#Kaito is sO SO GOOD HE CHOSE THE PERFECT PLACE....

[ahogedetective]

"Lookit, lookit! It's your other brethren, Shuichi! Haha~!!" Kaito is as excited as ever as he points to one of the nearby tanks, the thick glass nearly reaching the ceiling. He's taken the birthday boy to an aquarium! Kaito oohs and aahs as he watches a koi and a goldfish swimming around together before being distracted by some octopus, the astronaut practically having his face pressed against the glass as he tries to get an even closer look!

"I can't believe there's so much of the ocean that we haven't discovered yet. Isn't that wild?! There's so many amazing, little guys like these that we haven't even seen before!" It's when he turns to look back at the detective that he gives a loud gasp when he notices something a little ways away, grabbing Shuichi's hand and excitedly rushing over to the tide pool area! The enclosure is much smaller than the rest of the exhibits and there are no glass barriers, letting guests reach in and lightly pet those that are inside!

"They have sea stars in here! Oh! Haha, Taka's come to wish you a happy birthday too! Here, I'll get a picture with the three of us together~!" Kaito then positions himself so he's right next to Shuichi, making sure the sea urchin behind them is in full view before reaching for his phone and taking the picture! However, when he's done he puts his phone away but then pulls Shuichi closer, bringing him into a tight embrace as his voice softens.

"I know an aquarium probably wasn't the first place you would think of for a birthday celebration, but I'm glad I can spend some time with you on your special day. Happy birthday, my shining star."

"Ohhh, very funny, you. Hahaha." He laughs with him, Shuichi looking just as excited as he stares at that tank with him! Kaito taking him out on a date to the aquarium, was a very delightful surprise. Seeing Kaito look so excited couldn't help but make him giggle, finding it so adorable. And as he watches the many types of aquatic life swim about, he was having just as much fun, too.

At Kaito's question, he nods his head. "Right...? The ocean is so vast... there are probably still hundreds, if not thousands, of sea animals that have yet to be discovered. I know exploring the deeper depths is very difficult, but I'm sure that in the future, we'll be able to enjoy more and more different kinds of fish we never knew existed!" Then when Kaito turns around and makes that gasp, he tilts his head, about to ask him what he saw before giving a small noise of surprise when Kaito grabs his hand and starts rushing to the direction of the tide pool area! "Oh-!!"

Then when he also peers inside and sees the sea stars and sea urchins, he can see why he rushed over here, emitting a gasp of awe as his eyes follow them. "Yeah...! I wonder how they'd feel if you touched them... ah, hehehe, you're right! What are you doing here, Taka? Oh, yes-!" He quickly leans in and gets into position for the photo, giving a bright smile as he does a small wave. At the embrace, he emits a soft gasp, as he quietly listens.

"Kaito..." A light red dusts his cheeks, and his heart flutters at his words. Immediately, he hugs him back, just as tightly. "Silly..." He hums, one hand going to slowly rub his back. "That's exactly why I loved today so much. It was a wonderful surprise, to have been brought here. I don't come to aquariums that often, so I was so excited to see all the different sea animals, today! Even seeing some I never have, before... and of course, you being with me, made today all the more fun and special. I'm so happy I could celebrate and spend time today with you, too. Thank you, Kaito: I love you so much. This is why you'll always be my light. You made me feel so loved and special, like you always do."

Leaning up, he plants a soft kiss to his lips. The gaze he looks at him with, the smile he gives; both were filled with the kind of love, happiness, and warmth that only Kaito could ever receive. Truly, this was one of the best birthdays he's had. But Kaito was always able to help make it be. Today, truly will be an unforgettable day for him. "Now..." He leans far back enough in the hug, so that he can cup both of Kaito's hands in his own. And giving them a small, playful swing, he adds: "Let's continue enjoying today to the very fullest, shall we?"

#AHHH I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!! #AQUARIUM DATE!!!! 💜 🐟 💙 #Shuichi absolutely is having so much fun with him~ #Kaito is sO SO GOOD HE CHOSE THE PERFECT PLACE.... #though any place is perfect to sushi when it's with him~! 💖 #shuichi answers;; #essenceofjustice #♡;; His Hero's Shining Star // His Sidekick's Light || {essenceofjustice // Kaito}

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

OKAY OKAY, I've been reading your Ch4 text posts, and I was gonna just comment, but it got so long, and I was ITCHING to interact so-

Honestly, I think the big reason Ch4 is underappreciated is because of just how divisive Ch4 is as a WHOLE.

Ch5 and Ch6 in a lot of ways are a lot more straight forward!! Especially in characterization. It could (and frequently is) argued what Kaito and Kokichi's motivations are in Ch5, and how they are meant to be interpreted- but it's super open-ended and people can really easily view it the way THEY want to. Kaito and Kokichi can so easily fall into what the viewer WANTS them to be.

Ch4, on the other hand, fundamentally challenges how the characters view each other and, more importantly, how the AUDIENCE sees the characters. For example if you have hated Kokichi since the start, its easy to write him off in ch5 and say he deserved it, but in ch4 you have to confront the fact that Miu was planning to take him out, and that he was SCARED. I've seen people argue the fact that Kokichi SHOULDN'T have been scared as a way to justify how they feel about him and Ch4.

And of course the major Ch4 elephant in the room: A lot of people have to grapple with (or chose to ignore) the real tragedy Gonta faced, because it would mean fully embracing how complicated he is as a character. A lot of people wanted a straightforward: perfect wholesome character was manipulated by an evil villain to kill and faced the consequences, but that's just not what happened. Gonta is a genuinely kind soul and was placed between a rock and a hard place, and whether or not Kokichi had TOLD him... would have been deeply affected by losing another friend, one he thought HE was close with. He lost his memory, not because he was stupid, but because he didn't have the same DOMINANT HAND as everyone else and got his wires mixed up. There's so much to be said about Gonta in chapter 4 but all of it involves a mental confrontation with the fact that he's a human being with free will, who can make both informed decisions and mistakes.

I keep using the word "confront," because that really is what chapter 4 is. Confrontational. Kaito embodies someone who can't handle that confrontation, Shuichi has to cope with the truth and confronting others WITH that truth (including a perpetrator that forgot what he did-), Kokichi has to confront the horrors of the outside world alongside the fact that someone he trusted and worked alongside is planning to kill him, he has to confront the fact that Gonta lost his memory and the fact everyone thinks that Kokichi is just trying to frame his friend, and Gonta has to confront so much of that alongside Kokichi as well as what he, himself did. Something he IS willing to take responsibility for because he recognizes his OWN agency.

(Repeating my thesis like this is a report -) Chapter 4 is incredibly hard to swallow and harder to digest, and because of that gets overshadowed by the following chapters that have a lot more ambiguity and room to pack in as much interpretation as the audience can imagine. There's no fun in wondering how Miu's last moments played out, unlike wondering what REALLY happened in the hangar. Interpretations can be played around with a LOT when it comes to pregame characters, but it's a lot less fun to place blame in a situation full of people who were only trying to defend themselves. To fully appreciate Chapter 4 you have to be open minded to the fact that characters can do "bad" things and it doesn't make them bad people, and that situations can be deeply and blatantly unfair to those you love and those you hate alike.

It's a really complicated chapter, I see you in being obsessed with it, thank you for coming to my Ted talk lol.

(I didnt even know you could send asks this long holy hell!!)

I can see that ch5 and ch6 have a long more areas of wiggle room and ambiguity to play around in. It's no surprise hangar fics are so common. I guess that makes a good deal of sense- the interest in ch4 is less in "What happened that we didnt see" and more the implications of what concretely happened on the characters and their motivations/inner thoughts for doing what they did.

An image I have in my head extremely vividly of trial 4 is Kaito, Shuichi, and Kokichi arguing with eachother (metaphorically with truth bullets- Ideals vs Truth vs Lies (Ive been struggling to think of an art composition along this theme since I finished the damn chapter a year ago ghdsjkf)) with Gonta in the centre in the crossfire. It is a BRUTAL chapter for all of these characters. But within that there is so much to dig into. What was going through Kaito's head as it became increasingly clear Gonta could not be innocent? How did Shuichi deal with his number one support lashing out and rejecting him like he did? What the genuine fuck was going through Kokichi's head?

I'm going to be fully honest here (so I apologize if this is a bit blunt or anything I am trying my best), but I REALLY struggle to grapple with Kokichi's role in ch4 wrt gonta in any type of sympathetic light. With Miu and Kokichi I see the complexity in its entirety. It's heartbreaking to think that those two were friends and Miu chose to target him in her desperation, and Kokichi had to deal with the fact that she was trying to kill him AND with whatever he saw from the truth of the outside world. But when it comes to Gonta.. I almost feel like I can't talk about it objectively. Even just thinking about the trial from that perspective makes my stomach turn in knots. But there is an amount of fun in that yknow?? I cannot tell you how many hours I've spent trying to unravel all that, especially before I played ch5 5 months after I finished trial 4.

The fun and the interest in trial 4 is that its so complex. There's no one complete villain and there's no one true hero, despite what a superficial look at the chapter might tell you (especially pre ch5). Putting these characters in situations where they're so outside of what their standard role in v3 had been so far is so entertaining to me.

Miu asking Kokichi not to struggle as she betrays him (what caused her desperation to get to this point?). Kokichi pushing past being just mischievous and perhaps insensitive to being downright cruel (and what caused the change in his behaviour). Kaito's righteous anger and rejection of Shuichi, his desperation to defend Gonta. (fun fact- they used a sprite for Kaito here that is only used twice in the game AFAIR, once when Gonta is proved without a shadow of a doubt to be guilty, again when he saw the truth of the outside world. It's one of my favourite Kaito sprites). Shuichi having to push through the trial with his only support being Kokichi (which he does not necessarily want) and Kiibo with everyone else against him. The subversion of what Gonta had been saying about himself, and what his classmates had been implying about him the entire time, that he is not stupid, and they've all been brushing him aside because of their own preconceptions, hurting him in the process. It drives me insane. It's so good.

You're so so right, and thank you for this ask. This is the kind of analysis of ch4 that I ADORE.

#pluto answers #I hope I was coherent I think I mightve just been gushing for a bit

[sinfulsachi]

After Heist

Prompt: Aftercare Additional Tags: Dom/Sub, Dirty Talk, Breath Play - Choking Words: 2.1k Fandom: Magic Kaito - KaiAo / KidAo

I dedicate this to @sup-poki, because, well, it’s Poki. :3

.

.

“It’s tonight! Kid is going to steal another gem tonight!”

“Kyaah! Will you come and see him?”

“Of course! I never miss any of my husband’s heists. Ever.”

Aoko gorges the first sip of her morning tea in silence. For that alone she contemplates changing their meetup place to a different cafe. She doesn’t want him to get overly arrogant from the unwarranted compliments, nor she to keep rolling her eyes skyward the rest of their stay. It’s too early to get this cranky.

She looks at her watch. Fifteen minutes until he arrives.

Sighing, Aoko decides to waste her time anyway listening to a conversation she’s long used to but prefers not hearing.

The adjacent fangirls converse about the Kid posters they spent the whole night finishing, the cameras they have charged overnight, where the best view is to watch his entrance...all the boring stuff.

Then, the more solemn lady between the two ponders out loud, “I wonder if Kid has a girlfriend.”

Aoko’s ears perk up.

“And if his girlfriend knows he’s a hot magician thief,” the louder blondie supplemented.

She takes a sip of tea. Yes to both, her mind answers.

“Imagine being fucked by Kid before and after his heists. I’d be sooo jealous.”

Aoko chokes on her drink. 

The two girls were quick to throw her table a wary glance. Pretending to be preoccupied with the morning paper, she holds the print nearer her face and scrunches at the headline.

Safe, Aoko sighs, as her curious spectators let her go. Though for what she supposes is an extra precaution, the rowdy blonde moves her chair so that her back faces her. Aoko snorts inwardly. As if that can save her from her bat ears. Especially not with that scandalous tone.

“What if I make a sign in big bold letters, ‘Kid-sama, I want you to steal my virginity’?”

“Add a please! Beg for it and who knows, he might visit your bedroom after the heist.”

Oh god. At that instant, Aoko thinks of leaving. This isn’t the kind of conversation she wants to hear at nine in the morning. Two rabid fangirls daydreaming about being nailed by an infamous thief, who happens to be her father’s enemy, who happens to be Kaito, who happens to be her...? No, thanks. The disrespect. Her growing indignation. The damage to her brain cells. She’s not in the mood for this.

Aoko stays.

“Do you think Kid fucks hard? Or is he the slow and sensual type?” The rosette asks her other friend dreamily as if she’s asking about innocent middle school crushes. 

“Oh, sister. I bet he’s a rough fucker,” the blonde replies. She leans closer to her friend and looks left and right before continuing in a much lower voice, “My two cents is he ties his girl in bed and dominates her like a champ.” 

Something flashes in Aoko’s brain like a movie clip on a big white projector.

「Still clad in all white, he pinned both of her hands with his gloved one, her chest facing the wall as his other hand roamed her backside and gave her ass a delicious spank.

“Looking forward to this, my dirty little Nakamori-san?” he hissed in her ear, then nipped at the underside of her lobe with those lips that were Kid’s if she wanted, but Kaito’s nonetheless.

“Y-Yes,” she rasped, voice shaking from thrill and anticipation. It’s always after heists that he’s most insatiable.」

Pressing her cup to the seam of her lips, Aoko turns her head away from the conversing girls, in case she fails to hide her growing smirk properly.

Well, her one cent isn’t wrong.

“Oh? But I think he’s a pure gentleman in bed,” the rosette opines. “You know, always asks his girl what she wants then he’ll give it to her and more.” She squeals dreamily again.

Aoko bites her inner cheeks.

「They made it to her bed, losing clothes piece by piece as they moved. He climbed above her, and Aoko wrapped her arms around his sweaty shoulders, her fingertips exploring his chiseled back muscles for new scars. His mouth traveled her neck down her sternum, and he gave her cute little mounds gentle flicks with his palm, before taking an erect nipple between his teeth.

“Where do you want me tonight?” he asked, muffled, kissing between her breasts.

“Please... on top and inside me.”

She felt him smirk on her chest. “As you wish, milady.”」

Aoko tips her head down, staring at the ground with a funny smile on her face. Hah. She isn’t wrong either.

“Mm, that may be so, but! Hear this—” the girl scoots closer to the other, ignoring the fact that her voice becomes much more audible from that angle, “I think we can agree on one thing. Kid would be sooo discreet while he screws you. So hot, right?” 

Aoko can practically hear the thirst bleeding out of the blonde’s voice. She hates it. Partly because no other woman should be fantasizing about him like that, and partly because the thirst reminds her of her own.

Discreet, they say?

「It wasn’t the echoes of distant police sirens and helicopter rotors that kept her heart pumping erratically in her chest. It was the fact that the man above her was the fugitive they were searching for, and the man instead of hiding in a safer place, chose to be in her room...

“If Nakamori-keibu knew I was doing this to his daughter, he’d figure out exactly where to search...but he doesn’t, does he?” Aoko shook her head, eyes unstably fluttering as he pounded her aggressively.

...Instead of retiring for the night, chose to land on her balcony, stealthy, as he’d done twice or thrice before...

“H-Harder,” she panted, knees trembling from the force of his body tunneling in and out of her.

"Like this?” He rammed her twice the force up the hilt and her walls clenched around him, wet and tight. 

“Like that, y-yes!”

...Instead of changing first to civilian attire, chose to hold her, kiss her, and fuck her then and there.

“Yeah?” Not stopping his rhythm, his hand pinned one of her wrists on the sheets, while the other crept up her petite neck, gripped her under the jaw and gave a tender squeeze, and her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’ as he elicited from her a hot sound between a whimper and a moan. The same hand angled her tearful face up, meeting his hooded gaze, “Always ready to be choked like the naughty Nakamori-san I know, hm?”

An intense shudder ran through her spine; her mouth was so wet yet so dry, and his hand lacing her neck trapped all the words in her throat. Heady eyes still set on him, she nodded, frantic, ecstatic.

"Say it, say you love this,” he ordered, slightly loosening his grip to allow her to speak but not stopping his merciless pounding below.

“Y-Yes, s...so much...” she managed to croak.

Smirking lecherously, he leaned down to kiss the sweat and tears on her cheeks. “Very good girl.”」

Aoko bites her lip and presses her thighs together. No, she shouldn’t be feeling this pulsing ache between her legs at nine in the morning.

“But you know what the sad part is?” 

“What?”

“That Kid will probably leave you out in the cold after the deed. Poof. Just like that. No trace whatsoever. I mean,” the blonde shrugs, “magician, and thief.” 

“I’m fine even with that... like, that’s where we’re getting the appeal right? The mystery? As long as he doesn’t erase my memory of our love making, I’m good,” the rosette replies, and Aoko from a table away cannot believe her ears.

Clearly these girls are in it just for the thrill of the sex. Sex with the mysterious magician thief. That’s not what she’s here for and that’s what makes her different.

「“Ahh, Ka-Kai...nnh!”

Orgasmic moans filled the room as his hot essence flooded her. He continued to thrust, shooting thick spurts while Aoko writhed on the sheets, cries distorted by a thumb in her mouth. Like the tears trickling down her face, fluids oozed out her entrance down the sheets even when he hadn’t yet pulled out. The wet warmth drowned her entire body in delirious pleasure. Same with him as she felt him throb inside, cock up for more action.

They could still handle more.

Which she understood if he wouldn’t do, because his attire was still on the floor and the rotor sounds remained audible. He ought to hide soon.

But he flipped her so she was straddling him, both still connected at the hip.

“Ride me, Aoko.” It wasn’t an order; his eyes were begging. “I missed you so much.”

Her heart leapt because this was her favorite part, and he was giving it to her again. The second was much more sacred, just she and he, no alter persona. She bucked a pace, slow, going fast, lewd wet sounds interplaying with their soft grunts and moans, his nails digging her hips and hers his clavicle until for the second time she rutted on him and he in her.

She collapsed, chest wheezing, ear pressed over his drumming heart. His fingers ran up and down her spine, calming her. The sirens and rotors faded away and their inhales and exhales became much more prominent.

She felt soft kisses on top of her unruly hair.

“Not the gem you’re looking for?” she murmured on his skin after some time.

“Not the gem I’m looking for.” His hand massaged her scalp. The Kid tone was long gone; she was talking to a Kaito doing a job for his late father. That was how she had always viewed it.

“Did it hurt when I...?” he asked. Aoko smiled.

“Not as much as the wound on your back,” she answered.

“Pfft, ‘s nothing. Just a minor slip when I was hurrying here.” They both giggled.

“Please go home and fix yourself... or else Aoko will call their attention to you.” She looked up and met his tired blue eyes. His aftercares after heists were the best.

“No you wouldn’t,” he grinned, kissed her forehead.

“Yes, Aoko would.” She raised a taunting brow.

“Will you hide me under your bed?”

"No.”

“Aww, c’mon Nakamori-saaaan.”

She gigglesnorted. “Shut it or else Aoko will really expose you."」

She doesn’t hear the outward snort she makes. Nor the recent arrival of the person who has taken the seat across her.

“Warui, Aoko!” Kaito’s palms are pressed together in front of his bowed head. “Jii-chan and I had to handle some last-minute preparations. Sorry!”

“No problem.”

Kaito lags. “...No problem?”

“Aoko isn’t mad.”

His eyes widen in surprise. “You’re not mad...?”

“Actually Aoko is...” she trails off, noticing the noise of the two girls die down as their eyes rake Kaito’s side profile. The blonde whispers something to her friend, leering eyes still planted on the man. She doesn’t need to hear to know what they’re talking about.

She cannot fault them for thirsting over an infamous ‘bachelor’ magician thief everybody in Japan knows. But try thirsting over another girl’s man and who knows what she’ll do.

“Actually Aoko’s thinking if she should just meet Kaito in his house...” She tinkers with the empty cup in front of her. “But since he’s already here, she’ll just pull him with her back."

“What do you mean?” 

"After those preparations with Jii-chan, Kaito may want some warm-up...”

"Warm-up?” His brows crinkle, but Aoko’s two fingers tiptoe up his hand that is on the table, and they smoothen eventually upon realization. “Oh.” 

“...Think it’s a bad idea? Before heist?” She bites her lip.

“Gods, no,” smirking, he encloses her two fingers around an iron grip, and, very slowly, makes one pumping movement with his fist, “I may in fact, need some intense warm-up before the main event tonight,” he says in a low voice, and Aoko giggles. 

“Stop that, someone might see us.” 

He grins haughtily. “You suggested it.”

“No it wasn’t Aoko. It’s them.”

“Them?”

Aoko stands upright, pulls her bag and Kaito’s hand. “Nothing of interest,” she laughs, “Let’s go?”

“Wow, aren’t you in a hurry,” Kaito’s sneer is as wide as a Cheshire cat’s, but not as wide as Aoko’s when they pass by the two girls’ table. She feels their eyes follow them as they exit the shop, and Aoko knows it’s bad to gloat but right now she’s as good as winning a lottery. The man they are eyecandying and the phantom thief they are dreaming of screwing? Both men are about to do to her - and only to her - what they’ve been fantasizing.

Later, and tonight. 

#pwp #dcmk pairing: kaiao #my writing #very late kinktober prompt so I'm not going to tag it anymore

[tsuki-sennin]

rare tsuki-sennin double recap

Saber Special Episode

-Not even being from another franchise can stop the reach of the ever-expanding Tojitendo, apparently. I'm sure Bokkowaus and Gege have a massive target on them.

-I love the Tanabata reenactment. I appreciate the crossdressing angle, it's fun and it's a great callback to the Tom Sawyer and Momotaro scenes.

-Zox overstepping those interdimensional boundaries again. He really is a Marvelous fanboy.

-It seems Twokaizer brought his absurdist humor with him. Not much to add, it's just really funny.

-Toei, Bandai, you absolute cowards, give Kento a new form already! It's Yua all over again. I swear to god, Revice's third Rider is gonna have like... one form and barely fight all that much, maximum. I'll gladly wait until the Espada V-Cinema! Hell, it can just be Espada x Necrom, just give him something!

-The design of Orihime Warudo is pretty good. Zenkaiger's monster designs in general have been generally scoring pretty highly, but nothing's topped the perfection that is Jishaku Warudo yet. I think this imagining of Orihime being so bitter that they'd make random couples fight and break up is also really freaking funny.

-Oh Reika, how the mighty have fallen. Kanon is in need of some company, I guess. I hope the fanfic writers like you enough to give you what you deserve. And I hope that Onii-sama develops a personality quick, we have like... one episode left.

-So, I assume that Storious is either busy having a dentist appointment or auditioning for the movie? I'm guessing it takes place a bit earlier in the plot, probably around Ep. 40, and I know these specials have loose continuity anyway, but it's so weird going from losing Desast to YOHOHOI to THE WORLD IS GONNA DIE, FUCK YOU SWORDSMEN!

--

Zenkaiger Special Episode

-Y'know, I kinda understand why Orihime Warudo was acting so bitter, Hikoboshi Warudo's a real dick. Chasing women when his beloved neighbor's out of season on behalf of the Tojitendo. He's not even doing his job right, the pig. Apparently he also chose not to take away the Noroshi and Konchuu Daihyakka Book? Yeah, no wonder Ijirude's so mad at him.

-Y'know, if Kaito and Magine really wanted to celebrate Tanabata twice in the same summer, they could wait a few weeks and make a three hour drive to Sendai on August 8th, which I hear is when they celebrate it. August 14th seems to be a little too long a wait.

-Oh Secchan, you're annoying and adorable~! I can't stay mad at your exposition for too long~! I understand why Bokkowaus dotes on Gege so much~!

-I guess Stacey's currently hanging out with Storious and the rest of the Northern Base Riders in the Not-Immediately-Marketable-Zone. Poor kid, at least give him a candy bar.

-Super Twokaizer looks way too freakin' cool. Good on Flint, she's a fun and interesting gal of fine aesthetical taste and exceptional engineering talent.

-The Kamen Rider Gears are interesting. Definitely not canon, but they're a fun little addition.

-Meanwhile Reika and Ryoga continue the Shindai family tradition of looking cool and displaying identifiable personality only when it's irrelevant to Saber. Goddammit Fukuda, I wanted to like you so much... Ah well, at least their fights were cool. ...well, Ryoga's anyway, Reika kinda got unfairly shafted this episode. Again. In a different series, no less. Good GOD, guys, why do you hate your extra Riders so much? ...her hugging Magine was nice though, that was cute. Ryoga also rocked that dress, ngl.

Looking forward to when I finally get to watch Super Hero Senki. Asmodeus looks sick, btw.

If I see any jokes about the premise of Episode 22, I'm going to shit a house.

#zenkaiger #kikai sentai zenkaiger #kamen rider saber #kamen rider saber spoilers #zenkaiger spoilers #saber spoilers #kikai sentai zenkaiger spoilers #super sentai #kamen rider

[dreamautonomy]

Thank you, thank you for the tag @fanarain. I took my time with this. I swear, I got to find a tag game to share with my followers and those I follow. @dreamautonomy needs more love and activity. 😭

I will answer questions about @dreamautonomy (my main that’s not officially a main) and @defectiveconantoy (my more popular Tumblr).

1. Why did you choose your url? I came up with the name Dream Autonomy waaaaay back in 2008. At the time, I was inspired by Kazimierz Dąbrowski's theory of positive disintegration (TPD), where he explained that one must go through anxiety and psychological tension to achieve autonomy and true individuality. In my teens, I dreamt of independence and autonomy, to live on my own terms and break away from society’s rat race. I still do to this day.

For my DCMK stuff, I’ve considered the name Conanology, but someone on Twitter took it. I wanted something witty. Then, I stumbled upon that Reddit post with the counterfeit Conan and Ayumi action figures. They looked so ridiculous and badly made it’s almost a joke. The thread’s first comment: perfect as a funny username. Unfortunately, defectiveconan was already taken here, so I settled with defectiveconantoy (also nicknamed by me as DFCT - DeFective Conan Toy) instead.

2. Any side blogs? @relaxwithanime because there’s a lot of relaxing anime, and I want to showcase relaxing anime scenes. @sillydogpictures, which has no posts. I wanted to show pictures of dogs with intentionally or unintentionally silly faces. 🐶

3. How long have you been on tumblr? It’s complicated! I began lurking back in 2010 or 2011 but didn’t create an account until 2014 with the original dreamautonomy, now the defunct @olddreamautonomy. I never used it until mid or late 2020.

I made @defectiveconantoy back in October 2020 because I considered participating in the DCMK Secret Santa event. I eventually decided not to, as I was busy with school and coping with the pandemic. I didn’t need more deadlines then.

4. Do you have a queue tag? Nope! I should make one once I learn how.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? I planned to use @dreamautonomy as a creative blog for posting photography, graphic design, food and travel stuff, motivational stuff, and more. Never happened!

DFCT was made for Detective Conan and Magic Kaito fandom stuff, nothing else.

Stupid me made @defectiveconantoy a completely separate account, even after realizing minutes later that I could have made it a side blog. Oh well! I mostly use Tumblr for fandom stuff nowadays, so I deleted my old Dream account and made a new account as a side blog under @defectiveconantoy. Now, I no longer have to use different apps and browsers for both blogs. Life is good!

6 . Why did you choose your icon/pfp? For Dream, I chose Retsuko from Aggretsuko. That scene wonderfully represents the agony of one’s twenties: working miserable jobs, not being taken seriously, and wishing life was more fulfilling than the average adult life. There she is being “one of us” on a Sunday by lying in bed and scratching her butt. 😂

And for DFCT, how could I not post action Conan from The Fist of Blue Sapphire with the counterfeit action figure’s head replacing the original Conan’s head? 🤣

7. Why did you choose your header? For Dream, because Retsuko’s bouncing her little tail off. For DFCT, because Ran is precious in that scene, all soft and shy.

8. What's your post with the most notes? @defectiveconantoy’s set of GIFs from the Ferris Wheel scene in the Episode ONE special. And that’s my original post. I’ve reblogged even more popular stuff by others.

9. How many mutuals do you have? About a dozen.

10. How many followers do you have? @dreamautonomy: 9 (Most are p*rn bots I’ve reported for spam and blocked. Have no idea WTF I did to attract them.). @defectiveconantoy: 175!! 😁

11. How many people do you follow? 72!

12. Have you ever made a shitpost? I don’t know. I think I only post relevant memes.

Here am I typing this after spending years confusing shitposts with really funny, sometimes offensive memes. I’m still confused about the meaning of a shitpost. I’m not very trend or meme savvy.

13. How often do you use tumblr each day? About 10-20 times a day, usually through my phone app.

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? Over ten years ago on websites that Tumblr, Twitter, etc. long replaced in popularity. Even then, I’ve usually been a lurker for most of my life and rarely engaged in arguments or debates. Whenever I did, I regret it to this day. I looked stupid (everyone did, actually). What a waste of time!

I wish I hadn’t forgotten about Detective Conan back in 2004. The DCMK Tumblr fandom is chill and AWESOME! I wonder what the fandom was like back in the 2000s.

15. How do you feel about "you need to reblog this" posts? Ehh…it depends. If it’s something most or everyone agrees with, I might reblog it. I don’t know about you, but such posts often bring the rebel in me. If you say, “REBLOG IT,” I say, “Ehh! Nope.” 😋 Anyway, life is short. I’d rather stick to fandom and humor, things that unite people and make them smile.

16. Do you like tag games? Of course! That’s how I get to know everyone. I should initiate tag games and tag all of you.

17. Do you like ask games? YES! I should start ask games as well.

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is [tumblr] famous? We interrupt this program to give mad props to that nicely formatted Tumblr logo-fied text. 👌

Aaaanyway, I won’t name names. Some are Tumblr famous for different reasons, and that’s what matters. We all contribute different things while being under the same main fandom, ships, arcs, and adaptations aside.

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? No! Why ruin this nice little Tumblr space for drama? It’s not worth having a crush on people you’ve never met face-to-face imo. I’m not repeating my teenage mistakes.

20. Tags: anyone happy to participate! 😁

#tag game

[magicflowershop]

❁ every 12.30 pm

➳ timeskip!sugawara x reader oneshot

➵ fluff, heart-warming, cute kids

✿ you found a cute teacher in your niece’s school, so maybe picking up a kid from school everyday isn’t such a bad idea.

❀ // hi! i’ve been gone for so long and finally i finished this after weeks of letting it rot in my drafts,, i don’t wanna delete this bc it feels like i’ll foresaken my angel Suga so here i hope you all enjoy my first oneshot :>

word count // 3,257

of all days, you picked this day as the day to slack off.

there was no reason to doll up, you reasoned. this was your rest day. no plans were made and no places you needed to go, so you went and picked up your sister’s kid wearing your house clothes.

no biggie. a few blocks distance wouldn’t hurt your sense of insecurity. a kindergartener’s teacher also wouldn’t possibly judge how you look when you’re only out to pick a kid up from school.

today, however, was different.

everything became instinct. your fingers went up the center of your jacket, to zip it up entirely. your hands then reached down to your sweatpants, checking if you were wearing it the right way. to your hair, if there are hair strands that are where they’re supposed to be. everything became instinct so you don’t look so much like a mess

in front of this fine preschool teacher.

“i’m Futaba’s guardian.”

your throat let out the softest, shyest voice you could ever project. you found yourself shamelessly, and instinctively, acting cute in front of this fine preschool teacher. 

how else were you supposed to react? his beautiful gray hair enticed you, with a fringe softly parted on the center of his forehead. his porcelain skin that put Snow White to shame, his round, brown eyes that reflected every star in the galaxy, and his smile that could win a boxing match against the sun. not to mention, the mole under his left eye definitely hit the mark.

“good afternoon, Futaba’s guardian-san.”

hearing his voice for the first time, you’re decided. it was a crush.

perhaps it was superficial of you. you claim to fall for a guy you don’t know only for the fact you found him cute. you thought looking at him, admiring him like this was enough however when his angelic smile brightened at the sight of the children waving bye-bye to him and him waving bye-bye back. when he went down on one knee in front of your sister’s daughter, politely asking her she has to stop playing with her classmates because you have come to bring her home. when Futaba spread her arms and wrapped them around his neck, telling him a lispy see you tomorrow.

how dare you face someone like him looking like this.

on the way home, you were dead-set on asking your sister to let you bring your niece home every schoolday. seeing him once was not enough. something about him gravitated you to wanting to see more of him.

you remember the name written on his nametag when you caught the last glimpse of him. 

“Sugawara”

his name reminded you of grass fields, as it is what it meant. it was perfect for him. the aura he emitted was rather calming. people must like having him around for he’s a breath of fresh air. he really was a perfect kindergarten teacher.

“how was school, Futaba?”

your niece skipped as she walked, visibly excited to talk about her day. “it was really fun! my classmates and i had a tea party earlier! Futaba almost spilled the cup because it was too hot.”

“what about your teachers?” you wanted to smack yourself for squeezing information about a guy from your 5-year-old niece. it is a desperate move however, which else choice do you have?

“ah! Sugawara-sensei read us a beanstalk story before nappy time.” Futaba put a finger on her chin as if to think about what else happened. she had no idea how hooked she got you to listen to her story. “then, then Sugawara-sensei helped Futaba with her clay family!”

you then considered yourself lucky.

“do you like Sugawara-sensei?”

and pushed the topic about the man further, seeing the sparkles in your niece’s eyes and how she skipped even happier. “yes! yes! Futaba’s favorite teacher is Sugawara-sensei,” she declared and continued shyly. “he helped Futaba talk to her crush Kaito-kun.”

when you said you were dead-set, you are dead-set for real. what’s there to lose? kids love him, including your own niece. he’s beautiful. he has a gentle voice. he probably smells like daisies. you just have to befriend him and get to know about him some more before introducing him to your parents-

as a friend. 

right?

“for what? did you find a cute guy there or something?”

it sucked your sister knew you too well.

that day, you invited yourself in your sister’s room the second she got home from work. the sly yet desperate move visibly annoyed the older so much that she knew you had something up your sleeve to even dare show up in her room.

“no. just that, it’s a good way to take breaks from the café. plus, i get to hang out with Futaba.” you explained as simply as you could, even though your sister literally can see right through your lies.

she hummed and replied with, “you never get out of the house unless it’s absolutely necessary. when i asked you to take Futaba home from school yesterday, you hated it because your break time from café is ruined. please. find someone else to fool, y/n.”

you soon admit that you truly are dumb. that, however, did not stop you from redeeming yourself to your sister; that being telling the truth and not exactly redeeming anything. you told her the man you set your eyes on in Futaba’s school. you jokingly told her it was love at first sight even though you never believed of something as ridiculous as such.

besides, your sister has no room to reject. you aimed at two birds with one stone. not only do you get to see more of the guy, but you will do your sister a favor of taking care of her daughter for free.

she sighed, finding no way to deny this. “i hate to say it but your timing is too good. i was thinking of finding a babysitter for Futaba since both of us are busy. but if you insist, who am i to decline?”

so this side job began the following day. 

thirty minutes spared during your break before you engage yourself to war. you decided to spend those thirty minutes to rearrange yourself. you would rather not switch into your house clothes like you did yesterday, would you? this time, you chose carefully. you didn’t want to look like a floor rag but you didn’t want to look like you went there to go on a date either. even to contemplate whether or not you must add a little more blush on your cheeks to look lively.

you changed into a casual fit. a plain shirt, denim shorts and a pair of slip-on sandals. it was an attempt to not look like you were trying too hard. not with those clean ponytail and tinted lips.

“good afternoon, i’m Futaba’s guardian.” you told yourself a good job that you remembered to greet today.

but Sugawara wasn’t the one you directed that to. 

he wasn’t around. you sneaked glances left and right to see if he was playing together with the other kids, but alas.

you walked home with Futaba, holding her hand. you try to match the child’s mood as she was very elated to talk about her day. on the other hand, you; Sugawara could have been busy. you can still see him again the following day.

the following days, you lessened your get up from your first attempt. he was present, but the greetings were the same as first day you met.

what the hell are you supposed to do now? do you start conversations? well, of course, you told yourself, since you’re the one who wants something from him. but how? what should you talk about? your day? his day? the kids? his job? what?

“thank you for taking care of Futaba.”

“hm? it is my job though.”

there goes your little motivation to initiate conversations with people you’re interested in. 

you hear him chuckle at you, which added to the embarrassment you had from your statement alone. 

today was parents’ day. the kids were asked to bring their parents to school to have a little meeting with the rest of the class. it worried you that Futaba only had you as her guardian to go with her, not her mother, but you see the kid in her high spirits since this morning you didn’t want to ruin that for her and apologize on her mother’s behalf.

you think this as you lean against the wall at the corner, until you notice Sugawara stood beside you. so much so, you spoke absent-mindedly.

you should have kept your mouth shut.

“is Futaba’s mother doing okay? we haven’t seen her since a week ago.”

or maybe you don’t have to keep your mouth shut after all. you turned to him, stunned. like, goodness, he’s starting a topic with you himself. how can you not be stunned.

“o sorry. is it a sensitive topic? i’m sorry-”

“no!” you said audibly. too audibly. you clamped your mouth, worried if you took the children’s attention away from the kids who are presenting in front. you continued in a whisper, while he still chuckled at you, “Futaba’s mom recently switched work schedules that clashes together with the kid’s school. she wasn’t allowed to take a leave today, so i’m here in her place.”

geez, were you talking too much?

“i see.”

you probably were talking too much.

“you two are siblings, no?”

“uh, yeah. we are.”

he nodded to himself, turning to the kids presenting again. a silent heave of relief escaped you while you leaned comfortably against the wall again. guess that was enough interaction for the day.

“i guess, we’ll keep seeing Futaba’s guardian-san from now on.” he gave you a gentle smile, leaning a bit closer to you from the half-feet distance.

“you don’t have to keep calling me that.”

“my apologies. what should i call you?”

“y/n.”

“y/n-san then.”

he gave you one last boyish smile before walking off to his station.

hold up.

did he just come here to ask for your name? did he trick you into telling him your name?

you and Futaba went home happily. literally, the both of you had a great day in school. here, you were giggling like a kid who just got noticed by her crush. but you could be wrong. it’s only natural of a teacher to learn one of his student’s  guardian’s name. he cannot be interested in you. 

on the other hand, he did start a conversation with you.

don’t get ahead of yourself, you thought. you cannot help but still think about it.

the traffic lights flashed a green color.

days went on. you stayed as the one bringing your niece home safely every afternoon while the mother is busy. the relationship and trust you built with the child strengthened. your heart swell each time you see her jumping in joy whenever you show up after school. when you thought that alone will bring you happiness everyday, Sugawara greets you everyday with the same boyish smile.

each day pass, soon you become close friends. this made Futaba happy as you two are two of her favorite people.

until one day, the teacher called saying Futaba got sick.

worry engulfed you. you wondered what could’ve happened for the child to get sick, when she was fine earlier before her and her mother left together. could your sister not have noticed? or did it happen during school? more and more questions took shape as you frantically closed the café and ran to the school.

you rushed inside the nurse’s office, panting profusely. your eyes first caught your niece lying on the bed unconscious, and Sugawara sitting by the bed, placing a damp towel on her forehead.

“good morning, I’m Futaba’s guardian.”

Futaba’s teacher explained the situation to you. the kids were outside playing in the playground when Sugawara saw Futaba drenched in one hidden part of the garden. you see another kid standing beside the teacher. the kid gripped the hem of his shirt tightly as if he wanted to rip it off. the scowl on his face says enough of why he was here.

“i didn’t do it.”

the teacher continued, “ever since parent’s day, apparently some students have been picking on Futaba for not having her mother around.

“i’m terribly sorry. i’ve helped Futaba in ways i can. even i wanted to call you for this, but when i told Futaba i will, she begged me not to tell you because you and her mother are both busy with work.” she nudged the kid beside her, “isn’t there something you need to tell Futaba’s guardian?”

the kid averted his eyes. you figured there was no reason squeezing an apology from stubborn children like him. you kneeled before the kid to be at the same level as his eyes.

“what’s your name?”

he spent a few seconds quivering his lips before speaking, “Sora.”

“Sora,” you held his shoulder gently, looking into his eyes. “you’re very lucky to always have your mother by your side.”

tears formed in his innocent eyes.

you went on. “always remember to tell your mom that you love her, long as you still have her around, so she will stay. okay?” you finished, smiling at him as bright as you could.

Sora erupted into tears, storming off out of the nurse’s office and yelling his apology.

kids.

“i’m sorry i didn’t mean to make him cry.” you reasoned, when you know full well you did it on purpose to put that kid into a guilt trip for messing with your niece like this. the teacher said it was fine, that she could’ve done it the same thing but a different way.

ignoring that, you turned to Sugawara, who you forgot was there the whole time, “i’m sorry for the trouble. i’ll be taking her home now.”

“i can help you bring her home.” 

Sugawara stood up from his seat. this startles you because you also forgot you had a crush on him. you try to decline his offer, reasoning that your house is nearby and that you can carry a kid no problem.

but the Futaba’s teacher helped insist, “Sugawara-sensei should help you look after Futaba… uh, y/n-san was it?” you nodded, dubiously. “it was also said by Futaba that you’re working alone in your house with no one to help you. so please.”

you couldn’t decline when you saw Sugawara already carrying the kid behind his back. so you went home together with him, big deal. you felt embarrassed after getting your background get found out like that. guess Futaba is too honest of a kid, but not honest enough to tell her family that she was bullied at school.

“here will do.”

the two of you finally stood in front of your father’s café. the walk was silent, but you believed it was enough interaction for the day once more.

“you weren’t kidding when you say it was nearby, huh?” he said, looking through the glass windows.

“well. yeah.”

“that’s too bad,” he says, still carrying the kid on his back. he looks back to you. the smile appears again, “aren’t you going to open the door?”

you unlocked the doors. then, it hit you. what did he mean by too bad?

after taking Futaba up to her room and tucking her in bed, you went back down to the café where you found Sugawara idling about. “you can rest yourself on one of the booths. let me brew a drink for you.” you took your apron and hurried behind the counter. meanwhile, the man stood up perhaps wanting to leave. 

“oh, you don’t have to make me a drink. i should be leaving.”

this confused you. really, what was that too bad for?

“you went all the way to our café. it’s only natural i made a drink for you.” you try and justify yourself. also, you already pressed the espresso machine. there’s no reason to waste a cup of espresso.

“if so, must i stay?”

this was the second to the last straw.

you stood there, one hand holding the ice scooper and the other holding a grande-sized cup, while staring at him straight into his bright eyes. those orbs must be telling you something. there should be a secret hiding within those eyes. for example, an answer to his question. 

“do you want to stay?” you first broke the gaze.

“i’m the one asking you, y/n,” he said with a chuckle. 

once again, you hesitated. “sure.”

the café flooded with silence while you made an iced latte for him. you trailed your gaze to the top of his head as he sat on one of the booths. concerns arise from the pit of your mind. nothing seemed to be happening. then, what is he here for? if he stayed, what will happen? is this all on purpose? should you put your guards up? 

are the green lights alit again?

you put the iced latte on his table when he spoke. “i’m quite worried about Futaba with what happened to her.”

“well, she did a good job hiding the truth from us.” you say as you sat across him. “she’s a strong kid. i’m more worried if she will continue hiding her pain from the people who care about her.”

maybe you shouldn’t start such a touchy subject like this, yea? Sugawara landed his eyes at you but you avoided it and stood up. you have no idea what’s going on. if anything, this is not the right context of when something will develop. both of you just brought home a sick kid, for Pete’s sake. must you really take advantage of this?

“anyway, i’ll tell my sister what happened. she can help Futaba better than i-”

“i wonder if i’ll still see you every afternoon.”

his honesty astounded you. Sugawara’s pale face flushed from shame. guess he didn’t mean to say that. this means, if you weren’t getting ahead of yourself again, it’s how he actually feels.

you tried to lessen his embarrassment, “of course you will, who else will pick Futaba up from school?” so you played dumb.

“if your sister knew about the situation, she might switch her schedule.”

what was he trying to say?

“she can’t do that easily, you know.”

“there will still be a possibility.” he rested his chin on his palm, smiling at you, “which reminds me, i have been looking for a part-time job around here. is your café looking for more workers?”

“you wanna work here?” you ask as you went and flip the sign to open, since you’re already back for work.

“sure,” he picked himself up from the booth and walked towards you. “but i think i should follow someone’s footsteps first and make an impression. you know, you’re going to be my boss. i should meet you with casual clothes, not with a track jacket, sweat pants and unkept hair. what do you think?”

you flipped the sign to close. “are you mocking someone here?”

he tried to not make himself laugh at you. “i’m just saying i shouldn’t half-ass it if i’m looking for another job, y/n.”

“doesn’t sound like you’re actually looking for another job though?” 

“i’m not,” he admitted. “i’m only looking for a reason to see you more. every 12.30 pm isn’t enough.”

the traffic lights said go. it is now 12.31 pm.

#walk in my garden #flirty suga is canon for me #watch me flourish this hc #haikyuu!! #haikyuu #haikyuu!! drabbles #haikyuu!! smau #haikyuu!! imagines #haikyuu!! headcanons #haikyuu!! x reader #sugawara #sugawara koushi #koushi sugawara #sugawara x reader #sugawara x y/n #karasuno

[konpithepuppy]

[TRANSLATION: anan No. 2231; 12.2020]

7 MEN SAMURAI SOLO INTERVIEW + MESSAGE + CROSS TALK

Scans not mine

Neither an English nor a Japanese native speaker

Feel free to correct me, thanks

7 MEN 侍

Dignified and Bold

7 MEN 侍's long-awaited first appearance on anan. Experiencing a turbulent 2020, these 6 people are pursuing a new entertainment. Challenging the stage play 「DREAM BOYS」, looked closer at their real selves.

Nakamura Reia

I like to make each of my choices the correct answer.

I was originally a kid who skateboards wearing a cap over a long hair and loose jeans. That's why I didn't have interest in being an idol, rather, I thought that having a neat appearance was lame. But, when I unwillingly went to the audition, I was selected to be a member of Snow Prince choir so I couldn't quit...My awareness changed when I started working as Sexy Boyz with Kishi (Yuta) and Jinguji (Yuta). It was different from my lenient and care-free self, I am positive and had the desire to improve myself with my works, I really got motivated. During the time when Sexy Zone who is close to me also debuted, I am the only one who didn't feel impatient or frustrated, rather, I felt "yabai". Since then, I started to think to do my best to be an idol seriously.

I am happy that Johnny-san chose me to be the center of 7 MEN 侍, but I am not the type who pulls everyone, the other 5 members have better skills than I am, they are also reliable, and on the contrary, I am being supported by them. It's just that, only my mental strength is strong. I totally don't care about things like criticisms from the society. Something like it is better to say bad things about me rather than attacking the other members. Because more than those criticisms, the fans are telling me that they like me. Or rather, this toughness might be my unique talent (LOL).

Since I came to like acting because of「Koi no Yamai to Yarougumi」, I want to try playing NG guy who has an older girl as the partner kind of role like「Himemon」or 「Kimi wa Petto」.

Is becoming an idol my fate...? But after all, everything is from the choices that I made by myself. I decided to go to the audition, I was taught by Johnny-san about how wonderful to be an idol, and I've continued being an idol up to now. From now on too, I would like to make each of my choices the correct answer.

Q. To have the luck on your side, do you have your own ritual?

Before the live, with the meaning of "please look over us", I talk to the photo of Johnny-san that is placed in the backstage room, I also put my hands together. I am the type who is moderately nervous but I don't hate that feeling of being encouraged.

Motodaka Katsuki

It seems that the feeling of home when the 6 of us gathers is very valuable.

I started singing, dancing, and playing on stage when I entered Johnny's. But, being completely absorbed in an instant than being skillful is my strength. But, with the keyboard I am in-charge of, my experience playing the piano since I was 3 years old was put into use. At that time, I really didn't like playing the piano. It was like that but I got the sense of perfect pitch. I am thankful to my parents to let me, who hates playing piano, attend the class.

I am attending college now but during my high school, I got a lot of advices from Snow Man's Abe (Ryohei)-kun. Since I have been chasing him on his back for a long time, I have been encouraged on how he flapped big his wings as Snow Man. Honestly, 3 months before the first concert as 7 MEN 侍, I wanted to see the world from the different point of view so I planned to study abroad in New York. At that time, I once again tried to think about this job. And then, I realized that I grew to love this job. The good sides and the bad sides, as a human being evaluated directly, there's a sense of accomplishment in here. That's why, studying abroad became not necessary for me until I take a break from the work that I love.

This year, I had a lot of chances to be in quiz shows alone, and I thought "Is being not with the members this disheartening?"...To that extent, I can feel that the feeling of home when going back to 7 MEN 侍 is very important. The members often tease me, but since I am not a talkative and interesting type of person, I become happy too when I made them laugh when they tease me. But behind the scenes, the members are relying on me and I often receive personal consultations too. 7 MEN 侍 who is in the process of exploring it's form, now and from now on too, I want to support everyone. And in the year 2021, even if we encounter struggles, this may be the year where we can have a firm grip to make great strides!

Q. To have the luck on your side, do you have your own ritual?

This is just my own value but I don't believe in luck. Everything is result of my own decision and it is my own responsibility. I don't want to blame "luck", and I also don't want to think that what happened is thanks to "luck". Suppose there is luck, pulling that luck towards yourself is a great deal of effort.

Sugeta Rinne

An idol is a wonderful job that has the charm to inspire people's hearts.

When I was an elementary student, I went to Hey!Say!JUMP-san's live and when I saw a girl who is in front of Yamada (Ryosuke)-kun cry and laugh, I thought that an idol is a wonderful job that has the charm to inspire people's hearts. Rinne also wants to be like that so Rinne uploaded everyday in ISLAND TV during stay home. I had worries like, "Won't they get tired of me?" but it turned to "I am sure the fans are happy with this, right?"

Rinne's special skills are acrobatics and sports, and I was able to appear in shows like 「Honoo-no Taiiku-kai TV」や「SASUKE」. For me, I think a person who is athletic is cool, and since you will want to support a person who is working hard, from now one too, I want to appeal as a Johnny's who can do sports. It would be nice if I can also appear in 「Run for Money」this 2021.

The senior that I admired is Ueda Tatsuya-kun. There was a time during a race in 「Honoo-no Taiiku-kai TV」, I showed off to hype up the audience and my time got slower. During that time, I really got scolded by Ueda-kun saying, "You can't win like that." Since that was the first time I got scolded throughout my Johnny's life, I think a senior who can properly scold his juniors is cool.

In 2020, I got 1 million yen when I guested in 「Quiz! Only 1」, I think Rinne is a guy who can grab luck. Before, when the my previous unit was gone, it felt like I have lost my chance...Given that I thought of quitting Johnny's if I am not going to be put in a group until 2020, I am so glad that I went to talk directly to Johnny-san. Since I now have a group original song and individual job, I think this is really the time to give my all.

Q. To have the luck on your side, do you have a ritual that only you doTo have the luck on your side, do you have your own ritual?

Before the actual show, I watch videos of my senior's lives starting with Hey!Say!JUMP-san's. Since I think having a proper image of "idol" as " a work to make people happy", I can do a better performance.

Sasaki Taiko

The 6 of us, even though we are late bloomers, I believe that we can definitely bloom.

The one who opened my path to Johnny's is Takahashi Kaito-kun. I also sent my resume when I heard that Kaito-kun who I thought cool when I saw him in a dance contest. With that, now that I am working as the same Johnny's, this is an amazing fate! I talk about music with Sato Shori-kun who likes the same band as mine, and I also receive dishes that he makes. Kishi (Yuta)-kun who Shori-kun is good friend with, took me to a his favorite soba stall saying, "It's a delicious shop." Since then, I've been addicted to that shop too.

I have been practicing dancing and playing drums when I was a kid, but Johnny-san chose my drumming skills more. At first, even though I am very thankful to be able to show it, I have become greedier and greedier, and I honestly thought that "I can also dance"...But 3 months before Johnny-san passed away, I heard from Oriyama (Nao) of Shounen Ninja that Johnny-san said, "Sasaki is good at dancing too." From here, I want to say with confidence that I am also good at dancing that Johnny-san had recognized. After all, dancing is a must in Johnny's! In addition, while polishing thoroughly my singing and acting too, I want to reach for something extraordinary.

With 7 MEN 侍 changing the members twice, a self-conscious was born each time and I have come do develop mutual trust with them. Even if these 6 people bump into a big wall, if these 6 people are together, they will be able to cross over it, they are probably late bloomers but I believe they can be successful and well known. (T/N: lit. 花を咲かせられる (flower can bloom; it is like an "idiomatic expression" for becoming successful and well known) In 2021, if possible, I want to do a live where 100% of the audience can go. It is going to be a live where they can think "I am glad I am supporting 7 MEN 侍." I'll cry if that happens (LOL).

Q. To have the luck on your side, do you have your own ritual?

I do things as I please like how I kissed Hamada Masatoshi-san of Downtown in a variety show, but I am really very nervous...Before the show, I am the type who right the character "人" 3 times on my palm, I do it seriously (LOL).

Konno Taiki

I think I could grab the chance because I was able to meet Johnny-san.

I like Kimura Takuya-san since I was 3 years old, and thinking that I want to be like him, I sent my resume to the agency. In year 2020, when I was able to go and see Kimura-san's tour, I told him those feelings, he said, "Let's take a photo together." I thought that a star is different after all.

From the start, even before joining Johnny's, with singing as my strong point, I love singing in front of people. I often sing Misora Hibari-san's 「Kawa No Nagare No Youni」. But when I hit the puberty, I came to hate my own voice. I stopped singing for a while but during my 4th year in Johnny's, when I casually hummed to Kinki Kids'san's 「Anniversary」near Johnny-san, he praised me saying, "You're good in singing!" More than anything else, I am glad that Johnny-san who loved me like a parent recognized my singing which is something that I am trying to make as my strong point. From that moment, I worked hard because I wanted to be praised by Johnny-san, but when he passed away, it felt like I have lost my aim. But for Johnny-san, he hates negative remarks the most. That's why it is not the time to feel down, aiming seriously for this group to debut, I feel like that timing completely changed my awareness towards work. I think I could grab the chance because I was able to meet Johnny-san after all. If that didn't happen, no doubt I am not here now.

2020 is the year where I got to experience a lot of things for the first time. Especially with the stage play 「The Happy Prince」, I was able to feel the enjoyment of plays. I think it would be nice if I can challenge campus love story in a drama or movie this 2021.

Q. To have the luck on your side, do you have your own ritual?

When I want to calm down, I use a perfume that has a sweet vanilla scent. Since「The Happy Prince」is my first stage play, I was very nervous. When I used this perfume during that time too, it was able to relieve my nervousness.

Yabana Rei

A performance that will also remain to the memories of those who are not knowledgeable about music.

I took the audition 4 times. For the details, you can try watching the episode where I talked about it in YouTube channel (LOL). Even if I passed the document screening but I couldn't go to the practice, I will repeat the cycle of going through audition again. If ever I continued [being a Jr.] during my first audition, I might be dancing and I might not had been able to make an appeal with musical instruments as my special skill during the band boom of Johnny-san. I am being told, "You're not Johnny's-like" because I say that I am better in playing instruments than dancing. It's just that, if I didn't enter Johnny's, I won't be playing instruments until now. So I can say that it feels like a wonderful destiny to be playing instruments as 7 MEN 侍.

Other than the bass that I am in-charged of playing, I also play guitar and harmonica. The first instrument I started with was drums and I got very hooked with 「Taiko no Tatsujin」(LOL). If you play different things, you will pick up the characteristics of each sound and you will be able to make songs too. I also want learn about the theories so I am attending college of music. I am a complete geek as regards to music (LOL). Me going on a rampage on stage is the result of me thinking on how I can show 7 MEN 侍's style. In the letters from the fans, letters with "you are cool playing the guitar" is not few even though I am playing the bass. Since there was a time when I also don't know clearly the difference between the guitar and the bass, so I can understand that feeling. That's why I want to do a performance that will remain to the memories of anyone.

With the aim "to be not less than what I am now" for next year, I want to be able to do more work than I did for this year. ...by the way, this is not a prank, right? I am very overwhelmed lately and I still can't believe that I am having an interview for anan (LOL).

Q. To have the luck on your side, do you have your own ritual?

Going to this certain shrine. Since I visited there alone during New Year, we had talk about changing the instruments we play and I have luck on my side. I like that it is quiet there even though it is located within the city, when I found that shrine, I prayed to the god of works.

Message

To Nakamura

To stand as the face of the group, you stand as the center of the group. His personality is my pace and gentle-mannered. Since you are not the "follow me!" type, that's why I think the members with strong personalities are also kept in place. Because I get stiff in front of seniors, Reia's sense of "being loved by everyone" is really nice. Even though you have the longest history in agency in the group, you are not prideful at all, Reia who can understand the things he can't do and who can rely to others is amazing. (Motodaka)

To Motodaka

Our overwhelmingly highly educated member. And yet, you are not annoying because you are a cute guy who is an overeater and carelessly says foolish things like "therefore!?" (LOL) Before the group was formed, you are a companion who I find easy to talk with, but you see me as a senior, right? The way you call me too was "Reia-kun". But I am happy that you interact with me on equal terms lately. (Nakamura)

To Yabana

Banasan is seen as someone reliable, and among the fans, I think they see him as peculiar, funny, and has a lively image. But unexpectedly, he has a delicate side too, and he is fairly a considerate person.He is really a very nice person that sometimes he looks pitiful. Well, I also usually tease Yabana (LOL). That's why, everyone too, please take good care of Yabana more! (Konno)

To Konno

He doesn't seem elusive at first glance, but I think he is stubborn. Konpi definitely won't cross the line he can't compromise with. And, he hates lounging around doing nothing. When work is done, he will be the first person who will say "I'm going home." At the start of 2020, when we changed the atmosphere of our band, I was struggling with the hook part's harmony, but Konpi can properly play the sound. I am super jealous of his talent! (Yabana)

To Sasaki

Among the members, he has the biggest gap. Despite being called as "mad dog", he still makes weird faces and also jokes around doing things that are not Johnny's-like. Since he is a youngest child, he might also have an impression of being a brat and naughty. But in lives, he shows a sparking cool dance, and he has a excellent style too. Since his range is really amazing, I hope you can enjoy his both sides! (Sugeta)

To Sugeta

You have the cuteness like an idol. Especially you like Yamada-kun, you have Hey!Say!JUMP's DVD and there was a time when we enjoyed watching it together. Also, your muscle is amazing, you are really healthy (LOL). But in reality, you are the type who will be silent when you get mad so I will ask Reia, "Why is he mad? Did I do something?" (LOL) Thinking of the members, I think the member who likes 7 MEN 侍 the most is Rinne! Since you always listens to our original songs. (Sasaki)

Cross Talk

Motodaka: anan is the magazine that my mother often buys. Thus, I am happy to be able to appear in anan! At home, I am always being asked, "Are you going to work today?", but this morning I said, "No, it's not for work" (lit. it's different). I want to make it a surprise [for my mom] once this issue is released.

Yabana: It would be funny if she didn't notice it even if it is already released~!

Nakamura: Even when they have the magazine at home LOL.

What is the history of your group name?

Sugeta: At the time we got the group name, I was doing activities with another 7 people. Rinne and Reia went to Johhny-san asking "we want a group name." And then, Johnny-san told us "I understand, I will think about it."

Nakamura: And then we thought that day was already over.

Sugeta: 5 minutes later, we got called "Samura~i!"

Nakamura: I thought, "Who is he calling Samurai!?" but when I looked around, it is only us who were there.

Sugeta: When the 2 of us went to Johnny-san, he asked us, "Do you know Kurosawa Akira's 「Shichinin no Samurai」?" Then, when we answered, "We know that film," he told us, "Then, how about being called 7 MEN 侍 from now on?" Each of the samurai who appeared in the movie are properly...like this...

Konno: Having strong personalities and skills.

Sugeta: Yeah

Konno: I am grateful that 7 people like that (having strong personalities and skills) were gathered.

Have you seen the movie?

All: ...(Only Nakamura-san raised his hand)

Nakamura: Wait a minute!

Sasaki: Everyone has not seen the movie except for Reia LOL.

Nakamura: It is the origin of our group name so let's watch it~!!

Yabana: Gerin-san (Sugeta) lying to Johnny-san saying "I know the film" is the worst LOL.

Nakamura: It is a wonderful film and you will learn something from it so please watch it!

What is 7 MEN 侍's strength?

Motodaka: Our difference from the other groups is that [playing a] "band" is our strength. As idols, we don't only play as a band but we can also show our dance.

Sasaki: Yeah, having both band and dance as "weapons" is huge, isn't it?

Motodaka: Yeah, since our first original song 「samudama」 is a band song, and our second original song 「Siren」 is a dance song.

Konno: When our next song was thought to be a band song too, our next song came out as a cool dance song.

Nakamura: With this, our third song became something incalculable. From now on too, I want for the fans to look forward to what our new song is each time we announce our new song.

Within the group, who is the member who has the element of "samurai" the most?

Konno: It's either me or Yabana, right?

Sugeta: Is it about the appearance?

Konno: In the sense of sticking with the will.

Yabana: Don't say that yourself!

In Yabana-san's solo interview, he described Konno-san exactly the same way you with what you (Konno) have said...

Konnp: Is that so? Then I shouldn't have said it. Please tell me properly about it. This is embarrassing!

Motodaka: Konpi dragged Yabana with guarantee LOL. For Yabana, getting dragged is just a trouble.

Yabana: Don't drag me into it~!

Nakamura: LOL. I love kanji, I wonder if that is samurai-like. I also play Sengoku. But, if we talk about the body, then isn't Rinne the one who is samurai-like?

Sugeta: Rinne thinks that more than being a samurai, I am more like a ninja.

Yabana: What is that? A self-awareness of a secret mystery from your heart LOL.

Nakamura: Of course we are idols, but I think it is also good to show the manly side of us exclusively during our band performances.

Yabana: We will go on a rampage like Sakamoto Ryouma who tried to change Japan!

Sasaki: For me, changing...or rather it's more like I want to create a new path.

Konno: Defying the public belief.

Yabana: The awareness that we don't want to go with the typical type is something we all have in common, right?

Motodaka: All 6 of us have different personalities but we that the same awareness.

Konno: We don't want to pretend to be someone else.

Sasaki: It's a subjective image but I think protecting a girl is an element of a samurai. It is gonna be a cheesy talk but I want to be an idol who can protect the fans.

Motodaka: You just said something really good! But, what would be the good thing to do to protect the fans?

Sasaki: I think making them happy.

Sugeta: By making our fans happy, as a result, we are able to protect them!

Motodaka: We are saying good things today, aren't we?

Nakamura: With what said earlier , it doesn't feel like you worked LOL.

Currently, you are in the middle of practice for the stage play 「DREAM BOYS」.

Konno: I watched the DREAM BOYS 2019 where Reia and Taiko appeared, and since I thought I wanted to appear on it again, I am so happy to be able to appear on DREAM BOYS again.

Sugeta: Since there is already a vision in Domoto Koichi-san who is directing the play, I am looking forward to recieving direction and guidance even before the practice.

Sasaki: Reia will stand in front of the audience after a while, right?

Nakamura: Yeah. I currently have a feeling like I am seeing the person I love after a while that my heart is throbbing.

ALL: OH~!!

Sasaki: Rinne made a face that he doesn't want to lose [to Reia] after hearing Reia's comment LOL.

Nakamura: Probably, this comment will be used by Rinne on a different interview, right? LOL.

What is the charm of 「DREAM BOYS」?

Sugeta: The burning passion of two men towards boxing is its charm after all, right?

Nakamura: Yeah. The feelings are delivered in a straight manner.

Motodaka: It is a story that firmly depicts humans and their relationships with each other.

Sasaki: Youth! It has the entertainment that is unique to Johnny's so you won't get tired of watching it. Oh, which minds me, as soon as the practice started, Kishi (Yuta)-kun asked, "Is Yabana not around today?"

Yabana: He told me "teach me how to play the guitar please." It is an honor to be needed by a senior.

Sasaki: But (Iwasaki) Taisho is a strong opponent. It looks difficult to keep up with him LOL.

Yabana: Taisho mistook me for a nourishment or something and my energy gets absorbed.

Konno: It looks like Yabana has no time to rest LOL.

By the way, 7 MEN 侍 still does not have a leader, right?

Sugeta: *raised actively his hand alone*

ALL: *roar of laughter*

Sasaki: If our leader is like Rinne, 7 MEN 侍 is seriously over LOL. This is different from asking in in the werewolf game on who is the fortune teller and you will say, "I am."

Yabana: I think it is his win because he said it first LOL.

Konno: Announcing it during the anan round-table discussion which is a big occasion LOL.

Yabana: Doesn't it feel like the same thing for the MC part in YouTube channel...?

Nakamura: When Rinne realized that being the MC is not that great...

Sugeta: Well, whatever!

Sasaki: Since he stopped doing the MC, he wanted to have punishment games so that he would be shown in the camera even just for a little LOL.

Sugeta: In the filming recently, Rinne is always beside Yabana, right?

Motodaka: Don't tell me that's because if you are standing next to the MC, you will be in the camera too...?

Sugeta: Yup. I revealed this for the first time now.

Konno: In a sense, you are a genius LOL.

#7 men 侍 #translation

[too-kinky-to-live]

beach

i started this fic months ago and didnt finish it, then i saw it was shuichi’s birthday so i figured i should get off my lazy ass and finish it before the day is over :))))) 

not strictly stuffed ronpa related, but i do have a future stuffing chapter in mind. hope you enjoy!  (ao3 link if you’d rather read it there: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26351422/chapters/64176889)

Summer is overrated. 

That’s what detective Shuichi Saihara would tell anyone when they asked why he stayed indoors. It was way too hot for his tastes, and he was much too busy lounging around reading his novels. But if there was one thing he dreaded more than summer, it was the beach. To Saihara, it was just an excuse for attractive people to flaunt off their perfect, skinny bodies. 

Something Saihara lacked. 

After graduating from Hope’s Peak, Saihara and Ouma moved into an apartment together near their university. With detective work not being too taxing on Saihara’s body, he led a mostly sedentary life. Sitting at his desk looking over case files while shoving various snacks in his mouth without a second thought. Ouma would regularly bake sickeningly sweet pastries, making Saihara swear he was trying to fatten him up (though Ouma did love sweets, so he didn’t give it too much thought). 

Saihara’s body began to widen over time, forming plush love handles on his sides and a small gut to poke out from under his shirt when he stretched. His thighs were nearly touching and his face had a rounder look. He was certain Ouma noticed, but the smaller boy never commented on it. Thus, the detective could only assume the leader was too disgusted to bring attention to it. 

That is, until his boyfriend suggested they go to the beach. 

Was his plan to humiliate him further? Despite Saihara’s blatant discomfort, Ouma eagerly purchased snack after snack to place in their shared picnic basket. Their bi-weekly trip to the store was quickly derailed by Ouma entertaining the idea of filling their shopping cart with the most unhealthy food imaginable, though that paled in comparison to a certain other object in the cart: a nondescript, navy blue pair of swim trunks for Saihara to wear on their trip. The design was plain, just as he liked it - the issue was the size. Thankfully Ouma wasn’t with him when he chose it, but he couldn’t help feeling embarrassed from buying a larger size. 

“Saihara-chan! You there?”

The detective was brought back to the present with his boyfriend reaching up to wave a hand in front of his face. “You sure are spacy today, Shumai. That can’t be good for your health.” 

“Sorry, just thinking about a case,” he responded meekly. 

Ouma, the crown prince of lies, lifted an eyebrow. “Hmm… I know my Shumai wouldn’t be foolish enough to lie to me, so I’ll take his word for it.” Saihara watched nervously as the little leader went to pay for everything. He was almost positive that Ouma was on to him, yet he continued with his cheery attitude towards their beach trip. 

An hour later, and the two were walking to the beach with supplies in hand. Both had their swim trunks on under loose clothing, so Saihara could at least spare himself the judgement of others for a little longer. He hated to admit it, but his new trunks were digging into his hips, the size large for his already-large body. 

“You remember our list of things we gotta do, right?” Ouma asked, looking up at Saihara expectantly. 

He blinked. “Make a sand castle, jump the waves, look for nice sea shells?” 

“You forgot about us bothering people with squirt guns!” the leader pouted with a huff. Though Saihara had already decided he wanted no part of that, he didn’t want to ruin Ouma’s fun. Finding a secluded area on the beach, they began to set up chairs and a towel. His boyfriend wasted no time in stripping himself, displaying his porcelain-white skin and (to Saihara’s dismay) his scrawny, bony form. His black swimwear looked like it was threatening to fall off at any second. 

This was it. Ouma certainly wouldn’t let him stay covered up all day. Maybe he could just wear a towel over his shoulders and not face anyone. Biting his lip, he began removing his shirt as Ouma (unhelpfully) watched. His boyfriend didn’t say a word as Saihara discarded his clothes to reveal his tummy falling over his trunks ever so slightly. Feeling the leader’s disappointment, Saihara quickly scrambled to drape a towel over himself, until he felt a small body close itself around him. The detective looked down to see Ouma’s face buried in his disgusting flab. 

“You’re so dumb, Shuichi. Trying to hide this from me,” he mumbled with a muffled voice.

“I’m sorry, I’ll start working out with Kaito again, I-”

“No.” 

Saihara felt a forceful squeeze. What, would Ouma rather help him himself? 

“Don’t ever lose this. Please. You’re even more amazing like this,” he murmured in an uncharacteristically serious voice, nuzzling himself further into Saihara’s stomach. 

At that moment, everything fell into place for Saihara. The treats, the constant pressure for today, the new clothing. He gave a soft smile. “Is this why you wanted to come here today?” 

He could feel Ouma’s grin. “Maybe.” 

The leader removed himself from the detective’s body to look up at the latter. “C’mon, Shumai! We gotta put some sunscreen on. I could help you apply yours…” 

Ouma’s sultry voice made Saihara internally combust, and created an involuntary blush on the detective’s face. 

“You’re more than welcome to, Ouma-kun.”

#stuffed ronpa #sorry this is incredibly rushed #ill try to make up for it in the next chapter #pora's fix

[elyvorg]

Kaito Momota: The Man Who Apologised Too Much

Yes, you read that title correctly, and yes, I am 100% serious right now. There seems to be this bizarre myth in this fandom (at least from what I’ve seen, and even from people who appear to like Kaito enough to have thought about him a decent amount) that Kaito believes, out of some kind of toxic masculinity, that men shouldn’t ever apologise, and therefore he never does so himself until right at the end as a supposed sign of his growth. This could not be further from the actual truth about how Kaito feels and acts and grows with regards to the topic of apologising. I am here to thoroughly debunk that ridiculous myth and talk about what’s really going on with Kaito and apologies, which is practically the complete opposite of that and far, far more interesting.

(I should also make it clear that I’m not doing this because I’m trying to insist that Kaito is perfect and without fault. If he actually did have a toxic masculinity thing going on that he needed to unlearn, I’d be totally okay with that, because that’d be him having flaws and therefore being a perfectly good character even if he’s a somewhat less good person as a result. It’s just that these are not remotely the issues Kaito has in canon, and I want to shed some light on what’s actually going on here. It still involves him being very messed up, I promise, just in a completely different way!)

Don’t make yourself feel bad!

The best illustration of Kaito’s principles on apologising is early in chapter 1. After everyone gets emotionally beaten down by the escape tunnel, half the group proceeds to blame Kaede as if she should never have encouraged them to keep trying it in the first place. Kaede agrees that it’s all her fault and apologises to them – but Kaito immediately questions why she’s doing that when she didn’t do anything wrong. Yes, things happened to turn out badly as a result of her encouragement, but she didn’t mean for that to happen when she decided to encourage everyone. It was not a mistake for Kaede to want everyone to try and escape, and she should never be made to feel like she ought to apologise for that. So Kaito tells her, phrased like this is advice he’s regularly given to people in the past, “Listen up. Don’t apologize for something that’s not your fault! It’ll just make you feel bad!”

This line not only very clearly states what Kaito’s principles on this are, but it also shows part of why he feels so strongly about this – because it’s about self-care. Kaito is always trying to encourage people to be kind to themselves and to stay positive, to not wallow in negative feelings when they could be thinking instead about what they can do to make things better. This also extends to not blaming themselves and making themselves feel like something’s their fault when it isn’t, and apologising for said thing is liable to make someone do that. Kaito advocates not apologising when something isn’t one’s fault for the sake of the mental health of the person who would be giving the apology, which deserves to be looked out for just as much as that of the person who would be receiving the apology.

(Also note that Kaito’s saying this to Kaede despite her not being a man, and he doesn’t bring up the concept of manliness at all while doing so, because this whole thing is actually not even remotely about gender to him, as I’ll go into more in a bit.)

This is very similar in principle to the type of advice that Kaito gives Shuichi (even though he never directly mentions apologies while doing so, which is a fact that will be important later). Especially after Kaede’s death, Shuichi’s biggest problem is blaming himself for all the bad things that happened, when all he did was try his hardest to find the truth, which isn’t a bad thing to do at all. Even though his deduction was wrong and the mastermind didn’t come to the hidden door, he tried his best to figure things out with what he had and it’s not his fault he wasn’t quite correct. Even though Kaede was executed because Shuichi uncovered her crime, he sure as hell didn’t want that to happen to her and was just trying to save the maximum number of people from this killing game’s rules. Kaito’s support of Shuichi focuses on trying to stop him from blaming himself about this kind of thing, because he should be pursuing the truth, that’s what they need in a killing game like this, and so he should be proud of himself for being the one who can do that for everyone, rather than beating himself up over it.

And, to skip way ahead to a part of chapter 5 for a moment, this idea is also relevant when Kaito jumps in the way of Maki’s arrow that was meant for Kokichi. Moments later, he learns that the arrow was poisoned, that Kokichi was already dying from her first poison arrow anyway and that he just made things worse by getting himself fatally poisoned too (at least, as far as he knows until Kokichi starts explaining his plan) – but Kaito never once apologises for or shows any regret over making that jump. He didn’t and couldn’t have known the arrows were poisoned, so in that situation, leaping to protect Kokichi was the best thing he could have done and therefore not a mistake. The fact that it turned out the arrows were poisoned and his actions only (apparently) made things worse was not his fault, and at least on this occasion, Kaito understands that and doesn’t go and make himself feel bad over this.

Take responsibility!

Getting back to chapter 1 – the next morning after the tunnel incident, people are still blaming Kaede for it, and Kaito is still arguing that they shouldn’t and she shouldn’t apologise. But this time, Kaede clarifies what she actually did wrong: she got so overly focused on the tunnel that she didn’t consider how everyone was feeling. While simply trying to escape was not a mistake, getting so into it that she overlooked everyone’s exhaustion and kept pushing them past their limits was. When Kaede apologises for doing that, Kaito accepts things and drops the subject.

After all, Kaito also strongly advocates taking responsibility, which means that you should apologise when you did genuinely make a mistake. We can see this in this same chapter 1 conversation when Kaito complains that everyone was blaming Kaede without taking responsibility themselves. Even though Kaede was the most forceful in pushing them into it, everyone else still chose to listen to her and try the tunnel of their own volition. So their resulting exhaustion was still partly on them, and they should be acknowledging their own mistake in doing that, rather than running away from their responsibility by pinning it all on Kaede.

And Kaito is perfectly capable of putting this into practice himself, as we see at the beginning of chapter 2 where he very clearly and openly apologises to Shuichi for punching him at the end of the trial the night before. At the time, Kaito’s words made it sound like he’d punched Shuichi to try and push him to stand up to Monokuma more – but really he just did it because he couldn’t deal with his own pain over Kaede’s death and lashed out. After having a night to calm down and think it over, Kaito realised that he was never going to help like that and he shouldn’t have lost control of himself, so he takes responsibility for his mistake and apologises to Shuichi as soon as he can. He even seems somewhat hesitant when Shuichi readily accepts his apology, as if he was expecting Shuichi to be more upset at his actions than this.

So: Kaito very evidently believes that you should apologise when you have made a mistake. In that circumstance, the you-feeling-bad that comes from apologising is worthwhile, because at least it’ll help you learn from that mistake in order to be able to make better choices in future and hopefully not let it happen again. After all, self-improvement is also a big thing that Kaito’s always trying to encourage! It’s only when you genuinely aren’t in the wrong that he advocates not apologising, because that’ll make you feel bad for no good reason and possibly end up inclined to avoid choices in future aren’t actually bad choices at all. This entire thing from Kaito is all about helping people, just like Kaito is always trying to do.

Since realising this about Kaito and thinking about it a lot, I’ve actually been making something of an effort in my own life to catch myself whenever I’m feeling inclined to apologise for something and ask myself if I really should be doing so according to what Kaito would say. Even if I end up concluding that I did in fact make a mistake that I should have been able to foresee and avoid, which I therefore do apologise for, this lets me properly think about what the mistake was. That way, not only can I keep that mistake in mind to try and avoid in future, but I also don’t end up feeling like anything else about the situation that I couldn’t actually help was somehow my fault as well. This is really emotionally healthy advice that I think everyone should try and follow! Kaito is so good.

(There is admittedly another angle to this. Sometimes, even if person A genuinely didn’t meant to hurt person B, person B was still hurt enough that they deserve an apology just for the sake of acknowledging that the hurt happened and that it mattered even if it was unintentional. In that type of case, I do believe that the person responsible should apologise even if it was genuinely an accident, for the sake of the mental health of the person who was hurt. But in that case, it shouldn’t be an “I’m sorry that I did this” if their actions weren’t inherently wrong; it should be an “I’m sorry that you were hurt because of something I did”. Kaito is never seen addressing this angle, but I really think that’s just because it doesn’t happen to come up, and that if you asked him about this, he’d agree with what I’m saying here.)

Be sure of yourself! (whether or not you’re literally a man)

But what does all this even have to do with manliness, then? Well, the short answer is “really not actually that much”, because the only times Kaito ever brings manliness into this apologising thing is when he’s giving this advice to Gonta.

The most notable example of this is during trial 1. After Gonta’s been cleared of suspicion, Kokichi’s dickery makes Gonta literally apologise for not being the murderer. Naturally Kaito takes issue with him doing that, so he tells Gonta, “A man shouldn’t apologize so easily!”. And the key part of this sentence which apparently some people completely overlook is the “so easily”. Kaito would never have uttered that sentence without that part, because he does not even remotely believe that a man shouldn’t apologise at all. What he’s actually saying here is exactly the same thing he was saying to Kaede – don’t apologise when you’re genuinely not in the wrong. Not being a murderer is obviously not a mistake and not something anyone should ever have to feel like they should apologise for and make themselves feel bad over for no sensible reason! Nobody else would have remotely let themselves be led by Kokichi into apologising for being innocent – but Gonta in particular is so tragically unsure of himself and of what he should be doing that when Kokichi implied he’d done something wrong, he immediately assumed he must have done and apologised without question.

Making this also about being a “man” does seem uncalled for, but Kaito does this for two reasons. One is because being sure of yourself is a big part of what his concept of manliness is about. Kaito believes that, ideally, people should think for themselves and know for themselves what’s right and wrong. If they were wrong, they should acknowledge it and own up to that (taking responsibility is also a big part of this manliness thing for Kaito) – but if they were in the right, they should be able to stand up for themselves and not back down from what they believe in. It’s exactly the same concept I’ve already talked about with regards to apologies, just framed in a way that’s about conviction instead of self-care. Gonta is an incredibly kind person who’s always trying to do the right thing, which Kaito can respect a lot, but it bothers Kaito that someone as good as that has such a hard time seeing what the right thing is in the first place. Gonta ought to be able to have enough conviction to stand up for himself and tell Kokichi, “no, I didn’t do anything wrong, stop trying to make me feel bad for not murdering anyone.”

And note how in the previous paragraph when talking about Kaito’s beliefs on this, I said “people”, not “men”, because neither this nor anything else about Kaito’s concept of manliness (which I’m not going into in any more detail here, because this post is about the apology thing) has anything inherently to do with gender. Literally the only thing gendered about Kaito’s concept of manliness is the word he uses for it. It’s really more like a kind of moral code that he always tries to stick to, one which can apply to anyone regardless of gender, except for some reason or another he somehow ended up using that word to encapsulate it. Unfortunately, this has the side-effect of giving it rather less morally-sound implications to anyone who doesn’t bother to pay any attention to what Kaito’s actually talking about every time he mentions it.

However, Kaito’s concept of manliness is almost always something he only has for himself, because following that code is personally important to him. He doesn’t inflict it on others if he doesn’t think they’d buy into it – after all, the concept of conviction is a lot less important in helping people’s mental health than the concept of self-care is. So the other reason Kaito brings manliness into the apology thing in this context is only because it’s Gonta. Gonta has his own very similar thing about being a gentleman, which isn’t quite the same as Kaito’s concept of manliness, but there is a lot of overlap, especially when it comes to sincerity and integrity. Kaito mentions manliness to Gonta in particular only because he believes that idea might actually resonate with Gonta and help him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have done, just like he didn’t when telling Kaede not to apologise, and just like he almost never does to Shuichi while giving him advice, even though Shuichi is also male.

Another point at which Kaito tells Gonta that a man shouldn’t apologise so easily (again, so easily; he never omits that part) is during the investigation of case 2. Gonta apologises for being too scared to jump into the water tank to save Ryoma from the piranhas, but Kaito points out that the piranhas would just have eaten him too. Gonta staying put and keeping himself safe was the right thing to do, not a mistake that he should be apologising for and making himself feel bad over when there really wasn’t anything more he could have done to save Ryoma. Later, Gonta apologises again for not watching the tank better because he didn’t see Ryoma in there before the piranhas fell in, and Kaito gives him the same line – because Gonta is so tragically convinced that he’s wrong about everything that he automatically assumes he was mistaken in what he saw and blames himself, without considering that maybe there just genuinely wasn’t anything to see. And the last time Kaito says this to Gonta is at the beginning of chapter 3 when Kokichi tells Gonta, “Nothing good ever happens when you try to help,” and Gonta agrees and apologises… for always trying to help? Obviously that’s not something he should ever apologise for, even if his efforts don’t always work out so well. Kaito would hate it for Gonta to start thinking because of this that he really shouldn’t ever be trying to help!

There’s more on this general idea in that investigation 2 conversation when Shuichi points out that it was impossible to save Ryoma anyway because he was already dead by then according to the Monokuma File, and Gonta admits he didn’t even read the file because he doesn’t think he’s smart enough to understand it. Really, Gonta is not nearly as stupid as he thinks and would have been perfectly able to understand “the cause of death was drowning”. But because he’s so unsure of himself, he didn’t even try, which is exactly the problem with Gonta being this way! Kaito picks up on this and tells him, “If you think you can’t help, then work till you can!” – because, again, Kaito is always trying to encourage people not to wallow in the pain of what they couldn’t do but instead to focus on what they can do going forward.

And that’s exactly the kind of thing that Kaito’s apology principle is all about. Its purpose is to help people stay positive and work constructively to improve themselves. Kaito’s not-actually-gendered concept of manliness is only tangentially connected to this, only even gets brought up when Gonta’s involved, and isn’t really the point at all.

(Heck, if Kaito did consciously think about gender while considering his apology thing, he is smart enough that he’d most likely realise that, in terms of the way people are socialised to behave, it generally tends to be women who apologise too easily and men who don’t apologise enough. So, if anything, he’d frame his usual advice about when not to apologise to be a little more geared towards women, and make more of an overt point about how men should take responsibility instead. The fact that he doesn’t do this is a strong indicator that he just hasn’t taken gender into account at all when it comes to this.)

How Kaito starts to get it wrong

So, having firmly established Kaito’s principles about not apologising when you’re not in the wrong and why he feels so strongly about this, now for the fun part. As in, the part where he repeatedly breaks these principles himself. Everyone should already know how much of a delightful hypocrite Kaito is when it comes to following his own advice, and yep, that applies to this, too.

This begins in chapter 3, as Kaito becomes afflicted by his phobia of ghosts and gets so anxious and nauseous that it completely tanks his mental strength and ability to do much of anything. He apologises so many times during this part of the story: for not being able to hang out with Shuichi, for not being able to be there for him and Maki at training, for not being able to help Shuichi investigate – even though the reason why he can’t do those things is not his fault and he hasn’t done anything wrong. Sure, it sucks that he can’t be there for his sidekicks, but that is not remotely what he wanted to happen and if he had his way and wasn’t so horribly mentally ill then he absolutely would still be there for them. This thoroughly checks out, according to Kaito’s own principles about this, as Not Something To Apologise For.

(…Okay, so it’s slightly more complicated than that since his main issue in this chapter is not a literal sickness but a phobia. That’s something that it’s easier for Kaito to tell himself he should be able to fight against, since it’s all in his head, and therefore it’s his fault if he can’t, right? But, obviously Kaito is trying to fight against it in order to be there for his sidekicks. The only possible mistake here would be him not even trying at all, but Kaito is never not trying. So if he still can’t manage to overcome his phobia despite giving it his best effort, then that isn’t his fault at all.)

But Kaito apologises for it anyway, repeatedly. A lot of these are just casual “sorry”s and “my bad”s peppered into his dialogue that are easy to miss, which might read simply as something he’s doing unconsciously without really thinking about his principles at all. Yet at one point he straight-up approaches Shuichi and makes a whole point of the fact that he thinks he needs to apologise for not coming to training. So it’s not just unconscious – Kaito actively feels like he’s doing something wrong that he ought to take responsibility for and accept feeling bad about so that he can do better in future. Except, how is he ever going to be able to do better in future when his “mistake” is, effectively, “being sick”? Kaito is just going to make himself feel an obligation to be less sick, and that he’s still failing and still ought to feel bad if he continues to be sick anyway, which… well, we know how that’s going to end up for him.

Aaaaand it sure does during chapter 4 as well. Kaito doesn’t apologise nearly as much in this chapter as he did in chapter 3, presumably because he’s able to be there for his sidekicks again and appear on the surface as if he’s totally fine and isn’t doing anything “wrong” at all. But a few unnecessary apologies still slip through here and there. One is when he has to briefly leave a training session for what is totally just using the bathroom and definitely not coughing up any blood. Since using the bathroom isn’t something even Kaito’s warped logic would think of as “doing something wrong”, he’s really apologising for being sick and dying and letting that get in the way of training his sidekicks. Similarly, he apologises at the end of trial 4, after he’s coughed up blood in front of everyone and needs to head back to his room. Again, apologising simply for being visibly ill in front of them. Kaito, no.

The reason Kaito is so convinced that he apparently ought to feel bad and apologise for these things is rooted in the core of his issues, namely his unrealistically perfect standards for heroes. (If you haven’t read that other Kaito analysis post of mine I just linked, you probably should, because it’s going to get increasingly relevant to this post from here on.) A hero like Kaito must be flawlessly strong and never let his sidekicks down no matter what, and anything else is unacceptable. Being weak is a “mistake” for Kaito, even if it’s a type of weakness that isn’t rooted in his choices and is entirely outside of his control. Not being able to be there for his sidekicks is a “mistake” for Kaito, no matter how hard he’s trying to be there and never wanted to be incapable of it. He genuinely feels like he should apologise for these things, because he deserves to feel bad about it, and he needs to do better somehow, even if there’s literally no actual way for him to do so.

Just like every other bit of advice he gives to others, Kaito’s whole principle of not apologising when you’re not in the wrong is about emotional self-care – so it’s only to be expected that he’d be just as bad at following this himself as he is with every other part of his own advice. Because Kaito is horrendous at actually looking after his own well-being when he needs to, emotionally as well as physically.

(And really that’s Kaito’s only actual mistake in this situation: not looking after himself, including not telling his sidekicks what’s going on with him and letting them help. Maybe that should warrant an apology. After all, the reason he avoids them in chapter 3 is less because of his phobia of ghosts itself and more because he doesn’t want them to see that he’s afraid of ghosts. So in that sense, technically he’s skipping out on their training for reasons that actually are him being in the wrong. But that’s definitely never what Kaito thinks he’s apologising for on any of these occasions, now, is it.)

How Kaito gets it wrong in the other direction

Things get even more interesting as we move into chapter 5, in the aftermath of the nightmare that was Gonta’s trial. Shuichi is under the impression that the reason Kaito is avoiding him is because he’s angry at Shuichi for pursuing Gonta’s guilt, almost like he’s wanting Shuichi to apologise for it before talking to him again. But Shuichi asserts privately to Maki that he doesn’t think it would be right for him to apologise when it was the only thing he could do to keep everyone else alive. Of course it’s not Shuichi’s fault that Gonta being the culprit was the truth, nor that Gonta got executed as a result of his crime being uncovered. Shuichi didn’t want any of the awful things to happen and only did what needed to be done to save as many lives as possible.

Sound familiar? Yep, that’s precisely Kaito’s principles on when not to apologise right there. So it is literally not possible that Kaito could actually be expecting an apology from Shuichi; he’d understand perfectly well that Shuichi doesn’t deserve to make himself feel bad when he did what a detective should always do and saved everyone. Credit to Shuichi for being self-assured enough by this point to be able to stand up for what he did and assert that he shouldn’t apologise. The reason he’s so self-assured now is almost certainly thanks to Kaito and all the general advice Kaito has been giving him about not blaming himself and being proud of his detective work. But, because Kaito never specifically mentioned the apology thing while giving Shuichi advice, Shuichi doesn’t consciously realise that Kaito would obviously feel the same way about this. (Shuichi was there when Kaito explained these principles to Kaede in chapter 1, but apparently it didn’t stick with him, perhaps because at the time he wasn’t yet reliant on Kaito.) Which sadly leaves Shuichi floundering in the unresolvable situation of believing Kaito wants him to apologise while refusing to back down on the fact that he shouldn’t, rather than realising that Kaito’s problem is something else entirely that might potentially be fixed just by talking to him.

The problem, or part of it at least, is that Kaito is the one who should be apologising for his actions in Gonta’s trial. He lashed out at Shuichi and made reaching the truth even more difficult and painful for him than it already was, even though he knew deep down that Gonta really was the culprit and that proving this was the only way to save everyone else. Kaito had promised repeatedly before the trial that he’d always be there for Shuichi to help carry his burdens, and yet he actively did the opposite of that when it mattered most.

But Kaito doesn’t apologise for that for most of this chapter. This is the only instance in the whole story in which Kaito breaks his principles on apologising in the opposite way to normal, by not apologising when he is in the wrong. Yet it’s not remotely that he doesn’t even believe he should; of course he knows he should, given how much he cares about taking responsibility. It’s just that the pain he feels over having failed Shuichi so badly in that trial hurts so much that he can’t bear to face up to it and talk about it. He’s essentially being a coward, by running away from that pain, and there’s no way he doesn’t realise that. The reason Kaito avoids Shuichi (at least if I were to frame it in a way that’s about the topic of this post) is because he knows he needs to apologise but can’t.

How Kaito gets it wrong in two ways at once

However, Kaito does not need to apologise for everything he did in the trial. The part where he simply couldn’t bear to face the truth of Gonta’s guilt like Shuichi could is not his fault. That’s just a weakness he has that he can’t help, because he’s Kaito – of course it would be so, so hard for him to accept that someone like Gonta could have committed murder, especially without understanding why or even being able to see any indications of guilt in the amnesiac Gonta’s behaviour. And the part where he felt jealous of Shuichi for being so much stronger than him in being able to face this truth where he couldn’t is also not his fault – Kaito can’t help feeling that way, after all. Apologising for either of those things would be like apologising for being the person he is. The only part that was somewhat under Kaito’s control was the part where he allowed this pain and jealousy to cause him to lash out at Shuichi and actively make things more difficult for him. So that’s the only part which is meaningfully his fault and something he should apologise for.

But it doesn’t seem like Kaito understands that, either. Just like he did when he was apologising for being sick, he appears to believe that simply being weaker than Shuichi is something that counts as a “mistake” on his part and needs to be part of the apology he owes him. The reason I’m so sure that Kaito wants to apologise for this, even though he doesn’t actually do so for the first half of chapter 5, is that he spends the first part of the chapter fixating on a Very Heroic Plan to help everyone escape, in which he makes more of a point of it being his plan than of making it as likely as possible to succeed. Kaito is really doing this is in a desperate attempt to prove himself to Shuichi and show that he can be just as strong and heroic as him after all. An optional line of dialogue from Kaito just before they head into the escape tunnel implies that he may well finally be ready to talk to Shuichi again once they’re out of here – as if he believes that by helping them escape, that’ll be enough to make his apology worth something.

Based on this, it appears that Kaito thinks he needs to make up for being weaker than Shuichi in the trial before he can apologise to him. Which means that the weakness itself is evidently one of the things he’s intending to apologise for. He wants to prove that he’s stronger than that now, so that when he does eventually give the apology he owes, he won’t be emptily apologising for something that he’s still doing. This is the problem with believing you should apologise for things that aren’t your fault and that you couldn’t help – it makes you feel like you should be able to do better when you genuinely can’t. That just leaves you floundering helplessly in your perceived uselessness, and Kaito didn’t feel like he had the right to apologise from that position.

If Kaito didn’t believe that him simply being weaker than Shuichi was part of what he did wrong in the trial, he wouldn’t have felt the need to prove himself like this, and I really believe he might have been able to bite the bullet and apologise for his actual mistake on the first day of chapter 5. But, precisely because he’d convinced himself that he had to apologise for something that he didn’t need to and couldn’t fix, Kaito kept putting off that apology, including the part that he actually should have been apologising for, for what might even have ended up being forever if plot events hadn’t got in the way and changed things.

In short: during early chapter 5, Kaito manages to fuck up his own apology principles in both possible directions at once, both by not being able to apologise when he has made a mistake, and yet also by still believing that he should be apologising for something that genuinely isn’t his fault. Kaito’s issues make him into such a delightful hypocrite and I love it.

How Kaito gets it right again at last

At the end of trial 5, Kaito finally does give Shuichi the apology he’s owed him for the whole chapter. It’s great that he found the courage to do so and didn’t leave things unresolved, but that’s not the part that’s a sign of Kaito’s growth. It was always a given that Kaito would apologise in the end, because he always knew he needed to take responsibility for his mistakes.

The best part of Kaito’s final apology to Shuichi, the part that really does show how he’s grown, is the fact that, while giving it, he doesn’t unnecessarily apologise for anything he shouldn’t. The only thing he apologises for here is being too hard on Shuichi during Gonta’s trial: the lashing out that was his fault because it was under his control. He mentions being jealous of and feeling inferior to Shuichi, but he does not apologise for those feelings that he couldn’t help, because those aren’t his fault – he only brings it up to help Shuichi understand why he lashed out, and nothing else.

After two and a half chapters of internally beating himself up for not being a good enough hero, feeling like he should apologise and he should feel bad for “failing” Shuichi simply due to being an actual human being with weaknesses and struggles, Kaito has finally realised that that’s wrong. He’s accepted at last that things not going as perfectly for him and his heroism as he wished they would isn’t his fault, not if he gave it everything he had the whole way, which of course he always did. It’s an absolutely lovely sign that Kaito’s managed to make at least some progress with his issues about heroes just before the end.

…And then he goes and apologises to Maki, twice, for dying on her – not even in the sense that he’s about to be executed, which could be argued to be his fault, but simply in the sense that his illness is going to kill him no matter what. Of course Maki is hurting, but that isn’t Kaito’s fault and is the last thing he ever wanted to do to her, so it’s not something he needs to make himself feel any worse over than he already does! Granted, one of these is phrased as an “I’m sorry that you’re hurting” type of apology I mentioned earlier that doesn’t frame Kaito himself as responsible for Maki’s pain. But the other is literally, “My bad for making you cry like that,” which, no. God damn it, Kaito, you selfless idiot, you were doing so well.

#danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers #kaito momota #character analysis #ramble #kaito's hero issues #happy birthday kaito! #this is one of two kaito rambles i have prepared for today to mark the occasion #watch this space for the other one later!

[x0401x]

Pash! Plus Interview with Yamamura Takuya

“What I wanted to cherish in the TV anime ‘Tsurune’ was the gap between ‘serenity’ and ‘motion’.”

In this issue of Pash!, we are publishing a special edition for the TV anime “Tsurune —Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu—”. Here, we are delivering an interview with director Yamamura Takuya. We have asked him about the highlights of this work and his feelings for the series.

Raw || Index || My Ko-fi  ( ╹◡╹)っ’･*

“Tsurune” is the sound made when an arrow is fired. It is said to change depending on the shooter. Moreover, since the circumstances and condition affect it even with the shooter being the same, it is quite literally a once-in-a-lifetime sound. “Tsurune —Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu—” is a story about young male archers, which centers around Minato, a boy who was entranced by the tsurune he heard in an archery dojo that he went to see with his mother as a child.

——Please tell us what caught your attention the most when reading the original work.

I had never been in contact with Japanese archery, so I did not even know that it had a martial arts side and a competition side. But then I read the source material and learned that just hitting the target is not enough, that there are actions and manners to be respected. People compete against each other while following the conduct. At first glance, I had the impression that while Minato seemed to think in a contradictory way, he and the others held tight onto their bows, and that their dignified figures as they faced the targets and themselves were portrayed with care.

——The series has no flashy action this time, so we believed there would be many scenes expressing “serenity”, but where exactly is the fun and difficulties in that?

I have actually watched a high school tournament, and the venue was extremely quiet, so I got to hear the tsurune echoing there. I felt that the atmosphere born from the concentration power of the people drawing and the people watching nearby was “calm”, so I wanted to cherish this in the animation. In particular, the beauty of the movements when drawing a bow influences the story, so all of us animators watched videos about archery and did research every day. It was a hassle, but there was also fun in it.

——On the other hand, what part of it would be the “motion”?

When I went to watch the tournament, the high school boys were fooling around outside the venue before the competition, looking like they were having a lot of fun. But once the matches began, they were stern and cool. If those dignified figures were the “serenity”, then the scenes where they would be chattering and making merry were the “motion”.

——Was there anything that you were conscious of when writing about the exchanges between the boys?

The “foolishness” of them, in the good sense. I talked to the series composer, Yokote Michiko-san, about my wish for her to depict the gap in those children, who are cool when they are drawing their bows but normally mess around like any high schooler. Also, we made the camera angle be a distant view in the scenes where they are chit-chatting, making the air be as if the viewers were taking a peek into their daily lives.

——The site has many young cast members, so how did the recordings go?

We wanted a fresh feeling to it so the casting was picked through auditions, and we chose them by only their voice quality and acting, with their names and profiles concealed. We had prepared lines for when they were on and off, and the deciding factor for their selection was the emotion switching. To tell the truth, there were people I was meeting for the first time in the recording, so there was this feeling in the air that the story was indeed going to start from that point. When I was explaining the series, everyone gave me such serious looks that I was the one who ended up getting nervous (laughs).

——Uemura-san, who plays Minato, took the audition for Seiya, right?

Right. But I thought the strong core that lay behind his gentle voice was a perfect fit for Minato, so I asked him to play Minato instead.

——Lastly, please tell us the highlights of the early stage.

Minato and Seiya are childhood friends, Kaito and Nanao are cousins, Ryouhei was also Minato and Seiya’s friend from grade school, and the thing is that all of them get along. But Minato and the other two meet Kaito and Nanao when entering high school, so their cohesion as a group of five is all over the place. The air might be a bit tense in the early stages (laughs).

Please watch over them with smiles as the distance between them gradually shortens. Also, for the first episode, I want people to pay attention to Minato. Like what kind of child Minato is and what circumstances are currently set up on him. And the position of the characters surrounding him is a main point. By all means, I would be happy if people can enjoy Minato’s actions together with his shooting.

#tsurune #tsurune kazemai koukou kyuudoubu #dailytsurune #sportsanimedaily #fysportsanime #kyoani #kyoto animation #yamamura takuya #pash #interview #my translation

[natsumiheart]

A rant talking about and defending Saihara Shuichi from haters for like an hour for his birthday.

(Warning: This post is long, again.)

Over the last (two-three???) years after DRV3 has been released I actually came across Shuichi haters here and there, and I have seen their arguments as to why they think he sucks, why he should’ve died, why Kaede should’ve survived instead, etc. Making full on posts on amino, or just scribbling his face on drawings of him and reposting the edited art on instagram. (Don’t do that to anyone’s art that’s disrespectful as hell, disgusting.)

So after I’ve seen all that, I’m going to explode and defend Shuichi right here on his birthday. I rant a lot so it’s not really new or anything so! Enjoy?

> “Shuichi doesn’t deserve to be a detective, he’s so dumb and afraid of the truth.”

Shuichi IS afraid of the truth, but he’s smart as hell. Let’s discuss something, would you, in all honesty, want Shuichi to be exactly like Kirigiri? Because most of the people who believe Shuichi is actually not smart had these expectations for him.

First off, that would be very unoriginal and unlike the writing in danganronpa. What I like about the games is how every character is written, they are all so different and unique. Just because Shuichi is the ultimate detective doesn’t mean he is going to be Kirigiri level or act like her, same as Nagito and Naegi who have the same talent and yet are so different. 

The second point is that Shuichi’s specialty was doing small cases for his uncle so that he can focus on important things, which basically included finding lost pets and infidelity cases (catching cheaters). He solved only ONE murder case, he isn’t at Kirigiri’s level who may I remind you was born in a family full of detectives and had undergone strict training by her grandfather Fuhito who wanted her to be a detective no matter what. They are two different characters with completely different backgrounds, personalities, and mentalities, so they shouldn’t be compared for having the same talent.

Third thing, Shuichi ended danganronpa. He’s not stupid, he figured out Tsumugi was getting them into a trap with the hope and despair options and exposed her for wanting them to choose hope so danganronpa continues. He also figured out that Kaede’s plan to kill the mastermind failed as soon as he found a shotput ball in a trashcan. He is an actual detective, just went through shit making him afraid of the truth (which I’ll discuss next.)

People who say Shuichi doesn’t deserve to be a detective should be legally not allowed to have ice cream, no cookies and cream flavor, no oreo flavor, nothing is allowed. (I’m jk ahahaha… maybe-)

 > “Shuichi is weak.”

Shuichi didn’t have enough self-confidence in himself at first, but there’s a huge reason for it. It’s the same reason why he started being afraid of the truth. Because every single time he tried doing the right thing, life came back and bit him.

He solved a murder case, turns out the killer was taking revenge for his family. He told Kaede about the possibility of a traitor, she ended up using their plan to try and kill the mastermind and was executed for killing Rantaro. He solved Miu’s case and Gonta was executed, Kaito literally stopped talking to him when all he was trying to do is keep them alive.

His parents also neglected him as a kid, probably making him think the problem is with him until he started being bitter towards them instead. These situations and the way Shuichi was raised led to him having self-confidence issues, always doubting what he was doing, if it was the right thing, and if he deserved to be a detective. (and I don’t think he should be blamed for feeling this way, heck.)

But in the end Shuichi had to believe in himself and all his feelings and deductions to end danganronpa in chapter 6. If anything, in my opinion, Shuichi is one of the strongest characters in DR for dealing with so much, he’s no longer “weak” by the end of the game but I don’t think he was in the first place.

TLDR; he’s not weak, just went through a lot and probably suffers from anxiety rip.

 > “Shuichi is also extremely physically weak, a noodle, a twink, etc.”

Shuichi is in fact not weak, he is shown to be able to do up to 50 pushups a day. I can barely do one (yes the real noodle was actually me all along) He may not be the strongest man alive, but he’s not that lacking in physical strength. At some point even during the training with Maki and Kaito he reaches 50, then Kaito says he lost count and makes him start over.

If you check the caged child scene, he lifted the cage with Kokichi (Who was saying he shouldn’t have lied about being strong because it was really heavy.) So he can at least lift up a cage too.

 > “Shuichi’s real self is some murder obsessed psychopath that assaults others.”

That was never confirmed by the game, it is just a fanon version of pregame Shuichi that some fans believe in. We never know if those tapes that Tsumugi showed were real or not, since the pre-memories Shuichi that we saw in the beginning of the game was more of a nervous and scared boy who said he was kidnapped (Also Kaede had to yell at to calm down, which is a notable difference to her reaction when he did the same thing the second time they got out of the lockers.) 

I believe those characters we saw in the beginning were their pregame selves, Kaede wasn’t as nice and had lost her faith in humanity (but she probably knew what DR is because she was trying to ask, and didn’t exactly look happy about it), Rantaro suspected what was going on because he experienced the same thing before, and Shuichi was confused and most probably scared (I have a feeling he’d know what’s going on if he really is a huge fan of DR). The reason Tsumugi got the idea of “a weak detective that gets more confident” is because of his pregame personality. So pregame Shuichi is actually way less confident than his ingame self and it shows mostly in chapter 6.

But that’s just how I view it, take of it as you will. In the end pregame Shuichi and Ingame Shuichi are two different characters, just like pregame Kaede and ingame Kaede. So even if pregame Shuichi was like that I don’t think his ingame character should be held accountable for it. (and like I said, that's just a fanon version of him, not confirmed. You can’t even tell from the tapes if he assaults people like everyone claims he does.)

 > “Kaede should’ve survived instead, she’s a way better protagonist!”

Now this is a controversial topic in the fandom, I think. Because some people love Shuichi more than Kaede and vice versa. I think people can love Shuichi but also want Kaede to be the protagonist, So I’m not going to touch on the topic of whether our favorite pianist could be a good main character or not. (We only experienced a chapter with her, we can’t tell what would’ve happened if Shuichi died instead and we continued the story with her so we can compare who is a “better” protagonist.)

But I’ll explain why Kaede HAD to die.

Kaede didn’t die for Shuichi’s development, she died because she was practically a perfect character. People suspected her dying before the game even came out! She had an actual talent, she was positive as hell, she tried uniting everyone as best as she could, she was confident and sometimes even bossy. Those were all warning flags to the fandom.

But thing is, Kaede isn’t perfect, paranoia got to her too and because she wanted to save everyone so bad she tried to kill the mastermind and died thinking she killed someone. I personally love how everything played out (except for the part where it turns out she didn’t kill anyone anyway, but I can see the appeal of the plot twist) but that’s just my opinion. 

Point is, Kaede didn’t die for Shuichi to become the protagonist, there was a reason everyone suspected she’d die before the game came out and before they knew the role would go to Shuichi instead.

Also a lot of people tend to forget that Shuichi was the one who ended danganronpa. I’m not sure Kaede would’ve been able to because she probably would agree with Kiibo and chose hope, she’s not a detective after all.

 Now onto the smaller arguments that I saw

> “His design is boring”

Let me see you make a better one 👀

I’m just kidding don’t kill me, but I’m pretty sure the thousands of fanarts of him prove that a lot do not agree with that point. (Me included, he is pretty boi.)

> “Playing as him sucks because he cries a lot.”

Are people are not allowed to have feelings now? The portrayal of his feelings is what made him my favorite DR protagonist, so saying you hate him for crying a lot makes it obvious that you’re either grasping at straws for reasons to hate him, or you seriously lack empathy... I don’t even think he whined / cried as much as the haters claim he does.

> “He stands in the way of my ship!”

…. Wow, I’m actually at a loss of words. I only have one advice if you hate a character for standing in the way of your ship: grow up. It’s good for your emotional health I promise.

#rant #shuichi saihara #danganronpa #drv3 #ndrv3 #New Danganronpa V3 #oof thats all i remember for now #my sideblog is gonna be filled with shuichi fanart reblogs soon #youve been warned 😂 #i think writing this took more than an hour PPFPFF #sorry for the sprinkled salt im seriously done with some people 😂 #i think its totally alright to dislike a character its your opinion #but dont shove it down people's throats with shitty arguments like these #everytime someone calls shuichi weak infront of me #my nonexistent faith in humanity dies even more

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.2

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time as chapter 6 began, some random kid called Makoto was the only genuine appreciater of fiction in the in-universe audience that we’re ever going to see, Keebo was finally using his weapons for no adequately-justified reason towards the worst possible purpose, Shuichi was keeping up the hope Kaito gave them that there’s somewhere to escape to, he and Maki were generally holding onto Kaito’s memory and fondly remembering him and it was adorable (how many of this chapter’s summary bits will I find a reason to mention Kaito in despite him being gone? as many as I damn well can), and then I lengthily complained about how pointless and inconsiderate the time limit mechanic in this chapter’s investigation is.

Now to actually properly start the investigation, beginning in Kokichi’s lab.

Shuichi:  “This is more like… a child’s idea of what an evil organization would have.”

Shuichi is trying to find some kind of link to the Remnants of Despair, since that was totally Kokichi’s organisation, right. But almost everything you can examine here just shows off the fact that Kokichi’s actual organisation, D.I.C.E., was the supremest and evilest only in a very ridiculous, childlike, over-the-top way. None of it has any connection to the Remnants of Despair or to Hope’s Peak at all.

This lab was probably set to open up later than any of the others because even the in-universe writers wanted Kokichi’s true nature to be somewhat ambiguous. Since this lab more or less proves that he’s not really the supremest or evilest at all, they wanted to let Kokichi keep up his charade about that for as long as possible (or even hypothetically forever, if he got himself killed before then).

There is, of course, also the book about the history of Hope’s Peak lying on the floor. But absolutely nothing else in the lab has anything to do with Hope’s Peak, so this book is very out of place. What it clearly is is just a prop that Tsumugi hastily threw in here last chapter when she decided to use the Flashback Light to claim Kokichi was a Remnant of Despair, in order to try and make it seem like he had some kind of connection to all this stuff, on the off chance that anyone did end up seeing inside this lab. Kokichi never entered this lab and never had anything to do with this book. It’s very apparent from the rest of this lab that Kokichi was not originally supposed to have anything to do with Hope’s Peak or the Remnants of Despair. This story was never intended to be set in the Hope’s Peak universe at all until Tsumugi improvised that whole thing in chapter 5.

The pictures in the book… should by all rights be illustrations, and Shuichi should be noticing this. But the fact that he isn’t and therefore they’re apparently photographs seems unlikely to me to be a deliberate clue that actually all the Hope’s Peak stuff is real. Not with how much the out-universe writers went out of their way to point out that the files in Shuichi’s lab had illustrations for the first several of them and then photographs for the rest (and there were exactly fifty-two of them, there is no way that was not meant to be one file for every season of Danganronpa). At this point, Shuichi noting that they’re illustrations here wouldn’t even really spoil anything, since this book exists to hint to us that their memories of all the Hope’s Peak stuff are fake anyway. So this is probably just an oversight.

Or, maybe we can pretend that this universe is so Danganronpa-crazed that at some point they did a live-action recreation of the Hope’s Peak story, and photos from that were used in here to make the book seem super authentic. Wouldn’t put it past this universe.

This book also must have already existed as a prop probably several seasons ago, perhaps made for a season that always was linked to the Hope’s Peak story. Tsumugi wouldn’t have had time to actually make the whole book; she presumably just had it lying around for use here just in case.

After reading it, and having Maki show up and confirm for him that their own memories don’t quite match what’s in the book, Shuichi implicitly starts to wonder if the book is full of lies.

Shuichi:  “Ah, it’s just… the afterword written on the last page… It says that these documents were collected by several esteemed researchers. This is the most thorough, accurate book written on the subject.”

Then he sees this, which apparently makes him think welp, the book must be the truth after all and maybe our memories are wrong. I’m not sure why it doesn’t also occur to him that maybe that statement about the book being accurate is just a lie to try and sell more copies of the book. That would seem to be the simplest explanation to all this. But eh, either way he’s going to get a lot more reasons to doubt their memories as we go along, so it doesn’t really matter.

Shuichi:  (In order to investigate this… I need to know more about Kokichi. I found this in *his* lab, after all.)

Yeah, but that doesn’t even remotely prove that any of this Hope’s Peak stuff has anything to do with Kokichi. Come on, Shuichi, you should know better than to make assumptions like that.

A delayed-action flashback causes Shuichi to “remember” when he’d forgotten his talent and was talking to some kid who recognises him as a member of the Gofer Project.

This kid just so happens to look a lot like the Makoto from the first scene of the chapter, albeit a bit younger. This is very unnecessarily confusing! Obviously it cannot possibly be him, since that Makoto is a real person, and this kid here is just a very fictional background character in the fake backstory. There’s no way the in-universe writers planned this, either, because the real Makoto is just one of their millions of viewers and insignificant to them. This is just the out-universe writers screwing with us, perhaps trying to make us think that maybe Makoto was watching the members of the Gofer Project and cheering them on or something.

Unknown Kid:  “Those people are the heroes that will save the world, right?”

Shuichi:  “The Gofer Project wasn’t created to save us—! … …Never mind.”

Unknown Kid:  “Heroes don’t die! Heroes don’t give up! That’s why they’re still alive! Because they’re heroes!”

Well that’s a very interesting opinion of heroes this random kid has. I mean, he’s a kid, so this kind of thing is to be expected of him, but it sure seems… familiar.

This whole flashback, just as the rest of them in this chapter will be, is supposed to be for the purpose of inspiring Shuichi with the hope to keep fighting. So apparently, Tsumugi thinks that a good way to fill one of her characters with hope and make them never give up is to tell them they’re meant to be a hero and instil them with a very childlike black-and-white view on the topic, in which heroes are just completely invincible and obviously never fail or struggle at anything at all.

And that explains one hell of a lot about a certain someone.

(Like, seriously, I really love that this is here. Kaito’s irrational conviction that heroes must be perfect and invincible was something I pieced together from lots of stuff about him, but he never quite had any lines in which he explicitly said he believed that, so there was always the chance it was just my interpretation and a delightful coincidental fit but not something the writers consciously intended. But here, having this kid outright saying heroes don’t die, in a fake memory that’s meant to inspire Shuichi with hope now that Kaito’s gone, makes it seem quite a bit more likely that Kaito’s black-and-white view of heroes really was deliberately intended to be the core of his issues by the writers. This makes me very happy.)

Shuichi:  (Even so… A hero, huh?)

This is the real, present Shuichi, apparently being somewhat influenced by that fake memory just like Tsumugi wanted him to be. But also… I wonder if he’s thinking about Kaito.

(You know better than to listen to that kid, Shuichi. Heroes can die, but that doesn’t make them any less of a hero.)

Maki:  “Back when we abandoned our Ultimate talents to escape the Gofer Project… I… chose to walk a different path than that of an assassin… But in the end… I was dragged back. … It’s nothing. Now’s not the time to think about that.”

Aww, Maki Roll! This wasn’t specifically the point of that flashback, but it gave her memories of not being an assassin and the idea that she could choose to do something different with her life that doesn’t involve killing people! That must have hurt for her to remember that but then also remember being dragged back into it after all.

Maki joins Shuichi as he heads to the dorms to check Kokichi’s room, increasing our Friendship Power to 1. Since she’s literally with him, I thought on my first time that this meant that Shuichi can only move heavier rubble with greater Friendship Power because he has that number of friends physically helping him move it. That turns out to not be the case, since Maki will stay behind and he’ll still have the same amount of power, so apparently Friendship Power is really just Shuichi drawing on strength by thinking of his friends even when they’re not there.

But if Shuichi can get power from friends who aren’t physically with him, then really that means that he should already have infinite Friendship Power he can draw on at any time just by thinking of Kaito. You know, just logically speaking.

Relatedly, when you’re in the dorms but before you enter Kokichi’s room, you should definitely examine Kaito’s door.

Shuichi:  “The impossible is possible! All you gotta do is make it so!” (Kaito… Your words inspire me, even now. Thank you… so much.)

Aaaaaaa! They were FRIENDS. Kaito meant so much to him and that is never going to stop being true and this is adorable.

What’s also great is that he says it out loud, while Maki is with him, without caring about how ridiculous it makes him sound. Maki doesn’t comment – which is to say that she clearly doesn’t think he’s being unnecessarily ridiculous at all and it probably made her smile too.

I love that this is here and I hate that the game developers apparently didn’t want us to see it because of the stupid time limit. Most people probably won’t ever see this because they’re trying to hurry and this is obviously not what they’re supposed to be examining! This is the best example of why optional dialogue is sometimes Extremely Important and shouldn’t be something you should ever be told to avoid.

I’m not resetting over this one. This canonically happened, you can’t change my mind.

Another oversight on the out-universe writers’ part is that it shouldn’t actually be possible to just walk into Kokichi’s room. All the dead students rooms get locked even if they weren’t already, and the only reason we could investigate Ryoma’s room during his case was because his room key was on his corpse. The writers have apparently forgotten that Kokichi’s room should be impossible to enter unless we get Keebo to blow up the door for us.

Once inside Kokichi’s room, Maki asks for Shuichi’s opinion on Kokichi’s theory that someone’s watching this, and Shuichi agrees that it makes sense.

Maki:  “Monokuma is particularly strict about upholding the rules and livening up the killing game… Is it because someone’s watching? But we’re all that’s left of humanity, aren’t we? Even if he did say it was to show someone, no one else is alive anywhere else, right? I wonder if… someone really did infiltrate this place.”

You’re not thinking big-brain enough, Maki. One single person having infiltrated this place to put this on for their own personal entertainment does not explain why Monokuma is such a stickler for the rules. The person running this can in theory do whatever they want to the rules while still having fun. The point of keeping to the rules is for the sake of a larger audience who are not connected to the person running this, who would cry that this is unfair and potentially stop enjoying it if the rules were broken. Kokichi understood this kind of mindset well enough that he knew this straight away, which is why he had to have known that the only possible answer was that the outside world was a lie.

So… Kokichi’s room is a confusing mess, and I mean this in a writing sense and not just a literal one. It feels to me more like the writers just wanted to hammer home the idea that he was ~weird~ and ~eccentric~ and ~incomprehensible~, rather than that they actually had any coherent psychology in mind for Kokichi in terms of why he would have bothered to accumulate all this stuff.

Sure, it makes sense that Kokichi wanted to understand the past cases as best he could in order to both avoid being murdered and to come up with the bestest cleverest plan. Making notes about that kind of thing would make sense, but actually hoarding the evidence? Certain things, such as Miu’s modified cameras, he might hypothetically be able to put to use somehow, but how on earth is keeping the inner tube around going to help him with anything? Plus, if he was doing this to try and understand every potential kind of murder plot, shouldn’t that mean that he should have also grabbed all 52 files from Shuichi’s lab and been poring over them, since that’s a much bigger source of information than just the handful of cases from this game?

(The only actual purpose the collected evidence serves is to make it possible for Shuichi to re-use one of the photos of Rantaro later. In any other killing game, it’d most likely have been disposed of by now, but conveniently Kokichi was such a ~mysterious hoarder~ that it’s all still here!)

Maki:  “…No, it’s pointless to try and understand what he was thinking.”

Yeah, in this particular instance, I think it actually is.

And why does he have this whiteboard of all of the other students, featuring who killed who and his opinions on a few of them? It may serve as a convenient partial insight into his mind for us in the audience – I’ll get to some of that in a second – but why would he have written any of this down? It is all super-basic stuff! The implication that would give is that he has severe short-term memory problems and might not have even remembered who killed who and what he thinks of some of the survivors unless he had this whiteboard, but there is absolutely no hint of him being this way in any of his dialogue ever, so, ?????

Maki is labelled as “Suspicious”, because of course she is. Kokichi didn’t trust anyone at all, but of course he still had to make a specific point of how sneaky and horrible she in particular was because assassins are bad and scary.

Keebo is labelled as “Weird”. Which proves that all of Kokichi’s robophobia and bullying of him this entire time was not any kind of elaborate lie or reverse psychology or anything that could have possibly somehow had some kind of good intent behind it, since this whiteboard was meant to be for his own eyes only. He just saw Keebo as less than a person.

Then Shuichi is singled out from the other survivors and labelled as “Trustworthy?”. And, again, why? First of all, why did Kokichi even apparently think he might be trustworthy? Shuichi had done absolutely nothing to try and reach out to Kokichi like Kaito and Gonta both did in their own ways (unless the player did Kokichi’s free time events, but Shuichi would clearly not canonically have done them of his own volition). He was every bit as openly annoyed by and dismissive of Kokichi’s bullshit as anyone else. It also can’t be that Kokichi approved of the way Shuichi was willing to use lies in trials, because he threw a tantrum as soon as Shuichi dared to use that tactic against him. The only actual reason for this I can think of is that this is caused by Kokichi’s completely irrelevant probable crush on Shuichi, which, wow, that sure is the shallowest and most arbitrary of reasons to have the least trusting character in the game apparently maybe start to trust someone, especially since literally nothing came of it.

Which is the second part of my “why?”: why did the writers do this? Like I’ve touched on before, him apparently finding Shuichi maybe-trustworthy affected absolutely nothing about how Kokichi acted and how the story unfolded. You’d think it would have led to him realising he should use Shuichi as the accomplice in his plan, but his kidnapping of Kaito proved that he fully intended to use Kaito at least from that point onwards. If anything, Kaito should be the person here who’s singled out from the rest, as Kokichi’s planned future accomplice, and possibly also labelled as tentatively trustworthy. That would have been far more meaningful and actually relevant to anything at all. (Even though the evidence last chapter did indicate that he didn’t ever actually trust Kaito.)

(Maybe the “Trustworthy?” label actually originally pointed at Gonta, and then when he did the murders and had to move Gonta’s portrait over into the murders section, Kokichi was not okay with the reminder that there used to be someone he trusted but not any more, so he wanted to put someone else’s portrait on that label to tell himself that was always the case. And he considered putting Kaito’s there first but then stubbornly decided not to because of his petty personal vendetta with him, so the only other candidate that made any vague kind of sense was Shuichi. Because, you know, this was definitely a thing he needed to do instead of just wiping off the word and definitely what the writers intended here and I am totally not overthinking this to try and make it into something other than pointless shipbait.)

Kokichi did also label the Monokubs as “Annoying”. At least that’s something we can all agree with him on.

Meanwhile there’s also a huge pile of blueprints for possible inventions to have Miu make, which actually does make sense. What also makes sense thanks to the fact that Kokichi was a massive obstructive dick (but wouldn’t make sense if he wasn’t) is how many of them are obviously unrealistic and impossible to make.

Shuichi:  “He could have prepared a few fake blueprints to mask the real ones. It’s nearly impossible to check all of them… lowering the chance someone would find it.”

Maki then volunteers to tediously slog through all of these to look for anything that seems relevant, from which she’s going to discover the Bugvac, which is necessary to let us learn about the Nanokumas. Because of course Kokichi couldn’t have just left that blueprint lying around alone in plain sight in case his plan failed and someone came to his room after his death looking for things that might help them. Because Kokichi didn’t give a fuck about helping anyone but himself.

Shuichi:  “M-Maki… … …Thank you.”

Maki:  “…No problem.”

This exchange when Maki agrees to do this is a small thing, but it’s adorable. They’re smiling at each other! Maki is happy to be helpful and no longer being all dismissive about it! They are friends and Maki has grown so much.

Then there’s Kokichi’s motive video, which is by far the most meaningful insight into Kokichi that there is in this whole room.

Monokuma:  “He caused mayhem the world over as the leader of the secret organization, D.I.C.E. And by ‘mayhem’, I mean petty nonviolent crimes and harmless pranks.”

So this is the other big localisation change around Kokichi: in the original Japanese, it made a point about how D.I.C.E. had an explicit motto of “don’t kill people”. And, again, I really don’t think it matters at all that this was removed. We can already very clearly tell from the way they did nothing but petty nonviolent pranks that Kokichi was not in fact the sadistic bastard he claimed to be at the end of chapter 4. From that, him being against killing people should be common sense and not need to be spelled out for us.

In fact, if D.I.C.E. really did have an explicit motto of “we don’t kill anyone!”, that just reads as incredibly fucking suspicious, and maybe they’re saying that because actually they really do kill people behind the scenes. Which, sure, could also be a double-bluff prank to make you think they might kill people when they really genuinely don’t. But at that point, it can no longer be taken as a legitimate, sincere statement of their principles (because lol what is sincerity, this is Kokichi) like the original apparently wanted us to think of it as. Removing that line from the localisation is, if anything, an improvement in how Kokichi comes across.

Monokuma:  “Anyway, Kokichi had ten loyal goons working for him.”

Looks like Monokuma, or the writers, can’t count. There’s ten people in this picture including Kokichi. He only had nine goons.

Monokuma:  “These goons were like friends and family… The most important people in his life…”

So apparently, despite his blatant massive trust issues, Kokichi did actually have people he cared about! Perhaps the fact that he was their leader somewhat mitigated his issues here, because he could hide behind the fact that they were just following his orders and tell himself it didn’t have anything to do with him trusting them. Plus the fact that they probably constantly played pranks on each other for fun would let Kokichi tell himself that he didn’t really trust them because he was always on guard for them potentially pranking him, even though said pranks would be petty and lighthearted and their way of showing affection and not anything close to the kind of betrayal he really fears. This was probably the best kind of relationship Kokichi could ever have with anyone, one in which he could genuinely trust them and care about them deep down while being able to tell himself on the surface that it’s not really affection or trust at all so that he wouldn’t be constantly terrified of being betrayed. On the flip side, since they weren’t regular friends whom he had no choice but to accept that he trusted, that meant that they never actually helped him get over his trust issues, and so he still had those issues in full force.

This also goes to show that Kokichi’s constant lying trickster nature is not necessarily always an asshole thing. If everyone he targets with his tricks is in on the joke and on board with potentially being pranked because they personally find that kind of thing fun, then it’s cool and they can all have a great time! Imagining the ridiculous pranking shenanigans that D.I.C.E. got up to with each other is honestly kind of adorable, and that’s the only time you’ll ever hear me use that word for Kokichi. What makes Kokichi a dick in the context he’s seen in in this game is that he’s doing this kind of stuff to people who don’t want it. Which is of course also the kind of thing D.I.C.E. does to other people and what I was getting at when I said that Kokichi kind of did already enjoy people’s suffering, albeit in a far, far more petty and relatively harmless way.

Plus, this could partially explain why Kokichi was always so infuriatingly entitled and self-righteous and incapable of admitting when he was wrong about anything. He was used to being essentially surrounded by yes-men, people who looked up to him as The Coolest Prankster Ever and probably constantly agreed that he was right about everything as a result. He may well have got so used to being unquestionably right all the time that he automatically kept insisting as much even when in the company of people who didn’t agree with everything he said. Doesn’t make him any less infuriating for it, but I appreciate that there’s at least a potential reason for that particular part of him.

This motive video is pretty half-assed as a motive, though. Kirumi’s was an actual Flashback Light giving her new memories, and Kaito’s had the “oh no something bad’s happened to your loved ones” part tacked on at the end as an afterthought while the real attempted motive was his grandparents telling him to live, but this one’s just as basic as it gets. It shows a picture of his goons trapped and seemingly injured, but that could easily be faked. Kokichi in particular is going to be aware of how easily fakeable that is, especially when it could even be something his goons might decide to do just to mess with him (though he’d be a lot more mad about such a prank than usual for reasons he’d never admit, because god forbid he acknowledge that he was genuinely worried about them). It doesn’t seem like the gamemakers were trying very hard to get Kokichi to murder someone at all. Which is perhaps because they already figured that he’d most likely be planning something far more elaborate than just a straight-up murder and wouldn’t need an extra motive in order to do so.

Of course, Kokichi’s goons didn’t ever actually exist… and it’s very possible that he realised that himself before he died. I wonder if that was part of why he seemingly snapped in chapter 4, if he’d realised as much – here were these people he felt like he could trust, even if he wasn’t quite wording it in that way to himself, but whoops, actually they’re just a lie too and he never should have “trusted” them in the first place. Like even they’d “betrayed” him.

Now that Shuichi’s done in Kokichi’s room, Maki’s going to stay behind to check the blueprints without him.

Maki:  “We rely on you the most, especially in this situation. After all, you’re… Kaito’s sidekick…”

So are you, Maki Roll! Why are you still forgetting that!?

But it’s lovely the way that Maki is acknowledging how important and reliable Shuichi is, and that she’s doing so because she knows that Kaito brought that potential out of him. Aww. Shuichi may have been the better hero in the end, but that’s still only because of everything Kaito did to help him reach that point.

Before he leaves, Maki shows him an envelope from Kokichi labelled “This isn’t a will.” In other words, it’s a will. He totally knew he was planning on dying but apparently didn’t quite want to admit that to himself when he wrote this.

Shuichi:  “He left us this information in case his plan failed…”

Maki:  “…He did? I don’t think he would do something like that.”

Maki knows what’s up. If he’d actually cared about giving them all the information he possibly could, Maki wouldn’t need to be staying behind to pore through all his ridiculous diversion blueprints right now because the important ones would be in plain sight and labelled as potentially useful to them.

Also, we’d have the last Electrobomb and the Exisal remote in our hands and Keebo wouldn’t need to be fighting any Exisals at all. Don’t forget that!

The only thing the envelope contains is a note pointing them towards the second message, meaning the “twins b” to match the original “horse a” that Kokichi edited. Wow! How incredibly useful! The full clue to a puzzle that Kokichi never even knew existed, because he’d never been inside Rantaro’s lab! And a puzzle which could have been solved fast enough with brute force anyway when we already have the one clue.

Once again, even in death, Kokichi is the most frustratingly unhelpful person even when he is actually being slightly helpful. The gap between how much he bothered to help and how much he was capable of helping is and has always been absolutely immense. He did not care.

After checking out said message in the boiler room, Shuichi has another flashback in which Makoto – the fictional one this time, as headmaster of the new Hope’s Peak – told him not to give up on hope.

Shuichi:  “I’m going to do everything I can… No giving up…” (I won’t give up on hope… I need to keep hope alive…)

And this is real, present Shuichi, unfortunately apparently being a little brainwashed by that. The real reason he needs to not give up is because Kaito believed in him and wanted him to survive and end this, as did all of his other friends who’ve died. It’s got nothing to do with this backstory that barely has any connection with this killing game anyway. Keeping hope alive purely for the sake of “hope” itself is tautological and meaningless. It should be about what they’re hoping for, which is to survive and escape and find somewhere to live.

Next is Rantaro’s lab, which contains a round table with sixteen chairs, much like a class trialground. Not sure what’s with all the rest of the weird décor of frames and notes hanging from everywhere, but at least the table part is relevant to his “talent”.

Himiko’s here to help Shuichi investigate this room.

Himiko:  “Be happy! The legendary mage is your sidekick!”

It’s adorable of her to reference Kaito like this! She knows that Shuichi and Maki were Kaito’s sidekicks, so she’s trying to help Shuichi hold onto the strength Kaito gave him by bringing that concept back – while also acknowledging that Shuichi is the real hero whom everyone’s relying on, so this is her being his sidekick. (Evidently she never figured out what Kaito actually meant by that word and is using the normal-person definition of it here.) Himiko is an entertainer by trade, so it’s only fitting that she’d try to help Shuichi by influencing his mood and trying to cheer him up just like Kaito did!

(It’s also amusingly appropriate considering the whole deal with her free time events and how her relationship with her master was very reminiscent of Shuichi’s relationship with Kaito. Himiko’s had some practice in this “sidekick” role herself.)

There is quite a lot of interesting bonus dialogue with Himiko in this room and you can bet I’m going to be going through all of it.

Himiko:  “Maybe… That Keebo isn’t the real one! It’s probably his spare, K2-B1, AKA, ‘K-toobie’!”

This is probably meant to be a Nier: Automata reference – I haven’t played it but I gather there’s a major robot character in that called 2B (who incidentally shares a voice actor with Kirumi). But that aside, if Keebo actually had an evil version of himself, I think it’d probably be an evil twin sister, named Z2-B0, or “Zedtubo”.

…“Kibou” means “hope” and “zetsubou” means “despair”. That’s the joke. I realise it’s not a great joke when it has to be explained for anyone who doesn’t know those Japanese words, but it’s a fun coincidence how it’s also possible to make the Japanese for despair out of a bunch of numbers and letters. Z is even pronounced “zed” and not “zee” in Japanese, just like in British English.

I guess this is also a fun fact about the point of Keebo’s name for anyone who didn’t know. His whole hope thing is extremely unsubtle in Japanese. I also always felt that his appearance was meant to somewhat resemble Makoto, so Keebo’s hypothetical evil twin sister Zedtubo would probably have big poofy robo-pigtails.

The rest of Himiko’s optional dialogue comes from her giving you a series of hints for the puzzle.

Himiko:  “Hm, there’s a technique mages use when casting spells. For example, when we cast big spells, we add a bunch of flashy over-the-top stuff. We have the audience focus on all that stuff… to hide the source of our magic.”

She’s talking about misdirection! She’s doing so in a way which continues to insist that it’s totally real magic, of course, but this is proof that she really is a genuine magician and knows all of the tricks they employ to make what isn’t really magic seem like magic to the audience. It’s neat to have this here to show she does actually know her stuff and all of the mage talk is just part of her constant act.

Himiko:  “Of course, the source of my magic is very advanced, y’know? Even if the source of magic for my spells was leaked, not just anyone could copy them!”

I definitely believe that. After all, she became even better at magic than her master in the end, and he was the best, wasn’t he?

Upon hearing this hint, Shuichi goes on to explicitly remember that Kokichi’s message used to say “horse a”, and this matches with “twins b”, thus the solution. And then the game developers still wrote more optional “hint” dialogue past this, even though absolutely nobody should ever need it and it would waste their precious time limit to see it.

Himiko:  “Then let’s try it out! As your sidekick, I’ll watch over you!”

Shuichi:  “My sidekick watching over me…”

Shuichi has a rather bewildered sort-of smile here, so we can imagine that he’s thinking of how Kaito felt to have his sidekicks with him. …At least, if Kaito was ever the one to be doing a thing while his sidekicks watched, which was never really what “sidekick” meant to him. On the other hand, Kaito did plenty of watching over Shuichi while he did detectivey things, so Himiko’s line still kind of works to remind him of Kaito.

Himiko:  “At times like these, the truth will hit you like a bullet! You just need to read it!”

Shuichi:  “Like a bullet?”

Himiko:  “Nyeh? What am I saying? Those words just came to me… from somewhere.”

Heh. Look at all of the brainwashing these Flashback Lights can do, to make someone make unintentional Danganronpa references without knowing why. I really like the acknowledgement that Himiko has no idea why she said that, proving that this reference was deliberate on the in-universe writers’ part as well and actually legitimately caused by brainwashing.

Himiko:  “Those are the words that suddenly came to me, but… what in the world do they mean?”

Yeah, it’s not like anything here has had anything to do with bullets at all, right? The only guns there’ve been are in Maki’s lab, and those ones don’t even fire real bullets!

Anyway, let’s move onto actually solving the puzzle and watching Rantaro’s video to himself.

Shuichi:  “The video was clearly recorded in Rantaro’s lab. But we were only able to get inside this room just now.”

Okay, wait a goddamn second. If this video of Rantaro was recorded in this lab, how? The lab wasn’t just locked, it also wasn’t built until chapter 5, or 4 at the latest. Uhhh???? Thaaat’s probably another oversight. I mean, maybe he was just made to record it in a room with similar décor to the lab in order to be more mysterious and confusing for himself if he found the video, but.

(Shuichi says it’s clearly Rantaro’s lab, but the actual background in the video is too vague for us to be able to confirm how similar it looks.)

Rantaro:  “Now, Monokuma probably already told you this, but just in case… The killing game will continue until there are only two people left. Now, the important part of that rule is that—”

*buzz!*

Rantaro:  “Hahaha… Looks like they didn’t want me sayin’ that, huh?”

Presumably what Rantaro was about to say about that rule, since it’s the only way in which the rule ends up relevant, is that this is why he’s here in another killing game and not in the outside world. Shuichi figures out during the trial that Rantaro must have been in a similar situation to the one they end up in, where the mastermind refuses to let more than two of them escape and everyone extra has to be “punished”, which in this case means going through it all again. So Rantaro chose to sacrifice himself to let two of his friends escape, thinking he’d just be killed for it, and now here he is.

Just imagine how the Rantaro recording this video must have felt, though. He’s just gone through the hell of watching most of his friends kill each other. He finally manages to at least see two of them survive and escape, only to realise that they’re just going to do another killing game anyway, and he’s going to be put through it all over again. Not only that, but his memory of all of his previous friends and how much they all suffered is going to be completely erased, like none of what he’s just been through even mattered. And on top of that, the gamemakers make him acutely aware that they have complete power over him and he’s not allowed to say anything that might actually be clear and helpful to his future self. He just has to desperately hope that maybe future-him will manage to figure it out and do something with the vague clues he’ll have.

(When really this whole Survivor Perk thing was just one big handicap designed to get him killed off as early as possible.)

Rantaro:  “You’re the Ultimate Survivor. You survived the last killing game.”

Which is to say, this isn’t really a normal talent at all. It’s not that Rantaro is so super talented at surviving killing games that he survived several. He just survived the one, which any given person has a small but reasonable chance of doing. He’s only been given the title of “Ultimate Survivor” as a statement of the fact that he’s from the previous killing game, since they like to theme everything around these Ultimate talents. He does still have his original talent that he had in his first killing game, since he wouldn’t have been the Ultimate Survivor then – but they’re going to erase his memory of both his Ultimate titles just to make him more mysterious and suspicious and handicap him even more.

Rantaro:  “Anyone who finds out who you are is gonna come for you… So watch your back. Trust no one.”

Geez, what happened to Rantaro in his previous game that made him think this was the best approach? Because it is not. If people find out who he is, surely they’re actually going to think, “damn, this isn’t the first killing game? How many have there been?” and probably be even more determined to do something about it instead of just playing along and killing each other.

Rantaro never actually saw this message of his so this didn’t end up affecting anything, but that would not have helped.

Rantaro:  “You wanted this killing game, so you have to win no matter what.”

I mentioned last time we saw this message at the beginning of chapter 4 that him talking about “winning” doesn’t really make sense and that this line was probably written more to be a teaser in chapter 4 than to make sense now. But I suppose it could be possible that he did “want” it – maybe when he made his sacrifice, he was already aware that the punishment would be this rather than death, and so he chose it in the hope that he might be able to do something to end the killing game for good. Calling that “winning” is still very off, though. He was not Kokichi, after all.

Shuichi:  “He was the Ultimate Survivor… An expert at death games…”

Himiko:  “Th-Then… why did he die so quickly?”

Because he wasn’t an expert at them at all. The “Ultimate” in his title was just for show. He’d only been in one and had lost all memory of that.

Shuichi suggests that the reason he died is because of what he said about how anyone who finds out his identity would come for him. From that, they decide that, since the mastermind would have known his identity, maybe the mastermind set him up to be killed. Which sure is coming to the right conclusion for totally the wrong reasons. Obviously the mastermind always knew his identity, so this has nothing to do with Rantaro’s warning of “don’t let anyone find out who you are or they might kill you”. Shuichi’s essentially suggesting that the mastermind killed Rantaro because they were afraid of his amazing killing game talents, but really, if that was a problem to them, they could have just not included him in this killing game.

Then we get another flashback, this time of Shuichi talking to his supposed friends at Hope’s Peak. These guys look like the absolute most generic ordinary dudes ever, even though they’re supposed to be Hope’s Peak students and should be Ultimates at something, which generally, in a Danganronpa universe, would make them look a lot more distinctive even with the Hope’s Peak uniforms.

Classmate 1:  “Now that I think about it… 16 boys and girls going on a space trip together… You guys gonna do it?”

Yes, Classmate 1, that is literally the point, since they’re going to need to repopulate whatever new planet they land on.

Classmate 1:  “If things get too rough, then just remember all the fun times we had together.”

Yeah, all those fun times that we as an audience totally have every reason to care about! Shuichi still probably doesn’t even properly “remember” any of it, either. This is the same kind of writing problem chapter 5’s Flashback Light had in that it’s acting like we’re supposed to care about these characters we’ve only just seen who had literally no importance to Shuichi until just now – but this time, that problem is a lot more apparent to us in the out-universe audience because we don’t know these guys either. They’re not even given names! And, of course, that’s still very much the out-universe writers’ point here.

It’s even more clearly out-universely deliberate when you remember how Shuichi said himself at the end of chapter 5 that his hope comes from all of his friends in here, both those still with him and those who’ve died. That is more than enough to keep him going. These randomers are completely not necessary to inspire him with anything, no matter how much Tsumugi is trying to pretend that her backstory is so super important.

My favourite one is Classmate 2, the one who’s already pretty badly sick, but presumably not too close to dying or he wouldn’t even be able to be in school. Because this is the virus Kaito had, and so this shows us how bad it actually is, even probably like a week or two before the end. Check out the voice acting for this scene and listen to how absolutely miserable this guy sounds. Which means that Kaito himself had to have felt at least this awful beneath it all, but he fought through it and refused to show a single hint of it because he was stubborn and selfless and idiotically convinced that he could not afford to worry his friends or let them see any kind of weakness. Kaito was incredible.

---

[Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 6 #deadly life #commentary

[imagine-a-killingharmony]

Opposite Talent S/O! (V3 Boys)

I just had another random thought. How would the v3 boys be with a fem s/o that has the opposite talent of them. ( example shuichi with ultimate criminal. Or gonta with a s/o that is a exterminator *poor gonta*) might have to do this myself aswell. Please and thank you.

Thinking of... opposite talents took a while, especially for Kiibo, let me tell you I tried to not sound robophobic I swear... but there’s not a way to make most of these completely opposite so I just did my best ideas I had...

Actually... how do you get the opposite of an Astronaut? Or Antropologist? What I did? Well ehe... I literally gave Kaito a underground (opposite of up up above) S/O while making Korekiyo’s S/O study future trends, considering he studies culture.

(Gives each talent an opposite personality straight in return, oh shucks.)

Kiibo (Ultimate Lucky Student)

Your talent? Easy. You had nothing about you that had been interesting at all, you had gained an letter nothing more... such an average person like you had somehow gained the heart of the most abnormal student in your class somehow... “The Ultimate Robot”.

It was... weird, you both hadn’t any “real” talents to discuss anything over, yet he stood above you because of how he was born, while you only gained an advantage recently because... because of pure luck...

Kiibo was... gentle though, even if you were untalented, he had no restounsing features besides the ones built into him, so it was almost impossible to feel beneath him, it helped that Kiibo was a sweetheart who was new to romance just like you...

You made a perfect couple despite that one difference between the two of you, talking about whatever came to mind, no need to worry about who you were or what you currently are...

Kiibo especially enjoyed not feeling rushed with your relationship, despite Kaede’s optimism, Shuichi’s empathy towards him, Miu’s close bond with him with sharing such a closeness to him talent-wise...

He chose you, he admits it proudly that he’d do it a million times over again.

Shuichi Saihara (Ultimate Escape Artist)

Your talent? Heh! Ultimate Escape Artist, you’ve broken out of many sticky situations, picked many locks, it’s impossible to catch you since you’ve currently been on the run your entire life, until Hope’s Peak accepted you... so you didn’t have to stay in jail, somehow you gained the eye of what should be your rival: “The Ultimate Detective”.

You picked your way into his heart, Shuichi couldn’t help it he had fallen in love with you despite how... your title caused such a... crack in most of his beliefs.

Of course... don’t think he’s letting you go free, whenever he catches you do something bad, which is a lot he stops you almost immediately after a second of hestitation.

It’s terrible, you’ve been on a losing streak ever since dating him, he’s always so kind of you when you act all nice and good but whenever you do “one” bad thing he’s all up on your case telling you to try to not do it again...!

Guess his sense of righteousness triumphs over your love, but he always reminds you that he’ll visit you each day after your academy days are over in your jail-cell till the day of your release, that he’ll catch criminals that make you look like a knock-off!

How romantic~...!

Ryoma Hoshi (Ultimate Student Counsil President)

Your the Ultimate Student Counsil President, it’s your duty to keep the school in tip-top shape ever since joining and you’ve done it with passion and vigor! It’s uh- too bad the “Ultimate Tennis Player” refused to join, so you... got close to him in attempt to instill moral justice...

You both fell in love, your talents aren’t anything close to eachother, quite the opposite really considering you place justice and studies above all else while he’s... been arrested, using his brawn.

He tells you he doesn’t deserve you, especially with how enthuastic you are about bringing the class together, a guy like him wants nothing to do with most people, you being an special... exception... who’d refuses to leave...

So... you bring him closer with the rest of your classmates much to his dismay, he doesn’t like it but you force him to get along with everybody so you can have what should be the best damn year of your lives... You even make sure he keeps up on his studies, it’s a real hassle having someone so organized take up on your life.

... he won’t admit it, but he appreciates it.

Kaito Momota (Ultimate Miner)

As the Ultimate Miner you dig deep underground, all there is to it you really don’t care about your talent. It’s tiresome as it is but somehow the “Ultimate Astronaut” thought it be a good idea to boast to you about his talent to you, “both of you were explorerers of different frontiers!”

Yeah right. He got too close, it was stupid. You somehow fell for an idiot who say’d he travel new brand new heights, including you.

He doesn’t know anything about being a miner but it’s not like you ever get to gaze at the stars often yourself, so he usually tells you about how “amazing” it is, thousands of glittering speckles up in the sky that one day he’ll be able to cup thousands of those stars in his fuckin’ fist.

You used to think it was stupid, yet looking at the passion in his eyes, brighter- more beautiful than striking gold...

It paces in your chest, what should be a charred-black coal heart.

Rantaro Amami (Ultimate NEET)

As the Ultimate NEET you’ve... gained your talent from Hope’s Peak really wanting to complete it’s set of Ultimate’s, you hated it too considering your parental figure made you go but you never hated anything more than a blasted “Ultimate” who didn’t remember his own talent who insisted you become his buddy and open up.

As if, until he actually, made you open up, fuck- why did he have to be so suave and cool- wahhh- as Tsumugi would say- damned normie step on a landmind and die!!

You hated it, but he would bring you out daily to make sure you had gotten exercise, even tried to make it so you ate better for your own sake as chips and soda aren’t proper nutrients to substain living.

Going on the longest hikes, the longest boat rides which had you walk around so much as he complimented you for doing your best in the end of it all... it was terrible! Awful even...

So why do you keep doing it...? God knows, but whenever Rantaro smiles at you your heart flutters so... fuck he’s used his playboy magic on your heart!

Gonta Gokuhara (Ultimate Exterminator)

Your the Ultimate Exterminator... you live a fucking lie now, you met the Ultimate “Entomologist” who literally asked if you liked bugs the first time meeting him, you were about to answer but then before you could answer he said he “dislikes bug-haters!” with the most horrifying expression you’ve ever seen... so to keep your kneecaps you lied...

To your now-boyfriend who still doesn’t know the absolute truth, so now you live each day in paranoia at your title- and Kokichi-fucking-Ouma snapping and telling him the truth.

Gonta loves bug- you hate them with a burning passion, that’s the whole reason you got the job, most of them crawl on your skin and- it’s disgusting- but he loves them so you go along with him...!

Gonta is... kind... you don’t want to lose that, not ever, not now, not anytime... but your bound to when he figures it out... so you just try your best to find the perfect time to unveil the news...

Especially with the fact you unconsciously stepped on a few bug-friends he had in his lab, which made you grimace.

Kokichi Ouma (Ultimate Friend)

Your the Ultimate Friend! Ah but you could use the word buddy or pal or chum too, whatever works, you’ve made a whole bunch of friends with your entire school and have gained a weird fan base but all of you are equal, “The Ultimate Supreme Leader” calls you the most gullible thing he’s ever laid his eyes on...

Whatever that means, heehee... he asked you out and your dating now, for some odd odd reason he’s asking for tips on how to easily gain the trust of others which you don’t get... like at all?

But he said in return he teach you how to lie... but you don’t wanna lie, but you didn’t want to hurt his feelings either so you said okay! All you told him was you just be super duper nice to them... promise your loyalty for ever! Like... BFFS!!!

Kokichi squinted at you after you said that, you still don’t understand why he asked you out of all people but... he just tsked as he put on that super-cool cape of his that he kept lying around.

“... It’s fine, I’ll just control your already growing fan base behind the scenes sweetie, mwah.” Kokichi presses a light peck against your cheek, you embrace him tightly and lovingly in return.

Korekiyo Shinguuji (Ultimate Trendsetter)

As the Ultimate Trendsetter it was a basic goal to spread the word upon the newest dads and trends, but there was a certain somebody not quite getting the memo... a “Ultimate Anthropologist” who wore an mysteries mask yet... oddly old clothes...

He needed a gentle push in the right direction! Despite how he told you how his attire was quite “fine” you told him that couldn’t be the case, darling- weird mysterious vibes are sooo last month!

With you by his side he was sure to rock this entire school to it’s core! (He doesn’t want to do that S/O.) it’ll be a guarantee everyone will have his eyes locked on him! (S/O please.)

It’s quite difficult to pay attention to the folklore stories that he tells you but it gives you ideas for the newest fads that might be coming along, kimonos were quite cute- shit let’s bring those back in town-!

Korekiyo... always wondered if sister would find your behavior to be... model or just... unacceptable, he’ll need to pay her a call soon...

#mod shuichi #mod shumai #ndrv3 imagines #ndrv3 x reader #kokichi ouma #shuichi saihara #rantaro amami #ryoma hoshi #kaito momota #kiibo #korekiyo shinguuji #gonta gokuhara

[truth-and-lies-drv3-imagines]

Hey there! I was wondering if you could do headcanons on how Shuichi, Kaito, and Kokichi would propose to their S/O?? thank you so much!

I fangirled way too much when I saw this pop into my inbox and no words can describe how much fun I had while writing this

Kaito’s one may be slightly cliche if not really cliche 

Mod Shuichi

Kokichi,Kaito and Shuichi proposing to their s/o

Shuichi Saihara

-After a long time of you two being in a relationship Shuichi thought long and hard about the future of the strong connection you two hold. He thought of taking action earlier, but because of his shy and awkward nature he chose not to and do it some other time.

-But with the assistance of his good friend Kaito, after building up the necessary amount of courage in order to perform this action he was ready to open up this new chapter in his life.

-Shuichi wasn’t a fan of proposing in public at all because of the fear of being rejected in front of others who have no involvement on the current situation. So proposing in a private place was his cup of tea.

-It was dusk, the sun was setting down to end the day and you two were sitting on the bench located at the park. It was a peaceful scenery with nobody but you two there, and this is when Shuichi was ready to pull out the ring.

-”S-s/o I-I really want to tell you something and I r -really won’t expect you to turn away from my proposal but, will you marry m-me?” stutters formed into his speech but it wasn’t too difficult to understand what he was saying. In fact, it was very touching for him to perform such a courageous act

-You saw his face and movement, his face was cherry red and his eyes were looking away avoiding eye contact from you in fear of rejection or a bad reaction from you

-After the small silence was over you said something, it wasn’t something Shuichi expected at all, in fact after hearing the words of accepting his proposal he froze in shock not believing the words that went in and out from his ears

-”R- really?” trying to make sure that this is reality that he is in he finally realized that he is and was overjoyed for the acceptance. He’s now preparing this new chapter that he’s going to take on in his life

Kaito Momota

-When Kaito began to feel that your relationship is getting stronger he started thinking of taking it to the next level which is marriage. oh please don’t get those dirty fantasies up xD

-God who knows about the amount of time it took for him to find the perfect ring that matched to your liking, he wanted the moment to be just pure perfection and nothing else. He already started dreaming of your acceptance 

-It was late at night a beautiful one with the stars being brighter and more visible then ever, and whenever this opportunity has happened to roll in you two have to go star gazing no matter what comes in

-It was a regular night of listening to him rambling on about his future and you talk about it with him as well sprinkling in minor details, and when the topic of marriage pops in Kaito is building up the spirit to prepare for his next response.

-”Hey s/o speaking of marriage,would you  marry me?” then in front of your own eyes was a beautiful ring that matched up  to your tastes and it sparkled more then the night stars did.

-Waiting for your feedback he pulled of his usual smile that was always filled with determination, rejection was not something he was thinking about during the moment at all in fact it was the opposite 

-One of his dreams had finally come true and as soon as he knew it you had accepted his wholesome request. The expression he had on his face was priceless, Kaito then tackled you with a tight and warm hug, and he’s enthusiastic to open up the new possibilities in life.

Kokichi Oma

-Having a forceful kind of personality Kokichi would do anything to make sure things would go his way and his only especially when it came to romance so it’s no surprise when he did end up being extremely forceful for the occasion.

-Everything was planned ahead and if anyone knows Kokichi a hundred percent he does tend to go over board when it comes to planning a major occasion especially the one he’s going to do now

-”Hey s/o! What would your reaction be if I ever in my whooole life ever proposed to you? Super sad or super duper happy?” clearly hinting on the idea of proposal you answered his question and as soon as you could even blink he was on his knees asking for the proposal

-”I never ever ever ever kneel down to anyone who is totally not my s/o! So can you pretty please accept! If you don’t I’ll force you to!” you already knew that you’ll accept but it’ll become hell if you don’t

-Having the happiest expression on his face Kokichi then stood up and skipped over to you to give a hug, an extremely tight one probably the biggest he had ever given.

-Now the arrangements were finally done with and you two have moved onto the next stage of life

#Kokichi Oma #Kaito Momota #Shuichi Saihara #Shuichi Saihara x Reader #Kaito Momota x Reader #Kokichi Oma x Reader #Shuichi Saihara imagines #Kaito Momota Imagines #Kokichi Oma Imagines #DRV3 Imagines #Imagines #danganronpa #mod shuichi #drv3 #v3 #new danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 killing harmony #v3 killing harmony #danganronpa imagines #fluffyheadcanons #fluffy imagines #proposal #s/o #marriage

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 - Flashfiction (4)

FLIP THAT CHESSBOARD, SWEETCHEEKS!

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3

it’s what kokichi would have wanted

DRV3 HOW DARE YOU HOLD OUT ON THE CUTEST DAMN TSUMUGI SPRITE OF THE ENTIRE GAME

how can mirrors be real if our eyes aren’t real

And we found it in Kokichi’s lab of all places. Why? Had he been able to get access to it ater all? Why was it just lying there so awkwardly - not hidden or neatly put away at all, but just tossed on the floor like an afterthought?

...... thinks about the state of Kokichi’s dorm room

yeah the chance that he left it on the floor like a bored 12 year old or me is not 0%

Wait.... is there??? The only one that stands out to me is the method of applying vs being scouted...

So we go over the events again, or as the game would probably put it, comb over The Longest, Most Ridiculous, Most Despairing Backstory to look for discrepancies.

Don’t look so pleased with yourself!

YES THANK YOU SHUICHI THANK YOU FOR STOPPING HER BEFORE SHE GOT STARTED AGAIN

It.... it doesn’t???

as;dflksdjf

U-Uuuuh Monokuma??? Are you just allowed to namedrop the title like that???

A-Anyway, this one was sort of vague - not sure if the game did too good a job of hiding it or not, but I certainly didn’t clue into this immediately because, well, I’d argue that Junko was ultimately the cause of this? And she was the original Ultimate Despair, even if Mukuro got roped into it with her? This felt a bit like being at a multiple choice exam where there are a few answers that are sort of right but not exactly right and then I cry

AND MUKURO!!! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS MUKURO ERASURE, DAMN IT!!! can you tell she was one of my favourites in the first game if not my favourite

“And that’s why, even though you are technically right, you are also wrong, and therefore will not get any points for your answer to this question.” sweetcheeks you sonuvab -

despite the mukuro erasure, consider me team maki

“Can it, nerd.”

It would have been really nice to have Maki in the first game.

We really are going over this piece by piece.

Okay, so now we’re reviewing the first game. They were forced to kill each other, then Junko was found out and killed herself in the end, which led to the eventual end of the Despair side....

Shuichi is clearly onto something that I haven’t quite latched onto yet. 8′D

This makes me think of how cool it would have been to have this text style in the previous games. Have I mentioned enough about how much I like the typography in drv3? Because I don’t know if that’s possible.

OOOH that’s right - I forgot! Or, well, I didn’t forget, but it didn’t really occur to me that we were remembering that they were literally trapped in the school by Ultimate Despair, I guess.

I guess the gist of it is that they’re remembering - well, not witnessing the events, but being told things were one way vs another. They would have been too young to have been alive at the time though, right? It seems to me that, though the game clearly wants us to take it a different way, we can also interpret this as them just being told the wrong thing within the memories themselves as opposed to the actual memories being entirely falsified. What if the reports at the time or the commonly-known story was that they had been locked in by Ultimate Despair, and it’s only the properly researched books like this that have the correct accounts? It’s not exactly an uncommon phenomenon for there to be widely-held mistaken knowledge/generalizations of famous events, unfortunately... 8′D

Anyway, I’m getting distracted because like I said, this is really not the angle the game is going with at all.

BULLSHIT

AND ALSO

WHY WOULD A BOOK EXIST THAT DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS THE MEMORIES YOU GAVE THEM

LIKE

WHY DOES IT EVEN EXIST IN THIS PLACE AT ALL

I’m seriously fixated on this book!

also

I love Shuichi just casually ignoring Junko!Tsumugi lmao

I’m calling her Junko!Tsumugi I refuse to call her Tsumugi!Junko I REFUSE TO GIVE UP ON TSUMUGI’S AUTONOMY

This.... this one has to be it, right? This was the one thing I remember getting really confused by when they talked about applying! In fact, I had thought the whole reason Shuichi was considered the Ultimate Detective was because of the homicide case and if that resulted in him being at Hope’s Peak, it was because word of that had traveled - but then if it was an application, that means either his parents or his uncle would have applied on his behalf, right?

this was a detail I remember remarking on and loving btw I got really sad when in Chapter 5 it started looking like they were all in the same class

I think more than the others, this is the big one. All that other stuff can be attributed to mistaken hearsay - but this? This is something they would have ‘directly experienced’.

Oh apparently he chose to come... despite feeling awkward about his title.

I wonder if he was pressured into it by his family....?

Or, uh. Let me correct myself. I wonder if, in this mistaken memory, he remembers being pressured into it by his family?

I-I feel like I would trust the book over you guys especially considering the whole ‘we remembered Kokichi Ouma as a Remnant of Despair and got him killed as the fake mastermind’ situation tbh.

well technically ultra despair girls is

That is a good point. I mean, it could quite possibly happen underground, but I suppose the same could be said of the Jabberwock Island one - there’s no reason that should be public knowledge.

“I mean, I know it’s nothing new, but bear with me here.”

H A L L E L U J A H

REALLY

REALLY

MAKI, REALLY

YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW BETTER

FUFCKFUCKING HELL GUYS YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE

sdfkdslfj fukging

noOOONONO

aND YOU! YOU SHUT UP TOO!!!!

“Also have you seen their outfits? Do you realize how terribly they would clash? ‘Oh Saihara, why would that matter what do uniforms have to do with anything surely Kokichi and his uniformed clown posse could just be a branch under the Remnants’ NO THAT WILL NOT FLY WHEN THE HEAD OF THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION LITERALLY DOUBLES AS THE ULTIMATE FASHIONISTA!!!”

this level of reasoning is possible for saihara shuichi

.... what do you think, everyone?

And he still has the Supreme Leader title, even if these aren’t really their talents... there has to be something to that, right?

Shu -

Shuichi

The words DICE were written in big words over his giant hella awesome throne

He has a checkered scarf which brings about a certain ‘game’ feeling

he literally challenged you to card games

I’m.... I’m just gonna throw it out there, but there’s a pretty good chance the group he led was called ‘DICE’.

YOU SAW THE VIDEO YOU SAW IT DAMN YOU MAKI I KNOW YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THIS!!!!

“Maki also said he literally said he didn’t know what she was talking about when she interrogated him with a crossbow literally aimed directly at him but surely that’s unrelated -”

s o b s

I 100% bet Tsumugi was not counting on them finding this room. So.... beginning the trial, she tried to do a Kaede/Kaede’s twin mastermind thing. Then she switched tactics to being solely ‘Junko’ and her lackey Kokichi setting up the game with the last survivors of humanity as... revenge for Hope’s Peak, I guess? Or something.

So where are we going from here? Are we about to discover this was all a simulated scenario then?

Sort of like they’re trying to test different outcomes and scenarios - with different talents, maybe? Is there the selected 16 (15? 14?) talents that can be switched around at will, or is there a larger database of students’ talents? That’s what I really want to know.

But “there are an endless possibilities for lies,” a certain person may say.

why are you all ganging up on me also how when two of you are literally the same person and the other one is an AI acting as an extension of you -

It sort of hit me but this is a weird echo of Korekiyo’s trial, with Junko and Tsumugi switching back and forth with each other the way Korekiyo and his sister did. I wonder if there’s something to that, or if it says something about Tsumugi in general...

(one hangman’s gambit later...)

TALENTS ARE NOT THEIRS AND POSSIBLY ARBITRARY CONFIRMED

I WOULD KILL FOR KOKICHI TO POP OUT OF THE GRAVE TO SHOUT IT’S A LIE RIGHT NOW

FUCK YOU BEAR

ghggkhgkh

that is a dangerous precedent to set

But you weren’t planning on revealing this, right??? Right???? Your hand was totally forced! Don’t play this off like it wasn’t!

I swear I had a similar idea when I was coming up with how they could see themselves in photos/pictures if the students weren’t actually who they thought they were - about how their brain filled in the gaps and placed their own faces where they’d expect to see them (like in the funeral scene with the portraits, etc). Glad to know I was kinda right on that regard!

I really like it when they combine Junko and Tsumugi here. There’s probably something to that - when it’s Tsumugi herself acting as the mastermind, as opposed to just being ‘Junko’.

T-Those are some pretty big inconsistencies though? Why would there be incorrect options in those flashback lights in the first place? What was there to gain for their being options where ‘Ultimate Despair trapped the first class in’ and ‘Junko is the end-all of Ultimate Despair’? At least Kokichi’s made sense to have on standby, but the other stuff? Isn’t their existence a bit weird?

It’s... nice to see Shuichi focusing on Kokichi. Being posthumous and all it’s a bit late, but it’s still nice - especially after all that talk of ‘not understanding him’ and ‘the embodiment of a lie’, having him finally clue in to Kokichi’s real place in all of this - a victim of the mastermind - is good. It’s the perfect example of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and Kaito figured that out last chapter, so it’s long past due for Shuichi to drag himself and everyone else to that conclusion, kicking and screaming if he must.

(he was jealous of Angie)

because he was trying to stop the game!!!!!

Which, honestly, was pretty clever on her part. I think overall Kokichi will come out of this looking the best - he had so little going for him and almost succeeded in his coup - but the fact that Tsumugi was able to counter his surprise attack still says a lot about her own intelligence and her ability to adapt, because in that moment she also had limited options.

THANK

YOU

LORD

WE HAVE GATHERED HERE TODAY TO SAY FAREWELL TO REMNANT!OUMA THEORY

REST IN PIECES AND NEVER COME BACK

Pretty damn successfully, too.

While the fact that her first inclination was to straight-up murder Kokichi was very Not Good, it’s at least good to know that it took the extra nudge of the flashback lights to push her over the precipice. Basically, it took turning Kokichi into a complete monster in her eyes - Despair with a capital D - to strip away his humanity entirely. I do wonder if she still would’ve staged a rescue mission of sorts to rescue Kaito? For that matter, I wonder if Kaito had been on the outside (with the Flashback Light used on him and everything) and it was someone else being held hostage like Shuichi, would he have been able to talk Maki down?

It’s interesting how they’re turning hope itself into a weapon here. I think Junko talked about this in the first game, the idea of giving hope out to maximize despair, so it’s not the first time the mastermind has actively used hope as a weapon - but it’s never felt quite as dirty as it does here.

!!! We’re seeing her as herself in the room!!! I guess it’s the flashback light classroom, but still!

That is so unfair considering they were all being threatened with death, you were straight up messing with their brains and also that airlock exists??? And they straight-up collapsed after being exposed to the outside??? I’m 

I think Shuichi managed to break away from that a bit at the end... maybe. He seems more motivated by righting the wrong in Kaede’s case at this point, and of avenging everyone who died - but the same can’t be said of the others.

Man I even wondered what it would be like without Kaito and Kokichi there considering they’ve been the strongest ‘movers’ on both sides - and the answer ended up being ‘I’ll give you artificial motivation to act’.

SHE’S.... REALLY A KILLING GAME FAN GIRL AFTER ALL..........

Oh, this does feel dirty. She’s lusting after them in an abstract way - like pieces on a chessboard. Kokichi was able to compartmentalize and make people take certain actions to an extent, but even he had attachments that he wasn’t able to shake. I knew it felt like she had managed to keep herself from getting too close to them, with the sole exception of the protectiveness she felt for Gonta (which?? I want to know if we’ll hear anything about that specifically???) but this is... wow.

Actually, this is very Komaeda-esque isn’t it? She wants to see them succeed in their battles against each other in a similar way...

Junko only gets that look when she’s actually mad. So if Tsumugi is sporting that... well, she must be smarting a bit underneath all the gloating she’s doing. She was happily spouting off ‘hints’ before, right?

Oh??

me too tbh

OH THE TURNABOUT MUSIC IS HERE

THAT TRANSITION WAS SO GOOD AND SMART WHAT A GREAT WAY TO USE THE PORTRAIT STAND

oooh! OOOOH! OH WHAT A FANTASTIC POINT!

SHUICHI MY BOY YOU’RE ON A ROLL NOW! GET HYPED GET HYPED GET HYP -

AAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hajimemed

#Ryou plays drv3 #Shuichi Saihara #Tsumugi Shirogane #Himiko Yumeno #Kiibo #Keebo #Maki Harukawa #K1-b0 #spoilers #drv3 spoilers

[shadowynnn]

Misadventure 01

~~~

Prompt: The kids, they ambushed me!

Pairing: Aizawa Shouta x OC (Aiko Akiyama, aka Mimicry)

Misadventure 01  of The Whimsical Misadventures of One Pro Hero Mimicry

Words: 2986

~~~

A/N: (Sorry it’s sort of long…)

Here’s the first of hopefully many one-shots centered around my OC for My Hero Academia! It’s a bit different than my normal stuff, but I’m super excited to see where this heads and I hope you all are too! 

Here are a few extra notes about this series to hopefully clear things up as you read:

1. These are not written in chronological order, but rather when I find a prompt inspiring one or whenever I can’t get a certain idea, episode, scene, or thought out of my head. If it’s inspired by a prompt though, I’ll be sure to include it! With this in mind though, I’ll be trying to do my best to explain things about her in a way that makes sense as you go along. Her quirk, family, and background will hopefully be revealed in a way which can be understood even if the events aren’t written in order. I’ve never written in this way before, so fingers crossed it’ll work. 

2. This series will also be a bit AU. Because I think it would be super cute to see the relationships my OC would have with Class 1-A students, I’m made an AU where each class at UA has a teacher’s assistant which follows a class through their years at UA and I’m excited to see where and what kind of new opportunities this will allow her to experience. It’s just a lot of fun to imagine how she would react/be in different situations with the class!

3. There will occasionally be other OC’s throughout this. If you’re ever interested in learning more about them, or even my main OC as well, I’d be happy to share more in a separate, more detailed post. Just let me know!

4. Lastly, and on a slightly different note, I’m planning on intermingling other one-shots/possible imagines with some of the other characters in My Hero Academia (or even other fanbases altogether) which won’t be OC’d based or take place in this series. Let me know if you’d also be interested in these! If so, I might make a separate and more detailed post and we can go from there!

I think that’s most of the things I wanted to explain before you started reading and I apologize for this being really long. I just thought it would be important to note before you started reading and I *hopefully* continue this series! 

Thanks for sticking through this - especially if you actually took the time to read all the way through. I hope you all enjoy! :)

~~~

Your legs swung idly from where you sat perched on Shouta’s desk listening absentmindedly to the latter inform Sekijiro Kan and his class assistant, Kaito Takahashi, on the students of Class 1-A. You were trying your best to pay attention, adding short comments about students when you felt it necessary, but your head just wasn’t in it today. Normally you loved your work as 1-A’s class assistant, but with summer break officially starting and camp still a few weeks away, you were bored with all the paperwork, preparations, and meetings. 

You couldn’t complain too much, though, as it was partly your fault. Class Assistants weren’t required to be as involved with the end of semester documentation as you had been, but you had just felt bad with all the extra hours Shouta was having to put in that you eventually offered a second pair of hands.

He had refused you at first, coming up with several stupid excuses before you could convince him otherwise. While he constantly reminded you you could stop whenever he saw you losing focus after an hour or two at the computer, it was easy to see he welcomed your help and was more relaxed having you around him more often, especially after realizing your villainous ex-boyfriend was still kind of hung up over you, which was another matter altogether you didn’t really want to think about at the moment.

Either sensing your restlessness or simply growing tired of the dragging meeting himself, Shouta dropped his papers on the desk beside you and leaned against the edge just close enough to where the side of his body lightly brushed against your own. While a casual enough gesture to be seen as innocent by those who were unaware of your relationship, it was still enough to make you inwardly smile. Shouta wasn’t one to initiate contact very often, especially not in public, so it always meant a lot to you when he did so and you struggled to keep yourself from melting into his side. 

While most of the faculty was aware of your outside relationship, you had been dating before you were hired at UA after all, you were still careful to keep a work-appropriate demeanor around your coworkers. It wasn’t hard though - with Shouta being his usual reserved self and you being sociable and affectionate with nearly everyone you met - and the majority of the school was completely unaware you two were even together. Hell, even your own class was oblivious until the USJ incident, though a few - aka, the girls - had had their suspicions.

Shouta stayed by your side for the remainder of the meeting, only moving once to place a hand on your knee to stop your legs from swinging when the constant movement against his own began to annoy him.  While the gesture was normal for the two of you - you were never one to be able to sit still - you were surprised to note he left his hand there once your movement had stopped. You didn’t read too much into it, however, as he was probably just stressed with the upcoming camp and extra classes. Shouta always got more touchy when he started stressing, stating your presence helped him relax and it had shown the past few days. You did your best to try and play it off though, not wanting to draw any attention. 

Luckily, Sekijiro was too enthralled with the papers in his hands to notice the exchange, but your former classmate and close friend Kaito, on the other hand, was quick to notice the simple action and sent you a sly wink when Shouta wasn’t looking. You shook your head just the slightest and a soft huff of amusement escaped before you could stop it. You felt Shouta’s eyes on your figure at your movement and quickly asked Sekijiro a question about a boy in Class 1-B who had a quirk faintly similar to your own to try and draw his attention off of yours and Kaito’s exchange. You knew if he realized what he was doing he’d drop his hand and you really didn’t want that to happen.

The meeting eventually finished up after a few more minutes, much to your relief. Sekijiro was quick to leave, but Kaito stuck around for a little longer wanting to hear about your recent venture to I-Island for the annual I-Expo and the villain attack which took place during your stay. You chatted idly with Kaito, giving him all the juicy details about the expo and the attack itself while Shouta moved to sit at his desk and finish up some last-minute work. He was silent for most of your conversation only muttering in agreement when Kaito made a comment about you always seeming to attract trouble to which you promptly flicked both in the arm for.

Eventually, Kaito too had to leave and left the room silent with his absence as Shouta was too focused on his work to talk. You glanced over at him, lips twisting as you mulled over whether or not you should offer assistance. You didn’t want to but you would be able to head back home faster if you offered to split the work. But then again, you really didn’t want to. 

“I’ve got just a few more minutes of work to finish up. Why don’t you go down and tell the class their time is up while I finish and then we can head home.”

Your eyes lit up at Shouta’s suggestion and you quickly nodded your head. It was the perfect solution. Not only were you were getting out of work, but now you didn’t have to feel bad about not doing anything.

“Sounds good, Sho!”

You dropped down off his desk eager to get out of the room, but his hand grabbed your wrist and held you in place before you could go anywhere.

“Five o’clock sharp, Aiko. No bending the rules.” Shouta glanced over at you, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to make sure you wouldn’t let the kids convince you for a bit more time...It wouldn’t have been the first time something like that had happened, after all.

“I know, Sho, I got this.” You rolled your eyes. Sure, you were sometimes ‘too’ lenient around the kids, but you preferred to think of it as ‘good cop’ and ‘bad cop’. Your leniency just balanced out with Shouta’s strictness. School, especially UA hero school, was tough and the kids deserved some fun every once in a while. It definitely wasn’t because you were a big pushover when it came to your students. 

Shouta sighed, but let you go without another word. 

He might have not said it outright but you knew he assumed you weren’t going to get them out of the pool by five. And while you might have thought his strict adherence to the rule was ridiculous - who was it bothering if they strayed around for a few extra minutes anyways - you were determined to prove Shouta wrong as you headed down to the pool...At least you were determined until you heard Iida propose the boys race to find who could swim fifty meters the fastest and all thoughts of Shouta flew out your brain.

“A race? Sounds like I came at the right time!” 

You were met with various lively greetings as you made your way towards the class and you returned their words with a bright smile and a wave of your hand. You regretfully heard the bitter remark Mineta whispered about you not being in a bathing suit but chose to ignore it because apparently there was some sort of rule about teacher/student relationships and you couldn’t bop him on the head no matter how much he asked for it. Thankfully, Jiro quickly came to your rescue with a quick earphone jack to his ear.

“So how’re we gonna race? Quirks or no quirks?” You asked giddily as you approached Iida, eyes shining. This was the most excitement you had had since the I-Expo. Which was actually kind of sad when you thought about it too long...

“Are we even allowed to use our quirks?”

“As long as you don’t damage each other or school property, quirks are fine with me.” You nodded your head to Ojiro’s question shoving thoughts about how lame your summer was so far out of your head. “Otherwise I just might have to steal your quirk for the rest of the summer...Bakugou, I’m talking to you there.” Your eyes made their way to angry blond, who simply crossed his arms and angrily muttered, “I’d like to see you try,” under his breath.

With an agreement on how the racing would be done, you went to grab a whistle from the locker room while Yaoyorozu randomly split the boys into three heats. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Sero was the first to start complaining when Bakugou easily won the first heat by using his quirk to explode himself to the other side. 

“You didn’t even touch the water!” Kirishima was quick to add, just as frustrated with his best friend as Sero was. 

“It’s called freestyle swimming, you idiots!” Bakugou yelled in return, tiny explosions coming off his hands as he let his anger take over again. 

You fought the laughter bubbling up in the back at your throat at his response and hid your smile quickly with your hand as Sero and Kirishima both looked back at you for support in their arguments. “Sure, he didn’t technically swim, but we agreed quirks were fine and he did manage to not damage anything so…” You shrugged leaving both boys looking rather dejected.

While those whose quirks weren’t helpful in swimming started to regret their agreement to use quirks rather quickly, those who did have useful ones began to quickly follow Bakugou’s lead. In the following heat, Todoroki, Aoyama, and even Sero crossed without touching, that is until Aoyama ran into Sero causing them both to fall into the water below. Even Iida, a total stickler for rules, joined in, using his engines to boost him across the rope. 

“I thought we were supposed to be swimming!” Kirishima, whose hardening quirk would have only slowed him in the water, yelled once more in aggravation at seeing their class rep’s actions.

Despite the lack of swimming, you still enjoyed the thrill of watching the boys race, cheering with your students from the sideline. You hadn’t realized how much you had enjoyed spending time with them until you weren’t around them for eight hours a day anymore. They may have been your students, but you had bonded rather closely with them over your first semester together and looked forward to the next two and a half years you would have with them.

With the preliminary races done and the finalists, Bakugou, Todoroki, and Midoriya, chosen, chatter and bets began to be put in place for who the winner would be. Many of the students complaining earlier about the lack of actual swimming were looking for Midoriya to win, seeing as he was the only one who actually swam, but some of the others still spoke for Todoroki and Bakugou.

You couldn’t help but giggle as you watched the three prepare to race, Bakugou was being his normal angry self and yelling at the others to make sure they didn’t go easy on him as if this was some sort of big competition and not a simple class race. As you continued to watch him go at it, you briefly wondered which Bakugou hated more: losing or winning against someone who didn’t give it their all, though you leaned towards the latter. He was absolutely livid after winning against Todoroki at the sports festival and you and Midnight had been quickly forced to intervene before he managed to hurt himself or someone else. 

“Alright you three, you ready?” You asked, interrupting Bakugou’s incessant grumbling and motioned for them to take their place at the start. Once in place and with a curt nod from all three, you raised your whistle to your mouth and began your countdown.

But when you blew the whistle, all three only fell clumsily into the pool with loud yelps of surprise. 

The reaction was instantaneous. 

“What are you doing!?” - Kaminari

“Why didn’t you use your quirks!?” - Sero

“Now you decide to get in the water!?” - Kirishima

All the pent up excitement and anxiety to see who would win fell apart at the lack of racing which was now taking place. You, however, knew what had happened the moment the boys fell in the water and once again remembered why you had come down here earlier.

“It’s past 5 pm.” A blush crept across your face as you heard the familiar voice speak behind you. “You’re authorized pool time is over. Hurry up and go home.” 

“Ah, come on! Just a few more seconds!” Kaminari was the first to complain about the sudden stop but was quickly followed by several of the other classmates all as eager as you to see who might have won the race.

“Quick, I’ll distract and steal his quirk while you hurry up and finish!” You spun around to face your boyfriend trying your best to hide your blush from his view while you shot his annoyed face an innocent smile.  At the unamused twitch your teasing statement brought, however, you quickly rebuked your statement before any of your students could speak in favor of it. “Which is a joke by the way and will not be happening...?” Your statement tumbled off as you shot Shouta a questioning look in hopes of convincing him for a little more time. At the subtle shake of his head, you sighed. You had already pushed him enough as it was and it wouldn’t do to try and push him any further, especially not in front of your students...even if he was being sort of an ass at the moment. “You heard Mr. Aizawa, hurry up and start getting ready to head home.” 

Your words were met with disappointed moans and loud complaints, but they quickly followed your instructions after a bit of encouragement from Shouta. 

“Before you say anything, the kids, they ambushed me,” You spoke up when all the kids had started on their way home and you were once again left alone with Shouta. 

“Is that so?” he murmured, eyebrow cocked as he gave you an incredulous sideways glance. And though he tried to hide it, you could still see the way his lip curled at your words. 

“Mmhmm,” you continued, your own smile evident at the realization he wasn’t too aggravated at you. It wasn’t like you had really thought he was though, you practically had Shouta wrapped around your finger and the both of you knew it, much to his distaste. “I had no choice but to let them race. I was practically held hostage.” 

“They give hostages whistles now, do they?” 

“Oh, shut up.” You shot back, giving him a playful shove at not being able to come up with a comeback quickly enough. Shouta only chuckled at your childlike behavior and grabbed your hand to catch his balance. He made no move to let go either as he led you in the direction of the exit. “You’re lucky I love you, otherwise you’d be sleeping on the couch for that!” 

“I’m the lucky one?” Shouta huffed in playful annoyance. “I’m not the one who let them stay an extra twenty minutes and then threatened to steal my quirk. If anything, you should be the one on the couch.” 

“Shit! Was it really that long?” You asked, ignoring Shouta’s last statements as you checked the time on your phone. You had thought it was only a few extra minutes, but Shouta was right. It was just after half-past five. “Oops, sorry.” Your face flushed as you gave him a sheepish smile.

“Now who’s the lucky one?” 

“And in what way am I lucky, again?” You pulled Shouta to a stop, a coy smile spreading across your face as he was forced to look back at you.

Shouta shook his head at your childish antics, but his hand still brushed against your cheek as he tucked a stray hair behind your ear and leaned down. “You’re lucky...” His mouth brushed ever so softly against your ear before suddenly pausing. “...”

“Ooo, Jiro, I can’t hear him anymore! What’s he saying?” - Ashido

“Shut up, Ashido, they’re going to hear you!” - Hagakure

“Why are we even doing this again?” - Jiro

“Because I want to see them kiss!” - Ashido

Shouta stood up abruptly as the sound of loud whispering coming from the other side of the UA gate. As frustrated as you were at their interruption, you couldn’t help but start giggling at their antics, especially Ashido’s last statement. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be on your way home?” 

Your head fell against Shouta’s chest as your laughter only grew louder at the yelps of surprise Shouta’s words brought and the several “Yes, sir!”s and the one “You better not make Miss Aiko sleep on the couch!” from Ashido that followed as they took off down the road.

“You heard the girl,” you giggled when you felt Shouta sigh. Pushing yourself back just enough to be able to look up at him, you continued. “You  better not make me sleep on the couch.”

Shouta only shook his head unamused by your statement as he started pulling you in the direction of the exit once more. But despite his reaction, you still barely managed to catch him mumble, “You know I like sleeping with you too much to ever do that.”

A light blush settled across your face at his words and you gave his hand a loving squeeze as you softly replied.

“Me too, Sho, me too.” 

#my hero academia #shouta aizawa #mha #bnha #anime #romance #au #oc #prompt #aizawa #one shot #reader