#softoxidation

junna comes back one day after a walk through the local town, comments off handedly how some kids made fun of her glasses. nana goes with her next time and the minute the kids see her, they all scream and scatter

junna: huh thats weird

nana, carrying her doublade’s masterball behind her back: sure is!

also i like the idea of doublade being nana’s big secret pokemon. not the legendaries. not her arceus buddy. a doublade

junna, when she finally learns about doublade several years later: nana why did you keep a doublade of all pokemon a secret???

@softoxidation: In response to your Episode 8 post (and my own ranting):

I think you really hit the nail when you mentioned Karen. For lack of a better term, she’s basically a plot device to carry on the story. The fact that she was able to beat Claudine is utter bs to me. Claudine is consistently shown to be practicing by herself from the beginning so that she can beat Maya. Shown to be No.2 in the leaderboards not just because of her talent, but because of her own determination to improve. She even helps Futaba which shows just how good she is to be able to mentor someone who’s considered good enough to be in the 99th class. Now Karen comes in having only seriously practiced a few episodes ago and suddenly surpasses Claudine. There was no buildup to that event and even the delivery was terrible as it only showed a tiny snippet of the two fighting in Episode 8. I have no problem with Karen helping others out or furthering the plot, but without proper character development she’s nothing more than a convenient tool to solve problem by being the main character.

I would also want to mention how high of a pedestal Nana was on after Epidode 7 and how it made the events in Episode 8 make no sense. By how the anime framed it, she easily beat Maya, the No.1 on the leaderboard. It wasn’t even by pure luck as she is able to beat Maya every single time she does a rerun. Throughout the entire show Maya is shown to be the apex, the supposed final opponent to win the Revue, always the center of attention during practice and having a confident demeanor showing that she knows her strength. All shattered by Nana who now feels impossible to win against. Who is able to defeat Maya? Nobody other than Nana. Therefore, nobody can beat Nana. But, Episode 8 ruins it. By the power of plot armor, Hikari was somehow able to beat Nana. That is absolutely ridiculous, how is it that by suddenly having your “brilliance/shine” return to you at such a convenient time be seen as proper plot development? Logically, Hikari should now be able to have a cakewalk with Maya if they were to ever battle due to her being able to beat Nana, which makes the characters’ “power level” inconsistent and unbalanced. Hell, did she even know what was at stake when fighting Nana? I don’t recall the giraffe telling her of Nana’s exploits and if that is the case, then Episode 8 really is a rushed mess. Hikari’s background was honestly great, I loved how she would work hard for Karen’s sake and even admits that she’s scared of Karen being her crutch. However, that doesn’t excuse random power ups and taking out such a well developed plot point (Nana) so quickly. I really hope the future episodes will be able to clear that up if possible.

Also, doing a quick google search, a giraffe “symbolizes the ability to see the future and obtain things that normally would be out of reach”. I found this interesting since winning the auditions does allow you to make a wish, but Nana would always state how she could’t reach that same brilliance as Starlight even after winning. It also reveals how the giraffe could have brought Hikari to the Tokyo Revue by seeing the future/ Nana’s timeloops.

Haaaa… I think that’s enough ranting for now, really sorry if this sounds overly negative but your post lit a fire within me and I had to vent ^^;

If there is a Junana duet then everything I said will be null and void as I am trash that only wants my ship to sail

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Noooo not overly negative at all. Thanks for adding your insight on this I’m glad my post triggered people and I hope to trigger people more honestly lololol I mean I did awaken @ghikij

@scarletmayhem Thank you for your continuous support! There will be more content from me in the future for sure, whether it’s for LLSHP AU or other new stuff! And yes, there will be the prequel, I’ll talk a bit more about that in the Afterword~

@aq0ursbo Indeed, ch1-20 that you’ve been reading was written by Hanamaru.Thank you for your continuous support! In spite of the hardships in this story, the nine girls overcome them, individually and with each other’s help. It’s about kagayaiteru after all, and I’m glad to hear it’s affected you positively.

@ anon No worries, that’s what feedback is for! That is one of the things I was concerned about with ch21, the way Yoshiko was introduced. If you’re referring to how there’s something off in every scene, then that effect is actually intentional, since I want to show how Yoshiko is slightly out of place in spite of how hard she tries to integrate herself. If you’re not referring to this, then it’d just be my bad writing (´Д` ) As my best girl, I feel bad that it’s only this last chapter I got to show some Honoka screen time XD As for the angst version of this chapter, I’ll talk a little bit more about it in my Afterword, so please do check it out when I post it!

@neko-chan2000 Thank you~! There will be more stuff from me for sure

@softoxidation Thanks for your long lovely review! I like how you’ve broken it down to different parts, I definitely enjoyed reading this! It makes me smile whenever readers notice and appreciate the little things~ The point of ch21 is indeed to show Yoshiko through the others’ POV. Everything is considered a miracle already, but the girls work hard to help each other recuperate. It felt refreshing for me to write her through other POVs, having written mostly from Yoshiko’s POV this entire story XD

The ashwinder is indeed meant to be symbolic. It was born from the ashes of the fiendfyre, where Yoshiko/Yohane ‘perished’. Its lifespan is supposed to be short, like an incomplete Horcrux, but it lived and is living well. Its legs are combustible, meaning it’s potentially dangerous, like how ch21′s Yoshiko is, but her friends have accepted her for who she is in spite of that.

Poor Hanamaru definitely has the hardest time coping with the situation out of everyone else. It’s not explicitly stated in ch21 but she managed to recover her memories that was lost after ch14. She has to deal with that, on top of dealing with the fact that she practically killed Yoshiko (her Patronus dealt that fatal blow to Yohane before Yoshiko’s Patronus struck). Staying with her grandparents and Yoshiko during those six months did help her. She and Yoshiko aren’t girlfriends in ch21 due to the circumstances, but the feelings are still there, strongly too, so all it’ll take is for time to bring them together again.

My baby Ruby grew up so much since ch1. She is quite independent now, watching over her precious friends who are like family to her, but she still enjoys her onee-chan cuddling her and her friends doting on her.

DiaRiko deserve a happy ending and I’m sure you all agree with me. Their love story isn’t blazing passionate and fiery like other romances, but it’s there and deep and everlasting. Yoshiko sort of sees Dia as a sister too (though now it’s more like a .... sister-in-law kind of way? XDDDDD) Yoshiko will continue to call Riko ‘Lily’ though, but Riko certainly knows how Yoshiko sees her and is quite pleased with that.

ChikaYou didn’t get enough screen time the entire story so I’m glad to give them their much-deserved moment here. They’ve always been together, whether as friends or a couple, and they light up Yoshiko’s heart and everyone else’s mood even during difficult times and that’s their strength. Aqours’ sun.

KanaMari is another baka couple that didn’t get much screen time because, as Yoshiko said, she didn’t even know they were going out lmao. I wrote that little bet thingy in Mari’s concept art so friggin’ long ago, it gives me great satisfaction to finally reveal it too. Indeed, they will get their own story in the prequel, I’ll talk a bit more about that in the Afterword!

Thanks Anon! I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I’m definitely glad to be contributing to the junanana fandom (and more banana love <3) I.. really should join AO3, if not posting but at least keep a favs list OTL there are a ton of fics people recommended me (such as diariko/3rdyrs etc) that I’ve bookmarked. I can’t promise anything though, I’m slow when it comes to signing up on new sites XDD (took me years to get to twitter after all)

Anon1: haha, glad you liked it! I thought a lot on how Ruby would tackle her task, especially against a creature she knows she cannot defeat. And so, she did what she’s best at - Transfiguration. And of course, the meaningful wingardium leviosa and the Patronus charm. It’ll definitely take a lot to get Leah to warm up... overall, atm, Ruby’s very existence still pisses her off lmao. As for YoshiMaru, their little issue was very vaguely hinted at in the Epilogue but definitely more will be revealed later!

Anon2: Yup, that’s definitely a Fantastic Beast reference but Mr. Scamander is not Newt from the movie, but just a descendant of his since I have no idea how the original HP verse fits in my AU in terms of timeline and I don’t want to think about that lmao. The First Task is similar to the one in the book, but I’m definitely going to diverge from then onwards! As for the cover, yes both Ruby and Leah (especially Leah) are complete and utter dorks and I say this with all the love in my heart XDDDDDD Alas, it’s the cover art, and Ruby is in her HeiressMode and Leah in DurmstrangChampion/aloofSaintSnow mode so they gotta look ikemen somewhat.

@ Anon - Thank you! The Epilogue is quite short and... epilogue-ish, so definitely nowhere as intense as ch20. There’s still a ch21 before that, and as the last chapter, it’s also not ... intense either. That YoshiRiko scene is also my personal favorite as well, especially since I haven’t written a scene between them since ch11 which was...  August 31, 2017, gosh, so long ago XD;;; the nostalgia was very strong. The Yoshiko&Yohane conversation was outlined million years ago so I was very pleased to finally, finally get to this point.

@narrator2705 - thank you ;A; (while I tend to respond on twitter the same day, I still see comments from tumblr as well but the responses will be delayed here XD;;;; ) OwO !! I look forward to your take on the last scene! And good luck on your finals!! (maybe you’re already done with them by this point)

@aethurankr - thanks! Ch20 is actually the second chapter to have its title decided. Ch21, the last chapter, was the first chapter I titled during the outlining/planning stage. Hope you’ll look forward to that!

@aftersnow02 - ch20... or rather, ch18-20 happen back to back within the span of hours so it was quite an emotional roller coaster ride even for me as the writer. The girls are who they are today exactly because of everything that has happened in the story so far. I meant for the end to be sad but also bittersweet with the sense of closure/peace, just as how Yoshiko herself felt. Hope you’ll look forward to ch21, the Epilogue and maybe also the prequel as well!

@aq0ursbo - took me a bit to figure out who you are but only one person from twitter so far calls me Bunlord of Angst so hahaha Dumbles is correct, there are many instances in this story that I use the spell ‘Lumos’ - for example, when Riko was trying to cheer up Yoshiko back in ch11. Here, Lumos was the first spell that Yohane used when showing off how she could use other people’s wands. Those were my attempt at symbolism :’D I try to present this chapter as it is, the climax, the conclusion, but also not the end of the story either. Of course Yoshiko doesn’t want to die but, at the same time, she doesn’t have any regrets/unfinished business either. Yes I do have a collection of readers’ tears but also my own lolololol and I’m never sure about anything bahaha that’s life

@softoxidation - I’m honestly shocked that I finished ch20 within a week... that’s probably the fastest update ever??? Anyway, ahem, thank you for you feedback, I always enjoy long comments :DDDDDD As I have... quite a few other AUs and unfinished stories/on hiatus, I’m definitely super proud that I’ve actually reached this point. Truth be told, I thought this story would die off after ch12~13 or so, maybe due to writer’s block, loss of motivation or whatever. Yet, here we are, nearing the actual end of this story! \0/

I won’t lie, during the planning stage of this story million nearly two years ago, I did think about killing off Ruby. Not because I’m sadistic of anything, but because of how fatal her injuries were XD;;; Thankfully, I found a way around it that actually makes sense and adds more to the story as well.

Dia, poor thing, I kept giving all the difficult situations to her XD; She had to choose between stopping Yoshiko, or keeping Ruby, Hanamaru and everyone else save. In the end, through Yoshiko’s determined and pleading gaze, Dia remained where she was.

The Yoshiko&Yohane scene was much needed - it’s like a conversation with yourself. My intention was to have it mirror the situations we have in real life, when we criticize ourselves for the mistakes we’ve made, the things we did or did not do, and so on, and also how you reach peace/truce. At the end of the day, you should not be enemies with yourself. You accept and embrace yourself, even the parts you consider bad. Of course, this scene is meant to have the titular character and antagonist reconcile and accept what’s happening to them. 

As for Riko, no she’s not Yoshiko’s blood sister or anything. Yoshiko calls Riko ‘sister’ because, that’s how she sees Riko. Everyone else are sisterly towards her too and are her friends but, Riko is special =)