#don't tell me if i'm wrong/right btw i love deliberating inane technicalities. for fun <3 though i am worried like. did i overlook somethin

[datastate]

also quick addendum because i've sorted out my thoughts and am not just sitting shell shocked.

i'm more certain in my affirmation that tobari referring to miharu's mother at a distance is to keep himself in check. the ring would've been something given when he was an adult(? which i assume he wasn't when he had taken miharu and tried running away, at the least, still too young for anything permanent); this would've been the time spent in-between until he had found miharu again or had suspicions that miharu's ability was reawakening (whatever the trigger would've been).

however, there's also the possibility that (if they are related, which. gestures. idk why i'm so nervous abt accepting that... aliases happen all the time) their grandmother had lived elsewhere when the slaughter happened & took miharu in afterward, then moved closer to banten unintentionally which meant that tobari now had space to act while assumed dead. the promise miharu made, i imagine, would've been something to do with the incident being forgotten or never happening in the first place. tobari consistently blames his own naivete & how others seem to act before he can shoulder the blame, maybe he hadn't realized the effects it would've had on miharu in return to use that form of hijutsu; the promise would've been either the wish (for everyone to forget him/the pain he incurred, which. smiles painfully. allusions to yoite...) or to not use the power altogether again, to keep himself safe & it's as i previously assumed with the info. being locked inside just with the specific knowledge that miharu had instinctively drawn upon to keep them safe, and tobari was terrified of that.

or maybe i'm completely off-base <3 maybe tobari's just miharu's half-brother. his father and miharu's were the same, but the mothers were separate. which would also explain somewhat why the grandmother isn't familiar w him anyway + separate last names... (if that's a legitimate thing to draw upon... again, aliases)