#(this incidentally is why I tend to disagree when ppl are like 'Mikoto couldn't live without Totsuka so he went after Colorless')

[ridiasfangirlings]

S1 events were spurred by Colorless King targeting Homura in order to instigate inter-clan trouble, yeah? And he killed Totsuka to do so - but what if he got Misaki instead? Like what if Totsuka sprained his ankle that day and couldn't climb all those stairs, so Yata volunteered to go up and film for him and Colorless King accidentally shot the wrong guy?

How do you think that would change things? Like, would Homura or Mikoto do anything differently? Also, Misaki and Totsuka both seem to have a fairly large influence on Homura's unity as a whole (Totsuka with his kindness, Misaki with his passion) - would swapping Misaki's grief out for Totsuka's affect the way Red Clan dealt with the fallout?

And of course Saruhiko. If Misaki were the one shot and killed rather than Totsuka, how would that affect Saruhiko? How would he respond?

I feel like this would be a difficult situation for Homra, because on the one hand part of the reason Mikoto went so far in season one was because he assumed with Totsuka gone it was only a matter of time before he lost control and in that case he might as well at least kill the Colorless King and get Homra's revenge before his Sword falls. If Yata's the one who gets killed on the rooftop this particular situation is averted, since Totsuka's still there to keep Mikoto in check, but then on the other hand it's not like Mikoto's Sword is particularly stable even with Totsuka present (there are cracks in his Sword even as early as Side Red, so it's not like Totsuka's death caused the damage, it just presumably accelerated the collapse) and I honestly can't see him just 'letting' Yata's death go without trying to avenge him. Obviously the easy answer here would be to let Munakata handle it but there's no way Mikoto would accept that as an actually feasible course of action, it was one of Homra's people who was attacked and as Homra's King he's not going to foist his duty on anyone else.

This would be interesting in the aftermath too, not just of Yata's death but also season one in general. I feel like ultimately Mikoto probably would still go after Colorless on his own, maybe figuring he'll kill Colorless first and they'll worry about his Sword later. I don't think he would have any illusions about Totsuka's ability to calm him enough to keep the Sword from falling after killing a King but I could kinda see Totsuka thinking it, somewhat desperate in his own way to keep King from dying. In the end though the burden of killing a King is just too much for Mikoto's Sword and it falls, and Munakata kills him like in canon.

The big change here obviously would be that Totsuka's now alive and Yata isn't, and I wonder how this would affect Homra. I could see Totsuka being a little lost after this, because Mikoto was the one thing he wanted to cling to and now he's gone. For Kusanagi I think Mikoto's death would hit hard but then having Totsuka there still might soften the blow, since in this AU he actually has a not-dead friend. He might still go to Germany specifically to do research on the Slate but I don't see him disbanding Homra in any way, instead leaving Homra in Totsuka's care (and Totsuka giving him this slightly rueful smile like really Kusanagi-san am I the best person for this, and Kusanagi says he figures it's time he trust Totsuka with running the bar again). And even with Mikoto gone I wonder if Yata's loss would lead to at least the main alphabet wanting to stay and keep Homra strong, knowing that this is what Yata would have wanted and feeling like they should at least try to support the thing Yata cared so much about.

And of course, Fushimi. Obviously he would be hugely affected by this, losing Misaki and never really being able to have any closure on that relationship. I could see Munakata at least trying to keep Fushimi out of things, not because Munakata doesn't trust him or anything but rather wanting to let Fushimi deal with his grief and try to come to terms with things, and of course Fushimi doesn't listen and is extremely focused on finding Colorless. I think he would be doing a lot more solo work in this AU, like when he finds out Colorless might be at Ashinaka he offers to go with Awashima and then immediately goes off on his own when they reach the school island. I could see Fushimi being really frustrated about this too, because his initial response is that he wants to kill Colorless but at the same time he's well aware that he has no chance against a King and he's powerless to avenge his loss – not that he wants to even admit that it's a loss, not like he cared about Misaki, this is just settling an old score, it's not grief.

Assuming Mikoto still gets arrested in this AU too I imagine a very different King and the Traitor type interaction, I think Fushimi would just be pissed and probably storms down there at the first opportunity in order to interrogate Mikoto about anything he may know regarding Colorless – and also to just have someone he can yell at and blame. Mikoto would probably just roll with it too, like Fushimi's talking about how following Mikoto led Misaki to his death and Mikoto just shrugs and says maybe, letting Fushimi vent his anger, and that pisses off Fushimi even more. I wonder if Fushimi would be more involved in all the final battle stuff at Ashinaka too, with no Misaki to fight I could absolutely see him focusing on Shiro, Kuroh and Neko and sneaking into the school even before Munakata allows the squad to move (maybe AU where instead of Colorless Kukuri stabbing Shiro it's Fushimi who comes out of nowhere and is taken down at least briefly by Kuroh, and then they have to convince Fushimi that Shiro's not Colorless in order to get him to stop trying to kill them and help instead).