White
Reno talks about Rufus a little to Tifa and Cloud.
“I’m not saying he’s nice, Tifa. But the old guy… he was a slime. Rufus-shachou is an ice cold bastard, but he’s honest about it. Always.”
Arc: Drama
If I Should Wake Before I Die #1
After the first trip to the Forgotten City, Aerith comes to reassure Tifa and ask a favor.
Tifa reached out and felt her fingers brush through a soft, wavy wing of hair, and lost it completely. The tears rushed back and hit her in the chest, and her knees buckled, and she found herself curled up again pressing a fistful of Aerith’s skirt to her cheek as she cried.
If I Should Wake Before I Die #2
After calling up the Lifestream, Aerith recovers and Zack teases.
“How… can I be out of breath… if I haven’t got a body!” she panted. “This is so unfair.”
Where Seduction Serves
What if Sephiroth had been a little quicker on the uptake during the first encounter at the Northern Crater, and kept Cloud?
This copy was definitely not like all the others.
305 The Way It Should Have Been
An exercise in rewriting canon, in cooperation with Kizu. Atobe does it himself.
- Atobe calls for cheers.
- Atobe doing it himself.
- Atobe triumphant.
- Shishido disgruntled.
- Oshitari and Mukahi.
- Jiriou, Kabaji and Hiyoshi.
Kizu’s part of this project:
The Law of Rikkai
Possible origin of Rikkai’s “law”, and what it means to different people.
“We can’t lose.” That surety sings through him, like the blood through his muscles; he feels it.
Immanent
A new, young samurai arrives at the central castle of the Uesugi clan.
Echizen Ryouma had been in Kasugayama for a week, and one of Uesugi’s warriors for three and a half days, before he ran into trouble.
At First Sight
The young women of the castle sneak a look at the new warriors.
“Oh, oh, over here! Come here, Sakuno, you can see the new warriors from here!”
Convex
Echizen cleans his sword and thinks about his new place.
Ryouma sat in his rooms in the middle town, with his sword over his knees, cleaning it. His hands moved automatically, years and years of familiarity guiding them while his eyes rested on the blade without seeing it.
Unnoticed
Echizen escorts Sakuno and deals with a little trouble. Other sorts of trouble, he misses completely.
Or, she admitted to herself with a silent sigh, maybe he hadn’t done it for her at all. He was a samurai, after all; she was young, but she knew how the men of her own class could be about fights and challenges.
Tarnished
Tezuka watches his newest warrior and wonders about him.
Kaga would be a good place to see Echizen’s real mettle. Kunimitsu’s mouth tightened.
Echizen’s form was beautiful. Deadly.
And wrong.
Need Beyond Want
Echizen enters his first battle as a samurai of Uesugi, against the forces of Kaga under Tachibana.
They would probably have been fine if Echizen’s opponent hadn’t seen himself about to be caught between the two of them and panicked. Momo reacted automatically to the man’s desperate, circling slash.
So did Echizen.
Pride
Tachibana’s officers renew their bonds in the aftermath of their battle with Uesugi.
Akira hovered beside his friend as Shinji flexed his arm. He wanted to go on to recheck the rest of their injured, but he was wary of the thoughtful expression on Shinji’s face.
Hold
Tezuka tries to break through to Echizen.
Ryouma knelt where he was, staring up at the General. He could feel the deadly thin line of Tezuka-dono’s sword against his throat. It didn’t move when the General spoke.
Washed Dry
Fuji decides to try his hand against Echizen. It provokes a lot of thought.
Shuusuke felt a touch of excitement flicker along his nerves as they moved out into the open, feet scuffing up tiny puffs of dust to mark where they set themselves. Echizen was good. Not good enough to make Shuusuke lose, but perhaps…
Closed Circuit
Al wakes up, restored. Not all the news is good, though.
He and Nii-san were going to have to come up with whole new equations to talk about what had happened to him and probably some new technical vocabulary too. The thought steadied him, and he smiled.
Compression
Back with his teacher again, Al takes up his studies; this time, though, he already knows some things won’t work.
He dreamed of the color, sometimes, nights when he woke up sweating and threw open the window just to look up at the sky and know the whole world wasn’t red.
Luscious
Daisuke thinks Satoshi should get a little more enjoyment out of life.
Satoshi-kun was silent for a moment, and Daisuke tried not to squirm under his level gaze. At last Satoshi-kun looked back down at the food and extracted a piece of tamagoyaki to chew, carefully and without any change of expression Daisuke could see. He watched hopefully anyway.
First Day
D opens the shop on his own for the first time.
One of the cockatoos nibbled on his ear. “Your feathers will get ragged if you preen them any more,” she told him, winding her arms around his shoulders.
North of the Sun, Over the Moon
Leon manages to catch up with D—in Shinjuku. Contretemps ensue.
D felt that he should have expected this. Orcot had gotten to more than one city ahead of him, and he’d been here in Shinjuku for months. Besides, life had probably been going too smoothly.
Copper and Candlelight
Yui tries to process what happened to her. Tetsuya is an exceedingly nice guy.
“At least that’s what all the stories about gods say. When someone tries to do something at the wrong place or time it just twists.”
Iron and Stone
Yui has to deal with some changes in what she wants out of life.
“I don’t have to be a god,” she whispered, finally, “to not be a useless little kitten.”
Pollen for Dreams
A quiet moment between Ryuuki and Seiran, balancing between truth and pretending.
“Let me play pretend? Just for a little bit?” Ryuuki begged, and Seiran’s resistance fell all in a heap.
May We Be Truly Thankful
Shuuei has an encounter with Seiran, one evening and comes away with a new appreciation of the Emperor he has.
The weight of Shuuei’s armor pressed over his shoulders, and it still felt like he was being stripped naked. And not in a pleasant way.
The Road Not Taken
The point of divergence from canon, when Seien chooses blood over peace.
It was good, if a little strange, still, to sit in the sun, warm and safe with nothing to worry about.
The Wind Cries
Shouka and Seien talk, some secrets are revealed, and Seien gets a shock.
Surely someone that deadly should show it, the way it showed in his brothers’ eyes, or in Meishou’s smile.
Paper Dust
Seien sneeks a look in on Ryuuki and gets a lesson from Shouka into the bargain.
The Archives were the only place he dared try to catch a glimpse of his brother.
Peaches and Thorns
Shoukun and Seien talk about freedom, and she gathers a promise from him.
She sighed. “My little Seiran.” Very quietly she added, “If the palace will be such a cage to you, I will be sad to see you walk back in and pick up your chains again.”
Dragon’s Whisker
Civil war erupts, and Seien returns.
There were screams in the roar of voices, now, and Shuurei flinched from the sound, drawing closer against Seiran, looking up at them both with wide eyes. “Is it…” she had to stop and swallow, “is it really going to be all right?”
Finding Home
Seien is re-introduced to the court. Familes are reintroduced to each other.
Seien’s jaw tightened, but he did stand and turn to face the Court. The roar that greeted Shou-taishi’s gesture of acclaim was distant in his ears; it reminded him of the sound of the riots, a year and a half ago.
The Color of the Phoenix’s Tail – Part One
Seien works, sometimes reluctantly, at fitting himself back into the courts. So do some other people.
Being heir seemed to Seien to be one trouble after another, but there were occasional good points.
The Color of the Phoenix’s Tail – Part Two
Shuuei and Kouyuu pass the Exams and meet the princes.
“Why would you want to get rid of your best friend, the one who’s always ready to help you out?” Shuuei asked, innocently. “Or help you back to where you were trying to go, anyway…”
The Color of the Phoenix’s Tail – Part Three
Shuurei likes her life but wants it to be something more.
“Shuurei?” Seiran came to stand beside her, leaving his own scrolls. “Is anything wrong?”
She mustered a smile for him; Seiran always worried so much when she was upset. “No, it’s all right. I was just…” her voice wavered a little, despite everything she could do, “wishing I could be an official and do something good with all this.”
The Color of the Phoenix’s Tail – Part Four
Shuuei transfers, Kouyuu broods, Ryuuki gets a new friend.
“I’m transferring.” Shuuei leaned back and looked out the window of Kouyuu’s office. “I think I’ll be more suited to the military.”
And Koku-daishougun had caught him practicing with Sou-taifu and pounced on him like a wolf on tasty prey, and he still wasn’t positive that Sou-taifu hadn’t set the whole thing up. But he wasn’t saying that part; it would be bad for his image.
The Color of the Phoenix’s Tail – Part Five
Seien is learning how to deal with the ministers.
Seien sighed; some days he felt more like a nursemaid than any kind of ruler, even one in training. Keeping the ministers away from each other’s throats sometimes reminded him quite a lot of trying to keep a five-year-old Shuurei from dunking herself in the fish pond.
Turning Storm
Shuuei is selected as Prince Seien’s bodyguard, and the two get acquainted.
Shuuei’s lips quirked. “Shou-taishi was certainly right that you don’t much need anyone else’s sword to guard you from attackers,” he admitted. “But I hope, my prince, that you will allow me to guard you from this.” His gesture took in their match just finished, the blood that had come very close to being spilled.
Feed Them On Your Dreams
The Emperor is dying; Seien talks with both his fathers.
Seien’s anger made his voice a growl. “You spent years and years fighting to reunify the country, to break the power of the great clans until imperial law ruled everywhere again.” His control slipped and he slammed a hand against the wall. “And you almost lost it all just because you ignored what was happening in your own inner courts! Why?!”
Blue and Red
Shou searches out more helpers for his newest imperial acquisition.
When Shou Yousei stopped in to see how his newest Emperor was doing, he expected to find Seien in a bad temper.
Souvenirs
Hiruma considers the things he’s gotten from his friends.
He’s never been a sensualist or any kind of aesthete.
Three Plus One
A scene that might come just after issue 339. Kirihara angsts a bit until his team makes him see reason.
Yukimura-buchou didn’t look away from the game. “Did you hear what they were calling you?”
New Year in Winter
Takes place just after the Final Judgement. The Cards are happy; Yue isn’t, very.
As the celebration rolled on Yue caught a number of glances in his direction, flickering toward him between laughter. He answered them only with his presence; he wasn’t sociable, the way Keroberos was.
Property Values
Takes place just after the manga ends. Touya and Yukito decide to move in together.
Some things didn’t change, and Touya found that comforting. Years ran on, but Sakura still overslept, Yuki still loved stuffed breads for lunch, and he and Yuki still did their homework together in the evenings.
Bitter and Salt
Touya finds out a few things about what Yue likes, despite Yue’s complete cluelessness.
Touya snorted. Yue was stuck with the family, now; he might as well get used to it.
From Old Wood
Yukito notices something a little different about Touya lately, and discusses it with Yue. In a way.
Yukito did not perceive magic, as his other self did. That this often meant he did not perceive his other self was something he put down as one of life’s little ironies.
Degrees of Silver
Yue likes the rain.
The doors to the porch were open, and the sound of heavy, steady rain came through.
Drink Deep
An encounter under a tree on a sunny afternoon leads to all sorts of new possibilities.
He wouldn’t have thought there was anything alarming about sitting in the shade of a tree and reading, but Yue stood like he’d been turned to stone, staring.
Six Examples
Takes place after the Sanada v Atobe match (manga). With some prodding from Yukimura, Sanada loosens his brain up, and finds some new techniques. Also with sex via tennis.
“I don’t care how you do it. But we can’t afford to have you paralyzed whenever someone besides Tezuka actually manages to push you.”
After Frost
Life gets back to normal for Touya.
Between his own need to decide on a career within the next year and the fuss of Sakura’s first year of high school, Touya really didn’t think the family needed to deal with a Portentous Letter from Hiiragizawa. But that was, unfortunately, what was sitting on the table when he and Yuki arrived, on Saturday.
Polarization – Part One
Watari finally succeeds in becoming a woman, and Tatsumi finally finds out why he wanted to so badly. And why Enma is so upset about it.
Shrieks of joy coming out of Watari Yutaka’s lab caused wise Ministry employees to take swift cover.
Highlights on Black
Takes place just after Weider ends. Having made his decision, Naoji has some work getting Ludwig to see what it does and doesn’t mean.
“I will go back,” Naoji said softly. “I don’t know exactly when; I only know that I will. But until then,” he turned to face Lui. “Until then, I will go with you.”