#shigure’s father should be obvious

[moonstoneraven]

some fates kids :)

#fe14 #fire emblem fates #fe fates #fe mitama #fe siegbert #fe percy #fe shigure #fe dwyer #dwyer is my son :) #mitama and percy are siblings #siegbert is ryoma’s son #shigure’s father should be obvious #my corrin is dwyer’s dad :D #shigure should get a hair color change #so i gave him the furry hair color tuft

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

saw your yuki/kyo dissection and i was curious to know what's the other ship you think was an obvious possible option?

... after consulting @cafedanslanuit , Imma say it. For the plot. And Imma write my essay explaining my case. But y'all... don't get mad at me for being right. Strap in, this is gonna be a long one lmao.

But before I actually say it, we need to talk about Akito and Tohru and how they parallel one another.

Because these two are the same character at the opposite ends of the spectrum and 2/3 of the key aspects of Fruits Basket that make the show work. Without them, there's no Fruits Basket.

Both of them are quite literally the same character.

Masculine naming convention? Check.

Abandonment issues? Check.

A favored parent and a parent they have negative feelings towards? Check.

Especially since their respective relationships with their parents led to those abandonment issues and how they interact with the world. Akira was to Akito what Kyoko was Tohru. Ren's unnatural hatred of Akito, viewing her as a threat for Akira's attention, Akira's death and Kureno's curse suddenly breaking for no rhyme or reason led to Akito becoming the person she became.

Katsuya's death caused Kyoko to fall into a depression so deep she neglected Tohru for an indeterminable amount of time. Very nearly left Tohru to herself before coming her senses and becoming the best mom in the world that we the audience know her as. But that period of Tohru's life was very forming for who she became.

Kyoko came back after coming to her senses, we know this. But to Tohru, her mother suddenly embracing her for the first time in likely weeks, was the result of Tohru mimicking her dad's speech. A formal way of speaking that became so engrained into her daily habits, it's completely inseparable from her now.

Akito and Tohru's respective experiences ultimately lead them to the same core aspect of their character: Loneliness.

Both of them are terribly afraid of being alone, they just keep people in their lives in very different way.

Akito relied on fear, Tohru used kindness.

Akito used violence, Tohru used compassion.

Akito's go-to was embracing her father's words that she was a special child born to be loved. As such, she could do anything she wanted to the other members of the zodiac without facing any repercussions.

Tohru's go-to was her belief that her not prioritizing her mother over rest is inherently connected to her mother's death. That she should have prioritized her mother over everything. That her mother had to be her number one even in death. Thus, she became afraid of loving anything or anyone more than her mother. And yet, she still didn't want to lose anyone else in her life.

Tohru's kindness is genuine but there is a benefit she gains from it similarly yet juxtaposed to Akito's abuse.

That's why the two of them are able to come to an understanding with one another by the end of the story. Why Tohru was able to set everything else aside to start from zero because she understands that fear of being alone all too well.

They are both a mirror into what the other person could have been like if their circumstances were different. Tohru could have been that bitter, hate-filled woman, while Akito could have just as easily been the sweetest woman in the world.

Akito is Tohru

and Tohru is Akito.

All this buildup is to say that...

I think the only other obvious choice for Tohru was Shigure.

Yes, Shigure.

Y'all heard me right.

The final piece to what makes Furuba work, the one who instigated the plot in the first place.

And I'm sorry if y'all get mad at me for saying that, but I really don't think this is an incorrect assessment. I'll die on the hill that it was an obvious what if.

There's superficial things one can have fun mentioning in regards to these two ー

Across all adaptations of Furuba, Shigure is the first Sohma we are introduced to

Shigure's cursed year is the Dog, Tohru's birth year is the Dog

But the biggest thing for me is in how Tohru is an intrinsic part of something Shigure lacks as a person, that being empathy.

To make myself clear, I'm not saying Shigure is completely void of empathy. Because we can see him expressing it to the people he cares for in the story. (Ex. Wanting to go on a vacation during Golden Week so Hatori can avoid his ex's wedding.)

But for Shigure, empathy isn't something that comes easy for him. As he words it, his kindness isn't as good as the real thing someone like Hatori has. Shigure considers his kindness a hastily manufactured afterthought.

He's someone perfectly content using someone if he gets something out of it. And if he sees someone hesitating to reach for something they want, he'd rather just provoke them into action than attempt to warmly encourage them or understand where they're coming from. Because he doesn't see a point in hesitating at all and frankly, he knows comforting people like that doesn't come easy to him. So he normally opts not to.

As such, he's fascinated by the levels of empathy and kindness Tohru has. Tohru's kindness sometimes even makes him feel guilty and Shigure isn't someone who often feels guilt in the first place.

Contrast to him, Tohru is so pure that Shigure can't help acknowledging how twisted he is. In season 1/the manga's first arc, he even tells Hatori that because of that forced realization he gets every time he looks at her he thinks Tohru is too pure for him.

Compare to that to our final arc of the manga/season ー where it all eventually escalates to Shigure's quiet contemplationthat maybe he should have dreamed of Tohru.

That it's most likely that Akito wasn't the right one to dream of.

That someone as twisted as him needs someone like Tohru to balance it. To be that beacon that can lead him into being a 'normal' person.

He genuinely thinks about it in that moment as he playfully tells Tohru 「もしもの、お話し」 which is more accurately translated as "It's a what-if story".

Had Shigure dreamed of Tohru all those years ago, what would have been different?

...

But Tohru isn't who he dreamed of and this is the bed Shigure has decided to make for himself. One he has kept on the path of for years. So he lets himself think about the what ifs for a moment before ultimately deciding to keep lying in the bed he's made in hopes of the day Akito finally comes around.

But it's in Shigure's mind, and now the audience's mind, that more than likely it should have been Tohru. Tohru and what she represents is who he should have dreamed of.

You can see signs that a relationship with Tohru is something Shigure's considered even vaguely in the series even before that point though.

Sure it's passed as a joke, but when you look back at the scene with the "what if story" goggles, you can't help wondering "was it really though?"

Hell, Shigure desiring Tohru is something that even Akito feared.

She was enraged at the thought very thought of it during the Summer Vacation arc. It's what set Akito off enough to tell Tohru that she is the God of the zodiacs and they all belong to her, Shigure in particular.

Akito was already even in an agitated state before she asked Shigure if he felt anything even partially romantic towards Tohru. Why? Because she's displeased that Shigure isn't kind to her the way he used to be. That he used to only look at Akito but now he doesn't. She wants him to be kind to her again, like he was before.

And Shigure is exceptionally kind to Tohru.

Like he is very careful and considerate when he comes to Tohru which he even confesses to Mayu at one point when she tells him that he should treat her carefully. He tells her 「これでも僕にしてはめずらしいくらい大切にしてると思うんだけどね」 which can, more accurately be given a rough translation of "I think it's unusual for me, but I'm taking good care of her" or even "I think it's unusual for me to value someone this much".

And if you look back on the series, that isn't cap.

Excluding characters like Kisa, Hiro and Momiji (who isn't the same age as the other two but acts youthful enough it is easy to forget), Tohru is the only character Shigure doesn't really treat the way he does everyone else.

Shigure has no problem poking and prodding at people, even in moments where they're very clearly in emotional turmoil when he says them.

Asking Yuki what Akito told him during the Summer Vacation arc.

Telling Kyo that he is using hating Yuki as a shield for what he doesn't want to think about.

(... Telling Akito "bitch I wouldn't have cheated on you if you didn't cheat on me first" lmaooo.)

Even if at the end of the day, it is coming from his own way of caring (trying to get people to act and move forward), that doesn't change the fact Shigure can be a complete asshole. One that will say some very hurtful things to people.

And he's done it multiple times to the same people over and over again. Measuring what's the right amount of what to say to avoid or invoke a specific reaction that he does or doesn't want. Sometimes it's played for laughs, other times it is to rile someone up so badly they cannot contain their aggravation.

So it really isn't cap when he tells Mayu he does, in reality, treat Tohru very gently. For all that Shigure is capable of doing, he treats Tohru with more care than he normally gives to people. Especially considering he has no real reason to since she was a stranger to him until recently.

It takes Shigure until the final arc to do anything of his usual nature to Tohru. And when he does, he asks her if she's mad at him afterwards. It doesn't sound like much until you realize he's never done anything of that sort for any other character in the series.

Yuki. Kyo. Akito.

He'll back off. He might sigh and state it's pointless to continue a debate when he and the other person are going back and forth in circles. But he never asks to see how that other person feels because he doesn't care. Hell, he can tell if that other person is upset with him or done with his shenanigans.

And yet with Tohru, he feels compelled to ask for the first time ever.

And, of course, I can't talk about all this stuff and not mention Shigure's calm fury when Tohru fell from the cliffside. He stayed quiet for damn near 20 seconds as he processed that Akito told him that Tohru fell and we don't see his face the entire time he's processing. Then once he finally pulls himself together, he couldn't even let Akito finish her sentence when he asked if Tohru's 'fall' was a push.

We never truly get to see in Furuba, something that could set Shigure off.

But I think in that moment we get a glimpse of it. A glimpse that shows just how strongly he feels for Tohru. Because it begs the question, if Akito had pushed Tohru off that cliff, what would Shigure have done? How would he have reacted? I don't think even Shigure knew how he would have reacted.

I'm honestly morbidly curious.

That's all to say, that, "what if" story was with Shigure. Not Momiji, not Yuki. It was Shigure.

'If you didn't end up with A, you definitely would have ended up with B'. If we narrowed this down to Yuki and Tohru specifically, there's only two other characters that come close to that. If it wasn't Machi for Yuki and Kyo for Tohru ー YuKyo and ShiTohru would have been at the finish line.

If Shigure had dreamed of Tohru... or hell, what if he had dreamt of Akito but decided that that dream alone wasn't enough to keep the canine sense of loyalty he was cursed with?

There definitely would have been more than just proposals played for laughs and musings of that 'what could have been's.

Well anyway if you're curious to see my take on what it could have been like if Shigure dreamed of Tohru (complete w/ YuKyo and onesided AkiGure) do I have the story for you because I'm writing it on AO3. Read and give me comments to validate my delusions wwwwwwwwwww

#look she's answering #anon #fruits basket #furuba #lmao i was wheezing this because some of y'all might get mad at me for saying it #but at the same time i'm totally right not sorry #fruba #akigure #shitohru #shigure x tohru #kyoru #ish i kinda mention them here #animanga thoughts

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 59

Vinland Saga S2 - I’m still just watching some characters, mainly two slaves, working on farmland and having some conversations with each other, and somehow this anime is making me super invested in it every time! Helps that the conversations tend to be really tense and revealing about the characters having them. There was some action with the visitng warriors setting Olmar up to kill the slaves, and then the one guy slashing Thorfinn repeatedly (to the point of slicing part of his ear off) without Thorfinn once breaking and getting scared to die given what Hell his life has been and still is. With Einar realizing the sort of man Thorfinn is and the warring he’d been involved in, he’s actually tempted to try and strangle him in the night, but thinks better of it. The scariest part was the very last part I saw, where we suddenly see Canute standing among marked graves in the night...

Hunter x Hunter - Welp, Kite’s dead. He fought Neferpitou and got Killua to leave with a KO’d Gon, and Neferpitou murdered him. The end of the episode shows he severed Kite’s head clean off his body! How are we expected to beat these guys now? This is terrifying! However, there was one part of it that sort of cut through that tension - Gon expresses optimisim that Kite’s not dead (even though we soon see he’s wrong) and keeps upbeat and warm-hearted as usual even in spite of what happened, and Killua is just in awe of his pal Gon, internally solioquizing about how Gon’s a big ray of sunshine, or like the sun itself, and there is NO heterosexual explanation for it!

Fruits Basket - Episode covering the whole backstory of Akito’s parents and how Akito was born and shaped into the vile, wretched creature we know her as now by absolute shit parenting. Akira was basically 2001 anime Akito with his illness taking his life while still fairly young, and the dub even has him voiced by Chad Cline, creating a chilling effect whenever he fanciful words of exalting and expectations-raising onto his daughter, which was countered by his crazy wife speaking the truth but doing so in a way that makes Akito out to be a worthless existence that should regret her own birth if she were not, in fact, born for that untruth her father spoke of. And the head servant is just as awful, lying to the young Akito about her father’s soul being inside a box that she must keep shut, and then there’s Shigure who is his own brand of evil altogether. None of this excuses or justifies the behaviors Akito has exhibited and the choices she’s made to control and abuse others just to hoard their devotion to her, but God almighty, it’s hard to see how she could NOT turn out so fucked up from all this. And then even she acknowledges that the box was always empty, that her and her family’s whole “eternal banquet” life was always broken and doomed to fail, and that her life to this point has been one gigantic waste. Even Kureno, the one who’s most kind to her, failed her by enabling her and giving her the false hope of “they’ll all always come back to me”, and as his punishment he ends up on the other end of a knife. Yeah. Akito is now out for blood.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Shirou, Saber and Rin try to plan out an effective strategy for dealing with Caster before she can initiate her mass murder plot. Rin and Shirou talk about what drives them in being mages. Saber notices that the left side of her master’s body has become numb and that he may be suffering the side effects of projection magic, and Archer drops by to help Shirou with that and also disparge his heroism ideals once more. Dick.

Re:ZERO - Soooo it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Roswaal is totally an evil bastard. He was sketchy to start with and at this point he’s just going to start making it more and more obvious that he’s the bad guy. Felt bad for Emilia continuing to have to endure traumatic memories (that we weren’t shown yet) in order to complete that trial, felt bad for Subaru having to worry for her and put up with Roswaal’s apathetic and self-interested bullshit, and I have to wondder if Ram has actually forgotten about Rem at all given her face when she hears Subaru speak Rem’s name. Then Subaru heads back to the mansion to speak with Frederica again only to find it seemingly vacated all of a sudden. ....And then he gets skewered from behind by none other than Elsa Grandhirte! Did NOT see that one coming!

Symphogear GX - Watched the OVA shorts for this series. Not quite as fun as the last ones, but still insanely entertaining, especially the ones with the F.I.S girls serving their jail time (they’re always stealing the show, aren’t they?) and the ones with Carol and the Autoscorers making preparations in their lair, which showed Carol’s more silly comedically serious side and somewhat humanized the villains more.

Eureka Seven - A lot of the episode is spent on Holland and Talho still dwelling on their past war crimes while Gekko State goes to catch a big wave that’s supposedly brewing in the sky on the other side of the planet, and we see Dewey now clean-shaven and getting his hair cut and groomed as he gets an update on affairs from his twerpy lackey Dominic. Talho ends up redirecting the Gekko to the ruins of a military base that holds some special meaning for her and Holland. Then Anemone and her Nirvash unit, The-END, arrive at Dewey’s military base and oooooh geez, things are creepy already!

Gintama - Odd Jobs Gin is no more! Didn’t you guys read last time?

#Anime Update #Anime Update V2

[vermillioncrown]

Naruto si-oc...?

it's so self-indulgent y'all gonna spit blood

nrt is one of those worlds where if you're just a regular dude with nothing, prepare a coffin as soon as you leave elementary school.

also, i gotta leverage my knowledge and skillset. best way to do so? sharingan (will explain in a bit)

=

lore is that reincarnation is rare but not unheard of (even in canon nrt). but in the uchiha clan specifically, a reincarnator/transmigrator cannot fucking hide from the clan.

those that have not properly moved on from the pure lands, have not properly washed their previous life away and have been called back, are called 'sleepless'. and it's always obvious to the uchiha bc this tends to happen when a previous life has ended in such a traumatic manner that earthly burdens still cling onto the soul.

sharingan eyes awaken with trauma. if you have a kid that awakens their eyes without probable cause and they're just... not right, you got a 'sleepless' on your hands.

life and death, and their place in the cycle, are highly revered (ie, why izanami to counter izanagi), so when a 'sleepless' reveals themselves the clan knows but they are to be left to their own devices. treated like polite ghosts, as long as they do not cause harm to the clan. they've lived and died, and while the clan takes care of their own, this is not their time.

it's to protect both the clan from outsiders ("what??? ahahaha there's no necromancy wtf aaaaa!!!") and the peace of the dead. to outsiders, these clan members look like persona non grata within their clan.

it's also easy to catch out 'sleepless' in the uchiha bc their physiology is made to accommodate the sharingan's advantages, so any past life mental advantages (the precociousness of accelerated development) really show themselves.

=

okay that's the setup. how did i up the ridiculousness?

=

keeping the fucking moon shit bc it's a great excuse for zetsu going around, trying to make perfect sage genetics bs

what happened to all the senju? they just slowly disappeared? with them and the uchiha being co-founder clans of konoha, it's not like they wouldn't start having liaisons between each other.

in comes a senju bastard-uchiha oopsie baby (a double bastard, if you will), surviving by a sliver of a chance. the baby is weak. albino. it's the middle of the second war.

fortunately for the baby, their grandfather is uchiha kagami (first ripple: somehow uchiha kagami lived past the ripe age of 25 to have his own kid). takes one look at the kid, the lineage, and thinks "that's like a baby tobirama-sensei". the baby is kept with the uchiha as the senju bastard mother has no family clout, and the uchiha father is needed back at the war front.

uchiha shigure (drizzle, autumn shower) is taken back to the clan.

as the second war goes on and ends, baby grows into quiet toddler, the other uchiha scoff at kagami for raising this double-bastard-doesn't-even-look-like-an-uchiha child, defective, of course you had a soft spot for lord second, ugh you sentimental -

the toddler has been too quiet recently. his face scrunched, hands pressed over eyes, a low whine of pain -

what kagami thought were albino red eyes were first-stage sharingan eyes (how long have they been on?! he should have been more observant, but the toddler's such an easy kid, keeps entertained without others, and-)

a clan meeting is held. 'keep watch', are the only orders.

so uchiha kagami keeps watch over his grandson. it's still easy. he needs to tell him to turn off the sharingan more often than not ("it's not healthy for a growing child" and the face of neutral displeasure he gets is... hm.) it's more natural for kagami to test the waters, so to speak - phrasing that might be a bit more mature, complex, to see if shigure can follow along.

maybe not always the first time, but never more than twice is needed.

it's as if liberty was given for shigure to talk. because, wow, can that child talk. about anything and everything.

and he uses his eyes for the most innocuous things.

"shigure-kun, there's nothing in the water. you'll hurt your eyes."

he's been staring at the fountain for the last hour.

"this spout is the most... perfect spout. look at that water flow - ... it's..." shigure's face starts scowling. "- that word. what's that word? smooth. perfect. layers. hmm... no. ugh, is the character the same -"

... okay.

=

it's not until the nth convoluted dialogue that kagami finds himself entangled in by his grandson ("- but what about... mmmm same thing?? same, multiple thing -" "-redundancy?" "yeah, redundancy? if the first location fails -" on village infrastructure and piping) that kagami brings up a point at the next clan meeting.

"i ... think i know who -"

the other uchiha cut in

"you know the rules, let the dead rest -"

"how can that be, there's never been a case of -"

"who -"

a steadying breath. exhale.

"senju tobirama."

...

...

fucking pandemonium erupts.

=

on uchiha shigure's end:

as shigure grows older, and grows in a clan that seems to just... know and he can't hide what would be his biggest secret in, he just doesn't give a shit. the clan's not too bad; they're kinda weird and cagey, but his 'grandpa' is nice and listens to his rambling. gives into curiosity and learning, with the eyes to facilitate it.

'i can see shrimp colors now, and i'm unstoppable' is their thought

cognitive biases exist, and what happens to be a former naruto-weeb trying to test the limits of the universe -> looks to be an unshackled senju tobirama allowed to go on a research binge. differences in perspectives based on cultural background and societal upbringing turns into uchiha kagami having flashbacks to his sensei's wackass sideways thinking that you'll never see coming.

pragmatic to a fault. blunt. but protective and caring in his own way.

the final sticking point - elemental affinities. it's not completely genetic, spirit affects it as well (big thing on nature/nurture, product of environment, blah blah blah)

so genetic predisposition would yield a fire affinity.

but the spirit yields water.

=

"he's lord second, i'm telling you-"

money exchanges hands, but "stop calling the name of the sleepless, it's bad luck-"

"technically not the name, but -"

"oh, we're so cursed now -"

=

"... do you think we can... leverage him for... advice, maybe, on -"

"- let the dead keep their peace -"

"- would he even help us?"

"- why would you make the poor man lead again?!"

=

besides the fuckery hidden in the clan meetings, the uchiha children are taught to "be polite to shigure-kun" but to not mention him outside the compound. they know nothing.

-> all the kids end up thinking he's the clan ghost (like, literally a ghost) that only uchiha with their special eyes can see.

doesn't help that shigure is kept inside whenever the sun is too bright, and tends to wander at night.

#inquiry #Anonymous #project: double bastard #verm bits #chaosandcats #minjad #tinycreatorclodzine #this is just a small snippet of fuckery #got a lot of thought on potential skillset but that's too technical and minutae #shigure earned those degrees in a past life and he's gonna use them damn it #sharingan eyes + seals: human-powered high-performance computations of making shit happen #you might be thinking wow verm how do you shoehorn math and aerospace engineering into everything #it's because i have a square-shaped brain #and it's all i know

[animeloversworldsblog]

Mahiru excuses

How is it that Mahiru is guilt-free of all the garbage that she has done based on always the same, "possessed by demons" and that is the excuse for every sinister act she has done, the worst they excuse her actions as a child as if she would have actually been an innocent, sweet and loving girl .. In another excuse .. "Their meeting was planned by saito" .. (Sometimes I wonder if it is me or there are people who ignore the details) .. another excuse is "Shikamadouji is the great master and he's been possessing the hiragi family and manipulating them in everything they have done" excusing not only mahiru but the hiragi family. Another of the excuses and the worst to justify the abuse and genocide is "it's all in the name of love, protection and salvation of the world" which gives her the right bcs her only dream was to be a normal girl, who wanted to get married and have childs.

First: even if their meeting was planned by Saito, she knew very well who was ichinose's family and she cared little and nothing about damaging them bcs her intention was that her father would be furious for going to see guren .. If no one can't see that Mahiru already showed signs of being controlling, narcissistic, irritating, manipulative, and that she began to forge Guren's mind based on turning him into something that he wasn't and Guren was fine being the way he was, he felt good, normal. Do you really think that constantly pushing, harassing, and forcing a person to love you is being sweet, innocent, and a cute little girl? Even more shifting the blame on Guren, when her family came to question ichinose's family. This is loving someone?

"Also, even if I am being found, will Guren become strong and protect me right?"

“Because talking with the child of trash Ichinose House, must be the thing father despise most.

So there is something wrong here, that is not love, much less using the word "love" based on pure manipulation. Mahiru's "love" never existed. It's obvious that since then, Guren began to feel weak, physically and mentally, an ichinose rat. If Mahiru really loved Guren and vice versa, look at Resurrection as Guren makes it clear and realizes that "she has been manipulating him since the moment they met, that is, from 5 years old to 16 and still does. Stop calling emotional abuse as love. even more so when he doubts his feelings all the time. And even though their meeting was planned by saito, in resurrection guren asks himself .. "why we fall so fast". Bcs guren was never in love. If your feelings are clear, you don't doubt that you simply love that person. It was never love from either parts. Love without boundaries is not love at all; it is obsession where the end of getting one’s unhealthy needs met justifies the means of destroying another person.

Second: "the excuse of demonic possession" Mahiru could have been born with a demon, but she made it clear that she was experimenting with herself and could control it and in the novel more than once she showed that she could control them, in fact she controls them and makes guren feel miserable constantly using guilty tactics and here it is the same with tenri hiragi, it is true that he was possessed by shikama, but even so he was aware of it and it was fine about it bcs he love being powerful, the same is for mahiru, she did this the same to herself bcs she wanted it that way, she made it very clear several times, the worst thing is to say that even when she transformed into a vampire the demons continued to influence her. Didn't mahiru make it clear that the demonic power she had was not enough and wanted it more? So she became a vampire, mahiru, her decisions, her actions were decisions made by mahiru hiragi herself, her demons, transforming into a vampire were her additions to obtain more power, she always showed that she was aware of what she was doing and doesn't cared about hurting others in the process and worse still she didn't feel or feel any remorse, bcs of course it is all "in the name of love towards Shinoa and Guren". Killing Guren's friends was out of jealousy and envy, beyond making Guren pull the trigger, which was perfect, two birds with one shot. And here again it's the same shifting the blame on guren.

Thirst: "everything mahiru has done is shikamadouji's fault .. Beyond that shikamadoji is the great master.. They cannot blame him for the decisions that each person makes, and each one made. It is clear in resurrection that saito makes it clear to guren about the big master. Shikamadoji has no interest in the human heart. What you think, how you live who you love or hate. Everything is meaningless for him. In other words, the decisions that each one makes are their own, mahiru made her decisions, it is unbelievable that one can think that bcs there is a master behind hiragi's family, they were not able to live as they decided. If he had wanted to kill ichinose's family he would have done it a long time ago, if he had wanted to kill sayuri, shigure also especially goshi and mito that belonged to hiragi's house, and they forged a friendship with guren and killing them would be a good reason, at least for the hiragis, not to mention shinya who could have been killed long ago. Mahiru from the beginning wanted to get rid of them. They were just a nuisance to her, just like she treats every nuisance on her way, kills them.

Mahiru made it very clear and this is the world for her. She doesn't care about a single human life.

"Guren's friends have nothing to do with her, they are pathetic guren' s attachment . " If we work together, I'm sure the two of us will be able to perfect this power. No one will be able to stand against us. No one will ever get in our way again. For now, all you have to worry about is killing them. Take the next step forward, Guren. Claim your power.

"I'm trying to be with you, Guren. To live with you, even if it's in the next world. Even if it’s in a world where mankind can no longer survive. But for that to happen, we're going to have to be demons."

I will never understand how we talk about mahiru's love for guren and guren for her when this is what she's done to guren since always.. Emotional abuse include verbal aggression, intimidation, manipulation, and humiliation, which most often unfolds as a pattern of behavior over time that aims to diminish another person's sense of identity, dignity and self worth, and which often results in anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts or behaviors, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And that's what love is? Guren not only suffers from all this but also from emotional trauma. That was the "love" that Guren felt towards Mahiru.

Mahiru is a narcissistic psychopath. If we believe that their relationship would have been eternal and full of love, we should see more deeply. Mahiru was already toxic since child. Guren's life would have been the same as it was in catastrophe, and as it's now. Do you think guren would have had a normal life with mahiru when she didn't mind hurting guren's family as a child and even as teenager? It would have been the same, only in this case we used the excuse of her possession. Mahiru is her true self even with the demons.

Love is something that is safe, supportive, trusting and respectful. Abuse is not any of these things; it's about power and control.

Last but not less important .. shinoa .. I see that the physical abuse is justified on the basis of .. "she may be twisted but in her way she cared about shinoa" .. The brutal abuse towards shinoa is justified again on "the demons" If you love your sister, look for other ways, because there are thousands of ways, that is not even a way to protect much less with the excuse of "possession" and in case no one didn't notice it, Shinoa was already emotionless bcs they were experiment with her like if was normal .. This is not care, or love, it is brutal. And here I cannot blame shinoa bcs for her, abuse is fine in the name of love, shinoa already being abused in experiments is normal, and it is not like she could understand it bcs to her it was " i'm not good enough" and just had only 4 years old, there is a big difference between shinoa and mahiru at that age. Mahiru 5 years aware of what she was doing and wanting, shinoa innocent girl, who already showed signs of depression, low self esteem, stress and hadn't self worth. Shinoa justifies the abuse as love bcs she feels that the only person who loves her is mahiru, even having 16 years after being abused by mahiru she sees it as an act of love and it is wrong, bcs shinoa's brain is completely damaged seeing abuse as love, it's the same case of guren. They both suffered and continue to suffer abuse, so where is the justification towards mahiru for brutally beating shinoa for love when shinoa was already showing serious signs emotional problems before the brutal beat. There is no justification.

Mahiru is nothing more than a physical and emotional abuser who has done nothing but cause severe emotional trauma to people and commit atrocious acts with the same excuse and justification as always "love".

I can't understand why are so many excuses toward her, like if nothing she has done were her will. Mahiru is evil, stop justify her and excuses her actions in the name of "love".

(@dulciasouls1 hope you like it bcs i know this thing is bother you, and i understand that so well)

#guren ichinose #owari no seraph #shinoa hiragi #mahiru hiragi

[tardytothepardy]

Fruits Basket - Vol.13

So this one started off pretty emotionally turbulent. I did not like the energies created in this studio today whatsoever. Yuki's mom is not that great.

Right off the bat, this book continues with the parent-teacher conferences, specifically with Yuki. He's been anxious about his for a while, because of the way his mom behaves. Up until this book, I don't remember there being much depth into why he has a bad relationship with his mom, but now it's very clear: she decides things for him, and willfully ignores him. When he fights back, she takes it as a personal insult, "how dare you do/say such a thing, I'm your mother! I've done so much for you!", but you've never once listened to what I wanted. That's the sort of dynamic that Yuki and his mother have. Personally, I don't blame him in the slightest for not wanting to be around her. And I also don't blame him for struggling to say anything against her, even as she's blatantly insulting and degrading him in front of the teacher. That shit's really hard, and you get pretty used to keeping all those thoughts in your head, because only trouble comes if you respond. Because, of course, it's not a response, it's "talking back", which will end up with you being in even bigger trouble, and something tells me that happened a lot to Yuki when he was younger.

There were a few glimpses into a few of their interactions, and it was made obvious that she really doesn't care about his well-being, she cares about hers. She forced him to be around Akito, despite him repeatedly saying that he doesn't like Akito. Her logic seemed to be that Akito is the most powerful person here, if you're in his good graces, how could you possibly be unhappy?

She also doesn't seem to have the best relationship with Ayame, who burst into the meeting fashionably late. He managed to steal the attention away from Yuki long enough for Yuki to collect his thoughts better, but his mother was so riled up by the both of them that she stormed out of the room. Yuki was able to tell his mother that he doesn't want her deciding what he should do with his life, that those are important that he will make on his own, which honestly, good for him, man. I doubt I could have that kind of strength.

After the meeting, Yuki is whisked away into the crazed shenanigans of the student council, where many conflicting personalities seem to explode against each other constantly. The guy who chose all these people clearly did not choose well, as far as how they would all work together. The white board that Kimi managed to snag from one of the teachers quickly got covered in meaningless color-coordinated titles that Kakeru came up with, as if they're all a part of the Power Rangers or something. Yuki says that, as members of the student council, it is their job to meet with the other clubs and access thingies with them, but Kakeru doesn't really see the point. They're all the head honchos, or something, so shouldn't people come to them? Ooh, disagreements. Surely this, with the additional stress and strain of the conference, won't lead to an outburst??

An outburst totally happens. Despite being the class president or whatever, Yuki feels he remains in the shadows, especially with a person as bubbly and energetic like Kakeru running the show. And given Kakeru's tendency to sort of pop labels on things, he says that Yuki seems "kinda unhappy". This falls ever so neatly into Yuki's problem with people talking over him or deciding for themselves how he is, and so he gets properly riled up. It calms down quickly, but he's still caught up in his own thoughts, which make it very easy to lead him to thinking that he should give up, and go back to the way he was before, reclusive and quiet.

In the end, it seems that Yuki might be able to have a friend in Kakeru, which is great. We all know how much the world loves the dynamic of "loud eccentric extroverted person" being friends with "quiet soft spoken(or softer spoken, at least) introverted person". That dynamic is the shit, and we live for it. I live on it, anyway. It's a classic.

After that, we see Tohru standing at the gates of the Sohma estate, and hooo boy is she noirvous. She's there to confirm that the Kureno that Uotani liked is the same Kureno that she met while at the summer house. It's difficult though, because Akito really didn't make it seem that Tohru would be welcome, given what he said to her last they talked. So while Tohru paced and fretted, she ran into a little girl who turned out to be Momiji's younger sister. She was standing outside the gate, listening to the violin music that Momiji was making. She tells Tohru that she knows that Momiji is her older brother (both Momiji and Tohru thought that since their mom doesn't remember Momiji as her son, Momo wouldn't remember Momiji as being her older brother), and that she even took up violin in hopes that she could play with Momiji. She helped Tohru sneak into the estate to visit Momiji, where Tohru told Momiji all that had happened. This made Momiji very excited, because he really wanted to be close with Momo, but never has been able because their father distances them. He also says that he would like to get better at playing the violin, so that one day he can hold a small concert for his family. It's overall a very touching scene, and I liked it a lot.

Tohru then tells Momiji that she was looking for Kureno, and, after following a map Momiji made, kinda found him. She asked him about Uotani, and whether he had any intention of seeking her out again (personally, I'm against it, given the fact that she's a high school student, and he's like,, at least 23 years old. It feels icky to me, idk), but he said that he wouldn't. He didn't really explain, and honestly I don't really feel like he had to. It's his own business, never mind the fact that he's usually pretty close to Akito, and since he's Juunishi, Akito has that extra hold over him. I wouldn't want something bad to happen to Uotani just because Akito's being a whiny baby.

A little while after that, there's a school field trip that Tohru, Hanajima, Uotani, Kyo, Yuki, and others go on, and there seems to be a weird expectation for love confessions to pop up? Shigure mentioned it before they left, but you'd kinda figure that's just Shigure being Shigure, right? Apparently not. Tohru feels bad for Uotani, to be seeing all these people grouping up, but Uotani says for her to not worry about it. She's decided to not tell Uotani that she found Kureno and talked to him, because she figured that could do more harm than good.

In the meantime though, it seems that Kyo was pulled aside, and a girl basically asked him to be her boyfriend, despite him not knowing who she is at all. She says that they can get to know each other during the relationship, but in general, that seems like a bad idea. If it were me, I'd like to get to know the person before then, but I suppose there's a chance I'd be locked away forever in the friendzone (which honestly I'd be fine with, because at least I'd have a friend lmao ;-;), but maybe that's just me.

Kyo rejects her pretty roughly, which makes sense for two reasons: we already know that he loves Tohru, and so in that respect, it's a done deal, but there's also that whole "he'd change into a cat if they hugged" thing, which would be,,, awkward, to say the least.

(It still doesn't fail to crack me up that the girl was like "I like you a lot, and think we should be together 🥺🥰" and he's literally like that one vine, "Wait a minute, who are you??")

Tohru doesn't really catch wind of the whole thing, but I think she pieced something together? Idk. She was preoccupied by thinking of souvenirs (just say gift shop shit that's all it is ahhh), and she didn't seem to be there in the first place.

When they all come home, we find out that Yuki got a leaf for the one chick in the student council who seems really quiet and is talked over constantly, and that Tohru is making her own little set of the zodiac animals, not unlike the set that she first saw alllllll the way back in the first book, except this time, it looks as if she's making a cat. Now, idk about you, but that's some cute shit. A tiny cat statue. I love it. I love tiny cat statues, but mostly all they make me want to do is pet one of my cats. Cats are great. Absolutely the best. You could fight me on it, I might cry, but I'll still think cats are great. This has nothing to do with Fruits Basket at all anymore lmao.

oh yeah I think Kyo saw the cat statue. And, if you'll remember back to that first book, where Tohru's mom was telling Tohru about the zodiac story, Tohru said that she wanted to be a cat, so, this isn't completely out of nowhere.

#Part of me wants to go headfirst into the SHHHIIIIIPPPPPPPing aspect of this but I'm holding off #Admittedly for a while I have been wondering how the whole 'romance' aspect of this story will go down #Especially now that we have a confirmation from both Yuki and Kyo that they like Tohru #Will there be a decision? Idk #I'll find out I guess #But for the most part I'm trying to keep that out of my head #I've stayed away from the fandom part of the series so far so I'm just consuming the books themselves #So that makes it easier to avoid shipping stuff #Not that it's bad but I get swayed really easily with fandoms and ships #And I really don't want to run into spoilers #Usually I don't mind them too much but I don't want to get any for this series #It's a 20 year old series and I haven't gotten spoilers for it yet. I'd like that to continue thanks #anyway #tohru honda #yuki sohma #kyo sohma #ayame sohma #shigure sohma #kureno sohma #momiji sohma #momo sohma #that is her name right? #uotani arisa #hanajima saki #akito sohma #fruits basket #furuba #fruits basket volume 13

[medea10]

My Review of Fruits Basket: 2nd Season

It’s really happening! It’s fucking happening! The never-before animated story to one of the best shoujo series in the 21st century is finally happening!

HISTORY: Just read my long-ass review for that.

Okay, okay!

Tohru Honda stumbles upon the family secret of her classmate, Yuki Sohma when she moves in the Sohma household. Whenever a member of the Sohma family is hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they turn into an animal from the Chinese Zodiac. Because of this, the Sohma family is very secretive about this issue and only let close people in on the family secret. And even then, it rarely happens! But after a lifetime of worry and hell these members have been put through, they learned that Tohru cares about each and every one of them. She was able to bring out the sun for many of these characters who have suffered a lifetime of ridicule, pain, and isolation.

SEASON TWO: It’s the start of summer and many things around Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo are changing. For Yuki, it means taking over the student council full-time, as his seniors will be graduating in the spring. And for one Sohma family member, she’s made it her mission to lift the curse that has plagued the Sohma’s for generations. This season is filled with the cute and fluffy moments it’s known for where characters are having fun. But then you remember this is Fruits Basket and the cute and fluffy moments are shrouded in pain and misery.

And when you have an unstable character like Akito, people are going to be hurt. With the addition of several characters, we do detour from time-to-time for stories about them instead of following Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru. But many of these characters have some sort of connection to the main cast. With the introduction of Rin, we see the desperation in finding a way to rid the Sohmas of the zodiac curse. The student council members introduced this season helped Yuki come out of his shell even further. And the introduction of the final zodiac Kureno gave us possible hope for Tohru and a possible love interest with someone you probably didn’t see coming.

LICENSING: Thank you FUNimation. Thank you for once again taking the helm by licensing it and putting in the delicate care the mangaka went in to creating it! And also thank you for not being greedy dickholes and letting Crunchyroll and Hulu air it too. Anyways, the cast from the previous season have returned to do their respectable roles in both the English and Japanese cast. It’s just that due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the dub wasn’t as frequent as it was last year so I spent a good chunk just sticking to the original Japanese audio.

NEW CHARACTERS: In the final episode of season one, we were quickly introduced to several new characters who are going to make a big splash this time around. Just a reminder, there are only two zodiac members that were never introduced until this very moment. But there are several characters, who may not be part of the Sohma clan, but are a big part of the story and to several main characters.

First, I would like to introduce Kakeru Manabe and Machi Kuragi. They will now serve under Yuki as Student Council Vice President and Treasurer. They’re also half-siblings (same father, different mothers). Now by no means are these two ever going to be let-in on the Sohma family secret like Tohru, but they definitely make a big impact on Yuki’s life as Yuki seems comfortable enough to have one-on-ones with Kakeru and share common themes with Machi.

Isuzu (or Rin) is a Sohma with long, black hair. She is the horse of the zodiac curse. She doesn’t let a lot of people in her corner and usually only confides in either Hiro or her boyfriend, Hatsuharu. A lifetime of family issues and Akito being a cunt has something to do with it. Rin’s mission is to find a way to break the curse set on her and the rest of the Sohmas. But after an altercation with Akito, Rin has taken it upon herself to become a lone wo-, um horse in this mission.

Kureno is the final zodiac member to be introduced. And if you haven’t guessed, he is the rooster! Kureno is usually never seen by anyone in the Sohma family due to the fact that Akito keeps him on a short leash. But once Kureno was able to step away from Akito’s side, he finds comfort in one of Tohru’s friends.

I’m familiar with many of these voice actors they’ve added to these new characters. The only one I was surprised at came from Aki Toyosaki playing Rin. I think it’s just leftover questioning after hearing her voice these cutesy, moe characters (blame K-ON for that one). But Rin’s voice isn’t bad.

As for the dub, thank you FUNimation for bringing Aaron Dismuke back to the Fruits Basket family. If you’ve been following Fruits Basket from the very beginning, you might recall him being the original voice of Hiro Sohma. But since he was quite a young child when voicing Hiro, that voice he carried at the time wasn’t going to stay forever. Puberty happens! Aside all that needless info, I really liked his Kakeru! I’m digging Ian Sinclair as Kureno. I spent a full-on decade imagining who would voice him. And back in the day, I always thought Micah Solusod or Vic Mignogna would do him justice. But once 2019 happened…

*crosses off a name on a list*

…Yeah, Micah Solusod would do his voice justice, just him, no one else! But Ian Sinclair is awesome in nearly every thing he’s in and this is fine by me. Brina Palencia as Rin…eh, I mean she always plays characters who are monotone or serious. I’m not bashing it, but it was a predictable role for her. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Kakeru is played by Takuya Eguchi (known for Cheren on Pokemon BW, Takeo on My Love Story, Ryouma on Love Stage, Kujo on Gosick, Watanuki on Inu x Boku SS, and Fumiya on Domestic Girlfriend)

*Machi is played by Ai Kakuma (known for Misaka Worst on Index III, Rossweisse on High School DxD, Lala on Monster Musume, and Hato on Genshike Nidaime)

*Rin is played by Aki Toyosaki (known for Uiharu on Railgun/Index, Yui on K-ON, Suu on Shugo Chara, Satsuki on Maid-sama, Momo on To Love Ru, Chitose on Yuru Yuri, and Aoi on Beelzebub)

*Kureno is played by Yuichiro Umehara (known for Gorou on Darling in the Franxx, Mars on Black Clover, and Goblin Slayer)

ENGLISH CAST: *Kakeru is played by Aaron Dismuke (known for Al on FMA, Hiro on Fruits Basket, Young Hohenheim on FMA: Brotherhood, Van on Escaflowne [redub], Marx on Black Clover, and Takami on Deadman Wonderland)

*Machi is played by Caitlin Glass (known for Winry on FMA, Haruhi on Ouran HSHC, Maki on Love Live, Miria on Baccano, Petra on Attack on Titan, Evergreen on Fairy Tail, and Kirigiri on Danganronpa)

*Rin is played by Brina Palencia (known for Nina on FMA, Ciel on Black Butler, Yuno on Mirai Nikki, Saten on Railgun/Index, Juvia on Fairy Tail, Touka on Tokyo Ghoul, Holo on Spice & Wolf, and Chopper on One Piece)

*Kureno is played by Ian Sinclair (known for Whis on DB Super, Bard on Black Butler, Sousuke on Free!, Chuck on Panty & Stocking, Magna on Black Clover, Brook on One Piece, and Space Dandy)

SHIPPING PART II:

I still know who everyone ends up with and I’m doing my darndest to keep my mouth shut and not let out a decade-old spoiler. So let’s get some crap over with!

*Yuki x Motoko: Yeah, remember Motoko? That Yuki-obsessed chick who literally can’t breathe without the boy in her life! Well, first episode of the season, we get an episode featuring her once more. Because Motoko is one year older, she faces the harsh reality of graduating a year before Yuki and is pretty depressed over that. Not only that, but she's still super jealous that Yuki spends so much time with Tohru. But it gets a little deeper when she noticed that Yuki has changed as he’s smiling a lot more (and those smiles are not fake this time). She so wanted to be the woman in his life to make him smile like that. But Motoko’s probably just going to admire him from a distance. Oh and she still finds time to harass and/or threaten any foreign girl that hangs around Yuki’s aura.

*Ayame x Mine: I almost forgot to talk about this one. Probably because we really only got one episode to show the slightest ship hint from them. Mine has got to be the only female on earth who is able to handle Ayame’s wacky behavior 24/7. Then again, Mine has a few quirks herself. But both of them find that they can confide in each other. Here’s the thing with this one, it is unknown if Mine actually knows about the family curse up to this point. And if they are really in a relationship, Akito hasn’t given her “blessing”. I don’t know, maybe everyone in the family thought it would be best to not pry into Ayame’s private life for many valid reasons.

*Hatsuharu x Rin: So these two were actually in a (secret) relationship. Secret for obvious reasons! They knew the consequences after what Akito has done to Hatori and Kisa for being loved. In this season, we see how much these two really care for each other. Rin is so desperate in finding a way to rid Hatsuharu and everyone else of the zodiac curse that she’ll pursue it by any means necessary. And when she dumped Hatsuharu, this devastation built up pretty big until it burst in the destruction of a classroom. Hatsuharu can be very laid-back, but the break-up really devastated him. Later this season, we do get the development of this ship. Hatsuharu is one of the few people in Rin’s inner circle she was able to rely on and this blossomed into both of them confessing their love. And even sleeping with each other! Yep, Fruits Basket gave us a sex scene! However, Akito found out and Rin took the blame for everything.

…And Akito gave her blessing by shoving Rin off the second story.

Akito’s blessings really should come with an advisory.

Advisory: DON’T ASK AKITO FOR HER BLESSINGS!

*Hatori x Mayu: If you’re wondering who Mayu is, that is Tohru’s homeroom teacher. She surprisingly has some history with Shigure, Hatori, and Kana. First of all, Mayu is best friends with Kana. When Kana was dating Hatori, Mayu started to get these feelings and she ended up dating Shigure (seriously, bad choice). But she knew like the rest of us that Shigure is distant, sneaky, and you just can’t trust him. But Mayu was the only one to cry for Hatori’s sake. Mayu does hold out hope for one day going out with Hatori. Five, ten years, however long it takes!

*Kureno x Uo: The one time Kureno was allowed to escape from Akito’s grasp and he enjoys the company of Tohru’s best friend Uotani. When I first read this in the manga, I thought this was absolutely random, but cute nevertheless. And after watching their small time together, I yearned for there to be more time for Kureno and Uo to be together…but you know it’s not possible because you know the real deal. I mean, Kureno has spent the majority of his life as Akito’s personal bitch. After that one episode, Kureno has remained on the Sohma estate and Uo has wanted to see him again. So much so that she quit her part-time job where she first met Kureno because she feels like she’ll never see him again! Thing is Kureno promised to stay by Akito’s side after a really big revelation happened (stay tuned). Kureno is like the only Sohma that is able to cast his shackles aside and be with someone he loves. And Uo is the first person he’s ever truly felt that about!

No…I’m not going to mention that OTHER ship just yet. I get upset just even thinking about it.

*sniffles*

Just let the little bird fly and be free already.

*Kyo x Kagura: I probably should have covered this in the first season. But I was too focused on the sad ship and cute ship. Anyways, it’s well known that Kagura loves Kyo. REALLY LOVES HIM! But after Tohru moved in, Kagura slowly learned that Kyo has changed because of Tohru and knows that Kyo might not like Kagura that way. In the 11th episode, we get a moving storyline where Kagura goes on a date with Kyo and we learn a little more into why Kagura began to like Kyo. Kagura pitied Kyo as a child since he was the unfortunate child cursed under the cat. It made her feel better about her own sad fate of being cursed under the boar. But she still played with him until she accidentally took off Kyo’s rosary beads that revealed the demonic cat curse. By this time in the story, it’s absolutely cemented with Kyo that he’s in love with someone else and is ready to tell Kagura that he will never love her. But that doesn’t stop Kagura from telling Kyo that she loves him.

*Yuki x Machi: Unlike all the other girls in school, Machi doesn’t see Yuki as a prince. She sees clearly through his fake smile that he gives off all the time. At least that was her thought at the beginning of the series! Machi has been pretty quiet and kept to herself whenever at the student council. No one even knows what her favorite foods and colors are! Truth is, Machi doesn’t know either. But it wasn’t until a simple (and I do mean simple) gift from Yuki that Machi changed a little bit! This ship didn’t get much action until near the end of this season where the student council met up for some lunch. This was the first time we saw Machi act all tsundere around Yuki when he noticed she held onto the gift he gave her.

It was a leaf. He gave her a friggin’ leaf. And then she turned it into a bookmark.

*Tohru x Yuki: Sigh. He kissed her on the forehead and cried. Moving on! She’s not even friend-zoned. She’s MOM-zoned! Tohru is the mother that Yuki turns to because Yuki’s mother is an uncaring cunt. I know who Yuki really ends up with in the end, but if you ask me, I prefer Yuki x Kakeru.

Don’t at me, I love seeing these two together! Okay, final shipping for the category.

*Tohru x Kyo: There is no doubt that Kyo and Yuki have changed for the better since meeting Tohru. Both of them felt that there was no hope and only self-isolation in their life. In Kyo’s case, he knew early on that his life was fucked. His mother committed suicide, his father abandons him, the Sohma family shuns him, and once he reaches a certain age, he faces a lifetime of being locked in confinement. So Tohru’s kindness and persistence has definitely done wonders for the boy. Romance, wise? Let’s just say that things were almost said at the beach. And we get a realization from Kyo that Tohru is precious to him. His precious!

Oh, there is ONE certain ship I feel I should mention. However, it’s still too much of a shock for people to take in. So I will wait for the final season to let it rip.

HORRIBLE PARENTS: The original series only scraped the surface of how horrible the Sohma parents truly are. I could have done my worst parents/mothers/fathers list with at least half of these people. But the original series never showed us the ugliness when it came to Yuki’s mother, Kyo’s father, and queen of the bitches, Ren Sohma. Bitch, I will see you in season three! Thankfully, we’ve got at least one or two nice parents like Hiro and Kagura’s mothers.

Before I bring up the worst this series had to offer, can we just talk about how precious this woman is? Hiro’s mother loved rams and was very happy when Hiro was born. Hiro’s mother is just so precious for this series. She loves her son and even loves Kisa. It’s adorable! As for Kagura’s mother, even with Kagura’s aggressive personality, her mother is quite supportive of her daughter and even Rin. So let’s go down this rap-sheet of the worst ones!

Kyo’s father was never able to forgive his own son for “causing the death of his wife”. He even refuses to call Kyo by name, he only refers to Kyo as “It” or “That Creature”. Thank God we have Kazuma to replace this dick. I know Kazuma’s hands aren’t clean either, but he has treated Kyo like the son he never had. More than what I can say about this fucker!

Yuki’s mother did some unpleasant things to her son. For starters, selling Yuki to Akito for her to do whatever she wanted with him. Because the rat in the zodiac was the first to arrive, it is said that the rat is closest to the god. This gave Yuki’s mother the opportunity to have Yuki deal with Akito’s scary tantrums and scar him for years. Ayame doesn’t have anything pleasant to say about his own mother either. Last I recall, she’s quite cold to Ayame as well. She’s a cold, uncaring witch.

Ah shit, here we go again! Momiji’s father! Yes, that very same father who told Momiji that his mother’s memories of him had to be wiped away in order for her to get better. We see him once again taking away more from Momiji because his daughter Momo is catching on. In an episode, Momiji is told that he should give up playing the violin. Why the fuck for? Well, Momo’s getting music lessons from Momiji’s teacher and feels these two should not meet or even cross paths. And of course, his father isn’t too keen about Momiji coming to his office so he can watch the family he sacrificed so his mother could be saved. This boy just can’t catch a break and I still want to hug my little bunny-kins.

Rin gets panic attacks spontaneously due to her parent’s physical abuse and abandonment. Rin’s home life was okay until one question sparked years of abuse. Because Rin caught on to her parent’s fake smiles, they showed who they really were. Rin hid her abuse until she passed out from so much pain that she had to be checked into the hospital. It was there that Kazuma and a young Hatsuharu learned she was being beaten by her parents. And what do the parents do? Abandon her then and there at the hospital!

Kakeru and Machi aren’t a part of the Sohma family, but that doesn’t stop the fact that they have a messed up home life. Kakeru and Machi are half-siblings (same father, different mothers). Kakeru was an illegitimate child, but was the elder sibling (+ male), so is a prime candidate to be his father’s heir. And both of their mothers fought over who would be the heir to their father’s fortune in the future, putting endless stress on Kakeru and Machi. As a kid, Kakeru would have spontaneous panic attacks because of the stress his mother put him under. While Kakeru was able to tell off his mother and she begrudgingly accepted it, Machi’s mother still puts pressure on her to a point where Machi just does what she’s told and has infrequent bouts of panic attacks.

Oh, there’s another parent worth mentioning. But the final season will take care of that one. I know you’re expecting me to say something about Ren Sohma (Akito’s mother). Problem is, she only had one line in this whole season. I could say there was a scene where her name was mentioned at Akito and Akito went a little berserk. But that’s all I can say here.

SADDEST MOMENT OF THIS SEASON: Hands down, anything involving sweet, little Momiji is going to hurt. Granted, this doesn’t hurt as much as the backstory between him and his mother. But when we get the episode of Momiji’s sister Momo spying on Momiji playing the violin, it’s like a knife to the chest. You want these two to see each other, but it’ll trigger some unhappiness with the family. Momiji sacrificed a butt-ton just for his mother to recover. Momo knows that Momiji exists, she just doesn’t know that Momiji is her brother.

So what does Momo do?

Ask Tohru to ask Momiji to be her big brother.

Ouch. Ow, Fruits Basket! I know this scene hurt when I read it, but it nearly killed me in animation. God and Momiji’s crying. I want to hug him so much. 

EVERYONE’S FATE: In this season, we hit the asphault when it’s revealed that Kyo made an ultimatum with Akito. If Kyo is able to beat Yuki in a fight before the two of them graduate high school, he will obtain his freedom and avoid a lifetime being caged (like the previous cat). As this clock ticks, Kyo knows he doesn’t have much time left before he spends the rest of his life sealed away.

And it isn’t just Kyo! All the other zodiacs are destined to live on Akito’s estate so that Akito can have her delusional “eternal banquet”. So of course, Akito feels threatened that Tohru has such a hold on almost all of the Sohmas. That’s why Rin wants to free everyone from this curse and a little later once she learns about this, Tohru wants to do the same.

THE HAT: Remember the hat that seems out of place for Tohru to have? An old, dusty hat that doesn’t match anything! It was mentioned briefly in the original series and expaneded a bit in the first season. This season gives us a little surprise in the form of the hat connecting to Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru.

The hat originally belonged to Kyo. When they were children, Yuki tried to talk to Kyo and it turned into Kyo yelling at Yuki because he’s the rat of the zodiac. And as the story goes, the rat lies to the cat about the banquet and the cat is left out. A lot of the zodiacs were always sour at Yuki growing up. Moving on! Kyo’s hat fell and Yuki never returned it to him. Yuki once wore the hat on his head and ran away from the Sohma estate. It was at that time he came across a lost, little girl (Tohru). Yuki lead Tohru back home and puts the hat on her head as he leaves from her sight. And that’s the tale of that mystery hat you might have seen prior.

Oh, there’s another connection with Kyo…yeah, you guessed it. Third season! Wait for it.

ENDING TO SEASON TWO: So this season seems to be getting 25 episodes as well. That means if the final season only has 13 episodes that would equal up to 63 episodes in total. And that would make Eric Vale’s comments in a video a year ago correct. Eric Vale is bad with spoilers, isn’t he?

Anyways, this season has given us a lot to mull over. We get new characters that have no connection to the Sohma family, but has a big impact with Yuki that he changes for the better. We finally get to see the two zodiacs that have never made their debut until now. And the backstory of Tohru with the out-of-place hat as a child is settled. Inching closer to the second season finale, we get some cute and semi-impactful stories around the school. Tohru and Kyo were in a class production of Cinderella where Kyo finds out Tohru knows what’s going to happen after graduation when she accidentally blurts out the wrong thing on stage. Then we have Yuki opening up more to his student council members (especially Kakeru) and long-time holdout Machi opening up and becoming a blushing girl like many her age.

Well folks, it’s New Years and time for another zodiac banquet. And Yuki was feeling a sense of weight being lifted from his shoulders. He was going to make a change with his life by not blaming others for his problems. So Akito gives her blessing by…

You should know by now that when I say that, it’s not going to end well.

Let’s just say, hearing Yuki say those words, Akito started to recall a time with Kureno that really struck a cord. I’ll get to it in a second. Akito struck Yuki in the face with a blunt instrument and thankfully he did not end up blind like Hatori. Akito had yet another psychotic outburst that resulted in one of the Sohmas being hurt. And you have to wonder why Akito is this evil, twisted soul that hurts her family physically and mentally. Hatori permanently loses the sight in one of his eyes and still forgives Akito. Kureno stays by Akito’s side no matter what she did to him.

In the final episode, we get quite a few revelations exposed (especially for Tohru). The play, Tohru, Hana, Uo, and Kyo were in was videotaped and Momiji gave a copy to Kureno. Let’s just say that Uo sent her own secret message of wanting to see a certain someone again. Kureno was conflicted that he wanted to reach out and talk to Tohru. When Tohru met with Kureno, she came upon some startling discoveries about the man possessed by the rooster zodiac (or bird).

When walking towards birds, they flew away from him. If you recall, many animals are drawn to the zodiacs (i.e. cats to Kyo, rats to Yuki, etc.). But with Kureno, they all just flew away! And finally, Kureno walked right up to Tohru, hugged her, and he didn’t transform.

Kureno has been curse-free for several years. Actually, since he was in high school and dude is in his 20’s currently. It’s unknown why only he was released from the curse and everybody else still transforms. Kureno kept it from everyone in the Sohma household (even though Shigure was suspicious for a while). And when the curse lifted from Kureno, he felt as though he could finally fly free (irony is that he can no longer “fly” being a zodiac bird). Problem is that Akito had a mental breakdown when she saw Kureno was free from the curse and she screamed at him to stay and never leave her side. This was actually the one time Akito didn’t hit or injure someone during one of these fits, so this felt very different.

And because of Kureno’s decision to stay by Akito’s side, he feels he can no longer see Uo. Even though, he really feels a connection towards her despite only seeing her two times. This was his first actual love! And then, Tohru learned another bombshell.

Actually, this bombshell isn’t as huge as it was years ago.

You see, up until this point in the manga it was hard to decipher what gender Akito was. In the original anime ALL of Akito’s voice actors (even in Japanese) were male. Yes, including when Akito was a child. Aaron Dismuke was everywhere 15 years ago. But then a chapter from the manga came out where Kureno clearly tells Tohru (who had no idea at the time) that Akito was female. So, for hardcore fans such as myself, this wasn’t so much of a bombshell. Although I forgot Tohru didn’t know about Akito’s true gender. New fans to the anime, it might’ve caused great impact. Anyways, the second season ends on that note.

Come on Fruits Basket, you announced another season on my birthday last year. Surely you can give me something to go on for my birthday this year.

OH HELL YEAH!

This totally…doesn’t make up for RBG dying over my birthday weekend, but it’s a start!

Aside from ONE episode, this season was totally brand-spanking new, never-before seen in anime form. And it was satisfying to watch many of these moments I thought were going to remain on the printed page forever finally in animation. This season gave us the good and the bad. We’ll have those light and funny moments that Fruits Basket was notorious for. Tohru visiting Ayame’s clothing store, Yuki’s class taking a trip, and the Cinderella storyline. But then you get all the heavy stuff like Akito coming to see Tohru at the beach house, Rin’s backstory, Kureno’s reveal, and Momiji’s sister wanting to know more about him. Every Momiji episode hurts me! Momo is too precious for this world and she just wants to know her secret onii-chan.

Now some people might think the lineup of these episodes and story is a bit sloppy with how it’s listed. Well, that’s how most of it was in the manga, just go with the flow. I mean, yeah, I’d agree with you there and maybe if this series were one continuous anime with no breaks, you’d get no complaints there. But whatever, you can’t please everyone on everything. This season gave us more character development from these characters. Kyo, while still an angry kitty from time to time has really matured a bit. He doesn’t fly off the handle to fight Yuki every day like you’d see in season one. Yuki was able to realize many aspects of his life and grow from there. Hatori was able to move on from Kana. Ayame learned to be a better big brother…though he’s still a yutz.

Shigure is NOT to be trusted!

I know some people have been saying that since season one and I feel it’s well worth repeating. And it’ll get worse next season, believe me! The only character I was disappointed in by not seeing that much of was Ritsu. But as I recall, Ritsu doesn’t get that much action in the second year arc. I’m so happy to hear the original dub (most of them anyways) with this new material that they’ve never done before for these characters. And I’m hoping to ride this train going into 2021. I love this story and I can’t wait for the final season.

Yes, watch this. Watch the first season too! Hell, watch the original series, it’s not out of print yet!

All of the episodes are available to watch on FUNimation, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. The dub is available through FUNimation only. And if you want to watch the original anime (w/o the new story), Hulu still has it available.

#anime review #Fruits Basket #fruits basket 2nd season #Tohru Honda #kyo sohma #Yuki Sohma #hiro sohma #hatori sohma #kagura sohma #kakeru manabe #machi kuragi #rin sohma #akito sohma #ayame sohma #shigure sohma #momiji sohma #kureno sohma #arisa uotani

[currantlee]

It has been roughly a year since this one has been first published by now :) It was one of my first stories written in English. I think I’d do so many things differently from how I did them in the past, but I am still proud on how this turned out.

Language: English (original) Rating: Mature (M) Warnings: Mentions of Rape, Mentions of Torture, Mentions of psychological problems Fandoms: Fire Emblem: If - White Night Kingdom / Fire Emblem: Fates - Birthright Shippings: (Past) Aqua / Azura & Takumi Relationships: Sibling Ryoma & Takumi, Family Takumi & Kiragi Characters: Takumi, Ryoma, Hinoka, Kisaragi / Kiragi, Aqua / Azura (mentioned) Other relevant tags: Past Torture, Past Rape/Non-con, Nightmares, Memories, Non-Graphic Violence, Slight Birthright AU, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Depressions, Paranoia Chapter: 1/1 Platforms: Amino (initial publication), AO3 (reworked version) Summary: Another nightmare. Since the events a few years ago, they only got worse.

Click on “Keep Reading” if you want to read the fanfiction here on Tumblr.

“Well, we can make this easy”, Hinoka shouted at Garon. She had been riding her Pegasus Shizen up to the gallery, positioning himself (in fact) higher than him. A dangerous provocation. “Just stay away from neutral ground, scum!” The king of Nohr chuckled. “Do you want to challenge me, princess of Hoshido?” “Oh, is this a challenge, king of Nohr?” She grinned, pulling out her naginata. “Then I'll gladly accept it...” “Not so fast”, Garon stopped her, turning to Iago. “Bring him in.” Takumi frowned. His wrists were aching from the waiting. But he wasn't going to surrender. He could not surrender. If he did... The troops would loose a lot of moral. His fingers were shaking. He couldn't really explain why. He wasn't exited about the things that were coming at him, nor scared. And therefore, the young prince really was annoyed by his body's behavior. Because he couldn't control it. Couldn't fix it. He felt a spear's wooden end being stabbed at his back. “Move.” He knew he shouldn't... But he did obey. Whatever made him do this... Hinoka's jaw dropped. “Takumi?!” Her naginata dropped, he voice sounding alarmed. Iago laughed. “You should see the look on your face, princess...” “Silence, Iago”, Garon ordered. Then he turned to the young prince, who had his hands bound on his back. “One single word to your sister and I will have your tongue cut out, understood?” He pressed his lips together, wanting to deny them an answer. Only resulting in getting slapped right away. He gasped from the sharp pain. “Our king asked you if you understood him, young prince”, Iago grinned. “So?” “Wow. Really... Wow”, Hinoka hissed sarcastically, even applauding. “That's what I call desperate. Need to take a hostage to keep me from killing their king...” Another smack onto Takumi's face led to her cutting off herself. She bit her lip. “You have got two options, Princess Hinoka”, Garon continued. “The first one is – obviously – continuing war against Nohr. But be aware that even if you win, Prince Takumi here might not survive this.” Hinoka's eyes widened. “Let us just say, every further aggression against Nohr will be taken out on him.” “No”, Hinoka whispered. “Yes”, Garon said. “And the other option is... Well... You get your brother back. Mostly unharmed.” Iago giggled. “Depends on how well HE behaves.” “But”, Garon continued regardless of his retainer's interruption, “Hoshido will surrender.” “Never”, Hinoka hissed. “Ryoma would never...” Takumi's cry of pain interrupted her. The young prince had fallen to his knees, panting heavily. Iago had struck him with a thunder spell. “Well, Princess Hinoka, as far as I am informed, High Prince Ryoma holds his family's well-being in high regard. I would not be so sure about his decision.” “This is blackmailing!”, she hissed. “This is called politics, dear Princess”, Garon replied. “But I am not a monster. You may overthink your decision. Nohr will not raise any further aggression against Hoshido – but be aware that should Hoshido take part in any further aggressions against Nohr, he”, Garon gestured towards the still panting Takumi, “will suffer.” That being said, the Nohrian king stood up. “Let us go”, he declared, turning around. “We are done here.” “BASTAAAAAAARD!!!” Then everything suddenly happened so fast. Garon's axe, Hinoka's scream, the blood... “HINOKA!”, Takumi shouted, trying to free himself, to run towards his sister and...

... he woke up by someone shaking him, immediately grabbing the Fundō, which laid at his Futon's side, as he sat up hastily. “Easy”, Ryoma said in a calm voice. “You just had a nightmare, Takumi.” But that couldn't calm him down immediately. His grip on the Fundō tightened. Ryoma grabbed his hand. “Takumi, it is okay...” “It'll never be okay!”, he snapped back. Ryoma sighed. “Takumi, you can let go of your Fundō. No one is here aside from me and Kisaragi and he is still asleep. Everything is alright...” As he said this, he could feel Takumi's grip on the Fundō loosening. Sometimes Ryoma really wished he could forbid Takumi to keep a weapon at the side of his bed, especially since he once almost strangled Hinoka's arm with it, luckily just getting a hold of her sleeve. But the young prince couldn't sleep without this. It was like an assurance to him. And even so, he had his nightmares. As Ryoma pulled him into a hug, he felt him trembling, while being totally stressed, obviously. The king sighed. “Takumi, you need to see a doctor with that kind of trauma. It is getting worse...” “No”, the younger one whispered. “They'll only lock me away into the asylum...” True. So true. They had way too much to do with all the soldiers who had suffered a trauma in the war. Ryoma could understand why Takumi denied going – but he seriously wished his brother would. His trauma wasn't the only thing the young prince had to deal with. His depression was also an issue. “Takumi”, Ryoma hummed, “would you please put down your weapon now?” The Fundō fell to the ground almost immediately. He sighed. “Thank you, little brother...” “Dad?” Ryoma turned around. Takumi's three-year-old son, Kisaragi (Kiragi for short), was standing in at the Fusuma, barefoot and obviously worried about his father. “K-Kiragi...” Takumi's voice was rough. As if he was sick. “Daddy?” “He is alright, Kisaragi”, Ryoma explained his nephew. “Nightmares”, Takumi murmured. “Nothing for you to worry about...” Kiragi plodded to his father's Futon slowly, throwing his arms around him. “Kiragi's here for Dad...” Ryoma watched Takumi's hands entangling themselves into Kiragi's hair, while he started to hum a melody he probably picked up from Azura for the young child. He truly loved his son. “I'm such a bad father”, Takumi whispered, as soon as Kiragi had fallen asleep again. “I was never there for Shigure while he was in the sacred realm... I'm not even able to not drag Kiragi into all of this.” He caressed his son's head carefully. “He deserves so much better...” “I think he does not want to have another father”, Ryoma answered. “He loves you, Takumi...” In that moment, he noticed his younger brother was crying. “Takumi?” “I'm such a pityful pile of shit”, the former archer mumbled. “I'm depressive, I'm traumatized...” “Takumi, everyone would be traumatized by what you experienced!”, Ryoma snapped quietly. “Not in this way”, the younger one replied. “Besides, no one would have done what Iago demanded! No one but... Me...” “Takumi, we talked about this”, Ryoma sighed. “The things that were done to you...” “... Are no excuse.” The younger one's voice was shaking. “Why didn't you punish me?”, he whispered quietly. “For that I did...” “Because I don't see a need. You have been suffering enough to this point”, Ryoma clarified. Again. It was not the first time that Takumi asked him this question and it was also not the first time Ryoma clarified his position. He knew very well that his younger brother deemed himself unworthy of being a Hoshidian prince, that he felt he should be punished. The parliament wasn't fully innocent about this since a not insignificant part of it had voted for his execution after the war was over – something Ryoma had luckily been able to prevent due to his status as king. Still, he had been put under arrest. And as if depressions and the trauma were not enough, the constant surveillance had also led to a certain amount of paranoia. “Hinoka lost her arm due to me!”, Takumi sobbed. “I thought you love her...” “Hinoka lost her arm because she was in a bad spot and overwhelmed by her fury”, Ryoma clarified. “Even she herself does not blame you.” He sighed. “Besides I do love her. Deeply. Just as I do love you, Takumi. You two were the reason why I considered surrendering...”

Hinoka was in surprisingly good mood for the bad mood she was usually in those days. Ryoma admitted that he had his difficulties keeping up with her. Then again, hand-to-hand-combat had never been his greatest strength. As she brought him down for what seemed to be the hundredth time, he smiled. “You certainly haven't lost your form.” “Yupp.” She cracked her knuckles. “I guess I'm ready to stand onto the battlefield again.” She moved her right, now lightly translucent hand in front of her face. “Sakura's magic certainly makes for a good punch. A shame it doesn't last for longer than a few hours...” “She surely did good work on that spell”, Ryoma smiled. “Who knows? Maybe she will be able to replace your arm permanently with it some day...” “Yeah. But even without, those Nohrians won't stand a chance!” Her left hand curled into a fist. “I'm ready for anything!” “About that, Hinoka...” Ryoma sighed loudly, sitting down on the meadow they had been training on. “I think we should give up.” “What?” Hinoka's fist relaxed and she looked confused. “Why?” “Is it not obvious?”, Ryoma asked. A rhetorical question. “They have Takumi as a hostage. And they will harm him, should we even attempt to fight them in any way.” He sighed, his gaze meeting the grass on the ground. “I do not want him to return to us ripped into pieces”, he whispered. “Or significantly... Changed.” Hinoka stayed silent. “If we attack them, they will harm him”, Ryoma repeated. “Perhaps kill him...” He shook his head. “I can not do this”, he sighed. “Besides... You already lost an arm.” “You're such an idiot, Ryoma”, the redhead scolded him. He looked up. “Do you really think they'll keep their word? You know how cruel Nohrians are. They'll torture him one way or another for their own enjoyment!” “But if we provoke them on top of...”, Ryoma started, but his sister cut him off again. “Besides, you know what a brat Takumi can be. He surely won't make their lifes easy”, she continued. “And judging by the way they treated him at Cyrkensia, I bet that they make hell out of his.” “Takumi is smart”, Ryoma disagreed. “He wouldn't...” “He would and you know it.” Hinoka sat down at his side, not in Seiza like him, she never cared about formalities and such as much has he did – had to do as High Prince. “The longer we wait the greater the risk they do something terrible to him. The longer we wait, the more pain he has to face.” She had stared at the sky before. Perhaps she was searching for Shizen. The Pegasus had fled after Garon had cut off her arm, scared. It hadn't returned to her yet. “And there is another thing.” “And that is?” Ryoma raised his eyebrows. “He would want us to fight for him. To save him”, Hinoka replied. “To not give up.” Ryoma stayed silent. “When I saw him as their hostage, he looked... Scared. But at the same time, there was still that pride in his eyes. That wild, untamed determination of a Hoshidian prince. Of our brother...” “Now you exeggerate”, Ryoma chuckled. “I'm serious”, Hinoka declared. “He would want us to continue fighting.” She paused for a short time. “And about my arm... It's okay, really.” She grinned. “Now I have two reasons to continue fighting. For Takumi - and for myself. Do you really think I'd let those idiots get a hold of me by cutting off my arm?” Ryoma chuckled. “Not really.” Hinoka laughed. “See? You're an idiot, Ryo.” “Perhaps you are right...”

“She was.” Takumi stared into the air. “I wanted you to fight... To not give up. In the beginning.” He pulled Kiragi closer to him. Protectively, as if all the memories caused a sudden urge to never let him go. Ryoma could understand that; Takumi had lost so much. The older brother admired how he still kept going, despite all depressions, paranoia and traumatic experiences. How he still kept fighting. “Ryoma?” “Hm?” “Will you stay?” He sounded like a child. Ryoma smiled. “As long as you want me to.” Finally. Finally he asked. Opened up... That was something to begin with. “Can we... Talk?” “To keep you from sleeping?” Takumi sighed at this question. “You got me there...” “Do you sometimes dream about what happened?”, Ryoma wanted to know. His younger brother nodded. “It seems I'm... That I tend to have nightmares.” He sighed again. “You know, before the war, it were things I could not... Well, not assign to anything.” Ryoma nodded. “Sometimes I dreamed about how father died – but I wasn't there when it happened. Sometimes I dreamed about losing mother too. And sometimes it was just... Things that scared me.” “Like losing us?”, Ryoma asked. Takumi nodded. "And more." He looked up at the ceiling. “Sometimes you told me that I wasn't good enough... Useless...” Terror grew in his eyes as he continued speaking. “And sometimes, I dreamed of being controlled by something... A voice in the back of my head. And then, I grabbed Fujin Yumi and shot you in your heads. One by one.” Ryoma could feel his fear. It was in his trembling voice. Takumi looked at him again now. “But now, it's different. Now the dreams are memories.” “About the war? And Nohr?” Takumi nodded. “Sometimes also about... Her.” Of course Ryoma knew whom he was talking about. He was alluding to Azura, whose name he couldn't speak out loud since she died and hearing it usually caused him to have a mental breakdown. “You told her, didn't you?” “Yeah. I did.” His gaze was again fixed on some point in the distance, a point Ryoma couldn't see. Perhaps the past. “She... Understood. She had been through similar things in her childhood, you know. Not the... Bloody stuff, but...” “You don't have to name it, Takumi, I know what you mean”, Ryoma interrupted him as he realized how difficult it was for his younger brother to speak about those things. “That's how we became close. She cared about me and I needed the support. I developed a sympathy for her... Perhaps it was just my sick mind, but I soon realized it was more.” He sighed. “I just don't know why...” “You do not have to ask about that”, Ryoma smiled. “Love is like an untamed bird, which always flies where it wants.” He rubbed his brother's head. “May I ask if you want to tell me more?” “There is so much I didn't tell you about her... And me.” Takumi smiled lightly. “After you told me to stay at Notre Sagesse for some time, to mediate and learn from the Rainbow Sage, and she decided to stay with me, she'd take care of me.” Now he was definitely looking at the past. Melancholy was in his gaze and also his voice, when he continued to speak. “She watched over me at night.” “Just as I do now?” “Yeah, quite similar.” Kiragi chortled quietly, snuggling closer to his father. “I needed that”, he continued. “Someone to watch me.” He caressed Kiragi's head again. “I was so broken I couldn't even help myself anymore. I simply forgot things like to wash myself, so she reminded me on them. She even needed to convince me to eat sometimes...” “I had no idea it was that bad”, Ryoma admitted quietly. “I am sorry. I am sorry I was not there for you, Takumi.” “It's okay, Ryoma.” The younger brother sighed. “To be honest, I wished you were, but you already did so much. You were the one freeing me from my perspective, you know.” “You remember that?”, Ryoma asked him, slightly surprised. Takumi nodded. “You were barely conscious”, Ryoma remembered. “Nearly dead to be exact...”

“That's the last one”, Hinoka murmured. Ryoma and her had been looking for prisoners in the dungeons of Maracath, after the city fell into Hoshidian hands after weeks of sieging and a battle that lasted for days. They hadn't found any Hoshidians so far, which only increased Ryoma's suspicions that Nohr wouldn't make any further prisoners. Aside from Takumi. They had freed a few Nohrians however. Apparently all people who wanted to surrender during the sieging and actually waiting for their execution. Nohr was harsh on what they considered crime. Ryoma had ordered his people to give them food and medicine. It hurt him to see the ordinary people suffer from the war that much. “I wonder where they took Takumi”, Hinoka mumbled. “And how he is...” She swallowed. “I hope the siege didn't cause him too much trouble.” “He will be fine”, Ryoma told her. “Takumi is strong.” “May I remind you that you were the one who wanted to give up because Nohr holds him hostage?”, Hinoka asked. If it wasn't such a serious situation, she might have grinned, but now she was totally serious. Looked even worried. “You may”, Ryoma answered, while opening the door. “You are right after...” He interrupted himself, shocked by the view in front of him. “Hinoka”, he whispered, “do not look at...” “Whatever it is”, she declared, while shoving him aside, “I've seen wo-...” She clapped her single hand over her mouth. “T-T...” “I told you”, Ryoma sighed, walking into the cell, towards the body of his younger body, that laid lifelessly on the bottom, on the stomach. He knelt down besides him, touching his shoulder lightly. Meanwhile, Hinoka walked towards the wall, which was painted in a crusty, dark brown color. She swallowed, her fingers touching one letter of the message that was written onto the stones.

THIS HAPPENS IF YOU CHALLENGE NOHR, HOSHIDIAN FILTH.

“Ryo?”, she whispered. “Do you think this is... Takumi's blood?” Ryoma gently stroked his brother's cheek. “It smells like blood in here, so you might be correct.” He turned the lifeless body around. The skin was already cold. Takumi must have laid there for a very long time. And then, Ryoma noticed something. “Hinoka.” “Hm?” She turned around. “He is breathing.” “What?!” The redhead immediately rushed to his side. She frowned at the sight of the pale, emaciated body and the wounds on it, some of them obviously infected, but nevertheless touched her younger brother's chest. “Yes”, she whispered. “There is a heartbeat.” “Gods”, Ryoma murmured. A terrible suspicion began to form into his head. They didn't forget Takumi in the dungeon. They left him at this place to die. They wanted them to find him. It had all been planned. Suddenly, one of Takumi's eyes opened, the other one was bruised and swollen. Hinoka was the first one to react. She took his hand, squeezing it lightly. Takumi let out a quiet noise. “Shhh, it's okay”, she whispered. “We're here now, Takumi...” “We need a blanket for him”, Ryoma said quietly to not scare his younger brother. “Do you still have any?” “Yeah, luckily...” She stood up, running out of the cell, apparently to fetch one. Ryoma stayed behind. He lifted Takumi up into his arms. The young prince protested quietly, presumably because it hurt him to be lifted up like that. Besides, Ryoma still wore his armor, it was probably not that comfortable. “It is alright”, he told the younger one. “You are safe now. They will not hurt you again...”

“You know... They actually forced me to write that message onto the wall myself.” Takumi swallowed. “Took them a lot of... 'Convincing' though.” There was that pride Hinoka had spoken of. That wild, untamed determination. So they hadn't managed to break all of him. Still, at the same time, Ryoma could see the traces Takumi's captivity had left on him. The strains of pure white in his now short hair, that had never vanished completely. The scar that ran across his left eye, and the eye itself with it's now milky iris. While still intact, the vision on it was blurry and Takumi preferred to wear an eyepatch to cover it up at daytime. He was skinny – Takumi didn't eat much, sometimes Ryoma had to force him to take some more. The trembling hands. That sad smile... The older brother felt a sting in his heart, a reminder of his failure to protect Takumi from this fate, this pain he was still going through and which, like his scars, would probably never fully vanish. A hand grabbed Ryoma's own carefully, almost shyly. A cool, trembling hand. Takumi was trying to make their gazes meet, something Ryoma had not been able to bear for a long time. Because in all the chaos of feelings that he could see in Takumi's eyes, one particular was missing: hatred on his older brother for failing him. It was a while before one of them – Takumi – dared to speak up again. “And yes, it was my own blood. But collected over time, not all at once.” Silence. Takumi never talked about the time he had spent in the Nohrian dungeons. All Ryoma knew was that he had been hurt, physically and mentally. Abused and mistreated. Even raped. It was a little wonder that he had been able to form a relationship with Azura. Ryoma nodded in acknowledgment. “That question actually bothered me for a long time”, he admitted. “There is no way you could have survived loosing the amount of blood that was used to paint the wall.” Takumi smiled weakly. “They regularly bled me.” They stayed silent again, for a while, each one lost in their own thoughts. Takumi had one back to ruffling through sleeping Kiragi's hair and Ryoma had started to do the same for Takumi, unconciously, wanting to show him that he was there. That he would stay there. “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all of this”, he finally stated. Takumi shook his head. “No.” “Hm?” “Thank you for listening”, Takumi whispered. “I think I can sleep a lot better now.” “I am glad”, Ryoma said, caressing his brother's head again. “You know you can always come if you have a nightmare or paranoia, right?” “Yeah. Thanks Ryoma.” The younger brother smiled. “You can also go to Hinoka”, Ryoma continued. “I am sure she would be happy to listen to you. Trust me, she does not blame you for her lost arm.” Takumi nodded. “I'll remember it.” “Alright.” Ryoma stood up. “Good night then. Sleep well.” “Good night.”

#My Content #Writing #My Writing #My Fanfiction #Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fanfiction #Oneshot #Fire Emblem: Fates #Fire Emblem: Fates - Birthright #Birthright #FEF #FEF Birthright #Birthright AU #Takumi #Ryoma #Kiragi

[kyriolex]

Part 2 of Fruits Basket Question

What type of discourse are you worried about Fruits Basket getting? Which characters do you anticipate will be labeled abusers other than the obvious ones, ala Akito and Ren? (feel free to make this a spoiler post)

I don’t know which Fruits Basket characters will be labeled an abuser, because I’ve seen people on this site label Ron frickin’ Weasley as an abuser, so I don’t think any character is 100% safe.

Instead, it might be easier to look at some characters who could debatably fall into the abuser category. Obviously abuse is a personal subject, so two reasonable people could have very different but valid opinions about who could be an abuser. Furthermore, it’s rarely simple as putting people in “Abuser” and “Not-Abuser” categories. Some people are mildly abusive, while others are absolute freaking monsters.

Like the first answer, I’m putting everything under the line because there is no way to avoid spoilers. Also keep in mind that it’s been a while since I’ve read through the manga, so some details may be fuzzy.

Before I answer this question, I want to clarify what I mean by abuse. Abuse is prolonged and/or severe mistreatment within a close relationship at the hands of an individual in power.

Akito is an abuser because even though she is younger than some of the cast, she is still "God.” Yes, Akito is abused and probably mentally ill. Doesn’t matter. Akito’s behavior wasn’t isolated to a psychotic episode where she didn’t know what was going on around her. Her aggression was persistent, conscious, and tactically used to ensure the zodiac’s loyalty.

Makoto (the head of Yuki’s fanclub) is not an abuser. She is Tohru’s fellow student and holds relatively equal power to Tohru. Makoto is a bitch and a bully, but she doesn’t have enough authority to be an abuser. 

Likewise, Haru’s fits of rage are not abuse. He is hostile and violent to people, yes. But it’s shown that when Haru goes into his mode, he attacks everything in sight: friends, strangers, furniture, etc. His aggression isn’t targeted consistently toward any one person. If memory serves, he typically apologizes after his fits and admits he was wrong, rather than trying to blame any victims. Haru is a good example of how a mental health issue (probably intermittent explosive disorder if I had to diagnose him) can lead to violence but not necessarily abuse.

Okay! So who in Fruits Basket (besides the obvious) could possibly fit those criteria? I’m not going to give an exhaustive list, just two cases where the arguments will be most interesting. For my own sake, I’m going to try not to take a stance on any of these. I’m merely listing the debates that will likely occur.

Kyoko Honda: After her husband died, she went into a severe depression and possibly a dissociative episode. Her father-in-law came over a few times to feed Tohru, but otherwise 3-year-old Tohru was left to fend for herself. This episode of child neglect impacts Tohru’s personality for years to come. (Most organizations classify child neglect as a type of abuse, FYI).

So is Kyoko an abuser? This incident wasn’t necessarily Kyoko’s fault, as she was detached from reality at the time and forgot she even had a daughter. If she had fallen ill with a severe fever, the result would have been the same.

On the other hand, a toddler was still neglected for many days, maybe even weeks. The harm still occurred, even if Kyoko didn’t consciously intend it. And unlike Haru and his classmates, this harm occurred in a parent-child dynamic, which has different rules about what a person is responsible for.

Shigure Sohma: This man is going to be a dumpster fire by the time everyone is done with him. The first issue is how he manipulates Tohru. His whole reason for inviting Tohru into his house was to use her to break the curse. 

On one hand, giving a homeless girl a place to stay is a nice gesture. Plus, Shigure is in kind of a desperate situation and understandably wants to be free of the curse. On the other hand, Shigure knows full well that Tohru will become the target of Akito’s violent rage if his plan succeeds. It’s likely not a coincidence that he chose a homeless girl with nowhere else to live for his plan. He’s putting a vulnerable teen in an awful lot of danger without her knowledge.

The second issue is, of course, his relationship with Akito. Long story short, Shigure slept with Ren, Akito’s abuser, to get revenge on Akito sleeping with another man. And I might be misremembering, but I believe Shigure says at one point that he wanted to break the curse so he could have Akito all to himself (i.e. isolate her). Does this kind of manipulation count as abuse or self-defense? Can the victim of abuse also victimize their abuser? 

Others who may or may not be cast as abusers:

Kazuma Sohma: For exposing Kyo’s true identity to Tohru without his consent. (I’d classify that as more of a Bad Idea He Should Apologize For rather than systemic abuse.)

Kagura Sohma: For pushing her love on Kyo while using him to fuel her own self-esteem. (It depends on which parts of her character the anime emphasize.)

Kureno Sohma: For romantically pursuing a high-school girl. (I think Arisa is 18 by the time he meets her, but I’m not 100% sure he knew that.)

Wow, that was long. FYI, you are absolutely allowed to disagree with this. I am just trying to predict possible debates, not make any definitive guide on who is problematic.

#Fruits Basket 2019 #Fruits Basket spoilers #abuse #watch as this post becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy #and drama starts before the show even starts #I need to stop writing so late at night lol

[tang-wei]

ONS Guren LN Vol 1 Chapter 2 translation~

Title: Shinya’s Class

Translator: @tang-wei​

Raws: Chinese

If you feel the need to re-read the whole series again, the masterpost is here

Important note: Because the previous sources for Volume 1 have been taken down/ made unavailable, I am translating this for the sake of fans who are not able to purchase a copy of the official English translation that is available. If you enjoy Guren’s story, then please support the author by buying the novel!  

Classroom.

Homeroom.

A sight commonly seen in a normal school.

"............"

Right there, was Guren.

In Year 1 Class 9, in the seat by the window right at the back.

It was the first homeroom lesson right now. A woman who seemed to be the homeroom teacher was talking about the school entrance ceremony which was going to commence after.

Sayuri and Shigure were not in this class.

Sayuri was in Class 1.

Shigure was in Class 2; the two of them were assigned to the classes that were furthest away from Class 9, which clearly was the product of someone's meddling.

"Well, it's not something unexpected though."

The reason was because this place that Guren was in, was a place whose objective was to show to the next head of the Ichinose House the exceptional, overwhelming power possessed by the Hiiragi House.

 "Isolating you, bullying and subjugating me huh. This has been the underhanded method they had been using for 200 years after all."

Guren smiled.

25 years ago, his father had attended this school just as Guren was doing now, and had completely submitted to the Hiiragi House. Putting aside whether he liked or disliked the main house, whenever it was time to make a major decision, he always acted in the capacity of someone who was the pet of the Hiiragi House.

As such, his father did have a good reputation among the 『Mikado no Tsukki』.

But Guren did not think that it was something bad. He did not mind. It was not something that had decreased his respect for his father.

His father had just been doing whatever he was able to within his limits. As long as he was able to avoid conflict for their organization with that, it was fine.

And even on that day itself.

"............"

Guren recalled.

The memory of that time, when he was a child.

The memory of that day when he last met Mahiru.

The memory of when he was beaten up by the people from the Hiiragi House and brought back to his home.

His father looked at him apologetically, and said.

"Please forgive your powerless father......"

With a teary face, his father hugged his son who was covered with wounds, and immediately turned to apologize to the Hiiragi.

Even though his son was the one who got beaten up, he still apologized.

"............"

Guren snapped out of his reverie and looked up.

He looked around.

40 people.

The males and females each made up half the class.

From the register of the class, it seemed like this class had quite a number of children of from the top brass of 『Mikado no Oni』.

Jyuujou House.

Goshi House.

Sanguu House.

Even in the world of sorcery, these were among the famous houses.

The Ichinose House used to be the highest ranked supporting family of the Hiiragi. But right now, they had fallen to the lowest.

A few students shot fleeting glances at this lowest ranked. Only repugnance and animosity from knowing that someone like him was their classmate could be felt from them.

The lady teacher furthermore said.

"Well, now that everyone here has become a member of this First Shibuya High, I hope that everyone here can have a fruitful high school life with the pride and confidence befitting a student of the greatest sorcery school in Japan."

Following that, the lady teacher turned her gaze joyfully to Guren,

"Well, even though we have a rat who managed to enter, don't let it concern you. As the elites who are the most talented and have the best results, the students of this class will have to undertake the task of showing the dignity of this school to the rat.”

The rat was referring to Guren.

The students laughed. Even though not all of them did, those who did seemed to be enjoying themselves.

And then, even the rat also grinned foolishly for now.

Following that, he measured the teacher's strength. He weighed whether the teacher who had mocked him had more power than him.

It did not matter whether he was ridiculed.

He came here knowing that this would happen.

But, he could not allow himself to lose in power. He could not allow himself to lose when it came to spell invocation ability.

Unlike his father, he was burdened with a mission.

Since, unlike his father who ran the organization in a gentle and peaceful manner, he had a different ambition hidden in his heart.

"............"

While grinning foolishly, Guren looked around.

The girl of Jyuujou House.

The guy of Goshi House.

The girl of Sanguu House.

He already knew from the register that there was just one special person assigned to this class.

His name was ---

Hiiragi Shinya.

A person who bore the Hiiragi name.

To the those who owed allegiance to 『Mikado no Oni』, the Hiiragi name held a special distinguished status - so much so that the Hiiragi could even be thought as representatives of God.

To those of 『Mikado no Tsukki』, the Ichinose was the same. Just like how Guren was to Sayuri and Shigure.

But right now, that seat was empty.

Furthest away from Guren's seat --- the distinguished Hiiragi was assigned to the place that was the furthest from the seat of the dirty rat.

In other words, it was at the first row of the classroom, close to the entrance.

At that moment, the lady teacher said.

"Everyone should already have realized this, but this is the very class that Shinya-sama will be in. The honor to be with......."

And so on and so forth.

In other words, they would be together in the same class with such a wonderful person.

The students in the class were listening to the teacher with dreamy looks. It was a completely different attitude as compared to the earlier looks directed at the rat.

Guren smiled again at the idiotic, easy-to-understand change in attitude. Following that, he looked out the window. The roadside cherry trees outside the school gate could be seen from the window.

While staring at them,

"I'm worried about Shigure and Sayuri."

He murmured softly.

At that moment, he could hear the sound of the classroom door sliding open. In that instant, it was evident that the classroom returned to silence and he could feel the class tensed up.

And then,

"My, why is it so quiet?"

That voice rang out from the rear exit of the classroom.

It was the voice of a man.

The lady teacher said in a nervous voice,

"Oh my, it's Shinya-sama, welcome to my class...... Shinya-sama, here is your seat......"

But, Shinya cut her off and said.

"Eeh, I don't want such a front seat."

"Eh, erm......"

"I, would like that seat. So can I swap?"

"Wha, I mean...... but that......."

Guren could hear an ongoing conversation that seemed to indicate the arrival of a king.

It seemed like the one who carried the blood of Hiiragi had finally appeared.

Guren looked up, and turned his gaze into the classroom.

But, he ended slightly surprised by what he saw.

The reason was because the man there was the one who had thrown a talisman at Guren at the school gate this morning.

White hair. A uniform with a stand-up collar. Despite carrying a grin on his face, he had a sharp glint in his eyes. He had a smile that was brimming with self-confidence.

It seemed like this person was none other than Hiiragi Shinya.

I didn't even need to ask Shigure to investigate his identity huh, thought Guren.

To top it off, that very Shinya approached Guren. With a grin on his face, he said to the girl who was seated beside Guren.

"Hey? I'd like to sit here. Can you swap with me?"

The girl was stunned for an instant and she then said as she got up frantically,

"Ah, y-yes! Of course, please help yourself!"

On seeing that, the lady teacher said.

"B-But, sitting beside that rat......" Shinya cut her off with half-closed eyes.

"Hey Sensei. Is it really okay for a teacher to be calling her student a rat?"

"Ah, erm......"

"We are all in the same class. We have to get along."

"Well......"

 The girl who had been seated beside Guren then made way.

 "Thank you."

 Shinya grinned and took the seat beside Guren. Then,

"Aah, everyone, I'm sorry for interrupting. Please continue the homeroom lesson."

After Shinya said that, the lady teacher stepped back to the podium in a flustered manner that was unbecoming for a teacher, and resumed the homeroom lesson.

She talked about the protocol for the school entrance ceremony.

About how the term in this sorcery school would start and what the classes would be like.

Shinya listened on with a grin for a while. Guren turned his gaze out the window again. At that moment,

"Hey."

Shinya called out to him.

"............"

 "Erm, Ichinose Guren-kun, right? Can I call you Guren?"

Guren then turned around and looked at Shinya. He was still grinning. Guren stared at the face of Shinya, and replied.

 "Are perhaps you talking to me?" Shinya then smiled and said.

 "What's with the polite language?"

"I had been strictly taught since young that I must not defy the Hiiragi House."

"Eeh, really?" "Yes."

 "I see. That's kind of boring."

 "I'm very sorry."

Guren lowered his head. As Shinya stopped saying anything to him, Guren started looking out the window again but it was then Shinya began again,

"But then, you took my attack on purpose this morning right?"

"............"

"My, I wonder why you did that? Perhaps to hide your true power?"

"............"

"Isn't that a clear act of defiance? Your ambition is so obvious, you know?"

Damn. Seems like he really saw through it.

Guren looked at Shinya and said.

"About that...... I am really sorry."

"Oh, you admit to it pretty readily huh?"

"However, I was not admitting to the ambition part. It's just that I've been taught at home that I must not defy anyone, and not bring on the wrath of the people of the Hiiragi House, and as a result, it is true that I took the attack so as not to stir up any trouble. It's not like I was trying to hide my true power."

"Huh. I see."

"Yes."

"I see ~."

Shinya looked hard at Guren. Looking hard, grinning. And for some reason, he inched closer. He inched strangely close to him and said into his ear.

With a slightly lowered voice,

 "Hey Guren. Stop your boring lies."

"............"

Guren narrowed his eyes on hearing that. He looked intently at Shinya,

"I'm not ly......"

But Shinya cut him off and said.

"Well, doesn't matter ~. But it's just that I've been hoping all this time that we can actually be comrades you know."

"............"

"Since both you and I hate the Hiiragi House, I was thinking that we could actually join hands and secretly do lots of interesting things together."

"............"

"By the way, the Hiiragi blood doesn't flow in me. I'm a foster son. Since I was a kid, I've been raised in a manner to be fit to join the Hiiragi House. That's why I hate the Hiiragi House. In other words, we are comrades."

He said.

Guren had heard of something like this before. In order to strengthen the power in sorcery in the descendants of their bloodline, the Hiiragi House would seek out capable children, teach and raise them, then through the process of sifting and selection, adopt those who survived as their foster children.

Then they would make them marry those of their bloodline and give birth to children.

Such a rumor had been around for quite some time.

But Guren did not know whether Shinya was really a foster son of the Hiiragi House or not. More importantly, even if what Shinya said was true, there was no reason for Guren to reveal his true thoughts.

Thus, Guren was about to reply with a "you've misunderstood". He was about to reply with a "I'm not the person you thought out to be".

However, before he could do that ---

Shinya said.

"By the way, my partner is Mahiru. Hiiragi Mahiru. Ever since I was born, I had been raised to become her partner."

Instantly, Guren could tell that he had reacted.

Shinya looked on.

Receiving Guren's stare head on, Shinya smiled.

"Oh my, your true nature came out quite easily."

"What may you be referring to?"

"Well well, don't worry about it. I never thought we can become friends right away today."

"............"

"By the way, did you know that Mahiru also came to this school? She's really excellent and has thus been selected to give a speech as the freshman representative, it seems. Isn't that amazing? Your ex-girlfriend is......"

On hearing those words, Guren responded while keeping his expression unchanged.

"Mahiru-sama and I did not have that kind of relation......"

 "Now she's my fiancee though."

 "............"

In a flash, Guren's words stopped, and he directed a slightly forceful gaze towards Shinya. Shinya did not miss that and grinned with his well-ordered face. And he then said in a taunting manner.

"Why? Vexed?"

"Not really."

"Ha, haha, that face. Your ambition's completely written on your face. So why don't we get along? Just saying this, but Mahiru and I aren't really on that close terms so don't worry. Even though I have the Hiiragi name, I'm still just a foster son. I'm still just a filthy spawn of lowly birth. At the main house, the treatment I get is the same as what you're getting here now. I'm of course pissed by that, so I'm thinking of destroying everything."

He said.

He said something that would have gotten him executed immediately if it got leaked outside.

Is this a trap, or does this fellow really have the thought of rebelling against the Hiiragi House? Guren did not know.

Even though he did not know, it did not seem like Shinya was a guy he should get involved in, so Guren changed his approach.

He looked up, averted his eyes from Shinya, and said.

"Tch, you're really a talkative fella huh. My goal is different from yours. I don't know what you want to accomplish, but don't get me involved in it."

Instantly, Shinya's face brightened.

"Ah, you stopped your polite speech."

"Shut up."

"Then, are we friends? Let's be friends?"

"I told you to shut up."

 "Ah-haha. Well, whatever. At any rate, I'm the only comrade you can have here. So you have no choice but to get along with me."

As before, Shinya smiled in delight.

Guren then took a glance at Shinya. His mood became bitter at having attracted the attention of a pretty troublesome fellow right on the first day of school.

At that moment, the lady teacher said.

"All right, it's about time for the school entrance ceremony. Everyone, shall we go?"

With that, the students stood up.

Shinya too stood up and said.

"Well, shall we go? Let's go hear the speech of our common goddess."

The goddess was probably referring to Mahiru.

However, since that day, when they were separated by the adults, Guren had not seen Mahiru for 10 years. Thus, when he heard her name being mentioned after all this time, he did not know what kind of emotions he should be feeling.

But, right now, he was going to head to where Mahiru was.

Mahiru was going to give a speech as the freshman representative.

Though he had never thought that he would meet again under such circumstances.

Shinya held out his hand and said.

"Come on, let's go, Guren."

He called his name familiarly without any honorific.

Guren looked up at that hand, scowled, and brushed it away.

"Don't come close to me."

 "Haha."

And then, Guren and the rest of the class moved to the auditorium.

 ~CHAPTER 2 END~  

T/N: gotta update quick hehe

<< Chapter 1 || Chapter 3>>

#ichinose guren #hiiragi shinya #owari no seraph #guren ichinose's catastrophe at 16 #mushroom translates

[oneunicornaway]

For the music asks : 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 20, 22, 23, 28 !! (sorry if that's a lot, don't feel forced to answer it all xD)

omg there are sooo much !! I love you thanks :D

1: A song you like with a color in the title.Welcome to The Black Parade, My chemical Romance

5: A song that needs to be played LOUDuhm… I think there are lots of answer to this… I think I’ll just give the two that come to mind the easiest…The Phoenix, Fall out BoyBohemian Rhapsody, Queen; and from Queen, even better: Death on two legs!!Also, in the land of instrumentals, Heir of Grief, from Homestuck

6: A song that makes you want to dance.Wow, uh shit, there are A LOT of those ^^ but I guess lately, lot of songs from Shaka Ponk, like Stop the Bot, and really, their music is great in general. Also, what makes me what want to dance whatever my mood is Dare, Gorillaz which is aaaaawesome

9: A song that makes you happyI’d say, Peace Sign, Kenshi Yozenu (BNHA op, for those who don’t know), and Charlotte, Air Traffic

11: A song that you never get tired ofLately, You have to be there, the version from Alice Ripley, in general 505, Arctic Monkeys, and Kings of Medecine, Placebo.

12: A song from your preteen yearsA part of those I’ve already mentionned are from this area already since I listened to them as a kid, but I also listened to lots of french stuff, so there:La Terre ferme, Luke.

20: A song that has many meanings to you.That one is actually pretty hard to answer… I listen to music in a pretty simple way, because I enjoy it, so I mostly don’t overthink them… but I’d say Not Dead, Girls in Hawaii, because I love it, but it also makes me cry regurlarly, because it takes me back to the hardest parts of my life…Air Traffic’s whole album too, because it holds such great and precious memories for my father and I.

22: A song that moves you forwardStairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, definitly. This song calms me a lot and make me feel good, and also picks up a bit which helps me move, if only physically. I actually use this song in the morning when I feel particularly anxious and/or nervous about something and it helps so much with my anxiety and my unwillingness to deal with stuff ^^’I also love to listen to MCR and Nirvana when I’m not particurlarly okay, because the underlying violence in most songs helps me deal with all the stuff I keep locked up and helps me relax.

23: A song that you think everybody should listen toOh wow, Stairway to Heaven?? Bohemian Rhapsody??? Space Oddity???? Summertime?????? like omg, you need to have those in your life, even if you don’t like them and it’s just once. Also less known, Beyond Dazed, Broke for Free (I think it’s good for anxiety); Mama, MCR, I wanna be yours, Arctic Monkeys, Hamilton.Rat a Tat, Fall out Boy. Wedded Bliss, from Doctor Who, This is Halloween, Marylin Monson. I don’t fucking know, there is so much out there, mostly you should listen to what you want and what you love. I just love a lot of stuff, and I think everything deserve to be given a listen, just to try :D

28: A song by an artist with a voice that you loveWhere does the good go, Tegan and Sara. Dang, those girls. Also, OMG, Abnormalize, Ling Toshite Shigure (op1 to Psycho-pass), those people have voices!! shit man.

There! This was actually rather short to do (not counting adding the links). It was not too much at all, I actually kept wanting to add stuff (as is made obvious by the multiple answers ^^). Thank you so much for asking me stuff about music!! I could talk about it for hours :D

I love you so much, and you made the end of my day somuch better!

(seriously, you guys, plz talk to me about music ;)

#also plz tell me if there's any problem with the links #my wifi isn't working really well so there might have been some badly linked stuff in there

[mwritesink]

Exalted Emblem Fates

Fates | Awakening | Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn | Sacred Stones | Binding Blade/Blazing Sword | Genealogy of the Holy War/Tharcia 776 part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7 | Gaiden/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia | Dark Dragon/Shadow Dragon 

so becuase there are far too many characters within the Fire Emblem franchise to remake every single one of them into Exalted characters, I’m focusing down onto the “Lord” characters and noble lines (for the most part. I know I kind of bend a few things here and there). 

First up! Fire Emblem Fates! Exalted style! explanations are under the cut

Hoshido family

Ryoma = Yushoto Ryoma, Air aspect

Takumi = Yushoto Takumi, Air aspect

Hinoka = Yushoto Hinoka, Wood aspect

Sakura = Yushoto Sakura, Wood aspect

Kiragi = Yushoto Kiragi, Wood aspect

Shiro = Yushoto Shiro, Fire aspect

Nohr family

Xander = Sesus Xander, Fire aspect

Leo = Sesus Leo, Wood aspect

Camilla = Sesus Camilla, Water aspect

Elise = Sesus Elise, Air aspect

Siegbert = Sesus Siegbert, Fire aspect

Forrest = Sesus Forrest, Wood aspect

Other

Azura = (Iselsi) Azura, Water aspect

Shigure = (Iselsi) Yushoto Shigure, Wood aspect

Overall it was rather important to me to find family units that would work for sets of related characters. As such, the Nohr/Hoshido divide I found could be best expressed in Exalted with the conflict between Lookshy and the Realm. Lookshy and the survivors of the 7th legion always have had a more distinct “japan/east-asian” aesthetic than the Realm, which made it the best analog for Hoshido. Nohr and the Realm both have deadly decadent politics that could jive together. 

Picking a gens for the Hoshido siblings was something of a process of elimination after I decided on what aspects they mostly were. Gens Amilar, from what I have of 2nd edition’s version of Lookshy, doesn’t fit the family at all, which left gens Yushoto. I can pass of the multiple elements as being that one of their parents or grandparents came from a minor air aspected Gens that married into Yushoto whose name died out after they joined Yushoto. 

Ryoma and Takumi being air aspects comes down to their weapons. Since Exalted has lightning being tied to air, that made Ryoma’s Raijinto an easy analog for a blue jade reaper daiklaive, and his affinity to it made him an Air aspect. Also, when you watch that one animatic where he challenges Xander to single combat, I can more easily see him cutting his way through the army as a slicing wind than a burning bonfire. Takumi’s Fujin Yumi becomes an obvious analog for a blue jade powerbow with an evocation similar to essence arrow that creates arrows out of concentrated wind. Add in Takumi’s rather “stormy” personality, and you have my reasoning for him being another air aspect.

Hinoka, Sakura, and Kiragi I put as wood aspects largely becuase of what we see them in the story chapters and support conversations. Sakura is the first healer that the player gets on both the Birthright and Revelation paths, and on the Birthright path, the character establishing chapter for her is of taking care of  wounded soldiers as both a healer and protecter. When you promote her to a  priestess, she has access to bows. Kiragi starts out as an archer, and his introductory paralouge, and most of his support conversations deal with him hunting, or thinking about hunting. Hinoka has her connection to her pegasus, and takes care of her subordinates. I’ll grant that Hinoka is the most shaky of them, and could also easily be a fire aspect. 

Speaking of fire aspects, Shiro as the lone fire aspect. This mostly out of the passion the kid has in trying to best his father, Ryoma, by any means possible. Where Ryoma is a cutting gale, Shiro definitely is a bonfire, and one that looks to learn control of his inner fire. 

The Nohr siblings were easier to place when I knew that they would be Realm characters. House Sesus, while aspected towards fire, strikes me as one that looks for power anywhere it can over aspect purity which would fit their father, and leave the resulting kids and grandkids to tread the line between being their houses’ stereotype and defying it. 

Xander reminds me a lot of Cynis Denovah Avaku, so the idea of the “knight” character being a fire aspect jives for me. His sword reminds me more of something that would be made of soulsteel rather than red jade, but it’d still work. Seigbert is something like Xander in miniature, so he also is a ire aspect. Leo and his don are wood aspects largely because they have the Brynhildr, a tome where the spell looks like a patch of growing trees. Camilla is water because of how changeable she is from place to place. the Camilla from the support conversations is different from the Camilla you meet on any of the main story paths. Elise is a brightness that her siblings lack, so she is air, lifting the rest of them out of the infighting of their families. 

Finally Azura and her son Shigure. It be utterly foolish to think that Azura was any element other than water, when across all the story paths she’s a part of show deeply her affinity for water. Iselsi is in parentheses to reflect how she hides her true heritage in game. A scion of house Iselsi would also want to hide her heritage. The story I try to imply is that she masquerades as an outcaste who then marries into Gens Yushoto of Lookshy, and gives birth to Shigure, who doesn’t know about the realm side of his heritage, only the Lookshyan side. Him being wood aspect rather than water is in his personal affinity for animals as it’s described in his support conversations, especially with his sibling, should he have one, on top of him also being a noted performer and artist. 

#M splatters ink #ink spills #fire emblem #Exalted #fire emblem fates #Exalted Emblem #dragon blooded everywhere!! #this went longer than expected #got tired adn was losign steam near the end #sorry

[dragonkeeper19600]

Fruits Basket Observations

I reread Fruits Basket this month. One of my favorite things about this manga full of favorite things of mine is that every time I read it, I realize something new about the story and its characters. Apparently, this was one of the goals that Natsuki Takaya had in regards to Fruits Basket, that it would get better the more you “bite into” it (she actually compares the series to a cuttlefish in that regard), and I think she pulled it off due to all the amazing Fridge Brilliance moments that come from rereading it. 

With that in mind, here is my list of random thematic and character-based elements I’ve never noticed before, as well as little moments that slipped under my radar the first time I read the series:

A lot of traits about Akito’s character, including her real gender and her primary motivation, are foreshadowed early on in more minor forms. For example, the main character is a girl named Tohru, but in Japan “Tohru” is a boy’s name. “Akito” is also a masculine name. Tohru and Akito sharing masculine names not only emphasizes their status as foils, it also sort of foreshadows Akito’s gender in a way, since there’s one other example of a gender-blender name in the story.

Matoko’s character also foreshadows Akito’s internalized misogyny. In Volume 7, Matoko fumes that she hates all women, including the other girls in the Prince Yuki fan club because they’re all “her enemies” (in that they’re potential rivals for her love for Yuki) but then admits to herself that the flaws she sees in others are only reflections of the flaws she sees in herself. 

Finally, in a really interesting example, the anime’s opening theme, “For Fruits Basket,” finishes with the line, “Let’s stay together, always.” “Staying together always” is revealed to be the true nature of the curse, since it forces people to be together forever regardless if they want to or not. Because of this, the song and opening sequence become unexpectedly sinister when viewed by someone who’s finished the manga.

What’s even more bizarre is that in the anime, Akito is doomed to die young, and Tohru is able to get through to him by noticing his loneliness and fear, which no one else ever acknowledged. This was exactly how Ren got Akira to fall in love with her in the manga. This is especially odd because Natsuki Takaya had nothing to do with Akito’s characterization in the anime, meaning that this is either the mother of all coincidences or she actually got the idea from the anime. Considering Ren is a villainous character, this may even have been a deliberate potshot at the anime, which Natsuki Takaya reportedly hated, though this is just wild guesswork at this point.

A lot of characters who share some kind of connection or matching qualities have similar names. This is actually pointed out by Kyo when he notices his name sounds pretty close to “Kyoko,” but it’s far from the only example. Matoko Minagawa and Makoto Takei have similar names and are both high schools one year above Yuki who are obsessively in love with him. Ren and Isuzu not only look alike, but Isuzu’s nickname, “Rin,” sounds pretty close to Ren’s name. There’s also Mitsuru and Ritsu, whose similarity becomes even more pronounced when Mitsuru’s name is shortened to “Mitsu,” as it often is. And, finally, Kyoko’s maiden name, “Katsunuma,” is pretty close to the name of her husband, “Katsuya.” 

On that note, Ren mentions at one point that she’s always hated Rin “instinctively.” While some have pinned this on Ren’s simple dislike of children in general, the fact that Rin looks like Ren hints at another explanation. Shigure mentions in Volume 20 that if Akito expressed her true gender, she’d look just like Ren. Because Rin also looks like Ren, perhaps when Ren saw a little girl who resembled her, it reminded her of her own hated daughter. In other words, Ren and Akito both hated Rin for the same reason (because she looked like someone they hated.)

Shigure and Akito totally banged in Chapter 101. They start kissing, with Shigure pulling on Akito’s tie, then it fades into a flashback, and when we cut back, Akito is in bed, topless, and Shigure is pulling a blanket over her. They totally went at it doggy-style, yo. This may have been obvious to other people, but I was pretty innocent-minded as a teenager (shockingly), so this flew completely over my head.

In that same chapter, it’s implied that Shigure actually sleeps around a lot, since when Akito prodded him for sleeping with “that woman,” he honestly didn’t know who she meant until she clarified she meant Ren.

Hang on, does this mean he banged Mayuko? I... Shit, I think it does.

When Kureno rescues Rin from the cat’s room, she’s wearing Akito’s clothes. Looks like Akito (or maybe one the maids) has been dressing Rin in Akito’s robes. 

Rin probably has some kind of crush on Tohru, and I’m not just saying that because of her stated desire to “run crying into her lap.” In Volume 23, when Kyo sees Tohru comforting Rin, he murmurs that he has “guys and girls as competition,” and later in the same volume, when Haru and Momiji are speculating on how happy Tohru and Kyo will be together, Rin sullenly comments that Tohru should break up with him. If this is true that means that both Rin and Haru are bi and attracted to people other than their partner (since Haru confesses in Volume 3 that Yuki was his first love and also comments that he “likes Kyo, too.”)

The birth of his little sister Hinata is what motivates Hiro to tell Kisa and Haru the secrets he’s been keeping from both of them, since he desired to “be someone who can really protect her.” Hinata innocence created a sense of urgency for him to mature, and he felt that properly communicating crucial information about his and other people’s feelings was an important step towards that.

When we see Hanajima immediately after Tohru’s accident (in Chapter 124), her normally neat braid is really loose, with huge strands of hair coming out of it. Considering how deep her love for Tohru is, her getting injured must have hurt her pretty hard. 

In the last panel of the same chapter, a large rabbit plushie is visible in Tohru’s hospital bed. Since Momiji had already skipped school to visit Tohru early that day, it can be inferred that he gave it to her. Takaya is pretty consistent about drawing it afterwards, too, since Hanajima is shown carrying it when Tohru checks out of the hospital next volume.

Even though Ayame seems to be the loud, transparent type who proclaims to the heavens every thought that crosses his head, he actually manages to keep three major secrets during the course of the manga: Akito’s true gender, that he’s dating Mine, and that Mine knows about the curse. Ayame might be more cunning than we give him credit for. 

In Volume 15, Yuki recalls when he first met Kyo, Kyo angrily shouted that “someone as rotten as you ought to do us all a favor and just disappear!” Much later, in Chapter 126 (Volume 22), during his meeting with his father, Kyo recalls that his father actually shouted that at both him and his mother. Thus, Kyo as a kid was just repeating to Yuki what he heard his father say at home.

Hatori was dreading having to dance with Ayame at the next New Year’s banquet in Chapter 95. Well, it looks like Hatori lucked out because that dreaded dance never happened (as that was the last New Year’s before the curse was broken completely).

The story has a bit of a bookend structure with several events from the first few chapters repeating in the climax. For example, a landslide buries Tohru’s tent in the first volume and causes Tohru to fall from a great height in Volume 21. In both cases, the landslide is a presence that is catastrophic but also signals a beginning. In the Volume 1, the landslide is what indirectly causes Tohru to live in Shigure’s house, whereas in Volume 21, Tohru’s fall causes Kyo to return to her and begin to realize the depth of his mistake in turning her away. 

In a similar way, Akito’s confrontation with Tohru outside Shigure’s house actually mirrors the famous scene where Tohru runs into the woods after Kyo’s true form. In both cases, Tohru is trying to comfort and talk down another character who is reacting to her violently, slashing her with claws in Kyo’s case and with a knife in Akito’s. In both cases, the violence is a way to mask pain and distress, however, the situation is ramped up in intensity in Akito’s case because while Kyo actually loved Tohru and wanted to drive her away because he thought her respect for him was gone, Akito was murderous in this scene and actually meant Tohru harm. The scenes also contrast in that Kyo is a monstrous presence, with a huge, misshapen form and terrible smell, while Akito is more divine, appearing in human form and literally being possessed by God. Both represent monstrous dangers mixed with human pain, but Akito actually becomes the more terrifying monster because of the blame and spite she hurls at Tohru.

Kyo at no point actually told Tohru he loved her before she fell off the cliff. No wonder she thought he dumped her. 

In the fable of God and the Zodiac at the end of Volume 22, God has identical facial features to Akito. Also, while God is consistently referred to in gender neutral terms (always being referred to as “God” or “that person” by the narration), the cat is referred to with male pronouns, meaning the spirit of the cat is itself male. Considering the cat before Kyo was also a man, this may mean that every person possessed by the cat is male, though this is again speculation.

The breaking of the curse seems to be random, with characters abruptly being freed without any kind of prior warning or clear trigger, but a comment from Shigure in Chapter 108 about “small chances and changes that have accumulated” leads me to think that the members of the zodiac forming relationships outside of the zodiac, or even outside of the family, increases the chance that it will be broken. Though the weakening of the curse over time made this possible, it was outside influence, and the zodiac members’ increasing willingness to defy Akito, that caused it to weaken more rapidly. The curse begins to break rapidly once Tohru realizes she is in love with Kyo, going from no one having their curse broken in years to Momiji and Hiro being freed one after another.

So, what was the “change” that caused Kureno’s curse to break? Considering how old Kureno, and Akito, were at the time, and considering that Kyo’s mother died “when he was three or four,” according to him, my guess is that Kureno’s curse broke either as a result of Shishou taking in Kyo, or, my preferred possibility, when Kyo met Kyoko, since Kyo mentions that her comment of, “That sounds pretty lonely,” once she learned Kyo’s situation felt to Kyo like “forgiveness.” If that’s the case, then Kyoko’s friendship with Kyo formed the first major fracture, and Tohru unwittingly (at first) continued her work by growing close to the rest of the Sohma family and giving them the courage to defy their oppressive environments.

Finally: reused character designs. Shigure is the spitting image of Colonel Hil, the main antagonist from Natsuki Takaya’s previous work, Tsubasa: Those With Wings, and Kisa’s mother also bears more than a passing resemblance to Kotobuki, the series’s protagonist. Finally, as Takaya herself points out, Ritsu’s mother’s character is wholly recycled from a bit character from the same manga.

#fruits basket #fridge brilliance #tohru honda #kyo sohma #akito sohma #natuski takaya #ren sohma #tsubasa those with wings #long post #furuba

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Dreamin’ Sun v2

So after three weeks of waiting, my replacement copy of this arrived after the first one got here damaged, and now I can finally talk about this!

I’m still not entirely sure if I’ll end up having enough to say about each volume to make a post about each one but thus far it’s working out, and this isn’t going to be very long or anything.

Thoughts under the cut.

This continues to be the exact sort of fluffy shoujo I’ve been needing in my life. It’s great. It’s not necessarily as emotionally heavy as Orange, but it doesn’t need to be.

I still have no idea how to organize these posts since they’re not exactly reviews and I tend to write them like a day after I’ve read the volume my memory is a bit fuzzy, but we’ll see how things go.

I feel like a lot of people might REALLY dislike Shimana as a protagonist, but I actually really like her. I said this before, I think, but I still stand by it. We’re pretty different as individuals, but I relate to her more than I expected.

The whole sub-plot of her getting a make-over to try and impress Asahi really worked for me, which I kinda didn’t expect. Probably because the story was self-aware of how relatively pointless it all was. It thankfully didn’t indulge much at all in the trope-y ways that most media handles characters getting make-overs. Although I still really liked seeing Zen get all flustered over it. It was cheesy as fuck but I have a huge soft spot for Zen in general lol. I’ll get to him later.

I really like how Shimana’s whole crush on Asahi is being handled, and the whole theme of how there’s still value in putting yourself out there and taking risks even if you know you might fail, and that it’s still good to get your feelings across to someone even if you know it won’t work out.

It’s also still really nice how open all of these characters are with each other, at least compared to most shojo manga I’ve read. It’s part of why I like Shimana as a protagonist so much. She’s really open about her feelings and her insecurities.

Her whole date with Asahi was really cute, but also pretty bittersweet. I appreciate that he didn’t have a really overblown reaction to her makeover [it worked with Zen but it wouldn’t have worked with him], and that he made it clear that he thinks she’s cute either way. And in general it was nice seeing Shimana be happy and relaxed. Though that got pretty upturned by the start of the whole courtroom drama sub-plot. I obviously knew that the legal system was a theme in this manga from v1, but it still kinda surprised me to get a whole sub-plot about that sorta thing here. It makes sense, though. Before I get into my thoughts on it though, I should also say that I like how Shimana was able to recognize that Asahi wasn’t as happy as he was letting on. She’s a bit more perceptive of that sort of thing than a lot of other protagonists I’ve seen. It really helps defuse some potential misunderstandings.

Onto the whole legal drama sub-plot that takes up most of the volume, I gotta say, does this sorta stuff actually happen in Japan because holy fuck that was messed up. This girl gets forced to move to America with her family and marry some dude just because her dad accidentally hit him with his car??? The dude refuses treatment just so he can force this girl’s family to care for him???? The fuck????? And she sure didn’t seem fucking happy about it. It was all way more depressing than I expected from this sort of thing. The whole ‘Asahi and Manami both like each other but they think it’s unrequited’ thing wasn’t exactly groundbreakingly original but it was handled well and contrasted neatly with Shimana’s progression throughout the volume and what she learned about the importance of emotional honesty.

The whole thing also made me respect Asahi even more, with how much he wanted to help Manami. It also helped flesh him out even more in general, especially since we got a deeper look into his own emotional dishonesty. I like that Shimana was able to convince him to see her off, even though the whole thing was super bittersweet in general. And on that general note, I like that Shimana got up the courage to reach out to Manami and hear her side of things. In general it’s really nice that she didn’t write her off as being ‘a rival in love’, and actually wanted to know what she was feeling.

I wonder if we’re ever gonna hear from Manami again or if she’s, like . . . gone for good now. That’d be kinda harsh.

And then we get to Shimana’s confession scene to Asahi, which I was not expecting. But it makes sense, what with the whole theme of this volume. It probably wasn’t exactly the most, uh, appropriate time for her to bring up her feelings, but it’s good that she got them off her chest. And that there wasn’t any miscommunication. I like that she made a point to say that she wasn’t confessing to try and get him to date her, but just to get her feelings across. And that Asahi took it so well. Seeing him talk about how he respects her for being more confident and open than he is was really nice. Obviously her feelings weren’t returned, at least not then, but still.

I still hope they end up together. I said it before, but I’m basically the most vanilla person out there in terms of how I like my romances, so I just kinda love their entire relationship and I want things to work out for them. I’m not completely sure if I expect it to be the big end-game ship though, at least because in this sort of manga I feel like the protagonist’s first crush is set up to fail. And the fact that she confessed so early also might be a red flag in this sense. But we’ll see. Now that her feelings are out in the open and Manami’s out of the equation, I really wonder where things between them are even going to go now. I’m kinda worried that with this much progression early on, the story might get dragged out pretty soon. Who knows. At least since this is just ten volumes long it won’t get quite to Fruits Basket levels of bloating/padding.

After that I guess we had some set-up for drama in the next volume, with the whole chapter of Shimana begrudgingly inviting her school friends to her house and things going, uh, horribly wrong. This is another part in particular where some people might get really annoyed at Shimana, but I could totally feel for her. It was pretty obvious that she just felt left out and isolated, when all the attention was being directed away from her. It’s still kinda petty, yeah, but considering that Shimana started the story out running away from home because she felt neglected, it’s fitting for her character. And of course she pretty much knew the entire time how petty she was being, and as soon as she left she immediately felt bad, but knew how awkward it’d be if she just turned right back around.

I kinda avoided talking about Zen and Taiga since they weren’t incredibly important in this volume and it would have been a nightmare to try and remember all of their scenes and how the timeline worked out, so I’m just gonna talk about them here.

Zen is still amazing and adorable and more or less my exact sort of tsundere, but yeah I ain’t gonna deny that he says some awful shit to Shimana, which is one of the main reasons why I don’t ship them. Thankfully she at least knows how to fling his shit right back at him. He definitely feels a lot more . . . trope-y thus far than everyone else, but it’s fine. It works for him. Though it’s always a bit weird to me when characters like him have the whole ‘what is this??? feeling in my chest????? when I look at a cute person??????’ thing. It’s kinda weird. It at least makes enough sense, in that he’s always been vocally in denial about being into her, but still. He’s a bit of a perpetual fuck-up in general, like how badly he handled the whole ‘comfort Shimana after she gets rejected’ thing, but I still love him anyway.

I’m liking Taiga way more than I expected to. Part of it’s probably that I’m comparing him a lot in my head to Shigure from Fruits Basket and oh man does he win that contest, lol. In general I sometimes find myself comparing this manga to Fruits Basket, partly because there are some superficial similarities with the set-up, and partly because Fruits Basket is one of the few shojo I’ve actually read. So I may end up vaguely spoiling that manga sometimes, but I’ll try not to. But I’ll at least say that Shigure and Taiga are REALLY similar characters at first glance, but I’m so glad that Taiga is turning out to be a way better person. He works really well as a father figure, of sorts, who has enough flaws and issues to not be too perfect. I also like how he’s supporting all three of the main characters, in different ways.

He feels like he’s probably the current biggest source of mystery and story set-up right now. I hope there’s enough content there to keep the manga in general from feeling a bit devoid of story. I’m curious to see how the whole deal with his personal connection to the law industry, and by association his family, will unfold in the long run. I also feel like there’s more to his whole relationship with Miku than we know thus far, but I dunno what. She did say that they met through his job so it’s probably something law-related.

Also, the whole deal near the end with him being like ‘I’m fine with girls, but I don’t like *women*’ was kinda . . . weird, and I hope it makes more sense by the end. Thankfully I think we’re intended to find it a bit weird, since Shimana doesn’t get it either. I’m not sure exactly what he meant by it.

Whenever this sort of ~mystery~ is set up about a male character ‘not liking women’, it always makes me wish that the big reveal could just be that he’s gay, but it’s always something like ‘his girlfriend broke up with him and now he hates all women’ or whatever. I’m not really saying this as a genuine criticism or insult, but I’m definitely not expecting him to be gay, as much as I’d be happy if he was. Shojo manga isn’t much better than shonen manga when it comes to this sort of thing, and I don’t want to get my hopes up.

I kinda wish I had stuff to say about Miku but I really don’t thus far. I imagine we’ll learn more about her and her history with Taiga later, but right now she’s not super important. But I do love how she’s trying to be such a big sister figure for Shimana. It’s really cute.

I don’t really have many predictions or anything for the next volume, but I sure hope Zen can redeem some of his shittiness by handling this whole situation right, with him going out to bring Shimana out home. I’m also really excited to finally meet his brother. [I still think it’s kinda . . . weird that we literally got told about the unintroduced characters and when they’ll appear, though. It’s odd. And it’s making me wonder what’s gonna be the deal with the girl who won’t appear until volume eight. That seems pretty late to introduce a new character]

#murasaki rambles #dreamin' sun #I ended up saying more about this than I thought #but I'm not sure if I'll have a lot to say about each and every volume

[dutiifully]

Allusions to the Past

  ♎|| After a piping hot delicious meal courtesy of the adorable Tohru-chan, – her self-proclaimed “number 1″ fan– it was time to get down to business. That business being having a little one on one chat with the current reborn form of the Earth’s Prince, Shigure Sohma. Though now cursed with the spirit of a dog as bestowed by Metalia (as she did to almost all who were there on that fateful day) that accursed soul of Endymion still lurked just beneath the surface: Longing, waiting, anticipating for the day when he would finally reawaken just to have a chance to repeat the tragedy of the past… That sad, sad phantom of a past that plagued them all.  

It haunted her still, even now she could still see the faint traces of shattered ruins; the shadow of a silver kingdom erupted in flames. She could still hear the screams and cries of agony that echoed throughout the cold stillness of the night; the sound of war and genocide upon them, could still feel the weight of her majestic blade within her hands stained with the blood of the witch that led this campaign, traitorous ex-lover and the one she was sworn to protect. The corpses of her Princess and Senshi were strewn across the porcelain white marble stone hedges leading up to the moon palace, her princess clasping onto the hand of that despicable Terran Prince that brought them to this end; the symbol of her failure. A sword pierced her skin next, one last stab in the back from that damnable Kunzite whom she had mistakenly given away her heart to in a moment of weakness; the greatest mistake of both her lifetimes! Her blood permeated the battlefield alongside that of the other millions of victims, the last thing she heard was the sound of her killer laughing maniacally at her defeat as he watched her fall into the pyres of hell. 

Yes, she was falling…                               

                                    Falling                                          

                                             Failing                                                 

                                                         Falling                                                         

                                                                     Failure  

You  𝐅  𝐀  𝐈  𝐋  𝐄  𝐃 !!

❝ …Mina? Mina? Hey, Mina!  EARTH TO MINAKO!❞

❝Eh?!❞  She was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by the screeching of a very irritated looking white feline who had now jumped out of her bag and onto her shoulder to get her attention.  

❝…What was that? Sorry Artemis, I must’ve spaced out there for a second, you know me, always the ditz ahaha!❞ She bonked her head playfully while forcing a big smile, clearly an attempt at trying to pretend she was alright. Unfortunately, her companion wasn’t so convinced….

❝Cut the crap Mina its no use trying to hide anything from me, I can see right through you!❞

Damn he was good! Honestly though she shouldn’t have been surprised, after all Artemis knew her better then she knew herself most of the time, why’d she even bother? 

❝That obvious huh?❞ She shook her head chuckling sardonically. ❝Okay what gave it away this time?❞

❝You mean besides that dark look you always get on your face when you’re thinking about that, or how about the fact that your fists were clenched and your whole body was shaking? Which your hands are still doing by the by!❞

❝ …Eh?!❞  She looked down at her clasped hands which were continuing to tremble, crap he was right! How long had they been like that? How did she not even notice? This was not good; a strong leader couldn’t afford to let any vulnerabilities show! She had to always be the unmovable, unshakable one, tough as steel and unfaltering as a rock. She was the one everyone was depending on after all, the only one that had to bear the burden of memories and with it the battle for the planet’s future.

Muttering a few choice swear words, she inwardly cursed her weakness.  ❝I’m sorry… I don’t know what came over me. I’m fine now.❞

Artemis, ever the perceptive partner was quickly able to get to the root of the problem. ❝A flashback?❞  

❝Just another dredging up of bad memories, that’s all.❞  She sighed. 

❝That’s all? THAT’S ALL?! That is most certainly not all! You were practically convulsing a moment ago, how can you just brush it off nonchalantly and act so blasé about it as if it was nothing more than one of your failed flirting attempts?!❞  This was most certainly trying his partner, Artemis knew better than anyone just how intensely the return of her memories was affecting Minako. There was still many a day when she would practically scream bloody murder as yet another nightmare of that tragic past plagued her dreams and brought with it another sleepless night. It was during those times that Minako would just get up and carry Artemis outside with her to the veranda of their apartment, saying absolutely nothing at all whilst staring down at the brightly lit city of Tokyo; her eyes utterly unreadable and filled with an emotion Artemis was too afraid to even question.  

❝This is obviously taking its toll on you and compromising your mental state, you’re pushing yourself to your limit and I’m worried about you!  Mina if this too hard on you you don’t hav-❞

❝ARTEMIS!❞ She cut him off mid-lecture with a stern glare.  ❝I have a mission… a very important mission that only I can complete, you and I both know that. I won’t let anything stand in my way!❞  Yes, she would be strong, she would not falter she would be the leader that she couldn’t be in the past and if that meant having to shoulder this burden all by herself then so be it. 

Looking at her now Artemis couldn’t help but gaze in awe on just how much of a battle-hardened soldier Minako looked. She stood tall and straight, fists clenched in determination with just about the fiercest expression imaginable on her face, her eyes betraying not even a hint of softness. She had certainly come a long way from the ditsy, ‘never takes anything seriously,’ irresponsible 7th grader he had first come across 2 years ago. Just looking at her now who could ever believe this was that same person? He was proud of her sure, his Mina was definitely blossoming into a mature, level-headed young woman worthy of holding the title of leader of the Solar System Senshi; what guardian wouldn’t beam in pride over that? But was it worth her losing her sense of humanity and heart in the process?  Yes, the Venus he remembered from back in the Silver Millennium was an exceptionally efficient, serious and responsible leader but she still always made sure to embrace the trait for which she stood: ‘Love. ‘  And with that love came the touch of benevolence she was able to meld into her being to create a perfectly harmonizing scale of balancing duality, much like the Libra scales for which she was born under; justice tampered with mercy. Minako now though? She was becoming something else entirely, someone more ruthless; cold. It was during times like these that Artemis couldn’t help but long for the good old days when Minako was that silly, flighty teenager, if only he could’ve preserved her innocence longer.

❝I know Mina, I know… It’s just you’ve been working so hard lately, too hard! Please, just try to take it easier, for your own sake!❞

❝I’m fine Artemis!❞ She clipped, irritability beginning to seep into her voice.  ❝I’m more than used to all this by now, so just drop it! Besides we should be paying attention to more important things at hand, like the reason we’re even here today. Central Control and Boss confirmed that Endymion’s reborn form has been getting dreams of Akito that’s causing him to be drawn to her, correct?❞  

There really was no point in arguing further with her; stubborn as a mule this one, Artemis sighed in defeat.  ❝Yes that’s right, both Boss and Central have been keeping a very close eye on Endymion’s reincarnation just like they have with Akito and the rest of the Senshi, the Shitennou, the Dark Kingdom basically all the Sohmas that fell under Metalia’s curse. And what they’ve found is that back when Akito was first conceived Shigure Sohma had a dream about her, he wasn’t the only one either. the reincarnations of his Shitennou Hatori Sohma, Ayame Sohma, Kureno Sohma and Ritsu Sohma also all had that same dream! The difference is that in the dream the Shitennou only felt the energy induced by the curse as well as feelings of profound sadness, probably due to vestiges of the memory of that day when they aligned themselves with Beryl and attacked the moon. Shigure’s dream was different though, the Eternity System -the Moon’s main computer system- detected that the stirrings of love and longing were conjured up within him from the dream, no doubt that was Serenity’s soul calling out to him trying to reawaken his memories. In any case, it seems like ever since that day Shigure has been unnaturally attached to Akito, in a very unusual way from the rest of those cursed.❞  

❝So even now her soul still cries out for him… And he– he can’t help but be drawn to her…❞  a strange glimmer of something seemed to flash in Minako’s eyes as she said this while she looked straight ahead; almost forlornly into the distance. 

Serenity, can you really not forget him? …Even after everything that happened? Even when your pursuit of him only brought with it destruction and ruin? She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised, after all even her Princess’s last words before she took her own life was a vow that they would find each other again. Even with her whole kingdom burning around her, her soldiers fighting for their lives and her father good and dead all she could think about was him! 

“Endymion! I love you! You are my first love. And the only love for me is you! Even if we were reborn I know that I would meet you again! I know that again, we would fall in love! We shall transcend time and be reborn. And the two of us… This time for sure… will be happy… Endymion….” 

Was history just repeating itself? Was this to always be their fate? No matter what they did, no matter what she did, was that great tragedy of the past simply inevitable? As sure a fate as Ace’s curse that she would always fail in love? No, she wouldn’t allow it! She will never allow that tragedy to once again come to pass, or else what was even the point of their rebirth, of this second chance the Queen had gifted them all? Even with this blasted curse intact would fate really be so cruel as to grant them the chance to right the wrongs of the past only to hastily snatch it back while laughing in their faces? Well fine, if this truly was what the Gods deemed them to then so be it, that wouldn’t stop her from fighting with all her might against it every step of the way through! Her face steeled with resolve, she turned back to face her partner. 

❝Was that all the information Central could find on him? What else have we got?❞

❝Other than that, not much, though the Eternity System did pick up some strange readings on his emotions and it’s just as I suspected! It seems like the reincarnation of Endymion is incredibly aloof from the world and is disconnected with practically everything around him, the readings seemed to indicate a huge black hole in his mind, much stronger than the memory block affecting the girls.❞  

❝So it’s as you said, due to being the Earth’s Prince–and thus essentially its guardian– he’s taking to his reincarnation much more difficulty than everyone else…❞

Artemis nodded.  ❝That’s right, when a Senshi is reborn on their own planet without their memories it creates a trigger in the planet which then begins directly resonating with the soul of the Senshi in an effort to ‘wake them up’ so to say. However, because the Senshi is totally devoid of memories this causes the resonation to be out of sync and thus severely messes with the Senshi’s soul and mind, thus causing the disconnect of self. They feel severely cut off from everything and go through life basically just existing, it’s almost as if a part of themselves has been cut from their core. That’s how powerful a Senshi’s bond with their home planet is, they can feel everything about their planet and the planet can feel them, they are always one and so when that bond is messed with it messes up the emotional and mental ‘circuit wirings’ of the Senshi’s brain so to say. Even though Endymion isn’t technically a Senshi since only women can be one, as the Prince of this planet he’s still its designated guardian and thus is eternally connected to the Earth and its environment.❞

That must’ve explained why Minako always felt so normal ( though perceived as anything but ) and comfortable in her new life before her re-awakening. Oh, sure she never got along too well with her parents (especially with her nag of a mom who was always a major pain in the ass) and her childhood was anything but rosy what with her family being firmly rooted in the struggling working class while the rest of her friends and classmates were all either comfortably middle-class or even upper, but dammit she felt comfortable and confident in her own skin! She had a life before becoming Venus –no, even before becoming Sailor V– The life of an ordinary cheerful middle-school girl who was popular, loved sports, was captain of her school’s volleyball team (who always kicked  m a j o r  butt during every school sports fest thankyouverymuch!) and who enjoyed goofing off and fangirling alongside her friends about boy bands and just any cute guys in general. Not anymore– those carefree days were long over, hell now she couldn’t have the luxury of even falling in love, not with Ace’s curse looming over her like a sword threatening to drop on her head at any moment to help complete her self-fulfilling prophecy. She was married to her job anyways, ironic that the so-called Senshi of Love would always put Duty before Love but that was her destiny and it was one she had already accepted long ago. 

Still, it was during times like these where she couldn’t help but reminisce on just how perfect her life had been before her awakening, compared to the others she never felt anything missing. No— no, that wasn’t entirely true, was it? Even during those seemingly carefree days she always had this slight niggling in the back of her mind, this sense that the life she was living wasn’t really the ‘real’ her, that it was all just a guise till the day when she finally re-awaken to her true purpose in life– that is: to be a soldier and protect that precious person; the most precious person she would ever have. Though again compared to someone like Endymion she was rather lucky, she realized now she could’ve had it much worse had she been reborn on Venus and not Earth. …. What must that have been like? She wondered. To wander through life completely aimless, feeling empty inside and like you’re not even you? She couldn’t even begin to imagine it and perhaps if she were a kinder person she would even find herself feeling sorry for Shigure. 

But Minako knew. –She wasn’t a kind person, not at all. She couldn’t be like her Princess was (or used to be anyways) soft and forgiving. Perhaps once upon a time she could afford to be but not anymore, that day hardened her heart and just like the fleeting joy of a relationship, mercy was another luxury that wasn’t becoming of her. In fact, far from feeling sorry for him, the knowledge that Endymion was suffering in his new life brought her a perverse sense of glee, serves him right! – she couldn’t help thinking. Let him suffer after all the suffering he brought upon her and her kingdom, he deserved nothing less after the destruction his selfish whims had caused; justice had been rightly served. Petty? Perhaps, but then after going through the things she did Minako couldn’t help to be anything but bitter. 

Though as much as she took pleasure in Endymion’s current state of disarray she couldn’t deny that it made her job harder. 

❝No doubt it’s that feeling of disconnect that’s making his pull to Akito that much stronger. He’s looking in that dream of her something to fill the void that he’s currently feeling, subconsciously he probably feels that she holds the key to the missing piece of his soul. But what I don’t get is if he’s as drawn to Akito as it seems why on earth then is he living here, outside of the main estate? It doesn’t make sense… One would think with his attachment he would want to be near Akito as much as possible, so why…?❞   

❝Mmm, I had Central look into that too, unfortunately when it came to that it was unable to discern any possible reasons for the move. It seems it happened a few years ago and unfortunately at the time Central wasn’t monitoring the Sohmas so it missed the boat on that one. As much as it’s the most powerful supercomputer in the galaxy the Eternity System isn’t flawless and still has its limits. For now, it can only monitor events that can be predicted such as the details of the curse itself as well as biographical information and emotion and location readings.❞   

❝That does throw an unexpected curveball at us, we’re gonna have to be more on top of things than ever, he’s planning something… That’s got to be the reason for the move, I just know it; I can feel it in my bones! Not to mention involving that young girl Tohru Honda in the affairs of the Sohmas… She’s just an ordinary civilian with absolutely nothing to do with this! Letting her live under the same roof with him and those two reborn Rainbow Crystal carriers where she could easily find out about the curse… Just what is he thinking?!❞  Minako’s mind was practically racing a hundred miles per minute trying to rack the brain for just what exactly he could be planning. They needed to figure this out fast, they were running out of time and now a civilian was mixed up in all this! That damn, manipulative Prince, how could he have plotted all this right under her very nose?! She was Sailor V– superhero vigilante extraordinaire with secret service police contacts all over the world and an advanced. super-computer AI intelligence system right at her fingertips! How could one powerless, reincarnated prince cursed with the spirit of a dog manage to slip right past her? Clearly, she was getting careless, it looked like she’d have to cancel those upcoming concerts she had planned for her new hit single and just put in more time at HQ, her manager would just have to understand… again. She had really been looking forward to these promotional concerts though, being up on stage singing her heart out to the cheers and adoration of an audience, it was during these scarce moments where she actually felt like she was truly living these days! And if she just kept cancelling like this how much of a set-back would this be for her career, her dream of being a world-wide, famous top idol? After finally making her debut too… 

No, no! She shook her head fervently, she shouldn’t be having these thoughts! The mission came first, always the mission; she had decided that a long time ago! Besides it wasn’t like her life in the present was ever truly important, only the past mattered, all their lives were dictated by it. The only reason why they were even reborn was to avenge the wrongdoings of the past and go on being protectors of this universe attending to their duties, that was it! In the long run, the name ‘Aino Minako’ meant nothing, it was another disguise, just another mask she donned like her Sailor V persona! When this body would finally give out all that would live on would be the spirit of Sailor Venus, their normal lives as regular human civilians were completely inconsequential as demonstrated perfectly by Endymion. Was he and his disconnection and longing for the past not the clearest evidence they had? What else did they have to live for? She would still continue to enjoy and savor the experiences as ‘Aino Minako’ for as long as she had left, but in the end, they were just trite frivolities; frivolities that were meant to be discarded if they got in the way of her true calling. 

Speaking of which… 

❝Yes, he slipped past our line of sight which means we’ll have to be even more on our game but…❞  A dark smirk graced glossy lips, plots and strategies running through her head begging to be implemented.  ❝This just might prove fortuitous to us, after all the farther away Endymion is from Akito the better, it's imperative that those two be kept away from each other at all cost! While out here he’s definitely more distant than if he were still living at the main house where they would come in contact practically twenty-four seven and even if he is planning something at least we finally know where he lives so we can continue to track his movements through Central no problem and I can keep my eye on him whenever as well. Not to mention the fact that those two Rainbow Crystal carriers are living under the same roof with him as well, it’s perfect I can monitor all three of them at the same time!❞

Yes, perhaps this might not be so bad after all, she could use that dog’s own plan against him Aino Minako style, he hasn’t outmaneuvered her yet! The battle-hardened leader of the most powerful military force in the galaxy could find the silver lining in any situation and use it to her advantage, transforming her easily from a Goddess of Love to a Goddess of War. 

❝Mina…❞  

There it was and right on schedule too! She knew that tone well, that slightly sorrowful, pitiable tone tinged with the desire to unleash an onslaught of a lecture; playing the part of concerned mother hen parent and Jiminy Cricket moral conscious both! Yep, just like Artemis knew her inside out, so too did she know Artemis; gazing into doubtful feline eyes just all the more confirmed what was coming. 

❝ …What? If you have something to say then just spit it out already Artemis!❞  Eyelids narrowed in a glare as her voice rose to take on an accusatory and already defensive tone, god she hated when he got this way!

❝It’s just… Are we really doing the right thing? You remember what the Queen said back at HQ, about letting them love who they were meant to love and finding the true purpose for our rebirth? …I- ❞ He paused briefly, shaking his head. ❝…I don’t think this is it…❞

❝Then what IS the true meaning of our rebirth Artemis?! You mind tryin to fill me in on that one, huh? What, is it for Serenity and Endymion’s pure love to get its second chance and have some-sort of magical fairy-tale ending?❞  She couldn’t help to contain the dark, bitter chuckle that slipped past her lips after uttering that line before continuing her tirade. ❝Cause I think I long missed the memo after watching our entire kingdom burn to the ground, Serenity commit suicide and an entire planet be obliterated thanks to Endymion and Serenity’s so-called ‘’love!’‘❞

❝But the Queen said–!❞  

❝EVEN THE QUEEN CAN BE WRONG SOMETIMES! God Artemis, you just really don’t get it do you? How can you be so naive, open your damn eyes!❞  She was losing it, a flurry of pent-up rage and grief hurling itself towards the little moon-cat. She knew this explosion was unwarranted, that Artemis didn’t deserve it and that he just wanted the best for everyone (as stupidly naive as that was) but she just couldn’t help it! Artemis should’ve known that this was a touchy subject for her and that she had been holding it together for so long trying to be the strong, dependable one and to suppress her emotions. So, to be told that her judgement was wrong; to be treated like she was some sort of idiot who didn’t know better when SHE was the one who was left standing on the battlefield that day, who felt the blade of betrayal from one whom she thought she loved and now was one of the only ones who remembered everything and had to carry that?! …Well, she just snapped, so sue her, she was still human! She was trying her best here but apparently even that wasn’t good enough and she needed to be talked down to and patronized like she was still that irresponsible 13-year old child Artemis had first found 2 years ago and not the competent, capable leader she had been expected to grow up into; it was unnerving! 

She took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down before addressing Artemis again.  ❝The Queen was a wise and benevolent ruler but was always too soft-hearted and idealistic for her own good. She was never well-versed in the ways of war, preferring instead to take the pacifist route and believe that the innate good of humanity would eventually prevail, but I know, I lived on the battlefield Artemis! I was always there, right on the front-lines and I saw first-hand the harsh reality and brutality of this world, was literally stabbed in the back by one who I thought I could trust as an ally! So you tell me if I still don’t know what I’m talking about or if I’m ‘’making the right choice!’’❞ …Crap she was getting worked up again, (as per usual whenever she thought of Kunzite) reign it in Mina, reign it in. 

She continued,  ❝believing in peace and the concept that true love will conquer all and dissipate all the hatred and differences people have are nice ideals to have, but in the end that’s all they are: ideals and fantasies. The planets were separated for a reason, natural laws were put in place for that purpose. Serenity and Endymion were never meant to meet and fall in love, it is against the Gods’ law. Love between a Lunarian and a Terran could never be, in the end all it can bring is tragedy and destruction, the Earth and Moon are just two very different worlds. Their love is forever cursed, planet-destroying, nothing good can ever come from it! …My one regret is that I didn’t nip it in the bud right when I found out it was happening, that I even HELPED her sneak onto Earth and arrange her secret trysts with Endymion, for I too was once a naive fool blinded by high ideals and the belief that love is enough; well no more!❞

Yes, in the end, when it really came down to it, it had been her fault after all that they had all ended up like this. If only she had said no, put her foot down and resisted the charms of that sweet smile Serenity used to always flash her way whenever she wanted something. (as radiant and glowing as the moon for which she represented) If only she had been more cautious, responsible, shrewder, tougher– more like the leader that everyone had been counting on her to be (that she didn’t deserve) then maybe! …Maybe none of this would’ve ever happened, their beautiful Silver Millennium would still be standing, none of them would be cursed and living these false lives!  And, most importantly, Serenity would still be her loving angelic self, still be flashing that same beautiful smile at Venus as she always did; completely uncorrupted by Beryl. 

❝Oh Mina…❞  Artemis whispered softly, sympathy dripping from his voice as plain as day. His eyes filled with sorrow at the pain he knew his partner had to be through, but that she tried so hard to hide.  ❝…You still blame yourself for what happened don’t you?❞

❝I don’t–!❞  She bristled defensively but before she could finish Artemis was already cutting her off. 

❝YES YOU DO! How long have I known you by now Mina? I can hear it in your words, see it in your eyes! Gods Mina, keep lying to yourself if you want I can’t control that but don’t you dare try lying to me, your partner who has been with you through thick and thin for two years straight now, heck millennia even!❞  In a softer tone he added,  ❝Mina sooner or later you’re going to have to let go and accept that the past is in the past, you’re a new person now; everyone is! You have got to move on and quit blaming yourself for something you had absolutely no control over and that no one saw coming! The Queen doesn’t blame you so why do you continue to carry on to this guilt? Its destroying you from the inside out! I think… I think the Queen wants you to realize this too and that the true reason you were all reborn is that so you’d all get a second chance at life; unburdened by the shackles of the past. Serenity and Endymion too… That’s why she doesn’t want you to interfere with them, it wasn’t your fault then and it’s still not your fault now!❞

❝And what, risk the planet being destroyed AGAIN?! Risk the past repeating itself? Risk watching my princess die in front of me again knowing that I failed to protect her, failed to protect everyone; failed as a LEADER?! You might be willing to risk that Artemis, but I’m not, I can’t!  –I can’t put myself, put everyone through that again, I won’t!❞

❝It doesn’t have to be like the past!❞

❝BUT IT WILL BE, IT ALREADY IS! DON’T YOU SEE?!  Fate is already playing out right before our very eyes, why else would Endymion even be getting those dreams in the first place?! It’s our duty to prevent the tragedy of our past from happening again, that’s the whole and only reason we were ever reborn, the protection of the planet comes first! Sometimes hope and the belief that good will conquer all aren’t enough…❞  

❝But Mina—!❞

❝No buts!❞ Now a look of stern indignation crossed her face.  ❝I’m still leader and so my decisions are final, you’re going to have to learn to trust the judgement of the leader of the Senshi, this operation and the student that you personally trained! I think I have a lot more experience and expertise in this area than anyone else, so let me just do my job and LEAD!!❞

❝Mina–!❞

❝The subject is closed, I’ve made my decision and there will be no further discussion on the matter, have I made myself clear?❞  Her face looked every bit like the hard-hearted army lieutenant ready to go to war as she and Artemis got into something of a glaring contest, neither one willing to relent to the other. However she was still leader here and as leader she demanded that her decisions be respected, Artemis would just have to learn to deal! 

❝Mi—!❞

❝ Have I?!❞ The stare-down just grew harsher as she continued to stand her ground. There would be no letting up on this, nope. Not today. Whilst Minako’s middle name was practically “wild risk-taker” she was not willing to put THAT kinda gamble on the fate of the planet, this was no trivial little sports match or boy-chasing game; the future of the Earth depended on her! She held the fate of the world in the palm of her hand as the only one who knew everything, as the only one able to escape the curse! She was the one chosen to lead and take care of everything, the Holy Sword sealed in the depths of her bosom chose her! She could not afford to make a single mistake, all her decisions and tactics had to be made with swift precision and accuracy leaving no room for error! Placing her bets on an idealistic outcome for all which was the stuff fantasies were made of was both irresponsible and inefficient and she would just be making the exact same mistake as last time… 

After a few more moments of the little stare-down contest Artemis sighed and finally relented, not like he had much of a choice anyways. Once Minako got an idea into her head there was absolutely no convincing her as she charged straight ahead with all the strength and stubbornness of a bull, the girl had an ironclad will! ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same,’ he mused to himself. He just hoped Minako was making the right decision not just for the world, but for herself as well. But he supposed all he could do for now was just put his faith in her judgement and follow her lead as much as he internally disagreed. 

❝Fine, I get it, we’ll do things your way. Just remember that I still don’t like this and I’ll probably still be grumbling about it from time to time…❞

Minako couldn’t help but let a small, teasing smile slip past her lips at that comment. ❝Naturally, you wouldn’t be Artemis if you didn’t!❞  

❝O-Oi! What do you mean by tha–?!❞ But before he could get into another one of his disgruntled lectures Minako had already scooped him up from the ground and held him close to her chest, her body visibly relaxed and her eyes warm and genuine; such a stark contrast from the cold and ruthless war general that she appeared to be before! Even after being with her for 2 years straight it still amazed him how quickly and effortlessly Minako seemed to be able to switch modes on the fly! He didn’t think he’d ever be able to fully understand her, then again, he was almost certain no one would. 

❝Thank you…❞  Minako whispered softly, a rare display of gentle affection and gratitude that she hardly ever bestowed on her partner but it was comforting to know that no matter how tough things got or what path she chose she at least had someone on her side whom she could count on. Truth be told Artemis was one of the very few she allowed herself to trust and let see the tiniest of cracks in her armor, through thick and thin she knew he would always be there supporting her; a true friend. At least she had that much. 

Letting out an inexplicably exasperated sigh the feline couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Minako’s uncharacteristic sentimentality, probably an attempt to pull at his heart strings and get him to lay off her back for a while if he knew her. This girl sometimes, I swear! …Still, try as he might Artemis couldn’t resist the hint of a warm smile that was creeping up upon his little kitty lips. Insincere or not (one could never know with MINAKO!) Artemis wouldn’t have her any other way.  ❝Anytime Mina, anytime.❞  He murmured gently as he snuggled closer into his owner’s chest and finally allowed himself to be thoroughly touched by the moment. 

❝ …Didja ever notice how you just happen to look like a rhinoceros’s ass with your face all scrunched up like that?❞  Cue the familiar mischievous, toothy smile of which she was grinning ear to ear and an all too disgruntled moon cat whose cheeks that she was currently poking, was blushing profusely. 

…Annnnd there it was! She just couldn’t leave well enough alone huh? Just HAD to go ahead and ruin an all too rare, tender moment between the two of them with yet another dose of her tasteless teasing. …What was that he thought before, on how Minako had matured beyond her years and he could only wish for those days of yesteryear when she used to be nothing but a trouble-making prankster? Oh yeah, he took it back! He took it alllll back! 

❝M-Mina, I’m TRYING to have a moment with you here! AND MY FACE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A RINOCEROS’S BE-BE-BEHIND!❞  

❝It totally did though, seriously, you should’ve seen it! Awww I should'da snapped a pic when I had the chance, you know, to preserve the moment? PFFFFT—!❞  She could barely contain her laughter anymore and was practically rick-rolling all over the place! If the thought of Artemis always having her back wasn’t cheering her up before this sure as hell was! 

❝I could’ve posted it to my webpage and used it to help cultivate my idol image, just think! The beautiful, multi-talented Aino Minako has a one of a kind of pet to match her one-of-a kind uniqueness and charm, a crescent moon-bald spotted kitty with a face that resembles a rhinoceros’s butt! I can see the headlines now: ‘Rising star Minako discovers never-before-seen, exotic, hilarious looking moon-cat!’ You would be a hit with the demographic looking for a comedy angle, GASP! I could bring you with me on tours dressed up in an ADORABLE little rhinoceros’ suit made especially for you! The paparazzi would have a field day!❞

A look of absolute aghast horror befell Artemis’s face as he could only imagine the humiliating scenario. ❝Please don’t…❞  He pleaded miserably at the starry-eyed teen who currently had her hands clasped and was laughing maniacally as she thought up more and more crazy schemes designed to exploit her long-suffering Guardian in the name of fame. 

It was times like these when he cursed Queen Serenity, the gods, fate, whoever thought that he deserved this punishment of being assigned as her guardian, any of the other girls would’ve been easier, any of them at all! Hell, he’d sooner switch with Luna and put up with a Beryl-abused, currently corrupted Moon Princess smack-dab in the middle of Dark Kingdom territory than endure another day of this abuse! What was a couple’ve of spoiled, wailing and whining temper tantrums eh? Surely even those were preferable than dealing with this daily abject humiliation at the hands of one hurricane Minako!

❝REMIND ME NEXT TIME NOT TO COMFORT YOU! That’s the last time I bother to go out of my way and give you a pep-talk, CLEARLY you don’t need it and are doing just fine on your own! Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice the shame lies with me.❞  

❝Mouuuu~ you’re just too much of a stick in the mud!❞  Minako pouted rather childishly in response, but it was clearly said in good jest as a second later she winked for good measure and continued with her boisterous laughter. 

❝And YOU need to learn to learn some sensitivity and to consider other’s feelings before opening that mouth of yours!❞

❝Yes Mom…❞  She shot back sarcastically in a monotone, bored sounding tone before going back to her giggling. 

But –despite all his mumbles and grumbles, the constant rolling of his eyes and whatever long-suffering martyr he made himself out to be in his thoughts, he couldn’t stop the sliver of a smile that reached his eyes during their whole back and forth. Deep, deep down he was glad to see her like this, it meant that she was back to normal (or however normal Minako could be.) Even if it wasn’t true laughter like during the early days, even if she was simply hiding and covering up her pain Artemis much preferred seeing her like this, all silly and happy and silently prayed that he always would. Hopefully with the caveat that those would forever remain her true feelings and she never know from sadness and hardship again… 

Unfortunately, the loving, carefree moment and light-hearted banter between the two was cut all too short as Artemis’s ears perked up whilst he heard the creaking of footsteps and noticed the shadow of a figure from behind the sliding door.  

❝Endymion at three o’clock!❞ He whispered in Minako’s ear softly and swiftly as he then quickly leapt from her arms back into the confines of the tote bag she was carrying.  

Minako for her part leapt immediately straight into action at those words, her whole demeanor changing right back into ‘serious leader-mode that meant business!’ Her head and body shifted instantaneously towards the porch door, her stance now completely guarded and closed compared to the open and loving one just seconds prior, it was time. Right on cue the faint sliding of a door sounded and out emerged her target from the shadows.  

❝Sohma-san is it? I’ve been expecting you.❞ Came the rather curt greeting as the pop star fixed him with a chillingly icy gaze, so completely different from how she was just moments ago; to a stranger’s eye it would be hard to believe that they were the one and the same, it was like she morphed into a completely different person! Gone was that sliver of vulnerability and in its place was a glare shooting ice-hot daggers filled to the brim with hatred and anger, a stark contrast to the girl who was gently cuddling and laughing with her cat just moments prior! 

Such was the duality of Aino Minako though and if Shigure was paying attention he would’ve noticed that this was no different from when she was having dinner with them just a few hours ago. Just like then she had been laughing and joking around with Tohru and the boys, calling Tohru adorable while haggling Kyo over with her ‘orange-top’ comments that were aimed to annoy, plus teasing Yuki over his supposed “Prince Charming” status at Kaibara High. Basically, acting like a complete goof-off who couldn’t take anything seriously, but if one was observant enough they would’ve been able to notice the cold, ruthless death glares she struck at Shigure whenever she caught a glimpse of him from across the table.  

Aino Minako, a girl of many masks and many sides; one whom could easily play both fool and executioner even at the same time, but which was the mask and which was the girl? Only time would tell…

#kimonoandapen #▌ᴠ ▌☥╰☆☆-ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ-ᴀᴡᴀᴋᴇɴɪɴɢ-☆☆╮☥