#tdb theory

[yuri-is-online]

... so what do we know about the Clash? (pt. 1)

The answer is still not a whole lot! But we did get some extra context surrounding the very first mystery we all caught on to surrounding the missing houses. I did some re-reading for this and noticed some stuff about the MC's curse I'll probably put into another post. Tumblr is being a bitch about word/text count so, I'll have to divide this into a few parts, but for now, here is part one of just the facts as stated in game.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGH EPISODE 5: HOTARUBI. PLEASE INTERACT WITH DUE CAUTION.

The Facts

The Clash is first mentioned by name in Chapter 10 of the Prologue after Professor Nicholas takes MC away from the Chancellor's Office to be treated in Mortkranken. Cornelius starts talking to himself having noticed that all of this is happening on the day of the entrance ceremony: "General student house reassignments today, prophecy research and Clash clean up ASAP..." We learn at the start of Hotarubi's Episode that there are three defunct dormitories: Dionysia, Ultio, and Clementia leaving seven intact dormitories. Kaito tells us that the general admissions students are sorted "during their orientation." He also tells us ghouls are very rare, and that where they go affects the power balance between houses.

General Admissions students are normal humans, all houses except for Obscuary and Jabberwock have general admissions students, but Kaito tells us that "The academy stopped general admissions for Jabberwock recently..." meaning that they did have General Admissions students at one point. We also know from both Cornelius's lines and the records MC finds at the beginning of Hotarubi's episode that general students were reassigned to different dorms at the beginning of the year. Kaito also tells us that Obscuary is not a dorm you get in via the weighing of souls even if you are a ghoul, and that there is a rumor about their Dorm Captain ("their captain is the one who-"). Obscuary is not referenced by anyone we speak to in the main story ever again, nor are the rumors about its Captain. I suspect this will be revisited in their Episode.

The MC is being housed in the Cathedrale Terminale. Cornelius tells us "It was vacated quite recently." The dormitory resembles a medieval church and is referenced as having statues, benches, and a pipe organ. Before the cats arrive to do repairs, MC remarks that it looks like "something went on a rampage in here" as a lot of the furniture is broken as are the statues. When Jiro and Yuri come to give MC her check up, Jiro tells Yuri that MC is staying "in the old Clementia dormitory." Clementia is mentioned in passing in Episode 2, when a Vagastrom student references needing them for exorcisms, and then again in Episode 5 when MC finds a list of defunct dormitories and reassigned General Admissions students. The dormitory's name is the same as the roman goddess of mercy and clemency. This is something of a theme with the three missing dormitories.

Dante is the advisor for Frostheim and Vagastrom. He is a new member of staff, just having been hired this year and assigned to the two most difficult dormitories in the school. During the Clash, Alan Mido, the Dorm Captain of Vagastrom believes that he killed him. Dante is aware of this but does not seem to hold a grudge against Alan. Leo seems to find this assignment suspicious and doubts that Dante is his real name.

Jin Kamurai is the Dorm Captain of Frostheim. He has not been seen by most professors, including the previous Frostheim advisor, for around half a year according to Hyde. Kaito tells us that the rumor is it has something to do with the Clash, he describes it as a skirmish that he was able to stay out of but "everyone ended up with some trauma after that... Until last year, that guy was the definition of a charismatic leader." It is revealed to us throughout Episode 1 that Jin has lost his ability to use his stigma without the MC's help.

His Vice Captain, Tohma Ishibashi, was in Vagastrom until the middle of last year, meaning that we can reasonably line up the events of the Clash, Tohma transferring to Frostheim, and Jin losing his stigma as happening around the same time. The relationship between Jin and Tohma reads as a bit more tense than initially thought to me, Tohma is playing a role and Jin is very aware that he's being used, though he does not seem aware to what end. We also know he is looking for a spy, and cooperating with Alan. He asks him to "not draw more attention to himself" before apologizing, I assume about Luca's actions at the start of Episode 2 when he barged into the pit. All of the dorms are eager to not rock the boat with Darkwick more than they already have. Tohma specifically has put in a lot of effort to maintaining a good relationship with Darkwick's staff, which allows him use of specific artifacts like the skeleton key he uses in Episode 1. We will see this same skeleton key used by Haku in Episode 5, implying the staff has the same level of trust in him.

Whatever happened during the Clash seems to have made Frostheim deeply unpopular, especially with Mortkranken and Vagastrom. Haru says that he specifically is unpopular with Frostheim, but it seems like he might have just meant he doesn't get along with Jin as no one seems to do that. Except for his sugar baby MC. Switching dormitories is something you need special permission for, but the Clash seems to have resulted in a wide scale shuffling of power as we have several references to dormitory swapping between the ghouls. Which brings us back to the topic of the missing dormitories.

In Episode 3 when Haru falls unconscious from not taking care of himself, Nicholas and Hyde discuss Jabberwock's active mission. Hyde asks Nicholas about using the Dionysia kids. Specifically he asks Nicholas if he "found" those kids, implying that they very much have been missing. It is not referenced again until Episode 5 when the MC finds the list of defunct dormitories, we do not know when it was disbanded, why its ghouls went missing, or why Nicholas would be unable to assign them missions. The dorm's name is a reference to a festival held in honor of the greek god Dionysus during which multiple theater performances and poetry competitions were held. It is also the name of a flowering plant.

The final missing dormitory is Ultio, which is first mentioned in Episode 5 when MC finds the list of defunct dormitories. We learn later on in the Episode that they were tasked with running the prison in the middle of Hotarubi's lake. The dormitory's name is a reference to the roman goddess of vengeance. Both she and Clementia are considered abstract deities, and related to the reign of Julius Caesar. The roman emperor was thought to need to balance the vengeance of Ultio with the mercy of Clementia, as Ultio is very specifically tied to feelings of anger and Clementia acts of kindness. Whether or not this means anything to the actual story is unverifiable, but I thought it was interesting and since it is a fact it goes here.

We learn more about the spy from Taiga in Episode 4. He specifically says that this spy is out to make the ghouls look bad. he asks the MC if she "would rather stay ignorant and keep letting him fool" her. This could mean that the MC has already met the spy and Taiga is aware of this, but given the man's memory issues it's more likely this is a figure of speech meant to fire her up. Moby tells the MC in Episode 5 that the Hotarubi ghouls are hiding something, and to be wary of them but well. There's like three other things that could be referring to: Zenji (my beloved), Lyca (which I doubt since he and Cornelius seem content to let the poor boy rot), and Subaru's true stigma. It could refer to the spy too of course, but there's too much other stuff going on in there to know for sure.

It is never stated in game who this spy is spying for, or what the ghouls believe his motives to be. Just that he is out to make the ghouls look bad. In Episode 5 the concept of being "Pro-Anomaly" is mentioned for the first time in reference to Hotarubi, with the rumor being that Subaru is keeping a dangerous one as a pet. From this we can assume that part of the divide between ghouls and general admission students is their views on how the anomalies should be treated. This is further enforced by the explanation we are given of Article 78.

Tumblr is being fussy and cutting me off from my beloved bullet points, so I'll have to type up the stuff about the Laurel Crown, Ritsu's findings, and the Institute in the next post. But for the TL;DR of this one: The Clash likely happened during the middle of last year and it is unclear how long it went on for. At some point, three dormitories were disbanded and their students were transferred to other dorms. There is a spy amongst the ghouls who they believe is out to make them look bad, and at least Tohma, Alan, and Taiga are aware of this. And finally, there is a degree of distrust between the Ghouls and the School that seems to have been sparked by how they treat captured anomalies.

next post

[obscuarysghoulnextdoor]

OK im sold on the jiro/zenji brother theory. Seems solid.

But either way, let's unhinge for a second. Nicholas' situation suggests there are way/s to not die at Darkwick. At least if you have the body still.

Now throw that last hinge away and imagine. Zenji can't resurrect because Jiro is inhabiting his body.

[obscuarysghoulnextdoor]

Ionno. Rapunzel could be a red herring for those of us who read too deep (me). But I do think there's something going on there. The main anomaly in that chapter wasn't a Rapunzel figure. I don't remember any shape-shifting qualities about it, just it being under the radar.

I still have questions about the rapunzel figure. A shared fake memory and mostly symbolic perhaps? A lot of cultures, including Asian have significant symbolism around women's hair.

There's also a Rapunzel painting in the background of Hyde's office. (I think it's Hydes. I'll go find the screen shot I took later. ) but lots of those are AI. But ai still needs input so jk....unless?

Rapunzel- red herring, false memory, another anomaly, or gross ai? The devs might not even know.

idk if this has been brought up before, sorry if it has, and maybe I'm just thinking too hard on this but I keep looking at the official tokyo debunkers Twitter banner and like seeing taiga with that smirk, but then the broken piece has him with a wide eye + the theories of him seeing the future and such got me thinking.. or maybe it's just a cool banner, what do I know LOL

lol i waited until i got home because i had it saved in HQ for reasons that probably won't come to pass off the twitter page on my laptop

I LOVE THIS BANNER it's such a good image and it shows off Taiga's crazy. Taiga is kind of the game mascot atm, interestingly enough. He's the first character you meet, he's the game icon and twitter header, he has some important knowledge of a major plot point. . .you'd think it'd be Kaito since he's kind of your sidekick and the one who teaches you everything at first, but Taiga's got all the impact.

But yeah, either he's losing his mind back there, or he's Seeing Some Shit. The broken gap in the image showing him with wide eyes is very much a little suggestion of 'there is more going on here than you see on the surface' which, admittedly, is kind of the setting of the game('there's more to the world than meets the eye and you're thrown into the world of anomalies common sense would tell you aren't real') but. . .yeah, if you think about Taiga possibly being able to see the future, which is similarly a hidden aspect of him, then the image is even cooler.

I'm honestly getting more and more attached to that theory as time goes on. Because I remembered today at work. . .Taiga doesn't wear gloves with his uniform, unlike with his house outfit.

When the pc is in the torture chair and his hunger is triggered by their blood, he touches them, bare hand to bare skin.

and then suddenly he snaps out of it, suddenly aware that Romeo was coming.

to which I suspect. . .touching the pc caused them to enhance his stigma by accident. This happened to activate it automatically. And he saw the future without meaning to--perhaps in more detail than usual. That's also how he knew exactly where to shoot to hit the like dove--because he saw it fly in in his stigma's vision.

That's also why he said Ritsu could close the casino and he didn't need it.

The whole future he saw was so fucked(again?) and the casino wasn't helping to alleviate or avoid whatever he had made it for, or perhaps was causing more of a problem--it had, after all, spawned a dangerous anomaly. He just sort of lost steam and gave up all of a sudden. Yeah, take it away, we're fucked no matter what we do. (He got better, though. I too overcome my trauma and depression by forgetting things.)

. . .BUT UH YEAH. IT'S A SUPER GOOD BANNER IMAGE THAT SAYS A LOT. I really love it. Taiga is seeing into the code. It is traumatic but when he forgets in 15 minutes he'll be fine.

[timeslipcamp]

just real quick thoughts on the opening lines depending on the ghoul you pick to "save" at the beginning

spoilers for the prologue i guess???

idk why i spoiler tagged it whatever

anyways so i think choosing to save someone was just typical dating sim nonsense (even if it's not an otome it is in my head) but i think a few of them are plot relevant while others...not so much

reading through the story i definitely think they have "main" characters that are integral to the plot while others are just there to help move the story along, and i think it shows in the intro lines. here are the ones i collected that felt the most plot relevant:

jin, obviously. he was framed and exposed last year with the clash, and he's being used like a pawn by the higher ups. the fixed game feels relevant to taiga's as well by him calling it a busted flush. jin's obviously aware they were being played all along, and unfortunately it may have been his lack of action that brought them here.

alan...kind of came out of left field. i think alan knows a lot more about what happened last year than he's letting on, and with the way he's working with tohma (and jin lowkey) i think they're going to figure the traitor thing out fast--but maybe not fast enough.

ren's another one that i didn't expect to be plot relevant but it definitely felt like it is. this could also be attributed to typical ren "i don't want to" stuff, but it also is lowkey giving me the vibe that he might flip traitor if he thinks it's easier. that, or mc convinced him to do something and now he's gotta die lol

i do also think this reflects how he feels about his stigma as well. he's very reluctant to have anything to do with that or the ocean, which also leads me to believe he may not have wanted to make his pact in the first place.

as said in another post, i think taiga knows everything that's going on and i also think he knows we're in a time loop. my personal theory is that he's done this so many times that he's willing to try just about anything at this point to break the time loop.

this time, his sacrifice may be the key to breaking it. who knows? or maybe he's jumped into the flames so many times at this point that he's begging you to do something different

oh haku. haku my beloved suspected traitor. this has "i lied to you and you still loved me" written all over it. maybe he's jumping to try and make up for fucking everyone over

subaru, another one high on my traitor list--but not really. i just genuinely think subaru is so terrified of losing control that he comes off suspicious. i've got another post in the works on him, but i need to reread ep 15 like three more times. anyways, he reads as very self sacrificing (and self sabotaging, and self flaggellating...) and this seems totally in line for him to do

another interesting thing to note even though i don't think it's super relevant is that all the ghouls look at you as they jump--except luca. luca is the only one that has his eyes closed. is he the only one who actually regrets jumping?

[justseedee]

Okay so Haru used to be Dinosyia.

And he used to be an acrobat.

And his stigma let's him move faster by lightening his body mass/weight.

So his wish probably had something to do with wanting to be a better performer or something like that

[zomboivex]

Have some Rui thoughts <3

Wow I haven’t posted THOUGHTS in a while

So- as much as I love the idea of Rui originally being from Ultio.

I was thinking about it and I think he MAY have originally been in Mortkranken.

And here’s why;

Rui and Nicholas have a sort of relationship with one another that seems more positive in light. Not only does Nicholas go to Rui’s bar as a regular customer, but he also knows how Rui’s stigma works. But

Now, you could argue that Nicholas may have treated Rui at Darkwick General. But I’ll argue that could be unlikely because of the following;

Nicholas seems to be the type to fret over being ‘indecent’ around students of the school. I don’t find it hard to imagine he would feel similar towards former patients.

Then again, it’s more likely he said this because he’s aware that MC’s curse will turn her into an anomaly and possibly feels uncomfortable with the idea of her being lied to. Or- if he doesn’t know that, he could just be uncomfortable with the idea of being around someone who he can’t cure and is fated to die. But I digress-

Additionally, Rui seems to have quite the opinion against Darkwick General.

Granted, this entire interaction has me ITCHING to know more about the dynamics between Tohma, Rui, and Haku. But specifically Tohma and Rui because they seem to butt heads in a campus hangout, too. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Either way, Rui was rather (cheerfully) scathing towards Darkwick General. Yet, he still seems to have a good relationship with Nicholas.

Then, there’s the fact that Rui also seems to be on friendly terms with Jiro (who he calls Big J- which is stupidly cute, okay?)

Rui is familiar with anomalous plants. Enough so that he knows which ones Jiro would need for medicine. And sure, that could come with time (especially if Jiro is going there frequently enough to collect said herbs).

But ya know what? Listen- I just wanna pretend for a second I’m smart, okay?

Anyways—-

Whatever house Rui was in before Obscuary was likely for a very short time. He was cursed during a mission and said mission more than likely happened on his first year since he spoke to Haku regularly and Haku was in Clementia his first year (before transferring to Frostheim then to Hotarubi).

Collecting those lapels like infinity stones.

So, if Rui spent a lot of time talking to Haku after he was cursed (and Haku was in Clementia his first year) it only makes sense to me that Rui was cursed pretty early on. He’s also very removed from the other students and hasn’t attended classes in a long enough time that he forgot what the class schedules look like. I doubt that’s something you would forget if it was only even a year ago. It’s probably due to him just- not being in classes since his curse took effect and already being probably new to Darkwick, in general.

So- there ya have it!

Rui was probably not in Mortkranken for a very very brief time!

Alright back to uhhh doing whatever it is I do.

[labulemon]

Observations: Haru Secretly Hates Anomalies?! alt. Sagara Haru and the Clash ft. Sinostra, Kind of

Clickbait title?! A little, kind of. But I swear it's relevant. Random thoughts about Haru, what he potentially tells us about the Clash, and what that could mean for the houses at large. Bullet point list, not very organized

It looks like Haru was part of the pro-Darkwick faction, or at least on the same side as Frostheim. He has Jin's phone number and enough of relationship to consider calling him. Vagastrom, who was Frostheim's enemy, also dislikes him...

Haru is probably from Ultio, the place that treats anomalies very poorly. In the first place, it makes perfect sense for Frostheim and Ultio to have worked together. They are Darkwick's sponsor and the enforcer.

Narratively, it gives Haru a nice motive to be in Jabberwock. Maybe he's "someone who came to understand that Darkwick thinks of ghouls as nothing but anomalies," and "someone who realized the cruelty of their own actions"... Haru, who focuses everything that he is into "protecting" and "taking responsibility for" the animals, seems like he understands intimately what would happen if he fails.

Haru seems chained to Jabberwock, in a way. Not in the sense that he's forced to be there, but in that he is really the last thing standing between the anomalies and Darkwick. Doesn't it seem like Darkwick wants Haru to fail? A half-destroyed safari park, no general students, one vice-captain who couldn't care less what happens to the anomalies.

I think Darkwick always intended to shut Jabberwock down with Clementia, Ultio, and Dionysia. Haru can't keep going forever; as soon as he gives up, those anomalies will have nowhere to go. Darkwick can take full control of the animals after that.

Ritsu notes that there are way more animals in Jabberwock than was recorded in the missions. Could Haru have brought some of the more harmless anomalies with him when he moved from Ultio? Could he have smuggled them? Admittedly, some of his anomalies do sound pretty dangerous.

Relatedly, don't you think Haru's intrusive behavior fits that of a prison warden? Keeping careful track of your captives, deciding their schedule, removing barriers of privacy... He seems to have good intentions now, but the actions are the similar, right? Anyways, that's why I think he's from Ultio.

But that does bring up some interesting questions about house alleigances... Since Haru and Romeo are still close, and he doesn't have any problem with Taiga, it seems like they weren't fighting each other. I might have missed some information about the houses being what they were, but Romeo seems like the type to hold a grudge, right? Assuming Haru used to be pro-Darkwick, it could be that:

1. Sinostra was on Frostheim's side (feels kind of unlikely...) 2. Sinostra was a third-party faction that didn't necessarily have the same interests as the Frostheim/Hotarugastrom team (i.e. being neutral, being anti-Darkwick but also anti-anomaly, just wanting to profit off of the chaos, trying to deal with the spy... etc. etc.) 3. Haru has already solved all his beef with Sinostra offscreen (lol) 4. The Clash was actually every house for itself and there weren't alliances at all?

But Subaru asks MC about whether she goes to Sinostra often. Could it be old prejudices rising up..? Or maybe he's just concerned for her health while she's there (very reasonable). Or if he's the spy, it makes sense that he wants to know more about Taiga, who's onto him...

In general, Jabberwock feels like the true neutral party in this situation. It's just never mentioned anywhere.

I know about the theory that Haru is from Sinostra... But somehow, I feel in my heart that it's incorrect... Sinostra, who's relationships are always in turmoil, feels too distant to Haru for him to have been really been part of the house. I feel like they would've mentioned him moving back to Sinostra already if it was as simple as that. Haku gets tons of references to Frostheim and Clementia, right? Or maybe I just really want my Ultio theory to be right, since I've imagined his character arc that way...

Well, I do love the idea of Haru being a part of Sinostra as some type of 'conman', so I really can't complain.

[kfan04]

What do you think is going on with Kaito and Romeo?

I've posted this on Reddit and now I'm posting it here so I more people see it and talk to me!

Particularly I'm interested in why Romeo seems to be so clingy with Kaito. I know that there are already some explanations — Kaito's debt and Kaito's pendant — but don't you think Romeo is putting too much effort into this?

Regarding debt: does Romeo chase around everyone with debt on the regular basis? Also, the academy is clearly full on well-off students, it would make much more sense to concentrate on them. Kaito doesn't have money and he won't somehow get them out of nowhere (Luca is another discussion).

Regarding pendant: have you noticed that Romeo is trying to convince Kaito to give him the pendant, instead of taking it away by force? Throughout the chapters he hasn't really tried to take the pendant away, although I think Romeo's more than capable of it. He is stronger than Kaito and the latter didn't have any protectors before Luca (Tohma and Jin are also not shown to be close enough to Kaito to defend him in the past). Otherwise, there must have been tons of opportunities for Romeo to hurt or kill Kaito and take away the pendant, everyone dies left and right, even when they were on the mission — little accident, minus one ghoul, nobody would've probably suspected anything. Why hasn't Romeo taken the pendant away already?

Who would go that far for the indebted guy? Or even for a pendant? It's more like Romeo's interested in Kaito being constantly around, but also, why?

Regarding Romeo's time and effort: despite being the busy man Romeo claims he is, he still finds time to regularly look around for Kaito, calling his name, and with a gun. He asks MC for Kaito's schedule — twice. He spams Kaito with messages. He locks Kaito in the cage in his private office very few people know about — this is just another level, because why. He also takes Kaito on a mission with him, when being told that was his chance to assemble the best possible team — notably, he goes for Kaito before contacting his actual friends, and also has to threaten Kaito to go with him in first place. On the mission, it's Romeo's decision to split, and both times he takes Kaito with him, also physically dragging him and just casually intimidating him along the way.

Regarding Romeo's attitude: he's the mix of tenderness and frustration when it comes to Kaito. The phrase he use to call him is Doko itta no, dete oide? which translates kinda like "Where have you gone? Come on, come out!" and is often used to talk to animals and kids. He also uses Fuji-kun, emphasising on either Kaito being his kouhai, or being on friendly terms with him. He's very touchy when it comes to Kaito — grabbing his hand, his collar, his ear, shaking his shoulders, clamping a hand over his mouth. It's not necessarily tender, but it seems that Romeo finds it absolutely natural to act towards Kaito in such way. Romeo's also often implying Kaito acts unreasonable towards him when not willing to comply, like when Kaito is hiding or running away from him, or when he doesn't want to go on the mission. One time he says something along the lines "there's more on the map than that, so just shut up and do as I say", implying it's in Kaito's interest to listen to him.

Why does Romeo seem to be convinced that Kaito should be doing as he says without asking questions?

Regarding Kaito's attitude: Kaito isn't shown to be super intimidated by Romeo. Yes, he runs away away from him, and in one voiceline he mentions he started getting chills when someone calls his name because of Romeo — so it's not like Kaito doesn't recognise Romeo as a threat. However, Kaito is constantly talking back and resisting. When talking to Romeo, Kaito openly questions his decisions, mocks him, swears at him, uses omae, simply disagrees and Romeo has to put a lot of effort to actually get Kaito to do something — and half of the time, Kaito doesn't do what is expected of him anyway. He talks to Romeo almost freely, definitely less scared than with Jin or with Tohma, or even with Ren or Jiro. Interestingly, Kaito uses Romeo-san, instead of -senpai, like with Tohma and Jin. Kaito also doesn't seem to have a clue about why Romeo is following him, but he's not interesting in figuring it out either, just "weird guy, ugh how annoying, does he ever stop".

Unlike Romeo who perceives his own actions as natural, justified as "Well I'm just collecting debt", Kaito openly talks about how strange Romeo acts towards him. Locked in the cage, he says "shut up, kidnapping creep" and "do you even realise how unhinged you sound" when Romeo says no one would save him from there... When MC says "he has certainly taken a liking to you", Kaito corrects "liking, more like stalking".

For now, no one except Luca and to some degree MC hasn't commented on Romeo's and Kaito's connection — do they know? Or do they don't care? Or both.

Regarding timeline: Kaito mentions Romeo has been on his tail for half of the year. Before that, he wasn't even in the gambling den. This lines up with the estimated time of the Clash. Does Romeo's interested in Kaito has something to do with the Clash? Did it just happen in the same time? Kaito says he has somehow avoided the Clash — he himself doesn't connect the Clash with Romeo's interest in him. Kaito doesn't seem to connect Romeo's interest with anything, implying it was sudden. It could be that the determining point of the Romeo's interest was the moment Romeo was looking at Kaito from a distance, if Kaito cannot remember any special confrontation. What doesn't line up is the warding card of Romeo standing above Kaito and looking at his pendant — judging by his expression, for the first time. Who wouldn't have remembered this situation? Another thing, Kaito mentions that he hasn't seen Romeo much before, and he wasn't even in the gambling den. So although Romeo justifies his hobby by collecting debt, he possibly wasn't that interested in collecting this debt initially, before that special point six month ago.

Regarding paperwork: Luca repays Kaito's debt in the prologue, another simple solution to Kaito repaying his debt and Romeo not having to go after him ever again. Yet Romeo claims "he still owes rate of interest, so it's not enough to buy his freedom". To which Luca replies "I'd like to see the paperwork then", and Romeo's muttering he "hates men with brain". Other than Kaito commenting on how he didn't know about the rate of interest (which could be written off as ignorance, and not necessarily as Romeo deceiving him), Romeo's comment suggests there might be something unclear with the documentation. Another important paper is the one Romeo threatens to show the MC when telling Kaito to join him on the mission. It is not the debt-related issue — MC already knows about it. It is something that Kaito feels to be embarrassed about, and something that allows Romeo to say "you really think you can say no?". In the prologue, when Romeo demands pendant, Kaito also replies with "this is one thing you will never get from me" — one thing? Does that mean Kaito agrees in some way Romeo can demand anything else? The paper which Romeo threatens to show the MC — which conditions are written there?

Let's assume that Kaito does owe Romeo more than money. What exactly is Romeo gaining in this situation? Why would he need specifically Kaito's compliance in the first place? Why Kaito of all people, of all ghouls. Okay, maybe Romeo thinks it's handy to get a guy who he can threaten to do anything. Why would he put so much energy into keeping Kaito close to him — especially on the occasions that could've used more catered to the situations ghouls, like the mission. Judging by how he addresses Kaito as "plebeian", he doesn't think Kaito's pendant connects him with the powerful family, plus he comments how Kaito doesn't know its true value. So Romeo is not after Kaito's potential prestige.

What is notable, is that Romeo is deliberately keeping Kaito close and monitors his actions.

Romeo's behaviour doesn't make sense. It especially doesn't make sense considering he is acting rationally when it comes to missions, or his income, or dealing with others, which means there is an explanation for how he acts with Kaito — my guess, it directly or indirectly includes money, or another physical value.

What are your thoughts? Have I missed something? I'd die to discuss, really. I see all these signs, but I can't really understand what it means. I know we are quite early in the story, but for the 13 chapters the story has been very consistent with the relationship between Romeo and Kaito, and Kaito's pendant. I'm super interested to know what others think!

[mairos-comet]

So me and a friend where going over the tarot cards and well so far they been pretty on the nose for the three we got and that got me thinking about how they(zigzag) maybe created these characters. I know I might be wrong, but it’s just my opinion, theory, whatever, as someone who loves character building.

But what if they based the main traits of the Tokyo debunker guys from tarot cards what demon works and then just looked into what zodiac works for each guy, or how does this character fit into the trope.

You know, all that stuff after the main stuff was settled.

As someone who like character building that makes perfect sense, and also for a game like this not a bad starting point because I don’t think many have used tarot to base a character off of in such a game way

and if there are then please tell and show me I love seeing who matches what.

Im sorry these are too spot on to their characters it’s crazy.

Maybe I’m giving this gaming company tooo much credit 🤷

[2flowerz]

New theory: Haru's arm was charred (electrocuted) by Towa who was still very wild when he first arrived

[yuri-is-online]

Reading the Room at a 5th Grade Level: MC's Curse and Taiga's Memory Issues???

Hi. My name is Yuri and I am an idiot. You see, when I downloaded Tokyo Debunker and I saw what happened to the MC I was confused. "Why did everything go red?" I asked myself. "It's like we were in another dimension!" I unhelpfully said at some point probably. Well I finally googled the name of the station the MC said "was not her usual stop" and guess what? I should have done that way fucking sooner because it's related to a Japanese urban legend, much like Takeru in Episode 2. And helps me with what I noticed yesterday while I was re-reading the Hotarubi episode.

This post contains spoilers for Hotarubi's Episode, viewer discretion is advised.

When the MC is contacted by the spirit who allegedly curses her she is riding the train home from a concert. She receives a text message from someone with a spider lily profile picture, in English their user name is "Mina." Before we are confronted by Mina, the conductor announces that the train's next stop is Kisaragi Station, a station that dear reader, does not exist. It's also extremely famous! But I am not smart or up to date on horror things so I didn't know (⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄) so sorry if this is all stuff you guys already knew.

Kisaragi Station

The original post about Kisaragi station was, as best I can tell, made on a site called 2chan, which is a Japanese anonymous forum. I was able to find a post about it on r/nosleep from 2019 which claims that people started posting about it on reddit in 2010, and another post on Quora translating a thread that was posted to twitter. There are a few common themes to the urban legend, but there are three I find particularly relevant to our situation.

The station is believed to be on the border of our world and the "other world." It is possible to leave the station, we will get into how in a moment, but attempting to leave it by following the train tracks will get you killed. Especially if you attempt to cross through the train tunnel, that will take you across the point of no return. The original post describes hearing the sound of drums and bells, similar to a Japanese festival, that get louder the closer you get to the tunnel. Accepting rides from people in the vicinity of the station will also kill you. Cell service is active in the area, but you aren't able to find location information and people will not be able to find you. The anomaly on the train we see isn't tied to Kisaragi Station as far as I can tell, and I have been combing through various yokai to see if I can find anything like it but so far I haven't had much luck.

Back to how to leave the station, you have to light something on fire. Specifically something that causes smoke. Paper seems to be the most common suggestion. It's a small detail, but since the game starts with us seeing the school on fire I thought it was an interesting thing to note.

I added Taiga into the title of the post as in the translated twitter thread, the concept of memory loss the longer you stay in Kisaragi is brought up. We never actually see Taiga leave the station, and the MC only leaves it because Haku does something with his artifact. In Episode 5 Haku says he was not using his stigma to put the children's spirits to rest, implying that spiritual energy adn stigmas are different powers he can use. I am going to propose something kind of crazy at the end of this entire post about Haku, but for now just dealing with the facts presented in game he specifically says he "cordoned off" the area. Does he mean that he took the train to Kisaragi station? Or was MC always going there? And if he was the one responsible for doing that then uh. How did Taiga leave the station and get back to Darkwick? Was he trapped there and did he wander around for a long time, doing permanent damage to his memory in the process? Or am I over thinking this and he lost track of the anomaly and lit something on fire so he could leave. I like the idea of him lighting the station on fire and the ghosts asking him to leave, but that's probably not what happened lol

Red

When the train reaches Kisaragi Station in game, the color pallet swaps to red. Much like it does in Episode 5 when MC receives a certain visitor:

We learn later on that this is Zenji, and that Zenji is dead. MC seems to be reacting to his presence and I would like to think that the color choice is deliberate. If we go back to Episode 2, Takeru only has light amounts of red shading around him in his comic panels, when he kills the streamer and when Alan beats the shit out of him are two that immediately come to mind. Interacting with him does not turn the world red like interacting with Zenji or Kisaragi Station does, further strengthening Leo's conclusion about him being a Talupa and not a ghost as this red tint seems to be used for when MC is interacting with the spirit world. Which I am once again asking, how did Taiga get home from Kisaragi Station? Did he carjack a Taxi ghost?

This raises some questions about the anomaly that cursed MC. Is it a ghost and is it something unique to Japan? And if neither of those things are true then why was Haku there? I can think of two reasons for him to be there: the first is if he is there to keep an eye on Taiga for Cornelius/the Institute because Sinostra is on probation but they need him (he was specifically assigned this mission because of how aggressive he is) or it was meant to be a Hotarubi mission because it fit their criteria but Haku couldn't handle it so they arranged for Taiga to come along with him. That last thing is sort of countered by Haku saying that he doesn't think Hotarubi would be able to help with the MC's curse, but he could be lying about that I suppose.

Anyway who wants to hear my really stupid out there reason for why Haku is there-

The Part of the Show Where I do a line of coke Cope

So hear me out, what if Haku's stigma is time travel. So in this post on the subreddit donsaadali suggested that the powers you pick from in the personality test are powers the ring could give MC. I had the thought before that maybe it was a list of stigmas that the various characters had completely forgetting about the time travel line. But it does sort of fit with my line of thinking: make people follow my orders? That's Jin. Elemental powers? Towa. The others: extreme luck, never having to sleep, shapeshifting, and gravity control aren't ones that we have concrete information about but I am tempted to say that "extreme luck" could be Taiga, as turning things into ammo struck me as a quality of his artifact and not his stigma but I'm not really convinced of that. Anyway, if Haku can time travel, he could go back in time, pick up MC, and bring her back to Darkwick even if that's not what happened in the first place and Taiga was the one who brought her back the first time! But why he would do that is lost on me. Well not completely lost, I do think he wants to "help" her but with what and why is not something I have a theory on just yet.

To be clear, that was just me spitballing. I do not really think that Haku's stigma is time travel, there isn't enough evidence for me to think that. I do think that if there is a timeloop going on he is probably aware of it, but again. I don't know why.

Sources

Translated original post (x)

The above post also has a youtube video linked at the top if you want an audio version of the post and some other train related stories

Translated Twitter thread (x)

Shitty r/nosleep post (x)

[rottenzombrainz]

I was cooking up a crackpot "Jiro is an actual zombie" theory and long story short one thought led to another...

What if Haku is a shapeshifter?

I think the concept of one of the ghouls being a shapeshifter has been around for a while, but I first saw it in a post @istharoth made a few days ago.

I don't have any evidence for why it's Haku specifically other than that his stigma is unknown, he prefers not to use it, and he's theorized to be the spy among the ghouls.

I'm just throwing this idea out there in case it sparks anyone else's detective skills :P

[tacharie]

Thoughts for The Montkraken Episode

so, I just finished the chapter and… wow I have a lot to say. I took screen shots for every part I wanted to talk about and I think this rant will be SUPERRRR long so bear with me. Tumblr won’t let me add screenshots so when I have better service I’ll edit the post to add them. These paragraphs are theories and side notes that I wrote after reading a certain section so you’re gonna see my thought process throughout the story. As always, spoilers ahead so I recommend skipping this if you haven’t read it already.

Alright so I was once a hater of this ship BUT… the Shobaru shippers may have a point in this guys 😭. LIKE.. I HAVE THE SCREENSHOT OF SUBARU BLUSHING UHHH. That is not a heterosexual stare feller 🤨…

AHHHHHHH THE FROSTHEIM DUO ARE BACKKKKK!!! I missed them so so much they’re so silly and deserve the best. Honestly the only two I trust in this school cause I CANT. I literally suspect anyone but them, but Imma be so disappointed if either of them are hiding something. I’ll be sad, but like I’ll help 🙄. I was actually so sad when the MC mentioned being the reason they could be in danger like GIRLLLLL DONT SAY THAT PLEASEEEEE. ITS LIKE THE ANGST WITH ADEUCE AND YUU LIKE STAWPOPP. Also when the Vagastorm kids were like “aw yeah Mido wouldn’t lie like that” it makes me happy that people can at least trust him enough to be honest and idk I found that kinda sweet :3. We’re also getting a bit of a timeline, like the One-Eyed Sleeping Beauty Murder being BEFORE the clash (sorry if this was already mentioned I don’t really remember stuff from the past chapters) which could’ve been a trigger.

Also, I feel like they’re trying to tell us that Jiro is Zenji’s brother because when he had that little laugh about the MC being scared of bodies, he said too. When you click the “too?” option, he just says that he isn’t the one afraid. It’s not Yuri as well cause he’s literally a doctor that is in the same room when autopsies are in session. Whatever the case, I assume he was referencing to Zenji, though it being a blurry memory. Little theory tho.

OK SO THIS IS JUST SO FUNNY TO ME. In Chapter 9’s title it says, “Girl Learns Shocking Truth About Monster”. I like to think the shocking truth was the fact he didn’t shower for 3 days 😭. CAUSE THATS THE PART SHE SOUNDS MOST SHOCKED. Idk that part was silly to me. THEY’RE OUTFITS FOR THEIR DORM IS SOOOOOO PRETTY. They ate I fear, a bit more than the other dorms. Also side note, they dropped A LOT of info with just how they word things. For example, Yuri saying “Jiro, you are well aware that I will not be associated with those germs AGAIN.” Soooo Yuri was in Frostheim? I don’t doubt it bc there’s another line that says “I’d rather not recall how bitterly cold that place is” which can MEAN TWO THINGS. I’m super sure that they’re implying that yeah, he was, but then something happened blah blah blah.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH HYDE AND DANTE??? Like ok bitches, spill your shot to us too don’t be shy. So, confirmed by them, Dante and Hyde used to go to school in Darkwick (which I assume the rest of the teachers are too). That explains their back and forth. WHAT REALLY CAUGHT MY EYE WERE THESE LINES.

Hyde: “…You really are a softie, Dan-Dan.” (Haha Dan- Dan)

Dante: “It would seem that way to someone as cold as you.” (???) “…There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, Hyde.”

Hyde: “…I’ll keep that in mind.”

WHATTTTT. WHAT ARE THE LINES. GO IN DETAIL ARGHHHHH. This gives us more info on the character individually too. Dante describes Hyde as cold… DANTE. So, it was obvious that this whole happy go lucky attitude was fake, but I expected to be more like Haru’s kind of attitude not like that yk?? now I know how much of a cash grab this game is, but I really hope they aren’t going to stretch the story out too long to the point where you have to P2W cause I haven’t paid a cent and I don’t plan to. I still want to learn more about them and stuff so :(. On the topic of Dante, there was a small flashback where I missed a word in the sentence that Dante said while talking with Alan. “I’m the man you supposedly killed.” Supposedly?? Now, I didn’t my catch this in my first run, but now it’s like wdym supposedly?? Shouldn’t you know? This is giving hella Jiro vibes and honestly, I’m getting sick and tired of these characters having a bad memory.

SPEAKING OF JIRO- he seems to have problems remembering things and they come back to him in the very weird moments (honestly a kin moment). I would like the think that he’s just suffering from the damages he had to go through from the clash. His relationship with Yuri is so… sad to me. Yuri seems to doubt him a little bit and I feel like he sees him as just a specimen, not much of a friend. Meanwhile, Jiro smiles a lot to Yuri and listens to him like a master, like that’s what he’s supposed to do. NOT AGAINST HIS OWN WILL DONT GET ME WRONG. He’s just so neutral about it it makes me a bit like awwww :(. They’re cute tho idrc.

Ok moving on to Haku and Tohma. (Ok at this point I’m getting nervous cause why are we seeing so many characters now. That’s probably just a coincidence). OK THESE TWO HAVE GOT IT GOING. Like there’s tension when you get their chat in the campus but this is like woahhhh… Also I don’t like how Tohma says “our wheelhouse? I see..” it makes me think he’s like implying “so you think you’re a part of them now?” IDK THATS JUST MY LITTLE STRETCH. Also poor Zenji, he’s like “aw yeah I died in vain lol” LIKE OUCH.

Nicholas. I DO NOT LIKE HIM. I REPEAT. I DO NOT LIKE HIM FOR A MINUTE OF A SECOND. The only staff I like are the cats, the grocer guy, and MAYBE Dante. LIKE HES SO… NORMAL?? LIKE THERE’S SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON IK THERE IS. When MC says ���I can’t believe Professor Nicolas would do something like that” I DO 😡🙋‍♀️. I am in full support of Yuri finding crimes against this guy.

Also, little other side note, I just realized that Yuri and Jiro have matching earring in opposite ears. It’s so cute.

Ok I might have to go back to the beginning and see what the “goat like anomaly” Jiro is talking about when he mentions the prophecy, cause I said “… the chancellor is a goat??” BUT ANYWAYS. Speaking of the prophecy, I’ll jot it down.

“The whisper of the new moon shall lead the champion to the academy on the solitary island. So long as the champion resides there, the world shall be sheltered from profound tragedy.”

Stating the obvious here, but this is most likely referencing to the last cutscenes we get when we choose our characters. I’ve checked the cutscenes again and there’s no visible moon, meaning it could correlate to the “new moon” portion. (Search up new moon to see what I mean). Assuming Solitary island means death, that would also help with the theory. So, whoever we chose in the beginning might just be the person who won the Laurel Crown.Honestly, this is just a silly little Drabble for a theory and VERY vague. Maybe the champion resides in the events of the past that we still don’t know about but this kinda helps?? Idk I’m just putting what I think at the moment. I’ll probably reread the game so I can get a better timeline. Also, Yuri’s rant about demon particles… doesn’t exactly sit right with me. Were they chosen to be resilient or was it just a birth thing?? Idk but I feel like a lot is missing from his theory. I mean, we’re using human logic to a supernatural cause so I don’t think pacts acting as allergies would work. If they’re not chosen, could it be that the ghouls can make pacts with more than one demon? I wanna see what happens if that was the case. Please comment if I missed something 😭.

Ok Towa appeared. (Why are we seeing so many characters I don’t like this) and we went back to that tree… WHAT IS THAT TREE?? And what the hell do you mean the fruit grew? What is that fruit supposed to be? An anomaly going to birth?? Is it supposed to represent the houses?? Motivation?? It seems so weird to me cause we just got introduced to that tree last episode. Sighs.

OK REN AND RITSU. WHAT IS GOING ON. I GUESS SINCE THIS IS THE LADT CHAPTER FOR INTRODUCING CHARACTERS BUT LIKE … STOP. I feel like something is going to happen with the MC pls 😭. Anyway, those two talking about ramen is so cute please don’t ever change you virgin and lizard looking freak 🫶( with love of course). GROCER GUYYYYYYY. YIPPEE :3!! I love that the cat is the owner and not the human lmao.

Also I will always be a MC defender cause she is so relatable. “Why are hospitals so creepy at night?” GIRL IKKKKKK. Idc what y’all say, the fact that she’s normal is keeping me sane from these freaky deaky events. ILOVE NORMAL CHARACTERS! LIKE MATSUDA FROM DEATH NOTE OR THAT ONE GUY FROM MASHELE. Anyways, I love her little comments and everything she’s so silly. Idrc if she doesn’t have much of a backbone cause honestly, she’s surrounded by danger so the best she should do is listen to the people that are constantly surrounded by it.

ALSO NEW THING. (Well idk if it’s new but yeah).

mention of a Dionysia Breakout. <—— Idk what that is, but it sounds like a little more. I love little details and slip ups thanks characters <3!!

HA! HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA! I WIN NICOLAS 😈!!! YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE. AND I WILL FIND IT TRUST YOU WILL BE DELT WITH. I WILL KNOW THE PRIOR PAST >:(!! Also, Moby is being soooo annoying tbh. More character descriptions to add: competitive as a teacher. NO ONE WILL MAKE YOU HATE YOU JIRO ‼️‼️‼️ HES SO SWEET He literally asks if we’re scared and says we can hang back awwww. Though he doesn’t understand much, he can use logic and he can at least understand how we feel. It’s a nice sentiment :)!

I can’t take the transformation seriously I’m sorry. I’m still impressed by Yuri’s deductive skills and the transformation just sounded like he was constipated.

THE WHOLE BATTLE SCENE WAS EPIC!! MC HESITATING BECAUSE OF LEOS WORDS BUT STILL PUSHING FORWARD. YURI GETTING FLUSTERED. JIRO SMILING AND TRUSTING YURI’S ORDERS. THE FUNNY EXCHANGE ABOUT MUSCLE WHEN THEY WERE CARRYING THE POD. Those annoying ass pussy sticks we call Darkwick students 😡. JIRO LOOKING BADASS AFTER THE SHOT. URGHHHH I LOVE THIS CHAPTER.

HARU AND PEEKABOOOOO!! AHHHHH IM SO HAPPY I SEE THEM AGAIN!! I’m so glad he’s going to Hyde too cause I’m not ready. Also… the mermaid thing is so weird. For the Montkraken Mermaid, they seem to refer to it as “it” or “that mermaid”, but when they speak of the second mermaid, they use personal pronouns like “he /him”. Haru’s expression as well when he heard someone was abusing mermaid flesh… it’s a new one with a little crease under his eye. It’s such a sad face like, did he know this mermaid personally or was this fear?? Either way, I wanna meet him cause the other one was so pretty.

…You guys know the “I see who you are… you are my enemy” sound that’s on TikTok or reels or wtv? YEAH THATS SONG WAS PLAYING IN MY HEAD WHEN HYDE SAID WE HAD TO DO A SPEECH. HYDE IM IN YOUR WALLS. URGHHHH I HATE HIMMMMM. Call to action my ass IK either Taiga or Leo are gonna get their asses out of the door after the speech. OR BOTH. I’m starting to tweak.

NOOOOO THE SPEECH IS THE NEXT CHAPTER?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I feel so bad for Zenji… like I’m so deadass. Dude he sounds so sad about how he’s dead it’s so.. URGHHHH. ALSO I CALLED IT. THEY ARE BROTHERS. AHAHHAHA!! Well it was kinda obvious cause everyone thought it too but WOMP WOMP. Also I love his real name, Taro Kirisaki. It’s pretty :)!! But these lines killed me

“and though I have taken my final blow, my brotherly heart can’t help but worry for my kin. … Not that he has any idea I’m still around.” YEOUCH?? I DIDNT COME TO CRY BRO…

I’m tweaking out because of this speech bro. I’m gonna choose the corniest stuff and hope for the best. “I feel bad please stop for me 🥺” headass.

Taiga is officially my enemy as well. I called that shit about him leaving URGH. WHAT A FLIBBERTYJIBBET!! His outfit eats tho so it balances out. LIKE DAMNNNN. HE LOOKS SO GOOD.

DOUBLE?? TRIPLE??? QUINTUPLE???? HELL I MIGHT BECOME A GHOUL TO GET THAT MONEY GOLLY 😍😍😍!! CAUSE IN THIS ECONOMY??Also thanks Jin you a real one twin. Bouta split this cash with my wife and I’ll send you a wedding invite.

EDWARD. ED PLEASE. STOP PUTTING ME IN THE SPOTLIGHT… well it’s out now so woopy!! I really wonder what the others have to say about that cause they just gave really vague surprised reactions. Well, Ritsu documented it. I love that little guy please don’t ever change you silly.

NUMBER ONE CORNELIUS HATER IDC. Unless I know your intentions I DONT CAREEEEE. YOU ARE AN OPP IT IS ON SIGHT WITH YOU. SAME WITH YOU NICOLAS!! “I didn’t know whether to tell you or not I’m sowwy 🥺” CHUPA MI PITO HOE 😡.

… you’re telling me I didn’t have to do that awful speech because DANTE AGREED?? IM DONE. IM WHOOPING EVERYONE IN THE ROOM AND AURING THE PLACE OUT. FIRST ONES OUT ARE HYDE FOR NOT TELLING ME, NICOLAS, AND CORNELIUS. ARGHHHHHHH. Also, dude, who is that Janitor guy like seriously.

ROMEO??? AND HYDE???? WHAT IS THIS ABOUT BUTTERCUP?? Wdym worked for him?? What is going on… SPECIAL MISSION??? SHO??? OH NAW. I CANT TRUST NOBODY ANYMORE 😭

Towa crying :(. What does the fruit shrinking have to do with it now?? I’m so confused.

ALRIGHT IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END WOW YOU HAVE DEDICATION. Yeah this is my personal yap session to this chapter and it’s so URGH. I’m so excited to see the next chapter and I hope we get to see more and more. Now with the Gala in place, we can finally start WORKING. Based on the timeline, we have about … 8 months left?? So hopefully, for MC’s sake, she gets cured. BYE BYE UNTIL NEXT EPISODE!!

[timeslipcamp]

i love reading the wiki and seeing something i've never noticed before

thanks to that, i spent another five hours on wikipedia and not doing my job. so! let's get into the ghouls' stigmas and how they could relate to these demons they made a pact with

probably spoilers through current episode idk

first of all, prior to this rabbit hole i had never heard of the ars goetia. however, going through these lists, i had heard of several of these demons in maaaaany many things from popular media. seems to be a common list to snatch from (any blue exorcist or obey me fans here?)

also, i used the wiki for a lot of this post, and it seems like the wiki is slightly out of date, but still good for the most part. if anyone notices anything wrong, please message me!!

so the ars goetia is, at its simplest, one part of a grimoire that's been translated several times since the 1500s. it has a list of demons and other parts of black magic (technically goetia is the darker counterpart of thurgia, both of them which make up ceremonial magic.) the ars goetia lists off something like 70-something demons and their counterpart angels and their basic roles and powers.

also, each of these demons has a sigil, but weirdly enough, the symbol in the logo of the game and a lot of other things in game are more remniscient of nordic runes and not these symbols. not sure what that means.

so, i'll be going through this list of the ghouls whose stigmas we know so that you don't have to! i'll go in house order to keep it simple. if i miss someone whose stigma we know, shoot me an ask and i'll edit this post.

JIN - "Bianerus"; the ability to control others by his command; anagram of Naberius. in the ars goetia, naberius is the same thing as cerberus i guess lmao. that's fun. gonna keep an eye out for metaphors of jin guarding the gates of hell. usually appears in the form of a crow. when naberius speaks, it's with a hoarse voice, but it makes men amiable in "rhetoric and all arts." basically makes them agreeable and talented. interesting how they translated that to jin's power, and even more interesting that they didn't give the ice king one of the kings listed in the ars goetia. as this list goes on, some of the stigmas are pretty direct translations and others are a little more of a reach, but it's still fun to see where some of the inspiration could have come from.

TOHMA - "Argeas"; the ability to send vibrations across distances; anagram of Agares. that demon rules the east side of hell, and this is super funny, his power is to destroy dignity. sound like a certain petty bitch to anyone else?

LUCAS - "Iggnaim"; the ability to create barriers around himself and others (and also had a crazy creature appear when we touched him); anagram of Ginigam. this guy is a great marquis who apparently will be patient while being summoned and will answer all your questions until you send him back. how polite. he teaches science things and gives an account of any soul who died at sea with sin. funny that they gave him to the guy from "across the pond"

KAITO - we don't know his yet but he sees auras. i'll just start skipping the people we don't know

ALAN - "Yagsal Olbasa"; implied to be insane super strength but we don't know for sure yet i guess; anagram of Glasya-Labolas. crazy name. his names in other translations are even crazier. he's the captain of bloodshed, has to do with the past and "what's to come" and tells people about it, and can incite both love and homicide in people. truly a captain's captain. this is a really fitting one for alan, i think. also, alan's lil animal chibi is a german shepard and this demon is depicted as a dog with wings. the crowd goes "awww"

LEO - "Haxs"; extends his hearing; anagram of Shax. shax is another one with a lot of differently translated names and he's also a great marquis. shax's entire entry made me laugh out loud, he and leo would get along like a house on fire. shax takes the hearing and sight from those the summoner chooses, steals money, knows when lies are told, speaks in a beautiful voice when compelled not to lie....it goes on. basically he steals and lies. perfect, no notes.

SHO - "Spurno"; stated to 'jam things'; anagram of Purson. sho is the first one to have a demon that's considered one of the great kings. he can reveal secrets of the past, present, and future, and is also said to be involved in revealing the antichrist. he can also find hidden objects and treasures! cool, but not quite sure how this would relate to sho's stigma. maybe it'll make more sense when we learn more about sho's abilities. personally i think this might end up relating more to whatever we learn about hyde.

HARU - the bitch that started this whole post - "Bahnti"; the ability to lessen gravity's effect on his body; anagram of Bathin. he's a duke of hell who knows a lot about stones and birds, and more importantly, can "bring men suddenly to another place." he also helps aid in astral projection! it's probably the near teleportation he got his stigma from. super cool correlation on this one

(EDIT ty @unhindged-memes !!) REN - "Raothtas"; literally used it to clean. it cleaned ink. that's cool i guess. maybe the ability to erase/remove? could be cool; anagram of Astaroth. he's apparently a super powerful demon, which honestly works with my theory that ren's abilities are going to be crazy once we actually see them. he also seduces people with laziness!! very ren, love that for him

TAIGA - "Malab"; we actually don't know what his is yet. HOWEVER!!!! this feeds into my taiga knows something theory and also my time loop theory; this is an anagram of Balam. balam is a "great and powerful king of hell" who could give perfect answers on things past, present and to come. PERFECT. ANSWERS. past present and TO COME. he can also make men invisible and he's three headed, but whatever. do you see!! DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M SAYING

ROMEO - "Tiris"; the ability to turn things into a bomb; anagram of Sitri. sitri is a prince and depicted as a very beautiful man lmao right on the nose with that one. also less related, but sitri makes men and women fall in love with each other. i think that's probably more where they got the character's name from than his powers.

RITSU - "Acimo"; the ability to harden his body (lol); anagram of Camio. he is a president and a great disputer, and can apparently make creatures understand each other. good go-between guy. also apparently more powerful in december! ritsu's birthday is in january though :/

SUBARU - "Talnandio"; the ability to read residual thoughts from things; anagram of Dantalion. this one is also super on the nose. dantalion was said to be someone who could declare counsel on anyone, aka he could know the thoughts and minds of any man. it's also said that he wears many faces. hmmm actor, anyone? this one almost deserves a whole post, i'll have to come back to this.

LYCA - "Ramsochisa"; the ability to track anything he has smelled before by scent; anagram of Marchosias. i genuinely forgot this was what his stigma was lmao some note taker i am. this guy's depicted as a wolf though, so there we go for the werewolf thing. also, kinda a sad connection, but marchosias believed that after 1500 years, he would be able to return to heaven with the other fallen angels. he's also the one that's most reliably conjured and will always answer true. this feels very lyca, i think this one matches up well.

YURI - "Agnihaet"; hyperactivates his braincells; anagram of Haagenti. surprisingly little information, but apparently he can make men wise by instructing them in every subject. nice. he can also turn water into wine! where's that ability yuri, huh?

ghouls whose stigmas we don't really know yet: kaito (auras), ren (used it to clean??? ok maid outfit card where are you) , haku, zenji, taiga, edward, rui (only technically. we know it can relieve exhaustion and stuff but we don't know his word or demon anagram), and jiro (whose stigma reflects injuries back to the dealer.)

damn that was long. there's a few demons that i think could potentially match up after reading through this list so many times, but it's gonna be hard to know for sure given that some of these don't translate directly to their powers. i'll make another updated post once we know more of their stigmas

and also more about the pacts in general! how did they learn to summon a demon? why were they summoning in the first place? what did they ask for? so many questions, this game drives me insane

ask box and messages are always open!

[nachiah]

Mom said it's my turn with the Tokyo Debunker tinfoil hat!

So, regarding the newest Mortkranken character lore, I've developed a theory about what put Jiro in a prolonged coma: poisoning.

One of his character episodes sees him struggling to even drink water on his own, but when given to him by someone he trusts (MC in this case), he can sip at it with his body rejecting it. I think that rejection is a sort of defense mechanism from his own body's memories. A body rarely forgets trauma, even if the brain does

How he was poisoned, I'm not 100% sure, but there are two things to consider here. During the clash, he was said to act with the most violence. I'm sure that would result in some retaliation. Someone could've slipped him something or injected something.

The other thing to consider is his extensive knowledge and interest in medicine. I think he was a Mortkranken student the whole time, and not a post-coma transfer.

More on that later.

Yuri said a couple of interesting things. Most of his scars are from surgery and no other doctor dared to lift a scalpel to him. This tells me he had extensive internal damage that needed a lot of exploratory surgery to find and even more to correct. With his lapses in memory, his strange mannerisms, and mostly flat affect, I think it's safe to say he also suffered some kind of brain damage.

Back to my point about him being in Mortkranken. What if he wasn't poisoned by someone else? That level of violence during the clash and the loss of someone important to him (if you know, you know. Ch 7 spoilers), perhaps he was overtaken by grief and/or guilt? With his knowledge of anomalous medicine, that would allow him to create something he couldn't be saved from (at least until Yuri came along). Perhaps as a fail-safe, he made it so it would be risky to work on him? What he didn't count on was the level of medical persistence only Yuri Isami is capable of.

If any of this is true, it's a damned good thing he doesn't remember anything surrounding The Clash.

It will likely be a long time, if ever, before this can be confirmed or denied, but as someone who plays him on two RP servers, I'm gonna work with the poison theory for now.

Thanks for coming to my TBD-Talk.

[justseedee]

⚠️(Minor) Spoiler!⚠️ for episode 12

And a mini theory I've had

Yeah, that's not suspicious at all dude...

Towa that's even more suspicious! 🤔

He's been emphasizing the fact that he's totally 100% for sure human this entire episode. I've been thinking lately that if he's not the mermaid, he might be a minor diety of sorts?

Idk it's not like super thought out yet 🤷

Since Ed said the park would die without him around and since his meltdown happened around the same time, Haru and MC found the shrine alter(forgot what it's called) .