hey i lied about the timeline but look more tomogui! today's post is about my kagepros
details about them under the cut :]
so they're obviously post-canon and they're all based off versions of them from my fic that i still havent made any more progress on sorry theres like 3 chapters of content so far and theyre not consecutive
if you haven't already seen me talking about my fic it's t4t kanoshin where kano approaches jun (shin) after starting to question her gender and ultimately jun supports kano in becoming shoko, also they fall in lesbians with each other in the mean time. jun is nonbinary and actually prefers she and they but you can only pick one for tomogui (shrug emote that i am too lazy to copy/paste). shoko is far more binary-aligned about her approach to womanhood and i look forward to writing the contrast in their experiences if i ever actually write more lol
at the start of the fic, kido (who at some point preferred they/them but reclaimed her womanhood a la shissou word) and momo are engaged and planning their wedding. seto and marry are cohabitating and romantically involved somehow i think? but not sure on the details of their relationship yet. takane and haruka are dating, maybe open? takane is a she/they/it type digital nonbinary situation. not really sure how either of them relate to their haze powers now but i'll explain their mii designs in a bit
saeru isn't really present, other than maybe a flashback at some point, but i put him there for ayano, who died 3 years prior to the beginning of the fic and the trauma from her toxic relationship with jun is a big source of conflict in the fic. azami also won't show up but i Like Her and i needed one more :] and of course, last in that group image is @fishmass 's chud tuxedo who i adore, his mii was a collective effort between us. cat tax will be added as a reblog bc i'm out of images
as far as what they're doing in their adult lives:
as has been my fanon for a long time thanks to that one panel of shin with the vocaloid editor open, jun wrote all the kgpr songs and is decently famous online for it. shoko has been working on and off at part time gigs and gambling, and both kido and seto probably have put a decent amount of money into getting her out of financial trouble. she's also a heavy drinker at the start of the fic. kido works in an office, seto has continued blue collar work (but unsure what sort, potentially a mechanic?). momo retired from idol work and is now a popular streamer and influencer, marry is a librarian. haruka did the art for jun's videos, but his main profession is as a male model. takane is a vtuber and uses ene as her avatar - unsure if she just has a model drawn by haruka or if she uses snake powers. last thing i remember it was pretty contested whether they kept their powers post-str but i never finished the manga, only what was out at the time, and havent read the novels... so that's tbd
as far as their designs:
"jun" is a unisex name and, this is from a decade ago, but i remember at least sharing meanings with some readings of "shin"? i'd have to figure out what kanji it was i remembered being able to be read both as "jun" and "shin" if it exists. she grows out her hair but still prefers basically the same clothes, with some maxi skirts added in. basically, whatever's comfy. she wears light makeup sometimes.
"shoko" was actually a placeholder name and is still up to be changed, i wanted her to pick a "-ko" name because of the whole "women must have -ko names to marry the emperor" giving way to lots of -ko women's names. she wants nothing more than to be a "normal girl" and be treated as such by the people around her, likes dressier clothes so lots of blouses and dresses, always wears heavy makeup.
ayano had really bad ptsd from being trapped in the haze and it combined with her existing depression. for years i've had a concept of shinaya where shin is a schoolteacher and caretaker for ayano, they're married, have 3 kids, and ayano gets worse; that's more or less been adapted to fit this fic, minus the kids.
saeru is mainly just kuroha's design (really not sure how that fits in with haruka but it doesn't matter bc he won't appear in the fic)
kido i named kido because originally her mii was a they/them lesbian who just went by her surname, and her current feminine iteration happened after momo rejected her in game; now i've reconceptualized my fic version to match and imagine her as basically a "desister" (though she doesn't identify with or use that word, and has probably never heard it).
momo is just older, she likes "american" style clothes (ball caps, sportswear, athleisure, etc.)
marry, too, is basically just her canon self. i imagine her collection of dresses has gotten bigger and that she basically only wears dresses.
seto grew a beard, i have him as kousuke because i imagine by this point he wouldn't be going by his surname. i've mostly been giving him canon-like clothes or work clothes. yes he has a pet dog
takane dyes their hair, that's why i have it gradient blue and their eyes are brown. they also got facial piercings. i might or might not be entering my takane era
haruka i know seems to have white hair in some post-str art but i'm still on the "when haruka merged with the konoha body it took on traits of both" train. his design is based off frames from str. back in the day we used to talk about what condition he might have and at some point whatever group i was part of landed on marfan syndrome, so that's what i'm going with here. he has to be careful not to overexert because his health gets worse with stress, since he's seen in a wheelchair in str i'm going off "his condition got better but didn't go away". i also read that japanese marfan syndrome patients tend to have less skeletal abnormalities and more vascular abnormalities so i figure that's reasonable enough?
azami's design is based off various pics of her but primarily the manga. the white in her hair comes from art of her by hakuri
about their (in-game) relationships:
shoko and jun are Finally dating. it's going okay. kido and momo are also Finally dating after momo dated and broke up with cordelia dead estate. i have painstakingly crafted crushes from seto > marry and takane > haruka, but marry and haruka started dating Basically Immediately on creation and have not stopped (despite my efforts ;o;). saeru is best friends with Everyone for some reason, ayano is in toxic yuri with kafu (as previously mentioned im sure). azami is very single and mr chud is very gay (not many options on dyke city, poor man).
A boy opens his eyes, awakening as a pleasant breeze grazes his face. He looked up absent-mindedly toward the pale blue sky above, where cotton candy clouds floated. The cosmos flowers blanketing the earth grew reaching for the sky, tickling his cheeks. The wooden object his back leaned upon felt a bit strange, but he didn’t really mind.
As he was enveloped and began to close his eyes once again, he suddenly noticed something odd.
The cotton candy clouds he was used to were so far away. Not only that, but the cosmos flowers enveloping him seemed so much taller than usual.
His sense of unease swelled up like a cosmos flower trying to unfold its petals.
As the boy tried to stand up, he realized that his legs were shorter than usual. The clothing that caught his eye by chance, he noticed, was a purple polo shirt he used to wear. Not able to believe it, he reached out his arm. As he had thought, his hands were much smaller than usual.
He’s gone back to his childhood. Around the time when he had met that girl.
The boy was a little surprised by how calm and unafraid he felt. He raised his arm and stretched it out as if to grab a cloud. He was so distracted by the sky he was gazing up at, that he failed to realize he was about to fall backwards.
There was a heavy thud as the back of his head struck something behind him. The boy clutched his head in sudden pain, glanced behind him, and opened his eyes wide.
It was a cross. It was dyed the color of night, covered in cosmos flowers that were arranged in equal intervals. The boy turned to face the cross and stared at it. It seemed out of place here, surrounded by red, white, and pink cosmos flowers. But the boy could only think that maybe these cosmos flowers were blooming here because of the cross.
Suddenly the boy noticed something carved into the center of the cross and focused his eyes there. He stared at the fine, shallow carving and when he finally managed to read the name he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“My… grave……”
He can’t believe it, as he accidentally reverts to his old tone of voice.
Not having time to worry about such things, the boy staggered to his feet with the gait of a newborn deer. He stumbled back one step, then two, then fell on his bottom.
The impact and pain caused the boy to try to convince himself that he was still alive.
“I’m alive. Alive. It seriously hurts.”
But, no matter how many times he told himself that, the words engraved into the cross in front of him remained the same. Frightened, sorrowful, the wind that had comforted him just a moment ago now felt cold.
Alive, alive. He can’t leave that child behind.
The boy’s cheeks streamed with tears. It seemed not only his body, but his heart had become young as well.
Frantically wiping his tears, the boy failed to notice a presence pushing its way through the field of cosmos flowers toward him. When a shadow fell upon him, he finally noticed the presence and looked up in awe.
“Seto. It’s been a while.”
As the shadow was cast, the boy’s eyes widened.
Coral colored eyes, fluffy hair like cotton candy clouds, and an innocently smiling face. A girl slightly older than his proper self was staring at him.
“Marry……?”
As he saw the unfamiliar sight of a person he should know, the boy’s tears stopped.
It was a rare sunny evening in the middle of the rainy season.
As the sound of the Kaien Panzermast reverberated, children playing at the park in front of the station began to head home. A young man stretched his arms and shook himself awake. Pressing his ear to the wall in the darkness, he confirmed that no one was around and that he was at the destination.
The young man fumbled around, feeling the boxes surrounding him. He selected the sturdiest ones, slowly removed them, stood up from the pile, then returned them to their original position. Next, he located the door and cracked it open just enough to confirm there were no surveillance cameras. Finally, he opened the door as quietly as possible and made his escape from the freight train. After closing the door, he flung himself over the chainlink fence with one hand and fled the scene. The young man’s figure disappeared into the twilight.
“Escape complete.”
The young man who’d said this jokingly, Seto, had no idea that it was a misdemeanor.
Which coral is genuine?
It all started with an offhand comment from that girl. Her cumulonimbus hair sways in time with the tilt of her head. Marry holds in her hands a magazine feature on coral reefs and a flyer for a jewelry store. Looking closely, she notices a coral pedant on the corner of the flyer.
“They’re both real. If someone tampers with this one, it turns into this pendant.”
“This rugged one, could sparkle…?”
Watching the girl carefully compare the magazine and flyer, Seto smiled. He had probably made the same expression when he was told that coal and diamonds are made of the same thing.
Come to think of it, he’d never been to a sea with coral reefs.
Suddenly, he took his eyes off the girl and looked up at the ceiling. He’d been to the sea a few times. But, an ocean with coral reefs is a different story. For starters, it’s too far away. Not within walking or cycling distance. But, what if he could get there by taking the freight train? Perhaps it’s not impossible to get there. Although, he’d never been on a freight train before. Well, he’d seen one.
“Maybe I’ll go soon.”
The sooner the better. That evening, Seto set out with only the necessities on a secret roaming journey.
How many weeks have passed since then?
His cell phone died a long time ago. Although, he wasn’t sure there was even much battery when he left. Regardless, he could expect a big scolding from Kido.
He walks, avoiding yesterday’s puddles, until he’s face to face with the hideout door. It felt like the last time he had walked that path was at the end of spring, when new leaves were just beginning to spout. He wondered what point in the rainy season it was now.
Just thinking about it made him feel like he had been doused in winter rain. Just as he hesitated to open the door, the lock was opened from the inside. Suddenly all the blood drained from his face as the image of the jade girl’s dreadful face appeared in his mind.
“Ah, Seto!”
But contrary to his expectations, on the other side of the door stood his childhood friend, a cat-eyed young man with a cheerful smile. However, there was an air of impatience not typically present in his voice.
"You’re finally back, come in quickly!”
“Huh, wait Kano, what happened?”
“Just come here! Things are getting really crazy around here with no Seto around!”
His childhood friend vigorously dragged him along, and before Seto had time to close the exterior door, he was taken to a room. Standing in front of the room was his other childhood friend, a girl with jade-colored hair. There was no look of fear on her face, rather a look of urgency that came over her the moment she saw him.
Ahh, now that he thought about it the room behind her was…
“Kano, get the porridge, fever relief sheets, and medicine! Seto, hurry up and get into Marry’s room!”
Almost simultaneously with Kido’s shouting, Kano rushed into the kitchen. Realizing why the two were panicking, Seto was half-pushed by Kido and ran into Marry’s room.
The sunset bathing the walls filled with books made the room seem more stale than usual.
On the bed in the center of the room, littered with a white lace and embroidered duvet and surrounded by heavily illustrated books from some other county, a white-haired girl sat up with her eyes downcast. Her eyes, peeking out from between strands of her white hair, were redder than the setting sun.
Seto approached the girl slowly, so as not to scare her. He bent down and placed his hand on her fluffy, cumulonimbus hair.
"I'm home, Marry."
He gave her an out-of-place light smile, and Marry raised her head slightly. There was no smile on her face, but somehow, the air around her felt slightly softer than before.
“Welcome back”
Her small voice reverberates like a cumulonimbus cloud passing through, as her eyes gradually return to their normal coral color. As if confirming this, a sigh of relief can be heard from behind.
“These past two days have been really tough. I couldn't nurse her back to health and you wouldn’t come back.”
“Sorry."
Seto replied as he apologetically lay Marry down beside him.
If she wasn’t feeling well, she wouldn’t be able to control her abilities.
This wasn’t just the case for Marry, but for Seto himself and Kido too. It wasn’t so much that she lost control, it was more like she was acting recklessly, and it caused Kano and the others a lot of trouble. In comparison, luckily Seto was able to stop Marry. But abilities are abilities. Imagine how much they suffered for those three days without the guy who could stop it.
“Well, the seasons are changing, so it’s easy to get sick. You too, shouldn’t go to the sea or the mountains too much until the rainy season is over. It’d be a pain if something like this were to happen again.”
“Yep.”
“Yeahh, it was really tough.”
Kano enters the room with no sense of urgency in his voice. In his hands he’s holding a tray with porridge, a china spoon, medicine, water, and the cooling sheet on it. The porridge bowl and water cup are made of plastic, presumably so they won’t break if Marry drops them.
Kano places the tray next to Seto and sits, back against the leg of the bed.
“At any rate, we won’t be able to take care of her properly if we’re turned to stone, right? So her fever is just getting higher and higher, and she can’t eat properly.”
“From now on, with the seasons changing, I’ll try not to go too far away.”
As he stuck a cooling sheet on Marry’s forehead, Seto spoke. Marry’s forehead was hotter than the coming season.
It was clear that her condition had only deteriorated while he was away.
“I’d love that. Ah, and also make sure your phone is properly charged. There are a lot of missed calls from Kido on it. Afterall, she couldn’t go to the doctor and couldn’t eat and we couldn’t take care of her and she was on the verge of crying. Ahh, it brings back memoriiess. I’m going to disappeeaarr, I’m feeling so nostalgic. But sorry, sorry, it never happened.”
“No use in arguing.”
As Kano blurts out something uncalled-for, Kido grabs his arm and twists it the wrong way. Honestly, there’s nothing nostalgic about this. It’s almost sad.
“Marry, can you eat some porridge?”
“Yeah, I can.”
Leaving the extraordinary scene of Kido, who holds Kano down with a blank look on her face, while Kano never stops smiling despite it, Seto helps Marry sit up.
He plunges the china spoon into the porridge with a plop, and slowly ladles a generous scoop of the rice and brings it to her mouth. Watching her unsteady hands and eyes that look as if they might close at any moment, Seto remembers something and reaches into his bag.
Ahh, it wasn’t in such a cluttered spot. He had it wrapped so it wouldn’t break and placed it in a small pocket.
Ah, there it is.
“Marry, this is a souvenir.”
After waiting for Marry to finish eating, he handed her a small package in exchange for her bowl.
Marry tilted her head and gently peeled off the wrapping paper. There was a long, thin, wooden box. He cautiously opened the lid of the box to reveal something.
“Coral……?”
Seto nodded at her curious voice as her eyes sparkled.
Inside the box was a pale-colored necklace made out of round, polished pink corals and pure white shells. It had a handmade feel to it.
“This, I can have it?”
“Of course. A local lady gave it to me after I helped her out with some work. It was handmade by her.”
“Wait a minute, coral? Where the hell did you go?”
Kido stopped what she was doing and turned to him with that rough voice, although she was still tightly grabbing Kano with both hands.
“Ah, even though it’s coral, I picked the closest place. And, well, the train I took was the freight train so……”
“We’re nowhere near the reefs so it doesn’t matter that it was the closest place. And the freight train?! That’s a crime!”
“Ahaha, well it doesn’t matter. This organization itself is already criminal after all. And, a coral necklace is the perfect choice.”
Kano’s face and voice didn’t match his stance, so Kido shot him a puzzled look. As Seto helped Marry to sleep, he asked Kano,
“What do you mean perfect?”
“Coral has the ability to bring vitality. That’s perfect right now.”
What a surprise. The hand that had been stroking the cumulonimbus hair halts.
Without noticing Seto’s reaction, Kano opens his mouth,
“Well, I want some vitality too. The other day I snuck a cream puff out of the fridge, and I thought, what’ll happen if I get caught…… Ah.”
“Oh, so it was you after all.”
Kido’s face took on the expression of rage that Seto had been dreading upon his return home.
“K-Kido. Look, Marry’s falling asleep,so we need to be quiet.”
“That’s right, so let’s move to another spot.”
“Nonono, that’s not what I meant - ouchouchouch!”
Kano raised a cry of resistance as Kido dragged him along. She kept her voice low, likely out of concern for Marry. Of course, regardless of her tone of voice, Kido wouldn’t go easy on him.
As she put her hand on the door to leave, Kido turned to look back at him.
“That’s right, Seto, your punishment for disappearing and not contacting us is cleaning the bathroom for two weeks.”
With that, she closes the door, not waiting for a reply. If he listened carefully, he could hear Kano screaming, but he decided to tune it out.
He joined his hands together in prayer for Kano.
Inhale, exhale. He could hear the soft sound of her breathing.
When he looked over, he could see Marry asleep with a much calmer expression than before.
In her hands she clutched the box containing the necklace as though it were precious. Seto’s eyes slightly clouded.
“Vitality, huh?” If that was the case, maybe I didn’t need to give her this necklace.
Kano and Kido, those two never change. Maybe they’d changed just a little bit since the old days, or at least that’s how it seemed to Seto. Surely, it was because he’d spent so long with them.
You’ve grown taller, you’ve been outgrown. You've become cuter, you’re not as cute as you used to be. You’ve gotten smaller, you’ve gotten bigger.
They’d spent their time saying that sort of thing.
He vaguely thought that somehow, it would continue to be that way from then on.
But, what about the girl right in front of his eyes?
You’ve grown up, you’ve become so cool. Those were the kinds of things she told him. She hasn’t changed since the time they first met, and he’s forced to face the difference in the amount of time they’ve been given.
Maybe, just maybe, they could stand shoulder-to-shoulder, look at the same view, and laugh together. What if something like that happened?
When was it that he had hopelessly daydreamed of growing up?
“Seto…….”
The sudden voice made him jump.
Looking at the source of the voice, he saw that she was sleeping soundly. There was a soft smile on her lips.
It seemed she was sleep-talking.
“Am I intruding on your dream?”
He’s glad she seems happy.
He smiles and changes thoughts.
Especially because their time together is limited. He couldn’t let her see his face all gloomy like that.
With his usual cheerful smile, Seto stroked Marry’s head.
“Get better soon, Marry.”
The girl’s fluffy hair gave the same feeling as if he was walking in a dream.
