#nothing on mushitaro and the seventh agency since i really don't know what to make of it yet... but agh i'm so curious

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO SEE YOUR ANSWER TO MY ASK; thank you so much for answering though, omg I wasn't expecting to receive an entire analysis in response, it made me so happy 😭💚 Since I need more people to talk about Mushitarou with, now I wanna ask, do you have any headcanons for him and/or Yokomizo? 🥺👉👈 I want to write fic for them, but it's really hard considering that we know so little about both of them :' ) I'm also curious, do you have any thoughts as to why Yokomizo's face is shadowed? I think it would make sense if we couldn't see his face before the truth is revealed, as a representation of how Mushi is trying to distance himself from reality and him/forget about him/lie to himself about not caring about him (which is why I theorized the anime might reveal his face when said truth is revealed, but they didn't do that, rip), but during the final scene and even later in Mushi's hallucinations, his face is still obscured, so... I don't know. I just think it would have been powerful to see his face more clearly as Mushi heals more and is more accepting of his grief and how much he misses Yokomizo... but maybe it'll happen if when we get more of his arc later. Or maybe I'm just totally missing something and being delusional lol

Again, thank you so much for the detailed response before; Mushi needs so much more love 🥺💚

Why are you apologizing??? It's ok! I appreciate you reading it all in the first place! I'm really happy to talk about his character at any time. (Nice icon, btw!)

First off, if you do end up writing anything about him and/or Yokomizo, I would love to see it! That is, if you're ok with sharing it. :)

Headcanons, huh? Hm... you see, normally I try to pull at least a few things from the original authors' stories but... sad to say I know nothing about their irl inspirations asides from them being mystery writers, I believe, and that they did know each other.

I guess, here's a few thoughts from off the top of my head? They're not all headcanons exactly, but this is kind of the way I see them.

Yokomizo is the kind of person who is completely unfazed by anything that's not happening in his novels. I bet that when Mushitaro showed up with a completely different face he just went... "huh" and went back to writing and asking him for opinions.

Mushitaro argues on principle. Not because he actually disagrees or anything but just because he's a bit of a disagreeable person by nature. People like Poe or Ranpo will want him to do something with them and he needs to act like he doesn't want to, before finally relenting (he's still grumbling about it though). (<-he is secretly pleased people want to spend time with him)

Mushitaro canonically likes the occult, and if you can get him talking about this topic he can go on for a very long time, and he actually looks excited and eager about it - at least until he regains his self-awareness. Then he's back to pretending he's not that excited by it.

Yokomizo and Mushitaro met when they were preteens. Neither one had other friends and Mushitaro decided to announce his arrival by attempting to explain the mystery book Yokomizo was reading to... resident mystery expert, Yokomizo. (I believe Mushitaro was especially pompous what he was younger, and unfortunately also often wrong.) Yokomizo spent a very long time correcting him on mysteries and was so ecstatic that someone listened through the whole thing that he kept ambushing Mushitaro at school for his thoughts on various mysteries he was reading. Mushitaro absolutely thought he was being bullied for weeks before he realized that the other boy was attempting to befriend him.

Mushitaro is actually the sentimental type, unlike Yokomizo, who really isn't all that much. From the outside, it appears to be the opposite, since Yokomizo is prone to fantastic and excitable discussions of his new ideas while Mushitaro is seemingly dismissive and more realistic. However, Yokomizo is more than capable of scrapping beloved projects he's been working on for months if they aren't up to his standards (I think he's a bit of a perfectionist), while Mushitaro has a difficult time throwing away anything with sentimental value.

I am curious about Mushitaro's past a little; not in that I think it was anything really tragic or dramatic, but mostly in the way his father apparently told him to be kind to strangers, the way he can't seem to be all that assertive despite his posturing, the way his core coping mechanism appears to be just flat out denying he has sentimental feelings (even before Yokomizo's death). Idk. Something there.

I think further development of Mushitaro's dynamic with Ango could be really interesting. Assuming a future where he does get to start with the Special Division and Ango is not fired, I'd like to see them working together somehow. I think they could really play off each other well and that they'd have a lot of growth potential in that sense. Honestly, I'd take anymore interactions between them as I can get.

That's about it, honestly. Do you have any headcanons for them?

As for Yokomizo's face being shadowed, I feel like it has everything to do with this only being the Yokomizo in Mushitaro's mind. Even before his death, the Yokomizo we see is filtered through Mushitaro's memories of these events, and I suppose it's an artistic way to express how he's blocked some stuff out, like you said, but probably also to indicate that Yokomizo is not coming back.

There's a similar thing done in the manga and 55 Minutes with Oda whenever Dazai reminisces about him; I don't believe his face is ever shown, though it's not shadowed like Yokomizo's. So, that's what I suspect.

I hope these made some degree of sense... they're not super backed by canon, but I guess that's why they're headcanons huh? Haha.

He absolutely needs more love. I'm hoping people discuss him more after the anime.

Anyone who wants to, feel free to drop any headcanons you have about these two here!