Pungent-Tea

An attempt to have a life outside of Ace Attorney by failing to do so

[aoi-mikazuki]

Hi, my friend like your story "His Gentle Smile" and would like to translate it into Chinese to repost on the blog. It is not for commercial use, just to share it with ace attorney fans. Your name and the original website for your fanfiction will be credited. Can you give the permission to do that? Thank you very much!

Hi! Thanks for asking! I’d be honored for your friend to translate it into Chinese! Can you send me a link when it’s posted? :)

[aoi-mikazuki]

The Briefest of Reunions

Huge spoilers for DGS1 and 2, but I wanted old people love and reminiscing so here is my contribution... >>;

Also on AO3 if shorter chapters are your jam.

SPOILER SPACE

Title: The Briefest of Reunions

Series: Dai Gyakuten Saiban

Words: 5,765

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/Mikotoba Yuujin

Chapter 1 - The Train Ride

"I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw Miss Susato on that ship, you know," Holmes suddenly blurted as he sat at his desk hunched over his fancy instruments.

"Hm?" I looked up from my book and over the back of the settee I was lazily reclining on. The children had all retired for the night, and I had been hoping to finish this last chapter before I headed up to bed myself. But alas, I could see that my relatively relaxed evening was not meant to be.

"She looks just like her mother," my friend continued, lowering his goggles into position on his face, "though she has your eyes."

I had, on a few occasions, shown a picture of my dear, departed wife to Holmes during our six years together, but to think that he still remembered her face ten years on was remarkable; the man could barely remember what had happened on a case an hour after the fact and yet he had identified Susato with ease, it seems.

Then again, one should never underestimate Holmes's capacity to remember things -- especially those even tangentially related to me -- is something I learned about him relatively early on. He had always chalked it up to his keen powers of observation, yet, I daresay it was more due to a combination of his youthful spirit and a keen personal interest in me.

It was 16 years ago that I first met the then 18-year-old Sherlock Holmes. I was only 27 myself back then, and though I was a rather privileged and well-educated man back in Japan, it was something of an eye-opener to travel with the intent of living in an entirely different country -- I was suddenly intensely aware of how very small and very ignorant I was here among a people and a society with a set of rules all of their very own. Suddenly, all of the book-learning I had done felt very inadequate indeed in preparing me for my new adventure half-way around the world, so it was a godsend that I had met a young man who was willing to share his home with me and acquaint me with different people of all stations of life.

As with most people he encountered, Holmes instantly struck me as a strange and curious fellow, and perhaps that is what drew me to him in the first place. From the poorest of the poor up to the noblest of the noble, the man had a way with every soul in London, it seemed. I had initially assumed that this was a perfectly normal state of affairs for the average British gentleman, but I soon grew to see that he is actually a most singularly peculiar specimen among his countrymen. His strange mannerisms, raucous laughter, and ridiculous theatrics endeared him to the masses, but his intellect and deductive reasoning were what made him a necessity to the upper elites. But none of that seemed to matter to him, for I never saw him with anyone I would label as a "friend".

That is, until a little under a year after we’d first met. We were on a train traveling back to London after a most thrilling chase through the English countryside when we hit upon the topic of how we should celebrate yet another great success.

*********

"Let's go out -- just you and me! A night on the town!" Holmes proposed.

I laughed at that, my slightly larger frame bouncing in time with the train as it leaned into a curve in the tracks.

"I'm too old to be running around piss drunk like a teenager, Holmes. And you know how I feel about 'female entertainers' and brothels in general."

"That I do, but you still never gave me a good reason why."

"Does a man need to have a reason to decline the company of certain persons in this country?" I rebutted. I was beginning to sense that Holmes was going to try to push that topic again today.

Holmes stared at me from his seat across the cabin, making observations and filing the information away for future reference. I released a small sigh in response.

The Western custom of casually sharing one's personal life with strangers and friends alike is something I continue to find rather odd, and the expectation that I should divulge such similar information about myself to others still seems immensely invasive to me. Yet in the year of our acquaintance, Holmes had proven himself to be a trustworthy flatmate.

I ran my hands over my face to clear my mind and buy myself some time. I needed to phrase things in such a way as to satisfy his immediate curiosity without opening the door wide enough for him to barge right on through to ask gods know what else.

Placing one hand on each thigh, I leaned forward and looked Holmes in the eyes. "I know I haven't shared very much of myself with you, Holmes, but I... I’m actually still in mourning. My wife passed away in childbirth, you see... and I..."

In my mind's eye, I saw my wife's pained face as she slipped away from me -- me, a medically trained doctor who was powerless to stop her rapid decline. The piercing cries of our new baby girl grew muffled in my ears as my mind focused solely on the woman in front of me.

"Ayame... Please..." I had pleaded then, as my eyes darted around furiously, searching for the source of the bleeding. I scrambled and tried to find a tear, a rip -- anything -- but it was like dowsing for water in the middle of the bloody ocean. Precious minutes passed like seconds, and eventually, my wife reached down to me and lifted my face up to meet hers.

"Yujin," she had said though a pained smile. "I am counting on you to raise our daughter now."

"No, we'll raise her together...!" I answered in denial. But she knew me, and gave me one last parting request.

“Please take good care of Susato for me.”

And then, she was gone.

"...kotoba! Mikotoba!" The force of Holmes shaking me snapped me out of my reverie and back into the train cabin.

"I-I'm sorry, I appear to have..."

Holmes gave a flourish of his hand. "No need to apologize. I assume you were transported back to that moment?"

I nodded in affirmation.

"I see," Holmes states. "So..." he started, "you have a child then?"

I nod again. "A daughter. Her name is Susato."

"And yet you are here with me in jolly ol' England?" he questioned.

"Holmes, don't..."

"You... didn't come all this way just to escape your responsibilities, did you?" he said with one eyebrow cocked as he drew ever closer. Uncomfortably so, even.

"I wasn't-- I'm not trying to escape my responsibilities!" I answered indignantly. And yet, he was right. I had come to escape something, but I decided that the sordid details could wait for another day.

His eyes lit up for a second, and I knew he had made some deduction in that short span of time. But he quickly hid it.

He moved to sit next to me, his long right leg against my left -- the man really had no concept of personal space -- but when he reached out to grab my left hand with his own, I pulled it towards my chest instinctively. His hand was quicker and he caught it mid-air and laid it over my heart, holding it there. He slung his other arm around my neck, his hand reassuringly gripping my shoulder.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to impugn on your honor. But... just humor my curiosity for a second, Mikotoba."

A long moment of silence passed between us as I considered my options:

Push Holmes off and away from me and switch to another topic

Ask him to extricate himself from me and then switch to another topic

Talk with him like a goddamned adult

I breathed in and steeled myself for what I knew I needed to do.

"You've probably already deduced that there is more to my story, but..."

"But...?"

"I'm sorry, my friend." The word "friend" couldn't have felt more right just then. "But I'm afraid your curiosity will have to go unfulfilled for now."

Holmes was strangely silently next to me. Perhaps I had been too forward, or perhaps he did not see me as a friend. I turned my head to see what was the matter. He seemed at once somber and yet, somehow, comically dejected.

"Ha ha! You are a tease, Mikotoba," he rebounded. "But I will get the truth out of you yet!"

I smiled back at the young detective. "I have no doubt you will, Holmes. But for now, I ask that you simply stay by my side."

"Isn't that what partners are for, Mikotoba? To be there for one another in times of need?" he gently said into my ear over the rattling and clanking of the train as it continued on towards home.

Chapter 2 - The Advertisement

Recalling the details of that train ride brought to mind another lady I couldn't save.

"...Is everything alright?" Holmes asked, concern in his voice. He had turned around and was now kneeling on his seat, facing backwards over the chair’s tall back. Holmes lowered his goggles to where it usually hung around his neck to get a better look at me.

"Ah, yes,” I started. “I was just remembering how I came to tell you about Ayame--"

"And it brought up memories of Lady Baskerville, right?" Holmes surmised.

"Yes," I replied, not the least bit surprised anymore by his ability to read me like an open book. "I can only wonder what she thought of me -- whether she honestly believed that this Japanese stranger would take care of her daughter, or if she had simply given herself over to me because she had no choice in the matter."

"But you explained yourself to her -- about how you came to know of her hiding place and your promise to Mr Genshin."

"I did, but she was delirious from blood-loss by that point. All I could do was help her finish delivering Iris and let her hold her child in her final moments." I squeezed my eyes shut in frustration. “What’s worse,” I continued, “is that I couldn’t even keep my promise to Genshin and I had to leave Iris in your care.”

Holmes looked at me as though I had just proffered him the world's most complex puzzle to solve.

"Mikotoba," he started cautiously, "to this day, do you really still doubt that you've been a good father?"

"...Sometimes."

"Is it because of me?"

I looked up at my partner. "...I can't tell Susato what really happened, Holmes. You know that."

Holmes gave a small sigh and put his head in his hands as he leaned on the back of his chair. "She's not a child anymore,” he said as he looked me straight in the eye. “Sooner or later she will find out. Especially given how much liberty you allow her."

"I am only allowing her to claim her full birthright as a human being. After seeing the different kind of freedoms women are allowed here, and far be it for me to be a hypocrite, I found myself unable to justify my ability to act as I wished while she was bound on all sides by social expectations."

“Or is the real truth that you feel guilty for not being around for her -- be it that you are always busy with your teaching, or research... or that you were gallivanting around solving cases with me half-way around the world for six years?”

“I...” Holmes’s words stung with the pain of truth, but while I was still reeling from his pointed observation, he had leapt up and over his chair to close the distance between us.

“Wake up, Mikotoba! And see how highly your daughter thinks of you!” he said. “It is you, and only you, that thinks you have done her harm.”

Holmes’s countenance softened for a second before he came around to sit by my side, trapping my legs between himself and the back of the settee.

"Just as I will have to explain the circumstances of her birth to Iris someday, Yujin, you should explain how it was you really came to England in the first place to your own daughter." Holmes reached out to clasp my hand.

"I know. I've left her in the dark for long enough."

Holmes was right, of course. Susato would find out in her own way someday, just as he had in his usual, persistent way one morning, not long after that fateful train ride.

*********

Holmes was reading the paper at the breakfast table again -- as he is still in the habit of doing -- with his meal in front of him lying wholly untouched. Yet, I could tell his mind wasn’t actually occupied with the paper, but rather, with me, as I sat on the other side of the table gently tapping the top of my egg open.

“Out with it, Holmes.”

I had no patience for his whimsical games today. I had a medical forum to attend, and before that, a train to catch.

“Nothing. I was merely scanning the personals and found an interesting listing.”

“You? An interesting listing? In the personals?” I laughed at the thought of Holmes finding anyone genuinely interesting. By this point in our relationship, I had been with him long enough to know that people were only as interesting as they were a source of puzzles and mysteries to solve. Otherwise, the ever-aloof Sherlock Holmes had little use for actual, intimate relationships.

“Indeed, for the comings and goings of society itself are reflected in these pages. One never knows when a particularly juicy piece of gossip may be the lead that cracks the case.”

“I suppose I’ve never thought of it that way,” I replied, dipping my toast into my not-quite-as-soft-as-I’d-hoped soft-boiled egg. My face scrunched up at the less than runny yolk. I knew there was a reason why I usually got up earlier than Holmes to make our breakfast.

“Here’s a fine example, Mikotoba: ‘Wanted: Male partner for a night of passion. Am willing to pay for transport, and utmost discretion.’ Now, what would you make of that?”

I felt myself slowly tense with each word of that infernal advertisement. Holmes had to know what he was doing, I thought. Curse the man’s inability to let things go until he’s solved the living daylights out of them.

“I’m afraid I must be going, Holmes,” I said as I ungracefully dropped the remnants of my toast on my plate.

“Fine,” he pouted. “But you will think on this listing and let me know your conclusions when you return?” he requested as I wiped my mouth with my napkin.

“Yes, yes, of course, my dear man,” I hastily replied as I checked for crumbs in my mustache on my way out of our drawing room. A quick glance back provided me with the picture of a close-eyed Holmes, deep in thought. Before anything further could transpire, I quickly shut the door, ran down the stairs, threw my coat on, and strode briskly out -- cane in hand -- into the mid-autumn air.

At the time, I had no intention of answering Holmes in any way whatsoever. What was private, was private. He had no right to pry, I thought. But as the day wore on, my mind kept drifting to my dear friend.

Surely a man with as many eccentricities as him could understand my plight without judgement. Not to mention, if he had indeed, already correctly deduced what my secret was, he had been more than generous in allowing me to stay on in our lodgings.

And so I resolved that should he ask for my opinion about the advertisement upon my return that night, I would do my best to be honest with him.

I arrived back at our lodging a little past seven, and found it to be empty.

“Holmes?” I called, but received no reply. On the arm of the settee was the paper from that morning, a giant red circle around a small block of text. I picked it up and read it for myself.

“‘Wanted: Male partner for a night of passion. Am willing to pay for transport, and utmost discretion,’ huh.”

I gave a long sigh, and wondered where Holmes had gone off to. If he was on one of his expeditions again, I feared what little courage I had scraped together would be lost by the time he returned.

I spent the rest of that evening reading, though honestly, I could hardly call what I did that. Rather, it was more akin to staring at a sea of English words with the more than occasional glance at my watch. At a quarter to eleven, I finally gave up all hope of seeing Holmes that night, so I placed my bookmark in its place and closed the book.

“Of all the days to be out, you had to pick the one in which I finally have something worthwhile to share.”

“Ah, then do feel free to share,” Holmes exclaimed as he twirled into our drawing room.

“Wh-Where have you been, Holmes?” I stuttered, bewildered at how my words had seemingly summoned him home somehow.

“My story can wait,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, “while I suspect that yours cannot. Therefore, I request that you go first.”

“At this hour? And after you left me waiting for an entire evening?” A twinge of irritation slipped out of me. “I’m inclined to say that we should have to wait until tomorrow--”

“Un, un-un.” He tsked his finger at me. “I did ask that you provide me with your thoughts upon your return, did I not?”

I placed a hand on my forehead and looked down in defeat. I might as well get it over with, I thought.

“Well, then, I suppose I had best get on with it, haven’t I?”

Holmes took a seat in his chair and nodded, and urged me to continue. I took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.

“Let me just start by saying that it was an awful trick you played by placing that advertisement.”

“Ah, but how do you know it was me?” His eyes twinkled in mischief.

“You’re not the only one with deductive powers around here. I’ve gained quite a bit of insight into your methods by now, as you should know.”

“Quite right! Aha ha ha ha ha!” he laughed raucously, doubling over in amusement. “Well done, Mikotoba!” Holmes’s laugh subsided as he recovered into an upright position. “But I won’t be derailed so easily.”

“Very well. Where shall I start, then?”

“How about with why sleeping with a man compelled you to travel to the complete opposite end of the world when, unlike here in England, it has once again become perfectly legal to do so in Japan?”

Well. Let it never be said that Sherlock Holmes is the master of subtlety, I thought.

“Because,” I began, “as you are no doubt aware, I come from a country where honor and dignity is valued more than gold. And ever since Western culture began pouring into my home country, all of Japan has been most thoroughly taken in by your ideals and way of thinking. On the topic of human relations, a book titled ‘Psychopathia Sexualis’ by a Dr Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing has been quite influential, to say the least.”

“Ah, yes. The Germans have been rather vigorous in their pursuit of knowledge in the emerging field of sexology.”

“Then you are familiar with its underpinnings?” I inquired.

“Only that it seeks to explain anything outside of the everyman experience as perversion.”

“Yes, well, it got my own countrymen talking, and not wanting to be seen as closed-minded, perverse barbarians, I’m afraid that most people of my station in society and above have quickly turned their thinking around to match that of their European counterparts.”

There was a brief moment of silence as Holmes looked at me in all seriousness, the mirth gone from his eyes.

“And what about you, Mikotoba? As a medical man, does your thinking on the matter fall in line with those of your colleagues?”

I had never been asked to state so clearly my thoughts on such matters before, and I struggled to put them in some sort of order before I opened my mouth again.

“I... I must admit that I have a great deal of trouble reconciling the scientific literature with my own lived experiences, Holmes. It is hard to look back on more than a thousand years of Japanese culture and history and simply wave it all away as wanton perversion when truly beautiful relationships did emerge from such acts. Indeed, some of them have even endured the test of time through glorification in poems and art.”

Holmes nodded at me. “Which explains the lack of disgust on your own part at your rented liaison.”

I give a small sigh. Of course he would also quite correctly deduce that my partner was paid.

“Yes, he was slightly younger than me, and an actor of kabuki theater. Oh, Holmes, it wasn’t that he meant anything to me, though. I fear my act of indiscretion was the result of severe loneliness and grief.”

Holmes took my statement in and processed it as only he can. “Yet you chose a man. Why?”

“Ayame... She had only just passed. And I... I did not wish to dishonor her by replacing her with another woman so casually, or so soon. It is with greater shame that I reflect on my inability at the time to control myself and deal with my grief properly, and instead, succumbed to my emotions and need for another person’s touch.”

“Well, depression can do drastic things to a man, as you know by my own dark moods.” Holmes paused for a second before he continued on. “I think I have an idea of the shape of things now. Your family must have thought it best to use its clout to send you far away -- perhaps allowing you to regain your sanity by redirecting your focus to your professional studies and training here -- while they tried to repair any damage you may have brought onto yourself and your daughter’s reputations. Is that about the long and short of it?”

“Yes,” I replied, unsure of what else to say.

“Excellent. I’m glad we resolved that little issue. Now, on to the next!”

“N-Next?” I sputtered in Holmes’s direction as he got up and started for his room.

“Of course, my good man. Did you forget what I actually asked for your opinion on this morning?”

I thought back to my mad dash out of our drawing room earlier in the day and the truth of the matter began to dawn on me.

“The advertisement...”

“Correct!”

“Holmes... I’m flattered and honored to have your attention, but... I hardly know what to think right now.” I answered honestly. “If you would give me some time...”

“As much as you need, Mikotoba. As much as you need,” he said with a flourish. “Just don’t expect me to pay for your transportation fee when you do come around.”

“Wh-What transportation fee?! I live with you, Holmes!”

“Right, so you do! Aha ha ha ha ha!” His laughter continued down the hall as he walked through his bedroom door. “Good night, Mikotoba.” He tipped his finger against an imaginary hat and closed the door behind him.

“Good night, Holmes,” I replied lamely from my chair, alone in the drawing room.

Chapter 3 - Our Family

“You should explain how it was you really came to England in the first place to your own daughter.”

“I know. I've left her in the dark for long enough.”

Giving my dear Holmes’s hand a squeeze, I picked up my train of thought from where I had left off. “I just hope she can understand and forgive me for the time I’ve stolen from us as father and daughter.”

“I’m sure if you start at the beginning, she will,” Holmes reassured me with a warm smile on his lips.

“I suppose that means I’ll have to more fully explain how it is that you and I came to live together as well.”

"That’s right! She did seem as surprised as Mr Naruhodo when she found out you were my partner!” Holmes paused for half a second before exclaiming, “Wait, are you saying that you never mentioned me to her -- ever?!"

"There was never any good way for me to do so!” I retorted. “It's bad enough that I haven’t been able to set my selfishness aside to do the socially correct thing and find myself a new wife to give her a mother. How was I supposed to explain why?"

"Pshaw, that’s simple: Susato, did you know that THE Sherlock Holmes used to call me "daddy" too?"

I threw the nearest pillow I could grab into Holmes's face.

"And sometimes," he continued as he sensuously licked his lips from behind his newfound cushion-shield, "he'd feed me a most thick and juicy sausage--"

"H-Holmes!" I ejaculated. "She could come down here at any minute!"

"Excellent! The perfect chance to fill her in, wouldn’t you agree?"

"N-No!" I sputtered. "I am nowhere near ready to divulge such information."

Holmes's eyes lit up.

"And you are not to divulge it either. Understand?"

The world’s most immature man gave me his most disappointed look.

"Time and place! And context, Holmes! This isn't something one simply blurts out over breakfast."

"Pooh, pooh! Why do you have to be such a spoilsport?" he pouted.

"Because you saw what happened when she thought Iris was my biological daughter. She was literally ready to punish me over an imaginary affair."

"But you did have one... with me."

"It's not the same. You weren’t some one-night stand. You were the one who taught me that I could still honor and cherish Ayame while loving another. And had I not been forced to leave this country, I might have called for Susato to come join us and raised Iris with you.”

“Thus bringing her into the very sort of inverted household you were sent here to cleanse yourself of!” Holmes chuckled.

I gave an exasperated sigh at the bald irony staring me in the face.

“Regardless, Holmes, there is so much more nuance to what we have than she can imagine."

"You mean the fact that we are two men in an actual honest-to-god relationship."

"...Yes."

"Come on, now," Holmes said, looking rather serious. "Do you honestly think she has never imagined the domestic home life of 'Sherlock Holmes' and his partner 'Dr John Watson', and the sort of sexual congress they might have enjoyed?"

Oh.

In truth, the thought had not crossed my mind, though I had seen my share of female students throughout the years whisper wild and taboo fantasies amongst themselves about their favorite fictional characters. Why had it never occurred to me before that my own daughter might enjoy such flights of fancy?

I could feel the tips of my ears burning with embarrassment. I harrumphed and twitched my mustache as I tried to think of something suitable to say in return.

“Speaking of those novels, do you remember when you sent Iris’s “Baskerville” manuscript to me?”

“Of course.”

“I must apologize for being so negligent as to leave it out in my study where Susato could see it.”

“It’s quite alright,” he forgave me with a flourish of his hand. “I deduced as much when she let it slip. To be honest, it was my fault for jeopardizing our case by even sending it to you in the first place.”

“Regardless, I’m glad you did, Holmes. You were so genuinely torn up about prohibiting Iris from publishing it that it was the first time I really saw that you had let her into your life... and your heart.”

Holmes looked sheepishly to the side. “I’ll admit I did spend a number of years trying to distance myself from her.”

“I’ll say you did! You told her I was her father!”

“Well, you were! You were the one who promised to look after her, after all.” Holmes grew quiet. “I only agreed to keep her safe because I thought you’d come back to England once everything had been resolved. I never imagined that so many years would pass in the interim.”

The fire crackled loudly behind us in the silence that enveloped the room. It was my turn to reach out to my dear partner. I gave his hand a squeeze.

"Do you remember how frantically you would telegram me at all hours of the day, asking me how to change Iris's diapers and how to tell whether she was crying from hunger or discomfort?"

Holmes turned and smiled in return. "I do. And I still remember your frustrated replies, reminding me that you never had to change Miss Susato's diapers so you had no idea!"

“What a spectacle you must have been at the telegram office with Iris crying on your back!” I laughed. “I wish I had been here to see it for myself.”

“I’m afraid that before I gained the moniker ‘Great Detective’, I was known as the Great Nanny Sherlock Holmes,” he joked and laughed. As his laughter subsided, the warmth in his eyes remained as he cupped my face. "Must you return to Japan so soon, Mikotoba? You've only just arrived! Why not relax a little longer here. We've barely had a moment to ourselves," he gently complained.

"That's what happens when you have kids, Holmes. I thought you'd have figured that out by now."

"I guess I have to take my fatherly duties more seriously now, don’t I?"

"You've got a charming young lady with even greater expectations of you than before."

"I get the feeling it won't be hard to live up to virtually no expectations," he gestured melodramatically.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. You are a brilliant father raising a most extraordinary daughter. I daresay she has even picked up a few of your mannerisms.”

My mind drifted back to the night before, when Iris had made her fondness of Holmes clear. A number of things had been brought to light that day -- some of them big, some of them small. But one thing had remained unchanged throughout it all: I had always intended to call on my dear friend Genshin.

“About my plans, Holmes,” I began. “I would still very much like to go and pay my respects to Genshin, and see about arranging for his remains to be returned to Japan, now that he has been cleared of all charges.”

“Why not let Mr Asogi deal with that?” Holmes said with a rather considerate look on his face. “Perhaps he would rather keep his father close by, though probably in a better grave than the one he is currently occupying.”

“Indeed. I suppose I’ll speak with him in the morning. To be honest, I’m glad I am able to speak with him at all.”

Holmes nodded his agreement. “Things did get a little too close for everyone a few times, didn’t they?”

“But you managed to keep things under control, and that’s what’s important.”

I thought back to that day when the children had left on the Alaclair, bound for England. Holmes had urgently telegraphed me two months prior about two things: “I’m sending you a package,” he had mysteriously said, “and I will be on the Alaclair”. I suspected something had begun to move in our case of ten years past, and I was not mistaken when I finally received the package containing the Baskerville manuscript and a note regarding some sort of conspiracy spelled out in a series of dancing men.

I sent the manuscript back after they had gone so as to delay its arrival until after Holmes’s return home with a simple, pleasant message about how enjoyable the story was, and added a few words of caution through a line of dancing men of my own.

I admit that sometimes, it had filled me with great regret to know that my partner had been on that very ship, and that we could’ve met then to strategize further, but as long as he was watching over Susato, I knew she was in good hands.

“You have no idea how many times I wished you had been by my side, though. Truly, as my fictional self would say, ‘I am lost without my Boswell.’”

“Well, there was at least one circumstance that was a conundrum of your own making. Naruhodo mentioned that you told him that sometimes Great Detectives lie. Far be it for me to be surprised that you would do such a thing to him, trickster as you are, something tells me your brilliant plan backfired when you'd set yourself up as the fool during your first encounter with him."

"It would have only aroused suspicion had I suddenly reverted back to my charming, clever self, wouldn’t it?"

"True, but to maintain the act for so long! You are truly a consummate actor, and a master of disguise, Holmes."

Holmes took a dramatic bow. "It was nothing really, especially in this case. After all, there is but a fine line that separates genius from jackass."

"I think you mean brilliant and bumbling, since there is certainly no line separating jackass from any part of your beautiful, Bohemian soul."

"Aha ha ha ha ha!" he laughs in that way I love. "We've come a long way, haven't we?"

"I dare say we're certainly much better off than we were back then."

"Who would've thought that the great Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr Mikotoba would have two daughters to round out their rather unconventional family?"

"Indeed, I'm not sure that the world would believe it, even if Iris wrote it up in one of her stories!"

"As she said, you really are the only "yujin" I have in the whole world," Holmes said as he doubled over in laughter at the silly cross-language pun.

"I honestly still can't believe you made Iris write that!" I joined in my partner’s mirth.

"My Yujin, the only one I will ever need," he whispered as he leaned in and took my last snide remark of the night from my lips.

NOTES:

- Technically, “Psychopathia Sexualis” was published in 1886 in Germany, and then later in Japan, but since DGS is fairly liberal with its historical timeline, I figured I could be, too...

- Japan had outlawed sodomy at one point in 1872, but in the quickest of turnabouts, it seems that it was repealed only 10 years later (8 - 10 depending on which dates you count) when Japan adopted the Napoleonic Code into what would form the basis of all Japanese law, the Six Codes. Thanks, Japanese Wikipedia article “日本における同性愛”!

- DGS Holmes seems more likely to initiate things between the two of them, but I wouldn’t say he is an especially sexual creature either. He comes across as demi-sexual to me (or he would if he had any other true friends to speak of other than Mikotoba). I like to think that he seems asexual in Iris’s accounts partially because he has no other partners that she can see (his only partner is off in Japan, after all), and partially because it probably didn’t occur to her that her papa could be interested in such things.

- Maybe someday I’ll get around to writing how they actually get together, but I fear that that will take another long fic on its own... ^^;

- Watson “ejaculated” a number of times in the real Sherlock Holmes canon. I guess that was just the hot word to use back then instead of “exclaimed” XD

- Mikotoba’s first name is phonetically the same as the word for “friend” but it uses different kanji.

[aoi-mikazuki]

Only Sherlock Holmes could be THIS self-centered...

From the British Empire Asinine Attorney DLC

About Naruhodo

大日本帝国からやってきた

弁護士。　このボクを世界で最も

尊敬しているように見える。

A lawyer from the Empire of Japan. I can tell he respects me more than anyone else in the world.

About Iris

ボクの小さな同居人。

医学博士にして、ボクの伝記作家

でもある、恐るべき少女。

My small, little roommate. A medical doctor and my biographer, she is one fearsome young lady.

About himself

世界で知らぬ者のない大探偵。

その推理は、真相をコッパみじん

に打ち砕き、チリひとつ残さない。

A great detective; there is not a person in the world who doesn’t know his name. His deductions completely pulverizes the truth, leaving nothing behind.

About Barok

《死神》と恐れられる検事。

このボクを、世界で最も尊敬して

いるようには見えない。

A prosecutor feared by the public as the Death Bringer. I can tell he does not respect me more than anyone else in the world.

About Gregson

倫敦警視庁の刑事。

このボクを、世界で最も尊敬して

いるように見えなくもない。

A Scotland Yard detective. He doesn’t seem to /not/ respect me more than anyone else in the world.

[creek-vs-twaig]

When did Victuuri start boning?

It’s pretty clear by now that Victor and Yuuri are definitely shagging - the idea that in 2016 you’d have two men engaged to be married but had never done the nasty is so weird that we can’t accept it as the default assumption, especially when you see they pushed the beds together in their Barcelona hotel room.

The question then is, when did it start? Let’s examine the evidence in far too much detail!

Episode 4 - not here, that’s for sure. Yuuri is still freaked out by Victor’s romantic overtures.

Episode 5 - that’s still the look of someone uncomfortable with physical intimacy

Episode 5 ending - This is our first option. It’s the point where we see Yuuri properly flip from being embarrassed about Victor’s intentions to being bold about it.

Episode 6 - Here is the second option. Victor is particularly amorous, they’re away from home together for the first time, and we know how drink loosens Yuuri up…

…but Yuuri himself doesn’t think they did. But then again, Yuuri doesn’t remember much about what happens when he drinks. If he did drink, of course - we’ve also seen that he doesn’t like to drink before competitions.

Episode 7 - This isn’t something you’d say to comfort someone who you weren’t already on kissing terms with. Victor isn’t in cheeky flirtatious mode here, he wants to comfort Yuuri by doing something that he knows makes him happy.

Episode 7 - likewise; the surprise wasn’t kissing him, it was kissing him in public. If they weren’t already on kissing terms it would have been a hugely inappropriate time to try making a move on his pupil, and we know Victor is a classy guy.

Conclusion

Katsuki Yuuri lost his virginity either in his bedroom immediately after winning the Chugoku-Shikoku-Kyushu Championship, or in a drunken fumble the night before the China Cup Short Program, or in his hotel room the evening following that.

The interpretation that fits most couples I know’s stories of how they got together has them getting nekkid while drunk before the Cup of China and having a bit of a grope but realising they’re too rat-arsed to make a proper go of it, falling asleep together instead, and then picking up where they left off the next evening. 

However, since Yuuri doesn’t tend to drink before competitions I’m more inclined to go with the first option. I’m thinking there were scented candles involved, and Yuuri penetrated Victor on a bed barely two feet away from where he’d stashed the big pile of posters of him. He was probably also wearing his gold medal while doing it.

[aoi-mikazuki]

So I've been meaning to post about this for a long, loooong time, but I agree with the OP -- I'm going to say I'm 99.9% sure it was either at the end of episode 5 or between episodes 5 and 6 because there are a few nuances in the Japanese that just don't come across in the subtitles.

(I want to post about the sub vs the dub eventually, too, mostly because this show, unlike most animes, relies heavily on the audience understanding each and every inflection in the delivery of key lines. The whole "Victor left everything behind for a crush" motivation was kinda obvious in the Japanese before episode 6, but 6 really pushed it into the forefront... but I digress.)

Anyway! Why do I think they boned before episode 6? Sure, it's partially because of how used to Victor's touchy-feely behavior Yuuri seems at the restaurant, and from what the two Russian girls said to Victor about how just like his other relationships, this one won't last either, but there are two other key hints in that episode.

  1) Yuuri is afraid people will think he was "fooling around" before the competition

The key Japanese line here is:

試合前に遊んでいると思われて、 

これで、失敗したらもう…

The English translation is correct, but there is one cultural and linguistic thing it fails to get across. The word "遊ぶ" does normally mean "to play" or "to fool around", but in the context of love and relationships, there is usually only one, very adult meaning: fucking or sleeping around. (i.e. 女/男と遊ぶ) And this isn't just me being dirty-minded -- the news article that Yuuri himself is imagining in this scene boasts a very scandalous headline.

乱れた愛の果て…勝生 勇利 (continues with something we can't read)

Literally translated, it says: "The Results of a Love Gone Wild/Mad... Katsuki Yuuri (something something something, probably "Loses Big Time")”

Bonus: the related search terms at the bottom in green are a hoot.

フィギュア   勝生勇利   愛   失敗   惨敗

Figure (Skating), Katsuki Yuuri, Love, Failure, Crushing Defeat

2) Victor saying that Yuuri can now "envision" how to seduce him with his own "personal charm"

There are just a few nuances and implications that were missing from the subtitles because some of it was conveyed through tone of voice and inflections in the delivery of the lines, as well as in the turn of phrases that were used that are very, very hard to get across in a subtitle that has to be 2 lines of 50 characters or less and is only onscreen for literally 2 seconds or less. (Subtitle translation work is hella hard, seriously.)

But with the infinite time and space of the internet, here is my translation and breakdown: 

勇利自身の魅力で戦える

もう充分イメージできてるだろう？ 

Literal:

You can fight with your own charm. You already have enough of an image formed in your mind, right? 

Natural dialogue:

You can do it with YOUR sex appeal alone. You know very well how to do that by now, don't you?

Victor stresses 勇利自身, which in English, we would stress "your" as its equivalent counterpart in the first sentence.

The reason I added "sex" in front of "appeal" is because this is before his Eros skate, and Japanese being the highly context-sensitive language that it is, demands that the viewer/listener consider the whole situation to fill in the blanks correctly. Because, as much as Yuuri has plenty of innocent schoolboy charm, that's definitely not what Victor is implying that Yuuri should draw on here.

Also, I doubt the woman he was envisioning himself as before was running on her "girlish" charms, as it were...

As for the second line, the Japanese could've gone with something less concrete like the English subtitle says with a simple "充分イメージできるよね？" (lit. "You can envision it just fine, right?") but instead, it chooses a phrasing that is much more suggestive.

The できてる (or できている to be proper) grammar construction in particular is used when something is the result of some sort of experience or creation process, and means that the something is now complete. For example, "the house is done (its construction is over)" is 家ができてる. Likewise, the Japanese line used in the show can be literally translated as "The image in your mind is more than complete now, right?"

And just how did said image solidify in Yuuri's mind? Well...

Also, the だろう in this case was said in a way that strongly implied it was a rhetorical question. This is a statement from a man who knows something to be true, and is couching it within a tag question.

But what if Victor was simply referencing that night of drunken dancing? Actually, it's a bit of a stretch to assume that that's what he was talking about since he also performs a very intimate stroke with his finger on Yuuri's hand after he says it. In addition, he is genuinely surprised by "aggressive head-butting Yuuri" which means he probably wasn't thinking about the banquet when he suggested Yuuri knew how to seduce him as himself now. He seemed surprised by the hint of the return of the outgoing Yuuri that he knows is hiding under all those layers of anxieties.

Long story short: all signs point to they totally started getting physical before the Cup of China!

I also want to say that it's exactly as OP said: the kiss was surprising only because it was their first public kiss, but to explain that would take another essay... or a viewing of the dub, because boy do they nail the line delivery there, even if the nuance of the dub's translation is slightly different from the Japanese...

[aoi-mikazuki]

Nahyuta highlight: (from AA: SoJ dev blog on Capcom Unity)

Hagoromo are the celestial clothing that allows these deities to fly, so in a sense, a character wearing hagoromo is not unlike a character with a pair of angel wings in the West.

Speaking of divinity, Nahyuta’s overall character design is very gender neutral, or as Mr. Fuse likes to say, Nahyuta has transcended gender. The team had originally meant for Nahyuta to be whatever gender the player wanted him to be. This aspect of his appearance is also rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism, where a number of deities and gods are either genderless or are portrayed as both genders at once or as alternating between male and female depending on the depiction. As you can see from one of the earlier versions of his design, he was more feminine at one point, so in order to bring him truly to the center of the spectrum, he was given slightly broader shoulders and a slightly more masculine face.

Someone please draw Nahyuta with wings

[aoi-mikazuki]

Burger noodles are real… Oh, Japan…

ハンバーグ = Hamburg (steaks)

[aoi-mikazuki]

Grape juice confirmed!

[aoi-mikazuki]

You know what time it is... :D

[aoi-mikazuki]

AA anime opening is the Capcom god’s gift to narumitsu fans

Full opening here (not mine)

[aoi-mikazuki]

AA6 Limited Edition Drama CD Description:

Apollo and Athena as disciples of Edgeworth!?

"Try to learn to see things from a prosecutor's point of view." That's the overly unreasonable homework Phoenix left his subordinates before he left for the Kingdom of Kurain. He may have intended it as a way for them to broaden their horizons; problem is, their teacher is none other than the unforgivably strict "Professor Edgeworth".

Prosecutorial work under Edgeworth is anything but fun! One slip-up and the wrath of their professor will come thundering down on their heads! What's worse, they're working as rivals this time around because the person who impresses Edgeworth the most has been promised a pay raise!

The two of them go head to head with Apollo putting his pride as the more experienced lawyer on the line while the ever-competitive Athena is not about to just let Apollo win.

In the midst of all this, they must tackle the trial of a young boy who is under arrest for theft from the prosecution's side... next to Professor Edgeworth himself.

Just imagine...

Edgeworth: No.

Phoenix: Aww, come on!

Edgeworth: I refuse to babysit your subordinates for you while you’re off frolicking in another country.

Phoenix: But don’t you still owe me a few favors...?

Edgeworth: ............Ngrk! I hate you, Wright.

Phoenix: *goofy smile*

[aoi-mikazuki]

Otoja Plays MGSV:TPP

I don’t watch a lot of gaming channels but this guy takes “anyone can be Big Boss” to a whole new level.

Not only is he good but listening to him play is like listening to Venom talking to himself, aka the chatty Snake version we were denied.

Also, watching him play Earth Defense Force is like watching Snake hang with fellow soldiers on Mother Base killing giant alien bugs in high-tech suits XDDD

If I didn’t know any better, I could swear Otoja is Otsuka Akio himself, that’s how much he sounds like Snake’s voice actor

[ee-archive-blog]

OKAY SO IM READING THE SCENE WHERE QUIET DISAPPEARS AND

「わたしは、クワイエット。わたしは……言葉ではない」 　胸に手を当てて、彼女は生まれたばかりの子供たちにわ詫びた。ごめんね、あなたたちをここから出すことはできない。あなたたちは、わたしと消えるのだ。クワイエットはポリタンクの液体をかぶり、ビッグボスのライターで火をつけた。

… am i understanding this correctly that she pours gasoline or something over herself and sets herself on fire with BB’s lighter.

[thatkindoffangirl]

“I am Quiet. I am… not words”. Holding her hand to the chest, she apologized to those children barely born. I’m sorry, I can’t get you out of here. You will vanish with me. Pouring a plastic tank of liquid over her head, Quiet lit the fire with Big Boss’ lighter.

[aoi-mikazuki]

Hmm… Minor mistakes here I think:

“I am Quiet. I am… the absence of words.”

Holding her hand to the chest, she apologized to those that were barely born. I’m sorry, I can’t let you out. You are to vanish with me. Quiet poured the liquid in the plastic container over herself and lit herself on fire with Big Boss’ lighter.

*note: “the absence of words” is the ingame English translation of this Japanese line from Quiet’s ending. The “those that were barely born” is in reference to the parasites. Hope that helps!

[thatkindoffangirl]

Thanks! I wanted to use the game translation for that sentence but thought it might be weird since it’s not literal.

What is 子供たち for there if it’s not for children? I am a bit confused with the terminology.

[aoi-mikazuki]

Ah, yeah, I guess I used the ingame because then the reader gets the reference.

子供たち is part of the larger a metaphorical reference to the parasites (生まれたばかりの子供たち). It’s also a direct way of implying that she sees them like children, or at least as something less clinical than some other life form/parasite/other impersonal creature type thing.

I left the word “children” out because in English, the implication is there. By saying “those that were barely born”, you get that they’re babies, and the tone in which she speaks to them suggests fondness in her asking for forgiveness. I guess it just sounds less awkward in English to me.

[ee-archive-blog]

OKAY SO IM READING THE SCENE WHERE QUIET DISAPPEARS AND

「わたしは、クワイエット。わたしは……言葉ではない」 　胸に手を当てて、彼女は生まれたばかりの子供たちにわ詫びた。ごめんね、あなたたちをここから出すことはできない。あなたたちは、わたしと消えるのだ。クワイエットはポリタンクの液体をかぶり、ビッグボスのライターで火をつけた。

… am i understanding this correctly that she pours gasoline or something over herself and sets herself on fire with BB’s lighter.

[thatkindoffangirl]

“I am Quiet. I am… not words”. Holding her hand to the chest, she apologized to those children barely born. I’m sorry, I can’t get you out of here. You will vanish with me. Pouring a plastic tank of liquid over her head, Quiet lit the fire with Big Boss’ lighter.

[aoi-mikazuki]

Hmm… Minor mistakes here I think:

“I am Quiet. I am… the absence of words.”

Holding her hand to her chest, she apologized to those that were barely born. I’m sorry, I can’t let you out. You are to vanish with me. Quiet poured the liquid in the plastic container over herself and lit herself on fire with Big Boss’ lighter.

*note: “the absence of words” is the ingame English translation of this Japanese line from Quiet’s ending. The “those that were barely born” is in reference to the parasites. Hope that helps!

[aoi-mikazuki]

Not For Honor, But For...

He was dying. Ocelot was beginning to see through Liquid’s haze of hatred just in time to realized he was dying. But he wasn’t ready to leave the world yet — not without seeing the fruits of his labor. Then again, life had never given him any choices, and mercy had never been his friend.

John. All roads lead back to John. From the moment he first laid eyes on the man, he was fated to follow the one they called “Naked Snake” to the end of his days — today.

Snatches of his real memories began to emerge. Memories he had long buried under false realities.

The small groans coming from the bedridden man made Adam look up from his book. In one smooth motion, he had placed a bookmark in it, set it down on the table next to him, and propelled himself to the other man’s side. Grasping John’s hand, Adam leaned over the other man to take a good look at his face.

The first time John had stirred was three years ago. He had thought then that the soldier was finally returning to the real world, only to find out that despite the depth of their sleep, it was common for coma patients to display signs such as these. The next few times Adam had witnessed such signs, he had felt his chest tighten with swelling hope, but in time, his mind had learned to temper such hope into something less suffocating.

Adam’s eyes roamed the plane of John’s right cheek, over the sea of long beard hair, lingered on the island of his lips, before traversing up to his left eye. The eyelid twitched a little before it fluttered opened slowly, squinting against the harsh light overhead.

All breath left Adam as he witnessed the resurrection of his messiah.

“John…” he whispered, still not daring to believe it was happening.

John gave a grunt of confusion as his eyes darted around the room. Even though only one of them still worked, they quickly locked onto the shadow hovering over him. Adam felt John’s muscles contract in what must’ve been the soldier’s reflexes telling him to neutralize first, ask later, but the man was far too weak to do more than to clasp Adam’s hand.

“Shh, it’s all right, John. It’s me, Adam.”

John gave another groan and passed out.

It was two weeks before John opened his eyes again. Adam had barely made it back in time from a mission, and now, here he was quietly watching the legend sleep. He had toyed with the idea of staying by John’s bedside after nearly missing his second awakening, but decided he had pretenses to keep up. Cipher would notice if he suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth, which was completely counter to the point of his and Miller’s farce.

Kazuhira Miller: the man who had gotten close to Big Boss for the purpose of feeding info to Zero, meaning Adam trusted him about as much as an ocelot trusts an anaconda. But Zero — the bastard — had sent Miller to him, and in the interest of keeping John safe, Adam had made a temporary pact in his head with the enemy. Miller didn’t need to know where he stood with him just yet. That would come later once he filled John in on what they were going to do about Cipher.

Nine years is a long time to carry anger. Luckily, EVA had been more than willing to help him shoulder it. His chat with Zero had confirmed his suspicions, but having a target on whom to focus his frustrations hadn’t placed a singular name or face on the system that could give birth to a thousand Skull Faces every day. Zero had admitted it himself that Cipher was no longer entirely under his control, which that meant that even they — the creators of the system itself — were now fair game.

More than Skull Face and Cipher though, he had been angry at himself. The ones who bore the most responsibility in equal parts were him and Zero. It was his own fault. He was the one who set off the chain of events that had lead to Zero getting his hands on the rest of the Philosophers’ Legacy and creating the monster of a system that seeks to control the will of every person on the planet. He was the one who had pulled John into the group. He was the one who had failed to stop the Les Enfants Terribles project, which had lead to John leaving in the first place. He was the one who had unwittingly pushed John onto this path of self-destruction by being too naive and too inexperienced in dealing with battlefield trauma to truly understand the pain John had been carrying since Operation Snake Eater. And he was the one who had become too messed up in his own way from all the memory manipulation and the double and triple-crossing jobs he’d taken on in the ensuing years.

That’s why it was his responsibility to right the wrongs. EVA had already helped him set things up. The final piece was John. No, that wasn’t entirely accurate. He didn’t need John to cooperate for the plan to succeed, but aside from… personal reasons, it was to his tactical advantage if John did.

Adam hmphed at himself. The fact that he could weigh John’s behavior in terms of tactical risk spoke volumes about how far down into hell he had descended since those relatively carefree days in Russia.

John would understand that they needed time to build up the proper forces, plant the right spies, and gather the critical intel necessary to take Cipher on; that they needed Venom to stand in for him in the meantime to keep Cipher busy and at bay. John would understand that he was also just trying to keep his promise to The Boss — to protect him and keep him safe from all enemies, including John himself if need be.

John, John, John…

John wouldn’t go against the advice of someone he trusted, and especially not the son of The Boss.

That’s what he hoped, anyway.

He would find a way to convince John. He had to. But if it came down to it, he would choose to destroy what he had created rather than let it go unchecked. There were always ways to manipulate his own emotions. No one ever became a top spy by having a weak will, and he was the best of the best.

Still, loyalty to the mission or loyalty to John — he hoped he would never have to make that choice.

[donlemefo]

[aoi-mikazuki]

Until We Meet Again

Inspired by this amazing piece by 141-52.

spoilers for the ending of MGSV

also, Bosselot

Adam breathed a sigh of relief when he saw John crouched in the shadows, right where he had left him a few hours earlier. Now that the former coma patient was out of that thin green hospital gown and in the leather jacket and beige cargo pants he had brought, the other man almost looked normal again.

“Sorry it took so long, Boss.” Adam continued walking towards the one-eyed man.

“How’s he doing?”John asked, concerned for his former medic.

“He’s resting, for now. I gave him a mild sedative to help him pass the time.”

“Heh, when did you become so familiar with needles?”

Adam gave a small smirk. “‘Shalashaska’ is familiar with all manners of torture.”

John’s left eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch.

“It’s just another persona,” Adam reassured him. “One I used to keep you safe.”

“By becoming a ruthless torturer? Dare I ask how much self-hypnosis you put yourself through to pull that off?”

“Nothing compared to how much I’d have to put myself through if I ever lost you.”

“So the silver fox has a silver tongue to match!”

“The better to lure his favorite hound into his lair with,” Adam said as he cupped John’s cheeks. Feeling the very real weight of the mercenary’s head in his hands made him wish he could take his time, but he had already taken too long just to get John’s bike from the whaling ship to the broken bridge, and then to get himself from the bridge to this corner of the forest.

“Sun will rise momentarily,” a soft female voice intoned.

“We should get going,” John grumbled lowly.

“Let me have this one last thing… John,” Adam whispered back as he leaned in, pressing his lips to John’s. He willed his mind to commit every sensation, every emotion deep into his memories because soon, he would have to forget that this man ever existed. Those were the terms of his deal with his professional side -- all to protect, at all costs, the man feverishly kissing him back.

“Boss…”

“Ocelot…”

And this... This was how they always parted ways – privately and passionately – until one of them called the other by his code name. Then it was showtime.

There was no turning back now. They were simply Ocelot and Big Boss – two men on a mission to rid the world of the Patriots and Cipher. Along with EVA, this was the slow, long game they had chosen. Who knew when they would see each other again, but for now, Ocelot was going to enjoy the ride. After all, there’s nothing more exhilarating to a cowboy than a good old-fashioned rodeo.

[lessoninfutility]

A project I did for a class, the assignment was to make a book cover/back cover. So I did a children’s book version of mgs3, starring nakie snakie as naked snake

[aoi-mikazuki]

AGGRESSIVELY LOOKS FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK

please say there will be more! it's too cute to leave like this!