is shown I guess. I think what made me most uncomfortable was Ichika though, like I understand she really loves Sasazuka and really enjoyed the two weeks living together and didn't want it to end, but with how she reacted and how smitten she was to be dazed at home waiting for Sasazuka to come back (in the normal ending) and how she just can't stop thinking about him, if I was Kazuki, I would feel like I'm in the way loll, and it's kinda sad how it felt like Ichika just kinda didn't care as much about Kazuki once she experienced living together with Sasazuka? It's probably not the writer's intention but I felt that, and I feel like in order to paint Sasazuka and Ichika as "good people", they just made it that Kazuki planned to move out anyway. I think everything made sense but the way it all happened just didn't feel nice imo lol.

Overall, as someone who's not a big fan of Sasazuka but still kinda liked his original route to an extent, I have to say I'm not too fond of this "sequel". I personally thought his attitude towards Ichika in this route especially with their argument was something of a deal breaker for me because I honestly felt so hurt for her that I would have just left him, especially since even after that, he felt that she was wrong so she should initiate and kinda apologise first even though he knew he was kinda wrong too. Like, yeah Sasazuka has definitely improved his attitude but it's still too frustrating to deal with sometimes and I think this route showed that for me. And I knowww that Ichika enjoys their love life too, but honestly when she told him she was tired and didn't want to do it but he kinda egged her into doing it by touching her etc, it made me kinda uncomfortable tbh, like she wasn’t forced into it of course, but he’s definitely “getting his way” in this relationship waay too much imo. Especially since Sasazuka is selfish for these things yet so intolerant towards Ichika for some things such as the Kazuki thing. Anyway, enough complaining lol. The route was still okay I guess but I do think Ichika was much more like a pet dog (like that dog they picked up) in this route loll. So yeah I really don't think this route made Sasazuka more appealing to me, more like the other way around lol. I guess I just feel like Ichika kinda loses herself sometimes when she's with Sasazuka. On the other hand, Morioka adopting the dog Ichika and Sasazuka took care of for a bit was cutee lol.

#collar x malice unlimited

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