#kanji r so hard to get the right shape of......

[mach1ne-g1rl]

sorry theyre all i care about

ughrh the concept / sketch i guess i think its interesting to see the progress

[chibistarlyte]

So Blooms the Soul (As Flowers on the Skin)

“Uh…Haru?” Rin said hesitantly from behind him.

“Hm?” Haruka hummed, turning around to regard his best friend, who was looking at him with an incredulous look on his face.

“Your soul mark…” Rin said, slowly raising his hand and pointing at the blade of Haruka’s right shoulder. “Did you know it’s bloomed?”

Blue eyes widened and the shock of the question was almost enough to knock Haruka into the pool.

“Wh-what?”

AHHHH HERE IT ISSSS my fic for the @nanaseharukabirthdayexchange !!! I was able to write this fic for @lonesome-writer !!!

Milo, thank you so much for including so many fun prompts in your likes list. It was an absolute joy writing this for you and I really hope you like it! ;u;

The fic in its entirety is below the cut, but you can also read it here on AO3!

It was a quiet morning in Tokyo, still early enough to where not a single soul traversed down the street where the Swim Free Flower Shop resided. The sun slowly crept into the clear glass windows of the storefront, greeting the plants inside with its friendly, caring light. The plants, in turn, welcomed the sun in like an old friend, turning to face the windows and soaking up the rays.

 Nanase Haruka loved mornings like this, when he could ready his shop for the day and bask in the peace before the city properly awoke. He breathed in the sweet, fragrant air of the shop as he watered the plants with his mackerel-shaped watering can—a joke gift he’d gotten from Nagisa that Haruka had, unfortunately, grown too fond of to get rid of.

 His effervescent employee sure wormed his way into his heart, Haruka thought with a smile. He poured the last drops of water out of the mackerel’s mouth before setting it aside and going to set up his hose with the spray nozzle to water the larger plants he had on the sales floor.

 It was still early in the summer, and as such, a lot of his perennials were beginning to bloom. The wide array of flowers he had on hand added such a rainbow of colors to his shop, brightening everything up with no effort whatsoever. But he still had some plants that hadn’t bloomed yet, that were still trying to grow their buds,like his imported phlox flowers from the United States.

 Blue eyes stared at the buds, still mostly green but with small bursts of purple and violet poking through at the top. According to his research, they wouldn’t bloom for at least another month, but that was okay. He’d take the time to nurture them and help them grow; he had no doubt they’d be a huge hit when they did bloom, especially considering their natural habitat was overseas.

 But, to be honest, the reason he’d sought them out in the first place was because they were the exact same flower as the soul mark he sported on his back.

 More specifically, his soul mark was on the blade of his right shoulder. He’d only ever seen it in the mirror or in the occasional photo, and there was no color to it whatsoever—just the solid black outlines of a flower that begged to be colored in—so it took him a long time to figure out what kind of flower bud it was.

 And the fact that it was still a bud, not a fully bloomed flower, meant that he still hadn’t met his soulmate. Which was fine by him, really. He wasn’t really concerned with finding that one person destined to be his other half; he had people in his life that he loved and trusted, and he had his shop. He didn’t really need more than that.

 A firm knock on the front door yanked Haruka out of his peaceful musings, immediately filling him with confusion. It was too early for Nagisa to show up for his shift, and several hours until the shop would be open for business. So who…?

 Haruka turned around to see a small delivery truck outside, with a tall man in a recognizable uniform waving to him with a smile from outside.

 Ah, it made sense now. Though he usually didn’t get his deliveries this early…

 Haruka turned off the hose and set it atop the water tank, drying his hands on his apron as he approached the door and turned his master key in the lock.

 “Good morning!” the delivery man greeted as Haruka opened the door, his smile warm and bright.

 Haruka was almost blinded by the genuinely kind and friendly aura he exuded. The florist felt tingles all the way from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, though he had no idea why. He just kept staring at the—much taller—man before him, going slightly lightheaded and losing himself in crystal clear peridot eyes.

 The man’s smile grew a bit uneasy at Haruka’s blatant staring and lack of response, and he tilted his head a bit. Olive brown fringe fell to cover his eyes somewhat, which Haruka found to be an absolute travesty. “Um…is there something wrong?”

 Haruka felt like his face was on fire…or, more like he felt extremely flushed. Swallowing, he choked out the only thing he could think to say: “You’re not Sousuke.”

 The man looked adorably confused for about two seconds before his smile returned in full, accompanied by a laugh that may as well have been music to Haruka’s ears. “Ah, Yamazaki-kun is driving the truck. I’m Tachibana Makoto. I’m new, you see, so he’s driving the route today and I’m taking care of the customer contact.”

 “Oh,” Haruka said intelligently. “That…makes sense.”

 Tachibana’s smile didn’t dissipate in the slightest as he held up his metal clipboard that contained a bunch of invoices in its grasp. “It says here I only have four boxes for you today…where would you like me to put them?”

 Haruka held the door open wider, kicking the rubber door stopper with his foot until it wedged between the bottom of the door and the floor. “You can just set them here,” he said, motioning to an open spot between the front window and his bouquet coolers, “and I’ll break them down as I go.”

 “Sure thing!” the newbie said, nodding his head before disappearing to his truck. Haruka heard the metallic clangs of the trailer lock, the thump of the ramp coming in contact with the asphalt. All the while he just stood in his shop like a stick in the dirt, trying to regain feeling in his limbs that still felt slightly numb and buzzing with some weird energy. He idly rubbed at his right shoulder, feeling it burn slightly under his touch.

 Tachibana came in with two boxes piled on top of each other, balanced by a dolly. He was humming quietly as he worked, carefully sliding the boxes off the dolly before heading back to the truck for the remainder of the delivery.

 Haruka fished a box cutter out of his apron, slicing the tape on the first box in one swift motion. It contained some different soils he’d ordered, and he set to unpacking the bags and carted them over to the large storage cupboard at the back of the store. When he returned to cut into the second box, Tachibana had also returned with a carton of live plants—orchids, the shipping label on the side read. The fact that he was carrying such a heavy parcel with relative ease made Haruka unconsciously sneak a glance at the man’s arms. The sleeves of his collared uniform shirt were rolled up to the elbows, and besides the rock hard muscles in his forearms, Haruka also caught a glimpse of a flower bud peeking out from under Tachibana’s left sleeve. But it was quickly hidden again by the fabric, much too quickly for Haruka to discern what kind of flower bud it was.

 So, Tachibana hadn’t met his soulmate yet either.

 “Here, I’ll take that,” Haruka said, reaching his arms out for the box of orchids.

 “Oh, no, I’ve got it!” Tachibana insisted with that ever-present smile. “Would you like me to set it elsewhere?”

 Haruka gave up the fight much quicker than he expected of himself, and pointed to the counter lining the back of the store where he typically put together arrangements. “Over there is fine.”

 Tachibana did as he was told, still humming a soft little tune as he made his way to the back of the store.

 As much as Haruka wanted to watch the delivery man, feeling some kind of strange magnetic pull to him that he had a hard time fighting down, he instead wrenched his attention away and headed to the delivery truck outside. He saw his usual delivery guy, Sousuke, sitting in the driver’s seat tapping away on his phone. Sighing, Haruka impatiently rapped on the window with his knuckle to get Sousuke’s attention.

 The dark-haired man rolled down the window and gave Haruka a friendly smirk. “Morning, Haru. What’s up?”

 “Training the new guy by making him do all the work?” Haruka questioned, raising a brow.

 Sousuke snickered and leaned back against the seat. “Relax, he’s doing fine on his own,” he assured his long-time customer and friend. “Besides, my shoulder’s been acting up today. Figured it’d be better if he did the heavy lifting, y’know?”

 Haruka nodded in understanding, fixing Sousuke with a slightly more serious look. He knew Sousuke’s old swimming injury flared up on occasion, and those days were usually when Haruka would grab his own delivery boxes from the back of the truck. But now that Sousuke had someone helping him on his route, Haruka hoped that the man would give his shoulder a break.

 “Um…Nanase-san, could you please sign this invoice?” Tachibana said from behind, and Haruka spun around to find him smiling sheepishly at him.

 “That was fast,” Haruka remarked as he grabbed for the clipboard and pen being offered to him, causing Tachibana’s handsome face to flush an attractive pink.

 “Thanks?”

 A small, unbidden smile made its way onto Haruka’s face as he scratched out a signature of sorts using only the kanji of his surname. He clicked the pen closed and set it atop the clipboard, handing it back to the still blushing Tachibana. “You can call me Haru, by the way.”

 Tachibana blinked a couple times before seeming to realize he needed to take the clipboard back. “R-really? But we’ve only just met…”

 Haruka shrugged. “If you’re going to be a regular on this route, we’re gonna get to know each other eventually. I’d rather just skip the formalities.”

 If possible, Tachibana lit up with an even brighter smile than before. “Okay. Then you can call me Makoto.”

 “Alright, you two, enough chit-chat. We have to get to our next stop,” Sousuke scolded from inside the truck, turning the key in the ignition until the vehicle whirred to life. “Rin says hi, by the way,” Sousuke said to Haruka, waving his phone which presumably had a text message conversation open with Rin—Sousuke’s boyfriend and Haruka’s best friend.

 “Ah, sorry!” Makoto apologized, hurriedly tearing off Haruka’s copy of the invoice and handing it to him. “It was very nice to meet you, Haru. See you next time?”

 Haruka nodded and hummed in the affirmative. “Yeah, see you again, Makoto.”

 Makoto gave him a little wave as he dashed around the back of the truck, hurriedly locking up the trailer before hopping in the cab next to Sousuke. With a lazy salute from Sousuke and another brilliant smile from Makoto, the two drove off towards their next destination and left Haruka standing in front of his shop. His body still tingled.

.

 Haruka was quietly changing out of his clothes into his swimsuit when Rin decided to show up, claiming the locker next to him.

 “Impatient as always, I see,” the redhead commented teasingly, shrugging off his bag and jacket.

 Haruka, on the other hand, had just pulled on his knee-length jammers and was now digging around his bag for his swim cap and goggles. He merely gave a hum in response, hearing what Rin said but not entirely processing the words, his mind elsewhere.

 “Sousuke told me you met the new guy on his route,” Rin said, his voice muffled as he pulled his t-shirt over his head.

 “Yeah,” Haruka affirmed distantly, folding up his work clothes and setting them neatly in his locker. He gently shut the door and stood idly by, waiting for Rin to change into his legskins. He didn’t offer up any more information, though just thinking about Makoto made butterflies flutter in Haruka’s stomach. He felt goosebumps all over his exposed skin, though it wasn’t cold in the locker room.

 Rin threw his own clothes into his locker and grabbed his swim cap and goggles, wearing his goggles around his neck like a necklace. He flashed a sharp-toothed smile at Haruka and stood with his hand on his hip. Haruka could just barely make out Rin’s soul mark, peeking out of his legskins at his hip—the tips of a fully colored blue delphinium stalk.

 Haruka remembered seeing Rin’s soul mark for the first time, before he’d really found his affinity for caring for flowers. It was something his late grandmother had instilled in him from a young age, but it took a while for Haruka to truly appreciate what she had taught him. He eventually followed that path, and now had a successful flower shop of his own.

 Part of that awakening of sorts had been thanks to Rin showing him his beautiful soul mark.

 Rin nodded his head to the door leading to the pool hall. “Looks like you’ve got some feelings to swim out,” he said to his best friend and they walked side-by-side out of the locker room.

 Haruka kept his gaze resolutely straight ahead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he deflected, pursing his lips somewhat.

 Rin barked out a laugh. “Haru…we’ve known each other since elementary school. I know you’re not as emotionally constipated as you used to be, but shit, you look like you’ve been in a daze since you got here.”

 Haruka couldn’t contest that. However, he did narrow his eyes and give Rin a sidelong glance to his left. “Emotionally constipated?”

 Though Rin rolled his eyes, he was still smiling. “You know what I mean.”

 Haruka just hummed again, staring forward once more. He was usually pretty aware of his own emotions, able to accurately piece together what he was feeling about most anything after a little time to mull it over. Whatever weirdness he was feeling—whatever weirdness he had been feeling since early that morning—he was sure the water would help him think it through.

 Luckily, there were only a few other people in the pool hall at this time of the evening. Haruka allowed a small smile to grace his features. At least he and Rin would be mostly undisturbed in their swimming.

 “You wanna race, or are you just gonna do laps?” Rin asked as they approached the edge of the pool, already doing some stretches to prepare for their exercise. Haruka followed suit, focusing on working out his arm muscles since his signature stroke was the front crawl.

 “I think some laps,” Haruka said, shaking out his shoulders and stepping up onto the starting block.

 “Uh…Haru?” Rin said hesitantly from behind him.

 “Hm?” Haruka hummed, turning around to regard his best friend, who was looking at him with an incredulous look on his face.

 “Your soul mark…” Rin said, slowly raising his hand and pointing at the blade of Haruka’s right shoulder. “Did you know it’s bloomed?”

 Blue eyes widened and the shock of the question was almost enough to knock Haruka into the pool.

 “Wh—what?”  

.

 Haruka stood in front of the sink, back turned, head angled to try and get a glimpse of his soul mark. He felt those familiar tingles, the numbness from earlier spreading from his chest to every bit of his body. His limbs felt light and weightless like floating in water but heavier than a ship’s anchor at the same time. He could barely feel his fingertips poking and prodding at his shoulder as he twisted every which way to see it clearly in the mirror.

 “Hey, Haru, here…” Rin said, stepping into the bathroom with his phone in hand—he’d gone to retrieve it from his locker before chasing directly after Haruka. “Lemme take a picture so you can see it better.”

 Sucking in a deep breath, Haruka complied and turned his back to Rin. He vaguely registered the shutter snap as Rin captured the photo on his phone. The slightly taller man then handed his phone to Haruka, who took it in shaking hands and stared at his soul mark on the screen.

 It was a fully bloomed phlox, but not even just one flower, which surprised Haruka enough to make his breath hitch. While the bud had only been singular, now emblazoned on his pale skin was a cluster of eight—maybe ten?—blossoms with five petals each, all rounded at the tips and flared out like an umbrella. None of them had any color whatsoever, only the black, almost inky outlines that gave the flowers their shape.

 The fact that it didn’t have any color yet meant that it was brand new…that it had only bloomed within the last day or so.

 Haruka felt the room spin around him, shadows seeping into the edges of his vision.

 “Whoa, hey! Haru!” Rin cried out as Haruka swayed on his feet. He stabilized his friend with his strong arms, guiding the raven-haired man back out to the locker room and lowering him to sit on the bench in front of their lockers. “You okay?”

 Haruka hung his head between his knees, sucking in deep breaths and holding them for a few seconds before expelling them shakily. Rin’s phone hung limply in his hand, and he couldn’t muster the strength to even lift it up to hand back to him. It didn’t make sense…it didn’t make sense. How could he have met his soulmate and not realize it? How could he have even met his soulmate if he was at work all day until now?

 Unless…it was a customer? But no, all of the customers that visited his shop today were regulars…so it couldn’t have been any of them. What if it was just some random stranger on the train he took to get to the rec center? How would he be able to track them down, then?

 “Haru, I think you should go home for tonight…you’re in no condition to swim, like this…” Rin said carefully, squatting down in front of his best friend. “I can have Sousuke bring the car ‘round so we can drive you home.”

 Words caught in his throat, Haruka swallowed hard before nodding silently. He felt Rin take his phone from his loosened grip and watched as his friend’s bare feet slapped against the tiled floor as he stepped away to call Sousuke. Haruka blew out another shaky breath, his hands coming up to grab fistfuls of his hair. The pain of pulling on the strands helped keep him grounded a little, allowed him to focus and center himself until the lightheadedness abated somewhat.

 He had never cared about meeting his soulmate, had never given it more than a passing thought for his whole life. Even watching the people around him meet their own soulmates and form unbreakable bonds with their destined persons, he never felt odd or left out because he hadn’t met his own. But now, when the moment actually came…it slipped through his fingers before he realized it. And it was too late.

.

 “What’s got you so down, Haru-chan?”

 Haruka looked up from his inventory form, peering at his employee through his dark bangs. Nagisa was looking at him with wide, earnest magenta eyes that had no business looking as worried as they did. Nagisa was supposed to be endless smiles and boundless positivity, and it irked Haruka that he was the reason for the blond’s concerned countenance.

 “It’s nothing,” he said, tapping his pen against the inventory sheet until the ink bled a puddle through the paper. He scowled and tore the sheet from the pack, dabbing up the wet ink with the already soiled paper and hoping it didn’t bleed all the way through the stack.

 “Then why do you look so gloomy?” Nagisa pressed, nuzzling his head against his boss’s shoulder, and it was obvious he wasn’t going to leave Haruka alone until he got some kind of answer. That was just how Nagisa was.

 His shoulder…

 Haruka sighed and clicked his pen closed, leaning against the counter. “Here, look at this,” he said pulling the strap of his apron over his head and tugging at the collar of his oversized shirt. He exposed as much of his right shoulder as he could to Nagisa, turning slightly to give the shorter man a better look.

 Nagisa peeked past the dark blue fabric and gasped at what he saw. “Haru-chan…your soul mark bloomed! That’s wonderful!”

 Haruka tugged his shirt back up, but left the top half of his apron still hanging down. “It’s really not,” he said dejectedly, leaning further down on the counter until his forehead was touching the soil-dusted surface. “I don’t even know who my soulmate is…”

 Haruka could feel the air shift around them with Nagisa’s sadness at his statement. “Oh, Haru-chan…”

 The jingling of the bell above the door drew both of their attention, cutting their conversation short for the time being. Haruka looked up from the counter and couldn’t help but shudder at the unexpected relief he felt when he saw who had come into the shop.

 “Good morning, Haru!” Makoto said, smiling his gentle smile and holding his hand up in a small wave as he made his way over toward Haruka and Nagisa.

 “Makoto,” Haruka acknowledged with a short nod, stepping around the counter when the strap of his apron caught on the corner. Haruka tripped at the sudden halt, but a pair of strong arms caught him before he could properly fall.

 “Are you alright?” Makoto asked, surprise still etched onto his kind face.

 Haruka hummed in response, noting the way his body was beginning to tingle again like a powerful electric current charged his blood and flowed through his veins as if they were wires.

 What the hell…?

 Makoto held onto him for a couple more seconds before almost jolting away as if he’d been stung. His bright green eyes met Haruka’s and they held each others’ gazes for what could have been seconds, minutes, hours, before Nagisa coughed none-too-subtly and gathered their attention.

 “Haru-chan, who’s this?” the blond asked with excited curiosity, leaning up to get a good look at Makoto’s face. Makoto backed away just a tad, a sheepish grin on his face.

 “This is Makoto; he’s the new delivery guy on Sousuke’s route,” Haruka explained, ducking his head to hide the blush he could feel heating his cheeks. He busied himself with fixing his apron to avoid any more…er, mishaps. Plus, as the owner of the shop, he had to look professional and presentable. A half-folded apron was neither of those things.

 “Hello,” Makoto said, holding out his hand for Nagisa to shake. “Nice to meet you…er…?”

 “I’m Nagisa!” the shorter man said brightly, taking Makoto’s hand in both of his smaller ones and shaking vigorously. “Very good to meet you, Mako-chan!”

 Makoto’s smile eased into that same gentleness as before. “I’ve got a bigger delivery for you today, Haru,” he said, turning slightly to face Haruka again while Nagisa still had a grip on his hand. “Sorry we’re a little late. Another stop ran over time by a bit.”

 “Not a problem,” Haruka said with a shake of his head. “Sousuke was usually later than this when it was just him, so don’t worry.”

 “I heard that,” Sousuke said, his deep voice drowning out the sound of bell chime on the door. He was wheeling a dolly in backwards with several boxes stacked on top of the metal lip, all labeled “FRAGILE.”

 “Oh, those must be the vases I ordered,” Haruka remarked, running over to clear a space by the coolers for Sousuke to set the boxes down. “Nagisa, could you put the door stopper down and help get the other boxes from the truck?”

 “Sure thing!” Nagisa said, practically jumping up and down in that enthusiastic way of his. Once he shoved the rubber wedge beneath the door, he bounded outside to retrieve some more of their packages.

 “Sousuke, let me take that!” Makoto said, taking the dolly from his boss before there was a chance for Sousuke to protest. The brunette followed Nagisa’s example and hurried out to the truck.

 Sousuke chuckled, rolling his shoulder. “They have way too much energy for this early in the morning.” His teal eyes then slid over to Haruka, darkening just a little with seriousness. “How are you doing after last night? You seemed…pretty shaken up, which isn’t like you.”

 Haruka looked down at his shoes, curling his toes inside. He didn’t really want to have to explain himself, especially with a near-stranger in possible earshot. Besides, he knew Sousuke had at least heard the gist of it from Rin in the car ride to Haruka’s place last night—he’d heard them whispering about it in the front seat. But he also didn’t want to leave Sousuke hanging.

 Instead, he changed topics somewhat. “How long did it take for your soul mark to start…gaining color? After you and Rin met?”

 Sousuke paused to think, tucking his hands into his pockets. It was then that Haruka realized, he’d never actually seen Sousuke’s mark. He’d only seen Rin’s, mostly when they went swimming. But it’d been in full color for as long as he could remember.

 “Well, I mean, we met in elementary school,” Sousuke said with a shrug. “And I know at least mine was in full color before he left for middle school in Australia, so…?”

 “I…see…” Haruka muttered, scratching at the back of his neck. He could feel his shoulder tingling again.

 “You didn’t have any color to yours last night, right?” Sousuke then asked.

 Haruka shook his head. “No, it…it was still just the outline…”

 “Can I see it?”

 Haruka froze, his hand at his side clenching into a fist. “I…don’t see why not?” he choked out against his better judgment. “It’s here…on my right shoulder blade…” he said, tapping at his shoulder with the hand that was already at the back of his neck. He didn’t bother taking off his apron this time, just shrugging enough of his shirt off for Sousuke to see the phlox blossoms on his skin.

 Sousuke came up beside him, tugging the shirt fabric away from Haruka’s shoulder enough to see the mark. “Uh, Haru, it’s…”

 “What?” Haruka asked, alarmed at Sousuke’s hesitance. The other man was rarely like that.

 “There’s already some color.”

 "What?”  Haruka repeated, already feeling that strange numbing sensation that he’d felt last night.

 Nagisa and Makoto were chattering away as they came back into the shop, Makoto with some more boxes on the dolly and Nagisa carrying a really tall box with aeration holes which meant that live plants were inside. They both froze at seeing Haruka’s ashen face.

 “Haru-chan, what’s the matter?” Nagisa said, setting down his box right where he stood and ran over to his boss and friend. “Do you feel sick?”

 Sick was an understatement. Haruka felt dizzy, like he was floating at the bottom of the pool and running out of air in his lungs, but his body was too heavy for him to swim to the surface. His stomach was doing flip-flops on itself and there was a deafening pounding in his ears that drowned out the concerned voices around him. Before he realized it, he was being picked up off the ground and carried in someone’s arms—where to, he had no idea. All he could do was stare up at the ceiling through hazy blue eyes, holding his breath so he didn’t puke. The tingling sensation grew much more intense, to the point where he felt needles all over his skin and his shoulder outright burned as if someone had set it aflame.

 When he came back to himself, he was lying on the small sofa in the break room at the back of the shop. Nagisa was standing above him, placing a cool, dampened washcloth to his forehead. Haruka’s palms felt sweaty and clammy, and he had a hard time curling his fingers into fists. They felt swollen.

 “Haru-chan, do you want to close the shop for the day?” Nagisa asked. “You need to rest.”

 Haruka barely managed a shake of his head. “N-no, I’ll be fine, just…go manage everything for a while until I can get up again….”

 Nagisa nodded resolutely. “You got it, Haru-chan. Mako-chan, come help me with the rest of the boxes?”

 Makoto looked up from where he stood at the end of the sofa. “Okay, sure, I can do that!”

 But before he could move, Sousuke stepped in front of him with his hand out, blocking Makoto’s path. “I’ll help Nagisa, you stay here with Haru until we’re done.”

 Hearing that made Haruka’s heart jump into his throat for some reason. He couldn’t figure out why.

 “O-okay, if you’re sure, Sousuke…” Makoto said, to which Sousuke nodded.

 “Water is in the little fridge over there if you need it,” Nagisa said, pointing to a mini-refrigerator in the corner of the small room. “We’ll hurry, okay?”

 Makoto hummed with a nod, and the two of them left to go finish getting the delivery in order.

 It was silent in the room, save for the sounds of Haruka’s slightly labored breathing. He was sweating up a storm, and he reached up with a shaky hand to press the cold cloth firmer against his forehead.

 “Um…do you…want some water, Haru? You might be dehydrated…?” Makoto asked, and damn if Haruka didn’t somehow find that nervousness adorable.

 “Sure, that might help,” Haruka rasped out, even though the thought of ingesting anything at the moment made his stomach churn. He listened to the faint sounds of Makoto shuffling over to the fridge, the opening and closing of the insulated door, the crunching of the plastic bottle in Makoto’s hand. A shadow descended over him, Makoto’s tall and broad frame blocking out the sunlight coming in from the windows.

 “Do you want to sit up? I can help you,” Makoto offered quietly.

 Haruka nodded curtly, reaching his arms out towards the gentle giant above him. As soon as Makoto’s hand circled around his wrist, Haruka felt that electrified feeling as if he’d been shot with a taser. A pained noise came from the back of his throat, alarming Makoto enough for him to let go of Haru’s wrist immediately.

 “S-sorry, I just…I’ll do it myself,” Haruka said through a wince, using whatever strength he could muster to pull himself to a sit against the arm of the sofa. When he pulled the cloth away from his face, he blinked his eyes open to see Makoto staring at him with those sunny green eyes. He was slowly flexing the fingers of his hand, forming a fist and relaxing over and over. “Are      you    alright?” Haruka asked, nodding to Makoto’s hand.

 “Hm? Oh, yeah,” Makoto assured him with a sweet smile. “My hand just got all tingly for a minute…like it feels when it falls asleep?”

 It took a second or two for the words to register, but once they did, Haruka could do nothing but stare wide-eyed at Makoto.

 So…he…Haruka wasn’t the only one who…

 “Oh, here’s your water, Haru,” Makoto said belatedly, holding the bottle out to Haruka.

 “Thanks…” Haruka said, reaching for the bottle. Their fingers brushed for only a moment, but it was enough to make Haruka’s entire arm go numb. Makoto seemed to have a similar reaction if the squint of his eye and quiet hiss through his teeth were anything to go by.

 “We’re done!” Nagisa’s voice could be heard before the man himself was seen. He came barreling into the break room with Sousuke leisurely strolling in behind him. "Oh, you're sitting up! Are you feeling any better, Haru-chan?"

 "A little," Haruka said, fumbling with numbed fingers to open the cap of the water bottle. He started out with small, slow sips.

 "Are you sure you're okay to stay at work?" Sousuke asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

 Haruka nodded, which was a bad move because it just made him feel dizzy again. "I'm fine, just…don't mention this to Rin. He'll be all over me about it if he finds out."

 Sousuke barked out a laugh. "You're not wrong about that." He then flicked his arm out to right the face of his wristwatch to check the time. "Well, if you're sure you're okay, Makoto and I have to make it to our next stop. We'll leave you in Nagisa's expert care."

 Nagisa stuck his tongue out at Sousuke. "You're so mean, Sou-chan."

 Haruka almost smiled at his friends' antics. Almost. He looked at Makoto, who'd remained quiet since the intrusion and actually did smile softly at the man. "Thanks for keeping an eye on me."

 Makoto flushed and offered Haruka a shy smile, scratching his cheek with his forefinger. "Ah, you're welcome. I didn't really do anything, though?"

 "You made sure Haru-chan didn't fall off the couch and die," Nagisa amended, throwing his arm around Makoto's shoulder, which was a sight in itself considering their height difference. "That's more than enough, don't you think?"

 "I-I guess…" Makoto said sheepishly.

 "Nagisa, unhand my coworker before I throw you over my shoulder and toss you into the trailer with the rest of the packages," Sousuke said. Although his tone was deadpan, his threat was clear.

 "What if we wanna keep Mako-chan here?" Nagisa asked, hanging off Makoto in some weird semblance of a hug. The taller man laughed, letting himself be jerked around by Nagisa with no complaints whatsoever. "Haru-chan likes him, right, Haru-chan?"

 Haruka blinked, looking between Nagisa and Makoto a few times before settling his gaze on Makoto. He hummed in affirmation, taking another sip of water in hopes of hiding his blush behind the bottle.

 Before anything else could be said, Sousuke manhandled Nagisa off of Makoto and began ushering his employee out the door before the little blond mayhem maker could get his hands on him again. "See you dorks tomorrow morning!" he said overly loudly, making his point.

 "See you tomorrow Nagisa, Haru!" Makoto said with a laugh, raising his arm to wave. The rolled up sleeve of his uniform shirt fell down to his elbow, revealing a cluster of black outlined flowers with slight pastel pink coloring at the tips of the petals on his forearm.

 Flowers that looked strangely like…

 But by the time Haruka thought to say anything, Sousuke and Makoto were long gone.

.

 Haruka sighed as he sank into the warm water, hunkering down until the water came up to right below his nose. The steam rising off the surface clouded around him, almost creating a bubble for him to exist in that separated him from the outside world. His bathtub wasn’t quite long enough for him to stretch out his legs completely, but even with them bent at the knee and his kneecaps poking out of the water, he could already feel his muscles relax.

 He definitely needed to relax after the last day and a half.

 Much of that time was spent in utter confusion, trying to figure out how in the world his soul mark could have bloomed without him realizing that he’d made contact with his soulmate. Not only that, but he’d apparently spent enough time with his soulmate over the past day for his mark to start coloring already.

 Then, when he’d gotten a glimpse of Makoto’s arm…well, that threw everything into extremely unfamiliar waters. And Haruka wasn’t used to being unfamiliar in any kind of water.

 Haruka sank beneath the hot water, his eyes closed. He felt the small pushes and pulls of the water, every little movement he made created tides and ripples in the small, confined area of his element. It calmed him, helped him clear his thoughts.

 When Haruka resurfaced, a decision had been made.

 He needed to ask Makoto to show him his soul mark.

.

 The next morning, when Haruka arrived at his shop at the very break of dawn, he was pleasantly surprised to see that some of his budded plants had bloomed.

 Perhaps the most pleasant and surprising ones were the garden phlox flowers, their colors soft and muted but no less beautiful for it, and when the creeping rays of the sun refracted through the glass of the windows and onto the petals, the gentle pinks and pastel purples really came to life.

 Haruka hoped that it was a good sign.

 He went about his normal morning routine of watering all the plants, enjoying the peace and calmness of the dawn. The gentle sound of the streams of water flowing from the nozzle of his mackerel watering can brought him a sense of clarity. When he moved on to the hose for the larger plants, the gentle hum of the spray nozzle lulled him into a familiar calmness. He felt ready to face the moment that could possibly change the rest of his life. He was still nervous, butterflies fluttering around in his stomach and that familiar tingling feeling in his fingers, but he had to do this. He had to.

 When he heard the gentle knock on the glass door, Haruka turned to see Makoto and felt immediately at ease.

 He turned off the hose and set it atop the tank, walking over to the door and unlocking it to let Makoto in.

 “Good morning, Haru,” Makoto said with his usual gentle smile, his head tilted slightly. “How are you feeling?”

 “Much better,” Haruka said, offering Makoto a small smile of his own.

 “I’m so glad,” Makoto sighed happily. “You really had us worried yesterday.”

 “Sorry about that…” Haruka said, averting his gaze. He felt a hand on his shoulder, then, giving it a gentle squeeze. And while the tingling and weird kind of numbing was still present, Haruka felt…warm. The kind of comforting warmth that came with cuddling in a blanket in the wintertime, or sinking into a hot bath at the end of a long day.

 “Makoto…”

 “Hm?”

 “Can…” Haruka swallowed, looking up at Makoto’s face. Blue eyes met green and Haruka gained his courage. “Can I see your soul mark?”

 A mixture of surprise and confusion crossed Makoto’s face. “My soul mark? Why?”

 Haruka sucked in a breath. He removed the top of his apron and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. He shrugged the collared top off his right shoulder, enough to where his own soul mark was visible, and turned just enough for Makoto to see it.

 “Because I need to see if it matches mine.”

 He heard Makoto gasp, but what that sharp intake of breath meant, Haruka wasn’t sure.

 Until Makoto held his arm out for Haruka to see, and Haruka blew out a breath that had been stuck in his lungs for what felt like an eternity.

 Staring up at him from a tanned forearm was a fully bloomed bunch of phlox flowers, with soft pastels fading in from the centers of the blooms.

 “I had a feeling…” Makoto said through a small laugh, though his laugh sounded a little watery around the edges. “When I got back in the truck, that first day…I noticed my mark had bloomed…and every time I saw you, I just felt…I don’t know…warm? Tingly? I can’t really describe it…”

 Haruka turned back around to face Makoto, his shirt still hanging off his shoulder. There were a couple tears gathered in the corners of Makoto’s gorgeous green eyes, and Haruka was surprised to discover that he had a very similar affliction currently. He blinked his own tears away and hesitantly reached his hand up to cup Makoto’s cheek, his thumb just barely caressing the skin beneath Makoto’s eye.

 “I felt the same…” Haruka admitted, then let out a breath of a laugh. “Though, I guess it definitely took more of a physical toll on me than it did on you.”

 “It sure did,” Makoto laughed quietly, bringing his own hand up to hold Haruka’s hand against his face.

 And there it was again…the tingling feeling. Though instead of coming in as a shock to the system, instead of making him feel sick and numb, it made Haruka’s blood sing, made his spirit flutter, made his heart slow down to a tempo that was nothing but comfort and peace.

 Why hadn’t he cared before about meeting his soulmate? If he knew it’d feel like this…

 Well. That didn’t really matter now, did it?

 Makoto leaned forward, touching his forehead to Haruka’s. Against his will, Haruka’s eyes slid shut.

 "So...now what?" Haruka whispered.

 Makoto sighed a laugh, and Haruka felt his warm breath against his face. It smelled minty, like he had brushed his teeth recently. "I'm...not really sure…" Makoto said hesitantly. "But...I suppose we'll figure it out, right?"

 Haruka smiled, leaning his head on Makoto's shoulder. "Yeah...I suppose we will."

.

 Haruka had never learned much about hanakotoba, aside from what his grandmother had taught him before she passed away. As a florist, he didn't have much use for it. All that mattered to him was how certain flowers and fillers looked together in arrangements, not so much the meanings behind them.

 But since he'd met Makoto, his curiosity had been piqued. He hadn't thought about it before, but...what if soul marks had some kind of meaning? And that meaning was relevant to the two soulmates who shared their mark?

 When he discovered what phlox meant—harmony, united souls—he knew there was no way it was just coincidence.

 So Haruka started looking into other flowers and their meanings, learning more about this hidden language embedded in nature. Once he was versed enough in certain plants and blooms, he began creating a subset of products based around hanakotoba. Just little mason jar arrangements, boutonnieres, corsages, other smaller things of such nature that had just that little extra meaning to them for customers who were looking for that sort of thing.

 He'd also taken a liking to making flower crowns, which was what he was currently working on. He had blooms of both light pastels and deep, vibrant purples on the worktable in front of him. Various tools were scattered about, as well as wiring and floral tape to hold things together. He also had some filler flowers to go along with the main flower of the crown—things like baby's breath that would nicely accent the petunias he was working with for this particular crown. It was for Makoto.

 "Haru?" a voice said, following the jingles of the bells above the front door of the shop.

 Haruka looked up from his worktable, a small smile automatically in place on his lips as soon as he saw Makoto standing at the shop front. "You're early…" he commented, tilting his head slightly. "You're never early."

 Makoto laughed at that as he made his way toward his soulmate, dropping onto the stool next to Haruka. "What are you working on?"

 Haruka's gaze turned back to the mess of flowers and leaves and stems on the table, where a full circlet of petunias sat amongst the wreckage. "Flower crown," he said, picking up his craft and tweaking some of the blooms so they sat correctly.

 "It's beautiful," Makoto said, nudging Haruka's shoulder with his own. The shoulder with his soul mark, now in full color beneath his shirt.

 "It's for you," Haruka said, reaching up with both hands and gently settling the crown atop Makoto's olive brown hair. He was right, the purple did look good on him.

 A smile that was more precious than any other lit up Makoto's face and his cheeks flushed a pretty pink. Haruka had a hard time keeping his heart from thundering in his chest at the gorgeous sight. "Thank you, Haru, I love it." Makoto reached up and gently ran his forefinger over one of the vivid violet petals. "What kind of flowers are these?"

 "Petunias," Haruka answered, fixing the crown so that it sat just slightly angled on Makoto's head, making him look even more adorable than before. "They mean gentleness, or 'your presence soothes me.'"

 Makoto ducked his head and hid his bashful expression behind his large, gentle hands. Haruka wanted nothing more to pull Makoto's hands away from his face and nuzzle their noses together.

 "You'd better make one for yourself, then, to match," Makoto said, allowing Haruka to take his hands. "Because that's exactly how you make me feel."

 Haruka fought down his own blush and swallowed the lump in his throat. "...Maybe tomorrow," he acquiesced, touching his nose to Makoto's.

 Makoto nuzzled his nose against Haruka's. "You ready to close up shop?"

 "Yeah, it's just about time, isn't it?" Haruka said, reluctantly pulling away from Makoto and getting up from his stool. He still had quite the mess leftover from his little project, and normally he made sure everything was spic and span before he left the shop for the night. But he and Makoto had planned a date of sorts and he didn't want to hold that up.

 He and Nagisa would just have to do extra cleaning in the morning.

 Haruka took off his apron and hung it on the hook by his arrangement counter, then moved to wash his hands of all the dirt and pollen. In the meantime, he heard Makoto pulling the metal gates across the front windows closed.

 As soon as the lock on the front door was clicked shut, Haruka pocketed his keys and immediately slid his hand into Makoto's and intertwined their fingers. They walked down the sidewalk at a leisurely pace, nudging each other's shoulders now and then, squeezing each other's hands in reassurance of the other's presence.

 Makoto's crown of petunias stayed on his head for the rest of the night.

[theatricks]

Seisho School Story - Chapters 6-10 (English Translation)

Happy birthday, Hikari!!! ✨ 🎉

Chapter 6

Mahiru: Karen-chan, Hikari-chan. Are you done changing yet? Karen: Nnnn, Bananaaa, more rice... nomnomnom. Zzzzzz... Hikari: Karen, there's rice on your cheek... Zzzzzz... Mahiru: Wha-, you're sleeping again! And that's not all, you two! Mahiru: Geez~ Your uniforms are going to get wrinkled~! That's enough, wake up, you two!! New Year's is over!! Karen and Hikari: ....Wha-!! Mahiru: Are you awake? Today I want to air out the bedding and clean the room. You two are always messing it up... Karen: You sound just like a mom, Mahiru-chan~ Hikari: ...Mamahiru. Mahiru: I'm not your mother!! Mahiru: You two are going out today, right? Karen: (Oh, right... Got it.) Y-You're right. Hikari-chan, let's head out! Hikari: ? Did I make that sort of promise with you? Karen: It's fine, it's fine... (Karen and Hikari leave) Mahiru: Is it really fine? It'll be a tough performance, but do your best... Karen-chan.

Hikari: So, where are we going, Karen? Karen: Let's go to the lesson room! We got a bit rusty during the break, so let's work up a sweat practicing! Hikari: Then, I have to go back and get my leotard. Karen: You're right, let's go back to the dorms and...

~Karen's Memory~ Nana: We'll be using the kitchen until evening, so take care of her until then, okay?♪

Karen: Aah, no, we can't go back! Er, I mean, it'll be a pain to turn back now, so let's just go someplace else! Hikari: Oh? Karen: I wanted to do a little shopping. Hikari: The mall, then?

~Karen's Memory~ Futaba: Karen, make sure you don't go to the mall that day, got it?

Karen: Ah! No good... I was told to stay away from the mall today... Hikari: By who? Karen: M-My horoscope! In any case, that's a non-non, Hikari-chan!! Hikari: A more forceful non-non than usual... How about we go to the aquarium? Karen: Yeah, if we're going to the aquarium, then we can take the train there, and...

~Karen's Memory~ Claudine: We'll be looking around the store at the station, so avoid it if you can, okay?

Karen: Yeah, that's a non-non... Hikari: ...... Let's just go to the park. Karen: The park? The park is... The park is A-OK, Hikari-chan!!

Karen: Looks like there's someone doing something over there? Street Performer: Here I have a ballo~on! I do this, give it a twist, aaand~ Now it's a doggy!! Karen: Woo~~w!! That person's amazing, Hikari-chan!! Karen: Excuse me, please make me your apprentice~~!! Hikari: Ah, Karen! She was drawn in by their energy... Street Performer: First up is~~ The method of preparing~~ The balloon's air~~ Karen: The balloon's air~~

Karen: Hikari-chan, thanks for waiting! Here you go. Hikari: Mister White balloon art...? Karen: I made it for you. Go on, take it! Hikari: Huh...? Karen: Teacher's example was so good... I'll do my best to make something even more sparkling next time! Hikari: Karen... Karen: You weren't bored, were you, Hikari-chan? Hikari: No, it was fun just watching you. And you gave me Mister White. Hikari: Karen, thank you. Karen: Don't mention it! Karen: Evening crept up quick. Hikari-chan, let's go home. Hikari: Is that okay? Karen: Yeah, it's probably fine by now!! Hikari: Right... Hikari: (Oh, Karen, you're terrible at keeping secrets...)

Chapter 7

Futaba: I wonder if they're doing okay... Junna: I wonder... Futaba: The cooking crew should be fine, but I'm worried about Kaoruko and Karen who's in charge of being the diversion. Junna: I'm worried too. Especially about Karen. Futaba: She needs to keep Hikari away from the dorms, but the station and mall are off limits, too... Junna: And she needs to do it without her suspecting anything. This might be a tough mission for Karen. Futaba: Well, all we can do is carry out our own mission here.

Junna: Now, let's go to the goods department on the 3rd floor! Futaba: ...You sure are dependable, Hoshimi. I could just sit here and there'd be no problem, easy-peasy. Junna: Hanayagi-san would be angry if she heard you say that, you know? Futaba: It's the truth, though~ She even got lost here recently. Futaba: That Kaoruko... Hope she's not giving Kuroko and Tendo any trouble.

Kaoruko: ...Achoo. Someone's talking about me. Must be Futaba-han, she's probably anxious being away from me. Claudine: You never know, maybe she's taking the chance to let her hair down? Kaoruko: Unacceptable.

Junna: This miscalculation is unnaceptable. To think that it would be sold out...! Futaba: It's popular merchandise. That thing... Junna: We'll just have to go looking for it elsewhere. It's something the eight of us decided on, after all. Futaba: Alright, let's pick ourselves back up and head to the station!

Futaba: Let's see here... Oh, looks like the goods department is on the second floor. Junna: If it's sold out here too...what'll we do... Futaba: Well, there's still time, so don't give up just yet. We can try the shopping district too. Junna: You're a positive thinker, Isurugi-san. Futaba: You think? Futaba: It's probably because Kaoruko used to be such a sourpuss. I was always having to pull her along, I never even had the time to be negative. Junna: Understandable... To the point of being respectable.

Kaoruko: Achoo, achoo!! Claudine: Oh, Futaba's talking about you again. Maya: "To sneeze twice means you're being talked poorly about"...or so they say. Claudine: Well, she must be insulting you then. Kaoruko: How can you two say that!? There's no way that's the case!!

Junna: If this is the place, then it must be that shop at the corner there. Junna: Excuse me. There's something we're looking for... Junna: I see. You're sold out... Junna: Huh... You'll look into which shops have it in their inventory? Thank you very much!!!

Junna: ...Isurugi-san, we're going back to the mall! They said that someone cancelled their order and it's available now!! Futaba: Alright, let's go!!

Junna: Haa... Haa... We've been doing nothing but walking around but, as expected, you're not showing it at all. Futaba: This is nothing compared to theatrical combat practice.

Shopkeep: Thank you and come again! Junna: We did it... We finally bought it! Futaba: Haa~h, thank god. With this our mission is accomplished. Futaba: But, man, that was a long trip! I didn't think we would have this hard of a time. Junna: Now all that's left is the wrapping materials. What color do you think Kagura-san would like? Futaba: Out of those... It'd have to be the blue, right? Junna: Then, blue wrapping paper and a red ribbon? Futaba: How about we go a bit fancy with a gold ribbon? Junna: Good idea, that suits her! Futaba: This is a celebratory day, after all!

Junna: It's bulkier than I thought... Is it heavy, Isurugi-san? Futaba: Nah, not at all. You had your hands full with the shopping, so let me take care of this. Junna: I'll rely on your strength. That must be from carrying around Hanayagi-san's things every day. Futaba: She's actually been carrying her things herself lately. Junna: Wow... That's progress. Although it's normal for most people... Junna: But with that, our mission is complete. Now we just need to hope it goes smoothly for everyone else. Futaba: Let's hurry back. So we get there before Karen and the others. Junna: Yeah, let's help out the cooking crew and decorations team! We still have to do the wrapping, too.

Chapter 8

Kaoruko: Snip, snip, snip... Kaoruko: Aaah, impossible...! This isn't what my fingers are meant to do! Kaoruko: They're for perfectly holding a folding fan!! Claudine: You chose this job because you said it seemed the simplest. Maya: All you have to do is cut along the lines. Claudine: Your ballet coupe isn't very good either. Kaoruko: What does that have to do with anything!? Claudine: "Coupe" is the French word for "cut". Kaoruko: S'that so... The A, P, B, and R are so difficult. What's up with those shapes? Holes are the worst. Maya: Shall we change it to kanji? How about "誕"... would that be preferable? Kaoruko: Hell no. Claudine: Put them up on the wall when you're done cutting, Kaoruko. And you, what are you working on? Origami? Maya: Take the paper like this and fold it over and over again repeatedly... Cut it with scissors... Claudine: It looks like you're just cutting at random though... Maya: And then open it up... Claudine: C'est quoi ça!! How did you do that!? It's shaped like birds!! Claudine: ...Impressive. Mine are paper flowers. I've already made this many of them. Well? Fast, right? Maya: You got better and better as you went along, didn't you? Claudine: Each one is in a topdown perspective, but... Well, whatever.

Claudine: Haa... Haa... Claudine: Look how large the balloons I inflated are! Seems I come out on top in terms of lung capacity. Maya: ...... Claudine: Hey, say something... Maya: Large balloons don't look very pleasing when gathered together, do they? Claudine: Guh-... You're right.

Maya: A little higher. Now a bit to the left. Good, there. Claudine: There we go. Oh, Maya, can you hand me a thumb tack? Claudine: The garlands and balloons are up. They look nice, don't they? Maya: The cooking smells good as well. Claudine: Mmhmm, it's going well, isn't it? ......? What are you looking at, Kaoruko? Kaoruko: I mean... I can't really tell if you two get along or if you don't. Claudine: Did it look like we were getting along!? Maya: Oh, were we not? Claudine: Were you trying to!? Maya: That's what I was assuming, Saijo Claudine.

Claudine: W-Well, if you think so, then that's fine, I guess. Kaoruko: ...You really do get along, huh? Kaoruko: Oh, by the way, I'm done cutting. "HAPPY"! Claudine: That's it!? Where's the rest!? Kaoruko: I'm working on it... Claudine: You're working on it? Do you realize what time--... Kaoruko: Don't worry. Any second now... Futaba: Kaorukooo!! We're back! Kaoruko: See, they're back. Futaba-han will take it from here. Futaba: Huh!? You're not done with your work? I mean, I kinda figured as much, but... Kaoruko: Isn't the fact that I'm on the decoration team in the first place weird? Having to use these tiny scissors... Futaba: So what would you rather have done? Kaoruko: Taste testing? Anyways, here, I leave the sniping to you, Futaba-han. Futaba: ...Geez, whatever.

Futaba: Hehe~n, finished. How's it look? Maya: Lovely... You're quite dexterous, Isurugi-san. Claudine: Thanks to that, we'll finish the decorations just in time. Give Futaba your thanks, Kaoruko. Kaoruko: I did all the work I possibly could. I'm clumsy, you know. Futaba: No, you keep working too! Claudine: They sure get along well. Maya: They really do.

Chapter 9

Nana: Flour, eggs, butter, cream, and lots of fruits... Mahiru: Carrots, onions, nori, and... umm, let's see... Mahiru: My family sent a whole bunch of potatoes to the dorms, so I think that'll do it. Nana: Your family's potatoes are really tasty♪ Mahiru: I'm always surprised when they send so much, but your cooking really helps out. Nana: Now that the shopping is complete and we've got all the ingredients, it's time to put our skills to the test. I hope the others enjoy it, too. Mahiru: Even the cake will be homemade. They'll definitely enjoy it!

Nana: Okay, I'll prepare the cake and desserts. Mahiru: And I'll handle the potato dishes and sushi rolls. Both: Nanahiru Cooking♪ Nana: Sift the flour~ Melt the butter~ Preheat the oven to 180~♪ Nana: Crack the eggs in a bowl~ Add the sugar and use the hand mixer~♪ Mahiru: You're as skillful as ever, Banana-chan. I can't make sweets unless I'm looking at a recipe... Mahiru: Boil the potatoes... Peel the skin... Mash until fluffy... Nana: You don't peel the potatoes first and then boil them? Mahiru: My Grandma taught me that if you boil them before peeling, their flavor won't escape. Nana: Bananice♪ I didn't know that. I'll try it next time. Nana: We should clean up while we're at it. I'll wash the bowls and knives. Mahiru: Then, I'll wipe this down! Mahiru: ...This kinda takes me back. I come from a big family, so there was always a lot of cleaning up to do. Mahiru: My grandma would wash the tableware and I would wipe things off. Nana: Fufu... You have a big family even now. That's what we are, after all♪ Mahiru: Banana-chan is the mother, then... Nana: And Mahiru-chan is the older sister.  Karen-chan always seemed like the youngest child, but... Nana: Lately she seems like an older sister, too. Mahiru: Then, the youngest is Hikari-chan? Nana: Fufu, probably♪

Nana: Sponge cake, cookies, fruit punch, sweet potatoes... Mahiru: Potato salad, German potatoes, mashed potatoes, fries... And finally, the sushi rolls... Nana: We made quite a lot...♪ Mahiru: And there's just as much cleaning to do now!! Junna: I'm home. Nana: Welcome back, Junna-chan... Ah, it's already this late!? I have to hurry and decorate the sponge cake! Mahiru: The table still needs to be set up, too! Oh, no! Karen-chan's gonna be back any second. Junna: It's okay. Start by taking a breath, you two. I'll take care of the cleaning, the two of you handle the table and cake. Nana: That's our Junna-chan♪ You must be the eldest. Junna: What are you talking about?

Nana: I think that's a good consistency for the cream♪ Mahiru: Is it okay to cut the strawberries like this? Nana: Perfect. Nana: Alright, let's decorate it. Junna and Mahiru: Wooo~w! Mahiru: Banana-chan, you're like an artisan. The cream is turning into roses! Junna: The cream is dancing on the stage of the sponge cake... Even in a place like this, your mettle as a Stage Girl is tested. Junna: ...Cake making is profound. Nana: And now for the finishing touch... Mahiru: On top, a chocolate slab with a message written on it... All: It's ready to be served♪ Claudine: Karen and Hikari should be back soon. Kaoruko: We've finished decorating the room, too. Junna: Dim the lights and get ready. Mahiru: Everyone, when Hikari-chan gets back we'll... All: Celebrate!!!

Chapter 10

Karen: Hey, hey, Hikari-chan, Hikari-chan. What day is it todaaay?? Hikari: Hmm... National Earbud Day? Karen: Is it really?? I didn't know that~... wait, no!! Karen: Today's your birthday, right? Hikari: ...You remembered? Karen: Of course I did, Hikari-chan!! I'd never forget the birthday of someone important to me! Hikari: Thank you, Karen. And for the Mister White balloon, too. Karen: Let's allllways celebrate your birthday together from now on. Hikari: Yeah, and your birthday too. Even when we become adults and then old ladies. Karen: It almost feels like we've jumped straight from our reunion to now. Everything went topsy-turvy, helter-skelter! Karen: Hikari-chan, thank you for spending the day with me! Hikari: Yeah... It was fun, Karen.

Karen: We're hooome... *pop* Karen: Eek! A party popper...? All: Welcome baaack!! Hikari: This is...! Karen: Wo~w!! Amazing!! You guys!! There's so much wonderful food! Mahiru: There's lots of potato dishes and sushi rolls that you can choose your own ingredients for. Hikari: The room decorations are cute, too. Did you all put this together...? Kaoruko: Cutting out letters was tough. It was a good way to kill time though. Futaba: It was Karen who planned it out. Karen: I just said I wanted to celebrate Hikari-chan's birthday with everyone. Karen: Then everyone pitched in and it turned into a big thing!

Hikari: ...... Karen: Hikari...-chan? Are you crying? Hikari: ...I'm not. Junna: Let's get this party started. The food's going to get cold. All: Leeet's eat!!

Kaoruko: Pheeew. I can't eat another bite... Maya: It seems there's dessert, as well. Mahiru: Oh... Then it should be time for that! Hikari: That? Claudine: Here, a birthday present from all of us. Go ahead and open it. Hikari: ...... This is...a Mister White hanten!! Hikari: It's the one I've been looking for. It was a limited edition, so I wasn't able to find it.... Kaoruko: That incredibly lame hanten...? I don't understand how she could possibly be happy to get something like that... Futaba: Kagura likes it, isn't that all that matters? ...It is pretty lame, though. Karen: For Hikari-chan, it's gotta be Mister White. Nana: Okay, next up is the birthday cake♪ Light the candles aaand dim the lights! Hikari: I had no idea... To think you'd do all this for me. Karen: Hikari-chan... Kaoruko: Kagura-han, as a return gift, feel free to give over the role of Claire in Starlight to me. Futaba: Kagura, what sort of lessons did you do in England? Let's practice them together sometime! Junna: To take your and Karen's place as my own, I'll be aiming for the next lead role and I won't lose. Nana: I'm glad we can stand on the same stage together for the Seisho Festival and DramaFes, Hikari-chan♪ Claudine: Let me see some acting from the English version of Starlight sometime. I'll show you something from the French version in return. Maya: I look forward to seeing your performance as Claire, Kagura-san. Mahiru: Hikari-chan, I'm glad I became friends with you. Let's keep taking care of each other from now on, too. Karen: Okay, everyone... one, two!! All: Happy birthdaaaay!! Hikari: Everyone... Thank you... Karen: Come on, let's cut the cake together, Hikari-chan!! Hikari: It's... not a wedding, though. All: Ahahahahahahaha!!

(TL Note: Just to clarify, the term that Karen uses (入刀) is specifically for when a couple cuts their wedding cake together and Hikari is like, "Umm, I don't think that's the word you're looking for?")

[yuzusorbet]

My Sendai Holiday (April 2018) - Part 2:  Ice Rink Sendai

Part 1 was about Yuzuru’s Olympic Victory Parade, the main purpose of my trip. The other purpose was to just enjoy being in Yuzu’s hometown.  After I became his fan (since 2014 Sochi Olympics), Sendai is a place that I often saw in photos and videos and read about (and translated about), and so I have been wanting to visit for the longest time.  The 2018 victory parade made it the perfect time to go.  Yuzu said during one press conference, “By all means, please come to Sendai and spend some money.”   And so I did!  :D 

(It’s another one of my VERY long posts, haha.  I want to remember all my emotions and all the wonderful things that I experienced.) 

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

My first afternoon in Sendai, I had no plans but my heart was yearning to go to Yuzu’s home rink.  I knew I would be going there the next day with a friend Ella, but I realised I couldn’t wait!  This is the rink where Yuzu grew up, the rink that he loves, the rink that he donates all his royalties from his 2 autobiographies to (‘Aoi Hono’ 1 & 2).   It was recently renovated (in the 2nd half of 2017) with ideas/suggestions from him and Shizuka Arakawa.   So I found myself going to the tourist information centre in Sendai Station to get directions to Ice Rink Sendai.  (The tourist info centre is awesome!  Photo above.  There is staff who speak very good English.  I did not need to use my Japanese at all.)

There are 2 ways to get to the rink and I chose the 50-minute bus ride.  I wanted to relax on the bus and see the neighbourhood and eat my ‘zunda mochi’ and ‘zunda pudding’ (Sendai specialty, sweet deserts made from edamame, bought from a shop in the station)  (Yuzu ate zunda mochi in ‘Weekend Sendai’ photo shoot).  It was a delicious and scenic ride.  

Photo above: Nanakita River and Yurtec Stadium, home to J.League club Vegalta Sendai (and also to Vegatta-kun, the eagle mascot that loves Yuzu very much xD).  Being in the Nanakita area means the rink is near!

After alighting at the right stop (I checked with the bus driver to be sure), I looked around wondering where the rink was.... then I saw this ‘Fun-te’ sign;  Ice Rink Sendai’s name and logo is there too! 

Turning right at the sign, soon I saw a familiar building.

I am here!!!  The rink that I’ve seen in videos and photos, and read so much about!  There was a banner hanging down one side: “Congratulations, Hanyu Yuzuru senshu, gold medal”.

After entering through the glass doors, I saw this beautiful sight.......

Along the left wall was a Yuzu-in-kimono standee and LOTS of messages on the wall.  They were support messages to Yuzu written before PyeongChang Olympics.  Many of them were written on specially made oval-shaped paper with the words “PyeongChang 2018 Olympics; Ganbare!! Hanyu-senshu!!” at the top of the paper.  The photo below is a close-up of 2 such messages.  

These two were written by members of Pandalion, the Sendai group that composed cheer songs for Yuzu for both Olympics.  One message says ‘Forever supporting you!!’ and the other says ‘You are a phoenix!!’ (the kanji is literally: You are the bird that never dies!)   I was so touched reading the messages.  They were all written during the long silent period when Yuzu was recovering from injury.  The people here kept on believing in him (and I’m so proud to say I did too).  

Next to all the support messages was a whiteboard with Yuzu’s messages from past years.  The first one has no date but I saw a photo of it a long time back.  It says: ‘Even though we are apart, our hearts are one!!  Everyone “forward”!!  I will also work harder and become strong!’  (my translation) And he signs off with a little mushroom drawing next to his name.  Reading it, I felt again how much he loves his hometown and how difficult it was for him to leave Sendai to train in Toronto.  (His desire to become a better skater was so strong, he knew sacrifices had to be made.)   The other 2 messages are from 2014 (thanking everyone for their support) and 2017 (congratulations on the 10th anniversary).  

Further down this left wall was the entrance to a little exhibition gallery with photos and memorabilia of Shizuka Arakawa and Yuzuru.  Photo-taking is not allowed in this part.  But here are 3 photos from news sources (thanks to ElenaC):  

The cutest thing was a pair of small, black skating boots with a name labeled on the blades, ‘はにゅう ゆづる’ (’Hanyu Yuzuru’ in hiragana)..... could be his earliest pair of skates!     

On the right side near the entrance is the ticket machine and the reception counter.   You buy a 200-yen ticket if you want to enter the rink area to look around and watch people skate.  If you want to rent a pair of skates and do some actual skating, you buy the 1700-yen ticket.    

Straight ahead were glass panels and a set of glass doors that lead to the ice rink.  There is a sign on the door saying photography is not allowed inside.  The young lady at the reception counter explained that it is for protecting the privacy of the children skating there.

It was quiet and peaceful on this day of my 1st visit.   In the reception/exhibition area, there were only 3 or 4 people slowly looking at the messages, photos and exhibits.  After spending some time here, I bought a 200 yen ticket and entered the area where the rink is.  

There were many skaters in the rink.  The first things that caught my eyes were 2 big posters of Yuzu on the opposite side of the rink;  they were the ‘Aoi Hono’ posters (Book 1 and 2).... wow..... so beautiful......  I walked around and then I sat down on one of the viewing benches to watch the skating.  Most of the skaters were school children having skate lessons after school.  

After a while, a lady who looked familiar entered the rink and started to coach a group of children.  It was Nanami Abe-sensei!!!!  Aww....... I felt so happy to see her!  The coach who was with Yuzu in so many of his earlier videos, the coach who was in tears after his legendary R&J in Nice 2012, the great coach that I have read so much about...... my heart was just so moved to see her for real in person.  She was in a longish black down jacket, with short cropped hair and black-framed specs.  

Pic below:  there is a photo of her in the poster on the right, and a photo of her and other coaches of Ice Rink Sendai. The poster on the left shows the exhibition area before the renovation of the rink.  (These posters are in the outer area where the message board is.)

She was coaching a group of children who looked about 12 years old to early teens (about 5 girls and 1 boy).   I just sat there watching them, feeling very happy and contented. 

After some time, I suddenly I heard Nanami-sensei saying in Japanese, “Photos are not allowed.  Please do not take photos.”  I realised that 2 ladies sitting on a bench near me were using their handphones to take photos.  Oops..... maybe they forgot that it was not allowed in here.  Nanami-sensei then came out of the ice rink and was now walking towards our benches!  She went to the ladies and said politely but firmly, “Please delete the photos that you took.”  They were not Japanese but Nanami-sensei just repeated herself until they understood.  She stood there and watched them as they deleted the photos in their phones, and then she went back into the rink and continued with her class.  Wow..... that was so cool!!!  She is so cool!!!  I sat there watching her with a HUGE amount of respect and feeling even more in awe of her!  (And I couldn’t help feeling a little scared of her too, haha!) 

I stayed there watching the skaters until it was closing time (6pm).  Of course, I was tempted to skate as well.  But I know I can’t skate to save my life and the ice is so hard..... I was afraid of falling and breaking something and not being able to go for Yuzu’s victory parade!  I decided I would just have to come back here another day after the parade. :)) 

The next day was Saturday, ie. the day before the parade.  My friend Ella had arrived in Sendai and I came to the rink with her.  What a big difference today.... there was a long queue to go in!  (The rink would be closed on parade day itself.) Pic below:  I was waiting in line near the main entrance when I took this photo. The glass doors at the end lead to the ice rink.  The banner hung above the doors says “PyeongChang Olympics 2018 figure skating Japan representative, Hanyu Yuzuru senshu, gold medal congratulations”.   

Pic below: I was now inside and I took this photo from the opposite direction.

Because it was crowded, we didn’t stay long.  Ella had a good look at the whole place and we both knew we would come back again soon.   So we headed to a very nice Starbucks nearby and relaxed there with our frappuccinos.  

Next to it was a big bookshop with a poster of Yuzu’s book ‘Yume wo Ikiru’ prominently displayed outside.  Of course, we went in for a while. :) 

Lots of beautiful books inside. :) 

For the return journey in the afternoon, there were no buses that go to Sendai Station (they only run in the morning with a last bus at 1.35pm).  It’s a short bus ride or a 20-min walk to the nearest station ‘Izumi Chuo Station’ and then take the subway.  (Note: bus schedules may change according to month/season.)

Next day = Yuzu’s Parade Day = the hottest day ever recorded for April in Sendai.  After the parade, the next few days were grey and rainy.  I was so grateful thinking back to parade day...... thank God it was hot and sunny!  (link to my parade day post is at the bottom of this post)  With the parade over, it was safe to do some ice skating!   So one rainy day, I went back to Ice Rink Sendai.

My initial plan was to take a walk around the Nanakita area, have a look at Nanakita Elementary School (that Yuzu attended) and Nanakita Park (where Yuzu sat on a bench in ‘Weekend Sendai’ mag), and then head to the rink.  But it was not good weather for being outdoors.  I decided to go to the rink first; maybe the rain would stop later and I could go to the park and the school after skating.  

Pic below: on the way there by bus again.

In Ice Rink Sendai, the staff at the reception counter were the same ladies that I saw on the other 2 days, and one of them remembered me from my previous visits!  haha, that made me so happy! :D  

I handed them 2 postcards for Yuzu, one written on behalf of the FB International Fan Group and one from myself.  The staff said they would pass them to him. :)  Then one of them helped me with the purchase at the ticket machine;  I paid 300 yen for a pair of plain grey gloves (mascot Irene gloves were out of stock but it’s ok cos I do have a pair at home) and 1700 yen for skating and rental of skates.  I asked her “how many hours”, I thought it would be for 2 or 3 hours, but she said, “Until closing time.” Oh wow!  You mean I can skate here the whole day???  Glad the rain made me come here earlier than planned!

Then she asked me if I wanted a ‘point card’ even though I may not be able to use it -- you get a stamp for each session, and 5 stamps will give you one free session.   I had told her on my first visit that I don’t live in Japan and I came because of the parade, so she knew it would be hard for me to make use of it (card expires in one year).  It was so nice of her to offer me one.... I told her I would keep it as a souvenir.  How I wish I could skate here 5 times a year!  

I entered the area of the rink.  It was so quiet!  There were only 3 adults skating as most children were still in school; their lessons would start later in the afternoon.  For now, it felt like I had the whole rink to myself!   I went to the rental skates counter and the staff helped me to get the right size of skate boots.  

Then, one thing really, really surprised me.  The staff actually asked a coach to look after me for a while!  A female coach with a very kind and sweet face came to me as I was wearing my skates and said she would give me some guidance.  Wow..... what a kind gesture from them!!!  I was so touched!  Thank you, staff-san and sensei!!!

Pic below:  I am ready to skate!

Sensei showed me how to get onto the ice safely and how to move forward and how not to fall.  We went very slowly round the rink together as I practised what she showed me.   At first, I was very nervous and afraid of falling.... I know how painful it is!  Then I started to get more comfortable on the ice and more confident, thanks to her instructions.  And I love the ice!!!  It was very dry throughout and very nice to skate on.  I moved slowly around the rink, with Sensei patiently skating next to me.   

Sensei was so warm and friendly, and chatted to me as we skated. (Once again, I felt very thankful that my Japanese is good enough for a decent conversation.)  She said she loves skating and she has been teaching here for many years.   I told her that I have been a Yuzu-fan since Sochi Olympics and I had come to Sendai for the victory parade and I really wanted to visit his home rink.  So here I was!  She was very happy to hear that and thanked me for coming.  Then she told me that she was already coaching here when Yuzu was a little boy and he was so cute with his mushroom hair!  Oh WOW!!!!!  I am skating with someone who knew him as a kid!!!  I felt so privileged to have her company!  We started to talk about how great he is, not only as a skater, but as a person as well.  It was very obvious that Sensei is extremely proud of him. :)   She also told me some funny anecdotes.  She said that among the little kids that she teaches now, the boys say, “When I grow up, I want to be Hanyu-kun.”   And the girls say, “When I grow up, I want to marry Hanyu-kun.”  Hahaha....... SO CUTE!!!!!

As my ‘lesson’ progressed, children and teens started to arrive at the rink for their lessons.  As we continued to skate slowly round the rink, students would skate up to greet Sensei.  She responded to each one with a gentle nod and a smile. These were all her former students, she told me.  What lovely students, I thought.  So well-mannered and respectful...... just like a guy I know. Ci  

Then Sensei said it was time for her to get ready for her lesson with some children, so she would leave me to practice on my own.  I thanked her profusely for her kindness and she replied that she really enjoyed teaching me. :D  

Before she went off, she made sure I was ok.  Told me that if I feel cold, there is a ‘warm room’ where I can enter with my skates and sit for a while.  If I am hungry, there is a lounge where I can get food and have a rest, but no skates allowed there so I need to change back into my normal shoes for that room. She also said there are a lot of Yuzu’s books and magazines there so I should go and take a look!!!  haha.... Sensei really understands the heart of a fan!  Ice-resurfacing was going to start at 3pm;  no skating for 30 minutes, perfect time to head to the lounge!   

If you want to see the place, here is a link with 3 news videos:  twitter.  And this is an English news article with a few photos. 

The lounge is a very comfortable place with neat rows of tables and chairs.  And there are really a lot of Yuzu’s books and magazines there! Nicely displayed on a few low shelves that encircle a cosy sitting area further inside.

WOWWWW......................

I CAN STAY HERE ALL DAY........

There were vending machines selling drinks and hot food.  I got a box of ‘yaki onigiri’ (grilled rice balls which I love), selected a few mags and sat by the huge glass windows that look out towards the rink.  “Itadakimasu!”   

What a perfect meal.

Soon, the zamboni had done its job and the skaters were out on the ice again.  I found it so hard to leave the lounge..... I wanted to look through ALL the magazines first!  But the rink closes at 6pm..... there was not much time left to skate.  So after spending a bit more time on the mags, I tore myself away and went back outside to put on my skates.  

Now there were several coaches on the ice and different classes were going on. I waved to Sensei who was teaching a tiny little boy..... awww Yuzu must have been like that when he started.....  And then, I saw Nanami-sensei again!  She came into the rink and started to coach a group of older children.  I continued to skate slowly round and round the rink, trying my best NOT to stare and to concentrate on my own practice.  I admire her so much as a coach and choreographer that I couldn’t help feeling excited to be skating near her. xD 

The older children were practising jumps and spins.  There were also a few adults skating.  Everyone was so good and I must have stuck out like a sore thumb.  But surprisingly, I was not embarrassed nor self-conscious.  I think I must have been too overwhelmed with happiness to feel anything else. :D

Too soon, it was closing time.  I returned my skates and thanked the staff for their help and kindness.  I went outside and saw that it was still raining!!!  And I had totally forgotten about checking the weather and trying to go to Nanakita-koen, haha!   

I was putting up the hood of my parka when I heard someone call my name.  It was the coach who had taught me..... Sensei!   She asked me where I was going and I told her I was going to take the bus and then the subway to Yaotome Station.  ‘Rikyu’, a restaurant near there has very delicious grilled liver and beef tongue, and also Yuzu’s signature, haha.  And then, I got another HUGE surprise of the day.... she said she could send me there in her car!!!  I quickly declined her offer, gosh how could I trouble her!  But she assured me that the restaurant was on her way. She also said it was getting dark very quickly because of the rainy weather and she would worry about me trying to look for it in the dark.  And again insisted it was no trouble for her as she was going that way.  Awww...... Sensei, you’re too kind for words!!!  I asked her to join me for dinner but she said she had to run some errands, so she couldn’t.  We went to her car which was parked in the huge parking area outside Ice Rink Sendai and I had a very quick and comfortable journey to the restaurant.  Sensei, domo arigato gozaimashita!!!  

(Note of caution in case there are very young fans reading this: do NOT get into a car with someone you don’t know.)

(Photo above:  I took this photo of the restaurant after I waved goodbye to Sensei and I was waiting to cross the road.  There was a light drizzle.)

What a rainy day.... but oh how grateful I am for it!  It made me spend the whole afternoon at Yuzu’s home rink and I experienced the immense warmth and kindness of the people there!   Thank you, Ice Rink Sendai!  Thank you, Sensei!   

Part 1: victory parade day Part 3: coming up.... I will write about the rest of the trip, like going to places with Yuzu’s signature. :))   Update: Part 3 and Part 4

[Please do not use or re-post my stuff without my permission]

[slipstreamborne]

Clearer with Distance (2014 fic)

rating: G summary:  Donatello is almost eight before they finally find a pair of glasses with his correct prescription.  Before that, the severely farsighted turtle just has to make do.  His brothers do what they can to help out, even if it means reading all his boring stereo instructions to him for the millionth time. notes: 2k fluffy turtle tot fic with just a touch of angst. read at ao3:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/15006035

The box is slick underneath Donnie’s fingers, glossy cardboard unwarped by water, the corners crisp and unworn.  New, or at least freshly thrown out, which for a mutated turtle scavenging the sewers of New York is basically the same thing.

His chest swells with excitement, expert fingers feeling at the seams until he finds the  opening flap.  The box is bulky but light—a promising combination—and rattles faintly when shaken.  Definitely some twist ties loose in there.  He gropes greedily inside, worming his skinny arm in between the broken pieces of protective Styrofoam until his fist closes on his prize: a thin paper booklet with staples along the binding.

“Oh no,” groans Mikey, somewhere off to his left.  “He found another one.”

“Not it,” says Raph automatically; a mistake, because he’s close enough that Donnie can pinpoint him by sound even if he has trouble picking his blurred form out from the rest of the garbage heap. 

“Raph!”  He thrusts the little pamphlet towards what he guesses is his brother’s nose.  “What’s this say?”

Shadows of hands shove him back, not hard enough to knock him over, though.  “I dunno, genius.  It’s dark.”

“Not that dark.”  A greasy yellow glow fills the far end of the tunnel, casting crisp shadows against the brick.  The light’s softer here, the edges of things increasingly smeared the closer he gets to them, but it’s bright enough that Donnie barely has to use his flashlight.  It’s easier for him to spot the gleam of a potentially interesting object than sort through every washed up boot and rusted can by hand.  Safer, too, as the still-thumping cut bisecting his left palm can attest.  At least it’s finally crusted over and stopped oozing.  “C’mon, read it for me.”

“I ain’t gonna!”

“Read it read it read it read it—”

“Hush.” 

Dad doesn’t shout.  Dad hardly ever has to shout, and never twice.  Not so close to topside, anyway.  Donnie’s mouth clamps shut obediently.

“This is not the place.  Raphael will read to you when we get home, Donatello.”

Raph whines (“Daaaad, I read the last one!”), but his father holds firm, setting him back to the day’s scavenging with a single clipped command.  Reassured that he’s not the one to have been assigned to the task, the soft, mostly-blue shape of Leo finally pops into view, a smear of white slashing crookedly across where his mouth should be.

“Over here,” he says, taking Donnie by the hand (something Donnie hates, but on unfamiliar territory has no grounds to object to).  “Found a bunch of onions.  Help me  pick out the rotten ones.”

*

Everybody has their place within the family.  If you  need somebody to boost you into a high pipe or check in the shadows for monsters (Raph says that the towering white figures from his dreams with needles for fingers aren’t real, but Donnie’s not so sure), you get Dad.  If you need somebody to tell you all the rules for Yu-Gi-Oh or tattle on you when you wander too far into the dark, you get Leo.  Mikey’s great at farting at the dinner table and whining until you feel sorry for him when he loses a game that he made up the rules to, while it’s Raph’s job to not share when you want a turn at shooting baskets and snuggle up tight against you under the blankets when winter blows ice cold through the Lair.

Donnie’s got strong, nimble fingers and can recite long passages of Harry Potter from memory, even does a pretty good job of mimicking the voices that Dad uses, but when Leo finds a coverless copy of The Order of the Phoenix—their one missing title in the series—nobody asks him take over when Dad gets too tired to do another chapter.

It’s not that Donatello doesn’t know how to read.  Dad taught him his alphabet same as his brothers, one warm hand at his elbow as he guided Donnie’s finger through the thick, ever-gathering dust of the fan room floor, tracing out the shape of each letter over and over until Donnie had every stroke memorized. 

If he writes large enough, going back over each word twice with the long side of their few precious pieces of grubby sidewalk chalk until the pastel lines stand out bold against the dark concrete floors, Donnie can make out whole words.  Kanji is harder, crucial, tiny strokes lost amidst the overall shape of the character, but Dad has a long scroll of poetry in oversized calligraphy hanging above his sleeping mat that Donnie has had memorized since he was three:

A lovely thing to see: through the paper window's hole, the Galaxy.

For reasons he can’t yet explain, he has no trouble at all reading the oversized text of the bulletin boards he occasionally glimpses through narrow storm drains, hungry eyes devouring every line of copy even if he lacks the context needed to appreciate the appeal of things like “semi-annual sales” and “now in theaters”. 

He has never seen a star, much less a galaxy, but after some careful questioning, he doesn’t think Leo or Raph or Mikey have seen one, either. 

The bigger something is, the further it is away, the easier it is for Donnie to understand. 

The problem is that the things that interest him, that confound him and make him burn for more, are close and very, very small. 

He gets so frustrated.  So angry.  It’s there, it’s right there, but he can’t—

“Please.”  He shoves the stack of books into his brother’s hands.  “Please please pleeeeease...!”

“Fine,” Leo sighs, even though they both know that technically, it’s Raph’s turn again.  “Fine.”

There’s an old beanbag chair that Dad sewed up that’s almost big enough for two.  Leo tucks his feet under him primly while Donnie wedges himself firmly against his side, long legs braced against a crack in the concrete to keep them from toppling over. 

“I’m not reading you Advanced Wiring again, I know you’ve got that one memorized.”  He tosses the battered book to the side with a thump.  “So which’ll it be?  Heating and Plumbing or Decks, Porches, and Patios?”

“Decks.”  The meager collection of Time Life Home Repair and Improvement books is one of his most prized possessions.  Heating and Plumbing is his second favorite, but Leo’s terrible at describing all of the diagrams.  “The part about load-bearing footings.” 

The book smells comfortingly of mildew when Leo cracks it open.  He’s smaller than Donnie by almost half a foot, his head wobbling precariously on a neck barely bigger than Raph’s wrist, but he has a nice voice, smooth and even with an extra puff of breath behind the t sounds that Donnie finds himself echoing for hours afterwards. 

“Where do you want me to start?  Concrete forms or how to determine the frost line?”

“Doesn’t matter.”  He hasn’t told Leo that he’s actually memorized that one, too.  All of them, to be honest.  It’s just that sometimes he needs something, anything, to help his brain go quiet.  “Frost lines.”

Leo flips to the appropriate page, squirms until his shell is nestled more comfortably in the folds of the beanbag, and starts to read.  Donnie digs his sharp chin into the hollow of his brother’s shoulder, closes his eyes, and listens.

*

Mikey is the best at it, despite being the least interested in schoolwork of any of them.  Maybe it’s because of his blasé acceptance of his own academic shortcomings.  Where Leo huffs and repeats things over and over, trying to get it perfect, and Raph storms off with a growl at the first barrier he can’t punch his way through, Mikey plunges right along unrattled no how many bumps he hits, accepting any corrections to his pronunciation with a casual shrug. 

Even when the manual turns out to be written in French. 

“En-lev-ez le...’  The heck is this word, bro?  One of the letters is wearing a hat. ‘Buh... Booty-er?’”

“Spell it if you can’t sound it out.”

“B-O-I with a pointed hat-T-I-E-R.”

Donnie frowns, fingers retracing his steps across the condensation pump, trying to figure out which piece is most likely supposed to come off next.  “I think that’s the cover for the fan.”  He gives the fan enclosure an experimental pull, then a twist, then a harder, more determined pull, but it doesn’t budge.  He runs his fingers around its rim, looking for the telltale round bump of a screwheads, but finds nothing.   “Uh, is there a tab I’m supposed to press to make it pop off or...?”

“Maybe?”  A rustle of paper as Mikey folds the directions back to look at the diagram.  “Are you sure these are the right instructions for this pump?  It doesn’t quite look like the drawing.  That fan cover piece is a completely different shape.”

Donnie’s stomach does an anxious somersault.  And he’d been so excited to find something thrown away in its original box.  “I mean, a pump’s a pump, right?  How different can they be?”

Half an hour later, Donnie’s managed to remove the fan cover, but not without a sickening crack of plastic and a muffled swear from his brother that tells him he broke something.  Hopefully it wasn’t anything crucial.  He’ll have to run some tests after he’s finished cleaning it and putting it back together, but since the pump wasn’t working in the first place it will be hard to— 

The main hatch creeks open, then closed again.  “Tadaima!” call two voices.  Leo’s voice cracks on the last syllable, and Dad sounds tired, but pleased.

“Okaeri!” Donnie and Mikey call together, Raph chiming in faintly from the other side of the Lair.  Donnie sniffs the air.  Beneath the gust of sewer smell is the unmistakable odor of wet fur and back alley dumpster he’s come to associate with food. 

He puts down the tools to help Dad and Leo bring in the last of the groceries—bags and bags of iceberg lettuce with browned outer leaves (his mouth waters, knowing the cool, wet crunch awaiting inside), and a box of short pull tab cans that could be either tuna or cat food.  Mikey makes a pleased little chirrup as he passes him the cans, which means it’s probably the latter.  Fancy Feast is his favorite.    

The chore is quickly finished with five sets of hands.  Leo keeps bumping into him, thin limbs still quivering with the excitement of getting to go topside.  Donnie tucks his own arms close and starts edging out of the kitchen and back towards his corner of dissembled stereos, suddenly not a excited about the prospect of lettuce heart supper.  He’s never been above ground.  It’s too dangerous with his limited eyesight. 

“Ah, Donatello.  A moment more, my son.  I have a gift for you.”

A large, grey-brown shape crouches before him and presses a closed cardboard box into his hands.  Too large for a clock radio, too small to be a VHS player, but mostly empty either way. 

“You got Donnie an iron?!” asks Mikey incredulously, crowding close on his left. 

Raph huffs dismissively, but presses in close to his right.  “It’s just the box, dummy.” 

“Go on,” Leo says, fidgeting anxiously from one foot to another.  He’s too close for Donnie to make out his expression, but his tone suggests that there’s a surprise that he’s in on, or maybe some sort of joke.  “Open it.”

Something heavier than an owner’s manual is rattling around inside. Batteries, maybe, or an overlooked set of cables.  Dad couldn’t have been lucky enough to find him a discarded remote.

His family looms over him expectantly as he opens the box and reaches inside.  The shape of the object is bizarre:  two thick, curved circles, each attached to a long, hinged piece of plastic.

Glasses.  His heart sinks.  He’s lost track of how many pairs he’s tried, over the years.  His thumbs swipe idly across the lenses, noting with dull surprise how thick they are, the pronounced outward curve at their center. 

“Try ‘em on!” Leo grabs at his wrists, pushing the glasses up towards his face.  “Try ‘em, try ‘em!”

There’s a break in the bridge of the nose, he realizes as he unfolds them.  Somebody’s tried to fix them with tape but not done a very good job of it.  The glasses bend alarmingly as he slips them over his beak, one lens slipping down his cheek as he struggles to hold the other in place.  He looks up. 

The world looks very, very strange.  On his left, Mikey’s familiar smudged shadows.  On his right, a stranger in a red bandana peers at him through narrowed eyes, each pale green scale of his face glimmering  faintly gold under the bare kitchen light bulb.  In front of him, two more strangers, one skinny and green, fading back and forth into Leo's blurred shape as he bounces excitedly, the other tall and dark and covered in a thousand, million lines, each strand of drying fur casting its own shadow, blue robe speckled with tiny white and yellow stars, the pointed, black-eyed face haloed in a bristle of long, white whiskers.   

He gapes, speechless.

For the first time in his life, Donatello sees his father smile.

[foxstens]

languageeeeeeees

i’ve been hanging out a lot on r/learnjapanese and it’s so helpful like there’s so much i can find a thread about basically anything and there’s so many people and they all have their own reasons for studying and their own methods and their own opinions and advice and aaaaaaa i love it

and by now i know what works for me personally, but i think i’ve finally understood what it takes for me to keep going with a particular language. 

because through the years i’ve dabbled in german and spanish (bc school), italian (bc winx club), norwegian (bc skam), mandarin chinese (bc danmei), and english and japanese. and yet the only ones i didn’t give up after a year or once i didn’t need them anymore were the latter two.

ok to be fair, with the first two i never really had that moment when i was like ‘I WANT TO KNOW THIS LANGUAGE YESTERDAY’, i  really only did the bare minimum to pass and that’s about it. i haven’t touched them in any way shape or form since high school.

but the middle three i got into completely of my own volition. my journey with italian amounted to buying a grammar book and forgetting about it two days later, with mandarin chinese i was pretty into it for a few months and then i just stopped, and i chose norwegian as my college major... but i dropped out in my third year.

and i guess the reason i gave up norwegian was because there just wasn’t enough content? like i was interested in the culture and i did want to maybe move there but it didn’t feel like it opened up a whole new world, you know, so i found trying to immerse myself really difficult and the bulk of my studying happened at school, which very quickly became a chore. (doesn’t help that i got into japanese media in my second year and that kind of took over my life aha)

chinese did feel like that for a while and i do plan on returning to it, but it doesn’t feel urgent.

then there’s english which i’ve been learning since first grade. of course all my english classes barely got me to an upper beginner level, and i only got better at it when i started spending more time on the internet, got into fandoms but what i could find in my native languages wasn’t enough so i kind of ended up only consuming english-only content for about 8 years

and finally, japanese. which i started learning at a very relaxed pace when i got into anime in 2017. the thing is, i didn’t even want to start learning it then. i wanted to focus on college but i found myself watching so much anime and picking the language so fast and just being so interested in it that i found myself practicing hiragana and katakana during my classes.

however i still had a lot of trouble with kanji and i was like ‘eh it’s not like i want to read anything in japanese right now’ so for a year i kind of stopped using apps and practicing kanji and using dictionary and stuff like that. instead i just focused on audio material such as anime and music and drama cd’s (i would’ve done that anyway even if i hadn’t been learning the language) and it was great

and i guess that really helped. bc during that time i wasn’t ‘actively’ learning but a lot of the content i consumed was still in japanese and i still kept descovering new content in japanese, so i never had the opportunity to get bored of it

so now that i want to start learning to read, it’s a lot easier because i already have a foundation and i just have to learn to associate the words i already know with their written form. 

and i find that it’s very hard for me to be into something for over two years, whether it be a piece of media or a musical artist or just anything, it’s just a pattern when it comes to my interests. but i’ve been into japanese media for pretty much exactly three years and i still keep finding new things to be interested, and that probably won’t change even if i stop actively learning the language again.

so basically what i’m trying to say is that for me to be consistently interested in a language it truly has to open a whole new world, as in the culture and the media and the inner workings of the language all have to continue being interesting even when the act of studying the language isn’t, and then i’ll naturally find myself drawn to the language again. 

[bananagator]

A Commandment of Blood

Characters: Higashikata Josuke, Kishibe Rohan

A/N: A one-shot exploring dynamics between Josuke and Rohan.  It also briefly touches on Rohan’s past with Reimi.  Not a death fic.  No romance.  This is set post-DiU (I have not read part 4 yet, so no spoilers).  Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions/comments.  :)

The doctor in this story is named after Jun Kunimura, an actor who stars in a medical drama and who coincidentally also happens to be in the JJBA DiU live action.  The nurse is named after Ayaka Hoshino from Dr. Koto’s Clinic.   I picked her bcuz her name means ‘star,’ ‘field,’ ‘beautiful,’ and ‘colors (like in a rainbow),’ and her live action actress also coincidentally looked exactly like how i picture her.  I wanted a character to sort of parallel Reimi, and I thought the imagery was cute.

It was Crazy Diamond that finished it.  Rohan heard, and he knew even without looking that Josuke had done it.  The cracking and crumbling rubble bore the triumphant note of victory.  The clatter of debris settled into dust, and it was accompanied by a much smaller sound: a dull thud.  Rohan lay upon the ground and frowned.  He had expected some sort of cocky one-liner but none was forthcoming.

Rohan began to drag himself toward where he had heard the thud.  His body scraped across the landscape of destruction and painted a lovely streak of red.  At last he spotted Josuke lying motionless on the ground.  It was only a few more meters to go...

Rohan pushed his trembling body upright, his legs askew behind him like that of a carp streamer, but he managed to sit sideways.  Josuke did not stir.

“Higashikata.”

No response.  If Rohan had the use of his legs, he would have prodded Josuke with a patronizing foot.

“Higashikata,” Rohan repeated again, annoyed.  “Hey, are you listening? Quit ignoring me.  Get up already.”

Blood pooled underneath Josuke’s body.

“You won, didn’t you?” Rohan said irritably.  “Stop acting like such a loser.  Hurry up and heal me.  After what that enemy’s Stand did to my legs, I won’t be able to get home very easily.  It can’t be helped.”

No response.

“Josuke.”  Rohan’s voice was angry.  He glared at the younger man and grabbed hold of his shoulder, shook him roughly.  “Wake up, I said.” 

Rohan’s hand came away bloody.  He seemed momentarily surprised, and his hand curling into a fist.  Frustration at last gave way to resignation.  Rohan’s body lost its tension as he wiped off the blood.

“Alright,” he said quietly.  He said it again, quieter.  He shut his eyes.  He looked for all the world like he was mourning.  And, in a sense, he was.  Then he said, “You...  leave me no choice, Higashikata Josuke...”  He exhaled slowly.  “I’m going to... make fun of your hairstyle.”

Rohan concentrated and mustered up his best condescending expression. 

“You look pathetic, Josuke!!” he said.  His rib cage and lungs might have been severely injured, yet he found he had just enough air for mocking laughter.  “Your hair looks even shittier than usual! Did you style it this morning using bacon grease? Well, anyway, better than using that nasty petroleum you call hair product.  Maybe a bird can’t nest in it now, but I bet some crows would love to have themselves a meal!! Even they’d probably mistake it for a piece of cheap convenience store steak.”

Rohan abruptly fell silent and watched Josuke sharply.  Come on, Josuke...  That was everything I had left... he thought.  He was, only in this precise situation, ‘rewarded’ for his efforts.  Josuke’s fingers twitched.  Yes!!

Josuke’s face chafed against the ground as he twitched and turned his head to glare at the speaker.  His eyes were half-glazed, but a spark of defiance gleamed in them now.

“W... hat-- s-say about... my hair... y-- punk...” he rasped.  Rohan knew his fate but could not help but grin in genuine delight.

“Hah!! You finally opened your eyes, Josuke,” he said.

“R-Ro... han? ... Bas-- tard..”  Josuke was twitching but could not seem to move his body.  He was making valiant efforts nonetheless to grab hold of Rohan.

“Hurry up and heal me,” Rohan said.

“Wh...”

“Just healing my legs will be enough, “ Rohan continued.  “Thanks to the enemy’s Stand, my body is in no condition to get back home.  It’ll take too long, and there’s nobody else around.  Although you’re in far worse shape than me.”

“You.. little...”

Rohan regarded Josuke thoughtfully.  “Crazy Diamond...  It’s a curious Stand.”  Confusion flitted across Josuke’s bloody face.  “It can’t...  you can’t heal your own wounds.  Isn’t that right?” It wasn’t a question.  Not really.  “Guess there’s a drawback to everything.”  Rohan gazed absentmindedly at the trace of Josuke’s blood on his hand.  “Even you... have limits, huh?” he said softly; the last part was more to himself than to Josuke.  He gave a sigh.  “I suppose that dimwit Okuyasu would be upset if you died...  and Mr. Joestar...  Koichi-kun, too.” 

Rohan made solid eye contact with Josuke.  “Heal my legs, Josuke.  You’re able to do that much, aren’t you?”  Although Josuke still seemed a little taken aback, he met Rohan’s steady gaze.  Neither spoke.  Rohan slowly dragged himself closer and winced as he shifted his legs.  Josuke’s fingers trembled as he reached out.  A centimeter away from Rohan’s leg, Josuke paused and looked up at Rohan again.  The slight bob of Josuke’s head might have merely been exhaustion taking its toll, but he bore a strangely calm countenance.  His hand glowed with gold energy and brushed the side of Rohan’s leg.  It was not much, but it was enough.  Rohan grit his teeth as his legs cracked and twisted.  It was only a few moments, then the glowing light faded and Josuke’s hand dropped.

Rohan carefully shifted his legs.  There was still pain and stiffness.

“It’s not perfect...” Rohan said, “but this will do...”  He smirked at Josuke, but it was not quite his usual condescending smile.  “I won’t allow myself to be indebted to you, Higashikata Josuke,” he said.  Rohan pressed his fingers against his still-bleeding abdomen.  He leaned over.  Josuke’s gaze was unchanging.  Even if he had wanted to move, he could do nothing but watch.  The adrenaline from having his hair insulted earlier was starting to wear off.

Rohan placed his hand on the side of Josuke’s face.  His fingernails slowly curled and scraped against Josuke’s cheek.   A whispering crickle accompanied a spider thin scratch.  Despite his own blood loss, Kishibe Rohan’s concentration was absolute.  Josuke’s skin began to peel away under Rohan’s fingernail.  It peeled and peeled further still.  Sweat broke out on Rohan’s face.  A fragment of “paper” was all he needed.  Josuke’s eyelids were struggling to stay open, to stay fixed on Rohan.  Likewise, Rohan found his vision starting to blur as he looked at the bizarre little hole that he had created in Josuke’s face.  He blinked hard.  Beads of sweat trickled down his face.

“You’d better not.. weigh me down,” Rohan said quietly.  “Don’t think I won’t ditch you.... on the side of the road...”

“...”

Rohan’s shaking, bloody finger pressed down.  He wrote a single word, a single command, upon Josuke’s paper skin in kanji: Survive.

Josuke understood it all without needing to ask.  Without needing to see what Rohan had written upon his face.  The corner of his mouth might have twitched in the phantom of what might have been a smile.  Or perhaps it was merely a muscle spasm.  Rohan might have noticed.  He pretended not to understand the implication of the almost-smile.  Josuke’s eyes drooped shut at last, and Rohan watched as the fragment of paper flipped shut and the crack seamlessly disappeared. 

He wordlessly grabbed hold of the unconscious boy by the wrist.  It was no easy feat to maneuver Josuke’s body onto his back.  Rohan’s calves and thighs protested as he dragged him across the ground.  Rohan was slouched over almost in half.  There were piles of rubble here and there which made the going even more treacherous.  Yet reaching the main road was impossible without walking through it, and Rohan doubted he had the strength to go around the long way.

As he made his way up one such rocky hill, his foot slipped on loose rock.  Rohan’s face slammed into the ground; he felt the fresh, sharp sting of a cut on his temple.  It was possible he might have caught himself, or at least somewhat cushioned the fall, but both hands were occupied with gripping onto Josuke.  And now he was lying upon the ground with 82 kilograms of deadweight pressing down upon him.  Black spots danced in front of his eyes. 

“D-...  D...on’t... underestimate... Kishibe Rohan...” he wheezed.  He shifted up onto his elbows and knees and kept going.  Just like that.  All the way to the top of the incline.  Rohan wobbled.  He tried to stay upright, but Josuke’s weight inevitably made him overbalance and tumble down the hill, dragging the other along with him.  He regained his senses curled on his side with Josuke draped over him at an angle.  Rohan lay for a while, and then...

Thud-Thud.  Thud-Thud.  Through the blackness, he felt it.  The faint beating of a heart.  It roused him up once more.  The silver lining was that their fall had brought them a lot closer to the highway.  The coarse, sharp rubble gave way to coarse, dead grass and dust.  It was a much more welcome change for Rohan’s bloodied knees.  The black tar seemed to Rohan a beacon of light.

--

The sun blazed high overhead.  Sweat poured down his face and body, soaking and mingling with his wounds.  Rohan was convinced he was going to liquefy at any moment, yet his mouth and throat were bone-dry.  Rohan blindly shuffled on his knees, centimeter by centimeter, along the side of the road and could only hope he was going in the right direction.  A kaleidoscope of colors danced in front him, and the road seemed to twist and sway. 

No... Not yet.. Gotta....  Rohan’s mind went fuzzy, and he pitched forward.  Unfortunately, he landed with his face pressing against the boiling black tar.  Rohan lay helpless as the side of his face seared away.  The blackness closed in at long last.  It was another hour and a half before a truck came along to discover the two bodies on the side of the road and drive them to nearest hospital.

--

First there was darkness.  Discomforting, darkness pressing in on all sides.  Then followed a noise so high-pitched as to be nearly indiscernible but eventually made itself known as a blip.  Blip.... Blip... Blip...  Rohan came to understand it was the sound of his life-force.  The machinery of his own beating heart.  Blip... Blip... Blip... So it went, and it drove him crazy.  There was nothing he could do about it, though.  The noise seemed to expand until it filled his whole being.  He had no real sense otherwise of where his body ended and the oppressive darkness began.  Blip... Blip.. Blip...

He felt the weight of his eyelids.  They refused to open.  His body denied him.  Something within him screamed, perhaps merely to drown out the constant beeping noise.  Yet Rohan was certain there was something else -- something very urgent.  What was it? He could not seem to recall.  It danced on the edge of his memory before slipping away like mist through the grass.

--

When Rohan opened his eyes at last, his retinas did not thank him.  He may as well have been blind for all the good it did him.  Instead of darkness it was burning brightness.  Swiftly shutting his eyes, Rohan felt a moan deep within.  He could not entirely blot out the light; his head throbbed.  He became aware of rustling and of voices.  It made his headache worse.  He longed to sink back into blissful nothingness.  A sensation not unlike being dipped into syrup enveloped him.  Rohan could scarcely breathe.  Nevertheless, his wish was granted. 

In great relief Rohan woke up surrounded by pleasing darkness.  He became aware of a few things:

1. He was in a hospital bed.  Rohan could vaguely sense his hands resting on top of crisp sheets, but that wasn’t how he knew.  He simply had prior experience with being hospitalized.

2. He was in a reclined position.

3. He was unable to move.  Not that he tried very hard anyway.

4. Blip.. Blip.. Blip... went the heart machine.  It was slightly easier to ignore than before, but not by much.  Nothing came to disturb him in his hospital room.

5.  There was not a whole lot to discern even when his vision adjusted to the darkness.  It was an ordinary hospital room.  Rohan couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he had to do something important..  Purely as a manga artist, it was not in his nature to sit still and do nothing.  He just had to remember... 

--

He could sense a presence by his bedside.  An enemy?! 

“Oh, you’re awake!! I’m glad...  How do you feel?”

A nurse with dark brown hair smiled at him.  Rohan returned a blank look.

“I’m Nurse Hoshino.  You can also call me Miss Ayaka if you’d like.”  She kept smiling at him.  Rohan blinked.

“Please wait a few minutes!! I’ll inform the doctor that you’re conscious.”

She left Rohan in a daze.

--

“Hello.  I’m Doctor Kunimura.  We’re all glad you’ve regained consciousness.  You gave us quite a scare there, young man.  But don’t worry.  You’re in good hands now.”

The one who called himself Doctor Kunimura was a middle-aged man with a kindly face and grey hair.  Rohan did not recognize him.  Perhaps sensing Rohan’s wariness and discomfort, the doctor said, “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions about what happened.  You suffered from heat stroke, so you might be feeling a little disorientated and weak.  We’ve hooked you up to an IV to restore the balance of fluids in your body.”

Rohan attempted to speak and saw his breath fog.  His eyes flicked down to see an oxygen mask over his face and wondered why he hadn’t noticed it there before.  The doctor cleared his throat.  His gentle countenance wrinkled with concern.  He continued, “You’ve also sustained injuries to your ribs and lungs... You must have been in quite an accident.  That boy who was with you was even more unfortunate.”

Rohan’s eyes widened as it all came rushing back.  The important thing he wasn’t supposed to forget.

“Josuke!!” Rohan shouted.  “Where is he?! He’s got dark hair, he’s 185 centimeters tall and--"  He was overcome by a fit of coughing and doubled over.  Knives of pain stabbed in his abdomen.  Nurse Hoshino tried to steady him with her hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?! Please, try to calm down,” she said.

“Where is he? Tell me.”  Rohan coughed again.  “Did he... is he...”

“Young man, please don’t be alarmed,” the doctor said.  “Your friend was brought to this hospital, the same as you.  He’s still alive.”

“W-Where is he?” Rohan demanded.  The doctor lifted a finger and pointed.  Rohan blinked and turned around to look.  A few meters away, sure enough, Josuke was lying in the bed to the left of Rohan’s.  Like Rohan he was hooked up to an EKG machine and had on an oxygen mask.  Rohan had to tilt his head a little bit further left due to a thick bandage on the left side of his face that partly obscured his eye.  It seemed as though Josuke was still unconscious.

“Your friend is in very critical condition.   At least for now, he’s stabilized.” 

Rohan forced his clenched fists to loosen on the sheets.  “So he did make it,” Rohan said.  He let out a breath.  “Not that I was worried.  He’ll be fine after all.”

The doctor and the nurse exchanged worried looks with each other.

“Young man, I don’t want to cause you any undue anxiety, but I must be candid with you about his condition.  His injuries are severe.  Recovery is...”

“No.  He’ll survive,” Rohan interrupted.  “I won’t forgive him if he dies.”

“There’s just no telling when he’ll regain consciousness,” the doctor said.  “Even now there’s no guarantee of--”

Rohan shook his head.  “You don’t understand.  He can’t die.”  To the alarm of Doctor Kunimura and Nurse Hoshino, Rohan shifted his body as though to get out of the bed.

“W-Wait!!” Nurse Hoshino cried.  “You must stay in bed!!”

The doctor also tried to restrain him.  “You’re in no condition to be up and walking yet!!”

Rohan panted.  He lacked the strength to actually break their hold on him.  “Hey... Josuke,” he said.  It was meant to be a shout but wound up being not much louder than a normal speaking volume.  “Don’t keep me waiting around.”  Rohan allowed himself to be gently pushed back into the pillows.

“You’re not out of the woods, either,” said the doctor.  “Your legs seem to be in better shape than the rest of your body, but the skin on your knees got torn away entirely, and the joints show signs of tear and stress.  You’ll need a lot of physical therapy to get back on your two feet again.”

“My injuries are of little concern.” Rohan spoke with crispness.  “Thanks to a certain incident,” he continued, “I’ve been hospitalized before.  My injuries at that time were far worse than this.  Just focus on treating my friend.”

If Rohan had been in his usual state of mind, he probably would have corrected Doctor Kunimura right away.  He had not meant to say it.  Perhaps he had only said it because the doctor happened to use the same word.  “Friend.”  Disorientated as he was, Rohan did not register the mistake, nor would he recall having ever said it in the first place.  It did not change the fact that he said it.

Doctor Kunimura exchanged another concerned look with Nurse Hoshino before saying, “I will do what I can, but--”

“Is it money?” Rohan interrupted.

“I beg your pardon?” the doctor said, somewhat flustered.

Rohan repeated the question.  “If this is about money, then it won’t be a problem at all.  I may not look like it to you, but I do have money.  I can pay for all the hospital expenses.”

“N-No that’s--” the doctor stuttered.  “It’s not--”

“You’re a doctor, aren’t you?” Rohan said.  “Whatever it takes to get that idiot healed up, I’ll pay you.  So do what you have to do.”

“...  I understand.  I’ll do everything in my power,” the doctor said at last sensing his patient’s stubbornness was absolute.  “Your friend is in good hands, too.”  Rohan leaned back into his pillows and sighed.  His eyes drooped shut.

“Good...” he murmured before promptly falling asleep.

Doctor Kunimura and Nurse Hoshino looked at each other in mild surprise and then back to Rohan again.  His thin chest rose and fell. 

“Doctor Kunimura?” she said.

“Yes, Miss Ayaka?”

“I’m...  going to do whatever I can to help this person recover.”

The doctor’s face crinkled into a warm smile.  “He’s lucky to have someone like you to look after him.  Let’s both work hard to get these two young men on the path to recovery.”

“Yeah!!”

--

“Reimi-onee-chan!! one more game!!”

“It’s time for bed, Rohan-chan.  Your mother and father told me very clearly.”

“No!! I wanna play!! One more gaaame!! Pleeeease?”

“Oh alright, just a quick one, but then it’s right away to bed, and you have to brush your teeth really well.  And no late night snacks either.”

“Okay!!”

--

“Rohan-chan!! I’ll always be here for you.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.  You bet.”  She smiled.  Rohan smiled back.  Plip.  Drip. 

“Reimi-onee-chan?” Rohan asked.  He brushed the wet spot on his cheek and saw red.  He looked up at Reimi and color drained from his face.  Her smile had not changed... but it was all wrong...  Dripping...  Drip...

“No...  No... Reimi-onee-chan!! Reimi-onee-chan!!” Rohan cried out.  As he spoke, the floor seemed to give way, and Rohan found himself falling backward, tumbling, tumbling... out the window...

--

“I’ll always... be here for you, Rohan-chan...”

--

Rohan woke at once, though his eyelids remained heavy.  His brain was stuffed with cotton.  His heart fluttered weakly in his chest.  His body was ice.  The pain killer medications flowed through him, made him confused.  He did not know where he was.  He tilted his head right and felt as though the floor was also shifting.  Everything was out of focus.  He could make out a woman with dark brown hair standing at the bedside with her back to him.  His heart stalled.  Ached...

“....... Reimi?” he whispered.  She looked up and turned around.  Rohan's heart gave a twinge.  It wasn’t her.  Reimi was...

“Oh, Rohan-chan? Sorry, did I wake you?” She gave an apologetic smile.  “Rohan--?”  Her smile dropped when she registered the look of anguish on Rohan’s face.  “Rohan-chan, what’s wrong?”

“I thought....” Rohan started to say but found he couldn’t continue.  He looked away and managed to force out, “No, it’s nothing.”  He tried to conceal his uneven breathing and steady his heart.

“Please don’t be sad...” she said.  “I’ll do what I can to help you.  Cheer up, Rohan-chan!!”  She smiled again.

“Don’t call me that!!” Rohan said before he could stop himself.  In the maelstrom of emotions within him, Rohan felt discomfort of a different kind.  Even he knew it to be guilt.  He averted his gaze.

“E-Eh?” The nurse turned red.  “Oh, I-I’m so sorry...  Uh, um, I-I didn’t mean to upset you!! I won’t do it again if it bothers you.  I’m sorry!!”

“... No,” Rohan said quietly.  “Don’t apologize.  You didn’t do anything wrong.  It’s just-- no, I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.  I’m sorry.”  He stared down at his hands.  “Call me whatever you like.”

“Um...  Rohan?” the nurse asked tentatively.  “Are you still mad at me?”

“No.  I’m not mad at you.”

“...”

“...”

“Were you... having a bad dream?” she said.

“I guess you could say that, more or less...” Rohan said.  She fidgeted with her hands and stared down at the floor.  She chanced a peek at Rohan.  He wasn’t looking at her.

“Rohan?” she said.  He didn’t look up.  “Who...  is Reimi?”  He flinched.  “O-Oh!!” she squeaked.  “Rohan, I’m so sorry, that was a very personal question, I shouldn’t have asked-- I’m sorry.  I guess I just don’t know when to--”

“It’s alright,” he said.

“Earlier, you called me Reimi, so I was curious.  But it was wrong to pry like that when you were so upset and all.  I’m sorry.”

“....  She was a childhood family friend,” Rohan said.

“A family friend?” she said, and then she realized...  “Is she...”

“She... died a long time ago,” Rohan said.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nurse Hoshino said.

“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be alive today,” he said.  “She lived an admirable life even in death.  She chose a path without regrets until the end.  There’s no reason to pity her.”  Ayaka had no way of knowing the full import of Rohan’s words but felt a powerful wave of emotion all the same.

“I think she sounds like a lovely person,” Ayaka said.  For the first time, she saw Rohan smile.  It was a rare smile, warm and nostalgic.

“Yes,” he said.  “She was.”

--

Rohan coughed.  Each cough sent pain blossoming throughout his chest.  Each desperate gasp for air felt like barren death.  Spots danced before his eyes.  The coughing fit abated briefly, and he sank leaden into the pillows.  Cracked lips parted.

“Let me get you some water,” Ayaka said.  Rohan only half-registered the statement by the time she returned with a cup and a pitcher of water.  “I don’t want to take your oxygen mask off, but you’re still recovering from dehydration.  I’ll help you drink it.”

Buried in the recesses of Rohan’s mind was a nagging sensation.  He didn’t have the energy to speak, and thoughts were nebulously jumbled like alphabet soup.  But...  Something...  The nurse poured water into the cup.  He struggled to think...  She carefully adjusted his oxygen mask, held the cup to his lips.  Rohan felt cool relief of water on his tongue and, all at once, spat it out and spiraled into another minor coughing fit.

“Rohan, what’s wrong?!” she exclaimed.  “Did I go too fast for you?” When she held the cup to his lips again, he pointedly refused to drink.  “I’ll be more careful this time, I promise...”  He turned his head away.  “Just a little, okay?”

Rohan could not see Josuke, but his one good eye flicked instinctively in that general direction.  Rohan knew of his own helplessness, but Josuke was another matter.  If an enemy were to come...  An enemy... A prickling crept along Rohan’s spine.  With it came an awareness on some level that Josuke’s life was on a thin line, and that he, Kishibe Rohan, might very well be the only thing standing between Josuke and a potential enemy that could appear at any moment to finish the job.

Ayaka chewed her lip.  A thought occurred to the nurse.  “Rohan, could it be...  Do you think there’s something wrong with this water?”

Shit...!! Could she be...?!

“It’s really nice spring water, you know!!”

Huh?

“I know that it can be scary for people to stay in a hospital,” Ayaka went on.  “The tap water here is safe to use, but it has a weird taste.  Even I think that’s the case.  So I keep bottles of mountain spring water on hand.  Plus some people have sensitive skin, and tap water can cause irritation.”

Rohan stared.

“I want you to get well as soon as possible.  I’m here to help.  But if you really don’t want to drink it, I won’t force you.”

Rohan thought hard.  She seemed genuine.  He lifted up a hand...  She blinked as she realized he was reaching for the glass.

“Oh? Wait, do you...   Do you want to try holding it yourself?”  She hesitated.  “Um, but... Rohan, you’re still recovering...”  Rohan glared.  She froze.  However, the glare was not directed at her.  She saw his hand trembling. 

Rohan carefully pressed his finger against the glass.  He prayed that she wouldn’t notice anything amiss.  He did not have enough strength to use Heaven’s Door on her.  The possibility that she was an enemy Stand user, however slight, set Rohan on edge.  A minuscule slip of paper peeled back.  Ayaka hesitated.  She had a feeling Rohan would not listen, but seeing him struggle was not a nice feeling either. 

Rohan scanned the tiny print intently.  Two parts hydrogen... one part oxygen.  Mountain... spring... Rohan’s hand dropped.  Can’t... read anything more...

“Oh dear...  Like I said, you’re still recovering,” Nurse Hoshino chided.  “It’s okay to ask others for help sometimes.”  Rohan exhaled.  Ayaka smiled gently and sat closer to Rohan on the bed.  “Here... just try to relax a bit.”  She positioned his oxygen mask over his face again and waited.  “Alright, now if you tilt your chin like this, it’ll be easier to drink without choking.  Okay?”

Rohan managed to nod.  Nurse Hoshino did not notice a tiny fragment of paper on the drinking glass flip shut.

--

“Rohan, I’m going to change the bandage on your face, okay?”

“Huh? Oh... sure...” he said.  She pulled up a chair and set out a tray of medical supplies.  She leaned over.

“Ready?” she said.  Rohan gave a nod.  He grimaced as she carefully peeled the bandage off the left side of his face to reveal inflamed skin.  She used a damp cloth to wipe the affected area and then dried it.  “This ointment I have is for burns,” she said.  “It might sting a little, but don’t move once I start applying it to your face.  If this gets in your eyes, it will be very painful.”

Rohan experimentally opened his eye and blinked.  He glanced over at Josuke’s bed.  A look of annoyance crossed him.

“Okay, I’m ready to start... Um, could you please turn and look straight ahead?” she asked.  He looked forward and shut his left eye.  The nurse carefully began rubbing on ointment with a finger.  “Alright, stay just like that...”  She worked with neat precision.  Rohan’s lips pressed together.  “If you don’t mind me asking,” she said, “how did you two meet? You and Josuke, I mean.”

Rohan envisioned throwing pen tips into Josuke’s face... Josuke’s friend Okuyasu on fire, screaming...  Koichi-kun’s torn-off face... The pain of getting pummeled into a bookcase...  Wood splinters flying... Shattering glass...

“He... came over to my house for a visit,” Rohan said vaguely.

“Are you classmates then?”

“No.”

“Eh?” she said.  “So are you neighbors?”

“No.”

“So then, how did you two become such good friends?”

Rohan forgot himself.  He opened his eye in indignation and turned towards Nurse Hoshino.  “Josuke’s n--”

“Ah,” she said.

“Ah,” Rohan said.  A beat.  He said it again, a few decibels louder this time.  “Ahh!! Agh!! Ow ow ow!!”

“Agh!! I’m so sorry!! That’s why I told you not to move, Rohan!!” she cried.  “Wait, wait, hold still, just hold on!! Don’t rub it!!”

He suppressed a few choice swear words as tears gushed from his eye.  He felt Ayaka grab hold of his jaw.  Her grip was surprisingly strong, yet there was an almost reassuring gentleness in how firmly she guided him in his pained state.  He felt her turn his head and a damp cloth press against his eye.  She carefully wiped around the edges of his eye and held it there.

“Try to take a few breaths,” she said.  Her voice was calm.  Rohan struggled to obey her instructions.  “That’s it, deep breaths.  I’m going to wash out your eye with water.  I need you to hold this here...”  She carefully guided his less injured arm to hold the cloth.  “Good, now stay still and continue taking deep breaths, as best as you can manage.  I’ll be right back.”  Rohan waited.  He could hear her moving around the room and the sound of a door sliding... The clatter of cabinets.  Then she was back.  “Tilt your head back and try to keep your eye open...” 

Ayaka wound up needing to physically hold his eyelid open.  It took more than one attempt to finish.  She wiped her brow with a forearm.  “Sorry, but I do need to reapply some of this ointment.  Are you okay with that?” Rohan nodded.

“I won’t move this time,” he said wryly.  They were both silent as she redid the ointment treatment. 

“There... we go...” She said, taping a clean bandage to Rohan’s face.  “How are you feeling...?”

“Mm, it’s better,” Rohan said.  He now had a medical patch on his left eye in addition to the bandage.

“I tried to adjust the bandage so it wasn’t as bulky.  Let me know if it feels painful or itchy.”

“You know, I figured you were the type of person to instantly lose your head and panic under pressure,” Rohan commented.  “I guess you’re not as much of a ditz as I expected.”

“Eh?!”

“You’re a passable nurse.”  Rohan paused before mumbling, “Thanks.”

“S-Sure,” Ayaka said, still somewhat baffled by the backhanded compliment.  Then she saw Rohan’s sulking expression and couldn’t help but smile.  He did remind her of a child after all.  “Anytime, Rohan-chan.”

--

Mostly Rohan sat in bed.  Anytime someone walked in through the door, or if he heard so much as a slight noise, he would tense up.  He relaxed upon seeing that it was only Nurse Hoshino.  He regarded most anyone else with suspicion.  Occasionally Rohan would glance over at Josuke to see if he was awake yet.  He never was.  To pass the time, Rohan “read” objects within reach, but there were only so many times one could read about the same hospital dresser before it got old.

“Hey.  Nurse.  I want to start physical therapy.”

“Eh? But it’s too soon,” Ayaka said.  “Your other injuries are still healing.”

“There’s nothing to do,” Rohan complained.  “Do you expect me to just sit around waiting? The Doctor said it would take a long time, right? Then it’s better to start sooner.”

“If you push your body too hard, you could set back your recovery,” she said.

“Hmph.”

“Do you have any hobbies? I could bring you something.”

“I like to draw,” Rohan said.  “And I like traveling,” he added.  “You know, walking around.”

She sighed.  “I’ll get you some drawing materials.  In the meantime I'm going to schedule an appointment for you to see a physical therapist,” said Ayaka.  “But you have to promise you won’t push yourself too hard.  Don’t try to walk on your own yet.  I’d better not catch you trying to get out of bed again!!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it, I got it,” Rohan said, waving his hand.

“Geez.  You could learn a thing or two about manners,” she said, but without much serious rancor.  She finished rolling up bandages.  “Try to get some rest.”

“It’s all I’ve been doing,” Rohan said but made a show of leaning back in bed.  He watched her leave with her tray of medical supplies.  The door slid shut.  After her footsteps had faded, Rohan thought, That nurse sure likes to fuss over me a lot...  She reminds me of a certain someone I know...  He smiled faintly and found he didn’t actually mind all that much.

[rey-129-fan]

Isra Character Bio

So I finally sat down and wrote out the full bio for Isra!  Woo!!  Now a lot of these answers are based on the events up to chapter 5 in The Scion, so slight spoilers for the first arc.  Also, a lot of these questions are answered by Isra herself, though when she can’t, I labeled them with a WOG so you know that’s my answer.

Character bio template can be found here: http://yeahwrite.co/post/24774343500

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Isra Luana Douglas

Nickname: Bakagou likes to call me shadowy bitch.  Flint prefers Ningyo.  Flint’s is my favorite.

Reason for name: Isra means nocturnal journey, which given my dad’s family quirk, fits really well.  It was also suggested by a family friend, though I can’t remember who.  Luana was also tossed around, but according to Mom, she didn’t think it would fit as well.  I agree, and am glad they went with Isra and not Luana.

Birthday: February 13 (Aquarius).  I especially love it when it falls on a Friday.  If only Japan had the same superstitions.

Age: 14.  I will be 15 in time for the Entrance Exam.

Gender: Girl, she/her.

Place of birth: Honolulu, Hawaii.

Places lived since: Mustafa, Japan.

Parents’ names, backgrounds, occupations: Galen was my dad’s name.  I don’t remember what he did before he died.  Zoey was my mom’s name, and I think she was a pediatric nurse?  She was really sick for the last year she was with us, so I can’t really remember what she did either.

Number of siblings: Flint is technically considered my brother, since Sophia adopted me and we grew up together.  I don’t really remember Jack, since we really little when he died with Dad, but according to Sophia, we were close, like twins generally are in their early years.

Relationship with family: Dad’s side is pretty much gone.  Mom’s side, outside of Sophia and Flint, are all dicks and can never speak to me again, and I would not care.

Happiest memory: There was that time Mom was well enough to be out of the hospital in time for my birthday, so we went down to the beach and built sandcastles.  Mom wanted it to be a big party and invite all my friends, but I really just wanted her, Sophia and Flint.  Mom even got me a book I really loved, while Sophia got me this game that I could play with Mom when she had to go back to the hospital.  Flint showed me how to bodyboard in the waves, and even let me try his board.  After we had dinner, and then a cake.  Mom let me have her piece, and then laughed because I got it all over my face.

...That was the last time Mom got to celebrate my birthday.

Childhood trauma: I guess having both my dad and brother dying before I was even 4.  And then mom got sick and died too.  Then the CHI targeting me because of my “villainous” quirk.  Honestly, the deflating grades is probably the least bad thing to happen to me, though the school in general was full of dicks.

Children of her own?: I’m 14.  What kids?

PHYSICAL

Height: 5’6.5” or 169 cm.  An inch taller than Izuku.

Weight: I thought it was rude to ask a person their weight?  I guess maybe about 150 pounds.  That or 70 kg.  I don’t know, I don’t weigh myself regularly.

Build: What?  I guess I’m fit, and I don’t have much in way of hips or chest.  I’m 14.

Nationality: American, White.

Disabilities: Um… chronic pain in my leg, though only affects me if I did a lot of running.  Sophia thinks I might have ADHD, but I’ve been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD.  The second one’s been around since I was little, and mostly shows itself as being unable to talk in certain situations, particularly in schools and around teachers.  I’ve been working on it, and I can use my quirk or sign language to communicate, I just can’t speak.  I’m on antidepressants for the others, and am mostly fine.

Complexion: Tanned, no freckles.  Definitely have acne, though it’s mostly on the shoulders and back.  No notable birthmarks.

Face shape: Face shape?  I mean, I guess it’s round?

Distinguishing facial features: Given that I’m white in Japan?  Eye Shape.

Hair color: Violet, though the tips go black when I use my quirk for long periods of time.

Usual hair style: It’s normally down, though I tie it back when working out.  There is this annoying strand that for some reason stays short and tends hang between my eyes.

Eye color: It’s a light grey most of the time, though turns black when I use my quirk.

Glasses? Contacts?: I have glasses.  Aizawa-sensei says I may need to get contacts when I get into high school if I’m going to become a hero, since glasses will just get in the way.  I get that, they just feel weird.

Style of dress/typical outfit(s): Loose, long, baggy.  I prefer graphic tees, but they stand out like a sore thumb, so I tend to stick with solid cool colors.

Typical style of shoes: No heels.  Covered shows that I can slip on and off are great.

Health: I’m generally in good health and don’t get sick often.  When I do… urgh.

Grooming: People wear clothes that are already dirty?!  Yuck!  Anyways, I tend to shower once a day, and my clothes are cleaned regularly.  Hair is brushed a couple times a day, but I don’t do anything fancy.  I do have to also wash my face before bed, but I don’t wear makeup.  Pretty sure it’s against school rules anyway.

Jewelry? Tattoos? Piercings?: Pretty sure those are against school rules.  I don’t like jewelry that much, and don’t care for piercings.  As for tattoos, I’m in Japan.  Tattoos aren’t seen… favorably here.

Accent?: I guess it’s close to Standard American, with a bit of Hawaiian?  At least in English.  According to Izuku, my Japanese sounds pretty American, though I do have the r down.

Unique mannerisms/physical habits: According to Sophia, I tend to bite bottom lip when I’m concentrating.  I tap my foot when impatient.  I also tend to walk quietly and my shoes get really worn out by the balls of my feet.  My quirk tends to act up when I’m nervous or stressed out.

Athletic?: Training to become a hero, and Mom insisted that Flint and I take martial arts after Dad and Jack...

INTELLECT

Level of education: Third Year Middle School, which is about equivalent to a Freshman in High School in America.

Level of self esteem: I know I’m smart, I know I have a good quirk.  I also know that I’m not the best.

Gifts/talents: I have a nice strong quirk, and I tend to pick up on things quickly, especially if there’s a clear pattern.

Shortcomings: ...I really have a hard time speaking aloud, especially around strangers.  I also don’t like putting up with other people’s shit and will call them out, which some people don’t like.  It’s led to a couple of fights.

Style of speech: Um… I guess pretty informal?

“Left brain” or “right brain” thinker?: I prefer to be pretty logical, but according to Yagi-sensei and Aizawa-sensei, I can come up with some really odd ideas.  Don’t know what they mean, after all, how else will Izuku learn not to block with his elbows without a bit of pain?  Trust me, if you want strange ideas, get Izuku started on one of his quirk ramblings.  Some of his theories and ideas can be pretty out there.

Artistic?: I like art, and doodling helps me concentrate.  Flint has been pushing me to try drawing.

Mathematical?: Oh math?  That’s easy.  At least the tests and classes would be if I could understand what the teacher is asking.  I know he’s doing it on purpose, but it gets really frustrating when on tests, he throws in kanji that I almost never see, without the hiragana.

Makes decisions based mostly on emotions, or on logic?: ...There are people who can make decisions based on logic without it taking forever to decide?

Neuroses: What’s neuroses?  ...Oh.  Um, I do have extreme anxiety, and have since I was little, hence the mutism.  I was also diagnosed with depression, and was maybe not in a good place before I met Izuku… And I do have PTSD after CHI.  I’m working on it with a therapist and psych, and I’m doing a lot better, but I do have moments were I just… reset to a couple of years ago.  I wish I could get better faster.

Life philosophy: Go out and do what I want to do.  Life is too short for regrets.

Religious stance: The stories can be pretty interesting.  I just don’t believe in that stuff.  And if I find something funny in the story, I will laugh, sacred text be damned.

Cautious or daring?: Depends.  I’m not as cautious as Izuku, but I’m nowhere near as daring as Bakagou.  Then again, that’s probably a good thing.

Most sensitive about/vulnerable to: I really don’t like people judging others about their quirks.  I also am very sensitive about my own quirk.  I don’t like not being able to use it if I need to.  It’s probably the main reason I don’t feel fully comfortable around Aizawa-sensei after Izuku realized who he was.  I just… had a bad experience when I wasn’t able to use my quirk.

Optimist or pessimist?: I think I’m more a realist.  I prefer the thought of prepare for the worst, hope for the best.  I do like looking for the bright side of something when things are shitty.

Extrovert or introvert?: Mix.  Crowds are tiring, but I do like hanging out with Izuku, Flint, Aunty Inko, and Sophia.  Aizawa-sensei is good too, but Yagi-sensei can be draining.

Level of comfort with technology: I know how to use the devices I come into contact with, but I would not be able to fix them.  Breaking them is easy, though, especially if I’m allowed my quirk.

RELATIONSHIPS

Current marital/relationship status: Single.  A little busy with school, training and studying.  Plus all the kids at school are jackasses.

Sexual orientation: ...I don’t know.  I don’t quite understand what everyone means by hot and wanting to bang someone.  Not even Izuku could really explain it in a way that makes sense.  Oh well, Sophia doesn’t seem too worried about it, so maybe it’s not so bad.  (WOG: She’s ace/aro, just hasn’t quite realized it yet.  She’s 14.)

Past relationships: None.

Primary reason for being broken up with: Kinda need to have had one to be broken up with.

Primary reasons for breaking up with people: Again, need a relationship for a break up.

Level of sexual experience: Um, virgin.  I haven’t dated at all.

Story of first kiss: I haven’t really thought about it.  I don’t know, maybe after a romantic date?  Do people seriously think about this stuff at my age?  I thought that was just a thing for stories.

Story of loss of virginity: Um, what?  I’m 14.  I haven’t given it much thought.  I guess if I meet someone I really like?

A social person?: I don’t have many friends, but those I do I will fight for.  Most people are put off by the mutism, and I really don’t like interacting with strangers, especially in large crowds.

Most comfortable around: Hard to say, but if I had to pick, Izuku.

Oldest friend: Hina.  Jack and I met her back in daycare.  We were together until I moved to Japan.  We’re still in touch.

How does he/she think others perceive her?: I think the mutism puts a lot of people off.  I also do tend to pick fights, though most of the time they’re asking for it.

How do others actually perceive her?: WOG: A lot of people see her as a haughty foreigner who befriended the quirkless freak who wants to be a hero.  Toshinori and Aizawa see the hard worker she is, and how protective she is of Izuku.

VOCATION

Profession: I’m a student, about to become a hero-in-training.

Past occupations: I didn’t know there was an occupation before student.

Passions: I like learning, and I want to make sure no one feels hopeless and alone.

Attitude towards current job: It depends on the subject.  I do like learning, when the teachers are competent and will actually treat their teachers fairly.  Orudera sucks ass.

Attitude towards current coworkers, bosses, employees: Most of the other students are assholes who I wish would leave Izuku alone.  Seriously, what did he do to them to warrant all the shit they put him through?  Don’t answer that, I know they’re just entitled assholes who need to feel better about themselves and are just taking it out on him.  Teachers aren’t much better, though if Aizawa-sensei is any indication, UA is a million light years better.

Salary: Wait, I’m supposed to be paid?  Jesus, all my schools were full of dicks if they were skipping out on my paycheck.

SECRETS (Every character–no matter how minor–should always have secrets!)

Phobias: Abandoned buildings remind me a bit too much of CHI.  I also don’t like being in hospitals, though I’m better there than abandoned buildings.  Also I don’t like being unable to use my quirk.  Honestly, if Aizawa-sensei were to erase my quirk, I’d probably have a panic attack.

Life goals: To become an Underground Hero.

Dreams: To save others so they don’t have to feel helpless.

Greatest fears: Being unable to protect the ones I love.

Most ashamed of: Those months between CHI and becoming friends with Izuku.  I really, really wasn’t in a good place.

Most embarrassing thing ever to happen to her: Oh god, there was this one time where we were showing Flint’s friend Naotsu Todoroki how to have fun at the mall.  Well, my shoes came undone, which Izuku pointed out.  Now I never trip on them, so I just rolled my eyes.  Then we go up the escalator.  Just as we’re stepping off, the escalator decides to eat my laces.  Nearly broke my nose and had to get new shoes after that.  Flint could not stop laughing for the rest of the day.

Compulsions: Checking a new location and new people with my quirk.  Just constantly checking that my quirk is working.

Obsessions: I guess my need to constantly make sure my quirk is on and working counts.

Secret hobbies: I like to read and doodle.  Most of my free time is spent studying and working on my Japanese with Izuku.  He also likes to drag me to his hero fights just so he has someone to help him analyze and bounce ideas off.

Secret skills: Good at martial arts, being just below first dan in both judo and taekwondo.

Past sexual transgressions: ...what?

Crimes committed: I guess quirk usage?  Does that count, cause everyone breaks that law, and you don’t really get in much trouble, so long as it’s not for vigilante/villainous stuff.

What she most wants to change about her current life: I’d kinda like not to have all the shit wrong in my head.  Also wouldn’t mind having my parents and Jack back.

What she most wants to change about her physical appearance: My hair is a little noticeable.  I’d probably just change it to be like a black or dark brown, something that’d blend into the shadows a little better.

DETAILS/QUIRKS

Daily routine: Get up, get ready, drag Izuku to school (hopefully without running into any hero fights on the way), nap when I can, doodle or do homework in the classes where the teacher won’t let me sleep, have lunch with Fujita-sensei and Izuku, after school go and train with Yagi-sensei and maybe Aizawa-sensei, go home and finish my homework with Izuku.

Night owl or early bird?: Night owl, oh so much.

Light or heavy sleeper?: Apparently I’m a pretty heavy sleeper, even when sleep walking.  Sophia’s given up on waking me and just puts me back in bed.  Thank god our front door is locked.

Favorite food: Strawberry Bon Bons are the absolute best.

Least favorite food: You give me anything with even the littlest amount of spice and I will break all the toes in your feet.

Favorite book: Flint had me read this book a few years back called Blue Skin of the Sea, and it was pretty good.  I don’t have much in way of favorite books, though.

Least favorite book: If a book is so bad, I will drop it within a few chapters.  I guess I’d have to say Warriors got pretty bad after the first couple of series.  And there was that bear series the same author wrote that wasn’t that good.

Favorite movie: A classic, but The Princess Bride.  I have a few memories of curling up with Mom, Flint and Sophia just laughing at it.  Haven’t watched it in years.

Least favorite movie: I swear to god if Izuku makes me watch that All Might movie again, I will put him in a fucking choke hold.  That or make him watch Watership Down.

Favorite song: Oh god… If it’s just musical pieces, Hopes and Dreams from Undertale.  But if it needs words, either Kuraiinu’s English Cover of Peace Song or Sora ni Utaeba by amazarashi.

Least favorite song: 100 Years, by Five for Fighting.  My homeroom teacher back in 6th grade insisted on having us sing it.  Just thinking about it reminds me of her.

Coffee or tea?: Tea, particularly non-bitter.  Caffeine doesn’t really work on me anyways.

Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?: Smooth, with a nice glass of milk.

Type of car she drives: I don’t know.  Something useful, but would blend in.  Mm, maybe a bike?

Lefty or righty?: Righty.  Though maybe I should learn to use my left more, it’d be so useful.

Favorite color: Light purple, lavender.

Cusser?: I learned a lot of Japanese ones from Bakagou.

Smoker? Drinker? Drug user?: I do have an antidepressant subscription, but nothing really beyond that.

Biggest regret: ...I really wasn’t in a good place before I met Izuku.  I just regret how much I worried Sophia and Flint at the time. 

Pets?: Don’t have one.  Wouldn’t mind a cat.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Erased 6 – 13 (not including the digest) | Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu 1 - 4 | Eldlive 1 | Prince of Stride: Alternative 1

The idea from now on for SGRS: Expect first time watches for this show (for the second season) and don’t expect ratings after each ep. Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

The idea from now on for POSA: Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

(ep 6)

Even with only subs, you can hear the seriousness in the manager’s voice.

Asagi beer, LOL.

This speech bubble style really works in the camera angles’ favour.

Airi’s mother reminds me of Midoriya’s mum from Boku no Hero Academia.

Shinji-go. “Go”… I didn’t really know how to explain it so I let Wiktionary do it for me.

I really love Airi’s motivational quotes around this point. So much, that I used it as motivation all through 2016…although I didn’t get any great results from it…

(ep 7)

Okay, that scrolling scene with the kids…that’s just cheap. They aren’t even animated.

It says something like “Preserve water” or “Water is important” on the wall behind the tap.

That “stand out in the hallways with those buckets” is pretty typical for an anime. I wonder whether any real Japanese person has done that, though?

Oh yeah. I think I was initially attracted to this due to the fact it looks a lot like Detective Conan when you see Satoru negotiating the future by changing his past.

I think I had to learn what a “patsy” meant for this scene, but a patsy is just a substitute, specifically in this case for collateral damage.

Does that mean Kenya lived (or lives) in a big house?

(ep 8)

Wait – wait? How did Gaku know how Kayo was safe…unless he was the murderer? I didn’t question that the first time, but this just makes the ending even worse. This dude’s already proved he doesn’t act on compulsion like Satoru does, so that adds to it.

That joke about Satoru being 29 does get a bit worn out when it gets used here…

Mt. Hakodate…I’d heard of it from Touken Ranbu. It’s a good place for low level swords, IIRC.

POP Noodle, LOL.

Crying in media is much more emotional if you can hear the crying, unfortunately. That’s why I passed on “Kayo’s first homecooked meal” for the Crunchyroll Awards.

(ep 9)

Akemi’s (Kayo’s mother’s) eyes were so off model before the shovel scene, it made it hard to take Akemi seriously.

It’s weird how much Gaku looks like he should be Satoru’s dad.

Akemi was “Takashima” before she was “Hinazuki”, and her partner’s name at the time of her divorce was Kazuo.

CGI car…again. Geez.

I think the kanji for “closure” mean the ending curtain, like that of a play, but I can’t quite remember their literal meaning…

“I have to stop somewhere.”

Gaku’s talking about his experiences somehow reminds me of a chat I had with Elucida on the Boueibu chat. Probably because the instigator of the chat had to apologise…

I wonder if the man (Gaku) was lying about the lollies?

“I am a man.” – Translation choices make Hiromi seem a little too macho for his girly looks, haha. *cringes, because I hear emphasis on “am”, with a lesser emphasis on “man” in my head*

I just realised – Kayo won’t go to Mt Hakodate as she’s supposed to anymore…It makes me sad on the inside.

(ep 10)

Holy plays, Batman! Romeo and Juliet for an 11 year old is pretty far fetched considering I only read it when I was…um…16 or 17. I haven’t even read King Lear yet so consider me out of this. (Shucks...even though I used to be an avid reader, I’m only ordinary now, huh?)

LOL. In the end, Kenya really is a little kid, getting all offended about hideouts, haha.

I thought the “getting rid of someone’s alone time is a good thing” sentence was a bit weird until I realised what context Hiromi used it in.

“On the outs”? I didn’t know what that meant until I checked it up. Well, considering I make my own phrases up a lot and I tend to omit small words in the vein of “wut dis?”, maybe I’m just too slang for the subbers.

CGI bus? Man, you ruined the solemn mood a bit, Mr Bus.

See? These CGI cars (and truck) are why I have gripes with CGI transport. It sticks out too much. However, for something like Ajin (which can only be found in CGI form), I don’t mind it so long as everything else about it is good. Speaking of which, I still have yet to see Ajin (as of the point of typing).

“…spirit and drive.” – Because the camera focussed on Gaku’s hands just then, I had to LOL in my head a little.

Manabu = Gaku by virtue of alternate character reading. Isn’t kanji great? (sarcastic)

This sublimation, I presume? I checked it up once, but it was never of any use.

(ep 11)

The Spider’s Thread, as told by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Bungou taught me about it, but I’m not sure the Bungou instance is the one I first met it in.

This fourth wall breaking…it’s somewhat disturbing, but that’s the mood the staff were going for. Very effective.

I’ve always wondered why the “Boku” in the titlecard had a different font. Maybe the staff just didn’t have a “boku” in the font they’d written the title in…

I guess it must be my warped perception of beauty due to bishonen, but when Satoru is lying on the bed with slightly sallow cheeks, he almost looks…beautiful. (That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?)

“Future”…such a powerful name, since it happens to be the name of the baby, too.

Imagine if Kayo and Yuri Katsuki’s (Yuri!!! on Ice) backstories were stitched together.

A gingko leaf. They have a very distinctive shape…(Reminds me of Fusae Campbell from Detective Conan.)

Gaku is just represented by a black silhouette in some frames. Basically, you could call it another Detective Conan reference of sorts.

(ep 12)

The problem with the ending that I have, if you don’t know already, is that it suddenly makes you realise that Satoru would either die or have planned/have some caveat to get out of/around a potential death. Unfortunately, they don’t show you when he’s made those plans, thus being deceptive by omission if they were even made.

CGI hamster wheel…?

By the laws of ordinary protagonist writing…I give you the ending. The ending that dissatisfied me so much, it definitely left SGRS first for 2016.

They never explained how the rail was pulled open either, come to think of it.

Hey, it’s Boys’ Flight. The magazine he was reading earlier in the show. Don’t remember what ep, though.

Hey, did I ever mention to you that I tried to open up an Erased wiki, only to find one already open? There’s still two wikis existing right now for some reason, though.

Well, it’s been a wild ride. Thanks all, if you’ve been coming along with me and hope to see you again soon.

(SGRS ep 1)

Zony, LOL. Did Sony exist in that era?

If you observe the left flag when Yotaro stops at the front of the theatre, you can see the characters for “Amakentei” (rain-bamboo-stand, or something like it). That’s Kappei Yamaguchi’s character…Update: Must’ve been a mistake on my part. Amaken is a critic, but not a rakugoka himself.

Yotaro’s still got all the mannerisms of a gangster, LOL. (Including interrogation technique.)

There’s a sign in the back of Yotaro when he talks to Yakumo for the first time. It says “Sumi” (top – bottom) “Sushi” (L – R).

Yotaro uses the word “tanomu”, which is a respectful way of saying “I beg of you”. Very respectful. The most polite kind of respectful.

Mukojima? Huh? I guess that’s a deliberate bungling of Konnichiwa? (Update: Nope.) However, I’m still a noob to rakugo myself, despite having created the wiki to spread some Yakumo love.

Note for later: Shinigami has a distinctive “Ajaraka mokuren kyuraisu tegeretsuno pa!” in it.

What’s the old man writing?

It’s a transformation of sorts, from Yota being nervous to showing off what he’s got. That’s what makes SGRS so powerful.

I was pondering this since the start of the performance, but Yota’s shark-like teeth make him a very distinctive character. Then again, there’s always that one cue or other to tell you that a certain character is in the house.

Should a woman only have her beauty? I never believed it and that’s what I set out to prove in my stories, but…social mores were different back then, so I can’t speak for Konatsu.

Oh! I completely forgot about this guy (Mangetsu) until he came back in ep 14.

Notes for later: “Namu myoho renge kyo…”/a pilgrim climbing Mt Minobu

There is a slight irony in a woman telling a man to “man up”. Subbers, you put that there.

(ep 2)

Oh? Were you wondering what those “notes for later” were for? The wiki, naturally. SGRS’s only presence is me most days, so I’d better keep it up to date.

This show never fails to make me laugh, even if the laughter gets more subdued the second time.

Apparently people get sento and onsen confused a lot. Sento are normally cheaper smaller establishments compared to onsen, as far as I know.

Why is there a cat in the room?!

The “Hatsu” in Hatsutaro means “beginning”, while the “Kiku” in Kikuhiko is a chrysanthemum, so…yeah. Take it as you will.

“…your first time?” (laughs behind back) No wonder Haruko Kumota was a BL mangaka before she did SGRS.

Even without the volume, the visual language can tell you Kiku’s doing something wrong. That’s the power of this show.

“Akanbou” is a Japanese word for baby, as you may have guessed. However, people seem to use the word “aka-chan” more these days. Thus, another guess tells you that “shiro” is white and “ao” is blue. Right again.

You can almost hear the voices even with only subs! Amazing!

Fish cake. Technically called kamaboko, but “fish cake” is the translation for it so I guess I shouldn’t be such a weeb.

(ep 3)

“…it’ll become standard in the rakugo world.”

Oh, the cat is Yakumo 7th’s.

Mosquito coils? When were they invented?

CGI train? I barely noticed it there. Plus…poor Kiku. He never gets the girls.

Kagurazaka.

Were sento really cheap enough to be five coins?

(ep 4)

Do those girls count as off model?

The texture on the bricks of the restaurant are hyperrealistic…I like it. Better than that messed up CGI you get on most cars in anime these days.

Kuma -> Kumako. I wonder why.

As I’ve noted on the wiki, the pun about the samurai involves the word samui (cold). Therefore the original pun would’ve been “now you die out here in the cold, samurai”, but if you’re going for lame jokes that work seamlessly into the rakugo, then…the samu-die joke pretty much does its job.

There was the word “open” twice in one sentence…subbers, you need to proofread sometimes.

The “treasure sacks” pun is on kintama…welp, I won’t explain it, but “family jewels” apparently works just as well.

If Mukojima is a place, then why were people saying it in ep 1?

LOL, Matsuda. Going “I won’t have anything to do with this” is bound to get you in trouble nonetheless.

Yakumo’s heart is so clearly not into it. You can tell from the body language.

(Eldlive 1)

I’m here because I fell out of love with Hibari a while back and I need to give Akira Amano another chance. Also, Lane Brick…maybe.

Wait. It’s a Mukuro! With glasses! That foreshadows the pain I’m gonna be in for.

Welp, considering I read the manga this was adapted from not too long ago (as of the time of watching this), it’s pretty faithful. Even if it does look visually pretty, I did come up with a story like this once but it never took off when it came to writing the story. Considering it also bears some similarity to One Wish They Never Wanted, it’ll never take off now.

Finally(!) Something to laugh at. Reborn injoke.

…Unfortunately, with the faithfulness of the manga comes the pervasive problem – I thought Eldlive was a bit subpar. I could see all the right tropes were there to make a hit, but I couldn’t see any real talent showing through, as if Amano’s resigned herself to doing only shonen because Reborn succeeded. It was Hibari that taught me you can have a cute bird sidekick instead of a monster designed from scratch, so why can’t Eldlive do that too?

Drew (the voice) is getting annoying already. Shaddap!

…another “unfortunately” is that Lane Brick isn’t too pretty compared to how I like my bishonen, but YMMV on that.

I didn’t check it when I read the manga…but Jean Renoir.

Great. (sarcastic) Bungou humour, to boot! That wasn’t in the original…and it’s just grim, too.

These mammary jokes aren’t doing it for me either, although they were in the original.

Verdict: Not taking it.

(POSA ep 1)

Prince of Stride was a new experience for me, as I thought I needed to add “sport anime” to my repetoire at the time. Unfortunately, I still haven’t gotten past my biases against sport anime even after finishing this…

Welp, I take back what I’ve said about OPs in the first episode. If it’s a good OP, it helps to set the norm.

CGI basketball. One of the weirdest things on the list of “things given CGI form in anime” to date, because it’s mostly cars.

Sad life. When people in a rejected club see that twist coming, it’s like a 4th wall break…kinda sorta.

Did I ever mention that this show is motivational? It’s really good for that, and colourful so it’s good for desktop wallpapers. (Also, it has a summer theme to it, so while I swelter, lemme just watch a show about running…and sweating…bad idea? I guess so. (sarcastic) However, there isn’t any better season to watch it in. Sweat – or imagined sweat – isn’t good any season of the year, so might as well watch it while I still have time.)

Tsurugiya…if Google-sensei serves me correctly…it’s in Osaka…? Update: I knew he came from somewhere in the country, but Hyogo is a different place to Osaka…

“Blue Sonic”. Well, it’s not like there would be a magazine called Sanic. Or Knuckles, for the matter.

What’s with the panda, though? Although, as some very obvious foreshadowing tells you, (Kyosuke) Kuga used to have his locker here.

How in Dante’s Inferno did Kohinata get the measurements of Takeru already?!

I checked up kabaddi last time, but eh, I’ll do it again.

I still think Fujiwara’s leg thing is creepy.

I dunno anything about Sun Tzu…but…lessee here. This quote is it, I think.

Who was the Relationer in the previous Stride Club?

What’s with the cat on the poster?!

“…is really hot…” – Is that what sets the shippers off? Or is that just a subbers’ choice of words?

They always blab aout weird things on the next ep preview. At least it’s not boring.

For some reason, my ad blocker isn’t working on AnimeLab any more…*sighs*