#kotetsu might not have feeling in his hands

[abluescarfonwaston]

The fact kotetsu can hear Dr Saito when Mattia can't without his powers is astounding. I know his powers can heal minor damage but like. This man has worked in first response for over a decade. He's worked alongside sirens and screams and point blank gunshots. And i know they've got some great medical treatments but has he really had No hearing loss over the years? Damn that blue suit must have had earplugs built in or something.

Course there is the added point that kotetsu Used to struggle to hear Dr Saito as well but now he doesn't seem to have any problem at all. Tie that to his ability to filter through 100x layers of noise until he finds exactly the one he wants might just mean he's Really good at listening. It just took a while for him to find Dr Saito's frequency.

#kotetsu might not have feeling in his hands #or a healthy work life balance #or be able to separate his self worth from his ability to help others #but damn if he doesn't have fantastic hearing #kotetsu t kaburagi #i am going to picture kid Kotetsu hiding in the woods cause his powers keep turning on #and the world gets SO LOUD #stop trying to block it all out you'll never succeed #focus on one sound instead #and let the rest fall away #i wonder if mr legend could do that too or if that level of control was derived from Kotetsus fear of his powers

[demonslayedher]

Things that went through my mind while watching this episode: --The other day, my fellow otaku colleague sent me a screen cap of her dictionary looking up the word "abazure" and I was like, "I know what episode she's on."

--And, after finishing this season, she announced she has a new favorite character. You can all guess where this is going. We gushed about how wonderful Mitsuri is, like, an hour after I wrote some otherwise unprompted Mitsuri gushing. Mitsuri is so worth gushing about. And Ufotable has done her such justice!!

--First off, Love Breath. Just. So good. And they basically handed the ending them to her this season as her own personal theme music. Speaking of sounds! Cat noises on the Love Breath. And you know that part at the beginning of the ending theme when she looks in the mirror and pats her cheeks? You can hear it.

--Speaking of the ending theme, one of the demons she is shown defeating is mostly in shadow, but you can still make out stripes on him similar to Akaza... but more similar to Speedy from the Rengoku Special. Rengoku nod!?!? Also, although they aren't the same character design, in part of Mitsuri's flashback she pictures a mother and son very similar to the pair she saves in the Gaiden. Rengoku nod!?!? --'k but also... the Rengoku Gaiden had Rengoku give her a haori, and that thing got totally obliterated in that attack she took with her face. That attack also tore her uniform in many places, and that is made of material that can at least withstand a normal demon's claws and teeth. Underneath, however, she doesn't even look bruised, which goes to show how strong her constitution really is.

--OKAY BUT ALSO... right after we see her say she'll treasure the socks, Iguro says, "don't bother, if they tear, I'll just give you new ones"? We see that despite how frayed and torn her uniform is, THOSE SOCKS ARE STILL IN TIP-TOP CONDITION.

--Iguro, what are those things even made of?????

--Love?????????

--So for as much as Muichiro gets to show his ease in battle by verbally messing with Gyokko (at least once he has the double whammy of memories+mark), Mitsuri is so physically capable that it totally makes up for her less-than-stealy frame of mind. Our girl can be right in the middle of battling an Upper Moon and be like, "wHaT DiD tHat cHiLd jUsT cALL mE!?!?!?!? Oh wait yeah not a child BUT STILL"

--And I love that Zouhakuten is so ULTRA-SERIOUS that he takes her totally at serious face value as an opponent instead of caring one way or another about her personality, which surely must have thrown other demons off in the past since she's so unlike other Corp Members they might have faced before.

--And then you got Hantengu, running from his responsibilities as the #1 Most Relatable Demon.

--Some other animation moment I loved: NEZUKO'S FACE as she looks at Mitsuri with admiration. I can't get enough of those two. I'd like to think that if Mitsuri and Nezuko met when Nezuko was human, mature elder sister Nezuko would be just as enamored with her. Like, that day Nezuko tells an adult off for hitting a child, say Mitsuri comes to her rescue and also stands up to the guy, but then when Mitsuri is lightheaded with hunger Nezuko uses that chance to treat her to a snack and chat with her, Takeo is probably watching this all go down and feeling very overwhelmed seeing that chatty side of Nezuko, so when Tanjiro comes by he might be like, 'help,' but then Tanjiro probably starts going into fanboy mode right alongside fangirl Nezuko and Takeo would be doubly overwhelmed.

--Also, I loved that Tanjiro (who already finds Mitsuri amazing) is like, "wow, whoever made that sword is amazing," which makes a very nice through-line about Tanjiro's admiration for the swordsmiths. If we look back at that scene in the opening when Kotetsu is showing him the swordsmiths at work, there's such a nice chance in Tanjiro's expression as he feels extra resolve as he appreciates how this is how the swordsmiths fight.

--Another part of the animation I love in this episode: How you can feel the shifty G-forces as Genya struggles to hold on to the twisted trunks of wood, and then all the strength of his jaws as he pulls at the bark. I also love how this is really the only explanation we ever get of his powers, and we're all supposed to be like, "Huh. Okay."

--What I don't love about this episode is that we don't get to see Tanjiro & Nezuko's faces--or Genya's face, for that matter--when he throws the tree. Those were some good faces.

--While I am sad at Ufotable for taking that out, we have to appreciate all blessed new material they gave us for fleshing out Mitsuri's background. We all fell a little in love with Mitsuri's dad, didn't we? Since we've never gotten it in any canon material, I do have to wonder how her parents reacted to her joining the Demon Slayer Corp, and how that even came up in the first place.

--I ate sakura mochi while watching this episode, tee hee hee.

#kny rewatch #my art #kanroji mitsuri #shinazugawa genya #kamado nezuko #kamado tanjiro #kamado tanjirou #hantengu

[silverynight]

The little guardian

The mist hashira comes back looking for him; he still has this uninterested look on his face, but Kotetsu is ready this time, even behind his mask, he narrows his eyes, he hopes the Pillar can feel the hostility coming from him.

But it seems like he doesn't or that he doesn't care.

"The Yoriichi doll doesn't work anymore," the little boy says with a smirk on his face. It's true, he's scared about not being able to repair it, but he's also glad that Tokito won't be able to use it anymore.

That hashira is so incredibly rude and disrespectful and Kotetsu doesn't like him at all.

"I didn't come here for the doll," the mist hashira says and finally it's like light and life glimmer inside his eyes. He's interested in something, focused, although Kotetsu has no idea what that is yet. "I want to see Tanjirou."

"No." Kotetsu puffs his cheeks out, even though it's impossible for the Pillar to notice because of the mask. The boy has decided that Tanjirou is his older brother now, he's his family so he must protect him from infuriating people.

"I want to apologize," Tokito insists, looking slightly desperate this time.

Kotetsu likes what he sees.

"He doesn't like you."

The mist hashira grimaces at that, but doesn't make any attempts to leave the little kid alone.

"It's my fault, I know... For treating him the way I did," he admits, surprising Kotetsu for a moment. "But I promise I'll make it up to him. Just tell me where he is."

Never.

"Apologize to me first," Kotetsu says, puffing his chest out, growing confident, even though the Pillar made him feel bad days ago.

Almost in shock, Kotetsu watches as the hashira nods.

"I'm sorry for the things I told you. That was wrong." Tokito says then.

He really is desperate to see Tanjirou, huh? But why? Kotetsu is a little bit confused now.

"Where's Tanjirou?"

"No."

"Come on! I'm not going to hurt him!" The mist hashira swears, looking even more desperate now. Then, Kotetsu finally notices that he's carrying a bouquet of flowers in one of his hands.

"Are those for Tanjirou?"

Tokito blushes, but nods. And Kotetsu might be ten years old, but he knows what's going on. He's seen that in the village before... Older boys and girls flirting with each other.

"He's not going to like them."

"Why not? They told me they were really beautiful," Tokito says, looking down at his red flowers, now a little bit insecure.

"Because he doesn't like you."

"I'll try to change his mind."

"You won't be able to," Kotetsu assures him, getting a little bit irritated. Well, he already hates the guy.

"So you won't tell me where he is?"

The little boy can tell that Tokito is more than ready to start looking for Tanjirou on his own and the boy can't have that.

"He left the village."

"When?"

"I don't know."

"Did he go back to the butterfly estate?"

"I don't know."

By this point, Tokito looks a little bit irritated as well, but he tries not to show it and he's really good at it because the next time Kotetsu blinks, there's the same neutral expression back on his face.

"Alright, thank you anyway," he finally says before leaving and Kotetsu realizes that the Pillar didn't believe him at all.

***

Fortunately, he sees Tanjirou first and if he keeps him busy, maybe that ridiculous hashira won't be able to find him.

"What if the small boy with horrible long hair came back and apologized to you after what he said?" Kotetsu asks Tanjirou, as they have lunch together.

"You know he's a hashira, Kotetsu," Tanjirou smiles gently. "You should refer to him as that."

"I don't care."

Tanjirou rolls his eyes, but he doesn't scold him, Kotetsu knows the older boy has a soft spot for him; Tanjirou told him he reminded him of one of his siblings.

"So what would you do?"

"If he was being sincere, then I'd forgive him for sure," Tanjirou tells the boy. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

No. That won't do. Then the Pillar will try to flirt with Tanjirou and then marry him! That'd be a nightmare for Kotetsu.

"I don't like him."

"I know. And it's okay, he was very rude to you and hasn't apologized yet. So you have the right not to like him."

At that Kotetsu feels a little bit guilty, but not enough to tell Tanjirou to forgive him.

"Don't be his boyfriend. Okay?"

Tanjirou chokes on his tea and his face turns completely red in seconds.

"Why would you say something like that? He's not even interested in me!" Tanjirou chuckles nervously. "We're not even friends!"

"Just promise me you won't be his boyfriend because I don't like him."

Kotetsu can tell that Tanjirou finds his idea ridiculous, so he doesn't take him seriously.

"Okay," Tanjirou chuckles again, but this time he's genuinely amused. "I won't be Tokito-san's boyfriend."

"Promise me!"

"I promise."

Ha! Kotetsu just won! The rude hashira won't ever marry his big brother Tanjirou!

***

Patreon

#kny #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #tanjiro kamado #muichiro tokito #muitan

[virtualcarrot]

[KKIR] Modern AU - Teaching Pains Pt5

Part 4

Prompt 5 : Exes/Memories

.

Iruka's bleary eyed and still half-asleep when a similarly out of it but powering through Kotetsu hooks an arm around the back of his neck.

“Sooo… You and Kakashi-sensei stayed up late together at the gym, uh.”

Iruka doesn't react. In all fairness he's too busy trying to figure whether or not he’ll capitulate to the early hour and abstain from one of the cheap donuts on the counter. On the one hand, he’s vaguely queasy. On the other hand, it’s free food, and also sugar, which should give him the necessary boost of energy to hang on until his brain gets fully online.

Before he can decide, Anko makes a grand entrance, her drill sergeant voice announcing her arrival. “All right, losers! The bake sale's ready and the Headmaster's office’s shut off from the public. Y’all ready to be productive members of society or are you gonna keep mooching off our hard work?”

With a coffee in hand and a coworker hanging off his shoulders, Iruka blinks back slowly. He barely registers Kotetsu hiding his face in his shoulder with a groan.

Ignoring them for the coat rack, Mizuki hangs his bag with a huff.

Anko meets Iruka's eyes and grins toothily. “Why, hello lover boy,” she drawls. “Have fun yesterday?”

Iruka pulls a face. “It's not like that and you know it.”

“Oh, do I?”

Faced with her too sharp eyes and growing all too aware of Mizuki's presence, he hides in his drink. “We were sparring,” he mutters into the mug.

“What was that?”

“We were sparring.”

Kotetsu releases him with a snort of laughter. “Is that what the kids call it, now?”

Sometimes, being on friendly terms with your coworkers is a curse.

“I assume most kids aren’t familiar with kumite, so I’d say: yes,” Iruka retorts curtly.

He doesn’t really like bringing up martial arts around Mizuki. There are old wounds they’ve rebuilt their friendship around that still remain tender. But he can’t let this sort of insinuation go unanswered either. It’s unprofessional, for starters, and also he could really, really do without the risk it might reach Kakashi’s ears if Iruka doesn’t nip it in the bud.

Much to his relief, Mizuki doesn’t sour at the topic. He draws closer instead, eyeing Iruka up and down the way he used to when they were kids and he was looking for injuries. “Are you alright?”

Iruka ducks his head. “Yeah, don’t worry. He went easy on me.”

He pauses, remembering his surprise of the previous evening, the warm feeling of making a pleasant, unexpected discovery.

“He’s actually really good, uh,” he adds, somewhat breathily.

Ever the realist, Mizuki gives him a little smile. “It’s more likely that you’re too out of practice,” he says gently, which Iruka can’t really dispute. “But it’s good that you had fun.”

Then, because they’re not actually paid to gossip, they all leave the teachers’ lounge and go open the school to the public. Mizuki falls into step with him while he goes to round the last arrived volunteer students--for a value of volunteer where Iruka just ended up conscripting additional kids until they had enough people.

That Naruto didn't put up more of a fight feels like an admirable growth of his character, truthfully.

“You should be careful,” Mizuki says, breaking the companionable silence.

In the process of a mental review of the performances and workshops they've got planned for the next day, Iruka has trouble following the non sequitur.

“What?”

“Kakashi-sensei. You had a tense relationship, and he's been mellowing to you--which is great. But it wouldn't do for people to think it's in return for… services. Or that you'd compromise your students for that.” At Iruka's stricken look, he waves a hand in the air with a rueful smile. “Don’t worry, I don't think that. But you know how tongues wag.”

Which is of course the moment Iruka’s phone chooses to chime with a new text. Any cheer he might have derived from Kakashi asking about his morning freezes over. He hastily shoves his phone back into his pocket. Mizuki gives him a pointed, knowing look but is kind enough not to comment.

Thankfully, Iruka doesn't have time to ruminate. Visitors may be slow on the first hours of open day but that's all the better to ready them for the later inpouring. Future students, their parents and concerned family members number that crowd, along with the visiting families of their current ones; the true bulk of it, though, are the random bystanders excited for the free spectacle Ebisu sets up with the kids every year. If only for Sasuke, Lee, Tenten and Neji’s feats of gymnastics and martial arts, the trip is worth it.

By the time the rush fully starts, Iruka has already broken two fights between Ino and Sakura, yelled Shikamaru awake from a nap, reminded Chōji that the cakes from the bake sale are for sale, and stepped in to support Hinata before she passed out at the prospect of talking to a group of total strangers asking for her opinion on the school curriculum.

After which lunch-time arrives.

He distributes the complimentary sandwiches the school provides their little volunteers--but not the teachers--and then takes a very hypocritically cake-filled break in guise of a meal. It's more sugar than he enjoys, but he didn't have time to cook the evening before and knows from experience that the local shops will be crowded from their own visitors looking for something to eat.

Somewhere past two in the afternoon, Kakashi shows up with takeout coffee from Iruka's favorite place. Iruka's never resented someone more for making him like them.

“Isn’t today a university day?” he asks, washing the lingering sweetness from his mouth with a blessedly dark roast.

It's a bit rude, by way of greetings, but Kakashi doesn't take offense. If anything, his eye curves in that congenial arch like Iruka's just the most entertaining thing he's been given to see.

“Had two free hours ahead, thought I'd check how it's going,” he replies, with the sort of nonchalance that tells Iruka those hours were probably not supposed to be nearly this idle.

“Office hours?” he can't help but ask, trying to ignore Suzume adjusting her glasses at them a few classrooms over.

Unperturbed, Kakashi chuckles. “Office hours,” he confirms with an expectant smirk.

But Iruka doesn't segue into his usual rant about responsibility and student needs. Leading a group of wide eyed pre-teens and their flustered parents across the hallway, Kotetsu's just sent a thumbs up behind his back and with it, made his spine freeze.

He doesn’t have time to linger anyway. The gymnastics performance is drawing near, which means it’s almost time to begin corralling the interested visitors towards the gymnasium that a not insignificant proportion of them won’t fail to miss, and that’s in spite of Izumo’s indications on the PA system and the many printed signs they’ve tacked all over the school in preparation.

To top it all, Iruka hasn't seen Naruto in a while which never bodes well.

He heaves a sigh at the thought. “Sorry, Kakashi-sensei, I’ve got to get back to it. Really appreciate the coffee, though.”

Kakashi takes one look at the milling visitors and nods. “Sure. Don’t let me keep you. And good luck.”

It takes all of Iruka’s willpower not to smile in thanks, lest he look too familiar, though he doesn’t get long to brood over it. He’s barely walked past one classroom that he's caught by a family of four asking about the facilities and the disciplines taught and whether there’s a waiting list they might sign on to make sure their daughter of six years old gets in when she’s of age. He wants to sympathize with wanting to do good by one’s child, but his experience teaching the kids of such parents, pressured towards performance like the adults around them think they’re coal they might compress into diamonds, makes him deeply skeptical. And anyway, there’s no such thing as a waiting list, which he tells them, before directing them to a few booklets in the library and drafting Sakura to lead them there and answer any further questions.

Finally free, he slips away.

The good thing about having been a troublemaker in this very school, is that Iruka’s well versed in its real estate of hiding places. The downside is, he’s grown complacent in updating that knowledge.

By the time he’s about to give up and rejoin the event, Iruka’s no closer to finding Naruto. At this point, he has half a thought that Naruto should hope he doesn’t find him, because he won’t make any promises as to the kid’s life expectancy once Iruka gets his hands on him.

Fate must really be conspiring against Naruto, then, because Iruka’s doing his last check in the remote corridor leading to the Headmaster’s office when he catches sight of a blue and orange sleeve hiding behind a cabinet with pictures and diplomas of former headmasters.

He sneaks closer for greater impact when he yells.

“Naruto!”

The resulting screech of horror is deafening.

Sitting on the floor with one hand clutched to his heart and his bag at his feet, Naruto laughs nervously. “Aaah, Iruka-sensei, you found me,” he says, rubbing the back of his head.

Iruka gives him the sort of even look that Naruto should know means this situation can go either way, and it’s all up to him.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

Naruto looks away with the jitters of someone readying a lie, and a bad one at that. Iruka crosses his arms sternly to dissuade him.

It’s enough that Naruto slumps, sullen, and draws his knees to his chest. “It’s just… There are a lot of people.”

“Ah?”

“Lots of… families…”

“Ah.”

Iruka steps around him and the cabinet, and slides down the wall until he meets Naruto on the floor.

“Can’t be easy,” he says casually, looking at the faded paint of the wall across.

“It’s fine,” Naruto mutters to his knees.

Iruka nudges his shoulder and doesn’t say anything. He remembers when he lost his parents, how it was to be young and alone and counting only on himself. Sometimes, a mere presence was enough to help. That, and warm food, which is his usual approach, but he doesn’t have any to offer Naruto at the moment. He makes a note to take him out for ramen sometime soon.

On the loudspeakers, Izumo informs them that the first performance of the afternoon will start in five minutes.

“Hey, Iruka-sensei?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think I’ll pass this grade?”

Truthfully, the question is one Iruka has been pondering himself. While Kakashi’s tutoring has noticeably improved Naruto’s grades in physics and chemistry, and given him confidence to tackle the other disciplines he had given up on, he still has a long way to go.

Iruka sighs. “I don’t know, Naruto,” he answers honestly.

Naruto hugs his legs tighter. “I’m not stupid, you know? It’s just difficult. But I’m really trying my hardest.”

“I’ve never doubted that,” Iruka says, because it’s true. He’s watched Naruto sit hours long in front of his textbooks, hair in even greater disarray than usual as he pulled it every which way in frustration. Truthfully, Iruka sometimes suspects part of his learning difficulties might be closer to disabilities, but he’s been having trouble communicating it to the head of the orphanage, who’s a bit too convinced that Naruto’s just acting out in a bid for attention--which he is--and would by extension benefit from being ignored so as not to reward his behavior--which he doesn’t.

Daikoku isn’t a bad man, but if anything Naruto’s been a harsh lesson to Iruka on the limits of his good intentions.

“I don’t want to repeat the year,” Naruto admits in a small voice.

And Iruka gets why. Kakashi’s guidance isn’t the only reason worth crediting for Naruto’s improvement these last months. Working in a smaller group, out of the more merciless dynamic of a full classroom, has finally given him an opportunity to bond with his classmates. He has friends now. And a rival. Which is kind of a friend, Iruka thinks.

He ruffles Naruto’s hair affectionately.

“Then let’s keep working hard to make sure you don’t, eh?” he says. “Come on, let’s go. Ebisu-sensei’s going to lose his mind if he’s missing one of his stars when the show starts.”

Naruto seems only slightly mollified, but that’s to be expected. Some things take time.

He does get up after Iruka, who counts it as a small victory.

~

Part 6

@kakairu-rocks (I'll finish the fic past the official allotted time of the event but at least these fills will have been posted on time)

#kakairu valentine's week 2024 #kakairu.rocks #kakairu #kkir #hatake kakashi #umino iruka #naruto #fic : naruto #my scrawl

[zantedeschia-praesul]

1, 2, 9, and 14 LOL

@kowaindar0u

20 QUESTIONS FOR MULTI-MUSE BLOGS!

HO BOY here goes 8D!

1. which muse is the easiest to write?

i love writing all my Bakumatsu bois honestly, but lately it's been Nagasone Kotetsu!

I prolly picked up a few bits from ex RP partners and previous fanarts of him, but I love writing out soft moments for him, or moments where he would try and accommodate or help out other comrades. Even in Bakaten i feel like he's this dad friend who looks out for everyone, but then tends to forget to look out for himself too, and wants to fix the shit that happened in the past.

You know that scene when he's hurt and Hachisuka still argues why he did what he did and he brought up the fact that "wasn't that the way of the Shinsengumi" and Nagasone was like "it's because of it that I saved you dammit!" like essentially danna was like "we fucked shit up in the past so now i dont wanna repeat that at all in our current timeline!"

i fucking love my Commander qAq

2. which muse is most likely to go to jail?

i dunno mang right now they're pointing at each other so im guessing they all are most likely to end up behind bars :V that meme where "tag your friend who would be in jail with you together" or something similar? YEAH THAT'S ALL SEVEN OF THEM; THE SHINSENGUMI, MUTSU, AND YAGEN 8U

no wait, all SIX of them except Horikawa. he'd prolly try to bail them all out or something.

9. what song do you associate with each muse?

Surprisingly none that i can think of :0 but i do tend to imagine my Bakumatsu bois in Kpop MVs like Shinee and Big Bang ehek ;P

Heck, i cant even think of any song associated with Saseki right now //sadge _(:'3

14. what sort of youtube channel would your muses have?

Oh Mutsu is easily anything to do with historical places (prolly will collab with Nankai sensei on this one), the latest gadgets and maybe vlogs about his photography adventures :3

Kashuu might just have one of those makeup vlogs and even DIY accessories making videos <3 like just his hands making pretty hairpins and all

Yams sometimes does collabs with Kashuu of course, coz they come together as a set, but he prolly would do like everyday life of people around him, something similar in Tsuki no Maki, but vlog style <3

Izumi and Horikawa are a set too don't separate them. Not sure what sort of content but prolly something similar to Good Mythical Morning or something ehek (or maybe something like Welcome to Jackass //OKNO)

Nagasone would probably, PROBABLY, posts workout clips, like i follow this cosplayer posting workout clips in his cosplay (and he's actually pree hella dope), so something similar i guess? with occasional cooking videos <3 now i think about it his cooking videos would be something similar like Hulk_kun on Tiktok!

Yagen would maybe take viewers on tour about medicinal plants, maybe a bit of foraging here and there :3 even sometimes appearing in Nagasone's cooking vids with the stuff he forages ehek

Saseki is easily art vlogs, like one of those tutorial vids or him just posting speedpaints and works in progress. and occasionally shorts of art memes; something like Melly Vuong on YT :3

#[Battle Records] #kowaindar0u #imagine izumi be like HI IM IZUMINOKAMI KANESADA AND WELCOME TO JACKASS 8D

[unlimitedhorsepower]

my thoughts on t&b2 cour2 summarized ngl

huge massive spoilers under the cut:

(following is half copied from me telling this to people who dont know t&b lore)

im genuinely inconsolable over yuri and what happened to him.

its not even that he could or should be saved but he truly deserved something better. killing people... who cares... on-screen his murders have notably included a serial rapist for example which isnt said ig but it was a guy who only kills women he picks up at a club etc...

killing your abusive father and then going on to kill murderers and serial killers isnt a crime he had to pay for with his own life jesus christ. he was a victim in that. and i dont care hes killed people they had it coming and deserved to fucking explode.

and he dies so miserable and alone. and the truth about mr.legend didnt even come out. i guess it might, but it wasnt shown on-screen and i dont care. he never lived to see it. i cant believe it im actually just bawling.

his last scenes gratuitously consisted of his body being controlled by someone else, and before that happened his mother was shot to death. and he hallucinated his shit dad and the hallucination was like i can never be forgiven but youve followed your own sense of justice. goodbye.

yuri begged for the hallucination to not to leave him but even a hallucination of his shit dad couldnt stay to make him feel marginally better because he just didnt want to be alone.

so, alone and miserable, he bawled on the floor on top of the bloodstain where his mother was shot by the criminals who broke into his house.

and he told about his past to kotetsu&barnaby and kotetsu even himself acknowledged he said things yuri probably didnt want to hear. AND YEAH he was kind of a huge fucking dick i dont care what you had to say about mr.legend (he didnt defend him and condemned him but he was like ill definitely never be like him etc)

then in the end yuri stood alone, bleeding to death, after having given the rest of his strength to protect the protags of course, and they half-heartedly tried to convince him to come down from there. but the narrative had no kindness left for yuri whatsoever, only a dramatic moment of him breaking his mask while blood pooled around him.

so he just said hes following his own code of justice, and he earlier acknowledged its not the voice of thanatos he follows but his own voice. and then he pressed his hand on his chest and set himself on fire and jumped down.literally it was worse than if he had just died.

he burnt himself to death and literally enacted my metaphors about him being born from ashes (awful childhood, killing his father with fire) and returning to ashes once he has burned himself up. but it was literal.

and since his mother died... and only kotetsu and barnaby know his story... its so incredibly cruel and callous. he literally disappeared, like his life didnt matter, and he didnt even leave a body behind. mr.legend still has all those mythos around him, and what yuri got was to be a footnote in the line of judicial officials of sternbild and vigilantes killed in action.

im actually devastated. he never got a single piece of happiness.

one of his last interactions as yuri was kotetsu telling him that he will never become like mr.legend because he has a partner like barnaby.

how i understand his last actions is that yuri accepted hes fully alone, and will be alone, forever. he has nobody to support him like kotetsu has, and will never have it, hes too broken, too far gone.

and so, he had to die because there was no saving him. he killed himself for that, because he had no hope left. he thought he could never be forgiven, like his father could never be forgiven, but what yuri ever did was never in any way equal to being evil. to have him equated to anything mr.legend did (within the narrative) is unimaginably horrifying.

im like genuinely just crying i WISH i was joking saying that but im not. im trying to make it into a joke but i cant im just genuinely devastated.

like i know any depth i made up for ryan in my mind is my bad because i think about him way too hard but i was a little disappointed in his actions but thats whatever, my expectations were high since hes my favourite, right?

it wasnt even that bad, im just disappointed he mostly got to interact with karina which i really enjoy as well they have a funny dynamic, but i like him so im like oh! theres sooo much more to him hehe. but again, whatever, hes out there, i can imagine him doing whatever i want. he didnt contradict anything i think of him either.

but yuri... ohhh.... taking this very personally actually. i cant believe the narrative didnt give him any mercy. it was a choice they made, to have him burn up like that.

like have i somehow thought of yuri petrov way too hard?... im just devastated. he was a sympathetic character, i never have ever considered for a single moment he could DIE. and in that sort of way?

did i somehow misinterpret the entire scenario? i dont even know what i couldve misunderstood to make this better in my mind. he didnt die?.. he just uhm... went bungee jumping

like the rest of the cour i liked, there were a lot of fun parts. but i just...this is something i cant get over. it felt so incredibly cruel to him, because to me he has always been the victim.

and i thought... i dont know... that he deserved better. that he deserved to feel happiness, not die feeling thoroughly miserable and alone. i cant even reasonably focus on the parts with ryan even if hes my favourite character. i wish he had died too, for equality, idfc.

i wish LL audun had smashed his head like an egg and this was the last shot i saw of him.

everyone else can “die” and then be fine i guess uh maybe ill just choose to believe yuri somehow is fine despite losing all of his blood and burning up and falling from a great height then thats my choice. they didnt show me anything that contradicts it.

which also just reminds me nobody even remembered him after his death. i thought the last shot would have him with “true heroes” and ill be honest i was crying incredibly hard thinking about yuri but i didnt see any indication he was remembered by anyone in any way.

again, this is a deliberate choice taken by the narrative and just remains so heartless.

does anyone else agree or have some other sort of take on this?! was i simply distracted by the huge amounts of yuri petrov lore i made up in my mind so that i misunderstood half of the season and also didnt see a huge memorial set up for him or something at least.

?????

cant even enjoy anything else in the cour because of how much this bothers me. i would be glad if i just had hit my head and somehow saw a different series in my mind than what everyone else saw

#tiger and bunny #tiger and bunny spoilers #T&B2

[depressedhatakekakashi]

A Gift From Far Away

Prompt: Birthday/Free Day

Words: 2,082

Note: Happy Birthday to the sweetest dork. I’m sorry this turned into a bit of an inner look on Kakashi and the struggles i think he has in canon (but which never get touched on cuz he’s not the main) but also… no i’m not XD

Birthdays were fleeting. 

Every year Kakashi woke up on September fifteenth and watched as the day passed by at speeds he had never experienced before. From the moment he woke up to the second he dragged himself back into his tiny apartment and fell into bed it felt like someone had turned the day's speed up by eleven.

There was never a moment’s break. His friends made sure of that.

Asuma would be there to greet him as soon as he opened his apartment door, a tiny cupcake in hand and an invite to join him for a morning walk that Kakashi could never muster up the energy to refuse no matter how terrible he was feeling. 

About halfway through their walk Kurenai joined them and offered to pay for breakfast. When they were younger it was just the three of them sitting comfortably in a small booth chatting over omelettes. Now that they were Sensei’s, though, the booth felt a lot smaller with the three of them crammed in alongside nine hungry pre-teens fighting over the food. Kurenai still offered to pay for everyone’s meals, but Kakashi and Asuma had made an agreement with each other to pitch in so she didn’t have to suffer such a giant bill alone.

Once breakfast was done and they’d all said their goodbyes, it was time for training. Even on his birthday, Kakashi likes to make sure he gets some training time in. A fact that Sakura complained about endlessly while she, Sasuke, and Naruto trudged along behind Kakashi toward the training field. He didn’t mind though. She made some good points about everyone needing to rest and enjoy themselves on their birthday, and if it were anyone else's birthday he would agree.

The problem was, it was his birthday, and resting simply meant that the day would drag by. That was the last thing he wanted. So, he trained. Occupied himself during those few fleeting hours when his friends weren’t demanding his attention and tried to forget about the one person he wanted to see, but couldn’t. 

After training and a quick check-in to make sure his students hadn’t died on him, Kakashi made sure to leave Sasuke with a little money to pay for lunch and made his escape.

The rest of the day was spent jumping between his friends. 

An hour playing card games with Gemma, Raido, Kotetsu, and Izumo. 

Two hours enjoying a nice quiet tea with Yamato and listening to his precious Kohai complain about all of the things he had to deal with on his own in the Anbu locker rooms now that Kakashi wasn’t there to watch over him. 

An hour to sit in front of his father’s grave filling him in on everything that had happened in the last year. This year he’d spoken a lot about his students. More than he’d ever dared to speak about them before. He told his dad all about Sakura’s skill with chakra control and genjutsu, Naruto’s hard-headed personality and the endless similarities he saw between his student and the parents who never had the opportunity to raise him, and Sasuke. He spent the most time talking about Sasuke, but where he’d praised Sakura’s skills and fondly remembered his old Sensei and Kushina-San through Naruto, Sasuke was a kid he’d lamented about. A kid who he saw far too much of himself in, and who he couldn’t help but worry about. If his father had really been there with him he might have assured him that everything would turn out alright. There would have been comforting words and promises that Sasuke would make it through all of his struggles just fine. 

The problem was, he wasn’t here. 

He was another body buried in a cemetery that never seemed to stop growing. There were no words of comfort to be spoken and as much as he’d thought talking about it would help Kakashi found he only felt worse at the end. 

Saying his goodbyes to his father, he moved onto the next birthday task. Five precious minutes that he spent visiting with Obito and Rin, and that was only if he managed to keep his thoughts from spiraling downward into those all too familiar feelings of failure, self-hate, and regret. 

Once he’d managed to drag himself away from the cemetery he was certain to find Asuma waiting for him beside the gates. As soon as he was close enough his friend would throw an arm around his shoulder, smile, and offer to buy him a drink. Kakashi never turned down that offer and after that, the rest of the day flew by in a blur of alcohol and laughter.

It would be another three hours before he stumbled back to his apartment with Sake on his breath, Asuma’s laughter still ringing in his ear, and the fond memory of Yamato singing Karaoke so terribly that the entire bar had offered to buy him a drink or five just to get him to stop.

Another birthday came and went, full of friends and cheer, yet Kakashi couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. Something that he still had to do for his birthday to be the fulfilling, wonderful day that all of his friends had tried so hard to make. 

‘It’s him, isn’t it?’ He thought, frowning at his own weakness. ‘There’s nothing to be done. He can’t be here.’

The door creaked open, revealing the emptiness waiting for him inside of his home. A clean table, an organized bookshelf, a comfortable bed, and a plant were all that were waiting for him. 

No unexpected guest that he’d silently been hoping to see all day.

‘I told you’ he scolded himself as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind himself. ‘Not here.’

It was a stupid thing to have to tell himself. A conversation he should never have had to have.

This was Konoha, and no matter how much he wanted to see Gai on his birthday it simply wasn’t possible. An Iwagakure shinobi would never be allowed into the village and where Kakashi had a certain skill for stealth that allowed him to sneak into Iwagakure whenever he wanted to, Gai didn’t share that skill.

He wasn’t a man known for being stealthy and that was just one of the many things Kakashi loved about him.

‘Love,’ toeing his shoes off, he kicked them back towards the door and listened to the clatter of them bouncing against the hard floor. ‘You keep saying that. You should know better.’ 

Love was an emotion that should have been reserved for someone within Konoha, or at least a civilian. The last person he should be claiming such feelings for was an enemy shinobi.

Yet, he couldn’t help it. No matter how much he wanted to be a completely loyal shinobi, it was impossible. His heart had made the mistake of falling for someone he could never be with as openly as his friends were with their lovers.

He couldn’t walk down the street holding his hand like Asuma and Kurenai did. That would only result in him being labeled a traitor and falling down the same path of shame as his father. 

He couldn’t send a letter with anyone but the hounds, because even a whiff of what he would do would result in the elder’s pouncing at the opportunity to have him arrested.

Perhaps a stronger man would cease to care. 

They would choose their own feelings and desires over their village, just as his father had when he chose to save his friends over completing his mission. 

Kakashi couldn’t, though. There were too many people he cared about.

Precious people that he wanted to protect, even if it meant he couldn’t have the life that he wanted. It wasn't the first thing he’d had to give up in his life so he could keep fighting to protect his precious people, but most days it felt like the hardest.

‘Quit it,’ he scolded himself as he trudged toward his bed. ‘Sleep will clear my head. A nice rest and then everything will be back to normal.’ Or, as normal as things could be when his ‘normal’ was longing to see someone that he shouldn’t even be thinking about. 

Reaching the bed he began unzipping his vest when something caught his eye. A small spec of green is sitting just outside the window. Forgetting about sleep for the moment, he took a step toward the window and peered outside of it.

When he saw what was sitting there on the outside ledge his eyes widened and he felt a tightness in his chest that ached just a little, but also caused him to smile.

Somehow, against all odds, he’d managed to sneak into Konoha and leave something at Kakashi’s window. An impressive feat for a man who had failed at hiding his chakra the last time he tried to sneak up on Kakashi. 

“And what is this?” he asked aloud, shaking his head when he realized what he’d done. “Let’s see.” unlatching the window lock, he lifted the window just enough so he could reach out and retrieve whatever it was waiting for him.

The answer came to him as soon as his fingers touched the object. A fabric sort of feeling with just a little bit of fuzziness to it. There was only one thing it could possibly be. Curling his fingers around it, he brought it inside and promptly closed the window once again. 

“I hope you weren’t out there too long,” he whispered, chuckling when he thought about how ridiculous the whole scene would look if any of his friends caught him speaking to an object. “Well, you’re safe now regardless, and now that you’re safe,” he turned the object over in his hand and shivered when the fabric brushed against his fingers. It was a softer fabric than he would usually find himself holding, but then of course he didn’t have a habit of collecting stuffies. “Oh,” the realization hit him as soon as the thought had crossed his mind. Now that he had a good look at it, he knew without a doubt that it was stuffy.

Not just any stuffy, though. A Tortoise stuffy. One that looked oddly similar to a specific tortoise summon that a certain Iwagakure shinobi liked to summon when he found himself in a tight spot.

“You…” his fingers tightened around the stuffy. Inside himself, there was a slew of emotions bubbling up threatening to spill out.

A sadness came from knowing that even on his birthday, the one day that was supposed to be all about him, he couldn’t spend it curled up in his lover's arms with his face buried in his neck. 

Fear at the knowledge that if anyone in Konoha found out about this gift, a tiny turtle that meant nothing to anyone else but held a world of love inside of it for him, he could find himself facing accusations that would make his father look like he’d done nothing wrong. 

Happiness. 

That was the emotion he tried to zero in on. The warmth engulfed his entire soul like one of Gai’s bone-crushing hugs. An inescapable feeling of being wanted and cherished.

Growing up he’d given up hope on ever feeling something so wonderful again when he buried his father, but then Gai came crashing into his life with a terrible bowl cut, the ugliest jumpsuit he had ever seen, and more love than he thought anyone who existed in their world could possibly have. 

Love that he happily shared with Kakashi, an enemy shinobi.

“You…” lifted the stuffy, he buried his nose into it and sniffed. His nose was immediately rewarded with that scent he’d come to love so much. The smell of grass mixed with burnt sugar, sunflowers, and a hint of dirt.

The smell that he had become accustomed to after having spent so much time with Gai over the years. A scent that he would happily surround himself with every day for the rest of his life if he could. 

“Thank you,” he whispered to a man who was most likely tucked away safely in his bed thousands of miles away from him. A man who would never hear his words, but who he hoped could somehow feel the overwhelming love that filled his heart as he pushed his nose deeper into the stuffy and surrounded himself in his lover’s scent. 

#Hatake Kakashi #Kakashi Week #Kakashi Week 2023 #Kakashiweek2023 #Iwa Gai Au

[razzlerdazzler]

Can we request for Nathan with gender neutral reader? Can we request for Yuri & Ryan from Tiger and Bunny? Thanks!

Sorry if Yuri and Ryan aren't that good, I haven't watched a lot of Tiger and Bunny yet, and I still haven't seen the movie. I hope you like it :)

Nathan, Yuri, and Ryan (separated) Relationship Headcanons

Warning: spoilers for Tiger and Bunny movie

Nathan

Nathan is huge on PDA, whenever they have the chance they will hold you, doesn't even matter if you two are in public or not

It also doesn't matter if you are a hero on patrol with them, they will show you some love

This involves snuggling up with you on the couch, holding your hand or having their arm around you while , kissing you on the head or on the lips, the list goes on

They love to spoil you and and they usually go with you on any shopping trips you take

They would also buy you things that remind them of you

If you ever want them to, Nathan would love to help you put makeup on, paint your nails, or do your hair

If you ever wanted to help them put on their makeup or do their nails then they would be ecstatic

Even if you're not very good at it, they will compliment it and tell you how amazing of a job you did

If you are a hero then you and Nathan Nathan will usually work together, even if you both have different sponsors

While you two are out on patrol, they will flirt with you (you might or might not flirt back as well)

The fans love your guys relationship and definitely ship you two

You both watch each others backs while you two are on patrol

If either of you two get hurt, the other will help bandage them up and will give a gentle kiss to their forehead

Whether you are a hero or not, Nathan would love to introduce you to their friends, especially Kotetsu since they feel like you two would get along great

If anybody picks on you, they would be pissed

They already had a rough childhood because of being picked on, but they are not gonna let that happen to you

They would walk up to the person bothering you and their voice would go low as they tell the person to fuck off

Speaking of Nathan's childhood they tell you all about it and you promise them that that will never happen again on your watch

You always tell them how amazing they look and how much you love the way they are

Nathan just loves you so much and you love them back just as much

Yuri

Yuri will give you PDA, when you two are in private, his love for you is only for your eyes and your eyes only

Whenever you two are in private however, he'll be all over you

If somebody does pick on you, he would walk up to you two and wrap his arms around you

He would cut the person off, if they were still talking to you and would tell you that it's time to go home

He did not want to make a scene because of his job, so he couldn't hurt the person that was disrespecting you

Afterwards however, when he had his vigilante outfit on, he would hunt the person down and make sure that they don't cause trouble for anybody else

He loves to spoil you and since he has a good job, he is able to do that

He would buy you anything you asked for

He's told you about his father and about how he treated him and his mother before he died

He told you about how his father left the scar on his face and how he killed his father, to protect his mother and him

After he tells you this, you'd kiss him and tell him how much you love him

Whenever you two are in private and his scar is not covered up, you'd gently trace it with your fingers, and then you'd start kissing all over the scar and tell him how handsome he looks

It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with his opinions and actions of justice, you'll both still love each other nontheless

He knows that you worry about him, and ever since he's started dating you, he's been working on being more careful while he's trying to enact his justice to the world

If he ever gets hurt, you would help bandage and heal his wounds

You would also tell him how happy you are that he's back home, and how much you missed him

Even if he can't completely fix the world he'll still have you and your love, and really that's all he could ever ask for

Ryan

Ryan like Nathan is also huge on PDA

He'd be comfortable with PDA, pretty much anywhere

He loves to show you off, like "Hey everybody look this is my amazing lover"

Even though he does like to show off, you being around does help him try to lower how much he does it and all the heros thank you for it

However this does not stop him from showing off to you "babe, did you see how cool I was out there?"

Whenever he gets hurt while he's out on patrol, you'll help bandage him up, and afterwards he'll ask if he can get a kiss for his hero work

If you ever call him your hero, his brain short circuits, and his face will turn all red for a few seconds

Until his brain decides to work again and he smirks at you "You got that right baby, I'll always be your hero"

If anybody bothers you, he'll quickly tell the person to fuck off and that if they don't leave he'll give them a reason to

He tells you about his insecurities and how he sometimes feel like you're out of his league, and how you'll leave him for someone else

You hold him close and kiss him as you tell him how much you love him, and how he is the only one for you

Whenever he has nightmares, he'll tell you about what they're about and how he lost control of his powers, and he never wants that to happen again

He's worried he might accidentally hurt you one day with his powers

You comfort him and tell him how that would never happen, and how you trust him with your life

Every time you two have these types of deep conversations there are usually tears and I love you's involved

These deep conversations help your relationship flourish and help you both understand each other better

You both love each other so much, and neither of you would change that for anything

#tiger and bunny #tiger and bunny x reader #nathan seymour x reader #nathan seymour #yuri petrov x reader #golden ryan x reader #ryan goldsmith x reader

[mushroomsandmandalas]

I read a good post by aquariusdegel on how they want Yuri to get a healing arc and change HeroTV so it doesn’t destroy more lives or make more Lunatics. That made me think, what would happen if Yuri did get a healing arc? I think Lunatic would stick around, even if he did heal from his trauma. Especially if he did.

He’s a vigilante because the system was designed to hurt.

HeroTV is corrupt because it's a product of a corrupt system. Yuri would need to begin the journey of healing himself in order to see this system clearly—he’s really only holding onto pieces of the puzzle, not seeing all of it. I think the knowledge and understanding that this system created him and his father, would lead him to destroy it. Which would include HeroTV.

Make no mistake, Sternbild is a dystopia. Vigilantes operate outside the laws a system creates, which in TnB are harsh, unjust, and favor businesses. Yuri would have to tear down the entire system of profits over people that HeroTV enshrines in order to reach his goal and he'd have to be a vigilante to do it.

Fighting the system

Once he sees and understands the system responsible, he would hate it. Knowing his father supported this system, never challenged it and would do anything for it, including having his memories altered, would give Yuri a healthy target for his rage.

Asking for and believing you deserve help is part of the healing process. Yuri can’t fix something so massive alone, so he nudges Kotestsu and Barnaby, and therefore the rest of the Heroes into helping him. Yuri’s smart and a great manipulator. He’d figure it out somehow. Now Heroes are going after corrupt CEO’s, politicians, and billionaires.

HeroTV wouldn’t stand for it, and would probably fire all the Heroes for breach of contact. If Yuri healed, he’d have the confidence to stay and keep undermining the programming. I doubt once Kotetsu started destroying the misery he sees daily that he’d just stop, which means I think he’d be a vigilante. (read this amazing theory on how that could happen in cour 2)

Yuri would still do the dirty work because he loves holding that feeling of true justice in his hands. I could absolutely see him burn into existence in some slimy billionaire’s hidden estate and light him up.* Billionaires never see jail time or suffer consequences. Yuri really should be going after them.

All out war.                                                  

If politicians and corporations felt their power was threatened by vigilantes going after them, the backlash would be extreme. Oppression would be codified into law. The underlying authoritarianism in TnB would be unmasked.

I once compared Yuri to Robespierre, the lawyer who helped bring about the French Revolution. I could see Yuri revealing himself as Lunatic to Kotestsu and offering to help build a resistance with him. Instead of, “If you want true justice, only I can give it to you,” Yuri’s now “True justice is only achieved by the community that creates it.” That’s healing.

I think Yuri can resolve his trauma, find happiness and love, and still be a vigilante. If Yuri does heal, I’d say he might be compelled to keep being Lunatic—he wouldn’t be able to unlearn the lessons from that journey. And it’s the end of the hero’s journey to come back to the place you started, changed and with sacred knowledge.

For Yuri that knowledge is that the world is crazy, brutal, and everyone thinks that’s how it should be. Maybe that’s why Yuri named himself Lunatic, because if you’re the only sane person in the asylum, doesn’t that make you a lunatic to everyone else in there?

*Note: Our boy’s still dark. You don’t heal a decade of trauma in a few years. So I’d say in cour 2, even if he was midway in healing, he’d be still kinda fucked up. Would love to see him in three years after therapy and healing.

#yuri petrov #taibani #barnaby brooks jr #kotetsu t. kaburagi #tiger and bunny #lunatic #tnb2 #tiger & bunny #tiger & bunny 2 #tnb #t&b #t&b2 #kotetsu kaburagi #theory #analysis #vigilante #essay

[awlwren-writes]

2 Alexander

5 Maria

6 Eliana

14 Helen

11 Espervier

7 Ulfilas

I...have so many of them, don't I? Huh. Well, I've put some reminders as to who everyone is for those of you who are interested but don't have them all memorized. Alexander: (Cor's secretary) What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them? He once beat Cor in a fight. It wasn't a fair fight, and it wouldn't ever happen again. But Cor was trying to work when he was sick and Alexander challenged him and said if he could beat Cor, Cor had to go home. Cor agreed.

They went to the training ground, Cor pulled out Kotetsu (nearly overbalancing) and bowed. Alexander hit him in the head with a stapler as Cor was coming up from his bow. Alexander is adamant that someone's hand was guiding him (he says Bahamut, but honestly thinks it was the king's magic somehow) and he could never make such a throw again, and was honestly just trying to distract Cor before trying to tackle him, maybe deadleg him or just get him dizzy, but it hit Cor directly in the head and he stumbled and tripped over his own feet. Alexander landed on him and knocked the wind out of him, and Cor couldn't get back up.

Alexander won, Cor went home.

It's an inside joke around the office that Alexander is the Cor-slayer.

Maria: (Glaive, mage) How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want? Further than she's comfortable thinking about. If it's important enough to her (if the lives of the people she loves are at stake, if it means a cure for the Scourge) she's willing to condone torture, hold someone down for it. If it's a cure for the scourge at stake, she'd take the knife to VB in a heartbeat. She'd let civilians, even kids die for that. She wouldn't kill them herself, probably, but she'd let it happen. If Helen asked her about the topic, though, she'd say she wouldn't do any of it, though she'd admit to being tempted.

Eliana: (Glaive trainer, former royal guard) How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass? She'd do her research, and she'd have to be pretty firmly convinced it would actually do what she wanted (save her King, save the bby Glaives, etc), but once she was she would do it. I don't think she'd ever be a traitor because of that, but she might be persuaded to be a double agent with enough proof from trusted people and a promised end date, though if it went on too long she'd probably be doing enough nasty things to her body to cope that she'd make herself too useless to keep doing the job.

Helen: (Glaive) How does your OC want to be seen by other characters? She wants to be part of the group, respected, maybe, an elder sister who can give advice and help protect them, but not an outsider. Someone who's allowed in on the group, and the group jokes even if she doesn't always feel like she deserves it (a lot of this is bc she's Insomnian).

But she also wants to be seen as a moral person, who does what is right, someone the kiddos can look up to without being let down. Who messes up sometimes, sure. She doesn't want to be up on a pedestal, after all. Then she couldn't be part of the group. But to be remembered as someone who chose what is right over what is easy? That would be part of her ideal legacy.

Espervier: (Crownsguard, older) What is your OC's weapon of choice? Have they ever actually used it? Huh. I don't think I've actually had her fighting. I'm gonna say she's a sniper and uses a thin saber for her close combat. Fast and close, but not as close as daggers. Gotta keep some distance. (of course she does have backup daggers as well. But that means things have gone really really wrong)

Ulfilas: (Niflheim officer in SaM) What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them? Ha ha. Ha ha. Oh, he's changed so much.

Originally he was just gonna be the guy who was blindly loyal to the Empire and the idea of Glauca as the ultimate powerhouse of the Empire. Of course the general wants us to rescue him and kill all the Lucians. Why wouldn't he? Actually we had to go back and change some of the lines in the first fic of the second arc, because who he became wouldn't have been so eager for cruelty to Nyx. His original traits were: "Jingoistic" and deeply ironic in what he thought Glauca wanted, a good foil for a changed Drautos that way.

And then he started asking questions. He started being the one Drautos talked to, was being able to talk around. He was uncomfortable with torture. He loved his country and what it had been able to accomplish and thought it was doing the right thing but he had lines. And, ooh, wouldn't it be interesting if we could make him start a sort of dissenting group in the ranks. Oooh, and wouldn't it be interesting if we had two groups both causing chaos when Nyx and Drautos are escaping - Galahdan Rebels and Niflheim Saboteurs? Of course it would!

And the rest was history...

#thanks so much #this was a lot of fun #and get some answers #ask games #OCs #ilu all #ffxv #garbria #Alexander #Maria Iterum #Eliana #Helen Anastasis #Espervier #Jan Ulfilas #smoke and mirrors

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 88

"Kakashi-senpai!"

He lazily glanced at his pink-cheeked kohai without halting in his push-ups. A safe fifteen feet away, Gai was enthusiastically doing his own workout, counting at the top of his lungs while his creepy bug-eyed devotee shouted encouragement and danced around.

Unusual. Tenzou usually had the sense not to wander too close to Gai. Not after the unfortunate incident when Gai had corralled him into whatever challenge had been going on at the time. Something involving counting grains of rice, if his perfect memory served him correctly.

Tenzou nervously glanced between his two superiors, before seeming to clench his jaw. "Senpai, Hokage-sama came back today."

"Thank you, messenger pidgeon," he allowed graciously, raising a sardonic eyebrow before turning his face back down to the ground, concentrating on his repetitions. He had let Gai win tic-tac-toe last time, so he had to win this challenge or face insufferable gloating about being two points ahead in their never-ending game.

Gai gave an enthusiastic roar from his belly, clapping his hands between reps and pounding his palms into the ground when he landed with enough force to send little cracks spidering through the dry earth. His kohai seemed more uneasy than the commonplace sight merited.

"Aiko didn't come back with her."

By the time the grin had faded from Gai's face in a sort of wary realization that now was not the time to taunt his rival about imminent defeat, Kakashi was already bounding through the upper branches in a path that cut rudely through two more training grounds on the way to the central administration building.

Tenzou caught up to him a few seconds later, clearly having been blind-sided by his sudden motion. "Don't- I mean, I don't really know that anything is wrong," he huffed, giving Kakashi a wide-eyed glance that perhaps hinted his expression was less than pleasant. "I just heard from Kotetsu when he got off his shift." He swallowed dryly, falling a half-step behind his commander. "Maybe she stayed late for some reason, or went to Suna with their ambassador. She spends a fair bit of time there."

The awkward reassurances didn't make him feel any better. The look on Tsunade's face when she saw him pick open the lock on her office window and step in made him feel considerably worse.

"It's like you have this seventh sense for when your underlings are in trouble," she remarked tiredly, dropping her gaze to her hands. "I was about to send for you."

The sound of Tenzou's sandals scuffling behind him was the first thing he noticed that indicated the boy had actually followed him in. Kakashi was holding his breath, tempted between pushing the Hokage for an explanation and not wanting to hear what she had to say.

"Akatsuki," she said finally, giving him a pitying look, wrinkles phasing through her genjutsu into visibility. "They sent at least one agent into the conference, supposedly from Ame. Aiko was… Aiko interfered when this woman assaulted Sabaku no Temari, and is currently missing in action. Along with the two jinchuuriki who were in the area." Her listless tone somehow made the news worse.

His jaw was locked shut.

"Missing in action?" Tenzou repeated quietly. His face was pale, but Kakashi didn't see. He was still staring at the wall behind Tsunade's head, struck stone still by horror.

"I'm sorry." Tsunade leaned over and painstakingly removed a worn envelope from her knapsack, which Yamato only now realized was still sitting on the floor by her desk. "Here." She stood to press it into Kakashi's hands, and seemed to waver on the thought of hugging him for comfort. He took it absently without looking at what he had.

She looked away and sat back down without offering any comfort. Probably for the best. He wouldn't know how to react to it. "For what it's worth, I don't think that they would necessarily want her dead. She's valuable. Akatsuki might want to barter her for Naruto. Of course, we can't…" Tsunade swallowed hard and averted her eyes, before quietly adding, "and she's a tricky little thing. Maybe she can get away."

"If she could, she would have," Kakashi muttered brokenly, hands limp at his sides. "but she's not dead."

The Hokage seemed surprised by his optimism, but nodded. "We have to hope so. I won't declare her dead until I abso-"

"No, I mean that she literally can't be dead," he interrupted testily, giving the floor a resentful glare. "See?"

Yamato and Tsunade exchanged a look that implied he'd lost his damn mind.

"Senpai, that's a kunai," the younger man ventured cautiously when Kakashi gave it an impatient shake with the hand that wasn't absently clutching the sealed envelope.

"The sealing formula is still on it," he bit out sullenly, slipping the weapon away. "Hiraishin is sustained through constant connection with the creator. It would have failed if she were dead." After Minato had died, he had thought it was merely a nightmare for months and would only accept the truth when he felt the now ordinary kunai that he'd carried since he was twelve. He would never forget how it felt to hold a dead, empty piece of metal that had once been a source of comfort and strength.

The other two looked relieved for a second, before Tsunade had a thought that made her queasy.

"Does that mean my desk is going to explode one day?" She prodded it experimentally with a forefinger.

He didn't have time to answer before Tenzou interrupted with a suspiciously high-pitched, "Aiko-chan gave me an explosive without telling me about it?"

"Probably," Kakashi admitted honestly. "That sounds like something she would do. But no, they won't go off accidentally. The explosion is an intentional addition to the formula that she can activate at will. She wouldn't be so reckless as to give a half-dozen people seals that would explode if she died. Aiko isn't that irresponsible or short-sighted." He gave a slow exhalation, closing his visible eye and letting his head sag.

"But that's great news," Tenzou tried placatingly, giving him a faint smile. "We know she's okay."

"Of course she's not okay," he scoffed, gritting his teeth painfully for a moment before he continued. "If she were, she would just return."

"She could be lingering in order to try to assist the other hostages," Tsunade mused, looking as though his hypothesis was the best news she'd had all week. "Aiko would know that Iwa and Kumo are looking right at us. If she came back without them…" She grimaced. "That reminds me. I have a mission for you two of the highest level of sensitivity. The Raikage had already sent his proposed meeting time for exchanging the prisoner when I got back, and I don't want to exacerbate things by being late. The jackass scheduled it with such short notice that I will need you two to leave within an hour or so to make it on time. He probably didn't want us setting up an ambush," she mused sourly.

"Noted," Yamato mumbled, rubbing at the back of his neck. "But, about Aiko… What are you going to tell everyone else?"

Tsunade gave Yamato a helpless shrug, overlooking the man sulking between them. "The truth. What else can I say? I considered keeping this from Naruto when I realized just how hard it was going to be to keep him from doing exactly what Akatsuki wants, but it would be too cruel. Besides, I can't keep this quiet. Especially if it really is going to lead to war." She cringed, curling into herself and wrapping her arms around her chest, rubbing her sides as if she felt a chill.

"When exactly did this happen?"

At the sharp tone, Tsunade jerked to attention and directed all her attention to Kakashi, who suddenly looked intense and dangerous instead of like he was about to crumple over. "Ah—in the early hours three days ago," she clipped out, concentrating to remember more detailed information. "I last saw her at perhaps three in the morning."

"That's a long time for her to be incapacitated," Yamato noted uneasily. The worry on his face wasn't hard to decipher. She couldn't possibly sleep that long—they must have either poisoned her or all-but killed her to keep her immobilized for days on end.

He didn't even want to think about what awful things she might be enduring.

A day prior

"And then Kakuzu-sempai said that Hidan-san was a nuisance, so Tobi thought that Hidan-san might be sad and Tobi went to ask him if he needed to talk about his feelings, because that always helps Tobi!" There was a mournful silence, and then Madara Uchiha added with a quiver in his artificially high voice, "Hidan-san was embarrassed and he told Tobi that he didn't need to talk about his feelings. He didn't even want a hug! Wasn't that silly of him, Aiko-chan?" As he talked, he flung open a door and trotted in, leaving her to trail behind. He was very unlike the uber professional Itachi, she noted.

Before meeting this man in person, Aiko hadn't been certain if he was Obito driven mad by pain and grief, if he was Obito possessed by Madara but still somewhat present, or if Madara was merely wearing Obito's body like a fashionable coat. Now, she couldn't be anything but certain that there was nothing of Obito here, because no one who was anything less than pure, unadulterated evil could come up with a deception and persona as offensively irritating as this one. This act had been the product of decades of learning how to be an irritating jackass. Obito simply wouldn't have had the time to become this deranged.

"It was terribly silly," Aiko agreed solemnly, giving him a shy smile. "I bet he was just too bashful to accept it."

Evil lunatic or not, she valued her skin. Oddly enough, she might be safer with Madara than Itachi or Kisame. Itachi had reasons to kill her to protect Konoha, and Kisame or another Akatsuki might kill her if they thought it worth Pein's anger. Sure, she didn't have the thin protection of Pein's desire to keep her alive in regards to Madara, being as he was the real boss here. But he was also a person who planned, like, twenty years ahead. Sure, his plans were stupid, (form criminal organization, fuck around with Konoha, and then somehow rule the world?) but that was beside the point. The only reasons he would kill her would be if she was in the way of his plan (which she couldn't help) or if she ticked him off to the point where he didn't care about interfering with the efficiency of his puppet organization doing what he wanted it to do.

So instead of taunting him, she was pretending to be charmed by Tobi, since option # 1 (otherwise known as 'run away screaming bloody murder') was difficult when in a towel and half-dead from hunger and chakra exhaustion.

"Would you like a hug?" He leaned in far too close, as if trying to put her off balance or trick her into displaying unease. But Aiko was a goddamn champion of hiding distress behind a cutesy girl act, and she didn't so much as flinch. "You seem sad," Madara finished gravely.

' Sure, you crazy bastard.'

"I am a little sad," she admitted, gently shutting the drawer of no longer needed clothes that Deidara had left behind, clutching a black shirt with mesh shoulders to her chest. "I think you're right, I could use a hug."

He squealed and threw his arms around her shoulders—then just as easily flinched away dramatically and backed up all the way to the other wall. "Eek! Aiko-chan, you haven't put on clothes yet!" he wailed.

' No shit, Sherlock.'

"J-just turn around!" She squeaked out. It was lucky that he did, because she was unable to fake a blush. It was somewhat of a relief to drop her towel and pull the shirt over her head, even though it felt really fucking weird to wear a dead man's clothing and the mesh fell in a way that Anko would have approved of. Beggars couldn't be choosers. Deidara had been on the petite side for a man, but she was petite for a woman, so the shirt's hem was just barely long enough to be decent if she stayed perfectly still and there was no breeze.

That didn't seem like a likely combination of circumstances, so she pulled open the next drawer in hopes of finding pants, without noticing that the Uchiha turned around at the noise. It was just full of hair products, so she knelt to open the bottom one. That was successful. Aiko pulled them on post-haste, not caring that they were the worst fitting thing she'd ever worn. She could adjust the fit and make do. "I'm decent, Tobi-san," she called out, before turning around herself.

She had to blink at just how close he was. Aiko hadn't heard him move at all. To cover her surprise, she bit her lip before asking, "Is there a belt around or anything?" To demonstrate, she lifted her arms straight up so he could see how ill-fitting the slacks were.

"Ahh, you're so cuuuute, Aiko-chan," he squealed, lurching forward to pick her up around the waist and shake her around. She put a steadying hand on his shoulder and tried not to vomit.

"Tobi-san, I don't feel well," she choked out, meaning it.

Apparently he didn't want bile down his back, because he immediately stopped and put her on the ground gently. "Tobi doesn't think that any belts here would fit you." She had the odd sense that his lower lip was wobbling when he tilted his head down. It almost immediately popped back up, though, and he bounded off to the closet. "But Tobi is certain that he could make a new hole to make a belt smaller!"

'You're a genius alright,' she thought cynically. 'I have now known you for almost five minutes, and I know that I do not want you to be anywhere near me.'

"I would like that." Politely, she did not move towards the closet. Shinobi tended to get crabby when someone moved to box them into a confined space. The garment he emerged with was a very thin black belt. He painstakingly gouged out another hole with the tip of a kunai and then handed it over with a triumphant flourish.

' I might be safer with him, but this is nerve-wracking. Maybe I just should have stayed put in the first place.'

Itachi briefly pushed down the urge to give up on his elective situational pacifism when he came back after having begged a change of clothes off of Konan to find that his charge had apparently wandered off in the three minutes he had been absent.

'This child is an idiot of impressive proportions,' he noted tiredly, following the little wet footprints down the hall. They led to the kitchen—but faded before they led him back to the girl who'd left them. He didn't need them, however. A girlish voice was barely audible through the closed door to what had been Deidara's room once upon a time. Unease flickered in his consciousness. Either she was talking to herself, or she had run into someone else in the base.

He couldn't think of a single person in his area who could be trusted to behave around a captive from Konoha. Especially one who had potentially damaging information.

Perhaps he should have killed her when they had been alone earlier to prevent her knowledge from falling into Akatsuki's hands. He was loathe to end her without an immediate sense of danger, however. If all was truly well in the world, Itachi would never have to harm another sentient being in his life.

With a small amount of expertly hidden trepidation, he pushed the door open.

Immediately, he wished he hadn't. His patient was wearing some of Deidara's old clothes and sitting cross-legged on the duvet next to the man who called himself Tobi. They both looked up at him, but he had no illusions that the expression hidden behind that mask was the innocent curiosity on the girl's face. Madara was almost certainly getting no small amount of enjoyment out of this play-act. Had he accompanied the girl to thwart Itachi? As a silent threat? Or just because he got some strange amusement out of letting her think him a fool?

"You're just in time, Itachi-senpai!" his elder chirped in a tone that sounded demented to his ears. The placid enjoyment on the girl's face implied that it was his additional knowledge that gave him that sense. Then again, the amount of uncharacteristic trust and positivity on her expression was downright suspicious. Surely she wasn't so stupid as to genuinely be charmed by someone met in a den of S class criminals? Perhaps it was an attempt to ingratiate herself with someone who might help her escape—Tobi did portray himself as the most approachable.

' Then again, it is possible that she has recognized Tobi as someone to be wary of and does not wish to risk angering him.'

It seemed implausible from the manner in which she had provoked Pein that she would choose to kowtow to Tobi unless she seriously believed she was in imminent danger from him.

If that was the case, she had excellent instincts or her frightening visions of possible futures had let her on to Madara's secret identity.

The teenager tilted her head and smiled at him. "We're playing Go-Fish!"

Yes, that was downright uncannily out of character. The girl was acting. At least she was good at it: she seemed genuinely pleased to find herself playing child's games with a madman.

"I am afraid that I must borrow your companion." He let his expression linger deliberately on the prisoner. "Pein-sama has requested that I provide her with medical attention."

"Awww, Itachi-san! Can we play more later?"

Message received. Madara did indeed suspect he would try to keep the Uzumaki girl away from him, and he couldn't disobey now.

"Of course," he agreed tonelessly. There was no other option. "I prepared the medical supplies in the room where you were awoken. Come."

"No need for that!" Madara interrupted in that vexingly high pitched tone he favored, swiveling his orange mask to stare directly at his female companion. "Deidara-senpai kept some in here! I can get them for you." The quickly retrieved kit was rather disproportionally stocked with burn treatments, but it did have the antiseptic and bandages that would suit his purposes.

He kept the displeasure this solution aroused off his face. "Very well," Itachi agreed as if he did not care one way or the other. "However, it was unwise for you to dress her before her wounds had been treated. Deidara's shirt will have to be removed." At the reflexive grimace that provoked, he found the opportunity to add, "Perhaps it would be less intimidating for your companion if you were to give her as much privacy as possible."

"Whatever you say, Itachi-senpai!" Tobi bounced off the bed and out the door, a hint of menace in his almost manic movements that came just an iota too close to Itachi himself.

"I would suggest wrapping the towel around your torso to give me access to your wounds," he directed, strangely less comfortable now that he was alone with the otherworldly girl who knew far too much. Especially since he had just essentially ordered her to take her clothes off. He might have offered to wait in the hall while she changed, but it had already been proven that she would wander off given thirty seconds unobserved and immediately locate the most dangerous human being on the continent, so it seemed to be an ill-advised course of action.

Instead, he politely averted his eyes and tried to forget that there was a half-naked woman in the room until she rather testily informed him that she was finished.

"Do you have any wounds that are not readily apparent?" The set of her shoulders was stiff as he went about painstakingly sanitizing every little slice into her skin. It looked as though Konan had rained down attacks from above—the top of her head and shoulders had by far the worst of it, although she was permanently missing a small slice out of her left ear.

"I think I might have a concussion," she offered grudgingly, clearly trying not to look at him.

Itachi attempted not to dwell on the fact that she could hide her discomfort around the most dangerous man in the world but trembled at his touch. He instead concentrated to summon the little tinge of medical chakra into his right palm and gently passed it over her scalp, combing through the drying hair carefully and avoiding sealing up any cuts he had yet to sanitize. There was a technique that provided merely diagnostic feedback, but he had yet to acquire it, so he had to make do.

What he found was beyond his abilities. "You are technically correct in that you have a concussion, but it is not so simple. You are experiencing a brain hemorrhage and the swelling will soon become severe." His pronouncement was dispassionate, but he was already off in thought, discarding possible solutions. He could only conclude, "We have no medic who can treat this."

"You don't, huh." Her voice was oddly toneless. "Am I correct in thinking that a lack of treatment may result in permanent loss of brain function?"

"Probable," he agreed, a little perplexed that she was taking this so calmly. "Although stroke or death are also possible."

"I see." She clipped the words together. That seemed to be all she had to say, so he quietly went back to his work, extracting bits of dirt she had missed on her back especially and sanitizing everything before he went back and took the opportunity to practice his mastery of the mystical palm technique, prioritizing the deeper gouges in her hands and wrists that may restrict her movements.

Should he offer to help her escape? She already knew that he was a double agent. The words stuck in his throat when he tried to summon them, however. It was far too dangerous to say such a thing in this place, and he did not see how he could possibly return her to Konoha without implicating himself. As abhorrent as it was to cause harm to another person even through inaction, his mission was far more valuable than her life and safety to Konoha as a whole. Akatsuki was going to perform their second extraction tomorrow and add the two-tailed beast to the statue with the eight-tailed beast when the other members returned to the base. He would have to be present for this event, and the girl would either be locked up or unconscious for the duration to reduce possible complications.

…Probably both, given her obvious propensity for troublemaking.

Then again, if she knew anything at all about the sealing procedure, she would know that no one would be available to watch her. The Uzumaki child was not without intelligence. It was both her best chance and completely hopeless.

Perhaps she had something up her sleeve. At least he could offer a little information and see if she could help herself. "Do not expect further assistance. I will not be available to re-treat your wounds tomorrow. I will be recovering my full chakra capacity in anticipation of the day's events."

The evaluating way she gazed up at him was reassurance enough that she could read between the lines to what he was actually conveying, so it was acceptable that she gave no reply.

"I knew you two would have fun together," Kisame observed from the door. Itachi did not bother to reply, letting his hands fall back to his side and turning to face the taller man. She could keep the patchwork map of scratches. They were not life-threatening, and not worth the effort of healing.

His blank expression seemed to fuel Kisame's amusement. "I don't know what I'm interrupting, but apparently I'm the babysitter, red." He bared his teeth at the Uzumaki girl, but didn't let his gaze leave Itachi. "So you can relax for a while, Itachi."

He gave a small nod. That was acceptable. If the girl was to attempt to escape, he did not want to be forced to thwart it or risk being suspected of complicity. It was best to be as far away as possible. "Of course."

'Well, hell. That's not good at all.' Her hands were trembling, so she pressed them into her lap and tried to ignore the S-class missing nin eying her like she was a particularly interesting insect. She didn't have the energy to care about Kisame right now, or even to be relieved that Itachi had finally left her alone.

Aiko had just received rather bad news, after all.

Her mind was the one weapon she could not do without. She had already judged that it was far too hazardous to risk using Hiraishin in this state with the easy assumption that a few days' time at the absolute most would rectify the situation. Then she could rattle off an insult to whatever Akatsuki was lurking about and go home a hero with two jinchuuriki in tow.

'Or I might only have their bodies, and then I'd have to make sure we all permanently disappear,' the creep of doubt that she'd been ignoring piped up insidiously. Before now she had been able to ignore it, but it seemed much more real and probable now that she had both a tight deadline imposed by the rapidly approaching time when the Akatsuki would gather to extract one of the bijuu complicated by her body's pathetic weakness.

But she didn't want to die. Not for stupid fucking Konoha.

That left only one recourse, then. She had to try to escape. The plan was hardly complicated: her only chance was to hope like hell that she could still use Hiraishin, steal the jinchuuriki, and leave.

"Hey, red." An enormous foot nudged her ribs none too gently, drawing her attention up to the man in the room with her. "I don't appreciate being ignored."

"Sorry, blue," she replied automatically, blinking up at the toothy behemoth hovering over her. He just grunted, and then thoroughly creeped her out by leaning in and sniffing her hair. Aiko froze.

His breath was hot on the back of her neck when he grunted, "You stink like Itachi's cheap soap."

She tried not to let her mind dwell on the fact that the Uchiha bastard apparently didn't even use shampoo and his hair was a hundred times nicer than hers. That big dumb butt. Unknowingly, she pouted, puffing out her cheeks irritably.

"Well, I'm supposed to do this every hour or so, and I'm already behind," Kisame sighed, soft rustling sounds behind her clueing Aiko in that he was doing something.

"Do what?" she asked a little suspiciously, swiveling just enough to see that the very tip of his sword was unwrapped before he rested it on her shoulder. The weight nearly bowled her over, but it was the sensation of tiny needles in her flesh that made her mindlessly jerk to push the weapon away.

He caught her wrist, and it seemed pitifully small in his gigantic paw. "I wouldn't touch her if I were you," Kisame cautioned in a rumble with a strange undertone she couldn't quite identify. "She only likes me enough to tolerate touching. You might lose a hand or more."

That sounded like a massive bummer, so Aiko just tried to shrink away from the blade bulging obscenely against her flesh. It followed her movements. Finally, she gave up. "Why are you using me as a shelf?" Aiko managed to force out, feeling so much worse than she had a moment ago, even discounting the blood trickling down the flesh Itachi had just healed.

"Pein-sama seems to think you're dangerous," he informed her lightly, pulling the blade away nonchalantly while she tried to catch her breath, gripping her stomach with both arms. "I happen to be an expert at draining a person's chakra to exactly what they need and leave them none for daring escape plans."

"Ah," Aiko huffed out, vision flickering slightly. "The joke is on you, then. My daring escape plan requires no chakra at all. I'm going to impersonate you and walk right out of here."

He threw his head back and laughed. Then he scooped her up like she was a kitten and cradled her with a single arm, striding out of Deidara's room with two long steps and back up a vaguely familiar hallway. "How do you intend to do that, red?"

"I was going to beat you up with just taijutsu, switch our clothes and then tell Itachi I'm going out for ice cream," she mumbled, feeling her head sag against his chest despite her best efforts.

"Well, you'll need some fuel for that," Kisame informed her mock-seriously, kicking out a wooden chair and settling her into it with surprising gentleness from such a large, scary-looking person. "I'm afraid that protein would help you re-build your chakra levels, so you'll have to settle for rice porridge. It's the only other thing I can cook."

She might have fallen asleep, but Aiko vaguely remembered noting that he put an ungodly amount of honey into the steaming bowl he set in front of her.

"Hey, can you walk, red? I don't want to stand around while you eat."

Aiko gave it a valiant attempt, but ended up nearly sliding under the table when her attempt to push her chair back failed.

"I will take that as a no." She blinked, and then she was picked up just the same as before, dazedly blinking at the bowl in his massive fingers while he walked outside. Aiko found herself propped up against the building with the hot bowl on her legs. He ruffled her hair fondly before straightening to his full height. "I have energy to burn, so you're going to watch me train. I agreed to keep you out of trouble, not play nursemaid."

Her tongue felt heavy and dry in her mouth, but he hadn't thought to bring her a drink. Aiko dubiously glanced down at the food she'd been allotted. She felt so weak and queasy that eating sounded like the last thing she wanted to do, but it could only help improve her condition. There was absolutely no chance that she could escape in this condition, and she had no idea how long it had been since she had eaten. Her physical state would only get worse the longer she went without caloric intake.

She nearly gagged at the heat and sweetness, but forced it all down. Oddly, she felt incrementally better within minutes: good enough to pay some attention to what Kisame was doing. It was actually rather interesting, from a professional standpoint. He was sparring with four water clones on a shallow lake of his own creation, dodging what had to be at least B level techniques from all of them that did things like boil the water, attempt to drag him down, or hit him with anything from man-sized sharks made of water to concussive bullets like what she used.

"You know, you're the first really strong water-type I've met," Aiko mused aloud. The statement hadn't been intended to flatter, but he looked proud nonetheless.

"You haven't seen nothing yet, itty bitty. I'll do this jutsu with just the chakra I got from you."

'I really wish I could focus enough to remember those handsigns,' she thought blearily. At this point, she wouldn't even certain that she was seeing them all. Thoughts of memorizing them so she could steal his toy were completely lost when she realized that he was forming a gigantic tank of water in the air that towered over the entire building she was pressed up against, sides as flat as if there was glass to keep them in despite the fact that she could see the liquid was raging in a vicious current. Whoa. He was standing on the top of the rapidly rising water, and tossed her one last look that implied he never got tired of showing off before he grinned and started working on another series of handsigns.

"This area is all under my control," he informed in a half-shout, rolling his shoulders menacingly. "It's impossible to escape, but right now, anyone who can walk on water would be fine. I could trap them in a water prison while their movement is constricted, but that gets old. This is how I drag my victims to the bottom, or tear them apart."

The water lurched and—were those twenty foot sharks circling in the water to create a whirlpool? They definitely were, and there were too many moving too quickly for her to count. Just trying to follow their movement gave her a headache.

Her priorities quickly changed when the 'sides' of the tank suddenly disappeared, and several thousand tons of water came rushing at her with a swarming mass of angry looking sharks on the top. She had just enough time to think, 'oh shit' before Kisame scooped her up with a laugh and landed easily on top of the building, grinning at he looked over the swamp that he had just formed.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe. Poor itty bitty." A massive hand tweaked her nose, and he laughed again when her eyes crossed.

"Where is the water going?" she changed the subject, embarrassed that she'd frozen. It was disappearing with an almost shocking haste, and there had been an enormous amount of it- easily six times what she could make.

'Did he really use just my chakra? He must be so much more efficient with it than I am.' Contemplatively, she glanced down at the enormous trunk of an arm that was supporting her. He just didn't look like a guy who cared to use finesse.

"Pein-sama installed a drain system," Kisame admitted carelessly, jumping back down on top of the draining liquid and heading towards the other side of the building he had just abused. "My jutsu practice supplies the water for the base."

Aiko blanched. It was a pretty big building, and he was just one man.

'These are the types of people I'm dealing with,' she remembered with a sinking feeling. 'I can't fight on a level ground against any of them.'

It was dreary and rather dark out, but it was difficult to gauge the time because it sort of looked like the sky was always that way in Ame. She was pretty sure she was in Ame. The rest of the night wasn't terribly eventful, but it must have been evening at least because Kisame only drained her chakra three more times before he set her on Deidara's bed, patted her head like she was a kitten, and then locked her in for the night.

'I really might die here,' she realized with dawning horror the first time that he came in and woke her up by draining her chakra again before shuffling away in his pajamas. That hadn't seemed real before. She always got out of sticky situations. Being slippery was like, her thing. But they really were doing a professional job: When Kisame said he was going to drain her chakra every hour, he really fucking meant it. She drifted between a haze of sleep and unconsciousness all night, and felt like absolute crap in the morning.

The thought that the jinchuuriki were probably worse off than she was… was not reassuring. They almost certainly weren't being fed because Akatsuki was going to kill at least one of them sometime that day. There would have been no point. So they were probably being kept drugged into unconsciousness to prevent any struggles. That would be what Aiko would have done. That meant that they probably would have something of a fighting chance if allowed to wake, she hoped, since they'd have their chakra.

Good and bad. If they were capable and decided to work with her, that would work in her favor. If they were in better condition than she was and still wanted her dead, she would be screwed and very possibly vulnerable. That was one of the reasons that she decided she could only go to Konoha—yes, if it turned out that Fuu or Nii was still hostile, they would claim Konoha had done the original kidnapping and just tried to trick them. That was bad. But being alone in the middle of nowhere with two possible hostiles was far worse, and she desperately needed medical attention and safety. Aside from being where she felt safest, Konoha had the best hospital and medics in the known world.

"Feeding time, for Samehada first, and then you," Kisame promised cheerily, flinging her door open. Aiko winced and wished that hiding under the sheets was a valid tactical strategy.

True to his word the day before, there was none of the meat or nuts that she was craving frantically when Kisame fed her in the morning. She tried not to glare or let her head hit the table when a goddamn salad was put in front of her while Kisame settled down with miso, rice, and four fish.

It was a perfectly good salad… a bizarrely good salad, if she were to be honest. Kisame apparently didn't believe in dressing, but he did believe in spinach, mandarin oranges, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. She could see the logic behind the composition—a lot of iron to help her replace her lost blood, and a variety of nutrients from other sources. It still wasn't answering the insane craving in her bones for something she could turn into pure life energy.

'I am going to escape, go home, and eat half a goddamn cow,' Aiko promised herself, because the alternative was to lay down and die. For now, she ate the entire salad and asked for seconds. She got more sweetened rice. What the hell was up with this man and sweetened rice?

Still, this was probably the best that she was going to feel. It had been almost an hour since Kisame had last drained her chakra. She had no idea when they were planning on performing the extractions, and they probably wouldn't be so helpful as to tell her. Really, they probably wouldn't be so obliging as to leave her conscious and unobserved while they got to work. If they had any sense at all, the first order of business would be to knock her the fuck out so she couldn't use the chakra she would be accumulating while they were too busy to pay attention to her.

So she experimentally rolled her ankles under the table and looked up at Kisame endearingly. "Thank you for breakfast, blue-san. You know, you seem out of place here. How did you end up working in chateau crazy?"

He stared. "You think I seem like the sanest person here?" he clarified gingerly. At her nod, he shook his head slowly. "Well, that's a new one. Usually the assumption is that Itachi is least likely to peel someone's face off and wear it to bed. No offence, red, but I don't feel like talking about it."

"That's fair," she admitted evenly, propping her chin up on her hands and feeling around for the two Hiraishin seals she was most concerned with at the moment. They were in the same locations she had originally noted when she first woke up. Aside from feeling tired, she was almost used to the constant splitting headache and fatigue from chakra exhaustion. She could do this. "I just thought I should ask before I enact my daring escape plan and all," she teased with a smile, scrunching up her nose. Oddly, he didn't seem to take the warning seriously at all. "You know, if you ever decide you want to make a break from these nutjobs, I will totally hide you in my apartment if you agree to teach me how to be completely and utterly terrifying with water jutsu. I've always wanted to be internationally feared." She gave a real sigh of longing.

"As appealing as the thought of being confined to a teenager's apartment is, I think I will have to pass on that one," he rejoined dryly, sticking his chopsticks in his now-empty bowl and leaning back slightly. "I'm flattered, though."

"Well, I'm sure that Tsunade-sama would let me bring you in legally if I asked, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to share," she pouted mock-regretfully. He was by far the most impressive master of water jutsu she had ever used, and given half a chance to learn from him, she would walk over broken glass to do it.

Still, there were pretty shinobi princesses to rescue, less sucky places to be, and meat to sink her teeth into. That sort of thing. Shouldn't dawdle.

Kisame snorted, looking almost fond of her. "You're a weird kid."

"And you're surprisingly cool," she countered, locking onto the signature that she thought was Fuu. It was hard to tell which of the other woman disliked her more, but at least Fuu was more frightened of her than angry with her. Hopefully, she would be willing to listen and cooperate to save her own skin. "So long, and thanks for all the fish," she added with a pointed look at the fish he had definitely not shared. He was just making a confused expression when she yanked on Fuu's chakra signature—and found herself falling to the ground, clutching at her aching head. If anyone else was there, she had no idea and she was completely at their mercy, because the pain was unbearable.

The first thing she noticed when her vision returned from 'white' and the feeling had changed to a throb instead of an electric current that consumed her being was that she was crying on her hands and knees. The second thing was that Fuu was conscious but badly beaten, and chained to a wall. She also looked somewhat alarmed.

Aiko had to purposefully wipe away latent curiosity about just awful she must look judging by Fuu's expression. "Sorry about that," she slurred. Oh. Embarrassing. Was she drooling? She wiped the side of her mouth. Well, it wasn't drool. Wasn't sure if blood is better or not, so she put the thought aside for later. "I don't know about you, but I think we should rescue ourselves. How does a jail break sound?"

"You look like shit," the other girl said bluntly, before pointedly tugging on her wrists. "And I doubt you can break these."

"No need, I'll just grab you. Um." She hesitated, feeling like throwing up, but forced it down. "Nii Yugito is the next stop, and then we blow this popsicle stand. If that happens again, can you watch my back while I recover? Am bleeding in the brain," Aiko explained, waving at the general area of her head as she lurched forward to wrap her arms around Fuu's waist. She looked like she'd been through hell, but that the aforementioned hell had happened several days ago. To a normal person, that would make little difference, but it was a different matter entirely when applied to a jinchuuriki. The cuffs were the awful kind that stopped chakra circulation, which made some sense to a distant part of her brain. But now was not the time to stop and think, and the ability to do more than one thing at once was apparently no longer something she could do.

"Of course," Fuu murmured from above her. "If you can really get me out of here."

"Hold on tight," Aiko huffed, despite that not making any sense at all since she was the one holding onto Fuu. Concentrating on taking just Fuu and not the metal touching her limbs was shockingly difficult for something she didn't usually have to think about, but she managed.

' One more to rescue. If I wasn't more concerned that Yugito might attack me on sight, I would have gotten her first and probably left Fuu for dead once I realized how hard this was going to be. She's much more politically important.'

Didn't matter now. She tenuously gripped the Hiraishin seal that was closest- and by closest, she really did mean closest by an enormous margin. At least the two jinchuuriki were closer together than she had been to Fuu. Maybe this wouldn't be so terrible. She only had to make two more Hiraishin. Go to Yugito, go home. She could do it. She could do dozens within seconds at her best. This was nothing.

But the seal slipped out of her grip. That had never happened before, even when she was first learning. Frustrated, she attempted to lock in on it again—and succeeded this time.

When the ringing in her ears stopped, the first thing she knew was that she was making an awful wailing sound and it hurt her throat. Aiko stopped immediately and tried to push herself up, noting that her vision appeared to be shot. It was far worse than the double vision she had first woken up to in the Akatsuki base where even now pursuants were likely mobilizing. How long had she been disabled by that travel?

Of course, it was worse than she realized.

"I thought you were dead," Aiko croaked out at the foul-mouthed blur that Fuu appeared to be fighting. Hidan (she was pretty sure that was who it was) responded with an obnoxious laugh.

"Hey, you're that bitch who'd heard about Jashin! Did you come to convert, or just to donate your body to the cause? I might have fucked you before, but you look like total shit now. Still, Jashin accepts all forms of fucked-up ugly whores. Equal in his sight and all that shit."

"Yeah, that's him," she muttered to herself, struggling to her feet. Odd. Was the floor really moving, or was she seasick for some other reason? "Yugito?" she called out plaintively. "Are you here?"

The response was raspy, as if she was breathing through a lungful of blood. "the fuck happened to you, Uzumaki? I'm right here."

"Okay, good," she mumbled, awkwardly fisting a handful of the clothing she felt when she stumbled in the direction of the familiar voice. "You're not tied or anything, right?"

There was a brief silence from the only other person not involved in a fight. When it came, Yugito sounded a bit unnerved. "No. I was just uncuffed by this asshole."

"Cool." She stood as straight as she could in the disorienting blur of colors that had become her perception, and wrapped her trembling arm around what felt like Yugito's waist. They had to go, they had to move. Beating Hidan was pointless and would just give reinforcements time to show up. "Fuu?" she called out plaintively, hoping the older girl would know what she wanted. Aiko was almost surprised by how weak her own voice sounded.

A heartbeat later, a thin arm was around her waist. "I'm here, move!" Fuu barked out. Aiko obeyed thoughtlessly, thinking of nothing but home. She wanted the seal in her bedroom but really Tsunade's office would be a better choice, she would meet a medic there and this all could get sorted out, it was going to be okay.

But when she came back, cheek lying in what seemed to be mud and her own bile, Aiko felt raindrops on her body. "Please, god, tell me we're out of Ame," she choked out, not bothering to suppress tears. Everything hurt, and the blurs of colors had turned to shades of red that were completely useless for navigating. There was a hand on her shoulder—Yugito, she thought, because that was where the older woman's voice came from.

"No, we aren't. But we can wait a moment for you to feel better and run from here."

She sobbed openly, pushing herself up to her knees and palms. Her head shook. "No, we can't," Aiko frantically explained, just wishing this nightmare would end already. "He uses rain like I do to sense. They know where we are. If we're in the rain, they're coming directly to us. We have to go. Please, god, work this time," she wailed, not even noticing that she was reverting to English. "One more. One more." Blindly, she reached out, feeling for Fuu. "I need to touch both of you so we can go again."

"Uzumaki, you're going to kill yourself!" Yugito spat out, sounding—odd, was she sounding concerned? But didn't she hate Aiko?

"I might, but if I don't, we're all dead," she wheezed. Only the sensation of heat on her cheeks let her know that tears were mixed in with the rainwater. "I think I have one more in me."

No one answered her, but arms were wrapped around her torso from both sides.

Aiko took a moment to hope that neither of them would take the opportunity to kill her. It wouldn't be hard now. Honestly, at this point, she didn't think there was any chance she could make the trip to Konoha. But she had to try.

And she pulled on the seal in Tsunade's office one more time with everything she had. Literally everything—she was unconscious before she hit the ground again somewhere new.

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction

[demonslayedher]

Things that flew through my mind while watching this episode:

--For being called "Thank-you, Tokito-kun," Tokito-kun sure isn't in this episode much. Kotetsu-kun does not address Seaweed-Head with '-kun,' he addresses him with '-san.' Oyakata-sama addresses him simply as "Muichiro" in the flashback. Actually, I checked, and only Tanjiro ever calls him that. Is this going to be something Tanjiro hears and thanks him for later? Or has this whole series just been brief chapters in "The Legend of Zenitsu" and that is what Zenitsu titled it?

--Kotetsu-kun is having a bit of a weird night anyway. Brave boy--who, we mustn't forget, is a child who has every reason to feel overwhelmed--went off to get help so that Haganezuka's sword polishing would not be interrupted, and then he fought and nearly got eaten by a demon fish but stayed as strong as he could the whole time. But then when Muichiro starts carrying him and blasting forward at the speed of Pillar, I love that he's screaming his head off. I want a modern day AU of these two hanging out at an amusement park and Muichiro drags him on the big rollercoasters.

--And hey, look, another mention of how important it is not to interrupt that sword polishing process. You want that sword to get ruined, Tokito-kun? Remember that after all the effort you soon go through to protect Haganezuka-san. TO PROTECT THAT SWORD.

--Gonna right ahead to the end of the episode here and mention how Mitsuri is not at all like, "oh no, that's really, really bad" (which it is, that's why Gyokko targeted it), but "okay, watch out, I'm gonna do my best!" This is a girl who has found her true calling. She should give career advice. Does your career make your heart squeeze with excitement even in the tightest pinch?

--As a point of interesting comparison I'm going to come back to, Mitsuri's confidence is well-placed. She runs into situations that overwhelm her and she lacked confidence when trying to learn a Breath she wasn't suited for, but we never see her experience Pillar Imposter Syndrome. Besides just being extremely physically capable, she has picked up battle experience and it has become a part of her. This battle sense serves her very well. On the other hand, we have Muichiro who is not endowed with the same strength, but his analytical abilities are what make him a Pillar quality genius even before he gains much experience.

--Which brings me to Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya, the true stars of this episode.

--Look at these three, legit holding their own against Upper Moon Four. It is a wonder none of them died already. Ok, we have good reasons for why Nezuko and Genya haven't, but in Tanjiro's case, this is exactly what Mitsuri was talking about in episode 1 about how valuable Tanjiro's experience against Upper Moon Six was. Tanjiro has had a excellent gut for battle ever since throwing his axe in the air at Giyuu, and he's always been one to analyze a battle as he's swept up in it. But this is not the same Tanjiro who fought Kyogai! He is able to look for openings and weaknesses in totally different ways so that he can stay calm and relatively in control when fighting one-on-one with Urogi (using Urogi to fly back, now that deserves some flamboyant applause), and his battle senses have gotten strong enough to tell him that he might be able to protect himself against a demon's attack if he had the demon's own cells as a shield.

--Also, all those jokes about attacking Sailor Moon while she is transforming, or Goku while he's screaming and powering up? That is exactly what Urogi is going through.

--Genya, man, you might be coping with Repetitive Action, but you are living on spite.

--Now if only Rengoku could have learned a thing or two about not dying from gaping chest wounds

--Genya, since he fights with desperation, does not get many moments to look cool (badass, sure, but not cool-like-a-cucumber cool). That makes it's so nice that he got to strike that sword and glock pose while delivering the "I'm Shinazugawa Genya--that's the name of the guy who is gonna kill you!" line.

--Which means Genya just had the most Sailor Moon moment of this whole series.

--Sekido has good reason to be ticked off with his body-mates lolly-gagging instead of finishing the demon slayers off. After all, Muzan wants the whole village wiped out (and Gyokko is the only one getting any work done, with all four parts of Hantengu being wrapped up with these three slayers!). Aizetsu is like someone watching an animal die for the pure sadness of it. Aizetsu isn't exactly kind, though he is the odd one out among his body-mates, and I would indeed find it very, very funny if he could be convinced to befriend the sad humans (maybe out of getting some protection from Sekido). Sekido would be so pissed off about missing a critical piece of a more reasonable form like Zouhakuten, and Muzan would be pissed off as he gets this report from Sekido while Urogi and Karaku are running/flying amok.

--While I, being someone who has loved tengu for many years, appreciate the various tengu inspired elements in each of the four Ki-Do-Ai-Raku demons, I have always had trouble seeing it in Aizetsu. This is also why he seems like the odd one out to me. It's like, ah, yes, Sekido with the shakujo staff, Karaku with the bonten-kesa stole and hauchiwa fan, Urogi having the bird-like qualities of a karasu-tengu, and Aizetsu in a tracksuit.

--Instead of "half-tengu" wouldn't Hantengu's name make more sense as "quarter-tengu"?

--It's very funny that Hantengu's alter-egos all portray themselves on the side of spiritual mastery (by way of the tengu/Shugenja symbolism, followed by Buddhism-informed deity iconography, all of which is a whole different tangent of its own). Hantengu's own irony is too big to contain in one tiny body. But also, two crossovers I want to see, so if anybody draws them, please tag me: Hantengu & Co. as Father & Co. from Full Metal Alchemist, and Hantengu & Co. as the stars of Inside Out.

--I'll bet Sekido, as part of his anger-management in spiritual mastery, has agreed to stand by and give his body-mates a chance.

--Karaku acts like an overly pushy boyfriend. Learn from Nezuko, everyone. If a guy is ever giving you a hard time like that, kick his head off.

--Karaku wasn't himself in a position to be able to do much more, but his biggest mistake was giving Nezuko her opening. That whole series of moves she did there--well-placed and powerful kick, sacrificing an arm that'll quickly grow back anyway, throwing blood in Karaku's newly recovered face, and then using her fire as a distraction to reorient and physically overpower Karaku by twisting his arm off to perfectly use his hauchiwa against him, and then turn around ready to use it against Sekido--brilliant.

--Nezuko is not the same demon kicking around and getting her leg blown off by a Taisho soccer ball. She's also not the same demon desperately thrashing around a flesh-filled train. This isn't even the same demon curb-stomping Daki; she has mastery of this state now. Nezuko has peaked here with her battle techniques.

--...especially because this is last night she ever uses her demon abilities

--But!! Thinking ahead to Tamayo's analysis, Nezuko has been prioritizing other developments over reattaining her self-awareness, leaving her mind in a childlike state while she gains abilities closer and closer to those of Upper Moons, and finally masters the sun. However, Nezuko has also shown leaps and bounds in her awareness as well. Just think! What if we had a Nezuko as analytical as her brother this whole time? In all that time Tanjiro was asleep, perhaps Nezuko was also asleep, trying to attain mastery over herself so as to prevent another near mishap? And this gave her more ability to think in battle, as opposed to just attacking with her gut instinct? Nezuko is perhaps just acting on instinct when landing that series of moves on Karaku, but her instincts have gotten really sharp for how to save Tanjiro multiple times in this battle, and for using her blood to heat the sword, even if her idea was just "I'm stuck, take my fire and go." Whatever the case, baby does more than just slash and kick now and I'm so proud of her!

#KnY Rewatch #my art #kamado nezuko #and sorta #Kamado Tanjiro #Kamado Tanjirou #Shinazugawa Genya #Hantengu

[artificervaldi]

🍀🌒🍂🍚

Send me 3-5 emojis and I'll write you a drabble based off of them.

It's a pleasant fall evening, Kaede and Kotetsu are searching for... something in the grass, and Yuri is watching them. Barnaby approaches with leftover fried rice he'd refused earlier when Kotetsu had made it, and life feels almost happy.

Or as happy as it could be for Yuri, still recovering from his injuries and trying to fully come to terms with his past.

"Here," Barnaby hands him the plate. "You should eat."

"I'm not feeling very hungry," Yuri says.

"You need to eat anyway," Barnaby says without missing a beat. "Kotetsu made it just for you, you know."

"I know that," he takes it, but he doesn't seem keen on digging in. "It doesn't make the food any more appealing, though."

"He would be heartbroken if you said that to him," Barnaby says.

"That's why I said it to you, instead. I trust you have no reason to tell him."

"He might be able to guilt you into eating if I do," Barnaby's voice is kind, but it's clearly a threat.

Mumbling to himself, Yuri finally takes a bite. It tastes better than he was expecting.

#tiger & bunny #tiger and bunny #yuri petrov #barnaby brooks jr. #yuri x barnaby #maybe even #kotetsu x yuri #if you squint rlly hard

[the-actual-last-quincy]

Due to spatial and time differences and the postal service between the worlds getting mixed up, an envelope bearing a birthday card with a whisky motif would have arrived at the office of the Director of Karakura Hospital several dates late, unbeknowst to the sender. The message within simply reads: Dear Dr Ishida, Please forgive the audacity of this card. As it would be a shame not to remember our friends and allies, and hardly anyone appreciates the work done by medical professionals, this is for you. Here is wishing you many happy returns. Sincerely, Isane Kotetsu, Fourth Division, Soul Society.

Unprompted ask || always accepting || @reservedhealer

This was unusual

Ryuken turned the envelope over and over in his hands, noting the type of paper and the handwriting. Between liking to keep a professional distance from the lower ranks, and keeping a comfortable distance between work and home, post like this arrived for him at the hospital. His eyes narrowed as he toyed with the envelope's edge, struck by the sudden, uncomfortable thought that someone on staff had worked out the day and decided to mark the occasion, whether he liked it or not. They've done an adequate job of disguising where it came from, he thought—imagining coming out of his office to be greeted by singing and cake, the address was a nice touch...

Mind still on this worst case scenario, he finally tore open the envelope, finding the expected card but with a completely different sender. It didn't surprise him that he was wrong. Out of all the people who might have known when his birthday was, she had to be the bottom of the list. He scanned the text a couple of times, unsure how to feel, as he places it on his desk. Accepting stuff like this never had come easy to him, especially when coming from a technical enemy. he, meant well, he eventually decided, a not quite smile finding its way across his face. He couldn't fault her for that, assuming this meant he would likely see her again.

#tsp activity check #ask response #reserved healer #((thank you so much! #he's so awkward lol))

[zantedeschia-praesul]

Ok sorry but I gotta go 02 and 03 (for saseki ofc) 👀

@kowaindar0u

"Dear Diary..."

02. entry made on the best night of their life.

Friday, 19 February 2XXX (Arrival of Nagasone Kotetsu)

"War Training Expansion", they called it. Four pockets of battlefield to traverse, but the fourth is where we should be able to find Fudou. But given the luck I've been having, I'm convinced it will take a while for us to find him. The Government had warned us that he could be hidden away in pockets of time and space I can't traverse in.

But it was the second battlefield pocket where they...they found him.

Ishikirimaru's team had returned with everyone else, but I realized that Hachisuka's disposition had soured. I swore he was in a pleasant mood when I dispatched him together as second captain. They pulled him away leaving me with Ishikirimaru and another companion. "We found him, Aruji."

And there he was...with that black dandara on his white haori...that family crest on his armor that I recognize so well...

It was him...my Commander... Nagasone Kotetsu.

Ishikirimaru had told me of the "Kebiishi Phantasm" that would appear in the second pocket, but they wouldn't pose a similar threat to the real Time Police itself. And yet they managed to break through that time pocket, and he...Nagasone...they found him.

"I'm sorry I made you wait so long, Aruji, but I'm here now."

I had to be sure that I wasn't dreaming, but I couldn't even see past the tears that started falling on my face. I could hear my boys running into the hall where we stood, but not enough; I was transfixed towards the toudan I have sought after since the day they made me saniwa.

I held his haori, reached out to touch his face...and when he held my hand...I knew he was real.

And it was all I could do from stopping myself and ran straight into Nagasone's open arms, still with tears in my eyes. But understand, these were tears of joy, no doubt. The mixed voices of Kashuu, Izumi, Yasusada and Horikawa echoed through the hall as they too ran towards us both trying to hug each other.

He came back to me. To us. He's finally here with us.

The Shinsengumi are all assembled now.

I promise you, my beloved Commander. You will bring safety and glory again to the Ikedaya timeline. No one but the six of you--Kashuu, Mutsu, Nagasone, Yasusada, Izumi, Horikawa--are to traverse into that domain, and now that you're finally here, Nagasone Kotetsu, I can be assured that the raid will commence.

I have to thank Yagen too for helping the others reach this far. He had been so kind to accommodate them during Nagasone's absence. I must do something special for him soon...

03. entry made on the worst night of their life.

Wednesday, 20 July 2XXX (One Night to Endure)

"One night. Give me one night to endure this pain."

That was what I promised to Lord Hachiman after he cursed me with the bloody chain that bound me to all my Touken Danshi. I might've been foolish to take in all the pain and suffering that my swords were feeling this night, but if I hadn't...I might lose Yasusada again...

Bad enough that I almost lost Nagasone to the similar dark forces that tried to compromise everyone. They're not even tied to the History Retrograding Army at all...

(one page was stained dark red, clearly not from ink)

It's funny...I'm emulating Okita-kun again like this...coughing my life out every step of the way...I haven't even been able to see or hear him even before this...but Hijikata-san said that I will see him, in an unexpected way. I don't doubt my (the brush stroke here was streaked and the bottom page had a drop of dark red) Vice Commander's words...but at this point, would he want to show himself to me?

Oh...I didn't realize yesterday was my supposed birthday. Time and space tend to be weird here in this timeline. I completely forgot about it entirely, and it's probably for the best. Not really the best way to celebrate by having yourself overwhelmed with real physical pain, is it...

(more dark red spatters across the next page)

I need to endure this...I will endure this...

#kowaindar0u #[The Saniwa] #HOLY SHIT FINALLY I GOT TO THIS #also these dates are “real events” from the War Training event AND that few times i RPed with ex friends ;3 #MORE SASE LORE!!! <3

[unlimitedhorsepower]

having some of the worst times of my life ever and im scared things could get worse... how? well you see. they might create more tnb some day even after all of this.

after massacring my boy ryan like that live on screen... smack cam... removing any of ryans narrative worth or meaning just to have him show up and be cringe which i did enjoy but for real guys. my friends. if they had just had everyone do something random and lackluster it wouldve been fine but ryan showed up to drive the plot and continue his character arc from the rising (and then he didnt, as a joke).

karinas lack of real character arc (AGAIN!) so that she can uhhhh talk about crushes... instead of, for example, have her be an equal hero on-screen to the guys who have already been king of heroes and she works arguably harder than anyone else (she is a hero, an idol, and a student). shes so interesting, theres so much to her! but most of her appearances just serve to further some guys character arc (like the whole blue golden episode is mostly about ryan!.. or kotetsu even! cmon)

the character arc that antonio got that wholly ignored that hes friends with nathan and which makes me actually lose my mind when i think that those two have frequently been shown together but they didnt have a single convo together so that nathan and keith can be confined to a cage where theyre only interacting with each other instead of having any real plot relevance despite them both being really interesting!..

and the fact that antonio/agnes made its way into the show bc the director likes him and you know... agnes was her stand-in, and another reason to not let nathan talk with antonio ever because yknow?.. it just tastes like ash in my mouth to feel like the director felt some type of way about nathans and antonios prior relationship...

the buddy hero system was utilized so poorly! it threw so many characters under the bus like ryan seriously got way too much time in blue golden and their prior relationships with each other were ignored so much like man... i just love them all interacting. i dont love whatever the hell was going on with, for example, nobody noticing that thomas is gone. my heroes wouldve noticed immediately btw. instead of subaru and thomas being in a cage where they only interacted with each other, the buddy hero pair curse of 2nd cour that almost everyone suffered from

lets not even get into that even if they say that yuri is actually fine haha! they cant remove that scene where kotetsu and barnaby stared at him and went like “hmm thats rough buddy... anyway”. what the hell... kotetsu is one of the characters i think of the least and it was just so grossly OOC and just plain disgusting... the entire abuse apologism arc with yuri and lara overall as well

what about that fucking scene with jungle where they implied shady shit was going on when subarus communicator didnt go off and he was recruited as a double for thomas anyways and uhhh (checks notes) literally nothing came out of those plot threads btw. jungle CEO was introduced for no reason

and they cant remove what they did to ouroboros (the way they made it all-powerful illuminati-esque organization instead of plain old corruption etc), and the whole NEXT disease ooohhh-thing, and the literal internment camps and the various deeply bigoted implications thereof plus lackluster new character designs (oops! almost all white, pale-haired and blue/green-eyed).

how could they bounce back from this and do i even want to see them try to ignore OR try to grapple with any of the above. oooh when i get my hands on the people who were in the writers room...............

cant they just please retcon that my favourite character fucking exploded to ten thousand small pieces. excited for scraps of my fav characters like usual but then?.. its also like spitting in my face after all the shit they pulled. put me out of my misery

#tiger and bunny #im trying to think of things that are less bad than current life happenings so im just thinking about tnb #devastating yet way less bad than my life rn