#no.. not slop

where himi is the first potential partner and the way they meet her is she actually DMs kinosaki on instagram looking to hire him for the fake boyfriend role, but as kinosaki looks further into himi's profile he concludes that with a makeover gero would fit better with her vibe, so he sends gero in his place. then the arc follows close to canon with some details changed obvs like no mention of ureshino bc gero hasnt met her yet, himi still doesnt fully trust gero bc this time he really is a complete stranger and bc shes the first one its really obvious gero does not know how to interact with women, oh yeah naruko hasnt appeared yet so its kinosaki who gets gero to relax so he can fight ghost user

i know this is on me but i keep forgetting that ghost user is supposed to be from a top5 clan, i think he'd be a lot more memorable if he was introduced before the, even if small, info we have on the top5, in the rewrite maybe have gero going "wait, a ghost user? never heard of one before.. could he be [insert top5 clan name here] whose specialty is kept secret?!" i know i wouldnt forget a line like that.

they would still go to naruko's show by the end of the arc (which could be perfect foreshadow to naruko being the sound user later) this time shes upfront about having a second ticket, that was supposed to be for kinosaki initially for a fake date, and takes gero out as a "thank you". theres no call to ureshino nor a confession, but they do genuinely have a good time and add each other's numbers

the takeaway from this arc is that gero learns about being true to himself, is inspired by himi when they've gone thru the same thing and that he could either make the best of the situation or to put his foot down like her, he concludes he'll give a try first, this is what makes him actually want to continue the marriage quest

next arc is himekawa, goes like canon with the only real difference that shes not the first but gero is still just as nervous

then ureshino arc, himi is who comes to gero begging him to protect shiori. differences here is that gero recognizes naruko at first but doesnt think much about it, and the scene where gero is reassuring ureshino instead of "your uncle hired me so that shows he cares for you" he says "himi came begging me to keep you safe, you are more cared for than you know"

then goes arashiyama, akakura and finally ushio, all arcs as canon, but now symbolically ushio closes the door opened by himi, where gero understands he doesnt regret his decision on continuing to make the best of the situation and now has the knowledge that if someone gets in his way trying to make it harder he can in fact throw punches even if its his grandma