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lemonlover1110 · 2 years

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The Best Man's Confession II

Toji Fushiguro

Part I

Pairing: Toji Fushiguro x f!Reader

Summary: Six years after your wedding, the truth comes to light.

Warnings: Angst, Fluff

“Anzu, come here, honey.” You tell your five-year-old daughter, who sits as she puts on her sneakers. She doesn’t pay attention to you and focuses on putting on her shoes. She tries to tie her shoes, just like her daddy taught her, but she quite doesn’t have it. “Anzu!”

“I’m coming, mommy.” She responds. She stands up and walks to you with her untied shoes. When she’s in front of you, you kneel down to tie her shoes. She watches every move, hoping that this time she’ll learn. Once finished, you stand up, and grab her little lunchbox from the counter.

“Here’s your lunch, honey. I packed your favorite today.” You inform her as you grab a napkin to wipe off the jam that’s around her lips.

“Are you ready, Anzu?” You hear your husband as he walks down the stairs. He holds his briefcase and attempts to put on his jacket.

“I am, daddy.” She responds. She walks to the bottom of the stairs to wait for the man. Once he’s downstairs, he picks her up and kisses her cheek.

“Are you eating anything for breakfast?” You ask your husband, who shakes his head. Lately he chooses to eat breakfast at the office, but you still attempt to get him to eat at home. There’s a knock on the door, and before your husband can put down your daughter, you speak, “I’ll get it.”

You walk over to the door and open it, your breath gets caught up for a couple of seconds as you see him. It’s the same reaction each time. But you put on a fake smile as you exhale, “Toji… What are you doing here?”

“Just came here to see my niece.” Toji answers, looking past you and seeing Anzu. Considering that Toji and your husband are extremely great friends, Toji considers himself Anzu’s uncle.

“So early in the day? On a school morning?” You question, and before Toji can respond, your daughter comes running to the door.

“Uncle Toji!” You hear Anzu, and Toji crouches down to be able to pick up your daughter from the floor. He picks her up and hugs her.

“How are you, Anzu?” He asks her before he kisses her cheek. It’s so sweet to see the bond they have, it almost makes you feel guilty. Your husband walks over, his hand landing on your shoulder as he looks at his best friend with a smile.

“I’m good… Where’s Megumi?” Anzu asks for her usual play-buddy, one who is thirteen years older than her. Toji chuckles before pouting to showcase sadness to the young girl.

“Sorry, princess. He’s away in college.” He informs the young girl. “But he’ll come visit you next week. I promise.”

“Okay!” She exclaims, making Toji laugh. He can’t quite put his finger on it, but he adores her as much as he adores his own son. It’s probably because she’s your daughter, and Toji is still so helplessly in love with you… No other reason, at least he tries to convince himself otherwise.

“Alright, honey, we have to get going.” Your husband says. Your daughter pouts, crossing her arms.

“But uncle Toji just got here…” She tells him, and it makes you laugh.

“But honey, you have to go to school and daddy has to work.” Your husband responds, and Toji looks at his watch.

“There’s no need for you to drop her off so early. I can drop her off today.” Toji suggests, and your husband nods in agreement. The man kisses the top of your daughter’s head before exiting the house, not bothering to even kiss your cheek which causes you to sigh. Toji notices, and the man has many questions. But he bites his tongue.

Toji fully enters the house and puts your daughter down on the floor. She immediately runs to get her dolls so her uncle Toji can play with her. Meanwhile, you walk to the kitchen to begin to clean up after making the breakfast that’s mostly uneaten.

“Everything okay?” Toji asks, following you to the kitchen. You hold your breath for a couple of seconds, thinking of the answer.

“Why are you here, Toji?” You reply.

“I already told you, I wanted to see Anzu.” He answers. You click your tongue.

“It’s a Tuesday morning. You know she has school. Next time, come later.” You tell the man as you hear the footsteps of your daughter as she comes down the stairs. You bite your tongue, holding back from yelling at the man in front of your daughter. Toji has really done nothing wrong, you’re just frustrated with your life and your husband, and Toji just happens to be right there.

“I’m sorry…” He responds. He hears Anzu’s voice, and his attention quickly goes to her. A smile forms on his lips as he sees the dolls.

When Anzu leaves for school, you’re left all alone. It’s something you looked forward to after spending five years with her by your side at all moments. But now you miss her, considering how quiet the house is without her. Now you wait eagerly for when she gets home.

“Hmm… Anzu would love it if I baked some cookies.” You say as you add the ingredients that you lack to make some chocolate chip cookies to bake for her. As you write down some other missing food items, you hear your phone ring. You grab it and stare at the unknown number, furrowing your eyebrows as you think about the spam calls you’ve been getting lately. You’re about to hang up, but you feel this urge to pick up the phone, so you do.

“Yes, this is her speaking… Is everything alright with my daughter?” Your heart drops. You haven’t received any kind of devastating news, but it can’t be good since it’s the hospital calling. Your heart races, thinking that the worst has happened. Your stomach churns, on the verge of puking as you hear what’s happened.

“I’ll be on my way, thank you.” You hang up, and you swear you’re going to kill Toji when you see him. You grab your car keys and your purse before practically running out of the house.

The hospital ride that’s usually twenty minutes is turned into a ten minute ride, which isn’t the wisest decision considering a car accident is the reason why your daughter is in the hospital. But you don’t care about getting hurt, you’re worried about your little girl. You want to be by her side, that’s your priority.

You get to her room in no time, ignoring the nurses that try to stop you, you barge in. You’re worried about her waking up and being alone, knowing that your husband won’t get there soon. It’s an emergency, but he can’t afford leaving his workday so early. But she’s not alone. Toji’s seated right at the bedside of your daughter.

“Toji…” Your voice is a mix of anger and relief, knowing that he’s okay but also knowing it’s his fault. But he doesn’t need a reminder. There’s a bandage over his forehead. Nothing that looks too severe, luckily.

“I’m not supposed to be here, don’t be too loud.” Toji tells you. He’s supposed to be under observation for at least an hour, but Toji can’t bear the thought of Anzu waking up without her parents by her side. “She’s going to be okay, that’s what I heard from the nurses. She just got a couple stitches on her forehead, and they’re waiting for her to wake up to do a few tests.”

“What happened?” You ask, and the man’s glossy eyes just stare at Anzu, who sleeps peacefully. The man bites his bottom lip, holding back a sob. He takes a deep breath before looking at you.

“She brought her doll with her, and she dropped it. It went under the seat, and she couldn’t reach it. My dumbass thought that I could grab it for her, next thing I knew, we crashed because I wasn’t paying attention.” He informs you as you walk over to him. Your hand goes over his shoulder, as you watch your daughter who sleeps peacefully. “I’m sorry.”

“Have you called Megumi?” You ask the man, not wanting an awkward silence to fill up the room. Anzu is going to be fine, but you still feel like crying. You hope that some conversation will distract you.

“No… They asked me who to call, and I could only think of you. Anzu is my priority right now.” He answers, and you shut your eyes. You try to push back the tears, but that’s not possible. As much as you’d like it to be.

“I… I’m sorry but… Is she-” The question has been bugging his mind. Ever since you announced your pregnancy. The curiosity only grows and becomes more intense with every passing moment. Ever since he first saw her, and every time he sees her. “Is she my daughter?”

“Toji…” You open your eyes, and he’s looking at you. You’ve always been fighting this truth. But it’s hard to fight when it’s so obvious. It’s clear as day. While she favors you in looks, there’s some features that are clearly from him. They share mannerisms, and have very similar personalities.

“Please just confirm or deny my suspicions. I won’t be mad… I won’t ruin your family, I just want to know. I just want to appreciate my moments with her a bit more.” His voice breaks. You want to say no because you’ve already caused him so much pain and confirming that she is will just hurt him more. It hurts to think how much you’ve hurt Toji, and it feels as if you’re the cause of his suffering ever since you got married. “I just want the truth…”

“She is.” You respond. He’ll find out sooner or later, so what’s the point in lying? Just let him know now so his hatred for you doesn’t grow too much for hiding it for so long. “She’s your daughter, Toji.”

You watch as a tear finally escapes his eye. His arms wrap around your waist and he pulls you into a hug. He mutters something, but you can’t understand. Your hand goes to the back of his head and you caress it. You finally understand, “Thank you.”

And he repeats it over and over again. It all makes sense now, the many spontaneous thank yous that left Toji’s lips whenever he watched over Anzu, thank yous that whenever asked about were dismissed. The man has known since the first day you announced your pregnancy.

A singular tear that turns to many. It’s not just joy but sadness. Five years posing as her uncle. And the rest of his life posing as someone that’s not her father. He has always viewed Anzu as a daughter, although he’s addressed her as his niece, but Anzu will only ever see him as her uncle. Never her father.

But it’s his punishment for falling in love with you and betraying his best friend. His karma. He wonders how evil he was in his past life, because the punishment he’s receiving isn’t fit for the bad things he’s done in this lifetime.

“I’m sorry, Toji.” Your voice is weak as you apologize. Countless nights you’ve stayed up thinking about him, about how you’ve deceived him, yet you’ve never thought of an apology. Of a proper one that voices all the things you’ve done wrong. “I- I should’ve told you, but you already had so much on your plate. It was better to pass her off as his child and not yours. It’s stupid but I thought that was the best decision. For all of us.”

He lets go of you, looking back at Anzu because he doesn’t want you to fully see him like this. Teary eyes. Red eyes. “You don’t have to explain why you lied to me. I understand why you chose the man you love as the father of our daughter.”

“Toji, he isn’t-” you begin but you stop yourself. Right now it isn’t the time to confess that you still love him. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even know that you ever loved him.

“The nurses are probably looking for you, Toji… I’ll stay with our daughter.”

A couple of days later, Anzu is back home, receiving as much love as a person can get from everyone around her. Especially Toji, who shows up daily. From early morning to late at night. He makes sure to make it up to her in various ways.

Each time you see them, you feel guilty. You think of a million ways to make it up. But you don’t do any of them.

“Anzu, honey, c’mon. You have to sleep.” You tell your daughter, who patiently waits by her door. She stares, hoping it’ll open soon.

“Is uncle Toji not coming today?” Anzu asks. It’s the first time in five days that Toji doesn’t come. She’s more distressed about not seeing him than the man who she thinks it’s her father.

“He told me he couldn’t make it today, but he promised tomorrow he’ll be here first thing in the morning. Ready to play.” You say, and she sighs as she walks to the bed. She gets on the bed and you tuck her in, kissing her forehead.

“I love you, honey. Goodnight.” You smile.

“Goodnight, mommy.” She responds. You stand up and walk out of the bedroom.

You go downstairs and take a seat on the couch, your mind flooded with thoughts. The same ones that have been invading your mind the past couple of days. The past six years.

What you’re doing isn’t fair to anyone– Not even yourself. You’re hurting everyone around you, especially your daughter. The truth will come out eventually. You know that when it does, you’ll be hated by everyone around you.

Your marriage is already in shambles, so when your husband finds out, you’ll get divorced. There’s no doubt about it. So is it better to confess now? Being stuck in a loveless marriage is less than ideal. For both of you. He’s only holding on because of the thought that Anzu is his daughter.

You want to give Toji a shot at being a father. Her actual father. Not just pretending to be nice and sweet uncle Toji.

You’re brought back to reality by the sound of the keys that open the front door. You watch like a hawk as your husband enters the house. You don’t bother to stand up to greet him, and he doesn’t bother to walk over to you.

You inhale, watching him put his briefcase down and take off his shoes. You open your mouth to speak, not wanting to give it further thought. You’ll either tell him now or forever keep silent until the truth involuntarily comes out.

“I have a confession.”

“The pizza was ordered next do-” Toji begins as he opens the door. But this isn’t what he was expecting. The love of his life at his door, holding her sleeping daughter. He slowly blinks as he takes everything in.

“I told him everything.” You say. “I couldn’t hold on to it anymore.”

“He kicked you out?” He asks as he stares at the strap of a backpack that you have on your back. He moves out of the doorway so you can enter the apartment. You walk in, and he closes the door.

“No… He was willing to move past it because he already knew. He knew about everything but kept quiet.” You share, and Toji is utterly speechless. He doesn’t know what to do.

“You can put her down on my bed.” He tells you and you nod. He watches you, and processes everything. Your husband is fine with it, so why are you here? You walk back without Anzu, and Toji has many questions.

“Not that I don’t enjoy your presence but… Why are you here then?” He questions.

“Because… I’ve always been in love with you, Toji. You didn’t provide the stability I was looking for. Everyone around me isn’t really fond of you either… But what’s the point? The only reason I haven’t been unhappy for the past six years is because of the daughter that you gave me.” You confess, and the man fights back a smile. He walks over to you before he kisses your forehead.

“How do you manage to make me so happy in the span of one week?” He says. “I’ve been yearning to hear something along those lines from you because I’m helplessly in love with you… Although you should know.”

Your arms wrap around the man, and he hugs you back. He has the biggest grin on his face, thinking about the future that awaits him. There’s so much to fix still.

“I love you so much, Toji.”

“I love you too.” He responds. “You have no idea how happy you make me. You and my little Anzu.”

🏷 @dearsunaa @mykyoon @tojidilfs @b3ast1706 @crispmarshmallow @levismainbabe @matchabluebeiry-for-nanami @nobody289x @galactict3a

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #anime #toji fushiguro #jjk toji #toji x y/n #fushiguro toji #toji zenin #toji x reader #toji fluff #daddy toji #toji x you

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nazuna-tunnel-vision · 1 year

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Kohaku analysis

Hi anon, sorry for taking more than 5 months to reply. Kohaku just has so many things going on that I really didn't have a firm understanding of his character and don't know where to start. Still don't actually, but I'll give it my best shot.

Kohaku's main appeal imo is his numerous gaps. There’s a ridiculous amount of them, but the main ones are that he's pink, he's 160cm, he's the youngest character at 15, and yet he has no qualms about killing a man.

He could kill a man and yet was locked in his house until just this year. He could kill a man and yet he's terrified of zombies and wouldn't be able to kill them.

He talks like he has his things together (and he sort of really does), and yet he is still the youngest in the cast and so many people around him nurture him and watch his growth with warm and loving eyes.

Everyone who lays their eyes on him immediately treats him like their cute little bro, and yet he seems to be the more emotionally stable and mature one in Double Face - where his partner is literally the self-proclaimed Mama in the series.

I think the most confusing part about Kohaku is his maturity and simulataneous lack thereof. How he manages to be emotionally mature in DF, and yet is still the baby in Crazy:B. So for this post I'm going to delve into how and why Kohaku manages to do this.

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(Please bear in mind that I haven't read the !! main stories and the stories for No Name Yet and Ariadne, so i might be missing important characterisation.

Also be warned that I will be referencing events in Dark Night's Passing, Secret Service and Sudden Death. Spoiler warning!)

I feel like most people get really blown away by the shock factor of Kohaku being trained as an assassin. And together with the way Kohaku carries himself, a lot of fans forget that there is a lot he doesn't know about the world.

He grew up in isolation and could only physically step foot into the rest of civilisation at the end of the ! era. And then he promptly got lost. (He asks Anzu for directions to ES in his first character story.) He doesn't know how to choose his own modern clothes either. The clothes we see him wearing were picked out by the salesperson, and for his Feature Outfit he chose traditional wear similar to what he wore growing up.

Kohaku is honestly very similar to Hiiro in this respect. I think it's just not as obvious to non-KohakuPs because:

Kohaku has less questions. This can be explained by how he grew up on the internet, so he had the advantage of familiarity with technology.

Screentime differences:

Hiiro’s ignorance was emphasised throughout the novel that was !! Main Story 1

Kohaku had one (1) introductory chapter that highlighted his ignorance. The rest was sprinkled in mini-talks and event stories.

Differences in other characters' responses to their questions:

Hiiro gets Aira loudly yelling, without fail, that he's stupid and ignorant. And then Hiiro yells his apologies in response. The whole exchange is very noisy and impossible to ignore. (It also happens multiple times.)

Kohaku’s interactions, however, tend to go very smoothly. They’re always along the line of, "Oh, what is this? Ohh so that's it. Thanks for teaching me!". Clean and simple, no jabs and just question > answer > thanks. Or he'll say, "I've only known about this through the internet! I'm looking forward to experiencing this myself this year." And no one comments on it, except for maybe a “Fufu I hope you have a good experience.” It’s all very short and pleasant. Nothing you would take note of unless you’re a KohakuP and realised you’ve seen them lots of times

So anyway, in contrast to Kohaku’s general cool and judgemental "Madara/Rinne-han you’re so stupid” vibe, he really is not that wise in the ways of the world. To be frank, I think his cool-as-a-cucumber behaviour is very boyish of him. You know, when you're a teen and pretend to be more grown-up than you actually are.

And Kohaku is acutely aware of how little he knows. Kohaku has low confidence in making his way through the world, even though he generally acts very capable. This low confidence is the focus of the Honey Bee scout story. It's a very, very cute story where Crazy:B finds ways to push him out of his comfort zone while still respecting his 15 year-old pride. Basically Kohaku was going to shy away from something and Rinne goes "Ha bet you can't do this!" Kohaku reacts very much like a kid by immediately biting the bait. So cute! Another point for the KohakuPs who love the cute and child-like Kohaku. I wouldn’t call Kohaku immature, but he sure isn’t a mature adult either. He has a lot of growing left to do!

Kohaku just generally exudes this little brother energy as easily as breathing.

I think part of it is his size and pink hair colour and baby fat.

Another is probably how open he is about how little he knows. Like Hiiro, he’s not shy about asking for clarification. If you hang around him for long enough, you probably come to expect and accommodate the gaps in his experience.

He’s also super forthcoming and genuine with his praise, admiration and gratitude. The instant he thinks of something nice, like "wow this person sure is skilled!" he'll just let the person in question know. (Unless you're Rinne - you tease him too much for him to want to praise you genuinely to the face orz.) I think people just like being around him and being nice to him because of this habit, and they become nicer and better people in his presence. ((I am looking at HiMERU in particular.))

And despite what I said about his teenage pride, Kohaku's also very gracious and accepting of being consistently assigned the little bro. His attitude to realising that people adopted him is just "huh? well okay I guess. Thank you for your help." He doesn't see it as being patronising; he recognises that people just want to be nice to him and lets them + is grateful for it. (Again, Rinne is an exception because his modus operandi is to bully Kohaku and Kohaku Knows This.)

I think these factors form the basis of his relationships with everyone (minus Madara and his family) where he’s the little baby Kohaku-chan that everyone loves to dote on. And he lets them, and also lets them know that he is grateful for their care! It's super wholesome and cute. Ra*bits-esque, even.

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But despite all these child-like parts of him (especially him not knowing a lot of common knowledge), he also has a lot of. I don’t know what to call it, I guess emotional maturity in his interactions with others. He's always very genuine and sincere and respectful, and this doesn't ever change unless you're deliberately fucking with him (Rinne).

It's most obvious when you look at Double Face and his interactions with Cagiest Bastard in the Whole Series, Mikejima Madara.

This part requires a good deal of understanding about Mama's issues and Oh Boy Is It A Lot! But what you need to know is that Madara's family is involved with the police and the Shinkai Cult and Madara was been elbows deep in that world from birth. He beats people up off screen and sends the mafia after them and doesn't blink. And his emotional walls reach stratospheric heights. He calls himself Mama and is extremely friendly, but he never really lets anyone close. Headcanon that it's bc he wants to be as close to others as a Mama, but is purposely assigning himself a role that most ppl reject bc he is afraid of actually being that close to people. He's been in a solo unit for the whole of the ! era and was acting alone even before then. Talking about his issues and true feelings are simply not something he does. He buries it under layers of Wasshoi Wasshoi Festival Man Mama. Sometimes he alludes to how estranged he feels but before anyone can meaningfully respond, he jets off to another part of Japan/the world and is uncontactable for a few months.

There's no time to really go into what Madara's issues actually are, but basically Anzu (and the enstars writer Akira) created DF because she wanted Madara to have a friend. Kohaku as an assassin and Madara as the kid of a mafialord just Get Each Other the way others don't. Just look at Dark Night's Passing. It's about feeling too dirty with sin to truly assimilate with the bright sparkling world of Ryuseitai/Tsukasa. It's about not being able to talk about their feelings about their involvement with the underworld because they don't want to sully their friends. Madara sort of talks about it with Kuro, but Kuro is an ex-delinquent and beating other misguised youths up is nothing compared to what Madara is still involved in. Kohaku is probably more comfortable with Crazy:B than any other unit because of their themes of being rejects and rulebreakers, but that's still not the same as assassination. I don't think Kohaku ever came clean to them about his family. Kohaku & Madara just truly do understand each other in a way no one else can.

And despite all that, Madara still tries to distance himself from Kohaku. 😡👎👎. Kohaku has to chase this mf ""unit leader"" down to get updates of their shared unit's work. Kohaku has to call Madara and gets sent to voicemail every time. He has to call up everyone he can think of who could be in contact with Madara and then fly his ass across Japan to beat up Madara up. (He doesn't actually beat Madara up because he's a good kid. He just joins Madara in whatever he was working on and helps him and reminds him that he is no longer alone.)

Anyone in Kohaku's place would be completely justified in thinking that Madara's more effort than he's worth and give up or lash out at him. Just the way Madara likes it! With people so far away from him that he can't hurt them or vice versa (Madara ignores the fact that the act of pushing others away is in itself hurtful.)

But Kohaku doesn't abandon Madara. He takes things pretty damn well imo.

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Kohaku re: dirty jobs & the Underworld is just so. He's so hopeful even while being born in and knowing the shit side of the world. It breaks my heart and fills me with awe with how disillusioned and yet hopeful he is with the world.

Kohaku in the early stories constantly talks about how the world & people's hearts are dirty. And yet, whenever he receives help (...often, bc of his politeness and little bro energy) he also always comments that kindness still exists in this world. Kohaku, especially in Dark Night's Passing, is a very jaded child. He thinks that his family's line of work is pretty dirty and hates being born into it, but still says he is okay with sacrificing himself for the Suou's. He thinks the world is rotten, that injustice will always exist, and that sacrificing himself is okay, but does whatever he can to ensure that the good people in his life don't suffer.

Kohaku doesn't roll over and give up. He finally has freedom after 15 years and he is so excited to experience all the good things the world has to offer. He knows it comes with bad things too, and accepts it like a champ! Takes it as a foregone conclusion.

It contrasts so sharply with Madara that I just gnnh. Madara is tired. He has given up. He's just floating along trying to help his loved ones while fighting a war in his head and heart against the instinct to also push them far away.

Madara and Kohaku initially connected over their shared understanding of the rotten world and their roles in it, but their attitudes towards living in such a world and with such a role couldn't be more different. Madara believes that he never belongs in the sparkling world everyone else inhabits, and he tries not to "sully" it by never entering it. Kohaku accepts the world, both its rotten and good parts, with an almost zen-like countenance that you really wouldn't expect from a 15 year-old freshly entering the world. Kohaku is excited and accepting and open-minded of all the world has to offer (as long as he doesn't look stupid, because he is 15 and freshly interacting with people irl, he cares about appearances.) Kohaku uses his assassin role to protect himself and those he cares about; it's not something that he even conceives as holding him back.

This really uniquely positions him to set Madara back on the path to heal, because he shares a similar background and yet offers perspective that Madara would not have accepted from any other person. Yes this turned into a DF dynamic analysis but Kohaku was literally created to be a Madara foil, so. That probably just means I'm doing my Kohaku analysis right.

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Explaining Kohaku's emotional maturity

From a meta perspective, Kohaku's emotional maturity can be attributed to the fact that he was explictly written to be Madara's friend and confidant. He had to be a character that could make Madara feel comfortable enough to let his walls down. He also had to be a character that didn't have the same trauma response and who could handle Madara's.

Lorewise, I think Kohaku's emotional maturity when it comes to relationships (being so open, honest and respectful) can also be explained by his upbringing.

The fact that Kohaku is so open and honest and respectful can be a bit surprising, considering how he was, y'know, locked up for 15 years and all. You expect him to have some very tragic backstory, where he was abused and went through grueling and traumatic assasin training like Killua from Hunter x Hunter or something. You expect him to be cagey and defensive, like Madara or worse. Then you read Sudden Death and it becomes apparent that the chances of Kohaku having been abused are abysmally low. Kohaku is very, very loved by his family. There are still things that don't add up, like Kohaku still having been locked up in a dimly-lit room for 15 years and speaking of his growing up years so negatively. But I'm inclined to think that against all odds, his family treated him very respectfully as a little man and he was raised well. Maybe his distaste for his upbringing was because his family never really tried to justify it or gaslight him into thinking that it was normal and okay. The Oukawas are pretty cool!

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TLDR for this whole post; Kohaku is very accepting, genuine and forthcoming. He can put even the most guarded people around him at ease and inspires them to be better people just by being himself around them. He was written perfectly to bounce off Madara (and Rinne).

He is also very small and cute. People can't help but dote on him. He is also so excited to finally participate in the world, but feels the tiniest bit of trepidation. He is growing bit by bit every day! Basically he would belong at Ra*bits is what I'm saying. If you ignore the whole assassin thing.

#enstars #rambles #analysis #kohaku #oukawa kohaku #double face #there is a tldr at the end if u need it #please read at least that i promise i prommy

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five-crows-in-a-trenchcoat · 1 year

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“Bet you’re jealous now, huh”

Back on my speed doodle bullshit

With the recent steam artbook release we get to see the footwear of all the participants in detail for the first time- and while I love anzu’s little jester shoes that fit her outfit rlly well, I was half expecting her to be wearing heelies in the death game. In my heart she does, bc in this house we stan a silly queen. She can have two pairs of shoes :>

#yttd #anzu kinashi art #anzu #anzu yttd #yttd art #yttd memes #anzu art yttd #she wears heelies now

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sadfruittheatre · 26 days

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Loss and Lots of Retcons: The Current State of Affairs and Moving Forward

So, now that things have begun to calm down, I want to talk a little bit more about various retcons and what's going to change, both in terms of this blog and the timeline. This is also a to-do list for me, because I have hella ADHD and get very overwhelmed without some kind of game plan.

So, to get the big thing out of the way, several characters are no longer going to exist and will have never existed. You're going to see the things on this list and go "woah, wait a minute! aren't all these guys like, super important to a bunch of things!?" and the answer is yes, but sometimes things happen in real life that affect the plot and that is just a potential consequence of working in collaboration with other people.

So, the casualties are:

Mara

Flann

Veroa

Kuroza (Fish)

Anzu

Carma and Kone

It's a lot of characters unfortunately, but we still have plenty left.

Cayenne

Bragi

Aneas

Tomor

Eugene

Mirin

Coulie

Dulze

Deeji

Letch

Mille

Mento

The character pages will be updated accordingly.

There will also be some new characters introduced in conjunction to the plot things that have been happening in the background, but I will not be elaborating on all that yet until I iron out this other stuff. But know that I am definitely looking forward to introducing you to these guys and their lovely creators!

But Kateh, I hear you ask, how are you going to have concurrent plot things going on when you have to retcon like, everything??? Well, you see, I'm basically doing my best to keep the overall trajectories of my OCs as close to the same as possible in broad strokes, even if there are different characters involved or some things just didn't happen anymore. Some characters are honestly completely unaffected by this (like Aneas, who wins by staying in his lane and loving his wife). Other characters, namely Bragi, and to a lesser degree, Tomor, need a lot of work done to fix the damage.

As for the art and writing I've uploaded, much of it is probably going to be taken down, because I don't feel comfortable having art up of characters I no longer have the rights to use for a continuity that no longer exists. Some things can be edited in small ways, and if I can salvage it, I will; plenty of other things will stay up, though the context for them is largely going to have to be rewritten to fit the new continuity. I'm definitely bummed that so much of this entire project has to be gutted, but I'm hoping to be able to slowly rebuild things going forward. Honestly not sure if it would be easier to delete and start over, but I'll try to fix things as they are before I do all that.

I do actually have some establishing comics in the works to get us all adjusted to the new vibes, so we can at least look forward to that!

Now, let's talk plot and characters. We've talked a lot about what's lost, but here's what remains.

Now, while there are still a lot of minor details to work out, the broad strokes are as follows:

Bragi's still being sent to Conton City to atone for his stinky boy crimes. However, the big difference now is that for better immersion in the mortal culture, he's staying with a host family, the already overcrowded teacakes house with Dulze and Yamcha. Deeji is his new best friend. #DeejiSupremacy

He's still going to slowly get his shit together until he's forced to confront Aneas and they reconcile. Details are still hella fuzzy as to how that goes down but Aneas and Coulie (and Eugene) remain largely unchanged. Still happily married. #FlowerBudsSupremacy

A lot of the stuff with Mento probably still happened, though the context of Mirin's existence and what led up to Mento's death is gonna have to change wildly to accommodate it. Bragi's existential crisis will definitely have to be adjusted.

The Anzu shit? Didn't happen. Bragi likely remains unstabbed, unless we find another context to stab him in. With that in mind, he's probably going to revert back to his pre-vest design because like, the whole reason for that is because he got stabbed. At least his godtube channel remains alive and shitty. Coulie can still systematically dislike all of his videos.

At the most recent point in the timeline, Bragi's at least a little more willing to open up to people he trusts because Kuroza/Fish isn't there anymore to fuck it up for him by being weird about his trauma. He's still got some trust and vulnerability issues tho.

Tomor needs an overhaul at least in terms of his own trajectory. Part of this is due to the plot things I'm sitting on, part of it is because he lost his comedic foil in the form of Fish. He will definitely continue to cause problems on purpose tho, probably with New!Mento.

The Mento with Mirin goop in her brain is still very much a thing btw. She's so silly and I love her. #MentoSupremacy

Some of this stuff is still subject to change, and whatever does change likely won't be as detailed as it used to be, but we're doing what we can. It's a hot mess right now and it's gonna take a lot of time to fix it, so uh, thanks for bearing with me 👍

#mod post #meta #very bummed to have to make this post and rebuild everything but I'm taking my time #this old continuity wasn't built in a day and this one won't be either

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leaderoffestivals · 9 months

Text

Poltergeist Chapter 3

Madara: And what are those jobs about? What are we gonna do, exactly? Well, I can pretty much guess, but— Natsume: YeS. From here on oUT, MaM will be working in this Dancing Cranes Home as part of the nursery stAFF.

Scenario Writer: Akira Season: Winter Characters: Mikejima Madara, Sakasaki Natsume

< Thirty minutes later. >

Madara: Alright! I’m all changed into my work clothes now! If I were to wander around in my casual clothes, I might be mistaken for an intruder after aaall!

Oh~hh! Anzu-san, have you changed your outfit too? You look sooo cute! This reminds me of those days in the past when we used to play house together——

“Look, here’s today’s dinner for you, Papa!” “Thank you, Mama, I love you!”

… …Hmmm? What’s with that doubtful look on your face?

Hahaha. Come to think of it, you’re already aware I’m a shady guy who cooked up a dubious story about us being close childhood friends, huh?

Do you really think that I made up all of those childhood memories, though?

The honest truth is that we really did use to play together as friends. However, I exaggerated as to how we played during those times—

—because you were a reeeally quiet child, back in the day. Now that I think about it, when we played house, I was the one who played aaall the roles of Papa, Mama, and the child as well—

—while you simply watched on, smiling sweetly. That was how we really played house.

I reeeally miss those days, hahaha.

Natsume: Both of you seem to be getting along unexpectedly well with each othER, hMM?

Madara: Ohh! Sorry, sorry! We’ve been chatting idly among ourselves, and keeping you waiting!

Natsume: Don’t sweat iT. There aren’t any urgent matters here that need doing anywAY. FrankLY, there are ample staff here in this faciliTY—way more than is necessary to go aroUND, in faCT.

If we hadn’t forced them to make up some work for us to dO, we would probably wind up twiddling our thumbs in boredOM.

Madara: What’s this work about? What are we supposed to do, exactly? Well, I can pretty much guess, but—

Natsume: YeS. From here on oUT, MaM will be working in this Dancing Cranes Home as a nursery school teacHER.

Both the kitten Anzu-chan and I will be acting as your support in that roLE, Mikejima-senpai.

Madara: A nursery school teacher, huh? Are you reeeally sure about that? I mean—even for me—I don’t have any experience with this kind of work at all. Aren’t there qualifications required to be in this line of work?

Natsume: Of course there aRE. HowevER, it’ll be fine because you’ll only be pretending to work heRE. This is one of those typical programmes where idols showcase what it’s like to work in different fields, after aLL.

You’ll be assisting a real nursery teacher in the role of a part-timER, casually helping with small jobs here and theRE.

In actual faCT, you won’t be required to help out at aLL. You will just need to put up a show of doing the right things for the cameras and you can call it a dAY.

Madara: Hoho~. In short, it’s like playing house.

Natsume: YeS. It is a kind of make-belieVE. Celebrities visiting various professions and documenting their work experience is a pretty common concept for shOWS, nowadAYS. It’s particularly prevalent in online programMES.

The project this time is akin to “Come Experience What It’s Like To Be A Nursery School Teacher!”

Madara: Oh, come on. That sounds like a cheapskate project that took aaall of five minutes to cook up.

Natsume: SeriousLY? Such a rude choice of woRDS. The President’s beEN, in his own wAY, trying his best to come up with a job that aligns with your requEST—a MaM-like joB—

And as the name “MaM” suggeSTS, a job with the attributes of being a Mama—of being a mothER.

Madara: And you’re saying that when one thinks of mothers, one thinks of someone who cherishes children and raises them with love?

Natsume: That’s the association one maKES, isn't iT? And while that perspective might seem a little out-daTED, the image of a mother you have in mind isn’t necessarily the most modern version eithER, is iT?

All you have to do is portray the traditionally virtuous image of a mother in front of the cameras and you’ll be good to gO. That is what you wish fOR, isn’t iT—or ratHER, you will be satisfied with thAT, won’t yOU?

Madara: Hm~mm. Well, I myself couldn’t define what a MaM-like job would be, when I tried thinking about it earlier.

I guess it wouldn’t be a bad thing to take advantage of the President’s kindness and give this job a go. Besides, now that the situation has come to this, I'm not in a position to selfishly say, 'I don't wanna do this,' or 'I wanna go back,' at aaall.

Natsume: You’re riGHT. You wouldn’t want to turn around so soon after arriving heRE, and spend all those hours travelling back to Seisoukan, would yOU?

MoreovER, if you were to boycott the job the President went to all this trouble to arrange for yOU, he would be quite upSET, no matter how mild-mannered a person he iS.

At the very leaST, you have to pick up some souvenirs before you leAVE, riGHT?

Madara: Uhhh. There doesn’t seem to be any shops where I can get souvenirs from in this place, though!

I was looking all around me on the way here, but the surroundings are completely unspoiled wilderness—there aren’t even any houses, you knowww!

I was stunned to learn this building is meant to be a welfare home for children. After all, because of the surroundings, it makes this place practically resemble an isolation ward—or even a prison!

Natsume: … … That may be closer to the truth than you thINK.

Madara: Hm? What was that again?

Natsume: It’s nothiNG. Come to think of iT, we’ve been chatting endlessly and putting it off foreVER, but shall we buckle down to do that tour of the facility and introduction of the staff members nOW?

Stop interrupting me at every turn with your objections and just do what I tell you tO, like an adULT.

Madara: YES~, Mama~.

Natsume: OH, for heaven’s saKE. You’re ‘MaM’, aren’t yOU? SeriousLY… …

—————-To be continued——————-

Chapter 2 / Chapter 4

Translator’s Notes:

#ensemble stars #enstars tl #mikejima madara #sakasaki natsume #new color #poltergeist

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enstarrievalkyrie · 1 year

Note

hi there how have you been? I hope your doing great!!

Here back with a request! hajime, tori and tsukasa having tea time with you

It's so random but I hope that's alright

Bye bye hope you have a nice day!!🍊

Having a tea party with Tori, Tsukasa, and Hajime

Note:hey y'all's, sorry this took Soo long, I just couldn't think about anything but enjoy!🍊

• Honestly speaking, I really dk what they do. I guess they have tea and talk?

• Anyways, Hajime would probably bring cookies.(just like the basic bish he is, jk I love him)

• He would also be the one pouring your tea while you gossip with the other members.

"Hey did you guys know that Anzu was caught on cameras with Sakuma Rei.

"Hajima while pouring tea, "Sakuma senpai? I wonder what were they doing.

"Tsukasa with his hands up to his chin, "Hmm that indeed is a little suspicious."

• Yuzuru would have to stop Tori from revealing upcoming fine plans cuz Tori just wants to show how good fine is (Like we already don't know).

• Tsukasa is just there witnessing the fight between you and Tori while sipping his tea. While Hajime is there trying to calm you down.

" Fine is the best group!! We won many competitions unlike yours!!"

"So? My (unit/name) has more intricate details in our performance and outfits!! Your fine can't even compare." Hmph

"guys please calm down the table is shaking😓."

• Normally the tea parties would be held at Tsukasa or Tori's house.

•Tori really be screaming at yuzure to quickly prepare the table and chairs if it was held at his house.

• If it were to held at Tsukasa's house he and his servants would all be waiting for y'all at the entrance expecting y'all to arrive exactly on time.

• Hajime is a pro when comes to baking. You asks him for recipes to try and of course, being the angel he is, he would help you.

• Tsukasa talks about his troubles of being one of the three big leaders and y'all be at the side eyeing him like bish we get it.

• You probably eat all the cookies or cupcakes by the time someone is looking for it. They gotta be quick.

• Tori would provide the tea leaves. Cuz he damn rich bro. Gimme some too.

• The tea party would be held in a garden full of flowers with many Greek sculptures and a fountain.(damn magical)

• idk y'all probably vent during tea parties. You just need someone to hear your problems.

#enstars x reader #ensemble stars #ensemble stars x reader #enstars #tori himemiya #tsukasa suou #rabbits #knights enstars #fine enstars #tea party #tsukasa x reader #hajime x reader #tori himemiya x reader

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kujakumai · 2 years

Text

Wherefore Art Thou 5,010 words; Complete [AO3 Link]

Atem has come out the ceremonial duel not with death but with a life of his own, and with that comes questions, problems, paperwork. He'll need a checklist of things, a birthday, an address, a hometown, a last name. A weighty decision, a name. They already went through so much trouble getting the first one.

About being in the right-wrong body at the wrong-right time and the chances we never expected to get; about how I was always me and you are no one else but you, and we'll never be like that again, but there are still things we can share with each other.

Or: A story in which Atem writes some things down, gets a new shirt, and fails to buy eggs.

Sunlight. That was the first thing you noticed about the house, the way the Ishtar siblings had angled everything towards it, falling in through wide-open windows and flooding the kitchen, bouncing off golden antiques brought up from the tombs and settling over the plants Rishid left on counters and shelves. In a place with too much sunlight, where it radiated over the sand without end, this place welcomed it, as if there could never be enough.

The second thing that came to mind was that there was something off about it, like you couldn't tell when it was supposed to be. It was half in old Egypt and half in 1998, shiny modern convenience sitting next to remnants of the old ways. Artifacts and incense, videogame systems and new athletic shoes, crashing up against each other without rhyme or reason like a patchwork quilt, like an odds-and-ends drawer, like a warzone. Atem found it unpleasantly mismatched and a little ugly, but oddly comforting in a way he could not describe.

It wasn't big enough for an extended visit, but while they were all in Egypt the Ishtars insisted that they stay for dinner at least once—Rishid, they were informed, was an excellent cook. So Atem, Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda, Otogi, and Bakura were all piled into the cozy too-small living room, strewn about couches and on pulled-in kitchen chairs, and even then a lack of space left Bakura cheerfully sitting cross-legged on the floor. Ten people, too many, laughing about nothing and everything, about Anzu's study abroad plans, Ishizu's work, Shizuka's health, and a brief tangent where Honda and Marik traded bike specifications in arcane mechanical terms that left everyone else out of the loop.

"Ateeeeeeem, you're so quiet." Jonouchi flopped onto an overstuffed chair that Honda was already sitting in, elbowing him in the face and squishing in over his objections. "This is your party!"

"Ah, sorry." He had been quiet, listening to the conversation without hearing it, letting everything wash over him.

"Leave him alone, he's busy." Anzu scolded. "Atem has to get those papers done for Marik, or we can't leave."

"Atem has time! He should relax."

They were all saying his name a lot, more than was natural. He suspected they'd all gotten together when he wasn't in the room and agreed to practice it so they could stop accidentally calling him "Yugi." So they tacked it on to the end of every sentence, Atem, Atem, Atem, a very old name in new voices that had never spoken it before, or maybe a brand-new name in old and safe and familiar ones, or both at once or neither depending on your point of view. They all kept saying it a little wrong, reflexively adding the shadow of a "u" at the end, not used to the foreignness of it. Atem knew he should tell them that wasn't quite right but he loved it, and every time he heard the way they said it it tugged at something in his chest and made him want to smile.

Atem was sitting on the couch next to Yugi. Because he could do that now, sit next to him, because he had a body. Because a day ago he and Yugi dueled, and instead of taking him away forever like everyone expected the doors opened up and spat him back out, flesh and blood all his own just like the day he died, and before he even knew what was going on he'd been tackle-hugged by four or five people and everyone was sobbing. So he'd walked back out into the world and the sunlight, a little dazed and on his own two feet. He'd left his crown and cape at the hotel, kept his earrings and his cartouche, and put on a t-shirt someone had hastily grabbed from a tourist tchotchke shop. It was bubblegum pink and had a cartoon sphinx on it, and didn't fit quite right because they bought it in Yugi's size.

Yugi leaned over his shoulder in a way that very real and warm and solid and definitely not incorporeal, which Atem somehow never expected no matter how many times it happened. "What's it say?"

Atem offered him the two or three pages he was holding. "You can read it if you want, partner." Was it weird to still call him partner? Partners in what? They weren't in the same body anymore, so they couldn't duel together, exactly. Should he call him something else? If he stopped saying partner, would Yugi notice? Would he be hurt? What was the better word, then?

"This is a lot of info." Yugi's eyes traced down the page. Not so much a form as a handwritten list. Name, date of birth, place of birth, address, parent's names, blood type. "Marik really needs all this?"

"Yes. The more the better." Marik was sitting on the floor, eating nuts out of a bowl on the coffee table and trading cards with Bakura. "You can make up the stuff you don't know, just try to keep it believable." He looked up and gave them a mischievous smile. "Or don't. Go wild, if you want. I'm just putting it on paper, if you get stopped at the airport because your expertly forged new passport says you're three thousand years old, it'll be on you."

"I think," Otogi noted, from the opposite end of the couch, "if you're inventing a whole new identity from scratch, you're obligated to include at least one thing that's a little crazy. For fun."

"Exactly."

"Please don't listen to anything Marik says." Ishizu Ishtar was dressed more casually than any of them had ever seen her, but she carried herself with a practiced grace that always somehow emanated authority. She walked in with a silver tray covered in mugs of something, and held it out to Marik with a look that wordlessly communicated the ancient sibling art of I did this part, now you do the next.

Marik made a face, but stood up and started passing out drinks, and as he walked by Atem caught his own distorted reflection in the polished surface, which startled him because he looked exactly like he was supposed to look and not like Yugi Muto. Same hair, certainly, but not much else. An inch and a half shorter, because Yugi had grown but he hadn't, broader shoulders, not as skinny, warm brown skin. It shouldn't be that weird, just to see himself in the mirror. He'd has his memories for a month, even if the body was new. He knew what he looked like.

Tiny little discrepancies in his new existence, like someone secretly moving all the furniture in your house two inches to the left. A thousand irritants too subtle to notice, too minute to bother complaining about. Food that tasted a little wrong because he was used to someone else's tastebuds, the abrupt change in eyeline that made all his friends slightly the wrong height, the sound of his own voice in his ears, now lightly accented, because his head still knew Yugi's perfect Japanese but his new (old?) mouth wasn't practiced with the sounds. He'd picked up a phone this morning and stood there for thirty seconds like an idiot, waiting for muscle memory to kick in, until he realized that it wouldn't and had to search and press each button in a way he knew was slow and wrong. The weight of the puzzle was conspicuous in its absence. He was so used to it hanging from his neck and resting against his chest that the lack of it was odd, an empty triangular space where something should be, the way you suddenly notice background music when someone turns it off.

Ishizu sat down with perfect posture, somehow made a displaced wooden kitchen chair look elegant. "If you do have problems at the airport," she said, "call me first. I know people at the embassy."

Rishid leaned casually out of the kitchen doorway. "You won't have problems." he said, a spatula in one hand, his Japanese polite and careful. "Marik's work is good. We have never had issues." He smiled. "Easier than god cards."

"My papers are real," Ishizu said, with the tiniest smirk, "but you don't have time for that, pharaoh."

Jonouchi half-stood up and reached over and snatched the papers out of Yugi's hand. "So how far didja get?"

"Hey!" Yugi objected.

"Dude," Honda squinted at it from next to Jonouchi, "did you write anything yet?"

"I was thinking." Atem said, not at all defensively.

Jonouchi reached over to a side table and grabbed a pen, and clicked it. "C'mon, let's get this done with." He skimmed the page and seemed to pick at random. "When's your birthday?"

"19th of—" he started, automatically, before realizing midsentence that it was not the sort of date that anyone could use. "Shemu Epiphi." he finished, out of momentum.

Jonouchi did not write down "Shemu Epiphi," or anything like it, and just looked at him blankly, pen at the ready, awaiting clarification. Atem did not have any.

"Low water," added awkwardly, was the best that he could do.

Ishizu threw him a life raft. "That would be in the summer. Somewhere in July, I would think."

"It is not." Marik objected. "That has to be May or June. Early June."

"I'm sorry, Marik, do you have a degree in Egyptology?"

"No, but I—RISHID! Epiphi is early summer, right?"

"I cannot hear you, I'm cooking!"

Ishizu curtly gestured at Jonouchi to continue. "We will do the math later."

"Alright, easier one." Jonouchi resumed. "Place of birth?"

"Nowe." he said. The name rolled easily off his tongue. Capital city, on the river's east bank.

Jonouchi clearly did not recognize the name, and didn't write this one down either. He shot a glance at Ishizu.

"That's here." she corrected, or perhaps merely offered. "Luxor." She gave Atem what he was sure was supposed to be a reassuring smile. "Of course, in the interim it was Thebes, and in the Old Kingdom before your time they called it Waset, and there are several other..."

Jonouchi nodded and scribbled something on the page, and Atem felt weakly like he should object, because he wasn't born in Luxor, and this city was new and strange to him, and it wasn't the right answer. The right answer didn't exist, though, not anymore. There were only the ruins of what had once been right answers, crumbled to dust and built over by strangers, studied by experts and marveled at by tourists.

It wasn't wrong, it just wasn't right either. How he and Yugi kept bumping into each other because they didn't expect to both be corporeal, how the Ishtars' decor was confusingly out of time yet entirely correct, how he was alive and with his friends a day after everyone expected him to die and how the whole place smelled like food and sounded like laughter and it was supposed to be for him but for some reason he wasn't happy, how he mostly felt strange and tense and like he was doing everything wrong. A pervasive sense of not-rightness, all over his skin.

"Alright! Making progress! Next up is the easiest one of 'em all, name. First is Atem, aaaaand..." He paused. "What's your last name?"

Atem thought about this. Technically as pharaoh he had six names, none of which would sound normal on a birth certificate. "That's not really how it worked."

"You gotta have a last name, Atem."

"I don't know what to tell you. That's not how we did it." He smiled. That's what you're supposed to do, when you're alive and with your friends and at a party and everyone is staring at you waiting for an answer, is smile. Smiling always helped, when you didn't know what to say.

Yugi was thinking, and he leaned forward and tapped the back of his foot on the bottom of the couch. "I guess you can just pick something?"

"If you want to be boring, you can just choose something common." suggested Marik. "Omar, Sayed, Hassan. There's a ton of Hassans."

"He wants to be a Japanese citizen though, right?" Bakura piped up. "If he doesn't want to stand out, he could be a Satou, or a Tanaka."

Discord erupted. Suddenly everyone had a suggestion.

"I think he's going to stand out regardless..." "Just use your dad's name, maybe?" "He doesn't look like a Sayed." "Atem...puzzle? No, that's stupid." "Something related to pharaohs? Lots of names that mean king." "Takahashi sounds nice." "How about—" "What if—"

In the midst of the fracas, new names dueling on all sides, Yugi had his own polite suggestion, offered from right next to his ear. "You could always be Muto." he said, with a tiny shrug, like it was nothing. "Grandpa already thinks you're his grandson anyway." he added, with a smile.

The discussion continued but Atem froze and felt his mouth dry up, the world still moving while he stood still, and all of it turned to noise.

Names were still being thrown across the room but somewhere between "Kamiya" and "Qadir," Rishid poked his head out of the kitchen again. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm short an egg. Could someone run to the corner and—"

Atem stood up a little too quickly. "I will go." he announced, in the solemn tone of someone volunteering for a dangerous quest to save the realm from evil and not going down the street for a minor kitchen staple.

"You...sure, Atem?" Marik never added the phantom u. He pronounced it like he'd been doing it all his life. "We can make someone else go."

"Or you could go, Marik." Ishizu remarked.

"Nah, I'm good."

Atem was already extricating himself from the living room. "No! It's fine. I need the fresh air. And it's nice to see more of...Luxor." Keep smiling. No problems.

Atem escaped before anyone could say another word, out into the evening air. The desert didn't hold heat, but it was the end of summer, so it was only pleasantly cool. He was mostly looking for a place to breathe. After a block or so of wandering while looking very much like he knew what he was doing, because nothing in this city was where it was supposed to be anymore, he settled for a quiet bench under a date palm where there weren't many passersby.

And he managed to breathe.

He had lungs now, to breathe in. His own lungs, without borrowing. He tried to calm his antsy heartbeat and it didn't work very well.

Breathe. You're alive now. It is a good thing, to be alive. You are alive and everyone is so happy to see you.

He just hadn't been expecting it, was the problem.

"You can tell us if it's too much, you know." Atem nearly jumped out of his skin when Yugi spoke, appeared from nowhere, nearly silhouetted against the sunset. "It's okay. You've only been back for a day."

"No!" Smile. "No. I'm fine." He almost said "partner," and then didn't. Of course Yugi noticed. Of course Yugi went after him. Yugi, always after him. Yugi, always behind him, always standing just out of view.

"I wish you wouldn't lie to my face." There wasn't any malice in it. Yugi said it plainly, merely politely stating a fact in that incisive way he did. When did that happen, that Yugi stood up so straight and spoke so plainly? He tilted his head and gave him a small, sweet mile, the one that seemed to say You are not as good at hiding your feelings as you think you are. You get away with it because I let you.

Atem tried not to let a muscle in his face move, or show the way the words pierced right through him. Sometimes talking to Yugi felt like getting caught.

"Can I sit down?"

"Of course." Atem moved over.

Yugi sat down and bumped against him, in a way that continued to be very warm and solid and he should be getting used to that why isn't he used to it and why does it surprise him every single time stay cool stay cool stay cool.

Evening was turning into dusk and porchlights and windows were flicking on, yellow spots across the neighborhood. He and Yugi sat in silence.

On instinct, he mentally reached out Yugi in the way he always did, linked hearts and minds, and instead smashed facefirst into a brick wall in his own head. There wasn't any way out of himself. No other heart, no second voice or presence to be detected. Just his own thoughts, bouncing back at him over and over again when he least wanted them. He was so used to their peculiar sort of cohabitation, Yugi's thoughts drifting at the edges of his own, Yugi's memories crystal clear, Yugi's joy and Yugi's grief and Yugi's rage, tangled together until he lost track of what belonged to who. That was all gone now, had stopped abruptly at the start of the ceremonial duel. Whatever was going on in Yugi's head now was fraught and unknown to him. He put a hand up to his chest, instinctively, but there was no hefty chain to grab, so instead it wrapped around the much smaller cartouche, pressing the hieroglyphs into his palm.

"Sorry." Yugi looked up at him, sheepish. "I keep thinking things at you. None of that works anymore, but for some reason I keep expecting you to answer. It's weird, right?"

"I was thinking the same thing."

Yugi laughed, short and bright. "We have to get better at talking to each other."

"We do." He nodded, watching the sunset. "But some things are harder to say out loud."

Yugi considered this quietly. "They are," he said, "but we have to try."

More silence, easier this time. It was starting to get cold. Wind ran through the grass.

There are a lot of things, in fact, that are very difficult to say out loud. Many of them can arise from a situation wherein roughly 24 hours ago you were going to die, or more accurately that you asked your friends to kill you, and they did, because that is what they thought you wanted, because that is what you insisted you wanted. That you were a weight around Yugi's neck who did not belong in this world and whose time had long passed but now the chain was broken and you suddenly had a whole future in front of you that no one had told you was an option before and you have no idea where it goes or what happens next.

Atem was usually very good at knowing how to say things. He knew how princes were supposed to speak, and then learned how kings are supposed to speak, and then how friendly ghosts and great duelists were supposed to speak. None of those scripts fit anymore, and he didn’t have one to fall back on. He had assumed he would be dead by now and therefore had not written one. Another empty space where something should be. Now he had, what, another 70 years? That sounded like a very long time. He didn’t know of a script that went on that long and no one seemed set to provide one.

There were no clouds in this part of the desert, almost never, since there was never any rain, so the sky was clear and endless. More empty spaces, this one too big and dark to look at without getting vertigo, too much to look at at once. It seemed like it could swallow someone whole.

"There are endless options." He blinked at the sky, not looking at Yugi. "And it's so important. You only get one. How am I supposed to know what to do with it?"

Yugi smiled. "It's just a name. You can call yourself anything you want. It's up to you." He added, "You get two, technically."

"The first one is already done."

"Then that should narrow it down, right?"

"Anything that I want." he repeated, but he said the words reluctantly, like describing a pain he didn't want to trouble everyone by complaining about. He closed his eyes, as if tired. "I was never expecting to have to make the choice."

"I guess it is a lot." he said, looking down. "Sorry if I upset you earlier. You don't have to be a Muto if you don't want to." He was pretending not to be a little sad. "It was just a suggestion. I know you have your own name, and family."

Atem scrambled to ensure that Yugi didn't feel like he'd done something wrong. "It's not that." He struggled, again, in the search for the right words, a feeling that continued to be alien in its frustration. "It's not about that."

Yugi looked at him, curious, waiting for an explanation.

He didn't know how to explain it. That he was trying not to impose. That was all he'd done, for years, was impose on something that wasn't his, and Yugi had quietly let him and Atem didn't want to anymore. That Yugi let him have everything, and it wasn't right. He did not want to be the reason Yugi didn't stand up straight, and he was trying to find the right way not to be.

There had to be a way, for him to live and for them to be different. There had to be a balance, a way for him to be here and for Yugi to stand on his own, a way for them to sit together and be alone in their own heads, a way for them to share so much and be such different people, a way for them to rely on each other but in the right way, in the way you're supposed to, and not the way where they become each other's crutch. There had to be a way, because he couldn't be here and alive if meant that Yugi was going to keep standing in his shadow, because if there wasn't a way he would have to leave, and he didn't want to leave. He didn't want to leave. He never wanted to leave. How do you say all of that, though? Where do you even start?

Well. Out loud, maybe.

Yugi stood up off the bench and stretched, watched the strangers walking down the street. "You don't have to go back with us, if you don't want to." he said, his back still to him.

"What do you mean?"

"We all just kind of assumed." Yugi wasn't looking at him, quiet and plaintive. "This is where you're from, right? If you decided you wanted to stay, we wouldn't be mad at you. You should do whatever feels right." Yugi Muto's brave face, a shallow fake-cheer Atem knew very well, how Yugi swallowed fear the same way he covered up spiked accessories.

"No!" He said it a little too fast, a little too loud. "I told you, I want to be with you forever." He felt very stupid, saying that so loud, like it was obvious, a cheesy promise from years ago.

Yugi looked back at him again and smiled, relieved.

"It's just that I—" he started, attempted, still no script, he hated not having a script, looking like an idiot fumbling through uncharted territory.

Yugi waited.

"...We can't be," he said, "the same person."

Yugi wasn't expecting this answer, and after a moment of surprise he seemed to think it was a little funny. "That's what you're worried about?"

"You don't need me to take your place." he insisted. "It is yours, and I won't take it from you. You have to stand on your own."

Yugi glanced at the ground and murmured to himself, thinking. "Not in my place, and not in front." He sighed. "Can't you stand next to me?"

"What?"

Yugi's smile, sheepish, uncertain, polite, but always with more determination in his eyes than most people expected. "I don't want you to be me. We're not doing that anymore." Yugi stood up straighter, resolute. "I'm Yugi Muto, and I'm no one else but me." he recited, a day-old quote and a tongue-in-cheek imitation, and not a bad impression either. Atem felt a deep twinge of embarrassment hearing his own words thrown back at him. "And you're Atem! The only Atem in the world." He reached out a hand. "But if it's okay, I was thinking we could be Yugi and Atem together."

Atem took it, hesitantly, and let Yugi pull him off the bench, with more strength than he expected from Yugi, but there it was. Solid and strong and mutually corporeal.

"I'm glad you didn't really have to go." Yugi said. "If you left because of me, I don't know what I would have…" He trailed off, frowning.

"…Let's go back." Atem said, gently. "Before they worry about us."

And Yugi and Atem set off for the night, together and apart.

"What about the eggs?"

"...I don't have any money."

"Atem! What were you going to do?"

"I would have figured something out, partner."

"ATEM!" There it was again, that phantom u. Jonouchi was standing up as tall as he could make himself, face bright beet red in the way it got when he knew that whatever he was about to say was horribly schmaltzy and embarrassing but was going through with it anyway. Oh, god.

Atem smiled. "Yes, Jonouchi?"

"We were talking while you were gone." he said, crossed his arms, standing brazenly in the middle of the Ishtars' living room. "And I just wanted to, well, that you should know, maybe, thaaaat..."

"Spit it out, idiot!"

"Shut UP, Honda!" Jonouchi hissed, and you could hear at least three people snicker.

"I wanted to say," he continued, "that as a token of our friendship, and our unbreakable bond as duelists, if you really needed a name," he said, "You could be a Jonouchi. If you wanted."

"I am honored." he said, with the utmost gravity. "I will keep that in mind."

And Jonouchi nodded at him, and he nodded at Jonouchi, and this was all either of them needed to say.

"Um," Bakura started, politely raising his hand as if asking the teacher to call on him, "I pulled up the site I use to name role-playing characters and searched by etymological root, and I got a bunch that have meanings I thought you would like."

"And we," Marik said, with an arm around Otogi, who tolerated it with an awkward smile, "told him which ones were awful and made him cross them off the list until only the good ones were left."

"Thank you." he said, and meant it. "Anyone else?" he asked, as a joke.

Anzu looked like she wanted to say something, but when his eyes fell on her she just blushed. "It's not urgent. You'll think of something."

"He'll figure it out." Honda said. "We already almost died getting the first one. I think he can handle the next name by himself."

"I will." he said. He again reached up reflexively to touch the puzzle, but there was nothing there, so instead he just let it rest on his chest, which was his and no one else's, even if that still felt a little wrong. He would get used to it. He could.

Ishizu, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, sensed an end to the conversation and promptly intervened. "You know, you can all eat dinner as soon as you're ready. Any time now."

Somewhere around two in the morning, a couple of hotel rooms sat empty because everyone was having too much fun to leave the house once it got too late and the adults did not have the heart to kick them out. Instead Honda and Jonouchi had fallen asleep in one chair, curled up in a position they would both be very embarrassed about when they woke up in it tomorrow morning, which they would not do until after Otogi took photos; Anzu and Atem were both using Yugi as a headrest, close on either side of the couch; Otogi held a throw pillow and snored. The only ones left standing, Marik and Bakura, were still playing cards in the half-light until eventually ever so softly Marik asked, "So is he really just...gone?" to which Bakura smiled vacantly, opaquely, and did not answer except to put his deck back together, mid-game, and say he was going to bed.

Eventually the sun rose over the Nile, but there was no palace and no pharaoh for it to shine on, because there hadn't been a king of this country since 1952. Instead it fell through the windows of an ordinary house and on a very ordinary boy in a pink t-shirt, who wasn't a king of anything but just another exhausted teenager in a pile, drooling a little and holding tight to another ordinary teenager who bore a faint resemblance to him. When he woke up he would realize that he had no idea what he was going to do that day, and that was scary, but probably fine; and very soon he would go home and meet grandpa, properly as himself, and not realize until a few days in that he had been saying "home" and "grandpa" automatically and no one had tried to correct him, not once.

That would be in a few days, though. Today they would visit tourist traps, and buy a shirt that fit him better, and hand Marik a stack of papers, to which he would chew on the end of his pen and nod before returning less than an hour later with an ID and a birth certificate, and a copy of the left leg of Exodia as a freebie.

M U T O , A T E M 7 / 2 7 / 1980 KAME GAME 4-1-8, DISTRICT K.C., DOMINO-CHOU

#alt title: The Only Atem in The World #if you remember the text post from way back i based this one on u get a gold star #ygo #hashtag content

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o-craven-canto · 6 months

Text

Ea, Our Second Chance (16)

16. Ean heraldry

(Index)

(< 15. Dissection of trepangfish)

(original page)

« ... He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. » – Cassius, in William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II

« As the Romans knew well when they spoke of virtus, or the troubadours of valor, the worth of the sovereign is the same as his strength. Weak leaders terrorize their subjects, because they fear them; strong leaders want their people to walk with straight backs and eyes held high. Weak leaders keep their subjects quiet, because they have many mistakes to hide; strong leaders do not fear the truth. Weak leaders make their subjects work with the cane and the lash; strong leaders are served out of love. » – emperor Charles Saïd, A House Built on Sand

« There once was a fellow named Chuck / who was poor, ugly, and [redacted]-out-of-luck / He couldn't get laid / so he became king instead / just so he could find someone to [redacted] » – seditious rhyme of probable Pandavan origin, registered by the municipal police of Carcassonne, circa 310 AL

« One of Caesar Saïd's most ambitious accomplishments was the creation of a whole iconography from the ground up. Immediately after the Peacemaking Wars, he faced the need to strike a careful balance between the continuity of tradition with the culture of Earth, and the novelty of an empire of which he could be credited as true founder and maker... He would eventually resolve in favor of using organisms from this world, as popular choices from Earth's cultures such as eagles, lions, and bears meant little to the vast majority of his new subjects... Although it's interesting to notice that most of Saïd's heraldic beasts are in fact natives of Inanna, closer in location to the bureaucratic dreariness of Landing Point than to the fable spires of Montsalvat, but in the position of making the deepest impression upon the first generations of settlers.

... The springbear is an obvious symbol of overwhelming power. Like Hobbes' Leviathan, it can crush anything under its weight... As noted in Belvedere's recent work, it also represents an explicitely masculine incarnation of strength... Two charging springbears form visually the supporting columns of Saïd's personal coat-of-arms, strength channeled for the benefit of the Kingdom. The fact that no species of springbear is native to the Ninkasi Land does not lessen its significance anymore than the local lack of lions or, for that matter, unicorns lessened that of the British coat-of-arms on Earth.

... The colossal anzu-bird, which Saïd made a point of hunting personally in his harpoon-glider during his visit to Makka al-Jadida, justifies its own place in any heraldic system created on this planet... Named after the Mesopotamian harbinger of thunderstorms, the anzu combines extraordinary power and lightness, the qualities of an empire that must be at once immovable and dynamic; although at the same time its ungainly locomotion makes it extremely vulnerable on the ground... Its eye, in particular, caught the attention of poets and semiurges... ceaselessly staring at the blinding light of Utu, and nothing else, as the anzu fears no attack from above... The anzu-eye, as depicted for example on the chapels of Carcassonne and the ancestral shrines of Shangdu, is not merely a symbol of looking fearlessly into the sublime, but one that is purely an end in itself, with no need of practical justifications... In this sense it is contrasted with the anzu's olfactory flaps, distended in flight to detect food on the ground... In fact, the anzu is mainly a scavenger which, like Earth's vultures, uses its gliding capacity to cross the desert in search of carcasses, although it has been known to kill and eat living animals. The satyrical song "La Bravoure de l'Anzû", for broadcasting which Cyrus Yoshida was sentenced to sixty canestrikes in 266 AL, exaggerates its "cowardly" qualities, thus inverting its whole symbolic meaning...

... The honeybee was used by Napoleon and the early Mormons as symbol of industriousness and communal living (cf. the beehive structure of the townhall in New Zion)... In Ninkasi, its place is taken by the nest-building kirikits, who routinely risk their lives to gather food for their colony and defend it from predators. With their characteristic three hands and crude tool use, kirikits also add a connotation of intelligence that is lacking in bees... A colony of kirikits, almost two hundred members strong, is kept in the courtyard of the Imperial College in Mediolanum, making its nest on a grove of walnuts. The kirikit figures prominently on the College's paperwork...

... The use of the flute tree as symbol of pride and sturdiness is subtler, as it's not the whole plant, but rather the texture of its trunk that is used in heraldics... The peculiar "flute-bark" pattern (circles or ovals arranged in rosettes) is found on the ducal banners of Palmyra, the livery of land-based military officers, the porphyry paneling of the Ara Patrum... The apparent breaches or injuries in the trunk of flute trees are, of course, carefully crafted by nature to strengthen the trees, channeling the wind that would otherwise uproot them, and creating the lugubrious wail that resounds in the woods around Lake Svarog. This is exactly the trick employed by the architects of Palmyra for its high-rise towers, and by Sporean engineers for their arcologies, and serves as an excellent icon of resistance in the face of adversity.

... Saïd never quite justified his choice of the blue nova (Ouranthus cyaneus) as the Kingdom's official "flower"... It may have been a simple matter of personal preference. There are anecdotes about a young Saïd taking shelter in a grove of blue novae after being wounded in the Battle of the Sherida River... Richter has hypothesized a connection with the "Blaue Blume" of ancient German Romanticism, a symbol of longing and striving for the infinite, a fitting illustration of the motto Aut Caesar Aut Nihil... Less convincingly, Hrabe argues that the nine-fold symmetry of the plant-top might refer to the nine dukedoms of the Kingdom... »

– Theophilus Singh, Historical Compendium of the Celestial Kingdom, volume I, chapter IX, 276 AL

« I had a scaffold built just outside of Water's Edge [Byzantium], near where the river Sherida meets the waves of Rahab. The beauties of Ninkasi Land had fueled only corruption and debauchery for far too long an age [...] Three hundred prisoners, the worst criminals I could find in the long years of war, were brought there on open cars. Pirates, druglords, highwaymen, mobsters, terrorists, skilled in the crafts of murder, robbery, rape, and torture; those whose crimes were beyond pardon, those who could not be allowed to live in My Kingdom nor loosed upon other nations.

I had a theatre prepared around the scaffold. Nothing more than a few hundred folding chairs and fundamental facilities for the businessmen, the townheads, the landlords, and the scholars of Ninkasi. [...] Twenty by twenty the criminals went to the scaffold. My own black-gloved hand triggered the mechanism; they fell through the floor; the rope wrung their necks; and they died. Many of My men, who had suffered all manners of cruelties and indignities by their hand, regretted only that they would go so quickly to their final and greater Judge.

Other twenty came after, and then twenty more, until their whole number of three hundred was consumed. Some found some dignity in their final hour; some, who had never wept for another, wept for themselves; and some fell cursing God and Man, perjurying their innocence, and offering other, better lives in their stead. [...] Their bodies were buried on the shore under a great black stone, where good people still fear to tread. [...]

When the clocktower of Water's Edge struck one, I bade the witnesses rise. They would swear an oath of fealty to Me, and serve as My ministers and vassals, or simply My subjects; or they would leave the borders of the Kingdom forever, and forfeit any property they could not carry out within 48 hours. [...] A Joseon-born businessman, who had enjoyed much profit from the sale of unwilling services, said that I could not consider free an oath taken on pain of losing all of one's life's work. «Vae victis,» I responded; «It is only by My mercy that you are given this choice».

Four fifths of the present took the oath. The Europeans genuflected, the Americans saluted, the Chinese kowtowed, the Japanese bowed. All these gestures have the same meaning, and I accepted them equally. The rest was escorted to their homes to prepare their departure to our new borders. [...] My men, the children of Ninkasi, raised their guns, and thrice they cried as one: «Vive l'Empereur! Vive César Saïd!» A salvo of artillery made the distant hills tremble. The drone fleet traced My coat-of-arms in the skies.

Nine months later, the ground where Cutter's Bend once stood had been cleared of all contamination; and upon the basement of its ruins Montsalvat now glittered with marble and silver. There I kissed the hand of His Holiness Neophytus III; and there, after twenty-seven years of blood, sweat, and tears, the Titanium Crown finally rested on My brow. »

– Emperor Charles Saïd, quoted in Theophilus Singh, Historical Compendium of the Celestial Kingdom, volume III, chapter XIV, 279 AL

#speculative biology #speculative culture #scifi #worldbuilding #alien world #future history #my work #ea our second chance

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twilightmalachite · 7 months

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Raison d’être - Epilogue 1

Author: Akira

Characters: Shu, Mika

Translator: Mika Enstars

"Yes. My family who viewed the performance are satisfied as well. It is possible that our grandfather had someone he loved while he was in Paris, but…"

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Spring

Location: Apartment in France

Time has since passed since Raison d’être’s performance.

At the house Shu is boarding at in Paris…

Shu: —Hah?

As I’ve said, Raison d’être was a one-time, immensely personal opera, commissioned for a Funeral Contest.

It is for private use only and there are no plans to make it public.

Non! Nothing will change no matter what you say!

Telling us that there are rumors being spread around and that there is growing demand amongst Valkyrie fans for a release changes nothing!

While it is a beautiful performance we have created, it is an opera about internal shame within the family…

I have no intentions to publicize it and make a laughingstock out of my grandfather.

That is that. Concern yourself over how to conduct yourself as a new member of society, over things such as this.

I am always open to cooperating with you, as long as it is not about a release of Raison d’être—Little lady.

Yes. Take care of your health in your new environment.

Yes, yes… Now then, farewell.

…Goodness gracious. Does that little lady think she is my mother or something? Going out of her way to make an international call for something that doesn’t matter…

Mika: What’d Anzu-san need?

Shu: It appears that Raison d’être has caught the interest of philistines, and she suggested that we make adjustments to it to suit the world’s tastes for a public release.

Preposterous, isn’t it? It being a one-time performance is precisely what gave it merit.

If our more discerning fans think seriously in their interpretation, they may arrive at the “truth” that we have worked so hard to hide.

And as such, I am resolute in my decision to keep Raison d’être private.

Mika: Mhm. By winnin’ the Funeral Contest, ya were able to receive yer Grandfather’s inheritance.

We don’t need t’make any more profit. Unusual fer a Valkyrie performance.

Shu: Yes. My family who viewed the performance are satisfied as well. It is possible that our grandfather had someone he loved while he was in Paris, but…

That person was a man.

And there is no method possible for two men to have a child with each other, so there is no way this person named Raffaello, who claimed to be the son from an affair, could exist.

Even if that young dollmaker did have a son, there would be no blood relation to Grandfather. We can safely conclude he would have no right to his inheritance.

And thus, my family is satisfied and relieved, bringing this series of tumultuous events to an end.

The fact that Raffaello’s true identity was Grandfather was not made public. They believe he was simply just a fraud.

Mika: Well, looks like the speculation we came to prior to our conception of Raison d’être has become the “truth”!

Well, it was the safest thing t’do.

Grandfather never had an affair.

Maybe he had a couple “odd romances” with his youthful indiscretion, but there’s no pressin’ inheritance issues involved.

The matter’s settled, an’ everyone’s happy.

But… I was all hurried t’prepare for Raison d’etre that my head was in a jumble. What was its true meanin’ in the end?

Shu: You have forgotten already? Secure head shut with bolts so your brains do not fall out. I’m always telling you this.

Mika: Nnah~, then that’d make me Frakensteins’ Monster?

Shu: Fufu. I’m glad to see that even my sarcasm is met with an immediate and appropriate response.

Anyhow. While I submitted the proposal for Raison d’être to my grandfather, I confronted him directly and received the following “truth”.

I am honored to say, my grandfather and I truly were alike.

My grandfather too had so-called imaginary friends since he was a child.

This imaginary friend, created to be a beautiful girl, was named “MADEMOISELLE” by my grandfather.

What made her a beautiful girl? Was it a distortment of my grandfather’s youthful sexual desire, or was it a feminine side inside of him?—

I interpret it to be the latter, although he himself was quite vague about it.

But, of course, my grandfather was the legitimate son to a strict and old family.

As the eldest son to succeed the Itsuki family name, if there were a feminine side to him—He could never admit to it, at least not publicly.

That’s how it was back then.

And so, my grandfather repressed this femininity inside him. However, it then expressed itself as coming to be the fictional girl, “MADEMOISELLE”.

That is how I’ve interpreted it.

[ ☆ ]

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#raison d’être #raison d'etre #event #translation #shu itsuki #mika kagehira

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rui-drawsbox · 1 year

Note

Hello again, it’s me: the menace of your inbox 😎✨🤠✨🐊✨

for curtesies sake I’ll add a read more after I write one sentence of explanation.

I’m too busy to write a fic rn but the brain worms are so intense for Magical Girl Arashi that I will instead write an outline.

I’ll probably try to write em in an episodic fashion cuz like, magical girl anime :D:D✨✨✨

Cool so episode one should serve about three functions.

show how arashi gets her powers

establish the setting and foreshadow future characters

Get the view acquainted with the tone

so here’s how I’d go about it 🥰

Scene one:

Arashi should be in class

its a normal day

a new kid joins the class, it’s Mika

she notes that there’s something odd about him but like, in a comedic way that the audience won’t initially pick up on

he shouldn’t notice her at this point, she’s still a normal girl (still a queen, slay Fr I love her)

However he doesn’t make any friends for most of class and his introduction sounded like a robotic script, also he’s sitting alone, poor murderous baby 😭

anyways she, being the queen that she is, decides to talk to him after class and she gets a whole conversation with him

He doesn’t show it very well but he is happy to have a friend and offers her a bear charm instead of actually confirming that they’re friends (he’s real standoffish at this point so think how he acted to Anzu at first in the first game but like, a bit more tame) (cuz he ain’t allowed to really have friends, he’s just supposed to keep up appearances while Shu finds what he’s after)

School goes on, Arashi has lunch with Ritsu and Leo, we get a passing convo about them going to karaoke later, Leo laments that Izumi won’t go with them and the other two just kind of give him a sad look ig. Cuz he hasn’t gone with them in a really long time cuz he’s “busy” and “not interested in childish things right now” “too much work with ballet” (he’s lying💀✨. We’ll get to that later, I am having numerous thoughts)

School goes on once again and the day ends. Arashi walks home with her friends and they all go their separate ways.

while she is walking alone she hears this awful screeching sound, like a cat that’s super upset. So she, as any good cat mom would, follows it.

she finds a little kitty that’s being chased by these creepy looking Victorian dolls. They have golden strings attached to their feet that seem to trail on the ground as they walk. She doesn’t take much note of them tho. She’s too busy grabbing that cat and getting the hell out of there.

so she takes the cat back to her house and checks the poor baby for injuries. Thankfully the kitty is fine. However, things get a bit funky. (Magic cat.)

The cat puts a paw on her chest (like between her collar bones) and a little jewel mark appears there. Arashi is obviously very confused and concerned but the cat just purrs and meows at her.

She starts questioning the cat but like, ma’am despite the magic, that cat don’t talk. That cat meows, screams, and imitates barking noises to scare other cats. Fucking creature tbh. I love this cat.

also arashi is in her room on her bed btw, and there should be big windows by her bed, also she is on the ground floor. This is important.

so after a few minutes of questioning and getting meows for yes and shaken heads for no, the cat starts yowling and screaming and growling. So arashi is obviously very concerned.

There’s a thump on her window, the cat gets even louder.

she looks out and sees a… doll? Maybe a mannequin? It certainly looks large enough to be a mannequin. Huh, it has more of those gold strings. It’s beating on her window. Huh, wait, why is the window sliding open, FUCK!

Arashi grabs the cat and bolts while this mannequin chases her through the house. She does the smart thing and tries to call the police, there’s no response cuz the lines been cut and the service on her cell phone is out.

She tries to leave the house but each exit is being stalked by a different mannequin. So she runs to the bathroom to lock the door and hide.

(She tried to snap a photo of one of the mannequins btw, just in case she needed proof but when she looks at it later the photo will be obscured and unrecognizable so sucks to suck lmao 💀)

The cat gestures to the gem mark on her chest and tries to communicate with her to touch the mark. She does as the cat communicates and then she transforms. She gazes into the vast universe (the background from your art of her in her super magical girl form) and she sees a sword, a really pretty, majestic sword. She grasps the handle and her transformation starts.

anyways she doesn’t kickass yet, I’m sorry girlboss enjoyers, she ain’t a fighter yet, but she’s real strong and has the urge to kill to defend this kitty. So she wins, but just barely.

She also manages to avoid destroying her house in the process. So good for her. If the house was beaten up when her parents got home they would’ve had a fit.

Anyways the episode ends with her relooking all the doors and windows to her house and wondering what she got herself into with this cat. But the cat is cute so she doesn’t care. Also yes it is her cat from enstars. I love her cat so much.

That’s what I have for a possible episode one for this. I’ve got more ideas but I don’t have time rn. I’ll be back. My Izumi ideas are going crazy rn tbh. I’m gonna have a lot of fun implementing him lmao.

Also hi Rui, I hope you’re having a good day/night :D:D✨✨

my dude is your brain powered by the fukin sun or you are just a genius

anyways i can't possibly add anything to your outline. It's perfect. It was so good that even made me want to animate it and i went to search tutorials to the page i was going to use for my studies this year, and found out it was a scam HAHA

Local high school girl adopts transferred silly man

also what do you think about Arashi, Leo and Ritsu (and sometimes Izumi?) doing dance covers every now and then, i think it would be a good excuse for when she has to outrun the dolls(?)

fuck the twelve principles of animation, all my homies don't know what they're doing

ngl it would be a pretty horrific scenario to be in, lucky she😊!

also have you considered Arashi not knowing how the fuck a sword is used outside movies (and bc those dolls certanly look hard to break lol) and in the dispair uses it like a mf hammer? especially bc it's a real technique and it looks funny

anyways, stars from stock wallpaper, my beloveds

dont tell i dont know how to draw weapons i already know jsfhdkas

And Arashi just 'brushing' all that happend bc the cat is cute is the most magical-shoujo-protagonist thing that she could do lol

anyways im actually more motivated to animate than ever! my friend you just did the perfect first chapter for a series like that ajfads

good night my fellow AU enjoyer! Rui out! *explodes*

#i can already smell the izumi preference KJAHFDAS #not that I'm complaining #I've been taking a liking to him lately haha #(omg magical girl arashi)#rui draw smth #arashi narukami #mika kagehira #leo tsukinaga #ritsu sakuma #shu itsuki #enstars #ensemble stars #ensemble stars fanart #enstars magical knights au

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craftycheetah · 1 year

Text

Taught to Love Again 4

I just realized i never posted this or the chap after!! Life grabbed me by the throat lol.

Somehow by sheer luck, Hitoshi convinced Shouta to take the trip. After leaving the cats with a reputable pet daycare, the train tickets are bought, and you’re off in a cozy cabin Hitoshi was more than kind enough to use his pro hero status to get.

“Wat dat?” Kokoro points at a snow-covered mountain through the window.

“That’s Mount Ushiro. When we get to Hyogo, we’re gonna get to see it up close,” you grin.

“Woah!”

“We’re gonna be staying there too. If you’re lucky you might see a little bunny.”

“For real life?! I wanna see bunny!”

“Me too!” Nico says from the seat on the opposite aisle.

The train stops at the station, prompting you to get your things and get off.

“Ooh, this is nice,” Hitoshi comments at the white landscape.

“Just wait until you get to the resort.”

“It’s freezing,” Shouta grumbles into his black scarf, pulling his yellow parka hood over his head. “Can we hurry?”

“There should be a car waiting for us. Let’s go.”

“Finally, ah don’t wanna get any colda than ah already am!” Sika huffs.

The ball Amelie is holding falls out of her hands and rolls under a black van parked by the curb. “Ball!”

“Ami don’t run into the street,” Sika scolds and grabs her hand. “John?”

John pushes the side of the car onto two of its wheels and kicks the ball out before dropping the car. “Here you go, sweetie.”

The owner of the car steps out, dazed. “What the fuck?!” She yells in Kansai. “Ya can’t just fucking lift peoples cars, the fuck is wrong with ya?!”

“Ahm sorry, mah neice’s ball rolled under yer car,” you apologise.

“Holy shit, yer MindJack, ahm supposed to pick ya up, sorry.” She bows.

“You had yer husband lift up the fuckin’ car of our driver?”

“You wanted me to leave mah baby’s ball in tha street like that? Hell no! How was ah supposed ta know?”

You roll your eyes and wheel your suitcase forward. “She’s taking us to the resort,” you tell the rest of your group.

The rest of them nod and start placing their things in the back of the van, and John and Shouta open the door helping Eri and the kids get into the van.

Once the kids are all strapped in, you sit in the second row with Hitoshi and Koko as you hear Shouta chuckle as Ami babbles and squeals, trying to play with him.

He lets her hold his hand the whole drive.

“Ma said to come over when we settle in,” Sika says as she types on her phone. “She’s making dinner.”

“Ooh, I hope it’s hot pot,” you smile.

“Mama, when we gets to the moontan, we see bunny?”

“Maybe, Koko. They’re white like the snow so they’re very hard to see, but we might see a deer.”

“Ooh!”

Once you arrive at the resort and get your rooms in order, you take the short bus ride to your childhood home.

“This is a lovely home,” Hizashi comments.

“Thank you,” you smile and ring the doorbell. A dog barks inside, and you hear footsteps approaching the door.

‘Down Anzu.’

Hina opens the door and smiles when she sees you. “Mah babies! Come in, come in!”

She steps aside, letting the ten of you in to take off your coats. The old Shiba Inu wags his tail happily, licking your hands and sniffing the kids' faces. Cocoa Puff yips happily and sniffs Anzu before running into the house.

“Welcome!” Hina smiles, hugging Hizashi and Shouta before giving an equally tight hug to Eri. “You must be Hitoshi’s family, it’s so nice to meet you,” Hina grins.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Eri smiles.

“Hai Mama mama!” Koko waves as he holds onto Hitoshi’s hand.

“Hi Koko,” Hina giggles as he waddles over for a hug. “Hi Hitoshi.”

He lets her hug him. “Hi Mrs. L/n.”

Hina turns towards the kitchen door. “Ahimitsu, the girls are here!”

A tall man with salt and pepper hair walks in, hands behind his back as he undoes his apron. “Hi girls,” Ahimitsu smiles.

You and Sika rush over and hug him. “Hi Dad,” Sika smiles while you just squeeze him tighter.

“Hi Sika. Hi Y/n.”

“Granpa!” Nico squeals as you pull away, running over to get his hug.

Ahimitsu bends down and picks up Nico, kissing his cheek and smiling. “Is that Nico?! Oh you’ve gotten so big! You’re getting too heavy for grandpa.”

If Hitoshi thought you looked just like your mom, he was wrong because you and your dad could be the same person.

“Gapa!” Amelie squeals waddling up to Ahimitsu, and hugs his lower thigh as he puts down Nico.

You call Koko over. “Koko, this is my dad.”

Kokoro walks up to you and looks up at Ahmitsu. “This Mama Daddy?”

You nod as he waves shyly.

“And this is my boyfriend, Shinsou and his family.”

“You remember, the heroes,” Hina says.

“I remember, ahm not an idiot.”

“Well sometimes ya forget. Come on Sika, let’s finish up dinner.”

“Why do ah gotta cook? Ain’t we guests?”

“Get in the damn kitchen,” Hina glares.

“I’ll help,” John offers.

Hitoshi nervously shakes Ahimitsu’s hand. “Nice to meet you sir.”

“You too, been waiting to meet you since Hina mentioned my baby started dating.”

“Oh God…” you groan. “Dad.”

“I’m just saying! Nice to meet you all, come on into the living room.”

You lead the rest of them into the living room as Hitoshi sits beside your Dad on the couch.

“I’m gonna go help my mom,” you announce and disappear into the kitchen.

“So, you’re number fifteen in the hero rankings, that's quite an accomplishment.”

“Thank you sir,” Hitoshi says proudly before sitting on the couch next to Shouta. “If don’t mind me asking, what do you do?”

“Well,” he starts. “I was one of the top realtors in Hyogo for fifteen years straight until I got old and slowed down.”

“You're not slowing down, Mr. L/n. You just need an assistant. I used to think the same thing juggling pro hero work, being a radio host, and teacher,” Hizashi chuckles.

“Don't forget musician babe,” Shouta adds.

“I was hoping my girls would take after me but what happened? They left for the big city and never see their old man anymore,” he says loud enough for both you and Sika to hear.

“Ah went up to college, Papa and y'know I had to go!” you shout back.

Ahimitsu chuckles at your response before picking up Ami as she waddles up to him, seating her on his lap. “So any plans for little ones, Shinsou?”

Hitoshi ignores the smug look on Eri’s face as she grins.

“Well we’ve talked about it a couple of times so it’s a huge maybe but we’d have to get married first.”

“And when is that happening?”

“Uhh, sometime in the next five years hopefully. Maybe.”

“Can I be the flower girl?” Eri giggles.

“You’re too old,” Hizashi chuckles and messes up her bun.

“Ami can do it, can’t you?” Ahimitsu asks the toddler in his lap.

“Yah,” she agrees, not really sure what she’s agreeing to.

Hina walks in with a grey tray carrying a pitcher of lemonade and glasses. “Ya better not be bugging the poor boy, Mitsu.”

“Ahm not!”

Kokoro runs up to Hitoshi. “Daddy, me and Nico pway wif doggies outside?”

“Oh, you found Anzu. Anzu’s a sweetie, he won’t harm anyone. You can go play with him in the backyard,” Hina says. “I’ll take you.”

Koko nods and follows after her, holding her hand.

“Cocoa Puff, lessgo,” Nico calls the pup to follow him outside.

“So, lemonade anyone?” Mitsu asks.

“I’ll have one,” Shouta responds.

An hour later, the huge dinner spread was ready. You and Sika walk in and put the pot, ingredients, and bowls on the living room kotatsu while Hina comes in with the boys and Anzu.

“Your hair’s all wet, Koko,” you tut and adjust his headband.

“I falls down,” he giggles.

“Falls down a lot,” Nico giggles. “I falls too though. We make angels too.”

“That explains the wet hair,” Sika sighs. “You can’t be putting your head on the ground, Nico. Your hair gets dirty easily.”

“Sowwy.” He doesn’t sound sorry.

“We play wif doggies!” Koko tells you and sits between you and Hitoshi, tucking his legs under the kotatsu.

“Sounds like you had a lot of fun, bud,” Hitoshi says.

“Doggies nice and lub snow!”

“He was my dog when I was a teenager,” you tell Kokoro.

Anzu sighs tiredly and plops next to the fireplace.

“You wore him out,” Ahimitsu chuckles.

“Damn dog doesn’t wanna die,” Sika mumbles.

“Let ‘im live his life. He’s a good boy.” Hina laughs and picks up a slice of raw beef to give Anzu. “Good boy.”

Anzu’s tail wags at the praise before he lays down again on his back, warming his belly.

Amelie fusses until she gets to sit on Shoutas lap, patting the table and clapping happily.

“We should get another one,” Hizashi coos.

“No,” Shouts deadpans. “No more.”

“Okay, relax.”

Dinner is nice. The hotpot you put together is yummier than anything that Hitoshi’s eaten in a while.

After cleaning up, you all stay under the kotatsu for hot cocoa and satsumas while the kids play with Anzu and Cocoa Puff by the fireplace.

“I’m dying of cuteness, look what Mrs. Bakugou posted on Dyna__Bites,” Sika coos and shows you the video of what looks like Hiro in a puffy red and black red riot baby jacket.

‘Popsicle, do you like the snow?’ Iwa’s voice asks off camera.

Hiro whines as he stands stiffly while Popcorn and Pop tart play in the background with their dog.

‘Can you say snow?’ Katsuki asks him.

Hiro whines louder in response.

“Oh no,” you giggle.

‘Snow?’ Katsuki repeats and Hiro falls onto his back. ‘Oh shit!’

Hiro starts wailing and flailing his tiny arms before Iwa rushes into frame to help him up. ‘Guess that’s a no on the snow.’

You and Sika laugh at the video. “Poor kid.”

“But that was so cute,” you smile, rewatching it fondly.

You idly eat your orange, occasionally sputtering when you bite into the rind.

You feel a small weight on your back, looking over and not seeing Ami with the boys so you assume it’s her.

“Hi Ami,” you giggle.

“Ahtie, hai,” she squeals and comes round to hug you. “Wa do?”

“Just relaxing with your mama.”

“I do too! Hai mama,” she giggles.

“Hi baby,” Sika smiles and pushes her cup away from Ami trying to get it. “No, this is mommy’s drink.”

You look over at Hitoshi and giggle when Ami pats you eagerly and giggles when you kiss her cheek.

“Shinsou, would you like some Baileys in your cocoa?” Ahimitsu asks as he opens up the bottle.

“Oh, no thanks.”

“I’ll take it,” John says and holds his half empty cup out.

“Just say when.”

“Just fill it up, I’m really tired. It was a nightmare trying to get my christmas break, I had to put it in four months in advance.”

“Wow. Four months in advance just to put in time for a week off. Poor guy.”

Hitoshi smiles fondly as you tickle Ami. ‘She’s so good with kids.’

A hand on his shoulder snaps Hitoshi out of his trance.

“Hitoshi,” Shouta calls out softly before tilting his head towards the kitchen entryway.

Pulling his legs from under the kotatsu, Hitoshi follows Shouta out of the room.

“Yeah, Dad?”

“I see the way you’ve been looking at Y/n. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just giving you some advice. Don’t rush into this, okay. Take it slow so that nobody gets hurt. Koko doesn't deserve to lose a mom twice in his life.”

“I won’t. But thanks for the advice, Dad.”

After Cocoa, it’s time to go back to the resort.

“We should rent a car,” you grumble and squeeze in next to Sika in Hina’s station wagon.

“I’ll do it,” John says and helps Nico into Ahimitsu’s jeep.

“Make sure it’s big enough for everyone,” Sika tells him and shuts the door.

“Just us girls now,” Hina grins and starts the car.

“I hope Dad doesn’t drive them off a cliff.”

“He won’t…hopefully.”

“Um, Miss Y/n?”

“Yeah Eri?”

“My dads and ‘toshi…they’ll be okay right?”

“Oh they’ll be fine, my dad’s a great driver,” you reassure her and look at Sika who’s grimacing. “Don’t worry.”

“She says like she don’ remember what happened with the deer an’ tha phone pole,” Hina scoffs in Kansai.

“What did she say?”

“The guys will be fine,” you smile, ignoring the eyeroll from your mom and sister.

You get to the resort just after the guys who’re a little shaken up.

“Dad, Papa, are you okay?” Eri asks as she steps out of the car noticing their flushed faces.

Hizashi holds onto Shouta, trying not to vomit, nodding softly.

“We had a bumpy ride,” Shouta explains.

John throws up on the sidewalk. “I drank too much.”

“Oh, ew,” Sika cringes. “I mean, poor baby.”

“My tummy hurt,” Nico whines.

“Let’s get you both inside.” She ushers then into the resort.

Ami reaches for Eri as you hold her. “Ahwee!”

The mono-horned girl turns around. “Hmm? Aww, are you trying to say my name?”

“Ahwee!” she giggles.

“Can I hold her?”

You nod and coo when Amelie pats her nose and giggles.

“Booo!”

Eri smiles and boops her back. “Boop!” she giggles.

Kokoro hugs your legs, yawning. “Sweepy.”

“Your dad is an awful driver, babe,” Hitoshi chuckles.

“I know, let’s go inside before we catch a cold. Bye Mom and Dad.” You wave at your parents.

You watch them climb back into the cars and start driving down the road before picking up Koko and walking inside up to the apartment you’re staying in.

You get the couch pull out bed ready with the extra sheets while Hitoshi gives Koko a nice warm bath and gets him dressed for bed.

After using one of the open bathrooms to shower and change, you step out just as you see Hitoshi straighten up from his suitcase, wearing nothing but his black sweats.

You yawn softly and climb into bed with him. “Hey,” you smile tiredly.

Hitoshi kisses your forehead as you rest your head on his chest. “Hi,” he hums. “You okay?”

“I’m tired. Sleepy.”

“Your dad grilled me so much I think I need a week to recover.”

“What’d he say?”

“Future plans and stuff.”

You hum tiredly. “He likes you.”

“You think so?”

“Mhm, a lot…” you trail off and fall asleep.

“I’m glad he does. I was ho–babe?”

Hitoshi smiles softly, trying not to laugh when he sees you fast asleep on his chest.

“Sweet dreams.”

The next morning, you all drag yourselves out of the rooms into the open kitchen for breakfast.

“What the fuck is that?” Sika drawls when she sees Shouta’s sleeping bag.

“My sleeping bag,” Shouta says like it’s the most obvious thing ever.

“…it’s eight A.M…”

“Okay?”

‘Weirdo…he’s still hot though,’ Sika thinks before going to the fridge to get eggs.

Nico and Amelie whine in protest as John carries them in by their feet, not wanting to get out of bed.

“Daddy no! Wanna sweep!” Nico whines.

“No Dada!” Amelie shouts.

“Hey, you two can’t sleep all day,” he scolds and puts them on the dining room chairs.

Nico tries to make a run for it but quickly gets caught by John.

“Sit down.”

“Hmph,” Nico huffs and sits, crossing his arms.

“The joys of parenting,” Hizashi sighs.

“Mischievous little brats,” Shouta chuckles. “There was this one time I was training with Hitoshi and teaching him to use his capture weapon and he ended up wrapping himself in a cocoon.”

“What’re we talking about?” Hitoshi yawns as he walks in wearing a pale gray tank top with last night’s sweats.

“Nothing,” Sika snickers. “Good morning.”

Hitoshi grunts in acknowledgment before looking for the coffee pot to fill with water, noticing the fancy coffee maker with a drawer labelled coffee pods underneath. “Ooh, fancy coffee. Dad, look.”

“You had me at coffee.”

“Hai,” Koko greets everyone and goes to sit with Nico and Ami.

“Ma’ll meet us at the ski lodge,” you tell everyone and flick the kettle on to make tea. “Why am I so tired still?”

“Did you stay up late?” Sika asks.

“No?”

“When was the last time you got to relax?”

“Uhh before I started working at Kurume. Keeping twenty kids with crazy quirks in check is ridiculous.”

“Oh, Y/n, no,” Sika sighs. “You need to relax this week.”

“I’ll try.”

“If you want stress-free hang out with Eri for a bit. She’s pretty chill,” Hitoshi suggests and rests his chin on top of your head.

Eri smiles at you.

You smile back. “That would be nice.”

After breakfast, you put on a new outfit you’ve been meaning to wear for a while.

“Okay, do you hate it?” You ask Hitoshi. “Say no or I'll cry.”

Hitoshi looks up from his phone as he sits on the edge of the bed and his eyes widen. “Wow…”

“I look horrible, don’t I,” you groan.

“Y/n, c’mere,” he sighs as you walk over. He pulls you closer so you stand between his legs. “You’re beautiful. This outfit is adorable and the colours suit you. Makes your ass look nice too.”

“Hitoshi!” you gasp when he playfully squeezes your ass and grins at you. “I got Koko a matching jacket too but what if he hates it.”

“If it’s from you, he’ll love it.”

Kokoro runs in, flopping on the bed. “Hai!”

“Woah, toddler attack!” Hitoshi chuckles as Koko flops next to him.

“Hai Daddy! Hai Mama!” he giggles. “What you do? Ooh, Mama pebby!”

“Thank you, Koko,” you smile and walk up to your suitcase on the floor. “I have something for you.”

“Me?”

“Yup.” You take out the mini version of your jacket. “It’s a jacket like mine.”

“Wowee!” He gasps. “I lub it!”

Hitoshi helps him out of his regular purple jacket so you can put him into your olive green one.

“Ooh, you look so handsome,” you giggle and zip it up.

“Now I has Mama and Daddy jaket! I go show ganpa?”

“Yeah, go show him.”

He holds your hand. “We go show ganpa.”

“Oh, you want me to come? Okay,” you giggle, walking with him towards the living room where Shouta’s watching cat videos with Hizashi on the big screen.

“Ganpas! Lookie.” Koko stands in front of them to show his jacket. “Mama gots me jaket like hers.”

You fan your face as your cheeks warm, waving softly as Koko does a little proud pose.

“Wow Koko, you look so handsome,” Shouta chuckles.

Hizashi nods, looking at the olive green. “You look so cute, little listener,” he chuckles.

“Tank yew,” he giggles. “Now we show Ahtee Eri and then Nico!”

You try not to laugh as Koko drags you around the cabin showing everyone his gift.

“Not you stealing my boots,” Sika huffs and shows you her same red moon boots. “Of course you would.”

“I had these first,” you scoff, sticking your tongue at her before walking with him back to Hitoshi’s room.

“Mama?”

“Yes Koko?”

“I lub you. Tank yew for my gif,” he smiles,hugging your waist.

You try not to cry at the display of affection. “Love you too.”

“What took you so long!” Hina yells when your little group approaches the lodge.

“We’re tired, Ma,” Sika sighs.

“What’re you wearing? Ya look like a hooker.”

Sika adjusts her coat and dusts off her bodysuit. “Good.”

“Ya look fat. Ya pregnant again?”

“Ugh! Ma!”

Mitsu hugs Sika sideways. “Ya look perfect as always, darlin’.”

“Thank you Daddy,” Sika smiles.

“You look good Y/n,” Hina smiles. “Wait, did you get this little man a matching jacket?! It’s so cute! His purple hat too,” she squeals as Koko shyly hides his face in your leg.

You pat Koko’s head and smile softly. “Thanks. Now let’s go.”

“We ski?” Nico asks John.

“It’ll be the first time, but yeah. Let’s go to the rental shop.”

“Have any of you skied before?” Hitoshi asks.

“We used to as kids,” you tell him. “Cause Ma thought it’ll look good in pictures.”

“It did!” Hina scoffs.

“I broke my arm and had to skip my highschool summer trip,” Sika scoffs.

“But you were both still cute.”

“They still are,” John smiles as Hitoshi hums in agreement.

“Very.”

After getting mini ski gear for Eri and the kids except for Amelie who gets a small sled, a ski instructor is assigned to your group.

“Aren’t you skiing?” He asks Sika outside.

She puts her sunglasses on. “Ew, no. I came here to look cute, that’s it.”

The instructor’s eyes wander along her body. “Well, you're doing a great job at that.”

She hums in acknowledgment and walks away, unaware of the gaze on her body.

The instructor gasps when he feels something grasp his neck.

“I can break your neck in three places right now if I wanted to,” John growls. “Don’t ogle my wife.”

“Y-yes sir, I’m sorry!”

John lets go and pats his head before following his wife.

You zip up Koko’s jacket and tighten the strings. “Be careful, okay?”

“Okie. You watch me?”

“I’ll go with you and watch from the benches over there.” You point at some benches at the bottom of the kiddie hill.

“Promise?”

“Mhm, I’ll take lots of pictures too.” You adjust his hat and goggles. “And don't forget to have fun.”

“Okie!” He waves and runs to the ski instructor waiting with the other kids.

You walk to the bottom and sit on an empty bench, taking your phone out to record Koko as he gets ready. He waves at you and you wave back, snapping a few pictures. Sika plops next to you, holding her jacket closed with one hand and holding a cup of warm cup of warm cocoa in the other. “Fuck me it’s cold!”

“I know you wanted to look cute but that's not a mountain outfit.”

“And that’s why I forced John to give me his jacket.” She waves at John tugging Amelie in her sleigh as Ahimitsu takes pictures.

“Sis, he’ll freeze.”

“He has a second jacket and thermal clothes. He’s fine. He’s trained for this,” she smiles. “Where’s your boo?”

“I think he went to go rent something.”

You look back at your phone and smile as Koko skis down the shallow slope, almost hitting a tree but gets to the bottom. You stop recording and grin when he calls out to you.

“Mama, you see me? I do it!”

“Yes you did, Koko! I’m so proud of you!”

Sika cheers when Nico slowly skis down and comes to a halt at the bottom. “Good job, baby!”

“Yay! Hai Koko!” Nico calls out waving at Koko who’s barely twenty feet away.

“Hai Nico!” Koko giggles, waving back.

“They’re so cute,” Sika smiles.

You look up as Hitoshi walks over, slightly covered in powdery snow with a yellow snowboard in hand. “Hey Toshi,” you smile. “I didn't know you snowboarded.”

“I learnt a while ago for an undercover mission in Switzerland. Broke my leg but it was fun.”

“What other secrets are you keeping from me?”

“Wouldn't you like to know?” he smirks. “Koko come down the hill yet?”

“Yeah, he’s talking with Nico. Oh shit I'm supposed to be taking pictures.” You take a few more and pocket the phone.

Loud laughter from the direction of the rental lodge gets all your attention. Hina and Hizashi walking arm in arm, cackling about something while Shouta looks annoyed walking next to them.

“C’mon Sho, just go down one mountain with me?” Hizashi pleads.

“Stop being so loud,” Shouta groans.

“So grumpy,” Hina mutters. “But we’re gonna get you outta that sour mood.”

“Please don’t.”

“Your mom’s great,” Hizashi grins at you.

“Thank you, Mr. Aizawa,” Hina smiles.

“Call me Hizashi.”

“Now, let’s get this grumpy guy to the lodge bar. They have mulled wine and the best dumplings.”

Shouta gives Hitoshi a look that screams, “save me!”

“Have fun dad,” Hitoshi smiles and waves trying not to laugh at Shouta’s glare.

You look over the boys and smile when you see them hugging before snickering when they fall backwards and flail. “Oh no. Sika, the boys fell again.”

“John!” She yells.

“Yeah?” he calls back.

“The boys!”

John looks over and sees the instructor help them up. “They’re fine.”

“Ami’s running!”

As soon as her father is distracted , the toddler waddles away as fast as she can towards a man with a fluffy husky.

“I’ve got her!” Hitoshi calls out, dropping his snowboard and running after the toddler, picking her up before she gets to the man.

“No!” she squeals, flailing around before looking at Hitoshi. “Wan Doggy!”

“You have a doggy, little one. You can’t go running off like that,” he chuckles as she pouts. “Time for you to go back to your Daddy.”

Ami lets out a ‘hmph’ and pats Hitoshi’s cheek.

“Hey! Don’t hit me,” he chuckles, playfully trying to bite her mittened hand.

Amelie squeals and flails her tiny hands.

“Thanks,” John sighs and takes her back. “Little troublemaker, no candy for you today.”

“Nooooo!” she whines.

You giggle at their antics before feeling Koko patting your leg. “Hmm? Hi, Koko, are you done skiing?”

“Yah, was fun. Wanna be wif you and Daddy.”

“Well, I might go inside to get some cider and I think your Daddy’s gonna go snowboard.”

“We go watch Daddy then get hot joos?”

“Hot juice?”

“Yah hot appa joos!”

“Oh, the hot cider. Yeah we can.”

“Yay!

You, Koko and Hitoshi head to the big slope and wave at Hitoshi getting on the ski lift to the top.

“Can we do that?” Koko points at the lift.

“One day when you’re an expert skier,” you promise him.

“I be best ski!”

You pet his head and walk with him towards the benches near the bottom of the hill after getting some nice warm cider.

“Why daddy ski different?” Koko asks you.

“Because he’s snowboarding, Koko,” you explain.

“Woah! I do?”

“When you’re a little bigger.”

“What I do now?”

“You can sit with me and we can cheer him on?”

“Okie,” Koko grins.

You and Kokoro cheer Hitoshi as he weaves his way between the trees, and not much later skids to a stop near your bench.

“So, how’d I do?”

“Daddy coolest!” Kokoro cheers and runs to hug him. “So amazing, daddy!”

“Definitely the coolest,” you agree and stand up to give him a sip of your cider.

“Mmm, this is good.”

“Right?”

Hitoshi unclips his boots from the board, shaking his leg out. “Harder than I remember.”

“Didn’t look that hard.”

“Really? Try it then.”

“Gladly,” you grin.

He takes off the ski boots and hands them to you in exchange for his regular ones.

“Your big ass feet,” you grumble as you put the shoes on and stand on the board. “Push me.”

“Okay.”

Hitoshi gently pushes you forward and you yelp as you pass over a small rock and wobble, grabbing Hitoshi’s jacket. Unfortunately you fall into the powdery snow with him on top of you.

“Oh no!” Koko yells. “Mama!”

“This feels familiar,” you say between laughs. He can’t help but laugh either, hiding his face in your neck.

“Told you it’s hard.”

“The rock fucked me up.”

“You’ll get the hang of it babe,” Hitoshi chuckles before groaning when Koko plops onto his back.

“Cuddle!” he squeals.

You start laughing as Kokoro nuzzles the other side of your neck.

“Lub you!”

“We love you too, Koko.”

At the lodge restaurant, you all sit at a large table near the fireplace for lunch.

“Koko, do you wanna try my venison?” You cut a small piece of the meat and hold it to his mouth.

“Wat dat?” he asks and sniffs the meat.

“It’s wild deer.”

His face drops. “What?!”

You giggle at his expression. “It’s yummy, try it.”

“No!” He huffs and turns his face. “No eat deer.”

“It’s like eating chicken,” Hitoshi reassures him. “You like chicken. And sushi is fish.”

“It kind of tastes like beef, if that helps. You like beef, right Koko?”

“Beef yummy. Maybe I eat deer,” he mumbles, opening his mouth for you to feed him. “Oh! It guf!”

You smile softly as Koko talks with his mouth full. “Swallow then speak, hun.”

“I likes it!”

Hitoshi ruffles Kokoro’s hair before going back to his chicken ramen.

“Daddy, I has your eggie?”

“I thought you weren’t hungry,” Hitoshi chuckles.

“Peez?”

“Why do you want it, anyway?”

“Share wif Nico.”

You take one off the shrimp tempuras from the plate Nico and Koko are sharing. “But you have your own food with Nico.”

“Ahtie!” Nico whines.

Hina laughs and puts half of her boiled egg on Koko’s plate. “You can have mine, sweetie.”

“Tank yew, gamma!” Koko giggles before giving Nico the yolk while he eats the egg whites.

Hina coos softly and fans her face.

“Ma, you okay?” Sika asks.

“Ahm tryin’ not ta die of cuteness,” she coos.

“What’d she say?” Hitoshi asks.

“Koko’s being too cute for her to handle,” you snicker.

After lunch, the six of you, except for Hina, Ami, Shouta, Eri, and Hizashi who stayed behind for a nap, went on a tour of the forest held by the lodge in hopes of seeing a deer or a bunny.

“Mama, we see bunny?” Koko asks as he holds your hand.

“Maybe hun, but they’re very hard to see.”

Sika points at a snow covered log between the trees at something darting between them. “There’s a weasel over there.”

John flips the guide book open. “Apparently they’re really common here but we can’t touch them.”

“Woah!” Nico gasps.

The tour guide points out the many species of trees and animals living at the bottom of the mountain, encouraging you to stay on the path.

“Wanna see bunny,” Kokoro pouts as he trudges along. You hold your hand out and make a small bunny for him. “Real bunny, mama.”

“Okay, Mr. sassy pants. I’m sure we’ll see one, hun. But if we don’t we can go to the Shibuya petting zoo for a field trip and you can see all the bunnies.”

“Okie,” he pouts.

Further down the path, you walk with Hitoshi, trying to cheer up Koko by showing him some of the birds and squirrels before stopping.

“Hey Dad, look over there,” you snicker, pointing towards a figure in the distance.

“Ooh, Sika, sweetie, look,” Ahimitsu points at some deer walking in a clearing.

“Oh God…” Sika groans.

You crouch down to Kokoro’s level to watch. “Koko look at the deer over there, don’t yell out they’ll run away.”

“Pretty but I want bunny…” he mumbles.

“I know but you wanna know something? It’s a Sika deer.”

“That my mommy name,” Nico giggles. Sika rolls her eyes. John takes a few pictures.

“Dad thought it would be funny to give me that name.”

Mitsu puts his arm around her. “They’re my favourite animal so it makes sense to give my first born their name.”

“And now I always get ‘like the deer?’ whenever I introduce myself,” she scoffs.

“But they’re cute and I don’t mind the love of my life having the same name as a deer,” John smiles, before looking back into the book.

“Thanks babe.”

You follow your tour guide and look back at Hitoshi when he groans. “Hmm? What’s wrong ‘toshi?” you ask.

“Look up ahead,” he sighs.

“Is that Phantom Thief?”

“Kendo’s here? At least he won’t be an entire ass…”

“Shinsou? What a coincidence running into you here!” Neito grins before looking at you and Koko who hides his face in your leg. “Who’s this?”

“That’s my son.”

“Son? Since when do you have a son?”

“Five years ago as of November…”

Neito stares at Koko then you. “Wow, your genes completely hogged him. He looks nothing like mom over here.”

“I’m…not his biological mother,” you explain. “I’m…” You look down at Koko looking up at you expectantly. “His stepmom.”

“No, you Mama,” Koko huffs.

“Thank you, honey.”

“So you got married?”

“No, Monoma, she’s my girlfriend.”

“Right. So why’re you all the way in Hyogo?”

Hitoshi gestures to your family. “Family time. What about you?”

“Same. Itsuka’s from here too so we’re visiting her family.”

Hitoshi looks around for her familiar orange hair. “Where is she?”

“Think she went ahead to see some deer.”

Sika clears her throat. “We’re gonna do the same, see you two at the bottom.”

John scoops up Nico and follows Sika down the trail, Ahimitsu behind them.

“Well, now that we’re alone, we can look for the bunny,” you smile, making Koko squeal. “Let’s go.”

Kokoro runs ahead and falls down, flailing his feet.

“Koko!” You right him back up. “You okay?”

“Mhm. We see bunny!”

“Let’s try and look for bunny tracks, if we’re lucky we can find a den.”

“I’m gonna go with them. It was nice seeing you and tell Itsuka I said hi,” he nods before following you and Koko.

You walk further up the trail looking off to the side and stop when you see something rustle in the bushes near a clearing. “Koko, ‘toshi, c’mere!” you whisper-shout, crouching and taking out your phone. “I see one!”

Koko waddles over and crouches beside you as you see a white blob hop out of the bushes into the snow, digging in the ground for food before wiping its nose and scampering away. You quickly take a photo.

“Mama! Bunny!” he squeals. “I sees it!”

“It’s so small and cute.”

You smile and pet his head as he hugs you then holds your hand. “Thank you Mama. You the best.”

“You’re welcome, baby. Let’s go back down the mountain.”

“Mow hot joos!”

“We’ll get some after we see them light the Christmas tree in the square,” Hitoshi tells him and takes his other hand.

You and Hitoshi swing his little body, smiling when he squeals as you walk down towards the lodge.

After watching the tree lighting and setting Koko down for bedtime, you rest on the outdoor couch, cuddled in Hitoshi’s arms by the fire pit, soft music playing from one of the speakers.

You look up at Hitoshi as he kisses your temple. “That tickles,” you smile as he kisses along the side of your face.

“Hey, babe?” he mumbles as he squeezes your waist gently.

“Hmm?”

“When we were on the mountain…you called yourself Koko’s stepmom.”

“Did I? Oh. I didn’t know what else to call myself, I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t, honestly. I think it’s sweet how much Koko loves you and I’d hope that you would be his mother someday,” he hums, kissing your cheek.

“Oh god, is this a proposal?” You laugh.

“Not yet, babe.”

You snuggle more into him, tilting your head for kisses. The sliding door to the porch opens. “Ew, get a room,” Sika gags.

“Go away,” you huff and throw one of the small pillows at her head. She catches it and throws it back, nailing Hitoshi in the face.

“Ow.”

“Whoops! Sorry, Toshi.”

“It’s fine, it makes me feel like I’m part of the family.”

“You are family. You and Koko.”

“Thank you,” he smiles.

John steps through the door with a tray. “We come with hot cocoa and mini marshmallows.”

“Ooh, I’ll take one!” you call out and pick two of the christmas themed cups and give one to Hitoshi. “These cups are ugly as fuck though.”

“It’s all they had here,” he chuckles.

“This cocoa’s good.”

They settle into the second couch, cuddling up under the red blanket. “Finally put the kids down so I can relax.”

“Nico’s been so energetic lately,” John sighs. “But it makes it easier to put him to bed.”

“I bet you can’t wait until you have one of your own, right sis?” Sika snickers.

“Yeah, I guess. At least I'm getting practice with Koko.”

She hums and stares into her mug of cocoa. “Ahm pregnant again.”

You choke on the cocoa and start coughing, putting the mug down on the glass table.

“Are you okay?” Hitoshi asks and pats your back.

“Fine,” you wheeze and turn back to Sika. “Really?”

She nods. “Found out last week…”

“Oh mah goodness.” You notice her lack of excitement. “What’s wrong? Ya don’t look happy.”

“Ah am, we started tryin’ in late September and ahm excited but ahm nervous too. Ami took a lot outta me and ah dunno if ah can do it again.”

Hitoshi gently shakes you. “What’re you guys talking about?”

“Shh,” you dismiss him. “Y’dont haveta have tha baby, Sika. Does John know?”

“Mhm.”

“It’s okay to get cold feet about another one until yer ready.” You scooch over to hold her free hand. “Ya don’t have ta keep it if ya don’ wanna.”

“Yer, right. John and me will talk about it but don’t tell Ma, y’know how she gets.”

“Ah won’t, ah promise.”

“Thanks.”

“Babe, what happened?”

“Don’t worry about it, Toshi. She was asking for fashion advice,” you lie and settle back on him.

Hitoshi stares down at you before squinting suspiciously. “If you say so.”

The fire is doused close to midnight and after a nice warm bath, you say your goodnights and head to bed, snorting quietly at Koko and Nico sprawled out on the pullout bed for their mini sleepover.

“You smell nice,” Hitoshi murmurs when you climb into bed.

You giggle softly as he reaches over and kisses your neck. “Toshi,” you giggle as he bites softly and starts on a hickey. “Oh.”

His fingers work you open until you’re wet enough for him to climb over you.

You hold back a moan as he pushes into you, trying your best not to wake up the house.

“Fuck, ‘toshi, harder,” you whisper. Your body rocks forward with his thrusts, your fingers linking at the base of his neck for purchase, softly gripping the hair there.

Hitoshi places a pillow between the wall and the headboard before gripping it for leverage to fuck you harder, squeezing your thigh with his free hand.

“Shit, you feel so good, baby,” he groans. “Fuck, keep squuezing me just like that.”

His mouth locks with yours when you cum, swallowing your high moans and cries.

“Good girl,” he whispers into your neck as he feels his orgasm draw closer.

“Toshi, fuck, give me your baby,” you whimper between kisses.

Heat flashes through his body. “What?”

Your ankle locks behind his thigh. “I want your baby. Cum in me.”

“Y/n, do you mean that? You know what happened last time…”

“I’m not her. I love you Hitoshi.”

“You…you do?”

You nod and gasp when he kisses you passionately while thrusting faster. “Oh, fuck, ‘toshi! I’m gonna cum again,” you gasp as he grips your neck.

“Go ahead baby,” he grunts. “I’m not too far behind you.”

You grind your hips up against him as he cums, sending you both over the edge.

“Fuck,” you both shudder.

“I love you too,” he whispers and rolls off you onto his side of the bed. “Damn my back hurts.”

You chuckle tiredly and adjust your crooked bonnet. “Wow. I’m sweating.”

“So…a baby?”

You sit up with a groan, stretching your arms over your head and cracking your back. “I was kidding, Hitoshi. I’ve had an implant for months.”

“Oh…”

“I’m not saying I don’t want one with you ever. Just not now,” you explain. “But it’s fun to pretend to wind you up.”

“You’re a brat,” he chuckles and pulls you back down to playfully bite your cheek. “But you were serious about loving me?”

“Of course. You’re amazing and you come with a cute little bonus,” you giggle.

Hitoshi chuckles and kisses your cheek before going into the bathroom to get a rag to clean you up.

You sigh contentedly when you’re back in bed, clean, snuggling against his chest. “Merry Christmas.”

“It’s midnight already? Wow. Merry Christmas, babe. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The next morning, you gently shake Nico and Kokoro awake. “Boys, wake up, it’s christmas.”

“Huh? Ahtie?” Nico mumbles.

“It’s Christmas. Santa came and left you all a bunch of gifts.”

“It Crimmas!” Nico gasps before trying to wake up Koko who groans softly.

“Koko wake up, Santa came to gve you gifts last night,” you smile, shaking the little boy.

“Santa?” Koko mumbles as he wakes up.

“Mmhm,” you smile.

“Santa!” He cheers and both of them jump up. “Where presents?”

“They’re at my moms house, let’s get you both dressed so we can go.”

“I wear Mama jaket!”

Sika peeks her head in. “Better hurry then, come on Nico.”

“We go!” Nico giggles before running towards Sika’s room to get his clothes and to get a bath from John.

Hina is trying to get you in an ugly christmas sweater as soon as you’re through the door.

“Ma! Stop!”

“It’s tradition! Get in the sweater!”

You begrudgingly take it and put it on, frowning at the red ‘Ho Ho Ho’ in the front. “It’s itchy.”

“Ya look cute, stop complainin’. I got some for the kids too. And Hitoshi and John.”

“You what?” Hitoshi asks, crouching by the tree to help Koko open his present.

Hina holds up a matching sweater.

“Oh shit…”

“No ba wa!” Amelie whines.

After she squeezes all of you into the sweaters, Hina takes a million pictures as you open your presents.

“Ooh, a new iPad,” Sika smiles as she tears the wrapping. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome sweetie,” he smiles.

“Open mine next,” you giggle and give Hitoshi a big box and a smaller one.

He stops scratching his itchy sweater to unwrap the first one. Opening the box, Hitoshi grins when he sees the small purple humidifier and box of essential oils. “Wow, this looks cool.”

“It’s to help you relax after patrols. You can put it in your office too when you do paperwork.”

“Thank you, Y/n,” he smiles. “I love it.”

“Open the other one!”

Kokoro helps him rip open the big one, peeking inside. “Ooh, wat dat?”

“It’s a shiatsu shoulder massager. Your weighted scarf is always around your neck so I thought it would help.”

“Wow, thank you, Y/n,” he smiles.

You kiss his cheek and look at him as he holds out a medium sized gift wrapped box. “This is for you,” he smiles.

“Ooh, I wonder what it is.” Unwrapping it, you gasp excitedly at the pink chocolate mould set. “This is so cute!”

“I know how much you like baking so I got that for you.”

“I love it, thank you.”

“There’s two more, but they’re kinda back in Tokyo.”

“Well, I can’t wait until we get back,” you giggle.

“Daddy, look what ganpa zashee and ganpa zawa get me!” Kokoro giggles as he runs over wearing a new set of gray winter boots.

“Very cute, Koko,” Hitoshi smiles. “They go with your new jacket Y/n gave you.”

“Yah! And Ahtee get me acta figah of you and Wed Wiot.” He holds up the two toys proudly. Hitoshi takes the mini version of himself. “Why do they always make my hair so dark?”

“I think it’s because the reference photos of you are always at night, son,” Shouta chuckles. “They used to make my goggles this mustard yellow and it looked so bad.”

“I think it looks good,” you smile, looking at the figure. “Got the suit just right.”

“Maybe I’ll look into one of those photoshoots…”

After the gift exchanges you sit with Sika as Koko plays with Nico while Ami plays with Shouta, Eri and the dogs.

Hina slots herself next to you and Hitoshi. “So, remember my proposal?”

“I don’t know about five, Ma. Thassa lot. Even fa me,” you laugh nervously.

Sika sips her water nervously.

“But we need lotsa grandbabies runnin’ around! Okay, three’s mah last offer.”

“Y’already have two!”

“An’ we need more,” she counters.

You pinch your nose bridge in exasperation. “Ugh, Ma.”

Shouta nudges you. “What’s she saying?”

“She still wants us to have lots of kids. Ma, we ain’t even married yet.”

“I don’t think I have it in me for more than three,” Hitoshi mumbles. “That’s a lot of tiny feet running around. Koko’s enough of a hassle as it is alone.”

“But yer not alone! Y’got my baby witcha!”

“What?”

“She said you’re not alone cause we’re together,” you translate.

“Ohh.”

“We’ll see how life plays out, Ma.”

Hitoshi nods and kisses your temple. “Hopefully it goes well.”

The day before new years eve, you say goodbye to your parents as they load your suitcases.

“Y’better come an’ visit me again, y’hear?”

“Ah promise, ma. Ah’ll bring ‘toshi an’ Koko too.”

“Ah wan’ mo granbabies, Y/n.”

“We’ll see,” you giggle hugging her before hugging your Dad. “Come an’ visit us in the city, Daddy. Sika an’ I would love ta have you ova.”

“I’ll try mah best,” he smiles. “ Maybe in a month or two.”

“Jus’ lemme know when.”

‘15:09 train to Shibuya departing now’ the intercom crackles above.

You hug them both before entering the train with Hitoshi carrying Koko.

“Bai gamma,” Nico waves.

“Bai!” Koko waves too.

“Bye babies!” Hina shouts as the doors close. “Toshi, the next time I see you there better be a ring on my baby’s finger!”

“Ma!”

Back in Shibuya station, you wave goodbye to Sika’s family as they pile into their car left at the parking garage.

“Good luck, sis,” you tell her. “I’m behind you no matter what.”

You smile as she hugs you and enters the car.

“Let’s get this one home,” you coo at the sleeping Kokoro in the car seat holding his new action figures.

Hitoshi says goodbye to his parents and sister, promising to visit soon then all of you go your separate ways.

You wave at them before helping Hitoshi put the luggage in the trunk and climbing in the passenger seat. “This was fun. I’m sorry about my mom though. She’s a lil pushy when it comes to us and relationships,” you sigh softly.

“It’s fine. Honestly, My pop’s been like that since I told them about us. I really like your parents though, they’re fun.”

“Yours too, well Mic is fun, Eraser is fun in a lazy cynical cat way.”

“The cats do follow him around though,” he smiles.

You laugh and look out the window as he drives, watching the snow covered landscape. “This really was nice though, maybe next year we can do something with your parents.”

“Oof, they’re the stay home and chill type so i think Christmas vacations should be a your parent thing.”

“My mom will flip but yeah, that sounds cool.”

He reaches over to intertwine your fingers together, bringing it to his lips to kiss your knuckles.

You decide to spend the rest of the break with Hitoshi and Koko. Of course the toddler is ecstatic, spending his week off with his Dad and his favourite teacher.

“So what’s the gift you promised me? I’ve been itching to know what it is,” you ask Hitoshi after you’ve gotten the kitties from the daycare, unpacked and settled down for the evening.

Hitoshi gets two small black boxes from the kitchen drawer and sits next to you on the couch. “Pick one. They’re both for you.”

The size of the boxes makes you a little nervous. You hope there’s not a ring in either of them. “This one.”

You take the box and start unwrapping the bow before lifting the lid. “A key? What does this lead to?”

“I’ve been thinking,” he starts. “It’s really inconvenient for you to take the trains all the time to come here or go home from work. So I was wondering if you wanted to move in? Totally fine if you don’t want to, but I feel guilty whenever I'm stuck at work and you have to bring Koko all the way here or all the way to your apartment. So…yeah.”

You stare at the silver key, smiling wide. “That’s so thoughtful, Hitoshi. I would love to.”

“You mean it?”

You laugh softly and hug him tight. “Of course I do! Thank you!”

Kokoro walks in with the cats, hoping to get a juice box from you or Hitoshi.

“Daddy, want joos.”

“It’s too late for juice, bud. You can have tea if you want.”

“Bleh! No tea. Wat dat?” He points at the box.

“Koko, I’m gonna live here from now on,” you tell the toddler. “Isn’t that exciting?”

“Mama live wif me?!” Koko gasps before climbing on the couch between both of you. “Yay! Mama stay!”

“And you’ll be coming home after school with me.”

“Yay! I lub you!”

“I love you too, baby. You and your daddy, very much.”

“Wat about da kitties?”

Onyx hops in your lap, purring happily.

“Also the kitties,” you giggle as Onyx rubs his face in your chin.

“Open the other one, babe.”

You unwrap the second one and there’s an electronic key inside with a Mercedes logo on it.

“Hitoshi…”

“Yes, Y/n?”

You start to scream in excitement and shock, scaring the cats and Kokoro. “You’re serious?!”

“Yup.”

“Daddy, why Mama scream?” Kokoro asks, holding onto Hitoshi.

“She loves her gift, bud. She’s happy,” Hitoshi chuckles.

“Can I go see it?!”

“In the morning. The parking lot’s pretty dark right now…”

You tackle him in a bear hug and kiss all over his face. “Thank you thank you thank you! I love you!!!”

“Mama lub Daddy!” Koko squeals.

“Yes I do,” you smile before giggling when he joins the hug. “I love you.”

Unfortunately, Hitoshi is summoned to court again after the new year. But it's good news this time.

‘This court finds that the prosecution no longer needs to pay child support to the defendant Akibimi Nezama. And the defendant must sign sole custody of the child. We are adjourned.’

The sound of the gavel hitting the block brings a smile to Hitoshi’s face. ‘It’s over,’ he thinks. Outside the courtroom, he quietly celebrates and thanks his lawyer.

“I can't believe you,” Akibimi grumbles, mood sour from the verdict.

“Maybe now you can get a job and stop mooching off of me,” Hitoshi glares

“I’m quirkless, no one's gonna hire me,”

“There’s thousands of jobs you could apply for. As much as you irk me, you're still Koko's mom, so as a sign of good faith, I’ll get Deku to put you in that quirkless program he started.”

“What about Koko?”

“He’ll be fine but he wouldn’t mind seeing you if you were nicer to him. But with my or y/n’s supervision,” he offers.

“Why that bi–woman?”

“That woman is my girlfriend. The only woman that Koko trusts as his mother, so that’s why she has permission. I doubt she’d let you considering what happened the last time you met.”

‘Fucking deserved it if you ask me.’ Akibimi thinks. “Fine, I’ll call you.”

“You need to give me at least a week in advance when you want to see him. No popping up. Understand?”

“Whatever. Bye.”

Her heels click as she walks away. Hitoshi doesn't even feel bad. Instead, he feels relieved.

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