The Walk Home

sweet nothings

how tf do people write fics?? like i really have the ideas in my head and then i pick up a pen or open the notes and it's all gone

i hadn't at all consider this line of thinking, but i can see it work and i like how it ties that plot line with the more recent arcs. it's soo interesting

i'm definitely gonna be up thinking about this

thoughts on tbhk manga

just some days ago i read this series, so there are a lot of things that are on my mind especially after seeing other people theories and stuff, so here i'm gonna ramble a bit about them KDNDLDMF

1. so, i have seen a lot of theories of amane's injuries being bc of the clock. but i don't really think that makes sense timewise.

i assumed that the year amane is fixing the clock is 1968 and when we see him injured is 1969. in chapter 101 the announcement says that the first year middle school play and then comes this conversation,,,

so is their class that's doing the play. and since the festival is at the end of summer and they are in their first year (if they are from the class presenting the play) it must be 1968. and he had to have it moving before that years school festival ended,,, so it being the reason for his injuries is highly unlikely imo (well, except he is refering to the 1969 CF, that is an option, but isn't it weird?)

that takes us back to then who or what is actually harming him? i have 2 theories for that. the first one is that it was tsukasa, but it was to provoke amane..

we have seen tsukasa's reaction when he gets to know that his brother is going to kill him, so maybe since they both were close to 13, he has been trying to trigger amane to DO THE THING, trying to get to know that part of his brother, what would push his buttons enough for him to actually do that?

my other option is that it's the mother, afterall she was scared of tsukasa, maybe she started to take her fear on them and since amane is also suspicious, he would understand his mother and forgive her

i haven't seen this idea so idk what you guys think

2. what is it really that the clock-keepers changed? a lot of people speculate that they keep baby tsukasa in the house, but we are shown after n° 1 loops a clock with 1968 written on it, so is logical to assume that's the year they change something.

From that, if we take into account that's the year amane was fixing the clock, maybe he originally did change something when he traveled through time (even if tsukasa says that nothing came of it, implying he couldn't even fix the clock) and that's what n°1 changed, he made amane do something different in 1968 that made a change in the past, but then who told adult amane 4 y/o self about the change in time? his middle school self that traveled? the red house thing?

3. ALSO IN CHAPTER 101 there's this ghost? that talks to nene about an accident in the CF so WHAT ABOUT THAT? WHY NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THAT?

WHAT IF this accident is related to the time change somehow come on guyssss think with me

other thing that has been bothering me is that in the wikis (eng and esp) it says that the yugi twins birthday is in 1955, but in chapter 78 it says that in 1960 is their 4th birthday, so shouldn't they be born in 1956? i don't know if i'm just to dumb to fucking do math or what but wth

Double meanings in furigana in Mission 1 and Twilight's idea of self

Inspired by this post by @yumeka-sxf.

I've been rereading the manga with @xxscarletxrosexx and @mossshrooms (join us here at ep 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), which means a collective effort of extreme close reading. For my part, I try to bring the original jp version and the translated tw version into the discussion, and guess what? Endo has been sneaking many details into furigana, and I think these details set the tone of Twilight as a character.

Marked alongside with kanji, furigana is normally used as the phonetic notation of the kanji. However, especially in mangas, at times furigana are used to show the true meaning/ double meaning of the characters' words instead of showing the pronunciation of the kanji.

It all starts when, for the first time, Twilight thinks about his codename Tasogare, or rather, the other meaning of Tasogare. The furigana/pronunciation notation is normal here, but the kanji or the word is not Twilight. It is "who is this".

Now, the word, or the kanji, for Twilight (Tasogare) is 黄昏. The word Twilight 黃昏 is said to be derived from the phrase "who is this 誰そ彼" - as it's getting dark at twilight, it's difficult to recognise faces. It's fitting, because disguise is his specialty. Even without disguise, spies should "become" the role they play during their missions:

In English, the line is simply translated into "I abandoned my identity when I became Twilight." I suppose a more literal translation could be: "I abandoned my name and my face [to become] this 'whoever that is'." He will become whoever the mission requires him to be. His codename thus becomes part of his reasonings why he has to carry out his mission.

There is an irony in identifying himself as "who is this", or "whoever this is", because that indicates a lack of self-identification, especially when this scene happens right after he suppresses his emotions to undertake such an unreasonable, almost impossible, task. Why is that so? Because he's been emphasising on the fact that he has abandoned the sense of self since day 1 he became a spy. The sense of self is symbolised by his face, his name (the train scene as shown before), his ID card, and his "desire and determination" 執着 to get married and to live in ordinary bliss (the late night alleyway scene as shown below).

This is the first time he identifies himself as Tasogare, and at the same time he creates a distance from this identity, Twilight, as he skips right to 誰そ彼 ("who is this") instead of calling himself 黃昏 (Twilight). There seemingly is an identity - Twilight 黃昏, but without the sense of self - "who is this" 誰そ彼.

In the next scene in which he identifies himself as Tasogare, another double meaning appears:

This time it's slightly more straightforward. The furigana of 黃昏 is not "tasogare たそがれ" - it is "ore オレ", meaning "I".

A mental loop is thus created with the help of the double-meanings largely indicated by furigana - I am a spy. -> A spy is whoever the mission requires him to be (in short, "who is this"). -> "Who is this" is Twilight. -> Twilight is me.

And that is why this panel, also shared by yumeko, is important.

When he says 子ども (children), in furigana it reads as じぷん/自分 (self). He breaks the mental loop as Anya reminds him of himself as a child. Himself before becoming a spy. His goals when he decided to become a spy. We see a glimpse of [redacted], the self he thought he had already thrown away together with his name, his face, and his hopes and dreams.

This resurfacing of his sense of "self" seemingly sparks new flames of passion towards his work as a spy, which would slowly lead him to rediscover what his "mission" really is. However, his internal conflicts would also start brewing. He talked about having thrown away his desire and determination to get married and start a family along with his self in order to become a spy. He has been rediscovering this long lost/repressed self, including these hopes and desires.

In no way I'm trying to fault the translator(s) - I think the English translating team has been doing a good job in localisation in a limited time. Inevitably, there will be, as scarlet likes to say, cultural discount, especially due to Japan's high context culture. Endo is a diligent author, and this also shows in his word choices. It is surprising to see that many details he has included right from the start, and it does show that he goes back to them from time to time.

PS. There are two more details about "Agent Twilight". When the higher-ups are having a meeting to see whom they could assign the mission to, Westalis is still Westalis in katakana.

In the newspaper which Twilight reads on the train, the furigana for Westalis is "our country" わがくに. The English translation for the whole sentence is "Thanks to you, the minister has survived another day, to the great benefit of Westalis." At the end of the day, no matter how much they emphasise on their intention in "keeping peace", this is still an information warfare, and Westalis has to be benefited from his work. "Our side" has to win. (Duh.)

Twilight, however, did not even react to this. There is an irony in how they call him 黄昏くん, just for him to respond (internally) with switching the codename 黄昏 to 誰そ彼 when he caves in and accepts the mission for the sake of "peace" and "the people's lives". There is a subtle sense of disagreement or even disobedience hidden under the act of compliance right from Chapter 1.

Anyway, happy sxf update this Sunday. If you are interested, join us to reread the manga. ...Bye. (Runs in the inability to end posts.)

“Certainly Humans are Sinfully Stupid, but What’s wrong with that?”

Summary: I will be dividing this essay into two main parts to address what Dazai had said in this panel to Dazai-sensei’s writing. Then, in one short part I will attempt to connect some of what I had said back to BSD Dazai as a theory.

A/N: Basically take it as me rambling about my favorite bsd dazai panel and some of my personal take on dazai works which escalated and turned out much longer than I originally imagined…  (by that I mean this became 6k+ words) Also just my contribution to Dazai’s birthday <3 Also note that use of Chinese is present in this, since it’s much easier to find translated works of Dazai in this language, but if I do quote it, I will attempt to translate it

Warnings: Mentions of suicide, (if you’re uncomfortable with it) religious wording, spoilers to some of Dazai’s stories (works discussed [in relatively more detail]: No Longer Human, Otogizoshi, Blue Bamboo, Thinking of Zenzo, 正義與微笑, 思考的蘆葦)

Keep reading

The last panel doesn’t really work. It was hilarious in my head.

Happy Halloween!

if in the new timeline in the manga there are no school mysteries then that means that the creation of the mysteries is related to the death of the twins? or is it to the pit god?

so what if the next POV is yosano, lucy & kyouka bc WHERE ARE MY GIRLS? they have to save the day or this will be a tragedy!! i miss them :[

Sometimes I think we forget that we're dealing with middle school/high school aged characters. Literal children.

And this includes Hanako.

Sure, Hanako is decades older than most of the main cast, and so you could make an argument that he's technically this ancient being, trapped to forever inhabit a 13 year olds body.

But I don't think it negates the fact he is literally still a 13 year old boy. I think we forget he is still a middle school boy at heart and a lot of what is going on is most likely extremely new to him, and so he's going to handle it to the best of his ability—as a 13 year old boy, and as an ancient Supernatural.

Nene is possibly the first and only girl he's ever had a serious crush on—actually, she is possibly the first and only girl Hanako has ever crushed on, loved, and kissed. I'm not sure at any point in Hanako's life, as Amane and as Honorable No. 7, he thought getting to have something as normal and common as a crush, a first love, and all that entails, could be possible for him. I doubt that was any concern of his as Amane, considering what he was going through at the time, and I doubt he believed it at all possible as Hanako, dead and gone and just a rumor in the school, nothing more.

There is something cute and sweet and endearing about their relationship first starting off in the series. Hanako is more like a friendly guide to Nene—she is his assistant, and at the start she was extremely green to the world and happenings of the Supernatural world. He wasn't the one to initiate the friendship-stage—he merely brought up how that's how it feels, having Yashiro around every day to clean the girls' restroom. He obviously wasn't planning on getting attached, as he knew from the beginning she was close to death and well isn't that how it is with humans, they die so easily, it's too bad but it is what it is.

It was Nene who initiated it. She made the big step to go from -san to -kun. No longer would there be an illusion of friendship from Hanako's perspective—they are friends, Nene made it so.

People say the turning point to their relationship changing from guiding mentor/assistant to more was the Picture Perfect Arc, but I would argue it started at the rooftop where Nene made the decision to call him her friend.

From that point, we get to see the progression of this friendship to something much more, because they were now actively beginning to move passed simply being this friendly, but almost business-like partnership. It was gradual and very natural, but when you compare their relationship from the start to where we are now, there is a stark contrast.

I do believe the change in how Hanako interacts and treats Nene also stems from the growth and wisdom she has obtained via the experiences she's had so far.

Nene is not a simple bystander in this relationship, she really is the driving force behind it. We know that Hanako would have probably left things well enough alone from the start, just her being his assistant, helping him deal with certain supernatural occurrences, fix rumors, clean his bathroom, etc. and simply make sure she was at least having some fun doing it because he knew her days were numbered. He wasn't uncaring, but he was pretty practical about it, being a School Mystery Supernatural and all.

He was doing his job. Like the other Mysteries, he actually takes his job pretty seriously. We see this in how, similar to No. 4, No. 6, and now No. 1, they all can get tunnel-vision and resort to drastic, extreme, and almost tyrannical means to accomplish the ends.

But then Nene makes him her friend, and meeting her results in him making other friends (primarily Kou), and all of a sudden it's not so simple as doing his job and protecting the humans under the Mysteries charge at this school.

Suddenly it's not so simple, because he grows attached, and she continues to do things and say things that further drive their relationship to something resembling romantic, first love. She becomes very important to him, to the point his drive of granting her wish (saving her) has changed him and has made him act out in ways which, truthfully, have been mislabeled (more on this in a second).

Nene will always call out for Hanako to save her because insofar he has never failed to be there to save her. Sure, at the beginning he might have taken a more passive approach in helping her, as it's usually because he believes she can get herself out of certain situations on her own (think of the Tea Party Arc, where technically Nene does get herself in that situation by her own naivety and fault of falling for a pretty face) and that was endearing.

But Nene is not always a damsel in distress. Nene is not stupid. Sure, she's 15, and she's a little dorky and silly and she does have a boycrazy problem, but what fifteen year old girl doesn't? And she's fully aware of herself! She is honest about her faults, and she knows when to admit she has made a mistake and when she needs help.

But Nene has grown, and if the last chapter doesn't prove that then I don't know how else to convince you. She is a young woman who has crossed six boundaries, has faced spirits and other supernaturals, and has leaped through time, has confronted Death, and will continue to confront and fight it, and is in love with a School Mystery Supernatural.

She does not need Hanako to always hold her hand like he had to in the beginning. She might be scared, she might feel utterly alone, but she is doing it scared, and she is determined, and she is capable.

It then only makes sense that Hanako and Nene's relationship would have to change. We can look back at the start, and be completed smitten and charmed by the beginnings of what their relationship looked like, how Hanako treated her.

But as she became less his assistant and more like something of a crush, a first love, a maybe girlfriend/lover (a girl who has gone through every trial and tribulation so far with him and still wants to BE with him), then of course, for a character like Hanako, not only would this change how he handles and treats her, but also how he might act out.

Again, she is probably, most definitely his first in everything, similar to how he is turning out to be her first in a lot of things too.

Nene is made for love, she's a lover girl at heart, a romantic, and so falling in love with a boy (even a dead, ghost boy) doesn't really faze her. She used to vehemently deny anything being there between them, but as she got to know Hanako, and spend time with him, and love him despite all his flaws, despite him being dead, despite him murdering—when Mitsuba accuses her of falling madly in love with Hanako, she can't even bring herself to act shocked and bewildered. Instead, Nene has come to accept, quite easily, she does love him, and she does want him to know that she doesn't just like-like him, but that she loves him. It's very easy and natural for her.

It is not easy and natural for someone like Hanako. It's probably like pulling teeth, when he's put on the spot, when he's expected to openly admit his feelings. We've seen this. He can't be direct about his feelings, it's like trying to throw a cat in a tub full of water. He won't do it, it almost seems to physically pain him to be so honest and vulnerable like that. The idea of love, of being loved, scares him, or at least leaves him nauseous and off-kilter.

Because he's dead, and the dead and the living can't stay together. Even if Nene dies, if that is truly what's going to happen and neither can stop it, worse, he's a special kind of dead thing, and she won't be, and so even after death they apparently can't be together.

So love would be out of the question, wouldn't it? Yet here it is, a thing called love, a girl called Yashiro Nene.

Circling back, I don't think Hanako fits the Yandere category. It's funny to call him that, but I would not describe the love between Hanako and Nene as a ''sickness.'' He has not become a Yandere, and I don't see him ever being one. If you've read Aidalro's short comic, My Dear Living Dead, then I would say the boy in that story would better fit the category of a Yandere—his love becoming so obsessive, all consuming, and makes him so unstable that it does become a dangerous kind of sickness.

Hanako is trying to balance being a dead, 13 year old boy, and a School Mystery Supernatural. Now I'm not saying this excuses him for any fumble and fuck up he's made, but I think it more than explains why he's not going to handle this situation perfectly and maturely. Why he might kind of be really bad at handling the fact that the girl he was supposed to grant a silly love wish for has now become basically his entire world, this living girl, who is actually going to die, but he doesn't want her to die because he loves her and even if it'll break him and whatever resembles a heart, he is willing to sacrifice himself, and possibly others, to save her.

I think the biggest example people might use of him being a Yandere is how he acted during the PP Arc. That he was willing to make himself out to be the villain, just because he believed that this was the only way to halt the progression of her life coming to an abrupt end. Living in a painting, living out her days in a pretend world, as long as it was real enough for her. We could also say that it could've been a bit of a selfish indulgence on his part, because he was able to "live" alongside her in that world, be a normal boy, with a normal crush, and go on normal dates, etc.

So what if she forgot the real world? Forgot the real him? She could be happy there, she could stay alive there. She could live to be a hundred in that world.

But I don't see that as a sickness, as much as it's an example of a School Mystery Supernatural kind of going haywire in trying to complete it's duty (which we've seen can happen, Supernaturals not really taking into account what it could effect as long as their decision accomplishes what needs to be done) Hanako is not immune to this happening.

But also, he cares about her, and he loves her, and he definitely loved her during that Arc. Love can make people act stupid, extreme, unthinking, foolish. Being that Nene is his first love, I'm actually not even surprised by this first attempt at prolonging her life. She couldn't understand why he was doing it, and of course Hanako was not direct with her in his reason for why he was doing it, at all. "Yes, why am I doing this."

But later on, when she's coming to the realization that Hanako might have feelings for her, and she takes note that Hanako has never been direct with what he means and how he feels, and one of the examples was when he said that to her in the PP Arc while she was imprisoned. So I think, unconsciously, Nene knew why Hanako was doing what he was doing.

Anyway, it's not like he went through with keeping them all in a painting of No. 4's making, because Nene was able to talk him down and he was willing to finally listen to her. If his love for her was a sickness, she wouldn't have been able to get through to him at all. His decision would have been final.

But Hanako actually cares what Nene thinks and feels and has to say, even if he was initially thoughtless and careless with his decision, in the end, he does care about what she wants.

Hanako was also going to accept never getting to see Nene again. Like yeah, it's bad that he was willing to put Aoi in Nene's place so that Nene could live—but are we forgetting that, technically, Aoi wanted to go away? Maybe she didn't want to die, but she did want to disappear, she wanted to leave. Hanako made his decision, but so did Aoi, who is more than capable of making her own brash, stupid decisions as any other fifteen year old girl.

Anyway, Hanako was willing to let Nene go, even if it meant her not only forgetting about him, but also hating him.

Yandere's do not want their crush to hate them. They do not want to be separated from their love interest, ever. They would rather kill them both, or hurt their love interest, than ever let them live without them, or move on from them.

Hanako has not intentionally tried hurting Nene. I think he would shatter into a thousand pieces if he accidentally physically hurt her, too.

Hanako's attempts so far to save Nene may have been ill-advised, impulsive, foolish, and extreme. Hanako can act selfish, possessive, jealous, and sometimes even insensitive. He can get tunnel-vision when it comes to saving Nene. He wants to be the only one to save her and give her the possibility of a life because it's the only way he knows how he'll get to love her and "be" with her.

But, as we've seen, it's not like he gets away with it, it's not like these things aren't addressed, and it's not like he completely disregards what the others have to say to him once they catch him acting up.

Nene made it a point to tell him how she does not like how he will make these rash decisions and plans without telling anyone (without asking her) because he thinks he knows what's best. Nene, like in their relationship, is a large driving forcing in Hanako's character development. She may make excuses for him at times, but when he does fuck up, when he does do something crazy like in the PP Arc, or basically letting her best friend Aoi take her place to be sacrificed and disappearing on her like he did in Severance—she lets him know immediately that what he's doing isn't right, and it's especially not something she would want.

To the point that she's taken her wish back of wanting to live. To the point of pretending that she's accepted her death and that she would stay behind with Hanako, or in the far shore, while the others got out and saved Aoi. Because I think she knows that Hanako can get this tunnel-vision when it comes to her and her life, and that he wants to be the one to give that to her.

Hanako isn't a Yandere, he's just a boy with a very unfortunate past, who has tons of baggage, dead, a supernatural with serious responsibilities, and is severely down bad for a living girl who is on the cusp of death. Honestly, he could be handling this much worse than he has been. And maybe he might, but we'll just have to see.

He is navigating the unknowns as best as he can. He's not unreachable, he's not any more unstable than all the other characters in the series right now, having to deal with their own hangups, issues, and flaws. Almost all of them teenagers. Of course they're all a little unstable and stupid.

So, I don't know, I guess the point of this post is that Hanako is not a Yandere, by definition and by characterization, and while he definitely deserves to be called out for certain choices and actions, that maybe we should cut him a little slack. He is literally going through it.

Japanese Linguistic Observations in Spy x Family - part 1

This is a post series I've been planning for a while and I've finally had the time to complete part 1! 😃 I may have mentioned here before that I got my B.A. in Japanese/East Asian Studies, and even though I'm not fluent, I know the linguistics of the language fairly well. So I thought it would be fun to examine the interesting aspects of the Japanese version of the SxF manga that aren't reflected in the English translation. It might also be an informative experience for those who don't know any Japanese to learn a bit about the language through SxF! I'll try not to get too technical with the linguistics and keep my explanations at a beginner's level.

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Part 1 - Twilight's "honne and tatemae"

One of the main themes in SxF is how many of the characters have secrets they want to hide, so they act a certain way in front of others in order to mask their true selves. Japanese has a word for this phenomena called 本音と建前 ("honne and tatemae").

I remember learning about the concept of "honne and tatemae" during my Japanese college studies – a quick google search will yield a lot of publications on the topic and its relation to Japanese culture in particular. While the idea of hiding one's true intentions behind a fake facade can exist anywhere and is not something unique to Japan, it is enough of an occurrence in Japanese culture that there are specific words for it. The Wiki article has a basic but good definition of honne and tatemae, to quote:

A person's honne may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances, and they are often kept hidden, except with one's closest friends. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances, and these may or may not match one's honne. In many cases, tatemae leads to outright telling of lies in order to avoid exposing the true inward feelings.

Sounds very much like the characters in SxF, doesn't it? Twilight especially, because unlike other characters like Yor and Anya, who simply have secrets they need to keep but don't create fake personas for themselves, Twilight does – the cheerful, friendly Loid Forger is a different person from the cold, calculating Twilight after all. Also unlike Yor and Anya, who speak the same way consistently no matter who they're talking to, Twilight uses different speech levels depending on which persona he's using and who he's talking to.

There are many different levels of speech in Japanese, ranging from super formal to totally crude. These speech levels are distinguished mostly by the pronouns the speaker chooses to use for themselves and who they're speaking to, as well as how they choose to conjugate the words they use. For example, 座ってください (suwatte kudasai), 座って (suwatte,) and 座れ (suware) all mean "sit," as in, telling someone to sit down. But the tone being conveyed is different: the first one is polite, the second one is casual, and the last one could be seen as rude if you're not using it with a close friend/family member.

As Twilight, he uses casual speech with the masculine and less polite pronoun 俺 or オレ (ore). This is the speech he uses when talking to a fellow spy like Fiona, and for his own inner thoughts.

As Loid Forger, he uses the polite 敬語 (keigo) speech, which is basically comprised of using the -ます (-masu) conjugation for verbs and the "to be" verb です (desu). He also uses the pronoun ボク or 僕 (boku), which is the standard male pronoun and more polite than "ore." He uses keigo to address pretty much everyone who doesn't know his true identity. When talking to a higher-up like Sylvia, he'll still use "ore" but will use polite speech instead of casual speech.

Anya is an exception to this: with her, he uses his most casual speech, the same as he uses with Franky.

I discussed a bit about this in part 24 of my Twiyor analysis posts, but this could be because Anya is a little kid, so he doesn't feel the need to put on any airs with her (same with Bond, whom he also uses casual speech with).

An interesting side note is that, as a child, Twilight used the pronoun "boku" but then changed to "ore" as soon as he became an adult/soldier.

Another aspect of keigo, besides using the more polite forms of pronouns and verb conjugations, is putting the honorific さん (san) after people's names. Twilight does this all the time with Yor, as she does with him. However, he switches to casual speech and drops the "san" part in her name when addressing her in front of people who (supposedly) believe they're a real married couple, such as Yuri and Fiona – because it would be weird for a real couple who have been married for a year to address each other in such a formal way, especially the husband. In the below panel when Fiona visits them, he's calling her "Yor" instead of "Yor-san" and using casual speech instead of keigo.

Oddly in these situations, while he uses just "Yor" when addressing her directly, he still calls her "Yor-san" when talking about her. During Yuri's first visit for example, he calls her "Yor-san" when telling Yuri how much Anya loves her (talking to someone about her) but then calls her just "Yor" a few moments later when telling her that he'll clean up the spill (talking to her directly). It's strange to me that he wouldn't just consistently use "Yor" whether he's talking to her or about her in these situations...I'm honestly not sure if he does this intentionally or if he just slips up since he's so used to using "Yor-san" in her presence.

*UPDATE* Thank you to @dentedintheworld-blog for enlightening me with the below reply about this!

"In Japanese, when speaking to your spouse's family about your spouse, you address her/him by attaching "san" her/his name out of respect for her/his family. This is also to show her/his family that you respect your spouse. That's why Loid calls Yor with san when he talks about how much he loves Yor to Yuri."

That definitely makes sense for why Twilight switches between "Yor" and "Yor-san" in these situations.

Regardless, this is why the scene in chapter 86 is so significant – when Yor isn't present, there's no reason for him to refer to her as "Yor-san," especially in front of a fellow spy like Fiona who knows he (supposedly) shouldn't have any feelings for her. Yet, even after he just called Yuri by his full name "Yuri Briar" a moment before, he doesn't do the same for Yor and continues to call her "Yor-san" here, much to Fiona's dismay.

In the same chapter, it's also significant that he uses "ore" when addressing Yor directly in his thoughts. Even though he's not speaking out loud, I believe this is the first time he's speaking directly "to" her as Twilight and/or his true self and not as Loid Forger.

But despite all this, I think that both Loid Forger and Twilight are tatemae…they're both masks to hide the person he truly is. The person who fondly talked about his mother to Yor on the park bench, the person who genuinely expressed gratitude for her sacrifice when leaving the resort island, the person who refused to kill Yuri in a life-or-death struggle because he knew it would hurt her…that's his actual honne. But of course, the ongoing conflict of the series is that he has yet to realize this. He won't even show his honne to his closest friend, Franky. Seems like it mostly comes out in dribs and drabs during his interactions with Yor...no surprise there, lol. The man is certainly a work in progress. When he finally starts letting his "honne" show, I'm curious what form of speech he'll adopt.

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Continue to Part 2 ->