#and staff member yamamoto I suppose | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

turtleations · 30 days

Text

Interview with I.N.A. (Spread Beaver / Manipulator, Percussion; Music producer) (summarized)

Published in the hide BIBLE (by Akemi Oshima) 2008

Note: INA calls hide “hide-chan” throughout the interview, and in the spirit of being as authentic as possible without actually giving a literal translation, I will, too.

Note 2: As with Sugizo’s interview, this is very, very close to an actual translation. Many of the things I give you here are INA’s exact words, just moved from first to third person. The prompts and questions of the interviewer are actual translations.

The reason why I stick with this format for now is because there are some parts where I can figure out the meaning but wouldn’t know how to accurately put them into English sentences. Doing it like this allows me to work around that. It also allows me to skip some small bits and fillers that I cannot figure out, although there were hardly any of those this time. There is nothing in terms of content value missing from this.

INA-san’s memories with hide-san must be like a mountain, aren’t they?

INA could talk about anything (laughing). When he’s given interviews since, he gets asked to recall memorable incidents, but it was all memorable, so he doesn’t know where to start.

You first met hide-san when you were working for X?

When INA was working with hide-chan for the first time, he was stage manipulator for X’s Jealousy-tour in 1991.

What kind of work did you do until then?

INA had been working on the recording of popular music. He was thinking that he would like to work more with actual artists, but of X he had never heard before, even though they were all the rage then. When he was shown a video of them, he thought “Eh?” and “What am I doing here?” But he did it anyway. Hide-chan he first met at the rehearsal studio. Since there were so many heroic stories about them, that was a little scary…

You heard a lot about them, didn’t you?

That had been a problem. But when he met them for real, they all turned out to be good people. Because they were with SONY then, there also was a lot of staff. But even though INA was the new guy, hide-chan often invited him to go drinking with them.

About the Jealousy-Tour

Ever since then, INA and hide-chan worked together, and that continues until now.

Any memories of the tour?

At that time, after the show, all the members would gather and go drinking together. Going outside in their full flashy set-up, clothes and all. Surprisingly, the fans went with them into town and would just have conversations in the bars as if that were normal. INA also went along.

Your working with hide-san

It started with INA sampling hide-chan’s voice for his solo corner “HIDE’s Room”.

“HIDE’s Room” started out as improvisation and developed from there, right?

So it seems. When INA got involved, “HIDE’s Room” already existed. But it was still pretty improvised. Hide-chan said he wanted to make a variety of noises and they sampled his voice like that. INA added keyboard and drums on top of it and it gradually developed from there. After that came the three days at Tokyo Dome that Taiji resigned with, and then, half a year later, INA went to LA for the recording of "Art of Life".

Wasn’t going to the US for "Art of Life" delayed by half a year?

In the meantime, they did things like Talk Live at Budoukan. For Talk Live, INA was on stage with the orchestra, tampering with the computer in a tuxedo (laughing). That was the time Yoshiki did "Art of Life" alone at the piano with the orchestra.

After Jealousy, getting involved with "Art of Life" happened naturally?

INA was told they wanted him to come along. Before that, he had helped Yoshiki with his solo-songs – that kind of progression.

Yoshiki’s solo?

Violet UK. INA was there for the very beginning. 15 years ago now? Even sooner than that.

After the Jealousy-tour, Violet UK already had a name, that’s amazing.

At that time, it probably didn’t have a name yet. The good thing about going to LA was that for the first three or four months, INA had nothing much to do and just went drinking with hide-chan and Heath. Various incidents happened. Fire trucks were involved.

Fire trucks?

Hide-chan, drunk, pulled the apartment building’s fire alarms in the middle of the night and a lot of fire trucks came, which made everyone flee into Heath’s room. Hide-chan then went to sleep on Heath’s bed, and the next day during the recording of "Art of Life", Heath reported, “He won’t wake up.” (laughing) Heath himself had gone to the studio having barely slept at all.

INA-san’s previous work?

When he thought about working for X, he had already stopped doing that. He thought those people were interesting. After that, hide-chan made a song for “Dance 2 Noise” with J and Inoran. At first, he was working with the machines himself. He always said to INA, “I don’t get it, I don’t get it. Please teach me how.” He did his best to do it on his own with the crappy hand-down equipment at his disposal, but he fell asleep during INA’s explanations. Then he asked INA to help him, because he didn’t understand it, and they decided to do it together. Hide-chan and INA were in LA for the recording of Art of Life, J and Inoran and the programmer were in Japan, so it was a constant back and forth with the data. INA’s professional working with hide-chan started there. They secretly went and used the studio X had claimed for themselves when it was empty. Song recording happened in Japan. Afterwards, INA went to the US again. At that time, he came and went. Next, hide-chan made that movie with Tusk, and the called INA and said, “Let’s make the soundtrack together.” They returned to Japan to create it during a one or two weeks long break in the recording of "Art of Life".

About making hide’s solo music

It started around that time. Hide-chan decided to go solo and was thinking about various things, like finding a producer, who should play the keyboard, and in the course of this, when hide-chan wasn’t able to find the right partner, INA was called to the collaboration that continues to this day. He now thinks the work on the first single went smoothly (laughing). Therefore, he now thinks it was fortunate he got invited to work with hide-chan. Back then, not so much.

What do you mean?

INA doesn’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but he was told to be open with hide-chan and during the vocal recording they basically had a fight. Because INA was also strict and insistently kept telling hide-chan, “No, wrong!” Good things came from it, thought, so hide ultimately didn’t resist it.

hide-san gave up on doing it on his own?

He probably still wanted to when he started to work on his solo. He borrowed a computer from INA, and then called him incessantly with things like, “It doesn’t work,” “I don’t understand this,” “It doesn’t have power.” At that time, he called INA wherever INA happened to be, it was a problem. It was a time without mobile phones, but he still managed to find him wherever, bafflingly. Even at his parents’ house (laughing). Then he accepted that he couldn’t do it alone and said, “Let’s do this together!”

Did you also act as vocal director?

Yes. INA had already done that on X’s demos, so it happened naturally from there. But even so, why him?

Hide-san rarely asked people to do tings like that, he must have trusted you from that time.

At that time, hide-chan still lacked self-confidence and didn’t want people to hear his voice.

In the beginning, he said he hated his own voice.

He sang a lot at that time. He practiced, recorded. Practiced, recorded. Over and over, until his voice was all rough. “Doubt” was recorded almost in one go, but other songs he had to sing hundreds of times. The music they listened to back then was similar, so talk was quick, but it was probably a good thing that their musical backgrounds were completely different. INA liked black music, hide was a rock guy. INA thinks hide-chan found it more interesting to work with people from different backgrounds, since he wanted to do a lot of different things.

What was music you both liked?

During that time, industrial rock and fusion came up and they talked a lot about how good they thought Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy, or Jesus Jones were, “I wonder how to go at it, to make something in that style,” and things like that.

Did you want to make that kind of music yourself?

INA did not know rock until he met X, and he thought it would be good to add another component to the things he liked. Hide-chan probably thought the same way. INA had things hide was looking for, and he also had a lot of experience in the technological aspects, so that was a perfect mixture.

What was your impression of hide-san at that time?

He went drinking a lot. He went drinking with INA. One way or another, there had been a strong impression of alcohol consumption. Returning from the studio, they absolutely had to go drinking until morning. Why did he have to drink so much? (laughing)

Did you also like drinking?

Yeah, INA liked it. He was a pretty heavy drinker.

It’s probably a happy thing that you two became friends.

They could go drinking together. In the course of doing so, they also took trips to Hakone and things like that.

Along with Pata-san?

No, others. Various other people came along. If they went somewhere for fun, it probably couldn’t be helped. In LA as well, people were always with them when they went out to drink.

Any episodes from that time?

Plenty. (laughing) The fun episodes with hide-chan are mostly stories of alcohol. A lot of memorable episodes from when he was drunk. He said he was going to drive the van on the vast grounds of their American apartment complex. Since it was private land, they figured it would be okay, and INA, Pata, and Heath got on the ride, except they somehow ended up in the mountains where there were no roads. Thus, Pata flipped out, yelled, “Asshole! Matsumoto, you fucker! This is going too far!” and everyone was surprised by how angry he could get. Because hide-chan was going up a cliff. (laughing) That was the first and the last time INA saw Pata get that angry. And then, there was stuff like throwing things into the pool.

Didn’t you also live together?

Of course not. In this, they practiced abstinence (laughing). But INA certainly spend more time at hide-chan’s studio than in his own home. In Japan it was the same. Since hide had a studio at home, that’s where they worked all the time. [Note: These studios, according to INA’s book “Kimi No Inai Sekai”, were simply little extra rooms that weren’t soundproof, and the neighbours having opinions about the noise level drastically limited what they could do in them.] They were among the first to record things at home. Equipment like that wasn’t really in use back then. In any case, they were early with it.

He liked new things.

Seriously, he was a person who did not know whether he was a commoner or a celebrity. He had opinions about the cost of alcohol that was several thousand yen, yet easily bought new equipment that cost tens of thousands of yen. He’d say, “INA-chan, here’s a new computer,” and bring it along with a smile, while INA went “How expensive was that?!” He was quite strange. In his heart he was a commoner, though, extremely so.

After you finished his first four solo songs

After that, they went drinking together. “We’ll do it together,” INA was told earnestly. And, “You’re not in my employment. I want you to openly tell me if something is good or bad.” And also, “I don’t want you to work for anyone else, INA-chan. I want you to use your talents only for me.” And INA thought this person was amazing, and replied, “I get it. Let’s do it together.” At the time, hide assembled a bunch of specialized people and created the prototype of LEMONed. Two weeks later, they went to the US, and it was like they were living in a new rock’n’roll castle. An apartment building where Toshi-kun and Heath and hide-chan all lived together. In a room there, they prepared a system for audio recording and the beginning of the first album was made. It was also around this time that the X Film Gig was happening in Japan, wasn’t it?

Ah, yes, that film gig that was an entire tour.

At that time, Yoshiki was still working on "Art of Life". INA’s work on it was done by then, so the year 1993 was entirely dedicated to hide-chan’s album. At that time, hide-chan became all well-behaved so as not to cause trouble anymore. They stopped going out and secluded themselves in hide’s room for a while, to work. Without taking a break either, from noon until two or three at night, only working. Every now and then they would go out to drink. This repeated every day for about half a year.

Still, you always went to Japanese bars.

They didn’t know LA very well at the time and rarely went to American bars. Just once, to a place that was like a giant disco. Later, they went to more places, but at that point, they were living in a pretty narrow world. After going back to Japan, they recorded the last three songs of HIDE YOUR FACE, then went on a nation-wide tour after.

That tour was your debut, INA-san?

Before, when hide was on TV for the promotion of his singles, INA was with him – maybe because hide-chan felt it would be better if there was someone else in addition to him, so INA had to do it. Since he had never done anything like that before, he hated it. There was a “?” constantly hanging over his head.

Can you elaborate on that?

Regarding his solo, hide-chan said he hated being on his own. When they had a live for the press at the tie-up of “Tell Me”, they did that together, too. INA doesn’t know what to make of that. (laughing)

How did you do it together?

INA was freestyling on all the machines (laughing). Because of this, he also joined the band for the tour, probably. Back then, programmers like INA never went out of stage like that.

Now that happens a lot, though.

INA wonders if they weren’t the first to do it. Since there was no one else doing it, they had to figure out how to go at it. At that time, scratching on DJ equipment wasn’t a thing yet, but INA had played drums as a student, so should he maybe beat those a bit? He was never really at the keyboard because they had DIE for that. INA thinks he did a good job overall. Since programmers didn’t go on stage, they were never seen in public. So, he created his own thing for himself to do. In regard to that, he wasn’t really told, “Do this,” or “Do that.” Maybe hide simply wanted more people on stage (laughing).

Or maybe he just wanted to be with you?

It’s funny. Just now, INA worked through the uncut MCs of the first and second solo tours on the DCR, and they are amazingly long. Second tour, ten hours altogether. INA is going to be busy with that for months. On the first tour, it was only 104 minutes of MC in total. But for the PSYENCE-tour, ten hours. At the end, there would be fifty minutes of talking in a two-and-a-half hour concert (laughing).

The MCs were that long?

Chatter. But it was interesting to listen to. During the first tour, INA searched and searched, but they barely talked at all.

The first tour’s rule of no alcohol the day before a live stuck around, right?

During the second tour, they had to abstain as well. They did that part when they were done (laughing). On X-tours, on the other hand, they drank a lot. They went through hotels and such until five or six in the morning.

After the first tour was finished, hide-san’s solo activities took a bit of a break, didn’t they?

Yeah. They went back to LA for X. For the recording of DAHLIA, they were there for a good while this time. 1995, wasn’t it? The solo tour ended in spring 1994, until summer they worked on videos, after that they went to LA. Zilch came into being at this time. X and zilch and the solo stuff… LEMONed was also started, they published a compilation, it was an extremely busy time.

You had to deal with all of that, right?

For real. INA went to Osaka for X, came back to Tokyo for solo recording, the next day it was off to the US for zilch… like that. And they travelled with all of their equipment. INA and hide-chan and the manager, all those people, and about 20 pieces of equipment, going to the US every week. At the end, the customs people only went, “There they come again” and waved them through. That was terrible. While INA finished the second album, hide-chan went to record the vocals for zilch. Then he had to go to the studio to play guitar for X. In this time, they mostly divided the work. If they worked together all the time, they felt they wouldn’t have been able to get it all done on time. The recording of Toshi’s vocals for "DRAIN" was also done at hide’s apartment. The bass was also recorded at home rather than going to the studio.

Was his home studio that enormous?

No, it was about the size of an 8-tatami room [Note: About 13 square meters or 142 square feet], where they crammed in all their equipment and recorded the sound.

What about zilch?

It was a mess (laughing). When INA and hide-chan came to the studio, they were earnestly there to work. They took what they did seriously. When the others were fooling around in the studio, hide-chan and Ray McVeigh often clashed. Hide then said, “INA-chan, I’m going to lose my temper today, so you better go home early,” and then they’d have a fight. It was quite interesting. Since zilch and hide’s solo activities happened at the same time, INA and hide-chan spread their work out between them. They had a producer as well, and the project grew as more and more people got involved.

Did you hear about the conception of LEMONed?

He didn’t. Only after the fact, just like with Spread Beaver. Hide just dropped that information casually in the middle of a conversation. When the LEMONed store opened, they were in LA. INA remembers how hide passed him a video and said, “It turned into this kind of business.” At the time, they did a bunch of things in Japan. The “Misery”-PV had a home-made feel to it because INA edited it himself from raw material of stuff the two of them had filmed at home. It was a time like that (laughing). The lip-syncing for that PV they filmed in front of a blue TV screen at hide-chan’s home. The staff just turned the light here and there. It cost 0 yen (laughing).

There had been a plan to make a video like that, huh?

INA thinks that a plan for filming a video like that already existed within hide-chan. But he had no plan for the actual contents.

Here, staff member Motoyama provides the information that they made the video by sending it to Japan for the design team t.o.L. to edit, and those then send it back to LA.

INA once again emphasizes that, seriously, it cost no money, and laughs. INA did not get a salary, of course, and he even had to be the chauffeur. “INA-chan, you got free time, right? Let’s go take some pictures together.” Also, in the desert, their car got stuck and they all had to work together to get it free. That time was really fun. It felt more like an extension of their playtime, not at all like work.

A lot of people said the same thing: That it was like playtime.

When INA was down with a fever, hide-chan got worried and came by to make him rice noodles. At that time, they lived in a world made up of ca. four to five people, in LA and Japan. At the time of PSYENCE, hide-chan said he wanted to create “The best possible work with the least possible number of people in the shortest possible amount of time.” Song creation aside, they needed about one month to finish the recording. Which was pretty terrible, actually. They finished work at five in the morning and started again at eleven… like that (laughing).

And when you were done at the end of the day, you couldn’t even go drinking.

They could not. It was hard, but they pulled through.

How was the second tour?

Combined with the LEMONed event, there were nearly twenty shows. Strangely enough, while INA had his doubts about how to handle it in the beginning, in the end it turned out to be fun. At first, he was concerned with how to proceed, but as the tour continued, it all just fell together and solidified. Hide-chan was amazing when it came to bringing out people’s talents – not just with the musicians but also with the staff and everyone. He didn’t say, “Please do it this way because that’s the way to do it,” but instead, “This is want I want to do, but do you have any alternative suggestions?” And if a suggestion was made, he’d go, “That sounds good, let’s do it!” He had that stance towards everyone, so everyone enjoyed working with him and had a good time. Even if he ended up not doing what had been suggested, he gave it serious consideration. There aren’t many people who can say they were given a chance like that. Since hide-chan quickly realized the ideas he liked, everyone had fun and gave their best. By the time the tour was over, they had really grown close as a team. Even now, the staff from the PSYENCE-tour called it the most fun one they were ever involved with. Regardless of whether they contributed in big or in small ways. In this regard, hide-chan was amazing.

INA-san, your hairstyle became very flashy. Why was that?

Miyagi-kun, hairstylist at LEMONed, said, “This is gonna stand out!” and pained INA’s hair in fluorescent colours. But that paint would come off, so they decided it would be better to dye it if INA was to sport those colours every day. Miyahi-kun also went over the top (laughing).

It wasn’t done by hide-san?

Well, it had been kind of a spontaneous thing. But hide-chan also dyed INA’s hair. He had a beautician’s licence, after all. During the first tour, he also dyed DIE-chan’s hair. And Pata’s, way back.

And after the PSYENCE-tour?

The incident where hide-chan fractured his skull. All of a sudden, he just stopped contacting INA one day. Usually, they were in contact every day even after the tour to make up a time for INA to come to hide-chan’s place to work on songs. But now, there was no phone call at all, and INA was told by the office, “hide-san got injured, so we’re taking a break for now.” They didn’t give him any details and he didn’t hear anything else for about a month. INA didn’t do anything, but he wondered what was going on until hide-chan himself contacted him one day and told him that he had been hospitalized. INA was surprised to hear this (“Eeh, what happened?”), while hide was rather dispassionate about it (“Broken skull.”). INA was startled, even though he only heard about it after the worst was over. They were talking about going to the US to resume work and start recording for zilch, but the doctor told hide he wasn’t allowed to fly. Regardless, hide went anyway, then told INA that there was this terrible ringing noise in his ears during the flight. When INA heard that, he went pale and thought, “It’s over.” But it was okay; after this they stayed over there for a while. In fact, that was their longest stay. They resumed the work with zilch that had been postponed for the PSYENCE-tour and only returned to Japan in Summer. [Note: They had left for LA around February.] After that, X JAPAN announced its dissolution.

He just went about song making as if there were nothing happening, though?

Basically. Get it done, get it done… he worked like that all the time. He finished one song about every one or two weeks. But when they were in Tokyo, he just wanted to play around. Abroad, he calmly worked in the studio every day, but in Japan, things immediately got in the way and no work was done. Kiyoshi or whoever would come over to hang out and they wouldn’t work. One day during the creation of “Ja, Zoo”, in order to get them to focus, the record company send INA and hide to a camp at Lake Yamanaka. It was supposed to be refreshing, but since there was absolutely nothing around, the two of them turned a little weird about two days in. They were alone in that mountain hut, there was no one else around, outside was nothing. “I wonder if there isn’t anyone in Tokyo who can come to visit,” they said and kept making phone calls. Inevitably, they went out at night, but there were no establishments around, so they kept circling the lake in their car until morning. [ Note: INA makes it sound like they were the only people in the area, but according to “Owaranai Kizuna”, the book of hide’s former manager Kuma, there was an entire team with them, and also Kuma himself, who got stuck there when hide abducted him on the way to the retreat and set his mobile phone on fire. (More at eleven.)] Then, the people from the record company said, “Good work!” and invited them to the Atami Onsen as a reward. And thus, hide-chan, who had shown great restraint until then, let loose, went berserk while drunk, and broke his foot. And that just a couple of months before X JAPAN’s Last Live in Tokyo Dome. [Note: Actually, it seems that it was more like one month before the concert, as the accident happened in late November.] Just before that incident, INA, in a good mood, had warned hide’s brother and manager Hiroshi to make sure that hide did not, no matter what, injure his hands. And his hands were safe. Instead, he came back with a broken foot (laughing).

No kidding. (laughs)

But, at the time, it was adorable. When hide came back from the hospital and INA knocked on the car and asked if he was okay, hide pretended to be asleep (laughing). When INA later asked him about it, he explained, “I didn’t have a clear answer, so I decided to just feign sleeping for the moment.”

The photographs for the jacket of “Rocket Dive” were taken at that time, weren’t they?

Staff member Yamamoto again: That’s right. Hide-san just said, “I’m sorry” regarding those photographs.

INA: That day, his leg was still in a cast.

Yamamoto: They could only photograph the upper part of his body.

INA: At the Tokyo Dome, he was already well healed.

Yamamoto: He ate small fish all the time. He had put it in his mind that he would be healed for X JAPAN’s last live.

INA: Everyone brought calcium and such. But within a week, hide-chan already resumed pre-production at home. Since he needed to stand while singing, he did so while carefully balancing on his tip-toes.

Did you hear about X JAPAN braking up in advance?

INA did, by accident. Even hide’s manager didn’t know about it, no one knew about it, so he kept it a secret.

Did you say anything?

They didn’t speak much about this matter. Only after the press conference announcing the break-up. They walked home, worked on “Rocket Dive”. There was an air of “March on to the next thing” after they watched the press conference on TV. But then, in the afternoon, an old friend contacted hide and they decided to go for a drink (laughing). At that point, the Last Live had not been decided yet and it felt like it would end with that press conference, so INA thought it made sense that hide-chan wanted to drink.

X JAPAN’s Last Live was on New Year’s Eve 1997.

INA was there backstage. After that was the Kohaku-performance at NHK, so after the live was over they immediately had to move on to the NHK building. Those who, like INA, were left behind, were like, “There they go.” Afterwards, they had a closing party with the members. Ah, yeah. Pata-chan was there, too.

Yamamoto: There was a full -page advertisement for “hide with Spread Beaver coming…1998” in the morning issue of the Asahi Shinbun, so they waited for it in a pub while drinking.

INA: Except no one had heard about that yet (laughing). INA had known about it, but Joe was all, “Eeh, what’s Spread Beaver?” Since they had been working together all the time already, it wasn’t a problem to just turn them into a band, but everyone was still delightedly surprised. There was no formal contract, so at that point, nothing really changed. After that, they went to LA for recording again. Everyone was involved.

What did you record?

“Pink Spider”, “ever free”, and stuff for the album. But work on the album did not go as planned. “Pink Spider” and “ever free” were to be released in May, and it was decided that they should return to Japan for the promotion. The plan was to release the album and go on tour then, but now there was talk of doing something like a pre-tour, since the album wasn’t finished. First, a pre-tour with the three new songs, then the zilch-tour, then the real national tour once the album was finished. “No matter how you look at it, there isn’t enough time,” they said.

How come the completion of the album was delayed?

Basically, a sense of “Let’s make it better”. It was changed over and over, and the promotion of the singles also got in the way, so the time for recording just disappeared. But they made it to the point where it should have been finished in a month, maybe a month and a half.

Did you hear anything regarding hide-san’s thoughts on the world?

He wanted to do western music, but by the time zilch was started, western music was already circulating in Japan, and he wondered if it wouldn’t be more interesting to take Spread Beaver aboard. He wasn’t just obsessed with “The World”. Rather, he’d said, when PSYENCE was completed, “This is great, INA-chan. If this doesn’t sell, we will go abroad, we will give up on Japan.” He’d always been conscious of foreign countries and the world as a whole, but it’s not like he absolutely had to make it there above all else.

INA-san, you continued participating in hide-san’s work after he died, didn’t you? Just now, you told me about listening to and editing ten hours of his MC.

That’s simply because it’s interesting. Separate INA from it for an hour and he’s already going back to it. Everyone else from Spread Beaver also comes at once if they are called back without warning. INA didn’t do anything for it for a bit, but this year [2008] there was a lot. He edited the live album and there were also lives to perform. Listening to it as music of today is strange.

Where there ever times when it was difficult?

That, too… There were times during the work on “Ja, Zoo”. And then, after, the tour without hide. That was hard. Because they had to keep smiling amongst the thousands, ten-thousands of people in the audience who were all crying. But it’s because of this that they are here now. Even if there were also grudges… There were a lot of people who held it against them that they did this. But there were also those who said it saved them, so he is now glad they did it.

In that sense, those were difficult circumstances, weren’t they?

To be honest, there were times when INA thought that he also wanted to be saved. However, they decided to do all the things hide-chan had wanted to do in 1998. They did the things they could do, like release a Best of-CD or re-release “Tell Me” with the band. And when things calmed down, they opened the hide museum. Altogether, they held a lot of events. Since INA is the one participating in the museum the most (laughing).

And so, DJ INA was born. (laughs)

At first, he was a false DJ. He did hide’s tour as a DJ. After all, there were people waiting for it who did not just want to listen to hide’s music at home but enjoyed experiencing it loudly with everyone else, and things would continue after this. There was the memorial summit with X JAPAN, Luna Sea and all the others, as well as tens of thousands of people. If there were things INA could do for that, he ought to do them.

There are too many memories, aren’t there?

When INA thinks about them, they rapidly come back. At the launch party for the memorial summit, he talked to Pata and it brought back a lot of stories. Things normally forgotten that none the less stayed in everyone’s heart.

Did you ever fight?

When it came to making music, there were things resembling fights, but never outside of that.

You were the same age?

Yes. Their birthdays were one day apart. INA’s is on 12 December.

INA-san, what kind of person was hide-san to you?

He honestly doesn’t know.

Anything you want to say to hide-san?

Things like “Thank you.” It was interesting, and it stayed interesting after hide-chan was gone. It’s strange, though… INA’s feelings haven’t changed now that he supports hide’s activities after his death as opposed to them working together when he was alive. What he wants to say is just “Thank you.”

#hide #hide bible #x japan #hide with spread beaver #interview #translation #sort of #summary #INA #and staff member yamamoto I suppose #this one was less horrible than most #in fact I would actually say it was fun #but still #so much work #anyway #way to not tell your band members that they are now a band hide #never mind the other things #apparently information sharing was not their strongest skill

10 notes · View notes

rikeijo · 4 months

Text

Today's translation #525

Yuri!!! on Life official guidebook, Toshiharu Mizutani (Art Director) interview

-- This show went into quite a realistic directions - I suppose you had a lot of reference materials to use as art director.

M: In recent projects, [art directors] take part in the pre-production stage and participate in the research, too. I also sometimes go out there to do research, but in this case, it was Yamamoto Director and Kubo-san, and other members of staff, who went to a lot of different places for research and brought back quite a lot of reference materials. We also have an art settings designer, who is responsible for designing basic reference materials, Tamura Seiki-san, on the team, in addition to the art director, and he had already made a lot of preparations before I joined the team, so unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate in research this time.

-- How did you split all the work between you and the art setting designer?

This time, we all were very busy and it wasn't really possible for one art director to be responsible for just one task, from the beginning to the end, because all kinds of tasks had to be accomplished at the same time. I normally start preparation for the next project, just as the current one is about to end. But recently the number of projects increased, and we have to deal with staff shortage and schedules have to accommodate that, and so the offers come in very early. Like two months earlier than normally. In times like that, I usually send somebody to take my place and make all sorts of preparations, before I can get more time to actually join in. In those cases, when I have to work on two projects at the same time, and I can't focus on one, the designer is the one who does the work very properly.

[Notes: Back to staff interviews for a while!

Future plans:

I found out the other day that there is a sound recording of the Festival event out there... It's mostly perfectly understandable, except for a few moments, where the crowd is too loud to hear anything... I've never seen a transcription or full translation, so I'll put it also on my list of things to translate! ~ ✨ It's quite a cute story, although it's reeeeeeeeally crazy.

I also really want to do Mitsurou's commentary, bc it's full of interesting info, but I need to have a DVD player that will work with my laptop for that, so it might take a moment...]

#yuri on ice #yoi translations #yuri on ice translation

13 notes · View notes

yume-fanfare · 3 years

Text

Sakuragaoka Highschool’s Newspaper Extra: Interview

this is a translation of one of the short stories published for LIPxLIP’s birthday in japanese here. you can read the other one, starting line, here. this was translated from this spanish translation by mieltrabajos

Yamamoto Koudai went to the staff room after class. He was now the president of the journalism club, as the one before him had graduated, and he’d been called in by the club’s advisor, Akechi Saku. Koudai thought the talk would be about the school’s newspaper report on the school festival as it was supposed to be ready by December, but it turned out not to be the case.

Mr. Akechi had said it nonchalantly, without looking up from his computer with a lollipop in his mouth. Koudai, however, was very confused.

“An interview…?”

Mr. Akechi nodded and then turned towards Koudai.

“Every now and then we have a section named Sakuragaoka’s Stars, don’t we?”

“Yes… well, there is one.”

They did have a section like that, introducing active students as stars. It wasn’t a bad project, but the... old-fashioned title was a bit cringy and people didn’t read it much. Well, the school’s newspaper as a whole wasn’t read much, people weren’t interested in it. They published it monthly and handed it over in the school festival, but not many people took them. Maybe if they didn’t publish information on all the school activities, they’d be able to cut down expenses next year.

(I am lucky to be managing the school’s newspaper, journalism is the only school activity I’m interested in).

“Have you decided who it’ll be about this month?”

“No, I’m… still in the process of selection.”

He was thinking about the light music club, or maybe the drama one as they both were active during the school festival. Or maybe interview the students from the festival executive committee themselves. It could also be one of the swimming club members, as they were doing synchronized swimming even in the cold, or someone from the tea ceremony club who were doing something called “creative dancing tea ceremony”. December’s issue was going to be the last one of the year, so he wanted to end on a high note. There were lots of students he’d like to see.

“Would you like to interview my students, Shibasaki Aizou and Someya Yuujirou?”

Koudai stayed silent for a few seconds thinking about Mr. Akechi’s words.

“Wouldn’t that be hard?” he answered.

With just a few comments on those two’s appearance at the sports festival, that month’s issue had skyrocketed in popularity as their fans scrambled to get a copy. If Koudai got to interview them, the newspaper would be read everywhere.

But Shibasaki Aizou and Someya Yuujirou were professional idols. Interviewing them without getting through their office first would be a problem. That was why Koudai was unsure about being able to handle the project.

“They’re students of our school, so there should be no problem, right?”

“I’ll ask but… I’m not sure if they’ll cooperate.”

“That’s fine, Yamamoto.” Akechi smiled and offered him a lollipop, like always. “Please do it properly.”

“Ah…”

(He’s even telling me to do it right…)

Koudai excused himself out of the staff room, and twirled the lollipop in his hands.

“It’s so easy to say that…” he sighed.

But, did that mean he trusted Koudai as the club president? Mr. Akechi may look a bit eccentric, but he never said anything without a reason. Koudai couldn’t answer his “Will you be able to do this?” question with a no. He was determined to do it.

He put the candy in his pocket and pushed his glasses up.

“I want to do something really good…”

(If I got to interview those two, I want to make it a special issue, use big pages and highlight it. It’d be great if I could take a photo too).

“Is that really possible...?” Koudai brought a hand to his chin, deep in thought as he walked down the hallway.

He still wasn’t sure, and even if he didn’t have much hope, it may be possible. It was a very rewarding job for him, even if Mr. Akechi had put him between a rock and a hard place. If he managed to get it right it would be a fantastic opportunity to get more people to learn about the club.

(Where do those two go after school?)

He hadn’t heard anything about them being in clubs. Maybe they headed straight to work after class.

A voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Hey, Koudai!”

Shibasaki Ken was walking down the stairs. They were in the same class and together with Enomoto Kotarou, had been good friends since middle school. They usually called him Shibaken.

He looked like he was about to head home. Since he wasn’t in any clubs, he always wandered around after class.

“What are you doing? Club activities?”

“Something like that. Are you going back home, Shibaken?”

“Yeah. Kotarou is also doing activities, so I have no other choice.”

“And Takamizawa-san?”

Takamizawa Arisa, whom Ken was always running after, didn’t seem to be around either. She wasn’t in any clubs, like Ken, and Koudai had seen them going back home and spending breaks between classes together recently. However, that wasn’t the case today.

“Arisa-chan has intensive classes today,” Ken sighed, crossing his arms behind his head with a bored grimace. “Lately, everyone does.”

“You have a lot of free time. Why don’t you find a hobby or join a club?”

When they were in middle school Ken spent his time playing with girls, but he seemed to have lost interest in that. Now, he was really invested in Takamizawa Arisa. As a close friend of his, the fact that Ken was so focused on a single person alone was a bit surprising. Despite his appearance and carefree attitude, he seemed to be becoming a little bit more serious.

“There’s no club activity that stands out to me. I could consider your journalism club, though. You don’t have many members, right? It’d be a friendship club!” Shibaken joked.

“We don’t allow ghost members. What about the gardening club?”

Kotarou and his childhood friend Hina were in the gardening club, but there barely were any members, and it was at risk of closing. Though the journalism club was, too, they had only gotten one new member this year. The track and field was the most active one and the students were really good athletes, so most freshmen applied for that one.

“I’d only be a bother there.”

Kodai turned his head to the side.

“Really?”

He guessed it was because of Kotarou and Hina.

They were childhood friends, but everyone could clearly see Kotarou liked Hina, although she constantly made fun of him. Koudai, however, didn’t know how she felt about him and he wasn’t going to snoop.

Ken put his arm around Koudai’s shoulders.

“And where are you going, Koudai?”

“To an interview. For next month’s issue.”

“Oh, that sounds fun, I’ll go with you! Who are you interviewing?”

“A pair of freshmen idols,” Koudai answered.

Upon hearing that, Ken drew his arm back and stayed silent for a few seconds.

“Oh I just remembered I have a really important business to handle. Well then, Koudai, do your best with the interview!” Ken walked away towards the entrance.

Like always, Ken’s personality was a fickle thing. It seemed like he had some complicated and uncomfortable circumstances.

Koudai had wanted to ask Ken about ‘him’, because he probably knew him better. But as Ken’s friend, he prefered to not touch the topic much either.

After all, the interview was about ‘them’ as students, not some scoop.

Koudai took out his pen and notebook and whispered:

“All right, let’s go.”

Maybe they’d still be inside their classroom.

---

Koudai reached the first years’ hall and looked around with nostalgia. The first years who looked so nervous at the entrance ceremony now seemed completely used to high school life.

Time to start looking for those two.

Loud voices could be heard from one of the classrooms, so he stopped by there first. Most students seemed like they were about to go home or were getting ready for club activities. Only a few girls still crowded around their desks, excitedly talking about some magazines.

“Doesn’t Aizou-kun look like someone dangerous in this picture?”, Koudai overheard.

“Yes, and Yuujirou-kun looks so cute!”

“What kind of CD did you choose? I want a poster!”

“I preordered everything! If you get a Yuujirou-kun sticker we can trade~”

Seemed like those two were the center of attention.

(I hope I can talk to them…)

When Koudai walked into the classroom, someone seemed to have noticed him. A girl wearing the sports uniform looked at him with sparkly eyes.

“Could it be, Yamamoto-san from the journalism club!” She smiled brightly.

She was at the track and field club and had participated in the relay race. Suzumi Hiyori, Setoguchi Hina’s underclassman. Koudai had interviewed her a bit some time ago.

“Are you looking for someone?”

“Yes… for a small interview.”

“An interview!” The girl leaned forward with eyes full of curiosity.

“Yes, could you help me a bit?”

“O-oh, yes, if you’re fine with me!”

They moved away from the hall to not bother anyone and Koudai opened his laptop.

“Could we do it now?”

“Yes, of course!”

“I wanted to interview two of your classmates for next month’s issue, Shibasaki Aizou and Someya Yuujirou-”

“Shibasaki-kun and Someya-kun?!” Hiyori’s voice became surprisingly low and she took a step back.

(Uh…? … Why such an exaggerated reaction…?)

Maybe he shouldn’t have asked.

“Yes… I just want you to tell me a bit about them.”

“So it’s not an interview for me?” Hiyori’s face fell down and her shoulders dropped.

(Oh, so it was that…)

“Of course, I’ve heard about your feats at the sports festival. Setoguchi-san is also really happy about how you did and praised you for your hard work,” he tried to cheer her up, and it immediately worked as Hiyori lifted her head and smiled.

“For real?!”

“Yes, she always says she’ll do her best not to lose against Suzumi-san.”

“My goal is Setoguchi-senpai too! I’m so happy~” Hiyori laughed cheerfully, a bit embarrassed, touching her cheeks.

“Suzumi-san, you’re in the same class as them, right?”

“Yes… for now…” Hiyori rocked back and forth as she answered.

“Anything is fine, but if you know something, please tell me.”

“About what…?” “Anything is fine…”

“I don’t know anything, really!” Hiyori shook her head and stuck out her tongue, like she was annoyed.

“Why? You don’t talk with them?”

“I don’t! Whenever I try, their fans bite me…” Koudai slid his pen over the notebook as he mumbled:

“Even in the classroom…?” Then added. “Then, do those two usually stay alone in class? During lunch break, I mean.”

“Hmmm… they’re not always together. They usually eat by themselves… it’s kind of rare to see them talking to each other?” she answered.

Koudai leaned forward.

“That’s… surprising. Is their relationship bad?” He put his hand on his chin, thinking.

Hiyori grimaced and quickly added:

“That’s not it! There’s times where they have fun and cheer each other up when they’re feeling down!” After saying that, for some reason, Hiyori added in a whisper: “In front of the fans… I’m not sure…” she sighed. “It may look like they don’t get along… but they like the same things.”

“The same things?”

“Yes! Singing, dancing… and tuna mayo riceballs.”

“Tuna mayo…” Koudai mumbled. Without noticing, he doodled a riceball and wrote tuna mayo next to it.

“Oh, I prefer the dried plum ones. My grandma said that eating acids makes you live much longer and have 100 times as much energy!” Hiyori said and then crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. “But those two don’t appreciate their greatness…”

“Eh?”

“Oh, it’s nothing! I was just monologuing…”

She got nervous, and Koudai softened his gaze behind the lens.

“I understand, Suzumi-san. But this is about them.”

“I know, I was just trying to explain!”

“What kind of bond do Shibasaki Aizou and Someya Yuujirou have in your eyes?”

“For me…?”

“Don’t think about it too much. How do you think they are like…?”

She took a while to think about it, but focused again.

“Hmmm… they’re incredible…” she closed her eyes as she answered. “They work very hard every day. When I look at them, they’re always doing their best, and they make me want to work hard too, so, to me… they’re cheerful partners?”

Then, she blushed and pressed her hands together in a plea.

“Don’t write that in the article, it’s too embarrassing!”

“Suzumi-san, you sound like you’re a fan of them too.” Koudai put the pen on his mouth, smiling.

“Yes… but even so, my number one idol is Setoguchi-senpai!!”

Koudai laughed and said: “I’ll let her know.” Then added: “Well, do you know where those two are? I was looking for them.”

“Today Shibasaki-kun has to record a song, and Someya-kun has a photoshoot at a fashion magazine, so they’ve probably left already.”

“Oh, I see...·

“Ah! Then, maybe I could…! I heard those two talking about that… something like...” Hiyori bowed. “I’m sorry, I have a club meeting!” she exclaimed and bolted out of the classroom in the blink of an eye. As it was to be expected, coming from a track and field pro.

“Such an interesting girl, Suzumi-san…” Koudai wanted to interview her, some other time.

But now, he had to work on those two. Talking to them after class seemed complicated, since they left so quickly.

Koudai closed the notebook and pocketed the pen.

(I’ll look for them during lunch break tomorrow, maybe I’ll get lucky)

---

The next day, Koudai heard excited screaming as he was walking through the courtyard during lunch break.

The first years were playing soccer, and a lot of girls crowded around the fence, cheering and yelling. And not just first years, but also second and third year girls. Even the school’s nurse was looking towards the field from one of the school’s balconies.

(So popular…)

The reason for all of that was no other than Aizou. He had taken off his blazer, rolled up his sleeves and was running after the ball with his classmates.

The soccer club members watched the first years with interest too. Koudai noticed Kotarou amongst them and walked up to him. A tournament was about to start, so they were practicing during lunch too.

“Hey, Koudai, what are you doing?” Kotarou called out to him. “An interview?”

“Something like that.”

Aizou reached the boy who had the ball, easily stole it and ran towards the goal. The defenders tried to stop him but he dodged them and scored a goal. The girls all stood up and screamed and his classmates high-fived each other and laughed, celebrating the victory. Koudai quickly snapped a picture. He didn’t know if he’d be able to use it but he didn’t want to lose the chance.

“He’s great. I wish he’d join the club.” Kotarou crossed his arms and sighed heavily, looking at Aizou.

He’d been pretty good during the relay race at the sports festival, and his motor skills would surely be great at any sports club. No matter what, he could adapt and excel at it for sure.

“Why don’t you try to recruit him?”

“He’s too busy with rehearsals, he’s a full-time idol…” Kotarou crossed his hands behind his head and eyed Koudai. “What’s the interview about?” “The first year idols. They’re hard to find.”

“Shouldn’t you hurry up and talk to him then? Before a girl bites you for getting too close.”

Kotarou clapped his hands together:

“Everyone, gather!” he ordered the first years in a serious club-president tone.

Koudai walked up to Aizou, who was still breathing heavily.

“Shibasaki Aizou,” he called out. “I’m from the journalism club, may I interview you a little bit?”

Aizou wiped his forehead with his sleeve and turned towards Koudai.

“Yamamoto-senpai.”

“Oh, you remember my name?”

“It’s because… I saw it during the sports festival. But I don’t know if I can accept the interview.” Aizou rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Probably because of his agency.

“I think it’ll be okay, I don’t want to interview you as an idol, but as a first year student.” It was what Mr. Akechi had said: after all, he was a Sakuragaoka student.

Aizou changed his expression to a friendly grin.

“I don’t think that makes much of a difference but… what would you like to know?”

“About your school life. How’s this year going? Anything is fine, it’ll be interesting.”

(He seems like a normal student after all… not as carefree as Shibaken).

Both brothers were a bit shy but kind, with friendly personalities. Easy to talk to. Koudai had a lot of classmates like that. The other boys who were playing soccer called him by his first name, too. Koudai thought the fact that Aizou was an idol would make him less approachable in class, but it seemed like that wasn’t the case.

“Well, something interesting… do the cultural and sports festivals count?”

“During the last festival, your class did a haunted house, right? You were one of the best classes during the costume contest too. Yours was a very popular one, Shibasaki-kun.”

“The girls from our class were really excited about it and they were the ones to design the costumes. I hope everything looked good…”

Aizou seemed a bit embarrassed.

“I think it suited you…” Koudai remembered all the screaming fans running to the haunted house to see Aizou’s costume.

(It went quite well I think).

“Maybe the zombies could have been better,” said Aizou. “Even if it was a haunted house, I wasn’t very scared. I would have wanted it to be more realistic…”

“In my opinion it was pretty well made. Especially the sound. Though, in some areas the lights were too dark and we couldn’t really see the production work. Things like the chandelier, the mannequins or the hands on the walls. I would have liked to see them properly.”

Aizou crossed his arms and mumbled:

“Yeah, it was a bit dark after all…”

Maybe it was so he and his partner stood out less. It was inevitable, though. If they were there, all eyes would be on them.

“The voice and the wind noise that played when you walked into the room was seriously frightening. It felt so real,” Koudai reminisced.

Aizou grinned widely.

“Oh, that was my voice! Maybe most people didn’t notice… The wind was Yuujirou’s hair dryer, though it wasn’t very strong.”

“It looks like you had a lot of fun at the cultural festival.”

Koudai thought he wasn’t very interested in school events, but it seemed like they both had participated with their classmates both in the sports and the cultural festivals.

“You really are a regular student too, like Mr. Akechi said.”

“Mr. Akechi?”

“Ah, um yes… It’s nothing. This is enough.”

“Are you sure?” Aizou asked rushedly.

“Yes, thank you. By the way, I’d like to interview Someya Yuujirou too, do you know where he is?”

“Yuujirou? Well… I don’t know if he’ll be okay with being interviewed. He can be a little problematic sometimes, but, if you want to… He must be at some secluded place, without many people. The backyard, maybe…”

“I’ll look for him. It’ll be a great article.”

“I haven’t answered much though… just things about the school festival.”

“Everyone wants to know about it. About you doing normal things.” Koudai closed his notebook. “See you,” he told Aizou before leaving.

The girls who had been looking at them from afar immediately ran towards Aizou.

Such a hard life, the school idol’s.

Koudai continued with his path: “The backyard huh…?”

---

When he got there, there were no other students around. Usually, it was the third years who met here, not the freshmen, but there weren’t any seniors around either. Probably because of the November cold. The cherry trees’ leaves had been taken by the wind a long time ago.

Koudai caught sight of a student, standing alone in front of the flower beds.

(Exactly where he said…)

It looked like there were no noisy fans around. That should be better, right? Koudai walked up to the flowerbeds, the ones the gardening club was taking care of. Yuujirou looked at them absentmindedly, like he wasn’t really there.

“Someya-kun,” Koudai said, raising his voice.

Yuujirou turned around, quickly changing his expression.

“Senpai… Are you talking to me?”

Much like Aizou, Yuujirou also remembered him from the sports festival as a senior from the journalism club.

“I’d like to publish an interview of you and Shibasaki Aizou in the school’s newspaper next month.”

“I’m not supposed to agree to things like that though…”

Koudai sighed lightly at the negative answer, touching the rim of his glasses. He had gotten him to answer some questions at the sports festival, but maybe it was because there were a lot of students around… It wouldn’t be that easy this time.

“I only want to ask about your school life, is that still no good?”

“I am not very good at talking,” Yuujirou bowed his head. “Sorry.”

(I’ve already interviewed Aizou so that could be enough, but…)

He wanted an interview with both of them, but he didn’t want to force him.

Yuujirou turned his head back to the flowers and Koudai looked at them too. Swaying with the cold wind, they were yellow flowers.

“Rudbeckies… they’re still in full bloom…” he commented.

Kotarou and his childhood friend Hina had planted that one. They had joined the club as first years and had fought to preserve them. It was nostalgic. That flower was very important for those two friends.

Yuujirou lifted his gaze and looked back to Koudai, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

“They’re from the gardening club,” Koudai explained.

“There’s a gardening club…” Yuujirou said to himself, looking at the flowers again.

“Well, I’m not sure if there’ll still be one next year, there aren’t enough members and no one new has joined yet. If you’re interested…

“I can’t join, I’m not interested.”

Koudai exhaled, casually pushing his glasses up.

“Of course.”

Balancing idol work and school couldn’t be easy. He had no time for clubs. And even if he had, it’ll probably attract too many fans.

It was plain to see that Ayase Koyuki’s graduation had been the cause of the club’s demise. Kotarou and Hina were trying to revive it, worried for the club. They really wanted someone new to join.

“You’re staring at the flowerbed a lot… Are you worried about something?”

“It looks like they’re about to die. I was wondering if they’re well cared for.”

“Yeah, it’s because the season for flowers is over. They bloomed already, they’re fine.”

“... You know a lot about this.”

“One of my best friends is in the gardening club.”

He had stayed late reading a flower book with Kotarou at the library once. The season for these flowers was from summer til October. Maybe they had lasted this long because the warm days were expected to continue until mid-January this year. But their season was already over.

“Is the gardening club in charge of the flowerbeds at the rooftop too?”

“Indeed. Kotarou and Setoguchi-san said they had planted pansies. They plan on planting tulips there next spring.” Koudai pointed to a remote flowerbed. The grass had been removed from it and the soil had been smoothed out. “Since the third years are graduating…”

During spring, beautiful and colorful tulips would bloom. Just like the year before.

(Really, in the blink of an eye…)

“Have you had fun? This year…” Koudai asked casually.

Yuujirou furrowed his brow.

“I will not be interviewed.”

“It’s just small talk. I won’t write an article. I promise.”

Yuujirou looked ahead.

“Well,” he said. “It was…” His gaze softened and he smiled slightly.

He must have remembered something good. Koudai wanted to hear a bit more now but…

“I’m glad,” Koudai smiled and turned around.

“That was good?” Yuujirou said, confused.

“This was not an interview. Though, if you were to accept one, I’d gladly do it,” he answered, turning back to face him, and waved his hand.

“Oh, here you are!” Suzumi Hiyori rushed towards Yuujirou with a cheerful voice. “Someya…!!!” . When he noticed Koudai was there, she covered her mouth with her hands mid-yell.

Yuujirou furrowed his brow at her mistake:

“God…” he mumbled.

“Someya-kun… uh… eh… it looks like… Teacher Uchida is calling you,” she said to Someya in a terrified tone and then ran away.

(Is there a teacher named like that in school…?)

Passing by them, Koudai went back into the building.

---

Koudai went to talk to Mr. Akechi at the staff room after class before heading to the club room.

(Mr. Akechi told me to wait until tomorrow, but I don’t think I’ll be able to ask him again…)

He walked down the hall as he thought about it and opened the biology classroom they used for their club. The other members had other work that day, so there probably wasn’t anyone there yet.

However, when he opened the door, he stopped in his tracks. There was in fact a student there.

Yuujirou, standing next to the shelf by the window. He was looking with curiosity at the cameras and lenses Koudai used at the club.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” Koudai commented.

Yuujirou looked at him, chin in hand.

“You said you wanted to interview me, Yamamoto-senpai. But I want to interview you.”

Koudai laughed.

“I wanted to interview you, Mr. Akechi asked me to.”

Yuujirou clumsily turned around. He puffed out his cheeks in annoyance.

“I see,” he said, lowering his voice.

Koudai closed the door behind them.

“Then, let’s start.”

There were lots of things Yuujirou could ask about.

This was going to be a fun interview.

“I wanted you to tell me about the camera.”

“The journalism club is also looking for members. If you’re interested…”

“I can’t join.”

The answer was still simple, but his jaw softened a bit.

“Well… do you want to learn how to take pictures? Of whom?”

“For now… of my dog?”

Koudai walked closer to Yuujirou and handed him his single-lens reflex camera, his favorite one. Yuujirou held it very carefully and pointed the lens towards the window.

“...How do you focus?”

“Like this. It’s set on manual now, but if you set it to auto, it’ll focus on its own. When you change it to shooting mode, you can-”

“Ohhh...” Koudai noticed how bright Yuujirou’s expression was while he looked at the camera.

“... adjust the exposition,” Koudai finished.

Yuujirou nodded with a serious face.

“Can I take a picture?”

“Of course.”

Yuujirou took a step backwards and, much to Koudai’s surprise, turned the lens away from the window to focus on Koudai.

The shutter went off.

“Wait, I am supposed to be the one interviewing you.”

“A bit of change is always good,” Yuujirou joked, lowering the camera.

Koudai pushed his glasses up.

“I see…”

(With Shibasaki Aizou and him… this should be popular)

---

Mid-december brought Yuujirou and Aizou relaxing at the office’s break room.

Yuujirou was sleeping on the table while listening to music. In front of him, Aizou played mobile games to kill time. That day, they had had a meeting with their manager regarding their next mv.

In that moment, Suzumi Hiyori, manager in training, barged into the room yelling:

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”

Yuujirou was startled by the scream, lifting his head with a sleepy face.

“Monster…” he mumbled. Maybe he was still asleep, actually.

“What the hell, you scared me!” Aizou put his phone down, frowning.

“I brought a surprise!”

Suzumi held the school’s newspaper in her shaky hands. The journalism club members had been handing it out in the school that morning.

“Our… our interview is here!”

Aizou quickly took the newspaper from her hands with sparkling eyes. That morning the girls at school had made a fuss over that issue and he’d been unable to catch a copy for himself; they all disappeared within seconds.

(Oh, last month’s interview… do I have it?)

Yamamoto-senpai had given Aizou a newspaper, but he’d been too busy to read it. He’d left it in his school desk’s drawer and had forgotten about it.

“Where’s the interview?” he asked, skimming through the pages.

Hiyori leaned over.

“Here!” she proudly pointed at the main article.

Comments from their classmate, S-san, a subheader said.

“‘Apparently, they like tuna mayo riceballs’...? What the hell is this?” Aizou complained. “Don’t accept interviews without permission.”

“Well… but I didn’t say anything out of place!” Hiyori shook her head.

“Don’t sound so happy about it. It’s a single line on a school’s paper.”

“Hey, it’s okay! Sometimes I like standing out too, alright? You two are always getting interviewed everywhere.”

“It’s only natural, who’d want to interview a manager in training?” Aizou got up, angry. He wanted to chop Hiyori’s head off.

“Wh… that’s the school newspaper? It’s out already?” Yuujirou mumbled in a sleepy I-just-woke-up voice while he ran his hands through his bangs.

“You got interviewed too. How did they buy you?” Aizou asked him with a mocking smile.

With his interview, there was also Yuujirou’s. Aizou was surprised, he was sure Yuujirou would’ve refused.

“It was fine… I didn’t answer much…” Yuujirou looked at the article. “‘Preparing for the school festival was hard, but cooperating with everyone was very important’... Aren’t you a fraud? You didn’t do anything, just slept in a coffin.”

“Do you ever shut that irritating mouth of yours?”

Yuujirou kicked Aizou under the table.

“That hurts! Don’t kick me!”

Right before the argument escalated, the break room’s door opened.

“Sorry for the wait!” It was their manager, Uchida, who seemed to be in a good mood. “The pictures in this newspaper are very good! I wonder if the boy from the journalism club took them, he’s got a good eye. He captured that natural side you two rarely let out.”

“Eh?! Why did Uchida-san read the newspaper?!” Aizou asked loudly, pointing at the school’s newspaper.

“Oh, the teacher in charge of the journalism club sent it to me. He asked me for permission to interview you two, he’s a good teacher. But, above that, he’s a good man~ ❤” Manager Uchida giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.

“I don’t want to hear that!”

“I didn’t really cooperate anyway…” Yuujirou mumbled sleepily.

“I wonder if I can post the newspaper’s pictures on our website,” Manager Uchida wondered. “Like a precious photo of LIPxLIP’s school life!” she suggested.

“Oh, that’s right! If our interview appeared in a newspaper, I should contact my grandma and my mom!” Hiyori excitedly pulled out her phone and started to dial her house. “Oh, but I should contact my school counselor too and send them a picture!”

Manager Uchida happily strolled around the room, skipping steps, almost jumping.

“Stop that-!!”

“You’re so loud. You’re not a speaker, lower your volume.”

“Don’t cover your ears and stop Uchida-san! She’s out of control, what if she makes merch out of the pictures?!”

“It’s fine by me. Unlike Aizou, I don’t find it embarrassing.”

“What do you mean ‘unlike Aizou’?”

“Oh, mom! I got the newspaper! It’s our school’s but… I’ll fax it to you at a convenience store. So you can read it! Eh? Dried plum? Yes, I’d love to eat some! Oh, send me rice too. Yes… hm, canned.”

“Hey, potato girl, call your home outside of your work schedule!!”

“Don’t call me potato! … Oh, mom? It’s nothing. The pineapple from my part-time job is making fun of me… Yes, it’s fine. I totally defeated him!”

“Eh?! What are you telling your parents?!”

“Pfft… a pineapple!”

“Don’t laugh, Yuujirou…”

---

Koudai leaned over the rooftop’s railing after school, looking at the ground that was dyed by the sunset. The soccer, baseball and track and field club members trained with enthusiasm despite the cold.

Kotarou’s figure received a pass and ran after the ball. Hina’s running figure seemed small. And Suzumi Hiyori’s, who ran with her, did too.

Takamizawa Arisa and Shibasaki Ken were leaving the school building, walking next to each other. He saw Ken stop and laugh, waving at Kotarou.

In the school’s gate, the idol duo’s fans were waiting for the manager’s car to arrive, surely making a fuss. And it was not just Sakuragaoka’s uniforms, but from other schools too.

It was a familiar sight.

“It’s cold…” mumbled Mr. Akechi, his advisor, as he opened the door and walked into the rooftop.

When he got to Koudai’s side, he trembled and rubbed his arms. He put his hands in the pockets of his white labcoat.

“Mr. Akechi…”

“Thank you for your hard work. Today’s article was very well received,” Mr. Akechi smiled. “A success.”

“It was because those two answered properly…”

They had balanced what they should answer, what they wanted to answer, what Koudai was looking for and the proper wording for it. They were clever and talented. Going to school with those two…they really were pros.

“It worked because you’re you, Yamamoto, don’t you think?”

When he heard those words, Koudai turned to look at Mr. Akechi. His eyes were fixated on the ground, where the students could be heard yelling.

“Ah, the youth,” he whispered with a smile.

“I only wrote.”

It had been Mr. Akechi who gave him the article, and he had apparently called the office to ask for permission. Thanks to that, he’d been able to publish a special picture of those two in the newspaper. The interview wouldn’t have been possible without him.

“Did you ask me to do it because you trusted me? If not, I don’t think I would’ve done it. Those two…”

Koudai saw Akechi’s furrowed brow and laughed.

He must fight with them constantly too. They probably weren’t easy-to-handle students at all.

“It’s hard, right? For teachers, too.”

“Well… they’re never boring, though. It’s like this every year.” He smiled, hands in pockets. His eyes were looking at the sunset sky, gazing at an airplane far away.

“I see,” Koudai commented.

“Those two’s manager praised your picture. It was a very good shot. She wants to put it on their website, is that okay?”

“Yes, I’ll send it to you later.”

Koudai waved him goodbye, and Mr. Akechi left the rooftop. Koudai stayed there some more time. The sun’s warmth hit his back, his shadow falling over the flowerbed.

He took out the lollipop Mr. Akechi had given him before. He unwrapped it and put it in his mouth. Koudai gazed at the ground, leaning over the railing.

An irreplaceable year for everyone.

Everything moves forward while the present turns into a memory.

Like the older graduated students, and the ones to follow too.

“Someya Yuujirou and Shibasaki Aizou, they both seem to have had a satisfactory year. The journalism club wishes to look over them to see what awaits them in high school.” -Yamamoto Koudai

#special thanks to ao3 user chivalrousamour for beta.reading!#GOD THIS THING IS SO LONG #almost 6k be prepared guys #lipxlip #honeyworks #someya yuujirou #shibasaki aizou #yamamoto koudai #akechi saku #suzumi hiyori #TALK TO ME ABT THIS STO RY I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTSSSS #hworks #mar's translations

73 notes · View notes

midnightactual · 4 years

Photo

Critical Analysis & Tactics I (CAT-1): The Hollowfication Incident

How strong is Yoruichi? That’s actually a very involved question. I’ve decided to create a series of articles detailing my thoughts on the matter by looking at military incidents and confrontations involving her. This is the first, and you may consult the others at your leisure:

CAT-2: The Central 46 Trial Breakout

CAT-3: Yoruichi vs. Byakuya

CAT-4A & B: Yoruichi vs. Soifon

CAT-5: Yoruichi & Soifon vs. Aizen

CAT-6: Yoruichi vs. Yammy

CAT-7: Yoruichi, Kisuke, & Isshin vs. Aizen

CAT-8: Yoruichi & Co. vs. Yhwach

CAT-9: Yoruichi vs. Askin

I’ve talked about this topic before (here) but I’d like to investigate it again from a different angle while also discussing what really happened on the night of the Hollowfication Incident. I think the five pages above tell you something very important about her strength, particularly the bottom-left one. These are from chapter -103 and are Yamamoto’s orders after Kensei, Mashiro, and the upper officer corps of the 9th Division (the Muguruma Commando Unit) go “missing”. (I’ve omitted Kisuke’s interruption as it doesn’t reveal much that’s pertinent to this discussion.) We learn an awful lot from these orders and it’s worth going through it all in some detail in order to get to my point.

Since the is is a long post, let me put the conclusion here up front: Yoruichi is much stronger than the average Taichō of the Gotei 13.

01. I would, quite aside from these pages, first like to remind the reader that nominally the Gotei 13, Onmitsukidō, and the Kidō Corps are equal in their status of reporting to Central 46. The Onmitsukidō and the Kidō Corps do not report to the Gotei 13. This means that accordingly, the Captain-Commander (Yamamoto), the Supreme Commander (Yoruichi), and the Corps Commander (Tessai) are technically co-equal in official stature; you might regard them as roughly equivalently ranked, being like the Joint Chiefs of Staff of their respective branches. (Jūshirō’s shock and Shunsui’s comment that Tessai’s presence indicates, “This is turning into a big deal,” is proof of that.)

Yamamoto, by virtue of seniority over the other two (and Yoruichi’s dual-hatted command within the Gotei 13) still commands their respect (as evidenced by Tessai addressing him formally and Yoruichi heeding his orders without question) and might be thought of as being like a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a result. I’m not arguing at all that Yoruichi and Tessai are equal in strength to Yamamoto, as they plainly are not. However, you would expect by virtue of these positions that they would be more powerful than run of the mill Taichō, and I believe this sequence of events proves that.

02. Notice in the second page that Yamamoto says that 5 Taichō will be dispatched to deal with the situation. This does seem to be an accurate translation by Viz as the red characters, 隊長 (taichō) and 五 (go), do indeed mean “Captain” and “five”.

He will then proceed to name (on page 3) Rose, Shinji, and Love, and then to indicate Tessai and Hachigen (on page 5). Thus: even though he is the Lieutenant of the Kidō Corps, Hachigen’s equivalent rank in the Gotei 13 would be Captain! He is a Taichō-level combatant, which fits in well with his performance alongside Soifon against Barragan. That he is actually lower ranked than Tessai despite this tells you that Tessai is likely notably stronger (which is subsequently borne out). Shunsui is the one to suggest that Tessai be substituted with Lisa, to which Yamamoto agrees.

03. Agreeing to this fits into Yamamoto’s other behavior. Let’s talk about him first. The important thing to understand about Yamamoto is that we perceive him very differently as a character (because of our point of view) than how the characters themselves perceive him in-universe. To your average reader, he probably seems staid, close-minded, overly conservative, dispassionate, and stubborn, precisely because he supports (and substantially built!) the status quo. However, he is supposed to be the most experienced, wise, and powerful Shinigami there is. And, in fact, he is.

Consider things from Yamamoto’s perspective. Things in the Gotei 13, the Seireitei, and Soul Society as a whole have worked for over 2,011 years as of TBTP. (The graduating class of about 1956, which Renji, Momo, Kira, and originally Rukia were part of, is definitively established as the Academy’s 2066th graduating year, meaning the Academy was founded circa 110 BC.) That compares quite favorably to the longest continuously extant human state, the Pandyan Empire, which lasted for about 1,850 years. The runner up is the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire which lasted 1,123 years by itself (add 499 more if you want to count the whole Roman Empire too, as the Byzantines themselves would’ve). That’s pretty good. It tells you something: Yamamoto’s system works (largely because he guarantees its continuation through his own personal power).

And Yamamoto generally conducts himself rather cautiously and methodically. He doesn’t like change, spontaneity, or impulsivity, regardless of how justifiable it may or may not be. (These are all things Ichigo initially represents.) And actually, as a soldier, that is probably exactly the kind of commanding officer you would really want to serve under: one who doesn’t take wild risks which might get your ass killed. People respect Yamamoto not just for his strength, but because he’s actually good at what he does.

04. Before we talk about what his orders actually are, I want to make a brief digression here to make a point: only Taichō-level combatants actually matter in the Gotei 13 in terms of military calculations. This is firmly established by the Soul Society arc. Byakuya says this in chapter 162 about bankai:

The key takeaways:

Members of the Great Noble Clans are stronger than everyone else (making people like Yamamoto, Retsu, Aizen, and Kenpachi extreme anomalies)

Even members of the Great Noble Clans only rarely achieve bankai (which, given a Shinigami generation is much longer than a human one, is saying something)

People who achieve bankai are uniformly important to Soul Society

You know who has bankai? Renji, a Fukutaichō who just achieved it and had used it in open combat against Byakuya, a feat which everyone with spiritual sense should’ve detected at the time given it, as Yoruichi notes elsewhere, makes one 5 to 10 times stronger. (Recall how on the Senzaikyu Bridge, everyone felt Ichigo’s approach even though he didn’t have bankai yet.) So Renji’s feat should be very impressive and important, right? Not to Yamamoto. In chapter 153, he already told us:

Renji is expendable. He could be killed and replaced without issue. Yamamoto then goes on to even further establish that Fukutaichō are comparatively useless by effortlessly crushing Nanao with his reiatsu alone in chapter 155. In short, Yamamoto does not rate bankai by itself. (The sole exception to this attitude by Yamamoto is perhaps toward his own Fukutaichō, Sasakibe.) It should also be extremely self-evident that Taichō-level combatants can have an extremely wide separation in power from one another, and I’m not going to substantiate that assertion here because we’d be here all day. So, when we talk about what happens during the Hollowfication Incident, let’s do so with a sense of clarity that only Taichō really matter in Yamamoto’s calculations.

05. Having established that, let’s return to the pages and talk about Yamamoto’s orders and how he’s positioning his forces on this particular night. A summary:

1st: Yamamoto - defense

2nd: Yoruichi - standby

3rd: Rose - deployed

4th: Retsu - defense

5th: Shinji - deployed

6th: Ginrei - defense

7th: Love - deployed

8th: Shunsui - defense

9th: Kensei - MIA

10th: n/a - office unfilled

11th: Kiganjō - no orders

12th: Kisuke - no orders

13th: Jūshirō - defense

The Gotei 13 had 12 Taichō at the time, as the 10th Division’s had died and not been replaced yet. Kensei was at this point MIA, thus putting them at 11. Including Tessai and Hachigen (as noted earlier) bumps them back up to 13. This tells us why the Kidō Corps was brought in: to bring the Gotei 13 back up to full strength during this crisis.

Yamamoto directly assigns his oldest and most experienced subordinates (Shunsui, Jūshirō, and Ginrei) to the defense of the Seireitei. His orders to Retsu to stay and his own continuing presence mean that indeed all the oldest and seemingly strongest Taichō are allocated to defense and garrison duty.

Rose, Shinji, and Love are deployed (along with, initially, Tessai and Hachigen) to investigate.

Kiganjō and Kisuke aren’t issued orders, presumably because both are considered unreliable. Kisuke is there, if late, but is effectively dismissed after his outburst regarding Hiyori.

Yoruichi is designated as the only flexible element in this plan. Before I return to this final point, I want to address some lingering matters and then explain to you what this deployment actually means.

First, It’s notable that Yamamoto’s assertion that Retsu is “too important” is a reflection of her healing abilities and their importance to a potential wartime situation. (Note that Kisuke, in chapter 227, dismissed Orihime from the war effort against Aizen by saying that 4th Division, particularly Retsu, more than equaled her abilities.)

Second, the substitution of Lisa for Tessai (at Shunsui’s suggestion) is not a reflection on Lisa’s power (remember: Fukutaichō don’t matter, and Lisa didn’t have bankai at this time anyway). It’s suggested because of the risk of sending Tessai and Hachigen together. It’s presumably approved because of the seeming overabundance of force in the deployed unit.

What do I mean by that? Think about it this way: a Taichō and his subordinates go missing. While that is (very) concerning, consider the ways in which it is likely to happen. Is it likely to be a Hollow? Almost certainly not. It suggests an ambush. Which in turn suggests a coordinated military strategy. By whom? Unknown. So, how do you respond? You respond in force, but there is probably such a thing as too much force. After all, what is likely to take out 4 Taichō, let alone 5? Not a lot. So the difference between 4 and 5 doesn’t much matter, and substituting Lisa for Tessai is fine. The deployed force should still be overkill either way.

It also retains Tessai for defense, and Yamamoto’s real concern here is revealed by his allocation of a preponderance of forces to the Seireitei: he seems to believe this is a diversion in preparation for an attack on the Seireitei itself. Thus, through action and inaction alike, he commits 4 Taichō to deployment and retains 9 for defense. He is overwhelmingly interested in defense against possible follow-ups and believes he has likely still committed excessive force to deal with whatever Kensei’s situation is.

06. Thus, finally, we come to Yoruichi’s role in this plan as the the only mobile auxiliary force. Let me state my premise first, then I’ll substantiate it: Yoruichi is the only possible backup the deployed force has, meaning she and she alone is their lifeline in the event something goes wrong—this fact alone tells you she is more powerful than the deployed force as a whole. In other words, Yoruichi is stronger than Kensei, Rose, Love, Shinji, Tessai, and Hachigen put together.

Bold claim, I’m sure! What evidence do I have to support this assertion? I tell you it’s simply obvious using conservative tactical logic, studying their military disposition, and understanding the political situation.

Tactical logic first: suppose for a second that there was an unknown criminal incident in a local big box store like Walmart, Home Depot, or whatever you like. A squad car’s worth of cops (2) went in. They then stopped responding to central. So, backup is ordered and now four times as many cops go in (8). What if they stop responding? Would you send in another 2 cops? Or 8? Or even 10? No. You would likely send in at least 20–30, if not just the local SWAT team. It doesn’t make sense, after having lost so many elements already, not to escalate radically, just as sending 8 guys is a radical escalation from sending 2. You don’t send 2, then 8, then somewhere between 2 and 10 yet again. You’re throwing away limited forces for no gain at that point.

Yoruichi is the SWAT team. The fact Yoruichi alone was the potential reinforcements for the deployed group tells you that one of two things is true:

Yoruichi is stronger, unto herself, than the deployed group, or...

Yamamoto was prepared to simply sacrifice the deployed group if the situation went bad, and their backup, for no gain

Military disposition second: given Yamamoto is already working with a diminished and very finite force, with possibly 2 out of 13 Taichō down, (2) does not make a lot of sense given his character. (Again: note how he reserved Retsu and Tessai out of strategic concern.) What is the benefit? It is worth noting here that after the defection of Aizen, Gin, and Kaname a century later, the Seireitei also adopted a conservative and defensive posture (but more on this later).

Political situation third: doing this also wouldn’t make a lot of sense given the state that the Gotei 13 was in as a whole at the time, which Shunsui and Jūshirō helpfully expounded upon in chapter -108:

Long story made short, the Gotei 13 was in a period of upheaval and turmoil at the time—a period of weakness. Sacrificing your military assets when you are weak is not particularly intelligent.

We can thus recast our two earlier possibilities as follows:

Yoruichi is in fact incredibly strong, or...

Yamamoto is a military idiot who wasted forces for no good reason, despite the fact he is supposed to be extremely militarily competent

I know which of those two my money is on. But I’m also not done yet in proving it.

07. Let’s be very clear here that the events of the Hollowfication Incident were the most extreme losses we know of that the Gotei 13 ever suffered in terms of assets that actually mattered. The Gotei 13 lost a grand total of 8 Taichō-class combatants that night (Yoruichi, Kisuke, Tessai, Hachigen, Shinji, Rose, Love, and Kensei). Their strength was reduced from 14 acting with the Kidō Corps to 6. That’s 57.12% losses. From this perspective, it was a much worse disaster than Aizen’s defection or the Wandenreich War in terms of outcome. The loss of both the Supreme Commander of the Onmitsukidō and the Corps Commander of the Kidō Corps was especially grievous.

It’s also worth pointing out that as far as Central 46 was concerned the Hollowfication Incident was a conspiracy orchestrated by Kisuke, Tessai, and by proxy Yoruichi. Given the losses, it can only be read as an attempted coup, and other than Aizen’s murder of Central 46, was a much more serious event than even Aizen’s defection.

This raises a simple question: Why didn’t Central 46 demand Yoruichi, Tessai, and Kisuke be hunted down?

The first and most obvious answer is that numerically the forces to do so while maintaining the defense of the Seireitei simply did not exist. Only Yamamoto, Retsu, Ginrei, Shunsui, Kiganjō, and Jūshirō were left. Kiganjō was plainly unsuited for such a mission. Retsu would be even more critical after such losses and would never be sent. Ginrei, Shunsui, and Jūshirō were exactly the ones tasked with securing the Seireitei and could be thought of as the ‘minimum’ needed to do that. And finally, it’s unlikely that Yamamoto himself would go, even though he later states to both Shunsui and Jūshirō in chapter 154 that:

Put simply: Yamamoto didn’t have the manpower to chase them. (And Yamamoto would make a very similar decision after Aizen’s defection, choosing not to pursue him, Gin, and Kaname to Hueco Mundo, which he likely regarded as being a giant trap he could ill afford to take loses from; he learned from the Hollowfication Incident!)

But that isn’t the only answer, because even when he later did after the Gotei 13 was reconstituted, he wasn’t interested in tracking them down. This is surely not because they were just written off as dead (as Byakuya implies on the Senzaikyu Bridge) given the enormity of the accusations against them. The Gotei 13 didn’t give up on tracking down Ginjō and Xcution for far less; it isn’t in the business of forgiving or forgetting.

Maybe Yoruichi choosing to spare Central 46′s lives factored into that decision (see here) but if it did, doesn’t, “She might come back and kill us all and there’s nothing we could do to stop it,” tell you she’s very strong?

And if that didn’t affect the decision-making process, what did? I’ll tell you plainly: Yamamoto did not have confidence that any team he could afford to send out was likely to beat Yoruichi, Tessai, and Kisuke—and he didn’t think much of Kisuke. That should also tell you that Yoruichi is very strong.

The Urahara Shōten crew was allowed not only to escape but to live in peace not just because of whatever actions that might have taken to protect themselves, but because a military confrontation with them was simply too risky. And a major component of that risk must, logically, be that Yoruichi is extremely strong.

The anime-only Reigai Uprising filler arc is exactly that—filler—but it is known that Kubo was at least consulted for the filler arcs. And during that filler arc, in episode 319, Yoruichi’s Wiki entry notes the following:

She fought three Shinigami captains and four lieutenant-level and above opponents at the same time with Hakuda without receiving any notable damage.

All of the above is in my opinion convincing evidence that although this feat is non-canon, it would be very plausible for it to happen in canon. That’s how strong Yoruichi is. That is why she is the designated threat barometer (see here) for the latter half of the series. Yoruichi is not arrogant. This whole sequence is designed to tell you as much.

P.S. Since I'm also vaguely talking about this: yeah, Yoruichi didn't beat Askin. But you know what? Mayuri didn't beat Pernida, Shunsui didn't beat Lille, and Byakuya, Tōshirō, Kenpachi, and the rest didn't beat Gerard. None of the Sternritter were beaten by their primary opponents. And, for the record, Yoruichi did better against Askin than Ōetsu did, without a ridiculously overpowered zanpakutō and with a much stronger Askin, as Yhwach hadn't yet absorbed the Soul King and powered up the Sternritter when Ōetsu confronted them. Just sayin'...

#Out Of Character #Long Post #Meta

30 notes · View notes

makeste · 6 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 027: The Ol’ Run and Float

Previously on BnHA: Deku won the obstacle course and made All Might proud while pissing everyone else off. Midnight announced that the second event would be a cavalry battle. The kids were told to team up in groups of 2 to 4, and that each team’s captain would wear a headband with a point value based on how that team’s members placed in the obstacle course. Deku found out he was worth ten million fucking points.

Today on BnHA: Midnight explains the rules of the cavalry battle. U.A.’s first years set out to assemble their teams. Bakugou doesn’t fucking know who any of these people are. Iida wants in on this rivalry thing too. Deku gets off to a shaky start, but actually manages to assemble probably the best team out here, thanks in large part to its abundance of girl power, but also because my bird bro Tokoyami decides to get in on this as well.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 51 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

new volume cover!! lots of kids this time! twelve of ‘em!

we’ve even got that steampunk girl. SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE

this is the calmest that Bakugou’s face has been on a cover yet, I think. he’s even letting Kaminari lean all over him. he still doesn’t know how to smile, but at least he’s looking at the camera, unlike Todoroki up there in the corner

and we’ve got Ochako up there in the top left! KICK SOME ASS OCHAKO

Deku looks pretty happy and doesn’t appear to be fearing for his life, so we can confidently assume that this picture wasn’t taken during the sports fest! ahahaha

“the boy born with everything” hmm that sounds like Todoroki to me. could be Bakugou too I suppose, but right now I’m leaning more toward the kid who hasn’t had much development yet and whose mystery dad seems like he might be introduced shortly

I freaking love that... [checks the handy dandy character guide] Hagakure is on the inner cover cheerleading with these two

(ETA: I can’t believe such a cute fucking page was so ruined for me with context.)

okay I skipped past the characters cuz I already know who they are, and definitely skipped past that chapter index. here we go

seems pretty fucked up to me. do they have twists like this every year? if yes, then why do the kids who’ve watched it religiously since childhood (i.e. Deku) not anticipate that and maybe just shoot for top 5 rather than #1?

well Deku, you’re just going to have to continue to be just that damn good, I guess. you’re screwed otherwise

even Ochako omg

he’s still thinking to himself that it was just dumb luck that he came in first. by my reckoning it was actually ridiculously quick and adaptive thinking, more than a little cleverness, no small amount of physical strength and endurance, and a reckless disregard for his own safety bordering on the insane! but sure, call it luck

wonder where all of that GARRRRR energy has gone now. it’s like he was running at 300% for that entire event, and now all of a sudden he’s run out of batteries

okay here we go, some detailed rules

that’s going to be a lot of zeroes for Deku’s team

glad they designed the headbands to fasten with velcro so that these kids don’t go snapping each other’s necks

and apparently once someone grabs your headband, they’ve got to put it on and wear it themselves, so as long as time’s not up, you still have a chance to get it back

so then Deku won’t necessarily be the main target the entire time. ooh, this changes things. I like this game now

that little shithead Mineta might be a problem if his team utilizes his stupid grapes

and Tsuyu could potentially just use her tongue and be snatching up headbands left and right

apparently they’re allowed to use quirks, but not allowed to maliciously attack teams “with the intent of making them fall.” well what are the rules then. is that basically just a “don’t kill each other” rule and aside from that everything still goes? this opens the gates for some inconsistent refereeing. but I suppose these games are just an exhibition match to show off anyway, so as long as everyone gets to do that, it doesn’t matter as much who actually wins or loses

unless your name is Bakugou Katsuki and you went up on stage in front of a hundred thousand people and were all “it’s me I’m the winner”

or if you’re Todoroki “dad is watching and I just made Deku my rival fifteen minutes ago, so I don’t want to lose to him” Shouto

or Midoriya “dad is watching and I promised him I’d tell the world I AM HERE” Izuku

then you’re probably more invested in winning

so should be interesting

(ETA: actually, getting into the round of 16 really did make a difference in terms of who got drafted afterwards.)

time to start forming teams!

Deku already seems to know who he wants!

Tsuyu or Ochako, Deku. either is good. both are even better

Iida’s also fast! and loyal! (ETA: HAHAHAHA) but the second that fucker gets distracted, his weird hand gestures will get you dropped on the floor right quick

Bakugou and Todoroki would NEVER!! so let’s not even bother with that

Sero is another one like Tsuyu that would probably be really good at snatching bands

anyways, enough with the hypotheticals, let’s scroll down and see who this thoughtful young man actually decides on

heyyy. booooooo we’re cutting to the security staff

they don’t seem to be doing a very good job

wow. these guys are kind of the worst

“drag others down.” what a cynical fucking take

now they’re talking about how the cavalry battle teaches cooperation. well no shit, just like literally any team exercise ever

these are the most demotivational superheroes I’ve ever seen. the complete fucking opposite of All Might. no wonder he was so desperate to find someone with the right attitude to be his successor

WOW CHECK OUT MISTER POPULAR OVER HERE

OH NOW Y’ALL LIKE HIM, HUH. I WAS HERE FIRST

he seems to have someone else in mind maybe?

wow

“WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE”

wow Bakugou. wow. I may not know all of their names yet, but at least I know... two of their quirks

-- and actually I do know their names! Sato, Hagakure, and Mina! wow! guys! I did it!!!

meanwhile All Might’s up in the stands with his own hot fresh takes on Bakugou, which mainly consist of “he may be a jerk but he sure is talented and that sure does make him popular.” yep. are you proud. he’s still our son, All Might

Todoroki already picked a team while Bakugou was standing there trying to figure out what everyone else’s quirks even are and what exactly is this mysterious “teamwork” thing anyway

luckily he has a good friend who mysteriously loves him for some reason!

even though Bakugou doesn’t even remember his name sobbbbb

to be fair, I sure took a long hecking time remembering it myself

Kirishima is pointing out that he’s the best fit since his quirk allows him to take whatever explosions Bakugou dishes out

wow they really are compatible. this seriously could take over as my main ship, were it not for the fact that Deku has so plainly been in love with Katsuki since he was three years old

but even so! like, I’ll just nab this little KiriBaku tugboat, maybe, and let it puff along next to my main ride

incidentally, Bakugou doesn’t even know what Kiri’s quirk is

and Kiri DOESN’T EVEN SEEM TO MIND ANY OF IT

“Bakugou who should you ride?” “idk someone with a death wish cuz I sure fucking will blow them up you can be sure of that” “no!! me!!!”

that’s the pure kind of unconditional Yamamoto-esque love that can withstand whatever pain and hardship life decides to dole out. good shit

so who’s he gonna pick as his final teammate then

guess who doesn’t care who Mineta picks. me

Shouji if you agree to team up with Mineta you will be cancelled by association until the end of this challenge. it’s not your fault, it’s just the way things are

DEKU WHY ARE YOU STILL STANDING THERE. YOU SEEMED LIKE YOU HAD A PLAN. THAT’LL FUCKING SHOW ME TO ASSUME YOU WOULD EVER TAKE THE INITIATIVE IN LITERALLY ANY KIND OF SOCIAL SITUATION

so then. you’re either stuck with the most desperate peeps, or your loyalest most dedicated besties

eh, I fail to see how punching something really hard one time and then having your body fall apart would inspire faith, though. please note that your fellow classmates, who have seen your quirk, are still avoiding you

oh! I see a “Deku” speech bubble though! only one non-Kacchan person here who calls him that! :D

LOOK AT YOU LUCKING OUT OVER HERE DEKU

this was seriously one of his best prospects to begin with. her quirk would help a lot when it comes to avoiding people, and with him having the highest point value to start with, they don’t really need to go after other people’s points

so if he’s teaming up with her, then Iida is definitely the best choice for a third teammate. they work well together, and I guarantee no one else has offered to team up with him yet lol. just gotta watch out for those hand gestures like I said

but before we get to that let’s just appreciate Deku’s meme face

is this face a meme. if not, my question is how could it not be

yesss. it’s all coming together now. THE OL’ RUN AND FLOAT

now they’re in the huddle and Deku’s explaining the ol’ run and float plan

but interestingly, he doesn’t intend to be the rider? he wants someone physically strong? well there are a few options then, but honestly there isn’t anyone else here who’s actually stronger than you bud

WOW now Iida’s suddenly deciding to be a spoilsport?!

YOU CAN REFUSE MY FOOT IN YOUR ASS YOU TREASONOUS CAD. A POX ON YOU IIDA!!!

apparently he’s decided to make Deku his rival too. EVERYONE, RIVALS. HE HAS ENOUGH RIVALS!!!

“ever since the entrance exam... I’ve been losing to you” well then sure as hell don’t expect it to stop now

he’s teaming up with Todoroki. wow. wow, Iida. you wanna be cancelled too because this is how you get cancelled

I’m not actually mad in all seriousness though, I just gotta protect my sweet Green Tsuna here who apparently has no Gokuderas to fall back on except for Ochako, that beautiful, rule-breaking moth

does the math actually work out so that there’s gotta be at least one person left for him to team up with?

dammit who’s it gonna be

OOOOHH

IT’S THE SMART STEAMPUNK GIRL FROM THE SUPPORT COURSE. I LIKE THIS! SHE’S A WILD CARD. GET IN HERE SUPPORT COURSE GIRL

HATSUME MEI YOU BEAUTIFUL TALENTED BRILLIANT POWERFUL MUSK OX

she says she wants to team up with him so she can be in the spotlight. see, this is what all these kids are forgetting. it’s not really about the points, it’s how well you show off what you’ve got

and she apparently wants to show off “her babies.” her inventions, I’m guessing

PLEASE JOIN US AND BE OUR WINRY ROCKBELL. BE OUR USOPP, MEI

SHE HAS JETPACKS. DEKU!!! DO IT

aww. Ochako don’t be jealous. he needs you, you’re the MVP even if no one else here knows it yet

okay so they’ve got three again. but Deku still seems to think they need one more person

“our formation’s just lacking some power...”

off he goes

who else are you gonna sweet talk into this group Deku

I should probably make a guess so that I can either brag afterwards, or laugh about how wrong I was

he keeps saying power. but most of the obvious 1-A powerhouses are already taken. Sato seems pretty tough, though, and there’s also that rock guy who is like the only guy left in the class who hasn’t done shit. and I think Tsuyu might still be available and she’s a dark horse IMO. my money’s either on her or Rocky Road

okay, this Viktor-looking guy has been making faces and mugging the camera this entire time, and now it looks like he’s actually gonna get a bit of focus here

and he’s acting like class B hung back on purpose. sure, okay. do your thing then; just don’t expect me to learn twenty more names when I only just got done with this first group after 27 fucking chapters

we’d better see who Deku picked before this ends or it’s a waste of a cliffhanger

oh good there’s one last two-page spread

Deku ended up as the rider after all huh

I FORGOT ALL ABOUT HIM! NOW I FEEL DUMB. HE’S FUCKING PERFECT, AND HE ACTUALLY AGREED TO JOIN THEM! TOKOYAMI, FROM THIS POINT ON YOU SHALL BE KNOWN AS “NEW IIDA”

THE SHADOW THING IS GONNA BE SO OP OMG. LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO

BONUS:

“steampunk-related things” they didn’t even pretend

I’m glad Horikoshi made so many interesting female characters and went against his initial instinct to make several of them guys. class A only has six girls out of 20 people total, so it’s not quite balanced, but it’s better than there being like. four girls. and they’ve all got heaps of skill and talent, and varied and interesting personalities

so the support course peeps are basically the Tony Starks of BnHA

I am so down with this. go on and befriend Deku and make him all sorts of cool shit later on and further enrich the series with your general presence, Mei

#bnha #boku no hero academia #makeste reads bnha #lots of people in this one #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #kirishima eijirou #uraraka ochako #iida tenya #hatsume mei #tokoyami fumikage #I already forgot that class B kid's name again #I remember his copycat quirk but no idea what he's called #and tbh I can't be bothered to look it up again lol

86 notes · View notes

cawnvictofmurder · 7 years

Text

show and tell (AO3)

For Kurodai Week, Day 1: First Meeting/Next Time ***ao3 link is working now sorry about that guys***

Pairing: Sawamura Daichi/Kuroo Tetsurou

Summary: Crown Prince of Karasuno, Sawamura Daichi, is called back to the castle from during his outpost checks for reasons unknown to him. Nekoma’s Heir Apparent, Kuroo Tetsurou, arrives at Karasuno with an exhibition to perform and a promised show.

Tags: Alternate Universe- Fantasy, Pre-Relationship, slightly First Meetings

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1,605

Kuroo fiddled with the small golden earrings in his hand, rolling the three cartilage rings between his fingers and watching.

Around him the rest of his team were in the process of preparing for their exhibition; putting on their body paint and uniforms, warming up, stretching and going through the familiar motions that was ingrained into their muscles at this point.

It wouldn’t be Nekoma’s first time performing an exhibition in Karasuno- but it was certainly the first time Kuroo ever felt uneasy about performing.

The last time he had performed in this hall, on this very same stage, had been less than three months ago and under the calculating eyes of the nation’s king. And yet, why was he this nervous? It was a routine he could do in his sleep and he had already braved the cutting eyes of Karasuno’s King.

The memory of a firm hand, warm and sure, flashed across his mind-a pair of challenging brown eyes- and he stared at his hand. He curled it into a fist, tight, but it wasn’t as tight as the handshake that he recalled, gripping his own in a steady confidence he was rather envious about.

He was pulled back to reality as a brush attacked his hair and he hissed. Kuroo stared balefully up at Yaku, who held the brush like a weapon.

“For once you’re not the first one to finish,” Yaku commented, yanking the brush through a heavily knotted area. Kuroo winced but grinned up at Yaku nonetheless.

“Are you worried about me? You’re finally showing your true caring self, Yakkun.”

Yaku rolled his eyes, giving his hair a tug. “Why are you nervous? We’ve done this before and it’s not even as important as last time.”

“Nervous? Who me?” Kuroo tapped his chest in mock offense before reaching up and taking his time with putting his earrings in. He didn’t look Yaku in the eye.

Yaku gave a noncommittal hum and merely continued brushing his hair into a more purposeful mess.

“At least you’ve got your uniform on,” Yaku grumbled without any real irritation. Kuroo flashed him a grin, smoothing down the silky fabric of his red vest; it had golden designed sprawled around the edges, symmetrical and gleaming under the torch light. His pants, loose and seamless, was also red with a gold trim that ran up his legs- it would mimic a live flame when he moved.

“Here,” a voice muttered as a bowl of black paint was dropped into Kuroo’s lap. He gave a snort as he picked up the bowl and turned to Kenma, who had plopped himself down beside Kuroo.

“Wasn’t Yamamoto supposed to do this?” Kuroo asked, dipping his fingers into the cool black paste. Kenma shrugged as he put on a gold bracelet on each of his wrists. Beside him, Kuroo began drawing out the designs they wore for any performance they did, the paint cold against his skin.

“Arms up,” Kuroo prompted with a nudge. He carefully finished the circle that ran around the other’s arms and wiped his hands, finished. The design was something they all knew how to paint- lines and patterns that accented their movements and drew eyes.

Kenma finished clasping on his anklets- gold once again and adorned by bells- and Kuroo passed him the bowl. Dutifully, Kenma took it and returned the favour. His fingers were steady as he went through the familiar motions.

“Don’t forget these.” Yaku quickly handed Kuroo his set of bracelets and anklets before darting away. Kuroo offered him a quick ‘thanks!’ before reaching down to clasp the anklets on. The bracelets and anklets were tight against his skin, but it would prevent them from sliding whenever he did the flips and jumps of their routine.

“Ready?” Kuroo asked Kenma as the other ran his finger down for the last line needed on his body paint. Kenma glanced at him as he wiped the excess paint off his hands with a towel.

“I think I should be asking you that, Kuro.”

Kuroo leaned back, hands grasping the stool underneath him, and claimed airily, “I’m always ready.”

Kenma gave a silent scoff, walking away. Kuroo huffed at his departing back before leaning down and picking up his bo staff, its smooth wood familiar and comforting. He spun it in his hand, adjusting himself to the similar, yet different, weapon and tapped it on the ground.

“I’ll be ready. I promised to perform a good show after all.”

“This is your first time seeing Nekoma’s exhibition, Daichi?”

Daichi nodded, turning slightly in his seat to face his father, who drew an intimidating figure when seated on his velvet black throne; its gleaming silver armrests and detailing adding to that vibe.

“Yes, I was at the borders last time Nekoma visited.”

“Mm.”

Seeing no further attempt at conversation, Daichi leaned back into his own throne- smaller and more simple than his father’s but no less elegant- and eyed the empty stage.

The raised stone platform was already lit by numerous torches around the edges and on the walls. The hall was filled with a good number of their citizens, from what he could see on the balcony, and a rush of anticipation ran through him.

The show had yet to start, and the audience softly chatted below them, but Daichi swore he could hear the clicking of wood on stone. The sound was faint yet ringing. Distantly, he thought he imagined the familiar jingle of bells.

Suddenly, all the torches blew out. There was an accompanying bang and silence fell upon everyone. Daichi jumped, reflexively reaching towards his belt, stopping only when his father gave no reactions beyond an amused smirk.

In front of them, the stage wasn’t empty anymore. Though the darkness, Daichi caught sight of movement and, as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he spotted many figures darting around.

With a pop of air, the torches were lit up once again- with a another bang- and a person rushed out. The person, with one hand pushing off the ground, twisted into the air with a bo staff staff, unhindered. He landed flawlessly in the middle of the stage, staying crouched as he glanced up.

Daichi sucked in a sharp breath as he met sharp amber eyes, his own widening in surprise as he unconsciously leaned forward. He knew this person.

Kuroo Tetsurou, heir to the throne of Nekoma, slowly stood up. The fluttering flames around them casted shadows over his face, played with the gold accents he wore and brushed him with a soft, pale orange. Behind him, more members of Nekoma ran out, uniform and coordinated.

Keen feline eyes stared at him and Daichi recalled the moment he had first met the owner of them- the very same amber eyes gleaming and mirthful.

“So you’re the future flock leader?”

Kuroo’s eyes snapped away as he reached down to brace himself for another flip. Daichi slowly exhaled. His eyes were glued onto the dancer-like movements and the flashing gold on red. While he marveled at all the performer’s abilities and skills, his eyes were drawn back towards Kuroo- whose black designs flexed along with his muscles and skin shone with a layer of sweat; whose hands skillfully handed the wooden staff just as well as he did the spear he wielded in combat.

Daichi’s heart pounded with the beat of wooden staffs on stone, bells chiming, and he held his breath as he watched. It was fascinating to see a shadow of their fighting style in every movement. To see Kuroo whirl across the stage, deceivingly harmless. His movements were exaggerated and staged, practiced and consistent.

It was a difference from what he remembered, the two of them hidden in the dark and fending off attackers with curt and immediate actions.

The dance- very heavily based upon Nekoma’s fluid and aerobatic fighting style- ended with an abrupt bang of wood on stone and a quick gesture that extinguished the torches, dropping them back into the darkness, just as they had done in the beginning.

“Cats do pretty well in the dark, Sawamura. Trust us.”

As the hall filled with applause, Daichi took a solid breath and leaned back into his seat, his heart still racing and staring at the now empty stage.

“Interesting isn’t it?”

His father’s comment startled him and he turned, smoothing down his surprise and coughing. “It’s very- flashy.”

“Yes. It’s unlikely they’d show us their actual fighting style this easily.”

Daichi murmured his agreement, though his mind was nowhere near assessing Nekoma’s abilities and skills. For a moment, he wondered if he should mention how Kuroo wielded his spear, not unlike the way he handled the bo staff, how utterly dangerous the other man could be.

It wasn’t something he was sure he wanted to share with his father- with someone who watched everything with a suspecting eye and an even more cautious mind; who, despite signing the peace treaty, was more than eager for any advantage over their allies.

No, his father would have to look somewhere else for a weakness.

“See them out would you, Daichi? Through the south exit. Make sure they don’t linger.”

Daichi swallowed down his disapproval and curtly nodded, standing. His father’s curt dismissal of Nekoma disrespected how much work and travel their allies must have done; it didn’t sit well with him at all.

And as he left, feeling vaguely offended on Nekoma’s behalf, that one last parting sentence he heard weeks ago, echoed through his mind.

“We’ll put on a show you can actually see next time.”

#kurodaiweek2k17 #kurodaiweek #kurodai #haikyuu!!#sawamura daichi #kuroo tetsurou #ayyyy #not sure if i like this but #i like the series so #i hope someone enjoys tho #my writing #hq

31 notes · View notes