don't fear the sun.

Title: Fear Factory
Universe: VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs
Character(s): OCs
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Winter, 2003. Fresh snow, stale breath, starving men with their hands above their heads, star spangled metal.
Length: 2169 words
Author's Notes: This isn't very subtle, I'm afraid. also: external link.



( Fear Factory )

I am talking a lot about Team 8 members recently because there were a lot of Team 8 members to talk about. An original member of the team, recruited to represent Kochi Prefecture, Hirose Natsuki auditioned for AKB48 in 2014 and debuted alongside her peers, Abe Mei, Okabe Rin, Okubora Chinatsu, Nagano Serika, Fujimura Natsuki, Onishi Momoka, Kuranoo Narumi, Shitao Miu, Cho Kurena, Hamamatsu Riona, Fukuchi Rena, Honda Hitomi, Yokomichi Yuri, the other Yokoyama Yui, Yoshino Miyu, Oda Erina, Oguri Yui, Yoshikawa Nanase, and Hayasaka Tsumugi. She was on stage during the revival of PARTY ga Hajumaru yo during Team 8's "business trip" to the SKE48 theatre and went on to perform in Nagasaki and Hokkaido during the Team 8 National Tour 〜47 no Suteki na Machi e〜 2015. During PARTY, she shared the stage with Nanase for performances of Hoshi no Ondo, and in Nagasaki, she performed Nageki no Figure, whilst in Hokkaido, she was in the lineup for Blue Rose, a song I always approach with caution and reverie, such is its significance.

Towards the end of 2014, Nacchan began to appear on B sides, firstly the Team 8 theme tune for which their later tour was named, 47 no Suteki na Machi e, a song that made it to the number #1 spot during Request Hour in 2019, just in case you had any doubt as to how significant Team 8 were, and began to make her appearances on successive singles after, all the way up to High Tension. Friends, I don't often get hit with stirrings of fond feelings about a country and its national identity, but 47 no Suteki na Machi e is one of those moments where I really think about how many places on this island nation half the world away I have grown fond of. I know, I know, yes, I am a massive weeb.

In 2015, like other members of her team, she went on to appear in performances of the Aitakatta revival before Team 8 went on tour, continuing her duties on stage all the way through to 2017 when she first announced her impending graduation, and finally, in March of the following year, when Team 8 came full circle with a further revival of PARTY and Nacchan graduated.

Whilst a member of AKB48, I didn't follow Nacchan. In many ways, working on these Team 8 profiles for this silly little Wednesday column that has gone on far too long already and really needs an index post—working on these entries has been a chance for me to get to know many of the unsung heroines of Team 8, a chance to celebrate them. Reading about Nacchan's life, about how she used to cycle two hours there and back to school, about how, whilst in elementary school, she participated in a Yosakoi festival, a celebration of particular form of dance native to Kochi, all of this fills me with a kind of wonder. Underestimating the determination of young girls really is a grave mistake.

Even after graduation, in 2019, during Team 8's concert in Osaka on the cusp of their six-year anniversary, Nacchan returned to stand on stage with her peers once again.

Moments like this give me hope. I really, really want to believe that we will see a Team 8 reunion again soon, and I really, really hope that the occasion will not be Oguri Yui's graduation. Team 8 means so much to so many people, and I really want them to get their chance to celebrate the way I have been able to celebrate original AKB during the last year.

“I will not entertain the notion for even a moment.” He scoffed, crossing his legs, folding his arms. “Counterfeit cards being trafficked on the Tonakailiner. What dross.”

I started writing a new book before I had even shared the last one with you. I had the feeling even before Rei had completed the cover for that first book that I was now unable to let go of this minor character who had appeared in two episodes of a Kamen Rider show in late 2023, and that now whatever I have imagined I had seen in her character had condemned us both to spending an eternity together. Through the early months of 2025, I spent my time imagining this train journey, trying to build not only on who I felt Harima Shiori was, but also who I thought her partner in the Investigations Department, Kugimiya Licht might be. I became obsessed with the idea of these two as a kind of awful Mulder and Scully, and I became fascinated with the idea that, through circumstance and poor execution, the episodes they share and the one summer movie in which Kugimiya appears sets up this scenario where both of these characters who are working together are antagonists on behalf of differing causes. It felt like Hitler and the Devil going out for dinner and neither of them realising the other was a bad guy also; it was stupid, I felt like I had to take it seriously.

Whilst writing the last book, I realised I had gone in a direction that presented the end results of a world in which evil is always the obvious outcome. In writing this one during the cold months of winter and the early spring, I realised I wanted to explore what steps you might need to take to reach that bad ending. In addition, I wanted to be a little defiant, I wanted you to know that I think Harima Shiori is the kind of character you can tell a broader array of stories about than her roughly fifteen minutes over two episodes give her credit for. I may have played my hand with this too early, having already shared two different stories in which I tried to push Kugimiya and Harima into their roles as awful Mulder and Scully, in which I tried to make the Investigations Department mean something more than their role as bad guys for two episodes before the franchise's traditional Christmas and New Year cliffhanger. Along the way, I was greatly inspired by not only Rei, but linky, luckyzukky, and likealighthouse also, all of whom I owe a great debt to that I can never repay. Likewise, Stewart, who is now possibly more experienced with shepherding me than he would like to be, really helped ensure this work made sense before finally being placed in your hands. When writing this, the Black Saturn community humoured me with more kindness and patience than I deserved as I spent a year posting allusions in one thread to every possible base instinct humanity is known to possess. As a companion piece, I also wrote the final story in our Kudo Mina cycle, this last part acting as a sort of epilogue to one specific thread found in this book.

I wanted to both show you that Shiori was more important than the two episodes she appeared in gave her room to prove, and I wanted to try and challenge myself to write a kind of story that was different from anything I had previously made. This book went through numerous titles before we settled on this. The final title is testament to my firm belief that everything you might possibly want to say sounds better when spoken in Spanish.

I wanted to write about the moments before the fall, the moments in which you are so convinced you are doing the right thing that you don't stop to think about what the outcome of those actions might be. I think that's at the heart of Shiori's character, I think that's what makes her so relatable. I want you to see her like I see her; I want you to listen to what she is telling you even though you know you can't trust her. Perhaps, in a way, I'm also asking you to extend this courtesy to me.


gif by likealighthouse

¡Locomoción! | cover and illustration by Rei | written by me | edited by Stewart Sheargold | published by Black Saturn.

Now please ask me if I have already started work on a further Shiori book. :p