#And Kazuki of course not in uniform

[lilyginnyblackv2]

We’ve still got a long way to go. - Buddy Daddies E12 - SPOILERS

When Rei asks Kazuki:

“You think we managed to change?” And Kazuki responds with:

“We’ve still got a long way to go.”

This is, of course, a call back to Episodes 8 and 10, when Rei asks Kazuki and he says, “Dunno,” and when Kazuki proclaims, “I guess we weren’t able to change” (or something of that nature). But now, Kazuki says, “We’ve still got  long way to go.”

I love that answer, because it’s one that is long term and shows that change isn't a one-time thing. It’s long and continuous. You, as a person, are constantly changing. If you aren’t, then that means you’ve stopped growing as a person. 

That’s Rei’s father.

He was unwilling to change. Even the resolution that Rei comes to in order to escape the Organization is one that involves him “changing” a part of himself (BLOOD WARNING) :

Shooting himself in the arm. Intently “breaking” a part of the “perfect killing machine” that his father envisioned and wanted him to stay as. Rei then left and never looked back.

Shigeki was forgotten and he lost his most valuable “asset.” His blood would likely die with Rei, in the sense of his biological bloodline not being carried on. In order for the Organization to stay in his name, he might even have to do something like adult adopt someone, otherwise, the whole name, legacy, and Organization will be lost to the Suwa name now. 

Rei hit him where it hurt and left him in ruin. Fitting in with his lines earlier in the episode where he says things like, “Bullets aren’t for resolving intergenerational squabbles.” And calling the welcome of bullets and shooting when they go through the manor doors, “domestic violence.” 

On the opposite end of this, we have Misaki. Misaki tried to change.

She died. Her death was unfortunate and unfair. A product of a cruel world. 

But unlike Shigeki, she hasn’t been forgotten. Her daughter sang loud for her. Making sure she would hear, wherever she was.

10 years later, Miri has a photo of herself and her mother on her desk. 

And she tells her mother, “I’m heading out, Mama!” That seems like a routine for her. She likely does it every day. Misaki tried to change and do right by her daughter.

Her last words were her daughter’s name, Kazuki got angry on her behalf at Ryo’s response to that answer, she died protecting Miri and Miri’s last words to her was telling her mama how much she loved her.

She got to spend her last days with her daughter - all good memories. And, even though Misaki died, she stays alive through Miri every day. Ironically, her blood will live on, while Shigeki’s will die with him. 

Finally, getting back to Kazuki and Rei. We know from Episode 9 that Kazuki and Rei are all about continuing to practice and change and move and grow. 

They changed their whole lives for Miri and are continuing to change. Shigeki was only ever shown wearing short hair and a suit. Uniform. Unchanging.

But Kazuki and Rei, while they keep core aspects of themselves and their styles, are shown looking very different from before. Not only because they are naturally older (in their mid to late 30s now), but also because they’ve done stuff like grow a beard (Kazuki - which is a bit of a rebellious thing in a way - beards aren’t looked highly upon and are seen as unprofessional) or wearing their hair slightly differently (Rei doesn’t have the shaved side anymore, he leaves two pieces of hair out of the ponytail, and he wears his ponytail long now - giving an impression of longer hair too). 

(Though, maybe Rei’s signature dish will remain unchanged, and some things staying the same sometimes is okay too, lol). Of course, Rei being a cook in and of itself is a huge change from where he was at the start of the series.

Back in Episode 9, Rei worried about them taking a photo. Kazuki felt that taking only one was likely going to be okay. But now, they have a whole bulletin board up in the diner showcasing the journey they’ve been on (well, the legal and family friendly parts, lol). Photos galore documenting the changes they’ve been through:

They are a found family. So they chose each other. So they are along for the ride, no matter how wild it may be or what changes they are confronted with. They’ll learn, they’ll grow, and they’ll live on through the food they make and the people they meet at Diner Nest. 

#Buddy Daddies #BD #Kazurei #Miri Unasaka #Misaki Unasaka #Shigeki Unasaka #BD spoilers #Buddy Daddies spoilers #meta post #analysis #thought post #long post #image heavy post #the character writing was so good!!

[darling-wendy]

family photos and future implications

There’s a clear progression in the photos the Kurusuwa family took together and I wanna talk about it because a picture, as we all know, is worth a thousand words. 

Miri’s field day (October 15, 2023)

It’s the first photo they’ve ever taken together and one done tentatively because of their unique situation and how they’re still effectively hiding. Miri, the star of the day (and the focus of the episode) is front and centre, with Rei and Kazuki on either side of her. Kazuki has his hand on Rei’s shoulder, pulling him in a bit, but there’s some distance among all of them.

Miri’s daycare Christmas party (December 24, 2023)

Their second family photo and they’re all huddled up close together. Part of that is almost certainly due to Rei and Kazuki’s injuries. But also, at this point, they’ve fought and more or less vanquished the thing that had them previously unsure and tentative about their status as a family. They don’t have to be worried about photos of them getting out anymore. Miri, once again, is front and centre.

Miri’s first day of middle school (circa April 2031)

From what I can tell, middle school in Japan is things get serious for kids. They start to wear a uniform (unless they went to a private academy or something), there’s more tangible talk of university and their futures, and there’s more ceremony in matriculation and graduation. Rei and Kazuki are dressed the sharpest we ever really see them (Rei’s murder suit doesn’t count). As usual, Miri is front and centre, but now there’s more distance among them again.  Kazuki has a hand on her back because he’s more tactile and that’s still his little girl, but Miri is growing up and is in need of her own space. 

Miri’s first day of high school (circa April 2034)

For the very first time (and I think this was part of the initial confusion around the taking of the photo), Miri is not in the centre. She’s a bit off to the side while Kazuki and Rei are close together, basically hugging. And this was a formation she insisted on. She’s growing up even more, becoming more independent, and is getting close to the cusp of adulthood. In a few years, she’ll be off to university and then it’ll be just Rei and Kazuki again. They had lived together for a couple years before they met Miri, but now they’re both different--they’ve both changed. They’ll have to grapple with empty nest syndrome [insert pun about the diner] and they’ll also have to figure out what their family unit looks like without Miri around all the time. 

I think a lot of people misunderstood Kazuki in episode 11. This was his face when he heard Rei was going back to his dad:

He’s stunned and disappointed. Neither have been their best selves as they deal with Miri’s absence, but it would be even worse to do deal with it alone. Rei’s games were the last thing keeping the dreaded silence away after all.

This right here is masking. Rei--the last gasp at the normal happiness that Kazuki has always wanted-- is leaving and he can’t stop him. All he can do is play it off and pretend it doesn’t hurt. 

Going back to the taking of the final photo, I very much do not think Rei’s question was throwing cold water on the idea that he cared for Kazuki. He clearly does. Rei has been shown to have a habit of repeating the last thing someone said to him as he tries to puzzle out their words. He’s also not a tactile person. I think he’s just genuinely confused as to what them being family has to do with getting closer for a photo.

Kazuki, for his part, immediately shifts into gleefully dragging Rei in by the neck, something we’ve seen him do multiple times over the course of the series.

Whatever fight they put up was a for-show, token effort. They look very comfortable together and I’m sure that when Miri goes off to university, they’re going to stay together and figure out how their family dynamic works as a duo. Maybe Kazuki will finally let Rei have a cat 😉

#buddy daddies #kurusuwa family #kazurei #buddy daddies meta #kurusu kazuki #suwa rei #unasaka miri

[curejiraiya]

I saw a post in Korean on twitter that said something like "no matter how much I think about it, there has to be something more to Taiga's admiration of Kazuki." and I didn't feel like I should reply to them because it would absolutely get lost in translation, but I wrote up a post that I put in my circle instead. This is that post, if anyone is interested? This is probably the most character analysis I've done in my entire life lmao.

I think it would be disrespectful for me to randomly reply to this person, but I extremely want to reply "Of course there is [something more to his admiration], he's gay!" There's no world where Taiga isn't gay coded! Other than Louis he's the most gay character in King of Prism! Now I'm going to explain why I think this. :D

I know the 10? people in my twitter circle will not read this and not care, but it's important! Taiga is gay! Taiga's entire backstory is that when he was a child he met a street dancer who was really nice to him, and fell madly in love with him. It was his first childhood crush.

Later in life he finds out the performer became a famous celebrity, and he changes the course of his life to follow in his crushes footsteps. He's known for buying Kazuki's merch, and even wears his buttons on his uniform every single day.

(K Kazuki button + green bracelet)

There's plot and stuff I don't want to get into, but once he becomes a fellow student with Kazuki he makes it his mission to protect him. He puts himself in harms way for Kazuki, all the while continuing to look up to him and do his best to make him proud.

The two's birthdays are one day apart, and during Taiga's own birthday song for the game he wishes a happy birthday to Kazuki instead of himself! Like ??????????

But ok maybe you think, that's not gay he just idolizes Kazuki. Well maybe it was that, until SSS came around.

In SSS Taiga admits most of this backstory while naked in a bath with his friends, and when he realizes what he said he makes this fucking blushy face and freaks out.

Idk bro this is GAY PANIC if I've ever seen it.

BUT IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH! This episode ends with Taiga having a confrontation with Kazuki, where all his friends encourage him to "Tell him your feelings." Taiga starts, but hesitates too much and loses his opportunity.

And that would be all, except in King of Prism: All Stars they run a call and response section where the audience repeats some of Taiga's famous lines. As a funny moment they added an alternative version of that scene, where TAIGA ACTUALLY CONFESSES.

Now I'm American, and I'm a gay man who specifically imagines all the characters in the media he likes as gay, but you can't tell me that this situation shouldn't be read as "they can't directly say he's in love with Kazuki, the show would be canceled."

So anyway if you don't think he's gay after this scene you're homophobic. ;) I'm kidding, everyone has their own interpretation of the characters, and I hope you enjoy mine!

If you'd like we can talk about how Kakeru is madly in love with Taiga at another time.

#king of prism #taiga kougami #kazuki nishina #gay #gay thoughts #ramblings #character analysis

[lady-byleth]

“What’s 15,436 minus 15,434?”

“Two!”

#LOOK AT THEM #SO YOUNG AND INNOCENT! #And Kazuki of course not in uniform #he's the only one who doesn't get chewed out anymore about it xD #I'd bet my leg #Minashiro Soushi #Makabe Kazuki #Kaname Sakura #Kondou Kenji #Hazama Shouko #Kasugai Kouyo #Kodate Mamoru #babies so young #and all still alive #Anyone ever notice how it's every second one who dies/gets assimilated?

[marshmallowgoop]

Gushing about Promare (Mega Spoilers!)

I know not everyone has gotten a chance to see Promare yet, but I first saw the movie months ago and have been dying to talk spoilers ever since. So, avoid this post if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch the film yet, but since there’s a tiny bit more availability now, I finally just wanna gush for a sec!

First of all, Promare surprised me. I wasn’t really too interested when the project was revealed, and even when I learned more details at last year’s Anime Expo, I was only moderately invested. The note that the film would be kid friendly is what got me more on board, but I suppose what really got me, more than even the stunning soundtrack (which I think might be Hiroyuki Sawano’s best OST, honestly), was the Trigger x Monster Strike collab.

Maybe surprisingly, I am actually somewhat self-aware, and I recognize that I’m totally biased, but okay, seeing Ryuko and Senketsu noted as characters for the game, right beside Lio and Galo...

Let’s just say that my heart was taken. Seeing that image of Lio and Galo made me fall in love with them, and the comparisons between Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship and Lio and Galo’s that I found in the 鮮流 (Senryu) tag on Twitter sealed the deal. Teaming up and fighting with the Power of Love is my jam.

So, I got hyped. I expected to like the movie. 

But I didn’t expect to find it to be the best thing that Trigger has ever made.

(Well, that I’ve seen, anyway.)

And even after sitting on it for a while, I still think Promare is Trigger’s strongest work (that I’ve seen). Sure, I’ve read many complaints that the film tries to do too much in its short timeframe, that there are too many characters who don’t get fleshed out as they should, that it’s way too predictable and cliche... but I respectfully disagree.

I mean, I do feel Promare would have worked better as a series, sure. But Promare uses its time excellently. Maybe it’s an odd comparison (or maybe not?), but while The Shape of Water devotes a ton of screen time and attention to subplots and fleshing out characters other than the main leads, Promare stays focused. This is the story of Lio and Galo, and it never, ever forgets that. Whereas The Shape of Water drowns its monster love story inside plots of Russian spies and rotting fingers, Promare stays focused. Promare knows what it is and knows what it’s about. It’s the most cohesive and thematically strong piece that I’ve seen from Trigger, and I’m more than glad that the artists decided to focus on Lio and Galo rather than shove in all sorts of good stuff about the other characters at the expense of muddying its heart and soul.

Because as much as I love Kill la Kill—and as much as it’s still my favorite Trigger work, even if I don’t see it as Trigger’s best—that’s... exactly what that show did. I can’t even say for sure what the heart and soul of Kill la Kill is! Sure, I’ve argued that it’s most definitely a love story between a girl and her sailor uniform more than anything else, and I most definitely have evidence to support that claim, but I recognize that tons of other claims with tons of other evidence behind them could be made as well. Maybe, for example, as expressed by director Hiroyuki Imaishi before the series premiered, Kill la Kill is really ultimately a story about the rivalry and eventual friendship between Ryuko and Satsuki. Or maybe it’s about overcoming fascism, or a warning about wearable technology, or about puberty, or finding family, or really a million things. I’ve been in the Kill la Kill fandom for years, and let me tell you: I’ve seen just about everything.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the huge variety in interpretations for the anime most certainly points to the idea that it ain’t all that focused. It’s... a bit all over the place. Too much good stuff shoved into one work, resulting in a mixed mass of awesome that’s maybe kinda hard to make sense of.

(And, for the record, I’ll point out that as much as I often feel alone in my reading of Kill la Kill, I’m really not alone at all. An interviewer for Newtype magazine once said, “When you watch through to the last episode, you keenly feel that Kill la Kill is a story about the relationship between Ryuko and Senketsu,” writer Kazuki Nakashima himself has pointed out several times that Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship is central to the story, such as in his note in the Kamui Bansho that “You could say that Kill la Kill tells the story of a lonely young woman meeting and losing an irreplaceable partner,” and even among English-speaking fans, I can at least link to this one comment not by me that reads, “It's also weird that they say that Ryuko vs. Satsuki is the core of character drama; while it’s majorly important so far, it’s seemed more like Ryuko and Senketsu share the most important relationship.” I know I’m biased, but, okay, I have support, seriously.)

In my humble onion, Promare combines probably the two strongest story threads in Kill la Kill by essentially making the Satsuki character and Senketsu character the same person. You get the rivalry that turns into a friendship, and you also get the synchronization and coming together of two different people who seem like they shouldn’t get along—the combining of “oil and water,” as Galo himself puts it. The fact that the designs of Lio and Galo’s robots were confirmed to look like Kamui in the last live-drawing session (with eyes on the shoulders and teeth on the chest) only strengthens the Ryuko and Senketsu connection, and, c’mon, you can’t tell me that those trailers and promotional materials weren’t hyping up the Lio/Galo rivalry like Kill la Kill hyped up the Ryuko/Satsuki rivalry. Promare takes two of the greatest parts of Kill la Kill, smashes them together, and makes something fantastic. This is what I would have wanted Kill la Kill to be like.

Yes, Promare’s plot is absolutely predictable and cliche, but that ain’t at all a downside! The film utilizes its cliches well, and our main leads are so charming that the journey is endlessly enjoyable. Promare is ultimately a sweet character drama with lots of flashy action, and that character drama is excellent.

I love so much about it. I love how Galo makes an offensive remark to Lio and immediately apologizes, understanding that it was wrong. I love that Galo saving Lio’s life is presented so respectfully, and I love that Galo isn’t at all bothered or embarrassed by pressing his lips to Lio’s, and I love that when Galo freaks out afterwards, it’s simply because he started a fire when he’s devoted himself to putting fires out. I love how Lio’s flames protect Galo, I love the lyrics to “Inferno” and how they amplify the story, I love that there’s a happy ending and the Burnish don’t all die out because that’s somehow “for the best,” I love that there’s a beautiful heart explosion when Lio and Galo save the world. I just love love love these two characters and this film.

But of course, to address the elephant in the room, I do wish that Lio and Galo’s relationship were more explicit; as is always the case in Trigger works that feature potential LGBTQ+ romances, it was stated at both Anime Expo this year and in the latest live drawing that there are no wrong interpretations and everyone is free to think what they would like. But when someone asked if there would be more “boys kissing” in future Trigger works at Anime Expo, and the answer was “yes,” I’m hopeful and don’t feel bad about what we got. Lio and Galo are a sweet, sweet step in the right direction, and I hope for more explicit, charming, respectful LGBTQ+ content in the future from this studio.

Tl;dr, as silly as Promare is, it almost feels like the studio is growing up. The film is what I consider to be their strongest work to date (that I’ve seen, of course), and I crave more over-the-top, kid-friendly, endearing works from Trigger moving forward.

#promare #spoilers #promare spoilers #kill la kill #monster strike #'for a sec' she says lolll sureeee..... #longer than i meant but ey feel free to send me more train emojis and i'll post some shorter stuff lol #(i'm not answering the last one i got though sorry. i just feel like i'll get ragged on for whatever i say. and i am not dealing with that)

[prism-rush]

King of Prism Road to Shiny Seven Stars 1 Main Story translation

I, Shin Ichijo, am a 1st year in senior high!! I’m going to the entrance ceremony!!!

Translator’s notes: Road to Shiny Seven Stars was a series of events on the Prism Rush game covering the gap in the King of Prism timeline from after Pride the Hero and before the SSS anime. 

So if you read my posts when this event was actually in progress, you may remember some additional stuff happening. Like details of where Taiga was before and after the entrance ceremony, and Louis flirting with Shin at the photo shoot while Leo got jealous, etc. Well that’s because that stuff did happen. But all that and more happened exclusively in the card stories. I will be translating some of the card stories but not all for every event. There will be a link at the end to any card stories I have translated so far.

(On the morning of the Kakyoin Academy Senior High Division entrance ceremony.)

Leo: Shin-kun! Please hurry up! 

Shin: O-okay! Here I come... 

H... How do I look?

Leo: Wooow! The senior high red blazer! It really changes up your image! ♪ Your new uniform looks so good on you! 

Kakeru: Yeah, lookin’ good! Way to go Shin-chawan! 

Yukinojo: Indeed, you do look sharp. ....Excuse me for being rude, but isn’t it a little big?

Minato: He’s still a growing boy, so at this age a little big is actually just right. 

Kakeru: Minatocchi, you sound like someone’s mom.

Shin: Thank you everyone! ....So I’m really a senior high student starting today. I’m kind of nervous. 

Yu: Ahhh I want to wear red already.... 

Yukinojo: No need to rush. You should appreciate the junior high school uniform while you can. 

Kakeru: Yes, yes. Us senior high students couldn’t wear them anymore even if we wanted to. 

Leo: I agree. The green blazer is cool too!

Yu: Y.. Yeah.... that’s right. It will be only two more short years before I’m wearing red! 

Minato: Now that we’ll be in the senior high division together, we’ll be seeing you around a lot more often from now on, Ichijo. 

Shin: Yes! I’ll be looking forward to it. 

Yukinojo: So will we.

Minato: Our school life will be even more fun from now on. 

Kakeru: And as your upperclassman, I’ll teach you lots of secrets about the senior high division ♪

Shin: Secrets...? Like what?

Kakeru: Hmm, let’s see. For example... lend me your ear?

Shin: Oh, okay.... 

Kakeru: The physics teacher, Ms. Takikawa’s.... *whisper whisper*

Shin: Huh? ....HUUUH!? REALLY!? I’ll take a closer look next time! 

Minato: Kazuo! Don’t fill his head with that sort of nonsense! 

Kakeru: Eheh, sorry sorry. ...Hey, wait! By the way, where is our other freshman? 

Yukinojo: Oh. Now that you mention it... 

Minato: Hmmm. Do you think we should go wake him up....? 

Taiga: ...*yawn*.... sle..... py............

Kakeru: Good mornin’ ☆ Speak of the devil! Our delinquent has finally arrived! 

Taiga: What are you so cheerful about this early in the morning... Ahh I’m starving.... 

Minato: Leave that to me. I’ve got everything prepared. Since today’s the morning of your entrance ceremony I went a little overboard. Toast and eggsluts with homemade meat sauce. A morning assortment of vegetable salad, and then minestrone soup! And of course.... it’s got celery in it!

Shin: All right! 

Yu: Hm? Hey, Taiga’s school uniform.... 

Kakeru: Yeah, it’s no different than before. Ah! Could it be... You break-danced too hard in your new school uniform and ripped it to shreds already?

Taiga: You idiot. Of course not. 

Shin: Taiga-kun, you’re going to wear the same uniform to senior high school?

Taiga: .............Argh. 

Shin: Huh??

Yu: ??? What are you so mad about all of a sudden.... 

Yukinojo: I think he’s trying to tell us that something is different. 

Leo: Taiga-kun certainly has his own way of doing things, doesn’t he. 

Yu: ....? So there is something different!?

Taiga: Tsk! 

Kakeru: Heyy.... You don’t need to pout.... We already know that you’re feeling disappointed that we haven’t noticed.

Taiga: Can it, Kazuo! 

Leo: Ah, Taiga-kun... Your necktie is all twisted. 

Taiga: Hm? Oh... 

Leo: I’ll fix it for you.... there you go. You look so handsome! You changed your necktie to red, just like the senior high blazer!

Taiga: ...Yeah! 

Kakeru: Oh?

Shin: ....AH! Now that you mention it, it was green before but it’s red now! 

Kakeru: Oh yeah that’s right! 

Yu: This is like playing spot the difference on a quiz show.... 

Taiga: GAH! 

Leo: The two of you look so dashing in your new senior high uniforms! 

Shin: Thank you! It’s a little embarrassing to hear so many compliments, isn’t it Taiga-kun?

Taiga: ............

Minato: Well, let’s sit down to breakfast. If we don’t get to eating soon we’ll be late. 

Kakeru: That’s right. Yaay, breakfast time! ♪

(Around that time, at the Edel Rose dorm administration office.)

Hijiri: They sure are lively this morning. We can hear their voices from the dining hall all the way up here. 

Yamada: Those boys. Even though they moved up a grade, they never change. 

Hijiri: It’s a good thing. I’d like them to learn to fly with their own wings... Shin and Taiga were able to enter senior high, and the others successfully moved up a grade as well. 

Yamada: ….By the way, how did Taiga’s exams go?

Hijiri: …Ha ha… Well, it’s over now. Let’s not discuss that anymore. 

Yamada: …..I’ll buy you a drink later. 

Hijiri: Anyway, it’s a wonderful morning. A morning of new beginnings. Let’s pray the roads they will embark upon be as sunny as this beautiful day. 

Yamada: Yes, let’s. As long as they can enjoy what they’re doing, that’s all I’d ask for. 

Hijiri: Yes. And thanks to them Edel Rose has made remarkable progress. I have high hopes for their future. 

(A few minutes later.)

Yu: ...Hey Taiga, are you really planning on going to school like that? 

Taiga: What do you mean?

Yu: Well... I guess if that’s what floats your boat, it’s fine with me. It’s just that if only one person is wearing a different uniform at the entrance ceremony, it will stand out, won’t it....

Taiga: Whatever.

Yu: You know what! You need to work on that attitude! Recently, you...

Leo: Settle down, settle down. It will be OK. He’s got Shin-kun with him! 

Shin: Yeah! Leave it to me. 

Kakeru: Yes, yes. And he’s got us as well. ....But even if he did have the same school uniform, he’d probably still cause a scene... 

Yukinojo: Yes. Indeed, it seems like that is destined to happen no matter what. 

Shin: Huh? What do you mean.... 

Kakeru: Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s just get ourselves to school first! 

Shin: W-woah, Kakeru-san you’re pushing me... 

Taiga: Ugh, you’re annoying as always.... 

Yukinojo: Heheh, it’s nice to see everyone lively as usual. 

Minato: Yes, Tachiba--

Shin: ...........!

Kakeru: ..............!!

Leo: What’s going on? Why did you two st--W-WOAH!

Hiro: Hello there! Good morning everyone.

Kouji: Good morning. Did you all sleep well last night?

Kazuki: Morning. It’s really important to get both a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast to build up the strength to start your day off right! 

Shin: Hiro-san! Kouji-san! Kazuki-san!

Minato: What are you all doing here so early in the morning?

Kakeru: And isn’t today your university entrance ceremony...?

Hiro: Yeah. But the starting time for our university entrance ceremony is a bit later.

Kazuki: We all thought, “We want to see our beloved underclassmen off on their fresh new day!” And then BAM! All of a sudden we were wide awake.

Kouji: Eheh. What they said.  

Hiro: So let us say it one more time. Shin, Taiga, congrats on becoming senior high schoolers!

Kazuki: Taiga, your school uniform…

Taiga: *twitch*

Kazuki: I think it’s great! It’s just like you! You’re off to have a straightforward, fired up lifestyle in senior high school too!

Taiga: Yeah… Thanks…. (ALL RIGHT!!!!!!)

Kouji: And you look sharp too, Shin, in your new senior high uniform. 

Hiro: Eheh! Even though we only graduated last month, looking at those uniforms makes me feel nostalgic already. 

Kazuki: Me too. Take good care of those uniforms! This time of your life only comes once!

Kouji: Yu is a junior high 2nd year… and Leo is finally a 3rd year! Leo, you’ll look after Yu, won’t you?

Leo: Leave it to me!

Yu: Don’t leave anything to him! Since when do I need “looking after.”

Hiro: Kakeru, Yukinojo, and Minato are all 2nd years in senior high now too... 

Kakeru: That’s right! We’re all dependable upperclassmen now ♪

Kazuki: It will probably be tough for all the new freshmen. This goes for Taiga and Shin too, but we’ll be leaving all of the Edel Rose underclassmen in your hands! 

Yukinojo: Of course. Understood.

Minato: We’ll make you proud!

Shin: And congratulations to you three too for entering university! 

Hiro: Thank you!

Shin: Going to school in regular clothes seems so cool. 

Kazuki: Since we have only known what it’s like going in uniform it’s a little strange. 

Kouji: I feel as though the more time passes, the more it will probably sink in that we really are university students now. 

Leo: Since everyone was able to successfully move up a grade and/or get into their new school, wouldn’t it be great to have a party to celebrate the new school year?

Shin: Oh wow! That would be great! 

Leo: We could eat dinner and snacks in the dining hall and all share our goals for the semester! 

Shin: Yeah! Yeah that sounds fun! 

Minato: Eheh. In that case I’ll take care of the catering. 

Kouji: I’ll help too, Minato. Two sets of hands in the kitchen would be better than one, right?

Minato: But you should be one of our guests of honor to celebrate your entrance into university. I’ll be alright on my own this time...

Hiro: Oh come on. We may be starting university, but all of you are starting new years in school as well. It’s like we’re all moving onto a “new stage” together. So I think we should celebrate equally, no?

Kouji: Hiro is right. Everyone is a guest of honor this time. How about that?

Kazuki: A new stage... It sounds so exciting when you put it that way! 

Leo: All right ♪ This is gonna be so super fun! 

Yukinojo: Indeed. I agree as well. However....

Kakeru: Yeah. I don’t want to be a wet blanket here, but I think I know what Yuki-chan’s about to say...

Taiga: Huh?

Yukinojo: The idea of getting never mind just us Edel Rose students, but all of us together at the same time seems kind of daunting... doesn’t it?

Shin: ...Ah, that’s right!

Hiro: Yeah, that’s a good point... We’re booked with jobs both solo as and Over the Rainbow for a while... 

Kouji: Yeah.... And now that you mention it, you are all busy too aren’t you? If I’m remembering correctly, later today--

Kazuki: Yeah, and you guys have a TV appearance lined up as well.

Hiro: Oh I heard. You’re going to be guests on the “Let’s Play With Naru-chan New School Year Special”?

Shin: Oh! Yes! We are! Leo-kun, Yu-kun, Taiga-kun, and myself. The four of us are going to be on the show together. Aaah, and before that we have a photo shoot… Ohhh I’m so nervous.... 

Taiga: It’s no use getting yourself all worked up now. Calm down already.

Kakeru: You say that, but you’re excited too, aren’t Taiga-kyun? I know you’ve been recording episodes of “Let’s Play With Naru-chan” and studying them…

Taiga: You…! I… I’m not… Goddamit, Kazuo…..!

Leo: But this really is like a dream come true! To think we’re really going to be on that program! 

Yu: “Let’s Play with Naru-chan” is super popular.

Hiro: It’s not just popular. It’s also a really high quality program. 

Kouji: With Naru-chan as the main host it’s in good hands. 

Kazuki: That’s right. Have fun, you guys. Even if you’re feeling down, being on that show will take care of that! 

Shin: Okay! We’ll be sure to make the most of it!

Kakeru: Mmm... but you know, with Over the Rainbow so busy, and you four with your TV gig... In the end, we can’t have that party can we?

Shin: I guess we can’t.... 

Yukinojo: Yes, it seems like that is the case. We may be able to work around your schedules, but... 

Minato: We should probably wait until things have settled down to have a party though. Kouji and the others will be busy with getting settled in to university for a while.

Kazuki: I guess you’re right. We have to go through an orientation program and pick out our classes and stuff... 

Kouji: For the first two weeks they really press a lot of stuff on us. 

Shin: I see.... that’s rough....

Hiro: Well, just that’s how life is. All of you will go through changes little by little as well.

Shin: Things will… change….

Hiro: Yes. However, change isn’t always a bad thing. 

I think it’s necessary for things to change in order for us to grow. You’re all starting a new chapter of your lives. For example, from now on you’ll get all sorts of new job offers… But as you embrace these changes, I think you’ll find so much potential for good things is waiting for you.

Kouji: Hiro is right. And the more things do change, I think you’ll also be able to see how much certain things will stay the same.

Hiro: Exactly. For example… No matter what happens, what will never change is that Edel Rose here will always be our “home”!

Shin: Hiro-san.... You’re right! Thinking about all these changes still makes me a little sad... but change is a good thing, isn’t it?

Hiro: Of course! 

Kazuki: There will still be lots of chances for us all to get together. As long as we want to make it happen, it will! Right now what we should be doing is encouraging each other to challenge new things! 

Shin: Kazuki-san... Okay! 

Hiro: Oh! I think it’s just about time for us to get going, isn’t it?

Kouji: Wow, it’s already this late? You’re right. Take care getting to school, everyone. 

Kazuki: See you! We’ll be back again soon enough! 

Shin: Right! Thank you for stopping by! 

Leo: Safe travels everyone and have a good day!

Yu: ….Aw crap! Hey Leo! We have to get going too!

Leo: Huh? Ahh you’re right! Well then! Shin-kun, Taiga-kun, do your best at the entrance ceremony!

Taiga: I don’t even know what that means. All we’re going to do is listen to a bunch of boring speeches.

Kakeru: Our little bright eyed freshmen are dragging their feet as well. Are you guys going to be OK?

Yukinojo: Indeed. The new students are supposed to arrive earlier than the rest of the school if I recall correctly... 

Shin: AHHH! Oh yeah that’s right! Taiga-kun, we have to get going!

Taiga: I don’t see any reason to rush. Even if we’re late I don’t really ca–

Shin: Nope, that’s no good! It’s your entrance ceremony! We’re going right now!!

Taiga: Okay, okay I heard you! I’m going already so stop pulling me so hard….

Kakeru: ...... Hey Yuki-chan, Minatocchi. You don’t think Taiga-kyun would actually skip his entrance ceremony.... do you?

Yukinojo: ....Surely he wouldn’t. Not after Kazuki-san gave him such hearty encouragement.... 

Minato: Everyone, Kougami is a senior high school student now. Surely we have nothing to worry about. Now, we should get going too. 

(At Kakyoin Academy, in the gym)

Principal: And.... so... as I was saying, as all of you gradually begin to embody our school traditions.....

Shin:  (Ahhh… As I thought, the atmosphere is totally different in the senior high division…. 

All the upperclassmen look so mature…. ! Well, from now on I am a senior high school student. I have to work harder than ever before!)

*murmur*

Shin: (Huh? There’s some sort of commotion going on over by the door...?)

Male student 1: …Hey, that guy is Kougami, isn’t he?

Male student 2: He’s late for his own entrance ceremony… He really is a rebel, just like the rumors said.

Shin: (Huh… Taiga-kun?!)

Taiga: ……

Shin: (It really is him! But how? We left the dorm at the same time… Even though we got separated at some point, we weren’t all that far from the school the last time I saw him.)

Teacher: So you’re Kougami, huh!? So this is how you’re starting off the school year... I’ve heard all about you! 

Taiga: ....*sigh*..... 

Teacher: Don’t you get an attitude with me!

Shin: (Ahh! Ahh! And he’s on the teacher’s bad side already! W.. What should I do… Should I step in and try to help him out….)

Taiga: I told you! I don’t need a reason to be late!

Teacher: To have the audacity to show up to your own entrance ceremony with no reason! Who do you think you are.... 

Taiga: ...If I don’t have a reason I don’t have one... 

Shin: (Huh? Is… is something poking out of Taiga-kun’s stomach?)…What is that?

(And so, an annoyed Taiga begrudgingly sat in his seat and began to sing the school song for the end of the ceremony.)

Shin: (I was really worried for a while. But I’m glad Taiga-kun and I both get to be at our entrance ceremony together.)

♪~ ♪~

Taiga: ….Ow! 

Shin: (Ow?)

Taiga: Ah, hey! Stop you idiots! Settle down… AH…! 

Cat: Meow! 

Shin: C… Cats?! Cats are coming out of Taiga’s shirt!? 

Teacher: K... Kougami! What is going on here! 

Taiga: ....Ugh. 

Cat: Meow.... 

Female student: Huh--cats?! So cute!

Male student: WHAAAA! What are a bunch of cats doing here!?

Shin: (Oh no, this is turning into a panic!) Ahh well um… Here kitty! Here kitty, kitty! It’s alright… Phew, well I got two of them. Now where is Taiga-kun… Oh, there you are! Taiga-kun!

Taiga: Huh? Oh, Shin… You caught them for me? Thanks.

Shin: Well…. You don’t need to thank me, if you could just tell me why you have so many cats?

Taiga: Uhh… Well. Y’know. Okay, 1, 2, 3…. 

All right! I got all seven of them back!

Shin: S… Seven?! You had SEVEN cats in your shirt?!

Taiga: Yeah. They were keeping calm in there but I guess the school song woke ‘em up. Well anyway, thanks for the help. I’ll be going.

Shin: Huh?! Taiga-kun, wait! The entrance ceremony isn’t over yet…

Taiga: I don’t have time for that when I have these guys to look after.

Shin: Wha… whaaaaat?! ….He left.

Teacher: Hey, WAIT! KOUGAMI!!! ....What a piece of work we’ve got in the freshman class this year.... 

Shin: (Eek! The teacher is furious... and the entrance ceremony was almost over too.... Well I guess I’ll go back to my seat.... ) 

Male student 1: Taiga Kougami…. he’s that street style guy, right?

Male student 2: …Hey, and isn’t that the same Shin Ichijo who was in the Prism King Cup?

Shin: (Huh? Were they just talking about me?)

Female student: Eee! To think we’re going to be so close to real prism stars! Kakyoin Academy is the real deal ♪

Shin: (Huh? Huuuh? Why is everyone talking about Taiga-kun and me? And I feel like everyone is looking this way too… W-What’s going on?)

(Later.)

Yu: ...WHAT. He did WHAT at the entrance ceremony? Taiga, that guy.... 

Leo: I’m sure he just wanted to help those kitty-cats. Taiga-kun is really kind. 

Yu: That’s not the problem.... Rumors are spreading about Edel Rose already as it is. 

Shin: Ah! Yeah that’s right! There were people who already knew Taiga-kun and I at the ceremony! A lot of them too! I wonder why?

Yu: Why, you say.... Well, I guess it was spring break so you didn’t hear the news. You may not have noticed, but we’re really starting to get more and more well known. 

Shin: HUH!? REALLY!?

Yu: Of course! You were in the Prism King Cup! And it’s not just you and Taiga, either. Alec and Joji from Schwartz Rose are suddenly the talk of the town as well. 

Shin: Oh really.. I had no idea..... 

Yu: But this is all only just the beginning! From here on out is our is our real chance to make things happen! The more everyone knows us, the more jobs we’ll get! Let’s keep on goin’ until Edel Rose is a household name! 

Shin: Yeah! All of a sudden I’m all excited! 

Leo: Let’s all do our best together! But first things first, we have a job to do today!

Yu: Yeah! .....Oh, and what happened to Taiga after all that anyway?

Shin: Well... After the entrance ceremony ended I asked Kakeru-san and the others if they had seen him, but nobody has. 

Yu: WHAT!? Where did he run off to... He’s not going to miss our photo shoot, is he....

Leo: I’m sure he won’t. We can count on Taiga-kun.

Yu: You think so....?

Taiga: What are you talking about? 

Yu: Woah! Speak of the devil! Taiga, where the heck were you?

Taiga: ....Nowhere special. 

Shin: Ah, Taiga-kun! Are the cats OK?

Taiga: Yeah. You don’t need to worry about it. 

Leo: Ah! Since we’re all together, let’s head over to our job! It’s getting to be almost time! 

Shin: Ah, you’re right! We should get going....! 

Leo: Oh yeah, and I heard there will be other prism stars there too... I wonder who it will be? 

(Inside the studio.)

Shin: Wow so this is what a magazine photo shoot is like... I’m so nervous...! 

Yu: Since they will be doing a feature on prism stars, they found a photo studio you can actually do a prism show in!

Shin: Huh? We’re going to do a prism show here!?

Leo: I think it just means they want to take photos where it looks like we’re doing prism shows, right? 

Shin: I see... This is so exciting.... 

Louis: Hello. 

Shin: Louis!?

Louis: You’ve got a new school uniform. 

Shin: Yeah! And you too! 

Alexander: ......Oh?

Taiga: .......Oh. 

Leo: So the other prism stars to be joining us are you guys from Schwarz Rose I see ♪

Louis: Shin, are you doing a photo shoot here now?

Shin: Yeah! And you guys?

Louis: Yup. (....A job together with Shin.)

Shin: Wow.... So this is what the Schwarz Rose school uniforms look like.... They’re really cool.....

Louis: Eheh. And the red blazer looks good on you too, Shin. 

Shin: Eheh... thank you!

Yu: Well aren’t these two buddy-buddy. Wish I could say the same for our street-style friends....

Taiga: ........

Alexander: ........

Taiga: What are YOU doing here!?

Alexander: Oh shut your hole! I don’t have time to fry a small fish like you!

Taiga: WHAT WAS THAT!

Yu: Alec, Taiga! Cut it out, you two! We’re on a job. If we cause any troubl–

Alexander: Stay out of this, short stuff!

Yu: WHAAA?! I’m not “short stuff”, I’m ZEUS!

Shin: Um Yu… now you’re the one that needs to calm down….

Taiga: Well this is good timing anyway. I was just thinking I felt like kicking your ass! Let’s finish what we started at the Prism King Cup!

Alexander: It’s payback time!

Yu: Hey, Shin! Kisaragi! Help me stop them!

Shin: U.. um… yeah! Fighting is… not good! Right, Louis?

Louis: Right. No good.

Yu: You guys…. 

HEY! Hands off!

Alexander: What is your problem anyway...! 

Taiga: My problem is your face!!

Alexander: Took the words right out of my mouth! 

Taiga: You wanna go!? 

Alexander: You’re asking for it!

Yu: Hey hey, if you pull any harder on your clothes they are going to---

*rip*

*clink*

Leo: Ah! Oh no! Taiga-kun’s necktie and Yamato-san’s buttons are.... 

Taiga: Ack! 

Alexander: Dammit! 

Yu: You guys... We have a photo shoot from now.... I tried to warn you..... 

Shin: Taiga-kun’s necktie is ripped….

Louis: And Alexander-kun’s jacket buttons have all popped off…

Taiga: ……

Alexander: …….

Leo: What do you two think you’re doing?! I won’t stand for any violence!!

Alexander: Oh… S… Sor…

Taiga: We’re really sorry!!

Leo: I can’t believe you! Ruining your school uniforms like that! Don’t you have any respect for the people who make clothes at all?!

Alexander: …The people…. who make clothes….

Leo: WHAT. WAS. THAT.

Alexander: N… nothing…

Leo: AUGH! WELL I’M GONNA FIX ‘EM SO TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES RIGHT NOW!

Taiga: .....My bad.....

Shin: Leo-kun, that was amazing…! They both settled down immediately. 

Leo: Now, you two be good and wait patiently! ♡

Taiga&Alec: …..Yes……….

(As Leo got to work fixing Taiga and Alexander’s clothes, Shin began his photo shoot.) 

(And then....) 

Leo: Okay, all fixed! 

Taiga: Sorry for the trouble... 

Alexander: Appreciate it...

Leo: Taiga-kun, hold still while I straighten out your necktie.... Now, Yamato-san, here is your jacket. Lift up your arms! 

Alexander: Uh, I can put it on myself---

Leo: Okay, right side first ♪

Alexander: Gah.......

Leo: *gulp* ….You have such amazing muscles. 

Alexander: Huh? …Hey, cut it out! 

Leo: Woah! And here too! It’s so thick! But… it’s a bit softer than I thought it would be… 

Alexander: H.. Hey! Don’t just start touching me like that….! 

Leo: You’re just so cool! Ah, your muscles over here are impressive too! They are so toned….

Alexander: ?!?!?!?! 

Yu: Ohhh? Leo is like a fearless animal trainer taming a wild beast....

(And so, thanks to Leo Alexander and Taiga’s clothing was fixed.)

Cameraman: Next up is Taiga Kougami and Alexander Yamato! The two street-style stars. I’ll be taking your photos today! 

Yu: Well, somehow it looks like things are gonna turn out alright. (To think those two would actually calm down. Leo is really something else.)

Leo: Taiga-kun and Yamato-san look so intense when they are together! They are so cool! ♪

Yu: You’re pretty intense yourself, Leo. 

Shin: Taiga-kun and Alexander-kun really do look so cool! They can really strike a pose.... I hope I can look that cool someday! 

Louis: I don’t know about that. 

Shin: *thump* O... Oh.... I guess you’re right....

Louis: Eheh I was just joking. 

I like you just the way you are. 

Cameraman: Okay! That’s it! You got it! Alright, next I’d like you to look off into the distance, could you give it a try? Yeah, that’s right! Alright, keep it up! I think we’ve really captured the passion of the street! Good stuff! Keep it coming! 

Yu: Passion, he says.... It looks more like they could explode at any moment....

Camerman: Ah, so cool! This is the best! Next, can you make eye contact with each other?

Alexander: .....Ugh! 

Taiga: ....Hmph!

Leo: *INTENSE STARE*

Alexander: .....

Taiga: .....

Yu: .... (Leo, thanks a bunch.)

Leo: Ehehe. They’re getting along so well. ♪

Cameraman: Next, how about you pose as if you’re doing a prism jump?

Taiga&Alec: !?

Taiga: A prism... jump....

Alexander: Heh heh. Now that’s more like it.... 

Taiga: Yeah... But.... do you know what posing like you’re doing a prism jump is supposed to mean...? 

Alexander: ....No, no idea. Why don’t we just do it for real then? How about it, Taiga Kougami?

Louis: ....... Those two are really good friends, aren’t they?

Shin: U... Um.... 

Yu: Hey. You guys.....

Leo: Whawhaaa!? They aren’t really gonna--

Yu: H-hey. You aren’t really thinking of performing a prism show right here, are you!?

Taiga: Well, we might as well. They told us to pose like we’re doing prism jumps after all. 

Yu: It’s not supposed to be for real---

Cameraman: Nah, that would be amazing! The best! To think I’ll get to see a passionate street battle right before my own eyes! As soon as you hear the sound of the camera shutter don’t hold anything back! 

Taiga: ...You see. 

Alexander: You’re happy now but you’re going to be crying in a minute! 

Taiga: Oh shut up! Let’s get this started already! 

Shin: Wow, here they go!

Leo: Since this is a studio where you can perform prism shows they even have a scoring system installed. 

Yu: D... Do you think the studio will hold up...? 

Alexander: IT’S ON NOW! HUAH!

Sonic Spiral! 

Taiga: Here I go! HUAAAH!

Full Speed Spiral! 

Yu: It... It’s a full on battle...

Camera man: Amazing! Amazing! This is the best! 

Leo: Their auras are clashing together! They are gonna send each other flying...! 

Shin: Taiga-kun and Alexander-kun have both leveled up their jumps since the Prism King Cup! 

Louis: Wow... You can really feel their passion....

Taiga: TAKE THIIIIS!

Alexander: HUAAAAH! 

Yu: And the score is...

Shin: It’s a draw!

Taiga: *panting* ...Hmph....

Alexander: *panting* ... I guess you... aren’t a total loser...... Ugh! Well, I’ll let you off easy this time.

Taiga: What? That’s my line. 

Taiga&Alec: HMPH!

Leo: H.... hey wait you two! We still have a TV program to film after this.... 

Louis: They left. 

Cameraman: Amazing! Amazing! This is the best! These photos will be leaping off the pages! This raw energy! Passion! The fire of the prism show burns in my artistry! In my 40 years as a photographer I never thought the day would come when I would capture photos like these....! 

Yu: ....That guy’s really into it. 

Leo: Well, it seems like they did a pretty god job after all.

Shin: .......

(After filming, the Edel Rose students minus Taiga headed to the next studio.)

Leo: Phew.... the photo shoot is finally behind us!

Yu: Everything worked out in the end, I guess... Well! Finally it’s time for the “Let’s Play With Naru-chan New School Year Special” recording! Okay guys, remember “Let’s Play with Naru-chan” is Naru’s pet project that she works really hard on. If you can’t keep it together, you’ll never hear the end of it from me. 

Shin: Don’t worry, we’ll do our best!

Leo: Leave it to us! We’ll make it the best show ever! 

Yu: That’s the spirit! (Ehehe. Just you watch. I get to show off how much I’ve grown.)

Shin:  ….. (Taiga-kun and Alexander-kun have really leveled up since the Prism King cup… And it hasn’t even been a month yet! I wonder if I can ever catch up to them…)

(At the recording of the “Let’s Play With Naru-chan New School Year Special.)

Leo: Huh? Taiga-kun and Yamato-san, you’re already here?

Alexander: .......

Taiga: .....Hmph. Why do I have to deal with you again......

Kazuki: Hey! It looks like you’re all here! Let’s all have fun today!

Alexander: Kazuki Nishina!? What are you doing here....

Louis: He wasn’t at the photo shoot, but he’ll be doing the show with us?

Shin: Ah, Kazuki-san is--

Taiga: Kazuki-san is a regular on this show!

Leo: He’s super popular as the “Dancing Uncle”!

Louis: Oh really…

Alexander: Hey, Kazuki Nishina! Let’s have a showdown!

Kazuki: Yeah! Let’s do it up together! I’m counting on you to make this a great show today, Alec!

Alexander: Dammit! You’re not listening!

Kazuki: Hey everyone, let’s just relax and have a good time today! I’ll do my best to help you guys out in any way I can!

Taiga: Right on! And I’ll do my best not to hold you back!

Alexander: …Ug…

Shin: (Kazuki-san is so cool.... But I’m a senior high school student now. So I’ve got to step up my game like him!)

Kazuki: Oh yeah, and last on the program for today Shin’s going to do a prism show, right?

Shin: Ah, yeah…

Leo: Whaaaa?

Louis: Oh really!

Yu: Since when?!

Alexander: What are you talking about!

Taiga: Kazuki-san, why Shin….?

Kazuki: Hm? Oh... We did a survey a little while back called “Which prism star do you want to see do a show the most?” and Shin was number 1! So the producer gave him the offer.  

Everyone: (When did that happen....!)

Taiga: (I wanted to perform on Kazuki-san’s show too...)

Alexander: (That damn Shin Ichijo! That damn Kazuki Nishina!)

Yu: (To think he actually gets to perform a prism show on Naru’s program...)

Shin: Wha... why is everyone looking at me like that....

Louis: I can’t wait to see your prism show, Shin!

Leo: Me neither! Shin, do you best! 

Shin: Y-Yeah. I will. Thank you.

Kazuki: It’s Shin’s turn this time. But you never know, one of you guys may get an offer next time. As long as you’re up for the challenge, many other chances will be waiting for you! Now do your best everyone! I’ll be rooting for you. Of course I’ll be putting my best performance out there too, though. 

Taiga: Okay! I’ll give it all I got!! 

(As so filming continued without a hitch and they finally reached the last segment...)

Children: When’s the prism show? I can’t wait! I’m so excited! 

Shin: Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh calm down deep breaths.... *gasp* 

(Okay! Let’s do this....!)

Kazuki: Okay everyone! Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for! It’s time for the prism show! Today big brother Shin’s gonna show all you guys a shining, shimmering show! 

Children: Yaaaay! Big brother Shin! 

Kazuki: Well, here we go! You all know this one, don’t you? “Heart Iro Tori Dream”! Make sure you all sing along and have fun, OK!

Children: Yaaaaay! Happy-Naru! 

Shin: (Alright... here goes nothing!) Shin Ichijo, here I go! 

♪~ ♪~

Leo: Oh, this is a song that Kouji wrote, right? It’s such a great song….

Yu: …..

Children: Happy Happy Happy Naru….  ♪

Shin: (Wo… Woah..! When I am dancing to this song, I feel like I’m floating on air! And the children are smiling more and more!) And on top of that, this song… feels like it’s just overflowing with so many dreams…

Alexander: .....!

Louis: ........

Shin:  (To think my show can make everyone smile this much… Oh yeah, I remember now. The whole reason I started liking prism shows in the first place is because they can make people smile. From now on I want to keep doing more and more prism shows that can make everyone smile!)

(Shin’s show was a great success! The recording ended with everyone in very high spirits.)

Shin: Thank you so much!

Louis: Shin.

Shin: Ah, Louis!

Louis: That was such a wonderful show.... It made me feel so Happy-Naru!

Shin: Eheh. Thank you!

Louis: No problem.... And thank you too.

Shin: (Something seems different about Louis for some reason....?)

Louis: ......

Shin: (He enjoyed my show didn’t he? Hehe, that makes me happy.)

Kazuki: Great work, Shin! That prism show just now... it was so passionate! Becoming a senior high student really made you level up your charm even more, didn’t it?

Shin: Really .... !? All right.... !!

Yu: ...... (Well, I guess admitting the strength of your rival is an important part of growing up too.) I’m a bit jealous, but I think your show was really great. I’ll be the one performing next time, though!

Leo: Shin-kun, great work! While you were doing your show, it looked like you were shining so brightly!

Taiga: ...... Yeah, it wasn’t half bad.

Shin: Everyone......! Thank you!! 

(I wonder if I’ve grown as much as everyone else has....! I have to keep on doing my best!)

(And so, when the boys returned to the dorm....)

Hiro: Good work, guys! Welcome home!

Shin: Whaaa! Hiro-san!? And Kouji-san too!? What are you doing here....?

Kouji: It’s just like we all talked about this morning. We want to celebrate with everyone. So we all prepared in secret. Well, Minato was the real driving force though. Right, Minato?

Minato: Umm... well... I just wanted to make sure we properly celebrated everyone starting the new school year is all.... Eheh...

Kakeru: Oh Minatocchi! You did such a nice thing! Take the compliment!

Hiro: Eheh. We all prepared a meal and waited for you to get home. Now, it’s time for all the guests of honor to take their seats!

Kakeru: And now that we’re all together.... Shin-chawan, how about you make the toast?

Shin: Wha-whaaa!? Umm umm well.... 

A toast! To everyone’s new beginning! Kanpai!

Everyone: Kanpai!

Read more: Waking Up Louis On Your Mark Taiga

Next event: Road to SSS Event 2 Main Story

#prism rush #road to sss #road to sss event 1 #i doubt anyone will notice or care but i did re-write some of the lines from stuff i originally translated #currently i am slightly leaning towards translating a few of the card stories before moving onto road to sss 2 if i do #a lot happened in the card stories too and this event really set the stage for a lot of things #king of prism #kinpri #king of prism shiny seven stars #king of prism sss

[lunawings]

King of Prism SSS Episode 3 commentary (Taiga)

I am SO RELIEVED that this episode is FINALLY out. 

I finally get to show you guys what the inside of my head has been like for two months. 

THE FESTIVAL THAT HAS BEEN INSIDE ME

GET BUCKLED IN

Taiga’s room is divided into half Kazuki worship, half Aomori. Seems about right.

Let me start off by saying it brings me SO MUCH JOY how much Taiga loves Aomori. Aomori is way far removed from Tokyo, on the northernmost tip of the main island, and pretty much in the countryside. I went there 4-5 years ago before King of Prism existed AND I. LOVED. IT. There was a cool breeze even in the brutal Japanese summer, the atmosphere was refreshing and wonderful... and the festival. Two of the biggest things Aomori is known for are apples and, of course, the Nebuta festival which I’m convinced has to be the best festival in all of Japan. Those giant festival floats are just fucking amazing and I will be inter-splicing this post with my travel photos from that time. 

But even so, I’d think a boy at Taiga’s age would still think Tokyo is a lot cooler and want to be in the big city. BUT NO. NOT TAIGA. And since I also CANNOT FUCKING STAND TOKYO either, every time Taiga in this episode says Aomori is better than Tokyo I just want to stand up and be like 

FUCK YEAH IT IS 

Okay moving on, sorry this post is gonna be long enough as it is. 

When I first heard this line I swore it sounded like he was saying something about “Las Vegas” ahah... ha...

I am very happy with this screenshot. 

*ahem* Anyway. I looked up “rassera” ages ago because I had no idea what that was about and apparently it’s a phrase that lost it’s original meaning over time as it got muddled together, and is now only used as a festival chant. It used to mean “bring out the candles” or something?

The “us” in the sub kind of annoys me because Over the Rainbow isn’t a part of Edel Rose anymore but maybe that’s.... just.... meeeeeeeeee..............

I took the night bus from Tokyo to Aomori before. It was 10 or 11 hours. It was... unpleasant.

Old dude club in the back row.

I really wonder what people who have never seen Pride the Hero are gonna think of this exchange. If you have not seen Pride the Hero, sorry to disappoint you(?) but taxi is actually not a metaphor. 

I wonder if Kakeru would have really kept hounding Taiga if he didn’t pay him back. It’s not like Kakeru needs the money. I think it’s more that Taiga just has his pride and wants to do right by Kakeru and not take advantage of him. Or at least I like thinking that way. 

My second favorite line by Taiga in SSS. 

People at the cheering shows are like “Gimme the apron!!”

No, I have no idea why they decided to design Taiga’s cousin(s) to look like Ann and Wakana. 

My third favorite Taiga line in SSS. I just love how perfect the timing is. Taiga just watches everyone walk past him trying to debate if this is really happening or not and then just HOLD ON WAIT--

Behold Yukinojo examining what I think is supposed to be the armor that made Taiga pee his pants in Young of Prism. This is the Easter egg I was talking about. 

I LOVE OZORA. 

Another great thing about SSS is learning how all of the boys have these amazing female characters in their lives. 

The first/only anime reference to Taiga’s distaste for apples. In side material it’s been explained that Taiga can’t stand apples because they are everywhere in Aomori. Even the sound of someone biting into the skin of an apple drives him nuts. Minato has used it as punishment before in Prism Rush. 

People in the theater like to say “Don’t forget the apple!” 

At the midnight showing I think the girl next to me had a brain aneurysm when she saw Wakana here. And I might of as well. 

At this part I always yell “WAKANA DON’T GO!!!!”

Just.... ahhhhhh Taiga being seamlessly inserted in the Rainbow Live continuity like this is just... kjlfjfkljfls.......

Even though I know in the logical part of my brain that Taiga did not exist when Rainbow Live was made, I still kinda want to go back and look for him in the background of that episode anyway. But I hesitate because I know I won’t want to be disappointed with not finding him. 

Still, the idea that Wanana, Ann, and Kazuki all supposedly knew him from way back when is crazy and makes my heart warm. 

(Oh but WAKANAAAAAAA so sad)

So. “Gaudy” huh. We’re goin’ with that huh. HUH. “Gaudy” I know for a fact is the literal translation you get when you look up “charachara” in a Japanese-English dictionary. I have used it too... AS A PLACEHOLDER....................

Seeing this and trying so hard not to FUCKING SCREAM at the midnight showing was a moment for all of us. Taiga.... Taiga.................. Taigaaaaa................. I can’t see this without feeling it travel through every nerve in my body. 

WakanAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Accurate description of summertime in the countryside of Japan. Everyone hangs out and eats copious amounts of fruit probably from a neighbor’s farm. Just go out and walk down the street and you’ll come home with fruit. 

So this is Aomori city, the area not far from the station. When I saw this in the theater I was like, that looks.... kinda familiar. Then the next day I went searching for photos from my sideblog @mdawnjpn and....

I found this and I just immediately started tearing up, like hand over my mouth trying not to cry on the bullet train from Tokyo back to Nagoya during that first weekend. I was there I WAS THERE. 

So I mentioned previously I got to Aomori after a 10 or 11 hour night bus. And I didn’t sleep for almost any of it because I just can’t sleep on buses. And I felt LIKE. DEATH. But I couldn’t find an internet cafe or anywhere to sleep for a while because Aomori city just doesn’t have a lot of things. So I ended up literally just sleeping on a park bench by the ocean for a couple hours. Like around here.

And I remember seeing them starting to set up the festival when I woke up and being like woooah where am I this is amazing. But.. Just like, since Over the Rainbow performs here every year I guess I must have slept through their show. Oh NOOO ahaha

Anyway

And here it is. My number one favorite Taiga line in SSS. Just like the way he says it

OVER THE RAINBOW

THE FUCK IS THAT 

Ohhhh Taiga you’ll know very soon......

Also notice the different colored tie. I wonder if this was his legit school uniform at the time. 

People hold up two concert lights and break them apart when Hiro’s pride is broken in the first movie, and they do the same here.

Oh Taiga...... why is your pain so hilarious.........................

Sometimes I ask myself the same thing.

I love the contrast here between the overly realistic uncomfortable crowd, overenthusiastic Ozora, and poor Taiga. I love it. I LOVE IT. I WAS NOT KIDDING WHEN I SAID EVERY FRAME IN THIS EPISODE IS A FUCKING MASTERPIECE 

It took me two or three viewings to realize that Taiga is actually crying here. Or rather trying really hard not to cry. 

I’m not sure if I’m counting favorite Kazuki lines or not since he doesn’t have a big roll in SSS, but if I am this little “Huuuaah” might be it. 

Poor Kazuki. He does nothing on purpose to incite the storm that has brewed around him with both Taiga and Alexander.

Taiga’s Mom is the fucking best. Like I said, I love SSS for bringing out all these amazing, supportive, strong female characters. Everyone’s Mom is great but Taiga’s Mom might be best Mom. 

Or at least I thought so until I met Alexander’s Mom but the jury is out right now. 

It took me like five viewings to realize their watermelon switched to corn and I laughed way harder than I should have. 

OTSUKARE TAIGA

I loved seeing him be a big brother here eheh. 

Taiga why did you even ask. You know how Edel Rose works.

Shin just looks so happy. He’s a puppy. 

My goal in life is to enjoy everything the way Shin enjoys things.

Yu’s AHHHHH MOOOOUUU in this scene might be my favorite Yu line ahaha. 

I don’t know why, but I the more he whines the more I love him. That’s just how you know Yu is having a good time.

RIGHT

RIGHT

FUCK TOKYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AHHHHH I WANT TO GO BACK TO AOMORI RIGHT NOOOWWWW

I’m like 40% considering going back this summer. 

I live in Aichi not Tokyo by the way so if I don’t fly that’s about UMMM 16 or 17 HOURS ON TWO BUSES BUT

Okay okay okay. So NOW it’s “street style” huh. Well what the fuck was with that whole “Solid Style” thing in episode 1 then? I guess the translator didn’t realize they were literally talking about street dance? Like WHAT? Or did they just forget?

And you know what actually this kinda pisses me off more, because the least they could do is keep it consistent. 

Because now that whole important line where Shin actually explains it for the first time in the main canon MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE ANYMORE 

ALSO

WHY IS ACADEMY CAPITALIZED AND STREET NOT

WHY

FOR FUCKS SAKE IM GONNA K--

Taigaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

(I’m OK now.)

Giving him a shojo reaction here was a choice. They didn’t have to. It was a deliberate choice. To portray Taiga’s feelings for Kazuki. Ahhhhhhhh

So remember when I stayed up translating this all of a sudden after I watched SSS Part 1 for..... reasons..... 

No I do not know why he’s an apple. Well I assume it has to do with the job he’s doing. And I do have a hunch from a creative standpoint but I’ll talk about that later. 

First timers in the theater always be like “R... RINGO..?????”

NO YOUR ASS IS BIG

....Is one of my favorite callouts of this episode. 

AND WHY IS JOJI EVEN IN THE CAR ANYWAY 

At this point during the midnight showing I was like.... is the real villain of SSS just gonna be Joji going around casually inconveniencing everyone? ....I’d watch that. 

This is the storage area near the main festival stage where you can go and see the floats before the festival starts. 

Here’s what it looks like in real life: 

One of the few instances where I can assure you real life is just as good as the anime. 

For people who read my shitty out of context spoiler about how a character beat Louis for the amount of skin showed in a prism show. Wasn’t kidding. 

Tasuku kinda spoiled this outfit in the first day greeting show by saying something like how it was an outfit which fit Taiga’s tastes well (festival wear) and everyone else was like NO STOP--

But yeah. This show. This soonggggg

Taiga’s voice is just SO. BEAUTIFUL. He has my favorite singing voice in all of Edel Rose. 

So after the first weekend I made a post to Tumblr about how I thought I had avoided getting any of the songs in my head, but then a certain one started CREEPIN IN...

IT WAS THIS

Taiga’s song is both the first one to get stuck in my head, and the one that keeps getting stuck in my head the most often to this day.  

I just love how he makes Nebuta floats of all his friends ahhhhhh 

Here are some more photos of the real thing..

It was raining the year I was there, and when it rains they put plastic over them so they look like snowglobes. That’s kinda cool in itself though.

I’ll never forget seeing this for the first time, realizing what was about to happen and being like NO... NO WAY.... IS THIS REAL LIFE NO WAY IS WHAT HDHFKHFDFH;LSFHDLSHFDS 

I’ll never forget it because I basically still feel the same way every time. 

They didn’t have to set this up like a confession scene. But they did. It was a choice.

But during this scene at cheering shows, I am much less concerned with what Taiga was trying to say and much more concerned with prepping blue and green lights for..... 

Words cannot express how happy this made me. If you haven’t picked up on it already Wakana is my favorite girl from RL. MATTE NYAAAAAAAAAA

Oh look here. A GOOD translation for “charachara”. One that I might actually steal from now on. Usually the best I can come up with is “flirty”, “carefree”, or “showy” depending on the situation.

So it seems at this point the translator finally understood what “charachara” actually means in the context of King of Prism. So of course, the logical thing to do here would be to go back and correct the previous wonky line where they used “gaudy” to make it consistent... right.... RIGHT??

Does Crunchyroll actually translate line-by-line as soon as the episode comes out in the hour before they post it? 

They don’t even get any time to edit it?

ARE

YOU

FUCKING

KIDDING ME

I dunno about you but I would wait a few more hours for fucking slightly more decent consistency in the translation BUT MAYBE THATS JUST ME 

OH LORD Kakeru’s episode next week is gonna be A SHITSHOW. 

The sitcom ending to this episode is so dorky but I love it. 

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT

FRAME IT

DIP IT IN COPPER

SEND IT TO SPACE 

DONE 

It was really cool to finally see the details in these festival floats in the ending since they go by so fast in the episode. Shin’s has a rainbow! I wasn’t expecting Masquerade, but I suppose it fits Taiga as well. And it’s not that the Taiga version isn’t good but...  

It’s just that... I.... I want the CD but I..... I already have three different King of Prism covers of it on my phone........... nnnrhg

So. 

I dunno about you guys. 

But basically my interpretation of this episode is that no matter what Taiga says....

Everything he’s done...

It was never about the street style.

It was always

ALWAYS

about Kazuki

And that makes a lot of sense.

Kazuki spends this entire episode being an apple. Taiga hates apples. Kazuki is a personification of something Taiga hates. But it changes nothing. He loves him. HE LOVES HIM. 

I always questioned whether Taiga’s feelings for Kazuki were pure admiration or true love. And now I know the answer. Probably both. 

So this ends what I know to be King of Prism SSS Part 1, as per the theatrical release. 

Next week is Kakeru and also the beginning of what I know as SSS Part 2. 

I don’t want to de-hype you guys that much, but I actually feel the Part 2 episodes are a good deal more low key than Part 1. But then again that doesn’t say that much for the King of Prism standard.  

I have been looking forward to Kakeru’s episode being released with subs for the sole reason of finally being able to clarify a lot of things I didn’t understand about it. But after seeing the subs this week. HMMM. 

#king of prism sss #taiga kougami #king of prism #king of prism shiny seven stars #shiny seven stars #kinpri

[fuckyeahgakuenheaven]

Autumn Fruit (Kazuki x Keita)

Here’s the translation I mentioned back on Kazuki’s birthday! A little late, but the story ended up being longer than we originally thought. And then, uh, I kept forgetting to edit it, haha... :3

This story was a bonus that came printed on inserts with the third Gakuen Heaven trading card set. Each main character has a story, and they all come in multiple parts, so collecting all of them was a difficult task. Fortunately, the full versions of each story could also be obtained as part of the mail-in bonus for the set, so as long as you collected enough points, you could get them all without buying a million packs. :D

(this picture isn’t part of the story, but it’s nice so here it is)

Autumn Fruit

Sunday evening. Kazuki and I didn't have anything to do, and we had spent the day relaxing together.

I guess Kazuki had times when he wanted to be friends and when he didn't. There were times we chatted idly and laughed as we talked about silly things like normal friends. It was the same even when we were alone. At those times Kazuki wasn't the director of Bell Liberty School or the head of the Bell Research Lab, he appeared to simply be a normal student my age. In fact, he didn't even seem like my dearest lover, he really just seemed like were only friends.

But such times didn't last very long. Especially when we were alone together. Usually, it was like some switch got flipped... and his face became that of my lover. At those times, Kazuki wasn't my usual cheerful, friendly classmate. He had something like an adult aura, or like a sexiness that made me blush... Anyway, he oozed that, and seeing Kazuki like that made my heart pound. I was overwhelmed by his aura and felt like Kazuki could do anything he wanted to me while my mind went blank.

~~~

At the moment, the situation was definitely leading to a time like that.

I was sitting on the bed with my legs stretched out and my back leaning against the wall, and Kazuki was sprawled right next to me with his knees bent. We were both comfortably reading magazines.

I thought it was probably Kazuki who spoke first.

"This would look good on you, wouldn't it?"

Kazuki flopped over onto his stomach, pointing at a picture of a sweater. He repositioned himself and placed his head on my thigh.

The feeling of Kazuki's weight and warmth through my pants made my heart pound, but I pretended not to notice and took the magazine.

"Oh, that might be cool."

I gave a response, but I was paying attention to the feel of Kazuki on my thigh and wasn't really looking at the magazine. Right when I had managed to calm my breathing and keep myself from getting too excited, Kazuki suddenly wrapped his arms around my hips.

"It's so nice having my head in your lap."

I had the feeling Kazuki's voice was getting oddly seductive. With my hips being embraced like that, I was unable to move.

I gently petted his hair and Kazuki raised his head, turning to me with a gentle look. Slowly, Kazuki's hand reached toward my neck, and the moment we were in position for a kiss, two knocks came from the door.

Kazuki and I sprang up at the sound and stared at the door. The person who had knocked appeared at the opened door. It was Shinomiya-san.

"Ito, it seems there's a delivery for you. Come pick it up, it's in the lobby."

"R, right..." we both answered, and I thought there was no way we hadn't broken out in a strange sweat. Flusteredly, Kazuki sat on the floor right next to the bed and I could feel the extreme tension coming off him. But Shinomiya-san left without noticing any of that. Spirits utterly dampened, we headed to the lobby in silence.

There was a single cardboard box sitting in a corner of the lobby. It was about the size of a box of oranges. My mom was the sender, and the item description was written as 'fruit, etc.'

Anyway, I opened the box and it was packed with pears and apples. There was also a bag with five oranges and a new shirt tucked between layers of packing material.

"Hey, Kazuki. Do you want to eat these with me right now?"

"Right now?"

"It's almost time for dinner, but now that I see them, I want to eat these... Should we?"

And so we snuck into the cafeteria kitchen.

~~~

Since it was Sunday evening, of course the cafeteria was already closed. We quickly unlocked the door and went inside before any other students saw us. The normally bustling cafeteria was now deserted and was it kind of a little scary. But thinking that I had Kazuki with me drove away those feelings.

The kitchen used to make lunch for all the students at BL School was expansive, with rows of sparkling counters. Kazuki got out the knives while I took the fruit out of the box.

"Wow, so they even have stuff like this," Kazuki commented as he arranged the knives. "A paring knife, a melon baller. There's even a carving knife."

I didn't know the types of fruit knives at all, so I was honestly impressed by Kazuki's knowledge. I'd probably share with everyone later, but since it was fruit sent specially by my mother, I wanted Kazuki to eat it first. Eager for that, I picked up the paring knife, which looked the easiest to use.

But, it was pretty... tough. The knife was small and it took a long time to cut a pear in half, and when I tried to peel it, lots of the fruit came off too.

Kazuki couldn't just watch as I grappled with the fruit and reached out. "Give me that. You'll get hurt doing it like that."

I was frustrated I couldn't do it very well, but I handed the pear and the knife to Kazuki as I was told.

"This is how you use this knife," Kazuki said and deftly began to peel. I was surprised as I watched his hands.

Kazuki, being able to peel something that well is cheating...

He was done in a flash and the peels were thin and uniform, way more beautiful than what I had peeled. "Whaaa!? Kazuki, how'd you get so good at that!?"

Kazuki smiled a little proudly at my outburst. "I'm good with my hands, you should know that."

"I do know that, but... You're not just good at knitting, you're good at cooking too." I spoke, impressed, but he laughed and disagreed.

"That's not true. All I can do is peel fruit, I can't make elaborate meals."

Chatting happily, he peeled a nearby apple. He cut it into six equal slices and made rabbits, finishing them off by etching a leaf pattern along the edge of the red skin using the thin-edged knife he'd called a carving knife.

"Kazuki... Where did you learn to do something like that...?"

"I just learned by watching. Look, I can do this too."

This time I was even more surprised. That Kazuki... he even made a rose, using an entire red apple. "Uwah, I've never seen anything like that..."

"Really? I guess I've seen them as decorations a lot at parties and stuff."

While I was little shocked at how casually he said that, I popped a piece left over from carving the apple in my mouth.

"Hey now, Keita. Don't eat the waste. There's properly peeled pieces right here, eat them."

With a wry smile, he held out a piece of apple that was shaped like a leaf. It was right at my mouth. Did that mean... he wanted to feed it to me, I guessed?

"Keita, say ah."

Tempted by the apple right in front of my eyes, I decided to go for it and opened my mouth, biting into the offered apple. "Mmm, it's delicious!"

"I know, right?"

In return, I also offered Kazuki my badly peeled pear. "Then, here's from me. I suck, so I can't guarantee it tastes good."

"Mm. It's good," Kazuki said, beaming. But... after all, since I had been bad at peeling, a piece of peel was kind of stuck on the side of Kazuki's mouth.

"...Kazuki." I was going to tell him, but both of Kazuki's hands were occupied with the fruit and knife. So I gingerly reached out and plucked it off with my fingertips. Then...

"Oh, Keita. You're supposed to remove that sort of thing with your lips. And it was just feeling like a newlyweds' kitchen too."

"Kazuki! Idiot, what are you saying!!?" I automatically shouted to try and hide my embarrassment, but Kazuki smiled like nothing had happened and muttered.

"This is really nice."

For an instant, I didn't know how to respond to his sudden words. "Huh?"

"I mean, being like this, cooking with someone, eating together."

"That's normal, isn't it?" The words somehow popped out of my mouth, but I regretted it immediately and wished I hadn't said them. It must have shown on my face.

Kazuki smiled, looking a little upset, and turned back to the apples. In the quiet kitchen, the scraping sound of the apple being peeled sounded awfully loud. "I guess that's how it was at your house. But for me, how should I put it? There was always someone around, but it wasn't quite the same as the family all gathered in the kitchen making food..."

Kazuki didn't talk much about his home and parents. I talked about my family a lot, and he always just listened happily. I had become vaguely aware of why he did that. So until now, I had tried not to ask Kazuki about it.

Kazuki finished peeling a third apple and glanced at me as he put what had become the tenth rabbit on the plate. "When I was little, there were times I found that lonely, but of course I don't feel that way anymore."

"I... see..."

"And I have you with me now."

So saying, Kazuki smiled gently at me. Was... he trying to be nice to me? Kazuki was being considerate of me even while having a conversation like this and I felt that he really was an adult. I was still a kid compared to Kazuki.

"I can do this at least, anytime from now on."

Kazuki said, that's right, and smiled, holding out an apple rabbit in front of my eyes. "Say ah."

I reflexively bit into the tail of the apple rabbit and the sweet tart flavor spread in my mouth. Kazuki watched me as I chewed, making a crunching sound, and bit into the other end of the same piece of apple. With both of us biting the same slice of apple from both ends, when we both swallowed at the same time, Kazuki hugged me. He gently caught my chin with his fingers that still had apple juice on them, and pulling my face close, brought his lips to my ear and murmurmed sweetly.

"After the apples, I want to eat you..."

Murmuring something like that and in that voice, I... how should I respond!? Heat suddenly spread from my ears over my face and neck. As I stood, flustered and incoherent, Kazuki pressed his lips to mine. Kazuki's tongue wrapped around mine, which still had sweet pieces on it. He chased the fruit pressed between our tongues as if he wanted to sweep it away, delving gently inside my mouth.

The strength left my legs as the smacking sound of saliva rang out. Kazuki's hand supported my collapsing body. I also desperately supported my own body by grasping Kazuki's shirt with both hands, but I couldn't brace myself properly and nearly sank to the floor. His twining tongue exhaustively licked mine and finally Kazuki's lips moved away, taking with them the pieces sucked dry of fruit juice.

I finally sank to the floor, shoulders heaving with my breaths. Kazuki's hands enveloped my cheeks and he tilted my face up, pressing our lips together again. This time, it was a little rough as Kazuki licked around inside my mouth. There was still some sweetness from the apple left in his mouth and I savored that and the pleasure that almost made me shiver. It was too intense, I felt like Kazuki really might eat me up, but I didn't mind... uh-uh. I actually wanted him to do it.

When we reluctantly parted from the kiss, a thread of saliva stretching between us, I... was sure I had a really embarrassing expression. Kazuki peered at me close up, and this time kissed my cheeks and eyelids. For a while, he continued his kisses that were just touching and traced from my cheeks to my chin with his whole palms. The feel of his hands wet with fruit juice was nice and I kept meeting his kisses, entranced.

Kazuki... I love you. I really love you... I really love you, Kazuki, I repeated over and over in my heart...

When I came back to myself, my arms were wrapped around Kazuki's neck and I was lost in a deep kiss. The long, long kiss ended and Kazuki leaned my head against his chest and stroked my back while I stayed embracing Kazuki as I had the whole time. It was like that during our first kiss too, but this time, I was more out of breath and my heart more full of emotion. It was all I could do to calm my breathing while holding Kazuki.

Kazuki's lips touched my earlobe. He just touched and hot breath blew into my ear with a whisper.

"I love you, Keita..."

Wait... Uwah. That was no fair... I had wanted to say it, but Kazuki said it to me first.

"K, Kazuki..."

"Hm?"

I... was really excited. I kissed him over and over and even if I hadn't, my pulse had sped up, enough that he could probably clearly hear the pounding of my heart. Kazuki looked down at me with a relaxed smile, as if he had expected my reaction, at a loss for words. It wasn't the face of a classmate, but an adult... a mature man's face.

Seeing that smile made me kind of irritated. But unable to think of any comeback at all, I wrapped both arms around Kazuki's back, burying my face in his chest as I muttered softly.

"Idiot..."

I love you, Keita, he whispered again, but I was already embarrassed and this time I lowered my eyes without saying anything.

~ The End ~

#gakuen heaven #gh translation #endo kazuki #ito keita #ps: i'll respond to the kiss meme prompts this week! :D

[heroes-hq-blog1]

pinned on bulletin boards across campus are GROUPING LISTS for SAVE THE CITIZEN. students flock to see who they’ve been matched up with. did you see your name yet?

GROUP A (MONDAY)

HERO MOON SORI / ”CHERRYBOMB“ & HERO SUPPORT CHOI BEOMSEOK / ”BULLDOZE“ VS VILLAINS YANG KANDA / “VISIO” & JANG YEEUN / “KIN”

GROUP B (MONDAY)

HERO LEE KINAM / ”MONOLITH“ & HERO SUPPORT DABIRI ADAM / “WEBSLINGER” & OLIVIA MILLER / “BLACKOUT” VS VILLAINS PARK JIHYUN / ”NOFACE“ & KAZUKI RYUJIN / “13“ 

GROUP C (MONDAY)

HERO ONG JAEHYUN / “AVATAR” & HERO SUPPORT SUN ZUNXIAN / ”GAMBIT“ VS VILLAINS KANG AHRI / “RUBY“ & NAM JUNGWOO / “QUICKSILVER”

GROUP D (MONDAY)

HERO ASTRALIS OS'HE SOSTRARA / “TAROT“  & HERO SUPPORT NAM HYUNGTAE / “CALICO” VS VILLAINS NISHIMOTO SAYAKA / “GUMMY” & HUANG EZRA / “ECHO” 

GROUP E (TUESDAY)

HERO KIM JINSIL / “SIPHON” & HERO SUPPORT LEE SOYOUNG / “RECALL“ VS VILLAINS SONG SIWOO / ”DURESS“ & KO HOJUN / ”BEAST BOY“

GROUP F (TUESDAY)

HERO HEO TAOHAN / ”ETO“ & HERO SUPPORT HAN YEOL / “THE BINARY”  VS VILLAINS JO MINHO / ”REAPER“ & KIM HYEONSU / “BIOTIC”

GROUP G (TUESDAY)

HERO TAKANASHI KIYOJI / “MIMESIS”  & HERO SUPPORT HAN GABRIEL / “BRIAR” VS VILLAINS MIN HYUNSIK / “FANG” & NAM JINYANG / “SOL”

GROUP H (TUESDAY)

HERO KIM JUMI / ”NIX“ & HERO SUPPORT AHN SUNGJIN / ”SPECTRE“ VS VILLAINS NAM SUYEONG / “SIREN” & NOH JINHO / “ANVIL”

GROUP I (THURSDAY)

HERO JUNG YURA / ”VOLTAGE“ & HERO SUPPORT CHA HANEUL / “MEDIUM”  VS VILLAINS CHEN XIA / “YUDI” & MOON AREUM / “FATALE”

GROUP J (THURSDAY)

HERO KO MONE / ”STELLA“  & HERO SUPPORT MOON HANBYUL / ”JERICHO“  VS VILLAINS IM SURA/LILITH / “NOX”  & MIN HAJIN / “COPYCAT”

GROUP K (FRIDAY)

HERO RYU JOOHYUK / “ASH” & HERO SUPPORT HYUN HABAEK / “GREYWARREN”  VS VILLAINS KWON DABIN / “DELTA” & HASEKURA RIE / “ROSE QUEEN”

GROUP L (FRIDAY)

HERO SAKURAZUKA SHINN / ”ZERO“ & HERO SUPPORT YOO INGYI / ”PSYREN“ VS VILLAINS KANG JISOO / ”HELLION“ & CHAE HOON / “MOB”

GROUP M (SATURDAY)

HERO RYU EUNYEONG / ”VOID“  & HERO SUPPORT GOO BYUNGJAE / ”CREED“ VS VILLAINS CHOI JENO / “JINX” & VALENTINE YU / “VEIN”

GROUP N (SATURDAY)

HERO MOON TAESEOK / “AION” & HERO SUPPORT SONG DAEHYUN / ”PLAGUE“  VS VILLAINS CHOI JUNGHA / “JANE” & CHAE HYUNJIN / “MAYHEM”

GROUP O (SATURDAY)

HERO OH CHAERI / “CHEVY” & HERO SUPPORT OH SEUNGHO / ”HELIOS“ VS VILLAINS  SAKURADA RINA / “PIXIE” & YAMASHITA ERINA / “OFFSET” 

GROUP P (SATURDAY)

HERO CHEN KAN / ”YANWANG“  & HERO SUPPORT SEO JIAE / ”BLINK“ & YOO YONGIL / “AD HOC” VS VILLAINS VARI TYRSON / “MARS” & RYU YENA / “MISTY”

GROUP Q (MONDAY)

HERO YOO DAESOL / “GENESIS”  & HERO SUPPORT EDOGAWA SEIJI / ”ARDEM“ VS VILLAINS JUN JINA / “MALICE” & TAKANASHI SORA / “JABBERWOCK”

GROUP R (MONDAY)

HERO HAN SAEJONG / “ARSENAL” & HERO SUPPORT NONE VS VILLAINS IM HAERA / “SOTERIA” & WANG XIAOYE / “FALCO”

*THIS LIST WILL BE UPDATED WITH NEW GROUPS THROUGHOUT THE DURATION OF THE EVENT TO ACCOMMODATE NEW PLAYERS. READ THE MECHANICS BELOW THE CUT BEFORE REPLYING TO THIS POST!

MECHANICS!

here are the groups for save the citizen. after plotting with your group, you can go about this event any way you want; you can plan the fight and write solos where the same things happen from different points of view, or you can write a thread/threads the ol’ fashioned way. though everyone’s name is listed here, you are not required to write for this event, but at the very least, plot with your groupmates! in the event that someone in your group is inactive or unresponsive to plotting, you are free to proceed without them and headcanon their actions after 48 hours of waiting for a response.

HOW IT WORKS! the match’s heroes and villains are announced through the speaker, their faces appearing on the screen. the players, wearing sleek black long-sleeved uniform jumpsuits that are designed to act like armor, are escorted into the arena, then the doors are closed. minute one: the game starts. the referee, a professor or staff member sitting on an elevated platform on one side of the field, blows the whistle and the mannequin chants “save me! save me!” heroes and villains are free to start going about the match any way they want. they can use their powers however they want. (of course, the referee will issue warnings or stop the match if things escalate too much.) minute two: the mannequin drops two feet closer to the incinerator and chants “save me! save me!” minute three: the mannequin drops two feet closer to the incinerator and chants “save me! save me!”  the game ends when the heroes save the citizen at any point in the game, or when the citizen is incinerated after minute three. it is also possible for the game to end if the judge stops it on account of someone being seriously injured. a whistle is blown to signal the end of the game. the referee announces whether heroes or villains won. the players are escorted out, then the field is prepared for the next match.

WHO WINS? either the group or the main blog can determine the winner of the match. if you want to decide among yourselves, reply to this post with your group and your selected winner (ex. GROUP B, HEROES WIN). if you want the main blog to decide for you, reply to this post with your group and ‘undecided’ (ex. GROUP A, UNDECIDED). if you choose to do this, the main will contact a member of your group and tell them who wins so you can plot accordingly. ONLY ONE MEMBER PER GROUP SHOULD COMMENT!

REMEMBER TO REPLY TO THIS POST WITH YOUR SELECTED WINNER  BEFORE WRITING ABOUT THE MATCHES.

tag event related threads #hq:stcz.

in rp time, the event lasts for a week, but in real time, this event will run from may 18 kst until may 30 kst, which means you can no longer start event related threads after may 30.

have fun! if you have any questions, send them to the main blog.

#hq:stcz

[geekybiologist]

Okay let me make a more coherent post about the Massara CM

First of all, Enta’s the one who we see the most of in it. I think that’s really interesting and at the same time I’m super happy seeing him in an active role. I like seeing all those expressions on him and I love that he doesn’t seem to be as happy go lucky naive as the Tsunagaru PV made him seem. Not that there’s anything wrong with that type of character, or that it would have been his only personality trait (I think everyone’s guess was that he’d be carrying some dark secrets and worries in typical Ikuhara fashion), but I definitely think I’ll enjoy this character more. I wasn’t super interested in him before so this is definitely a highlight for me.

Now let’s proceed chronologically. 

First we see the three boys as kappa. They make weird poses that I don’t recognize, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were taken from somewhere. They sparkle because that’s an important part of any Ikuhara anime. The backgrounds have traditional Japanese motifs, which I think suit both the setting that’s Asakusa and the kappa mythology. The traditional Japanese vibe was present in the key visual as well, it’s something Sarazanmai wants to play up. 

Since these are the only appearances of the kappa forms and the rest of the CM shows us the boys looking human, I once again wonder how this whole “got turned into kappa” thing will work out. Can they transform at will or under certain circumstances? Are all these shots from before they get transformed? Do they transform back quickly, or at least regain their human form while still being partly kappa?

Next up Kazuki makes some interesting fashion choices and Enta’s wearing a soccer shirt with the ア logo, because of course it has to be everywhere. The background art seems really colourful and pretty! This is so nice to look at and although I loved the innovative use of live action footage in the Tsunagaru PV I enjoy getting a better idea of how the actual anime will look like here. 

Then we get our first animated closeup of Sara who’s adorable! Then some more Enta running. Then we have Keppi doze off and not come across as the antagonist at all. I don’t know what to think anymore. Is he on the boys’ side or not? Is he a silly comic relief character who sometimes kinda helps them out? Despite also stealing their shirikodama in a kinda painful kinda pleasurable way?? Why aren’t the zombies shown? I get the feeling that they’re not really that relevant/present after all... 

Then one of the highlights is the introduction of a new character, Tooi’s brother Chikai. The resemblance is definitely there as he draws a blade the same way Tooi did in the Tsunagaru PV. I wonder what their relationship is like? Apparently they don’t live together, and Chikai seems to be working some shady jobs. Despite that I get the feeling that Tooi might be looking up to him? Or maybe it’s just that they have the same tough background that gives both of them the same mannerisms.

To make sure that Sarazanmai with all it’s (forgotten) zombies and shirikodama stealing business doesn’t get too dark, we have a shot of Tooi and Kazuki kinda chill and silly looking, although I have to add that the knife cutting vegetables and moving over Tooi when it does so might symbolize something I don’t want to think about right now. Then we get some more Enta, this time being aggressive with Tooi, who I have to say comes across more passive in this video than in the last.

Then it’s time for another of my highlights, which is of course a split second of Mabu and Reo. They don’t really do anything we haven’t seen them do before and remain as mysterious as ever. That close-up of Mabu’s eye is alarming though, so sinister. Then we get even more Enta! This time he’s rushing somewhere, grabbing a shirt that could be his, or maybe Kazuki’s since they used to play soccer together. 

In true Ikuhara fashion the character animation portion ends with hands trying to grab on to each other but failing. This time around we have three hands, one boy trying to hold on to the other two, I presume. 

Then the CM gets interesting. 

There’s the ア logo again, pink, black and white like in the Tsunagaru PV announcements, with the same “ 欲望 /CHARGE” border that we saw in the teaser PV’s. The background has been changed to purple. It’s not quite Sara’s image colour as hers is more pink, so I think I’ll associate it with the zombies instead. Some weird red contours of what looks like technical imagery flashes on the screen. Also slightly reminiscent of the red that’s used for the zombie design. Maybe.

The next image is of the otter symbol, turquoise and black, rather than a solid colour like we’ve seen before. It also has the “ 欲望 /CHARGE” border around it on top of a pale greenish grey background that doesn’t match with any of the characters. The image colour they’ve given Chikai is golden brown, so it’s not his even though he was introduced here. There are also turquoise flashes of the same kind of technical imagery as with the ア symbol, that can be barely seen as they’re so quick and faint.

The next shots show us pictograms with humans flashing on screen faster than what can be perceived by the mere eye. I had to slow down the video and then quickly pause it to be able to catch them all. The first one is a ghost, then we have what I think slightly resembles a police officer. It’s a man with a uniform and hat. The third person is a man with a cane. All three people are facing left. Next there’s a woman dressed in pink traditional clothes facing straight ahead. Then a woman in white facing left and a nurse who’s part way facing left. Then there’s a man in what looks like regular clothes, a shirt and a hat and the last pictogram is of a man in blue traditional clothes facing straight ahead. It’s worth noting that all the hairstyles are traditional and not really what you see in today’s Japan, even though you still see traditional clothing and art etc. I wonder if this is to lead us to the past? Also all the pictograms are inside white circles and when you put them together they form a loop, like in the Sarazanmai logo which I think is pretty cool/might be what it’s alluding to! It’s all about connections after all... 

After the slideshow there one slightly terrifying image of different meters and gauges, surrounded by pipes and the 吸 kanji which stand for “suck” or “inhale”. There are a few different ways we can interpret this. Something seems to be getting absorbed, but what? Also, there’s a heart. Is this some kind of “living” machinery?

The final images of the CM show us a circle with an aerial shot of Asakusa in it. There’s a huge growing hole right in the centre of it. The hole is covered by the otter symbol, this time in red and white. A second white circle is getting drawn around the otter symbol, like a timer, also very reminiscent of the teaser PV. While that happens there are some red flashes over the destroyed Asakusa area. The otters are destroying Asakusa? Or is it the zombies, since this red colour and technological imagery is reminding me of them. Are they the same or do they work together? The zombies seem like henchmen to me, but who’s orchestrating all of this? Is this happening on its own/due to specific circumstances or due to someone’s efforts?

As usual the last shot shows us the Sarazanmai logo. This time with the red bridge in the background. We can see some pictogram people on it as well as Kazuki who’s carrying the kappazon box in his hands.

Overall I love the energy and all the information this CM gives us. The song doesn’t stand out too much, but fits really well with all the action that’s shown on screen. I like the combination of funny and silly and bizarre and sinister. It looks super promising and it’s getting me even more excited for Sarazanmai!!

I also have to express my excitement for how they brought back several things from the teaser PVs, it gives me more hope that everything really is connected and relevant.

#sarazanmai #sarazanmai nonsense #sarazanmai meta #my nonsense #long post #i've been procrastinating an essay that should be of this length #it's also about the world getting destroyed but in a slightly different manner

[fenrhi]

Analysis of Fafner The Beyond trailers

AKA Me(TM) screaming in the void (you can blacklist #fafner the beyond if you don’t want to see that)

Background Porn. They weren’t lying when they said this was paradise on Earth, except its not the same island as before but we wont talk about that :) (fuck you exodus). Also theres no way this place can be this beautiful/full of life when Exodus clearly showed this place was a barren wasteland. But i’ll chalk it up to “its been five years and this takes place in the future so tech is more advanced”

also this location:

seems to be the same location as in this pic:

Kazuki and Soushi 2.0 are gonna have meaningful conversations there. Does Soushi 2.0 even remembers Kazuki? The trailer seems to imply he doesn’t, or at least some of his memories are missing. Idk if this rebirth stuff is the same as the rebirth stuff for Tsubaki. Maybe he has a totally new personality, maybe he doesn’t

Anyway....this bitchass really said “You’ve grown up Soushi”. OF COURSE HE GREW UP ITS BEEN FIVE YEARS! WHERE WERE YOU ALL THIS TIME YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF HIM AND YET THIS LINE IMPLIES YOU THREW AWAY YOUR RESPONSABILITIES

*exhales* why are you still alive.....oh wait youre gonna be the bid bad in The Beyond, along with Hester....

New faces here! it’ll be a miracle if they last more than eight episodes, given the fact fafner seems fond of killing charas in the last four minutes of an episode

Twins? The Japanese side of twitter theorized the child with white hair was a boy because he seems to wear the male uniform of Alvis. Twin Cores is a cool concept and I hope they will survive The Beyond pls

And now the juicy part....

first of all: fuck you exodus. I’ll never forgive you for what you did to Yumiko. Second of all, this looks like the realm of the dead, the Other Side so to speak. In the trailers they put a LOT of emphasis on “ano kanata e”, that side, so probably the side of the dead. I mean, this season is literally called THE BEYOND, as in,(in my opinion) beyond life and what lies there. Soushi also talked about “crossing the horizon between existence and nothingness” which further supports my theory. In the pic above, we see people who died: Michio, Yumiko, a long-haired girl who im guessing is Tsubaki and a fourth person I don’t recognize. That being said, I have no idea if this scene is supposed to be an illusion, a flashback or if we’re going to see how the souls of the dead spend their time

then we have this:

A boy (Akira maybe?) looking at the floating lanterns on which are written the names of the people lost in the war. It looks like the lanterns are getting closer to him (a dead person), literally crossing the realm of the living to get to the realm of the dead. In Exodus, its been discussed how the sea connected humans and festum (for example, how the walker type was hiding there the whole time, spying on Alvis) so maybe in The Beyond, the sea will also be a “gateway” between the living and the dead

and THEN we have this

“I’ve been looking forever for you [Soushi]. On that side, lies the place where you should be”

THAT SOUNDS OMINIOUS AS FUCK

Soushi “crossed the horizon” but came back as a baby. Kazuki was supposed to take care of him but disappeared one day and only came back to Soushi 2.0 five years later. My guess is: he “crossed the horizon” too but against his will, and this journey “altered” him. He was assimilated in some way but he still cares a lot about Soushi and came looking for him because he wanted to go to that side with him: the side of nothingness. Soushi died twice because of the festum, but he miraculously came back (the second time as a baby). By all accounts he shouldn’t be on the island, because he belongs to the other side.

I had doubts at first but now im 60% sure Kazuki will fight on the festum’s side in The Beyond, at least at some point if not for the entire season

#long post #soukyuu no fafner #fafner the beyond #my thoughts are very messy..... #beware the typos

[cheriechanstories]

Chapter II.

II.

"Final Field Training"

Previously on "Tale of the Demon Hero":

Rai and the others defeated the 'Black Hound' using the boys' stinky shoes. Kazuki and Kenji were still stuck under the unconscious 'Black Hound'.

 Main Building, Lobby...

"Are you alright Hikaru?" Rai said as she asked Hikaru, who suddenly lie down on the sofa in the Lobby.

"I'm just tired after that incident." Hikaru said as he tossed and turn while lying down on the sofa.

"Thanks to your stinky shoes we saved the Academy." Rai said as she sat on the other end of the sofa.

"Technically, OUR stinky shoes saved the Academy. And because of that our classmates called us the 'Stinky Heroes'." Hikaru said as he grabbed the pillow and threw it on Rai.

"Well at least our plan worked and there are no other casualties besides those five decapitated bodies that were found on the staircase." Rai said as she grabbed the pillow and threw it back to Hikaru.

"I know it's just that I wish we had arrived on the Final floor, maybe we still had the chance to save them." Hikaru sadly said as he hugged and buried his face onto the pillow.

"You mean, YOU had the chance to save them. Do you seriously want to become an 'Imperial Hero'?" Rai said as she asked Hikaru who threw the pillow back to Rai again.

"Of course! I want to become an 'Imperial Hero' that this Kingdom need. I will become the epitome of bravery and awesomeness as I save the Kingdom to those 'Living Fiends'." Hikaru said as he suddenly got up and also sat on the sofa, beside Rai.

"I think that's not the characteristics of an 'Imperial Hero' and if you are going to become one, our Kingdom will be in a great disaster." Rai said as she threw the pillow back to Hikaru.

"How mean! I can also use different weapons other than swords. Then, what should be the characteristics of an 'Imperial Hero'?" Hikaru said as he put back the pillow on the other end of the sofa.

"Uh? An 'Imperial Hero' should be admired because of his selflessness." Rai said, making Hikaru blush.

"Selflessness huh? Now, I get it. Anyway, that's not the real reason why I wanted to become an 'Imperial Hero'." Hikaru said as he pinched Rai's right cheek.

"Then, what is your reason why you wanted to become an 'Imperial Hero'?" Rai said as she asked Hikaru.

"Well, it is because of YO-..." Hikaru said as he was about to give his response to her question but he got interrupted by an Imperial Council member.

"Uh? Are you Rai Akimura and Hikaru Hashimoto?" Hiiro Matsuoka, one of the Council members said as he asked Rai and Hikaru.

"Yes. I am Rai Akimura and he is Hikaru Hashimoto. You are?" Rai said as she asked Hiiro.

"I-I'm sorry, your highness. My friend is just tired hahaha..." Hikaru said as he suddenly grabbed the pillow and shoved it onto Rai's face.

"I understand. You had a long day and I came in here to investigate what just happened today but Mr. Principal asked me to deliver this package to Rai." Hiiro said as his maid placed the carton box on the glass table.

"Thank you, your highness. You didn't have to do that for this girl. Hey Rai, at least say something." Hikaru said as Rai finally shoved the pillow back onto Hikaru's face.

"Thank you, your highness?" Rai said as she picked up the package off the table and Hiiro chuckled, making her blush.

"I am glad to meet you Rai and Hikaru. Ah! I almost forgot. Congratulations Mr. Top 1 Hikaru." Hiiro said as he and his maid walked away.

"Uh? I don't understand,your highness. What are you talking about?" Hikaru said as he and Rai wondered why Hiiro said that.

"Check the announcement board on the Hallway." Hiiro said as he and his maid left the Lobby.

"Announcement Board?" Rai and Hikaru wondered as they looked at each other.

"Let's check it out!" Hikaru cheerfully said as he suddenly jumped off the sofa and ran away.

"Hikaru?! Hey! Wait up!" Rai said as she stood up and walked away, carefully carrying the carton box.

Main Building

Along the Hallway...

"Oh my, what do we have in here?" Kazuki said as he, Kenji and Mayumi arrived in the Hallway and saw some students gathering in front of the Announcement Board.

"Our stinky Heroes have arrived. Make way." Male student #1 said as they all laugh and welcomed Kazuki and the others.

"Ha-ha-ha very funny guys. What are you all looking at?" Mayumi said as she shoved the students away and looked at the Announcement Board.

"The Imperial Council posted the first presenters for the Final Field Training tomorrow. Look! Mayumi you are still on Rank#2." Female student #1 said as she pulled Mayumi towards and started shaking her.

 "Rank#2. Huh?! Again? Who's in Rank #1?" Mayumi said as she yelled out and wondered who is in Rank #1.

"Here he is! Our Top Student, Hikaru!" Male student #2 said as he saw Hikaru and Rai running towards them.

"Hey! Everyone what are you doing in -?" Hikaru said as he and Rai stopped beside Kazuki and Kenji.

"Congratulations Hikaru!" Everyone said as they congratulated Hikaru and started tousling his hair.

"Uh? Thank you everyone." Hikaru cheerfully said as he looked to the Announcement Board and saw his name listed as the Top student of the Imperial Academy.

"Hikaru? I think I've heard that name before...You!" Mayumi said as she wondered, turned around and saw Hikaru being surrounded by their classmates.

"Alright! Thank you...You!" Hikaru said as he looked up and saw Mayumi, looking at him.

"Oh no, this is bad. Mayumi, let's go." Kenji said as he gently grabbed Mayumi's right arm.

"You! You're the one who broke my arrow! Be ready and I'll kick your butt tomorrow." Mayumi said as Kenji gently pulled her away.

"You! You? Yeah, be ready and I'll kick your butt tomorrow too. W-what?" Hikaru said as he blushed while their classmates start laughing.

"Mayumi and Hikaru sitting in the tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Female student #2 said as she teased Hikaru, making him blush.

"What!? We are not-..." Hikaru and Mayumi said as they both blushed, making Rai silently jealous on the other side.

"Uh? Sorry about that. I guess they really hate each other." Kazuki said as he looked at Rai and apologized.

"Don't worry. He is always like that and I am happy for him." Rai sadly said as she looked down on the floor after seeing her rank.

"Rank#7 is not bad. Be proud of yourself." Kazuki said as he pats Rai's head, making her blush.

"Uh? Thank you. Huh?" Rai said, making Kazuki blush. Hikaru suddenly approached Kazuki and pushed him away from her.

"Stay away from her." Hikaru seriously said as Kazuki sighed and walked away.

"Big brother, where are you going?" Kenji said as he and Mayumi saw him walked away.

"Sorry! I have to go to my part time job. See you later." Kazuki said as he suddenly run away.

"Oh? Okay! Be careful big brother." Kenji said as Kazuki left the Hallway.

"I didn't know that he has a part time job." Mayumi said as she looked at Kenji.

"Ah! About that? Well, I just recently found out that he had a part time job. Uh?" Kenji said but Mayumi wasn't paying attention to him.

"You woman. Rank#2 not bad." Hikaru said as he called Mayumi and teased her.

"Woman?! Excuse me, I have a name and remember this, you are going to lose tomorrow." Mayumi seriously said as she smirked.

"Oh? Is that a threat? I'll accept your challenge. Ms. Flat-chested." Hikaru said as he teased Mayumi.

"How dare you say that?! Look at Rai's chest." Kenji said as he tried to defend Mayumi, making her blush.

"Huh? Rai's chest is not – Uh? Oh my, yours is also flat." Hikaru said as he turned around and looked at Rai's chest, making her blush like a red tomato.

"See? Mayumi's chest is just perfect – Ow! Ouch! Why did you do that?"- Kenji said as Mayumi suddenly dragged him out of the crowd and walked away.

"Hey! Where are you going? We're not finishing comparing – Ow! Ouch! Hey! Rai wait for me." – Hikaru said as Rai intentionally stomped on his right foot and walked away from the crowd.

"Poor Hikaru. Anyway, you deserved that." Female student #3 said as the crowd laugh out.

That night....

The Imperial Dormitories are simple but high-class apartment like dormitories complete with home appliances, furniture and etc. and where the students of the Imperial Academy live during the school year. Their stay is funded by the Imperial Council. Dormitory D and C are strictly for females while Buildings B and A are for male students.

Boys' Dormitories,

Inside Kazuki and Kenji's room...

"Kenji...Kenji, wake up." Mayumi said as she slowly woke up beside Kenji on the right side of the bed, still wearing their academy uniforms on.

"Hm? Good morning." Kenji said as he yawned and kissed her forehead.

"You mean 'good evening'. It's already 9 PM. I should get up and prepare our dinner." Mayumi said as she looked at the clock placed on the night stand and went out of the bed.

"I'm not hungry and you can do that later." Kenji said as he suddenly grabbed Mayumi's right arm and pulled her back onto the bed, facing him.

"You are not but I am hungry. So, let me go. Kenji? Is there something wrong?" Mayumi said as she asked Kenji who suddenly caresses her right cheek.

"It's just that – There's nothing to worry about." Kenji sadly said as he yawned and slowly fell asleep.

"Eh? Is that so? Let me guess, you are worried about Kazuki." Mayumi said as she suddenly pinched Kenji's right cheek.

"Ow – Ouch! Okay! Okay! You're right. Yes. I am worried about him. I really hate this feeling that he is keeping secrets from me...I mean from us." Kenji said as he buried his face onto to the pillow.

"Secrets eh? Then, how about us? When are we going to tell him OUR secret?" Mayumi said as she asked Kenji.

"I already told him OUR secret but he just laughed and left." Kenji said as he was forced to make a lie to convince Mayumi.

"Uh? Okay. That's pretty reassuring. I just thought he would understand but – Uh?" Mayumi sadly said as she lies down onto Kenji's chest as Kenji kissed her forehead again.

"That's alright. I am always here for you, no matter what happened." Kenji said as he slowly fell asleep but Mayumi interrupted.

"But I am really hungry. Will you help me prepare our dinner for tonight?" Mayumi said as she pouts, making Kenji blush.

"Okay! Okay! I will help you prepare our dinner. Sheesh!" Kenji said as he removed the covers and went out of the bed.

"Thank you Kenji! Let's go to the kitchen." Mayumi said as she also went out of the bed and run to the kitchen.

"Hey! Wait for me...I'm sorry for lying Mayumi." Kenji said as he whispered to himself.

"I almost forgot Kenji. Here." Mayumi said as she went back inside Kenji's room took something out of her bag and gave it to Kenji.

"Huh? A letter? " Kenji said as he received the letter and wondered who sent the letter to him.

"Hayami asked me to give you that letter. Eh? I wonder if that is a love letter or something else." Mayumi said as tried to hide her jealousy and examined the envelope.

"Someone is being jealous. Aww! That's cute." Kenji said as he pinched Mayumi's cheek, trying to tease her.

"I am not jealous. I am hungry. Let's prepare our dinner." Mayumi said as she stomped her foot and went out Kenji's room.

"Hey! Mayumi wait up!... I will just read this letter later." Kenji said as he put down the letter on his study desk and went out of his room.

Girls' Dormitory

Inside Rai's room...

" 'And then, she died...' Uh! This is wrong!" Rai said as she read the line and crumpled the 30th piece of paper she wasted and threw it on the trash bin beside her study desk.

" Eh? You are still writing your fiction story. That's nice." Hikaru said as he suddenly appeared in Rai's open balcony.

"Eh!? Hikaru!? How did you get up in here!? This is the 4th floor." Rai said as she was surprised to see Hikaru and went out to the balcony.

"I have my ways and here. Let's celebrate our success." Hikaru said as he placed a lunchbox on top of Rai's head.

"A lunchbox? Thank you but I already ate earlier and – What are you doing?!" Rai said as took the lunchbox and suddenly went back inside her room as she saw Hikaru reading her unrevised manuscript.

"Hm? This sentence is grammatically wrong and there are a lot of room for improvement." Hikaru said as he criticized Rai's manuscript and raised it up in the air as Rai put the lunchbox on her study desk and attempted to get her manuscript back.

"Hey! Give it back. I-I am not finish writing it yet. Damn it! Why are you so tall?" Rai shyly said as she was trying to reach for her manuscript.

"Here. So, what happened to the female protagonist?" Hikaru said as he placed the manuscript onto Rai's head and asked her.

" Ow! Uh? The female protagonist wishes to save and send everyone back to their homeland and then... I don't know yet!" Rai said as she panicked and grabbed the manuscript off her head.

"Then, let's first eat so that you can think properly. And page 17 needs a serious editing." Hikaru said as he grabbed the lunchbox off the study table, placed it on the wooden table and sat on the floor

"Editing? I know and I'm on it." Rai said as she carelessly placed the manuscript on her bed and also sat down on the floor, across Hikaru on the wooden table.

"Uh? You still didn't open it." Hikaru said as he opened the lunchbox, noticed the carton box placed on top of the wooden table and grabbed it.

"I didn't. I will open it later and let's eat... Hey! What are you doing?" Rai said as she noticed Hikaru took out his pocket knife and cut the seal off the box.

"Let's see what inside this box...Huh? Feathers?" Hikaru said as he opened the box and took out a bunch of black and white feathers.

"Hey! Hikaru please put it back inside the box." Rai shyly said as she suddenly panicked and tried to reach Hikaru across the table but it is useless.

"Okay. Sheesh! Uh? There are three small, glass bottles of ink?" Hikaru said as he put the feathers back inside the box and took out a glass bottle of black ink.

"Hikaru please be careful. You might split the ink on the table and just put everything back in the box." Rai said as she panicked and tried to reach Hikaru across the table but it is useless.

"Ha! It is useless. You cannot reach me using those short arms." Hikaru said as he put the glass bottle back inside the box, closed it and gave it to Rai.

"I know! But at least I tried... Thank you." Rai said as she grabbed the box and placed it beside her.

"Your parents still support you in your story writing. That's nice." Hikaru said as he picked up the chopsticks and started eating.

"Uh? Well, I am glad to have supportive parents like them. Although, it is really impossible for me to create a unique story, they still encouraged me to continue writing it." Rai said as she also picked up the chopsticks and started eating.

"Eh? All stories are unique no matter how you write or narrate it. But yours has a lot of grammatical errors so -... Hey! Are you listening to me? " Hikaru said as he noticed that Rai was not paying attention to what he is saying.

"Look! There is a letter for you." Rai said as she picked up the box, opened it and saw a white envelope hidden under the glass bottles of ink. Rai took it and gave it to Hikaru.

"A letter? For me? Huh? That's strange. This letter came from my family." Hikaru said as he placed down the chopsticks, opened and read the letter.

"So, what does it say?" Rai said as she wondered and asked Hikaru.

"Well, the letter says, 'How are you, my adorable son? I hope you are doing just fine and I wish you best for your Final Field Training tomorrow. Sadly, we cannot come to attend your event but Papa, Mama, Akari and Mikan always loves you. – Mama. P.S. Be a man and confess your feelings to Ra-...Huh!? From: Papa, Akari and Mikan.' What?!" Hikaru said as he read the content of the letter, suddenly yelled out and started blushing.

"Confess your feelings to whom Hikaru? What happened? Why did you stop reading? " Rai said as she asked Hikaru.

"Ah! It's nothing! I will personally deal this matter with Mikan when we come back home." Hikaru said as he cursed under his breath, grabbed the chopsticks and start eating again.

"Uh? Okay. See! Your parents still love you. Although, they are busy they still found the time to send you that letter." Rai said as she tried to cheer up Hikaru.

"Yeah. I know. I was hoping that they would come tomorrow and watch me defeat that annoying woman." Hikaru said as he put the letter back inside the white envelope.

"Annoying woman? Oh? You mean Mayumi." Rai said as Hikaru got annoyed hearing that name and looked away.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you that page 20 needs some editing too." Hikaru said as he took the broccoli and ate it.

"I know! I know! Let's just eat first." Rai shyly said as she also took the carrot and ate it, making Hikaru chuckle.

In the Matsuoka's Rest House

Inside the Living room...

"Harue is still crying inside her room." Yuki Matsuoka, the second son of the Matsuoka Family, said as he arrived inside the Living room and saw his elder brother Hiiro reading a book on the sofa.

"She got traumatized from what happened to her this afternoon. She and Emi were kidnapped and locked down inside the 'Abandoned Room' by their psychotic classmates who were found decapitated along the stairway. A 'Black Hound' was found in the hallway along with six students who defeated it using their stinky shoes." Hiiro said as he sensed something looking at them outside the window in the Living room.

"Oh? That's why you suddenly left this afternoon. Eh? Hahaha! Stinky shoes? That's weird at the same time pretty amazing." Yuki said as he laughs out loud.

"Don't worry. She will stop crying soon. I just hope that she will be okay before their Final Field Training start tomorrow." Hiiro said as he closed the book.

"She is one of the top students of the Imperial Academy! We should be celebrating but I wonder why she is crying." Yuki said as he wonders and sat on the sofa beside his elder brother.

"I am not crying. Idiot." Harue said as she suddenly appeared inside the living room, still wearing her academy uniform, carrying her white pillow and accompanied by the family maid.

"Harue?! You should probably go back to your room and get some rest." Yuki said as he and Hiiro was surprised to see Harue.

"No! I am going to sleep in here." Harue said as she disobeyed Yuki, sat and eventually lie down on the sofa, hugging her white pillow.

"Harue stop being so stubborn and go back to your room." Yuki said but Harue ignored her and threw her pillow to Yuki's face.

"Alright! You can sleep in here. Yuki please get us some tea and snacks. Ow!" Hiiro said as he asked Yuki who threw Harue's pillow onto his face.

"Okay elder brother. I will be back." Yuki said as he went out of the Living room.

"It's not fair. Why would they kill my pet? He just did his job protecting me from those bullies." Harue said as she cried and grabbed the throw pillow on the sofa and use it to cover her face.

"Harue. I understand how you feel but your pet decapitated five students of the Academy. Based on the initial investigation those students decided to stop and kill before it massacres everyone in the Academy." Hiiro said as Harue just looked at him and cried again.

"Sir Hiiro, we have company. One of the butlers saw them sneaking in the front yard." The family maid said as she reported to Hiiro.

"Company? What does she mean big brother?" Harue said as suddenly got up from the sofa and wondered.

"Okay. I will personally deal with them. Harue, you stay in here and wait for Yuki to come back." Hiiro said as he gave the book and the pillow to Harue and pats her head.

"Okay big brother. I will stay in here." Harue said as Hiiro kissed her forehead and went out of the Living room with the family maid.

"I wonder what is happening." Harue said as she hugged the pillow and slowly fell asleep on the other end of the sofa.

A few minutes later...

"I'm back. Here's your tea and snacks – Eh? Harue?" Yuki said as he went back inside the Living room and placed the silver tray on the glass table and then someone knocked on the door.

"Sir Yuki, I brought Miss Harue's clothes and blanket." The butler said as he went inside the Living room.

"Come in. I told you to go back in your room but you stayed in here and fell asleep." Yuki said as he playfully pokes Harue's right cheek.

"Sir Yuki, where I should I put Miss Harue's – Huh?" The butler said as he asked Yuki as the lights suddenly turned off.

"Uh?! A blackout? I wonder what happened." Yuki said as he wonders as he and the butler heard a loud explosion outside their Rest house.

"Stay in here with Harue. I will just check what is happening outside." Yuki said as he ordered the butler and ran out of the Living room, carrying along his medieval sword.

"Yes, sir Yuki! Please be careful." The butler said as he worried and stood behind the sofa where Harue's sleeping.

Outside the Matsuoka's Rest House

In the Front yard...

10 minutes earlier

"Where are they?" Hiiro said as he and the family maid arrived in the Front yard, followed by two Imperial Soldiers.

"Here he is Master Hiiro. We manage to catch one of them while running in the Front yard." The first guard said as he presented a young man who was tied up and wearing a red mask.

"Eh? I see. Continue finding the second Red Assassin and bring him to me alive." Hiiro said as he ordered the two Imperial Soldiers and family maid.

The 'Red Assassins' is an organization formed by assassins-for-hire who mercilessly assassinate anyone according to their client's wish/request. Most of their Targets come from the Royal families and rich businessmen around Alementalia. Their payment is based upon how powerful/rich the person was (e.g. an abusive shop owner's head costs 9M silver coins /9 silver bars.)

"As you wish Master Hiiro." The two Imperial Soldiers and the family maid said as they immediately left the Front yard.

"Red Assassin? Tell me are you one of the Red Assassins?" The guard said as he asked the young man who just ignored him.

"Perhaps he will answer mine. Why did you come in here?" Hiiro said as he approached and asked the young man who suddenly spit on his right foot.

"Ha! As if I would tell you why." The young man, named Niko, said as he laughed, making the guard angry and almost punched him but Hiiro suddenly interfered.

"Stop it. The Council and I will handle this. Please go back to your station." Hiiro said as he ordered the guard.

"As you wish Master Hiiro." The guard said and then left the Front yard.

"Let me ask you again. Why did you come in here?" Hiiro seriously said as he asked the young man and then draw his medieval long sword out from its scabbard.

"If you kill me, you will never find out why we are here." The young man said as Hiiro cursed under his breath and put his sword back into its scabbard.

"Then tell me why are did you come in here!" Hiiro said as he got pissed off and kicked the young man off the lawn.

"W-we are here to steal the 'Book of Prophecies' which we believed you also have stolen from the Queen's Archives." Niko said as he coughed after he got hit on the tree.

"The 'Book of Prophecies'? How did you know about that?! Answer me!" Hiiro said as he was surprised from what he just heard and again kicked Niko.

The 'Book of Prophecies' is a collection of written prophecies assumed to destroy Alementalia and the second unknown world beyond the Kingdom. One of the most popular and alarming prophecy written in the book is the "Great Collision of the Two Worlds."

"Listen, you are not the only one who interested with the book especially on that specific prophecy and if it was fulfilled, anyone can be the Imperial Ruler of Alementalia." Niko said as he smirked, trying to untie himself.

"You are wrong. I kept the book so that everyone can be safe. If someone fulfilled the prophecy, the entire Kingdom of Alementalia will be destroyed." Hiiro said as he explained but Niko just stared at him.

"You Sir are terrible liar. You stole the book so that YOU can fulfill the prophecy and rule – Uh?!" Niko said as he and Hiiro heard a loud gun shot. Niko suddenly lost his consciousness, fell on the ground and blood covered the green grasses.

"Big brother! Are you alright?" Yuki said as he finally found and run towards Hiiro while carrying his sniper gun and saw the dead Red Assassin lying down under the tree.

"Yuki? Thank you. You saved me. He was about to stab me when we heard that gun shot." Hiiro said as he got afraid and hugged Yuki.

"Of course. I am always here to help you big brother. A Red Assassin? Don't tell me-?" Yuki said as he gently pushed Hiiro away from him.

"Yes. That man came in here to steal the 'Book of Prophecies' and use it on their own selfish ways." Hiiro said they both looked at the dead man under the tree.

"Again!? Why is it they cannot understand your noble cause? Before he got exiled, the former Imperial Prince asked you to keep the book safe so that the Prophecy will not come true or else we are all going to die." Yuki angrily said as he stomped his right foot.

"I know. But the Red Assassins will never stop until they get hold of the book. So I want you to help the others to find the second Red Assassin who still at lose around the Rest House." Hiiro said as he asked Yuki who nodded and ran away.

"Hm? What will I do to you? Ah! I know. You can come out now." Hiiro said as he saw two 'Black Hounds' walked out from the shadows.

'You summoned us.

Master Hiiro'

One of the Black Hounds said as it asked Hiiro who smirked.

"Take this corpse away." Hiiro said as he ordered the two Black Hounds. The two 'Black Hounds' walked towards the corpse, used their mouths to pull it up, took it back in the shadows and disappeared.

"Done. Now I should really get back inside the Rest House and help the others – Huh?! Harue!" Hiiro said as he heard another load explosion coming from the Living room and saw someone jumped out of the glass window and run away.

Back in the Living room...

"Miss Harue you should be sleeping inside your bedroom not in the living room." The first butler said as he sighed while Harue toss and turn over as she sleeps in the sofa.

"You should get out of here – Uh!?" The second butler said as he suddenly slammed the door open but slowly fell on the floor as he got hit by a medieval knife on his nape.

"A Red Assassin?! Who are you? Stay away from Miss Harue." The first butler said as he drew out his pocket knife and stood behind the sofa where Harue was sleeping.

The second Red Assassin slowly walked inside the Living room while enduring his injured left arm.

"Listen, I-I need to get out of here." The second Red Assassin said as he run around the Living room, trying to find an exit door.

"No! You are not getting out of here alive. Master Hiiro and Yuki will come and save us – Uh?!" The second butler said as the Red Assassin suddenly threw his last medieval knife that hit the butler's chest. The butler lost his consciousness and fell on the floor.

"Damn it! That Yuki hit me with his bullet and now my entire left arm is paralyzed. I have to get out of here." The Red assassin said as he was trying to devise a plan to get out of the Matsuoka Rest House.

"Uh? I fell asleep. I wonder what time is it. W-who are you?!" Harue said as she slowly woke up, get up on the sofa and saw the Red Assassin wandering inside the Living room.

"Shhh! be quiet or else I will stab you with these." The Red Assassin said as he drew out and threatened Harue using his pocket knife.

"O-okay!" Harue said as she trembles in fear, grabbed her pillow and used it cover her face.

"Don't you dare move an inch or else I will shoot your right arm." Yuki said as he and the others arrived inside the Living room and aimed his riffle gun to the Red Assassin.

"Yuki! What is going on?" Harue said as she was happy to see Yuki who just ignored her question.

"Tch! You finally caught me. Not bad." The Red Assassin said as he dropped the pocket knife on the floor.

"Everyone protect Harue and I will handle this. Hurry!" Yuki said as he walked towards the Red Assassin while the others ran to the sofa where Harue was sleeping.

"Sorry! But I think I already found my way out of here." The Red Assassin said as he took out his grenade, pull the pin off and threw it on the brown carpet near on the sofa where everyone and Harue was located.

"A grenade?! Everyone take cover." Yuki said as he suddenly dropped his riffle gun, ran and grabbed the grenade. The Red Assassin jumped out the glass window and then escaped.

"Yuki No!" Harue said as she tried to stop Yuki and suddenly closed her eyes as the family maid hugged her. The grenade exploded inside the Living room. Smoke and white powder filled in the air as Hiiro came back inside the Living room.

"Yuki? Harue? Everyone? Where are you?" Hiiro said as he was trying to call out Yuki and the others as the Living room was covered with smoke and stumbled upon a corpse lying down on the floor.

"We are here big brother." Harue said as the smoke slowly clears up and the lights turned on.

"Harue?! Are you alright? Where is Yuki?" Hiiro said as he asked Harue who suddenly jumped off the sofa and run towards him.

"Yuki is -... He sacrificed his live to save us." Harue said as she starts crying onto her brother's arms.

"I'm sorry. This is my entire fault. If I have just arrived on time, probably we can still save him." Hiiro sadly said as he hugged Harue.

" Uhh...I am here, Harue." Yuki said as he regains his consciousness while lying down on the floor a few meters away from the broken glass table.

"Yuki!" Hiiro and Harue said as they are happy to hear Yuki's voice. The family maid and Harue run towards him and check if he is alright.

"Yuki is alive. Thank goodness! Please don't do that again." Harue cheerfully said as she cried and hugged Yuki.

"Ow! Yes. I am still alive. I AM ALIVE?! What was just happened?" Yuki said as he wondered and pat Harue's head.

"This is a fake grenade. Just like the real ones, it will explode when you pull the pin off but this was filled with white powder. He used this to threaten you and escape through that window." Hiiro said as the smoke finally cleared up and looked at the broken window panes.

"That's a relief. When I saw the grenade fell on the floor, I immediately thought of saving everyone and grabbed it. I'm sorry for making you worry Harue." Yuki said as he gently rises up and apologized to Harue.

"It's alright. Thank you for protecting us." Harue said as she also rises up and wiped off her tears.

"Alright! You two should head back to your rooms and clean yourselves. I and the others will start cleaning the Living room before father and mother arrives a few hours from now." Hiiro said as he helped Harue and Yuki to get off the floor.

"Okay! Good night big brother." Yuki and Harue said as they hugged Hiiro and ran out of the Living room.

Few meters away from the Matsuoka Family's Rest House

Inside the narrow alley...

"Damn it! That's why I hate guns." The Red Assassin who got escaped said as he stopped from walking, sat down on the ground leaning his back on the wall.

"There he is! Kazuki, are you alright?" Another Red Assassin came inside the narrow alley and found Kazuki.

"Oh? The newbie is here to save me." Kazuki said as he looked at Akihiko who run towards him and grabbed his left arm.

"Your left arm is paralyzed! We should immediately head back to the – Huh?! What are you doing?" Akihiko said as he saw Kazuki drew out his pocket knife and used it to take out the small bullet out of his injured left arm.

Kazuki successfully took the bullet out of his left arm and Akihiko immediately tied up his wound using his handkerchief.

"Are you okay? Where is Niko?" Akihiko said as he sat beside Kazuki and asked him.

"Niko is dead. That Yuki shot him in his chest and I saw two 'Black Hounds' took his corpse away." Kazuki sadly said as he remembered what happened earlier.

"And where's the book?" Akihiko said as he looked up in the night sky.

"We failed to retrieve the book. The mission was unsuccessful. Sorry." Kazuki said as he flinched because of the pain coming from his injured left arm.

"Okay. I understand. You can go home now." Akihiko said as he stood up and pats Kazuki's head.

"Wait! What? You cannot just report that back to our Leader alone. I will come with you- Huh?" Kazuki said as he also stood up but Akihiko suddenly pushed him away.

"Go home. We still have our Final Field Training tomorrow. And Kenji's probably worried about you." Akihiko said as he walked away and went back to their Hideout.

"Damn it!" Kazuki said as he cursed under his breath and walked out of the alley.

Back to the Boys' Dormitories

Inside Kazuki and Kenji's room...

"It's already 12MN. Big brother is really late. I wonder where he went." Kenji said as he looked at the clock, striking at exactly 12MN and got worried for Kazuki.

"I'm back. Uh?!" Kazuki said as he opened the door and went inside their room.

"Welcome back, big brother!" Kenji cheerfully said as he ran to the front door and hugged Kazuki."

"Kenji?! You are still up? I told you not to wait for me. Ouch-..." Kazuki said he suddenly flinched because of pain as Kenji hugged him.

"Of course! I have to wait for you. Anyway, would you like to take a bath or -" Kenji said as he smiled and asked Kazuki.

"Uh? I would like to – Nah! I will go to sleep." Kazuki said as he removed his rubber sneakers and Kenji helped him took off his brown coat.

"No! I bet you are hungry. Let's go! I will reheat your dinner in the kitchen." Kenji said as he playfully pushed Kazuki going to the kitchen.

"Kenji, listen. I am really tired and I would like to sleep. I hope you understand." Kazuki said as he pat Kenji's head and walked away.

"-_- No! YOU are going to eat. Come with me." Kenji said as he insisted and continued pushing Kazuki.

"Kenji?... Sheesh! Alright!" Kazuki said as he blushed and went to the dining room along with Kenji.

Inside the dining room....

"Sit here. I will just reheat your food." Kenji said as Kazuki sat on the chair and run to the kitchen to reheat Kazuki's food.

"Hey! Do you need any help?" Kazuki said as he asked Kenji.

"No! I'm fine. It seems you had very bad day." Kenji said as he noticed Kazuki frown and sighed.

"Well, yeah. It's been a long night." Kazuki sadly said as he stretched up his arms and yawned.

"I see. So, where have you been all day?" Kenji said as he started serving Kazuki's dinner on the table.

"Uh...What is this?" Kazuki said as he wondered and picked up a white envelope hidden under Kenji's notebook placed on the top of the dining table.

"No!!! Please do not open that." Kenji said as he turned around and saw Kazuki trying to open the white envelope. He panicked and immediately ran towards him and swiped away the white envelope off Kazuki's hand.

"Eh? My bad. I didn't mean to steal your love letter." Kazuki said as he pouted, picked the chopsticks and start eating.

"This is not a love letter. Sheesh!" Kenji said as he blushed and sat across Kazuki on the table.

"Hmm? It looks suspicious though." Kazuki said as he suspiciously looked at Kenji looked away.

"A-Anyway, a package was left outside our room this morning. It came from our parents." Kenji said as he nervously grabbed his things and hides it under the table.

"Eh? I wonder what's inside that package. Did you already open it?" Kazuki said as he asked Kenji.

"Yes. And I cannot believe that you asked our parents to deliver here your weird magazines." Kenji said as he was disappointed to Kazuki who suddenly blushed and choked.

"Huh?! No! I-I didn't ask for those - What?" Kazuki said as he denies but Kenji ignored him and took out a small piece of paper out of his journal.

"You cannot fool me. Mother left a note inside box. The note says that Mother couldn't find all of your weird magazines under your bed back in your room – Ow! Why did you do that?!" Kenji said as he was interrupted by Kazuki who got embarrassed and suddenly kicked his right leg under the table.

"Don't blame me. YOU also wanted to read those weird magazines. Ow! Why did you do that?!" Kazuki said as he was interrupted by Kenji who got really embarrassed and suddenly kicked his left leg under the table.

"You are the ONE who wanted to read those not me. Honestly..." Kenji said as crossed his arms and looked away.

"Anyway, are they trying to recruit you? I mean that blue coloured, circular wax seal is the symbol of the 'Blue Mafias' Association." Kazuki said seriously as he asked Kenji who got surprised and immediately took out and put the white envelope on the table.

'Blue Mafias' is an organization formed by mafias-for-hire who mercilessly murder assassins and thieves according to their client's wish/request. Most of their Targets come from families of Thieves and Assassins lurking around Alementalia. Their payment is based upon how popular/famous their targets are. (e.g. the Leader of Assassins' head costs 10M gold coins/10 gold bars while the Captain of Thieves' head costs 8M silver coins/ 8M silver bars)

"E-Eh!? So that's where this came from. Now I understand." Kenji said as he sighed in relief.

"Uh? You didn't know where that letter came from. Kenji, tell me-..." Kazuki said as he wondered and then put down his chopsticks on the table.

"Then, how did big brother know whose symbol is this?" Kenji said as he wondered and asked Kazuki.

"U-uh?! Well, they did send me a letter before but I declined their offer. Hahaha! That was a long time ago." Kazuki said as he got finish eating and starts to fix the dishes.

"Uh? Okay. I was up waiting for you to come back so that I can tell you about this. Recently, I've been receiving letters from that ‘Association’ and I really don't know if I would – Huh?!" Kenji said as Kazuki stood up, approached him and pats his head.

"You are a dreamer Kenji. With your amazing gun and violin skills, you can go everywhere and do anything. Do not waste your time thinking that you should join in that Association." Kazuki seriously said as walked away and brought the plates on the kitchen sink.

"O-okay! I will get rid of this letter immediately. Please don't tell our parents about this or else they will be -" Kenji cheerfully said as he ran out of the dining room.

"Don't worry! I won't. So, go to sleep. Uh?" Kazuki said as Kenji stood up and helped him wash the dishes.

"I will help you." Kenji said as he opened the water faucet and start scrubbing the dishes, making Kazuki smile beside him.

The next day, that afternoon

Outside the Training Coliseum...

"Mayumi!" Kenji said as he and Kazuki saw Mayumi waiting for them at the entrance gate of the Training Coliseum.

"Kazuki? Kenji? You are late! Where have you been?" Mayumi said as she got angry to Kazuki and Kenji, started pinching both of their cheeks.

"Ow-Ouch! I'm sorry. We overslept. I was waiting for big brother to come home last night." Kenji said as he apologized to Mayumi.

"We? You mean YOU overslept because got fond of reading those weird magazines." Kazuki said as he gently removed Mayumi's left hand off his cheek.

"Me?! But YOU were the one who liked those weird magazines filled with pretty, naked wo- Ow-Ouch!" Kenji said as Kazuki got embarrassed and stomped on Kenji's right foot.

"Weird magazines? What does he mean Kazuki?" Mayumi said as she asked Kazuki who looked away, averting her intense stare.

"No-Nothing! Let's go inside. Everyone is waiting for us. Uh? Mayumi? W-what are you doing?" Kazuki said as he and Kenji saw Mayumi began unbuttoning her uniform blouse in front of them.

"Then, how about this?" Mayumi said as she shyly unbuttons her uniform blouse in front of them.

"Mayumi! Stop it! Okay! I will get rid of those weird magazines when we got back in the dormitories. So please stop." Kazuki said as he blushed, suddenly took off his coat and put it around Mayumi's shoulders.

Kenji was surprised from his sudden actions as he tried to pretend that he is not jealous but he suddenly walked away from the two.

"Okay! I think you finally learned your lesson. Uh? Kenji? " Mayumi cheerfully said as she pat Kazuki's head and saw Kenji walked away from them.

"Hey! Kenji, wait for us." Kazuki said as he tried to call out Kenji, who was silently cursing under his breath.

"Damn it! I am not jealous. I am not – Ow! Sorry!" Kenji said as he walked away and suddenly bumped into Emi.

"N-No! It's alright. Uh? Thank you for saving us yesterday." Emi said as she recognised Kenji and thanked him for saving her from the kidnapping incident yesterday.

"Uh? Your welcome. Can I you a question? What is your name?" Kenji said as he asked Emi.

"Yes! Of course, what is it?" Emi said as Kenji was about to ask her a question but Kazuki and Mayumi arrived, suspiciously staring at him.

"Why are you staring me like that? I just wanted to know her name!" Kenji said as he blushed and yelled at Mayumi and Kazuki.

"Oh? I'm Emi Fujimoto. Nice to meet you." Emi said as she introduced herself to Kenji.

"Uh? YOU are Emi? N-nice to meet you too." Kenji said as he was surprised to know her name.

"There you are Emi. Harue has arrived. Let's go." Eito said as he found Emi and Kenji talking outside the Training Coliseum.

"O-Okay! See you later Kenji." Emi said as she and Eito went back inside the Training Coliseum.

"That's weird. You forgot to ask her dormitory address." Kazuki said as he poked Kenji's cheeks.

"Huh?! Why would I even do that? Stop poking my cheeks." Kenji said as he got annoyed and shoved Kenji's hand.

"Let's go! You two sleepy heads! The afternoon training will start in 10 minutes." Mayumi said as she suddenly pushed Kenji and Kazuki from behind and run away.

Inside the Training Coliseum

Main Arena...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our 7th Annual Final Field Training! I am the Mr. Mathematics Teacher, your host for this afternoon event. And for my dear students, I am disappointed with your final results in my subject!" Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as welcomes the enthusiastic audience for the afternoon event.

"Yeah! Bring it on! Just start already!" The audience yelled out as some of them got impatient, eager to see the Top 8 Students.

"Boo! Your subject is just hard. It is not our fault." Rai said as she and Hikaru arrive and waited beside the stage in the Main Arena. The audience seems to agree with her and started booing Mr. Mathematics Teacher.

"Rai, please stop it..." Hikaru said as he stood beside her, sighed and dragged her going to Harue who is standing outside the stage.

"I know that everyone is so excited to see our Top 8 Students but before that let's all welcome the Imperial Council!" Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as the 12 members of the Imperial Council stood up as they all are watching the event from the Upper Balcony. The audience loudly cheered up for Imperial Council.

"Master Hiiro! Please look this way." Some of the female audience said as they saw Hiiro smiling at them.

"Is that your big brother?" Hikaru said as he asked Harue who shyly looked away.

"Yes. He is way TOO popular even with young children." Harue said as she crossed her arms.

"Eh? That guy is your elder brother. That's interesting." Rai said as she opened her small, glass jar of chocolate cookies, took and ate the cookie.

"Cookies? You have cookies? Give some of your cookies." Harue said as she suddenly tried to take a cookie out of the glass jar but luckily Rai stopped her.

"How dare you steal my cookies? You Cookie Thief! Stay away from my cookies." Rai said as she ran with the glass jar and hide behind Hikaru.

"Give me some, you greedy woman! You cannot eat all of that or else you are going to be fat." Harue said as she insisted and chased Rai as the two ran in circles beside Hikaru.

"Will the two of you give it a rest?" Hikaru said as he asked Rai and Harue who didn't listen to him and still running around him.

"Alright! Everyone calm down. From the upper right corner, from Aethyria let me introduce you Ms. Iysa Yoshito as the Village Chief followed by Mr. Ryu Hisaku as their Legal Adviser and Mr. Hiiro Matsuoka as their Secretary." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as he introduced the Council members from Aethyria and the audience and Aethyrians began cheering for Hiiro, who smiles and waves back at his random fans.

"Next, from the middle right corner, from Iytheria let me introduced you our current Chairman of the Council and their Village chief, Mr. Geno Kozuki, Mrs. Saki Kozuki and Ms. Annie Miyura." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as he introduced the Council members from Iytheria and the audience along with some Iytherians began cheering for them.

"So, he is the current Chairman of the Council? Where is our Imperial Prince?" Guy#1 said as he asked his friend.

"The rumour said that the former Imperial Prince got exiled because of his crimes but before he left he asked Princess Harue to take over for him. " Guy#2 said as he whispered to his friend.

"Eh? Princess Harue, Secretary Hiiro's little sister? That's amazing." Guy#3 said as he suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"Another rumour said that Princess Harue has the final decision to choose the next Imperial Ruler of our Kingdom. Since she cannot decide yet who will she choose, she assigned Mr. Geno Kozuki to become the current and unofficial Imperial Ruler." Guy#4 said as the audience shouted out, cheering for their representatives.

"Now, from the middle left corner, from Wathyria, let me introduce you Mr. Jiro Yokitou, Mrs. Aya Yokitou and Mr. Akito Sasaki." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as he introduced the Council members from Wathyria and the audience and Wathyrians began cheering for them.

"Finally, we have arrived." Eito said as he, Emi, Kazuki, Kenji and Mayumi arrived at the entrance gate going to the Main Arena and they saw Harue playfully chasing Rai and her cookie jar.

"And last but not the least, from the upper left corner, from Fireiya let me introduce you Mr. Sai Musashi, Mrs. Mai Musashi and the lovely Ms. Akari Hashimoto." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as he introduced the Council members from Fireiya and the audience and Fireiyans began cheering for them.

"We love you Ms. Akari!" Some of her male, random fans said as they cheer for Akari who smiles and waves back at her fans, making Hiiro silently irritated and cursed under his breath.

"Your elder sister is quite popular too." Harue said as she suddenly stopped from chasing Rai, making Hikaru blush.

"There you are Harue. Sorry we're late." Eito said he and Emi arrived at their place along with Kazuki, Kenji and Mayumi.

"Eito! Emi! Uh? And who are you?" Harue cheerfully said as she ran towards Eito and Emi and hugged them and then looked at Kazuki and Kenji.

"I'm Kazuki and this is Kenji, my younger twin brother. Nice to meet you. Eh? Were you that girl-?" Kazuki said as he introduced his self and Kenji to Harue, who seems familiar to him.

"Hello! I'm Kenji. We're the persons who saved you yesterday. Nice to meet you Harue." Kenji said as Harue suddenly remembered the yesterday's event.

"I-we almost forgot. Thank you very much for saving us." Harue shyly said as she dragged Emi beside her and both expressed their gratitude to Kazuki and Kenji.

"Your welcome. Uh? Is there something wrong Big brother?" Kenji said in response and wondered what happened to Kazuki.

"A-Ah! Sorry! I wasn't paying attention. You're welcome as well." Kazuki said in response as he looked at Hikaru and Mayumi.

"Uh? What happened to your left arm?" Harue said curiously and asked Kazuki.

"Ah! My left arm? Well, I got – Uh?" Kazuki said as the audience cheer out for Hikaru and Mayumi.

"You!" Hikaru and Mayumi said as they were surprised and annoyed to see each other.

"I'm going to kick your butt in front of this crowd!" Hikaru said as Mayumi crossed her arms.

"Eh? Let's see about that. Bring it on!" Mayumi said as she took Kazuki's coat and threw up in the air.

"It seems our Top 8 Students are already in here. Now, let me explain the rules. Rule #1, each round will last for 30 minutes unless the Imperial Council, our judges, announced to stop the fight. Rule#2: Each player will fight in the stage using only their Alementalian abilities and a weapon of their choice. Rule#3: If one of the players destroys their opponent's weapon, pushed their opponent out of the stage or even surrenders during their fight, the remaining player standing on the stage wins the round. Now, Hikaru and Mayumi please go to the stage." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as he called out Hikaru and Mayumi.

"Go Hikaru! Big sister loves you." Ms. Akari said as she cheers for Hikaru in the Upper Balcony.

"Good luck Hikaru!" Rai cheerfully said as Hikaru went up in the stage, making him blush.

"Good luck Mayumi!" Kazuki and Kenji cheerfully said as Mayumi smiled and went up stage

 Inside the stage...

"Alright! Show me your weapons." Mr. Referee said as he Hikaru presented his medieval long sword while Mayumi presented her medieval pair of bow and arrows.

"Okay! We are ready! Ladies and Gentlemen, Council members... Round 1, begin!" Mr. Referee said as the bell begins.

Hikaru and Mayumi were amazingly par with each other by easily each other's physical attacks and defending themselves until Mayumi kicked out the sword off Hikaru's left hand and kicked it away.

"A-amazing!" The enthusiastic audience yelled out as they cheer for Hikaru and Mayumi.

"Well, that's my little brother! Go Hikaru!" Ms. Akari said as she crossed her arms.

Mayumi pulled out one wooden arrow, aimed at Hikaru's head and fired direct at him; Hikaru immediately ran away to get his sword and used it to cut the arrow into two. Mayumi got pissed off and continued firing at Hikaru, trying to push him backwards and off the stage.

"Hikaru, be careful!" Rai said as she noticed Hikaru was almost at the other end of the stage.

Mayumi pulled out her last wooden arrow and fired at Hikaru who again caught the arrow, single-handedly and broke it into two. Hikaru ran towards her and suddenly grabbed her blouse, lifted her up above him and cheerfully turned around.

"Hey! W-what are you doing?! Put me down this instant!" Mayumi shyly said as she was getting dizzy.

"Hey! Would you like to go out on a date with me?" Hikaru seriously said as he asked Mayumi as she was still up in the air.

"O_o HUH!? What?!" Everyone inside the Main Arena yelled out as they were all shocked from what just happened.

"O/////O!? Y-You... I said put me down!" Mayumi said as she was really flustered, kicked Hikaru on his face and then jumped out and down to the stage.

"Ow-Ouch! I guess that's a no." Hikaru said as he fell down on the stage and fixed up his hair.

"H-how dare you embarrass me like this in front of everyone..." Mayumi said as the flow of air changes it directions as she got really angry.

"H-Hey! Calm down. I am just asking you – Eh?!" Hikaru said as he panicked and grabbed his long sword.

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Fly!"

Mayumi said as she used her Air Alementalian ability and created a huge and fierce whirlwind under Hikaru's feet which lifted him up in the air and send him out of the stage.

"Woah! That's a strong whirlwind." Hiiro said as the whirlwind pulled away his hat and the audience's banners and foods.

"I-I'm getting dizzy. Uh?! Eh? Help! I'm falling! " Hikaru said as he was up in the air, regains his consciousness.

"Mayumi..." Kenji said as he sighed as the audience slowly being swept away by the whirlwind.

"Die you perverted freak!" Mayumi said as she got tired, shouted in the air and slowly lost control of the whirlwind. The whirlwind suddenly stopped and disappeared.

"Uh?! Wah! I'm falling! Somebody help me. Damn it!" Hikaru said as he was falling fast on to the ground and finally thought of plan.

Everyone was eager to see what will Hikaru's next plan but Mr. Referee decided to interfere and catch him when...

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Ablaze!"

Hikaru said as he began chanting and before he almost fell on the ground, he used his Fire Alementalian Ability and created a pair of wings made of 'blue fire'.

"That was close." Rai said in relief and went back in eating her chocolate cookies which Harue was envious of.

" 'Blue Fire'? This is the first time I saw someone who was the ability to manipulate 'Blue Fire.'" Mr. Geno said as his other Council members nod in agreement.

"Yes! I did it! Rai! Look after years of practice, I finally – Eh?!" Hikaru said as he was too excited, lost control of his ability and fell on the ground, outside the stage. The bell rang which ended the first round.

"Mayumi wins in the first round!" Mr. Referee said as the audience cheered up for Mayumi and began booing Hikaru.

"Mayumi, are you alright?" Kenji said as he ran away, went up to the stage and asked Mayumi.

"Don't worry! I'm alright. Eh?!" Mayumi said as Kenji suddenly lifted up like a princess and both went down the stage.

"Hikaru!? Hold this." Rai said as she got worried, gave the glass jar to Harue and ran towards Hikaru at the other end of the stage.

"I'm alright! Why am I seeing so many stars..." Hikaru said as he tried to get up on his own but he slipped and luckily Rai arrived and caught him before he fell again on the ground.

"Here, let me help you." Rai said as he placed his right arm around her shoulder and tried to carry him up.

"Thank you. Ow-Ouch...My back hurts." Hikaru said as he and Rai slowly walk away and sat down on the waiting area.

 "Uh? I really don't know what just happened but Mayumi won the first round. Now! For the second round, I would I like to call Kenji and Emi to come forth in the stage." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as Kenji gently put Mayumi on the bench while Harue suddenly dragged Emi going to the stage.

"Good luck Kenji. Nope. I don't think you need that." Kazuki said as he pat Kenji's right shoulder and sat beside Mayumi on the bench.

"I will do my best." Kenji said as he ran away and went up to the stage.

"Good luck Emi! I'm here to support you." Harue said after she dragged Emi going to the stage.

"Okay! Thank you Harue." Emi cheerfully said as she went up to the stage.

Inside the stage...

"Show me your weapons." Mr. Referee said as he Kenji presented his modified sniper gun while Emi presented her medieval spear.

"Okay! We are ready! Ladies and Gentlemen, Council members... Round 2, begin!" Mr. Referee said as the bell rings.

At first, Kenji aimed and fired directly at Emi seven times but Emi used her spear to evade and defend herself from the silver bullets, striking and dividing each bullet into two in the middle. She missed the eighth one and it hit on her right cheek, leaving a thin and long-line like wound. The audience loudly cheered up for the two.

"Impressive! As expected from the Hamasaki Family. They trained their children very well." Ms. Iysa said as her Council members were also impressed by Kenji's gun skills.

"Yes! That's my little brother. Keep going Kenji!" Kazuki said as he cheered for his little brother back at the waiting bench.

Emi runs and advance forward to Kenji, who was reloading his bullets at that moment and attacked Kenji with her spear. Kenji was surprised from her sudden attack used his sniper gun as a 'shield' to defend himself. Kenji and Emi began their 'sword' fight; Kenji using his sniper gun as a sword while Emi use her spear.

"You are Emi right? Emi, the Enchantress." Kenji said as he asked Emi while still defending himself from her attacks.

"The Enchantress? Shut up! No! I'm that – No!" Emi said as she heard the word 'Enchantress' and start trembling.

"Hey! So you are really that – Huh?!" Kenji said as Emi kicked him away and simultaneously attacked him, pushing him to the other end of the stage.

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! I didn't mean to do it! Please forgive me." Emi said as she suddenly snapped out but before Kenji fall off the stage he managed to kick Emi away.

Emi was tired from her simultaneous attacks; Kenji saw an opportunity to use his Water Alementalian Ability and thought of a crazy idea.

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Freeze!"

Kenji said as he saw some moist evaporating around the Main Arena and for the first time, he used his Ability to freeze Emi's lower, right leg. Everyone was surprised from Kenji's attack. Now, Emi was unable to move or attack because of her frozen leg.

"Calm down. Someone asked me if you related to the 'Enchantress' and I finally confirmed that. So please..." Kenji said as he slowly approached Emi, trying to calm her down.

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!" Emi said as she snapped out, grabbed and threw her spear directly to Kazuki and Mayumi, a few meters beside her.

"Eh? She's still alive. I wonder how did that happened." Hiiro said as he whispered to himself.

Kenji panicked and chased the spear. Luckily, he got the spear while it is in mid-air and before it hit Kazuki and the other students in the Waiting Area but he suddenly fell of the stage.

"Kenji?! Are you alright?" Kazuki said as they saw Kenji fell off the stage.

"I'm fine. Don't worry. Eh? What is this?" Kenji said as he saw an Aethyrian magic symbol appears on the ground.

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Bore!"

Emi said as chant her spell and used her Earth Alementalian Ability, bore a three-meter deep hole underneath Kenji's feet and he fell inside the hole.

"Kyaaah! Somebody help me." Kenji said as he fell inside the hole.

The bell rang indicating that second fight is over.

"Round Two is over. Emi wins this round!" Mr. Referee said as he announced that Emi won the second round.

"Huh?! The fight is not over. I can still fight if you help me get out of here." Kenji said as he complaining while inside the hole.

The audience laughed out loud and start booing Kenji as they heard his complaint; Kazuki and Mayumi decided to run towards the hole and help him to get back up to the surface.

"Child, calm down. You don't have to be afraid." Mr. Referee said as he kneel down on his one knee and forcefully crushed the ice covering Emi's leg and turned it into dust.

"I'm not afraid... I'm sorry." Emi said as she suddenly lost consciousness and fell asleep on Mr. Referee's strong arms.

"Emi! Emi, are you alright?" Harue said as she hands over the glass jar back to Rai and went up to the stage.

"Harue? Wait up!" Eito said as he tried to chase Harue and also went up to the stage. Eito gently lifted Emi like a princess and the three went down the stage.

"I don't understand what happened. Let's continue the fight." Kenji said as Kazuki pat his head.

"Listen, you clearly lost in the second fight. You probably didn't notice it but when caught the spear in mid-air, you lost your balance and fell on the ground which Emi automatically wins the round." Kazuki said as he explained to Kenji what happened.

"Eh? EH!? That's it!? I got easily defeated by that?" Kenji said as he was frustrated and kicked his sniper gun away.

"But still you saved us. Thank you Kenji!" Mayumi cheerfully said, making Kenji blush.

"Of course! I made a promise that I will not let anything happened to you and – Uh! I'm still frustrated." Kenji said as he walked away and went to the Waiting Area, followed by Mayumi and Kenji, who picked up his sniper gun and brought it back with him.

"That's one of a hell fight! Everyone has a trick under their sleeves. For the third round, Kazuki and Harue please come forth to the stage." Mr. Mathematics Teacher said as he called Kazuki and Harue who both went up stage.

Inside the stage...

"Show me your weapons." Mr. Referee said as he Kazuki presented his long, wooden sword while Harue presented her thorn whip.

"We are ready! Ladies and Gentlemen, Council members... Round 3, begin!" Mr. Referee said as the bell rings.

Harue attacks first using her thorn whip, twirling it around while Kazuki calmly evades her whip attacks using his wooden sword. The same scenario went three times until Harue got pissed off to Kazuki for underestimating her and used her whip to seize his sword; Kazuki lost his grip to his sword and it was thrown outside the stage.

"Yeah! Finish him Harue!" The audience yelled out as they cheered for Harue.

"As you wish." Harue said as she smirked and attacked Kazuki with her thorn whip.

Kazuki, on the other hand, sighed and surprisingly caught the end of the whip using his right hand. Now, his right hand was covered with thorn and began to bleed.

"Sorry! But my Water Alementalian Ability was not meant to hurt anyone." Kazuki said as he started pulling the thorn whip towards him along with Harue.

"Eh?! What are you doing? Stop it!" Harue said as he tried to resist by using her feet to stop but it was useless.

A few minutes later, Kazuki grabbed and lifted Harue's left hand, squeezing it tightly as Harue tried to resist by kicking Kazuki's left arm. Kazuki enduring the pain and Harue lost her grip on her whip and he let her fell on the ground.

"Big brother? You left arm!" Kenji said as he saw Kazuki suddenly kneel on the ground, holding up his left arm.

"I know. Don't worry! I'm alright." Kazuki said as Harue looked at him and smirked.

"I knew it! You are that 'Red - Eh?! Let go of me." Harue said as she almost figure out Kazuki's secret Identity and suddenly lifted her up onto his right shoulder like a sack of rice.

"I need you to be quiet." Kazuki seriously said as he walked to the other end of the stage while carrying Harue.

"Like I would let you drag me down" Harue said as he kicked and jumped off Kazuki.

'Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Create!'"

Harue was forced to use her incompatible Earth Alementalian Abiltiy and created a huge and rectangular barrier made from solid rocks, separating her from Kazuki. Kazuki was amazed from Harue's Ability and tried to touch the rock barrier she placed between him and her but the unstable barrier starts shaking, making the rocks fall onto the ground.

Kazuki sensing that the barrier was about to fall on him, tried to run away from it but sadly it was too late. He was caught by the falling barrier and now lying down on the stage, surrounded by rocks and dirt. Awkward silence surrounded the Main Arena as the audience were awed to what just happened and start booing Kazuki.

"Harue! That's enough. You are going to hurt yourself." Eito said as they saw Harue grabbed her whip and stood up.

"I'm going to win this round." Harue said as she ignored Eito and run towards he unconscious Kazuki. She plans to finish the fight by pulling and throwing Kazuki out of the stage but...

Kazuki slowly regains his consciousness and dusted off his shirt. Harue was running towards him but she suddenly slipped in front Kazuki. Luckily, Kazuki caught her before she falls on the stage again.

"Sorry! But I really need you to be quiet." Kazuki said as he smiled and lifted her up, carelessly carrying her onto his right shoulder.

"Eh?! W-what are you doing? Let me go! Let me go!" Harue said as she panicked, shoved Kazuki's head and playfully punched his back.

Kazuki was so strong that he didn't even bulge an inch and continue walking until the other end of the stage. He jumped off the stage and intentionally let Harue fall on the ground, outside the stage. Harue, on the other hand was frustrated from what happened and now lying down on the ground.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Harue said as she cursed under her breath, crying and frustrated that she cannot do anything to stop Kazuki from simply taking her out of the stage.

The bell rang and the audience lively cheered up for Harue.

"YES! My win! Thank you! Thank you for your support!" Kazuki said as he smiled triumphantly and waved back to the audience.

"Round 3 is over. And the winner is Harue!" Mr. Referee said as he announced the official winner of the third round.

" O_o Eh!?!?" Everyone yelled out as they were shocked from the announcement and wondered what happened.

"Idiot!" Kenji angrily said as he stood up and yelled to his big brother.

"Allow me to explain. Earlier, you intentionally jumped off the stage before you let Harue fall on the ground. I and the Imperial Council considered this as a 'voluntary surrender' and immediately declared that Harue won the third round." Mr. Referee said as he explained to everyone what happened.

"Eh? Eh?! Seriously? Nobody told us about that." Kazuki said as he was frustrated but didn't pry any further.

"I won? Eh? I won!?" Harue said as she wondered and look up at Kazuki who kneel down beside Harue.

"Hop on. I will carry you back to the Waiting Area." Kazuki said as he asked Harue, making her blush.

"But your left arm - ...O-okay! Thank you." Harue shyly said as she took his offer and hopped on Kazuki's back like a child.

Kazuki stood up, now carrying her and went back to the Waiting Area.

Inside the stage...

"Alright! For the last round, Rai and Eito please come forth to the stage." Mr. Referee said as he called Rai and Eito.

"Here's your cookie jar." Eito said as he hands back her cookie jar to Rai.

"Uh? Thank you. Eh? I thought she already ate this last cookie." Rai said as she turned around and looked at Kazuki walking towards to them.

"Finally! We're here. I'm going to sit you here beside her." Kazuki said as he gently put down Harue on the bench beside Emi who still asleep after their fight.

"Here. Don't be sad. You can have the last cookie." Rai said as she sensed that Harue was about to cry, gave the cookie jar to her and pat her head.

"Uh?! Thank you!" Harue cheerfully said as she received the cookie jar.

"Shall we?" Eito said as he and Rai both walked away and went up the stage.

"Good luck Rai!" Hikaru said as he cheered for Rai, making Harue irritated.

"Kick her butt Eito!" Harue said as she cheered for Eito, making him blush and Rai giggle as she looked at him.

"Hey. Give me your left hand." Kazuki said as he approached and looked at Harue, making Harue blush.

"N-no! Why do you want my left hand? I'm too young to be married. " Harue said as she panicked and shoved away Kazuki's right hand.

"Idiot! I'm not going to nor ask you to marry me either. Just give me your left hand." Kazuki said as he suddenly grabbed Harue's left hand.

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Heal!"

Kazuki said as Harue, Hikaru, Kenji and Mayumi saw how his ability heals Harue's injured hand.

"A-amazing! That is a rare Alementalian ability and you are lucky to have it." Hikaru said as they were all amazed to finally see Kazuki's ability.

"You think so? I guess I am lucky indeed. Done!" Kazuki said as he finally finished healing Harue's hand.

"My hand is all healed up. H-how did that – Amazing!" Harue cheerfully said as she raises her hand up in the air.

Inside the stage....

"Show me your weapons." Mr. Referee said as he Eito presented his medieval sword while Rai presented her wooden training spear.

"We are ready! Ladies and Gentlemen, Council members... Last round, begin!" Mr. Referee said as the bell rings.

Rai and Eito were both serious as they were trying to kill each other; Eito is one of the amazing swordsmen in the Academy that he easily cut Rai's spear into two as she was trying to use it to defend herself. Rai threw out her spear and decided to fight one-on-one with Eito; Eito tried to defend himself from Rai's superb physical attacks but it was useless, he got kicked away and almost went out of the stage.

"A-Amazing! I didn't expect that she is that strong." Harue said as he and everyone was amaze to how actually Rai fight in the stage.

"Of course! That's my best friend. Hm! She may be a shy person but we should never judge a book by its cover." Hikaru proudly said as he crossed his arms and laughed.

"Shut up Hikaru! Sheesh!" Rai said as she heard Hikaru's loud voice.

"Rai? She has the same name with that girl described in the rumour in Fireiya." Woman#1 said as her friend looked at her.

"Uh? What do you mean?" Woman #2 said as she asked Woman #1.

"You didn't know? The rumours said there is a wandering ‘witch’ in Fireiya that has the ability to talk with someone through the mirror. People avoided her when they saw her in the streets. " Women #1 said as she told the story to her friend.

"Lame! Get out of the stage!" Woman #3 said as she and the audience lively cheered up for Rai and start booing for Eito, calling him 'lame'.

"Shut up!" Eito said as he got angry and yelled back to the audience who called him 'lame'.

"Look! Your nose is bleeding." Women#4 said as she pointed out and the audience laugh at him.

"What? It is bleeding! Calm down... I need to focus in the fight. Uh?" Eito said as he covered up his nosebleed and trying to calm down and control his happiness as he has given the chance to fight one-on-one with his secret crush.

Eito threw his sword at Rai who wondered why he suddenly stopped attacking; Rai caught off guard but luckily she got the sword with her right hand before it hit her chest. Rai threw the sword out of the stage and decided to end their fight.

"Alright. I'm getting tired. Let's end this shall we?" Rai seriously said as removed the black glove covering her wounded right hand.

"Uh? W-what are you doing?" Eito said as he wondered and asked Rai.

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Light up!"

Rai said as for the first time she used her Fire Alementalian Abillity, surprising everyone in the Main Arena. She snapped her fingers in front of Eito as she started a small 'Red Fire' , trying to burn Eito's white shirt. Eito panicked and immediate took his burning shirt off and threw it out the stage; Eito was now half-naked and the audience start laughing at him.

Eito was now really pissed off and decided to use his Air Alementalian Ability.

"Within the abilities given to me, I command thee, Fly!"

Eito said as he used his ability and summon a strong and deadly tornado beneath Rai's feet; Rai suddenly got lifted in the air along with the banners, metal cans and etc. from the audience. Rai, being unable to move and tossed up the air used her Fire Alementalian ability to manifest fire but the wind amplified her ability and got mixed up in the tornado. Both of their abilities created a dangerous red 'fire tornado'.

"Let's get out of here! Help us!" The audience yelled out as they panicked and start running out of the Main Arena.

"Emi!" Harue said as she hugged Emi as she, Kazuki, Kenji, Hikaru and Mayumi were trying not to be faze as the tornado grew bigger as it absorbs the air inside the Main Arena.

"Mayumi! Stand back." Kenji said as he led Mayumi to safety and sat her beside Harue and Emi.

"Rai! Rai, where are you?" Hikaru said as he got worried for Rai and ran directly towards the fire tornado but Kazuki suddenly grabbed his right arm and pulled him back to safety.

"Hey! What the heck were you thinking?! That's suicide." Kazuki said as he grabbed Hikaru's right arm and pulled him back to safety.

"I don't care! Let me go. W-what kind of Hero am I if I cannot save my only best friend?!" Hikaru said as he shoved Kazuki's hand away from him.

"You are the stupid one. She is doing her best to win in this fight. Look up - Eh!" Kazuki said as he suddenly got hit by a cardboard banner, written on it was 'We love you Hiiro!' on his face. He panicked, slipped and fell on the ground.

While on the ground, Eito was trying to concentrate his magical energy in controlling the tornado so that it will stay only in one place but suddenly a cardboard banner hit his face, losing his concentration. He tried to remove it but he slipped and fell out of the stage.

The fire tornado suddenly stopped and disappeared inside the Main Arena.

"Uh? W-what happened? Eh!?" Rai said as she realized that she was still up in the air and for the third time she used her Fire Alementalian Ability to create wings just like what Hikaru did but it was useless.

Rai was now falling fast into the ground and Eito finally removed the cardboard banner off his face.

Suddenly, a 'Black hound' ran and jumped out from the roof of the Upper Balcony and successfully catches Rai while in mid-air. The unknown 'Black hound' and Rai safely landed on the ground a few meters away from Eito, outside the stage.

"U-Uh? T-thank you for saving me." Rai said as she jumped off the 'Black hound' and slowly stepped backwards and ran away from it. The bell rings indicating that the last round has ended.

"Everyone, are you alright? What a disaster! I wonder who will win in this fight." Mr. Mathematics said as he came out after hiding under the Host's table.

“Rai wins in this Round!" Mr. Referee said as he announces the winner for the last round of the afternoon event.

"Eh...What?!" Everyone yelled out as they all wonder what happened.

___________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for waiting everyone! Here is Chapter Two. Thank you.

#fiction #fantasy #original story #adventure #action #mystery #magic

[terriblesportsimagines]

Omggggg you have no idea how in love I am with your blog!!!! I am a big es21 fan and I thought I was the only one!!!! *sobs* could I have a Jumonji scenerio where he's trying to ask out his crush who hmm let's say is one of the cheerleaders or something :D

Dear Anon, I’m sorry about not posting this yesterday, I went to see Thor: Ragnorok and didn’t get home in time!  I hope the length makes up for it a little bit

Jumonji Kazuki

Despitethe fact that he got confessions way more than probably anyone else on the team(save Mamori), and that everyone assumed that he was good with them because ofit, Jumonji was actually pretty shy. Well, at least when it mattered, when he actually liked the girl.  He wasalways nice when he let girls down, and it was pretty easy.  They even usually took it comparatively well.

Butbeing on the other side was completely different, and damn it, it washard.  He hated the fact that his palmswere sweating and that his heart felt like it was in his throat.  And fucking hell, the burning in his cheekswas so damn lame.  He was about ten seconds from calling thewhole thing off.  Especially since heknew Kuroki and Togano were just around the corner laughing themselvessilly.  Bloody bastards… who neededenemies when he had friends like that?

Heknew why they were laughing though.  Theythought it was hilarious that girls threw themselves at his feet and he didn’tblink, and yet he was getting so worked up about confessing himself.  Well they should try it and see how much funit was.

Itwas none.

Hewas a confident guy, decent looking, intelligent.  Obviously there was something about him thatgirls noticed… that had to count for something right?  You had to notice them too, didn’t you?  But then, you weren’t really like all therest, which was probably why he liked you in the first place, but still.  Had he been too obvious?  

Hirumahad started giving him the side eye, but then, that maniac gave everyone thatlook at some point.  Of course, the wayhe’d smiled as his eyes slid away to look at the cheerleaders had madeJumonji’s skin crawl, and he just knew something new had appeared in theomnipresent threat book.  That didn’tmean he’d been obvious though, that just mean that Hiruma had seen too much,just like he always did.

Damnit, you looked cute today.  You weren’teven dressed in that skimpy little cheerleading uniform (he was pretty sure hewouldn’t have been able to actually function if he approached you dressed likethat), but you still glowed under the noon hour sun.  You were currently laughing with a group ofyour friends and it made hard to approach you. Your friends, for instance, would know instantly what he was doing themoment he tried to talk to you.

Still,he’d never live it down if he didn’t go through with it.  Not only would his friends know and laugh,but Hiruma would probably figure it out somehow and then his life would betruly hell.  That demon did not need any more fodder.

So,taking a deep breath and smothering most of his nerves and his blush, Jumonjishoved his hands in his pockets and approached your group.  “Um, ____, can I talk to you?” He asked,forcing his chin to remain up.

Youlooked up and instantly smiled, which made him feel better.  “Sure!” You immediately left your friends, who had extremely knowing looks intheir eyes, much to his despair.

Findinga quiet place to talk in a busy school was a challenge, but he managed it,leading you outside and a little away from the school proper.  He had no idea what you were thinking,because neither of you said anything the whole trip.  However, when he turned to look at youfinally, your cheeks were flushed faintly and you were biting your bottom lip.

Ugh,you were so adorable.  It really wasn’tfair, because damn it, how was one man supposed to survive against you?  “So… uh…” He trailed off, suddenly completelyunable to find the right words.  Itshouldn’t be that hard right?  A simple“I like you!” and problem solved.

Thewords stuck in his throat.

Butthen, you did something that caught him totally off guard.  You twisted your hands together in front ofyou and blurted, “I like you, Jumonji-kun!”

“Haaah?”Jumonji sputtered, eyes wide as he stared at you.

Ohfor- He sighed heavily, shoulders rounding. Man, even in this he couldn’t win against you.  It was probably his own fault, taking toolong.  And, technically, it madeeverything easier, but still… he would have rather be the one to say it first.  It was pretty shameful that he hadn’t beenable to get it out…

“…Jumonji-kun?”

Ahcrap, now you sounded sad, probably because he’d just been standing therestaring at you instead of responding. Sighing, he rubbed at the back of his head and let his eyes fall to theground.  “You stole my lines,” Jumonjigrumbled.  “I-I like you too, ____.”

Youreyes widened and all the sadness and embarrassment that had been there a secondbefore bled away and was replaced by a smile that was nearly blinding.  “Really? Does that mean-”

“Wouldyou go out with me?” He cut her off, forcing his gaze up, since it was onlyfair, and he really wanted to see your face when he asked.  His heart clenched as his eyes foundyou.  You were even more beautiful somehow.  

Damnit.

Yougrinned and reached out to take his big, scarred hands and squeeze.  “I’d be more than happy to!”

Relaxing,Jumonji wrapped his fingers around yours and squeezed back.  “Great.”

#eyeshield 21 #jumonji kazuki #scenarios

[sambart93]

2017.02.14 Messiah: Akatsuki [Review]

Yesterday I spent valentine’s day watching a stage series that I completely fell into last summer! While I was super pissed and skeptical of this installment of the stage - due to favourite characters (Amane, Misu, Shuuto’s) and actors NOT coming back (Takaki, Nakamura, Shuuto, Hirose Daisuke, Naoya) this installment, and also some announcing that the next installment after this one would be their last (Amane/Takaki, Misu/Nakamura) - I went in with an open mind and was ready to accept whatever they were gunna send at me. And I did. Lets see how that went shall we?

Official Site Here Official Twitter Here Dress Rehearsal Video Here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

CAST/CHARACTERS

Akazawa Tomoru as Shirasaki Mamoru Izawa Yuki as Ariga Ryou Sugie Taishi as Kagami Itsuki Nagae Ryouki as Miike Mayo Yamaoki Yuki as Yugi Kotarou Hashimoto Shinichi as Kugure Jun Asato Yuya as Doctor Ten Otsuka Kosuke as Doctor Three Ito Kotaro as Amane Gwen Shougo Yamada James Takeshi as Salut Araki Kentaro as Kumoi Ren / Cheka Kotani Yoshikazu kuroko / Momose Tatara Nakahara Yuya as Ichijima Harumi Osumi Kenya as Shikura Kazuhito

Ensemble: Hosokawa Akihiro, Kitamura Kai, Uraie Kenji, Hisada Yuki, Sugiura Yuichi, Ishigami Ryuya, Sakamoto Kazuki

STORY

Kaito Yuri has gone missing and it seems like he might have not only betrayed Sakura but also Mamoru. But Mamoru stays strong that Kaito isn't a bretrayer and that he's still alive, though many believe he's dead after 6 months with no contact from him have passed. Mamoru is sent on a solo Gradutaion (Sotsugyou) Mission to stop the AI hacker known as 'Necromancer' who had broken into Sakura's security system and caused havock. With the occassional help from Doctor Ten, Doctor Three, and the three new Sakura recruits, Mamoru embarks on his mission, alone.

NON-SPOILER:

Maybe it's because this was my first time seeing Messiah live the flesh but I felt there was a massive step up in production and everything in this stage! The most impressive thing was the choreography for the action. Holy moly, the stunts and the timing was amazing! Also I really enjoyed the projection mapping this time around and how they used it. As usual the music was amazing and also super nostalgic and hearing the bell when the stage began! I cried at the ending to this but for a different meaning than everyone else. I really, really enjoyed this which I didn't expect to and I am definitely looking forward to the next installment. The negatives I have is this story has two plots and one of the plots I absolutely loved and the other plot I absolutely hated and don't want to remember. The second negative is; I really don't like the three new recruits. They're like carbon copies of Messiah character's we've already met and they're boring and I don't really want to get to know them, which is unfortunate because the actors themselves are adorable!

Rating: I don't think I've rated the Messiah series at all up to now... but I'll put it at a safe 8/10 for now.

SPOILERS!

You’ve been warned; all the spoilers ahead!

Strangely enough the spoilers are going to start with my giving a more detailed story plot, which will be ‘colour coded’ due to sections of the story that I personally want to remove from my memory in italics because I hated those parts of the plot. Sound good? Okay!

Kaito Yuri has gone missing and after 6 months have passed everyone believes he's dead while Mamoru stays strong and believes he's alive and that he didn't betray Sakura. Mamoru is sent on a solo Gradutaion (Sotsugyou) Mission to stop the AI hacker known as 'Necromancer' who had broken into Sakura's security system and caused havock such as making satelites fall from the space and hijacking a plane and almost crashing it and in the end it locks onto the nuclear bombs across the world and threatens to set them all off. The rest of the Sakura crew (along with two sciencetists; Doctor Three and Docter Ten, and three new Sakura recruits; Yuge, Kugure and Miike, help Mamoru break into where Necromancer's main source is, but it turns out many people have been implanted with a chip meaning Necromancer can control and use their bodies, even after the person has been killed, which the AI does on several occassions and literally has an army of the undead under it's control. Not only that but turns out the creator of Necromancer is Kumoi Ren; Kagami's supposed-to-be-dead uncle, who long ago had implanted a chip even into Kagami's brain, and Kagami ends up being the HOST and being controlled by Necromancer, thus follows his uncle and leaves Ariga. So now Ariga is desperately trying to save Kagami and trying to find a way to bring him back in control of his body and brain without having to kill him (because we all know he has a streak of killing his Messiahs -__-). SO it turns out Kaito was working with them to help create the AI 'Necromancer' and it ended in them killing him because he protested to officially joining them, and they took and used his brain to fuse with the Necromancer AI software to create the ultimate AI. Meaning Kaito is well and truly dead much to Mamoru's ruined heart and feelings. However, Mamoru learns that because the AI is meshed with Kaito's brain, the AI actually understands emotions, and purposely chose Sakura as the security system to hack, and has a weak spot which is wanting to still protect Mamoru. Mamoru manages to gain control of the Kaito part of Necromancer and it decides to leave Kagami's body and the mission is completed without any nuclear bombs or anything going off. The final scene (as with all Messiah Graduations) is of Mamoru on his solo mission out of Sakura and in his spy uniform when he's surrounded by Necromancer controlled enemies but when one has his gun pointed squarely at Mamoru (who happens to have Kaito’s hairstyle and similar face structure to Hirose), Mamoru says 'let's go Kaito' and again the Kaito part of Necromance takes over that guys body and joins Mamoru's side to fight the rest of the gang. End.

Yeah I ain't even spoiled 80% of the whole story yet! Course I left some things out or else you wouldn't be surprised when you see the stage for yourself.

As you can see, I'm super not happy about the Kaito plot line and I'd like to erase that whole part from the plot. This story work perfectly swell with it just being about a super AI that has taken over Kagami’s body. << also this boy needs more character development so why not let him be the main story?! It really pissed me off how they've dealt Hirose Daisuke's exit from the series. Even just making a silly fucking short VTR of showing him dying would’ve been more satisfactory than a random line he speaks over a computer and better than just a projection mapping of his Sakura profile and at the bottom saying: Dead. and I’m also pissed at Hirose about going to the keikos and seeing the performance AND there’s clearly newly recorded recorded Yuri voice soundbytes for this stage too(!); so he obviously HAD THE TIME to do the fucking stage. Ugh, especially right at the end with the pretty much Hirose student double who LIP SYNCS Kaito’s lines at the end, oh my god I am so pissed about that! lets move on.

---

Now let's get to some specifics in the play that I enjoyed!

I freaking cried! As soon as that bell rang to signal the start of the play an we get Mamoru kicking ass and almost being kicked and it being action packed right from the start? I was like "YES!! THIS IS MESSIAH!!!"

I have such respect in this stage for Tomorun in this. His applause compared to everyone else was so much louder. While the applause at the end was solid anyway (it's the first time I've experienced applause not quieten a little between the bows and the actors getting in position) the sound got like 1000 times louder when Tomorun was stood on his own to bow, and he damn well deserves it! He had a LOT of weight to carry and he had a lot to hold up to in this stage and it really shows through and he was flawless and amazing in his role. He spends 70% of this stage crying his eyes out and/or being beaten to shit. I actually feel sorry for Tomorun for how much pressure he had this time around. We all know who to blame... anyway... One part I really love of Tomorun’s performance is (it’s really small but) when he gets captured and one of the bad guys kicks his leg and Shirasaki falls down on one knee and just the timing and the way he does it is SO good! And I was SUPER lucky the second show! I had a seat for row 13 which is THE row between the two sections which means there's a big enough gap for the actor to go running right past you and even fight in front of you, WHICH Tomorun did at least twice! Each time he stopped EXACTLY in front of me or what fighting RIGHT in front of me and so the wind caused by his punched were right in my face and his coat hits my legs a few times and I was just like 'oooooommmmmmmgggggggggoooooooddd' internally and everytime he exited away it always went quiet but I'm pretty sure people near me always heard me to exhale very deeply as I tried to calm down from the heart racing closeness I was to the action and Tomorun.... holy moly...

Ariga this time... I have a hate relationship with this guy because of what happened with Mamiya but (un)fortunately Izawa Yuki is such a freaking saint. He's so adorable and so nice and he's such an interesting person and this time around Ariga's character was given more room to group and kind of move away slightly from the Mamiya stigma, especially now that Kagami has fully accepted him as his Messiah. And also thanks to Izawa the higawari and improve scenes and lines are gold. He's so funny! So my opinion of Ariga has changed this stage but lets say that's more from Izawa and Kagami's influence rather than Ariga himself. But there's SUCH a good moment at the end when Ariga puts his gun against Shirasaki's chest and says 'See you again' and (I didn't notice the first time so I FREAKED the fuck out and cried hard the second time!) Shirasaki removes his gun and puts it against Ariga's and says 'definitely' SO THEY CHANGED GUNS!! THEY PROMISED TO MEET AGAIN!!! OMG I'M DEAD!! *dead* 

Anyway, I'm glad Ariga's still, in this stage, talking about and facing up and admitting what he did to Mamiya and he still mentions how he regrets it and everything and there's a scene towards the end where I was convinced 'Oh fuck it's Mamiya all over again!' --okay I seriously have to talk about this scene but can we go back a few more steps?

I need to talk about the Ariga x Kagami relationship before I can talk about that scene. 

I am so fucking onboard with this ship now! Holy shit this stage gave me ALL the (what're we calling them?) Karimi? Arimi? KaGa? Basically I am so in love with them as a pair! Holy moly! There's so many juicy scenes with them! Literally after the first mission for Necromancer fails they go on, Ariga and Kagami are talking and Kagami is like 'I'm really glad you accepted me as your Messiah... Mamoru still believes Kaito is alive... and you? ... Do you think Mamiya is alive?' *me with ALL the feels* 'omowanai....kono te de Mamiya wo koroshita. Soshite... ore no Messiah ha Kagami da. // no... I killed him with my own hands. Besides that... you're my Messiah. (I have to put this in the Japanese cos I loved his reply!)' and then the scene Kagami is like 'can you stop that? ... I'm your Messiah... stop calling me Kagami....' 'Then what should I call you?' 'Itsuki'

And we enter the two higawaris from the day where Ariga attempts to call Kagami by his first name:

14:00 Performance

Ariga: 'I....i....iiiii' Sugie: 'Ariga are you okay?' 'I.....iiiiiiiii......iiiii' 'You don't have to force yourself!' 'Iiiiiiiiii!!!!! Renshuu shimasu! / I'll go and practise!' *storms off*

19:00 Performance *Prior to this higawari Sugie actually fucked up his 'I'm your Messiah...' line

Ariga: 'Nnnnnntsuki' Sugie: 'What?' 'Nnnnn...nnnntsuki!' 'Don't push yourself. Lets go slow okay?' 'Okay' 'I' 'I' 'Tsu' 'Tsu' 'Ki' 'Ki' 'Okay! All together' 'NNNNNTSUKI! Renshuu shimasu! / I'll go and practise!' 'Yeah you should,' 'also...don't mess up' / kamu na As Izawa walks off , Sugie yells 'Sumimasen! / I'm sorry' and the whole audience were laughing.

Okay lets get to MORE Ariga x Kagami moments. During their first mission to infiltrate Necromancer they obviously get surrounded and beaten to shit by the bad guys and the choreography is so GOOD. Ariga gets attacked and one of the kicks sends him flying into Mamoru who catchs him in his arms! And THEN Kagami get's attacked and flies into Ariga who catches him and then the guy goes to attack Kagami again and cos Ariga is holding him he turn him around so HE takes the blow instead of Kagami and Kagami is like 'Ariga!!' trying to keep and hold him up!!! Oh my the feels!!!!

Now lets get to the horrible moment... so Ariga finally finds Necromancer infested Kagami and Necromancer is like 'if you shot me hear *points to his head* you'll kill me. But you'll also kill Kagami,' and so the scene unfolds and I ALREADY was convinced someone was going to die this stage(!) before I even knew what the plot was to this stage so I'm watching scene unfold and everyone in the room was already crying and sniffling cos of Mamoru and Kaito's scene just before this one but THIS is where I grab my mouth in shock and I'm like 'oh shit... oh shit it's Mamiya all over again. Oh my god please don't kill Kagami' and I'm sat there and the tears start POURING out and I'm starting to make the most noise cos people haven't already gotten most of their crying out with Mamoru! and then wait for it.... Ariga SHOOTS his gun! BUT it goes PAST Kagami and so Necromancer turns and faces Ariga properly and he's like 'you missed! Right here *points to the center of his forehead' and Ariga SHOOTS again but hits Kagami's shoulder and then shoots another 4 times, three go flying past Kagami as he slowly moves forward towards Ariga and the other hits Kagami's leg, but because he's being controlled by Necromancer, he still keeps moving and ignores the pain and such. And then he TAKES Ariga's gun and SHOOTS him in the stomach and Ariga collaspes and I was FREAKING the fuck out. And of course (because it was so. obviously. set-up.) Ariga yells at him to try and bring Kagami's concious back, 'Kagami.... Kagami! ... KAGAMI!..... ITSUKI!!!!!!' and (I start crying even harder because he's finally called him Itsuki and) for a second Kagami comes back and stops the gun from shooting and killing Ariga. Oh my, I'm dead writing it now!!

The finally amazing shipping moment between these two is after Necromance leaves Kagami's body, Kagami falls unconcious to the floor and Ariga drags himself over to Kagami's side of the stage and sits with one leg under his butt and his other leg is kneeling and he rests Kagami's head on his thigh (almost at his crotch) of his kneed up leg (I hope this names sense) and has his hand on Kagami's shoulder. During this Mamoru is center stage doing the climax of the plot and everything and -- EVERYONE in the room is crying their eyes out at Mamoru and in the first performance I was crying from relief that Kagami didn't die and in second performance I was crying by how beautiful this scene unfolds -- eventually towards the end we see Kagami wake up from conciousness; he stays where he is but he opens his eyes half way and sees Ariga above him and slowly takes his right hand to grab Ariga's shoulder and Ariga sees him and SO STRONGELY grabbed onto Kagami's hand and holds it SO tightly and Kagami smiles and falls back into conciousness as Ariga smiles at him and -- oh my god I'm crying as I freaking right this!! I am so on board with this effing ship now! Oh my god...

Okay I need to go and calm down...

Now to solely talk about Kagami: I freaking LOVE that half of this plot ws HIS story line! I've been dying for MORE Kagaminess because I still think he's very new and underdeveloped, also he's currently my favourite Messiah in the series since Mamiya. BUT to say he was a MAJOR plot in this Sugie defo had LESS stage time than he should've been given. I feel he and James got about the same amount. Just after the higawari with Ariga, Sugie is missing from the stage (but constantly spoken about) for a good 30/40minutes which I think is super weird (and lets blame the writers forcing Kaito into the story again shall we?) so I'm annoyed because Sugie/Kagami really does deserve MORE time on stage. Now that Mamoru has graduated it means Izawa and Sugie's last stage should be next which I fucking hope it isn't because of how UNDER developed both of them I feel still are. They've just got another 2 or 3 installments of development left and needed in my opinion. Especially when Matsuda/Ono did EIGHT stages and movies in Messiah before they graduated, and Kagami's only done 3 installments so far and in such small roles(!). So yeah, Sugie deserved more time on stage as Kagami, especially because he does become a major story plot. Also I freaking LOVE how we got his uncle as the bad guy this time! And seeing the HATE Kagami has for his uncle is wonderful! AND Sugie did these two super cool stunts! One is when two of the guys hold his arms and he does this backwards spin thanks to the momentum and then kicks the crap out of them! Another is the ending credits where a bad guy flips him over before he shoots him and it looked SO freaking cool (and a little dangerous) in the first show but unfortunately they messed up in the second performance but during the curtain call Sugie explained how they have a safe execution if he can't land it properly even though it'll look weird, which it did but good to know they have a back up plan and a safe way to finish it if it doesn't go perfectly ^_^ ALSO a main reason why Kagami is a favourite character of mine (besides his bratty attitude and lollypop eating) is his fighting style. It MUST be something back Sugie because I am in love with both his Kagami and Namazuou (from Touken Ranbu Stage) fighting choreography. He fights so cockily in both roles if I really think about it xD OHHH! Another scene which was SO gun is when he first finds Kumoi and he eventually beats him down and ends up straddling above Kumoi and has a gun to Kumoi's face and Araki's hands (both times) were pretty much AGAINST Sugie's crotch because Sugie sat that far up him! I enjoyed it (a bit too much) even if they're supposed to be uncle and nephew xD

Now lets get to the problem children; the three new Messiah recruits.

I don't like them... I don't like them IF they're going to be the new MAIN Messiahs. If they stay as SIDE characters then I'm happy with them. They aren't bad characters but they're no where near MAIN character material. When the 2nd gen Messiahs came in, they were instantly developed and very well introduced, unlike these three; they're bland and too boring to become mains. I will give them a little room to grow but just... ugh. No I don't want these three to be 3rd Messiah Mains!

Nagae.... Nagae... I don't like you. I liked you for about 5 seconds in HetaMyu but like... your attitude in both roles is just so bad! Also I really don't like your chin! He was alright during the aftertalk but just... I don't like you and your character, Miike, in Messiah is an insensitive cunt << I've been dying to call him this outloud for a good 24 hours. They have a meeting at Sakura and he's just like 'wonder if you'll just kill your Messiah again. It's easy for you to do right' to Ariga! And I (did?) HATE Ariga but that's going fucking too far. Insensitive, inconsiderate little shit. Kagami is a little shit but at least he's a playful one who actually has a freaking heart and cares about those that matter. Miike on the other hand can seriously go jump off a fucking cliff. And you can TELL they've started setting things up for the three new characters because there's a point after he's killed the bad guys and only he is left on stage with a dead body and he's like 'your face looks relax... was living that hard? ... same as me then' and it's like 'oh bitch please! You're a fucking child, fuck off' I really didn't appreciate this sob story for someone who's as motherfucking rude as him. And breathe...

Next is Yugi... he's... alright. He's sweet and wants to help Sakura and he's strong and he's sensitive and he super nice to everyone but his personality is very weak and very... normal? and .... he's just not got the face to be a MAIN cast. Sorry guy!! But your face is very 'side character' looking. I hate myself for being so judgey about his looks but, overall I don't think he (meaning the character) is main Messiah character material at all. And again they obviously set it up at the end where he yells at Miike 'I'll take anyone as my messiah, so long as it isn't you' ugh...

And the last problem child is Kugure who is a carbon copy of Hamao's character. He's got the glasses, he acts all stoic, he plays by the book and does his job as a Messiah. He only has two tiny parts that make him a little bit different to Hamao's character. The first is a higawari with Izawa so technically it's not even his character!

14:00 Performance:

Kugure: 'I read your file' Ariga: 'What did you see?' 'Ariga Ryou's favourite food is... purin' 'Yes I love it... and?' 'The thing your particuar about... is how you eat it' 'Well... how do you eat it?' 'I just put it in my mouth' '...lets go....'

19:00 Performance:

Kugure: 'I read your file' Ariga: 'What did you see?' 'Ariga Ryou's favourite food is... purin' 'Yes I love it... and?' 'The thing your particuar about... is how you eat it. 'Of course I am! Kugure, do you know the Purin dance?' *audience cracks up, Shinchan was clearly not expecting this answer and just doesn't reply* '.........what?' 'Try and do it' '.....okay' *Shinchan slowly moves into position to dance* 'lets go!' and Izawa walks off as Shinchan is still half amused and half embarrassed.

In the aftertalk Shinchan talks about how usually he and Izawa have set higawaris that they'll do but tonight Izawa just made one up on the spot and it really shocked him, and Sugie was like 'yep that's Izawa. He's very unpredictable' xD And at the end of this stage, Kugure goes to Ichijima's office and says 'I have something I want to talk to you about' and Ichijima removes his glasses and says 'follow me' to which Kugure slightly touches his glasses before following him and thinking about it now, Ichijima and Kugure's actors DO look very similar AND they both have glasses. Are they setting them up to be father and son?! That's the feeling I got! ALSO I didn't realise until the end of the second performance who Shinchan was!! Towards the end, I suddenly shot up in my seat and was like 'SHIT that's the guy I like from Owari no Seraph!!! ... Why did I think it was Hashimoto Shohei who did Owari.... OMG IT'S HIM!!!!! Oh he can sing nice....' so yeah I'm a slow dumbass xD

So you can see how they've started to set them up being the next gen and I'm not happy. The actors themselves are sweet and really nice (more in the aftertalk) but... no thank you!

Is it just me or does Asato have a lisp?! It definitely sounded like he had/has one and I found it so cute!!! I expected his role as Doctor Ten to be pretty small in this but as he ends up betraying Sakura and works with Hopporengo, I'm sure he'll be a bigger role in the future. Because I didn't know the first performance he was an undercover spy for the terrorists, I didn't notice the subtle hints BUT the second time around you can SEE what he gets up. You see he purposely gave Mamoru certain information and we see him mess with the computer system JUST before it gets seriously hacked and we see him whispering stuff to Kumoi when Sakura have him captured and stuff. So kudos to the writers and director for the subtleness of showing the audience through multiple viewings what his true nature is.

Doctor Three had a much smaller role than I thought he would especially when Asato is partnered with him but Asato naturally got more stage time. I’m still not really sure about his character but I did enjoy his personality and I really liked his performance during the hacking scene.

Now we get to a character I have an issue with, only because of his name. His name is Amane... AMANE! I’m sorry but we already HAVE an Amane in Messiah so unless it turns out they’re related then why the hell do we have ANOTHER Amane! It’s just rubbing salt into the wounds because Amane is not in this installment and will be leaving the series! Okay, now for the character and actor himself, Amane was a very, very small role so he didn’t really leave an impression, but his uniform is nice and I assume he’s connected to the group of officers Shuuto’s character was apart of but without rewatching it or reading his bio, I can’t be sure if they’re the same unit (because the uniforms are different yet have the same boss). As for Ito himself, he’s so sweet and funny! During the Evening Performance’s curtain call, Nagae was like ‘please look forward to the AfterTalk because this guy at the back (of the stage) is very interesting’ and Nagae did not lie! More on that later. Main point is though: he acts SO cute and I was shocked to learn (after when I looked at the pamphlet) how old he is and everything! He’s totally adorable and needs to be protected like a son. Then I later learnt he’s gunna be the red haired character in Daiya no A stage and he looks amazing in that role! Almost tempted to go...

James... James.... James, James, James... I’ve been following you on twitter for a good year and know how great you are of a person but this day I FINALLY saw you act in the flesh for the first time and it’s the first time I’ve seen you act in something since 7 Days which I saw over a year ago!! And I was not disappointed. Firstly that hairstyle is freaking gorgeous and looks so good on you. Secondly, you fighting with a knife and in those slightly tight, white pants? Hell yes! ALSO (as I knew) you’re playing a terrorist in this? Hell yes!! I was so happy with James in this!!! I am so ready for him to be our next main Terrorist villain ones the Cats are sorted (in the movie I assume). Also I was super surprised when he first started talking because A. I didn’t realise nor remember his voice being as high as it actually is and B. he sounds SO MUCH like Fujita Rei! (<< who also has done Messiah btw ;) ) so yeah I was little surprised at first but his voice IS nice too ^_^ Also also also also!!!!! We got a James vs Izawa fight which obviously made all the fangirls happy! It was short but satisfying!! I also love how his character betrayed his ‘contractor’ at the end and also how brutal and ruthless his character is. ALSO the fact that he throws his gun away a lot in favour of the thrill and risk of fighting JUST with a knife or two is amazing too! His such a good character! OMG!!! His fight with Kuroko too was amazing!! But I’ll talk about that more with Kotani! So yes... thank you James and cannot wait to see you in the movie (even if it is a prequel to this stage like I assume).

I love Araki okay. I’ve loved him since he did TouMyu and played Yoshitsune(ko)! And his character in this is completely different. He is a cold ass, mean uncle in this! But I was so hyped when we learn he’s Kagami’s uncle and how manipulative he’s been and how much he did nothing but train and manipulate Kagami! Also the fact that he even had him getting captured by Sakurai and Kagami joining Sakurai pre-planned and everything was genius! I really enjoyed his final scene too! << mainly thanks to James’ character’s cruelty xD

And now it's time to talk about the wonderful star of the comedy relief show; Kuroko aka Kotani!!!! He was fucking hilarious! So many funny moments I want to talk about! The first is when Mamoru is trying to look at Kaito's profile so see if he could get any hints as to what his last mission was and such and Kuroko comes bouncing in and lightens the mood and then asks the computer 'When will the perfect boy walk into my life?' '...No data could be found' xD 'Oh what?! I wanted valentine chocolate....' and soon after this he gets all happy about something, pulls out a slipper from under his coat and begins to sing but Shirasaki soon stops him. Another amazing moment is when he and Salut are having a knife fight and Salut cuts Kuroko ONCE and Kuroko goes MURDEROUS and unstopable. He turns into an absolute ANIMALS when he's fighting and thus that's why he's been kept more as a housekeeper than as a spy at Sakura Church. That and also because we learn he in fact (like Ariga) killed his own Messiah. But turns out his Messiah was an undercover spy for (a similar group to) Hopporengo. During the end credit, his hits Ichijima on the bum with his brush xD he's such a cheeky but funny guy who goes batshit crazy in the battlefield! Oh my!! Another batshit crazy is when Sakura infultrate the boat that Kagami and Kumoi and Salut are on and he and Shirasaki come BUSTING in and (jesus chrsit I can't believe it happened, I pissed myself the entire time) Kuroko storms onto the boat with TWO machine guns and laughing like a crazy man and spinning around as he spot all the bad guys. It was such an epic but hilarious scene!! There's another great scene where Ichijima is talking about past graduated Messiahs and as he mentioned Haku's name, Kuroko pulls a Nanny milk carton out of his pocket and tries to give it to Ichijima xD Anytime he hit someone on the head with the slipper, it always such a good sound that you couldn't help laugh xD Kuroko EASILY shot to pretty much the top of my 'Fav Messiah Characters Ever' in this stage. He's absolutely gold; both when he's doing comedy AND being a badass!

Lastly I'm going to put Ichijima and Shikura's actors together here; these two have been actors for a long time; they're pros, they're damn good at their job, they're very well known and this wasn't they first Messiah; they were flawless and performed as they should of. The most interesting parts about the actors were how they behaved in the curtain call. Usually older Japanese actors have this scary and serious aura about them BUT in the first curtain call Nagae was trying to be all cute like 'I'm bad at curtain calls. I'm only 18 tehe' and then Osumi straight away was like 'Oooooh I can't give speech. I'm only 18 tehe' and totally ridiculed Nagae and he got so embarrassed and Osumi got a HUGE applause from the audience and then as soon as it died down we could see Nakahara on the other side of the stage acting all childish and only the audience saw and when the members turned around to him he acted normal again xD They were real sports! xD At first I was upset Ichijima was back rather than Naoya's character (and I still haven't figured out Ichijimia and Naoya's chara's relationship and status balance) but after seeing the stage, Ichijima is actually a MAJOR part of the plot so it made sense for him to be back. ALSO everytime Ichijima gets serious about fighting and clicks his leg back into place and fights is always badass and epic to watch! He did not disappoint this time either! ^_^

Curtain Calls

I've pretty much already spoke about the two major points of the two curtain calls I saw so lets just go to the aftertalk; about Nagae being teased for trying to act cute and when Ito got pointed out as a very interesting person. Oh but there was another point; because Sugie failed his stunt during the end credits, he explained about the backup safety plan he and the student guy has in case it doesn't go well, and mentioned how difficult the amount of action is for everyone, but that Tomorun never complains about it but then Izawa is like 'yeah but he complains to me when no one else is around' xD

19:00 AfterTalk: Sugie, Nagae, Ito, Shinchan (guest starring Izawa and James)

The AfterTalk was an absolutely shambles but it was a hilarious and uncontrollably laughing shambles. All four of the boys are absolutely hopeless! Basically none of them could talk properly and Ito at one point (already mentioned) was asked about what he likes about this stage and he’s stands up and goes ‘look at this uniform’ *points to his sleeves* ‘they’re reversed! I didn’t realise until I put it on for our first day! Isn’t it cool. Also look how cool this front is where it extends!’ and everyone was just like ‘....’ >.<

And there was another point where he wanted to talk about a scene or character he liked and he’s like ‘you know when that happens and you know like it goes like that and’ and everyone looked at him like ‘what the fuck are you going on about?’ ‘you get me right?’ ‘.....’ to which Nagae suddenly yelled to the audience 'you see what I mean by he’s interesting!' xD We were all dying. About 10 or 15 minutes into the non-stop random talking, Nagae looks at Sugie and goes 'don't you have a sheet of paper right there with topics for us to talk about?' and Sugie looks at him and went 'what's the point! None of this is interesting compared to the mess of a conversation we're having!' and threw the paper on the floor, killing the audience once again. Nagae went and picked it up for him, 'well if you don't wanna do those topics then why don't we get questions from the audience then?' the audience got super excited but (as predicted) they started going off on another random conversation between themselves. And then Sugie looks back and is like 'Izawa... why you taking pics of us from there?' and he replied 'you continue. I'll take pics!' and one of the guys was like 'you might as well come out here if you're gunna talk!' and he's like 'nah I'm good!' and then another of them went 'Oh look! It's Ariga and the guy that looks like him' xD to make the audience laugh EVEN more, Nagae commented: 'you know (the scene) when they're fighting? It's like a video where it's the same player (but in different clothes)' xD

The next topic was about what characters or side (Messiah / Police / Terrorist) they'd like to be on and it ended up (thanks to Ito, see above) becoming a 'what clothing do you like' topic and Sugie complained at how he's just all in black and it's boring and he'd like something like James' outfit with a little splash of white clothing. He complimented James' white pants and you just heard this 'thanks!!' from behind the curtain XD Sugie also spoke about when they all first got the script, his name just said ‘Sugie Taishi = Kagami Itsuki / N’ and then when they did the first read through THEN they realised N meant Necromancer and that at first he found it challenging to play N (because you basically how to act like a robot).

EDIT 2017.02.21: Another thing that was mentioned was suddenly Sugie started talking about ‘we didn’t know if this was going to be the last or not. And we didn’t know what was going to happen next’ which means there was a CHANCE Messiah wasn’t going to continue after THIS one or even get this one! But now that they’ve announced a new stage in Autumn and we’ve still got the movie to look forward to. Looks like they might be continuing it after all, especially when (starting with this play) it’s been labelled the New Messiah Series; so clearly they intend to continue the series under this new name.

By the way, Izawa really DID get takes from behind the curtain during the aftertalk:

You're welcome ;)

Extras

I think you're probably going to know all these already but lets have a quick run down of the non-actor things:

- The choreography is absolutely amazing! I've already said this but I really do feel like everything, including the choreography was stepped up massively this time! So many cool stunts and spins and swings and everything! - I really really really really want and need a Messiah OTS seriously. I freaking love all the music!! Even in the new stage!! Seriously, I just want a CD of all the Messiah music they use EVERY stage including the bell at the beginning of EVERY stage! <3 - Linking to the choreography; the stunt men* were phenomenal! - I really liked the staging and the stage design this time. Even with the scary SLOPE right at the front of the stage. But I loved the computer screen-like props they had at the top of the stage. - The projection mapping was used very well! It definitely didn't feel distracting (hell sometimes I hadn't even realise it'd been pulled down because of how well they co-ordinated everything) - The lighting was great too!

*I realise I've called them stunt me the entire review and that I should really call them ensemble but do you realise how long this review has taken me? I ain't going back and correcting it all. You all know who I mean anyway! xD

---

Okay I'll stop here! Pretty sure I've spent like 4 hours making this review! I'm done! Hope you enjoyed it!

#messiah #messiah akatsuki #akatsuki #メサイア #暁 #杉江大使 #井澤勇貴 #山田ジェームズ武 #赤澤燈 #橋本真一 #安里勇哉 #荒木健太郎 #sugie taishi #izawa yuuki #akazawa tomoru #yamada james takeshi #asato yuya #araki kentaro #hashimoto shinichi #review #stage #stage review #舞台 #messiah project #messiah series

[raconteurofdrollery-blog]

From what little I gleaned from half-watching the first episode, it looked like World Conquest Zvezda Plot was sort of a Megamind-style supervillain parody about world domination, except instead of blue Will Ferrell, it had a tsundere loli.

So many other great anime that no one cares about could also be made by taking some other story and replacing the main character with a tsundere loli. For example, Frank Castle in Netflix’s The Punisher is a psychopathic murderer who only feels at home when he’s killing. That’s close enough to a tsundere. Let’s make a version with a tsundere loli.

<

p>Instead of that body armor with the skull on it, and the long coat, loli Punisher—let’s call her Furaka—is a military otaku who wears camouflage booty shorts with flared bloomer-like legs and a camouflage crop top over her flat chest. The crop top would have a skull on it, though, and she’d have little grenade earrings, and maybe an eyepatch. Her version of Micro would be a nerdy computer club guy named Kazuma, because every anime has a main character named Keita, Kazuma, Kazuki, Keima, Keitaro, or something like that, and I just picked one randomly. Furaka would also have a bunch of tsundere loli comrades that she fought in the war with (what war? Who cares, it’s a tsundere loli military otaku!) The villain would be a grandiose old man in a general’s uniform who’s also a perv who tries to set up cameras in the girls’ locker room. He and his two pervy henchmen would constantly try to see the girls naked, but Furaka would defend the girls’ maidenly honor by shooting them with her massive arsenal. She also constantly thinks Kazuma is trying to sneak a peek at her naked, and hilariously chases him off into the sunset while trying to stab him with a combat knife at the end of every episode. Of course, it’s just because she has a crush on him—but if anyone ever mentions that, she’ll pull out her AK-47 and start blasting rounds everywhere.

#just add tsundere loli #the punisher #anime

[prism-rush]

King of Prism Road to SSS 1: On Your Mark Taiga

If you haven’t read my translation of the Road to SSS 1 Main Story I’d advise you to read that first:

Road to SSS 1 Main Story

Translators Notes: This is Taiga’s character story from Road to SSS 1. This story highlights why it would be difficult to try and incorporate in these character side stories together with the main event stories, and why I may not translate many of them going forward. Taiga’s story has a different version of the entrance ceremony from the main story (from Taiga’s perspective), and not to mention Shin’s card (if I get to that) has a third version of that same scene. Figuring out how to combine them would be a nightmare.  (There also exists three different versions of Shin/Louis flirting at the photo shoot in this event as well.)

But anyway, I also think this story is important, so enjoy!

Taiga: So tomorrow is the entrance ceremony for senior high, huh...

I got a red necktie and a “ST” badge... both of these are new.... 

(...But it just doesn’t feel right....)

No. I have made the decision! 

(Truth is, I don’t really want to change my school uniform...)

But well... I guess just changing my necktie isn’t such a big deal. 

....I did get to come all the way out to Tokyo for this, after all....

(Also, my badges... the reason I decided to take off the badges I have been wearing up until now, is...)

....Well, the thing is, Kazuki-san said he’d leave the street-style of Edel Rose to me. Even after I’ve done nothing to show him I deserve a responsibility like that. I can’t keep showing him my pathetic side like this. I have to have pride as a top level street style prism star. 

So that’s why I... will graduate from Kazuki-san!  

*knock, knock*

Kazuki: Heey, Taiga! Are you there?

Taiga: Ka... Kazuki-san!! J-Just a minute!

*knock knock*

Taiga: O-Okay! Come in!

*click*

Kazuki: Sorry for barging in at a busy time. I just wanted to know what time you’re going to leave tomorrow. 

Taiga: Ah... Yes.. Tomorrow--

Kazuki: Oh yeah! So you’re finally going to be a senior high student, huh? Be sure to live it up and leave no regrets!

Taiga: I will! I will be an outstanding senior high student! 

(I will graduate from Kazuki-san... and become someone worthy of standing beside him....!) 

(On the day of the entrance ceremony)

Taiga: (To think Kazuki-senpai would come to see me off! This is the best possible first day of senior high school I could ever ask for!)

Shin: Taiga-kun, we have to get going!

Taiga: I don’t see any reason to rush. Even if we’re late I don’t really ca– 

Shin: Nope, that’s no good! It’s your entrance ceremony! We’re going right now!!

Taiga: Okay, okay I heard you! I’m going already so stop pulling me so hard….

(On the way.)

Shin: Ahh... you know, I’m actually kinda nervous about the entrance ceremony. 

Taiga: Oh? Not much is gonna change though. We’ve just got new clothes and are going a new part of the building... that’s all. 

Shin: Well, I guess if you put it that way it doesn’t sound so bad... But still, for some reason I just can’t relax. Taiga-kun, it’s really amazing how calm you are... !

Taiga: Whatever. It’s not a big deal. 

(My goals have nothing to do with this sort of thing.)

 ???: Mew, mew...

Taiga: ...Hm?

Shin: What’s wrong?

Taiga: Oh... it’s nothing... (Am I hearing things? ....No, I think it was real. I just heard something crying, didn’t I? Was that... a cat...?) 

Student: Hey, Kougami! You better start running if you’re gonna make it in time! 

Taiga: Uh-huh... (Dammit... I can’t stop thinking about it...!) I’m gonna take a leak... 

Student: For real!? NOW!? Make it quick!

Taiga: *panting* It was around here, wasn’t it.... Ah! There!

???: Mew, mew... Mew!

Taiga: What’s going on here.... There are cats... seven of them.... 

Seven cats stuffed in a cardboard box... were you guys just thrown out...?

Cats: Mew mew!

Taiga: Woah! S... Stay back!

Cats: Mew....

Taiga: And don’t look at me like that! (Dammit... there’s seven of them... it’s the same...)

(It’s the exact the same number as us at Edel Rose...) 

Cats: Mew mew.....

Taiga: AAAAGH… DAMMIT OKAY I heard you. If I take you guys with me you better behave. Come on, get into my school uniform. …Hey! Settle down!

Cats: Mew! Mew! Mew!

Taiga: S… Stop licking me! That tickles! Ugh... well.... I guess I’ve gotta take you to the entrance ceremony for now....

(At school)

Taiga: (Pfft.... Great. Of course it already started huh....)

Teacher: So you’re Kougami, huh!? So this is how you’re starting off the school year… I’ve heard all about you!

Taiga: ….*sigh*…..

Teacher: Don’t you get an attitude with me! Where were you!? Tell me why you were late right now, young man! 

Taiga: It was nothing... I was nowhere.... 

Teacher: Well I’m sure you couldn’t have been nowhere! 

Taiga: I told you! I don’t need a reason to be late!

Teacher: Well I never... This is why you’re a problem student. Whatever! Just get in line!

Taiga: (....Well, I got through that somehow. And the entrance ceremony is almost over anyway, so as long as nothing else happens...)

Cats: Mew, mew! 

Taiga: Hey! You idiots! It’s almost over, so just chill for a few more minutes... Ow! (Oh crap! The cats are...)

Students: W... Why is there cats!? Did Kougami bring cats!? Did Kougami bring too many cats!?

Taiga: ARGH! Dammit! Get back here! (I got back a few of them... But not all seven!)

Shin: Oh, there you are! Taiga-kun!

Taiga: Huh? Oh, Shin… You caught them for me? Thanks.

Shin: Well…. You don’t need to thank me, if you could just tell me why you have so many cats? 

Taiga: Uhh… Well. Y’know. Okay, 1, 2, 3…. All right! I got all seven of them back! (Now to put them back in my shirt...)

Cats: Mew mew, mew!

Taiga: .......  

 Well anyway, thanks for the help. I’ll be going.

Shin: Huh?! Taiga-kun, wait! The entrance ceremony isn’t over yet…

(Some time after the entrance ceremony...)

Cats: Zzz.... Zzz....

Taiga: *sigh*.... Dammit, there’s just no place that can take all seven of you guys. But... you seven all want to stay together, right?

Cats: Mew....

Taiga: Haha... Even in your sleep you still answered me. But, what should I do now...

Cat Cafe Staff: Hello, young man. Could it be you’re looking for someone to take in those cats?

Taiga: Who are you...?

Cat Cafe Staff: I run a cat cafe. Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear you... If it’s alright, would you leave them to me?

Taiga: Hey, but. Will these guys all get to stay together...? 

Cat Cafe Staff: Yes, of course. 

Taiga: In that case, please. Hey you guys, this is great. Be good, okay!

Cats: Mew, mew! 

Taiga: (...Now I can relax.)

(All seven can stay together.) 

...AH! I’m supposed to have a photo shoot after this...! I have to hurry!! 

#king of prism #kinpri #king of prism sss #road to sss #road to sss event 1 #road to shiny seven stars #king of prism shiny seven stars #my original translation of the reason taiga wanted to graduate from kazuki was incorrect #i assumed he was talking about kazuki being pathetic #but re-reading this after watching SSS I'm pretty sure he was talking about himself #his thoughts on kazuki changed after pride the hero and i didn't fully realize that at the time #episode 3 made it clear #taiga kougami