In to You is a fifty-five-page manga one-shot by Biki in 2000.
In and You may seem like the most unlikely of friends but have one thing in common: trespassing onto forbidden sites to hang out and sleep in. With In's physical dexterity and You's charisma, they are an unstoppable force to be reckoned with until their skills are put to the test when both are cursed by the worst god of them all, calamity itself.
Contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguously Gay: In and You blur the lines between partners-in-crime and romantic couple but, alas, nothing is really confirmed since it's all subtext which there is plenty to draw from:
- The two are extremely close, often napped together side-by-side in abandoned buildings they infiltrated and cannot live without the other as evident with In's disappearance.
- You immediately glomp In and cries in relief seeing his "beloved partner" after five whole days of going missing because of his curse. He later gets incredibly mad for In's sake when the God of Calamity is unable to remove "Unmoving World" from him.
- They both get grossed out when The God of Calamity disguises himself as an attractive woman to seduce and kiss a guard and states there are better ways besides the Honey Trap.
- While "to" in the title means "and" in Japanese, it can also be read as "Into You" in English which is quite intentional on the author's part.
- And the Adventure Continues: While they still want to go into forbidden places, In and You decide to use their skills and newfound powers for good as the one-shot ends with them about to save someone inside a burning building.
- Bring My Brown Pants: The story opens with In waking up to find You had wet his pants in fear upon unleashing The God of Calamity from a sealed artifact.
- Curse: In and You were given the curses "Unmoving World" and "Inverse Perversity" respectively. These were supposed to be divine punishment after angering the God of Calamity but the latter managed to exploit his curse and cancel the negative effects of the former, giving them useful superpowers.
- Didn't Think This Through: God of Calamity failed to realise You would be smart enough to invoke Loophole Abuse on his curse, which lets him command whoever he wants and they are forced to comply, or the fact the curse also works on him as You so thoroughly exploits by making the god stick his head inside the toilet.
- Foreshadowing: It doesn't make sense for a God of Calamity to be sealed in a temple meant for the sun goddess Amaterasu and later on, he didn't mind seducing a guard disguised as a human woman with the duo saying that was unnecessary and he could have easily found other means. As You find out, the God of Calamity is Amaterasu once she reveals her true form.
- Honey Trap: The God of Calamity disguises himself as a sexy woman to get the guard's key, even going so far as to kiss him passionately, which grosses out In and You in the process.
- Logical Weakness: While You manage to exploit his curse by saying the opposite of what he intended, he still has to voice out his not commands and not demands in order for them to work. This is how the God of Calamity got the drop on You by making the brainwashed guards forcibly cover his mouth before he could override them.
- Loophole Abuse: Inverse Peversity is supposed to punish sweet-talker You as no matter what he asked for from others, it'll absolutely not come true. However, You quickly figure out that if he invoked double negatives and simply state the opposite of his intentions (Eg. "You will not stick your head in the toilet), whomever he use his curse on would be forced to comply with his not-demands. He then proceeds to exploit this by commanding the once intimidating Calamity God to do his bidding and control In's less-than-desirable curse.
- Meaningful Name: In translated from Japanese means "Sound" as in sound asleep and sound-minded in comparison to his friend You which can mean "Noisy" for his loud, bombastic and charismatic self. Both also complement each other's name and match their curses of sleep-activated Teleportation and Compelling Voice.
- The Reveal: At the end, The God of Calamity was Amaterasu all this time but needed In and You's skills and newfound curses to open the Ark of Testimony to set her true form free.
