#SORRTY I MADE A LONG POST TREADING THE SAME GROUND AGAIN I WAS THINKING TOO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[houndfaker]

i know ive touched on it before but it really is just so appealing to me how like, probably what makes me so crazy about kym is just kind of where each of them stands in relation to mitsuru.

you have yukari who is an unexpected match to mitsuru. they are reflections of each other and it takes both of them incredibly long to actually come to terms with that.

and then you have kikuno who is like. an echo of mitsuru. mitsuru's one goal in life was doing absolutely anything in her power to protect the thing that mattered to her the most: her father. kikuno's one goal in life is doing absolutely anything in her power to protect the thing that matters to her the most: mitsuru.

mitsuru omits important information about shadows that she's aware of for the sake of her goal. she isnt fully honest with her teammates, her eventual friends who she has to trust her life with in battle. kikuno deceives for the sake of her goal. mitsuru is the person she cares most about, and she betrays her for what she perceives to be her own good.

mitsuru insists on the belief that sees is only united by the goal to eliminate the shadows, despite the love she's come to have for them all she clings to what feels like logical fact because the idea of burdening them with herself when she cant offer them anything anymore is so scary. kikuno insists on the same exact belief, that sees was only united by the goal to eliminate the shadows, and for that reason its foolish to return to them. to return to battle, where she could die just as her father had.

and while mitsuru is the one who presents the idea that theyre both incorrect in that belief in the first place, its yukari who changes kikuno's mind. yukari is proof that mitsuru is correct to have faith in her friends, to love her friends, to be stubbornly loyal and protective of them despite the present uncertainty of what brought them into each other's lives in the first place. (and yukari is the most active in showing mitsuru that, too! we see as much at the kyoto riverbank.)

and kikuno has a particular fondness of yukari as a result of that, even if its usually accompanied by teasing, she has gratitude towards her for being the person that opened her mind.

and yknow. it is mutual. eventually. however brief the moments are.

idk idk obviously the circumstances for each of their actions are very different but i will never get over just how much the way that mitsuru carries herself influences kikuno whether either of them realize it or not.

shes watched mitsuru tear herself apart to protect takeharu longer than anyone. its no surprise that shes so snappy and intense and protective of her the entire time she's home. she positions herself as the person that takes care of mitsuru where mitsuru doesnt care for herself.

and you have to consider beyond the overall 'she loves her that is the person she would die for' she just watched mitsuru shatter from pursuing and failing what she saw as the meaning of her life. and kikuno takes extreme measures to ensure it wont happen to her next.

and just ohh kikuno finally back to being completely in her element with the reassurance that mitsuru is safe that mitsuru has someone trustworthy looking out for her. its a sliver of faith despite all the risks. its learning what mitsuru had to learn, taught to her by mitsuru and the one who taught mitsuru, too. its insane. i wish they'd all explode. that's all