#I keep feeling the need to apologize for maki being maki so I am sorry FGHGFD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

psychewritesbs · 1 year

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even though I do not mind the weekly or bi weekly chapter releases and enjoy them, I kind of wish I would wake up one day and the final chapter of jjk would be here lol

I mean this as like the time left with the series is fast forwarded. I don't like rushing in any context, but I feel like I want to know the ending before I fall out of love with the series. I've enjoyed what gege has given in the story so far, but there is plenty of choices I would say I do not agree with imo. He seems like he has a vision of how things need to go, but getting there seems to have some issues. I also kind of hate it when authors say they want to end the story especially when it feels like it will be rushed, and is JJK's case it's sometimes hard to enjoy the story after its been said bc I'm just wondering if we're spending too much time on one thing before we need to move to the next point, but I'll still try to see the story's good and the bad and enjoy what I can. I'm going to reread the culling game arc soon, but I feel like those first fights were about gaining allies, but I can say I wasn't expecting it to go like that if that was the intention. I don't mind kenjaku having secret plans bc it's obvious when it comes to them, but I feel as though that plan overshadowed the point of the cg?? I thought there would be more focus of to kill or not, etc and I see that the most for megumi and yuji (they had my fav colony battles), and I get it somewhat with yuta, but I dont see it too importantly with hakari or maki. I'm going to reread the arc regardless because I can always be confused or a bit slower in catching on so forgive me if my insight is lackluster. I liked the running themes during yuki vs kenjaku, but her "death" felt very unnecessary because she seemed really important in achieving a curse free world and idk about you but that seems like an important goal imo and yeah someone else could lead that charge but what was wrong with yuki doing that? I don't know, but I can only hope the remaining part of the story alongside its ending is something not only we can gain some satisfaction with, but the author too can look back and say, "hey it was pretty good at least"

Gege doesn't seem to drop the ball too much with Yuji or at least megumi too, and I'm not too worried since they're my characters of interest currently, but I want to reread this story and actually believe it when I say I thought all the cast was good and I believe the writing can be better or can get worse (idk) but time will tell it all. I'm a recurring anon, so I'm sorry if the apologies are constant and sound like emails at the end 😅

Dear Recurring Anon,

HOLA! Thanks for being my recurring anon and reaching out again!

Ok but listen... I’ve been sitting on your ask for a while thinking of what I wanted to say and how to say it. I’ve probably started 3 different drafts for my response. So thanks for your patience!

Truth of the matter is that when I read your words, what it comes down to is that, even though you don’t like the recent direction the manga has taken, Jujutsu Kaisen still holds an important place in your heart.

So I think the most important question to keep in mind is that, in a story like JJK where the strongest sorcerers have the most overwhelming sense of self... where does your sense of self stand in all of this?

What do you want to take with you from JJK?

The stuff you didn’t like because it didn’t live up to your expectations?

Or the stuff you loved even though JJK was incredibly flawed?

Of course there’s more word vomit under the cut lol... you know how I roll.

I’ll start by asking you to forgive me if I’m wrong and you just really needed a container where your thoughts on the current state of JJK would be honored and acknowledged. The truth is that I totally get where you’re coming from.

I do.

I hear you.

It’s just that it’s in my perhaps annoying nature to be stupidly optimistic even when I am being a realist. There’s always a silver lining to everything if you are willing to make the effort to find it.

So, yes, I agree, and I’m also going to challenge you to find a way to continue loving JJK if that’s what you want for yourself.

That said... lets get on with the bitching lol.

Problems with JJK, problems everywhere!

Your concern regarding the pacing in the story is something that I share with you. Most especially the concern that, moving forward, Gege is going to cut corners. I’d also say that at this point this “concern” is factually canon lol.

I also agree so much with the sentiment of “is he taking too much time on this when he should be addressing this other plot point?” And I think nothing captures that dilemma quite like the Culling Game arc does--ESPECIALLY with the way he handled the chosoyuki ordeal.

Like we got pages upon pages of all of these characters and exposition and dialogue and like... wait, what was the point of the Culling Game again?

Why has no one died yet?!

Why is Yuta kissing a cockroach and why are Kashi-chan and Kin-chan trying to see who has the biggest ego (pun intended)?

Like I swear for weeks I've been like “ok it’s going down!!!! yeah here comes the angst and the deaths aaaaaaand ok never mind then.... maybe next chapter? ok.... next chapter? ok next chapter for sure. no? next chapter?”

FOR WEEKS! It’s all recorded in my chapter liveblogs lol.

Truth is, to me, the Culling Game is a weird arc because I am still trying to understand its significance within the larger Jujutsu scheme of things.

Perhaps he bit more than he could chew with the Culling Game? And as a writer myself I find this kind of relatable. I’m actually seeing what is happening with JJK and taking note of how having too many themes and plot lines can ultimately be detrimental to a story if you can’t, or are unable to execute them all to a satisfying conclusion.

So to your point about re-reading the Culling Game arc... let’s hope that Gege manages to bring it all full circle. But as things stand right now, we’re in the middle of whatever Gege has in mind so it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.

What I’ll say is that I have enjoyed parts of it with reckless abandon...

Literal picture of me reading through the absolutely ridiculous battle between Kashi-chan and Kin-chan:

I also think that, at best, we have gotten in-depth character studies (because Gege is harping on the idea about the sense of self being at the core of power in JJK) and needed exposition.

For example, even though Naoya coming back was soooooo cringe to me, I can still see the purpose it served in the narrative. Did I enjoy the journey? Not really. Same for Maki’s development.

The thing is that even if I agree with you on everything I just mentioned... I can’t unsee the story written between the lines even if the execution of the panels falls short, because I am always reading at a meta level.

I am passionate about story telling and how stories move humans, so to me, now that I’ve seen and acknowledge these flaws in the work, reading JJK is less about what’s on the panels, and more about the story he is trying to tell on a meta level through the panels.

My chosoyuki meta is a great example of me recognizing the story being told between the lines. And once I went down all of the rabbit holes I went down, even though I agree wholeheartedly that the execution fell short, the story told in the symbols was amazing to me. It honestly made me wish that Gege would have had the patience, time, energy, and space to birth that side story into the world the way it deserved to be told.

To me, I want Gege to be able to ground his vision onto the page, but if he is not able to, I’m still there for the “story” told between the lines because there’s so few mangaka whose imagination has captivated me.

In the end, as you say, it does feel like Gege is struggling to ground his vision into the page. And it kind of does suck because we, as an audience, have to work that much harder to understand the story he is trying to tell.

But the story being told is still there... so now it’s up to you to decide what you want to focus on: the flop, the bad execution, the failed attempt, JJK not living up to your expectations, or Gege, the flawed human behind the manga, trying and showing up.

What is good enough for you? That’s something for you to decide.

I’m not saying to ignore the execution.

I’m saying to remember that this is Gege’s first manga and that JJK is not what it started as--but not because it’s gotten worse, but rather because JJK is now more like Gege than it has ever been... because in a story like JJK where the strongest sorcerers have the strongest sense of self... yadda yadda yadda.

Trust the process: life is a journey, not a destination

I think your concern that you want to experience the ending makes a lot of sense and feels very relatable even at this point in my life.

But the truth is...

Foregoing the journey in favor of the destination is a recipe for perpetual dissatisfaction. Look at what happened to Denji after he finally got to touch boobs!

Ok yeah, there’s a lot more to it than that in this particular case but the concept still applies.

It also applies to JJK. Again, right now we can’t see the forest for the trees because Gege is executing a complex arc.

The timeline is confusing af, and I think it’s because he may be trying to pull a similar literary trick to what happened in Westworld’s season 1 and 2 where the timeline is scrambled out of order to purposely confuse and mislead the audience.

Perhaps the timeline is out of order for another grand purpose. Perhaps he just thought it would be fun and wanted to try to execute a fun literary trick.

But we won’t know until he delivers--and delivering is a process, not a destination.

And you know what... if you still get to the end and realize that you didn’t like JJK and the latter part of the story ruined your love for JJK, well...

It’s personal

Dude like... I respect that people LOVE Chainsaw Man, and I also think Chainsaw Man is ridiculously overhyped. I’ve seen countless of videos with people hyping it as the all end be all of manga and that Fujimoto is a genius and...

just.

don’t.

get.

it.

I am just not a fan of Fujimoto’s brand of navel-gazing existentialism. It feels so anti-climatic to me.

Does that mean that CSM objectively sucks and is bad?! No. It’s personal.

Similarly, I overhype the hell out of CLAMP manga, and I am also aware that people might read CLAMP manga and not like it.

Even so, to me, the four women behind CLAMP are genius story-tellers.

Shameless Subaru and CLAMP plug because this is one of my favorite Tokyo Babylon panels.

It comes back to personal taste, right?

For me, I love JJK despite the flaws because I still love the story being told between the lines, I find Gege’s brand of ironic humor funny, and I like how the story has progressed.

Say goodbye to mainstream, Gege’s work might become a cult classic moving forward

Now... I bring up Fujimoto and CLAMP to illustrate the idea that there are people who are going to be dedicated fans of a mangaka and their work, people who enjoy and appreciate their work but don’t necessarily love it, people who are in it for the hype, and people who don’t like their work.

CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura is mainstream hype. Tokyo Babylon and Clover are what you read when you’re a hardcore fan.

Fujimoto’s CSM is mainstream hype. Fire dude punch something something and Goodbye Eri is what you read when you’re a hardcore fan.

Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop is mainstream hype. Zankyou no Terror and Carole and Tuesday are what you watch when you’re a hardcore fan.

Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen is mainstream hype.

Gege followed the Battle Shonen recipe, added his own twists, and created an accidental mega hit. In fact, oddly enough, JJK has always been known as a story that defies expectations and uses tropes in new and unexpected ways.

So what happened? Why are people not liking Gege’s current execution?

To me, there’s something about how JJK is written that has changed, and it has nothing to do with Gege’s ability to write, and everything to do with his sense of self, who he has become in the process of writing JJK, and what he wants to express through his work.

In other words, JJK is more like Gege than it has ever been. Some people are going to like that, and some are not.

Truth is that Gege is one of the VERY few mangaka who can write beautiful, multidimensional, engaging and extremely human characters who are true to their nature and aspirations.

He also writes on a very meta level and you don’t see that very often... like at all.

All this to say that I think this is why you see such vastly different reactions in fandom right now.

Some people still think he’s a fantastic writer and that he’s writing a unique work that has transcended generic Shonen tropes (like yours truly), and some people think that the way JJK is right now is generic Shonen. I don’t understand this last take but...

Who is right?

Who holds THE ultimate truth?

It doesn’t really matter because it’s personal.

All I know is that I am going to keep up with anything Gege publishes moving forward because I like the story he is telling through JJK.

Above all, I’m curious to see what other stories want to be born through him into this world.

Now, I HIGHLY recommend you listen to this 20 minute Ted talk by Elizabeth Gilbert to understand what I mean when I say that Gege is giving birth to stories. Her talk is a mind-opening take on what happens to your sense of self when you accidentally write a mega hit, and how that in turn affects your creative process.

I don’t know that this is how Gege sees his work as a mangaka, but I have to wonder about the possibility that Gege, someone who has very clearly studied the psychology of Carl Jung, sees JJK as an exercise in creative imagination, and/or as a story he’s been handed from the collective unconscious.

His job as a mangaka is to show up and write, to play, to express himself creatively.

That means that sometimes what he writes is going to be magnificent in the eyes of others, and sometimes it’s going to fall short of everybody’s expectations.

And that’s what it comes down to...

Expectations

I see a lot of people complain about JJK failing to live up to their expectations without acknowledging that their expectations are simply that, expectations.

There’s nothing wrong with having expectations per se, and it is also important to realize when expectations are defining what we think is and isn’t good enough.

And let’s not forget that you too probably don’t live up to other’s expectations. Does that mean that your effort too isn’t good enough? Gosh now I sound like Lacus.

Again... who holds the ultimate truth?

In the end, Gege is the one telling the Jujutsu Kaisen story.

I also cannot emphasize enough that Gege is also a mangaka in the very early stages of his writing career.

I don’t buy that his writing was better in the beginning of JJK.

Quite the opposite, I see his writing AND art in the beginning of JJK as having followed a recipe: the three man team, found family, the strong mentor figure, etc... all the tropes are there executed in fresh and unexpected ways.

But that was 5 years ago. Again... in a story like JJK where the strongest sorcerers have the strongest sense of self... what does that mean for Gege?

That said, Gege isn’t following the same recipe anymore, he’s coming up with his own recipe and he’s learning how to write his own recipe.

This is not to make excuses for him, it’s just something to think about because most people aren’t born naturally talented at anything that requires mastery, and writing is a craft that requires mastery through execution.

As a quick side note, if you read Tokyo Babylon and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP, the 10+ year gap between both manga shows a marked improvement in the writing. AND EVEN THEN CLAMP MANAGED TO FUCK UP THE TSUBASA PLOT!

In other words, Gege has to fail to get better.

Now add to that the pressure of a weekly publishing schedule that dampens the creative process with tight deadlines, and then on top of that having to draw the whole thing. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Gosh, if I had to guess, I would have to say Gege is ready for an extended vacation.

But, as you say, I also just want for him to be satisfied with his story.

As for us being satisfied with his story... well, it depends on what we choose to focus on.

Will you focus on how he failed at executing his vision?

Will you focus on the beautiful story he told between the lines?

Or will you focus on how how he managed to tell a beautiful story despite failing at the execution?

Can you hold the tension of opposites?

Ok SO SORRY this took me so long to get back to you my dear recurring anon. I just had so many thoughts because, like I said before, I agree with you, and I also wanted to challenge you to see things a little differently without being patronizing.

In the end, you want to continue to love JJK, right?

So love JJK!

Acknowledge its flaws and be at peace with them for the sake of that love. Nothing is perfect.

Anyways, I love that we can be in conversation about this and that you have come to me to share your thoughts on jjk.

Merci beaucoup.

#for anyone who thinks the writing in jjk sucks right now #and is worried about it #god I love jujutsu kaisen #ask the mental gymnastics anime girl

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chaos-writes-fanfiction · 3 years

Text

Dating his teammates sister

Pairings: Kyotani × fem!reader

Warnings: strong language, minor angst Hajime being an ass, use of pet names babe/baby, puppy

Being the younger sister of Hajime Iwaizumi just one year younger being a second year at Aoba Josai most of the vbc know you are his younger sister but none of them including your older brother knew you were dating one of the second years. Except of course the boy in question.

You were walking back to school after going home, Haji had forgotten his knee pads and new volleyball shoes so you were going back to take them to him. You were a little excited that you got to see your boyfriend too while dropping things off even if you didn't get to show it. You walk into the gym and some of the guys were still trickling in.

“Hey Maki” you said walking in

“Yes?” He asked

“Can you get my brother?” You asked “he forgot stuff at home so I brought him some things”

“Yeah I’ll be right back” he said and he left going to the locker room.

While waiting you lean against the wall near the door. While you had been at home you changed into a pair of sweat pants and one of Kyotani’s shirts you had stolen without his knowledge.

“You have stuff for me?” Haji asked

“Yes you forgot your new shoes and knee pads mom sent me with them” you said giving him the bag “and a bento since you’re not going to be home anytime soon since you’re staying late with Kawa”

“Aww how sweet” Oikawa said walking up and ruffling your hair

“Hands off kawa” you said smacking his hand away “I’ve known you most of my life but I’m not a kid anymore”

“So mean” he said pouting

“Hes all yours Haji” you said rolling your eyes

“Where’d you get that shirt?” Haji asked frowning

“Why do you care?” You asked

“Because its obviously not yours” he said

“I’m not late?” Kyotani asked walking in just barely

“We haven’t started yet” Haji said “now answer the question where’d you get the shirt”

“My boyfriend” you said smirking

“I’m sorry what? Boyfriend since when?” He asked

“Yes boyfriend and a little over 6 months” you said trying your hardest to not look at Kyotani “mom knows about him”

“Who is he?” He asked frowning

“I’m not telling, it’s fun that way” you said “I’m going home now”

You skipped out of the gym leaving your frustrated brother to practice. The next day you walked to school, with a breakfast for your brother since he had a morning practice, and two more bentos one for you and the other Kyotani for lunch. You once again walk into the boys gym the boys were actually practicing this time.

“Haji” you said waving your brother over

“What?” He asked walking over

“Breakfast” you said handing him the bento

“Thanks” he said “are you going to tell me who this boyfriend is yet?”

“No, not yet” you said “we dont want to tell people yet”

“If you’ve been together as long as you claim you have been it’s a bit suspicious” he said “to keep it secret for so long”

“Oh yes because you know everything, ever thought that we like our privacy?” You asked rolling your eyes

“I’m just saying are you sure he actually cares about you?” He asked

“What the fuck Haji?” You asked tears welling up in your eyes “why would you ever say that to me? I’m your sister”

You run away crying. And the team heard everything. The three, second years all of them being in your class ran after you leaving Oikawa to yell at Hajime for even suggesting something like that.

“Watari, check the classroom” Yahaba said “I’ll check the library, Kyotani check the roof ”

The three boys nodded going where they agreed upon. You were sitting outside on the roof knees pulled up to your chest crying. You loved your brother but for him to say something so cruel was unlike him. A few minutes later Kyotani walked through the door.

“Hey puppy” he said walking over to you

“Hey babe” you said voice still teary

He sat down behind you and pulled you into his lap. You turn in his lap and bury your face into his neck as he rubbed your back.

“You know I love you right puppy?” He asked kissing your temple

“Yes, I love you too” you said sniffing

“I can’t believe your brother actually said that” he said

“Me either” you said resting your head on his shoulder

He wiped your tears and rocked you in his lap gently.

“Let’s tell them today” he said softly

“Are you sure?” You asked

“Yes I don’t like anyone doubting that I care about you” he said

“He didnt know he was talking about you” you said

“Doesn’t matter” he said kissing your cheek “come on let’s go”

You nod and go through the rest of the day sticking around the second year boys who were all worried about you still and you tell Yahaba and Watari to go ahead for their game today.

“Let’s go puppy” he said standing beside your desk

“Okay” you said

He had you stand up and you taking his hand going the back way to the gym that he always takes.

“Iwaizumi you need to talk to your sister” Hanamaki said

“I know” he said sighing

“The second years have kept her at arms length all day” Oikawa said

“We’re in the same class” Yahaba said “and we all care about her”

“Where is she now?” Haji asked

Just as he asked that you walk into gym with Kyotani, he had his arm over your shoulder bringing you close to him your arm going around his back.

“Mad dog?” Oikawa asked “you’re being very friendly with little iwa”

“Yeah and?” Kyotani asked annoyed

“She has a boyfriend” Oikawa said

“He knows” you said turning into him hugging him to hide your smirk feeling much better with your boyfriend at your side

“I’m well aware of her boyfriend” he said feeling your smirk through his shirt

“Since when are you all touchy with my sister?” Haji asked

“Iwaizumi you know I respect you, but you owe her an apology” Kyotani said coldly

“You’re right, Sis” he said “I’m sorry I never should’ve said what I did, I just worry about my baby sister I just want to make sure you’re being treated right”

“He does treat me right, Haji” you said turning to look at Hajime “I wouldn’t be with him for six months if he didnt”

“Then why are you suddenly so close with Kyotani?” Mattsun asked

“You all are dumbasses” Kyotani said rolling his eyes

You pull away slightly looking up at him and tug on his jacket. He smirks before leaning down and giving you a kiss on the lips his hand on your cheek. You hear the other guys gasp and swear that you heard Oikawa scream in shock. He pulls away and kisses your forehead. Before looking at his team that’s crowded around you two.

“Understand now?” Kyotani asked “I am the boyfriend”

#haikyū!!#haikyuu!!#hq x y/n #hq x reader #hq kyoutani #hq koutarou #kentaro kyotani #kyotani kentaro #kyotani x reader #kyotani #kentaro #slight angst #secret relationship #relationship reveal

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violettelueur · 3 years

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ITADORI YUJI + FUSHIGURO MEGUMI + KUGISAKI NOBARA || GOJO’S S/O KIDNAPPED

| featuring : itadori yuji + fushiguro megumi + kugisaki nobara from jujutsu kaisen

| warning : (extreme) grammar warnings

| form : headcanons

| published : 24 december

| request : hello! I am very embarrassed to request an amazing author like you for something, so ignore this request if it makes you feel bad!! Can I request a scenario/headcanon (whichever is more convenient for you) in which the gojo's beloved wife is kidnapped by a geto/mahito/jugo? and the freshmen want to save her along with their sensei because they are very attached to her? sorry if this is too messy, I will understand if you ignore!!

| barista’s notes : HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE GUYS ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆ how is everyone? hope you didn’t miss me too much ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ (hahah who are you playing violettelueur....) but i apologies for the lack of updates, it’s because my hard drive of my laptop is damaged and that means i’m going to have to replace the laptop ʕ ㅇ ᴥ ㅇʔ and that also means i’ve been writing on my phone, which isn’t really ideal...other than that, i hope you enjoy your cup of classic black coffee (jujutsu kaisen request!) and please come again! - the keep reading cut off will come when i find a new laptop....

ITADORI YUJI:

The second that he hears that you have been kidnapped, this boy will become extremely worried and concerned - in like an angry way.

It doesn’t matter who has kidnapped you, Itadori would be running anywhere, trying to find you within a flash - but if Mahito has touched you in any way, even a single hair on your skin, then expect Itadori to be in a full on rampage trying to find you.

There is no way of calming him down once he hears this sudden news and that is because you're like the mother he really didn’t have - since he doesn’t know much about his parents.

Itadori is really attached to you since you easily took him into your care the second Gojo had introduced you to him as well as your husband telling you his situation.

Really attached to the point where he would call you “mom” from time to time out of nowhere - like “mom did you see my technique?” or “mom, what’s the difference in curse energy and curse technique? Gojo-Sensei didn’t really explain it well to me,”

He was really surprised that you weren’t worried about the King of Curses that was residing inside of him - non sorcerer or sorcerer, either way, he was completely shocked at how calm you were.

When he is trying to find you, he seems composed - not too composed like Fushiguro would be - but in his head, he’s really scared that he might lose you both since you were like family to him.

Overall, expect Itadori to be in a trance of anger and complete worry when it comes to you being kidnapped since he is scared that something might have happened to you - even when he knows that you are capable of protecting yourself when needed, this boy is just a mental wreck.

FUSHIGURO MEGUMI:

Fushiguro will be on a high alert the second he hears that you have been kidnapped.

He would definitely be more calm then both Itadori and Kugisaki - which causes them to scream at him to “worry more, would you?”

But mentally, he is probably more in a panic than Itadori would be since he has known you longer than both of the sorcerers since you had taken care of him and his sister when he was younger.

He would be more rational and think of a plan to find and save you rather than just rush into the search like how Itadori and Kugisaki would be

Like Itadori, he has grown quite attached to you - more slowly than Itadori - but over time you were basically his mother.

He’s not like Itadori but he does call you “Ma” - sometimes “Mama” when he’s extremely ill

You can’t lie to yourself, you were extremely surprised when he started to call you his mom since he was so wary of people - when he was younger.

He would even question if you were happy in the marriage - as a joke - since he knows Gojo can be irritating at most some times

Once he has figured out a plan, he would drag both Itadori and Kugisaki and explain - they would both realise he is worried the minute they saw his face

He is P A N I C K I N G. Badly

I feel like they would have to calm him down before they could even go with his plan to save you.

Overall, he is rational on the outside and tries to be as calm as possible, but he is internally worried about you even though he knows you’re a tough one.

KUGISAKI NOBARA:

Expect this girl to be in a panic rage.

She is extremely angry at the fact that you have been kidnapped and will R U S H instantly to find you.

Of course, she is stopped by the boys - Itadori and Fushiguro - and they’ll tell her she can’t just rush into the situation without a strategy

She would be angry at them and will probably rant for a good minute or so

“HA? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WE NEED TO FIND Y/N-SAN NOW, SHE IS IN DANGER. FUSHIGURO WORRY A BIT MORE, WOULD YOU?”

But after letting off a bit of steam, she knows what the boys are talking about.

She can’t just rush into the situation stupidly and knowing you, if she did save you, you would hit her head and yell at her for being so reckless - and then after that say ‘thank you’ to her for saving you.

Kugisaki saw you as a caring older sister rather than a mother - this is because of Gojo - but really appreciated you when you took her around Tokyo since Gojo tricked her last time.

She’s extremely surprise that you are married to the weird man and one time asked if you were okay or sane when you married Gojo.

You are basically her shopping and eating partner - showing her different dessert places that Saori might have been but also help her with outfit ideas - you basically for the blue tracksuit for her.

She was basically glued to you and respects you like how she respects Maki - if you are a sorcerer, it’s because of how powerful you are and how you want to prove all the other clans that you don’t need to be in a strong family to be an extremely good sorcerer. If you’re not a sorcerer, she loves how brave and confident you are to put yourself in a life or death situation world full of curses.

Overall, expect her to rush to find you and be stopped by the boys, but she has hopes that you are strong enough to keep yourself alive and safe by the time everyone comes to find you.

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imaginationmess · 3 years

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Hardship (Yuta Okkotsu x Reader)

Yuta Okkotsu X Reader

Warning: Violence, Blood, and Broken bones

Word Count: 1,500+

Genre: Angst!

I will probably write how she acted in the sister event in the future, but for now, please enjoy this writing piece. I am still struggling with writer's block, but manage to write this out before it hits me again. Idk if it's good or not.

Inspired by @aliteama Angst anon asks back in January

♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡

‘Am I going to die?’ Yuuji thought to himself as he couldn’t move within the female cursed spirit, Rika's grasp.

The fear of losing his life and dying was overwhelming him once again just like the cursed womb mission. He doesn’t want to die!

The black-haired male emotionless face, was walking closer to stab him in Sukuna’s vessel heart. He was abruptly stopped and jumped away from the spot in front of the Sukuna’s vessel. A katana landing in the exact spot he was standing.

“Kou!”

Yuuji’s eyes widened in surprise hearing his senpai and the one who he started developing feelings for before he felt himself being free and the sight of you slam your elbow into Yuta’s stomach to cause him to fly back from the acceleration and pressure of the attack.

Yuuji being carried by 8 feet, cursed spirit that is attached to you similar to Yuta with Rika, but it was your father who created a deal with it in exchange for his soul and cursed energy to stay beside you as a servant. He didn’t have to but he did it for your sake of surviving many assassination attempts.

“...Kou?” Yuuji looks up in surprise to see Kou in the flesh, you rarely use the spirit unless you are absolutely serious about fighting. He only has heard things about how Kou looks like and always gave out a deadly aura of bloodthirst.

Kou drops him without a word causing Yuuji to shout in surprise, landing on the ground and quickly went to his feet in a fighting stance. The overwhelming bloodthirst in the air make it hard to breathe. The two cursed spirits fighting each other, breaking each other's limbs to only have them grow back. It was quite terrifying to witness both screaming and fighting.

Yuuji smacked his face to snap him out of it to focus on what to do now. He pulls himself back seeing Yuta taking another attempt to kill him by cutting his head off with a new cursed katana he got his hands on.

He most likely used the same one that landed on the spot where he was standing, you would usually travel with two katanas strapped on your back. You know how to use two at the same time as well with a single katana in hand. You were a master of swordsmanship. You are the sole survivor of a clan who was the best when it comes to handling cursed objects to cursed weapons.

“It wasn't Yuuji! It was Sukuna!” You try to reason with Yuta blocking his attacks from harming Yuuji.

“Run away! Yuuji!” You fall to the ground and try to sweep Yuta off his feet but he flips backward.

“I am not leaving you! He wants me! You shouldn’t sacrifice yourself for me.” Yuuji shouts back at you.

“Stay out of it! [Y/N]! Don’t make me physically hurt you! ” Yuta crashing into your katana instead of Yuuji skin.

You know Yuuji is stubborn and isn’t gonna step out of this fight. You gotta work with him to take down Yuta, despite dating each other, but you aren’t gonna let him kill Yuuji without a fight. You care about him just like everyone else who is friends with him. Yuta doesn’t have the same relationship with Yuuji as everyone who learns he isn’t evil but has a good heart. He just got tangled into this mess by eating a finger.

Yuta dodges Yuuji's punches knowing if he even lets Yuuji touch, he might just break a bone in his body. He looks over to see Rika struggling to escape to assist him in finishing the mission. Kou has the advantage due to being older and having more fighting experience than Rika, perhaps even bigger than Rika.

Yuta is trying to keep up on blocking all of the attacks you are giving him by even attempting to break your own katana blade. You were the one who taught him how to katana effectively because you have been a katana user since you were a child. He could say if Maki and you were to have katana fights. It would mostly be tied, but you are probably superior due to knowing all the dirty tricks on disarming katana users.

The only advantage is knowing the tricks you would pull during his training with you to beware when someone is trying to break your katana to disarm. If he didn’t take the time to memorize it, he would be losing this fight.

Yuta elbows Yuuji's face and uses the end of the katana to slam it into Yuuji’s stomach to cause Yuuji to cough and be surprised. Before copying from earlier what Yuuji did to his katana to break your katana, for you only let it go and jump at him without any fear. You tackled him to the ground, pin one arm down by your knee and hold his arm with the katana.

“Take the katana! Yuuji!” You clenched your teeth, fighting against Yuta's strength as he repeatedly slammed his feet on the ground to wiggle out of your grasp. Yuuji pries the katana out of Yuta hands.

“Sorry, but this is gonna hurt a lot!” With all of your strength twisted his arm back, Yuta manages to free his other hand to make you let go. You could see the tears gather in his eyes before hearing a pop from his shoulder. Successfully dislocating his arm, causing him to scream in intense pain.

“Yuta!” Rika screeched, throwing Kou into the building, before appearing behind you to only stab you with her claws on your back and picking you by it causing you to gasp in surprise and blood. Before getting thrown across the road, having Kou following after you know you are injured and needed to be healed.

Rika reacted quickly due to Yuta screaming that he was in pain. She didn’t think anything else was to hurt the person who did and get them away from him. However, she didn’t realize it was you, the only person who wasn’t even afraid to talk to her and was Yuta's girlfriend before they went overseas for more intense training.

You are smiling at Rika with a clay mask on your face while holding nail polish in your hand as you push the brush of the nail polish to paint her claws. You weren’t afraid of cursed spirits due to growing up with numerous scary-looking spirits being around the compound. You did the insane idea to befriend Rika while everyone cowered away in the sight of her.

She remembers, the first time meeting everyone, you were the insane one to call her cute and even asked Yuta for permission if hugging Rika was okay.

“What’s your name? You look so cute” You cooed despite everyone around you looking like you were a maniac approaching a cursed spirit with no guard up.

When you were painting her nails, you mention to her, she wasn't evil as everyone is saying, but she is a good cursed spirit.

“You aren't an evil curse spirit, but a good one who protects Yuta from any danger. You are like his guardian angel just like Kou is mine.” You gave her a soft stare with a big smile on your face.

Yuta hissed through the pain and stood up to pick up the katana that was on the ground. Rika was panicking that she had just gone to hold Yuuji. “Hold him, this won’t take too long.”

Yuuji panicked once again feeling trapped within Rika's grasp and watching Yuta stab him into the heart without any remorse, despite apologizing for it. “Sorry, Yuuji.”

Rika vanishes from sight, probably hiding away for a while as she acknowledges what she has done to the only human other than Yuta who treated her like a person. Yuta lets go of the sword to hold onto his other arm while running over and hissing at the pain on his shoulder. He knows you were trying to make him not be able to use his dominant hand to make him back down. He doesn’t hold any grudge because you are doing what you thought was right.

He had a mission to accomplish and had to keep any personal feelings to the side. But he needed to know if you were okay. His eyes landed on your tearful ones as Kou was giving him a dangerous glare daring him to come closer and get killed.

“You killed him… didn’t you.” Your lip was trembling as your eyes were tearing up and breathing heavily as Kou was closing your internal wounds.

“I am sorry.” Yuta apologized to only hear your hiccups through your cries and cursing him out from moon to back.

“He was innocent! Yuta! Fucking innocent! Since when did you become a murderer!” You screamed at the top of your lungs, before feeling your eyes heavy due to the fatigue of getting your wounds healed. You passed out while Yuta has tears down his cheeks not knowing what to say.

He did become a murderer….

Perhaps killing an innocent person in the process.

♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡

Thank you for reading!

Feel free to send in your request :D,

Comments/Reactions are greatly appreciated!

MASTERLIST!

#yuta okkotsu x reader #yuuta okkotsu x reader #yuta x reader #yuta x you #yuta x y/n #yuuta x reader #yuuta x you #yuuta x y/n #okkotsu x reader #okkotsu yuta x reader #okkotsu yuta x you #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu kaisen x you #jjk x reader #jjk x you #jujutsu kaisen

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megumisbimbo · 3 years

Text

- Twelve -

megumi fushiguro x reader

genre: fluff, slight angst

summary: (y/n) was nothing special. A human being who had no idea that curses walked the same earth they walked. But then they locked eyes with Megumi Fushiguro. Can Fushiguro focus on the task ahead or will he be distracted by the king of curses and his new love interest?

series masterlist

Credit for the main storyline and characters goes to Gege Akutami.

taglist: @aspenss @kitkozume @vanilnya20 @micheleinumaki @yuuji-supremacy @tobi—o

the songs are indicated throughout the story at certain points!

songs used:

kazino - BIBI

— kazino - BIBI —

A grueling month of training and preparation passes. Megumi’s confession weighing heavy on your mind everyday. Practices with him became easier as you managed to grasp the movements and techniques Maki diligently taught you. You couldn’t thank her enough for making you stronger. You’re reminded of the compliment she gave you, your natural strength refined through her regiments. You didn’t feel ready for the Kyoto exchange, but Megumi’s encouragement made you feel slightly more secure in your ability.

“Don’t worry love, as long as we have you as defense we won’t lose.” He says, his bright eyes full of love and a small smile playing across his slightly blushed face.

His comfort around you has grown, the small touches he used to give turning into tight embraces and short pecks. Thought Megumi doesn’t particularly mind displaying his affection publicly, he treasures the moments he has alone with you. Your soft hand that lands on his cheek, stroking it gently. Your chapstick covered lips meeting his, the scent of cherries filling his nose. You were everything and more to Megumi. He couldn’t lose you, like he lost Yuuji. Yuuji’s death haunted Megumi, the thought of not being able to protect those he cared about when they need him most. But you gave him purpose, a reason to get stronger, a reason to be prepared for an unwanted next time. He was sure the Kyoto exchange would display his improvement, but he was just as eager to see yours. The Kyoto students would not go easy on either of you, and you both knew that, but you were prepared.

With Megumi’s hand in yours, you make your way to the front of the school where Maki, Panda and Inumaki were standing.

“Well hello lovebirds, glad you could join us.” Maki says with a proud smirk.

“You nervous y/n?” Panda asks, sensing your apprehension.

“A bit...but I’m ok.”

You wrap your self around Megumi’s arm burying half your face in his shoulder.

“Why is everyone empty handed?!” Nobara asks, her suitcase and backpack by her side.

“Why do you have your luggage?” Panda asks.

“We’re going to Kyoto right? For the goodwill event IN Kyoto?”

“The goodwill event WITH Kyoto...in Tokyo.”

“YOU’RE JOKING!”

“So that’s why our conversations have been off...”

You giggle at Nobara’s comical misunderstanding.

“Oi..they’re here.”

A group of students around your age walks towards you, each looking more intimidating than the other. Your grip on Megumi’s arm tightened. Noticing your nervous behavior, he interlocks his fingers with yours and gives your hand a gentle squeeze.

“It’ll be ok.” He says, a soft whisper of reassurance making you feel a bit stronger. You had worked hard for this moment, Maki had worked you hard for this moment. There’s no way you could run away now.

“Is this a welcome party?..gross.”

“I don’t see Okkotsu.”

“Would you forget about Okkotsu. Isn’t it too much of a handicap taking on two first years and a newbie with no cursed energy.” The tall robot looking sorcerer, Megumi referred to as Mechamaru says.

“That is irrelevant when it comes to jujutsu sorcery. Especially with Fushiguro, he is a Zen’in after all. I’d say he’s more reliable than the head of the family.”

Your eyes fall on the raven haired boy. His teeth gritted at the sound of being called a Zen’in. You didn’t know much about the Zen’in clan, but you did know Megumi wanted nothing to do with them.

“Hey now! No fighting. Now..where is that idio-“

The Kyoto sensei’s words are cut off as her eyes fall on your shrunken form.

“y/n?...” She asks, her eyes fixated on the familiar glint in yours.

“Um...yes?”

“You look just like her...”

“Sorry?...her?”

Your small exchange is interrupted by Gojo’s loud voice making his presence known.

“HERE I AM!”

He wheels in a large box filled with who knows what. You give Megumi a puzzled look only to receive a shrug in response.

“Looks like everyone’s here! I was actually on a business trip overseas, and I brought some souvenirs for you all!! Not you Utahime!” Gojo-sensei says as he hands out a small tribal doll to the students from Kyoto.

“And for the Tokyo kids!”

The large box pops open startling both you and Megumi. The open box reveals something you could have only dreamt about. Or at least you thought it would only have been a dream.

“It’s the dearly departed Itadori Yuuji!!”

“Ha Gotcha!!”

Your e/c eyes fill with tears as you stare at the face of your apparently alive friend. You thought you would never see him again. You had suffered through months of tears, months of sitting in your bed refusing to eat or drink. Months of being in Megumi’s arms sobbing into the collar of his cotton t-shirt. How could he be here? This must be a sick dream. But the way Megumi clings to you, the harsh grip he has on your hand, proves that this is no dream. Yuuji was in fact, standing in front of you alive and well.

“...how..” You utter, the tears collecting on your lash line refusing to fall.

“Sensei! They don’t looks happy at all!” Yuuji blares, the familiar voice sending chills up and down your spine.

Megumi’s hand loosens slightly as he guides you toward the box Yuuji was still standing in. Nobara kicks the box slightly startling the pink haired boy.

“You got anything to say?” She asks, small tears collecting in her eyes as well.

“Uhhh sorry for not telling you I was alive?”

“Yeah you should be sorry..” You say, your voice shaky but threatening.

“Y/n I-“

“I don’t want to hear it Yuuji, do you know how long I cried, how painful it was to be reminded every day that I’d never get to see you again. But here you are!! Just fine!! Nothing wrong at all! I understand how it would be dangerous to tell everyone...but me? Why couldn’t you have just told me? Just given me an ounce of relief? How could you Yuuji..” You turn your face onto Megumi’s arm, the sleeve of his jacket collecting the tears that never fell. Megumi’s hand comes to your head stroking the top lovingly.

“Y/n..there wasn’t a day that went by...that I didn’t think about you. I missed you so much, I really did. I had to keep it a secret..you know I would have run to you if I could..you know that right?”

“I don’t really know anything right now.” You say, your hand slipping out of Megumi’s as you walk away from the trio.

What were you supposed to think? Suddenly your best friend is back..the Kyoto sensei giving you weird looks and saying you remind her of...her? Who’s she? How were you supposed to feel. This was all just too much for one day. You contemplated dropping out of the exchange, curling up in your bed and sleeping the awful moment away...but something in you refused. You knew, Yuuji would never purposefully hurt you, not after what you two had been through. You will stay, you will fight, and you will find the answers. Nothing can stop you now. Not when you’ve worked this hard. This isn’t for Yuuji anymore, not even for Megumi. This is for you, only you, and you were gonna make that obvious.

a/n: wow…that took so long to put out omg. but there it is you guys !! the first part of the series is over ! i might just revisit this because i left it on a cliffhanger and i have so many more ideas about this book but for now here you go ! thank you so much for sticking with me for so long and i apologize for the lack of updates towards the end. i love you all so much <3

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lia-jones · 3 years

Text

Growing Together - Chapter Twenty-Five - Kintsugi

Kintsugi - Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as kintsukuroi (金繕い, "golden repair"),[1] is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique.

Wikipedia

He woke up in his bed, disoriented, wondering how he had gotten there in the first place. The last thing he remembered was being…

“I’m not going anywhere.”

The memories came all at once, flooding his senses, and he had no choice but to painfully relive every single one of them in his mind: the lawsuit, Mina’s death and funeral, his fight with Andrea, the glass hitting the wall, his panic attack. His wife’s hand, lovingly squeezing his, lighting his way back to sanity.

His son, crying, scared to lose yet another parent, called the paramedics. Victor recalled, in the middle of his mental chaos, being put on an oxygen mask and told to breathe, but the fact that he now had strangers witnessing his meltdown only made him panic more. Eventually, he was given an injection, as Andrea’s coaxing was no longer enough to have him relax. After the paramedics were sent away by her, she took him to bed, but not before helping him change his sweat-drenched clothes. He could remember how helpless he was, his body soft and useless, his eyes too heavy to be kept open. Andrea carefully laying him in bed.

“Stay.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He looked outside the bedroom window, it was already dark. He wondered if Andrea had already gone to bed, but he already knew the answer. Just like he refused to sleep before he put the glass back together, she would stay put until she saw all of his pieces back in place, sturdy and strong. No matter how hard her fingers bled.

Victor wondered how many times did a glass have to break to be deemed irreparable. He felt like the glass on his desk, ugly and useless, unable to hold anything. He wondered if she would see that in him, now that he had shown her his weak side. He wondered if she would regret spending the time trying to fix him. He heard the whiskey glass hitting the wall, and saw the frightened look on her face, all over again. He had committed an unforgivable sin. And still, she held his pieces.

Victor jumped off his bed and walked to the kitchen to get some water. Part of him wanted her to be there, he didn’t want to be alone. But at the same time, another part wished she had become wiser and just left him. He couldn’t make her happy, he was too broken. And he was afraid eventually he would break her too. Broken glasses don’t stand in the cupboard like the others. They are disposed of. That’s what he deserved.

But not what he got.

She looked spent, her dark circles standing out on her fair complexion, her curls disheveled and held in an updo with a pencil, some kind of voodoo only Andrea could accomplish. She was focused on her laptop screen, occasionally typing with one hand, the other touching her forehead, like she always did when she felt overwhelmed. She looked like a fragile crystal, the slightest vibration enough to shatter her.

“You’re awake.” She was startled by his presence. “How are you feeling?”

“You’re here.” You shouldn’t be. I’m a waste of your time.

“Of course I am.” She got up, turning to the stove, opening the pot standing there. “It’s late, Owen already had dinner and went to bed, but I have some stew for you. You should eat.”

Owen. Victor recalled again his frightened voice, panicking on the phone. He could only imagine how that small child had spent his day: anxious, scared, traumatized, worried about his father, who was too weak to keep it together. “You just have to make a scene, don’t you?” He heard his father’s voice again.

“How is he?”

“He was scared at first, but I told him you were still processing what happened.” She gave him a faint smile. “He’s really insightful for his age, I think he understood.”

“What about your trip?” You should stay away from me. Both of you will be happier away from me.

“I canceled it. You are unwell, we can go some other time.”

Victor’s stomach turned with self-loathing. Worse than any insult was the thought of someone staying by his side because he was weak, especially if he didn’t deserve the sympathy.

“You should go. I’m fine.” Victor turned to the door, wanting to get away from Andrea as fast as possible. The sight of what he had and what he had lost was simply unbearable.

“I already told you I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Victor.”

The statement felt like a heavy rock falling into a pond, agitating the waters inside him. Victor froze in place, unsure of how to answer. He loved her more than anything, but he didn’t deserve another chance. It was clearly over between them, yet he couldn’t say it. He was a coward. Tears started rolling down his face, as he stood in silence, his back turned to her, keeping his distance, but also selfishly refusing to release her.

For the second time that day, loving hands held the back of his neck, pulling him to a warm embrace, and then all hell broke loose. Tears quickly turned into hysterical sobs, as emotions broke out of him like a tsunami, spilling all over. He leaned against his wife and accepted her reassurance, even though he knew he shouldn’t get it. If only he could have her forgiveness.

“I’m sorry.” He croaked as the retching sobs made his legs wobble, making him kneel on the floor. “I’m so sorry.”

Victor wasn’t sure who he was really apologizing to, there was so much unsaid in his heart. Maybe it was to his mother, for not being the child that she wanted, the one that would make her stay. Or perhaps he was apologizing to Mina, for not honoring like she deserved, for not saying he loved her or holding her hand in her last moments. But mostly, he was apologizing to Andrea. For disappointing her. For not being the kind loving man she believed him to be all along.

All at once, Victor was an adult and a child, and both were crying in Andrea’s arms. A memory of long before came to mind. The smell of polished wood and silver, the echo of the large hallway, suitcases on the floor. His child self, holding his mother, fighting the tears. The words he wouldn’t say to her came, at last, twenty years later, for the love of his life.

“Please don’t leave me.” He sobbed. “Please.”

Her embrace tightened.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Her arms felt like a loving home, where he could be safe. Her voice was so sweet in his ears, her hands so warm in his back, her heartbeat so soothing. So, for the first time in decades, Victor decided to surrender, lay down the sword and simply stop fighting. He held onto her and cried, facing the storm of his emotions, hoping he would come out whole in the end. He just felt so tired. Surrendering seemed to be his only option.

Victor cried enough for a lifetime. All that was inside him, thirty years’ worth of pain erupted in hysterical sobs, landing as salty water on Andrea’s sweater, and he couldn’t stop it. He cried of fear for his kidnapping, of sadness for his mother’s departure, of anguish for her and Mina’s death. He cried for all those times he felt utterly lonely and unloved, for all those times he felt angry for being unable to draw people closer. For all his moments of self-loathing and despair. By the time he was done, he was exhausted. And scared. Scared that if he let her go, he would lose her forever. Afraid that if she stopped holding his broken pieces, he would fall to the ground to never get up.

So Victor simply lingered on Andrea’s embrace, wanting to enjoy a little more of her tenderness, as he knew it would be short-lived.

“We need to talk.” She announced, and Victor promptly left her arms, sitting against the kitchen island, creating the necessary distance. He prepared himself for the worse.

“I’m sorry for the glass.” He blurted out, fearing he would lose his courage if he waited for too long. “I hate that you saw this side of me.”

“What side?” She frowned.

“My ugly side.” His voice tightened. “But I need you to know I could never hurt you that way. I would never do that to you.”

“I know that!” She hurried to answer. “I do, it’s just…” She trailed off with a long sigh.

You can’t live with a violent man. Just say it.

“I pushed you into it. It was a cheap blow to mention your parents.”

Victor turned his eyes to her in surprise.

“I know you didn’t mean it, I-”

“Could you just listen?” She interrupted him.

Victor turned his eyes to the ground, obediently waiting for her to continue.

“I was hurt. And furious. I wanted you to hurt as much as I was, so I used something that you shared with me in our intimacy, knowing fully well how deep it would go, forgetting that you were acting that way because you were hurting too.”

Victor sighed, at a loss for words. How could he hold anything against her? None of them had acted in an honorable way.

“I have an ugly side too.” She muttered.

Silence filled the kitchen again, and Victor stared at Andrea’s hand, wanting to take it. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but he feared he wasn’t entitled to anymore, or that more words would just lead to more strife. He was done bruising her, he had done so much of that already.

“Victor… I really want things to be well again.”

The words caught up in his throat. He wanted it too, more than anything. But he wasn’t entitled to ask.

“Look, I know that you have been through a lot, and I can’t possibly imagine what you are feeling right now.” She jumped, kneeling in front of him, her hand taking his, while her eyes gazed at his earnestly. “And I know you are not the kind of guy that goes around talking about feelings, and I don’t need you to… That is something you should do at your own pace.”

Victor’s heartbeat quickened, wondering what she would say next. He desperately needed to make amends, he desperately needed her by his side, he desperately needed her consent in holding her and having her again. At this point, whatever she asked, he would do. He loved his light, and he needed her, like he needed air to breathe.

“But you need to know, no, you need to acknowledge I’m here. Because I am, and I always will be. I need you to know that, even if we disagree, I won’t leave your side. And if you fall, even if you don’t hold on to me, I will hold on to you, do you understand? I’ll never let go of you.”

His fingers caressed hers, so small in comparison.

“The only reason I mentioned that trip was because I felt my presence was hurting you. Victor, for the last few days, all I wanted was to be by your side, to love you and support you. I don’t even care about our fights, or what was said, we should stick together no matter what!” She squeezed his hand tighter. “This is the closest I have been to you in days! I missed you!”

Victor couldn’t take it anymore. He pulled her to his arms and kissed her, with an urgency of someone who had been starving for love for days. When he broke the kiss, he held her tightly, his face buried in the nape of her neck, wanting to have as much from her as he could.

“I missed you too.” He spoke against her skin.

“Are we ok?”

“I want us to be.”

She smiled at him, and that’s when he noticed. While he had been crying, she had been crying too.

“I’m sorry.” He hurried to apologize again, seeing the full effects of his actions on the woman he loved. “I will be better, I will never hurt you like this again. I promise.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” She caressed his bangs. “This is something we both do, you know.”

He watched her shift in place as she seemingly organized her thoughts.

“Do you remember when we came back from Switzerland?”

He remembered, yes. Her being in unbearable pain, pushing him away, while he tried to comfort her. And then it dawned on him. He had done the same.

“You and I are not that different.” She let out a sad chuckle. “We both need to be in control, to always keep our feelings in check, so we bottle them up. But we are a couple now, we are not alone anymore. We should learn to depend on each other. Do you think you can do that? Can you trust me enough for that?”

“I trust you with my life, Andy.” He was an idiot. He let all of his childhood insecurities take so much relevance these days, that he actually forgot the woman he was married to. He didn’t need her to tell him she loved him and she would always be there for him, he knew she was loyal. He knew she loved him. How could he have forgotten that?

“Wait, I have an idea.” She broke free from his arms, taking out her wedding ring.

“What are you doing?” He frowned, confused.

“Give me yours.” She instructed. “Here’s mine.”

Victor removed his wedding ring, handing it to her. She took his left hand and inserted the wedding band halfway through his ring finger.

“We keep talking about renewing our wedding vows, but you know what? We shouldn’t do it when things are easy. We should do it when things are hard.”

Victor watched her take a solemn deep breath before speaking again.

“I, Andrea, renew my commitment to you, Victor. My love for you grows with each day, and I truly believe we can overcome whatever comes our way, as long as we are together.” She lifted her eyes to him. “And I am sorry I hurt you. I love you more than I can possibly say. You are the love of my life.”

Victor smiled as he saw her gently gazing at him with affection in her eyes. And miraculously, all of his shards were put back together again. He took her hand, hoping he would be able to convey what was in his heart.

“I, Victor, renew my commitment to you, Andrea. You are the light of my life. I promise to always keep my eyes on you, and search for you when in need. I have no other place to be, but beside you.” He felt a few tears coming again. “And I am sorry. I’m sorry I ignored you.”

“For better or worse, we are in this together.” She affirmed, her eyes locked on his.

“For better or worse, we are in this together.” He promised with all his heart.

He pulled her to his lap, kissing her lips, their bodies pressed against each other in a warm hug, Victor losing himself in their embrace. Their bodies fit beautifully together. Sometimes they would hold each other so close that Victor could no longer tell where her skin began and his ended, so perfectly united that they truly felt like one.

It reminded him of Kintsugi. Golden leaf and glass shards are useless apart but when united with the patience only real love can bring, they can make beautiful art. It was indeed a fitting analogy. Andrea held his pieces together and made him whole. Patiently, she had picked each one of his shards, unfazed by the cuts they brought, and put them all together.

His wife chuckled against his chest, and it was the most beautiful sound in the world. To hear Andrea laugh once again, while being held by him, was priceless.

“What is it?” He couldn’t help but chuckle as well. Her laughter was contagious.

“The time we spent planning where we would renew our wedding vows, and we ended up doing it on our kitchen floor.” She laughed.

“Well, we did want it to be meaningful.” He smiled, playing with one of her curls. “No place is more meaningful than this. We spent most of our happy moments in this kitchen.”

“Well, if we follow that line of thought, next year we could use the bedroom.” She smiled back.

“I said happy, not lewd.” He poked her nose, making her laugh again. “Any place will do, as long as you are there.”

“I feel the same.” She sighed, motioning to get up. “Maybe we should get up from the floor, you must be hungry and your buttocks must be getting numb.”

“We will in a minute.” He pulled her against him again. “Just a little while longer.”

She leaned against his chest, arms circling his waist, and he held her back, again marveled at how flawlessly they fit. He kissed her neck, lingering on her skin, taking a bit more of her scent. He held her as tight as he could, drinking from her love, letting her gold seep through his cracks.

Author's Note: This project has been going for a year now (it started in February 2020) and it won't be over any time soon, so I would like to ask you, as much as possible, for your support, because we still have a very long way to go. So, if you enjoy the work, don't forget to comment and reblog. It gives it traction and enables other people to learn about it, and for me to get more excited about what I do.

#victor mldd #angsty victor #mlqc victor #love and producer fanfic #li zeyan #Growing Pains - Series #growingtogether #victor x oc

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softkuna · 3 years

Text

Yuuji Itadori || Training

Content ║ Yuuji Itadori x Reader. You and Yuuji train quite often and like to make a competition out of it. However, his quick learning and your insecurities get the best of you.

Count ║ 1,514 words.

Consider ║ Fluff. Fighting. Probably grammatical errors.

Creator ║ Aight! First little drabble up. Hope you guys like it! It’s not nsfw but I was feeling fluffy and Yuuji is a literal sunshine child. Also, whenever I write for the students, I automatically have it be that Jujutsu Tech is a college rather than a high school and everyone is over the age of 18.

“Sir, we’re surrounded!”

“That just means we can attack in all directions!”

A smug smirk tugged the corners of your lips, “I mean… you’re not wrong, Yuu.” The boy gave an overly enthusiastic thumbs up, pearly white on full display. Training with him was always a delight.

You were back to back, crouched in a way that your back right foot was slipped between his wide stance. You made a few enemies from ink, letting them drench the field’s grass in black gel. Five human-sized creatures were your limit after training for what seemed like years. No one needed to know they were the shapes that haunted you at night, paralyzed with fear as they came from all corners of you bedroom. That fear is what strengthened them. You channeled it into them, strengthening the cursed energy behind the specialized ink.

Right now, they were just npcs in a videogame to the two of you, “These ones are 3 points, right?” Yuuji looked over his shoulder at you and you nodded. Training with him was always a game. Human-sized blobs were three points. Child-sized ones were two. Rabbit-sized ones were one. Anything larger went up by every two feet of height. So far, he somehow managed to kick your ass every time. Today would be the day you showed him up. Maki had shown you a few decent moves and like hell you’d let him trample over your personal best with this up your sleeve!

With a springboard hop forward, he drew back a fist, “I’m gonna kick you’re ass!”

“Oh like hell-“ You bent back at the knees, left hand keeping your back from fully colliding into the ground. An ink blob came right for your neck, swiping dangerously had you not ducked, “OI, play fair!” Both palms planted into the blades of grass, balancing you as your legs vaulted upwards. The tip of your tattered sneaker connected crisply with its lower ‘jaw’. The shoe had swept through the inken mandible, triggering the creation to melt to the earth. As the handspring flowed through, you recollected yourself on both feet only to propel forward at the next targets.

Alas, there were only two by the time you had gotten through your first. Yuuji was always fast. Faster than a goddamn car, too. Exceptional physical prowess was presented with each corded muscle before he had even eaten the first few fingers. Rumors from his high school years didn’t fail him once, not even here amongst elite Shamans. It was something you always admired and envied about him. Your own form had been delicate, feminine, and rather weak. Some rumored it to be a heavenly restriction in exchange for your expert control over your Ink Children. You refused to believe that, however. Like hell you’d allow yourself to be restricted like that.

A pout found its way onto your lips as you ducked another straight punch from the last standing enemy. As you swung your punch, a fist made its way to you first, kissing the space between it and your nose. With barely enough time to dodge, you managed to slip to the side, arm hooking into the one that had aimed for your face. Ink exploded onto your clothes and face. Some splattered into your open mouth, triggering a coughing fit. Your shoulder ripped backward as you were practically hauled into a spin with the aggressor’s arm still linked with yours at the elbows. One of you lost stable footing. Your heart squeezed at the impact of dense earth hitting spine, followed by Yuuji landing directly onto your chest with a resounding, “WOAH!” He popped up, forearms caging you in at either side of your head, mouth sputtering apologies, “Didn’t even see you behind that thing! Are you okay?”

Your eyes blazed against his with explosive fury. Words ripped from your throat before thought could come before it, “Yuuji, what the fuck was that?!”

“I wanted to get the last point!” The goof-ball grin sloppily made its way to his cheeks. The world still spun around him as it always did with you. It wasn’t until you spoke again that the grin slipped down, dragging away any semblance of pride with it.

“You were already nine points ahead!” A pout made accompanied averting eyes. Chin nudged to the side to emphasize the massacre of ink littering against the ground, “You couldn’t have saved me the last one?! C’mon man.” You knew it was irrational to cut into him for something so silly. It was just training. He knew how much this meant to you, though, how hard you had to work to even take the impact just now.

Yuuji’s mouth opened the slightest, guilt trickling into his chest like a steady faucet. Whoops. You had always been competitive. Much more competitive than Nobara, even, and temper to match it, too. A large hand came to rustle the back of his hair, moving to scratched his temple, “Sorry. I got caught up in it. And…” Rose crept up subtly to his cheeks and ears to match his rose colored locks, “I wanted to impress you.”

Your head snapped back into place, locking hues with his honey-browns, “Wha-“

“You always make such strong opponents to fight against! I wasn’t even able to hit one last week!” His brows lowered slightly, lips jutting in their own embarrassed pucker, “Just wanna show you I’m strong too. How else am I supposed to protect you?” The sentence trailed out in a grumble, gaze meandering to the space next to your cheek rather than maintaining the kerosene-lit gaze of yours.

A warmth crept up your own cheeks, lips slightly parted in surprise. Really, you shouldn’t be shocked by this. He was always considerate of your safety. The sheer concept that it displayed during something as inconsequential as training was the bolded punctuation mark to his statement. You hated to admit it but, it made your heart flutter in its boned cage.

He wasn’t your stereotypical muscle head (despite that being your first impression of him.) He didn’t look down on you like the men in your family did for being physically weak. In fact, Yuuji looked up to you. He acknowledged your strengths and hard work. For the hours of grueling training to even be able to move the way you did, the boy made it a point to come out and watch you. Yuuji saw how you overcame challenge after challenge. It dowsed gasoline on the fire lit under his ass. Even when it seemed like he was selfishly destroying your own target, he simply was trying to meet your bar of approval. He admired your strength, your graceful movement, your technique, and most importantly he admired you.

“Yuuji,” You began, voice softening from its resin casing, “You don’t need to protect me. I just…” Your hands moved from their crossed position to your cheeks. Eyes fluttered shut briefly before opening again, “I just want to be stronger physically is all. I don’t want to feel like you have to protect me every time we go on a mission because of these noodle arms,” To drive the point home, you wiggled your arms beside his head before lazily resting them at his shoulders, “How the hell’s that fair, huh? Can’t a girl protect herself, Mr. Knight-in-Hooded-Armor?” You playfully stretched his cheeks, tugging the goober’s mouth this way and that, “’sides, you beat my ink kids way too quickly this time! I gotta step up my game.”

A sunshine laugh beamed from the boy above you. His hand swatted yours away, “Alright, alright! It’s almost like I like you or somethin’!” He dipped down, nuzzling your noses together. The way his lashes dipped as his lips connected with yours was transfixing. Why did boys always have the prettiest eyelashes? Why did they have the softest lips? You leaned into him, hands clasping behind his neck and locking him in place. A content hum harmonized between the two.

It was a moment you wished to last forever. The warmth of his sprite-flavored Chapstick slid against your teeth-bitten lips. One calloused hand cradled the side of your neck, thumb stroking the pink lingering on your cheekbone. He was so delicate and careful with you, yet somehow so sure in each touch and movement that it left you breathless every time. No matter how strong you were, he had an ability to make you weak for him every. Single. Time.

Bonus:

The thonk of a used paper towel roll whacking a cardboard box broke the sweet moment apart. Yuuji shoved his face into your neck with a puppy-like yelp before ripping up like an angered Pomeranian, “WHAT WAS THAT FOR, NOBARA?!”

“Maybe if you weren’t sucking face on the training field-!” The two growled at one another. The only thing tearing away their standoff was your shrill cackle. In comedic synchronicity, the two shouted, “What?!”

“D-did you hear the sound h-h-,” Words barely escaped your lips, chest heaving with each labored cry-laugh, “His head made! Yuuji! Oh my god you’re a basketball!”

#☄️.fic #☄️#🍺#🍺.fic #jujutsu kaisen #itadori yuuji #yuuji itadori #yuuji x reader #itadori yuuji x reader #yuuji x you #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen x you #fluff #jjk #jjk x reader #yuuji itadori x reader #how many tags do I use?#them all? okay

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danganronpasurvivoraskblog · 3 years

Text

The Next Day...

…

N-Ngh?

Ah. Look who’s finally awake.

*Kaede stirs awake after somehow falling asleep. She sits up and looks around. She realizes that she’s laying down in some sort of bed, with Kaito and Maki sitting next to her.

Wh-Where am I?

The hospital ward of the Future Foundation main building.

Oh…did I…pass out?

I think all the stress of what happened yesterday got to you. By the time we were on our way back and things had calmed down, I think your body was expended of all strength.

Well, it was also pretty late in the evening. Shuichi, Kokichi, Kuripa and Munakata were all taken away in ambulances. When the medical team heard what happened to you, they took you in to the emergency ward too.

I see…

*The group is suddenly joined by a fourth person.

Ah, good. You’re awake. Great news.

Hello Mikan. Where’d you go?

Sorry about that. I just got a call from Ibuki checking up on me.

Seems your girlfriend is trying to look out for you.

She’s worried, since I’m not going to be able to leave this place for a while.

What do you mean?

Well, aside from the sudden surge of high priority patients I’ve gotten…

My Boss has enforced a massive lockdown of the central building that we’re inside right now.

Every key member of the Foundation in in this building, and no one is allowed in or out.

Why?

It’s ‘cause he wants to catch the traitor. The good news about everything that happened is that Makoto and Kuripa are no longer on the suspect menu, at least not from the way Byakuya sees things.

But it also means the real traitor’s still at large. And this might be our one and only chance to rat them out.

The issue is that Shuichi is likely the key Byakuya needs to save everyone in the Foundation, and he’s currently indisposed.

I-Indisposed!? Wait, I-I need to-

*Kaede is just about to get out of bed, when suddenly she stops and looks at Mikan.

Um…sorry…With your permission Nurse Tsumiki, may I go and pay Shuichi Saihara and Kokichi Ouma a visit?

That depends. Are you feeling better after your electrocution?

I’ll admit, I’m not 100%, but I can definitely stand on my own.

Please, I have to go and see them.

Hm…

*Mikan thinks for a bit.

Kokichi Ouma is in a very severe position right now. I only have a small handful of nurses that I’ve been given, and we’re mainly treating him. So regrettably, I cannot permit you to see him.

Shuichi Saihara on the other hand should be alright. He’s also badly injured, and has a few damages inside and out, but he’s at least been able to recover enough to talk.

I warn you, don’t try to get him to get out of bed. I need to at least keep the patients I have on hand so I don’t lose any more of them.

“Lose any more of them…!?” D-Don’t tell me-!?

Calm down, it’s not what it sounds like.

Kuripa Kurafto just left by himself a couple of hours ago. Mikan tried to stop him, but he said he was fine.

Didn’t he get stabbed!?

He got stabbed quite a few times, but once I patched up his bigger wounds, he just left. He said he wasn’t in pain and walked out by himself.

He really is a very difficult patient!

I’d say that it’s impossible that he wasn’t hurting, but if he could walk out by himself…wow…he’s like some kind of superhuman.

Well, he’s definitely got a beastly side to him, that’s for sure.

Anyway, if you’re able to stand on your own, then yes, you may visit him. He’s not too far away right now.

He was in the same ward as Kuripa, but as you now know, he’s already left. So he’s free to be spoken to on his own.

Thank you very much Mikan. I’m sorry about all the trouble I’ve caused.

An injured patient should never have to apologize about being injured. Just make sure you take care of yourself, ok?

…

*Shuichi is awake, but lies very still and upright in his bed.

Good afternoon Mr Saihara.

Afternoon!? H-How long was I out for!?

You deserved a good rest Kaede. None of us were gonna try and wake you when you passed out in the back of the ambulance.

I’m sure you’ve figured it out for yourself, but you do have visitors.

…!

*Shuichi raises his head, as Kaede, Maki and Kaito step into the room behind Mikan.

Oh…hi guys…

Hey, you reckless hooligan.

You aren’t gonna let me live this down for a while, are you?

Well…I don’t think I need to, given what’s happened. It’s unlikely you’ll ever allow yourself to forget this experience.

No…You’re right about that…

More importantly, how are you Kaede…? You were in a bit of a mess yesterday.

I’m fine now. But…How are you holding up?

Shuichi’s condition goes beyond his scars, burns and injuries from the fire. According to my examination, he’s suffered heatstroke, sleep deprivation and lack of appetite in last few days.

Well, we have been busy, but I thought I told you you needed to take better care of yourself?

Sorry ma’am.

Hey…Mikan, sorry if you can’t give me a real answer to this, but…how long has Shuichi gotta stay here?

At least another night. It won’t be a problem though. This lockdown isn’t likely to end any time soon, and this hospital room is heavily guarded each night.

…That’s a relief. Thank you.

…

*Kaede suddenly notices Shuichi tucks his hands underneath his covers.

Shuichi…

Yes?

…Show me your hands.

…!

*Shuichi fidgets uncomfortably.

I-I’m not sure that you want to see that…

Oh, I’m sure I want to see that, now give me your hand.

H-Hey! Kaede wait!

Ms Akamatsu, please, don’t be so rough with the injured patients!

*Kaede barely listens and reaches under the cover, grabbing Shuichi’s wrist and pulling it out from hiding.

Yaah!

…!

…

*Kaede takes one look at Shuichi’s charred fingers and palms, and very nearly breaks down in tears.

…

Hehe…hideous, isn’t it? This is why I didn’t want you looking at them. But leave it up to you to always be pushy.

I-I don’t really want to say this, given all of the pain and stress you’ve been through, but...you all have a right to know.

The scarring and burns...they likely aren’t going to go away naturally...

So they’re permanent, huh? Jesus...

...

…

Shuichi…I’m so-

Don’t you dare finish that sentence.

…!

I’m not going through this song and dance with you again Kaede. Frankly I’m getting tired of it.

Ever since this case began, you’ve been by my side, providing for me, taking care of me when I falter, and noticing things that I might have missed. Effectively, from the start, you’ve been nothing but helpful, and that hasn’t changed even now.

I can promise you this. Even if he hadn’t gotten his hands on you, Munakata would somehow have found out about the High Roller. And it was clear that he’d planned this attack, since the bombs had already been planted before the Future Foundation arrived.

The fact that I chose to run in there to save Kokichi by myself is my own fault. You have nothing to do with this.

But I-

No if’s, what’s, how’s or but’s. I only care about the truth, and that there is the truth.

Besudes…It’s not the worst thing you know.

How is it not the worst thing…!? Look at you!

Well, sure my hands might be permanently scarred…but at least I’ve still got them.

You say that, but you’ve been unable to hold your spoon properly when you’ve been eating your soup.

W-Well, I’ll get over that with time, surely?

…

Look Kaede, just stop blaming yourself for everything bad that happens to me. The only person to blame for what happened to me is myself.

That’s not really true either though, you know that, right?

Huh?

I don’t know if either of you heard about it already…actually I don’t see how you could have…

But it turns out that Kyosuke Munakata had been brainwashed by Organization Zetsubou. Just like how Gonta had.

Everything, absolutely everything that’s happened ever since the Samidare bombing incident, has all gone according to the Future Foundation traitor’s plans.

We’ve all been lab rats in this little game they’ve written.

In which case…we need to catch them.

The lockdown will at least prevent any potential suspects from escaping. Meanwhile, you can take some time to recover.

Yeah, I know better than to argue with the nurse at least.

Hehe.

So we’ll resume our investigation once I’ve made a proper recovery. Does that sound good, “Detective Assistant Akamatsu?”

…

Ahaha…ok…But you had better take it easy, alright?

I will.

So, from what I can tell from this last checkup, your body seems to have made an almost full recovery from the trauma it experienced from the car battery.

The rest will take care of itself, but…try not to go near any electrical outlets or machines for a little while, ok? You’re free to leave today regardless.

Thank you very much Nurse Tsumiki. I’ll be sure to bring you a gift basket at some point. You deserve a raise.

*Kaede then leaves with Kaito and Maki.

So what’re you gonna do now Kaede?

…

Sorry to brush you guys off, but I need to do some things alone for now.

Shuichi said that this wasn’t my fault…but I need to make sure that something like this never happens ever again. I’ve got someone I need to talk to.

*Kaede exaunts.

#danganronpa survivor #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #danganronpa 2 #dr2 #kaede akamatsu #shuichi saihara #kaito momota #maki harukawa #mikan tsumiki #the fugitive arc

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nagitoandkokichioneshots · 3 years

Note

Greetings Mod Mikan

I remember to saying this in your Kokichi misconceptions/rant post about the whole 'Kokichi and Hiyoko' comparison a lot of fans makes. I would love to hear more about your thoughts about it, since it's also something that bothers me about the fandom

If you don't, that's fine

Thank you

Mod Mikan: Hello nonnie! Ah, no worries! I will never deny the chance to rant about my favorite panta gremlin

How dare the fandom compare the panta gremlin to that banana haired bitch?

But in all honestly, I believe that comparing Oma and Saionji is one of the most unfair comparisons you can make between characters. Yes, they both are childish and insult people. But really, that's literally all they have in common. Please, by all means, give me ANOTHER similarity they have in common!

I also apologize since this post turned out longer than expected, so if you wanna keep reading, just click down below. Thank you

I mean....what did you expect? Kokichi literally does way more for the story and practically carries the whole plot of DRV3 on his back. Even after his death, he is SO useful. Even if you don't like him, you can't play DRV3 and NOT admit that Kokichi didn't play a huge role in the entire game! He adds so much to the story, it's virtually impossible not to give him credit, positive or negative, on the impact he created throughout the story

Hiyoko, while she was going to become a survivor and receive a proper redemption arc, didn't do anything for the story. While that does sound harsh, it's the truth! Yes, she did make the shrine for Mahiru, but she was killed off right after that. It also makes me think (as I said in a previous post) that if she actually did survive and got the justice that she was originally going to receive, I would've warmed up to her. Yes, she did receive that in the anime, but it was poorly written (at least IMO) and didn't stick out much to me

Not only in a gameplay perspective, but as people, Kokichi is definitely a better person. Before you all call me a simp and 'defend Kokichi bullying others' please just let me explain. Hiyoko bullies people because of her background and upbringing. It's entirely personal why she looks down on others and insults them. It's also why she acts childish. I admit, her backstory is pretty sad, but honestly? Boo-fucking-hoo, Hiyoko. Is that harsh? Yes. But can you blame me? I'm bombarded by both Kokichi haters and Hiyoko kinnies that have shoved her backstory in my face, using it as an excuse for her actions. A person's backstory isn't an excuse to bully people. Hell, there is no 'right' excuse for being a bully! While I'm aware I sound a bit arrogant saying that, Hiyoko lacks the 'depth' and 'interest' that Kokichi gives to the audience. She's a 'copy and paste' of a 'schoolyard, playground elementary bully' who had a tragic backstory and bullies the weak to feel strong.

It's overplayed, if you ask me

Kokichi's bullying is much more complex, which gives him more entertainment and interest. It's for several reasons. He's mostly known for just teasing the cast, but there was four exceptions of people he, on layman's terms, 'bullies': Miu, Kiibo, Kaito, and Maki. Yes, I left Gonta off this list. He didn't really bully Gonta, just manipulated him in the beginning. He even saw Gonta as a friend, slowly but surely, without even realizing it. Yes, yes, I am aware that he called Gonta 'stupid' and 'an idiot' during trial 4, but can you blame him? He was paranoid, nervous, guilty, and felt a HUGE amount of remorse rest upon his shoulders. He was in a very bad state of mind, and his own logic and trust issues were pulling him down and allowing his own demons to swallow him--Needless to say, he was sunk into the pit of utter despair

For bullying Kiibo, I came across the reason, from others and even myself when I started to replay the game, that Kokichi was suspicious of Kiibo when the killing game begun. Before the killing game was even announced, Kokichi's behavior towards Kiibo was 'child-like' and more like innocent ignorance rather than having any malicious intent. But when the killing game begun, Kokichi probably wondered "Why was there a robot in the middle of a killing game for humans?". I mean....Kiibo, being an advanced piece of technology, was in a very suspicious position in the midst of a killing game. Heck, not only Kokichi, everyone isolated him and even threw in 'robophobic' remarks (not as often as Kokichi, but still)

In Miu's case.....well, honestly....Miu got off on it XD. I explained his relationship with Miu in another previous post, but long story short: He basically insulted Miu because it was the 'nicest' way for her to be quiet and shut up. If he were to yell at her, Miu would've cowardly whimpered or backed down. But she wasn't bothered by degradation and actually got off on it. Also, reviewing what I said about Kiibo being in a suspicious position in the killing game (which was actually proven in the end with him being the audience's surrogate and voice), Miu also had an impressive talent. Her talent gave her a HUGE advantage if she decided to become blackened. Kokichi needed to manipulate her in some way so she wouldn't have gotten her mind filled with the intent to murder. And surprise surprise. Chapter 4 rolls around and she decided to murder Kokichi--someone whom he put his trust in. It's understandable he would be a little salty towards her, even after death

With Maki's case, it was really tied to her being an assassin, something Kokichi hated. His organization had that 'no murder' rule, and he probably revealed Maki's talent out of spite and to avenge Ryoma's death, believing that it was Maki's fault he ultimately decided to give his life to Kirumi. Not only that, but he was legit choked by her in front of everyone, and who did Kaito and Shuichi decided to be-friend IN THE MIDDLE OF A KILLING GAME?! Yep! A trained assassin!

And that was really tied with Kaito's case as well. Kokichi was probably pissed off at Kaito's blind faith in people and tried to get him to change his ways throughout the game. Which is probably why he was also rude to many people and nitpicked their flaws. He wanted to help them and steer them into a better direction, but didn't want to directly help them. And why??? Well, do you remember what Kokichi said in chapter 1/2 about working together? Monokuma will just drive a wedge between all of them if they decide to cooperate. Kokichi was on the cast's side, but wanted to do it in an underhanded way to avoid raising suspicion with Monokuma

Now tell me......did Hiyoko do any of that?

I'm not saying Kokichi's bullying was excusable. Like I said, there is no 'good' excuse to bully people. But he, on layman terms, had a 'better' reason to bully others than Hiyoko did. Kokichi was driven by logic (with a little bit of his trust issues mixing in) while Hiyoko had personal reasons

Look at Kokichi's UTDP and compare it to Hiyoko's events. Kokichi doesn't really bully anyone. He teases people with his lies, but it's nothing bad really. Even outside a killing game, Hiyoko is still pretty fucking rude

I hope this gave you some insight to my view about the whole Oma vs Saionji comparison. This turned out longer than expected, so again, sorry about that!

#mod mikan rants #mod mikan thoughts of the day #mod mikan speaks #kokichi oma #DRV3 kokichi #sdr2 hiyoko #hiyoko saionji

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danganronpa-madness-imagines · 4 years

Text

The ultimate bodyguard S/O saving Kokichi from Maki choking him.

♡Hello, my lovely. I- uh apologize if this is cringe! I’m so bad at writing, I hate myself. Im also sorry if this isn't what you wanted. *cries* But yeah, tell me if you want me to change anything.

♡Remember, you are all welcome to ask or request anything. I love you all so much. Stay safe, everyone!

♥Mod Maki.♥

The ultimate bodyguard S/O saving Kokichi from Maki choking him:

~“Jeez, S/O, why are you super serious all the time like Maki? Just lighten up a little,” Kokichi whined, putting his hands on his hips, leaning towards you. “I have to be serious, It’s my talent.” You said firmly. Kokichi’s words kept on repeating in your head. “Jeez, S/O, why are super serious all the time like Maki? Just lighten up a little,”

~Your mind was racing with confusion. “He knows we are in a horrible situation right now. How can he just say that? You should be serious! And...how do you lighten up a little?”

~Kokichi’s sudden yelling interrupted your thoughts. “Hurry, S/O, you’re like taking forever!” You looked over to the sound of his voice to see Kokichi waving his arms in the air. “R-right, I’m coming.” You lifted your feet off the ground, following Kokichi to the gym.

~Upon entering the gym, you noticed all the others were there talking. “That's because...we gave up,” Kaito said, rubbing the back of his neck. He put his fists together, “But this time we can't give up! Cuz, this is our final chance! We're gonna beat up Monokuma and end this ridiculous killing ga-”

~Kokichi spoke up, “What a coinkydink—S/O, and I were planning on ending this killing game, too.” Everyone’s attention turned to you two, standing by the door. “Y'know...we was also thinking about how to end this killing game as soon as possible.”

~Your eyes shifted towards Maki, You could see the rage in her eyes. She absolutely hated him- no, she despised Kokichi with all her being. Her facial expression and her clenching her fists tightly gave her anger away. Well, it wasn’t like she was trying to hide it, anyway.

~Some time had passed with Kokichi and the rest bickering about the killing game. To almost everyone, it seemed like Kokichi wanted to end this killing game. Maybe that was true. You sighed. But everything is a lie with him, “why am I even talking to him in the first place?”

~“Oh, I know! This is all Monokuma's doing. He's trying to get us to suspect each other. But don't worry. I truly wanna end this killing-¨

~Kokichi’s words were cut off by the sound of swiftly moving footsteps. The sight of Maki rushing to Kokichi made anxiety creep its way into your system.

~What was she thinking? Did she want to hurt him? You couldn’t let that happen- he was... important to you. And just maybe... just maybe your heart raced a little when speaking to him. And maybe you wanted to hang out with the gremlin. It finally hit you. Did you like him? And did all those times he said he liked you, did he really mean it?

~Maki was only a few feet away from him. Instantly, you rushed in front of him. Protecting him from whatever Maki was about to do. She attempted to rush around you, instead of letting that happen, you firmly grabbed her arm.

“What do you think you are doing, Maki? Hurting anyone will not help the situation we’re in. I suggest you stop now before you regret it.” Eyes filled with rage was her response. “Maki roll calm down! That’s just what Monokuma wants!” Kaito yelled, running towards the two of you. “We’re leaving now,” you stated, letting go of her arm, grabbing Kokichi’s hand and exiting the gym.

~As you were walking in the hallway, still guiding Kokichi by hand you realized how unusually quiet he was. You sighed, letting go of his warm hand to face him. ¨Kokichi, What's wrong you've been quiet-¨ huh? Why were his cheeks tinted red? Could it be that he was blushing because...you were holding his hand?. For the first time, you got the urge to tease him. You usually wouldn't and let him tease you, so why not get back at that little gremlin?

~You smiled, ¨Aww, Is our Kokichi embarrassed? You teased, leaving him in shock ¨J-Jeez, look at you trying to tease the ultimate supreme leader! Well, that will not work! Absolutely not! ¨ Kokichi turned around from you.

~¨Then why are you blushing, Hm? ¨ You took a few steps toward him. ¨Blushing? What's blushing? Im not blushing your blushing!¨

~¨Yeah, Yeah sure I am. Keep talking little grape¨ You said turning around and walking away from him. ¨W-why are you leaving me here? Didn't you want to tease me!? ¨ He said looking at you. You turned your head to face him. ¨Maybe it's because I like you and thought your blushing face was cute... or is that just a lie, hm?¨

~I guess that day, S/O learned the teasing Kokichi was fun and they should do it more often. S/O also learned they had feelings for Kokichi without knowing it before, but he didn't need to know that. (And maybe that Maki was crazy)

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elyvorg · 4 years

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Kaito Momota: The Man Who Apologised Too Much

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

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

Don’t make yourself feel bad!

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

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

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

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

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

Take responsibility!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Kaito starts to get it wrong

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Kaito gets it wrong in the other direction

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

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

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

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

How Kaito gets it wrong in two ways at once

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

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

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

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

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

How Kaito gets it right again at last

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

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

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

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

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

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truelovevoltage · 4 years

Text

Pregnancy - Yukihisa Maki

It started off as a harmless meeting every Friday night. At first, it was all fun and games no feelings attached, that’s all there is to it until that one night. Y/N wasn’t quite sure what really happened, she knew that she was having one of the best nights with Yukihisa. The further they kept going the deeper her feelings fell into the well.

She thought to herself that even if she did fall in love with him, she will not tell him. She will do everything in her power to keep that feeling to herself. She’s going to keep the promise that she will not say the “L” word. She’s not going to tell him how she really felt about the Doctor who has a weird way of showing his affections to others.

When her monthly was late, it didn’t really bother her because she would have irregular visits from time to time. However, a few weeks have passed and she started to worry. She tried to remember that night and how amazing it was, it must’ve happened that night, where the protection broke but neither of them realized it.

Once that was done she went and bought a pregnancy kit to test out her theory. She was nervous, she knew her status between Yukihisa and she didn’t want to ruin his life but how is she going to deal with the pregnancy by herself? What is she going to do if she is indeed carrying his child at this very moment? Her hands shook as she waited for the test to deny or confirm her theory.

After a few minutes, she was scared to look at the results but she needed to see it herself, there’s no going back. She held the edge of the sink for extra support, she was going to be a mother soon. A lot of things ran through her head and it was too much during that time. One thing’s for sure she was going to keep the child and raised them on her own, all she has to do now is leave her dream job. It’s a huge sacrifice, but it’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make.

The following day Y/N walked towards Shunichiro Tachibana’s office and gave him her resignation letter. “Mr. Tachibana after this project I will be resigning from the company.” Y/N stated. Shunichiro was confused, there was no problem with the production or the project itself, why is she suddenly leaving the company? “Hmm... May I ask why? This is your dream isn’t it?” He clasped his hands together and rested his chin on top. “It is my dream job that is correct but I feel like I’ve lost myself. I am resigning because I want to find myself and be happy.”

“Is this because of Yuki? Are you two not in good terms? Are you just going to run away like that?”

Hearing his name made it hard for her to breathe but she needed to keep her composure. “No Sir, this is not because of Dr. Maki. I’ve been meaning to visit my parents as well and I’m hoping that they can somehow help me with this slump. This is my own decision and I just need a change of pace, change of scenery even and I know what you’re going to say... Why can’t I just take time off and bounce back after I’ve gotten out of my slump but I believe that this is something that’ll take time. As much as it pains me to say goodbye to my dream job, I have to do this. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

Shunichiro knew that there was some truth behind what Y/N has just declared to him but he wasn’t quite convinced. He knew that she was hiding something but he wasn’t going to pry. “It’s really sad to see someone young and talented like you go just like that, but I’m not a demon and will decline your resignation letter. I don’t know what you’re going through right now but I hope you overcome it.”

That same night, Y/N invited Yukihisa out. She knew that it’s not their usual Friday rendezvous but she needed to do this now. He happily agreed to meet with her that night at a bar where they could talk. “Someone couldn’t wait to see me until Friday huh?” He smirked.

Y/N tried her best to act normal around him so that he doesn’t get suspicious. But knowing his friendship with her boss, he must’ve said something about her resignation letter to Yukihisa. “What are you going to drink this time? I suggest the -”

“Yukihisa I’m in love with you.” Y/N looked at him to show that she was serious.

Y/N’s sudden declaration of love took Yukihisa by surprise. He held his hand out and she knew what he wanted. “You knew from the very start that this is going to end the moment you fell for me.” He gave her an icy stare. Y/N already knew that this was going to happen, it was easier this way because then she can leave without raising his radar. “I know and I’m sorry but I can’t help it but fall for you. I love you, very much. I know what this means it’s the end but at least I was able to tell you how I feel right? And don’t worry, I’ll be back to my normal self in no time.” She smiled at him.

This is the very first time the Yukihisa couldn’t anticipate what was running through her head right now. “I’m sorry but I need to go, I still have a project to finish.” She excused herself and left Yukihisa at the bar.

It was her last week in the company and just like she said, she was back to normal and ready to bounce back. It was still a mystery to Shunichiro how cheerful Y/N is right now considering that she was going to be gone from the company in a couple of days. Once the project is released, she’ll be gone from the company forever. Shunichiro wanted to talk to her and persuade her to stay but that is something she can’t do. There was no one who could change her mind.

The two tried to avoid each other in the company but Shunichiro would find ways for them to cross paths. This irritated Y/N but she needed to calm herself. She didn’t want Yukihisa to detect any change in her behaviour due to her pregnancy. It seems like Shunichiro didn’t bother telling Yukihisa about Y/N’s resignation, he didn’t feel like he needed to know what was going on with her life since they already ended things with each other.

The advertisement was a huge success. Everyone loved it and gave a positive vibe to those who saw it, even the actors really got moved. But since it’s the day of the release, it also meant that it’s Y/N last day. Only a few coworkers know that she was leaving but no one really knew the reason why. Natsume wasn’t buying her reason but he knew there must be something else.

Y/N knew that she needed to at least attend the party tonight. Since she’s pregnant she needed to stay away from liquor or anything that’ll harm her child. Yukihisa watched her from a distance, he wanted to make sure that she was okay. He knew that she pushed herself to make this production a success and it paid off. He also noticed how one of her coworkers was very close to her the entire night, he didn’t like the feeling of jealousy but he knew he had no right to be feeling this way. He was the one who didn’t want any relationship blooming from his little game and he basically turned her confession down.

Natsume didn’t leave Y/N side the entire night, he didn’t know why Y/N was acting strange and why she needed to quit the job at Addison & Rhodes. “I don’t know what the hell is going on Y/N but please tell me why you’re leaving.”

“Natsume please not now. Let’s just enjoy the part and I swear I’ll tell you in a bit on the way home okay?”

Natsume didn’t like the suspense he all he had to do was to be patient. He just wanted to be by her side at this time he was afraid that she might do something stupid. After making their rounds and greeting everyone, Y/N suddenly felt fatigued. Natsume noticed right away and held her by the waist to keep her balance. The two excused themselves from everyone and decided to go home, Yukihisa’s eyes, on the other hand, followed as the two of them exited the party.

Natsume waited for Y/N to explain what was going on, Y/N said it was a long story and asked him if he wanted to stay at her place for a bit and then she can tell him the story. She hoped that her childhood friend wouldn’t judge her for what has happened during the past weeks. She knew that he’ll probably lecture her about everything that has happened and she was prepared for that. Y/N started her story from day one and Natsume was listening, but as he was listening his hands formed into a fist. “Natsume... I’m pregnant and he’s the father. I’m not going to tell him, because this is not what he needs in his life right now.”

“Are you insane?!?! How are you going to take care of the child by yourself?!? Aren’t you being unfair to Dr. Maki and your child? He’s not going to know that he has a kid and your child won’t know who his father is.”

Y/N knew the consequences, she knew what she was going to say to her kid if they look for their Father. She was going to tell them that their father is no longer with them and it was just the two of them. “You know how stupid and crazy that sounds Y/N? I wish you could’ve told me about it earlier.”

It was suddenly quiet but Natsume’s words shocked Y/N. There’s no way she’ll let him do that even if he volunteered. She just couldn’t, this isn’t what she wanted for her childhood friend. People would be suspicious and she didn’t want to ruin his life just how she didn’t want to ruin Yukihisa’s life. “I’ll be the father of the child.”

#Yukihisa Maki #Yukihisa Maki Fan Fiction #Yukihisa Maki Fan Fic #Irresistible Mistakes #Irresistible Mistakes Fan Fic #Irresistible Mistakes Fan Fiction #Voltage #Voltage Inc #Voltage Headcanon #Voltage Headcanons #Voltage Fan Fics #Voltage Fan Fiction #Irresistible Mistakes Fan Fics #Yukihisa Maki Fan Fics #truelovevoltage Fan Fic #truelovevoltage fan fiction #truelovevoltage posts #truelovevoltage

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takonei · 4 years

Text

Beta AU - Main story, Chapter 3, daily life (Part 2)

Note of the author: It’s motive time bois.

Chapter 3: What is beyond humans’ control - Daily life

Day 10 since the beginning of the game. 8:00 AM.

Shuichi woke up at the morning announcement. he slept better than expected, thankfully.

After taking a shower, he got dressed up to join the others in the dining hall.

Just as he left his room, he saw Angie leaving her room as well.

“Oh, hey Angie.” he yawned.

The girl span around so fast she almost tripped on her own feet. “G’morniiing!”

Shuichi chuckled. The two started making their way to the dining hall together.

“Apparently you helped Himiko and Kokichi making statues yesterday?” he decided to start a conversation.

She nodded. “Yeah! I taught them how to use chisels and hammers and woodpeckers and a lot of other tools!”

“I see,” he smiled. “That must have been fun then.”

She grinned. “Although they’re not the best at it, it was their first time!”

There was a short silence.

Shuichi didn’t know if asking her about her island was a good idea, but it was worth a shot. “Hey... I know this is probably a touchy subject for you and I won’t force you to talk but... How was it back there, sculpting?”

But when he looked at her, her eyes were empty. She had stopped in her tracks. “... I wish I could slaughter Atua with my own hands for all the shit he put all of us priestesses through. Just cutting him like Monokuma cut Maki with the scissors and watch his-”

The violinist couldn’t believe what she was saying. He wanted to put his hands on her shoulders, but refrained from doing so. “Angie! I-”

He paused. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have talked about this.”

She stared at him silently for a moment, then took a step back. “I told you, didn’t I? This is all behind me now! Now I can live with you all here in the academy!”

Shuichi didn’t know how to respond. He wanted to leave but seeing Angie like this made him feel sad. He had a family to go back to, but for those like Kirumi and Angie, this was a whole other story.

“Let’s... Just go to the dining hall. Miu and Kirumi probably already made breakfast.” he couldn’t look at Angie in the eyes. “But please consider talking to Kiyo about all of this. He can try to help you just please...”

He looked at her with pleading eyes. “Talk to someone about this.”

She looked at him with dumbfounded eyes, but then smiled. “Sure thing! But you don’t have to worry about this, Shuichi!~”

They finished their walk in silence.

When they reached the dining hall, Shuichi hoped to see breakfast ready and some of the others here to brighten up the mood.

Unfortunately, a way more confusing scene unfolded in front of his eyes.

Ryoma was in the corner of the room, curled into a ball, Rantaro desperately trying to talk to him.

“Ryoma please- Are you feeling okay??” he asked.

“S-Stay away from me! What did I even do to you?” the small man shakily replied. That was... Unusual.

Miu was a few meters away. She subtly approached the two.

“What’s going on with him?” Shuichi whispered to her.

“No one knows what’s going on. Ryoma looks afraid of everything and everyone, Tsumugi seems to have amnesia and we’ve been trying to understand the situation for twenty minutes. The two also have a huge fever from what Rantaro said.” she replied, as confused as him.

The others came in one by one, and explaining what was going on was impossible.

Rantaro was desperately trying to resonate with Ryoma, but it was useless.

Kirumi tried to talk to Tsumugi, but all she got from her was “Who are you?” and “Where are we?”

Once everyone got into the dining hall, the monokubs popped in.

“My goodness! That’s obviously bad!” Monophanie exclaimed.

The students turned to the bears.

“Teddy bears?” Tsumugi asked, confused.

“What did you do to them??” Miu yelled.

“Ahem! It looks like you want some explanations...” Monotaro said.

“Yeah no shit.” Kaito glared at him.

“MEET-YOUR-NEW-MOTIVE. THE-DESPAIR-DISEASE.” Monodam explained.

That didn’t seem to answer a lot of questions.

“We... May or may not have let some tiny insects inside the academy and it looks like they find you all appetizing!” The pink bear rubbed the back of her head.

Rantaro sighed. “Quit your bullshit. This is obviously your doing. No existing disease infects people that differently.” he glanced at Tsumugi, quietly sitting on a chair and Ryoma, curled up in a ball in the corner of the room.

“How dare you assume we’re lying! Bears never lie!” the red one raised his metal paws up in the air. “Anyway. It’s a really annoying disease where you get a high fever, along with various symptoms!”

Monodam pointed at the two sick students. “TSUMUGI-HAS-THE-AMNESIC-DISEASE. RYOMA-HAS-THE-COWARD-DISEASE.”

Kiyo put a finger on his chin. ”So basically the opposite of their normal personalities.”

“But be careful! Sometimes the despair disease can get passed from person to person just like a cold!” Monophanie put her paws on her cheeks.

Rantaro’s eyes widened. “And it had to be contagious of course.” He approached the bear. “And what’s the cure?”

“THIS-DISEASE-DOESN’T-NEED-A-CURE. IT-WILL-HELP-EVERYONE-GET-ALONG.”

“That’s right! It’s in the most difficult situations that you guys help each other. We thought that would help you all!”

Everyone fell silent. The absurdity of the statement was way too much.

The cubs, noticing the sudden tension in the room, chanted their catchphrase and left.

Shuichi glanced at Rantaro. He looked beyond mad. He took a deep breath and clapped his hands once.

“We’re gonna have to isolate them for now. Except we don’t have a comfortable separated facility for them.”

Shuichi pondered. “So we’ll have to keep them in their own rooms...”

“This is going to be a nightmare to take care of them. I have stuff in my lab but if I have to walk from my lab to the dormitories each time they need something I’m not going to keep up for long.”

Kirumi was leaning against the wall, her arms crossed. “I know this isn’t the best place, but what about the three rooms on the fourth floor? We’ll have to transport stuff here but at least it’s closer.”

“That’s probably the best we can do for now.” He lifted his head to look at everyone else. “I’ll stay here to keep an eye on them for now. Please try to make two of those rooms as comfortable as possible for them. There are three beds in my lab. I’m counting on you for this.”

“W-wait...”

Kokichi raised his hand. “I d-don’t really know... M-Maybe I’m wrong but... I feel like I have it t-too...”

Himiko jumped. “Huh? Really?”

He nodded. “I... I feel dizzy a-and my head is spinning... But I don’t feel any mental change s-so I’m not sure.”

Rantaro approached him and put the palm of his hand on the small boy’s forehead. “You’re feverish. We shouldn’t take any risks.

He pondered for a moment. “Does anyone else feel sick, aside from Kokichi, Tsumugi and Ryoma?”

No answer. “Good. You guys prepare the three rooms while I keep an eye on those three.”

Shuichi turned to him. “Hold on, you're volunteering to take care of them until they get better? You think you can take the risk being infected?”

He turned to the violinist. “I’ve seen worse. I’m the ultimate medic, so don’t worry about me, alright?”

The two stared at each other. Shuichi nodded. “Thanks a lot, Rantaro.”

The rest of the students spent the rest of the morning transporting the beds from the medic’s lab to the rooms. They also took furniture and items from various rooms and labs to make the room a bit more comfortable and less creepy than before.

Lamps and books from Tsumugi’s lab, chairs from Kirumi’s lab, and some decoration and items from the other labs and the warehouse.

At least those rooms looked more like bedrooms than occult-ish rooms. Of course there wasn’t the usual comfort of the dorms, but it was better than nothing.

Shuichi let Rantaro guide the patients to their rooms. They were surprisingly cooperative.

Tsumugi, Ryoma and Kokichi... He really hoped those three would get better.

Shuichi went to Rantaro’s lab. It pained him a little to learn that he was going to do everything by himself from now on.

When he stepped in the room, he was wearing a mask and plastic gloves, carefully handling medicine, beaker and eyedropper in hand.

Once he saw the violinist entering the lab, he put down his tools to look at him. “Do you need something? It’s probably best if you don’t approach me too much, just in case.”

Shuichi winced. “I mean... We can’t let you do everything by yourself... Can we at least do something for you?”

“Shuichi’s right! I can’t just stay here and let you do all the work!” a feminine voice came from behind.

Miu had just appeared in the lab. But while Shuichi was calmly asking how he could help, the girl was clearly determined to do so.

“I... Want to help the others in this. I want to apologize for everything I did after the motive videos... Even though it’s just a little, I want to be useful.” She bowed to Rantaro.

Unfortunately his expression was almost unreadable because of his mask, but Shuichi could clearly see the surprise in his eyes.

Rantaro stood up. “Like I said it’s better if only one of us takes care of the patients, and I’m the most qualified for this. But...”

He paused.

“If it’s not too much to ask, could you please make individual meals for the ill ones and me? And perhaps bring me a sleeping bag since I’ll probably stay here for a while.”

Shuichi put a finger on his chin. “And you’ll probably need some clean clothes too...”

Miu quickly stood up, pointing two fingers to her temple. “Leave it to me!”

Rantaro smiled behind his mask. “However could you bring me dish soap with it? It would be bad to give you back contaminated empty dishes.”

Miu smiled. “Got it!” she turned her back to him, and added: “Make sure to take care of yourself, alright sweetie?”

The medic chuckled. “Alright, alright. Take care of yourself as well, okay?”

The street artist smiled and left. There was a visible blush on her face.

He turned back to Rantaro and giggled. “She really seems into you, calling you ‘sweetie’ like this...”

He shrugged. “I’m not really used to affection like that, but it feels nice. Although I don’t see her ‘that’ way.”

Oh.

“I’ll go for now. Just like she said, don’t overwork yourself, okay?” Shuichi said.

Rantaro gave him a thumbs up. “Don’t worry about me. We should be alright for now.”

The group spent lunch together, but there were four less people than what was supposed to be. Obviously Himiko looked worried for Kokichi, but Angie was keeping her company, so it was fine.

Afternoon came and with four less people around, the academy felt empty. But at least they were in good hands.

Himiko and Angie were once again sculpting items in the latter’s lab.

Kaito and Keebo were in the warehouse. The biker had tried to replace Tsumugi and Ryoma for his maintenance.

Miu and Kirumi were cooking in the kitchen some meals and snacks for the infected ones and Rantaro.

Kiyo was outside, not doing anything in particular, so Shuichi approached him.

“Oh, hello Shuichi. Do you need anything?” he asked.

He shook his head. “Not really. Just thought we could hang out.”

The two sat under the wisterias of the courtyard. They had a relaxing feeling, and Shuichi often saw Kiyo talking to people under here.

The violinist picked a flower and started fiddling with it. “What do you think about all of this? I’ve never heard what you thought about this situation.”

Kiyo looked at him. “About what exactly?”

“I would guess the disease... Rantaro said he didn’t believe the bears and said they were lying about the origin of the disease.”

The therapist pondered for a moment, staring at the void.

“... I don’t really know. To be honest I’m contemplating the possibility of the mastermind being one of the ill ones.”

Shuichi’s eyes widened. “Huh? You think the mastermind is either Ryoma, Tsumugi or Kokichi?”

“I didn’t say that I was sure, just that we should not exclude the possibility.”

The violinist frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean...”

“Let’s say the mastermind is the one who gave the ‘disease’ to us. We would obviously think they wouldn’t give the disease to themselves. So they could have just given themselves a fever and act like have the disease.”

Shuichi put his elbows on his knees, head resting on his hands. “But can we even be sure there is a mastermind among us? Maki’s execution still went on even though Monokuma was destroyed, and he came back right after...”

“I don’t really know about this part. We thought that the mastermind would go to the hidden room to summon another Monokuma, but Maki’s execution proved us that it wasn’t the case.”

Shuichi tried to think. “Maybe... They had a remote on them?”

Kiyo narrowed his eye. “That’s a possibility. But... Monokuma wants us to feel despair, right?”

Shuichi raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Because Monokuma reappeared the next day the first time he was crushed, we assumed someone had to go in the hidden room to manually create another one, and they needed to wait until everyone was asleep to act.”

He nodded.

“But if Monokuma’s objective is to destroy our hopes, the mastermind probably let us hope he was definitely destroyed, then created another one to intensify the psychological effect. They could have been able to do it since the very beginning. However, since Maki’s execution was an emergency, they didn’t have time to think and immediately created another one.”

Shuichi lowered his head. “That’s messed up... But that doesn’t explain how they do so...”

“I’m not sure. The remote seems like a plausible theory. We were all in a panic when the courtroom was falling appart, so they could have done something without us realizing.”

That... Made sense.

“But if they can create another Monokuma whenever they want, doesn’t that mean there is a possibility they’re not among us and simply hiding in the hidden room?”

Kiyo hummed. “It’s possible, however since there is still a chance they’re in this group, I wouldn’t talk too quickly.”

Shuichi nodded.

“But to come back to what you said about the despair disease, what would the mastermind gain by giving themselves the disease?” he asked.

“To make us think they’re not one of them, at the risk of not being able to do anything since Rantaro keeps an eye on them at all times. But that would be quite the gamble.” Kiyo explained.

That was quite unlikely, Shuichi thought, but not impossible.

“And Rantaro... I can’t say for certain. He has a great influence on the others but I know a genuine speech when I see one. That’s what last trial proved me.” he added.

Shuichi remembered Kirumi’s words the day before.

‘Willing to listen’ and ‘trusting’ are two very different things. That’s what differentiates strategists and friends.

Rantaro... He was a strategist. He gave the key to his lab to Ryoma in case someone tried to get it from him. He knew another killing would happen and did his best to keep the group calm and rational. Even going as far as to expose the truth about the lack of benefits he would get by escaping. He also volunteered to take care of the ill students all by himself. It was clear he wanted to have a good influence on the group. To be in control of the situation, in a good way.

But him being the mastermind wasn’t something Shuichi wanted to think about.

A part of him also hoped Kiyo wasn’t the mastermind and said all those theories on purpose to confuse him.

The discussion felt tiring.

The two decided to drop the subject for now to talk about their respective lives.

Evening came. The rest of the group joined in the dining hall but Shuichi still felt like someone was missing.

There were 12 students alive in the academy. 3 of them were resting because of the illness and one was taking care of them. Yet only half of the remaining students were in the dining hall.

After a quick glance, Shuichi noticed both Miu and Himiko were absent.

Right after thinking that, the street artist entered the dining hall, alone.

“Where’s Himiko?” he asked as she sat in front of Kaito.

“She’s in front of Kokichi’s room and they talk through the door. She’s been at it for an hour now and I don’t think she’ll leave soon.” Miu explained.

Kaito raised an eyebrow as he was eating. “Rantaro doesn’t mind?”

She shook her head. “He said as long as Himiko doesn’t enter the room it’s fine. Also that she must be out of the way during his checks.”

She took a sip of water from her glass. “So right now they’re eating dinner separated by a door.”

Shuichi nodded. Rantaro probably knows more about him about what they should do.

After finishing dinner, since there wasn’t much to do, everyone parted their ways. However there was one last thing Shuichi needed to do.

He quickly looked at his monopad to see where the therapist was. He was outside, on a bench near the wisterias, as usual.

It didn’t take long for Shuichi to reach him.

“Hey, Kiyo?”

He turned to him. He seemed to have been lost in his own thoughts. “Do you need anything?”

He winced. This was a touchy subject, but he had to.

“I think you should try to talk to Angie... I’m a bit concerned about her.”

He explained the whole situation. What she told him in her lab and their discussion this morning.

Kiyo hummed.

“I see. If as you say she resents her home more than this entire killing game, then there is a high possibility she went through severe trauma.”

He stood up. “Thank you for telling me. I’ll talk to her tomorrow, since it is getting late.”

The two went back to the dormitories, hoping Rantaro would be fine by himself.

The disease didn’t need to make any more victims and suffering.

They could only hope for the best.

#ndrv3 #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 au #beta au #main story

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murdertrialimagines · 5 years

Text

V3 Boys+Tsumugi Catching Their S/O Cuddling Monokuma

“May have any v3 boys + Tsumugi Shirogane réaction to their s/o sleeping with Monokuma ? (but they are not thé mastermind)”

This is super cute! I love cuddling with my Monokuma plushie too :3 I am sorry if this is short, I’m stuck in some writer’s block for a different request, so I’m hoping this gets the gears grinding! Story under the tag~

Shuichi Saihara

You usually spent the night at Shuichi’s dorm, and he knew you sometimes had nightmares

This is why he felt bad when he left you to go training with Kaito and Maki

So when he came back and saw you cuddling with the very bear that stuck them in this mess, he didn’t know how to feel

I mean, that bear is a killing machine

But...you look so cute?

Shuichi watched you nuzzle up to the bear, who stared at him with a deadpan expression

He nearly jumped at the high pitched voice

“I may be a horrible being, but I know to be nice to someone when they need it!”

Shuichi watched for one more moment before walking back out

“Maybe it’s best I stay out for a bit longer...”

Kaito Momota

The second Kaito even sees Monokuma around you he wants to drag you away to the furthest corner of their prison

Only trouble follows that bear!

When he found you sleeping with Monokuma, his first instinct was to wake you up

Which he did

When you opened your eyes, you found your boyfriend had already removed Monokuma from your arms, you now in his

“Leave my Y/n alone!”

Monokuma gave you both his signature laugh before leaving quickly, somehow exiting the room without opening the door

Swiftly, Kaito set you back on the bed, grumbling about the bear, stopping when you pulled him down with you

Wrapping your arms around his waist, you cuddled into his chest

“Sorry...I got lonely, and training seemed to be lasting forever...”

Kaito melted

He returned the hug, pulling the blankets over the two of you

“I’ll try to finish up quicker next time. Goodnight, Y/n.”

Ryoma Hoshi

Ryoma never misses a night with you, especially once the first murder occurred, giving you intense nightmares

It wasn’t rare for you to wake up in the middle night, having nightmares that made you need to check to see if your boyfriend was alive.

He had volunteered to stay back one night, Miu needing someone small to help set up camera’s in a room that had suspicious events occurring in it

He felt bad, but you insisted that you would just stay awake until he came back

So when he came back to his dorm saw it was pitch black, his mind raced

You always fell asleep with the light on, Ryoma turning it off after he was sure you wouldn’t wake up again

Why was it off?

He clicked it on, jumping at the voice that rang out immediately, as if it was cued by the light switch

“She’s not dead, if that’s what you think.”

Ryoma scanned the bed, barely making out your body shape in the heap of blankets piled up

And hooked under your dead-weight arm was Monokuma

“What-”

He was cut off by the bear’s red eye glowing slightly brighter, gleaming

“Since you’re here, my job is done. Get me out!”

Ryoma freed Monokuma from your grasp easily, you only stirring in response

Monokuma waddled to the door, jumping to hit the light switch, making the room light up by only the moonlight peering in from the open door

“They only asked me here because they said I’m close to your size, ya know”

Ryoma slammed the door in Monokuma’s face, and jumped into bed, taking some well needed rest by his favorite person.

Rantaro Amami

Rantaro had spent all night in the hall to the library, hoping that the mastermind might come in and reveal a clue, or even their identity

And you, the ever supporting s/o, stayed with him, despite how easily you fell asleep

He stood, pacing back and fourth, while you leaned on the hall wall, blanket draped over your shoulders.

You two kept yourself occupied with conversation, but soon enough that turned to him speaking and you giving soft hums of agreement or acknowledgement.

After asking a question and not getting a response, Rantaro turned around, not surprised to see you had nodded off

What did surprise him, however, was the bear in your arms, staring directly at him

“You should’ve known this plan was never gonna work!”

Rantaro shushed the bear.

“Quiet. Y/n is sleeping”

He bent down to pluck the bear from your arms, and to his surprise, Monokuma buried himself deeper in your arms

“Not yet! I’m starved for affection, you guys are all so mean to me!”

Rantaro only sighed in response before picking you up bridal style, Monokuma still in your arms

“Hm, fine. But we’re going back to our room.”

Gonta Gokuhara

The second Gonta saw you cuddling with the bear in your room, he panicked

He really thought the bear was trying to kill you, as Monokuma was standing on your stomach, staring at you

The bear only pulled up its fist in response, staring straight at the cowering man

“Keep quiet Gorilla! She asked me to stay till she fell asleep, nightmares or something”

Monokuma jumped off the bed, waddling towards the door before turning back to Gonta

“They’re kind of a mess, huh?”

And with that, he left, leaving a stunned Gonta in his wake

Gonta immediately ran to the bed, shaking you awake to make sure you were in fact, alive

When you murmured and squinted your eyes open, he let out a sigh of relief

“Thank goodness! Gonta thought that Y/n-”

Before he could finish his sentence, you grabbed his suit collar and tugged, causing him to stumble a bit

He got the message and slowly laid down next to you, blushing when you curled up closer to him

“I’m sorry...” You whispered, pulling the blankets over you both. “I just got scared, and you weren’t here to help me”

Gonta stammered, trying to give out a good apology before you shushed him

“No talking please, I just wanna lay down and sleep...”

Gonta gave out one more meek sorry before settling better onto the bed watching as you slowly drifted back off

Oh, how adorable you are

Kokichi Oma

Kokichi always stayed out late, working on whatever sinister scheme he was plotting next

Well, this time it was a prank on the Ultimate Astronaut, but that’s besides the point

It didn’t really bother you, since you always slept in your own room, saying it was safer than being together

But he really needed your help putting something up on a shelf, so he went to your room

Knocking on your door, he twirled around, calling to you in a singsong voice

“Oh , Y/n~! I need some help, pretty please? I promise it wont take long!”

Instead of a vocal response, he heard a click from your door, presumably unlocking

He threw the door open, arms wide expecting to run into you and hug you

So he was surprised when he opened it to see you still in bed, completely asleep

And he was even more surprised to see the bear that put them in this game laying next to you, still as stone

“Oh? This is a new development!”

Monokuma began to talk, but before he could even finish the first word Kokichi ran towards the bed, belly-flopping on the both of you

You woke up to a sudden impact on your body, the bed shaking almost violently under you

“What the-”

“Y/n! You’re alive! I thought you were dead!” Fake tears grew in Kokichi’s eyes

You grumbled and shoved him off of you, body jumping when you spotted Monokuma next to you, staring at you

You jumped from the bed, pointing at the bear. “When did he...what is going on?!”

Kokichi sat up and gasped, eyes going wide

“Ooooh, you didn’t know he was here? I invited him for a sleepover!” he threw his arms open, falling back onto the bed

After throwing a glare at Kokichi, you turned back to Monokuma

“Why are you here?”

“I get so lonely! None of you like me or even thank me, and for all the work I put into this school for you!”

You grabbed Monokuma’s paw and dragged him to the door, slamming it in his laughing face. Turning back to Kokichi, you sighed

“The people I have to deal with.”

Korekiyo Shinguji

It wasn’t unusual for Korekiyo to stay late in his classroom, claiming that he worked best at night

You didn’t blame him, you knew how he was around the other students, and how the school was empty at night so he wouldn’t run into people

But you were a cuddler, and sometimes a pillow wasn’t enough

So when Korekiyo came back to his room to find you asleep with Monokuma, he wasn’t surprised

He knew from the beginning that Monokuma wouldn’t hurt any student for no reason, meaning he had no reason to be fearful for your safety

He mostly found it entertaining how the threatening bear was so compliant to do something if asked nicely, which, knowing you, you said please and thank you.

He watched for a little bit longer before leaning over and tapping the bear on the head, causing it to stir from your arms

“Ah, thank you Monokuma for keeping Y/n company, but I am afraid you are no longer needed.”

Monokuma grumbled something about never being needed anymore before getting up and walking to the door, somehow leaving the room without opening it

Giving a faint smile at your sleeping form, Korekiyo changed and slowly climbed into bed, not wanting to accidentally wake up his peaceful S/o

He wasn’t known for being affectionate, so he simply pulled a pillow to his side of the bed and laid down, giving out an airy laugh when you immediately turned on your side and cuddled into his back

He always felt so close to you

Kiibo

Kiibo didn’t sleep, he was a robot that only needed charging

I imagine him standing in the corner attached to a wall outlet

But you still liked to stay in his room, knowing that he was vulnerable when he was shut down

But this night, Kiibo ‘woke up’ a bit earlier than usual

Guessing he might’ve just used less power today, he made sure all his systems had booted up properly before looking for you on his bed

He saw you peacefully sleeping, and satisfied, started towards the bed

His footsteps stopped however, when he noticed something else shifting in the bed by you

On high alert, Kiibo slowly walked towards the bed and threw the covers off, screaming when he saw what lay underneath

Monokuma jumped up, dusting off imaginary dirt from his fur

“Oh, hey Kiibo! Just keeping your S/o come company during the night! I see my work here is done, so I’ll see ya later!”

Kiibo stopped Monokuma before he could run off, asking him why he was even in here, let alone in the same bed as you

“Y/n always says that they get lonely at night, so I guess I stand in as a huggable teddy bear! Maybe you should learn how to charge in bed so you can keep your own S/o company!”

And with that, Monokuma was gone, leaving behind a bewildered and slightly envious Kiibo

Kiibo glanced over at your sleeping figure, watching as you shuffled a bit before settling in a slightly different sleeping position

Seeing a chance, he slowly crawled into the bed, wincing at how it creaked under him whenever he shifted

He carefully wrapped his arms around you, afraid you would push away once you felt his cold exterior

Instead, you cuddled up closer, causing the boy to blush, shaking a little

He watched as you smiled in your sleep, murmuring randomness before falling back into your peaceful state

He definitely needs to ask Miu to make him a portable charger

Tsumugi Shirogane

Tsumugi almost never let you stay the night at her room, always saying that it was too cluttered, or another excuse to keep you in your own room

In reality, she knew she needed to go down to her hidden room quite often, and as much as it hurt her, she couldn’t let you know she was going out at night, let alone that she was the mastermind!

Tonight though, was a special case

She had no need to go behind the scenes, and was upset with Kokichi for ruining a perfectly good motive of hers for the millionth time

Trying to think of something new to continue the game was taking too much of a toll on her tired brain, Tsumugi determining that she needed cuddles, now

She walked to your room, listening as the lock clicked open thanks to others behind the scenes knowing what she wanted to do

She’ll just tell you that you forgot to lock it in the morning

When she walked in she already knew you would be asleep, as it was the middle of the night and you always boasted about getting the proper hours of sleep

What she didn’t expect though, was her own machine cuddled up to you side, your arm snug under it

It almost made her laugh, wanting to photograph this

At least someone was appreciating her bear!

Smiling, she looked at you one last time before laying down next to you, not bothered by the bear

She laid down as she listened to your steady breathing, and the almost silent whirring of Monokuma’s machinery

She picked up Monokuma so she could snuggle into your side instead, moving the bear into her other arm

She sighed, feeling much needed relief

She was glad she could have you, even if that could change at any moment.

_____________________________________________________________

Wow, it’s done! I’m really glad I got this one out early! I might not be able to update for a bit, since I have finals soon and a bunch of things to take care of. Thank you for requesting this! Wow Shuichi’s is really short I’m sorry -

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lonelypond · 4 years

Text

Tiger By The Tail, Chapter One

Love Live, NicoMaki, NozoEli, 2.6K, 1/?

Summary: Nishikino Maki is escaping family expectation by wintering in the Nishikino's summer haven, while allowing her childhood friend, Kousaka Honoka to use the family camp as a bed and breakfast. Their friend, Minami Kotori, met Sonada Umi during a design internship in Tokyo and has convinced Umi that her Lily White management group and their primary client, rising social media star Yazawa Nico, should travel to America to help launch Kotori's debut design line. Local Eli Ayase is interested in the new visitors.

Notes: Note about language: I am not going to attempt English to Japanese translation very often and when I use Japanese phrases, I will try to make the intention clear. But if the Japanese natives are alone together, assume they are speaking Japanese although I will have typed English.

Tiger By The Tail, Chapter One

Honoka was back. And with company she’d apparently met at the door.

Nishikino Maki could have stayed out of it. Arguably, she should have stayed out of it. But her ears had perked up at the flow of perfectly spoken Japanese and something about the shrill indignation of the speaker...Maki glanced over the couch. A tiny, almost miniscule woman completely swaddled in a parka was gesturing wildly at a much more buxom specimen, wearing only a fair isle sweater and a scarf over her regular clothes. Honoka was looking very confused.

Honoka, rubbed her head nervously but her smile remained bright, “I’m sorry. Is there a problem?”

The taller woman shook her head and spoke in only slightly accented English. “Pardon the intrusion. Are you Kosaka Honoka?”

“Just call me Honoka.”

“Honoka.” A smile, but Maki was mostly watching the shorter woman fussily unwrap two yards of scarf and continue to mutter. It fascinated.

“Is your friend all right?” Honoka the ever helpful wondered as she unpacked groceries from their totes.

At that there was a stomp. And a “Nico Nico Ni” and some kind of hand gesture. Was this a Japanese form of exorcism? Maki would have to take notes. Eli would be entertained.

“Nico was just expecting…” a hesitation from the taller. A snort from ‘Nico.’ Was her name actually a demand for a smile? Because Maki thought that seemed more foreign to her demeanor than English.

And perhaps Maki really should have minded her own business. But... “The short one has put a curse on us for being a rustic backwater she’s being forced to slum in. Apparently, we are about to contaminate her perfectly crafted image.”

The shorter one spun, almost faster than Maki could blink, strangely dangerous red eyes narrowed and locked on. Maki felt struck by the accusation in the gaze.

“Shitsurei na hito desu ne.” Nico snarled

Yes, Maki was being rude, but so was insulting the host in a language Honoka didn’t understand. If Maki was giving up her Christmas solitude, she was certainly not going to let her friends be run over by Little Miss Misanthrope. Maki decided her best response was a shrug and an eye roll. Match attitude for attitude.

“Hello.” The taller woman spoke slowly. “I am Tojo Nozomi. Please forgive Nico. Jet lag is difficult.”

Nico obviously spoke enough English to be unhappy at the apology on her behalf but chose not to speak.

“Konnichiwa. ” Maki was still stretched out, leaning on the arm of the couch, enjoying the show.

“Nihongo jyouzu desu ne, doko de naratta no desu ka?” Nozomi’s turquoise eyes brightened with curiosity.

“Watashi wa Tōkyō ni sunde imasu.” Maki had lived in Japan and had dual citizenship, at least until her 22nd birthday, although she’d been based in New York City for high school and college.

“Interesting.” Nozomi inclined her head, “May I have your name?”

“Oh, that’s Maki. She’s…” Honoka had put the groceries away and stepped around Nico.

Maki hopped up, interrupting Honoka, “Let’s get them settled in their room. The double upstairs?”

“ummm...I’m not sure, there were...” Honoka scrunched up her face, trying to remember details.

Nozomi clarified. “Two more people are due. They had to wait for some of the luggage to clear customs.”

“That’s right, there were 4 of you. And two rooms.” Honoka bopped herself on the side of the head.

The tiny woman had stopped glaring at Maki and stepped forward. “Take Nico to her room. Now.” She did speak English. Fairly smoothly.

Nozomi seemed uncomfortable and made a half bow. “Nico is tired and would appreciate privacy.”

“Upstairs?” Maki asked, searching for a bag but Nico had the handle of her rolling suitcase clutched in a hanging off the side of a cliff from a sapling grip.

Rapid fire Japanese from the shorter woman and then a reluctant translation. “Nico agreed to the master suite.”

“That’s my room.” Maki was startled. When she’d agreed to let Honoka run the Nishikino family camp as a bed and breakfast, she insisted Honoka keep the master suite unbooked.

Nico’s arms were crossed and she was glaring.

“Nico has certain expectations of privacy.” Nozomi offered smoothly.

“No.” Maki snapped.

Honoka turned to Maki, blue eyes pleading. “There’s two rooms. Your parents are in Japan…I figured it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“The bathroom’s shared.” Maki hissed, coming around the island and dragging Honoka down the hall towards the door.

“Maki…” Honoka whined, Maki hated it when Honoka whined. “Kotori asked us as a favor.”

Kotori had asked for a favor. Said these were friends of hers. Maki should have obviously asked for more details.

“This is your problem, Honoka. Put her in the garage.”

“That’s my room.”

Maki glared at Honoka.

“It’s a tiny loft.” Honoka had both hands out, pleading. Maki tried not to think of the clutter that Honoka had probably buried her bed in.

Maki’s hand flashed out, pointing back to their guests. “She’s tiny.”

“Maki....” more whining.

Glances were exchanged between the guests and Nozomi stepped forward, “Is there a problem?”

“No, no, not a problem…”Honoka had started waving her arms, “just a hiccup, but Maki’s really nice and it’ll all be okay, right, Maki?” Honoka had one of Maki’s arms in a not so friendly vise.

Maki closed her eyes, humming a darker patch of the Nutcracker, then grimaced at Honoka, “I’m going to Eli’s. NO ONE goes into my bedroom.”

“Nobody wants to...” Honoka almost sagged with relief but still clung.

“Oh, just be quiet, Honoka.” Maki shook off her friend, and grabbed her coat, tossing her hair back and pulling her watch cap over the curls. She could rant at Eli and then be back after jet lag had knocked out the problems. Good strategy.

“See you later.” Nozomi called out. “Thank you for your hospitable greeting.”

Nico snorted.

Maki growled.

###

“I can’t believe Honoka would do that.” Maki was pacing, she’d already done a dozen circuits of Eli’s tiny storefront office.

Eli looked down at her friend, reaching out to grab the pine swags that Maki was thrashing the air with. Eli took some care hanging them off nails, “It’s Honoka. What did you expect. You agreed to let her run a B and B out of your family’s camp. Even if you only did it to annoy your parents, you still did it.”

Maki blew her bangs out of her eyes, “I didn’t do it to annoy my parents. Honoka needs some actual experience. I wanted to help.”

“I know.” Eli paused, debating if the swag was level enough that customers wouldn’t think the Christmas decorations had been hung by elves drunk on nog. Then she swatted Maki with a spare pine branch. “Plus, bonus, if it annoys your parents…”

“Eli…” Maki’s voice held a note of warning.

“Sorry.” Eli laughed and climbed down, folding up the step ladder, and being a good friend, changed the subject, “Japanese friends of Kotori, huh. Bet they were stylish.”

Maki shrugged, “The tiny one was mostly wrapped up in a puffer jacket that she could have rolled down Cadillac Mountain in.”

“I’ll have to stop by. How long are they staying? You should invite them to the Nutcracker.”

Maki turned her back on Eli, appreciating the seasonal touches Eli had scattered around her office, a pair of antique snowshoes, skiing pictures, white and blue knit hats with Bibi and a snowflake embroidered on the brim, “Talk to Honoka.”

“I will.” Eli bounded behind her desk, chin propped on hand, “We need to meet more people. This is a very dead town in the winter.”

“I’m fine.”

“They’ll go back to Japan, you can try out flirting with no consequences.” Eli winked.

Maki raised a judge-y eyebrow at Eli, “Flirting always has consequences.”

“Not for the forthright.” Eli leaned back, the picture of smug, blonde charisma.

“Good luck with that.” Maki kicked a rug while Eli preened, “Can I borrow a snowmobile sometime?”

Eli leaned forward, looking at the printout on her desk. “Sure. Have a rental party tomorrow, but anytime after that. Need a guide?”

Maki shook her head.

“Where are you headed?”

Hands in her pocket, Maki sighed, “Just out.”

“Harasho.”

Maki had had enough polite conversation. It was time to move this to Eli’s garage/ballet studio and the upright Maki slummed on when Eli needed live music. “Let’s practice.”

“Go warm up. I’ll be right there.”

Maki nodded.

###

Very nice space, Nozomi decided, as she looked around the clean, bright wood of the walls, large framed photographs of rural rice paddy, bamboo, and temple scenes blending nicely into the natural feel. Nozomi wondered if there was a Shinto shrine or temple anywhere close. New Year’s would be strange without visiting one.

Nico frowned, “Why aren’t we in New York City?”

“Because Umi’s designer friend is amazing, based here, and we’ve been invited as guests…” Nozomi nudged Nico as she curled up in a chair, looking miserable, “Plus, the scenery is quite lovely.”

Nico glared at her manager, “You're not talking about the snow are you?”

“Why not have some fun?” Nozomi bounce sat on the bed, trying out its springiness.

“Nico is working.”

“Nico is always working.”

“Yes.” Nico was taking in every detail of the room and there weren’t nearly enough.

“Nico should take a break. Ask a girl out. Get a private tour…” Nozomi’s go to look was a leer and it infected her voice.

“Nico isn’t interested.”

“It’ll be a long, cold three weeks then.” Nozomi flopped back on the bed. She hoped the upstairs mattresses were this comfy.

“Nico will stay close to the fire.”

Nozomi sat up. “Women are warmer.”

“Nico doesn’t need entanglements.”

“I wouldn’t mind being tangled in…” Nozomi ended her teasing, for the moment, at Nico’s fierce glare.

“Leave Nico alone.”

Nozomi bowed, giggling, “Yes, your majesty. Maybe I’ll go see if that snappy, sassy redhead is back and we bond can over your bad habits.”

Nico looked for something to throw as Nozomi hustled out the door.

###

The music always helped. Maki had gotten another stern email from her parents suggesting she enter Columbia to start her MBA studies, since she had decided not to pursue medical school. As a pre med, she’d been able to sneak through college with a music major, taking the required science courses for her planned out future. But that had just made the thought of so many hours in school not in front of any kind of keyboard unbearable. So she’d fled to Maine and looked up her summer childhood friends, including Honoka.

After she’d finished at Eli’s, Maki had just walked straight into the music room she’d turned the walkout basement into, to continue practicing the Tchaikovsky pieces that Eli had decided on, and the March that Honoka had chosen for their latest video, with Maki playing as seriously as possible and Honoka cracking as many nuts as she could in the costumes that Kotori had come up with. They were filming that tomorrow, if Honoka remembered.

When Maki next looked at a clock it was after 2 a.m. Too late. But she was barely sleepy. Time to curl up with milk and cookies and a Christmas cartoon? Stretching her arms out in front of her, Maki stepped out, the snow crunching under her unlaced boots, stars distant but bright in the cold, clear night. Bracing. Maki should have just taken the stairs. Stomping through the snow while humming a very fast March, Maki found herself even more alert, shaking off the cold as she switched to slippers and strolled into the kitchen. Quick warm up some milk with cinnamon, Maki glanced over her shoulder, Honoka had left the fire going. Maki would have to talk to her about that...wait, was someone on the couch?

“Hello?”

Sharp red eyes glowered above a scowl.

Maki wondered if somehow Nico had heard the piano, even through the soundproofing, “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

A shrug, or more accurately the blanket Honoka’s Japanese guest had swaddled around herself moved slightly up, then down.

“I haven’t been sleeping so I’m hoping some warm milk and cookies will fix that.” Maki considered measures as she poured out a pint into the pot, “Would you like some?”

“Arigato.”

Maki poured more milk into the pot, took out the cinnamon, and turned on the flame. Humming Elligton’s Sugar Rum Cherry take, Maki started stirring.

“Why so quiet?” A voice grumped next to her.

Maki jumped slightly, managing to squelch a squeal and only splatter a third of the milk.

“I’m not quiet. I’m humming.” Maki turned to Nico, squaring her shoulders back to loom slightly. Nico’s glance paused briefly as she looked straight ahead, then ticked up to meet Maki’s.

“Not you.” Nico spun, waving both hands in a broad gesture that took in all the windows. “Here.”

Maki scratched her cheek, “It’s supposed to be quiet. It’s the woods.”

Nico hmmpphed. “Too quiet to sleep.”

“How can it be too quiet to sleep?” Maki was genuinely puzzled and found herself watching to see what Nico was going do next.

Nico sighed, started to say something, then her eyes went wide just as Maki’s nostrils flinched at an acridly sweet burning odor, and Nico shoved forward, pushing Maki to the side, using the blanket to snatch the pot off the stove by its handle, “Baka.”

“Just let me…” Maki reached for the pot, but Nico slapped her hand down.

“Sit.” Nico pointed to the front room.

“This is my…”

Nico shoved the pot under Maki’s nose and Maki stepped back, gagging, “Sit.”

Grumbling, Maki moved to the counter, leaning. Nico, with swift, sure movements, took a quick tour of every cabinet and assembled a new batch of ingredients. Maki tried to get a good look through the constantly shifting speedster but Nico was moving so fast it was hard to focus on what she had in her hands.

“Is that chocolate? I’m not…”

Nico turned, raised a finger to her lips, and shushed Maki, who decided slumping morosely in one of the stools was the right mood. But she just couldn’t keep her frown when the smell of cinnamon and chocolate with just the slightest hint of some heated spice started to warm her.

Maki, twirling a curl, was staring out the window, when a box of shortbread and a mug of meltingly dark hot chocolate landed in front of her. Nico had already shuffled past, rewrapping herself in the blanket, and claiming the far end of the couch.

“Arigato.” Maki said as she picked up the offerings and followed. Nico was staring expectantly. Maki cleared her throat nervously, “I was planning to watch some Christmas cartoons…”

Nico seemed bored, and shrugged, staring ahead into the fire, suddenly disinterested in Maki.

“Did Honoka leave the fire?” Maki asked quietly.

“Nico knows how to make fire.” Nico shivered, “wanted warmer.”

Maki jumped up, hurried to her bedroom and came back with the queen sized wool ‘Good Medicine’ blanket off her bed, leaning over the back of the couch to wrap it around Nico, “you can borrow this while you’re here. If Honoka’s only given you a comforter, it might help.”

Another period of staring while Maki watched the fire and wondered what notes the flares of yellow and orange would translate too if she were scoring the backdrop to a winter’s night.

“Jet lag Nico. You?” Nico broke the silence.

The chocolate was richer and sweeter than Maki was used to, with the slightest bite of what might be a hot pepper. “Never sleep.”

Nico grunted, “bad for skin.”

Maki drew in a hugely dramatic puff of air and patted her chest over her heart, “Harsh.”

Nico giggled.

Mood eased, Maki ventured a question. “Talking snowman or talking reindeer?”

Nico tapped her mug, then her lip quirked up into what looked like a smirk from the side, “Grinch.”

Maki grabbed the remote.

A/N: Well, here we go again. Buckle in for the winter holidays, this story will cover Christmas, New Year's, and the Lunar New Year, a holiday very meaningful to me. There will probably be more romance than the main two, but I'm still working out the details.

I have had the most stressful of Autumns and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get in the mood for a holiday jam. But I know I'd miss it too much. I'll be continuing the werewolf shenanigans of Midnight Apocalypse Dance Party as this goes on. And at some point, Can't Get Started will finish...probably. I blame the title.

This title is because I suddenly did math and decided Maki and Rin were born in the Year of The Tiger, the third years in the Year Of The Rat, the rest in Ox and that seems to work. So I'm going with it,Thank you everyone who keeps reading these. Knowing Love Live still connects us has been a bright spot. I appreciate your support.

#NicoMaki #Nishikino Maki #Yazawa Nico #NozoEli #Tojo Nozomi #Ayase Eli #Sonoda Umi #Minami Kotori #Kosaka Honoka #Holiday #Christmas #culture clash

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