#straight from taku

[sweet-little-dude]

yes hello girl i’m so sorry for being inactive i was in camp and shit but hello !!

#straight from taku

[elyssialumengard]

Alastor x Reader : Fragile Link ( Part 2 )

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Link to the first part for those who haven't read it :

https://www.tumblr.com/elyssialumengard/741783404758073344/alastor-x-reader-fragile-link-part-1?source=share

Summary : In this chapter, Charlie presents his redemption hotel project to (y/n), an powerful overlord. Alastor, with his own motives, tries to persuade (y/n) to become involved in their confrontation against Adam.

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Taku knocked a second time, but the silence remained implacable.

Tangible anxiety flashed across his face as he prepared to strike a third time, softly saying :

- My Lady, may I come in ?

Getting no response, he made a face that the two people behind him did not see. Charlie frowned at Alastor, wondering what was going on. The radio demon tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing, wondering why (y/n) was slow to respond, when usually, she was so responsive. He could sense her presence, so it wasn't due to a mistake in location.

The demon, under the overlord's orders, did not hesitate to not ask permission, instead deciding to carefully push open the door. He entered, Charlie and Alastor on his heels, where the blonde was amazed by the clean layout of the place.

The room was bathed in soft, calming light that filtered through the thin curtains, letting in the golden rays of the artificial sun. The walls were painted in light tones, accentuating the brightness of the room and creating a warm atmosphere. Delicately framed paintings adorned the walls, bringing an artistic touch to the whole.

At the back of the room, a solid wooden desk was placed, on which were placed a kettle, a selection of fine teas in pretty metal boxes, delicately decorated porcelain cups, as well as small biscuits arranged on a plate.

Two plush sofas were placed opposite each other in the center, separated by a glass coffee table on which were a few magazines and a vase filled with fresh flowers. The elegantly patterned cushions added a touch of color and comfort to the seating.

Shelves full of books stretched along one of the walls, offering a varied selection of reading material for all tastes. Potted plants were scattered here and there, bringing greenery and freshness to the room.

In this welcoming and peaceful environment, (y/n) stood near a window, her back, silently contemplating the landscape through the glass, absorbed in her thoughts.

Approaching with growing concern, Taku called out to him again. Hearing this time, (y/n) gracefully pivoted towards them, revealing her strangely angelic appearance, which always disconcerted those who saw her for the first time.

Her hair, as white as fresh snow, flowed in silky cascades around her face, framing delicate, celestial features. His gaze, both gentle and penetrating, could have probed the deepest souls. Slight wrinkles framed her eyes, testifying to the countless trials she had endured. Fine deer antlers stood on the top of his head, rather large, extending back, adorned with light beads that had been made for her decades ago.

She was wrapped in a long taupe gray t-shirt, loose and flowing, the long sleeves of which fell almost delicately over her slender hands. The hem of the garment caressed the bottom of her buttocks while she had taken care to slip the front into her straight black fabric pants, thus defining her silhouette. A navy blue belt, carefully adjusted, captured the whole in subtle harmony. On her feet, sandals matching the color of the belt, with black wedge heels, seemed to extend the slender line of her legs.

Despite the apparent casualness of her outfit, she emanated an aura of dignity and serenity, giving her presence a natural nobility and captivating maturity.

Yet, despite the brilliance of her beauty and the imposing aura that surrounded her, an enigmatic fragility seemed to emanate from her, as if the burden of the entire world rested on her proud shoulders. Silent tears beading from her white eyelashes, sliding slowly down her cheeks, leaving in their wake sparkling traces on the porcelain of her skin.

Faced with this heartbreaking vision, Charlie's heart ached with empathy. She could almost feel the pain and suffering emanating from (y/n), even though she didn't know her.

Ignoring Charlie and Alastor, (y/n) walked towards Taku who was walking towards her. Their gestures betrayed a deep and ancient familiarity. She held out a trembling hand, which Taku took tenderly, placing his other hand on her hip for support.

Tears continued to fall down (y/n)’s cheeks as she begged for comfort.

- Taku... I am gripped by doubt and torment... Did I make the right decision ? Was I right to act this way ? She whispered in a broken voice. My heart breaks thinking that another member of my family will suffer loneliness and fear because of the consequences of my actions.

Taku looked at her affectionately, his hand gently stroking hers to comfort her.

- You acted according to your duty. He replied in a soothing voice. Lynn broke established laws. It has threatened the balance that you have so ardently preserved. You had no choice but to punish him.

An encouraging smile appeared on Taku's lips, trying to ease his mistress' pain.

- Your wisdom and prudence have protected our family and our territory. Don't let the burden of your decisions torment you. We are all at your side, aware of the rules, ready to support your choices, however difficult they may be.

(y/n) closed her eyes, feeling the tears continue to fall down her cheeks despite her efforts to hold them back.

- I know, Taku... I realize that none of you hated me for that, that I did what had to be done, but... But that doesn't lessen the pain. She whispered, letting out a sigh of sorrow.

Taku, still close to her, dried her tears delicately, his fingers tenderly caressing her skin. He moved even closer, trying to offer her whatever comfort he could in this moment of torment and vulnerability, no longer caring at all about the guests.

Observing this touching scene, Charlie was overcome by an emotion mixed with surprise and fascination. She didn't expect such intimacy between Taku and (y/n), but she couldn't help but find it magnificent, given the evidence of the deep attachment between them.

While as far as Alastor was concerned, he felt a surge of rage wash over him, his fingers tightening around the top of his cane with increasing intensity. His sinister smile widened, tinged with a dark glow as he observed this lesser demon, acting as if he was entitled to such closeness.

A shadow passed through his eyes, mixing jealousy and desire for possession.

- Remember this, my Lady. Your wisdom has always brought us serenity and protection. Your decisions were dictated by necessity and prudence. He continued in a soothing voice, trying to ease her pain.

(y/n) listened carefully to her advisor's comforting words, her expression relaxing slightly under his influence. However, when she heard the crackles of the radio growing louder in the room, her eyes suddenly widened, recognizing the sound with a disturbing certainty.

- Alastor, I advise you to control your emotions. Taku intervened, diverting his attention to the demon. I did not grant you an audience here, with my Lady, for you to cause trouble.

Alastor bit back a growl, his stag horns growing slightly in response to his growing frustration.

- I'm not the one who starts the trouble, my dear Taku. He replied, his gaze burning with a dark glow. But no matter, I wouldn't want to spoil your little intimate moment with your precious overlord. He added acerbically, his pupils narrowing, leaving more room for the black of his eyes.

Before Taku could respond, a bitter cold suddenly filled the room, dropping the temperature several degrees and obscuring the surrounding light. (y/n)'s silver eyes glowed menacingly as she stared at Alastor with an icy intensity, filled with hatred and menace.

Detaching itself slightly from Taku, (y/n)'s aura transformed into a terrifying presence, imbuing the room with a heavy and sinister atmosphere. His antlers grew larger as did his shadow which expanded, morphing into a tight grip around Alastor's body, immobilizing him. All this happened in barely the blink of an eye. Alastor's mischievous smile froze, becoming more awkward as he tried to keep his composure.

Charlie, panicked, let out a little cry of fear when she saw Alastor in danger. (y/n) walked towards him with determined steps, her piercing gaze staring at him intensely. Once in front of him, the same size, she addressed him in a cold voice :

-What are you here for, radio demon ?

Aware of the palpable threat in the air, Alastor responded with feigned confidence :

- Just to chat, my dear overlord. I come as a friend, as always.

- As friends ? She replied, an icy glint in her eyes. You have no friends here. You only have enemies waiting for the right moment to destroy you.

A shiver ran down Alastor's spine, but he kept his composure, his sinister smile stretching slightly across his face.

- Oh, but my dear, it's a shame. I'm sure we could get along if you gave me a chance.

(y/n) stared at him with contempt.

- You don't belong here, Alastor. And if you even think for a moment about sowing chaos in my territory, know that I will make you regret every second of your existence.

When Alastor should have fought back or tried to defend himself, a subtle observation revealed to him an unsuspected truth, escaped everyone's attention. The shadow's hold on him, although similar to that of his memories, was not as stifling or threatening as he had thought. He felt within himself the possibility of freeing himself from it, if he really wanted to. Staring intently at the face of the woman he had come to meet, he noticed that the tears had stopped flowing, giving way to an expression valiantly fighting against fatigue.

Smiling even more, he decided to lighten the atmosphere with his usual sarcastic humor.

- Let's see, my dear, you take me for a more belligerent demon than I really am. He said, giving a mocking smile. I'm here on a much more interesting matter than causing chaos. Actually, I'm here to introduce you to someone !

(y/n) arched an eyebrow, her expression hardening even further.

-And who is this person you are talking about ? She asked in a biting voice.

Alastor let out a small laugh, turning to Charlie with a theatrical nod.

- Allow me to introduce you to Princess Charlie Morningstar, heir to the throne of Hell and the founder of the Hazbin Hotel !

Charlie, feeling a little uncomfortable under (y/n)'s unforgiving gaze, gave her a shy smile and bowed slightly.

- Hey… Nice to meet you, Lady (y/n). She said in a calm but respectful voice.

( y/n ) looked away from Alastor to stare at Charlie, his expression softening slightly. She observed the young princess with a mixture of curiosity and evaluation, taking the time to look her over from head to toe, making her slightly uncomfortable, feeling as if the one who was taller than her she probed the depths of his soul.

- Charlie Morningstar… She whispered, repeating the name as if to engrave it in her memory.

As (y/n) scrutinized Charlie with growing interest, a resolve seemed to arise within her. With a graceful gesture of her hand, she dispelled the shadow that still enveloped Alastor, thus freeing the demon from his yoke. The temperature of the room and its brightness returned to their natural balance, while (y/n)'s deer antlers returned to their initial size.

(y/n), now more relaxed, conformed to the rules of etiquette, respecting them. A gracious smile graced her lips as she gave Charlie a salutation of gracious solemnity, bowing her head slightly in respect.

- The pleasure is shared, Princess Charlie. She replied in a soft but confident voice, getting up. It is an honor to welcome you to my modest home. Please forgive me for the vulnerable and aggressive version of myself that you may have encountered. Under no circumstances should she be present in the presence of royalty such as yours.

Charlie was pleasantly surprised by the sudden change in (y/n)'s attitude, feeling more comfortable in her presence. She bowed respectfully in gratitude, acknowledging the courtesy of the Overlord of Hell, not being used to being shown so much respect.

(y/n) then turned towards the couches, inviting Charlie to sit down.

- Please sit down, Princess Charlie, you must be tired from all this walking. She declared in a friendly voice, gesturing elegantly to the sofa.

Charlie nodded politely and sat down, his gaze following Alastor who stood behind the back of the sofa, his teasing smile still hanging on his lips. Meanwhile, (y/n) sent a command to Taku.

- Taku, please prepare some tea for our guest. She ordered in a calm but authoritative voice, as she sat down her turn, opposite Charlie who was standing straight, playing with his fingers.

Taku nodded silently, bowing slightly before walking over to where the teapot and cups were set out. He prepared the tea with silent skill, discreetly observing his enemy out of the corner of his eye.

As for Alastor, he remained unfazed by the presence of the one he would like to see dead, his expression still teasing, his gaze sparkling with undisguised malice as he observed the scene with palpable amusement.

Once the tea was ready, Taku approached Charlie and handed him a cup with a respectful gesture.

- Your tea, Princess Charlie. He announced in a neutral voice, placing it in front of her on the table, before serving (y/n), who thanked him with a warm but moderate smile.

Charlie thanked him with a grateful smile and took the cup carefully, feeling the comforting warmth of the liquid against his fingers. She took a small sip, savoring the soothing taste of the tea. (y/n) observed him with a slight smile, then suddenly declared, breaking the silence that had fallen :

- If I may say so, you look exactly like your father, Lucifer.

Charlie, astonished, looked at her in surprise.

- Do you know my father ? She asked with a hint of disbelief, unsure of what to think.

(y/n) nodded slightly.

- We met on a few rare occasions. She replied in a calm voice, full of reflection. But I must admit that I don't particularly hold it in my heart. Although I understand that he is overwhelmed by the illness of depression, especially since the departure of Lilith, your mother, I firmly believe that a king, even if he did not choose this destiny, must above all think to his subjects and be ready to sacrifice himself for them. Unfortunately, your father doesn't always seem to understand this, letting innocent people perish every year and condemning all sinners indiscriminately.

A nervous laugh escaped Charlie's lips at this unexpected revelation, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear, trying to hide his growing confusion. Another heavy silence settled in the room, (y/n) doing everything to ignore the presence of Alastor, who reveled in his reaction.

After taking a sip, the hostess asked in a friendly but curious voice :

-And if not, can you inform me of your coming here, princess ? I must admit that I never imagined such a thing happening.

Charlie felt a surge of intense excitement course through her body as she jumped to her feet, the surge in her voice ready to burst into song to introduce her hotel of redemption. Her eyes glowed with palpable determination as she prepared to share her vision with those in the room.

- Oh uh yes ! Let me introduce you to my hotel that rehabilitates fishermen ! She began in a vibrant, almost musical voice. A place where the most lost souls can find redemption and inner peace.

His momentum was abruptly interrupted by the authoritarian voice of (y/n), which ended his tirade :

- There is no room for songs here, princess. Please forgive me for interrupting you, but I believe that there is a time for everything, including songs. If this is serious, you can present things differently.

Charlie, disappointed by the abrupt interruption of her creative momentum, sat up slowly, stammering an excuse. Alastor raised an eyebrow and said in a voice tinged with sarcasm :

- Are you sure about that, (y/n) ?

Ignoring Alastor's remarks and the hostile glances exchanged between him and Taku, (y/n) focused on Charlie, noticing his growing state of stress. Telling herself that his condition was because of her, with natural grace, she offered him a soothing smile and said softly :

- There's no reason to stress, princess, I didn't want to upset you. However, I can't stand the music anymore.

Hearing this, Alastor's smile became colder and more sarcastic. Charlie, looking at the woman in front of her, sighed, her shoulders slumping. She still had a hard time realizing that she was here, sharing tea with the person she considered an example to follow. As a result, she could not hold back from sharing her adoration for the overlord.

- You know, I've always heard about you. Rumors say that you are almost as powerful as my father, but that you have chosen a different path. A path of compassion and helping others.You have made pacts with sinners, protecting them and guiding them through the troubled waters of life. It's incredible. Everyone talks about you, but we never see you. You might almost think you're a legend. And yet here I am, facing you, realizing that you are very real. I admire you so much. It's like meeting my idol. Your strength, your generosity... It's inspiring. I mean, who else could boast of having (y/n) as an ally ? That's... That would just be amazing.

As Charlie's excitement began to skyrocket again, (y/n) gave him a kind look and said gently, touched by his words :

- Calm down, princess. Thank you for your admiration. Breathe, I am fully listening to you.

Charlie, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, outlined his plan with frankness tinged with nervousness. She honestly admitted that it was her fault that the purge had been brought forward six months, explaining that in a month Adam and the exterminators would come to see them first. Unable to hide her anxiety, she admitted that she did not know what to do in the face of this critical situation.

-And so… Alastor brought me here to get your help, apparently. She added, casting an uncertain look at Alastor.

( y/n ), staring skeptically at Alastor for the first since this exchange, raised an eyebrow, expressing doubt about the demon's intentions. In a calm but direct voice, she asked him :

- Do you really think you'll help Charlie with his hotel ? Do you believe in this idea of redemption ?

Alastor replied with a hint of amusement in his voice :

- Ah, my dear (y/n), believe in redemption ? It’s like believing in Santa Claus ! However, I see Charlie's little project as an entertainment opportunity. And maybe, who knows, a few souls to collect for eternity. But don't get me wrong, I'm here to save his project, it shouldn't be broken too quickly. I was even the one who chose the name of the brand, the “Hazbin Hotel”!

Faced with Alastor's response, Charlie felt disappointed and blasé, her face betraying her displeasure. She had hoped to find a sincere ally in him, but his words had reminded her of the dark and detached nature of the one who accompanied her today.

(y/n), turning to Taku with a serious look, asked him if the information provided by Alastor was true. Taku nodded soberly, confirming that according to his informants, the stated facts were accurate. (y/n) bowed his head slightly in recognition towards Taku before turning back to Charlie.

- I see… And what do you want from me, princess ?

Alastor spoke up to propose a solution to the situation.

- You know, (y/n), with your power and your army of fishermen, you could put an end to all this. You could even come to the aid of other potential members of what you insist on calling your “family”. He said in a convinced tone, looking at his nails, keeping a straight posture, not wanting to slump against the backrest even if he wanted to, wanting to keep a good face in front of her.

In a gesture of controlled serenity, (y/n) gently raised her hand to interrupt him, before falling gracefully on his knee. Closing her eyes briefly, she gathered her thoughts before responding in a calm but resolute voice :

- I understand your point of view, but I refuse to put the members of my family in danger for a matter that does not directly concern them. Here we are safe.

(y/n)'s reply, although delivered with apparent confidence, does not quite succeed in convincing Alastor, accustomed to detecting chinks in the armor of his interlocutors. He had subtly noticed the change in expression on the overlord's face. A smirk tugged at his thin lips, his eyes sparkling with biting amusement as he prepared to further explore the cracks in (y/n)'s confidence.

- You sure about that ? He asked, his voice softly tinged with a veiled threat. Think about it my dear. Things change, alliances break, and even your fishermen could find themselves caught in the tumult of this impending war.

He remained silent for a moment, letting his words permeate the atmosphere, then he continued in a calm but incisive tone :

- Imagine for a moment that Adam's forces are getting closer. Do you really think they will stop indefinitely at the gates of your pocket dimension ? That your precious fishermen will be spared from their fury ? No, my dear (y/n), your security is only an illusion in this constantly moving world. And if you refuse to act now, you may bitterly regret it when the flames of war lick the walls of your refuge.

He paused, letting his words resonate in (y/n)'s mind, before concluding with a sardonic smile :

- Of course, I do not underestimate your ability to protect your domain. But it's always good to consider all possibilities, even the darkest ones. After all, prudence is the mother of safety, right ?

Alastor knew how to tug on the heartstrings of high-ranking demons like (y/n). He used his charisma and sharp rhetoric to sow doubt in the overlord's mind, giving her a different perspective on the situation and pushing her to consider more aggressive actions to protect her rule and honor.

Before Charlie could intervene with his own arguments, Taku, faithful servant, spoke in a respectful but determined tone.

- My Lady. He began in a voice full of devotion. I understand the arguments made by this nuisance, but I implore you, do not let fear and uncertainty dictate your actions. You are the force that unites us, the light that guides our steps in the darkness. Your prudence is our shield against the chaos that always threatens to engulf us. Yes, times are uncertain and threats are many, but it is precisely in these times that your leadership is most crucial. Acting in haste, under the influence of fear, would only hasten our downfall. Let us remain faithful to our strategy, to our vision of the future. With your wisdom and wise judgment, we will overcome whatever challenges come our way. Because if you choose to engage in this confrontation, you risk losing more than you could gain. Your place is here, alongside yours, to protect our home and guide our destiny. Don't let the words of a manipulative demon sow doubt in your mind. We trust you, my Lady. And as long as you stay strong, so will we.

His hand, resting confidently on (y/n)'s shoulder, testified to his unwavering support, while he awaited his suzerain's decision with respectful patience, trusting in her wisdom and in her ability to make the best decisions for them.

(y/n) turned her gaze towards Taku, letting her face rest on her hand which was placed next to her on the backrest, fighting against the wave of sadness which invaded her at the thought of Lynn, that she had punished for a recent transgression. Alastor, carefully scanning the scene, felt a pang of annoyance as he noticed the proximity between them, a proximity that bothered him more than he cared to admit.

However, her attention was diverted by something that seemed to escape the others, when she raised her arm slightly, to take Taku's hand which was on her shoulder. Another curious and interesting detail, which added to the confirmation of his suspicions. (y/n) raised his face towards Charlie, letting go of his advisor's hand, placing his arm back at his side. In a gentle voice, she expressed her regrets.

- I'm sorry, princess, but I can't help you in this matter. She declared with compassion. I can't afford to put any member of my family in danger, let alone drag them into this.

However, she offered Charlie a glimmer of hope by adding :

- However, if your hotel survives, I will be happy to support you by visiting your establishment. I could then assess whether it truly constitutes a safe haven for those who seek redemption under your protection.

This compromise seemed to assuage Charlie's disappointment, giving him an encouraging outlook for the future of his project. She couldn't hold back her joy and literally jumped with contentment, her eyes shining with excitement.

- You are serious ? Really ? She exclaimed, both surprised and delighted by the powerful overlord's proposal.

(y/n) nodded gently, a kind smile stretching her lips.

- Yes I am. If your hotel manages to offer a path to redemption, then some members of my family may feel drawn to that possibility. And as a worthy leader, it is my duty to help them as best I can. She declared with dignity, thus expressing her noble vision of responsibilities.

Charlie's eyes lit up even more, splashed with a mixture of admiration and gratitude.

- It's incredible ! Thank you so much, (y/n) ! You won't regret it, I promise ! She exclaimed, letting her gratitude and determination to make her project a success shine through.

Sensing Charlie's imminent departure, (y/n) smiled slightly, appreciating his enthusiasm and determination.

- I wish you good luck, princess. Do your best to save your hotel. She told him sincerely, recognizing the passion that animated the young woman.

Charlie, moved by these words, bowed respectfully to (y/n) like a fan to an idol.

- Thank you, thank you very much ! I will not disappoint you ! I will do everything to find a solution to save him, you will see ! She promised passionately before heading towards the exit, carrying with her a mixture of excitement and newfound enthusiasm, not caring if Alastor followed her or not.

Alastor remained still, staring at (y/n) with a mixture of interest and challenge in his glowing gaze. Taku, seeing that the conversation was coming to an end, turned to Alastor with a cold and bitter expression, suggesting in a scathing tone :

- It's time for you to go, demon. Your presence is no longer required.

But Alastor didn't seem to react to Taku's words, keeping his attention entirely focused on (y/n). He let out a little sarcastic laugh, before announcing in a quiet voice but full of innuendo :

- In fact, I intend to talk a little more with (y/n).

She turned her attention to him, with a neutral air, while he announced :

-And one-on-one this time.

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Author's note : Well, I guess there will be a part 3, right ? I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it, and that (y/n)'s character captivated you. Stay tuned for the next part !

#alastor hazbin hotel #alastor the radio demon #alastor x reader #alastor x y/n #alastor x you #hazbin charlie #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #radio demon #vivziepop

[yukirayu]

Meta: Taku Was (Not) in Love with Maya

One of the things that tends to get brought up every now and then when talking about Taku is how he supposedly had feelings for Maya. 

Now this is only my opinion, but I do believe that it is nothing more than a misconception.

To recap, it was first brought up by Toono after he had Towa all "dolled up" in order to fluster Taku. No one can deny that Towa is almost a dead ringer for his mother, and since he was dressed in feminine garb, Taku instinctively responded by mentioning Maya's name.

To which Toono then drops the "bomb": Taku was in love with Maya, but since the woman is dead, Taku is settling for the next closest thing: Maya's own son. 

Because Taku reacts in shock to that and angrily denies it, it's easy to assume he got caught red-handed.

And when Towa confronts him about it himself, he only denies again that none of what Toono said is true, but he visibly struggles to say the words. 

So once again, the easiest interpretation of this scene is that it's all actually true, and Taku is just in denial.

Taku does set the record straight by saying that he only admired Maya. He can't deny that she was beautiful, but he wasn't infatuated with her, per se. 

But after what's revealed about Taku in Fujieda's route, you may think that this is just one of his many lies.

Though let's give the above scenes a closer look. When the first one happened, let's recall that at least an hour ago, Taku almost got killed and was taken hostage alongside Towa. So it's only a given that his mind isn't exactly at its most rational or restrained state.

And Taku first showed shock not when Toono claimed that he had feelings for Maya, but when he answered Towa's question of who "Maya" is. 

At first glance, it seemed to be because he can tell where Toono's getting at and thus panicked. But in truth, that's not the case.

Remember, Taku is trying to keep Towa from knowing about his past no matter what. Even when he'd tell Towa false stories about a happier childhood, it should be pointed out that Towa still never knew even just Maya's name. 

Taku didn't tell him even that.

Which was why he was alarmed when Toono said that Maya  was Towa's mother. He feared that even that alone would already trigger some horrible memories for Towa. 

It's not as if his assumption is senseless, since even in his dreams, her mere shadow already stresses Towa out.

But even without Toono around, Taku still sounds like he's fighting against himself when he refutes to Towa that he didn't see Maya that way. Though it's not because he's still in denial or is rattled at getting "exposed". 

As explained during his final Interrogation:

For more details, some time after Towa's "euphoric session" with Asakura, Taku's feelings gradually changed. 

He was aware of it, and he struggled with it, because with everything Towa had been through, with how long they've known each other, it would be inappropriate.

It's why Taku sounds like he's having a hard time saying just the words "That's not true." He knows the rest of the sentence. 

"I never loved her that way. I'm in love with you. Only you." 

But at the time, he was still trying to bottle it up... until he no longer could.

What about the part where he says that he once looked up to Maya? It could be another lie. But he visibly fumbles more when he lies. Then again, he could have learned to say some lies with a straight face. 

But what if he was talking about something that used to be true?

Let's not forget that Taku had a complicated history with his mother. He loved her a great deal. But according to him his mother was sheltered and never learned to cope, having fallen after her husband left her and Taku, and fallen hard. 

To poverty, to drugs, to death.

But then, there's Maya. It's repeatedly made clear that Maya is deception personified. It would be all too easy for Maya to make Taku think she was nothing but a normal, kind and loving mother. 

Can't let the physician suspect anything, after all.

Back then, Taku was still struggling, even more so than now, due to what happened with his mom, so he'd naturally admire someone who could run a successful business while still finding time to take care of her son. If only he and his own mom had found that stability.

But of course, no physician would be foolish enough to see Towa's injuries and just brush them off as nasty accidents. Not when there's so many of them. 

And some of the dialogue during their pillow talk confirms that Taku already started having his suspicions.

What's left implicit is that it wasn't until after the "accident" for his suspicions to be confirmed. Exactly how and when? We don't know. 

But it should be pointed out that he's not put in the same position as Hasegawa, who was blackmailed into keeping silent about Maya.

In other words, Taku managed to find out - even if not all - at least enough about Maya without Sakaki ever catching wind of it. 

It would have been too easy for Sakaki to use Taku's debt to Toono as leverage, but that kind of situation is never brought up even once.

To go back to my main point, it's likely Taku wasn't lying. He may have technically told the truth: he /used to/ look up to Maya. At most, he admitted she was beautiful. But that's something absolutely no one denies. 

More importantly, Taku's words are a foreshadowing.

To what? To how a certain someone else fits the description better. 

Taku "admiring Maya" and "seeing Towa as a substitute for Maya" is something I've already covered before in a different meta, which I'll link here. All the details are there.

That leaves one last thing. Whether Taku's lies stay unexposed or not, he never once seems to talk about Maya with loathing or anger, even in Fujieda's route. 

But given how much he cares for Towa and how much Maya had hurt Towa, shouldn't Taku be mad?

And again, it's easy to draw the assumption that it's because he's still having difficulty reconciling the fact that his "beloved" is actually such a cruel psychopath even at present. But, at least to me, that's not what the narrative seems to be going for.

When he's not caught lying or keeping secrets, of course he wouldn't let any of his real emotions show. 

At most, the narration just mentions his expression turning dark when Towa asks if he had a horrible childhood, and Taku simply confirms it without giving more details.

And in the scenario where Towa finds out that Taku knows about his past, keep in mind it had been years since Maya had died.

For years, Taku been far more preoccupied with worrying about Towa than wallowing in shock or resentment over his broken faith in Maya.

And Taku never personally knew Maya. He mentioned them all having dinner once, but there's no other hint of them being close in any way. He wasn't all that familiar with her. 

So let's say if he ended up harboring bitter feelings about her, it's undoubtedly in the more distant sense.

Putting that aside, Taku wouldn't just suddenly fly into a rage or glower at the mention of Maya. 

In the true route, he's more concerned about how Towa's faring as he learns more of the truth. Towa and Towa's condition is his priority. Not some dead woman or how infuriatingly vile she was.

And there's at least 90% of why I think Taku definitely did not have feelings for Maya and how it's nothing more than a misconception that's easy to take as truth because Taku's secretiveness doesn't help his own case to anyone, not even the player.

#slow damage #fen writes meta

[johannwolfgangvongoethe]

i love this calendar illustration first of all bc theyre super cute with their little braids but also bc its rather romantic in nature, somehow implying one of the following options

good end rei had a gender revival and hopefully stopped defining masculinity by how powerful and violent she can be

bad end rei just kinda woke up after a few months and went “what the fuck am i doing” and now theyre chilling with his blood money (not ideal but good for them)

its not romantic at all actually and theyre just healthy cuddly besties on a picnic

my eternal struggle is i love rei and while i think him exploring gender is good and not a bad thing at all, it never truly felt “resolved” and like she was really DONE exploring it in the game. doesnt help that she straight up doesnt get more masc at all if she doesnt start anything with towa.

and also it felt like he was just crumbling under the pressure of life and his two jobs and the huge debt and was yearning really hard for love and towa just happened to be there and okay with that. MAN.... the friendship/family situation rei and towa (and taku) have is so so precious to me but it feels like towa just isnt into her at all. girlie, please find a devoted boyfriend who will fetch the stars from the sky for you, god knows you deserve nothing less.

also i will die on the hill that this didnt feel like a truly convincing conclusion to her gender and someone needs to sit rei down and go. babe you can be genderfluid and a straight girl and gay guy at the same time. no one minds and everyone loves you. (if i get a chance, ill definitely look into the rei afterstory drama cd though, just in case i am missing out on additional gender exploration there) (i did think it was really worthwhile of the game to make this a big conflict!!!!! its such a cool interesting topic, esp for a BL centric game)

#slodaposting

[towapet]

okay so anyway, towa 100% has bladder issues and heres why (not self projection i promise)

most obvious reason, his trauma. i could see towa wetting himself from a nightmare, in fact im more surprised that it didnt actually happen.

during fujiedas route, reliving his past couldve caused his bladder to give out </3

towa isnt the best at looking after himself and theres no greater example than when hes painting. im already convinced that he has an awfully weak bladder but i dont think hed even realise he wet himself while painting

(bless taku and rei for their patience and willingness to clean up after him, we all need a taku and a rei in our lives)

towas age regression !!! regressing to a younger mindset doesnt always lead to bladder problems, but for towa it certainly does

fujieda would be so unbelievably patient and caring to towa when he has an accident, especially when hes regressed. im sure sometimes it drives towa crazy with how gentle he is

rei would tease towa light heartedly, he doesnt mind cleaning towa up, as long as towa helps !! he'll nag and nag but its all in good fun and to lighten the mood

taku lets out a siiiigh and says something like "right, lets clean you up then. again." they have a routine where towa lets taku clean him up. towa says takus too old to be cleaning up his messes, but taku insists it makes him feel younger

madarame is all too happy to let towa wallow in his mess, and given the chance towa absolutely would. but madarame cant stand towa being wet and strips him of his pants and drags him straight to the bathroom. everytime he asks "arent you too old to be pissing yourself?" and towa just shrugs. theres no hard feelings and theres an understandment between them- its casual and doesnt need to be mentioned further

#towapet #omorashi #taku would insist on towa wearing adult diapers but youre not ready for that discussion yet

[garycxjk]

Second chances

Let's get this out of the way. Throughout this post, I will not name one certain individual, not because she has done anything wrong, but to make ego searching this post a lot harder for her. This also means that this post will not be easily found. The thing is, I don't really even need to mention her to make a point, as her situation isn't a big part of it, it only serves as the backdrop. So I will neither name her previous life nor her current.

Second, I'm not gonna shit on Nijisanji EN. Too many have already done that before, and it's getting a bit tiring. Plus, again, it doesn't serve the point I am trying to make, however, it does serve as a backdrop.

So, basically, to keep it short, recently a certain person had been terminated in a pretty fricken dumb way which I'm not going to get into, which involves them self-exposing their own incompetence. This termination also came after the person who was terminated made two attempts on her own life, fortunately she's still with us.

But that's not the point of this story. Recently, three of the talents have released a not really smart video, basically digging themselves deeper into a hole, if I may so personally, those being Elira Pendora, Vox Akuma and Ike Eveland. Now there are theories going around, but let's keep it as a fact, they were used as spokespeople, either against their will or otherwise, we don't know. We'll get back to the three.

Now, out of all of this mess, one thing was clear. Zaion LanZa, also known in her current life as Sayu Syncronisity, was right. After her termination a month after debuting at Nijisanji as Zaion, she was terminated, and she wrote a scathing expose about how her experience at Nijisanji was, and spoilers, it wasn't great, and later, it turned out a lot of it lined up with what the most recent terminated member experienced.

The thing is, at the time, she was mostly ignored. Not by everybody, but by too many, in my opinion, mainly because she was only there for a month. I know, I was there when it all happened. People either ignored her, or just said that she was salty or straight up called her a liar. Her reputation as Sayu therefore tanked, and it was only after a week after the most recent termination that people slowly began believing her completely.

The thing is, her reputation only improved almost a year after it happened, and from what I understand, her offenses weren't even that severe. People called it mistakes, yes, but not bad enough to warrant a termination. But okay, maybe Nijisanji didn't think she fit into the Nijisanji ecosphere, so she was let go. I'm not going to go into how she got terminated, that's a whole different can of worms, all I'm going to say is, she got terminated, and her reputation didn't exactly recover.

But, and excuse me for repeating the same phrase but, here's the thing. After almost a year, people should have forgiven her. She had already apologized, I'm not sure if she's done it multiple times, but she did at least once. She had admitted she made mistakes.

I'm a firm believer of second chances, everybody deserves one. Now, I do have to say, people don't deserve second chances from everyone, depending on how bad the offense was, but, look. If we can forgive James Gunn for his tweets he made when he was dumb and stupid, we should be able to forgive Sayu for the dumb shit she said, right?

It's as if people don't actually believe in second chances. Now, I'm gonna be honest, I'm not really willing to give Nux Taku a second chance, not after he did Coco's graduation notice dirty, essentially acting like a rrat. But that's my personal issue, I've been betrayed too many times in my life, taken advantage of too many people that my flight response gets triggered quite easily. Fuck, it's why I stopped associating myself with the Steven Universe fandom, despite me still liking the series. It's not that they're inherently bad or that I think they're bad, it's that they're bad for my mental health, which is why I distance myself from them.

And if you ask me what my opinion is of Charlie (penguinz0) or Asmongold, I don't talk about them at all. They just give me too much of an I-don't-trust-them vibe. Not that they're untrustworthy, but I just don't want to burn my fingers on them.

The thing is, yes, the SA jokes were in bad taste, I agree. However, it just feels like people were looking for an excuse to hate on her. And now that all this shit with Nijisanji EN is going on, she's suddenly being hailed as someone who was right all along. It just doesn't sit well with me.

The thing is, we all want second chances, but we don't all want to give them. I personally believe that everybody deserve second chances. Not just one, but many. People continue to make mistakes in their lives, and yes, if it's better for your own mental health, you can decide not to give that person another chance. Maybe there are some people who just don't deserve second chances because they never take them, they never learn from them. As cynical as I am in life, I still believe people can change, either for the worse or the better.

Which brings us to Elira, Vox and Ike. No matter whether they're guilty of whatever people accuse them of or not, their reputation is toast. In the short term, they won't be able to recover it. However, let's look at another case.

Mikeneko. Amemiya Nazuna. Yes, even Uruha Rushia. Her reputation has sunk to the bottom of the ocean. However, I don't think it'll remain that way. In time, there will be people who will give her a second chance. Remember, it's forgive, not forget. People may forgive her, but they won't forget. Honestly, I've decided to stay away from that drama, as I really do not care about it, but I do believe she can, in time, recover her reputation.

I mean, fuck, if Logan Paul can come back from that Aokigahara controversy, as much as I still think there should have been more repercussions from it, anyone can.

So, as a closing thought. Elira. Vox. Ike. Your reputations are pretty much toast, at least at Nijisanji EN, but possibly also in your PLs as well. However, it's not unsalvageable, it never is. As long as you're willing to change, as long as you're willing to better yourselves, as long as you want all of that, you can come back on top.

Tanking your reputation isn't the end of it all. You'll probably have to start over from scratch, and you'll most likely never going to go back to the reputation you had before. But it's not the end. Just live and learn.

But I do think Nijisanji EN is practically done.

#nijisanji #nijisanji en #kurosanji

[sam-loves-fnaf]

Random Story 1

Don't know what is possessing me to put this here or, well, anywhere, but either way, here, for anyone reading, have my random oc fanfic that is based on a Danganronpa OC that I RPed on Discord. One of the things we loved doing with our OCs was trying and mash them with different things, like what they would be like in an AU or different universe/fandom in general.

Also, this is from a reader's perspective, though I don't/didn't use (Y/N), and it has an excessive amount of "you's".

Universe/Fandom: The Backrooms

Character/OC used: Taku Sasaki (known as the Ultimate Babysitter as a danganronpa oc)

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

Re-write:

Getting lost in the backrooms was not a part of your agenda. It has been a while since you could see the outside; how long have you been stuck in this hell? A month? It feels like years, to be honest. You were just a random person on your way back from school, and then suddenly, you just fell; you fell and landed on some musty orange carpet in a yellow office building-looking room.

It took you a while, a long time, to get to safe places and away from dangerous beings; thankfully, though, what is highly likely to be sheer luck and determination, along with the help of some scientists who seem to be living in this hell, why? You may never know, but at least you had found a place to stop and rest.

You had learned a lot about this place, but at the same time, you have learned nothing, like the freaking exit! As you discover, it does not exist, or it's so hard to get to that it might as well not exist. So, after having a mental breakdown and passing out, you woke up with a goal: try to find the exit...or, well, die trying.

So, here you are, trying to find the mysterious exit; thanks to all the stuff you've learned, you feel like a pro backrooms explorer. It felt like you were the main character! Ooo! This would be a great horror/thriller fanfiction!

Pulling yourself back from your thoughts, you noticed you were falling. Man, this happened a lot while running through this godforsaken place; hitting the ground disoriented you, so you stayed on the ground for a while before sitting up and looking around. The new 'room' you are in looks nice. Still, it has that uncanny valley-type feel that many places have; you land on a patch of grass, and it is an empty space with blue skies and a lone house in the distance; it looks...nice and peaceful; the house looks like a great place to stay, and, looking around, there weren't any dangerous monsters, heck there weren't any monsters here at all! You didn't hear anything.

Just eerie silence, no ambiance, no random noises, you didn't hear nor see anything that may look like it wants to skin you alive twelve different times...nothing, maybe, maybe-

You could stay here, it is so peaceful.

Blinking and shaking your head, you wondered how long you were staring; getting up, you walked up to the house. As you walked, you couldn't help but feel warmth and safety, something you hadn't felt in a long while; it made you shiver. This feeling shouldn't be a feeling to have in a place like this unless it is something terrible; it has to be wrong.

But what if it is okay? Why can't you just embrace this feeling?

Just this once?

Is it so wrong?

Before you know it, you are now standing at the front of the door to the lone house; you have a feeling, something telling you to knock.

But why knock? That's weird.

You should just do it, the place looks harmless.

But that's what many of the places in this hell are like.

Why do you go around looking for an exit any way?

I want to go home.

Why do that? You are home

Knock knock

You didn't notice when but were pulled out of your thoughts by suddenly knocking, staring straight at the door. Then, footsteps, and they were getting louder, going towards the door; your eyes widened slightly as you stepped back, preparing to bolt at the sight of whatever mons-

“Ah! A new guest, come in come in!”

A voice and what sounded like a male voice said as you looked at the person or human-looking being; the man was tall and had purple hair with silver-ish grey eyes and circular glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. It reminded you of an anime character, in a way. The male smiles kindly before quickly ushering you inside, and he introduces himself as Taku. Looking around the room, you notice how homie it is. Taku is shown to be a friendly man; he lets you sit on his couch as he talks away about how happy he is to have a guest that it's been so long since he spoke to someone who isn't a child.

Child? You questioned Taku on that, and Taku answered that there are children here; he watches over them and makes sure they are safe and somewhere in the house, playing and having fun. Now that he said something, you could hear childlike voices and loud pitter-pater of feet on the ground. Though weird, for some reason, that didn't set off alarms; why?

Maybe it's because Taku is a trustworthy person?

Trustworthy? You have just met him.

Yeah, and yet he let you into his house and showed you hospitality

Why are you being so difficult?

Maybe it's right; perhaps this place is just a safe space, and you could take a moment for yourself, and that is what you did. You talked to Taku and just have moments to yourself: no running, no having to maintain sanity, no trying to survive, no worries, no anxieties, a new home, and quite possibly a new life.

Before you know it, you went to sleep.

Waking up and stretching, you had probably the best nap ever! Though this is nice, the thought makes you sad-

Sad...depressed even-

That you must inevitably leave, you called on and asked Taku about an exit; blinking behind his glasses, Taku had a surprised look.

"An exit? Oh no no no no, don't worry about that for now, come with me and eat." The tall male said, quickly and easily changing the subject. Eat? Now that you mentioned it, the house smelled of food, actual real food, something more than protein bars and almond water? Sign you up! Taku is such a nice person; it makes you wonder if anybody dropped here before and why there aren't any civilizations here like in other parts. Has anyone come here before? If so, where are they?

But what you didn't know was that you were about to meet them.

The food was great, and you had met the children he talked about. You were surprised to see about nine children there, four girls and five boys; you would think dinner would be chaotic with that many children, but they were well-behaved; it was like one big family dinner. Some of the kids even called you their new sibling; it was cute! You had begun to lose track of time staying in this place; I mean-

Why do you want to leave in the first place

It's safe here

It's nice

As you said, no monsters, no worries, no anxieties

Taku takes care of you!

The cooking, the cleaning

Just. Stay.

Maybe you are home; what does home even look like anymore? The faces of those you loved and became a backrooms explorer to see again are becoming a blur, blurred faces and muffled memories. You were pulled out of your thoughts by a hand lightly patting your head; you looked up and...

Does Taku seem taller? Now that you mentioned it, you could see over counters, but now you have to stand on your tippy-toes to see what was happening.

"What are you thinking about, my child?"

A gently asked question, so you decided to ask again about the exit; you noticed a flash of concern. The male kneels down to his knees; he didn't need to do that before, right?

"Little one, why do you worry about the exit, why go back? Don't you know how dangerous it is? Especially for a child like you."

Child? You weren't a child; you were...um, you forgot your age, actually, now that he mentioned it, you forgot many things; how did you get here again? Why were you here? What were you doing again?

Taku picks you up-.

He wasn't able to do that before-

And brings you to a room; it is a nice-looking room with a bed, bookshelf, toys, clothes, and a lot more. Sitting you on the bed, the male smiles gently, a warm and calm smile, a smile that tells you that everything is going to be alright.

"Get some sleep alright? Maybe I could read you bedtime story would you like that?"

But what about the exit?

You hummed and nodded; you like stories! With a slight chuckle, the male gets up,

"Okay, which book would you like?" He asks, showing you the books.

Wait, this feels wrong.

You chose a book, and Taku sat at the bedside and opened it.

You need to leave!

You listened to the soothing voice and lay on the soft, warm bed.

No, don't sleep!

Blinking slowly, you yawned, and slowly-

ʷʰᵃᵗ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ᵉˣⁱᵗ﹗

You were-

ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ˢˡᵉᵉᵖ ⁱᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᵒ, ʸᵒᵘ'ˡˡ ᵇᵉ⁻

Gone forever.

#oc story #random story #creepy? #i am trying #I think this is better than the one I made the first time #does this count as an xreader? #I'll just put them #x reader #x fem!reader #x male reader #x gn reader #didn't use y/n though #supposed to be horror #reader is just a faceless genderless being so you can put whatever the heck you want #but don't worry Taku loves you all the same #inspired by the backrooms and its entities #i suck at tags #and probably at writing to #enjoy

[musicprincess655]

Integral

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43549263

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: ダイヤのA | Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Okumura Koushuu/Seto Takuma Summary:

Koushuu expects to have Taku forever. What happens when he might lose him?

“First practice game of the year,” Taku says, arms in the air and grin on his face. Koushuu follows him at a slower pace to the field, even if he’s just as excited.

Excited. For a game. He’s gone soft.

“It’s early this year,” Koushuu says. “It’s barely April.”

“Quit complaining, you’d go crazy if you had to wait any longer,” Taku shoves his shoulder. “Hope you haven’t slacked off during break. Coach’ll make us run laps ‘til we puke if we lose because we don’t have stamina.”

“That’s because this team is full of musclehead idiots and he knows it.”

“That’s a very mean thing to say about Masashi.”

“You two are the worst,” comes a complaint from behind them. Yui kicks them both in the ankle as he comes to stand in between them. “Could you behave for like, a month before you start scaring off the first years?”

“This is when you want them scared,” Taku says. “How else do you expect to get them to listen to you?”

“I can’t believe anyone thinks you’re the nice one.”

“Incredibly, he’s still the nice one if you’re talking about him and Kou-chan,” Kuki cuts in. “I mean, Taku-chan is just sassy. Kou-chan wants people dead.”

“And those first year pitchers will learn that quickly if they know what’s good for them,” Koushuu agrees.

So he doesn’t really want the first years to fear him. Much. It’s good for efficiency in small doses but terrible if they’re so scared they can’t be around him. He learned that with Asada first year and he thinks he’s learned balance well over the years.

They’re about to see how right he is.

Luckily, this first match is just for returning players. Most of the first years can’t even keep their three bowls of rice down yet, let alone make it through a whole match. Not that Koushuu is great at eating, either, but he and Asada have come to enjoy their little slowpoke squad.

There’s still a lingering bite of winter in the air, no matter that it’s already April, and Koushuu is grateful for it. No reason to start overheating just yet. They’ll have the whole summer for that.

The match is nothing special. It’s the first match of the year, which means they’re getting their feet under them again, learning to play without starters they relied on, and so are their opponents. Yui plays the first half of the game, and Koushuu is switched in from the sixth inning on. They win, but not in any kind of brilliant way, which is why Koushuu is so surprised that a scout wants to talk to him when they’re done.

He's walking off the field, pushing sweat-slick hair out of his face, already beelining for Kuki because what the fuck did you throw in that last inning I will earn my reputation if I see you do that again when he hears his name.

“Okumura-kun?”

The voice belongs to a man no taller than him, thin as a rail and glasses perched on his face. Koushuu looks in the direction of the dugout, but no one is paying him any attention. Looks like he’s on his own to try and behave for the next five minutes.

“Yes?” he answers.

“I’m Tanaka from Hosei University,” the man says. “I’m wondering what your plans are after high school.”

“Isn’t it a little early for scouts?” Koushuu asks, and immediately winces internally. He’s already fucking up this plan to behave.

“It is,” Tanaka agrees. “It’s getting competitive out here for us scouts. Universities are searching earlier and earlier, and the professional league is starting to take kids straight from high school. We have to get in early if we want someone.”

“And you want me?”

Hosei is a member of the Tokyo Big6 league. They’re one of the most competitive schools in the country. This scout is trying to recruit Koushuu this early?

“Both of our main catchers are going to age out soon,” Tanaka says. “We want someone in now who can replace them in a few years. Our coach prefers catchers with your style. Smart, cautious, soft touch, but not afraid to make big plays.”

“Thank you,” Koushuu says, even though Tanaka said it less like a compliment and more like a statement of fact.

“Just keep us in mind when you’re making your decision,” Tanaka says. “Hosei is interested.”

Koushuu walks away in a bit of a daze. He’d received a few overtures from scouts last year, but nobody had indicated such blatant interest before. He’s still turning Tanaka’s words over in his head when Taku gets to him.

“Who was that?” he asks.

“Scout,” Koushuu tells him. “He’s from Hosei.”

“Oooo, now you’re attracting attention from schools like Hosei,” Taku says, happiness splitting his face in two. “You’ll have to study hard to keep up.”

Koushuu feels his chest go cold. If he’d have to study hard to keep up with a baseball scholarship, how hard would Taku have to study to get in?

Pretty damn hard, he finds as he looks it up later that night. It has one of the hardest entrance exams in the country. Even for a private school, it’s difficult.

Taku isn’t dumb by any means. He’s certainly always done better than Koushuu in school, although that has more to do with Koushuu’s lack of ability to prioritize. Well. Koushuu can prioritize just fine. He’s just never picked school.

Still, this would be a stretch for Taku. Out of curiosity, Koushuu clicks around to other universities in the Big6, just to see what the others are like. Todai is difficult, Rikkyo is difficult, Meiji is definitely difficult.

Then Koushuu clicks on Waseda.

He physically winces when he checks the stats for admission into Waseda. If he thought the others were rough, he should’ve been living in fear of Waseda. It’s not arguably the best school in the country for nothing, and the difficulty of getting in proves it. Hosei is just popular. Waseda is insurmountable.

It’s not impossible that Taku could get into Waseda or any of the other Big6 on a baseball scholarship, is it? He’s fast, and he’s clever, and he has a higher batting average than most boys on the team. He can light up the field when he wants to, and surely someone at these prestigious universities has the good sense to see it?

Just sometimes isn’t good enough, though. Taku needs to be the best of the best to be assured of a scholarship, needs to shine every single time a scout so much as breathes in his general direction. Koushuu, even with the ferocious loyalty he feels for his best friend, knows better than to claim that’s true of Taku now.

And it’s very humbling, all of a sudden, to realize that Koushuu has no idea how to help. It’s not that he doesn’t understand what a second baseman does – he’s not that bad a friend, he listens when Taku talks – but he has no idea what makes a second baseman great, how to make a second baseman better. Taku is, in his less-than-unbiased opinion, the best second baseman on the team now, so there’s no one else he can ask, and he doesn’t want to bring this to the coach if he can help it. Koushuu has a lot of freedom to do as he pleases as vice-captain, but blatant favoritism probably isn’t such a good idea, especially for a position he’s not supposed to be that interested in.

There is someone Koushuu thinks could help him out, but they’ve never been that close, and Koushuu doesn’t have any contact information to follow through on this idea. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on which angle Koushuu looks at it – the degrees of separation in his life are basically nonexistent.

Koushuu dithers on the subject for a full two weeks before he finally caves and calls a number he very begrudgingly saved in his phone two years ago before he can chicken out.

“Hello?” Miyuki Kazuya’s voice comes through the line. “Is this really Okumura? The same Okumura who swore I would never lay eyes on him again except across the field?”

Koushuu almost hangs up instantly.

“Hello, senpai,” he says, as politely as possible. He’s calling to ask for a favor. He can’t be rude before he gets what he wants. “I need some help.”

“New pitchers giving you trouble?” Miyuki asks, just a hint of a smirk in his voice. Koushuu has gotten better at not seeing things that aren’t there over the years, and while Miyuki is still a shit, Koushuu has to acknowledge that he’s probably not trying to be condescending. “I figured you would’ve had them handled by summer. Did something change?”

“Actually, it’s not about the pitchers,” Koushuu says. “I need Kominato Haruichi’s number.”

There’s a full thirty seconds of silence, so long that Koushuu pulls the phone away from his ear to check that the call hasn’t been dropped.

“Kominato…Haruichi?” Miyuki repeats.

“I would also take Kominato Ryousuke, actually,” Koushuu says, suddenly remembering they both played second baseman.

Haruichi is his first choice, of course. They actually played together, and Haruichi is still playing while Ryousuke dropped baseball as soon as high school ended. In fairness, though, that might have more to do with Ryousuke wanting to do something other than baseball.

Maybe Koushuu doesn’t want to talk to him after all.

“Wow, you really do still have balls of steel,” Miyuki says. “I’ll admit, you have me intrigued. Why do you want to talk to Haruichi?”

“None of your business,” Koushuu snaps before he can stop himself, and then he sighs. “I want his help for training a second baseman.”

“You’ve never had any interest in them before,” Miyuki says. “What first year is so special?”

“He’s not a first year.”

Miyuki goes silent again. Did he always do this? Maybe he was just so intense in person Koushuu never noticed. Miyuki didn’t make eye contact often, but when he did, you paid attention.

“Is something wrong with Seto?” Miyuki asks. Koushuu doesn’t bother asking how Miyuki figured it out.

“He’s not good enough to guarantee a baseball scholarship to a university and I want to help,” Koushuu says.

“Mm,” Miyuki hums, which Koushuu finds both unhelpful and annoying. “Ei, gimme your phone.”

“Why?” Sawamura’s voice is loud enough to travel through the phone to Koushuu.

“Need a number,” Miyuki says. He goes silent for another beat. “Okay, here’s Haruichi’s number.”

Koushuu scrambles for a pen to write while Miyuki starts listing off digits.

“Why were you with Sawamura, anyway?” he asks, not quite ready to say thank you yet.

“We go to the same university and we’re on the same baseball team. Sometimes we see each other,” Miyuki says.

It’s an innocent enough explanation, but Miyuki’s voice has just enough of an edge that Koushuu doesn’t think it’s the whole truth. Still, Miyuki has given him what he wants with minimal pain, so Koushuu lets it slide.

“Thanks, senpai,” Koushuu says, only a little grudging.

“Hey, you should be careful,” Miyuki says. “Catchers are already known for having control issues, but you and I both have the capacity to be particularly bad. Most people don’t appreciate it if you take it too far.”

“I’m not being controlling,” Koushuu snaps. “I’m just trying to help.”

“I know,” Miyuki says. “Just make sure he actually wants your help.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Alright, alright,” Miyuki says. “Good luck, brat.”

Koushuu stares at his phone, Miyuki’s number glaring from his recent calls screen. That had sounded…fond? Koushuu is struck with the realization that Miyuki might, in his strange Miyuki way, actually like Koushuu. Which is…weird, and would have maybe been nice a few years ago when Koushuu decided he was done having a weird crush on Miyuki and that he’d take the knowledge of it to the grave.

He’s on a roll, though, so he dials Haruichi while he’s still got enough nerve left to make phone calls.

“Hello?” Haruichi’s voice is wary but not rude. Koushuu steels himself. He and Haruichi weren’t exactly close, but Haruichi was always kind to him the few times they spoke.

“Kominato-senpai? This is Okumura Koushuu,” Koushuu says. He resists the urge to add from Seidou because Haruichi definitely already knows.

“Oh! Okumura-kun,” Haruichi says, voice softening into something warmer. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m trying to help a second baseman get good enough to attract college scout attention,” Koushuu says.

“Is this about Seto-kun?” Haruichi asks.

Koushuu tries not to feel a kind of way about multiple people realizing he’s calling about Taku. He cares deeply about five to ten people total, depending on how they’re counted, and only one of them plays second baseman.

“He’s good, but scouts only take players that wow them,” Koushuu says.

“That’s true,” Haruichi says. “I can offer some general tips, but I haven’t been able to come back in a while, so I don’t really know how Seto-kun plays right now. If you email me some recent tapes, I can give you better advice.”

“I can, that would be perfect, thank you,” Koushuu says, writing down Haruichi’s email and already mentally picking clips to send, a mix of Taku’s shining moments and his mistakes.

“I’m a little surprised you’re the one calling me instead of him,” Haruichi says.

Right. Because Taku is the social butterfly, and Koushuu is the goblin introvert Taku somehow trained to behave like a person.

“I just want to help him,” Koushuu says. “I’ll send you those clips as soon as I can.”

“No rush,” Haruichi says. “If you want my advice, I think if you focus on getting as far as you can this summer, the scouts will come.”

“Thanks, senpai,” Koushuu says.

They exchange a few more pleasantries before hanging up, and Koushuu mentally replaces Miyuki with Haruichi in his hierarchy of People to Call if Shit Hits The Fan. He’s significantly more helpful than Miyuki ever was and didn’t even ask for anything in return.

If he was a catcher or pitcher, he might have even been perfect.

One sleepless night of combing through every tape available again and again, Koushuu has the perfect compilation to send to Haruichi. It highlights both Taku’s brilliance, the glimpses of genius hidden in someone who would otherwise be just a pretty good second baseman, and also mistakes, errors, places for improvement. At least, Koushuu thinks so. Haruichi will have a better idea.

It's just a little over fifteen minutes long, and Koushuu doesn’t examine too deeply how that makes him feel, that everything Taku is on the field can be boiled down to less than half an hour.

He’s sure the same could be said of him, if he were in the same situation.

Practice on a sleepless night is brutal, but it’s hardly the first Koushuu has ever done. He’s a little sluggish on his runs, sure, but that’s sometimes true of him on days where he gets a perfect amount of sleep. His batchmates don’t miss the opportunity to give him hell for it, though.

“Hey, Kou-chan!” Kuki jeers, hooking his arm over Koushuu’s shoulders. Koushuu doesn’t even have the energy or the heart to push him off. He knows he’s gone soft since first year, but he usually tries not to be this soft in public. “What’s got you losing sleep?”

“Probably overachieving on analyzing games like always,” Yui teases, but Koushuu doesn’t miss the hint of gratitude in his voice. And maybe Koushuu feels a little guilty, because Yui relies on him for that more than either of them admit, and Koushuu does not deserve to accept the credit.

“Overanalyzing what exactly?” Kuki asks. “We haven’t had a practice match in over two weeks. You can’t possibly still be going over that.”

“I wasn’t going over a match,” Koushuu says.

“You don’t expect me to believe you were up late studying?” Taku says, shit-eating grin growing. “How are you gonna fail your exams at this rate?”

“That was one time, Taku,” Koushuu growls. He’s still a tiny bit embarrassed about it, and Taku knows this, which means this is about as much shit as he’ll have to take.

“Maybe he’s just thinking about some girl,” Kuki suggests, and that makes the smile slide right off Taku’s face.

Koushuu maybe takes a mean little bit of joy in that and refuses to examine it deeper.

Short attention spans that they have, though, the attention isn’t on Koushuu for very much longer until they find something else to focus on (read: the pretty first year manager who’s still to shy to speak to anyone who isn’t Anna or Akane). Taku stays quieter throughout dinner, which for once suits Koushuu just fine, because he kind of blew all his concentration on practice and his brain feels like TV static.

“You’re not really staying up late thinking about some girl, are you?” Taku asks as they walk back from the bath. Koushuu twists to try and see Taku’s expression, because his voice is offering absolutely nothing. “You already stay up too late thinking about baseball. How will you ever get any sleep?”

“So you’re allowed to get a girlfriend and I’m not?” Koushuu asks.

Taku had dated a girl last year, a pretty little thing half his size named Momoko. She had straight black hair and the tiniest waist Koushuu had ever seen, coupled with a gentle, soft-spoken voice and shy demeanor. She was, in every way, the perfect girlfriend, and Koushuu hated her guts for reasons he’s never tried to voice but that look a lot like jealously.

He was so relieved when Taku broke up with her because he felt bad for devoting all his time to baseball.

“That’s not what I said,” Taku protests. “I just wanna know. If you got a girlfriend, I’d be happy for you.”

It’s not the whole truth, and Koushuu’s stomach twists weirdly. This isn’t how his relationship with Taku has ever worked. They don’t keep secrets from each other. But here he is, hiding his conversation with Haruichi from Taku, and he’s pretty sure Taku’s hiding something too, but he has no idea what it could be.

“It’s not about a girl,” Koushuu says. “I just got caught up doing something, you know how I get.”

Not a lie, but also not the whole truth. He thinks Taku knows it.

“Then get plenty of rest tonight,” Taku says, slowing as they approach Koushuu’s room. “If you’re as dead tomorrow as you were today, Coach might actually kill you.”

Koushuu shudders, because Kataoka is many things, but merciful is not one.

“Goodnight,” Taku says softly after Koushuu is already inside.

“Night,” Koushuu says.

He expects to spend a few hours obsessively checking his phone for a reply from Haruichi, but he must already be getting too old to pull all-nighters, because he passes out the second his head hits the pillow. It doesn’t matter, anyway, because Haruichi doesn’t get back to him for a few days, long enough that Koushuu starts to worry Haruichi is leaving him hanging, but it turns out Haruichi was just taking his time to do it right.

He sends Koushuu back an essay of notes – like, seriously, Koushuu doesn’t even write this much for school assignments when it’s actually required – and caps it off with a phone call.

“I have more specific advice in there, but basically, it boils down to polishing technique,” Haruichi says. “Seto-kun is fast, and he’s very good at knowing when to steal bases, so clearly he knows how to work on technique. His biggest weakness, at least in the clips you sent me, is what he does after he gets to the ball.”

“How do you mean?” Koushuu asks.

“So one of the biggest mistakes second basemen make is hesitating too long to throw the ball after they get to it,” Haruichi says. “It’s fast-paced, there’s not really time to think. Seto-kun has the opposite problem. It’s almost like he moves too fast for his brain to catch up, and by the time it does, he’s already thrown wide or made a bad choice. Not always, but it’s what’s holding him back the most.”

“How do you fix that?” Koushuu asks.

“Drill it,” Haruichi says. “Fielding drills, over and over and over until it’s muscle memory. At that point, you can think while you’re running, and the muscle memory takes over.”

“Makes sense,” Koushuu says. Doesn’t help him, though, because he’s pretty sure he can’t just drag Taku out for fielding practice.

“He could also stand to think about his starting position more,” Haruichi continues. “If you know what the pitcher’s gonna throw, you can predict where the ball will probably go. Does Seto-kun know all your signs?”

Koushuu breathes a loud sigh of relief, because this, this he can work with.

“I’ll ask him about it,” Koushuu says. “Maybe get him to sit on a few of my training sessions with the first years for practice. Or Asada, maybe, get some practice with a batter standing in.”

“That’ll help,” Haruichi says. “You can call me again if you have any follow-up questions, too. This wasn’t a one-off.”

“Really?” Haruichi has always been kind, but this is still more kindness than Koushuu expected. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Truth be told, I feel kinda bad about not coming back to help,” Haruichi admits. “Eijun-kun is really excited about the team you’re building this year, Furuya-kun thinks you have a real shot at Koshien again, and almost all my other batchmates have come back as well.”

“It’s a longer distance for you, though, right?” Koushuu offers awkwardly.

Unlike Miyuki and Sawamura, who are gearing up to take the Big6 by storm, Haruichi had been recruited by a professional team directly from high school. Furuya had as well, but he’s still in the Tokyo area and had come at the beginning of spring to offer what words of wisdom he had – more than Koushuu expected, if he’s being fair, even if that all went out the window as soon as Sawamura showed up.

Haruichi, though, is all the way in Fukuoka, and between what must be a grueling training regimen and a long train ride, he hasn’t come to visit, the only one of his generation that hasn’t.

“It is, but I still…I owe a lot to that team, and Coach Kataoka,” Haruichi says. “I’ll definitely find a way to come cheer you on for Koshien, so make sure you have something to show me.”

“I will,” Koushuu promises. “Thank you for your help, senpai.”

“Good luck,” Haruichi says.

Well. That’s an actionable goal, and Koushuu has always functioned best when he knows what he needs to do. He’ll talk to Taku tomorrow about learning signs, and they’ll go from there.

Koushuu is early to breakfast, mind racing too fast to oversleep. He’s been turning over in his mind what the best approach would be. This is a subject that, for all their years of friendship, requires a bit of subtlety, which is why the second Taku walks into the room, Koushuu is immediately in his face.

“Sit in on pitcher training today,” he says. Taku, bless him, barely flinches.

“Koushuu, we’ve worked so hard to get you past a third grade socialization level,” he says, words still thick with sleep. “Surely you can behave around the pitchers for an hour.”

“Not for me,” Koushuu says, not bothering to temper the offense out of his voice. “You should make sure you know all our signs. It would benefit you too.”

Taku cocks his head, nodding slowly.

“Just me?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not the only second baseman on the team.”

He’s right. Taku has been right about an annoying number of things in the time they’ve known each other. Koushuu tries not to groan.

“Can I just…start with you?” Koushuu asks.

Taku seems to consider. Koushuu is ready to ask again, maybe even divulge why he really wants Taku to sit in, even if it might embarrass both of them, when he answers.

“Sure,” Taku says. “I’ll pass the info along to the other basemen and shortstops. That way they won’t be behind when you’re ready to include them too.”

It’s said without anything behind it, so Taku must really think he’s accommodating Koushuu’s introverted ways. Koushuu really couldn’t ask for a better friend.

And the meeting goes well. Taku picks up the signs quickly, clever as always, and Koushuu catches him showing a first year baseman later that week, hands twisting as he goes through the signs in sequence. Koushuu is eventually persuaded to allow the other basemen and shortstops to join, and while it kind of sucks, it’s also good.

Koushuu is able to swing more fielding practice with his tendency to analyze games for Yui. He doesn’t lie, not exactly, but he plays up the fielding errors when he gives Yui a rundown of a practice game, and Yui, like the good captain he is, goes directly to Kataoka to ask about increasing their fielding drills. It benefits the whole team, but Koushuu is mostly proud of how much more efficient Taku looks, how sharp compared to even just the beginning of the year.

He even ropes Taku into analyzing the games with him. Taku is perfectly capable of using a scorebook, but it’s not something he does often, and Koushuu gives him the rundown from his perspective, an overall look unique to catchers. It’s his hope that Taku can improve his field awareness by seeing the game as Koushuu sees it, and that will play nicely with his improved reflexes from the fielding drills.

He thinks he’s done a wonderful, even subtle job of improving Taku’s skills, and that makes it all the worse when he’s informed that he’s not nearly as slick as he thinks he is.

“Hey, can you put down the scorebook for a second?” Taku asks. His voice sounds weird, but for some reason, Koushuu can’t identify why. “I wanna talk to you.”

“We are talking,” Koushuu says, but he obediently puts the scorebook to the side. They’ve covered most of what he wants to talk about, anyway.

“No,” Taku says. “You’re coaching. That’s basically the only way you speak to me anymore. You’ve never felt the need to do that before this year. I know you feel a lot of pressure to perform because it’s our last year, but we’re doing well, so you can back down a little bit, okay?”

“It’s not about the summer tournament,” Koushuu says. “It’s about you.”

“Me?”

“You’re a good second baseman,” Koushuu says in a hurry, because he realizes how insulting that sounded. “You just need a little polish, and scouts will be lining up to talk to you. You’ll have your pick of Big6 university teams.”

Taku’s eyes are wide by the time he’s done, lip caught between his teeth.

“Koushuu,” he starts hesitantly. “I don’t want to play for a Big6 team.”

“They’re the best in the country,” Koushuu argues. “Why wouldn’t you want to play for them?”

“I don’t…want to play baseball at all in college,” Taku says.

Koushuu, to put it simply, does not compute.

“Look, baseball has been fun, I love it, you know that,” Taku continues. “But it’s not a forever thing for me. I won’t do it as my job.”

Koushuu can’t remember ever feeling so blindsided by Taku before. Part of the reason he likes Taku so much is because he understands Taku beyond a need for speaking.

“What do you mean you don’t want to play anymore?” Koushuu asks. “I know I’m hard on you, but you’re a good player, there’s no reason to quit, I know you could make it.”

“It’s not about that,” Taku says. “It’s just that there’s other things I want to do with my life.”

The spiky thing growing in Koushuu’s chest presses into his stomach. It’s hurt. He’s hurt, and Taku is the one that made him feel this way.

“What other things?” Koushuu asks, and it comes out as a growl. “I thought you loved baseball. You’re the one who’s always calling it fun, you’re the one who convinced me to stick at it and find it fun. You love baseball more than I do.”

“I still don’t want to play baseball for the rest of my life,” Taku says.

“What, so you’ll just leave?” Koushuu asks. “When were you even planning on telling me?”

“Koushuu, it’s not even summer yet, I was gonna tell you after the tournament,” Taku says, but there’s just enough guilt in his eyes that Koushuu knows it for a lie.

“No you weren’t,” he accuses. “You were just gonna leave without saying anything. I thought we were friends.”

“What? We are, what are you talking about?”

Taku looks panicked, hands reaching out for Koushuu’s shoulders, and Koushuu doesn’t even think to avoid them, too numb to feel the touch. Taku is going to leave him behind, and the best friend he’s ever had, someone who’s been in his life so long he can read Koushuu without thought, one of the few people Koushuu truly loves, will be gone forever.

“Koushuu, please, I know this isn’t what you wanted, but we’ll still be friends, alright?” Taku tries, and Koushuu zones back in with a vengeance.

“Fuck you,” he snarls, pushing Taku’s hands off his shoulders. “You want to quit baseball so bad? You want to go do something else? Go do something else. Might as well quit baseball right now.”

“Koushuu, I’m not gonna do that,” Taku says, voice edging higher in desperation. “I’m still here this year, that’s never gonna change. We’ll crush this summer, you’ll see, we could really win it all.”

“Tell it to someone who gives a fuck.”

Koushuu refuses to label what he’s doing as running away, but he sure does move with purpose back to the baseball field. It’s almost deserted, so dark with most of the lights out, but Koushuu does have to growl at one terrified first year to get lost. He’s worked so hard to have the patience to deal with underclassmen, but he just can’t summon any today.

He swings a bat viciously, aggressively, with frankly terrible form, not practicing but venting his anger into his body and the air around him. He doesn’t quit until the early hours of the morning, back and shoulders aching.

Kataoka bitches him out for it the next day when he rolls into practice, arms so stiff he can’t lift them above his shoulders and good for nothing but sitting in the bullpen and watching. It’s fine by him, though. This way, he doesn’t have to feel the twist of anger and betrayal when he sees Taku.

He gets all of one day of grace before his friends descend upon him. Frankly, he should be grateful he got even that much. He’s not, but he should be.

“What did you do to Taku-chan?” Kuki attacks first, always the boldest of all of them.

“Who says I did anything to him?” Koushuu growls. He doesn’t appreciate the implication that this is all his fault. Sure, he was the one who let his temper get the best of him, but Taku is the one who was apparently going to lie to him as long as he could.

“Are you saying he did something to you?” Kuki asks.

Yes, Koushuu wants to say but doesn’t. He can’t imagine anything will be helped by involving Kuki in the finer points of this…fight? Wouldn’t a fight be more…fight-y? This feels more like one blowup and the subsequent fallout than a continuing fight.

Koushuu must take too long to answer, because Kuki apparently takes his silence as an admission of guilt.

“Just apologize,” he says, laying a hand on Koushuu’s shoulder. Koushuu shakes it off. “Taku-chan will forgive you.”

But will I forgive him?

The vitriol behind that thought surprises even Koushuu. He knows he feels angry and betrayed, but that speaks to a much deeper hurt. Something more like…

“He looks so heartbroken.” Yui is the next to approach him, and like Kuki, he makes the assumption that Koushuu is in the wrong. For this reason, Koushuu has already started to tune him out. “Seriously, I’ve never seen you two fight like this. Whatever you did, just say you’re sorry.”

“Back off,” Koushuu says, and then he sees the dark circles under Yui’s eyes. It’s not even properly summer yet, and Yui already looks so tired, and Koushuu, as his vice, is supposed to be making it better, not worse. “I’ll get some data to you tomorrow.”

“I don’t care about the damn game data, Koushuu!” Yui snarls, suddenly so furious that it takes Koushuu aback. “I care that my vice-captain is fighting with one of my starters and is refusing to fix it!”

“Maybe I’m not the one who has to fix it!” Koushuu snaps back, storming off before Yui has a chance to respond.

Masashi approaches him next, although Koushuu suspects the others must have put him up to it, because he just sits in silence next to Koushuu for the better part of an evening, watching as Koushuu furiously watches tapes over and over. They don’t speak at all, but Masashi doesn’t have the same air of recrimination that everyone else has had so far. And maybe Koushuu needed that, just one person who doesn’t treat him like the bad guy, because the next day he’s softened enough to not take Asada’s head off.

“So what even happened?” Asada asks, obviously nervous.

“He…” Koushuu trails off. If he would be willing to tell anyone, it would be Asada, but he’s not feeling willing to tell anyone.

“It’s…you know it’s okay to talk about it, right?” Asada says. “I know we all jumped to conclusions, but neither of you is telling us anything, and it’s scary to watch you two fight. None of us know what to do.”

“Maybe there’s nothing to be done,” Koushuu says. He certainly can’t think of a way to get the spiky ball of hurt to stop pressing on the wall of his chest.

“There’s always something to be done,” Asada says firmly. “If you won’t talk to any of us, you have to talk to him.”

Koushuu doesn’t take that for the threat it is.

In the wake of not speaking to Taku, which is its own special kind of pain, the basemen and shortstops have stopped joining in on meetings between catchers and pitchers. That’s why, as Koushuu cleans up his notes while everyone else leaves, he’s so surprised to see Taku there, arm firmly held in Masashi’s grip. Yui stands next to them, eyes on fire in determination.

“No.”

“You don’t get to tell me no,” Yui snaps. “I am your captain and I have had enough. You two are going to talk and you are going to do it before you are allowed to leave this room. I want you two at least cordial before I open the door.”

“You can’t lock us in,” Taku protests, starting to look panicked. Clearly, even if he was in on part of this, he’s not in on all of it.

“Watch me.”

And Yui and Masashi do just that.

Koushuu looks down at his hands. For all that he could’ve approached the situation better from the start, Taku is still the one that started it. He was the one that didn’t tell Koushuu he wants to leave him behind, the one that would’ve kept that to himself until he disappeared forever. Koushuu isn’t going first, that’s for damn sure.

Taku creeps closer, seeming to decide that across the desk is an appropriate distance. He sits, fiddles with his hands in the corner of Koushuu’s vision, and lets the silence ride for a second. Then he sighs.

“Koushuu, can you look at me?”

It startles Koushuu just enough that he actually does it. The raw relief in Taku’s eyes soothes some edge off the hurt.

“You haven’t looked at me since the fight,” Taku says. “You’ve never done that before.”

“Getting used to it,” Koushuu replies.

“Used to what?”

“You not being here.”

Taku looks like Koushuu slapped him, or like it might have been kinder if Koushuu had.

“I’m not going anywhere, and you’d know that if you actually listened to me,” Taku snaps. “I know I didn’t handle that as well as I could’ve, but as soon as you got mad it was like talking to a brick wall.”

“Sorry I didn’t take the news well,” Koushuu snarls right back. “I was operating under the assumption that you don’t keep secrets from me.”

“Oh, because you’ve been the poster child of sharing lately,” Taku says. “Where did all the second baseman advice come from anyway? I know you didn’t ask anyone here.”

“I called Kominato-senpai, and it helped more than just you.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t your goal, was it?” Taku sighs. “You didn’t even ask me what I want.”

Miyuki’s words echo in the back of Koushuu’s mind, but he’s not quite ready to relent just yet.

“What you want is to leave,” Koushuu says.

“Do you think our friendship is just about baseball?” Taku asks. “Is that all we’re worth to you?”

Koushuu was ready to fire right back, but he pauses.

Is that all they’re worth to him?

He and Taku became friends before either of them knew about baseball. They lived in the same neighborhood, and outgoing Taku had worn introverted Koushuu down until they were joined at the hip. They even got fake-married on the playground when they were seven, and Koushuu had kept the flower ring Taku made for him until it fell apart.

In the last several years, yes, their lives have been focused on baseball, but Koushuu and Taku have always existed outside of that.

“No,” Koushuu says. “I don’t think that.”

Taku visibly slumps in relief.

“Okay,” he says. “Okay.”

They just sit with that for a moment before Taku continues.

“I’m not leaving you,” he says. “I never was. We won’t play baseball together after this year, but I’m not going anywhere. I mean, I don’t even wanna leave Tokyo, we’ll still live in the same city.”

“So what do you want?” Koushuu asks.

“I want to go into social work,” Taku says. “I’ve been looking at programs and trying to get my grades up enough for one that’s a little harder. Baseball will still be my focus until the end of summer, though. We’ve won Koshien before and I want to do it again.”

“And you’re…sure?” Koushuu asks, aware that he’s being an ass. Luckily, Taku knows him better than that.

“I’m sure,” Taku says. “And I’m also sure that, whatever school you end up choosing, I’ll be at your games cheering you on.”

“I chose Seidou for you,” Koushuu says. “I mean. I chose it for me too. But I wanted to win for you, and I thought Seidou was the best place to do that.”

“You can still want to win for me,” Taku says, and his voice is a little more choked up. “Now you just have to want to win when I’m not on the field. And you can want to win for yourself too. Since baseball is so much fun.”

“So you say,” Koushuu says, but that spiky ball of hurt has finally dissolved, leaving nothing but relief in its place. He knows better than to think everything is fixed now, but he believes it can be, and that makes all the difference.

“We have to be done keeping secrets, though,” Taku says. “Both of us. This fucking sucked and I’m never doing it again.”

“Agreed.”

Koushuu expected, with all those threats, for the door to be locked, but it swings open when he and Taku make to leave. Yui is in their faces immediately.

“Well?”

“Tell me you weren’t listening,” Taku whines.

“Of course not,” Yui says, blushing.

“I wouldn’t let him,” Masashi says.

“Shut up!”

“We’re fine,” Koushuu says. “You can go worry about something else now.”

“Are you really?” Yui asks, looking to Taku for confirmation.

“We will be.”

It’s not immediately okay. For the next few weeks, their friendship feels like a bruise, smarting if they poke at it. But like any wound, it heals and they fall back into their normal rhythm. Koushuu still worries, sometimes, what next year will look like, what they will be without baseball tying them together. They still have summer to worry about, though, and Taku wasn’t kidding when he said it is still his focus.

And when summer comes and the tournament begins, Koushuu walks on the field with Taku and knows that it might be the beginning of the end of this part of their lives, but it is not the end of them.

***

“What exactly was that last pitch supposed to be?” Taku jeers as Koushuu exits the locker room, pushing his lazily-dried hair out of his face.

“My pitcher going rogue, that’s what that was,” Koushuu growls. He’ll let that pitcher have it later, no matter that he’s a senpai, because they could’ve won the game. “Idiot.”

“It was still a good game,” Taku says, wrapping arms around Koushuu’s neck. “Glad I actually got to see you play this time.”

Koushuu pulls Taku out of sight of everyone else. He’s not ashamed of their relationship, but he keeps it close to his chest, like a carefully guarded treasure. Taku is usually good about letting him.

“I knew I wouldn’t get much game time the first few years,” Koushuu says, and tries not to let it bother him. “One senpai graduates next year. I’ll get more then.”

He’d ended up choosing Hosei, the offer of building up a new bullpen too much to pass up. It’s good, challenging in ways the game hasn’t been before, and Koushuu knows it’s improving him in all manner of ways.

“You’ll kill it,” Taku says, leaning forward to peck Koushuu on the lips. “I really missed watching you in a game.”

Taku may be at a different university, but he’s still so close that he can come watch the odd practice after he finishes his classes for the day. It’s usually so he can drag Koushuu out to see their friends, who Taku insists they stay in touch with, and Koushuu agrees less begrudgingly than he would’ve expected.

Koushuu still misses playing with him. He thinks he always will. But he doesn’t regret the time they spent playing together, and in time he hopes it settles into a happy memory.

For now, though, he still gets to hold Taku close to him, and that’s enough.

“Let’s go eat,” Taku says. “It’s your turn to pay, and I want meat.”

Koushuu groans at the imminent hit to his bank account, but doesn’t protest beyond that. He’s too weak to Taku’s face-splitting grin as he pulls Koushuu out onto the street in search of something delicious.

They’re okay. They’re going to stay okay. Koushuu will make sure of it. He’s feared losing Taku before, and he never wants to do it again. He lets Taku lace their fingers together as they head for the subway, and is content with how they move through the world.

#kouseto #okuseto #daiya no a #ace of diamond #dna #dnaoneshot #my writing

[slowlydamageme]

My overall thoughts on Slow Damage

SPOILERS FOR ALL ROUTES AHEAD YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED they're mostly vague but still read at your own risk

Having finished the game after bingeing it for like 2 weeks straight I'm left feeling a little conflicted.

When looking at the story as a whole it's a solid 9/10. If it wasn't a hardcore BL game I'd be recommending it to all of my friends because woaaa it's soooooo goood!!

However, there are so many little things with the game that bug me.

The sequential route setup

The way the routes are set up kind of made me feel like everything before Fujieda's route was just there to extend the length of the game. Don't get me wrong though! Taku, Rei, and Madarame's stories were enough to keep me coming back for more in the moment but once you get the full story through Fujieda everything else feels like filler. It 100% feels like they wrote his route first then were all like "ah, we need more boys for Towa to fuck otherwise the fans will be disappointed" I get that it's common practice in VNs to have the 'canon' pairing so to speak but it never felt quite so egregious in dmmd and it just left me feeling 'meh' to see it happen here. It doesn't help that while I was playing through Rei and Taku's routes I noticed that they didn't really feel 'complete'. I had chalked it up to covid-era development woes but then realized "oh... THIS is the story" after tens of hours when I finally made it to the final chapter of the game.

If I had to compare it to something that a lot of people would be familiar with then Rei/Taku's routes would be the 2003 anime version of fullmetal alchemist, Fujieda's would be brotherhood, and Madarame's route would land somewhere in the middle of the two in terms of how 'complete' they all feel.

And now to actually complement the format

Despite the shortcomings described above, the way the routes are set does help the story tell itself in small pieces sometimes. I am actually surprised by how much narrative consistency there is between routes. After you play through Rei/Taku's stories you get to sit there finger-wagging them every time they suspiciously disappear because you know EXACTLY what they're up to. And the package that shows up in Madarame's route being significant in Fujieda's route was really good and sheds some light on Sakaki's behaviour in Madarame's route too. They were good little flavour touches that add depth to the game so I can't entirely fault the N+C team for telling the story in the order that they did.

I'm going to complain about the semes now

Honestly, I found them all a little boring? Perhaps that's a result of having such a strong and interesting MC but Towa shines far brighter than any of the guys he can end up with on the main routes (ie not Kotarou/Mayu). Rei was the only one with a remotely interesting character design at first glance and was the only one that didn't immediately strike me with a 'bara daddy but softer' vibe. Of course, that kinda got ruined by the fact that his route is all about him becoming more 'manly' (whatever that means) so I don't even know what to think about him anymore to be honest. Taku's design is stereotypical for a slightly rough around the edges doctor type character so I wasn't impressed there. Furthermore, he was ruined for me because of how much he knows and how much he keeps from Towa. He's the closest thing Towa has to a trustworthy parental figure and he's not very trustworthy at all. Madarame.... well... If I had played this game like 7+ years ago I probably would have loved him but as it stands his kidnapping, grooming, and Stockholm syndrome-ing of Towa just turned my stomach the entire time I was playing his route. Hits a little too close to home for me to like his route even the slightest although the scene where Towa is disguised as one of Toono's bodyguards and walks up to him all secret agent style to tell Toono that Madarame wants to speak with him was 9999/10 It's not a real critique, I know, but I spent so much mental energy just trying to get through it that I don't really have much to say about him other than he's a god damn asshole. Fujieda is a weird one. I think his character design is hella boring just like the rest but he grew on me during his route. His personality feels a little like a more uptight Taku but he's also more trustworthy by the end of his route than I felt Taku was at the end of his. He's def my favourite of the four, even if I wish he was just a liiiiiittle more interesting i think the scars were probably trying to achieve this but by this point in the game I'm so used to everyone being fucked up that it's not very impactful to me.

So basically what I'm trying to say is... why are all the really interesting characters (in terms of both design and personality) just 'side' characters rather than having full routes for themselves? Igarashi, Kotarou, and Mayu deserved better imho and Eiji might be ace but I wish he had some sort of small side-route or something... And don't even get me STARTED on Ikuina I have so many feelings about this strawberry flower boy. I guess this is what fanfiction is for I suppose.

Conclusion

Slow Damage has an absolutely amazing story with all the dark, gritty, debasement you'd expect of an N+C game and the MC is by far one of the most likeable of all their games imho. Sadly, if you're like me you're going to have to be in it for the long haul to get to a conclusion that makes the story feel complete and once you do it might make the other routes feel a little disappointing. Still, I would recommend this game to anyone that likes the kind of dark stuff N+C puts in their games because it was 100% worth the coin I spent on it despite my misgivings.

#slow damage #a stupid review #slowly rambling

[foxstens]

been playing slow damage and must rant (spoilers)

so far i have finished two routes, namely rei and taku, in that order.

the game is seriously impressive in some parts, like the setting and the production values and some of the character writing - it really feels like a lot of love was put into it. and honestly, it has some of the best written h-scenes i've seen, at least outside of the bad endings. but boy does it fumble hard, in my opinion

first of all, the system fucking sucks. the exploration and psychology parts are mostly unvoiced and they really just serve as a distraction, at least to me. the psychology parts especially are so annoying, and literally all of them so far have felt completely pointless - they don't do anything that couldn't be resolved in normal dialogue dgjlksgfkfd

i mostly loved rei's route, i found it interesting and engaging and well-executed. loved the overall premise, the side characters, the romance, and rei himself. i didn't love that he changed his way of speaking towards the end but that's more of a personal preference thing, it was explained and it did make sense for his character.

his bad ending however. i don't get disturbed easily, like there's very little i can't read with a straight face in fiction, but this bad ending was fucking horrifying. it threw the crux of his character and his relationship with towa out the window and made no sense considering the route as a whole. like, yea, bad endings are supposed to be bad but i still like them to be well-written or something. i can't really put into words why i thought it was genuinely terrible but i just did not like it.

taku's route was kind of pointless. i did pay attention the entire time but just barely, and i didn't have a great time. i just don't feel like i learned a lot from this route, i don't feel like it contributes to the overall story, and i definitely don't feel like i have a handle on taku's personality or thoughts even now.

i do not understand him as a person therefore i do not know if i like him. the romance buildup is non-existent and it also doesn't do a lot for towa's character - most of the stuff that happens to him really has no reason to be in there and due to the romance being like that i didn't feel much development from him. it kind of makes an effort to set you up for the next routes probably, but the side characters were nowhere near as strong as the ones in rei's route

taku's bad ending is also strangely similar to rei's and i hate it. since i don't have a firm handle on taku's personality i can't say if it was OOC but holy shit was it horrifying. i just feel like the bad endings should be more interesting and thought-provoking and believable rather than just shock value. but that's just my opinion

but yea it's definitely a good game, i am having a good time and i'm very interested in the next routes - i hope i'll get to see good things happening to towa one day maybe :(

#my posts #read more #my rants #vnblogging #my ramblings #long post #holy shit i wrote so much #i guess i do really like this game despite everything

[mochapanda]

been reading this manga about depressed autistic ppl its sooooooooo good i dont even care that its about a straight couple

#it also has a side character that's an autistic mom working as a nurse with an autistic son #and she goes on this whole rant about how autism works #so cool #only thing is that they use the word aspergers but theres literally footnotes stating that its outdated language now #so i can forgive it

[lyaenidae]

Making it official

They got to the Gardens at the same time and sat down in the shade to catch up a bit. Miki seemed a bit worried about Kenta, she straight away asked him how he was and if his hike had gone well.

"Yes, it helped clear up the fog in my head quite a bit, I have to admit. I think I just needed a break from the daily grind, you know ?" "Yeah... Well I'm happy you're feeling a bit better at least !" "The fresh air and a connection with nature always make me feel better. And a good talk with you always helps !" he smiled, but her face didn't seem to light up as much as usual. "Is there something wrong ?"

"I just... I actually might need a little advice myself, and you've always been a good listener..." "Of course, do tell !"

"As you know, since I came back from Selvadorada, I've taken an interest to a lot of archaeological studies, what they mean nowadays, and how old stories influence the present." "Yes, you seemed quite passionate actually, I love when you share the things you've learned at the library !" "Well, it just so happens that there is a university program running not far from here on those very subjects." she stated. For a little while, Kenta didn't know how to react. Was she telling him she was leaving SanSequoia ? He was happy for her, obviously, but he couldn't help but feel like they'd been given a second chance at exploring what they felt for each other and he didn't want to lose that...

She was describing every aspect of the program that she had been attracted to, telling him about all the professors and what she could learn from them... Then she said "I have been putting off enrolling though." "Why ?" he asked, confused, she seemed really excited for it. "Do you mind if we walk while we talk ?" she asked, Kenta's heart beating fast. Was she going to break up with him before they even got serious ? This wasn't how he had thought today would go...

"The truth is, I just don't think I can do it. Going to classes, all the extra work it would add on top of my decorating gigs, and taking care of my boss' house, and Amber..." she admitted, her head hang low, trying not to look at Kenta, ashamed of her very likely failure. "Wait." he stopped in his tracks. "You'd still be living here ?" "Of course ! I can't just bail on the commitments I have here ! It's not even that far, it'd be just a subway ride away. And..." Kenta didn't interrupt her, waiting for the next words to come out of her mouth with anticipation. She blushed.

"And I'm not planning on leaving your side ever again, to be honest !" she chuckled, trying to laugh the embarrassment away. "Miki..." he started. He couldn't stop himself from putting his arms around her and kissing her deeply, their emotions swirling around them.

He pulled away, breathing heavily. "Sorry, it's just... I don't want us to be separated again either. I'm so glad we've finally found each other again. I got a bit scared you were going to tell me you were moving away, because I asked you to meet up today because I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be official." "Ken !" she laughed wholeheartedly. "In my head we were already officially together ! I've been wondering how I'm going to tell Taku for a few days now even !"

He laughed back. "I can do it if you want, I'm sure he'll just say it's about time !" "Yeah, that sounds about right to be honest !" "And now that you're my girlfriend, can I share with you a thought I've just had regarding your university program problem." "You can !" she couldn't help but feel like he could fix any problem. "What if... Hear me out. What if I moved in with you ?" he said, out of the blue. "Hmm... Ken, I feel like this is going a bit fast now, you don't have to do that just because I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills. I can always tell the university I'll reapply next year." "No, listen. I'm not fond of the townhouse I'm renting at the moment anyway. I feel like I just come home because I have to, not because I want to. I've never felt like this before, and I suspect it's partly because I live alone. If we lived together, we could split your bills in two. I'd take on half of the dog siting tasks as well, giving you more time for uni." "You'd really be willing to do that for me ?"

"I'm offering, aren't I ? I promise it would do me some good too, to have a fluffy pet to cuddle with when I get home after a hard day of work, to be able to talk to you without having to go out... I can set up my tent in your townhouse garden instead of mine, I don't need much, you know !" "I can't believe we're actually considering this ! We've only crossed each other's path again a few weeks ago !" "And it's been one of the best times of my life." he assured her. "Of course, I don't want to pressure you into doing something you're not comfortable with, but I also can't let you pass up the amazing opportunity that you've just been offered Miki. You deserve to go after your dreams. Every one of them."

"I have never met anyone like you, you know that ?" she answered, her cheeks red again. "You can take your time to think about it, you don't have to make a choice right now." he said, his hand leaving her cheek to take hers. "You're kidding right ? You've described my dream life. I'd love to have you over all the time, to come home to you and Amber snuggling on the couch, to make you some food when you've been out at work and are coming home exhausted..." "So it's decided ?" he asked, unable to hide the hopefulness in his voice.

"I think so !" she exclaimed, her happiness radiating off of her. She took her phone out to enroll in the program, showing him her screen while she was doing so. And as soon as that was done, she put her arms around him, squeezing him tight, so grateful for the universe to have put him on her path, not once but several times.

"Do you want to spend your first night over at my house today, boyfriend ?" she asked, emphasizing the last word. "I would love to..."

They were meant for each other. They couldn't stop kissing on their way back, their hands finding each other always, the fresh air only adding to their blatant loving glow.

Before getting inside Miki's house, Kenta took a second to appreciate the feeling. Then as soon as he got in, the first thing he saw was a picture of his hometown and he knew he'd made the right choice. He was definitely feel at home here.

"Sorry, does it make you feel homesick ?" she asked straight away, seeing the tears in his eyes as he was looking at it. "No, not at all, this is great, I love it Miki. I wish I'd gone through the trouble of making my house feel a bit more like me, maybe it would have helped..." "Oh, well I guess I just can't help it, I have been an interior decorator for a while now !"

She led him further inside and he was amazed at how pretty the whole place was, very calming, nice atmosphere. He could definitely see himself with her here without trouble. She went to the kitchen to check on Amber's food bowl and got a text from her best friend, who had probably seen her updated Simblr profile pic.

They'd decided it was the easiest way to let Taku, and everyone else back in Mt Komorebi, know about them. If they were going to live together, they had to start updating everyone on what had happened. He came through to the kitchen, still unable to keep away from her for too long at a time. And she whispered, her breath on his neck "Do you want to see the upstairs ? It's my bedroom..."

(to be continued)

#takaofamily #sims4 #sims4gameplay #vanillagameplay #kentatakao #vanilla #gen2 #ts4 #mikiakiyama #sansequoia

[batangtamad]

My Neighbor Mitsuru -There's A Hot Young Guy Living in My Building (Manga)

Genres: Yaoi, Smut, Romance, Mature

Status: Completed

Author: Bonchi

Favorite Character: Mitsuru

Favorite Chapter: Chapter 4

Plot Synopsis: Taku Kinashi’s just moved to Tokyo this spring to attend college, with the dream of getting himself a pretty girlfriend and having his first time at last. He just can’t wait to finally live alone like he’s always wanted. After settling in, he goes to greet his new neighbor, and who should come out of the door but… a smoldering-hot young man with his shirt hanging open displaying his soft, glistening chest and supple thighs! What’s more, he seems to know Taku from somewhere…! What happens when a plain old college straight boy like Taku lives-under the same roof as an irresistible, exhibitionistic flirt like Mitsuru?

The story and art style are good. Mitsuru is hot and sexy as fuck.

Taku's parents are beautiful people on the inside and outside. They accepted Taku and Mitsuru's relationships.

I want to see more extra chapters and also the Himeno love story.

#My Neighbor Mitsuru -There's A Hot Young Guy Living in My Building #yuuchan #manga #animechan

[johannwolfgangvongoethe]

overanalysing yaoi background art

this is just a funny little observation and in no way meant to be a “this got painted in canon!!!” theory. just something i think is an intentional easter egg found in the roost background art:

the paintings on the walls of the roost interior are quite something and i have been thinking about them for a while. most of it is, i think, chosen to undermine the owners eccentric morbid taste in art, there are multiple painting that have that specific ‘euphoria’ art style to them and i think they represent characters in the vn!!!

my thought process right -> left (spoilers for the games story below)

orange:

description: a vague face hiding behind hands. the hands appear vaguely red, as if stained. it reminds me quite a bit of the “see no evil” monkey! to me there is a great amount of worry and pain captured in this expression/gesture.

my ideas: very much a taku painting, going along with the themes of his character; guilt, grief, hiding from other people, trying to dodge the inevitable. there are so many moments in the story where he stubbornly clings to his idea that ignorance is bliss, when he is clearly deeply troubled over it. more than that, i like to think there is a subtle “hands stained in blood” visual here, matching the fact he KNOWS the work toono dragged him into is hurting people, even if he cannot truly see it firsthand.

yellow:

description: a person sitting on the ground, in what appears to be a puddle of dark liquid. clear frontal view of the body, breasts, and genitals. theres a blue streak across the painting.

my ideas: rei, i think. this is the one that got me thinking of this initially. the blue streak clearly resembles the blue streak seen in the rei euphoria ending painting. at first i thought ‘yep thats a pussy’ but after playing through reis route.... this is a weird vague hole that is either a vagina or graphic genital mutilation imagery. and i think its vague on purpose. this very much looks like the painting towa could have created, had his first euphoric episode with rei played out to the end

blue:

description: a dark somewhat scary painting containing a crowd of people, which are only shown as rough black silhouettes. one of them is upside down, their head positioned at the very bottom of the painting

my ideas: madarame, methinks. there is a clear theme of going against the stream, sticking out, not fitting in. if we assume the shadowy scary crowd is the takasato-gumi, this would make for a good representation of madarames past. he is very much a scary hard to visualize loner.

so the next thought i had was........ three of the LIs but no fujieda? and i am not sure about this one. either there straight up is no painting to match him (which would make sense, seeing how the final route is sort of a special case)

OR it could possible be this painting located on the other roost cg (bar):

style-wise, it seems to fit in with the other ‘euphoria’ style paintings. and metaphorically, i think the visuals of a person walking through a dark grimey alley way towards the light would also perfectly fit the final route of the game. not sure about this one tho.

#slow damage #slodaposting #well well well i want to start another vn soon so i have to get out all my sloda thoughts while i am able to. though i feel like this game w #will stick with me for a while

[sweet-little-dude]

y’know what i hate about this fandom? i hate them for making ships that are built off absolute DESTRUCTION and killing me even more by the things they sacrifice themselves for just for the others recognition.

an absolute spontaneous AMAZING example is kokoinu, drakeinu and kazufuyu!! how so you ask? WELLLLL the way inui and kazutora [in fics] sacrifice what they want, what they look like, what they pretty much fuckin ARE just to gain love and worth towards their lovers, in this sense being kokonoi/draken and chifuyu. at least in canon, even though they didn’t go as far with the romance as well as inui’s reason of using koko to be different, kokonoi was able to make the right decision and distant himself from inui.

in a similar sense, izana was ready to destroy mikey and build him back up just to turn him into shinichiro, only because he was the one who had taken shinichiro away from him. and mikey was went along with it only because he wanted to reach the top [or not, maybe i analyzed it wrong]. this is one of the best canon examples of what fic writers are saying with kokoinu, drakeinu and kazufuyu.

a written example of this are from posts by braindeadbaddie and cuntymir [usernames are linked with posts] that portray what im saying CRYSTAL CLEAR.

anyways, sorry about me going off, i was on the doramitsu tag and found cuntymir’s blog and went off task lmao. it’s like 12 am rn so my brain is fried asf el oh el, but expect more of these in the near future

#kokoinu #drakeinu #kazufuyu #ao3 #fanfic tropes #tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers ships #takutalks #straight from taku #im not tired im just tired of BULLSHIT #this post is not a hate post this is in the best way affectionate #im just mad about how well people describe their feelings and i just envy that so much #/affectionate #pls listen to takutags

[azucarian]

NEFELIBATA - Takuya Birthday Special

Masterlist No content/trigger warning. Extreme fluff <3

Takuya had grown upset at the possibility of his birthday being forgotten; especially considering his two childhood friends hadn't even raised so much as a 'happy birthday' to him. It's not like he particularly expected a gift - although it definitely would be nice. Tapping his pencil against the desk, he frowned - (Name) was the most attentive person he knew and even she had forgotten? Maybe he failed in making it known beforehand. At this point, he just wanted to go home and curl up into a ball with the birthday cake his mother had baked him.

Now that he thought about it, Makoto had an obsession with the western zodiacs - he always looked on those weird 'zodiac luckiness' websites. Cancer, that's what Takuya's zodiac was - the zodiac of the crab. His 'aligned' personality was about him being loving and full of emotions - but also moody, suspicious and overprotective. He was not moody, he'd like to believe. The thought made him grumpy-

Ah, wait, that'd be right then.

He mentally groaned as the bell signalling the end of the day sounded, and his phone let out the identifiable ping to tell him he'd received a message. Flipping his phone up, (Name)'s contact popped up.

(NAME)-CHAN Mizo Middle headin' out early - we'll see you later Taku-chan! Byebye!

So they had truly forgotten. Takuya felt himself visibly deflate; there goes his final slither of hope. He shrugged, at least he had all of that cake to himself. He began his journey home; the train ride being oddly silent - usually the group of them would rambunctiously play whilst (Name), Akkun and himself would stare judgingly. Until (Name) got annoyed with all the stares from the elderly people and try to beat them up. For someone who didn't fight, Takuya could admit that the girl punched way too hard.

Coming home to an empty house was normal; his parents worked long jobs to provide for them (he actually appreciated their evening absences because of Kiyomasa and his gang, but he no longer feared any of that). But it felt much more empty as he slipped his shoes off- Wait, those definitely were not his shoes.

Sloppily hidden amongst the eco-friendly tote bags, five pairs of shoes were stacked. Four pairs of messy trainers, and one pair of remotely looked after converses. He nearly laughed - so they were here. A surprise birthday party, he guessed. The idiot trio must've gotten side tracked and, in a hurry, (Name) or Akkun shoved the shoes to the side and threw the totes over them.

Takuya guessed he'd humour them after all their effort. Slipping his indoor slides onto his feet and hanging his bag up on the door, he slowly made his way to the living room - and, upon entering the dark room, the lights suddenly flicked on and the distinct sound of party poppers filled his ears (and kind of scaring him, admittedly).

"Happy birthday!" The collective cheer of each person brought a grin to his face; regardless of the under-planned surprise element, he couldn't contain his smile at the sight. Kazushi, Makoto and Takemichi each had several party hats decorating their heads - almost as if they were trying to imitate a crown. Akkun was off to the side with a bright grin and a party popper in his hand. (Name), however, wasn't in sight.

He was about to open his mouth to ask where she was when someone jumped onto his back, arms around his neck "Happy birthday, Taku-chan!" The familiarly cheery voice made him laugh, and he softly thanked them all. The girl of the group eagerly dragged him towards their paper cut out of a birthday cake laid out on the table, surrounded by gifts.

Takuya slowly opened each of them.

From Akkun, a new controller for his gaming console - the boy explaining it as a 'new' method for everyone to play together, instead of taking turns with one controller. He appreciated it, and smiled softly before gently placing it back in the box (promising that he'd play with Atsushi first and foremost).From Makoto, a porn magazine - he slightly sneered at the gift, and the dumb(est) boy began to whine and cry about how 'Takuya didn't like his gift'. Even (Name) sneered and appropriately smacked Makoto on the back of the head with an apologetic smile towards Takuya. The blonde just shook his head and thanked the boy reluctantly (he had definitely thought more of himself instead of Takuya - but it was funny regardless, both Kazushi and Takemichi seemed to think so, too).From Kazushi, a bunch of notebooks, pens and pencils - explaining it to him as a new hobby to pick up. According to him, Takuya looked like the 'artsy poet' type (admittedly, he couldn't help but agree). He tested the glittery gel pens on one of the note books and grinned - they were extremely pretty, perfect for exam note-taking too. He placed them to the side delicately and expressed his gratitude.

He couldn't help but side-eye Takemichi and (Name). Takemichi was someone who would buy an extremely expensively thoughtful gift - it always made him feel guilty for weeks after, because the determined blonde would never allow Takuya to repay him. And (Name)… he visibly sweated. She had no taste in gift giving, and her gift was probably going to be worse than Makoto's - appropriate, but worse. They all exchanged knowing glances as the girl turned around to push Takemichi's gift towards him.

Takemichi had gotten a choker chain; and, as expected, it looked expensive. On the front, 'TAKUYA' was written in cursive with two ruby colored stones either side - if he remembered ride, a ruby was his birthstone. He almost verbally awed, but, instead, opted for hugging Takemichi tightly with an over-the-top thank you. The bleached blonde looked very happy at Takuya's joy."It's time for my gift now, right?" (Name) cheerily reminded, pushing a large box forward "Don't be surprised; I asked for your parents permission too." What? Takuya rose an eyebrow. Parents permission? Whatever it was, the other four didn't seem to know either - they looked just as confused.

She raced out of the room for a few moments before returning with her head poked around the door, hiding her arms behind the door frame "Don't freak out, we have to be quiet." They all nodded "Promise?"

"Promise." They all quietly spoke, and Takuya could feel himself get slightly giddy. Whatever this was, he was excited - and he hoped he wasn't disappointed (he wouldn't be, regardless, because he'd get to jokingly bully her for a bad gift for the rest of her life). She slowly turned and walked in, and the bundle in her arms nearly sent him into cardiac arrest.

The cutest puppy was excitedly wagging its tail in her grip, adoringly staring at its new friends jovially. (Name) crouched down and softly placed it against the floor, and they all watched as it clumsily stumbled towards the closest human - Takuya himself. Pressing its wet nose against his arm, its little butt wiggled with the force of its tail.

"How- wha- I don't know how to react-" For the first time in a while, the group watched as an awe-stricken and very visibly shocked Takuya brought the puppy into his arms. (Name) laughed and slid to the floor beside him, gently patting the puppy.

"I spoke to your parents the other day before school about it; they said it'd probably do you good, especially with summer break comin' up. Keep you company, and you can go on walks with her." She explained whilst watching as the other four crowded round, each taking a turn at stroking the soft puppy.

"How the hell did you get her here?" Akkun questioned. It made all of them wonder; yeah, how? She had been with them all day, so how on Earth had she gotten a puppy to Takuya's house without them realising?

(Name) snorted "I asked Mikey-chan and Ken-kun to bring her; they put her in your room, in one of those play pens. Cute little thing was fast asleep but woke up straight away when hearing the door open. She was so excited." Takuya was so in love with this adorable creature that had found its new home in his arms "She ain't got a name, so that's up to you." He lit up, and the group laughed at his expression.

"Rocky." The name sent embarrassment into (Name)'s system, as she profusely rejected the name - completely being ignored by a cackling Takuya.

"Huh, what's so bad about Rocky? Rocky-chan is so cute!" Kazushi protested.

"It's Rocky because the last time me and (Name) hung out alone together, she fell into the river because of the rocks." The laughter from everyone was enough to make (Name) hide her face in her hands, muttering a 'I hate you' endearingly under her breath.

With his new friend and playmate in his hands, Takuya could wholeheartedly say... THIS WAS THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.

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HAPPY TAKUYA DAY!! Honestly, as a character, Takuya grew on me progressively - I didn’t like him much when I first started but he definitely got my heart </3 He’s so pretty and sweet (totally didn't mistake him for Mikey at the beginning lmao) ~

A proper update will come out over the weekend - I’m currently looking for work so interviews have been taking up a lot of time. I promise it’ll be out tomorrow/over the weekend! I love you all!

#tokyo revengers #tokyorev x reader #takuya yamamoto #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyorev #tokyo manji gang #takemichi hanagaki #akkun #atsushi sendo #kazushi yamagishi #makoto suzuki