muse ✨'s manga / #my number one(3)

This is the spinoff of "Doushitemo Furetakunei." It follows Onoda and his friend at TAG who'd known about Shima's situation. Deguchi and Onoda have been friends for three years, but Onoda doesn't know that Deguchi - a charasmatic, 31yo salesman - is gay, or that he's harbored feelings for Onoda since they met. When Onoda admits his feelings for Shima, Deguchi seizes the opportunity, only to be rejected - because Onoda thinks he's kidding. But when Onoda realizes Deguchi is serious, he asks for time to consider how he feels. This story is great because of the characters - Deguchi is interesting and layered, and Onoda is sweet and open-minded - but also because it touches on the fact that people don't always fall in love at the same rate, and that feelings are messy. Onoda juggles residual feelings for Shima while trying to sort through his feelings for Deguchi. The story is hopeful and always cheers me up. I tracked down and bought the licensed manga from June and have read it more times than I can count, though I prefer a few of the translations in this version. Also: The book contains two additional pages before the bathtub scene, which I read were included in the book release. Also also: Although Deguchi never appears in Doushitemo, if you watch the movie, he's in a few scenes, including at the bar with Onoda! Live action OTP!

Teito Klein is sixteen, orphaned, and cannot remember much of his past. Until recently, he'd been a battle sklave used by the Barsburg Empire, but for the last year he has been enrolled in a premiere military academy. There, he meets his one and only friend, Mikage Celestine, and dazzles his professors (and makes some enemies) with his command of zaiphon, a powerful energy force. Teito and Mikage are two of only a handful who pass exams and their future looks bright - until Teito accidentally overhears his name in a conversation about the Eye of Mikhael - a powerful weapon - and the death of the King of Raggs, the kingdom that fell during the war ten years earlier. Believing the king may have been his father and newly afraid for his life, Teito flees the academy with Mikage's help and is forced to leave him behind. Some time later, an exhausted Teito falls unconscious on his hawkzile, a small flying craft, plummeting to his would-be death. He is saved at the last moment by Frau, one of three bishops from the nearby District 7 church, who give him sanctuary. Teito is overjoyed when Mikage finds him in District 7, but his happiness is short-lived when it’s revealed Mikage is under the control of the empire in an effort to recapture Teito. Devastated by the death of his only friend and grasping at information revealed to him by fragments of memory, Teito trains to become a bishop and is apprenticed to Frau, a seemingly young and perverted man who is actually one of Seven Ghosts sent by God to search for and destroy the evil death god Verloren. With Frau at his side, Teito leaves District 7 on a pilgrimage to Seele - a place he’d travelled to as a child with Father Kreuz, the bishop who had raised him. He believes Seele holds the answers he is looking for about the death of his father and the destruction of a kingdom. 07-Ghost is a story of loss, of perseverance, of grief, of hope, and above all, love. The love between Teito and Mikage is fraternal, but that love is a driving force behind this story, and Teito’s love for the other people in his life carries him. In my opinion, the closest to romantic love we see is between Teito and Frau during their journey to Seele. The 100th chapter is not included in the US translation released by Viz. The story ends after Frau’s final line about a picnic.