Hello!! If you're still taking requests for that drabble game, might I request either Strength with Kotoko + Mikoto or Weak with Amane + Futa? It's fine if you aren't doing it anymore, of course
I've been in this fanbase since trial one and out of all the things I've read, your writing is probably amongst my favorite! (Even if I haven't finished going through it all yet...) I hope you have a splendid day! <3
!!!!! You are so kind waaahh this completely made my day, thank you ;---; I'm so glad you're enjoying omg ✨And thanks for these, they were really cool and fitting combos!! I tried to do a dual-perspective of Kotoko and Mikoto's pre-T2 fight, and I posted the one for Weak below.
Strength can manifest in a variety of ways, not just physically. Kotoko had a strong determination, for example. Mikoto had a powerful way with people. She showed solid self control and willpower. He held to strict deadlines and routines. She maintained a sharp intelligence. He upheld an unshakeable resolve.
Also, they were both ridiculously physically strong.
The pair came to this realization around the same time. They’d gotten a taste of the others’ power when clashing in the interrogation room, but it had begun suddenly and ended just as quickly. This time was different. They stood in the center of the panopticon, with the echoing space to themselves. As Kotoko swung a punch toward Mikoto, and he caught her against his forearms, they had a moment to gauge the other’s muscle.
Kotoko stared into his eyes, which had a different sort of awareness to them now. He’s more coordinated, she thought, he must not be the same one I faced before. He’s leaning on the strength in his arms -- he’s not using his legs to their fullest potential. It doesn’t matter, given the raw force of his blows. Has he trained for fights, or just built his muscles in general?
Mikoto stared into her eyes, returning her fiery gaze. Fuck, this lady’s strong.
She wound up again. He retaliated quickly. She shoved his back into the guard’s tower. He sidestepped her next attack.
He didn’t really care why his fellow prisoner had come charging at him swinging, but she made sure he knew.
“The warden may not be able to administer punishments,” she said in between timed breaths, “so they entrusted me with that responsibility. This is justice, for the lives you’ve taken. You won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
He broke into harsh laughter. “You’re one crazy motherfucker! You’re the only person hurting anyone.” He tried to grab her, but she slipped from his arms. His eyes narrowed, laughter dying away with unsettling speed. “But there’s no way in hell I’m letting you hurt me.”
Kotoko was struck by the way he said it. Her voice had shaken with the very same determination when putting herself between an innocent citizen and some creep. It was how she felt now, trying to keep his violent hands away from the other prisoners. There were children here, weak and scared. Es themself was just a child, and had already suffered his violence. She refused to let this villain cause any more pain. “I’m doing what needs to be done. You’re nothing but a murderous monster.” She swung her fist.
Mikoto caught her by the wrist, forcing her to look at the blood caked in her hand. He didn’t know whose it was, but it wasn't either of theirs. “You’re the fucking monster!” He shoved her backwards. “And I’m gonna kill you for it…!”
He didn’t know how she could think she was the hero in this whole situation. He was the one protecting someone else.
Neither held back. Mikoto wheezed as her boots connected. Kotoko cringed as Mikoto landed a solid hit on her face. There was some shouting from the hallway. Their resolves hardened. Mikoto wasn’t going to let anyone else threaten him. Kotoko wasn’t going to let him threaten anyone else. They were strong, they reminded themselves. They had to end this now.
The two charged at one another. A moment before they were set to collide, they both cried out in pain. Blinding white light flooded the dark panopticon. They clutched their eyes, stumbling away from one another. A figure shoved through, planting himself between them.
“Stop this, both of you!” It was Kazui.
“Get outta my way,” Mikoto growled.
“This is not your concern,” Kotoko said, blinking in the light.
The spotlight in the guard’s tower had been switched on, pointed directly at them. Kazui remained in place. “That’s enough. Look at yourselves, for god’s sake!”
Under the harsh light, they now saw the sort of state they were in. Mikoto’s uniform had torn in new places, blood seeping through. He could taste some in his mouth, too. Kotoko’s face was cut. Her leg ached. They stood covered in bruises, panting.
“Go back to your cells,” Kazui commanded. “We’ll sort this out in the morning.”
Kotoko squared her shoulders. “There’s nothing to sort out. He’s a murderer. I won’t lose to him.”
“This bitch tried to kill me. I’m not letting her get away with it.”
“I don’t care.” Kazui said simply. “Call it a draw. You’ll both tear yourselves apart if you keep going.”
They continued staring at one another as if their gaze alone could take them to the ground, but neither moved to fight.
Mikoto felt a pang of guilt. Lost in adrenaline, he didn’t realize how banged up he was. He thought of how much pain he’d experience in the upcoming days. The whole point was to save himself from harm.
Kotoko cursed Kazui for interrupting her. As one of the forgiven, he was supposed to be on her side. Even if he wasn’t honorable enough to see her as an ally, she’d have to be the bigger person. She wouldn’t threaten him.
Neither was happy about conceding, but couldn't think of a better option given their end goals.
Kazui remained between them as they stalked off to their respective cells.
“A temporary draw,” Kotoko muttered to Mikoto. She flashed a grin that felt more like an animal baring its teeth.
He returned the smile. “You won't be so lucky next time.”
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boy i love it when a battle comes together in a narratively perfect way
sixth or seventh try at the cazador battle. for once instead of opening with a call lightning, he decides to open with a blight and insta-kill my bard, who normally starts by dimension-dooring to free astarion. this means that things get perilously close to popping off ascension-wise before jaheira and shadowheart can get her back up and a Daylight off. this kind of sets the tone for the battle, which goes Badly for almost the whole time. it hits the point where both my bard and shadowheart are just spamming Mass Cure Wounds and Mass Healing Word to keep people on their feet.
however. eventually astarion gets in perfect postion to break out the scroll of disintegrate right at cazador. who fails the save. and finally takes a proper hit to his ridiculous HP pool. he then pitches a fit and runs right at astarion to try and fuck him up, but the healing from the ladies keeps him on his feet - and then cazador was in perfect 'astarion has a scroll of Sunbeam' range. he did also hit ryse with it because i didn't realise she was in range. it's fine. she gets it. she's cast fireball on herself to get enemies before now. that put him on his last legs.
and then astarion'd taken a potion of speed before, so he had another attack - and he was wearing the risky ring, so he had sneak attack from the advantage.
get fucked, cazador.
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It’s finally time for Magical Girl au yaaay! I’ve wanted to make one since I started watching Sailor Moon (& rewatched Magica Madoka) a couple months ago 🐙
I use the term Magical Girl loosely, but it doesn’t mean everyone has a skirt & highlighter color palette. Really it only means you get a cool outfit transformation & magic for fighting demons.
The breathing styles are like different forms of magical girls. Different divisions that Magical Girls train under I should say. (Aka if canon Slayer corps cared more about having strong highly trained members from the start instead of the final arc). The most popular/prevalent Breathing Styles have their own division (which is why Insect or Love doesn’t have one, since those were created recently and used only by one person)
There’s a bigger emphasis on teamwork (because that’s usually how the protagonists overpowers enemies that would definitely kill them otherwise) so just about every mission no matter your rank is with at least one other Slayer.
I also use “Division Leader” & “Hashira” often but don’t get them mixed up. Out of the Hashira, only about 4-5 have led their own divisions.
All Division Leaders are Hashira, but not all Hashira are Division Leaders if that makes sense.
Division Leader’s Estates are for housing (temporarily) and training of the lower ranks of their breathing style.
The non-Division Leader Hashira don’t have personal Estates. But because teamwork & friendship is important, they all share one Estate. Its the size of an average personal Estate, just split between the rest of the Hashira. It’s big enough for them to live comfortably without overcrowding each other
Out of the non-division leaders, Mitsuri, Uzui, Muichiro and Obanai share that estate. Shinobu stays with Kanae in the Butterfly Estate.
(The Kakushi are same as in canon)
Main divisions:
Magical Water Division, led by Giyuu & Sabito
Magical Wind Division, led by Sanemi
Magical Stone Division, led by Gyomei
Magical Flame Division, led by Kyojuro
Magical Flower Division, led by Kanae (yes she’s alive)
I know that Thunder Breathing was one of the original five, but I can’t find a suitable Leader or purpose for their Division. Zenitsu isn’t near powerful enough, Jigoro retired before the era of our current hashira. So I replaced their division slot with Flower because Kanae <3
As far as weapons go;
Every magical slayer has a sword and learns their respective breathing style, and each one of them has a specific ability/magic set.
I’m Introducing magic as a stand-in for the Pretty Guardians’ specialized attacks. (Like how Sailor Moon has ‘Moon Spiral Heart Attack’ that’s specialized to her usage only.)
In the au, Everyone has a Sword and their Breathing Style, but everyone’s magic abilities are different.
Sometimes you just need that extra slap to take out demons. This would definitely help when swords break mid fight. While magic alone isn’t enough to take out a demon, it can weaken them which could give slayers time to call for backup or retreat.
Also you pretty much sell your soul to become a Slayer
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the higher-ups (and Yaga) immediately trying to leverage Gojo & Ieri's absence to put Yuuta on the roster??? God that's such a stark moment. Thank god Nanami and Gojo saw through that one immediately, because Yuuta wants to justify his own survival so badly he would've fallen straight into it.
That whole scene, with Yuuta immediately jumping on the opportunity to help people even though something is Extremely Wrong with him and he's on the brink of physical collapse--this boy is selfless to the point of self destruction and I am chewing the drywall about it. I love him so much.
If only he was able to summon his newly found homicidal rage in defense of himself, the higher-ups would no longer be a problem. Alas, this boy is Extremely Unwell.
(Sea Glass Gardens is absolutely incredible and i am obsessed with it in a way that is totally and 100% normal. I'm so normal about it, trust me <3 )
The thing about Yuuta is that he really is prime to be taken advantage of right now and the higher ups know it. They had him try to kill himself for them--they know that there's a window of opportunity that they can use to get him under their thumb and avoid The Problem of Gojo, which is, namely, having a human weapon who you cannot fully control. Gojo nailed it from the beginning: they want a magic gatling gun with no personality or free will. They learned their lesson with Gojo and are trying to rob Yuuta of his agency before he learns how to protect himself.
And Yaga's part in that scene really was meant to kind of emphasize how, even with the best intention's, he just doesn't work to protect the kids. Like. everything he said was technically true, and he meant it with the best of intentions. He's the guy who has to think of everyone's needs. he has to manage this crisis. he's got a lot of people hurt badly who just came out of a war, and a lot of people going into fights with some very aggravated curses spawning without sufficient manpower to address the danger and no healer to save them if they cut it a little too close. He didn't have the intention of manipulating or sacrificing Yuuta, but he was aware that it would come to his detriment and risk.
The issue is the higher ups. They don't give a shit about the people in their workforce. They should be the ones doing whatever it takes to solve this crisis and save their people--and if that means giving up on their machinations? They should have already done it. It's their responsibility.
They just don't care. They want Okkotsu Yuuta under their thumb, and their society hemorrhaging is treated like an opportunity, not a dire problem to be solved. They don't care if half a dozen of their own people need to die to do it. Hell, it's better if they do die--they can put it straight on Okkotsu for not being willing to sacrifice himself, when they should have been making whatever promises they had to in order to make this work.
Gojo's done this before, is the thing. He was Yuuta, a long time ago. Nanami was right there watching it happen. They both know what the higher ups do: They let society get to a crisis level and put all the responsibility on you to save it. they let you maneuver yourself into a vulnerable position as a result, and then they use it as leverage to put their goddamn boot on your neck.
The thing is that Gojo adopting megumi all those years ago really did put them into a crisis state. the zenin pitched the mother of all bitch fits trying to secure his unconditional return, and they were a huge percentage of jujutsu society's labor force and resource pools. instead of the higher ups managing the problem at all, they took advantage of the situation and shoved more and more of its weight and responsibility onto gojo, until he was dropping off his own kid at his abusers' compound thinking it was the only compromise that could resolve things. megumi paid the price for gojo not calling bullshit, and right now, with him in a hospital bed? gojo's less willing to repeat mistakes than ever.
he knows that they're going to use the safety and suffering of everyone else as the leverage against him, and he knows that as terrible as it is, he cannot blink first. He's played this game before, and he knows that the only way to get the higher ups to back off on something like this is to dig in your heels.
I think what happened to Megumi all those years ago and how bad it got before they put a stop to it is something that haunts all three of them. When they first started raising him, they were very young, and they were very broken, and they loved him very, very much. He was their little boy, and he was never the same after the Zenin. They were supposed to protect him, and they didn't, and not a single one of them has forgiven themselves for that.
Megumi was sort of sacrificed for the greater good when he was a kid. None of them thought that that was what they were doing when it happened, but that's what happened. His happiness, safety, and wellbeing were sacrificed to pacify the Zenin and make it easier on everyone else.
Megumi and Tsumiki had to become their non-negotiables after. They had to become the things they refused to compromise on. The Zenin would take miles and miles if you gave them a millimeter, let alone an inch.
Gojo didn't think he was compromising them when he left them on their own to deal with Geto's war. They were disgustingly self-sufficient kids. They had been alone for longer stretches of time when they were practically toddlers--they should have been fine on their own for a couple of weeks.
But they were still his kids, and he still left them alone for everyone else's sake, and now his kid is blind and half dead in a hospital bed. It's like being punched in the face by old mistakes.
So they're off the roster completely, all of them. And they're not compromising an inch on what their focus is, and they're not letting anything happen to any of the other kids in their care.
It's terrible that their coworkers are suffering, but it wouldn't be happening if the Zenin hadn't fucked with Gojo Satoru's kid, of all the goddamn people. It wouldn't be happening if the higher ups would actually do their job and start managing shit.
And if they use Yuuta as an anxiety riddled bandaid on the bullet hole in their society? Then they'd be sacrificing him the way they sacrificed Megumi all those years ago. And they have never been less willing to do that.
I'm so so glad you like the story! Thank you for talking with me!
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honestly, episodes like this that are so stellar in almost every way just make it all the more frustrating when bones fucks up so bad other times. Like the quality of season 4 has probably been the most consistently good the anime has been since season 2, and yet the entire series still on average just reeks of tonal issues, pacing issues, wonky expressions that don’t do Harukawa’s art justice, cutting of crucial scenes or internal dialogue, and straight-up just completely missing the point and nuances of so many moments in the manga/light novels.
BSD has always been dark and gritty to an extent, but the anime has always been too “fluffy” (for lack of a better word, or I guess shounen-y) to truly understand and capture that, and it’s so frustrating when episodes like this one and Mushitarou’s episodes clearly DID have a lot of love and understanding and attention to detail put into them. Even the Dark Era episodes, which is my favorite and what I consider to be the best story content in the entire franchise, are imo honestly outclassed by the aforementioned episodes purely in terms of adaptation. But then episode 6 this season was incredibly rushed, and Dazai’s arrest scene completely butchered (and Nikolai’s bird speech, to an extent). Atsushi hallucinating Dazai in episode 8 was mediocre as well. Kunikida always has his core character moments shafted. Dazai is never allowed to be vulnerable or “uncool”. Season 3 had “Portrait of a Father” aka arguably one of the most important and most powerful chapters in the entire manga up there with Yosano’s backstory chapters, and yet it’s absolutely the most pathetic, hollow shell of an “adaptation” I’ve ever seen in my life and yes I WILL forever be salty about it.
But then they pull an episode like this out of their asses, where they actually tried. It’s so frustrating. </3
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