#thenixkat

i'm a very big whimp about that

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Just... there's a reason why all of my Dorohedoro fix-it fics are centered on rewriting Kai to at bare minimum give a sliver of a fuck about his minions. And at maximum having him actually down with the revolution and very much noticing the similarities in treatment of sorcerers who cant use magic and humans.

I don't have to make him less of a murderous dick, Kaiman's a murderous dick but him being allowed to be goofy and allowed to love his bestie Nikaido even if she's a sorcerer let's him be a good character. Kai can easily get the same treatment.

The Boss is back.

Saji allows the moment to wash over him as healing smoke knit his body back together. Tears bead up in the corners of his eyes because, yes, the Boss is Back! Finally! A weight that had been on Saji's shoulders for the last two years slides as that settles into his head. The Boss is back. No more having to look over their shoulders for danger. No more days starving. No more worrying about having enough money to keep everyone alive and healthy.

The Boss is back.

The weight of that man's presence. The certainty of it. From the 'Gwon' aura that puts the little devil in Saji's head in absolute agony that did worse to their enemies who haven't spent years learning how to stay on their feet fighting through the pain to stay at the Boss's side in battle. To the glimpse out the corner of his eye at the truth underneath the Boss's skin of the monster he really was, a holy beast of blood and mud, of blades and teeth and eyes bearing crosses. To the click of combat knives sliding back into their holster in a smooth motion that said everything about the man's power and speed. To the very figure of the Boss, huge and imposing. Silent and deadly. A dark eye sweeping over them, assessing them, looking at and through them all at once. Judging them, but satisfied with what he sees.

Once the moment ends Saji's mind jumps into work mode. Especially because… well… the Boss has certainly been eating well while he was away. The Boss is, frankly, the biggest that Saji's ever seen him before, which is certainly saying something given how much Saji has seen the older man's weight yoyo up and down over the years. Saji would certainly have to extend the strap on the Boss's knife holster, the poor thing was clearly biting into the man's thicker sides and gut. The same gut that was likely the reason that the Boss wasn't wearing an undershirt or zipping up his hoodie. And the Boss certainly wouldn't be wearing sweats with the hoodie if he could fit into his normal leather pants. And certainly not with that butt. Which means Saji will also have to adjust the rest of the Boss's clothes too.

It won't be hard, of course, nothing that Saji doesn't have practice doing. With the steadiest hands of the group and having to keep a bunch of tweens and teens clothed on a budget? Saji could almost sew with his eyes closed. The question is more if he'll have the time to given, with the Boss back in action things were bound to be busy.

EVery time i think about the fuckers who think that the canon choice of En rising back to power to lead the sorcerer world again was the only real choice the mangaka could've gone with and I'm like?

If En was such a good leader there wouldn't have been an army of poor people rallying around a mass murdering cannibal who's only good points was that he wasn't as much of a dick to the poors as he could have been and he allowed the poors to better their circumstances by using or selling the byproducts of his experiments and also let the poors rob the corpses of the rich people he preffered killing.

If society under En was actually well managed bitches wouldn't be revolting.

Inevitably another revolution will happen due to En's shitty leadership.

???????????????????????????????????????

Are you telling me there's people who really think that????????

Thoughts on the other group of Crosseyes, the researchers in Hydra Forest? [That are portrayed as scary deformed monster dudes]

They're the second highest ranking group of Crosseyes after the elites [Dokuga's group] and are among the few Crosseyes before Kai's dissaperence that heve personally worked with him. They also have a rivalry with Dokuga's group, competing for Kai's time and attention by bribing him to stay longer at the lab with food.

We dont get much out of those guys, only two of them have names and only their leader Kento [the big dude with the forked tongue] gets even a sliver of attention. Kento's the one who made the wax sculpture of Kai that was on the altar and he made a paper mache bust of Kai that she shipped to Dokuga's group.

I wish they'd hadn't just been used as a cheap scare and somee kills. But the Crosseyes as a group really soffered from lack of focus.

I was absolutely delighted that they were winning so easily. I love it when characters actually pay attention and learn their enemy's weaknesses to exploit it.

So you can imagine how annoyed I was with the professor for giving the losers a cheat sheet -.- like come on, at least have them put some fucking effort in on their own if they don't want to die!

I wish they'd gotten to be actual characters who continue to pose a threat, that was fun while it lasted!

A lot of people really need to be trying to kill the professor. He's so willing to throw away any non-sorcerer's best change of defending themselves, no one on any side can trust him!

Kai groggily blinks awake. He bends forward at the waist to sit up. He smells smoke in the room. Fresh pizza too. What? Movement at his side catches his attention, his eyes flick towards it. Towards her.

Oh. The puppy. He remembers her. …He owes her money actually, for helping Kaiman and Nikaido out when they were nikless and lost. And Nikaido's cheap ass most certainly will never pay her back.

Natsuki makes a shy stuttering introduction, clearly start struck meeting her hero. It brings memories to the surface of the muck in Kai's mind of how Kento and his group were with him when Kai first decided that they were worth making his acquaintance. Well, hopefully it will simmer down at some point for her, last thing he needs is more sorcerer whelps hopelessly head over heels for him.

Kai returns her introduction with his own. Briefly frustrated by how difficult it is to bring his own tongue to his name. He's been doing a lot of talking since since he came back to himself, maybe his tongue is getting tired? Or his head is, he swears the muck inside it is even thicker than it used to be. Or perhaps after being Kaiman for so long and not being able to properly hear the rest of themself makes the return of the voices in his head so much louder?

Once introductions are made the puppy launches into a very fast paced and panicked explanation of recent events that Kai doesn't much follow. He literally just woke up and he has a bit of a headache. He's also more concerned about the sounds of people fighting in his living room.

Either Dokuga or Saji let Natsuki tag along with them since Kai's pretty sure the rest don't have a reason to know where his apartment is. They don't need to, if he wants their company he'd seek it. Dokuga knows in case of emergency or to drop off things that Kai doesn't feel like picking up. While Saji is in charge of Aikawa's allowance and handles that personally. If either of them are in a fight in his fucking living room then something's wrong.

He gets up from his slab and decides to investigate, Natsuki following at his heels like a spooked little duckling.

When Kai sees the state of his pets, bleeding, sliced, and in Ushi's case unfortunately crushed, being bagged like trash he is-- he's livid for a heartbeat. How dare a pair of leftovers from a hunt he barely remembers years ago have the audacity to bully those who Belong to him in his own home. Treating his possessions so carelessly.

And then the fury passes and Kai is so happy that his hard working pets thought to bring him snacks with great magic for his welcome back party. His mouth waters at the thought of taking Shin and Noi and making them one with his flesh. He grins and brings smoke up his throat blowing it softly towards his victims.

Shin and Noi's surprise and fear in response to the mushrooms violently sprouting out their body has him licking his chops. Fear is one of the best ways to season a sorcerer, especially for the ones lucky enough that he wants their magic. The bits of their fightened and suffering souls that get stuck inside his muck are a balm to the god that grows inside him and makes the voices quite down just a tad.

When Kai approaches his main course, tongue lolling from his mouth before the killing blow, already anticipating the weight of her magic inside him and the taste of her blood … En's cleaners vanish. What? There's no way they could move on their own let alone cast th—

That thing is here.

His nightmare. The unfortunate consequences of his greed made manifest. Risu's ghost. It's in a different form but he knows that thing in the pit of soul. Fears it. Rightfully so, as its clawed hands grab him, Kai knows that he can do nothing to defend himself. Just like last time.

Also yes! There are places where Nikaido notices things relevant to the mystery and then just... never brings it up until the plot says she should.

She picks up on some sorcerers having cross tats and asks Asu about them and what Kaiman's connection to them might be. She does pick up from En's movie that Kaiman might be the boss of the Crosseyes due to the whole headless thing. She tells Kaiman that the guy inside his mouth is Risu after Kaiman bites her.

But it doesn't really much amount to anything by the time Kaiman stops being Kaiman. While she wonders why Aikawa is avoiding her and acting like he doesn't know her [which is shown to the audience to be very much a lie on his part] ...she never really interacts with the Crosseyes in any meaningful way to maybe ask Kai what the fuck's going on. And it's not like she didn't have a potential way to do so via her connection with Natsuki.

And unfortunately b/c Kai is the worst and very much wants Nikaido's magic [even tho he not only spared her but helped her twice by that point] the two can't be allowed to interact until the final arc b/c Nikaido is in danger of Kai trying to kill and assimilate her.

I just... look at the potential plots that could have been and sigh in frustation.

She does learn a lot/is the vehicle by which the audience learns a lot about the mysteries surrounding Kaiman and the other dudes sharing a body with him and is very important to Kaiman's return. But not letting her interact with the Crosseyes or Kai outside of fights after Aikawa/Kai return is just... frustrating.

Yeah, I really wish Nikaido had been allowed to interact with Natsuki more (in the anime at least), also it was kinda weird to me that Natsuki was so distrusting of Nikaodi just because she didn't have the cross marks, even though she and Kaiman were clearly on good terms, and Natsuki had also only just gotten her first mark, so it should have been easier for her to assume that Nikaido was just another person so new to the crosseyes she just hadn't gotten the marks yet.

One thing that bugs me with the writing for the Crosseye elites outside of the writer's choices for the direction she decided to go with for the plot is like?

If Ai Coleman 13 yrs before the present and Kai crawled out of his coffin not long after. And our youngest of the elites, Dokuga, Tetsujo, and Ton are 23 in the present of the story. They were 10 yrs old when they met Kai for the first time [Saji woulda been 13 yrs old, no age was given for Ushishimada but its reasonable to assume he's either Saji's age or slightly older than the youngest set]. And we know they've been a team for some time before they met Kai.

[It's stated in an extra that Dokuga was owned by a sorcerer who experimented on him when he was young, which is why he has poison spit, and that Dokuga murdered that sorcerer at age 7 and was likely homeless since till the group got enough funds working under Kai to get a place to live]

And the elites very much have been living communally with each other for most of their lives by the story's present. With only Dokuga having an apartment that he goes to on occasion when communal living stresses him out due to having to be extra careful with his poison spit to avoid harming his homies.

So why don't Saji, Ton, or Ushshimada notice that Dokuga and later Tetsujo AND Dokuga have been stressed and secretive lately [after Kai came back and especially when everyone found out Natsuki has magic] and like? Ask what's up with them?

Like yer telling me that this tight knit group who've been living together for over a decade and call themselves a family... wouldn't notice two of their own suddenly acting weird or being stressed?