#( honestly i've probably STILL missed out something but djfhdfjhgdfjhg )

[verumking]

⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆HEADCANON : RE/MIND SECRET EPISODE ( PART TWO ) 

       WOW, it’s been a hot minute but I’m FINALLY happy with this. This is PART TWO of a THREE PART SERIES of HEADCANONS based around the secret episode and endings from RE/MIND. The first part ( which you can read HERE ) focuses on the CONTENT and LORE implied by the secret episode. This part focuses solely on his FIGHTING STYLE as per the boss battle at the end of the episode, whilst the third will focus more on Yozora’s CHARACTERISATION.  

       This HEADCANON is an amalgamation of what we can GLEAN from the Re:Mind boss battle itself, but ALSO includes a few of my own personal headcanons around Yozora’s FIGHTING STYLE AND ABILITIES, that aren’t directly EVIDENCED in the boss fight.

      ( WARNING: LONG POST + SPOILERS FOR RE:MIND BELOW THE CUT, INCLUDING SCREENSHOTS )

       ONE.  ┆ THE ORIGIN OF THE KING’S ABILITIES

It’s no secret that Yozora is equipped with a motley of abilities, most inhuman-- be it technological, or simply arcane. All of Yozora’s powers can be attributed to his astral core: the mechanical heart transplant tethered to the ichor of the stars. His standard abilities, such as basic combat skills, were obtained from his time under Gigas Corporation, training as a weapon of war whilst being primed to become the king of humanity. Some were even ‘coded’ into him, as part of his core’s programming. 

His more ethereal abilities however, came at two costs. One, his own lifeforce: imbuing his crossbow and sword with his core’s astral energy. And two, his allegiance with the Watchmen of Fate, and consequent ascension as the god of death: granting him access to the Realm of the Dead along with other divine powers.      

       TWO.  ┆ YOZORA’S FIGHTING STYLE & WEAPONS

Yozora is a considerably all-rounded fighter, with an equal balance of both melee attacks with his plasma sword, and ranged attacks with his crossbow. He excels at speed and evasion, and is particularly acrobatic. Making keen use of his surroundings, Yozora particularly likes to use setups/traps from a distance to snare his opponents, such as through his forcefields and vortexes, before launching himself into close combat. His ‘default’ strategy is playing defensive, keeping a hawkish eye on his opponent’s openings, before switching to a more violent offence.

Yozora primarily uses two forms of weapon: a crossbow and a plasma sword. Yozora uses his plasma sword for melee / close-quarters combat, whilst Yozora uses his crossbow as a mode of casting magic, similar to a mage’s staff. Lasers rarely shoot directly from the crossbow itself; rather, Yozora casts sigils with his trigger, which in turn summons lasers and forcefields. 

In the absence of his weapons ( such as being too low on astral energy, rendering him unable to summon his weapons from the void ), Yozora isn’t averse to using hand-to-hand combat. This is often a last resort however, and whilst ruthless in fist-fighting, Yozora would prefer to retreat and recoup his strength.    

       THREE.  ┆ GIGAS INHERITED POWERS / ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING 

Yozora shares many abilities with the Gigas units, in particular, the Power ( red ) and Speed ( blue ) classes. The following abilities were inherited from Gigas Corporation, as a part of his military training and programming obtained from his astral core:

✧  LASERS Standard laser technology from Gigas Corporation. Being equipped with Power and Speed Gigas unit programming, Yozora wields red lasers ( Power class ) and blue lasers ( Speed class ). Red lasers are standard, whilst blue lasers are unblockable; using his blue powers expends a greater amount of his astral energy, and thus Yozora will only resort to blue lasers when he has the losing hand-- hence why Yozora primarily uses blue lasers in the second stage of his boss battle.  Originally programmed to shoot directly from his crossbow, Yozora can now shoot lasers from the spiritual realm, thanks to tethering his crossbow to his astral core. The arcane nature of these lasers can be gleaned from the sigils that appear before and during their summoning. ( seen above ) 

✧  DANGER DASHING Like Gigas units, Yozora is able to ‘Danger Dash’ ( phase ) in short bursts, expending his astral energy to do so. Pre-ascension, Yozora could only dash without phasing completely - i.e. he is still in the physical realm, and can still be seen and hit. After ascending as the god of death, Yozora is able to phase completely into the spiritual realm, preventing him from being hit ( more details of this in the section below ). 

✧  MAG ASSEMBLE  A standard ability of all Gigas units, Yozora can ‘Mag Assemble’, or move things with gravitational force. This Gigas technology is attributed to the cosmic nature of the astral core, which harnesses a similar gravitational pull to stars and black holes. Yozora casts this with his crossbow. With Mag Assemble, Yozora is able to move objects considerably larger than him, such as a whole Gigas unit, as seen in the Verum Rex trailer. 

✧  CHARGE STRIKE  Yozora can charge his plasma blade for a short period of time, to invoke a more powerful attack. He directly imbues it with the astral energy of his Gigas core, hence why engine whirrs can be heard, and why he remains stationary during the charging. Post ascension, Yozora pairs this with Danger Dashing / phasing-- to rapidly close the distance and throw his enemies off-guard-- and steal lifeforce with each slash.  

       FOUR.  ┆ POWERS & ABILITIES OBTAINED POST ASCENSION

Many of Yozora’s existing abilities have been enhanced, and new abilities discovered, after Yozora’s decision to ascend as the real Verum Rex-- aka the god of death. Most of these abilities and enhancements are linked to the spiritual realm, aka the Realm of the Dead, which Yozora is now able to access. The following abilities were obtained as a result of his divine ascension:

✧  ACROBATICS & ARCANE WEAPONRY Much as Yozora can Mag Assemble, Yozora isn’t completely bound to gravity himself due to his astral core-- he is able to harness or reject gravity at will-- hence why he is so weightless in his moves. He can somersault, backflip and jump with minimal exertion. However, post-ascension, he is in full synchronisation with the cosmos, and is able to float at will. Yozora can also command his weapons to float, such as his plasma blade, summoning them directly from the spiritual realm. When he is out of combat, Yozora ‘stores’ his crossbow and blade in the Realm of the Dead. 

✧  PHANTOM PHASING Whilst Yozora was previously only able to phase in the physical realm, post-ascension, Yozora can phase in and out of the Realm of the Dead, creating crimson spectres in his wake. He primarily uses this as an evasive manoeuvre, pairing this with summoning lasers and unexpected assaults to really throw off his opponent.

When he phases into the spiritual plane, he cannot be hit by melee attacks or most magic. However, Thunder magic can ‘shock’ him out of the spiritual plane, as his ability to phase is linked directly to his astral core: a mechanical heart. Thunder magic essentially ‘short circuits’ the core long enough to bring Yozora back to the physical realm.  

✧  OF TETRAHEDRONS & ECLIPSES - FORCEFIELDS & TRAPS Yozora has a range of traps at his disposal. One of these traps is a tetrahedron of phantom blades, which ensnares his opponent in a pyramid of plasma, before unleashing a series of lasers at them. Thunder magic can also disarm & shatter this trap, as the phantom blades are projected from his Gigas core.  The other is a spherical forcefield, summoned directly from his crossbow. This is often combined with Mag Assemble to manoeuvre or freeze his opponent.   

✧  “ASTRAL PROJECTION”, ANTI-GRAVITY CHAMBER What I endearingly call Yozora’s ‘disco ball’, this is the mechanical sphere Yozora summons during his DM ( desperation move ) in his boss battle. It is in fact, a projection of Yozora’s Gigas core-- and it holds exactly the same properties as his actual core, just on a grander scale. 

Thanks to Gigas core’s cosmological properties ( note how it forms a galaxy within the chamber! ), the astral projection is capable of manipulating gravity to Yozora’s will. Within the chamber, Yozora can enforce anti-gravity, and suspend it just as immediately. ( When it does this, the chamber and astral projection pulse purple - the colour of karma! )

The projection also has access to the battle data stored in Yozora’s core, as a part of the standard Gigas technology. Because of this, Yozora can summon ‘creations’ of himself and the Gigas units, as seen in the boss battle. Note that Yozora can only ever summon large creations within the chamber; this is because they are all projected by the sphere. Yozora can only project creations of himself or Gigas units, as he has the most knowledge of their battle data. 

Eventually, Yozora collapses the chamber and the astral projection, which in turn, collapses all the gravity inside it, creating a vortex that pulls everything in. He can also summon this vortex without his astral projection, as seen in the Verum Rex trailer: pulling all the Gigas units in to strike them down. 

✧  “EVENT HORIZON” - LIFE DRAINING VACUUM Inspired by this tweet, noting the similarity between this particular move and scientific diagrams of black holes. Yozora can summon a vacuum with his crossbow, which draws in anything that comes into contact with it, much like how a black hole consumes all light in its peripheral. A black hole reduces all matter atom by atom, and Yozora does exactly this when anything enters his vacuum. As the god of death, it is Yozora’s role to sever body from soul to reincarnate you-- Yozora literally reduces your corporeal form in an effort to reap your soul. 

As per the ‘anatomy’ of a black hole ( as shown in the diagram above ), Yozora is the ‘singularity’, and the mouth of the vacuum is the ‘event horizon’ - aka, the point of no return. Sora reached the point of no return after abusing the power of waking, and Yozora is the singularity which meets him at the end of it. The event horizon is the Final World, which is quite literally an endless horizon. This move is not only representative of Yozora’s role in the universe, but the purpose he was built for. Much like a black hole, he was created to the the endless void to consume the Verum Regina’s endless light. Yozora has two variations of this ability: a quicker vacuum done within close-quarters ( seen below ), or slower more powerful vacuum done at range ( seen above ). 

Through this move, Yozora drains Sora’s lifeforce, but also steals his healing items. Because of the necrotic nature of his role, Yozora only knows how to harm and not to heal-- in other words, he has no independent means of restoring life, including to himself. Yozora drains life from others, and resorts to using their healing potions and Kupo coins as the only means of recovering himself.

✧  THE KEYBLADE THIEF - SOUL ABSORPTION Perhaps the most interesting ability of all, Yozora has the ability to absorb Sora’s keyblade-- and all of its powers-- and merge it with his plasma blade. Note that he is physically taking Sora’s keyblade, and not merely replicating it, as Sora is unable to summon his keyblade when Yozora is in possession of it. Yozora can only do this for a limited amount of time, as he is literally binding the keyblade-- i.e. extension of Sora’s heart-- with his own life force. Yozora cannot absorb regular weapons, as keyblades are bound and powered by the heart, much like his own crossbow and sword. He is essentially, as the god of death, stealing a part of Sora’s soul and using it for himself. 

With Sora’s keyblade, Yozora has access to abilities he would not otherwise have in his regular form, such as the use of elemental magic. Upon releasing Sora’s keyblade, Yozora summons phantoms of it from the spiritual realm in a barrage of heavy attacks.