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#Chihiro Is too pure--
vrisrezis · 2 years
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Best thing about being with the THH cast?
Sayaka always knows if something is wrong with you, she doesn’t press about anything till you’re both alone. However, it’s good being with somebody that instantly knows you’re not okay, especially if you have a hard time opening up.
Leon spoils you. He buys you tons of gifts, but he also loves to spoil you with his constant compliments and flirting. He makes you feel so loved, and he knows how to make you feel better about yourself when you need it.
Chihiro is so helpful, any trouble you’re having they’re the most likely person to have a solution, or the best advice. They’re always somebody you can go to when times get rough.
Mondo makes you feel safe. With those big, muscular arms of his, wrapping around you in a hug, you know that for as long as he lives he will protect you with everything he has.
Taka is so good at motivating you to do things. Whether it’s something as simple as proper hygiene, cleaning your room or taking your meds, you know he’s really proud of you for doing these things and tells you as such. He motivates you to do better everyday.
Hifumi is your number 1 simp, always will be. He defends you with everything he’s got, he will spoil you till he has no money left, he will never shut up about how gorgeous he thinks you are and he constantly compliments you. He’s a sweetheart, truly.
Celeste is thoughtful of you, which is something you wouldn’t expect from her. Normally she isn’t, since she doesn’t care for others much. However, she cares for you. She pays close attention to you, so she notices the things that make you tick. She’s thoughtful in the sense that she will bring up extra water bottles from downstairs if there’s non in the fridge upstairs, she will put extra toilet paper out when the one in the bathroom is almost done, small things she knows would bother you.
Sakura is nice to talk to. In general, like you two could talk about your hobbies, your past, your friends, your families, happy topics, sad topics, everything and nothing. It doesn’t matter, talking to her is just so nice.
Mukuro knows how to make you feel better. She pays close attention to the things that make you happy, she knows exactly how to put you in a better mood when shit gets really tough.
Junko …. what is there to say… really… why are you even dating this chick? In all seriousness, erm… you can count on her for good fashion tips. She seriously will help you look your best and feel your best, she knows how to make you feel more confident in yourself! The key is actually convincing her to help you with that.
Hiro just loves you so much and tells you as such, he shows his love for you in such a pure way. It’s hard to believe he’s ever had a dirty thought about you, the way he loves you is just so pure hearted and innocent: he gives you flowers and likes to take you on cute dates and be overly romantic and sappy, it’s cute.
Makoto is optimistic, you always feel hopeful when this guy is around. He says it’s his only strong point, but there’s so much more to him. He fills you with so much happiness and hope for your future.
Byakuya can be nice when he wants to be. Typically when you’re upset or something he will be nice and listen to your problems, or buy you something you really like. He has his ways of being nice, even if it’s at times superficial you know he means well.
Toko is always on your side, whenever you feel like nobody has your back at all, whenever you feel completely alone in this world you know toko always has your back. She will always be there.
Aoi is brimming with positive energy, she always knows how to brighten your day. Or to motivate you to do things in a positive manner that doesn’t make you feel like she’s acting like a mom towards you.
Kyoko is so soft with you, you can hardly believe she has that iron like mask most of the time. She’s just so gentle, the way she touches you like your gonna break if she’s too hard with you, the way she looks at you with such a soft expression. She’s so loving.
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neonknightjaey · 1 month
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What if Chihiro Fushimi Joined SEES (Part 2)
Had to rewatch the P3 ending to amp myself up to do this. Don’t mind the tears…or the river of em flowing through the post. That’s normal. Anyway. This part will be covering some misc stuff like School life, minor changes, and right up to the June full moon operation. With that being said. Lets get into it.
TW//Bullying
“SOTERIA!!!”
Soteria is Chihiro Fushimis persona. The goddess of safety and salvation, deliverance, and preservation from harm…funny that she will exactly USE harm to protect others from it.
While Soteria does learn spells like Tetrakarn and Makarakarn and some defensive increasing skills. That’s not all her Persona can do.
This persona is well known for its high magic stat, but more importantly…she’s the teams nuke button.
Her most upgraded move besides the Agi skill line is the Megi skill line. For those who don’t remember. Megi moves are pure almighty damage, a damage type that can’t be blocked.
Why did I decide to give the terrified nervous wreck a nuke? Cause I thought it would be funny. Don’t worry, it drains her magic fast so you can’t go spamming it. You’re gonna have to actually use her fire skills until much later on when she gets an sp cost reduction skill.
Soteria is best described appearance wise as a graceful looking woman with angelic wings yet in her hands are a giant shield and a crackling hand mixed with agi and megi effects. She’d have some unique patterns on her arms and would have her eyes covered by a flower crown.
Now enough about Chihiros Persona, lets see how this girl is with the rest of the teammates and what she does outside of battle.
Of course she’s still the student council treasurer so she’s in there with Mitsuru from time to time but really, it’s more of a “friendly business partners” relationship rather than a true genuine sisterly friendship for right now.
Now on the other end of things are her dorm-mates. Yukari is often really close with Chihiro. She talks to her quite often about her mangas and how club meetings go while Yukari just listens or at least tries to act engaged at the very least.
Yukari can be a bit protective of her but not often. Just helping at times when she gets too nervous around Akihiko. Other times though, despite Chihiros protests, she throws the girl to the wolves with one particular man to help her overcome her fears. That one man is…
Junpei….is…an interesting case with Chihiro. They both like manga and nerdy things at times so besides the male fear thing, you’d think they’d be the best of friends. Well, kinda. She’s too nervous right now to fully hang out with him and watches from a corner usually. Often wondering how he has so much time to slack on his studies when she’s seen his exam scores. She’d reprimand him if she had the courage to…
Yukari is definitely gonna help this girl slightly tolerate this man if it kills her.
Or at least have her join the “Stupei, Ace Defective” roasting club.
Both options work too.
Chihiro doesn’t have much to talk about with Akihiko. If Junpei was a bit much for her at this level, then a guy who talks about getting stronger and fighting with, to her, not much in common is gonna put her off a bit more…but then again, she seems fine with Hidetoshi so who knows? Maybe they’ll be better friends in the near future.
Insert Makoto Yukis/Door Doors social link here.
What? You thought I was gonna write something for Makoto now? It’s basically going the same as her SL. They’re friends and she likes being around him.
Okay fine, maybe I’m planning something but you’ll have to wait until later in the story. For now. They’re friends. Like…rank 4 at best.
In the overworld, Chihiro can often be seen staring at Bookworms, thinking of going in. Heck maybe even considering asking for a part time job, this girl surrounded by books would think it’s a dream job.
She can also be spotted around the mall, checking out the CD shops or wondering if maybe someday Makoto will take her into Club Escapade…but she’s gotta get her own courage in check so we’ll check in on this subplot later.
At night, there is a rare chance that you won’t be able to use the computer there because Chihiro’s on it.
She’s either gonna be studying or looking at this weird new webcomic. It’s apparently about a boy and his three friends playing a video game? You aren’t sure yet because all you see is a boy kissing his poster goodbye while his friend plays the violin. It’s weird but hey, nobody said she can’t have weird interests.
Now that the current dorm life is out of the way, lets get into the story this time.
A reason Yukari may be a bit protectivr if Chihiro is because she’s been hearing about this currently being bullied by three girls.
It’s really starting to piss her off actually. But she bites her tongue for right now.
Most of May and such plays out as normal but instead of the ghost hunting team being just you, Yukari and Junpei, this girl gets in on it too…she wishes she wasn’t because she didn’t know wether to be afraid of ghosts or Junpei in the dark, or confused by how laughable his missing girl story was.
Nevertheless she joins their investigation with some reluctance…mainly Yukari saying it’ll help her.
For once though when they decide to go to the sketchy alleys of Port Island Station at night, she’s siding with Junpei in possibly wanting to back out.
Dear lord the girl was not only not made for scared, but for seeing Junpei get headbutted by a terrifying guy while being harassed by others.
And then there’s Shinji…
Poor girl just about fainted when she saw him. He’s downright terrifying. He seems nice but the poor gi-oh…she passed out. Poor thing.
When she gets back to the dorm she’s out for the whole night, cuddling with a pillow from fear…yeah Yukari may need to apologize later to her for doing that.
Weirdly enough though, the fact she felt like she “survived” something like that feels a bit relieving in her. Like she CAN do scary stuff and will be braver…eventually. For now though. Fuukas case takes high priority.
Hearing this Fuuka girl was getting bullied by Natsuki was bad enough, learning she could be dead is slightly pissing her off…then she learns Mr. Ekoda hid this information from everyone…someone hold this girl back she’s gonna take her paper fan and jam it down his throat.
Thankfully she heard Mitsuru got to him but she’s still pissed. Who knew this sweetheart could have a tipping point that deep.
It doesn’t make her fear into a hatred thankfully, I mean…seeing Junpei get knocked down at the station made her feel scared sure but like she wanted to help and just felt powerless…maybe that’s why when he heard this girl was being bullied and her missing status was hidden was what caused her to lose her cool for a little.
Come the time to save them, she begs Makoto to please go with him to save Fuuka. She feels like she needs to meet this girl.
He doesn’t care
But she’s in the party with Aki and Junpei.
In retrospect, not a good idea for her but she’s holding back her fear to save this woman.
Authors realization: OH SHIT, I FORGOT HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT NATSUKI!!!!
So with Natsuki she feels, understandably, upset that she would bully this girl and locked her up. Though she does promise she’ll help find Fuuka.
Now back in Tartar Sauce, she’s slightly relieved yet worried to be split from the all guys party. When she finds Makoto though, she’s much calmer. When they find Fuuka though…dear lord this girl is so glad she’s alive.
Then she sees Mitsuru and Yukari are down for the count and hey, she can actually do damage to them…it’s weak damage though. If only there were some persona user who could read enemies weaknesses an- oh Fuuka did it.
The rest of the story here mainly plays out as normal.
Now with Fuuka on the team, how are she and Chihiro gonna get along?
Dear lordy, these two are like sisters. Scared, timid, shy, other similar words can best describe them to a T.
Fuuka looks up to Chihiro as her Senpai while Chihiro looks up to her as someone much smarter than her.
These two have a lot of study sessions together and it’s sort of the opposite of Yukari so far.
Instead of having Chihiro try and work past things asap, she’s more into having her take her time and do things at her own speed.
They even suggest starting a manga/book club too.
Fuuka isn’t fully into Mangas? Well by golly Fuuka will try for her new friends sake
And this is where we end for this part. Sorry it’s a bit sloppy and has so much run offs, it’s unorganized and all over the place. Okay a lot more work is needed but there was a lot to go over and I set my ambitions a bit high. I’ll try and organize things a bit better next time and make things more coherent.
Special thanks to my co-author @maze-of-my-design for the relationships list for this gal and helping with ideas for this series.
Hope you enjoyed reading it y’all.
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problamticsideanna · 2 months
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Fuck you I am not doing this for 30 days-
Himiko Yumeno
Hifumi Yamada Celeste was so real for killing him twice
These are getting repetitive already. If I were to quantify a best girl down to science I'd probably pick Chiaki? She is the bestest girl
Using my same method as above gonna say Gonta. He just wanted good things for everybody :(
Hajime I think is the most interesting. Kaede would maybe beat him if she was in it long T-T
Kokichi Ouma hands down
Saimeno it won't leave my brain send help-
Besides something obvious like Despaircest? Gonna go with Yasuhiro x Aoi I have a personal vendetta towards it
Makoto/Sayaka their okay as a romantic thing too but I prefer them as good friends.
Hinanami
Oumota (They are narrative foils doomed by the narrative your honor.) Or Ishimondo!
Tenkaede or Sakuraoi
V3
Sayaka or Mukuro
Ibuki Mioda
Kokichi or Himiko
Haiji Towa. I don't like Hifumi but he hadn't done anything wrong yet
Ultimate Cosplayer! I love cosplay and being a shapeshifter would be epic lmao
Kaede's fucked me up so bad but it's so well done.
This is an anime track but I really like Despair Imitation. It's hard to pick an in-game banger there are so many.
Chihiro probably. I would also say Chiaki but I also live in delulu land with Extra Life
Kaede's death or Chiaki's death in DR3
Hiroko Hagakure mom mommy woof woof
I mean realistically none of them if I can't summon all of them? Do not separate the classes. Celeste wouldn't mind being separated IG but idk if I could handle her IRL. I would also lowkey wanna summon Kaito he looks like he'd give the best hugs and I love hugs.
Like writing-wise? Rantaro. Everything we learn about him feels forced and we didn't know shit about him when he was alive.
None of them are boring but you know who has never excited me personally? Nekomaru. Sorry Bi king
Idk if it's the most but I do love Fuyuhiko and Himiko's "everyone I love died" character arcs. I'd say Kyoko or Hajime have the MOST development tho. Kyoko got a whole fucking spin-off and Hajime just has... so much going on. It's kind of ironic because I feel like in the opposite direction Izuru gets like... no development.
Junko ig? We don't really see the characters in much outside of their uniforms and their swimsuits that one time.
Like just pure natural strength? Gonta. Out of the buff characters, I think he could take Sakura and Nekomaru. The issue is he wouldn't want to fight. Sakura might take the upper hand since she actually has martial arts training.
Himiko Yumeno. It's why she's my fav she's just like me fr fr.
There is not category for 31 but I have to mention how much I like Monaca Towa. She didn't fit anywhere above which is a CRIME
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missingmywing · 6 months
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Pure fluff and Minato regretting letting Mitsuru sign him up for the Student Council last year.
Day 4: Genderswap (Ao3 Link)
My original plan: oh, this could be fun to play around with some femc-stuff!
This au gaining a life of its own and turning into a mini-fic: Well Actually.
I’m pushing the prompt for this one to the limit and past it with this, I know. 
These prompts were not originally going to all be connected. Now they are. Which means sadly no Kotone, but we do get Minato convinced into being a maid for the culture festival.
We had to get Minato into the maid dress somehow.
Also the running joke about the student council being forced to pull all nighters to get the culture festival done (and Shinji bringing food) is inspired by Fate’s “Emiya-sanchi no Kyō no Gohan” episode where that happened (and tbh that whole show is kinda the vibes I’m leaning into for these post canon chapters).
~ ᙙᙖ ~
Minato had been trying not to think about the rapidly approaching September and October and the dread that accompanied them.
Not just for the reminder of the anniversary of Shinji’s very near death experience - and Minato’s subsequent near killing of himself using revive and healing spells over and over and over until they stuck - though that was certainly part of it, especially given Ken’s brooding and guilt until Koro and Shinji snapped him out of it.
No, Minato was dreading October because of one specific, exhausting, exasperating event.
The stupid culture festival.
Chihiro had been determined that the planning for the event would go smoothly this year, that they would prepare the back-end paperwork and forms well ahead of time, order and assign everything they knew would be needed regardless of the specifics of individual booths, and be prepared for any curve balls any of the clubs or classes threw at them.
Which naturally, the student council all knew, meant that it was going to fall apart spectacularly when it made contact with the enemy. They were all closing their eyes and begging whatever gods were listening to have mercy on their schedules and allow things to go smoothly this year.
Minato knew what god was listening and there was not a single merciful bone in his body.
Ryoji was going to ruin his life with whatever antics he and Junpei tried to rope their class into, and Minato was already trying to plan contingencies.
Contingencies meaning he cornered Yukari and Aigis after school one day and ordered them to help him rein the two class troublemakers in when the dreaded class meeting to decide their booth came into being. At least he wasn’t class rep, so he wasn’t responsible for organizing their booth on top of his duties on the student council.
(Why had he accepted Mitsuru’s invitation to the council? Why had he given in to Hidetoshi and Chihiro’s request that he stay on for third year? Maintaining Social Links were not worth this hell.)
The day finally came, and Minato slunk low in his seat and tried not to think about how much work was about to be piled onto his shoulders against his will. He just hoped that their class wouldn’t go for anything too out there…
“How about a Hawaiian themed grilling booth?” Junpei suggested with a grin, Ryoji wearing an equally devious grin to match.
Yukari shot them both dirty looks. “We’re not going to wear hula outfits, so you can just give that up now.”
“Aww, c’mon Yuka-tan-”
“I’m telling Chidori.”
“W-Wait that’s not what I meant, I just thought a beach themed booth would be unique-!”
The class rep cleared his throat. “Any other suggestions?”
Minato listened as other ideas were thrown around - haunted house, drink stand, various food stands, a couple of plays that were quickly vetoed by people who didn’t want to deal with scheduling show times thankfully - before the one they’d all secretly been expecting was finally called out. Not by Ryoji, surprisingly.
“Well, what about a maid cafe then?” a guy in the back called, grinning in a way that proved he was really only saying it for the joke.
There were immediately groans and protests from around. Yukari shook her head in exasperation, while several other girls rolled their eyes and made faces. One of them had apparently been preparing herself just for this, though, because she immediately shot back with, “Only if it’s a crossdressing maid cafe and the guys are the ones in dresses.”
That immediately got a different round of protests, though some of the girls were grinning at the idea and a couple even endorsed it.
Minato just sighed and dropped his head onto the table. He didn’t honestly care much either way - a maid cafe would be convenient because of its simplicity, and the student council had expected that there would be at least a few of them so they’d ordered the basics ahead of time so it would cut down on his workload. And he’d taken on cafe-work before, so working as a waiter - or even a maid, annoying as it may be - wasn’t that big of a deal. Compared to some of the other things they could try to foist on him, at least.
“How about a Halloween themed maid cafe instead?” Ryoji suggested, making Minato glance back up narrowly. “Since the culture festival is around a week before Halloween, it could be fun! And it’s not as cliche is the usual maid cafes.”
The suggestion actually made everyone in the class pause and think it over. Even the ones annoyed with the initial suggestion looked to be considering it.
“We could do a bunch of different foods that are easy to make in bulk and just change how they look to be more scary,” a girl in the cooking club said thoughtfully. “That wouldn’t be hard to do, some of it could just be food dye…”
“Oh that’s true, if we were doing a costume theme rather than a food theme we wouldn’t have to worry about making sure our food choices complimented each other!”
“Not to mention drinks, I follow a gothic lolita blog and she makes some really cool looking creepy drinks!”
“And if it’s Halloween themed we can choose our own types of outfits rather than the stupid frilly ones you rent from those event sites.”
“With Halloween being so close we could also get stuff from those street party stores for decoration, Tokyo has a ton of them. We can put together some color palettes and decide how creepy or festive we want it to look!”
“Oh, and a budget so we can get an idea of what’s allowed.”
He hadn’t expected Ryoji’s suggestion to immediately take off with popularity, but it sounded like an accidental unanimous decision had been made. It didn’t sound like it’d add much paperwork on his end either.
The class rep cleared his throat. “Alright, just to make it official: Anyone in opposition to the idea of a Halloween themed maid cafe for our class booth?”
Everyone in the class glanced around and shrugged. Even those who seemed disinterested didn’t seem actively opposed.
“Alright, I guess that’s what we’re doing then. That was much less painful than I expected, thank you for the suggestion Ryoji. That said, I have a memo from the student council reminding everyone that the school rules of conduct are still in effect. Uniform dress code may be suspended for the festival participants in costume but those costumes are still required to be school appropriate. Keep in mind that we represent Gekkoukan; don’t do anything to embarrass the school.” He straightened. “That said, I vote we set up a planning committee now so we can begin preparations soon. The student council is pushing for our plans to be submitted early this year, so we need to have that done by October 5th, and the festival will be on October 24th and 25th.”
“Ehhh? Why so early?” one of the girls asked, already pulling out a sketchbook and handheld calendar.
The class rep just shrugged so Minato answered in his flattest tone. “Because we already know we’re going to be staying all night getting ready in the week leading up to the festival and we’re trying to lighten the load as much as possible.” He grimaced, running his hand through his hair, remembering Hidetoshi’s grim warning and already dreading the upcoming event. “The consecutive all-nighters we’re going to have to pull in the week before the event trying to fix everyone’s paperwork mistakes and make sure all the correct permissions are assigned are going to be miserable enough without making it harder on ourselves by leaving things to last minute.”
“Huh?” Junpei blinked at him. “Is it really that bad?”
Minato shrugged. “According to Hidetoshi and Mitsuru it is. Last year’s was cancelled for the typhoon so I missed the worst of it. The year before that was apparently a nightmare though.” Not that they’d given him details, but he’d gotten the impression it had nearly been a catastrophe.
“Oh I remember that,” Yukari mused, tapping the side of her face. “The first-years missed most of the problems, but apparently some of the second-years got in serious trouble for trying to break some school rules, and a few third-years had really weird events that almost didn’t get approved. Not to mention some of the clubs…”
On that note - Minato turned to send a direct glare at the president of the art club at the front of the classroom. “We will veto the art club’s booth if it isn’t reasonable. I will personally deny it.” He remembered what they’d tried to pull last year - he wasn’t dealing with that again. He refused to even think about it. He didn’t even have Keisuke as a buffer this time.
She cringed, raising her hands defensively. “I-It’ll be reasonable! Nothing like last year! No spray paint machines!”
He sent her a long look but let it drop. He didn’t care what they did as long as he didn’t get forced to deal with the paperwork of it.
“Just what the hell were you guys planning…?” one guys in the back muttered, shaking his head. “Anyway, how are we doing to planning committee?”
“Right, so first I’d like any volunteers-”
~ ᙙᙖ ~
Minato had been dragged onto the planning committee against his will by over half of the people on the committee - Ryoji included. Mostly with the justification that as a member of the student council, he’d be in the best position to tell them what would and wouldn’t be allowed.
They did at least take pity on his workload and mostly relegate his role to advisor and final judge so he wouldn’t be doing much of the actual planning work. Which was good because he doubted he would have time - especially once he stepped into the student council room and found everyone as grim faced and determined as though they were staring down exams.
Which really just set the tone for the next month and a half.
It was after dark before he made it back to the dorms, and he walked only far enough to reach the sofas before flopping down.
“That bad, huh?” Akihiko asked, and Minato couldn’t see his face but he could hear the pity in his tone.
“I should have let Nyx destroy the world,” Minato mumbled into the sofa. “Saving the world is not worth this.”
“Oh come on, don’t be so dramatic. It can’t be that bad!”
If he’d thought Junpei would be capable of focusing on permission and order forms he would have forced him into helping for that alone.
“It can, in fact, be that bad,” Mitsuru sighed. “Let me know if you need any advice, Minato. While I sincerely hope your experience won’t as taxing as mine was it is best to prepare yourself for the worst.”
“At least ours is pretty straightforward,” Ryoji pointed out brightly, and Minato felt the sofa dip as the boy sat down next to him. “A maid cafe is pretty cliche, and doing the Halloween theme should give us a lot more freedom to do whatever we want!”
There was that at least.
Sighing, Minato rolled onto his side to look at everyone. “It being a maid cafe knock-off does make things easier. We knew at least a few classes would choose that for a theme, just statistically, so we ordered some of the basics ahead of time. Portable stoves and the like.”
“Good thinking.” Mitsuru nodded approvingly, resting her hands on her crossed knee.
“Thank Chihiro,” Minato muttered, closing his eyes as Ryoji ran his fingers through his hair. “It was her idea, and she’s put a lot of thought into planning this out. We’re just all hoping it works and it doesn’t fall apart at the last minute.”
“It will,” she chuckled. “It always does. But the scale of it will be minimized drastically by pre-planning for it.”
He sighed.
At the very least the kendo team didn’t ask him to help out with their booth. He was, in fact, explicitly told by the captain not to worry about it and to let him know if Minato needed to skip practice. He winced a bit when Minato told him not to expect him at all for October, and there was sympathy on his face.
He clapped Minato on the shoulder. “Good luck.”
Unlike everyone else, however, Ryoji did not take pity on him. If anything, he seemed delighted at Minato’s involvement in everything. If Minato hadn’t known why he probably would have punched him.
… actually knowing why didn’t make him want to punch him any less.
“This is a lot of fun,” Ryoji told him as he stole Minato’s laptop to look at various stores in Tokyo and what decorations they offered.
“I’m so glad you think so,” Minato muttered sarcastically as he lay listlessly on the bed. “Why is this so much work? Why are we responsible for this? Homeroom teachers should be the one approving class booths.”
Ryoji snorted, leaning back in the chair to smile at Minato. “On top of everything else they do? I can’t imagine them agreeing to that.”
Minato mumbled something unpleasant about teachers and what they did in their free time and reached over to pick up his phone as it buzzed. He flipped it open to find a text from their class rep asking about whether he had free time to go to Tokyo with a group of them that weekend and groaned.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun! It probably won’t even be a serious planning trip, we’re just getting ideas for what’s available. And looking at costumes too!”
Ryoji was lucky he liked him so much.
And so it was with resignation that Minato allowed himself to be dragged by Ryoji and Junpei (and Chidori, who had somehow been convinced to come along) to the train station early Sunday morning in order to catch the train to Tokyo so they could, supposedly, go window shopping and make a list of ideas. Yukari and Aigis trailed along after them, so at least he wasn’t alone. He almost wished Fuuka was in the same class as them, but she seemed excited about her own class’ booth so he supposed it was for the better.
She was trying to be secretive about it, but he would find out sooner rather than later what it was with the looming October 5th deadline. He didn’t mention that, though, because she seemed to be having fun.
They met up with… definitely more than just the planning committee just outside Ikebukuro station. Over half the class had shown up, though he wondered how many of them were just using it as an excuse to come to Tokyo for a shopping trip.
That didn’t seem to bother the actual planning committee, who quickly laid out an itinerary of stores they’d be visiting in order to make a list of what they’d actually be using for the culture festival.
Minato would really have rather been sleeping but Ryoji was persistent so here he was.
So they explored the shops around Ikebukuro. Chidori ended up being more help than Junpei, though he couldn’t really be surprised about that given her own aesthetic tastes. She got along surprisingly well with the art club president, the two of them pulling out sketchbooks and sketching out the classroom from different perspectives with various decorative ideas.
It at least gave them all a better mental perspective of how the decorations would look and Chidori seemed to be enjoying herself, and Junpei seemed thrilled, so Minato didn’t feel too guilty about hanging back and letting the rest of them take the lead. Ryoji seemed equally excited to pick out decorations and Minato ended up mostly watching him rope various people into conversations about what they wanted.
Overall, the whole process of picking out classroom decorations went much more smoothly than he’d expected.
And then it was time to start costume hunting, and the laid-back atmosphere vanished as tension suddenly ratched up.
That was also when Yukari took an active participation in the shopping, and Minato realized why she’d come along.
Minato sighed as the arguments began.
“You don’t seem surprised,” Aigis noted from beside him. “Did you expect this?”
“Yeah.” He tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling as Yukari and Junpei’s voices both raised, a few other of their classmates joining in after a few moments. “Costumes were always going to cause arguments, especially with Junpei and Yukari taking the lead in them. I’ll step in if the class rep can’t stop them.” He really didn’t feel like it though. Why couldn’t everyone just be normal about this for once?
“Oh come on, we’d get so many people coming in-”
“If you think we’re wearing that you’re out of your mind!”
“G-Guys, come on, we do still have to follow school regulations for dress code, and we don’t want the outfits to clash too much-”
“This is fine-”
“Oh the hell it is-”
“You’re just being unreasonable-”
“Why don’t you wear it then?!”
“I-I mean, I don’t really think it’d look good on me-”
“She does have a point Junpei.”
“Chidori?!”
Minato groaned. “Junpei put the maid lingerie away.” He ignored the boy’s protests that that wasn’t what it was and just sent him a deeply unimpressed look. “No. School regulations are still in effect. Let everyone pick their own outfits. As long as they fit the general theme it’s fine.”
“R-Right,” the class rep cleared his throat. “Given we’re using Halloween as theme the uniforms don’t have to be perfectly matching, so long as they keep the general maid cafe look. But school regulations are still in effect. So don’t pick anything… risqué.”
“That means anime cosplays are fine, right?” One of the girls asked, leaning slightly towards the anime section. “Like anime maids or butlers?”
He nodded, pushing his glasses up. “I believe that’s perfectly fine, so long as they’re decent.”
“Great!” she chirped and darted away along with several other people.
Everyone else seemed relieved at the break in tension and quickly split off as well. Yukari shot Junpei another dirty look as she returned to grab Aigis and lead her off to choose costumes together. Junpei looked put out as he pouted at Chidori, who just seemed vaguely amused at the whole situation.
The class rep sagged against the wall next to Minato with a deep sigh. “Thanks for stepping in,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “I thought a fight was about to break out, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it.”
Minato shrugged. “Telling them to knock it off and calling them out for being stupid usually works. They’re both headstrong but they’ll listen if you’re specific about what they’re doing wrong.” Usually. Most of the time it also made them mad, but Minato had been ignoring that sort of thing for years anyway.
“I’ll… keep that in mind.”
“Minatooooo~!”
He closed his eyes. “No. Whatever it is that has you using that tone, the answer is no.”
“Aw, come on!” Ryoji slung an arm over his shoulders, and Minato had quickly catch himself as he turned to glare up at Ryoji. “I just want to go look around with you! I have a couple of ideas in mind-”
Minato sent a long-suffering look towards the class rep and the other classmates who had joined him and they all sent him sympathetic glances. They didn’t rescue him, though, so their sympathy did nothing to endear them to him.
How did he end up in these situations?
Fortunately, Ryoji didn’t submit him to endless questions about his preferences or start holding up costumes next to him or anything equally ridiculous, but he made no effort to hide the way he was clearly eying Minato up to compare to whatever various costumes he was looking at. Minato scanned the shelves himself for the sake of putting in at least a little effort, be he wasn’t surprised when nothing caught his eye.
He really didn’t care about dressing up; as long as it wasn’t too ridiculous he was fine with most anything.
Something Ryoji was going to take full advantage of, he was sure.
“Hmm… something like this, maybe…”
Minato looked to where he was leaning close to the costumes and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Those are maid dresses.”
“Yep!”
“…”
Ryoji turned and grinned at him for his silence. “Come on, don’t you think it could be fun?”
“Not really.”
“Well I don’t see you choosing one yourself.”
Minato sighed. “I don’t care about dressing up, I just don’t want something ridiculous.”
“This isn’t ridiculous, most of the class is doing it!”
“The girls are doing it you mean.”
“So?”
“I don’t want something that’s going to make me stick out, thanks.”
Ryoji raised a brow at him and-
Dammit. He knew what that look meant, and yeah, sure, he knew he knew he had the type of appearance that didn’t look out of place while crossdressing, he’d gotten comments from people before about it - hell Yukari had made note of it a few times - and it annoyed him that he knew what Ryoji meant.
“I’m really not interested,” he sighed. “I was planning to just go with something basic.”
“Come on, isn’t that too boring? Have some fun with it!”
“That’s your area, not mine.” Dressing up for holidays had never been one of his thrills, and it wasn’t going to start now.
Rather than deflating the idea like he’d hoped, Ryoji just got a mischievous gleam in his eye that Minato didn’t like. “Hmm, give me a bit!”
He didn’t trust that. “Ryoji-”
The boy waved him off with an unfaltering grin. “We don’t have to choose our costumes now, and I have an idea!”
Great. Those always went well.
And always meant trouble for Minato.
He sighed, giving up the fight. Ryoji would do what he wanted and they would all probably suffer the consequences.
While most of the class did end up buying costumes there, there were still a few like Minato and Ryoji who were holding off for a bit. Junpei was one of them, he noticed, and wondered if he’d end up being dragged into by Ryoji’s attempt to get Minato into a maid outfit or if he was planning something of his own.
“So,” Ryoji said cheerfully once they regrouped outside, “if we’re running a cafe then we should probably do some hands on research for how that works, right?” He raised a finger as though it would prove his point, and Yukari narrowed her eyes at him.
“Meaning what?” she asked dangerously.
He smiled only widened. “Well as it happens I saw a cat maid cafe just down the street, and I thought we could swing by there while we’re in the area!”
… Minato didn’t know what he was up to, but he didn’t trust it. Almost everyone else seemingly did though, because most of them looked thoughtful.
Yukari didn’t seem to fully buy it either, but she didn’t seem as suspicious as she had a few moments before. ���Why a cat maid cafe? Aren’t there a few maid cafes around? It is Tokyo after all.”
“Well yes, but that one’s the closest so we wouldn’t have to go far. And since I doubt we’ll be able to find one with a similar theme as ours it might be good to see how something else unconventional works!” It sounded so reasonable when he said it like that, Minato almost could have believed him.
“Is it an actual cat cafe crossed with a maid cafe, or is it just maids with cat theming?” One of their classmates asked suspiciously. “If it has actual cats I’m going to pass - I’m allergic to them.”
Ryoji tilted his head, clearly thinking. “Hmm, I didn’t get a good look at it while we were passing, but from what I could tell it looked one cafe with two sections. Probably one for actual food service and one for playing with the cats, if I had to guess. We can always ask when we get there.”
That idea seemed to set even the hesitant ones at ease. A couple of them still begged off to go visit other stores they had planned, but most of them ended up at the cafe.
Fortunately (for those interested in it) they’d chosen a time of day that it was fairly quiet, so there was room for all of them.
It was… about as cutesy as he’d expected. The maid dresses were in various colors and cat designs, with ears and tails to match whatever look they’d gone for. The cafe itself was filled with cat themed items, with food and drink designs to match, and the maids used cutesy cat puns as they took their orders and served them.
It was a bit too saccharine for Minato’s taste, and he saw Chidori and Yukari making equally pained expressions. Normally he’d have expected Junpei to be thrilled at the whole thing, but he seemed more distracted by Chidori’s discomfort than the cute maid girls around them, and he’d reached out to take her hand under the table and leaned down to murmur something to her.
Minato felt a nudge against his leg and glanced over at Ryoji. The boy tilted his head towards he far wall of the cafe. “Thoughts?” he asked.
It took a moment for Minato to realize what he meant, but once he did he took another longer look around the cafe.
It was themed well, he could admit. There was a door just past the entrance stand that led to a room with large open windows so that customers of the cafe could see the cats playing or sleeping inside. The cafe was lighthearted, with white wooden paneling and brown wooden counters, stills of cats either painted on or carved into the wood. The shelves around them were filled with little statues of cats in various materials, alongside pictures of various maids holding cats or cat-themed items. The menus were equally decorated, with pictures of the various cat-themed food and drink items being offered.
“It’s probably good that we aren’t going for subtle with our decorations,” he deadpanned.
That drew a snort from Ryoji as he shrugged. “Most maid cafes are kind of the opposite of subtle on purpose,” he pointed out. “The gimmick’s the point.”
True enough. “I’m not looking forward to untangling all those spiderwebs from each other in the packages, though,” he said. The art club president and Chidori might have gone a little bit overboard in some areas… Though he and the planning committee had at least managed to veto the fake blood paint on the walls.
“They’re not going to be easy to put up…” Ryoji agreed distantly. “Or the lights. And don’t a couple of our classmates have arachnophobia?”
Did they? Minato didn’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise him. “Even the plastic ones?”
“Hmm… those two might have to be greeters outside.”
Whatever; that was a problem for the rest of the committee to figure out. He was just there to make sure nothing broke school code and to help out for an hour or two at the booth itself. Minato tuned back out as the maid came back to check on them and chat with Ryoji, distantly acknowledging that Ryoji was explaining the culture festival and their idea to her. She seemed delighted, laughing at the concept and explaining some of the choices of the decorations of the cafe itself. Minato could see some of the committee members taking notes, so at least they were taking this seriously he supposed.
It was loud and a headache was starting to form behind his eyes. He’d forgotten how loud Tokyo was all the time. Loud and busy, and the bright cheerfulness of the maids and cafe around them wasn’t helping. He was tempted to put on his headphones and just tune everything out.
But he wasn’t quite that rude, so he just disconnected from the interactions and let Ryoji handle them as he watched the fruit fragments in his drink slowly settle and separate.
Another nudge of Ryoji’s leg brought him back and he blinked and looked up to see several of his classmates getting up.
“The others want to go pet the cats,” Ryoji explained, small smile on his face as he clearly understood Minato’s disorientation. “You should go. It’d give you a break.”
Minato frowned at him. “You’re not going?” That was a surprise - Ryoji liked animals. He had, even as Death unable to interact with them except secondhand through Minato.
Ryoji shrugged, something wry and a little sad in it. “Pretty sure I’d just scare them. You know animals don’t like me.”
Oh - that was right. They’d gotten so used to Koromaru’s utter lack of fear that it was easy to forget that most other animals could sense Death and got unnerved. It happened to both of them, but it was infinitely worse for Ryoji as the personification of death itself.
But most wasn’t all, and Minato wasn’t going to leave Ryoji sitting here by himself when he knew that he wanted to go.
Minato stood up and grabbed Ryoji’s hand, pulling him after him. “Come on.”
“Wha- Minato-”
“It’ll be fine.” He dragged him towards the door, Yukari pausing to hold it open for them with a little smile at their clasped hands.
Ryoji looked a little resigned as they entered the room, glancing around at their various classmates luring the cats around into playing or pets, and retreating towards the windows facing the street outside as couple of the nearby cats dart away from them. He settled on the low cushioned bench beside the window and leaned against the wall as Minato sat next to him.
They watched Junpei lying on his stomach dragging a feather toy across the ground for an excited tabby to chase, Chidori sitting seiza on a mat a couple of feet away and slowly petting a long-haired white cat that was sitting elegantly beside her and kneading the mat. Yukari was standing beside the cat tree, reaching up to pet a short haired russet cat with a white heart pattern on its chest as it nuzzled into her hand. Aigis was kneeling beside her and leaning down to peek inside one of the tunnels where an excited orange cat was popping in and out as though trying to lure her into chasing it. Minato glanced over to see a sad, longing smile on Ryoji’s face and subtly reached over to weave their fingers together.
Ryoji squeezed them and sent him a quick smile and little shrug.
There wasn’t really much he could do about this, so Minato just sat next to him and watched the others. It was nice to get a break away from the bright and general loudness of the rest of the cafe and the city outside, and the room with the cats was a much more muted, brown-toned room with a calming atmosphere. It was nice.
They were both taken by surprise after a few minutes when there was a sudden movement from one of the platform rests halfway across the room, and a dark blue-grey cat suddenly rose up and stretched. It caught the attendant’s attention too, and she glanced up with a surprised and slightly concerned expression.
Minato has a moment to wonder why before the cat abruptly swiveled around and looked directly at he and Ryoji.
His breath caught at the sight of it. It was heavily scarred on its left side - missing an eye and its ear slightly tattered, its fur mostly regrown but clear scars beneath it all the same. It stared intensely at them for several long moments before its single eye narrowed and it leapt down from the platform onto the bookshelf in an easy and powerful move. They watched as it wove between the objects on the shelf with ease - so those injuries weren’t new in the slightest, and it was clearly used to accounting for them and its altered depth perception - until it reached the end of it and paused to stare at them for another moment.
Then without any hesitation it leaned down and kicked off the bookshelf to land directly in Ryoji’s lap.
Ryoji froze and stared down at it, taken entirely off-guard, until the cat turned around to glare at him with an accusing look at not immediately receiving the attention it was deigning to demand. Minato snorted as Ryoji hastily reached up to start petting it, carefully avoiding its scars.
The attendant wandered closer with a wondering look, though Minato noticed that she stopped before she got too close.
He tilted his head. “Is this unusual?”
“It is for him.” She watched the cat close his eye and begin purring softly - a rough, growly sound. “He’s one of our newer ones, and is a temporary rescue from Shibuya. We’re just taking care of him until a safe home can be found. He’s… not exactly friendly. He’s wary of strangers in general and will snap at most people if they try to touch him. There are a few exceptions, but they’re all much older customers usually. His favorite - and future home once all the paperwork goes through - is an older man who was… I think he said he was a goods shipment manager in the Shinjuku area, or maybe it was Shinagawa. He’s as gruff and snappish as the cat, but they seem to be soft for each other so I think they’ll be good for each other.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure why he likes you, but I guess there’s something about you that draws him in.”
Ryoji hummed in soft agreement. “Well most animals seem to dislike me for some reason, so I guess he’s just a contrarian.”
“Maybe that would explain it,” she laughed softly. “In that case, I’m glad you get along then.” She waved at them and turned to help one of their classmates untangle one of the kittens from the yarn it had gotten caught up in.
Minato hummed. “Goods shipping from Shinjuku to Shinagawa, huh?”
“Yakuza?” Ryoji asked, dropping his voice.
“Probably. Or former, at least. If he likes us then I guess he’s just indifferent to the feel of death.”
“Or maybe even drawn to it,” Ryoji agreed in a murmur. He looked down at the cat, still purring and kneading gently at his leg. “He’s clearly had it rough.” His lips twitched up. “He reminds me a little of you, actually.”
Minato sent him a flat look but didn’t respond. He knew what Ryoji meant, and he wasn’t exactly wrong.
The cat didn’t seem to mind when Minato reached out to pet him either, which really just pushed Ryoji’s point. The calm atmosphere of the room made it hard to hold onto annoyance though. Especially when Ryoji and the cat both looked so content.
When they all finally left to head home an hour or so later Ryoji was back to a more cheerful state and his arm brushed against Minato’s the whole walk back. It was nice to see that uneasiness in him washed away - even if it meant that he was likely back to plotting how to pressure Minato into a maid dress.
Getting SEES involved was a low blow he hadn't expected.
Minato wasn't sure exactly how he'd convinced them - Junpei and to a lesser degree Aigis were no surprise, but Yukari too??? - but he found himself ganged up on by half his team in the dorm lobby the next day with looks ranging from bemused to determined to devious and had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't win this fight.
So Minato ended up in the maid dress.
It was an ordeal in and of itself that he had to fit in between his other duties, because Ryoji decided to continue the theme of being symbolic and roped Yukari into it, so he found himself being measured more than once.
He did not ask what for; he did not want to know. He'd find out when it was time for the booth either way and he didn't have the energy to resist it, what with all his other duties.
October crept past quickly, days passing one after the next as most of the school gained a frantic edge trying to get everything together in time. The student council became increasingly on-edge and snappish as they tried to get all the paperwork in order and permissions signed on time. Minato found a particular loathing for permission forms for weapons - the kendo team wanted to put on a live technique demonstration with real swords and the sheer number of hoops Minato had to jump through to allow them made him want to reject the idea outright. He hadn't thought it would be that hard when Hidetoshi foisted it off on him but it turned out the school didn't like the idea of openly allowing the students to have real weapons.
The irony wasn't lost on him.
Eventually Minato lost his patience with the whole affair after being forced to argue with the principal directly and just pulled rank by calling Mitsuru and asking her to get permission from her father.
The permissions were granted two hours later.
(He was probably going to be forced to participate in the showcase in exchange, but he could deal with that.)
The week leading up to the festival was exactly as difficult as they expected it to be - Minato hadn’t actually expected anyone to bring in sleeping bags or futons but a couple of them had - and they did, in fact, pull all nighters getting everything in order. On the second night Shinji, Mitsuru, Ryoji, and Aigis showed up around ten with food and drinks to their collective relief. They had prepackaged snacks but real food was preferable.
Mitsuru stayed to help - nearly bringing Hidetoshi and Chihiro to tears out of gratefulness - but the other three were ushered out soon after so they could all get back to work. Shinji and Aigis went easily enough if a bit nonplussed, but Ryoji pouted the whole time as Minato shoved him out the door.
If he’d been allowed to stay Minato wouldn’t have gotten anything done and they both knew it.
And so the days leading up to the festival passed in an increasingly hazy blur of paperwork, classwork, and sleep deprivation until the night before when they finally finished everything and the setup was done. They all collectively breathed a sigh of relief and then went to pass out for several hours before the school day officially began.
And then Minato woke up partially refreshed, had coffee, and braced himself to meet up with his class.
He still hadn’t actually seen the costume Ryoji and Yukari had prepared for him.
Ryoji pulled him into a nearby empty classroom a couple of hours before the event was supposed to begin with a grin that spelled… maybe not trouble, exactly, but an anticipation that made Minato narrow his eyes at him.
He paused when he finally saw it, taking it in.
It wasn’t… bad. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t nearly as obnoxious or frilly or ridiculous as he would have expected. It was an understated black, in the usual design but patterned with white cherry blossoms almost like a kimono would have been. There was a waist chain with very familiar looking coffins hanging from it that made Minato swallow and think back to that final battle. Rather than the usual frills, the bottom had a single line of lace (or faux lace probably) with more cherry blossoms patterned into it, and the apron overtop had cloth blossoms sown into various edges. 
“So, what do you think?”
Minato sighed with a shrug. “It’s fine. Not as ridiculous as I was expecting.”
Ryoji laughed, bumping his shoulder. “Have some faith! Yukari and I wouldn’t be cruel enough to force you into something bad looking. Come on - I’ll help you put it on.”
It probably wasn’t difficult enough to warrant that, but they’d barely seen each other all week and the contact was nice as Ryoji helped tug the fabric into place and buttoned up the back and tied the apron’s ribbon into place. The socks, like the dress, were a simple black with more blossoms sewn into the sides at the top. The shoes were a traditional black with a strap overtop, though the small kitten heel made him roll his eyes.
At the end of it Ryoji stepped in front of him with the same soft smile that he had before as he reached up and slipped the cherry blossom hair clip into Minato’s hair. It drew another sigh from Minato as he closed his eyes and leaned into it.
He couldn’t say he was at all looking forward to this, but… well, he could tolerate it. Even when Yukari showed up and forced him into a chair to do some quick makeup.
At least he didn’t look out of place, he could grudgingly admit to himself as they joined up with the rest of their class beginning to don their own costumes. Ryoji’s costume was clearly inspired by his form as Thanatos - if altered to fit vaguely more into the cafe theme - while many of their classmates had chosen to cosplay one anime or another. He saw several Kuroshitsuji and Kaichou wa Maid-sama inspired cosplays, atop of others that were clearly inspired by something even if he didn’t quite recognize them.
The fact that it took several minutes for anyone to even notice him and do a double take at least meant he wouldn’t draw to much attention from people coming in to try the booth…
The classroom looked good at least. It had just enough creepiness to sell the halloween edge, while still being lighthearted enough not to feel genuinely off-putting.
… as long as you ignored the spiders.
(Granted his perspective was rather skewed, so the fake coffins around may have been creepier to everyone else than they were to SEES.)
Most of the setup had been done the day before, so it was as simple as turning on the equipment and preparing the ingredients and then dividing the tasks. Minato was extremely grateful that he at least had a morning shift so he could avoid the worst of the crowds and have time to deal with the kendo showcase.
Granted that also meant that the rest of SEES showed up first thing in the morning before he was properly awake. Ryoji and Junpei greeted them cheerfully, while Minato just gave them a dead-eyed stare.
They all stared at him for a moment, eyebrows raised.
“Huh,” Akihiko mused, crossing his arms. “I wouldn’t even question it.”
Shiji shook his head. “Guess I see now why Yukari and Ryoji were so confident.”
“It suits you.” Chidori nodded, hand on her chin. “The lace was the correct choice.”
“Wow…”
Junpei snickered and elbowed Minato lightly. “Yeah, never would have guessed, huh? He makes a pretty girl.”
Minato rolled his eyes and ducked around him, ignoring their notes about his costume. “You couldn’t have waited until later?” he asked as he shooed them to a pair of tables and handed them menus. Even Fuuka was here, since her shift for her class was apparently later in the day.
“What, and wait until all the options were gone?” Shinji snorted, skimming over the menu. “Given how much the other three have been hyping it up I want to judge for myself.”
Had they been? He must have missed that while he was drowning in paperwork.
Minato shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, I’ve been busy.”
“Indeed you have,” Mitsuru sighed and brushed her hair from her face. Yukari suddenly appeared next to them and placed down a glass mug filled with frothy, bright pink liquid with red fragments floating around inside and a leaking cherry stuck on the rim of the glass. Mitsuru raised a brow at it and glanced up at Yukari - who was wearing an equally pink maid dress with red stains painted onto it as though dripping from a red spot over her heart. “Do I dare ask what this is?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know either.
Yukari shrugged with a smile. “Coffee. I figured you needed it since you’ve been helping the student council.”
Ken eyed it doubtfully. “That’s… coffee?”
“What kind of coffee is pink?” Akihiko asked in a mutter.
Shinji narrowed his eyes at it, expression thoughtful. “I can think of a few ways.”
Mitsuru stared at it for a few moments before shrugging and picking it up to take a sip. She paused and seemed to be considering. “This… isn’t bad at all. It’s as sweet as I expected and I can taste the cherry… but I wasn’t expecting cinnamon. It has an almost earthy tone… what coffee did you use?”
“It’s just instant coffee, actually.” Ryoji popped over cheerfully as he set a glass with a bright orange drink in front of Ken, green flecks floating around in it. “The pink stuff is beet powder, and we used honey and cinnamon to make it sweet and milk to make it creamy, and then pulverized cherries for the red bits! Is it good?”
“It is, I’m impressed. I suppose you all did your own taste testing?”
“And lots of research,” Yukari agreed, folding her tray behind her back. “We split up the tasks between hunting across Tokyo cafes and across the internet for recipes.”
He’d missed that too, it seemed, and he couldn’t even lie and say he was disappointed about missing taste testing questionable concoctions.
“And what’s this…?” Ken asked warily.
Ryoji grinned at him. “Try it.”
The boy eyed him mistrustfully but hesitantly took a sip. His eyes widened. “Oh, this is really good.”
Yukari nodded, pleased. “We found that one in one of the American inspired cafes near Shinagawa. It’s a pumpkin milkshake. It’s kinda weird, I think it has some sort of sweet cracker ground up in it, but it tastes good.”
“It’s a bit early in the morning for milkshakes, isn’t it?” Shinji scowled down at the purple and green drink that Junpei set down in front of him. “What the hell is this?”
“Gotta try it and find out, senpai!” Junpei said cheerfully.
Shinji made a face but picked it up anyway. He paused, eyebrows raised as he tasted it. “Taro and matcha. Not what I was expecting given your other combinations.”
Ryoji shrugged. “We had to keep some things close to home.” He paused as he saw the drink Aigis was bringing out to Akihiko. “Wait, Akihiko did you get-”
“Oh no,” Yukari muttered, glancing around nervously. “He’s not actually going to drink that, is he?”
“D-Did you actually read the ingredients, senpai…?” Junpei watched Aigis set the drink down with wide, nervous eyes, and Minato wondered what the hell was in it that was making them so worried. Even a few of their other classmates were glancing over with frowns.
Akihiko shrugged. “Not really, but with a name like “Final Gasp” how could I not try it?”
Minato raised an eyebrow at the violently red, thick looking drink with green bits.
Shinji picked up the menu again to read it and Ken leaned over to peek. Ken’s eyes widened and he paled a little while Shinji immediately smirked and looked up to look Akihiko dead in the eye. “Bet you can’t drink that all at once, Aki.”
Yukari and Junpei both choked and Ken’s eyes widened in horror. Ryoji stiffened.
“Akihiko I really wouldn’t recommend-” he began, but Akihiko ignored him to lean forward.
“You really putting an easy bet like that down, Shinji?”
“Akihiko,” Mitsuru sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead. “It could not more obviously be a trap.”
“Of course it is, but a man’s gotta take a challenge head on if he’s to get stronger!”
“So cool, senpai!” Junpei’s fear was forgotten in the face of awe as he cheered him on as usual.
Minato casually leaned over to read the menu as he took Fuuka and Chidori’s drinks from a classmate and handed them to them. Fuuka’s was some electric blue raspberry drink with some sort of yellow and mint decorations, while Chidori got what looked to be a strawberry and cream drink decorated in a way that it looked like blood was trailing down the glass into the milk.
Akihiko’s was-
… were those four types of peppers? Not to mention at least one spicy sauce mixed with tomato and beet juice of all things.
Minato sighed as Akihiko picked up the glass, tilted his head back, and began chugging it.
He could see te exact moment the spices hit because Akihiko’s face screwed up and began turning bright red. To his credit, though, Akihiko did managed to chug the whole thing in one go. He just leaned over his knees choking on air with a crimson face, ears, and neck afterwards. Shinji was still smirking at him while Junpei looked sympathetic, and Yukari and Mitsuru both seemed like they were contemplating whether to throw the both of them out of a window.
His team really was full of idiots sometimes, wasn’t it?
“Try not to die,” he told them all blandly then turned and headed back to the front and away from their antics. Yukari could suffer through it.
The next few hours of the event went smoothly enough. They got a lot of compliments on the theming and their costumes - and Minato got recognized several times with much double-taking and amused confusion that he generally ignored - and lots of interesting reactions from their food and drink offerings. A few more people tried the spicy drink, though only one or two could finish it. The mochi was another hit - white powdered with either red jam or black paste inside - and overall it was a success that went smoothly.
Minato wasn’t sure how to feel about how many compliments and borderline criticisms his costume got from people who didn’t know him. His classmates seemed very amused that no one even noticed that he wasn’t a girl unless they knew him directly, but Minato found himself more exasperated by the comments and compliments he got about his outfit’s theming. The ones who didn’t wondered if it was too pretty (aside from the coffins) while the ones who did waxed poetic about it and beautiful subtlety of the ephemeral nature of cherry blossoms and the fleeting beauty of youth-
Maybe he was just a little too sensitive about the topic of his not-so-metaphorical death and the meaning of the transience of life because some of the comments about it being too subtle or too on-the-nose rubbed him the wrong way.
The problem with it being such a personal reference between SEES he supposed.
But their class’ first shift finally ended around noon and he made his escape back to the empty classroom as the second group came to relieve them. He slumped back against a desk with a sigh.
Ryoji slipped into the classroom with a sympathetic look, sliding the door closed and walking over to lean against him and cage him against the desk. Minato dropped his head against his shoulder and closed his eyes as he just breathed and relaxed to be away from people.
It hadn’t been that bad, honestly. He’d dealt with far worse while working at the actual cafe. But something about some of the inherent misunderstandings of his costume and what it meant needled at him in a way he hadn’t expected. It was just a costume - just a fun gimmick not meant to be taken seriously.
Except it wasn’t.
The pin in his hair, the coffins on his waist, the flowers that referenced his short life and temporary death and return-
Minato sighed.
Ryoji pressed his face to Minato’s hair, murmuring, “Sorry. I didn’t realize how much it’d be.”
“It’s fine,” he sighed and leaned into it. “I don’t know why it bothers me. It’s not like I care about their opinions.” And he didn’t; he couldn’t even remember their faces now. So he wasn’t sure why it annoyed him so much.
“It’s the principle of the matter.” Ryoji wrapped his arms around him in a proper hug. “No one should make light of what you went through or how much you struggled. Even if they don’t know… it shouldn’t be trivialized.”
Minato hummed quietly in acknowledgement. Maybe it was that. But it shouldn’t matter because they didn’t know and couldn’t know. He wouldn’t want them to know. No one should have to know how it felt to become enveloped by death. To know so far ahead of time and see it creeping ever closer year by year until it became day by day knowing it was an inevitability.
You couldn’t close your eyes and cover your ears to escape, after all.
And he’d come back - they both had because Ryoji was stubborn and Aigis asked them to please try despite all odds and SEES was their anchor and Minato had wanted so desperately to stay, but-
He sighed again as he wrapped his arms around Ryoji. “Maybe not,” he said quietly. “But we’re still here.”
“Wounds leave scars.”
“Is it a wound?”
“What else could a death knell be?”
Maybe so.
“We’re still here-” he repeated quietly.
“-and we’ll stay here,” Ryoji finished. “That doesn’t mean the memories don’t hurt.”
Minato didn’t respond - but he didn’t need to. Not with Ryoji. So they just stood there for several minutes together waiting for Minato to recuperate enough to deal with people again.
They eventually pulled apart and changed out of their costumes back into normal clothes to go meet the others, Aigis falling into step with them at the end of the hallway where she’d clearly been waiting for them. It was a quiet comfort.
Especially exploring the rest of the festival with SEES, and Fuuka excitedly showing them her own class’ booth, or being dragged into more trouble by Junpei, Ryoji, and Akihiko, or trying out other weird foods with Mitsuru and Fuuka as Yukari made faces, or listening to Chidori casually eviscerate other class’ costume or decoration choices.
Despite everything, they were still here and would stay here.
~ ᙙᙖ ~
Yes, I know this is… not exactly the prompt. But it’s the closest I could get while still working within this au and keeping a less depressing tone. I thought about PQ2, but then I started mentally plotting it out and it was getting very sad so I decided to do this instead to keep both the linear narrative going and the crying to a minimum.
It is also once again much longer than I intended.
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Late-Night Talks
More Ghost AU fic, sorry for the tardiness.
What the fuck was that?
That was the only thing on his mind after seeing... that thing happen on the bathhouse just a minute ago.
And that was because he just couldn't make any sense of it!
The moment he saw Chihiro's Alter Ego change his appearance to Mondo's, and started to give Kiyotaka a pep talk, he thought that that entire thing would end up the same way as when Mikako did the same for Akane after she and "Yuki" found her with her wrists cut open and wishing to be reunited with Ayame in the afterlife, only to be proven wrong when the Moral Compass started laughing and his hair became white.
Seconds after that strange transformation happened, what it was once a too rule-abiding and straight-laid man had become into what he was sure it was an honor student's idea of a delinquent, before he ran away from the room, with Makoto not being able do anything before he was caught, and reprimanded, by Kyoko.
With everything that had happened in less than a hour, they spent the trip back to Makoto's room in complete silence, the only noise either of them made was him repeating his thoughts out loud once they arrived to the room, before the night announcement played out and Makoto went to his bed, leaving him alone to try to understand what had just happened.
Obviously, something had happened that changed radically the Moral Compass' personality, but, besides that, his mind was completely blank on any answers.
Was he possessed by Mondo's spirit? Was just a strange way to cope with the death of his best friend? Or it was a third, different, thing? He had no idea.
And, besides that can of worms, there was also the horrifying image his brain conjured after the two days he spent unconsciously associating Kiyotaka's depressed state with Akane's started to mix up with... whatever had happened with him:
Akane, with silver-white hair and shining eyes, leaving her real identity behind to become like Ayame.
It was a nauseating thought, warping something familiar into a grotesque and hated shape, that was making his non-existent guts twist thanks to emotions he couldn't comprehend well, but knew that existed deep inside of him.
Because, the moment he started to feel them, a familiar voice made itself known inside of his mind.
A perfect copy of his voice, but dripping malice instead of his lack of emotion, whispering things he couldn't barely hear, but clearly spewing pure hatred and spite towards the disturbing possibility he couldn't help but to imagine.
He shook his head in a attempt to stop the constant yapping in his not-longer-existant brain. Ayame Hatano was finally dead and Akane Taira never became a twisted parody of her after being freed from the depressed state the former's death sent her, so any feelings he still felt towards the sprinter shouldn't mean anything to him anymore.
But still, that voice just won't shut up.
It was clear. He needed to find a distraction right now, or he wasn't going to have a good night.
Taking a look at the room to find something, anything, to quell the spiteful voice on his head, his eyes eventually fell onto the notebook at the side of Makoto's bed, where the pen he spent the entire evening trying, and failing, to grab had been haphazardly left by the luckster after a failed attempt too many, and he finally knew what he was going to do.
---
The moment he woke up and heard the morning announcement, the first thought that was on his mind was Kiyotaka, and what had happened to him last night.
The second, that he would have to tell everyone about what had happened to Kiyotaka.
And the third was the desire to know what, or who, was poking him in the cheek.
Turning his head towards the right, he saw Utsuro holding the pen he tried to help him grab last day right in front of his face, a pen that stayed on his hand for some seconds before falling again through him and onto the bed.
If this scene had happened in any other point of the day, he would have been ecstatic for such improvement, but now that he was still so groggy from waking up, the entire thing was just surreal, the feelings of confusion becoming worse once Utsuro finally talked, only saying three little words:
"I did it"
At his comment, he just nodded and made a vague noise of affirmation, not really processing anything of what just happened, before jumping off his bed and run towards the dining room to finally talk to his classmates.
Only to find the room empty besides Yasuhiro.
The fog of sleep still on his brain made him fail to understand the Clairvoyant's words for a moment, until he heard him say the word "bath", which made his words finally make sense for his tired brain:
The others had to be with Alter Ego.
So, following Yasuhiro, he finally arrived at the bathhouse's dressing room to meet with the others, only to almost be run over by a terrified Hifumi, that was rambling about Kyoko wanting to kill him.
Looking at the girl in confusion, Kyoko made it clear to everyone that she wasn't planning on killing him, and that she just was disappointed with the doujin creator, having caught him multiple times sneaking out to talk with Alter Ego, and only wanting an answer to why he was so wantonly disregarding the rules she put to keep the AI safe from the mastermind.
An answer that pretty much weirded everyone:
He did it because he had fallen in love with Alter Ego.
Because of the AI's digital nature, everyone was either confused, disappointed or creeped out by Hifumi's confession, even when he told them that he fell for him because of the fact that Alter Ego was one of the only beings in the whole world that didn't reacted with disgust towards his geeky interests, but they didn't had much time to chastise him for both his new crush and his reckless actions, because that was the moment when Kiyotaka finally arrived.
And he was still on that strange state he last saw him last night.
At the confusion his classmates were showing at Kiyotaka's, or as he wanted to be now called, 'Ishida's, change of attitude, he told them what happened last night, before Kiyotaka started a fight with Hifumi, clearly having become as obsessed as the Doujin Artist with Alter Ego after what happened last night, a fight that thankfully was stopped by Kyoko and Sakura before the former called the day's meeting done and told everyone to leave to their rooms.
But, once he arrived to his room's door, he stopped in his tracks, hand hovering over the doorknob, before he turned his head towards the direction of Kiyotaka's room.
He still wanted to talk to him, in part to know what truly happened to him when Alter Ego tried to cheer him up, so he started to move towards his room, only to be stopped by a hand over his shoulder.
It was cold and clammy, its fingers going through his clothes like if they weren't there, and resting against his bare skin, making him jump slightly from the sensation before he turned his head towards whoever was grabbing him, ending face to face with Utsuro.
His face looked as unfeeling and flat as always, but he could see a tingle of something behind his eyes, a something that he was able to hear hiding behind the emptiness of Utsuro's voice once the ghost finally talked:
"Don't go there"
He couldn't help but to rise an eyebrow at him in confusion, a gesture which he took as invitation to continue talking "I can see it on your face, Makoto Naegi. You want to talk with Kiyotaka Ishimaru. But now isn't the time for it"
"What do you mean that isnt-" He was already ready to argue with the ghost about how he needed to see Kiyotaka, to know what was wrong with him, but he stopped himself when he finally processed the cold feeling against his shoulder, and realized just what Utsuro was doing "Wait Utsuro, are you... touching me again?"
He couldn't help but to cringe internally at his choice of words, but Utsuro didn't, either because he didn't notice it or didn't cared, instead turning his head towards him, eyebrows raised, before answering him:
"Yes, I'm doing it" His answer was blunt and direct, but with a hint of irritation that he could barely hear behind of his usual flat inflection "Did you forget about the pen already?"
Oh yeah, the pen.
With how tired he was when he woke up, and how chaotic the meeting in the bathhouse was, he almost forgot about how that morning started:
Utsuro poking him in the face with a pen he couldn't held the day before.
"M-maybe...?" He basically sputtered out, earning himself an eye roll from the ghost in the process "L-look, I didn't wanted to forget about it, but a lot went by between last night and this morning and-"
He wasn't able to finish his excuses, because in that moment, the unmistakable noise of a door opening and heels clicking on the hallway's floor was heard towards their left, which made them turn their heads to see their source.
Only to find themselves face to face with Kyoko's stare.
---
When she started to hear noises down the hallway, she wasn't really surprised about it.
After all, she already knew that her classmates would rather spend the day trying to find any distraction to keep their minds away from their current situation instead of spending the entire day inside of their rooms alone with their thoughts.
Instead, what surprised her was what the noise was.
Makoto's voice.
And he sounded like he was talking to someone.
Since the day they found themselves trapped inside of Hope's Peak Academy, and the killing game started, she couldn't help but to be drawn towards Makoto Naegi and his strange, and, may she say, sometimes contradictory, nature.
As their class' Ultimate Lucky Student, he was supposed to be just an ordinary boy that was granted admission to the school's main course thanks to her father's obsession to understand the concepts of "fortune" and "luck", but the longer they spent trapped inside this slaughterhouse, the clearer she could see that there were things hiding behind his unassuming nature.
Like his sharp memory and deductive prowess.
His unbreakable optimism and determination to fight against the mastermind's despair.
And, most importantly for her, his erratic behavior, and the fact that he clearly knew something about the killing game that the rest of them were unaware of, but didn't wanted to tell them anything.
The rational part of her knew that, with the constant surveillance they were put through by the mastermind, telling anything about what he knew would be flat-out suicidal, but she couldn't help but to feel upset about his secrecy and lies.
He was hiding something from her.
And she wanted to know what it was.
Slowly opening the door of her room, she carefully listened to the conversation happening on the hallway, only to realize that she couldn't hear the person with whom Makoto was talking to.
A incongruity that was soon solved when she peered through the door and saw that Makoto was alone, his voice only heard by the dead air at the end of the hallway.
And her own ears, of course.
This behavior of his was one that she had already seen once before, when the mastermind called everyone to tell them the rules of the Class Trials after Sayaka's murder, and something in the depths of her mind was telling her that it had to be the way Makoto was getting all of his information about the killing game.
But still, she knew that a simple "gut feeling" wasn't enough to corroborate something like that.
She needed tangible proof that Makoto was receiving information about the killing game from someone, she needed to find something he could be using to communicate with the outside world.
And she needed to confirm to herself that he wasn't working with the mastermind.
Finally leaving her room, and stepping out into the hallway, she started approaching towards Makoto, whom immediately turned his head towards her direction at the noise of her steps, and waved his hand to her "O-oh hey, Kirigiri. What are you doing?"
From a first look alone, there wasn't any indicator that Makoto had any kind of communication device on his person, and, with how fast she left her room to see him, it would have been impossible for him to hide something like that once he heard her.
But still, she was completely sure that he had to have something hidden within himself.
And she was going to find it, no matter what.
"I thought I heard you talking to someone, so I decided to take a look, to make sure you weren't once again going to take 'unsolicited baths' like you and Ishimaru did last night" Her words were an half-truth, carefully chosen to avoid ringing any bells of suspicion onto both the luckster and the ever-observing mastermind.
Still, she couldn't help but to feel slightly amused at Makoto's reaction to what she said, squirming in clear embarrassment at being caught, but she was able to keep her poker face and hid her reaction to him, who immediately stuttered a response to her words:
"N-no, no, I wasn't planning on doing that, I swear! It's just that, well..." He stopped for a moment, glancing towards Kiyotaka's room before continuing with a more serious tone of voice "I just wanted to check on Ishimaru because, you know..."
"I see..." His body language told her that he wasn't lying in that front, but that wasn't the truth she wanted to know "Considering how he acted today, I believe that he has possibly fallen into some kind of delusional coping mechanism that makes him believe that Alter Ego is somehow the spirit of the fallen Owada. Your desire to check on his mental state is a sweet one, but it's also important to tread with it carefully. There's a big possibility of him hurting us, or worse, if he sees us as a threat to either him or Alter Ego"
Letting out a reluctant noise of affirmation at her words, Makoto then sighed before he let himself fall onto the floor, sitting against his room's door while looking absentmindedly at the ceiling, his eyes searching for something that wasn't there.
Looking at him for some more seconds, still trying to find any hidden devices on his person, and failing, she then decided to sit down at his side, her eyes still analyzing him in complete silence, until he finally talked again.
In the process giving her an question that she wasn't expecting:
"Hey Kirigiri, do you think that this could have happened before?"
"What?" She couldn't help but to say, confused at his words "What do you mean?"
"I meant that if you think if the mastermind has made any more killing games before this one" He clarified to her, his voice dropping into a whisper in a clear attempt to make sure the mastermind couldn't hear him.
The hallway was once again in silence once Makoto had finished talking, but now her attention had been piqued.
He had once again revealed another piece of his hidden knowledge, but this time, he didn't looked like he wanted to hide it behind lies of genre-savinness and far-reaching theories based on unrelated noises.
She had to press on "What do you mean with 'other killing games', Naegi?"
"Well, it's just that... don't you feel like the tricks they use to keep us trapped here, the motives they gave us to convince us to start killing each other, their absolute confidence that we will fall into despair..." He then turned his head towards her, face blank but eyes shining with a furious blaze in them that the rest of his expression didn't betrayed "Don't you feel like if it's all too rehearsed? Too perfect?"
Both his glare, the hatred hidden on it clearly directed exclusively to the mastermind, and his words left her speechless, leaving her unable to do anything besides pondering about what he had just said.
And realizing that he was completely right.
The killing game was too perfect to be the first one of its kind, with the way the mastermind completely cut their communication with the outside world, the way no one has come to rescue them even though they had basically spent two weeks trapped in this place already...
And the fact that she had noticed that the motives the mastermind had gave them seemed to have been tailored to send specific members of their class into the murderous despair they loved so much.
The videos, that apparently preyed so much on Sayaka's worry for her loved ones that it made her betray Makoto for a chance to escape.
The secrets, that could have sent either Mondo or Toko into a frenzy to hide their biggest regrets and crimes from the entire world.
And now the money, which she somehow felt that was made to motivate either Celestia or Yasuhiro to fall into their greedy instincts.
Something like that couldn't be done without any kind of extensive trial-and-error for the "game"s mechanics, or in-depth knowledge of their personal lives and mental struggles, which made two things clear to her:
That, just like Makoto had just told to her, the mastermind had to have caused more killing games to perfect the one they were trapped now.
And that, in some way or another, they have been under the mastermind's radar for a long while, their weakness and fears being silently extracted out of their actions for the person behind Monokuma to use against them.
But still, even with the questions that now had been answered, there were still many more whose answers were still evading her even now:
Who was giving Makoto all that specific information about the killing game and how were they doing it?
Why they couldn't remember anything about Hope's Peak closing down or the disappearances of the person behind Monokuma's possible previous victims?
Why she had the feeling that the mastermind did something to their bodies?
And why she, no matter how she tried, couldn't remember anything about herself?
Sadly, those questions looked like they weren't going to be answered soon, because Makoto's eyes then widened before he stood up in a panic, babbling to her an interesting choice of words before running to, and shutting himself inside of, his room:
"O-oh no, I think I said too much... I-I have to go! Kirigiri, j-just, forget what I said, alright? Alright, goodnight! See you tomorrow!"
And like that, one of the biggest leads she had to discover the truth behind their imprisonment ran away from her, scared of whatever consequences he could suffer from what he had revealed to her.
But still, she wasn't going to let this small hiccup stop her from solving the mysteries surrounding both the killing game they had been left trapped in, and the mastermind pulling its strings.
Finally getting up from the floor and dusting off her skirt of any dirt it could have accumulated, she started to walk back to her room but, once she grabbed the knob of the still open door, she turned her head towards the door of Makoto's room, then she turned it towards the door connecting the bedrooms with the rest of the building, and finally, she made a decision:
She closed the door of her room.
And walked once more into the school.
If she was sure of something, it was that the longer they spent trapped inside this building, the shorter their chances to survive would become, and they had already lost 4 classmates to the mastermind's whims, a number that will keep rising until all 15 of them are dead if nothing is done.
But she was going to do something about it.
And that something is that she will find the truth behind the identity of the mastermind, and she will stop the killing game once at for all.
No matter what she had to do to do it.
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harzekeenjoyer · 2 months
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bored so heres some dr hcs :D (THH, SDR2 and NDRV3)
Makoto Naegi: Nobody can convince me he’s not pan, its too obvious.
Kyoko Kirigiri: Asexual, and prolly like bi or omni
Byakuya Togami: BISEXUAL ALERT BISEXUAL ALERT
Toko Fukawa: lesbian lesbian (not for Komaru. /srs)
Aoi Asahina: Im convinced shes pansexual
Yasuhiro Hagakure: the gayness is pure
Sayaka Maizono: Im thinking bi.
Mukuro Ikusaba: unlabed lesbian. im calling it.
Leon Kuwata: Cannot convince me hes not pan. nobody ever will.
Chihiro Fujisaki: Transfem Bisexual i am calling it
Mondo Owada: me sexual (/j) everyone thinks hes bi or gay but i personally think hes omni i swear he told me
Kiyotaka Ishimaru: gay gay homosexual gay
Hifumi Yamada: HES A FICTOROMANTIC.
Celestia Ludenburg: i personally think shes omni (male lean)
Sakura Ogami: lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbiannn
Junko Enoshima: aroace (despairsexual /j)
Hajime Hinata: hes bisexual (female lean)
Kazuichi Souda: erm sir you said the bisexual meter could only go to 100. why is it at 2735286282727? ;-;
Akane Owari: lesbian istg
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu: hes so bi i js know it
Sonia Nevermind: transfem demigirl lesbian ik it
Byakuya Twogami: Aroace.
Teruteru Hanamura: do i rlly need to answer this one..? (bisexual male lean tbh)
Mahiru Koizumi: bisexual. bi bi bothkisser bi
Peko Pekoyama: lesbian i just get that feeling from her
Ibuki Mioda: shes up for anything, omni no pref
Hiyoko Saionji: transfem bisexual
Mikan Tsumiki: lesbiannnn
Nekomaru Nidai: Omni male pref i js know it
Gundham Tanaka: gay trans ftm (i love him)
Nagito Komaeda: Aroace, he thinks hes trash (he is to me)
Chiaki Nanami: I feel like shes pan, idk why she js is
Shuichi Saihara: Aroace, i just get that feeling yk?
Himiko Yumeno: lesbian (y are there so many of them)
Maki Harukawa: again, lesbian.
Rantaro Amami: Transmasc
Kaede Akamatsu: I honestly dont see her looking for a relationship she’s aroace to me
Ryoma Hoshi: bi i’d say
Kirumi Tojo: tbh idfk pan or smth
Angie Yonaga: lesbian or bi i think
Tenko Chabashira: lesbian but i don’t ship her w anyone.
Korekiyo Shinguji: pan and genderfluid!! (totally didnt find this hc on tiktok and immediately admired it)
Miu Iruma: bi. shes angel dust if he was real
Gonta Gokuhara: Pan probably
Kokichi Ouma: bi i think??
Kaito Momota: gay i think
Kiibo/K1-B0: bi or gay (?)
Tsumugi Shirogane: lesbian aroace
A/N: not doing udg bc i dont feel like it
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danggirlronpa · 3 months
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3, 4, 7, 14, 15, 21, 46, and 47? Or any combination thereof! I know that's. a lot in one ask. ><;;;;;;
I've done a couple of these already, so I'll skip those! (And I didn't do 46 and 47 just because my back is starting to hurt from sitting up. I'll try to remember to pull this post up again in the morning to type it out!)
3. Did you have a character you hated at first, and then fell in love with? Who and why?
Toko, for sure. Which is intentional - they specifically set her on a much better arc in Ultra Despair Girls, when she went from "metaphorical manifestation of teen self loathing manifesting as misguided romance" to "a main character with an entire arc that has to bounce off other characters in a manner which is sympathetic." Which retroactively changes a lot of her character in THH, too! I think both the implied off-screen character arc and the on-screen character arc we actually see are exceptional, and a great example of how to give depth to a previously flat character, writing-wise.
4. Which character can you absolutely not stand?
BYAKUYA. AND. KOREKIYO. I loathe them. I didn't use to care about Korekiyo either way, but the more people talk about him in certain ways and specifically talk at me in certain ways, the less and less I've liked him. It's grown into a burning hatred. Sorry y'all. They suck.
14. What is your NOTP?
Byakuya//Toko for sure, though Syo//Chihiro is also up there (sorry Syo//Chihiro shippers, the writers' transphobia did me in).
21. What do you think could be improved about Danganronpa?
The obvious thing is the colorism. But from a purely mechanical perspective: the minigames. The minigames in Danganronpa suck. They suck so bad. It's the game's main way of standing out from other Visual Novels. And it is so, so weak.
Part of this is just that I, As A Game Dev, don't like minigames - which, for our purposes, are a self-contained game with mechanics completely independent from the rest of the gameplay. Things like Salmon Fishing or Logic Dive - these don't connect at all to the core gameplay of Danganronpa (logic and deduction) except superficially.
And that sucks. It breaks immersion, and it feels like transparent for padding for time. It doesn't even have the dignity to be fun for the most part!! The move to imitation gambling in V3 to an outright gacha game in Summer Camp really exemplifies this. I know you were looking for a narrative answer here, but I truly believe that gameplay is Danganronpa's weakest point (including UDG, though to a lesser extent).
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Takaaki has definitely left Chihiro at the store. He never leaves Taka and Kiyondo because the twins were always running around or one of them (Taka) was yelling at the other (Kiyondo.) But Chihiro is quiet. He sometimes forgets he brought the boy with him, so he'd do the shopping and check out and forget Chihiro was with him.
He'll get home and put everything away. He'll feel like he forgot something but continue with his day. Then Taichi would come in and ask him where Chihiro was.
That's the moment of pure horror Takaaki feels.
"I forgot to get something at the store, I'll be right back, Dear." Then fucking rushes to the store and look for Chihiro who is in the soup isle crying and calling for Takaaki. Takaaki would scoop him up, crying as well and profusely starts apologizing for leaving him at the store.
The people at the store think something is wrong over there, but they're too scared to intervene.
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shsl-roomba · 4 months
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Aiko Umesawa :3c
oh that girl is ADORABLE despite her lack of content all of these are running on pure vibes
1- i don’t really know…? idk. inspiration just didn’t strike it seems
2- she has tgirl swag i can FEEL it
3- once again i don’t know
4- i think she and chihiro should be friends. it sounds cute. just off vibes
5- she doesn’t really have any ships😭 sorry if this is unsatisfactory lol
6- shes definitely good at video games. the council plays a video game together and she utterly destroys them. leaves no survivor
7- she barely has any content so i don’t feel too strongly about her but her design is so damn cute i love it
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dangans-ur-ronpas · 2 months
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danganronpa monsters and mythics au: some miscellaneous stuff about students and general life:
jin kirigiri is from a family of monster-hunters. his wife built kyoko and the two of them raised her like a daughter, but upon his wife's death kyoko was taken in by the kirigiri family to be used as a tool. jin encouraged her to gain independence and learn what it means to be alive
hope's peak is a school for only nonhuman students. jin, employed at hpa originally as a teacher for human studies and then as director, was the first one to propose a class with human students. after a lot of back and forth he agreed to a class that consisted of mostly nonhuman students with some experience with humans, and only a few full human students who might be able to stand on equal ground with their peers through magic or other skills
makoto, with no magic or noteworthy skills, was enrolled by sheer luck. the new class already had 3 human students, and was planning on enrolling a leprechaun - but the leprechaun never responded to the letter, so they reached out to a human with inhuman luck instead. makoto accepted without really researching beforehand
small species, like pixies, usually live separately from others due to accessibility issues. some, like chihiro, might try to overcome this by building magic prosthetics to allow them to use tools and do things intended for larger species
similarly, species without opposable thumbs or not suited to land environments will also use prosthetics and mobility aids, like sayaka
recent years has seen more and more cross-species interactions with human populations. sayaka, for example, has a human following, though a number of them believe she's just a human performer with a fantasy gimmick
humans usually have a shorter lifespan compared to most other species, so human-hybrids usually have a growth period and lifespan that doesn't match up with their human side or nonhuman side - for example, byakuya grew up too slow for human society and too fast for dragons. as such he was mostly homeschooled
unlike monster-hunters, exorcists and ghosts are not human-only phenomena. but there are more human ghosts than any other species, so its theorized that the science of becoming a ghost or undead might not be linked to the amount of magic that the deceased had...or, that there are so many humans that die so quickly, that most ghosts would end up human by sheer numbers
magic varies. different species have different sciences defined for it - i.e: the fundamentals of shapeshifting magic differs between those who are born able to do it (i.e selkies) and those who have the ability for it, but need to train and hone it (i.e kitsunes and tanukis) and even those who need to learn from scratch (i.e a human person trying to shapeshift with magic)
there's a lot of theorizing on why so many species might have humanoid features or human appearances in certain circumstances (i.e: selkies, werewolves, even harpies have human faces). currently the jury's out on whether it's because of cross-breeding or evolution, or both. or magic
magic is considered a science. the only difference between a magic smartphone and a human smartphone is a human smartphone uses electricity vs magic - the most concrete thing that defines all magic is, it's something that most nonhumans can perceive and manipulate, but a nonhuman can usually identify another nonhuman out of a group of humans purely by sensing magic
vice versa, things like the harnessing of electricity and uh. bluetooth is considered a magic used only by humans
humans can use magic, but it's difficult and most people need to be born with that affinity first
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solomonssock · 1 year
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Hello and welcome to my not serious writing blog, a safe space for fun and practice!
I'll never have a post schedule since I work + do game writing/narrative design, but if I get requests I'm more likely to write something then just trying to drop stuff off the cranium.
I'm 23 and you can call me Mock! But anything you want to call me works too, I'm not picky.
Not writing explicit NSFW and DNI is about the same as other writing blogs. If you try something, I just won't interact, I'm too tired man
✮•✮Masterlist✮•✮
Willing to write for (Subject to change):
Obey Me
Dangan Ronpa (V1)
Favorites in each:
Obey Me:
Diavolo
Asmodeus
Simeon
Barbatos
DRV1:
Chihiro Fujisaki
Sakura Ogami
Naegi Makoto
Kyoko Kirigiri
Requesting:
If you'd like to request, please do! I'm figuring out my limits as I go along, but the common hard NOs you find in other writing blogs likely will apply here, too. Suggestive content can make the cut for some characters, but nothing explicit for the time being. I'd also like to keep reader inserts gender neutral at this time so that everyone can enjoy!
Most content I see seems to be based on the premise of an established romantic relationship with whatever character(s), but please know you are more than welcome to request purely platonic scenarios as well! (I really enjoy writing them 🫶)
Disclaimer for OM: Luke will only ever be written platonically. He is 11, and it's self-explanatory. Also, not writing Mephistopheles, Raphael, and Thirteen centered content until I reach them in-game (on chapter 40 something guys, root for me!).
I have no limit currently on how many characters can be requested, but treat it like on line shopping. More items + same-day delivery = longer wait times until arrival.
If you have no idea what to request or feel shy, no worries! Here are some templates to help you along:
Could you write a scenario where [character name] does [a specific action]?
How would [character name] react to [something said, an event, scenario, etc]?
Could you write a ficlet based around [a theme, object, feeling, saying, etc..] with [character name]?
Happy requesting!
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wariosupporter · 8 months
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Comfort movie tag
Tagged by @tweetsongs !
7 comfort movies , tag 7 people.
I made a letterbox for this, so thanks for tagging me rainny 😊 letterboxd is fun >:]
In no particular order:
1. Romeo + Juliet- I love this movie so much. Leo dicap is in his full 90s twink era , the movie is so colourful and expressive and so Shakespeare. THE best adaptation for real. When tybalt threw off his jacket to reveal the Jesus Christ tight denim vest, I was like oh my god. This is cinema. Pure vibes.
2. Suckerpunch- me and my sister watch this movie together a lot. I like movies that are very elastic, non realistic and expressive. this one hits all those points. It centers on a group of girls who are being exploited by an orphanage . They aim to escape together, which they do so through these dream action sequences. It's got p dark themes but ya still def a comfort watch.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs the world . YEAH. I watched this as a teenager , im from Toronto and I am in love with Ramona flowers like any other chump who listened to too much bright eyes in the 2010s. But fr, the way the comedy and visuals in this movie calls back to the comics is great, and the way the actors deliver their lines works for what this movie is about.
4. Amelie - another one of the elastic , unrealistic , visually interesting movies. This movie is really twee and cute but there is something about it that is a bit of a callout haha. One of those , oh no I'm in this one ! Movies. But hopeful because hey she figures it out. This one is filled with so many little snippets of other stories , little details everywhere :)) love that.
5. Back to the future- this is a movie I watched with my dad a lot. We both really like it , it's a fun romp with memorable characters and great performances like . Classic movie , easy to love. Also super cartoon-y and leaning into it.
6. Spirited away- One of my fave miazaki films and the first one I ever saw. Its a movie I've been able to evolve with , and that's a joy. As a kid I felt that sort of dreamy and sad atmosphere, but I focused on the story and the fantastical elements. As an adult, it's so clear that a lot of the miazaki movies are about young adulthood. That dreamy / sad mood hits different when you realize you're living in it, and the way the protag stumbles through everything? And is just desperately trying to get through it ..Yeah it's sooooo early 20s. You'll make it chihiro.
7. Over the garden wall - I love this miniseries so much and I aim to watch it in October. I love the music , "send me a peach" was not even in the series and it is SUCH a good song. Theres so much lore , and so many layers to the story. AND you can just feel that it was crafted with a lot of love :))) . A mini series that you can come back to and pick up a new detail and glean new meaning everytime.
Tagging: @treesbian @vampire-jester @jessepinkmanpussypower @bastardbeewoman @poltergeistguy @neil-gaiman @reallyndacarter
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fujisakistan · 1 year
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Chihiro confessing to s/o
You had been friends for quite some time now, but the programmer couldn't help but feel something else. It wasn't a feeling he was familiar with, like one of pure bliss whenever he was around you, just to be in your presence left him overjoyed. He thought he was usually too busy working with computers to feel something like this, but the butterflies in his stomach tell him otherwise, he was in love with you, and little did he know, you felt the same way. He wanted to be strong enough to tell you in person, but his shyness got the better of him, but he had decided, today was the day he'd confess his true feelings. After seeking advice from his friends Mondo and Taka, he decided he'd confess in his own Chihiro way.
The bell had rung, you'd just finished an exhausting math hour, but were relieved to be heading out for lunch. Upon walking out the door, you were beckoned by a certain biker gang leader to go over to him.
"Yo, Chihiro needs your help in the library, said it was real important." He said with a grin. Beside him, Taka had a giddy look he couldn't contain.
"That's right! You gotta go now! Don't keep him waiting!" The moral compass practically shouted, which wasn't uncommon for him.
You smiled at the couple, "Thank you guys, I'll head over there quickly." You scurried off toward the library to see what your smart friend needed your help with, unaware of what he had in store.
You dodged the rush of students flooding the halls and entered the dimly-lit library. It was surprisingly empty other than the librarians at the front desk. You had managed to spot Chihiro standing in the corner near the computers. The boy noticed you approaching and frantically typed something into his laptop.
"J-j-just a m-minute.." He managed to let out as he lifted the laptop so the screen was facing you, hiding his face behind it.
What he showed you was an A.I. of Chihiro himself, smiling back at you. You had wondered what he needed help with, if he truly needed help. The programmer clicked the space bar and the Chihiro on the computer began talking.
"Hello S/O! I'm sorry for interrupting anything, but I have something I really need to tell you today..." You could notice Chihiro trembling slightly as the computer continued it's message, "So... I've been really enjoying our time as friends. I truly feel safe around you, and you never judge me, even when I told you I was a boy. You make me feel happy and good about myself, that I'm strong in my own way and I'm really grateful to have a friend like you. Lately though, I've been feeling something... new, like I want something more between us, whenever I'm with you I get so happy and you're so amazing and funny and kind and I wanted to tell you that... I like you, like as more than a friend, but I'm too nervous to tell you myself, so I programmed this for you.. I'm hoping you feel the same and if not, we can continue being friends." The A.I. gave one last smile before the screen turned black, indicating the message was over.
Chihiro was still holding the computer, trembling as you closed the laptop to set it down for him. When you closed the screen, you noticed the boy was as red as a fire truck, but on the verge of tears, awaiting whatever response you could have. "S-S/o, I-I-I-".
"Hey, Chihiro." He looked up at you with eyes sparkling from his tears. "I'm so honoured that you'd do something like this for me, it's so sweet." You wrap your arms around him, "I want you to know, I feel the same way about you. You're very smart and sweet and you're such an amazing person, I'd be lucky to have a boyfriend like you."
You felt a pair of arms return your loving embrace, filling you with warmth. The tears had stopped flowing and Chihiro couldn't help his smile, knowing he hadn't ruined a long friendship, but instead had gained a loving s/o. "T-thank you, s/o."
As you two shared the moment together, wrapped in eachother's arms, a shout could be heard from behing a shelf, "OMG MONDO! HE DID IT! HE REALLY DID IT!" Taka revealed his and Mondo's location, the latter just chuckling in response. You couldn't help but giggle at Taka's excitement, as well as your own, as you had just gained the most amazing boyfriend you could ask for.
You couldn't wait to experience the amazing relationship and future in store for you.
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tokofukawa506 · 5 months
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For some reason I haven’t been here for a very long time... And yes, good day. Happy New Year to you all! I wish you a great year and that everything goes well for you! Hope you had a good holiday!
I'LL TELL YOU IMMEDIATELY!
This is purely my personal opinion, you may not agree with it! I will be based on the canon, my views and attitude towards this ship. I’ll say right away that validity, overvaluation and canonicity are relative concepts, everyone has their own. I ship characters based on several criteria:
1. Relationships of characters (Mutual sympathy, friendship or supposed friendship (if the characters are not familiar). I don’t ship enemies and those who have unpleasant relationships)
2. Combination of characters' colors (For example, Saimatsu: Kaede - pink, Shuichi - blue)
3. My attitude towards one of the characters. That is, I will not ship my favorite character with my least favorite one
I'm also a fan of unusual ships, but there's a limit. Unusual ships are divided into 2 types:
1. Well-founded
2. It’s as if the characters were chosen by roulette, that is, very strange
Well... I think I've said everything, let's begin
First I will evaluate the popular ships with Toko. Namely Togafuka and Tokomaru
1. Togafuka (Toko/Byakuya)
Honestly, this is the most toxic ship I've ever seen.... Especially if you remember Byakuya's attitude towards Toko. He insulted her, wished her death, framed her at trial, and as a result, people idealize a disgusting attitude both towards a person and towards themselves (this is about Toko). I think Toko deserves a lot more treatment. Yes, he changed a little at the end of the 1st game, as well as in UDG and in the 2nd season of the anime, but this does not change his terrible attitude towards her
When I first joined the fandom, I was looking for some Toko ship that I would like. But at the moment I didn't know about the existence of Fukaguji, and I didn't like Tokomaru, so I had to watch Togafuka content :_
2. Tokomaru (Toko/Komaru)
For me, this ship is too overrated.... Even too much. People turned a blind eye to 2 facts that prevent this ship:
1. Toko’s attitude towards such a love line
Toko literally hates yaoi and yuri. Well, a person who hates this is unlikely to date a person of the same gender. Yes, Jack likes this genre, but that doesn't mean she likes girls. Moreover, this was not mentioned anywhere. And I don't understand people who say Toko is a lesbian. How can she be a lesbian if she likes Byakuya... In theory, she is definitely not a lesbian anymore
Okay, people don't pay attention to this fact, okay. But now let's move on to the next fact
2. Age difference
If you read the wiki, you can see that Komaru is 15 years old, and Toko, due to memory loss, is somewhere around 20-21. Well... As for me, this is a very unpleasant fact... Especially considering the fact that Komaru is underage. In Japan, adulthood begins at age 20.
I see their relationship as mentor and student. They are definitely friends, but nothing more
3. Chitoko (Toko/Chihiro)
To be honest, I don't know why they ship them. Most likely they are shipped because they are both shy and introverted, and also hide their real personalities (Toko has her split personality, and Chihiro has his true gender). I have nothing to say about this thorn, well, it’s supposed to be there and that’s all
4. Ishitoko (Toko/Kiyotaka)
Same situation as Chitoko. I don't know what to say about him. No idea why they ship them. I just don't care about this ship
5. Leotoko (Toko/Leon)
This ship is very strange to me. I don't understand why they ship them
6. Hagafuka (Toko/Yasuhiro)
The same situation as with Leokawa. I don’t even know what’s weirder, this ship or that one
7. Naekawa (Toko/Makoto)
I am neutral about this ship. As I understand it, they are shipped because of the freetimes. Well, okay in principle, I don’t care about this ship
8. Rantoko (Toko/Rantaro)
THEY ARE SHIPPED?! Honestly, this is the first time I've seen this ship... I don't know what to say. I can't even imagine why they might be shippered...
9. Fukaguji (Toko/Korekiyo)
This is one of my favorite ships. For me it is very comfortable. Although they are from different parts, we can see their interactions in Danganronpa S. For example, when Toko and Korekiyo were having discussions with Angie on the topic of faith, and Korekiyo agreed with Toko. Or when Korekiyo talked to Genocide Jack about her behavior (I don’t remember what exactly they talked about, sorry :_)). I also really like the way he addresses her, which is "Little Lady". I think if they were in the same game they would be shipped. As for me, they have a lot in common, they have something to talk about. And they could help each other (For example, Toko would help Korekiyo write articles about his travels). I also like the combination of purple and green
10. Yamafuka (Toko/Hifumi)
For me this ship is on par with Togafuka. Very disgusting. I admit, Hifumi is one of my least favorite characters in the franchise. He is as repulsive as possible. Most likely they are shipped because they are both writers and vulgar. But they have completely different reasons for this behavior. Toko has it because of his bad experience, and Hifumi... Well... Because that's how he is. I don't like this ship
11. Owakawa (Toko/Mondo)
I have no idea how this ship appeared... Well, really. I do not know what to say
12. Fumaeda (Toko/Nagito)
Yes, there is such a ship. Most likely they are shipped due to interactions in UDG. But I don't see any love line in their relationship. It even smells toxic
13. Kuzukawa (Toko/Fyuhiko)
WHAT?! HOW?! THERE'S JUST NO COMMENTS HERE...
14. Gokukawa (Toko/Gonta)
The same situation as with the previous ship....
15. Fukanata (Toko/Hajime)
Most likely, this ship appeared due to the fact that they both have split personalities. A very strange reason for their shipping
Something like this. I won't rate ships with girls because I don't see the point in doing so because of Toko's attitude towards femslash
Oh... Something has boiled over me... I hope you didn’t find my point of view negative. That's all for me, I wish you all a good day!
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frauleinandry · 1 year
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alright, now that I’ve had a few days to digest things, I’m going to talk about what I’d do/what I’d like to see in the potential persona 3 remake! it was getting too long, so I’m just going to talk purely about gameplay changes in this post (ignoring obvious QOL changes/visual improvement).
like most people, I’m a huge non-randomised tartarus truther. sorry, but atlus cannot make procedurally generated dungeons for the life of them. I don’t want any old random dungeon design though, no. I want each block of tartarus to have a theme. my initial thoughts were that they could be based on ways of dying (i.e. sickness, injury, old age), though I’m equally as enamoured with them being based on the stages of life (infancy, childhood, teen years, etc, etc, ending with death). it’d sync pretty well with the nyx fight, after all. there’s one more change I’d make to tartarus, but I’ll talk about that later when I get on to the narrative.
while on the topic of gameplay, the real world segments obviously need an overhaul too. I think persona 3 would really benefit more things to do at night in general, especially late-game. I’d make it so you can still access all non-gekkoukan areas in the evening, and throw in equivalents to the jazz jin/etc.
another thing that needs to be revamped though is the social link system. while I’d like to think atlus would include the F!MC in the remake, even if they don’t, all of the male members of SEES absolutely need a social link for the male MC regardless. it’s... ridiculous that they don’t, honestly. In my ideal P3 remake, both MCs will have set social links with every member of SEES, however like in persona 4, you'd be able to choose between multiple different characters for the other links. so, for hermit, you’d have the choice of either maya/saori, or bebe/chihiro for temperance, etc. I’d maybe swap ryoji from fortune to a non-standard arcana like faith as well (aaaaand his link would be an auto level up one, given his plot importance).
speaking of links, I’d make some available earlier on, but prevent progress of them after a certain point. like, mitsuru gets so screwed over with her link not being available until late november of all times. it would not hurt having access to say, her ranks 1-4 before then. I’d also make it so the SEES/student social links have more availably. there’s pretty much two whole months of gameplay where you can’t progress any of them, which hurts because over half your links are gekkoukan-locked. as a final note, atlus also needs to reintroduce the P5 ability to hang out with maxed links, as I felt bad dating my dude akihiko and then never speaking to him again.
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metal-queer-rex · 1 year
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May I have a Sakura for the ask game 👉👈
Favourite thing about them so difficult to not just say everything, but i especially like how protective she is of her friends. she's very rough and rugged but under her appearances she's super caring
Least favorite thing about them the aliven't makes me too sad
Favourite Line "Whatever you subject us to, we will not break."
brOTP chihiro!
OTP Aoi of course <3
nOTP men
Random headcanon going to hope's peak helped her hang out with girls (a lot of strong ones too!) and got her out of her "gotta be strong, can't be emotive" mindset
Unpopular opinion i'm not a fan of her design from before she's all beefed up
Song I associate with them ouch that was a hard one, but uhhhh Satori from The Blood Spray of Goemon Ishikawa
Favourite picture of them this one image of pure 100% lesbianism
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