#punishment for nao

[cypressaloute]

i need me junjo nightmare with a toxic situationship between nao and haitani

[nexysworld]

𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: Naoya's been having trouble getting his puppy to play nice with his new bunny.

𝙿𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐: Naoya Zenin x Puppy Reader x Bunny Girl

𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚜: NSFW, MDNI, Dubcon, manipulation, Female x Female oral sex, fingering, Hybrids, Spit Kink (Naoya's spit), Pussy Slapping, Unprotected Sex, Creampie, Naoya being himself, porn without plot, MFF, threesome, hair pulling, no use of y/n.

𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 2k

A/N: Forgot to add. Bunny girl is nondescript and basically treated like a second reader. She's not a character from the series, nor is she an OC. She's nameless, so feel free to imprint upon her whoever you will and whatever you want her to look like.

𝙰𝚜𝚔 𝙱𝚘𝚡 • 𝙰𝙾3 • 𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 & 𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚎

"I said, lick," he hissed, fingers tangled in your hair pressing you forward. Your mouth was so close to the other girl's glistening folds, it would only take a quick lap of your tongue to reach her cunt. The bunny girl's face was flush with lust, floppy ears covering her eyes as she squirmed with anticipation.

"No! I hate her!" You tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. All you succeeded in doing was making your scalp sting against his grasp. A low whine escaped you, tail tucking between your legs.

"Bad mutt!" He wrenched your head back, his breath hot on your ear. "You will do as you're told." His irritation was palpable, not used to you being so obstinate.

Naoya didn't like disobedience from anyone, but especially not a dumb little thing like you. Always smiling and begging for attention. Annoying really—only worth the holes he fucked. You were supposed to be a loyal and obedient��puppy, your only purpose was to follow instructions and warm his cock. Yet the past several days you'd been nothing but insolent, determined to defy him and torment his newest plaything.

Punishment hadn't been working. Strong-arming you yielded no results. It was clear you were jealous—but he had no idea how to reign it in. Women. He mentally rolled his eyes. Always so bound by their emotions. Naoya pondered for a moment on how to handle this situation.

A lightbulb went off in his head and he released his grip.

He pitched his voice a little higher, taking on that overly cheerful tone he used when mocking. "And here I thought you were my good girl, my special puppy...guess not." Every word dripped with exaggerated sweetness.

You bristled at the words, ears flattening as you craned your neck in an attempt to look up at him. "But I am good," you whined, all anger towards the prey-girl in front of you forgotten. All you could focus on was the sinking feeling in your stomach.

"Oh?" He asked, tilting his head. "But good girls do as they're told, right? They listen to their betters and play nice with others too, don't they?" He wasn't surprised that got your attention—you were always too stupid to tell the insincerity of it, just desperate to be praised.

"B-but," you protested.

"No buts, you're being very bad aren't you?" he cooed, nuzzling into your neck.

The bunny girl giggled at his words, "She's being so mean Nao!"

Nao? Hearing his nickname roll off her tongue was infuriating. Only you got to use that name, it was special! You were seconds away from mauling the dumb rabbit when Naoya’s voice drew you back.

“She really has been mean, hasn’t she?” he teased. “Puppy, I think you hurt her feelings.”

"I don't care!" You snapped, frustrated tears already welling up in your eyes.

"So you don't want to earn a treat then?"

"Treat?" Despite yourself, the word tugged at that part of you craving his attention.

"Mhm, that's right. Good girls get treats." Naoya's hand ruffled your hair, something he rarely did. It made your tummy flutter, tail swishing slowly behind you. "You want a treat, right?"

Tentatively you nodded.

"Good, then lick," he repeated his earlier command, shoving your head back down.

Begrudgingly, you did as you were told this time and darted your tongue out to flick the tip against her sensitive clit. It was all you could do to follow instruction without really putting the effort in.

The girl mewled, squirming beneath you. You pulled your head back from where her hips were grinding upwards in an attempt to get more friction from your mouth. "Nao, want more," the spoiled brat actually had the audacity to whine and plead for more than what you had so graciously given.

You growled at her until Naoya's nose was nuzzling your cheek, his chin resting on your shoulder. The weight of his body and the scent of his cologne were enough to soothe your anger and silence the rumbling in your chest. "She's right, you're hardly putting in the effort, pup."

"I did what I was told," you countered.

Naoya drummed his fingers against your thigh in thought again before a wickedly salacious smile stretched across his face. "You did, didn't you? I guess that's worthy of a treat."

"Really?" For the first time since that wretched rabbit arrived, pure hope bubbled within you. Your tail was swishing eagerly, smacking against the man's legs with every movement. With gleeful eyes, you tilted your head back to look at him.

"Oh, absolutely. Good girls get rewarded, that's what I said, right? It would be no good if I didn't keep my word," he purred, amber eyes locking with your own. His Cheshire-like smile should have clued you in to his scheming, but truly you were too excited to care.

Naoya moved you aside just enough that he was nearly face-to-face with the bunny cunt. It almost sapped the happiness from you—he’d never come so close to pleasuring you in such a way. Before you could question or protest, he let his tongue loll out, saliva pooled at the tip of the pink appendage before dripping down onto her folds.

“Now it’s a treat,” he proclaimed, as if the answer was obvious. “So indulge.” He patted you on the head before returning to his original position.

Giving in, you dove forward, this time licking a stripe up her slick folds. The taste was distinct, ignoring her flavor you focused on the familiarity of Naoya's—mint and green tea, along with something uniquely him. As much as you hated to admit it, it was enough to win you over for now. The taste of your owner made your own cunt clench despite yourself.

You lapped at her more vigorously, grinding your own needy pussy against the bed in a pathetic attempt to gather some kind of relief from it all. The flat of Naoya’s hand came down hard against your cunt, making you yelp. The resounding sting only served to add warmth to the area, making your desire worse.

“Don’t be pathetic now,” he scolded, smacking your poor pussy again. Your own neglected clit was throbbing, desperate for more contact. “You’ll have your turn if you keep behaving.”

You made a noise of acknowledgement, working on the task at hand. Your tongue swirled around her clit, focusing your attention on bringing the bunny her release as quickly as you could. The girl’s fingers worked their way into your tresses, curling and tugging to bring you closer to her.

You sucked on the sensitive nub, earning a noise that made your puppy ears perk up. If you didn’t hate her so much, you might actually have thought it sounded a little cute.

“That’s it, make her squeal for me.” Naoya rewarded you again, this time by swiping two fingers through your lips and rubbing them against your clit. The heat that spread through your core made your eyes roll back. He continued the motion in an even rhythm, not enough to send you over the edge, but more than enough to keep you sated.

“Nao,” you whined.

“Ah, ah,” he tutted. “You keep going, or I’ll just fuck her instead. You can watch from the corner.” Despite the threat, he didn’t remove his hand from between your legs.

Not willing to test him on that, you flattened your tongue against her swollen lips dragging it along her lazily. Imagining what you thought you might like in her position, you brought your fingers to her sopping hole. It was something Naoya had done to you more times than you could count—but only having been on the receiving end, you could only attempt to mimic the memory of his movements.

You pumped your fingers inside of her a few times before spreading them apart. She groaned in response, arching her back off the bed. One of her hands let go of your hair in lieu of white knuckling the sheets.

Naoya whistled behind you, smacking your ass in an affectionate manner. He removed his hand. Despite the disappointment at the sudden lack of attention, you continued, unwilling to displease him after going so far.

Her walls tightened around your digits so intensely, you could no longer work your fingers open with each pump of them. Instead, you added a third before generously sucking on her clit again. If her taught body language and heady whines were any indication, she was close.

A few moments later, and one last circling of your tongue on her most sensitive parts—she was done. Crying out, she gripped your hair so tightly you swore she would tear it out.

You removed your hand, wiping it off on the sheet. Your tongue felt heavy in your mouth, and you took a second to relax from the mild soreness in your jaw.

“Such a good, obedient puppy, isn’t she?” Naoya praised, which sent your heart aflutter. You shuddered as the blunt head of his cock replaced where his hand had been, rubbing against your folds.

“Yeah! Yeah!” The bunny replied, each word breathless.

“You should thank her properly,” as he said the words, he slid himself inside in one smooth motion, until his hips were smacking against the plush fat of your bottom. The stretch of the sting caught you off guard and you fell forward, catching yourself, palms on either side of her. He had a firm grip on your tail, using it as leverage to rut himself into you.

“Th-thank you,” she squeaked.

With his free hand, he smacked the side of her leg, leaving a red mark. “After how good she made you feel? You can do better than that.”

She flinched from the impact, before scrambling out from under you. Quickly she was tilting your head up to capture your lips in a fiery kiss. You would have protested, or told her to get away from you—but her lips were soft, plush, and sweet like strawberries. Instead of fighting it, you gave in, kissing her back.

The sting of his thrusts had melted into a dull ache, pleasure overtaking you every time his cock hit that sensitive spot deep inside of you.

The bunny girl removed her lips, giving you both the chance to breathe. She leaned forward, her soft floppy ear rubbing against your cheek. She brought her hand between your legs, rubbing your clit in time with Naoya’s eager thrusts.

You moaned into the crook of her neck, already close.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” he commentated to himself, his hips stuttering with his own release closing in. He released your tail, opting to grip your hips directly with a bruising strength as he dragged out the last few thrusts.

You could feel his cock twitch, his warm cum painting your insides at the same time you were finally tipped over the edge. Your vision went white and spotty from the intensity of your orgasm, collapsing head first into the girl’s lap.

She pet your hair softly, stroking your ears soothingly. It felt nice, and you were too exhausted to move.

Naoya pulled his softening cock free from you, wiping some excess fluids on the inside of your thigh as he did so. “Now look at you two getting along.” He moved from behind you, already pulling his hakama back on.

You expected him to leave, like he usually did when he was finished. Instead, he surprised you, kneeling down to eye level before pressing his lips to yours for the first time. “Good girl,” he praised once more.

Your tail thumped wildly against the bed, eyes wide as you stared at him.

“Keep it up, and you’ll get more treats."

[livyslabyrinth]

random rant, but do q-taro fans exist yet or is it just me 😭😭 ? i really like yttd but haven’t been active in fandom since 2019-2020-ish. i started liking him after 2-1 when he finally took the last poison dart for gin in alice lives route and the main game solidified my love for his character. but back in those days, mfs HATED him to death istg 😭

like, no matter how much character development or redemption he got, people (especially on tiktok) only harped on him wanting to vote on the kids/nao in chapter one. fair reason to dislike him, but as reko said…man’s just a realist.

i always felt like it was unrealistic that people didn’t vote the kids off earlier (not that i wanted that). side tangent, but i feel like— in a way, keiji agreed with qtaro on that fact, but gets way less hate for it. despite being adamant about killing shin, he votes for kanna. i don’t know if he was moved by her desire to die for the betterment of the group and for both sara and shin or what his logic behind the vote was, but i could see it going two possible ways: either he casted the vote seeing losing kanna as a “punishment” for shin, or he just found her the least useful.

i thoroughly enjoyed q-taro’s character despite his flaws though. he is not a morally great person, but most of the people in the higher percentiles of survival aren’t. sara, in many circumstances/simulatuons, was the most ruthless out of all of them— hence her survival rate. keiji is cunning and manipulative, even willing to let others die simply to take burdens off his moral conscious. q-taro ranks just below the two.

i feel like some of (not all) the best plot twists in the game relied on q-taro. the token bad ending, the 2-2 card trades, the card placement in chapter 1, the end of the banquet.

and this may be a hot take, but his death was one of the most shattering to me. as soon as he had begun to trust his allies, let his guard down, and shed off some of that willingness to betray and sacrifice others… he was betrayed. and he couldn’t even find it in his heart to resent the person who stabbed him in the back.

and in the end, the man who was willing to sacrifice others willingly let himself be burned alive to save his allies. i think he’s one of the best characters in terms of development.

also, even his ai feeling he would be willing to die for gin :((

speaking of, gin, nao, and kanna really went through so much as the most vulnerable of the group. the shit those three have went through woulda turned any other character into a villian bro.

[quirkyfries]

Some more Ruin thoughts because I’m trying to type him with the enneagram

I kind of think he’s a 1, but even then; his first arc is complete, even if we didn’t see a lot of it.

He has a type 1 story. He is taught that something is bad (killing indiscriminately: he associates this with Creators) but obviously cannot solve the oppressor-forcing-the-killing issue by adhering to his own morals of “don’t kill indiscriminately/ be like Creators” because there’s no other way to solve the issue without doing so. Because of that, he has to go against his belief to solve the Nao issue, by killing indiscriminately. That is the first arc.

It’s progress for his character in that what he believes in (Don’t Kill People) get challenged (He Has To Kill People) and he has to get his hands dirty (Kills People (so more people don’t die)) that makes it an arc.

It’s a negative “tragic truth” arc because he becomes disillusioned; the killing people/creator route worked and was he rewarded for taking that option despite not wanting to. This is shown in how he believes what he did was right and that he would do it again. Alternatively, it can also be positive progress in that he was able to let go of his belief to do the “right thing.” I don’t actually know if it’s a positive or negative arc because it’s teeechnically both if you squint, such are the woes of morality equation stories.

What was confusing to me initially, (why is he still here if his arc is complete,) is that I think his on-screen arc is a reversal of the off-screen one. Because his negative arc is complete, it’s now being undone with a positive one. He’s getting a redemption arc to get rid of the disillusionment.

The writers are 180ing him, reaffirming that his previous belief was the correct thing, killing people is bad/creators are bad. They punish his new belief of “killing people was the correct thing to do” with his environment (the initial consequences of his crime, Nexus + Dark Sun, Molten) and how everyone hated him for his bad action, which only changes when Ruin expresses interest in guiding the new dimension and Puppet enables him a second chance by giving him somewhat of a quantifiable debt to repay. And also meeting people that didn’t really care for what he did, or at least didn’t shun him so hard when they learned about it.

In the most positive climax for him, he would take the place of his oppressor and break the cycle of bad by doing good. This is what he’s doing by taking responsibility of the new dimension. He is in the position of a Creator but is being is good, he doesn’t have a heavy hand in the dimension’s course, and does his best to guide them in the right direction: that previous belief of “killing is bad/what the creator did was wrong.”

Which looks like this: Arc 1, establish belief (killing is bad because it’s what Creators do) —> realize belief won’t solve the issue (killing must be done to do the “right thing”) —> goes outside of the belief to solve the issue (becomes like creator/kills to do the “right thing.” It doesn’t matter that he didn’t like it. It matters that he does it anyways.) thus validating a new belief (the killing was justified)

And then from the point he destroys the dimensions and into EAPS, Arc 2: establish new belief (the killing was justified) —> belief is punished (people and environment turn against him for what he did) —> goes outside of new belief to rectify the disillusionment of the first arc (by accepting, fully, what he did was bad and working to change: this is shown by how he handles his self-inflicted responsibility in the new dimension, by trying to prevent people killing people/going down a similar path + accepting the debt counter Puppet gives to him) thus validating new belief

Since arc 2 is a positive one, an arc 3 would be something like a flat arc, where a character’s new belief is challenged but they are rewarded for staying true to it. For example, if Ruin is tasked with handling Mimi, he should be rewarded for not taking the most extreme immoral option, let’s say, because Ruin must stay true to his new belief that immoral actions aren’t acceptable even if it seemed like the best option in order for him to have truly changed as a result of his last arc.

There is, of course, the option of self sacrifice being the climax of arc 2, where Ruin’s refusal to do the wrong thing again either gets him killed or he willingly takes a fall for someone else, likely in a scenario where someone coming after him for what he did to those 5000 dimensions (similar to how Molten was) catches up to him and he accepts his consequence in order to save those he cared about, showing that he fully accepts what he did is bad and in doing so a positive outcome is reached (by everyone else surviving.) Therefore putting himself in the trolly problem he initially tried to solve by destroying the creators, by being the lesser amount of one life taken in exchange for the majority. That would be a satisfying, complete end to his positive arc I think, granted that his death actually means something and it’s not cast aside just for everyone to be immediately in peril again. This mostly depends on his ability to trust that the benefits of his own death saving other’s lives would outweigh the benefit of him being alive to possibly help the others in the future, though. Hopefully he has a backup of himself somewhere like Eclipse does idk. I don’t want him to die either but I wouldn’t be mad if this was the kind of death he got (and, as we all know, People Don’t Stay Dead around here.)

While I think he’s a type one based on his character arc, he has some other underlying issues having to do with security and having to conform to ensure his own safety, something also taught to him by Nao. Enneagram types are usually best used when you look at the bad decisions a character makes. Ruin, while he does have some “who do I have to suck up to to ensure my own safety and place in a community” behavior of a type six, it doesn’t cause him any major problems that forces him to deviate or change that behavior.

There isn’t a story arc for Ruin where he trusts the wrong person and ends up having to stand up for himself by splitting the extremes of “I trust nobody” and “I blindly trust something” into “I trust myself.” Trusting the wrong person or system, *when ruin has a say in what he puts his trust in—something not often afforded to him,* has never led him wrong because his goal has always been the bare minimum, to survive long enough to get himself out of a bad situation. To buy himself time and access to resources. Which, mind you, he’s been pretty successful in so far, just look at his everything! Note that the only chances he’d ever had to choose who he trusted are those whom he’d rebuilt, bloodmoon and eclipse, and those he contacted while he was free to roam, namely stitchwraith. Everything he needed out of those relationships he got. Choosing the wrong option has never been a problem for him, when options are present.

Alternatively, him choosing to trust only himself with getting rid of the creators instead of trying to trust anyone else to help him can be framed as a mistake, but he isn’t punished for that as much as he is with his “getting his hands dirty” moment of destroying those dimensions. It’s a lower priority compared to a different decision Ruin made, it’s just a talking point used by others when they’re dogging on him for why he did what he did, not the way that he went about it. Him choosing not to trust others with his goal was, also, the correct thing to do in his eyes, he knew they would’ve tried to stop him otherwise. If it was a mistake not to trust others, he doesn’t see it as one and he’s not punished for it in a way that makes him change for the better or worse, where he would be trying to trust more people being involved with his decisions or goals. Or if he did change, it’s not the forefront of his main arc.

That being said, the closest he’d had to having a six arc was when Lefty was making a fuss about Puppet. If he’d nodded along because he trusted Lefty to protect him somehow, in turn getting Puppet banished, and then Lefty turned on him next, that would be a mistake he’d be forced to learn from. That didn’t happen because A. He doesn’t trust Lefty to protect him in the first place and B. He saw it for what it was: fear-mongering to control the majority.

So tldr I like to think of him as a type one with some six tendencies. Sorry this is so long lol I’m trying to understand this guy more for a character study I’m doing

[icaruslamenting]

Hey, I have some questions regarding deific relationships. I really do love the idea of having a relationship with a god but I’m also terrified? Like, the idea of being watched by a deity kind of horrifies me. Do you not feel like your thoughts are unsafe? Like you never have privacy? What happens if you aren’t a good worshipper? Do you worry about upsetting them at all? Or fear their retribution?

Sorry if any of this is insensitive. I just wanted to understand your perspective.

-☂️

no, it’s completely alright!! :) (i have a tl;dr at the bottom in italics and bold in case this is too much to read, lol)

usually i try not to overthink it, but that’s easier said than done. i believe the gods are watching us, of course, but only in situations where they should be watching. like… no, Lord Apollo isn’t going to be watching me while i’m in the shower (that would be weird), but maybe if im talking about him with friends, he’ll be watching!! or if your deity is trying to see if you make the right choice (ex. if you see someone drop their money, do you try and quickly grab it and steal it before they notice [even if you don’t need the money] or do you return it?)

i also think the gods understand privacy just as much as we want them to. i’m sure they don’t want to watch us every second of our lives. they’ll respect your privacy, dw <33

as for being a good worshipper and worrying about messing up, don’t worry, you’re probably doing just fine. treat your deities well and they will treat you well. they understand that we’re only human, we’re bound to mess up. maybe if you stole something from someone, you’ll lose something (or something like that), but i believe that’s just karma. as long as you aren’t some psychotic killer, they aren’t gonna punish you. i swear.

and i don’t think there’s any specific way to be a “bad worshipper”. i mean, if you’re talking poorly about the gods, ruining their alters, being disrespectful towards them, or anything like that, then i would say you just have room to grow and learn. if you’re doing that all on purpose though… maybe you’re a bad worshipper. but i believe that anyone can learn and grow past their mistakes.

if you want to be better at worshipping the gods or your deity, you can always pray to them, research them, do devotional acts towards them, or even just think about them throughout the day. they only expect you to do your best.

if your best is getting all your missing school assignments done, that’s enough. if you’re best is taking a day off to take care of yourself, that’s enough. even if your best is just waking up, even if you can’t get out of bed, that’s enough. if it’s you’re best, it’s enough. that’s all they want from you. for you to be the best version of yourself that you can be.

(TL;DR: dw, you’ve got privacy. they want you to have privacy just as much as you want to have privacy. and i promise you’re doing great. if you’re even having thoughts about doubting whether you’re a good worshipper or not, you’re a good worshipper, because that means you care. and they won’t punish you. you’re human, they get that. do your best, be your best, and your deities will love you for it <33)

if you want more info from people who know more and are more experienced, i recommend checking these blogs out:

@atheneum-of-you has just recently made their helpol discord server public and they have a huge library of free online books related to hellenic polytheism and the gods. they also make tons of informative posts and updates!!

@hyakinthou-naos is a super cool temple and they just recently have launched their website!! i can’t recommend checking it out enough. it’s so helpful and so beautifully designed

@khaire-traveler has amazing posts about worshipping the gods and a super cool guide to worshipping so many deities discreetly. (i’m pretty sure they’re on hiatus currently)

@screeching-0wl is my favorite resource for info on the gods. their cheat sheets are amazing!! (they’re on hiatus)

these are just my personal recommendations!! (i hope this isn’t too much info and i’m not stressing you out!!) just remember, you don’t have to be perfect. and please, for the love of all things good, do not overwork yourself. i did that and then i had to take a break for most of the year. be better than me please lol

good luck !! <33

[paesagex]

AU idea: "Deepest empathy"

Tenko gets his chance at becoming a hero, but not the kind you’d expect.

I guess this would happen if Afo haf been killed while Nao was pregnant. *This was born out of the fact that I hated that Tenko’s original Quirk was float, because come on, give that poor child some personality that doesn’t involve Nana. And being all pure and perfect. Gross. Also, in case it doesn’t become obvious, I’m a sucker for the interpretation of the Shimura household being a microcosm of Hero Academia society.

Enjoy!

Tenko Shimura is a middle school kid who wants to be a hero, like many others. He is fifteen years old, and is soon to be enrolled in highschool. He wishes to go to UA, the top hero school of the country.

However, odds are against him. Not only does his father, Koutaro, hate heroes with a passion, but Tenko’s quirk seems to be absolutely unsuitable for his dream.

Tenko inherited a weaker version of his mother’s and grandparents’ Quirk, “deepest empathy”. While it allows the older carriers to not only be perceptive of a person’s suffering, but also to be a soothing presence, Tenko’s Quirk is exclusively passive. He can perceive, but not influence. The Quirk allows him to tell when a person is feeling certain things, but more often than not it is just a muddy vision, as emotions have a tendency to be complicated and nuanced. His “vision” improves if he spends a lot of time with the person whose feelings he’s perceiving.

So his Quirk is especially weak, unreliable and not suited for hero work, not in fighting nor saving. At five, he was still believed to be quirkless, until finally he’s taken to a specialist who runs a DNA test. Turns out, as we said before, that his quirk is just weak, so weak that the moment it manifested itself first went unnoticed.

Tenko has a large family. An older sister, Hana, who inherited “float”, their father’s Quirk, then there’s his mother and grandparents who live with them in a big, fancy house.

The Shimuras are rich, Koutaro is one of the founders of a company focused on the construction business, and this house is amongst their commissions.

Koutaro is a strict man, who got everything he owns with nobody’s help. As a child, he was abandoned by his mother, Nana Shimura, an almost unknown Hero who left to fight a mysterious Villain, just to never come back. From there on, Koutaro had been on his own, fighting to build himself the normal life his mother, for no specified reason, decided to deny him. And he managed. He now has a home, a loving family, and financial security. He’s safe.

Tenko and his father do not get along. Koutaro hates heroes, and of course doesn’t want his children to have anything to do with them. In that house, Koutaro’s main rule amongst many, “No Heroes”, dominated. Every time a hero appeared on the news, the channel was changed. No cartoons with heroes involved allowed. No toys, no cards, no clothes, nothing that involved heroes or would have profited to a stupid hero-merchandise company could enter that household.

As small children, both Tenko and Hana wanted to be heroes (like all children in this world, after all). Hana is older and was able to adapt, lying to her parents about her true inspirations and pretending to be the perfect child. Tenko, other than being younger, is more direct by nature. Unable to hide anything that he’s feeling, he’s an open book, and his struggle to hide his wish to be a Hero and help others puts him in trouble with his father often.

Koutaro is very strict with his rules, and punishes Tenko by throwing him into the backyard for hours at a time, sometimes without eating and until it is dark.

Tenko develops a mysterious rash around his eyes. The adults think it is an allergy, not understanding that the fact that the rash itches only at home is a sign of psychosomatic stress.

Tenko loves his family very much. He just wishes they took his side, for once.

One day, Hana, sneaking into her father’s study, found a picture of her grandma Nana in hero costume, and, ecstatic to have a hero in the family, tells Tenko. But Koutaro finds out about the picture, and triggered, furious, demands to know who dared to sneak into his study. Hana, scared, blames Tenko.

This is the one time Koutaro’s strictness arises to violence, where he slaps Tenko twice, hard enough to knock the five year old to the ground, while the rest of the family watches, unable to take a side.

To Tenko, this event is traumatic. From that day on, the faces of the rest of his family standing there and watching as his father hurts him will haunt him, and stay an unspoken resentment forever.

He promised himself he will never become like them. He’ll never ignore a person in need of help.

The other adults of the family confront Koutaro and make him promise to never hit the children again. But they keep following the rules, and they keep making sure the children respect their father’s will. It’s best for everyone this way.

Hana apologizes, but Tenko doesn’t speak to her for days.

He only forgives her when Hana, knowing by now the stakes, takes a risk. She goes into a second-hand shop and buys in secret a tiny All Might keychain with her savings, which then she gifts to Tenko with her name written on it. “This way, if dad finds out, he won’t hurt you!” She says. Tenko still keeps it, ruined and with the name all smudged. It is an irreplaceable treasure.

Back to the present. The story starts with the day Tenko’s perspective was changed forever, and he was forced to reflect on what his dream entails.

He’s going back home from school after he hung out with his friends. Tenko is pretty closed off, he doesn’t like most of the kids in his school. It is a prestigious middle school, and he finds the competitive and snobbish environment obnoxious. To his father’s displeasure, he’s not interested in making contacts, and mostly just hangs out with other outcasts with weird, or weak quirks, the ones who are usually left out. Both from his school and others. His quirk is very useful to find people like that, and Tenko uses it often.

Hana is the popular sibling. He's going to the same school she went to, and comparison between the two siblings comes in often. Hana was and still is popular and smart, while Tenko is often considered too blunt and brooding. He doesn’t know it, but he has his own charm with outcasts.

As he’s walking towards the metro, he’s caught in a Villain fight. Heroes are fighting, and a crowd gathers to watch in awe, as it often happens.

Tenko can’t believe he’s got the chance to watch this, he’d never be allowed with another member of his family that isn’t his sister around. And she’d still be uncomfortable.

However, this is where things change, because Tenko’s quirk senses something weird. The heroes keep screaming to the villain about justice and how they’ll stop him from terrorizing the city. Weirdly, though, none of the civilians around are scared. The area is surrounded by heroes who cooperate and are focused, and soon will overpower the Villain.

The villain, who has been caught going on a rampage using his quirk, is the only scared person around. And he’s terrified to death.

The man is a heteromorph and has a size enhancing Quirk, his eyes wide and crazed.

Tenko suddenly isn’t so happy anymore. The Villain is eventually captured, and Tenko watches him being taken away, the guy’s face expressionless, stunned by the amount of hits.

He thinks that the Villain looks like the loneliest person in the world.

Tenko goes home quietly not long after that, deep in thought. He had never seen a villain fight before, despite there being plenty of crazy fanboys on the internet that signal them like shows to watch.

He comes home too late, and misses dinner. His father is expecting him to talk. In his study.

Tenko’s and Koutaro’s relationship has just kept going downhill, and Tenko’s rash is still visible around his eyes, and, recently, his neck. To Tenko, Koutaro’s presence is like a dark cloud that poisons the house. Despite having everything he ever wanted, Koutaro isn’t happy. His abandonment issues never healed, and the rest of the family treat those negative feelings like they’re a bomb they must not disturb in any way.

There are four people with empathy Quirks in the house who perceive this dysfunction, and three of them are convinced that it’s best to pretend it’s not there. Not Tenko though.

Tenko is stubborn and wouldn’t be able to hide any of his emotions even if he wanted to. So he fights with Koutaro often.

Koutaro loves Tenko, like all parents do, but there are moments where he can’t help his wounds take the best of him. Therefore he ends up treating Tenko like a scapegoat to his unhappiness, as if his rebellious behavior was a cog not working in what would otherwise be a perfectly realized dream. A perfect family.

Koutaro wants to know who Tenko was with today, and why he’s late. Tenko tells him he was with his usual friends. Koutaro wants to know if he was hanging out with a homeless man Tenko knows, whom he doesn’t like. Tenko, still confused from what he saw today and having no desire to tell lies his father would definitely see through anyway, deviates the questions by asking him why he cares.

“Tenko, you know I don’t like him.”

“Yeah, well, he’s my friend, so I’m the one who’s supposed to like him.”

“Stop joking around Tenko, you know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t father, what is the problem?”

“Quit the sarcasm. You shouldn’t hang out with certain people, he’s a grown man. God knows how he ended up there.”

“Jin is not going to hurt me.”

“You can’t know that!”

“Father, for real, I wasn’t even with him today, I don’t get what’s the big deal-”

Koutaro hits his hand against his desk, and Tenko jumps. “Because I care about you, and I care about the image you give of yourself, and of this family! Think, for once, of someone else that isn’t you, Tenko! What if he hurt you, did you think of how scared we’d be? And what if he commits some crime, and that affects your image? Or your sister’s? Have you thought about that? Your sister is going to be applying for university soon, she can’t have a single smudge on her record, and neither can you. You can’t ruin your future out of a stupid decision. You can’t go out with certain people, I forbid it.”

“But-”

“No but. Your family should always come first, Tenko. Always. Quit playing hero and grow up for once.”

They keep fighting, eventually Tenko snaps and tells him that his friend’s “bad influence” isn’t the reason he’s late, it’s because he stopped to watch a Hero fight. “There, you happy now?!”

Koutaro, furious, but cold, orders Tenko to go out. Tenko storms out and leaves, knowing fully well what those words mean. He passes through the living room, where the rest of the family watches him with resignation and sorry looks, his mother smiling encouragingly. Tenko exits in the backyard, their old dog, Mon, following him with habit, and slams the sliding door shut into the dark night, stomach still empty.

He sits on the porch, his back to the glass door. He can hear the evening progressing, the rest of the family watching TV, Koutaro joining them and chatting quietly, Hana’s chirp comments, his mother’s and grandparents’ gentle voices.

Mon’s head on his lap, he caresses the old dog’s fur absently, scratching his neck with his other hand. “Always stuck here, uh, Mon? I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Tenko can, more or less, perceive animals’ feelings, even though in their case it is more like a vibe. Despite being weaker, it is a much cleaner feeling to perceive, and the dog’s serene vibes console Tenko’s frustrated heart.

Eventually, the rest of the family heads to bed. He can hear his mother asking quietly if she can let him in, but he hears his father refusing. He messed up big by telling him about the hero fight. Likely, as it had started to happen more often lately, Koutaro himself will come downstairs later in the night to allow his son in.

The night comes down, and Tenko warms his hands on Mon’s fluffy fur.

Eventually, he hears a soft thump, and he turns to see his older sister, now almost eighteen, landing elegantly from a jump out her bedroom window thanks to the help of “float”, carrying a sandwich and with a consoling smile on her face. Her long black hair is loose, shining to the moonlight.

“My god Tenko, you really suck at keeping secrets.”

“Shut up Hana.”

“Yeah yeah, eat, you must be starving. You should be grateful, I snatched this as soon as you two started shouting.”

Tenko eats ravenously, and Hana asks him about that fight he apparently saw.

Tenko suddenly looks thoughtful again, remembering the bad feeling he felt coming from the Villain. Where was he now? Likely in a prison, waiting to be convicted.

He shares his doubts with his sister, but she looks unimpressed.

“Tenko, of course that guy was scared, don’t think too much about it! You don’t know what he did, you should be happy they got him.” Hana pulls out a pack of cigarettes from her jeans pocket, another thing carefully hidden from everyone in the house but Tenko, and asks: “Was it a cool fight? What heroes have you seen?”

Hana looks enthusiastic as Tenko shares the details. By now, she had already given up her old dream, having decided to respect her father’s wishes and go to a normal, prestigious highschool. However, she still liked heroes. She was just good at hiding it.

“Look, Tenko, I found another one in the school library!” She pulls out her phone, and shows him a picture of an old newspaper. On it is a small article next to a picture, a beautiful, dark haired woman smiling radiantly in it, hero costume worn proudly. “When I found it I couldn’t believe it! Our grandma seemed to avoid the TV and the internet at all costs, but there are still some papers about her by the time of her debut!”

Tenko looks at the picture. Nana Shimura was still like an idol to Hana, while Tenko can’t help but tie her face to the memory of their father beating him, a long time ago. He still remembers Koutaro’s feelings in that moment. So confused, so many, and so… threatening.

However, he smiles at Hana. He can tell she’s sincerely happy to be discovering things about her. The woman was incredibly secretive for being a hero. She was older than All might though, from an era before heroes turned into celebrities. He looks at her cigarette.

“When will you let me try?”

“When you grow out of your diapers.”

“As if you weren’t younger than me when you started!”

“I was younger and smarter.”

“Hey!”

“Come on, Tenko, you know you can’t hide a thing. You’re too honest.”

“I’m not!”

“You are, and it’s not a bad thing. You’re…”

Hana looks at a loss of words for a moment. “What you did with dad earlier was stupid but… I must admit that you got some crazy guts.”

(Hana found out the day of the picture that she’s not as selfless as she’d like. She’s convinced herself that she’s better at lying than being herself in front of others, and so keeps preserving her image of perfection in front of her family and at school. However, she vowed the day she bought that keychain for Tenko, she promised herself that she’d protect him, at least, at all costs. His will, his impulsiveness. His honesty.)

She ruffles his hair. “Stay my stupid brave little brother forever, okay?”

Tenko pouts. Then asks “So you’ll never tell mom and dad that you smoke?”

“No way, not even when I’m older.” She smiles at him.

They hear steps from the stairs. Hana quickly gets up and flies up to her window, and Tenko is finally let in at 1 am in the morning.

He gets to bed still fully dressed, too tired to change. He stares at the ceiling for a while, until he pulls out something from under his mattress. A UA flyer bent and wrinkled from being hidden all the time and so often.

He looks at it absently.

“I want to be a hero who never looks away at someone’s pain…” He thinks to himself. The image of the Villain from today, his crazed, desperate eyes as he ran and used his quirk to hit and destroy anything he could, like a savage animal, and that terror as the heroes attacked him, came to mind.

“...But what does that mean?”

Tenko wakes up on Saturday feeling like shit, still dressed. It is way too early, the sun has just started to rise.

Slowly, he gets up, changes quietly, and gets out of the house.

He needs to clear his head, he barely slept thinking about what he saw yesterday. From the nice neighbourhood he lives in, he takes the less polished streets, until he reaches a small park filled with homeless people, looking for Jin.

Jin (Twice, even though Tenko doesn’t know that. He has no idea Jin is a Villain.) is there, warming up to the morning’s chill close to a firepit, his clones all around, busy putting away a tent.

When Jin sees him, he smiles welcomingly.

“Aren’t brats supposed to be home at this hour?”

“Welcome!” “Go away!”

As usual, the clones always give different opinions than the original Jin. Tenko is welcomed to sit next to the firepit.

“Are you guys leaving?”

“Yeah, we weren’t planning on staying long anyway. It was nice though, you’re good company.”

“Wasn’t I a brat just a moment ago?”

“Hah! Of course you are, but my standards for conversation are pretty low, I don’t know if you understand.” He says, pointing at his very annoyed copies. Jin’s copies were so weird to Tenko, somehow their auras all felt like Jin’s, yet they all had their own individual perspectives and reactions.

“However, what brings you here? I thought your old man didn’t like me. Did he throw you out the whole night?”

“Not yet. Where are you going next?”

“A man ought to have his secrets, kid.”

“Fine. I’ll miss you.”

“You knew me for about a month.”

“Yeah, and it was a nice month.”

Jin is quiet after that, busy eating from a can with a spoon. His expression is serious.

“Listen kid, you’re going to high school next year, right?”

“Yup. Why?”

“Any plans in particular?”

“... I was thinking about trying with UA.”

Jin rolls his eyes. “Of course you are. Kids are all the same.”

“Why do you ask?”

“...Shimura, why do you want to be a hero?”

“Huh?”

“Doesn’t that father of yours hate their guts?”

Tenko is quiet for a while. “...I don’t know. I just… I just really hate when people suffer and nobody does anything, you know? I wish I could make someone feel like their suffering matters.”

“...”

“...You know, I saw my first Villain yesterday.”

At that, Jin raises his eyes, eyebrows high. He gives Tenko a sardonic smile. “Really? Was it what you expected?”

“...No. It was so weird, you know? Everyone was staring like they were in a movie theater, cheering and all, it didn’t feel like there was any real danger. The heroes arrived so fast, guy was surrounded in a moment. I felt sad, he looked so… overpowered. Like he had no hope to begin with.”

Jin has an uncharacteristically serious expression. Suddenly, he speaks again. “In this world, only the righteous and well meaning have a right to be saved. You’re a good kid. I don’t know what your father’s deal is, also because he kind of sounds like an asshole, but I think he’s right. Trust me, with a dream like that, you’re no good in a hero school.”

“Why would you say that? You don’t think I could make it?”

“I don’t know if you could, but I know you won’t fulfill your wish that way.”

“...”

Jin laughs. “Look at me, talking all serious as if thinking was my strong suit! Eheh…”

“Do you think I’m being a hypocrite?” Tenko suddenly asks.

“Huh?”

“Do you think it’s hypocritical of me to want to be a hero if it’d make my dad suffer?”

“How would I know? Ask your mom.” He gets up. “Well. We ought to go. Glad I saw you one last time, kid. Now go home, wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”

Not knowing what to do, he does go to his mother. He doesn’t exactly tell her that his view of heroes is starting to change and he’s not sure he knows what his childhood dream entails anymore. But she gets him, more or less. She’s an empath too, she doesn’t need to know everything to know he’s struggling. Just being with her (he offers to help with chores to have an excuse to talk to her), comforts him. Not just because of her Quirk.

She, of course, thinks the problem is yesterday’s fight with Koutarou. So she kindly tells her son that maybe seeing things from another perspective may help get a better grasp at his own.

Tenko knows what she means, and scoffs. “He never tries to look at mine, why should I be the one who does?”

His mother ruffles his hair and smiles kindly.

“Your father loves you more than anything, Tenko. You’re more alike than you think. You didn’t inherit that stubborn head of yours from me!”

“Tenko, what I’m trying to say is not that you’ll change your mind… just that things might appear a little clearer if you give your father a chance.”

“Mh”

Nao gives his grumbling son a kiss on the head.

Tenko thinks about this. And when the school term finishes, he decides.

He’s going to try to challenge his views on Heroes by knowing his father better. So he accepts an internship at the family company for the summer (Koutaro’s been trying to convince him to come for years). Koutaro is happy that Tenko finally accepted his guidance.

The weeks of summer pass. Koutaro and Tenko end up spending pretty much every day together. Koutaro is not much of a chatterbox, but neither is Tenko, really. They spend their lunch breaks together. Koutaro hands Tenko the newspaper pages he’s done with while they eat.

For once, Koutaro is proud of him. Tenko can feel it irradiating from him. It’s nice. This is the calmest, most peaceful period of the Shimura household.

Spending so much time with Koutaro, Tenko does, in the end, develop a new understanding for his father. Tenko’s Quirk works so that the more he knows a person, the better he can read their feelings. Slowly, the ball of poison in his father’s heart starts to unravel, and Tenko understands the depth of his father’s fear of being alone. Tenko gets that. Yeah, it sucks when you feel like you’re alone. Father must have suffered so much when his mom abandoned him.

When he indulges in Hana’s recounting of her secret research on their grandma in her room, he’s left with a bad taste in his mouth.

He gains a new appreciation for his family, and by working with him at the company also of the sacrifices Koutaro made for them.

The itch though won’t go away. It burns back any time he feels like talking to his father about his dream, how it’s changing, about his thoughts, about how annoying and snobbish the sons of his colleagues are, every time he feels like he can’t explain to him why he likes his own friends better. Any time he feels like telling him the truth, but knows this peace they achieved doesn’t feel safe enough to do so.

Deep down, he doesn’t want to ruin this.

At night, Tenko keeps doing secret research on the system. He finds out that it pretty much self feeds the conflict between heroes and villains without really investing in preventing crime, or rehabilitation. Once you’re a Villain, you’re a Villain forever, and many just go back to do crime once their sentence is finished. Not that social stigma gave them much choice. He investigates propaganda and its mechanics, on the HPSC. He starts to gather all the articles he can find on Villains.

Koutaro eventually finds his material, UA flyer included, and accuses him of lying to him. Of “betrayal” if you will.

“I thought you were finally listening, I thought I finally got you to understand, and yet here you are-“

Tenko comes back home to find, horrified, all his stuff waiting for him on the dining room table, his father furious. The rest of the family has faces that vary from resignation to compassion for Tenko, to a little bit of fear.

“I am understanding dad, I really am- I know you suffered. I want to make you justice. I’m seeing you. Please, please, you have to trust me!”

Tenko decides he might as well come clean. He’s not lying. Maybe he can make him understand. He took the first step after all, right? He’s desperate to be understood.

“Let me be a hero. I’ll be better than them. I’ll make it better. I promise.”

Despite his newfound distaste for the system, Tenko still hasn’t given up on the world. He’s seen it, with his friends at school, sometimes all it takes is giving people a space where they can be themselves. Where they feel seen for who they are. He knows it now.

That’s the kind of Hero he wants to be.

For everyone. For his father too.

Koutaro doesn’t accept this, the fight escalates.

Koutaro eventually loses control and slaps Tenko again. Hard.

The kid hits his face against the edge of a table and his lip breaks, bleeding profusely. (like the scar he has in canon). It falls on his chin, stains his shirt and hands.

They are both stunned, and everything is silent.

Everyone in the house is watching.

The whole of the family, Hana included, is petrified by surprise and terror.

To Tenko’s Quirk, everything feels so confused, so overwhelming. His heart is like a lump in his chest, heavy and filled with everyone’s fear. His father’s anger. His own.

His own resentment. Nothing changed. Hana’s looking at him from the other side of the room, petrified, in tears. So do the others. His mom looks so sorry.

Tenko has had it.

He snaps. And it all finally comes in the open. Fuck compassion, fuck understanding, fuck living under rules that protect everyone but him.

He yells at Koutaro he’s nothing but a selfish man who pretends to be doing everything for them, when in reality all he does is protect himself. He says he wants what’s best for them, he wants them happy, well guess what, we’re all miserable, “and it’s your fault!”

Tenko turns to the rest of the family. They are silent. He turns back to his father, who’s speechless.

Koutaro breaks the silence, and tells him that if he doesn’t like his rules he’s free to go.

How funny. Like Tenko didn’t know that that would be the worst thing he could do to Koutaro.

Abandon him.

The rest of the family is still quiet. The lump in Tenko’s heart is growing heavier.

“Then I’ll go.”

And he starts walking.

As he’s about to cross the door, Koutaro seems to realize that he’s serious, and suddenly grabs him by the shoulder. It is a strong grip, and Tenko suddenly feels with his Quirk a deep, childish desperation that the man behind him refuses to voice. Coming straight from that poisonous stain in his heart.

He can’t stand being under that tempest anymore. He can’t stand having to bear its weight anymore.

He turns, and fully knowing what he’s doing, tells him that he hates him, and that he’d gladly be anywhere else than under the same roof as him.

Koutaro is deeply hurt and angry, so is Tenko. He’s let go and told not to come back.

The rest of the family finally acts and tries to stop them, but Tenko is already out. And doesn’t turn around.

From here on, Tenko is by himself on the streets. A school dropout, struggling to survive, feeling useless. He couldn’t save anyone. He was nothing but a hypocrite.

he had used his quirk to hurt someone, his own father. In his most vulnerable spot, nonetheless. He has hurt everyone. He won’t dare show his face back again.

It was him. It was always him.

The broken cog, his father was right. He’s the cause of all trouble. He was selfish and stupid.

How could he think himself so special he’d be the Hero who never ignores someone else’s pain, he couldn’t even respect his own father’s.

He won’t go back.

(Despite blaming himself, he still really wishes the rest of the family would have helped.)

*Of course his family is crushed, they try to get him back, they call the police and everything. Eventually they hear from Tenko who communicates to them that he has no intention of coming back. And that he’s sorry.

But if they won’t help him, then he has to find his own way. (He doesn’t tell them that he secretly feels they’d be better off without him. After all, the period of time where he stopped being himself was when the house’s aura was calmer. His itch was his own, always had been.)

During his years alone in the streets, he lets go of the ideal of the lone, inspiring hero he’s been taught in school.

He takes a good look at himself. At all the privileges he always had, safety, people who would protect him, status, and fully learns what life is like without these things. How hard it is to get support outside of family and connections.

A long time passes.

He slowly builds something for himself. He knows many villains and outcasts in his time as homeless, he makes friends who help him out.

He finds work in an illegal bar, gains enough money to manage to join a programming course. He gets his hands dirty, sometimes has to do things he’s not proud of to survive.

In his twenties, he gets back in contact with Hana, his mom and grandparents, but with his father things are still complicated. Koutaro won’t forgive him for leaving. Tenko isn’t proud of the intentions he did so either, but refuses to be the one who takes the first step again.

Maturing, he’s learned that having access to people’s most intimate feelings means nothing, in the end. It’s people’s trust, their desire to share with you, and the fact that people are willing to listen, that really shows change. That really helps. And to do that, people must feel like they’re all on the same level. Like they are respected and acknowledged. Like what they feel and say matters to the one they’re speaking with.

But that takes time. It can’t be done on the battlefield.

He has many contacts in the underworld, and works as a freelance journalist to share stories of isolation, discrimination, poverty that lead to villainy. He also takes programming commissions and such. Sometimes streams, cuz why not. It all helps gaining influence.

So he becomes the kind of hero he wants to be: not a fighter, not a saviour, just the kind of guy who speaks when he sees bullshit, who’s always there for you even at your lowest point, who won’t judge and will offer you company without invasive questions.

He’s not pure, his actions (the people he doesn’t report, or sometimes even hides) are not fully lawful, or absolutely right. But his work is meaningful, even if it means being hated by the public.

He’s starting to gain people’s attention due to his disrespectful attitude and characteristic dry sarcasm.

“Where there’s a rash, let them scratch”

[lightlycareless]

Heyy !!

I just wanted to request if you could write something about Naoya punishing us🤭😭 you can choose why he’s punishing us cuz I don’t have any ideas ;)

And like I was rereading some chapters of your fic with Naoya and omg like , your writing is really good I literally felt in a romance book , the way you wrote each character is amazing too and I just really appreciate your work I hope you will keep writing it 😭

Heya anon!!

Of course!!! I actually had to think a bit as to how he'd punish us... or more like how I would write it, since these are two things I'm not really that experienced with yet (Naoya is always rough, I mean, when does it become a punishment? or so that's my perception lol)

But I eventually settled with something I wanted to try :) I feel like Naoya would really love doing something like this when he's not that involved with you (He's busy lmao)

Anyways, here are the warnings: slight exhibitionism? One of Naoya's brother's got very unlucky. Use of vibrators, plugs, or so. kind of dub-con if you think about it, Naoya is also a manipulator, you're an enabler. Minors DNI!!!

Now, without further a do, happy reading!

“Y/N, are you…  alright?” After much debate, a member of your staff member, Mariya, says after silently observing the rising fluster of your cheeks or the slightest hesitation in your usually nimble hands.

“Ye—yeah.” You murmur, taking breath and exhaling. “I’m just overwhelmed, that’s all.”

“Oh, are you sure you don’t want to take a break?” she suggests, which you deny almost immediately by shaking your head.

“No, I just—I’ll be fine.” You insist, and Mariya begrudgingly lets you continue, attempting her best to move past her concern and focus on her duties.

But when she sees you struggle on the simplest of tasks yet again, she’s quickly reminded that more than helping you complete your duties, she’s there to ensure your well-being; so, after relegating part of your responsibilities to nearby staff, and essentially forcing you to accept this change, Mariya leads you onto your bedroom, intending to let you rest and recover—

Until bumping onto Naoya on the way there, who after taking a quick glance at your dismayed appearance, immediately relieves Mariya of her obligations and takes you to the bedroom himself.

A gesture she takes with great elation, glad that your husband had always been attentive to you—no doubt in her mind that you’re in much better hands now…

If only he weren’t the reason behind your ailment.

“So much for holding decorum, my love…” he says upon firmly closing the door behind him. A tone so threatening, you quickly turn around to face him and spew out your defense.

“Naoya—I wasn’t—Mariya didn’t—” you gasp.

“No, I get it.” He says. “She’s your friend, your loyal companion, someone that gives you security. Were you intending to gang up on me with her, perhaps? Use her to avoid the inevitable?”

“What? N—no…!” you fretted, he closes the distance between the two. “Nao—ya—”

“On the futon—now.”

You obey immediately, making your way over to the futon and taking a seat just by the edge, fingers fidgeting amongst with other before mustering enough courage to glance up to him, flinching when seeing the smirk on his face, the indication his following acts would be nothing but etched with dark intentions—

Something you were nothing but fearful, and unprepared to face.

“You know what you ought to be doing, princess” Naoya says as he walks over to you. You try your best to move away from him, far and safe from his retribution…

But too deep into your own terror, all you could do instead is whimper as you remained there, anxiously taking in the scrutinizing way his eyes scan your body.

If he noticed the result of such struggle, he did not say. Yet, it wouldn’t take much to guess that your reaction, far from offending him, would only excite him.

“Don’t act all innocent now, it’s unbefitting of a whore like you.” He frowns. “Do not make me repeat myself.’

Pushing through the fear and embarrassment your following actions were to provide, your hands carefully grip the edges of your kimono skirt and lift it, effectively revealing the culprit behind your shaky morning, a sight that makes Naoya’s satisfaction grow, kneeling to your level so he could get a better look at the situation you’ve gotten yourself in—

All because you were a needy princess for attention.

Filling your cunt, was a vibrator that had been diligently working the moment Naoya placed it within you early in the morning—faithfully keeping you company throughout your various duties while he cruelly played with its settings from afar.

He’d either give you a false sense of comfort by lowering the vibrations, almost undetectable, enough to allow your mind to dwell onto other matters… before reminding you of your naivety by rising it to the maximum and forcing you onto disconcerting consequences.

There was no way Naoya knew where you were, or whom you were with when alternating between settings, but you wouldn’t put it beneath him to have found a way to do so—specially with what happened earlier: to the moment you were pushed dangerously close to the edge, a simple matter of enduring few more seconds of stimulation before coming undone—

And right before one of his brothers, the most innocent of all: Naofumi.

At that, you couldn’t help but suspect Naoya knew what you were doing all along, carefully planning the moment where Naofumi would naturally worry if you were ok, if you’ve perhaps been struck with an unprecedented sickness, and if there was something he could do to help you…

Before finally placing the pieces together the longer your heavy breathing went on, as the color in your cheeks deepened.

Once evident, Naofumi quickly excused himself and sprinted past the door, into the hallways and away from the scaring image of his sister-in-law having an orgasm right before him.

Oh, Naoya would’ve undoubtedly killed to see something like that.

But for now, he supposes he’ll do with what he has now.

“Fits you quite well, doesn’t it?” he says, fingers teasingly sliding across the edge of your lips, giving them a light pull and getting a better view of its lovely pink color, before licking his lips at the way your bud twitches, eventually refocusing on the other equally cruel part of this intricate arrangement:

A nicely fitting plug placed in your ass, capable of stimulating your greedy rim through various vibrations, yet decorated with a beautiful shiny pink jewel—because a desperate princess like you still deserved only the nicest.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to satisfy your needy holes, but of course, my beautiful wife can never disappoint.”

Unless, of course, when you did.

“Naoya—” you whine, invertedly pushing your hips into his touch, crying when he pulls away. “Naoya please—”

“Are you serious?” He laughs, as if he couldn’t find your behavior any more amusing. “Didn’t you have enough today? You still want more?”

“I want—I want you—” you breathe, trying to rub your legs together, his hands stop you.

“Of course you do, slut.” Naoya spats. “Can’t get enough of that can you? It’s how you got into this situation, after all—because like the desperate whore you are, you always have to be looking for someone to fuck you.”

“No— No Naoya.” You frantically shake your head, before trying your best to reach for him—Naoya pushes you back. “I only want you!”

“That’s not what it looked like that day.” He growls, releasing his grasp over you, soon hearing his pants unfastening—the sight and sound sends a jolt of heat towards your cunt, making you clench in eagerness. “Don’t lie to me!”

“I would never—ah!” Naoya shuts you by landing his hand against your cunt, a loud slap and a stinging aftermath leaving you to ponder on your supposed lies. “I could never—I could never do that! —I love—”

But your words weren’t ones he could consider truthful anymore, not when he’d seen the evidence with his own two eyes:

The infuriating image of you gleefully laughing alongside his brother, the most insufferable of all, Naoaki, when he’s told you countless times to keep the fuck away from him.

Sure, he could admit knowing you were only being amicable for his sake, upkeeping your reputation as respectable lady of the house and honoring all that Naoya has worked for—but it still angered him, in such way many wouldn’t be able to comprehend, not even in the slightest, because just as he knew you, he also knew his brothers.

Saw right through their envious intentions, their jealous, lustful motivations.

Which only fueled him to let everyone know you were his.

That he’s the one you married, the one he’s claiming every single night, filling with his seed, chanting his name like it was some kind of prayer, and soon—carrying his child.

Seems a reminder is long overdue. And what better way to do so than continuously putting you through a state his foolish brothers could only dream of achieving…

But to Naoya, all he had to do was ask.

“I love you” you whimper when he pulls out the vibrator from your cunt, swiftly and without warning, leaving you empty, yet eager, for you wholeheartedly expected this agonizing void to be replaced by his intoxicating warmth…

You’d get it, of course, but not the way you anticipated, nor wanted—for Naoya would tell you that in order to obtain what you desired, you’d have to convince him you’re worthy of his cock, the pleasure you’ve been agonizingly longing for, even when overstimulated—

And like the ever-dutiful wife, you’d oblige, taking his member into your mouth and eagerly bobbing your head up and down his shaft, doing your best to show just how much you loved the entirety of him—from the tip of his head, to the prominent vein on the underside… there’s nothing more blissful than to be filled to the brim with his hardness and seed.

When feeling him close to his release, through the familiar sound of his shaky voice, tightly shut eyes as his head is thrown to the back, while heavily grunting just how good you’re making him feel, you tried to pull away from him, make him reconsider finishing inside your cunt instead.

But once more, you weren’t to receive such blessings—not when you had yet to comply with the cruel requirements of said punishment—so instead, Naoya simply pulls you back to his cock, nose against his pelvis as he does one, two, three more thrusts before emptying his seed into your mouth.

You moan at the warm strings flooding your throat, hands tightly clenching at his legs as you do your best to fight against the choking sensation his intruding member forced onto you—but as difficult this task was, your mind could only focus on the fire underneath, and the desolation you were dying to ease—

“N—No, Naoya…!” you’d cry when realizing that the only time he’d touch your cunt was to fill you with his seed but void of the pleasure he’d always given you when doing so. Instead, relegated solely to preserve his future heirs, safely guarded deep into tight walls and sealed with the same vibrator as before, to ensure nothing goes to waste. “It’s not—It’s not fair!”

A cry that makes him smirk, before his face turns sour at seeing your hands reach for your bud, undoubtedly seeking release through your own merits, him quickly peeling it away.

“If you touch yourself one more time—I’ll have you walk naked around the estate!”

There’s sincerity behind his tone, all the intentions of keeping his words if you fail once more, clear in his eyes.

And thus, without putting up a fight, you sorrowfully accept his condition, tears in your eyes as you’re bound to face another hour yet again without coming undone through the care and warmth of your husband.

Though Naoya would remind you that his actions aren’t of a cruel man, but rather, of fair one, by pressing a kiss on your cheeks, lips wiping away your tears as he sweetly reassures you…

“Just don’t do it next time, ok?” Naoya coos as he places a soft peck onto your lips, you continue quietly sobbing. “You know how I feel when you talk to my brothers… do you really want it to be like this, always?”

You shake your head.

No, of course not. You’d rather die than make your husband upset.

“Then be a good girl and do as I say.” Naoya carefully grabs your face, making you turn to him—watery eyes looking up to his surprisingly soft, promising ones. “Can you do that? Can the future mother of my children obey me?”

At the promise of becoming the mother to his heirs, your heart flutters, a soft smile appearing on your lips before eagerly revealing your response.

“Yes.”

A guarantee that would briefly provide a glimpse of your undying loyalty towards him, willing to do not only that, but more—from keeping your hands away from your burning cunt, eyes stray of all men but him, to eagerly taking his seed and only his seed, preparing for the day you’d announce you were with child…

There was nothing you wouldn’t do for Naoya. Happy to accept your punishments for actions you weren’t even aware of…

As long as you had his love.

I was actually upset that I didn't write y/n wearing a vibrator/plug on this oneshot over here, like, commit to it, you know?! That would've sent Naoya over the edge waaay earlier.

Also, thank you so much for your lovely words!! I'm so glad you're liking my fic so far :') It's always such an honor... and I've long promised myself that even if it took me a while, I will finish it!! I have to... I owe it to myself and y'all....

Anyways, thank you so much for sending in this ask!!! :> I hope it was worth the wait! I got to write something I wanted to try out... hehe. Totally worth it.

Now, take care and hope to see you soon ❤️

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Something to pay attention to is how Tenko and Touya grew on this kind of families that followed the traditional role of the father as the leader of the house, holding the power, making the rules and the choices, while the mother was relegated to a second place of caring for the children in the terms the man stipulated and keeping the house in order.

Rei and Nao were treated by her husbands more like subordinates taking orders than mothers that should have equal saying when their kids and their house are related to the problem. Whenever you are trying to study the Todoroki and Shimura family, you need to acknowledge they had a bad power dynamic based on misogyny and strong patriarchy.

Nao and Rei were victims of their husbands too, explicitly in Rei's case and implicitly in Nao's case. In both stories is mentioned that Enji and Kotaro held all the economic power of the family, which if you remember is the main reason behind Rei and Enji's marriage happened, and a (probable) factor behind why Nao's parents didn't interven for Tenko's sake, since it was not their house per se but Kotaro's. In both cases we can appreciate the way Nao and Rei are ignored and dismissed as authorities in their own houses, treated as more an employee than you know, a woman who has equal part as a head of the house. And in both cases the story goes as far as to show us how Hana and Fuyumi couldn't get Touya and Tenko's pain beause they didn't receive the same treatment from her dads, which was not a good thing at all but rooted in their misogyny; Enji and Kotaro'd ignored their daughters too, not caring if they were as rebellious as their sons, because in their minds the girls were just girls and well, they weren't a big threat. Hana resorted to lying in fear of her dad punishing her and becoming invisible almost whenever her dad was mad, while Fuyumi was pushed away early on and had to fulfil the mother role once Rei couldn't be there anymore.

That is the house Tenko and Touya grew up in, that's the house that abused them and their mothers and their siblings for years and years. Tenko says it explicitly: this's the house my father made, and Touya calls out his mom when she tried to act as an authority in the house: I know you married my dad for money and we are simply experiments so don't act like you you have any control here. It'll do you good to you all to remember the kids do not know their mothers challenged their fathers for them, they feel betrayed by their moms without understanding their situation or why things are like that (they are only kids!) and Rei and Nao were not perfect, they have a part in how things went down, but you can never ever compared them to her husbands without acknowledging any of this.

[yingdu-lover]

This is gotta be my favourite thing of all 2025

this is the kind of thing that makes me go like "bhogoban tule nao nahole moi dao uthe jayi" but this is the most accurate description of what happens when you abuse too much weed empty stomach on 31st December night.

This has to be the most creative expression of homophobia I have ever seen in my entire life.

Imagine saying : is it morally wrong to date someone who is your 'hantur boyoshi chhele' and simultaneously 'tor dadu hoy' ?

Forget Vein, this is the punishment for lu guang to change the past. etai dekhar baki chilo. na mane-

Yingdu so gay that homophobic people are coming with THIS level of creativity. I am not angry, I wholeheartedly want to be part of that creative discourse ™

I called my friend and she said, " even you can't match that creativity" ☠️😭 oh my god

[bnhaobservation]

Thank you for answering! Man, you were fast.

As usual you put things in a cultural perspective that gave me lots of food for thought, so thank you a lot for being so thorough!

However, I forgot to clarify that I meant Afo being influential to Koutaro’s parenting as someone who’s posing as a friend.

Of course Afo the villain was the main culprit of Koutaro’s psychological issues!

My perplexity comes from the fact that Koutaro let someone outside of the family, even though he thought it was a friend, talk him into harmful behavior. His abandonmemt as a child might be a factor here, since he probably doesn’t really know what to expect of a parent not having had any.

My interpretation of Koutaro’s problems dealing with his family having started not from heroes, but from not being able to fulfill his dream to have a happy family due to unrealistic expectations, came from the fact that Afo’s modus operandi has always been shown to be using tools that are already there. But, it’s true that that’s just a guess not supported by text. There is little to no material to understand how much Koutaro’s attitute changed when Afo entered the picture as an advisor.

I’m trying to give a characterization to Koutaro for a project of mine and how much his “friend’s” advice was relevant in how he acted with the family is complicating things a lot! 😵‍💫

(Ps, we all definitely agree that Tomura should have gotten the chance to punch Afo a lot more for what he did :)

I wish I could always be fast but sadly work decided to get in the way. Still I'm glad I was of some use with my reply!

As for your current ask there isn't really a canon answer but I can offer two theories.

The first is that AFO is, supposedly, really good at manipulation. This means he can easily trick someone into doing what he says, even when that thing is wrong, if that person's guard is low or he's psychologically vulnerable.

Kotarou is psychologically vulnerable due to his psychological wounds. I can see AFO trying to pose as a father figure and Kotarou ending up thinking that he's not talking to just someone he knows, or to a friend, but to his father.

Also in a would that worship Heroes, AFO instead is against them, supporting Kotarou's view and Kotarou probably felt he needed such support.

The second is that... did Kotarou even realize it was harmful behavior?

In Japan parents were banned from physically punishing their children solely in June 2019 (after children died due to corporal punishment) but the act came into force on 1 April 2020. What this means?

This to give you an idea of how, when that chapter came out (July 2019) the Japanese government has just accepted hitting children was harmful behavior but the law isn't yet in force.

Japan isn't strongly against physical punishment, compared to it corner time in the Shimura's private garden should have seemed a tame option to Kotarou, not harmful at all.

It's also worth remembering children of third-year elementary school age and below can be left unsupervised. A 2023 attempt at changing it due to unsupervised children dying was met with severe criticism nationwide so that in the end nothing was done. This to say that if parents can think it's okay to leave children outside the house to play and not be concerned, leaving Tenko in a private garden shouldn't have felt that bad.

It's all a matter of cultural perspective.

Plus Kotarou seems to be an anaffective man (which can be something that happens when a kid is abandoned). We never see him smiling or being tender with his family. We only see him being cold with them, strict and firm. Kotarou wants a home full of joy, he wants a happy family but he's unable to create it.

While everyone else feels bad for Tenko, he remains cold, unaffected. When Tenko's Quirk will be triggered, Nao will run to him even if she understands it's dangerous, Kotarou will hit him to keep him away from himself, giving him a longlasting scar.

It's not that he doesn't know how a parent should act, Kotarou is a psychologically scarred man who never healed and, as a result, his responses aren't what we would call 'the norm', which makes easier for him to act in such a way.

That's also why he gets so angry after his kids see his mother's photo. It wasn't such a big crime and yet he couldn't control himself. He knew he should have but he couldn't.

As sad as it is, Kotarou is not a man who should have a family because he is unable to take care of it, beyond providing for it economically.

I think he would have liked to do more, I think he really wanted a joy-filled family, but he wasn't capable to act in the necessary empathic and understanding way with it, plagued as he was by his own unhealed psychological wounds, that give him a warped perspection of the world.

But all those are my speculations. Maybe he had good days with his family and Horikoshi just chose not to show them. We'll never know.

Thank you for your ask and good luck with your project!

[journeytothewestresearch]

Yu the Great and Sun Wukong's Staff

This is my answer to the following reddit question:

Did the Ruyi Jingu Bang, as a tool used by Da Yu, exist before the novel?

Monkey's golden-hoop iron staff can be traced to the khakkhara and iron rod respectively used by his precursor in the 13th-century JTTW. The story doesn't mention anything about Yu the Great. The demi-god's connection to the staff is, as far as I know, unique to the standard 1592 edition of JTTW.

This association probably came about in a couple of ways. For example, there is a Chinese graphic similarity (and possible totemic connection) between Yu and a specific kind of monkey:

The generic Chinese primate names have identical pronunciations or spellings to those of the earliest Chinese emperors. For instance, the character 猱 (Nao) is considered as the ancestral name of the royal family of Shang dynasty (商朝 ca. 1600–1050 BCE) (Cao, 1997; Wang, 2001). This word is used to denote a primate species that is good at climbing. Similarly, the character 禺 (Yu) represents a long-tailed monkey. This word is the same as the character 禹 (Yu), a legendary emperor well known for his brilliance in regulating floodwater (Huang, 2011). This association between primates and the earliest emperors indicates a possible totemic status for primates (Niu, Ang, Xiao, et al., 2002, p. 91).

(The aforementioned Yu (禺) monkey was apparently well-known, for it is referenced several times in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing, 山海經, c. 4th-century to 1st-century BCE), a popular Chinese bestiary, in order to indicate the shape and size of certain primate-like animals (Strassberg, 2002, pp. 83, 84, 91, 99, 104, 122, 123).)

Also, Yu is known for imprisoning Wuzhiqi (無支奇 / 巫支祇), a monkey flood demon, beneath a mountain in Tang and Song-era folklore. This likely influenced Sun Wukong's punishment under Five Elements Mountain.

Therefore, all of this probably led to the author-compiler of the 1592 JTTW associating Monkey's staff with Yu the Great and his efforts to end the world flood.

Sources:

Niu, K., Ang, A., Xiao, Z. et al. (2002). Is Yuan in China’s Three Gorges a Gibbon or a Langur? International Journal of Primatology, 43, 822–866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-022-00302-1

Strassberg, R. (2002). A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. University of California Press.

[r3dblccd]

God called

Message from God to Nao: "I-it's not like I like you or anything! Baka!"

Nao: "Is He trying to mock me??? Look at yourself first, old man!" *rolling up their sleeves ready to fight God of all beings bc you know they would* (God is exposing them for being a tsundere, and an idiot one at that) (at least He didn't tell Nao to have gay sex this time,iykyk)

Message from God to Takumi: "Make a contract with me and become a magical girl!"

“The number you have dialed is incorrect” (HE GOT THIS NOT ONCE BUT TWICE NOW, THIS IS STRAIGHT UP FATE, AT THIS POINT SEI IS MANIFESTING IT FOR SURE @sturmboe)

Message from God to Mrithun: "We're shorthanded, would you like to work as an angel?"

Mrithun: "Is this a joke? You are a little late for April Fools." (but if it's for his beloved angel he might consider it. MIGHT)

Message from God to Abaddon: "Let's＼(・ω・)／にゃー！"

Abaddon: "OMG, YES!!!~\(≧▽≦)/~" (I'm making a canon that they are besties even though she has fallen now)

Message from God to Minsung: "Gonna deliver you some divine punishment in a sec."

Minsung: "Jupiter that's you, isn't it, what are you even talkin about???" (this was not intentional to have two of my muses think of yours, Star, I swear! @caelcstis djfgdfg But I remember Jupe saying something similar) (also Zach pls go grab your child, Michael go grab your annoying cousin, they're being weird again, they are trying to fight God)

Message from God to Yongsun: "Wanna go on a date in Heaven this Saturday?"

Yongsun: "How about you go fuck yourself?" (I am so sorry about his behaviour to all Ch.ristians, and not only his)

Message from God to Azazel: "I'm always watching over you, but... you're boring."

Azazel: *TRIGGERED* (actually, I think God's got a point, if we ignore him being annoying, doing sick tattoos and graffiti and driving a bike. )

Message from God to Azalia: "Running server maintenance on Earth. Pardon the downtime"

Azalia: "Not even one competent creature in this universe. *sigh*" (except her girlies, they're all perfect)

Message from God to Arthit: "Would you like to become the next God?"

Art: "Good choice to pick me. Hmm, it's an attractive offer, but I would have to decline, I am already someone's God and I only have time for them. *wink*" (Plus their fae would most definitely protest against it and Arthit wants to have time for them)

+other muses under the cut bc I love these generator games

Message from God to Amethyst: "Try a little harder..."

Amethyst: "I already did😩"

Message from God to Andrea: "We're coming for you."

Andrea: "Wait, what???"

Message from God to Astrid: "Heaven or Hell?"

Astrid: "Honestly, neither."

Message from God to Blue: "Believe in me who believes in you!"

Blue: "Okay??? I guess???"

Message from God to Casey: "Stop watching anime and start working already."

Casey: "I thought you would have preferred if I watched anime over work." (next on Jigsaw: Billy the Puppet visits Japan to join forces with the toys from the Paprika movie to take over the world)

Message from God to Claude: "I am your father."

Claude: "You are everybody's father, even of the evil creatures, we've known for centuries, it's nothing special.

Message from God to Elaine: "Get to work!"

Elaine: "Don't tell me what to do!!!"

Message from God to Eris: "Clean your room!"

Eris: "You should say that to Nyx and Dennis, just saying."

Message from God to Hwayoung: "I am disappoint."

Hwayoung: "Yeah, I would recommend you first learn how to write sentences."

Message from God to Jakah: "Sorry for creating you all weird."

Jakah: "A little too late for that."

Message from God to Tai: "I'm always watching you ＜●＞＜●＞"

Tai: "... Are those supposed to be your eyes or your boobs?"

Message from God to Jin: "How about we do the Big Bang if you know what I mean?"

Jin: "How about not being a weirdo?"

Message from God to Jinkyong: "are you wearing any underwear right now?"

Jinkyong: "Don't even try, not to be a stereotypical witch, but I will turn you into a frog."

Message from God to Jum: "Release your full power!"

Jum: "But what does that mean? How???😭"

Message from God to Kali: "Sorry, something went wrong when creating you."

Kali: "Figured."

Message from God to Luca: "Stop looking at porn and start working already."

Luca: "Hey, I had a long day, leave me alone!"

Message from God to Moon: "I know what you've been doing at night."

Moon: "Yes - sleeping." (he gets zero bitches)

Message from God to Soojin: "(」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！"

Soojin: *★,°*:.☆(￣▽￣)/$:*.°★* 。

Message from God to Stella: "I-I've always liked you... please go out with me! ///"

Stella: "... No."

Message from God to Toi: "You've won $50,000 CLICK HERE!!! (<-it's just spam)"

Toi would have clicked, he's so gullible, pls don't do him like that😭

[halogenwarrior]

I was really fascinated by how Mo Yan’s Life and Death are Wearing Me Out takes the Buddhist concept of stubborn attachment to things keeping one in a cycle of suffering, by actually using a plot device of Buddhist afterlives and reincarnation, and does something of a (in TvTropes style-terms) deconstruction and then reconstruction of the concept, first showing how stubbornness can be virtue and even a heroic or redeeming quality in a world where it is easier to accept cruel changes for one’s own greed and benefit, and adaptability can be cowardice, but showing in the end how it cannot be the ultimate solution and the Buddhist view has wisdom after all.

The beginning of this book plays on the typical trope of a wealthy, grouchy, unlikeable type of person reincarnating into an animal (in this case, multiple animals in a row) as a punishment and being forced to learn humility. Except while Ximen Nao is certainly proud, judgmental and spiteful of his enemies and fits into the archetype in a lot of ways, his reasoning for continuing to declare his innocence even under torture by lord Yama is far more sympathetic than is typical for that archetype.. It is a protest of the inexplicable, monstrous injustices of earth being seemingly repeated in the afterlife, by beings of supposed justice. However likable or not he seems as a person, his point that he did his best to not take advantage of his prosperity to harm others and even went out of his way to help the less fortunate, yet is still executed on trumped-up charges and thrown in the box of other more tyrannical people in his position for being a landlord, is a strong one. Yama can claim to be detached from the earth’s justice, but the very act of trying to teach people to eradicate stubbornness and accept change without attachment would seem to encourage those unfortunate enough to be victims of the earth’s justice systems to accept being trod upon and groundlessly declared guilty; in effect, such a system appears to just be a patsy for whatever the earthly systems of the time are.

So throughout his first two animal lifetimes, Ximen Nao starts by refusing the drink that will make him forget his struggles, so he can stubbornly maintain his human memories and resentments, and struggles between his human mind bitterness about being forced to be an undignified animal and the animal mind and qualities he takes on, which are more happy and accepting of the life he leads. And he finds a partner in his resistance to the changing times, Lan Lian, who he serves loyally both as a donkey and as an ox. Lan Lian fights hard to be the only independent farmer in China, despite opposition, and this is where the antithesis of the Buddhist idea, the nobility of stubbornness, becomes clear. If Ximen Nao bewailed his execution and his loss of wealth and status that came with reincarnation, but then easily adapted to doing whatever he could to have as much pleasure and wealth (metaphorically, if we are talking about him as an animal) as he could in a new life in China’s new system, then it would only be his personal, self-serving loss that he complained about and there would be no nobility in it. But by stubbornly taking a stand, even enduring horrible torture to do so, instead of taking the first opportunity to rebuild his own happiness, it shows his objection is based on a greater principle, and this lends at least the appearance of virtue to his actions. And this thread climaxes at the end of Ximen Nao’s second life as an ox, where his loyalty to Lan Lian and refusal to work for the commune to the point of a horrific death makes him be seen by the people of his village as a sort of Buddhist folk hero. The paradigm the book started out with, of reincarnation to learn to adapt and not be attached, is inverted, and stubbornness is seen as the Buddhist ideal.

This theme is seen not just in Ximen Nao and Lan Lian, but in other characters who similarly stick to their ideals even at the cost of personal loss. Hong Taiyue, in being a true believer in communism not just when it gives him power and allows him to lord over and punish others but when he sees the world giving lipservice to his ideas while following capitalism and forgetting what they once believed in, is possessed of a certain virtue that Jinlong, who equally uses communism as an excuse for cruelty but takes the “easy route” of betraying his father to rise in the ranks and adapts with the time to capitalism when this allows him to remain wealthy and politically powerful, does not. With regards to Lan Jiefang, we have the author inserting himself into the book as the perpetual gadfly Mo Yan explicitly stating the paradox of stubbornness – abandoning his family for an affair with a much younger woman is undoubtably cruel, but in being completely stubborn about it and willing to sacrifice everything he has – a home, prestige, the love of his family – for it, he also proves to be not just a common person “trading up” for a younger, prettier woman for personal gain, and by showing he values a principle more than personal gain he becomes, in the fictional Mo Yan’s semi-ironic view, a hero.

Another thing I think is interesting in the narrative framing’s handling of stubborn characters is that it never resorts to telegraphing a stubborn character’s righteousness by giving them an air of enhanced dignity even when the world judges them, with those who threaten them getting a “pie in the face” by the narrative even as they maintain their worldly power. No, to be stubborn is to invite the ridicule of not just earthly powers but of a universe that demands adaptability, regardless of what your cause is. Even if, like Lan Lian, in the future your endurance will survive and prove those who tormented you wrong, in the long time before that your suffering will not be noble and tragic but pathetic and darkly comical, like in the scene where he gets red paint in his eyes. Hong Taiyue, Lan Jiefang, Ximen Nao in his dealings with the afterlife, all get to fall flat on their faces for their attempts to resist. (Even the author inserting himself into the story not only gets humiliated constantly by the narrative, but gets just about the worst humiliation of everyone). 

In the second half of the book, Lan Lian and Ximen Nao are set up as mirrors of each other, two beings who started in the same place with the same goals but must take different paths. Because Ximen Ox sacrifices his life in a display of unyielding courage, and is praised as a Buddhist model for it, and then… life still goes on. Due to the cycle of reincarnation there is no climactic apotheosis of nobility that ends everything, and it is impossible to remain in his stubbornness forever. Lan Lian goes on with his determination, Ximen Nao must adapt to his new life as a pig. And in the short term, this is a form of corruption; when Pig Sixteen can no longer bear to starve himself in protest and allows himself to just live and enjoy life as is natural for a pig, abandoning his human judgment of it being humiliating, he grows crude and greedy. He does not just eat, he pushes aside his siblings and leaves them to starve, and mutilates his mother by the fervor of his suckling. He takes everything from Diao Xiaosan and leads to the rival pig’s downfall due to his desire for a harem. In eating and fattening up, he is considered a revolutionary pig, by being an emblem of the success of farming he is a “cannon launched into the reactionaries”, even as ironically his harem is compared by the narrative to that of an emperor. This makes it clear that whoever is in power, the ideal person (or pig) in their society is someone who is greedy for more and, should their victory be thwarted, adapts to the new system and seeks physical success and pleasure within it rather than stubbornly resenting what they have lost and taking a principled stand. 

But in the last sections of the book, it becomes clear that Ximen Nao’s spiritual fulfillment does not depend on remembering his stubborn values again at all. Without reverting to that state, in fact while becoming even more adaptable and fully embracing his life as a pig, he feels regret for his treatment of Diao Xiaosan and grows to love and respect him, and he ultimately dies to save children, even those he had no connection to in his human life, feeling nothing but warmth and happiness about how his life ended. And this is where the ultimate vision of the book becomes clear. For while it is true that if one is of the temperament to value storing up physical goods most in life, reacting to losing those goods unjustly by fighting for the principle that it was unjust is more noble and heroic than taking the cowardly route of abandoning principle to continue to flourish, why should one assume that this temperament is the best way to live life in the first place? 

The alternative to both stubbornness and greed that the book proposes can be described as something like melancholy. It’s a perspective that first comes to Ximen Nao during their time of starvation in the winter as a pig, one he admits is unfamiliar to him until that moment because he is “not a melancholy pig” – a perspective where one’s appreciation of life is more complex than just feeling gratified when you get money or food or a harem and feeling bitter and resentful when you do not, where even sadness and loss has its value. And it’s one that reaches its climax during the scene near the end where, as a dog, he sits by the graves of all of his previous lives and feels a bittersweet sadness, mixed with love and acceptance, over his old memories, showing how much he has changed. And it is shortly after that where Yama, acknowledging he has let go of his hate, allows him to once again be reborn as a human. In the end, the vision of stubbornness in this book is that of a “local maximum” so to speak, a mode of existence that is the best, most heroic representation of a blunt mindset without melancholy, but one that must eventually be escaped for true enlightenment, because that mindset as a whole must be escaped. The only way out is through, then, through greed and cruelty and into something better.

[lovinkiri]

More Than A Wild Cat, Chapter Five

Author's thoughts: I hope this is received well! The Hex and Hatasu scene is actually my favorite!

Warnings: Swearing, implied murder, implied trauma/PTSD, mention of torture, etc.

OC Credit: @jix-the-dragon

Art Credit: @.jabberwockyface

Sasha sat at the edge of the coffee table in the common room, her arms folded tightly across her chest. She wasn’t looking at anyone, her amber eyes distant and lost in a sea of memories. It was clear to her classmates that whatever she had been through had left scars deeper than any villain’s attack could ever, and they hated it, especially Eijirou.

He walked over and sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder,his eyes gentle but serious. “You don’t have to tell us if you’re not ready,” He said softly, kissing her head.

“No,” Sasha said, her voice low but steady. “I need to. You all need to understand what they really are. The Commission... they don’t care about heroes. Not the way we’re taught here, not the way you think.”

She paused, as if choosing her words carefully. The weight of what she was about to say hung in the air. She didn’t what she spoke of to affect her friend’s dreams, or to make them feel hopeless. Still, she didn’t exactly want to sugarcoat her own experience.

“When I was younger, they found me. The Commission recruits promising kids who show potential early on. They asked if I wanted to be a agent. They barely gave me a choice.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “They asked me if I wanted to find my parents, and I did. They said that it as the only way. I was enrolled in their training program before I even knew what was happening.”

“That sounds... intense,” Denki muttered, his usual carefree tone replaced with unease. 

Sasha nodded, her gaze hardening. “It was. The training wasn’t like UA’s. It wasn’t about making you stronger or better. It was about breaking you down. They push you past your limits—mentally, physically. Day after day, they forced me to fight, to hone my Quirk until I could barely stand. And if you failed? They’d make sure you regretted it.” 

“They... punished you?” Ochako asked quietly, her voice filled with shock. She wasn’t the only one who was already concerned as to where the story was going.

Sasha’s lips twisted into a bitter smile, and her gaze seemed to glaze over for a moment. “Punished isn’t the word. It was torture. They’d isolate you, deprive you of sleep, food. They’d put you in situations where you had no choice but to fight for your life—against simulations, sometimes against other trainees. And they’d watch. Always watching, recording everything. It was all just... experiments to them. To see how far we could go before we broke.”

Izuku’s eyes widened in horror. “That’s inhumane! How could they—”

“They wanted perfect agents,” Sasha interrupted, her tone sharp. “Not heroes. They wanted weapons they could control. They didn’t care about what we wanted. They didn’t care about what it did to us. We weren’t meant to be adored and cheered for. We were meant to get the jobs done that the public couldn’t handle. That the heroes couldn’t handle.”

Todoroki’s voice was cold when he spoke. “They treated you like tools. Like a means to an end.” That was something he knew well, and it seemed Sasha had experienced it to the extreme.

Sasha nodded slowly. “Exactly. I wasn’t Sasha to them. I was ‘Agent Wild Cat.’ Just another agent in their system. They tried to erase our identities, made us believe that being a hero was about following orders, no matter how wrong they felt. We were trained to act without thinking about morals or our own feelings, to obey, no matter the cost.”

“What about Naomasa?” Eijirou asked, wondering where Sasha’s guardian had been this entire time. Sasha could understand, that seemed like a pretty obvious question.

“Don’t be too hard on, Nao. I made his life hell until he agreed. Just like everyone else, of course he had faith in them, it hadn’t even occurred to him that they’d do all the heinous things they did,” She sighed, laying her head against Eijirou’s shoulder. “And he still doesn’t know.”

“You didn’t tell him?” Bakugou grunted, finally speaking him with a look of disbelief. “We’re findin’ out before him?”

“I’d just tell him I was spending the night at the agency, which wasn’t a lie. I was spending the nights to get ‘punished’, but I couldn’t tell him.” She looked up to meet his gaze. “How could I? He’d have done everything in his power to get me out. And, fine, that sounds right now. But back then? I was a child, and I was fairly new to living in Japan, and I was missing my parents. It felt like the only choice I had.”

Momo, who sat across from her on the couch, placed a hand on her knee. “Sasha, why didn’t you tell him after you left?” She asked softly, not wanting to make Sasha feel like she was being blamed for her own suffering.

Feeling her intentions, Sasha smiled and placed a hand over hers. “How are you supposed to tell someone something like that, knowing that they’d only blame themselves. I don’t know how to tell him.”

Eijirou gently rubbed her shoulder, holding her close to him. It broke his heart to see all of the apin she had been carrying. It was no wonder she had a bad habit of keeping secrets. It was the only way she’d been able to protect the people she loved from getting hurt all this time.

They gave her a moment before they asked her anything else, and she appreciated it. She hadn’t realized this would be so hard to talk about after so many years. For a while, she’d suffered from nightmares after leaving the commission, but those had died down. She figured that was a sign that those memories had  no hold on her anymore. 

God, she hated being wrong about these things.

Then came the question that was on everyone’s mind for a long time now. A question no one had really had the nerve to ask. “Did you ever—” Denki began, but Sasha cut him off. She could tell from his expression, he wanted to know if she’d ever killed anyone.

“They trained us to be perfect agents,” Sasha said, trying to keep her voice calm. She really hated talking about this, but it was about time she did. “But that wasn’t just about learning how to fight or survive. They taught us how to follow orders without question, to carry out missions no matter what... even if it meant hurting people. Civilians, sometimes. Other agents. Anyone in the way.”

Her words hit the room like a punch to the gut. They had already known the answer, but hearing it from her was something else altogether. No one could imagine what it must have been like, being manipulated into being a soldier who hurts anyone.

“I’ve hurt a lot people,” She said, her voice wavering a bit this time. “People who were scared, confused, just trying to live their lives. And I did it because I was told to. I didn’t question it for too long. It was easier not to.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “They told me it was for the greater good, that it was necessary for peace and order. And for a long time... I believed them.”

Ochako’s eyes filled with sadness as she reached out, her voice soft. “Sasha, that wasn’t your fault. They conditioned you—”

“But I still did it!” Sasha snapped, surprising herself with the force of her words. Her whole body tensed, her emotions finally spilling over as she spoke faster, her voice growing more frantic. “I can’t just say it wasn’t my fault and walk away from what I’ve done. I still see their faces. Every single person I hurt. I remember the way they looked at me, the fear in their eyes.”

Sasha’s eyes burned with unshed tears, her breath coming in short, ragged bursts. “And every night... I would see them in my dreams. No matter how hard I tried to forget, they were always there. Haunting me.” She looked away from them, hoping that it would aid in hiding these feelings she’d kept locked away. 

The room was suffocatingly quiet, but the weight of her words hung in the air like a storm cloud. Sasha could feel their eyes on her, but she didn’t want to meet them. She didn’t want to see the judgment, the disgust that she thought surely must be there.

“I dont have those nightmares anymore, not often anyway, but I don’t need to be asleep to be reminded of what I’ve done.” She paused to wipe her amber eyes, though that didn’t stop her from tearing up all over again  I try to tell myself I’m different now, that I’ve escaped, but... those things I did... they’ll never leave me.”

Eijirou’s voice, surprisingly calm but firm, broke the silence. “You were manipulated, Sasha. Used. They twisted you into something you weren’t meant to be.” He said, nuzzling his face into her hair. 

Sasha shook her head, her voice dropping to low murmur. “But I let them. I let them turn me into a monster.”

“No,” He said, his eyes fierce. “You’re not a monster. Not now, not ever. You were forced into something terrible, but you chose to leave. You chose to be better. That’s what matters.”

“What if I can never make up for what I’ve done? What if those faces never go away?” Sasha bit her lip to stop it from trembling. 

“They might not,” Todoroki said, his tone somber but full of understanding. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to heal. I’ve done things I regret too... things I can’t take back. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying to be better.”

Eijirou continued to speak with a quiet intensity, fiercely believing in every word he spoke. “You’re here now. You’re in UA because you want to learn to be a real hero. That’s what counts. You didn’t let them break you.”

Sasha finally looked up, her eyes shining with unshed tears. The sight broke Eijirou’s heart into a million pieces. It wasn’t often Sasha cried, so this must have been bothering her for years. He should have asked sooner. “But what if it’s too late? What if I’ve already done too much damage?” She asked, leaning into her boyfriend.

Bakugou, who had been silently listening for the most part, scoffed. “Too late? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” He stood up straight, his hands shoved into his pockets, but his voice was serious. “We’ve all screwed up at some point. Some more than others,” he added, glancing toward Izuku with a solemn, almost apologetic, look in his eyes. “But you don’t stop fighting just because you’ve got some dirt on your hands. You keep going. You keep moving forward.”

Izuku nodded in agreement. “Kacchan’s right. Being a hero isn’t about being perfect. It’s about making choices that count now. You can’t change the past, but you can decide what kind of hero you’re going to be from here on.” He spoke in that voice that made everyone admire him. That voice full of conviction, the one that made everyone feel like they could move forward.

Sasha looked around the room, seeing not judgment in their faces, but understanding. Compassion. Even from Bakugou, in his own abrasive way. She had braced herself for rejection, for them to see her the way she sometimes saw herself—a villain masquerading as a hero. But that wasn’t what she found in their eyes.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself,” Sasha said softly, “but... I want to try. I want to try to be someone better. Someone who makes the people around them proud, not sad. Someone who saves people and doesn’t hurt them.”

“And you will,” Izuku said firmly, a determined smile on his face. “Because you’re not alone in this anymore. You have us. You have everyone, Sasha.”

Eijirou smiled down at her softly and pulled her into his lap for a bear hug. His big, strong arms felt so loving and reassuring, enveloping her like a security blanket. “We’re all trying to be better, one day at a time, babe. That’s what makes us heroes.”

Tears finally slipped down Sasha’s cheeks, but this time, they weren’t just tears of pain. She quickly moved to wipe them, letting out a emotional laugh. “Thanks, everyone..  You guys mean so much to me.”

Todoroki gave her a small nod, his expression softening. “We’ve all got our demons, Sasha. But you don’t have to face yours alone. Like Izuku said, you have us. So lean on us sometimes.”

…

As Sasha stepped out of UA’s main building, the cold autumn air hit her like a wave, but she didn’t mind. After the heavy conversation with her classmates, she needed space to think. Her thoughts swirled like a storm in her mind, but the crisp air helped clear it, even if only a little. She’d only shared a part of her past, she knew this wouldn’t be the first conversation they had. 

Baby steps.

They let her go, but not without hesitance. Eijirou didn’t want to leave her alone, but she’d said she needed space, so he wouldn’t deny her. He just hoped that she had truly started to believe what they said. That she wasn’t out there beating herself up, and that she could heal now.

The campus was quiet now, the late afternoon sun starting to disappear behind thick clouds. As she walked along the path that wound through the training grounds, she took a deep breath. Her classmates were right. She wasn’t "Agent Wild Cat" anymore.

That name had once filled her with purpose, but now it only brought memories of pain, regret, and the broken person she had been forced to become. No, that wasn’t her anymore. It had been years since she walked away from the Commission, and every step she took was a reminder that she had left that part of her behind.

Now, she was "Namir."

“Namir,” she thought to herself, letting the name roll through her mind. It was who she chose to be now. A hero who fought for hope, not for orders. She was no longer an agent for someone else’s twisted vision of peace. She was her own person��a hero trying to make things right.

As if the universe had decided to match her mood, the first raindrops began to fall from the gray sky. Sasha felt a cold drop land on her cheek and looked up as the rain began to pick up, soaking through her clothes almost instantly. She sighed, shaking her head with a humorless laugh. “Just my luck,” she muttered.

The sky opened up, the rain falling harder, and for a moment, she stood there in the downpour, feeling the weight of the water on her shoulders. She had expected to feel more alone out here, but oddly, she didn’t. Maybe it was the conversation, or maybe it was the fact that, for the first time in a long time, she knew she wasn’t carrying her burdens alone.

The sound of splashing footsteps broke through her thoughts. She turned around, blinking through the rain, and saw a group of familiar figures approaching her, huddled under their umbrellas. Bakugou, Denki, Sero, Mina—and at the front, holding the umbrella high with his seemingly unbreakable smile, was Eijirou.

“Sasha!” Eijirou called out, his voice filled with warmth. “Are you okay? We came to find you, you shouldn’t be just sitting out in the rain.”

Mina gave her a playful pout as she stood under the umbrella. “You didn’t think we’d just let you brood out here all by yourself, did you?”

Sasha felt a smile tugging at her lips despite the rain. Eijirou came closer, holding his umbrella over her head to shield her from the rain, the others crowding around as well.

“Come on, dumbass,” Bakugo grumbled, though his voice lacked its usual sharp edge. He stuffed his free hand in his pocket, looking away. “You’re gonna catch a cold if you stay out here.”

Denki shot her a thumbs up, grinning at her brightly. “We can’t have you getting sick, Namir! You’ve got hero training and well… Now you’ve got to train us. Something tells me we’re gonna need our new teacher.”

Sero nodded, balancing on the balls of his feet as he looked up at the umbrella. “Besides, the rain’s not gonna make things better. Trust me, we’ve all tried that at one point. You just end up cold!”

She laughed, a real laugh this time, the kind that felt like having a weight lifted off of her chest. It wasn’t loud or dramatic, but it felt... right. “Thanks,” she said, her voice softer than before, her heart warming at the sight of her friends gathered around her. And then her eyes drifted up to Eijirou. He gave her that encouraging look that always seemed to make everything just a little bit better.

He took her hand in his, squeezing it gently. “You’re not alone anymore, Sasha. We’re here with you. So let’s get out of this rain, yeah?” He suggested, tilting his head. 

Reaching up, she cupped his cheek and gently brought him down, pressing a loving kiss to his lips. Eijirou seemed to pause, surprised by the sudden action, before returning the kiss. She could hear the others “aweing” and whispering, excluding Bakugou who gave an exasperated groan. 

She pulled away after a moment and grinned up at him. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m thinking some hot chocolate or some of Momo’s tea sounds good right now,” She suggested, squeezing his hand back and linking their fingers.

As the group made their way back toward the dorms, the rain continued to come down around them. Sasha walked close to Eijirou, feeling his steady presence at her side, but it was Bakugou’s voice that broke through her thoughts.

“Oi, Cat,” Bakugo called out, glancing over at her, his voice gruff but not as loud. “I get it, y’know. About having regrets.”

Sasha blinked, surprised that Bakugou, Explosion Boy, of all people was about to open up. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. Kirishima and the others listened, too, a little curious about where this was going.

Bakugou shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, his eyes fixed on the ground ahead. “I’ve screwed up, too. More than once. When I was younger... I was a real asshole to Izuku. Like, way worse than I was when we first met. Treated him like trash, like I was better than him.”

Denki and Sero exchanged glances, clearly not expecting this level of honesty from Bakugou, but no one interrupted him.

He huffed, almost embarrassed. “Looking back on it now... it’s pretty damn humiliating. The guy was the only real friend I had, and I treated him like crap. Didn’t realize it at the time, but that... it’s one of the things that haunted me.”

Sasha’s eyes softened. She hadn’t expected Bakugou to admit something like this, and she could feel the weight of his words. Even Bakugou had regrets, and they were clearly still with him, just as hers were.

“But here’s the thing,” Bakugou continued, his voice growing firmer and his gaze getting sharper. “You’ve gotta move on from your screw-ups, or you’ll never get better. If you let that shit hang over you forever, you’ll always be left behind. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not planning on being left behind by anyone.”

Sasha couldn’t help but smile. The way he said it was classic Bakugou—rough around the edges but real, and his message hit home. She chuckled softly, feeling lighter than she had in a while.

“Aww, you big softie,” she teased, playfully bumping his shoulder.

Bakugou barely had time to react before her nudge sent him flying, his feet slipping out from under him as he fell backward into a large puddle with a loud splash. The water and mud splattered everywhere, covering him from head to toe as he sat up, looking absolutely furious.

For a moment, there was dead silence—then everyone burst into laughter. Kirishima doubled over, clutching his stomach, while Mina and Sero pointed at Bakugou, tears of laughter streaming down their faces.

“Oh man, Kacchan! You okay down there?” Denki wheezed between fits of giggles.

Sasha stood there, her hands covering her mouth as she tried and failed to stop laughing. “I-I’m so sorry!” she said, barely able to speak through her laughter. She stepped forward, offering her hand to Bakugou. “Here, let me help you up.”

Bakugou glared at her but took her hand, pretending to accept the help. Just as she began to pull him to his feet, his lips curled into a wicked grin. Before she knew what was happening, he yanked her down with him, sending her tumbling face-first into the mud beside him with a gasp.

Now it was Sasha’s turn to be soaked in mud. The others exploded into fresh laughter as she sat up, covered in muck, her hair plastered to her face. She blinked, shocked for a second, before a grin spread across her face.

“You jerk!” she laughed, shoving Bakugou, which only made him smirk.

“Payback’s a bitch, huh?” he said, leaning back with that smug expression.

Sasha couldn’t help it. She lunged at him, tackling him back into the mud, laughing as they wrestled in the puddle. The others cheered them on, Mina and Denki practically rolling on the ground from laughter.

Kirishima shook his head, smiling fondly as he watched the scene unfold. “Well, that’s one way to cheer up. I’ve got my bet on Sasha!” He joked, wiping tears from all the laughter.

Eventually, Sasha and Bakugou sat up, both covered head to toe in mud but laughing nonetheless. Sasha wiped the grime from her face, still smiling as she looked at her friends– Her family. They weren’t just classmates anymore; they were people who cared about her, and in this moment, despite everything she’d been through that day, she felt a sense of peace.

…

Sero grinned. “At least you’ve got a new style going on, man. I’d say the muddy look really suits you. Might wanna add it to your hero suit!” He teased the ash blonde, pomeranian like man.

“Shut up,” Bakugou growled, but there was no real bite in his words. Even he couldn’t help but fight the urge to crack a smile.

When they entered the dorm, the rest of Class 1-A was lounging around in the common room, and immediately, everyone turned their heads. The moment they saw the state Sasha and Bakugou were in, the teasing began in full force.

“Oh wow, you two look like you had a fun time outside,” Koda joked, grinning from ear to ear. “We were worried about you when it started raining.”

Jirou smirked, shaking her head as Denki sat beside her, putting a wet arm around her shoulder “Yeah, the mud wrestling championship came early this year.”

Sasha rolled her eyes but smiled. “Alright, alright, laugh it up. We’re going to shower.”

Eijirou laughed along with everyone but gave her a warm smile as she walked past. “We’ll wait up for you, Sasha.”

She gave him a quick smile in return before heading to the showers, grateful to wash off the mud and the heaviness of the day. As the hot water poured over her, Sasha let herself unwind, her muscles relaxing after everything that had happened. The mud and the tension from earlier seemed to wash away down the drain, leaving her feeling lighter and happier. 

A good shower really could do wonders for the soul.

Once she was done, she dried off and pulled on a pair of Eijirou’s old sweatpants and one of his shirts, the soft fabric and his familiar scent comforting her more than she could explain. Her hair, still damp, was tied back loosely, and her leopard tail swayed gently behind her as she walked to her room.

When she opened the door, she found Eijirou waiting for her, sitting on her bed with a bright smile that immediately warmed her heart. His crimson eyes lit up when he saw her, and his whole face beamed as soon as he saw her face. “There she is,” He said softly, standing up and walking over to her. “The national muddle puddle wrestling campion.” 

Sasha smiled, feeling her heart swell at the sight of him. She padded over to him, her bare feet quiet against the floor. “Hey,” she said, her voice gentle. “I’m all clean now.”

Eijirou grinned, his eyes dropping to the shirt she was wearing. “You look good in my clothes,” he said, a soft chuckle escaping him. “But you always look good.”

She laughed softly and playfully nudged him. “Charmer.”

Without saying anything more, he gently took her hand and guided her onto to the bed with him, sitting her down. He moved behind her and started running his fingers through her tail, carefully brushing out the damp fur. His touch was gentle, calming, and Sasha felt herself completely relax under his care.

“Mmm, that feels nice,” She murmured, leaning back slightly as he continued to brush her tail. His touch was always so tender, so full of love, and she felt safe with him—like all the weight she carried melted away.

Eijirou’s hand moved gently, brushing through her fur as he leaned forward slightly, his breath warm against the back of her neck. “You deserve to relax, Sasha. You’ve been through a lot... I’m proud of you for facing it.”

Sasha’s heart fluttered at his words. She leaned into him, her back resting against his chest as she tilted her head back to look at him. “I couldn’t have done it without you,” She said softly, her voice full of sincerity.

His eyes softened as he looked down at her, his hand still resting on her tail. “You’re stronger than you think, Sasha. I’m just lucky I get to be by your side.”

The warmth in his voice and the loving look in his eyes made her heart swell. Slowly, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, his lips lingering there for a moment before he pulled back just enough to look into her eyes.

Sasha gazed up at him, her heart racing as they shared a moment of perfect peace, their connection deeper than words could express. She reached up, gently cupping his face, her thumb brushing over his cheek as she whispered, “I love you, Eijirou.”

His smile grew even brighter, his eyes shimmering with warmth and adoration. “I love you too, Sasha,” he whispered back, his voice full of emotion.

And then, slowly, he leaned down, his lips meeting hers in a tender, loving kiss. It was soft at first, full of warmth and care, but it deepened as they held onto each other, the world fading away around them. In that moment, it was just the two of them, wrapped in each other’s love and the comfort they brought one another.

When they finally pulled away, Sasha rested her forehead against his, her heart still racing but filled with happiness. Kirishima smiled, his hand moving to brush a strand of hair from her face, her gorgeous face. 

“Whatever happens,” he whispered, “we’ll get through it together.”

Sasha smiled back, her heart full. “Yeah. Together.”

And with that, they settled into the peaceful quiet of the evening, wrapped in each other’s warmth as the rain outside slowed to a gentle patter.

- “Yasei no neko” Apartment Complex, 11:38 PM -

In a dimly lit, rundown apartment, the faint glow of a single lamp flickered, casting long shadows over the peeling wallpaper. The apartment was bare, save for a few chairs, a rickety table, and a dartboard nailed haphazardly to the wall—Sasha’s face glaring back from over the bullseye. Agent Hatasu sat in one of the chairs, his posture calm and collected. Across from him, his partner Hex paced back and forth, his movements jerky, restless, the sharp gleam of a pocket knife twirling between his fingers.

“I’m telling you, we should just grab her,” Hex growled, frustration etched onto his expression. “Drag her back to the Commission and force her to comply. Torture if we have to. It’s the fastest way to get her in line.”

Hatasu looked up from the old notebook in his lap, his cold, calculating eyes meeting Hex’s fiery gaze. His expression didn’t change—no anger, no annoyance, just that same unsettling calm.

“That method,” Hatasu began, his voice smooth and measured, “is far too messy. You’re thinking like a thug, Hex. Sasha—Namir—isn’t someone we can simply break. Not anymore.”

Hex scoffed, his temper flaring. He hated how composed Hatasu always was, how nothing ever seemed to rattle him. And he hated how he referred to her as that “stupid” name, Namir. “She’s soft now,” Hex spat. “All cuddled up with those idiot hero wannabes. She’s not the agent she used to be, but she could be. We break her spirit, remind her who she really is, and she’ll come crawling back.”

But Hatasu only smiled faintly, closing the notebook and setting it aside with deliberate care. “And if we break her? Then what? A shattered agent is no use to the Commission. No, we need her intact—mentally, physically, emotionally.”

Hex scowled, clenching the knife tighter. He hated this part—the waiting, the subtlety. It wasn’t his style. He wanted action, and he wanted it now. “So what, then? We just wait for her to come back?”

Hatasu stood slowly, walking toward the dartboard with an eerie grace. His fingers traced the edge of the dartboard, right over Sasha’s printed face. “We use what’s already in her heart. The loss of her parents... it still haunts her, as it should. We keep planting the seeds, reminding her of the pain, of the guilt. Eventually, she’ll look to us for answers.”

“And then?” Hex snapped, his impatience barely contained.

Hatasu turned, his eyes gleaming in the low light. “Then, we offer her the one thing she wants most in this world—closure. We make her believe we can give her that. And when she trusts us enough... She’ll come back of her own accord.”

Hex rolled his eyes but couldn’t entirely dismiss the plan. Hatasu’s methods were slow, sure, but they were often effective. Still, the idea of waiting pissed him off. He needed action, violence—he needed to make her pay for leaving, for thinking she could turn her back on the Commission.

With a frustrated snarl, Hex threw his knife, watching as it embedded itself with a thunk right between Sasha’s eyes on the dartboard, and right between Hatasu’s fingers. Still, the close-call didn’t mean anything to either of them. “I still say we should just take her out. But fine. We’ll do it your way.”

He crossed his arms, glaring at Sasha’s image as if it were the real thing. “But I swear, I’ll get her one way or another. Just wait and see, Wild Cat.”

Hatasu simply smiled that cold, calm smile. “Patience, Hex. Our time will come.”

[fatestouch]

[...]

"If you were anyone else, you'd probably be punished, eavesdropping on the royal family like that~..." Nao approaches with an easy grin, leaning on the wall next to Hayden with a hum. "Rumors are already starting to spread."

[I'm not surprised... even the most loyal servants can be chatterboxes.] A roll of the eyes. [No one's guessed who the other parent is, though. Which is the best case scenario... let's hope we can keep it that way.]

"...You still don't like Princess Allisae for what happened, huh?"

A silent sigh. [I have nothing against her personally, but it was because of her, indirect or not, that Prince Azrael was hurt. And now with this baby...]

"You're worried. I know." Smiling, he takes one of Hayden's hands in both of his own, pressing a kiss to the redhead's knuckles. "But that's why we're here, you know? Why you--High Healer, the Crown Prince's advisor, and most importantly, my husband--are here. To make sure our prince makes the right decisions. Now there's just one more person under that protection."

He deflates then, head falling to rest on Nao's shoulder. [...I don't want to see him like that again, Nao.]

The knight hums as he winds his arms around Hayden's waist. "Neither do I. That's why we just have to make sure anyone and anything that dares hurt our prince, pays the price~"

[rosehippiefield]

Mental strength part 5: Kai and Q-Taro

The other posts on this topic:

Part 1: Sara and Nao

Part 2: Reko and Alice

Part 3: Kanna and Shin

Part 4: Keiji and Gin

Part 6: Joe and Mishima

We reached characters that die in main story no matter what: devoted assasin that killed only one person and baseball player with a dream that couldn't be brought to life. But the fact they are no longer around does not mean they didn't display strength.

Kai had it rough from childhood if not from birth: his only objective is to kill. He is an assasin, a tool, but a naive child does not understand that, still fighting for father's approval and affection. Mini killing game with Sei shaped his core beliefs: due to death of foster brother he was incapable of murder. Imagine being under pressure of a enourmous criminal organisation and refusing to do what is essentially the reason of bringing you up or keeping you alive. The more dire situation is, the harder it is to remain good person, says wise Mishima in YTTS conserning Kai's past and is absolutely spot on. When on a mission, Kai decides to betray Asunaro for the sake of new found family. It would be a genuine bond if not for Mr. Chidoin's likely trickery (as fandom and I believe), so in fact our merciful assasin is loyal to wrong person. His bravery was punished as he is put in same death game with oblivios protege Sara. In desperate attempts to save his live and her reputation he makes mistakes, putting nails in his own coffin (Who knew that suspicios-looking guy with familiar scarf pattern wasn't with Asunaro? Who knew that he has already read info, making pointless whole frying pan ordeal? Oh well). Kai clearly doesn't want to die, and yet he accepts unavoidable with dignity. His suicide was not despair but hope itself, an act of defiance against unfair and cruel game and prevent yet another horrific execution. You certainly have to have guts to do that. All in all, despite upbringing and nightmarish situation Kai managed to keep his strength and pass it on to the group.

Q-Taro with his healthy (or not entirely) egoism seems to be strong, and not only physically. This giant is going to do anything for survival, discarding anybody else. But begining with chapter 2 he began to waver. Sure, he considers leaving with 200 tokens, there's a gameover where he accompishes it. Still, his guilt for causing Kai's death, for giving laptop to Shin due to blackmail, for not being able to press the button for Gin's sake for a long time - all of it builds up and weakens his resolve to win as individual but to work together toward common goal. In Alice's route Q-Taro manages to take remaining shots instead of Gin - an indication of change. Then, in second main game Q-Taro does not vote for Kanna, who is deemed useless (debatable, but his motivation is simply "You can't vote for a child"). And we all know about his chapter 3 development. Big guy is stabbed and instantly forgives his attacker, fully understanding her. He is the one to unite two groups with objectives entirely different. In logic route Q-Taro gives Sara a deep speech about sins after Yabusame death. Finally, his ultimate camouflage with coffins makes cry not only Gin. "I wavered", "It yielded...", "Even now I feel like I could die for you" - is it really weakness to waver, to fight your instinct? Maybe one could say Q-Taro gave up, refusing to follow survival urge, but I prefer to think his priorities just shifted like with many other characters. Because in no way burning alone with a stab wound, just to give a group a chance to win against enemy, is a weakness and not a noble act.