Finding light in the darkest places—through love - Chapter 5 – A Bet and a Dare

Toradora!’s story begins with the male protagonist Ryuji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either. After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryuji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class as his best friend Yusaku Kitamura and crush Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into “the school’s most dangerous animal of the highest risk level” — Taiga Aisaka — who just happens to also be in his class, and is a good friend of Minori.

Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and will not hesitate to snap at people. After meeting Ryuji, she takes an instant dislike of him. Taiga comes from a rich family, though she moved out to live on her own due to family issues, and by coincidence is now living in an apartment next door to Ryuji. After Ryuji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yusaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryuji’s affections towards Minori, Ryuji suggests that they cooperate so they can win the object of their affections. Ryuji says he will do anything to get closer to Minori, which Taiga exploits, making Ryuji her personal servant, and getting him to do household chores like cooking and cleaning for her. Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much so that she could almost be considered a member of his family. Since Ryuji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he is opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also attempt to help each other in order to improve how people view them. Unknown to them, however, people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship together and rumors begin to spread about them.

“How did you know? I’ve been careful so that no one could find out.”Adrian Kaiser von der Palzgraf, the heir of the Pa...

“Dafeng Night Watchman” tells the story of modern policeman Xu Qian'an who traveled to the Dafeng Dynasty. As soon as Xu Qian'an traveled through time, he was involved in the case of the loss of his second uncle's tax silver. He was later implicated and imprisoned and faced exile, but he successfully solved the case with his past life experience and wisdom, rescued himself and his second uncle's family, and joined the night watchman organization. After that, he encountered various murders, political struggles, and entanglements with mysterious forces. He killed his superiors in anger to save the female relatives of the prisoners, was involved in the Sangpo case, participated in the struggle between Buddhism and the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Monsters, and entered the sight of major forces. In the end, Xu Qian'an realized that his mission was to plead for the people and protect the weak. He began to run around for the people of the world, promoted the alliance between Dafeng and the Southern Xinjiang Gu Clan and the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Monsters, and joined hands with Princess Huaiqing to launch a coup to save the people of the world. The novel combines a variety of cultural elements such as Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, the demon clan, and sorcerers, showing Xu Qian'an's intelligence and detective skills.