#considering darkwicks possible corruption

[gottaarc]

General students of Darkwick + Jin theory

Clarification: What's up with the general student populace at Darkwick? I'm pretty sure the answer is that they aren't ghouls in any way based on the fact sorting of new ghoul students is a big deal and 'sways power' in the beginning, and there's also this huge plot-point about the discrimination ghoul students face. But going back and reading some of the prologue chapters where the PC is first learning about Darkwick made me sort of curious about it. Reading the newest Mortkranken chapter, it's clear that there are general populace students going out to deal with anomalies frequently enough that they might need treatment for injuries and curses. But if they aren't ghouls, are they just recon? How are general education students allowed in? It's said Darkwick is super 'competitive' at one point but with what we know about Darkwick in general that's at best a loose-truth. Also, looking specifically at Frostheim for this- a lot of them are upper echelon students. Fair enough that there are plenty who come from different backgrounds, but isn't it funny that so many of them come from families in places of power and privilege? Are these families directly funding anomaly research?

Another point, less related to general students: isn't it crazy that Jin, the son of the guy running the whole Darkwick branch in Japan, just happens to have become a ghoul? I mean, maybe it's just a coincidence (because if Yuri's explanation of demon compatibility is to be believed, he just happened to not be allergic to demon dust) but that's pretty fucked up circumstantially speaking. They're already in a position of power, but what if it was something they wanted to make concrete? His mother died of mental illness, and his relationship with his father is strained. Was his father using his own family as test subjects for anomalous research? Did Jin make a deal with a demon because his father was pressuring it, or because maybe he wanted to save his mother (though he ultimately failed). If the stigma each ghoul gets is based off a desire they had, and Jin's stigma is the authority to force commands, what's more desirable to the heir of a powerful institution? How old was he when he even made the pact? Was he a kid who just wanted control, or was it a want drilled into him from a young age?

[kfan04]

Thank you so much for sharing all of your theories! It's super fun to read them and to consider different situations, trying to apply some hints we already have about what's going on and determine if this specific information has something to do with the plot line or not.

Especially in the Kaito-Romeo dynamics, I'm curious how much of it is a matter of coincidence, and how much was just bound to happen. You know how when you imagine the situation where the characters are placed in the different environment and some of them would still find each other, while other establish different connections, or just never discover each other? Although Darkwick is a very special and difficult environment by itself. It wouldn’t be such a mystery without the dark (literally!) academia vibe.

Thank you for the recap of the Gucci brand history! I'm sure it would be referenced in some form in the Lucci lore. You got me really interested in Romeo's potential trauma of losing things, and his possible way of coping with the brand loss. Remember how mad he got at Kaito when he told him "no wonder your brand is trash" (regarding casino)? In retrospective it makes even more sense. I'm also curious about what it is about losing things that scares Romeo the most — whispers and gossip? Financial trouble? Loss of prestige? Humiliation? Having no more power — or not enough power? The way Romeo handles everything and everyone is the therapist's treasure.

I love how you mentioned it would probably become worse for Romeo before it gets better — honestly I'm so excited to see it happen! I've been thinking how in 13 chapters we see some characters progress while others are slowly letting in on their mysteries. For example, Kaito. At first he didn't want to use the bow, but he is already quite skilled in the last chapters! He has a long way to go, but it is very evident he is changing. Same thing with Ren, I think? And Taiga, for example... I don't think he is the one changing, but he does move the plot forward.

How do you think it is going to advance with Romeo? His active storyline includes Kaito, the pendant, Hyde. He is an important figure of Taiga's storyline. His mystery is around his brand, his past in Frostheim, his feet, and the Clash, similarly to everyone else. Greed seems to be more of a character feature, but I love how you connect it to his fear of losing things and I will be very excited if it is explored later in the story — and with how it's referenced a few times, I think there are the chances!

Regarding Darkwick, I don’t know why, but this whole time I was imagining it as a giant corrupted prison with an everyday possibility to die... It still kinda looks that way for me, but I'm not so sure anymore x) If after graduation (in case of ghouls) most of the options are connected to the Institute anyway, there's not much freedom, don't you think? Even now, look how the vast part of the boys' life evolves only around Darkwick. I'm not sure about that, but aren't missions the only way for them to get out for a bit? Again, how often do they see their families? Luca might be really lucky not to be tied up to Darkwick the same way others are.

You've mentioned you do know Kaito's incantation from the datamined info, and the demon it unscrambles into? Would you be okay sharing it?

Regarding Hyde possibly being the good guy... You could be right at this matter! This kind of characters is kinda 50/50. From my perspective, this slimy personality is a very antagonising feature, because it smells of disrespect and is in general very condescending — but in media, especially in Japanese, I see it often distributed to the positive characters. And Hyde, who was introduced very early, wouldn't be a surprising antagonist nor a surprising good guy.

About whether it's good Hyde is possibly trying to destabilise Darkwick, mmm... Why is Darkwick like this in the first place? It should be the consequence of the institute's current policy — the one Hyde takes part creating. There's a question of whether Hyde's on the chancellor's — and the team's — side, or on his own. The chancellor and Moby are also super suspicious (Nicholas just leaves me confused, and Dante makes an impression of a compassionate person who feels bad but still does what needs to be done). Assuming Darkwick is evil, what makes it evil? Its policies. Who decides on the policies? Who makes the decisions overall, and based on what? If Hyde is trying to destabilise Darkwick, with what intentions is he doing that? Kaito says to Luca that Frostheim is now much better than it was before — overall, although there is tension, it is still quite peaceful, especially considering how brutal were things during the Clash. When Hyde tries to ruffle things up, is he not trying to make it as chaotic as it was before? Creating competition, constantly stressing out Romeo? The way changes should be achieved is through transparency and trust, in my opinion...

Regarding Kaito&Romeo&Hyde, I was thinking it's more like Hyde recognised Kaito's potential, and hinted to Romeo he might be of use. Hyde does seem to be an expert, he could've predicted that Kaito's stigma is/will turn out to be more useful than it might seem, or like we were speculating before, Kaito's position in Frostheim could at some point become very relevant. For now, pendant and bracelet seem to be more of Romeo's personal obsession, especially now that we know it belonged to house Aldici, and Romeo is Lucci. It would be super cool though if Kaito's ability to see auras helps with the spy situation... Overall, what do you think this ability also might be useful for?

And spy situation... I've seen some discussion about it already, and what stuck with me is that spy — spy for whom? For Darkwick? For chancellor? From the outside? What are their intentions, where did the need come from?

When I first opened Tokyo Debunker, I didn’t expect to become so involved in the story so quickly! I wish it would be more popular though :(

I have so much new information thanks to you! I can't really respond to everyone prompt because I feel like despite there being only 13 chapters I'm already missing out on the important info and I feel kinda silly about it, so I'm really grateful you share so many facts.

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?

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.

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 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.

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

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!