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fantastic-rambles · 3 years

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The Greatest Gift

Fandom: Sk8 the Infinity

Characters: Sakurayashiki Kaoru (Cherry Blossom), Nanjo Kojiro (Joe)

Warnings: None?

Word Count: 1.1k

Summary: When Kaoru is too busy to even remember his own birthday, Kojiro is more than happy to intervene and drag him away from his work. [MatchaBlossom Week 2021 | Day 1: Birthday]

"You have an incoming call from Nanjo Kojiro."

"Hang up."

"Understood."

But not even a minute had passed before Carla spoke up again.

"You have another incoming call from Nanjo Kojiro."

"Block him."

"Yes, Master."

Kaoru stared at the paper in front of him, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He'd agreed to prepare a few pieces for an exhibition, and he'd finished most of them, but this last one, the one that would serve as the centerpiece, was stumping him. He wanted something simple but relatable, something that could stand on its own without explanation. And yet, he'd been sitting at his desk for hours, scribbling down ideas and immediately scratching them out.

"Award-winning calligrapher, my ass," he muttered as he lay down his pen and leaned back in his chair. Did it even really count when he'd practically invented the field of AI calligraphy and was basically the only person who practiced it? It wasn't as though he couldn't do regular calligraphy, but he didn't feel that there wasn't anything particularly special about his work. It seemed like people just liked the novelty of what he did, rather than the product itself, so now he had to be all refined and intellectual even when he had no idea what he was really doing.

Sighing, he stood up and stretched, then walked over to the side of the room where the rest of the scrolls were already ready, hoping that looking at them would give him some inspiration, or at least a theme that could tie them all together. He was just in the process of reviewing the last one when he heard the door slide open on the ground floor, and he frowned. Had his assistant forgotten to lock the door when she left? It was far too late for a client to be coming to see him, and it wasn't as though he had anything particularly valuable here.

"Carla, stand by to call the police," he ordered as heavy footsteps began to climb up the stairs. He didn't hear her acknowledge his command as he cast his eyes around for something that could be used as a weapon. They settled on one of the awards that he'd won: it was unwieldy, but still better than nothing, so he drifted over to it, resting a hand casually on the shelf as he fixed his eyes on the doorway.

A large shadow materialized out of the darkness on the landing, and Kaoru tensed… until it stepped into the light.

"Kojiro? What are you doing here?" Kaoru snapped.

"If you'd answer your phone, then I wouldn't need to make a house call," Kojiro retorted, hefting the paper bag in his arms.

"Did it never occur to you that maybe I wasn't answering because I was busy?" Kaoru glared at his friend, crossing his arms over his chest. Sometimes, he wondered why he even put up with the muscle-bound idiot when it seemed like Kojiro's only goal in life was to bother him. Right now, he didn't have the time or energy to put up with whatever he had planned this time.

"Actually, that's exactly what I assumed," his friend replied, walking over to Kaoru's desk and shoving his papers aside. Indignant, Kaoru stormed over as Kojiro began to pull plastic containers out of his bag and lay them out on the desk. "You probably haven't had dinner yet, right? You're too skinny as it is--you can't afford to miss meals. I brought you some roasted vegetables, mushroom risotto, and chicken parmesan. Eat!"

"Just because I'm not a musclebrain like you doesn't mean that I'm starving," Kaoru complained, but he sat down anyways as Kojiro pulled out a bottle and two wine glasses. It was true that he hadn't eaten, and Kojiro's food was always a treat, though he'd never admit as much out loud. When Kojiro popped the cork and poured the drinks, though, Kaoru raised an eyebrow.

"Champagne? Are we celebrating something?"

"Something like that," Kojiro replied evasively, offering him a glass. Rolling his eyes, Kaoru accepted it, clinking his glass against Kojiro's and taking a sip before he started to dig through the containers with a plastic fork. Kojiro probably had some sort of trivial announcement that he wanted to brag about and nobody else to talk to, so he'd made an excuse to come bother him.

However, Kojiro didn't say a thing as Kaoru ate, just sitting in the chair across from him with an amused expression and occasionally topping off their glasses. There was clearly some sort of joke that Kaoru was missing, and it irritated him, though he tried not to let it show that it was getting to him, since that would probably just make Kojiro more insufferable.

By the time that he finished eating, though, he was feeling better: satiated by the food and relaxed from the alcohol. With a sigh, he leaned back in his chair, tilting his head backwards to stare up at the ceiling. Reluctantly, he muttered, "Thank you, Kojiro," only to be startled when his friend burst into laughter.

"You've really forgotten, haven't you? Really, Kaoru. Never change, okay?" Kojiro continued to laugh, causing Kaoru to scowl as he straightened up in his chair.

"Well, then, please bestow your brilliance upon me," Kaoru spat, irked. "What momentous event has slipped my mind? It's not the anniversary of your restaurant opening, or the day that you mastered the Crail Slider or some other trick. What else is so important to you?"

But Kojiro just shook his head, struggling to regain his composure. When he could finally speak without being interrupted by laughter, he pointed out, "It's March 27th."

"Yes, and...?"

Still shaking his head, Kojiro reached down into the paper bag again, pulling out one more plastic container and setting it in front of Kaoru. Kaoru sighed in exasperation, but he humored his friend, pulling off the top and looking inside. And then he froze.

A slice of what looked like a green tiramisu was tucked into the container, and pink icing on top spelled out "Happy birthday, Kaoru."

"It's a new recipe. Instead of coffee, I tried using matcha," Kojiro commented blithely. Picking up the discarded fork, he sliced off a corner of the cake and then extended his arm to offer it to his friend. "Let me know what you think?"

Still blinking in surprise, Kaoru leaned forward to let Kojiro feed him, swallowing the dessert almost without tasting it.

"It's good," he told Kojiro, who smirked and cut off a piece for himself. Kojiro nodded with satisfaction as he chewed it thoughtfully before offering Kaoru another bite.

After Kojiro had left, taking the remnants of the meal with him, Kaoru continued to sit quietly for several long minutes. Then, after picking up his brush and placing a sheet of rice paper in front of himself, he began to write.

(Translation: "The greatest gift of life is friendship." Allegedly. xD) (It sucks because I can’t find a good brush pen to make it look like actual calligraphy and cover up my terrible handwriting by looking fancy. I also don’t know how to write hiragana. Deal with it. >.>)

@matchablossomweek

#sk8 #sk8 the infinity #skate the infinity #fanfic #fan fic #sk8 cherry blossom #sakurayashiki kaoru #sakurashiki kaoru #sk8 joe #nanjo kojiro #kojiro nanjo #matchablossomweek2021 #mine

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dokidokivisual · 3 years

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Gochiusa BLOOM episode 7 impressions

Previously: 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

In real world Halloween might have been a month ago, but in the world of Is The Order a Rabbit it’s exactly the season for all things spooky. And maybe things become a little too supernatural for a slice of life show. In the last episode we’ve seen how BLOOM symbolizes the growth of the characters. And as we enter the second half of the season, another meaning is revealed...

But first let’s visit Ama Usa An, where horror-loving Chiya is decorating the traditional Japanese teahouse for Halloween. Since Halloween is decidedly not a traditional Japanese holiday, it looks kinda surreal, but Chiya’s grandmother is more worried about souls of the dead coming back to life, especially that of Chino’s grandfather (see season 2 episode 9 for more of their backstory). Of course the soul of Chino’s grandfather isn’t actually dead, but is inhabiting the body of a rabbit. It’s not clear how exactly this happened and Cocoa might have been involved.

Speaking of Cocoa, we see her practicing with the magic set she bought in the first episode of the season. She tries to make something appear in her hand, but nothing happens. Clearly you can’t just learn to summon matter into existence in Gochiusa world, or can you? Anyway the shot focuses on a candy laying on a table before the opening sequence cuts in. This must be the object Cocoa has tried to summon and it’s also clearly a foreshadowing for something.

Meanwhile, Maya and Megu are trick-or-treating in matching werewolf(?) outfits hoping to score some free candy. Interestingly the tradition of giving out candy on Halloween has descended from a medieval practice of sharing so-called “soul cakes” which represented the souls of the dead.

Meanwhile the staff of Rabbit House are dressed as vampires. The theme of vampires fighting werewolves brings up to mind the Twilight series although I’m sure the idea came up many times throughout history. If you look closer, you’ll notice that Cocoa, Rize and Megu have fake fangs (I think Maya’s is natural), although they’re not consistently drawn between scenes, even though in the manga they’re drawn correctly. Maybe they’ll fix this in BD. The only one whose fang is not shown is Chino, and ironically she is the one who actually bites somebody.

Also the flashback of Chino “roaring” at the mirror reminded me of the scene from Celestial Method where Noel (also voiced by Minase Inori) roars at a dinosaur standee. To be fair it sounds completely different but I just can’t help but compare them.

Also while I was browsing through my copy of volume 6 I found a cute illustration card that seems to be relevant to this episode, but includes Mocha and Cocoa as the wolves and Chino as the vampire (here’s a highres version).

I think I bought this particular volume in Japan on the day it was released. Good times...

Next MaMe go to Fleur de Lapin and are greeted by Sharo dressed as Little Red Riding Hood (bunny version). This costume appeared earlier in an illustration for the rabbit chapter from the previous episode.

This is also a rare scene where other employees of Fleur de Lapin can be seen, as usually Sharo is shown working there alone. Even in the manga, Sharo is the only employee shown in this scene. In the end it turns out that Sharo is a wolf in disguise and craving for some meat. Which is weird because Sharo hasn’t been shown eating or cooking any meat before.

Anyway, next stop is Ama Usa An, which is called the Witch’s Mansion now. Chiya mentions the beginning of the Sabbath, and the manga chapter’s title 今宵は甘兎サバト also mentions the Sabbath. This might be confusing because in Judaism and Christianity the Sabbath is the day of rest and happens weekly (on Saturday or Sunday). However since we’re talking about witches, this actually references the Wiccan concept of sabbat, or one of eight festivals in the Wiccan calendar. In particular, Samhain, one of the four Greater Sabbats pretty much coincides with Halloween and celebrates the beginning of winter.

Chiya does this thing where the protagonist’s hand hurts only to awaken their dark powers, I’m not really sure where this trope comes from but I’ve seen it referenced in anime before and it’s a common chuunibyo stereotype. In this case, Chiya did really just hurt her hand. There’s also some sort of runic circle drawn on her bandages, but if you look closer it says shiratama anmitsu matcha parfait in hiragana.

Maya and Megu agree to help Chiya, and become her “familiars”. Even though familiars are better known as a video game mechanic today (which is what the “level up” scene references), witches were associated with familiar spirits since medieval times. A familiar often took form of a small animal, such as a cat. Unfortunately MaMe don’t even know which animal they are, so clearly they didn’t take their backstory as seriously as Chiya did. Their ears and tails look canine to me, so I can see Megu being a fox spirit, but Maya being a cat is less believable. Also during their confrontation Megu confirms that Maya’s fang is her yaeba (snaggle tooth).

As a revenge for the trick MaMe pulled on her, Chiya gives them a selection of pumpkin tarts, one of which is laced with wasabi (which she calls ”Russian roulette”). This seems like a common thing for her, since she did the same with botamochi in season 2 episode 6, and with green tea in season 2 episode 7 (except she used aojiru instead of wasabi). However this time, it was Chiya’s grandmother who put wasabi in two of the tarts, unbeknownst to Chiya. By the way in the manga it wasn’t shown that Chiya got one of the wasabi tarts.

Chiya goes shopping for some pumpkins, but is helped by Rize, and later Sharo gives her anti-pain medications, reminding her of how Chiya tended for her when she was sick in season 1 episode 12. It’s not mentioned in the anime, but Rize also had a “motivation” for helping Chiya, as she hurt her leg before (see season 2 episode 2). Chiya invites Rize and Sharo to dinner and brings up the wasabi-laced pumpkin tarts. According to Chiya the probability of getting wasabi is 1/3. Initially there were 7 tarts, of which 2 had wasabi. Megu, Maya and Chiya eat one each, with Chiya’s having wasabi in it. That leaves 4 tarts with 1 wasabi, so either Chiya’s calculation is incorrect, or somebody ate one more tart.

Apparently last day was just a warm up to Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve’s Eve?), so next day Megu and Maya come to Chiya again and try to summon something. A larger and slightly different version of the runic circle previously seen on Chiya’s hand starts glowing and we see that the 3 white rabbits correspond to three people holding hands. There’s also Anko corresponding to the black rabbit in the middle. By the way, in the manga the sign on Chiya’s hand was just a hexagram, and the summoning ritual didn’t have any visible symbols.

Anyway, they want to summon a messenger from demon world/hell, and coincidentally Cocoa and Chino come in (dressed as vampires) and try to attack (cuddle) them. Chiya, Maya and Megu form New Chimame-tai which works because Chiya and Chino have the same first syllable. However Chi is written with kanji instead of katakana in this version (because Chiya’s name 千夜 is one of the few given names among Gochiusa characters that’s always written with kanji). This defeats Chino, and Chiya consoling Chino like a big sister defeats Cocoa as well.

Ok let’s move on to part B, which is the really important part of the episode. The streets of the town are filled with people dressed in various costumes. Cocoa’s classmates can be seen among the crowd, and Aoyama and Rin are enjoying a boat ride on River Sanzu.

Our main character have also prepared some new costumes for the occasion. First we see Chino, dressing up as Phantom Thief Lapin, while Rize is going as a police officer. Soon Chiya and Sharo join them, who somehow independently of each other also went with a Lapin costume. At least Sharo had a good excuse. For Chiya, Lapin’s gloves obscure the bandage on her hand, so maybe that’s why she chose this costume. But what about Cocoa?

Well, she kinda got lost and we find her at the location that you will recognize if you read my episode 5 review. Cocoa says it looks a little different than usual, almost like a different world (isekai). Well, there’s a lot of evidence to support this hypothesis. First, in a scene that parallels episode 1, Cocoa finds a lost child and tries to calm her down with a magic trick. However you might notice that the child’s head is literally a pumpkin with a moving mouth.

And her mother is also a pumpkinhead. Cocoa doesn’t encounter any other people during this segment, even though you’d think a spot that overlooks the town like this would be quite popular. Well, she does encounter one more person, a mysterious masked magician with an angora rabbit on her head. She also wears a G-clef pendant indicating some sort of music connection.

Now, since y’all had already watched the episode, it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say that this is the ghost of Chino’s mother, Saki. The rabbit on her head is the ghost of the original Tippy before its body was taken over by Chino’s grandfather. The original Tippy was a female rabbit, by the way, a fact established early on in the series. In Sing for You OVA (for which I wrote a not-very-detailed review by the way) it’s established that Saki was a singer and even had a record released.

Anyway, as a ghost, Saki doesn’t speak (although she still can giggle and such) and doesn’t physically interact with Cocoa (only indirectly, by casting candies at Cocoa). Nevertheless she does teach Cocoa how to do the candy trick correctly.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group tries to call Cocoa’s phone but she doesn’t answer. This is another evidence for isekai theory. Cocoa is just out of range, you see. Rize and Sharo swap their costumes (the most unrealistic part of the episode) and Sharo starts “policing” the Lapins on how the real Lapin would talk. Chiya has a bright idea to shout out for Cocoa and call her big sister. However Cocoa would obviously only react if Chino calls her that, so Rize encourages Chino to say it louder (referencing her training for the choir in Sing for You).

Cocoa and Saki hear Chino, and Saki looks at her daughter from the terrace. Chino also looks up... but doesn’t see anything. She does get a hunch that there’s something up there though, so the group finds Cocoa eventually. Meanwhile Saki feels like her time is up and makes for a quick exit, literally disappearing.

This is where Cocoa returns to the “real world”, as the current Tippy calls out for her. Why was Tippy with Cocoa anyway in the first place? Cocoa looks around and there are in fact lots of people there as expected.

Cocoa thinks that Tippy speaking is an evidence of a ghost, despite her interacting with a real ghost just a few moments before. The 3 Lapins arrive and start arguing who is the real Lapin. Chino says that it’s the one who gets away with everything in the end, implying she will take the whole Cocoa for herself. However Sharo arrests Cocoa for making everyone worry.

On the way back, Chiya recalls the legend which was also mentioned by her grandmother at the beginning of the episode about the spirits of the ancestors coming back for this one day and then returning to heavens. Chino looks up to the sky, while Tippy gives her a solace in the fact that he was once again turned away, implying that he expected to return to heaven with the other spirits.

Tippy also seemed to know what Cocoa was talking about in an earlier scene where Cocoa said she forgot to give thanks to somebody. Just what’s up with Tippy and why is he not allowed to enter Heaven is a big mystery here.

Cocoa also notices Chino being distressed and shows her the magic trick with the candy. It turns out Chino remembers this trick from her childhood, and we get to see a full flashback with Chino’s mother even getting a few speaking lines (delivered by none other but Nana Mizuki). Since the candy was probably a part of the magic set, it’s no coincidence that it has the exact same wrapper in the flashback. The color of the candy matches with Chino’s clothes at the time but you can also think of it as a combination of Saki’s white and Chino’s blue.

By the way, in the manga Cocoa conjures up two candies, and they have a plain wrapping so there wasn’t One Specific Candy like in the anime. Also in the flashback, Chino is carried by her grandfather. His face is not shown, but Takahiro is seen in the background (with Rize’s dad) so by exclusion it had to be him. And in the current scene Chino is the one carrying Tippy like this.

The episode ends with Cocoa asking Chino to tell her more about her mother, while a star is seen rising in the sky, presumably symbolizing Saki’s spirit.

Let’s go back to Cocoa meeting Saki scene one more time. Like I explained, it’s heavily implied that Cocoa isn’t really in the same world as the other characters when she meets Saki’s ghost. Of course Gochiusa had supernatural elements from the start, such as a certain talking rabbit who happens to be Chino’s grandfather. But now we have a ghost of Chino’s mother and Cocoa is the only one who can see her, but Chino can’t? Just what the heck is going on here?

But wait, there is a rational explanation for all of this! Cocoa had a hallucination triggered by all the Halloween celebrations. She imagines helping a lost child just like Chino did before (and told Cocoa about it later) and then imagines the ghost of Saki teaching her magic, because subconsciously she wants to be like Saki. She had seen Saki before on a photograph, but haven’t heard her speak, which is why the ghost can’t talk to her. Hearing Chino call her onee-chan brings Cocoa back to her senses. But how did Cocoa learn the trick if it was just her imagination? Well, consider the fact that she was practicing this exact trick at the beginning of the episode. By the time she shows it to Chino, she has already practiced it a lot of times, but maybe she only realized the crucial part (feint) during the hallucination. Either way, the blue striped candy wasn’t given to Cocoa by Saki, she had it from the start, as part of the magic set! The candies that Saki uses to show the trick to Cocoa all disappear when Cocoa returns to reality.

Saki appears one more time in the bar time scene with Takahiro, who is listening to her record Silver Spoon from Sing for You OVA and then calls her by name. I think this is the only time the name “Saki” is mentioned in the show itself, and it’s not mentioned in the manga at all (unless maybe in some recent chapters which I haven’t read yet). The first time it was revealed was during April Fool’s day Clockwork Rabbit event, as a solution to a “puzzle”. Her name is written in katakana as サキ, however one of possible readings of the word “saki” is 咲き which means “bloom”. Now consider how the last few seconds of the opening animation it cuts from a blooming field of dandelions to Saki:

The dandelions connection to Saki was previously seen in season 2 episode 1 and Sing for You. Saki’s character design doesn’t really say “blooming of dandelions” to me, but consider that a dandelion turns into this:

Now that’s more like it! Although it reminds me of Tippy as well. Anyway, that was a very mysterious episode of Gochiusa BLOOM and let’s see what happens next! Only 5 episodes remain...

#gochiusa #gochuumon wa usagi desu ka?#is the order a rabbit?#review

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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December Goals Update

Time to round up the stuff I got done! This one is a big update, despite both accomplishments and this january’s goals being quite straightforward this time. ^-^)/

I already know - I ended up focusing on one very specific goal, and made significant progress JUST in that. And... if I do what I am PLANNING for January... then hopefully I’ll make more progress. But lol, we’ll see. We know how much I suck at sticking to my plans >o>

Things accomplished:

Chinese novel chapters read in December: 20 (Tian Ya Ke - 19, aka read about 24% of the novel this past month! This was the big goal I ended up focusing on - I want to finish reading through my first full novel this year! I did a majority of those chapters in the last 2 weeks, so if I get motivated again, I might really reach this goal. We’ll see. I REALLY do want to break the milestone of getting through one complete novel soon, and it being a priest one would be icing on the cake. Reading method - intensively, using Pleco Reader, looking up all unknown words. I picked up a significant amount of words so far, but it’s still a big challenge lol).

Chapters I studied with Listening-Reading Method: 8 (Most of these were Tian Ya Ke, and dmbj 2. I ended up getting really into reading though, and skipping this step later on as it slowed down my reading time. This January, I would like to do l-r method MORE, because I’ve finally got Guardian all prepped to do that novel with it. I’d love to do l-r method all the way through the novel guardian... I hope I manage it... avenuex did a beautiful audiobook for it, and I’d love to work through it. The only demotivating factor? l-r method takes a big time dedication - 5-10 minutes to read a chapter in english, 20 minutes to listen to the chapter while looking at the english text, 20 minutes to listen to the chapter while looking at the chinese text... so around 50 minutes to do a single chapter. And guardian has 106+ chapters ToT. That said, imagine how improved my listening skills would be after roughly 88* hours of listening to chinese I can mostly comprehend? Considering just a handful hours of l-r method has already bumped my listening skills up noticeably to me. In addition to Guardian, I would very much like to do l-r method with Silent Reading as an excuse to re-read the novel and listen to the audiobook - which is around 66 free chapters available at least. I figure l-r method with priest novels, in combo with reading priest novels like Tian Ya Ke, will help with picking up vocabulary in reading and listening a bit. Plus, I plan to do l-r method in the order: listen to english, then listen to chinese, which tends to help me pick up more reading comprehension better than the reverse order.)

Chinese audio listened to: 14 (a surprisingly large number? I don’t remember doing this much lol? I think some of this is me listening to dmbj audios, and some was other chinese things, and a tiny bit was restarting the spoonful chinese audio. Again, I think listening more has been helping out a lot)

shows watched in only chinese: roughly 2 (I watched a bit of a few eps of border town prodigal, some tlt3 raws, some short vids, half of anti fraud league ep 1, half of some spy show, basically i was not in a focused mood lol)

Personal goals met:

finally got my stomach to stop hurting! i guess it wanted less carbs. also debloated 10 lbs so i guess its happier lol. still not sure what else it wants from me.

started writing a personal story, period piece with pirates and bisexual messes and i’m quite excited tbh. So now this story, and Nanase, are active original wips

handled doctor stuff wooh!

read more of my cpstd book and made more comprehensive plans on what to do when i get emotional flashbacks - and i think the prep work has been really helpful so far, i’m hopeful my lowered stress now is a part of that lol

formatted 2 books! WOOH! in process of formatting 2 more, and learning how the fuck to do a parallel text - anyone know how??? I’m having a nightmare, I’d love to do left page english right page chinese, but all I’m finding are how to use columns to do dual texts beside each other on the same page. Which is much more cramped to read... but I suppose I can live with it if it’s the only option I have.

Goals for January will be pretty straightforward to be honest. I am in a very reading-focused mood. (I mean we’ll see how long that lasts, ToT since my attention jumps randomly, but I’ve got everything Prepped to lean heavy into reading for my studying for the foreseeable future). I plan to focus on reading as my main study method, to cover listening and reading and picking up vocabulary/hanzi. Optionally, I might listen to chinese audio in the background to further help with listening/vocabulary (like Chinese Spoonfed Audio, or audiobooks), or I might watch a show in chinese (whether I do this completely depends on if I feel like it).

Later on in the year, if reading is getting easier - then long term, I think I’ll want to go back to Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Characters book and read through it for a solid foundation to fill in gaps, read my chinese grammar books for same reason, use my pronunciation app... and then dive into both language exchange apps and tutors more firmly for actual writing and speaking and interacting with others. Basically, long term, I’d like to work on filling in my gaps and correcting any mistakes I haven’t figured out, then work on production more which will be significantly weaker skills by then. But in the immediate, I want to just focus on what I enjoy - reading - and use it to pick up as many words as possible.

Goals for January:

Continue reading Tian Ya Ke. Work on reading through my first complete novel in chinese. Continue counting chapters read, as I might look at a few novels - but sincerely, I WANT to focus on one book so Tian Ya Ke is the GOAL. I will be quite happy if I can get the book to 50% read by the end of this month, but we’ll see... and quite honestly I’ll be floored if I get to 100% within the month - but if it gets easier as I pick up more words, anything’s possible. Ideally, I would like to l-r method a few chapters. I do think it speeds up my reading speed because it makes me keep up with the narration, and it also helps me cement new words into my memory better. I remember words better when I hear them. However like - chapters tend to take me 40 minutes to read, and l-r method takes usually 15-20 minutes because of how dense priest’s chapters are. So... l-r method chapters take 1 hour a piece... if I get into a reading mood, I’ll ultimately probably just primarily focus on the reading.

Secondary goal, not as important, I will start this if desired but it might wait until February+. Listen-Read Method Guardian, until I’ve gotten through the entire novel. I finally have all the translations gathered up, I’ve got my chinese copy of the novel, and avenuex’s audiobook. I have everything ready to simply start. However, as mentioned, this is a time heavy activity. I do think it will be very helpful for improving my listening skills, and to a degree also - helping retain my reading skills, push my reading speed up a little, and maybe help me pick up some new words. I think it will be a very compatible activity with goal 1, or a nice follow up activity to goal 1. Also it is the DREAM, as that novel is what pushed me to start learning chinese initially... so I am very excited to read through it. Ideally, I start this activity AFTER Tian Ya Ke, and I do a full readthrough of the chapters like: read in english, audio with english, audio with chinese, read intensively in chinese. Basically, I would love to include a full intensive read through of Zhen Hun at the same time I’m l-r method’ing it. However that will be Even more time sapping, so that’s not necessarily gonna happen unless my reading speed for priest novels is a little better after Tian Ya Ke. I need to get through the chapters read in chinese in closer to 20 minutes instead of the current 40 minutes it takes me.

Optional. Listen to chinese when I can - in the background like Chinese Spoonfed, audio books, audio dramas, and by watching shows in only chinese. If I have time, and I feel like doing these, I will. It’s easy to add doing this to my day, so when I remember to do them, they’re helpful.

Main Goal for January - continue reading Tian Ya Ke. <3

Once that’s completed, next main goal - Listen-Read Method with Guardian.

See? Really extremely straightforward goal for January. Simply keep reading! I think the more I read, the easier it will get, the faster it will get, and the quicker I’ll be able to get through a LOT of the novels I want to check out. So... I have to start doing it, if I intend to get better.

Unrelated notes:

I’ve gotten really into Drakengard 3 lately. Which by extension, means really into Nier Automata again, Nier (Nier Replicant remaster is releasing and I am getting the version with the scriptbooks and am intensely excited), and Drakengard. Yoko Taro’s wild concepts and fascinating characterizations and way of telling stories has sucked me in again. And I am reminded how very much eventually learning to read Japanese IS still a long term goal of mine. I’m back to playing like 3 games right now I could so easily be practicing my japanese with... if I remembered any japanese ToT. It’s like at the edges of my brain... I remember the hiragana and katakana after a minute or two... the kanji I’ve completely forgotten, but since I know a lot of the meanings from chinese now, I can often parse out the meaning of sentences in manga I’ve got... I can’t remember the particles off the top of my head or when I listen, but when I read their meaning clicks again fast... I know that when I go back, its just a matter of a crash course and then diving in again. And wow am I eager. But I know myself, and japanese is gonna take a WHILE. And chinese is currently taking a LOT of dedication, I don’t even really have time to work on my french reading lol. So I would really prefer to get at least another year in chinese before even trying to start studying japanese again. (And realistically 2-3 more years of chinese, because I genuinely think a solid basis in speaking skills/basic listening skills, and generally Competent webnovel reading skills I want before I stop actively studying chinese... because by that time I’ll want to keep reading/listening to chinese for pleasure, chatting when needed, and if I stop studying before that point I know I personally will just end up needing to relearn some big chunks. I also think if I try to go back to japanese before that point, I will have major issues confusing the two when reading. My japanese was upper-beginner when I quit, and when I started chinese I sped past that point in chinese to the point pretty quickly chinese blocked out what japanese i knew and it made japanese reading easier but only to a point. My chinese I’d put at ‘beginner’ still?? But compared to my japanese its significantly farther - in chinese I can currently read manhua without a dictionary and get enough to translate most of it myself, and read simpler novels and get most of it, and read more complex novels and get the gist main idea even if its a slog.

With japanese? Ahahahahahah! I was able to read the very simplest of manga and only get the very bare main idea gist, could NOT even comprehend any novel, and could play a video game on MEMORY of what i knew the context was, only picking out quite basic words. However, even though my chinese has gotten a fair bit further... I want it even further before I stop actively studying it so much. I want it to the point its where my french reading level was at about 2.5 years into french (or honestly, a bit Better than my french was tbh). I want my chinese to be to the point, where I recognize enough hanzi that I can guess the meaning of some new words, that I can look up most new words with with pinyin because i at Least know the pinyin for most hanzi i see, and where in most not-too-difficult webnovels i read, I know enough of the words, that i can comfortably follow the gist of the main plot without too much strain even if i miss details. so at that point, I’ll still likely want to build up my vocabulary more - so that i can learn to translate, and so that i can pick up details easier, and read faster. But I’ll at least be at a point where i can easily maintain the skills i have and improve them a bit naturally by just continuing to read. I mean... realistically even, I should try to keep studying chinese a lot at that point... I really, really want to be able to read chinese novels. But that’s probably the minimum at which I’d feel quite comfortable focusing on another language intensively.

With japanese, I already have a study plan too! A study plan I know works for me! It’ll be so simple! Parts 1-4 would be structured study, parts marked + would be options to move onto, and parts marked * would be activities that could be done concurrently.

The japanese study plan, whatever year I finally can get to it:

Listen to Japanese Audio Lessons (japaneseaudiolessons.com). I did this before, and it helped my listening comprehension/vocabulary pick up so much.

Read Learn to Read in Japanese Vol I, II, III (by the same people). I loved these books back when I started them, the best mnemonics that I’d found for myself to pick up the kanji - easiest way for me to pick them up without brute forcing it.

(concurrently with above) go through Nukemarines LLJ memrise decks. Literally, just CRAM through those. I did that at the 2+ year mark for japanese, and that was REALLY when I was finally able to start reading and trying video games, so it clearly was what worked for me.

Read my book Read Japanese. Haven’t tried this yet, but it looks like a good place to progress, This would be done after step 1+2, either concurrently with Nukemarine or after Nukemarine depending on how much is done. Just cram Through this book since it’s got a lot of basics in the beginning. Its in the same structure as my DeFrancis Chinese Readers and very well suited to my learning style.

Read my Tuttle Read Japanese book. More difficult, goes into like 2000 kanji, a ton of vocab, and most people who read this said afterward reading regular japanese material was quite doable.

+If my Nukemarine deck is completed - move onto one of my japanese decks with more words, or Clozemaster Japanese sentences.

+If my japanese audio lessons are completed - move onto one of my other japanese audio collections like the japanese pimsleur that was condensed, or that website with a ton of condensed audio of episodes (https://www.paliss.com/). Or youtube channels like Game Gengo (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT12i1gB38HG1olutL08nID8gaGWHZS4v).

+at the point Nukemarine’s deck is done, Listening-Reading method with japanese novels is an option.

+at the point I’m done with all Read Japanese books, may read through some other japanese textbooks I have, starting with: Japanese Particles and Common Sentence Structures, Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Guide.

*Find a japanese reader equivalent to Pleco (check subreddit r/learnjapanese, r/refold, r/massimmersionapproach). Start reading whatever japanese novels I want. Which knowing me, will probably be light novels, maybe some visual novels, and video game related materials. *Ideally this step would be done last, but knowing me, it’ll be done whenever i feel like starting - could be attempted as early as midway through the Nukemarine decks.

*Listen to japanese - so many options here, realistically it would be me playing video games in japanese, watching jdramas, watching/listening to spinoff material of stories I like like the YorHa stage plays etc. Can be attempted as early as midway through Nukemarine decks.

*reading manga could be anywhere in this list, although I don’t do it much anymore. But I was just getting to being able to try this last time I was studying japanese, so I could start up again whenever. Only negative, I would say, is I think my improvement suffered back then because I was too scared to try reading actual novels. So novels are prioritized as reading material. It would be nice to help translate some mangas though - so there’s an option.

*maybe try translating some japanese things i have interest in, at a late point.

I think maybe, the biggest thing studying chinese has taught me about how i learn languages, is that I improve faster when challenged. I learn better when challenged. I tried to read Chinese novels from the first few months (not well, but i tried lol), I watched chinese dramas from day one, and I tried to watch chinese shows only in chinese from month 5 onward. From month 5 onward I started trying to talk/write with people (knowing maybe 400 words at first, quickly bumping up to 1000 words in a month cause of just needing it, so it definitely helped me). And when I started listening to audio more, my listening skill noticeably improved within a few months. As a result, my chinese in a little over a year is taking much less time to improve then I projected it was going to (I figured the progress I’ve made so far, was going to take 3-4 years). Whereas with japanese, I didn’t try to start reading or playing video games or listening a lot until 2 years into studying... and I also didn’t make any noticeable improvement until then. So going into any language study moving forward, I’ll do more to challenge myself earlier. Since clearly its helpful to me.

#december progress #december goals #japanese #japanese study plan #study plan #u can really tell japanese has been on my mind lately lol #chinese study plan #to be honest though i feel really happy with my chinese right now #i have been working for a YEAR to get to this point in chinese #to where i can primarily make my studying be reading. and i'm definitely here.#i can just keep reading and listening for a few months for chinese. i dont really need to work on varying it anymore #since my vocab foundation is decent now.#in a while like i said - long term - i'd like to do a readthrough of my textbooks #to catch onto errors i make and to iron out any points i still am not clear on #and really HAMMER in knowledge of basics #and then i want to focus a lot of my study on producing the language/communicating #i am hoping by that point my reading skills will be fast enough i'll be able to just read for pleasure #in some down time. and listen to audio dramas in downtime. to retain #what gains i've made there.#but production i'm happy to put off for a while so this plan seems good to me.

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zukuthehero · 4 years

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Chapter three- Izuku gets a care package

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || AO3

“I’m home mom!” I slipped into the house, closing the door gently behind me.

I juggled the bags from my shopping trip and toed my shoes off before moving heading towards my room to drop it all off.

“Oh, Izuku honey,” my mom called from the kitchen, “You dad sent a package for you!”

I perked up, “Dad sent a package?”

“Yes, it’s here in the kitchen dear.”

I grinned and hurried to my room to drop my stuff off. I know my dad doesn’t really like me. He started leaving a lot for business trips after my diagnosis. And now hasn’t been home in six years. But I did like it when he pretended to care for mom. It’s been awhile since he sent anything too.

I dropped my bags on my bed to put up later, then rushed back to the kitchen. I grinned as I noticed the open package on the table, a package for mom I assume. I peaked in and noticed a few wine bottles and something fabric, maybe some new clothes?

“Here’s your package dear.”

I turned to see mom holding out a package to me, my name written neatly on the top in Dad’s handwriting.

“Thanks Mom.” I scooped it up, it was rather heavy, and moved to my room to open it.

I placed the box on my bed and dug around for some scissors to open it. Finding them, I carefully cut the tape and pulled open the top.

At the very top was a box that said Bath and Body Works in English lettering. I quickly reached in and pulled it out, these are always so cool. I opened the box to see little all might themed bath bombs! They were yellow, blue, and red like his outfit and had stars decorating them. They even had the bangs sticking up in yellow! I adore them and I’m definitely using them immediately.

There were also two small candles! These were Endeavor themed. How cool! The candle wick is where his hair would be. That’s so fun.

I put the mini box aside to pull out the next thing. Ooh, new video games. He always sends at least one new game each time. !!!!! THAT’S THE NEW POKEMON GAME! I love Pokemon, I was gonna save up to get Pokemon Freedom, but this is awesome. It’s for the new console that dad sent last time too.

Pokemon Freedom has a cool plot from what I’ve been reading. Criminals have been imprisoning Pokemon to try and lure the legendary Pokemon Teluno, the legendary of freedom, to them. The player must fight them while beating the gyms. The cool twist is that you go through the areas the Pokemon are imprisoned in along the way and catch new Pokemon that can’t be caught outside them. There’s also still the normal wild Pokemon but I’m super excited for this game.

Ooh, also the new Zelda game, A Link in Time. I don’t know nearly as much about this one’s plot but I do know that the villain that kidnaps Princess Zelda is on that can travel through time, so I can’t wait to find out how the game lets you deal with it. Plus, I love doing the side quests. Even if the timeline is a bit confusing, maybe they got rid of that annoying fairy that says “Hey! Listen.” Ten million times.

I quickly put the games into my game draw, which has basically every Pokemon game ever, and a lot of other role play games.

Turning back to the box I found a pile of comics! My dad has been sending them to me forever, even before he stopped coming home he’d still get them for me. Said my uncle liked them I think. Spiderman is my favorite for sure, Batman being a close second. They’re classics. I’ve read the first 500 comics so far, dad sends a few new ones every time. I don’t know how he finds them all though. Some of them are worth a lot of money from what I’ve seen online.

I cheerfully put them on the shelf with the other more recent ones. I have the older ones in a box in the closet, I ran out of room on the shelf.

Next in the box were new notebooks, ooh waterproof ones. And the covers are all cool! One is black with red lightning designs, another has an interesting rocky texture, a third has dragons decorating it, and the last one has a green cover with my name embedded on it in gold! They’re so pretty.

I carefully put them on my notebook shelf. I would definitely be using those soon. They’re so nice.

Beside those were two pencil cases. One green, one red. I opened the green on to find it filled with pencils and, oh, a note on them says they’re waterproof. Checking the red one reveals waterproof pens. That’s brilliant! I noticed some clear film tucked against the side of the box and pulled it out. It had a backing with writing that I read quickly. Fireproof covers! That’s amazing, that’ll be good to keep on my notebook. I wish I had those before, but at least I don’t have to worry about Kacchan destroying anymore notebooks.

At the bottom of the box were four books, and some sodas and snacks tucked to the side. Picking up the books I saw that one was on anatomy, advanced anatomy it looks like. That’ll be useful. There was also one on basic first aid and one on advanced first aid. The final book was one titled “The Achievements and Failures of Heroes through the Ages”. It looked interesting at least. Maybe dad wants me to learn from previous heroes mistakes? Ooh! Maybe previous OFA users are in here! I can use it for my research too.

I grinned as I started to open the book on heroes before pausing. I reluctantly stacked the books on my desk. I needed to read through all of them, but that would have to wait just a little while, I have training to do.

I noticed something poking out of the hero book and picked up the book again. Opening the book to that page I found it marking a page about a hero’s failure to help a woman who warned him about a villain that then caused a big disaster that ended in a lot of death. I frowned, that’s sad, before realizing the page marker was an envelope.

Dear Izuku,

Inko told me you got into UA, I’m very proud of you. I know it has always been your dream school.

I’m very sorry that I haven’t sent anything in a while, work has been very busy but that is no excuse. I am glad that I finally had the chance to check my messages to see that you got in. Inko also told me your quirk has manifested. I hope you are practicing hard with it. Quirks are difficult enough to handle when you have a lifetime to learn them, you have only had a few weeks.

I’m very proud of you regardless, remember, a quirk is not everything. You’re extremely smart so be sure to train your brain just as much as your body. I am sure you could become an amazing hero with or without a quirk.

I hope you enjoy the games I sent, they were once again recommended by a coworker. And I hope the books are useful to you in your training to be a hero. Remember to take care of yourself and get plenty of rest. Overworking yourself won’t help anyone, least of all you.

I hope you enjoy your school Izuku, stay safe and do well. I love and miss you a lot.

Lots of Love,

Your father, Hisashi

I couldn’t help but sniff as I read it, tears burning in my eyes. He sounded like he really cares. But was that only because I have a quirk now? He said he didn’t care but then why did he leave?

I shook my head, putting the letter in my desks drawer, I saved all of his letters. As I did I noticed something on the back. I blinked looking, a stick figure drawing with three figures, one with blue hair, one with white (Like dad’s), and one with green. A little note to the side said to enjoy the games.

I smiled, was that the coworker he mentioned?

I gently placed the note in the drawer.

Okay, so now I need to put up what I bought.

First things first, notebooks on the unused notebook shelf. With the new ones dad just got me too. I just got some more of the basic ones, but I always love when dad sends nice ones.

Next my new book on codes, I need to read that first so leaving that out, and I need to put the first aid kit in a good place. Plus, the mini one for my backpack. I don’t want to frustrate Recovery Girl too much with needing to heal me.

I stuck the first aid kit under the bed for now, easy access but not in the way.

Okay! I really really want to play the new Pokemon game… I shook my head. “No Izuku, you need to work first. You can play Pokemon before bed.” I nodded. “Time to get to work.”

The coding book was filled with helpful pictures and practice pages for known codes. But I can’t use a known code, I need to make my own to be fully protected. I can’t risk one-for-all getting known to the public, and it will help me do analysis! Maybe I can try writing a letter in code to dad?

I shook my head again. No best not to annoy him. I don’t want to make him upset when he seems so pleased right now.

After reading through most of the book I decided to start working on my code.

I want to use hiragana I think, it’ll be easier then making a new symbol for each word, so my key can be smaller. But I can also make symbols for the more common words, that’ll shorten the time frame for it. And maybe make some symbols similar? Different combinations can mean different words entirely too.

I pulled out one of my new notebooks and to get to work. I need this code to be perfect!

Oh… but I also need to work on One-for-all. And I don’t have much time. Maybe I can practice calling it to my hands, just channel the power to both hands… oh spreading it out might make it a bit easier to use. So I’ll channel it to my hands for now while I write the code.

I focused hard, closing my eyes and breathing slowly, I pulled at the power I’ve felt so few times. A vast well of energy that seemed never ending flooded my senses after a minute of work. I gasped, and lost track of it again.

Okay, try again. The flood, too much, I lost it again.

Again, and again, and again.

The flood again, don’t drown, just sit there, hold it, don’t lose it. Okay, now, carefully scoop a little bit into my hands, and just let it sit there.

I blinked my eyes open after a minute, staring at my hands, which had red lines winding over them and green light practically pouring off them. Okay, I can do this.

I broke the first pencil I picked up. And the second, and the third. I managed to only crack the fourth until I wrote the first line, then it broke as well.

Control, I can do this.

I took forever, I have a pile of broken pencils by my desk, but I finally managed to hold the pencil and write carefully without breaking it.

I went to work carefully designing the code while holding one for all in my very glowy hands. I had to stop to call one for all back up a few times but it was working well.

So now working on the code, maybe I can mix in some shorthand for a few of the words. I’ll have to remember when I add drawings I’ll have to be careful about labels.

My pencil broke again. With a sigh I grabbed another.

Labeling the drawings could be something that would give away my code if I’m not careful though. Maybe I should add multiple symbols for one word, so it won’t be obvious, that would be good. Quirk, strength, ooh things like dashes will need new symbols too. I’ll have to make multiple for those too.

I scribbled out the words I needed code for, plus the punctuation. I had to pause to replace my pencil again, then started designing the symbols for them.

I blinked when my stomach growled, oh, how long was I working?

I put my pencil down and realized that my hands were aching, nothing broken but it did hurt. I slowly let one for all fade out, the glow fading slowly before fading to sparks, then nothing at all as the red lines slid away.

I blinked, the sparks were new. I’ll have to try with that again later. Maybe try to get one for all called to the level just below the sparks? Or maybe the sparks are a good spot to aim for? They’re a bit showy, but at least it seems like a much lower level of one for all, and I might be able to use it without hurting there.

I hummed, staring at my hands. I should practice the level I’m calling out now, I can now call it without trouble, but less energy would be better.

I headed out for food, checking the clock in the living room I realized it was ten pm! I’d spent a lot more time working than I’d meant to.

I quickly made a sandwich and grabbed two rice balls from the fridge. Taking it back to my room I considered how to best train to lower the levels of one for all.

I can now feel the energy when I call it if I focus, I should try to speed up that process, which means doing it over and over. Knowing what the energy feels like is theoretically the first step, after that I should be able to draw the energy up and learn how to moderate it.

Right now, I’m focusing the flood straight into my hands, it’s too much for me. I can’t understand how All Might can do it, it’s so much power!

I need to lower the amount. Maybe scoop up a handful of the power and place it in my hands? It took a lot of focus to put the power in both hands simultaneously. How do All Might switch around the power so… so… …. …

“OH!”

“Of course, that’s just silly, he can’t switch the power around that fast he must have all the power focused all throughout his body, and could he really have the power going at all times? Even with control he’d probably break everything around him every time he moved at full power. Not to mention hitting someone at full power would kill them. That means that he must lower the power he has active on average, and full power is for big stuff. Even then he still wouldn’t be able to move where he’s holding the power around fast enough for all the things he does, which means he must focus the power throughout his body!”

I beamed, reaching for one of my new notebooks (the cool lightning one dad got me), I have ideas to write down.

“It all makes so much more sense now! I was being so dumb before but of course he has to put it through his whole body, that’s the only way to boost everything at once. I’ve just been putting it in one spot, of course it breaks my bones if it’s meant to power everywhere!”

I quickly grabbed my code key to make sure I wrote it write, glancing at it as I scribbled down my ideas on the third page.

“And he called it a stockpile quirk, didn’t he? That means that it should be stronger for me than it was for him, and with how strong he is he no doubt strengthened it a lot. But can he access the strengthened level? Or do I make the new level myself? I don’t have a quirk, so I have nothing to contribute there. While All Might has a quirk that allows him to bulk his body up again despite his injury, maybe some sort of quirk that allows him to return to a previous form? If it’s a stockpile quirk what all is it stockpiling anyways?”

I frowned at the thought, it can’t just be stockpiling strength, what all does it take from previous users? If it can be passed down, can other things be passed down? Could it stockpile knowledge? Experience? Energy or power is the obvious start of what it’s passing down, but that can’t be all. Power alone wouldn’t give me the boost I have. The quirk is only so strong because it gains power with each generation.

“Could it stockpile quirks?”

That… that would be incredible. If one quirk lets you have access to the abilities of other quirks, the possibilities are endless! I really need to research previous users now. What all could they have passed down?

And is the well of energy I felt the only thing there? If I dig deep enough could I find memories from previous holders? Maybe their knowledge? Experience?

And if this quirk can stockpile so much are there other quirks that could do similar? What does this quirk take when it passes on?

Could it stockpile souls?

It makes sense if it passes down from person to person, I don’t know the limits of what it passes on. Maybe I should learn meditation? I can probably find videos on that. I really have a lot to learn about one for all.

I finished scribbling out all my theories for now. Some of them seem a bit out there, stockpiling souls? But still, I don’t know the limits and I’m wondering if All Might does either.

I stretched frowning. There’s so much to learn, and so little time. I have two and a half weeks until the tournament if I remember correctly. Assuming we still have it. I need to be able to use one for all without hurting myself by then. Or I’ll be a liability.

I will master this quirk, it’s mine now. All Might gave it to me. I won’t let him down

### Tomura’s POV ###

I hate All Might so much.

Thinks he’s so great. Ass Might can go rot.

I rolled over in bed. Sensei ordered me to rest and recover for now. The healing quirks he used did a lot to help me but I’m still miserable.

The bullet holes hurt, what kind of hero shoots people?

And All Might just allows it, HA, people act like he’s the paragon of light and goodness. Completely ignoring how he beats people into the ground and ignores the pain of those lower than him.

My poor Otouto has no idea.

Speaking of Otouto, I wonder if he’s opened the care package yet? Sensei had Kurogiri deliver it so he’s definitely received it. I hope he likes the games I picked. Sensei says that Otouto’s mom said he loved all the previous versions I’ve sent.

“Ugh”

I don’t like Otouto with those filthy heroes. They think they’re soooo great. Otouto could be a good hero, unlike the rest. But they’ll try to corrupt him. Won’t let him be the true angel that he is.

He shouldn’t be involved in all that. The hero world is filled with darkness, Otouto is too bright to be there. They’ll snuff out his light.

I can’t allow that.

The heroes will put Otouto in danger, but I’ll kill them all before that. I won’t let them harm him.

I frowned, “Of course there’s also his quirk.”

Some sort of strength or enhancement quirk. But it broke him to use it.

I shook my head. It’s okay, it’s too dangerous for him, but Sensei will take it from him and give him a better one. One that won’t hurt him, then Otouto can use a nice strong quirk to help people if he wants, or we’ll tuck him away. He really shouldn’t be out in the world. It’d be better for us to keep him safe.

I frowned, we can keep him safe.

The main problem would be his love of heroes, and, ugh, All Might.

I don’t understand how he could still like All Might! All Might was so rude to Otouto at the USJ. Acting like he knew everything when Otouto is so smart and was trying to help him. He spoke to Otouto like he’s some kind of helpless child.

Yes, he’s a child, and he does need to be protected, but All Might knows nothing about him. And Otouto is very smart, he could out think his opponents any day! All Might himself wouldn’t stand a chance against Otouto with a plan.

I hate that All Might is being seen as some sort of idol to Otouto, he has no idea. After what Ass Might did to Sensei, I wouldn’t ever trust him around Otouto. I’ll have to kill him soon so Otouto can be safe.

I should probably do something about those kids that were with Otouto too.

None of them are good enough. Especially not that blonde haired menace. Throwing his quirk around willy nilly, just trying to show off. Otouto only used his to protect the other kids and All Might.

The rest of the kids were nearly as bad, focusing on looking cool and gaining popularity. Idiots. They’re not worthy of being around Otouto. They’re prime examples of everything that’s wrong with heroes these days.

But right now, I can’t go get Otouto, or go check on him to make sure he’s alright.

I need to make sure he’s alright, he’s my Otouto, Sensei’s son. I won’t allow him to be hurt.

Maybe I can get Sensei to send more stuff to Otouto? He likes games. Maybe some game guides?

I’ll have to think of the best things to get him.

I looked at the picture of Otouto that Sensei had let me keep, my Otouto, he’s too small, too innocent. This world is cruel to people like him. I won’t let it break him.

I’ve only just gotten to meet Otouto, but if anything happened to him I’d kill everyone in this city then myself

#Little Brother of Mine #Chapter three #Izuku midoriya #Izuku has one for all #Dad for one #Dad Might #Older brother Tomura #BNHA #BNHA fanfic #good dad for one #all for one is midoriya hisashi #All for one #Tomura Shigaraki #genius izuku #smart izuku #seriously this kid is amazing #Also on ao3

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kirbyfan72-blog1 · 7 years

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Doodles (Haikyuu X reader soulmate AU)

Ok, so before I begin this, two things: One: I have never written anything for Haikyuu nevertheless anything for tumblr. Two: this is a Tsukishima x reader soulmate AU where whatever you write on your arm your soulmate can see, with some restrictions like giving exact locations, only hints. You live in the US for this and are left handed. And without further ado...... ------ It all started with a simple squiggle on your left arm when you were ten, you know you couldn't have put it there, after all, that was your dominant hand. A few moments later some random characters showed up there, in a language you weren't exactly aware of. Asking around to know what language it was, you finally found that it was hiragana for "hello" Later that day you finally decided to respond. Not with a hello, but with a doodle of the American flag, which was basically you saying "I'm sorry, I don't understand you." The day came to a close, and you went home to tell your parents about the occurrence. "Honey! That's amazing!" Your mother cheers, her eyes looking kind of glossy from maybe joyful tears? "What do you mean, why was there writing on my arm?" You ask, confused. "You've made contact with your Soulmate, oh I hope he is wonderful to you. You know, your dad and I were soulmates, oh was it funny when we met, I was working at the college bookstore...." you tuned her out and got lost in your thoughts. 'Soulmate? How come I never knew of this?' A tingling sensation was felt on your arm. A response! Your mother gasped, and her face fell when she saw it, it was a Japanese flag. "He's from Japan?" She asked and you nodded. "Well then, this will be interesting. Maybe when you are a little older, we'll send you abroad and maybe you'll find him or her." She smiled, bringing you into a hug. You hugged back and nodded. "That sounds like a plan mom." The years passed by and the two of you had an unspoken rule that you both would communicate through doodles. One day you drew a pair of swim goggles, a symbol that you were on the swim team, he responded with a Volleyball. You drew a dinosaur and an alien, he circled the dinosaur. He drew two stick figures, a short stick figure and a tall stick figure, you circled the space between, you were pretty average height wise. Glasses or no glasses, you circled glasses. Sun or moon- Night or day. You circled the moon. After all, not only was it cooler at night, it was beautiful. The years went on like this, making doodle exchanges of events that happened. One day on your first day of sophomore year you drew your school mascot on your arm, knowing he was from Japan and establishing he was finally in high school since middle school is three years and high school is three. He responded with a crow. A few minutes later you saw something on your arm, it was English. "Hello." Was all of said. "Hello, I'm _____" you wrote back. He finally knew your name. "I'm Kei." He wrote back, "I finally can use English well enough to speak to you." Let's just say you had to excuse yourself to the bathroom to text your mother a picture of your arm. "Alright, here it goes." You mumble to yourself, writing in katakana, "My Japanese writing isn't very good, I'm sorry." You receive a reply, "no, it's ok, how about we help each other?" "Absolutely." The two of you via arm made a schedule of the days you would use either language, Sundays, mondays, and Tuesdays would be English, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were Japanese and Saturday was him in English while you replied in Japanese. It was now your junior year and you were both pretty fluent in the other's language. The first day of school you saw a new face, a tall blonde with glasses and a glare on his face that could drill holes through whoever he saw. Having a friend who wore a very much alike expression, you decided to approach him. "Well you're a new face, the name is ____, and you are?" He looked down at you and glared. "None of your business." "You're lost aren't you? You're that exchange student that everyone is talking about. This isn't the Junior hall you know what right?" "Maybe...." "Let me see your schedule." He hands you a slip of paper, and you look at his name neatly centered on top "Kei Tsukishima. Period one: Anatomy Period two: Algebra 2 Period three: English 11 Honors Period four: Ceramics Period five: World History Period six: Physical Education Period seven: Drawing" "Hey, our schedules almost match up completely except for fifth and sixth. Follow me Kei." And then it hit you. You whipped out your pen and furiously drew on your arm the US flag with a question mark. "Hey, Kei can I see your right arm please?" "Why?" "Just let me see it." You pulled up the sleeve of his jacket and there it was, the US flag with question marks. "It's nice to meet you soulmate." You smiled. He looked at you aghast, "what?" You gestured to the conversations on your arms from the night before, now faded. The hall had gone silent by now, everyone's attention on the two of you. The meeting of a soulmate was important, and nobody interfered with it. "Kei, it's really nice to finally meet you." Your voice cracked a bit as you started to cry happily. "It's so good to meet you. Finally, after six years." You wipe tears from your eyes. The blonde watched as you cried, and he finally stepped forward, putting his arms around you, "you know when I asked if you were tall or short and you said in the middle you totally lied. You're tiny. And that's ok." He whispered and you laughed, returning the hug. "Well I wasn't exactly expecting you to be what? Six foot five? Your practically a tree, but that's fine." You whisper back and you feel his chest vibrate with laughter. You pull away and look around. The crowd around you claps. "Oh, now that I'm on the receiving end of this, it's actually quite embarrassing." Kei gives you a questioning look. "School tradition is that if soulmates meet during school hours, everyone in the surrounding area stops what they are doing to watch. The teachers aren't a fan of it because it holds up traffic, but they understand that it's important." You sigh, scratching the back of your head, "Anyway, uh, off to algebra?" "Yeah." He takes your hand in his. After school, he walked you home, "come in, I think my mom will want to meet you." "Mom!! Come here!" "Coming sweetie!" A door opens down the hall and footsteps. "Oh, ____ who is this?" "Mom, this is Kei Tsukishima. My soulmate." At soulmate your mom's jaw dropped. "_____, he's so handsome! Kei, I'm (M/n), ____'s mother. It's so nice to finally see you after hearing so much about you. Do you still like dinosaurs?" The boy with glasses sighed and nodded, "yes I still do." "Alright then, _____ why don't you take him to your room to study and I'll come by with snacks in a minute." "Alright." You grab his hand and lead him to your door, "I'm pretty sure you won't be surprised by what you see, after all I have been screaming to you about my anime obsession for a good while now." Opening the door, Kei looks around, the room was well lit and pained a pastel (F/c) with posters for anime stuck to the walls and a shelf with figures right next to the desk. A Volleyball sat in the corner along with a swim bag. A bookshelf full of various YA fiction and manga sat by your closet. "Oh, you can put your bag on my desk or on the bed, doesn't matter, and make yourself comfortable on the floor." You say, while digging through your school bag and pulling out the homework for that day, yes, your teachers gave you homework on the first day back. "I meant to ask, I know your ability in English is really high, but I'm suprised that you got into honors english. How'd you manage that?" "Before I was deemed eligible for an exchange, I had to take an English test, I got a perfect and my verbal test was the same. They asked me how I was so fluent, and I told them about you." You nod your head, "alright. Anything we need to cover about each other before we get to studying?" "Is there a boy's Volleyball team here?" "I wish." "That's pathetic." "I know. Maybe we can suggest it to the board?" "Will we find anyone who wants to join? Who will manage?" "I'm sure we'll find people and I can manage, I'm taking a break from swim this year anyway." "Sounds like a plan." "Alright, let's get to the homework!"

#haikyuu!!#tsukishima kei #soulmate au #anime #hq #fanfic #x reader #reader insert #one shot #I really hope this is ok #this was really fun to write #should I write more oneshots? maybe open up my ask box for them?#writing #oh god here comes the self doubt that this is actually really bad #I'm so used to writing on wattpad so I'm really sorry if it's different in terms of writing style #fanfiction #I don't own Haikyuu nor do I own you blah blah y'all know the drill

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nintendoentertainmentnetwork · 7 years

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Useful Resources for Learning Japanese from the very beginning

Since October, I have been learning Japanese from resources that my cousin has given me (Who is at N2 level at this point) and from resources that I sifted through the internet myself.

I’ve compiled the resources that have really sped up my process.

In about 6 months, I have learned how to read Katakana, Hiragana, common Kanji, understanding sentence structure, and having simple conversations to get by.

I want to link this so that maybe if you’re interested as well, you can check this post out instead of looking long and hard for this stuff, as it does tend to be hard to look for if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Learn Japanese from Zero (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxuZNRnlprC70l1bnI0n-XQ), (http://yesjapan.com/) - This video series/Website breaks everything down for you from the perspective of a Westerner. The guy that explains things for you on the videos really tries to break it down in a way that makes sense to someone who only knows English. He also has an extremely useful website that accompanies the video series that has lesson breakdowns, cool features like putting Japanese words on the site in Romanji, Katakana/Hiragana, Full, or Progressive. This is the very best starting point. The free content is so useful, and even if you wanted to pay for the features on the site for more extensive lessons, it’s really really cheap, and hassle-free.

Japanesepod101.com (https://www.youtube.com/user/japanesepod101) - This channel is more on the care free fun side, where you learn about specific situations and key phrases that you might use in the situations presented as well as culture related videos. They have an excellent series about Kanji radicals that will give you a good base for understanding Kanji really well. They also have a subscription-based site you can pay for, but it is not something that I personally have experience with.

Tofugu (https://www.tofugu.com/) - This site basically helped me learn how to read the Japanese alphabets perfectly. They don’t just have visual mnemonics. They have linking sites that have places where you can repeatedly test your reading skills for the alphabets. They also have really useful information about Japanese culture as well as moving and working in Japan.

Learn Japanese (https://www.youtube.com/user/learnjapanesebod) - This channel has pretty useful videos about the usual stuff that other sites have. But the reason that I use this site a lot is because the person that runs the channel takes very recent anime episodes (Like Dragon Ball Super and OnePiece) and pulls key vocabulary from the episode. He creates flash cards so that you can eventually be able to watch the episode without subtitles. It is extremely useful and fun because if you’re already watching anime, you can use this as an excuse to watch Anime in a different way.

Japanese Ammo with Misa (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBSyd8tXJoEJKIXfrwkPdbA) - I follow this channel in particular because of how easily this person breaks down grammatical nuances and reasons behind why certain Japanese phrases are used in the way that they are. It’s a bit more of a personal feeling youtube channel, and it is run by someone who is Japanese that is also living in Japan.

Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese (http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/) - This site will be your grammatical bible. I can say and will attest that when I need tor review any grammatical issues that I’m having with sentences, I refer to this site. He has a downloadable PDF for when you want to carry it anywhere, as well as a mobile app. And plus, it’s all free!

LearnJapanesePod (https://learnjapanesepod.com/) - This podcast is very much on the chill side, and puts everything in the most broken down structure. They first hit a theme, then have a conversation. They’ll then translate everything over afterwards, and change words in the conversation. They also create a PDF of all the Japanese words they’ve discussed that you have it off hand whenever you need it. Plus, they’re really really funny.

I hope this all helps! It has helped me tons to use this! Also always have someone to practice with!

#japanese #japanese learning #tips #compilation #tae kim

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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random june notes:

japanese:

i probably WOULD improve in japanese at this point if i just like. made a schedule to play video games regularly lol. i know enough kanji “roughly” through hanzi. yes, it would be brutal. it would also be brutal figuring out the hiragana words that like help (are not common particles but mean stuff like ‘and’ or ‘a lot’) since those words are necessary to comprehend but not kanji. i do think if i used the dictionary app on my phone while playing, it would be fine, i’d get through enough to eventually improve in japanese. would it be brutally draining at first? yeah... would studying more of the nukemarine memrise decks help... yes ;-;.

so all i’m saying is - i COULD just study with games at this point. it would be harder than using other stuff too, but i Could. so technically i have no excuse to not study more except - no time right now.

that said i want to read my ‘reading japanese’ books and feel the urge to, so i’m just going to do what i want.

also likewise, i think the Wasabi Japanese lesson plans would help me a LOT with listening and speaking skills - which are 2 areas i’d benefit from studying, so i kind of want to do those lessons more when i have time!

So yeah my “official” plan right now is: Finish reading Japanese in 30 Hours, finish Nukemarine Memrise courses, read other books as desired, do some Wasabi Japanese lessons, read manga/play games as desired.

french:

i want to keep doing and finish le francais par le method nature. do i have time? later but not really rn.

also i just recently remembered i liked Charles Duff’s french textbooks.

korean:

do you ever want to study a language just because the teacher is cute? do you ever want to just because you’re watching more kdramas and maybe you’d focus more if you were listening to the words, and just found your old Korean at A Glance book and kind of want an excuse to read it? Yeah ToT. yeah i’m really feeling the urge to just study korean short term and see how much i can learn. (An excuse to test comprehensible input method at least you know? Because the Learn Korean in Korean youtube is REALLY good and i WANT to watch it even though i have no big reason to, and i like the teacher’s vibe ToT). who knows if i’m just gonna. fuck around and do that for fun.

Chinese:

WELL i had a humbling experience yesterday lol! I found out I can follow Guardian audiobook MUCH LESS WELL if its made by a different speaker. I can follow Avenue x’s audiobook super well (and she does different voices for each character, different audio for each scene). I just tried listening to someone else’s Guardian audiobook yesterday, and except for some key familiar lines? I couldn’t pick up a lot the first listening. Which!! I guess means YES who you practice listening to matters a lot lol. So I am currently RE-DOING step 2 of L-R method (chinese audio, chinese text) with the new audiobook. Because with the text I can easily understand this new audiobook and follow along (I do KNOW most of the words in reading lol now thanks to the prior L-R sessions). But without text? Oh man I was drowning. On the upside - this means I’m doing more listening/reading practice again in chinese! Downside is YES I am still procrastinating future L-R chapters lol. At least I’m doing something I find fun.

I am watching a LOT of cdramas lately. Mainly with eng subs because its just for fun. Although I got the urge to watch The Shaw Eleven Lang again which is only chinese subbed so. But yeah - I am trying to use these shows as some listening practice/shadowing lines every few minutes/looking up new words every few minutes. It’s not intensive, its probably barely study, but its what I’m actually doing so might as well mention it.

basically i’m just kind of playing around this month. i needed a break from intensive study i guess, and more time just reminding me what i like doing? ToT

i also want to finish reading the DeFrancis Readers I just. have no time rn.

(there were many good things about learning chinese). i think one thing i’m really glad i got through in chinese was the initial hump of starting to learn hanzi? I truly think its because the book Tuttle Learn Chinese Characters (800 characters) just used an approach that really clicked with me. After that, I could use the same mnemonic method more or less to learn more on my own through words, and chinese words use hanzi pretty logically. Now, when i do go into japanese again, one of the biggest hurdles of just ‘basically recognizing’ kanji is over. I still need to learn all the kanji pronunciations, and specific words, but just having them be symbols i recognize and can interpret on some level makes them so much less daunting. and if i hadn’t gotten over that initial ‘1000 hanzi’ hump lol, then i would still be finding chinese and japanese unbearably daunting. in 2.5 years in japanese i never got past 500 characters. in 6 months i got through 1000 in chinese, and that really just helped so much. now when i learn new characters in reading it is rarely as hard to recognize their radicals and potential meanings and sound and quickly get a vague recognition of them.

also shout out to chinese for having grammar that just ‘clicks.’ yes i make mistakes (and forgot SO much that i now know intuitively so i no longer remember the actual rules and need to review). but simply comprehension wise it did NOT take long to figure out (like a year?). and just. whenever i go back to french or japanese i’m always like oh god oh no i FORGOT conjugation exists. ;-; i really love and appreciate how when you learn a chinese word you LEARN THE WHOLE WORD - not just one conjugation. that IS the whole word you need to recognize - if its used in past tense, in different ways, it will ALWAYS sound the same and be spelled with those hanzi and that is NICE. its just like... with french or english or japanese you’re really learning like 8+ words when you learn one word, with all the conjugations you have to make. with chinese i think the way the grammar works makes it less effort for each individual word which wow do i appreciate...

#rant #june #june progress

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