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zoroara · 7 months

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Okay, something very important you are about to learn about me: I am obsessive about many things. One of these happens to be swords and sword fighting, among a few other weapon types but mostly those two. (Also hilariously sharks also are one of these things. Some how neither of these were influenced by khr being a VERY long standing thing.) This post is going to be aggressively long.

And I'll save you guys with a read more. But, in essence what I'm going to be doing here if I'm going to be plainly looking at the three swordsmen, Yamamoto, Squalo and Genkishi's swords, weaknesses and strengths as well as things like battle techniques and generally what you would actually want to do in a fight with those swords. For simplicities sake I'm not going to be factoring in things like Squalo's gunpowder bombs, or flames(which affects a lot of genkishi's fighting sorry dude) and generally things like that. Note there is going to barely be a structure and I'll be writing whatever tangent I happen to think of so like. Good luck. But maybe this'll be interesting for writing.

Now with that clarification out of the way let's dig into the meat here.

Okay obviously we're starting with Yamamoto himself.

So, Katana or well standard Katana as there are several classes of Katana. Are about 24 - 31 inches long(or approx 60 - 78 cm long) his blade is a bit longer than this at which point it becomes something known as the "O Katana" set instead of the standard, they're typically used two handed which Yamamoto does use it as a good potion of the time. They're fairly straight blades, and an important factor to note, folding a sword increases it's sharpness, but can make it more brittle and generally depending on the way it's been folded can affect the whole blade to not be capable of blocking hits well, Katana generally are best used when you have clear ways of attacking, though they can be used to block obviously, you'll want to more change the trajectory of the other blade using the curve of yours more than full stop block something you can do more with European blades.

Things I want to point out in the battle this is used before we move on to the irregular swords.

Yamamoto, while I understand doesn't know much about swords, here's the thing. Though it is a common trope, it you were to hit someone with the back of a blade in a position that does not in fact flex, which i want to note European swords do on the flat of the blade, which will come up later on squalo's section. Hitting someone with the flat, and the back will do fundamentally different things. Yamamoto basically turned his sword into a blunt weapon, if that HAD hit squalo, while it wouldn't have killed him, it WOULD likely break bone and cause internal bleeding the same way taking any pure blunt metal object being swung by a baseball player WOULD DO. WHICH BEING HONEST MIGHT JUST KILL THE MAN ANYWAY.(if Squalo of course, could die. God finds him too funny to let him die)

What gets me here in particular is Squalo's reaction to this. The thing is, this is absolutely not an invalid way of holding a sword. In fact, usually in armor that restricts movements you may adapt techniques that are slightly altered, a lot of ways to hold other weapons can be transferred to a sword, and have been. This way would give the same momentum and range of movement as a swing from a baseball bat, and in fact the only thing strange about this is actually the foot stance, for Squalo to gawk at this, he is either in-experienced with more armoured opponents, or has not encountered that large of a variety of sword technique as others claim he has

(it should be noted he never makes the claims himself except with Shigure Soen Ryu everything we learn about him is from other people. Squalo actually doesn't gloat about his accomplishments and in the manga the only time he calls out what attack he's using is in rainbow arc when he's using his special box weapon move with his exec squad. most of what he says is degrading the opponent or taunts. Patting himself on the back is more of a Levi move-).

Also fun fact about Shigure Soen Ryu, the 6th form is never seen in the series. All we know is that it's a defensive technique. Also how lucky is it they were fighting in a water based arena, half these moves would not go well otherwise-

Now! Moving on, as I cannot possibly tell you shit about swords made of pure flame. I'll be talking about the blades they're originally based on.

So these "swords" are actually known as Tantō they're basically small daggers about 6 - 12 inches (approx 15 to 30cm) in that were often carried with a longer sword like the Tachi and the katana as a support to the free hand, generally with the idea that if you have a hand that's empty you're either protecting it or using something. you typically never want your whole body face your opponent. something too many of these idiots do. For obvious reasons you want to minimize the space your opponent has to hit. That's why when you see a lot of sword fighting, even with big heavy blades, most of the time the stand their sides more predominantly facing their opponent than straight on.

Anyway, moving on the the Necklace of Rain version X! It's honestly a shame we barely get to see any actual moves outside of the flame stuff.

Here's something interesting! When dual wielding blades, it's best to actually have two different sized ones, this way you'll be making certain strikes faster and slower, among other things will make it easier to avoid hitting your blades together. You typically do not want to bring your swords in a place where they would meet in a strike, like X motions commonly made in this series, unless they're different sizes or you have enough control to slightly delay one blade more than the other. Otherwise they will clash and depending where the strike would have started, completely prevent the attack!

Other fun fact, this was a common technique with Samurai(one of the reasons it was common however was due to a Japanese law I'm not getting into here. It was not just because of the benefits to it.) Daishō, is typically depicted with a Wakizashi or a Tantō, however the technique itself is with any long blade and a short blade. Given that Yamamoto was already given four Tantō, I'm almost certain despite the length this was intended to be a Wakizashi.

Now, I could absolutely not tell you why one of them has those gaps though. Well other than the obvious "it looks cool" They could potentially be used as gaps like in other blades to catch weapons and disarm opponents, though, these gaps are very big and would more than likely sacrifice the structural integrity of the sword more than they would be useful. If they are smaller they may see more use in that way.

Other interesting fact, there ARE Serrated Katana blades, but. Well they're against the Geneva convention, but also they don't exist in history and is more of a modern thing that was made for """"fun"""". The reason they don't exist in history is because Serrated blades would get caught in the flesh and would be very hard to get out of an opponent... which is also why they're against the Geneva convention.

Now, We'll move onto Squalo, who because unlike this Section of swords, which the Katana, O Katana, Wakizashi look very similar just in different sizes and the Tantō were pretty much as shown(though you'll find prettier pictures of them), I'm going to have to bring up images of what I'm talking about because no one is going to know what the FUCK I'm Saying.

First off, drives me nuts by the way. As you'll soon find out, neither of Squalo's swords is a Spatha. I do not know WHY this is on the wiki, I do not know it's source, I do not know where this information is from nor who identified his sword as such. If it was a decision by Amano themself to call it a Spatha, it is incorrect. As you've seen above, swords just being different sizes alone despite the rest being almost the exact same makes them different swords, with different names. Additionally when you take this over to European blades, there's also a ton of different guards, hilts, shape, whether the blade is flat or not etc to take into account when identifying a blade.

So automatically, whatever sword Squalo has attached to his arm is not a fucking Spatha if it's referring to this.

Now we'll compare the blade's shape, which as you can see, Spatha actually prefer a round to their edge.

A fairly close shape to this can be argued that maybe it's a 16 or a 13 blade and he just removed it's hilt,pommel and guard. HOWEVER, we know this blade almost reaches Squalo's ankle when he's standing full height. It's REALLY long, as you can see, the 16 and 13 are more on the shorter end of these blades. and they certainly aren't thin enough. The shorter end of these blades before it goes into GladII range is about as long as his calf. These blades are also evidently thicker than what Squalo has generally.

Also Spatha have grooves like this in the sword which isn't depicted in the overall shape, they have these though can be found with only one they're typically more ornamental or smooth if they have these sorts, they're very flat blades so it's not for the shape. Squalo's blade tends to be more than a flat sheet while it's swung sideways.

This thing is custom made to hell and back and cannot exactly be considered exactly one type of sword other than "Vaguely European". However, if I were to tell you what sword he may have taken for a base I would hand you the Italian Arming sword

Very long, clear sharp end, has the correct thickness to the blade among other things. He still would have definitely lengthened it to something that generally you would two hand. Which says something about the body strength Squalo has in his arm. Because let me tell you, it does not matter if you can lift 10 pounds easily. If that is distributed over a long length it gets harder and harder to wield and control. Usual physics stuff you know? If you're writing Squalo remember this dude is fucking shredded to carry a sword that's technically a type of long sword with only one fucking arm and swinging it around as if it's not even there. Now that's a man you don't want to arm wrestle. (well for other reasons than just that but really. Generally you do not want this man within arms reach. He will kill you.)

Now for his other sword that is FOR SURE not a Spatha.(I'm sorry this drove me fucking nuts for the longest time, you have to deal with this too if you want sword facts.) We only see like three panels and OH MY GOD CAN I NOT USE THE FIRST FOR SWORD IDENTIFICATION.

NO SWORD IS FUCKING BUILT LIKE THIS. YOU DO NOT BUILD A SWORD LIKE THIS. ALL THE WEIGHT OF IT IS AT THE END AND THIS IS GOING TO KILL YOUR ARM MORE THAN YOUR OPPONENT. SUPERBI FUCKING SQUALO DO YOU WANT CARPAL TUNNEL? THIS IS HOW YOU GET FUCKING CARPAL TUNNEL(maybe that's why he was fine with cutting off his left arm, but then again then he goes and uses the same blade with his right arm, so if so he learned nothing)

Aside from the VERY obvious blade issue, Spatha do not have hilts pommels or even guards like this, all of them are very kind of, no guard, and shorter hilts, rounded pommels. You absolutely could not get a less Spatha like sword.

Next, the ones where I could maybe get a proper identification off of it.

Since Amano kind of fucks up his sword in long shots this gives a clearer look at what this is. In the 2nd image it's as thin as a rapier. But I can tell from the length of the hilt this sword in combination to it's blade length is made to be able to switch between two and one hand, one for power the other for reach depending on how you hold it.

This type of sword uh, funny enough is known as a Bastard Sword. This is a category of sword and not a specific type of sword mind you. As is Long sword and other such things. However the categorizing is kind of messy because of different languages using the same word both using the term in the same way and also not. However know now a-days that's how we refer to them, as you can see though

The only difference is in size and shape is it's kind of prettier.

But generally both swords follow more arming sword/bastard sword shape and size

Now lemme explain to you why Squalo kneecapped himself by changing swords.

Already I told you the versatility of how these swords will allow you more power and range. But did you know, many of these swords at the time, would purposefully have a dull area you can grab with your hands for even MORE versatility? Essentially if you got stuck in let's say a cramped hallway, you're fighting near allies, or even your opponent is too close to you or even they're wearing armour, you'd be able to wield it like a dagger and give yourself more focused attacks and precision, that you could do better with less risk(this was great at getting into armour gaps). which is something he cannot do now stuck to only wide swings and stabs.

You think that's a pretty bad deficit already? How about the fact he can't change hands, meaning he can't feint opponents with fake swings as easily, that if his opponent is on the wrong side of him he needs to adjust his entire body instead of just switching hands? Normally that isn't a special problem, but Squalo is logically an ambidextrous sword user from the work he put in before getting his prosthetic! So it's a special waste of an advantage. This needing to adjust his whole body leaves him usually facing his opponent full on by accident too.

Not only that either! You know how I said there's a ton of ways to use a sword and even holding it "Strangely" is a valid way to use them? A technique used against armoured opponents is to use these not sharp areas on the sword and basically use the flexible sword as a flail hitting a knight on top of the head with the pommel. I have seen it used and it DENTS armour. and the person inside usually gets stunned hard enough that within a few seconds they'll need to sit down. Imagine what it would do to an unprotected human skull. So saying that a sword was useless against an armoured opponent is very incorrect. Thankfully for Squalo, he doesn't have to fight those.

But regardless on that part, the inability to have the versatility of all of the above makes it seriously impressive that he's even kept his title so long. Man should have lost it ages ago. But then again, in X-Fiamma it was made clear that the Executives weren't allowed to do anything important at least mission wise until Xanxus got back so maybe he also wasn't allowed to got slaughter other swordsman. Maybe the 101 he killed in future arc was to get the blood lust of 8 years out and that's why he's a little more focused.

I do want to point out something here

This? This is Squalo fucking showing off. and you may not know JUST how much he's showing off here. You see, when you're sword fighting, dodging is the LAST option you want to do. This is because of the fact your brain has an order of operations. Because you know it may send signals quickly but it still has travel time. The LAST thing that will get a message is your feet.

So it is safer and better to block, parry, counter. Dodging also can not only get you injured, it allows your opponent to chase. Because you've moved, you can be pushed backwards further and be controlled that way. Squalo doing this is a taunt in of itself because he should KNOW these things more than anyone else here.

Since Squalo's blade stays the exact same. I'll now just move onto Genkishi's four swords.

So immediately you'll notice, it's our old friend the bastard sword! Meaning while Genkishi doesn't use these techniques I mentioned above he'll be able to if you ever happen to write him.

However! It does appear his Sword is a little thicker than Squalo's in some panels, and with how he moves them it is VERY stiff, so he wouldn't be able to use them as a flail but as a club instead. Still though, pretty damn effective against an armoured opponent.

Also this is very silly. For reasons that should be obvious, this wouldn't do shit. Unfortunately despite his very interesting techniques, my notes on his fighting style end here too many illusions <:). I'd love to expand more.

Also if you have any questions!! I'd love to answer them, absolutely obsessed with this kind of this so not only thanks for sticking with me here, but asking any question will probably get you a very long explanation.

Also the reason I didn't go into sword techniques much, just know we actually have no idea the maximum number of certain techniques for the blade there are, just there's "best ways of practice" and certain moves you'll occasionally see, but most of it is working on the fly. Just for the Katana alone there would be an estimate of 1000+. Insane that Squalo thinks he's seen them all.

#khr #katekyo hitman reborn #khr analysis #superbi squalo #yamamoto takeshi #Genkishi #swords...#long as FUCK post

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thewapolls · 10 months

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While I'm poking around old secret bosses... Angolmois[アンゴルモア] is one of those weird things with a lot of popculture presence, particularly in Japan for some reason... (it gets referenced A LOT in anime and videogames and such.) It refers to an old prophetic quatrain by everyone's favorite famous 1500s French astrologer/physician/apothecary/occultist crackpot, Nostradamus;

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois, Du ciel viendra vn grand Roy d'effrayeur: Resusciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois, Auant apres Mars regner par bon-heur.

which people have taken to read as something like,

The year 1999, seventh month, From the sky will come a great King of Terror: To bring back to life the great King of Angolmois, Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.

over the years, although plenty of ridiculous people have tried to squeeze meaning from it in obtuse ways, not limited to trying to assume typos or pronunciation errors or irregularities. But a popular one has been to interpret the "King of Terror" "from the sky" as being some kind of comet or meteorite. I believe Wild Arms does the same, hence the distinctive porous, meteor-like textures of the abdomen in its designs.

Oh and the neuf sept mois:"Seventh Month" bit is where the boss monster gets its signature "7th Moon" attack.

there isn't like a historical or canonical image associated with that prophecy so I dunno what else to put here. Have some weird animu horseshit i guess:

Angol Fear from Soul Calibur IV

Angol Mois from the anime Keroro Gunso/Sgt.Frog (the mangaka Yoshizaki Mine was actually the guest designer behind Angol Fear in SC4)

Angolmois: Record of the Mongol Invasion of Japan, ongoing manga series by Takagi Nanahiko, which also got an anime back in 2018

Saejima Mamimi invoking the "Lord of Fear" in ep 4 of FLCL, what she thinks is a meteor is a satellite shaped like a catcher's mit throwing a baseball

The card, "Absolutely Invincible Great King of Terror," Nostradamus from Cardfight Vanguard

Chapter 112 (which is in vol14) of Chainsawman directly references the Nostradamus July 1999 prophecy as part of the ongoing plot

#wild arms

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isbus · 11 months

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The House of Villains

Chapter 3: Teach Me How To Love

First serious-ish chapter!

At night, when Santana was alone, he would read teen magazines. He didn't find the human male's magazines interesting so he read the female ones. He didn't understand it very much but he continued reading to find out how regular humans felt.

Dio gave him the idea; he remembered the time clearly.

"Here. Read these. You have to act normal so maybe reading these would make you act like a regular teen."

"Why? Because you look like a teen and we need to act normal for others!"

So he read all the boy ones, because his sex was male. But, like I said earlier, he didn't care for them. They were about sports, and stupid stuff. He wanted to get a girlfriend so he thought that maybe reading about women would help.

He only read them at night so that no one would know. He threw them away on the day he got them so that Dio thought he wouldn't read them. But, later on, he took them out and read away.

So tonight, he continued to read. He got to a page. "How to impress a Boy" He already had an idea of how, so he skipped the page. The next one was makeup tips, then clothing ideas, everything a girl should have, blah blah blah..

He decided to go back and read that dumb page. Why not how to impress girls? Oh well. I guess they don't know that boys can read this. He read it word for word, line after line.

Maybe I could make a friend like this...

- Time skip brought you by: Little Santana just wants to make a friend -

Morning. That's when humans wake up. So when morning came and sun shown up, he got dressed in regular attire and grabbed his parasol.

"Where are you going?" Kars asked before Santana set foot out the door. "Especially without sunscreen."

Santana groaned but kept his mouth shut when thinking about that time when he told Kars his thoughts. He told him once that no sunscreen can prevent him from burning. Kars immediately grounded him for it. No television for a week.

Kars put some sunscreen on his nose, then walked away. He gave a signal before going towards the attic; a signal that told Santana that he can go now.

Once he exited the home and shut the door behind him, he rubbed the sunscreen off. If some cool guy saw him with sunscreen (ONLY ON HIS NOSE) they would probably think he's a coward or a stupid vampire, but there are more chances of being called a coward.

Once he got off the porch and past the driveway, he decided he would look around the neighborhood. He knew that the Joestar residence is filled with boring protagonist-like people, so he decided to adventure to the other side of the block.

1508 had a family having a picnic, wearing their swim attire. How weird. The only normal ones were a girl with pink hair, and a boy in a sailor style- only because they wore regular clothes in this irregular neighborhood.

1507 had a handicapped man in a wheelchair and (presumably) his friend who sat in a rocking chair next to him. A man in a jockey outfit was flirting up a storm with a girl who had pink hair. That's probably a no go too.

1506 came with the boy with the baseball player outfit, a man with a fuzzy hat and horns, a man with long pink hair daydreaming, a lady with medium hair looking at her phone, and a girl sipping on a super big gulp filled with water. They look cool but, let's look some more.

1505 had a man with lilac hair and a man with a black bob sitting and talking, a man with a hat and a boy with messy hair running around, shouting and shooting each other with squirt guns, and lastly, a boy reading with a girl looking in a mirror (maybe she's adjusting her makeup).

1504 came with a LOT of people. They had an outdoor table and a chef who was barbequing. One with a mostly shaved pomp and a man with a blonde braid talked, two small boys talked to- wait- THE FAMOUS MANGA ARTIST?! Also a few other's but hey, they don't matter.

1503 had three men and a dog. There was one with cherries playing mobile games, one with a tall flat top talked with an Egyptian man who held the dog on his lap. They seem cool.

1502 had a man with a blonde flat top talking to a younger blonde man and a woman with shades and a cigarette. They look cool too!

And last but not least. There was 1501 which had two men sitting by an outdoor table, sipping on wine, eating salted sandwiches, and trying on each other's hats while a little kid ran around. A woman with blonde hair watched with a smile.

Time to think about which one to see!

7 and 8 have weirdos, so no. 1 has a cool family thing going so they probably wouldn't care. 3 and 5 seem too cool for me. 4 feels like a family reunion so going there would be bad. So 2 and 6.

He began stepping over to 1506. "Hey, uh, you guys look cool... Can I hang out with you guys and maybe become your friend?" It sure was hard talking to others.

The one with the big gulp and the base-boy smiled. But the daydreamer kept doing his thing as the other stayed on her phone. The hat man raised an eyebrow. "Maybe. But you would have to talk to Jolyne."

"Oh, OK. See you guys later then." At least speaking like a human was easy...

Who even is Jolyne? He thought. Probably someone from the Joestar Residence...

He walked towards 1502. Being sure to stay on the sidewalk, avoid the squirt guns, try not to stare at the manga artist, etc.

1502. He could hear the taller blonde man talking and shouting, sometimes in German, which gained Santana's attention. "You! Ja you!" Santana looked at him. "Are you new here?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"Well I haven't seen you out of the house since you first moved." He chuckled at the joke that Santana didn't understand. What did the teen pillar man do? Laugh as well. "When someone laughs and makes a joke, laugh with them, it makes them feel better for the joke." He read that in a magazine.

"Haha, yeah. I've found video games and now I'm obsessed..." They both laughed about that one.

The man got out of the laughing fit. "I understand that feeling." He said in his thick German accent and chuckled again. "I'm Rudol Von Stroheim. What's your name?"

"I am Santana. It's nice meeting you."

Rudol thought for a second. "Can I give you a nickname?"

"What's a nickname?"

Rudol laughed even though Santana was serious. "It's a fake name you would give another."

"I guess you can then."

"I shall call you Sanviento!"

"Can I give you nickname, Rudol?" Stroheim nodded. "I will call you, Stroheim."

He sighed. "Sure, why not?"

"Are we friends now?"

- Time skip, brought to you by: Santana made a friend! -

As the days passed, their friendship increased. Santana began ditching the magazines (for real this time), and started going outside more often. He spent more and more time with Stroheim and started feeling weird- but only when Stroheim was around.

What was this feeling? Was it the same feeling between Wamuu and Kars? No... It couldn't be...

Was he.. IN LOVE?!

Santana decided to confront this feeling... by talking with his family. He started from the latest members of the family. He went to the living room to see the couple watching a documentary on TV. Surprisingly enough, they were the only two down there.

"Valentines. I made a friend and I feel weird when talking to him." He stated.

Scarlet put her hand over her mouth in shock. "This can only be one thing!" They both exclaimed.

"Hatred!"

"Love!"

They both shouted. Scarlet looked at Funny. "Yes. It has to be love!" Funny looked away, embarrassed. "Just tell him or her how you feel."

Santana thanked them, and went to Pucci's room. He repeated the statement. Pucci, told him it was love. He went to see Doppio and Diavolo, repeating the statement, getting the same answer. Kira told him he didn't know. Dio was being weird so he gone to the attic.

Santana took a deep breath, exhaled, the entered.

"Lord Kars, Esidisi.. I made a friend, and I think I'm in love with him."

Esidisi looked shocked. "It's a boy? Santana, that's adorable!"

Kars glared at Esidisi, signaling at him to shut up. "That's great, I'm just surprised you found another vampire in this neighborhood."

"That's the thing, he's... not.”

Kars' eyes widened. "You.. are trying to love a squirrel?! I'm surprised you caught one but-"

"He's not a squirrel either. He's human."

Esidisi began bawling his eyes out. "He's in love with a hamon user! What have we done wrong?!"

Kars, once again, glared at him. "Who is this human you are interested in?"

"He's in the house 1502. His name is Rudol Von Stroheim." Santana explained.

Esidisi leaned towards Kars. "Sounds like a hamon user..." Esidisi said a little too loud.

"He's not a hamon user! He's just extremely attractive, and humorous, and smart-"

"And he's human! What will happen if he finds out you're a vampire?!" Kars cuts in the sentence with an angry tone. "Will he try to kill you? Or will he accept you? If you want to see if he loves you too, tell him who you really are and see what his response is!"

Esidisi tries to rejoin the conversation. "Kars, calm down, please."

Kars takes a breath. "Until you decide to confess, you're staying in your part of the attic to think it over." Kars and Esidisi exit the room, going down the stairs.

- Time Skip Brought To You By: Santana got a love interest but at what cost? -

Santana sobbed into a pillow that night. He wanted so bad to just go out and prove Kars wrong, but he was scared. What if he was right? What if Stroheim would try to kill him? He decided to look in a magazine. He wanted to tear it up since it was full of useless information, but then he saw a page that would change his thoughts.

"Don't be afraid. If you don't do it, you might lose the chance."

That was it. Exactly what he needed.

- Time Skip Brought To You By: Confidence Upped! -

The next day came a little sooner then he could handle. He wanted to practice what to say, he also wanted to slap Kars in the face while he was sleeping, but he wasn't allowed to do either. So when the day hit like the smack he wanted to give Kars, he was terrified. "Are you going to confess?" Kars squinted at Santana when he woke up. Santana nodded and gained the balls that he didn't know he could gain when Kars was around.

When Kars opened the door to the Attic, Santana hissed. "That's my boy." Esidisi and Kars said in unison.

Santana gone down stairs, and picked up his parasol. "Ooh! Look who's going to see his lover boy!" Dio mocked him. Santana was already confident, so instead of passing by like Dio said nothing, he glared at him and flipped him the bird before exiting the house.

Going to 1502, seeing Stroheim waiting for him. When he saw the redhead, he got excited, then angry, then a mix of both. "Where were you? You weren't out yesterday!" He shouted with that thick German accent- that damn accent that sent butterflies down Santana's throat and into the stomach of the young pillar man.

"I have thought about things- serious things." Rudol raised an eyebrow. "I have two things to tell you."

*GULP*

He didn't know which to say first. They were both hard to say.

*SIGH*

"I love you... I think." Stroheim was first in awe, then he laughed when hearing the last part.

"You think?"

"I have never loved humans, which brings me to my next point." He sighs again. "I am not human."

...

"Are you an alien? Werewolf? Zombie?" Santana shook his head at all of them.

Santana felt a little weight taken off when seeing that Stroheim hasn't ran away. "I am a pillar man, a vampire."

Stroheim blushed. "I have two things to confess to you." Santana hummed. "I love you too, and... I have a thing for vampires." Surprisingly enough, Santana knew what he meant; blushing when realizing those two factors.

Santana and Stroheim had the same idea. So they mooched like there was no tomorrow right there. Santana nearly dropped his parasol in the process. After a minute passed of their make out session, they felt like someone was watching. Santana looked behind him and saw Wamuu while Rudol looked behind him and saw Caesar.

...

"What the fuck, Stroheim?!" Caesar said in his Italian accent. "How did he get a boyfriend?!" He looked at Wamuu.

"I know, right?" Wamuu threw his hands up. "How did Santana get a boyfriend before me?"

The two s' shrugged and mooched again, lightly this time.

"Can you teach me how to love, Stroheim?"

He nodded. "If you can show me how you feed off humans..." He winks.

Caesar and Wamuu nearly vomited right there.

- END SCENE -

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thetrashywritingwitch · 5 years

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“Be Still, Just for Me” Bakugo X Reader, Ch. 1

Summary: Bakugo Katsuki, a Pro Hero in Japan, is used to the routine: wake up, kick villain ass, rinse and repeat. He’s living his dream, soaking in all he’s ever wanted and worked for.

During the brief moment he let’s his guard down, everything changes.

Tossed into a world without quirks with nothing but the clothes on his back, he’s forced to accept the help of someone who knows exactly who he is: a manga character who should definitely not exist.

Chapter length: 14k words

AO3

Wattpad

Quotev

Cowritten and plot mapped by @rose-sparks13

This is the first chapter of this story! I hope you enjoy it! Updates will be irregular, but I’m roughly going for an every-two-weeks type schedule. This story will be long with many chapters, so I hope you’re interested in sticking around for the ride!

Silence. The quiet stillness of early morning, sunlight streaming through the cracks in untouched curtains that swayed like slim tree branches beneath a gentle blow of air from the ceiling vent. The birds of early morning sunrise sang songs, eventually curtailed by the occasional roar of an engine as the routine of work roused residents within the building.

The covers on your bed were soft and wrinkled from daily use, the smell of detergent long-gone. You weren’t supposed to wake up for another half hour, your internal clock used to the regular blaring of the alarm set on your phone sitting silently on the bedside table. Comfort and warmth kept you sleeping…until a loud thud literally rocked your bed, causing you to jolt awake.

“Eh…what the fu-” You looked around and rubbed the sleep from your eyes and drool from the side of your mouth when, in your bleary vision, movement caught your eye. And loud, frustrated yelling filled your ears. Both combined made you still, having no clue what was happening…or who was in your bedroom.

You sunk into the bed, ready to bolt to the opposite side and grab the baseball bat you kept hidden under the bed frame for emergencies. The stranger stumbled around on the floor looking drunk or disoriented to the point of falling right back down again. They were yelling angrily in a language you couldn’t understand, but it sounded a bit like Japanese?

If they don’t see me, maybe I can escape, you thought to yourself before the figure finally turned around, and finally they saw you. Your heart was thudding against your chest like rapid drum, rhythmic with fear at what this intruder was doing in your apartment, but there was no time to think as crimson eyes bore down on you like rabid wildfire.

“Ittai nan desuka? Anata wa dare deskuka? Doushita no?!” (what the hell? Who are you? What did you do?!) The man’s voice was raspy and crackled like an open flame, neck muscles bulging as his hands sparked- wait, sparked?!

It was at this point that you screamed.

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY APARTMENT YOU FUCKING BURGLAR!” you cried right back at him, shifting in your bed towards the side opposite the intruder. You couldn’t breathe, your blood was thumping in your ears, you had no idea what was happening or who this was and, while your brain tried desperately to piece together some logic to the situation, your fight or flight instinct overpowered your sense of observation.

“Mojidōri no seikō wa nani ga okotte iru no?” (what the literal fuck is going on?) The man looked around desperately, almost like he was attempting to figure out where he was, looking between you and the closed bedroom door with teeth bared like a caged animal desperate for escape. Even though fear and the need for self-preservation were top priorities, you couldn’t help but notice there was something oddly familiar about him: his features, his blonde hair, his red eyes…? Before you got any farther with your train of thought he rounded on you again with another stream of words you couldn’t understand.

You’d never make it to the bedroom door without him catching you, and you were already frozen and that was doing you no favors, so realistically there was only one option: fight.

Summoning all the courage you could muster, your fingers found grip on one of your pillows as you held it over your head. “GET OUT OF MY ROOM YOU PERVERT!!” you yelled before throwing the pillow at the angry-looking stranger. He caught it easily and threw it down in a plume of smoke before yelling at you again with an expressive mix of pissed off and completely confused. “THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY, ASSHOLE, GET OUT!!”

Maybe it was the fact that you looked like a freaked out angry woman on the verge of tears who was about to throw another pillow at him, but the blonde man cautiously stepped away and lunged for your bedroom door handle, flinging it open and walking out into your living room, letting out another incomprehensible yell for good measure. After sliding off the bed and throwing off your covers, you grabbed a pair of discarded shorts on the floor - you lived alone, so why bother wearing pants to bed - and slid onto the carpet to shakily grab the wooden bat, tag still dangling from the handle.

“Holy fuck holy shit what the literal hell is going on…” you mumbled to yourself with trembling lips as you made your way towards the stomping sounds in your apartment. Maybe you could scare him off…but how did he make it into your room, anyway? The guy seemed just as confused as you were, but this was your apartment, and there was no way someone was going to assault you or steal anything if you could help it.

Creeping out of your bedroom, the man in an orange hoodie, black shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes stood with clenched fists in the middle of your living room. He must’ve heard you, because a second later he rounded on you with hands ready and teeth bared, but his eyes flitted to the bat held above your head and his aggression levels seemed to shift slightly into something else. Since he was standing still and you were now hyper-focused on defending yourself, you got a proper look at his face and physique.

Spikey pale blonde hair sat on his head, which led down into a strong jawline. His bizarre red eyes - contacts maybe - stared at you with disturbing clarity. He was tall and looked well-built, even under his hoodie you could tell he had broad shoulders. Well, he was at least handsome for a weirdo intruder, but you couldn’t really think about that now. There was just something so curiously familiar about him, like you’d seen him somewhere before. On the news, maybe? Or, no, that wasn’t it-

“Oi! Doko da? Kokae ro!” (Where am I? Answer me!) He yelled, and that’s when you noticed his palms sparking. Had…no. No no no?!

Blonde hair, red eyes, gravelly voice, hands that exploded. “Oh my god…” you managed to squeak out under your breath, backing up slightly while wondering if you were still dreaming. This had to be a dream, right? Yeah, definitely a dream.

“I-I’ll call the police!” It seemed like the only logical thing to do in this situation, right? But he couldn’t understand you, obviously, and you couldn’t understand him, so this seemed like the textbook definition of a stalemate.

The man noticed your slight step back, and seemed to finally understand that you were properly freaked the hell out. His hands stopped sparking and he took a deep breath through his nose without taking his eyes off you before speaking again, his tone the calmest it had been since this disaster started, but that wasn’t saying much. “Nihongo wo wakarimasuka? (you don’t understand Japanese, do you?)

Even with a less aggressive stance he still looked intimidating, but not like he was about to murder you in self-defense. You lowered the bat slightly, but made no move to get any closer. An idea hit you, but you were scared to take him out of your sight having no clue what he might do. But standing here like an idiot did you no good, so you really hoped the hand sign for “wait a minute” was universal as you held up a finger while balancing the bat in your other hand. The man looked at you with a confused expression, but didn’t make any aggressive moves as you slowly slid back into your bedroom to grab your phone.

The logical and scared part of your brain told you to call the police…but the morbidly curious part told you to get to the bottom of this, because there was absolutely no-fucking-way what you thought was happening could actually be happening…right?

You opened up a translator app on your phone that you’d downloaded a while back to read untranslated manga, and luckily noticed it had a voice option. Cautiously walking back out you observed that the man hadn’t moved, but immediately noticed the phone in your hand and eyed it suspiciously as you slowly set it on the back of the couch which acted as a barrier between the two of you before holding the bat with both hands again. Only one way to find out if this worked.

“Who are you?” you asked, loud enough for your phone to pick it up and translate the phrase into Japanese. The man looked surprised, but still made no move to let his guard down completely.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked, you understanding the robotic voice of the translator as it played it back into your own language. You furrowed your brows, because this was going nowhere again.

“I live here, moron. Why are you in my apartment?” Keeping the topic focused on him, and not you, was ideal. Giving out personal information seemed like a bad idea. As the phone translated he scoffed, looking around once again to take in your very average furniture and simple decorations.

The man seemed just as frustrated with the situation as you were as he answered. “How the hell should I know, idiot? Why don’t you speak Japanese?” He was trying to get information out of you, rather than him give up more than he needed. Same tactic, just perfect.

“Because we aren’t in Japan,” you said as though it should be completely obvious by the language barrier. At this he really did look stunned, but quickly put his defenses back up again. To keep him talking you went ahead and asked another question that you absolutely had to know the answer to. “Why…how do you make sparks with your hands like that?”

It sounded absurd when said aloud, and as your phone translated your odd wording his face contorted into an attempt to stay calm - poorly. “It’s my quirk…are you quirkless?” he asked with suspicion.

You almost dropped the bat, but managed to keep your shit together. Quirks?! N-no, there was no way this wasn’t a dream. Playing along - or dumb - seemed like a good idea, because if this was who you assumed it might be, making him pissed off was the absolute worst thing to do. “Quirk? What’s a quirk?” Luckily your shock managed to translate into complete bewilderment, hiding the fact that you knew what quirks were in a very specific yet highly improbable context.

Unfortunately his attempt at keeping his voice down was wearing thin with every new translated sentence. “What do you mean, what’s a quirk?”

Shaking your head was, apparently, the wrong thing to do, because the man’s palms sparked loudly as he grunted in palpable frustration, making you jump back and hit the wall. If this was a dream it was frighteningly convincing. Rather than taking a deep breath to calm down like the first time, he stomped around the apartment and found your front door, which led out into the breezeway of your floor. He took one last look at you with a sneer before flicking the lock, opening the door, and slamming it shut behind him.

Letting out a shuddering breath you didn’t realize you were holding you slid down the wall onto the floor. “Oh my god oh my god…that’s…please be a dream, please be a dream, please be-” A ringing noise made you drop your bat. You realized it was your morning alarm to get ready for work as the familiar tone echoed in your living room. Glancing over towards the front door you stood up and turned off the alarm. “This isn’t a dream…what the hell is happening?”

Having no idea if he’d return, you changed into some casual clothes when something on the floor caught your eye. Bending down you realized it was a long body pillow you’d bought earlier this year at a local convention. You expected to see the character on the white pillow case…but now, staring up at you, was a blank piece of fabric.

The illustration was gone, leaving only the pillow behind.

You frantically emailed your boss, telling him you had an unexpected emergency and wouldn’t be making it in to work today. Rarely taking days off you hoped this wouldn’t cause much of an issue, because there was absolutely no way you could focus on work after the morning you’d dealt with.

The front door remained still and silent as you attempted to calm down. “OK, OK, just chill out, it’s fine…you’re fine.” The distinct noise of your stomach rumbling made you double over on the couch. “Thanks, stress-hunger…I need…pizza…” There were only a few twenty-four hour pizza places around, and normally this sort of pizza emergency was reserved for weekends, but the “fuck it” mentality was overwhelmingly strong right now. “If I tried cooking right now I’d probably start a fire…” You were supposed to go grocery shopping yesterday, but laziness took over so you put it off resulting in hardly any real food in your apartment. With shaking hands and a rapid pulse you managed to tap an order for a large cheese pizza for delivery into the online ordering system.

Hardly a minute later there was a pounding at your door, and though delivery would be fast at this hour, there was zero chance your breakfast stood in the breezeway.

“Fuck, shit! What do I do?!” Hopping off the couch you looked around for the bat, only to realize you’d propped it up against the wall next to your bedroom door and the couch now acted as a barrier, leaving you no time to grab it before the door swung open loudly, making you freeze.

The blonde man took a cautious step into your apartment, and though his posture seemed less aggressive, he still looked like a balloon ready to burst from stress. It didn’t lessen how absolutely handsome he was, though. He stared at you with those striking red eyes before following your eye line to the bat against the wall, then back to you. Swallowing the lump in your throat felt about as pleasant as eating a fistful of rocks.

Rather than start yelling, his eye twitched before his hands came up in a typing gesture, and you realized he was probably telling you to take out your phone again so you could talk. Biting your lip nervously you complied, setting the phone on the couch between you once more, only now you’d switched positions with him closer to the front door which sat on the same side as your bedroom.

“I’m not gonna hurt you or anything,” he said, probably aware of how nervous you must look considering the stranger that randomly sprung up from your bed was back in your personal space. “Do you have any damn clue why I’m here or how I got here?”

Once the app translated you shook your head once more. “No…sorry. I was literally asleep when you, uh…appeared.” At that he ran a hand down his face before clicking his tongue. It was only 9 in the morning and he already seemed exhausted; but then again so were you, so at least you had that in common. “So who are you, anyway? And why shouldn’t I call the police?” If he gave you a name - the name you were dying to know - and it confirmed your suspicions, you’d need to keep a cool head, so you concentrated on steeling your expression.

At that he narrowed his eyes, but stood up straight as if he standing in front of a classroom about to give a speech. “Don’t call the cops, like I said I’m not gonna do anything. I just want information and to figure out what the fuck is going on.” Pausing as if thinking about whether or not he should answer, he finally gave in. “I’m Bakugo Katsuki, a Pro Hero in Japan. Now, your turn to answer questions.”

Even though you’d prepared for whatever he might say, the indisputable recognition that the man in front of you was an adult version of your favorite anime and manga character almost made your legs give out and your head spin with how quickly the blood under your skin flooded into your rapidly beating heart. This was like some bizarre fanfic where the highschool girl got transported into her favorite anime world, except reversed: someone from another world got brought to yours. The difference was your world was boring, average, and had nothing extraordinary to speak of. Well, until now, anyway.

“…Pro Hero?” you managed to ask, even though you knew exactly what that meant. “Like, a superhero or something?”

Bakugo - because that was his name, no bullshitting anymore - groaned. “I said I’m asking the questions, now.” You were so familiar with the brash and loud boy from the manga that this slightly mellowed-out adult version was almost jarring. It was still definitely him, his explosive anger earlier proved that, but maybe as he’d aged - he looked about mid 20’s, same as you - Bakugo finally got a handle on his emotions. “Who the hell are you?”

You debated giving a fake name, but what good would that do? He didn’t know you like you knew him, so lying and possibly keeping up the lie for however long he was here would be difficult. “I’m (y/n) and I…work in an office. And I don’t have superpowers.” You added on the last bit trying to be funny, but he didn’t laugh.

“My quirk isn’t a superpower, it’s not damn magic,” he quipped back while folding his arms. “Walking around outside…seems like you’re right saying no one here has quirks, and we aren’t in Japan.”

Still trying to get a grip on everything that was happening and not wanting to reveal too much, you kept questions and answers vague but probing. “So, what does that mean for you? How did you get here?”

A sound close to a growl echoed in his throat; maybe probing with too many questions he might not know the answer to wasn’t the best strategy. “That’s what I’m trying to figure the hell out!”

Once your phone translated your mouth formed a tight line. Sure, this was Bakugo Katsuki - the hot adult version - standing in your living room with a pissed off expression, but you weren’t going to put up with an attitude when this wasn’t your fault, and you knew the exact same amount of information about the situation than he did. “Look, I didn’t have anything to do with this so don’t get mad at me. I called out of work because some strange guy appeared in my bedroom who has sparkler hands and says he’s from another fucking universe or something so watch the attitude!”

Maybe you were talking too fast for your phone to translate properly, or expressing something other than fear and confusion caught him off guard, but Bakugo stilled if just for a moment. Before he could speak, however, there was yet another knock on your door. He immediately spun around, hands up at the ready, before turning back on you with narrowed eyes full of suspicion.

“Don’t move,” you said while trying to match his piercing stare, but admittedly his glare was just as intimidating in real life as it was in the anime. Slowly you scooted towards the front door, eyes lingering on him until you had to look away to answer the door.

Immediately the smell of hot pizza hit your nose as the delivery man greeted you. “Just sign this please…perfect. Have a good one!” With that he walked off, leaving you with a warm cardboard box.

As you walked into your small kitchen Bakugo watched you carefully, eyeing the box as if it’d personally offended him…until you watched him sniff the air and saw his guard drop slightly. You were too hungry and mentally worn down to focus on anything other than grabbing a plate from the cabinet and load it up with a couple slices of cheese pizza. Without saying anything you walked over to grab your phone from the couch and set it down on the counter between the two of you once more and just stared at him with tired eyes as you took a bite.

“What? Got a problem with pizza for breakfast?” you asked as he continued to stare at you like a crazy person. “You’ve had plenty of chances to hurt me or rob me or whatever at this point, so the fact you haven’t tells me you probably aren’t bad.”

“Of course I’m not bad, I said I’m a fucking hero didn’t I?” he spat back at you.

You took another bite of pizza before speaking. “You still haven’t explained what that means. Your definition of ‘hero’ might be different from the one here.” Technically, it was true. Heroes here were paramedics and firefighters, not people with quirks or powers. The best course of action, you assumed, was to continue acting ignorant. Though you let your guard down a bit, sitting down at the table and feeling too vulnerable still seemed like a bad choice, so instead you just stood at the counter and ate your cheesy breakfast pizza without shame.

At that revelation Bakugo crossed his arms as if to silently concede your point. He was the outsider in this situation, and creating unnecessary animosity wouldn’t get him answers. “Heroes fight villains, save people, and win fights. Any more dumb questions?”

The “win fights” bit reminded you exactly who you were talking to, but the “save people” addition meant he’d finally overcome the roadblocks holding him back depicted in manga.

…Holy shit an anime character was in your living room. You were sure it’d take you the rest of the day, maybe longer, to really let that sink in.

You did have more questions, so since he opened up the floor, you walked in. “Yeah, actually. How do you get back home?”

He issued a low growl, signaling you’d hit a sore spot. “I. don’t. Know.” he answered slowly. “If I knew I wouldn’t still be stuck in this shithole.”

Bakugo’s attitude was starting to make him look less attractive by the minute. After finishing the first slice of pizza you gave him a tired glare. “I was going to offer you pizza as a kind of truce, but not if you call my apartment a shithole,” you quipped before closing the cardboard box.

“Who wants your fucking pizza?!” he yelled with frustration mirroring earlier this morning, which made you jump back a bit. Despite you knowing who he was, this version of Bakugo was older and undoubtedly even stronger than he is in the source material…meaning making him mad was still a dangerous thing to be wary of. He must’ve noticed your step, because he took a deep breath through his nose before speaking again. “I’m even less happy about this this as you are, so just…let me fucking think for a minute.”

While pacing across the carpet of your living room floor, you tried not to stare at the tall man with a chiseled face and broad shoulders and pale blonde hair and piercing eyes. He was, probably - no, definitely - the most handsome man you’d ever seen in person. As in, ridiculously good-looking. Getting caught up in that fact seemed risky, though, when he was just about ready to snap if you said something that pissed him off. There were a lot of precarious things to keep in mind right now, and all of them mixed together made your head spin. Instead you bit into your second slice of pizza and remained silent while you tried to figure out what the hell to do from your end of things.

“Maybe if you replay what you were doing when, uh, this happened we could figure it out,” you called across the room, halfway wanting to break the awkward silence and halfway wanting to help figure out what was going on. Bakugo stopped walking to glare at you once the phone was done translating.

“I don’t need your help.” You couldn’t deny how much the words stung; you were just trying to cooperate, and you figured two people solving a problem would be better than one…but this was Bakugo Katsuki after all, and his determination to do things on his own must still be going strong, even into adulthood.

Leaning against the fridge you watched him continue pacing, a hand roaming to a back pocket in his jeans before he stopped, feeling around for something that seemed to be missing. Muttering something under his breath, too low for your phone to pick up, he looked around the floor before barging into your bedroom.

“Hey! The hell? I didn’t say you could go in there!” you yelled before grabbing your phone and walking around the couch to stand in the doorway of your room. Bakugo bent down onto the floor and looked under your bed and nearly crawled under it. He tossed your pillow which usually bore his likeness off to the side. You’d bought the thing on a whim because it was so over the top, but now you felt your ears burn in embarrassment at the idea. “Get out of my room!”

“Where the FUCK is my wallet?!” Sliding out from under your bed he palmed his pockets again before glaring up at you.

“I don’t have it, if that’s what that look is for,” you shot back while staring down at him on the floor.

He stood up while running a hand down his face in obvious frustration. “Can’t fucking believe this shit…”

“If you’re going to pout, do it somewhere other than my room.”

“Why, got something to hide?” he asked with a suspicious tone. Your ears burned once again, but you wanted to drive the point home.

“It’s my bedroom, pervert, and I don’t want random people from other dimensions going through my stuff!” Once the robotic voice on your phone translated you actually saw his eyes widen just a fraction before looking almost a bit flustered himself.

“I’m not a pervert!”

“Then get out of my room!” you emphasized before raising your arm and pointing out into the living room. Without an argument, for once, he came forward and you backed up to let him through as he stomped into the kitchen, opened up the cardboard box, and grabbed a piece of pizza he tore into it. You weren’t the type of person to let people walk all over you, and you weren’t about to let Bakugo be the exception. A headache was just about on it’s way and you had to sigh. Closing your bedroom door you watched him devour the pizza like he was defeating a villain high in carbs. It was difficult not to laugh, honestly.

Instead you walked over and leaned against the arm of the couch, not wanting to invade his space too much. This was still an absolutely ridiculous and unimaginable thing to have happen…but you were sure by now this wasn’t a dream, and you were very much awake.

Deciding to go about this a different way, you worded your next sentences very carefully. “So you can’t find your wallet, which I assume would have an ID in it, and money, too? You don’t speak the predominant language here…and as of right now, you don’t know how to get back to your own world. Did I miss anything?”

Bakugo crossed his arms and sneered at you. “Pointing out the obvious there, huh?”

“I’m just laying out my observations so far,” you said, spreading your arms out wide. His lack of cooperation was grating on your nerves. If he wanted to get home, he might have to give in just a little. “What’s your plan then, genius?”

“I wait it out,” he answered. When you gave him a confused look he rolled his eyes. “Obviously a quirk - probably from some dumb villain trying to get rid of me - sent me here. It’ll wear off eventually and I’ll be back home, no fucking problem.” He stated it so matter-of-factly, but you weren’t completely sold on him believing his own words.

“Wait it out,” you repeated slowly. “And where do you expect to do that? What if you’re stuck here for more than a day?”

It was a question that sprung into your mind. He didn’t know how to get back, and there were obviously no quirk users on his end of the world to help him out. He’d walked outside to judge the honesty of your word on quirks, only to come right back here. Where else was he going to go, after all?

His mouth formed a tight line before clicking his tongue and glancing briefly at your closed front door. “Why the hell do you care? I’ll figure it out, I don’t need a damn babysitter.”

“No, but you might need a chaperone or something. You have no money for food, no place to stay, can’t-”

“Shut up!” he said, slamming his hands on the counter, not bothering to let the translator finish. “Just shut up! I don’t want your help!”

Gasping at his sudden outburst you tried to back up, only to run into the couch behind you and promptly bust your ass on the floor. Before he exploded at you again - or he saw you finally start to cry from being legitimately scared - you picked yourself up and ran into the bathroom, locking yourself in.

“Please don’t break down the door…” you said, turning on the faucet to splash some water on your face in an attempt to calm down. “Maybe I should have called the cops…he’s…dangerous, right?” It was the most logical thing to do, but you’d been so caught off-guard by having a literal manga character in your apartment that your curiosity outweighed rationality. It’s then that you realized you must’ve dropped your phone on the floor when you fell. Now you really did feel like crying. “What am I going to do? What’s the right thing to do?”

After a few minutes you gathered yourself together, determined not to let him get to you. From what you knew of his character and personality in the source material, he was the type of person to lash out or bottle things up rather than talk through things civilly if he felt cornered or overwhelmed. Being accusatory didn’t seem to work out so well, so instead it might be best to just let him talk when - or if - he wanted to.

Taking a deep breath you opened the door, hoping that he might’ve calmed down a bit. Looking around you saw Bakugo leaning up against the wall, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans before looking at you with an unreadable expression. He gestured vaguely to the kitchen counter where your phone now sat. Walking over you opened back up the app, set the phone down, and stood by awkwardly as you waited to see what he might do or say next.

“Look,” he said, catching your attention. “I wanna be here about as much as you want me here. Right now, I don’t have a solution to fix this mess.” Pausing, he seemed to be gathering his thoughts before speaking again. “I know this was caused by another quirk, no other explanation. I don’t know how to reverse it or how long I’ll be stuck here. Ideally, this will last twenty-four hours and I’ll wake up back where I’m supposed to be where I can kick the villain’s ass that sent me here.”

Processing his words you nodded in understanding. “OK…that’s still a day that you’re here. Do you have a plan?”

Bakugo seethed through his nose, agitated with your continuing questions to things he had no solid answers for. “I’m going off the assumption that, even if you don’t realize it, you’re somehow connected to this. So, I don’t think it’s in my best interest to wander too far away.”

Your brows furrowed before shooting nearly up to your hairline at the implication. “Me?!” you exclaimed, pointing to yourself. “Are you inviting yourself to stay here or something? I mean, no offense, but I’m just taking your word for it that you’re not secretly a bad person.” Even though the idea of him basically being a temporary guest made your pulse race, you still needed to put up the front of not being able to take his claims of being a hero at face value. “And you just said you didn’t want my help. So which is it?”

He looked genuinely offended at your connotation that he was anything other than a morally righteous hero, but couldn’t really doubt your apprehension considering the situation. “I don’t want your help…and I fucking hate being wrong about anything, because I rarely am.” His attitude of superiority finally showed it’s head. “But I’ll also admit that I have jack shit here. Best case scenario is I’m here for a single day, then I’m out of your hair. If you really want me gone, I won’t stop you from booting me out. Like I said, I’ll figure it out.”

The idea of him sleeping outside and not having any food for a whole day was a painful thought. You considered yourself an empathetic person and tried to help people when you could, and even though this circumstance was completely absurd, he still needed help, right? Still, you decided to drag things out a bit. “Give me some time to think about it and I’ll give you an answer.”

Shrugging, you saw the tiredness of the situation on his handsome features again. “Do you…have a restroom?”

Nodding, you pointed back towards the door you just came out of. Bakugo stepped past you and disappeared behind the closed door.

“Oh my god he’s using my bathroom…now I’m really glad I cleaned over the weekend,” you muttered to yourself. Living alone you were sometimes lazy with cleaning, but the aesthetics of a tidy apartment outweighed stepping over dirty laundry or dishes sitting in the sink.

Not knowing what else to do you grabbed the pizza box and slid it into the fridge, but not before noticing he’d taken another slice while you weren’t looking. Most of the shelves were fairly bare except for some leftovers, milk, condiments, and a few other things. Yeah, you really needed to go grocery shopping, but was that the best idea with Bakugo here? Was it safe to leave him here? Should he come with you? Stuffing those questions away for later you grabbed your plate and started washing off the pizza crumbs in the sink before hearing the bathroom door open.

Bakugo stopped around the corner to watch you set the dish in the drying rack. He said something you couldn’t understand while pointing back at your bathroom with an odd look. Drying your hands you grabbed the phone from the other end of the counter and set it between the two of you so it could actually pick up the conversation.

He clicked his tongue, annoyed at the language barrier, but it was better than not being able to communicate at all. “Your bathroom is weird.”

Your mouth hung open, looking between Bakugo and your bathroom. It was perfectly normal! Maybe a bit small since it was just a one bedroom apartment, but there was nothing wrong with it. “How is it weird?”

“Just set up differently than Japanese bathrooms. It’s weird,” he answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Well, pretty much all bathrooms here look like that, so deal with it.” You swore you saw his eye twitch, and again it was hard not to crack a small smile. It was probably hazardous to your health to put up too much of an attitude, but you couldn’t hide your personality completely.

Sinking down into the couch cushions with a bit of caution and a glance in your direction, you watched the smallest bit of tension ease from his shoulders before he rubbed his eyes with his fingers. Yeah, it was only about ten thirty in the morning and this day already felt too long, so you shared the sentiment.

The awkward silence that passed over the next couple of hours was broken only when you attempted to ask him questions about his world, only for him to brush it off with annoyed sneer.

“None of your business.”

“Why do you care?”

“The hell are you so nosy for?”

“Go away!”

Eventually you took the hint that he wanted to be left alone - probably still trying to figure out some way to get back home from this end - so you went to your bedroom and closed the door. Now that you were alone, you attempted to process your own racing thoughts.

Bakugo Katsuki, a manga character that should not exist, was currently sitting in your living room. Not only that, but he was clearly an adult now, so in his own universe he existed as a real Pro Hero…meaning he’d realized his dream within the story. His hard work and dedication paid off, and that honestly made you smile.

Despite his gruff and rude personality, you’d always been drawn to him in the story. Sure, he was a shitty kid in the beginning and had a lot of lessons to learn, but as you read the manga chapters and watched the anime, his personal growth and character development bloomed. Bakugo was nuanced and complicated, and at times you just wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and say “you’ve done well, now take a nap you little gremlin.”

However, the man sitting in your living room was no longer a teenager, but an adult, and though you’d observed hints of his personality, you still had basically no clue how different he was from his teenage self. It seemed as though he could at least keep a slightly more level head now considering he hasn’t blown up your apartment, though his temper and annoyance with people was still noticeably intact. Could you really blame him though, considering the circumstances? If your life was upended by being tossed into another universe, you’d be pretty annoyed - if not scared - as well.

A rapping at your door jarred you out of your thoughts. “Uh, come in,” you called out though you didn’t have the translator app open yet. He must’ve understood that it was alright to open the door from your tone though, since he turned the knob and stood in your doorway.

“I need information,” he practically demanded, as if you had more answers than he did. “Do you have internet here?”

“Yeah…why?”

“I want to know if I’m the only one from my universe dealing with this shit, or if other Heroes also got transported.” You nodded in understanding. The thought hadn’t occurred to you that he might not be the only one a villain attacked.

“Alright, well, tell me what to search for? Also, consider the fact that I guess, besides me, no one here knows who you are or about your…quirk.” Dragging out the last word seemed like a good idea, not wanting to let him know you were already familiar enough with the term to use it conversationally with confidence.

An annoyed look crossed his face; maybe he was used to people doing what he said without much pushback, but you weren’t someone to be pushed around. “Just do it. Look for any instances of weird shit happening, news articles popping up, whatever. Use some common sense.” Without elaborating further he stomped back out of your line of sight.

Groaning a bit, you dipped off your bed and pulled out a laptop nestled in a bag by your closet. Your phone was fine for most things, but you could do things a bit faster on an actual computer. Following his vague advice, you searched for anything that might pull up a hit. Unfortunately, keywords like “superpowers” and “bizarre sighting” only turned up popular TV and movie characters. From what you could tell, no one had reported on anyone else being found to come from another universe. “He’s not gonna be happy about that…”

Walking out of your room Bakugo caught your eye as he stood stiffly in the kitchen. He must’ve rummaged through your cabinets without asking judging by the glass of water in his hand. Staring at him proved far too easy, but you managed to snap out of it when he glanced at you with his mouth drawn into a tight line.

“Well? Spit it out.” Though he was asking a question, you suspected he probably already knew the answer.

You shook your head and attempted to look apologetic. “No, sorry. I searched for anything I could think of, but honestly half the results were movie trailers or conspiracy theory articles…I even looked on some local forums and if anyone’s seen anything or anyone that stands out, it would’ve been there.”

As you spoke Bakugo stood absolutely still, probably in an attempt to stay calm and not blow up - maybe literally - at the news that he was, most likely, the only one currently dealing with this shitty situation.

“Maybe there’s someone in another location? Um, I mean if anyone with powers is seen in public I think videos or pictures would go viral pretty quickly…” It felt like rambling at this point, but the fact that he wasn’t reacting was honestly making you nervous. Was he about to snap? Yell? Break something? Reactionary and over the top were traits most people associated with Bakugo’s character, so the odd silence made you tense.

“Do I scare you?” The question caught you off-guard, not expecting such a severe shift in subject. His crimson eyes stared you down intensely while he leaned against the counter, but it didn’t feel predatory or hostile…it was more like he was trying to gauge whether or not you were mildly trustworthy with your answer.

Lying to him now meant playing a risky game, so this time honesty seemed like the best policy. “I mean, I was obviously freaked out earlier? I think anyone would be in my situation.” You watched his eyes dart to the side where, somewhere behind you, the bat leaned against the wall. “But like I said, if you wanted to hurt me you’ve had plenty of chances…”

Remaining calm during frustrating situations didn’t appear to be one of his strongest attributes. “If I blew up this place I’d be stuck with even less than I have now, which is basically nothing useful,” he answered with jaw tense and hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. “So? You kicking me out or not?”

You wrung your hands together from nerves bubbling up in your system before letting out a sigh. It was hardly early afternoon and you already felt exhausted. “No…then I’d be the asshole. You’re lucky I don’t have a roommate or anything because I have no clue how I’d explain this. But, uh…yeah. For a day or however long you’re stuck here, I won’t let you sleep outside at least.”

He looked as though he was about to say something, then diverted his train of thought to something else. “I won’t blow anything up.”

“If you do, then I really will kick you out. Also, some ground rules,” you said, holding up a hand ready to count off on your fingers. The throbbing vein in his temple was nearly pulsating. “If you make a mess, please clean it up. Two,” you said, holding up a second finger, “you can sleep on the couch. It’s all I’ve got, so arguing is pretty pointless. And three…I have to go grocery shopping today, and you’re coming with me.”

At this he nearly balked. “The fuck? Why?”

“No offense, but I don’t want to just leave you here. If, despite what you think, you’re not gone tomorrow…maybe it’s best to at least familiarize yourself with the area? And I really doubt you wanna use my soap and shampoo and stuff, anyway. So, we can just buy you your own.” The idea of taking Bakugo grocery shopping just came to you in the moment, but really it was the most logical thing to do, right? Shopping with him…you forced yourself to keep composure or else risk him seeing your ears turn red.

“I don’t need a babysitter!” he spat, but you were ready for him to fight you on this and didn’t want to back down this time.

“Either you come with me or I won’t help you. Also, I imagine you don’t wanna eat pizza for lunch and dinner, and I don’t know what you like, so if you go you can pick out something that might be familiar to you.” That was the best explanation you could give that made any sense, and even then you could feel a headache starting to form. You heard him mutter under his breath low enough for your phone not to pick it up, but you assumed it was just more grumbling.

His foot tapped on the ground, the sound muffled by the carpet under his shoes. “Fine,” he finally answered, not bothering to hide his suspicion about the situation.

This was going to be a difficult grocery trip. “Give me a minute and we can go,” you groaned, heading into the bathroom to freshen up so you were mildly presentable going out in public. A ridiculously hot guy who, before now, only existed within a manga and anime format was currently in your apartment waiting for you to take him grocery shopping like some kind of bizarre, overly-domestic dream…so you couldn’t help but feel a bit self-conscious about wanting to look decently put-together. After brushing your hair, brushing your teeth, and putting on some mascara you looked at yourself in the mirror. You never thought of yourself as ugly or particularly boring-looking, but compared to Bakugo your ego deflated a bit. It wasn’t as though he’d look at you like that, anyway; you didn’t have a quirk, you weren’t a fighter, and you always assumed Bakugo naturally gravitated and respected people who were strong and capable. Anyway, your main goal was getting through the rest of the day without him blowing up anything, and you’d deal with his attitude later.

Coming out of the bathroom Bakugo stood almost exactly where you left him, eyeing you with impatience. Letting him intimidate you now would mean he’d step all over you later, so you grabbed your keys, sunglasses, and purse before walking towards the door. “Coming?” you asked while you opened the door he left unlocked earlier. With a grumble Bakugo followed you out the door and into the parking lot.

The grocery store was honestly close enough to walk to, which on any other day you might prefer if the weather was nice. Now, however, you knew carrying food for two people would be too much for you to handle on your own, and Bakugo didn’t appear to be in a particularly hospitable mood. So, driving was the next best option.

He followed at a safe distance, watching you point the key fob towards your car. It wasn’t particularly new, but not old enough to need constant maintenance, either. Opening up the driver’s side door you looked back to see him standing still, apparently wary of something as mundane as driving.

You gestured towards the car, but he didn’t move, probably doing some mental gymnastics of all the ways he could escape out of a moving car. After a full minute you threw your hands up in the air and got into the car, letting your head rest on the steering wheel. “Am I really sure today isn’t a lucid dream?”

After another minute you heard the back door on the opposite side open and close, seeing Bakugo finally get in before slamming the door unnecessarily hard. Setting your phone up in the holder you normally used it for directions or music, you instead just opened back up the translator app. “I just need food and some other things. You don’t have to talk to me for the rest of the day of you don’t want to…and, no offense, this isn’t how I wanted to spend my day, either.”

“How do I know you’re not a shit driver and will crash us both?” was all he said in return, ignoring your implied quip about his justifiably sour attitude.

“Why would I crash my own car? It’s not even paid off yet. Also, I’ve never been in a wreck, I’ll have you know.” Now he was just finding things to complain about. Glancing up into your rear-view mirror you saw Bakugo’s eyes dart around as you drove, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings while looking ready to hop out the window if necessary. Instead of thinking about how an angry Bakugo Katsuki sat in the backseat of your car, you focused your attention on getting to the grocery store without drama.It proved difficult because of your absolute disdain for terrible drivers, and keeping your normal road rage contained took more effort than you were openly willing to admit. Anger probably riled Bakugo up, and that’s exactly what you wanted to avoid.

After finally finding a parking spot you got out and started walking up to the store, glancing back to see Bakugo, once again, keeping his distance. The sooner you could get this incredibly awkward excursion out of the way, the better.

Grabbing a cart you waited for him, watching his eyes shift around warily at the innocent lobby of the grocery store. Taking out your phone you opened back up the translator app. If this kept up, you might need to look for a better app or pay a little for the fancy version. “Alright, here’s the plan,” you said as he drew closer, head snapping back in your direction. “I buy what I want, and you pick out what you want or need, no issues. As a precaution…and the fact that I hate grocery shopping…get enough to last like, a week. Just in case!” You added the last bit at seeing his eyes widen at the idea he’d be stuck here more than a few days, hands going up defensively.

Maybe he was tired of arguing, or maybe he just hated grocery shopping just as much as you, but with nothing else to do he gave in. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with,” he bit out before walking past you onto the main grocery floor. You made a mental note to pick up some aspirin before wheeling the cart around to follow Bakugo into the store.

Working from one side of the store to the other, you tried to make this as painless as possible but Bakugo wasn’t exactly the easiest person to shop with. For one, since none of the labels were in Japanese, he had to ask what things were outside of immediately obvious vegetables, rice, meat, etc. He became agitated at a lack of certain things he wanted, foods and spices common in Japan that weren’t available here. You silently compared his food choices to yours: he ate healthier than you did, picking fewer snacks and easy to prepare frozen foods and instead going for fresher options for more well-balanced meals. When you picked up a box of your favorite cookies, you swore he cut his eyes a little too sarcastically in your direction. Curbing your eating habits and foregoing sweets wasn’t something you’d let him nag you about. More cookies for you, at least.

At one point you came to an aisle with condiments, Bakugo pausing in front of the wall littered with various bottles of spicy sauces. Some of the bottles had skulls on them, others had flames, and one in particular sported an illustration of a gravestone.

“Which one’s the hottest?” he asked, assuming what the bottles were based on the label designs. You scrunched your nose up, not being very fond of spicy foods yourself.

“Uh, I’m not sure…” you said, scanning the bottles before noticing a familiar brand. “Oh! I think I’ve seen a coworker talk about this one. He likes spicy stuff, I don’t, so he’d know better than I would.” You grabbed the bottle - aware of how close you were to him since he didn’t bother moving out of the way - to read the ingredients on the back, noting the different types of peppers used. “Yeah, this seems pretty spicy.”

Bakugo scoffed before grabbing the bottle from your hand and putting it into the cart. “I like spicy food,” he stated as if challenging you to put it back on the shelf before turning and walking around the corner to the next aisle. This told you the notes in the manga were right about his food preferences. As long as he didn’t make you eat anything he made, there wouldn’t be an issue.

The last section you skimmed through was personal hygiene: body wash, soap, shampoo, etc. All this time you couldn’t help but notice that while Bakugo’s hair kept the signature spiky appearance from the source material, it didn’t look plastered with product or damage…it looked soft. You desperately shoved ideas of running your hands through his hair far far away before your ears visibly burned.

He seemed particular about smells, sniffing every bottle he picked out and turning his nose up at most of them until he found something tolerable. “What are you gonna do with all this shit when I’m gone?” he asked suddenly.

“Huh? Oh, well besides the hot sauce I’ll just eat the food, I’m not picky. And there are places that take donations like soap and shampoo, hygiene products, stuff like that. There are probably some shelters nearby, too.” He’d just arrived here this morning, but of course all he probably thought about was when, and how, to get back to his own world. The only reason he was here stemmed from pure necessity: dealing with you seemed like the best option, far better than sleeping outside without food or a bathroom, at least. If he disappeared tomorrow, you’d have the items in your cart to prove today wasn’t some fluke lucid dream.

After the longest grocery trip you’d endured in quite a while, you paid at the register - it was about twice as much as your usual grocery amount, which you anticipated since you only ever shopped for yourself - and wheeled the cart out to the car. Over the last hour Bakugo seemed to become just slightly more comfortable, but the skeptically critical glint never left his crimson eyes.

While wheeling the cart out to the car, mental exhaustion hit you once again…and the day wasn’t close to over yet. You popped open the trunk and started piling in bags, and were surprised to see Bakugo actually help - he had far less trouble lifting the heavier bags than you normally did - before you wheeled the cart into one of those cart corrals that sat in the parking lot. Bakugo waited for you to sit in the driver’s seat before, once again, showing preference for the back.

Once again the drive back home was silent, though at one point some moron cut you off without using a blinker, prompting you to flick him off through your windshield with mild enthusiasm. Glancing up at the rear view mirror you swore Bakugo wore a look mirroring curious interest rather than is so-far-normal moody disdain for everything happening around him, but the expression dropped quickly once he realized you were watching.

Arriving back to the apartment normally gave you a sense of relief, but now a bit of dread started to sink in: you still had no idea how to really handle the situation, but you needed to figure out quickly to avoid any exploded furniture. You took a deep breath before getting out of the car and popping open the trunk to take things inside. After a second Bakugo stepped out of the car, looked at you before rolling his eyes, and grabbed half the bags before waiting on you with an impatient tapping foot. Rather than waste this rare opportunity of generosity, you hurried along with your own bags and walked up the stairs to your apartment, fumbling with the keys a bit before opening the door and walking inside.

After setting the bags down on the floor you took out your phone and opened back up the app before turning around to see Bakugo dropping his own bags. He then returned to the slightly annoyed look he’d been wearing for the past few hours. Once again you had to stop yourself from staring; even angry he was attractive. “Thanks for helping. I can put everything away, I know where it all goes.” He hesitated before sitting down on the couch and appearing lost in thought.

Despite the literally explosive personality depicted in the source material and the screaming match from this morning, you observed that Bakugo seemed oddly content with silence - which you appreciated. Not wanting to break his train of thought, which you assumed comprised of thinking up ways of getting back to his own universe, you quietly put away the groceries. You attempted to separate out a section in the fridge, freezer, and pantry for the things he picked out to make things easier. The remaining bag held toiletries which you toted into the bathroom before placing everything away, pausing while grabbing the soaps and things Bakugo chose.

“Oh…he has to shower in here, doesn’t he,” you whispered to yourself while feeling your cheeks burn. “I haven’t even showered today, god…” Now was definitely not the time to get flustered, not with Bakugo right outside the door. Instead you quickly organized the shelf hanging from the shower head, took a deep breath to compose yourself, and walked back into the living room.

Bakugo hadn’t moved from his spot on the couch, but his eyes were trained on you, making you squirm in your socks. He had this way of staring that made you feel analyzed, like he was watching for you to slip up or spill some hidden information you were hiding. He wouldn’t get the satisfaction, because the only thing you were hiding was the fact that he existed in your world as a manga character, and letting that information out seemed like the opposite of a smart idea.

Maybe it was the grocery shopping, or the fact that you hadn’t eaten anything besides pizza in hours, but a hunger suddenly overcame you. Holding your phone you walked towards the handsome man sitting on your couch. “I’m gonna make lunch for myself. You can fix whatever you want if you’re hungry.” Something simple and requiring little effort like a sandwich sounded fine, but you weren’t about to resort to making him one and possibly boil yourself down to a sexist joke of making a guy a sandwich.

Pulling out some things from the fridge and bread from the cabinet you ended up with a decent-looking lunch. Nothing fancy, but at least it looked appetizing. You were about to put a jar back in the fridge when it was suddenly ripped from your hand, making you think you dropped it at first. “Huh? What..?”

It was then you realized Bakugo stood behind you, jar in his palm, and looked at you with a quirked brow. Apparently you weren’t the only one who was hungry. Clearing your throat and scooting out of the way you grabbed your sandwich and a glass of water before sitting down at the table.

Occasionally you glanced up to try and see what he was making, but every time he caught you embarrassment controlled your neck muscles and forced your head quickly in the opposite direction. You could feel his eyes on the back of your head when you realized he wasn’t going to sit at the table with you and eat, instead preferring to stand at the counter. When you were finished you stood up and moved carefully around him to wash your dishes before silently heading into your room and closing the door.

With a sigh you buried your face in the comforter of your bed, a hundred thoughts running through your mind. “OK, it’s late afternoon now, so what do I do? If he doesn’t wanna talk I can’t make him talk…but maybe just being nice will be enough? I’ll go crazy if I don’t find out more about him and his universe before he’s gone! Goal set!” With new energy you dug into your dresser for some clean pajamas - pants and an oversized shirt should be fine - and came out of your room to see Bakugo leaning against the counter with arms crossed, red eyes immediately darting to you.

Still careful not to invade his personal space you grabbed your phone next to him. “I’ll be done in a bit,” you said, pointing to the bathroom. He just shrugged his shoulders, which you took to mean he still wasn’t in a talkative mood. You closed the bathroom door behind you and turned on the shower to the hottest setting, letting yourself relax properly for the first time that day.

The water eased your tense shoulders, but your mind still raced. “What the fuck am I supposed to do now?! Bakugo Katsuki is in my living room, quirks are real, and he’s pretty much invited himself to stay here until he’s able to go back home,” you echoed to yourself in the acoustics of the shower. Maybe you could ask him to play video games or something? You remembered a brief moment in the manga where he mentioned some gaming terms, so maybe you could connect with him on that and pass some time as well. He was competitive, so if you put him in a good mood by letting him win, he might be willing to loosen his lips about some information. “Lips…oh, oh no.” Now all you had to do was keep from acting like a moron in front of, probably, the hottest guy you’d ever seen in person.

There was one more thing you needed to get him to talk about, though: what to do if he didn’t disappear tomorrow. After turning off the water you changed into clean pajamas and looked at yourself in the foggy bathroom mirror, nodded to yourself in preparation of dealing with Bakugo outside, and opened the door.

Rather than leaning against the counter he sat on the couch, foot tapping rapidly on the ground with obvious frustration at his current predicament. You looked at him briefly before walking into your room and dumping your dirty clothes into the laundry basket. “Alright, let’s see what happens,” you said under your breath before walking back out and standing in front of him with your phone in your hands.

He furrowed his brows, as if asking you to move from in front of the blank TV screen so he could continue watching an imaginary show. “What?”

“So, if I’m going to let you stay here until you’re able to go back to your universe, you gotta level with me a bit.” Bakugo scoffed, but didn’t interrupt as the phone translated. “If you’re still here tomorrow - not ideal, I know - “ you added quickly, seeing his face contort, “do you have a plan? I can’t take off work two days in a row, so you could just…hang out here I guess, if you promise not to blow anything up.”

He crossed his arms with obvious annoyance. “You think I can’t control my own quirk as a professional hero? The only things I blow up are villains. And I don’t really have any damn choice but to stick around if that shitty situation comes up, do I? No I.D., no money, nowhere else to stay, I can’t fucking talk to anyone…did I miss anything?” Counting off on one of his hands his sarcasm was palpable, making you groan.

“Alright, smartass, got it.” OK, that didn’t go as terribly as you thought it might. Now, phase two. “Do you like video games?”

A look of confusion replaced the one of annoyance. “The hell does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m trying to pass the time. You can keep brooding if you want, but I’m not gonna let you sour my mood. Think about it this way: the more time that passes, the sooner you can fall asleep, and the sooner you can wake up to possibly be back home.” Your far-reaching logic seemed to have an effect as you watched the mental gears turning in his head, debating on whether or not to openly agree with you.

“Fine. Don’t complain when you lose. The hell kinda games you have, anyway? I bet they’re all shit…” So far, so good! You grabbed the controllers and sat down on the couch, watching him sift through the games on your TV stand. Something seemed to stand out to him as he pulled it out with a grin. “Your collection isn’t total garbage, and somehow they overlap into my world,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m real good at this one.”

Figures the one he held up was one you were particularly bad at, even though it was still fun. Console controls were also fairly universal, so he had no trouble plugging in the game. Before he sat down, though, Bakugo unzipped the orange hoodie he’d been wearing all day and tossed it off to the side, rolling his broad shoulders as if preparing for a fight.

Below the sleeves of his black shirt you now stared at his arms, lean but still strong and muscular. He needed powerful arm muscles to control his quirk, no doubt. What really caught your attention, though, were the faint scars dotted from his forearms up past the hem of his sleeves. Some were long, others were short and wide; some looked fairly new and others looked faded and healed over. He caught you staring and you quickly swiveled your head away in embarrassment.

“Um, sorry! I didn’t expect…nevermind.” You were sure you sounded like a moron, but surprisingly he didn’t chastise you.

“I said I was a hero, didn’t I? Wasn’t a damn lie. Scars are part of the job.” Feeling the couch dip at the other end you took that as a sign that he wasn’t angry. Maybe people stared often, but you weren’t about to ask about scar origin stories just yet.

Following the prompts on the screen you both picked out your characters - luckily he didn’t pick the one you were best with - before watching the countdown numbers flash on screen to the start of the fight.

Once “FIGHT!” appeared in the middle of the TV, Bakugo’s character did some super move that almost immediately took a third of your own character’s health. “What?!” you screeched at the sudden attack. Apparently your misery was his pleasure, but hardly a minute later Bakugo emerged victorious.

“You are shit at this,” he mocked. Looking over, though, you saw the faint glimpse of the first smile he’d worn all day, and damn if it wasn’t a nice look on him. You weren’t losing on purpose, but keeping him in a good mood remained the goal.

“Shut up, I just need to warm up, first.” After another round you did a bit better, but still lost quickly. The third round made Bakugo the victor once again, and he actually let out a laugh. Now you were the annoyed one. “OK, pick new characters!”

“That won’t help you.” As if to further agitate you he purposefully picked a character that was known to be mediocre at best. You picked another one you were halfway decent with, and started the match.

Once again, he kicked your ass with only a little more difficulty this time. Over the next half hour this continued: he would win, then laugh, you’d groan and smash buttons before going and picking a new character, and the cycle would repeat. Your frustrations turned into his source of joy and, although you were glad for the mood shift, losing every single match grated on your nerves enough to warrant a new strategy. “Alright! New game!” you shouted while tossing your controller onto the couch when Bakugo’s character stomped yours into a bloody pulp.

“Sore loser,” he scoffed, amused at your short temper. Searching through your collection you pulled out a different game and held it up with a questioning look. “The hell is that one?”

“Aha, so not everything crosses over.” You replaced the discs before sitting back down on the couch. If he was unfamiliar with the controls and mechanics, it might give you a bit of an unfair advantage.

“Or it could be a shit game so I never bothered with it,” he shot back while you went through the starting menu. Sure enough you read the smallest hint of confusion on his face and prepared to possibly win the first match of the night. He wasn’t the type to back down from a challenge, however.

When the actual match started you let loose with no mercy, actually managing to K.O. Bakugo’s character with little effort. “Tch, pure luck,” he reasoned while settling into a more concentrated position with his elbows propped on his knees while staring intently at the TV screen. The controls of this game operated different than the last one, which seemed to throw him off just enough to win the second match.

You laughed while tossing your hands in the air after having finally beaten him at something. His grip on the controller seemed dangerously tense. “Please don’t blow up my controller.”

“I won’t blow anything up,” he growled out, the translator only picking up a few of the words through his teeth.

“Do you want me to show you the controls so it’s fair?” You really did want to keep him in a good mood, so maybe evening things out would help. Instead he cut his eyes to you before swiftly pulling them back to the TV.

“I don’t need your help, just start the next match.” Stubbornness wasn’t something he aged out of, apparently. Instead you shrugged and pressed on with the next fight. He was getting the hang of it, but you were still kicking his ass when he paused the game this time. “OK fine! All I need is one lesson and I can win.”

Ignoring the idea that he could reel in a comeback you scooted a bit closer and explained a couple of the combos that worked for all characters and the button combinations. He only need to hear it once before he unpaused the game and the match ended up in a tie. He grinned while you groaned.

Now that he knew what to do the matches were harder, and he ended up winning the next two despite your best efforts. “You’re shit at this,” he said while you hung your head in defeat.

“Yeah, well, I don’t always play to win, I play because I’m having fun,” you said in retort. “I don’t have a roommate and playing against the AI can get boring, so honestly I don’t mind that much.” Maybe Bakugo was used to the people around him being equally as competitive as himself, because he didn’t really have a comeback for that. Wanting a break from playing games, you decided to enact the last step in your strategy.

Turning to him slightly while trying not to get distracted by his handsome face, you posed a question. “So…assuming you will be gone tomorrow, are you willing to tell me more about your world now?”

His face dropped and brows furrowed, but he didn’t seem as annoyed with the question compared to earlier. “It is obvious my world is way more interesting than this quirkless place.” Bakugo drummed his fingers on his jeans before giving you an answer. “If I answer your questions will you stop bugging me?”

You had to contain excitement at getting him to actually open up a bit. “Yes, yes I will. OK, so…”

Launching right in you started with basic questions that you honestly already knew the answers to if the manga proved truthful - which it did. His answers about quirks and heroes fell in line with things you already knew, but hearing his own perspectives was the exciting part. You asked if he had other heroes he ever teamed up with or if he worked on more solo missions. Sure enough he mentioned Kirishima - calling him his “best friend” even - while explaining that few heroes actually worked alone unless the mission called for a specific quirk or set of skills.

Even though you possessed an understanding of Pro Hero work, hearing it straight from him and listening to first-hand details made your excitement genuine. Bakugo assumed you knew nothing about his own universe or how quirks worked, so maybe your undivided attention and him being in control of the conversation kept him talking. You didn’t mind.

“So you go to a special school for hero training…does that mean you didn’t go to college then? Just straight into hero work?” you asked. He quirked an eyebrow and scuffed.

“The hell would I need college for? I learned everything I needed to know at UA. Anyone who isn’t interested in being a Pro Hero can do whatever the hell they want, though,” he said before continuing. “I guess you went to school for your ‘boring office job’?” The last bit was emphasized with air quotes, pointing to your exact words from this morning.

It was the first time he’d directly asked you about yourself and your life, so you had to gather up your composure at his curiosity before answering. “Uh, yeah. I graduated a couple years ago and moved here for my job. It pays the bills, so I can’t complain too much.” You shrugged, not really wanting to dig into comparing your very ordinary career with his exciting one. Maybe he picked up on the indifference of your tone, or he didn’t care to know anything else about your job, but he didn’t ask any more questions.

“Uh, are you hungry for dinner or anything?” The silence felt awkward so, once again, food came to mind in a mild attempt at passing time and trying to find common ground. Besides, a sandwich and two pizza slices didn’t exactly comprise a day’s worth of well-rounded meals. Rather than answer you Bakugo stood up and walked into the kitchen, pulling out things from the fridge and cabinets. “What are you doing?” you asked, grabbing your phone and walking over.

“Cooking,” was all he said. You expected more of an explanation, but he seemed to think the opposite.

“You don’t have to, you’re sorta a guest, I guess.” At that he spun around while holding a bag of rice to look straight at you with those striking red eyes of his. They were more vivid than you imagined they would be, as if light illuminated them from behind like a paper lantern.

“I’m only gonna say this once,” he said while holding up a finger for emphasis. “This whole situation sucks, and it pisses me off, but I’m not the type of asshole to ignore the fact that you didn’t kick me out despite that being the most common sense thing to do.” You were so stunned at his words that his analytical glare passed by without catching on to the hidden reason you kept him around. “So sit down, don’t complain, I’m cooking.”

Bakugo Katsuki was cooking you dinner - something you’d literally only dreamed of. So, rather than argue about it, you let him have reign over the kitchen. While Bakugo rummaged around to find whatever pots and pans he wanted, you decided to set up the couch in a makeshift bed for him. Friends would sleep over on rare occasions, especially if they'd’ had too much to drink and you refused to let them drive home, so you kept spare pillows and blankets lying around.

Looking down at the pillow and folded blanket made you pout. You wish you could do more, but this was all you could settle for with such short notice. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind too much - like he said himself, it was better than sleeping outside.

After walking into your room to grab a novel you’d been nursing for a while in your free time, a delicious smell hit your nose. So Bakugo might actually be a good cook! Looking over you couldn’t help but take the opportunity to stare a bit. Broad, strong shoulders and long arms; that black shirt clung to his back in just the right spots. He was beyond handsome, honestly. Despite being tossed into unfamiliar territory, he seemed fairly confident and concentrated with whatever he was cooking. Maybe he was using the opportunity as a distraction from the current situation, so rather than bug him you sat down at the small kitchen table your parents gifted you when you moved in and opened up your book.

The silence wasn’t as awkward as you thought it might be…you could almost say it was comfortable. After a while you glanced up to see him pulling some plates down from the cabinet.

“Bangohan ga dekimashita yo,” (food is done) he called out. You weren’t sure what he said but assumed it meant dinner was ready. Setting your book down and grabbing your phone to pull back up the translator you stood up and made your way into the kitchen, nose in the air at the interesting smells.

“Oh wow,” you exclaimed, scanning over the spread of food. Despite having a limited selection of familiar ingredients at the grocery store he seemed to improvise well with whatever you bought. He raised an eyebrow at your fixated stare.

“Stop drooling, weirdo.” After filling his plate he left you to do the same before grabbing a glass of water and sitting down at the table. You rolled your tongue back into your mouth and spooned a bit of everything onto your own before doing the same. “Itadakimasu,” (let’s eat) he mumbled quickly before digging in.

As soon as you lifted the first bite to your mouth you should’ve prepared yourself for some level of spiciness, but decided it wouldn’t be that bad. What you weren’t expecting was a burst of flavor that honestly sent you reeling; it was goddamn delicious. But, after swallowing the first bite you started coughing which made Bakugo look towards you, then look down at the food, then back at you with an offended glare.

“The fuck? The food is not bad, I’m not a shit cook,” he replied to an unasked question. After gulping down half your glass of water you finally got a hold of yourself and met his glare with one of your own.

“It’s spicy!”

He just shrugged. “Yeah, and?”

“I told you at the store I don’t like spicy stuff,” you explained while scooping up another pile of food. Despite the horrendous burn in your mouth, it tasted good enough to keep you eating.

“How is that my problem?” As if to mock you he also swallowed another bite without so much as flinching. “Weak. I cooked, so I made it how I like it: spicy.”

After getting up to refill your glass with ice water, you took a deep sigh before speaking. Things were going well so far tonight and you didn’t want to ruin it by getting into a yelling match over food. “That’s…fair, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, the food is really good and I appreciate that you made it, because you really didn’t have to…but holy shit my mouth is on fire.” He must’ve found your exaggeration - or pain - amusing because you swore he actually smiled for a split second before returning to concentrate on his food.

The remainder of dinner was devoured in silence aside from his occasional quip at you having to chug water after every bite. He finished before you did and was about to clear off the counter and dishes before you practically yelled at him to stop.

“Stop! No, I can put things up since you made the food. That’s fair, right?” Once again he raised an eyebrow in your direction with a hand on his hip. He really was effortlessly attractive - to an almost unfair point.

“Are you telling me what to do?” he said accusingly. You shook your head in a wide sweep.

“No, I’m telling you what not to do,” you answered before stuffing the last bite of food into your mouth and downing the rest of your water. “It’s ultimately my kitchen, so you’re just borrowing it.”

He honesty stared at you before clicking his tongue and walking out of the kitchen and back to the couch to, apparently, stare at your back while you cleaned up dinner.

You cleaned and put away the dishes quickly knowing his eyes were on you the whole time, as if watching for a mistake or dropped glass. Clumsiness came naturally to you, but only when you weren’t paying close attention.

After everything that happened during the day, you were honestly more tired than usual despite it being slightly earlier than you’d normally fall asleep. Your brain felt exhausted from trying to comprehend the idea that one of your favorite manga characters came to life from a pillow in your bedroom and now stood in your living room. He was probably as tired as you were, and the sooner he fell asleep, the sooner he could possibly return back to his own universe.

In a completely selfish way you wished he would stay for just another day - to learn more about him, to get to know him on whatever personal level he might allow, or even just capture the mental image of him to keep as a reminder that this was real and not some day-long hallucination. But he didn’t belong here, and you knew that, so the sooner he got back home to his Hero work, the sooner he would be happy again.

You walked into the bathroom and closed the door to go through your nightly routine of brushing your teeth and applying moisturizer before looking at yourself in the mirror. You were in your mid-twenties, with a job that paid the bills, and no drama to speak of; well, this entire day consisted of drama, honestly, but it was something you’d never experience again…which made you want to say goodnight properly just in case he disappeared tomorrow.

Opening up the door you came out to actually catch him yawning while sitting on the couch, but Bakugo shut his mouth while you glanced away to avoid staring. He almost looked like a sleepy cat, but you stuffed that adorable image away for now while standing in front of him.

“So. Uh, I’m going to sleep. If you’re gone in the morning and are back in your own world, no harm done. I’m sure it’s been an annoying day for you.” Embarrassment flooded through your chest as he looked up at you, but you pushed forward with what you wanted to say. “If you are, I just wanted to say that it was nice meeting you, despite a rocky start this morning. I’ve obviously never met anyone who is a real Hero before, and especially not someone who has what amounts to a superpower.” Going off his look you added, “Yea, I know its a quirk, I’m just being a smartass.”

His fingers drummed on the arm of the couch as if expecting you to say more. When you didn’t he took the opportunity to chime in. “I still don’t know what kind of quirk sent me here, or what their intentions were. I hate not knowing shit.” He paused a moment to stew in his own frustration before continuing.

“I’ll be gone, and you can go back to doing whatever you do. Thanks for the food and the couch, and I guess not calling the cops to put me in jail.” Considering that alternative you really did provide more than you realized. “No one here will believe you if you told them about me, huh?”

At that you glanced away before running a hand through your hair. “Huh, yeah I guess not. They’d all think I’m crazy or something if I tried to explain it,” you said while shaking your head with a light laugh. “But, anyway. Uh, goodnight. Sorry if the couch isn’t great but it’s all I have.” With one final glance his way you walked into your room, closed the door, and locked it behind you before crawling into bed.

“Today was real, I still can’t believe it,” you mumbled into your pillow. “I have no proof that today was real, but I know it was real so that counts for something…right?” Even though you were tired, the food hadn’t settled in your stomach quite yet so after plugging up your phone - that translator app ran down your battery to pretty much nothing after using it most of the day - you scrolled through social media. You followed a couple of blogs that posted art sometimes, and when you ran into a drawing of Bakugo you promptly closed your phone and stared off into the darkness. “Single most surreal moment of my life,” you whispered while glancing up at your bedroom door.

The living room line shone from underneath your closed door telling you he must still be awake. It made you feel a bit guilty leaving him alone, but you honestly assumed he’d be tired of your company by now. Maybe he needed time to brainstorm ways to get back home, or why he might’ve been sent here if it wasn’t random. Rather than dwell too much on the “what if” scenarios, you closed your eyes and eventually drifted off to sleep, secretly hoping you might get just one more day with Bakugo Katsuki.

Thank you for reading! If you would like to be tagged in future updates, please let me know! I love feedback and people screaming about my writing so PLEASE SCREAM ABOUT IT AND I’LL LOVE YOU <3

Update: Chapter 2 is here!

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bnha imagines

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jameslokqjjsaxati-blog · 4 years

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100+ Rekomendasi Anime tentang Sekolah Terlengkap

Kehidupan sekolah khususnya SMA adalah masa-masa paling indah dalam hidup setiap orang. Di SMA kita belajar banyak hal, mulai dari mengenal dunia part time, kehidupan percintaan, persiapan menghadapi universitas, mulai beranjak dewasa dan sebagainya. Banyak kisah menarik yang kita alami ketika duduk di bangku SMA. Nah, kisah menarik itulah yang sering diangkat dalam cerita Anime school atau anime tentang kehidupan sekolah. Anime tentang sekolah juga dibagi menjadi banyak versi, ada yang berkisah tentang kehidupan sekolah umum, klub sekolah, sekolah khusus pria dan sekolah khusus wanita, sekolah memasak, sekolah militer, asrama sekolah, sekolah bela diri dan sebagainya.

Anime tentang Asrama Sekolah

Anime ini berlangsung di sekolah yang ada asramanya: sebuah lembaga yang bertindak sebagai asrama dan sekolah bagi siswa. Beberapa anime dengan tema asrama sekolah terbaik adalah : 1. Gosick

Info Episode : 24 episode, (2010 - 2011) Winter 2011 Genre : Drama, Misteri, Romantis, Asrama Sekolah, Detektif, England, Eropa, Perpustakaan, Sejarah, Adaptasi Light Novel. Sinopsis : Pada awal abad ke-20, Kazuya pindah ke akademi bergengsi sebagai bagian dari program pertukaran antara Jepang dan Saubure, sebuah negara kecil di Eropa. Tapi sementara Kazuya akan senang berteman dan memiliki kehidupan sekolah yang khas, bocah itu dijauhi oleh teman-temannya yang menyukai cerita hantu yang percaya bahwa dia adalah "Black Reaper" yang harus ditakuti. Suatu hal berubah suatu hari ketika Kazuya mengembara ke puncak perpustakaan dan menemukan taman botani yang rimbun, dan seorang gadis cantik, kecil, berambut pirang bernama Victorique yang jarang meninggalkan gedung dan terpesona oleh misteri yang belum terpecahkan. Bersama-sama, keduanya mengembangkan persahabatan yang bersahabat dan menghadapi banyak kasus yang mengerikan dan berbahaya yang bahkan tidak bisa dipecahkan oleh detektif lokal terkenal Grevil. 2. Trinity Seven

Info Episode : 12 episode, Fall 2014 Genre : Aksi, Komedi, Ecchi, Fantasi, Harem, Shounen, Asrama Sekolah, Sekolah Sihir, Kehidupan Sekolah, Adaptasi Manga. Sinopsis : Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Lust. Ini adalah tujuh dosa yang ditimpakan kepada tujuh gadis yang memerintah Akademi Biblia. Untuk merebut kembali dunianya, bocah itu memutuskan ia harus mengendalikan dosa-dosa ini ... Bocah itu, Arata Kasuga, telah memiliki dunia yang ia kenal dengan "Fenomena Kehancuran" yang misterius, dan sepupunya Hijiri menghilang ke dimensi lain. Untuk memahami Fenomena Kehancuran dan memenangkan kembali sepupunya, dia datang ke Biblia Academy. Di sana ia menemukan tujuh gadis dan dosa-dosa mereka. Baca juga : Daftar Anime Asrama Sekolah

Anime Sekolah Khusus Laki-laki

Anime sekolah khusus laki-laki adalah anime yang bercerita tentang kehidupan di sekolah swasta khusus laki-laki. Anime ini bisa bercerita tentang kehidupan kelompok anak laki-laki sma, atau guru wanita yang mengajar di sekolah khusus laki-laki seperti dalam tv series, anime, manga Gokusen. Ada juga kisah tentang perempuan yang menyamar menjadi siswa laki-laki di sekolah khusus laki-laki.

Anime Sekolah Khusus Perempuan

Anime sekolah khusus perempuan adalah anime yang bercerita tentang kehidupan di sekolah swasta khusus perempuan. Bisa juga anime yang bercerita tentang pertemanan antara siswa perempuan di sepanjang serinya. Contoh anime yang sukses yaitu K-On!!

Anime Sekolah Seni

Anime sekolah Seni bercerita tentang Karakter dalam anime yang masuk ke Sekolah Seni tempat mereka belajar atau berlatih melukis, patung, arsitektur, atau bentuk seni lainnya.

Anime Sekolah Memasak

Anime sekolah memasak bercerita tentang akademi SMA memasak, membuat kue, dimana para siswanya belajar tentang dunia makanan (culinary), mulai dari bahan-bahan makanan, info gizi, menaman dan sebagainya. Kalau di indonesia namanya sekolah tataboga. Salah satu anime sekolah memasak terkenal adalah Food Wars! Shokugeki no Souma.

Anime Sekolah Sihir (Magic)

Anime sekolah sihir bercerita tentang sekolah atau akademi sihir, dimana para siswanya belajar tentang dunia sihir, ilmu sihir dan kemampuan sihir. Biasanya untuk masuk ke sekolah ini, setiap siswa harus mempunyai kekuatan sihi yang dengan level tertentu.

Anime Sekolah Beladiri

Anime sekolah beladiri atau martial art bercerita tentang sekolah seni beladiri dimana siswanya akan belajar tentang ilmu beladiri dan lebih sering ini anime action dimana banyak adegan pertempuran.

Anime Sekolah Militer

Anime sekolah militer atau akademi militer bercerita tentang sekolah khusus militer dimana siswanya belajar tentang ilmu kemiliteran atau ilmu perang dan persenjataan.

Anime Sekolah Musik

Anime sekolah musik bercerita tentang kehidupan siswa sekolah musik, bisa SMA atau universitas. Anime sekolah musik yang paling populer adalah Nodame Cantabile.

Anime Sekolah Monster

Anime sekolah monster adalah anime sekolah yang siswanya adalah monster, sucumbus, vampir, warewolf, satan atau iblis, zombie dan sebagainya.

Anime Sekolah Campuran (peleburan)

Anime sekolah campuran adalah anime sekolah tentang sekolah yang awalnya khusus perempuana atau khusus laki-laki yang kemudian diubah menjadi sekolah umum yaitu sekolah campuran.

Anime Klub Sekolah

Anime klub sekolah adalah anime tentang ektrakulikuler yang ada di sekolah berupa klub. Biasanya anime klub sekolah populer adalah anime olahraga seperti basket, tennis, voli, baseball dan sepakbola.

Top 100 Anime Tentang Sekolah yang Bagus Ditonton

Sampai saat ini sudah ada lebih dari 1000an anime dengan genre kehidupan sekolah atau anime school life. Nah, dari jumlah yang fantastis itu tentu ada yang bagus dan ada yang biasa saja. Berikut ini adalah daftar anime sekolah terbaik yang sudah admin nonton jadi terjamin bagus. Walau ada yang kurang bagus dan lebih bagus versi manganya. Oh ya, daftar ini disusun berdasarkan abjad ya. A Silent Voice Absolute Duo Amagami SS Amanchu! Angel Beats! Angel Densetsu Another Assassination Classroom Azumanga Daioh Baby Steps Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts Bamboo Blade Beastars Big Windup! Blue Exorcist Charlotte Chibi Maruko-chan (1995) Chihayafuru Clannad Daily Lives of High School Boys Days Dear Boys D-Frag! Doukyuusei Elegant Youkai Apartment Life Eyeshield 21 Food Wars! Shokugeki no Souma Full Metal Panic Genshiken Girls und Panzer Gokusen Golden Time Great Teacher Onizuka Haikyuu!! Handa-kun Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto Hell Teacher Nube High School DxD Hyouka Infinite Stratos Kakegurui Kill La Kill Kimi ni Todoke K-On!! Koukou Butouden Crows Kuroko's Basketball Kyou Kara Ore Wa!! Masamune-kun's Revenge Medaka Box Midori Days Mob Psycho 100 Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun My Hero Academia My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Negima Nichijou: My Ordinary Life Nisekoi Nodame Cantabile Non Non Biyori Repeat Ouran High School Host Club Piano no Mori Prison School Puella Magi Madoka Magica Quanzhi Fashi ReLIFE Rosario + Vampire Saki School Babysitters School Rumble Seitokai Yakuindomo Silver Spoon Sket Dance Sketchbook ~full color's~ Slam Dunk Soul Eater Sound! Euphonium Suzuka The Anthem of the Heart The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. The Familiar of Zero The Girl Who Leapt Through Time The Irregular at Magic High School The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya The World God Only Knows To Love Ru Tokyo Ravens Toradora! Touch Trinity Sevens Tsurune Ultimate Otaku Teacher Vampire Knight Welcome to the Ballroom When They Cry: Kai Witch Craft Works Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches your name. Yowamushi Pedal Yu-Gi-Oh! Zombie-Loan Demikian, artikel tentang anime dengan tema kehidupan sekolah, semoga daftar rekomendasi anime sekolah diatas dapat bermanfaat. Read the full article

#sekolah

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norihisahyuga-archived · 7 years

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Secret Admirer.

Tsukioka Sho/Takiguchi Yuichiro Battle Royale 6,000~ words. Sfw.

Yuichiro has known he’s been attracted to other boys for a while now, but his latest crush on Sho Tsukioka of the Kiriyama Family refuses to go away. When he starts leaving Sho little presents in the form of manga he thinks Sho might like without signing his name to the cards, Sho is bewildered. Who would be leaving him presents, and isn’t being an admirer his job in the first place? And for the first time, Hiroshi just might be right about something. Modern day non-Program AU. Tagging @hironoshimizu and @yoshimiyahagi

Most people knew well enough to leave the Kiriyama Family as alone as humanly possible; avoiding them in the hallways at all costs and doing their best not to aggravate or anger them in any way. Yuichiro Takiguchi avoided them even more so than most did, knowing as well as anyone else that he would become a target for bullying if he strayed too close to them or made one of them angry. Especially Ryuhei Sasagawa; his temper was legendary and rested on a hair trigger, and even small things were enough to upset him.

So Yuichiro stayed away from the Kiriyama Family. Even when the first stirrings of the crush made themselves known in the middle of a test, he stayed away.

He remembers that day all too well, the day that really made his life at school that much extra hell. The classroom was quiet except for the scratching of pencils and pens on paper and the whispers of Kazuo Kiriyama turning the pages in his book; he had already finished twenty minutes ago, only six or seven after the test had been handed out. Yuichiro was about halfway through the bulk of the test, tapping the eraser end of his pencil against his lower lip.

His eyes were drawn again and again to the boy sitting diagonally from him, broad shoulders relaxed, thumb clicking the end of his pen. Despite the heat of summer still stirring this far into September, he had managed to find a way to keep his pompadour perfectly in place, and he looked immaculate as always. Unable to help himself, Yuichiro admired the way his strong hands looked around the slender length of his pen.

For the last two years or so, Yuichiro was well aware he had an attraction to other boys. He had started out with a fledgling crush on his best friend, Tadakatsu Hatagami, that had faded away with time. He’d found himself interested in some of the other jocks in class, boys like Tatsumichi Oki with his friendly smile and Shinji Mimura with his cocky smirk. Nothing had ever come of those crushes, though. Tatsu is only a good friend, and Shinji a veritable stranger.

Nonetheless, those crushes had been innocent. Even if Tatsu and Shinji had found out Yuichiro had crushes on them, neither of them would have much cared. They would have been understanding about it, not likely to do anything about it. But this… This was different, and Yuichiro knew that better than anyone. This time, he has a crush on Sho Tsukioka.

And Sho Tsukioka is a member of the Kiriyama Family.

It was such a stereotype. Yuichiro couldn’t help laughing to himself about that later on when he realized that the stirrings he felt were more than just curiosity. In the few manga he’d read that featured two boys dating— they were few and far between but he read them when he could find them— it was always a quiet, bookish type that fell for some handsome badboy.

Sho had never been cruel to him. Truth be told, the only thing Sho seemed to have the patience to spend considerable time on was his own appearance and his crushes on Kazuo Kiriyama and Shinji Mimura. He didn’t pick on people or bully them the way that the rest of the Family did.

When Yuichio turned in his test, fully completed, he couldn’t help but find himself staring at Sho on the way back to his desk. Out of the corner of his eye, of course, too terrified to be caught staring and asked what he was doing. Sho had just finished his test and was filing his nails, humming a song beneath his breath that Yuichiro didn’t recognize, one that probably went along with the song playing through his earbuds. As always, he looked impeccable up close.

Sho was handsome, all strong lines in his face, an interesting contrast to his full lips and long, long eyelashes. Yuichiro shook his head, went back to his desk, and laid his head down on the cool wood as he tried to figure out where he was supposed to go from here.

It had been over a month since that test, and to the best of his ability, Yuichiro has been unable to shake the crush. If anything, it’s only grown worse as time has passed. He catches himself staring at Sho far too often, whether it be in class, across the cafeteria, or during the irregular moments when the Kiriyama Family makes themselves visible at baseball games. It isn’t often, of course, because they have better things to do, but when they’re bored, they show up.

Days like today, actually. Yuichiro has been doing his best to focus on the game at hand, cheering on his best friend Katsu when Katsu does something particularly brilliant. He’s one of the best on the team, especially once Shuya Nanahara had dropped baseball in favor of learning to play guitar. But when Sho is sitting just a few rows down with the rest of the Kiriyama Family, Yuichiro finds it’s a lot more difficult to focus than it is usually.

“What are you staring at?” The question comes from Yutaka Seto, who is seated next to him with his boyfriend Shinji Mimura’s varsity jacket draped over his shoulders. It’s too hot to wear it properly but Shinji had given it to him last year and he’s found a way to wear it ever since even if it just means wrapping it around his shoulders.

Yuichiro jumps at the question, then shakes his head at himself. “Nothing, nothing. I’m just… Distracted, I guess. Thinking about the test we have coming up for history.”

“I can help you study if you want to. I’m good at history.” At this, Yutaka beams and Yuichiro has to chuckle a little. Yutaka has always been smart, not the smartest in the class but smart enough to have a high grade point average. “Seriously, though, what’s bothering you? It’s not that something’s bothering me… Well. Maybe something is bothering me.” Yuichiro picks at a loose thread on his sleeve, resisting the urge to gnaw on his lower lip and risk having a bloody lip in the process.

Yutaka stretches out a hand and rests it on Yuichiro’s shoulder tenderly. “If you want to talk about it, just let me know and I’ll listen to what you have to say. You know I will.”

“I just…” Yuichiro trails off, shoving his sleeve into his mouth to stop himself from biting his lip in its place. “I just have a crush on someone, is all. That’s what I was thinking about.”

There is silence between them then, Yutaka’s eyes widening a touch and then softening with understanding as he wraps his arm around Yuichiro’s shoulders. Of course he understands, his crush on Shinji had led to their relationship forming, but it’s hardly that simple in Yuichiro’s case. As much as he appreciates his friend offering him a shoulder to lean on, he knows this can’t be solved so easily with a simple conversation. After all, Shinji was already Yutaka’s best friend. Sho probably has no idea that Yuichiro even exists.

“Are you going to tell me who it’s on?” Yutaka asks him after a few silent minutes have passed.

Yuichiro debates the merit of telling him, then shakes his head before leaning it on Yutaka’s shoulder. “I don’t think I’m ready to admit it right now, actually.”

His eyes stray to where Sho is sitting, his phone visible in one hand. Texting Yahagi, maybe, Yuichiro knows the two of them have become friends as of late.

“Besides,” he adds softly, “I don’t think he knows that I exist.”

On Monday morning, Yuichiro finds himself hovering beside Sho’s locker, having arrived at school early enough that no other students would be present. There’s a gift bag in his hands, a bright pink ribbon pinned to the front with a card attached that simply says “Sho Tsukioka” in a careful script. He practiced it over and over in his notebook until he was confident he had a good style choice, something befitting someone as elegant as Sho.

He knows nothing about Sho’s interests or tastes because Sho by and large keeps to himself, and the only thing he puts on display is his vibrant personality. So with nothing to go by and no real way to buy Sho a present he might like or need, he settled for giving Sho something that might at least appeal to him based on who he is as a person.

The mangas are copies of the ones that Yuichiro already owns, ridiculous soft romance between boys in the same class who end up falling in love with each other. A lot of them reminded him of the situation between himself and Sho, one of them almost perfect for the way he feels about Sho. It was only a few volumes long, a story about a quiet boy with very few friends who ended up falling in love with the biggest yankee in his class.

Chewing on his lower lip, Yuichiro looks quickly from left to right before retrieving the piece of ribbon from his pocket, threading it through the grate on the front of the locker and knotting it around the handles of the gift bag. He makes sure it’s tied as tightly as possible, happy to see the ribbon can support the weight of the bag, and quickly scurries away before he’s caught.

He meets up with Katsu at the doors of the library, still clocked and locked this early, the room beyond still dark. Katsu raises an eyebrow at him, settling an arm comfortable across his shoulders. “Where you been all this time? I got your text last night and slept in a little.”

“Oh good, I’m glad you saw it.” He had sent the text late after he’d finally put the finishing touches on Sho’s gift that Katsu didn’t need to walk the extra blocks to meet him outside of his house. “I just had to do something this morning, that’s all. Did you get your studying done?”

“More or less. I would have texted you back but I was in the middle of note cards and didn’t want to lose my rhythm. You know how it goes.” Katsu flashes him a bright smile.

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.” Yuichiro breathes a nervous sigh when he starts seeing people walking through the halls, mostly the early birds like him and Katsu, but still.

Katsu reaches into his bag and retrieves the stack of note cards held together by a metal ring. “Actually, since we’ve got some time before class starts, would you mind quizzing me before the test? Gotta keep my grades up if I want to stay on the team.”

Sho Tsukioka arrives to school earlier than the rest of the Kiriyama Family. Ryuhei and Hiroshi catch the bus together and show up right before class starts, not caring if they happen to be late to class. Mitsuru and Kazuo meet up outside of Kazuo’s house and walk the rest of the day and they show up with fifteen minutes until the beginning of class. Sho walks to school without meeting either group because he doesn’t want to spend much time with Ryuhei and Hiroshi if he can manage not to, and he knows he can’t interrupt Mitsuru and Kazuo.

He arrives to school at his usual time, humming along to the music blasting through his earbuds as he walks along the hallway to his locker. Unlike what most people might believe, he gets himself properly prepared for class and is ready to go as soon as the bell rings. Today will be no different, but the sight of the gift bag on his locker makes him pause.

The only two boys in class he has attempted actively pursuing are Kazuo and Shinji Mimura. The former had been nearly impossible to woo, and just when Sho had been convinced Kazuo would never like anyone, Kazuo had shown up to school one morning holding Mitsuru Numai’s hand. The latter was currently dating his best friend Yutaka Seto, which made sense. Sho can be jealous, but he can’t exactly pretend he doesn’t understand the merit of dating a best friend.

There hasn’t been anyone else who really caught his eye, and as far as he knows, none of the boys in class who are actively interested in men are interested in him. Does that mean this gift is a from a girl? He hopes not because he’s been nothing but loud and to the point about his sexuality, never feeling ashamed of being himself.

“Oh,” he says aloud to himself, tugging an earbud out of his ear as he touches the card attached to the bag. “No name, huh? Maybe it’s from Yoshimi or something. It’s not my birthday, though…”

He can’t really think of anyone who might have given him a gift, much less what the gift itself might be. His only choice is to open the bag and hope the contents are obvious enough that they give away who the gift might have been from. Dropping his bag on the ground in front of his locker, he carefully unknots the ribbon suspending the bag and peeks inside.

The sight of what is obviously a half dozen books confuses him even further. He glances around from left to right but no one else is in sight this early in the morning. Carefully, he fishes one of the books out and blinks at the colorful cover, turning it around to read the back. A yaoi manga? Who on earth would give him something like this? Plenty of people read manga in class, but he can’t imagine any of them reading something like this. The more he reads of the description, though, the more intriguing the book sounds. Maybe he can give it a read sometime.

He opens his locker, deposits what he doesn’t need for the first class inside, and retrieves what he does need. He takes his textbook, his binder, his notebook, and the gift bag, and goes to sit on the bench beside the art classroom where the Kiriyama Family usually meets.

“Are you sure you didn’t give these to me?” Sho brandishes one of the manga in front of Yoshimi’s face the next morning. Never much of a reader, he found himself pulling out the first book after he finished his test and turned it in and was surprised when it was engrossing enough to keep reading. By the time he turned out the light to go to sleep, he’d finished them.

Yoshimi frowns at him and shakes her head, swirling a French fry around in her ketchup. It isn’t unusual for Sho to join the Souma gang for lunch anymore, just like it’s not unusual for Hiroshi to pop over with him, having formed his own strange friendship with Hirono. Who would have thought the one thing Hiroshi was good at was making friends?

“I think I would have remembered giving you books, Zuki,” she says, popping the fry into her mouth, chewing and swallowing before speaking. “What did the card say?”

Sho retrieves the card from his bag, tucked safely into one of the internal pockets so nothing would happen to it. “Just my name,” he says, showing it to Yoshimi.

“Someone has a secret admirer then.” Yoshimi smiles up at him before picking up her sandwich. “You should just enjoy it and hope for the best. After all, I’m sure whoever it is is bound to tell you in his own way eventually. Do you have any idea who it might be?”

“No. Who reads things like this? Other than me, I mean. I happen to think it’s brilliant but I severely doubt anyone else from our class would be into these books,” Sho says.

Hiroshi leans across the table, making a grab for the book. “Let me see it.”

“No! With my luck you’ll manage to ruin it in the five seconds I actually let you touch it.” Sho jerks the manga away from Hiroshi’s hand, smacking him with it. “Besides, you don’t need to touch it to look at it. Just look at it with your eyes, okay, Hiroshi?”

“Fine, fine. Hold it up to let me see.” Hiroshi scowls at him, pushing messy bangs out of his eyes before leaning across the table to get a better look at the cover.

Sho rolls his eyes but, for the moment at least, decides to humor Hiroshi. He knows there’s no way HIroshi actually knows what he’s talking about, not when Hiroshi himself can probably barely read a single word. But Hiroshi states intently at the cover, his head cocked to the side, and a slow smile spreads across his face as he snaps his fingers.

“I knew I recognized that book from somewhere. Takiguchi read that series a few weeks ago. I remember thinking that I didn’t know he was into that.” Hiroshi leans back in his seat, triumphant, while Sho just stares at him in silence.

Finally, he sets the book down on the table and picks up his sandwich. “Shut the fuck up, Hiroshi. There’s no way Takiguchi would give me books anyway.”

Across the cafeteria, Yuichiro picks a crouton out of his salad and pops it into his mouth, chewing softly to himself as he reads the book in front of him. Though he hasn’t been able to shake his concern about Sho in the least, he’s been able to distract himself from it by working his way through yet another series. His parents have no problem buying him the books, probably glad he has a hobby far less risky than a good number of his peers.

Katsu and Shinji are chatting across the table, Shinji having joined them today so he could sit with Yutaka. The banter makes for excellent background noise to his reading and he’s long since learned to master the art of multitasking so that he can eat his salad and read without dropping any food on his book or not finishing his meal by the end of the lunch period.

“What are you reading?” Shinji asks him, nudging him on the shoulder. Though the two of them spoke very little before Shinji began dating Yutaka, they’ve managed to get to the point where they can have actual conversations with each other.

“It’s a sports manga, actually, you might even like it.” Yuichiro retrieves the first volume from his bag having finished it earlier this morning, holding it out for Shinji to inspect. “It’s not basketball, but you’re pretty athletic, right? I’m sure you like more sports than basketball.”

Shinji grins and tips him a wink. “I love every sport. Basketball’s just what I’m best at.”

Preoccupied with his conversation with Shinji, Yuichiro fails to notice the moment when Sho glances across the cafeteria at him, a considering expression on his face.

Two weeks go by, and Sho finds himself receiving more bags as the time goes by. Each bag is a different color with a different ribbon attached, and he’s ultimately very surprised to find that all of them are yaoi manga. All of them are also excellent. Hiroshi and Ryuhei crack jokes at him for reading them in the first place— Kazuo doesn’t care and Mitsuru even sidles up next to him during a particular steamy kiss scene— but he still reads them, and he tries to figure out if Hiroshi might have been right after all. Nothing would make him more annoyed.

He tries to catch Yuichiro Takiguchi’s eye in the hallways and usually fails, the boy too absorbed in his manga to pay attention to anything else. It’s cute how he manages to read without running into anyone, though, his dark hair falling into his eyes every so often until he finally has to tuck it back out of his face with adorable fingers.

“Do you think it really might be him?” Mitsuru asks him one afternoon. They’ve chosen to skip math in favor of sitting out on the football field inside of the track, Mitsuru staring up at the cloudy sky while Sho smokes and reads the latest volume he’d been given.

“I don’t know,” Sho admits, marking his place before setting the book down on his lap. “When did you finally realize that Kiriyama-kun liked you back?”

Mitsuru pushes his curls back out of his eyes before tilting his head, raising an eyebrow at Sho with an amused smile on his lips. “Are you kidding me? It was just as much of a surprise to me as it was to everyone else. He’s a mystery. I haven’t even come close to solving him.”

Though Sho usually lives for lovey dovey drivel like this, he can’t help but roll his eyes and throw himself back on the grass, blowing smoke up toward the sky. He had been chasing Kazuo for months to no avail, and considering Kazuo’s perfectly blank expressions and his odd behavior, wooing him had been nearly impossible no matter what Sho tried. In the end, Mitsuru had somehow managed to succeed. Sho has to admit he’s a little bit proud of him.

“It’s probably stupid for me to assume it’s him just because he likes manga too, but…” Sho shrugs a shoulder. Even Mitsuru reads manga from time to time. “I dunno. I have no leads.”

Gently, Mitsuru pushes at his shoulder. “Hey, a thought. Wild, I know, but… Why don’t you just ask for him yourself? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind telling you if he does like you.”

Sho bites his lip, tilting his head back to look up at the sky as he thinks it over. “I mean, I could do that, I think. But I also don’t want to completely humiliate myself if it turns out I’m way off base. Like, what if he’s not interested in me and I was wrong about who it was?”

“Would it really be that big of a deal?” Mitsuru asks.

“I mean, maybe not to you, but it would be to me.” Sho knows himself, knows how vain he is and knows how much pride he has, and he doesn’t really want to think about having to sacrifice any of it in case he’s wrong. “I’ll have to figure something out. I need to figure out who this is.”

“Let me ask you something.” Mitsuru rolls over onto his front, chin propped on his hands, and not for the first time Sho has to admit to himself that he might be eternally jealous of Mitsuru stealing his crush away from him but he’s also not surprised because Mitsuru is gorgeous. “If it was Takiguchi, what would you do about it? Would you be interested in him back?”

The question throws Sho off. He hadn’t really thought about what he would do once he found out who his crush was. After all, his only thoughts had been about finding the person sending him these manga just to put a name and face to the gift bags. All things considered, he hadn’t thought much about what he would do once he figured out who it was. He needed to know before he could make a proper decision, after all. It wasn’t like he would even so much as consider spending a single moment alone with Yoji Kuramoto or Kazushi Niida.

“I guess we’ll have to find my secret admirer first,” he finally says, earning a respectful nod from Mitsuru in response. “And when we do that, I’ll decide what to do about him from there.”

Yuichiro notices the moment when Sho and Mitsuru exit the classroom and do not return for the next class, slumping down in his seat and sighing softly. Weeks have passed with no increase in his courage or strength. He hasn’t told Sho how he feels about him yet and even though it would be in his best interest to tell him sooner rather than later, he can’t. Every time he manages to summon enough nerve to do so, he almost immediately talks himself out of it. Besides, what would someone like Sho want with someone like him?

Katsu must notice his expression because he leans over and taps Yuichiro on the shoulder. “Hey, what’s up with you? You look upset about something.”

“I’m just thinking too hard about things, you know. That’s what I do sometimes.” He manages a small smile for his best friend and sits up straighter in his chair, reaching into his bag for something to read to take his mind off of things. “I’ll get over it. It’s no big deal.”

“We can do something after school if you want. Go out, find a way to take your mind off of what’s bothering you.” Katsu flashes him a hopeful grin, all bright white teeth.

The last thing Yuichiro wants to do right now is go out because he knows the Kiriyama Family frequents the city especially in the evening, but he feels bad because he doesn’t want to let Katsu overworry about him. So he nods and flashes Katsu a smile of his own. “Sure thing. Just let’s stop at our places first so we can change out of our uniforms into something comfortable.”

Katsu nods and Yuichiro considers the matter settled, fixing his eyes on Sho’s chair once more before turning to the manga in his hands. He doesn’t notice Katsu glancing in the same direction, nor does he notice Katu’s concerned expression as he turns back to his own desk.

The afternoon becomes a group venture instead of just the two of them, because as soon as Yutaka and Yoshio catch on that he’s upset about something, they want to tag along. And of course Shinji and Tatsu come with them, because Shinji and Yutaka are nearly attached at the hip and Tatsu, well… Yuichiro would like to think he’s noticed the way Tatsu occasionally stares in Yoshio’s direction, but he isn’t sure. He keeps his nose out of it, though, because the last thing he wants to do is become involved with something that has nothing to do with him.

They settle on the mall, though, spending a little time shopping before they go about doing anything else. Yoshio picks up a new game and Yuichiro does the same, the two of them already talking about hooking up to play together. Yutaka cracks jokes every time he gets the chance, and though a good portion of them are just corny, Shinji laughs at all of them. More than once, Yuichiro just has to lean back and marvel at how cute the two of them are.

After they eat in the food court, he and Yoshio drag the others upstairs to the arcade. It’s the last place that Yuichiro expects to see them, if he’s being honest. They might be typical teenage boys— or at least most of them, if you could even call Kiriyama typical— but an arcade seems beneath them somehow. As soon as Yoshio notices Ryuhei, he takes a step back.

“Hey, don’t worry about him.” Tatsu drops a comforting hand onto his shoulder and though Yoshio jumps initially, he relaxes when he sees who touched him. “If he tries to bother you, you’ve got three badass jocks here to deal with him. That short punk’s nothing.”

Shinji chimes in, thumping Tatsu on the back. “He’s right. I’m not the least bit afraid of the Kiriyama Family and I’m not going to let them mess with you.”

“Me either.” Katsu flashes his bright white smile again, and between the three of them, it’s enough to calm Yoshio down enough to make him smile. “Trust us, okay? We’re all going to have a good time without anyone fucking it up for us.”

Yuichiro does his best to enjoy himself now that he’s out with his friends and everyone is ready to have a good time. And he tries his best to keep from focusing on Sho because the last thing he wants to do is ruin the entire point for this trip in the first place. But why did they have to show up here? Of all places. Yuichiro has been here a dozen times before and has never seen any of them here, and he can’t believe they’re here now.

The fact that Sho is ignoring the “no smoking” signs in the room, cigarette in hand, should be annoying, but instead Yuichiro finds it amusing. He wants to ask Sho if he’s ever just followed the rules once in his entire life, but he knows he can’t.

“He’s kind of cute,” Mitsuru tells Sho across the room, the two of them sitting at a table and sharing a plate of nachos. Kazuo sits between Mitsuru and the wall, his phone in hand and another book open on the screen. “I mean, if you like them short and baby-faced.”

Sho scowls at him. “Yes, because you’re one to talk with the curls and the big doe eyes. Anyway, what do you think? I didn’t even know they were going to be here. It’s gotta be fate, right?”

“Maybe, maybe not. It’s up to you to see it through.” Mitsuru picks up a chip and offers it to Kazuo, who bites it from between his fingers without turning away from his phone.

He has a point even if Sho doesn’t like to admit it. He puts his cigarette out and pushes himself to his feet, telling himself to try to appear as nonthreatening as possible even though his size and status as a member of the Kiriyama Family make that nearly impossible. Which is a pity, because he’s not much of a fighter and he never has been. He keeps to himself and only gets involved in scuffles when he’s needed, which is typically when Kazuo doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. He doesn’t bully anyone, he doesn’t start trouble. He just collects gossip.

The arcade is crowded but people step out of Sho’s way when they see him approaching; the reach of the Kiriyama Family goes a long way. Yuichiro and his cute friend Yutaka Seto are in front of a game, Yuichiro playing while Yutaka cheers him on, and not for the first time, Sho wonders how someone like Yuichiro could have fallen for someone like him.

It’s stupid to think the mangas contained any hidden messages, he knows that much. It was the one thing Yuichiro could give him that he thought Sho might like considering they knew next to nothing about each other. He picked manga he thought might appeal to Sho and he wasn’t wrong in his choices, and it was manga because that’s what Yuichiro knows best. The only hint in those pages had been the cuter ones about the shy boys and the yankees they liked.

Yutaka sees him coming, his hand instantly flying to Yuichiro’s shoulder to give it a shake. “I don’t know what you did to piss off the Kiriyama Family but this looks like bad news.”

“What?” Yuichiro spins around instantly, his bright brown eyes widening when he realizes Sho is hovering behind both of them, not really sure what to do himself. “O-oh, Tsukioka! I thought I saw some of you here. I didn’t realize you liked arcades.”

“It’s more Hiroshi and Ryuhei. Mitsuru and I are just here for food and Kiriyama-kun, well…” Sho leans slightly out of the way, watching both Yuichiro and Yutaka lean around him to see where Kazuo is leaning against Mitsuru, reading silently. “Mitsuru is the one who suggested I come talk to you, actually. Are you the one who’s been leaving me the books?”

He doesn’t miss the way Yuichiro’s cheeks pinken even in the half-dark arcade. “Oh, so you figured that out,” he says after a moment, tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves.

“Wait.” Yutaka furrows his eyebrows, jerking his head back and forth between the two of them. “What books? Why are you giving someone books? Why would you give Tsukioka books? I don’t— Wait. Wait! He’s the one you have the crush on, isn’t he?”

Silently, Yuichiro nods. “And it looks like he figured it out, too.”

“Hiroshi was the one who figured it out, actually. I’m kind of pissed off that he was right. I hate it when Hiroshi is right about absolutely anything.” Sho gives himself a shake. No one wants to hear about that kind of talk right now. “Anyway, so it has been you after all.”

“Um, yeah. I wanted to give you something but I didn’t know what to give you. I don’t really know much about you, I just…” Yuichiro trails off and drops his head, and Sho bites back a sigh.

“He’s shy,” Yutaka finally says, throwing an arm around Yuichiro’s shoulders and giving them a squeeze. “You think the guys in those manga were shy? If Yuichiro catches his reflection’s eye in the mirror he makes himself blush. You should have seen the one time he—”

Yuichiro rounds on Yutaka, clapping a hand over his mouth. “Shut! You’re making me look bad.”

“He’s really not,” Sho offers, unable to admit the truth. If anything, Yutaka is just making Yuichiro look that much cuter, and Sho has always been weak when it comes to cute boys. Call it a curse. “Look, I’m… Well, you probably know I’m not exactly the safest option when it comes to the available guys in our class. But I mean… I’m not unwilling to give it a shot. This. Us.”

“Us.” Yuichiro squeaks out the word, covering his mouth with his sleeve.

Yutaka throws his hands up in the air. “I can’t believe this. Yuichiro, you finally got what you wanted. He knows, and he likes you back. Didn’t you tell me at the game you didn’t think the guy you liked even knew you existed? Now you know he does.”

Sho blinks. “What are you even talking about, Seto?”

“It’s stupid, just ignore him.” Yuichiro gives his friend a stern look, but all Yutaka does is pull a face at him in answer. “I didn’t… Look, I don’t want you to think you have to do this or anything. I don’t care if you don’t like me back, but like… Don’t just humor me or anything, okay? I don’t want to be humored, I just want… I just want something real.”

“Well, all I can say for certain is that you’re cute, and it was really nice of you to give me the books. I read them all and I enjoyed them.” Sho shrugs his broad shoulders, then sets one hand on Yuichiro’s much smaller one. “The best I can tell you is that I’d like to give it a shot.”

Yuichiro blinks up at him a few times before giving a small nod, a tiny smile curving his soft lips as he rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet. He’s a cute, nervous little thing, that much Sho can tell. “I… I’d really like that, Tsukioka. If you don’t mind.”

“I really don’t. And it’s Sho. Or Zuki, that’s the nickname I prefer.” Sho tilts his head toward the game. “What are you playing? I’m not sure I know anything about the games here.”

Across the arcade, Hiroshi Kuronaga grins from beneath his beanie, completely ignoring the sound of Ryuhei Sasagawa bitching about not cracking the top ten high scores on the first person shooter he’s working on. So he was right after all.

On the other side of the arcade, Tadakatsu Hatagami smiles to himself at the sight of Yuichiro chatting happily away to Sho Tsukioka. This explains so much of his strange behavior, even the wistful look he had given Sho’s empty chair. And now, finally, Katsu can breathe a sigh of relief.

His eyes wander across the room to where Hiroshi and Ryuhei are standing, and even from here he can see the little smile on Hiroshi’s face. And finally, he manages to breathe a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t Hiroshi after all.

#battle royale #yuichiro takiguchi #sho tsukioka #background shintaka #background hiroshi/katsu #it's been 84 fucking years and i finally wrote it out i'm so happy #*f: mine #*f: br #*f: sho #*f: yuichiro

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