This Is Fine :)

College Au

Event by @skylarstarlight

Additional Headcanons:

Fukuchi is Teruko's (adoptive) dad, who's former military and teaches classes at the local college (and a few sports classes around the city)

Teruko and Tachihara went to school together while Tecchou and Jouno went to another school in the same city

Tecchou and Teruko know eachother since childhood because they grew up in the same neighbourhood (and Tecchou was somehow in all of Fukuchi's non-college classes (yes, even the senior ones))

When they all got accepted at the same college, Teruko suggested sharing a dorm to Tecchou, and they each brought another friend along (Jouno and Tachihara, obvs)

We do have to start with their worse offence, taking out these panels AND THEN MOVING A PART OF THE PANELS TO A DIFFERENT PART???? UGH

what was the point? Do they just hate Tachihara??? These are so important to his character, not only does it confirm he was verbally abused and that he believes himself lesser than his brother(very important things to his character) it shows his guilt about hurting Gin and Hirotsu and it shows how far he fell into the mafia. ALSO! It shows his struggle with picking a side we can see that he sees his HD family in his PM family. It's just...so horrible to take out.

That scene in the anime where he's talking to Gin and Hirotsu in the hospital, in the manga it's very much more apparent that he feels like shit and he's itching towards self hatred and immense guilt. The pained look when Hirotsu tells him he's glad he's not injured? Not there. The depressed look when he asks Hirotsu if he thinks he's cut out for the mafia? Not there. Bones sucks at fucking doing the basics apparently! I know it's a little pretentious, but come on, it's important to his character.

like;

look at that. expressive depressed baby. im pissed off you can't really see that in the anime.

Also a minor nickpick because I'm in the mood, WHY THE FUCK DID THEY CHANGE THE DOOR????????????? Like in the scene mentioned above, in the manga, it has one door handle:

↑ LOOK THAT'S DIFFERENT FROM THE ANIME. I DON'T HAVE A PICTURE OF IT IN THE ANIME RN BUT IT'S DOUBLE DOORS! IDK WHY WHAT WAS THE POINT???????????? IT'S SUCH A STUPID THING TO CHANGE???

another nickpick that's minor...

also the jacket is bugging me. They changed it. They changed the character design. Also he has a necklace. And the hair is different(although anime looks like early Tachihara a bit w/hair) His hair is shorter. Also his jacket has little strings on the end there. Ofc ik things have to be removed for easier animation but...why did they change the shape of the jacket sleeves? What...was it that hard to animate?

I love my embarrassing goat, but so much of his life has been spent building personas when he’s so anxious and awkward beneath.

near the end(the last chapter of the sky casino arc i believe), Tachihara mentions how he's getting kind of annoyed with the port mafia, and Teruko kind of laughs at him and goes, "You? You were practically born to be a spy. Your metal manipulation ability's specialities are faking and stealing intel, and even assassinating obstacles, like with those mafia members who covered for the agency."

and then very soon, within a few panels, Tachihara asks Hirotsu if he thinks Tachihara is cut out for the port mafia, and again, he's laughed at. But what's said is different, Hirotsu says, "Wether your cut out for the mafia? No matter how I think of, Tachihara you are a mafia among the mafia. Your recklessness, passion, bravery, everything is but a mafiosos traits."

These scenes parallel each other, both times, he expresses some sort of doubt, and both times, he's laughed at because the people around him see him as the best person for his job.

Teruko mentions his skills and his ability, while Hirotsu mentions his traits and his personality. Which I think highlights the difference between the two, the HDs are abilities and skills, the PM members are people.

Does the PM value Tachihara's skills? Of course they do, but doesn't it say something that in a moment of hesitation(from Tachihara), Hirotsu(literally the most mafia mafioso to ever exist) tells Tachihara that it's his actions/traits that make him a true mafioso instead of his skills?

I do think it's interesting though, that Tachihara was just saying that the Port Mafia was annoying him, not that he was doubting himself. Yet, Teruko seemed to take it like that, but to be fair, she knows Tachihara. I also think that Teruko said that because she knows that Tachihara struggles with seeing his skills as something worthwhile.

I am not of course, saying in any way that Teruko doesn't care about Tachihara, of course she does. Otherwise, I don't think she would've commented on his annoyance.

he obviously only observed her life as an outsider & it likely seemed to him that she was able to move on fully from shunzens death, find herself & place she belongs.

tachihara was never able to fully move on, hes always reminded of the past. the words him family said to him have never left him. the pain of being left alone by the one person who truly loved him. the care shunzen gave him gone in a second. no matter how hard he tries, he will never be good enough, he will never be like shunzen. he does not know who he is outside of his brothers shadow & its something he cannot escape, its always haunting him.

he will wear both gold & silver, it depends on the fits

has a tolerance to most painkillers so he either has to take an obscene amount or has to take the strong prescription painkillers

he prefers matcha over coffee but drink more coffee bc it has more caffeine

loves wearing dangling earings but he doesnt wear them often bc of his jobs

actually really good at drawing but he refuses to let anyone know bc he thinks its embarrassing

he would hide in jounos room to get away from fukuchi or teruko

is physically affectionate, he loves to give & receive

has cptsd but know how to manage (ignore/suppress) his symptoms to avoid it from messing with his missions

loves rough house with the rest of the hunting dogs

^ theres a ban on messing around indoors bc of the property damage

hates the smell of smoke (semi canon)

used to get into petry fights when he first joined the pm

^ he would run his mouth & got punched, he won the fights so he got a bit of a reputation

he prefers to be alone most of the time bc he doesnt have to keep up an act

hes extremely flexible

^ hes actually hypermobile but he doesnt even know bc the issus & injuries seem to insignificant to him

ill go through what wouldve led to tachihara developing it aswell as some of the symptoms he has shown

definition: (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a mental health condition caused by prolonged, repeated, and severe traumatic events where escape feels impossible, most commonly involving childhood abuse, ongoing domestic violence, or captivity. it includes standard PTSD symptoms plus severe emotional numbing, a negative self-view, and trouble with relationships.

the common development of cptsd fits tachiharas life perfectly.

he has never lived in a healthy environment, the place he has felt the most comfortable is the fucking mafia.

not being in a healthy environment, especially at a young age, is traumatic & never getting out leads to the development of cptsd. we know tachihara was never able to leave the unhealthy environments he grew up in.

in his childhood he was emotionally & verbally abused, he was told he was better off dead & he shouldve died instead of his brother (shunzen).

he does escape this unhealthy environment, only to fall into another one. he joined a gang where he wouldve most likely had to fend for himself, this would be yet another unhealthy environment.

then he 'joins' the hunting dogs. this is arguably one of the most traumatic & unhealthy places hes lived in. he is forced into a surgery that forced him into being a slave to the government. he was so young he couldnt consent to this on top of the fact he didnt have a choice as he wouldve been thrown into jail.

then he is assigned to infiltrate the port mafia. its the mafia, its an inherently abusive environment.

prolonged abuse is what leads to the development of cptsd & tachihara has never lived in an environment that isnt abusive. this is also why i think he cptsd instead of ptsd as we see him show cptsd/ptsd symptoms.

hes shown to have flashbacks to his childhood, which is a core symptom of ptsd

one of his canon dislikes is the past. this is an important point as the majority of bsd characters have had traumatic pasts but tachihara is one of the only characters to explicitly say they dislike the past.

he also has a negative view on himself shaped by his trauma. he says that he isnt that smart despite being extremely analytical, he also hacked into the sky casinos computers.

these next few examples are from wan & wan isnt exactly canon but i fell like they can be carried into canon

nightmares are another common symptom of ptsd. tachihara has an entire nightmare around the hd surgeries, although the ep takes a much sillier approach, i feel like the implications are enough.

he also says he has trouble sleeping & yet again its not a stretch to say this carries over to canon as well.

so yeah tachihara has cptsd, his symptoms arent as outwardly shown in comparison to atsushi, but it doesnt mean he doesnt have it. hes also a side character we spend a relatively small time with but with the time we do get to see his character but with the plot there isnt a chance to explicitly show all of his cptsd symptoms.

his main internal conflict is over his loyalty & care belonging to both the pm & hds

hell he even reveals himself as a spy to yosano to get his greif driven revenge which jeopardizes his mission.

his emotions play such a role into his actions.

so this leads me to believe that tachihara would win in a fight against fukuchi.

i know they fight & tachi loses but that was bc his emotions were involved. throughout the fight tachi is trying to figure out the reason behind this betrayal. he stars the fight not to kill fukuchi but to get information from him. hes so desperate for an answer that he drags the fight on to get fukuchi to talk. we all know how that ended.

now imagine that fight if tachihara wasnt trying to get info & was instead there to kill fukuchi.

tachihara is a trained spy, he would do something much different than just walking in & annoicing himself. even if he did tachihara does knock down fukuchi & tachi is fast so he couldve delt a fatal blow.

tachiharas ability perfectly combats fukuchis & tachi couldve won if his emotions weren't involved (it also wouldnt have been the best story if tachi killed fukuchi there)

the only person to know would be jouno, especially when tachi first joined. i imagine the hds all share a dorm or smt just to keep them close & accessible.

jouno would hear how tachi would be manually regulating his breathing or how fast his heart would beat during a meeting. so jouno would push to end the meeting early or make it go faster so tachihara could get outta there & properly calm down.

if theyre just hanging aroung & tachi would start to freak out jouno would try his hardest to give tachi a way out to calm down.