#lookback: Abyss

[leaderoffestivals]

(Lookback) The Heartbeat of the Sea: Abyss Chapter 1

Kanata: … … Mikejima—  You are not he, are you? Your scent is different— *Lick*—Yes, and your taste is different, too. Souma: HYAAAAAAH—?!

Season: Winter (In the past) Author: Akira Characters: Kanzaki Souma, Shinkai Kanata, Mikejima Madara

<Thirteen years before ES was founded. At a funeral hall somewhere in Tokyo.>

Souma: I have been granted freeeedom~!

(Now then, what should I do? Think carefully, Souma! There remains but a half-hour of this precious free time left to me! That’s, uhhh, about thirty minutes, more or less!

I must use this time wisely and do… Something! Anything at all! It would be such a waste, otherwise!)

Souma: … … However, I am feeling rather famished at the moment.

I suspect my mealtime may have slipped my esteemed Father’s mind. 

(Uuu. What should I do? It is impossible to do battle on an empty stomach.

My esteemed Mother is usually the one who prepares my meals... However, she is due to give birth to my dear little brother soon.

She is finding it difficult to move about due to her advanced state of pregnancy. That is why there was no helping it. She could not undertake the long journey here, burdened as she was by her increased weight—

—even though this funeral ceremony is for an exceedingly august personage, one whom our household cannot possibly disregard. 

That is right. It seems someone has passed away. 

That person seems to be someone who is of very great importance to us, a highly esteemed individual. 

Oh no! Will I be scolded for using the word “person” when referring to them?

That person… seemed to be like God.)

Souma: (... … But even so, a funeral for God? Can God die as well? Hm~~?

Well, I suppose that when it is time for one to die, they will indeed pass away! Father and Mother would never speak untruths after all!)

Souma: Uuu… Pondering so hard has made me hungrier. I am famished. Even the great Regent (1) could not have anticipated I would be suffering the miserable prospect of starvation in bountiful modern-day Japan…

(Perhaps I could ask Father to prepare a meal for me… … However, he seems to have his hands full, and he is always saying that men do not belong in the kitchen. 

Umu. In that case, it seems I have no choice but to seek out a meal myself. 

If I search, there ought to be insects or other creatures around which can serve as sustenance somewhere. 

Huh? But, wait. On closer inspection, there is an array of food laid out all about me.   

Am I hallucinating this?

I do not fully comprehend, but this must be Heaven’s blessing too! In other words, uhhh, God must be granting me a divine favour! Yes!

I shall accept with gratitude! 

… … Am I allowed to eat these without permission, though? Will anyone be angered? And yet, with no one around, I cannot seek permission from anyone either?

Besides—Ugh~—I am truly hungry!)

Souma: I humbly partake of this food!

*Chew, chew* Ug~ghh. The flavours are much too strong. The flavours of the meals Mother prepares are so much more refined than this… 

(Sound of footsteps) 

Souma: (Ah! Someone is approaching! This is bad, it would be disgraceful to be caught indulging in pilfered food! It is shameful conduct for the child of a samurai family!

I—I must hide. Under that desk, there seems to be a screen with which I can conceal myself… …

Make haste, Souma! Run for it! Yaaaa!)

Kanata: WAH—Oh?

Souma: … … … …!?

Kanata: Hm~? Hm~? Hm~?

Souma: … …? … …?

(EH? Ehhhh?! What? Who? An intruder~!

Who in the world is… this fellow? He has such a strange air about him—)

Kanata: Who is that, over there? Is it Mikejima?

Souma: (Huh? Eh? What is he saying? 

His voice has a peculiar resonance to it… … I cannot make the words out clearly… …)

Kanata: … … Mikejima— 

You are not he, are you? Your scent is different—

*Lick*—Yes, and your taste is different, too.

Souma: HYAAAAAAH—?! *What* are you doing, all of a sudden? Are you a demon—?

Kanata: Errrm. Who are you?

Souma: A-and who are you? What are you doing in a place like this? 

Kanata: Ohhh. Kanata is not doing anything at all. 

In a sense, what Kanata is doing is ‘nothing’. (2)

Souma: ? ? ?

Kanata: Do you not understand, mortal child? 

Is it so difficult to understand the words Kanata is saying? 

Souma: Eh? Ka—katana? No, what you said was “Kanata”, was it? And that means—?

Madara: POW! (Sound of a loud punch)——In the nick of time, Mikejima appears!

Souma: Gyaa--UGH—!

Madara: Whoo~oops! I punched his lights out in the heat of the moment, but, who is this guy? God, do you know who he is? 

Kanata: Kanata has not become God yet, that is why Kanata does not know anything. 

Mu—And besides that, you took such a long time to return, Mikejima. 

Madara: I’m sorryyy! I had a little trouble finding a place we could break in and enter by, that’s whyyy~

Souma: (Wh—who are they? These guys? They appear to be… children of my age and yet… …?

Oh no, this is bad. I was already light-headed from hunger earlier, and now the shock of being punched has made me even more dizzy… …

I am… losing… consciousness… …

... ... ... ...)

—————-To be continued——————-

Chapter 2

Translator’s Notes: 1) Souma says 太閤さま (Taikoo-sama) which means Imperial Regent and is commonly used to refer to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai who lived in 1537- 1598 and regarded as the second “Great Unifier” of Japan.

2) Kanata means that he is actively carrying out ‘the act of doing nothing at all’. 

#ensemble stars #enstars tl #mikejima madara #shinkai kanata #kanzaki souma #lookback: Abyss

[xitty]

Tsukasa 5* Kaoru 4* combo strikes again.

#kaoru there again right after abyss lookback too #i don't mind though because he's one of my faves

[ratherboogie]

After the tease of child Kanata in Last Mission, I couldn't stop thinking about how long his hair was -- and since he was only visible in silhouette, there was no telling just how long it was!

(There was no universe where this was the right answer.)

I finished a version of this pic and posted it to my Twitter literally the night before the Lookback was announced; that's the second image. I still really like the original, especially Madara with hair JUST long enough to pull back into a ponytail, but thought it would be fun to update it to match their appearances in Abyss.

#ensemble stars #enstars #shinkai kanata #mikejima madara #madakana #this has been an interesting time to get into Enstars as a MadaraP I gotta say #to my SamFlams yes that is Masayoshi's final arc hoodie #SamFlam is never far from my heart

[mihai-florescu]

Hello!! I hope you don't mind my asking, but do you have any reccomendations for madara stories? I've read the war era, but almost none of his present day stories.

By war era you mean checkmate and meteor impact i assume, so should i give some story recs from when he was a yumenosaki 3rd year too? Purple wisterias of may, Shinsengumi and Aquarium are 3 i think are the most important events at the top of my head, as well as the Concerto gacha story. As for !! era, a dark night's passing (i believe this one is night patrollers or smth like this on engstars, either way, it's the first double face story), antique legend, secret service, poltergeist and last mission are the most important events. And abyss is the shinkai cult lookback. Theres also spring evening's respite but i dont think that one's really that important personally...

#ask #anon #it was mostly this ask i came back for i didnt want to leave it unanswered jic

[yume-fanfare]

Sorry I just got into this game like 2 months ago and don’t read many switch stories . What did they do in the climax that got people upset? (Switch and other climaxes?) sorry again.

asdhkjksks don't worry, it's really mostly fandom drama! not really something you need or even want to know about

but, with varying levels of detail, this is some of the discourse i saw during the events (most of this refers to arguments that spawned in the waiting time between story updates but not all of them, ex: double face):

crazy:b : story itself wasn't bad i hear but there was quite the uproar because it wasn't written by akira, even though they said he'd write these events

ra*bits: not rly much drama here because not that many people read it but the reveal of who bishoujo-senpai is exactly made impossible many key aspects of other major ra*bits events (sweet halloween, romantic comedy) (and there aren't that many ra*bits major events that can be retconned to begin with lol)

double face: unit was disbanded

atlantis: it seemed like eichi got proposed to by yet another girl even though he was in some arranged marriage deal with tori's sister. And that he hadn't told wataru about either of those things (in the end none of this was true but those 4 days of wait between story updates were agonizing)

valkyrie: this was pretty fine fandom drama-wise ? even though it's valkyrie. EDIT: i deleted the krnz b-plot from my mind. the krnz b-plot was bad. around this time also, the kanata-centric lookback scout abyss was released and they retconned and changed some chiaki and kanata bits in meteor impact it was sad

2wink: yuuta was too mean to shinobu (they hate to see a bpd baddie so he got cancelled on twitter). but it was also a plot built on a veeeery old story so there were also odd characterizations here and there at first that also threw off the actual 2winkP

alkaloid: written by kinosei again, it was just a filler holiday event, not quite a climax so. very disappointing.

undead: complaints about The Whole Thing this was bad. im not too well versed on them so i can't go into detail but from the ai thing to the lack of focus on some members there were many problems. plus it was the first time they posted those story summaries and having an apparently mid story explained again was the final nail on the coffin

akatsuki: i didn't hear much drama about this one either ? but akatsuki have had a streak of bad characterization so maybe it was resignation

trickstar: no complaints trickstar solos

ryuseitai: jury's still out but it seems it was a kind of weird story at first so there was also some discomfort here and there. sounds like it ended nicely though

switch: natsume was ooc (tried to strangle sora and did not even apologize even though normal natsume would've been devastated + was overall way too mean)

and i think that was all??? if anyone knows abt anything else do tell me let's study fandom behavior

#but im nott maintagging #anonymous #preguntas

[randomshortlightnovels]

Hospital First person story.

With a sudden jolt I wake up. My eyes are glued open, and all can see are rows ofbeds and curtains. I stare at the beds, every single one of them is empty. Everything isextremely clean, and every bed looks to perfectly made with a keen sense ofperfection, waiting to be used. I inhale through my nose; all that I can smell is bleach. Itry to force my brain to remember how I ended up in this situation, “What did I do?Think, brain, think.”A feeling of dejavu washes over me, “Hospital, hospital I am in a goddam hospital!” Isuddenly glace over to my right, as I do so I feel an extremely painful, stabbingsensation in my lower abdomen. I quickly peel off my sheets and encounter blood-soaked bandages wrapped around my abdomen. Involuntarily I wretch my head away:I truly hate the sight of blood, as I do so, I hit my hand on an IV pole that is standingnext to my bed. It is then I notice that there is a clear tube coming from the baghanging near the top of the IV pole; I read the black text on the bag – normal saline. Ibegin to follow the line of the clear tube; it attaches to the back of my right hand. I lookback up at the top of the pole; the IV bag is almost empty. I glance down to theground; on the floor lays 4 empty, crumpled IV bags, a scalpel that is swimming in asmall pool of blood and a bent sewing needle.I try to remember, force my brain to retrace my situation: I have no recollections of anyof this, of how I ended up in this situation. I decide I am going to do something; I amgoing to either try to get someone to help me or, try and get out of this hospital. I startyelling, using what little strength I have to try and reach out to someone; as a do thismy abdomen begins to feel like it is on fire again; telling myself to push through thispain but I suddenly start to feel a new sensation. I glance down to the bandages – theyare becoming redder and redder. My brain registers I am bleeding, I hate the sight ofblood. Blood begins to ooze out of the bandages. I suddenly stop screaming How canI stop this blood? I glance down to the floor again; I see the bent sewing needle andwithout any thought I reach down and grab it. I then start to search for some thread. Ilook down to my bed sheets I see that a small part of the sheets is fraying, I decide tograb the small thread, I begin to pull at it, it comes apart easily. I somehow managedto pull off a ruler sized amount of thread, I then begin to unwrap my bandages, as I doso the wound on my abdomen begins to secrete a trickle of blood. As I peel back thebandage further, it begins to start flowing out of my wound, I reactively place my handover the wound. I then try with one hand to place the tread into the needle; after a fewaggravating attempts I succeed in placing the thread into the needle, after this I beginthe start restitching my wound. I place the needle on the edge of the wound, as I do soI feel a slight pinch as I thrust my hand, driving the needle into the wound’s edge. Ifeel a sharp pain, I then begin the pull the needle through. I can feel the threadpassing through my skin. I grit my teeth and continue to restitch my wound; theagonising pain of the needle driving me nearly insane.After I finished stitching my wound I struggle sit upright, the stabbing pain of myabdomen still resonating with me. I look over to my right hand, and I decide that I needto remove this IV tube from my hand. I feel back the sticking plaster holding the IV inplace, grip my fingers around the small IV needle that is wedged into my hand, myhand begins to sweat; quickly I yank the needle; as I do so, I feel an immense pain inmy hand - pain comparable to the sewing needle. Blood begins to spurt out of theback of my hand; I hate the sight of blood; I instinctively swing my other hand over toapply pressure to the newly created wound. I swing my legs, with my body following tothe right side of my bed. Removing my left hand from my wound and reach out to theIV pole to try and support myself as I stand up, as I do so, I slip on the small bloodpool, almost slicing my foot on the scalpel, I use the IV pole to reposition myself,carefully stepping over the pool of blood and scalpel. I decide to retrieve the scalpelthat is swimming in the pool of blood; it could serve some further use; who knows whatis outside this room.Slowly and carefully, I make my way to a set of double doors. The doors have a smalldinnerplate sized viewing area that allows you to see out into a hall. As I walk my barefeet make a slight echoing, pattering noise that bounces off the stark, white, bleachsmelling walls. Brandishing the scalpel out in front of me, I look behind myself, I cansee scarlet footprints behind me. Approaching the doors with all the speed I canmuster, I quickly peer out of the viewing portholes into the hallway; the hallwayappears to be dark; a flickering green light illuminates further down the way. Slowly Iopen the door, trying to make the least amount of sound as possible, as I enter thehallway, I check both ways, but I am unable to see anything as the hallway isextremely dark. I begin to walk down the hallway, as I do so I see a hospital bed that isturned over on its side. Quickly I dart over to the overturned bed, hoping to see if thereare any clues as to where other people might be, I immediately regret doing this, aswhen I peer over the bed is see a man dressed in a blue janitor uniform, laying on hisside, the blank stare of death on his bloodied face. I glace down to his neck, hisjugular is exposed to the elements, shatter pieces of scalpel blade are lodged withinhis neck flesh. I fall with terror onto the hard cold floor. I try to regather my thoughts,compose myself and begin crawling over to the body, using one hand to cover myeyes from seeing the bloodied face. I search the body, going through their pockets,looking for clues. In the man’s left leg pocket, I feel a smooth, plastic- like surface, Ipull the item out and begin reading it - it reads “Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 1,level one clearance.” I place the card into my pocket and begin to stand up, still usingmy hand to block out the man’s bloodied, expressionless face.I continue to walk down the dark abyss of a hallway, grasping the scalpel tighter, I fearthat whatever happened to that man, could happen to me. I begin looking at the doorsof the rooms that I am passing in the hallway. After passing a few more rooms I lookup and, in the distance, I can see the faint green glow of what looks like an emergencyexit sign, I rush over towards the sign, the sound my increased speed footstepsechoing within the hall. When I arrive at the door that is underneath the emergencysign, I peer through the glass on the door. I see a staircase. I place my hand on thedoor and begin to turn handle and pull on the door; I step inside the stairwell, the stairrailings appear dilapidated and rusted, I walk over to the stairs and begin my descent.With each step I take I can hear the stairs under me creak and groan. As I continue todescend them, I pass a floor number scribbled on the wall; 5,4,3,2,1, G. As I arrive onthe ground floor, I creep cautiously over to the door, trying to contain my urgency; Ipeer through the glass, I can see a reception area. Slowly begin to open to door; itbegins to creak, the sound echoing within the stair well.Closing the door behind me, I walk into the reception area. Documents litter theground, the reception desk is flipped over, computer screens lay shattered and brokennext to the reception desk. I begin to walk over to the entrance double glass doors; Istare out past the glass. To my astonishment all I can see is trees, everywhere aretrees. It appears that this hospital is in the middle of a forest. I begin to push open thedoors and step out into the forest. As I do so, two things catch my eye: to my right-hand side lays a 10 speed bike, propped up against a tree; the bike is a faded, whitecolour with a large amount of visible rust on the frame and wheel spokes, the back tyreof the bike is visibly flat. To my left is a concrete block that is level to my waist,mounted on the centre of the block is a silver, upright tap. I decide to go over to thetap. I place my hand on the cold spindle handle of the tap, as I do so I can feel ashiver go down my spine, I place my face above tap outlet and twist the spindle withmy hand. Water gushes upward, hitting my face. I begin to gulp, the water is cold, itgushes out of my mouth and splashes down onto my hospital gown. I look up, the sunshines brightly onto my face. I decide that If I am going to solve this mystery of why Iam here at this place, what happened to the other people at this hospital and how Icame to be injured, I am going to need to search for other people, people who mightknow. This is my quest. I begin. Walking off into the forest, walking towards the sun.The hospital building behind me gets smaller and smaller. I wonder if I will ever return

#writing #shortstory #school