golden dragon fuck go

I was pleasantly surprised when I read Kiniro no ryuu wo dake by Mizuhara Tohru and illustrated by Takashina Yuh. It's by an author that mostly writes stuff I don't care for and the title and the story sounded cliched in a way I'm not that fond of, so I had VERY low expectations going in. It's about a delicate pretty immigrant Chinese guy living in Yokohama who participates in illegal fights to earn enough money to pay for his sick mother's hospital bills. He uses the martial arts he learned from his grandfather in China. When he has some trouble at his job washing dishes at a restaurant, he takes up an offer by the owner and founder of the illegal games to come to him if he wants more money. Owner has him dye his hair blonde and wear Chinese women's clothing to make him look even more feminine and draw the crowds. It totally works, as the disconnect between his appearance and his ability (he's pretty strong) is very appealing. He continues to beat his opponents and becomes more and more popular.

Of course, this being BL, there is sex. Initially owner likes to take the fighter out to dinner and such things, but a certain incident triggers the sex. Fighter does NOT want to have any sex because he'd been sexually abused as a child. But he has no choice because he owes the owner a great deal.

The interesting part of the story is how much it focuses on the fighter's desire to become stronger. He wants to fight stronger opponents, and when he sees an opponent he knows he can't beat he receives training from a master. The "romance" part totally takes a second seat for most of the latter part of the book, IMO. Yes, the fighter does think about the owner a lot, but most of his life is taken up with training. It's amazingly cliched just how...pure-hearted the fighter is, but in the context of training and fighting it works. The last fight was fun to read, and the fighter gets to say a pretty awesome line perfect for the pure-hearted and humble protagonist of a martial arts story. The owner turns out to be amazingly pure hearted as well. The end just made me go "awww."

happy fic-time

I wandered over to astolat's journal and read her answers to some "what happens next" in some fics post. There was one for Duende, which made me reread the fic again. OMG how awesome is it? It's full of romance and sex and adventure and fighting! And I had never noticed the line about Author and Lancelot before and I love the idea of the two being bonded in that universe. When I have time I need to reread all of her M&C fics, they are such a joy.