#I would expect Rin to kinda blame himself for that

[bluelockednyx]

"sae picked up his attitude from somewhere-" lmao, i got to say i burst out laughing at that cause though his attitude is something, what kind of place did he as a child get that from...?

that aside, itoshi parents being emotionally distant seems to support the fact that sae and rin kinda filled up that role for each other? That's maybe why the first thing sae did after coming back from spain was rushing to meet and talk to rin (tho he did a shitty job of communication). I assumed that sae wanted to fully pursue his dream and in order to do that, he had to level with his brother to cut loose of any hesitation or guilt or whatever, and when that didn't go well (blame yourself, sae), he said to himself, 'lukewarm', sae was the one being lukewarm

btw, the current arc is almost at its peak, what is your thoughts or predictions so far? i think kaneshiro wanted isagi to go through a training arc and in the end, he can finally beat rin to fulfill his monologue in the shoe-lacing chapter

have a nice day!

Right?? He was such a rude little shit as a kid. And he couldn't have been more than like, eight, at the time.

Yeah, the Itoshi parents being emotionally distant feels that way to me, and thus far the manga's depictions support it. Neither of them even turned up for the huge Blue Lock vs U20 match, despite how both Rin and Sae were there. It's genuinely a little sad.

Rin and Sae were very emotionally dependent on each other, Rin moreso than Sae because he's younger and Sae took care of him. It's both sweet and heartbreaking that Sae's first move, after returning from Spain, is to go to the youth team's fields and find Rin. Sae actually parallels Reo somewhat in that specific scene, as he was trying so hard to live the scraps of his dream through Rin, which is so strongly opposed to the narrative themes that there was no other way for that particular conversation to go but down, from a writing perspective. (also, compelling angsty sibling drama lmao). At the heart of Sae's character is the tragedy of being so close yet so far to his OG dream, and I'm really excited for when he returns to the main story.

BM sweep, more because I don't see Ubers winning, as so far they are working fairly rigidly in accordance to Snuffy's strategies with a huge lack of thinking for yourself in there. How well can you perform, as an egoist, when you're mostly following someone else's orders? Though I would argue that given how, well, untrained Blue Lock generally is where defense is concerned, it feels more like Ubers is training the defenders to actually get used to defending, while letting Barou run wild.

Though who, exactly, gets that last goal is still up in the air, I would like it to be Isagi, but the payoff is sweeter if he beats both Kaiser and Rin in that final PXG match. I personally think it would be extremely fun if the last goal winds up going to someone no one expected: Hiori. But that's because I love chaos.

And yes. Final training arc for BM before Isagi faces off against Rin in the PXG match. We might get a cut of PXG facing off against Barcha, and Manshine against Ubers while their matches are going on during BM's week off, and I really want to see Nagi vs Barou.

#niki answers asks

[drowningindango]

Kinda dark idea, but… what if Obito made a decision to “return” to Konoha after the Uchiha massacre already happened?

(And yes, that means he still assisted with the execution of that)

One day this one eyed guy with scars just saunters up to the gates and claims he got lost on the path of life. Well, his excuse is more well crafted after the initial quip that he can’t help making. Perhaps he says after that rock slide he miraculously survived and was found by Orochimaru (always a great option for blame) instead of Madara (or stays vague and simple with “a crazy old man”) who experimented on him and kept him captive all those years, up until now when he died and Obito could free himself. That’s his story. He lets them find a bit of “evidence”, aka an abandoned cave that doesn’t hold much more useful information beyond that someone was held there against their will for a long time, apparently scrubbed clean of leads after his successful escape by his captors. If he feels cheeky, he will link his own “capture” to Akatsuki, to have an excuse to work closely on that case and give them false leads and intel, while staying up to date with their info.

He will act so grief stricken when he learns of his clan’s fate, as if he didn’t step on and over their bodies himself. It’s a great way of getting an in with Sasuke, who’s still a too young kid struggling with loss and hate. Obito will foster and mold that pain for his own purposes. He earns his trust by showing a bit of his own fury and sadness, allowing himself some vulnerability.

It’ll be a special kind of torture to work with Kakashi again. Imagine the shock over seeing his fallen comrade again. Imagine the guilt. Because Rin isn’t here anymore, is she…? He would let him feel that every. single. day. Obito wouldn’t make it overly obvious to others what he does to Kakashi, beyond the necessary act of anger in the beginning and resulting cold shoulder that’s expected of him. He would let them reconcile them, act out forgiveness in public. But Kakashi… Kakashi would know that it’s not true. And he would take it, because in his guilt ridden, traumatised mind he thinks he deserves the punishment. So convinced that he failed his promise to Obito, even though he did not want to kill Rin. He is resigned to always being scum in his friend’s eyes, something that Obito shamelessly exploits.

The elders will not be happy to have a fully grown, unaccounted Uchiha in their village. But since he disappeared long before the Kyuubi attack, the distrust towards the Uchiha, the planned takeover and the resulting massacre happened, he is technically clean. No reason for him to distrust or hate the village, since he experienced none of that, and therefore they have no good excuse to get rid of him… Hiruzen, late as always with trying to make things right, gives him a free pass and therefore he is protected by the Hokage’s good word. (Privately, Obito spits on that.) Danzou is furious, but can’t do anything officially. Won’t stop him from trying, but Obito is tricksy and knows he’s going to come for him.

The position inside of Konoha gives Obito a lot more access. For example to Naruto. The boy whose parents’ death he caused. The boy who has a bijuu inside of him now. In theory, it would be too easy for him to steal the child, but even though no one gives Naruto any warmth, he is still observed by Konoha. Getting close to him is a more delicate operation than getting close to Sasuke. He would rise suspicion if he was too straightforward in his attempts to be nice and manipulating. Good thing he has a conveniently recently orphaned relative who feels just as lonely as Naruto. He gives him a few nudges. And perhaps when they get older, he will try and teach him to exploit that bond.

Then theres’s the issue with Itachi. Would he pretend to be two different people (Obito and Madara) to him, feigning ignorance while being in his Madara persona? Or would he try to buy Itachi’s trust by being upfront and pretending to take care of Sasuke for him, with the reasoning that Danzou can not be trusted?

And how will Obito himself develop while living in Konoha? Will he act out all the schemes I just described, becoming darker and more twisted over the years, merely using everyone around him as a means to an end for his plan? Or would he break and abandon his plans? He is living in the village he once loved again, with his former comrades around him. Would he stay cold and shut himself off? Would someone be able to see behind his (now figurative) mask and reach out for him? Would the children sway him, or will he be the one to corrupt them and make them follow his new dream of a better world?

#naruto #obito #uchiha obito #writingstuff #obito uchiha #obito returns

[lordkambe]

Haiii I love you!!!! Could I please request a jealous Rin (free!) smut. Biting, choking the more depraved the better ❤️

🦈  character, fandom, type of reader: rin matsuoka, free, woman reader. 

🦈   genre, rating: nsfw. 18+ only.

🦈   themes, triggers: explicit descriptions, explicit dirty talk, choking, biting, jealously that could be interpreted as yandere ngl, daddy!rin, 

🦈   author’s note:  hey i love rin. very much. very glad i got this. there’s a plot to the p*rn so i apologize if this is kinda long ! aside from that i hope you enjoy this smutty, s-m-u-t-t-y drabble 😏

Following Rin to Sydney wasn’t something you regretted. You’d been to the beautiful city in the past and were set on attending a local university in the city prior to meeting Rin. When he shared his interest in returning to the city himself and pursuing his career as a professional swimmer, it further solidified your belief that the two of you were fated to be together. The two of you had been dating for quite some time but only had taken it a step further when you entered university. To cut your own personal costs, you moved in with Rin and from then forward your relationship with Rin wasn’t casual; the two of you took your relationship seriously and weighed your future in every decision you made. It was healthy, it was nice, and it was the perfect dose of a domestic lifestyle with the man you loved. 

Rin had texted you to meet him at the local pub where he would be treating some of his old friends to drinks and given that you needed a break from your studies, you happily obliged. Before leaving you took your time to get yourself put together you couldn’t possibly enter the pub in the pair of sweats you wore. Skipping the formal wear, even the clubwear, you went for something comfortable and casual, however, the v-neck tee boyfriend you wore was somewhat transparent and exposed the black bra you wore underneath; unwilling to change you threw on a light cardigan and headed out to the pub.

Luckily the pub was within walking distance of your shared apartment with Rin but given that you had taken a bit longer debating whether or not to change your shirt, Rin and his friends had already beaten you to the punch. You waved at the group of boys through the window and quickly entered the crowded pub. “Y/N!” Rin greeted you with a toothy smile. He stood from his seat and engulfed you into a hug followed by an obligatory kiss. You then turned to wave at Rin’s old friends from Japan and a few familiar faces struck out enough for you to greet them by name. 

A seat next to Rin wasn’t open and instead of making a fuss about it, you sat down next to his childhood friend/rival, Sousuke. You had only heard about him through Rin’s stories and remembered he had issues with his shoulder after a strain. Once the casual conversation with everyone had come to an end you talked to Sousuke and exchanged stories about Rin --- much to his dismay. Rin was busy catching up with his other friends but you felt his eyes on you every second or two. You didn’t give it much attention as you were too entertained by Sousuke’s stories. 

Because of the crowded feeling in the pub, the heat within it began to grow. The cardigan you wore was light but even then you felt uncomfortably warm. You took a heavy sip of your water, Sousuke looked at you with a bit of concern,

“you should take off your sweater. I took off my jacket too. It’s really hot in here for whatever reason.” He spoke into the rim of his beer glass before taking a heavy sip from it. 

You nodded your head not thinking twice about why you wore a cardigan to begin with. Attempting to wiggle your arms out from the cardigan it was difficult to do given that you were sandwiched between two very broad men. Sousuke stood up from his seat and took your hand. 

“Here Y/N, I’ll give you a hand.” 

You smiled at his kindness and took his hand. He helped you remove your cardigan in order to place it behind your seat. You sat down and wiggled your shoulders feeling a breeze of cool air sweep past your exposed skin. The hair that fell down your neck was still a nuisance however so you took the hair tie around your wrist and tied your hair into a high ponytail. While doing so the transparency of your shirt was made known to Rin mostly, nobody else seemed to notice or care. The fleeting glances he was giving you from across the table were now replaced with a heavy stare. You looked at him for just a second but before you could say anything Sousuke grabbed a hold of your attention. He continued with his story about how Rin and he had a friendly competition as children.

“So yeah --- as I was saying. There was a time when Rin was trying to catch up with me but didn’t notice his shoes were untied.” 

Your eyes grew obviously interested and entertained by the story Sousuke was sharing. He seemed to be vibing with you as well. His eyes were locked with yours and it was evident that he was interested in becoming friends with you. You were Rin’s long-time serious girlfriend after all and Sousuke was a great friend of Rin who cared deeply about him.

“And then he just fell flat on his face. He completely ate shit.” 

Concealing a smile you added to the story, “let me guess he started to cry?”

“Oh like a baby,” Sousuke added. 

With that, the two of you burst into a fit of laughter that occupied most of the pub. The two of you had an obnoxious laugh, there was nothing more to it. You playfully slapped Sousuke’s shoulder and he dramatically let out a whine and rubbed the place you hit. You were gullible enough to fall for it remembering that Rin had mentioned Sousuke had a shoulder injury. 

You sat closer to him, close enough for your chest to press to his side. You rubbed his shoulder in remorse. “Oh my god. I’m so so so sorry!” 

Sousuke looked down at you with his sea-green eyes. “You’re just as gullible as Rin.” You ripped yourself from his side and crossed your arms. Cutely, you stuck his tongue out at him. That was it for Rin. He couldn’t just sit there and watch the two of you anymore. He stood from his seat and as he did the dishware on the table clinked together. Without much care to anyone else who was there Rin walked towards you and grabbed your arm forcing you to stand up. 

“Hey! Rin! What the hell?” 

Rin looked at you, you’d seen that face a few times before but only when someone tried to make a pass at you. He was jealous but you couldn’t understand why he would be jealous. 

“Thanks, everyone but Y/N and I are leaving. You have that thesis to work on, remember?” 

“Yeah but --”

You took a deep breath and understood that now wasn’t the time to argue with him. So you nodded your head and agreed. 

“Yeah. He’s right. I’ve been putting off that thesis for a while. It was nice meeting you guys.” 

You looked down at Sousuke and watched as he stood from his seat. He gave Rin a hug and then invited you into one as well. It would be awkward to refuse it. He gave you your sweater but before you could grab it yourself Rin took it for you and with that the two of you were off. The walk back to your shared apartment was quiet. You attempted to break the silence by talking to Rin but he didn’t budge. He trudged his feet forward and you followed behind him. Provided that Rin wasn’t communicating with you the second you entered your apartment you returned to your work. 

Rin watched you as you began to open up your laptop. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m working on my paper, Rin.” 

Your eyes were busy opening up the tab you left off on. Rin walked towards you and lowered your screen causing your hands to leave the keyboard. He shut the laptop completely. 

“Rin what the fuck is wrong with you?” You looked up at him angrily. 

“With me? What do you mean what the fuck is wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong with you?” 

You understood he was jealous of what happened at the pub. He didn’t need to say it but this behavior? It was unacceptable. You set your laptop on the coffee table and stood up. He was much taller than you so you looked up at him. 

“Nothing is wrong with me Rin. You invited me to the pub to meet your friends. I was getting to know them.” 

“Them? C’mon, Y/N. You seemed to only be interested in one person.”

With a shake of your head, you rolled your eyes. Now with your arms folded across your chest, you shrugged your shoulders. 

“Sousuke? I was sitting right next to him and I had to make conversation. What did you expect me to do, sit awkwardly and not say anything? ”

“Did you have to take your sweater off---”

You cut him off. 

“It was hot! Rin, oh my god. What has gotten into you?” 

“Nothing has gotten into me. I’m not that petty. Look at your shirt.” 

He pointed at your cleavage. 

“You had no business wearing a shirt where everyone could see your bra. That’s only for me to see.” 

Your hands came up to rub your temples. 

“Rin. I didn’t do that on purpose. Nobody noticed.”

“I noticed.” Rin stepped closer towards you. 

“Of course you noticed, your mind is always going someplace perverted.” 

You mumbled under your breath -- soft enough where you didn’t think he couldn’t hear. 

With his hand, he took your chin and turned it for you to face him, “what the fuck did you just say?” 

It was the look in his eyes that was a dead give away to what was about to transpire. Punishment. It happened rarely, you were good. Rin hated punishing you or at least that’s what he swore. 

“Nothing.” You said in response. 

Rin clicked his tongue. 

“You know how I feel about liars, Y/N. You said my mind is perverted. And what about yours, hm?” 

The question is rhetorical. You knew this but your pride urged you to respond. Rin covered your mouth preventing you from saying anything further. 

“Do you like him... Sousuke? I bet you were thinking about him huh? I can’t blame you, he's a handsome guy. Do you want me to call him? So he can fuck you? So I can show him how much of a fucking slut you are?” 

Rin removed his hand from your mouth and ordered you not to speak. With both his hands he tore the fabric of your tee and exposed the black bra you wore. It was nothing sexy. A casual t-shirt bra that was a part of your everyday attire but because of the push-up support your cleavage looked more pronounced than usual. 

“I bet that’s what you wanted Sousuke to see. You were just shoving your breasts in his face asking him to bend you over and fuck you.” 

You nodded your head no. Rin only chuckled, still not believing your disinterest in his friend. He turned away from you and took a seat on the chair across from you. He sat with his legs wide, wide enough for you to see the growing length between his pants. You stood there silently waiting for what Rin wanted to do with you next. 

“Take off your pants, Y/N.”

You unbuttoned the waistband of your jeans and removed them. You picked them up and placed them on the chair behind you. You stood in front of your boyfriend in your mismatched bra and panty set. Rin took out his phone and held it in your direction. 

“Should I take a picture and send it to him? Should I let him know you’re thinking about fucking him?”

You shook your head no once more this time with much more vigor. You stepped towards Rin before finally kneeling in front of him. Your hand held his wrist and you lowered his phone. 

“You have permission to speak, Y/N.” 

You took a breath before opening up your mouth to finally respond. 

“Baby. I’m so--”

Rin cut you off. 

“Who do you want to fuck, me or him?” 

Without missing a beat you responded, 

“You.”

Rin shoved his phone into the pocket of his jacket and took your hand. He guided you into the bedroom and threw you on the bed. Rin placed his phone on the nightstand and began to remove his own clothing. With his jacket, shirt, and pants free he only remained in his boxers. Finally, his broad figure hovered your own. Rin took his hand and gently placed it around your neck. His fingers were delicate against your skin but you knew it wouldn’t remain that way for long. 

“Who does this body belong to?” He asked, his delicate fingers turned into a grip. 

“It b-belongs to you -- Rin.” 

The grip he earned felt tighter but the sensation was pleasurable. You felt the heat in your core rise. Rin had a dark expression but his eyes told another story. He was looking forward to pleasuring you even though he was still consumed by his jealousy. Rin lowered his frame closer towards yours and as he did you felt his hardened length press against the inner of your thigh, sending a jolt of adrenaline to surge through your veins. He placed a kiss on your lips and it was gentle, loving despite what the tone of the situation implied. Despite it all his kisses were always filled with so much warmth and care. He loved you, so much. 

“And what would you like me to do with your body, Y/N?”

“Anything.”

He repeated, “anything?” 

You nodded your head. The grip he earned around your throat loosened. He kissed your lips once more and he began to trail his kisses lower. He took extra time around your neck making sure to leave tender kisses where his fingers dug into your skin. As he continued his task soft moans flew out of your lips which Rin loved to hear. As he kissed lower and lower it was almost like he had memorized the parts of your body that felt the most pleasure. In those places, he opened his both and gently bit your skin. The painful yet pleasurable act always left little marks, little marks you loved to trace over the next day. 

“This isn’t one of those fancy bras,” Rin noted with his fingers looped between the straps.

You nodded your head. “I don’t wear lingerie every day, Rin.”

“Well. You should. For me anyway.” 

Rin lowered the straps to your bra before opting to shove the cups down instead. 

“Better yet you should just stop wearing one... for me though. Me only.”

“Of course only you. Always for you.”

It was the reassurance of your words that caused Rin to look up at you. He smirked, 

“Don’t think your cute words are going to let you off the hook so easy.”

Rin kissed the middle of your chest before taking his mouth around one of your nipples. With his tongue, he lapped circles around the sensitive bud. The pleasure from that alone caused your hips to buck forward. You felt his hard cock against your clothed cunt. Rin stopped his movements and shoved your hips back down into the mattress. He grunted in distress. 

“You said I was the one with perverted thoughts. Yet with just a little bit of fondling your body is already begging for my cock. Do you want me to fuck you, fuck you so hard that you forget about any other guy?”

You blushed at his remark feeling embarrassed at how eager you were for him. You watched as his eyes trailed down to view the wet spot between your legs. Out of embarrassment, you closed them. Rin sat on his knees and he tore your legs open. 

“Such a fucking whore.” He muttered underneath a breath. 

“You have such a lewd body. You’re begging me to fuck you and I’ve barely enough touched you.”

He shook his head at you. “Take off your panties for me.”

Without any hesitation, you completed the task. You took off your panties and threw them aside. 

“Open your pussy wide for me.” 

You’re hesitant. Rin didn’t like your hesitance. 

“Oya, oya?”

Rin arched an eyebrow. 

“Don’t act shy. Open your pussy for me.”

You brought your knees up and opened your legs wide. With your hands, you opened the folds of your pussy to expose yourself to him. Rin was smiling widely. His eyes were hungry to consume you whole.

“Look how wet you are. Just for me?” 

With two fingers Rin gently rubbed your clit. Because you were so eager to be pleasured, the moan you gave was louder than you had anticipated. You bit your tongue but Rin quickly encouraged you to moan to your heart's content. 

“You can be a whore. It’s fine.” 

It was his weird way of humiliating you and from the looks of it he wasn’t going to stop just there. 

He entered both his fingers inside you. 

“You welcomed me in without any issue.” His fingers began to thrust in and out of you at a miserably low speed. You kicked your legs and whined at the torturous experience. 

“Baby, I can’t have you cum from just my fingers.” He leveled with you. 

“Then give me more.” You spoke out of turn but your request intrigued Rin. 

“More? What do you want?”

“You.”

“You’ll have to be more specific, babe.”

You clicked your tongue and with an exhale you admitted what you truly desired. 

“Your cock.”

“Where do you want it? I can put in several locations.”

His fingers were still within you and with each question, he asked he moved his fingers either further inside you or thrust them in and out. If that wasn’t enough, he used this thumb to gently brush against your clit. 

“Inside -- me. Inside my pussy. Please, Daddy.”

Daddy. You’d never used that word before. And it was like something inside of Rin clicked. He removed his fingers from inside you and licked them clean. He returned to hovering above you. He looked down at you with lust-filled eyes. “What did you just call me?”

“Daddy.”

“Do you want daddy’s cock to fill your tiny little pussy?” 

You nodded your head eagerly and given that Rin was so turned on from his newfound nickname he was done with his teasing. He removed his boxers and from out sprung his thick cock. The impressive length he had was throbbing and glistening with his precum. You moaned at the sight. 

He held his cock in his hands and prevented himself from stroking it. Every ounce of pleasure he wanted would be from what he gave you. He aligned the tip of his cock against the folds of your pussy. He circled the tip around your clit and you pressed your head further into the pillow. Without warning, Rin entered inside of you causing you to grasp at the sheets under you. Once he fully entered he realized he had done so raw. You were now on the pill so neither of you thought twice about the action.

“It feels different raw, doesn’t it?” 

He admired how his cock was fully inside you and he continued to watch as he began to thrust. As always his thrusts, to begin with, were slow. He liked to admire how his cock thrust in and out of your pussy. He finally gave you the benefit of eye contact and you put on a show for him. The pleasurable experience of his cock finally inside you caused your face to change in order to reflect the amount of pleasure you were receiving from Rin.

With his hips moving in and out of you at a rhythmic pace he brought his hand up to grasp your neck once more. With his thumb he placed it in the middle of your lips, 

“Open your mouth for daddy.”

You did as instructed and began to suck on his thumb imagining if it was his cock instead. You looked at him through half-lidded eyes that were somewhat teary from the mix of pain and pleasure you felt with his large length inside of you. 

“Do you wish that was a cock?” 

You held his wrist and nodded fervently. 

“Maybe I should call Sousuke and ask him to come and shove his cock in your mouth. Maybe that would finally make you shut the fuck up about how I have perverted thoughts.”

Rin continued to thrust in and out of you he didn’t want you to speak. He was fully in control of your pleasure as well as his own. 

With his free hand, he reached over to grab his phone that he left on the nightstand. It wasn’t unusual for him to take pictures of you but provided the context you wondered what he was up to. 

“I have to take a picture of your face baby. Yo--You’re taking daddy’s cock so well. I h-have to.” His thrusting is scattered and you aren’t entirely sure if he’s going to pleasure you from his cock alone. He was such a tease especially in his jealous state, he could just leave you there. You wrapped your legs around his waist and started to thrust into him as well. Your moans grew louder and louder. Rin laughed in pleasure. 

With the phone still in his hands, you took advantage of the situation, 

“Are you going to take a picture of me, daddy? Huh? Are you going to show everyone how good you fuck me?” 

Rin groaned loudly himself his hands shaking at the immense pleasure he felt from you thrusting alongside him. 

“F-fuck you’re such a fucking whor-whore.” 

He’s panting and you clenched around him causing him to further fall down the spiral of his ecstasy. He threw his phone elsewhere and grabbed your legs. He removed them from around his waist and held them open wide. 

You sobbed at the action as his cock was thrusting deeper inside you and hitting the spongey spot that brought you the utmost pleasure. You felt his entire length thrust inside of you and just sit inside the pit of your stomach. With his large hands forcing your hips into the mattress it was impossible to move. You were chained to him and so desperate to reach your state of euphoria. 

“Do you like that. Huh? You’re clenching. Mmmm---fuck Y/N!” 

Rin began to move faster in and out of you.

“Daddy’s cock is deep inside your pussy, you love it don’t you? You little fucking slut. You just --- just love daddy’s cock filling your pussy up with his cum.” 

He then takes both of your legs and swings them over his shoulders. Your hips hovered above the mattress and the pleasure you felt was immense. The sound of your flesh slapping against his alongside your loud, nearly screaming moans filled the room. Without warning him you clenched around his throbbing cock and reached your peak. As you did something inside you snapped, you squirted around his cock, and the second you did you felt the thick spurts of his hot cum coat the inside of your pussy.

His body went limp and came crashing down to lay on the bed next to you. Rin had his face flat on the pillow, he was breathing heavy and as were you. You laid with your hand on your stomach feeling oddly full but empty at the same time. You touched your pussy but it was so sensitive from the pleasure you twitched at a simple graze. 

You turned your head to Rin your body was too weak to fully face him. Rin turned his head as well and looked at you. The two of you chuckled,

“That was amazing,” Rin said.

With a weak, tired voice you asked. “Are you still mad at me?”

With whatever strength he had left Rin came closer towards you and kissed you. 

“Call me daddy again.”

“--- Daddy.”

Rin kissed you. 

“Nope. Not mad.”  

#rin x reader #rin matsuoka x reader #free x reader #rin matsuoka x y/n #rin x y/n #free x y/n #rin matsuoka #free! dive into the future #free! take your marks #free! smut #nsfw. #rm. #tm. #free. #Anonymous

[hatsukeii]

hey! could i request boyfriend! sousuke, makoto and rin headcanons? 💕 thank you!

yusyusyusyusyusssss

lmao I’m straight binging free rn deadass alr done w s2 and it’s been like 2 days 

Sorry but Rin>>>>>>>>>>

Anyways onto the headcanons!!

All gender neutral btw:33

*Gifs are not mine:>

🌊Yamazaki Sosuke🌊

- Yikes I feel really bad for not liking him until the end of season two-

- But anyways,

- Sosuke is um... kinda dense I feel like. 

- Like he doesn’t really catch up on cues.

- The two of you could be out and there would be these girls staring at him.

- He would literally pay no mind and get confused when you start pulling him away.

- “(Y/n)? I thought you wanted to go into that store?”

- “Sosuke those girls are staring, we can come back later.”

- “Huh? So they’re staring, what’s the deal?”

- “Sosuke wha???”

- Yeah, that. 

- But don’t worry, he has eyes for you and YOU ONLY!!

- Lmao I feel like he’s popular with girls but he’ll just turn them down straight up.

- “Sorry, I’m not interested, and I already have a partner.”

- Yike feelsbadman.

- Okay aside from all that, Sosuke is honestly an AMAZING BOYFRIEND LJAHDAWHD-

- He’s very stoic in public, kinda harsh, but he has that one soft spot for you.

- Extra soft spot.

- With you he’s super caring, very sweet, protective, just sjkhncef yes.

- Definitely gets jealous sometimes when you’re getting too touchy feely with another guy.

- God forbid you to hug a guy in front of him.

- He isn’t one to boast or show you off, he’s very lowkey with the relationship.

- Not much PDA, maybe a little bit of hand holding or finger linking but that’s about it.

- When the first years found out you two were dating let me tell you they were shook.

- Momotarou was very, very jealous, to say the least.

- Probably didn’t get intimate until like months into the relationship.

- And no I don’t mean intimate as in sex but like kissing or sth like that.

- It took him some time to warm up to the idea of just a relationship, but kissing? Even longer.

- He had this mindset where it was like oh if I kiss her then I’ll start drifting out of focus and I’ll forget about swimming and then my dream is going to be out of reach and-

- Yeah, he still kissed you so...

- When he found out about his shoulder you were the first one he turned to.

- He couldn’t let other people find out, but he trusted you.

- Awww he was devastated.

- He definitely didn’t cry for hours.

- And he definitely didn’t make your shirt wet from crying.

- And he absolutely did not refuse to let go of you at night when the two of you were about to sleep.

- Great boyfriend material, 9/10 would recommend bc of the obliviousness.

🐢Makoto Tachibana🐢

- He’s the man.

- Like THE MAN.

- You’ve reached the top of the list.

- God DAMN HE IS SUCH A GOOD BOYFRIEND.

- He’s genuinely caring, understandig, a tiny bit awkward, super sweet, if husbando material was a person, this would be it.

- He likes PDA definitely, but not like extreme PDA.

- Hand holding, maybe an arm around your waist, occasional peck on the cheek in public, about that.

- Not one to show you off but wouldn’t mind doing that if anyone asked about it.

- “Yeah, I do have an amazing partner, thanks for asking.”

- Likes it when you play w his hair!!

- He’s just so supportive of everything you do oh god.

- You like gaming? Hell yeah, he’s cheering you on. You’re an artist? Draw him like one of your French boys. You’re a dancer? Hypes you up when you’re busting it down.

- Awww and he’s such a dork too!!

- If you guys have a movie night, pick a horror movie.

- Baby is so scared of the paranormal that he’ll be clinging to you throughout the entire thing.

- “Mako, it really isn’t that scary-”

- “We’re moving out if this apartment is cursed.”

- “Mako you don’t even live here yet.”

- Jumps so hard at jumpscares and just shoves his head into your neck even further.

- It’s like an extra cuddle session.

- Except you’re laughing your ass off and he’s so scared that his soul probably left his body.

- Very soft spoken, and he hates to argue.

- I mean if you guys fight you’d usually just feel bad and apologise first.

- *cough because he usually never picks the fights.

- Lots of bear hugs and cuddles!!

- Is the big spoon, will forever be the big spoon.

- Okay he tries to cook he really does.

- But he’s so clumsy oh god.

- Usually results in the food being weirdly sweet, or an entire bag of cheese accidentally dumped onto the floor.

- Thank god he hasn’t burned the apartment down yet.

- Just help him cook man he can’t do it himself.

- Good at pretty much everything else though.

- Actually enjoys doing domestic stuff.

- I feel like some of the swim club members were jealous of you-

- Okay maybe not jealous but definitely envious.

- Honestly it seems like they would happily take your place and date Makoto but can you really blame them??

- Overall 10/10 because he seriously tried to sell your apartment on eBay once after a horror movie.

🦈Rin Matsuoka🦈

- Oh god where do I even start.

- ROMANTIC.

- SUCH A CLASSIC ROMANTIC.

- THAT SHIT IS LITERALLY CANON AND I LIVE FOR IT.

- Definitely PDA.

- Will kiss you in front of people just to piss them off.

- Shows you off ALL THE TIME.

- “Oh you can cook? Well so can my partner.”

- “Oh you need help with maths? My partner’s amazing at it gimme a second lemme call them.”

- Lmao it kinda annoys the swim club.

- “Rin senpai, we know you’re not single, you don’t have to rub it in...” ~Momotarou

- Does he care? No.

- Cheeky little shit, I love him-

- Will get jealous very, very easily.

- “Babe, that dude was looking at you weird, can we leave and come back?”

- “Awww is my baby Rin jealous~?”

- “Shut up:)”

- Will not hesitate to fight anyone that hurts you.

- Takes you on the cheesiest dates.

- Beaches, stargazing, nice restaurant, libraries, anything that he’s seen in those old romance movies.

- And he’s such a gentleman when it comes down to it too.

- Holds the door open, gives you piggyback rides if you’re tired, literally kisses the back of your hand before every date, you name it.

- Oh my god I’m so in love w this cheesy awkward dork-

- He’s got a lotta shit bottled up so do expect him to get moody at times.

- Nothing a good cry and cuddle session can’t fix though.

- Likes to feel you curled up against his chest while he plays with your hair.

- Presses your head closer so you can feel his heartbeat just like those kdramas portray it it’s not like he watches them or anything-

- If he’s crying then you’re gonna have to do the cuddling.

- Do the same to him as he does for you when the two of you cuddle.

- Except also stroke his hair and tell him everything’s gonna be okay.

- He needs someone to show that they care thanks for coming to my ted talk.

- When you’re upset he’ll probably start crying too.

- He can’t stand to see someone he cares about upset.

- Hypes you up whenever he gets the chance.

- Will do stupid shit just to see you smile.

- He’s actually very emotional and sensitive, so please take care of him.

- The dynamics in the relationship though like wow they’re insanely good.

- The two of you are just straight vibing.

- Overall 11/10 because I’m clearly biased😌💅.

#free! iwatobi swim club headcanons #free! iwatobi swim club #free! imagines #free! x reader #free! rin #free! sosuke #free! makoto #rin matsuoka headcanons #rin matsuoka x reader #rin matsuoka #sosuke yamazaki #sosuke yamazaki x reader #sosuke yamazaki headcanons #makoto tachinaba #makoto tachibana headcanons #makoto tachibana x reader #manga #anime #x reader

[sparkys-ec-corner]

Can you lease enlighten me as to why you ship Amomiche and why you love Amostia so much? Since Amostia is given very little screen time if you will and barely characterized at all it's difficult for me to see why you ship them so much and why you love Amostia so much. Or is it partially because your a hardcore Len x Miku shipper? You can ship whatever you want ofc I just am curious as to what led you to ship it and stuff. Plus I'm more of a Gumi x Gammon shipper (#NemesisxNyozeForLIFE!!!) who barely ships Miku or Len or Rin with anybody and when I do ship them it's more often Miku x Rin (I'm trash for girlxgirl ok) sooo. And yes that goes for in Evillious as well I barely ship any of the Mikus with anybody (minus Michaela x Clarith) and same goes for any of the Lens. So oof

dw!! i understand your points and im aware of how unusual it is for me to love a character like amostia and ship something so unexpected like amomiche (i already apologize since this is long,,, oops,,,)

i would be lying if i said that the fact im a diehard lenmiku shipper didnt affect my decision in bringing amomiche into existence, but it's mostly due to this specific extensive au that serves as amostia's characterization arc and the hcs involving both amostia and michelle.

as for why i love amostia, it's because i thought he was a character with a lot of potential that was shoved to the side as a simple plot device + i was incredibly salty over why amostia is the only irregular who doesnt appear in motheavenly novel at all. since ma was given some characterization that culminated in her "i'm going to destroy the universe to confirm my existence" goal at the end of the novel, i wondered, "what about the Punishment boy? doesnt he get a chance to appear since he's an irregular too? where is he?"

heck, even irregular in scap short story gets a personality, however extremely barebones and single-minded it is, and he's called a boy without an ego since he died right after being born. despite this, he still had the desire of meet his mother.

around 2018, i began writing what would be amostia's backstory because i thought he deserved one. he deserved a personality. he deserved to be cared about. i was ready from the start to be that one weirdo who likes an obscure character no one cares about (i never finished that fic, btw. my hcs changed overtime and my prose back then was kinda ew, so i deleted it)

i never intended to love him as much as i do now. i just wanted to give him a personality and a backstory, but the more i thought about what might had happened to him in lunaca labora and during his time as Punishment the weapon and what would be his personality, the more i wished him to be seen as a person rather than "the weapon nemesis used to blow up the world".

i joined an ec discord server for no other reason but to find other fans, and rather hesitantly shared my hcs of him and fanart in the channels. as i said before, i knew it was weird for me to be attached to a character no one cared about, but i nevertheless persisted on.

before i knew, i was changing everybody's perception of amostia, turning him from a simple plot device into an actual character to the eyes of the fandom.

to be honest, i still do not believe how much everything has changed all thanks to me, only because i cared enough to share what i thought of him. i didnt... expect my hcs to be received so warmly. i made him starkly different from your typical ec len — he's angry, explosive and rude; nothing like the dimwitted and enthusiastically chaotic hansel, much less like the loyal and stoic allen — but maybe the fact he was so different was why people liked him so much. he's like a bright red dot on a canvas of soft colors. im really happy that people liked and accepted my hcs, even after Outlaw & Lychgate was published.

as for amomiche, here's where the extensive au comes in — before Outlaw & Lychgate was published, i had a thought that amostia wandered around the dead world before being found by meta and pretty much adopted by her. this characterization arc of his is meant to be a "coming to age" type of story, exploring his past and making him learn how to be a better person — an actual person with dreams and purpose instead of a weapon merely to be used by others.

initially, i intended michelle to be amostia's friend since they both have a link through nemesis. they would kinda bond through that since michelle wanted to know a bit about nemesis despite amostia himself not knowing much, after amostia finding michelle lost in a snowy night and bringing her back home.

one time, i received a m/a ask in amostia askblog about "len" and "miku" being a couple for some asks. since michelle was the closest "miku" to amostia, i obviously were to bring her in. tbh i was already slightly struggling with keeping them as friends since i found them to be really sweet together and my dumb lenmiku ass bothering tf outta me, and that m/a broke me definitely. i gave in. (although i took a time to answer the m/a itself, admittedly. by the time i answered it, i was already doodling some amomiche stuff)

again, i was ready to be seen as weird, to be the only person in the entire fandom to ship them together. i never hid the fact it is a crackship. i knew i would possibly be cast out as lenmiku trash for it. regardless, i kept doodling them and talking about them simply because i liked them (hell, they stay as friends for a long time in the au before romantic feelings blossom. sue me for liking friends-to-lovers trope with a self-improvement undertone)

and then, my surprise when it was accepted by the fandom despite its status as crackship. gosh, even people who arent into evillious had doodled amomiche!! someone who was into ec actually thought it was canon!! and was saddened to discover that it wasnt because they thought it was really sweet!! and they didnt even ship lenmiku normally!! i swear this still makes me die inside, seriously 😂

so you can say it's a combination of everything that eventually brought amomiche into existence, including my own love for amostia. i dont blame anyone for being confused with it since amostia as a character is so underdeveloped in canon and amomiche is a crackship. it's okay, really. im just vibing here. im not here looking for validation for them nor am i hoping for official crumbs.

all of this is self-indulgent, simply because i want amostia to be more popular, even if slightly. amostia will never become as popular as hansel or allen, im aware, but as long as someone appreciates him as a person, then i think my job is done here. all i want is people to appreciate him. if someone comes to like amomiche too, then it also makes me extremely happy! if someone likes amostia but not amomiche, that's fine too! i don't mind different hcs. if one respects my own, then i respect theirs.

so. yeah. it might not make sense to some people, but that's basically it. i am but a humble artist doodling stuff for a character who she wants to give the happiness and the characterization he didnt get in canon. if someone likes them, then im happy!! 💖

#answered asks #amostia #amomiche #oh god i spent HOURS on this #this is a fucking essay. oh god.. whyyyyyyyyy

[makoandharu]

Okay so I just had a think back to the makoharu fight in Eternal Summer and how much it hurt to hear Haru say things (that I know he didn't mean) but then break down when he found out Makoto wasn't actually going to be with him forever... But then it got me thinking. Haru repeatedly says that he was fine with the way things were at that moment, but other people think that he wasn't and was just afraid/lost in trying to find a dream to pursue in the future... (1/2?)

Though I do agree with Makoto and the others about Haru just being afraid and uncertain about the future, which was why he wasn't really seeking for anything, I actually more so believe and understand Haru in this fight. I honestly believe that Haru was GENUINELY fine with everything staying as it is, and would not mind basically staying in Iwatobi with no dream to pursue, despite this mostly coming from his fear and uncertainty of the future. (2/3?)

The way he kept insisting he was fine this whole time with not finding a dream and wanting things to be kept how they are, those words gotta have some truth to them. But then it got me thinking what was it that make Haru genuinely feel fine to stay in Iwatobi, if it wasn't just the uncertainty of moving forward in the future...? Makoto. I realised that at the time of the fight he didn't know that Makoto was actually moving away at the time. Like yeah, Rin was going to be an Olympian- (3/4?)

And going to Australia. Nagisa and Rei were also the type of people to keep going and pursue their future, whatever it may be. And despite that, he never breaks down at the thought of all of them leaving, albeit being quite sad that everything wouldn't really stay the same in reality. It's because they weren't really that constant presence in his life that he was so used to living with, so he was pretty much okay with them 'leaving him behind' Because who would be there for him anyway? (4/5?)

Makoto. He had always assumed that Makoto, up until this point, was in the same boat as him and hadn't found a dream yet, therefore was also going to stay there at Iwatobi, just like Haru. And who could blame Haru for thinking that since that was the last thing he heard Makoto say when the three of them were talking with Rin in the rain? But now thinking about it, Makoto has been a constant in Haru's life since the beginning of time, obviously- (5/6?)

But I didn't realise until then exactly how IMPORTANT Makoto and his very presence was for Haru. Haru was fine with not finding a future and everything staying the way it is because Makoto would be there with him, and they'll be stuck together without a future. Even if it feels like it all has come to a big standstill and it's all hopeless, Haru doesn't mind because Makoto, his precious constant, will be there right beside him as it always has been. (6/7?)

Which NOW makes me understand the whole pain Haru experiences when he hears that, in reality, Makoto isn't going to stay with him stuck in this dreamless future. Makoto was going to Tokyo and, in effect, leaving him behind. Gone was his initial comfort in not finding a dream. Makoto won't be there with him also dreamless. And THAT'S why he was so broken during that reveal. (7/8?)

So broken that he didn't even want to go in the water. It was Makoto who got him swimming and, as we learnt in HS, he didn't even want to swim if Makoto wasn't going to be there with him. And that's what I think, when he went to Australia, made him so happy to find a dream of his own. He wasn't in fact going to be left behind with Makoto, but now instead moving forward with him, with a plan that could take both of them to Tokyo and continue supporting each other. (7/8? Lost count lol)

Haha, somewhere in this whole rant the argument got lost and I'm sorry for that, but TL;DR: When Haru said he was fine with the way things were, he DID actually mean it because he thought Makoto was going to be with him. But when he finds out that's not the case, that's when he starts to truly break down and NOW not be fine with staying behind, and actually be full of doubt and uncertainty for the future, since his constant was leaving... (8/9)

Yet when he does find his dream, one that was totally doable in Tokyo, you can see how truly excited he is by the end of the episode. Because can he move forward with Makoto and be in step with him, but he can actually still BE WITH him in Tokyo. No matter where Haru is in his lifetime, as long as he has Makoto by his side, he knows he will be fine and has always meant that. (9/9) Geez I wrote a lot lol. Hope that all made sense ❤️

First of all, wow! I love being ranted at, thank you so much for this, it was great fun to read! 

I agree with you to a large extent, I think he had made peace with the idea of staying in iwatobi dreamless bc he assumed Makoto would stay with him. I think esp after starting days, when Makoto had avoided him but found that actually he wants to swim with Haru, Haru got really really comfortable with the idea that Makoto wouldn’t leave now. Bc he’s had his little panic and found the answer, and the answer is Haru. So Haru’s confident that Makoto will stay forever now. 

But I think he doesn’t quite realise what being dreamless means. Nagisa tells him he can do anything bc he’s good at cooking and art, but Haru dismisses/doesn’t address it. I think he’s so caught up in resisting the idea of going pro that he’s not even thinking about the future at all, let alone a dreamless one. Haru’s a very live-in-the-moment type of person already, but coupled with the anxiety he feels bc the scouts and Rin pestering him about the future and his teacher’s high expectation, he just cannot even entertain a different path bc any thought of the future lead to a panic induced dream where he’s just falling into nothing.

(Maybe the reason the idea of going pro stresses him is bc it’s what everyone expects from him and not something he found for himself, BUT it’s something he can absolutely see himself doing? So he’s pissed that other people are telling him to do something that maybe he was gonna do anyway? Kinda like when you’re thinking of doing the dishes and then your mum tells you to do dishes and your’re like actually no i’m not gonna do it now lmao. But more in the sense that he’s pissed at being put into any box, having any future forced on him, regardless of whether he thinks it suits him or not)

But yeah Makoto leaving was really the straw that broke the camel’s back, so now he has no dream and no Makoto. And that’s really not something he can live without so he knows he has to fight his demons if he want to keep his Makoto around. Intesting that he’s always forced to face his issues as a direct result of Makoto and always comes out happier once he has :)

Do not even get me started on Haru not swimming in Austrailia, makes me lose my mcfrickin mind!!!! Not even in the bath in the morning cos who’s gonna pull him out???????? I always saw him not going into the water as “well Makoto’s not here so what’s the point” bc we know Haru thinks water is healing that it can cure his cold (as a mother this kid really stresses me out, you idiot have some calpol), but here it can’t heal his heartache bc it’s that bad. But you’re right! It also makes sense that he wouldn’t swim bc he always swam when Makoto asked him to (joining the ITSC in the first place, swimming the relay in s1 etc) cos maybe he doesn’t deserve to after he hurt Makoto? D:

#long post #anon #ask #thank you so much for this!!! nothing better than being ranted at honestly <3 #nanase haruka #makoharu #meta

[lancermylove]

Threatened Reader 2 (HC)

*** These headcannons will make more sense after you read part 1. ***

Fandom: BSTS

Pairing: Kei x Reader, Rindou x Reader, Mokuren x Reader, Kokuyou x Reader, Mizuki x Reader

Warning: Kinda angsty. Mention of attempted suicide, violence, lost of a loved one

Requested by: @mokuchan

Prompt:  You didnt get my question?- oop okay- I'll explain it again, but you dont need to do this- So I wanted you to make a part 2 on the threatened reader hc like the s/o comes back as a ghost comforted all the leaders? Their S/o comforting them and saying not to die with her..Its just so sad that I now Want a happy ending well You dont need to because it aint my request! if you do this, please take your time- you have lots of other requests, if you dont I understand you to the max XD :)

A/N: Well, these are exactly happy, but they’re lighter than the ones I wrote before. I may build up on part 2 and do a part 3 which would most likely be happier. XD

———————————————

Kei 

Kei slowly opened his eyes and scanned the grounds, taking in the rain and the remains of your murderer.

He had held the gun at point-blank, so why, why was he still alive? 

Please, don't do this. He heard a familiar and gentle whisper in his ear. Please, Kei.

Was his mind playing tricks on him? His heart yearned to hear that sweet voice again, but he knew that was impossible, so why did it feel so real?

Kei buried his face in his hands, still holding onto his gun. Stop hurting yourself.

His muscles tensed up when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind. He knew that touch all too well; that warm, loving touch that had the power to melt his heart. 

I will not let you throw your life away. 

Kei desperately tried to pry his hands away from his face, but an unknown force prevented him from doing so.

Stop blaming yourself for my death. You are not responsible for what happened.

Kei felt a lump in his throat, "I c-couldn't protect you." 

Please stop! Kei, I...I w-want you to be happy. You have to live for both of us. 

"I can't...not without you." His deep voice cracked, and his shoulders trembled. 

Who says I'm not with you? Just because you can't see me doesn't mean I'm not by your side. A soft chuckle filled his ears, causing a fragile smile to appear on his pale lips. You've always been my guardian angel, and now, I promise to be your guardian angel.

The unseen hold on Kei loosened as a distant voice echoed, promise me that you will live...for me. 

Removing his hands from his face, Kei once again scanned the empty grounds. A ray of light shone from between the dark clouds, illuminating his exhausted face. 

Kei closed his eyes and fell to his knees, allowing the months of suppressed pain to escape down his cheeks. "I-I promise to live...for us." 

Rindou

Rindou. 

He heard his name once again but ignored it as he continued to press his knees closer to his chest, rocking back and forth. 

Rindou. Can you hear me?

Rindou pressed the palms of his hands on his ears, tears clouding his dull eyes. 

He felt a warm hand of his back but brushed it off as his imagination. 

The sweet voice once again called out to him, but this time the voice came from behind him. Rindou, I know you can hear me.

He violently shook his head and buried his face in his knees. 

A pair of arms enveloped him in a warm embrace. Everything is going to be alright. You are not at fault.

A sob escaped Rindou's lips, but the voice continued. You need to stop blaming yourself. 

"B-But, I...the gunshot..."

Please, bring my old Rin back. I miss him very much. 

"I don't want," he spoke in a pained voice, "to live without you." 

Your friends need you; moreover, your sister needs you. You cannot continue like this. Don't give up!

Rindou slowly lifted his head, his eyes scanning his surroundings. He tried to find the source of the voice in vain. 

I will be waiting for you, my love, but I'm in no hurry. Rin, live your life, and always be happy.

He wiped his tears as a smile found it's way onto his lips. His once lifeless eyes now held a slight glimpse of hope. 

Kokuyou

Kokuyou closed his heavy eyelids, exhausted from spending his entire day hiding from the voice in his head. The same voice that blamed him for everything and told him he was incapable of protecting anyone. 

He expected yet another nightmare to disturb his sleep, but instead of horrifying images, he saw white. Nothing but white. 

Kokuyou? 

He snapped his head in the direction of the voice but didn't see anything. 

Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to reach you?

"Who the hell are you?" The redheaded man balled up his fist, ready to attack. 

Don't you recognize my voice? Here you go once again, getting angry at everything. 

His fists uncurled as he stared in disbelief in the direction of the voice, "You...are...impossible."

I miss the old Kokuyou, my old Kokuyou. The voice grew quiet for a few seconds. I-You know this isn't your fault, right?

He let out an audible tsk before turning his back and walking in the opposite direction. "I'm going crazy," he mumbled but stopped when he felt a pair of warm arms enfolded him from behind. 

I don't blame you for what happened, i-it was my fault for not telling you. Kokuyou, please stop torturing yourself. The grip around him got tighter. He looked down at his waist but saw nothing, yet he could feel the presence.

Go back to your old life; your friends and enemies, alike, are waiting for you to return. They miss you. 

"Shut up. I don't care about them...I don't care about anyone." Kokuyou shut his eyes and clenched his teeth. 

Wrong. You are afraid to lose them, aren't you? Open your eyes and see how much you're worrying them. 

"I..." He bit down on his lower lip and held back his tears. Part of him hated how weak he felt, but the other part wanted him to let loose the emotions that were holding him back. 

Kokuyou, open your heart again. Please. Also, I've one request but think of it as my last wish. He spun around when he felt the presence slowly fading. My last wish is for you to find love again.

Kokuyou opened his eyes and sat up in bed, looking around his room. He placed his hand on his forehead, "Find love again? You make it sound easy." A bitter smile appeared on his lips as silent tears streamed down his face. 

Mokuren

Mokuren had been dancing for hours, ignoring all the warnings his body and mind gave. All he remembered was his vision turning black as he hit the floor in his apartment. 

Mokuren! Hearing a kind voice calling out to him, he slowly opened his eyes only to shield them from the intense light. 

"Where?" He whispered as his eyes adjusted to the bright surroundings. 

Much to his shock, Mokuren was standing on water. He turned his head in all directions but could only see water. 

Mokuren. The voice was closer to him than before, so close that he could feel a shiver run down his spine. 

"You are..." he held his hand out, only to feel a warm hand touch his cold ones. 

Moku, I haven't gone anywhere; I'm still here with you. You haven't lost anything. 

"Princess?" Though he wanted to say more, the words refuse to come out. 

Do you have any idea how worried your teammates are, especially Qu? I am sorry for giving you so much pain, but please, don't hurt yourself like this. 

Mokuren lowered his eyes and pressed his lips into a thin line. 

Dancing has always been your passion, so why are you using it to vent your pain? My dear prince, you keep saying that dancing is all you have, but that's far from the truth. You have friends that care for you; friends that are willing to do anything to help you, so stop this madness.

Mokuren's vision once again started to blacken. He heard the soft voice speak one last time. Find happiness, my love, for yourself, your friends...and for me. 

He slowly woke up to find himself in the hospital. He looked around the room to find his teammates sound asleep. Mokuren quickly wiped the tears rushing down his cheeks, but no matter how hard he tried, they refuse to stop falling. 

Mizuki

Mizuki grabbed the man by his collar and punched his face, "The hell didja say?" Just as he was about to break the man's nose, he saw a familiar face appear before his eyes. 

The young boy's eyes widened as he quickly released the man and took a step back, losing his balance. 

Mizuki felt his blood run cold as the long lost voice echoed in his mind. It's your fault. He grabbed his hair and shook his head in an attempt to stop suppress the annoying voice. 

Mizuki, snap out of it! The boy moved his head side-to-side, horrified by the disembodied voice. What have you turned into? 

"Y-you can't be. I'm going crazy." 

No, you are not! I hate what you've become. What did you do to my troublesome, food-loving boy? 

"Shuddup, shuddup, shuddup!" Mizuki jumped to his feet and punched a nearby wall. "I can do whatever the hell I want." 

Mizuki, in your current condition, you are no different from the fangirl who killed me. 

Those words hit him hard. He felt his stomach twist as he once again remembered the dreadful scene. As each second passed, he found it harder to breathe. 

The people you've killed have loved ones that are suffering, just the way you once suffered after seeing me die. This is not who you are. 

"Sh-Shud-dup." Mizuki leaned against the wall for support as he felt his knees weaken. The images of the people he killed flashed before his eyes, causing his body to tremble. The walls he had built around his heart began to crumble as a piercing cry escaped his lips. 

Mizuki, please return to the world you came from. You can't stay in this dark world anymore. 

"I c-can't," he spoke between heavy sobs, "t-they ha-hate me." 

No, they don't. In fact, they're waiting for you. Your Kokuyou nii-chan, your teammates, even the other teams all want you back. Go, Mizuki. 

The young boy swiftly wiped his tears, jumped to his feet, and raced towards his home with newfound hope in his heart.  

#bsts #blackstar theater starless #bsts kei #bsts kokuyou #bsts mizuki #bsts rindou #bsts mokuren

[midnight-in-town]

That new Aoex chapter... I was actually hoping we were going back to the present, but I wasn't disappointed by what we got. Quite a bit of lore, a glimpse of the true forms of the demon kings, the birth of the Illuminati, and Shiro becoming a dad. There was a lot going on and I think it really helped to connect the past with the present. What was your favorite part?

MY, ANON, THIS CHAPTER WAS SO FUNNY! Like, the more I look at it, the more I think 50% of it is some sort of joke from Kato-sensei’s part??? And don’t get me wrong, I love it, but just, this was insane. 

First of all, can I just say that I truly enjoy Sensei keeping on destroying the very thought of Satan/Yuri as a healthy & romantic pairing with every chapter lately? 

Because, there is a lot of things I can agree to disagree with when it comes to opinions, but I can’t understand people praising abuse and seeing it as love, which was definitely the case between Satan and Yuri with some fans. 

Supposedly he loved her, but the moment she stops being useful to him?

He destroys her (soul?) as well in Gehenna. 

For real, I feel bad for Yuri: we know that she loved Shiro and that it was bad luck & complicated childhoods that kept them away from each other until the end and now she won’t see her sons growing up, the Order is blaming her for Satan & Lucifer’s chaos and she somehow died twice. 

And the reason she betrayed Shiro and the Order for? Dude’s blowing it in her face that “it’s her fault” and that she’s useless to him, also after he revealed he killed her foster family. So yeah, I truly despise Satan, he’s not made to be a sympathetic villain at all (one can’t relate to his issue of lacking a body powerful enough to withstand his powers) and I hope their sons will somehow avenge their mother (and their actual father, the man who raised them).

Oh but since we’re on the rather gloomy parts of the chapter, I gotta say that… 

I’m glad the events of ch1 are finally being addressed. 

Maybe we’ll find out soon about why Shiro couldn’t withstand Satan’s possession almost a year ago in the story, leading to his death: maybe Rin’s words really did hurt him, especially since we know that Yukio kinda had issues with him back then too, without mentioning Shura’s anger…?

So I don’t know, perhaps he got dispirited thinking his children despised him and then his body had grown too old, or the experiments of Section 13 were too far away in time for him to recover in ch1… I guess we’ll see about that soon. ://

Also also, I kinda got spooked by by the Toudou family:

Looks like Saburouta killed his brothers and his wife during the Blue Night (?) leaving only his daughter alive, which is somehow how she ended up following in his footsteps and working for the Illuminati. 

Pretty scarring for that girl, I wasn’t expecting that at all.

As for the Myo Dha amongst the many victims of the Blue Night…

…rip Takezou, Koneko’s dad and Mamushi’s mom (also wondering where Jin, Renzou’s oldest sister, was the whole time but I think Sensei forgot about her).

Finally, I always wondered about how Shura fared throughout the whole Blue Night incident and…

baby girl did well by hiding. 

The rest of the chapter though? Mostly funny parts, I swear to Assiah and Gehenna, haha! For example:

I gotta say I was really intrigued by whatever this Ark is supposed to be, but then…

…Dude gets out a freaking vacuum to deal with Lucifer’s remains???? Yeah, honestly that’s where I lost it LMAO!

IDK if Sensei meant to imply “that’s because he’s trash” or somehow that vacuum leads to this Ark thing, but I really lost my mind reading that scene. xDD

AND THEN…

Mephisto literally said “looks like it will be tough cleaning all this up… Well, gotta go now, you sure don’t need my help, bye~!”. Is he the laziest demon or what?! 

Finally, guys taking out axes to free Jeremiah from the forest he created to protect himself from Lucifer ended up being the final blow for me:

This whole scene with Shemihaza really struck me more as funny (with demons having their own vibes) than anything else. 

Same style but different time and space, we had Lucifer coming back to Gehenna after being defeated by the combo Shemihaza + Samael and…

Mephy being here like “omg bro, u sure u ok after I exorcised you? yeah? well that’s good news then”, my God, I couldn’t help but think that he really is the lowest of the low. xDD

Best part of the whole chapter has to be the following panel though, obviously:

Congrats Shiro, you got what you always wanted: kids to raise and a lifelong debt that is equal to losing your entire freedom. Well, aren’t you h a p p y? 

Nah, more seriously, as predictable as it was since everyone expected the “favor” Mephy requested when Shiro was a child to come into play, I still feel truly bad for him. In the end, escaping the Order is what he wished for, ever since his traumatizing childhood in Section 13, and it’s the one thing he never managed to bite back.

Unless… well, we don’t know yet what the twins will do, but if they somehow manage to defeat Mephy (who is on Assiah’s side but also possibly one hell of a villain as far as they are concerned) or even just the Order, then maybe we’ll have Shiro’s revenge finally out in the open. 

To start with, we know that Shiro didn’t raise no weapon. Yukio may not believe it’s true, Rin can have his doubts, but Shura knows the real deal when it comes to Shiro’s feelings about Yuri and her sons.

So Shiro raising sons and not weapons might eventually be what will stab every manipulator within the Order deep in the back, which would make an awesome revenge for him in that case. 

Finally about this: 

I made a post about this once, but just so it’s clear: as King of Time, clearly Samael knows that Satan will try to invade Assiah once more and him double crossing the Baals & Satan by telling Satan that he will prepare Rin as a vessel is just the best way to get Rin to face his father once he’s ready:

Which he almost is by now, in my opinion.

So yeah, Mephy is the same manipulator as ever, toying with both humans and demons, but we know he’s on Assiah’s side so, from the way I see things, he cannot be in favor of Satan showing up every now and then, raising havoc.

On the other hand, Mephy toying with Shiro and the Okumura twins (amongst others) is precisely why he could make a very fine big bad that the twins have to confront (both for themselves but also for Shiro’s sake), once Satan and Lucifer are out of the way. Ahhh, we shall see.

TL;DR a w e s o m e chapter, as always lately! Some difficult and gloomy parts, some awful moments, some funny ones and Mephy being the same old trickster he’s fated to be: what else could we ask for?

I hope you enjoyed it too, Anon! I don’t think the present time is coming back that quickly (in at least two or three chapters maybe?), but for now I’m still enjoying the flashbacks, so it’s all fine with me. :))

Please have a nice day and thanks for passing by in the first place! ^3^

#ao no exorcist #fujimoto shiro #mephisto pheles #samael #okumura rin #okumura yukio #yuri egin #toudou saburouta #shima takezou #jeremiah uzai #ane theory #ane 119 #anon #answers #my analysis

[jafndaegur]

Noise of Rain | Chapter Four

Ordinary Life Alluded Me, for My Duty You Lost Me

Sesskag

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

Kagome crouched down in the dirt, up to her arms in weeds. She and a few others who had decided to take refuge in the Burial Mounds figured that making themselves self-sustaining with crops would be a solid move. From there they could eat and sell whatever they needed.

Not many people lived with her in the mountains but the tea shop owner, a few of her rescues, and even the odd hanyou had fallen under her care. So, the little clan she'd accidentally built up was now her responsibility. She looked up at the scraggly tents that lined the mountain path in front her. The Burial Mounds by far were not a place someone, anyone, should call home. But somehow here she was.

And Kagome was content.

She stood, her legs creaking as she stretched herself out and began to walk down the path away from the makeshift village. She supposed doing her patrol now instead of later would be better in the long run.

As she made her way down the path, the talismans at the entrance of the mountains told her someone, a group, had entered the proximity. Pulling Kangaimuryo from her belt, she hurried quickly over the patchy land and headed to the grove that spotted the foothills. 

"Lady Kagome!" Came a familiar boyish voice, and she relaxed and slowed her pace.

Twirling the fife in her grasp, she ventured further, "Kohaku! You finally showed up, we were beginning to—"

 And then she stopped.

Up the hill came Kohaku who was closely followed by Sango, Miroku, and Shippo.  She paused at the sight of her friends. She hadn't expected to see them for a while since the teahouse incident. Honestly if they wanted to keep their distance, she couldn’t blame them. Afterall she was different.

"Kagome! You're looking brilliant," Miroku chirped with his usual chipper mien.

Her friends stood around her while Kohaku excused himself to go settle in at the camp back up the mountain. She waved him off before turning to everyone. Heavy and thunderous, her heart pounded against her ribs.

"We figured we'd take a little vacation!" Shippo hopped from Miroku's shoulder to Kagome's, giving her a tight hug around her neck. "If that's okay …"

Her hands instantly wound around the small kit, her gaze swinging to the fond looks of the monk and demon slayer. 

"With Naraku gone..." Miroku flexed his hand, seeming almost—almost—bashful.

Sango stepped forward. "We figured we'd come spend time with you and help you here."

And within seconds, Kagome found herself crushed within the embrace of her best friend. Miroku joined them, pulling the small little group against him with his warm arms.

"You've done so much for us," Sango murmured. "And while we don't understand why you're doing what you are, we're not going to let you do this alone."

"What kind of friends would we be if we just stopped bothering you?" Miroku crooned.

"You guys…" she buried herself in their closeness, breathing in the familiarity and presence of them. It'd been so long and she'd been so alone. "Living up here, it's kinda rough. Are you sure?"

"Kagome, I'm wounded you don't think us hearty enough." The monk gave a reassuring squeeze.

"We're here to stay." Shippo assured, clapping his small paws against her cheeks for good measure.

And that was that. 

Kagome led them up the path, instructing them in how to safely traverse the mountain and avoid any pockets of resentful energy that she had yet to purge.

"Where is Kirara?" She asked after a few moments, realizing that the fiery feline was missing from her normally inseparable spot with the demon slayer.

"She's waiting in the village. Once Kikyo has settled, she'll be bringing Kaede." Sango's face twisted to something along the lines of pitying. "With the original Inuyasha forest guardians back and alive, Kaede felt it was time to move on. So she'll be joining us."

Kagome's heart warmed just a bit more before it cracked. "Wait...then that means Inuyasha's staying…"

Their group was quiet. No one spoke as the tents came into view and the little field Kagome had been de-weeding. All of it came into view and drowned out the noise of rain their footsteps cried.

"We'll see him around," Sango finally piped up.

Miroku clapped. "That's right. He's curious to see what you've been up to." He gave an observant sweep of the area. "Which seems to be starting your own little village! Should we be calling you the Edo Matriarch, Kagome?"

She laughed and lightly tapped him upside the head with her flute. Somehow though, once she introduced them to the others in the camp, that nickname seemed to stick. It was amusing and for some reason and it made her feel independent from "Shikon Miko". 

---

Miroku had been surprisingly good about rolling up his sleeves and helping Kagome till the fields. Within the week between him, her, and some of the others—they were able to make several paddies for growing food. Irrigation would be another problem to worry about later but for now they could start planting. At least hopefully.

They'd missed peak growing season and were edging too close to comfort to the autumn. 

But if they could at least greenhouse some roots—maybe potatoes and radishes—they'd grow enough food to survive the winter. Clever little Shippo set up a perimeter of foxfire to help keep the soil area warm. They could do it.

Sango and Kohaku traveled down the mountain to a closeby village to trade for seeds and roots. Miroku and Kagome had decided to use the few cavern pools that were further up the crags to try and bring down water. They had just decided to stop at Kagome's room, a cave hidden away from the rest of the growing camp, when Miroku turned around with brows furrowed and face worried. 

"There's a strong aura," he said lowly.

And for a moment she worried that he talked about her room. For many reasons she lived in the epicenter of the Burial Mounds where the strongest and most malicious energy wallowed. But in a flash the connection between her and the talismans lining the mountains went off and she sensed the intruder.

They ran. Kagome's haori whipped around violently while the rings on his staff jangled loudly. They skidded to a stop as they were met with the sight of an almost-impassive Sesshomaru. 

His brow cocked, judgemental, while his arms unceremoniously dumped a large pile of lotus pods in front of them.

"S...Sesshomaru?" Kagome's chest heaved as she stared between him and the pods.

"Kohaku visited with Rin sometime ago," he lazily flicked his hand through the strands of his hair. "He mentioned you have instigated a village. How unlike you to become a village matriarch."

Kagome shot a warning glance to Miroku who completely ignored her heed.

"She's actually the Edo Matriarch," he sauntered forward and crouched down to inspect the lotus. "These are quite healthy, Lord Sesshomaru."

Kagome stared at him, "This is a generous gift I wouldn't have expected from you."

She hadn't meant to be biting in tone, and yet this was so unlike the daiyoukai's normally negligent attitude towards her.

His golden eyes turned frigid and his lips upturned into a frown. "Until you are ready to come face to face with the horrid truth that you are keeping to yourself, miko—make sure your village isn't in such shoddy appearance."

He turned on his toes and lifted into the air, flying away from them. They watched him until he was a mere patch of pale light on the horizon.

"You know, I'd say he was almost worried about you," Miroku began to make bundles of the plants. 

Kagome rubbed at her temples, the nerves twinged and aching. Did Sesshomaru know? With all of his great and mighty youkai senses, she wondered if he had actually sniffed out her secret. She doubted that was the case, he was smart though and he probably noticed the clues she'd accidentally left behind. Her main worry was her friends finding out what had happened. The dog demon however, she was not worried about protecting him from the truth...she almost wanted him to find out. Not that he would care…

Maybe.

Kagome leaned down and began to pile lotus pods into her arms. They could take the seeds and plant them in a make-shift pond. That would help with the irrigation system too.

What an odd gift from a demon lord.

#sesskag #sesshomaru x kagome #sesshomaru #kagome higurashi #au: mo dao zu shi #song of the chapter is Cage sung by Tielle

[pseudorganized]

The Bachelor(s)

Summary: (Sequel to My Best Friend's Wedding)

"It's the night before the Big Day. Are you ready? See you at the Bachelor Parties tonight! #bakahusbands"

Or Daiki and Ryouta are getting married but Daiki needs to get through the bachelor parties first.

Characters/Pairings: Aomine Daiki, Kise Ryouta, AoKise. A bunch of cameos.

Notes:  After two years, #bakaboyfriends will finally become #bakahusbands because it took me two years to write up the sequel lolAnyway, here is my actual offering for AoKise Day but I am fashionably late, it seems. There will probably be mistakes and those are mine. But anyway, I won't delay you any more. Hope you enjoy!

Also available over at Ao3!

"Aomine-kun, Akashi-kun has a problem."

Tetsu's eyes were huge in his face like they usually were but for some reason, they gave Daiki an uneasy feeling just then. The feeling didn't ease when Daiki found himself meeting eyes with Akashi who looked too calm and too serious as always..

"Aomine, I apologize." The apology felt sincere and Daiki wished Akashi would blink. "I don't have smaller bills."

Not for the first time in the past few days (weeks, months) Daiki had no idea what was going on. "...What?"

"For the night's… entertainment," Akashi non-explained delicately, quietly, still very seriously and Daiki really wished he knew what he was talking about.

Satsuki only told him to come pool-side where “his” side of the bachelor party was going to be. No one told him he was going to have any part of keeping things organized, never mind having to hold Akashi Seijuuro's hand through commoner pre-wedding festivities.

He probably looked like the actual idiot he was because Akashi's face was actually starting to look a bit pinched. You kind of start to notice his shifting expressions after spending some time with him and he often told you to run laps until you dropped dead.

"I don't have the necessary denomination for tipping the exotic dancers--"

"Wait."

Daiki felt like his head had exploded. He held up his hand to Akashi's face to stop him. He must have really just experienced brain damage because he actually dared to just put his hand up to Akashi's face within stabbing distance.

What the fuck?

Daiki looked urgently at Tetsu. "Exotic--I thought Satsuki said no strippers?"

Tetsu looked at him quietly for a long time.

Big, innocent eyes on his stupid, fucking child-like face.

"Yes, Momoi-san definitely said no strippers," Tetsu confirmed.

Daiki absolutely felt his blood pressure shoot up. "Then why did you--"

"Oh, I understand now." Akashi interrupted Daiki mid-mind explosion #2. Now those eyes were on Tetsu.

Tetsu turned his head and looked right back at Akashi.

No fear, ice cold. He just needed a milkshake and a pair of sunglasses.

Akashi looked back at him like he was about to wage some kind of war. It felt like the Winter Cup Finals back in first year high school all over again. "That was not funny, Kuroko."

In turn, Tetsu smiled a little, the Rakuzan ass-kicking asshole. "I kind of thought it was, Akashi-kun."

And Daiki left them there because he did not need the added stress on his already huge pile of it the day before his wedding. Where the hell was Kagami when he needed him?

Two years ago, Satsuki got married and Daiki had been involved with some tasks and responsibilities for the wedding. He had seen first hand what kind of stress and turmoil one had to go through just for one special day and he had thought himself adequately prepared for it. As usual, he was wrong. It was a whole other ballgame when it was you on the way to be shackled and it was your soon-to-be spouse who was stressed because no, Daiki, we can’t just do it at our favorite outdoor court! Among other things.

And now they were at this beach resort with a bazillion of their family, friends and acquaintances (It’s just about a hundred people, Daiki, don’t be dramatic--) for the ceremony. Tonight was the bachelor parties which took up the bar and restaurant and pool areas. Too many people they knew and vaguely did were milling around socializing, eating, drinking and having a great time before the big day tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Daiki was overwhelmed and kind of tired but that wasn’t anything new nowadays.

"Hey, Aomine!"

Daiki stopped then sighed before just turning towards the voice, not at all surprised to find himself face-to-face with his brother-in-law. Well, sort of brother-in-law.

Hamada Tadashi was a robotics engineer who was involved in developing technologies towards making the world a better place. More importantly, he also happened to be married to Satsuki, thus explaining his presence in the party. What was strange was how he was seated at a table with his old Touou Captain, Imayoshi Shoichi, and one Kuroo Tetsurou. Looking at all three of them together already made Daiki's head hurt a little bit more.

"Are you okay?" Tadashi asked, looking genuinely concerned. Daiki might not have gone out of his way to befriend the guy until he did the right thing and proposed then married the girl Daiki considered his sister but he had always, grudgingly, thought the guy was a decent one. Always friendly and accommodating and wasn't deterred by Aomine's attitude one bit. "You want to sit down with us for a while?"

"You do look kinda overwhelmed," Imayoshi put in and Daiki was pretty sure his old Captain was giving him a surveying look.

Beside him, Kuroo hummed in agreement as he looked around idly. “It’s kind of a madhouse around here right now, huh?”

A madhouse was right and if Daiki thought about it a bit harder, his brain would most likely die. He had no idea how he and Ryouta were able to accumulate these many people as friends and acquaintances through the years. Take for example Kuroo here who was a member of FC Tokyo and was currently sitting in the smart kids’ table. Before Tadashi noticed him, they must have been talking about something brainy, like Tadashi’s latest project that had something to do with robot nurses or whatever they were called. It almost always flew over Daiki’s head whenever Satsuki tried to explain it to him.

“I have no idea where all these idiots came from,” Daiki grumbled as he took a seat beside Kuroo which faced away from the chaos happening in the pool area behind him. Normally, Daiki wasn’t one for socializing but people were here for his wedding and he supposed he could spend some time being welcoming.

“Well, you’re gonna have a wedding in a beautiful beach resort plus food and booze. Most everything’s free,” Imayoshi shrugged easily before taking a sip of his own drink, something amber and expensive-looking. “Are you really that surprised, Aomine?”

Daiki gave his old senpai a bit of a glare. “And all of you didn’t have to come.”

“Come now, Aomine, you can’t be this annoyed about us accepting your and Kise’s invitation, are you?” Kuroo has a hand over his heart, shit-eating smirk on his face, and right then Daiki knew how he and Imayoshi could get along like a house on fire. “I’m hurt. It wasn’t cheap coming out here, you know?”

Was it too late to regret his choice to sit down? It probably was.

“I think Satsuki and Kise did a great job organizing everything, though.” Tadashi came to his rescue with a winning smile, that smile that always came out when he talked about his beloved wife.

“They’re a powerful combination,” Imayoshi noted with a nod and even Kuroo had to smile at that.

It looked like Kuroo had something to add to that but then a loud whoop swelled from the pool area. Daiki looked over to that direction and found Midorima walking away from the ruckus with a bit of a pinched look on his face and the day's lucky item in one hand. It seemed to be a rolled-up sock.

“What’s going on?” Daiki asked, a bit worried that someone might come in and call everything off.

Midorima looked at Daiki like this was all his fault. “An arm-wrestling match.”

“Between who?” Kuroo suddenly asked, looking far too interested for anyone’s good.

“Iwaizumi-san and Matsuoka Rin.” Everyone turned to find that it was no other than Nijimura-senpai who spoke and tagging along was Himuro, of course. It was still kind of strange seeing their old Teiko Captain with Himuro Tatsuya but apparently they were friends. Or something.

Himuro was almost grinning. “We’re on our way to witness an epic gun show, according to Matsukawa-san.”

“Any bets going around?” It was Imayoshi who asked, unsurprisingly, as he rose up from his seat.

“Not that we know of as of yet but we can always ask around, Imayoshi-san,” Himuro replied with playful cheek and it didn’t take long before Imayoshi was walking off with them followed by a very curious Kuroo.

“Are they going to be okay?” Tadashi suddenly asked from the side.

Midorima pushed his glasses up against the bridge of his nose as he did. “I expected better from Iwaizumi-san and Matsuoka-san both but I suppose the occasion inspires a reckless sense of fun.”

It still sounded like Midorima was blaming Daiki but he had known Midorima long enough that he knew just to just ignore it.

"They're grown ass adults," Daiki said with a scoff. "They should know what they're getting into."

Thankfully, Midorima made no further comment and politely excused himself.

The noise level behind them was rising and normally, Aomine would have been in the middle of that. An arm wrestling match between Iwaizumi Hajime, his old College roommate and former volleyball ace, and an actual Olympian? Aomine would have been all over that but not today.

He sighed and he noticed Tadashi just kind of smiling at him sympathetically.

"...What?" he asked with a bit of a frown.

The smile on Tadashi's face barely shifted. "You want to take a breather? I can cover for you."

Daiki actually took a bit of time to think about it. What were the consequences if he stepped away from this circus for a while? How painful would they be? Could he actually trust Tadashi?

"Can I trust you?" he asked and Tadashi got points for not making a fuss about even being asked.

He just smiled that friendly smile and Daiki could really sort of tell why Satsuki fell for him. Tadashi was just a really nice guy.

"I think anyone would want a break every now and then."

And wasn't that true? Daiki was pretty sure Tadashi would even have some science to back all that up.

With a sigh, Daiki got up from his chair and made to go, nodding at Tadashi as he went.

"Stay outta trouble, Hamada. Don't get into any arm wrestling matches or whatever."

Tadashi's laugh sent him off. "See you later!"

Daiki raised a hand and quickly made his escape. Finally.

Walking down the path toward the restaurant and bar area made him realize that it wasn't long before sunset. The path leading to the restaurant cut through a well-maintained garden with a sea view. The sky was slowly turning into a mix of yellows, pinks and purples and even Daiki could definitely appreciate the sight.

Honestly, he could get married anywhere, even just a basketball court (wearing his favorite Jordans, of course), but he had to admit it was a good idea to have their wedding in a beautiful place like this.

"Oh there you are, Aomine-kun."

He had to look away from the view to find Mibuchi Reo coming up to him and he felt an instinctual urge to flee. Mibuchi was one of Ryouta's so-called Groom Squad, a group of Ryouta’s friends from all over who offered their assistance to Ryouta and Satsuki as the wedding approached. Daiki barely ever saw the lot of them the past few weeks without it involving some wedding-related task.

"Hey, Mibuchi-san," Daiki greeted, deciding to try and make this as painless as possible for his own good. "What's up?"

"I'm so glad you're here, Aomine-kun," Mibuchi replied, waving a well-manicured hand toward the direction that Daiki just left from and making an annoyed-looking face. "Imagine if I have to go over there where all the brutes are? No, thank you."

"You were looking for me?" Well, that was a dumb question but Daiki asked anyway.

"Yes, Mr. Husband-to-Be--" Daiki thought Mibuchi was about to reach out and pat or pinch his cheek; he didn't. "--Ryou-chan says to meet him by the Sandbar."

It was probably super sappy to say that his heart thumped when he heard that Ryouta was asking for him. "At the Sandbar?"

Mibuchi waved him off. "Yes. Go on now. He's waiting."

And after what felt like years, Daiki felt like smiling.

"Okay," he said with a nod but before he went, he took a moment to look Mibuchi over. "You look tired, Mibuchi-san."

Mibuchi made a less than elegant, very weary face and Daiki would have laughed if he could but he got it.

"Satsuki-chan runs a tight ship,” he quipped dryly. “But I love her and Ryou-chan so Neesan will persevere. I will tell you this, though, Aomine-kun.”

Mibuchi lifted a finger poignantly. “Yu-chan and I are most definitely eloping."

And that did make Daiki laugh. "I don't know if Kasamatsu-san would agree but hold on just a little bit more. This’ll all be done tomorrow."

"Thank God."

Daiki didn't waste time on making his way to the Sandbar after talking to Mibuchi. Now, the Sandbar wasn't some piece of land that sprouted up from the sea. The people who came to the resort just called it that because there was a lot of sand and there was a bar. It was an area by the beach where a bar and dining area was set up. Low tables were placed down on mats over the white sand where you could sit or even lie down comfortably and enjoy some drinks or a meal while looking out towards the beach. And if you decided to go for a swim, you were just a few steps away to doing just that.

He found Ryouta some ways away from where the early dinner crowd was, looking over to the direction of the sea and away from his phone, finally. The setting sun's golden light reflected on his hair and eyes, making him glow and look even more beautiful if that was even possible. He seemed to sense Daiki's stare as he came closer and he turned his head to smile at him.

"Aominecchi~!" Ryouta called, drawing up the old nickname teasingly that Daiki had to scoff and lean down to give him a kiss for it.

Ryouta smiled when he kissed him back and it made Daiki feel warm. That little detail was something about Ryouta that he would never get over.

Daiki sighed when he drew away. During the kiss, he had gotten a hand down to lightly cup by the side of Ryouta's neck to end up with fingertips caressing his nape. Ryouta was smiling still, looking fond and sweet and also a bit like he was tired. Daiki kissed him again for good measure. When was the last time they were alone and this close?

"Daiki must have missed me," Ryouta observed with a grin a moment later after Daiki settled beside him. Daiki didn't care to occupy his own side of the table, happy enough to just squish up against Ryouta as much as possible that he was almost on his lap. He even leaned his head by Ryouta's shoulder and closed his eyes. When he breathed in, he smelled Ryouta's lavender shampoo layered with the sunblock he must have just reapplied. Ryouta smelled so good and familiar he could fall asleep right then and there.

"Could we leave and go to bed already?" Daiki asked with his eyes closed. He bothered to ask even when he knew the answer would be "no".

A soft giggle and Daiki felt fingers playing with the hair by his nape. A shiver ran through his spine and he almost groaned. Ryouta and his magic fingers...

"But we still have the ending program for the bachelor parties, remember?"

Daiki actually groaned at that. "There's more?" He almost turned his head and nipped Ryouta on the shoulder.

Another giggle, more petting, this time more soothing and indulgent rather than playful. "Just some games and we gotta give a 'thank you' speech for the guests. Poor Daiki. I'm sorry, baby." Finally he got a kiss for his troubles. "You must be tired. Daiki needs to recharge, hm?"

"Do I get a lapdance from you at least?"

Ryouta tugged at his ear kind of hard even if he did laugh at the question. "No, Ahominecchi! Not when my sisters are gonna be watching, come on…"

That tug hurt a little and Daiki frowned but he just grumbled under his breath and took more cuddles for compensation.

If you asked him, this big, flashy celebration was not really Daiki's style. It was something he decided after having to follow Satsuki around for months to make sure she wasn't obsessing over little details too much and that she got enough rest. Wedding planning was stressful as all hell and he would prefer to not have anything to do with it if he had a choice. He could get married anywhere and have it done anytime. All that mattered was that Ryouta would be the one standing with him and that he would say "I do".

But Ryouta wanted the big, flashy wedding because it was his style. In his own way, Ryouta loved the planning, the hassle, the stress. He wanted to make memories and have people to share them with. Plus, Ryouta just loved a good party and why not make his wedding the best one ever?

And since Daiki loved him and knew what it took when it came to getting together with Kise Ryouta, he agreed to the beach resort wedding with the bazillion guests. Also the crazy bachelor parties though his batteries were drained and he would prefer not to see anymore people for the next year or so.

But for now it was okay because he was in a corner away from all that with just Ryouta and he was getting his hair petted while waves coming up the beach sounded in his ears.

"Daiki."

"Hm?"

"You awake?"

He must have dozed off for a bit because when he opened his eyes, the lights around them had been turned on and night had fallen. It was cooler and with a deep sigh, he shuffled even closer against Ryouta. He wrapped his arms around him and was prepared to get settled for a bit longer when a smell distracted him.

A waiter had come up with a bit of a smile, a tray held over one hand. On the tray were two plates of food and he laid them down carefully before them.

One plate had some beautifully grilled chicken and a hefty vegetable salad on the side. On the other plate was a burger, the patty thick and juicy and topped with finely shredded cabbage, paired with wedges of potatoes.

"I ordered us dinner!" Ryouta chirped after sending off the waiter with a smile of his own. "Did you know that they served Teriyaki Burgers here? I thought you might want to give it a try."

His burger definitely didn't look anything like the ones he got at Maji Burger but his stomach rumbled at the sight of it. When was the last time he ate?

"Do we have time for this?" Daiki asked even as he already reached to examine the burger. He wasn't sure about the cabbage but well, he was hungry.

"I asked Momocchi for at least an hour," Ryouta answered as he picked up a knife and fork and immediately pierced one of Daiki's potato wedges. Rude.

Daiki took one of the bite-sized pieces of chicken Ryouta had sliced up as payment.

"An hour?"

Ryouta hummed in answer. "An hour to have dinner and just to hang out." He offered Daiki another piece of chicken with his fork and Daiki obligingly ate it. "I told her I missed you."

Daiki cut up about two bites' worth of his burger and placed it over one side of Ryouta's plate.

"I missed you too…"

Ryouta gave him that pleased, happy smile that always crinkled his eyes, very unlike those polished ones he gave cameras, and Daiki sighed. He reached to wipe off a bit of dressing that was by Ryouta's lip with his thumb.

"Now eat,” he told him. “And you better finish all of that."

Ryouta nodded obediently. "Yes, Daddy."

And then laughed when Daiki scowled and rolled his eyes at him.

Sometimes, Daiki really couldn't believe he was actually marrying this annoying (precious) brat.

The burger was juicy with the right amount of teriyaki sauce and the cabbage added a good crunch. It was pretty good and Daiki enjoyed it as he and Ryouta had their dinner. It was their first time having a meal alone since they arrived at the resort and it was a nice break. They got to catch up a bit with each other and how the whole day had been so far. As usual, their conversation flowed smoothly, hardly a dull or quiet moment.

Daiki watched Ryouta as he told him about his day, voice lilting and always in motion. Ryouta had always been animated, full of life, glowing and golden, and Daiki often had a hard time looking away. He had long grown past the embarrassment of getting caught staring at Ryouta for too long and now, they had come to the point where Daiki knew he wouldn't really be able to look away ever again. And that thought was…

Ryouta was smiling at him, amused, and Daiki knew he was caught just staring again.

"Ah, Daiki is so in love with me," Ryouta sighed wistfully as he lifted a hand to his forehead like he was going for a swoon. "How is he to survive another night without being married to me, I wonder? This must be my curse for being so handsome."

"Oi, stop that," Daiki grumbled as he reached and took the hand that Ryouta had to his forehead, the one with the ring he gave him. "You really need to stop picking up shit like that from Oikawa-san."

Ryouta was laughing again, flushed from giggling too much and that random cocktail he ordered, while he held onto Daiki's hand and looked like, well.

Daiki's Forever.

"Ki-chan! Dai-chan!"

Satsuki appeared with a wave and a smile and Daiki sighed because he knew it was time to go back to the party. Joy.

"Momocchi!" Ryouta waved back with his other hand that was not holding Daiki's. "And Cheekinui too!"

"Can you just go back around and take that demon with you?" Daiki asked as he eyed Satsuki and the plump plushie in her arms. The plushie that resembled Ryouta down to the blond hair and big amber eyes. Daiki had no idea why Kise Ryouta plushies existed but there was probably a method to the madness and it included fangirls and wishful thinking.

Satsuki shook her head just as she handed over the plushie, Cheekinui, to a Ryouta making grabby hands. "You're always so mean to Cheekinui, Dai-chan. What did he ever do to you?"

"It's a trespasser," Daiki answered just as he avoided soft sausage hand pats that Ryouta was inflicting on his cheek via Cheekinui. "We're on a dinner date. And it’s evil."

The plush might look like Ryouta but it was evil to its core, Daiki just knew. He could tell by its penetrating, judging stare.

"Then I’m a trespasser, too," Satsuki said with a shrug and ignored Daiki's answering groan. "It's time for you two to come back and make an appearance at your party."

"Tell them we're busy," Daiki insisted and no, he was not whining. What are you talking about? But he stopped and just sulked a bit instead when Ryouta kissed his cheek.

"Give me just 10 minutes, okay, Momocchi?" Ryouta said as he got up, smiling that professional Kise Ryouta smile. "I'll just freshen up."

Satsuki beamed. "Okay, Ki-chan!"

Ryouta turned to Daiki and wordlessly held out Cheekinui like the plushie was a baby, hands under the plushie’s armpits while his feet dangled. Cheekinui had a wardrobe change--blue and white Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, usually he wore a tiny Kaijou jersey--and somehow he had white angel wings strapped to his back. Daiki really didn't get it but he took it like a man and just accepted the Ryouta-looking plush. He was rewarded with a happy beam from Ryouta.

"Be right back!"

Daiki watched Ryouta go with a sigh before sitting back on his chair and putting Cheekinui over his lap. It was weird, sitting a plushie over his lap like it was a child, but he had probably done weirder for Ryouta and would continue to do so in the future for sure.

He felt Satsuki's eyes on him and he turned to meet her gaze.

She was smiling at him, something soft and fond, and it made him just hold Cheekinui closer for some reason.

"Are you ready, Dai-chan?" she asked and Daiki knew she didn't need to elaborate.

He knew what it was she was asking and he also knew his answer.

"Yeah," he replied easily, calmly, and he looked back to the direction Ryouta went.

"I am."

#aokise #Aomine Daiki #Kise Ryouta #Kuroko Tetsuya #Akashi Seijūrō #Tadashi Hamada #Imayoshi Shouichi #kuroo tetsuro #Midorima Shintarou #Himuro Tatsuya #nijimura shuuzou #Mibuchi Reo #Momoi Satsuki

[atopearth]

Fate/stay night Réalta Nua Part 5 - Heaven’s Feel Route (1/2)

Day 1-10 Since Sakura barely appears in the other routes after a while, I kinda forgot how soothing of a person she is, and how sweet it is that both Shirou and her love to cook for each other. I like how Shirou prioritised taking Sakura home for her safety rather than caring about the possibility of him and Shinji fighting (since Shinji doesn’t like Sakura going to Shirou’s place to cook). Honestly, with how beautiful and kind Sakura is, it’s really saddening how she feels like the only time she can truly be herself and have fun is when she goes to Shirou’s place to cook and spend time with him and Taiga. They’re such simple everyday things, but somehow it’s so difficult for her to truly have something so simple in her life. That bruise on Shirou…was it from one of the bugs at Sakura’s place or something? Although it seems implied in the UBW route (and explicitly shown in the UBW anime), I guess both Sakura and Rin were inspired by the Shirou four years ago that kept challenging a high jump bar for three hours persevering and never giving up for such a long time. Even though in the end, he wasn’t able to succeed, I think seeing him continue to try so hard really affected them and their mindset. In a sense, both Shirou and Sakura were feeling crap at that time, Sakura was probably plagued with the Matou family circumstances as usual with no outbreak at all (until she met Shirou properly and he taught her how to cook etc), and at that time Kiritsugu just passed away so Shirou was really down and just did reckless things as an outlet I guess. And yet now they’re both here supporting each other, it’s so cute. I loved how he brought a tea set and quietly had tea with her in the classroom until she felt better (since she seems really bothered about Shirou’s bruise).

I think a lot of the reason why Shirou is the way he is, is not only because of Kiritsugu saving him influencing him, but also the people he encountered in the fire ten years ago. It’s surprising, but it seems that in Shirou’s memories, a lot of the people he saw who died in the fire were people who sacrificed themselves for others. People who gave their lives to save children, people who would give their own limited water to another, only for them to die instead etc, and although there were people who walked past others “leaving” others to die, it didn’t really feel like something Shirou would blame them for, because he knew, he knew that in such a place surrounded by death, what you should blame aren’t the people who tried their best to survive but the existence of the fire itself, and that’s why I think Shirou is someone who aims to save everyone by not allowing such things to happen in front of him ever again, rather than the idea of saving people when terrible things happen. Well, I guess it’s kinda surprising that to an extent, Kotomine did understand Kiritsugu’s motivations etc fairly well, or maybe it took him 10 years to understand lol. Anyway, I guess it’s kinda interesting how even though Kiritsugu barely taught Shirou much about being a superhero saving everybody etc, Shirou still ended up going on this path towards an impossible dream just like him.

Hmm I guess Zouken is “alive” through the existence of the worms? Nice to see Shinji out of the picture (for now) but Zouken is definitely not going to just stop fighting~ Honestly disgusting to picture Rider “eating” an innocent woman’s spirit and mind etc, I wonder how many people they’ve done that to already… I loled when Shinji got reprimanded as useless by Zouken, but yeah he’s probably going to be even more annoying from now on even if he’s not a Master so zzzzz. On the other hand, Shirou panicking and consulting Rin on how he can protect Sakura from the war is so cute lol. Innocent Illya is always so cute but dangerous🥺🥺 I don’t blame Shirou for having a soft spot for her when she acts like that, and it’s not like she’s faking either, she’s genuine, but at the same time, she’s genuinely intending on killing Shirou. Omgg Taiga was so cute when she got traumatised at how scary Saber can be in a sword fight🤣 Everyone is so cuteeeeee lol. I love how Taiga misunderstood Shirou and Saber’s relationship (since she wants to sleep in the same room and will always obey Shirou lmao) and did a choke hold on him and threw him, but he was too heavy and she nearly hurt herself. It was so sweet how Shirou reprimanded her for doing something that could have hurt herself rather than being annoyed at her throwing him, he’s such a good boy. You definitely didn’t raise him wrong, Taiga!! LMAO at Taiga and Sakura talking about bras and sleeping with them on or not at night right in front of Shirou hahahaha. But yeah, it was really heartwarming how insistent Shirou was on telling Sakura to stay over because he was worried about her. He’s so nice😫 HAHAHA, Taiga totally deserved it when Sakura nearly killed her covering her mouth, she literally just told Shirou Sakura’s bra size!! It was hilarious but so embarrassing hahaha. Not gonna lie, Shirou was so cool when he carried Sakura back to the room. Sakura really is so reckless though. She fell asleep in the bath with a high fever and then fell down after she changed into her clothes, like seriously, take care of yourself better please Sakura!! You really can’t blame Shirou for being so worried about her tbh. And yes, I love it when the girl tugs on the guy’s shirt so that they’ll stay beside them until they fall asleep, it’s such an adorable thing to see all the timeee!

Oh man, seeing Assassin suffer such a gruesome death was terrible… I’m kind of surprised that Kuzuki lost considering how adept he is, but I guess…Sakura is a monster? Lol. Umm, that dream of Shirou having sex with Rin was way too vivid to be a dream imo, Sakura definitely did something to him! Does she eat men for magical energy or something?😟 Saber said he’s lacking magical energy, she’s definitely stealing it!!! Anyway, it was pretty cute how Sakura insisted on staying to take care of Shirou since he apparently has a fever. But at the same time, it felt ominous lol. Like, I don’t doubt Sakura’s intentions, but there’s definitely something dangerous about her that she’s probably aware of to an extent even if not fully. Lol at her getting mad every time Shirou mentions Rin though. Honestly though, Rin is the sweetest girl ever when she got all worried and concerned about Shirou not coming to school, she legit thought he died at Ryuudou Temple, it was so adorable to see how annoyed she was that he was so alive and well hahaha. Omgg, things were so peaceful without Shinji, I should have expected he’d come to get back Sakura yuckkk. Wow, he’s so disgusting, I can’t believe he just hit her straight away, and even insulted her and Shirou saying Shirou is just using her for sex, he’s straight up disgusting!! I wonder if Sakura’s fevers are caused by a lack of magical energy or something, I mean, her eyes changed back to being lifeless when she fell down due to the fever!! I never realised but (spoiler!) technically, both Sakura and Shirou were “adopted”! It’s kinda saddening when you think about that though, by getting adopted, Shirou was able to lead a normal life, whereas Sakura being adopted turned her whole life upside down… It’s nice to know that Shirou said he’d scold her if Sakura became a bad person (since she asked what he would do), but would he really? I feel like he’d comfort her and try to get her back on the “right” path more than he would shout at her haha.

I knew that Sakura found light and meaning to her life after taking care of Shirou after he got injured, but I didn’t think that Sakura was actually the one to persistently go to his place all the time to convince him that she should take care of him and cook for him etc. But I guess regardless of what her motivations were, she definitely didn’t expect that Shirou would give her the spare key to the house that Kiritsugu used to always use. Seeing her smile and so cherish that gift was quite touching, and at the same time I couldn’t help but admire how much Shirou trusted her that he could give something so important to her. I am legit so sad that the monstrous Assassin that appeared (and consumed the previous Assassin) also ended up killing and consuming Lancer😭😭 Honestly, I kinda find it frustrating that this is all happening. So, does that mean that if you take Sakura away from her home, they aren’t able to control her anymore or something? Or is it just Zouken causing trouble? HAHAHA, I loved Shirou’s impersonation of Rin at a yakiniku place being that she’ll devour her fill and say she went easy on him lmao, and I love how Rin said he was right🤣🤣🤣 Now that they’re cooperating (due to Caster still existing even though Shirou defeated her), I’m so glad to have the Shirou and Rin banter again! Like, Sakura is cute, but yeah. And lol at Rin realising too late that Shirou’s lunch was huge because Sakura made it hoping to eat it with him. I bet she waited for Shirou at the archery range thinking he’d go there since she suggested for him to go there🥺 Oh nooo, and she bumped into Shirou and Rin!! Omg, I love how Rin so easily cleared everything up and made Shirou realise that Sakura wanted to eat lunch with him! Rin even apologised about it, she’s legit so clear about it and so cool, I love her. I bet if Rin wasn’t there, it would have just turned into a situation where Sakura would be sad and Shirou would be clueless lol.

I loved how Shirou readied himself to go into the deadly Chinese restaurant that serves super hot spices from Hell (since Rin told him to go there after school), and he enters only to witness Kotomine eating mapo tofu (seemingly) furiously with his deadpan face lol! I knew Kotomine wouldn’t hesitate to reveal that he was a Master since Lancer is gone now and he wants info, but he really said it so nonchalantly lol. I loved how he actually ordered more than one serving of mapo tofu lmao, it was a great way to end their conversation hahaha. Do people really eat that just by itself?! On the other hand, it was obvious that Zouken used his blood sucking bugs or whatever they are to somehow live all this time (hundreds of years!), but it seems like there’s a limit and he’s reaching it since he can’t go out in broad daylight anymore. I was wondering when Shirou was going to remember his promise to meet with Illya at the park LOL. He totally deserved Illya getting mad at him, she waited for him in the cold!! Although Shirou saying he’ll do anything for her to forgive him leading to them going on a short little shopping trip seems to be the right choice (since there’s a CG of her enjoying the snow with Shirou), I really enjoyed how in the other option, Shirou takes Illya back to his house. I know it’s dangerous since she’s a Master, but it was just so innocent and sweet to see her enjoy something so simple like tea time with Shirou, exploring his house and even feeling sad that this is the place Kiritsugu was, so even if she wants to get mad at him, she can’t even show him anymore. It’s saddening, but it was rather bittersweet. Oh and I loved Saber arguing with Shirou about how dangerous it is letting Illya into the house, it was hilarious lmao.

Oh wow, so I guess Zouken devours humans with his bugs to kinda take their place/body? And his body is kinda literally bugs? I felt so sorry for the woman that literally got eaten… Hmm, so this magic of his only keeps his soul alive, so no matter how many bodies he takes over, he can only retain the form of Zouken himself, and due to that, his body is constantly rotting since it’s at it’s utter limit I guess. I find it so terrible that he now has to get a new body every few months now when he used to last fifty years in one, he’s really been killing so so many people! His soul is rotting is an interesting way to phrase how his existence really can’t be sustained in this world anymore… It seems like Archer recognises that “shadow” that swallows up everything and was forced to defeat it before or clean up after it…. It’s kinda disgusting that Zouken states that his simple wish for the holy grail to grant is for him to be able to live (without rotting) and yet he sacrifices every other person’s wishes to live for himself. I’m not surprised that Saber ended up getting consumed and possibly controlled by that dark thing that consumed Lancer too, but I’m honestly disappointed. Well… Rider appearing to save Shirou was rather random and unexpected even if Shinji wants Shirou to be alive so he can prove to everyone and Rin that he’s not inferior to him.. I knew Sakura would be “happy” that Saber is now gone, so she can have Shirou to herself, but I guess Shirou went against her expectations that he won’t get hurt anymore (since Saber is gone), and instead he’s going to go out even more now… I wonder if her intense hatred for whatever that is hurting Shirou is kinda causing her to go around at night as the “shadow”? Anyway, apparently Sakura is more of a pervert than Shirou lol! She legit just masturbated to him after seeing his stomach and his back when she tended to his wounds lol! And lol is Sakura like a yandere?! She’s literally thinking about hurting Shirou so much that he can’t go outside just so that he won’t be able to hurt himself anymore… Like, lady, I don’t know about hurting him to stop him from hurting himself…isn’t that a bit contradictory?? At least put him in a cage or something instead LOL.

Oh wow, I never realised that Taiga’s family is rich and has many housekeepers! That’s why Shirou was able to ask for one to help care for Sakura’s fever whilst he went to school. Like dang! LMAO at Tiger Dojo 28 when Illya tries to take over the Tiger Dojo with a tank and Taiga destroys it in one hit hahahah. Now that I think about it, when Rider said she protected Shirou because her Master said to not let him die, did she actually mean Sakura? Lol. Honestly, with the fact that Sakura being the legitimate successor of the Matou family and being the one who used a Command Spell to order Rider to listen to Shinji making him a pseudo Master, you really gotta wonder how Shinji can be so shameless and disgusting to take Sakura hostage and kick her and harm her all the time when really, he’s only a Master because of her. Hmm, Rider has eyes of petrification and she never used it until this route?! Anyway, Sakura always stops going crazy when she realises that she hurts Shirou so I think everyone should just do that from now on if they want Sakura to stop lol.

I’ve always been a bit unsure of what exactly is wrong with Sakura so it’s nice that Kotomine is explaining things lol. But hmm basically, Zouken placed a crest worm inside of Sakura to monitor her, but since this worm has lived inside her for 11 years, it’s practically become a part of her like a Magic Circuit and has since transformed into her Magic Crest. But when this crest activates, it violates all her nerves and absorbs her magical energy, and since it’s so entrenched within her, it can suck all her magical energy dry and eat her for nutrition if it continues to rampage once activated.. Oh, and the crest activates when Sakura refuses to fight the battles as a Master and tries to abandon it… That’s so cruel.. and I see…Zouken never intended on using her in the war until now because he saw her as the shadow (and thought he could win the war this time)! So in the end, it’s because Shirou cared about her too much in this route that led to this lol. Ooh and I guess that shadow appears because Sakura is already using most of her magical energy to sustain Rider, so that requires the worm to get the energy somewhere else somehow.. 

Kotomine was right when he told Shirou to leave so he could perform surgery on Sakura to save her (from the attack she used on herself so that she wouldn’t hurt Shirou). All this time, Sakura has been carrying heavy mental burdens being beside Shirou. It was only when she could do simple things like cook with him at his house that she could wish for something like a normal and happy life. Even if it was like a dream, it was a happy dream for her, and she would continue doing that forever if she could. But the truth was, just as being with Shirou brought her an endless amount of happiness, it also brought her pain because she couldn’t help but think that she doesn’t deserve him, especially when she compares herself against others like Saber and Rin. She’s not as strong as Saber and she’s not as fun or witty as Rin, so she feels that she can’t win against them in any area, but regardless, she loves Shirou and wants to be the one with him even if she’s not pure. But at the same time, the fact that she’s not pure (aka a virgin) like the others makes her hesitate, she feels bad that she’s not pure like Shirou, she feels like she can’t stand by him like the others can, she can’t raise her head with pride and fight with them for him, because she doesn’t believe she deserves him, and it’s saddening to think of how terrible of a life she’s had this whole time.

Shirou’s choice between continuing to be a superhero or discarding it to protect Sakura (since as long as she is alive, she will be forced to fight and kill others) is an agonising choice. What Archer said really hit the nail on the head though, all this time, Shirou had lived in order to save as many people as he can, if he chooses to protect Sakura, he’ll be giving up on this belief that makes up what the person “Shirou” is. He’ll be burdened with the fact that he abandoned his belief for one person and will be tormented by that fact for the rest of his life. Not only would his individual guilt destroy him, but the fact that he is abandoning Kiritsugu’s promise would kill him on the inside… But I guess at the same time, Shirou can’t forgive the fact that he was always beside Sakura and yet he knew nothing of the pain she experienced and mentally carried. He was so oblivious to her even though he vowed to be a superhero, he must be thinking about how foolish he was to even dream of being a superhero when all along, he couldn’t even protect one of the closest people to him. And also the fact that he ignored how probable it was that Sakura was involved in all this by believing in Zouken’s words that she wasn’t, just because it was convenient to believe so, since if he doesn’t know, then there’s no reason to fight against her or be wary of her. But now, he’s forced to face the fact that she is Zouken’s puppet and he has to choose what he prioritises most. I didn’t realise how much Illya’s simple gesture of patting Shirou’s head even when he pushed her away (due to the pain of his indecision and regret) could sway me. I legit cried because it was such a touching thing to do for Shirou right now. She knew he was in pain and she knew she couldn’t leave him, all because she wanted to protect him and be his ally since she loves him. It broke my heart to know Illya felt so much for Shirou, she’s such a sweet girl. Illya’s right, huh? If Shirou chooses to persist being a superhero despite sacrificing the people he loves most, he is choosing the same life Kiritsugu followed; one where he threw away all the people he loved to save people he didn’t even know. In the end, regardless of which choice Shirou makes, he will hurt himself. By sacrificing the person he loves now, there is no limit to his sacrifice in the future, because if he has already sacrificed one of the most important people to him now, he won’t allow himself to hesitate to sacrifice anything else that’s precious to him in the future, because that’s the path he’s chosen. And that’s just so terrible, because it really will end up just being that same lonely path Kiritsugu and Archer had walked, a life where you abandon everything and yourself for a dream that is the “right path”… I also find it so saddening that Rin is burdened as the supervisor of this land and it’s people, so she has to harden her heart and kill Sakura to protect them. The Holy Grail War between a Rin and Shirou who have both sacrificed Sakura must be a painful one.

I never realised how much I needed Shirou to choose to protect Sakura instead of persisting in being a superhero until I actually made the choice and went to the Tiger Dojo haha. Although he’s choosing to protect the person he loves, I don’t feel like he’ll be completely abandoning his ideals, because as he said to Sakura before, if she’s doing something bad, he will scold her, and I think in this case, he will with the best of his ability stop her from causing any more harm and he will risk his life to do it, whilst using his life to atone for it if Sakura kills anyone. Ooh, so if Shirou chooses to protect Sakura, Kotomine uses up his Magic Crest (he just used up all the magic that was built up through generations!) to treat Sakura and is able to remove most of the crest worm! I guess he’s really interested in seeing how much suffering Sakura’s existence will cause upon Shirou and Rin lol. Sakura’s loss of magical energy is slowly eroding her sanity?! So that’s where the shadow comes from, huh? She’ll eventually lose all sense of herself due to that loss from the crest worm huh.. You know, with the way things have gone, a lot of people may say it’s cliche, and that even the part where Sakura unleashes all her true feelings and thoughts to Shirou is within reason of what you would expect her to say and him to react to, but I couldn’t help but have my heart crushed by it all. And I think that’s because a lot of it stems from the fact that I’ve read through the other routes. If I didn’t read through the previous two routes, I don’t think Shirou’s dilemma between choosing Sakura and persisting as a superhero would hit me as hard, because if I didn’t see his perseverance and unwavering determination, I wouldn’t truly understand how hard of a decision it was for Shirou to choose Sakura (even if he intends on saving everyone else along with her) because he is carrying the risk that people could die by allowing her to live, and Shirou choosing that shows how much he cares for Sakura and how much he doesn’t want to lose her. For Sakura, this is the first time you ever really get to see her true raw emotions of everything she has felt this whole time, and seeing her cruel past contrasted with how everything was in the beginning, you can really see how the “boring” slice of life parts of her life in each route was really what kept her going this whole time, Shirou gave her hope even if he was oblivious, he gave her happiness in the simplest form she could imagine and hope for, and now seeing Shirou choosing to help keep her simple happiness over everything else really melts my heart because of how much she had suffered all this time by herself. When Shirou said he would be her superhero, it honestly felt bittersweet because it really feels like a very painful compromise of his dream, yet it was also beautiful because it also means that Shirou has finally found something he himself deems to be more important than anything, for once in his life, he’s chosen to be a “normal selfish” person.

It’s kinda cute how awkward they were the morning after they had sex lol. I think the funniest thing was the fact that Rider was there the whole time they were having breakfast hahaha, she didn’t say anything at all so I didn’t notice lol. It’s kinda saddening that Sakura is riddled with competing emotions of not wanting Shirou to be hurt, but also being happy that Shirou is getting hurt for her now since she’s suffered all this time and he was oblivious to her pain. Although she’s leaning more towards being happy that he’s getting hurt for her, I feel like she’s being influenced by the worm and the shadow etc and is being consumed by the darkness into feeling like that. But of course I’m sure it stems from a part of her that feels like that, I just feel like the shadow probably amplifies all those negative emotions. Although I should have expected to see Saber Alter considering what happened to Caster, it was still kinda saddening to see her appear like that. And lol, legit there’s going to a whole army of the Servants as an Alter version with how the mud is consuming them all… Saber Alter looks pretty cool, mainly her armour though, her face looks a bit too…dead? I always hate seeing Archer die😭 Especially when he sacrifices himself to protect Rin. It also seems like he has some sort of regret towards Illya too? Was he not able to save her in other times or something? Anyway, it’s interesting that Archer is able to kinda like “combine” with Shirou and grant him the battle experience etc he had? On the other hand, I really wonder how Shirou is going to react when he realises what the shadow actually is… I find it quite fascinating that they could transplant Archer’s arm to Shirou (since he lost his left arm to the shadow when he protected Illya), and that it doesn’t disappear because now the arm is being supported by Shirou’s magical energy now. Lmao at Illya and Rin arguing about Shirou being their Servant since for Illya, she didn’t kill him the whole time the war was on, and for Rin, Archer gave his arm to Shirou and saved his life so he should take Archer’s place now was pretty funny hahaha. It was hard to pick between the two, but seeing Illya so happy if you pick being “her Servant”, it’s kinda worth it haha.

I’ve never really been interested in Kirei, but it was nice to know that his father called him Kirei because he hoped for him to be beautiful, moralistic and I guess, a good person. And he lived up to those expectations, but never felt anything for doing what he did, so in the end, even though he did “beautiful” things that his father was proud of, he was never really the “beautiful person” he was supposed to be. It’s interesting that he forced himself to continue like that hoping he could understand this beauty through being a priest etc like his father, but I wonder, if Kirei didn’t feel so restrained by being the beautiful person he was supposed to be all his life and instead questioned it when he realised it, would he have turned out the same way? I know he says he finds beauty and interest in other people suffering and all the supposedly “bad” stuff, but I feel like questioning what’s good and bad is a part of life, and I feel like if he actually allowed himself to ponder it more instead of actually doing these “bad things” to see how it affected him, maybe he could have also understood himself better and understood his father’s beliefs better. Now, instead of questioning things, he’s just gone all out to do all the stuff that makes people suffer in order to satisfy himself for all the “happiness” he lacked when he was doing good stuff. I think in a sense, it’s kinda saddening that Kirei never really got the chance to explore himself properly because he was so obsessed about what was so great about doing good imo. I don’t blame Sakura for getting angry at Shirou. It’s like, if it was still before when he wanted to hide the war from Sakura I would understand, but she’s a crucial part to the war now, and it’s obvious that his arm isn’t really his anymore, it’s really disrespectful of him to lie to her that it’s just a bit of an injury, it’ll only make Sakura worry even more and think of herself as even more useless. His kindness will kill her someday honestly lol. I’m glad Shirou reflected on his actions quickly and apologised for prioritising “looking tough” for Sakura rather than her feelings.

Overall, for now, there’s nothing much to say about the fights since they’re really just the shadow eating up everyone lol. As for the emotions though, I’m really liking how Shirou has been dealing with the ups and downs of caring for Sakura and prioritising her. His decision was definitely the highlight of the ten days, but I also really enjoyed seeing how cute and innocent Illya was. Kinda wish she did get her own route haha. Otherwise, things are just building up for now as usual, so nothing much to comment! I’ll still say that although I see why Sakura is the way she is, I honestly still find her a rather lacklustre heroine where I don’t particularly feel anything for her? It’s like, for Saber, I got annoyed sometimes with how stubborn she was, but Shirou was also stubborn so fair enough, and I just really loved Rin because of how cool and great she was etc. But for Sakura, I honestly don’t dislike her or like her because I still feel like she’s more of a trope than a character to me? It feels like she’s there to push Shirou into doing what he needs to do to protect her, but on the other hand, there’s nothing really interesting about her? Maybe that’ll change in the second half though, so we shall see~ Honestly though, I just don’t want to see Rin or Illya die🥺

#fate stay night

[writer-and-artist27]

Cuddles

Takes place when the goofball couple are 18-19. A bit after this thing. Written because, of course, Lang inspired me again. :) Please blame Lang for the fluff tirade I’ve been on! Now to write more S&S… 

Song this time comes from her recommendations, being Fire Emblem. The song that started this whole thing, at least from my side, is this one from RWBY Volume 6. 

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

Uchiha Obito loved his new girlfriend. Sure, she wasn’t who he was expecting initially, considering he had eyes for Rin in those first few years. But Tomo-chan grew on him so much, it was hard to distance himself, especially when she hugged him. Who could turn down such a soft person anyways?

Even now, when on a run back to his second home after a mission report, Obito could’ve sworn he smelled something sweet in the distance. The thought of silky black hair and a warm smile merely made him run faster across rooftops. Nagareboshi Café wasn’t far away, so reaching a window into the house was easy enough. 

The sweet scent got stronger as soon as the familiar red awnings of the business came into view, and Obito waved as soon as Hikari-bachan caught sight of him, perching on a nearby electric pole. 

“Here to visit!” he yelled as always, and Hikari-bachan simply smiled in reply. This had already become a routine for him, even before he had started this relationship with Tomo-chan, but at least keeping up family relations made things feel like he really was home. “Is Tomo-chan upstairs?”

“She’s baking, Obito!” Hikari-bachan called back to him, smile wide on her cheeks. “Go through the kitchen window if you’re not going to use the door!” 

Heh, she knew his tactics already.

“Got it!” The window he always liked was open, so he could easily perch nearby on an awning and look in.

Sure enough, the sweet scent was from the oven, probably from cookies or a baking cake. Tomo-chan wasn’t in immediate view, so Obito closed his eyes before activating Kamui. The last thing he wanted was to get a spatula in his face, but that did not stop him from wanting to surprise his girlfriend at least once. Or twice. Or more.

Slipping past the window and phasing into the room felt like child’s play, but he made sure to fully materialize before moving forward. Sure enough, Tomo-chan was sitting at the kitchen table, her back towards air and not against the chair as she peered over a book. With a single breath, she raised a hand to brush her braid back behind her ear, and the spring air colored her cheeks that same adorable pink. The pink frills on her knee-length dress and the matching yellow apron just reminded Obito of spring, and overall, it was just his beautiful girlfriend who hadn’t noticed him yet. 

Again.

Obito grinned, making his way over as quietly as he could. “To-mo-chan~!” Once his arms successfully wrapped around her waist from behind, Tomo-chan let out a surprised squeak, her cheeks flushing a darker pink from realization. Cute. “Whatcha doing?” 

“O-Obi!” Tomo-chan turned her head to pout at him, eyebrows furrowed from clear embarrassment. “I-I was reading! When did you come in?!”

“Just now!” Obito could just smell the sweetness of the nearby pastries and Tomo-chan all mixing together in the air, and it all made for a scene that could literally be called heaven. “Kamui’s useful for sneaking in!”

Tomo-chan’s cheeks puffed out, almost like a chipmunk. Awww. “Y-You used the window, didn’t you?”

“Guilty as charged!” 

Tomo-chan sighed before closing her book, turning to him with an exasperated smile. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“I dunno,” Obito mused with a grin, but he still lifted her up from her chair so that he could sit down in his own chair and bring her along too. She could fit in his lap no problem, and by then, he could see her face more clearly. And heh, even her squawk at being lifted was cute. “Maybe kiss me?” 

Tomo-chan flushed red. “Y-You dork. You’re just fishing for those,” she accused, swiveling in his lap in an attempt to get out, but with how her hands laid flat against his chest, it said something else. “Besides, you saw me at least two weeks ago…”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t miss you!” Obito cooed, leaning in to rub noses. It was enough to earn absolutely adorable giggles out of his girlfriend, so that went as planned. “Missions can be rough, Tomo-chan! Can’t blame a guy for missing his girlfriend!”

“Mou,” Tomo-chan said softly, her smile turning fond in time with her hair falling against Obito’s flak jacket thanks to the new position they took up on the poor chair. “I just don’t know what to do with you, Obi.”

Obito could feel his cheeks flush to match hers, but he couldn’t help but be cheeky about it. “Love me?” 

“You’re not wrong,” Tomo-chan mused, and then — shit, she was kissing him. It wasn’t a full-on kiss, just a small hesitant press of their lips together, but Obito could taste a little sugar. Probably from whatever she was baking. She pulled back as quickly as she came onto him, shyly averting her gaze and clenching his jacket. “I-Is that enough for you?”

Obito pretended to think on it while snaking an arm around her back to reach her hair. It was getting longer. Beautiful. “Nah,” he smirked, then pulled.

The surprised squeak was muffled in the kiss before Tomo-chan properly melted, so Obito made sure to hold on and not let her go. Tomo-chan tasted as sweet as she smelled, and he would’ve tasted more if not for the hands weakly pushing against his chest. 

“Obi — nn, c-could you listen?” 

Obito teasingly licked her lips before initiating an open-mouthed kiss.

“O-Obi!” 

Awww. After a few seconds, Obito pulled back to take in her expression. Tomo-chan was blushing hard enough to put a cherry to shame, her breath coming out in shivering pants as she narrowed her eyes at him. “S-Seriously… you don’t have to make me melt in the first ten minutes you come here.” Her hands clenched into fists as she weakly bapped his chest through his flak jacket, ducking her head. “You are frustrating.”

“Yet you love me anyways,” he smiled, pressing a kiss to her head. It earned him another adorable squawk, but before he could think on it, there was a loud noise behind him.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. 

“Oh,” Tomo-chan said suddenly, gently pushing him back so she could get to her feet and trot back into the kitchen. “The cookies are done.” She immediately put on pink oven mitts, opening the oven door to take out a cookie sheet covered with the delicious circles. She poked one with a mitt-covered hand, smiling before turning around to face him. “Obi? If you’re done with being frustratingly affectionate, do you want to taste-test? I have cinnamon and pecans in these.”

The sparkles around Tomo-chan seemed to come out of nowhere, but at this point, Obito didn’t really mind considering how she was just angelic. “Of course I want to!”

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

“It’s definitely good, Tomo-chan, I’d just say to use a bit more sugar,” Obito said around a mouthful of cookie, casually trying to steal a glance of his girlfriend as she wrote notes in a small notebook at the table. “After so many cookies, the taste can get a liiiiittle bland.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, I just don’t want your taste buds dying out from too much sugar, Obi,” Tomo-chan responded half-heartedly, her pencil smoothly moving along the current page. “You’ve had…” she raised her head to glance over the cookie sheet, quirking an eyebrow. “How many now?”

“Five.” 

Tomo-chan gave him a look.

“What?” Obito brandished his current half of a cookie to her with a sheepish grin. “Your cooking is good, Tomo-chan! I don’t know what other advice I can give when I love everything!” 

Yet again, Tomo-chan was blushing. So cute. “Y-You do know that’s the most troubling part, right?” she said slowly in that embarrassed high-pitch of hers, turning back to her notebook to write before pausing. “I want to keep making food that you would enjoy, Obi. If you just keep liking everything, I’m worried it’s going to get monotonous…” she trailed off at the last part, quiet as her pencil fell down into the notebook’s open spine. 

Obito sighed through his nose before putting down his cookie and wrapping an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders. They really needed to work on negative self-talk together. “Nothing’s monotonous in Konoha, Tomo-chan,” he said honestly, pressing his cheek into her hair. “And besides, I enjoy every moment with you.”

“Muuu,” she mumbled, ducking her head. Her ears were tipped pink. “I-I enjoy every moment with you too, even if I have no clue how I’m supposed to act around such a cheesy guy like you, Obi.” 

Awww. 

“Like I said earlier,” Obito turned her around to properly smile. “Just stick around and love me!”

Tomo-chan’s cheeks flushed from pink to a light red. “Mou.” Her arms still wrapped around his waist as she came closer to rest her cheek against his shoulder. “Dork.”

“I’m your dork, Tomo-chan. No one else’s.” He hugged her back tight, tempted to kiss her again if not for one thing.

That same book from earlier was still on the table next to Tomo-chan’s notes. He would have been tempted to pick it up, but his girlfriend was still here in his arms being cute, so he would just have to settle for asking instead. “Tomo-chan?” 

“Mm?”

“That book you were reading. You didn’t say what it was about. Can I ask?”

“Ah, that.” Tomo-chan raised her head from his shoulder, glancing at it before coming back for an extra cuddle. “It’s a book Sakumo-jichan recommended me, so I’ve been reading it while you were out on your mission.”

“Hm,” Obito mused, feeling a bit weird. Then again, books were Kei and Kakashi’s thing — he didn’t expect Tomo-chan to pick it up. Buuuut Kei and Tomo-chan were sisters in all but name, so it wasn’t as surprising as it could’ve been. Tomo-chan still hugged Kei hard whenever Kei came back to the village. “What’s it about?”

The arms around his waist tensed. It wasn’t enough to strike alarm bells, but it was something Obito noticed as Tomo-chan rested her nose in his neck, almost like she was hiding. “It’s… kinda a reminder, I guess. The story is about two girls finding love in each other after one escaped her abusive ex-boyfriend.”

Obito blinked. “That’s… pretty dramatic.”

“It is.” A soft, almost dry giggle brushed his neck as Tomo-chan snuggled him, closing her eyes from what he could see in the corner of his vision. “Thing is, I think Sakumo-jichan recommended it to me because of the abusive ex.” She exhaled slowly, shaking her head enough to tickle Obito’s cheek with her hair. “The ex reminded me a lot of… of, well, Ty. It’s been years.”

Obito tensed immediately. He hadn’t heard that name from Tomo-chan’s lips in years either. “He…he didn’t come back to harass you, did he?” It was hard to keep his voice level, but he still hugged her tight in the hopes of comfort. 

Anyone who hurt Tomo-chan deserved to be hurt in return. Anyone. Especially Tai. Tai, Ty, whatever. Obito didn’t want to remember his name because he was a friend that failed Tomo-chan in the end. He was pure scum. He left someone scarred. If he did come back— 

“No, Obi, he didn’t,” Tomo-chan said quietly, patting Obito’s back before slowly pulling away from the hug. “I’m okay, Obi.” She raised her head to smile at him, but Obito couldn’t help but make a face. In response, Tomo-chan raised a finger to his lips. “Before you say anything, just let me finish, please?” 

Obito sighed. He just couldn’t refuse those blue eyes of hers. “Sure.”

“Thankie,” Tomo-chan replied in the same soft tone, pulling back while resting her hands on Obito’s shoulders. “The thing is,” she lowered her head, pressing her forehead against Obito’s chest, “the book reminded me of how I went about my life after Ty all wrong. Because the girl that escaped, she kept thinking that the right way of going about things was sacrificing herself. Isolating herself from others because she was ‘toxic,’ and…” Tomo-chan sighed. “At one point, I thought it was okay that I overworked myself, because at least it meant others not doing the same thing. Working myself to death could’ve meant my loved ones relaxing and being okay. That everything would be okay.” 

Neither had to speak up on the unsaid, especially if I went away. Obito didn’t want to think on that. It was just a future he couldn’t imagine — a future he didn’t want to imagine.

Still, Tomo-chan proceeded to gently hit her head against his chest, sighing fondly. “But these days, I find myself thinking, ‘That’s not good.’ Love is not one-sided. It’s about respecting each other and finding happiness together, not just sacrificing to receive nothing in return. And, as much as I loved Ty, I don’t think he felt the same. He just saw me as a little girl to remake in his image.” Tomo-chan shivered, taking a deep breath. “Not anymore. I don’t want to overwork myself to death anymore because I know everyone would worry. Team Minato would worry. You and Kei taught me all that. The two girls finding love with each other in the story just made the final nail in Ty’s old coffin.” 

Oh. Obito gently pulled back and reached over to grip Tomo-chan’s chin, tilting her head up to make eye contact. “…You mean that?”

Tomo-chan smiled, raising a hand to gently pat his cheek. “You’ve been the best thing to me since Kei, Obi. And Ty wouldn’t stand a chance in front of the future Hokage now.” Her thumb rubbed at the edges of his eyes and it took a moment for Obito to realize there was dust somewhere. His vision was blurring. “I-I’m just sorry for being weird and clumsy sometimes when it comes to, well, being in a relationship. I just really appreciate you, so…”  Her cheeks colored that same rosy pink as her gaze softened. “I love you a lot, okay?” 

If the spiel from earlier didn’t start the waterworks, it was very tempting to release the dam now. 

Obito held back a sniffle to instead pull his angel of a girlfriend into a tighter hug, nodding. “I-I love you too, Tomo-chan. I love you too.”

“Aye.” Tomo-chan giggled into his flak jacket. “I’m not going anywhere now. So, in exchange for hearing me be philosophical, let’s cuddle for a bit?” 

“S-Sure,” Obito laughed, finally feeling the ugly feelings go away. “Whatever you want.” 

It was another good day back home in Konoha.

#obitomo #writing #the sea and stars #hoshino tomoko #uchiha obito #snippet #long post #fluff overload #lots of teenage romance #romance things

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 155

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 07 - “The Best Friend Nuts Appears!” Date watched: 13 October 2019 Original air date: 18 March 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/KfxGTUV Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

feel free to use this for whatever

All five Precures have gathered so it’s time for the final character introduction of the show (for a while), a little elaboration on backstory, and establishing our base of operations. So let’s dive in!

The Plot

Coco decides he needs a new place to stay after a close encounter with Nozomi’s mom, and at school the girls have trouble finding time to talk about Precure business without being pulled away by classmates. They still need to open the Dream Collet and awaken Coco’s sleeping friend, so they sneak into the Student Council room and do that. They bring their Pinkie Catches together and the Collet opens, and out comes a brown and tan squirrel fairy with an orange tuft of hair named Nuts!

Nuts initially doesn’t trust the girls and is upset at Coco’s lack of discretion, and he remains cold and belligerent throughout the episode. On the walk home, the girls discuss their need for a new place to gather, and Karen brings up that her family has a lot of unused storage units and warehouses, so they go to check one out. They finally settle on a modestly sized house that they begin to clean up. They horse around a little, and Nuts is still moping, but he tells Nozomi how to transfer a Pinky from her Pinky Catch to the Dream Collet for safe keeping.... just in time for Girinma to show up and steal both the Dream Collet and Nuts, who has a death grip on it.

The girls chase him, and he lures them to a warehouse where he turns a pile of teddy bears into a giant teddy bear kowaina. After some banter, he realizes that Nuts is the fairy who opened the gates to the Palmier Kingdom and let Nightmare in, after he had disguised himself as an injured Pinky. Nuts manages to escape and Cure Dream insists that he didn’t do anything wrong, that Nightmare are the bad guys for preying on his kindness. The five girls all reiterate that their dream is to restore Palmier Kingdom for him, and he finally warms up to them. The cures knock out Girinma and defeat the Kowaina in a fantastic combo, and the villain retreats.

The next day, the girls visit the house again, only to find it has been completely redecorated inside and out, with signs calling it NattsHouse and filled with fashion accessories for sale. A tan-skinned blonde man approaches them, and Rin, Komachi, and Karen all crush on him a little before Coco reveals that this is Nuts’s human form. Nuts offers Coco a place to stay in the house and we end on a lovely still frame of the seven of them.

The Analysis

The need for a gathering spot is pretty mundane but it’s yet another thing that will become a trend in the franchise. You could argue that the restaurants in the FW shows served this purpose, but they would just as often meet at each other’s houses, or a park, or school, because it was easier with just the two of them. With five girls all being involved in different activities, it’s inevitable that they’re going to get pulled away from time to time when they’re at school. I appreciate that they spend an episode actually hashing this out rather than just landing on a place. There’s still some hand-waving involved, like how the heck did Nuts get all the products he’s selling in the store, how did he make custom signs overnight, things of that nature, but at least they didn’t just land in a magic library that they forget about halfway through the show.

There’s also some fun comedy involved in finding the hangout. Karen, being the rich one, brings them to a spacious warehouse, with the implication that her family owns all of the ones in the complex. All the girls agree that this is too large, which is when she brings them to the “small” storehouse that will become NattsHouse. Karen comments that it’s awfully small, which has everybody looking at her kinda shocked, and Rin points out that it’s bigger than her own house. Later, when they’re cleaning the place up, Komachi discovers a lizard and shows it to her best friend, freaking Karen out big time.

Komachi insists that it’s so adorable, and the whole gag is ripped straight out of FWPC17:

It’s a fun joke and I don’t mind them reusing it, but it’s funny since I observed previously that both Komachi and Karen have attributes of Honoka. Also it’s fun to see Karen coming out of her shell and losing her composure. It makes her seem more relatable to know that she’s so easily fussed.

On the serious side, it’s a great introduction to Nuts. He’s been built up as Coco’s best friend so you’d expect him to be kind and approachable like Coco but the first thing he does is slap Coco with his tail and berate him. Nuts is upset at Coco and doesn’t like the girls at first, even chastising Nozomi for taking her Pinky Catch off for a minute to wash her hands, but the girls are sympathetic and so is the audience after learning his backstory. When Girinma reveals that Nightmare took advantage of his kindness to to take over the Palmier Kingdom, Nozomi is righteously mad and she protects Nuts while delivering a fantastic speech about how awful it was that they’d prey on someone’s good nature like that. Nozomi standing up for him and defending him, explaining that it wasn’t his fault, and then promising to revive the Palmier Kingdom with Coco and the other girls is a great bonding moment, and that’s when he turns around and yells at Girinma that he believes in Precure. He’s a more cynical character than the optimistic Coco, which balances them out, but it’s not the last time it will cause some strife.

I didn’t really have space to bring it up in the summary, but we get to see how two-faced Bunbee is in this episode. He’s standing around the office trying to figure out how he should report his failures to the higher-ups, and he probably isn’t even going to say anything, but then one of the masked people at the table stands up and reveals himself to be Kawarino, Bunbee’s superior. (etymology: Kawaru means “change”, like how he disguised himself) Bunbee’s arrogance turns to stammering as he’s clearly unsettled by Kawarino’s presence and thinly-veiled threats to his competency.

As soon as Kawarino leaves, Girinma climbs out of the trap door pit and Girinma blames him for being chewed out, then sets him to work.

Speaking of the villains, I just want to say that Girinma’s attack at the soon-to-be NattsHouse was pretty intense. He appeared out of nowhere, knocked Coco back, and nabbed the Dream Collet in no time. His only mistake was in taunting the girls to try to get it back from him, rather than just disappearing back to Nightmare to hand it to Bunbee.

Other notable scenes: in the beginning, Coco tries to wake up Nozomi so they can get the others and revive Nuts. He takes his human form to do this, and Nozomi’s mother walks in to see a strange man standing over her daughter.

yes, they did just go there

She closes the door, does a double take, and opens it back up, trying to get an answer from Nozomi, who takes a minute to realize what has happened, but she convinces her mom she was just seeing things. Also, Nozomi’s sleepy face is absolutely adorable, and in general she looks good with her hair down.

In this episode, Nozomi is formally elected as the leader of the team, after they all, even Karen, agree that they wouldn’t have become Precures without her. We also see her transfer a Pinky from the Pinky Catch to the Dream Collet in great detail, no doubt highlighting the interactive features of the two toys. However, it’s done pretty fluidly, and the design and functionality of the Dream Collet are less obtuse than some other toys we’ve seen. It slides open to reveal a screen inside, and there’s a stylus you can use to play some simple games. Not as fancy as the actual computer from Splash Star.

And my last little note: here is NattsHouse before and after renovation:

In conclusion, this episode wraps up the character introductions tidily, and seamlessly transitions us into the body of the show. It gives Nuts his own arc to join the team in a similar way that the other girls got in their spotlight episodes, as well as establishing some more conventions. Once again we see Nozomi’s inspiring leadership move the other characters, and this time she is formally recognized as the leader of the team. It’s a strong start to the series, and it only gets better from here.

Next time, however, there’s some dissension in the ranks..... look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 2 “Kettei!”

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 #YPC507 #PCD155

[nneefa]

fic: you taught me to hope

fandom: ao no exorcist characters: rin/shiemi summary: Rin didn't know if he was reading too much into his relationship with Shiemi or what, but the feeling he was getting from it all was definitely weird. note: slight au; shiemi asks rin to "wait for her" - part 1/2

☆

If Rin hadn’t known any better, he would’ve thought they were on a date. He was beginning to think that a lot these days, not that he was doing it on purpose or anything. Just that whenever he was with Shiemi, whether they were on a mission or studying together or going to Pon-chan for monjayaki, that’s kinda what it felt like. Not to mention that lately, all their little get-togethers had been her idea, as if she was the one doing it on purpose or something.

Today was no different.

Their Demon Pharmaceuticals class had ended surprinsingly early today, as they’d only had to go over last night’s homework and review for next week’s exam. He meant to go straight home, train with Kuro, and take a long nap, especially since he hadn’t done so swell on his homework, but then he remembered that Yukio wanted him to stop at the store on the way home from cram school, since he would be too busy to do it himself. Rin was starting to notice that Mr. Moles and Glasses was “too busy” to do a lot of things these days, but he let it slide, only because he’d already needed to stop there for dinner anyway. Well that, and Yukio’s arm and ribs were still kinda broken from their last mission. (Rin made sure to put an extra bottle of mineral water in the basket, just for him).

That was when Shiemi had asked if she could tag along.

Rin didn’t know if he was reading too much into it or what, but the feeling he was getting from it all was definitely weird. It wasn’t as if it was the first time they’d ever been shopping together or anything, but that wasn’t really the point.

“Wait for me.”

That was what she’d said.

Even now, as he walked the aisles of the grocer, filling his basket with spices and seafood, his head kept replaying those three little words over and over and over again in her sweet voice, like a recorder. Ever since then, it seemed like Shiemi went out of her way to be with him. They spent more and more time together, alone, doing things like studying and sitting next to each other in cram school and eating lunch and going home. Rin felt like his friends knew something he didn’t about the whole thing. He could still hear Shima’s dumb, sarcastic voice going, “Congratulations, Okumura-kun. She didn’t turn you down. That’s gotta count for something, right?” Konekomaru and Paku seemed to cheer him on and Suguro wished him luck, and while Izumo gave him a look that would haunt his nightmares forever, even she told him, “You’d better not screw this up, Okumura.” (Something told Rin to keep it a secret from Yukio, for now anyway).

He didn’t wanna get his hopes up or anything, but Rin couldn’t help but think that maybe Shiemi was starting to, well, like him; like like him like him, as more than a friend.

He didn’t mind, of course, that she wanted him to “wait,” whatever that meant. He’d actually expected her to flat out reject him at the time, so it’d caught him completely off guard when she’d asked him at all - that was, until Umaimon showed up and ruined everything. It wasn’t until the bell had rung and she’d disappeared down the hall for class that he was able to really react to what had happened. He’d ended up thirty minutes late because of it.

Man, the whole thing was just too weird!

“Are you going to buy that, Rin?”

Rin jumped at the sound of Shiemi’s voice with a strangled yipe and just barely managed to catch the aforementioned item before it could hit the ground. It didn’t really dawn on him that he’d been standing in front of an open freezer like some kind of an idiot, with a melting popsicle in his hand, completely lost in thought. Shiemi only smiled at him, in that way she always does that made his heart race and face feel like it was on fire, and, without thinking, he quickly swapped out his ice lolly for a fresh one, dropping it in his basket and slamming the freezer door shut with enough strength to rattle the other items inside.

“Uh, yeah, I am,” he replied with a loud, forced laugh, not that Shiemi seemed to mind. “I think I got everything I need. How ’bout you?” His eyes flickered to the basket in her hands; her small box of raspberry-vanilla tea and herbal cookies looked like nothing compared to his basket full of groceries.

She almost seemed embarrassed when she held up her cart. “Yeah. I’ve been meaning to try these, ever since I came here with Kamiki-san, but I always forgot to buy them until now. Shall we?”

Shiemi gestured towards the register, and Rin, with a boisterous “okay,” obediently followed.

☆

If Rin thought he felt like an idiot before, then he definitely felt like an even bigger one now. He always pegged himself as a naturally warm person, more so now ever since he learned how to control his flames. Where the average person - or half-person, in his case - needed fifty layers of clothes just to walk to the park on a cold morning, Rin could easily sport a t-shirt and pair of shorts to shovel snow if he wanted. A part of him kinda wished he could wear that right now, since the cold December air felt more like a steaming hot day in July, walking alongside Shiemi. On top of that, something in his brain actually told him that it would be a good idea to open that popsicle and split half of it with her, and she looked even colder than he knew it felt outside, if her rosy red cheeks were anything to go by.

It wasn’t his fault, he tried to reason with himself. He was just so damn nervous! No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but think that they were on a date. And Shiemi wasn’t making things any better, not that he was blaming her or anything. Rin liked to think he knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t doing any of this on purpose, that she was only being her nice, friendly self. It wasn’t like it meant anything when she smiled at him (like he was only the thing that mattered at that moment) and said “thank you” (like he’d won her the biggest teddybear at the festival) or when she accidently brushed her fingers against his when she reached for her half of Gori-Gori-kun (he really tried not to think about what that could’ve possibly meant).

Nope, that was all Rin and his dumb, overthinking brain’s fault, he thought, taking a huge bite out of his ice pop. God, he really needed to get a grip.

“You really like Gori-Gori-kun, don’t you, Rin?”

For the second time that evening, Rin jumped at the sound of Shiemi’s voice, his eyes going wide as saucers as he nearly choked on his pop. He saw her flinch out of the corner of his eye, her smile dropping like a weight, and he quickly flashed her a reassuring grin to let her know he was okay. Sure enough, the corners of her mouth lifted again and they were trading smiles. Seriously, there should be a limit to how stupid he could be in one day, he thought, ears burning like someone threw them on a barbecue grill.

“What makes ya say that?” asked Rin, taking another bite of his pop.

“You can even eat it while it’s cold out like this.” As if to prove her point, Shiemi blew out a long puff of breath in the chilly air, trying hard not to laugh.

“W-well,” Rin shot back with a noise, pointing at hers with his half-eaten one, “you’re doing the same thing as me, so that makes you no different.” He couldn’t really tell her that he’d bought it without thinking or that the only reason he was eating it in the first place was to cool himself down, since the winter chill wasn’t doing a very good job at it.

“Nu-uh, you can even it bite into it,” she giggled, watching him bemusedly.

Rin finished his popsicle off in a matter of three chomps, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “What?” he paused, pulling the last bits from the popsicle stick with his front teeth. “You can’t do it?”

“Of course not!” Shiemi blurted, and the next thing Rin knew, she was bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

She tried, horribly, Rin thought with a flush, to hide it behind her bangs and what was left of her melting popsicle, but her shoulders were shaking like crazy and he could see all of her pretty, white teeth, and her cheeks were bright and pink. She tried to catch her breath, smoky puffs of air forming a halo around her head, but with each gasp she took, it seemed to only make it that much harder to stop as she wiped away the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Rin didn’t think it was that funny, especially since she was laughing at him, but for some strange reason, he couldn’t find it in himself to care at all.

She was beautiful, and Rin was captivated.

“Can I kiss you, Shiemi?”

#okumura rin #moriyama shiemi #rinshi #ao no exorcist #neefa writes #otp: dance with me #it took me umpteen years to write this fic #i still don't have a title #and i'm still not finished #have no flippin' idea when part two will be out #but do know that i'm working on it #and it will be from shiemi's perspective #i value constructive criticism so don't be shy #and also let me know if you enjoy it because i like feedback too

[kusunogatari]

[ Portal Peril || Chapter Six ] [ @abyssaldespair ] [ Uchiha Obito, Suigin Ryū, Namikaze Minato, Hatake Kakashi, Nohara Rin, Uzumaki Kushina ] [ Verse: White Hands of Healing ] [ Previous || Next ]

Heart leaping to her throat, Ryū finds herself frozen for a moment, eyes wide. But then her heartbeat kickstarts, and she takes off back up the road, Obito on her heels.

All the while, Kakashi takes a nervous step backward, which makes Ryū’s brows furrow. Why does he look so -?

Just as the other pair reach the proper part of the road, she sees why.

Gloved hands gripping the edge of the dimensional tear, Obito makes to haul himself out of it. He looks just as he did when she left, plus a little more dried blood and dirt. His eyes are wide, Mangekyō bright as he manically stares at this dimension’s Kakashi.

To anyone else, the scene is rather unsettling. But to Ryū, it’s the greatest relief she’s seen in...a very long time.

But as he steps through and the portal closes, she panics. Can...can they still get back? Or are they now both trapped here?!

“Where is she?” Obito rasps, tone exhausted and yet determined. “Where is Suigin Ryū?”

Rather than answer, Kakashi just points, clearly wanting to divert the madman’s attention.

Swiveling to follow the digit, he first lays eyes on Ryū. Time seems to hiccup as they lock gazes, and the subtle madness in his gaze softens to an unfathomable relief.

But then his eyes flick to the figure just behind her...and they widen all over again.

“...you…”

“...Obito, what -?”

Ignoring Ryū’s interjection, Obito moves her aside with a hand on her shoulder before reeling back and clocking his double in the jaw.

A sound of alarm comes from Kakashi as the other Uchiha goes down hard, completely blindsided.

“You! You let this happen!”

“Obito, stop it!” Ryū attempts to cut in, only to be ignored.

“You hesitated, didn’t you? Wasted time! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to get her back?!”

“Obito!” Forcing herself between them, Ryū cups her Obito’s cheeks, directing his gaze to her and refusing to let him look away. “They’ve been trying this whole time! Kakashi and Obito both!”

“But -?”

“Yes, at first we left, but that was to go speak with Minato-sama. We weren’t sure how to get this to work! We had to figure that out before just trying things willy nilly! I promise you, they’ve been working on getting the window back open since I got here. It’s not his fault!”

Breath still rushing through his nose, Obito stares at her, fury and disappointment still clear in his eyes. But the longer she holds him, the quicker it dissipates until there’s nothing left of his burning temper but ashes. Instead, his expression softens...and then crumbles. Arms lift to wrap around her torso tightly, earning a small gasp at the force of his grip. Brow ducking to the crook of her neck, he whispers, “...I was so scared...that I would...t-that I would never see you again.”

She can feel the wet of his tears against her skin, her own brimming along her lids as she holds him back. “...I’m sorry...me too. I’ve barely slept...are you all right?”

“...I don’t know…”

Part of her wants to ask how badly he’s been treating himself in the wake of his efforts, but...there will be time for that later. Time for commiserating over...all of this later. “...it’s all right. We’re together now...it’s going to be okay…” A hand spares to comb through his hair, feeling him shake slightly in both exhaustion and relief.

All the while, the other pair watch in a stunned silence. Kakashi cautiously moves to help his teammate up. “...well, that’s...not quite how I pictured that going,” he notes dryly. “...you okay?”

“Fine, just...a little sore. Guy’s got one hell of an arm.”

“Guess you’d know.”

The chatter urges the pair apart, Ryū looking slightly sheepish. But Obito still looks to them with a furrowed brow, expression dark with suspicion. “...so, Kakashi was right...this is another timeline. With another me...and him.”

“Er...yeah,” the other Obito replies, clearly a bit shaken. “Look, I...I’m sorry about...well, everything. I certainly didn’t mean to pull her through, and...maybe going to sensei wasn’t the best idea. But I was kinda, well...surprised. And had no idea what to do.”

“...sensei…?”

“...Namikaze Minato?” the other Obito clarifies. “You, uh...you know him?”

Something passes over Obito’s face. “...yeah.”

“Rin is here, Obito,” Ryū then offers softly. “And Kushina.”

“Look, uh...if you want, we could maybe...show you around?” the jōnin Uchiha offers, gesturing back toward Konoha. “I mean, it’s not like you’ll ever -”

“No.”

“...but -?”

“I don’t want or need to see it,” Obito replies, tone bitter. “...besides, it’s been bad enough having one person from another timeline here. My presence would likely only cause larger distortions. I don’t want to...cause any more damage…”

Ryū gives him a somber glance. “...I guess you have a point. Though...oddly enough, no one here seems to know me.”

“...really?”

“Mhm. Or my clan. So...I think overall, the damage can’t be that bad. Especially since only, what...six people know who I am? Minato, and his family, and his team. No one else has really spoken to me.”

“And you were careful about what you said?”

“Of course.”

Obito heaves a heavy sigh. “...we need to head back.”

“...but -?”

“We shouldn’t be here to begin with,” he insists, tone firm.

“I know, but koi...you’re clearly exhausted,” Ryū gently pleads. “Just...take a little time to rest. Please. If I know you, you’ve been doing this nonstop for four days. You need to let your body recover, at least for a few hours.”

His nostrils flare with a curt breath...but in the end he knows there’s no arguing, no matter how soft her tone is. “...fine.”

“If you, uh...if you want, you could henge and come into the village. Just...get yourself cleaned up a bit,” the other Obito offers, lifting placating hands as Obito makes to retort. “...no offense, but...you look like hell.”

In spite of himself, Obito snorts. “...you have a point.” His head bows, eyes closing in thought. “...fine. But just...a few hours. No one can know.”

“I mean...sensei and his wife already know about you. But I can’t really been seen with a twin, otherwise. Once we get to sensei’s house, you can rest and clean up, and just...take a breather. Then we’ll send you both on your way.”

Watching the exchange, Ryū glances to the other Obito at the notion of goodbyes...but his face is a careful blank. “...that should work well. Come on, koi…”

There’s a brief pause, and then Obito uses a bit of chakra to transform. Ryū gives him a long glance, recognizing the rather plain facade he took back when he fetched her from Konoha just as Pein fell upon the village. With that, he stubbornly takes her hand and makes to follow as his twin and Kakashi make their way back up the road. Despite her occasional look over, he keeps his eyes straight ahead, the tension in his chakra quite noticeable to her senses as he stares a hole into the back of the other Obito’s head.

They split as Kakashi goes to speak to Minato and tell him of their success, Obito taking them to the Yondaime’s house. When Kushina opens the door, her brow furrows at the strange face...but then eyes go wide as she quickly puts two and two together. “...you did it…?”

“Yeah, uh...mind if we come in?”

“Of course! Here, come on…” She holds open the door, expression astounded. “He’s transformed?”

“Yeah, well...thought that made more sense than pretending I’d made a shadow clone. He’s in pretty rough shape after the last few days...mind if he rests up here and gets clean?”

“Of course! You can drop the disguise now, we’re all privy,” Kushina assures him.

There’s an awkward pause, and then Obito dispels the jutsu. His face is a careful blank.

Ryū already knows why. The last Obito saw of Kushina...he’d just finished sealing her fate the night Naruto was born.

“...thank you,” he offers stiffly, letting her direct him to the washroom.

“I’ll, uh...go get him some of my clothes - those are pretty...dingy,” this plane’s Obito then offers, quickly disappearing.

“...well that’s not how I expected that to go,” Kushina muses, crossing her arms.

“...it’s a long story,” Ryū assures her with a sigh.

“So I take it you have a way to get back…?”

“I’m...not sure, actually. But I’m willing to bet they’ll figure it out.” Or so she hopes. Having her Obito here is better than nothing, but she’d still much rather be home with him, if she had the choice.

“Well, I’ll whip up some lunch - he looks famished, poor thing. I’m sure Minato will be here any minute, too…”

Obito then returns with fresh clothes, leaving them outside the bathroom door. “He’s, um…”

Ryū perks a brow, allowing a hint of amusement as he tries to speak.

“...not what I expected.”

“I promise that’s not what he’s typically like. He just spent four days post-mission and post-battle working his chakra to the dregs. All while panicking. And I’m...really sorry he punched you.”

“I mean...it is what it is. I can’t blame him.”

“Still…” Reaching up, she cups a palm over his swollen jaw, feeling him stiffen slightly. “...you didn’t deserve that.” Chakra flares as she works on the swelling.

“Debatable.”

Towel ruffling his wet hair, Obito then comes back in behind them, pausing at what he sees. “...thanks for the clothes.”

The other Obito jumps, taking a step back and breaking Ryū’s grip. “...you’re welcome.”

Giving him a warning glower, Obito makes his way around to stand beside Ryū. “How long do we have to stay?”

“Until you’ve eaten something and had a chance to rest,” she gently chides. A hand reaches up and tries to tame his towel-ruffled hair. “I can still sense how low your levels are.”

“Hn…”

Not long after, Minato and Kakashi arrive, the Hokage staring in clear surprise at seeing double. “...well I’ll be damned,” he can’t help but murmur. “You really did it.”

“Kakashi did, admittedly,” Obito offers. “I was, uh…”

“And do you think you can reopen the portal back?”

“I can,” the true Obito offers, tone a bit...stiff in the presence of another he was responsible for ending in their plane. “I think, so long as one of you open up to Kamui, I can finish the bridge from there.”

“...I see. Well...consider me both glad and a bit sad this is finally over. Ryū-san has been a pleasant guest, but...well, this isn’t where she belongs.”

“Thank you...for watching over her while she was here,” Obito then murmurs, tone truly grateful. “I appreciate it.”

“No trouble at all. As I said...we were glad to know her, even if the circumstances were...questionable. She’ll be missed.”

“All right, enough yakkin’!” Kushina then cuts in. “Someone fetch Rin - we’ve got lunch ready!”

They’re nearly sat down when Rin arrives, brown eyes wide as she makes her way in.

In turn, Obito stares back.

Ryū’s eyes flicker between them, expression carefully blank.

“...wow...you really do look just like him…!” A grin grows across her face. “That’s so...weird! But also cool! But mostly weird!”

“Er…” He balks unsure how to respond.

“Well forgetting everything else, let me tell you something, sir,” Rin then goes on, pointing a finger. “You better appreciate what you’ve got!”

“...what?”

“Not a minute went by I couldn’t tell Ryū wasn’t thinking about you. You’ve got yourself one hell of a woman there, Obito.”

After a pause of surprise, something softens in him. “...yeah. I know.”

The group (including both Obito) then settle in to eat, Obito mostly watching awkwardly as the rest casually interact. Even Ryū does so without qualms, but a glance to him makes her pause. Without a word, she leans against him gently, going quiet as she instead listens to the others talk.

Then, after his meal and short respite, Obito insists he has the energy to return them home.

Ryū’s lips purse, but she can’t really argue. He’s still tired, but has the chakra needed. “...all right.”

“Well, I hate to say it, but I can’t go send you off properly,” Minato offers. “I need to get back to work. But I wish you both luck.”

“Thank you, Minato-sama,” Ryū replies with a smile. “Thank you for everything.”

“I was happy to do it.”

“I’ll send you off now, too,” Kushina offers, pulling them both into a tight bear hug. “Now you be careful with that space-time ninjutsu from now on! As much as I like seein’ ya, and as much as I’ll miss ya...you need to be home where you belong.”

“Yes ma’am,” Ryū replies, grinning sheepishly. “...thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“We’ll all head down with you,” Rin then offers, gesturing to her team. “We’ll save our sappy goodbyes for the portal.”

Henged again, Obito walks beside Ryū as team Minato leads the way, the Hokage back in his office where he belongs. Eventually they reach the proper part of the road, and the group stops.

“Well...guess this is it,” Rin sighs, hands on her hips. “I won’t lie...this is gonna be tough.”

“I’ll miss you guys,” Ryū admits, hands clasped at her front. “Thank you for everything. All of you.”

“Happy to, as sensei said,” Kakashi offers, eye crinkling with a smile.

“Just...be careful on the other side,” Obito then offers, managing a hint of a smile.

“We will…”

With that, Obito awakens his Sharingan, his doppleganger doing the same. First a tunnel into Kamui opens, and then another to the same road on the other plane.

Ryū’s heart thrills in her chest. They’re almost home…

“I’ll go first, to keep it open,” Obito offers. Just in case, he gives her hand a squeeze, eyes flickering between her own before stepping through.

Facing the portal, Ryū heaves a sigh before giving one last glance. “...goodbye.”

Kakashi and Rin both nod, the latter looking a bit teary eyed. And then there’s Obito, clearly doing his best to keep his face blank.

“...guess, uh...that’s it, then.”

“...yeah.”

“You know…” He hesitates, and then gives a huff of a laugh, head bowing. “...think I might take a trip up north. See about finding a certain village up there.”

Ryū’s expression lightens.

“...who knows? Maybe you’ll be up there. Maybe we’ll get along half as well as you two seem to, huh?” He manages a more genuine smile. “...take care of him, okay? Seems he needs it...and you’re the perfect person for the job.”

“...I will. Take care, Obito.” Stepping up, she gives him a feather-light press of her lips to his cheek. “...I hope you find what you’re looking for.” And with that, there’s one last smile before she steps through...and the portal closes.

...it’s oddly quiet on the other side.

For a long moment, they both just...stand there, the weight of the past four days clearly making itself known. Locking eyes, small smiles bloom across their faces. Cutting the distance, Ryū loosely takes Obito’s hands in hers, face tilting up as he lowers his brow to hers. Not quite the dramatic gestures of before, but...it’s enough.

“...it’s going to take me four days to tell you how much I missed you,” she murmurs, eyes closed.

“I’ll be lucky to do it in four months.”

That earns a soft laugh. “...let’s go home, ne...?”

“One last pitstop, first.”

With the familiar feeling of flattening lungs, Ryū takes a breath as they resurface...in the Hokage’s office? And for a moment, she turns and expects to see Minato sitting there.

Instead, it’s a wide-eyed Kakashi.

“...well,” he eventually offers. “...seems you got her back.”

“...mhm.”

“...I knew you would.” Kakashi’s mask lifts with a smile. “...so, as promised, I’ll get you that week off. And uh...looks like you need it. Did you sleep at all the last three nights…?”

“You don’t want to know,” Obito replies dryly.

Kakashi then steeples his fingers, leaning forward a bit with curiosity. “So...got a few minutes to share some of your misadventures?”

“Not much to tell, really...mostly just waiting around for the other Obito and Kakashi to get me back,” Ryū offers with a shrug.

“Any major differences between that dimension and ours?”

“...mostly people still alive,” Ryū admits softly. “Obviously I ran into Obito first. Then he brought me into Konoha to meet with Minato-sama. He was still acting as Yondaime. And...Rin was there, too. I was mostly left with her and Kushina while Kakashi and Obito worked on the portal.” It feels a bit...odd to tell Kakashi about Kakashi. “There’d been no fourth war...which, I suppose, makes sense.”

“Given that the catalyst’s life was rather different,” Kakashi agrees. There’s an odd tinge to his tone that Ryū can’t quite identify. “I can only assume that having my team alive meant I wasn’t such a mess?”

She gives a hint of a smile. “Well...honestly I didn’t see much of other-you. But you actually seemed fairly similar, at least in your mannerisms. You and Rin were a thing, though.”

His eyes go wide. “...uh -?”

“Wait, really?” Obito cuts in.

“Mhm.”

“...I have to wonder where things split...after all, the other Obito had his scars,” he muses, brow furrowed. “So...the mission at Kannabi Bridge obviously went the same.”

“Maybe something changed when Kakashi went to save Rin. I never saw if she had any kind of scar…” Ryū mulls that over. “...well, either way, the other Obito was a jōnin of Konoha. And I don’t think he ever got a replacement for the eye Kakashi was given - he wore a hitai-ate over it.”

“He seemed like a bit of an idiot,” Obito mutters, earning a giggle.

“I think it was less him being an idiot and more him just being...less cynical?” Ryū gives Obito a small, sly smile. “I always got the impression you were a goof when you were a kid. I guess without Madara’s full influence and losing Rin...that didn’t fade as much, ne?”

Obito’s lips curl in a pout. “...he still screwed everything up…”

“Well...we were both pretty panicked. Though I did, er...demand he try then and there. But he was certain he should talk to Minato first…and even then, he’d moved around and lost focus - there’s no guarantee he’d be able to immediately line it up again then.”

“Hn…”

“Well,” Kakashi then cuts in, reclining back into his chair. “I think I get the gist. You both look exhausted, so I’ll let you go.”

“...what about my chakra?” Obito then asks. “Need to reseal it before I leave?”

“Actually...you’ve been granted permanent, partial access,” Kakashi replies, tone a bit smug as their eyes go wide. “I made a little deal with Koharu and Homura. If you came back without incident, and with Ryū...it’d be proof enough you can handle it. Just...don’t make me look like a fool by doing something stupid with it, hm?”

Obito stares for a moment. “...well, you know me and stupid.”

“...you go hand in hand, I know. Just...give it your best effort, then. Now go home. I imagine you two have some...catching up to do,” the Rokudaime them offers, shooing them out. “I don’t want to see you for a week.”

“...thanks, Kakashi.”

“Don’t thank me quite yet. You might still get in trouble and make this all a moot point.”

Snorting, Obito then can’t help a grin. Pulling Ryū to his side, he warps one last time with his Sharingan back into the sitting room of their little house. “...I never thought I’d ever be as glad to see this place as I am right now.”

“Mm...me neither,” Ryū agrees softly. “...for right now, though...all I want to do is go lie down, with you, and sleep for a day. I need to be as close to you as possible for the next twenty-four hours.”

“I can agree to that.”

     And here it is, folks: our little lovebirds are finally back home where they belong. Part of me wishes this could have been longer, but...in all reality, it probably would have dragged, otherwise. And we don't want that! But I do have a wee little epilogue to post here in a moment, so...it's not QUITE over yet ;3      But as for this part, thanks for reading!

#abyssaldespair #uchiha obito #suigin ryū #namikaze minato #hatake kakashi #nohara rin #uzumaki kushina #white hands of healing [ canon verse ]

[dankesdarkman]

Fate and Economics: How FSN Is An Economical Commentary By The Spacebattles Forum

You know what’s normal? fate shitposting

You know what’s fun? fate  economics shitposting

The beginning of this madness

Raguna Blade said:

You know, thinking on it, yeah that totally makes sense based on what I know of japanese work culture. Especially when mixed with the targeted audience of the FS/N games (otaku type) who were already on the outside edge of such culture and were totally open to hearing alternate idea's of what to do, it makes a clear amount of sense. Tying with the heroines then, it sort of follows that the various routes demonstrate how things work out for him. Following Saber, who basically embodies the Work your ass into dust ideal set's him up with an impossible goal for happiness. Saber has to Wait Forever, He has to work forever and if they can both keep it up without fucking it all up along the way, Glory GLory forever. Rin though? Rin's got a discrete clear goal. It requires hard work certainly, but it's not the end all be all. You need to work certainly, you need to work hard, the world is utterly vicious and will swallow you up (the clocktower, then, is true society I guess. None of those fake niceties, it's kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, real Chaos Route stuff there.) but there's plenty to do aside from it and happiness can coincide easily enough if you're willing to stick out that hand and work for it. And then yeah, Sakura is a full on rejection of that, and it makes sense that in her route there would be the most shit going horribly wrong is just in general kind of the most painful (as my recollection calls anyway). Shirous not only rejecting the dominant paradigm for work ethic, sorta, but he's doing to be with someone who is kind of coded as handicapped(? Recollections may be failing I apologize). Severe Trauma, violent violent freak outs (or just freak outs in general really), Sakura is a broken girl really. SO He not only rejects the idea that he has to work himself into dust for his ideals, Ideals he still technically has but needs to better consider and come to terms with as I understand it, But he makes use of that titanic drive to do something utterly radical and do what would make him truly happy even if it means rejecting basically the entire culture he's in. So that's neat. And Bludflag Imma need you to stop. I can legitimately go at this all day, but my surface level knowledge of the FS/N series is gonna out me as a clown sooner or later and I kinda need to dodge that. Assuming I haven't run face first into the clowning pie already.

frozenchicken said:

The Economic Simulationism of the Fate Franchise Part 1-Economic Mechanisms Many compliments have been offered to Nasu for the depth of his worldbuilding, but very few discuss the blatant economic commentary hidden within his works. In particular, the Masters and Servants of the 5th Holy Grail War* are each distinct commentaries on various Economic mechanisms and social systems. Mechanisms Spoiler: Large Corporations

The first of these mechanisms is one that is obvious even to those unfamiliar with economic theory. The Archer-class Servant Gilgamesh is a Great and Powerful Hero, stronger than any other in the series. He enacted his deeds long ago, and in addition to the power and wealth this initially brought him, he laid claim to the Gate of Babylon, a Capitalistic Means of Production that grows his strength from the work of others. In this current age he has thus become an unstoppable juggernaught who can throw his weight around anywhere in the Marketplace of Ideas. Obviously, Gilgamesh symbolises the tyrannical strength of a Corporation who has become too large, and managed to gain a Monopoly. Interestingly, we can see that his Villainy is linked to his growth and desire to expand, as he never possessed such horrific goals in pre-modern times, or when people had purposes that suited his goals. Interestingly, we know that Gilgamesh was at his most personable back in Ancient times when his friend Enkidu was present. This a clear commentary on the necessity of competition to cause healthier business structures. Spoiler: Rational Choice vs Behavioural Economics

One of the simplest and most basic Economic theorems-known as 'Rational Choice Theory'-is examined by the character of Medea ('Caster'). Rational Choice Theory is the assumption that all individuals within in an Economy will act within their own best interests, acting in order to maximise their profits and minimise their losses. This behavioural pattern is shown by Medea's first master, Atram Galiast. Atram is a skilled mage, backed by the Magus Association and equipped with a workshop full of human sacrifices that could massively empower Caster's Magic. With his support, she could easily achieve success in the Holy Grail War. She instead elects to kill him, release the sacrifices, and wander around without hope of survival. In this, we see that Nasu has chosen to support the converse theoreom that is Behavioural Economics. This is the psychology-based study of human behaviours that examines why humans embrace irrational behaviours that makes modelling human action in an economic model so difficult. Medea rejects her first master due to hatred of being bound, and yet embraces Souichirou Kuzuki for his kindness, in spite of the the tactical disadvantage his lack of magic brings. This demonstrates both how standard logical predictions of her actions fail, however once we understand her psychology better (such as the fact she would rather embrace temporary happiness with Kuzuki rather than seek the ideal perfection of a Holy Grail Wish), we become better able to understand her decisions. *Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Unlimited Blade Works, et al. ------------------------------------------------------------- AN: There, look at what you've all made me do. You crazy people. Also, I'm neither an Economist nor an expert on Fate lore, so I accept no blame for this being an illogical pile of absolute BS. We all knew that going in. I was planning to write up a section called 'Love Triangles as Symbolism for Competing Economic Social Systems', but it's 3am here, so I won't. I also didn't comment on all that 'Saberface' stuff, but that's because I know practically nothing about the 10 billion variations of Saber. If somebody wants to actually continue this, be my guest. I have no idea what my work ethic will be like in the morning. [Perk Activation: Sloth!] ....Seriously, feel free.

BlueHelix said:

The Symbology Of Saber In Economics (Or: I Really, Really, Hate Things Like Macroeconomics. Yorokobe, TehChron, frozenchicken, and Neroj. Feel free to critique, this is a half-assed attempt in between my analysis of the MotSR world, and developing my own quest idea.) One could put Saber into one of two possibilities: Keynesian economics, and a pure representation of capitalism. Let's begin with the Keynesian aspect. The ideal of Keynes is a planned economy, that "spends against the wind." Okay, let's break it down. This great plan, hatched by Uther Pendragon and Merlin, try to create something amazing, which is a symbol for the planners like those of Keynesian economics. And Keynes, for a large part, works in times of war, which basically is King Arthur's entire reign. The people unite, things go along to rationing and planning. In times of economic downturn, Keynes says to spend more and more, and to go into debt, which is a little similar to how Saber had to drain the resources of a village to go to war. And in times of economic surplus, one raises taxes and then pays those debts off, which shows in the prosperity of Camelot before it fell. In the perfect ideal of Keynes, also known as "Saber Lily," Keynes works perfectly, with it being a utopian ideal that whenever things go wrong, the government will intervene. On the other hand, Hayek in "The Journey To Serfdom," envisions that this so-called planned economy will fail, and sets the ground for the total corruption of Keynes' ideas, which finally takes the form of in terms of TYPE-MOON as the inversion of Saber: Saber Alter. In between the range of Saber Lily to Saber Alter, from Mysterious Heroine X, to Saber Lion, to Nero, would be the variability of how Keynes' ideas actually worked out in the long run. Secondly, one could look at Saber, and at an extension of her, Camelot, through the lens of free-market capitalism. Saber begins at her journey, and has a really successful start: pulling the Sword of Owed Victory, Caliburn, out of the stone. However, this is really the beginning of a bubble, as she can no longer be a normal person, but rather has to be a king, which is exacerbated by how so many people put faith into her (a false representation at that, as they believed for her to be a male, and put a false set of expectations upon Arturia, putting an enormous task that she, and most of her counterparts, were doomed to failure), and put some truly significant investments into a stock that was higher-valued than its true value (such as Guinevere. And look at how that turned out.) For the longest while though, just like the post-World War I American economy, Saber, buoyed by support from so many, managed to get through the countless wars and competition. However, like all bubbles must eventually do, they burst. And the indicator for this was the eventual plateau of Camelot and Merlin (a vital investor/co-founder) leaving for better pastures (woman troubles.) Then came the confrontation by Mordred, who took so many of her knights (investors) away, leading to a civil war (Black Tuesday and the Great Depression.) Which all went to hell, leading to Arturia making a deal with Alaya (a government bailout), which as we all know, generally fails (Hoover, am I right? And really, Roosevelt as well, because it was the Second World War that revived the American Economy), which leads to a major conflict (Holy Grail War=World Wars. You could fit an enormous amount of connections and parallels here, especially how the Fourth is similar the the First World War, and the Fifth is similar to the Second World War) in order to rejuvenate our stocks (Saber) through the major investments and turnarounds (the Wishes), which usually are misused, and we head back to a depression after a peak (Angra Mainyu and the Corrupted Grail.) This continues on ad infinitum, with the hope that things will be better for the individual, similar to the Fate Route (that one quote I forgot where they say something along the lines that one has to seek forever, and the other will have to wait forever. Halp Bludflag), and maybe, it will work out, similar to the Avalon Bonus Episode: "Welcome back, Shirou."

Raguna Blade said:

Hm. Maybe? Although there's another pretty obvious bit in play here. As far as systems go I can't say but well... Ilya represents Old Money. Like Flat out. Her family is wealthy, one of the ancient and old magus families, they're the ones who functionally MADE the grail wars and the systems that everyone has to deal with, or at least has lived through their transitions, and compared to everyone else, they have a flat overwhelming advantage that simply cannot be surmounted by playing the game as it's supposed to be done. If, as the Grail Wars was supposed to be (basically a big ole tournament of heroic spirits fighting each other) went to plan, basically nobody in the running has a chance at victory. Ignoring Girugamesh for a second here, nobody else was remotely in Hercs range. Flat out, his ass SHOULD have won. And had things functioned as intended, had the other players not basically gone out of their way to get around it, he would have smashed them to pieces. Which, well, is actually a lot how it works with old money anyways. When you have the best education, the best tools, the money, the connections, and all that, it takes something coming from out of left field entirely or a variety of smaller systems and groups rising up to actually topple that power. Now of course I don't know the actual status of the Einzburn family's wealth and a quick wiki walk shows me little to say their exact financial standings, but it has been made clear that as of present the head of the family is basically sinking everything they have into making damn sure that they win the grail war. That is, they want to continue to win the system that they created/had a hand in creating for as long as possible and...Well, past acts in the Grail War Series has proven them to be kind of breaking down. Their attempts to game the system fail spectacularly (See that Whole Avenger thing) and functionally spells their doom down the line as the blow back from basically breaking the system they created keeps coming back to haunt them (Mud of the Grail My guys), while attempts to hire an outside agitator ultimately proves to be damnably effective, in giving the reigns to someone who they do not have perfect control over, it also further destabilizes their control over the system that they are inherently tied to. In fact, let's talk about Mr The Ends Have to Justify The Means for A second, Since he is, in fact, Our Girl Ilya's Old man. At least, as far as it goes with alchemic golemy nonsense. Not quite sure about the blood lines there. But we see him, and Kiritsugu is unquestionably an outsider to the system the Einzburn's have up and running. Oh yes, he is a magus, no doubt, but in the view of this, His family is fallen disgraced and can't claim old money status because well...Dudes poor as shit. Relatively. But the thing is, due to his nature as an outsider, because he's taken the time to grow up outside of the system, to develop and learn things in it, he comes to a very specific view of the world. What it represents in an economic sense isn't important for this here, but the important thing is that because of this, and then later training he acquired in order to pass through the world that he was an outsider of, He was better able to navigate in ways that others in the system simply couldn't conceive of. This of course lead to his ASTOUNDING success at the 4th Grail War, but because again he was fundamentally an outsider, he saw how clearly the system was broken by the time he won and had a choice in the matter. The System can't support itself anylonger, not in the way that it exists presently. It can only be destroyed, and built upon. So what's this to do with Ilya? Well, again, Ilya is Old Money. She has the resources, the connections, the education, the knowledge all that. She can do a tremendous amount. She can, in fact, just about grant the wish of any given person she wishes given those connections. I mean hell, she's literally the Holy Grail. She's literally the system she's built to work within. And as such, compared to the Einzburn Family as a whole, she has unparalleled power to shift control and ultimately destroy the system as she see's fit. And ultimately, in every single route she is dead or dying. Fate See's the system crumble around her, leaving her functionally on life support. Unlimited BLade Works See's the system Kill her itself for it's self (as repped by the glorious golden boy himself), before ultimately self destructing anyway. But Heavens Feel? Well, that's about the only route she has Agency as Grail-chan, and in here we see her, as far as true route's go, Sacrifice herself for Shirou, Underpaid Everyman with Anarchic Leanings. The system is breaking down and dying, and rather than let everything collapse into the rubble and close off any kind of hope for the future (such as it were) she gave a part of herself to those who most wish to abandon what ultimately proved to be a failure of a system, effectively trusting them with the power and resources and such to go forth and create a better tomorrow and all that. Alternatively, It's the Old Money using their powers for good, fostering the growth of a new system that will inevitably replace it down the line, given her existence as a opposite to the Grail that Sakura Represents. Which, Just for the moment, As Black And White Grails, the two play off each other interestingly in that the Matous Are ALSO old money with deep ties to the system. But where Black Grail Sakura could probably be described as Old Money lording it's power around to ill effects, Ilya would essentially be the opposite. Of course, that is a bit beyond what I'm able to play with here.

BlueHelix said:

Okay, first off, someone compile the shitposts about Rin and distill it into something coherent. It is literally that easy, and I'm way too exhausted to do that right now. I think what you're going with here is that Sakura symbolizes those that are under the "capitalist boot" that look to communism as a better alternative, like how Sakura is hot for Shirou. And Shirou is definitely a communist, wanting to save everyone and all that. Actually, the Emiyas could represent the parts of Asia that turned to communism (spits to the side). Norikata Emiya, who went all in towards the pursuit of advancing himself (actually, most hardcore magi) would fit the bad part of free-market capitalism. Such as the big corporations stepping over the people, oil companies and factories polluting the earth, etc., he and ruthless magi represent those who cast others down for their goals of greed and similar actions. And he gets shot by his son after screwing things up royally. Make of that what you will. Now, I'm going to only talk about Natalia, Kiritsugu's sensei, briefly. I'm going to put her as the original capitalists that turned to communism. She has a Russian name, after all. So she represents Russia, who then taught Kiritsugu (other to-be communist states), all she knew (communism/Marxism). And then Kiritsugu has that dream/ideal of being a superhero, to save everyone (haha definitely communism there), which then, after Natalia's death (the reality of a communist state after the "glorious revolution"), turns him into a ruthless machine (Lenin in his first decade or so). However, after taking a job from a third party to win the Fourth Holy Grail War (World War II connection), he meets Irisviel and fathers Illya, significantly mellowing him out (New Economic Policy). At the end, however, the true vision of his dream (the failures of communism: Stalin. Great Leap Forward. Five Year Plans. et al.) is shown to be horrific, which then forces him to cast aside his dream. Then he passes down the ideal of his dream to Shirou. I think basically anyone could make an easy amount of connections between Shirou Emiya and communism. He wants to save the world. He fights against Gilgamesh (the 1% bourgeoisie lording over the poor proletariat), Kirei (the cruel rich finding joy in abusing the poor and others), and Dark Sakura (dark side of capitalism incarnate). He is the "imitation that surpasses the original" (refined "communism" that China, Vietnam, and others have that have outlasted Soviet Russia, the OG communist state, which could technically be Gilgamesh in the sense of being the "original," Natalia on account of being Russian, and Kiritsugu who passed the dream down). He creates an infinite amount of swords with his Reality Marble which then he distributes for the "greater good." And of course: Shirou's inherently self destructive unless something happens to change him. Archer anybody? Edit: I'm done with economic analysis for today. Need to get some rest for the next exams.

Mortifer said:

Okay, okay, how do I sound smart when I know nothing about economics... Uh... Well, the thing about Shinji is that he is, as per canon, actually rather knowledgeable about the theory behind Magecraft, He's just utterly incapable of using it. And his main reason for hating Sakura isn't that she can Magecraft, but that Sakura pitied him for it. He hated that. So, uh... I give up, I don't know economics. Maybe he represents something to do with putting in a lot of effort but not having anything to start with and might be commentary on how being born without advantages is nigh impossible a goal to overcome? I don't know, I don't economics, I should really just shut up before I say something objectively wrong and stupid-sounding. ...Actually, that's never stopped me before. Shinji's backstory friendship with Shirou is symbolic of how those who are disadvantaged in the system may embrace anarchism because the current system isn't working for them, and the two of them stopped being friends when Shirou found out Shinji hit Sakura, which is symbolic of... ...Something... Abusing flaws in a system to progress when the system itself isn't working for them? Criminal activity when legit methods don't work for them I don't know, I'm blanking on how to pretend I know what I'm talking about without getting political and even I refuse to touch the cancer known as politics. Maybe the relationship between Shinji and Sakura can be vaguely considered to be charity? Shinji doesn't care about Sakura, just the benefits he can get from her, but as soon as Shinji starts seeking too much from Sakura she cuts him off. By killing him. Yeah, if I keep following this train of thought I'm going to end up concluding that Sakura's killing Shinji is evidence that capitalism will eventually lead to The Purge so I'm gonna wait until someone else uses something I tossed around here in a way that makes sense and then I'll claim credit.

frozenchicken said:

The Economic Simulationism of the Fate Franchise Part 1-Economic Mechanisms Many compliments have been offered to Nasu for the depth of his worldbuilding, but very few discuss the blatant economic commentary hidden within his works. In particular, the Masters and Servants of the 5th Holy Grail War are each distinct commentaries on various Economic mechanisms and social systems. Mechanisms Spoiler: Large Corporations

The first of these mechanisms is one that is obvious even to those unfamiliar with economic theory. The Archer-class Servant Gilgamesh is a Great and Powerful Hero, stronger than any other in the series. He enacted his deeds long ago, and in addition to the power and wealth this initially brought him, he laid claim to the Gate of Babylon, a Capitalistic Means of Production that grows his strength from the work of others. In this current age he has thus become an unstoppable juggernaught who can throw his weight around anywhere in the Marketplace of Ideas. Obviously, Gilgamesh symbolises the tyrannical strength of a Corporation who has become too large, and managed to gain a Monopoly. Interestingly, we can see that his Villainy is linked to his growth and desire to expand, as he never possessed such horrific goals in pre-modern times, or when people had purposes that suited his goals. Interestingly, we know that Gilgamesh was at his most personable back in Ancient times when his friend Enkidu was present. This a clear commentary on the necessity of competition to cause healthier business structures. Spoiler: Rational Choice vs Behavioural Economics

One of the simplest and most basic Economic theorems-known as 'Rational Choice Theory'-is examined by the character of Medea ('Caster'). Rational Choice Theory is the assumption that all individuals within in an Economy will act within their own best interests, acting in order to maximise their profits and minimise their losses. This behavioural pattern is shown by Medea's first master, Atram Galiast. Atram is a skilled mage, backed by the Magus Association and equipped with a workshop full of human sacrifices that could massively empower Caster's Magic. With his support, she could easily achieve success in the Holy Grail War. She instead elects to kill him, release the sacrifices, and wander around without hope of survival. In this, we see that Nasu has chosen to support the converse theoreom that is Behavioural Economics. This is the psychology-based study of human behaviours that examines why humans embrace irrational behaviours that makes modelling human action in an economic model so difficult. Medea rejects her first master due to hatred of being bound, and yet embraces Souichirou Kuzuki for his kindness, in spite of the the tactical disadvantage his lack of magic brings. This demonstrates both how standard logical predictions of her actions fail, however once we understand her psychology better (such as the fact she would rather embrace temporary happiness with Kuzuki rather than seek the ideal perfection of a Holy Grail Wish), we become better able to understand her decisions. Part 2- Love Triangles as a Symbol of Competing Economic Models Whilst Financial mechanisms can greatly influence the Global Economy, they are all ultimately subordinate to the various social and Economic systems championed by various nations. This is displayed most clearly in the form of the Masters of the Holy Grail War, particularly Shirou and his assorted romantic interests. Spoiler: Advertising and PR is an important part of the Capitalist System

Tohsaka Rin is perhaps the simplest of the Masters to classify, as her connection to the Capitalist Model has many facets. She is an ambitious young Mage, who desires to work hard in the Holy Grail War so as to achieve success. This expresses itself as desire for a Wish, but also a desire to obtain the Wealth her family once had. Indeed, Nasu makes her connection to finance even more obvious by literally using valuable jewels to store and empower her magic. Moreover, her Capitalistic Philosophy is displayed by the way she not only uses her own efforts, but suborns other Economic systems and models into alliance with herself, and as seen in the UBW Route she even purchases The Means of Production (Saber) for herself and rides her accumulating asset-derived wealth to a successful circumstance. It is perhaps easy to think of Rin as having an unkind philosophy, but it is eventually shown that her pragmatic outlook is simply a way of creating a stable platform of success that she can use to enact her desired philanthropies. Spoiler: Anarchism as an Adaptively Symbiotic Social Construct

The character of Shirou began as a blank protagonist in the F/SN visual novel, who progressed into an Amnesiac anime protagonist with many love interests, multiple established 'Routes' of development and the ability to copy the weapons of others. It is therefore no surprise to say he represents a sort of Symbiotic Anarchy, that is extremely flexible, born from rejection of the ideals of previous systems (as represented by The Revolution), and yet willing to ally with other Economic systems that he believes will align well with him. Though his Anarchistic Philosophy is lacking obvious markers of a particular Economic Policy, he does maintain a clear ideological philosophy that represents itself as a rejection of the unphilanthropic mechanisms of the systems of the past, which is also displayed by an initial fondness for the philanthropic basis of Socialism (Sakura). However, as events continue, he finds himself strongly connected to the will of the People (Saber) and eventually comes into a symbiotic alliance with Rin (Anarcho-Capitalism). One of Shirou's best traits is his adaptability, as he later gains the ability to copy the Economic Mechanisms of other systems. However, he must be careful with his development lest he end up as something he despises (as symbolised by Archer). Spoiler: The Pitfalls of an Idealised Philanthropic EconomyTo build on the earlier analysis, the kind-hearted Sakura initially represents Socialism, and the worms within her are a metaphor for how such centralised power attracts corrupt interests who seek to gain control of everything. The routes where Shinji takes over show one vision of how this can end, as a decadent and corrupt Communist governmental system that replaces her, and exploits the efforts of the past, with his extreme incompetence symbolising the degradation of the state until an eventual collapse. Dark Sakura is the other end of the situation, where the self-interested powers seize control of the state mechanisms, maintaining a coherent Facist government at the cost of perverting the kind-natured original designs of the economic system. Spoiler: The Idealised Economy as represented by a Magical Girl

Illya represents the dream of a post-scarcity economy. She is artificial, shares a parent with Anarchism, her unaging youth shows just how far we are away from achieving that dream, and (much like Sakura) her potential as a Grail Vessel shows the hopeful, dream-like nature of their systems and how they are vulnerable to degradation/corruption. Herakles (and his 12 Labours) symbolises the impossible difficulties involved in achieving such a dream, but also the impossible strength of such a system if it were actually achieved. (Continued in the next post, as SB has an Image Limit).

frozenchicken said:

Part 3- Economic Analysis and The People Economic Systems of the Past Spoiler: Rejection of the Old and the Revolutions that followWe can see that Natalia rejects the old systems and turns away from them, but it is Kiritsugu who is the most interesting representation of this aspect, as he is The Revolution. He enlists the help of the Masses (as represented by Saber), and then proceeds to destroy all the existing power structures. His path is bloody and destructive, he fails to achieve his goals and in the end his victory only ends in disillusionment as he destroys the unrealistic hopes presented by the Holy Grail. However, in the wake of his passing, two new philosophies, Shirou (Anarchism) and Illya (Post-Scarcity) come to be. Spoiler: The limitations of Theory when contrasted against Pragmatism

The final aspect of Fate to be analysed is The Holy Grail, which represents the Grand Theories of Economists, with each wish being an idealised end state of various economic models-and the cursed nature shows they all eventually fail to predict how human agency alters events, causing the models to go off-track. Shirou (Anarchism) does not have a specific Wish in mind, but may react in a manner determined by circumstance. Saber has multiple desires, that may include allying herself to other economic systems, seeking a perfect state for capitalism to operate by, or perhaps even rejecting the truth of trickle-down economics and attempting to remove the elitist mechanisms of the capitalist state-as represented by herself. All the manifestations of the Grail that interact with a member of the Matou family seem to end badly for them, and though an ideal state could be found, most have given up hope of that. Special Thanks to Raguna, Blue Helix, Last Sanction and also to Karugus for coming up with that 'Invisible Hand' line. Oh, and also Mortifier whose lengthy contribution ended up...well, it's quality, not quantity that matters, right?

#Fate/stay night #fate stay night #fate/zero #fate zero #economics #saber #social commentary #type-moon #spacebattles