A) THANK YOU I'M OBSESSED WITH THEM I'M HAPPY MY RAMBLES ARE SOMEWHAT COHERENT they all mean so much to me, they’re so colorful and fun and tragic and… they are so special… not biased (biased) but they are the best, and the fact that they have such long, extensive lore is so fun. Each story has so much to unpack, and reveals more of past stories. I’m obsessed.
B) I'M HAPPY YOU ASKED! I have a place to put this now.

So this’ll be long, but I prefer to infodump about each one because I like being thorough (and for reference next time I forget where a line comes from). I think it’s important to be able to source stories, so hopefully it inspires you to check out the full ones for yourselves! Most of these can be found on the wiki or by the translator 310mc. If you’re looking for RST stories and content, I highly recommend their blog ( https://310mc.github.io/ ), seriously, it’s a library of alexandria, incredibly accessible in its formatting and Akatsuki makes enough appearances in RST stories that you can get a lot of good Akatsuki content from them as well.

Sections are divided by RST members, and subsections are Akatsuki members. I’ll give a sort of spoiler-free summary, and then the characters each story is relevant to. I also have an accompanying graphic that I’ll post. It’ll make this look a lot more organized.

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Ryuseitai x Akatsuki
If you want a comprehensive look at Ryuseitai and Akatsuki as a whole, Meteor Impact, Scroll of the Elements, and Submarine are must-reads. They’re way longer than the individual character story recommendations below, but they are mandatory if you want to understand both units.

In short, Meteor Impact is the origin story for pre-war Ryuseitai (Madara and Chiaki), the student council (Keito and Chiaki), Akatsuki’s role in the war (Keito, Kuro, Souma), and the reason for Kanata’s entire subjugation + Battle of the Sea God (Akatsuki v. Kanata). It also covers Kanzaki-Shinkai relations (Souma and Kanata) and why Kuro has a heavy hand in RST Live Shows (Kuro and Chiaki). The war-era part of this story ends with Chiaki and Kanata being what’s left of RST, until the 1st years (Noritama) come in the spring.

The story spans all three years of Yumenosaki !-era. There are highly sensitive themes and it’s a very heavy read, so be mindful of the disclaimers before you give it a look.

Scroll of the Elements takes place in !-era, autumn. This is a big story for AKTK+RST post-Meteor Impact (timeline-wise), as they perform at a local tourist spot. I’ll go into some detail below when we get to what this means for some individual characters, but it’s a great story for Souma and Shinobu, and there are notable moments for Souma and RST, and Keito and Midori. It’s more slice of life-adjacent than Meteor Impact is, so it’s a lighter read!

Submarine takes place in !!-era, during the SS Arc. It recently came out on EN (woo!). This is AKTK+RST’s third major story together, and it pulls together elements from both Meteor Impact and Scrolls. Akatsuki and Ryuseitai travel to Okinawa during the SS Tournament, and face war on the island with local idols. Because of secret orders, Akatsuki is led by Souma and Ryuseitai is led (indirectly) by Kanata. This is a good story for Souma and Kanata, Keito and Noritama (especially Shinobu), Souma and Noritama, and Chiaki and Kuro.

Like Kanata and Keito say, this is a different story with different characters than Meteor Impact: it reconstructs AKTK+RST’s relationship going forward

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OKAY, are you still with me? Here are individual character dynamics. Obviously some (Kanasou, Tetokuro) will have more than others (Chisou, Tetokei), but my priority on picking these ones are (a) shorter (b) lighter (c) tell, don’t show (sometimes it’s just easier when the story TELLS you what you need to know about characters). I’ll include extra story recommendations if you want to jump off into individual dynamics, but these are just my personal favorite tasty little reads.

I tried to avoid doubling up on this list, but at the same time, it’s helpful knocking out more than one pairing with different stories. Hopefully there’s enough variety to make up for it!

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CHIAKI

Keito | Crossroads (Chaos, Ch. 4/6/7)
Combined with Meteor Impact, Crossroads is a good exploration of 2nd-years Chiaki and Keito. Keito grows an intrigue with Chiaki (specifically, the difference between his actions and his timid personality).

Keito and Chiaki tend to favor bigger stories for interactions, so if you’re looking for more, (War Era) Meteor Impact, (!-era) Scrolls and (!!-era) Submarine is where you’ll find it.

Kuro | Tough Guy
God. This is a fun story. Please read this story.
Kuro needs help practicing for the filming of a school drama, and Chiaki takes the initiative to go and help! Alongside Tetora and Midori, this is Chiaki’s repayment to Kuro for all that he’s done for them. Chiaki, Kuro, Midori and Tetora practice lines for a script… and flop terribly. It’s amazing, this story is hilarious. Bonus points for Midori and Kuro’s first meeting as well.

These two have a lot of history together, so Meteor Impact is a good story for how they met and how their relationship developed. Gang is another good one for them.

Souma | Scroll of the Elements
Souma and Chiaki don’t have much facetime together, but do interact a lot during Scrolls, when Souma heads the effort in getting Shinobu’s proposal through Keito. They think highly of each other – highlighted in Submarine!

KANATA

Kuro and Keito | Comic World
Read. Comic World. Kanata enlists Kuro to help him tie up Kaoru’s surfboards during a typhoon, and Keito comes along. At the same time, Keito is trying to pin down who is releasing manga based on him, Kanata and the war. This story is incredibly key to understanding Kanata’s feelings about the War. It also illustrates his and Keito’s different philosophies on how they plan to move forward from it: the same path, but different methods. Kuro and Kanata have good scenes throughout the story and into the epilogue.

Also, shirtless, wet Keito.

Souma | Palace of the Ocean
Souma and Kanata are very entwined– childhood acquaintances, doomed roles to each other, etc. There’s a handful of stories that you could read to understand them in their full context. Here, I’ll recommend Palace of the Ocean. Souma becomes enamored with a turtle and spends the story taking good care of it. The last few chapters set a good baseline for Kanata and Souma’s interactions: if you read Submarine and were confused as to why Kanata is so comfortable terrorizing Souma, this is a good answer.

For extra RST+AKTK goodness, read Crash Course, a faux unit swap story. It’s a close second to my recommendation list, and you get to see AKTK!Kanata and RST!Souma. Colorful Autumn is good for their slice of life dynamic too.

TETORA

Keito | Opera
Akatsuki puts on an opera, and Tetora jumps at the opportunity to be a part of it. At the same time, he grapples with his intimidation of Keito after having been rejected from Akatsuki. This story has a big breakthrough for the preparation of that tension, as Keito and Tetora tentatively prod around each other more personally.

Submarine has a few good moments that continue these reparations.

Kuro | Four Beasts of Fistfighting
Okay. This story transformed me for real.

If you’re looking for a deep dive on Akatsuki lore and Tetora’s involvement in all of it, it’s here. What Supervillain!Tetora was to Chiaki is what Four Beasts!Tetora is to Kuro. This is the precedent to elevating Tetora’s senpai-worship/Kuro’s mentorship relationship. If you want to understand Tetora and Kuro at an atomic level, this is your story.

Besides that, it goes into how Tetora found RST post-Akatsuki rejection, the Dragon King Festival, and even why the Student Council broke it up during the Main Story.

Souma | Colorful Autumn
Precious story. Tetora, Souma and Kanata help Midori paint signboards for his family’s grocer! Tetora mentions having had Souma’s cooking before, and expresses the desire to get to know Souma better at the end of the story.

Submarine is very Noritama and Souma heavy, and Kanata’s FS2 story also have them gathered with Kanata in AOUMI aquarium.

MIDORI
Keito | Biblio
Midori, Hajime, Keito and Tsumugi are trapped in the school during a typhoon! (Keito, what is with you and being the harbinger of typhoons?). This is another story to made to soften up Keito’s impression to both Ra*bits and Ryuseitai juniors.

Midori and Keito have a lot of good moments scattered across stories: a whole chapter in Scrolls, moments in Submarine before the epilogue, and the Manga Club Scout story. They’re in Ring, and Hinata’s Practice to be a Little Brother! (!!-era) story too.

Kuro | The Crimson’s Pure Heart Idol Story
This is actually a short idol story (!-era), but it’s very precious. Kuro seeks out Midori for help learning about mascots, and Midori happily obliges.

Tough Guy is very foundational for Kuro and Midori. Consider Crimson’s Pure Heart a post-Tough Guy snack if you want more of them.

Souma | Colorful Autumn
Tetora, Souma and Kanata help Midori paint signboards for his family’s grocer! (deja vu). There’s a lot of cute direct interactions with them here– Midori is affectionate with everyone in the story, and Souma being one of them… so good.

Midori has a fixation on the lack of relationship between him in Souma in Submarine.

SHINOBU

Keito | Scroll of the Elements
THIS STORY IS SO IMPORTANT TO THEM, hence its inclusion here, as opposed to a shorter story. As Shinobu tries to put together a proposal for a joint live, Keito greenlights it and maneuvers it to be a sponsored event by the Ninja Association in order to promote it. He encourages Shinobu to have pride in his club. This story establishes a strong relationship between them. After graduation, Keito enlists Shinobu as his spy for the student council to keep an eye on Mao. Chiaki and Keito discuss it further in Submarine.

Keito also appears in Tsukasa’s FS1 Story
Kuro | The Wolf and Red Riding Hood
Kuro helps the Broadcasting Committee put on a play for a local school. It’s also just a great story for seeing Shinobu’s role in Broadcasting Committee. Bonus points for Shinobu and Souma. Kuro spends the story looking at their relationship fondly– happy to see Souma have a kouhai.

Souma | Tsukasa’s The Way We Are Idol Stor
As roommates (!!-era), Souma and Shinobu have great slice-of-life stories together. This, with Tsukasa’s FS1 are very light reads.

These two have a very close relationship. Scroll of the Elements is an important foundational work for them (!-era)-- given it’s their center event. The Wolf and Red Riding Hood pairs them as well.

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AND THAT’S THE LIST!

HUGE DISCLAIMER, these are not all-encompassing. For combinations like Tetora and Kuro, Chiaki and Kuro, Souma and Kanata, Souma and Shinobu etc. they have tons more stories out there. Hopefully these just set you on your way to finding them!

Most of these are !-era, obviously, just because they’re most accessible. I’m sure there are a lot of !!-era content that have RST + AKTK combinations. If anyone has any further recommendations for any of these dynamics, feel free to send them here! The more stories the better!