Sorazuki

"There's just one thing I can't tell you about. I was desperate to keep it from you at the time. I felt like I could never see you again if I hadn't. I told you not to get involved with these creatures because I might have cracked otherwise. Even if it meant lying to you, I just couldn't bear splitting up with you."

- Kamiya to Sora - ep 11.

Sorazuki is the slash ship between Kamiya Tazuki and Kashiwagi Sora from the How to Keep a Mummy fandom.

Canon
They are introduced as friends at the beginning of the series, and only later, they're revealed have met each other since kids. Tazuki's main impression was a stoic guy, while Sora as a friendly and kind-hearted person. They're also classmates, always shown with the same school uniform throughout the anime (though they also tend to use their formal clothes at times). Although not explicitly said, during their friendship they've got through many situations, like Sora family's introduction to Kamiya and the latter's to the former, Sora's situation about his dad (Mokuren, who's currently at Egypt for travelling) to Kamiya, who he's pretty much aware of, considering the times when he noted that the several strange relics brought by Mokuren were really dangerous, and had attempted with Sora's life, and so on. Ever since Sora has moved to his current place, Tazuki comes to hang out a lot with Sora, making them incredibly close.

After Mii-kun arrives for the first time, and is introduced to Kamiya by Sora, this former attempts on finding out what was under Mii's bandages, only for being scolded and warned several times by Kashiwagi since this latter told him that his father had noted on a letter not to remove them, although admitting he didn't know either the reason of it, since his dad hadn't added it. Kamiya manages to bond with Mii later, ultimately apologizing to Sora for his actions, and Sora isn't bothered with it, rather happy that he could make another friend.

Once Sora was unable to attend classes due to a high fever (39 degrees), and among those who visited him was Tazuki himself after Kashiwagi's aunt, Kaede. He watches over him while wearing a gas mask (suggested by Kaede), and Sora thanks him for the gesture, promising to assist to school when he recovers. This doesn't happen as Mii gets sick afterwards because he had taken care of him too, and it seemed like he had caught it too and as he finishes talking to Tazuki on the phone, there is a visible sad expression on Kamiya's face once he hangs up the call.

During their childhood, Tazuki was the first one on approaching Sora, because he notices that Kashiwagi spent his time alone due to the absence of his father at home, calmly offering him to play at his home or else he'd get angry with him. Sora, slightly puzzled, accepts the offer. On one occasion, he says that he wasn't impressed by finding rare beings, because when he was with Sora, he could see these creatures even though he couldn't before. Another situation during their childhood life is when Sora finds a dying bird, and attempts to take it home and save it, but Tazuki sternly warns him that it was going to die, and that if he saw that happen, he would suffer even more. Despite that, even though he brought the bird back home, the bird eventually dies (confirming Tazuki's words) and Sora cries inconsolably while being comforted by his father. It is one of the moments where it is shown that Tazuki cares about Sora's feelings, and that he didn't want to see him get into any kind of bad situation that could hurt him.

After meeting Daichi, Tazuki doesn't have a good impression at first, this is because the former behaves roughly with Sora, even though he was trying to help him with whatever that was happening with him, angering Tazuki and visibly willing to hit him, only for being stopped by Sora himself. The next day, during break, Sora is visibly tired, and after Tazuki notices this, he asks the reason for it. Sora explains that he had helped Daichi deal with his sleep problems, and Tazuki worriedly asks about the identity of the man he's talking about (he didn't know Daichi's name only till Sora told him who he was).

At one moment, as they walk to Sora's house, Motegi asks about his relationship with Tazuki, and Sora explains about how they met during their childhood, mostly saying that Tazuki was the first who approached to him. After the explanation, Motegi smiles and calls the relationship "cute", and Sora agrees with it.

Tazuki emphasizes how Sora did not hesitate about his feelings and opinions, like when both held hands and Sora tells him that he loved him, making Tazuki nervous, and during his adolescence, when Sora notices that Tazuki had cut his hair, compliments it and tells him he was good-looking. This would change after Sora gets the hiccups, and gets embarrassed about it, making Tazuki tease him about this and points out that he even could get embarrassed, although didn't expect it was going to be because of something like that. Isao, Mii, Conny, Pochi, and Mukumuku plan to remove Sora's hiccups after hearing from Tazuki that if someone hiccuped 100 times, they could die, with Mii being the base as he removes his bandages. Sora goes after him, but is stopped by Tazuki from behind, as he was curious as to what would happen if the bandages were removed. Considering that there was no beginning for the bandages, it was a mystery whether or not they could be removed. Tazuki's plan doesn't go well, as he's blinded with a shiny light coming from Mii, and this chance is taken by Sora to hurry and catch Mii to prevent his bandages to come off. At the end it's revealed that the belief was only a myth, so it couldn't be possible that something like dying would ever happen.

While searching the city for Conny, they both split up to look for him. Sora finds someone who looks like Connie (another little oni), but it turns out to be someone else. After Tazuki found Connie, Sora arrives and apologizes to Tazuki for not being able to find Connie (he hadn't noticed he was already with Kamiya) along with Daichi and Motegi, who tries to comfort him, though Tazuki reassures them that he he had already found it, everyone was surprised. The next day, the four of them are seen chatting about the past day, and Sora tells Tazuki that he overheard the latter loudly admitting that he would never actually tell Connie to leave (they had an argument that day), and that the claim was not only to Connie, but also to himself, and he needed to be more honest with himself even if he said Connie was a pain and not cute, Tazuki still ended up showing it on his face anyway. Tazuki is visibly surprised as he smiles and agrees with him.

After they are informed by Suzuki, one of their classmates, about an injured creature (an inugami) that he had taken a picture of, and that it had disappeared just right after taking the photo, they both worry about this and decide to discuss it with Motegi and Daichi. The inugami was apparently chased by someone to the Bachiyama (the mountain where it disappeared to), and so was seemingly injured. In one of his childhood flashbacks, Sora offers Tazuki invitations to a festival that his uncle oni, Yamada, had given him, as he might be able to make him feel better after he had injured his arm, though it's rejected by Kamiya, as he claims he didn't want to go with a scared look. Sora worries, but it's because he's not aware of what had happened to Tazuki before. After the brief flashback, Sora is still surprised that Tazuki had agreed to go. Sora is surprised when Tazuki agrees on going with them for the search, considering the time when Tazuki told Sora to let Connie go after he had disappeared, but changed his mind and then looked up for him, making Sora think Tazuki might have opposed the idea.

Sora and Tazuki have an argument during summer vacation, this because Sora says that he might not be able to spend more time with Tazuki when they graduate, which made Tazuki interpret Sora was attempting to leave him and the rest, leaving him speechless and Tazuki tells him he was just kidding, still being some tension and distance between the two. The gang make their way up the mountain indicated by Suzuki but notice that there is a fork (intersection) in the stairs, causing them to separate into groups of two; Tazuki-Motegi and Sora-Daichi. On Sora and Daichi's part, Daichi worriedly asks if something had happened with him and Tazuki, as they hadn't talked during their trek up the mountain, to which Sora only tells him that they both said wrong things and eventually had screwed up. Sora blames himself, since he said wrong words to Tazuki, only to get a worried look from Daichi.

Sora has a bad feeling from before when they entered the mountain, because it was the summer solstice that same day. When they are going to return after a long supposedly failed search for the mysterious creature, the stairs form into a single path up and, surprised, they are determined to go, but Sora remembers and informs them about that the divine land festival was going to be held in that place, with one of the signs being the music heard in the background. Sora also says in horror that they couldn't get in if they didn't have invitations with them, and he says this just as the festival starts. When the supervisors see that they have no invitations, Sora steps forward and tries to reason with them by saying to let his friends and do anything with him, although his condition was not accepted, and just as he was about to be eaten by one of them, Mii comes out of Sora's pocket with 4 invitations for the students. They manage to prevent a safe death and so enter the festival, however Tazuki angrily approaches Sora and hits him on the head in the process while retorting that he always decides everything himself, before quickly heading straight down the path into the festival with Sora looking at him puzzled.

Sora tries to discuss things down with Tazuki but Yamada appears and welcomes them with a hug, with Sora telling him not to hug so tight (especially Tazuki, who he hadn't met), and apologized to Kamiya saying that he liked humans. Sora asks about the injured inugami he saw on the picture, and Yamada explains about there being two inugami; Aa and Uu. He also tells them about how Uu bought time for Aa to escape, something that had similarly happened with Tazuki and Sora when they were cornered having no invitations with them, causing them to look aside having remembered the similar experience between them. When they find both inugami, everyone is shocked when Uu bites Aa and the latter falls to the ground in pain as Uu leaves the place. Apparently Yamada thought that they had already reconciled after what happened, but apparently they didn't do so. Tazuki and Sora walk towards Aa and when they bump and look at each other, they remember the time when Tazuki hits Sora, and they both tell Yamada that they were going to take care of the situation.

When Sora finds Aa, Sora asks if he was mad because Uu bit him, and when he gets a denial, Sora asks another question about whether it was because he made Uu cry, to which Aa nods. Sora explains that something similar had also happened, which ended up hurting not only him, but his other friends, and Aa seems to understand. Kashiwagi, smiling, tells him that they are going to see Uu together. On the other hand, after Tazuki finds Uu hitting his paws against a tree repeatedly, he stops him and explains that hurting himself would only make his feelings worse and would infect him with those he cared about the most, partly adding to what happened with Kashiwagi before. When he manages to calm Uu down, Aa appears and pounces on Uu as they both get back together, while Sora walks over while telling Kamiya without making eye-contact that he saw Aa running where he was going and had chased after it. Both then look at each other and smile, finally having a reconciliation as well.

During their tour of the festival (not yet officially started), Sora asks if they should still continue to spend time with the creatures, remembering Tazuki's words from when he had lost Connie. Tazuki confesses that there was something he couldn't tell him, because if he did, he felt that he wouldn't be able to see Sora again if he didn't keep it from him. He told him not to get involved with the creatures because he might had cracked otherwise. He also tells him that even though it would mean lying to him, he couldn't bear the thought of splitting up with him, surprising Sora. Instead, Kashiwagi admits that he thought Tazuki was distancing himself from him, to which Tazuki becomes worried and turns his head seeing that Sora was being left behind, while Kashiwagi goes on to say that's why he was preparing to accept him in case Tazuki was leaving. Kamiya worriedly asks if he was thinking like that the whole time, and gets an affirmative answer from Sora, as he repeats that he was preparing for when that moment arrived. Tazuki calls his name very affected towards Sora's words, but then the announcement of the festival starts, and a large group of creatures crowd the path and Tazuki calls Sora out but Kashiwagi doesn't seem to hear him, apparently zoomed out. Tazuki grabs Sora's shirt as he's being pushed by the crowd telling Sora they were going to be separated, to which Sora comes back to his senses as Tazuki ends by saying that he would bother the others if he just stood there and tells Kashiwagi to hold onto his shirt from behind. They end up walking together as Kamiya tells him that he wasn't going to leave him and that he had to get it through his head. Sora keeps up with him and tells him a bit embarrassed that he will start depending on him a little more, and asks if he was okay with that. Tazuki looks at him and smiles as he says of course, because that's why they both were them.

After saving Mii and capturing his predator, Sora and the others are given a gift by the Bachiyama. When everyone goes to Sora's house, they open the gift and the next moment a small festival is seen in Sora's yard, all of it inside a box. Everyone has fun playing with the given implements, including the creatures, and in one of those moments after Sora is doused by a water balloon, a towel is thrown at his head and he notices that Tazuki was responsible for this, and thanks him for the gest. They chat for a bit, and Sora announces to everyone, including Kaede, that he was determined to spend every year with everyone indefinitely. The boys share a smile to each other a smile and Motegi along with the rest discuss about the different types of places they could go during the next years they were all going to spend together.

Fanon
Their relationship built throughout the series has been one of the main focus, as they're introduced as "Childhood Friends", which is a very popular and used trope for pairings. Being the most popular ship in the fandom, it's obviously loved by the How to Keep a Mummy fans, although it's pretty much considered being a minor fandom, so the ship doesn't have too much fanbase or many artworks/fan fictions.

Tazuki's overprotectiveness towards Sora is also another reason of why the ship tends to be interpreted as romantic, coming from the fact that Kamiya doesn't want Kashiwagi to suffer from any kind of bad situation he comes across with, shown several times in the anime mainly during their childhood. One of the other reasons was after Sora is pushed by Daichi after the former tries to help the latter, and Tazuki had visible intentions to hit the boy, only for being stopped by Sora though.

After the last episode, there were fans that were convinced of the pairing being canon, as they've reached a good ending not only for them, but for everyone else involved in the show, despite everything that happened during the divine land festival, which event made both reconcile and eventually bond with each other even more.

On AO3, they have 12 works created as romantic and 4 as gen/friendship.

Quotes
"I'm not going to leave you, how long do you think I've stuck around with you?"

- Kamiya to Sora.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Sora is the only one that knows that Tazuki's hair change whenever he doesn't get enough sleep.
 * Both are shown dancing in back-to-back scenes in the ending.
 * In the same ending, they're standing next to each other at the end as they wave back to the public along with Daichi and Mogi.