MY QUEEN SAKURA HELLLOOOOOOOOOO (Ignore This Scary Schoolboy)

Terukaneaoi sirens & sea stuff AU where Teru's the heir of the Minamoto household, a noble family whose business focuses on maritime trades with overseas lands. The Minamotos have the ability to see and slay supernatural sea creatures and a secret duty to fight them off to protect civilians since ancient times. But the Minamoto siblings are affected with a condition inherited from their mother, that make their blood especially attractive to supernaturals and weaken their capacities to fight them. As their father's also partially lost his combat abilities because of a previous hunt he took part in, severe restrictions were put onto the siblings to forbid them from ever approaching the sea.

But as time goes on, the condition that translates itself by a mark on part of their body weakens for Kou and Tiara and worsens for Teru, which reinforces the supervision put onto him.

He shows himself particularly good at business though, and as his parents often go away on affair trips, he's left with most of the administrative work and kinda drowns under responsibilities, to avoid them being put onto his siblings shoulders. Slowly but surely, he makes a name for himself and people recognize him everywhere, expect lots from him and make him busier and busier, so much he doesn't have time for himself anymore. He longs for a simple life he doesn't get and freedom he can't reach.

One day though, the entire city gets attacked and the Minamotos are forced to escape by sea. His mother gets stabbed on the ship and a sea creature attacks it. They're in the middle of the ocean when she gets killed and Teru's separated from his father and siblings by the creature he somehow manages to escape from. When he miraculously survives, he makes it his goal to find his siblings back, having no idea where they went or if they were even safe after the accident. He severely resents supernatural creatures for ever touching his family.

Akane is a citizen from a coast village of another land that got into a sea accident and lost his best friend, Aoi, two years ago. He's convinced she's still alive though, trapped by the siren hoard that attacked them and cursed him to turn into one too when he touches water. His one and only goal since the accident is to find her again, losing himself in his frantic search. He stays all day at home, lost in research papers and piles of documents, only periodically going out to experiment or patrol on abandoned beaches. As fails keep piling up, he becomes a shadow of himself.

Aoi is Akane's childhood bestfriend. Of curious nature, she had taken interest in supernatural tales since young, especially those of sea creatures. She gets turned into a siren after getting caught in an accident where she manages to save Akane before her human consciousness fades away. Since then, she wanders in the deep seas, regretting things she doesn't remember and longing hard for a boy she had forgotten long ago.

She survives by enchanting sailors who can't see her with her voice, trapping their boats and draining their energy off them.

When Teru's ships crashes, she's attracted by the smell of the particular blood hidden amongst liters and liters of regular ones. When she finds the unconscious boy she at first mistakes for another siren, her curiosity is appealed and she pulls him underwater to drain off his life as she sings him a melody. But the boy seems to see her, and when she touches the mark on his neck, she can sense an electric pulse that only screams danger to her senses. But because his blood tastes delicious, because the energy she drains off him feels particularly good and because his mesmerized eyes carry a look she hadn't seen since two years ago, she doesn't kill him right away. She instead marks him as her prey and carries him to the nearest piece land, saving him for her own entertainment.

On one of his outings, Akane sees Teru's figure floating on a wooden board near a rock, miles away from the coast. Despite having gone kinda insane since his childhood friend's loss, he doesn't think twice before jumping in the water to rescue the stranger. When he makes it back to the beach, he tries to get the unconscious boy to breath again.

After he finally comes awake, Akane discovers Teru got attacked by a sea creature, surprised to meet another survivor after years. He also recognizes what he learned in his searches was a siren's prey mark on his wrist. Akane had been looking for any siren for so long, even resorting to use his own voice he hated with all his might to attract one. So when he sees Teru, hope that dimmed after months and months of failure sparks again, and he is certain that he'll find and save Aoi with this new asset. But Teru is in really bad shape, having spent weeks completely unconscious in the ocean, traveling from a land to another by the bare force of a siren that drained his already lacking energy throught the mark on his wrist.

He spends a few months resting at Akane's house, recovering slower than he would like. He doesn't manage to find any clue on what happened to his siblings, only that the connections with his kingdom had been completely severed. After the first few weeks, Teru manages to vaguely learn about what Akane is always working on, discovering that he's looking for someone. They kinda bond over that ; Teru tells Akane about his siblings and gets him to open up, although reluctantly at first, about Aoi. They also share their aversion for supernatural creatures, though Akane never actually tells Teru about his curse. Teru learns to appreciate Akane's presence, his casualness, so different from what he was accustomed to back home. He sees a shift in Akane's behavior, slowly relaxing around him, less on edge and not entirely consumed by his research anymore.

Curiosity slowly grows about the girl he tells him about; he wishes he can meet her someday. Curiosity also grows about the siren that saved him, the beautiful creature that left a mark on his wrist, as faint memories come back. He wants to find her and thank her for saving his life, see her breathtaking eyes once more before never talking to her ever again, as she's one of the beings he swore he wouldn't forgive and did leave an annoying prey mark on him that made him take so long to recover.

Teru also thinks about his family. The thoughts make him unable to fully appreciate the rest he gets at Akane's he had longed for for years, he stays up at night remembering his mother, hallucinating his siblings telling him they'll never meet again.

As soon as Teru gets back on feet, Akane leads the two of them to a clandestine ship heading to Teru's land, as its official communication ways were abruptly closed right before their meeting on the beach. Akane plans on luring the siren who marked Teru out with said guy and do whatever it takes to make them lead him to Aoi. As a bonus, he gets to see genuine excitement on the face of the boy he had kinda grew fond of.

After all, Teru gets to be on a ship and travel for himself for once, he gets to discover freedom in normal conditions and has what could be akin to a friend by his side. If his neck slightly buzzes and his mind flashes tentacles and blinding red as he gets onto the ship, he doesn't mention it.

When the trip that is planned to last about a month is well into its second week and there's still no sign of any siren being nearby, Akane's excitement considerably dims. He doesn't loose hope though, refusing to believe he had spent the past month on a false hope. And so, the lack of results and things to do make him turn to the one distraction he has. He inevitably grows closer to Teru. He feels himself being more and more like, well, himself, before the accident. His washed out personality eventually becomes vibrant again, the dullness Aoi's loss had instaured slowly washing itself away. He thinks it's for the best, Aoi wouldn't have even recognized him if he met her again like that. He cuts his hair, and decides to take control on his life back, for her.

Teru slightly changes too, a personality he never really got to express emerging along his newfound freedom. When he finds his siblings, he promises himself to take them on trips like these. He wants to experience freedom alongside them this time. He doesn't know if they'll ever want to step on a ship again though.

The both of them fall into a casual dynamic, light banter coming along their true colors. Akane learns that the calm and always preoccupied guy whose seemingly only interest was his siblings is actually insufferable and a total weirdo. He can tell him about the entire history of his land and study its economic data from the past 20 years while at the same time not knowing the rules of rock paper scissors. He can't help but find it cute.

At some point, they start to share late night conversations. Teru confesses his past struggles to someone else for the first time, opening up about pressure and expectations, how much he had wanted simplicity and freedom. And something about his smile, or the way he looks at him pulls Akane in, pushes him to grab Teru's shoulder one night and lean closer to him. He's about to kiss him when his hand touches the back of Teru's neck, and he gets zapped. His cursed senses go wild, and that takes him out of the moment, makes him realize just what he was about to do. He feels guilty. He feels like he insulted Aoi by trying to, do something, with another person. The accident makes him distance himself from Teru for a while. Teru's left confused as hell. He doesn't get to think much of it tho, as he quickly gets exhausted after unclenching the zap. Letting out this kind of energy makes him weaker, and attracts one particular siren...

Aoi finds her way back to Teru thanks to the energy he let out she recognizes. An evening, she sings the melody she sang when she rescued him to lure him out. Unsurprisingly, he comes to meet her, the prey mark on his wrist probably making him way more sensitive to her presence than anyone else. But he isn't immediately enchanted by her voice as she expects. Although, he doesn't look exactly in control of himself either, instead looking at her absentely from the boat. He's seemingly still asleep, but his body makes a point not to jump in the water. Shouldn't he be a little more grateful to someone who saved his life? How arrogant and disrespectful, to refuse her call like that. She changes the tune she sings, and this time, Teru can't resist. When he sinks, Teru awakens. He's met with Aoi's face and her angelic voice, and despite swearing not to interact with her ever again after thanking her, he can't pull his eyes off her. With no high and tiredness from a fight, weakened and marked prey this time, he gets enchanted by her voice, falling hard for her. Seeing her success, Aoi starts draining his energy, planning to turn this human with a special blood into a siren all to herself. And so, the following days, she lures him at night to drain him, taste his blood, taking the time to prepare for the transformation as she's not powerful enough to complete it quickly.

Teru gets stuck into a constant state of hypnosis. He forgets about his siblings and his goals, only seeing Aoi, wanting to be by her side, waiting for her beautiful voice to call on him. His physical condition gets even weaker, worse than when he first got found by Akane. He barely goes out of his cabinet anymore.

Days pass like that, and Akane who had completely distanced himself from Teru notices the changement in his behavior. He doesn't actually go check up on him though, too preoccupied by his guilt to confront him. He spirals all over again in his thoughts.

But one night, he remembers about his actual goal - finding a siren - and, as he didn't check for days now, he resorts to sing a siren tune, hoping to attract the one who marked Teru. What he attracts isn't what he expects tho, as it's the prey himself who comes out of his cabinet a few minutes into his melody. Akane's surprised at first, the tune only made to be heard by sirens, then he comes to the realization. He's sure Teru somehow caught on on his true nature and expects to get yelled at, or straight up attacked (fear had kinda grown towards Teru since he got zapped), knowing the boy's resentment towards sea creatures. He does none of that though. He instead throws himself in the water. Akane doesn't understand at first, but follows him anyway.

Akane despises his siren form, but he's grateful it allows him to breath underwater, as Teru swims during a long time, towards no particular goal. But when he sees his wrist glowing, he's practically sure the siren is nearby, and he picks up the pace.

Then he sees her.

Akane Aoi. The very one girl he had been looking for for so long. She's as breathtaking as he remembers, but the human glint in her eyes is gone. Akane is devastated as he finds out she became a complete siren. No way to revert back, no, he had learnt that over the past two years.

When Teru swims into her arms, he seems oddly at peace, almost drugged. Aoi's caressing the boys hair, holding his wrist and lightly piercing it. The wrist's glowing. Akane can't believe she was the siren who marked Teru.

Then he gets hit again with the realization that it is Aoi, the one he had been looking for for years, the girl he had promised himself to save. (He was too late, and oh so wrong about her fate).

And so, he bursts in, dives straight towards Aoi and locks eyes with hers, inhuman jade pupils staring into even less human aquamarines, in hopes she would remember him somehow (it is impossible). Her eyes do widen a bit seeing him, and she even reaches out to cup his face. At that, Akane freezes. Sirens don't usually do this right? When her hand touches him, he forgets everything. Forgets about Teru, about his curse, about how a full siren can't revert back to human and can't gain their memories back either, ever. Irrational, desperate, hope grows within him, hope that she does remember, that there is still part of her that's human, that there is still something for him to save, to wish for, that she isn't lost yet. He needs to believe that he can do something, even if it costs his life to bring her back.

His human part gets mesmerized by her eyes, and tears of joy - or total madness - roll of his own. The sanity he had managed to regain the past few months slips away in a go - he's completely overwhelmed by the relief of reuniting with Aoi, the birth of a new, completely insane goal, and the terrifying look in her beautiful irises, taking the shape of rows and rows of circles, akin to hypnosis spirals. Akane's getting enchanted, and his only half-siren body can't resist it, especially not since it comes from Aoi. She herself doesn't seem conscious of what she's doing, the look on her face becoming more and more confused, almost on the verge of crashing out, tumult boiling behind her eyes. The sight of this anormal siren is setting her senses ablaze, contradicting everything she is, trying to pull out a side of her that doesn't exist anymore.

A year ago, Akane skips a passage of a book. "If sirens are confronted with the deepest regret they didn't let go of , they remember, and they..."

Her nails dig into his skin but her hold somehow stays gentle. She's about to pull him even closer when they're interrupted by a flash of bright light, coming from Teru. Akane only gains the slightest hint of a clear mind when he turns away from Aoi's wide eyes to see the mark on Teru's wrist glowing dark red. His nearby veins bursts open. Akane's smells the delicious scent of a very special blood but also something akin to poison mixed in it. The blood is black. Like his. Like the siren's from two years ago. Gears of his hypnotized mind switch up. Why Teru heard the tune he was humming on the boat. Why he was loosing his energy all of sudden, just like he did himself when he got cursed. Why he is here.

He doesn't dare to take a closer look at the mark, already knowing it isn't that of a prey anymore, that it had transformed into the same he had on his torso, but complete. He can't believe he hasn't seen this coming. His friend getting transformed right under his eyes. Aoi lets go of him, but doesn't go to Teru either. Instable energy boils up in her, and she starts shaking hard. Akane is torn between staying for her or saving his friend. He fights off Aoi's hypnosis and his own mind screaming at him to stay and swims to Teru. Because Teru's still part human as of now, and he can't stand the idea of failing him again, after letting all the clues past his nose. But the blood starts forming a cage around Teru, pushing Akane away, and then his whole body starts glowing. He understands that he's witnessing the final step of a transformation. And that he can't do anything. He can't save a person dear to him, again. The only thing he can do is to wait for it to be over and hope Teru's kept a bit of his humanity. (Deep within, he knows it's too late anyway. It's impossible to turn a siren back, even with signs of humanity like Aoi. He refuses to acknowledge it.)

Aoi's shaking gets worse. Her eyes become pitch black. Seeing the siren getting away from her, weirdly makes her head ache. Her chest glows dark near her heart and her voice lets out loud, incoherent screeches to call him back.

Akane, agitated, comes back to her, and when she meets his eyes again, she remembers. Aoi Akane, her childhood bestfriend. The most important person in her life. The light glows even brighter, dark blood coming out of her eyes. The arteries flowing to her unbeating heart implode. Her hypnosis abruptly stops.

Remembering is the most dangerous thing to a siren. Never, ever, remember. You can't remember. (You can, but don't)

She finally sees him, this time unclouded, completely himself. His eyes shine in horror, and on his face is plastered an expression that has already been addressed to her once before on a certain ship. She notices he's holding her in his arms. His gloved hands aren't as warm nor as steady as she remembers.

"...They die."

That's not how she wanted their reunion to be. Two years ago, she had promised herself to revert back to human, to find Akane and tell him all the things she didn't get the chance to say to him. Two years ago, she had also forgotten who she was.

Aoi feels the energy she needs to survive leave her body as the core of the siren part of herself breaks into pieces. Akane's eyes are blown wide. Shakily, she cups his cheek again.

"Akane-kun...I..remember now.." she manages to say. Yeah, it hits her full force now. The blurred face she had unconsciously been looking for for the past two years, the regrets she had, it was all Akane. Now, she's herself again, and they could live happily ever after... But of course not. What a shame it has to end like that.

She thinks of that other boy, the human that was turning into a siren at the moment. She had enjoyed his presence. Even if he didn't remember, he had been nice to her when she brought him to safety. He probably has people important to him, family, maybe friends. One look at Akane earlier, at his eyes that were way more tired than before but just as beautiful worriedly staring at him made her understand the boy meant a lot him. She'd prefer for Akane to think only about her in what she knows are her last moments, but she can't resolve herself to condemn Minamoto Teru. So, in a whisper, as blood pools up her mouth, she tells Akane to help him, as a last wish.

It would've been better if he had given up two years ago. Then, he wouldn't have had to wear such a shattered expression on his face. But, selfish as it is, even if it hurts Akane, she can't help but be grateful to have gotten the chance to see him once more, before dying as herself and not anyone else. She doesn't say anything, but the last smile she adresses Akane is enough to tell him everything she's had on her heart since the day they parted and all the way before. No regrets anymore. She loves him.

Silently, as her eyes finally become humane again, I love you. Just like that, her lids close and she goes as the water slowly darkens.

Akane's underwater breath hitches, and he looses it. She died because of him, that was sure. She died. Aoi died. Aoi. Died. Dead. His hold on her tightens as her physical body dissipates. At some point, he's left alone with a single scale that stayed behind and grabs it as a lifeline. His hands clench it tight. Salty tears mix in the ocean water. Without Aoi, he doesn't know what to do anymore (he doesn't even know if he wants to keep on living).

Then he hears a loud thump. It is Teru's cage. The transformation shouldn't be done so soon. He remembers Aoi telling him to help him. He should do that.

Akane slowly swims to Teru's cage. He sees it dissipating, revealing an unconscious boy inside. Teru is buzzing from electricity, his skin burnt, his body electrified. His Minamoto blood combined with his condition refused the siren transformation, the opposition between the two damaging his body instead. Teru isn't breathing. His eyes don't open either.

Akane gently takes him away from the cage, into his arms, to inspect him. No response to anything he does. His face, at least, looks at peace. Akane can't believe it. He shakily buries his head into his chest. How could this happen..?

In the end, the last thing he did with him was this unnecessary kiss attempt, probably leaving him confused, then the whole ignoring thing. Teru's not going to see his siblings he loved so much again. He isn't going to live a long and free life either. It's all because of Akane. He..he should've given up on Aoi. He shouldn't have ever dragged Teru onto the boat knowing full well how dangerous a prey mark is. She wouldn't have died. He would've found a way to live, eventually. He stripped their lives away from them.

Akane stays there for hours, empty and filled with void, an unresponsive boy in his arms and the only thing left from a girl he looked for for years clutched tight in his hand.

Days pass, and he decides to bring Teru's body back to his brother. Maybe Aoi would like the travel. He wants to build her a proper tomb after that, bury her like she deserves to.

It takes years for him to find Kou. With no information aside from Teru's descriptions, it is not an easy task. He wanders across the world, a casket on his back, a necklace holding a scale in a small box on his neck. When he dives into sea, he never once meets another siren. Sea creatures avoid him, sensing the energy of a fallen comrade and the intense aura of a dead Minamoto from him. It's fine. He doesn't want to ever interact with any of them anyway.

His journey comes to an end when he finally recognizes a mop of blond hair with a red earring, radiating a familiar electric energy. He's in a city then, one that has clearly been through a lot, but is already in the middle of being reconstructed. The boy's praying to a monument for the fallen. In the entrance, three people, likely his friends and a younger girl he can't think of any name for but Tiara. Teru would've been happy with how good they came out as grown ups. Akane clutches his necklace, then slowly approches the kneeling figure.

"...Kou, is it?"

---

Yup that's it! Here are the sketches that inspired ts (I kinda strayed a lot from the original idea as you can kinda see)

Then these came after

Well huuuh thanks for reading :D

(OG draft)

I’m going to elaborate on a recent reblog of mine here and say that the “hot take” that Kou is Nene’s best friend instead of Aoi is merely a headcanon, it has no grounding in canon. It holds about as much weight as saying that Teru is Aoi’s best friend instead of Akane, or that Hanako is Kou’s best friend instead of Yokoo and Satou

It’s perfectly fine to have headcanons, I have a ton of them. But it becomes a reading comprehension issue when fanon begins to distort your interpretation of canon. Nene and Kou’s friendship is very beloved in fanon, which leads many fans to overlook any flaws they have in canon (which used to happen with Aoinene a lot). There is also an issue of fans failing to understand that multiple things can be true at once. They recognize that Aoi and Nene’s friendship has faults, and so they characterize their entire dynamic as bad rather than looking at the full scope of things and seeing that their friendship has a lot of good factors too. From what I’ve seen, most fandom analysts seem to be capable of seeing all sides of Aoinene’s dynamic, but the fans who don’t do a lot of analyzing take those points out of context and end up misinterpreting the manga

Let me point out some canon things about both of these dynamics to better explain my point:

• Aoi and Nene have known each other since junior high, Kou and Nene have known each other a couple months at most

• Kou and Nene have been through a lot together because they’re both main characters, and so we see them paired up often. They hang out together after school and team up when a threat appears

• Nene and Aoi also hang out after school for gardening club

• Many of Nene’s character motivations are driven by wanting to protect Aoi. Chasing after her during the Misaki Stairs arc and during the Grim Reaper arc, trying to get her back during the Severance arc, etc. Aoi’s motives are also largely driven by her fear of losing Nene

• Kou’s motives center largely around protecting Nene, but we don’t really see her express that same concern for him. Whereas Aoi and Nene are both somewhat driven by each other, Kou’s desire to protect Nene is largely one-sided (keep in mind that for all three of these characters, their main goals are driven by their love interests so the friendship stuff will take somewhat of a backseat)

• Nene consistently refers to Aoi as her best friend, but never Kou

• Nene overlooks things about both Aoi and Kou. From Nene’s pov, Aoi is this perfect popular girl. Also from Nene’s pov, Kou is her awkward friend. Neither Aoi nor Kou are given much depth until we see things from their pov rather than Nene’s (note- this happens much sooner for Kou since he’s our tritagonist)

• Nene and Aoi are mentioned to hang out together outside of school. They go to the beach every summer and in the karaoke chapter it was mentioned that they’ve done karaoke together. We don’t really see Kou and Nene hang out on their own much unless they’re pushed together by the plot, Hanako is almost always with them (aside from the donut chapter where they hanging out together was still done for Hanako’s benefit)

• Nene notices things about Aoi that no one else does, like that she doesn’t talk about herself much and that she puts a lot of effort into gardening

• Aoi buys snacks to share with Nene at school

So like, if we look at the canon material, it is very obvious that Aoi and Nene are meant to be “best” friends, whereas Kou and Nene are just good friends. Ofc those labels are a bit silly, I feel kinda dumb having to argue this, but for some reason a lot of fans are very insistent on Kou being Nene’s BFF instead of Aoi. I get why fans are more attached to Kou and Nene’s dynamic, as I said they get wayyyy more screen time than Nene and Aoi. But it’s still weird to me that fans use them to downplay Aoinene’s friendship. Both those duos have good and bad sides to their relationships, and it does them both a disservice to portray one as 100% good and the other as 100% bad or less than

And also why are some of ya’ll so pressed that Nene’s best friend is a woman instead of a man. What do ya’ll have against female friendship

Guys they r getting married

(I’ve been meaning to make this edit for ages, ignore how shitty it is)

mitsuba probably learned to read thru watching classes through the mirror but i love the idea of him sitting in his room with a shitty old speak-n-spell and just plunking away until he gets it right

also, mitsuba would be fluent in the supernatural language right? imagine him talking to kou, forgetting he's not using the right language, and kou is just mouthing 'what the fuck' at the camera

Rating Aidairo AUs based ONLY on how much I like the terukaneaoi potential in them.

High School of Magic.

rating: 7.5/10

Aoi secret identity as a witch give this au a lot of potential! We know witches can make love spells, and that doing a potion wrong messes with what the spell should do, so the vibe can change drastically everyday depending on what spell Aoi is learning, be it a truth potions or dangerous sleep enchantments.

Aoi and Akane are childhood friends and Aoi have a crush on Akane, something Nene is aware of. The Aois seem very close to each other but Akane is unaware of Aoi's witch identity, so there can be a lot of mental comflict for Aoi. Maybe a part of her want to open up about her big secret, maybe she want Akane to be far away from magic and goes the extra mile to hide (does she needs glasses? Or is it a disguise?). Regardless I eat up 'secret identity' plots.

I am not sure if they are neighbors but i'll assume they are since they are childhood friends. It gotta be hard to hide magic from your neighbor/friend.

Teru works on a fast food joint and seem to enjoy making the costumers happy, sticking by their side when they eat. The burgers he serves are high calory so I can't imagine Aoi or Akane going there too much, but I can imagine something going wrong with a spell and making Teru get closer to them.

Maybe Teru learn about Aoi's secret identity on accident, forcing Aoi to be stuck with Teru and go "please don't tell anyone Minamoto" while Nene brews a potion that will erase his memories. They can bond while the potion is brewing.

Teru is so carefree here I feel like he would follow Aoi once or twice, and since he isn't a fighter, he would cause more trouble than solve it. Maybe another love spell goes wrong and Akane falls in love with Teru, or Teru falls for Aoi, and it's all a mess.

Whenever Akane and Aoi go to Teru's burger place, Teru will just sit down with them. Uninvited. They get used to him over time.

Very fun and solid au! Magic can make every scenario possible, but the au still loses points for Teru's life being so removed from the Aois + there isn't that much info on Akane.

.

Hanako Of The Opera.

rating 5/10

The trio work in the same place, so there is a lot of interaction potential! There is also a power dynamic with Teru being the boss who directly order Akane and decides how many shows Aoi will do.

Akane never refers to Aoi as a friend and the ballerina make no comments on her relationship with Akane, so I don't think he is Aoi's childhood friend here. He likely use his power as the assistent manager to give her more 'time to shine' when she would much prefer to stay out of the spotlight and hear the singers: He must be the person Aoi hate the most in the opera house.

Despite arriving together, we do not know what Akane and Teru's relationship are. We don't even know if Teru sought Akane or if Akane begged him to work so he could be close to Aoi, all we know is that Aoi is why he accepted the job and that he doesn't dissobey Teru. Which gives a lot of space for Teru to tease him and make up tasks for Akane.

Teru is well liked by the people and seem to like being part of the preparations, so he must be able to use his power to have alone time with Aoi, but he hasn't shown any interest in Aoi, and neither have Aoi on him, they would speak strictly of work.

The aesthetic of the opera is nice, and there is a lot of potential for drama and character growth, which I always appreciate, but they are also very limited: they need to be in the opera house to interact and unless I start adding headcanons with no basis on the stablished au (like Aoi searching for the phantom of the opera, Teru not being fully human, Akane being poisoned, and so on), they don't have a very interesting dynamic.

.

Phantom Thieves.

Rating: 6.5/10

I adore the idea of Teru as the chief of the police, with a ton of power (and weapons) on his hands, and Akane being a prideful thief that feels like the entire town is his territory (hence his dislike for hanako). Both being on oposite sides instead of coworkers is amazing! We don't get any art of the two interacting but their roles and designs are more than enough to make the brain itch.

Does Akane have a civilian identity too? Does he survives purely on theft? His clothes look fancy is he rich or just that good at stealing? Does Teru have a whip to avoid killing his targets or is he purely sadistic?

There is a lot to think about, lots of fun ideas in the air! And I like that their outfits all match, trio in white let's gooo!! Unfortunetely this AU loses a million points for giving me basically nothing on Aoi: She is a waitress that Akane finds really cute and is trying to 'buy', that's all we know, I can't even tell if her workplace is a popular spot or a fancy place.

Maybe Akane steal something from her after another unsucessful attempt to buy her, considering anything that belongs to Aoi valuable enough to take, so Aoi would seek Teru and ask him over a nice cup of coffee if he can get her stolen goods back. Teru may find her and her workplace pleasant, visiting more on the few time he has a break to chat with her, or Teru would notice the phantom thief is interested in her so he'll convince Aoi to come with him and be a bait to catch Akane and lock him in prison.

I can see them interacting, and I find this au one of the most fun (They are all so different, working on completely diferent areas, making them interact and grow close would be a blast!) but it sucks that the boys have so much going on while Aoi have nothing. She would be more of a tool than a proper part of this relationship.

.

Bakeneko Hot Springs

Rating: 8.5/10

Akane works with Teru in a detective agency, he is just part of the staff, not a direct subordinate, he also doesn't seem super dedicated to his job, leaving Teru to wrap everything up alone during their day off. Look at the books scattered everywhere! He'll deal with it alone!

Teru does not seem to have the power to force Akane do to what he wants despite Akane calling him 'chief', so I'm sure Teru solves most cases alone.

Aoi used to have a mysterious job where she was not treated well and her diary was vandalized in it, so she did as they wanted and went away, hunting for a new job. (unrelated but her reading glasses is cute)

Considering Akane never mentions that, she hid that she was bullied from her childhood friend. She doesn't seem to have any friend besides Akane since her interests/personality seems very similar to canon (she like cats and plants/hid her struggles from her friend) and Nene is a cat in this au.

Her diary is in Teru's office, and he reffers to it as 'a case', which further makes me belive Akane is not his partner at work (he would have recognized her handwriting right away) so Teru will eventually be lead to her. Either he'll go alone through the intire case and bond with Aoi or Akane will realize it involves Aoi and they'll go to their first case as a propper team. Teru may even promote him to a permanent possition after a good report.

Now back to the hotsprings!

Teru tags along with Kou to the hot spring but seems to dislike the place, tempted to leave a one star review. So his vacation day is not going well.

Akane brought a wedding ring that he spent a year worth of salary on it and lost it. Teru found this ring and gave it to a stranger. So his dream trip is not going well.

Unfortunetely Aoi doesn't know the hot springs she is interested in working for is cursed. She won't find anything. Her job hunt won't go well.

Everyone is in a bad place, and there is a big chance of it getting worse: Anyone in the trio have a chance of turning into a cat.

There is also the potential of Akane, or Aoi, or Teru, turning into a cat and needing to ask for help. So I can see Teru talking about the wedding ring he gave to someone and making akane flip out, or making aoi go 'oh, that's why akane was so stressed and nervous' and I can also see Teru having a bad time at this in but reluntantly liking to be spoiled as a cat, or going 'hum' about watching Akane flip out about a ring... Akane being very happy yet comflicted when Aoi is super sweet with his cat form, and so on... there are so many posibilities...

In short! This one have a lot of potential, I love how intertwined they are, and the bonus of either of the three becoming a cat is SO GOOD.

Reblog if you're asexual and tired

Funny how Hanako believed(believes?) that Nene could just eventually forget him if she got the chance to age and that she'd be able to grow up and lead a normal life and marry some normal guy and have kids.

I think that boat sailed a long time ago. I'm sure Nene still has those desires, to find love and get married and wear that pretty white dress and have a family—but I don't think she wants those things unless there's the possibility she could have all those things with Hanako. Which isn't possible, because as of right now, he's dead as a doornail and can't leave the school grounds, and he's been like that for over 50 years give or take. She can't have those things with him; he shouldn't even be an option for her to fall in love with but he is and she has.

So priorities shift, she becomes a little more honest with herself, and Nene seems quite willing to throw away those wistful dreams of a young teenage girl, as long as it means getting to stay with Hanako.

She found love, and maybe it's imperfect and maybe he's definitely not Mr. Perfect, but she loves him. Enough to accept the fact he has blood on his hands; that he's dead; he can be selfish, and insensitive, and possessive, and closed off. We've yet to see the breaking point of Nene's infinite patience and love for Hanako.

So her getting to have a normal life and grow up and become this average woman who goes on dates and gets married to some guy isn't exactly for her anymore. If she can't have that with Hanako, then I don't think Nene wants it at all. Remember, Nene wanted to go to the moon with Hanako; she wants to have the impossible and she wants to have it not just granted by Hanako, but have it with him, too.

The only reason she went to "the moon" by herself is because he essentially forced her to go without him. Hanako still thinks Nene wants to have that future of hers, even if it costs him, even if she ends up hating him, or forgetting about him.

But Nene first and foremost wants to know if Hanako feels the same way she does about him: she loves him. The rest can be figured out, but all she knows right now is that she loves Hanako and that's all that really matters. Even her impending death has taken a backseat to her feelings for him.

neneen (still greening) and cat,,,,

characters going “we were lovers once”: eh, it’s okay i guess. it’s nice enough

characters going “we were friends once”: absolutely devastating. one hit knockout i’m gone

Original comic by Rasenth