The fluorescent lights of Blockbuster were a familiar sight to Daisuke Tsumiki. Every few nights he would trudge down the aisles of the video store. Running his fingers over rows upon rows of VHS until the coloured plastic boxes lost all meaning entirely. Eventually he would realise the time and, with a shrug, pick whatever was closest and leave the store. That was until his aching fingers found another hand reaching for a copy of ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’.
“Ohhhh....” The woman pursed her lips as she took the copy from the shelf. “Sorry, bud. Looks like I was here first.”
Daisuke looked at the empty shelf and grunted, “I don’t want that shitty movie.”
“Hey now! You don’t have to be upset about it! I’ll be back with it in a fortnight.” She lightly tapped him on the chest with the corner of the cover. “Might even rewind it if you’re lucky.”
“Fuck off.”
The woman giggled. Daisuke was used to people being put off right away by his less than hospitable nature. But this strange woman didn’t seem to care in the least. “Alright Mister Grumpy Pants, what has you in such a tizzy, hmm?” The woman fumbled with the strap of her handbag as she stared him down with bright, kind eyes. Tsumiki noticed the dark cedar in her iris matched perfectly with her long curly hair.
The woman noticed him dumbstruck and took the opportunity to steal the VHS Daisuke had clutched in his calloused hand.
“The Godfather!” The brown-haired woman shook her head. “This must be it! You just finished watching this piece of trash, didn’t you?”
“Wha- ‘The Godfather’ is a classic.” Daisuke’s stoic nature took a back seat as his inner film buff could not bear to take such an erroneous comment. “It’s my third time watching it.”
“Na, it’s boring.” The woman leaned in on her front foot and smiled. “You don’t seem to be though.”
The man averted his gaze, which only made the woman lean in closer. “Tell you what... you seem absolutely beside yourself with grief over missing out on the opportunity to see Monty Python in his prime. So... watch it with me?”
The man’s demeanour softened, and a half smile complemented his chapped lips. “I’m Daisuke Tsumiki.”
The woman smiled as she nodded into a bow. The jewellery around her wrists clattered as she did so. “My name’s Okemi Shouko. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Maybe, but you have to take back your comment about ‘The Godfather’.”
“I refuse.”
...
I’m not sure what my mother saw in my father. I think she was only looking for a hook-up. Or maybe he was a different man back then. I suppose I'll never know. One way or another, he convinced her to date him, and he fell madly for her.
...
“How much longer? I’m going to die!” Shouko's cries reverberated into the gravel path.
“Almost there!” Tsumiki shouted back to her as he jogged on the spot. “Come on, hurry up you slowpoke!”
With a disgruntled sigh, Shouko continued up the mountain path. He and Tsumiki had been dating for a few months now and Tsumiki’s icy exterior had completely melted into an awkward romantic. One that had a love of hiking, much to her dismay.
Shouko continued on the rocky path ahead until she reached a clearing near a waterfall. Tsumiki was standing beside it and motioned for her to join him.
“This better be worth it.” Okemi grumbled to herself. An entire Saturday wasted outside instead of on the couch. It was a tragedy. Especially since she felt so out of sorts.
“There...” Daisuke wrapped his arm around his partner's shoulder and motioned to the vista ahead with a grand gesture. A waterfall silhouetted the pair as they looked out over an endless horizon of olive green fields and orange thicket. All tangled together in the valley below. “This is my favourite place. I always come here when I’m stressed or feeling down... I know you don’t like hiking very much, but I appreciate you making the journey with me.”
Shouko stepped forward and admired the surrounding sights. “I’ll be honest. I don’t know if it was worth a three-hour walk, but this view... It is magnificent. Thank you for...” Shouko went to face Tsumiki but there was only a waterfall there to greet her. It was only when she looked down did she find him on one knee.
“Will you marry me?”
Tsumiki Daisuke found the love of his life in the Blockbuster that night, and he didn’t want to waste any time spending the rest of their lives together.
Shouko Okemi, on the other hand, couldn’t believe it. They had only been dating a few months and she didn’t see a proposal coming anywhere in the near future. However, while she was still unsure about the man before her, she did consider it fortuitous.
“Do you want kids?” Was the first thing Okemi said in reply. “We’ve never discussed it.”
Tsumiki grinded his teeth. He had a distant look that seemed to go beyond Shouko and to the endless vista. “I... don’t care.”
“You don’t care?”
“As long as I’m with you, we can have as many children as you like. I just want you... Okemi.”
Mist from the waterfall tickled their ankles as they embraced. Shouko Okemi slipped the golden band on her finger. The ring of emeralds sparkled in the sunlight, dancing around the diamond in the middle.
Several months later, a baby would be born.
In those months, Shouko Okemi’s health would deteriorate. Meetings with her physician would be taken alone and Tsumiki Daisuke would be left to believe that the woman before him was only strained by the making of new life, not the absence of it.
Shouko curled over in pain. “I’m pretty sure!” She rested her back against the leather of their couch and laughed. “Look... I know you’re scared. I am too, but no matter what, this is happening.”
Tsumiki’s eyes darted as he nodded along to his wife’s words of comfort, “Yeah, yeah, it just... doesn’t feel real. A kid? Me, a father? No way.”
Shouko snorted with laughter. A strange habit Tsumiki grew to love. She reached over for a remote on the stained coffee table beside her and switched on the television. It was paused on the title screen of a film, ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’.
“I was going to surprise you when we got home. We never got around to finishing the film that night, so I thought...” Shouko froze and gritted her teeth in pain. “I know a lot of things are going to change in our lives once this baby is born. But I promise, no matter what, we’ll come home and watch this film. Have a laugh, go to bed and start a new chapter of our lives.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Okemi pecked her husband on the cheek, “Now please get me to the hospital.”
“Right!”
Daisuke helped lead her to the front door. He finally felt some confidence about the future even if it was still uncertain, even if things went wrong, with her by his side, it would be okay.
This newfound assurance didn’t last long, however, as every step seemed to be agony for Okemi, with her squeals of pain only being deafened by gritted teeth.
As they reached the door and went to leave, Daisuke noticed a trail of blood had followed them over their cream-coloured carpet. It led back to a pool of viscous red that seeped into the sun-stained leather of their sofa.
...
Daisuke Tsumiki arrived home late that same night.
The gravel of the driveway popped and crackled under his truck’s tyres.
Once he parked and turned the engine off, he sat in a stupor for some time.
He watched his headlights glow shimmer on the house he had painted with Shouko.
Eventually, he turned those off too and only then noticed a baby crying on the seat beside him.
He took the bundle of cotton and blue inside, where the title screen of a film greeted him.
Blood of a person who no longer existed.
Other small oddities of an emptiness.
Rings of a coffee cup beneath a coaster.
Used tissues on the floor.
A television remote precariously perched on top of dirty dishes.
Without bothering to turn the light on, Tsumiki entered the darkness with only the blue glow of the TV to guide him to the nursery.
He placed the infant in between the poorly constructed wooden bars of a cot he built. Cans of blue paint sat unopened on the carpet as the babe continued to wail for its mother.
Its cries were ignored.
Tsumiki left for the laundry where he filled a bucket with soapy warm water. With it, he entered the pale blue light of the television once more and scrubbed his wife’s blood from the sofa.
However, no matter how hard he tried. How much muscle he put behind each stroke. How pale his knuckles went around the sponge.
The blood wouldn’t come out.
Harder.
Harder.
Harder.
Harder still.
Daisuke screamed from the bottom of his gut. He tossed the cleaning supplies against the wall and the babe cried louder into the darkness.
The father ripped up one of the two throw cushions against the sofa, erupting stuffing around him like a volcano. He kicked over the coffee table, the TV Remote scattered against the floor and hit play as it fell. The baby cried louder, and he yelled back as if to mock it, “Shut up!” The infant’s wails continued. “You don’t get to cry! You did this to me!” Tsumiki grabbed a glass and smashed it against the floor, a shard of glass shot off and lodged itself in his ankle and yet he barely noticed as his blood mixed with his late wife’s.
Then the idea struck.
A fervent desire, an answer to every problem. A deus ex machina contained within the stuffing of the other couch cushion.
It was sticky with blood that had fermented into a dark orange. He entered the nursery, where the infant’s wails only seemed to grow louder. His finger dyed red with how hard he gripped the solution.
“Mikan Tsumiki.” Daisuke said, “What a disgusting name.”
He took the cushion and leaned his entire weight into the infant. Its cries were muffled at first, but quickly ceased entirely. Daisuke’s tears ran dry as he pressed harder into its skull. It swatted and pawed at the darkness engulfing it. It had no concept of what was happening, only knowing its lungs, no bigger than the palm of Daisuke’s hands, were being wrung dry.
As the baby's movements slowed, he heard a voice coming from the living room, not one but multiple. He stared at the doorway, expecting to be stopped. For a group of men to suddenly barge in, tackle him to the ground and bind him in cuffs.
Yet the only thing to greet him was the pale blue light of the television flickering in the door. Disembodied voices continued to mock him.
Then a slight smile traced his lips when he realised what it was. He left the room without a second thought and with the last of their strength, the babe was able to push the cushion hard enough that it fell to the side.
Daisuke sat down in his wife’s blood and laughed at the film playing on the screen.
He laughed. Then he laughed some more. He laughed so hard his jaw hurt. He laughed so hard his stomach hurt. He laughed so hard his throat hurt. He laughed so much that he never laughed again.
I was involved with a Zine celebrating Mahiru's birthday. I wrote a short story featuring Mahiru and Hajime. It's at the very end of the Zine. So check it out if that's something that interests you!
(cover by Tuesday: https://twitter.com/tuesdaysanyways)
"Smile!" is a free, digital Danganronpa zine dedicated Mahiru Koizumi! 📷
Hey, hey! I know there aren't a lot of people who follow my blog that also follow my main fic but in case you're one of the like two people that do...
Progress on the next chapter has been progressing really well! This is a big chapter for me and is something I've thought about writing since chapter 1 so I want to make sure I get it right.
Not sure how many words it's going to be right now, but I'm guessing around 8-10k?? (Could be totally off, this is a shot in the dark tbh).
Hey, hey! I know there aren't a lot of people who follow my blog that also follow my main fic but in case you're one of the like two people that do...
Progress on the next chapter has been progressing really well! This is a big chapter for me and is something I've thought about writing since chapter 1 so I want to make sure I get it right.
Not sure how many words it's going to be right now, but I'm guessing around 8-10k?? (Could be totally off, this is a shot in the dark tbh).
Seeing all the messages and comments after I've released a new chapter is so heartwarming. It's unreal that people still care about my shitty little fic I started just after high school. 😭Thank you everyone who has ever read a chapter! <3
Sorry the new chapter hasn't been uploaded yet. I currently have 30.5 & 31 I'm sitting on. I'm out of town atm and can't really edit/upload them until I get home later this week.
Sorry for the delay, however, I have gotten great progress done while I've been here. <3
Based on the survey it doesn't seem like a lot of people who follow my main fic follow my tumblr but for the few of you that do, hi!
I'm so sorry there hasn't been a new chapter yet, I have been swamped with finals. Def expect a new chapter sometime this month, sooner than later.
There will be a small follow up chapter to the events that happened in 29. Then a Sparkling Justice chapter followed by a main chapter. Also a side chapter, 29.5 will most likely go up here as well as the survey results on top of that.
So sorry again, another small drought of content until then but I'm thinking that's going to change in the near future. :)
Sozzay's 'MK2' - My Random Thoughts - Spoilers for the prologue
MK2 - A danganronpa rewrite where Mahiru is the protagonist has finally released it's prologue chapter! I suggest you go check it out if that is something that interests you as I'm just going to ramble a bit about my first impression with the series! You can read it here:
An Alternate Universe fanfic where Mahiru Koizumi is the protagonist of Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
On a technical level; the prologue is masterfully crafted. It's all on its own website, which is beautifully formatted with a clear beginning point and archive of chapters to select from. I honestly can't tell you how much I love the streamlined user experience. I'm so so sick of diving into the depths of tumblr/twitter blogs trying to find where to begin or even what their fan series is about.
Although it's only been edits so far they have been good! Not a lot to say about them since it's usually just an ahoge added lol. Still though, even minute details like that can take some time so I'm still impressed. Sozzay is an amazing artist so I'm really looking forward to the art yet to come!
The writing was pretty good! The majority of the text are lines taken verbatim from the actual prologue of DR2. The original lines of text - which are usually Mahiru's thoughts - were good, I never felt anything was particularly out of character.
The only thing I am confused about though is how/why things are changing. Presumably everything in universe is exactly the same, the only difference being that we the audience now see the events from Mahiru's perspective. So then why are bits of dialogue different etc. What's the variable? I might just be over thinking things though, it's not a big deal, just something I was wondering about...
Overall a strong start ! I'm interested where this is going. I'm presuming that entire trials are going to go differently; which means Sozzay will be forced to use the game's dialogue less and less. I can't wait to see them flex their creative writing muscles!
I'll prob do a few more thoughts about the series as it progresses. I'd love to hear others thoughts about it! I've already talked to a couple people's opinions and I'd love to hear yours! So send me a message if you like!
Also if @sozzay reads this - I love you bb, keep up the good work! I believe in you!
This is a short film screen play I wrote for a class recently. It has a couple formatting issues but apart from that I’m proud of it.
Anyway check it out if this is something that might interest you!
Logline: After nuclear war breaks out between the major superpowers. Two people in New Zealand reflect on life while they wait for the nuclear fallout to kill them.
i was being haunted with this idea after a) i decided sonia should cut her hair after everything and b) i read this fic where she helps hajime cut his hair. i’m actually like.... very proud of this. i didn’t think i had this in me so. it’s nice. i was gonna do some grayscale shading before i decided it wasn’t worth it for this, the mood is fine. anyway ignore how inconsistent hajime is ive literally never drawn him before this.
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