#oh and church sekai is next.

[linabirb]

[PJSK OC Unit Introduction #01] Pain Killer

THE GIRLS!! ARE HERE!! YAY!! please be nicey to them...

more information about them under the cut!

(note: when it comes to their designs, their names are written in "first name, last name" order, but in their profiles their names are written in "last name, first name" order. also, about everyone's covers, at this point i feel like pjsk has so many covers, i can type literally any vocaloid song title and i will be able to find a pjsk cover of it, so if i say that a unit could cover a song that already has a canon cover, simply nod and agree with me 👍 also also, even if someone has "vocalist" as their position, obviously others sing too. also also ALSO, this takes place in the original timeline and not the brand new world one.)

(warnings for descriptions of physical and mental health problems, mentions of death, self-harm, toxic relationships and suicide, also this unit overall has a hospital/medical theme, so if you're not comfortable with that. yeah)

SEKAI Info.

Unit name: Pain Killer (i thought this would be a fun name for a unit with a medical theme! and it also has a deeper meaning, like, all of these girls' lives are painful in their own ways and they're tired of dealing with it, so they're going to KILL IT. but it also can be interpreted as them trying to get rid of this pain not in the most healthy way and getting addicted to it..)

Members (names are written in the "first name, last name" order): Yuuki Satou, Sae Chou, Kanami Nagai, Inori Watabe

Virtual singers (i've said this before, i'll be going with different vocaloids, but i'll still keep at least one "standard" virtual singer in every unit): Hatsune Miku, Oliver, Flower, Kaito, Utatane Piko, Mayu

Virtual singers' roles:

This SEKAI's Miku is a nurse and she seems to be very kind, thoughtful and soft-spoken. She cares a lot about the patients and the unit members and tries her best to give them good advice. It still feels like she's hiding something though.. When it comes to her design, her pigtails are more wavy and the tips of her hair are soft pink. She has two-colored eyes as well and they are both pink and teal.

Oliver is one of the patients. He's a very shy and kind-hearted boy who cares about the unit members and other patients' health and needs more than his own. Maybe it's because he enjoys the attention he gets as a patient with the most severe condition a little too much? His design is overall pretty similar to his original one minus the outfit and he wears a hospital gown similar to the ones Pain Killer members wear.

Flower is one of the patients as well. She clearly hates being here and she wishes she could just heal from all her pain already. Despite her cold and intimidating personality, she seems to be getting along with Oliver. Her design is very similar to her V4 standard one, she wears a hospital gown and there are some bandaids on her body and she has an eyepatch as well.

Kaito is the doctor that takes care of everyone and checks up on them. He seems to be very similar to WxS!Kaito as he gives off this older brother/father figure vibe, but he can be strict when needed, for example, when the unit members are refusing to take a break and rest. His design isn't that different from the original one minus the outfit, but he also wears glasses and has a hair gradient that goes from a darker shade of blue to the lighter one. If you remove his glasses, you can see that he actually has dark circles under his eyes.

Utatane Piko is an android who helps with detecting the patients and the unit members' health issues. He looks a lot like a human and you can notice the robot-like elements of his design only if you look closer. He seems to be only doing his job at first and not really having any feelings about it, but he actually takes it very seriously and gets attached to everyone in the process.

Mayu is a nurse as well, just like Miku, and she seems to be very overprotective when it comes to the patients. She always feels like they're still too sick and she doesn't trust them when they say that they're feeling better. It's possible for her to start feeling this way about the unit members too. Outside of that, she's a very cheerful and talkative person who is definitely the most extroverted one out of all Hospital SEKAI's virtual singers.

SEKAI creator: All unit members

SEKAI name: Hospital SEKAI

SEKAI description: This SEKAI is able to change its appearance based on the unit members' physical and mental health state. When at least one of them is suffering, the SEKAI will look like some kind of abandoned hospital that you would see in a horror game and if all members are doing okay, the hospital will look completely fine. The patients (Oliver and Flower)' physical and mental state is also directly connected to certain members. Of course, they can't actually die, but they can still feel pain.

Characters Info.

Satou Yuuki.

Name: Satou Yuuki (佐藤優希) (her last name means "assistance, help, aid" and "wisteria", her first name means "gentleness, kindness" and "rare, hope, beg for") 

Age: 17 years old

Unit: Pain Killer

Position: Vocalist and guitarist

Gender: Female (She/her)

Birthday: July 1st (Cancer)

Height: 168 cm

Family: Father, mother, grandmother

School: Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy (Class 2-A)

Club/committee: Health committee

Hobbies: Learning history of medicine, helping out at an animal shelter

Talents: Making people and animals trust her

Favorite food: Green apples

Least favorite food: Red apples

Dislikes: Seeing someone in pain

Appellations:

"Satou" (Sae)

"Yuuki-san" (Kanami)

"Yuuyuu" (Inori)

Image color: #F1C5FC

Character description: Yuuki is a rather shy and clumsy girl who finds it hard to socialize and make friends, but there's just something about her that makes people like her anyway. Because someone who was very important to her passed away recently due to illness, she became even more quiet and started to think about isolating herself from others, but after meeting a new student who seems to be having health problems as well, Yuuki changed her mind and decided to become friends with her, hoping that she can make her life better and at least a bit easier. Yuuki overall seems to have some kind of savior complex and she's obsessed with helping others and it's hard to say if she does so because she's genuinely that kind or because she wants those people to feel like they owe her.. or because her self-esteem is so low that she needs at least some kind of "proof" that she's still needed and she still can be useful.

Trivia:

She doesn't like red apples because she thinks they aren't as "juicy" as green ones.

Even though she's a huge scaredy cat, she's not afraid of needles at all and actually seems to have some kind of weird fascination with them.

Her favorite animals are dogs, especially big ones.

She's a bit jealous of Ichika and Saki's relationship and wishes to have something similar.

Interestingly, she actually doesn't remember that "important person" that well and she can't even remember if it was a family member, a friend or a significant other. It's possible that her memories related to that person became blurry because of trauma. She doubts that it was a family member though since she's sure her family would've told her about it and she would've noticed something different about their behavior.

Her hair is dyed and her natural hair color is lavender. She dyed it shortly after that "important person"'s death and she thinks it's possible that these two colors were that person's favorite.

Her personality is the reason why she's wearing an outfit more similar to doctor's rather than a hospital gown when performing in the Hospital SEKAI. She sees herself as a doctor and not a patient unlike the other members.

Chou Sae.

Name: Chou Sae (姚咲) (her last name means "beautiful, good-looking" and her first name means "blossom, flourish")

Age: 17 years old

Unit: Pain Killer

Position: Keyboardist

Gender: Female (She/her)

Birthday: January 16th (Capricorn)

Height: 172 cm

Family: Father, mother

School: Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy (2-A)

Club/committee: Library committee

Hobbies: Reading horror novels, playing piano

Talents: Not getting scared easily

Favorite food: Cheese buns

Least favorite food: Hamburger

Dislikes: Crowded places, forgetting her cane

Appellations:

"Sae-san" (Yuuki, Kanami)

"Sae-chan" (Inori)

Image color: #E9BD79

Character description: Sae is a new student and obviously it's hard for her to get used to her new school and her new classmates. She is a quiet person who often scares people away because of how blunt she is and because of her refusing to sugarcoat things, but she is actually just very.. tired. She can't find energy for socializing, so she often ends up saying something completely different from what she wanted to say. It may seem like she treats Yuuki just as coldly as she treats everyone else, but she actually appreciates her company and even finds her cute in some way. She also.. really likes the attention she gets from her.

Trivia:

Sae and Yuuki are classmates.

Sae shares a lot of similarities with Saki, such as being "the new student who couldn't attend school for some time because of illness", having a lot of yellows and oranges in their designs, being keyboardists of their respective units and their names starting with the same two letters. Their personalities are very different though.

When Sae mentioned that she doesn't like hamburgers, Inori stared at her and after a minute of silence asked "What do you have against America?"

Sae has to use a cane because she recently got a knee surgery. It may sound like something that isn't that serious, but Sae actually had to go through quite a lot of surgeries in her life which definitely had a negative impact on her mental health.

Inori decorated her cane to make her feel better. Sae is grateful to her for that.

She particularly enjoys body horror and psychological horror.

Interestingly, she doesn't just see herself as a patient in Hospital SEKAI, she sees herself as a zombie. Meaning that she sees herself as someone who's already dead or she thinks that with all the surgeries she's had, it would probably be better for her to die.

She's the only unit member who Inori couldn't come up with a nickname for, simply because she thought Sae's name is too short.

Nagai Kanami.

Name: Nagai Kanami (永居叶望) (her last name means "eternity, permanence" and "to stay, to be present" and her first name means "fulfill, satisfy" and "hope, wish, desire") 

Age: 18 years old

Unit: Pain Killer

Position: Bassist

Gender: Female (She/her)

Birthday: April 23rd (Taurus)

Height: 173 cm

Family: Father, mother, little brother (15 years old), little sister (10 years old)

School: Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy (3-A)

Club/committee: Tea ceremony club

Hobbies: Collecting cute hairclips, learning lore of mascot characters

Talents: Lying

Favorite food: Matcha-flavored pocky

Least favorite food: Egg dishes

Dislikes: Getting up early, paper

Appellations:

"Nagai-senpai" (Yuuki, Sae)

"Kana-senpai" (Inori)

Image color: #E4A1C1

Character description: Kanami is one of the most popular students and she's very respected for being so helpful and kind to everyone. She always has the best grades too. Sadly, she gets sick very often, so she has to skip classes and club activities because of that, but she always tries her best to catch up. She seems to have really bad health anxiety because of that, so you can often see her wearing a mask, gloves or simply using hand sanitizer every few seconds. Some people actually think that Kanami is faking her illness to skip classes, but most people believe that Kanami is the most responsible person you'll ever meet. Except.. those people who think she's faking are right.

Trivia:

Her hair is just like that. It's not a weird haircut, her hair really is just like that. Inori said it looks like wet paper. Kanami was not amused.

Speaking of paper, she actually has an extreme fear of papercuts, so she tries to avoid it.. which is hard to do at school.

Her favorite tea is matcha.

She's the only third year in Pain Killer, so she's often forced to do "adult stuff" such as promoting their group, posting their music, etc. She's not happy about it.

The reason why she's faking her health problems is because she's tired of the pressure she receives from her family and the lack of attention due to her being the oldest child. She knows it's not the smartest decision, but she can't come up with anything else.

She sees herself as a patient in the Hospital SEKAI because she wishes to be one so that she could stop feeling bad about faking her illness. She actually wants to be in pain.

Watabe Inori.

Name: Watabe Inori (渡邉以愛) (her last name means "to cross, to pass over" and her first name means "by means of, because of" and "love, affection")

Age: 17 years old

Unit: Pain Killer

Position: Drummer

Gender: Female (Any pronouns)

Birthday: June 2nd (Gemini)

Height: 166 cm

Family: Mother, older brother (20 years old)

School: Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy (Class 2-B)

Club/committee: Swimming club

Hobbies: Sitting on the rooftop of her house, knife throwing

Talents: Telling ghost stories

Favorite food: Salty popcorn

Least favorite food: Carrots 

Dislikes: Relaxing music, bandaids that are "not cute"

Appellations:

"Inori-san" (Yuuki)

"Watabe" (Sae)

"Inori-chan" (Kanami)

Image color: #75C7C0

Character description: Inori never knows when to stop. She laughs too much. Cries too much. Loves too much. So obviously he's not a type of person to take a breakup well. Especially a breakup with a guy who enjoyed seeing her in pain. She still hopes he will come back one day, so for now, she will continue to do horrible things to herself to make him pay attentiom to her. They don't even go to the same school, but it's okay, he can just pay him a visit later. Hanging out with Pain Killer members is fun though.. Maybe even more fun than whatever Inori and that guy had.

Trivia:

Most people refer to Inori by she/her pronouns, but Sae also uses they/them pronouns and Kanami uses he/him pronouns for them.

Inori and that guy were childhood friends and dated for three years.

Yuuki often takes care of Inori's scars and wounds. Inori wasn't happy about it at first since she does so to make their ex-boyfriend come back, but later, he actually started to like the attention they get from Yuuki.

Inori often jokes about looking a lot like Miku (the "classic" one and not their SEKAI one).

She's in the same class as Mafuyu.

Inori finds swimming relaxing.

Unit info.

Unit description: I imagine them being somewhat of a mix of L/N and N25, they're posting their music online and they don't really perform irl and Yuuki created the unit, hoping that they can help people "heal" from their pain with their music.

Unit leader: Yuuki

Original songs info: They mostly play rock (a particularly sad kind) with some elements of electronic music.

Vocaloid covers: I imagine them covering songs like Accomplice by Misumi, Sayoko by Mikito-P, Crier by Scop and Apocalypse Now by Pinocchio-P.

(Bonus) Milgram cover: Even though Throw Down and Triage seem like the obvious choice, I think Weakness would fit their style and their characters much better.

#there's. so much wrong with them #but it's okay!! they're cute <3 #toxic yuri polycule!! #oh and church sekai is next. #[ 💛 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐬 ] #[ 💜 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚'𝐬 𝐨𝐜𝐬 ]

[zondearts]

can you talk about wolf au. I'm like an ipad baby and PRSK AUs are how i stay occupied

Oh you don't know how that ask delights me!

It's gonna be a long dump (cuz I've been brainroting for a while) so all that stuffs under the cut

So the prsk Wolf au, was this lil stray idea I had around the time when the werewolf shiho card came out. Basically what if I write a fic in german to improve my german and use the german fairytale inspired set as a base. The original plan was to write a semi long polyneed/shihosaki fic, but that turned into me only writing about the world building and culture, which turned into me writing smaller sidestories to get back into the mood, what turned into... must be around 20k Mizuena slowburn. (but I still haven't managed posting anything aside from some art :P)

I will genuinely try my best to formulate anything coherent, because I am a scatterbrain who suffers under "has to mention small details lest they burst" disease.

Anyways the setting of the au is in the medivelesque city Diva in a country called Sekai. Sekai is a small to medium sized country, around the size of Bayern (the biggest German state) and is under the rule of the Ootori royal family. Next to them four other families rule over parts of Sekai, the Asahinas, the Hinomoris, the Tenmas and the Shinonomes, who all currently reside in Diva.

For each I have selected some symbols which appear in ornaments and patterns.

The Ootori naturally have the phoenix as a coat of arms, they're tbh the only family I haven't properly fleshed out, but they united Sekai (it previously was several smaller countries at war) and at one point almost seperated Sekai, yet that's all I managed.

The Asahinas are a more interesting bunch. Coat of arms and Ornament vise they mainly have symetric rootlike meandering purple patterns, with occasional snowflake-shapes, mostly to potray how the family is connected and interwoven in Sekais politics and how they uphold order. (Their territory is also more Renaissance esque for that reason) They are a family of perfection, which delights most and creeps out some.

The Hinomoris coat of arms is a white Hare looking at the moon. They also have a more forest animal theming, since they control most of the forestry and hunting. (architecturally they have more of a gothic architecture, but only for the nobles and the church (oh the church wai wai)) They're next to a massive forest which I oh so love thinking about. They are a old family next to old trees and in possession of an old church in need of restoration.

The Tenmas coat of arms is obviously the Pegasus (more of a alicorn, but psshhh Tsukasa said it's a Pegasus and his word is law). They have a rich mythological beasts theming, since they're from a long bloodline of dragonslayers etc. They're also paired with Lions, for example one of their cities outside of Diva's called Leo. They're somewhat the spirit of Sekai and enjoy allot of goodwill from the people. (They have a more romanesque building style)

The Shinonomes coat of arms are two Wolfs standing next to a color palette and chisel. Their theming is more prominent in their social standing as respected artist, but rotten family. Their wolves with turned heads, but still wolves. They don't own much land and only work in the arts, closed off in a giant building.

The church shows it's leoneed influences. First Miku is the main deity, the god who creates with song and put the world in harmonious order, which is the geocentric worldview (which I have thought about too much, like man alchemist sure as fuck loved they're geocentricm) besides her, the other cryptonloids are gods aswell. The religion is more music oriented, most prominent in the festivals each month (which I wish to elaborate on, but I can't make this dump that long)

The interesting part of the beliefs is what the heavenly order deems as good and bad, since those are the main sources of conflict here.

Because next to humanity and the gods are the others (die Anderen) a generalized group of those who are not part of the divine order. Those can be simply animals like Ravens, bats, wolves and cats, but also mythical beings like fae, fairies, elves etc.

The normal attitude towards them is neutral, stay away, don't call lest they answer and so on.

All fine and dandy, but the country has been hit by a wave of werewolves gone mad because of a bloodmoon (mythologically speaking, the wolf in the sky (inspired by norse mythology) bit the moon coating it in blood and declaring hunting season) muddying the already blurry borders between human and other.

That attack caused hate and unease to spread around, folks are willing to purge anything other to strengthen the borders between normal and abnormal, healthy and sick, good and bad...

Anyways all the blorbos are other in some way shape or form.

Starting from the ones who are other before the bloodmoon:

Shizuku and Airi:

So Shizuku is the future heir of the Hinomori family (becoming heir after her father dies a bit before the bloodmoon), but she's a bit of a clutz, a bit of an airhead even, so there's some obvious struggle there.

Well she once went into the forest in one restless night and attracted Airis attention. Airi is a Fairy who's also lord of the forest, the same the Hinomoris claim as their territory. Because of that Airi snuck into Shizukus house, hidden as a maid to test if she's worthy to be the "representative" of her forest. (she's just gay)

I have written a bit about their relationship at that time before the bloodmoon, exploring Airis conflicted feelings about where her feelings towards Shizuku belong. Typical "You can't love me! You're a girl and I'm a worm!" plot, mixed with the themes of wildness (symbolized by a lynx) and domestication (a dog). After the blood Moon Airi works with Shizuku, who kinda sorta is about to start a civil war...

Anyways Minoharu:

Haruka is a travelling hunter, who hunts down monsters and other beasts. Minori is a gay nature spirit....like...yk? I also considered writing about their relationship before the bloodmoon, trying to find the idol vibes in it. Atm it appears to be that Haruka hunts down the most unruly creatures thus garnering the admiration of the people and the others.

For most of the time the gratitude of the others would be expressed by odd gifts, like feathers, nuts, pebbles and flowers, for Haruka can't see them. Minorin (the gayass) has been following her for a while, occasionally aiding in Harukas hunts and gifting her stuff like the rest. At some point Haruka noticed her and they kinda sorta got to be partners (sorry didn't manage much development on that yet) After the bloodmoon Haruka got commissioned by the king to kill off the stray werewolves, that's when they started working with Shizuai.

Then Rui and Nene:

Rui is human born with hagstone eyes (dual colored eyes the center is a different color etc) he can see the others. Therefore he got ostracized, because of his weird behavior. Being a exentric doesn't help, so when he found a trapped Siren (Nene, who got kidnapped from her homeland and now chills with Rui), he decided to just... hermit it up, goes full on mad alchemist (raaah). His presence before the bloodmoon is during the Mizuena prebloodmoon plot. There he functions as Mizukis strange friend who asked them to transport riddled letters to An.

An here is a affiliate to Rui, ex knight and of a lesser known nobel family, she and Kohane are the owners of a tavern. Ans task is keeping check on Rui and smoothing relations between the town and the others.

Mizuena:

Mizuki is a changeling chased out of their village after their family found out that they infact weren't their son. They wound up hanging out with Rui for a while, since they have a similar stance of being an unwelcome mix of other and human. On their journey to Diva they met Ena in a small town far from the city (she ran from her family for art reasons) Ena joined them in their journey, finding comfort in their relationship, since Mizuki doesn't treat her as part of "his" family. They bond together, Mizuki assists her in her impulsive new goal of becoming a knight, they have the classic Mizuena runaway story and wham. Gaē

I have written a lot about that in a fic (might finally manage posting the first chapter sometime, still it's in german soo...) focusing on falling out of humanity, searching a future etc. swell stuff to ponder about, but ngl I fear Ena got a bit too ooc

Kanamafu:

So...Kanade's dead...she died...womp womp. Aight lemme explain. Mafuyus presence before the bloodmoon is just being the friendly neighborhood knight, until she ends up standing in ominous mist, talking in a monotone hollow voice how people are cursed, or damning themselves. She has the same eyes as Rui, can see the other, but she's a Asahina, so that can't be, no good girl stares at the corner for hours tsk tsk. Welp that leads to some mental damage, seeing the tortured ghosts of the past, but pretending that everything is fine, mixed with the already present Mafu...trauma, yeagh not fun. Anyways one night Mafuyu heard a haunting song and finds out it's Kanades restless ghost, who cursed herself with the duty of singing prayers to save folks...so they ended up being besties :3

Now! To the after bloodmoon stuff:

So around the time before the bloodmoon, like around one/two months, Saki left the country to get some better help for her illness. While that happens the horrendous bloodbath occurred and Shiho (who was a knight atm) got bit by a Werewolf and spread the curse on Ichika and Hona before running off into the forest. Yay.

Since Shiho only was freshly turned Ichika and Hona got about...wowza two years until the curse takes hold on them. Naturally the panicked people aren't fond of two (there were more but...those didn't make it) future werewolves in their mids, but here comes Shizuku with a steel chair.

The Hinomoris are next to the Asahinas one of the most powerful families in Sekai (excluding the Ootoris) ,so Shizuku, the new head of the family, threathens a civil war if the city harms any people injured by the attacks. She got some backing, since the family helped out a lot of the people affected by the attack. This in mind they came to a conclusion that the cursed will live under their watch until they turn and welp...get executed.

Nice and dandy, back to Saki out of country.

Girl has no clue and will not have any clue for a while.

Her entire friendgroup affected by the perils, Tsukasa and Ichika came to the conclusion to not tell her the entire thing.

So after she returned, still stuck in a room with fabeled beasts painted on her walls, she listens to Ichikas monthly lies. It's all she has.

Until Ichika acts weird, Tsukasa kicks her out, leading to a debate between the Tenmas, where Saki hears the truth and runs away into the forest like Shiho.

There the plot scatteres.

So Ichika? she was under the surveillance of a troop of knights...to be precise niigo. Officially Ena and to balance it out Mafuyu, but Mizuki and Kanade are their plus ones. They have a sorta neat relationship, especially Ichimizu, which I really need to explore more. That aside, Ichika is about to go full wolf and niigo is in crisis mode. Mafuyu is of the opinion to kill her before Ichika reveals their secret. Ena is full, no...no we shouldn't?? unwilling to follow some orders and kill a bro. Mizuki and Kanade are the middle ground, going, hey so killing Ichika is bad actually, but if we let her run away, Ena will be blamed and might even get killed in her place.

They come to a conclusion that they have to surrender Ichika, but find Saki for her, who's disappearance was announced by a very concerned Tsukasa rushing through the streets.

On Honamis side, she already got put in a cell for being a bit too dubious at the monastery. She managed gathering some tolerance, by cutting of contact with Ichika and going full people pleaser, but one bad day and schwomp jail.

One day Emu just spawns in the jail, since a kind friend of her wound up getting put behind bars. Through the conversation Honami gathers that Saki vanishes and admits her concern, motivating Emu to go on a search for her.

And Kasa? his character is a fun one ngl. Tsukasa in this au is enamored by the heroic legends of his forefathers. He has a bit of a self-absorbed vibe for most of the time, but after Saki left he had to face the reality of his beloved fairytales.

So emu contacts him and leads him to her odd friends in the odd forest, Rui and Nene. So that forms the wxs Saki search party.

Aight now where's Saki?

In a gay cottage.

Yk Shiho running off into the forest? Yeagh she got caught by Shizuku. She and Airi put the Shiwolf into time out in the hidden Hinomori hut (hidden by Airi, for I love myself some twisting reality and creating hidden spaces :3. Rui does that as well)

Haruka and Minori who got commissioned to hunt down wolves like Shiho almost found her, but Shizuku managed convincing them otherwise, so they now hang out with Shiho.

How Saki ended up there? Shiho found her collapsed in the snow and idk man unnecessary feelings aside, she wouldn't let anyone die in the snow, let alone Saki.

So she brought her to Minoharu to care for and just hides in the sidelines to maintain distance.

The entire gay cottage part is just slowburn Shihosaki (at least that's what my notes say) and Saki getting the mobility aid she deserves.

Back to niigo, Mizuki managed getting close to finding where Saki may be, but got caught by Airi. Now Niigo has a new sidehussel, overthrowing the government (more precisely the Asahinas).

Luckily, since Ichika is...in prison, Mafuyu has to go back home, so Mizuki can follow her there and snoop around.

From that point things stop being concrete

Around some time, Wxs managed to find Saki, but now they have to figure out how to yk...not let the rest of leoneed get publicly executed.

And well there's a struggle, since even if they save Ichihona, they still have to completely convince a paranoid country, that the others are actually swag and maybe they should hold hands and make out with them.

Either that or run away, something that niigo suggests.

I still didn't manage to find out what is the best solution....

Aight so this is my...~2k long ramble about the Wolf au, only leaving out, traditions, the other vocaloids, myths, interesting motives, changing seasons, further political affairs, horses, different povs, my attempts in using the german language in a interesting manner and...Akitoya.

Idk if that dump is coherent, might make a more coherent one in my prsk account (to shill said account @sleep-deprived-luka )

#Wolf admittedly is my biggest au only being challenged by Wings of Fire au #It's essentially a fantasy au with german sub and my selfindulgent flairs but its my fantasy au with german sub and shameless selfindulgenc #anyways hope this is entertaining #ask #rambles #project sekai

[recentanimenews]

Arifureta Zero, Vol. 5

By Ryo Shirakome and Takaya-ki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Rei” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

It’s been a good sixteen months since I last read Arifureta Zero… and come to think of it, eleven months since the last Arifureta in the main series. This is the danger of catching up with the Japanese release, and I knew this meant that a lot of my time was going to be spent trying to remember who everyone apart from the main characters were. Little did I realize that that was going to be ALL of my time. This is the 2nd to last book in the series, and as such it has to gather everyone in the cast together for the big battle in the finale. And I do mean everyone – every single ally we’ve seen in the books to date pops up again, along with new characters we haven’t seen before, and they’re all written as if we remember who they are and are nostalgic to see them again. It’s exhausting. Fortunately, there’s BIT more going on than just setup.

A month after the end of the previous book, Miledi is still in a coma, which has everyone stressed out, especially Oscar, whose fighting abilities are actually being affected by his worry. Fortunately, she wakes up soon after the book begins. Unfortunately, she’s… a bit different. Yes, it’s We Want Our Jerk Back, the light novel. The largest chunk of the book is spent getting Laus, their newest ally, to the rest of them, as he’s being hunted by the entire church… including two of his own sons. (This is framed as a big reveal, but it’s telegraphed so badly I feel no remorse revealing it here.) Once he’s arrived, and Miledi puts everyone through RIGOROUS TRAINING, it’s discovered that three of their allies are going to be put to death publicly by the Church. So Miledi decides now is the time. the Big Battle. (In Book 6.)

The author apologizes for this book being so long, and he should. It’s too long, and a lot of this wasn’t needed. The “checking in with everyone who the Liberators ever met in prior books” section is a lifeless slog. Better were the scenes with Miledi waking from her coma, but she’s missing her annoying. Without it, she’s a cute adorable teenage girl in love with Oscar and not ashamed to say it. This is mined for much comedy, and for once it actually works quite well, especially her reaction once she returns to normal. Speaking of love, Miledi and Oscar don’t confess here, but that’s because they want to wait till after the battle – their feelings are known to each other. Oh yes, and there’s an incredibly annoying bunny girl in this as well, who seems to combine all the worst parts of Shea and none of the good points. The author loves to write “incredibly annoying but secretly goodhearted and awesome” people – indeed, the lesson of this book is that all of the Liberators are eccentrics – but sometimes I feel they overdue it.

So next up is the finale, and it’s not a spoiler to say that Everybody Dies – this is a prequel, after all. But it’s not the journey, it’s the destination, and so we’ll see how it all happens and how many times our heart can be broken. If you like Arifureta, you should read this, but be aware – it’s long and has boring bits.

By: Sean Gaffney

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Arifureta Zero, Vol. 2

By Ryo Shirakome and Takaya-ki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Rei” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

In my review of the first book in this prequel series, I said that it was Miledi’s book and Miledi’s series. Here I’ll go further: I think that Miledi is meant to compare directly with Hajime. Yes, in terms of personality, she reads more like a horrible fusion of Shea and Tio, but as we see a lot in this book, even more than the last one, she is wedded to her ideals and prepared to do anything in her power to preserve them, even if that means taking on the Church, a bunch of pirates, or even a giant seas monster with her ungodly gravity powers. (Ungodly would suit her fine, I think). As for Oscar, he has Hajime’s snark down pat, but after this book we really know who he’s meant to be. He’s Shinpachi from the Gintama series. No, really, the author even straight up ripped off the glasses joke. Oh yes, and we get a new Liberator as well. That’s her on the cover.

The author suggests that the seemingly sweet big sister type who’s really a sadistic tease is a surprise for this book, something which… isn’t true, but whatever. Meiru is a lot of fun, though, and is not only a big sister to her captured real sibling, but also to a huge pirate family that she heads up. Yes, it’s Arifureta does One Piece. Miledi and company are arriving at the city the pirates work out of to find the next Liberator, and after a host of misunderstandings that eventually get resolved, find she… doesn’t want to join them. Well, that’s fine, we went through this in the first book. Till then, there’s sea monsters that get attracted to Miledi’s magic, and casino capers, etc. Of course, eventually the Church is ordered to destroy these pirates once and for all, which leads to the last half of the book, which is one giant melee battle that is highly entertaining provided you love 120-130 pages of fights.

Honestly, I’m surprised there isn’t a much higher body count in this prequel. We already know it’s going to end badly, and it always seems like there’s going to be some dead innocents, but so far the author has done a pretty good job of having them saved at the last minute. (There are a couple of Oscar’s orphan kids who are in a coma from the last book, but Meiru may be able to save them too). In fact, despite the grim Church and the ever-present threat of death, this is a fun book – I would say of all the Arifureta books, this one balances the wacky humor and the thrilling serious plot the best. Miledi is annoying as hell, but not to the reader, just to the characters – an important development! Even the art is really good, showing off both the silly and dramatic (the picture of Miledi giving the finger to the villain may be my favorite).

This is a long book, like most of the Arifureta series, but for fans, it’s a must read. Even casual readers who are turned off by Hajime being Hajime in the main series may want to give the prequel a shot.

By: Sean Gaffney

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Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Vol. 5

By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

After a few volumes of pretending to be your standard “reader surrogate gains immense powers and a wide variety of women” isekai story, Arifureta has settled down as it finally realizes the type of story it wants to tell, which is a messianic narrative. I’m not actually being facetious here, we have seen seeds of this before, but they come to full flower here. Hajime is here to save the world by being badass at it. Those who believe will be rewarded, those who do not believe will get their asses kicked. We see one of his believers doubt herself in this volume, and Hajime makes it very clear that this is no easy task – believe in him and stop stewing in self-hatred, or get out. Needless to say, we know which choice she makes. We also see Hajime go up against the powerful Church, which regards him as a heretic, and a demon who may as well be filling in for Lucifer. Subtle this ain’t.

Shizuka’s on the cover, but doesn’t appear much, though we do see her bonding with the princess of the royal family, who I had honestly forgotten. Most of the book is taken up with Hajime getting Myu back home, which also involves conquering not one but TWO of the remaining dungeons. Kaori is left behind for one of them as support, which seems quite sensible given that this is the MAGMA DUNGEON, but she comes along on the water dungeon crawl, which leads to her crisis of faith I mentioned above. Said crisis of faith is resolved by Hajime showing that he cares about her by threatening an entity that’s possessed her – indeed, most of the harem’s self-esteem issues are resolved by simply having the undemonstrative Hajime pat their head or vow to protect them or somesuch. In all honestly, as Hajime notes, he’ll basically do whatever they say, but I suspect the typical “I hate OP harem guys” fan won’t mind as Hajime is stoic rather than friendly.

We get a lot more background on the past of the world Hajime and company have been brought to here, and find that if we’re headed for a massive Holy War, it won’t be the first. I suspect the next volume will have Hajime’s group divert their plans to save Aiko, who is being imprisoned and tortured for believing in Hajime. No, really. As I said, if you don’t accept this as a messianic narrative, it may be hard to get past its inherent ridiculousness. Oh yes, we also meet Myu’s mother, who the author admits is straight up a ripoff of Alicia from Aria, and who clearly would be quite happy to be an addition to Hajime’s harem, though I’m not sure it will actually happen. It would be nice to have an “ara, ara” sort in the harem. In any case, the next volume will be as action-packed as this one, I imagine, thoguh knowing Hajime, he is unlikely to be crucified and die for anyone’s sins. Recommended for fans of ridiculously overpowered guys and the women who adore them.

Also, “Fish-san was a fishmancer.” I’ll just leave that there.

By: Sean Gaffney

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