#You go to terrible choice jail Ashura

[completeoveranalysis]

[6]

Last time we found out that Fai was not only sent on this quest by Evil Wolverine, but also that he was set up as Kurogane’s enemy and intended to kill him if he got in the way. This has changed practically everything about how the plot has unfolded to this point and I cant wait to reconsider everything Fai has ever done in this context. 

I can’t remember if I mentioned it last time, but now we know that even the confusing lie Fai told about the feather he had in Hanshin was deliberately set up a thousand years ago. Fai was told as a child to take that feather with him to prevent Sakura from dying right at the beginning of the journey, and it all unfolded as planned. Even if Lava Lamp figured out the lie as it happened, and even if Fai’s loyalties have changed since then, it’s so nice to have the closure on such a small detail that was set up over a hundred and fifty chapters ago. 

MEANWHILE, Lava Lamp is still suffering the mysterious psychic assault that has been hitting him ever since they got here. It’s now escalated to the point where he has collapsed, and Mokona is down with him. I’m sure we’ll get this explained soon too, but I would not be surprised if this was more of Ashura’s shenanigans. He’s deliberately setting up a scene here - a scene that requires Fai’s heart to be slowly shattered before his eyes, and requires Kurogane to learn the truth about Fai as well. Now that Lava Lamp and Mokona are out of the picture, it frees up the space for an open confrontation between Fai and Kurogane. Maybe this is exactly what Ashura has been trying to instigate from the moment they arrived here. 

Then again maybe not. But whatever he’s doing he’s not doing anyone any favours, let’s just say that. 

If Kurogane is still seeing all of Fai’s flashbacks, then now he knows that Fai was instructed to kill him if necessary. 

Worse, he knows Fai was told about Evil Wolverine’s meddling in Kurogane’s past and never told him about it. 

Worse, he knows Fai’s role in this family has been a lie from the very start. Every moment of hesitation he saw in Fai now has an answer, every interaction where Fai refused to commit to the future is completely explained. 

Fai spent every moment with their family intending to leave them. And in the specific context of Things That Kurogane Does Not Support, Fai spent every moment with them intending to die at the end. 

If you indulge me a little I’m gonna dig back to Outo for a specific moment. 

This was such a big moment even back then, before we knew the full context. All Kurogane knew at this point was that Fai hated himself and put not effort into his own self preservation. That was already enough to piss him off - as someone who’s family had all been killed, travelling with someone who wasted their life with the constant threat of putting their new family through that same loss was terrible. Specifically because Kurogane wanted to keep him around. They couldn’t properly build a solid family if Fai was always dancing the line of death and never really considering what his death might cause to the people around him. 

More, their confrontation in Acid Tokyo was centered on this as well. 

Kurogane was hammering home the point even harder. He knew Fai had A Past (tm) that was interfering, but he didn’t want the details. He wanted Fai to commit to the family and their future together. 

And now we know EXACTLY what that shadow hanging above Fai in the final panel was. Even when Fai wanted to commit to his new family, he was constantly haunted by the shadow of his twin brother - the real Fai, the one that deserved to be alive, and the one he intended to switch places with. He couldn’t commit to this family knowing that at the end of it he was going to happily offer up his death as penance. Even harder for Fai was the knowledge that, in these moments, he might actually have something he wanted more than bringing back his twin. 

And the guilt he would have been savaged by just at the thought of that. To go on this entire quest to save his twin only to change his his mind half way through and find something else worth living for - as a reader it’s exactly what we want for him, but for Fai it’s a betrayal of his entire life, having spent every living moment trying to atone for what he’s done only to find he doesn’t want to anymore. 

SO. The TLDR of this is; Kurogane now knows Fai’s side of the story. Every conflict they’ve had now has context. He finally knows exactly what Fai was set up to do and what was holding him back the entire time, and that during all the time Kurogane spent trying to keep this family together, Fai was always planning to die at the end. 

Kurogane finally has the space to feel every piece of betrayal that has been building up since they first met. Fai is finally in the moment where every conflicting part of his entire life is blowing up before his very eyes. 

And now we just have to see what they’re going to do about it.