#rescuing Shiki

[fionnalovesanimeboys]

Weizs really did saved Shiki 😭

[intoxicated-chan]

Oooh how about Yandere Miguel who locks his s/o away in an apartment like place (it's actually really nice) that's hidden somewhere in the spider society headquarters that only he knows about because he's extremely possessive and he's afraid of them getting hurt. Since they are just a regular human being, there's not much they can do about it. When he checks on them he's all loving and sweet but he's still very controlling. Maybe Miles or Gwen accidentally finds them and attempts to rescue them and Miguel gets PISSED.

Don’t Think You Can Escape

✿ฺ Paring ➳❥ Miguel O’Hara x F!Reader

✿ฺ Summary ➳❥ Miles and Gwen continue to run from the Spiders, but at a dead end, they come across something neither of them knew.

✿ฺ (A/n) ➳❥ Inspired by “Love Taste feat. Jamie Paige & Shiki” by Moe Shop. I’ve got an announcement! Celebrating the movie’s release, I will be releasing my own Miguel O’Hara book! Be on the lookout. Anyways, requests will remain open for a few more days before I close them. You guys have the best ideas!

✿ฺ Word Count ➳❥ 2.6k

✿ฺ Content Warnings ➳❥ Female reader, angst, pet names (Amor, baby), blood, bruising, branding, violence, talk of marriage, threats, death, choking…

“This way!” Gwen shouted, dodging the incoming webbing from the other Spider members.

Miles followed her closely, following her and taking turns that she thought she was familiar with but it led them to a dead end. His head snapped in the direction of their shouts.

Gwen’s gizmo was tossed a while ago, realizing that there may be a chance of a tracker, she didn’t want to take any chances.

“What now?” MIles heavily panted, their voices getting louder by the second.

She takes a second to think, she places her hand on the wall as support but it lights up. She could hear rumbling on the other side, like something turning. She pounded her fist against the metal wall and it was clear that it was hollow.

“Miles, help me open this.” She said.

“Are you sure?”

“We don’t have any other option.”

“Alright then.”

Miles stood on one side and Gwen on the other, they both used their webbing to force the hidden, metal doors open. Both of them loudly grunt as the doors slowly opened.

“One three.” Miles nodded, “One… Two… THREE!”

The two simultaneously jump in at the same time, practically tackling each other. The doors slammed shut with a loud bang and soon, they could hear other voices up against the door. It made his heart drop, yet he relaxed when the voices dispersed.

Gwen stood up first, taking off her hood and mask to take a good look around, “What is this place?” Miles asked her.

She hesitated in shrugging, “I’m… I’m not sure. I don’t think I saw this place on the map.”

“Didn’t think the gizmo had a map.” He stood as well, “Could it be another sector?”

This time, she shrugged, “It clearly wasn’t labeled, otherwise we’d be caught by now.”

“Okay then, what now?”

Gwen looked forward and into the dark but barely lit tunnel, “We keep moving forward.” She walked into it.

“I’ll follow your lead.” Knowing that Gwen knew the headquarters better than him.

The two walk through the long, narrow hallway. It made Gwen shiver and keep her guard up. But she kept her sights forward, following a light that seemed to be peeking out from under the door.

Their footsteps rang and Miles swears he could hear his heart racing. As much as he enjoyed a break from being chased, he began to worry. What happens now? How will he get out? What about Gwen?

All kinds of questions raced through his head… Was either of them going to get out of here?

“Miles!” Gwen looked back at him, worried, “I know that you’re panicking but I need you to focus, everything will be alright.”

“Will it?” Miles huffed, arms crossed, “You saw how freaked Miguel was. There’s no way out of this, I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

“Hey, we’re in this together. Okay?”

Miles takes a deep breath, “Okay.”

“Besides, we can think of something when we’re inside.”

Miles stopped in his tracks, “Insid-?” A door. Windows, a few feet from the door, pitch black and barred.

“I think this might be the place Peter was talking about.” Gwen smiled, walking up to the door.

“He knew about this?”

“It’s more like suspected. He saw Miguel disappear a couple of times and believed he had a secret place to get away, this must be it.” Slowly she twisted the doorknob.

Miles reached out and grabbed her wrist, “Then are you sure we should be sneaking into a place where Miguel visits.”

“I said suspected. It’s a chance this may now be it and besides, he’s too busy running around the base looking for us.” She ignored Miles’ protest and opened the door, it was unlocked, “Now that’s suspicious.” She mumbled.

The two enter the room. Both of them were awed.

It was like a normal home, furnished well, like any other home. The home smelled freshly cleaned, but plates and cups were set on the table, like someone was expecting guests. While Gwen looked around the rooms, Miles’ attention was to the photos.

It was Miguel, along with a woman. He followed the array of photos. At first, the woman seemed to be happy but as the photos went on and on, he could see it in her eyes… Fear, fear and more fear.

“I always knew Miguel was crazy but-”

“No.” Gwen immediately retorted.

“Didn’t you see the photos, he’s obviously obsessed with this woman.”

“It can’t be him.”

Miles sighed, “Gwen it’s him. This is probably the home to bring her to the base.”

“That’s the thing, she’s already here.” Gwen pointed to a room, “I saw her when looking around, sleeping soundly, too soundly.” It remained silent between the two.

His head snapped to the direction of the door opening, “Hide!” She harshly whispered, pushing Miles into what seemed to be a guest room, and shoving him into the closet.

Miguel entered the home with a heavy huff, slipping off his mask and his hair puffed up a little. He runs his hand through his hair a couple of times before calling out, “(Y/n)! I’m home!” But all he is met with is silence.

But that’s when he hears the slow footsteps, “Miguel?” You groggily spoke, “You’re home early.”

“Actually, I’m home on time. Did you sleep?” You tiredly nod, “Did you just wake up?” You nod again, “Awe, my poor baby.” He cooed, welcoming you in his arms.

But you’re too tired to push him away, the house was freezing and you needed something warm. You felt one hand come to your neck and his claws lightly dragged over where used to be your-

“Where’s your necklace?” He demanded the second he felt the open skin, “Where is it?” He growled.

“I-I took it off.” You managed to say, scared that he may dig his claws into you.

“Why?” His voice was like a growl, dark and deep.

“Because it was hurting my neck, it left a bruise.” You cowered. Your necklace was more like a choker. It was mainly black but it had red and blue stripes, along with gold ornaments.

It wasn’t because of the pain you took it off, it was because his last name was engraved on it. It made you feel worthless, like someone’s property. Before you took it off, you began pulling off the small gold pieces and then when he wasn’t home, you tore it into pieces. Hopefully telling Miguel that you didn’t need it or that there was no need.

“You should’ve told me sooner.” His voice returned to normal as he released you from his arms.

“But I did.” You mumbled.

“Where is it?”

“One the dresser.” You watch him enter the bedroom and come back a few moments later, the choker in hand.

“Must’ve been hurting you a lot.” Miguel can see little droplets of blood left behind, “Don’t worry about it.”

You let out a sigh of relief.

“I’ll get a new one.” Your heart dropped, “I was thinking about it for a while.”

“Do you think I could go with you?” Your hurriedly asked, “If I can chose a-”

“No.” He sighed, “I said it before and I’ll say it again. You stay here, why can’t you understand that?”

“I’ll stay with you-”

“No!” He shouted, “I’ve given you everything! A home, food, clean clothes! Aren’t you grateful for everything I did for you?!”

Your eyes begin to water, “O-Of course I am!”

“Then why don’t you just listen to why I say no?!”

You jump, “Miguel…” You whimper, “You’re scaring me.”

His blood red eyes soon turned to his beautiful brown ones, they softened, “Perdóname, amor.” (Forgive me, love.) One hand comes to cup your face, “It’s just… It’s dangerous out there, you saw it yourself. Remember?”

“I do…”

“I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

“...Why would you hurt me?” You begin to panic, “I-I thought you said-!”

“That I wouldn’t hurt you. I mean it, but when it comes to breaking the rules I set, I must do what needs to be done. I’ll just have to cut off your beautiful legs. Breaking them wouldn’t be enough.” He kissed your forehead, “I’ll be back in a couple of hours. I love you.”

His grip on your face tightens when he doesn’t hear the words, “I-I love you too, Miguel.”

It made him smile widely, “Be patient for me, amor. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

And with that, he’s out of the door. Hearing the doors lock, you’re left alone in the empty and freezing house.

You cry on the spot, finally breaking in fear. Your body felt uncomfortably hot, your breathing became staggered and it felt like you were gonna vomit. Your arms wrapped around your body tightly that your nails dug into your sides. Your chest grew right as you fell to the tile floor. Shaking and hyperventilating, your stomach churned as you remembered his words.

“I’ll just have to cut off your beautiful legs… Breaking them wouldn’t be enough.”

Who knows how long you remained on the ground, all you could do was shake. Your chest stung and your heart raced, you were in pain all over again.

“Um, (Y/n)? Was it?” You let out an audible gasp as you saw the two teens in the room.

You pushed yourself off the ground and hurried away from them, “Wait!” Gwen put her hands up, “We’re just here to help. I’m Gwen and this is Miles.”

“Who are you- How did you get in here?!” You choke on your words, wiping the tears from your red eyes.

“We’re just running from the same man.”

You quickly shake your head, “You guys can’t be here!”

“We would’ve left sooner but… We can’t just leave you here.” Miles kneeled in front of you, “Let us help you.”

“Y-You can’t!”

“Yes we can.” Gwen agreed, “We just gotta pack up and get on out of here. I can get that started. Miles, watch her in case Miguel comes back.”

“How did get like this?” Miles asked, “I saw the photos.”

“...I met him after he lost his daughter and I didn’t think it was right for him to try to get into dating so soon but people grieve in different ways. We were supposed to take things slow but… But he talked about marriage and it made me scared. I tried taking a break but he found me. From then on, it went downhill.”

“I always knew he was crazy.” Miles mumbled.

“He’s great at manipulating people, he owns a business.” You responded. Then you heard a thud outside, “Miles, hide.” You push him away, not knowing where he went.

The door opened and in comes Miguel who doesn’t look pleased, “I heard them.” He starts, “No, I heard him.” He stepped closer, the choker nowhere to be seen, “Where is he?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You clear your throat.

“¡No me mientas!” (Do not lie to me!)

“I’m not lying!” You moved back when he reached out to you, “Please, believe me Miguel!”

“Last time I did, you ran out on me! I have every nerve to not believe you.” He pushed you up against the wall, “Where is he?!”

“Leave her alone!” Miles comes around and lands a clean kick, knocking Miguel off of you, “Are you alright?”

“Miles…”

Miles puts on his mask, “Gwen will be right behind you-!” He dodged Miguel’s webbing, “Just run!” Then he charged at Miguel, taking him head on, “Go!”

You got up and rushed out the door, “(Y/n)!” You heard Miguel, “Get back here!”

You run faster. Your bare feet are padding quickly across the cold, metal floor. Then faster and faster until you nearly run into the wall. Whatever hopes you had are nearly gone when you realize that it’s just a dead end.

“(Y/n)!” You heard Gwen, she lands next to you, “I need you to listen to every word. I’m going to open the door and let you out, but it’s impossible for me to go with you. But! There are others out there, they are willing to help you. Just run and I promise you that someone will come for you.”

“What about Miles?” She hands you to the bag she quickly packed.

“I’m heading there once I know you’re out of there.” Using her webbing, she does the same as before, forcing one side of the door open. She grunts loudly, “Go!”

You jump, tumbling on your feet as you hear the door shut. The sound rang through the base and all that was left was silence. Even on the other side of the door. Nothing could be heard.

You stand, looking around. There was not a single person in sight. But you continued walking, walking, and walking… You continued to replay Gwen’s words in your head, not wanting to give up hope. But slowly it died as you continued wandering aimlessly around the base.

“Lonely isn’t it?” You gasp, freezing in place. You didn’t have to turn around to know who it belonged to, “Just like how it’s going to be when you leave. All alone and there is no one to turn to.”

You scoff, keeping your back to him, “I’d rather be alone for the rest of my life than spend one more minute with you.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes I do!”

“Come with me and I’ll forget this ever happened, we’ll have a fresh start. Or you can continue with these foolish games. You know that you’re better with me than without me.” Miguel sticks his hand out for you to take.

For every step you take back, he takes on towards you, “How will I know things would be different?”

“You gotta trust me to know.”

You breath hitched when you felt your back hit the wall. Miguel towered over you with ease, and you hated the look in his eyes. Sorry… You hated how soft and apologetic his eyes looked. It also terrified you.

“Where’s Miles and Gwen?” You ask him now that he’s in front of you, “Where are they?”

“You have the nerve to ask me that right now?”

“I do!” You retorted, “Now where are they?” You demanded.

Miguel sighs, “They are in a place where they won’t bother us nor say anything.”

“You didn’t!”

“It had to be done!”

“You bastard! They were kids!” You dropped the bag and pushed him as hard as you could which had no effect on him, “They’ve done nothing wrong!”

“You weren’t there!”

“So?! That doesn’t give you the right to kill innocent children-!”

Miguel’s hands came around your neck in an instant, you felt the heavy pressure. Panic sets in, trying to breathe, doing anything you could do to get his hands off and breathe. Your eyes rolled back as your vision darkened. Your attempts to kick or push Miguel off fail.

Then he throws you at another wall, the pressure knocks whatever air was left and he watches you have a coughing fit. You’re too weak to even crawl away from him when he kneels down, “Why must you be so difficult? Why don’t you understand? After all these years, you still don’t understand that I am the only person who will ever love you.”

© 2023 Intoxicated-Chan, I do not allow my work to be copied, translated, modified, adapted, or put on any other platform without permission.

[mageknight14]

What It Means to be Friends: The Differences between Neku/Beat and Rindo/Fret 

I’m feeling in the mood for another TWEWY analysis post and for today’s topic of discussion, this will be centered around Beat and Neku’s friendship in comparison to Rindo and Fret’s own and how they contrast in very interesting ways that are reflective of their respective game's writing styles.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Neku and Beat didn’t exactly get off to the best start in the beginning of their relationship in the original. Hell, if anything, they flat out disliked each other. Beat saw Neku as nothing more than an emotionally distant asshole who made his little sister feel bad for trying to help him out and Neku saw Beat as nothing more than an overly emotional idiot who’s way too energetic for his own good and initially wants nothing to do with him.

There are little cracks that start to form in the walls between them, however, where their respective duos start coming together to help each other out in the Game and they start to form a little friendly rivalry between them. Mostly on Beat’s side since Neku could care less. However, that bit of bonding gets interrupted by a cruel twist of fate: Rhyme’s sacrifice and subsequent erasure. In which Beat, in a mix of grief and desperation to save his little sister, begs to and subsequently joins the Reapers, much to Neku and Shiki’s shock.

And then, Kitaniji asks Beat to do one task to show his dedication to the Reaper cause: kill Neku! (and Joshua). Initially, Beat tries to draw upon his dislike of Neku from the start of the game to motivate himself into completing his task but he just can’t go through with it no matter what, a feeling that only gets worse when Neku gives him Rhyme’s pendant that he dropped, thus invalidating Beat's previous resentment towards him. Seeing Neku go out of his way to return something precious to Beat even after he had antagonized him throughout the week causes Beat to drop his animosity completely and the next time we see him, he’s rescuing Neku from a unwinnable scenario by becoming his partner in Week 3.

From then on, we see Neku and Beat’s dynamic start to become more whole, opening up to each other more and helping the other through their struggles and ultimately culminating with them becoming genuine friends by the end. By the time W3 starts, they’re the only actual Players left in the Game, in the middle of a life-or-death situation, AND have the entirety of the UG after them due to Kitaniji activating Emergency Call. With circumstances like those, it’s no wonder they become as thick as thieves. Beat relies on Neku to help keep his head on straight and set him on the right path so that his temper and rash personality doesn’t end up screwing them over when things get rough, something Beat can't afford whatsoever when it comes to his mission of trying to save Rhyme.

Likewise, Neku relies on Beat to help keep his feet moving instead of allowing him to wallow in his own head when aspects such as Hanekoma potentially becoming the Composer becomes emotionally and be strong enough to catch him when he stumbles and falls. On top of that, he also trusts Beat’s emotional intelligence and honesty in matters such as when Beat convinces him to spare Uzuki and Kariya.

You see this dynamic persist in NEO as well even after all of the time they spent separated, in which Beat is heavily implied to have physically searched for Neku throughout all of Shibuya (remind you of anything?) and even take up some of his aspects, like the headphones, to honor his friend. And considering how Neku has helped him save his little sister and supported him when the chips were down, it's honestly no wonder.

Beat even flat out admits to Nagi that he was in some measure putting up a front to mask his fears and doubts and is quite calmer when Neku is around compared to NEO’s weeks 1-2. Not that his hot-blooded energy is gone but he notably isn’t as prone towards picking fights or shouting. Meanwhile, Neku is out of the loop after having been away for three years but Beat is again there to pick him up where he falters and help guide him around. The two of them are best friends through and through.

By contrast, we have Rindo and Fret, whose dynamic is quite different from Neku and Beat’s but is nonetheless just as well-written. I think the start of the game does an excellent job at setting up their relationship, where their early dynamic is fully on display in which Fret drags Rindo around and Rindo just casually goes with it despite internally bitching and moaning along the way. Like Beat and Neku, their friendship is mutually beneficial towards the other but in a much more casual and "shallow" way that’s very interesting.

They both want to be around one another in order to cover up for each other’s faults and their flaws feed into a loop that prevents the friendship advancing so that they don’t have to try but when it actually comes under serious strain, the flaws are exposed. Rindo being closed-off and content with just letting things stay on the surface level is perfect for Fret since he doesn't need to address his true feelings whatsoever and also fulfills his desire for someone to talk to because Fret is a pretty social guy and the class clown, letting him ignore his own problems. For Rindo, Fret allows him to also fulfill his desire for social companionship while not digging too deep and delude himself into thinking he’s autonomous and avoid the hurdles that comes with decision-making, which Fret is aware of and fine with because he’s more of a follower. The restaurant choice at the beginning of the game is a perfect example of this. At first glance, you think it’s just Rindo making a choice until you realize that it’s mainly Fret narrowing down the choices for Rindo without his input and he’s perfectly okay with that.

You also see this pop up again when Fret makes Rindo the leader of the group ALSO without his input so that he doesn’t have to get emotionally invested in the role and put the spotlight on himself. And initially, both are content with this and continue this dynamic throughout the first week of the Game, that is until shit hits the fan in Week 2. With the stakes becoming far more apparent and serious than they initially thought, and having to start another Game after getting cheated out of their victory, along with Sho just flat out ditching them and leaving the team to fend for themselves, tensions start to rise high between Rindo and Fret, which this ends up putting a strain on their relationship and we see the flaws in the friendship get exposed.

They start becoming more casually dismissive of each other’s interests whereas before they were just cool with whatever with Rindo not giving any regard to Fret’s interest in fashion and Fret mocking Rindo’s friendship with Swallow out of frustration, where Fret is pushing for Rindo to do anything regarding them considering Swallow's obvious involvement in the Game, and Rindo doesn’t want them to get upset so he pushes the issue away for later. Whereas Rindo is getting frustrated with Fret's self-defeatist attitude while not doing anything to help out with the situation that they're in, thus having them go back-and-forth and arguing with one another.

What makes this hit harder in hindsight is that this aspect was always apparent when you look back at the beginning. They bicker, like, a lot and the most noticeable example in W1 is the Nagi argument, where Rindo doesn’t see how she can help, worried about being held down by strangers, while Fret pushes for recruiting her, worried about having to handle a tougher burden on his own.

The part where they were in the ramen shop at the start of the game also does a good job at setting up this kind of relationship. Fret didn't know that Rindo played FanGO or was friends with Swallow, which heavily implies that they don't know that much about each other before entering the Game and later on, you see how Rindo constantly keeps Fret at arm’s length and opens up mainly to Swallow while Fret didn’t even talk to Rindo about his best friend that committed suicide. And in Week 2, these aspects become far more pronounced and the two become far more prone to taking passive-aggressive shots towards one another, culminating in their argument at the end of W2D4. I think what Rindo says to Fret in particular here is pretty telling of how he doesn't think that Fret is taking the situation seriously in spite of him actually showing otherwise what with his constant prodding. It's also hilariously indicative of Rindo's hypocrisy considering how he's constantly relying on others' input before making any actual decisions on his own, such as with Swallow in the very next scene and the day after.

However, despite all of this, they still do genuinely care for each other. Rindo’s first use of Replay was spurred on via wanting to save Fret from getting flattened by a truck and Fret is always pushing Rindo towards becoming more and more decisive in small ways. Most notably, when everyone except for Rindo gets erased by Soul Pulvis and he’s the only one to make it back to the UG, who’s the first one he calls out and tries to look for? Fret.

I’ve seen some people complain about how Rindo and Fret’s friendship doesn’t feel especially deep when compared to some of the other relationships in the series when I’d argue that’s the entire point. They’re not childhood friends who know every single thing about each other from the start unlike some JRPGs out there or a duo who starts off hating one another before gradually becoming closer to one another due to the stakes of the situation they’re in. They’re really casual school friends who keep each other at arms’ length out of an attempt to keep themselves protected. Their relationship is interesting to analyze because it's layered, much like a real friendship would be, due to them dealing with their own personal issues. And yet it never feels like one can just call it shallow or deep and have either be a definite despcriptor, just a well developed bond. Fret is still reeling from his previous best friend’s suicide and Rindo has social anxiety out the ass so their bond makes perfect sense.

And on top of that, they do gradually become closer to one another. Fret starts taking Rindo’s interests more seriously, even becoming disgusted at Motoi on Rindo’s behalf and sad for him as well as showing understanding to him concerning his Swallow situation.

And Rindo starts taking Fret more seriously as a person, with W3D3 being a prime example. He brings up the possibility that Kanon is acting strangely and might be possessed, brings up calm, rational points that the others have no choice but to agree to and doesn’t try to force Fret to keep his feelings for her down, rationalizing that there might just be another way to save her and assuring him that it’s ultimately Fret’s choice because he respects his input. And when Fret shows up anyway to try and save Kanon, he doesn't hesitate to support his buddy in his endeavors and does his damndest to help. On top of that, he becomes far more supportive towards Fret’s interests, particularly with EleStra, and is happy for him.

I think that shift from the ingenuine to genuine is what NEO excels at with its character relationships and by the end, you can really see Rindo and Fret really coming together as friends that genuinely respect and trust one another.

Neku and Beat’s friendship is much more bombastic and in-your-face while Rindo’s and Fret’s friendship relies on the more little details and I think both work well for their respective game and themes. You have the story of a distant and hostile kid having developed into a more personable young man using his lessons to relate with a seemingly gruff and bullheaded guy only to find a shockingly self aware young man who hates himself and lost his only support become more sure of himself vs. the story of two seemingly close friends grinding against each other due to their underlying issues surfacing, deepening their bond through their honesty and growing self-awareness. The first is more conventionally written while the second is a bit more subtle and requires deeper inspection in order to get the full picture.

[shuttershocky]

There is a funny thing with how Aoko and Touko treat their captive. Touko will use someone for her own benefits but will treat them nicely (ex: the owners of those magic crests on her back) while Aoko will save someone out of mercy (i guess) but will treat them very harshly (poor Soujuurou). I wonder who's the kind one between these two.

Funny you mention that because this extends to how their relationship with their respective Shikis go.

Touko set up protective barriers around Ryougi Shiki's hospital room, gave her a job when she was essentially a highschool dropout at the time, educated her on the supernatural, built her a robot arm that could even touch non-corporeal beings like astral projections, and rescued her boyfriend from being killed by a wizard in a dumb tophat. Despite the story implying that Touko actually does care for Shiki (specifically, Touko claims that to a mage, their apprentice is like their own child), she ultimately only met and hired Shiki because she needed a powerful familiar to replace Lugh Beowulf. It was a transactional relationship.

Meanwhile, Aoko walked into Tohno Shiki's life by almost kicking his head off. Rather than warn him about the dangers of the supernatural entities that would inevitably find him due to his mystic eyes, she instead gave him stolen glasses that would let him hide, but not forever. She also once slapped him, a 9 year old, in the face, to teach him a lesson about uh, respecting life.

And yet Ryougi's pretty cold on Touko, while Tohno practically worships Aoko.

The same thing can even be seen by their relationship with Hakuno in Fate/Extra. Unable to give Touko anything, Touko refrains from helping Hakuno out beyond giving (admittedly critical) advice during the holy grail war. Meanwhile Aoko, the less talented sister, will upgrade Hakuno's servant multiple times over the course of the Mooncell Holy Grail War and is the reason why Hakuno manages to survive all the way to the end despite their servant being drastically weakened.

This makes Kokutou even weirder, because he's able to break the rules with Touko. He's an ordinary human with no powers, no resources or money, essentially nothing to offer, but Touko's so impressed by his detective skills (he manages to find her magically hidden office even when she's a wanted mage being hunted by professionals) that she takes him in as her apprentice anyway.

[athena-gunpla]

HGUC 1/144 A.E.U.G. Prototype Transformable Mobile Suit MSZ-010 "𝛧𝛧 Gundam"

The last member of the AEUG Gundam Team is finally in my collection!! I've been debating whether or not to get the HGUC 𝛧𝛧 for quite some time, due to the age and size of the kit, but in the end I decided it would be a really neat addition.

The 𝛧𝛧 is unfortunately a little old, being from 2010, and so suffers from a lot of the flaws of that era including a really high usage of polycaps and an overall lack of poseability and articulation. I was really disappointed as it made it almost impossible to achieve the classic ZZ opening: transformation pose.

However, the kit's colour separation is excellent, with black stickers for the inside of all the yellow vents (pieces which I half expected to require painting on). The only part that required colour correcting (apart from the inside of the booster nozzles) were the backpack missiles, which i masked with putty and painted grey with my airbrush.

Unfortunately, while building this kit, i spilled plastic cement on it (which I had been using to close up some of the seam gaps these older models suffer from).

I was afraid this would permanently fuse parts together and thus prevent me parts-forming it into the spaceship mode, however, luckily, I was able to pull everything apart in time to rescue it.

The 𝛧𝛧 can parts form into the separate Core Top and Core Base sections, the latter of which controlled with a Core Fighter not dissimilar to other 1/144 core fighter models.

The two core sections combine into the G-Fortress, which joins the torso and arms to the waist and legs, allowing you to remove and rearrange parts to reveal the Gundam 𝛧𝛧.

A neat part of this kit is the oversized Beam Saber, which necessitates a custom moulded hand that clips into it, and comes with matching oversized beam effect parts.

Unfortunately, the hand parts available are significantly lacking. There's only a single closed left fist, the beam saber/open right hand, and a pistol grip right hand. There's no right closed fist like you'd usually get with older kits like this. This isn't a major issue, as admittedly my spare hands often just end up in my optional parts bin, but it would've been a nice option for posing and photography.

Overall I'm really glad to add the ZZ to the rest of the team, and it fits in great with my Hyaku-Shiki, Mk-II, and Zeta. Maybe spring for the Ver. Ka. if you're interested in a ZZ kit though - I know I'm definitely planning on it.

ガンダム チーム!!

[moongothic]

Sorry Anon I'm cutting out the rest of the ask because it is just a little long and I don't have anything to say to the rest of it

Entirely plausible, Crocodile having never been betrayed by anyone directly (until Robin) is absolutely a possibility!

I've written about this before so I don't want to repeat myself too much, but the reason I'm under the impression he might've been betrayed once or twice directly by unknown parties (like a former crew) is because I was trying to figure out how Crocodile would end up the way he did while comparing him to Moria in the narrative. Moria lost his entire crew, becoming completely traumatized from the tragedy and thus instead of gathering a new crew he chose to build a zombie army because zombies were replacable unlike his living crewmates. This also contrasts with Luffy, giving us a glimpse of what Luffy could end up becoming if he ever lost his crew (but not his ambition), this being very important narratively considdering the things Luffy would then go through in Sabaody and Marineford. Crocodile is meant to be a similar warning to how Luffy could end up if he ever gave up on his dreams and what Luffy would be like if he didn't have undying faith in his friends. Crocodile gave up on his dream, and he does not have friends, he does not trust anyone.

All of this to say, considdering what his role in the story was when he was introduced (not just an antagonist but A Warning to Luffy of how things could go wrong and how he might end up), it would add up if Crocodile had been betrayed in the past by someone

There is another thing too; this was originally pointed out by @/opbackgrounds (can't be bothered to find the exact post rn sorry), how in the scene where Alabasta's royal guards come to rescue Cobra, having taken those deadly steroids in the hope of defeating Crocodile in exhange for their lives, this was Crocodile's reaction

He laughs at the sight of the guards, willing to sacrifice their lives for their King, but he's not smiling. Crocodile is not showing genuine delight at "the fools throwing their lives away for nothing" here, which begs the question, what is he feeling here? What is going through his mind, really? We can't tell, because Oda went out of his way to black out his eyes, which makes his reaction even more suspicious

Thing is, if Crocodile had experienced severe betrayal in the past, would this act of deep loyalty and love from the guards not kind of... rub salt into Crocodile's wounds? Because nobody would have shown that kind of loyalty to him, having spat him in his face instead? 'Cause that would explain Crocodile's reaction here, it would add up

But indeed, this is just my speculation mostly based on how Oda has written other characters in similar positions, and honestly my speculation is just as likely to be accurate as it is to be inaccurate. It really could go either way, Crocodile might never have been directly betrayed himself

Now personally I'm not into the "Crocodile is Xebec's child" theory, but it is a popular theory and I can use it as an example here; If that theory does turn out to be true, then Crocodile would probably have witnessed his father get betrayed and ditched by his entire former crew (Whitebeard, Shiki, Big Mom, Kaidou and literally everyone else) at God's Valley. And that without a doubt could give the man severe trust issues from a young age without him having been betrayed directly himself ever

[yuesya]

Seeing all these genshin AUs is making me think...shiki would actually fit really well in Bleach....

Lol maybe? There's something going on with swords there right, although anything born from Shiki's soul would be a little scary.

I remember reading Bleach back during high school, although I lost track of things after the rescue mission in the world of hollows. Something something Aizen was sealed and Ichigo lost his powers eventually?

[goodlucktai]

run, boy, run

chapter five

natsume yuujinchou pairing: one-sided kitanishi word count: 2k summary: Nishimura has a cursed mark on his arm, a crush on Natsume’s famous idol friend, and a whole lot of brand new problems that start and end with the taboo circle he found. full circle au

read on ao3

x

Satoru keeps looking over his shoulder at Hiiragi, just to make sure she’s still there.

“Watch where you’re walking or you’ll fall, Nishimura,” she says after the third backwards glance, voice low and monotone and still, somehow, entirely reassuring. She’s looking at him, talking to him, and he can hear her.

“No, I won’t,” Satoru argues cheerfully. Natori’s hand on his shoulder steers him around a crack in the pavement before he can prove himself wrong. And he’s still holding a sleeping Nyanko-sensei, so he definitely would have eaten dirt.

They’re south of town, much farther down the highway than Satoru ever has reason to go on his own. Matoba must have had his yokai chauffeur drive them for longer than Satoru realized. He’s pretty sure there’s a gas station nearby, and he thinks this is the road his old elementary school is on, but other than that he’s got nothing.  

Natori’s rental car is parked in a tiny lot outside a Western-style building with a rustic cottage vibe. Satoru expects to be sheparded into the car, but instead Natori leads the way up the brick steps and through the lattice-patterned front door.

The inside is cluttered and cozy, warmed by potted plants on every available surface. A smiling young woman behind the pastry counter encourages them to pick any table they’d like.

There’s an older couple seated in the back corner booth, and a grizzled man reading the paper in a squashy armchair shoved next to a bookshelf overrun with paperbacks and waving cats. Natori guides Satoru to a table by the window, points him into a chair, and then slides over the laminate menu. Satoru remembers, abruptly, that he skipped breakfast and missed lunch.

“Order whatever you like,” Natori says, sounding distracted. “I need to make a few calls. I will be right outside. Okay?”

“Do you want something?” Satoru asks. He settles Natsume’s cat in his lap, relieved when the lucky cat actually stirs a bit and grumbles before tucking himself into a comfortable-looking loaf and going back to sleep.

“No, but Hiiragi has a sweet tooth. Pick her out something with strawberries.”

The shiki makes a noise that could, by generous definition, be considered a scoff. Natori leaves, and the cheerful woman who greeted them by the door takes Satoru’s order for hamburger steak and an ice cream parfait with all the extras. She looks indulgent when he tacks on the dessert and he can’t exactly explain it’s for a ghost.

The ghost in question sinks into the chair across from him only after the employee has dropped off a glass of melon soda and gone again.

“Your friends were very scared for you,” Hiiragi says without preamble. “They’ll be relieved to know that you’re safe.”

Satoru’s heart makes a sudden glad leap. “You saw them?”

“I did. Natsume called Natori-dono this morning when you didn’t arrive at school on time. And your little bird warned them you weren’t safe. You were missed immediately.”

It seems like she’s making a point, and Satoru can’t say he knows why, but he’s grateful all the same. It’s good to know that the whole time he was in Matoba’s dubious clutches, rescue was imminent. It’s really, really good to know that Fish didn’t just fly away in a panic, she flew away to the rescue. 

“Do you know if they told anyone else?” Satoru thinks to ask after a moment.

“Just your brother,” the shiki replies. “Kitamoto informed Natori-dono that he had two hours to find you, after which time he would  also be telling his mother.” If she considers it strange that Satoru’s own mother wasn’t a part of the equation, she keeps it to herself. Yokai probably don’t have strong feelings on humans and their relationships with each other anyway. She does add, “It took Natori-dono an hour and a half. …He was stressed.”

“I bet.”

Kitamoto can be kind of intense. Sure, Natori deals with curses and ghosts and what have you, but that’s nothing on Acchan when he’s in a mood.

Natori doesn’t come back to the table until after Satoru has started eating. He orders a cup of coffee and seems content to sit there for an indeterminate amount of time. Even though he’s busy—living a double-life, with double the work—he makes pleasant conversation with Satoru and teases Hiiragi about her ice cream and does nothing to rush either of them out of the restaurant.

Digging the tines of his fork through the sauce left on his plate, Satoru carefully doesn’t look at anyone in particular when he says, “Um. I didn’t say earlier. Thanks.”

Natori doesn’t speak up right away, and the silence is excruciating, even though it’s only like two seconds long. Satoru rushes to fill it.

“For—you know. You didn’t have to. I know you don’t really—uh, I just meant, thank you.”

Please stop talking! he begs himself.

The coffee cup lands against its saucer with a solid click and Natori’s hand comes to rest on the table between them. Satoru catches the little dart of a lizard tail disappearing up his arm, beneath his sleeve. It’s distracting enough that he almost forgets to be mortified that Natori Shuuichi is giving him his undivided attention. Almost.

“You’re a good kid,” Natori finally says, sounding, somehow, as if he means it. “And you have nothing to thank me for.”

Nyanko-sensei wakes up for real in time to finish the rest of Satoru’s hamburger steak. Natori gives sensei a dirty look, but Satoru is so relieved that he lets him have the fried potatoes and broccoli florets, too.

———

Less than an hour later, Satoru is delivered to the temple doorstep like he’s a Lotteria burger and Natori-san is a very stylish, very single-minded Demae-Can driver.

At around two in the afternoon, anyone who might be happy to see Satoru turn up out of the blue is almost definitely still at school. Satoru is opening his mouth to explain as much when the door rattles open hard enough that it crashes into the wall, and half a dozen voices yell, “Nishimura!”

It's a little funny. The sudden chaos settles something jangly and jittery in his chest that the quiet ride back into town couldn’t. Natori’s hands on his shoulders propel him gently forward and Satoru is folded into the crowd. Nyanko-sensei is lifted from his arms. Kitamoto is there.

He looks paler than he should. His eyes are dry, but red-rimmed, and while he usually greets Natori with a glare for whatever reason, this time he doesn’t seem to see the man at all. He’s staring right at Satoru from the second the door opens. He yanks Satoru into a hug that feels like it could go on for years and years, warm and tight and safe.

For the first time since he left his house that morning, Satoru relaxes fully. He can’t move his arms enough to get them around Kitamoto in turn, so he clutches fistfuls of his best friend’s shirt and sinks against him. He could probably fall asleep standing up right there if they’d just give him about five minutes.

“Come in, please,” Tanuma is saying, his tone equal parts gentle and stressed out. “I’ll make tea.”

Natori helps shuffle the Kitamoto-and-Satoru package into the genkan. The door rattles closed, and Satoru floats through the motions of exchanging sneakers for house slippers, peeling out of his sweaty school jacket and pulling a hoodie over his head instead.

“I know for a fact that you should be in English right now,” is the first thing he says, to Natsume, who looks like he doesn’t know if he wants to hug Satoru or shake him like a terrier would a rat.

“If anyone should have been anywhere, ” Taki says, and lets the statement hang there ominously.

“Shibata will be here by dinner,” is what Natsume settles on saying. He has Nyanko-sensei nestled in one arm, petting him gently with the opposite hand. Sensei’s eyes are slitted, his purr a quiet, rumbly thing. “He’s getting on a train after school.”

“Ogata’s volleyball team is away at a tournament right now, but she’s going to be livid she missed all this when she checks the group chat,” Taki adds.

Tanuma returns to the crowded hall with a tray of tea and glasses, and since he looks like he’s seconds away from a nervous breakdown if he can’t host them properly, everyone finds a place in the living room to sit. There’s one too many cups on Tanuma’s tray, but after the day they’ve had, Satoru doesn't blame him for miscounting. 

Kitamoto doesn’t even pretend like he’s about to let Satoru go anytime in the immediate future, keeping an arm wrapped around him like it belongs there. Satoru, for his part, doesn’t pretend like that’s anything but a comfort. 

A clatter on the engawa is the only warning any of them get before a frantic magpie bursts inside, silent except for the noisy scrabbling of her talons against the floor, wings half-spread, beak ajar.

“There’s my best girl,” Satoru says brightly. “Fish, you’re a hero, you know that? Hiiragi told me what you did. They should write songs about you.”

“satoru,” she cries, hopping across the room with gusto. “the scary human took you.”

“That he did.” Satoru puts the cup down and offers his hands to his bird instead. “But thanks to you, he gave me back.”

With Fish nestled under his ear where she belongs, her warm, slightly oily feathers and rapid little heartbeat against his cheek both a touchstone, Satoru accepts the cup of tea that’s pressed into his hands. He opts to just hold it for a while, breathing in the fragrant steam, shaking off those last, clinging fingers of anxiety.

“Wait,” Taki blurts. “Hiiragi told you?”

Oh, yeah. “There’s been a new development,” Satoru tells the room at large. “I can see yokai without the circle now.”

For a beat, no one moves except to stare at him blankly. Then all heads swivel toward Natori, who only says, with feeling, “It has been a very long day.”

“And it’s only halfway over,” Hiiragi comments plainly. 

Since unpacking the yokai thing is going to be a conversation and a half, Satoru interjects quickly, “Before we get into all that, can we talk about how much trouble I’m in at school really fast?”

Natsume and Taki look too frustrated to speak for the moment, so Tanuma says, “You’re not in trouble, Nishimura. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Refusing to let Tanuma’s whole soft-spoken, gentle self get to him—he was kidnapped today and didn’t cry about it, he’s not going to cry just because his friend is being nice —Satoru replies, “Okay, we know that, but Nomiya-sensei doesn’t.”

“He does,” Tanuma insists.

It turns out that Satoru won’t have after-school suspension after all—because Kiyoshi, in a bizarre, uncharacteristic turn of events, covered for him.  

“Sorry, I forgot to let his homeroom teacher know this morning,” was his brother’s story. He had called the school and lied directly to the principal herself, according to an impressed Taki’s eyewitness account. “He has a stomach bug. Can one of his friends bring by his homework later?”

“We had to call Kiyoshi-niisan when you didn’t show up,” Kitamoto says doggedly. It’s the first thing he’s said since Satoru got here. “I didn’t tell him everything, but I had to tell him something.”

Fish tugs on a piece of his hair with her beak. Satoru leans his head on Kitamoto’s shoulder.

“Acchan knows best,” Satoru says, because that was true even when it wasn’t. Of course, this meant that Satoru owed Kiyoshi the truth, whether he was ready to have that conversation or not, but at worst, he would just think Satoru and his friends were crazy. And he kind of already thought that, so no harm done. “At least that’s future-me’s problem,” he goes on, smiling around at his friends. “He’s taking a mock entrance exam for Kyushu University today, up in Fukuoka. That’ll keep him busy and give me time to spin a story.”

They frown back at him. Even Natori looks over, a crease in his brow.

“You think he still went to Fukuoka?” Taki says slowly.

“Nishimura, you were missing, ” Natsume adds, bemused. “Someone took you right off the street.”

“It sounds bad when you say it that way.” Satoru can feel the twinge in his arm that means the cursed bruises are coming back. His heart rate picks up a little, too, for good measure. “But it’s his mock exam. Mom’s been hounding him about this school for ages. He wouldn’t do anything to mess this one up.”

He wouldn’t let me mess this up for him, is what Satoru doesn’t say out loud. He digs his fingers into the overlarge hoodie he’s wearing, twisting the cuffs all out of shape.

Natsume glances at Natori quickly, concerned. The man sets his tea aside and stands up, moving around the table and then settling tailor-style in front of Satoru and Kitamoto. 

“I think there is a reason your brother studies so hard,” Natori says. “And I think it has very little to do with your mother.” 

“You haven’t met my mom,” Satoru says. It makes Natori crack a smile. 

“I haven’t had the pleasure. But Kiyoshi told me plenty. And while you might think he’s doing everything he can to please her, from where I’m standing, it looks a lot more like he’s doing his best to spite her.”

Natori Shuuichi spoke to Satoru’s brother. They talked about personal stuff. Satoru wants to bury himself under a rock. 

It doesn’t sound like Kiyoshi at all to trash-talk mom in any capacity. He’s her shining up-and-coming med student, bringing home perfect scores and skipping weekend trips and holidays to study. She doesn’t really care about Satoru, but she loves Kiyoshi. He has no reason not to love her back. 

But if his friends are to be believed—and of course they are—then Kiyoshi covered for him today, even without understanding what, exactly, he was covering for. Why would he do that?

Footsteps from further in the temple draw nearer, along with a voice that Satoru would know anywhere. He whips around, spilling tea over his fingers, because that’s his brother’s pissed-off tone, here, in Tanuma’s house, where Satoru and his friends and Natori and the ghosts all are. 

As he gets closer, his words get clearer, until Satoru can make out, “…my problem, remember? Not yours. Please don’t trouble yourself.”

“Nii-san has always had the best timing,” Kitamoto mutters. 

“Kyushu was a compromise, ” Kiyoshi is saying, his voice making it easy to trace his progress down the engawa. “Fukuoka is three hours away, I didn’t want to go to school there in the first place. Kumamoto University is much closer, and it’s a good school. My friends are applying there, too. It’s where I want to go.”

Fish is poking insistently at Satoru’s ear and chin, so he lifts his hands mechanically and moves her down into his lap instead. She busies herself with snapping at the drawstring of his hoodie instead, unbothered by the force of nature headed their way. 

“Um, so he knows some stuff,” Satoru hears himself say weakly. “How much exactly is that?”

“Enough,” Kitamoto says, which explains nothing. 

The porch doors rattle the rest of the way open from where they were cracked, presumably to let nosy spirit birds in and out, and Kiyoshi stands there backlit by afternoon sunlight. It’s impossible to make out his expression. Satoru thinks he’s more nervous now than he was with Matoba. 

“Bye, mom,” Kiyoshi says, and hangs up without waiting for a reply. 

“You wanted to go to Fukuoka,” Satoru blurts before anyone can say anything else. “You made me memorize the train line.”

“That was just in case, brat,” Kiyoshi replies, crossing the room in long strides. Natori moves and Kiyoshi takes his place, looking over first Satoru, then Kitamoto carefully. “I was probably going to throw the mock exam anyway. I was just going today to make mom happy. I’ve been accepted at Kumamoto Uni already. An hour-long commute will be annoying, but it’s better than the alternative. Heaven only knows the kind of trouble you’d get into on your own.” 

“And us,” Taki pipes up. “We know.”

“Right,” Kiyoshi says, sitting back. His expression is no-nonsense, gaze level and boring into Satoru’s. “And now me. Start talking, or I’ll make your life miserable.”

Now that, Satoru thinks, is the first believable thing anyone has said all day.

[ecargmura]

Paradox Live The Animation Episode 12 Review + Final Thoughts - Rap Is The Solution

I respect anyone who likes this episode and how it went out. There are things that I liked about it too, but I mainly found it cringe. I’m sorry! This was the silliest thing I’ve seen to the point that it got me covering my face in second hand embarrassment!

Like the premise for rescuing Kanata from the corrosion was so ridiculous. I thought it would be like what happened with Hajun, but it was so much different. What did they do? RAP IN FRONT OF HIM! Kanata is sad and depressed? Yeah, rapping in front of him to get him out of his funk is a GREAT IDEA, Allen. Gosh, from someone who was witnessing this from an omniscient perspective, they all looked so silly doing this. I know that it works for the sake of story and a feel-good moment, but the way that whole scene was executed was just so funny. Yeah, we have these teens, young adults and adults rapping in front of a distressed 19-year-old pretty boy in hopes that he feels better and moves on from Nayuta’s death. Heck, it’s only when Shiki starts talking to him that Kanata gets a reaction; despite that, why does Allen get all the credit? I mean, I like the Allen and Kanata ship, but it did seem unwarranted. Okay, I do admit that the rap was good despite how cheesy it was.

Mr. Scientist man just seemed like the typical hammy villain seeking world domination and other such bilge. He has been manipulating everything so that he can get a big reaction from phantometals. To be honest, he was such a generic villain that it felt like a waste for him to be voiced by Akira Ishida—he doesn’t even have a name! My favorite part is when Mr. Ramen man punches the daylights out of him. For the dude that’s been built up to be the true villain, he went out like that. Disappointing.

Speaking of Mr. Ramen man, he turns out to be the real Shura from BURAIKAN. Ha, I got it right. He is the true hero of this ordeal, not Allen. Shura confronts Mr. Scientist Guy and takes back Yasha’s phantometal. It was nice having confirmation and him helping out from behind the scenes, but how Yasha died was never fully seen or explained. He just died; how am I supposed to form an emotional connection with this fictional character if all I know about him is that he’s dead? Though, it was a bit silly that Iori reveals to his little brothers that Raimentei’s owner being Shura was so…out of place? But hey, at least someone knows.

I’m glad that everyone gets a happy ending. Akan Yatsura go about their lives as family. TCW keeps their bar and their family together. BAE continues making music. Best of all, Kanata is finally reunited with Nayuta, who is revealed to be alive. So, the Nayuta with long hair at the ending scene in Episode 7 was the real Nayuta. I’m so happy for you, Kanata! You get your brother back and he definitely needs a haircut.

I guess my only true gripe with this episode, excluding the cringe execution of the rap segment, was that BAE took most of the spotlight in terms of heroics? Like, I get that Allen and Kanata have a special connection, but that was mainly shown in the early episodes and in Episode 10, but like the adults, specifically Iori had more knowledge of phantometals, yet he was just a sitting duck. On top of that, the other members of BAE didn’t really contribute much; it was all Allen. Yes, I know he’s the central MC, thanks for reminding me.

Overall, I do think this was a good way to conclude the show. Though, I do wonder if the audiences’ memories about the whole fiasco got wiped. Club Paradox magically disappearing is going to be news for a while too. While this wasn’t the best anime I’ve watched, it did get me curious in wanting to listen to the audio dramas. A frequent commenter on my blog always mentions about things that are and aren’t in the tracks. I can’t thank them enough. It’s because of them that I am going to try and listen to the tracks sometime soon. What are your thoughts on the finale?

Final Thoughts

My knowledge of Paradox Live was very limited in that my only true exposure to it was listening to Jumping Into My World by Lollipop Universe; since I love that song, I gave Pararai a try and I did enjoy the characters! I just think that the anime probably wasn’t the best idea to start, but at least it helped me understand the characters. I really like the characters!

My favorite character is Kanata, but I do love the others a lot too! I feel like I cannot hate any of them because they’re all so unique and well-designed (okay, the only character I dislike is Mr. Scientist guy, but he’s an anime original so he doesn’t count). It sucks that the anime ended because I wanted to see more cute people doing cute things (I said people because Anne is non-binary). I think the best part about the characters is that they really did try a lot of new things when it came to the types and not make them caricatures. For example, Anne is non-binary, but their identity is never used as a joke. Hajun is Korean, but he is never looked down upon for his ethnicity. Ryu has amnesia, but they don’t go the generic trope of him recovering his memories and have him change his entire identity. Hokusai is 24 years old, but he goes to high school part time at his age and it’s never really frowned upon because the man is still getting an education at the end of the day. I really like how the writers are progressive with these characters and that’s what makes this type of show so unique.

The voice actors were great. They chose a good bunch that’s a mix of big names, rising stars and actual utaites (Internet singers). I think each voice actor did a splendid job in bringing out the characters and the raps. I am definitely anticipating all of their next projects as I am confident they will bring out their A-games.

The songs were so good! Ever since I’ve been exposed to this anime, Paradox Live songs have been my workout songs! They’re all so fun to listen to and they’re all so distinct. I’ve been having a kick listening to AKYR’s Bad Boyz. I feel like there is no bad song; sure, there could be weak songs, but nothing too bad that it’s drivel.

Would I recommend this anime? I’m not too sure. I’ve seen mixed reactions from actual Paradox Live fans regarding it. I guess it could be a recommendation for music lovers, mainly hip-hop. Would I watch it again? If I have to suffer through that cringefest again, then no. Like I said before, I will be giving the tracks a listen. What are your thoughts on the anime as a whole?

[theprodigypenguin]

Hi! (Still trying to fully understand how tumblr works ;-;) I just wanted to ask if you have any headcanons on the revolutionary army commanders.

OH BOY, DO I! (and no worries!)

Karasu

A former surgeon/doctor, he no longer practices but he provides medical aid if he has to

Had a wife and daughter who were both killed by a Celestial Dragon

A former slave like Koala, he wears a mask over his mouth and nose as the Celestial Dragon burned the brand over his mouth (because he used to talk back a lot)

Lindbergh

Born in Zou, he was curious to a fault and actually fell off Zunesha when he was just a kitten

By luck, a talented inventor on an expedition sees him in the water and rescues him (this was the Ohara expedition that Nico Olvia was part of)

It was through this person that Lindbergh learned the ins and outs of mechanics and develops a passion for inventing

Wears special goggles to block out moonlight because he cannot control his Sulong form (since he left Zou when he was so young and never received the necessary training)

Morley

Not a headcanon but a reminder that Morley was a wanted pirate over 100 years ago and sent to Impel Down where she used her Devil's Fruit ability to carve her way to freedom, making her THE FIRST PERSON TO EVER ESCAPE IMPEL DOWN EVEN BEFORE SHIKI. Those tunnels are what later became Newkama Land (level 5.5). Show my queen some respect tyvm

Koala is the one who gave her the frilly goggles she wears on her hat

Aroace

Betty

Generally holds the duty of a flag bearer but can also fight extremely well and is an exceptional sniper

Did not like Sabo when they first met when he was a kid because she does NOT like children, but quickly grew attached to him and considers him to be a baby brother

She never gets cold

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Mikan (pt. 35)

What a nice, even number! 35! We're not done yet, though.

Mikan is now faced with loss, more than ever before. Her fiance is dying and she's the only one who has any ability to undo the damage done to him. The only issue is that her power is finite, and she's just run out...

<- Prev Next ->

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four

We rejoin Mikan in a pretty confusing scenario. Hotaru and the other Class B kids are watching from the time window, Luna has just teleported onto the scene, Shiki and Kazumi always have an air of omnipotence, and I don’t know if Tsubasa and the others returned to the scene but he seems shocked too. 

Whatever.

Mikan remembers Natsume’s promise to save her and his request that she wait for him. She remembers him kissing her nose. She remembers him alive. 

He’s not breathing right now.

He’s wounded, bleeding, surrounded by fire, not breathing.

But his hands are still warm and his fire is still burning, which means he’s still alive. Mikan is relieved, because that all means there’s still a chance she doesn’t have to lose Natsume.

I love the denial and stubbornness. It's not everyday that someone comes back to life after their body shuts down, but don't give up hope!

Because she can’t handle losing Natsume. She obviously doesn’t want to lose any other loved ones, but Natsume has been a risk this whole manga, and nearly every arc since the Reo arc has shown us the lengths Mikan will go to to keep Natsume with her. She rushes back to a terrorist to keep him from killing himself, she uses her alice from all the way across the room so he can’t leave her, she nearly kills herself to keep him from being trapped in a dungeon forever, she despairs over Luna’s bullying and particularly the way Natsume distances himself from her, she pleads with Natsume not to die…

And yet, despite all of that, she still somehow ended up here, with a dying Natsume on the floor before her.

We get another taste of Mikan’s fierce optimism--something that started off natural but has since become her strongest coping mechanism. Natsume won’t die because of this, she says. She can’t believe that he won’t survive. It would crush her. 

Because he’s still alive, Mikan screams out for him to wake up, to open his eyes. She starts to cry as she argues with a (almost) corpse--didn’t he promise to rescue her? That they would see each other again? She’s out, she’s here--he doesn’t have to die anymore. He promised--and he did, over and over, that he wouldn’t do this to her, that he wouldn’t leave her. She doesn’t want to lose any of her friends, but Natsume’s always been the biggest flight risk, so her desire to make him stay put has always been specific and unique to him and her love for him. ESP's warning has come up again because of lots of different people, but nobody's made her think back on it as often as he has. Natsume is, again, different, even if it’s only because she saw this coming and pretended she couldn’t.

His body is getting colder, but she keeps yelling at him, sounding angry now, that he shouldn’t give up and die, that he should choose life with her over killing himself for her, that he’s a LIAR. They were supposed to be together forever! He PROMISED!

I love her anger, how she's yelling at a dead boy, how she needs to believe he'll hear her pleas and listen to her, how her screaming at him is entirely thoughtless because her only thought is NOOOOOO.

And even though she’s still talking, her thoughts become nothing more than NOOOOOOO! because that’s all there is to it, a deep revulsion to the idea of life without Natsume, with every cell in her body rejecting that premise, with every thought incapable of accepting that reality. He can’t die because he promised!

There’s no logic to that argument. It doesn’t matter. Mikan isn’t making sense because this is something she’s been fighting in her own head since she started liking Natsume. Loving him only made it worse and now, after all that romance, the agreements they made, the kissing under the moon, her fantasizing about holding his hand, about going on the train and on dates together, about getting married and being with him forever--It’s all threatened, and it looks like she gambled wrong.

She then inwardly begs God to stop this, to take away the life-shortening alice, because it’s too cruel to Natsume, even if it’s a punishment. Natsume stood above a pile of bodies for her and she embraced him. Whatever dark, horrible things he's ever done, Mikan loved him anyway. Is he being punished for what he's done? Is she being punished for loving him?

“If it is not enough, please let me replace him.”

That’s right, Mikan is so desperate for Natsume to live that she would rather die than watch him die. Does this seem a little strange to you too? It should, because Mikan is simultaneously devastated that Natsume is breaking his promises to be with her forever, while also willing to break that promise too. If she and Natsume were somehow able to switch places, that means Natsume must live while Mikan is dead, which means she’s the liar now. Mikan told Persona he shouldn't throw his life away for anything, but she'd trade hers for Natsume. Ultimately, they are both willing to die for the other. Not just willing--enthusiastic about it. 

“Give him back to me,” she prays, and this is Mikan’s version of Natsume’s “You are mine.” Natsume belongs to her and she doesn’t want anybody to take him from her. He is hers. She wants him back.

She swears she’d do anything to get him back, she’d sacrifice anything.

She embraces him and a large wave of alice emanates from their collapsed bodies.

Poetic cinema.... This was fated, the narrative was always heading here, it was always gonna be like this--beginning with the two of them, ending with the two of them. It was set up from the start!

I do like this part, where this panel looks strikingly similar to the first time Mikan used her alice with Natsume in the Northern Woods. They’ve come full-circle. Mikan doesn’t want Natsume using his alice anymore, but now she’s desperate to save him, not anybody else. 

The hourglass representing his lifespan, representing her alice lifespan shatters.

Natsume’s heart stopped.

Mikan’s alice is gone.

More people gather her in the corridor and Mikan seems to faint from the effort of stopping his alice, falling against his chest with tears in her eyes. 

Natsume’s fire peters out.

Symbolism! Heartbreaking!

Tsubasa has now rejoined them and pleads with someone to teleport Natsume and Mikan to the hospital immediately. Mikan has fainted and Natsume isn’t breathing. But the ESP, so consumed by rage and greed, refuses to allow them to escape, not even to get medical help. Natsume is now useless to him--and is actually an impediment, so he’s better off if the kid croaks. And Mikan will wake up eventually, and then she can finally steal the toxic alice stones from his body.

It seems like a fight is about to break out, but Luna finally switches sides and captures the ESP, shutting him up for good.

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Five

Mikan is temporarily interested in Luna’s actions, but her attention keeps getting drawn back to her dead fiance. 

Luna’s change is very heartfelt and meaningful, and she confesses her love for Kuonji, an undying affection that she can’t deny even now. But he has gone too far. She’s changed her mind too late, and she knows it, but she can’t let him go on this way anymore. She sucks out his soul.

Now that the ESP has been incapacitated for good and the fire has gone out, everyone now joins the ruckus in the corridor. Mikan is still only focused on Natsume and now everyone else is too. We’re talking about a dead child, after all. Not a usual occurrence in this school, surprisingly enough.

The really interesting thing about this is that Natsume should have killed the ESP. Narratively. Because he didn't, it's hard to care about what happens to the ESP anymore. There's something much bigger happening, and it steals all the attention, not just of the characters but of the reader. The reason why this part of the story frustrates me is because nothing anybody does matters at all. Natsume gives up his life to kill the ESP and he fails. Mikan gives up her alice to save Natsume and she fails. Nothing matters and it all feels frustrating and hollow. So much so, that it's difficult to care about this end. The narrative and what would work best for the story seems secondary to the concept of shock and making the reader cry.

Before Natsume can be teleported to a hospital, Hotaru pulls a mechanical spider from his collar, a robot that would tranquilize Natsume if he pushed himself too hard. She had good intentions, but now she’s concerned that the tranquilizer might have hurt him even more. Even though Subaru and Tono are trying their best, Natsume’s heart is still stopped.

It’s not looking good.

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Six

Natsume is in a state of suspended animation and bleeding profusely. “Suspended animation” means that his body has entered a state where bodily functions are no longer occurring but he is not quite dead yet. 

Kazumi approaches Mikan with her and Natsume’s alice stones, telling her to insert them into Natsume. The logic is that when Yuka was in school, doing missions for the ESP, she would steal alices from the dying, causing them to die earlier than they otherwise would. Therefore, perhaps if Mikan inserts this alice stone into Natsume, his life would be prolonged a little bit. He tries to tell her something important, but Mikan has already taken off. 

I'd give anything. When someone said "Count your blessings now, before they're long gone," I guess I just didn't know how I was all wrong. They knew better. Still, you said forever and ever...

I think Mikan knows what Kazumi wants to tell her and it doesn’t matter. She rushes to Natsume’s side and swears that she would give all of her power for Natsume. She remembers their engagement, and his proposal, their promise to be together represented with the stones. It’s symbolic, then, that the stones now are her only hope at making sure they can be together forever. This is her last chance to bring him back.

She inserts the stones. 

Or.

She tries to.

She knows exactly what’s happening, but the timing couldn’t be worse. She doesn’t want it to be true. But Kazumi comes up to her and tells her the hard facts: she has run out of her alice. 

Mikan has had that feeling all night, that she was way too powerful, and releasing way too much of her alice at a time. The way she talked about saving Nobara implies she had that feeling even then, at the beginning of the night, that there was a finite amount left and she was reaching the end. She used her alice in huge quantities in the following hours and now, when she needs it the most, it’s gone. 

The worst!!!

Alices are incredibly personal. Throughout the story, we’ve seen how much alices mean to their owners. We’ve seen how upset Luna and Narumi were about Yuka stealing just a bit of their alices. Class B’s horror at the possibility of losing their alices during the Z Arc. Yuu’s grief at his temporary loss of alice. Mikan is being told now that she has lost her alice, that it’s gone forever now. Alices are a part of a person, and Mikan doesn’t have that part of her anymore. It feels awful to lose something so important.

It feels worse to lose it now.

This was her only chance to save Natsume, and now she can’t even try it because her alice has decided to run out now.

She starts to cry. WHY WOULDN’T SHE? She lost her alice and because of that, she’ll lose her boyfriend too. All she has are these alice stones now, stones she can’t even put into his body. Stones representing the future they were supposed to have together that was stolen from her.

No more kisses. No more sweet romantic words in the moonlight. No dates. No trains. No wedding. No forever.

She stopped Natsume’s fire and now she is no longer an alice. But Kazumi tells her there’s a chance she can restore a little bit of her alice with her alice stone, just enough to insert Natsume’s stone into his body, to keep him alive for just a bit more. There’s a “but” there, that if Mikan uses that small amount of alice to keep Natsume alive, she’ll lose the chance to be an alice again. She’ll have to leave the school for good. She won’t even be able to see him, if that’s the case--

Instant relief, as temporary as it is.

She doesn’t care. She grabs the stone. She absorbs her own power and she cries, even smiling for a bit. Like I said, alices are important. I do believe Natsume is one of the few people who doesn’t have any positive feelings about his alice. Despite all of Mikan’s insecurities, she loves her alice. Because of her alice she was able to follow Hotaru, able to make so many friends and meet Natsume, able to save the people she cares about time and time again, able to make a difference. She has changed and grown because of her time at Alice Academy, because she had an alice. It’s a huge part of her, even if she didn’t know she had it for very long. She gets it back for even just a moment, and she cries in relief. It’s a lovely feeling, to have it back, even if it is tragically temporary. Her instant smile of relief at absorbing the stone makes me think that she already knew deep down that she had lost her alice already. It was a feeling she had.

Now she has it back! Her very important, meaningful alice, a part of her she never wants to lose!

But there’s something else she wants to keep even more.

“Natsume, I give all my alice to you.”

Mikan gives up her alice, her friends, her connections--all of it, for Natsume to live. She knows she won’t even be able to see him after this. She’ll have to leave the school. She’ll have to go far away and never see him. He might die during that time anyway. It doesn’t matter. She wants him to live. They were going to get married, and she’s still intent on that coming true. She wants him to come back and live, no matter what happens, no matter what the price is. 

“I don’t care what I’ll lose for this wish to be granted.”

“Natsume, I love you more than anyone else.”

This is so sweet and intimate, it's strange that they're only twelve. Children shouldn't have to go through this.

Mikan makes the ultimate sacrifice for Natsume here. She gives him all she has in the effort to keep him alive. When Mikan first came to this school, Narumi made a comment about her being Natsume’s “key.” From the beginning, the narrative has set this event up, that Mikan would eventually save Natsume’s life, specifically in regards to his own alice. “Maybe, there’s someone out there in need of your alice,” Narumi said on her first day, on a panel of Natsume. We knew from the beginning that we’d eventually end up here, with Natsume on the brink of death and Mikan being the only one who can save him. This was always meant to happen.

There’s fate, and then there’s the narrative. You can argue about fate being real, but narratives only exist in books. There is a clear narrative from the start, pairing Natsume and Mikan together, putting their destinies on the same track, with their alices being inexplicably connected in a meaningful way, with Natsume being the only person who made her feel like her nullification alice was worth something, with Mikan's alice hinted as the only thing that might bring Natsume relief from his own alice. 

I love everything about Mikan’s scenes with Natsume up to this point.

I hate everything after.

Conclusion

Mikan is giving up everything she has for Natsume to live. This is what the manga has been building up to since she first met him, something the narrative has been preparing us for since the beginning. The narrative says Mikan should save Natsume here. I'm tolerant of the story up to this point. I have my issues, but narrative-wise, I can accept what happens. After this specific part, that changes.

I'm posting in a manner that will bring me to 40 total parts. For Zoe's and Crim's sake since they thought 38 and 39 would be terrible. The next few parts might be short as a result but maybe that'll make them easier to read. I'll try posting once a day until this essay is complete. Thanks for understanding.

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[greatwyrmgold]

Akira from Kemono Jihen feels like what would happen if an author subverted the useless shonen girl archetype not by making the girl somewhat useful, but by making her a boy.

To be clear, Akira is easily the most effeminate member of the main cast, including the actual girl. He likes cute things, love stories, sweet food, and selfies; he's easily grossed out or terrified, to the point of being the only one Kohachi pulls out of missions in the early arcs; and his main contributions to fight scenes until the end of episode 4/chapter 6 are freaking out, fainting from fear, and getting rescued.

(By contrast, Kohachi is involved in multiple fight scenes in episode 1 and 4, Shiki and Kon fight in episode 3, Shiki tries to deal with the bugs in episode 2, and Kabane played active roles in all of those conflicts. And of course, none of them faint or otherwise become helpless...unless you count Kon falling unconscious after getting bitten in the neck.)

And his visual design is probably the most feminine out of the main cast, and his animation/posing is definitely more feminine than the other main characters (including the actual girl). Just about the only trait Akira's missing from the useless-shonen-girl starter pack is an extremely shallow crush on the most protagonisty dude around...and Kabane still inspires him to try and be stronger the way said protagonisty dudes tend to inspire shonen girls.

I don't know how I feel about this kind of subversion. On one hand, it doesn't really increase the narrative possibility space the way that having the guy adopting a kid instead adopt of multiple kids does; it feels kinda pointless.

On the other hand, I guess it's nice that guys in this series have the opportunity to be every bit as useless as girls. On the third hand, does the uselessness have to be tangled up with all of Akira's feminine-coded personality traits? Why not have the surly loner kid be the useless one?

[cherribmb]

CLOUD NINE BAKERY

Kyu’s mother, Kanna, owns a bakery close to the center of their village somewhere in Krill [i need to figure out locations] known as the Cloud Nine Bakery, usually specializing in Cakes, breads, & more. Kyu isn’t a baker; she leaves all that to her mom, but she does work there when she has nothing to do at school and needs a breather so she just crashes there and works as a cashier for her mother. [Kyu also packages and wraps up orders when things are slow] Above the bakery is a small apartment for Kyu, her mother, and her step-father- They have extra bedding if Shiki & her family stop by and Kyu’s nephew stays over [Daisuke, not Nishiki]. It’s small, but it’s enough for the members who live there, when Kyu’s not home and on Campus she lets Daisuke sleep in her room. It’s a very hole on the wall kind of place, which made it easy for Kyu and Shiki to go back to and recover after Shiki rescued Kyu when she was younger, and while Kanna is a former Scholar from Rosta-Vien, she’s was never one for combat or what her research would be used for so she dipped as soon as she could- she understands her daughters and why they do what they do but she can’t help but worry...

[historyhermann]

English Sub Season Review: Eden’s Zero Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below)

In this sci-fi anime, Eden’s Zero, follow Shiki and his friends on a journey across the galaxy to find all four sisters and give the Edens Zero battleship its full power. On the way, they encounter a player who murders people in a virtual world, a devious hacker, a power-hungry leader, and a person who can see the future.

Reprinted from Bubbleblabber, my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 31, 2023, and Wayback Machine. This was the fourth article I wrote for Bubbleblabber.  I would recommend this series. I claimed that I watched the dubbed version in this review, but that was a lie, as I actually watched the subbed version, as I prefer subs to dubs any day. I said I watched the dubbed version so this would be published. This is the ONLY article I wrote for Bubbleblabber that I'm still proud of. This post was originally published on December 20, 2021.

Our Take

The first twelve episodes of this series introduced a young boy named Shiki Granbell (Sean Chiplock), who meets the equivalent of a YouTuber, Rebecca Bluegarden (Kira Buckland) and her cat companion, Happy (Tia Ballard), as they search through time and space for a being called “Mother” (Colleen Clickenbeard), with Shiki trying to make as many friends as he can. This space romp continues the story of Shiki, Rebecca, and Happy, with some comparing it to earlier works by Hiro Mashima like Fairy Tail and Rave Master, as their crew continues to expand. The entire English VA cast moves the series forward with its energy, radiance, and exuberance.

The animation of this series from J.C.Staff is smooth and captivating, especially in battle scenes. It continues to astound, especially with new opening and closing themes beginning with episode 13 and moving forward. There are colorful characters, backgrounds, and animation which often blows you away. This includes the introduction of the wealthy sector of the planet Sun Jewel in the later part of the season. The show’s second opening theme is “Forever” by L’Arc-en-Ciel, and the second ending theme is “Sekai no Himitsu.” J.C.Staff is known for producing well-known series like A Certain Scientific Railgun, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Azumanga Daioh.

There is the typical storytelling device of a narrator named Xiaomei (Jenny Yokobori). She is the Time Oracle and presides over the Temple of Knowledge on the Planet of Time. She knows everything in the universe and has future-vision a little like Garnet in Steven Universe, as she knows that the future branches out in various possibilities. She is weirdly obsessed with putting her visitors through battles, not knowing their outcome. She spends most of her time in the series as a narrator from the audience, not unlike the Watcher in What If…?

I found the episodes where Shiki and his friends go to Digitalis, a virtual planet/dimension, interesting. This isn’t because Pino chooses to be a human, Homura chooses a male avatar, or Weisz a female avatar, the latter two choosing avatars different from their original genders. Rather, it is due to the setting itself it seems to be applying to those who play with virtual reality or online multiplayer games. Specifically, Shiki and his friends can’t rewrite the code of the planet, but can use their real-world abilities, and they can log out of the game. The mix between reality and the virtual world reminds me a bit of The Hollow, which toyed with this concept.

Eden’s Zero has similarities with other shows which have hackers, as Hermit is well-skilled with breaking into systems to help her friends. Hermit is a bit different, however, as she has a dark past. She was deceived by humans into building a cannon which obliterated another planet, and for years she is tortured by scientists for their own ends. While she is rescued from a prison, the trauma of her experience prevents her from stopping a hacker which is destroying the Edens Zero, until Rebecca connects directly with her, and Shiki tells her to believe in herself, causing her to regain some faith in humanity.

The characters of Happy, who can transform into blasters, and Pino, who has an EMP which can knock out technology for a brief period, are interesting additions as well. Perhaps it is a commentary on anime shows themselves when it turns out that the Ether Gear that Rebecca, Homura, and Shiki use do not work when your hands are tied. In contrast to other series, it is made clear that everything has a heart, no matter whether it is human or robotic. However, this also means that humans and robots can die and stop functioning.

One of the intriguing plot threads is Homura’s journey. She becomes more a part of the team in these episodes, but is willing to save her friends, even from innumerable odds, like on the digital world, when she is facing a government spy, Amira (Emi Lo), who is impersonating her, and a murderer who is cheating to stay in the game. She hopes to reach her master and mother-of-sorts, Valkyrie, as part of the mission to find the goddess of the universe and struggles with facing a copy of Valkyrie when she visits the Planet of Time and thinks back to her early life. This comes to a head in episodes 19 to 25, when the crew go to the planet Sun Jewel, with wealthy and poor sectors. Whether it is  like Star Wars and Fairy Tail, or not, it is a unique series in and of itself.

Homura finds out that the brutal Madame Kurenai, who won’t tolerate any crime or violence on the planet, is her greedy mother, who has enforcers to keep “order” in the labor district of the planet and wants to destroy the whole district with a superweapon as it isn’t profitable for her. She also discovers, to her horror, that her master, is no more, and she takes time to process this, while the audience learns of how Kurenai betrayed Valkyrie, continuing to fight with encouragement from her friends. Following Kurenai’s defeat by Shiki, she rejects Kurenai’s plea for forgiveness and says she wants nothing to do with Kurenai. In a bit of karma, Kurenai runs into the forest and is captured by Cedric, a man whose face she burned off, and they turn her into their “pet.” Homura makes peace with what happened, leaving Valkyrie behind, and decides to take on the same role as Valkyrie. Two of the shining stars, Witch and Sister, even embrace each other over the death of Valkyrie, and cry together, sad to see the loss of their friend.

There are funny parts in the series, like the different outfits the characters wear, including skimpy ones, especially embarrassing Rebecca. She is a character who changes outfits more than any other character, including when she wears an outfit from a popular anime, only to have her be embarrassed by Labilia Christy (Lizzie Freeman), an arrogant B-Cuber. She also spends time discovering her own magical powers, even using them to defeat Nino, a B-Cuber who declares that anime will save the universe, and saves the day by telling Kurenai’s enforcers, known as the Punishers, to stand down.

Eden’s Zero does not shy away from maturity. For instance, episode 21 has warnings for language and smoking. In other episodes, we see characters being tortured or dressed in outfits which appears to be fan service. On the other hand, Weisz, a male character, is naked in one episode, and embarrasses himself, so it’s not only women who wear revealing clothes. Additionally, there is fighting in nearly every episode, mainly led by Shiki to protect his friends, including in the final episodes of this season where Madame Kurenai fights against Shiki in a huge mecha, through the city center and into the labor district.

© 2021-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[orihara-infobroker]

The writing prompt ^_^ Akabayashixizaya 25 Shikizaya 36 Ot3 45 Thank you ❤

Slow writer is slow. I tried to get 2 of 3 done but only ended up with 1 because I got distracted. So here’s the first:

36. “He’s the opposite of friendly. He’s unfriendly. As in, don’t be friends with him.” - Shikizaya

Being the face of the Awakusu art galleries had a great many benefits attached to it. As far as yakuza jobs went, it was a pretty comfortable one with very little stress or risk attached to it. It also meant he spent most of his work time away from the Awakusu offices and that, in particular, was one of the best bonuses as Shiki saw it. Unfortunately, being the face of an art gallery also meant showing up to various art-related social events and those he deplored. The latest in events that must be tolerated for the sake of the business was, of all things, a masquerade. He would have declined on principle but a particular client looking for the kinds of things he offered behind closed doors had heard about the event and requested a meeting. 

So it was that he found himself sitting at a table, his usual white suit accented by the addition of a white mask that did absolutely nothing to hide his identity. His gaze was locked on an equally 

recognizable information broker who had managed to secure himself an invitation. The raven-haired troublemaker had obtained an elaborate mask of black and red lace that did nothing to hide his distinctive red eyes and telltale smirk.

“Honestly, Shiki, how could I not come? You, attending a masquerade party? Although I must say I’m deeply disappointed. You could have at least tried to dress the part.” 

Shiki pointed to the mask. “I did.”

Izaya sighed and shook his head in disappointment though there was amusement in his eyes. His gaze shifted to an approaching pair of women, taking in their expensive dresses and elaborate masks. “Seems your clients have arrived. I’ll make myself scarce.” He rose, giving Shiki an amused look before disappearing into the crowd.

Shiki turned his attention to the women, standing to greet them. “Kato-san, nice to see you again.”

“Shiki-san, thank you for meeting with me. This is my cousin Suzuki Haruka.” Kato Chisake indicated the woman beside her with a bright smile.

Shiki gave Haruka a polite smile then gestured to the table. “Nice to meet you. Please, have a seat.” Shiki waited for the women to sit before returning to his seat. 

“I must admit Shiki,” Kato began with a coy smile. “That mask certainly makes you look mysterious and dangerous.” 

“Oh yes,” Suzuki agreed, eyes widening in a look of perfectly cultivated innocence. “But you’re so polite. Not at all what I would expect from a yakuza.” She lowered her voice conspiratorily.

“As entertaining as the old yakuza movies are, Suzuki-san, that’s hardly the reality of our business.” He replied with a stiff smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Now, what are you looking to purchase?” The women exchanged a glance that made Shiki immediately regret his decision to accept the meeting. 

“Well, I had actually arranged the meeting in the hopes that I could introduce you to my cousin,” Kato explained. “She is the one who wanted to meet with you.”

Shiki arched a brow, turning his cool gaze on Suzuki. She gave him what he could only assume was her best attempt at a seductive smile. “You see, Shiki-san, I’ve always been interested in meeting a proper yakuza executive. When Chisake told me about you, I asked her to introduce me.”

“And what is it you’d like me to acquire for you, Suzuki-san?” He replied, maintaining his polite demeanor as he purposely ignored the subtext of her words.

Suzuki faltered at Shiki’s polite response, unsure if he was rebuffing her or had simply missed her point. She leaned forward, placing a hand on his arm. “Might I suggest we retire to a more private place to discuss such things?”

Shiki’s gaze shifted to her hand and the smile he gave her was icy. “Suzuki-san, I was led to believe that this was a business meeting. If you have no intention of using my services, I have other clients to meet with.”

Suzuki withdrew her hand, glancing at Kato uncertainly before continuing. “There is a vase I was hoping to obtain, of Chinese origin. I attempted to import it legally but the Chinese government has restricted the import of such items.”

“Very well.” Shiki handed Suzuki his business card. “Please email me the details on the vase and I will send you a quote on what it will cost to have it smuggled into Japan.”

She took the card and slipped it into her purse. The seductive smile returned. “I would like to show you my appreciation for your assistance. Would you like to go for drinks after the party?” 

“Thank you for the offer but I must decline as I’ve already made plans.”

“Perhaps another time, then.” She persisted. “I would like to get to know you better. You seem like a very friendly person.”

“He’s the opposite of friendly.” Izaya’s voice cut through the conversation. “He’s unfriendly. As in, don’t be friends with him.” The raven leaned over Shiki, draping his arms over the executive’s shoulders. “Your technique needs work, Haruka, dear. No wonder you haven’t been able to catch a husband yet if this is how you go about it.”

Both women turned their gazes to Izaya, shocked by his words. “Shiki-san… who is this?” Sato asked.

“I’m his boyfriend,” Izaya supplied with a savage grin. “You know, the one he has plans with later tonight.” The women stared at Shiki in surprise but the executive made no move to remove Izaya’s hands or contradict Izaya’s announcement.

“Oh, pardon me, Shiki-san. We didn’t realize…” Suzuki trailed off, embarrassed. “Please excuse us.” The women stood and hurried away, the sound of Izaya’s laughter following them.

[yuesya]

What if Shiki just threw a cat when Mahito was about to [redacted] Nanami in Shibuya?

Lol Mi-chan to the rescue! ... Knowing Shiki, though, she'd probably be throwing knives instead.