I’ve been thinking quite a lot about Mephisto and how he makes a wager. In true faustian spirit, Mephisto creates a wager/contract to steal a person’s soul The person is usually ambitious and decides to make a trade for power, prestige or knowledge. In chapter 101 young Shiro makes a wager with Mephisto to be the next Paladin, allowing him to escape section 13 and become a powerful exorcist. Demon wagers seem to be a two-way street, Shiro must abide by the agreed terms to appease Mephisto and Mephisto must hold up his end of the bargain. It’s only natural that Mephisto would become almost like a friend to Shiro, they would need to collaborate. Is Shiro really Mephisto’s victim in this situation? Not really. Shiro would have probably died young in some gruesome section 13 experiment, so in a sense Mephisto did provide him with a longer life. Shiro’s life was bittersweet to say the least. Young Shiro in the beginning seems pretty much obsessed with power. Adult Shiro didn’t seem to care much about power whatsoever. He preferred the love and company of his two boys.
Shiro’s end of the wager most likely required him to be killed by Satan which would progress Mephisto’s plans. Regardless of whether or not Mephisto was involved, Shiro does this selfless act out of love for his son. Shiro would do whatever it took to save Rin from Satan.
It was obvious that Shiro knew for quite a while that he was living on borrowed time. He contacts Shura and asks her to train Rin. He wouldn’t have asked this of her unless he knew his death was imminent.
Shiro, eariler in time also lectured Shura about the direction she was taking with her life and how he didn’t want her squander it. Shiro would be the best person to give her guidance and advice, as he was under a similar demon contract to Shura.
I completely agree that he knew he was on borrowed time, and all of his “children,” including Shura share aspects of his personality and person plight. Yukio was a child soldier, Shura under demon contract and a very unorthodox childhood, and Rin as a potential vessel for Satan (technically, Yukio too).
However, besides that, it really does make me wonder about the contract being Faustian, since he didn’t technically say his soul was on the line, but it is a safe assumption. Going with that belief, although Mephisto bartered for “one favor” in return [as almost everyone agrees: raising the boys] that released any hold on his soul (any other deals, notwithstanding.)
That brings us to Shirou’s ultimate sacrifice. As a Catholic priest, he would have been very well aware that he was committing a mortal sin by taking his own life, and he would have must likely been told how things might end (possession by Satan) or figured that it was indeed a possibility as it had happened to another Azazel clone already, so he’d need a fallback plan. Yes, it was done under extenuating circumstances, but killing himself would be damning his soul, anyway. That’s also assuming there is a version of heaven and God in this series [apart from the bevvy of supernatural entities we’ve seen]. If so, then perhaps it’s considered repetence in stopping Satan, and he’s automatically cleared of damnation.
Going with the non-deus ex machina route by automatic repentance, if there is a contract still open (another bet lost) and his soul was going to hell (Gehenna) anyway, wouldn’t the “best” demon be Mephisto to have as a “keeper?” I and use those terms loosely, because damnation and eternal servitude to Mepphy? Yeesh. I can only hope they truly did for some sort of twisted friendship that would provide him with perks, if that’s the case. Or there was an addendum/caveat that although his soul would be sent to Gehenna, being under Mephisto’s possession, perhaps he could do the unheard of thing and release him.
Just imagine that conversation, lol.
M: “Shirou, I need to borrow your soul for a short while. Don’t worry, I’ll give it right back!”
Or simply my take on why Sensei started the series hinting at Yukio/Shiemi to end up focusing on Rin/Shiemi and possibly Yukio/Shura.
Disclaimer: Ship wars possibly being a thing, I just want to say that while this post is definitely subjective because it’s my opinion, I value canon above everything else and I hope that anyone who might disagree will at least not call me out on being biased, when I only care about interesting developments and no plot hole. x))
Also I caught up around ch34 which means I’ve been following this story monthly for about 6 years now and, if I’m writing this post, it’s because AnE is the only series for which my shipping list changed often, because of what I’m about to say regarding this part of Sensei’s writing.
Right so, starting with Yukio/Shiemi, I totally used to ship them because that’s what the story seemed to initially hint at, Rin being the outsider of the little trio since Yukio and Shiemi had known each other for years when Rin barely knew anything about himself or even his brother to begin with.
Besides, in Shiemi’s own words, she admired him for years and it always showed without a doubt…
…but Yukio’s
continuous and unresolved issues are ultimately what doomed the ship, because he and Shiemi ended up growing apart while Rin slowly made his way closer to Shiemi. The trio dynamic isn’t gone mind you, but Rin/Shiemi is now the only possible outcome for it.
Going backwards, the reason the narrative would hint at Yukio/Shiemi from the beginning was rather simple: initially the whole theme to Yukio’s character is that he’s a little kid thrown into the adults’ world.
He is the youngest exorcist ever (low-key surprising development when Shiro hated what Asylum was about but ://), when Shiro died he became responsible for Rin and also a teacher because he’s skilled, then there was the Morinath contract because of Toudou, etc, which has him forced to act and be burdened like an adult when he’s barely 16 years old right now:
Meanwhile Shiemi was the only kid of his age who knew about what his life
was like
and could provide him with comfort and normal friendship, at least until he started teaching his brother and the other students who were of the same age.
So in that regard, it’s natural that Yukio and Shiemi ended up forging a strong bond, which led to Yukio holding tight onto the most normal part of his life considering how old he is and eventually getting a crush on Shiemi as a result:
However, between Rin’s arrival in the trio and, again, Yukio’s tendency to act alone when it comes to facing problems, it drove him against a wall as far as Shiemi is concerned. Honestly this ship had many occasions to sail, especially considering Yukio’s feelings and Shiemi’s huge admiration towards him…
when Rin was discovered to be Satan’s son, since even Shiemi was mad at him
or during the Kraken arc, because Rin endangered both Shiemi and Yukio by acting rashly
or just before Izumo’s arc, when Shiemi and Yukio spent a lot of time studying together and since Shiemi wanted to go to the dance party with him (in order to cheer him up, of course, but still)
…but unfortunately, Yukio never took the chance due to having a lot on his mind
which in return left room for more interactions between Rin and Shiemi (and Rin never hesitated to go head first and be frank, as we all know).
Finally, the fact that all this time Yukio believed Shiemi had a crush on Rin because he always saw himself as inferior to his older brother…
…is in my opinion what cemented the widening distance between him and Shiemi.
After all, considering that Rin and Shiemi were slowly growing closer, Yukio probably felt he had no other choice but to also directly put some distance with Shiemi in order not to feel too jealous or bitter about himself. He even said as much, by not referring to her as a friend but simply as a student of his:
However this time he was right. Not about Shiemi despising him, obviously she would never, but about needing someone who knows the “real him”.
The most interesting thing (and why I shipped them initially) is that Shiemi was the person who used to understand Yukio the most. Or perhaps, to be more accurate…
Shiemi admiring him for years at least gave Yukio the solace of mattering to someone until even that fully vanished in ch93. I always found interesting that Shiemi was the one he had gone to, crying about being all alone and having no friend when she was still there trying to help him, until the mention of Rin (Rin who’s “the better twin”, Rin who Shiemi is in love with) shattered even that.
Yukio used to be able to rely on Shiemi feeling admiration for him because it gave him self-confidence. Unfortunately as time passed -between the constant pressure on Yukio, Rin getting his own place into the dynamic when Yukio feels inferior to him and even Shiemi herself growing up through experiencing a lot- this ceased to be true and Yukio started to raise walls around himself.
And that, Shiemi herself noticed it way before ch93. For example in ch69…
and that’s why she tried her best to reach out to him as often as possible, even if that hardly worked for now.
When it comes to Yukio’s need to be understood and thus for someone to know “the real him”, once Shiemi was out way before ch93, only Rin and Shura were left to fit the criteria. And out of the two, well, Shura is older, has known Yukio ever since his training days and is generally better at realizing that he hasn’t been doing well since basically the very beginning of the story.
To quote from this post: “actually there was a time in AnE where Yukio was not full of angst (until he meets Toudou), or so you could think because the truth is that he was just better at hiding everything behind his smiles, but anyway it never fooled Shura then…
and it’s still not fooling her.”
So it’s really as Shiemi said: she was the first to be pushed away between her, Shura and Rin, even if Yukio came to her one last time in ch93 in hope to feel better about himself since Shiemi had admired him for so many years.
Then it was Rin who ended up realizing he didn’t understand his little brother anymore, leaving only Shura who couldn’t guess what was wrong exactly with Yukio, but whose interactions with him remained as they always were (until he discovered about Section 13, tried to kill himself, leading to his realization about Satan and his departure for Illuminati).
In conclusion, Yukio/Shiemi was slowly doomed in more ways than one despite being the most likely outcome at the beginning of the story and I really doubt we’ll ever go back to it being a possibility in the narrative. Not now that Rin/Shiemi is a thing but also that Shura finally moved on from Shiro and can make sure to keep her two eyes on Yukio.
(more about Yukio/Shura & Rin/Shiemi under the cut)
To delve a little more on the subject of Yukio/Shura now, since this directly follows my points about Yukio/Shiemi, honestly the only reason I’m uncertain about the ship ever getting more focus is because of the age difference. Not that 10 years is a big deal, but Yukio is still a minor so… the hints are there in my opinion, but when it comes to Sensei writing more about it, I don’t know.
Anyway, to start with, Yukio and Shura contrast each other in almost everything
Yukio: a child thrown into the adults’ world vs Shura: pretends to be 18 forever because of Hachiro’s curse
Yukio: too serious and never knows how to have fun vs Shura: almost never outwardly serious and loves having fun
Yukio: wants to keep Rin under control with a leash on vs Shura: knowingly helps with Mephisto’s plans to make Rin a known asset to the Order.
Yukio: worries about Rin vs Shura: worries about Yukio
Yukio: used to believe in Shiro but ends up despising him for wrongly thinking he only saw them as weapons vs Shura: used to have issues about Shiro but ends up forgiving him and moving on
and that’s probably why it’s the only dynamic Yukio managed to keep intact until he left for the Illuminati (friendly reminder that in comparison he was aggressive with Rin, Suguro, Shiemi a little, Shima & almost Mephisto) because Yukio could always openly state to be 100% annoyed by Shura and she wouldn’t mind at all.
Personally Yukio/Shura used to be a NOTP until the Aomori arc which, despite having some rather controversial moments, is a gold mine as far as this ship is concerned.
I don’t know why I couldn’t see it, perhaps because for a long time I ended up pity-shipping Yukio with Shiemi (poor boy was so full of angst), despite knowing it wouldn’t lead anywhere compared to Rin/Shiemi, or perhaps because it was obvious Shura had a huge unresolved crush on Shiro before the Aomori arc finally tackled the issue…?
As it happens though, the Aomori arc allowed for Shura to move on about Shiro, while Yukio/Shura also could be thought to have blossomed and that’s when I became really fond of this ship and its possible potential.
First of all, we got the confirmation that Yukio never really hated Shura despite how much he claims she annoys him and obviously no one ever believed he did, but it’s a good thing that he went as far as to admit it to himself.
The other point is that, between hypnotized!Shura almost forcing herself onto Yukio and Yukio’s lie to Hachiro about giving Shura a kid…
we still had a genuinely sweet moment between them, surprising enough that Shura got kinda flustered and teased him a lot afterwards, to the point even Rin told her to calm down.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be that meaningful and maybe even Yukio just wanted to cheer Shura up after everything that happened but…
We had another similar moment later, with Yukio admitting to Shura only that he didn’t really want to go to that Christmas party. There again, it’s all about Yukio being the most honest to almost no one else but Shura.
I’m aware that the marriage-hunting party could sound like the end of Yukio/Shura though, but Shura ended up showing up at the Christmas party and anyway, with the current arc and her possibly chasing after Illuminati for Yukio’s sake, I doubt she’s going to settle down any time soon, not with the twins constantly getting in danger.
Again, a huge part of Yukio’s character arc is him needing to be reassured about who he is: it showed through him desiring answers about the secrets behind his birth, about the Order, the Illuminati and as Mephisto once said…
So in my opinion Yukio needs the few people who know “the real him” to tell him that they would never despise him and that they want him back. It’s not even about the Order or being a talented exorcist, it’s about Yukio as his own person and thus the ones who can help him are Rin, Shiemi and Shura.
Besides Rin and Shiemi having feelings for each other, they can only provide comfort and confidence as brother and friend respectively (remember Yukio saying he doesn’t have a decent family or friend?), but where Shura is concerned, depending on if Sensei is serious about the Yukio/Shura hints here and there, it could be as friend, sister-figure, colleague or… as more than that?
At the very least, Shura may just be about providing reassurance towards the topic of Shiro, since she’s the last link between the boys and their adoptive father.
After all she knew him for an even longer time than Yukio and Rin but mostly she knows that he loved them as his sons and wished for them to be safe and happy (and Yukio will need to hear it at some point).
As of right now, Rin/Shiemi is the only confirmed ship because we know about their feelings for each other. When it comes to Yukio/Shura, in my opinion there is some potential, but in comparison to Rin/Shiemi, we don’t know how Yukio and Shura feel towards each other. The Aomori arc may have ignited something between them but maybe Sensei doesn’t want to expand more than that at the moment because Yukio is still a minor (not that it stopped Shura’s crush on Shiro), so… to be continued. x)
Finally, to tackle on the absolutely adorable Rin/Shiemi: in my opinion, it’s 100% happening even if Rin thinks he was rejected and Shiemi that it’s too late (but if they were already going out we wouldn’t be angsting about their separation or the slow burning feels that they’re going to worry so much about each other).
I think Rin’s true infatuation for Shiemi started with the Kyoto arc. It was the moment Yukio’s façade started to crumble because of Toudou, while Rin was losing all confidence about ever belonging due to his origins.
Meanwhile Shiemi also had her own issues to confront because, after getting through the trouble of making friends, she felt extremely useless and had to find a way to be more confident about what she could do for them.
Moving on, as I said in the first part of this post, it’s because Yukio/Shiemi kept on failing, so to speak (since Shiemi was never in love with Yukio), that Rin/Shiemi managed to get its own chance and ended up becoming more likely. One example of what I mean would be the True Cross’ festival:
Rin wanted to invite Shiemi to the dance party
however she had already decided to invite Yukio to cheer him up and as thanks for helping her study
this depressed Rin despite mah cute boy saying that it was better not to fight about love between brothers
on his own end, Yukio was sure that Rin would be the one asking her and had made himself unavailable previously when Shiemi asked him
it ended up with Rin asking Shiemi anyway, but him thinking she liked Yukio led to Rin dancing with both her and Yukio
the conclusion was Shiemi thinking sweetly of Rin
And there are plenty of other examples throughout the story, because of Yukio’s many issues and tendency to face them alone.
In general though, the background for the Rin/Shiemi romance is that Shiemi is Rin’s very first friend and source of support. I mean, not that Shura or Mephisto didn’t always believe in him, but Rin used to feel like an outcast who could never fit in anywhere, especially not with people his own age, so Shiemi acknowledging that she was wrong and showing him just how much she trusted him was totally
what
he needed at his darkest hour.
Similarly for Shiemi, Rin is the one who gave her the opportunity and strength to discover the outside world & want to be a part of it.
Yukio was her first friend and always impressed her because he was like an ideal to work for, but Rin is the one who made it all happen…
…which in both cases is why this ship had a strong basis since very early on and the narrative slowly led it
Now it’s almost as if we’ve gone backwards though: Shiemi was robbed of the future she worked so hard for because of a part of the Grigori, having to keep her secrets to herself, while Rin is struggling because he’s almost all alone again, after Shiemi not becoming an exorcist, after losing Yukio to the Illuminati and almost losing himself to his true power.
This time though, unlike the Kyoto arc where Shiemi gave Rin confidence, maybe this trip in the past will give Rin the answers he needs to understand Shiemi’s predicament, why Yukio left and ultimately who he is, so that he may go rescue the two of them.
The Rin/Shiemi romance will never be a thing as long as Shiemi doesn’t think freely about her future again: she fell for Rin partly because he helped her overcoming her fears, so she needs to think once more about what she truly wants for herself, including if she wants to act on her feelings for him or not. It may also not happen until they’ve rescued Yukio since I don’t doubt that they’re both super worried for him.
Ultimately I regard Rin’s and Shiemi’s feelings for each other as hope for themselves:
Shiemi is like a prisoner to the Vatican for reasons we have yet to find out, but her feelings for Rin may help her remember why she really wanted to be an exorcist, why she fought against being useless, why she wanted to catch up to everyone and be strong for the ones she loves in the first place.
As for Rin, he’s currently on a trip through the past that he knows will end tragically and that he never wanted to learn about. But the thing is, despite the horrible circumstances of his birth and of Shiro’s death, he made friends and even found a girl he loves (unlike what Yukio feels), so he can rely on these feelings to think it’s worth it for him to be alive now.
I even find the little additional twist that Rin only knows he loves Shiemi and thinks she doesn’t, when Shiemi realized that she loves Rin back, to probably be meaningful to whatever will happen to both of them during this arc. 🙂
Sensei is quite astute: whatever she introduced in her story is probably supposed to be narratively meaningful. What’s left is to see how exactly.
This post was super long, so thanks for reading! I hope it made a few points. :3
We all know Mephy is an ass who already knew about the Okumura brothers years before they were even born so that favor he’s talking about is not a fair deal, but I can’t help but wonder who is that demon that Shiro will yield to?
a baby Rin with Satan’s flames who Shiro won’t be able to kill?
Satan himself possessing Goro, Shiro’s “brother” so to speak?
someone else who will be possessed by Satan during the Blue Night?
something related to Yuri being possessed at the very end maybe???
Unless this favor Mephisto is talking about won’t be about raising the twins? Hm…
What if Shiro is really the twins’ father?
I’ve seen the theory going around before, so it shouldn’t be a new idea at all, but frankly the more we get into the flashbacks the more I wonder about how likely it could be.
So here’s my take on it: it was said in the story before that Yuri became pregnant with the twins because she was impregnated by Satan’s host, which means that the male human who Satan possessed could also be called the twins’ father.
Thanks to Lightning’s recent investigation, we were kinda pushed to believe that
Azazel’s clone #5 Goro was The One, but who knows for sure, especially since looking at Yuri…
…there definitely was a thing between her and Shiro.
Furthermore, the newest chapter told us that Shiro was the only one who made it Exwire amongst the Azazel clones and we know it was also the case for Yuri since she eventually became an exorcist.
So I just wonder how Yuri would have come to meet with Goro who was probably a permanent resident of Section 13 in the first place, unlike Shiro with whom there definitely was a closeness for years because they were both trained to become exorcists.
Then again, you could argue that Yuri didn’t have to know or love Goro for the twins to be conceived: I mean, there is the horrible eventuality that she was raped by Satan possessing Goro or even the anime’s take on it (especially if Shiro never gave into his feelings for her and kept pushing her away).
It’s just…I think that the idea that Shiro could be the twins’ biological father is interesting because he is similar on different aspects to both Rin and Yukio, as Rin himself mentioned in the newest chapter.
At the same time, the idea that he raised the twins simply because of his love for Yuri is absolutely beautiful too, but it can still work because Shiro wouldn’t even have to know/believe that he’s actually the twins’ biological father in this theory. I mean, look…
when he possessed Shiro in the very first chapter, Satan was the one in control of Shiro’s body, until Shiro managed to overcome him at the very end.
My point is that the same could have happened in the past: maybe Satan possessed Shiro for a very short while, had sex with Yuri (who was in love with Shiro for a long time and didn’t notice anything?) and that’s how the twins were conceived, with Rin inheriting Satan’s powers.
And when it comes to Goro, either Goro was the first human ever possessed by Satan, which is how he gained an ego and started possessing other humans, leading to the twins’ conception (through possessing Shiro) and eventually to the Blue Night as we all know, or Goro’s possession was simply the start of the Blue Night and that’s why his file is gone.
EDIT: btw about the blue night I still think that Mephy managed to save the day by promising Satan to give him Rin’s body once Rin would be old enough. Not only did Satan imply so but Lucifer wouldn’t kill Rin also for this reason.
It’s just a theory obviously, but I really hope the flashback will tell us how Yuri could even know Goro since she probably never found out about Section 13.
If we know that, then I guess we can rule out Shiro from being the twins’ biological father, but not before.
Last point, but Mephy once mentioned that if Yukio was the one finding out about the past the way Rin is doing right now, it wouldn’t bring good results…
…and since Yukio already believes that Shiro was just raising them as weapons to take down Satan, I can’t even begin to imagine what’s really the twist behind the twins’ existence that finding out about the truth (which is what Yukio wanted for so long) would make Yukio feel even more horrible…
EDIT: I guess that if the Grigori have it wrong and Satan didn’t possess any guy (Shiro or other) who then had intercourse with Yuri, resulting in the twins’ conception, the other possibilities are that:
Satan possessed Yuri herself and that’s when the boys were conceived (kind of similar to the Virgin Mary)
or that Yuri was already pregnant (because of Shiro? or another guy?) and Satan possessed her during the pregnancy, leading to the twins getting powers and becoming interesting vessels.
From ch86: the power structure of Gehenna was addressed in the omakes of the same volume (19)…
but I love how Sensei managed to visually represent the current conflict between the Illuminati and the True Cross’ Order in Mephisto’s discussion with Lightning and Suguro.
As expected, considering the flowchart from the omakes, neither Amaimon or Beelzebub were represented on that page of ch86, because they’re not interested/not choosing any side (although personally I believe this is starting to change with Amaimon, as I discussed here).
Similarly, the Okumura twins (the wild cards) aren’t shown either, most likely because we needed Yukio to find out about his eyes and to leave the Order behind as a result (and besides if you remember, Lucifer was always willing to give Rin back to Samael, probably because of that “deal” with Satan, while he mentioned being interested by Yukio, so the current layout makes sense)!
Nothing new, but just to point out that Sensei’s way to illustrate when she’s foreshadowing is truly interesting!
It’s so nice to reread the series and come across this cover again, because I always wondered if the layout of Mephy’s little pawns on his right hand was meaningful or just random/for the aesthetic.
However seeing the current arc, I’m almost sure that this was drawn like this on purpose, which makes it even better!
Look, look, first of all you’ve got Rin and Yukio facing each other and this could really be depicting how Yukio just left his brother and the Order to join the Illuminati, as well as the on-going conflict (mostly from Yukio’s perspective) that led to this decision.
Mephy was totally expecting such an event after all, he even deliberately worked for it, finally pushing Yukio to his limits in ch94.
However, as it is, Rin remains on the Order (or more simply remains Mephy’s trump card) while Yukio moved on to join Lucifer and the Illuminati.
Then Shiemi and Amaimon: starting with Shiemi on the cover of ch44, she’s on “Rin’s side”, as if supporting him, and then again it makes sense for several reasons.
Shiemi is the one (with Suguro) who warned Rin that something was really wrong with Yukio in the current arc.
In fact, she used to be closer to Yukio (knowing him for a longer time and all), but his inner conflict ever since the Kyoto arc led him to slowly get estranged from her while Rin grew closer to Shiemi instead.
This leads to why the current blossoming romance is Rin/Shiemi and not Yukio/Shiemi, despite Yukio and Shiemi having better odds at the beginning of the series (I want to expand on that but in another post about shipping in AnE in general once I’ve reread the whole series).
Another reason to “Shiemi being on Rin’s side” could be her own part of the current arc, since…
after finally admitting that she’s got feelings for him (and not Yukio, sorry my boy, long ago I was vouching for you guys), she’s taken by the Vatican for a matter that’s most likely related to Shemihaza.
So Shiemi is in love with Rin and also remains on the Order’s side, even if this is probably not as willingly as it appeared to be in ch99.2.
In fact, since she chose to drop becoming an exorcist after the talk with her mom and despite her initial wishes, it’s pretty clear that her character’s arc will have to address what she really wants for her future and, since we’ve established in different parts of the story that a part of the Order is rotten anyway, this will probably be related.
This is where Amaimon jumps in and again, the current arc might explain why he’s lurking behind Shiemi on the cover of ch44. Yeah, sure, Shiemi was his bride that he chose randomly to force Rin to attack him in an early arc, but lately…
it doesn’t seem to be such a random narrative (or related to Rin/Shiemi) choice after all.
The “Shiemi has a link to Shemihaza” theories have been going strong for a while now, with Shemihaza who was described to be “the emperor of creation”
while Amaimon is a Baal, but more precisely the King of Earth.
only being involved so far in Mephy’s schemes because he owes his current vessel to Mephy.
And yet, this scene happened…
…which is giving me the feeling that either Shemihaza and Amaimon have a significant history or that Amaimon is pissed because maybe he shouldn’t have taken Shiemi in particular as his “bride” (I’d rather believe in the former though).
Nonetheless, I think we can safely expect Amaimon to be involved in Shiemi’s personal arc, whatever the reason for his outburst and anger was, and since both are related to Nature, I’m also wondering if we might not finally get another mention of the Garden of Amahara (maybe it was created by Amaimon and Shemihaza?). :))
Moving on, that leaves only Shura’s pawn on the cover of ch44, who’s in an interesting position since she’s backing up Yukio but at the same time facing Mephy. No surprise but there again, I think it’s related to the current arc.
First of all Mephy and Shura have this weird dynamic: she doesn’t trust him at all, but she plays by his rules when she knows it can’t be helped and he’s been edging her on down the road of becoming the #1 caretaker of the Okumura twins since 5ever. Please observe the development between ch34 and ch81:
What Mephy also did is that he made sure that the twins would be the ones who would solve the matter with Hachiro, which also helped Shura with moving on from Shiro…
…and which led to her saying something super important as a conclusion to her arc:
The reason it’s super relevant and interesting (and also the reason I believe it’s related to her position on the cover of ch44) is that Shura is also one of the few who can get Yukio to be 100% honest.
Sure, that led to them bickering all the time and Yukio saying that he always hated her, buuuut thanks to the Aomori arc, we know that’s far from being true.
Anyway, personally I had forgotten, but actually there was a time in AnE where Yukio was not full of angst (until he meets Todo), or so you could think because the truth is that he was just better at hiding everything behind his smiles, but anyway it never fooled Shura then…
and it’s still not fooling her.
So, now that Yukio completely broke down about everything…
…maybe Mephisto will give her an opportunity to go after him, or she’ll simply choose to go by herself. For now all she knows is that he escaped, she doesn’t know about the Illuminati yet, but when she finds out… she might just drop the Order (since she said she didn’t care) and chase after him, especially since the Illuminati also took what was left of Hachiro.
So she wouldn’t be on neither the Order’s side or the Illuminati’s: she’s on the twins’ side and she’s facing Mephy on the cover of ch44 because she knows he planned it all out and now she may have to go and try bringing Yukio back (whether Mephy offers his help/an opportunity or not though, we’ll see).
There you go! It’s all adding up, and obviously since it’s Mephy’s plan xD but I’m so happy Sensei went as far as to possibly plan it all out and leave little clues such as the cover of ch44. I just can’t wait to find out more. 😀
Sorry for the long post, it’s really a blast to reread the series!
Unsurprisingly, the Mephy from 40 years ago already knows about who Rin is and what he’s doing here even though our MC is not even born yet xD
But then again, Mephy did tell us previously that he already tried many alternate versions of that trip to the past…
…meaning that it seems that Rin going alone to learn about the past is the best way for things to go according to Mephisto’s (most likely, future) plans.
Otherwise he wouldn’t be so overshadowed? The question is do we readers know him or is he someone that Rin possibly saw at least once before too?
I was considering Dragulescu
…but iirc Rin doesn’t know him, which would make it only an element of surprise for us readers? Could he be a Todo otherwise (as in Todo Saburota’s father)?
Or maybe he’s the equivalent to Ernest Frederick Egin from the anime (since I doubt little Yuri here already had her last name)? IDK but I’ve got a bad feeling about this guy.
when the name will be revealed, the one with the closest name suggested will win something 😀
I’ll go with Gilbert Gulliver 😛
I don’t know why but something tells me he’s actually Shiemi’s father. She looks so much like him and he seems “old” enough to have a daughter of 15. And also he’s got this western/japanese mix with his blonde hair and his kimono.
Another theory would be that he’s the current Shemihaza heir so he’s more like a distant relative of Shiemi…
Anyway, his name is probably related to “Moriyama”, it can be Shiemi’s mother’s last name though 😛
Just a reminder: If someone can find his name or find the closest one, I’ll follow you or suggest your blog as an account to follow !
Was Rin’s journey to the past foreshadowed from the beginning? Will Rin interact with someone in the past/affect some happenings?
BE is currently on hiatus and so, even if it’s gonna be a bit frustrating, we’ll have to wait till May to find out what’s gonna happen in chapter 100. Even so, based on what we learned from chapter 99 (through Mephisto’s words), I think we can already start making some predictions. And I got a few.
This theory is about what I think we can expect to see/learn from Rin’s journey to the past. And also about the possibility that Rin’s journey was foreshadowed to us since the very beginning.
midnight-in-town 