#not totally Mitsuhide focused but fun

[skampi835]

Letters (Mitsunari x reader x Ieyasu)

This is another contribution for the Unloved Characters Month event, hosted by @the-moonlight-dreams. Because I had so much fun writing the two before. Motonari: Hell of the Living & Yoshimoto: Corolla Promise. I really wanted to do another one (like an addict).

Fandom: Ikemen Sengoku

Language: english

Starring: Mitsunari x reader x Ieyasu (no real pairing though)

Genre: Fluff 

Warning: none

Prompt: Day 22 - Letters

Word Count: 1.400

Also I have absolutely NO IDEA why the heck Mitsunari’s on this list of unloved characters!😳 I mean, come on!😭😭 Mitsunari’s like the politest, sweetest cinnamon roll on earth (besides Vincent). Hope you enjoy!

"You're smiling like sunshine, again. Is there any good report?" You’re asking, while pouring tea into cups, which sit on the desk. Mitsunari’s raising his head thoughtfully, with that warm, angelic smile of his. "Yes, Lady (y/n). There was a very lovely letter in between again."

“Oh, was there?" Jokingly replying, you’re placeing the teapot on the desk between the two of you. You just brewed it a few moments ago, even though Mitsunari insisted in offering you tea in the first place, when you arrived with his mailing. But you're quite aware, that under no circumstances you should letting him work with boiling water or tealeaves, because you knew how clumsy Mitsunari could be sometimes. Besides it doesn't bother you at all, spending some time with Mitsunari and getting a break from your chatelaine duties, for he was always the politest among the warlords, when you’d first arrived in the Sengoku period. "Is it one of those love-letters?"

You are calling them love-letters in jest, since the first one had arrived a few weeks ago. "You know it's not such a thing." Mitsunari snickers lightly and its sound is warming your heart with delight. "But it's a very comforting letter with good advices I'll have to reconsider. Whoever's sending me this letters must care deeply for me."

A soft smile blooms on your lips as you’re reaching for your cup. "That's awesome. I'm so happy for you, Mitsunari.” Honestly you are more than relieved and thankful as you’ve thought, ever since these short messages from an anonymous individual started.

Mitsunari had a rough time lately, struggling with his self-care, after an incident that happened one month ago. During a combat against some threats from the Ouchi-clan, almost a devastating mistake had slipped through Mitsunaris calculations. It was thanks to Mitsuhide, that nothing dangerously had happened, for he was the one in charge of Azuchi, while Nobunaga was fighting on the front. Prescient thinking, Mitsuhide assumed a siege towards Azuchi, whereas the war had focused with the heated battle. This had made him evacuate the civilians inside the castle walls. Thanks to the kitsunes quick thinking he averted bloodshed among the village and prevented a great loss for Azuchi and the Oda.

Sadly though, Mitsunari’s miscalculation had left him so deeply crestfallen, that he’d fallen back in his old bad habits, even more than usual. It took you an amount of effort, dragging Mitsunari out step by step, of the cloudy thoughts, he’d locked himself to. Lastly it was thanks to those words written in these letters Mitsunari had received for a while, that he’s finally able to smile again, honest and candid.

Plus Mitsunari’s doing a great job, caring about himself again, besides for a few known issues. His place looks more organized, although with a few stacks of books. He’s even almost having a proper meal daily, looking rested and at ease. You had not enough words of gratitude for this unknown individual, who had sent Mitsunari the letters, lifting his spirit in a quite peculiar way.

Mitsunari was so confused when the first letter arrived and after your request, he had lent it to you.

“Stop worrying the people and get some sleep already!

You made a mistake, so what? It happens sometimes. Nothing bad happened, so pull yourself together.

The townspeople are talking that you’re looking tired and they were annoyingly noisy, that you weren't smiling during your last visit. You know how pesky that blabber is?”

There wasn’t any hint to the sender of this letter and after you finished reading, you were puzzled and worried about those harsh words towards poor Mitsunari. You recommended to just ignoring it, but Mitsunari was strangely solemn. “Ignore it? But Lady (y/n), the writer of this letter is probably right.” He confessed mournful and guilty. “I am worrying you and the others, don’t I?”

He’d looked so sad and lost, but after a good night’s rest, like the writer has requested, Mitsunari opened up again. He allowed you to help him, eliminating the mess in his room. Together you slowly established a new routine, that’s good for his self-care. Every time when one of these few letters arrived once in a while, Mitsunari’s amazing bright smile returns on his lips.

“What does this one say?” Curiously you’re asking over the rim of your teacup, that you just had a sip of. Mitsunari’s gently folding the letter and circumspectly tucking it back into its cover, while he's gifting you with an honest and featherlight smile. “It says that I’m not alone, when there’s a tough decision.” He answers with calm in his voice, pausing for a little while, searching for his following words. “I am sorry, but I’d prefer to keep the accurate choice of words a secret this time if you don’t mind.”

“Oh... But of course not.” Compliable you nodded, smiling mindful. “It’s a message just for you, after all.”

Mitsunari’s radiant smile’s remaining ever so lightly and beautiful on his handsome face, brightening even the sunny day outside. “Thank you, for your kindness, Lady (y/n).”

_____

After your nice break, with a delicious cup of tea and some pleasurable chat with Mitsunari, you’d left Hideyoshi’s manor with a good feeling, in order to continue your duties as chatelaine. It was nice, seeing polite Mitsunari so much calmer, than a few weeks ago. His reservation had occupied and saddened you very much, to the point of aching. Seeing him now with the same charming smile and kind yet clear alertness in his amethyst eyes, that you’ve grown so familiar with, makes you almost impossibly happy.

As you returned to Azuchi castle you’re catching sight of someone familiar who was just about to leave, before he spotted you. “Just when I decided not wasting my time any longer.” He mutters in his usual snarky tone. “Ah, Ieyasu, I totally lost track of time.” And you’ve nearly forgotten! For a while now Ieyasu had finally given in to your constant whinings and secretly prosecutions - that weren’t that secret at all - to teach you medical herbalism, biweekly. But telling him that, would’ve make him reconsider this decision, so you quickly add: “I’m so sorry, Ieyasu. I visited Mitsunari before and I guess I’d got a little distracted.”

“You guess?” Ieyasu’s bored scrutinizing glare is drilling through you, while he crossed his arms before his chest. But after a while, he unpleasant sighs. “It can’t be helped. It’s too late for your lesson today.” You’re sighing distressful, which made Ieyasu even looking more annoyed. Exasperated he avoids your gaze. “I can spare some free time tomorrow afternoon. But don’t you dare set me off again! My time’s too valuable.”

With relief you’re smiling happily. “I would never! Thank you, Ieyasu!” -- “You don’t have to thank me for that.” He’s answering stroppy, lifting his gaze again. “How is he doing?”

“He...? Oh, you mean Mitsunari?” You’re asking amazed, before a cute, joyful smile is curving your lips. “He’s doing great, lately. I’d like to believe he’d got over his personal rock bottom.” Suddenly you’re beaming a grateful smile towards Ieyasu. “Your letters helped a lot, truly.”

Regardless of Ieyasu, narrowing his eyes doubtfully, you go on: “Mitsunari showed me the first two letters and the characters are quite similar with your scrawly handwriting in some way. So I figured, that maybe you’re the unknown writer.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I don’t care. I don’t write letters.” Ieyasu answers brusque shooting a tetchy frown in your direction like a silent warning. But it couldn’t blur your smile nor falter the knowing look in your eyes. “You always insult Mitsunari, when he’s around you. Yet the last time you spoke with Masamune you’ve said, that it irritades you, seeing Mitsunari’s letting himself being pushed around, when he’s got such an extensive knowledge. I’d like to think, that you’re secretly admiring him.”

If Ieyasu was shooting with his glare before, now he’s definitely striking you down with his killing glance. “What are you babbling?” He blurts out, snapping a painfully irritated “Idiot.” as an extra. Without any hesitation, Ieyasu’s trudging off, his scarf fiercely wafting behind him.

“See, now I have a reason! Thank you, Ieyasu! See you, tomorrow!” You shouted cheerfully after him, whereas Ieyasu just grumpily groans, while he’s hurrying to leave the castle.

#unloved-otome-2021 #ikemen series #ikemen sengoku #ikesen #fanfiction #ikesen fanfic #ikesen writing #ikemen sengoku fanfiction #ikesen fanfiction #ikesen fic #ikesen mitsunari #ikesen ieyasu #unloved otome 2021 #mitsunari ishida #ieyasu tokugawa #ikesen mitsunari fanfic #ikesen ieyasu fanfic #ikesen mitsunari fanfiction #ikesen ieyasu fanfiction

[selenacosmic]

Oh, of course sweetheart 💕! I'm so sorry if I caused you any discomfort by the way! Then, may I request an artist MC who gets caught drawing the suitor while they were busy with something with Mitsuhide, Ieyasu, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Yuki? Again, I'm so so sorry if you felt discomfort from the previous request, and I hope you have a wonderful day 💕✨

It’s totally fine! Please don’t feel like it was your fault or anything like that! Thank you for the request!

Artistic MC.

Oda forces.

Nobunaga Oda.

Nobunaga never really paid any attention to art itself, he had painters who were known to be very good painting him. But that was it.

He knew you had a passion at studying art, new techniques and all that. That’s why he started to pay more attention to it, though all he could do was stare. Nobunaga didn’t understand your admiration, but respected it.

One day, he was working at his desk, paying attention to documents who needed to be analyzed and/or replied. You noticed that he was still in that pose, fist under his chin, the sleeve of his kimono showing his arm more. And that serious expression focus on the papers, it was perfect!

Quietly, as to not disturb him, you took out your sketch book and a pencil you still had from the future and started to draw him. You tried your best to be quiet while doing that, you didn’t want him to discover you.

Even though Nobunaga was distracted by his work, he started to hear the sound of the pencil on a paper. It was starting to distract him more from his work, so he looked up and saw you. At first he thought you were doing a little draw to distract yourself, that until you looked at him.

You immediately blushed and closed the book, trying to hide it, but Nobunaga got up from his desk and walked over to you.

“What are you hiding, MC?”

“N-nothing! You should go back to work!”

“Do not feel ashamed of something you were doing. Show me.”

Nervously you opened the book at the right page and showed him, scared of what he would think. Slowly, you looked at him and...

Nobunaga was smiling, it was a rare genuine one. His fingers touched the drawing, admiring it. He looked at you, this time with a smirk.

“You admire me so much that you decided to paint me? How adorable.”

From that day on, you were the only one who could draw him, and you received a lot of compliments for the art you would create.

Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

We canonically know that Hideyoshi is amazing at drawing people, being able to capture every detail of them. He would draw you a lot, as a way to show his passion.

You were so shy about it, but was so happy about those drawings, they are amazing! You would keep them and very often would look at one of them, daydreaming about how gorgeous they looked!

As an artist, you also wanted to draw him, but didn’t want to get caught until you had finished. You were pretty shy about your art, specially because hideyoshi was really good! What if you didn’t do a good job?

Still, you really wanted to draw him right now. It was one of those rare moments where Hideyoshi was smoking at his pipe, he looked elegant while doing so. You quietly took your paper and pencil and started to draw.

Hideyoshi’s attention was on you for a second, and he got curious as to what you were doing. He put his pipe on the table and let the smoke out, finally approaching you from behind.

“That’s a beautiful drawing, MC! I didn’t know you could draw so well like that!”

You got startled but slowly calmed down, letting him see the rest of it. Hideyoshi took it in his hands and smiled at it.

“I can’t believe this is me! You drew me so well!”

“Oh, come on hideyoshi, you draw better than me.”

He reassured you that he was impressed, and that he loved your drawing. From that day on, you two would share drawings of each other!

Ieyasu Tokugawa.

This boy has problems with expressing himself, and it’s really big. You know that very well, so that’s why you would draw him without Ieyasu knowing. You really wanted to share your drawings with him, but you were too scared to try.

As usual, you started to draw him when he wasn’t looking. Ieyasu was studying some medicinal herbs, and you thought that look on his face was perfect to be captured!

You were smiling while doing so, it was so fun to draw his bangs. He was so handsome with that focused look, too! While drawing, you could feel a pair of eyes looking at you.

“What are you doing? I can feel you looking at me from time to time, you know?”

“O-oh, sorry, it’s nothing! I was just...”

“Wait... is that...?”

Yes, he saw the drawing. You were laying on the floor with the book in front of you, without anything to cover it! Of course, it was upside down, but he could obviously figure it out that it was him.

He took the book from the floor and looked at the draw, Ieyasu didn’t know what to say. That was a perfect draw of him! It captured his face just right, and the details were impeccable.

“It’s... okay, I guess.”

At first you thought he didn’t like it, and got a sad face. But when he faced you, you could see that flushed face, he was holding back his smile. You didn’t resist and gave him a hug.

“H-hey! That was too sudden. No, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hug you. Just... warn me next time.”

Mitsuhide Akechi.

Mitsuhide has an impressive beauty, his features are so delicate that you would run your fingers through it, making he smile teasingly at you. But that wasn’t enough, you wanted to draw him!

But opportunity was something that you didn’t have, and mitsuhide could catch those things so fast! You wanted to draw him without him knowing, but it was impossible.

One day, you remembered something that you founded specially beautiful, mitsuhide had a skill to dance marvelously. You remember that from the time you two were on a mission as dancers.

He looked so gorgeous in the dancing suit! And that makeup he used...! You needed to draw him like that! You took your materials and started to draw, one of the images that would pop on your mind was one of his graceful poses while dancing.

And so you started to draw him, only by imagination. Even if it was a difficult task with nothing as a reference, you know mitsuhide’s face all too well. You got distracted while drawing him.

You didn’t even noticed when the fox entered the chamber and walked at you, until he was behind. Gently, he hugged you tightly from behind and looked at the drawing, smiling teasingly.

“My my, what a beautiful piece of work. May I know who your muse is?”

This bastard knows it’s him, but he wanted you to be honest with him, he wants to hear you say that you missed him so much that you had to draw him.

“M-maybe... but it’s isn’t good! I didn’t have any reference.. it’s supposed to be you...”

“That is a problem. Let me fix it for you, my dear.”

He let go of you and got up, walking until he was in front of you. He made the same pose from that dance and looked at you, a sweet smirk on his face.

“Let me be your muse, my dear.”

Uesugi-Takeda forces.

Yukimura Sanada.

Yukimura is complicated, he really doesn’t understand anything related to art, and you thought it would be complicated to draw him. Firstly, he would get uncomfortable while posing, secondly, he would get awkward.

So you needed to do while he was distracted, but it was difficult to catch him while he was still. Be sure that you will be running around to catch him!

You got so frustrated! Until you actually caught him while he was in one place, though he wasn’t exactly still. It was during his training with his spear.

But this is a moment you can not waist! You took your things and started to draw him, though it was difficult to think of a pose as he was constantly moving. In any case, you were almost finished when...

“MC? What are you doing here? Did you needed something?”

Yukimura had finished his training and was looking at you puzzled. You quickly hide your book and pencil, smiling at him nervously.

“Me? No, nothing! I just wanted to see you, since you look... cool while training!”

“Are you sure? Then what is that behind you? Come on, don’t hide it from me!”

With a lot of insistence, you let him take a look at the drawing, with your head down, ashamed. He probably didn’t like it...

“MC, this is actually great! Though, my arm looks weird.”

“Hey, you kept moving around! It was difficult to draw you like that!”

“Whatever, it’s really good. I like it.”

Yukimura was bad at expressing himself, but he really wanted you to know how much he liked it!

◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸◹◸

Thank you for reading! If you wish to see more of my work, check out my masterlist!

#ikemen sengoku #ikesen #ikemen sengoku mitsuhide #ikesen mitsuhide #ikemen sengoku nobunaga #ikesen nobunaga #ikemen sengoku ieyasu #ikesen ieyasu #ikemen sengoku hideyoshi #ikesen hideyoshi #ikemen sengoku yukimura #ikesen yukimura

[neobrogrippa]

Don’t kill my Vibe

  So, when Sengoku Musou 5 was announced everyone understood it would split the fandom. They are changing characters, timeline focus, weapons, and feel of the series. However, I don’t think I could have predicted how loudly people would be upset over this.   I love samurai warriors. I have been praying for 5 ever since Spirit of Sanda dropped. Given how Dynasty Warriors was doing at the time I thought we just wouldn’t see a Samurai Warriors 5. Then as time went on and we heard nothing of the project I got even more concerned. Then 5 was announced! Now, two livestreams in and several info dumps later, we see a house divided.     Several people in the fandom are emerging saying that weapon swapping is lazy design, the redesigns of the characters throw away everything the fandom is built upon, the new designs suck, and that by focusing on Nobunaga and not having Sekigahara and Osaka no reason exists to play this game. So I want to touch on a few things. 1. Weapon Swapping: I don’t mind it. Honestly since they said we are getting at least 12-17 weapons I’m not too upset about people sharing a few weapons as long as we have at least some unique movesets depending on which weapon you equip. Personally I think No holding Hanbei’s drum would be great. I also would love to give Oichi a naginata. 2. The Weapons Aren’t Creative: I feel like this is something we could argue about all day. lol. I know some people absolutely love the crazy weapons like Ieyasu’s cannon spear and Dynasty Warriors having drill weapons and stuff. That is completely fine. For me, however, I really don’t mind them using bows, spears, katana, etc. since to me that feels more true to the time period. I don’t think it shows laziness on Koei’s part when the weapons are fitting to the era. 3. No One Plays SW/SM For The Plot: Yes, everyone knows Mitsuhide will betray Nobunaga and Nagamasa will be killed by Nobunaga. I will gladly admit that. However, in every game the characters have vibrant personalities and the events of the time are portrayed slightly different. In SW1 and 2 Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga because of his own conscience. In 4 it was by Hisahide’s manipulations. Why did people play Spirit of Sanada and the Orochi series? Because they love these characters, their personalities, and the stories around them. So saying no one plays for the plot feels pretty weak. 4. No Sekigahara No Buy: I don’t have a counter for this one. If you love Sekigahara and Osaka and that is your focus then I don’t blame you for dipping. Get Samurai Warriors 2 and 4 and have fun. I think that we will get Sekigahara and Osaka in Samurai Warriors 5-2 or 6. I really feel this is splitting the series maybe in half, maybe among the saga of the three unifiers. I’m not sure yet, only Koei knows. Though I do think that splitting the plot up like this allows for hopefully better, more in depth story telling like in Spirit of Sanada. 5. Nothing was wrong with 1-4: I agree, sort of. I loved 1-4 and will always love those characters and personalities and interactions. However, let’s look at Dynasty Warriors. Really in 3 and 4, aside from how the story is portrayed, we don’t have much change. If 5 had been little more than a slight variant of 3 and 4 then people would be up in arms about Koei being lazy and just doing the same thing again. If you want to act like 5 doesn’t exist and only love 1-4 that is totally fine and you can still play 4. However, in regards to Koei let them spread out, let them experiment, lets try new things with the series! Let people who want to look forward to this look forward to this! Which takes me directly into point 6. 6. The Game Isn’t Out Yet: I’ve heard some people on youtube unfortunately using the platform to loudly put down people that are excited for SW5. Saying such things as “How dare you change your avatar and get excited for a game not even out yet!” Well, okay, fine. Let’s admit that saying you love a character and its the best version of them when 5 isn’t even out yet is a bit hasty. However, putting people down like this is also hypocritical when the same people are saying they despise and refuse to play and are leaving the fandom over a game they haven’t even played yet. It is two sides to the exact same coin. The simple fact is we won’t know what 5 is like until we finally get it in summer and try it out. If at that point people want to throw it away and walk away from the fandom more power to them but for now, why put down a game that the full cast hasn’t been revealed and we’ve only seen two very short gameplay videos of?  I admit, my hype for Samurai Warriors 5 is very high. I am 100% guilty of getting overhyped for something I haven’t played yet. But I’m glad for Koei. I’m happy for them. They aren’t letting our beloved franchise become what Dynasty Warriors has become. The same thing in a slightly different package every two years. They are branching out and trying to make Samurai Warriors have unique things and personally I hope it goes extremely well. Will I still be this happy when I get the game in a few months? Who knows! But I think its premature for people with large youtube and blog accounts to tell people to stay away from the game and that it is a sign that somehow the franchise and Koei are dying or not putting any effort into this game. What do you all think?

#sengoku #sengoku musou 5 #shin sengoku musou #samurai warriors #samurai warriors 5 #koei tecmo #koei

[murasaki-murasame]

So anyway I went absolutely apeshit and summoned for Gala Leonidas and the new summer units even though we’re getting free rolls each day, since there was no way I was gonna have the patience to wait that long, lmao.

Here’s how that went.

To start with, all I got from the Summer Mym banner free rolls were a whole bunch of dupes, and on the final day I went for a pity break because I guess I was still annoyed at only having one 5-star manacaster, lol. 50 summons later all I got was a Sylas dupe, so yeah I really regret that, lol. More than summoning on the gala remix itself, honestly. But it ended up working out.

From what I remember I mostly just got random dupes of dragons that I already had MUB, though I also got a dupe Ryszarda. I think her and Sylas were the only adventurers I got on the banner at all.

Then came the gala remix, and I’m really glad in hindsight that I didn’t need to spend many rolls to get Gala Nidhogg and Summer Alex, since this set of new summer units ended up being limited. Even after the desperation summons I did on the Summer Mym banner, I would have been totally comfortable with sparking on this banner if I just waited for the free rolls, but since I got impatient and summoned right away, I ended up in a situation where if I sparked then and there, I would have needed to spend diamantium.

Thankfully it didn’t come to that, since after 140 summons I got Summer Mitsuhide, Gala Leonidas, and three copies of Summer Marishiten, and now I’m just waiting to see if I get Summer Ieyasu from the rest of the free rolls before I decide to spark for him. And tbh either way I probably would have ended up stopping when I ran out of wyrmite and finished the spark with free rolls since I don’t want to dip into my diamantium, even though that’s kinda what it’s there for.

Even though Ieyasu was always my main priority, I think I’ll be fine with just waiting to see how the free rolls go since I got everyone else. If it had taken way more rolls to get to that point I might have just finished the spark, but since I did half a spark, I don’t want to risk going all the way just for him, only to get him from free rolls later. For now I can enjoy just playing around with Mitsuhide and Leonidas, and wait a few more days for Ieyasu, lol. If I get him from free rolls, I’ll just quit while I’m ahead and spend a couple sunlight stones to MUB Summer Marishiten, but if I need to spark for him I’d be willing to.

I think the only other stuff I got from this banner was more dupes of dragons I already have MUB. I think Mitsuhide and Leonidas were the only adventurers I even pulled, lol.

Even if it’d kinda suck to go all the way just for Ieyasu, I still think I got way more lucky on this than I deserved to, after going for Nidhogg while knowing that it meant risking not getting Leonidas and the summer zodiacs, and after rolling way too much for a pity break on Summer Mym’s banner. I can’t blame myself for not knowing in advance that these units would all be limited though, lmao. That made me panic a bit, since I’ve had bad enough luck as it is on banners that only have one or two featured units, but having four limited units on a single banner created way too much room for failure and disappointment. Let’s just say that I’m glad it didn’t get to the point of me considering doing a second spark on this banner :)

Anyway, it’s nice to finally have Leonidas after what feels like forever since he came out. I was more interested in getting the summer units, but I’ve been messing around with Leonidas in the new summer event, and it’s super fun to use him against big waves of enemies, lol.

I’m not going to touch Marishiten until I’m entirely done with this banner and can get her unbound one way or another, but I’m kinda excited to use her on Mascula. It might not be as strong overall as Gala Poseidon, but it’s really annoying to wait for Mascula’s buffs to go up without using up two wyrmprints for skill prep.

I can’t really comment on Ieyasu since I don’t have him but he seems really strong. Hopefully he’s actually good in practice.

I’m gonna have to experiment more with Mitsuhide, but she seems really interesting. I like her playstyle of ramping up her buff stacks and then doing lots of burst damage back to back, but the initial ramp-up time to actually getting her buff stacks up feels really slow, even with her attack speed buff. I appreciate that she focuses mostly on scorchrend punishing without actually inflicting it much, since I have other characters that can inflict it instead.

After this, even if I get Ieyasu from my free rolls and ditch this banner entirely, I probably still won’t summon on the gala at the end of the month, since I wouldn’t have enough to spark unless I dip into my diamantium, and I kinda doubt that the units in that banner will interest me THAT much. But we’ll see.

In the long run I guess my next main goal to save for will be the third anniversary, and then we’ll get into the big limited banner holiday season, so I’d like to just focus on saving now. I’d still spark for Ieyasu if I need to though, lol.

Also, this isn’t really about DL, but this reminds me that over in Granblue I’m currently hoping that I’ll be able to spark at the end of August for their own summer zodiac alts. It’ll depend pretty much entirely on just how much free stuff we get next month from the summer events, but we’ll just see how that goes.

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost #Cygames really woke up and chose violence with this banner huh?

[muselover1901]

Re: prompts. “Quarantine.” Alternatively, something based off urban legends. Thanks!

Well it took me forever, but hey, the world is crazy and I am just so proud of myself for finishing this Quarantine AU for you! It’s definitely WAY bigger than a drabble (at just over 2700 words) but I had a lot of fun writing it and it really pushed my abilities as a writer. Thank you for the ask! Enjoy :)

Edit: Now posted to AO3

Here With(out) You

“Are you getting close to finishing? It’s almost eight o’clock and we haven’t eaten dinner yet,” Zen says as he plops down beside Shirayuki—well, not exactly beside her, but just outside the orbit of her ever-present sticky notes, journal articles, and scratch-paper lesson plans. She acknowledges his presence with a noncommittal hum before continuing her vigorous typing on the laptop balanced on her knees. Even before the pandemic, it wasn’t totally unusual for Shirayuki to work late—she is a graduate student, after all—but lately she has been spending every waking hour on either her lab’s vaccine research or creating online lessons for her introductory biology students.

Zen’s work-life balance honestly hasn’t been much better, but since most of his work as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff involves writing reports and attending video call meetings, he can turn off his computer at the end of the day and walk away from work. Shirayuki, unfortunately, does not have the same luxury.

His stomach growls, upset at the lack of food this late in the evening. Zen reaches over, guiding a stray hair behind her ear before setting his palm against her shoulder to get her attention.

“I can make us something easy, if you want. You really should take a break to eat something.”

Shirayuki doesn’t respond. He squeezes her shoulder gently and dips his head to try to catch her gaze, but she reacts with naught but a firm pursing of her lips as she scrutinizes her screen even more. Zen gives her a small shake, as if to wake her.

“Hm?” She blinks up at him, broken from her trance, her voice sounding thin and tired. “Sorry, Zen, I really need to get this done tonight.”

She gestures vaguely to the smudged sticky-note to-do list by her laptop keyboard, the usual tasks of exercise, meal prep, and do something fun with Zen and friends crammed between terms he half-recognizes as different types of data analyses.

“We have our Friday meeting tomorrow and I need to have the preliminary results ready to present.”

“It’s fine,” he says, rubbing his hand up and down her arm and offering her a tender smile as she turns back to her spreadsheet. She is such a hard worker, and right now she’s both working to save lives and to educate the next generation of scientists. Now was not the time to be selfish—even though he misses spending time with her, they just have to push through. And if that means Zen has to cook meals by himself, without Shirayuki’s incredible culinary talent for support, then he will gladly put his limited skill to use.

“How about I make pancakes?” he suggests, “I think we still have some eggs that need to be used, so I could scramble them too—if you want?”

Without looking up, Shirayuki murmurs a dry, “Sounds great, thank you.”

Zen stands and makes his way to their kitchen, rolling up his sleeves as he goes. Even after three years of living together and countless Sundays spent chopping endless armies of vegetables as they prepped meals, there are few dishes he trusts himself to cook properly. It’s Mitsuhide and Kiki’s fault, really. When they were his roommates sophomore year, he tried his hand at a simple vegetable stew to feed Mitsuhide’s hockey team at their annual fall party. The final product honestly wasn’t half bad, but he forgot to peel the vegetables, which gave the soup a mild dirt-like aftertaste.

He honestly thought he would be able to laugh it off and learn from such a minor culinary mistake, but it turned out almost no one was willing to let him live it down—even Shirayuki couldn't resist the occasional jab when they cooked together. Indeed, one of the last times they enjoyed quality time together was during a massive day of meal prepping after their first pandemic shopping trip. Hours of chopping and grating and sautéing had driven them a little crazy, and Shirayuki had broken out in giggles while he diligently peeled his seventeenth potato.

It had taken some prodding, but eventually she managed to hold back her laughter enough to snicker, "It’s nice of you to actually peel them this time."

He’d responded with the most convincing glare he could muster before selecting a particularly long piece of peel from the pile on the counter, turning to her with a dangerous smirk, and depositing said peel on top of her head. This only served to bring back her laughter in full-force, the contagiousness of it gripping him and dragging him along until their whole house reverberated with the ridiculousness of it all.

Unlike vegetable soups, Zen had yet to mess up a batch of pancakes in his lifetime, a fact which he was quite proud of. That’s why he’d chosen to make them for Shirayuki the first morning after she stayed the night at his place. They’d groggily rolled out of bed, blushing furiously as they realized that their late-night study session for Advanced Composition had ended with both of them passed out on top of Zen’s covers with their laptops discarded by the foot of the bed. He’d insisted on making her breakfast before she left, partly because he felt bad about their awkward start to the day, but mostly because he’d been smitten with her for months and he just wanted to keep doing things with her.

Zen smiles at the memory as he gathers the ingredients and begins measuring out the flour. Even after all this time, he still treasures every moment together. And now, as they are stuck working from home for the foreseeable future, he misses her more than he did before they moved in together. Although they are around each other nearly all day, every day, they hardly interact outside of breakfast and a kiss goodnight. He sighs and forces his focus back to mixing the batter. Shirayuki is working hard and here he is being selfish again. He should be stronger.

Pushing down his loneliness, he flings himself into scrambling eggs and flipping pancakes with gusto. He quickly finishes the first set of pancakes, butters them, and stacks them neatly on Shirayuki’s plate next to her portion of eggs. For the final touch, he sprinkles a hint of powdered sugar across them and places a little dollop of fruit preserves on top. Hopefully these would look appetizing enough to entice her into taking a break from work to eat. With her plate in hand, Zen makes his way back to the living room and sets her meal on the coffee table.

“Food’s ready,” he announces. “Please don’t forget to eat.”

Shirayuki pauses, tired eyes flicking away from her screen to meet his and offering all the gratitude she can muster. “Thank you, Zen. I promise I will eat as soon as I finish this analysis.”

Zen offers a quick smile in return before heading back to the kitchen to make dinner for himself. He’d better check on her soon, just to make sure she doesn’t get sucked into her work despite her promise—although it is never intentional, her basic needs often fall by the wayside when she is hyper-focused like this.

Fifteen minutes later, Zen returns to the living room with his own stack of pancakes (chocolate chip) and scrambled eggs (sprinkled with his friend Obi’s homemade hot sauce, because the pain was always worth the flavor). And just as he feared, Shirayuki hasn’t touched her food.

“How’s it coming? Are you going to eat soon?” Zen settles into his spot on the couch next to her and cuts into his pancakes with his fork.

“Hm? Oh yes, I figured out why that regression was behaving unexpectedly, I had just flipped the variables.” She bites her lip. “I guess after I fixed that, I just moved on to the next thing.”

Zen reaches out to tenderly place a hand on her cheek and guide her eyes away from her screen and to his own. Her eyelids droop a little, and he notices a small crease between her eyebrows—she looks so tired. He drags his thumb across her cheekbone and her eyes flutter shut as she relaxes into his hand.

His heart skips a little at the intimacy of their position; after all, it had been weeks since they had really shared a moment like this, just comfortable in stillness with each other’s full attention. Eyes still closed, Shirayuki reaches up to hold his hand against her cheek and sighs as she turns her head to press her lips against his palm. With a gentle squeeze of his hand, she releases him and turns to exchange her laptop for her plate.

Although she continues working while they eat, Zen is relieved to see her diligently taking bites between bits of code. It doesn’t take long before she cleans her plate entirely. With a yawn, Zen stretches and rises from the couch before collecting their dishes and returning to the kitchen to clean up. The clock above the stove reads 10:08pm.

How did it get so late? He’d just have to head right to bed after this. Dozing off during his morning call with the Mayor was not how he wanted to start his day tomorrow.

After finishing the dishes and changing into his sleep shirt, he returns to the living room to let Shirayuki know he’s going to bed—apparently she still has a couple hours of work ahead of her, but she promised she’d come to bed as soon as she was done. With Shirayuki resigned to her work for the night, Zen heads to their bed and does his best to get comfortable. As the weight of the blanket settles over him, he melts into the mattress and takes the deepest, most relaxing breath he’s taken all day. Despite his body giving in to its need to rest, Zen’s mind still races with thoughts of the meeting tomorrow morning and of the latest case counts in the city. God, he can’t wait for the day when all of this chaos is over. He and Shirayuki could take a weekend off and hike Mount Koto just like they did senior year after finals. He sighs at the thought.

Visions of them packing their picnic supplies into his old backpack flash through his mind. He’s smiling as he makes Shirayuki’s sandwich with the mustard by the meat and the veggies under the cheese, just the way she likes it. The sunshine warms their faces as they walk along the trail, and Shirayuki is a vision in her button-up hiking shirt and sunhat, all glowing skin and bright smiles. He reaches their picnic spot first, so he spreads their blanket and sets out their food. Shirayuki’s still a ways behind, but she’ll be there with him soon, he tells himself. She will. He busies himself smoothing the blanket and making sure her sandwich is arranged just so with a nice serving of chips and a gleaming red apple.

He’s just about to polish her apple for a second time when he realizes he doesn’t hear the crunch of her footsteps on the trail anymore. Panicked, he shoots up from his seat and runs over to the trail to try to find her, to no avail. Maybe she went off-trail to relieve herself? No that can’t be it, she’s taking way too long, and she would have told him if she was going off trail, right? Oh god—what if she hurt herself and she’s stuck somewhere down the trail? Zen abandons the picnic and runs as fast as his legs can take him down the trail, until—

He hears the faint tapping of fingers on a keyboard. Looking across the trail, he sees the edge of a laptop screen poking out from behind a tree. As he approaches it, the sound gets louder and louder, until it feels almost deafening and Zen has to cover his ears to avoid the incessant din. He looks around the tree’s thick trunk and sees Shirayuki in front of the screen, her hair disheveled and eyes unblinking as she types away.

She’s absolutely overworking herself! Zen can’t let her keep doing this. He should have caught it before it got this bad, he should have pulled her away from work and made her take care of herself. Regardless, he refuses to let this go on any longer. He takes a deep breath, removes his hands from his ears, and reaches out to set his hand on her shoulder as he always does when he needs to get her attention. His hand goes right through her, as if she were a ghost.

He wakes to find her side of the bed empty.

Zen’s sleep shirt is clinging to his sweating chest and the sheets are tangled up in his legs. He kicks them off and rolls over with a groan. So much for getting a good nights’ sleep before the meeting tomorrow morning. He reaches for his bedside lamp, trying to feel the small switch in the dark. It takes him a minute, fingers clumsy and sleep-addled, but he finally finds it with a click and squints against the soft, yellow light. He yawns and drags his phone towards him by its charging cable and groans again when he sees the time. 2:37am.

With little desire to return to the stifling sheets, he decides it’s best to just get out of bed and have a glass of water before trying to sleep again. He shuffles out of the bedroom, and as the door clicks behind him, his tired mind peripherally registers that the living room light is still on. But with water being his body’s primary goal, he drowsily continues on to the kitchen and downs a full glass in three big gulps when he gets there. With his mind cleared from the coolness of the water, he realizes that even though the living room light is still on, Shirayuki’s persistent typing is absent.

When he reaches the living room, he finds Shirayuki on the couch, slumped to the side with her lips parted and a quiet snore escaping her with each exhale.  Her laptop is open and teetering dangerously close to the edge of her lap, but the screen has long since shut itself off. There’s still a pencil behind her ear, too.

With as much gentleness as he can muster this late at night, Zen extracts her laptop and moves it over to her desk so it can charge overnight. He removes the pencil from behind her ear and brushes her hair away from her eyes.

“Shirayuki, come to bed.” Her eyes crack open ever so slightly, and she grumbles but does not stir. Zen sighs. Even in sleep—no, especially in sleep—she’s as stubborn as ever.

“I’m going to pick you up, okay?” She mumbles something unintelligible, but’s all the affirmation he needs. He pushes his arms underneath her knees and shoulders, steels himself, and scoops her up. At first, her head lolls to the side, but then she turns and nuzzles against his chest. He can’t help but smile down at her as he carries her back to the bedroom and slowly places her on top of the sheets.

“Shirayuki, you should change out of your clothes,” he says.

She stirs a bit before slurring, “Don’t wanna. Wanna sleep.”

“If you don’t change now, you’ll regret it in the morning. You know you will.”

At this, Shirayuki groans and pushes herself up off the mattress. She insists he help her take off her clothes, which makes him laugh and blush in equal measure.

It’s only after she is changed and settled under the sheets that he finally lets himself sink into their bed again, mind and body finally relaxed with the knowledge that she’s next to him and already half asleep. He turns off his bedside lamp with a click and lets the rhythm of her breathing lull him back to sleep. Just as the last remains of his consciousness are about to slip away, he feels the delicate press of fingers against his shoulder, the tickle of a whisper against his ear, and the softness of a kiss against his temple.

“Thank you, Zen. I love you.”

#musewrites #zenyuki #prompt #akagami no shirayukihime #fanfiction

[selenecrawford]

The Odd Pair 4

Warnings: Cursing, intense fluff (let me know if is Fluff or not please)

Selene managed to get her way with the wedding. It was a civil ceremony without any celebration. Her excuse was perfect, she was still mourning her father and she didn't wanted a celebration in respect for him. Shingen suggested a soft lavender dress he saw at one of the town stores. Selene declined, she said she had the perfect dress, when Shingen request seeing it she indicated it was a surprise. Shingen prayed she will not dare to make an spectacle on the day of the ceremony. Selene carefully cleaned the house. The lack of work was driving her crazy. She needed something to do. Once the master bedroom was cleaned she tried to place the bed but it was too heavy. Still she was working on a way to move it when Shingen found her. He had been trying to call her but she never responded. He got worried.

“Princess what you think you are doing?”

“Trying to move the bed, I need it on a place far side the window, I don't like sunlight hitting me that early in the morning.”

“Well I like it near the window...”

“OK, time out. If we are going to sleep on the same bed, I have to be honest then. I'm afraid of lightning that's why I'm trying move the bed from the window.” Selene decided that her best policy on some of her battles with Shingen will be the truth. If something Shingen was good at was sniffing a lie. Thru out the years, she learned how to lie. It was one of many skills she needed to survive on the real world. Shingen was an expert not letting people know what he was thinking or feeling so looking at his eyes while considering that piece of information was crucial. She could study him in order to see how he really think.

“I understand, then I will call Yuki to get some help.” he replied with a nod.

Selene smiled she was crouched and when she tried to stand up a wave of dizziness got her and her vision started spinning. Bracing for impact she felt she was floating. Shingen's voice was closer than usual but at the same time distant.

“Selene? Selene are you okay? What's wrong?”

Shingen took her to her room and lay her down on the bed. Taking a look at her she was pale and sweating. He was about to call Ieyasu when Selene took his wrist.

“Sorry, can you get me some juice? I haven't eat nothing since breakfast, I'm just hungry.”

Shingen went to the kitchen and got some fruit and a glass of juice with some added sugar. He will bite her head off later, but he was angry. She wasn't taking care of herself, this was something that made him worried. Walking back to the room he found her sitting with her head resting on her knees.

“Selene here drink this, I pour some extra sugar.” Selene took the glass with some tremble on her hands. Shingen was now frowning silently.

Selene could felt the anger on his eyes. (Well, at least I know he cares.) she thought.

“When was the last time you got something to eat?” Shingen pulled on a strand of hair behind her ear. The gesture was nice full of warmth. Selene felt a bit warmer inside. Her cheeks got some rosy color. She kept drinking until she felt a bit less dizzy. The trembling disappear but Shingen took the glass from her and put it on the night table.

“Thanks, I think my last meal was this morning.”

“And what did you ate?” continue Shingen asking.

“Well, I ate, wait why are you so interested on my eating habits so suddenly?”  Selene took a look at Shingen to get a reading on his face.

Shingen was looking at her seriously, after speaking with Jonathan he got another call from him. He wanted to let him know that sometimes Selene was so focused on a task that she would forget to eat. He thought it was an exaggeration until now. When he took her in his arms she was light, perhaps too light for her own good.

“Because it seems you are not eating enough. I don't mind if you want to turn the place upside down, but I don't want you die on me ok?” Shingen got up from the bed.

He took a long look at Selene, the girl was easy to read the woman he got before him was a total enigma. He was starting to understand that maybe there were somethings he need to investigate regarding her past 20 years.

Selene on her part was weighing her options. Right now she was going to be living with a man for a year. And incredible hot sexy one. Which was also a master at reading people, strategist and getting what he wants. Her options, were almost non existent in the sense for her to get out of that predicament.

“I'm not your enemy Selene, shall we make a truce?”

The sudden question make her jump scaring her. Her emotions were all disorganized, she need to think, organize and decide. A branch of olive was presented to her. While she get her defenses back again she will have to see what Shingen has to offer her.

“OK, what you propose?” putting her hands behind her back Selene started opening and closing her hands in fist. It was a way to curb her anxiety.

(At least she is standing down, OK let's see where can go from this.) Shingen felt internally relieved that Selene wanted to at least talk. He wondered why she hide her hands behind her. Another puzzle he might need to put the pieces together.

“Why not talk about it while eating something. I will help you with what you need after that, deal?” Shingen smiled at her seeing how her cheeks get a nice pink shade.

“OK, Takeda you win again.” rolling her eyes Selene went to the kitchen with him.

The wedding took place two weeks later. Selene faithful to her word went dress all in black as a surprise. Shingen was dress on a nice black suit with a white shirt and red tie. Shingen had to bite his tongue, Selene was proving to be indeed full of surprises, not that all were nice ones. While in the beginning it was fun to spite Shingen, Selene was feeling tense, and nervous. The gang was there only two of them knew about the situation. Besides them, Shingen's mother and a couple of friends from his family also were there. Selene was worried what will the others will think about her? Cursing her anxiety and insecurities, Selene wore her Armour as tight as she could. The ceremony only took ten minutes, once the signing was done. Everyone went outside the court of justice to congratulate the newlyweds.

“Selene congratulations, my dear girl, welcome to the family.” Kaede Takeda, Shingen's mother told Selene while given her a hug.

Selene relaxed when she hugged Shingen's mother. She felt she could trust her.

“Thank you Mrs. Takeda, I'm glad to be part of the family.” Selene smiled genuinely. Her other interactions went pleasant, she managed to fool all except two people of the group. Shingen and Masamune. The men at some point stood face to face. Masamune was not hiding his anger at Shingen.

“Takeda?” raising his eyebrow Masamune didn't attempt to shake hands.

“Date, I know in the past you both used to be best friends with my wife. So I want due to that old bond ask to please do not meddle in the middle of our relationship. If, not...”

Masamune cut him off. “Or What? Listen Takeda, she is a great woman. Treat her with respect, she is not one of those one night stands you had. She needs someone to care for her. Not to use her. And if you hurt her I'm going to hunt you down...”

“Guys, will you calm down? This look more like a duel than a wedding.” Nobunaga cut them off and stood in the middle acting normal. “Selene right now is tense, Shingen, is she alright?”

“So far, she's been acting stressed out since the lecture of the testament. I'm working on a truce...”

“And he calls himself a ladies man.”Mitsuhide stood next to Shingen smirking at his words. “Selene is not the enemy, she used to play with us remember or you suddenly forgot about it?”

“I thought she was more intelligent than your brother Shingen.” Ieyasu was now next to Masamune. As always the grumpy with the firecracker.

Shingen was getting fed up with them. It was enough that Masamune was so close to her now the rest were on his case.

Selene saw from the distance the exchange, she noticed Shingen was in trouble. Excusing herself, she went to see the group. By now, he had each hand closed on a fist. Squinting her eyes, Selene knew something must need to be done. Taking a look at the man that now was her husband she couldn't stop smiling. While part of her was feeling miserable another felt completely greedy and euphoric, man at some point she wish...stopping her train of thought she arrived at the group with a soft smile.

“Hey guys, are you behaving and being nice with my “hubby” uh?” The word sounded playful, caring. Shingen suddenly was weary of Selene sudden calm. “It's everything OK, princess?”

“I'm good, just checking on you. Btw, you got something on your  chin.”

Shingen started cleaning his face. “Is it better now?”

“No, could you let me help you? Selene got a napkin on her hand and waited for Shingen to lower his face closer. Shingen was a full six feet one inch tall, Selene was five foot, five but since she was wearing heels was now on five foot seven. Still Shingen was taller than her. Once he inclined a bit their faces were close and Shingen let her clean his face while observing her. Carefully she cleaned his chin and before finishing she closed the distance and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

“With the nerves we forgot to kiss at the end of the ceremony, better late than never. Right guys?” giving a playful wink to a flustered Shingen, the gang except Masamune started to applaud Selene's bold movement while she smiling went away.

If she had slap him on the face it wouldn't had been any different. Shingen felt her soft lips touching him briefly while the tip of her tongue caressed his upper lip. There were very few times someone could had surprised him more than Selene had done. She might had used the situation to kiss him or she was warning him that they need to keep the appearances for the sake of the others. For a few seconds he forgot everything around him. What only mattered to him were those lips. Those soft delicious lips on his. His heart started to race. OK this is wrong, how could she had done that to him without he noticing it?  Turning to the gang Shingen flip them and went to look for Selene.

“Should we go to see they are ok?” Hideyoshi was about follow them when Nobunaga put his arm in front of them.

“You know the saying Hideyoshi, three are a crowd. Those two, need time. That's why maybe her father did that stupid testament.”

“You think?” asked Hideyoshi still skeptical.

“Wanna bet, I bet twenty Selene, will make that guy cry.” said Mitsuhide waving a twenty in front of the guys.

Laughing Nobunaga took out a twenty dollar bill. “Sure why not, I bet that she at least will get one tear out of him.”

Selene managed to find a bench a bit retired from the others. She took a seat feeling her heart about to go out of her rib cage. She didn't it. She finally kissed him and it was amazing. Selene couldn't stop grinning like an idiot. Taking several breaths to calm down she got startled when Shingen sit next to her suddenly.

“Jesus Takeda, are you a ninja? You almost killed me from a heart attack.” it was hard to be grumpy not after that kiss.

Shingen didn't said a word he simply pulled her closed to him surprising her with a passionate kiss. His lips were soft and demanding, his tongue started a delicious assault combined with little nibbles. The tactic was good and the strategy paid off. Selene parted her lips briefly, his tongue took the advantage and invaded her mouth exploring her hungrily. Moaning softly, Selene responded to the kiss with the same passion he was giving it to her. Their tongues dance until, they went out of breath. Panting, to recover, Shingen smiled and softly whispered to her lips. Selene had trouble hearing it since her heart was pounding wildly.

“This my dear wife is a proper “You may kiss the bride kiss.” after that he didn't wait another second and started kissing her again.

@elievalentine @colivara @notsafefortum-blr @datemasamunemaiwaifu @unstoppablelinda @epicdragonlady @yeshasays @masa-little-kitten @mikamiw @kimi00twin @kouei116 @blue-bean-exe @mitsuhidethesnek @la-piperina @pirateprincessyuki @jennacat84 @valfraeyja @little-blue-octopus @sengokuotaku82 @serenity-writes @xathia-89 @shouta-bakugou @cailannuesugi @kitsune-mana

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: Thank you again, I’m really glad you are liking the story so far, I’m pulling for something totally different from the first story. Again comments, likes, shares are welcome.

#ikesen #ikesen shingen #fanfic

[bmp-slbp-matchup]

SLBP Beach AU

Imagine aaall the SLBP characters being on the same beach together:

Oda:

Nobunaga: Starts various competitions for his retainers to entertain him which he watches from his spot on his beach chair. At the end of the day he has a red nose which he tries to hide (in vain). 

Mitsuhide: Keeps reminding Nobunaga of applying suncream and gets exasperated when said person keeps ignoring him. He himself does it neatly and his spot on the beach with his towel and stuff is the tidiest one. 

Toshiie: Gets in the water almost immediately, dragging Sakuya and Hideyoshi with him. Is angry at 80% of the things Hideyoshi does, but very friendly towards Sakuyo whom he doesn’t let leave. 

Hideyoshi: Spends a bit of time with Toshiie before leaving the water and using Toshiie’s stuff without asking him first. 

Mitsunari: Sits on his chair beneath a sunshade and reads, muting the sounds around him. When he sees Hideyoshi approaching, he always gets up to hand him a towel and defends him from Toshiie’s scolding.

Sakon: Has a lot of fun, goes into the water, buys something to eat, joins others playing beach volleyball and is pretty loud. Keeps trying to make Mitsunari join him or at least get up, but doesn’t succeed. 

Tokugawa:

Ieyasu: Always sits under the sunshade so that he doesn’t get a sunburn and when he has to go somewhere, he orders someone to hold a parasol for him.

Tadatsugu: Keeps an eye on everyone’s stuff, so that the others can go and have fun in the water. Is wearing a straw hat and looks extremely happy and content. 

Toramatsu: Is in the water with Tadakatsu, but he is a bit uncomfortable.

Tadakatsu: Is in the water with Toramatsu and occassionally splashes him. Hopes to get an awful sunburn.

Yasumasa: Sits with Tadatsugu in silence and looks rather pissed until he gives in to Tadakatsu beckoning him over. Tries to best Toramatsu in whatever they’re doing there and ends up having fun.  

Takeda and Sanada:

Shingen: The only one on the beach that walks around naked for some reason. No one seems to mind that. 

Kansuke: Worried about Shingen and keeps telling him that he should apply sun cream and not stay out in the sun too much. 

Yukimura: Good mood, but turns everything into a competition. Sees Masamune and Kojirou building a sandcastle together, so he’ll build a greater one with Sasuke. Volleyball match? Count him in. And you bet he’ll win. 

Nobuyuki: Is the one to buy ice cream for the others and help them relax and take a break from their activities. Is ready to join anything, if asked. 

Little Sasuke: Super happy and excited and totally enthusiastic when he gets involved in Yukimura’s competitions. Looks for Saizo to show him the sandcastle they have built, but is upset when he can’t find him and Yukimura went away somewhere else meanwhile, too. 

Uesugi:

Kenshin: Takes walks along the shore and collects a lot of shells and other things. Ends up far away from everyone else in his excitement. 

Kanetsugu: Spends most of his time with Ai and is so focused on fulfilling her wishes and taking care of her that Kenshin escapes. 

Kageie: Either he naps or plays games like tic-tac-toe which you can draw in the sand with the others. 

Kagetsugu: When he doesn’t play with Kageie and Yoshichi, he just sits on his towel and leans back on both his hands, just relaxing. 

Yoshichi: Loves to play water ball or go into the water in general, but insist on doing that with Kageie and Kagetsugu who don’t get up from their spots. They end up tricking him and bury his body except for his head and threaten to leave him there. 

Date:

Masamune: Chooses a spot on the beach that is fairly far from the others. Only sits on his beach towel and watches the others unless Kojirou asks him to go into the water or buy some ice cream.

Kojuro: Keeps reminding Masamune to stay hydrated and stays close to him doing basically the same as he does. 

Shigezane: Even though his spot is far away from the others, too, he mingles with the crowd, goes into the water and joins others for a round of beach volleyball.

Kita: Lounges in the sun looking fairly content, while she also occassionally scolds Kojuro when she thinks that he’s gaping at people. 

Yoshihime: Would rather Kojirou came to her to ask her the things he asked his brother, but seems to accept it quietly, looking slightly dissatisfied.

Kojirou: Spends a lot of time with Shigezane, but also likes to go to his brother to ask him to do something together. 

Ninja:

Sakuya: Somehow got dragged into the water by Toshiie before he could explain that a real shinobi only stays in the shadows.

Sasuke: Never misses out on the vendors that walk around the beach and sell cocktails. Drinks a lot of them and buys one from every vendor that passes by. 

Saizo: Stands in the shadow under the eaves of some hut, distanced and hidden from the others while he licks on his ice cream in silence. 

Kiyohiro: Very good at doing literally nothing at all, unless someone asks him to. Tries to avoid Kotaro because he is low-key scared that he’ll throw a fistful of sand into his face. 

Kotaro: Complains about the heat and the sun whenever someone gets close enough for him to start talking to them. 

Hotaru: Walks around with a bottle of suncream in need of someone that helps him lotion his back. Kenshin promised him, but seems to have gotten distracted by something else. 

#other #slbp

[sambart93]

2018.08.21-22 Sengoku Night Blood, SenBura Stage [Review]

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Video Coverage 1, 2 DVD PreOrder here and here and here

CAST and CHARACTERS

ODA CLAN Kubota Hidetoshi as Oda Nobunaga Matsumoto Hinata as Akechi Mitsuhide Yokoda Ryugi as Mori Ranmaru Hagio Keishi as Niwa Nagahide Kishimoto Takuya as Shibata Katsuie

UESUGI CLAN Maeyama Takahisa as Uesugi Kenshin Jinnai Sho as Naoe Kanetsugu Aramaki Yoshihiko as Uesugi Kagekatsu

TOYOTOMI CLAN Akazawa Tomoru as Toyotomi Hideyoshi Sadamoto Fuuma as Takenaka Hanbei TAKA as Kuroda Kanbei Yamamoto Ikkei as Maeda Toshiie

Mizukoshi Ayumi as Yuzuki Fujiwara Natsumi as Imari (voice only) Sasaki Yoshihide as Ishida Mitsunari (voice only)

Ensemble: Ando Keisuke, Izumi Shintaro, Ichinose Yoshihito, Terada Yohei, Matsumoto Naoya, Shinozaki Atsushi

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Overall: This was not as bad as I was expecting (Pre-Thoughts under the cut) but it wasn’t that much good to be honest. The story was pretty boring (it’s a carbon copy of the anime, I was hoping they’d spice something up) but the characters (in terms of personality) were different to what they are in the anime/game; the songs were cringey - especially where they placed them - and honestly were totally unnecessary -- keeping it as a straight stage would’ve been best. The action choreography was very boring, very repetitive, and none of them have unique fighting styles at all; except MakiChan who was obviously given the ‘OK’ to incorporate the choreography he’s learnt from TouStage into this stage. Some parts of this story just DRAGGED OUT while other parts of the story, that should’ve been longer, were short as fuck. The balance, and what they chose to extend, and what they chose to skim over were just all poor choices. The comedy in this IS good; huge kudos to KishiTaku, Ikkei, Tomorun and Taka for the comedic moments because they were very funny and got huge laughs from me and from almost all the audience every time. But the comedy is stretched out with no real rhythm; the entire middle section is just serious whereas the beginning and end is comedy; would’ve been better if they had spread it out more evenly rather than at either end. The costumes looked GREAT! I do give huge kudos to the stylist team because those outfits were very detailed and very well made, I really enjoyed spending time looking over them all. There ARE chunks of this stage that I did enjoy: Kagekatsu’s entrance, Shibata&Niwa’s banter, the higawaris, Tomorun as Toyotomi was perfect etc., but there was so much more that annoyed me or that I wish was different or that I wish had been added that my overall feeling for this stage is meh. And I just felt sorry for the actress in all honesty. I watched her during the curtain call everytime and she just didn't seem happy. When everyone was walking off stage, being stupidly and waving in the crowd, she just kept this small smile on her face with her hands behind her back and walked off quietly; she obviously knows the fans outrage but I wanted her to join in somewhat too. She was already there, she might as well enjoy it. I did feel bad for her. To be honest, the best part of this whole stage? The curtain call! The curtain call was absolutely hilarious! I watched 3 times so I got curtain calls from Sadamoto, Kubota, Hagio, MakiChan, MaeChan and Jinnai-kun. And their curtain call speeches were absolutely hilarious and so much fun! The three from Uesugi clan; Mae, Maki and Jinnai were absolutely hysterical! They were sooooo funny in curtain call!  There was no point giving them individual curtain calls because they all ended up talking together and messing around and doing some skits with each other; they were so funny! Absolutely hilarious! But it is technically really sad that the best part about this stage was the damn curtain call and when they were all able to be themselves again...  Rating: 4/10. If we include the curtain calls then 5/10 because they really were worth the 2 hour struggle.

SPOILER REVIEW

I had enough time, shhh we're ignoring the fact of how far behind I am on my OTHER reviews, to write down some PRE-thoughts and predictions and stuff. I like remembering what I was thinking and feeling beforehand too... So for the stuff this month (ie. in August), each one has this written.

Pre-Thoughts: I am so worried about this play! I was SUPER excited at first but then they announced it was going to be a MUSICAL and not just a stage... THAT'S a terrible choice in my opinion. I think this would be a lot stronger as a normal stage. Next worry I have, in particular, is Sadamoto Fuma and Yokoda Ryugi. Not because of the actors themselves, but because both of them are playing characters I ABSOLUTELY love and adore in the game and I really, really don't want them to fuck it up... Then we have Hagio who, from my previous things I've seen him in, I just don't understand his acting, I just don't like him. So that's another I'm not hopeful about. Then we have MaeChan and Jinnai... while I trust them as actors... for some reason I'm worried about them playing Uesugie and Naoe... especially because Uesugi is really popular and important and is a fan favourite, and Naoe... I just have a connection to him because he's a character in Honoo no Mirage so I already have MakiChan and Hiramaki Jin as my Naoe. Then my finally worry is the damn story... the only COMPLETE clan in this stage is Oda-gumi, so that means it'll be Oda-history-central. So does that mean we're getting ANOTHER stage about Honoouji no Hen? TouStage already covered Oda's history. We already have Hakuouki and TouMyu for historical musicals. So WHY is SenBura a musical and focusing on Oda?! Finally, the other story worry is... they announced the female character’s actress the Sunday two weeks before the damn show started... hmmmm.... ALSO the damn Arasuji-Synopsis hasn't even been put up yet! It STARTS in two weeks! ARGH!!! So yes I am completely filled with worry BUT that isn't going to stop me going and watching it three times...

*

Real spoilers start now...

If you’ve seen the anime or played the game then you know the story so I won’t bother writing it out. Also we’ll be sign coded: ☆ for neutral or positives and ★ for negative comments.

General Comments:

★ The amount of empty seats at each show. Especially in the front rows just made me sad. The first show, the entire third balcony was empty. The second show, the third floor was half empty. And I think again for the third show, I went to, the entire 3 balcony was empty. There was almost no one for touji every time. And think their only sold out show was the first Sunday night show and that's it. Just hurts. And I always had at least 2 seats on one side of me all to myself; I had a 9th and 10th first floor seat. When I was on the 3rd balcony, I had the ENTIRE row to myself. Just hurts my heart...

★ The story is a carbon copy of the anime/game story which really bummed me out. I kind of wanted some of it to be different, especially with how great all the guys (personality wise) are in this, I wanted some more. I especially wanted more historical aspects and their relationships between each other to be more detailed and in-depth.

★ There isn’t so much of a plot.... I really felt like ‘why is she here?’ because even the romance plot-line was non-existent besides the one or two scenes she has with Toyotomi and the only reason Toyotomi has this plot line is because Tomoru is one of the lesser actors so fans won't get as pissy about it if it’s him with the plotline -- you can obviously tell who the bigger stars are by the way their stories are written and their relationship with Yuzuki (very much non-existent so the fans of theirs don't get pissy) and the fact that only THEY got SOLO SONGS. And even with her in, they don’t really explain WHY she is there. The mention Meguhime ONCE and that's all! And then we spend the rest of the play looking for her stupid phone -- why would she need it?! Why does she need it here?! It ain't gonna work! So why look for it?! Ugh... And they don't explain her at all. They very quickly go 'oh we know you have magical blood but none of us will use it as a weapon of war' and that's it! So why is she there?! Just ughhh.... you could've very easily taken her out of it and just kept it between the boys and their stories and their dynamic. She really was unnecessary. There’s literally nothing about her that is explained that’s linked to the main plot and there isn’t really a plot at all. But I guess that matches the games plot... sorry, I stopped reading the stories after the first Uesugi chapter xD

★ But going ALL against that, I feel like almost all their personalities in this are different to what they’re like in the game - or at least how I’ve imagined it. And this caused problems for me. But this also goes back to my non-spoiler comment of 'they spent more time on stuff that wasn't important and didn't flesh out the parts that would've been good' and one of these parts is the boys' personalities and histories and relationships etc. I wanted ALL that! I wanted more! AND the very short time we do spent with, say, Niwa...Hanbee...Kuroda...Ranmaru... I felt like ALL their personalities were SO different to what we've become accustomed to in the game. Especially Hanbei and Ranmaru. I LOVE these two in the game! Hanbei is CRAZY as shit in the game! He's so damn creepy and he's so risky and loves putting Yuzuki in danger, but in this stage? He is literally her BFF and just acts like a child. WHAT? That's not Hanbei! And with Ranmaru?! Where's his creepy as voice?! Where's his constant threaten to steal Yuzuki's blood in this?! There was none of it! Give me my creepy boys back! So yeah, safe to say I didn't like Fuuma or Yokoda as my favourite boys. BUT again, I blame this on the script, and the fact they didn’t want to piss fans off. If they had spent more time, especially with the Ranmaru x Hanbee fighting scene, then maybe we could've seen their personalities more, we could've heard their voices more, they would've had more time to show me the characters that I love. But no -___- Oh and MakiChan's character?! He changed him COMPLETELY! First of all his voice was no where near as soft and he very quickly changes all because of Yuzuki! Which pissed me off! Kagekatsu is supposed to be this shy, quiet, timid, I'm worried about what my father will do and what he thinks, type of guy but in the stage, MakiChan basically goes to Yuzuki straight away, he opens up STRAIGHT away, he goes against his father STRAIGHT away, he goes to save her rather than his father STRAIGHT AWAY. It really rubbed me the wrong way. Again, if we had spent MORE time with the transition of this character then maybe it would've been more justified but he literally changes within a day.

Sigh... let's get some good in here...

☆ KishiTaku, Ikkei and Tomorun were the funniest! They were absolutely hilarious! Their parts during the higawaris were genius and even when it was scripted comedy their timing and their performance of those comedic moments were spot on and perfect and had me laughing hard (and most of the audience) every time! They were so good as the comedic ones and I wish they had been given more time to be funny. TAKA and Hagio had a very funny moments too! They both were good but were a little bit inconsistent compared to the three above, but that could just be down to their personality/their acting style/their stage experience.

☆ TAKA looked very pretty as Kanbei and he did a really good job as Kanbei too!

☆ The costumes looked much better and more fitted in person than it does in the visuals and everything. Their costumes were so gorgeous and so detailed! I spent just as much time looking and googling all over their costumes as I did watching the play. They were seriously well made and looked so gorgeous!

☆ I realised afterwards just how many damn PuriStage actors there are in this! We have KishiTaku, Hinata and Ayumi -- okay maybe not so many but when I realised, it made me think that maybe the casting director had been to PuriStage and dediced to take a few from there. But PuriStage was a big project so maybe it's just a coincidence xD

Okay back to a few more bad points...

★ I wish...I really wish... I REALLY wish... I really, REALLY wish they hadn’t put the songs in this. They felt so unnecessary. And the parts where they did put them in felt so awkward and out of place and just didn't fit in my opinion. And the dances in them were so cringey too. Everything to do with the songs were cringey. They really were not needed. And the favouritism in the songs too! Only MakiChan, MaeChan and Ikkei got solo songs. Why? Because they're the most popular actors? Because they sold you the most tickets? Because they're getting the biggest salary? Because (2 of them) they did the game as well as the stage? Just what was the stupid logic against giving them solo songs? Their characters aren't even that important -- as in they aren't the main characters! Why give Oda a group song, then Maki and Mae solo songs, then a Toyotomi group song and finally an Ikkei solo song? Seriously, what was the fucking point besides 'cos their fans are the ones that'll be coming the most' such bullshit. And the songs... just why put them in.... and oh god the dancing during the songs.. especially Jinnai's dance during MaeChan's song... that was weird as fuck. I cringed so much in my seat.

★ There’s not enough comedy spread evenly. There's comedy with Oda Clan and Toyotomi clan but smack in the middle where we have this huge Uesugi plot line, there is no comedy and it really drags the story and the stage. Spreading the comedy out more evenly would've been best.

★ The fighting choreography wasn’t good. None of them were unique. They literally all had the same exact style, except for MakiChan who obviously was allowed to use his TouStage skills. It was bland, uninteresting, you couldn't tell any uniqueness between any of them, it was all very repetitive skills. Maybe I've just been spoiled by the magnificence that is TouStage's choreography but... even Shinobi no Saga (review still to come), every single character had a unique way of fighting and you could easily see the difference between them all! And that's supposed to be from a production company that's way below Marv and Kadokawa's level and even they managed! I seriously tried to find something different about each of their fighting styles but it was all the same...

★ The final point is me being nitpicky but I really hated how they did ‘Oda’s Castle’ and ‘Later that Night’ and ‘The Night Day’ signs in the background. I understand it’s because ‘ooohh just like the game!’ but it just felt condescending and pointless to me. We KNOW we’re at Oda’s castle, and it really doesn’t matter how much time passes or whether it’s the same night or not; it really does not matter for this story.

Back to the final few neutrals/positives!

☆ I noticed MakiChan is still favouring his left leg when he runs and fights and spins and stuff but it’s understandable. We don't want him going completely back onto his right leg and fucking it up again.

☆ I really, really enjoyed that for a lot of the play there is a lack of music and it's just the characters talking. I noticed it straight away and at first it was odd but I grew to love it very quickly.

☆ Imari is cute as all hell okay. I will fight anymore who thinks any different. And I absolutely love HOW they animated him and the different situations they put him in in this!

☆ Related to the costumes but, the wigs in this also are very well done! They looked very well made and they flopped around properly and looked really good!

*

Now for specific parts; I’ll split this into the order in which the story flows:

1. Yuzuki going from her world to the introduction of SenBura’s world:

☆ The show opens with her. The introduction of her is very quick and they establish her transportation to the SenBura world very quickly too which was nice. Within the first 2 or 3 minutes we go into Senbura’s world and we get thrown right into a fight scene where all the members are individually introduced.

☆ I like how quick the opening is.

☆ I like how they introduce each character. They each come in and then they pause as their name and title pops up on the screen behind, and a spotlight is on them. A very quick and efficient way of introducing everyone.

☆ The yakuma/bad guys/creatures’ first entrance is really good and the stunts they do here is great! One of them does a back flip and such.

★ The Yakuma picks Yuzuki up but then immediately puts her back down. Why?? You successfully captured her at that point? I really don't understand, besides plot-armour, why they grabbed her and then put her back down...

2. With Oda Clan:

Yuzuki is very quickly snatched by Oda while Toyotomi and Uesugi bicker as to who should take her. So she goes to Oda's castle first.

☆ I really, really, really loved KishiTaku's comedy in this. He was so funny and so perfect as Shibata! He had so many good moments! A few to mention is just after Yuzuki gets comfortable there and Shibata decides to bring Niwa and Yuzuki along to go boar hunting with them, but before they leave, he wants to get some stuff so he's like 'You should come (with us on the trip). But wait here (while I get the goods)' but she doesn't understand if he just changed his mind about her joining and she goes 'well which one?' and his reply 'どっち？どっちでも 笑 // Which one? Both! *laughs*' and it was very well timed and delivered.

☆ So they go boar hunting but they spot Imari who they think is a regular tanuki, so Shibata declares 'change of plans! We chase the tanuki instead!' so they run on and off stage about 3 times chasing Imari (it's very funny) and eventually get more tired every time. It gets to sunset and they're exhausted with no boar or tanuki in hand. But they completely forget to check that Yuzuki stayed with them so Shibata turns around, sees her and goes 'yup... いるな / she's there!' and continues chasing the tanuki xD I really love the Tanuki chase scene so much. It’s very funny seeing them getting more and more out of breath as they keep going past.

☆ After chasing the boar, Shibata tries to hug Niwa but Niwa is like 'don't touch me! You're covered in sweat' but Shibata continues to try and hug him and jokes 'well from now on you can be... not Nagahide, but Asehide! (ase means 'sweat')'.

☆ Later, Shibata and Niwa manage to get the boar and bring back it's meat but they start arguing over who actually got it. 'I was the one who suggested we go' 'But I was the one who captured it!' 'But I was the one who brought the meat here!' And when they argue amongst themselves, Yuzuki laughs and says something like 'you both did well! That's so cool!' and they turn to her and immediately their faces soften and they go 'な！！！な〜〜 // I did it, RIGHT!! *Yuzuki talks* ...riiiight' all happily. It was very funny.

☆ Akechi gets injured and has to rest at one point and so all the boys want him to feel better. Ranmaru is on his way with food for Akechi when Yuzuki spots him and he gets all embarrased and lies who the food is for. Then Shibata and Niwa come back with the meat and try to give it to Akechi and Ranmaru is like 'at least cook it before you give it to him!', and then Niwa takes out these Obako leaves (= the English is 'Plantago asiatica'.) and tries to give them to Akechi but Ranmaru slaps them out of his hands and they fall to the floor. Immediately Niwa gets all quiet and depressed and is like '....洗ったのに / I even washed them.... I washed them.... even though I washed them...' and Ranmaru feels very upset so picks them up, cleans them and puts them in the rice porridge for Akechi. It was a very cute moment! The next moment was great too! So they're all in Akechi's room and they get super upclose to him as he goes to eat the rice porridge, in anticipation of what he thinks about it, but they get too close and so Akechi feels uncomfortable and stops, then tries again, then stops again, and tries again. Finally he does eat it and says it's good and they all smile and are relieved. It was cute. Also, because Akechi is okay and is enjoying the rice porridge, Shibata starts crying and Niwa looks up to the sky to try and stop himself crying.

☆ Shibata cries about two or three times while we're in this first section and it was adorable and really cute.

★ I was a little sad to find out just how much of the comedy was scripted. I really wanted the AseHide to be higawari, and I really wanted the 'どっち？どっちでも 笑 // Which one? Both!' to be higawari and/or ad-lib too but it wasn't. So I was a little disappointed, BUT kudos to KishiTaku who made it feel so natural every time and the timing was always so good!

★ The Oda group song is right at the end of their story arc and it just felt really sudden and out of place. It's not a bad song but the placing is really awkward and the dancing is pretty cringey. I think for the group songs they just used the anime clan ones, but the solo songs seem original for the play.

★ I wish we had been allowed penlights and audience participation because penlights would've been perfect for this Oda group song.

★ As predicted in my pre-thoughts, I didn't warm up to Yokoda's Ranmaru. First, his voice is too low, in comparison to the characters visuals and the seiyuu's voice in the game, and he just wasn't creepy enough and he didn't seem as innocent.

★ Oda just 10000% reminded me of Hakuouki's Hijikata in this. I know both of them were similar in real like; both are pretty disliked, both are stern, both are strict, but I didn't like how Kubota's Oda just reminded me of Hakuouki's Hijikata completely (FYI I HATE Hakuouki's Hijikata).

★ Hagio did well in some parts, like he got a giggle out of me from the Obako scene (his delivery was inconsistent for it though. The second show I saw, he did the best delivery of this scene), and I liked Nagahide and Shibata arguing at each other, but for the most part he was very.... forgettable. Outside of those two scenes, I don't remember him in this stage at all. He's just so forgettable to me. And one of these scenes, he's only good in it because he's got KishiTaku to work with who's really good at these angry but comedic scenes; he had someone to work with so it wasn't even with his own acting skills that I enjoyed those scenes. And Niwa is very much the same as every other character I've ever seen him play so he wasn't memorable to me in this. I know he has a LOT of fans so, 

DEAR HAGIO FANS: is there a stage of his you recommend I see? What was his best performance? I'm open to changing my mind!

★ At the end of this story arc, they end up fighting the Yakuma again and this is when Toyotomi shows up again to fight Oda, and Kagekatsu saves her while they fight amongst themselves. During this battle scene, I wanted more Ranmaru x Hanbei fighting so I could get a better opinion on the actors and their performance. But in this scene, they just clash swords and then run off stage, so all their fighting is done OFF STAGE. Which really annoyed me! Why not spend more time showing me the boys fighting and their dynamics? I don't need to see Yuzuki getting saved; you can do that off stage! Show me the boys fighting each other, give me interesting dialogue between them, show me their rivalry! ESPECIALLY show me a long fight between Ranmaru and Hanbei because they're my two favourite characters!!!! Ugh...

3. With Uesugi Clan:

So during the last battle, Kagekatsu shows up, almost like a spy because he's all covered up, and saves Yuzuki from the battle field and takes her to Uesugi's castle. Here Kenshin explains that Oda wants to use her blood as a weapon, but here they swear never to use it for such use and that she should just relax here for the time being, especially because she got injured during that battle so it'll take some time to heal.

☆ Kagekatsu gets attacked during that Oda-arc-ending battle pretty badly by the Yakuma and he ends up on the floor in a lot of pain, but being close to Yuzuki, who's leg was cut open, he can sense her blood and I really liked how here we had Kagekatsu's heartbeat as the main sound and every time his heart beat, Maki would jolt to the sound, it was very well done. I really liked this small moment.

☆ Also during this battle, Kagekatsu first comes on stage with a hood on, so as to hide his face, but when the Yakuma attack, his hood naturally falls down and it's really nice. In the third show actually, the hood even fell of his shoulders but he caught it very smoothly and just kept it in his hand as he pulls Yuzuki away from the battle.

☆ Again, staying with this battle at the end of Oda's arc, you can tell MakiChan got to choose and do his own choreography, because it was far advanced compared to everyone else's, and it at least looked unique compared to everyone else too. It's really obvious that it's his choreography from TouStage.

☆ I really, really liked the practise/keiko scene between Kagekatsu and Naoe. It was a small scene but I really appreciated and enjoyed it.

☆ Prior to MaeChan’s solo, there is a scene between him and Naoe where they talk about Kagekatsu and how he has changed as well as how Kenshin plans to keep Uesugi's clan alive and Naoe is like ‘I will protect you no matter what, I will always be by your side’. I really liked this scene between them.

☆ So we have MakiChan's solo... I'm on the fence about this one. It IS a good song and you can tell he was really putting his all into the song, and he's not necessarily a bad singer. BUT again, it just feels out of place to randomly have a song put here and there.

☆ At the end of this arc we have a battle between Uesugi and Toyotomi, Toyotomi's clan essentially ambushes Kagekatsu and Naoe so they can steal Yuzuki. Once Yuzuki has been taken, Kagekatsu and Naoe are to the front-right of the stage with a single spotlight on them and you just know that on the DVD/BR that is going to be a great two shot on it! Also you can clearly see the chemistry between MakiChan and Jinnai in this!

★ I feel MakiChan’s Kagekatsu was much different in this compared to him in the anime and game itself. It felt like he very quickly changed from being this shy and timid and worried character to suddenly defying his father and being stong and outspoken. It was all a bit strange and sudden. And it was even weirder when at the end he goes to save Yuzuki rather than his father which is also strange because he would never abandon his father, especially when you see how he is in the game.

★ MaeChan's solo song. It was awkwardly placed, it's not a good song and oh god the worse part is Jinnai in this song. Jinnai's dancing during MaeChan’s solo is weird. Weird as all hell. I hate the projection mapping visuals in this song too.

★ It was strange that MakiChan and MaeChan got solo songs in this rather than an group Uesugi song... Favouritism much?

★ This middle section arc with Uesugi has no comedy in it so while it is intersting to an extent, it felt like it dragged towards the end of this arc. Even though, I think, it's the smallest arc out of the 3 clans, it drags compared to the other two arcs because they have stupidity and silliness in them.

4. With Toyotomi Clan:

So Toyotomi ambush Naoe and Kagekatsu while they are in the forest looking for Yuzuki's phone (apparently a main plot of this stage, ugh. Why would you need your phone?! You cannot use it here! Dumbass.)

☆During the ambush, Ikkei came on stage with a kimono wrapped around his body and head and he was pretending to be a girl and stealing Yuzuki xD 

☆ Obviously Yuzuki is pissed when she's first taken to Toyotomi so she pushes him away and Toyotomi is just like  'chinmoku // you won't respond'. I really like the end of this scene when Toyotomi goes 'Ki ga Kawatta == I've changed my mind' and everyone think he's pissed because Yuzuki pushes him away but instead he's like 'let's go find your SumaBo'.

☆ I love how they call it a SumaBo instead of a SumaHo (for Smartphone). And after she's explained it they're like 'So you press it and then... do this. So thiiisss then thiiis / こうでおう〜' which got a lot of good laughs.

☆ The higawaris were gold in this! I'll try and break it down by each performance. The set-up for the higawari is that they get a letter and a stone from Ishida Mitsunari and he says it looks like something every time so then they have to improvise and each time a different member was chosen too. Tuesday Night: The rock was balancable so Ikkei tried to balance it on his purlicue but he kept dropping it and we all died of laughter. Wednesday Afternoon: The rock was omanjuu so Kanbei tried to eat it, but it didn't work so then he tried to cut it with his sword. And Ikkei was at the other side of the stage yelling 'Mada Kanbei Ikeru! // It's still alive Kanbei!' so Kanbei kept trying to break it.  Wednesday Night: The rock was a yakizakana (fried fish) and Sadamoto had to do the improve for it this time so he put the rock down and pretend to fry it and cover it in salt and everything. It was pretty funny.

☆ Toyotomi gets drunk one night and ends up running out of the castle. Eventually he comes back, claiming he's found Yuzuki's SumaBo and when she opens the box, inside is a まつぼくり/Matsubokuri/Pine Cone. At first she's like 'what is this?' and Toyotomi replies 'well you said it was something with lots of buttons and you press it and then you put it to your ear. Well, that's it!' and she's like 'this isn't it'. So in horror Toyotomi slowly turns to Kanbei for confidence and Kanbei just nods so Toyotomi turns back to Yuzuki, 'no, this is a Sumabo!'. But she replies 'but... what can I do with this?' and again he turns to Kanbei, but this time Kanbei turns away from Toyotomi's stare. There's a moment of silence before Toyotomi yells out in anger, picks up the pine cone and throws it off stage. Kanbei goes running for it and when he comes back (at least in the second show,) he jumps down the stairs and lands perfectly in front of Yuzuki and gives it back to her. The comedic timing in this scene is very well done and had me giggling everything time. During the Wednesday afternoon show when I saw this, part of Taka's outfit actually broke off and fell next to Toyotomi, and Tomorun picked it up so confused which got everyone laughing. It was almost like he was thinking 'why you giving me this?!' xD and then Tomorun smoothly gave it back to TAKA who was also confused, so he hadn't realised it'd come off xD

☆ Drunk Tomorun/Toyotomi was great!! He really knew how to act, and he would stumble about and the boys would try and keep him upright and such.

☆ TAKA's Kanbei was actually very good too! He looked very pretty too!

☆ There are scenes where MakiChan and Tomorun both fall to the ground and I thought both of them did very well at it. It looked realistic enough.

☆ Also Tomorun is really great with the big jumps he had to do.

☆ One thing I've always loved about Tomorun's acting is how fluidly he can switch between temperaments. There's some scenes in this where he goes from really happy and then suddenly gets really dark; or the other way around, and I love it when he switches between two. It really worked well for Toyotomi's character!

☆ There is actually a proposal scene from Toyotomi in this arc and it was really sweet; It's when they're going through the streets of his town and I really enjoyed it. It was super cute that he was like 'after this war, please be my wife.' and she replies 'are you proposing to me?' and, with a nice detail, he replies 'what's a propose?'.

★ For the Toyotomi group song, I really wish there had been audience participation for it because of how fun it is! The boys clearly were singing about and making it look like they were celebrating and having a party while singing, so it would've been nice if the audience had been allowed to clap and cheer along with them.

★ There is one part of this play that really irked me. So there is a scene where Hanbei explains, to make her feel welcome, that he'll make whatever she wants to eat, so she replies 'Pasta'. Naturally the boys don't know what pasta is, given the time period, so they ask her what it is and she replies 'oh that's difficult to explain'. Now the first time around, this didn't bother me, BUT upon my second and third viewing, my brain immediately thought 'hold up bitch, they fucking know what noodles are! Why not just explain that pasta is HARD, straight noodles?! Stupid idiot.' Seriously, noodles were brought to Japan from China about 800AD in the Heian Period, which is WAY before the Sengoku period! It really, really, really, really, really has gotten to me that she was too dumb to liken pasta to noodles!! THEY HAD NOODLES!!!! JUST EXPLAIN PASTA IS LIKE NOODLES!!! Can you tell how much this little skip-over in the script and the fact she didn't even both explaining what pasta is, has gotten to me?! Is Yuzuki supposed to be this stupid, ignorant 21st century adult who never paid attention to history class? Because I'm pretty sure IN THE GAME she realises who she's with and she realises 'oh I can't say what'll happen to them in case I change history' or was I making that part of the game up for myself? ALSO the freaking production company is MARV; they KNOW their audience knows and likes history, they KNOW this audience has seen Hakouki, TouStage, TouMyu, so WHY skip over this nice little tidbit of history that would've been a nice little addition to the script. But NOOOO she was too lazy to even bother to explain WHAT PASTA IS!!! I need to go breathe somewhere...

★Linking to this argument. There are two times in fact where she says '説明は難しい = this is difficult to explain' rather than actually explaining. That is SLOPPY, POOR writing. You could've easily just explained away the pasta thing. The other scene where she sloppily says this is when she's with them and she says 'Oh this place is much like my own world, yet it's different too' and they asks her 'why?' and she just replies '説明は難しい = this is difficult to explain'. But to me this is again just sloppy writing! You could've easily had her say 'oh the sakura trees and the architecture is the same but where I'm from we have these huge buildings and giant lights that stay on all night' or something like that. It just sparks laziness to me that the script writer couldn't be bothered to have her say even this much. Did they just want her to be dumb as fuck or something? Just *sigh*...

****Or maybe it's just me; maybe people usually just go to enjoy and to be entertained and don't think so logically about things. Maybe it's just me and my personality; I really love looking into such details, I really love thinking over such things; this is why my reviews will always have a negative to them. I don't go just to be entertained: I want to be entertained, but I also want to be made to think, I enjoy thinking things over. So yes, this really got to me! I can’t even think of pasta the same way anymore...

★ At the end of this scene, Toyotomi clan finds out that Uesugi have gone missing and that Oda have been ambushed by the Yakuma. It's at this moment that the boys are like 'lets take over their castles while they're gone!' but Yuzuki is against it and starts yelling that they should go and help them. Now I understand she had good intentions, but my god, her screaming and yelling is the worst ugh. It was really difficult to understand what she was saying because it just wasn't clear when she was yelling and screaming.

5. Final Battle:

So the final battle is when Toyotomi is finally convinced he should help Uesugi clan, who have gone missing, and Oda clan who are ambushed by the yakuma, and there is a giant yakuma roaming the land.

☆ There was slow-motion during Ikkei's solo as they were battling which I thought was really cool!

★ But why Ikkei got a solo song (besides favouritism and fan-service) I have no idea, because he isn't exactly a main character. But it wasn't a bad song.

☆ I really, really liked the duo fight scene with Kenshin and Naoe in this final battle.

★ But the choreography in this final scene was very obviously the same for everyone else and repetitive.

☆ Towards the end when Toyotomi swoops in and save Naoe and Kagekatsu, Kagekatsu tries to help Toyotomi out but he's like 'go to your father! Go and help him!' and Tomorun's final 'Ikeeeee / LEAVE NOW!' to Kagekatsu was so cool and so great!

★ I hated the synced fight-dancing from the rest of the cast during Ikkei’s solo song. At first they were fighting the yakuma but the second half of the song, they all just faced forward and did a fighting-dance thing and I hated it. I wanted to see them actually fight. Why not during this point do solo fighting scenes and switch in and out between them? Seriously, this stage is just LAZY.

☆ I loved when Oda demands he uses Yuzuki's blood so he can get his strength back and fight the final boss, and Toyotomi is just begging Yuzuki not to. But Toyo's also on the ground very weak so he drags himself over to her and when he tries to grab her hand, she's just far enough away that he misses and flops down onto the floor. I super loved this hand grab moment! You could see and feel the desperation in Tomorun's eye and voice. It was VERY well done. Also when he's like 'please don't make me take your blood (so I can fight too)' and you can tell he really doesn't want to and he’s on the ground yelling ‘fucks sake / kuso!!!’ because he’s too weak to help and save Yuzuki without her blood’s assistance. It was great acting on Tomorun's part.

★ There is NO henshin! They (3 of them) take her blood but none of them change their forms! I wanted to see their henshins!!

6. Ending Scenes:

☆ The ending was satisfactory because it ends with them all swearing they'll never use her blood as a weapon or for their own gain. They also swear that they won't get angry if she doesn't choose them. But it perfectly ends with her not explicitly choosing any of them, and suddenly it goes into the final song with all the boys singing as she walks off stage. It was the best choice for the ending they could've made without pissing any of the audience off.

Curtain Call Goodness

NOW FOR THE BEST PART OF THE WHOLE PLAY! THE CURTAIN CALLS!!!

☆ TUESDAY NIGHT: Curtain Call Speeches from Oda/Kobuta and Naoe/Jinnai. Kubota talked about how much he sweats in his costume and that he's managed to lose 5 kilos so far just from all the sweating and he said he hopes to lose 5 more before the end of the run. Jinnai talked about how he and MaeChan have been working together and have been debuted for 8 years now and have worked together on a lot of projects and that it was his first time with MakiChan but he was enjoying it and having so much fun. To this point MakiChan replied and continued the conversation and talking about how fun their dressing room is with the three of them. It was very clear and very obvious how much Jinnai and MakiChan get along. It was very obvious how well all three of them get along which made me very happy! And at one point MakiChan burst out ‘Why am I talking during your speech?!’ and Jinnai hit him on the shoulder xD They also talked about they love playing the game 'UesugiGokkou' in the dressing room so they did an example of it for us all: It is/was Maki and Jinnai pretending to argue with MaeChan trying to get in the middle and being the mediator but the both end up hitting him on either side of his arms. It is/was very funny!

☆ WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: MakiChan/Kagekatsu curtain call greeting (sorry, I don't remember who else..) and when Tomorun said 'Kagekatsu!' Jinnai replied instead and everyone burst out laughing. As MakiChan spoke about his usual 'this is super fun, I love working with MaeChan again. We work together a lot actually. And it's so fun in the dressing room. I hope we can finish this run without any injuries' but then Jinnai suddenly complained 'your sword keeps hitting me every time you move!' so then MakiChan started doing it on purpose xD

☆ WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Fuuma and MaeChan's curtain call (I am so bloody lucky I got all three of theirs!). As MaeChan was talking and thanking people, MakiChan and jinnai slowly went around the back of MaeChan, and then came up in front so they were blocking his view of the audience, and then they started aruging between the two of them who Kenshin prides better/more. So then Maechan tried to break it up but of course, at the same time on either side of him, they hit him on the shoulders. MaeChan said they had been practsiing all day for this moment xD and Tomorun was like ‘we ALL do it you know! It's not just your group who does this in the dressing room!’ xD Fuuma's speech was just about how he had to do the rock higawari today and he hoped everyone could understand what he was doing and if it was fun. We all applauded so he understood we enjoyed it and understood it.

Seriously, the curtain call was the best part and so funny and it was so great being able to see just how well Mae, Maki and Jinnai get along ^_^ it made me very happy in my heart xD

*

And there we go! There’s a lot of negative but I think I gave enough positives so that people who aren’t as logical or critical as me will enjoy this stage. There is a lot to like about this stage.

#senbura #sengoku night blood #stage #review #stage play #2.5D #2.5次元 #aramaki yoshihiko #maeyama takahisa #jinnai sho #yokoda ryugi #TAKA #kubota hidetoshi #matsumoto hinata #hagio keishi #kishimoto takuya #sadamoto fuuma #akazawa tomoru #yamamoto ikkei #sasaki yoshihide #mizukoshi ayumi

[thelionshoarde]

sunblock

What should have been a four hour drive had quickly turned to six thanks to Mitsuhide’s travel itinerary – it would probably have taken them all day if Zen and Kiki hadn’t pinned Mitsuhide to the wall outside of Zoinks! The Whackiest Tackiest Stuff! Museum while Obi stole the keys from his pocket and strapped himself into the driver’s seat.

“You’re not the only one who can drive manual,” Obi glowered out the cracked window as Mitsuhide tried, futilely, to open the locked door. “If we have to stop at one more kitschy landmark I will drive us into the ocean, so help me.”

Mitsuhide said, forlorn, “But it’s my jeep.”

Zen patted him on the back, entirely cheerful. “You gave up your right to be an adult after we spent half an hour at the petting zoo.”

“You cannot hold baby animals against me,” Mitsuhide grumbled, crossing his arms and glowering back at Obi. “They are so tiny. How are they so tiny?!”

“They were alligators, Mitsuhide. All that petting zoo had was baby alligators.”

“All right,” Obi piped in through the half-inch of open window, “I did like the baby alligators, I’ll give you that. Tiny, sharp tooted babies ready to devour you, I was a fan.”

The front door tinkled as Kiki emerged from the cool interior of the building, and threw a shirt at Mitsuhide’s head. It fluttered out of its neat folds as it slid down his face, and Mitsuhide caught it by the shoulders, holding it out to read: Zoinks! I’m so whacky and tacky!

“Thanks,” he said, ever so dryly.

Kiki grinned, sliding her shades back onto the bridge of her nose. “Any time. Also, I call shotgun.”

“Damn it,” Zen hissed at the same time Mitsuhide yelped, “But it’s my jeep!!”

By the time they made it to the beach house it was late afternoon, the sun still bright overhead. “Not quite the full day I was hoping for,” Zen observed, arms hooked over the open door and the hood of Mitsuhide’s ancient jeep, to peer down the sandy path between clumps of stubborn grass to the beach just beyond. He grinned. “But I’ll take it. Man, this was a good location.”

“Not bad at all,” Obi whistled in agreement, swinging Mitsuhide’s keys around his finger.

The door to the beach house opened, and Ryuu stood framed in the cool shadows of the arched entrance way. He looked reedy and awkward standing there in nothing but baggy, blue-and-yellow swim trunks. And a lot of sunblock smeared across his nose. He squinted into the light at them.

“Good, you’ve arrived. Now you can deal with her.”

And then Ryuu was off, flip-flops slapping against his heels as he bolted past the four of them and down the path to the beach as quickly as his coltish legs would carry him.

“The hell was that about?” Obi asked.

Shirayuki answered, stumbling out the open door and waving a foam visor – like the kind you could buy cheap from little novelty stores – and a bottle of sunblock in her other hand. “Ryuu!” she yelled, “I wasn’t finished. And you forgot your hat!”

“Oh,” said Zen.

“Oh, my,” breathed Obi.

Mitsuhide said, “He really should wear the visor, at least.”

Kiki slammed the back of the jeep shut, brandishing their brightly colored umbrella at the lot of them. “Get out of my way unless you want to become collateral damage. Shirayuki, do me first. I want in that water.”

“Damn it,” said Zen, “why are you so good at that?!”

Obi breathed out, “Oh, oh, please do me, too, babe. Yes, my body is ready for protection against those pesky UV rays. I surrender to your tender mercies!”

“Nope,” Zen said, jumping down from the jeep and looping an arm around Obi’s neck. “You can settle for my tender mercies instead.”

“Babe,” Obi leered, sunglasses slipping down his nose so that Zen saw the clear, golden shade of his eyes peeking impishly up through his lashes, “I can work with that too, trust me.”

Propping the umbrella on the stucco wall outside the entrance, Kiki followed Shirayuki inside, already shimmying out of the t-shirt she’d been wearing. Mitsuhide tripped on flat ground, cursing, as Kiki’s toned, mostly bared back disappeared. “Shit,” he grunted, catching himself against the cooler full of beer and gatorade. Then, “Oh, we need ice, still.”

“Are you – are you writing something on my back?!”

“Shh,” Zen hissed, sounding focused. “Do you want sunblock or don’t you?”

By the time they were all ready for the water Kihal had arrived, bike spitting sand as she skidded to a stop. She tipped her visor back and grinned at them all, shouting, “There’d better be cold beer in that cooler!”

“I got ice!” Mitsuhide promised, waving.

“Excellent,” she crowed, taking off her helmet and smoothing out her hair. She slung a long, tanned leg over her bike, boots digging into the dirt as she trudged toward them. “Gimme one, that was a long ass drive.”

“Jesus,” Zen wheezed, half-hiding behind Mitsuhide.

“Mm,” came Kiki’s hum of amused agreement.

Leather shorts really should not exist if they were going to be that distracting. Zen covered his face with his hands as Obi snickered, patting his shoulder.

“Want me to wait for you?” Shirayuki asked, overly full beach bag clutched in her arms and six plastic buckets full of miniature shovels and rakes looped onto her forearms.  “Suzu and Yuzuri are still going to be a couple of hours.”

“Nah,” Kihal said, unzipping her leather jacket and shimmying out of it. She accepted a beer from Mitsuhide, laying it against the nape of her neck. “I think I want a nap. You guys go have fun, I’ll catch up.”

“Are you sure?” Shirayuki asked. “I don’t mind waiting, I could –”

Kihal looked pointedly at Obi. Obi grinned.

“Babe, no one believes you for a moment,” he said, swooping down from behind her and picking her up, arms wrapped tight around Shirayuki’s bare thighs. She squealed, buckets flying, and then Obi was off, down the steps and the path, toward the beach.

“Beach,” Kiki said, insistently, picking up one end of the cooler and staring at Mitsuhide.

Mitsuhide blinked, picked up his end, and agreed, “Yes, beach. Shall we? I – oh, hey, whoa!”

“He’s gonna break his neck,” Kihal snorted, popping the tab on her beer as she and Zen watched Kiki drag him along at a fast clip.

Zen grinned. “She’d catch him if he fell. Of course, then he might pass out from – hnn,” he cut off, having glanced toward Kihal and finding himself distracted by the long line of her throat as she guzzled down her beer.

“Ahh,” she sighed, licking beer off her lips with a smirk. “Much better.”

“Uhm,” Zen said, blinking.

“Care to join me for a…nap, Zen?”

“Yes,” he said, following her inside and shutting the door behind them.

Later, as evening set in, everyone milled about in the living room, taking turns with the single shower. Obi came out in just a towel slung low around his hips and a surprised expression on his face to see them all sprawled on the couch, staring at him.

“Oh, goodness,” he drawled, “why, if I had known you all were waiting for a show I would have left the towel!”

“Please don’t,” Mitsuhide said, sounding pained.

Zen made a considering noise. “It’s not a bad view, really.” When Shirayuki stared at him, wide eyed and red as her hair, he blushed, hurrying to add, “I mean – he doesn’t bother with a towel in our dorm! He just – it’s not like I have a choice, all right!”

“Hot,” Kihal decided, eyes squinting as she no doubt imagined it. “I’m down.”

“Mitsuhide, cover your ears,” Kiki said.

“I can’t,” he mourned, hands over Ryuu’s ears where the younger boy was sitting on the floor, slumped back against the couch near him. Obi winked, and turned to go into the room claimed by him, Zen, and Ryuu upon arrival.

Half the couch gasped in unison.

Zen’s grin took up his entire face. There was no hope in restraining it.

“What?” Obi asked, pausing just at the threshold of the room. He glanced over his shoulder at them, patting at his ass with the hand not holding the towel up. “No, everything covered. What, what? What’s wrong?”

“Your – your back,” Shirayuki whispered, her face now an alarming shade.

“Uh, yeah,” Obi said, brows arching up in confusion. He turned back around to face them. “What about it? Did I get some new scars or something when I wasn’t paying attention? Please tell me if it’s like, in the shape of a dick because that could be embarrassing and more permanent than a sharpie.”

“No,” Shirayuki whispered even more quietly, sounding strangled. “Uhm!”

“It says –”

Kiki slapped her hand over Ryuu’s mouth. “Don’t ruin it, kid,” she murmured, smirking.

“Zen,” Obi said, voice rumbling low as his eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”

Zen shrugged, still grinning. “Nothing really. Just…being helpful?”

Kihal held out her hand for a high-five, which Zen gleefully returned. The sound of it caused Shirayuki to jump, startled. She sucked in a breath and lunged for her beach bag where it had spilled half its contents by the coffee table at their feet.

She came back up with a big bottle of aloe clasped desperately in her hands and determination written across her face. “You’re sunburned,” she said, still a little breathless. “Here, let me – uhm, I can – just –”

“Uhm, sure,” Obi agreed, allowing himself to be herded into the room, eyes wide. “You can – uh, totally put – that – on me?”

The door slammed shut behind them.

When Yuzuri burst into the house, hollering, “We have arrived! The fun may now begin!” most of the group was half-collapsed, still laughing. Pursing her lips, Yuzuri put both hands onto her hips and said: “Okay, what did we miss? What happened? Wait – where are Shirayuki and Obi?”

Ryuu was the only one seemingly unaffected. He looked up at Yuzuri and Suzu with a forlorn expression on his serious face, and explained: “Zen wrote with sunblock on Obi’s back.”

“Oh?” asked Suzu, tucking his chin over Yuzuri’s shoulder. “What’s it say?”

“Shirayuki,” Ryuu intoned, “kiss me, already.”

Yuzuri immediately began cackling. Suzu jumped back, arms in the air as he watched his girlfriend slowly collapse to the ground, still cackling with glee. “Best springbreak,” she gasped, “ever!! Well done, Zen!”

“Thank you,” Zen grinned, looking smug.

A thud came from behind a closed door, followed by another, like someone getting pushed up against a wall, and –

“Maybe we should go see about that bonfire,” Mitsuhide said hurriedly, ushering everyone off the couch and out the house. Just in time, too. Mitsuhide winced as he shut the front door, the thin walls of the beach house doing very little to disguise the low, drawn out sound of Obi’s moan. He turned, started down the steps to where Kiki was waiting for him, beautiful with the setting sun lighting her up.

He paused with a foot in the air, then turned, bounding back up the steps to open the door and stick his head back through. “Don’t forget to use protection,” he hollered, as loudly as he could, and grinned when he heard what sounded like a body falling off the bed. The muffled oath let him know it was Obi.

“You’re still bitter about him driving the jeep, aren’t you?” Kiki asked, reaching for his hand.

“Only a little,“ Mitsuhide admitted, grinning as he curled his fingers in with hers, heart jumping into his throat. “Race you to the water?”

Kiki was running before he’d even finished the sentence, but Mitsuhide was only a step behind, her grip on him sure and strong and effortless.

#ans #gen #obiyuki #zen/kihal #the whole gang #kiki/mitsuhide #suzu/yuzuri #ryuu #beach house #spring break #college au #asks #sabraeal #my fic #AHAHAHAHAHA I DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ANYMORE

[masterlistcrawford]

The Odd Pair 4

Warnings: Cursing, intense fluff (let me know if is Fluff or not please)

Selene managed to get her way with the wedding. It was a civil ceremony without any celebration. Her excuse was perfect, she was still mourning her father and she didn’t wanted a celebration in respect for him. Shingen suggested a soft lavender dress he saw at one of the town stores. Selene declined, she said she had the perfect dress, when Shingen request seeing it she indicated it was a surprise. Shingen prayed she will not dare to make an spectacle on the day of the ceremony. Selene carefully cleaned the house. The lack of work was driving her crazy. She needed something to do. Once the master bedroom was cleaned she tried to place the bed but it was too heavy. Still she was working on a way to move it when Shingen found her. He had been trying to call her but she never responded. He got worried.

“Princess what you think you are doing?”

“Trying to move the bed, I need it on a place far side the window, I don’t like sunlight hitting me that early in the morning.”

“Well I like it near the window…”

“OK, time out. If we are going to sleep on the same bed, I have to be honest then. I’m afraid of lightning that’s why I’m trying move the bed from the window.” Selene decided that her best policy on some of her battles with Shingen will be the truth. If something Shingen was good at was sniffing a lie. Thru out the years, she learned how to lie. It was one of many skills she needed to survive on the real world. Shingen was an expert not letting people know what he was thinking or feeling so looking at his eyes while considering that piece of information was crucial. She could study him in order to see how he really think.

“I understand, then I will call Yuki to get some help.” he replied with a nod.

Selene smiled she was crouched and when she tried to stand up a wave of dizziness got her and her vision started spinning. Bracing for impact she felt she was floating. Shingen’s voice was closer than usual but at the same time distant.

“Selene? Selene are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Shingen took her to her room and lay her down on the bed. Taking a look at her she was pale and sweating. He was about to call Ieyasu when Selene took his wrist.

“Sorry, can you get me some juice? I haven’t eat nothing since breakfast, I’m just hungry.”

Shingen went to the kitchen and got some fruit and a glass of juice with some added sugar. He will bite her head off later, but he was angry. She wasn’t taking care of herself, this was something that made him worried. Walking back to the room he found her sitting with her head resting on her knees.

“Selene here drink this, I pour some extra sugar.” Selene took the glass with some tremble on her hands. Shingen was now frowning silently.

Selene could felt the anger on his eyes. (Well, at least I know he cares.) she thought.

“When was the last time you got something to eat?” Shingen pulled on a strand of hair behind her ear. The gesture was nice full of warmth. Selene felt a bit warmer inside. Her cheeks got some rosy color. She kept drinking until she felt a bit less dizzy. The trembling disappear but Shingen took the glass from her and put it on the night table.

“Thanks, I think my last meal was this morning.”

“And what did you ate?” continue Shingen asking.

“Well, I ate, wait why are you so interested on my eating habits so suddenly?”  Selene took a look at Shingen to get a reading on his face.

Shingen was looking at her seriously, after speaking with Jonathan he got another call from him. He wanted to let him know that sometimes Selene was so focused on a task that she would forget to eat. He thought it was an exaggeration until now. When he took her in his arms she was light, perhaps too light for her own good.

“Because it seems you are not eating enough. I don’t mind if you want to turn the place upside down, but I don’t want you die on me ok?” Shingen got up from the bed.

He took a long look at Selene, the girl was easy to read the woman he got before him was a total enigma. He was starting to understand that maybe there were somethings he need to investigate regarding her past 20 years.

Selene on her part was weighing her options. Right now she was going to be living with a man for a year. And incredible hot sexy one. Which was also a master at reading people, strategist and getting what he wants. Her options, were almost non existent in the sense for her to get out of that predicament.

“I’m not your enemy Selene, shall we make a truce?”

The sudden question make her jump scaring her. Her emotions were all disorganized, she need to think, organize and decide. A branch of olive was presented to her. While she get her defenses back again she will have to see what Shingen has to offer her.

“OK, what you propose?” putting her hands behind her back Selene started opening and closing her hands in fist. It was a way to curb her anxiety.

(At least she is standing down, OK let’s see where can go from this.) Shingen felt internally relieved that Selene wanted to at least talk. He wondered why she hide her hands behind her. Another puzzle he might need to put the pieces together.

“Why not talk about it while eating something. I will help you with what you need after that, deal?” Shingen smiled at her seeing how her cheeks get a nice pink shade.

“OK, Takeda you win again.” rolling her eyes Selene went to the kitchen with him.

The wedding took place two weeks later. Selene faithful to her word went dress all in black as a surprise. Shingen was dress on a nice black suit with a white shirt and red tie. Shingen had to bite his tongue, Selene was proving to be indeed full of surprises, not that all were nice ones. While in the beginning it was fun to spite Shingen, Selene was feeling tense, and nervous. The gang was there only two of them knew about the situation. Besides them, Shingen’s mother and a couple of friends from his family also were there. Selene was worried what will the others will think about her? Cursing her anxiety and insecurities, Selene wore her Armour as tight as she could. The ceremony only took ten minutes, once the signing was done. Everyone went outside the court of justice to congratulate the newlyweds.

“Selene congratulations, my dear girl, welcome to the family.” Kaede Takeda, Shingen’s mother told Selene while given her a hug.

Selene relaxed when she hugged Shingen’s mother. She felt she could trust her.

“Thank you Mrs. Takeda, I’m glad to be part of the family.” Selene smiled genuinely. Her other interactions went pleasant, she managed to fool all except two people of the group. Shingen and Masamune. The men at some point stood face to face. Masamune was not hiding his anger at Shingen.

“Takeda?” raising his eyebrow Masamune didn’t attempt to shake hands.

“Date, I know in the past you both used to be best friends with my wife. So I want due to that old bond ask to please do not meddle in the middle of our relationship. If, not…”

Masamune cut him off. “Or What? Listen Takeda, she is a great woman. Treat her with respect, she is not one of those one night stands you had. She needs someone to care for her. Not to use her. And if you hurt her I’m going to hunt you down…”

“Guys, will you calm down? This look more like a duel than a wedding.” Nobunaga cut them off and stood in the middle acting normal. “Selene right now is tense, Shingen, is she alright?”

“So far, she’s been acting stressed out since the lecture of the testament. I’m working on a truce…”

“And he calls himself a ladies man.”Mitsuhide stood next to Shingen smirking at his words. “Selene is not the enemy, she used to play with us remember or you suddenly forgot about it?”

“I thought she was more intelligent than your brother Shingen.” Ieyasu was now next to Masamune. As always the grumpy with the firecracker.

Shingen was getting fed up with them. It was enough that Masamune was so close to her now the rest were on his case.

Selene saw from the distance the exchange, she noticed Shingen was in trouble. Excusing herself, she went to see the group. By now, he had each hand closed on a fist. Squinting her eyes, Selene knew something must need to be done. Taking a look at the man that now was her husband she couldn’t stop smiling. While part of her was feeling miserable another felt completely greedy and euphoric, man at some point she wish…stopping her train of thought she arrived at the group with a soft smile.

“Hey guys, are you behaving and being nice with my “hubby” uh?” The word sounded playful, caring. Shingen suddenly was weary of Selene sudden calm. “It’s everything OK, princess?”

“I’m good, just checking on you. Btw, you got something on your  chin.”

Shingen started cleaning his face. “Is it better now?”

“No, could you let me help you? Selene got a napkin on her hand and waited for Shingen to lower his face closer. Shingen was a full six feet one inch tall, Selene was five foot, five but since she was wearing heels was now on five foot seven. Still Shingen was taller than her. Once he inclined a bit their faces were close and Shingen let her clean his face while observing her. Carefully she cleaned his chin and before finishing she closed the distance and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

“With the nerves we forgot to kiss at the end of the ceremony, better late than never. Right guys?” giving a playful wink to a flustered Shingen, the gang except Masamune started to applaud Selene’s bold movement while she smiling went away.

If she had slap him on the face it wouldn’t had been any different. Shingen felt her soft lips touching him briefly while the tip of her tongue caressed his upper lip. There were very few times someone could had surprised him more than Selene had done. She might had used the situation to kiss him or she was warning him that they need to keep the appearances for the sake of the others. For a few seconds he forgot everything around him. What only mattered to him were those lips. Those soft delicious lips on his. His heart started to race. OK this is wrong, how could she had done that to him without he noticing it?  Turning to the gang Shingen flip them and went to look for Selene.

“Should we go to see they are ok?” Hideyoshi was about follow them when Nobunaga put his arm in front of them.

“You know the saying Hideyoshi, three are a crowd. Those two, need time. That’s why maybe her father did that stupid testament.”

“You think?” asked Hideyoshi still skeptical.

“Wanna bet, I bet twenty Selene, will make that guy cry.” said Mitsuhide waving a twenty in front of the guys.

Laughing Nobunaga took out a twenty dollar bill. “Sure why not, I bet that she at least will get one tear out of him.”

Selene managed to find a bench a bit retired from the others. She took a seat feeling her heart about to go out of her rib cage. She didn’t it. She finally kissed him and it was amazing. Selene couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot. Taking several breaths to calm down she got startled when Shingen sit next to her suddenly.

“Jesus Takeda, are you a ninja? You almost killed me from a heart attack.” it was hard to be grumpy not after that kiss.

Shingen didn’t said a word he simply pulled her closed to him surprising her with a passionate kiss. His lips were soft and demanding, his tongue started a delicious assault combined with little nibbles. The tactic was good and the strategy paid off. Selene parted her lips briefly, his tongue took the advantage and invaded her mouth exploring her hungrily. Moaning softly, Selene responded to the kiss with the same passion he was giving it to her. Their tongues dance until, they went out of breath. Panting, to recover, Shingen smiled and softly whispered to her lips. Selene had trouble hearing it since her heart was pounding wildly.

“This my dear wife is a proper “You may kiss the bride kiss.” after that he didn’t wait another second and started kissing her again.

#ikesen #ikesen sengoku #fanfic #fanfic ikesen #ikesen shingen