UPDATED POST with scans etc. !! - Vampire Knight manga chapter 77 + VK mini-game :D ♥
EDIT: Post is now updated with scans I've done from my LaLa and a variety of ramblings etc. about the chapter and some news. :D *will add more later also*
Warning: As always, there's some yaoi ramblings among the fangirling of both Kaname x Yuuki and Zero x Yuuki.
This place if het and yaoi friendly, and bashing of any characters or pairings is unwelcome here.
I scanned a huge size version of the cover:
Click for giant version.
Edit to add: Serafira and Atemu_Mana cleaned my scan, with lovely results.
Here it is, if you would like to take a look. :D
Yaoi gushing: In the close-up, you can see Zero's lips are sexily matte as usual, and... both Yuuki and Kaname sexily wear lip gloss as usual? 8D *is shot* XD; Maybe in Kaname's case it's, err, chapstick to prevent delicate lips from cracking with the cold. 8DDD *lol*
Sorry, the Zero seme x Kaname uke fan in me tends to rejoice at such tiny details like the differences in how Zero and Kaname's lips are colored/shaded... Matte = gives a seme-like feel, while more glossy gives me uke vibes... XD
But Kaname's lips have always been glossy/blushy, even in screentoned images, so...perhaps it's just a natural pureblood feature. XD
In the artbook cover, Zero's lips were glossy too though, so... yaoi fans who prefer Zero uke have such fangirlable options too. 8D Maybe Kaname and Zero secretly shared a kiss before the artbook pic and that's where the gloss passed from one's lips to the other. j/k *is shot* XD *LOL*
Not a detailed summary this month since we've already seen the chapter (I posted links to translations etc. some days ago in this post), but there's commentary of some parts and fangirling of the various main moe/fangirlable points, as well as theory stuff. :D So scroll down for all that~! ♥
I thought I'd have the time to update the post much sooner, something like three days ago maybe, when I was finally able to buy my LaLa, but work was still too busy and when I could either take breaks or whatever else I was in too much of a rush and/or too dead tired and could only drop by for quickly replying to comments. ^^;
But now I could finally delve back into my LaLa and all things VK, and also scan a bunch of stuff, mostly pics that are not in the Chinese scanlation that we've seen the links for before. ^^/ So I bring a lot of delicious pics + some news etc. in this edit~!♥
It includes Hino-sensei's New Year card! :D
Click for large size.
Hino-sensei is as usual extremely skilled at teasing us since it shows Yuuki smiling at us while holding the hand of a man off-screen... making us cling to the image imagining which of them it is, as well as allowing us to imagine it with whichever we feel like at the moment. X3
There's a more concrete clue to who's hand it might be though, in the fact the hand and arm are wearing the same dark glove and cuffed/belted coat sleeve style that Kaname has been wearing lately (like what he was wearing in the New Year teaser pic last month, with dark gloves and a farther back belt-thingie on the sleeve cuff that is slightly different from the one we've seen in Zero's coat before, where the belt-thingie is closer to the edge of the cuff than on Kaname's coat), but please keep in mind that this is just visual clues in a New Year card about random clothing the characters wear, please don't go and start flames over that. ^^; Either to me or other people.
(Sometimes just me fangirling one pairing or the other is enough to get pointless flames from fans of one or the other side, so... please don't waste your time and my time flaming me for whatever details Hino-sensei draws in the manga, I'm just fangirling whatever she draws and I love both Kaname x Yuuki and Zero x Yuuki anyway, so I just fangirl one or the other depending on whatever is going on at the moment etc.)
I'm just pointing out those details because it struck me that the hand and sleeve were the same as what Kaname is wearing in the New Year teaser pic last month, although since in said pic Hino-sensei chose to not show Zero's hands, he could maybe be wearing the same type of sleeves etc. as Kaname, even though the trenchcoats are different (we can see from the details on their shoulder areas). There's nothing preventing Zero from wearing whatever he may want to, so... it could be either of them even if Kaname was wearing that in the other pic. ^^
In any case, it's nothing new with Hino-sensei's style of teasing us, she puts one of the guys in the same place as Yuuki, then inserts a ton of hints to her closeness also with the other guy in order to keep both branches of the triangle present and alive in the story at all times.
It's no different than when she had Yuuki and Kaname living together at the Kuran manor and kept showing the bracelet to show that link to Zero, so now Yuuki is back at the academy near Zero but the New Year pic teases us with it looking like it's Kaname's glove and sleeve, and Yuuki mentions him etc. in the chapters, so his presence is still there and both sides of the triangle keep going. ^^
Hino-sensei is good at going back and forth keeping the love triangle present, and that way there are always lovely things for both pairings so that both sides of the fandom can enjoy this or that pic/moment/little bits of moe here and there for each pairing throughout the story. ♥
Since the latest volume cover is Yuuki with Zero, it's also only fair that Hino-sensei would put Kaname & Yuuki in other pics as well, in hints or more directly.
And if you must view the New Year pic as one pairing or the other to be able to enjoy it, you could always also view it as it being either Kaname or Zero, since we don't see the face and after all, Zero could be wearing something similar to Kaname's clothes too, especially since it's cold and gloves make sense in such weather. ^^
So between that pic and the other recent ones, it should all make happy either side of the fandom, hopefully. :D ♥
And if you want to lose all romantic vibes from that pic, there's another person in the manga whom I've seen before wearing that exact same style of gloves and sleeve cuffs: Kaien Cross. XD
So it's possible the New Year pic just looks mysterious to tease us all and it's actually just a father & daughter New Year outing rather than anything romantic with either of the guys. XD XD *lol*
And here's a scan I did of the advert image for the upcoming release of volume 15, which has a gorgeous pic of Yuuki and Zero:
Click for large size.
As I've mentioned farther down in the post, I love this cover because it's such a lovely image of the two, giving a feeling of them protectively guarding each other's backs (hopefully they can protect each other from any harm from Sara ^^;), and also because... I love that she's crushing that rose, and it's such a Kaname pose, another element making K & Y so similar and also fueling my fangirly thing of Yuuki at the academy = like a doujinshi of Zero x female Kaname. XD *LOL*
So the image is enjoyable in many ways, as Zero x Yuuki and also as various other possibilities. XD
I just wish we could see Zero's sexy face too. T^T *wants to see him looking happy in a cover, ideally the whole trio looking happy* VK has so many serious pics...and they're definitely super sexy, but happy pics are nice too. X3
You can see the final version/thumbnail for the volume 15 cover also in the large-size color chapter cover I scanned. ^^ (See at the top of this post.)
More scans farther down in the post, scroll past the grey text to see. ^^/
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Older part of the post, where you can find links to translations etc.:
Scroll farther down to see more of the new images which I've scanned and which are not in the links or the Chinese scanlation etc.
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Another month went by during which work deadlines etc. were so crazy that I barely could draw fanarts or post much at all. T^T *had so many planned but could get so few done*
I'm just glad I was able to do the Halloween pic and the VK chibi-character adoptables at least. :D Hopefully next month I get to post more often.
I've also been dying to update my fic series, but whenever I find a tiny moment, it seems it flies by and I didn't get to yet. This month was/is still being extra busy and rushed. ^^;
But for the time being I came running to share with you a link to see the new VK manga chapter, even if it can't be read in raw or English yet:
As they have done lately, the Chinese scanlation group 玖玖爱枢 ("99 Love Kaname") posted a Chinese scanlation of the VK chapter. :D ♥
If you understand Chinese, or just want to see the chapter, here's a link to the post by Kaname_no_Sora from 玖玖爱枢, who posted the Chinese scanlation.
PLEASE: Do not steal their scans. If you want to repost their images or anything like that, make sure you ask them permission first, since they scanned it and all.
It's all in Chinese, not in Japanese, so I can't read it since I don't understand Chinese.
Also, since it was posted only as a Chinese scanlation, and not posted as a raw in Japanese, I can't vouch for accuracy of it or of any translation of that translation since I don't speak Chinese, but it's definitely lovely to be able to see the chapter early, and we should of course all be grateful to the team for scanning and posting it~! :D ♥♥♥
Edit: Senbyafanatic kindly translated the Chinese scanlation, so if you'd like to read her post, here it is. :D
And a scanlation was made by someone who pasted Senbyafanatic's translation lines onto the scans made by the Chinese scanlation group, but I'm not sure if the person had permission since there's no credit or any mention at all of the Chinese scanlators who did those scans. ^^;
So I can only hope it was done with permission and the person who did it just forgot to mention it. ^^;;;;;
You can also see a sneak peek of the cover of the latest volume, in the blog of one of the members of the same scanlation group. ^^
I'm still in the middle of a pretty big work deadline thing to finish, so I can't do a summary immediately, especially since I didn't get to go buy LaLa yet. But I'm hoping sometime in the upcoming two days or so I'll be able to finish this and finally get to do a summary etc. and happily fangirl the new VK events more in depth with you all. :D
For the time being, here are a few ramblings and spoilery comments on what we can already see of the new chapter. :D
WARNING: Ramblings include YAOI. Zero x Kaname = ♥♥♥
The cover of volume 15 is gorgeous!! *___* I wish we could see Zerorin's sexy face, but this kind of illustration with them back to back is so lovely too! X3 It's as if they were protecting each other's back at the academy, especially with the whole thing with Sara's intentions being not fully known yet etc. :D♥
And Yuuki's face and hair are so pretty~! ♥ I particularly love that she's crushing that rose, it's such a Kaname pose, so there's yet another lovely parallel there, both making Kaname and her so similar and also fueling my fangirly thing of Yuuki at the academy = like a doujinshi of Zero x female Kaname. XD *LOL* *is violently shot by non-yaoi fans* XD Because Yuuki and Kaname are so similar that whenever there's a moment with Zero and Yuuki, it's both fangirlable for the lovely Zero x Yuuki side of it and also for the mind image that it could be Zero x Kaname. XD *delighted at the prospect* X3 (It's the same as whenever there's a Kaname x Yuuki scene, and I fangirl it both for the lovely Kaname x Yuuki aspect and for the Zero x Kaname imagining Zero there with Kaname instead of Yuuki... XD)
It doesn't matter if Zero x Kaname isn't canon, it's still so lovely anyway! X3 ♥ *fangirl happiness*
And since no Zero x Kaname is likely to actually happen in the manga, well... I have to imagine them with each other when there's scenes with them and Yuuki. XD; *lol*
Chibi Kaname & Zero, GYAH~!!!♥ *dies of happiness* Errr, Ichiru and Takuma are cute too, obviously, but CHIBI-KANAME, CHIBI-ZERO~!<3333333333333333 *flies everywhere with pink clouds of moe and fangirling* 8DDDD
When we saw Kaname & Takuma in the car I immediately thought of that bonus chapter, and so I bounced on my seat with glee the moment we get to see that chibi-Zero and chibi-Ichiru appear too. X333
They're all so adorable that it's almost painful to look at them!! XD<333
Zero pulling the gun on the guys who rushed/bit Yuuki!!! *fangirly explosion* 8DDD ♥♥♥
Protective!Zero is my ULTIMATE moeable aspect of Zero (he's great doing anything really, but when he's being all protective it makes me melt with fangirling XD<333 That's my top favorite version of Zerorin~!), so that scene got me uber happy!! X3
Now if only he could be doing this for Kaname too, it would be even better. 8DDD~~~ *has a syndrom of wanting to put either of the guys in the place of Yuuki whenever there's a scene with either ZxY or KxY* XD;;;;; I love Yuuki, but I can't help my heart's yearning for my beloved Zero x Kaname OTP. X3 ♥♥♥ So the idea of Kaname being attacked and Zero rescuing him.... 8D *fangirly gurgles as she drools*
Maid!outfit guard-from-the-Hanadagi with Sara holding the chain... XD;;; *feels bad for her but nosebleeds wildly*
THE CHAPTER COVER. 8D *rambles completely out of order*
How I wish Kaname was kissing Zero's hand instead, but uhm, holding/looking like he's going to kiss Yuuki's hand is lovely too. 8D *also wants SO MUCH to see Zero holding Kaname's arm the way he's holding Yuuki's arm, but is happy to see him touching her too* X333 Gyah~! Yuuki, you're so lucky to have such a hot harem... 8D~~~
*fangirls the cover crazily, adores that we are getting to see the trio together FINALLY after so long* T^T *is STARVED for interactions between her OT3*
Zero and Kaname in particular have not talked or even been in the same room in so long that my fangirly heart is shriveling with misery in a corner. XD;;; *lol* I desperately need some hot fanservice 8D interactions between them. T^T
I hope this cover image is not just done to look pretty and that's it, and that it implies Kaname will be joining them and we might FINALLY have Zero and him interacting again sometime soon!!
Now if only Yuuki could uhm, lead the Night class as their commander and go wage a war on Sara or something while Zero and Kaname can cozy up together all by themselves... in front of a romantic fireplace... 8D ...in the nude... *is violently shot* XD XD *lol*
The scene by the end of the chapter, when Sara gets really close to Zero it almost looks like she might kiss him... (for a fangirly mind, it sort of almost looks like it but not really XD ...although I believe that perhaps she got that close just to sniff Yuuki's scent on his neck area or something like that maybe *eagerly awaits the magazine*), it was so moe because it looked so pretty, even though such a large part of me was going "EEEEH, hands off, that's claimed territory!!" instinctively. XD *LOL*
I usually like the idea of a ton of pairings, but that little instinctive feeling tends to inevitably pop up in the background whenever it comes to the favorite pairings. XD
The canon-loving part of me gets that feeling in reaction to Sara x Zero, due to lovely Zero x Yuuki, but the fanon-loving part of me, of course, is feeling that way due to Zero's neck = Kaname's territory. XD *lol*
(In my yaoi-loving mind's happyland, Kaname's neck belongs to Zero also, even if they both belong to Yuuki of course. X3)
VK threesome = ♥♥♥ Especially since in my mind that means Yuuki dragging Zero & Kaname into bed and that resulting in them together as well. XD XD
Sorry, het-only fans. XD; No offense, I'm just happily fangirling all my pairings, but none of my yaoi or other fangirling means or implies anything bad against your own beloved pairings, be it Kaname x Yuuki or Zero x Yuuki.
I love them both, and don't intend to stop loving them even though I love Zero x Kaname yaoi even more than the het pairings.
So please no flaming. It's really unfair how either side flames every so often people who fangirl one side or the other. My fangirling them both doesn't diminishes my loving them individually, nor does it means you should be able to flame me just because you love one of the pairings and hate the other.
That's just plain unfair, to any fan, I'm no different than anyone else. My blog having VK news posts in it doesn't makes me a machine that can be flamed anymore than any other person. ^^;;
So please accept that not everybody likes only one pairing, and that you liking one doesn't mean everyone should hate the other.
We are all free to love whatever character or pairing we want without having others try to bully us into obeying their decisions of what pairing is supposedly "better" when all of that is just nonsense, since Hino-sensei always makes both pairings extremely interesting and full of chances of ending etc., so loving both is not in any way wrong. ^^
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UPDATED POST: Additional ramblings and scans etc. this way~! :D
(Sorry for the seemingly random order of this edit. Originally I planned to put all the new stuff here so that it would be after the older part of the post, but then I added some also early in the post so that you could see the edit right away instead of only if you scroll down my page. ^^; So there's a bit there and here, but the post is not huge so it shouldn't too much trouble hopefully.)
As I promised earlier in the post, here's more new stuff I scanned from LaLa:
Teaser pic for next month's chapter! :D
(1 of 2 teaser pics since there were two this month.)
Click for close up.
The Yuuki pic above is the color teaser pic, the other teaser is B&W and has Kaname. See it farther down the post. ^^
Due to the way Japanese magazines work, the LaLa for sale currently/in November is LaLa's January issue, hence all the New Year aspect to stuff since the gorgeous teaser pic for this month, in last month's LaLa.
Which means that next month's issue will be the February one, meaning already the Valentine's Day/St Xocolatl period LaLa, hence why Yuuki is standing in the cold looking cutely enigmatic while holding that box of chocolates. :D
Yet another pic where you can imagine her giving it to either of the guys so it's lovely for both sides of the fandom. X3 ♥
Hino-sensei must have been busy with all the additional work for the details of volume 15 and the bonus pages and mini chapter etc., since... that color teaser pic of Yuuki is actually reused. XD
You might recognize it as the cover of LaLa magazine on the February issue of 2011. ^^
Initially I thought it might be a new pic because back when LaLa February 2011 came out I was so overworked that I didn't get much time to drool at the image so it wasn't deep in my mind (I caught up on chapters much later and didn't get as much time to memorize covers... XD), but later today it hit me that it was awfully familiar, and I took a look at my old LaLas and noticed it was the same pic from the cover of that LaLa. ^^
But as it's a lovely pic, and as it works so well for the Valentine's Day situations, it's lovely to see it again. X3
And here's the other teaser pic, the B&W one inside the magazine. X3 ♥
Note how both this pic and the Yuuki color one above, have the same cute little hearts wallpaper around in the background, even though they were in different pages and all. XD Whether it was a coincidence or done purposefully by the editorial staff, I found that cute. ♥
I only put the "Destiny's Bloody Love" part since I was in a hurry and since the teaser line only mentioned things we already saw, such as Yuuki moving on to get rid of the tablets Sara tampered with, and about Sara having made a move of telling Zero something, then it just drops a "...?!" at the end of that and doesn't tells us anything new. XD;
I love that teaser pic, it's so sexy. X3
I wish so much that since there were going to be 2 pics, we could have either a third one with Zero too or one with both Kaname and Zero, even better. 8D But since we got to see more of Zero being so sexy in the chapter itself, at least there was a delicious dose of Zero in the chapter, and we get to see such a lovely Kaname pic in the teaser. 83 *drools all around, tries to push their pages closer in hopes of pushing both closer* XD XD *lol*
I didn't have time to compare the dress he's sniffing to the various dresses Yuuki has worn before in the manga, but I recall they look like similar styles, in any case, so it might be one we've already seen or one we didn't... I wonder if he took this one with him before he left because it had Yuuki's scent on it? X333 ♥♥♥
That way he can cling to it and be all sexily angsty inhaling Yuuki's scent to control a bit the burning/sadness due to missing of her when he's so far away.... ;__; Oh, Kana-chan~! *fanart & fanfic urges explode, whimpers at lack of time preventing her from doing anything right now* T^T
And, uhm, close your eyes if you can't stand yaoi, but considering the bazillions of times I've written fanfic moments in which Kaname longingly inhales Zero's scent either from Zero's clothes of from bedsheets Zero has slept on, and finds that scent a soothing thing when he's feeling sad... XD It's a theme I utterly love for fics etc, and so I was ecstatic to see Kaname actually doing it in canon as well, well, obviously in canon he does it with Yuuki instead of Zero, but nevertheless it's a similar type of idea, and since I love it when Kaname is all sexily clingy and needy of his loved one and any little detail about them, scent etc., I naturally adored that pic. X333
Speaking of teasers and of next month's stuff, the next chapter is going to be 40 pages long (as you probably surmised from the "40p" in the other teaser pic earlier in this post, though I think I'd also mentioned it in comments before too, either here or elsewhere when we were talking about the chapter.)
AND!! :DD Something that wasn't mentioned before: we'll have a bonus chapter about Kaname's past and secrets in volume 15...
Although it's most likely not anything as serious as we may expect. XD It's probably going to be a comical bonus chapter, since it's a bonus about Takuma telling us about their past together etc. :D
I bounced with joy when I saw an advert thingie for that. X3♥ (It's going to be in the volume itself and not in another magazine first, so there's no telling how short or not it might be, but either way it will be interesting even if it's a tiny length! X3 And if it's on the longer side, even better~! I hope it's not uber short. X3)
I scanned the advert but something messed up so I'll have to be back later when I have time to reconnect the scanner etc. and scan it again. -_-;
I'm having technical problems with my main PC and so I'm jumping around between my laptop and stuff and having a mess of USB cables back and forth all over, so all that slows it all down more, argh. -_-; Between the problem itself and the confusion of usb-key trips back and forth from a computer to the other to do anything, it's all a mess.
The ad had Takuma looking all cute and all smiles, and saying in a teasing way that he'll teach us Kaname's secrets that he [Takuma] is the only one to know... XD
This could be a lot, as past volumes have shown that even on such extremely important subjects as Yuuki's safety and Kaname's future plans for that, Kaname had confided to Takuma when they were children. So Takuma knows a lot... but from the look of the ad, that chapter will probably not be very serious. XD It does sound like it might be very fangirlable though, so I'm looking forward to it so much ♥♥♥
It makes me wonder if Hino-sensei did that ad in such an innocent and cute way to dispel some of the darkness of the current chapter and hint/give clues that Kaname's secrets may not be as bad as Sara is making them out to be.
(After all, from the way things are looking right now it's in Sara's best interest to try and paint Kaname as the bad guy, since he is the most dangerous obstacle in her way. She's done it before too, using him as a scapegoat claiming he killed Ouri...)
I also have a super sexy tiny thumbnail image of Zero that was SO HOT (also about volume 15) and which I'll add to the post later... T^T *shakes fist at PC issues, had scanned it too and was looking forward so much showing the hotness* T^T
I'll add them later when I get a moment to replug everything and scan again. ^^;
Speaking of adverts, here's a color image from Hino-sensei's one-shot for White LaLa. :D (It's not VK related, but it's pretty, so I thought I'd post the pic.)
And onto utterly yummy things, I saved for dessert (XD) this delicious pic! 8D
It's the B&W teaser pic specifically for the sale of volume 15:
Kaname looks tired and Zero is enigmatic again not letting us see his eyes... *drools at them*
*urge to break the wall between them and shove them closer together* XD;;; *lol*
"Fateful bloody love" or "destiny's bloody love", both work as translation of the Japanese line.
Except that in this pic, instead of showing one or both of the guys with Yuuki while showing that line as it's usually the case... it's showing Zero and Kaname with the bloody love line!! 8DDDD
Obviously, the yaoi fan here couldn't help but run all over the place in complete joy!! (In know it means nothing, obviously, it's just showing them to please fans of them both but the line is of course about Yuuki, and not about yaoi between them.... But who cares!! 8D I'll enjoy ANY fanservice I can get with my beloved OTP!! XD;;;
Especially when Zero and Kaname have not interacted or been in the same place together since FOREVER AGO. T____T *whimpers, is starved for interactions between her beloved ZxK pairing*)
And that imagery of the two back to back, separated by that broken wall like it's in the middle of a war... SO MUCH TRAGIC/ANGST/LOVE STORY MOE/FANGIRLABLENESS... 8D~~~
That pic fuels immense fic urges. XD Fanart too~!!! *wants to draw Kaname and Zero in such dramatic settings sometime, in celebration of that gorgeous image* XD *has too many fanart urges and too little time in a day* XD;;
I hope that pic will be among the bonus images added to the next volume. X333
I made a dreamy-feeling hazy blur version of the scan of the ad pic also, click if you'd like to see it. ^^
And speaking of (delicious) ads for VK stuff, here's a close-up of the LaLa portrait set which I've mentioned before:
Click for close-up
I almost DIED of happiness at their pic selection. Those are some of my favorite pics, especially the two semi-naked ones XD VK bedsheets pics, and the pic in which Zero and Kaname are playing chess. *is blind to any other characters being in the pic, dances everywhere with glee at Z & K playing chess* XD;;; The others are a lovely addition, but! But!! ZxK chess!!! *dies happily, from violent nosebleeding* XD I've adored that pic since I first saw it a while ago as a chapter cover, so I'm looking forward to the portrait set. X3
It's a limited goodie set thingie which is available through mail-order with LaLa, like past limited goodies like that. It's only shipped locally as usual, but like other such goodies before it should also end up on auction sites once it's released, so if you want one, you should be able to snatch one in a few months when they ship. :D Or using a deputy shopper earlier possibly.
And speaking of goodies, I didn't get to take a pic of it but this month's LaLa came with the free VK tape roll which I mentioned last month. X3 It's lovely! *will try to show it later when she gets a chance to* :D It's masking-type tape, but it's so lovely.
And onto more serious ramblings about the chapter, we're all wondering about what Sara might have told Zero, but it seems so many people on various places are already conjecturing all manner of terrible things it could be, particularly with theories about Kaname as a child possibly having anything to do with Zero's parents death. ^^;;;
Personally, I don't think it would be likely that this would be what Sara said, considering that I doubt Zero would just look surprised for a bit then smirk like that if it was a revelation about his parents' death. ^^;;
And besides, even if Kaname saw potential in Zero to be such a powerful hunter, it wouldn't make sense to risk Shizuka attacking his family because 1) then there would be such a large chance that said potentially powerful hunter would end up being killed instead, either by Shizuka or by the hunters themselves, and 2) Kaname was just a child then, and as we've seen in the manga in past volumes, Kaname and Shizuka met at the academy when she came to try and make Kaname her prey so she could strengthen up and fight Rido, and in those volumes Shizuka mentions that when they met before Kaname was a tiny child, without his ancestor memories or even knowledge of the darkness vampires can have etc., (she says he was so un-vampire-like), he was just the innocent version of himself not knowing all of that or having seen all the horrors of the world yet. ^^;
If he'd had a hand in such a thing when little, then Shizuka would definitely not have had that innocent image of him.
That and during the part with Shizuka's death, they were both talking with an understanding of their common enemy, who caused all the problems for the purebloods etc., which they mentioned while being all mysterious.
In fact, if you go back to volume 5 and re-read the talk between Kaname and Shizuka, at least in the Japanese text in the line about that the word is emphasized and written in a way that you can't know if it was a person or an object/thing that caused the terrible things for the purebloods' fate. It could also be singular or plural.
Hino-sensei never puts the additional emphasis dots on words without it being a direct hint to something else in the story. It's been like this for every time she's done it.
It makes me wonder if perhaps there was something even bigger than Rido and even Sara, something we don't know about yet, and which Kaname intends to defeat.
Re-reading that line really makes one think there might maybe be a bigger picture that hasn't been revealed yet, for which Kaname is preparing.
And back to the current chapter again, whatever Kaname's plans mentioned in this chapter might be, it doesn't necessarily means it was against Zero, nor does it mean that it was set in stone either, anyway. As various other elements came into play, many things must have changed over the years, and he would have rearranged his plans to have it all be always fitting optimally for the ideal protection of Yuuki.
He's obviously not some kind of oracle that sees the future, all he does 1) is be a good judge of character (which makes him good at anticipating to a certain point what people might do or not in certain situations) and 2) be skilled at picking up and reorganizing himself when something fails (like with trying to kill Rido, whom he tried to destroy and then at least delay, failed to any further and then finally gave his own blood to him so that Rido would return to his own body and then be possible to be destroyed by Zero. That was a failed plan that Kaname readapted into working once he knew that he could neither kill Rido or continue delaying him coming after them further.
Kaname doesn't knows ahead of time what will happen for sure, no one can do that, not even purebloods (otherwise so many issues in his life would have gone better... like the fact he meant to kill himself to create the hunters and the Hooded Woman prevented him by executing his plan herself first; that too was a failed plan that left him having to figure out what to do next); Kaname is just really good at reorganizing himself and whatever strategy he may have when a plan turns out to not go through.)
I wonder if perhaps he might have been forming whatever plans that involved Zero protecting Yuuki and that might have needed to be changed after Shizuka attacked the Kiryuus. Maybe Kaname had something with the fact Kaien took Zero in even. After all, we don't know much about when the chairman decided to take Zero in.
Or it could even have been that Kaname's original plans involved something simpler about Bloody Rose and Artemis: Those were originally Kaname's weapons. But when Zero grew up and joined high-school (this happened only 3 months before the start of volume 1), Kaien gave him Bloody Rose for the first time (he introduced the gun in a way that really didn't sound like it had been Zero's gun before that, so it was not some random heirloom that was in the HA's possession, Kaien had it and gave it to Zero). At some point, Kaname might have given his weapons to Kaien so that they would be passed on and serve to Yuuki's protection.
So maybe the original plan mentioned was something much more simple that grew more elaborate as things became more complicated since Zero was turned etc.
There are tons of possibilities, both positive and negative, and no way to know at all what the original plan was, what Sara said, or even if what she said had anything at all to do with Kaname's initial plan... or even with Kaname at all! XD; It's probable that Sara would talk about him since he's the most likely obstacle to be disposed of and manipulating Zero in that direction would be the most logical path considering what we see Sara doing lately (like how she was toying with Yuuki), but whatever she told Zero could be so many different things.
For now we have no idea what Sara said anyway, so whatever the theories about it are, whether you have a positive one or a negative one, please be careful on how you describe them, to not let things slip into a bashfest, wherever the site you post it on. ^^;;
This fandom is so often filled with rumors (like the never-ending fake VK anime season 3 rumors that people spread like wildfire again each year ^^; ), and it's so often filled with bashing, so it's best for us to be careful not to let any of the theories end up accidentally fueling bashing. ^^;
*hopes the speculation on whatever Sara is playing at won't cause an avalanche of renewed bashing and Kaname-hatred and fans of both pairings fighting on various sites even before we know if Sara even said anything true or even what she was talking about at all* ^^;
Bashing and hatred of either Zero or Kaname are always something that saddens me so much since I utterly love those characters (not just as a yaoi pairing, but as individual characters full of depth and of interesting quirks and things that make the manga so much more enjoyable than if it had a different set of main characters; I love VK as a series as a whole, and especially those two, so seeing people posting hate-comment-after-hate-comment and so much bashing in so many places is always something that ruins my enjoyment of VK fandom, even though I love fandom so much. ^^; )
And people seem to so often expect the worse from Kaname in particular. It's extra odd considering that for example, Ichiru, who directly participated in his own family's doom, is forgiven just fine by the majority of people. ^^; (Not that I'm complaining about that since I'm a huge Ichiru fangirl XD♥, but what I mean is that I wish the same gentleness/forgiveness/understanding/acceptance would be given to Kaname too by the fans. T_T Even Shizuka herself, of all people, is forgiven and loved by so many Zero fans despite what she directly did to Zero and his parents, so... please be nice about Kaname too? ^^;;; He is not the disgusting person so many of the fans mistake him for. He is an extremely multifaceted character filled with shades of grey, just like Zero, and both of them are utterly interesting characters and extremely lovable. ^^
Hatred and bashing are just a huge waste of time, both to those doing it and to their true victims: the innocent fans who just want to enjoy the series as a whole and who are forced to watch all that hatred being posted in so many places instead, which ruins their enjoyment. ^^; Whether it's one or the other being bashed it pains me (and other fans too, be them fans of them both or of one or the other), so hopefully things will remain peaceful and civilized.)
Whatever it is that Sara may have told Zero, I think it's quite probable she is bluffing both Yuuki and Zero anyway, using what she knows about Kaname to manipulate them.
After all, she knows about him being the ancestor and thus being the one who killed so many purebloods back in that old war, but she most likely doesn't know Kaname showed his past to Yuuki, so she might think she's bargaining with info Yuuki wouldn't normally know about.
It would explain her secretive act about supposedly knowing things Yuuki doesn't. (Unless she is just completely making it up and doesn't even know anything. XD; She could just be stringing Yuuki along, with a perfect pokerface but no cards of value in hand... all that matters is for Yuuki to believe her bluff, after all.)
Sara seems to think Yuuki is an easily manipulable child (we saw her comments about Yuuki and Zero in this chapter, as she spied on them with her spiders and was amused by Zero pulling away due to how much he was craving Yuuki's blood. Sara found them both easily manipulable, which is very worrisome for their safety and whatever she might be planning to either do to them or make them believe.)
Considering her views on Yuuki, Sara would quite probably not have expected Kaname to have opened up like this and showed Yuuki all that, so it's quite possible she doesn't know that Yuuki knows about Kaname being the ancestor. And Zero doesn't know about that, so Sara has an edge on the info on at least one side for sure.
Sara could definitely have presented things to Zero in a way that might make Zero think Kaname manipulated the hunters to eliminate his own enemies, if she knows about him leading the first hunters etc.
Zero admired the idea of the Hooded Woman sacrificing herself to give power to the hunters, but if he was told about a pureblood directly leading the hunters and sending them into battle and apparently using them under his orders to eliminate other vampires, it's quite probable that he would react very differently, and view it the way he normally views purebloods manipulating others.
(What Kaname did of killing them wasn't bad since he was killing vampires who planned to wipe out mankind/turn everybody into their slaves, as we saw mentioned in the flashbacks, but no doubt that Sara would be able to present it in a way that incriminates him and tries to sway Zero towards the conclusion that Kaname did it to manipulate the hunters or something to that effect.)
In any case, from the look of things right now it's in Sara's best interest to say anything that will sway Zero out of his current position and into taking a stance against Kaname:
In one of the past chapters already Sara expressed the intention to throw them against each other, wanting to have one eliminate the other and rid her of one of the obstacles in her path.
It's in her advantage to manipulate Zero into getting out of his current neutrality/acceptance of what Kaname is doing, and to turn him against Kaname. Especially since she has little chance to manipulate Kaname, while being at the school gives her easy access to Zero and Yuuki, to make Yuuki protect her and make Zero strike against Kaname.
Or Sara might have completely made up something, since we saw that before she was blaming Kaname for her own crimes also. He is a very convenient scapegoat... ^^;;
In any case, I don't think it's likely that it would be some terrible revelation about Zero's family or past since if it was something that big, then I really don't think Zero would just have a look of surprise and then smirk like that. It doesn't seem like something he would do when it comes to something like his family. ^^;;;
Whatever she is telling Zero and whatever is what she claimed she would tell Yuuki, the one clear thing shown in this chapter is that Sara is skillfully spinning a spider web around them all, potentially making Yuuki into her shield and Zero into her sword, if she succeeds. ^^;
We don't even know yet exactly what her intentions are, but whatever it is hopefully neither Yuuki or Zero will end up being used against each other or against Kaname. ^^;;; *worries for the lovely trio*
I doubt Kaname is coming after Sara soon as it was claimed though, so I wonder if perhaps he only sent the message that he would do that in order to have Yuuki be able to safely step up more as a leader and gain the authority necessary to keep Sara under surveillance as she is doing now. That message serves multiple purposes, since it gives Yuuki such a good excuse for doing this "for Sara's protection", and so there's no dangerous confrontation since she didn't need to try and lock Sara away for another reason while she gets rid of the tablets. (Without the supposed need to have Zero etc. watching and making sure Sara doesn't leave the room, Yuuki might have had a run-in with her while trying to rid the school of the tablets.)
In fact, I strongly think that it's NOT a coincidence that Zero specifically showed up and offered to replace Aidou right as Yuuki moved on with her tablet confiscation: Zero probably realized that it was the one moment most likely for Sara to possibly sneak out of the room and cause trouble, and Aidou alone wouldn't be able to stop her. So Zero went there to ensure she wouldn't go out while Yuuki is taking away all the tablets. ^^
This whole current situation is dangerous but it's also a positive learning experience for Yuuki since she is growing more and more so much with her recent involvement in finding out about the tampered blood tablets, in becoming more and more a true leader for the Night Class, and so much. It was already the case when she decided to create a new Night Class, but it's been even more the case recently, she's learning so much as she takes charge more and more. And she's getting to do that in a safe environment since the only potential real danger at the school would be Sara, and since Zero is there it's unlikely she could make a move on Yuuki without Zero raining hell down on Sara XD intervening and protecting Yuuki.
There could maybe not have been a better environment for Yuuki to grow safely as a pureblood (although it would have been better and safer without Sara, Yuuki is still safe since Zero is there also.)
The only significant danger would be if Sara manages to manipulate Zero and/or Yuuki. ^^;;;
I'll come back sometime later to edit the post again and add the few pics I didn't get to this time around (I mentioned them earlier in the post), and possibly also to ramble more about the various moe/fangirlable points of the chapter, unless I end up drawing fanart of said lovely points also, if I can find time... 8D
*has been dying to draw a scene with Zero being all sexily protective like when he pointed the gun at the vampires who attacked Yuuki. X3 Hopefully I get enough time to do both something like that with Zero x Yuuki and another with Zero x Kaname. X3 ♥♥♥
That gorgeous pic of Kaname longingly sniffing Yuuki's dress/nightgown/whatever clothing is also giving me so many fanart urges. 8D ♥
I'll also be back to happily fangirl the chapter with you all and continue replying to the comments whenever I have a break etc. ^-^♥ *has so much fun talking about VK with you all and fangirling together* ♥♥♥
And lastly, because I've noticed that whenever a new chapter comes out, tempers in the fandom flare really ferociously, and there's people who can't control themselves from bashing characters/pairings or attacking other fans for either liking a different pairing (or more than one) or even simply for whatever they perceive as a slight even when it's not, I'll have the comments screened for now.
That simply means that each time a comment is posted, it gets put on a waiting list before it becomes public.
That makes that all normal comments will go through and get posted (they just have to wait a bit before showing up publicly), but any comments bashing a pairing, a character, doing personal attacks or whatever, will be able to be caught rather than get posted right away and just cause fights.
Last time there was people posting anon doing personal attacks (as if making up things to attack people's sexuality had anything to do with VK or could in any way be considered something other than trolling ^^; ) and people trying to cause trouble between fans of different pairings etc., so this time around I'm going to use that LJ feature to hopefully make that things stay peaceful and people don't bait others for flame wars or anything. ^^;
Sadly there's no way to implement a simple list of keywords like homophobic slurs etc. that would automatically block basic hate comments (especially because it's trickier than that when it's against pairings or characters), so we have no choice but relying on LJ's screening/waiting-list feature, and I'll just unscreen stuff as soon as possible. ^^/ ♥
So please don't worry about that, just go ahead and talk about the chapter and fangirl at will, and all your comments will be turned public regularly whenever possible. :D (Each time I get to log in and hit the unscreen button and make them all public.)
I'll be back to fangirl the chapter with you all whenever I have moments and can take a break etc. :D
♥♥♥
Edit to add a few last things:
One, please support our beloved VK!! ;___; Series die if people don't support them.
Please buy the volumes and support the series, so that you can fully enjoy the complete experience of VK since Hino-sensei always adds all sorts of sexy things/more detailed screentoning/etc. etc. to the final versions of the chapters. :D
The magazine versions are always somewhat incomplete, as she adds retouches later. :D So if you buy the books, not only you'll be supporting the series, but also you'll het to see a much more beautiful and complete VK than if you just look at incomplete scans. :D ♥
The full sexiness of Zero and Kaname can only be experienced by people who support the series, since only by buying the books do you get to see it all!! 8D *lol*
VK volume 15 comes out in Japanese on December 5th. :D
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Two, please refrain from scan theft. ^^;;;
You can take the scans in this post if it's for making signatures/avatars/AMVs and such lovely things, but if it's just to put in your own blog etc. as is then it's best to just give a link to this post, that way people get to see them all together here. ^^ Or if you must take one or another and repost, please make sure to say they came from here and please don't hotlink, please reupload to your own place.
And please, do not steal scans from anyone else either. ^^; Please support VK by buying LaLa too if you want to scanlate anything, and if you must repost or edit someone else's scans, then please ASK people first before taking or reuploading their images. ^^
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And lastly, although totally unrelated to VK, I have a book recommendation!! ^^
Sorry that it's unrelated, but it's from an awesome author which I like from his fanarts for another fandom, and it has supernatural elements in the story as well (including some vampire stuff), so I thought there might be people interested too... and figured I might as well recommend now since I'm never sure if it won't take yet another month before I finally post again. ORZ
For a long while I've been following online this author's lovely fanarts for Saint Seiya (although I haven't had time to do anything for that fandom since forever due to my VK obsession eating all my free time XD;), and as time passed he went from doing fanarts to doing also his own original projects over the years.
He's currently doing an original series about supernatural beings etc., for a French publisher. His name is Jérôme Alquié and the series title is "Surnaturels", you can see it here.
It's western comics rather than manga, but there's many people who like both, so I thought I'd mention it anyway. :D
The story is about a girl who has a handicap but is fighting to live life as she wants to despite that, and after moving to her new place she ends up meeting a vampire and other supernatural beings and together they fight enemies etc.
It's not very well known yet because from what I was told the publisher doesn't usually advertises their series, so things often depend on people recommending stuff to friends etc. for new series to pick up.
It could be something that might interest fans of other series with supernatural elements in it also, so if you live somewhere where they sell books by that publisher, please take a look at that series, flip through it, see if you'd like it and if you like what you see, then please support it? :D
I'm a big fan of the artist's StS fanarts, and one of my best friends is a friend of his, so I wanted to recommend his series. ^^
There's also a facebook page for the series, and a blog for the main character, updated as if it was her who's writing it, if you're interested.
♥♥♥
And I leave you with a VK test flash-game I made while I was practicing stuff to see if I can someday make a VK mini-game with platforms. :D
You might have already seen it on either my tumblr or my DA, as I posted it there when I first put it together.
Version where Zero's legs move normally.
Version where Zero's legs move funny. XD
You play as chibi-Zero, climbing platforms that look like flying blue poop because it was just a really quickly-made test game XD a, err, blue mountain to rescue chibi-Kaname. XD
(Just click the game screen and then use the arrow keys to move Zero.)
It was going to be to rescue chibi-Yuuki, but uhm, yaoi struck while I was making it and of course I couldn't resist having Zero rescuing Kaname. XD♥
So enjoy, and see you later~! :D
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