Thank you all so much for your patience! š If you haven't received your tracking number, please email us!
In addition, zine PDFs and digital merch will be sent out once all contributor bundles have been shipped! So please be on the lookout for that in the coming week!
not to come out of nowhere but I got my PDF + digi merch for this zine and iām actually losing my mind over it.
I think itās so funny that one of the opening comments is something along the lines of this zine making a contributor like midorima because literally iām having that exact same experience with the characters I typically ignore, how dare this zine make me feel actual fondness for kagami and midorima. preposterous.
on a serious note itās really just so so cute and iām glad I purchased it! the nostalgia is intense rn, the stories and art make me feel like itās just me and my 2014 knb self insert brain again- but a way more refined sensical version of whatever I was able to come up with lol.
everybody did such a good job and it was an absolute (pun intended) delight to finally open this. knb 2021 for real. very excited to get the physical zine + merch that I will be bragging about.
idk what anime u rewatched but near doesn't have dark skin. dn has dark skinned chars, draw them and don't fucking racebend. this looks like shit. thx. <3
anon r u ok near literally says hes dark skinned in canon?!
im worriedā¦ anon ur acting strangeā¦. u dont even remember??? šµāš«
if you think just because an artistās style is cutesy that gives you an opening to infantilise neurodivergent coded characters let me hear you say hell yeah
^ this is funny but also actually important because people have been doing this with near (specifically) for years. it feeds into harmful stereotypes about ND people and promotes the way theyre treated as incapable children even when theyre adults, just dont do it. youre making things worse for an already overlooked and misunderstood community.
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to this user and everyone else who has lost their empathy and compassion for our people.
being āmentally illā or a patriot, doesnāt excuse you from not caring.
our land, and our children, has been defiled and stolen. the country in which you stand so proudly behind has committed atrocities against us. are our lives not worth more than your picnics and parties? your fireworks and your pride?
Residential schools have been recently discovered in Canada and Britain, residental school systems kidnapped indigenous children, tortured them, and kept them from learning about their heritage and speaking their language.
Thousands of bodies have been found along with hundreds of unmarked gravesvl in and around the residental schools.
This shouldn't be silenced. Anything you can do to help, spread the word, sign petitions, or donate if you can, anything at all.
Here are some resources:
Generations of First Nations children were abducted to institutions to solve the countryās āIndian problemā. Thousands never returned
Canadian news and top headlines. Live breaking news, national news, video, and more from provinces and territories across Canada
The Residential School System
Petitions and donations:
MMIW (MISSING, MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN)
We need to stop Canada for killing Or Indigenous brother and sisters and covering up there deaths like noting happened!!!!! sign this petit
Call to Action: Support Neskantaga First Nation & End Long-Term Drinking Water Advisories
The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund aims to shine a light on Indigenous reconciliation and the history of residential schools in Canada.
become an ally!As Indigenous & Non-Indigenous Partners we are committed to walking together and working on shared challenges to build a bett
There you are. You. Asking for a GX Rivalshipping drabble with 'Rival' as a keyword.
Here you go. I hope you're happy ;;
The length is around 2k words.
Special thanks to @deadkura for proofreading, but I note that any and all mistakes are on me. They were just... my poor lab rat.
Apologies, my friend.
That aside, there are no warnings that need to be given, this is light-hearted in tone. Nobody dies and nobody gets hurt, aside from Shou who happens to be there at some point and just succumbs to the need to get on with some semblance of a plot.
The story is below the cut!
Enjoy (or don't)!
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Manjoume could vaguely remember the first time heād watched the Battle City recordings.
He couldnāt remember when it had been exactly, but he did know heād been at a classmateās house with a bunch of other kids. He had a faint memory of being pressed up against other children, all of them shouting and cheering along as the duel between Seto Kaiba and Yugi Mutou came to a roaring end.
ā¦ It had been noisy. And heād found himself mildly annoyed.
Not that the duel didnāt have him on the edge of his seat- quite the opposite. He was completely mesmerised by the unforgiving tornado of grace that was Seto Kaiba, most of all.
Perhaps that was why heād found the others to be so bothersome in that specific instance. It seemed very rude to him that they would take him out of the experience with their screams. Was that fun? Was it supposed to be fun? Was he simply out of the loop? Should he have been screaming, too?
The thing he could recollect with a surprising amount of clarity was some kid whoād grabbed his arm to get him off the couch. To this day, he still had no clue what his name was.
āJun! Come on, I want to play Yugi! You can be Kaiba!ā
He remembered muttering something about the suggestion being extremely stupid. The kid wasnāt Yugi Mutou and neither of them possessed any Duel Monsters cards. What was the point of just replicating what they had just watched on screen? They could justā¦ rewatch the scene.
But the kid had seemed to be very set on the idea and when Manjoume looked around to see expectant looks on the othersā faces, he ended up giving in.
He remembered thinking something along the lines of: āWhy me?ā And even in retrospect, it made very little sense. Heād never played with this specific kid before. He was a friend of a friend- or a friend of someone he thought was a friend at the time.
āWhy do I have to do this?ā
He had ended up asking, not hiding any sign of his annoyance.
āBecause youāre like Kaiba!ā
āI am?ā
āYeah! You always say mean things like him! And Taro says youāre likeā¦ super rich.ā
The rest was a bit of a blur, but he remembered being the āKaibaā of the group, for as long as it lasted. Which wasnāt a very long time, admittedly. But it had been the one and only āfriend groupā heād found himself being a part of, up until heād entered the dueling circuits, when people started sucking up to him either because of his early successes or just to see what could be squeezed out of the youngest of the Manjoume brothers.
Reminiscing about things like that wasā¦ weird, to say the least. He wondered why heād been that stuck up, even as a kid. He just couldnāt figure out what exactly had made him believe that acting like he was above everyone else could get him anywhere at all.
Of course he was aware of the futility of the act, now that heād grown up and a few years had passed, but it turned out that knowing something on a rational level does not, in fact, equal being able to put it into practise.
ā¦ He knew why he was doing what he was doing, anyways. It had stopped being meanness for the sake of being mean when he knew he could get away with it and had stepped into habit territory. And he hadnāt been allowed to go to Duel Academy so that he could make friends who shared the same hobby.
He had imagined that 3 years could go by in the blink of an eye if he got involved as little as possible. All that mattered was winning duels, right? And the last thing he needed in order to do that was to start caring about his opponentās feelings, really.
The thing he hadnāt really considered was that, maybe, his winning streak wouldnāt last forever. He should have known that the outcome of a duel did not depend entirely on how driven one was. It was still fucking annoying to have to see everyoneās surprised- no, incredulous faces upon seeing him finally defeated. Finally, yes. Clearly people had been waiting for nothing more than to see him brought to his knees. It turned out they had firmly believed he had no actual merits outside of his family connections. They had their long-awaited confirmation.
Heād lost a single fucking duel. Obviously he was nothing but a blowhard.
Well, good. Whatever. He couldnāt have cared less.
What did infuriate him, however, were the words that the idiot whoād defeated him had exclaimed, entirely unaware of the fact that heād just completely crushed everything Manjoume had tried to build for himself.
āThat was a fun duel! We have to do this again some time!ā
He hadnāt cared to stay behind to listen to anything else the other had to say. The guy clearly hardly had a clue where he was or what he was studying to become. Who had allowed that moron to smile like that while trampling his pride? How the fuck had Manjoume let himself be defeated by someone like that?
May the fucker go to hell. Him and his dumb red uniform. Everyone in the Academy. They could fucking die for all he cared.
And Manjoume would have probably laughed at the sight.
He really thought he would have. And yet.
As he was going over his deck, sitting with his back against a tree, doing his best to avoid anyone and everyone, he heard footsteps approaching, accompanied by two voices he felt he knew.
āAniki, I still canāt believe you beat that guy- heās an Obelisk Blue- and the top ranking first year at that!ā
ā¦ Is this-
āHe is? Well, that checks out, he was pretty tough.ā
Thatās- Yuki Judai. No doubt about it.
āBut you beat him.ā
ā¦ Because that needed to be pointed out, how insightful.
āDoesnāt everyone lose at least once?ā
No.
āNot against Osiris Red students!ā
Exactly.
āā¦ Why does that even matter in the first place?ā
It just fucking does, asshole.
āBecause! A top student isnāt supposed to lose against just anyone, Aniki! I donāt think he took that well.ā
ā¦ Who the fuck would.
āWhy, though. He didnāt duel poorly or anything. We were pretty evenly matched, there shouldnāt be shame in that.ā
āDoesnāt that just make it worse?ā
āā¦ Does it?ā
Heād known they were about to pass him, but didnāt bother getting up or making it look like he hadnāt heard anything. Heād clearly been right about this Yuki guy. A complete idiot who clearly understood nothing of what it meant to be a duelist.
He glared at the two as they walked by.
ā¦ Ah, so the other was Marufuji. A failure younger brother, much like him. How ironic. The boy looked absolutely devastated to see him, too.
What, wasnāt expecting the woods to have ears, eyes and a blue uniform?
He furrowed his eyebrows as Yuki abandoned his carefree walking posture, disentangling his fingers from behind his nape and letting his arms drop to his sides. And then proceeded to point straight at him, as if heād just seen a mythological creature prancing about. Tch.
āItās Manju!ā
ā¦ Was that supposed to be a joke? Why was his first thought that that would make for an awful pet name?
After a second of silence, he decided there would be no harm in responding as he usually would to his name being tossed around improperly.
āItās Man-jou-me,ā he corrected, making it a point to hold a hand up to count the three syllables as he spelled them out.
āIn case you hadnāt noticed, Iām not actually food.ā
Marufujiās hands shot up to cover his face, at least he had the decency to be embarrassed for his friend.
ā¦ But Yuki just laughed.
āWhat! My name isnāt so forgettable that youād just mistake it for dessert, asshole!ā
And laughed harder.
āI-ā he paused to catch his breath. Manjoume looked on, entirely unimpressed. Hopefully.
āLook- look, Iām not the best with names, I didnāt-ā a loud exhale. āI didnāt mean to make fun of you, I swear.ā
āā¦ Sure you didnāt.ā
He tried to keep his voice as hostile as he could. But heā¦ couldnāt fully bring himself to shut the guy down. He supposed his laughter was just contagious.
āGlad thatās settled!ā He turned around to face a barely still present Marufuji. āSee, Shou? The guy isnāt so bad!ā
Ah. Right. It had almost slipped his mind.
āAniki- please, I get it, there is no need-!ā
āIāll be winning the next one, anyways,ā he said as he got up.
And that, apparently, was enough to get both boys to gape uselessly. For half a second. Because before anything else could be said, Yuki shot him a thumbs up and a wide smile.
āIām counting on it, Manjoume!ā
He couldnāt stop himself from smirking back.
It didnāt take long for rumours to spread about a supposed rivalry between himself and Yuki Judai. It turned out that most off the students of the Academy had very little to do aside from gossiping about such things, which was honestly just a disappointment.
Perhaps that was why Judai ended up growing on him, despite everything. While he wasnāt necessarily serious or studious by any means, he wasā¦ passionate. He meant it when he said that he was looking to have fun and, to an extent, it was admirable.
Enjoy the game no matter the outcome. Easier said than done. But in a sense it wasā¦ pleasant to get along with and play against someone who was so different from him.
On one specific evening, they had ended up staying out, discussing strategies and dispensing sarcastic advice- or at least that was what Manjoume was doing. Judai actually seemed quite intent on asking how heād built his deck and why heād chosen certain card combos rather than others.
They had had a match a few hours prior and Manjoume had surprised him with some new faces. Manjoume Jun was a lot of things and predictable wasnāt one of them.
And if the way Judaiās face lit up whenever he pulled a surprise play was anything to go byā¦ it was clearly a trait he appreciated immensely, which it was something that made him swell up with pride. To the point where, when switching out cards, he would often find himself thinking about what Judaiās reaction would look like upon the big reveal of his new strategy.
āItās always my pleasure to be your lab rat, Manjoume.ā
The response came in the form of a light shove.
āOh shut up, I like testing out things and, clearly, so do you.ā
Judaiās laugh rang out, light and unintrusive. āYouāre right about that, at least.ā
They spent some minutes silently studying eachotherās decks.
Manjoume had been about to comment on the card ratio, before Judai blurted out something that made him forget all about it.
āWeāre kind of like Yugi and Kaiba.ā And then a necessary addition, judging by the urgency in his voice. āIf they had been actual friends, that is.ā
ā¦ Huh. One of his eyebrows shot up.
āDonāt tell me itās because you win most of the times and Iām a stuck up asshole who also happens to be rich.ā
Judai laughed, as he always did. And it was only fair that after being shoved earlier heād playfully punch Manjoumeās shoulder.
āThat could be one way to look at it, I guess.ā
A small pause followed. And the increase in intensity of the sound of shuffling cards suggested that Judai wasā¦ nervous.
āWhat I meant to say is that weāre rivals. Like them.ā
Majoume scoffed, without any actual bite, his eyes set on a Polymerisation copy.
āThat isnāt specific to them. Isnāt it justā¦ normal? To have someone you want to defeat, I mean?ā
āHah, so you admit Iām the role model youāre striving to overcome!ā
āI didnāt say anything of the sort, dumbass.ā
āā¦ Well, for meā¦ playing with you keeps the game fun.ā
Manjoume actually looked away from the Elemental Heroes heās been adamantly staring at. He turned to face Judai, who seemed to have been looking his way for some time.
He would do that a lot. Make a joke, get a snarky reply and immediately say something serious afterwards. What an idiot.
Fun he said, huh?
āNot that it isnāt fun in and of itself, but itās different, I guess. I find that I actually do want to win, when Iām up against you.ā Judaiās hand moved to play with his bangs. āI didnāt think Iād ever think twice about a lost duel, but Iā¦ kind of do, now.ā
āOh yeah, sorry- Welcome to the magical world of normal people who donāt necessarily win every single time.ā
āYou speak like Iām not the only one whoās beaten you.ā
āSo do you, asshat.ā
Judaiās expression morphed back into a smile.
āItās refreshing to have a genuine challenge. If you were to quit I would probably lose my interest in playing, too.ā
Ah. That part of the Yugi-Kaiba rivalry.
He felt like he started to understand.
āKeep dreaming, Judai. Iām not quitting anytime soon. I vowed to never let you off the hook.ā
He thought of what he could or should say next. A part of him suggested: āYou make it fun for me, too.ā
That wasnāt in his style, however.
āBut I have to agree. Iād get really bored if winning were to become too easy. Youāll die before I allow you to quit, Judai.ā
