Heathcliff ID Sin Analysis

Was Chuuya chosen for Project Arahabaki because of N’s personal grudge? A Stormbringer theory

One thing I find very interesting about Stormbringer is that there are a lot of elements in the novel that are left ambiguous, or that are only mentioned briefly, but if you start putting them together you can draw a possibly really interesting picture.

And my favourite interpretation for that picture has to do with the reason why Chuuya, specifically, was chosen for that experiment, and how it is very plausible it wasn’t a random pick.

For this theory, I am going to work on the assumption that Chuuya is the original and not the clone (this is after all heavily implied in the epilogue), but even if he wasn’t, the existence of the original human child that was cloned was also confirmed in the epilogue, so this would be applicable to him instead.

Let’s start with this thought:

Why, in a country where the War has left countless orphans, would the military pick one of the only characters confirmed to have parents in all of BSD?

They could have grabbed any random kid from the streets or an orphanage, after all. We know for a fact that the Director of Atsushi’s orphanage was quite happy to lend kids to random guys who wanted to experiment on them. It would have been easy.

Instead, they picked Chuuya. Wasn’t that risky, especially since we know that both of his parents were quite powerful and influential?

It’s an odd choice.

Let’s look at some possible clues that are explicitly stated in the text:

The picture that the Flags give to Chuuya in the first chapter, the one with him as a child next to N, was found when they were investigating Chuuya’s pre-experiment life. The photo is taken at a beach, near an old farming village that is now abandoned, and in a town nearby Doc found the medical records proving Chuuya’s human existence before he was taken by the government.

In the epilogue, we learn that Chuuya’s father is a now a simple doctor, but he was once in the military, and “not someone who could be taken lightly”.

The first fact is interesting enough on its own. If the photo was taken in the village where Chuuya was born, why is N there? Did he stop to take it on his way out from the kidnapping, as a fun memento? That doesn’t seem very likely.

And if we then consider the fact that Chuuya’s father was a military officer with medical background, just like N, a natural conclusion would be that N and Chuuya’s father were colleagues.

No, more than colleagues.

Would you invite a random colleague to your home and let your 5 years old kid take a picture with him?

They were probably friends.

But how do you end up performing horrible experiments on your friend’s child?

The novel tells us nothing about the circumstances of that kidnapping; we only know that as far as the world knows, the child has passed away. Maybe Chuuya got sick or injured, had to be taken to a hospital where it would be easy for a government agent to snatch him. Maybe he got lost near the sea, and believed to have drowned. Maybe there was an airstrike from a foreign country, there was a war going on…

We will never know the details. But N was not quite sane after all, he claims to be solely dedicated to his science, so it is possible that he just saw the opportunity and took it, no logical reasoning needed.

However, I don’t believe N to be as emotionally detached as he wants to appear.

Insane, sure, you have to be to do the things he did, but he’s also extremely prideful. He lied about his own work to make it look so he created Chuuya’s body and mind, and then he gave Chuuya his own last name, signing his “scientific masterpiece”.

He also waited for the perfect opportunity to take revenge on Verlaine for killing his brother, even though that resulted in his own death.

And this is why my theory is that he chose Chuuya as his lab rat out of some grudge against his friend.

What that grudge would be, we can only speculate. Maybe it was envy for his colleague’s achievements, maybe something else entirely, there’s a lot of room to make up our own headcanons and interpretation.

(There is another possible hypothesis, which is that Chuuya’s parents were equally insane and they willingly gave their own kid to the government to be used as a weapon for the War. There’s however no hint of this madness in the brief scene that we see them, so it’s up to each of us to imagine if this is a plausible interpretation or not)

Anyways, that’s my thoughts on this subject, let me know what you think if you want!

I believe that many things in Stormbringer were left vague on purpose, but that’s why it is fun to try and look at it and come up with our own theories.

the actual 5) get (shadow)banned from everywhere for being irritating

How to have a conversation about a topic you’re not interested in or don’t know anything about:

Listen to what the other person has to say about the topic.

Ask a question about what they said. Asking them to clarify or explain something you don’t understand is great, but any question will do. All else fails, ask them to explain what they like about some part of the topic.

Listen to their responses and go back to step 2.

Do this until 5-15 minutes has passed, then change the subject to a topic of your interest, unless you are actually interested in learning more on this subject, in which case, go on for as long as you like.

Sometimes, they will say something like “I’m sorry to blather on about [topic].” This is an attempt at a conversational dismount. You can either say “no, it was fascinating, thanks” and then bring up your own topic, or you can say “no, it’s fascinating, please keep going” if you want to keep hearing about their topic. Note the tense difference (past -> moving on, present -> keep going).

I just thought I’d write a script for this, because someone who can’t / won’t do this came up in a Captain Awkward column, and listening about topics you have no interest in is a really useful skill to have and not often explicitly taught, particularly to boys and men.

Once more, all makes (some) sense, just like that. You mentioned Burrowing Heaven hides the sky the sky with it's branches, but being Carmen, it's also the Light. To indulge in one's desires with no regards to reality/others -> to be Stuck in (one's) Heaven!! Plus, closing one's eyes (=ignoring reality, focusing on yourself) is what gives Carmen-looking tattoo (brand.. Mark, even.) but 'heaven through the eys of others' in this case would be the lack of self-awareness that comes from ignoring the external + because the exteral keeps intruding, it's not heaven from the PoV of the one stuck in it! Which would kind of take a shot at explaining why there is a hole in SiH: it ain't gonna be filled, and seems like it's the doing of not-burrowing, as opposed to grey dude. it looking like a branch (of the burrowing heaven), but also humanoid -> seeks to invade the heart (emotions/exploit immature outlook), not the eyes (reason/resignation to reality). And to look at it, is to look/give attention to the world around! …it's an abnormality about distortions, specifically this sort of mid-point between 'normie' and 'abnormality' seen in Leviathan (Spotty), and (maybe? haven't finished LoR yet kek) Reverbation Ensemble? It would also attempt explaining why the gift is Pride-coded. It lacks cute wordplay of Prejudice, and we're already operating on the assumption the game doesn't do any semblance of a color wheel, so: it is pride, because to close one's eyes in this context is to gain advantages from it (some kind of distortion/clarity of self-image), while ignoring drawbacks (some kind of distortion ;^) and also arresting one's development/growth by ignoring anything that would trigger it)

Face the Sin, Save the Ego: these stable distortions are not effloresced EGO (which btw, blooming flower imagery (awaiting pollination of external ideas?) vs light/distortions-as fruit of Carmen('s work))

this implies prodding Stuck in Heaven prompts us to theorize the plot to get the abno's deal. Let's go, and try not to rehash any other theory too much, lel. …what is the core Driving Question of Limbus Company? the nature of Dante, in small scale. In the grand scheme of things - the sudden mass death event. It hasn't been retconned out yet, right? can't seem to find a sauce.

The Golden Boughs (bough: large branch of a tree) are being gathered. A single one eases various coherent distortions to manifest (Kromer, possibly Dongrang), so a large enough amount of them would prompt whoever to have a stable distortion with minimal prompting. (thanks @lu-is-not-ok) …but that doesn't quite cover the novel threat of stable distortions having nonsense abno abilities (Pluto from LoR), combined with being clever in how they're using them - to play the long game. …or in a way that amplifies the heart of most issues presented by the social critique these games are (selfishness?).

bonus: something something all trailers and the 'opening' use the same part of "In Hell We Live, Lament" which i assume is the deal is similar to LoR, in that cherrypicked bits are of particular relevance to the plot. Had a theory coherency check mid-rant and failed kek.

tl;dr this implies we're sleeping on a lot of tree/growth imagery

once more, for the people in the background: Lu, how is your brain so wrinkly.

Stuck in Heaven (ego gift: Late-bloomer's Tattoo) has been grinding my gears for a while now. It has an idea - and a clear one at that - but i can't figure out what it *is*. Wiki has the event transcript. Pls send help

Alright, back to my proper analyses, and... *cracks knuckles* Oh this one's gonna be fun. I want to say that since this one won't need to get into E.G.O analysis, then this post will be a bit shorter than my other full-length analyses...

But. You know how it is with me. For all I know this one might end up ridiculously long anyway. Also, uh, spoilers for Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina ahead.

So, before we can talk about Stuck in Heaven, we need to talk about the other Abnormality it's directly related to - The Burrowing Heaven.

The Burrowing Heaven debuted in Lobotomy Corporation, but later made a return in Library of Ruina as one of the Abnormality Battles. For the sake of completion, I will be taking a look at both of its appearances in the series.

In its original appearance, Burrowing Heaven takes on the form of a tree-like entity, made up of a fleshy material, with branches that seperate into wing-like shapes and many eyes.

Its main mechanics in Lobotomy Corporation is that the Abnormality needs to be on-screen to prevent it from breaching and teleporting away once it does breach. This mechanic is reflected in a lot of flavor text about it, most directly in the description of its E.G.O Gear, which includes the sentence "Just contain it in your sight."

Burrowing Heaven's story further expands on this idea. The Abnormality is repeatedly said to "live inside your eyes/gaze", to feed on the attention and focus others give it by looking at it. However, the moment one looks away for too long, it begins to stretch the stalks of its wings for two reasons - one, to gather corpses as food for the fruit it bears; two, to reach towards the sky and sun, as if to cover it up.

Religious imagery and symbolism is used all over for this Abnormality. From the act of stretching its limbs being compared to praying to an old-forgotten god, to its wings reaching the skies being compared to an angel, to the action of it growing its thorns and burrowing being described as for the purpose of "reaching heaven inside one's vision".

Now, there's a very interesting part of Burrowing Heaven's story in LobCorp that I want to point out. Usually, when those stories are said in first person, it's either through the use of "we" (to reflect the company/employees writing those down as a whole), or with the passage being specified as either some testimony or log or otherwise being quoted.

However... That's not the case here. For Burrowing Heaven, there is a whole section in its story written in first person, with no clear note of it being quoted from something else. Allow me to paste the segment in its entirety.

"That's what a gaze is. Attention. An invisible string that connects us.  Sole focus.  Do not come here, as there is no place for you to rest.  But you see, I could only bear fruit when I stood inside your sight. Is this what you wanted to see?  When your tears dry up at last, tell me your answer."

Interesting, isn't it?

However, we're not done yet. There is still the context of its appearance in Library of Ruina, so let's look at that, shall we?

In Library of Ruina, Burrowing Heaven's Abno Battle is placed on the Floor of Religion, aka Hokma's Floor, alongside Price of Silence, Blue Star, and WhiteNight.

Narratively, this Library Floor explores the faith and dedication that Carmen's group put into her and Ayin, especially from Hokma's perspective, who unconditionally put his trust into Ayin back when he was known as Benjamin. Thus, all of the Abnormalities fought on this symbolically represent Carmen's unwavering dedication to gathering like-minded people to make her dream come true, and the devotion those who followed felt towards her and her goals.

When it comes to the Burrowing Heaven, there is some more info we can gather from its Abno Battle in this game, starting off with its new appearance:

As you can see, the previously tree-like form has been replaced with one that very clearly represent a human's central nervous system, brain and spinal cord included. The bloody wings and eyes still remain though.

...Now. Those who have played Lobotomy Corporation might recognize what Burrowing Heaven is meant to represent in this form. And for those who haven't, allow me to show you something.

This is what became of Carmen after her death:

A disembodied central nervous system, with its nerves spread out in an almost wing-like fashion.

While most of the flavor text here repeats what we know about the Abno from LobCorp, there are a few unique pieces of text I want to shine a spotlight on right here.

"The desire for the unreachable will only grow bigger. And to pursue it… is to tread a path riddled with thorns."

"Basking in everyone’s gaze and attention… It will finally come to fruition and spread its wings."

"The one who spread their wings sacrificed everything they had, and yet…"

"Just close your eyes. That’s right, you’re doing good…"

"If we ever open our eyes again, will we get to see the fruit of our labor in that gaze?"

...In case you were wondering why I was being so scant on the interpretation part of this analysis, this is why. This connection is what changes Burrowing Heaven from a nebulous concept to a direct parallel.

Burrowing Heaven, at its core, is a reflection of Carmen. More specifically, Carmen's dream, and the way she and her followers acted to reach her goals. How, to pursue it, they had to single-mindedly focus on that goal, to make many sacrifices for the sake of reaching what seemed unreachable.

It could also represent how Carmen's seeming demise and the following tragedies happened because nobody paid attention to the warning signs, nobody focused on Carmen when she was at her lowest. And yet, those very tragedies are what led to even more attention being put on making progress towards that goal, towards Carmen's wings spreading out and reaching ever closer towards the heaven she so desired.

The gaze being put on her may have put her deep underground, in the vat where her nervous system became a source of Cogito... but it also eventually led to the breathtaking sight that was the Light. And now that there is no more gaze left on her, her wings can spread everywhere, blocking out the sun with her own Light.

When you think about it, isn't that how Distortions take place under Carmen's influence? Just close your eyes and ignore the world around you. Let your desires guide you. Just like Carmen is encouraging you to do, patiently. That's right, you're doing good, following what she says.

...Okay that's all fine and good, but what the fuck does all this mean for Stuck in Heaven? Let's get to that.

From just a cursory look at its physical description, Stuck in Heaven appears to be the next step of progression in this Heaven line of Abnormalities. From the tree-like form of the LobCorp Burrowing Heaven, to the brainstem in Library of Ruina, to Stuck in Heaven taking the form of growths directly growing over a person.

Interestingly enough, the Mirror Dungeon event describes Stuck in Heaven as having "the appearance" of a branch, yet being human. Curious.

This is also where a difference is established between Stuck in Heaven and Burrowing Heaven, with the event text directly referencing the Abnormality that Stuck in Heaven is related to.

"Heaven sometimes burrows; other times, it makes a home in the heart. Once taken root, that heaven will only be visible through the eyes of others."

Immediately, this tells us one major thing - Stuck in Heaven does not burrow like Burrowing Heaven, it does not need to feed on the attention people give through vision. Rather, the thing it aims to take root in is the heart.

The text you get from taking the [Close your eyes.] option explains why Stuck in Heaven does that. When it takes root in one's heart, closing one's eyes is not enough to get it out of one's gaze, as the sight it sought out is that coming from the heart itself.

I believe this is also why actually trying to [Return the gaze.] with one's eyes does nothing. With Burrowing Heaven, which actively sought out one's eye vision, one can find many references to it being alive and actively watching its observer back. However, trying to do so with Stuck in Heaven results in it ignoring the observer. The heaven Stuck in Heaven is looking for is not in the eyes, but past them. "Behind me", as the text puts it.

Now... all of that might not have much meaning without further context. After all, what's all this looking with one's eyes and looking with one's heart stuff about?

And this. Is where we get to The Little Prince.

Yeah, remember how Demian seems to be representing the titular Little Prince himself, through him directly quoting the kid?

Yeah, that's not the only thing Limbus Company borrows from that book. In fact, from what I've gathered, The Little Prince might just be one of, if not the most important books when it comes to the themes Limbus Company is setting itself up to explore.

And the main theme that Limbus Company borrows from that book is the theme of seeing with the eyes vs seeing with the heart. It is all over this narrative. The constant focus on perception and what everyone is percieving through their senses. The equal focus on the heart, of how subjective reality is when looking at the reflections of one's heart, yet how one has to follow the heart to reach the unreachable. I mean, for fuck's sake, the word Limbus can refer to both a part of the eye and a part of the heart!

Most importantly, I think it's also the key to understanding Stuck in Heaven a bit better. In The Little Prince, a clear divide is established between the Little Prince, who uses his imagination to understand his reality, and "the grown-ups", who focus solely on the physical world.

Stuck in Heaven's E.G.O Gift is named Late-Bloomer's Tattoo. A late-bloomer is someone who takes a long time to develop one's skills or grow up. For Stuck in Heaven to be able to leave its mark (or Tattoo) on someone, to take root in their heart, one has to not be a grown-up yet, to still be able to see the world with one's heart rather than one's eyes.

So... What does it all mean?

I'll be honest, I don't fucking know! I don't even know if Stuck in Heaven even still has connections to Carmen the way Burrowing Heaven does!

What I can say however, is that Stuck in Heaven is likely extremely interconnected with the main plot and themes of Limbus Company, the same way Burrowing Heaven was for Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina.

Does it represent the goals of Limbus Company itself? Faust? The Golden Boughs? The fucking Mark of Cain?

The reality of it all is... we just aren't far enough along in the story yet to be sure. The way it connects to one of the bigger themes of Limbus Company, alongside it being directly related to the Abnormality that was so directly paralleling the end-game reveals about Carmen in LobCorp, means that we likely just don't have enough of the puzzle pieces yet to see the full picture of what Stuck in Heaven truly represents.

I'm sure as we head closer towards Limbus Company's endgame, the true meaning of Stuck in Heaven will become much, much clearer to us. But, until then, all we can do is wait and see what comes next. It's definitely a subject I'll want to revisit later on, once we get a better grasp on the overarching plot and will be able to start properly connecting the pieces.

Sorry that I couldn't give a more definite answer as to what Stuck in Heaven's exact meaning is, but from all the analysis I've done I genuinely think this is the best answer I can give. That it's a direct parallel to something within the main plot of Limbus Company that we have yet to learn, similarly to how Burrowing Heaven is a direct parallel to Carmen and the path taken to reach her goals.

Also: isn't it super sus that an island just suddenly appeared AND had enough strategic importance to be a meatgrinder AND conviniently showcased that ability users are Dangerous plus traumatize enough of them to be a longterm risk for society (sprinkle societal stigma about mental illness to taste).

Why Fukuzawa adopting Ranpo and not Natsume: to set up Tripartite Framework, and let's be real - Ranpo (was at the time) a lot of work & incredibly noticable, which would be problematic for a guy who want to enjoy retirement/can turn into a cat for clandestine nonsense.

To add to your point, adopting Ranpo not only eases Fukuzawa into leadership position, but also by being gradual lets him be rather hands-off about it, i.e. gets to do his best to just avoid what he finds most disagreeable about hierarchies/structures (given the context, that would mean: micromanagement from above. One Order goes brrr even harder.)

re: Ranpo being a problem: at this point the safest answer would be 'noone said anything about a boy wonder', because otherwise it begs the question: why not assassinate? He's not with Fukuzawa 24/7.

as for Fukufuku bond: a lot of it might be denial on Fukuzawa's end; does that man look like he has a wide friend network? and in turn, Fukuchi doesn't want to get Fukuzawa's kid murdered so downplays the risk. This in turn carries on with the rest of agency. Fukuchi is tired of all the killing (vs sskk fight), so smoke and mirrors make for a cleaner ending. (we still have drama to do with Teruko and Jouno)

Fo sure he didn't know, since first we learn the end goal is destruction of ALL governments which at best would end up with world government (=unification of databases on all ability users + nowhere to run if they're declared enemies), but now it's just subsuming armies into UN (that aged like fine wine).

as for Bram: he's already pretty cored of ambition, so playing up potential desire for revenge/highlighting all the harm Fukuchi did then going from there should work. Also: Aya could just ask. As for collapsing: keep in mind it's been nonstop data gathering, then multiple Ranpo Ex Machinas (+setup for each), then rolling the dice on the police force, then having full view of how the precious agency is doing (not so hot), THEN getting backstabbed by the only other living person he has (presumably) known as long as Fukuzawa - which also questions Fukuzawa's opinions - THEN being stuck in the sidelines on standby, stressing. (Fallout for Ango should be spicy too. Now i'm wondering - does Yosano occassionally chop him up for side effects heavy amphetamine use?) Hence, textbook adrenaline crash. But being drained of blood would be a really neat add-on, not gonna lie.

Thank you so very much for the idea that lets pretty anime scenes Make Sense.

Rest is quite insightful and full of splendid questions. We're ignoring Natsume too hard.

…in fact. Why capture a monsieur catboy? not for cattyness itself, so for knowledge - or because he's expected to be a threat. re: the latter: it would imply that he used to be (more?) upfront about organizing ability users in Yokohama, which would make divide et impera harder. But then - why not just assassinate? for the knowledge.

The fuck was Natsume doing durning the war? …he was informed well enough to know both Fukuzawa and Mori were about to do something stupid in caniballism; Mori in particular was under watch of his own men but disappeared. Spy network? 'I am a Cat. which cat? all of them' as for what put him on the radar - trying to unscrew the conflict/importance of the island?

Some late night thoughts about DoA's arc

Maybe Fukuchi had a special bond with his comrade that died in his arms, the one who lost his right arm and eyes bandaged. The one who didn't want to die like a fly. But it's a tragedy.

Maybe that was the time he old Fukuchi died, or buried deep inside the new Fukuchi. Come to think of it, the time Fukuchi went to the war was the time Fukuzawa probably started being bodyguard. Then, several months after that, Fukuzawa met Ranpo for the first time.

When the theater case happened, the V organization was already there with Fyodor. So, perhaps, Fukuchi met Fyodor who offered him the world peace and joined the organization, creating Decay of Angels. After the war, Fukuchi's mind was so unstable and full of grief.

And Fyodor has good ability to persuade people, so he easily wormed into Fukuchi's mind, maybe manipulated him into agreeing with him. Then, after the DoA was built, they started with kidnapping Natsume Souseki. (Maybe because he knew world secrets?)

But they failed. In fact, it was Natsume who put himself into the trap (but for what?), maybe Natsume predicted that he could escape if he was in enough danger. I thought Ranpo solving the case and saving Natsume was a coincidence but I guess Natsume kinda planned that too?

So that Natsume could pay Ranpo's father by making Ranpo meet Fukuzawa, so Fukuzawa could take care of the kid (why Natsume didn't take the kid himself? Why Fukuzawa? Because he already saw that Fukuzawa needed a guidance? A lighthouse?)

Also what if Fukuzawa didn't take Ranpo? Would Natsume do that himself?

Then, after a year Ranpo and Fukuzawa having a journey of life, full of enrichment, especially for Fukuzawa, that he could dream again about protecting people, about his code of justice, because, being with Ranpo, Fukuzawa felt like he could be his better self and achieve more. He opened his heart and his mind into accepting people in his life, caring about people, becoming the one who would command people to protect more people.

The thing once he avoided, now he sought out. And still, with the intention so that Ranpo could be the greatest detective and be safe. That's why he would go through the obstacles of being a director, a leader, no matter how he hated having attachments before.

(I rambled lol) so, when Ranpo solved the theater case and failed the DoA's plan to kidnap Natsume (which made Natsume go into more secure hiding place) had they thought about Ranpo being their obstacle? Perhaps, but now Ranpo was with Fukuzawa so that they decided to wait until the right moment? They watched the ADA grow bigger, with Fukuchi being the one who watched over them? And being Fukuzawa's old friend, maybe that's why he tried to maintained the fractured bond? Maybe for Fukuzawa, the bond between them was still the same. But, for Fukuchi, the bond was already fractured. But Fukuchi played along as if nothing happened? That's why Fukuzawa could still trust Fukuchi? While Fukuchi just played along, being the good old friend, but he was watching the main obstacle for DoA? Maybe, Fukuchi knew he was the bad guyAnd the world would eventually know that he's the bad guy? So he decided on his own that there should be a hero in this story. That hero was Fukuzawa.

At their last fight on the airport, Fukuchi went so far hurting people, including his comrades, and put Tanizaki and Kunikida into weird dangerous machines just to ignite Fukuzawa's anger, so Fukuzawa would kill him. It was his plan so that the hero would kill the villain. But Fukuchi didn't actually kill the agency members right in front of Fukuzawa. Why?

Wouldn't it be more dramatic if Fukuchi killed one of them? So Fukuzawa could be angrier? Or, he could just kill Ranpo on the spot to make Fukuzawa instantly kill him. Anyway, Fyodor should have suspected that the ADA was their main obstacle to gain their goals.

Maybe they decided that Fyodor would take care of Dazai, and Fukuchi would take care of Ranpo? But, maybe Fyodor didn't know, that Fukuchi wanted to make Fukuzawa and ADA into the heroes?

Also, I still wonder what kind of negotiations Ranpo had with Bram. One that Ranpo asked of Bram was probably pulling off all the vampires, and killing Fyodor in that helicopter. Maybe Ranpo said that Fyodor was Bram's main obstacle from achieving his freedom.

Anyway, Bram had no other business with the world. Maybe not now, since he was jailed by Fukuchi for a long time, maybe Bram wanted to go home and build his castle again? But then, what Ranpo offered to Bram?

There was a panel where Ranpo collapsed after he woke Atsushi. Why he collapsed? Because he's too tired from going here and there to fix all the mess? Or he offered Bram his blood so Bram could get more power? Idk did Bram really consume human blood? Human, not ability users?

And while I'm sure that the Poe's book of Fukuchi and Fukuzawa's past was stolem from Ranpo, so Ranpo already thought that a book with their past would at least open Fukuchi's eyes and remind him of his past self, his true self. So Fukuchi wouldn't lose himself.

That meant, either Ranpo knew their past and told Poe the story, or Fukuzawa told Poe himself about their past. Either way, it was Ranpo who decided that the book should be about their past, not about a murder case. It was all predicted.

Maybe one thing Ranpo didn't predicted that he had to negotiate with Bram, but he could adapt to that improvisation so that they could still achieve their main goal. But with a price that made Ranpo collapsed.

And one thing he didn't predicted was about the new Fukuchi-like villain in the end of S5? Maybe it was the amenogozen that steal Fukuchi's body?

a thought occurs: ch109 is a reverse murder-mystery. Just not the usual way.

this also implies it's limited in scope/temporary, as he can't be the first person to get that idea. Alternatively, either elaboration on the whole 'Amenogozen talks' bit or making this a three-way fusion would make this case unique enough to make future uses of this plot device difficult to predict.

As for singularity: if he's holding Amenogozen and using it to control his own behavior (carving marks from the future to the past), doesn't that kind of parallel Bram's ability being controlled/amplified by Mirror Lion, as he's extension of what Fukuchi is wielding?

because "wield yourself directly" is too banal, tho it can be explained as a risky choice, hence happening at this point in time

My new theory is that Fukuchi merged with The Page and it's based on the looks of his god form

I didn't figure out how the singularity of them works yet but I think it might have something to do with the fact of killing him being contradictory to what was written on the Page before

"aforementioned fanart doesn't exist and so cannot harm you" fanart:

who lives who dies who tells your story

the future is now

finding this curious as i was debating whether or not to link your Summation in there. Like, someone solved DQ 'just' before canto 7 and response was ecstatic? what gives?

A momentous occasion is upon us.

The Daiyu-Baoyu theory has its first haters on Reddit 🎉🎉🎉🎉

// Anyway don't go harass anyone over this m'kay? In fact I hope we get more haters cause I actually find these comments really entertaining.

I hope we get enough Redditors knowing about it and hating it that someone tries to make a full post trying to disprove it so I can milk that thing and talk about my own experience desperately trying, in vain, to find contradictions that would disprove it myself.

can we form a coup against asagiri and make you the writer instead? genuinely... I am not taking the Fyodor immortal information well.. please help............................ ( ´，_ゝ` )

Oh, I would absolutely not do BSD well either. I just wish Asagiri had stuck to his roots more. He was a great comedy writer, and the beginning of the story was great for it. It's the action and Death Note stuff he can't seem to get mastery of. But for the immortal part: I'm not entirely sold that Fyodor's immortal, yet. It seems like yet another twists that will twist to reveal oh, shocker, he faked his memories to confuse Sigma/the ADA... or something. Could very well be immortal, but not 100% guaranteed.